Notes from the workshop
Technical decisions, lessons learned, and some of what happened along the way.
When Spreadsheets Stop Working: When to Replace Excel with Custom Software
Spreadsheets can work for years. Learn when the process around Excel has become a business problem, and when custom software is—or is not—the right next step.
August 21, 2026 · 7 min readWebhooks or polling: how to choose without overcomplicating an integration
A practical comparison of webhooks and polling: latency, retries, duplicates, security, cost, and when combining both approaches makes sense.
August 14, 2026 · 5 min readNot everything needs microservices
When microservices make sense, what operational costs they add, and why a modular monolith is often a better place to start and scale.
August 7, 2026 · 5 min readCustom software without turning the project into a feature factory
How to scope custom software without piling on features: evaluate requests, exceptions, manual work, and the long-term cost of every component.
July 31, 2026 · 5 min readWeather alerts by field: why a general forecast isn't always enough
Why regional forecasts can fall short and how field-level weather alerts turn thresholds for rain, wind, or frost into timely, useful notifications.
July 24, 2026 · 7 min readAn API integration doesn't end when it returns 200 OK
How to design reliable API integrations for retries, idempotency, webhooks, rate limits, monitoring, and recovery beyond the happy path.
July 17, 2026 · 4 min readHow to import a production WordPress site locally without breaking serialized data
How to copy WordPress from production to local without breaking serialized data, triggering live services, or carrying over generated files.
July 10, 2026 · 3 min readWhy we built Docal instead of using DDEV or Lando
Why we built Docal for a specific WordPress-on-WSL2 workflow, what it automates, and when DDEV or Lando remain the better choice.
July 3, 2026 · 5 min readCore Web Vitals: what to optimize when Lighthouse isn't enough
How field data helps diagnose LCP, INP, and CLS when Lighthouse cannot explain the performance problems real users experience.
June 26, 2026 · 5 min readMigrating a large WooCommerce store without losing orders or customers
How to migrate an active WooCommerce store safely: cutover timing, DNS, payments, cron, integrations, validation, and a rollback plan.
June 19, 2026 · 3 min readWhen WordPress is enough—and when to move beyond the CMS
Which projects fit WordPress, what signals show the CMS is becoming a constraint, and how to consider alternatives without rebuilding everything.
June 12, 2026 · 5 min readLocal WordPress on WSL2: fewer layers, fewer problems
How to run WordPress locally on WSL2 with fewer layers: Linux filesystems, Docker, HTTPS, WP-CLI, and a repeatable production import workflow.
June 5, 2026 · 5 min readHow to integrate systems that were never designed to work together
How to integrate systems with different data models: sources of truth, identifiers, failures, retries, and processes to fix before automating.