Chrome now helps you write better with AI
December 31, 2024 — Artificial intelligence feels better when it’s a part of the product and not a separate tool and it blends seamlessly into your workflow. A good example I recently spotted is the new AI-powered writing suggestions in Chrome.
Skip installing npm dependencies when deploying to Cloudflare Pages
December 20, 2024 — Cloudflare is a great service for hosting any site. Be it a static site or a dynamic one, Cloudflare has got you covered. Cloudflare Pages, in particular, is a great way to deploy your static sites. It’s fast, reliable, and most importantly, it’s free. This blog is even hosted on Cloudflare Pages.
How Document-oriented Databases Store Data Similar to JSON Objects
October 24, 2024 — JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) has many uses for developers. We have covered several applications of it on this site, such as deep copying objects using JSON.stringify
and JSON.parse
.
Some great open-source alternatives to Postman
October 19, 2024 — When it comes to API clients to make requests to your APIs, most developers end up using Postman. It’s a great tool that has been around for a long time and covers everything you expect from an API client.
Launching MacTreasure.com
July 9, 2024 — I soft-launched a new project called MacTreasure.com last week which was on my radar for quite a while. At least from the time I switched to being a macOS user.
Interesting Public APIs to Play Around With
June 17, 2024 — Any modern application (mobile or web) consists of two main parts: the frontend and the backend. Most of the time, the backend is a REST API that the frontend consumes.
Efficiently deleting millions of records in Laravel
February 29, 2024 — When working with large datasets, you might need to delete millions of records from the database at once. Doing so can be quite slow and resource-intensive. And in doing so, you might run into memory issues, timeouts, and other problems.
Environment-aware Favicons
February 25, 2024 — When working on a website, sometimes you can’t distinguish between the environments just by looking at the tabs if you have both the production and local environments opened side by side. And this can lead to confusion.
Everything I'm using to run this blog
January 2, 2024 — I’ve been running this blog for more than 9+ years now. And over the years, I’ve tried and tested a lot of things to make this blog work.
Installing Google Fonts as npm packages
December 30, 2023 — Google Fonts is a great resource for finding free fonts for your web projects. It has a wide variety of fonts to choose from. You include these fonts in your project using the <link>
tag or by using the @import
rule in your CSS which points to the Google Fonts CDN.
Rendering a website inside GitHub Readme
December 3, 2023 — Recently, I came across Terkel’s GitHub profile readme and it blew my mind altogether. It’s a fully functional website with a menu, clickable links, GitHub contributions, and a lot more. And the best part is, all this is responsive as well!
What is a Proxy and Why You May Need It?
November 23, 2023 — If you’ve ever wondered how the internet works, proxies are a key player. They act as intermediaries between your device and the internet, offering an additional layer of protection and anonymity. For those seeking enhanced security and control over their online activities, understanding what a proxy is and why it’s beneficial is essential.
TablePlus — Is it the best GUI for databases on Linux?
October 23, 2023 — I have always been on the lookout for a good GUI client for databases on Linux. I have tried several of them including the current one I’m using called DBGate which is an Electron-based database client.
An introduction to Web Components
The genesis of the "Hello World" programs
August 14, 2023 — The “Hello World” program is the first program that most people write when they are learning a new programming language. It’s so widespread that even outside of the programming world, it’s used as a reference to the first step towards learning something new.
Things I write about
August 7, 2023 — I have been writing on my blog for well over 8 years now but more than 70% of articles have been published only in the last 3-4 years. So, what’s changed?
Useful keyboard shortcuts that work everywhere
July 22, 2023 — There are keyboard shortcuts that are application-specific and there are system-wide keyboard shortcuts.
The best RSS reader for Linux
July 16, 2023 — Reading blogs is one of my favorite pastimes. As soon as I see an article from a blog that sparks interest in me, I’d instantly subscribe to it. And at this point, I have subscribed to more than 30 blogs and counting.
Mock JSON API endpoints for Testing
July 13, 2023 — So, imagine a scenario where you’re working on a project that has its front end (or a mobile app) ready to consume data from the backend. But, the backend is not ready yet. How would you test your front end in this case?
trash — A safer alternative to the rm Command
July 7, 2023 — The rm is the most commonly used command in the Linux/Unix world. It’s used to delete files and directories. But the problem with the rm
command is that it deletes the files and directories permanently. There’s no way to recover them once they’re deleted.
My early impressions of Threads app by Meta
Local websites with Custom domains and HTTPS using Caddy Server
June 15, 2023 — There are times when you would want your local websites to be accessible through a custom domain name and also over HTTPS. This is especially useful when you’re working on a project that requires a custom domain name and HTTPS to work properly.
How to find mention of your website across the web
June 1, 2023 — If you’re a creator of any sort, be it a blogger, a YouTuber, or a digital maker, it’s always a good idea to keep track of how the mentions of your website are doing across the web. This is important because it gives you a sense of how your website is doing in terms of popularity and how people are reacting to it.
Cloudflare tunnels for exposing local servers to the internet
May 8, 2023 — There comes a time when you would want to expose your local server to the internet but you might not want to deploy your local server to a remote server because it’s not ready yet or you might not want to deploy it at all.
A tool to generate YouTube chapters in seconds
March 22, 2023 — If you’re a guy who enthusiastically creates YouTube videos but hates it when you have to manually enter the chapter timestamps in the YouTube editor, then this free tool by my friend Chris will definitely going to save your day.
Building LinkSnatch — A bookmarks app with Next.js and Tailwind CSS
February 25, 2023 — For a long time, I have been meaning to learn Next.js and Tailwind CSS. And the best way, I know, to learn something is to build something with it.
HTTPie — An HTTP client with a pinch of AI magic
January 6, 2023 — HTTPie is an open-source command-line HTTP client with an intuitive UI, JSON support, syntax highlighting, wget-like downloads, plugins, and more. It’s written in Python and is available on all major platforms.
This GNOME extension lets you put text in menubar
January 3, 2023 — Extending the GNOME desktop is a fun thing to do. And if you are a GNOME user, you can do it by installing GNOME extensions. I always try to install new extensions to see what they can do and how they can improve my desktop experience.
Free and open-source SVG icon resources for your next project
December 22, 2022 — There are times when you may want to use SVG icons in your web application. For example, you may want to use SVG icons for your navigation menu or buttons.
Open-source tools I use as a developer on Linux
December 14, 2022 — As a developer on Linux, I use a lot of open-source tools to get the job done. In this article, I’ll be listing down all the fantastic open-source tools (not the obvious ones) I use as a developer on Linux.
Take full-size screenshots of websites without any tools in Chrome
December 6, 2022 — If you’re a web developer, you might have come across a situation where you need to take a full-size screenshot of a website. For instance, you might want to take a screenshot of a website to show it to your client or your team members.
Bookmark frequently used folders in Ubuntu
November 23, 2022 — I’ve been an ardent Linux user for quite some time now. Especially the Ubuntu flavor. And one of the things that I love about Ubuntu is that it’s very customizable.
I just self-verified my blog
November 14, 2022 — Twitter’s Blue tick verification is all the rage these days. By getting verified on Twitter, you can get a blue tick next to your name which makes you look more authentic and trustworthy.
Why send User-Agent while making API calls?
October 31, 2022 — While making API calls, we send different sorts of headers like Content-Type
, Accept
, Authorization
, etc. But, have you ever wondered why we send the User-Agent
header? In this article, I’ll talk about why we send the User-Agent
header while making API calls.
Useful GNOME extensions that I am using on my Ubuntu 22.04
May 11, 2022 — GNOME is the official desktop environment that is been shipped with Ubuntu desktop versions for quite some time now.
Implementing Focused Reading Mode on My Blog
May 9, 2022 — The other day, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and I saw this tweet from Paco where he implemented what he calls “fuzzy reading mode” on his blog.
Generate fake files of any size in macOS and Linux
April 13, 2022 — Oftentimes when working with applications, for the sake of testing things out we need placeholder files. For instance, if we have a file upload functionality, we may want to test it for a certain file type of a certain size.
An Ultimate Guide to Web Application Security
February 23, 2022 — Web application security is not just restricted to protecting the technologies or the features being used in developing an app; it’s more about safeguarding the methods, web servers, and processes. Moreover, it expands its horizons to protect web services such as APIs from online security threats.
Minimizing Google Fonts by Only Loading it for Certain Characters
February 20, 2022 — When it comes to using custom fonts on websites, the de-facto way to do currently is to use the Google Fonts.
Increasing Productivity with Omni — The Alfred of Chrome
January 13, 2022 — I haven’t worked with the macOS for an extended amount of time but when I did, I made sure I keep the Alfred installed on my system because having it on my machine allowed me to do things in a matter of few keystrokes and in turn, helped me save a lot of time!
My Recap of 2021
December 24, 2021 — The year 2021 is about to end in a few days and it’s the best time we can look back and reflect upon the things we’ve done, achieved, or some important milestones and welcome the new year which is standing right in front of our doorstep.
Get the size of the subdirectories and files in Linux
November 10, 2021 — If you’re a DevOp or a just regular user who manages their Linux/Unix servers, it’s a recurring task where you would need to keep an eye on the size of the subdirectories and files of your project.
Moving to a privacy-focused and open-source comment system on my blog
March 24, 2021 — If you’re running any sort of blog, it would be really important to interact with your audience. One way to doing this by having a comment system that can enable a visitor on your blog to drop their view and opinions.
Publish now, fix later
February 12, 2021 — Yes! this is the strategy I have been following for my blog for quite some time now. It has helped me publish articles frequently and it has suited my schedule quite well.
Stories of how softwares/products got their name
December 28, 2020 — Sometimes, it’s kind of fascinating to know the origins of the products/projects we love. I personally find these stories quite amusing and insightful at the same time and so, here’s a collection of such software products/projects/companies and the stories of how they got their name.
My workflow for publishing articles
September 7, 2020 — After writing & publishing articles for about two years (consistently), I’ve sort of created a system when it comes to publishing an article. From ideation to hitting the publish button.
The many ways to take screenshots on Ubuntu
June 28, 2020 — I take a lot of screenshots and they are part of my daily workflow. As I mentioned at my uses page, I use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as my primary OS and there are native shortcuts to take screen shot in this particular OS.
Try not to use ad blockers, please!
June 6, 2020 — I used to use Adblockers on my browsers a few years ago because I used to think that Ads are annoying and they probably are. For some people. Like the younger me.
The Ultimate Crossover
April 20, 2020 — If you’re a 90’s like me, you most certainly be the fan of all the cartoons from Cartoon Network, Disney and the other similar franchises. That was an era of classic cartoons such as Tom & Jerry, Popeye the Sailor, The Flinstones, Disney’s Mickey Mouse and lots others.
My Coding Playlist
January 28, 2020 — Music had always played a important role throughout the evolution of the mankind. Programming is certainly no different.
This blog is my playground
January 21, 2020 — I started this website to establish my web presence on the holy internet. I wanted to keep a portfolio of my projects and to blog about random stuff (very rarely). Back then, I was only used to post articles whenever I feel like. But then, something’s changed.
Tech Podcasts I've listened to in 2019
December 29, 2019 — Podcasts are a great way to listen to the people you like who talk about the things they are specialized in. I’ve recently started listening to a handful of technology and non-technology podcasts on Google Podcasts while my commute to office and back. I’m going to compile down all the best tech podcasts that I’ve subscribed to and listen to daily.
Why to choose Jekyll for blogging over other platforms
December 13, 2019 — It’s hard to choose a platform for blogging in 2019. Why? Because there are so many to choose from. Wordpress, Ghost, Hugo, Gatsby, eleventy and what not! The choice is endless. It will ultimately comes down to the fact that which platform you’re more comfortable with. Be its setup, maintenance to the community support and extensibility.
Things I did to improve my blog over years
December 10, 2019 — When I started my blog three years ago, I didn’t intend to blog on a regular basis. Back then, I used to write about things which I learn on a day to day basis but that wasn’t very often. My frequency of posting an article was 1-2 articles per month.
My favorite PhpStorm tricks and tips that I use daily
December 5, 2019 — Jetbrain’s PhpStorm is my goto IDE when it comes to the PHP developement. Be it Laravel, Symphony or Magento. It’s like a gold standard. The kind of intelligent features it offers is unmatchable and almost irrplaceable by any IDE of this level.
Reviewing Chernobyl - The HBO miniseries
November 1, 2019 — I'm not a person who watches this "series thingies" more often but there are some exceptions. I've been always interested in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that happened in Ukraine back in 1986 ever since I've been a teenager. Our textbooks have a little details about the incident but that was very brief.
Using GitHub as a Content Delivery Network
September 17, 2019 — This is a quick write up on how I’ve started utilizing GitHub as a Content Delivery Network(sort of) and how you can do the same as well.
How to pick topics for tech blogging
September 5, 2019 — If you’re a tech blogger(or any blogger in general) you must have faced this issue where you find yourself in a situation when you don’t have anything to write about. You feel like a blank slate and got demotivated. This situation is called as a Writer’s block.
Reusable code snippets using Live Templates in PHPStorm
June 30, 2019 — Let’s just admit this. If you’re a developer who works with PHP and you haven’t heard about PHPStorm, you’re assumed to be living in the rocks. Because PHPStorm is the best PHP IDE exist right now IMHO. The tagline on the homepage of it reads as “The lightening-smart IDE for PHP” and it’s really true. It has got all the features you’d need in order to become a fluent PHP programmer.
Eventual consistency illustrated!
March 18, 2019 — Hilariously enough, eventual consistency illustrated.
Happy 30th dear web!
March 12, 2019 — I fell in love with you the moment I discovered you. I still remember, you and I were still in our teens at that time. Whenever I searched you, you served me unconditionally. And even though we weren’t matured enough, our love still grown.. gradually. Call it “Love at first site” or “Love over time”, it will remain between us for an eternity..
Introducing Reverie - A ridiculously elegant Jekyll theme for blogging
February 28, 2019 — Reverie is a Jekyll-powered theme which is simple and opinionated. It’s actually a fork of jekyll-now with some additional features and personal touches which I’ve implemented to suit my needs for this blog.
How to subscribe at amitmerchant.com
December 26, 2018 — There are basically three ways using which you can get the latest updates from my blog: RSS, Newsletter or Twitter.
How my simple notepad app went from zero to 10k users monthly
November 21, 2018 — This is the story of how my simple looking(but functional) Notepad app went from zero users to almost 10k monthly users without any sort of marketing and advertising. I’ll mention various aspects which have helped in increasing the growth of this app and some other things in between.
Hello world!
June 12, 2016 — Hey guys, this is my first post after setting up my blog with Jekyll. I will update my blog more than often from now onwards.