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May 2026 | 54 posts

Why use a cms

When first learning to code its very common to hard code everything right into the code. This happens with most folks in just about any language. Whether its HTML [1] or markdown for front end content, or even hardcoding parameters in our backend languages like python, or node.js. 🤷‍♀️ What’s wrong with hard coding everything? # [2] Hard coding everything right into your code makes it really hard for non-technical collaborators to join. It makes it nearly impossible to hand websites off to clients without needing to come back for routine updates. The cms generally come with a rich content editor that feels more like something most folks are used to. There are buttons for changing the font, font-size, adding images, bold, italics, etc. Sometimes I don’t feel technical # [3] Even when you are developing for a technical audience there is a layer of polish that comes from giving them a nice interface to edit their content in. YouTube doesn’t have you manually inserting records into...
I like rikschennink’s [1] project fitty [2]. ✨ Makes text fit perfectly References: [1]: https://github.com/rikschennink [2]: https://github.com/rikschennink/fitty

🐍 Parsing RSS feeds with Python

I am looking into a way to replace my google reader experience that I had back in 2013 before google took it from us. I am starting by learning how to parse feeds with python, and without much previous knowledge, it proved to be much easier than anticipated thanks to the feedparser library. This is how I used python to parse rss and setup my own custom feed. Install # [1] Install the feedparser library. conda create -n reader python=3.8 -y source activate reader pip install feedparser Get the content # [2] import feedparser feed = feedparser.parse('https://waylonwalker.com/rss.xml') The feed object # [3] The feed is a feedparser.FeedParserDict. For all intents and purposes this seems to just behave like a dict with the following keys(). feed.keys() ['feed', 'entries', 'bozo', 'headers', 'etag', 'href', 'status', 'encoding', 'version', 'namespaces', 'content']) feed has some general information about the rss feed, but the meat of the feed is in entries. The rest of the keys we...
2 min read
Check out awesome-github-profile-readme [1] by saturn-abhishek [2]. It’s a well-crafted project with great potential. 😎 A curated list of awesome GitHub Profile which updates in real time References: [1]: https://github.com/saturn-abhishek/awesome-github-profile-readme [2]: https://github.com/saturn-abhishek
I recently discovered awesome-github-profile-readme [1] by abhisheknaiidu [2], and it’s truly impressive. 😎 A curated list of awesome GitHub Profile which updates in real time References: [1]: https://github.com/abhisheknaiidu/awesome-github-profile-readme [2]: https://github.com/abhisheknaiidu
zoxide [1] by ajeetdsouza [2] is a game-changer in its space. Excited to see how it evolves. A smarter cd command. Supports all major shells. References: [1]: https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide [2]: https://github.com/ajeetdsouza
I recently discovered mscoutermarsh [1] by mscoutermarsh [2], and it’s truly impressive. SECRETS! References: [1]: https://github.com/mscoutermarsh/mscoutermarsh [2]: https://github.com/mscoutermarsh

Reader-2020

Inputs # [1] The input will be a yaml file containing a list of Items you want to stay up to date with. Inside each item will be a url, and weight. email: max-entries: 10 recipients: - [email protected] markdown: max-entries: 100 output: - README.md json: max-entries: 1000 output: - feeds/feed.json rss: max-entries: 1000 output: - feeds/feed.xml html: max-entries: 100 output: index.html items: Waylon Walker: weight: 5 url: https://waylonwalker.com/rss.xml @_WaylonWalker: weight: 3 twitter: https://twitter.com/_waylonwalker DEV Waylon Walker: weight: 8 url: https://dev.to/waylonwalker Stack Overflow Kedro: weight: 5 url: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/kedro Kedro GitHub: weight: 4 url: https://github.com/kedro-org/kedro Kedro Pypi weight: 10 url: https://pypi.org/project/kedro/ Types # [2] - rss feed (primary source) - youtube feed - Stack Overflow tags - GitHub repo activity - pypi release - dev.to post - Twitter Search # ...
1 min read
Looking for inspiration? timburgan [1] by timburgan [2]. No description available. References: [1]: https://github.com/timburgan/timburgan [2]: https://github.com/timburgan

🤓 What's on your GitHub Profile

I ran this post on dev.to and got a great response of great examples, check it out [1]. [1] The GitHub profile feature just went live for a subset of users. Simply creating a repo named after your username, and clicking share to Profile on the sidebar will create a custom profile that shows up just above your pinned projects. I am still trying to figure out what to put on mine, but this is what I have so far. I feel like mine is a bit big at the moment, I don’t like that my pinned repos end up blow the fold. [2] updated # [3] I tightened mine up and took inspiration from a few others. [2] Share a screenshot and link of yours on dev [1]. updated again # [4] Updated with a list of latest Twitter followers, using GitHub actions. [5] References: [1]: https://dev.to/waylonwalker/what-s-on-your-github-profile-40p3 [2]: https://github.com/waylonwalker [3]: #updated [4]: #updated-again [5]: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/f8fcm9dvvozj4rzh4376.png
1 min read ↺ 1 💬 6

🙋‍♂️ Can Anyone Explain Twitter Cards to me?

Can someone explain how or why twitter cards render differently from device to device? I do understand that twitter cards a built from meta tags, the full list can be found in their docs [1] Rendered on Mobile # [2] Mobile Looks fine. [3] Not Rendered on Desktop # [4] On Desktop it is not picking up the image. [3] Twitter Card Validator # [5] The Validator renders the card correctly. I tried the official twitter card validator [6], as well as heymeta.com [7], and metatags.io [8]. All look good. [3] Can Cards be updated? # [9] even with a redirect? I tried seting up a pinned tweet that uses a netlify redirect to always keep my latest post up to date. Again this one looks good in the validator, doesnt render the image on desktop, does render the image on mobile, but does not update. I have heard that you need to hit the card validator to update cards? I am not sure if this is true, but for me this is not even upating the card. 👋 Hello, ―――――― I'm Waylon Walker ―――――― ...

How I Built My GitHub Profile

I ran a discussion on dev that collected quite a list of examples in the comment section. So many great calls to action, animations, memes, and weird tricks. [1] My current profile # [2] [3] social icons # [4] Upload all of your icons to the repo in a directory such as icons or assets, then link them with a height attribute like below. I used html [5] for mine, not sure if you can set the height in markdown. <a href="https://dev.to/waylonwalker"><img height="30" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WaylonWalker/WaylonWalker/main/icon/dev.png"></a>&nbsp;&nbsp; note I did add a bit of &nbsp; (non-breaking-whitespace) between my icons. Without adding css this seemed like the simplest way to do it. Center # [6] Aligning things in the center of the readme is super simple. I used this trick to align my social icons in the middle. <p align='center'> ...html </p> right # [7] For my latest post [8] I floated it to the right with a little bit of align='right' action. <p> <a ...
I recently discovered mzjp2 [1] by mzjp2 [2], and it’s truly impressive. My personal readme References: [1]: https://github.com/mzjp2/mzjp2 [2]: https://github.com/mzjp2
staged-recipes [1] by conda-forge [2] is a game-changer in its space. Excited to see how it evolves. A place to submit conda recipes before they become fully fledged conda-forge feedstocks References: [1]: https://github.com/conda-forge/staged-recipes [2]: https://github.com/conda-forge
Looking for inspiration? grayskull [1] by conda [2]. Grayskull 💀 - Recipe generator for Conda References: [1]: https://github.com/conda/grayskull [2]: https://github.com/conda
I’m really excited about log_to_json [1], an amazing project by rwhitt2049 [2]. It’s worth exploring! Yet another Python library to log to JSON References: [1]: https://github.com/rwhitt2049/log_to_json [2]: https://github.com/rwhitt2049
I’m really excited about foam-template [1], an amazing project by foambubble [2]. It’s worth exploring! Foam workpace template References: [1]: https://github.com/foambubble/foam-template [2]: https://github.com/foambubble
The work on digital-gardeners [1] by MaggieAppleton [2]. Resources, links, projects, and ideas for gardeners tending their digital notes on the public interwebs References: [1]: https://github.com/MaggieAppleton/digital-gardeners [2]: https://github.com/MaggieAppleton
Check out react-adaptive-hooks [1] by GoogleChromeLabs [2]. It’s a well-crafted project with great potential. Deliver experiences best suited to a user’s device and network constraints References: [1]: https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/react-adaptive-hooks [2]: https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs

SLIDES - understanding python \*args and \*\*kwargs

Python *args and **kwargs are super useful tools, that when used properly can make you code much simpler and easier to maintain. Large manual conversions from a dataset to function arguments can be packed and unpacked into lists or dictionaries. Beware though, this power can lead to some really unreadable/unusable code if done wrong. I generally post these as a carousel on LinkedIn based on a full article. Let mw know what you think of it shown inside of a blog @_waylonwalker [1]. [2] See the full article here [2] Slides # [3] --- [4] --- [5] --- [6] --- [7] --- [8] --- [9] --- [10] --- [11] --- [12] --- [13] References: [1]: https://twitter.com/_WaylonWalker [2]: https://waylonwalker.com/python-args-kwargs [3]: #slides [4]: https://images.waylonwalker.com/args-kwargs-slide-1.png [5]: https://images.waylonwalker.com/args-kwargs-slide-2.png [6]: https://images.waylonwalker.com/args-kwargs-slide-3.png [7]: https://images.waylonwalker.com/args-kwargs...
1 min read

Gracefully adopt kedro, the catalog

Why use kedro catalog? # [1] While using the catalog alone will not reap all of the benefits of the framework, it does get you and your project ready for the full framework eventually. For me the full benefit of the catalog comes when you combine it with the pipeline and dont even touch read/write steps at all. Taking a step into kedro by adopting the catalog first will give you a way to organize all of your data loads in one place, and stop manually writing read/write code, which can be different for each data and storage type. You just don’t need to think about it. --- - iperitive loading style - organizes your data - all file locations can be quickly identified - can be dropped into kedro later --- “can be dropped into kedro later” Let’s talk a bit more about that 2 Ways to Gracefully adopt the catalog # [2] How do I get started with the kedro catalog - add with the code api - load from yaml (recommended) 1. Adding to the catalog with the code api # [3] how to use ...
The work on streamlit [1] by streamlit [2]. Streamlit — A faster way to build and share data apps. References: [1]: https://github.com/streamlit/streamlit [2]: https://github.com/streamlit
Just starred python-interrogate-check [1] by JackMcKew [2]. It’s an exciting project with a lot to offer. GitHub Action for use with python package interrogate References: [1]: https://github.com/JackMcKew/python-interrogate-check [2]: https://github.com/JackMcKew

How to find things in your kedro catalog

kedro 0.16.2 just dropped last week with a long-awaited feature… catalog search! I went as far as monkey patching this into each of my projects. I work jump between a few really big projects that have tons of datasets. Being able to quickly search for what I need is so useful. The Catalog # [1] The kedro data catalog is a key component to the kedro framework. It handles all data loading and saving for you. It is configurable and hackable. Having all your data connections listed in one place make it so easy to pick your project up and move it to a completely new environment. That sweet imperative loading style saves so much read/write overhead. I can load all my data with a single command whether it’s in amazon s3, google cloud platform, or a local file. Kick start a toy project # [2] Just like with most of these articles, I am going to create a conda environment so that I don’t break any existing projects and scaffold up a toy project to learn from. conda create -n kedro0162 py...
Check out davidesantangelo [1] and their project datoji [2]. A tiny JSON storage service. Create, Read, Update, Delete and Search JSON data. References: [1]: https://github.com/davidesantangelo [2]: https://github.com/davidesantangelo/datoji

My first eight years as a working professional.

This day 8 years ago I started my first day as a Mechanical Engineer. I am so grateful for this journey that I have been able to have. There is no way that I could have planned this journey from the beginning. Keep Learning # [1] My initial career plans were down a completely different path. I have been very flexible in taking on a new career path. I have been eager to learn new things and respond to life changes that I never would have imagined. Life Changes # [2] Very severe chronic health issues from my family restricted my ability to travel to the facilities I served as a Mechanical Engineer. I was able to stay strong and make it work. But in the meantime, I was learning new skills that enabled me to be more effective remotely. I was scared. # [3] It was in these times that I found a love for data, and taking action from insights I found with data. I learned how to use python to enable me to be more effective. I did this primarily from hospital waiting rooms and many overn...
2 min read

How Kedro handles your inputs

Passing inputs into kedro is a key concept. Understanding how it accepts a single catalog key as input is quite trivial that easily makes sense, but passing a list or dictionary of catalog entries can be a bit confusing. *args/**args review # [1] Check out this post for a review of how *args **kwargs work in python. understanding python *args and **kwargs [2] python args and kwargs [3] article by @_waylonwalker [4] All Kedro inputs are catalog Entries # [5] When kedro runs your pipeline it uses the catalog to imperatively load your data, meaning that you don’t tell kedro how to load your data, you tell it where your data is and what type it is. These catalog entries are like a key-value store. You just need to give the key when setting up a node. Single Inputs # [6] These are fairly straightforward to understand. In the example below when kedro runs the pipeline it will load the input from the catalog, then pass that input to the func, then save the returned value to the out...
visit1985 [1] has done a fantastic job with mdp [2]. Highly recommend taking a look. A command-line based markdown presentation tool. References: [1]: https://github.com/visit1985 [2]: https://github.com/visit1985/mdp
Check out hotreload [1] by say4n [2]. It’s a well-crafted project with great potential. hot reload your python code! References: [1]: https://github.com/say4n/hotreload [2]: https://github.com/say4n
I came across kedro-great [1] from tamsanh [2], and it’s packed with great features and ideas. The easiest way to integrate Kedro and Great Expectations References: [1]: https://github.com/tamsanh/kedro-great [2]: https://github.com/tamsanh
I came across awesome-public-datasets [1] from awesomedata [2], and it’s packed with great features and ideas. A topic-centric list of HQ open datasets. References: [1]: https://github.com/awesomedata/awesome-public-datasets [2]: https://github.com/awesomedata

Master No More

It’s been a long time coming. We use some very harsh language within tech so much sometimes that we become numb to it. It’s time to do my very small part in this movement and purge this language from my active repos starting with this blog right here. Large Refactor At The Command Line [1] this post follows my method of refactoring code bases from the command line, read more about that in this article. c-s-f # [2] First off browsing through the content of my blog I found many references to master. I cannot completely whole-sale find and replace each one of them, because some of them are links that I do not own. Any set of instructions got upgraded from master to main - git checkout master + git checkout main There were countless cases of examples like this to comb through, but it feels good to have them purged of old language. rename routes # [3] Following yesterdays post, I am going to rename my markdown files /static/_redirects shorteners # [4] - /gdfm /blog/today-i-lear...
2 min read 💬 4

Refactoring your blog urls

I just did a quick refactoring of my JAMStack blog urls. Some didn’t fit with my style, some had _ that I wanted to switch to -, and others were ridiculously long. I’ve been using forestry as my CMS, I write many of my posts there, and sometimes it picks some crazy file names (based on my titles). It was time to refactor. Large Refactor At The Command Line [1] When refactorings similar to this get really big I often need to do some project wide find an replace, I usually do this right from the command line. 🖊 Rename posts change the filename # [2] My post urls are based on the file name of my markdown file, so I can simply go through my filesystem and rename anything I want. From here its probably best to only commit the addition of the new file name, until the redirects clear, but these are all low traffic posts for me so I just commited both at once. Safely redirect without breaking links _redirects ⤴ /redirects # [3] I am hosted on netlify, which automatically puts very ⚡ ...

understanding python \*args and \*\*kwargs

Python *args and **kwargs are super useful tools, that when used properly can make you code much simpler and easier to maintain. Large manual conversions from a dataset to function arguments can be packed and unpacked into lists or dictionaries. Beware though, this power can lead to some really unreadable/unusable code if done wrong. /* h2 {display: block;} */ h2>img { margin: auto; width: 100%;} Python *args and **kwargs are super useful tools, that when used properly can make you code much simpler and easier to maintain. Large manual conversions from a dataset to function arguments can be packed and unpacked into lists or dictionaries. Beware though, this power can lead to some really unreadable/unusable code if done wrong. *args are for lists # [1] *args are some magical syntax that will collect function arguments into a list, or unpack a list into individual arguments. recieving *args # [2] When recieving variables as a *<varname>, commonly *args, the arguments get packed ...
3 min read ↺ 11 💬 3
I recently discovered pytest-sugar [1] by Teemu [2], and it’s truly impressive. a plugin for py.test that changes the default look and feel of py.test (e.g. progressbar, show tests that fail instantly) References: [1]: https://github.com/Teemu/pytest-sugar [2]: https://github.com/Teemu
the-hub [1] by ari-hacks [2] is a game-changer in its space. Excited to see how it evolves. 📈📊 A hub where users can experiment with graphing and Python in the browser (https://pyodide-experiment.herokuapp.com/) References: [1]: https://github.com/ari-hacks/the-hub [2]: https://github.com/ari-hacks

pre-commit is awesome

I recently discovered the ✨ awesomeness that is pre-commit. I steered away from it for so long because it seemed like a big daunting thing to set up, but really it’s easy. It will automatically run checks for you. In some cases, it will even automatically fix them for you. Out of the box, it will do things like automatically trim extra whitespace, fix file endings, and ensure file sizes are not too large for git [1]. I recently discovered the ✨ awesomeness that is pre-commit. I steered away from it for so long because it seemed like a big daunting thing to set up, but really it’s easy. It will automatically run checks for you. In some cases, it will even automatically fix them for you. Out of the box, it will do things like automatically trim extra whitespace, fix file endings, and ensure file sizes are not too large for git. Quickstart # [2] It comes with a sample-config that is pretty general purpose and use for just about any project in git. pip instal pre-commit pre-commit s...
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Building kedro.dev

Follow along the Journey as I build out kedro.dev [1]. Building a Community # [2] I have really enjoyed my own personal journey as I have started to build all of my data pipeline projects with the kedro framework. I want to start building a place to share resources with the community. I want to see this community grow and flourish. They say in front end web development if you are not using a framework you end up building one. That’s exactly what I was doing before I started using kedro. I want to build out a set of resources that this community can learn from and start to use the framework at their own pace without needing to develop their own from scratch. research # [3] Looking into the front end frameworks to see how they welcome their community. Much of my inspiration is from them, bringing lessons learned to data. pages # [4] - banner - nav - docs -> readthedocs - tutorial -> kedro-examples - blog -> medium - community - support - team - courses - examples - mee...
1 min read
The work on desert [1] by python-desert [2]. Deserialize to objects while staying DRY References: [1]: https://github.com/python-desert/desert [2]: https://github.com/python-desert
I recently discovered kedro-wings [1] by tamsanh [2], and it’s truly impressive. Kedro Wings automatically creates catalog entries to simplify Kedro pipeline writing. See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ELo1tqbYY References: [1]: https://github.com/tamsanh/kedro-wings [2]: https://github.com/tamsanh
Check out kedro-streaming-twitter-pipeline [1] by dataengineerone [2]. It’s a well-crafted project with great potential. No description available. References: [1]: https://github.com/dataengineerone/kedro-streaming-twitter-pipeline [2]: https://github.com/dataengineerone
junegunn [1] has done a fantastic job with fzf.vim [2]. Highly recommend taking a look. fzf ❤️ vim References: [1]: https://github.com/junegunn [2]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim

Kedro Static Viz 0.3.0 is out with Hooks Support

kedro-static-viz [1] is out with support for the newly released hooks feature. This means that you can have kedro-static-viz automatically deploy a full gatsby site before_pipeline_run keeping your visualization always up to date. Even though it is a static site there is no functionality lost. The only thing that’s missing is the flask server. With kedro-static-viz [1] you can deploy your visualization to a number of static hosting providers such as GitHub pages free of charge with wicked fast performance ⚡ It’s Fast # [2] Even though it’s built on gatsbyjs the full site builds in under 2s even on slower hardware. This is because the site is already pre-rendered and stripped of any excess. It’s zipped up right into the python package and is typically used with the cli, but now can be used with python, or as a hook as well. What is kedro-viz [3] 🤔 # [4] Kedro viz is a fantastic kedro plugin that allows you to visualize your data pipeline. Kedro allows you to quickly build produc...
I’m really excited about pytest-watch [1], an amazing project by joeyespo [2]. It’s worth exploring! Local continuous test runner with pytest and watchdog. References: [1]: https://github.com/joeyespo/pytest-watch [2]: https://github.com/joeyespo
Check out aws [1] and their project aws-cli [2]. Universal Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services References: [1]: https://github.com/aws [2]: https://github.com/aws/aws-cli

Create Configurable Kedro Hooks

There are two main ways to create kedro hooks, with modules and classes. Each one still uses the same verbiage as the function/method names. Class hooks seem a bit special as they give you a way to configure them so that they are a bit more generally useful. What is Kedro [1] If you are completely unsure what kedro is be sure to check out my what is kedro [2] post Installation # [3] .create a new environment manager of choice. Here I will use conda. Then we will install kedro from pypi. conda create -n kedro_class_hooks -y conda activate kedro_class_hooks # may also be source activate kedro_class_hooks or activate kedro_class_hooks pip install kedro Create a sample project # [4] Kedro new # [5] For more details check out my full post on kedro new [6] For this post I really just want a working pipeline as fast as possible. For this I am going to use iris pipeline that is generated from the kedro new command in the cli. It’s important that you answer y to create an example pi...
3 min read ↺ 1

Brainstorming Kedro Hooks

This post is a 🧠 branstorming work in progress. I will likely use it as a storage location/brain dump of hook ideas. What is Kedro 🤔 # [1] If you are completely unsure what kedro is be sure to check out my what is kedro [2] post after_catalog_created # [3] - filepath replacer - bucket replacer before_pipeline_run # [4] - preflight - check that data exists - run kedro_static_viz - run mypy - run interrogate - run flake8 after_pipeline_run # [5] - Great Expectations - send email - send slack before_node_run # [6] after_node_run # [7] - Great Expectations - save stats/meta data - Execution Order # [8] hooks are executed in reverse order of the hooks list. hooks with tryfirst will be moved to the end of the list hooks with trylast will be moved to the end of the list - after_catalog_created - before_pipeline_run - args - run_params = run_params = {‘run_id’: ‘2020-05-23T15.24.23.958Z’, ‘project_path’: ‘/mnt/c/temp/kedro0160’, ’env’: ’local’, ‘kedro_version’: ‘...

How to get Dev Comments from an article Url

I want to incorporate some of the wonderful comments, \U0001F495, \U0001F984, and \U0001F516’s that I have been getting on dev.to on my website. I have dabbled once or twice with no avail this time I am taking notes on my journey, so follow along and let’s get there together. By the end of this post, I will have a way to get comments from posts on the client-side thanks to the wonderfully open dev.to API. I want to incorporate some of the wonderful comments, 💕, 🦄, and 🔖’s that I have been getting on dev.to on my website. I have dabbled once or twice with no avail this time I am taking notes on my journey, so follow along and let’s get there together. By the end of this post, I will have a way to get comments from posts on the client-side thanks to the wonderfully open dev.to API. The API # [1] dev.to has an open API that allows us to easily get comments as HTML [2]. They have their API hosted at https://docs.forem.com/api/#tag/comments, let’s take a look at it. [3] Here we can...

Four github actions for your website

GitHub’s actions are a new GitHub feature that will trigger GitHub to spin up a virtual machine and run some tasks with some special access to your repo. It can interact with comments/issues, it can clone your repo, You can explicitly pass in secrets so that it can commit back to the repo or deploy to another service. The environment may be a Linux, windows, or even a mac machine. I believe this is wildly incredible for the open-source community, putting these tools in the same place that we are already collaborating is so convenient. What can they do for my personal website? 🤔 # [1] GitHub actions can give you confidence that your site is up and running, with the latest JavaScript packages, does not have broken links, and can even take screenshots of what your website looks like on different screen sizes and operating systems. - periodically check that the website is up - update npm - url checker - screenshot website srt32/uptime [2] # [3] srt32/uptime [2] is an action that...