Top all-time · #1020
Nick Janetakis
Personal blog · nickjanetakis.com · on HN as nickjjprogrammingweb
Nick Janetakis's personal blog at nickjanetakis.com covers programming and web. Since 2015, 68 different Hacker News readers have linked it 443 times, most often “Setting Up Docker for Windows and WSL to Work Flawlessly”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Hi, I'm Nick. I'm a full stack developer and course creator who focuses on building and deploying web apps. Take a look at my blog or courses.
Most-linked posts?
- Setting Up Docker for Windows and WSL to Work Flawlessly8 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2017-10-17
- How to pick a good monitor for software development6 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2017-01-31
- Microservices Are Something You Grow Into, Not Begin With5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-08-21
- Run the First Edition of Unix with Docker4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-11-21
- /blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos3 people · 17 mentions · first linked 2016-12-21
- How to start a successful freelance business as a software developer (2017)3 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2017-01-11
- /blog/3 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2017-02-25
- Using WSL, MobaXterm and Docker to Create a Linux Dev Environment on Windows3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-11-14
- Why I Prefer Running Nginx on My Docker Host Instead of in a Container3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-10-22
- 80 Characters per Line Is a Standard Worth Sticking to Even Today3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-06-05
What Hacker News says?
I don't think too many people would be using Windows if it were really bad for Linux based development. I sure as heck wouldn't be. In an ideal world I would be running native Linux but I had trouble with some audio gear not working and my favorite video editing tool doesn't run in Linux, nor do some of the games I play -- so I use Windows because that's what's available. As much as I hate to say it, Windows is a pr…
Comment linking /blog/the-tools-i-use
on “Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows”Submitted Best practices around creating production ready web apps with Docker Compose as a story · 514 points
HN discussionAgreed. ~2 years ago I seriously looked into Serverless and very quickly discarded it after seeing a large production deployment of it. I didn't have access to the billing info but the site loaded much slower than a regular site and developer productivity was quite low. I'm going to stick with good old servers for now. If anyone is curious, a few years ago I did a write up on "Should your next project be built as a…
Comment linking /blog/should-your-next-project-be-built-as-a-serverless-app
on “Serverless: slower and more expensive”Submitted Vim Is Saving Me Hours of Work When Writing Books and Courses as a story · 378 points
HN discussionI'm happy this finally happened, even though I've been clinging to Python 2.7 for quite some time. I run a Flask course[0] and from the beginning I coded the app to work for both 2.7.x and 3.x in parallel but it's only been a few months now where Celery supported Python 3.7. In either case, upgrading from 2.7.x to 3.7.x was super painless. It came down to making sure Celery is using 4.3+ and pytest requires 5+ if yo…
Comment linking /blog/upgrading-a-dockerized-flask-app-from-python-2-7-to-python-3-7
on “Sunsetting Python 2”Submitted Microservices Are Something You Grow Into, Not Begin With as a story · 338 points
HN discussionOnce you finish taking my Scaling Docker on AWS course, you'll have access to a magic command that deploys your app and you're free to optionally run migrations. http://nickjanetakis.com/courses/scaling-docker-on-aws It covers using RDS, ElastiCache and also handles load balancing your app + much more.
Comment linking /courses/scaling-docker-on-aws
on ““It's The Future””Submitted Switching Pip to Uv in a Dockerized Flask / Django App as a story · 273 points
HN discussion27" 4k is going to be pretty tough to read text at 1:1 scaling even with 20/20 vision. IMO you're better off grabbing something like a 25" 2560x1440 monitor. You can comfortably read text at a few feet away, even small text with not the best contrast. If you start scaling to 150% or 200% with your 4k display you'll end up with the same screen real estate as a 2560x1440 or even a 1080p monitor depending on how much y…
Comment linking /blog/how-to-pick-a-good-monitor-for-software-development
on “Time to Upgrade Your Monitor”Submitted A Recycled IP Address Caused Me to Pirate Books by Accident as a story · 260 points
HN discussionVery cool idea but I was disappointed that Socratic Questioning wasn't included. Here's an example of how that can be applied to tech decisions: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/would-socrates-use-docker-tod...
Comment linking /blog/would-socrates-use-docker-today
on “Tools for Better Thinking”Submitted Using GnuCash as a Freelancer to Track Finances and Prepare Taxes as a story · 239 points
HN discussion> Are you sure about that 250$ number? Because I don't think that's a very realistic number. I'm not a student but it's pretty close I think. I invested $350 into a Chromebook that runs native Linux[0] about 4 years ago and it's still going strong as a secondary machine I use when I'm away from my main workstation. It has a 13" 1080p IPS display, 4gb of memory, an SSD, a good keyboard and weighs 2.9 pounds. It's not…
Comment linking /blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos
on “Apple Silicon M1: Black Magic Fuckery”Submitted How to start a successful freelance business as a software developer (2017) as a story · 199 points
HN discussionI'd be happy to, but the podcast is on indefinite hiatus: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33945360 https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/taking-an-indefinite-break-fr...
Comment linking /blog/taking-an-indefinite-break-from-the-running-in-production-podcast
on “I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business”Submitted Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard as a story · 177 points
HN discussionYou know how you should almost always eat your vegetables? You should almost always quote your Bash variables too. Here's why: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/here-is-why-you-should-quote-...
Comment linking /blog/here-is-why-you-should-quote-your-variables-in-bash
on “Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into”Submitted Run the First Edition of Unix with Docker as a story · 114 points
HN discussionShell scripting for processing text. You can often get so much done with so little code and effort. Also on a semi-related note, I think as a self taught programmer, it's easy to get stuck on things that seem cool but are just procrastination enablers (I know, I've been guilty of it for 20 years). Like, if you're about to start a new project and you want to flesh out what it's about, you really don't need to spend 5…
Comment linking /blog/live-demo-of-planning-a-real-world-web-application-from-scratch
on “Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into”Submitted Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better as a story · 113 points
HN discussionIf anyone is looking it improve the quality of their audio for home recordings I put up a 10,000 word blog post + 90 minute video (no ads) on this topic recently at: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-record-great-sounding-... It covers everything from general tips to room layouts to hardware / software suggestions. It really doesn't take a lot to get pretty decent sounding audio. At minimum a $50-70 USB dynamic…
Comment linking /blog/how-to-record-great-sounding-high-quality-audio-at-home
on “Higher quality audio makes people sound smarter”Submitted How to pick a good monitor for software development as a story · 109 points
HN discussionI've been posting every week for 5+ years. I cover everything I encounter as a freelance developer (something I've been doing for the last ~20 years). There's posts on Flask, Docker, Bash, Elixir, tweaking your development environment, running a freelance business, etc.. Lots of videos too, because for the last year or so I've been trying to grow a Youtube channel. It basically covers everything I've learned or am c…
Comment linking /blog/
on “Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?”Submitted Benchmarking Debian vs. Alpine as a base Docker image (2018) as a story · 70 points
HN discussionI have ~20 years of experience as a freelancer and I don't like TDD, but I do think writing tests early is important because they give you the confidence to refactor your "fun / getting it to work" code. My workflow is basically: - Plan the project out, but not super detailed, this is more like a high level overview of features. I did a 90 minute video live on this process once[0]. - Think about each state of what a…
Comment linking /blog/design-your-web-uis-faster-by-planning-out-each-different-state
on “Things I learnt the hard way in thirty years of software development”Submitted Install Docker in WSL 2 Without Docker Desktop as a story · 60 points
HN discussionI wrote about this last year. I called it the "social loop of death": https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/schedules-arent-a-constraint-... It's super distracting, but you can easily break out of it with being accountable for your time. Nowadays I've found a healthy balance and am more productive / happy / successful than ever. A lot of it had to due with following these 3 things too: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to…
Comment linking /blog/how-to-overcome-procrastination-with-a-3-pronged-attack
on “How I got to 200 productive hours a month”Submitted 80 Characters per Line Is a Standard Worth Sticking to Even Today as a story · 50 points
HN discussionLike most marketplaces, they are only interested in making themselves profitable. Always remember that. Working at freelancer.com or similar sites is saying: "I should spend a large portion of my life to become an expert in my craft, and then I should agree to have my privacy stripped away from me while I race to the bottom and undercut my competition because I will actively place myself into situations where I have…
Comment linking /blog/how-to-start-a-successful-freelance-business-as-a-software-developer
on “Freelancer.com has ruined my life”Submitted How to Record Great Sounding / High Quality Audio at Home as a story · 49 points
HN discussion
