Brian Jacobel

Reducing bundle size of Highlight.js with Webpack

A basic requirement for a developer's blog is syntax highlighting, and one of the most recommended library for doing syntax highlighting in JavaScript is Highlight.js. However, Highlight's uncustomizable builds and large size make it difficult to work with on high-performing websites. Here's how I tamed the default Highlight.js build using Webpack's ContextReplacementPlugin, an approach which may generalize to other libraries.

Vinz: Credentials management for AWS Lambda

In my last post, I wrote about the key management system I'd worked out for one of my Twitterbots. Today I'm releasing the evolution of that project as Vinz, a credential management system for AWS Lambda applications.

Serverless Twitterbots with AWS Lambda, KMS and DynamoDB

Writing bots for Twitter has always been one of my favorite ways to try out a new technology. When I was just first learning about building APIs I built Orient Haiku, a Python script that looked for haikus in the text of Bowdoin Orient articles (delivered over a brand-new JSON API). Later, while I was learning concurrency patterns in Go, I built Goggles, a Go program that consumed the Twitter Streaming API, ran any images it found through a feature classification service, and used its insights to spread a little positivity.

Migrating from GitHub Pages, Part 1: Automated Jekyll builds with Travis CI

This post is the first of two detailing the setup I've picked for hosting my Jekyll site. In the second, I'll dive into Docker, Caddy and Let's Encrypt. First, though, I wanted to share a cool little feature I built into my workflow with Git, Jekyll, and Travis CI.

Sass

I've just pushed a new version of the site that includes an almost 100% rewrite of the style!

Timewarp

I just finished a fun little hack which I'm calling Timewarp.

Site Redesign

I've just launched a redesign of the site!