A worthy successor to the Apple Keyboard

Tldr; I liked the feel of the keys on the old Apple USB Keyboard and I replaced it with the Logitech MX Keys and I’m quite happy with it. I recommend it if you are looking for a replacement for the 2017 Apple USB Keyboard. Working from home these past few weeks has highlighted the weaknesses that I had in my current setup, and in particular my keyboard. I was using a Logitech K375s. It is Bluetooth/Unifying receiver enabled, and it can switch between three different devices seemlessly. However, I found the keys a little too mushy and there was more travel than I liked. I was quite interested in the ability to switch between different devices, and tried out my friend’s Logitech k480 keyboard. It was the only keyboard then to offer the switching capability. However, I didn’t like the high rounded keys, nor their response either. Then there was the consideration of the cost: $39.95! It was a high price (at the time) for a keyboard that had this switching feature that I wanted, so instead I bought the K375s when it came out because it was cheaper. ...

July 30, 2020 · 5 min

Rewriting the Bus App in Vue

I felt it was a little unfair to compare React and Vue because I had only just learned React though a course whereas for Vue, it was something that learned a few years ago and didn’t have any real understanding of what Vue could offer. So I decided to take this opportunity to learn Vue in greater detail and do a comparison between the two frameworks. Welcome to Bus App V3. ...

July 15, 2020 · 6 min

Building a better bus arrival app

See the app: https://bustime.neocities.org/ I previously documented by attempt to build a better bus arrival app here: https://westsideelectronics.com/building-a-real-time-web-app/. However there were significant limitations: “…limitation of this method is the upper limit on how many reads you can send to Firestore… This is not scalable. In the case of my earlier bus stop app, there were some weaknesses: The main script has to live somewhere because it needed to be called once every minute. It relies on Google Firebase, while a great service, however, I didn’t need all the scale or flexibility it offers. The web app isn’t built to be responsive. You cannot set the bus stop from the client. Additional information about the bus type and the fullness of the bus was not included. Old vs New ...

July 2, 2020 · 3 min

Building a real-time web app with Google Firebase, Python, & VueJS

This is my first attempt in building a real-time web app that helps to display bus arrival times at a bus stop so that I can catch buses without waiting. Tldr; I built an app that displays the buses in order of arrival with the time that it will take for each bus to arrive. Check it out at timetable.neocities.org. Buses in order of arrival At my bus stop I want to know which buses are arriving soon because there are a few specific bus services that stop at a more convenient location. However, if they take too long to arrive, then I’ll resort to walking. ...

June 7, 2020 · 9 min

Review: Frontend Masters

Frontend Masters is a website that offers video courses for front end engineering. Their courses specialize in development and technologies for the frontend, like webpages, HTML, JavaScript, React, and many others. Tldr; expensive, but worth it. [Updated 2021] They have also opened up a few free courses that I found very helpful! Just create an account with Frontend Masters and check it out under the Free Courses tab. These are full courses in addition to the Bootcamp. ...

May 29, 2020 · 7 min

React-Teave: Ranking teas according to your preferences

TLDR; I made a website that allows you to return search results of teas that are tailored to a specific mix of your preferences. Check it out at React-Teave. Tea. Can’t live without it, but you can definitely live without bad tea. Some teas taste like they are made out of twigs, which I can assure you, is not a very pleasant taste at all. Nobody: Me: Hey! Why don’t I share with you what I think about the tea I’m drinking? ...

May 24, 2020 · 3 min

Common Ingredient Pairings

This is a Chord diagram made in D3 displaying the relationship between 10 most common ingredients for all the recipes on Food.com. Common Incredient Pairings Play with the chord here: https://benlhy.github.io/common-food-pairings/ “Ben,” my mom said, “you always buy the same things.” My mom was referring to my latest purchase from the supermarket. “You know we haven’t finished the celery from the last time right?” She held up a bag. “And what am I going to do with all these onions?” ...

April 20, 2020 · 3 min

Building a D3 Binary Tree

Tldr: I built an animated binary tree following the lessons learned from the D3 course on Frontend Masters by Shirley Wu as well as Brian Holt’s Introduction to Computer Science. Play with the tree here: https://bl.ocks.org/benlhy/83a93740449b29ab731184bd233c9994/8f68c0d8ed273ac075102a5e7af886559d80eb81 Randomly generated tree A binary tree is a type of data structure that sorts new values. Each node in a binary tree has two children, the left is always smaller than the parent node, while the right is always larger than the parent node. By following this rule, a binary tree is constructed. ...

April 19, 2020 · 2 min

Notes on The Lean Startup and The Mythical Man-Month

Lean Startup Get ahead of the opinion If you have an idea but you don’t have the product, it is easier for people who are evaluating you to criticize the idea because the white space has not yet been filled in yet. At this point a project is more likely to face opposition, criticism, and non-constructive feedback because everyone has their own idea about what to do next. The discussion can sometimes get mired in technicalities. So what should you do? ...

March 22, 2020 · 2 min

How I built a YNAB-like budget in Google Sheets

Budgeting is useful for me to take note of how much I spend a month. If I had to estimate how much I spend, I can be off the actual amount by as much as half. I tried a few apps and methods to keep track of my finances. In particular, I really liked You Need A Budget (YNAB) because it is simple to use and offers integration with your bank account, so you can track your finances without having to spend additional effort recording every transaction. I also liked Mint for it’s simple interface. ...

March 22, 2020 · 10 min