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Every Tuesday at 12pm Mountain Time

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A casual weekly virtual chat mostly focused on web and software development.

Weekly Dev Chat is a place to ask questions, hear different viewpoints, and get to know your fellow developers. Every week there is an initial topic posted to get the discussion started. Sometimes we discuss the initial topic the entire chat, and other times the topic changes several times through the natural flow of the conversation.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

  • in Security
  • 1 min read

IRL: picoCTF Pairing

Join us for an in-person Weekly Dev Chat focused on solving picoCTF challenges together.

This event is designed for both experienced CTF players and people brand new to capture-the-flag challenges. We’ll pair up, help each other through problems, and practice practical cybersecurity skills in a friendly setting.

The event runs on Tuesday, February 24 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at Edmonton Public Library - Strathcona. Register and view full details on Luma:

https://luma.com/5k23hpni

IRL picoCTF Pairing event image

*ChatGPT created the header image. Not bad but still has the unique AI feel to it.

Hosting a MySQL DB on hobby‑scale projects: Costs, Quirks, and Work‑arounds

I’ve been experimenting with MySQL on several cloud platforms including Railway, GCP Compute Engine, and other “free‑tier” services. Compared with PostgreSQL, getting a stable, free MySQL deployment has proven trickier (container-related errors, opaque usage‑based billing).

Have you run into the same hurdles? What are your work‑arounds? Any favourite low‑cost hosts? Any billing horror stories? Your tips could help everyone keep projects alive without breaking the bank.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

MySQL Icon

  • 1 min read

Technical Debt

For those new to the term, technical debt is similar to financial debt. A project often starts with clean architecture and the best of intentions. Over time, however, questionable decisions creep in, changes get rushed, processes are undermined, and the codebase gradually becomes harder and harder to work with. Eventually, we reach the point of asking whether a complete rewrite is needed—sort of like declaring bankruptcy.

Have you encountered technical debt in your projects? How do you deal with it? How do you prevent (or at least manage) it?

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others. Zoom link will be posted at 12pm MDT.

messy desk