MakerGeeks 3D Geek Box 3 Month Reivew – March/April/May 2018

Back in November 2017 I bought my first MakerGeeks filament, a grab bag of 1 roll of Maker PLA, 1 roll Crystal PLA, 1 roll of Maker PETG and 1 roll of Crystal PETG, combined with a Black Friday coupon code they were running at the time.  I knew they had a monthly subscription box but as I was just starting out with 3D printing, I didn’t want to commit to that just yet.  I also wanted to try out a few different brands to get an idea of how each filament brand would print.  After doing some research of what the past 3D Geek Boxes consisted of and watching some unboxing/reviews, I decided to jump in since their promotional email flyer said it was going to be a “Big One.”

Continue reading “MakerGeeks 3D Geek Box 3 Month Reivew – March/April/May 2018”

EventStore HTTP API – Replaying Parked Messages in C# with HttpClient

Eventstore’s competing consumer pattern is implemented through the use of persistent subscriptions.  Competing consumers is a great pattern to use when you need multiple consumers pulling from a single stream with the state of the stream being managed by EventStore.  In order for the consumer to keep receiving messages they must ack/nack the message they received in some way.  The happy path would lead to the consumer being able to process the message and returning an ack back to signify that the message was processed.  If a consumer is unable to process the message, there are multiple options that can be taken, likely ending in the message being parked.  Each subscription group created will have another stream available known as the parked message queue.  Messages which are not acknowledged can be put into this queue for diagnosis later.  Through EventStore’s web ui, you can easily click the replay parked messages link for a particular subscription group.  If there is a need to programmatically replay this queue it can be done through the REST API.

 

Here is an example on how to programmatically invoke the replay parked messages functionality. Continue reading “EventStore HTTP API – Replaying Parked Messages in C# with HttpClient”

Pluralsight Notes – Better .NET Unit Tests with AutoFixture: Get Started

The Better .NET Unit Tests with AutoFixture: Get Started course by Jason Roberts, takes you through the need for and use of AutoFixture. AutoFixture is an open source library that helps you to create anonymous test data to accelerate your unit testing time frame. The ability that AutoFixture provides to quickly and easily generate anonymous test data is also a great addition to moving towards TDD. I am definitely a proponent of utilizing a TDD methodology, a tool like AutoFixture certainly helps to reduce the resistance by making the data setup much easier. This course will get you up and running with AutoFixture quickly, by taking you through all of the basic and some important advanced usages you may need to understand to get AutoFixture integrated into your project. Continue reading “Pluralsight Notes – Better .NET Unit Tests with AutoFixture: Get Started”

MPMD: MonoPrice Mini Delta 127mm (5 inch) glass/mirror bed clips

First, Fusion360 designed thing posted to thingiverse.com. When getting started with 3D printing, there is a limit to how much random stuff you can find and print from thingiverse. At some point you want to be able to design and print your own models. I started off learning some basic concepts of modeling using tinkercad which is a great, free, web-based application for 3D design. Browsing through there catalog of items people have created on tinkercad is certainly pretty awesome, however it is web-based and does have some limitations. After some research, Fusion360 appeared to be another popular choice for 3D design and 3D printing. It can also be registered for free as long as certain criteria are met, mainly if you are using it as a hobbyist and not in a professional for profit setting. Continue reading “MPMD: MonoPrice Mini Delta 127mm (5 inch) glass/mirror bed clips”

First 3D Printer: MonoPrice Mini Delta (MPMD)

3D Printing has always been something that I have been interested in, however the cost of the printers has always been such a large hurdle to over come.  In recent years the price has significantly dropped, especially with kits like this (Delta Kit), being affordable and provide an awesome learning experience.  If you are not interested in a build it yourself project, there are many pre-built printers out now that are very affordable as well (Pre-Built).  Since the prices of 3D printers have become more attainable the only other hurdle was the tinkering/troubleshooting factor.  Being a developer, the thought of hands on troubleshooting was certainly appealing and not a detractor for me, like I believe it is for so many others.  I began doing research on prebuilt machines and kits, when I came across an indiegogo for the MonoPrice Mini Delta (MPMD), a $159 prebuilt delta.  This was too perfect an opportunity to pass up, as this was a prebuilt machine at such a low price point for the amount of features it provided.  I pulled the trigger and within a few months I was part of the second shipment of these machines, as of now they are listed on the Monoprice web site here.  Given that this is my first 3D printer I will be doing some future posts around general 3D printing, Mini Delta mods, and Fusion 360 design that I have been learning ever since jumping into this domain.

Here are a few time lapse videos of my first few prints: Continue reading “First 3D Printer: MonoPrice Mini Delta (MPMD)”

Pluralsight Notes – Effective C# Unit Testing for Enterprise Applications

Introduction

Pluralsight is a great online resource for Developer/Technology training courses.  I have recently begun working through a bunch of courses and I thought I would begin sharing my notes I take while viewing these courses.  Effective C# Unit Testing for Enterprise Applications by Rusty Divine, aims to improve the viewers unit testing knowledge through solid patterns and practices to follow and understanding what to avoid. Continue reading “Pluralsight Notes – Effective C# Unit Testing for Enterprise Applications”

Change Default Swagger Route in an ASP.Net Core Web Api

Introduction

Over the past few weeks I have been doing some work with ASP.Net Core Web Api project’s using swagger.  The setup was pretty standard until the api’s needed to be deployed to staging and production environments.  The web api’s are being hosted in docker containers behind a reverse proxy, the staging and production environments required a prefix route parameter for each api.  This meant that the default url’s for the controllers and swagger would need to include a route prefix.  To add a route prefix to swagger and swagger ui is a pretty quick code change. Continue reading “Change Default Swagger Route in an ASP.Net Core Web Api”

StackOverflow November 2016 Contributions

Below are links to questions I have contributed to on StackOverflow.  If you have time or any of the questions interest you take a moment to review the question and answers.  If you feel one of the answers appropriately answer the question, then please vote that answer up to better serve the community and future users looking for an answer to a similar question.

StackOverflow October 2016 Contributions

Below are links to questions I have contributed to on StackOverflow.  If you have time or any of the questions interest you take a moment to review the question and answers.  If you feel one of the answers appropriately answer the question, then please vote that answer up to better serve the community and future users looking for an answer to a similar question.