Gonçalo Tomás

I built a static site generator

Well, a proof of concept for one, at least. I've been thinking of implementing one for a long time, after using multiple generators for this website and I finally did it. Why? Most often the answer to this question in general is that I wanted to know how it's done,

I'm on parental leave

My firstborn arrived on this Earth in the summer of 2020 at the peak of the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic. At the time, working as a contractor with almost zero company benefits, I took a one-month unpaid leave that I had to negotiate very thoroughly in order to

Done is better than perfect

I'm undertaking some mentoring at work with the main goal of becoming a better developer, whatever that means. I've been striving to ship more work without sacrificing on quality, and in trying to do that for the past 6 months I learned a couple of lessons I wanted to write

I joined remote.com

After two and a half years working remotely as a contractor and going through the pain of managing my taxes, having a precarious work setup and losing some employee benefits I was very hesitant of keeping an open door for contracting work. After looking for jobs in the Elixir space

I left my first paying job

This is a bittersweet post. I tweeted [https://twitter.com/goncaloptomas/status/1443512391833169922] about the topic the other day, but here I tried to gather my thoughts a bit better. There's something special about first everythings. The first crush, the first date, the first breakup, etc, all have a special

68 Ensinamentos não solicitados

Esta é uma tradução portuguesa do excelente post do Kevin Kelly, fundador da revista Wired, que no seu 68° aniversário reuniu 68 dicas para "os mais novos", apresentados pela mesma ordem que no post original:

Building Blocks

Time oriented programming

I want to keep some sort of reference for my future self when I eventually need to do any time aware programming. To keep it as language agnostic as possible, I'll only cover the basics.

2019 Blog Update

This website started as a simple Wordpress blog post some 4 years ago. The domain was moved back and forth from managed to hosted solutions as my time constraints and patience evolved over time. I even tried Medium, which at first was...

Fórum Português says "Olá Mundo!"

I’ve committed to trying out new things and doing projects that I think make me happy, no matter how silly they are. This one in particular solves a longstanding problem I’ve witnessed many times.

Spending time on things that matter

2019 seems to be on its well on its way to become one of the most pivotal years of my life. This post outlines some recent thoughts about efficiency.

🎉🎊 Graduation 🎊🎉

Blog entry for when I defended my thesis. 2 years of work summed into 1 day. It was intense!

Google Summer of Code 2018

In this post I go over the the work I did in my second internship for Google Summer of Code.

The ugly side of 2FA

How not to use 2 Factor Authentication!

Hello world! (again!)

Bragging in 2018 about using Hugo. It was fine, but now it's even better 😎

The essence of time in computer science

An old and cringy post about time with really dumb analogies 🤦

Learn to program

So you want to learn about programming pt.3

Part 3: Choosing your weapons of choice.

Learn to program

So you want to learn about programming pt.2

Part 2: Tooling around

Learn to program

So you want to learn about programming pt.1

Part 1: I’ve got some tips. Start here!

Book Review: Bitcoin for the befuddled

This book is the biggest FAQ about Bitcoin I’ve ever seen. Makes for a very well thought out introduction to cryptocurrencies.

Book Review: Ghost in the wires

The memoir of the most wanted hacker in the United States that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Book Review: Data and Goliath

This is one of Bruce Schneier’s latest books, but my first read from him. The title caught my attention, and I’m glad it did.

Lessons learned managing my website

I started my own website back in November 2014, and it’s safe to say that it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I’m going to explain what I learned...

A recipe for a great multiplayer game

Most people I know, people that have played more than smartphone games, can usually pick out at least one game that truly has left a big mark on them, and everybody does it with ease. Knowing that sometimes we agree on how great a particular game was, can we define what makes a game great?

Book Review: PGP and GPG

I had a big deal of curiosity about PGP and GPG, and I had no idea which was which and why somebody thinks one is better than the other, and, like all things about security and privacy, I considered it to be a wise choice at the time...

Open-source web-apps: should code be readily available?

If you’re a student like me, I assume you realise the importance of letting everybody know your potential. We are all learners, but we need to...