Mark Hansen

I'm a Software Engineering Manager working on Google Maps in Sydney, Australia. I write about software {engineering, management, profiling}, data visualisation, and transport.

Mastodon Account Verification with Ghost Blog

Mar 31, 2023 2 min read Programming

How to get a green verification checkmark on Mastodon from your link to your Ghost blog. Inject a link tag in your site header.

CAP Theorem & UI Programming

Mar 4, 2023 3 min read Android

When the network doesn't respond, will you wait forever, blocking the app (and your users), sacrificing availability? Or will you make up an answer (show inconsistent data)?

Should you inflate Android Views on a background thread?

Feb 18, 2023 2 min read Programming

TL;DR: No, it's not safe. I show race conditions that could happen to any View, and consider AsyncLayoutInflater.

Choosing a Portmanteau/Blended Baby Surname

Feb 15, 2023 5 min read Baby

How we chose a surname for our new baby: options, tradeoffs, and how to search for blends of your & your partner's surnames

Cloud Backup Storage Options

Feb 6, 2023 8 min read Backup

What Cloud Storage should I upload my backups to? Amazon S3? Azure Blob Storage? Google Cloud Storage? More niche players?