Writing
Blog
Welcome to my engineering blog. These posts focus on software challenges I've faced, systems I've built, and lessons learned along the way.
27 Posts
Farewell Stack Overflow
A data-first goodbye to Stack Overflow, from platform-wide decline to my own 18k reputation journey.
March 9th, 2026 · 5 min read
Launching devillers.nl v4
The fourth iteration of my personal website, rebuilt with a modern stack and implemented by Codex.
March 7th, 2026 · 4 min read
Welcome to devillers.nl v3!
Today I am launching the third iteration of my personal website at devillers.nl
June 5th, 2022 · 3 min read
Typing JSON imports in TypeScript
How to extract types from JSON imports for great justice
November 5th, 2021 · 2 min read
Mockito, @BeforeEach and UnnecessaryStubbingException
How to define Mockito stubs in your generic setup method without triggering UnnecessaryStubbingException
May 21st, 2021 · 3 min read
NextJS & Sharp library compatibility issue
How to fix the latest NextJS release with Sharp for your system
February 5th, 2021 · 1 min read
Nodejs, TypeScript, ts-node-dev & top-level await
Where we are, where we are headed and where we want to be
December 11th, 2020 · 3 min read
Polishing the charts
How to improve the responsiveness of Highcharts on smaller viewports
May 18th, 2020 · 5 min read
Time for some reflection
My thoughts after one month of working on the Big O Visualizer
May 14th, 2020 · 7 min read
Debugging production with hidden modals
How to change the behavior of an application using a (hidden) settings screen
May 12th, 2020 · 4 min read
Web Workerizing CPU-hungry JavaScript
How to avoid browser UI freezes by offloading CPU-heavy code to Web Workers
May 7th, 2020 · 11 min read
Implementing previous/next navigation
How to add previous/next navigation to Gatsby pages
May 1st, 2020 · 4 min read
Launching the Big O Visualizer
I built an interactive web-based tool that visualizes the time complexity of algorithms
April 24th, 2020 · 2 min read
Business Process Modeling as a means to bridge The Business-IT Divide
My master's thesis that won an award in 2012
December 2nd, 2019 · 3 min read
Integrating Hystrix Dashboard in Spring Boot Admin 2
How to guide on getting Hystrix Dashboard up and running in Spring Boot Admin 2
November 19th, 2019 · 3 min read
I won a hackathon!
My team won SHIP IT 2019! This was my first hackathon in DPG Media's brand new headquarters in Antwerp. I had a great 24 hours mob-programming, meeting the CEO and running through the hallways at night with Nerf guns 😀
October 12th, 2019 · 2 min read
When will AWS S3 delete expired objects?
I ran into an interesting "gotcha" this week with respect to the AWS S3 lifecycle policy
October 1st, 2019 · 1 min read
Docker in de praktijk
Een kijkje achter de schermen van de ov-chipkaart
November 28th, 2015 · 2 min read
Jack of all trades, master of none
Reflecting on twenty years of software engineering
November 15th, 2015 · 3 min read
Back from Microsoft TechEd 2014
I just returned from a week of absorbing hardcore IT knowledge, meeting industry leaders and enjoying the nice Spanish weather. Where? Microsoft TechEd 2014 of course!
November 3rd, 2014 · 2 min read
Announcing M@sterDev 2014
We're organizing a MasterChef spin off called M@sterDev, a 24-hour hackaton / coding competition for students!
October 9th, 2014 · 2 min read
Strong Naming Third-party Assemblies
How to add a strong name to a third-party assembly
July 6th, 2014 · 3 min read
Quick debugging KnockoutJS in Chrome
How to quickly debug KnockoutJS templates in your browser using ko.dataFor($0) and ko.contextFor($0)
December 14th, 2013 · 3 min read
Easy way to improve DbEntityValidationException
How to easily tell what's going on when you face a DbEntityValidationException from Entity Framework
March 4th, 2013 · 3 min read
ASP.NET MVC 4 RC: Getting WebApi and Areas to play nicely
How to make WebApi Routes Area-aware
August 15th, 2012 · 9 min read
Localizing Microsoft ReportViewer
How to localize the Microsoft ReportViewer Control in Dutch (or any language) by implementing the three IReportViewerMessages interfaces
May 5th, 2012 · 12 min read
Good gravy, I won an award!
The Aia Software Thesis Awards ceremony was held on 10 February 2012, during which I received the award for Most Appealing Master Thesis 2012
February 10th, 2012 · 2 min read