It’s been six years since Gigi Labs was launched. That’s a long time for any blog, and a third of my overall 18-year presence on the web.

In terms of content, Gigi Labs has slowed down but gone in some interesting directions. That’s mainly because of the way things generally turned out over the past year, including:

• I spoke at a couple of conferences
• I earned a couple of certifications
• I gave up on Windows and have completely switched to using Linux at home
• I’ve been doing more management and architecture than actual development
• COVID19 means I have more time but less motivation to do development-related stuff in my spare time
• I have continued writing long blog articles professionally in my free time
• Getting really tired of WordPress as a blogging platform
• Picking up a little gaming once again

Here is a summary of some of the more interesting things I wrote over the past year:

• A handful Linux-related articles, such as Running Legacy Windows Programs on Linux with WINE and Analysing Binary Files using xxd.
• Two articles on RedisGraph, a new graph database based on Redis, that led to a talk at RedisConf 2020.
• A couple of beginner articles about React.
• Managing ASP .NET Core Settings in Multiple Environments, an in-depth article about application configuration management in .NET Core.
• A couple of articles briefly revisiting the Sorry State of the Web series.
• SDL2 Drag and Drop, the latest of my SDL2 tutorials.
• A four-part ADO .NET mini-series.
• A couple of articles about automating image manipulation using ImageMagick.

Over the coming year, I’m not expecting to focus very much on writing new articles at Gigi Labs, for a number of reasons:

• In most cases, anything I can write about software development, architecture or management is already covered somewhere on the web. I don’t want to contribute to information overload on the internet.
• I don’t really want to write about management. There are far too many people blogging about management who think their particular experiences are universal wisdom that needs to be shared with the world.
• Writing high-quality technical articles is very time-consuming and provides little reward.

I’ve always enjoyed sharing knowledge on the web – for free – and that’s not quite going to change. But just to make the best use of my own time, I’ll write some new content only when I feel it’s worth my time, i.e. when it’s something unique, fun, or even something existing that I can tell in a more concise and accessible manner (e.g. the C# Asynchronous Programming series). My old blog, Programmer’s Ranch, as well as Tania Rascia’s blog are good examples of the direction in which I’d like to take Gigi Labs.

Another thing that I think will change is Gigi Labs’ role as both my blog and my personal portfolio. I’m currently developing a new website which will keep track of my projects, websites, talks and other contributions, while Gigi Labs will go back to being just my creative outlet.