Josh Barratt's Blog

A collection of uploaded thoughts

Welcome! This site is where I write about things that have my attention. I'm a software and systems architect, husband and dad, tinkerer, home cook, coffee fan, musician, hiker, and could probably add a few other labels... all of those interests and more are fair game to show up here. If you want to know more, check out the about page, and otherwise, I hope you find something you like!

Recent Posts


What are the limits of serverless for online gaming?

A previous post looked at using Lambda, API Gateway+Websockets and DynamoDB for multiplayer gaming. However, it used an almost trivial example. Can the same stack be used for more games or other apps with more demanding state? How much state is too much? Read Moreā€¦

A Pen Plotter at STEAM night

A STEAM night at our elementary school was just the reason I needed to finally decide to get a pen plotter, the perfect combination of Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. Here’s the story of that night (and the code for the activity.) Read Moreā€¦

Effective Technical Diagrams

When communicating about technical systems, diagrams are one of the most powerful tools in your toolbox. However, some diagrams leave your readers even more confused than when they started. It’s worth spending some time thinking about how to do them well. This post explores traits good diagrams typically have, and goes through a catalog of common diagram types. Read Moreā€¦

Taking Back New Tabs

Setting up a custom new tab page for your browser is a great way to make your most frequently accessed pages, and useful contextual information, a simple click away. This post explores a simple framework to turn fragments of markdown and HTML into a useful new tab experience. Read Moreā€¦

Make-ing Mermaid

Sequence Diagrams and Flowcharts are very useful tools. Mermaid is an excellent library to create them which can be driven from the command line, and therefore improved with some unixy magic. Read Moreā€¦

Check out the archives for a full list of posts.