Madole.xyz Blog http://madole.xyz/ Blog posts from madole.xyz Fri, 05 Dec 2025 03:17:46 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en Madole.xyz Blog http://madole.xyz/bitmoji.png http://madole.xyz/ All rights reserved 2022, Madole <![CDATA[Claude Code fixed my WIFI]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/claude-code-fixed-my-wifi https://madole.xyz/blog/claude-code-fixed-my-wifi Thu, 04 Dec 2025 22:11:26 GMT I have an old MacBook Pro 2016 Intel version that I was hoping to breathe some life back into. At the same time I wanted to give the most hyped Linux distro Omarchy a go. I love an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Interesting facts I've learned about wildfires over the years]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/things-i-learned-about-wildfires https://madole.xyz/blog/things-i-learned-about-wildfires Wed, 03 Dec 2025 23:43:43 GMT I've worked in the fire technology space for 5 years now, leading teams building products and projects helping fire agencies figure out where fires are likely to go and surfacing the information to them at just the right time to help them make well-i

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Six things about how AI is changing software engineering]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/six-things-about-how-ai-is-changing-software-engineering https://madole.xyz/blog/six-things-about-how-ai-is-changing-software-engineering Sun, 30 Nov 2025 10:00:00 GMT Some Sunday morning thoughts on where we're at in the software engineering industry with the prevalence of Generative AI. I have many more thoughts on this topic but here are a few observations considering where we are at right now in November 2025.

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[GDAL Evolved - A guide to the new unified CLI]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/gdal-evolved https://madole.xyz/blog/gdal-evolved Thu, 16 Oct 2025 09:26:15 GMT (This was originally posted on the Kablamo Engineering Blog)

I’ve always seen GDAL as the “VLC Player of geospatial data.” Much like the iconic media player that could handle pretty much an

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[A mentor's guide to effective 1-1s - Building trust and driving growth]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/a-mentors-guide-to-effective-1-1s https://madole.xyz/blog/a-mentors-guide-to-effective-1-1s Thu, 16 Oct 2025 03:48:58 GMT Let's be honest, most one-on-one meetings are a waste of time. They're often rushed, unproductive check-ins that everyone dreads. A great 1:1 is different. It's the foundation of real mentorship, where you stop talking about tasks and start building

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[How do you move a whole GeoJSON feature collection in QGIS?]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/how-do-you-move-a-whole-geojson-feature-collection-in-qgis https://madole.xyz/blog/how-do-you-move-a-whole-geojson-feature-collection-in-qgis Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:48:25 GMT As a software engineer working with geospatial data, I'm constantly creating or sourcing test data for my applications. If you want to have realistic tests, you need realistic data.

Good test data is time-consuming to create from scratch. You might

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[From Node.js to Deno: A Modern Take on JavaScript Runtimes]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/from-nodejs-to-deno https://madole.xyz/blog/from-nodejs-to-deno Fri, 15 Aug 2025 23:19:58 GMT This article was originally published on the Kablamo Engineering Blog.

The JavaScript ecosystem is always changing, sometimes at comical speed, driven by the constant need for faster,

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[What if You Could Draw Your AI Prompts?]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/what-if-you-could-draw-your-ai-prompts https://madole.xyz/blog/what-if-you-could-draw-your-ai-prompts Thu, 31 Jul 2025 10:54:57 GMT TLDraw Computer

Working with AI can often feel complex, abstract and impenetrable.

What is all this jargon?"

"How do I even get started?

But what if interacting with AI models was more in

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Efficiently querying large geospatial datasets with DuckDB, GeoParquet and S3]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/efficiently-querying-large-geospatial-datasets-with-duckdb-geoparquet-and-s3 https://madole.xyz/blog/efficiently-querying-large-geospatial-datasets-with-duckdb-geoparquet-and-s3 Thu, 05 Jun 2025 11:32:29 GMT How do you query millions of Australian building footprints – a 4.3GB GeoJSON beast from the Microsoft Global ML Building Footprints dataset – efficiently from a tiny AWS Lambda function? This isn't just an academic exercise; it's critical for urban

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[WTF are Popcorn Tasks?]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/wtf-are-popcorn-tasks https://madole.xyz/blog/wtf-are-popcorn-tasks Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:22:52 GMT Popcorn tasks

A term that originated in my previous job at Propeller Aero. It is the name given to the stream of random high priority tasks that pop up out of nowhere.

![Popping popcorn](https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbmo2b3FvZ

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Real-time Transport Data Visualization with GTFS]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/real-time-transport-data-visualization-with-gtfs https://madole.xyz/blog/real-time-transport-data-visualization-with-gtfs Mon, 27 Jan 2025 09:13:04 GMT For real-time transport data visualization, there is a standard called GTFS built on top of Protocol Buffers.

GTFS stands for General Transit Feed Specification

It consists of two main parts: GTFS Schedule and GTFS Realtime.

![GTFS

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Creating a gif from static image files]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/creating-a-gif-from-static-image-files https://madole.xyz/blog/creating-a-gif-from-static-image-files Tue, 03 Dec 2024 02:42:53 GMT Today I wanted to create a gif of some weather imagery I exported from QGIS. I was able to use the timeline functionality in QGIS to export individual static frames for each timestamp of weather data I had.

For example, I've got a bunch of images li

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Dropping bananas on the Moon from a UFO]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/dropping-bananas-on-the-moon-from-a-ufo https://madole.xyz/blog/dropping-bananas-on-the-moon-from-a-ufo Sun, 18 Aug 2024 23:29:20 GMT Cesium have released their new Moon tileset via their Cesium Ion service! This is huge as it provides high quality terrain in 3D tile format to their Cesium

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Pop the console of JS library websites to demo the library]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/pop-the-console-of-js-library-websites-to-demo-the-library https://madole.xyz/blog/pop-the-console-of-js-library-websites-to-demo-the-library Tue, 13 Aug 2024 01:07:09 GMT Did you know that often you can pop the console of a JS library website to demo the library?

This is a great way to quickly test out a library without having to set up a project or write any code.

Examples

Decimal.js

For example, in [D

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[A quick glance at the React 19 Beta feature set]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/a-quick-glance-at-the-react-19-beta-feature-set https://madole.xyz/blog/a-quick-glance-at-the-react-19-beta-feature-set Sun, 28 Apr 2024 04:59:49 GMT The React 19 Beta release is out and the accompanying blog post is a great read. Here's a quick glance at the new features and improvements that are part of this release.

  • Some spicy new hooks and a con
]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[What are Spectral Indices in Remote Sensing?]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/spectral-indices https://madole.xyz/blog/spectral-indices Mon, 18 Dec 2023 23:48:15 GMT What are Spectral Indices in Remote Sensing?

Spectral Indices are a set of mathematical equations performed on a per-pixel basis on data coming from multispectral remote sensing (satellite) data.

When looking at satellite data, you don’t get a s

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Setting up ESLint on Webstorm when using Yarn Berry with Plug'n'Play]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/setting-up-eslint-on-webstorm-when-using-yarn-berry-with-pnp https://madole.xyz/blog/setting-up-eslint-on-webstorm-when-using-yarn-berry-with-pnp Fri, 07 Jan 2022 04:35:22 GMT Yarn Berry

What is that?

Yarn Berry is the codename for Yarn version 2 and 3. It worked so differently to Yarn 1 that the team ended up giving it a totally different

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[How I stress tested mapbox's handling of many polygons]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/how-i-stress-tested-mapboxs-handling-of-many-polygons https://madole.xyz/blog/how-i-stress-tested-mapboxs-handling-of-many-polygons Fri, 07 Jan 2022 01:37:23 GMT Question

How many polygons can I get mapbox to render before it starts to get slow?

Considerations

A polygon consists of many vertices, so I'll want to measure against the number of vertices too as 100 polygons with 3 vertices is very diffe

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[How to visualise Australia's weather stations on a map]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/how-to-visualise-weather-stations-on-a-map https://madole.xyz/blog/how-to-visualise-weather-stations-on-a-map Tue, 04 Jan 2022 04:40:33 GMT Tech we'll be using ]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[How to model application flows in React with finite state machines and XState]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/finite-state-machines-and-xstate https://madole.xyz/blog/finite-state-machines-and-xstate Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT (This was originally posted on the Kablamo Engineering Blog)

Application state in front-end clients is a complexity that is at best managed, and at worst the reason

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Kablamo taps McDowell for geo-spatial expertise]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/kablamo-taps-mcdowell-for-geo-spatial-expertise https://madole.xyz/blog/kablamo-taps-mcdowell-for-geo-spatial-expertise Sun, 14 Mar 2021 11:52:36 GMT I got interviewed about joining Kablamo, you can read it here https://www.itwire.com/people-moves/kablamo-taps-mcdowell-for-geo-spatial-expertise.html

![Head

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Analysing codebase metadata to make refactoring more impactful]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/analysing-codebase-metadata-to-make-refactoring-more-impactful https://madole.xyz/blog/analysing-codebase-metadata-to-make-refactoring-more-impactful Wed, 11 Nov 2020 23:31:20 GMT Let's say you've inherited a codebase that is in a bit of a dire state. The business wants to continue to add features to this codebase for the next X years. You attempt to write some code to implement a feature. In doing so, you introduce 4 bugs due

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Building Software is much like buying a house]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/building-software-is-much-like-buying-a-house https://madole.xyz/blog/building-software-is-much-like-buying-a-house Tue, 20 Oct 2020 23:18:57 GMT Warning: This is a stream of consiousness. It is a hot-take that is not meant to fit every case.

When buying a house, if you've got time, you'll shop around to get a good rate on your mortgage, if you're in a rush, you'll take a bad mortgage rat

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Upgrading an old Flow codebase]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/upgrading-an-old-flow-codebase https://madole.xyz/blog/upgrading-an-old-flow-codebase Tue, 20 Oct 2020 01:11:34 GMT We've been gradually migrating our codebases from Flow to Typescript but sometimes we have to upgrade an old Flow codebase to a newer version of Flow.

We've got many old codebases and some are more than 50 Flow versions behind. Flow has been activel

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Cutting our Codeship Pro CI build time in half]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/cutting-our-codeship-pro-ci-build-time-in-half https://madole.xyz/blog/cutting-our-codeship-pro-ci-build-time-in-half Fri, 25 Sep 2020 05:54:05 GMT We have noticed recently our Codeship Pro builds have been taking a very long time. Upwards of 20minutes to get through all our steps.

We lived with this for a while, but as we started to put more strict conditions around what checks need to pass to

]]> me@madole.dev (Andrew McDowell) <![CDATA[Meet the team - Andrew McDowell]]> https://madole.xyz/blog/meet-the-team https://madole.xyz/blog/meet-the-team Sun, 01 Dec 2019 01:15:33 GMT I got interviewed for work, you can see it here https://www.propelleraero.com/blog/meet-your-engineering-team-andrew-mcdowell/