Ham Vocke

3 Aug 2026

You can make your software developer life suck a bit less by using task runners to run common coding tasks consistently across multiple repositories

17 Feb 2026

Software can be a home-cooked meal. I experienced what that could mean first-hand.

31 Dec 2025

Reminiscing and reflecting on 2025.

12 Dec 2025

I revived an old pet project of mine that's been dormant for years

8 Oct 2025

I built a new feature for this website to highlight personal moments. Social media without the social stuff.

19 Aug 2025

I got featured in a lovely YouTube video. Also, there's new RSS feeds.

17 Aug 2025

Friends, family, adventures, sunshine & outdoors make things so much better.

6 Apr 2025

My personal website got a new look

24 Feb 2025

When it comes to the command line, I prefer to define a color scheme once, in my terminal emulator, and let all other command line tools inherit that scheme. With vim & neovim this took some

2 Feb 2025

I cured and cold-smoked another batch of ham. Here's what it looks like.

21 Jan 2025

I struggle with long winters. This year isn't any different.

17 Jan 2025

Be more kind, my friends.

3 Jan 2025

As software developers we're often quick to adopt the latest shiny technology. I think building something using very basic tools only from time to time helps to declutter your developer toolbox and

31 Dec 2024

Same ritual as last year; I look back at 2024 and reflect on the things that kept me busy over the course of the year.

30 Dec 2024

I built a small tool that helps you become the most obnoxious person around. You're welcome!

16 Oct 2024

Today I learned my first random bit of Korean thanks to a reader of this blog and I couldn't be happier.

28 Jul 2024

I commissioned a new avatar to use for my website and some social media channels. It's a little piggie having a beer, and I'm going to tell you how much I love it.

16 Jun 2024

Trying to create my own terminal color scheme, I went down an intense rabbit hole. Find out what I learned and check out the cool tool I built to generate your own, personal terminal color schemes.

28 Mar 2024

I went on a short trip to Athens, Greece with the family. Here I'm sharing some pictures and impressions.

27 Jan 2024

Feature branches and mandatory pull requests have become a standard for a lot of modern software development teams. How did we get here? And does this really make sense?

17 Jan 2024

I cured and cold-smoked ham this winter and I'm pretty pumped about the results. Let me show you some pictures and explain what I did.

31 Dec 2023

Just before the year ends I'm taking a look back at 2023 and reflect on my personal highlights, the big things that happened and the things that had a lasting impact on myself.

21 Dec 2023

I used to think too much about what should and should not live on my personal website. Where's the fun in that? It's time to make my personal website more personal!

13 Dec 2023

Dan Simmons' "Hyperion Cantos" is a series of science fiction novels and one of my all-time favorites. It's an epic tale of adventure, time travel, war, love, loss, and a giant-ass heavy metal

12 Dec 2023

My review of Kent Beck's “Tidy First?”, a short book on the "what", "when", and "why" of tidying code.

8 Mar 2023

Here's one from the consulting toolbox. Path to Production Mapping is a simple and effective tool that can help you understand, discuss, analyze, and improve how your team ships software to

31 Oct 2022

I wrote lnks, a small tool that helps you find and open browser bookmarks from the command line. It works well as a personal bookmark manager, for shared team bookmarks, and is just the right thing

15 Dec 2021

A book review for Saleem Siddiqui's “Learning Test-Driven Development”. I think it's a great book and a modern take of Kent Beck's "TDD By Example".

21 Dec 2020

About 1.5 years ago I quit my job, started working remotely and moved to a small town. I'm reflecting on how these changes have affected my life.

11 Nov 2020

3 years ago I started building a browser-based Doppelkopf card game as a pet project. Things have been quiet. Did I give up? Hit a roadblock? Nuke the git repo?

2 Feb 2020

Want to write without distractions and don't feel like buying an extra app for that? Here's how.

5 Apr 2019

I'm starting a new job remotely after leaving the adventures of a consultancy behind. Some thoughts on this change.

5 Apr 2019

An hommage to my nickname.

14 Sep 2018

Learn how to test Ansible provisioning scripts locally

26 Nov 2017

I started implementing a browser game version of the German "Doppelkopf" card game and it's great fun. Read why I started doing this and what I've discovered so far.

28 Sep 2017

Yeah, the "testing microservices" post series got a little out of hand. If you prefer ebooks over blog posts I've got your back. I released the "testing microservices" series as an ebook.

19 Sep 2017

Learn how to test your Java & Spring Boot microservice, based on the "Testing Microservices" article

18 Sep 2017

Learn the concepts you need to build a reliable, fast and effective test suite for your microservices

3 Nov 2015

For many developers pair programming is the way to go. But pairing often becomes challenging as soon as people are working remotely. With a simple SSH and tmux setup you can have a very simple but

25 Oct 2015

There are a couple of really great tools out there that can help you getting more fun out of your day-to-day command line use. These are some of my favorites.

17 Aug 2015

tmux has its flaws when you use its vanilla configuration. I'll show you how you can customize tmux so that it fits your needs, is a little more comfortable to use and pretty to look at.

16 Aug 2015

tmux is a tool that can boost your productivity while using the terminal. Think of it as a window manager in your terminal with some extra fanciness on top. This post gives you an easy-to-follow

20 Jun 2015

Probably everyone has moved at least once in their life. It's a lot of work but also offers unique opportunities. This post will tell you how the metaphor of moving can help you get great results out

10 May 2015

I've recently tried a new approach for facilitating an agile retrospecitve based on Twitter. It was a fun and creative session and I got great feedback. Read what I've done, what I've learned and

7 Apr 2015

Homebank is a great and free personal finance tool. I have written a small converter that allows you to import account data from DKB accounts.

22 Nov 2014

More than three months into my new job at ThoughtWorks I tell the story of my first day at my new job and take a first look in the rearview mirror to reflect about work, company culture and other

19 Aug 2014

Today is my last day in Gütersloh. I'm leaving Bertelsmann after six exciting years. This post is about the my previous journey as a software developer and about my future in Hamburg.