Rihards Steinbergs

What I'm doing now

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:41:00 +0000

Born in Latvia, lived there for a decade, then another decade in Austria, and for the past 13 years now in Kerava, Finland.
Working as a Principal Tech Lead at Exove with a heavy focus on technology leadership in our client projects and managing a small group of very excellent and talented developers.
(Trying to) catch up with my reading list. Currently reading the excellent and hilarious The Thursday Murder Club novel by Richard Osman.
Listening to podcasts, some favourites: What Did You Do Yesterday, Oh God, What Now, The Bunker, The Bugle, All Points North, and Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster.
Passionate about technology, science fiction, (cosy & builder) video games, (virtual) leadership, organisations, teams and work culture.
Writing a daily journal. Years ago, I used to write on a daily basis, and I want to get back to that habit. With AI slop being everywhere, I feel it’s more than important to have genuine content being made.
Walking our dog, I try to hit at least 15,000 steps every day. I feel like it lets me clear my head, reorder my thoughts, listen to podcasts, and best of all, brings joy to our dog.
When time and willpower permit, I’m learning about game development, specifically with Godot Engine. With the dream being making my own pixel art cosy post-apocalyptic survival game. A mashup of Stardew Valley and Fallout if you will.

This page is inspired by the NowNowNow project. To find out more about it check the about page.

#22: On the topic of journaling

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:28:22 +0300

Today, I read from a few other public journals that I follow and like to read. Just to get an idea of what people usually write about. In my previous posts I mention that I feel like I’ve just been complaining about random things and not actually writing journal entries about my days.

So here goes.

Today didn’t start as early as I would have like it to. Instead of six in the morning wake up, which I sometimes manage to achieve, it was closer to seven thirty. No matter, at least it was already getting light outside.

#21: Housing Associations

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 19:35:47 +0300

Another thing that I myself experienced for the first time in Finland. Housing association. I imagine many people have heard all about them in USA context. How evil and corrupt they are. How they keep fining you for the smallest of things that they see as you breaking the rules. Or in some cases even preventing you from buying into the housing association / home ownership.

They are very different in Finland. In most cases there are no fines, or people preventing you from home ownership. However I must admit that lately it’s still not something that I always view as a positive thing. A housing assocition is still made up of people, and more often than not it’s made up of strangers.

#20: Pitch Black

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 16:42:55 +0300

It’s currently 16:42 in Finland as I’m writing this entry. And it’s pitch black outside.

I’ve been in Finland now for thirteen years, and winter depression comes and goes in waves, or for me in years.

Some years I don’t feel it at all, and some years it feels like, “Yeah, I fully understand why people leave Finland for the entirety of November and sometimes even most of Decemeber”.

And I say that as someone who lives in the south of Finland.

#19: Five out of Five

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 17:40:29 +0300

Big (grocery) shopping day today. Nothing too crazy or out there, but I did have one thought on my mind, and I feel like that would be an interesting thing to look into.

Why is it that some countries have those bread slicing machines in grocery stores that people can freely use themselves?

I know that Norway has them, that’s where I first encountered them. I know that Ireland has them as well according to various Irish podcasters.

#18: Four out of Five

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 13:55:07 +0300

Today was going to be a rest day, and in the end it was. It did start with quite a few chores (but heyoo that’s what weekends are for). Washing cat litter boxes, cleaning the kitchen, doing the dishes, all done and quite happy about that, because that was productive at least.

Good portion of the day then went to a game that I play for a while, and then stop for months, and then again play for a while, and keep repeating this cycle.

#17: Three out of Five

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 20:36:15 +0300

Originally this was going to be a post about containers. Not the fun kind of container mind you, that has pretty amazing origin story and how it actually is one of those things that changed the world. Which you can by the way read about on Wikipedia under Intermodal container and I have a recollection that there is an amazing episode by the “Why Would You Tell Me About That?” podcast about them as well, but my searching for it failed me.

#16: Two out of Five

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:56:01 +0300

Writing these journal entries.. immediately getting interrupted by my wife and losing track of what I was going to write for the second of my five daily journals that I’m trying to catch up with.

Right.

It reminds me of working at agencies (and I’m currently working at one). It reminds me specifically of billing and inputting your hour markings, or rather these days your minute markings.

Sometimes you are too busy with work, and want to finish that work. So the markings fall to the side, and even if you have notes, calendar entries, Slack discussions, emails, it’s not as easy to catch up as it is to mark them immediately when a task is done.

#15: One out of Five

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 22:15:21 +0300

Is it “One of five” or “One out of five”? I imagine there’s a difference between the two. One out of five feels like this is specifically the first out of five posts that I’m writing to catch up with my daily journals.

Whereas one of five is just a generic term for something that is a group of five. As in one in five people enjoy reading. Which is rather alarming and hopefully not true statistic that is stuck in my head, and was most likely mentioned on some podcast.

#14: Two weeks of journaling

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 19:06:25 +0300

This entry is number fourteen. Which means I’ve been journaling now for two weeks. Most of the time it happens on the same day, but lately I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting too busy and too distracted to write the entry on the day it’s supposed to be written.

I don’t know what that means, but I do know that trying to catch up days later and trying to remember what happened and what was important on those days isn’t the way to go about it.

#13: Mundane Mondays

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 18:01:04 +0300

Another long day at the office. Covering for some people while still trying to move things forward and unblock things for others, makes for a long day at work.

Explosions continue at the outdoor swimming pool area. Personally, I feel like it makes for a nice change, or at least a small surprise in an otherwise mundane day.

Meetings are had. Work is done. Lunch is eaten. Quite a stereotypical grey Finnish Monday in November.

#12: Sundays Are Paindays

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 22:21:02 +0300

There’s definitely a bit of pain going on today. While waking up that was made quite clear. It is the kind of pain that makes you feel like you’ve done something the day before. The good kind. But pain none the less.

And thus Sunday is mostly spent on chores at home, cleaning, washing up, vacuuming, shopping, and so on.

Speaking of shopping, there’s a new store in Kerava.

Imperial Market Kerava (what a name, or at least I’m amused by it).

#11: Moving

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 15:11:54 +0300

It’s Saturday, and this weekend I had promised a friend (former ex-colleague, now a friend, because once they leave the company that both of you work at, you become friends instead) to help move house.

There’s a classic meme that comes to mind every time someone mentions moving.

“If you’re over 35, hire movers. Your friends are too old. Ain’t nobody trying to slip a disc for pizza and a cold beer.”

#10: Work vs. Personal Life

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 21:37:22 +0300

Often if feels like it is much easier to write these journal entries about work. Maybe it’s because I feel like people would be more interested in those kind of entries. Or that they would find them more useful.

For example me spending most of Friday designing a database structure from scratch. It’s not something that you come across very often when most of your career so far has been working with content management systems, which for most part decide the structure for you, or at the least have a very strong opinion about it.

#9: Helsinki Office

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 20:52:07 +0300

It has been some time since I last visited Helsinki. The company that I work for has just moved office to a new location. It’s still in Ruoholahti in Helsinki. Just a bit closer to the metro station.

Today was the first “official” back to the office day, including an office tour by the property managers. The tour was fine, although cut short by the fact that quite a few things were still being renovated and weren’t ready to be shown just yet.

#8: Snowflake & Explosions

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:23:07 +0300

Snowflake largely dominates my Wednesday. It’s a new piece of tech I’ve not used, or even heard of until a few months ago, and now for the last couple of weeks I’ve been staring at it, I’ve been reading its documentation, and I’ve been implementing things in it.

Not sure if it fits my job description, but as a tech lead you do what’s needed for the project, and you might not be the best person for it, but if you are available and it becomes a priority, then you move things forward and make it happen.

#7: Day Two At The New Office

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 17:45:37 +0300

Already on second day the new office excitement has mostly gone away. Not because new office isn’t amazing and just fits my needs perfectly, but because the work that is currently happening requires a lot of effort, thought, willpower, and seemingly to a degree, luck.

It’s demanding work, but in this case I feel like it’s work worthwhile doing, and work that.. yes will benefit a company, but it will also contribute to adhering and following a regulation that I feel like we should follow and implement.

#6: New Office

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 19:15:18 +0300

Kerava isn’t that far away from Helsinki, and specifically my work office. In fact depending on where you live in Helsinki it might take you longer to get to said office than it takes for me from Kerava.

About 35km (roughly 22 miles for those using a different measurement unit), and even though Finland has excellent public transportation, it’s still a journey that takes almost an hour in one direction.

#5: Day after Talkoot

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 21:03:12 +0300

The day after Talkoot can go many ways, but usually it’s more relaxed, and in some cases might require some recovery and relaxation.

Which was the case for me.

I did however end up going for multiple and lengthy walks (some of them with our dog). Got to practice my car driving (only got my license at the beginning of this year), and most importantly setup a home (remote?) office that isn’t at home to reduce distractions and yet still not to have to travel all the way to the physical office.

#4: Talkoot

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 21:17:01 +0300

Talkoot, as defined by Wikipedia, “is a Finnish expression for a gathering of friends and neighbors organized to accomplish a task”. In practice this means that housing associations, club houses, parishes, and other groupings organize together for a day of voluntary work. The work can be anything from raking leaves, minor repair work, cleaning & organizing, to bigger tasks like renovating common areas or even construction.

#3: Word, Excel, 504s and other nasty things

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:20:41 +0300

Today started as most days tend to, wake up, get ready for the day ahead, take Ahto for a walk. Business as usual wasn’t meant to last though, as reports from a client at work starting coming in that their site was slow and was even showing time out errors. We’ve seen this happen before so I know what to do and how to fix it.

So it gets fixed.

#2: Document all the things

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 11:23:41 +0300

Warning: this is less of a journal entry, more of a tech related rant about documentation and documenting. Back to usual style entries tomorrow.

Does it still count as a journal entry for today if I intend to talk about yesterday’s frustration? I suppose since I’m still thinking about them today, it does.

Running your own infrastructure, be it just a simple Raspberry Pi server in your closet, a cluster of Kubernetes in a cloud, or a virtual machine somewhere on the other side of the world can be exciting and worthwhile. Think of all the things you’ll learn and all the costs that you’ll save.

#1: Journaling

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 23:28:41 +0300

It has been a long, frustrating, yet ultimately a rewarding day. I’m writing this at half past eleven on a Wednesday. So it best be kept short.

Towards the end of work day, I received an email from a person I hadn’t interacted with or even heard about in quite a while, Derek Sivers. It was regarding my “What I’m doing now” page. He had re-built the functionality behind them and wanted to now if my profile and information was still accurate.

Acquia Dev Desktop access from local network

Sun, 05 May 2019 16:07:03 +0000

While typically I prefer something like Drupal VM over Acquia Dev Desktop (and that’s a different topic) I’ve found myself using Dev Desktop more recently, due to how easy, reliably, and quickly it can spin up new copies of Drupal.

For a project I just recently had to test and fix some Internet Explorer issues. Usually I’d use something like BrowserStack, but it happened to be so that I was working from home where I have access to my PC, so I thought why not use that. It would be native testing and overall a smoother experience than BrowserStack (debugging IE11 on BrowserStack can get very frustrating).

Opinion: Toxic Positivity

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 13:12:00 +0000

This is a post in a planned series of “Strong Opinion, Weakly Held” posts where I state an opinion that I strongly believe in.

However, if challenged and/or shown that my opinion is wrong or incomplete I’m more than willing to change it, hence the weakly held part.

Not every single day needs to be full speed, full of determination, bravery, efficiency, well planned out, etc. In fact, I believe that this is "toxic positivity" and is harmful.

What is toxic positivity and why do I think that this amount of positivity is toxic?

Symfony 4: Login Event Listener

Sat, 10 Feb 2018 18:12:00 +0000

Background information

This might be documented somewhere already, and probably also blogged about already. But at the time when I was implementing this myself my Google-fu was failing me.

So I thought I’d document this seemingly very common feature, in case someone else is stuck and is searching for an answer.

Keep in mind this is for Symfony 4. At least that’s the version I wrote and tested this for.

On the topic of Resumes / CVs

Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:12:00 +0000

For the last year at my current workplace, (Exove, by the way we are hiring: Careers), one of my responsibilities has been to evaluate job applications and see if we are going to proceed with the candidate. This usually means going through the submitted materials such as the resume and quite frequently a cover letter.

Over the course of a year I’d estimate that I’ve gone through close to a hundred different applicants. The quality, as expected varies a lot. Content, spelling, grammar, how things are phrased, the way it’s layed out, even the look, etc., there are many things that go into a good resume.

100 Days 100 Commits

Sun, 21 Jan 2018 14:15:00 +0000

I’m a firm believer that deep inside all of us there is a desire to create. To create something that adds value to the world; something that will make it better.

There’s also a desire to consume, and we’ve lost much of our desire to create and time to it. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for the past months. I find myself too frequently falling into the consuming trap, because it’s easy, even though the desire to create grows more and more.

Bitbucket Pipelines, PHPUnit, PHPCS and CodeCeption

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 17:01:07 +0000

Background information

For a while now I’ve been thinking about starting a new project, and as with most such cases I’ve been thinking that I need to do things better and more proper this time around.

One of those things has always been the automated testing parts of the project that have fallen behind or lacking in many ways.

So I set a small private repository on Bitbucket to see what my options are, what I could work with, etc. and started looking into the various tools like Jenkins, Travis, and CircleCI.

WordPress tips to make your life easier

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 06:04:07 +0000

During the past ten (on and off) years I’ve worked on around thirty WordPress projects, some have been great, and some have been not so great.

And over the course of those years I’ve collected many links, tips, hints and ideas that make WordPress development much easier than it might seem to new comers.

So here’s my list of hopefully helpful items when it comes to WordPress development and in general running a WP site.

HTTP/2, SSL & Hugo

Mon, 27 Jun 2016 18:04:07 +0000

Given that I don’t write blogs anymore all that often you might have not noticed that I’ve once again made changes to it.

This time I’ve added HTTP/2 support (with SSL of course as that’s a requirement), the site is now also powered by the wonderful Hugo on a new Linode VPS that’s running Debian 8 Jessie.

The theme (now for Hugo) has also been updated and streamlined to be even smaller in file size. In addition to only using SVGs now, so the icons should be as crisp as they possibly can be.

Dealing with a large amount of redirects

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 13:04:07 +0000

A while ago I was asked to create thousands of redirects for a customer. They had decided to change their domains and the URL structure of most of their pages, so dynamic or smart URL redirecting wouldn’t work.

Adding thousands of Redirect or RewriteRule in the Apache config (or even worse, .htaccess) always seemed like a lousy way of doing it. So I did some research to find out if there’s a better way of doing it, and surely enough there is. And it’s called RewriteMap, which lets you point to a file that contains the forwarding / redirecting URLs.

Moustachify gets a mention in the New York Times

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:04:07 +0000

2014 update: it would seem that Moustachify no longer works, and I’m guessing this has to do with missing dependencies. Perhaps a project for another rainy weekend, just like the first version was.

Every now and again I check how my sites are doing by going through Google Analytics. Usually it’s just to check the average visitors and such, but sometimes there are nice surprises (or then sometimes not so nice ones as well).