Mike's Shiny Objects

Taming Git Worktrees: From Chaos to a Clean Hub Structure

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

This post was written with AI assistance (Claude) for structure and formatting. The ideas, chaos, and embarrassing folder names are entirely my own.

Let me start with a confession:

I have been using git worktrees for months and my setup has looked like a disaster the whole time.

Different repos organized differently. Some had the main checkout named one thing with -main and -feature suffixes on sibling directories. Others had worktrees scattered to wherever my terminal happened to be open when I ran git worktree add. One project had its worktrees split across two different drives because — honestly, I don’t even remember why. It seemed like a good idea at 11pm.

Blue Moon

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Blue Moon

Our Thoughts

As a testament to how good this movie is, consider that I’m not a fan of Ethan Hawke. But this movie was gripping not only in how well he did, but in just how much he memorized to portray Lorenz Hart. Andrew Scott is amazing as always. Don’t get me wrong, this is a movie about the struggles with alcoholism and mental health as he tries to save face watching his partner move on and be successful.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Our Thoughts

Don’t get me wrong, Rose Byrne did phenomenal and you could just feel her pain and struggles. But this movie was hard to watch and get all the way through. She won at the Critics’ Choice Awards and I understand why, but man, I’m not sure I’d want to recommend this.

But, that’s A24 for you, folks. May be great, may be just weird.

Jay Kelly

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Jay Kelly

Our Thoughts

This was okay, but I don’t know if you’d call it great. George Clooney, of course, was fantastic. Surprisingly, Adam Sandler was too. But at the end of the day, it just kind of felt predictable.

IMDB Summary

Famous movie actor Jay Kelly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting his past and present with his devoted manager Ron. Poignant and humor-filled, pitched at the intersection of regrets and glories.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Our Thoughts

Just started this, but the first episode didn’t grab us. It does have potential though, so we’re gonna give it a few more episodes.

IMDB Summary

A century before GOT, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his squire, Egg, wandered through Westeros while the Targaryen dynasty ruled the Iron Throne, and dragons were still remembered. Great destinies and enemies await the incomparable friends.

Adolescence

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Adolescence

Our Thoughts

I dreaded watching this show because I knew how heavy it was. It is amazing. Stephen Graham is phenomenal. The fact that he wrote this as well is just icing on the cake. You’ll notice the entire episode is one take – I read that they sometimes took 15 takes.

IMDB Summary

When a 13-year-old is accused of the murder of a classmate, his family, therapist and the detective in charge are all left asking what really happened.

Da 5 Bloods

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Da 5 Bloods

Our Thoughts

Let me start by saying I’m a huge fan of Delroy Lindo, and I’d watch him read the phone book. I didn’t realize this was Spike Lee, nor that it was almost three hours, and I wish I had. Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure if I’d watch this again. Too much exposition and just over the top, jump the whale plot.

IMDB Summary

Four black veterans battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide.

Martial Arts Master

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Martial Arts Master

Our Thoughts

I wanted to include this one because it is fantastic. Yes it’s 45 minute episodes and I think 45 episodes but frankly it’s worth purchasing on Amazon it is so good.

IMDB Summary

The Refornment Movement of 1898 resulted in the “Six Heroes” dying. Huo Yuan Jia, who was filled with patriotic enthusiasm, had been eager to participate.

IMDB

Actors: Ashton Chen, Siu-Lung Leung, Wenzhuo Zhao
Director: Unknown
Year: 2020
IMDB Rating: 8.4/10

AI-Powered Shell Commands with Shell-GPT - Part 3 of 3

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:21:01 +0000

Part 3 of 3: The Dorothy Configuration Series

This is the final installment in a three-part series exploring how I use Dorothy to manage my shell configuration across multiple shells and operating systems. In this post, I’ll show you how I integrated AI-powered command generation directly into my shell workflow.

Series Overview:

Part 1: Taming the Dotfile Chaos with Dorothy - Introduction and core concepts
Part 2: Secrets Management with 1Password - Safe environment variable handling
Part 3: AI-Powered Shell Commands with Shell-GPT - Natural language shell integration (this post)

This post was written with AI assistance (Claude) for structure, formatting, and information gathering. The ideas, direction, and voice are my own.

Secrets Management with 1Password - Part 2 of 3

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:10:51 +0000

Part 2 of 3: The Dorothy Configuration Series

This is the second installment in a three-part series exploring how I use Dorothy to manage my shell configuration across multiple shells and operating systems. In this post, I’ll show you how to securely manage API keys and secrets without ever committing them to your dotfiles.

Series Overview:

Part 1: Taming the Dotfile Chaos with Dorothy - Introduction and core concepts
Part 2: Secrets Management with 1Password - Safe environment variable handling (this post)
Part 3: AI-Powered Shell Commands with Shell-GPT - Natural language shell integration

This post was written with AI assistance (Claude) for structure, formatting, and information gathering. The ideas, direction, and voice are my own.

Taming the Dotfile Chaos with Dorothy - Part 1 of 3

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Part 1 of 3: The Dorothy Configuration Series

This is the first installment in a three-part series exploring how I use Dorothy to manage my shell configuration across multiple shells and operating systems. In this series, I’ll walk through my journey from dotfile chaos to a portable, maintainable system.

Series Overview:

Part 1: Taming the Dotfile Chaos with Dorothy - Introduction and core concepts (this post)
Part 2: Secrets Management with 1Password - Safe environment variable handling
Part 3: AI-Powered Shell Commands with Shell-GPT - Natural language shell integration

This post was written with AI assistance (Claude) for structure, formatting, and information gathering. The ideas, direction, and voice are my own.

A Ghost Story for Christmas

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Ghost Story for Christmas

Our Thoughts

Mark Gattis really has a knack for great stories. This one was really enjoyable and Roy Kinnear as always is fantastic.

IMDB Summary

Mark Gatiss, master of the macabre, presents chilling Christmas stories for a cold winter’s night.

IMDB

Actors: David Burke, Mark Letheren, Greg Wise
Director: Unknown
Year: 2005
IMDB Rating: 6.9/10

Best Medicine

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Best Medicine

Our Thoughts

So far we’ve watched two episodes of this and it hasn’t grabbed us yet. However, I remember starting Doc Martin and it took some time to find its rhythm. I hope they can because I like Josh Charles in anything.

IMDB Summary

A brilliant surgeon leaves Boston to become a doctor in the small town where he spent childhood summers. Despite his medical skills, his rude manner alienates locals as he battles hidden phobias and struggles with personal connections.

Black Bag

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Black Bag

Our Thoughts

How can you go wrong with Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett? This movie grabbed us from the start and kept us engaged through the whole thing.

IMDB Summary

When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country.

IMDB

Actors: Michael Fassbender, Gustaf Skarsgård, Cate Blanchett
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: David Koepp
Year: 2025
IMDB Rating: 6.7/10

Bugonia

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bugonia

Our Thoughts

I’m not a huge fan of Emma Stone, but I am a huge fan of Jesse Plemons. And he knocked this out of the park. It’s… Awesome and worth watching.

IMDB Summary

Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

IMDB

Actors: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Will Tracy, Jang Joon-hwan
Year: 2025
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10

Gogglebox

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Gogglebox

Our Thoughts

When you look at what this show really is, British people watching TV, you’re going to ask us how in the world we could recommend this. The only reason it works is because of the people that they have found who watch these shows. They’re quick, funny, and they feel like your family after watching this for a while. If you can find it anywhere, it is so worth watching.

High Potential

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

High Potential

Our Thoughts

We know her from Sweet D in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, though she’s also Jean Smart’s daughter in Hacks. Wherever you know her from, she’s amazing in this show. We really enjoy this, and they’ve got a fantastic cast that pulls us off.

IMDB Summary

A single mom with three kids helps solve an unsolvable crime when she rearranges some evidence during her shift as a police department cleaner.

Inglourious Basterds

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Inglourious Basterds

Our Thoughts

Sometimes you just need a good revenge movie, and this one’s it. If you’re a Quentin Tarantino fan, and haven’t seen this, shame on you. Brad Pitt is amazing. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s Quentin Tarantino. So be prepared.

IMDB Summary

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans for the same.

Nobody Wants This

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nobody Wants This

Our Thoughts

I put this in here because it caught us off guard how much we enjoyed it. There was nothing about it that screamed to watch it. So we did it after seeing the Critics’ Choice Awards. It treats religion respectfully and it’s genuinely enjoyable.

IMDB Summary

An agnostic sex podcaster and a newly single rabbi fall in love; discovering if their relationship can survive their wildly different lives and meddling families.

One Battle After Another

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One Battle After Another

Our Thoughts

I’m not a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, but I still enjoyed this movie (Well, enjoyed might not be the right term). It is a wild ride that you really don’t know where it’s going or how it’s going to end up. But kudos to Sean Penn for his transformation and where in the hell did he learn to walk like that for this movie?

Pontypool

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pontypool

Our Thoughts

This movie has serious vibes similar to The Vast of Night, a low budget horror that takes place in an AM radio station. It was fantastic. I don’t know what else to say other than really worth watching.

IMDB Summary

A radio host interprets the possible outbreak of a deadly virus which infects the small Ontario town he is stationed in.

IMDB

Actors: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly
Director: Bruce McDonald
Writers: Tony Burgess
Year: 2008
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10

St. Denis Medical

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

St. Denis Medical

Our Thoughts

I know they’re rebooting Scrubs, but they found an excellent formula in this show, well worth keeping up with.

IMDB Summary

It follows an underfunded, understaffed hospital where the doctors and nurses try their best to treat patients while maintaining their own sanity.

IMDB

Actors: Wendi McLendon-Covey, Allison Tolman, Josh Lawson
Director: Eric Ledgin, Justin Spitzer
Year: 2024
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10

The Life of Chuck

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Life of Chuck

Our Thoughts

We are a huge fan of Mike Flanagan. Hill House, Midnight Mass, were all fantastic Netflix specials. I don’t even remember how I found this, but I went into it not knowing what it was, and I think that confused me.

Understand going into it that the three chapters in Chuck’s life are told from the end to the beginning. So things won’t make sense until the very end.

The Long Walk

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Long Walk

Our Thoughts

Kelly made me read this book and it haunted me, but in fairness, it’s Stephen King, right? It’s dystopian and horrific, but I do recommend it.

IMDB Summary

A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as “The Long Walk,” in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.

IMDB

Actors: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing
Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: JT Mollner, Stephen King
Year: 2025
IMDB Rating: 6.7/10

The Pitt

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Pitt

Our Thoughts

If you’ve seen any interviews with Noah Wiley about why he did this show then you know he wanted to tell a story about how hard medicine is on our caregivers. This show is raw and brutal but it is out of the world. The entire show takes place in one day with each episode being one hour of the 12 hour shift.

IMDB Summary

The daily lives of healthcare professionals in a Pittsburgh hospital as they juggle personal crises, workplace politics, and the emotional toll of treating critically ill patients, revealing the resilience required in their noble calling.

The Repair Shop

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Repair Shop

Our Thoughts

This is one of those comfort shows that is just fantastic. You can find complete episodes on YouTube.

IMDB Summary

Some of Britain’s most skilled restoration experts breathe new life into much-cherished family heirlooms that are dropped off by members of the public, who reveal the personal stories behind the items.

IMDB

Actors: Jay Blades, Bill Paterson, William Kirk
Director: Unknown
Year: 2017
IMDB Rating: 8.7/10

Wake Up Dead Man

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wake Up Dead Man

Our Thoughts

So, I’ll first say something good about this movie. It’s the best of the Knives Out movies. That doesn’t make it good though. I think at the end of it, we decided we weren’t going to watch any more of them.

IMDB Summary

Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history.

Adult Swim Yule Log

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Adult Swim Yule Log

Our Thoughts

Who says horror and Christmas doesn’t go together? Though calling this horror is a stretch, it’s more just fun.

IMDB Summary

What starts as a simple yule log feed devolves into a surrealist nightmare, as a couple and a group of podcasters spend the night in a double-booked cabin that is secretly occupied by evil and murderous forces.

IMDB

Actors: Megan Hayes, Tordy Clark, Brendan Patrick Connor
Director: Casper Kelly
Writers: Casper Kelly
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 6.3/10

All Creatures Great & Small

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

All Creatures Great & Small

Our Thoughts

Find this show on whatever streaming platform you can because it is fantastic. This is one of the shows that we drop everything in order to watch.

IMDB Summary

James Herriot, fresh out of Glasgow Veterinary College, pursues his dream to become a vet in the Yorkshire Dales. He discovers that treating the animals is as much about treating their owners, and the Dales’ farmers are a tough to please.

Changing Ends

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Changing Ends

Our Thoughts

If you know Alan Carr and like his stand-up, this show is for you. It’s cute, funny, and Oliver plays him so well, it’s scary. It’s really a coming of age story about Alan finding out that he’s gay in the 80s.

IMDB Summary

An autobiographical scripted comedy based on stand-up and presenter Alan Carr’s life.

IMDB

Actors: Alan Carr, Oliver Savell, Shaun Dooley
Director: Alan Carr, Simon Carlyle
Year: 2023
IMDB Rating: 7.9/10

Down Cemetery Road

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Down Cemetery Road

Our Thoughts

Just look at the cast and that should tell it all. They concluded the story, but their chemistry was so good together, I hope they make this a series that they keep renewing.

IMDB Summary

Sarah Trafford obsessively searches for a missing neighbour girl after an explosion. Aided by PI Zoë Boehm, they uncover a conspiracy involving the presumed dead still living and living dying, embroiling them in a complex web.

Eternity

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Eternity

Our Thoughts

We started this thinking we were starting something else and it grabbed our attention quickly. We loved it. I’ve recommended it over and over. This is one of those great date night movies to just enjoy.

IMDB Summary

In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.

Fackham Hall

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fackham Hall

Our Thoughts

Airplane meets Downton Abbey. Need I say more?

IMDB Summary

A new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known UK family. As the Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, deals with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.

IMDB

Actors: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Damian Lewis
Director: Jim O’Hanlon
Writers: Steve Dawson, Andrew Dawson, Tim Inman
Year: 2025
IMDB Rating: 6.4/10

Hallow Road

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hallow Road

Our Thoughts

This is a real heady horror piece that actually stuck with us, so it is definitely worth watching. The entire movie takes place inside a car with two parents communicating with their daughter who’s been in an accident. It’s great drama, excellent acting, fantastic story, and totally worth it.

IMDB Summary

Two parents enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.

Murder by Death

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Murder by Death

Our Thoughts

I had to throw this one in there because this is a movie we regularly watch. Dame Maggie Smith, Peter Sellers, and just a ton of A-list actors and a spoof of Agatha Christie. It’s worth it just to watch the original Obi-Wan Kenobi play a blind butler.

IMDB Summary

Five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery.

One Cut of the Dead

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One Cut of the Dead

Our Thoughts

Trust me, don’t read up on this. Just watch it. I’ve probably watched this movie over ten times. The first time is wonderful, but then the second time is when you show it to someone and catch the nuances of it and enjoy seeing the revelation in them. You have to slog through the first 35 minutes because you simply can’t understand what’s going on, but just do it.

Pluribus

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Pluribus

Our Thoughts

If you’re a fan of Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, or more importantly Vince Gilligan, then this show is 100% for you. Rhea Sehorne was phenomenal. And I think he wrote this because she is that talented.

IMDB Summary

In a world overtaken by a mysterious wave of forced happiness, Carol Sturka, one of the immune few, must uncover what’s really going on - and save humanity from its artificial bliss.

Rare Exports

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rare Exports

Our Thoughts

This one is definitely one of my recommendations that Kelly can’t stand. I try to watch it every Christmas and just enjoy the story. Yes, it’s Christmas horror, but it’s clever and I don’t get tired of it.

IMDB Summary

In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 meters deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up. This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.

The Murders at White House Farm

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Murders at White House Farm

Our Thoughts

This one isn’t easy to watch, but if you’re a fan of true stories, then this is for you.

IMDB Summary

Revolves around the true story of a fateful night in August 1985 when five members of the same family are murdered at an Essex farmhouse, and the ensuing police investigation and court case that follows.

IMDB

Actors: Freddie Fox, Alexa Davies, Mark Addy
Director: Unknown
Year: 2020
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10

The Diplomat

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Diplomat

Our Thoughts

Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell are amazing and this series is fantastic. Just watch it

IMDB Summary

In the midst of an international crisis, Kate Wyler, a career diplomat, lands in a high-profile job for which she is not suited, with tectonic implications for her marriage and her political future.

IMDB

Actors: Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, David Gyasi
Director: Debora Cahn
Year: 2023
IMDB Rating: 8/10

The Magnificent Butcher

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Magnificent Butcher

Our Thoughts

I had to write something like this because I watched the final scene on a Facebook reel and I was intrigued. This movie is a 70s version of a almost slapstick Jackie Chan type movie that right in the middle has a serious and graphic (for the time) rape scene that is totally out of character with the rest of the movie. You can’t watch the rest of the movie and enjoy it because of just how out of character and place that seemed.

Context Binoculars: Understanding LLM Context Windows

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Remember as a kid (or in my case as an adult) when you pulled out binoculars and gazed around the room? It’s a bit disorienting for sure, but also fun. And I guess if you’ve ever wondered about what I do for fun, now you know.

It struck me the other day that this was the ideal representation for how LLM context works. While my demonstration you’re going to see below is extreme, this is the reality of what we’re facing when we’re trying to get LLMs to do big projects. The context window is everything, and you’re hearing more and more about context engineering in online articles. Ensuring that the LLM has exactly the right context greatly improves the accuracy of the results that you get out the other end.

The Ultimate Design Review: Example Action Items

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is an example output from the automated design review system described in The Ultimate Design Review: Orchestrating AI with Task-Based Workflows - Part 6 of 6.

This post shows how the AI transforms the comprehensive analysis into a structured, actionable backlog. The system automatically generates specific tasks with clear implementation steps, acceptance criteria, and testing requirements, turning qualitative feedback into a quantitative project plan.

Task Status Report: Design Review 2025-09-06 Action Items

Generated on: 2025-09-07

The Ultimate Design Review: Example Feedback

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is an example output from the automated design review system described in The Ultimate Design Review: Orchestrating AI with Task-Based Workflows - Part 6 of 6.

This post shows the comprehensive analysis that the AI generates when performing a full-scale design review of a codebase. The AI systematically analyzes each layer of the application, identifies architectural strengths and issues, and provides detailed findings that form the foundation for actionable improvement tasks.

MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Part 1 of 6

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Part 1 of 6: The AI-Assisted Development Workflow Series

This is the first installment in a six-part series exploring how AI is transforming modern development workflows. In this series, I’ll walk through my journey of using an AI-assisted development environment effectively, from basic infrastructure setup to advanced architectural enforcement and task orchestration.

Series Overview:

Part 1: MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Setting up the foundation
Part 2: ESLint Configuration Refactoring - Cleaning up tooling with AI
Part 3: Custom Architectural Rules - Teaching AI to enforce design patterns
Part 4: Task Orchestration - Managing complex refactoring workflows
Part 5: Project Rules for AI - Creating effective memory banks and guidelines
Part 6: The Ultimate Design Review - Putting it all together

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately in the world of AI agents… wait, no, that’s not it. The Model Context Protocol. MCP. It’s a fancy way of saying “a way for AI models to talk to tools,” and it’s pretty powerful. But like any new toy, it comes with its own set of “some assembly required” headaches. Today, I want to talk about one of those: managing MCP servers, avoiding port conflicts, and generally keeping your digital workspace from turning into a tangled mess of wires.

My ESLint Config Was a Mess. I Asked an AI to Fix It. - Part 2 of 6

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Part 2 of 6: The AI-Assisted Development Workflow Series

This is the second installment in a six-part series exploring how AI is transforming modern development workflows. In this series, I’ll walk through my journey of building an AI-assisted development environment, from basic infrastructure setup to advanced architectural enforcement and task orchestration.

Series Overview:

Part 1: MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Setting up the foundation
Part 2: ESLint Configuration Refactoring - Cleaning up tooling with AI
Part 3: Custom Architectural Rules - Teaching AI to enforce design patterns
Part 4: Task Orchestration - Managing complex refactoring workflows
Part 5: Project Rules for AI - Creating effective memory banks and guidelines
Part 6: The Ultimate Design Review - Putting it all together

If you’re a frontend developer, you know the love-hate relationship we have with ESLint. We love that it keeps our code clean and consistent. We hate spending hours wrestling with config files, trying to get plugins to play nicely with each other, especially in a modern TypeScript and Tailwind CSS v4 world.

How I Taught My AI Pair Programmer to Be Our Team's Tailwind CSS Cop - Part 3 of 6

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Part 3 of 6: The AI-Assisted Development Workflow Series

This is the third installment in a six-part series exploring how AI is transforming modern development workflows. In this series, I’ll walk through my journey of building an AI-assisted development environment, from basic infrastructure setup to advanced architectural enforcement and task orchestration.

Series Overview:

Part 1: MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Setting up the foundation
Part 2: ESLint Configuration Refactoring - Cleaning up tooling with AI
Part 3: Custom Architectural Rules - Teaching AI to enforce design patterns
Part 4: Task Orchestration - Managing complex refactoring workflows
Part 5: Project Rules for AI - Creating effective memory banks and guidelines
Part 6: The Ultimate Design Review - Putting it all together

We’ve all been there. You start a new project with Tailwind CSS, and everything is beautiful. The utility-first approach is fast, flexible, and keeps you right in your HTML. But as the project grows and the team expands, the CSS landscape can start to feel like the Wild West. Utility classes get sprinkled everywhere, components start to blur the lines between structure and style, and soon you’re overriding margins and fighting for specificity.

From Linter Chaos to Orchestrated Tasks - Part 4 of 6

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Part 4 of 6: The AI-Assisted Development Workflow Series

This is the fourth installment in a six-part series exploring how AI is transforming modern development workflows. In this series, I’ll walk through my journey of building an AI-assisted development environment, from basic infrastructure setup to advanced architectural enforcement and task orchestration.

Series Overview:

Part 1: MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Setting up the foundation
Part 2: ESLint Configuration Refactoring - Cleaning up tooling with AI
Part 3: Custom Architectural Rules - Teaching AI to enforce design patterns
Part 4: Task Orchestration - Managing complex refactoring workflows
Part 5: Project Rules for AI - Creating effective memory banks and guidelines
Part 6: The Ultimate Design Review - Putting it all together

In my last post, I talked about how my AI pair programmer and I created a custom ESLint rule to enforce our new frontend architecture. It was a huge success. The linter, now armed with our specific rules, scanned the codebase and… gave us a giant list of things to fix.

Project Rules for AI - Part 5 of 6

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Part 5 of 6: The AI-Assisted Development Workflow Series

This is the fifth installment in a six-part series exploring how AI is transforming modern development workflows. In this series, I’ll walk through my journey of building an AI-assisted development environment, from basic infrastructure setup to advanced architectural enforcement and task orchestration.

Series Overview:

Part 1: MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Setting up the foundation
Part 2: ESLint Configuration Refactoring - Cleaning up tooling with AI
Part 3: Custom Architectural Rules - Teaching AI to enforce design patterns
Part 4: Task Orchestration - Managing complex refactoring workflows
Part 5: Project Rules for AI - Creating effective memory banks and guidelines
Part 6: The Ultimate Design Review - Putting it all together

In the previous posts, we’ve taught our AI assistant how to understand and enforce specific architectural rules. We’ve built a robust system for linting, testing, and managing complex tasks. But how do we ensure the AI behaves consistently and predictably over the long term? How do we give it a “personality” and a “memory” that aligns with our project’s philosophy?

The Ultimate Design Review: Orchestrating AI with Task-Based Workflows - Part 6 of 6

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Part 6 of 6: The AI-Assisted Development Workflow Series

This is the final installment in our six-part series on building an AI-assisted development workflow. We’ve set up our infrastructure, taught the AI our coding standards, and established a robust “memory bank” of project rules. Now, it’s time to put it all to the test with the ultimate challenge: a comprehensive, end-to-end design review of the entire codebase.

Series Overview:

Part 1: MCP Servers, Ports, and Sharing - Setting up the foundation
Part 2: ESLint Configuration Refactoring - Cleaning up tooling with AI
Part 3: Custom Architectural Rules - Teaching AI to enforce design patterns
Part 4: Task Orchestration - Managing complex refactoring workflows
Part 5: Project Rules for AI - Creating effective memory banks and guidelines
Part 6: The Ultimate Design Review - Putting it all together

The Challenge: From “Codebase” to “Action Plan”

Want to see what we’re building? I’ve created two example posts that show the actual output from this automated design review system:

When AppImages Fail You: Building a Robust Extraction Tool (and Why Cursor Drove Me to It)

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 14:30:00 +0000

Let me start this with a confession:

I really wanted to like AppImages

The promise is compelling: universal Linux binaries that run everywhere without installation. Just download, chmod +x, and go. It’s the kind of elegant simplicity that makes you think “why didn’t we do this sooner?”

Then reality hits.

The Cursor Catalyst

This whole adventure started when I decided to try Cursor, the AI-powered code editor that’s my daily code editor. Unfortunately, it’s not updated frequently in AUR, so I decided to try the AppImage. When I tried to run it, I got the following error:

A Man on the Inside

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A Man on the Inside

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Charles, a retired man, gets a new lease on life when he answers an ad from a private investigator and becomes a mole in a secret investigation in a nursing home.

IMDB

Actors: Ted Danson, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lilah Richcreek Estrada
Director: Michael Schur
Year: 2024
IMDB Rating: 7.6/10

A Touch of Cloth

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A Touch of Cloth

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

DCI Jack Cloth and DC Anne Oldman are paired to investigate a series of grisly murders done by a devious killer.

IMDB

Actors: John Hannah, Suranne Jones, Navin Chowdhry
Director: Unknown
Year: 2012
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10

Black Books

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Black Books

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Bernard Black runs a book shop, though his customer service skills leave something to be desired. He hires Manny as an employee. Fran runs the shop next door. Between the three of them many adventures ensue.

IMDB

Actors: Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Tamsin Greig
Director: Dylan Moran
Year: 2000
IMDB Rating: 8.4/10

Bookie

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bookie

Our Thoughts

We love We love Sebastian Maniscalco’s standup, but didn’t realize how great of an actor he is.

IMDB Summary

Follows a veteran bookie struggling to survive the impending legalization of sports gambling, increasingly unstable clients, family and co-workers.

IMDB

Actors: Sebastian Maniscalco, Omar J. Dorsey, Jorge Garcia
Director: Nick Bakay, Chuck Lorre
Year: 2023
IMDB Rating: 7.5/10

Coupling

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Coupling

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Six best friends talk about all aspects of sex and relationships on their never-ending quest to find true love.

IMDB

Actors: Jack Davenport, Gina Bellman, Sarah Alexander
Director: Unknown
Year: 2000
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

Dark Winds

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dark Winds

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Follows Leaphorn and Chee, two Navajo police officers in the 1970s Southwest that are forced to challenge their own spiritual beliefs when they search for clues in a double murder case.

IMDB

Actors: Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten
Director: Graham Roland
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 7.7/10

Dept. Q

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dept. Q

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Carl, a former top-rated detective, is wracked with guilt following an attack that left his partner paralyzed and another policeman dead. On his return to work, Carl is assigned to a cold case that will consume his life.

IMDB

Actors: Matthew Goode, Alexej Manvelov, Jamie Sives
Director: Scott Frank, Chandni Lakhani
Year: 2025
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10

Derry Girls

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Derry Girls

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

The personal exploits of a 16-year-old girl and her family and friends during the Troubles in the early 1990s in Northern Ireland.

IMDB

Actors: Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Tara Lynne O’Neill
Director: Lisa McGee
Year: 2018
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

Due South

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Due South

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

The adventures of an impossibly upright Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable and his American colleagues in the city of Chicago.

IMDB

Actors: Paul Gross, Beau Starr, Tony Craig
Director: Paul Haggis
Year: 1994
IMDB Rating: 8/10

Elsbeth

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Elsbeth

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Astute but unconventional attorney Elsbeth Tascioni utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD.

IMDB

Actors: Carrie Preston, Wendell Pierce, Carra Patterson
Director: Michelle King, Robert King
Year: 2024
IMDB Rating: 7.5/10

Fawlty Towers

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fawlty Towers

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Hotel owner Basil Fawlty’s incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.

IMDB

Actors: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs
Director: Connie Booth, John Cleese
Year: 1975
IMDB Rating: 8.8/10

Firefly

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Firefly

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

A renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.

IMDB

Actors: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk
Director: Joss Whedon
Year: 2002
IMDB Rating: 8.9/10

Flight of the Conchords

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Flight of the Conchords

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Bret and Jemaine are Flight of the Conchords, a folk-rock band from New Zealand living in New York City in search of stardom.

IMDB

Actors: Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Rhys Darby
Director: James Bobin, Jemaine Clement
Year: 2007
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

For All Mankind

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For All Mankind

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

In an alternative version of 1969, the Soviet Union beats the United States to the Moon, and the space race continues on for decades with still grander challenges and goals.

IMDB

Actors: Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Wrenn Schmidt
Director: Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi
Year: 2019
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10

Friday Night Dinner

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Friday Night Dinner

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Two siblings share their Friday-night dinners at their parents’ home and, somehow, something always goes wrong.

IMDB

Actors: Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Paul Ritter
Director: Robert Popper
Year: 2011
IMDB Rating: 8.2/10

From

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Unravel the mystery of a city in middle U.S.A. that imprisons everyone who enters. As the residents struggle to maintain a sense of normality and seek a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest.

IMDB

Actors: Harold Perrineau, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Eion Bailey
Director: John Griffin
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10

Hacks

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hacks

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Explores a dark mentorship that forms between Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian, and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.

IMDB

Actors: Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Director: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs
Year: 2021
IMDB Rating: 8.2/10

Julia

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Julia

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Inspired by Julia Child’s extraordinary life and her show The French Chef, which essentially invented food television.

IMDB

Actors: Sarah Lancashire, David Hyde Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth
Director: Daniel Goldfarb
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10

Keen Eddie

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Keen Eddie

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Wisecracking New York City cop Detective Eddie Arlette, who has no respect for authority, is himself a fish out of water when he is assigned to a police precinct in the U.K.

IMDB

Actors: Mark Valley, Sienna Miller, Julian Rhind-Tutt
Director: J.H. Wyman
Year: 2003
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10

Line of Duty

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Line of Duty

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

British crime drama series following a team of elite detectives tasked with investigating police corruption.

IMDB

Actors: Martin Compston, Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar
Director: Jed Mercurio
Year: 2012
IMDB Rating: 8.7/10

Lioness

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lioness

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

CIA operative Joe McNamara and her team attempt to balance their personal and professional lives as the tip of the spear in the agency’s war on terror.

IMDB

Actors: Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable
Director: Taylor Sheridan
Year: 2023
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10

Ludwig

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ludwig

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

While seeking to unravel the mystery of his twin brother’s disappearance, reclusive puzzle-designer John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor takes on his twin brother James’s identity as DCI on Cambridge’s major crimes squad.

IMDB

Actors: David Mitchell, Anna Maxwell Martin, Dipo Ola
Director: Mark Brotherhood
Year: 2024
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10

Luther

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Luther

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

John Luther is a brilliant homicide detective with a knack for getting inside the minds of murderers. Unfortunately, his unconventional methods and personal demons put him at odds with his team.

IMDB

Actors: Idris Elba, Dermot Crowley, Michael Smiley
Director: Neil Cross
Year: 2010
IMDB Rating: 8.4/10

Midnight Mass

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Midnight Mass

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

An isolated island community experiences miraculous events - and frightening omens - after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest.

IMDB

Actors: Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Kristin Lehman
Director: Mike Flanagan
Year: 2021
IMDB Rating: 7.7/10

Miranda

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Miranda

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Socially inept Miranda always gets into awkward situations; working in her joke shop with best friend Stevie, being hounded by her pushy mother, and around her crush Gary.

IMDB

Actors: Miranda Hart, Patricia Hodge, Sarah Hadland
Director: Unknown
Year: 2009
IMDB Rating: 8.2/10

Moone Boy

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Moone Boy

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Martin Moone is a young boy who relies on the help of his imaginary friend, Sean, to deal with the quandaries of life in a wacky small-town Irish family circa 1990.

IMDB

Actors: Chris O’Dowd, David Rawle, Deirdre O’Kane
Director: Unknown
Year: 2012
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10

Resident Alien

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Resident Alien

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

A crash-landed alien takes on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor and slowly begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his secret mission on Earth.

IMDB

Actors: Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds
Director: Chris Sheridan
Year: 2021
IMDB Rating: 8/10

Severance

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Severance

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.

IMDB

Actors: Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry
Director: Dan Erickson
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 8.7/10

Shōgun

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Shōgun

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

When a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby Japanese fishing village, Lord Yoshii Toranaga discovers secrets that could tip the scales of power and devastate his enemies.

IMDB

Actors: Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano
Director: Unknown
Year: 2024
IMDB Rating: 8.6/10

Shrinking

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Shrinking

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

A grieving therapist starts to tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge changes to people’s lives - including his own.

IMDB

Actors: Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Harrison Ford
Director: Brett Goldstein, Bill Lawrence
Year: 2023
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10

Slow Horses

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Slow Horses

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

A dysfunctional team of MI5 agents navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend the UK from sinister forces.

IMDB

Actors: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas
Director: Unknown
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10

Staged

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Staged

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s West End play has been put on hold due to Covid-19, but their director has persuaded them to carry on rehearsing online.

IMDB

Actors: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Georgia Tennant
Director: Simon Evans, Phin Glynn
Year: 2020
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

The Cleaner

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Cleaner

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Paul ‘Wicky’ Wickstead, a state-certified cleaning technician, is responsible for the removal of any signs of death from crime scenes.

IMDB

Actors: Greg Davies, Zita Sattar, Barry Castagnola
Director: Mizzi Meyer
Year: 2021
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10

The IT Crowd

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The IT Crowd

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

The comedic misadventures of Roy, Moss and their grifting supervisor Jen, a rag-tag team of IT support workers at a large corporation headed by a hotheaded yuppie.

IMDB

Actors: Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson
Director: Unknown
Year: 2006
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

The Offer

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Offer

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

Oscar-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy’s never-before-revealed experiences of making The Godfather (1972).

IMDB

Actors: Miles Teller, Matthew Goode, Dan Fogler
Director: Leslie Greif, Michael Tolkin
Year: 2022
IMDB Rating: 8.6/10

The Vicar of Dibley

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Vicar of Dibley

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

A boisterous female minister comes to serve in an eccentrically conservative village’s church.

IMDB

Actors: Dawn French, James Fleet, Trevor Peacock
Director: Unknown
Year: 1994
IMDB Rating: 8/10

Utopia

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Utopia

Our Thoughts

This is such a great show with a clever premise. Tony and Nat are the only two competent people in this government agency, and they have willing but substandard employees. They try to manage. It’s simply wonderful.

IMDB Summary

Set inside the offices of the “Nation Building Authority”, a newly created government organization responsible for overseeing major infrastructure projects.

IMDB

Actors: Rob Sitch, Celia Pacquola, Dave Lawson
Director: Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner
Year: 2014
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10

What We Do in the Shadows

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What We Do in the Shadows

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

A look into the nightly lives of four vampires who have lived together on Staten Island for over a century.

IMDB

Actors: Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou
Director: Unknown
Year: 2019
IMDB Rating: 8.5/10

WKRP in Cincinnati

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

WKRP in Cincinnati

Our Thoughts

Great show

IMDB Summary

The misadventures of the staff of a struggling Top 40 rock radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio.

IMDB

Actors: Gary Sandy, Gordon Jump, Loni Anderson
Director: Hugh Wilson
Year: 1978
IMDB Rating: 8/10

Introducing VPEM-Visual Studio Profile Extension Manager

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 10:11:00 +0000

VS Code Profile Extension Manager (VPEM) is a powerful command-line tool designed to help you manage your Visual Studio Code extensions across different profiles. It allows you to dump, categorize, and apply extensions with ease, streamlining your VS Code setup process.

Status

This project has been developed strictly on Linux, though it should work everywhere. If you find an issue, please report it in the GitHub issue tracker.

Executables are built using pyinstaller and are available for Linux, Windows and MacOS. Again, if any issues are found, please report them in the GitHub issue tracker.

Wrangling Gitlab CI/CD in Monorepos

Sat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

So, I recently had the opportunity to extensively dig into Gitlab’s CI/CD. We have a monorepo that I wanted to deploy automatically, and it took quite a bit of work to optimize it and work as I expected.

To set the stage, here’s our core .gitlab-ci.yml file (now):

image: node:18-alpine3.19

variables:
  AWS_REGION: us-east-1
  AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: us-east-1
  FF_USE_FASTZIP: "true"
  ARTIFACT_COMPRESSION_LEVEL: "fast"
  CACHE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL: "fast"

stages:
  - prepare
  - module-caches
  - layers
  - build
  - deploy

#******************************************************************

include:
  - local: ".gitlab/cache-ci.yml"
  - local: ".gitlab/rules-ci.yml"
  - local: ".gitlab/build-ci.yml"
  - local: ".gitlab/deploy-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/landing/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/landing/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/quickbooks-connector/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/reviews/reviews-api/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/reviews/reviews-api/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/reviews/reviews-ui/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/reviews/reviews-ui/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/stocks/stocks-api/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/stocks/stocks-api/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/stocks/stocks-ui/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/stocks/stocks-ui/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/tnb/tnb-api/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/tnb/tnb-api/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/tnb/tnb-ui/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "apps/tnb/tnb-ui/.gitlab-ci.yml"
  - local: "packages/pinnacle-layer/.gitlab-cache-ci.yml"
  - local: "packages/pinnacle-layer/.gitlab-ci.yml"

# variables:
#   CI_DEBUG_TRACE: true

#******************************************************************

always:
  stage: prepare
  script:
    - env | sort

Here are some of the things that drove me crazy:

Eleventy Blog on AWS with S3/CloudFront

Sat, 04 May 2024 23:36:31 +0000

In starting this blog, I wanted to use AWS S3/CloudFront. I initially investigated SST (ion specifically). However, I kept running into issues with SST and NixOS, so I bailed on SST and moved directly to Pulumi. Pulumi is a Terraform competitor, and I have been curious to try it out.

They have a static site starter. This is actually a decent start, but I ran into a few problems deploying my new Eleventy Blog. The home page worked fine, but as you drive into sub-folders (like /blog/), I started getting 403 Forbidden errors.

Dynamic Databricks Widgets

Sat, 04 May 2024 16:25:19 +0000

Have you ever wished the Databricks widgets were a little more intelligent? When you change one, the others adjust?

That’s not too hard, but it’s a bit tricky. Here’s the secret: The widgets must be replaced as they change! For example:

Let’s say you have a date input, and whenever it changes, you want a second widget to change. That second widget needs to be suffixed with an increasing number as the contents change. Consider:

Databricks Multiple Filters using a Python Lambda statement

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 22:35:26 +0000

Recently, I ran into a case where I needed to check if 11 different fields were null. Yes, I could have used Copilot (or my preferred Codeium) to generate it for me, but I knew it had to be easier. There had to be an easier way…

Here’s the scenario:

You have a list of conditions in a python list (in my case, I pasted it as separate lines and did a conditions = """condition 1\ncondition2\n...".split("\n")). Doesn’t matter how you specify your conditions, just that it’s a list somehow
You have a way of associating this list with a set of Databricks columns

Here’s what I found:

How Can I Wordle Out of Housework

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Let me start this with a confession:

I don’t (technically) play Wordle

This is very important, as recently my wife came to me and proclaimed “I just got a “magnificent” in Wordle” (the blank look on my face definitely bumped up my heating bill for a few days). When I asked my daughter if she played it, she pointed me to Word Master and I was hooked.

Many discussions (with my daughter — my wife had no interest in our flagrant disrespect of Wordle) ensued about the best words to start. For the longest time, mine were train, speck, dough. You see, our philosophy was to bang out 2-3 words and get the letters, then stress over guessing the word after establishing a good set of letters (hopefully in the right position). I searched online for the best 3 words, but nobody seemed to follow this technique. Everybody writing about this only was interested in the best first word. So, off I went to figure it out.