Hacker News: caseyw

New comment by caseyw in ".gitignore Everything by Default"

caseyw — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 14:35:22 +0000

I don’t ignore by default, but only stage the items I explicitly want.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been pairing with someone when they just say “git add .”, I’m always confused by that choice.

I get it, but I’ve seen more problems arise from adding all than being consistently selective. To each their own.

New comment by caseyw in "Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?"

caseyw — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 18:31:32 +0000

The approach I’ve been taking lately with general AI development:

1. Define the work.

2. When working in a legacy code base provide good examples of where we want to go with the migration and the expectation of the outcome.

3. Tell it about what support tools you have, lint, build, tests, etc.

4. Select a very specific scenario to modify first and have it write tests for the scenario.

5. Manually read and tweak the tests, ensure they’re testing what you want, and they cover all you require. The tests help guardrail the actual code changes.

6. Depending upon how full the context is, I may create a new chat and then pull in the test, the defined work, and any related files and ask it to implement based upon the data provided.

This general approach has worked well for most situations so far. I’m positive it could be improved so any suggestions are welcome.

New comment by caseyw in "OpenTelemetry Tracing in < 200 lines of code"

caseyw — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 01:48:18 +0000

OpenTelemetry (OTel) and the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) are immensely powerful tools. The ability to emit telemetry data from any source, coupled with a receiver that can sample, filter, pipe, and potentially reshape the data to suit any need, is a game changer. This flexibility revolutionizes how we approach observability and monitoring across diverse systems.

New comment by caseyw in "The game theory of the Republican speakership crisis"

caseyw — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 23:04:31 +0000

I wish I could buy you a beer.

New comment by caseyw in "Bram Moolenaar has died"

caseyw — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 14:17:44 +0000

With things like this, you realize how short life is, and sometimes how brittle it can be. I often forget that the people that built the foundation of what we use every day are still with us, and we have a short time to be able to show them appreciation before we say thank you to someone who has gone, if you know of someone that has dedicated time to something that you use, show your appreciation this week. It might be the last time that you have the opportunity to make that human contact.

Thank you, sir. <3 vim

New comment by caseyw in "People in the U.S. Think They Are Better Than They Are. Asians Don’t"

caseyw — Sat, 20 May 2023 11:40:21 +0000

As an American and working with a lot of really smart people over my career in IT, I don’t see this happening. I find most people I’ve come across suffer from imposter syndrome.

Those I know outside IT work, get paid and spend time with family. I don’t really see any superiority.

That’s just my perspective on a small part of the world. Have a great weekend all!

New comment by caseyw in "Brazilian researchers find plastic rocks on remote island"

caseyw — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 12:47:26 +0000

Wow, now I want to gather bottles and throw them in the ocean. I kid of course, but that’s sorta beautiful.

I always knew someone would see me as a god despite what my wife says.

New comment by caseyw in "For your next side project, make a browser extension"

caseyw — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 23:56:06 +0000

That’s a very cool piece of tech right there. Has in evolved much since then?

New comment by caseyw in "Tell HN: Everyone should have a holiday dinner this year"

caseyw — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 01:14:18 +0000

This was moving. I read it aloud to my family. You’re a blessing, and I appreciate your generosity and kindness.

I genuinely enjoy this community!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all!

New comment by caseyw in "Ask HN: How do you get out of a rut?"

caseyw — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 10:31:25 +0000

This has helped me immensely. Nothing crazy, do 5 rounds of squats at your pace, 1 minute a part. Or sit-ups, push-ups, hollow-mans, etc. it wakes me up, and makes me want to work. I’m tired after, but that’s getting better as I get more into shape. Best of luck to all!

New comment by caseyw in "Left Alive And Unchanged: The Heaven’s Gate Website"

caseyw — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 14:15:10 +0000

I mean, if you’re going to go out that way you might as well go Kool-Aid brand.

New comment by caseyw in "Happy New Year HN! What are your plans for the new year?"

caseyw — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 11:23:25 +0000

I have three.

1. Spend more time with my family. I have a 1 year old daughter, and boy the time flies watching her grow. I’m slowing down my career and investing in her.

2. Becoming healthy by continued devotion to eating for fuel, being mindful of my activity level and enjoying this beautiful world we all inhabit.

3. Showing gratitude and love for my fellow humans.

Have a Happy New Year all, I hope you make it happen this year!

New comment by caseyw in "The CDC Needs to Stop Confusing the Public"

caseyw — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 13:53:58 +0000

Is there a paywall free version?

New comment by caseyw in "U.S. senators reintroduce bill to make daylight saving time permanent"

caseyw — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:58:43 +0000

I’d vote for anything named mystical-quagmire-cheesepuff.

New comment by caseyw in "Shitbowl: The algorithmically powered in-home physical caching platform"

caseyw — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 01:12:05 +0000

I have to say I’ve been using Shitbowl since it’s inception and I’ve never used such a powerful system before.

Up until now I relied on attempting to organize my own shit which lets be honest, was super shitty. Then comes Shitbowl. My wife and in-laws didn’t understand the technology at first but once I really got them to try it they were immediately onboard.

Thanks Shitbowl for making our lives better!

New comment by caseyw in "Show HN: Convier.me – A Calendar Service for Developers"

caseyw — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 13:12:15 +0000

Looks useful. I’m on mobile though, and the docs aren’t mobile friendly.

New comment by caseyw in "Ask HN: Are you depressed?"

caseyw — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 14:29:17 +0000

^ I have a hard time being down when I’m helping others. The opportunity is all around us. Thanks for posting flightless!

New comment by caseyw in "Show HN: I built a minimal Twitter web app with few rules"

caseyw — Mon, 25 May 2020 18:46:49 +0000

Too bad this isn’t the default setup for Twitter! I’d actually use the silly thing in that case

New comment by caseyw in "Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever"

caseyw — Tue, 12 May 2020 22:01:22 +0000

Yes, we watched my nephew from birth to just over 3 years old for 16 hours a day while I worked. He learned that if the door was closed it meant I was busy. At times when I had on music he knew he could come in and sit and listen while I worked as long as he didn’t talk.

He grew up that way though, so YMMV of course.

New comment by caseyw in "Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever"

caseyw — Tue, 12 May 2020 21:53:05 +0000

That’s really difficult in the beginning. Like others have said, boundaries are awesome. One thing I did that helped a lot is simply asking if I’d pop into their work to sit and ask a few questions. The answer has always been no. So I ask that they not do that when I’m at work either.

That’s helped in most if not all cases.