https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48413629

In the spirit of summarizing the knowledge shared, I took notes on all of the comments, and "stack ranked" the tools mentioned (simply be frequency of occurrence in the comments). The reason I did this was to give me an idea on which tools to start exploring.

I have shared these notes here: https://codeberg.org/jro/Knowledge/src/branch/main/2026-06-0...

I am on a learning path, with the intention to run in-person workshops for people looking to "boot-up" their development workflow, feedback and improvements to this document are encouraged and welcomed. Let's learn together.

Feel free to add commentary, improvements, ideas in this thread. Thanks!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48419675

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

https://codeberg.org/jro/Knowledge/src/branch/main/2026-06-0...

Contributions & improvements are invited and welcome - thank you!

A lot of us are doing this stuff solo anyway, and doing it socially is more fun and usually more effective (easily get unblocked).

I am looking to do some in-person "developer boot-up" workshops, and seek your suggestions for "modern tooling".

The background of the participants range from motivated newbie ("I heard you can make your own app with AI!") to existing software developers who want to get up to speed on modern development for the purposes of building stuff, and getting jobs where AI tools are being used.

For those who have been doing software development & "tech" lately using AI tools, and feel they have a great setup & flow - I would love to hear what your dev setup is, what tools you're using and what workflow has been working best for you (and your team).

// My Background

I have been programming / building for 20+ years, but have not been using AI tools much (aside from hitting up LLM APIs on a few projects).

I value open-source, and aim for long-term quality and supportability. Techniques like test-driven development (TDD), using proven / well documented tools, customer-centric development (often pairing with clients), make it easy to do the right thing. If you are familiar with Pivotal Labs, agile & XP - that's the style.

These are some of the Upcoming uses-cases for the workshop, and my own personal "IT backlog":

- Create a static "one pager" personal/professional website

- Setup a Blog / Static site generator (Pelican), create a simple but stylish theme

- Create a simple web app / backend API (FastAPI) tool - form-based calculator, convert X data to PDFs, etc.

- Figure out how to have SyncThing autosync the home folder of 3 Linux computers in the house

- Backup & archive the photos & video from my iPhone

// Tech stack I am currently using:

- Operating system: Linux Mint Debian (LMDE)

- Editor: VSCodium

- Code: Python, HTML/CSS

- Server platform: Amazon AWS

I am guessing that most workshop participants will be using MacBooks & Windows computers - but a few are on Linux, as I recently did a "Linux install party".

I haven't used any "AI harnesses", agents or anything like that - but curious what's a good starting point to take best advantage of these tools.

Thanks for sharing the knowledge!

// JRO

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48413629

Points: 170

# Comments: 135

Some challenges I've experienced: (1) Can't find A5-sized e-ink screens that accept HDMI as an input, (2) It would be cool to use a common Android phone, since there are many around. RaspberryPI is an option. Honestly, would love the simplest portable device that runs Debian Stable on a battery, (3) I have NOT been able to find small, A5-sized keyboards. Most small keyboards are cheap plastic bluetooth junk.

If anyone would like to seriously rally around this, let's talk'bout it. My vision for this laptop has always been "10:00 AM Austin Texas, sitting at a patio bar in direct sun, journalling/coding/writing". I have not been able to find any computer device that satisfies that situation, so there is obviously a market niche.

As others mentioned (including @BoardsOfCanada) - search for "NDE" on a video platform, and watch a few. I make no claims to be a professional assessor of truth/lies, but when you watch many of those videos, ask yourself honestly, is this person lying (or rehearsing a staged story)? Additionally, some mention "impossible" information (like an out-of-body experience, where they are able see something outside of the room, which would be impossible for their body to do; or receive/hear information).

What I appreciate about that book is that the doctor (Raymond Moody) doesn't offer judgements or much of his own opinions, but he tries to faithfully retell what the patient experienced.

What's interesting is some of the discussions the patients have with the "luminous being(s)" and souls/spirits/entities on the other side...

They seem to frequently ask questions like, "What did you learn (while on Earth)?" - and there is the implication that our souls are sent to Earth with a specific mission.

The people who experience these NDEs also often say that this other world (spirit/soul world?) feels MORE REAL than the Earth world, and that they report feeling finally "at home".

Other interesting observations - (1) they rarely smell anything in the other world, (2) many report perfect sight / knowledge (for example, can clearly see infinite detail of a mountain range on the horizon), (3) Often hear musical "chimes", (4) the "luminous beings" have a sense of humor, and are not judgemental during the life-review, (5) During the life review, they often get to see the experience from another perspective - for example, during a fight with a sibling, you can see the fight/feelings from the other siblings' perspective, (6) the people often come back with some sort of "gift" / power - for example, the ability to sense other peoples' emotions at a distance (like extreme empathy), or to heal people with touch. (7) Apparently suicide is a big no-no - the people who attempted to kill themselves were essentially "scolded", told that it was a huge mistake - "We" are not supposed to decide who dies, including ourselves - and that we have a mission to carry out, even if the circumstances are difficult. That was a bit shocking to read...

Pretty fascinating stuff.

I personally have not experienced an NDE, but I have spoken to several trusted friends - including a man who drowned as a child, and was brought back to life. He experienced the common "symptoms" of the NDE described in those videos... just the level of detail he can recall from the conversation he had with the "luminous being", and the extreme feeling of "home" and intense love he experienced - he said that since that point, he's not afraid of death at all, and after that experience, he felt strongly driven to become a teacher and help others....

https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Bestselling-Investigation-...

Worth checking out, even if just for curiosity / open the mind's sake...

Later, if you want to publish the files as HTML, you can use MkDocs.

// NOTEBOOKS

- Pocket x 2 books, dotted, soft cover. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015NG44ES

- A5 x 4 (2 x personal journal, 2 x work journal) (OPTIONS: Moleskin: A5 dotted, hard cover; fun colors; Lechtturm191: A5 dotted, hard cover, fun colors: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDYQKJLC?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_...)

// NOTEBOOK CASE

Galen Zipper A5 folio x 2 colors

Personal book: https://www.galenleather.com/products/leather-zippered-a5-le... , -

Work book: https://www.galenleather.com/products/leather-zippered-a5-no...

// PENS

- Uniball Micro 0.5mm x 2 boxes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CRDU8QY?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_...

// BAG

- Think Tank Retrospective v2 shoulder bag: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Tank-Retrospective-Shoulder-Mes...

SUGGESTIONS

- I cut off the bookmark strings that the books come with - always gets snagged

- Be honest

- Use your imagination

- Have fun!

(1) agile Product Management,

(2) Product Design & continuous user-research,

(3) Improvements to test-driven development (TDD),

(4) transparent & open outcome-based roadmap,

(5) a vision to make the application easy to use for newbies in a maker-space, and (this is specific to my use-case),

(6) Improvements to the CAM module to make it easy to use this for CNC routers, and designing objects with sloped/curved surfaces.

- FreeCAD site: https://www.freecad.org/

- FreeCAD code: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD

- FreeCAD forum: https://forum.freecad.org/

To echo others' comments: FreeCAD has improved significantly since v1.0, so I'm hoping this attracts quality & stability-minded develeopers, and a frequent release cadence.

I believe, due to the format of engagement, its easy to spend a lot of time there scrolling - so consider

(1) only using the platform on your desktop computer, instead of phone,

(2) limiting time - 25 minutes a day is enough!

(3) Mute spammers, complainers, people with negative attiudes - you can't catch them all, but you can intentionally shape your experience over time.

(4) Subscribe to tags of your passions (example: #piano, #makerspace, #drawing, #cats, #jujitsu, #cncrouter, #3dprinting), and try to lean into that instead of getting caught up in endless political reactions - which never ends. You can be intentional, and subscribe to people who have a positive vision for the version of the future you prefer.

Tech details: I found that used, small form-factor Dell Optiplexes are great for product protoytyping. I'm in Medellin Colombia, and found that you can buy these for about $200 USD - they are often former Point of Sale (POS) or office computers, from about 10 years ago. They have SSDs, run quiet, and are very reliable.

For project Affirmator, I installed Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). Using Cron and Mpv to shuffle-play activity-specific folders of MP3s at the same time each day. For example, for the chill jazz music - I've got a folder of 40+ song MP3s. Cron plays those at 06:30. So it's like a calm, upbeat alarm clock. I'm not a morning person, so this is a "friendly" way for me to wake myself up!

For the vocal affirmation part - I built a Python tool that reads 200+ text affirmations from a markdown/text file. It then uses AWS Polly text-to-speech API to vocalize the affirmations into MP3s. Next, I use `ffmpeg` to add a variable silent spacer gap to the ends of all the MP3s. This allows your to hear a voice affirmation ("I am fit, athletic, and strong!", "I am a confident piano player."), and then there is silent space for you to say it out loud, or repeat in your head.

This project incorporates ideas & routines from: The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale, Tony Robbins Personal Power II, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and Atomic Habits by James Clear

https://codeberg.org/jro/Affirmator-app

(2) PROJECT "LINGOFREQ" - Language learning tool. Uses language-specific high-frequency word lists. Generates example sentences according to a theme/topic. Translates the word & example phrases to English / Spanish / Chinese. Uses Text-to-speech to vocalize the phrases into each language. These phrases are ordered by frequency. When you want to improve your language skills, you set a "window" range of frequency you want to practice, and Lingofreq will play audio files in this range. You can learn Chinese & Spanish while doing the dishes, at the gym, or before going to bed!

Code: https://codeberg.org/jro/LingoFreq-app/src/branch/main/apps

(3) Medellin COMMUNITY MAKER-SPACE / CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR LAB I'm at Medellin Colombia - my mission is to create the best maker-space. I was a member of ASMBLY Maker-space in Austin Texas (great space!) and worked at Pivotal Labs (agile product prototyping / software lab) - so I'm aiming to combine the best ideas from those.

BACK-BURNER projects:

Documenting my Knowledge as "Public Knowledge Base" - https://codeberg.org/jro/Knowledge - Here are my notes on Python, Git - I'm bouncing between Obsidian Sync / Publish / Markdown (currently easiest way), and some sort of open-source knowledge base website (VSCodium + Markdown + FOAM + MkDocs + RClone). I haven't found a solution I'm happy with yet...

Open-source CNC router tech stack: - I have a CNC router (robotic drill which can carve 3D shapes into wood). Last year I challenged myself to operate it completely through an open-source tech stack. This took me on a journey of learning Inkscape (2d vector design tool, SVG), FreeCAD (3D product design / CAD / CAM tool), G-code (format of text instructions which tell CNC tools where to move and what to do), Universal G-Code Sender (a tool which imports CAM - computer aided manufacturing - designs, connects to the CNC router tool, and actually operates machine. It's quite exciting to play with! Used Kiri-moto (web-based CAD / CAM tool) to convert 2D/SVG designs into 3D shapes). Used OBS (screen recording/streaming tool) and a bunch of web-cams to live-stream tool usage to PeerTube Live (similar to YouTube).

Being "principled" about using open-source tools can be so challenging, but its quite rewarding on the long run.

LEARNING SPANISH - What's working for me... trying to read spanish books before bed. Handwriting a few paragraphs from a book into journal. Highlighting words I don't know. Looking them up later. Reading a book while listening to its audio book at the same time.

If anyone's interesting in contributing to these projects, I would warmly welcome that. Design, product, sales, project management, engineering/coding, marketing - need tons of help in all these areas.

Gracias! // JRO