Micro

Me and Claude dramatically updated the server this Mastodon instance runs on last night. I’ve been putting this off for literal years since launching this server, and we fixed it all up last night in about an hour.

I’ll post notes on what we did shortly. But it’s good to be back on here again after a little hiatus.

Years from now it will be cool to write code again, like how it’s cool to shoot film now.

One of the greatest album covers of all time. I mean, that’s graphic design at its peak!

Hot take: we don’t need separate apps for words and photos.

A great weight has been lifted after completing a long procrastinated and seemingly monumental task, which turned out to be not such a big deal after all.

My little chat program can now save your chats with Amazon Bedrock LLMs and list them on the command line.

Morning Claude sketch

Current situation

This Tomberlin album is vey good, and the album cover design is giving web 1.0 vibes, which I am here for.

I was at a kids birthday party at this cool play space and they had this interactive trampoline thing, which I took a photo of, uploaded it to Claude and tried to get it to replicate some kind of version of the same thing in p5.js from my phone. It sort of worked?

I made this with Claude and p5.js. I don't really know what it is. You can move the circle around with your finger like a magnifying glass. The gradient slowly changes.

Back to writing p5.js sketches, only this time with Claude. This is really lovely.

Was just looking at this Mastodon instance which is still on v4.0.2. Doesn’t seem like there’s an easy upgrade path aside from step by step upgrading each version?

We’ve lost all hope

I feel like I really want a reMarkable. Do I really need that?

GenAI - turn bullets into text or text into bullets. That’s all it does!

The 5yo has told me “I only want to listen to songs with a drop.”

Photo blogging like it’s 2003

Here’s an idea 💡

GitHub Actions, but they’re not in my source code.

🤖 I used generative AI to write thousands of poems inspired by art. They’re mostly garbage, but the process of building these systems has opened my eyes to all kinds of possibilities.

🤓 This week I’m exploring two different approaches building off the same single idea. 💡

🤯 We live in a whole new world. Amazon Q Developer has a new feature where you can reference your entire codebase with "workspace" within your prompt. It will use your entire codebase as part of its context in generating a response.

🧑‍💻 In this example, I'm asking Q to look across my code and suggest a strategy to modify what I've already written and use the new Converse API instead of how I did it originally.

This wasn't the biggest announcement from the NYC Summit, but it's a really good one! If you are using Q Developer with Identity Center, you can extend the session for Q Developer to 90 days, independently of the default session length. Nice!

More details here

🙋‍♂️ OK I’m just gonna ask. How do GenAI developers deal with the context window when building chat applications? As the convo progresses, the context just keeps growing.

What’s the trick to doing this at scale?

🤓 I tried writing some actual code yesterday with my new Neovim and Warp setup. I did ok at first but eventually got frustrated with the indenting and error prompting I’m used to in VS Code.

👨‍💻 But I’m not giving up. Just need to remember it takes time to learn a new thing and remember skills I haven’t used in a long while. I’ll get there! 💪

🗑️ Throwing my code under the bus is where I’m at this week. But, it’s for a good reason as I’m making things better for the future.

🧪 Spending time experimenting and being willing to start from scratch over and over is a tough pill to swallow but an incredibly powerful one.

🤓 I received some feedback and a couple feature requests about Chat-CLI. Some of the ideas were things I had already considered, some were new ideas that I may implement.

🤯 But, the best feedback of all was when they said “thanks for building this, I use it every day” !!

Next week is the AWS NYC Summit! Who’s gonna be there? Drop me a DM if you want to meet up!

Wearing vintage defunct startup swag, is a vibe.

Good to see you

Installed Neovim on my Raspberry Pi last night. What the hell is going on?

TIL if I do the Fremen desert walk across my living room I’m slightly less likely to step on a Lego.

There’s something kinda nice about a freshly minted S3 bucket.

The 5yo, studying his Lego instruction booklet, discovered the idea of unique identifiers. And is now asking me to buy him sets by their ID.

Which one are you?

Apple should make a thing called AirPlay+ or whatever where I can wirelessly connect my phone to the screen on the back of any headrest on any airline and it has all the movies there are.

I drew a diagram to explain the eclipse to the 5yo. He threw it in the trash and said “next Passover I’m not doing the glasses ever again!”

Ok this didn’t work 🌑

No idea how this happened but my IG reel feed is nothing but asmr farrier and I’m 💯 hoofed, I mean hooked.

🤯 why is this still a thing?

1. Clicks unsubscribe from marketing email.
2. Taken to web page where I have to deselect all the things I don't want and click submit
3. Taken to a "why did you unsubscribe feedback form"
4. Receive email confirming I am now unsubscribed with link at bottom to opt out of updates to email preferences notifications
5. Clicks that link and taken to another page to let me know it's finally over.

Happy Pi day! What will you build?

What is the current state of the art for dev machines? Are people using Codespaces and GitPod type setups all day long, or do laptops still rule the roost?

Pi day is approaching and I kinda want to celebrate by buying a new Raspberry Pi. No idea what I'm gonna use it for, but it's been a while and they seem very capable now!

An LLM big enough to understand my car’s owners manual… now that would be something.

Whatever it is that you're working on or working towards, don't give up. Keep doing it, keep trying things, keep experimenting until you get it right, and then experiment some more. Don't ever stop. Change directions, try something new, and try old things again. Just don't quit.

💡Voice Memo App -> Amazon Transcribe -> Amazon Bedrock LLM -> Blog Post

🤷‍♂️ Think it will work?

Trying to explain that you can pare a pair of pears to the 5yo is not going well.

Cigar cutter, but for chapstick.

Whenever someone reaches out to me via someone else's recommendation it feels good. Especially when it's someone I don't know too well (or at all) doing the recommending.

Do this. Suggest to someone who looks up to you, that they reach out to someone you trust on a topic.

☝️This was my first time presenting at AWS re:Invent. It was an incredible experience and the support I received along the way was nothing short of amazing. Big shoutout to Steve and the content teams for helping us keep it together!

🌎I was being serious when I said "we have to start thinking about how we can embed these discussions into everything that we do" - going into 2024 I'm going to make sustainability a top priority for myself and anyone I work with.

Oh it’s the last night of re:Invent

Woosh!

After six years one of the four 12TB drives in my Synology NAS has failed. 😨

I finally figured out the Amazon Bedrock streaming response API using the Go SDK.

The AWS SDK for Go was updated a few hours ago with support for Amazon Bedrock and I couldn’t wait to try it out and built this little command line assistant.

Here’s something I was working on 8 years ago. 🤷‍♂️

📘The Guidance includes a Reference Architecture, which aims to demonstrate how to deploy the basics along with a number of additional considerations, depending on your preferences. Additionally, there is a detailed Implementation Guide to help you get everything configured and working via the AWS Console.

🤯 This guidance helps customers configure and deploy a server-side data collection container for use with Google Tag Manager on AWS. This means you can continue to use Google Tag Manager to instrument your tagging configuration while sending that same data to the wide selection of analytics services and tools available on AWS!

Clean Room Step’n

It took me a long time to jump in and try AWS Step Functions, but wow am I glad I did!

I’m wondering what will happen with Threads adds ActivtyPub. Mostly curious the impact this will have on all our small to micro servers running on the fediverse.

Why am I up at midnight thinking about “hard drive in the sky” … what is that?!

What is your go to for securely sharing an ssh key 🔑 ? For example, if you want to move the key to another machine 🖥️ on another network?

TIL every AWS Lambda log group in CloudWatch represents a single execution environment.

Every night, I get ready for bed and realize I’ve left my AirPods on my desk in the basement.

Every morning, I sit down at my desk and realize I’ve left my AirPods on my nightstand all the way upstairs.

I know, I know..

I need to do some screen recordings with a webcam at the same time. What’s good software for the Mac for this?

Update: ChatGPT came up empty.

I have a song stuck in my head by Sade, but I don’t know the real words.. all I know is it goes like “one potato” and then a long pause.. what song is it?!

Someone just told me there’s more caffeine in light roast coffee?!?!?!

How many showers or baths do you take before getting a new towel?

I logged into Twitter after a really long time. I'd say about 99% of the tweets in my timeline are from people I don't follow or ads about things I don't care about.

Every tweet is about how to leverage Generative AI. How Photoshop's new AI feature is going to change the world forever, and how ChatGPT plugins can help me improve my life.

So basically nothing has changed.

Happy Mothers Day to my beautiful wife, and all the moms out there in the world. 👩 👩‍❤️‍👨 👨‍👩‍👦👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

I recently over-provisioned on these white IKEA shelves. The upside is that my little vinyl record collection was able to graduate from being stored in the bottom of the cabinet on the left to the new shelves on the right with some room to scale.

Recent addition.

I just bought 8 light bulbs at Target and it was $65.

I’ve been working my way through each of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Last night I finished Captain America - The Winter Soldier. It was pretty good, and pulled together a lot of the plot lines from the previous movie.

Then I watched the first twenty minutes of the next film called Guardians of the Galaxy. WTF is going on?! Vin Diesel is in this?

I need a 10Gb network in my home, don’t I?

Rant of the day: At my local UPS Store, if you have a pre-paid label on your phone, they can't just scan it and print it for you.

Instead, you have to email it to a random Gmail address, and then they charge $3.25 "printing fee" to print the label.

I also get annoyed when I have to pay a "credit card fee" ... especially at the gas station.

Which came first?

Yesterday I picked up our 4y/o and walked over to the playground where we found a group of elementary school kids hanging out. They were discussing ChatGPT.

I finished Iron Man 3 last night. I think maybe I’ve seen it before on a long flight or something.

How come Jarvis never says “By the way, I can add toilet paper to your shopping cart. Just say “add toilet paper to my shopping cart.” Would you like me to add toilet paper now?”

OK I just finished Thor. It was good! Like a breath of fresh air without Robert Downey Jr. Feels like we haven't seen that last of that Loki dude. And there's Jeremy Renner!

Last night I watched Iron Man 2. It was decent. I really liked Mickey Rourke’s character. But I didn’t understand how all the sudden there’s Sam Jackson with an eye patch? Like he just appears with zero backstory or introduction and then he’s gone.

I've never watched any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films except Iron Man. Should I do this? Any tips?

I installed an app to remind every 20 mins to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

This works especially nice with my new "computer glasses."

I raised an eyebrow at him, nothing but blue skies overhead, but of course his prediction came true and we all rejoiced as the sky opened up. Later we gorged ourselves on the lamb, and shared food and stories until the dawn.

The Samaritans follow the Bible letter by letter. During Passover they dig large holes in the ground and create smoking pits which they use to cook fresh lamb. Every bit is used. It's a sort of rite of passage for young boys to be involved in the slaughter.

One man told me this: just watch, every year it's the same.. at the moment of the slaughter it will begin to rain, like God crying over the sacrifice.

Today it will be cloudy, sunny, partly cloudy, raining, and between 47 and 76 degrees.

The 4yo found a little 1min sand timer in one of his games and now he’s essentially pomodoro timing everything he does and everything I do.

why are there so many notes apps?

What are you over-indexing on today?

Birthday breakfast followed by birthday brunch and this birthday beer! 🍺 🎂

If I use the coffee maker to brew six cups of coffee, my wife drinks half a mug and I drink the rest, how many cups have I had?

Wondering if I can run Logstash on AWS App Runner. Hmmm.

I’m building a cool data collector thing for web analytics. It’s all working but wondering how to organize and store all the data.

And SNL skit with Fred Armisen as George Santos, breaking into an apartment to feed imaginary fish is what we all need this weekend. Please boost!

If Slack could make one change I’d want it to be removing threads from DMs.

At work we communicate primarily with Slack and video conf. But as soon as we travel, everyone switches to SMS and Email like is 2004.

Just noticed my wife has been using straight up Apple Notes for work.

I always thought it was:

“When I was young I knew everything. Me and Poncharello never took advice.”

The 4yo is running around singing “little bits, little bits, can’t be wrong” over and over.

Oh god.. Facebook Blue

It’s been about ten years since I’ve played this rig. Still works! (needs new strings).

I thought Everything Everywhere All at Once was going to be a docu drama about Dropbox but it wound up being an odd examination of the IRS.

This morning the 4yo said “Why is it called re-cycling? It’s just cycling?” ♻️

Yesterday I came up with a “Snow, Snow, Let it Snow” chant, which the little guy danced, stomped feet and sang for about an hour.

At night we had a family talk about science and belief systems.

This morning …

What is the appropriate reaction when your 4yo purposefully whips you in the face with a rubber centipede? I really want to know.

Last night a friend was giving me a tour of her recently gut renovated home. I asked her who the architect was and she said “me, I thought myself Sketchup and did the whole thing myself.”

Instagram has really devolved into a way for my wife and I to send stupid videos to each other throughout the day.

Different time, same sounds.

Ok I’m kinda new to the suburbs. If I buy a new recycle bin, how do I get rid of the old recycle bin? Can I uh .. recycle it? ♻️

Above photo is of my son (on the left) at 3 and his friend who is the same age. A nice recreation of this photo from when I was three (on the left) with my pal in 1979.

BFFs

This was a good lunch! Better than “Top Ramen” 🍜

… plot twist! …

“Due to a significant increase in application volume, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is extending the grace period from 6 months to 1 year for any Trusted Traveler member who has a valid membership and who has submitted a renewal application. This means you will continue to receive full benefits for 1 year while U.S. Customs and Border Protection is finalizing your renewal application.”

… and the big reveal …

“You will need to provide your PASSID the first time you setup your profile. Your PASSID, or membership number, can be located on the back of your TTP card or on previous notification letters. This will allow the TTP System to retrieve your information to facilitate the renewal process.”

Unpopular opinion: Jack Ryan is a much more interesting character than James Bond. Fight me.

Turns out the actual name is “Aubrey” … but she is now and forever, “All Green” to me.

Afterward I told him we could make something similar with the leaf blower.

Our kid has a friend at school named (according to him) “All Green.”

One of my best creations.

Somehow we are down to a single laptop charging wire in the entire house.

We really need an IdentityPub, whatever that is.

DirectoryPub, ActivityHub .. Active Directory Pub.

Microsoft Managed Activity & Identity Directory Pub.

Did you ever notice how whenever someone on TV discovers cassette tapes in the old file box there’s a tape player in there as well, with fresh batteries ready to play them?

I’m very appreciative of my colleges who resisted the temptation to send me (or cc me on) emails while I was away.

🙏

I just went to a “Noon Years Eve” which is something you don’t know exists until you have kids.

300 followers on here. Oh crap.

🙏

Happy Holidays, everyone! 🎄 🕎

One thing I’ve always wondered about Christmas Vacation - when Clark is stuck in the attic and he falls through the ceiling into the bunk bed below, why doesn’t he just climb down through the hole he’s just made?

It’s Christmas Eve 🎄 It’s 8 degrees, and I’m going to the store for… a salad tray?

Can we all go back to not caring about soccer now?

“Presentation - Final - Final.ppt” went well. Last meeting of 2022 on the books. Now I can relax!! 🍾

It’s nearly 2023 and someone sent me a file called “Presentation - Final” and then sent me an updated version a few hours later called “Presentation - Final.”

Sometimes I miss the days of integrating my Flickr photos with my Wordpress site using something called TanTan Noodles.

I was listening to Sirius XMU in the car this morning, where they mostly play new music that all sounds like Sonic Youth mixed with The Pixies, when a song that actually was Sonic Youth came on, and for a moment I thought… this is just too much.

3yo pointing at melon: this is a melon
3yo pointing at cereal: this is not melon
Me: he’s a scientist!

Me: do you know any Christmas songs?

3yo: 🎵 Rumor has it 🎵

3yo: The blowups never sleep.
⛄️ 🦌

Last night my team and I volunteered a little bit of our time and served dinner at The Bowery Mission. We served 150 individuals, and made a small donation.

The Bowery Mission is a special place that has been helping homeless and hungry New Yorkers since the 1870s.

(Photo by Ravi)

I somehow managed to knock over one of those giant KitchenAid mixers that looks like the Alien from Alien, and now my floor is covered in what appears to be motor oil.

How come nobody ever goes as Santa for Halloween?

Little concert in our town last year.

Accidentally said “Enjoy the rest of your days” at the end of my team call this morning.

After about two years, I’m excited to announce, I’ve switched back to using a Chemex.

Also wondering if anyone has any advice for keeping one warm.

Mastodon experts - I have a couple questions.

1. How do hashtags work? I mean, do they span the entire Fediverse somehow? 🤷‍♂️
2. What is a Relay? Do I need one?

“Instagram Pier” Hong Kong

Ever since I've been running my own Mastodon server I've been thinking a lot about availability. It's nice that my server is just for me. If it goes offline, nobody will really even notice. I'll just be "offline" for a bit.

My gut tells me to build for resilience at every turn, but there's something comforting about the ease of going dark whenever I want.

Sai Wan, Hong Kong 2017

October 30, 2022 🍂

Good morning, 100 followers! 🙏

Classic. Brooklyn, 2016

Got my little Mastodon server working with S3 and CloudFront. And now I know all about something called kt-paperclip.

My little Mastodon server had its first office outage today. All the sudden I was t able to load new posts. I took a look at the dashboard I created in the AWS console and immediately noticed that CPU and Memory was pegged.

Of course, it was pegged just a little lower than where my alert threshold was set so I never got any alerts.

No idea what caused it to run out of resources yet.

Lessons learned: start with a lower alerting threshold, and set up a better health check.

More bar people from 2016.

Spent all of nap time trying to figure out the correct Mastodon S3 config settings.

In case you’re wondering what to get me for Xmas 🎄

Holiday catch up. 🎃

🙏 🦃

From the Women’s March 2017, New York City.

Big mess we’re handing off

The process for setting up a new iPhone and transferring from your old iPhone has gotten so insanely seamless and perfect that I wind up with a new iPhone that doesn’t feel new at all.

3yo: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune.
Gen-X Dad: and Pluto.

I'm looking for ideas for this year's "Signature Drink."

Each December, I get the supplies I need to craft a special drink. Then, I make the drink numerous times throughout the winter, mostly for myself or anyone who pays me a visit.

Last year it was a classic Old Fashioned. Last year was the first year doing this.

Ideas?! 🍹🍸🍷🍾🥃

Day 2 running my own Mastodon server and things are starting to come alive. I’ve got trending hashtags, and finally some content in the federated feed. I also got an email this morning from myself asking if I wanted to approve some news links, so that’s very nice!

Back in 2016, when we used to hang out in bars.

I recently found this nice little farm store about twenty minutes from where I live. I will pay big money for good pie.

Here I am, inside a white board.

Moving things over from mastodon.social was really easy. I’m noticing on here I can’t see posts when I go to someone’s profile just yet. Hmmm 🤔

I tooted!