tinker.ph

My new gear and Mac setup

After saying goodbye to using my Windows/WSL desktop as my primary work machine for now, I set out to build my Mac experience using the same gear and then some.

1. First, I ordered an Anker USB-C hub (the one that attaches to the side of the Mac taking up two ports!), and I ordered a UGREEN DP KVM dock. I also ordered an extra mouse.

2. Then, I 3D-printed this parametric vertical laptop stand for the Macbook Pro, where I can permanently dock my machine.

3. Third, the software stack. I use the following:

   • Duet, so I can at least extend to the Windows machine when I need extra space, but for now I primarily use my iPad
   • Raycast and its Mac Window Manager extension, so I can have my snapping keys back!
   • Amphetamine, so I can control when my Mac or display sleeps, finally enabling true clamshell mode
   • Mac Mouse Fix, so I can take advantage of the side buttons of my mouse with actually useful shortcuts
   • Doll, so I can pin the Slack icon to the menu bar and see notifs because I autohide the dock

Welp - goodbye WhatPulse stats!

I just learned that we aren’t allowed to use our personal devices for work, so I guess putting in my stats at the sidebar won’t be as impressive! I had gotten used to my setup, and now, I need to muscle-memorize using the Mac as my primary development station. I guess it’s slightly a good thing that I had just used my home office budget to do a few upgrades.

I had just gotten a UGREEN 8K KVM so I can connect my Mac to the primary monitor. I still need a second dual-screen KVM, or and probably a dock, so I can fully transition to the triple monitor setup. I also got myself a new MX Master 3S so I can control my desktop separately from the Mac - being able to simultaneously switch videos or playlists while working!

Do not push to production on a Friday

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|   Don't Push To Production On Friday   |
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               \ (•◡•) / 
                \     / 
                 —————
                 |  |
                 |_ |_

Yep, just don’t do it.

You’d think with over 15 years in the industry, I’d have learned this by now, but nope! 1.5 months into my new role, I’d just introduced a production issue on a release that’s supposed to prevent further issues!

Rookie mistake, but the long story short is that I had inherited a large monolith and I thought that the single entrypoint I had touched so far was the only entrypoint to the app!

And so after introducing a change that affects entrypoints (think: middleware setups), I thought that was it. Turns out, the other entrypoints started failing. Thank god for alerts, logs, and DLQ’s!

Remembering Aaron Swartz

I saw this tweet earlier and felt the need to post about Aaron Swartz. Now more than ever, I feel the importance of the things that he fought for. In a world where we have the largest companies scraping the internet and selling you their AIs trained on this data for $20, it just seems so wild what happened to him over 10 years ago.

Saw this in Brooklyn today.

RIP, Aaron. pic.twitter.com/fFXJvyCupZ

— Philipp Tsipman (@ptsi) July 13, 2024

HoloLive at the Dodgers stadium

I don’t watch baseball, but I do watch a couple of VTubers. I consider the culture around sports and the people who enjoy it, especially in the context of people I’ve encountered in my life, the antithesis to the VTubing world - the classic jocks vs. nerds. The crowd reaction, how Twitter lit up during the event, and how this event might have possibly permanently started bridging that gap, all makes me happy.

It’s a similar sentiment to how I feel about @alexisohanian’s efforts to investing in women’s sports. All it really takes is these orgs making that push to bridge gaps in subcultures, and if you do it correctly, the internet will do its job and reciprocate.