Wouter Lindenhof

productivity Featured

Why I created my own Productivity tool

The reason I created ThenNext was very simple. I could do it better!

Generative AI

Why AI acts like a parrot

I took another look at AI and came to the conclusion that a parrot is just as reliable.

css

Nifty trick with CSS-variables

I was playing around with a list of links that could have three different states depending on whether the item was active or not. It was a bit more complex than what is shown below, but as it involved multiple values. And some needed to be the same, however at

Programming advice

Tricks to avoid confusing environments when testing

When I started developing software for a living (around 2005), I made many mistakes, such as dropping the production database, restoring the test database to production, creating a backup, and receiving a backup from a coworker on USB, which, in turn, I also overwrote. And I did all of that

openai

Using whisper to transcribe

The following is a quick manual on getting whisper (that what powers open-AI realtime chat) to use as transcription. It uses https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp which works like a charm. git clone https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp.git ~/repos/whisper.cpp cd ~/repos/whisper.cpp # download sample

A professional always apologises first

An apology might seem hard but it is an easy method to restore the professional relationship.

Microsoft SQL Server on Docker on Apple Mac Silicon

While reinstalling my system I needed to have Microsoft SQL Server running on my new Apple Mac (which contains an M2 chip). There are various posts online about this, but the following worked for me. 1. Install Docker Desktop 2. Go to the settings and find the "Features in

Writing goal completed!

Yesterday I reached my goal of 14 days of daily writing, and there were some interesting things to realize. Nothing significant or unpredictable since many experts would have predicted this. If you want to repeat the experiment, let me warn you: The first few days are hard. The writing could

LinkedIn Impression

A quick review of the LinkedIn algorithm after posting for two weeks.

Programming

Simple translations in C#

A simple method to add translation to your C# code without having to introduce functions call everywhere.

Programming advice

Refactor reasons

List of reasons why we refactor.

Programming

SubtleCrypto failure

For reasons unknown to me I can't wrap an RSA key with another RSA key.

The long wait for our AI overlords

I enjoy using ChatGPT, Bing, Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, Kobold AI, and more. Especially when it's generating content and hits it right on the nail or provides me something unexpected but exactly what I want. It's quite a rush. It gets it just right. And if it

Open-Source

Open-Source Sunday: The cryptographic proof in Sport

Building a zero trust sport application for a large audience requires the use of cryptographic proof, but how do we handle secrets?

Story

Story: Why I choose to write an article every day

Why and how I started writing daily articles. My approach at becoming a better writer.

UX Design

Design: Should “cancel” be on the left or right?

Why some conflict in our team is caused by conflicting guidelines of Apple, Microsoft and Google

Leadership

A critical aspect of team leadership: The vocabulary

How a slight change in our language can have a considerable effect. Why should you ask about the level of confidence instead of certainty?

Programming advice

Programming Flow considered harmful

Why being in the flow can yield negative results

Programming advice

Grenade-based programming: Throw, but never catch 🧨

Why removing catch-statements in code can dramatically improve the quality of our software. The difference between expecting and preventing exceptions.

Leadership

The cause of conflict between developers and sales

Developers who complain about sales need help understanding what their purpose is. Spoiler it doesn't involve your technical skillset. So let's fix that!

Open-Source

How to move a non-profit to open-source

How an arrogant email resulted in a large sport federation deciding to switch to open-source software development

Story

Story: Losing production data twice

How I deleted production twice and got away with it.

Tutorial

Updating mastodon (v4.0.2 to v4.1.2)

💡These steps are based on updating from v4.0.2 to v4.1.2. And is based on my installation (instructions are here). Hopefully you might get some use out of this if you need to update your machine, but I make no promises. Login on the machine using ssh

Generative AI

A better and *shorter* method name using ChatGPT

When I write code, I don't care how the function is named. But when it's done, I want a good and short name. Often my methods are just called "magic" since I don't care yet. After it's complete, I update

Estimation

Intro to estimation

Estimation is an important part of software development. It helps us understand the number of resources needed to complete a task, and it helps us plan which tasks should be done first. Estimations can also help us improve efficiency by allowing us to allocate resources in the most effective way.