Ben Bowers
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benrbowers.bsky.social
Ben Bowers
@benrbowers.bsky.social
120 followers 56 following 130 posts
Software developer building things I think are cool
www.benbowers.net
github.com/benrbowers

"I have been a hunter of peace, chasing the elusive mayfly known as love." - Vash the Stampede
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benrbowers.bsky.social
Wake up, calendar heads. Perfect symmetry this month with a full weekend on either end.
Picture of bullet journal monthly agenda. The top of the page says "NOVEMBER". The date numbers and letters for the days of the week are listed down the left side of the page, perfectly beginning and ending with "SS" for a full weekend.
November 1, 2025 at 8:11 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
momentumdash.com appreciation post
Screenshot of my momentum dashboard. In bold white letters it displays the time: "10:25", and the day's daily mantra: "Live simply." The background features a stunning nighttime view of the starry sky through tall trees from Lapland, Finland.
September 4, 2025 at 2:30 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Learning Go is the gift that keeps on giving

#golang #feeds #atproto #atprotocol
Screenshot of https://atproto.com/sdks. It shows both TypeScript and Go listed as official SDKs.
September 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
*sighs* Yeah, that's another good point from Theo
Screenshot of an Excalidraw text block from @t3.gg's video "Vibe coding is a lie". The text reads "You can't be mad at vibe coding AND be mad at left-pad"
September 2, 2025 at 1:17 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Someone should make a "Rubber Duck" GPT that helps you walk through a code base

#chatgpt #ai #gpt
Screenshot of YouTube comment that reads: "Rubber ducking with AI is where it's at" The comment has 18 likes.
September 2, 2025 at 12:56 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Trying out #chatgpt "Study" mode.

It started by asking a follow up question to better align its answer to MY goals.

Could be interesting potential for truly individualized learning.

It will require a whole new kind of "internet literacy" though.

"Yeah any of these dates could be hallucinated"
Me: "Give me an introduction to "Data-Oriented" programming." ChatGPT: "Got it — let’s ease into this step by step. Before I dive in: do you want this introduction framed more from a software-engineering patterns angle (like what you’d see in business apps), or from a game-dev / performance-oriented angle (where it overlaps with "data-oriented design")?"
September 1, 2025 at 6:05 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Thoughts on the "pencil-drawn" feel of this pomodoro timer?

#design #ui
August 30, 2025 at 9:52 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Another GPT-5 variant:
August 28, 2025 at 6:51 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
GPT-5 vs Uizard Autodesigner 2.0

Redesign OpenAUTH landing page using: "Redesign this landing page to be more "gentle". Use pastel colors"

#chatgpt #gpt5 #ai
August 28, 2025 at 6:49 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Cursor auto mode bro 🤦‍♂️

#cursor #ai
Me asking cursor about time element: "If my time is in format "MM:SS", can I just go ahead and set that to the datetime attribute?" Cursor: "No, you cannot directly use "MM:SS" format for the datetime attribute. The datetime attribute requires a valid ISO 8601 time format." Me responding to cursor: "I belive you can use that format actually: @https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/time#valid_datetime_values" Cursor: "You're absolutely right! Looking at the MDN documentation, I can see that "HH:MM" and "HH:MM:SS" are indeed valid time string formats for the datetime attribute."
August 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
SUPER FORTRAN is a thing apparently
Wikipedia snippet: "RETRIEVE is a database management system offered on Tymshare's systems starting in August 1971. It was written in Tymshare's own SUPER FORTRAN on the SDS 940."
July 31, 2025 at 5:12 PM
benrbowers.bsky.social
@t3.gg Nah ok I'm actually fascinated by the convex setup.

Local first has been driving me crazy.

I've gotta try optimistic updates over SSE.
Diagram showing data going server to convex db to user, with sse going server to user.
July 19, 2025 at 10:02 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Cursor ask mode is starting to hit different. That's what I use way more than agent mode.

THIS is the type of value I want from AI. Learning and insights.

Obviously it can still be wrong, but still wildly better than NO outside input.

#cursor
Text from cursor chat: "Let me search for how you're using this binder to see if there are patterns that might suggest better approaches: Grepped OptionalBinder Searched form struct tags binding Based on my analysis of your codebase, reflection is indeed the best approach for your OptionalBinder use case. Here's why:"
July 19, 2025 at 6:55 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
New mandate:
Classic scene from Halo Legends: Prototype. The helmet's HUD requests a final voice command in bold, neon pink letters: "BE HUMAN"
July 16, 2025 at 3:21 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
React compiler eslint plugin is pretty sweet

#react #reactjs #webdev
June 30, 2025 at 1:27 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Go on... ✍️
Tweet by @sarahradz_ reading: "I want AI to anticipate what groceries I'm running low on, search every flier and website in my city to find the best price, and compile me a weekly list based on best deals per fewest stops. I do not want AI to make a picture of me if I were an astronaut."
June 16, 2025 at 8:55 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Personal Best!

These are all personal projects, no open source just yet

My goal for the new year is "consistency over intensity"

So I won't necessarily be trying to beat this number in 2025

But I have three solid projects that are going to launch come hell or high water
January 5, 2025 at 12:03 AM
benrbowers.bsky.social
Happy National Science Fiction Day! #scifi
January 2, 2025 at 9:23 PM