David Brownman

Software developer, tinkerer, enthusiast.

Am David Brownman (npub1yx9…zzja) basically anywhere you can have a username.

Currently slinging bits at Stripe; he/him

Website + Blog: https://xavd.id
Media Reviews / Now Playing + Reading: https://david.reviews
Advent of Code Solutions: https://advent-of-code.xavd.id
🏡: San Mateo, CA

Last Notes

2025-08-30 18:48:32 UTC

#Python's f-strings have a super powerful templating language built in! But I always forget the exact syntax. Well, no longer! h/t [@the_compiler](https://mastodon.social/@the_compiler ) / @npub106g…uas2
https://fstring.help/cheat/

2025-08-21 19:50:45 UTC

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very cool! That I have something this would be perfect for.
Separately, is the README ai generated? It really reads like it is.

2025-06-29 20:05:06 UTC

At long last, my wife and I have BLOOPED THAT RINSE (aka we finished BLUE PRINCE).
The game is massive and tricky and oh so tightly designed. Makes for great couch "co-op" where we're both working together to solve things!
I also took more notes ( #Obsidian, obviously ) this than I have for any other game. That's how you know it's great.
https://david.reviews/games/blue-prince/
#blueprince #videogames #davidreviews #puzzles

2025-06-24 17:43:48 UTC

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oh yeah, my wife is militantly against divided sinks. We have one in our place, but the big side is big enough to lay a baking sheet flat, so it's been ok. (and the little side _is_ occasionally useful for soaking plants)

2025-06-24 17:09:17 UTC

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whoa, that sink rocks! 😻

2025-05-17 06:33:02 UTC

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I'd be curious if a static readonly field worked the way you expect. Still advailabe via `this.foo`, but AFAIK not ever mutable

2025-05-17 00:42:44 UTC

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That makes sense to me, tbh. Its a read only _instance_ field and you don't have an instance until the constructor has finished.

2025-01-30 23:20:29 UTC

When you think about it, Venmo is just a social network where it costs money to post.

2025-01-12 17:49:56 UTC

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the "If Books Could Kill" podcast did a great 2-part episode on the book that introduced this phenomenon! It's super interesting
https://pod.link/1651876897/episode/cc36ce12d2fd1a171630d1733998b414

2024-12-19 19:35:13 UTC

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I don't think it makes as much sense for non-corporate OSS unless you're planning to change the license in the future.
But, it doesn't really put me off a project if there's a CLA. I just don't care that much (which could be a mistake on my part).

2024-12-19 17:55:42 UTC

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all of our open source stuff at work does, including the Python package
https://github.com/stripe/stripe-python

2024-11-29 14:51:11 UTC

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it's time for Christmas #movie season! My guilty pleasure is dumb-but-fun holiday romcoms, of which there are oodles. I just love them.
First up this year is HOT FROSTY, which was, unfortunately, a stinker. Many more to come though!
https://david.reviews/movies/hot-frosty-2024/
#movies #review #christmas #romcom

2024-09-26 16:02:15 UTC

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that was a good read! I think the distinction between release notes and a changelog is a good one. I guess I mostly use the commit log as my full list of changes (should anyone care to read it) and CHANGELOG.md as "release notes".
In any case, I'm glad more people are thinking about it!

2024-09-16 16:10:19 UTC

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well it's not called "planet known" 🙈

2024-08-30 23:20:06 UTC

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unfortunately, Kaiser still doesn't have info about when theirs will be available and I'd rather not pay out of pocket if I can avoid it

2024-08-29 06:32:44 UTC

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I'm don't understand the downsides- it actually covers a use case that I wanted this week. Basically, a tool that could, in a virtualenv, make all my dependencies available (basically like npm installing a package.json). It's nice to put everything in pyproject.toml, but a `pip install .` installed my thing as something other packages could import, which isn't what I needed.
Wouldn't the root of a
Django project follow a similar pattern, right? It isn't a dependency of anything?

2024-08-01 19:07:18 UTC

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Is it just me?? Do I have a weird shaped face??

2024-08-01 18:45:24 UTC

I hate to admit it, but Face ID is just worse than Touch ID. I thought I'd grow to like it after multiple years and devices with the feature, but it's just not happening
I judge each only on how often it fails to unlock my phone. Touch ID always worked unless my hands were wet. Most days, 0 misses
Face ID fails multiple times a day during normal use. Brushing my teeth, in bed, in the car, on the couch, in a mask, anything. Wild that such core functionality has existed in this state for so long