Eric Matthes

Author, teacher, programmer, outdoor guy · ehmatthes.com · Python Crash Course · django-simple-deploy

web: https://www.mostlypython.com
github: https://github.com/ehmatthes
place: western NC (formerly southeast AK)

Last Notes

2026-05-20 00:50:56 CEST

- reply

https://lopera.com

2026-02-22 13:50:25 CET

I learned about Taalas for the first time last week; they're writing AI models directly to chips. Their "chatjimmy" demo is really impressive.
It's a smaller model so it's not as good as the newest models, but the speed is the point.
#AI
https://chatjimmy.ai

2026-02-13 15:36:55 CET

- reply

And so hot and sweaty but cold as soon as you stop swimming

2026-02-09 21:24:45 CET

- reply

I love that you're all in agreement that over-investing in unit tests is an anti-pattern.
I've been trying to get a PyCon talk on this subject accepted, with no luck yet. (Not talking about this year's submissions.)

2026-02-07 17:20:26 CET

Does anyone in my Django world use Scalingo for hosting? I hadn't heard of it until today, but they've been around for over a decade!
It seems like every time Heroku comes closer to actually closing its doors, we learn about new hosting options.
#Python #Django
https://scalingo.com

2026-01-21 18:33:29 CET

- reply

I lived in Alaska for a long time, and I was waiting for remote developers to start moving to my town (10k people, southeast AK).
I finally met one person who moved to my town as a developer. The move was for his partner's job. He had a *really* hard time getting hired from AK, because companies that weren't already employing someone from AK didn't want to do the paperwork to hire just one person.

2026-01-07 23:27:07 CET

- reply

Are you giving up on Git? It definitely gets complicated in all its workflows, but a small subset of features goes a long way for a solo developer.
My short list: init, status, add, commit, diff, branch, merge, checkout, log. And switch is helpful for modern workflows.
People get intimidated by reset, rebase, and merge conflicts. But a solo developer can go a long time without needing those, or running into conflicts.

2025-08-28 16:55:38 CEST

- reply

I'm team pourover and latte at home, but I've been looking for something other than pourover for traveling and camping.
I think I'm going to give this a try:
https://aeropress.com/products/aeropress-go-travel-coffee-press

2025-08-28 16:10:40 CEST

Yes AeroPress I've heard only good things about your product and want to buy one, but no I absolutely do not want want to receive "AI content" through text messages from you. 🤦‍♂️
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/115/106/783/486/632/250/original/ba3591bcb6e54f90.png

2025-07-11 16:12:25 CEST

- reply

I started out bike touring in the northeast, and thought I could never do longer rides in the west because I struggled with my knees on some climbs.
It was really nice to discover that the climbs in the west are much longer, but almost always much more gradual. The only place I found harder hills than the northeast was in the canyons of the southwest.

2024-12-09 16:34:59 CET

- reply

This is a pretty satisfying use of the plugin model. Most information needed for a deployment is picked up automatically from the plugin that's installed.
To target a different platform, just install a different plugin:
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/623/596/093/789/854/original/ba07647338558dc4.png

2024-11-05 23:09:01 CET

All right, I just used the external Fly.io plugin for django-simple-deploy to make a full deployment. :)
This was through an end to end test against the local development versions of the core project and the plugin, but most of the upcoming work should be much easier than what I've been working through.
So satisfying! (And so much better than thinking about election results for a while longer.)
#Django
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/432/619/768/014/621/original/23a7b544a2f2d690.png
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/432/620/244/935/644/original/0f97c67a5a8aae21.png

2024-10-17 02:15:21 CEST

- reply

"sonic highlight of my life" is such a good phrase! I've never heard wolves before.
One of my highlights was chipping ice chunks from the lip of a crevasse on one of the glaciers in the middle of Baranof Island, and listening to the sound of the ice chunks falling into the abyss of the crevasse. That sound was magical after drinking glacial runoff straight from the glacier surface.

2024-09-11 17:35:44 CEST

Kamala Harris was fantastic to watch last night.
But we also *finally* got to see members of the media refuse to just allow anything and everything Trump said to go unchallenged. Journalists could have been doing this all along, and we'd probably be in a lot better place right now.
I've appreciated the journalists who have stood up to Trump over the last 8(!)+ years, but they've been too few and too far between.

2024-08-28 17:07:41 CEST

- reply

"Al Sweigart" should "try harder" to "write" a book for people with "143 IQ" that was most definitely "quantified" when they were a "teenager".