Good news: CSS-Tricks will indeed be back later this month!

`git merge` poll: when you create a merge commit, do you edit the commit message or just leave it as the default?

working on 4 “characters” who are learning Git for the first time, to explain how Git branches work

trying to figure out if there are any major characters I’m missing (the idea is to give an example of how each of them might use branches, like Emilia might just be running `git push` to back up her thesis)

why might someone want to learn Git? wrong answers only

RE: https://mastodon.green/@solar_chase/117416542106532198

after reading one of the previous threads I bought the author’s book and it was a super interesting way to learn about solar power

When you use Git to collaborate, how do you send other people your code changes?

you can pick more than one (just skip this one if you don’t use Git to collaborate)

dumb git question: in a merge-based workflow, if you’re working on a branch, is there any reasonable way to integrate new changes from `main` back into your branch without using `git rebase`?

I have this belief that there are people who only use merge commits and not rebase but I don’t understand how that works

(do you just use `git merge main`? if so do you get confused by all the merge commits that creates or is it okay?)

this week I learned that during a merge conflict, you can get a list of all commits involved in the conflict that touched a file with:

$ git log --merge FILENAME

Seems useful if there are a lot of commits being merged (like in a big rebase) but only a couple of them touched that file

Thinking this morning about how much of teaching is just taking the time to listen. Hearing what someone’s actual computer problem is and then addressing it is so much harder than just telling them what I think is interesting or cool.

And sometimes I don’t know the answer to their actual problem, and I might not even know how to find out, and that feels bad! But it’s okay to just say “I don’t know” :)

has anyone written a man page SYNOPSIS parser that somehow (?? I have no idea what I mean by this) helps folks understand what they mean?

I was talking to a friend the other day who said they were having a hard time understanding the rules of the SYNOPSIS format and I realized I’d never even seen it explained anywhere.

the main thing that comes to mind is https://explainshell.com/ (which is not always accurate but a very cool project)

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/117374213919135553

finally signed up for a paid subscription to support Molly White’s cryptocurrency reporting

loved her 2024 talk on the how building things on the web is magic too https://xoxofest.com/2024/videos/molly-white/

one of the many good things about asking people questions instead of LLMs is that today i had a question about a project so i went to the discord to ask and the person said “oh no the software doesn’t do that but maybe we could change it so that it could”

(obviously asking people doesn’t always go well too, i have had many bad experiences with this approach too! it’s very messy!)

I’m working on a list of questions you might want to ask about the Git workflow when joining a new team

https://gist.github.com/jvns/600e510958c4b9444b93bec84fd1a5f3

Would love ideas for other questions that would be useful to know the answer to!

one thing about making a Django site is that dealing with these residential proxy scrapers is tough. It’s definitely easier to handle with a Go server that’s faster or a static site. The site doesn’t even have anything useful to scrape!

I don’t really want to use Anubis since it’s a bit annoying for users so I’ve been doing a lot of aggressive IP blocking but it doesn’t feel great.

(not really looking for advice atm)

Is there a QR code generator that

1. is a website
2. is free, no account needed
3. is not secretly also a link shortener (no “dynamic QR codes”)
4. does not look like a scam
5. does not include extra branding (the way the Chrome one does)

a friend just asked me this and I really could not find one

(edit: many people are recommending https://justaqrcode.com/ which looks great, gonna mute this conversation now)

replacing the old battery on rechargeable bike lights https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/09/27/replacing-the-old-battery-on-rechargeable-bike-lights/

another git push/pull questionl: how do you usually set an upstream for branches that you create? you can pick more than one

(also I really appreciate everyone answering all these polls, I hope it is fun for you)

poll: when you run `git pull`, do you pass the name of the remote/branch (like `git pull origin main`) or just `git pull`?

(you can pick more than one)

I started with the “complicated” piece in 2021 or 2022. I finished the hand embroidery but it didn’t feel done, so I stashed it for years. I recently learned to do needle tatting and thought it would be exactly what this piece needed!

That was true enough to get me to also make the “simple” piece, which was tedious because I couldn’t leave any errors at all in it. I had to frog whole lines three times.

RIP Tony Hoare, whose wisdom is needed more every day.

#fiberarts #embroidery #crossStitch

poll: in Git, do you ever use any of the references `MERGE_HEAD`, `REBASE_HEAD`, `CHERRY_PICK_HEAD`, `ORIG_HEAD`, `FETCH_HEAD`, or `REVERT_HEAD` etc? (and if so, what do you use them for?)