neildaemond's hacker blog

Claude on Zed IDE vs Gemini on Android Studio

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:43:55 +0800

I thought it was pretty cool to leverage unique dev environments with Nix direnv so I could code remotely via any SSH connection.

But I found something even cooler: I could mount that entire setup into a more GUI & user-friendly interface via Zed IDE’s ‘Open Remote…’ feature, which improved connection stability and kept Zed’s ‘super fast and responsive’ feel. Even when opening a terminal, the whole Nix direnv environment was automatically activated.

“YAY! Awesome ninja-coded software, here we go!”

Until it so happened that “AI RULES AND CODING IS DEAD” rhetoric started dominating the world of LinkedIn and other social platforms.

Catppuccin (Mocha): Uniform Syntax Highlighting Across IDE's

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 21:00:05 +0800

One theme to rule them all…

Working With XML/HTML Tags in Helix IDE

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 22:33:34 +0800

Helix IDE unlocks my long-dreamt-of command-line workflow

I’m still enjoying my Helix experience, as it enables a workflow that I think is quite cool. With my dev-on-server setup, I can’t believe how effective I can be even when using Termux on my phone, paired with my ssh-into-tmux-script.

This is what it looks like doing actual (expo) mobile development with Helix IDE from my mobile (via the termux app) while sitting in Oliver Sandwich:

But, I digress… Back to ‘Working on Tags’

While working on my expo app, I began to miss how WebStorm would automatically add closing tags, and update tag pairs as I renamed one of them, etc.

I’ve learnt a few methods to work with tags, which, for now, seem quite adequate.

Rebuilding Nixos After Updating Configs

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 10:39:36 +0800

I’m playing around with NixOS on an old iMac from 2013

Keen on using this machine in a ‘primarily Rust context’, I’m working through the process of adding the foundational packages and, following guides, updating the underlying configuration.nix file and others.

One remarkable feature of NixOS is the atomic upgrades. Applying changes, I can easily roll them back to previously saved states. To summarise:

Nix Flake error: path '/nix/store/--/flake.nix' does not exist

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 10:36:55 +0800

I’ve noticed a ‘path _ does not exist’ quirk when copying the `flake.nix` file from one project to another

I thought that I could replicate the nix-flake defined environment of one folder(project) by copying flake.nix and .envrc into a new folder. When I do that, I’m asked to run direnv allow on the new folder, but under a particular circumstance, something weird happens; you’ll get an error like this:

direnv: loading ~/proj/project-name/.envrc
direnv: using flake .
error: path '/nix/store/0cc..nm8-source/flake.nix' does not exist

Vim to Helix IDE

Sat, 24 May 2025 11:40:05 +0800

I loved Vim; the keybindings, simplicity, and modal style usage. I could use plugins to achieve almost anything, enabling smooth workflows and tooling that others have pioneered.

However, as someone who jumps between frameworks, languages and projects, many past chosen plugins become redundant and forgotten. The last thing anyone needs is technical debt from their IDE, and so I entered a period of using JetBrains IDEs a couple of years ago when my role required me to focus on React.

Recently, I stumbled upon Helix IDE at the same time as Nix Flakes, and that spurred the realisation of this powerful but simple setup.

Script to auto-reconnect SSH connections to tmux sessions

Mon, 12 May 2025 13:57:43 +0800

I like the idea of SSH’ing into a tmux session when doing work on a remote machine so that I can reconnect right where I left off.

However, I don’t like it when the internet connection is unstable, and you must reconnect whenever you drop off. Or, when I close my laptop for a couple of hours and open it back up to a crashed terminal emulator. I tried using mosh as I’ve done with IRC before, but I didn’t like how the terminal scrolling & copy/paste behaviour was affected unintuitively by mosh & tmux.

Webpack File Loader to Custom Load Path

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:25:16 +0800

So, I asked on freenode ( #webpack ) and realised the answer before I could hear a response

│18:10:30 neildaemond | using this webpack.config.js, I end up with some files  │
│                     | like "27474d2c2aa69b9fff15b5748ef7be30.gif".. It all    │
│                     | works, but on the web server I want them to load from   │
│                     | another location like "domain.com/another/custom/path/2 │
│                     | 7474d2c2aa69b9fff15b5748ef7be30.gif", not at root       │
│                     | (domain.com/27474d2c2aa69b9fff15b5748ef7be30.gif)       │
│18:10:48 neildaemond | https://pastebin.com/AJKS9yf7                           │
│18:23:43 neildaemond | oh, I figured it out.. an option for the file-loader.   │
│                     | updated the webpack.config.js to:                       │
│                     | https://pastebin.com/GQvWF9H7                           │

F11 Can't Scroll Nicknames Down When Using Weechat in Terminal

Sat, 21 Sep 2019 15:17:17 +0800

`MeGa LoLz: Paying HoMaGe to 90’s ComPuTinG AnD WeB PaGeS ViA tilde.club`

ssh’ing into my new account on tilde.club, I was re-introduced to their favourite command line irc client, WeeChat. I’m quite excited about tilde.club( mine is tilde.club/~neildaemond ;) ) as it provides the perfect remote server for irc chat if I run it in a screen/tmux/etc. At my local hackerspace, dimsumlabs, we’re trying to encourage irc usage. In Particular, our #dimsumlabs channel on Freenode.

Quick and dirty fix of 'listen tcp 0.0.0.0:5433: bind: address already in use'

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:21:33 +0800

The ‘Quick And Dirty’ way is:

sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep 5433

then

kill -9 <the_found_pid>

Using VSCode When You're Used to Vim & NerdTree

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 00:20:30 +0800

First, make it more like Vim

My first step for any IDE setup is to make it more like Vim using whichever extension/plugin they have to offer :)

(you can even do this with browser text fields via wasavi)

So, for VSCode I used the main vim plugin,

and then added the following keybindings.json and settings.json which are found at ~/.config/Code/User/ …

'Vim as My IDE' Continued: New Plugin Manager & Intellisense via coc.nvim + LSP

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 22:51:29 +0800

The Quest Continues

In 2012, I started blogging about Vim As My Ide. At that time, I was also going to try and focus on Scala as it was all the rage. However, I didn’t like using clunky IDEs like Eclipse to develop in the Java world, and I didn’t have any pressing reason to continue. Today, I’m back on board the Scala train for work purposes and will leverage some of the newfound support for Scala that Vim has.

Elm (0.18) Architecture: A Flow Diagram

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 22:19:58 +0800

Taking my previous post on Elm Architecture under consideration, I’ve generated the following diagram:

Let me explain further…

Find Nodes on Network Using Nmap

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 10:17:20 +0800

Using:

nmap -sP 192.168.2.1/24

I was able to find my SOPine nodes, which were plugged into a Pine64 Clusterboard on wired network.

The Elm (0.18) Architecture: A Brief Overview

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:53:49 +0800

The elm architecture is explained in the Elm guide, but I’m going to try and break it down in a way in which I understand it so that hopefully anyone reading here can benefit from another perspective.

The guide tells us that an Elm application has the architectural pattern of Model-Update-View but, what does this mean? I see it like this:

Create a hexadecimal colour based on a string with Elm

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 22:27:24 +0800

I had an html table of categorised items, and I wanted to give each category its own colour automatically. So I thought I’d hash the category ID String into an HTML Hexadecimal colour. A search will find this stack overflow post, but I was using elm and thought it would be a fun task to translate this function into a functional style. Here’s how that went:

Still Trying To Find The Time

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 20:05:32 +0800

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since my last ‘Hacker Dad’ post. And guess what, I’m still trying to find the time to work on self-motivated projects for fun, learning and profit. Granted, I’ve had a second kid (a daughter) 16 months ago, so that reset the countdown until they are more manageable.

I DID get to do some fun DIY for her 1st Birthday, However.

Elm (0.18): A Refreshing Functional Programming Language For The Front End

Sun, 05 Aug 2018 21:31:08 +0800

I’ve really been enjoying my recent experience with the front end (functional) programming language called Elm for the following reasons:

The Elm Architecture is great for single page apps (SPAs) as the rendered view will update automatically depending on the data model which gets manipulated when events are triggered.
Immutable variables and Strong typing produces reliable and readable code, although slightly trickier to write (at first).
The compiler is extremely smart and helpful (and a bit strict), often telling you exactly what went wrong and where to find it. Compiled Elm apps have slogan of “No Runtime Errors” since the Strict Typing allows the compiler to ensure there will not be any.
It is compiled into javascript and easy to embed into any existing page/project.

Here is my guide to getting started (with vim as my IDE):

base64 for html

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 13:02:33 +0800

the following commands mentioned on this post on stackoverflow can generate base64 encoded image for use in html.

file="DSC_0251.JPG"
type=$(identify -format "%m" "$file" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]')
echo "data:image/$type;base64,$(base64 -w 0 "$file")"

my favourite way to see git log from command line

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 08:36:10 +0800

it is…

git log --graph --oneline --decorate --branches

Video (MOV) Combiner

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 14:28:59 +0800

High quality video with a DSLR is nice, and I find that when on an outing or at an event, it’s easy to take clips here and there to capture and document the memory. I usually switch between video clips and photos, but afterwards I don’t really like sorting through all the photos that much because I snap too many.

Videos on the other hand, I find that, if I don’t delete it, then they can be combined together in chronological order and be good enough to share with friends and family.

To save time, I created a command line script which will grab all clips from a folder and combine them into one video …

Blog Theme Updated

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 12:43:14 +0800

Well, it’s been ages since I’ve updated my blog. Usually I have something I want to blog about and then I get caught up with the idea that I haven’t implemented the features I wanted in my blog. Using Hugo’s taxonomies etc., I wanted to put into my blog the following:

Elixir: keyword list equivalent

Fri, 18 Nov 2016 09:32:28 +0800

Just a quick reminder that these are equal:

Merge All PDFs In A Folder

Thu, 06 Oct 2016 08:01:24 +0800

I like to use Boogie Board Sync to take notes, then sync them to my Laptop using dropbox. Unfortunately, the Sync creates a one page PDF for each saved screen. Therefore, having one folder per sorted topic, I open up the folder in terminal and run the following simple script which I keep in my PATH.

screenshot from command line

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 09:20:32 +0800

If you have ImageMagick installed, you can use:

import filename.png

to then select an image window via a mouse. Or, the pure command line method of:

import filename.png -window root

to take a snapshot of the whole screen.

Step 1: Find The Time

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:35:16 +0800

My newborn son arrived 3 weeks ago, weighing in at a whopping 9.4 lbs. My poor wife battled out 30 hours of labour, and finally the doctors insisted that she have a C-section. Now we’re learning as we go and trying to keep our heads above water.

Surprisingly, I have been able to get coding sprints in and accomplish things here and there. Sleep has been scarce, however.

At this point, I have a strong desire to be both of two things:

A good father and husband
A hacker who can productively make cool things

Step 1 for me will be to find the time.

Hacking Until The Baby Comes

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:37:37 +0800

Although there hasn’t been any updates to this blog, I actually have been hacking away and learning some new tools which I’m very excited about. My wife has been pregnant for the last 9 months, and I’ve had to prioritise baby preparations above my blog updates. Now that most of my preparations are in place, I can finally take a breath and look at this blog again while we wait. My baby boy can come any day now (anyone have stories of hacking in between newborn raising?).

The tools I’ve been excited about are Elixir and the wonderful Phoenix Framework.

New Blog

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 05:11:55 +0800

I’ve finally started a new blog at 808.ninja.

It’s bare at the moment, but hopefully my newly chosen blogging platform will allow me to be more efficient while writing posts. I have big plans for how I’m going to organise all of the varying content.