Coder Cowboy – Software for life on the go.

Vibe Coding with Claude

The future, it seems, is here, and I’m wasting it making vibe-coded video games.

Shown above: Jason’s Game of Life (aka Land Grab Simulator). Check out the demo, or, if you’re brave, the 100% Claude-authored code.

The proof-of-concept game was vibe-coded in a handful of hours with incredible ease. The experience was so simple that I truly believe anyone can make demo-level software now, which is incredible. Don’t believe me? Just look at the Claude conversation logs for the project shown above.

I’ve recently ventured into AI-assisted software engineering for the first time, and I thought I’d transcribe my early experiences here before I forget my initial concerns and surprises.

Jetty maxFormContentSizeJetty not working? Here’s the fix

People are generally prescribing something like this to configure maxFormContentSize for jetty in the jetty.xml:

<Configure id="Server" class="org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server">
	...
    <Call name="setAttribute">
        <Arg>org.eclipse.jetty.server.Request.maxFormContentSize</Arg>
        <Arg>10000000</Arg>
    </Call>
</Configure>

In my experience, in 2024 with a recent version of jetty (9.4.53), this isn’t working inside apache’s karaf or in embedded mode within maven, and may not be working in other containers as well.

Coronavirus Simulator

It seems that a lot of people don’t understand the purpose of flattening the curve with quarantine. I’ve made a crude simulator that demonstrates hospital resource exhaustion if the number of cases continues to grow at the current rate (25% per day as of March 22, 2020).

Check it out:

http://www.codercowboy.com/coronasim/

Vintage Computer Software Resources In 2020

I’ve recently dived into collecting vintage computing hardware. Vintage software is somewhat hard to find these days, especially old boot disks and OS installation CDs. I found the following resources while reviving an old IBM Aptiva 2134 Pentium-era machine:

Collecting Vintage Computer Hardware In 2020

I recently purchase and Aptiva 2134 from a vintage computer collector on Facebook Marketplace in an effort to fully immerse myself in Windows 9x nostalgia while writing a book.

Wicket 7 Debug Bar Empty? Add a DebugBarInitializer to your app.

In Wicket 7.12.0, adding a DebugBar to your page will result in an empty / useless debug bar if you don’t add a DebugBarInitializer to your app. Hopefully this will be documented by the wicket project in the future, but it isn’t right now.

Continue reading Wicket 7 Debug Bar Empty? Add a DebugBarInitializer to your app.

Java HashMap.hashCode() Not Unique With String Keys And Values

Java’s HashMap (AbstractMap really) hashCode() implementation sums the hash codes of its entries rather than multiplies them by a prime number like String.hashCode() does. This can cause weird collisions in very similar maps.

Continue reading Java HashMap.hashCode() Not Unique With String Keys And Values

Trash Bird Fix

Haven’t posted in a while, mostly because my life has been a complete fucking wreck for the past year or so.

Anyway. I fixed the trash bird with a chrome extension.

Continue reading Trash Bird Fix

Music to Code By – 2015, or, how I learned to love the Dire Straits

Standard Disclaimer: My favorite band ever is The Smashing Pumpkins, or possibly Nine Inch Nails. In recent years my favorite genres of music have been EDM and Post Rock. If it’s dark, and/or mopey, I probably love it. If it starts off slow and sad and crescendos with catharsis 9 minutes later, I probably love it. Consider yourself warned.

Continue reading Music to Code By – 2015, or, how I learned to love the Dire Straits

Yet Another OSX Yosemite Wifi / Bluetooth Connectivity Fix

Some users have problems with OSX Mavericks/Yosemite wifi connectivity – there’s all sorts of things that can go wrong.

This stackexchange thread has a variety of solutions that you should probably try.

Continue reading Yet Another OSX Yosemite Wifi / Bluetooth Connectivity Fix