iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jesse Skinner

@JesseSkinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy

43 followers 1 following 567 posts

I'm a software engineer, coding since the '80s and building web apps since 2001. I love simplifying complex & messy legacy systems. I still help clients that emailed […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ toot.cafe/@JesseSkinner, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 🫛 🥔 🌽

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

I think it'd be fun to get a DVB-T modulator to basically run a tiny home television station and stream video throughout my home without wifi. Anyone try something like this before? (If anyone has, they'd be on Mastodon!)

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

@benpate I really don't know enough of the details to comment on quality. I know they say they spend a lot of time working on bug fixes. I personally spend like 5% of my work time on bug fixes so that can't be a good sign lol

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

@benpate it actually has been 6 months already so here's an instant update! I've been watching with curiosity and fascination and honestly it's been going pretty well from the outside perspective. BUT it is taking then enormous effort and time to work on the app, like every waking hour for many […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

I know a non-developer business owner who had hired a developer to work on an app. The developer bragged that they never look at code anymore. This led the business owner to let the developer go and start vibe coding the app themselves. It's definitely not anything to brag about. As a developer […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

I'd never send an email written by an LLM, definitely never without reading it first, and that's why I'd never deliver code to a client without at least having read and edited it first.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Didn't take long: www.anthropic.com/research/glm-5-3-…

GLM-5.3 and the Spread of Advanced Cyber Capabilities

GLM-5.3 can autonomously build end-to-end cyber exploits, but unlike other frontier models, it was released without meaningful safeguards to limit misuse.

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Ten bucks says the whole thing is set up so in the coming months they can say the following: "If the bot net we set up can do all this hacking, just imagine what those free, open weight Chinese models could do! The US government needs to make those free ones illegal, pretty please???"

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Some company set up a bot net and programmed it to go hack servers across the Internet including government servers. The company then goes to the government and says "oh no our bot net is hacking everything. Please help us stop it!" Is that about right?

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Yet another damaging about generative AI is that it allows people to make complicated things without caring. Before, artists had to care about their art to put so much time and work into it. Software developers cared about the code they wrote (even if they don't care about the company). Now […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

I'm currently writing a very critically important piece of infrastructure, a multi-cloud autoscaling controller. I could have totally vibe coded it. But I'm writing the whole thing by hand, using TDD. Very carefully designing the library APIs, making sure it feels right. It's a slow process […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

RE: toot.cafe/@JesseSkinner/11728423811… I guessed a lot of people had legacy software at work that nobody knew how to change. But a third?? I just wrote a blog post about these messy codebases and how they're like the cluttered office in the basement people are scared to go into […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Originally posted at: www.jesseskinner.com/blog/avoid-the… #blog #software #legacy #rewrite #decluttering #writing

jesseskinner.com

Avoid the Rewrite: Rescuing messy software - Jesse Skinner

Do you have old software that no developer wants to touch? It worked fine for decades, your company relied on it and still does. But every time you have someone take a peek, they come out sweating, talking about rewriting it all from scratch? What happened?

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

If you have a complex legacy system, please contact me and let's figure this thing out! You can also read more about what it's like to work with me. www.jesseskinner.com/hire

jesseskinner.com

Work with me - Freelance Software Engineer for hire - Jesse Skinner

Freelance Software Engineer in the Toronto area. Offering fixed quotes with flexible scope and firm deadlines. Building web apps that last since 2001.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

# Avoiding the rewrite I work with companies and organizations struggling with old, dusty, messy legacy software. I help them to transform their software and systems into something fresh and functional. With 25 years of experience, I love taking on those older projects that nobody else wants to […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

I achieve this by maintaining the simplicity in the system. I want the system to be easy to learn, with small and understandable parts. Documentation is important, but so is having a system simple enough that it makes sense from the start.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

## Handing it over I'm always thinking of the person who's going to come after me. Even though I've taken full ownership of the system, I know eventually I'll need to hand it over to someone else. I want the next person to be able to come into this system and understand it quickly. I want them […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

That "rewrite" instinct can finally come back into play here. We may well decide that one of the parts of the system can be replaced. We don't have to replace everything at once. We can keep the 90% that is working well, and replace the 10% that is causing all the problems. The whole time, the […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

As things become organized, there can be opportunities to split a system into two or three separate systems. This splitting allows for even more understanding and simplification, as you can better observe any interactions between parts of the system. ## Time for something new Now that we have […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Once some space is made, and only useful sections remain, it becomes easier to understand the system as a whole. ## Organizing Working with a cleaned up, simpler system, I can start tidying and organizing. This means putting like things together, grouping by function and use.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

## Archiving and clearing out junk As the system becomes more clear, and we know the parts that are still needed and those that aren't, I can start clearing out some of the unused parts. These dusty piles make it harder to find what you need. They may have served their purpose once upon a time […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

There may only be a few parts of the system that are still in use. Maybe some of the piles in the back are dusty and untouched in years. Some things were put there temporarily, and nobody remembered to remove them. Through documenting current processes, speaking with users and stakeholders, and […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

## Turning on more lights Like a dark and dingy basement, it helps to bring in more light to work in a space like this. With a complex system, this means collecting information and statistics. It means testing to see what works and what's broken.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

I'm not there to judge, I'm there to learn and understand with empathy and kindness. I know whoever built this did the best they could at the time. Usually weird decisions make more sense if you understand the context.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

## Taking inventory First thing I'll do is carefully look through the system. I'll work to understand the history, and the archaeological layers of the system. I want to know who started it, how the system looked when it was young, and how it evolved over time. I'll trace through the parts of […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

# Cleaning up and organizing I absolutely love coming into a complex system, making sense of it, and working to bring simplicity to it. Here's how I approach working with a new system.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

In my experience, these rewrites often go badly. It's true that starting fresh feels easier than learning an old system. Truth is, that messy basement contained decades of business decisions, improvements, and countless details that a new system will need to recreate. It takes a long time to […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

# The preciousness of knowledge embedded in a complex system When faced with overwhelming complexity, many people will feel that starting over or "rewriting from scratch" is the easy path out. This is the equivalent of locking up the basement for good and starting fresh with a new office in the […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Sandra inherited a big but functional mess. She was able to do her job, and she did the best she could. But she never felt like the owner of the basement. In her mind, she was tending to Doug's messy system until a replacement was found. Without a sense of ownership, she tried to keep any […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

# A lack of ownership You may have had a trusty developer like Doug that built your whole system back in the day. Doug meant well, but his priority was on doing good work, not on keeping things tidy. He wanted to stick around for the long run, and wasn't thinking of handing it over. The daily […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

When Doug was retiring, Sandra was tasked with temporarily taking over from him. It took Doug a while to show her where everything was, but she figured out what she needed. Once Doug left, Sandra kept things running, though a little less smoothly. She avoided all the filing cabinets and desks […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

# Understanding the history Back to our basement, it wasn't always such a mess. Doug ran the business smoothly for many years, and he was always down here. He wasn't a tidy fellow, but he knew where everything was. Nobody else needed to come down here, and they'd rather not. Over time, Doug's […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

# The messy basement Imagine you're invited to help a struggling business. You walk into the storefront and everything looks great. You're led into the basement and you nearly trip down the stairs. There are boxes everywhere, every surface is covered with junk and papers. It's dark, dusty […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Do you have old software that no developer wants to touch? It worked fine for decades, your company relied on it and still does. But every time you have someone take a peek, they come out sweating, talking about rewriting it all from scratch? What happened? […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

I saw a large group of Jamaican migrant workers stocking up at the grocery store (here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada) today. I'd never seen that before, so I searched and found a farm nearby (maybe not the same farm), and this very interesting recruitment video: youtu.be/PiR0MU-YgT8

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

In case you missed it, Let's Encrypt supports creating SSL certificates for IP addresses, so you can do like 1.2.3.4 or whatever. I created my first one today, where a web service where I'd rather not use DNS and a self-signed certificate wouldn't work […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

Just learned an amusement park in the USA, just 20 minutes from the Canadian border, just closed because "attendance and revenue levels in recent seasons were not sufficient to sustain the costs of operation and continued investment required to rebuild and operate the park responsibly." […]

Original post on toot.cafe

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

Would you or have you ever updated or rewritten old blog posts? I want to but it seems wrong somehow, like revising a diary or something.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026

@andrew Vultr & OVH

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026

This has to be the best email I've ever gotten from Amazon. #aws

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026

It's so obvious when a business doesn't care about its customers or its products and only cares about money. Caring is a precious and increasingly rare thing. If you care about the work you do and the people around you, people will notice. They'll care because you care.

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026

Anyway, I encouraged him to put some thought into what his customers would value and be able to take action on. I suggested it'd be best to curate the data to the good stuff before dumping it into the LLM. Seems like the bare minimum you'd want to do here to minimize the slop..

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026

Talked to a business owner today who wasn't sure what data they needed, because their product just dumps raw data into Claude and asks it to come up with insights and trends to report to their customer. I found it shocking that someone has a business which is based on letting AI figure out what […]

Original post on toot.cafe

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026

Anyone doing autoscaling in production without Kubernetes and without a cloud-provided autoscaling solution eg. AWS AutoScaling? I'm migrating from AWS to multi-cloud (Vultr, OVH, etc.) and am being pulled towards writing my own autoscaling control plane. Would love to hear about any experience […]

Original post on toot.cafe

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026

I've officially switched my blog & website over from codingwithjesse.com to jesseskinner.com. Mixed feelings but I think it's the right move for the long term.. 🥲

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

Typewriter ad, seen in Victoria Albert South Kensington, London.

"STUDY AND LOVE"
A woman sleeping with her hand on a red typewriter. A man behind her holding a book, looking into the distance. Behind, a landscape of mountains and a lake and a purple sky.
"olivetti"

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Reposted by Jesse Skinner

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

I wrote a new page to my site explaining what it's like to work with me, would love any feedback: www.codingwithjesse.com/hire

codingwithjesse.com

Work with me - Freelance Software Engineer for hire - Jesse Skinner

Freelance Software Engineer in the Toronto area. Offering fixed quotes with flexible scope and firm deadlines. Building web apps that last since 2001.

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

@moopet thanks!

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Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

I wrote a new page to my site explaining what it's like to work with me, would love any feedback: www.codingwithjesse.com/hire

codingwithjesse.com

Work with me - Freelance Software Engineer for hire - Jesse Skinner

Freelance Software Engineer in the Toronto area. Offering fixed quotes with flexible scope and firm deadlines. Building web apps that last since 2001.

Jesse Skinner @jesseskinner.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

To make nodejs date-related tests work in multiple time zones, here's a little trick (hack?) You can set process.env.TZ to set a specific timezone. eg. const tz = process.env.TZ beforeEach(() => { process.env.TZ = 'America/New York' }) afterEach(() => { process.env.TZ = tz }) #nodejs #tdd