Ben Vinegar
@benv.ca
Worked on @sentry.io for nearly a decade. Co-wrote Third-party JavaScript. Hacking on counterscale.dev in Toronto. 🇨🇦
More: benv.ca
More: benv.ca
Got some new stickers made for Devtools Tronto tomorrow
November 3, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Got some new stickers made for Devtools Tronto tomorrow
🇨🇦 Devtools Toronto is returning Tues, Nov 4th at BDC Community Square.
Featuring hands-on demos from 1Password, Tempo, Keyflow, Wispbit, and Varlock (DMNO)
👇 RSVP link below
Featuring hands-on demos from 1Password, Tempo, Keyflow, Wispbit, and Varlock (DMNO)
👇 RSVP link below
October 9, 2025 at 12:02 AM
🇨🇦 Devtools Toronto is returning Tues, Nov 4th at BDC Community Square.
Featuring hands-on demos from 1Password, Tempo, Keyflow, Wispbit, and Varlock (DMNO)
👇 RSVP link below
Featuring hands-on demos from 1Password, Tempo, Keyflow, Wispbit, and Varlock (DMNO)
👇 RSVP link below
See you at the combination skate shop + punk show
October 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
See you at the combination skate shop + punk show
Counterscale's still humming along – almost 2k GitHub stars now.
This summer we (mostly @stordahl.dev) added:
- user auth
- referrer favicons
- works w/ multiple CF accounts
- UTM tracking (PR lands soon)
This summer we (mostly @stordahl.dev) added:
- user auth
- referrer favicons
- works w/ multiple CF accounts
- UTM tracking (PR lands soon)
September 15, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Counterscale's still humming along – almost 2k GitHub stars now.
This summer we (mostly @stordahl.dev) added:
- user auth
- referrer favicons
- works w/ multiple CF accounts
- UTM tracking (PR lands soon)
This summer we (mostly @stordahl.dev) added:
- user auth
- referrer favicons
- works w/ multiple CF accounts
- UTM tracking (PR lands soon)
I like how you can be miles away and it still pops
August 12, 2025 at 1:58 PM
I like how you can be miles away and it still pops
Playing around w/ Midjourney to animate some pixel art scenes
July 18, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Playing around w/ Midjourney to animate some pixel art scenes
📈 React package downloads/day are up almost 70% (!) since the start of 2025
July 12, 2025 at 8:23 PM
📈 React package downloads/day are up almost 70% (!) since the start of 2025
I think I found the least maintained feature on @github.com
July 8, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I think I found the least maintained feature on @github.com
🆕 new Counterscale landing page
I first mocked this up in Figma. Then exported a PNG and gave it to Claude Code.
That gave me a good start, but I spent hours tweaking afterwards in Claude + Cursor.
I first mocked this up in Figma. Then exported a PNG and gave it to Claude Code.
That gave me a good start, but I spent hours tweaking afterwards in Claude + Cursor.
July 7, 2025 at 11:40 AM
🆕 new Counterscale landing page
I first mocked this up in Figma. Then exported a PNG and gave it to Claude Code.
That gave me a good start, but I spent hours tweaking afterwards in Claude + Cursor.
I first mocked this up in Figma. Then exported a PNG and gave it to Claude Code.
That gave me a good start, but I spent hours tweaking afterwards in Claude + Cursor.
doesn't matter how much time I spent here
visiting still feels magical
visiting still feels magical
June 3, 2025 at 3:16 PM
doesn't matter how much time I spent here
visiting still feels magical
visiting still feels magical
IMO blogs aren't dead yet – with so many having switched to video, I think writing is due for a comeback
May 14, 2025 at 8:57 PM
IMO blogs aren't dead yet – with so many having switched to video, I think writing is due for a comeback
Not a lot of cities where you can fit horses, streetcars, bicycles, pedestrians, and cars into one shot.
May 10, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Not a lot of cities where you can fit horses, streetcars, bicycles, pedestrians, and cars into one shot.
I've been trying to level up the Counterscale landing page in Figma.
Thoughts? Does any of this messaging hit for you?
(thanks @jeremymorrell.dev for providing a quote!)
Thoughts? Does any of this messaging hit for you?
(thanks @jeremymorrell.dev for providing a quote!)
April 7, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I've been trying to level up the Counterscale landing page in Figma.
Thoughts? Does any of this messaging hit for you?
(thanks @jeremymorrell.dev for providing a quote!)
Thoughts? Does any of this messaging hit for you?
(thanks @jeremymorrell.dev for providing a quote!)
Yesterday I wrote a detailed breakdown of an issue on GitHub, and wrote about 4 potential solutions and their pros/cons to see what people thought.
First time I've seen someone ignore all that and just copy/paste it all into ChatGPT to get an answer.
First time I've seen someone ignore all that and just copy/paste it all into ChatGPT to get an answer.
April 1, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Yesterday I wrote a detailed breakdown of an issue on GitHub, and wrote about 4 potential solutions and their pros/cons to see what people thought.
First time I've seen someone ignore all that and just copy/paste it all into ChatGPT to get an answer.
First time I've seen someone ignore all that and just copy/paste it all into ChatGPT to get an answer.
Discovered a useful AI coding use case:
You can use Claude 3.7 to approximately "de-obfuscate" minified code. Useful for reverse-engineering scripts.
Here's trying it out on Sentry's minified SDK (which is open source). I've gotten similar-looking results on source code w/o accompanying OSS too.
You can use Claude 3.7 to approximately "de-obfuscate" minified code. Useful for reverse-engineering scripts.
Here's trying it out on Sentry's minified SDK (which is open source). I've gotten similar-looking results on source code w/o accompanying OSS too.
March 31, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Discovered a useful AI coding use case:
You can use Claude 3.7 to approximately "de-obfuscate" minified code. Useful for reverse-engineering scripts.
Here's trying it out on Sentry's minified SDK (which is open source). I've gotten similar-looking results on source code w/o accompanying OSS too.
You can use Claude 3.7 to approximately "de-obfuscate" minified code. Useful for reverse-engineering scripts.
Here's trying it out on Sentry's minified SDK (which is open source). I've gotten similar-looking results on source code w/o accompanying OSS too.
🇨🇦 Last year this post connected me to ~20 Canadian founders & software devs. I'm told those conversations were helpful; for one company, it led to raising a major funding round.
It feels important to do it again.
👋 If you're here and building software tools and/or OSS products, I'd like to help.
It feels important to do it again.
👋 If you're here and building software tools and/or OSS products, I'd like to help.
March 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
🇨🇦 Last year this post connected me to ~20 Canadian founders & software devs. I'm told those conversations were helpful; for one company, it led to raising a major funding round.
It feels important to do it again.
👋 If you're here and building software tools and/or OSS products, I'd like to help.
It feels important to do it again.
👋 If you're here and building software tools and/or OSS products, I'd like to help.
My new favourite Ottawa museum is the Diefenbunker.
It's like visiting a real-life Fallout vault.
It's like visiting a real-life Fallout vault.
March 17, 2025 at 1:28 PM
My new favourite Ottawa museum is the Diefenbunker.
It's like visiting a real-life Fallout vault.
It's like visiting a real-life Fallout vault.
Next up: trying to let users upload a pic and it'll turn it into a classy black & white newspaper-style portrait using stable-diffusion-v1-5-img2img on @cloudflare-dev.bsky.social
It's not going well
It's not going well
March 15, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Next up: trying to let users upload a pic and it'll turn it into a classy black & white newspaper-style portrait using stable-diffusion-v1-5-img2img on @cloudflare-dev.bsky.social
It's not going well
It's not going well
I added a theme picker with some pleasant-looking themes.
March 6, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I added a theme picker with some pleasant-looking themes.
I'm a fan of Rick Rubin's aesthetic quotes ... so much so I vibe coded my own tool to make them.
Except I realized I'm not actually that smart or profound. So I added some magic buttons to help me.
Except I realized I'm not actually that smart or profound. So I added some magic buttons to help me.
March 5, 2025 at 7:59 PM
I'm a fan of Rick Rubin's aesthetic quotes ... so much so I vibe coded my own tool to make them.
Except I realized I'm not actually that smart or profound. So I added some magic buttons to help me.
Except I realized I'm not actually that smart or profound. So I added some magic buttons to help me.
Thinking about this because it's an example where someone in government had tremendous vision and helped shape a generation of kids.
Hard to believe this was the same political party that last year shut down Toronto's only functioning science centre!
Hard to believe this was the same political party that last year shut down Toronto's only functioning science centre!
March 3, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Thinking about this because it's an example where someone in government had tremendous vision and helped shape a generation of kids.
Hard to believe this was the same political party that last year shut down Toronto's only functioning science centre!
Hard to believe this was the same political party that last year shut down Toronto's only functioning science centre!
🇨🇦 Thinking back to how the Ontario govt in the 80's invested massively in computer education – putting these bespoke ICON machines + custom educational software in every school.
We had ~20 of these in my school + used them an hour every week. Directly led to my career in computing.
We had ~20 of these in my school + used them an hour every week. Directly led to my career in computing.
March 3, 2025 at 4:54 PM
🇨🇦 Thinking back to how the Ontario govt in the 80's invested massively in computer education – putting these bespoke ICON machines + custom educational software in every school.
We had ~20 of these in my school + used them an hour every week. Directly led to my career in computing.
We had ~20 of these in my school + used them an hour every week. Directly led to my career in computing.
The @syntax.fm effect:
Counterscale was *briefly* mentioned near the end of yesterday’s 60 minute episode (#879 Fullstack Cloudflare).
So far has led to a couple hundred new visitors and counting, most of which came via search.
Counterscale was *briefly* mentioned near the end of yesterday’s 60 minute episode (#879 Fullstack Cloudflare).
So far has led to a couple hundred new visitors and counting, most of which came via search.
February 25, 2025 at 2:51 PM
The @syntax.fm effect:
Counterscale was *briefly* mentioned near the end of yesterday’s 60 minute episode (#879 Fullstack Cloudflare).
So far has led to a couple hundred new visitors and counting, most of which came via search.
Counterscale was *briefly* mentioned near the end of yesterday’s 60 minute episode (#879 Fullstack Cloudflare).
So far has led to a couple hundred new visitors and counting, most of which came via search.
v3.0.0 beta of Counterscale is up. In this version:
🆕 CLI install wizard (using clack 🙏 @natemoo.re)
🆕 Deploys as a single Worker again / no more CF Pages
🆕 Uses pnpm for development
👇Video: self-deploy your own web analytics stack in 35s
github.com/benvinegar/c...
🆕 CLI install wizard (using clack 🙏 @natemoo.re)
🆕 Deploys as a single Worker again / no more CF Pages
🆕 Uses pnpm for development
👇Video: self-deploy your own web analytics stack in 35s
github.com/benvinegar/c...
February 21, 2025 at 5:16 PM
v3.0.0 beta of Counterscale is up. In this version:
🆕 CLI install wizard (using clack 🙏 @natemoo.re)
🆕 Deploys as a single Worker again / no more CF Pages
🆕 Uses pnpm for development
👇Video: self-deploy your own web analytics stack in 35s
github.com/benvinegar/c...
🆕 CLI install wizard (using clack 🙏 @natemoo.re)
🆕 Deploys as a single Worker again / no more CF Pages
🆕 Uses pnpm for development
👇Video: self-deploy your own web analytics stack in 35s
github.com/benvinegar/c...
Codegen tip: If you're capturing code coverage on your projects, AI code assistants (Cursor, Windsurf/Cascade, etc) will look at the coverage output and suggest new test code to fill in the gaps.
February 11, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Codegen tip: If you're capturing code coverage on your projects, AI code assistants (Cursor, Windsurf/Cascade, etc) will look at the coverage output and suggest new test code to fill in the gaps.