Blog

This is a blog about software engineering, consulting, coffee and other things that I find interesting.

2026

Smoke day in Minneapolis

Today is the first big smoke day of 2026. The past five years we've had some brutal streaks of smoke days from all the smoke coming south from Canada and northern Minnesota but this one is extra bad.

#minneapolis

Tracking Today's Record Highs

Today's Record High is a website I created that tracks the record highs and lows for major weather stations and cities across the United States.

How to Evaluate a Software Consultant

The questions to ask a software consultant in an initial conversation that separate real experience from a good sales pitch.

Ricoh GR Instagram Directory

I created a Google Form and Google List to try and create a community Instagram directory of folks out shooting with Ricoh GRs.

I Still Can't Trust AI

AI gave me two different brew recipes for the same coffee in two separate chats. When I pushed back it changed its answer — not because I was right, but because I pushed. That's why I can't trust AI.

Building a Photoblog with AI

After years of posting photos only to Instagram I decided to build a dedicated photoblog at photos.clintmcmahon.com. This is the story of why I built it, how I used AI to migrate 250 old Tumblr posts and why the photos — not the code — are the product.

I bought a new printer for printing pictures

I bought a Canon PIXMA G620 photo printer to start printing family pictures at home and getting them up on the walls where they belong.

Sometimes I Don't Use AI At All

Some clients don't allow AI in their codebase. Here's what working without it looks like in 2026, and why I think the trade-off is worth it.

Software Engineering vs Software Development

Over the last couple of years, my opinions have changed about the term software engineering. In this blog post, I share what I see as the difference between software engineering and software development in the age of AI.

Software Engineering in 2026: How I Build Software with AI

AI has become a pretty great software engineering tool. Since I started software development in 2000 as a professional, a lot of things have changed that I wanted to share. This is a blog post about how I am using AI today in 2026 to make me a better software engineer.

Racing the Star Tribune's paywall system

enerally, you can use reader mode to get around these paywalls to view the article. But the other day I mistakenly stumbled on a new way to do it for the Star Tribune: if you scroll down to the bottom of the page as soon as the content loads.

#web #javascript #css

I merged my three coffee apps into one codebase

This is my blog post about how I'm merging the MN Coffee Map, NYC Coffee Map and Chicago Coffee Map into a single Expo codebase.

#coffee

How do delete all local git branches except main and develop

Over time my git branches on my local machine get out of control. Here's the command to delete all your local git branches except main and develop.

#git

Why I preheat my portafilter when making espresso

I couldn't dial in my espresso consistently until I discovered that I should be preheating my portafilter. Here's why preheating your portafilter changes everything for home espresso on the Breville Barista Pro.

#[coffee]

My local news site redirects you to a third party website for ad blockers

A local news broadcaster redirects users with ad blockers to a third-party error page with oddly personal messaging.

#web #advertising #local-news

Coffee Journal: A Lookback at My Year of Brewing Chemex & Espressos 2024-2025

Introducing my 2024-2025 coffee journal of 26 bags of coffee brewed at home with a Chemex and Barista Pro espresso machine, documented in a Field Notes notebook.

#coffee #coffee-journal

Merging NYC Coffee + MN Coffee Phase 1: Database

The first phase of combining NYC Coffee and MN Coffee into a unified platform, starting with database consolidation and schema design.

#coffee #nyc coffee #mn coffee

How to Configure CI/CD to Deploy a .Net App to Windows IIS using GitHub Actions

Learn how to set up GitHub Actions with a self-hosted runner to automatically deploy your .NET website to a Windows IIS server when code is pushed to main.

#dotnet #github #cicd
2025

Gogojo from Verve

An Ethiopian washed heirloom that finally came out smooth after a week of dialing in—used ChatGPT for help and cracked the Ethiopian code.

#coffee #coffee-journal #verve #ethiopia

NYC Coffee - A New York City Coffee Map

After launching MN Coffee I decided to create the New York City version of the app to display all the coffee shops around New York City.

#programming #coffee