Ben Smithgall
Welcome to the web blog
Bit pusher at Spotify. Previously Interactive News at the New York Times, U.S. Digital Service, and Code for America.
Blog
-
Making a big button to answer FaceTime calls - March 26, 2025
Wire up a giant button that hides a ridiculous Rube Goldberg machine (Arduino! AppleScript! And more!) to answer FaceTime calls.
read more... -
Self-hosting Obsidian LiveSync on Kubernetes with Tailscale - June 17, 2024
Gluing a bunch of stuff together to get what you get for free with Apple Notes, except you get to keep your notes on your own server, and you don’t have to expose the server to the internet.
read more... -
Building a chess application with Phoenix LiveView (Part 2) - June 5, 2024
With the rules of chess implemented in part one, we can now go ahead and turn them into a board with Phoenix LiveView.
read more... -
Building a chess application with Phoenix LiveView (Part 1) - May 31, 2024
Getting started by implementing (most) of the rules of chess.
read more... -
Auto-focus after adding a new row in an editable data table - April 11, 2024
In an editable data grid with an element for adding a new row, it’s nice to be able to auto-focus on the first column of the new row. Here’s one way to do it with
read more...@tanstack/react-table.
For older posts, check out the blog.
Books
-
The Sprawl Trilogy - December 28, 2019
-
A Confederacy of Dunces - December 10, 2019
-
The Idiot - November 14, 2019
-
Sula - November 5, 2019
-
Play It as It Lays - October 21, 2019