Stephen Gilmore's Posts

How the CEO of Obsidian uses Obsidian

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:11:59 +0000

How the CEO of Obsidian uses his own note taking application.

Concrete Laptop Stand

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:19:22 +0000

This is pretty cool. I like the project and process more than the aesthetic.

Single page calendar

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:17:40 +0000

A single page calendar.

This version was inspired by https://neatnik.net/calendar/.

Demo: https://abetusk.github.io/neatocal/
Source: https://github.com/abetusk/neatocal

Blogosphere

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:38:57 +0000

What's old is new again. A nice spot to find content by (hopefully) real people.

Side note: I wish Facebook, Instagram, and all the others were more interested in building connections with friends, family, and my community than squeeze every possible moment of my attention out of me.

Django health status notifications with ntfy.sh

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:25:35 +0000

There are a gazillion ways to get status notifications for a web application, but here's another one using ntfy.sh

This little helper function would need to be scheduled to run in a task queue like django-q2. It could also be modified slightly into a cron job.

def ntfy_status() -> str:
    """Checks the health check endpoint and sends a notification to ntfy.sh."""
    import requests
    from django.contrib.sites.models import Site
    from django.urls import reverse

    if not settings.NTFY_TOPIC:
        raise ValueError("NTFY_TOPIC environment variable is not configured.")

    # Create the full url to a health check
    protocol = "https" if settings.SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT else "http"
    domain = Site.objects.get_current().domain
    path = reverse("health_check")
    url = f"{protocol}://{domain}{path}"

    health_response = requests.get(url)

    if health_response.status_code == 200:
        emoji = "green_circle"
        suffix = "is up!"
    else:
        emoji = "red_circle,skull"
        suffix = "is down!"

    # Send ntfy message
    ntfy_response = requests.post(
        f"https://ntfy.sh/{settings.NTFY_TOPIC}",
        data=f"{domain} {suffix}",
        headers={
            "Tags": f"{emoji},{health_response.status_code}",
            "Actions": "view, Open URL, {url}, clear=true",
        },
    )

    ntfy_response.raise_for_status()
    return "Sent notification to ntfy.sh with status code: " + str(ntfy_response.status_code)

I ran a half marathon! 🏃

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 03:54:10 +0000

I don't think anyone else will ever read or see this, but it was a lot of work; and 6 months ago, I didn't think I could do it.

My goal was just to finish. Based on my training runs, it looked like I might run a 2:45:00 time, but I beat it by about 30 minutes. I was trying to run by heart rate, but it felt boringly slow. A few miles in, I switched to a 90s/30s run walk and it carried me through the end of the race.

Lesson's learned:

A half marathon is very do-able.
Nature's Bakery fig bars are decent real food option for runs.
I drink a lot of water and it was VERY helpful to keep a 500 mL bottle of Skratch with me in a belt during the run.
The Galloway run walk method was amazing! I think the run would have been a lot harder and slower without it.

The difference between worry, anxiety, and stress

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:58:02 +0000

Worrying well: how to bring wisdom to your worries by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Worrying well is about tapping into the wisdom of real or imagined people, you can turn your negative worry into a positive one—whether a worry you accept, if the circumstances are out of your control, or one you can take action upon.

Worry. A repetitive/ruminative form of thinking about the future or the past.

Anxiety. An uncomfortable feeling of fear, apprehension, or dread, often in the gut or chest, accompanied by physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeat and sweating.

Stress. A physical response (fight or flight) to a threat, real or imagined.

Workday Compensation Plan Assignments Security gotcha

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 21:35:29 +0000

I hit another Workday security "gotcha" today.

I needed a field that was based on a related business object "Compensation Plan Assignments".

No problem, Related Actions >> View Security for Calculated Field. Okay, View access on Worker Data: Compensation by Organization, great.

And it didn't work! I was stuck for the better part of an hour.

Eventually I came up with the correct search encantation to find something helpful on Workday Community:

Report User Or ISU Not Seeing Merit, Bonus Or Stock Plan Assignment Data

Issue

A report user or ISU account is not seeing merit, bonus or stock plan assignment data.

For example Compensation Plan Assignment related fields, secured by the Worker Data: Compensation by Organization domain, are not returning the expected merit, bonus or stock plan assignment data.

Cause

In line with your Organizations compensation security model please verify if access is also required on the Worker Data: Funded Plan Assignments domain:

Worker Data: Funded Plan Assignments

Domain description: This domain works in conjunction with segment security to provide the ability to secure funded plan (merit, bonus or stock) assignments.

Resolution

Grant the user access to the applicable Worker Data: Funded Plan Assignments domain. Activate changes and retest.

Example impacted fields:

Compensation Plan Assignment

Merit Plans - Plan Details

Workday Studio "exit()"

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 22:07:14 +0000

Today I learned there is an MVEL expression do do a "System.exit" or "sys.exit()" in Workday Studio.

context.setAbort(true)

Important: The default behavior of all local-out steps is Propogate Abort = true. Generally you'll want this. If the abort isn't working as expected, check that setting first.

Example¶

1. Set an integration time limit¶

Somewhere near the beginning of the integration, set a time limit on the integration.

// You could simply set a global value
props["runtimeLimitHours"] = 3.9

// OR you could retrieve it from a launch parameter or integration attribute
props["runtimeLimitHours"] = Double.valueOf(lp.getSimpleData("Runtime Limit (hours)"));

If you use a launch parameter or integration attribute, consider adding an ValidateExp that the value is between 0 and 4 hours

2: Evaluate the run duration¶

So for example, say you're in a loop processing a few thousand records. After the splitter, you might have an eval component with something like this:

// 1. Get the current time and the 'sent' time in milliseconds
long nowMs = System.currentTimeMillis();
long sentMs = lp.sentOnAsDate.getTime();

// 2. Calculate the difference in milliseconds
long diffMs = nowMs - sentMs;

// 3. Convert to hours as a double (to support decimals like 3.75)
// There are 3,600,000 milliseconds in one hour
double diffHours = diffMs / 3600000.0;

// 4. Logic check
if (diffHours > props["runtimeLimitHours"]) {
    // Logic for when the time limit is exceeded
    props["abortIntegration"] = true;
} else {
    props["abortIntegration"] = false;
}

3. Route by duration¶

Then you could have a route step that checks props["abortIntegration"] for each record. The choose-route expression would be something like:

// abort
(boolean)props["abortIntegration"] == true

// continue
(boolean)props["abortIntegration"] == false

4. Handle the abort¶

The last thing in the logic path will be an eval step with context.setAbort(true). Do any steps to close out the integration before the context.setAbort. So for example, there might be steps like:

Log a CRTICICAL message in a PutIntegrationMessage step
Close/save any log files with a local-out step
eval step to trigger the abort with context.setAbort(true)

Workday API security gotcha's

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:45:56 +0000

Validation error occurred. The entered information does not meet the restrictions defined for this field. (Replacement_for_Worker_Reference).

I was working with the Edit_Job_Requisition API and kept hitting this error; even though I wasn't touching the Replacement_for_Worker_Reference at all in my API request.

Solution: give the ISU View access to Worker Data: Public Worker Reports. I wasn't missing any job requisition related security, I was missing the security to see the worker in the Replacement_for_Worker_Reference. Imagine completing the task through Workday's UI, I couldn't see the drop down list of workers without that domain.

Ctrl + L + C

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:54:25 +0000

Today I learned how to quickly copy the URL of the current page.

`Ctrl` + `L` + `C`

Ctrl + L selects the address bar and Ctrl + C copies the selected address bar URL.

My Workday Studio Preferences

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 19:36:50 +0000

These are some of my preferred Workday Studio preference changes I've made over the years.

Navigation: Window > Preferences

XML > XML Files > Editor¶

Uncheck "Format Comments"
- It is incredibly frustrating when formatting an XSLT comment destroyes the format and readability of a long comment block

Fonts¶

Search "font" at the top of Preferences and replace everything with your font of choice.

General > Workday > Deployment¶

Check "Include source code in deployed CLAR"

General > Editors > Text Editors¶

Line spacing (extra % of font height): 25
Check "Enable word wrap when opening an editor"
Check "Show line numbers"

XML > XML Files > Editor > Syntax Coloring¶

"Comment Content" and "Comment Delimiters": Custom dark orange color to stand out from other text
"Tag Delimiters" and "Tag Names": Change to a pink or purple to differentiate them from XSLT tags

Spatchcock Chicken

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:02:50 +0000

Spatchcocking (is that a word?) is the only way I cook whole chicken. Until this morning, I hadn't seen how much easier it is to remove the ribs and some of the other bones before cooking the chicken.

ChefSteps Spatchcock Chicken Butchery

Spatchcock a Chicken with Chef Eric Crowley, Chef Eric's Culinary Classroom, West LA/CA

Comparing Tribute.js and Tom Select for tagging with suggestions

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:25:30 +0000

I've been wishing for tagging autocomplete for some of my projects to go along with django-taggit.

This is a quick demo that I was playing with to help make a choice.

Tribute.js is nice if you want to do tagging or mentions in the text as you are typing.
Tom Select seems to play a little bit nicer with the way django-taggit works out of the box.

Sorry it isn't a super mobile friendly experience.

Tagging System Comparison

Django Backend View (request.POST)

Helpful Markdown utilities

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 02:08:49 +0000

A few tools that have been useful for writing in Markdown.

One's I've actually used:

I haven't used, but could be useful:

Word to Markdown

Uses https://github.com/mixmark-io/turndown ↩

Your project is always at risk of being delayed by the longest task in the project.

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 03:52:19 +0000

Your project is always at risk of being delayed by the longest task in the project.

—Mark Horstman, Career Tools Podcast

I think I replayed this 3 times in the driveway while I took out the trash. It's been a minute since I've thought about project management this way.

We often think, "UAT will take a month", so we block a month on the calendar and move on. What happens if we realize something didn't get done at the end of the month? The project could be 4 weeks behind. Smaller 2-3 day tasks put a cap on the risk.

Task Size: 1 month → Potential Delay: 4 weeks
Task Size: 3 days → Potential Delay: 3 days

Presidio - Data Protection and De-identification

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:59:42 +0000

An open-source framework for detecting, redacting, masking, and anonymizing sensitive data (PII) across text, images, and structured data. Supports NLP, pattern matching, and customizable pipelines.

Microsoft Presideo

I don't have an immediate use for this now, but there's been times I sure wish I knew about or had this.

Essentialism

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 13:00:02 +0000

Spark notes on the 1-2-3 planning method author Greg McKeown published.

Quarterly Planning¶

What's essential that I'm underinvesting in?
What's non-essential that I'm over-investing in?
How can I make it effortless to get the most important things done?

The 1-2-3 Method:¶

Essential Project: The day's priority. 1 essential project to work on for 3 hours.
Urgent & Essential Tasks: 2 urgent and essential tasks to keep you from falling behind.
Maintenance Tasks: 3 maintenance items to complete to stay organized and prevent problems.
Other tasks or notes

References¶

The Essentialism Planner on Amazon by Greg McKeown
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Greg's podcast Episode 233 for more about the "Power Half an Hour"
Greg's podcast Episode 235 for more about the "1-2-3 Method"

Time Workday RaaS Requests

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 21:14:52 +0000

I've had a few scenarios recently where I've needed to time RaaS API requests from Workday for testing and optimizing reports.

This is a somewhat unpolished python script with inline dependencies I can quickly run with uv.

Using the script¶

With uv installed, it's as easy as uv run raas_timer.py.

Run the help command:

> uv run raas_timer.py -h

Output:

usage: raas_timer.py [-h] [--user USER] [--count COUNT] [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--download] url

Time a Workday RaaS request.

positional arguments:
  url                The RaaS URL to request.

options:
  -h, --help         show this help message and exit
  --user USER        Workday ISU Username
  --count COUNT      Number of times to run the request (default=1)
  --timeout TIMEOUT  Request timeout in minutes (default=1)
  --download         Save the output as a timestamped CSV file

The script¶

Save this in a file named raas_timer.py on your computer to use.

# /// script
# requires-python = ">=3.11"
# dependencies = [
#     "requests",
#     "rich",
#     "rich-argparse",
# ]
# ///
#!/usr/bin/env python

from __future__ import annotations

import argparse
import datetime
import getpass
import logging
import os
import threading
import time
from collections.abc import Sequence
from pathlib import Path

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth
from rich.console import Console
from rich.live import Live
from rich.logging import RichHandler
from rich.progress import (
    BarColumn,
    DownloadColumn,
    Progress,
    SpinnerColumn,
    TextColumn,
    TransferSpeedColumn,
)
from rich.spinner import Spinner
from rich.table import Table
from rich.text import Text
from rich_argparse import RichHelpFormatter

# Setup Rich Console and Logging
console = Console()
logging.basicConfig(
    level="INFO",
    format="%(message)s",
    datefmt="[%X]",
    handlers=[RichHandler(rich_tracebacks=True, console=console, show_path=False)],
)
log = logging.getLogger("raas_timer")

# --- Utility Functions ---


def format_size(bytes_size: int) -> str:
    mb_size = bytes_size / (1024 * 1024)
    return f"[bold cyan]{bytes_size:,}[/] bytes ([bold magenta]{mb_size:,.2f} MB[/])"


def get_timer_content(start_time: datetime.datetime, start_ts: str) -> Text:
    """Generates the formatted content for the live waiting timer."""
    elapsed = datetime.datetime.now() - start_time
    mins, secs = divmod(int(elapsed.total_seconds()), 60)

    content = Text()
    content.append(start_ts, style="bold cyan")
    content.append(" | ", style="white")
    content.append("Waiting for Workday...", style="yellow")
    content.append(f" {mins}m {secs:02d}s", style="bold white")
    return content


# --- Core Logic Splits ---


def wait_for_response(
    url: str, auth: HTTPBasicAuth, timeout_min: int
) -> requests.Response:
    """Handles the live timer UI while waiting for the server to respond."""
    start_time = datetime.datetime.now()
    start_ts = start_time.strftime("%I:%M:%S %p")

    response: requests.Response | None = None
    error: Exception | None = None

    def make_request():
        nonlocal response, error
        try:
            res = requests.get(url, auth=auth, timeout=timeout_min * 60, stream=True)
            res.raise_for_status()
            response = res
        except Exception as e:
            error = e

    req_thread = threading.Thread(target=make_request, daemon=True)
    req_thread.start()

    spinner = Spinner("dots", style="cyan")

    with Live(console=console, refresh_per_second=10, transient=True) as live:
        while req_thread.is_alive():
            timer_text = get_timer_content(start_time, start_ts)
            renderable = Text.assemble(spinner.render(time.time()), " ", timer_text)
            live.update(renderable)
            req_thread.join(timeout=0.1)

    if error:
        raise error
    if not response:
        raise RuntimeError("Request thread died without response or error.")

    return response


def consume_response(response: requests.Response, download: bool) -> tuple[int, int]:
    """Handles the progress bar and processes the incoming data stream."""
    total_size = int(response.headers.get("content-length", 0))
    line_count = 0
    total_bytes = 0

    with Progress(
        SpinnerColumn(),
        TextColumn("[progress.description]{task.description}"),
        BarColumn(),
        DownloadColumn(),
        TransferSpeedColumn(),
        console=console,
        transient=True,
    ) as progress:
        desc = (
            "[cyan]Downloading content..." if download else "[cyan]Streaming content..."
        )
        task_id = progress.add_task(desc, total=total_size if total_size > 0 else None)

        if download:
            timestamp = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
            filepath = Path(__file__).parent / f"{timestamp}.csv"

            with open(filepath, "wb") as f:
                for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8192):
                    if chunk:
                        f.write(chunk)
                        progress.update(task_id, advance=len(chunk))

            total_bytes = filepath.stat().st_size
            with open(filepath, "rb") as f:
                for _ in f:
                    line_count += 1
        else:
            for line in response.iter_lines():
                if line:
                    line_count += 1
                    total_bytes += len(line) + 1
                    progress.update(task_id, advance=len(line) + 1)

    return line_count, total_bytes


# --- Orchestrator ---


def run_timing_attempt(
    url: str, auth: HTTPBasicAuth, timeout_min: int, download: bool
) -> datetime.timedelta | None:
    """Orchestrates a single request and returns the duration."""
    start_time = datetime.datetime.now()

    try:
        response = wait_for_response(url, auth, timeout_min)
        lines, bytes_count = consume_response(response, download)

        duration = datetime.datetime.now() - start_time

        log.info(f"Lines:    [bold white]{lines:,}[/]")
        log.info(f"Size:     {format_size(bytes_count)}")
        log.info(f"Status:   [bold green]{response.status_code}[/]")
        log.info(f"Duration: [bold yellow]{duration}[/]")
        return duration

    except Exception as e:
        duration = datetime.datetime.now() - start_time
        log.error(
            f"Request [bold red]FAILED[/] after {duration.total_seconds():.1f}s. Error: {e}"
        )
        log.warning(f"Cooldown: Sleeping for {timeout_min / 2} minutes...")
        time.sleep((timeout_min / 2) * 60)
        return None


# --- Entry Point ---


def main(argv: Sequence[str] | None = None) -> int:
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        description="Time a Workday RaaS request.", formatter_class=RichHelpFormatter
    )
    parser.add_argument("url", help="The RaaS URL to request.")
    parser.add_argument("--user", help="Workday ISU Username")
    parser.add_argument(
        "--count", type=int, default=1, help="Number of times to run (default: 1)"
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "--timeout", type=int, default=1, help="Timeout in minutes (default: 1)"
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "--download", action="store_true", help="Save the first run as CSV"
    )

    args = parser.parse_args(argv)

    username = args.user or console.input("[bold green]Enter Username:[/] ")
    password = getpass.getpass("Enter Password: ")
    auth = HTTPBasicAuth(username, password)

    results: list[datetime.timedelta | None] = []

    for i in range(1, args.count + 1):
        console.rule(f"[bold blue]Request {i:02d}/{args.count:02d}[/]")

        duration = run_timing_attempt(
            url=args.url,
            auth=auth,
            timeout_min=args.timeout,
            download=args.download if i == 1 else False,
        )
        results.append(duration)
        print()

    # Summary Table
    table = Table(title="\n📊 Execution Summary", title_style="bold underline")
    table.add_column("Run #", justify="center")
    table.add_column("Duration (Min:Sec)", justify="right")
    table.add_column("Status", justify="left")

    successes = [d for d in results if d is not None]
    for i, delta in enumerate(results, 1):
        if delta:
            m, s = divmod(int(delta.total_seconds()), 60)
            table.add_row(str(i), f"{m}m {s:02d}s", "[green]SUCCESS[/]")
        else:
            table.add_row(str(i), "N/A", "[red]FAILED[/]")

    if successes:
        avg_s = sum(d.total_seconds() for d in successes) / len(successes)
        m, s = divmod(int(avg_s), 60)
        table.caption = f"Average Duration (Successes): [bold yellow]{m}m {s:02d}s[/]"

    console.print(table)
    return 0


if __name__ == "__main__":
    try:
        raise SystemExit(main())
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        console.print("\n[bold red]Process interrupted by user.[/]")
        os._exit(1)

Decimal formatting in Workday Studio

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 22:21:47 +0000

Today I was trying to clean up the log message for a number and wanted to add some formatting to the decimal to add 0 padding so 2 becomes 0002 or 2345 becomes 2,345.

Add zero padding¶

props["count"] = 23;

props["fmt"] = new java.text.DecimalFormat("00000");
props["fmt"].format(props["count"]); 

// result: '00023'

Add thousands separator¶

This seems like a really roundabout way... but it worked...

props["count"] = 2345

props["formattedCount"] = new java.text.DecimalFormat("#,###").format(Long.parseLong(props["count"].toString()))

// result: '2,345'