Active Projects

Uke Chords

https://www.ukechords.xyz/about

I like to “own” my data, so I keep chord progressions in a spreadsheet. This website tool I made turns those chords into ukulele fingerng charts!

Folk Tune Transposer

https://folktunetransposer.com/

A ton of folk music is written for instruments in the key of C, like fiddles and pianos. So many instruments are in other keys - like Clarinet and Trumpet are in the key of Bb, and French Horn is in the key of F. This tool I made makes it possible to transpose folk tunes on the fly to be playable by non-C instruments. It reads in music via “ABC” notation, which you can find on folk tune sites like http://www.folktunefinder.com

Visualizations

Bookmarklets

TweetTheToot

I primarily post to Mastodon lately, sometimes I want to manually cross-post to Twitter. This bookmarklet makes it a single click!

I often want to share a YouTube link, and I often use markdown to do it. This makes it one click — voila!

FlipIt

From the development server, open the current page on the production - and vice versa. Useful for comparing css or functionality changes quickly.

Slugify

For a given pivotal card that’s open, create an appropriate github branch name for it - including the id and ticket title.

Pixlr Bookmarklet

Open the current image (opened in a tab) in pixlr express. To easily put a overlay of text over something, etc.

Params to Form Input

Easily fill out web forms using data from a spreadsheet using this bookmarklet.

Gists & Tricks

Self Publishing Technical Setup

To publish my book, I used markdown, pandoc, LaTeX, and a bunch of other tools.

Browsersync

A simple local HTTP server that auto-reloads AND makes it available on mobile. A critical tool for html/css design work. The gist also has instructions for a more advanced setup with sass compiling using foreman.

Bash/zsh Autocomplete

The BEST thing I’ve ever done to my bash/zsh.

Dotfiles

Everyone has their own dotfiles. My way is simple - just a couple of symlinks from a github repo.

Slack Emoticon Extraction

One of your Slacks has a ton of emoticons that your others don’t? Download them all at once with this tool ✨

Push To Talk in a Google Hangout (Meet)

Hold spacebar to talk; otherwise you’re muted. This gist was even turned into a Chrome extension used by hundreds of thousands of people across the US.

Darken PDFs

A pdf that’s been copied & scanned too many times ends up with illegible grey ink. Make grays black again!

Screen Record Hangouts using Quicktime Player + soundflower

OSX can’t record both outputs natively. Here’s how to capture both your mic and the other person's audio during a Hangouts call / quicktime screen recording.

Make gifs via Quicktime

Quicktime records .mp4 files. You can turn that into a gif using ffmpeg.

Mediawiki on Heroku

Mediawiki can be challenging to set up. One of the most cost-effective setups you can do uses Heroku and ClearDB.

Autorefresh Terminal History

Useful for presentations where you want to show the audience what commands you’ve typed.

Retired Projects

DC Metro Map

https://caseywatts.com/dcmetromap

This “mobile app” keeps a copy of DC’s Metro Map offline for you to use while you’re underground without internet access. It’s not an app store app, but it looks like one. You do “add to home screen”, and it’s available as an app icon and it works offline! It’s using technology that makes it a “Progressive Web Application”.

CardSwipr

http://github.com/YaleSTC/cardswipr

Keeps track of who has attended an event, using their Yale ID card to swipe in. A small, simple application in Ruby on Rails. Interviewed every group on campus that had a similar system to see how this app might meet their needs. Worked with central ITS to expose [card-swipe ⇔ identity] as a web API.

YaleLDAP Gem

http://github.com/YaleSTC/yaleldap

Greatly simplifies connection to Yale’s LDAP Server. Well documented, 4.0 on Code Climate.

Reservations

http://yalestc.github.io/reservations

Manages the loaning and reservation of equipment items. Used by ~14 groups on campus to manage 10,000’s reservations of 100’s of equipment items. A large, stable, well-tested application in Ruby on Rails.

Shifts

http://yalestc.github.io/shifts

Coordinates where and when employees work. Employees sign themselves up, swap shifts, are held accountable. Manages payment. Used by ~7 groups to manage ~400 employees. A large, difficult legacy application. Going through massive Rails 2 => Rails 3 upgrade.

Service Now Tweaks Browser Extension

http://github.com/YaleSTC/Service-Now-Tweaks

Improves the experience of Service Now, is an IT ticket tracking software with an otherwise terrible interface.

Yale Wiki, Haven Free Clinic Wiki, Student Technology Collaborative Wiki

http://yalewiki.org> (retired

Helps people share information and collaborate, especially long-term. Editable by anyone affiliated with the group. For YaleWiki.org, >50,000 views/year by a population of <5,000. Information architecture, server administration, MediaWiki with custom plugins.