J.D. Hodges - Page 6 of 177 - Every man has a story, this is my story.

Claude Code CLAUDE.md: How to Write Project Instructions That Actually Work

Friday, 2026.03.27 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: CLAUDE.md is a markdown file that gives Claude Code persistent project instructions. Put it in your repo root. Keep it under 200 lines. Use settings.json for permissions and hooks, CLAUDE.md for coding standards and workflow guidance. Down below the screenshot is a real working example and the full breakdown of what goes where. A real CLAUDE.md file in VS Code. Some sections collapsed and blurred for privacy and security. What Is CLAUDE.md? Every time you start a Claude Code

How to Find Your New Synology NAS IP Address (DS925+ and Others)

Friday, 2026.03.27 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: Synology NAS devices use DHCP, so there’s no default IP address. To find your new DiskStation on the network, open find.synology.com in any browser. It will detect the NAS and hopefully show you the IP address in seconds. The Problem You unbox a new Synology DS925+, slot in your drives, plug in Ethernet and power, and wait for it to boot. Now what? Unlike a router with a sticker on the bottom showing 192.168.1.1, Synology NAS devices don’t have

VRBO Customer Service Problem: When the Host Cancels and Nobody is Home

Friday, 2026.03.27 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: A VRBO host cancelled my confirmed reservation two weeks before check-in because they double-booked. When I tried to use VRBO’s VrboCare guarantee to get a rebooking credit, the live chat agent joined, read my message, and left without saying a word. VRBO’s customer service infrastructure may be designed to make you give up. 🤷‍♂️ The Cancellation I had a confirmed reservation for April 10-12, 2026 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The property was a house near Expo Square, booked for three

Claude AI Usage Limits: What Changed and How to Make Them Last

Thursday, 2026.03.26 J.D. H. 4 comments

TL;DR: Claude’s usage limits felt tighter in March 2026 because they were. The short version: Anthropic had more demand than GPU capacity. Millions of new users arrived as word got around about how good Claude is and especially after the OpenAI Pentagon boycott, the off-peak 2x promotion ended March 28, and multiple Max subscribers report usage meters jumping from under 50% to 100% on single prompts. Below: what the limits actually are, why they felt worse that spring, and specific

Claude Project Instructions: Examples & Templates (2026)

Thursday, 2026.03.26 J.D. H. Leave a comment

Summary: Claude project instructions tell Claude how to behave inside a specific project. Here’s a starter template you can paste right now: Customize the bracketed parts for your workflow. That template covers 80% of what most people need. The rest of this post gives you more examples and explains when project instructions are the right tool vs. profile preferences. If you’re looking for Claude’s account-wide custom instructions (the ones that apply to every conversation), that’s a different feature. I have

Fuel House Opens in Winona, MO

Wednesday, 2026.03.25 J.D. H. Leave a comment

After opening their first location in Eminence and then expanding to West Plains, Fuel House has officially made it to Winona, MO! ☕🎉 We stopped by on opening day and the coffee was DELICIOUS. I had the “Falling Springs” and the protein addition was great. My wife had an iced Americano with vanilla cold foam (perfection), and our friend went with the Rocky Falls with a few modifications. All three were fantastic. Like at all their locations, the Fuel House

MacBook Neo vs. Windows Laptops in 2026

Wednesday, 2026.03.25 J.D. H. Leave a comment

Disclosure: This is my own personal opinion. I have not been paid by Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, or anyone else to write it. TL;DR: The MacBook Neo is not the most powerful laptop here, and it is not the best specs bargain. At $599, it is the simplest smart laptop buy in a very messy 2026 market. Buy the Neo for the cheapest Mac that still feels fast and polished. Buy the M4 MacBook Air for the better long-term Mac.

Read more computer tips, gadgets-and-tech

Quicken Categorizing Downloaded Transactions Incorrectly? Here’s the Real Fix.

Tuesday, 2026.03.24 J.D. H. Leave a comment

TL;DR: Quicken’s auto-categorization guesses categories based on payee names and often gets them wrong. The fix: disable auto-categorization in Preferences, then set up Renaming Rules and Memorized Payee List entries so Quicken categorizes based on your explicit rules instead of its own guessing. Takes about 60 seconds per vendor. The Problem If you use Quicken Classic for Windows to manage your finances, you’ve probably run into this: you download transactions from your bank, and Quicken helpfully assigns categories to them.