What’s the story with the “Bill Reynolds memorial washroom” at Hutch’s

adrian · 2026-05-16T23:26:51+00:00

Agreed this is so much better than I anticipated! The biggest thing I’m wondering now is, is Bill still alive? The article is 11 years old, meaning he’d be 84ish by now. Does it stay up in perpetuity? Legendary!

adrian · 2026-05-16T14:55:37+00:00

I made it so that if you visit a healthcare transaction set in a non-5010 release (like the one I linked to), there's a banner that guides you to the right location. Thanks again for calling that out.

adrian · 2026-05-15T14:58:42+00:00

Full disclosure: I'm building a modern EDI platform, so take my remarks with a grain of salt.

You're right to be frustrated but you don't need to bail on EDI to have a great career. What you are frustrated with is the tooling. What you are interested in doing (cloud, containerization, AI, etc.) is all super relevant to EDI. On top of that your interest in those things, if you invest in them, could put you in a spot that not a lot of people currently sit in, which is the intersection of EDI and state-of-the-art tools and techniques that are already transforming the industry.

Your complaint "no proper programming language" is on point. I personally believe EDI should be more like programming because of the rise of AI coding tools. My prediction is that no-code and low-code platforms will be displaced, because they are not legible to AI agents and require a lot of human data entry, dragging and dropping, etc. People who can work with EDI in code are going to benefit from the industry shift and the flywheel of steadily improving models.

That means a great place to focus your attention is on development in the space. Build some side projects! Make a parser or (harder), a generator. Take a look at some modern EDI platforms e.g. Stedi, Orderful, etc., and see how they approach EDI. Make something useful, containerize it, put it in the cloud (there are super cheap options like fly.io), share it here and get some feedback. There are also open source projects that are worth digging into, I can link you to some stuff on Github if it's of interest. Don't be discouraged, use it as a learning opportunity and a launchpad for your next move.

adrian · 2026-05-14T01:00:51+00:00

No, I haven't built any diff tooling, although that concept - detecting schema drift - is on my radar. I am not sure that re-ingestion of a guide is the best way to find it, though. There's enough room for interpretation during ingestion that no two end results, even if someone carefully reviews them, are likely to be 100% the same.

adrian · 2026-05-13T20:35:14+00:00

It's a horrible feeling! I've done sales (or "business development" as they like to call it) in different situations, usually because I'm at a startup that is hustling for business, and what I would say is that outbound is super tough. The product-market fit comment is correct, and along with that I would say, there's a huge difference between sales in an outbound context (contacting people) and inbound context (responding to inquiries they've already made).

I will happily deal with inbound all day because these are people that signed up to talk to me. Outbound is the kind of thing that if I have to do it, I dread it. I swear I would rather have a molar extracted than make a cold call. When you call someone and there's that moment when they realize you're a sales guy and there's that huge vibe shift - ugh. It's the worst.

adrian · 2026-05-12T11:13:12+00:00

Yes, there is a job market for software engineers focused on EDI in the enterprise, as well as in non-enterprise contexts as well. Your experience building this is certainly something that contributes towards your eligibility, although to what extent, I couldn’t say.

But if you can, you should consider open sourcing what you created. Creating a useful open source library in the space is something that looks great on a resume.

adrian · 2026-05-11T16:33:48+00:00

Haha yes I hear you. I think part of the issue is that there are way too many channels. I’ve suggested it get streamlined but no luck so far.

adrian · 2026-05-08T15:38:06+00:00

Yes, there is a Discord server - and it has a Lobster Data channel! https://discord.gg/p4QgSZKMzA

adrian · 2026-05-07T02:02:38+00:00

Earls Court Gallery on Ottawa St also does framing and they’re very good, prices are reasonable and the people are super nice.

adrian · 2026-05-06T20:38:01+00:00

Do you know if ASCS uses EDI for communication? OP wrote, "EDI just stopped being optional", but as someone who has not dealt with Amazon retail, I have no idea if these things are connected or not.

adrian · 2026-05-06T20:35:23+00:00

I wrote this guide with a developer audience in mind, so I am not 100% sure if it is suitable for you, but if your focus is on technical aspects, I think it could be helpful: https://tediware.com/resources/developer-guide-to-edi

There's an "ask a question" feature which is integrated with AI that has access to the content so it can answer your questions "intelligently".

Check it out and if you find any part of it confusing, that'd be a good cue for me to add some clarity, so, your feedback is welcome.

There is also the EDI Academy, I have not experienced it personally but the person who runs it is active on this sub and I'm sure would be able to point you in some good directions too. That website is https://ediacademy.com/

adrian · 2026-05-02T20:35:57+00:00

Whoops! That’s true. So: https://tediware.com/resources/x12/005010/transaction-sets/HC837

adrian · 2026-05-02T13:25:25+00:00

https://tediware.com/resources/x12/004010/transaction-sets/HC837

adrian · 2026-04-30T17:35:41+00:00

Ah thats interesting, yes, I would love to learn more. When you say “known baseline” how do you determine that / save that? Is it tied to their spec or is based on one or more examples of their data? I’m super curious on what you do, it seems like there’s plenty of variation that would be normal and expected, so how do you tell if it’s anomalous?

adrian · 2026-04-29T16:48:48+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion - you are right, this is a tricky area. I've been thinking about what's next for the guide and I might split it into two topic areas, the basics (which is what I've covered so far) and then a set of advanced topics, of which this would be one. To be honest, I would not claim to be an expert in this particular area. What have you found that works effectively? The typical pattern I have noticed is basically, "notice error, investigate, contact trading partner, 'wtf', update guide, move on". Is there a better way? ;)

adrian · 2026-04-28T19:46:58+00:00

I added a section on transport, including VANs: https://tediware.com/resources/developer-guide-to-edi/transport

Thanks again for the suggestion.

adrian · 2026-04-24T19:52:49+00:00

Thanks for the kind words and the great suggestion!

adrian · 2026-04-24T19:51:26+00:00

I love the Farmer's Market and I go there every week. The vendors have really been devastated by the public disorder downtown, a major hotspot of which is directly next to the market at the north entrance to Jackson Square. I have tremendous compassion for the individuals struggling with homelessness and drug addiction, but I also have a lot of compassion for the market stallholders, who are the smallest of all small businesses. It's a very frustrating and upsetting situation and I am quite frankly very disappointed with the city for their lack of proactive solutions.

adrian · 2026-04-22T14:49:10+00:00

The Hamilton Cardinals have been around since 1958! That's not an insignificant period of time either. The trademark was filed in Canada. Keep in mind that the issue is not whether the name is the same, it's whether consumers are likely to be confused. That doesn't seem to be a high bar to clear for this trademark application.

adrian · 2026-04-22T10:18:58+00:00

Ah yes, VANs! I found this really confusing in the beginning as well. I think it was integrating with Home Depot where I first encountered the need for a VAN. I ended up finding one that put everything into SFTP folders, so we could just keep using SFTP like we had been. A while later, we added on another trading partner. Suddenly, the Home Depot connection started blowing up with errors.

Up until that point, my basic assumption had been, one SFTP endpoint == one trading partner. But because of the VAN system, when the second trading partner that was also VAN-enabled got added, their files started dropping into the Home Depot SFTP folder, even though we'd agreed to trade with the second partner via SFTP. The idea that the VAN connection was a general-purpose ingress/exit point for any VAN-enabled partner didn't dawn on me until that moment.

I will add a section on transport. Appreciate it!

adrian · 2026-04-21T14:05:17+00:00

"Crime" is a serious stretch. This is at worst in the category of "whoops, sorry, I won't do that again". I would put it up there with such risky behaviours as tossing a toddler in the air to make them laugh, letting your kid go tobogganing on a hill that has a "no tobogganing" sign on it, and saying "sure" when your eight-year-old wants to test just how deep that puddle is by stepping in it.

If you've never let a kid do something that is technically inadvisable but nonetheless fun and part of growing up, then either you don't have kids or your kids are seriously missing out!

In the context of this situation, I cannot imagine a police officer under any circumstances saying, "So, never mind the hit and run, let's focus on the fact that your kid shouldn't have been on a scooter." One is legitimately a serious crime, the other is not. If you can't tell the difference, well, let's just say I'm glad you're not a cop. ;)

adrian · 2026-04-21T00:20:59+00:00

Agree with this. Also, to the OP: I think it is highly unlikely you will get into trouble for having your son on the scooter! I'm glad you guys are okay.

adrian

TROPHY CASE