2025-09-23
Cap'n Web: A new RPC system for browsers and web servers
blog.cloudflare.com/capnweb-javascript-rpc-libraryCap'n Web is a new open source, JavaScript-native RPC protocol for use in browsers and web servers. It provides the expressive power of Cap'n Proto, but with no schemas and no boilerplate.
2025-06-12
Always do Extra
www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2021/always-do-extra.phpExtra is different than More. Extra is finishing those two screens, but then researching a new library for form validation that might reduce the boilerplate code. Or it's learning ways to protect against common security vulnerabilities from data entry. These little off-ramps from the main highway of Normal Work could be dead-ends and not have any practical value to the project. But they might also be important contributions. And that's the thing with Extra. While the tangible value to the project is uncertain (it could be nothing this time or it could be something), the value to you is real.
2025-05-30
The PGP Problem
www.latacora.com/blog/2019/07/16/the-pgp-problemWhy do people keep telling me to use PGP? The answer is that they shouldn’t be telling you that, because PGP is bad and needs to go away.
2025-05-06
Debian installation with encrypted BTRFS
chaos.tomaskral.eu/guides/debian-encrypted-btrfs-root2025-02-04
Running a Debian Sid on Ubuntu
blogops.mixinet.net/posts/incus2024-12-17
Advent of Code on the Nintendo DS
sailor.li/aocnds.htmlSolving AoC on the DS with Rust.
2024-10-24
Rust Prism
registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/rust-prism2024-09-30
On Leaving Apple
typesanitizer.com/blog/leaving-apple.html2024-09-16
Technical Writing One introduction
developers.google.com/tech-writing/one2024-07-02
A write-ahead log is not a universal part of durability
notes.eatonphil.com/2024-07-01-a-write-ahead-log-is-not-a-universal-part-of-durability.htmlA write-ahead log is not a universal part of durability
2024-06-27
plainweb
www.plainweb.devplainweb is a framework using HTMX, SQLite and TypeScript for less complexity and more joy.
2024-06-24
Deriving Dependently-Typed OOP from First Principles -- Extended Version with Additional Appendices
arxiv.org/abs/2403.06707The expression problem describes how most types can easily be extended with new ways to produce the type or new ways to consume the type, but not both. When abstract syntax trees are defined as an algebraic data type, for example, they can easily be extended with new consumers, such as print or eval, but adding a new constructor requires the modification of all existing pattern matches. The expression problem is one way to elucidate the difference between functional or data-oriented programs (easily extendable by new consumers) and object-oriented programs (easily extendable by new producers). This difference between programs which are extensible by new producers or new consumers also exists for dependently typed programming, but with one core difference: Dependently-typed programming almost exclusively follows the functional programming model and not the object-oriented model, which leaves an interesting space in the programming language landscape unexplored. In this paper, we explore the field of dependently-typed object-oriented programming by deriving it from first principles using the principle of duality. That is, we do not extend an existing object-oriented formalism with dependent types in an ad-hoc fashion, but instead start from a familiar data-oriented language and derive its dual fragment by the systematic use of defunctionalization and refunctionalization. Our central contribution is a dependently typed calculus which contains two dual language fragments. We provide type- and semantics-preserving transformations between these two language fragments: defunctionalization and refunctionalization. We have implemented this language and these transformations and use this implementation to explain the various ways in which constructions in dependently typed programming can be explained as special instances of the phenomenon of duality.
2024-06-19
Avoiding complexity with systemd
mgdm.net/weblog/systemdUsing systemd to avoid having to write some risky code
2024-06-18
Comparing Objective Caml and Standard ML
adam.chlipala.net/mlcompUnderstanding a Python closure oddity
utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/python/UnderstandingClosureOddity2024-06-17
Sqlc: 2024 check in — brandur.org
brandur.org/fragments/sqlc-20242024-06-13
Solving SAT via Positive Supercompilation
hirrolot.github.io/posts/sat-supercompilation.htmlA simple, arena-backed, generic dynamic array for C
nullprogram.com/blog/2023/10/052024-06-11
Self-serve dashboards
briefer.cloud/blog/posts/self-serve-bi-mythSales pitches are the only place where “self-serve dashboards" work. In the real world, it's a different story.
Why "business" people don't use metabase/power-bi.