2025-07-03
A Higgs-bugson in the Linux Kernel
blog.janestreet.com/a-higgs-bugson-in-the-linux-kernelWe recently ran across a strange higgs-bugson that manifested itself in a critical system that stores and distributes the firm’s trading activity data, called Gord. (A higgs-bugson is a bug that is reported in practice but difficult to reproduce, named for the Higgs boson, a particle which was theorized in the 1960s but only found in 2013.) In this post I’ll walk you through the process I took to debug it. I tried to write down relevant details as they came up, so see if you can guess what the bug is while reading along.
2025-06-26
The plan-execute pattern
mmapped.blog/posts/29-plan-execute.htmlI feel uneasy about design patterns.
On the one hand, my university class on design patterns revived my interest in programming.
On the other hand, I find most patterns in the Gang of Four book to be irrelevant to my daily work;
they solve problems that a choice of programming language or paradigm creates.My litmus test of a good design pattern is its cross-disciplinary applicability.
I’m more likely to accept an idea that pops up in fields beyond software engineering.
And the most convincing patterns are the ones that help me in everyday life.This article describes a universal pattern that billions of people rely on daily, but software engineers rarely discuss—the plan-execute pattern.
Box combinators
mmapped.blog/posts/41-box-combinators.htmlIn functional programming,
combinator libraries refer to a design style that emphasizes bottom-up program construction.
Such libraries define a few core data types
and provide constructors—functions that create initial objects—and combinators—functions that build larger objects from smaller pieces.Combinators enable the programmer to use intuitive visual and spatial reasoning
that’s vastly more powerful than linear language processing.
As a result, solving problems with combinators feels like playing with lego pieces.
2025-06-20
Cursed Knowledge | Immich
immich.app/cursed-knowledgeThings we wish we didn't know
2025-06-18
You can use `fzf` to review git commits
jvns.ca/til/fzf-preview-git-commitsI just learned that
you can use it to review a git commit like this and I thought that was really
cool.
2025-06-17
Debugging tricks for IntelliJ
andreabergia.com/blog/2025/06/debugging-tricks-for-intellijI have been using IntelliJ Idea at work for a decade or so by now, and it’s been a reliable companion. JetBrains IDEs have a bit of a reputation for being slow, but their feature set is incredible: powerful refactoring tools, a great VCS UI (though I like magit even more!), a huge number of supported frameworks, integration with just about any testing library for any language, code coverage tools, powerful debuggers, etc.
2025-06-16
CSS Classes considered harmful
www.keithcirkel.co.uk/css-classes-considered-harmfulThe solution to all of these problems
I humbly put forward that modern web development provides us all the utilities to move away from class names and implement something much more robust, with some fairly straightforward changes:
Attributes
Attributes allow us to parameterise a component using a key-value representation, very similar to Map<string, T>. Browsers come with a wealth of selector functions to parse the values of an attribute.
2024-12-20
Visitor Pattern Considered Pointless - Use Pattern Switches Instead
nipafx.dev/java-visitor-pattern-pointlessIn modern Java, the visitor pattern is no longer needed. Using sealed types and switches with pattern matching achieves the same goals with less code and less complexity.
2024-12-17
Using Nix to Try Tools
entropicthoughts.com/using-nix-to-try-tools2024-10-10
Gnome Files: A detailed UI examination | datagubbe.se
www.datagubbe.se/gnomefiles2024-09-16
Technical Writing One introduction
developers.google.com/tech-writing/one2024-08-18
Permacomputing
permacomputing.netPermacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network technology inspired by permaculture.
2024-08-15
Writing a C Compiler
nostarch.com/writing-c-compilerA fun, hands-on guide to writing your own compiler for a real-world programming language.
2024-06-18
Understanding SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: A Simple Guide
github.com/nicanorflavier/spf-dkim-dmarc-simplified2024-06-14
interstar/cardigan-bay: A new wiki engine in Clojure ...
github.com/interstar/cardigan-bayA single-user “wiki” engine powering the ThoughtStorms wiki.
2024-06-13
Category Theory for Programmers: The Preface
bartoszmilewski.com/2014/10/28/category-theory-for-programmers-the-prefaceMacaroons Escalated Quickly
fly.io/blog/macaroons-escalated-quicklyA simple, arena-backed, generic dynamic array for C
nullprogram.com/blog/2023/10/052024-06-11
Optimizing Font Files for the Modern Web
documentation.platformos.com/best-practices/performance/optimizing-font-filesNetBSD 10 on a Pinebook Pro laptop
www.idatum.net/netbsd-10-on-a-pinebook-pro-laptop.htmlI've been running NetBSD on a RockPro64 since NetBSD 10-BETA, and I'm still happy with it now with NetBSD 10-RELEASE. I'm always looking for hardware to hack NetBSD though, and I recently watched a FOSDEM 2024 video: NetBSD 10: Thirty years, still going strong!. The Pinebook Pro laptop was mentioned at one point, which has the same RockChip SoC as the RockPro64. That reminded me I'd been wanting to give this inexpensive ARM 64 laptop a try.