2025-10-24
How to Run 1:1s as an Engineering Manager
justoffbyone.com2025-09-23
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.
2025-08-21
A Brief Guide to A Few Algebraic Structures
argumatronic.com/posts/2019-06-21-algebra-cheatsheet.htmlI started writing this post because, for whatever reason, I keep forgetting what the difference is between a ring and a group, which is funny to me because I never forget the difference between a semiring and a semigroup – although other people do, because it’s quite easy to forget! So, I wanted a fast reference to the kinds of algebraic structures that I am most often dealing with in one way or another, usually because I’m writing Haskell (which has some reliance on terminology and structure from abstract algebra and category theory) or I’m trying to read a book about category theory and they keep talking about “groups.” Wikipedia, of course, defines all these structures, and that’s fine, but what I need in those times is more of a refresher than an in-depth explanation.
2025-06-18
zb beta released
www.zombiezen.com/blog/2025/06/zb-beta-releasezb is a tool for reproducibly building software, similar to Bazel.
(See the comparison page if you’re curious to know the differences.)
When a software build process is reproducible,
it will produce the exact same output
when given the same inputs.
Reproducibility is a desirable property for a software build process to have:
it simplifies debugging,
it enables build speed-ups,
and it is essential for digital supply chain security.
However, reproducibility is a difficult goal to achieve.
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.
2025-05-28
SAT Live!
localhost:40002025-04-04
Pitfalls of Safe Rus
corrode.dev/blog/pitfalls-of-safe-rustWhen people say Rust is a “safe language”, they often mean memory safety.
And while memory safety is a great start, it’s far from all it takes to build robust applications.
Memory safety is important but not sufficient for overall r…
2025-03-18
CASCII - ASCII Diagram Builder
cascii.appA well-equipped ASCII diagram builders freely available on the internet.
It stresses portability, simplicity, and immediateness.
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
GBA From Scratch With Ferris
lokathor.github.io/gba-from-scratch2024-11-22
New stuff in Emacs 30
www.mgmarlow.com/words/2024-07-28-emacs-30-newsReading through the Emacs 30 NEWS file and picking
out the stuff I think is the most interesting.
2024-10-24
Rust Prism
registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/rust-prism2024-09-15
Writing an OS in Rust
os.phil-opp.comThis blog series creates a small operating system in the Rust programming language. Each post is a small tutorial and includes all needed code.
2024-06-28
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/index.html2024-06-20
Go's 'range over function' iterators and avoiding iteration errors
utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/programming/GoIteratorsAndAvoidingMistakes2024-06-19
Avoiding complexity with systemd
mgdm.net/weblog/systemdUsing systemd to avoid having to write some risky code
2024-06-17
How I learned Haskell in just 15 years - duckrabbit solutions
duckrabbit.tech/articles/learning-haskell.html2024-06-11
NetBSD 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.
2024-06-10
On Dependency Usage in Rust
landaire.net/on-dependency-usage-in-rustRust and Node aren't bad for encouraging dependency use -- your favorite language's tools just suck.