Neil Madden
Why the OAuth mTLS spec is more interesting than you might think
I was catching up on the always excellent Security. Cryptography. Whatever. podcast, and enjoyed the...
20th Jan 2022
I was catching up on the always excellent Security. Cryptography. Whatever. podcast, and enjoyed the episode with Colm MacCárthaigh about a bunch of topics around TLS. It’s a great episode that touches a lot of subjects I’m interested in, so go ahead and listen to it if you...
Home on Erik...
Annoy
Annoy is a simple package to find approximate nearest neighbors (ANN) that I just put on Github. I'm...
12th Apr 2013
Annoy is a simple package to find approximate nearest neighbors (ANN) that I just put on Github. I'm not trying to compete with existing packages, but Annoy has a couple of features that makes it pretty useful.
benn.substack
So that's what alignment means
Another thought experiment comes roaring to life.
14th Aug 2026
Another thought experiment comes roaring to life.
Writing
Star-Crossed
The obvious and deserved comparison is with Evermore/Folklore — a stripped down, mellower version of...
2nd Oct 2021
The obvious and deserved comparison is with Evermore/Folklore — a stripped down, mellower version of the author's ouevre. While I think Taylor's latest outings are good-not-great, I thought this was closer to great; the songwriting is steadier and more interesting, and the pathos...
Matt Mullenweg
BM Snaps
Burning Man really tests my mantra, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” But it’s true! For...
2 weeks ago
Burning Man really tests my mantra, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” But it’s true! For one week, it’s the most interesting art and technology playground in the world, creativity unbound. As a photographer, it’s a great place to test out new gear and processes. Here’s...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Should Ethereum be okay with enshrining more things in the protocol?
30th Sep 2023
Fabien Sanglard
Building my childhood dream PC
18th May 2025
Tiny struggles
Learning can be a waste of time
Learning and studying isn’t universally a good thing.
I found that saying “sometimes spending some...
13th Nov 2021
Learning and studying isn’t universally a good thing.
I found that saying “sometimes spending some time studying and learning can be a waste of time” is very contentious. Especially in a quickly evolving tech environment.
If you stop learning and become rigid in your ways, you...
Computer Ads from...
Bomb Squad Peripherals' BLOWGUN
It Could Have Been a Lot Worse - His Data is BLOWGUN Protected!
19th Jun 2024
It Could Have Been a Lot Worse - His Data is BLOWGUN Protected!
Louwrentius - Solar
Switching away from Debian to Ubuntu LTS
Over the last couple of years, Debian Linux has released new stable versions about every two years....
6th Jul 2011
Over the last couple of years, Debian Linux has released new stable versions about every two years. This pace is great for progress, but there is a serious problem. This problem is related to their support for older Debian stable versions.
If you read the quote below from the...
Fabien Sanglard
The beautiful machine
20 years later, I have built an other PC!
6th Mar 2020
20 years later, I have built an other PC!
Jonas Hietala
September theme: Failure
I’m out of the busy mode and here’s the new theme! I’ve got an idea and I’ll be beginning very soon...
12th Sep 2009
I’m out of the busy mode and here’s the new theme! I’ve got an idea and I’ll be beginning very soon I hope and again I’m following Experimental Gameplay Project’s site.
Let’s rock!!
Computer Ads from...
NeXTWorld Interviews Bud Tribble (1994)
They discuss NeXT's OpenStep, open standards, and more.
1st Feb 2026
They discuss NeXT's OpenStep, open standards, and more.
Project Blog on...
Train Simulator Controller: CAN Controller, Part 1
I’m building a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, from master controller to an AWS...
22nd Jun 2023
I’m building a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, from master controller to an AWS sunflower to a speedometer, and everything in between. The engineer or hobbyist interested in getting this project ready expediently would probably find their favorite...
Construction Physics
Reading List 10/04/2025
Boeing’s 737 replacement, parking lot investments, a deflected hurricane, opinions on nuclear power,...
4th Oct 2025
Boeing’s 737 replacement, parking lot investments, a deflected hurricane, opinions on nuclear power, and more.
Ken Shirriff's blog
The Intel 8088 processor's instruction prefetch circuitry: a look inside
In 1979, Intel introduced the 8088 microprocessor, a variant of the 16-bit 8086 processor.
IBM's...
23rd Mar 2024
In 1979, Intel introduced the 8088 microprocessor, a variant of the 16-bit 8086 processor.
IBM's decision to use the 8088 processor in the IBM PC (1981) was a critical point in computer history,
leading to the dominance of the x86 architecture that continues to the present.1
One...
Willem's Blog
For the love of mini
The iPhone Mini has intangible greatness that most folks don't know about: read along for the love...
8th Dec 2021
The iPhone Mini has intangible greatness that most folks don't know about: read along for the love of mini!
Computer Ads from...
UNIX Review Magazine Interviews Larry Tesler
They discuss Tesler's involvement with Xerox, Apple and office automation with Unix.
10th Sep 2024
They discuss Tesler's involvement with Xerox, Apple and office automation with Unix.
Willem L. Middelkoop
Counting Agentic Traffic
This month I brought Lemmid Count back: the website statistics of my platform, rebuilt from scratch...
6th Jul 2026
This month I brought Lemmid Count back: the website statistics of my platform, rebuilt from scratch without AWStats and without a database. Its party piece is the dimension every other analytics tool throws away: the bots. In the agentic era the question "what did AI agents read...
./techtipsy
How to make digital copies of your old video tapes
Introduction
This is a short overview of one way to take your old video tapes and make digital...
27th Dec 2020
Introduction
This is a short overview of one way to take your old video tapes and make digital copies of their contents.
To get started, you will need the following:
old video tapes that you want to make copies of (VHS and its variants)
a device that can read analog AV signals...
Willem's Blog
Six months with MCADD
It's six months since our son was born with MCADD, a good moment to reflect upon the experience of...
23rd Jun 2019
It's six months since our son was born with MCADD, a good moment to reflect upon the experience of being a parent with some thoughts and tips.
Writing
VC-subsidized tokens
Simon Willison writes about the recent Cursor changes:
1st Jul 2025
Simon Willison writes about the recent Cursor changes:
Can We Still Govern?
What I wrote in The Atlantic about the Clicktatorship
When content matters more than the truth
4th Feb 2026
When content matters more than the truth
Neil Madden
Book review: The Joy of Cryptography
Mike Rosulek, Oregon State University. Draft of January 3, 2021. Online: The Joy of Cryptography....
16th Feb 2023
Mike Rosulek, Oregon State University. Draft of January 3, 2021. Online: The Joy of Cryptography. This is a freely-available book covering introductory material on cryptography. It’s suitable for anyone with undergraduate-level computer science knowledge. As is often the case in...
Willem's Blog
Linking Lemmid Store with kitchens
Designing backend servers to connect with external services is challenging as you need to take into...
11th Jun 2020
Designing backend servers to connect with external services is challenging as you need to take into account unreliability and unpredictability.
MIT News - Civil and...
Walter Torous named executive director of MIT Center for Real Estate
The senior lecturer, already director of the degree program, will now oversee all aspects of the...
2 weeks ago
The senior lecturer, already director of the degree program, will now oversee all aspects of the center’s activities and operations.
Ken Shirriff's blog
How to reverse engineer an analog chip: the TDA7000 FM radio receiver
Have you ever wanted to reverse engineer an analog chip from a die photo?
Wanted to understand...
2nd Aug 2025
Have you ever wanted to reverse engineer an analog chip from a die photo?
Wanted to understand what's inside the "black box" of an integrated circuit?
In this article, I explain my reverse engineering process, using the
Philips TDA7000 FM radio receiver chip as an example.
This...
Kent de Bruin
How I use Obsidian with Claude Code
Thinking alongside an AI that lives inside my notes
20th Jan 2026
Thinking alongside an AI that lives inside my notes
Eric Migicovsky's...
How to help us build open source Pebble software!
As you may have heard, last week Google published the source code for PebbleOS. This is a big...
6th Feb 2025
As you may have heard, last week Google published the source code for PebbleOS. This is a big deal! Thank you again to Google for this…
Applied Cartography
April, 2026
I had hoped and expected that the chaos which had marked the start of the year — floors, termites,...
1st May 2026
I had hoped and expected that the chaos which had marked the start of the year — floors, termites, sickness, fires, ACL surgery — was largely behind us, and that I would be freed to find some sort of rhythm or backbeat with which to tether a new normalcy. And of course, this has...
Fabien Sanglard
Building a 1997 Quake PC!
8th Jan 2026
Abishek Muthian
How Rick and Morty fans helped McDonald’s SzeChuan sauce scarcity marketing
McDonald's Szechaun Sauce announcement
The #SzechuanSauce fiasco with McDonald’s is a very...
9th Oct 2017
McDonald's Szechaun Sauce announcement
The #SzechuanSauce fiasco with McDonald’s is a very interesting (successful ?) example of scarcity marketing and targeting intellectuals for generating bandwagon effect.
Some BG : Rick and MortyBuy, a science fiction animated show with the...
Project Blog on...
Train Simulator Controller: CAN-Connected Air Gauge, Part 2
In my ongoing quest to build a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, an important set...
25th May 2025
In my ongoing quest to build a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, an important set of components are the gauges that tell me what’s going on with the train. As I build the dashboard into which to embed my gauges, I realized I needed to better modularize my air...
Abort Retry Fail
The History of the IBM 5100
IBM's First Personal Computer
2nd Dec 2023
IBM's First Personal Computer
watchTowr Labs
Buy A Help Desk, Bundle A Remote Access Solution? (SolarWinds Web Help Desk Pre-Auth RCE Chain(s))
It’s been a while, but we’re back - in time for story time.
Gather round, strap in, and prepare for...
25th Feb 2026
It’s been a while, but we’re back - in time for story time.
Gather round, strap in, and prepare for another depressing journey of “all we wanted to do was reproduce an N-day, and here we are with 0-days”.
Today, friends, we’re
Applied Cartography
Pattern Recognition
It was funny to read 2002-era reviews of this book, which universally bemoaned the "tres hip"-ness...
5th Apr 2023
It was funny to read 2002-era reviews of this book, which universally bemoaned the "tres hip"-ness of Gibson's brand deployments (iBooks! MUJI!)
as a flaw that would instantly date its relevance — and nary a mention of how grounded the book was in the September 11th attacks,...
Alyssa Rosenzweig
Apple GPU drivers now in Asahi Linux
We’re excited to announce our first Apple GPU driver release!
We’ve been working hard over the past...
7th Dec 2022
We’re excited to announce our first Apple GPU driver release!
We’ve been working hard over the past two years to bring this new
driver to everyone, and we’re really proud to finally be here. This is
still an alpha driver, but it’s already good enough to run a smooth
desktop...
Willem's Blog
From tree to table
Creating a night stand from a raw slab of chestnut wood.
22nd Oct 2017
Creating a night stand from a raw slab of chestnut wood.
Vitalik Buterin's...
STARKs, Part 3: Into the Weeds
21st Jul 2018
Vitalik Buterin's...
Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?
28th Mar 2024
Greater Still by...
Why is the Internet So Lonely?
Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a piece called My Modern Friends and Me, as an ode to the...
27th Dec 2021
Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a piece called My Modern Friends and Me, as an ode to the digital-turned-physical friends I had made throughout 2020.
Computer Ads from...
Huson Soft HuCAL
Hudson creates business software for everyone.
24th Jan 2024
Hudson creates business software for everyone.
Louwrentius - Solar
Cannot access Windows guest within VMware Fusion when running vsphere client
Currently, I am running VMware ESXi 4.1 on a test system. To manage ESXi, you need the VSphere...
17th Jun 2011
Currently, I am running VMware ESXi 4.1 on a test system. To manage ESXi, you need the VSphere client, which is only available for the Windows platform. Therefore, I run VMware Fusion on my Mac to be able to access VSphere and manage my ESXi host.
The trouble is that both ESXi...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Using a budget Android as main smartphone
Every now and then, I switch phones to keep track of mobile developments. As professional app and...
8th Oct 2018
Every now and then, I switch phones to keep track of mobile developments. As professional app and web developer, I need to know how different devices work in real life. This time I used a budget Android smartphone, making me curious how it would compare to an expensive iPhone....
GitButler
Git Merge 2024
GitButler is organizing the 2024 Git Merge conference, Sep 19/20 in Berlin!
22nd Jul 2024
GitButler is organizing the 2024 Git Merge conference, Sep 19/20 in Berlin!
Louwrentius - Solar
Google DNS - what to think of it?
Google now provide an open DNS service. At first I was scared that they use
their service to get...
3rd Dec 2009
Google now provide an open DNS service. At first I was scared that they use
their service to get information about users.
However, their privacy statement tells us that no personal identifiable
information is stored for longer than 48 hours. The permanent logs do not
contain such...
Computer Ads from...
Small Systems Engineering's PETSPEED
Fast Enough for the Human Race
10th Jul 2024
Fast Enough for the Human Race
Ian's Blog
Why my Apps Aren't Available on Apple Vision Pro
Recently I have received some questions from users of both TLS Inspector and DNS Inspector enquiring...
28th Jul 2024
Recently I have received some questions from users of both TLS Inspector and DNS Inspector enquiring why the apps aren't available on Apple's new Vision Pro headset. While I have briefly discussed this over on my Mastodon, I figured it might be worthwhile putting things down with...
Notes on software...
Notes on running Electron
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
13th Oct 2021
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
Butler's Log
Virtual Branches Alpha
GitButler is introducing an entirely new way to work on branches in Git. Join the alpha!
1st Sep 2023
GitButler is introducing an entirely new way to work on branches in Git. Join the alpha!
Posts on Made of...
Reader/reader blocking in reader/writer locks
Abstract In writer-priority reader/writer locks, as soon as a single writer enters the acquisition...
7th May 2019
Abstract In writer-priority reader/writer locks, as soon as a single writer enters the acquisition queue, all future accesses block behind any in-flight reads. Thus, if any readers hold the lock for extended periods of time, this can lead to extreme pauses and loss of throughput...
Eric Migicovsky's...
My new podcast: Tick Talk + Core 2 Duo demo
I started a little podcast… And named it something ridiculous - Tick Talk w/ Eric Migicovsky !...
1st May 2025
I started a little podcast… And named it something ridiculous - Tick Talk w/ Eric Migicovsky ! We’ll see if that name sticks 😂. I set up a…
GitButler
Stacked Branches with GitButler
GitButler can now manage dependent branches that are stacked, including managing stacked GitHub PRs.
4th Dec 2024
GitButler can now manage dependent branches that are stacked, including managing stacked GitHub PRs.
benn.substack
Get out of the token path
What would you build if you couldn't build AI?
5th Jun 2026
What would you build if you couldn't build AI?
Simply Explained
Integrate Home Assistant with Apple Reminders
I recently integrated Home Assistant with Apple Reminders so that automations can create new todos....
27th Jul 2022
I recently integrated Home Assistant with Apple Reminders so that automations can create new todos. This is trickier as it sounds, because Reminders has no API that can be accessed from Home Assistant. Here's how I worked around that problem with a script, input text helper and...
Azad's Blog
Simulating + Streaming a 4k, 90hz, ultrawide, HDR PC monitor to Apple Vision Pro
VR headsets can be pretty awesome at simulating monitors of any size and shape. Most VR headsets are...
7th Sep 2024
VR headsets can be pretty awesome at simulating monitors of any size and shape. Most VR headsets are also capable of outputting at a high refresh rate (60hz, 90hz, 120hz, or even 144hz). Some headsets (like Apple Vision Pro) can also output in HDR! The beauty of it all is that in...
Applied Cartography
Challengers
One of the things that may be apocryphal—because I’ve never bothered to actually look it up, just...
6th Dec 2025
One of the things that may be apocryphal—because I’ve never bothered to actually look it up, just kept it kicking around in my head—is David Foster Wallace’s justification for the emphasis on footnotes in Infinite Jest: that they’re meant to be a physical metaphor for the...
Matt Blewitt
Movement for Engineers
Until we get get to be chromed-up cyborgs, we’re stuck with our meat bodies, and like many things,...
9th Jul 2023
Until we get get to be chromed-up cyborgs, we’re stuck with our meat bodies, and like many things, they need regular maintenance. Here is a brief introduction to keeping your body moving as someone who spends a lot of time sitting down.
./techtipsy
The IKEA-powered homelab on a wall
I recently learned about the IKEA SKÅDIS series, which is a
pegboard that supports a variety of...
7th Sep 2023
I recently learned about the IKEA SKÅDIS series, which is a
pegboard that supports a variety of extras. During my self-hosting journey having to figure out the best
place for putting all my compute stuff to has always been at the back of my mind, especially due to limited...
lcamtuf’s thing
The Afterlife
AGENT: I am prescribing vardenafil 5 mg for you.
2nd Mar 2025
AGENT: I am prescribing vardenafil 5 mg for you.
Electronics etc…
DSLogic U3Pro16 Review and Teardown
Introduction
The DSLogic U3Pro16
In the Box
Probe Cables and Clips
The Controller Hardware
The Input...
12th Apr 2025
Introduction
The DSLogic U3Pro16
In the Box
Probe Cables and Clips
The Controller Hardware
The Input Circuit
Impact of Input Circuit on Circuit Under Test
Additional IOs: External Clock, Trigger In, Trigger Out
Software: From Saleae Logic to PulseView to DSView
Installing DSView...
Vitalik Buterin's...
STARKs, Part I: Proofs with Polynomials
9th Nov 2017
Writing
Goodwill
Read essay: Goodwill
1st Sep 2025
MIT News - Civil and...
Decoding the Arctic to predict winter weather
With the help of AI, MIT Research Scientist Judah Cohen is reshaping subseasonal forecasting, with...
8th Jan 2026
With the help of AI, MIT Research Scientist Judah Cohen is reshaping subseasonal forecasting, with the goal of extending the lead time for predicting impactful weather.
Vitalik Buterin's...
What I would love to see in a wallet
3rd Dec 2024
Engineers Need Art
Tom Dowdy
Tom Dowdy was a software engineer at Apple back in 1995 when I was still writing Macintosh games in...
3rd Apr 2022
Tom Dowdy was a software engineer at Apple back in 1995 when I was still writing Macintosh games in Lawrence, Kansas.
The New Oil
How the UK is Weakening Safety Worldwide
23rd Feb 2025
Old Vintage...
So long, Z80
You can still buy 6502s from Western Design Center and others, but Zilog's getting out of Z80s...
20th Apr 2024
You can still buy 6502s from Western Design Center and others, but Zilog's getting out of Z80s (PDF), announcing earlier this week that after June 14th you won't be able to buy them anymore (specifically the last-part-standing Z84C00 which comes in various speeds from 6-20 MHz)...
Notes on software...
Is it worth writing about?
You acquire a skill or experience through time and effort,
then downplay the impact of writing and...
1st Dec 2022
You acquire a skill or experience through time and effort,
then downplay the impact of writing and sharing the learning
process.
Professionals seem naturally to imagine a high bar for what
is worth writing about.
I think that's misguided. This article is not criticism of folks...
Willem's Blog
Offline Music
People sometimes act suprised when I tell them about my music hobby, manually converting CD's to...
16th Jul 2022
People sometimes act suprised when I tell them about my music hobby, manually converting CD's to lossless audio files; there is some reason to this madness however!
Bryan Braun - Blog
The flood of AI website builders
There are so many of them.
instead of markdown to enable lazy-loading -->
How good...
27th Apr 2024
There are so many of them.
instead of markdown to enable lazy-loading -->
How good are these site builders? I don’t know.
Are you worried about job security? I have two thoughts…
1. We’ve seen this before
Wordpress, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow… all these tools...
Avestura's Blog
Hiding a photo inside another photo
How to hide a small photo inside a larger photo?
28th Apr 2022
How to hide a small photo inside a larger photo?
Christian Selig
You should repaste your MacBook (but don't)
My favorite memory of my M1 Pro MacBook Pro was the whole sensation of “holy crap, you never hear...
10th Jul 2025
My favorite memory of my M1 Pro MacBook Pro was the whole sensation of “holy crap, you never hear the fans in this thing”, which was very novel in 2021.
Four years later, this MacBook Pro is still a delight. It’s the longest I’ve ever owned a laptop, and while I’d love to pick up...
The Pragmatic...
The Pulse: Cloudflare rewrites Next.js as AI rewrites commercial open source
An engineer at Cloudflare rewrote most of Vercel’s Next.js in one week with AI agents. It looks like...
5th Mar 2026
An engineer at Cloudflare rewrote most of Vercel’s Next.js in one week with AI agents. It looks like a sign of how AI will disrupt existing moats and business models. Analysis
Home on Erik...
Luigi: complex pipelines of tasks in Python
I'm shamelessly promoting my first major open source project. Luigi is a Python module that helps...
21st Oct 2012
I'm shamelessly promoting my first major open source project. Luigi is a Python module that helps you build complex pipelines of batch jobs, handle dependency resolution, and create visualizations to help manage multiple workflows. It also comes with Hadoop support built in...
Posts on Made of...
A Cursed Bug
In my day job at Anthropic, we run relatively large distributed systems to train large language...
23rd Feb 2022
In my day job at Anthropic, we run relatively large distributed systems to train large language models. One of the joys of using a lot of computing resources, especially on somewhat niche software stacks, is that you spend a lot of time running into the long-tail of bugs which...
Louwrentius - Solar
ZFS performance on HP Proliant Microserver Gen8 G1610T
I think the HP Proliant Microserver Gen8 is a very interesting little box if you want to build your...
14th Aug 2015
I think the HP Proliant Microserver Gen8 is a very interesting little box if you want to build your own ZFS-based NAS. The benchmarks I've performed seem to confirm this.
The Microserver Gen8 has nice features such as:
iLO (KVM over IP with dedicated network interface)
support...
Matt Mullenweg
SoTW Eve
The State of the Word is tomorrow, and it’s so fun to see SF abuzz with WordPress open source...
2nd Dec 2025
The State of the Word is tomorrow, and it’s so fun to see SF abuzz with WordPress open source energy. We’re doing a lot of firsts tomorrow, including the first release timed to the State of the Word, and we’ll have a good chunk of the release team there to push the button and...
Butler's Log
Getting Started With GitButler Agents
GitButler built a new way to integrate AI-powered code generation directly into your version control...
9th Jan 2026
GitButler built a new way to integrate AI-powered code generation directly into your version control workflow.
Elevation Lab - Blog
NightStand at your local Apple Store
NightStands now come in some beautiful new colors & new packaging - you can find them in Apple...
26th Aug 2015
NightStands now come in some beautiful new colors & new packaging - you can find them in Apple Stores around the globe beginning today.
For any designer, to see something you made out in the wild is a special experience. So today is a real trip for our tiny little Portland...
Electronics etc…
A Hardware Interposer to Fix the Symmetricom SyncServer S200 GPS Week Number Rollover Problem
Introduction
IMPORTANT: Use the Right GPS Antenna!
The Problem: SyncServer Refuses to Lock to...
18th Aug 2024
Introduction
IMPORTANT: Use the Right GPS Antenna!
The Problem: SyncServer Refuses to Lock to GPS
The GPS Week Number Rollover Issue
Making the Furuno GT-8031 Work Again
How It Works
Build Instructions
Power Supply Recapping
The Future: A Software-Only Solution
The...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Does digital ID have risks even if it's ZK-wrapped?
28th Jun 2025
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing FamilyCharger
Today we launched FamilyCharger - it's designed to be a central place to charge all your devices,...
18th Jul 2019
Today we launched FamilyCharger - it's designed to be a central place to charge all your devices, fast, without clutter.
Our initial designs for a family charger started out as big multi-charging docks, but they were too inflexible, expensive, and took up a lot of space....
Jonas Hietala
Trying and returning the Eight Sleep Pod 4
I recently bought the Eight Sleep Pod 4—a smart mattress cover that tracks your heart rate, HRV,...
5th Oct 2024
I recently bought the Eight Sleep Pod 4—a smart mattress cover that tracks your heart rate, HRV, snoring, and cools or warms the mattress during the night.
There’s a lot to like about the mattress but in the end I opted to return it.
This post describes my experience with the Pod...
Greater Still by...
Talking to the Protocol
An exploration into a new communication layer. By Gaby Goldberg & Sophie Fujiwara
5th Dec 2022
An exploration into a new communication layer. By Gaby Goldberg & Sophie Fujiwara
Style over Substance
Buienwatch, a custom Home Assistant integration for Buienradar and Buienalarm graphs on your Apple...
Back in 2021, I wired up data from Buienalarm and Buienradar through Node-RED and a big pile of...
16 hours ago
Back in 2021, I wired up data from Buienalarm and Buienradar through Node-RED and a big pile of Jinja2 templates to get a rain forecast graph on my Apple Watch: eight Unicode block characters showing the next two hours in 15-minute chunks, glanceable without unlocking the phone....
Fabien Sanglard
Strike Commander: Interview with Frank Savage
There is a playful way to study the architecture of computers of the past. Find a piece of software...
3rd Dec 2019
There is a playful way to study the architecture of computers of the past. Find a piece of software you know well and try to find out how it was ported to these machine you don't...
Louwrentius - Solar
Understanding Ceph: open-source scalable storage
Introduction
In this blog post I will try to explain why I believe Ceph is such an interesting...
19th Aug 2018
Introduction
In this blog post I will try to explain why I believe Ceph is such an interesting storage solution. After you finished reading this blog post you should have a good high-level overview of Ceph.
I've written this blog post purely because I'm a storage enthusiast and I...
MIT News - Civil and...
From nanoscale to global scale: Advancing MIT’s special initiatives in manufacturing, health, and...
MIT.nano cleanroom complex named after Robert Noyce PhD ’53 at the 2025 Nano Summit.
13th Nov 2025
MIT.nano cleanroom complex named after Robert Noyce PhD ’53 at the 2025 Nano Summit.
videah's blog
Howdy, Is This Thing On?
Since things are uh... collapsing?
I thought it'd be a good idea to finally get my blog up and...
14th Nov 2022
Since things are uh... collapsing?
I thought it'd be a good idea to finally get my blog up and running. Come in, get comfy and take a look around!
Cozy right?
Getting Started (Again)
Ok admittedly, this is my 4th attempt at making a blog. This time I'm...
Writing
When Harry Met Sally
This, to me, is the ur-romcom — the gold standard against which all others are compared, and most...
27th Sep 2018
This, to me, is the ur-romcom — the gold standard against which all others are compared, and most are found wanting. The chemistry, the script, the everpresent autumn, the interstitials with old couples — it is all so good, and exactly what it is trying to be!
Software and Tech...
Is Blogging Dead?
When I started 2025, I set myself a simple challenge: write consistently and see if I could reclaim...
2nd Jan 2026
When I started 2025, I set myself a simple challenge: write consistently and see if I could reclaim some of the audience this blog once had. In 2024, I had published just 4 posts and had only a handful of RSS subscribers. It felt like shouting into the void.
By the end of 2025, I...
Writing
Gosling’s Old Rum
Virginia has draconian liquor laws, which means I have to get interesting bottles shipped from...
3rd Feb 2024
Virginia has draconian liquor laws, which means I have to get interesting bottles shipped from [REDACTED], a site on which I am very prone to judging a book by its cover; every month I'll end up purchasing a bottle of something purely because it looks interesting and I can...
Willem's Blog
One year on the ultimate commuter bike
Answering questions from one of the most popular posts of last year, I am reviewing my commuter bike...
26th Feb 2019
Answering questions from one of the most popular posts of last year, I am reviewing my commuter bike after one year of extensive use through winter and summer.
Blog | Sam Curry
Hacking Millions of Modems (and Investigating Who Hacked My Modem)
3rd Jun 2024
Applied Cartography
Vertigo
I’m surprised that this movie is held in such high esteem relative to other Hitchcock films. I liked...
4th Jun 2022
I’m surprised that this movie is held in such high esteem relative to other Hitchcock films. I liked it, and I thought there were very good parts of it, and I thought it was better than Haley did. But it didn’t strike me as one of his best films beyond the dolly shot which is now...
Matt Mullenweg
RIP Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins, the Saxophone Colossus, has passed. He is probably my favorite saxophonist, and while...
27th May 2026
Sonny Rollins, the Saxophone Colossus, has passed. He is probably my favorite saxophonist, and while the aforementioned album is one of the five I would take to a deserted island, he has so many other good ones like The Cutting Edge which also has bagpipes, or Sonny Side Up with...
Notes on software...
Writing a lisp compiler from scratch in JavaScript: 4. LLVM conditionals and compiling fibonacci
Previously in compiler basics:
1. lisp to assembly
2. user-defined functions and variables
...
4th May 2019
Previously in compiler basics:
1. lisp to assembly
2. user-defined functions and variables
3. LLVM
5. LLVM system calls
6. an x86 upgrade
In this post we'll extend the
compiler's LLVM backend to
support compiling conditionals such that we can support...
Simply Explained
Smart lights behind a wall switch (Shelly + ESPHome)
Using smart light bulbs means you can no longer use your physical wall switches because the bulbs...
7th Oct 2022
Using smart light bulbs means you can no longer use your physical wall switches because the bulbs need constant power. I think that's pretty dumb. Using a physical switch can be way faster than using an app to control the lights.Here's how you can put a Shelly in between the...
Abishek Muthian
AI for generating 2D animations
I wanted to add some frills in Memory Hammer app1 when the user completes review of their...
26th Oct 2025
I wanted to add some frills in Memory Hammer app1 when the user completes review of their flashcards. I decided to add a simple 2D animation where a brain is sulking and after being hit by the hammer (memory hammer's mascot) the brain becomes happy and jubilant.
I made a simple...
Comments for Lars...
Comment on Why I’m Switching Web Hosts by Hitesh Sahni
Great post Lars. I have had my fair share of issues with Godaddy, and then Bluehost. I finally found...
29th Sep 2019
Great post Lars. I have had my fair share of issues with Godaddy, and then Bluehost. I finally found satisfaction with SiteGround. The only reason GoDaddy is still in business is because of their heavy online and offline advertising.
My WordPress website has not yet reached...
Jonas Hietala
A work week one bag travel
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Neale Donald Walsch
I’m lucky that I have a job...
10th Mar 2026
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Neale Donald Walsch
I’m lucky that I have a job where I can work remotely as it allows me to live in a small community where there are no tech jobs anywhere close.
It does require me to travel a few weeks per year to the office but...
Notes on software...
Generating a REST API from a database
I recently published an alpha version of a code generation tool,
DBCore, that reads a...
6th Jun 2020
I recently published an alpha version of a code generation tool,
DBCore, that reads a database
schema from PostgreSQL or MySQL and generates an entire Go API with
CRUD operations, pagination, filtering, and authentication.
But more than just generating code like
xo/xo or...
computers are bad
The Ascent to Sandia Crest II
Where we left
off,
Albuquerque's boosters, together with the Forest Service, had...
19th Oct 2025
Where we left
off,
Albuquerque's boosters, together with the Forest Service, had completed
construction of the Ellis Ranch Loop and a spur to the Sandia Crest. It was
possible, even easy, to drive from Albuquerque east through Tijeras Pass, north
to the present-day location of...
Willem's Blog
iPad Pro next to my primary machine
Using iPad Pro with Apple Pencil next to my computer to form a create powerhouse
29th Jan 2017
Using iPad Pro with Apple Pencil next to my computer to form a create powerhouse
Krebs on Security
Self-Replicating Worm Hits 180+ Software Packages
At least 187 code packages made available through the JavaScript repository NPM have been infected...
16th Sep 2025
At least 187 code packages made available through the JavaScript repository NPM have been infected with a self-replicating worm that steals credentials from developers and publishes those secrets on GitHub, experts warn. The malware, which briefly infected multiple code packages...
Eric Migicovsky's...
Core 2 Duo - Beta Test Signup!
My personal Core 2 Duo, featuring irek’s beautiful Brutal watchface Hopefully you have...
11th Jun 2025
My personal Core 2 Duo, featuring irek’s beautiful Brutal watchface Hopefully you have pre-ordered a Core 2 Duo watch - if not, you…
Arduino Blog
How to achieve cost-effective predictive maintenance with the Arduino® UNO™ Q board
Most machines warn you before they fail. A motor begins to vibrate differently. A pump slowly drifts...
2nd Jul 2026
Most machines warn you before they fail. A motor begins to vibrate differently. A pump slowly drifts out of balance. A bearing develops a new mechanical signature. A cooling fan starts producing frequencies that were not present during normal operation. These changes can appear...
Writing
Fathom
I'd been meaning to jot down some thoughts on Fathom for a while, and did not have a particularly...
1st Dec 2024
I'd been meaning to jot down some thoughts on Fathom for a while, and did not have a particularly good reason to do so until the news broke that Paul Jarvis was selling his share of the company to Jack Ellis, the technical co-founder. 1The blog post itself is a great example of...
./techtipsy
Anything's a portable speaker if you're brave enough
I hate buying things that are single-purpose, which is why I ended up with this
setup.
Take a...
2nd Jan 2023
I hate buying things that are single-purpose, which is why I ended up with this
setup.
Take a speaker, a battery, put them together, and what you now have is a
portable speaker. Since I had access to both, I felt no need to buy a separate
portable speaker for use in social...
Odds and Ends of...
Odds and Ends #50: The weird thing about London's New Year's Fireworks
Plus how the government should respond to Musk's nonsense, and an AI video that might just show us...
4th Jan 2025
Plus how the government should respond to Musk's nonsense, and an AI video that might just show us how video production is going to change.
Engineers Need Art
The First Time I Was Almost Fired From Apple
Oh yes, I screwed up more than once during my tenure at Apple.
3rd Jun 2025
Oh yes, I screwed up more than once during my tenure at Apple.
Home on Erik...
Predicting solar eclipses with Python
As I am en route to see my first total solar eclipse, I was curious how hard it would be to compute...
7th Apr 2024
As I am en route to see my first total solar eclipse, I was curious how hard it would be to compute eclipses in Python. It turns out, ignoring some minor coordinate system head-banging, I was able to get something half-decent working in a couple of hours.
Blog | Sam Curry
Cracking my windshield and earning $10,000 on the Tesla Bug Bounty Program
14th Jul 2019
On Life and Lisp
Fun and Games with Exposure Notifications
Exposure Notifications is a protocol developed by Apple and Google for facilitating COVID-19 contact...
7th Sep 2020
Exposure Notifications is a protocol developed by Apple and Google for facilitating COVID-19 contact tracing on mobile phones by exchanging codes with nearby phones over Bluetooth, implemented within the Android and iOS operating systems, now available here in Toronto.
Wait –...
Electronics etc…
Symmetricom 58532A GPS Antenna Supply Voltage Mod
The Symmatricom 58532A
Opening up the 58532A
Voltage Regulation
Result
What about the other 58532A...
23rd Mar 2024
The Symmatricom 58532A
Opening up the 58532A
Voltage Regulation
Result
What about the other 58532A variant?
References
The Symmatricom 58532A
As part of a package deal, I got my hands on a Symmetricom 58532A L1
GPS antenna.
Microchip, which acquired Symmetricom in 2013, doesn’t...
watchTowr Labs
How Much More Must We Bleed? - Citrix NetScaler Memory Disclosure (CitrixBleed 2 CVE-2025-5777)
Before you dive into our latest diatribe, indulge us and join us on a journey.
Sit in your chair,...
4th Jul 2025
Before you dive into our latest diatribe, indulge us and join us on a journey.
Sit in your chair, stand at your desk, lick your phone screen - close your eyes and imagine a world in which things are great. It’s sunny outside, the birds are chirping, and
Blog | Sam Curry
Reading ASP secrets for $17,000
17th Dec 2018
latest projects -...
Simsim Pendant
[Concept] Mercurial Medallion
5th Mar 2024
[Concept] Mercurial Medallion
Notes on software...
A database without dynamic memory allocation
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
12th Oct 2022
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
Freewheeling Apps
2025-06-01
I've been reading The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander, and it's inspired me to experiment...
1st Jun 2025
I've been reading The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander, and it's inspired me to experiment with this representation to communicate the global structure of the source code of the Game of Snake:
The whole program is arranged on a 2D surface within a series of nested...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Inside the mechanical Bendix Air Data Computer, part 3: pressure transducers
MathJax = {
tex: {
inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']]
},
svg: {
fontCache:...
16th Jan 2024
MathJax = {
tex: {
inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']]
},
svg: {
fontCache: 'global'
},
chtml: { displayAlign: 'left' }
};
MathJax.Hub.Config({
"HTML-CSS": { scale: 175}
});
.MathJax {font-size: 1em !important}
The Bendix Central Air...
Krebs on Security
Canvas Breach Disrupts Schools & Colleges Nationwide
An ongoing data extortion attack targeting the widely-used education technology platform Canvas...
8th May 2026
An ongoing data extortion attack targeting the widely-used education technology platform Canvas disrupted classes and coursework at school districts and universities across the United States today, after a cybercrime group defaced the service’s login page with a ransom demand...
Eric Migicovsky's...
Quick Pebble Project Update
9th Jul 2025
Jonas Hietala
Customizing Neovim
Scripting is configuration. Configuration is scripting.
TJ DeVries A different take on editing...
2nd May 2024
Scripting is configuration. Configuration is scripting.
TJ DeVries A different take on editing code
I’ve been using Neovim since it forked from Vim almost 8 years ago, and I used Vim many years before that.
I feel quite comfortable with Neovim, and I’ve gone down the...
computers are bad
2024-12-04 operators on the front
At the very core of telephone history, there is the telephone operator. For a
lot of people, the...
4th Dec 2024
At the very core of telephone history, there is the telephone operator. For a
lot of people, the vague understanding that an operator used to be involved is
the main thing they know about historic telephony. Of course, telephone
historians, as a group, tend to be much more...
Abishek Muthian
Major disaster has struck the computing industry.
TL;DR your computers are going to get slow because of patches aimed at fixing unprecedented...
4th Jan 2018
TL;DR your computers are going to get slow because of patches aimed at fixing unprecedented vulnerabilities in the CPU.
For the rest (simplified),
Modern computational security relies on maintaining the sanctum of memory, i.e keeping secure memory (say your passwords) out of...
Jonas Hietala
Christmas break
So school is on a break and I welcome it with all of my heart. The semester has been pretty fun and...
18th Dec 2010
So school is on a break and I welcome it with all of my heart. The semester has been pretty fun and I really enjoy studying here. We had lisp the whole time which is a pretty sweet little language and if you haven’t, give it a shot. Then we had math and I do like math, although I...
Applied Cartography
Best of Enemies
Last year, I watched The War Room, the documentary following Bill Clinton's first campaign — a film...
1st Aug 2026
Last year, I watched The War Room, the documentary following Bill Clinton's first campaign — a film I am remiss for having never written about, because it was captivating, satisfying, and illuminating. And whether for good reasons or bad, it punctured most of my belief that the...
tim.sh
Switching to Claude Code + VSCode inside Docker
Why I decided to ditch Cursor and switch to running Claude Code in an isolated environment + diy...
11th Jul 2025
Why I decided to ditch Cursor and switch to running Claude Code in an isolated environment + diy guide!
Louwrentius - Solar
Don't be afraid of RAID
Introduction
I sense this sentiment on the internet that RAID is dangerous, that the likelihood of...
22nd May 2020
Introduction
I sense this sentiment on the internet that RAID is dangerous, that the likelihood of your RAID array failing during a rebuild is almost a certainty, because hard drives have become so large.
I think nothing is further from the truth and I would like to dispel this...
Scott Kennedy
I have nine bosses, Bob: costs of org layering
12th Nov 2022
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing TagVault Fabric Extreme for AirTag
Our original TagVault Fabric Mount is one of our most popular AirTag cases. So we wanted another...
17th Oct 2025
Our original TagVault Fabric Mount is one of our most popular AirTag cases. So we wanted another design that was just as useful but even more rugged and fully waterproof.
So we designed TagVault Fabric Extreme for AirTag. It's ultra-flexible to move with your fabric. Ultra-secure...
Louwrentius - Solar
AI is critically important but not for you
Before Chat-GPT caused a sensation, big tech companies like Facebook and Apple were betting their...
14th May 2024
Before Chat-GPT caused a sensation, big tech companies like Facebook and Apple were betting their future growth on virtual reality. But I'm convinced that virtual reality will never be a mainstream thing. If you ever used VR you know why:
A heavy thing on your head that messes up...
Willem's Blog
Improve your sleep by blocking light
I have been wearing a sleep mask in bed, blocking all light. It has been amazing for my sleep's...
23rd Jan 2020
I have been wearing a sleep mask in bed, blocking all light. It has been amazing for my sleep's quality. Read along for my findings!
Style over Substance
CANARY Corrugated Cardboard Cutter
The CANARY corrugated cardboard cutter is definitely in my top 10 list of most useful purchases...
15th Nov 2022
The CANARY corrugated cardboard cutter is definitely in my top 10 list of most useful purchases ever. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, we all started shopping online a lot more. The number of cardboard boxes in our house basically quadrupled overnight and cutting them down to size...
Jonas Hietala
GitOps with ArgoCD
Now we’re getting to the fun stuff: GitOps.
The act of pushing beautifully crafted .yaml files and...
23rd Jul 2026
Now we’re getting to the fun stuff: GitOps.
The act of pushing beautifully crafted .yaml files and seeing your Kubernetes cluster get red and stall out is surely what life’s all about.
Install ArgoCD
We have our Kubernetes cluster and now we’re going to bootstrap ArgoCD so it...
Willem's Blog
Rolex DateJust 36
Celebrating a major milestone, I treated myself to a Rolex DateJust 36. Want to know what it's like?...
21st Dec 2022
Celebrating a major milestone, I treated myself to a Rolex DateJust 36. Want to know what it's like? Keep reading!
Scott Kennedy
Google interviews vs the LSAT, and why AI will save us from both
14th Jun 2023
Home on Erik...
Subway waiting math
Why does it suck to wait for things? In a previous post I analyzed a NYC subway dataset and found...
9th Jul 2016
Why does it suck to wait for things? In a previous post I analyzed a NYC subway dataset and found that at some point, quite early, it's worth just giving up.
This isn't a proof that the subway doesn't run on time – in fact it might actually proves that the subway runs really...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing TagVault Strap Compact for AirTag
We wanted a strap mount that was secure, rugged, ultra-compact, and super easier to assemble. So we...
12th Mar 2025
We wanted a strap mount that was secure, rugged, ultra-compact, and super easier to assemble. So we designed TagVault Strap Compact.
Fully waterproof with a hidden inner gasket.
It's ultra low-profile.
Perfect for backpacks.
Also really great for cameras.
Also available...
Blog | Sam Curry
Hacking a Massive Steam Scamming and Phishing Operation for Fun and Profit
9th May 2018
Simply Explained
HEIC to JPG: Build a Quick Action with Automator
With the release of iOS 11, Apple switched from JPG to HEIC to store your photos. The...
8th Jul 2020
With the release of iOS 11, Apple switched from JPG to HEIC to store your photos. The High-Efficiency Image File Format saves a lot of storage space on your devices while still maintaining your photos' quality. However, it does become problematic if you want to share those files...
Scott Kennedy
Why I left Google: work-life balance
4th May 2022
./techtipsy
I held a talk about my self-hosting adventure!
There are two reasons why I haven’t written much lately, and one of them is that I was cooking up...
26th May 2023
There are two reasons why I haven’t written much lately, and one of them is that I was cooking up a
talk about self-hosting, more specifically my own self-hosting adventure (the other one is the Steam Deck, more about
that in the future).
The talk took place on May 25th 2023 at...
Louwrentius - Solar
Script that shows relevant disk information
I wrote a small Python script called 'showdisks' that displays relevant information about any...
1st Oct 2013
I wrote a small Python script called 'showdisks' that displays relevant information about any physical storage devices supported by hdparm.
Information such as model and capacity are shown, but also controller and device path.
This script only requires python and hdparm.
I hope...
Arduino Blog
Shop vac becomes a Roomba on steroids
A robotic vacuum, such as a Roomba, offers a lot of convenience. Instead of having to vacuum and...
29th Apr 2024
A robotic vacuum, such as a Roomba, offers a lot of convenience. Instead of having to vacuum and sweep your own floors, you have a little maid robot to do the job for you. But these devices have very little power and capacity, which makes them useless for anything other than...
axio.ms
MicroMac, a Macintosh for under £5
A microcontroller Macintosh
This all started from a conversation about the RP2040 MCU, and building...
15th Jun 2024
A microcontroller Macintosh
This all started from a conversation about the RP2040 MCU, and building a simple desktop/GUI for it. I’d made a comment along the lines of “or, just run some old OS”, and it got me thinking about the original Macintosh.
The original Macintosh was...
computers are bad
2024-02-11 the top of the DNS hierarchy
In the past (in fact two years ago, proof I have been doing this for a while
now!) I wrote
about
the...
11th Feb 2024
In the past (in fact two years ago, proof I have been doing this for a while
now!) I wrote
about
the "inconvenient truth" that structural aspects of the Internet make truly
decentralized systems infeasible, due to the lack of a means to perform
broadcast discovery. As a result,...
./techtipsy
Why Nextcloud feels slow to use
Nextcloud. I really want to like it, but it’s making it really difficult.
I like what Nextcloud...
3rd Nov 2025
Nextcloud. I really want to like it, but it’s making it really difficult.
I like what Nextcloud offers with its feature set and how easily it replaces a bunch of services under one roof (files,
calendar, contacts, notes, to-do lists, photos etc.), but no matter how hard I try and...
Matt Mullenweg
USA 250
This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he...
5th Jul 2026
This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013. On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant’s heart it is a belief that future is almost always better. It may not be perfect and it...
Software and Tech...
Reclaiming Your Memory in the Age of Distraction
In today's social media-saturated world, does it feel like your memory is failing you? It's not that...
1st Jul 2025
In today's social media-saturated world, does it feel like your memory is failing you? It's not that you can't remember anything, but rather that you're constantly distracted while trying to remember.
Just a few years ago, I had a nightly ritual. Before drifting off to sleep, I'd...
Jonas Hietala
A Vacation Filled with Obsession
A nice thing about school are the nice long vacations. Directly after my last exam we went north to...
7th Jan 2013
A nice thing about school are the nice long vacations. Directly after my last exam we went north to our dear home village Övertorneå and spent two weeks celebrating Christmas and New Years Eve. What did we do? I practiced some obsessive behavior with Power Grid and Minecraft (and...
Arduino Blog
The Club Master is a Nano RP2040 Connect-powered device that improves your golf swing
When playing golf, few things are as important as using the correct form when swinging, since even...
3rd Jun 2024
When playing golf, few things are as important as using the correct form when swinging, since even small deviations can be the difference between a hole-in-one and additional strokes. To improve his game, Concept Bytes has designed a small clip-on device called the “Club Master.”...
Birchtree
When you put your brand's mascot on the enemy's platform
Back in February 2024, Xbox held a short podcast where they reacted directly to swirling rumors...
28th Oct 2025
Back in February 2024, Xbox held a short podcast where they reacted directly to swirling rumors about Xbox exclusive titles that were about to go multi-platform, which was giving Xbox fans anxiety. This question from host Tina Amini was right near the start:
So when you are...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Outside the comfort zone: amateur acting
This month I made my debut as amateur actor. I am no Hollywood star, nor do I envy to become one....
17th Apr 2018
This month I made my debut as amateur actor. I am no Hollywood star, nor do I envy to become one. But I do like crazy experiments and operating outside of my comfort zone often leads to new and refreshing insights. I took part in an amateur drama play and - in the name of science...
Jonas Hietala
2015 Read Books
I didn’t read a lot of books in 2015, but the books I did read were pretty damn good.
Fiction
A Song...
1st Jan 2016
I didn’t read a lot of books in 2015, but the books I did read were pretty damn good.
Fiction
A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons - George R.R. Martin
Reread.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - Gearge R.R. Martin
The Skin Collector - Jeffery Deaver
Best Served Cold - Joe...
Joel Gustafson
Introduction to Causal Logs
30th Sep 2024
Notes on software...
Writing a lisp compiler from scratch in JavaScript: 3. LLVM
Previously in compiler basics:
1. lisp to assembly
2. user-defined functions and variables
...
10th Mar 2019
Previously in compiler basics:
1. lisp to assembly
2. user-defined functions and variables
4. LLVM conditionals and compiling fibonacci
5. LLVM system calls
6. an x86 upgrade
In this post we'll extend the
compiler to emit LLVM
IR as an option instead of...
Abishek Muthian
No more global micro-SaaS from India
Reserve Bank of India has published draft regulatory guidelines for payment aggregators1 which...
31st Jul 2024
Reserve Bank of India has published draft regulatory guidelines for payment aggregators1 which requires payment aggregators to perform physical KYC on small & medium sized merchants, verify their bank accounts among other regulations.
Stripe, sighting the aforementioned...
Daniel De Laney
Data Center Monitoring
“I like to use sketches to validate ideas quickly, without a lot of investment in the wrong...
25th Jul 2019
“I like to use sketches to validate ideas quickly, without a lot of investment in the wrong direction.”
The Challenge
The computing power that runs the world is hidden away in data centers that few people get to see. While many data centers are lights-out operations most of the...
Simone Salis
The Mirror With No Reflection
From lovers to spouses, from employers to parental approval, we search for ourselves in others'...
12th Sep 2025
From lovers to spouses, from employers to parental approval, we search for ourselves in others' eyes—creating perhaps the most elaborate illusion ever sustained: that validation exists outside the self that seeks it.
axio.ms
32-bit hat, with LEDs
Built in November 2015 (now-traditional multi-year writeup delay applied)
A hat,...
14th Sep 2021
Built in November 2015 (now-traditional multi-year writeup delay applied)
A hat, bejewelled with 38 RGB LEDs
Is this thing on..? It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these.
So, the hat. It’s been on the writeup pile for almost 6 years, nagging away. Finally...
Jonas Hietala
Automating the Hue Tap Dial Switch in Elixir via MQTT
I recently bought a couple of Hue Tap Dial switches for our house to enhance our smart home.
We have...
1st Sep 2025
I recently bought a couple of Hue Tap Dial switches for our house to enhance our smart home.
We have quite a few smart lights and I figured the tap dial—with it’s multiple buttons and rotary dial—would be a good fit.
Since I’ve been moving away from standard Home Assistant...
Yazin Alirhayim
Hour 9: Categorizing the content
Now that we've cracked the API, we need to save all the content and categorize it.
24th Jun 2025
Now that we've cracked the API, we need to save all the content and categorize it.
./techtipsy
Monitoring energy usage with smart plugs, Prometheus and Grafana
This post isn’t a detailed line-by-line tutorial on how to set up each individual piece of the setup...
2nd May 2024
This post isn’t a detailed line-by-line tutorial on how to set up each individual piece of the setup as those types of
guides tend to get out of date really easily, but if you know your way around Linux and the command line, then you can
definitely replicate this setup on your...
./techtipsy
Oversimplified guide into snapshots on the btrfs filesystem
Friday afternoon. You’re trying out a script that you wrote to mass-rename and
move some files...
5th Apr 2022
Friday afternoon. You’re trying out a script that you wrote to mass-rename and
move some files around. You finish the script and test it out.
Oops.
All the files now have all the wrong names, and some have been randomly moved
10 folders deep. It’s a mess.
And you didn’t make a...
The Pragmatic...
Paying down tech debt: further learnings
In a counter-intuitive observation: by making small, non-functional improvements, you gain more...
19th Sep 2024
In a counter-intuitive observation: by making small, non-functional improvements, you gain more confidence in a new codebase, and can start to move faster.
Matt Mullenweg
GPL Clarification
A quick followup on my prior conversation with Theo. During that chat, I talked briefly about a...
1st Nov 2024
A quick followup on my prior conversation with Theo. During that chat, I talked briefly about a trademark infringer that was also distributing nulled plugins. I said “Not illegal. Legal under the GPL. But they weren’t changing the names. They were selling their customers Pro...
Arduino Blog
Pick and place without the CNC
Pick and place (PnP) machines are the linchpin on which modern electronics manufacturing rests. A...
2nd Apr 2026
Pick and place (PnP) machines are the linchpin on which modern electronics manufacturing rests. A PnP is a special kind of robot with a vacuum end effector designed to pick up SMD (surface-mount device) components and place them on a PCB for soldering. But for hobbyists, they’re...
Posts on Made of...
Thoughts On Kubernetes
I spent a while the last week porting livegrep.com from running directly AWS to running on...
19th Feb 2017
I spent a while the last week porting livegrep.com from running directly AWS to running on Kubernetes on Google’s Cloud Platform (specifically, the google container engine, which provisions and manages the cluster for me).
I left this experience profoundly enthusiastic about the...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Improve your sleep by blocking light
Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with wearing a sleep mask in bed, blocking all...
23rd Jan 2020
Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with wearing a sleep mask in bed, blocking all light. Our bodies produce the sleep hormone, melatonin, in darkness. Living in an environment awash in artificial light, is therefore exactly the sort of thing that disrupts one's...
Abishek Muthian
I had to let Go of Java
If you're a millennial and involved in SW-development then its likely Java has touched your life in...
21st Aug 2021
If you're a millennial and involved in SW-development then its likely Java has touched your life in some way.
Java was the magic pill in late 90s in India and every Engineering graduate irrespective of their domain was told to get certified in it for a job. My sister(ECE) was one...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Elfstedentocht on Feel
Last Monday I rode the Fietselfstedentocht, the hottest edition ever, on my fixed gear bike. No bike...
26th May 2026
Last Monday I rode the Fietselfstedentocht, the hottest edition ever, on my fixed gear bike. No bike computer, no GPS, no heart rate on my wrist. Just a mechanical watch, a stamp card and my WHOOP quietly recording in the background. Eighteen months ago I wondered whether I could...
Jonas Hietala
2023 in review
This is my yearly review #14.
Amazing that I’ve kept up with this for 14 years.
Even though it’s not...
1st Jan 2024
This is my yearly review #14.
Amazing that I’ve kept up with this for 14 years.
Even though it’s not anything advanced, I really like looking back at the year to see what has happened.
Maybe it’s a very light version of a reverse bucket list, and I can see that it provides some...
Tiny struggles
Browser caching with Django & Webpack
Table of contents
What is browser caching and why is it useful?
Crude approaches ...
8th Jan 2022
Table of contents
What is browser caching and why is it useful?
Crude approaches
Disable all caching!
Change the filename/import every time you edit
Content hashes in filenames
Let Django do it for you
...
Matt Blewitt
Over-Engineering Sleep
A while back, this implementation of a cross-platform sleep for GitHub Actions Runners caught my...
24th Aug 2025
A while back, this implementation of a cross-platform sleep for GitHub Actions Runners caught my eye, and I wanted to see what it would take to re-implement sleep from the ground up, while trying to be as cross-platform as possible.
Christian Selig
Curing Mac mini M4 fomo with 3D printing
Spoiler: 3D printed! The colored ports really sell the effect
If you’re anything like me, you’ve...
12th Nov 2024
Spoiler: 3D printed! The colored ports really sell the effect
If you’re anything like me, you’ve found the new, tinier Mac mini to be absolutely adorable. But you might also be like me that you either already have an awesome M1 Mac mini that you have no real reason to replace,...
Home on Erik...
Functional programming is the libertarianism of software engineering
This is a pretty dumb post, in which I argue that functional programming has a lot of the bad parts...
10th Jan 2017
This is a pretty dumb post, in which I argue that functional programming has a lot of the bad parts of libertarianism and a lot of the good parts:
Both ideologies strive to eliminate [the] state.
Posts on Made of...
Two Perspectives on the End-to-End Principle
Back when I was an undergraduate, as part of a class called “Computer Systems Engineering”, we read...
11th Jun 2017
Back when I was an undergraduate, as part of a class called “Computer Systems Engineering”, we read numerous classic papers of systems design. I enjoyed and learned a great deal from many of these papers, but one that paper that has stuck with me in particular was Saltzer et al’s...
Electronics etc…
Refurbishing a Tektronix TDS7104 Oscilloscope
Introduction
The TDS7104
Common Failures
Make an Image of the Hard Drive
CR2032 Backup Battery...
3 weeks ago
Introduction
The TDS7104
Common Failures
Make an Image of the Hard Drive
CR2032 Backup Battery Replacement and Display Brightness
Do NOT Remove the Front Panel
Scope Disassembly
A Failed Attempt at Switching over to an SSD
Reinstalling from Scratch: Windows 2000 Pro or Windows...
Willem's Blog
Wearing Grand Seiko
I am glad I took the opportunity to wear a Grand Seiko, learning first hand about its craftsmanship,...
4th Jun 2021
I am glad I took the opportunity to wear a Grand Seiko, learning first hand about its craftsmanship, innovation and practicality.
Old Vintage...
Oblast: a better Blasto game for the Commodore 64
wiring up a Gremlin Blasto arcade board, we talked at length about this 1978 arcade game's history...
6th Dec 2025
wiring up a Gremlin Blasto arcade board, we talked at length about this 1978 arcade game's history and its sole official home computer port by Milton Bradley to the Texas Instruments 99/4A. In the single player mode you run around in a maze and try to blow up all the mines, which...
Writing
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
I liked the book. I found it charming and winsome and funny. There were no elements, of, like,...
1st Jul 2020
I liked the book. I found it charming and winsome and funny. There were no elements, of, like, transformative exultation: so many of the books in this genre, the woman’s bildungsroman, the Dept. of Speculations and the Bluets of the world, have a couple moments that totally and...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Solving the NYTimes Pips puzzle with a constraint solver
pre {
background: #f4f4f4;
border: 1px solid #ddd;
border-left: 3px solid #a03;
...
18th Oct 2025
pre {
background: #f4f4f4;
border: 1px solid #ddd;
border-left: 3px solid #a03;
border-radius: 2px;
color: #666;
display: block;
font-family: monospace;
line-height: 1.3;
margin-bottom: 1.6em;
max-width: 60em;
overflow: auto;
padding: 1em 1.5em;
...
watchTowr Labs
QNAP QTS - QNAPping At The Wheel (CVE-2024-27130 and friends)
Infosec is, at it’s heart, all about that data. Obtaining access to it (or disrupting access to it)...
17th May 2024
Infosec is, at it’s heart, all about that data. Obtaining access to it (or disrupting access to it) is in every ransomware gang and APT group’s top-10 to-do-list items, and so it makes sense that our research voyage would, at some point, cross paths with products
Louwrentius - Solar
Personal Security: erase your computer or phone before repair
Computer nerds are self sufficient when it comes to fixing their computer. Non-computer experts have...
4th Nov 2012
Computer nerds are self sufficient when it comes to fixing their computer. Non-computer experts have to find some other person with greater computer knowledge to repair their computer or phone. That person will then be able to access all data stored on their computer or phone.
By...
On Life and Lisp
Passing the reins on Panfrost
Today is my last day at Collabora and my last day leading the Panfrost driver.
It’s been a wild...
10th Apr 2023
Today is my last day at Collabora and my last day leading the Panfrost driver.
It’s been a wild ride.
In 2017, I began work on the chai driver for Mali T (Midgard). chai would later be merged into Lyude Paul’s and Connor Abbott’s BiOpenly project for Mali G (Bifrost) to form...
Pea Bee
#16: The case of fake IMDb credits
I was casually browsing IMDb when I landed on the page for an upcoming Ranbir Kapoor starrer movie...
7th Aug 2022
I was casually browsing IMDb when I landed on the page for an upcoming Ranbir Kapoor starrer movie “Animal”.
Louwrentius - Solar
This blog is now running on solar power
Introduction
This blog is now running on solar power.
I've put a solar panel on my balcony, which...
6th Jul 2020
Introduction
This blog is now running on solar power.
I've put a solar panel on my balcony, which is connected to a solar charge controller. This device charges an old worn-out car battery and provides power to a Raspberry Pi ~~3b+~~ 4B, which in turn powers this (static)...
Posts on Made of...
6.170, CVS, and SVN
I’m taking 6.170 Lab in Software Engineering this semester. The course sucks in various ways, but...
11th Feb 2007
I’m taking 6.170 Lab in Software Engineering this semester. The course sucks in various ways, but one of the most egregious, in my opinion, is that they force you to use CVS for your version control. Problem sets are distributed by the TAs importing them into your repository, and...
Writing
The Godfather
It has taken me far too long to watch The Godfather, and having finished it I find myself
slightly...
6th Feb 2023
It has taken me far too long to watch The Godfather, and having finished it I find myself
slightly deflated — because it is a tremendous movie, worthy of its status in both the American
and cinematic anons, and every line and meme which has etched itself into the collective...
Alyssa Rosenzweig
Passing the reins on Panfrost
Today is my last day at Collabora and my last day leading
the Panfrost
driver.
It’s been a wild...
10th Apr 2023
Today is my last day at Collabora and my last day leading
the Panfrost
driver.
It’s been a wild ride.
In 2017, I began work on the chai driver for Mali T
(Midgard). chai would later be merged into Lyude Paul’s and Connor Abbott’s
BiOpenly project for Mali G (Bifrost) to form...
Jonas Hietala
Moving private repositories to Bitbucket
Long overdue, I recently moved my private repositories from Github to Bitbucket. Github is great of...
10th Oct 2012
Long overdue, I recently moved my private repositories from Github to Bitbucket. Github is great of courseand they even gave me a free students account and I still host all my public repositories there. Still, Bitbucket has unlimited free private repositories for up to 5 users...
matduggan.com
Clickhouse is winning the Observability Wars
For roughly the last ten years, a meaningful percentage of my working hours have been spent thinking...
1st Jul 2026
For roughly the last ten years, a meaningful percentage of my working hours have been spent thinking about observability. If you're not familiar with the term, "observability" is what we call it now that "monitoring" doesn't sound expensive enough. The actual work
Construction Physics
Do U.S. Ports Need More Automation?
On October 1st, 47,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), primarily...
8th Oct 2024
On October 1st, 47,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), primarily dockworkers on East and Gulf Coast ports, went on strike after failing to agree contract terms with USMX, an alliance of port operators and employers.
Computer Ads from...
Comics from December 1962 Issue of Computers and Automation
Out oldest one yet
10th Oct 2025
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