Style over Substance
Review of the 2-dial TTArtisan Light Meter
My latest purchase for my analog cameras is the TTArtisan light meter, a hotshoe-mounted meter...
30th Dec 2021
My latest purchase for my analog cameras is the TTArtisan light meter, a hotshoe-mounted meter accessory. The market for these shoe-mounted light meters for vintage cameras has become weirdly competitive. They fit on top of a mechanical camera and provide you with the right...
Computer Ads from...
Comics from July 1977 Issue of ROM Magazine
Those were the early days.
7th May 2026
Those were the early days.
computers are bad
air traffic control: the IBM 9020
Previously on Computers Are Bad, we discussed the early history of air
traffic control in the United...
17th Jan 2026
Previously on Computers Are Bad, we discussed the early history of air
traffic control in the United States.
The technical demands of air traffic control are well known in computer history
circles because of the prominence of SAGE, but what's less well known is that
SAGE itself...
Christian Selig
CKSyncEngine questions and answers
I didn't know what to put as a header so here are some iClouds (interesting clouds) in Maine
I’ve...
7th Jan 2026
I didn't know what to put as a header so here are some iClouds (interesting clouds) in Maine
I’ve had a lot of fun working with CKSyncEngine over the last month or so. I truly think it’s one of the best APIs Apple has built, and they’ve managed to take a very complex topic...
Yazin Alirhayim
Do people in Bahrain buy online? The story of Canvas.bh
How I started a business to answer this simple question. The story of Canvas.bh
9th Sep 2014
How I started a business to answer this simple question. The story of Canvas.bh
Abort Retry Fail
Intel: a Bug and a Pro
The FDIV bug and release of the P6
24th Feb 2025
The FDIV bug and release of the P6
Old Vintage...
MkLinux and the pimped-out Apple Workgroup Server 9150
As is typical here in the Floodgap lab, it all started so innocently: rebuilding a flaky Apple...
2nd Aug 2026
As is typical here in the Floodgap lab, it all started so innocently: rebuilding a flaky Apple Workgroup Server 9150, the odd duck of the Workgroup Server line and older cousin to our beloved Apple Network Server. And then I just had to pimp it out for MkLinux.
sui generis IBM...
Willem L. Middelkoop
MUSE in Carré
Last Sunday I experienced a breathtaking fusion of legendary rock band MUSE and Amsterdam's iconic...
22nd Oct 2022
Last Sunday I experienced a breathtaking fusion of legendary rock band MUSE and Amsterdam's iconic Royal Theatre Carré. The band's electrifying sound in the theatre's sophisticated atmosphere proved to be a recipe for an unforgettable night.
MUSE
Hailing from Teignmouth, Devon,...
Engineers Need Art
Offline Advocate
Digital hoarding as a check against the ephemeral nature of the internet ... and maybe some peace of...
19th Nov 2024
Digital hoarding as a check against the ephemeral nature of the internet ... and maybe some peace of mind.
Good Enough
How to: Adding a floating “Back to top” button in Pika
As we say repeatedly on its homepage, Pika is designed to help you focus on writing, not tinkering...
22nd May 2026
As we say repeatedly on its homepage, Pika is designed to help you focus on writing, not tinkering with your blog design. To that end Pika purposely doesn’t support complex liquid templating or other such code customization. However, today I thought I’d share how crazy powerful...
Jonas Hietala
Food vacation in Japan
Me and my friend spent 2 weeks in Japan and had a great time. I wasn’t planning on taking a lot of...
18th Jul 2019
Me and my friend spent 2 weeks in Japan and had a great time. I wasn’t planning on taking a lot of pictures, but I ended up sending a bunch back home as a ways of keeping my family up to date. When I look back most of them are about food… So I’ll turn this into a post about the...
Abishek Muthian
Send and receive WhatsApp messages through email
warning: Sending and receiving messages from WhatsApp through email would bypass the end-to-end...
12th Jan 2021
warning: Sending and receiving messages from WhatsApp through email would bypass the end-to-end encryption and may leak data to the email providers (Check update). If your reason for reading this is for better data security, then this is may not the right approach.
This approach...
Style over Substance
My grandfather’s Rolleiflex 2.8D twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera
One of the first vintage cameras I ever got was my dad’s old Polaroid SX-70. Like so many family...
10th Oct 2020
One of the first vintage cameras I ever got was my dad’s old Polaroid SX-70. Like so many family cameras it had disappeared into a closet decades ago and was only found again recently. When he gave it to me, he told me there was another classic camera he wanted to give me – if...
Fabien Sanglard
The hearts of the Super Nintendo
1st Apr 2024
Vitalik Buterin's...
Don't overload Ethereum's consensus
21st May 2023
axio.ms
Mac SE/30 odyssey
I’ve always wanted an Apple Macintosh SE/30. Released in 1989, they look quite a lot like the other...
1st Oct 2021
I’ve always wanted an Apple Macintosh SE/30. Released in 1989, they look quite a lot like the other members of the original “compact Mac” series, but pack in a ton of interesting features that the other compact Macs don’t have.
This is the story of my journey to getting to the...
Applied Cartography
Everybody Wants Some!!
The single most pleasurable movie of all time is Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, and it achieves that...
2 weeks ago
The single most pleasurable movie of all time is Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, and it achieves that status in order to try to convey what makes filmmaking uniquely magical: a sense of shared enchantment between the audience and the director, and the ecstasy of the latter pulling a...
Abishek Muthian
Auto suspend and resume KVM Virtual Machine with the host
When the host machine is suspended while the KVM through QEMU is running lead to issues like display...
13th Sep 2021
When the host machine is suspended while the KVM through QEMU is running lead to issues like display unable to wake up when resuming suspend.
Suspending and resuming the Virtual Machine when the host machine is suspended using hooks in systemd and resumed fixes this...
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....
MIT News - Civil and...
A faster way to solve complex planning problems
By eliminating redundant computations, a new data-driven method can streamline processes like...
16th Apr 2025
By eliminating redundant computations, a new data-driven method can streamline processes like scheduling trains, routing delivery drivers, or assigning airline crews.
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...
Style over Substance
Black and white epaper photo frame based on Seeed Studio reTerminal E1003 using ESPHome and Home...
Last year I wrote about how I had written an ESPHome configuration for the Seeed Studio reTerminal...
23rd May 2026
Last year I wrote about how I had written an ESPHome configuration for the Seeed Studio reTerminal E1002 device to work as a small, color, digital art frame. This year, I wrote about how I had been using Claude Code to help me write Home Assistant code for myself. Those efforts...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Six Websites in Ten Days
Halfway June I came back from Amsterdam buzzing. A week and a half later six websites were live on a...
23rd Jun 2026
Halfway June I came back from Amsterdam buzzing. A week and a half later six websites were live on a publisher that did not exist before: MP1, a static site generator that lives as a ZIP file inside my own CMS. This post is about what made that possible: automating the dull work...
Push to Prod
Comprehension of Concurrency is a Lifelong Journey
Accept that your understanding is imperfect. There is comfort in letting go.
23rd Jul 2024
Accept that your understanding is imperfect. There is comfort in letting go.
Applied Cartography
Two weeks of parenthood
We've had lucy for two weeks, which qualifies us as experts, which means it is time to write about...
6th Oct 2024
We've had lucy for two weeks, which qualifies us as experts, which means it is time to write about parenthood. (In all seriousness, consider the below descriptive and not prescriptive: mostly, it's a notepad filled with things that were remarkable or surprising or divergent from...
GitButler
Why is Git Autocorrect too fast for Formula One drivers?
Why does Git's autocorrect wait 0.1s before executing a mistyped command? Let's dig in.
13th Jan 2025
Why does Git's autocorrect wait 0.1s before executing a mistyped command? Let's dig in.
watchTowr Labs
Visionaries Have Democratised Remote Network Access - Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops...
Well, we’re back again, with yet another fresh-off-the-press bug chain (and associated Interactive...
12th Nov 2024
Well, we’re back again, with yet another fresh-off-the-press bug chain (and associated Interactive Artifact Generator). This time, it’s in Citrix’s “Virtual Apps and Desktops” offering.
This is a tech stack that enables end-users (and likely, your friendly neighbourhood...
GitButler
Fearless Rebasing
GitButler now supports first class conflicts, which makes rebasing much less annoying. What is...
23rd Oct 2024
GitButler now supports first class conflicts, which makes rebasing much less annoying. What is "fearless rebasing"?
Opsbros
Saibah Securitah
It's always okay to buy the domain for the meme!
17th Sep 2021
It's always okay to buy the domain for the meme!
Himanshu Mishra |...
Book Recommendation - Man's Search for Meaning
Dear :name-retracted:, I finished reading a book today. It’s called Man’s Search for Meaning,...
3rd Nov 2018
Dear :name-retracted:, I finished reading a book today. It’s called Man’s Search for Meaning, written by Viktor Frankl. He was a German…
Pea Bee
Pea Bee #6: Drive a train, forever, through a dreamlike land
Hi all, shipping a new issue after a long time.
22nd May 2021
Hi all, shipping a new issue after a long time.
Louwrentius - Solar
An ode to the 10,000 RPM Western Digital (Veloci)Raptor
Introduction
Back in 2004, I visited a now bankrupt Dutch computer store called MyCom1, located at...
30th Oct 2021
Introduction
Back in 2004, I visited a now bankrupt Dutch computer store called MyCom1, located at the Kinkerstraat in Amsterdam. I was there to buy a Western Digital Raptor model WD740, with 74 GB of capacity, running at 10,000 RPM.
When I bought this drive, we were still in...
Eric Migicovsky's...
Announcing Startup School Winter 2020
10th Dec 2019
Pea Bee
#19 This is a clone of Nykaa's website
The clickbait title is explained later, trust me
5th Oct 2023
The clickbait title is explained later, trust me
Writing
Two weeks of parenthood
We've had lucy for two weeks, which qualifies us as experts, which means it is time to write about...
6th Oct 2024
We've had lucy for two weeks, which qualifies us as experts, which means it is time to write about parenthood. (In all seriousness, consider the below descriptive and not prescriptive: mostly, it's a notepad filled with things that were remarkable or surprising or divergent from...
Home on Erik...
Why conversion matters: a toy model
There are often close relationships between top level business metrics. For instance, it's well...
30th Oct 2017
There are often close relationships between top level business metrics. For instance, it's well known that retention has a super strong impact on the valuation of a subscription business. Or that the % of occupied seats is super important for an airline.
computers are bad
2023-02-07 secret government telephone numbers
Very nearly a year ago, I wrote a popular article about secret military
telephone
buttons.
To be...
7th Feb 2023
Very nearly a year ago, I wrote a popular article about secret military
telephone
buttons.
To be clear, the "secret" here was a joke and these buttons are in fact well
documented. The buttons I was talking about were the AUTOVON call precedence
buttons, used for a five-level...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing TagVault Surface for AirTag
We wanted something easy and secure to mount AirTag to any surface. And indestructible and...
23rd Aug 2022
We wanted something easy and secure to mount AirTag to any surface. And indestructible and waterproof so it could be used in extreme environments - like on skis.
So we designed TagVault Surface Mount for AirTag. Opens and closes like a contact lens case. Glass reinforced...
Home on Erik...
Pinterest open sources Pinball
Pinterest just open sourced Pinball which seems like an interesting Luigi alternative. There's two...
14th Mar 2015
Pinterest just open sourced Pinball which seems like an interesting Luigi alternative. There's two blog posts: Pinball: Building workflow management (from 2014) and Open-sourcing Pinball (from this week). The author has a comment in the comments thread on Hacker News:
Notes on software...
Writing a lisp compiler from scratch in JavaScript: 1. lisp to assembly
Next in compiler basics:
2. user-defined functions and variables
3. LLVM
4. LLVM...
20th Nov 2018
Next in compiler basics:
2. user-defined functions and variables
3. LLVM
4. LLVM conditionals and compiling fibonacci
5. LLVM system calls
6. an x86 upgrade
In this post we'll write a simple compiler in Javascript (on Node)
without any third-party libraries....
Christian Selig
High quality, low filesize GIFs
While the GIF format is a little on the older side, it’s still a really handy format in 2025 for...
2nd Aug 2025
While the GIF format is a little on the older side, it’s still a really handy format in 2025 for sharing short clips where an actual video file might have some compatibility issues.
For instance, I find when you just want a short little video on your website, a GIF is still so...
./techtipsy
I tried out the CyberPower UT650EG UPS
After some spicy feedback to my post where a ThinkPad T430 acted as a server,
I decided to try out...
4th Aug 2022
After some spicy feedback to my post where a ThinkPad T430 acted as a server,
I decided to try out one UPS that was recommended on the basis of it being much
more power efficient compared to the APC UPS that I previously ran.
That UPS? CyberPower UT650EG.
Why switch out a...
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...
On Life and Lisp
Vulkan 1.3 on the M1 in 1 month
u{text-decoration-thickness:0.09em;text-decoration-color:skyblue}
Finally, conformant Vulkan for the...
5th Jun 2024
u{text-decoration-thickness:0.09em;text-decoration-color:skyblue}
Finally, conformant Vulkan for the M1! The new “Honeykrisp” driver is
the first conformant
Vulkan® for Apple hardware on any operating system, implementing the
full 1.3 spec without “portability”...
Open for Business
Healthy Holidays
It began the way colds always do: a kind of dry, scratchy feeling in the nose, arriving over a...
4th Dec 2025
It began the way colds always do: a kind of dry, scratchy feeling in the nose, arriving over a couple of hours.
I suppose there is a psychological essay to be written about it, on the order of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief. In both, the first stage is denial. “No,...
Azad's Blog
What I learned while gaming at 480 FPS
It’s clear that with display technologies, we’ve hit a point of diminishing returns with packing...
12th May 2025
It’s clear that with display technologies, we’ve hit a point of diminishing returns with packing pixels more densly. However, there is room for rendering frames faster and faster. Having listened to Digital Foundry’s John Linneman talk so highlighy about playing games in 480hz on...
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.
Applied Cartography
Dept. of Speculation
A book that at times filled the same holes in my head that Bluets did; a poetic and bittersweet...
13th Aug 2016
A book that at times filled the same holes in my head that Bluets did; a poetic and bittersweet narrative about connections that are made and then severed and the trials of both states. It’s inventive and quiet and rhythmic.
Willem L. Middelkoop
Talking tablets: what makes a great tablet?
Earlier this year Microsoft released their brand new Surface Pro X tablet computer, in many ways...
13th Apr 2020
Earlier this year Microsoft released their brand new Surface Pro X tablet computer, in many ways this is a forward thinking device. As I like working with tablets I wondered what exactly makes a great tablet? Is Surface Pro X any good? Read along to find out.
Surface Pro X
Unlike...
Buck on Software
The Wrong Bet
The next decade in SaaS won't look like the last
10th May 2021
The next decade in SaaS won't look like the last
Electronics etc…
An In-Depth Look at the ICE-V Wireless FPGA Development Board
Introduction
The ICE-V Wireless FPGA Board
Preloading the PSRAM with User Data
The Overall Boot...
27th Dec 2022
Introduction
The ICE-V Wireless FPGA Board
Preloading the PSRAM with User Data
The Overall Boot Process
UART Console
Getting Started with the ICE-V Wireless Board for Real
Reinstalling or Modifying the ESP32C3 Firmware
The RISC-V Example FPGA Design
Compiling the RISC-V Example...
Louwrentius - Solar
Setting up a Squid proxy with Clamav anti-virus using c-icap
Security is all about a defence-in-depth strategy. Create multiple layers of defence. Every layer...
26th Aug 2012
Security is all about a defence-in-depth strategy. Create multiple layers of defence. Every layer presenting a different set of challenges, requiring different skill sets and technology. So every layer will increase the time and effort to compromise your environment.
A...
Writing
Anxious People
The friend who suggested this book for book club prefaced it with "I like this author because...
4th Nov 2020
The friend who suggested this book for book club prefaced it with "I like this author because nothing is left to subtext", and that certainly is true! If you are ever looking for a book in which the author tells you exactly what everything means and what everyone is thinking and...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Review of Gitcoin Quadratic Funding Round 4
28th Jan 2020
Toni's Blog
On Design and Chemistry
How I transitioned from chemistry to design, and back again.
12th Sep 2024
How I transitioned from chemistry to design, and back again.
latest projects -...
Turbine Transport Transformer
[Concept] Transforming turbine transport
19th Jun 2025
[Concept] Transforming turbine transport
videah.net
Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
Posted on April 22, 2025
This post is from a legacy version of...
22nd Apr 2025
Attacking My Landlord's Boiler
Posted on April 22, 2025
This post is from a legacy version of this blog!
No changes have been made to the content in the migration, so things might read weird.
Please do your due diligence and check local laws before attempting anything I do...
Louwrentius - Solar
ZFS RAIDZ expansion is awesome but has a small caveat
Introduction
Update April 2023:
It has been fairly quiet since the announcement of this feature.
The...
22nd Jun 2021
Introduction
Update April 2023:
It has been fairly quiet since the announcement of this feature.
The Github PR about this feature is rather stale and people are wondering what the status is and what the plans are. Meanwhile, FreeBSD has announced In February 2023 that they...
Computer Ads from...
Plus Post: Sony SMC-777C
One person, Eight languages. The 8bit.
1st Jun 2025
One person, Eight languages. The 8bit.
Arduino Blog
Repurpose gadgets as Arduino-ready modules
Most people have a general awareness of how economies of scale play into the cost of products; a...
5th Sep 2025
Most people have a general awareness of how economies of scale play into the cost of products; a bespoke, handcrafted vase is going to cost a lot more than a mass-produced vase sold in the millions. But the ramifications of that concept can be really counterintuitive when it...
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.
Christian Selig
Autonomous Standing Desk and Chair Review
Autonomous was nice enough to send me one of both their Smart Desk Pro standing desks and ErgoChair...
14th Nov 2023
Autonomous was nice enough to send me one of both their Smart Desk Pro standing desks and ErgoChair Pro chairs in exchange for posting about them on Twitter, and I wanted to cover them in more detail on my blog as well so I could give my full thoughts on them for anyone in the...
Home on Erik...
Miscellaneous unsolicited (and possibly biased) career advice
No one asked for this, but I'm something like ~12 years into my career and have had my fair share of...
26th Sep 2019
No one asked for this, but I'm something like ~12 years into my career and have had my fair share of mistakes and luck so I thought I'd share some.
Honestly, I feel like I've mostly benefitted from luck.
Blog | Sam Curry
Exploiting Directory Traversal to View Customer Credit Card Information on Yahoo's Small...
10th Nov 2017
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...
Electronics etc…
HP Laptop 17 RAM Upgrade
Introduction
Selecting the RAM
Opening up
Replacing the RAM
Reassembly
References
Introduction
I do...
12th Mar 2025
Introduction
Selecting the RAM
Opening up
Replacing the RAM
Reassembly
References
Introduction
I do virtually all of my hobby and home computing on Linux and MacOS. The MacOS
stuff on a laptop and almost all Linux work a desktop PC. The desktop PC has Windows
on it installed as...
Applied Cartography
May, 2026
There are two mental models about work and fatigue which, like my brief dalliance with Roshe Runs, I...
1st Jun 2026
There are two mental models about work and fatigue which, like my brief dalliance with Roshe Runs, I have loved and outgrown:
Louwrentius - Solar
My solar-powered blog is now on Lithium Iron Phosphate
In my last blog post I discussed how a small solar project - to power this blog on a Raspberry Pi -...
19th May 2023
In my last blog post I discussed how a small solar project - to power this blog on a Raspberry Pi - escalated into a full-blown off-grid solar setup, large enough to power the computer I use at the moment to write this update1. In this update, I want to discuss my battery...
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!
Notes on software...
From web developer to database developer in 10 years
Last month I completed my first year at EnterpriseDB. I'm on the team
that built and...
15th Feb 2025
Last month I completed my first year at EnterpriseDB. I'm on the team
that built and maintains
pglogical and who, over
the years, contributed a good chunk of the logical replication
functionality that exists in community Postgres. Most of my work, our
work, is in C and Rust with...
Home on Erik...
Deep learning for… chess (addendum)
My previous blog post about deep learning for chess blew up and made it to Hacker News and a couple...
8th Dec 2014
My previous blog post about deep learning for chess blew up and made it to Hacker News and a couple of other places. One pretty amazing thing was that the Github repo got 150 stars overnight.
computers are bad
2025-08-16 passive microwave repeaters
One of the most significant single advancements in telecommunications
technology was the development...
16th Aug 2025
One of the most significant single advancements in telecommunications
technology was the development of microwave radio. Essentially an evolution of
radar, the middle of the Second World War saw the first practical microwave
telephone system. By the time Japan surrendered, AT&T...
Computer Ads from...
MicroTimes Interviews Borland's Philippe Kahn Again (1995)
Khan talks about his post-Borland work at Starfish and competition with Lotus and Microsoft
3rd Mar 2026
Khan talks about his post-Borland work at Starfish and competition with Lotus and Microsoft
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...
Willem's Blog
Fixed Gear Gran Fondo
Taking a fixed gear road bike for a gran fondo! Let some of my fun be of inspiration to you!
9th Apr 2021
Taking a fixed gear road bike for a gran fondo! Let some of my fun be of inspiration to you!
Butler's Log
We’ve raised $17M to build what comes after Git
GitButler has raised a Series A round to accelerate developing the infrastructure for how software...
8th Apr 2026
GitButler has raised a Series A round to accelerate developing the infrastructure for how software gets built next
Krebs on Security
Please Don’t Feed the Scattered Lapsus ShinyHunters
A prolific data ransom gang that calls itself Scattered Lapsus ShinyHunters (SLSH) has a distinctive...
2nd Feb 2026
A prolific data ransom gang that calls itself Scattered Lapsus ShinyHunters (SLSH) has a distinctive playbook when it seeks to extort payment from victim firms: Harassing, threatening and even swatting executives and their families, all while notifying journalists and regulators...
Project Blog on...
Train Simulator Controller: Real ATP-Enabled Speedometer
As I add more instruments to my realistic physical dashboard for Train Simulator, I have prioritized...
26th Mar 2024
As I add more instruments to my realistic physical dashboard for Train Simulator, I have prioritized a speedometer, one of the most vital tools a driver/engineer uses to safely operate a train. After purchasing working, ATP-enabled speedometers, I set about determining how to...
Christian Selig
Smart Open Xcode
If you’re like me, you often have multiple versions of Xcode installed. One or two beta versions, a...
2nd Aug 2023
If you’re like me, you often have multiple versions of Xcode installed. One or two beta versions, a stable version, and maybe another version in case the most recent stable version has something weird about it.
I also really like mapping my Caps Lock key to something more useful,...
Simone Salis
Being a Bridge Person
How lowering your masks can ripple outward, changing not just individuals, but entire communities.
15th Oct 2024
How lowering your masks can ripple outward, changing not just individuals, but entire communities.
Open for Business
Et Tu, Aldi?
It was the day that I stopped forever my weekly visit to Kroger.
The COVID-19 epidemic was underway,...
5th Nov 2025
It was the day that I stopped forever my weekly visit to Kroger.
The COVID-19 epidemic was underway, and we were advised to stay away from each other. It was cold, and the forecast was that an ice storm would hit about sundown (made an hour earlier each year for no good reason by...
Open for Business
Fields or Hutches?
When I was small, living on a small farm near a college town, my father fell for an idea proffered...
12th Nov 2025
When I was small, living on a small farm near a college town, my father fell for an idea proffered by the Ralston Purina Company of Checkerboard Square in St. Louis.
Jonas Hietala
Planning my Kubernetes homelab
The Kubernetes iceberg.
If I’d have to describe my homelab setup via analogy I guess it would be...
5th May 2026
The Kubernetes iceberg.
If I’d have to describe my homelab setup via analogy I guess it would be similar to me on a unicycle carrying plates with both of my hands, or maybe a leaking barrel with water that I try to patch up with silver tape.
I’ve also been Kubernetes-curious so...
Vitalik Buterin's...
The Dawn of Hybrid Layer 2 Protocols
28th Aug 2019
Home on Erik...
Annoy 1.10 released, with Hamming distance and Windows support
I've been a bit bad at posting things with a regular cadence lately, partly because I'm trying to...
26th Nov 2017
I've been a bit bad at posting things with a regular cadence lately, partly because I'm trying to adjust to having a toddler, partly because the hunt for clicks has caused such a high bar for me that I feel like I have to post something Pulitzer-worthy.
Tiny struggles
I quit my startup because of comic sans
Okay, it wasn’t really caused by the Comic Sans.
I had very fun 3 months of pretty fun collaboration...
14th Jul 2023
Okay, it wasn’t really caused by the Comic Sans.
I had very fun 3 months of pretty fun collaboration and intense learning, but in the end I had this very clear feeling that I would be better of on my own.
It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great. There were many small and big things...
Butler's Log
Git Merge 2026
Git Merge is coming to Lisbon this September, and GitButler is once again helping host two days of...
8th May 2026
Git Merge is coming to Lisbon this September, and GitButler is once again helping host two days of Git talks, community, and deep technical nerdery.
Abishek Muthian
Paytm says to me that it’s PoS feature didn’t have a security risk
Paytm- Alibaba backed India’s leading mobile payment wallet saw a 1000 % growth in the amount of...
29th Nov 2016
Paytm- Alibaba backed India’s leading mobile payment wallet saw a 1000 % growth in the amount of money added to its wallet during India’s demonetisation.
I must acknowledge that digital wallets like Paytm, Ola money etc. did help in easing the pains of demonetisation for those...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Standard cells: Looking at individual gates in the Pentium processor
Intel released the powerful Pentium processor in 1993,
a chip
to "separate the really power-hungry...
7th Jul 2024
Intel released the powerful Pentium processor in 1993,
a chip
to "separate the really power-hungry folks from ordinary mortals."
The original Pentium was followed by the Pentium Pro, the Pentium II, and others, spawning a long-running brand of high-performance processors, Intel's...
latest projects -...
Robot Slide Whistle Orchestrion
[Hardware] Army of Robot Slide Whistles
1st Apr 2024
[Hardware] Army of Robot Slide Whistles
./techtipsy
Meet the Garbage PC
This is the Garbage PC.
Not too long ago, I received a half-broken Dell Inspiron N5110, sporting 6...
2nd Feb 2026
This is the Garbage PC.
Not too long ago, I received a half-broken Dell Inspiron N5110, sporting 6 GB of RAM, a dual core Intel i3-2110M, and an
unsupported NVIDIA GPU of some sort.
One of the hinges was loose from the case because it was screwed into plastic (common issue for...
Notes on software...
Administering Kubernetes is hard
Kubernetes is easy to use after some exposure; it's pretty convenient
too. But it is super hard to...
30th Sep 2019
Kubernetes is easy to use after some exposure; it's pretty convenient
too. But it is super hard to set up.
eksctl is a good tool for folks who don't want to
spend hours/days/weeks debugging VPC configuration in 1000s of lines
of CloudFormation. None of the other tools seem to be...
Arduino Blog
A desktop-sized DIY vending machine for your room
Have you ever wanted your very own vending machine? If so, you likely found that they’re expensive...
2nd Jul 2024
Have you ever wanted your very own vending machine? If so, you likely found that they’re expensive and too bulky to fit in most homes. But now you can experience vending bliss thanks to this miniature vending machine designed by m22pj, which you can craft yourself using an...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Inside the mechanical Bendix Air Data Computer, part 3: pressure transducers
MathJax = {
tex: {
inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']]
},
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fontCache:...
16th Jan 2024
MathJax = {
tex: {
inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']]
},
svg: {
fontCache: 'global'
},
chtml: { displayAlign: 'left' }
};
MathJax.Hub.Config({
"HTML-CSS": { scale: 175}
});
.MathJax {font-size: 1em !important}
The Bendix Central Air...
lcamtuf’s thing
What's the deal with magnetic fields?
I apologize, but there won't be any Insane Clown Posse jokes in this article.
4th Feb 2025
I apologize, but there won't be any Insane Clown Posse jokes in this article.
Notes on software...
Confusion and disengagement in meetings
The quickest way to cut through confusion or disagreement among
otherwise amiable and honest folks...
30th Nov 2019
The quickest way to cut through confusion or disagreement among
otherwise amiable and honest folks is to ask questions.
Ask early so you don't waste time. But it's not enough to just ask
clarifying questions because the answers won't always be clear.
Sounds like Human Interaction...
Jonas Hietala
Why I'm back to Whoop (for now)
I recently started to subscribe to Whoop again after I canceled it around a year ago.
I was partly...
2nd Jun 2025
I recently started to subscribe to Whoop again after I canceled it around a year ago.
I was partly dissatisfied with my Garmin watch as a fitness and health tracker and I also wanted a new tech device to tinker with.
The plan was to write a short post about what I like and don’t...
Home on Erik...
We are still early with the cloud: why software development is overdue for a change
This is is in many respects a successor to a blog post I wrote last year about what I want from...
19th Oct 2022
This is is in many respects a successor to a blog post I wrote last year about what I want from software infrastructure, but the ideas morphed in my head into something sort of wider.
Writing
The Flamethrowers
“Making art was really about the problem of the soul, of losing it. It was a technique for...
1st Mar 2025
“Making art was really about the problem of the soul, of losing it. It was a technique for inhabiting the world. For not dissolving into it.”
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...
anderegg.ca
Apple at 50: My journey to the Mac
Growing up, I hated Apple the way only an arrogant teenager could. Who in their right mind would buy...
1st Apr 2026
Growing up, I hated Apple the way only an arrogant teenager could. Who in their right mind would buy an overpriced toy instead of a “real computer”? Here’s how I switched to the Mac, and haven’t looked back… despite some recent reservations.
My family’s first real computer was a...
Home on Erik...
Never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by opportunity cost
Hanlon's razor is a classic aphorism I'm sure you have heard before: Never attribute to malice that...
10th Mar 2020
Hanlon's razor is a classic aphorism I'm sure you have heard before: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
I've found that neither malice nor stupidity is the most common reason when you don't understand why something is in a certain way.
Comments for Lars...
Comment on How Live Chat Tools Impact Conversions and Why I Launched a Bad Variant by Kannan...
Thanks for all your insights.
I really wonder why my sales are actually gone down since I...
7th Aug 2018
Thanks for all your insights.
I really wonder why my sales are actually gone down since I implemented tawk.
Probably it is a good idea to take off and see if there are a dance in the sales graph.
Vitalik Buterin's...
Degen communism: the only correct political ideology
1st Apr 2024
anderegg.ca
An infuriating goodbye to Photoshop
I’ve been using Photoshop since the mid-90s. First at school, with Photoshop 3, then through work. I...
12th Jul 2026
I’ve been using Photoshop since the mid-90s. First at school, with Photoshop 3, then through work. I bought my first boxed copy of CS2 in 2005, then upgraded to CS5 in 2010. I subscribed to Photoshop Creative Cloud on day one. Today, I uninstalled it. I hope I never have to use...
On Life and Lisp
AAA gaming on Asahi Linux
Gaming on Linux on M1 is here! We’re thrilled to release our Asahi
game playing toolkit, which...
10th Oct 2024
Gaming on Linux on M1 is here! We’re thrilled to release our Asahi
game playing toolkit, which integrates our Vulkan 1.3 drivers with x86
emulation and Windows compatibility. Plus a bonus: conformant OpenCL
3.0.
Asahi Linux now ships the only conformant OpenGL®,
OpenCL™,
and...
Notes on software...
Unit testing C code with gtest
This post covers building and testing a minimal, but still useful, C
project. We'll use...
31st Aug 2019
This post covers building and testing a minimal, but still useful, C
project. We'll use Google's
gtest and
CMake for testing C code. This will serve as a
foundation for some upcoming posts/projects on programming Linux,
userland networking and interpreters.
test/CMakeLists.txt...
Tiny struggles
Invertimo Binance Crypto Integration
You can now import your binance Crypto related transactions to invertimo.com (open source investment...
2nd Feb 2022
You can now import your binance Crypto related transactions to invertimo.com (open source investment tracking app).
Why track crypto transactions in invertimo?
Invertimo helps you track all transactions related to your investments as well as dividends and received income in one...
benn.substack
Can analysis ever be automated?
The catch-22 of all these AI analysts. Plus, go crazy folks; go crazy.
1st Aug 2025
The catch-22 of all these AI analysts. Plus, go crazy folks; go crazy.
Applied Cartography
Hannah and her Sisters
I came in with high hopes: I like Allen's ouevre and this was supposed to be one of his best.
2nd Sep 2020
I came in with high hopes: I like Allen's ouevre and this was supposed to be one of his best.
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...
Jonas Hietala
I beat FTL on Hard with all ships in the game
For 2023 I wanted to do something different than usual—I wanted to start playing computer games...
16th Jun 2023
For 2023 I wanted to do something different than usual—I wanted to start playing computer games again.
So I gave myself a late Christmas gift and bought a Steam Deck (and like any self-serving gentleman I took care to pitch it as being for my kids) and I started loading it up...
Matt Blewitt
Shunn
The Shunn manuscript format is a set of guidelines for writers to follow when submitting manuscripts...
31st May 2024
The Shunn manuscript format is a set of guidelines for writers to follow when submitting manuscripts to publishers. It was created by author William Shunn and is widely used in the publishing industry. Here is a brief demonstration of a tool I wrote to facilitate generating...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Designers Desk #1: Angelo Vilar
Designer's Desk is a new series featuring the desk setups of artists, designers, and creators -...
8th Jun 2017
Designer's Desk is a new series featuring the desk setups of artists, designers, and creators - showcasing how they work and what their workspace looks like.
Angelo Vilar (AKA Ansirone) is an art director, animation designer, & illustrator based in Los Angeles. He keeps it...
Fabien Sanglard
Building my childhood dream PC
18th May 2025
Applied Cartography
VC-subsidized tokens
Simon Willison writes about the recent Cursor changes:
1st Jul 2025
Simon Willison writes about the recent Cursor changes:
Louwrentius - Solar
Achieving 2.3 GB/s with 16 x 4 TB drives
I'm in the process of building a new storage server to replace my 18 TB NAS.
The server is almost...
12th Jul 2014
I'm in the process of building a new storage server to replace my 18 TB NAS.
The server is almost finished, it's now down to adding disk drives. I'm using the HGST 4 TB 7200 RPM drive for this build (SKU 0S03356) (review).
I have not bought all drives at once, but slowly adding...
Freewheeling Apps
2026-05-24
What is text?
This blog post reminds me of the time 10 years ago when I tried to do away with...
24th May 2026
What is text?
This blog post reminds me of the time 10 years ago when I tried to do away with Linux's desktop environment because it seemed overly complex and hard to wrap my head around. I had a lot of trouble running wifi without the desktop environment, and it left me quite...
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.
Willem L. Middelkoop
iPad Pro next to my primary machine
I wanted see if I can find something better than my old fashioned pencil and paper that I use for...
29th Jan 2017
I wanted see if I can find something better than my old fashioned pencil and paper that I use for designing software as professional developer. I knew iPad Pro from my test last summer, figuring out if it could replace my primary development machine. While it may not be able to...
Applied Cartography
Mob Psycho 100 (Season 1)
It took me a little time to get keyed into the idiosyncratic humor & ethos of this show, but once I...
1st Oct 2022
It took me a little time to get keyed into the idiosyncratic humor & ethos of this show, but once I did I really did. It's very much a shonen, but a shonen in a way that feels more committed to deconstructing stereotypes than Ousama Ranking and with characters that are at least...
Software and Tech...
Why should I accept all cookies?
Around 2013, my team and I finally embarked in upgrading our company's internal software to version...
1st Nov 2025
Around 2013, my team and I finally embarked in upgrading our company's internal software to version 2.0. We had a large backlog of user complaints that we were finally addressing, with security at the top of the list. The very top of the list was moving away from plain text...
Willem's Blog
Syncing files seamlessly between smartphone and tablet
In order to optimise my workflow, I was looking for a way to seamlessly access the same files on...
15th Sep 2020
In order to optimise my workflow, I was looking for a way to seamlessly access the same files on both my computer and smartphone. Read along to find out how I did it.
Willem L. Middelkoop
Vision Pro
Currently, I am overlooking a lake at Mount Hood while writing this. I hear birds in the distance...
15th Feb 2024
Currently, I am overlooking a lake at Mount Hood while writing this. I hear birds in the distance and see the lake calm, with subtle waves and some mist in the distance. Yet, it is fake, as I am sitting on our top floor, a barely furnished room full of items belonging to a family...
csvbase blog
Take the tools out of 'Data', but don't take the data out of the tools
Using dataframes to write smaller, faster programs
11th Jan 2023
Using dataframes to write smaller, faster programs
Vitalik Buterin's...
A Guide to 99% Fault Tolerant Consensus
7th Aug 2018
Willem's Blog
Cutting Cloud Costs
Facing sky-high cloud costs, I found software optimisation vital. Discover how I saved 90% on cloud...
4th Apr 2023
Facing sky-high cloud costs, I found software optimisation vital. Discover how I saved 90% on cloud expenses!
computers are bad
2023-01-16 huff-duff
We've talked a fair amount about HF radio recently, in the context of OTH
radar. Recall that an...
16th Jan 2023
We've talked a fair amount about HF radio recently, in the context of OTH
radar. Recall that an extremely useful property of HF radio here is that HF
frequencies can reflect off of the upper layers of the atmosphere, causing them
to rebound towards earth at a range much further...
Louwrentius - Solar
Migration from blogger to blogofile and disqus is complete
As stated in my previous post, I migrated all posts from blogger.com to my own host running...
3rd Jan 2011
As stated in my previous post, I migrated all posts from blogger.com to my own host running blogofile.
At the time of my previous post, I was not able to restore all comments made on my old blog. Thanks to some help
from disqcus I fixed an error on my behalf and all old comments...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Servicing a robot vacuum cleaner
Back in 2011 I got myself an iRobot Roomba 555 robot vacuum cleaner to automatically clean my...
19th Mar 2019
Back in 2011 I got myself an iRobot Roomba 555 robot vacuum cleaner to automatically clean my apartment. It's a little circle shaped robot that drives around sucking up dust bunnies. Over the years it has bravely fought the dangers of my apartment... shoes, cables, carpet and...
./techtipsy
Tech rants: PC-s use way too much power in 2021
Welcome to 2021. We have:
supply chain issues
no reasonably priced GPU-s
consumer-grade CPU-s with...
3rd Nov 2021
Welcome to 2021. We have:
supply chain issues
no reasonably priced GPU-s
consumer-grade CPU-s with peak power consumption at 296W
GPU-s that consume 350-400W of power under normal use
At the same time, we have made great leaps in CPU/GPU architectures and chip manufacturing...
Notes on software...
Deploying FreeBSD on Linode unattended in minutes
I became a FreeBSD user over 2 years ago when I wanted to see what all
the fuss was about. I swapped...
11th Mar 2017
I became a FreeBSD user over 2 years ago when I wanted to see what all
the fuss was about. I swapped my y410p dual-booting Windows / Ubuntu
with FreeBSD running Gnome 3. I learned a lot during the transition
and came to appreciate FreeBSD as a user. I soon began running...
watchTowr Labs
Should Security Solutions Be Secure? Maybe We're All Wrong - Fortinet FortiSIEM Pre-Auth Command...
It’s Friday, but we’re here today with unscheduled content - pushing our previously scheduled...
15th Aug 2025
It’s Friday, but we’re here today with unscheduled content - pushing our previously scheduled shenanigans to next week.
Fortinet is no stranger to the watchTowr Labs research team. Today we’re looking at CVE-2025-25256 - a pre-authentication command injection in FortiSIEM that...
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,...
The New Oil
How the UK is Weakening Safety Worldwide
23rd Feb 2025
Notes on software...
Coolest hard-tech companies in NYC 2021
For years I've kept a private list of really cool tech companies in
NYC. Now that I'm funemployed...
4th Jun 2021
For years I've kept a private list of really cool tech companies in
NYC. Now that I'm funemployed it's the perfect time to publish. This
list is influenced by 1) my perception of the difficulty of the
engineering behind the product and 2) the company's educational and
OSS...
Daniel De Laney
Secure File Transfer
During my time at frog, I lead a team of designers to transform a secure file transfer app owned by...
20th Apr 2018
During my time at frog, I lead a team of designers to transform a secure file transfer app owned by IBM. In addition to leading the team in Austin I helped manage designers working out of frog’s new studio in India, reviewing their work and setting priorities.
frog itself has a...
Engineers Need Art
Apple Interview (1995)
Recalling my somewhat unusual interview with Apple back in 1995.
13th May 2022
Recalling my somewhat unusual interview with Apple back in 1995.
Willem's Blog
Creating a minimal road bike
I wondered how hard it would be to make a bike from spare parts I had in my garage
17th Aug 2019
I wondered how hard it would be to make a bike from spare parts I had in my garage
Freewheeling Apps
2025-02-13
I seem to be alternating between working with html and Lua/LÖVE. In the last few days I've been...
13th Feb 2025
I seem to be alternating between working with html and Lua/LÖVE. In the last few days I've been trying to extract some more timeless tools out of the ad hoc static site I replaced my old Rails website with a couple of years ago. Here's the project. Requires just Lua (any version...
Willem's Blog
The day I sold my car
This week I sold my car, I now no longer own one. I look back at my years of owning a sports car, if...
12th Feb 2020
This week I sold my car, I now no longer own one. I look back at my years of owning a sports car, if you're looking for a reason to buy one you should check this out.
Fabien Sanglard
A trip down NBA Jam graphics pipeline
I took some time to study how NBA Jam arcade cabinet worked. Here is what I learned.
28th Oct 2019
I took some time to study how NBA Jam arcade cabinet worked. Here is what I learned.
Vitalik Buterin's...
In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
1st Apr 2022
Simply Explained
Multitasking on ESP32 with Arduino and FreeRTOS
By now, it's no secret that the ESP32 is my go-to chip for making IoT devices. They're small,...
6th Jan 2020
By now, it's no secret that the ESP32 is my go-to chip for making IoT devices. They're small, powerful, have a ton of onboard features, and they're relatively easy to program.However, when using it together with Arduino, all your code runs on a single core. That seems a bit...
Comments for Lars...
The Billion-Dollar World of Parasite SEO: How to Cash In
Parasite SEO is when a third-party company partners with an established domain, then posts a bunch...
23rd Oct 2024
Parasite SEO is when a third-party company partners with an established domain, then posts a bunch of SEO content to make a bunch of money. Content often gets published in a subfolder or subdomain or the website. The goal is to leverage the domain’s trust with Google to get...
Gwern.net Newsletter
April 2021 newsletter
with links on AI scaling, particular new East Asian record-breaking work & deep reinforcement...
3rd Jun 2021
with links on AI scaling, particular new East Asian record-breaking work & deep reinforcement learning.
Posts on Made of...
Graceful behavior at capacity
Suppose we’ve got a service. We’ll gloss over the details for now, but let’s stipulate that it...
7th Aug 2023
Suppose we’ve got a service. We’ll gloss over the details for now, but let’s stipulate that it accepts requests from the outside world, and takes some action in response. Maybe those requests are HTTP requests, or RPCs, or just incoming packets to be routed at the network layer....
Willem's Blog
Designing a multi dimensional capacity queue
Dealing with a capacity queue is challenging, but if you take the time to model it right it is...
1st Dec 2020
Dealing with a capacity queue is challenging, but if you take the time to model it right it is possible to create a performant and reliable system.
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...
eieio.games
I'm running a programming contest
I'm running a programming contest
I've spent the last few months working with friends to design the...
24th Jul 2026
I'm running a programming contest
I've spent the last few months working with friends to design the 29th annual ICFP programming contest. Designing a programming contest in a world with AI agents is tricky! I think we've made some interesting choices here.
Read the full post on...
Butler's Log
Figma agent vs. one button: shipping design tokens to npm
I automated our design tokens release with two AI agents. It took six minutes per run. A button my...
a week ago
I automated our design tokens release with two AI agents. It took six minutes per run. A button my plugin has had for years takes seconds.
Willem's Blog
Programming on Apple Watch
Programming with VIM over SSH on Apple Watch using a bluetooth keyboard
15th Feb 2017
Programming with VIM over SSH on Apple Watch using a bluetooth keyboard
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!
Yazin Alirhayim
Solving Problems
In this post, I describe a Problem Solving methodology I unexpectedly picked up while working at a...
1st Jan 2019
In this post, I describe a Problem Solving methodology I unexpectedly picked up while working at a Fortune 500 company. It's a technique I use to this day when solving tricky problems.
Blog | Sam Curry
Hacking a Massive Steam Scamming and Phishing Operation for Fun and Profit
9th May 2018
Willem L. Middelkoop
Search like a pro: Google search operators
You probably use the world's most famous search engine to find things everyday, but you might not...
24th Apr 2019
You probably use the world's most famous search engine to find things everyday, but you might not know about some of its advanced search operators. You can use these special search phrases to find things that are otherwise burried in the search results. Read along for a...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Backup Rotation Scheme
In today's digital age, safeguarding your data is paramount. Simply creating a copy of your files...
14th Dec 2023
In today's digital age, safeguarding your data is paramount. Simply creating a copy of your files may not be enough as they can get corrupted, overwritten or blocked by ransomware. Having multiple, time-rotated (and ideally, offsite) backups is a stronger defense. I created a new...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Clouds below my floor
At my home I have this crazy fast optical internet connection. It is a 600MB up and down fibre...
30th Aug 2017
At my home I have this crazy fast optical internet connection. It is a 600MB up and down fibre connection which directly arrives in my home (no copper cables involved). It's like a private internet highway. Reason enough to find out if I could do something to make better use of...
Buck on Software
Thinking incrementally about SaaS
An overview of the key output of the growth software machine
3rd Apr 2021
An overview of the key output of the growth software machine
watchTowr Labs
Bypassing Authentication Like It’s The ‘90s - Pre-Auth RCE Chain(s) in Kentico Xperience CMS
I recently joined watchTowr, and it is, therefore, time - time for my first watchTowr Labs blogpost,...
17th Mar 2025
I recently joined watchTowr, and it is, therefore, time - time for my first watchTowr Labs blogpost, previously teased in a tweet of a pre-auth RCE chain affecting some ‘unknown software’.
Joining the team, I wanted to maintain the trail of destruction left by the watchTowr Labs...
Abort Retry Fail
Housekeeping for 20240102
Some stats, updates, and whatnot
3rd Jan 2024
Some stats, updates, and whatnot
Daniel De Laney
Free software scares normal people
I’m the person my friends and family come to for computer-related help. (Maybe you, gentle reader,...
30th Oct 2025
I’m the person my friends and family come to for computer-related help. (Maybe you, gentle reader, can relate.) This experience has taught me which computing tasks are frustrating for normal people.
Normal people often struggle with converting video. They will need to watch,...
Louwrentius - Solar
IKEA $50 VINDSTYRKA vs. $290 Dylos air quality monitor
This is a brief article in which I compare the IKEA VINDSTYRKA $50 air quality monitor (PM2.5) with...
17th Sep 2023
This is a brief article in which I compare the IKEA VINDSTYRKA $50 air quality monitor (PM2.5) with a $290 air quality monitor made by Dylos to see if it's any good.
Context
If you care about indoor air quality, you may already own a CO2 to determine if it's time to ventilate...
Simply Explained
Howto Virtualize Unraid on a Proxmox host
Here's how to run Unraid as a virtual machine under Proxmox. This is useful when you're already...
8th May 2021
Here's how to run Unraid as a virtual machine under Proxmox. This is useful when you're already using Proxmox and if you want to use Unraid as a NAS.
Style over Substance
Our favorite places to eat and drinks during our Portugal vacation
In the summer of 2023, we went on an amazing trip through Portugal. We’d already visited Lisbon on a...
25th May 2024
In the summer of 2023, we went on an amazing trip through Portugal. We’d already visited Lisbon on a short city trip a few years earlier, and that experience was so good we knew we had to return. This time, we decided to take a full three weeks and see the sights. We were...
./techtipsy
HoloISO: the unofficial Steam Deck experience on your PC
If you have spent any time in gaming hardware circles, then you’ve probably
heard about the Steam...
1st Dec 2022
If you have spent any time in gaming hardware circles, then you’ve probably
heard about the Steam Deck, the
Linux-based handheld gaming PC built by Valve. Yes, you heard that right: not
Windows, but Linux.
I’ve had my fair share of attempts at gaming on Linux. When it works,...
Writing
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Okay, now this is what a fantasy movie should be. Absolutely gorgeous effects & cinematography (a...
3rd Oct 2020
Okay, now this is what a fantasy movie should be. Absolutely gorgeous effects & cinematography (a marked improvement from the drab darkness and excessively cool tones of Order of the Phoenix), a script with a bunch of levity (the first and I think only Harry Potter movie that...
Neil Madden
Hybrid encryption and the KEM/DEM paradigm
If you know a bit about public key cryptography, you probably know that you don’t directly encrypt a...
22nd Jan 2021
If you know a bit about public key cryptography, you probably know that you don’t directly encrypt a message with a public key encryption algorithm like RSA. This is for many reasons, one of which being that it is incredibly slow. Instead you do what’s called hybrid encryption:...
Louwrentius - Solar
Fully unattended deployment of Windows clients using limited resources
Introduction
Anyone who ever installed Windows on a computer by hand must have wished for a solution...
7th Jul 2012
Introduction
Anyone who ever installed Windows on a computer by hand must have wished for a solution that automate this task. It's just waiting a lot and pressing a button now and then. But installing the operating system itself is only the beginning. Once installed, you need to...
Avestura's Blog
A Software Engineer's Take on The Political Spectrum
You heard about the left-wing and right-wing politics. But how is that related to software?
16th Sep 2025
You heard about the left-wing and right-wing politics. But how is that related to software?
Old Vintage...
The Scriptovision Super Micro Script video titler is almost a home computer
Notwithstanding filmed art and transparencies, early static television titles were generated by...
8th Feb 2026
Notwithstanding filmed art and transparencies, early static television titles were generated by monoscopes, modified cathode ray tubes that fired their electron guns at embedded plates marked with a metallized image. These units then assimilated the reflected particles into a...
Louwrentius - Solar
Using iSCSI with time machine and Super Duper
In the past, as a Mac user, I've used separate external drives for Time Machine backups and Super...
21st Jul 2013
In the past, as a Mac user, I've used separate external drives for Time Machine backups and Super Duper clones but I'm not happy with that. External hard drives make noise and create clutter.
I'd like to move away all my storage from my living room (or home office) and put it in...
computers are bad
2023-12-05 vhf omnidirectional range
The term "VHF omnidirectional range" can at first be confusing, because it
includes "range"---a...
5th Dec 2023
The term "VHF omnidirectional range" can at first be confusing, because it
includes "range"---a measurement that the technology does not provide. The
answer to this conundrum is, as is so often the case, history. The "range"
refers not to the radio equipment but to the space...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing The 5-Year Compact Battery for AirTag
There are few things worse than a dead AirTag when you need it. That's why we designed the The...
4th Dec 2025
There are few things worse than a dead AirTag when you need it. That's why we designed the The 5-Year Compact Battery for AirTag.
It replaces the CR2032 coin cell for two uses AAA batteries for 5.5x more capacity. And does so in a small, lightweight form factor.
Discrete,...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Hello, stranger
While enjoying my fresh wok lunch in Amsterdam, I noticed something odd: other folks coming in for...
12th Oct 2023
While enjoying my fresh wok lunch in Amsterdam, I noticed something odd: other folks coming in for something to eat ignored the person standing at the counter, preferring to order through a digital kiosk. The crazy thing about this? They are just centimetres apart!
In fact, they...
Home on Erik...
Pareto efficency
Pareto efficiency is a useful concept I like to think about. It often comes up when you compare...
25th Oct 2016
Pareto efficiency is a useful concept I like to think about. It often comes up when you compare items on multiple dimensions. Say you want to buy a new TV. To simplify it let's assume you only care about two factors: price and quality.
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...
computers are bad
forecourt networking
The way I see it, few parts of American life are as quintessentially American
as buying gas. We love...
8th Feb 2026
The way I see it, few parts of American life are as quintessentially American
as buying gas. We love our cars, we love our oil, and an industry about as old
as automobiles themselves has developed a highly consistent, fully automated,
and fairly user friendly system for filling...
Niklas Oberhuber’s...
Forecasting - Metaculus Q4 2024 Retrospective
13th Jan 2025
eieio.games
One Million Chessboards
One Million Chessboards
I made a website. It's called One Million Chessboards. It has a million...
28th Apr 2025
One Million Chessboards
I made a website. It's called One Million Chessboards. It has a million chessboards on it. Moving a piece moves it for everyone, instantly. There are no turns.
Read the full post on my blog!
Here's a raw link, if you need it:
...
Notes on software...
Benchmarking esbuild, swc, tsc, and babel for React/JSX projects
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
13th Nov 2021
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
Willem's Blog
Do amazing things with a focused mind
Read about my experience during the workshop I got as a birth day present involving the Wim Hof...
5th Dec 2018
Read about my experience during the workshop I got as a birth day present involving the Wim Hof Method.
Willem L. Middelkoop
Go Viral on X
Earlier this week one of my posts on the social network X went viral and attracted 32K views in two...
9th Nov 2024
Earlier this week one of my posts on the social network X went viral and attracted 32K views in two days. With no major presence on Elon Musk's platform, and no paid advertising, gaining that kind of attention is something special. Let me explain how this happened.
The Post
If...
Abort Retry Fail
A Brief History of Sega Enterprises
Sega does what Nintendon't
12th Jan 2026
Sega does what Nintendon't
Construction Physics
Should US homebuilders emulate Sweden?
A common sentiment I see with folks interested in improving US homebuilding is that we should try...
1st Jan 2026
A common sentiment I see with folks interested in improving US homebuilding is that we should try and emulate Sweden.
Arduino Blog
Arduino partners with RS/OKdo strategically to further expand the China Market
Arduino is excited to announce a strategic new partnership with RS/OKdo, a prominent leader in the...
4th Nov 2024
Arduino is excited to announce a strategic new partnership with RS/OKdo, a prominent leader in the distribution of industrial and electronic equipment. This collaboration marks a significant step forward in bringing Arduino’s technology closer to China’s thriving maker community...
Willem's Blog
Fighting backscatter spam at server level
Deal with backscatter spam by implementing a stringent SMTP delivery policy at MTA level.
9th Sep 2019
Deal with backscatter spam by implementing a stringent SMTP delivery policy at MTA level.
Old Vintage...
Hedley Davis has died
A more obscure Commodore employee (where he apparently met his wife), but still quite influential...
17th Mar 2026
A more obscure Commodore employee (where he apparently met his wife), but still quite influential during the Amiga era. Along with more pedestrian units such as the Amiga 3000 and the monochrome Amiga 2024 monitor, my favourite device he worked on was the 1987 prototype SX-500....
Himanshu Mishra |...
Work is Life Too
10 PM on a Sunday night. You’re back home after a night out with friends. A couple of beers and some...
31st Mar 2025
10 PM on a Sunday night. You’re back home after a night out with friends. A couple of beers and some pizza. The place was too loud but you…
Ken Shirriff's blog
The origin and unexpected evolution of the word "mainframe"
What is the origin of the word "mainframe", referring to a large, complex computer?
Most sources...
1st Feb 2025
What is the origin of the word "mainframe", referring to a large, complex computer?
Most sources agree that the term is related to the frames that held early computers, but the details are vague.1
It turns out that the history is more interesting and complicated than you'd...
Christian Selig
Trials and Tribulations of Making an Interruptable Custom View Controller Transition on iOS
I think it’s safe to say while the iOS custom view controller transition API is a very powerful one,...
19th Feb 2021
I think it’s safe to say while the iOS custom view controller transition API is a very powerful one, with that power comes a great deal of complexity. It can be tricky, and I’m having one of those days where it’s getting the better of me and I just cannot get it to do what I want...
computers are bad
2024-04-05 the life of one earth station
Sometimes, when I am feeling down, I read about failed satellite TV (STV)
services. Don't we all?...
5th Apr 2024
Sometimes, when I am feeling down, I read about failed satellite TV (STV)
services. Don't we all? As a result, I've periodically come across a company
called AlphaStar Television Network. PrimeStar may have had a rough life, but
AlphaStar barely had one at all: it launched in...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Enjoy a festival without alcohol
Last weekend me and my brother went to Rock Werchter, a multi-day, music festival in Belgium. Over...
9th Jul 2018
Last weekend me and my brother went to Rock Werchter, a multi-day, music festival in Belgium. Over 140 thousand visitors enjoy world famous artists like Pearl Jam, Nick Cave, Artic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher, The Killers and the Queens of the Stone Age. This year I didn't drink...
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