Inspired by Jedda’s Postroll, here is an incomplete list of blog posts that I’ve read and enjoyed in the last 3 months. This list refreshes daily.
If you find any of these posts interesting, I suggest that you give them a follow!
Kayaking through the Erie canal locks is so cool! I used to love visiting lock E-2 which is right by Peebles Island State Park.
Added: June 27, 2026
How to actually handle database transactions (and why your ORM fails at it) by
I don’t professionally work with databases, though it was interesting to read about how concurrency issues plague that world as well. The trick of always processing rows in the same order is neat!
Added: June 27, 2026
Engineers should start making art by
I don’t make art often, but it’s cool that the tactic I use for getting something on the page goes by the name automatic drawing.
Added: June 20, 2026
I'm Frustrated about my Inability to Advise Homelab Newcomers by
I can totally relate. I say that the frustration for me extends to tech in general. I haven’t used a Windows computer in a while, so I can’t easily help someone with issues there. Also, I spin up multiple servers to run this website when people can instead use Bear blog or GitHub pages.
Added: June 16, 2026
Brocards for vulnerability triage by
Even though brocard is a weird name for them, I enjoyed reading the principles that William uses to triage vulnerabilities.
Added: June 12, 2026
SSH certificates: the better SSH experience by
Using a certificate authority to sign a user’s public SSH key instead of storing them on the machine is pretty neat. I’ve worked on systems before where we had short-lived SSH keys and I imagine that the setup had to be similar to what’s presented here. If I scaled up and down infrastructure in my homelab more, then I can totally see myself implementing this.
Added: June 12, 2026
How to check out selected directories from Git repository by
Woah! I didn’t know that you can do sparse checkouts with git! That was one of my favorite features from subversion. This makes working with large mono-repos more bearable.
Added: June 9, 2026
Taxing Small Cars to Improve MPG by
I also own a Honda Fit and am sad that they discontinued them in the US. Not only are smaller vehicles more fuel efficient, they’re also easier to parallel park!
I’m not sure when the government set these CAFE MPG targets, but they seem quite aspirational! Even though I would love a small car that drives 70 MPG, it’s rough that these regulations are incentivizing companies to focus on larger vehicles.
Added: June 9, 2026
The Archivist In Me Turned This Blog Into a Book by
What a crazy and fun project! I can imagine archiving a blog as a journal/periodical where you have volume numbers. For example, “Brandon Rozek’s Ramblings Volume 1”.
Added: June 9, 2026
On Take-Home Coding Assignments by
I recently went through several rounds of interviews and from my experience startups prefer take-home coding assignments while larger companies wanted me to give a talk.
Honestly, both those tasks require work. I get it though – it’s difficult for companies to assess the competency of their applicants. Kitty provides other alternate assessments in this post that employers should consider using.
Added: May 18, 2026
The Problem of Pedagogy in Advanced Mathematics by
I resonate with Susam about how “proofs” written in many textbooks aren’t complete proofs but more outlines. In addition to “the proof being obvious”, I would say that many of the details are left “as an exercise to the reader”. Sometimes I share such exercises on this blog.
Added: May 18, 2026
Contributor Poker and Zig's AI Ban by
There seems to be a misunderstanding in some folks where they believe that the end product is all that matters and that code quality or the social components of open source are unimportant.
Loris shares how the Zig language views folks who submit PRs as potential future collaborators. They hope you’ll come back and be part of the community! Vibe coding a feature completely doesn’t help build the context required to become a maintainer.
They’re not unique in that stance. Matplotlib has a policy against AI generated submissions on good first issues exactly for this reason.
Added: May 4, 2026
I like the idea of preserving a first take instead of letting it flee from your short term memory. Dave’s “Keep Your Head” piece makes me laugh ;D
Added: May 4, 2026
Who Is That Knocking At My (SSH) Door? by
I try not to think about how my machines are being constantly attacked by bots. I think having sheep as a username is cool, but maybe I shouldn’t do that ;)
Added: April 28, 2026
Great reminder to build what you want to see in the world. Hedgehogs are cool!
Added: April 26, 2026