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!
Development AI vs Runtime AI by
It’s not too surprising to me that Tesla would use LLMs to present a “human readable summary” to describe a fixed set of inputs. Add that to the lessons learned bucket.
Added: April 19, 2026
Quietly quantum-resistant blogging by
Public service announcement to make sure you’re using post-quantum cryptography. Alex shares Cloudflare’s tool which lets you know if a webserver supports post-quantum TLS key exchange. Also don’t forget to check your SSH server! Luckily, many recent versions of these softwares ship with this enabled out of the box.
Added: April 19, 2026
Security Advisories and Cognitive Overload by
I’m thankful to all the open-source maintainers out there that work hard to ensure that the applications we use are polished and secure. It’s always been a lot of work, but I do worry about the amount of “vulnerabilities” filed against these repositories today. Unfortunately (as Hendrik describes), every author believes their issue critical. Even if an act of God would have to occur for their vulnerability to be exploited.
Added: April 19, 2026
A great story about how companies should be careful with their documentation and not write something that a user can misinterpret.
If only these companies are proactive and don’t need to wait for a user to get compromised before changing anything…
Added: April 18, 2026
Another great piece by David! If you haven’t already, check out his mini fantasy theater series as well! The montage of scanning a drawing and then layering on top of a picture of an empty sketchbook is neat.
Added: April 18, 2026
Business logic does not (usually) belong in the database by
A great analysis of when we should embed business logic within a database query versus in the application itself. Give it a read!
Added: April 13, 2026
Let yourself fall down more by
I often see students afraid of being wrong in my office hours. Similar to reinforcement learning agents, it’s useful to try different actions and get feedback from the enviornment. Even if we don’t think it’ll lead to success, the results may surprise us. Our minds are great at spotting patterns and learning new skills this way.
Added: April 13, 2026
Does Clarivate understand what citations are for? by
I agree that using a tool to lift references supporting a claim encourages folks to not do literature review and instead write their piece first. After all, it’s faster to ask the confirmation bias machine to then go back and make it appear academic.
I do think, however, that AI has a place in the literature review process. It’s vastly superior than plain keyword searching. Though at the end of the day, researchers are still responsible for creating a mental model of related work and what has been done before.
Added: April 12, 2026
5 quick tips for giving better presentations by
Great list! I’ll echo that exercising control through (1) “finishing strong” and (5) “trusting in the tech” result in stronger impressions. I believe it’s possible to pull this off while also exhibiting personality traits :)
Added: April 11, 2026
Claude is an Electron App because we’ve lost native by
Niki points out in this post that the reason we’re not building native apps (even with helper coding agents) is because native apps don’t have a lot to offer. I’m still hopeful though that we’ll eventually get to an age where apps are written in memory-safe languages, are light-weight, and meaningfully integrate into our desktops.
Added: April 11, 2026
Mailcall by
I agree that physical mail is very fun! I’ve written before how USPS stamps are cool. I’ve sent a few birthday cards this year, thought I think it would be fun to also send random postcards.
When I think of postcards, I think of the standard travel-based ones. To me, they’re somewhat cringy/braggy. I need to research if there’s a way to either make them myself physically or buy a variety pack that I agree with.
Added: April 11, 2026
The Unbearable Sameness of 'AI' by
In this post Bastian works out his thoughts on why people use AI-generated images and the like. I’ll respond with some ill-formed thoughts of my own.
I got a glimpse that helped me understand why those “AI” tools might have an appeal to some people. […] Setting up the cameras for recording stills and video, getting (un)dressed and then recording themselves with the identical gestures, poses and movements that must be popular on the content consumption platforms.
I’m not active on social media myself, so I don’t fully understand this mindset. If I was to guess, I believe that this is to instill some sense of belonging. In the tourism example, it is actually kinda romantic/spiritual if you think about it. More than one person has traveled the same path and did the exact same actions. It’s the opposite of a extreme individualism.
Does this translate to using Ghibli-styled AI images? Unsure.
Bastian started his post by talking about the increasing number of travel stickers made using generative AI. It reminds me of a recent local market I went to where someone was selling goat soap and their signage had a sepia-ghibli-styled photo of a goat.
Initially, I’m disappointed. However, this often comes from an expectation that someone would’ve spent the time, effort, or money to put a nicer graphic together. In that fantasy world, the goat soap seller would hold a paintbrush and spend many hours perfecting their signage. Instead, they’re likely more worried about their inventory, figuring out which scents are popular in their region, etc.
The big question is: if we didn’t have these image generation tools, would those particular people bother making stickers/signage? If so, would they go beyond clip art? As noted, these AI tools have an innate style by default. I hope that those who went above and beyond in the past, still exercise their creative muscle.
Added: April 11, 2026
Weekend flights along the Pareto frontier by
I like this idea! Finding the cheapest flights per time spent.
Of course there’s other factors to take into account like time of travel, whether it’s in the middle of the night or during the day, and if there’s an exact time/date you need to be somewhere. If you’re looking at a three-day weekend, it might be a little cramped.
I have a general rule of thumb (that I don’t always follow) which says that I should aim to spend at least the same amount of time somewhere as I spend traveling. For example, if I spend two hours driving one way somewhere then ideally I’d spend 4 hours there.
Though using a tool like this seems like a great starting point!
Added: March 23, 2026
Bringing Interactivity to a Static Blog: The Clap Button by
Fun to see another blogger implement this feature! I call it the “high-five” button but I also like being applauded :)
Reading through the code, they allow for multiple claps per post. To spam their server less, they use a technique called [debouncing] (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Debounce). I haven’t heard of that technique before, but the main idea is to set a timeout for some amount of time after the event. If another event happens before the timeout, then it clears that timeout and sets a new one. Otherwise, it’ll send one message to the server that contains all the events. Clever!
Added: March 22, 2026
Also: if your insurance company offers towing coverage, it’s not a “nice add-on feature.” Each time you use it counts as an insurance claim
I try to think through a company’s incentive when they provide a service. If I personally called the towing company, then they would be excited to do business with me. As opposed to the insurance company that loses money with each call.
Sometimes that trade-off works well. If you live near an amusement park, many offer season passes for as little as the cost of two visits. Though in that case they’re hoping that you buy extra things within the park.
There’s many insurance products out there but remember that the main purpose of insurance is to protect you against catastrophic loss.
Added: March 15, 2026
Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding by
This post relates the flow obtained by vibe-coding to the same dark flow induced by gambling. I enjoyed this piece, and I agree that current large language models are great at “disguising losses as a win”. I find coding agents are experts at introducing technical debt to get to a “working solution” at breakneck speed.
Added: March 13, 2026
CodeReader by
This is such a cool project! Reading a book as if you’re reading a codebase. Makes you look like an #UltimateHacker :D
Added: March 13, 2026
Congratulations to Nolan on 15 years of blogging! So much life unfolds in that time period and it takes a steadfast commitment to keep going. Here’s to another 15 years!
Added: March 1, 2026
A programmer's loss of a social identity by
I’m unsure what it means to be a computer programmer in 2026. I agree that technology discourse has changed dramatically over the last three years.
Though that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people passionate about crabs, creating local-first software, etc. Those folks are still there, even if they’re not the mainstream.
This is why I’m such a big proponent of curating your web experience using RSS feeds. It might take some effort to find people on the small/personal/indie web, but it’s soo worth it.
Added: March 1, 2026
It’s heartwarming to see someone create an app that brings joy to the people around them. Ham’s Doppelkopf Club not only lets you play a traditional German card game, but also teaches you how to play as well! This preserves cultural knowledge.
Home cooking to me is a necessity (lest I go broke) as well as a craft. Recently, I’ve been cooking Paella weekly slightly tweaking each time to get to a recipe that I enjoy.
Added: March 1, 2026
Saying 'No' In an Age of Abundance by
In an age of abundance, restraint becomes the only scarce thing left, which means saying ’no’ is more valuable than ever.
I fully agree! We all excel at different tasks, and with time and focus we can cultivate them. Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should. There’s always a trade-off.
The piece was written in the context of building a product in a business, but honestly many of these points apply to our lives in general.
What’s our story? What do we care about? Saying yes to everything muddies the waters. At the same time, however, don’t say no to everything. The most rewarding oppurtunities are not always the most obvious.
Added: March 1, 2026
The Web is Larger Than Facebook by
It annoys me how much of a grip Facebook still has on being able to digitally participate in your local community.
Same with Instagram. Though I get it – it’s so easy to pull up your phone and post on these platforms.
Recently, I found The 518 which is a newsletter which covers events happening in the capital region of New York. Luckily they surface all the events posted on Instagram for me. Though I do wonder what my life would be like if I acquiesced and signed up for Meta’s platforms.
Added: March 1, 2026
A nice interview with a concept artist. What Tano said about overcoming creative blocks reasonated with me.
You have to sit through that uncomfortable feeling, once you have done this enough you realize that is just a fleeting moment of insecurity, be aware that sometimes it will be present, and then it will pass, the inspiration comes back.
The problem is how much importance we give to this feeling and how afraid we are that they will never go away. Once you realize that they do fade, you have learned how to deal with the block.
Added: February 1, 2026
The RAM Nightmare: How I Lost My Sanity (and Almost My Deadline) by
Ouch a RAM stick going bad sounds no fun. I haven’t had that happen to me before, so it’s informative to see the possible symptoms.
Added: February 1, 2026
Tiny Talk with Keith Wehmeyer by
I really enjoyed this interview. It’s cool to read about the life of a farmer. It’s also wholesome to see how the folks in their community help each other out.
Added: February 1, 2026
Optimization Countermeasures by
Every so often one has to fight the compiler to prevent certain optimizations from taking place. This article talks about using value barriers (which are essentially empty inline assembly blocks) to prevent the compiler from optimizing code based on the value of a variable. Miguel writes about how these techniques are used all the time when writing Cryptographic code which fights against the constant-time threat model.
Added: January 27, 2026
Crypto grifters are recruiting open-source AI developers by
This system relies on your celebrity target being dazzled by receiving a large sum of free money. If you came to them before the money was there, they might ask questions like “why wouldn’t people just directly donate to me?”, or “are these people who think they’re supporting me going to lose all their money?“. But in the warm glow of a few hundred thousand dollars, it’s easy to think that it’s all working out excellently.
Personally, I find it weird how some crypto platforms are trying to conflate supporting a creator and expectations of profit. I agree, why wouldn’t people just directly donate?
Added: January 25, 2026
Why there's no European Google? by
This article is a great reminder of all the successful technology projects that came out of Europe: the web, Linux, git, OpenStreetMap, VLC – to name a few. While some of these projects might not be multi-billion dollar corporations, we can all agree that they have made a large impact on the world.
Added: January 25, 2026
Wikipedia's 25th birthday proves the power of free speech by
Happy birthday to Wikipedia! Here’s to another 25 years.
In this article, Kunal writes about how Wikipedia is able to flourish in part due to a lack of censorship by the US. This, however, should not be taken for granted. Free speech (like many rights) have to be continously fought for.
Added: January 25, 2026
Some internet history reading by
Title says it all. A nice list of books which go over the history of the early Internet.
Added: January 24, 2026
The Toll No One Charges but Everyone Pays by
We all pay in time for sitting in traffic. Even with that, Kyle points out that there’s no positive incentive to carpool. I see this in my own life. To get to my office, I can drive 7 minutes and park near the building. Or, I can walk 10 minutes to the bus stop, take a 20 minute bus ride, and then walk 10 minutes to my building. A trip that nearly takes 6 times the amount of time!
If as a society we had better incentives, then we would have a lot more resources to get me to my office. Imagine if there was a van that can pick me up from my apartment and take me directly to my office.
Added: January 24, 2026