Xbox One (Printed)
Can’t afford hardware anymore, therefore I’ve printed myself one. F U NVIDIA!
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OneDrive Removal
OneDrive has been on my radar as a performance offender for a while now. Suddenly it would eat CPU and RAM, and just do god knows what. But since the latest fiasco I have decided to completely remove it. OneDrive used to be great, it landed as a perfect replacement for Dropbox with much better integration into the OS. It did one thing well - synchronised files across PCs. But then came bloatware,…
Parquet TIME Logical Type
What is TIME TIME logical type is used to represent time without date part. It has two parameters: UTC adjustment (boolean type). Unit (or precision). This can be one of three values but also dictates physical storage type: MILLIS - millisecond precision, with int32 physical type. The number is milliseconds since midnight. MICROS - microsecond precision, with int64 type. The number is microseconds…
WSL2 Tips
General Most of the settings are to edit in ~/.wslconfig on the host machine. Increase idle timeout WSL will shutdown in 1 minute of inactivity by default. Set the following to desired value to 5 minutes (it’s in milliseconds): 1 [wsl2] 2 vmIdleTimeout = 300000 Disable IPv6 1 [wsl2] 2 kernelCommandLine = ipv6.disable=1 UI Set dark mode 1 gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme…
Firefox Relay in Chromium
You can still use Firefox Relay extension in Chrome, even though it’s unlisted from Chrome Web Store , by following this direct link instead of searching it. I’m using it from Brave Origin at the moment, and it’s working smoothly. Might stop at some point, but considering Relay have not released anything new in the last 3 years, there’s a low probability they will make any…
BT on Linux
This is the first time BT has compiled and ran on Linux. Majority of functionality still does not work, because Linux handles things very differently , such as there is no registry to discover browsers from, config files for browsers are in completely different locations and so on. There are interesting challenges to overcome still, but it’s a good start. I think with RAMpocalypse coming and…
Defines
Platform detection in C++ 1 #if defined(_WIN32) 2 // True for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows (name is historical) 3 #if defined(_WIN64) 4 // 64-bit Windows specifically 5 #endif 6 7 #elif defined(__APPLE__) 8 #include <TargetConditionals.h> 9 #if TARGET_OS_IPHONE 10 // iOS / iOS simulator 11 #elif TARGET_OS_MAC 12 // macOS 13 #endif 14 15 #elif defined(__ANDROID__) 16 // Must check before…
Data Partitioning: How Databases Shard Data
Most developers reach for hash partitioning when they need to spread data across multiple database nodes. It works until you add a server. Then everything moves. This video shows exactly why, and how logical partitions solve it. I cover hash partitioning with modulo, why adding nodes reshuffles almost all your data. Logical partitions - the fix.
Dictionary Encoding Explained
Ai Ai Ai
AI is going to replace everyone, so everyone should stop learning coding and just train to be a plumber - that’s not possible to replace. The next generation of young people will be a country of plumbers. Everyone will be a plumber. Plumbers everywhere. If everyone is a plumber, and the rest is replaced by AI, I’m not sure who can afford a plumber. But then, if everyone is a plumber,…
Miniflux Is Dead to Me
I love Miniflux . It’s been at least 3 years I’ve been running it with no hiccups. I loved the idea of how simple and fast it is, with no feature creep and it just worked. However, as with most products, I think it’s lost the way . The only thing that stays simple and minimal is actually web UI - this almost did not change at all. I think the final straw was waking up one morning…
No AI Please!
Reddit account deleted - it’s mostly full of delusional “AI” posts. When I see a post or an article that has “AI” in it’s title I’m swiping off. Most of them are like this. Same goes for podcasts and YouTube videos - just AI related trash. Unsubscribed to all channels that have “AI” in latest 2-3 video titles - those were the majority.…
Why I removed Giscus comments
I’ve removed Giscus comments from the blog. The idea sounded great on paper – use GitHub Discussions as your comments backend, zero moderation needed, tied to GitHub accounts. Clean, simple, done. In practice, it wasn’t worth it. Barely anyone used it The comments section was almost always empty. On the rare occasion someone did leave something, it was usually a question better…
Zstandard performance in .NET 11
Parquet.Net 6 is switching to zstd-dotnet . The move is due to two reasons: Zstandard will be part of .NET 11 and this package provides forward-compatible Zstandard package, which will automatically switch to built-in .NET 11 implementation when it’s released. Comparing to ZstdSharp , the new library is up to twice faster and uses around twice less memory for compression. Benchmark results…
Windows: Open Environment Variables Dialog from teminal
This is a hack to open it from the terminal: 1 C: \W indows \s ystem32 \r undll32.exe sysdm.cpl,EditEnvironmentVariables That’s it.
Parquet.Net 6 Performance Tests
V6 comes as a total low-level (but not high level) rewrite, with abandonment of old .NET frameworks and using memory-native structures and hardware acceleration. This short post is about the performance results. Writing Tests Testing integer and double data types is essential, as those are very frequently used. Here are raw performance results V5 Method DataType Mean Error StdDev Gen0 Gen1 Gen2…
Hstr: the first thing I install on Linux
hstr makes bash history navigation actually usable. I have been using it for years and I can’t imagine using bash without it. It allows you to search through your history with a fuzzy search, and it also has a nice interface for selecting commands from your history. It’s a must-have for anyone who spends a lot of time in the terminal.
Markwright: tiny screen annotation tool
Markwright is a powerful yet lightweight (under 2 Mb .exe, around 6 Mb RAM) screen annotation tool for technical presenters and content creators, that’s modern, has zero dependencies, does not require registration, has no tracking or telemetry, works completely offline, and allows you to own it. Forever. Markwright is designed to be fast, both physically and ergonomically, can be controlled…
Manim: common issues on Windows with PyCharm
Jupyter Notebook not rendering Manim animations in PyCharm PyCharm does not support rendering .mp4 files in Jupyter Notebooks. To work around this issue, you can use the --format webm option when running Manim, which will generate .webm files that can be rendered in PyCharm’s Jupyter Notebook: 1 2 %% manim -- format webm - ql IntroScene 3 4 class IntroScene ( Scene ): 5 def construct ( self…
C# 15 Just Broke Collection Initialization FOREVER! (In a Good Way)
C# 15 brings a powerful new way to work with collections: Collection Expressions! In this quick clip, we explore how this innovative feature allows you to initialize arrays, lists, and more with incredible simplicity. Say goodbye to verbose initialization code and hello to cleaner, more readable C#. We’ll cover the core syntax and show you why this is a must-learn for modern C# development.…
Use Built in Keywords as Variable Names in C#
Ever wondered if you can name a variable class or public in C#? The answer is yes, and this video shows you how! Join us as we explore the @ symbol in C#, enabling you to use built-in keywords as variable names. We’ll walk through practical examples, demonstrating how this can be a game-changer for code generation, interop scenarios, and more. Discover the benefits and the best practices for…
C# Caller Attributes
Learn how to use C# Caller Attributes to automatically get CallerMemberName , CallerFilePath , CallerLineNumber , and CallerArgumentExpression . This video provides clear explanations and real-world examples to help you improve your debugging, logging, and overall code understanding. Streamline your development process by mastering these compiler-assisted features. official docs:…
C# == vs is: When to Use Which Operator (Code Comparison Explained)
Are you ever unsure whether to use == or is in C#? You’re not alone. This video clarifies the difference between these two operators, showing you how they can achieve similar outcomes but are fundamentally different in their application. Avoid common pitfalls and master code comparison in C# with this quick and informative clip.
CommentStudio: Revolutionize Writing and Reading Comments in Visual Studio
Discover CommentStudio by Mads Kristensen, a powerful Visual Studio extension designed to transform how you write and interact with comments in your code. This tool enhances readability and streamlines your workflow for C#, .NET, and C++ development. Learn more and get the extension here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MadsKristensen.CommentsVS
Understanding UUIDs - From Basics to Generation in Linux, Python, and C#
Dive deep into the world of Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) with this comprehensive guide. Whether you’re a developer, a computer science enthusiast, or just curious about unique identification systems, this video has something for you. We’ll start with an introduction to UUIDs, explaining the essential UUID format and exploring their binary internals. You’ll gain a clear…
UUIDs for Developers: The Definitive 25‑Minute Masterclass
This is a comprehensive masterclass on UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifiers) tailored for developers. In this 25-minute video, we cover everything from the basics of UUIDs to advanced usage patterns in various programming languages. I really enjoyed making this video, and it was mostly made for myself, rather than subscribers and likes. I wanted to have a definitive resource to refer back to…
Generating UUIDs of different versions in Linux Terminal
Generate V4 To generate V4 , simply run uuidgen : 1 uuidgen output: 0c034caa-d26f-486a-96e4-28df9042fc8c V5 To generate V5 , specify namespace (e.g., @dns ) and name (e.g., example.com ) together with --sha1 flag: 1 uuidgen --sha1 --namespace @dns --name 'example.com' output: cfbff0d1-9375-5685-968c-48ce8b15ae17 V7 As for V7 , you can’t use uuidgen directly. Parse To parse a UUID and get its…
How to use a non-default SSH key when working with GitHub
Generate a new SSH key: 1 ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C 'your_email@example.com' Specify a new filename, e.g. ~/.ssh/id_org . Upload the public key to the SSH and GPG keys page . Add a new section to ~/.ssh/config : Host ghorg HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_org IdentitiesOnly yes Explanation of each line in the SSH config: Host ghorg : A short alias you choose for this host entry.…
C# is part of Windows???
Ultimate Dev Tools List for 2026
Also see the previous lists from 2025 , 2024 and 2023 . This list is updated all the time during 2026, so keep your bookmarks busy. IDEs / Editors Visual Studio Community - the best IDE for C++ and C# programming. Windows only but sometimes I think it’s worth having Windows just for this piece of software. It’s free (scroll down to license terms) and very well supported. Professional…
Windows 11 stuff no one wants or asked for
Windows 11 is getting fat today. Probably because everyone is pushing “AI” features, whatever that means. Few things to keep it slim: RemoveWindowsAI Win11 Debloat I applied both with very positive results. Now it’s lean and mean!
Reclaim Your Start Menu: Banishing Windows 11's Recommended Section
The Problem: Microsoft’s Unwanted “Recommendations” If you’ve upgraded to Windows 11, you’ve probably noticed that Microsoft has decided what you should see every time you open the Start Menu. The “Recommended” section—ostensibly designed to help you quickly access recent files and apps—has become one of the most universally despised features of the new…
WSL Filesystem Access: Bidirectional Integration Guide
Windows → WSL: The \\wsl$\ Network Share Access WSL distributions via UNC path \\wsl$\<distro-name> : 1 # List distributions 2 wsl - -list -v 3 4 # Access files 5 ls \\ wsl $\ Ubuntu \ home \ alg 6 explorer . exe \\ wsl $\ Ubuntu \ home \ alg 7 notepad \\ wsl $\ Ubuntu \ etc \ hosts 8 9 # Map as network drive 10 net use Z: \\ wsl $\ Ubuntu \ home \ alg 11 12 # Alternative path (newer Windows) 13…
Global .gitignore
When working on multiple projects, especially across different programming languages and frameworks, it’s common to encounter a variety of files that should be ignored by Git. While each project may have its own .gitignore file, maintaining a global .gitignore can help streamline your workflow and ensure that certain files are consistently ignored across all repositories on your machine.…
Decode JWT token from clipboard and pretty-print to console using PowerShell
If you work with APIs and authentication, you’ve probably encountered JWT (JSON Web Tokens) countless times. They’re everywhere—in OAuth flows, API authentication, session management. But here’s the thing: JWTs are base64-encoded, which makes them completely unreadable when you’re trying to debug authentication issues. Sure, you could paste your token into jwt.io or some…
PySpark 4.0.1: Dependency Hell Resolution
Update 23/07/2026: Same applies to PySpark 4.0.2 - Python 3.11 is the maximum supported version. If you are having issues running PySpark 4.0.1 with random errors that do not make much sense / relevant to your code, make sure that: You are running Python 3.11 (not 3.12 or any other version). I was running 3.12 and getting absolutely irrelevant errors like “executor has crashed” or…
Is Writerside Sunsetting?
I’ve been enjoying using JetBrains Writerside for a while now. It’s perfect for technical documentation, and I’ve been using it for my open-source projects like Browser Tamer and Parquet.Net . However, I recently came across some discussions suggesting that Writerside might be sunsetting soon. This has left me concerned about the future of my documentation workflow. I’ve…
End of Xbox Game Pass
Wow, just wow. Microsoft has announced that they are increasing game pass prices from £14.99 to £22.99 per month. No discounts. This is almost doubling it. It was already hard to justify the cost, considering very occassional use, but now it’s just ridiculous. I can’t see myself keeping it at this price point. Cancelled. Not just me . Why This Hike Feels Different Price rises happen.…
New Pluralsight Course: PySpark Streaming
I’ve been quite busy last few months working on a new Pluralsight course and re-evaluating other things in general. And now that the course is finally published, I can share it with you all! The course is titled Real-time Stream Processing with PySpark and it’s available on Pluralsight . In this course, I cover the basics of stream processing with PySpark, including how to set up a…
Real-time Stream Processing with PySpark
Real-time Stream Processing with PySpark Handling real-time data streams is crucial for modern applications, but many find it challenging to process and analyze data efficiently as it arrives. In this course, Real-time Stream Processing with PySpark, you’ll gain the ability to build and deploy scalable, real-time data applications using Apache Spark and Python. First, you’ll explore the…
How to Get Word Count and Character Count in Powershell
To get word count and character count in PowerShell, you can use Measure-Object cmdlet, i.e.: 1 'dfsdf fdsf dsf df' | Measure-Object -Word prints Lines Words Characters Property ----- ----- ---------- -------- 4 and 1 'dfsdf fdsf dsf df' | Measure-Object -Word prints Lines Words Characters Property ----- ----- ---------- -------- 17 You can also add the following convenience functions to your…
Mastering Lua Scripting for Browser Tamer: New YouTube Video Release!
Hello, Browser Tamer community! 🌟 I am thrilled to announce the release of our latest YouTube video, which is all about enhancing your Browser Tamer experience through scripting in Lua! 🚀 Lua is a lightweight, high-level scripting language that is perfect for embedding in applications. It’s known for its speed, simplicity, and flexibility, making it an ideal choice for creating powerful…
I have deleted my LinkedIn account
Alright, first things first: LinkedIn seemed like a brilliant idea at first—networking, job opportunities, and a dash of professional validation (who doesn’t like a shiny online résumé?). But over time, it felt more like a never-ending party where half the guests are trying to sell you something you don’t need, and the other half are desperately spamming you with connection requests…
Browser Tamer test page
If you are here, it means that the Browser Tamer test page is working correctly. Congratulations! 🎉 If you would like to support my work, you can always…
Print OTP from a KeePassXC entry in the Terminal
KeePassXC is a popular open-source password manager that supports storing and generating OTPs (One-Time Passwords). Introduction In this post, we will explore how to generate OTPs directly from a KeePassXC database using both Python scripts and the KeePassXC CLI tool. This can be particularly useful for automating logins and enhancing convenience while maintaining a good level of security. I know…
Espanso: honest review
This is a bit of a random post, because I’m thinking of creating my own utility, not being able to find a good one, that is small, does the job of more than trivial text substitution and is not a bloated piece of shit. The latest one I was trying to use is espanso . It’s written in Rust, which is cool, as we want safety, has a great looking website (looks professional as promising),…
Ultimate Dev Tools List for 2025
Also see the previous lists from 2024 and 2023 . There is a newer 2026 version available. IDEs / Editors Visual Studio Community - the best IDE for C++ and C# programming. Windows only but sometimes I think it’s worth having Windows just for this piece of software. It’s free (scroll down to license terms) and very well supported. Professional Edition for commercial use price wise is…
Use WSL's Docker from Windows like it's native
I have already explained how to get just Docker CLI tools without installing massive Docker distribution and running agent permanently all the time. This relies on having Podman installed on Windows though. What if you don’t even have Podman, but have WSL Docker instead of Windows Docker? Here’s how to do it. First, you need to enable remote access to Docker daemon inside WSL. This is…
Making Docker tools work with Podman on Windows
I like Podman, because it’s a daemonless container engine. There are many reasons to use Podman instead of Docker, and the most important are: Podman doesn’t require a daemon to run containers. Which means you can run containers without root privileges. Podman is a drop-in replacement for Docker. You can use Podman commands instead of Docker commands. Podman is more secure than Docker.…
Adding GitHub Copilot to Typora
Typora is a great markdown editor, but it doesn’t have any AI assistants available. GitHub Copilot is a great AI assistant, but it doesn’t work with Typora. Although AI assistants deliver questionable productivity, I find them definitely extra useful in technical writing. This has been extremely annoying so far, and I would resort to using Typora for writing and then copy-pasting the…