Building a New Blog Pt. 3
Reducing my Cloud Costs to 0 Long story short, I use a Cloudflare tunnel and self-host it on an old laptop. Short Story Long When I decided to rebuild this blog, one of my goals was to make it as "cloud-na
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A blog about software engineering, books, and other things
Latest posts
Othello World
I was introduced to the board game Othello (also known as Reversi) on a recent trip to Japan. It's one of those games where you can learn the ru
PHP's Oddities
I've been coding in PHP at work for the last 5 years. My org's entire backend is written in PHP—a decision made in 2007 when the company first started. It's not a language I ever imagined myself us
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
A handshake should be firm, but not overpowering. Look the person in the eye; looking away while shaking someone’s hand is a sign of disrespect, and most people will notice that. Also,
Stuff I Dug in 2025
The end of the year provides an opportunity to look back on all the media and entertainment I enjoyed over the last 12 months. I like taking some time to reflect on what had an impact on me, and wh
On 10 Years of Writing a Blog Nobody Reads
In November 2015, I started a blog on Blogger. My first post was a book review of The Martian by Andy Weir. 10 years and a couple of blog
There is No Antimemetics Division
"There is an invisible monster which follows me around and likes to eat my memories," Marion explains, patiently. "SCP-4987. Don't look it up, it's not there. I've learn
Automating Quordle With an LLM
At my current company, there's been a big push to use AI to automate everything we do. Anything that requires human intervention, isn't super critical, and happens regularly is considered a good ca
Broken Money
In some sense, the circularity of the financial system is almost poetic; it represents how dependent we all are on one another. However, it’s also very fragile. Everything is a claim o
Is Solo Bitcoin Mining a Good Investment?
I recently saw a headline about a "solo miner" successfully mining a Bitcoin block and receiving the coveted 3.125₿ mining reward. Actually, there's been a <a href="https://decrypt.co/311
The Master & Margarita
Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, eternal, and faithful love in the world! May the liar have his foul tongue cut out! Follow me, my reader, and only me, and I will
Building a New Blog Pt. 2 - Streamlining Writing
My new blog is officially online. If you're reading this, you're on it. I'm still working on some minor enhancements and I'm currently in the process of migrating all my old posts to this new site.
Handling Multipart Requests with Ktor
I'm building a new blog site with Ktor , a Kotlin-native HTTP framework. It's an asynchronous framework built on top of Kotlin coroutines. So far I've liked it's simple
Site Reliability Engineering
After all, people regularly use www.google.com to check if their Internet connection is set up correctly. — JC van Winkel, Site Reliability Engineering pg. 25 </bl
Gains & Losses
I mostly stay away from individual stock investing. It's too risky, and I don't pretend to know better than the rest of the financial market. My "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dumb_m
Why We Sleep
When awake, we see only a narrow set of all possible memory interrelationships. The opposite is true, however, when we enter the dream state and start looking through the other end of
Building a New Blog Pt.1
It's time to update my website. Over the last couple years I took a bit of a hiatus from posting new content, but this year I've rediscovered the motivation for writing. I'm also interested
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
If you’re used to writing software in the idealized mathematical perfection of a single computer, where the same operation always deterministically returns the same result, then moving
Stuff I Dug in 2021
Screamin' at home, and at phones, we all hurtin' Freakin' ya soul, like the pack, we all herb Pay me to feel with the funk, we all need ya Mixin' the feel with the fa
All the Wrong Moves
Every year, I discover more and more, that I'm the same as everyone else. Which is kind of great, because it means that life is not so mysterious. You just do what other people do. Say
Range
After reading a few of these pop-social-science books, they all start to sound the same. It's a repetitive formula that becomes a chore to read through. Anecdote, explanation, anecdote, explanation
Stuff I Dug in 2020
I like stuff. Like books, clearly , but also other stuff. Here's a list of my favourite music, film, and TV from this past year. Music<
The Mezzanine
I was in riding in a car with a couple friends recently. One of them was talking about a book she'd just finished called American Psycho and how much she hated it. I've heard of it, as wel
Norwegian Wood
Long after the firefly had disappeared, the trail of its light remained inside me, its pale, faint glow hovering on and on in the thick darkness behind my eyelids like a lost soul.
The Beach
One of my favourite movies of all time is Ex Machina —a 2014 science fiction thriller about A.I directed by Alex Garland. The plot centres around an advanced version of <a href="https://en.
Just Mercy
The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It's when mercy is least expected that it's most potent—strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood,
Digital Minimalism
In 1886, German architect Mies van der Rohe made a famous declaration: less is more — Mies van der Rohe In 2019, not to be outdone, American Youtuber
Kafka and The Search For Meaning
One fears a number of thing—that one's body could vanish, that human beings may really be what they appear to be at twilight, that one might not be allowed to walk without a stick, tha
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
All grew so fast his life was overgrown, Till he forgot what all had once been made for: He gathered into crowds but was alone... — W.H Auden We
Ivan
I did an internship after I finished my 3rd year of college. This was optional in the engineering program I was in—12 months of real workplace experience before the final year of your degree. This
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
I see a dice. I see it from the inside, me at the bottom. I'm the weight, loading the dice to throw that number one up there above me. They got the dice loaded to throw a snake eyes, a
Silent Spring
My latest read was Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Originally published in 1962, Silent Spring is one of the most influential books of the 20th century as it kickstarted a massive
The Innovators
Authority should be questioned, hierarchies should be circumvented, nonconformity should be admired, and creativity should be nurtured. ― Walter Isaacson, The Innovators</em
1Q84
The moonlight wreaked havoc on her mind. It changed the tides in inlets, stirred up life in the woods. — Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 pg. 176 1Q84</em
The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus begins, earnestly, with a simple question: why don't we just all kill ourselves? Although Albert Camus phrases it a little more eloquently, he nonetheless is qu
1984
1984 is the most well known book I've written a review for so far. It's a classic novel published in 1948 by George Orwell; now considered one of the most important books of the 20th centu
Red Sorghum
As I stand amid the dense hybrid sorghum, I think of surpassingly beautiful scenes that will never again appear: in the deep autumn of the eighth month, under a high, magnificently cle
12 Days in China
1 一 Just left the airport. Beijing decided to welcome us with a humid 33°C evening, apparently the hottest day of the month so far. Richard and I are being driven through Monday's rush hou
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was written by Junot Diaz. It follows the life of Oscar De Leon, an overweight Dominican kid living in New Jersey in the 80's. The story is narrated b
12 Rules For Life
I hadn't heard of Dr. Jordan Peterson just four months ago. There's a chance I might have seen his name last year when he was making headlines for his remarks on Bill C-16 — legislation to
Foundation
To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well. I'll improvise. — Isaac Asimov, "Foundation" pg. 241 Isaac Asimov is one o
Everything and More
Everything and More is a non-fiction novel about the history and understanding of infinity in mathematics. It was written by renowned post-modern novelist David Foster Wallace. It was part
The Alchemist and Siddhartha
Meaning and being did not lie somewhere behind things; they lay within them, within everything — Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha , pg. 132 I just finished
A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age Published: Modern man lives isolated in his artificial environment, not because the artificial is evil as such, b
The Pale King
How odd I can have all this inside me, and to you it's just words. — David Foster Wallace, The Pale King , pg. 758 The Pale King is the las
The Better Angels of Our Nature
It can be difficult staying focused while reading a long book. Especially with regards to remembering plot details of the story or the main thesis in the case of non-fiction. It's harder when you a
Dune
One of my favourite things about Dune was how Frank Hebert wrote realistic, rational characters. Each character's motivations and decisions were well explained. This was important because
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking Fast and Slow is about how we think and rationalize the world around us. It touches upon the subtle, and sometimes unnoticed, factors that influence our decision making. It's back
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood by Truman Capone was an interesting story, but it was a hard to discern what the story was about while reading it. The focal point shifts and transforms as you read it. It's
The Martian
This book was recommended to me by my co-worker Paul, who was reading it at the time. The movie looked good too; in my experience I almost always enjoy a book more than its movie counterpart. I thi