Personal homepage of Joshua Seigler
Ingredients Glaze 3 tbsp butter 4 tbsp brown sugar 1 tsp lemon juice Batter 1 pear, sliced thinly 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp milk Instructions Preheat an oven to 350F. In a small pan make a glaze by melting together 3tbsp butter and 4tbsp brown sugar over medium heat. Once they are well combined, add 1tsp…
Have you heard of “Shepard tones”? They are produced when you play a note in every octave at once, so the “pitch height” is ambiguous. Well, if you play one of these shepard tones (just a single note, like a C ) and you then play its tritone F♯ which is half an octave away, some people will hear the second note as higher, and some will hear it as lower. Try it! C => F♯ Which you hear seems to…
This is a southern dessert, elevated significantly with a decadent butter rum sauce. Ingredients For the bread pudding: 1 loaf of day-old bread (about 1 lb) cut into small cubes 4 large eggs 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 cup granulated sugar ½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted & slightly cooled ⅓ cup golden raisins 1 tablespoon rum extract (or vanilla extract) 1…
I have been dissatisfied with some of the recipe label generators online (except for MyFoodData , which is fantastic, but I wanted something simpler, purpose-built for my site). I also wanted a small personal software project to preserve my familiarity with SolidJS . So I made my own recipe label generator . (Since one purpose of this project is skill-building, of course I did this without an…
A clear explanation of the push-pull algorithm used in Signals, my favorite fine-grained reactivity mechanism. (Which may soon become a native Javascript feature!)
This is a cheesy, savory, custardy breakfast, assembled the night before and cooked in the morning for about an hour. Like a quiche, a strata has a lot of room for variation. The short version is, make six layers in a big pan: day-old bread cubes, cooked meat and veggies, cheese, repeat. Cover with custard, soak overnight, and bake covered for about an hour at 350°F, uncovering halfway through.…
There is a type of South American vine Boquila trifoliata aka chameleon vine that mimics the shape, size, texture, and color of leaves from nearby plants - including fake plastic plants! And how it does this is mostly a mystery. It's the only known polymorphic mimic in the plant kingdom. Amazing.
A critical look at web defaults, arguing that web performance is capable of essentially matching native performance when the right approach is taken but this approach often requires deep knowledge or extra work, because the most performant settings are not the defaults (as they are in native environments). Compelling.
Finally a good way to generate PDFs
Ingredients 1 small red cabbage, washed and shredded 1 red onion, finely chopped 2 tbsp walnut oil (vegetable oil is also fine) 1 apple, diced 3 tbsp vinegar (red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar are best) 3 tbsp red wine (cooking wine or a dry red) 1/2 cup jam (blueberry works great) 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey 1/2 cup golden raisins 1 tsp salt or to taste Pepper to taste Directions Soak…
This is a six-months-later follow up to Angular impressions Angular is kinda good for me now that I’m used to it. Using modern Angular development practices helps a whole lot – dependency injection is less mysterious with inject , state management is actually great since I can use signals, and it looks like in a version or two maybe even Observables will be basically optional. I’ve accepted that…
Overheard at a Cracker Barrel: Cashier: Do you have our loyalty app? A gentleman in his 70s: My phone broke, and I don’t remember my passwords so I just have to make a whole new everything. Everyone uses the phone now for the accounts, I have to get a new phone number because the phone company can’t reset my password unless… anyway. I have to make a whole new life because my phone broke. Something…
Ingredients Salt and pepper 1 lb ground beef (at least 20 percent fat) 1 large onion, diced 2 carrots, diced 2-3 tbsp red curry paste 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce 1 lb pasta, save pasta water 1 cup heavy cream Instructions Heat a large heavy pot over high heat and add the beef, breaking it up into small pieces and seasoning with salt and pepper; cook until browned and cooked through (4-5 min). Push…
Trying to understand LLMs by using the rules of human psychology is like trying to understand a game of Scrabble by using the rules of Pictionary. These things don’t act like people because they aren’t people. We are in dire need of a better metaphor. Here’s my suggestion: instead of seeing AI as a sort of silicon homunculus, we should see it as a bag of words.
I’ve been working with Angular lately. Most of my experience is with React, starting back in 2018 just before the addition of hooks, and working with it heavily into 2025. I build web and mobile applications, and React or React Native was the tool of choice across a handful of companies small and large. I’ve also built some small personal projects with Vue and SolidJS as little learning…
Applying human ergonomics and design principles to syntax highlighting
If you follow the advice on these pages and the ones we’ve linked to, you’ll end up with an excellent set of slides, and you’ll be able to present them coherently, with confidence. You’ll make your point. The audience you’re presenting to will know exactly what you’re trying to say, or asking them to do. via Dave Smyth's Five Links newsletter
Many of the Sass features we've grown to love have made their way into native CSS in some shape or form. So, should we still use Sass? This is how developer Jeff Bridgforth is thinking about it.
"I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater." Lovingly crafted vitriol - an principled argument from emotion against LLMs. Very effective reframe of this discussion.
High energy, vocal merengue version of Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, from my favorite music scene ever, Vulfpeck.
AI is not so much a tool that everyone uses in more or less the same way, but a mirror in which we see our own reflection--if we care to look. Charles with an insightful take as usual.
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) promises to standardize AI-tool interactions as the “USB-C for AI.” While its simplicity accelerates adoption, MCP systematically overlooks four decades of hard-won lessons from distributed systems. This isn’t an academic concern: enterprises deploying MCP today are building on foundations that lack fundamental capabilities that every production remote-procedure…
Individual contributors can expect workplace psychological safety, but managers do not. This is not something that can be fixed, it's part of the role. Like how a plumber will sometimes have to smell sewage. Reasons: Managers are more or less fungible. They compete against each other since contributors and other resources are limited. They are exposed to competitive pressures affecting the…
Insight: open source software from for-profit companies (e.g. Wordpress) can still be made obsolete (to force use of newer, enshittified versions) by making the software it depends on (e.g. PHP) adopt (unwanted, unnecessary) breaking changes.
Video-guided 1-2 hour exercise to get hands-on familiarity with Jujutsu version control, starting from nothing.
In 2019 Vin Armani was telling people we were transitioning from an age of rationalism to one of mysticism. Six years later this knowledge has begun to reach mainstream discourse. Charts and graphs are tactics , they come after the belief is formed and reinforce or justify it. A worldview has a structure to it, and this article reframes persuasion and argument strategies as attempts to destabilize…
The final word in AI haterade. This is an economic bubble, where NVidia sells GPUs so a handful of other companies can use them to lose massive amounts of money. It makes up a significant fraction of the economy, and it won't last forever.
I've used Jujutsu for a week or so. It's fantastic. I was going to write an introduction to Jujutsu article but this one is so much better than what I had planned. Read this one instead. I do wish it had a better name. Try looking up "Jujutsu conflict resolution" and you get a bunch of stuff about martial arts.
Insightful. Basically claims that AI has been made so convenient (at great expense and effort) because it gives AI providers/operators enormous benefit: control over narrative at unprecedented depth and scale.
Super clever approach for putting HTML into other HTML. "Is it a framework? It's a snippet."
Serves six. Prep 20 minutes, cooking time about 1 hour. Mildly spicy. Requires an immersion blender or kitchen blender. Ingredients 1-3 jalapeño peppers 1 Anaheim or Cubanelle pepper 6 tomatillos 2 large chicken breasts 1 large white onion 1 head of garlic 3 cups chicken stock 2 tsp neutral oil Salt Pepper 1 lime 1 tsp oregano Fresh cilantro, optional 3 cups white rice Directions Rough chop the…
Speed Catan is a variation of the popular board game Catan that emphasizes game speed and simplicity for younger (or impatient) players.
Just as it’s still possible (though seldom necessary) to ride a horse, it is still possible to surf the internet. It’s a thrill not yet lost to time.
Digging through old bookmarks I found this alternate ruleset for Bananagrams I want to share: Turn all letter tiles face down, then each player takes 10 tiles (with 3 players take 14 tiles, with 5 players take 8). Someone says “GO” and everyone turns over their tiles and tries to build their own crossword using ALL their letters, no two letter words allowed. When someone finally finishes they say…
I don't understand why this feels ok but Comic Sans makes my skin crawl.
I recently needed to process 20+ phone audio recordings. The files are mp3 recordings in stereo, made in an environment with echoes and noise from fans/heaters. Although I could do it easily with Tenacity I didn’t want to use a manual process, since it would take days. So I tried using FFmpeg filters and Bash scripting. I found an FFmpeg filter called compand which lets you map an input decibel…
Today the USA announced its bombing of three locations in Iran, including Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site, located under a mountain in Fordow. How far will things go? Here is the only way I know of to have peace: live every day as if tomorrow you will face death, where it will be too late for repentance, too late for a change of heart. As St. Isaac the Syrian says [1] : Take hold of your life…
git-revise is a history editing tool designed for the patch-stack workflow. It's fast, non-destructive, and aims to provide a familiar, powerful, and easy to use re-imagining of the patch stack workflow.
Smart alternative to immediately using some kind of markdown extension or plugin. Good perspective.
I recently started self-hosting Forgejo , but I wanted something to replace GitHub pages, which has been very convenient for publishing little website projects. My server runs Debian, so I decided to use webhook and Caddy . I’m very happy how it turned out. The objective When I push a gh-pages branch to any public repository on my Forgejo instance, the name of the repo is used as a domain name…
Just found my new favorite long-car-ride verbal game!
Ingredients 6 tablespoons butter, divided 28 ounces chicken broth 1 chicken bouillon cube 12 ounces extra wide egg noodles 1 teaspoon parsley flakes Salt and pepper, to taste Instructions In a large pan, brown two tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Pour the chicken stock and bouillon cube into the pan and bring to a boil. Add the egg noodles to the chicken stock and return to a boil. Cover…
The Unreliability of LLMs & What Lies Ahead
The only reason that LLMs took root in the first place was because our societies in the anglosphere have already developed cultures solely devoted to gaining status and keeping up the appearance of doing things rather than actually doing them. All other values, increasingly including even the accumulation of wealth (while this is still very much a thing that people pursue, wealth is increasingly…
Ingredients 1 cup butter 2 1/4 cups sugar 4 large eggs 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional) 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips Instructions Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 baking dish. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and…
Ingredients 1lb any pasta 2 cups (approximate) garlic & herb pasta sauce 1½ cups milk 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons oil Salt and pepper Grated Parmesan cheese Instructions Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Meanwhile in a saucepan, whisk together the oil and flour over medium heat to form a roux. Cook for 1–2 minutes until lightly golden. Slowly whisk in the milk to make a…
Ingredients 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced 8 ounces Orzo pasta 2 celery stalks, finely diced 2 carrots, finely diced 1/2 yellow onion, finely diced 5 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups chicken broth ½ cup heavy whipping cream 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder 1/3 cup all purpose flour Instructions Cook the Orzo per the package instructions. While that cooks,…
Everyone has different tools that they find especially effective. Here are some I have found with a few words about why I like them. Update: I made a /uses page that lists these tools and many others I like. mise-en-place Universal dev tool version manager. Specify tool versions in a config file and this tool can ensure that they are installed and active when entering the project directory.…
Ingredients 3 Tbsp neutral oil 2 cups long grain white rice 4 cups water 8 oz tomato sauce 2 Tbsp chicken or vegetable bouillon powder 1.5 cups water Instructions Add oil to a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add uncooked rice, stirring continually until rice is toasted. Stir in 4 cups water, tomato sauce, and bouillon. Return to boil and leave uncovered 10 minutes . Stir in 1.5 cups water…