Bug Archeology: Solving a decade-old Swift/C++ mystery
Using an LLM to solve a decade-old Swift/C++ bridge bug I never fully understood
Sam Khawase
I design products, fine-tune strategies, build teams, and create rock solid software.
Latest posts
Email is crazy
A deep dive into how email actually works — SMTP, MTAs, SPF/DKIM/DMARC authentication, spam filtering and TLS — traced step by step from Alice to Bob.
2025: A year in retrospective
A personal retrospective of 2025 — fitness goals, travel adventures, connecting with roots, and professional growth.
Sam: The story behind my nickname
The fun story behind how a typo on a DOS computer in rural India gave me my nickname.
Cross-compiling Zig on an old Kindle
Debugging a cross-compiled Zig HTTP client on a jailbroken Kindle using GDB to track down a kernel compatibility issue.
It's School time! Adventures in hacking kindle
Jailbreaking an old Kindle and turning it into a school dashboard using Cloudflare Workers, Puppeteer, and image processing.
An Ode To The Tiger
A review of the Marathi film Raavsaheb, exploring the conflict between humans and nature in the tiger country of Vidarbha.
The Quest For A Minimal Phone
Setting up an old iPhone SE as a minimal, safe phone for a child using Apple's parental controls.
Hiring is a narrow waist problem
Why tech hiring is fundamentally a narrow waist problem and strategies to overcome the information bottleneck.
Javascript and English
Drawing parallels between JavaScript and English — how satisficing explains the dominance of both languages.
Captain's Log: Upgrading a UIKit app to SwiftUI
A step-by-step log of porting an existing UIKit app to SwiftUI, covering SceneDelegate, Combine, and MVVM migration.
When Remote Work doesn't cut it
Why the challenges of remote work — regulation, hardware, and human nature — outweigh the promises for many companies.
Part 5: The iOS App
Test-driving the PostgREST and Auth0 setup with an iOS app for social login and authenticated API access.
Part 4: Auth0 Service
Integrating Auth0 JWT authentication with PostgREST for secure API access.
Part 3: PostgREST Service
Configuring the PostgREST service with Docker and testing anonymous API access.
Part 2: Configuring PostgreSQL, and Defining the SQL Entities
Setting up PostgreSQL with Docker and defining database entities for the PostgREST tutorial.
Part 1: Introduction to PostgREST
An introduction to PostgREST, a standalone web server that turns PostgreSQL into a RESTful API, with Auth0 authentication.
LooLocator: The ViewController
Bringing together all MVVM components into the final ViewController for the LooLocator iOS app.
LooLocator: The ViewModel
Designing the ViewModel for the LooLocator iOS app with dependency injection and unit testing.
LooLocator: Defining the Networking Layer
Creating a modular and testable networking layer for the LooLocator iOS app using NSURLSession and Overpass Turbo API.
LooLocator: The Location Provider
Building a modular and testable location component for the LooLocator iOS app using CoreLocation.
LooLocator: Defining the Data Model
Defining the data model for the LooLocator iOS app using OpenStreetMap's Overpass Turbo API.
LooLocator: Writing an MVVM App using Swift
Introduction to building an iOS app using the MVVM pattern with Swift and OpenStreetMap.
Json Serialization
An overview of JSON serialization and deserialization in iOS using NSJSONSerialization.
Anonymous Functions
An introduction to anonymous functions (blocks) in Objective-C — syntax, closures, and callback patterns.
MongoDB and NoSQL DBs
An introduction to MongoDB and document-oriented NoSQL databases — features, data model, and use cases.