Technical guide
Vite’s ?url Import Gives You a URL, Not jQuery
Writing
Notes from the work.
Technical decisions, working software, and what I learned after the documentation stopped being enough. Begin with a curated route, or choose your own path through the archive.
Trailhead
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Four pieces that show the range of the journal without asking you to scan all 92 entries.
Technical guide
How to Run Hermes Agent on a UGREEN NAS with Docker
Technical guide
Getting a DBA in San Francisco: The Real Process and Costs
Mapped routes
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Related notes read better together. These routes connect recurring work across years.
Route 01
Applied AI systems
Running Hermes Agent against persistent infrastructure, integrations, and unattended work.
View 3 notes Route 02Frontend migrations
What framework changes cost after the upgrade guide ends.
View 6 notes Route 03AI coding practice
Measured notes on agents, review, cost, and the work around the model.
View 6 notes Route 04Home infrastructure
Self-hosting and smart-home systems tested beyond the happy path.
View 4 notes Route 05Web history
Old platform decisions revisited with the benefit of hindsight.
View 5 notesThe full journal
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Showing all 92 notes
What’s There to Learn from WordPress?
The WP Engine fight, the Valkey fork, and agent-written code raise a harder question: what keeps an open-source project honest?
Optimizing Cubbly After Moving Away from SSR
Removing SSR simplified Cubbly but delayed useful inventory. I compared four client-loading compositions and kept the one that made real route content 31–42% faster.
Removing React SSR from Cubbly to Simplify Lingui
I removed React SSR from Cubbly because maintaining Lingui across the Worker and browser was not worth the speed it bought on a private application.
Choosing When Hermes Agent Automations Need an LLM
I use Hermes Agent to interpret and configure automations, then let Home Assistant or a script execute repeatable actions with visible failure states.
AI Pricing Is Becoming UX
GPT-5.6 turns capability into a price ladder, while Codex Spark turns speed into a separate button. AI pricing is becoming part of the interface.
Evaluating a TanStack Table v9 Upgrade
I wanted to keep a shared table component current without accepting migration work on faith. A side-by-side benchmark made the trade-off much easier to judge.
React Router v8 Learned to Make Upgrades Boring
React Router v8 keeps the framework-mode API familiar and moves v7's future flags into defaults. That restraint matters after an expensive v6-to-v7 migration.
Claude’s Guardrails End at Claude
Closed-model guardrails remain tied to the provider, even as comparable open weights spread. Public safety needs controls that survive that reality.
AI-Generated Code Review: What Reviewers Should Still Block
Models make awkward code cheaper to replace. Review should block future risk and leave private ideas of neat to automated conventions.
The Best Coding Agent Is the One You Can Keep Using
Grok Build produces useful patches, but its weekly limit changes how I use it. The harness and quota now matter more than the model.
Learning Rust with Claude Code Through Local Hardware Projects
Claude Code lowers the cost of being a Rust beginner. It kept two local-hardware projects moving while I learned the language inside them.
Cloudflare Redirects for Static Blog URL Migrations
I keep changing this blog. One small Cloudflare Worker lets the URLs survive the changes while the site itself stays static.
GLM Is Cheap. Steering It Isn't.
GLM costs a fraction of Opus per token. OpenCode's Plan/Build toggle doesn't cut that cost back down — it just moves it.
I Can't Avoid the Price Gap Anymore
My company merged separate AI tool budgets into one shared pool. That's when Opus versus GLM stopped being an abstract question.
Thread Claims Interoperability. Your Network Has Three Meshes.
dns-sd exposes what smart home apps hide: Apple, Amazon, and eero each run separate Thread meshes on the same network, and devices on different meshes route through Wi-Fi instead of communicating directly.
Grouping Lights in Home Assistant
How to group color lights in Home Assistant using Helpers — and why the old YAML platform approach stopped working in 2026.5.
Tripsy Now Has a CLI (and an MCP)
Tripsy released an official CLI and MCP server in May 2026. The CLI is the better tool. Everything I documented for the SQLite approach is now unnecessary.
Papra Was Running. SQLite Still Couldn't Write.
Papra looked healthy on my NAS while registration failed. The browser hid the useful detail: SQLite belonged to the wrong user.
I Ordered a Fitbit Air Because I Won't Sleep in My Apple Watch
I ordered a Google Fitbit Air to test whether a lighter band can solve the sleep-data gap my Apple Watch leaves.
How to Connect Hermes Agent to Home Assistant
Two environment variables and a gateway restart. I said 'turn off all my lights' and they went off two seconds later.
How to Run Hermes Agent on a UGREEN NAS with Docker
UGREEN said my Hermes container was running. The gateway couldn't read its config. Two user IDs explained the failure—and the fix.
Your Linter Needs to Be as Fast as Your AI
Biome keeps my AI coding loop moving, but it doesn't replace TypeScript. Here is the current setup and the trade-off I kept.
Reading and Writing Tripsy's SQLite Database on macOS
Tripsy stores all your trip data in a local SQLite file that iCloud syncs to your Mac. The file is already on your disk — no export needed.
Why Adobe Animate's Flash-to-HTML5 Bridge Failed
Adobe Animate kept the Flash timeline alive for HTML5, but the web moved on. Maintenance mode confirms the bridge could not hold.
Getting a DBA in San Francisco: The Real Process and Costs
I registered a San Francisco DBA for $236. It took two City Hall stops, one newspaper email, and four weeks of publication.
Claude Code Plugins Turn Instructions Into Dependencies
I expected Claude Code plugins to be heavy infrastructure. The frontend-design plugin is mostly Markdown; the marketplace makes it installable and scoped.
Vite’s ?url Import Gives You a URL, Not jQuery
In Vite, ?url changes a JavaScript import into an asset URL import. Here is the fix—and when the suffix is actually useful.
jQuery 4: I Can't Believe They Actually Did It
jQuery 4.0.0 shipped last week. I didn't expect to write about jQuery in 2026. The project has been around since 2006.
Document Your Quirks: Why CLAUDE.md Changes Everything
I spent 45 minutes teaching Claude a fix I already knew. Putting that project quirk in CLAUDE.md stopped the same rediscovery next time.
Tailwind v4 Missed Every Class in My Shared Package
Tailwind v4 rendered my shared components without their utility classes. One @source directive fixed three hours of monorepo debugging.
Origin Made Me Review Work Copilot Already Handles
I tried Origin as an alternative to Copilot Money. More financial products did not make up for the transaction review it handed back to me.
I Default to React Router Loaders Until Caching Hurts
Six months with React Router loaders changed my default. I add React Query only when repeated fetching, shared data, or polling gives me a reason.
I Called This in June. October Proved Me Right.
I wrote in June that AI was becoming the new backdoor layoff. Companies would use "AI efficiency gains" as cover for not hiring people back.
React Compiler Changes When to Reach for useMemo
React Compiler 1.0 moved routine rendering memoization into the build. React.memo, useCallback, and useMemo now need a specific reason.
One Claude Code Install Is Enough
My machine has one Claude Code executable and one updater. Here is how I check the path, remove conflicts, and keep it that way.
Meta is Cutting 600 AI Roles to Speed Up Decisions
Meta cut 600 AI roles while still hiring for its superintelligence lab. The move shows which AI work leadership wanted to fund—and which it did not.
ChatGPT Atlas Automates the Easy Part of Browsing
After using Comet for coupons, search, and summaries, I am not convinced putting an agent in the browser solves the hard part: judgment.
Claude Code Comes to the Web and iOS
Claude Code on the web changes coding from an editor interaction into delegated work. That matters more than adding another interface.
Sora Isn't the Problem: It's the Mirror
Using Sora in a TikTok-style feed made social media's incentive problem hard to ignore: fabricated video is now cheaper than recording reality.
Samsung's Tiny Model Made Scale Look Wasteful
Samsung's 7-million-parameter TRM beat much larger models on specific reasoning benchmarks by revising its answer up to 16 times.
Claude Haiku 4.5: Cheap and Fast
I use Claude Haiku for small refactors, review, and debugging. Its lower cost and faster responses matter more there than deeper reasoning.
SwiftUI Toolbar Placement Is Intent, Not Coordinates
I tested SwiftUI toolbar placement, grouping, search, and overflow on iPhone and iPad. The useful mental model is intent—not fixed screen coordinates.
What SwiftUI's Tab APIs Actually Do
I rebuilt SwiftUI's TabView examples to separate the iOS 18 navigation APIs from the iOS 26 Liquid Glass redesign—and to see where the system takes control.
What VoiceOver Exposed in My Liquid Glass UI
VoiceOver read my compound views as a pile of unrelated elements. Grouping, labels, and combined accessibility testing fixed the experience.
I Had to Turn Down Liquid Glass to Test It Properly
The full Liquid Glass effect became distracting while I built with it. Here is how I handled Reduce Motion and Dynamic Type in SwiftUI.
Rewriting /tag/* to /tags/* with Cloudflare Workers
A small Cloudflare Worker can rewrite /tag/* to /tags/* without changing the main application or dropping query strings.
Cloudflare Pages to Workers: Do You Need to Move?
I moved a static site from Cloudflare Pages to Workers in five minutes. The config was easy; deciding whether a static blog benefits is harder.
How I Connected a ZWA-2 to Home Assistant on My Ugreen NAS
My working setup for a Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 on a Ugreen NAS, using Docker and Z-Wave JS UI.
Building a Modern Full-Stack Web Application - Part 2
How I deployed the React Router application with Fly.io, Cloudflare, Neon, Docker, and migration history I could roll back.
Building a Modern Full-Stack Web Application: Part 1
The React Router, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, and authentication stack I chose after using LLMs to prototype the alternatives.
Fix Cloudflare 525 Errors with Fly.io
Cloudflare 525 errors on Fly.io usually mean the origin certificate is wrong. Fix the custom domain cert before blaming DNS.
Migrating from Remix to React Router v7 - Part 2
The migration took two focused sessions: dependencies first, then 40 files of imports and route types. Typegen was the part worth keeping.
Migrating from Remix to React Router v7 - Part 1
My Remix-to-React Router v7 migration touched 40 files and removed 591 net lines. Imports were easy; TypeScript took the time.
The Cost of Switching from Next.js to Remix
Leaving Next.js for Remix taught me why the annoying-looking use client boundary exists—and what Remix gives up without it.
Vercel EMFILE Errors with Remix on Hobby Plan
My Remix app ran locally and failed on Vercel with EMFILE. The workarounds reduced file churn but could not expose or change the platform limit.
What Is a Website For When AI Gives the Answer?
AI search is turning websites from destinations into raw material. The web may survive that transition, but human voices will be harder to find.
Anthropic's Fair-Use Win Did Not Excuse Its Pirated Library
The court treated AI training as transformative while leaving Anthropic exposed for keeping a library of pirated books.
We Rebuilt the UI Instead of Refactoring It
A new data-model entity touched several old pages. Rebuilding those UI components was faster than carrying their Flow types and old assumptions forward.
AI Is the New Backdoor Layoff
Companies can shrink teams without announcing layoffs. They call it AI efficiency, lower hiring needs, and let attrition do the rest.
How I Moved This Blog from Node.js to Bun
The package manager was the easy part. File APIs, CI, compatibility checks, and Claude Code produced most of the migration's useful work.
Bun Cut This Blog's Build Time Nearly in Half
Moving this blog from Node.js to Bun cut its build from 37 seconds to 20. Native file and glob APIs also removed code I no longer needed.
Windsurf Simplified Pricing While OpenAI Circled
Windsurf removed flow action credits and cut team pricing while OpenAI acquisition talks were being reported. I cared more about the simpler bill.
Figma's Trademark Overreach: 'Dev Mode'
Figma's dispute with Lovable over Dev Mode shows why common developer terms make weak trademarks and costly legal weapons.
OpenAI Playing Catch-Up in the AI Coding Wars
OpenAI talked a ~$3B Windsurf deal. I use Claude Code and Cursor; the story that matters is who owns the IDE relationship, not the model API.
GPT-4.1 Needed Fewer Retry Loops in My Editors
GPT-4.1's benchmark jump showed up in my Windsurf and Cursor use as cleaner diffs and fewer back-and-forth retries.
The Small Models Were the Interesting Part of OpenAI's Leak
A leaked OpenAI lineup showed five models, but the mini and nano pricing mattered more to me than another flagship.
I Would Start with Vite and Make Webpack Prove Itself
The benchmark gap was obvious, but deleting 90 lines of build configuration was the better reason to choose Vite for a modern app.
ChatGPT Came Within 30 Million Visits of X
Similarweb March 2025: ChatGPT at 4.55B visits, X at 4.58B. ChatGPT grew faster that month. Infrastructure, not a toy.
GitHub Copilot Adds Agent Mode and Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Copilot shipped agent mode and more models. Microsoft also tightened extension licenses so some tools refuse to run in Cursor.
AI Will Make the Digital Divide More Expensive
AI access is becoming another way to buy time, better service, and economic leverage. My son will grow up inside that divide.
Claude Code's Strengths and Weaknesses in March 2025
Claude Code for hobby refactors, Cursor at work — two tools, two jobs, and where each one still breaks.
How Claude Code Built This Blog - Part 2
Claude Code helped build the parser, generator, templates, and Cloudflare deployment. Syntax highlighting and timezones took more work.
How Claude Code Built This Blog - Part 1
I paid about $10 to see whether Claude Code could scaffold the TypeScript static-site generator behind this blog. Most of its choices held up.
Google Keeps Replacing Products Before Trust Can Compound
Replacing Assistant with Gemini fits Google's long pattern of abandoning products instead of earning trust through steady maintenance.
Public Code Gives AI More Context to Work With
Public libraries give coding agents examples, documentation, and discussions they can retrieve. Private APIs must supply that context themselves.
Chrome Started Disabling uBlock Origin, So I Switched to Brave
When Chrome began disabling uBlock Origin under Manifest V3, I stopped looking for another extension and moved my browsing to Brave.
Bitcoin ATMs Are Not Financial Inclusion
Bitcoin ATMs charge steep fees and are frequently used in scams. Their placement in vulnerable neighborhoods makes the business model hard to defend.
Why I Built a Static Blog
A personal blog should be fast on a phone and boring to host — Markdown to static HTML on Cloudflare, no app server.
OpenAI Agent Pricing: $2k to $20k a Month
OpenAI's agent tiers run $2k–$20k a month. That is not 'AI is cheap labor' pricing — it is closer to a contractor line item.
Perplexity replaces Google Search and Apple News for me
I use Perplexity for most search and for a daily news skim. Google for the stubborn queries. Apple News lost the paywall fight.
Back to Blogging: Web Development, AI, and SF
I started writing here again — web development, AI tools I actually run, and what SF startups taught me the expensive way.
Building HTML5 Components for Adobe Animate CC
Adobe barely documented custom HTML5 components in Animate CC, so I worked backward from its built-in Video component.
AWS Lambda's Bad Interface Is Actually a Feature
Lambda's clunky deployment process forced me to think small. That constraint led me to better microservices design. Sometimes friction is good.
Bash on Ubuntu on Windows: What Works and What Doesn't
Microsoft added Ubuntu's Bash to Windows. I tested it for real work and hit some rough edges.
Running PHP 5.6 with Apache on El Capitan
The Apache module path was the easy-to-miss part of running Homebrew's PHP 5.6 on macOS El Capitan. Here is the full setup.
Why Browsers Killed Flash (And Why Designers Lost Out)
I worked in advertising as browsers pushed Flash out. The web gained battery life and privacy controls, while ad production got much harder.
Understanding CORS: Basic vs. Preflight Requests
CORS failures that look unrelated often come down to request type, duplicate headers, or credentials. Here is how the browser treats each case.
Upgrading WordPress to PHP 7: Configuration Changes
Ubuntu 16.04 ships with PHP 7, which broke my WordPress. Here's how to upgrade PHP config and point nginx to the new php-fpm socket.
Edge 14: Microsoft Finally Catches Up to Firefox
Edge 14 hit 460 points on the HTML5 Test. For the first time, Microsoft's browser was competitive with Firefox. Here's what that meant for web standards.
Mocha v3: Major Improvements to the Test Runner
I upgraded two repositories to Mocha v3. The migration was uneventful, and the fixed .only() behavior was reason enough to do it.
Setting Up CORS Vary-Origin Headers in AWS S3
The exact S3 CORS configuration I used to make responses vary by origin instead of letting a CDN cache the wrong header.
Using UglifyJS's screw-ie8 Option in Gulp
Once I stopped supporting IE8, UglifyJS still emitted compatibility code for it. This Gulp option switched those workarounds off.
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