Updates for June 2026
Here's what I've been doing and thinking about this month.
I added back colored links to this website and added some light image processing to put their dimensions in the HTML so the layout is stable when they eventually load.
We were going to take a trip to San Diego over the Juneteenth weekend, but we all got sick and had to postpone it to this upcoming weekend.
For my bike commute, I started using the Brompton more, filming my rides with a chest-mounted GoPro, and taking a 15-minute-longer but less stressful route home.
I wrote an article about formatting Markdown and finding parser bugs.
I still haven't finished reading any books, but I have plans to tackle a few classic novels in my vanishing free time. But there were a lot of articles I found interesting:
What it's like to have the machine that keeps you alive die while you're on vacation
Every problem it has is an indignity and an insult to me. Anything it does that irritates me is a sin. Universal healthcare would make my life easier, for sure. But the irritation I feel whenever I have to deal with a pump problem will never go away until diabetes is cured.
One of my good friends was diagnosed with diabetes as a child and I've seen her deal with obstacles stemming from the shitty medical technology she's stuck with. This article sums up the situation with a depressing and stressful anecdote.
Building from Zero After Addiction, Prison, and a Felony
I'm not sure the door will be open for the kinds of entry-level programming jobs that helped here, but maybe they'll just shift in scope. Regardless, there were so many ways this could have (and did) gone wrong.
The Newest Instagram "Exploit" is the Goofiest I've Seen
Once it looks like the request is coming from the correct region, they tell the Meta support AI that the account is hacked and ask it to send the verification codes to an arbitrary email address they control.
What a terrible design that has real consequences for people who put so much of their lives into this platform.
Designing a better podcast editor
So I built a set of layout tools that exactly correspond to that set of creative decisions. Using the pin-based layout system, the editor gets to pick which part of the music should play at the same time as which part of the preceding and following spoken word clips.
I love seeing people approach software with new ideas, especially in areas with already-established orthodoxy. This looks like a great re-imagining of a spoken word editing workflow.
Designing a personal Pebble watchface
Another example of personal software, but this time one that you experience all of the time since it's literally attached to your body. I feel like my current watch is "good enough" that I don't have an interest in the Pebble, but it's neat to see folks tinker with it.
When modern bike computers miss the mark
I distinctly remember that Cat Eye’s UI started falling apart when they asked one particular computer to do way too much. Consider this a bit of foreshadowing.
I've only used GPS-based bike computers but am kind of "stuck" on the Wahoo Roam v2. It has some annoying problems but has a great screen and generally good UI design. The new models with touch screens and more complex software seem like such a step back that I'm considering a Coros Dura.
NetNewsWire has been a staple of my daily routine and it's great to see it getting the love it deserves for modern macOS.
On sabotaging projects by overthinking
I’m pretty sure I still came out ahead compared to if I’d tried to write everything myself sans LLM or discussion with others, but I’m not certain. Perhaps there’s some kind of conservation law here: Any increases in programming speed will be offset by a corresponding increase in unnecessary features, rabbit holes, and diversions.
This happens to me a lot, but usually only for my personal programming projects that have no deadlines or stakeholders aside from myself.
In order to expand your understanding of a problem space and generate new ideas, it’s useful to put what you already know on a plot. It can be one, two or three dimensional and you can experiment with different axis (continuous, discrete, binary).
I do this subconsciously but haven't really had a name for it until now.
Half of the solution to this is having a compact pen that's always on hand -- the Kaweco -- and simplifying the system to be agnostic of colour or pen type and instead be symbolic and annotation-driven is a complete solution.
I've been using the Leuchtturm Bullet Journal Pocket for the past couple of months and it's a nice way to keep track of short- and medium-term goals and chores. I tried the Kaweco mentioned in this article but didn't like its weight or grip; the LAMY Safari or AL-star are hard to beat for me.
Level Boarding Soon, Fast, and Cheap
The incrementalism recommended here is almost unheard of in US transportation planning but makes a ton of sense.
I also updated a few notes:
The Helix text editor now lists the pain points I encounter and proposed fixes that have yet to be merged.
Software projects describes active, future, and dormant programming I've got on my mind.
Sublime Text plugins I use lists the new plugins that help me write prose.
Everyday carry got rationales and more details for the items I keep with me.
Books I want to read now lists the classic novels I want to read.
I continued organizing our garage this month in preparation for installing a "power rack" for barbell and body weight exercises. We bought a folding rack that bolts to the wall for our single car-sized garage. Installing that was tricky with one person, involving holding up 50-pound stringers while driving in lag bolts or balancing the hundred-pound rack frame to fit into brackets. We'll probably leave the rack unfolded most of the time, but it's nice to have the option to make it compact if I need more space in the garage for a project.
I also branched out on my biking a bit more and used the Brompton for some errands again. It's a really comfortable bike to ride and the gearing is perfect on most of the routes near me. I bought new brakes and handlebar grips for it that I still need to install. I've started taking a slightly longer route home to avoid a busy but much more direct stroad. After a few close calls, I'm now wearing a GoPro Hero 9 on a chest mount and keeping my Cycliq Fly6 Pro charged and recording from my bike's seat post. It's a bit annoying to keep the GoPro's batteries topped off and the microSD card recently bit the dust, but it's nice to have in case something happens. And finally, I set up the Fairlight on my indoor trainer in case I want to get some fitness riding in. I'm going to try out the Zwift Cog to see how I like the platform.
A couple of weeks ago, we all got pretty sick and had to postpone a trip to San Diego to see friends. Parenting becomes incredibly difficult for me when I get sick, but luckily my mom was coming out to do some childcare for us anyway. Hopefully that was the last bad one this year, but with my daughter starting preschool in August, I think it's just the beginning.