What to do if you accidentally committed secrets to a repository
Have you ever accidentally committed a secret to a Git repository? It’s a simple mistake that can be hard to fix, but it’s also easy to prevent.
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Scaling the API design review process at Google
Google’s API Governance process makes sure that the design and development of its APIs meets the company’s standards.
A crappy review of a crappy “LEGO” Brick Bank
I bought myself a replica of LEGO’s 2016 Brick Bank from a Chinese copycat brand and it went about as well as expected.
“Heap, Heap, Array!”
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Fun with functions (and other stuff)
Prompt patterns for LLMs that help you design better software
Large language models (LLMs) may not be replacing developers anytime soon, but can still be of use in the design process.
Recovering software architectures via chain-of-thought prompting
Large language models can be used to deduce to what extent your system’s implementation still adheres to a reference architecture.
Comparing algorithms for extracting content from web pages
This study pits 14 open-source main content extractors against each other and arrives at a somewhat surprising conclusion.
Living the Pipe Dream
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2025 is the year of the Linux desktop (but mostly servers)
Level up your Dockerfiles with these tips and tricks
It’s easy to write Dockerfiles that work, but also to write Dockerfiles that suck. Here are some tips and tricks for writing better Dockerfiles.
Helm may be a popular solution, but not necessarily a safe one
Helm charts are re-usable packages for Kubernetes resources. They are easy to share and use, but this comes at a price.
A comparison of open tracing tools
I’m in the market for a tool that can help me analyse logs, traces, and metrics, and I was hoping that this paper could help me pick one.
Flat Earth
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It’s all downhill from here
Rendering text on a pixel grid
Fonts in macOS look different from text that’s been rendered in Windows, mostly due to different philosophies about font rendering.
This is a periodic reminder to add train emojis to your Slack workspaces
Spamming trains on Slack is likely to make some co-workers very happy and others very annoyed.
Get cheered on when you complete JIRA tickets
I built a completely useless Chrome extension that encourages people to complete their JIRA tickets (so I don’t have to).
The Toilet Paper
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Summaries of spicy papers with a grain of salt
Using humour to make software development more enjoyable
This study looks at how humour can fuel developer engagement in open-source and professional contexts.
The challenges of end-to-end testing and how to face them
End-to-end tests can help you discover problems in web applications, but sadly are not free of problems themselves.
Supersharers of fake news on Twitter during the 2020 US presidential election
Supersharers managed to reach 5.2% of registered voters. In contrast, Russia’s 2016 campaign only reached 3.4% of voters.
Chuniversiteitschrift
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A section for people who inexplicably like bruine boterhammen met kaas
Nutteloze feitjes over Nederlandse treinstations
Dat Utrecht Centraal druk is weten we allemaal wel. Gelukkig zijn er genoeg andere domme feitjes waarmee je mensen kunt lastigvallen.
A command-line scrobbler for Dutch public radio stations NPO Radio 1, 2 and 3FM
I built a tool for the handful of people who listen to NPO radio stations, use Last.fm and know how to use the command line.
Solliciteren kun je leren
Hoe vind je je droombaan? In dit artikel vertel ik je hoe ik zelf (als softwareontwikkelaar) meestal te werk ga.
The Middle Qingdom
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Chunfeicius says…
Chinese megacities and what they are known for
China is one of the world’s most populous countries, which means it also has some of the largest cities on the planet.
A quick-start guide to public transport in Hong Kong
Depending on where you’re from, public transport in Hong Kong either offers a glimpse of the future or is stuck in the past.
Five things that are (not) made in Japan
Japan is good at inventing things, but in these five cases it was actually just good at adopting things.
Well Played
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It’s all bread and games until someone loses
Try to score more than two points in Two Point Campus
I went to summer school at Two Point Campus, the spiritual successor to Theme Hospital’s spiritual successor Two Point Hospital.
How to run Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 on Windows 10 and 11
Red Alert 2 has been available on Steam since March this year, but sadly the 24-year old RTS game no longer works out of the box.
Nothing is final in Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII is a classic JRPG in which everyone (including its developer) makes plenty of questionable decisions.
Superproductivity at Room Temperature
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Tools, tips & tricks for techies
Add autolink references to GitHub pull request titles
Alright is a Google Chrome extension that automatically turns JIRA (and other) references in GitHub pull request titles into hyperlinks.
A gentle (re-)introduction to Scrum, a framework for project teams
This blog provides a concise summary of the Scrum framework for anyone who needs a refresher or is just getting started.
Join the ACM for the magazine, stay for the books
Why an ACM membership is totally worth the money, even if you’re not an academic.
Captain’s Blog
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The holodeck safety protocols malfunctioned again today…
My software development roadmap
I don’t know what the future of software development will look like and what skills I will need, but at least I have concepts of a plan.
My 2024 in review
The 2024 retrospective has been either postponed or cancelled entirely, just like most of this year’s posts.
Dumb things in my house that just don’t make sense
Sturgeon’s law states that ninety percent of everything is crap. It’s mostly true, except in this post where absolutely everything is crap.
The Project Aisle
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A gallery of recent project launches
Let’s build a simple journey planner using SQL (part 3, that you can run yourself)
What’s better than a crappy train travel planner that runs on my machine? A crappy train travel planner that runs on YOUR machine!
Dutch rolling stock, recreated using HTML and CSS
If all you have is CSS, everything looks like boxes and pseudo-elements.
Let’s build a simple journey planner using SQL (part 2 of probably more than 2)
Yet another blog post where I create an unmaintainable mess using our favourite yet very inadequate programming language, SQL.