Personal
62 posts I wrote on my own
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- · 10 min read · AI · HomelabCan Open Knowledge Format make Claude Code more accurate and cheaper? I tested it
I moved the CLAUDE.md files and memory Claude Code reads into Open Knowledge Format and tested three versions. Restructuring halved startup context.
- · 8 min read · AI · CareerI put an MCP server inside DOOM
An MCP server inside DOOM: an AI agent pulls live records over MCP and each becomes a monster. The first level built from MCP data, shown at MCPCon 2026.
- · 6 min read · AIFirst impressions of Claude Code mods
Claude Code mods, new in October 2026, enforce rules that hooks and CLAUDE.md only hope Claude remembers. What I built in two days and what still worries me.
- · 6 min read · Web Dev · CareerI hate editing video, so I built a screen recorder that edits for me
Screencast Director is an open source macOS screen recorder that drafts the edit: it cuts dead air, speeds up typing and takes edits from the AI model you pick.
- · 8 min read · HomelabI built a 32x32 pixel art frame that shows what my house is doing
PixelPane is my open source 32x32 LED pixel art frame on a Raspberry Pi. Home Assistant turns it into an ON AIR sign, a doorbell, and seasonal decor.
- · 10 min read · AI · HomelabBreaking up with Claude Code
OpenCode with open models isn't a one-to-one swap for Claude Code. What broke, what fixed it, and which models I use.
- · 21 min read · HomelabMy Development Setup in 2026
My development setup in 2026: Ghostty, plain zsh, Handy voice input, git worktrees for concurrent Claude Code agents, and chezmoi. What I switched and why.
- · 23 min read · HomelabThe Best Home Assistant Automations of 2026 (10 Years In)
The best Home Assistant automations after 10 years and 134 running: start with the basics, layer on context, go advanced, and keep them working.
- · 6 min read · Web Dev · CareerI Can't Memorize Lines, So I Built a Teleprompter That Listens
FollowSpot is a voice-following browser teleprompter that runs Whisper locally. Why I built it, plus benchmarks of five Whisper models on an M5 Max.
- · 3 min read · HomelabI Made Adult Swim Bumpers for My Plex Server
I grew up on Toonami and Adult Swim, so I built a little CLI that makes Adult Swim-style bumpers and now every movie on my Plex server opens with one.
- · 10 min read · CareerShip the Ugly Pot
Quantity beats quality as a learning strategy: the Art & Fear pottery story, DORA deploy data, and how to tell a kiln from a gate in your org.
- · 10 min read · CareerThe Cognitive Case for Play in Technical Work
What research on creativity, flow states, and psychological safety says about the conditions that make your best iterative work possible - and how to build them.
- · 14 min read · HomelabI Finally Stopped Managing My Homelab by Hand (Everything Just Kept Breaking)
How I migrated 62 Proxmox containers to OpenTofu with a self-hosted MinIO state backend - the audit, the wave migration, the stack, and whether immutable infrastructure is actually worth it.
- · 16 min read · CareerRunning DevRel in 2026 Means Owning Three Discovery Surfaces
Running DevRel in 2026: developers find you through people, search, and LLMs. What breaks on each surface, how I measure it, and my first 90 days.
- · 11 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsHow I Share Two Used GPUs Across Seven Services in My Proxmox Homelab
Proxmox GPU passthrough for LXC: how I share an 8GB Quadro RTX 4000 and a 16GB RTX A4000 across seven services, with local LLM speed and accuracy tests.
- · 19 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsI Built a Fully Local Voice Assistant for Home Assistant (With GPU, No Cloud Required)
How I built a GPU-accelerated local voice pipeline for Home Assistant using faster-whisper, Piper TTS, and Ollama - zero cloud required, and the failures that got me here.
- · 25 min read · Career One of my 10 most-read postsReversing SEO Traffic Decline From AI Overviews: A Weekly Audit (2026)
How I reversed an SEO traffic decline caused partly by AI Overviews: two failure modes, a weekly Claude Code audit, and real numbers from four weeks.
- · 21 min read · AI · CareerMy Personal Claude Code Skills Repo Accidentally Became Internal Tooling
I built a few Claude Code skills for myself because I was tired of copy-pasting the same prompts. Then my coworkers started asking questions. Here is what happened when a personal productivity tool became team infrastructure.
- · 7 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsHow to get started with Home Assistant in 2026
Are you looking to turn your home into a smart home? With the help of Home Assistant, you can easily automate tasks and make your home more efficient.
- · 11 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsSelf-Hosted Music Still Sucks in 2026
The *arr ecosystem perfected video automation but music remains stuck with album-centric workflows. Current tools like Lidarr force complete album downloads when users want individual tracks.
- · 23 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsMy Homelab Two Years Later, Every Upgrade and What It Cost
Two years after a $200 ThinkServer: two Dell R730s, 73 containers, metered power data, and whether a homelab pays for itself.
- · 5 min read · HomelabImplementing MikroTik's Binary API Protocol in Python from Scratch
A deep dive into implementing MikroTik's proprietary RouterOS binary API protocol in Python - variable-length encoding, sentence-based messaging, and programmatic network infrastructure control. Zero dependencies, 137 lines.
- · 6 min read · Homelab · AIBuilding a GPU-Accelerated Subtitle Generator for My Video Library
How I built a self-hosted subtitle generation pipeline using GPU-accelerated Whisper AI on my homelab - with parallel workers, VRAM-aware scheduling, automatic language detection, and a multi-layer hallucination filter. A practical faster-whisper guide for video libraries at scale.
- · 6 min read · Homelab · Web DevBuilding a Real-Time Digital Graffiti Wall with MongoDB Realm and RGB LEDs
How I built an interactive art installation and collaborative drawing app where multiple users draw on a shared digital canvas that displays their creations live on a physical RGB LED grid, using MongoDB Realm for real-time sync.
- · 4 min read · AI One of my 10 most-read postsBuilding a Claude Code Blog Skill: What I Learned Systematizing Content Creation
I live in the terminal. Like, genuinely live there. As a developer advocate, it’s where I spend most of my time - running commands, testing code, writing docs. Over the past few months, Claude Code...
- · 10 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsI Replaced Alexa with a Dumber Voice Assistant (But at Least It’s Private)
After five years of building automations in Home Assistant, I finally pulled the trigger on something I’d been contemplating for months: completely replacing my Amazon Alexa ecosystem with Home...
- · 4 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsAdding Custom Domain Names on Your Internal Network Using Nginx Proxy Manager and Pi-Hole
How I set up custom domain names on my internal network using Pi-Hole for DNS and Nginx Proxy Manager for traffic control and SSL - including what actually works for SSL on local-only domains.
- · 16 min read · Homelab One of my 10 most-read postsHow to get started building a Homelab server in 2026
I built my first Homelab server for under $200 using a used Lenovo ThinkServer from Facebook Marketplace and Proxmox. Here is everything I learned about picking hardware, choosing an OS, setting up containers, and mounting NAS storage.
- · 2 min read · CareerDeveloper Advocacy in 2023
Adapting to Techpocalypse - Remember when we thought 2020 was a wild ride? Fast forward to 2023, and here we are, in the midst of a tech market downturn and a tsunami of tech layoffs. Developer...
- · 2 min read · CareerDevRel as Dev Zero
As a developer advocate, I often ponder DevRel’s role in catching bugs and tricky issues before they escalate. I’m sharing my thoughts in this blog post. DevRel as Dev Zero DevRel can serve as the...
- · 3 min read · CareerTreat Content Development for Your Open Source Project Like Your Open Source Project
‘Hello nerds! Let’s talk about how you should treat content development for your open source project like your open-source project. I know, it sounds meta, but bear with me. As a developer advocate, I’ve...’
- · 2 min read · HomelabFrom Digital Design to Real-World Object: How I Created a 3D-Printed Planter for a Recycled Postcard Rack Planter
You might not have thought much about using your technical skills to create physical objects. However, with the rise of 3D printing technology, it’s becoming easier than ever to turn digital designs...
- · 5 min read · Web DevDatabases and DevOps: How to Use SingleStore With GitHub Actions
Databases are frequently not included when transforming an application and engineering culture toward a DevOps, or continuous deployment engineering organization. And, you could be forgiven for this...
- · 7 min read · Web DevFour Questions You Need To Ask When Choosing a Database
Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of databases on the market today, and not sure where to start? Let’s say that you are a Software Developer, and you need to select a database for a brand new...
- · 12 min read · HomelabAn Introduction to IoT (Internet of Toilets)
My favorite things in life are cats, computers, and crappy ideas, so I decided to combine all three and explore what was possible with JavaScript by creating a brand-new Internet of Things (Internet...
- · 11 min read · Web DevHow To Use The MongoDB Visual Studio Code Plugin
To make developers more productive when working with MongoDB, we built MongoDB for Visual Studio Code, an extension that allows you to quickly connect to MongoDB and MongoDB Atlas and work with your...
- · 3 min read · CareerThe Art of Computer Science
First, thank you so much for coming to my keynote, The Art of Computer Science. Here you will find all the resources discussed during the talk. About Do you feel like you have struggled to find your...
- · 3 min read · Web DevBechdel.io - How We Used JavaScript To Help Make Film More Inclusive
Thanks for coming to my talk, Bechdel.io - How We Used JavaScript To Help Make Film More Inclusive. Here you will find all the resources discussed during the talk. About What do The Social Network,...
- · 2 min read · CareerHow to Pass A Coding Interview
The question I most frequently get from developers is how to pass a coding interview. What follows is what I think will be sufficient for a person to be well prepared.
- · 3 min read · Web DevA Gentle Introduction to Building Serverless Apps
Thanks for coming to my talk, A Gentle Introduction to Building Serverless Apps. Here you will find all the resources discussed during the talk. About Do you want to crank out features the business...
- · 2 min read · Web DevFrom SQL to NoSQL: A Gentle Introduction For Devs
Thanks for coming to my talk, From SQL to NoSQL: A Gentle Introduction For Devs. Here you will find all the resources discussed during the talk. About “I have heard about NoSQL databases, but don’t...
- · 2 min read · Web DevBuilding Your First GraphQL Client in JS
Thanks for coming to my talk, Building Your First GraphQL Client in JS. Here you will find all the resources discussed during the talk. About RESTful APIs have been around for a while now, but they...
- · 2 min read · HomelabAn Introduction To IoT (Internet of Toilets 🚽): Talk Resources
Thanks for coming to my talk, An Introduction To IoT (Internet of Toilets 🚽); Or How I Built an IoT Kitty Litter Box Using JavaScript, and here you will find all the resources discussed during the...
- · 2 min read · LifeMy Top 50 All-Time Favorite Records
Every couple of years, I like to compile a list of my 50 all-time favorite records. These tend to be the records that I listen to the most or that have had the greatest impact on me. The order...
- · 6 min read · Web DevHow to Build A Spotify Player with React in 15 Minutes
Have you ever wanted to build a Spotify player for your app or website? Adding personalized music to any application is super easy with the Spotify Developer API. Personally, I have been playing...
- · 4 min read · LifeA Brief Cuba Travel Guide
Have always wanted to see what communism looks like firsthand or try an authentic Cuban cigar? Well, travel to Cuba is still possible from the United States in 2018 (despite President Trump’s travel...
- · 5 min read · CareerThe Tech Talks That Have Had The Biggest Impact On My Career
It’s not that often that I go to a conference or watch a talk on YouTube that truly changes the way I think about programming or software development. Even though I’m someone who does frontend...
- · 6 min read · CareerAn Engineers Guide to Knowing if You Are Done With a Project
Have you ever started a project and thought to yourself, “When can I call this done?” Then this listicle is for you! This guide is intended to be a general list of things your personal or...
- · 10 min read · Web DevBuilding High Performance React Applications
Okay, we all know that React was built with performance in mind, but when is React slow? I want to break down for you, dear reader, common bottlenecks in React and when you might be making your...
- · 9 min read · CareerSo, You Want To Learn How To Code? Here’s What You Need To Know.
So, you want to learn how to code? Here’s What You Need To Know to get started. This is a list of my favorite programming books, talks, podcasts, newsletters, websites, and general tips for...
- · 19 min read · CareerI Ran My First Hackathon, and So Can You!
I Ran My First Hackathon, and So Can You! Here are the lessons I learned from planning, organizing, and executing my first hackathon. The hackathon I ran was the Stupid Shit and Terrible Ideas...
- · 2 min read · LifeI was on Hawaii Public Radio to talk about our Stupid Hackathon Hawaii
Thanks again to Burt Lum and Ryan Ozawa for having me and my buddy Ray on their radio show, Bytemark’s Cafe, to talk about the Stupid Shit and Terrible Ideas That No One in Hawaii Needs “Hackathon”....
- · 6 min read · Web DevComplete Guide To Node Client-Server Communication
After reading High-Performance Browser Networking by Ilya Grigorik, I was inspired to implement all of the client-server communication techniques outlined in his book in Node and JavaScript. This...
- · 4 min read · Web DevBechdel Test Script Parser - How It Works
The Bechdel Test Script Parser was a collaborative digital humanities project between myself and my sister, Laurel Karlsson. It is the product of a shared passion for film, feminism, and the creative...
- · 5 min read · LifeOne Week in Oahu - A Seven Day Tourist Travel Itinerary
This itinerary contains the list of spots I would bring friends and family one week in Oahu. I tried to avoid the usual tourist spots.
- · 5 min read · CareerHow To Find a Technical Co-founder
Okay, so you have an idea for a new company, and you just know that Facebook for cats is the next billion-dollar idea. The only issue is that you have no idea how to code. You heard from your aunt...
- · 5 min read · Career10 Things I learned at Startup Weekend
What Is Startup Weekend? Are you interested in starting your own business someday? Do you have an idea for a business? Want to meet some smart people? Startup Weekend is for you! Startup...
- · 2 min read · LifePSA: Activate 2-Step Verification on your Email Account
You all should activate 2-Step Verification on all of your most important accounts. Making a new long password is no longer enough to protect your accounts. It’s easier than you think for someone to...
- · 3 min read · Web DevHow to pixelate images with HTML5 and JavaScript
A couple of months ago, I was interested in learning some new HTML5 elements. The more visual flourishes of the canvas class especially caught my eye. The ability to dynamically adjust elements in an...
- · 2 min read · LifeHow To Explain to Your Dad Why Snapchat Is So Awesome
A recent article written by Jeremy Liew, titled “If you don’t “get” why Snapchat is growing so fast, read this,” and a conversation with my anti-Snapchat Dad has had me thinking about why Snapchat...
- · 1 min read · LifeMy Relationship With The Internet
There have been a lot of articles recently published about how the internet, social media, and smartphones are killing ‘real human connections.’ I however believe that this is a reactionary knee jerk...
- · 1 min read · LifeOverwhelmed by the Web
Why are we surprised when someone has not seen, listened, or read something? Have you ever heard someone say, “You’ve never watched X!?!” or “Haven’t you read Y about the Z conflict? Don’t you care?”...
