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Hello! My name is Azan (a·zaan). I'm a self-taught musician, an enjoyer of the outdoors, and a software engineer. Below is a mix of things I've written myself and things I've read and wanted to share. Posts are mine, reposts link out to whoever wrote the original.

Writing on things I've built, broken, and learned from

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    My contributions to the 'chai article'

    How I make nun chai at home

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    NixOS and Ente on Hetzner

    My experience installing NixOS on a cheap Hetzner VPS and hosting Ente on it using Docker Compose

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    My attempts to use a CMS in 2026

    CMS' are difficult to get right and all my clients want a WYSIWYG

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    Authorization is still quite broken

    Modelling permissions in OpenFGA and why check() isn't enough

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    Hot takes from IndieWebClub in the absence of Tanvi

    Fifteen contrarian opinions about writing

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    Markdown is actually not _that_ extensible

    Where Markdown's HTML/directive hybrids fall apart

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    Generating my resume programmatically

    Moving from LaTeX to typst for my resume

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    Music at hack4play with strudel.cc

    Workshop notes from Kochi Bienalle's Forplay Society programme

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    A weeknote because Tanvi is scary - II

    Workshops, an SMTP client in a Cloudflare Worker, and being tired

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    Backing up my Obsidian store and open-sourcing my website

    Restic on local and Cloudflare R2

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    A conversation about Chancenkarte

    Notes from a colleague who moved to Germany on a Chancenkarte

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    A nice thing a stranger has done for me

    A song lyric that gave me a reason to keep going

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    All my download metrics in one place

    Trying to find a single view of package download stats across registries

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    PROGA and how to "protect" consumers

    Prohibition over regulation in India's online gaming ban

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    A case for regulator-backed open-source tools

    India's DPDPA needs open-source compliance tooling, not just rules

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    The trash that is NextJS

    On why the App Router makes Next.js unusable for a real SPA

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    Music at IndiaFOSS with strudel.cc

    My notes about an impromptu live coding music performance at IndiaFOSS 2025

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    A new set of ambigrams

    I made these for friends and stamps

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    Migrating from Notion to Obsidian

    My journey migrating my knowledge base from Notion to Obsidian

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    Cubic bezier curves, SVGs, and tone.js

    Sound generation that could very well have been a random number generator

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    Notion as a bookmarks app

    Using Notion as a powerful bookmarks manager and CMS

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    I got PSM-I Certified

    On getting Scrum certified and what it actually took

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    OpenAPI documentation and string templating

    One of the ways not to write a documentation builder

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    An ambrigram of my name

    The process of creating a symbol for my name

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    Ordering food in flights

    Navigating UX design for an airline meal service

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    All the ambigrams in my notebooks

    A collection of hand-drawn ambigrams from personal notebooks


A digital library of media I've consumed and recommend

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    A static site generator for audio producers.faircamp.org
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    MIDI, RTP-MIDI, and OSC Explained for Web Developersasepbagja.substack.com
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    Yuck Leopardwww.fromjason.xyz
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    How Software Bugs led to ‘One of the Greatest Miscarriages of Justice’ in British Historycacm.acm.org
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    hotscriptgithub.com
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    There Are No Instances in atprotooverreacted.io
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    Generative UI - LLMs are Effective UI Generatorsarxiv.org
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    Free Is a Debt, Deferredmasoomiyat.substack.com
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    repowisegithub.com
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    Hyperblamhyperblam.how
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    No Effort is Wastedwww.youtube.com
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    Mitos ASCIImitos.shared.oxide.computer
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    Pacapaca-ai.org
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    Harness engineering for coding agent usersmartinfowler.com
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    cerseigithub.com
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    ikiwikiikiwiki.info
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    How Diamonds are Madediamond.jaydip.me
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    Mechanical Pencilmechanical-pencil.com
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    On Google declaring war on the Webtante.cc
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    Not all TLDs are Created Equalwww.hezmatt.org
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    P4LETTEp4lette.app
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    Project Cambriawww.inkandswitch.com
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    boneyard - skeleton screens for your UIboneyard.vercel.app
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    heerich.jsmeodai.github.io
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    Do I belong in tech anymoreky.fyi
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    CSS or BSwww.keithcirkel.co.uk
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    Making content-aware components using CSS has(), grid, and quantity queriespiccalil.li
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    Graphite.artgraphite.art
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    Morale — LessWrongwww.lesswrong.com
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    openscreengithub.com
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    The Persistence of Decaywww.youtube.com
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    dns - Can top level domains disappear if countries cease to existsuperuser.com
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    What are OKLCH colorsjakub.kr
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    The Startup Graveyardloot-drop.vercel.app
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    Color for the Color-challengedferdychristant.com
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    Dithering - Part 1visualrambling.space
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    SandDancemicrosoft.github.io
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    Homemade bioplastic eggshell bowlwww.youtube.com
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    Tufte CSSedwardtufte.github.io
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    Dark Mode by Local Sunlightwww.ctnicholas.dev
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    Your URL Is Your Statealfy.blog
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    NaN, the not-a-number number that isn’t NaNpiccalil.li
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    Yạḍ Dōdwww.hammockmag.com
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    Visualizing algorithms for rate limitingnews.ycombinator.com
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    Sunk costs business failures from the Titanic to Evergrandewww.economist.com
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    last seen online by qwook, sochinstudioqwook.itch.io
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    No, you don't want to hire the best engineerswww.otherbranch.com
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    Graphvizgraphviz.org
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    Hosting a WebSite on a Disposable Vape BogdanTheGeek's Blogewaste.fka.wtf
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    puckeditorpuck The visual editor for Reactgithub.com
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    kibogithub.com
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    Designing accessible color systemsstripe.com
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    Inside the shop of a flute maker.www.youtube.com
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    Every Mother Visits But Minegreaterkashmir.com
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    2-Way and K-Way Mergingwww.baeldung.com
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    As sweet as razor blade honeysashachapin.substack.com
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    easingseasings.co
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    Great Animationsemilkowal.ski
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    How to Write Compelling Software Release Announcementsrefactoringenglish.com
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    Sidebar animation performancewww.joshuawootonn.com
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    The short seller who bet on a Minecraft financial crisis – DC Shortyoutube.com
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    Seriously, stop using RSAblog.trailofbits.com
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    Ambient Co-presencemaggieappleton.com
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    What football will look like in the futurewww.sbnation.com
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    Creationwww.byran.ee
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    For Algorithms, a Little Memory Outweighs a Lot of Timewww.quantamagazine.org
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    The EngineerManager Pendulumcharity.wtf
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    Rampen Saumeodai.github.io
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    Scaling One Million Checkboxes to 650,000,000 checkseieio.games
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    4-20 Time Signaturesyoutube.com
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    Deploy code faster- with CI-CD and Kubernetescloud.google.com
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    Forward Mode Automatic Differentiationyoutube.com
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    How to professionally sayhowtoprofessionallysay.akashrajpurohit.com
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    Checkpoint — Áron Filkey & Joss Fongyoutube.com
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    diyr speakerdiyr.dev
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    How To Remember Everything You Codeyoutube.com
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    Attacking UNIX Systems via CUPS, Part Iwww.evilsocket.net
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    Microservices Gone Wrong at DoorDashyoutube.com
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    Building multi-tenant authorization system for B2B SaaS in Go using Permifyone2n.io
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    Small Datayoutube.com
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    The Fundamentals Of Soundyoutube.com
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    Understanding the 6-8 Time Signature with Interactive Examplesmuted.io
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    Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net
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    enterprise-addgithub.com
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    Schedule Sortgithub.com
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    You Must Read At Least One Book To Rideludic.mataroa.blog
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    The Pentium FDIV bug, reverse-engineered Hacker Newsnews.ycombinator.com
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    AI Copyright Claimed My Last Videoyoutube.com
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    Bypassing regulatory locks, Faraday cages and upgrading your hearinglagrangepoint.substack.com
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    I Don't Want to be a Founder and I Don't Think You Do Eitherkipp.ly
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    The Disappearance of an Internet Domainevery.to
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    Hyrum's Law in Golang - Abenezer Belachewabenezer.org
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    Committing War-Crimes with the Spotify APIyoutube.com
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    Creating a type scale in Tailwind CSSwww.subframe.com
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    Meth and Factorioyoutube.com
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    taking my keyboard to workyoutube.com
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    On These Questions, Smarter People Do Worseyoutube.com
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    Linux Removes Russian Maintainersyoutube.com
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    The WordPress ecosystem has lost its mind…youtube.com
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    Google LLC v. Oracle America, Incen.wikipedia.org
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    Then Next Comesyoutube.com
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    Why does man print gimme gimme gimme at 00-30unix.stackexchange.com
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    Zero Credibility Slava Akhmechetweb.archive.org
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    I used to hate QR codes. But they're actually geniusyoutube.com
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    Debunking Davosyoutube.com
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    I spent six months rewriting everything in Rustyoutube.com
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    Hardware- TPM modulepaolozaino.wordpress.com
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    What's inside the QR code menu at this cafe - by peabeeweb.archive.org
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    Exposing The Flaw In Our Phone Systemyoutube.com
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    Why Democracy Is Mathematically Impossibleyoutube.com
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    Infrared Laser Can Spy on Your Laptop’s Keystrokeswww.wired.com
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    The case of the 500-mile emailwww.ibiblio.org
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    Don’t ask to ask, just askdontasktoask.com
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    XY problemxyproblem.info
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    Trust as a bottleneck to growing teams quicklywww.benkuhn.net
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    The Case for Intellectual Lonelinessemilykuret.medium.com
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    Dev Deletes Entire Production Database, Chaos Ensuesyoutube.com
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    How GitHub's Database Self-Destructed in 43 Secondsyoutube.com
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    crowdstrike accidentally destroys 8,000,000 computers (banks, hospitals, airports)youtube.com
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    Bug compatibilityen.wikipedia.org
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    I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Againludic.mataroa.blog
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    The Twelve-Factor App12factor.net
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    A beginner’s guide to Read and Write Skew phenomenavladmihalcea.com
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    Learning OpenTelemetrylearningopentelemetry.com
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    oom_pardon, aka don't kill my xlocklwn.net
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    The problem with lying is keeping track of all the liesnews.ycombinator.com
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    Why, after 6 years, I’m over GraphQLbessey.dev
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    How a single ChatGPT mistake cost us $10,000+web.archive.org
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    The Two of Three Rule - Stonecharioteerstonecharioteer.com
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    React Compiler- In-Depth Beyond React Conf 2024youtube.com
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    Merging Remix and React Routerremix.run
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    Tmux has forever changed the way I write codeyoutube.com
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    The best (and worst) types for storing money in PostgreSQLyoutube.com
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    Difference between Apache parquet and arrowstackoverflow.com
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    Node.js- The Documentaryyoutube.com
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    3 Chars - 20x Perf Improvementyoutube.com
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    How a Leap Day Took Down Microsoftyoutube.com
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    Kind of annoyed at Reactblog.cassidoo.co
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    Migrating from Zod to Valibot- A Comparative Experiencemwskwong.com
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    Improving API error responses with the Result patternraygun.com
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    Why you should stop doing code reviews!vgallet.github.io
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    In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndromewww.joelonsoftware.com
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    Readme driven developmenttom.preston-werner.com
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    Everything I know about the XZ backdoorboehs.org
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    Tiny Content Frameworkgist.github.com
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    An Illustrated Proof of the CAP Theoremmwhittaker.github.io
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    Reviewing EVERY Samsung Galaxy S Ever!youtube.com
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    Small Phones are Dead and We Killed Themyoutube.com
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    Reality of Frontend Developersyoutube.com
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    Sentinel valueen.wikipedia.org
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    Diffie Hellman - the Mathematics bityoutube.com
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    How to be differentyoutube.com
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    A Personal Interfaceboz.com
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    Traits I Valueboz.com
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    How to design your company for speednewsletter.posthog.com
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    Everyone has JavaScript, rightwww.kryogenix.org
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    The fastest-growing countries for software development, according to GitHubrestofworld.org
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    Give Up Soonerblog.boot.dev
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    The Toxic Business of 2023youtube.com
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    Software Engineering- The Soft Parts – Addy Osmaniaddyosmani.com
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    Dear Functional Brosyoutube.com
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    Progress Barsyoutube.com
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    We fired our top talent. Best decision we ever madefreecodecamp.org
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    epoll- The API that powers the modern internetdarkcoding.net
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    Inside .gitjvns.ca
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    The Outsider – Albert Camusen.wikipedia.org
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    4 billion if statementsandreasjhkarlsson.github.io
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    const fn- Pure Functions in Rustyoutube.com
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    Dear neighbourfiftytwo.in
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    Is Laufey jazzyoutube.com
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    HTML & CSS for a One-Time Password Inputchriscoyier.net
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    HTML- The Bad Partswww.htmhell.dev
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    Seriously, Don’t Use Icon Fontscloudfour.com
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    What you can learn from how GitHub and GitLab use feature flagsposthog.com
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    Work is workcodahale.com
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    DexIdPdexidp.io
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    Drawing gardendrawing.garden
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    halfmoonwww.gethalfmoon.com
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    visxairbnb.io
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    Refactoring UIwww.refactoringui.com
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    Zero-config type safetysvelte.dev
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    Transport Layer Securityyoutube.com
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    Why I Use Astroflaviocopes.com
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    How to embrace asynchronous communication for remote workhandbook.gitlab.com
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    The anatomy of shadcn-uimanupa.dev
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    What’s with all of the references to “dude” in the accessibility header filesdevblogs.microsoft.com
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    What’s The Best Way To Heat A Tent With A Laptophackaday.com