The Birth of the Girl

My wife was in labor when the texts started coming: a 103 degree fever, then a double ear infection, then a grandmother who tripped and caught the flu too. I delivered the baby news and then went home to triage the house.

Technical Interviews

Interviewing for a Senior Staff role that requires cryptography and network programming, and the first technical interview focuses entirely on MVVM with SwiftUI. Why? I could learn that in a couple hours. Thankfully the last two rounds were more on point.

Dog Owners, Poop & Smoking

It's easy to misplace blame. The neighborhood has three dedicated dog parks, yet people still walk their dogs through the one park meant for kids. Bagging the poop isn't the same as it being clean. It's not the dogs who failed; it's the owners.

An Ostrich Omelette

I've cooked countless chicken eggs and a handful of duck eggs (with a splash of raw milk), but one day I'd like to get my hands on an ostrich egg and try an omelette. ChatGPT, meanwhile, couldn't quite get that ostrich outside the house.

Xcode Blues

Does Xcode's AI integration actually do anything useful? I keep trying the feature and consistently fail to find any value in it. Is it just me?

The State of AI Programming

I've been programming since the early 1990s on a hand-me-down Mac Plus. The AI tooling improves at breakneck speed, but the actual programming ability has leveled off, and it will lead you down the wrong path with supreme confidence. A field report from building a streaming app.

Exciting, New Apple Gadget?

Purpose-built gadgets appeal to me on some primal level: the giant Garmin over my phone, a click-wheel iPod over my computer. The rumored Apple Home Hub, an iPad mounted to the wall with a robotic swiveling base, finally resonates. I'm optimistic until proven otherwise.

The Amazon Music App is Garbage

For a company renowned for grueling algorithmic interviews, you'd expect software that doesn't block the main thread, stutter playback, or somehow play two songs at once. The Amazon Music app is impressively awful. At some point it'll be an embarrassment to have on a resume.

Culturally Messy Lunch

Fried rice on a cast-iron fajita plate, a Clearly Canadian to drink, and a flood of 1990s Colorado memories (including chugging a glass bottle at the gates of Red Rocks). Then the gut punch: 24 grams of sugar. This might be my last Clearly Canadian.

Things to Look for in a Church

A thing to look for in a church: one that emails announcements BCC instead of CC, so the older members can't reply-all just to say "okay". The alternative is teaching email etiquette to the whole congregation.