Michael Lynch
@mtlynch.io
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Bootstrapped founder. Lover of unit tests. One successful exit. ex-@google, ex-@microsoft.
reposted by
Michael Lynch
Chris (Vasselli) Lindsay
2 days ago
Big milestone! 🎉 My first app is now on Setapp. I’ve been a subscriber since 2017, so this feels pretty surreal. 🤩 Transcrybe live-translates any audio on your Mac:
go.setapp.com/stp1479?refA...
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Transcrybe — Download Mac app on Setapp | Live speech translator | Setapp
Transcrybe — Real-time transcription and translation for Mac. Subtitle meetings, videos, and presentations on-device for total privacy and speed.
https://go.setapp.com/stp1479?refAppID=1795&utm_medium=vendor_program&utm_source=Serpenti+Sei+Japan+LLC&utm_content=link
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In December, I implemented regional pricing for my book, created my first mobile app (a MeshCore client), and started my first cross-language library.
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December 2025 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 13
Getting distracted while writing about focus
https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2026/01/
3 days ago
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@jmduke.com
can you update your site's repo so I can submit a PR to fix this *egregious* bug in your review of The Diplomat?
5 days ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Simon Willison
8 days ago
Sprites.dev
by
@fly.io
is a very cool new thing: it solves two of my pet problems at once, developer sandbox environments for coding agents and a JSON API for executing untrusted code I wrote more here:
simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/s...
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Fly’s new Sprites.dev addresses both developer sandboxes and API sandboxes at the same time
New from Fly.io today: Sprites.dev. Here’s their blog post and YouTube demo. It’s an interesting new product that’s quite difficult to explain—Fly call it “Stateful sandbox environments with checkpoin...
https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/9/sprites-dev/
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Bellingcat
10 days ago
We've analysed this video of the shooting of Renee Nicole Good yesterday in Minneapolis frame-by-frame to highlight the positioning of the gun and phone in the ICE agent's hands. Video:
@minnesotareformer.com
with annotations by Bellingcat
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Chiara Cokieng
9 days ago
Wrote my first weekly update
www.chiaracokieng.com/update-for-t...
Inspired by
@mtlynch.io
!
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Update for the week ending Fri, 9 Jan, 2026
h/t to Michael Lynch’s Weekly Updates (which have been going on since 2019, for 352 weeks!) for inspiring my weekly updates. Brave New Path: 2026 GPS (Goals/Plans/Systems) * Did first mock intervi...
https://www.chiaracokieng.com/update-for-the-week-ending-fri-9-jan-2026/
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Got a notification that I was using 600x my normal CDN credits. I checked it expecting an aggressive LLM scraper. But nope, just Google, downloading the same 3 MB file from me every three seconds.
11 days ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Niki Tonsky
13 days ago
New blog post! A close look at Tahoe menu icons
https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/
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It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons
Looking at the first principles of icon design—and how Apple failed to apply all of them in macOS Tahoe
https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Jeezy
13 days ago
Was my software enough to financially sustain me in 2025? Let's find out in the latest edition of my annual komorebi financial breakdown!
lgug2z.com/articles/kom...
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komorebi Financial Breakdown for 2025
For the past two years (2023, 2024) I have been sharing annual sponsorship breakdowns for komorebi. komorebi is published under the Komorebi License (building on the foundation laid by the PolyForm Pr...
https://lgug2z.com/articles/komorebi-financial-breakdown-for-2025/
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My article about the HN's top bloggers of 2025 is on the front page of HN. Honestly, I'm quite relieved after it flopped yesterday. I don't mind pandering to HN, but it's embarrassing when even that fails.
15 days ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Simon Willison
15 days ago
The underlying data for this is available as CSV files with open CORS headers, so I had some fun loading it into Datasette Lite and querying it with WebAssembly SQLite
simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/2/m...
add a skeleton here at some point
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With 2025 complete, I can finally declare the most popular bloggers of Hacker News: 1.
@simonwillison.net
- 20,117 points 2.
@jeffgeerling.com
- 10,813 points 3. Sean Goedecke - 10,804 points 4. Brian Krebs - 10,699 points 5.
@neal.fun
- 8,936 points
refactoringenglish.com/blog/2025-hn...
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The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025
Who were the most popular personal bloggers of 2025, and what made them successful on Hacker News?
https://refactoringenglish.com/blog/2025-hn-top-5/
16 days ago
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I just added discounted regional pricing based on purchasing power parity for my book. You can pay in your local currency based on your PPP.
refactoringenglish.com/early-access/
about 1 month ago
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“And what are your reasons for creating a photo sharing app?”
mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
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November 2025 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 12
Fine, then I'll just make my own app for sharing baby photos.
https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2025/12/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Andrew Ayer
about 1 month ago
New blog post: Certificate Authorities Are Once Again Issuing Certificates That Don't Work
www.agwa.name/blog/post/ca...
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Certificate Authorities Are Once Again Issuing Certificates That Don't Work
I've detected 16 CAs issuing certificates which rely on CT logs that are not recognized by all browsers
https://www.agwa.name/blog/post/cas_are_issuing_broken_certificates_again
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
onion person
about 2 months ago
many people were asking for it and now the full cut of the onion parody of jubilee debates is now up on youtube!
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1 Onion Subscriber vs 20 Non-Subscribers | Encircled
YouTube video by The Onion
https://youtu.be/RHYbm6K0HlU?si=dGjAABd3o8_R6_5A
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I've been experimenting with MeshCore, a technology that allows you to send text messages even when you have no phone or Internet coverage.
mtlynch.io/first-impres...
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My First Impressions of MeshCore Off-Grid Messaging
Using low-cost radio hardware to keep texting when there's no phone or Internet service.
https://mtlynch.io/first-impressions-of-meshcore/
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Kagi HQ
about 2 months ago
@chriscoyier.net
Hi Chris, we took your advice 😉 Check out our updated blog layout!
blog.kagi.com/orion
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Andrew Askins
about 2 months ago
Three years ago I sold my agency to one of our long time clients and went to work for them. I made it 11 months before I got fired. I wrote about the experience, how it felt, and what I took away from it:
www.andrewaskins.com/how-to-get-...
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How to get fired
“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to get into it.” Ah, shit. As soon as I heard those words, I knew what was coming next. I was being fired.
https://www.andrewaskins.com/how-to-get-fired/
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From
@evanhahn.com
"These old books often have passages that lack clarity but overflow with panache. If you like hearing someone described as 'impervious to the shafts of ridicule and insensible to slights,' you’ll like this writing style."
evanhahn.com/story-of-the...
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Notes from "The Story of the Typewriter"
This book, published in 1923, covers 50 years of typewriter history. I learned that visual impairment is weaved into the typewriter's history, Mark Twain's trouble with his "new fangled writing machin...
https://evanhahn.com/story-of-the-typewriter-book-notes/
about 2 months ago
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I was recently re-reading Crafting Interpreters and was struck by how delightfully effective its introduction is. In just four sentences,
@stuffwithstuff.com
establishes exactly what you'll learn from the book and why you'll enjoy learning it with him.
refactoringenglish.com/blog/craftin...
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What Makes the Intro to Crafting Interpreters so Good?
Developers are terrible at writing introductions, so it's worth studying what makes the Crafting Interpreters intro so compelling.
https://refactoringenglish.com/blog/crafting-interpreters-intro/
about 2 months ago
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How many clicks could it possibly take to add a simple VLAN to OPNsense?
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Add a VLAN to OPNsense in Just 26 Clicks Across 6 Screens
How many clicks does it take to add a new VLAN to an OPNsense firewall? Nothing fancy. Just your regular, basic VLAN with its own IPv4 range. How many clicks should that take? Maybe two or three? Five...
https://mtlynch.io/notes/opnsense-clicks/
2 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Łukasz
2 months ago
Law enforcement: we need to break encryption to get access to Signal to protect the children!! Also law enforcement: for years couldn’t catch a pedophile sex trafficker who used email to coordinate all of his pedophile sex trafficking
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One of the simplest ways I've improved my writing is deleting words like "very" and "much" that add virtually no meaning.
2 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Adrian Mouat
2 months ago
I've recently been reading an early access version of Refactoring English by
@mtlynch.io
. I have to say this is a great book, with lots of hard-won tips and advice on how to make your writing more accessible and get it in front of a relevant audience.
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Refactoring English
Effective writing for software developers
https://refactoringenglish.com/
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Adam Gordon Bell
2 months ago
New Podcast Episode:
@matt.godbolt.org
is back after 5 years! And he's sharing stories about breaking through layers. Sometimes your “disk write” is a network hop in a trench coat, and your “fast path” hides a page fault. Godbolt's rule will help.
corecursive.com/godbolt-rule...
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Godbolt's Rule - CoRecursive Podcast
What do you do when your code breaks and the only fix is to dig into the runtime below?Matt Godbolt lives for that. Tile-based renderers, color-coded scanlines, zero-copy NICs—each story is a clue tha...
https://corecursive.com/godbolt-rule-matt-godbolt/
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Andrew Ayer
3 months ago
Google just suspended SSLMate's Google Cloud account for the third time:
www.agwa.name/blog/post/go...
The obvious fail is Google's trigger-happy account suspensions, but the more important fail is that Google is disincentivizing the secure options for cross-provider access with Google Cloud. 1/4
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Google Just Suspended My Company's Google Cloud Account for the Third Time
https://www.agwa.name/blog/post/google_suspended_sslmates_cloud_account_again
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Design docs are difficult to write, so if your team can't review them effectively, you're doing most of the hard work but missing out on a huge amount of value.
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How to Get Meaningful Feedback on Your Design Document
You've spent weeks carefully writing a design document for your software project. What happens next? How do you share it with your teammates to solicit useful feedback? How do you prevent the review f...
https://refactoringenglish.com/chapters/useful-feedback-on-design-docs/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Bellingcat
3 months ago
Children tear-gassed. Teenagers tackled to the ground. Bellingcat analysed footage of clashes between federal officers and civilians after a judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics in Illinois:
www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...
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Tear Gas, Pepper Balls Among Weapons Deployed Against Illinois Protesters
A judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics by federal agents, including those involved in Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago region.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10/31/illinois-immigration-protests/?utm_source=bluesky
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I don't follow infosec closely anymore, but watching from the periphery, I'm impressed with how exciting TrendMicro made it with this year's Pwn2Own
x.com/TrendMicro/s...
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Trend Micro on X: "Seconds to spare and $40,000 on the line: @SinSinology of @SummoningTeam and the @theZDI team celebrate his successful exploit of Synology DiskStation DS925+ in the Network Attached Storage category at Pwn2Own Ireland. https://t.co/C7P4fGga8i #Pwn2Own https://t.co/XfRhfeRTIi" / X
Seconds to spare and $40,000 on the line: @SinSinology of @SummoningTeam and the @theZDI team celebrate his successful exploit of Synology DiskStation DS925+ in the Network Attached Storage category at Pwn2Own Ireland. https://t.co/C7P4fGga8i #Pwn2Own https://t.co/XfRhfeRTIi
https://x.com/TrendMicro/status/1980620824785600683
3 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
The Onion
3 months ago
National Guardsman Awakes Screaming From Nightmare About Americans Going About Daily Lives
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National Guardsman Awakes Screaming From Nightmare About Americans Going About Daily Lives
FORT WORTH, TX—Catching his breath and wiping the sweat from his brow after he realized it was all just a bad dream, Texas National Guard member Jason Ringgold reportedly woke up screaming at 3 a.m. T...
https://theonion.com/national-guardsman-awakes-screaming-from-nightmare-about-americans-going-about-daily-lives/
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Tim Onion
3 months ago
Once again, trigger discipline of a guy playing a video game in an arcade. These rejects are playing Call of Duty on our streets.
add a skeleton here at some point
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I tried deploying Litestream v0.5.0 to production and hit some showstopper bugs. PSA to do extensive testing before upgrading.
mtlynch.io/notes/hold-o...
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Hold Off on Litestream 0.5.0
Litestream is an open-source tool that backs up SQLite databases to cloud storage in real time. I love it and use it in all of my projects. Litestream is owned by Fly.io, and they paused development o...
https://mtlynch.io/notes/hold-off-on-litestream-0.5.0/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Justin Duke
3 months ago
New post: Cheetah.
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Cheetah
https://jmduke.com/posts/post/cheetah/
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You can now read my blog with client-side JavaScript. I’m not sure why you’d want to, but you can.
mtlynch.io/notes/read-m...
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Read My Blog With Javascript
I'm not sure why you'd want to, but you can.
https://mtlynch.io/notes/read-my-blog-with-javascript/
3 months ago
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This is such a detailed and accessible writeup of something that sounds complicated and intimidating
vkoskiv.com/first-linux-...
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My First Contribution to Linux
I upstreamed my first kernel patch, and it was easier than I thought it would be.
https://vkoskiv.com/first-linux-patch/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
John Scott-Railton
3 months ago
NEW: fresh trouble for mercenary spyware companies like NSO.
#Apple
is launching fat bounties on the zero-click exploits that feed the supply chain behind products like Pegasus & Paragon's Graphite. With bonuses, exploit developers can land $5 million payouts.
security.apple.com/blog/apple-s...
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In my September retrospective, I think about whether to try low-stakes blog posts, share why I doubled my freelancing rates, and whine about how hard it is to send customers an email after they buy my product through Stripe
mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
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September 2025 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 10
Instead of swinging for the fences, what if I bunt?
https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2025/10/
3 months ago
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I started reading software blogs before I got my first programming job 20 years ago. At this point, I’ve read thousands of blog posts and essays about software, but only a small handful stuck in my mind and changed the way I think.
refactoringenglish.com/blog/softwar...
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The Software Essays that Shaped Me
I started reading software blogs before I got my first programming job 20 years ago. At this point, I've read thousands of blog posts and essays, but a small handful stuck in my mind and changed the w...
https://refactoringenglish.com/blog/software-essays-that-shaped-me/
4 months ago
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This appeared on a web payment form I was filling out. For a second, I thought, "Wait, how are they getting my desktop's local LAN IP?" And then I realized they're just logging their reverse proxy's IP.
4 months ago
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I discovered a neat, undocumented way to get higher resolution versions of most xkcd comics.
mtlynch.io/notes/xkcd-2...
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Get xkcd Cartoons at 2x Resolution
xkcd has an undocumented way to get images of the cartoons at double their normal resolution.
https://mtlynch.io/notes/xkcd-2x-resolution/
4 months ago
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I’m a pretty humble guy, so most people don’t know this extremely impressive fact about me: Raymond Chen once mentioned me on The Old New Thing, the classic Windows development blog.
mtlynch.io/my-old-new-t...
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I Once Appeared in The Old New Thing
I'm a pretty humble guy, so most people aren't aware of this extremely impressive fact about me: Raymond Chen once mentioned me on his classic Windows blog, The Old New Thing.
https://mtlynch.io/my-old-new-thing-cameo/
4 months ago
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I interviewed Adam Gordon Bell, blogger and host of the CoRecursive podcast about how he consistently reaches the front page of Hacker News, what blog post topics attract customers, and how Adam improved his writing
refactoringenglish.com/blog/intervi...
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4 months ago
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In August, I got useful feedback about my book, spent way too long editing a video, and had way too much fun creating the transcript. I also helped a blogger reach #1 on Hacker News and Lobsters when my goal was just the front page.
mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
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August 2025 Retrospective: Educational Products: Month 11
The joy and misery of editing a video interview
https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2025/09/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Simon Willison
4 months ago
I propose this ChatGPT transcript as an end-level boss for the "you could have done this just as easily without an LLM" crowd to take on
chatgpt.com/share/68bf48...
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New achievement: I repaired a CPU with bent pins! I bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU for my home NAS because my old Athlon 3000G was choking on 4K video. The new CPU arrived with bent pins. Thought about returning it but managed to repair it myself with a utility blade.
4 months ago
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reposted by
Michael Lynch
Andrew Ayer
5 months ago
New blog post: SQLite's Durability Settings are a Mess
www.agwa.name/blog/post/sq...
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SQLite's Durability Settings are a Mess
Is SQLite durable by default? What settings guarantee durability? The documentation and even comments from its creator give conflicting answers.
https://www.agwa.name/blog/post/sqlite_durability
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I asked customers and potential customers of my upcoming book which chapters they were excited to read. I got 133 responses and found interesting ways to visualize the responses. The feedback helped me restructure the book and adjust focus in certain chapters.
refactoringenglish.com/blog/chapter...
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Reader Feedback about my Chapter List
Effective writing for software developers
https://refactoringenglish.com/blog/chapter-interest-results/
5 months ago
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