Blog

64 posts and counting.

Posts are shown chronologically; you can also view posts by tag. My best or most popular posts are marked with a ⭐, so those are good places to start.

If you want to be notified every time I post (like via RSS), head to the feeds page.

2024

A Guide to CA's Props and San Mateo's Measure T

A quick overview of what's on California's ballot in November 2024

Effective Changelogs

Tips and tricks to write a changelog worth reading.

Versioning as Communication

Talking through why choosing a versioning scheme is of vital importance and why SemVer is the best option for most.

Backdating my Exercism Repo

How I used jq and Rust to build a repo of my Exercism solutions that showed how they evolved over time

Quirky Behavior of the `cp` Command

Copying a file to a folder is not always as simple as it seems.

My Favorite Media of 2023

Join David once again for a roundup of his favorite media of 2023.

2023

12 Languages in 12 Months

I tried 12 different new (to me) programming languages during 2023 and I share my thoughts on the pros and cons of each.

Creating a Static Media Review Site Backed by Airtable

My experience building a static site backed by an Airtable database, including some fairly complex TypeScript.

Perfect Project Management with Linear

Building my perfect project management workflow with Linear and Python

Building an Advent of Code Solution Showcase

Documenting my journey and tech stack selection for building a static site in 2023.

The Ultimate Afterparty Season 2 Puzzle Hunt Guide

A complete, consolidated, spoiler-free, step-by-step guide to every puzzle in The Afterparty's second season.

Climb Every Mountain, Run Every Test

My journey to create a universal test runner

A Trip to the Top of Hacker News

A review of metrics and learnings from having my blog post hit the top of Hacker News.

Archive Your Reddit Data While You Still Can

I've written a tool for creating a searchable archive of all your Reddit data.

How I Obsidian

A tour of my Obsidian setup, describing in detail how I use Obsidian for custom technical documentation.

So You're Traveling to: Boulder, CO

David's quick travel guide for a weekend in Boulder.

My Favorite Media of 2022

Join me once again for my annual media roundup, celebrating the best games, movies, shows, and books I experienced in 2022!

2022

Mastodon Verification and You

A brief discussion of verification methods on Mastodon (and their downsides).

Migrating Alfred Snippets to Raycast

A step-by-step guide for importing your Alfred snippets into Raycast with a little help from the command line.

My 2022 Job Search

A recounting of my experience job hunting in 2022 for a Software Engineering position.

Gaming on a Budget

My tips for building a large library of videogames extremely cheaply.

My Favorite Media of 2021

A walk through my favorite games, movies, shows, and books of 2021.

2021

Review: Beast Breaker

What if you were playing a billiards RPG, but your cue ball was you, an adorable warrior mouse armed with a variety of pointy objects?

Python Dataclasses from Scratch

Learn about Python's dataclass module and implement a working version from scratch!

My Individual Contributor README

A brief overview of how I work as an IC.

My Favorite Media of 2020

An exploration of my favorite 2020 escapism methods (aka the best things I read, watched, and played this year).

2020

My Perfect Task App

I have come to the sad realization that there is no perfect task app. Many are good and some are great, but nothing will ever be perfect. Nevertheless, I spec out my ideal app.

On the Storing of Dates

In all of my personal record keeping, I use a slightly unusual method of tracking the date. Learn how I do it and what problems it solves

The Mysterious Keka Slider

A quick dive comparing relative effectiveness different compression speeds and formats.

Voting Roll Call

Voting won't solve everything, but it certainly won't make anything worse. These are instructions to help you make sure all your Facebook friends are registered to vote!

An Ode to Kobo (My Favorite eBook Reader)

A brief retelling of my quest to find the best ebook reader.

My Favorite Media of the Year (2019 Edition)

Take a peek at the best things I read, played, or watched in calendar 2019!

2019

My Favorite Media (2018 Edition)

A look back at the best and brightest media of 2018

2018

Thunderbolts and Lightning

In which a surge protector does not protect as much as is expected

The Party of Lincoln

The GOP claims to be the party of Lincoln Let's examine that claim.

On the Rating of Media

Learn more about how I rank all of the media I track in a consistent manner

David's Definitive Marvel Movies Ranking

Read my personal ranking of all currently-released MCU Movies. You won't believe how many there are! Seriously, they just keep making these things.

A Few More of my Favorite Things

A look back at some of my favorite media in 2017

2017

Bogosort in Practice

If you actually implemented Bogosort, how bad could it be?

How Hackers Steal Your Data

The ins and outs of password security

A Few Good X-Men

The canonical order in which to watch the X-Men movies

A Few of My Favorite Things

A look back at the best (and worst) of media in 2016

2016

Holmesword Bound

Quidditch by the Numbers

The Great Migration

Heroku CLI Plugins and You

2015

What's in a Name?

2014

Pythonista Power Pack

Augmenting Automation on iOS With the Power of Python and Workflow

Errors Are Usually Bad! A Cautionary Tale

IF Shirt THEN Bounce That Email

Nothing, what’s Infor-mata With You?

2013

The Week of Code is Here!

FTL: A Blend of Narrative and Gameplay

Take You To the Candy Box

What the Hell is a Python?

Habbo You Tell Me How to Act

Simulations, Simulated

Get Into the Flow

If I Were a Recycling Manager, What a Difference I Would Make

The Story of David's Dark Past

To Infinity and Beyond

The Quilt of our Lives

Two Sides of the Same Coin