Notes, mostly about what went wrong.
Short entries on frontend and systems work. Written in the order I learned them, not the order that would look best.
- 8 min read
Making a Fingerprint Machine Talk to My Server
An attendance terminal turned out to be a plain HTTP client that pushes tab-separated lines to whatever server you point it at. Here is what I learned getting one to talk to mine.
- 9 min read
GPS Lies, and Other Things I Learned Building Live Tracking
I built a small location tracking lab from scratch — a Go backend, an Android app, a dashboard on a map. Most of what I learned was about not trusting the dots.
- 8 min read
7 Mistakes I Keep Making While Building Features
These aren't lessons from a book. These are mistakes I've made — some of them multiple times — while building real features at work.
- 2 min read
CORS Isn't Backend Security — And I Wish I Knew That Earlier
I thought CORS was some kind of backend validation. I was wrong. Here's what it actually is and why it fails.
- 2 min read
React Virtualization — What Actually Happens Under the Hood
Virtualizing the DOM isn't enough. If your JSX still maps all items, React does all the work anyway.
- 2 min read
Why I Stopped Using useEffect for Data Fetching
useEffect works but creates race conditions, loading state bugs, and unnecessary complexity. There are better patterns now.