Alexwlchan

To combine archives safely, I had to start by understanding the tar and gzip file formats. I learnt about tape drives, patent laws, and end-of-file markers.

We had repeated database corruption until we fixed a rare SQLite corruption bug. What does it take to find such an error?

To avoid awkward line breaks, I'm adding CSS to inline code snippets that contain hyphens or spaces.

I didn't know to check for UTF-8 byte order marks, so I made a mistake when converting text files. I was meant to use encoding="utf-8-sig".

I'm not supposed to commit directly to main, but I often forget, so I have the computer remember for me.

When I save a photo, I write a sentence or two of descriptive context. It helps me remember what's in a photo, why I took it, and how I felt when I did.

I wrote a pair of regular expressions to find repeated words and phrases in my source code.

We traded the physical boundaries of dedicated rooms for the convenience of our always-on digital lives -- but recently I've been building those walls back up.

An API with an explicitly unused parameter is a testament to the web's commitment to backward compatibility.