blog posts

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2022 (2)

Find programming work by increasing luck surface area

Extreme #include discipline for C++ code

2021 (3)

@levelsio and survivorship bias

Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app

How I use Roam Research

2019 (3)

The things we do to ship desktop software

Lessons learned porting 50k loc from Java to Go

Trade offs in designing versatile log format

2018 (4)

How I implemented Oembed Proxy for GitHub

Powering a blog with Notion and Netlify

2017 (8)

Business of Software talks

57 MicroConf videos for self-funded software businesses

How to install latest clang (6.0) on Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) / WSL

Solo founders with profitable businesses, collected stories

Analyzing browserify bundles to minimize JavaScript bundle size

Blueprint for deploying web apps on CoreOS

Tutorial for github.com/kjk/flex Go package (implementation of CSS flexbox algorithm)

Guide to predefined macros in C++ compilers (gcc, clang, msvc etc.)

2016 (1)

Optimizing JavaScript by using arrays instead of objects

2015 (4)

Extracting files from .7z archives in Go

Go package for better guid generation

Accessing GitHub API from Go

First release of dbHero - a GUI database client

2014 (5)

SumatraPDF 3.0 released

Improving speed of SMAZ compressor by 2.6x/1.5x

Notes on Ansible

Tip for per-test verbose logging in Go

SumatraPDF 2.5.2 released

2013 (7)

Using Fabric for deploying server software

The Silver Searcher windows port

SumatraPDF 2.4 released

Inspiration for programmers that want a passive business

Pigz windows port 2.3.1 released

How I ported pigz from Unix to Windows

Pigz windows port

2012 (10)

Hiding duplicate content from your site via robots.txt

Speeding up Go with custom allocators

Thoughts on Go after writing 3 websites

Design and implementation of translation system for desktop software

SumatraPDF 2.2 released

How I sped up Go by 20% (or is Go really slower than Java?)

Websites with free ePub and mobi ebooks

SumatraPDF 2.0 released

SumatraPDF 2.1 released

Buying a certificate for signing windows applications

2011 (17)

A list of chm readers/viewers for Windows

SumatraPDF 1.9 released

How to make software crash less

SumatraPDF 1.7 released

Showing html from memory in embedded web control on windows

SumatraPDF 1.8 released

Introducing Volante - a database for C# (.NET)

Easy vs. probable or how to make money with software

SumatraPDF 1.6 released

SumatraPDF 1.5 released

90% of success is showing up - a proof

Experience porting 4k lines of C code to go

SumatraPDF 1.4 released

XML is really, really slow

Writing a custom installer for Windows software

SumatraPDF 1.3 released

My social marketing failure

2010 (34)

Best captcha is exotic captcha

You have to implement to understand

BitTorrent-based, large file distribution for HTTP

VisualAck 0.3.2 released

VisualAck 0.3.3 released

How to accept online payments

Things I’ve learned this week

Bash programming basics

Productivity ideas

E-books economics

Go vs. Python for a simple web server

Summary of talk on continuous deployment

SumatraPDF 1.1 release

Idea for code review tool

Searching for available DBA name in San Francisco

Comparing program versions (in C# and Python)

Software licensing scheme

Converting PartCover results to html

Introduction to PartCover - a short manual

Hipmunk - a new site for finding flights

Find free stock photos with Fotofi

Why you shouldn’t write Mac programs in QT

SEO is harder than you think

Tools that find bugs in c and c++ code via static code analysis

Value your time

Simple duplicate post detection for your blog, forum or commenting software

Marketing lessons from WebP launch

Startup management lessons from “The Social Network”

8 habits for becoming a better programmer

SumatraPDF 1.2 released

Using averages - a common performance measurement mistake

Which technology for writing desktop software?

Executable compressors comparisons: upx 3.07w vs. mpress 2.17

2009 (25)

App Engine as generic web host

Profiling tools for C/C++ on windows, mac and linux

Exporting data from EverNote

Fonts on windows

NSCopying, NSMutableCopying or NSCoding

Resources related to implementing programming languages

Compacting s3 aws logs

Summary of David Ditzel talk on binary translation

Where do bugs come from?

scdiff update (Windows git/subversion/cvs gui diff previewer)

How content-based addressing can help web performance

Setting up s3 logging

Forcing basic http authentication for HttpWebRequest (in .NET/C#)

Parsing s3 log files in python

15minutes - a simple productivity too

Network drives, .net, security and virtualbox

15minutes for mac now available

Automatic Java to C# conversion - experience using Java Language Conversion Assistant

Setting unicode rtf text in rich edit control

15minutes 1.1 for windows

We need Visual Ack

15minutes for mac updated

Sumatra 0.9.4 release

SumatraPDF 1.0 released

2008 (26)

backtrace_symbols() and -rdynamic in gcc

enabling coredumps

Sumatra 0.8 released

Logging in WinDBG

making unix user a sudoer

Reverse DNS lookup

Objective-C patterns

Valgrind basics

Windbg reference

Software worth buying - SftpDrive and ExpanDrive

gflags - a debugging story

_NT_SYMBOL_PATH considered harmful

Google App Engine - the first Internet operating system

Remapping Page Up and Page Down on Mac to move a cursor

Extreme (size) optimization in C and C++

Variadic Macros (C++)

Announcing fofou - forum software for Google App Engine

SumatraPDF 0.8.1 release

realloc() on Windows vs. Linux

SumatraPDF 0.9.3 released

SumatraPDF 0.9.1 released

SumatraPDF 0.9 released

Results of tweaking compiler flags before 0.9 release

Mac program scheduling (like crontab)

2007 (10)

memset() considered harmful

2 great books and one not so great

A debugging story

SumatraPDF 0.4 released

SumatraPDF 0.5 released

Few things I’ve learned when writing Sumatra PDF

Merge tools showdown

Sane #include hierarchy for C and C++

SumatraPDF 0.6 released

Sumatra PDF 0.7 released

2006 (31)

Basics of mysql

Debugging adventure

Check if file exists on Windows

Basics of writing DOS .bat batch files

Compile-time asserts in C

Get file size under windows

Subversion basics

C portability notes

Embedding binary resources on Windows

Make C code safe for C++

Designing web forums software

What makes a CD bootable

Python id3 library

Document your software

Digg and the craft of catchy headlines

A simple captcha scheme

Sumatra PDF is born

Short tutorial on svn propset for svn:externals property

Order of #include headers in C/C++

Deeply nested if statements

The missing msvcr80.dll story

Sumatra PDF 0.2 released

Performance optimization story

php_mysql.dll not loading in PHP 5.1.4 and Apache 2.2

Paradox of bad comments

What I love about Google open-source project hosting

Navigating source code in large programs

On how I improved Sumatra performance by ~60%

Sumatra PDF 0.3 released

Talk on designing good APIs

2005 (33)

Subversion with SSH on Windows tip

Backpack observations

How to delete a file you get from urllib.urlretrieve()

Google saga - episode 205

Google - what kind of a giant they are?

A book to read, talks to listen to

Longhorn/Vista fonts

Deep indentation vs. flat

musikCube - nice mp3 player

VirtualEarth vs. Google Maps - not hitting the high note

Open-source and windows

Code-name Monad and the value of different perspective

Interesting Dave Winer interview

Rich client is here

Petzold on Visual Studio and mind corruption

Getting user-specific application data directory for .NET WinForms apps

Unsolved source control problems

High-resolution timer for timing code fragments

Accurate timers on Windows

Another lesson in entrepreneurship

Serialization in C#

Local DNS modifications on Windows (/etc/hosts equivalent)

Pickling (serialization) in Python

2004 (34)

A tip from “Getting things done”

Patterns in interaction design (web and gui design pattern)

Microsoft leading the way with open bug database

.NET Framework bootstrapper

Blogs should always provide “previous posts” button

scdiff - show diffs of local changes in CVS or Subversion repository in a GUI

Productivity tips

Don’t use 0 instead of NULL

Web writing that works

Review of “Hot text - web writing that works”

DocSynch - multi-editor plugin for collaborative text editing

Alan Cox on writing better software

A collaborative text editor for Windows

scdiff 0.3 released

Google - comments on comments

2005 prediction - the rise of anonymous p2p

Counterpost to a counterpost

University of Washington on-line videos

Bad Google - the fallout

Google - we take it all, give nothing back

GPL 3 - anti-patent virus?

Google - ultimate hypocrite

Recovering data from formatted drives

2003

Catch me if you can

SICP lectures available on-line

Lying with a straight face

Old ArsDigita content

Seth Godin on Purple Cows

Source Insight 3.5

Successful telecommuting

Creative commons presentation

Asking the right question about language design

Don’t change URIs

An old ad for a job at Microsoft

Remote desktop - from Windows to Mac OS X

Disabling WFP (Windows File Protection)

Abut Face - second edition

Are Microsoft products any good?

Do you read the old papers?

Carmack on creativity

Good software, bad buying experience

Perl to Python compiler

Given enough eyeballs make all bugs shallow

Is software industry a place to be - Greenspun perspective

Programmers don’t steal enough

Why consistency is important in software design

On difference between amateur and professional shareware

My future is so bright that I’ll need to wear sunglasses

Software can always be better

Writing to sell

As we may think

How much can you make writing computer books

Memex - “sue me please” device

Lucene for searching source code

Shirky on Wikis

Better selling through a web-site

Popular fallacies

O’Reilly on software

Usability Heuristics for Rich Internet Applications

Marketing and shareware articles

Not as happy as you thought you will be

A shameless rip-off, or what did you expect?

Critical reading skills

How to make money developing Mac apps

Myths Open Source Developers Tell Ourselves

Skype as an example of changing nature of social interactions

Royalties in game business

Making money with shareware software

Watch TV on the internet

The story of Photoshop

2002

Fine interview with Marcelo Tosatti

Laws of marketing #1 (leadership)

Bugs and eyeballs

On “The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing”

Laws of marketing #5 (focus)

Laws of marketing #11 (perspective)

Laws of marketing #4 (perception)

Laws of marketing #3 (mind)

Laws of marketing #2 (category)

Laws of marketing #7 (ladder)

Laws of marketing #6 (exclusivity)

Laws of marketing #9 (opposite)

Laws of marketing #10 (division)

Laws of marketing #8 (duality)

Laws of marketing #13 (sacrifice)

Laws of marketing #15 (candor)

Laws of marketing #14 (attributes)

Laws of marketing #16 (singularity)

Laws of marketing #12 (line extension)

Laws of marketing #21 (acceleration)

Laws of marketing #19 (failure)

Laws of marketing #17 (unpredictability)

Laws of marketing #18 (success)

Laws of marketing #20 (hype)

Redefining Professionalism for Software Engineers

You and your research

Principle of good design: discoverability

Open Source is Philanthropy

Laws of marketing #22 (resources)

Life of Hellen Keller

Information business as a relationship

How to be a leader in your field

C Interfaces and Implementations

Daemon tools for mounting iso images

Stuff costs more than you think

The value of programming

On writing well

Wozniak’s speech

The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed

Interview with MicroStrategy CEO

Blog your resume

A lesson in marketing needed

High tech martyr

Great business without innovation

Quote from “Net Words”

Show me the code

The history of bookfinder

The stupidest thing a software company can do

Those are the good times

You’ll have a job

Three-way merge

High-level languages not so great

You won’t make money blogging

WinAmp 3 and software business lessons

Platform Leadership

Profitable open-source business

Joel, man of his word

Open-source lesson from a stripper

How to sell software

How to refuse features

Slate knows why Amiga failed

Good programming practices

High Tech start up

Selling Microsoft

The power of endorsement

The ghost of ArsDigita

Written on Jun 28 2018.

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