Technical Blog

Between client work, open source projects, and our own personal fixations, we run into plenty of obscure technical issues and novel challenges, some of which wind up being pretty interesting!¹

This blog collects random fixes and configuration tweaks, creative programming solutions, the odd announcement and PSA, and anything else that would have saved us a whole lot of trouble had there been a decent writeup available.

To a certain kind of person, anyway. ↩

Ubuntu 25.10: How to Revert to GNU Coreutils

Ubuntu 25.10's switch from GNU coreutils to the Rust-based uutils package was a bit premature, but thankfully it's easy enough to switch back!

Posted: 2025-10-29

Tagged: coreutils, questing, Ubuntu, and uutils

Hello Mesozoic World: Enums and Macros

Working with simple enums at scale can be surprisingly hazardous, but declarative macros can make everything better again, at least once you figure out how they work.

Posted: 2025-09-06

Tagged: enum, maintenance, performance, pterosaur, Rust, and tutorial

Fixing Intel Meteor Lake: Less Is More

The inconsistent performance of Intel Meteor Lake CPUs can be easily fixed by disabling the problematic E-cores entirely.

Posted: 2025-01-23

Tagged: CPU, E-core, Intel, Meteor Lake, performance, and workaround

Introducing Pxsum!

Pxsum is an x86-64 Linux CLI tool for calculating and verifying checksums corresponding to the decoded pixel data of image files.

Posted: 2024-09-30

Tagged: checksums, images, pixels, and Rust

Making Up Numbers: Constrained Numerical Types in Rust

When working with logically-constrained numerical values in Rust, exposing those constraints to the compiler can help it optimize away overflow/bounds checks.

Posted: 2024-05-13

Tagged: compiler, optimization, performance, and Rust

Building a Custom XanMod Kernel on Ubuntu 23.10

The XanMod Linux kernel is impressive out of the box, but if you want to push it even further, you'll need to build it manually from source.

Posted: 2024-02-16

Tagged: kernel, Linux, performance, system administration, tutorial, and XanMod

Introducing Rip Rip Hooray!

Rip Rip Hooray! is a fundamentally different kind of audio CD-ripper, one designed and optimized specifically for data recovery.

Posted: 2023-10-09

Tagged: CD, Linux, recovery, and rip

Installing CUETools 2.2.4 on Linux via WINE

With just a little bit of setup, Linux users can leverage CUETools' advanced verification and repair functionality.

Posted: 2023-07-05

Tagged: CD, CUETools, Linux, recovery, rip, verification, and WINE

Disabling Snap, and Keeping It Disabled

It is easy enough to uninstall snap from Ubuntu, but preventing Ubuntu from reinstalling it the each time you upgrade to a new release requires a bit more effort.

Posted: 2023-04-24

Tagged: Ubuntu, snap, and snapd

Re-rewriting JS Mate Poe in Rust/Wasm

WebAssembly has come a long way, but cannot yet fully eliminate the need for Javascript. This article explores the concessions and workarounds required to make a (mostly) Wasm Mate Poe work.

Posted: 2023-04-05

Tagged: Javascript, JS Mate Poe, Rust, Wasm, and WebAssembly

Optimizing FLAC Audio Files for Production Hosting

Squeezing every last byte out of FLAC compression takes a little bit of effort, but is well worth it when files are being used on the web.

Posted: 2022-08-05

Tagged: audio, compression, encoding, FLAC, optimization, and tutorial

Introducing Guff, a Combined SASS/SCSS Compiler and CSS Minifier

This article looks at the new x86-64 Linux CLI tool Guff, a fast, lightweight SASS/SCSS compiler and CSS minifier.

Posted: 2022-05-26

Tagged: CSS, frontend, minification, performance, Rust, and SCSS

How You Manage Debian Apt Sources Is Changing

This article aims to demystify the new Deb822 apt source format and recent deprecation of apt-key, while providing instructions for migrating to the new setup.

Posted: 2022-02-09

Tagged: apt, apt-key, Debian, GPG, and Ubuntu

WordPress Core File Checksums

This post compares the relative performance of verifying the integrity of WordPress Core files against pre-recorded Blake3, MD5, SHA256, and SHA512 checksums.

Posted: 2021-12-20

Tagged: Blake3, checksums, filesystem, MD5, SHA256, SHA512, and WordPress

Announcing Refract GTK!

The Refract image conversion tool is now a sexy GTK app, allowing you to easily view JPEG and PNG sources alongside the WebP, AVIF, and JPEG XL candidates.

Posted: 2021-06-06

Tagged: AVIF, front-end, GTK, images, JPEG XL, tutorial, and WebP

JPEG XL, the New Image Format Nobody Wanted or Needed

This post looks at the new JPEG XL image format in comparison with existing next-generation formats like WebP and AVIF.

Posted: 2021-04-28

Tagged: front-end, images, JPEG-XL, review, and tutorial

More Fussing With Images

This post walks through using the CLI app Refract to generate hand-tuned WebP and AVIF images more efficiently.

Posted: 2021-04-04

Tagged: AVIF, front-end, images, tutorial, and WebP

Faster Path Canonicalization in Rust

This post looks at how to improve recurisve directory traversal times in Rust by conditionally canonicalizing paths.

Posted: 2021-01-29

Tagged: Rust, performance, and filesystem

Fussing With Images

A deep dive into how digital image formats work, where they're strong, where they're weak, and how to make the files as small as possible.

Posted: 2021-01-03

Tagged: AVIF, front-end, GIF, images, JPEG, PNG, SVG, tutorial, and WebP

Dissecting the Blobfolio-Three-Ways Home Page Hero

This case study looks at how we created the Blobfolio-Three-Ways-With-X-Ray-Wipe block on our home page.

Posted: 2020-12-31

Tagged: case study, CSS, front-end, and Javascript

Solving Simple Problems With Simple Apps

Taking an afternoon to write a simple application to solve a simple problem can make a world of difference.

Posted: 2020-12-29

Tagged: apps, BashMan, Cargo, ChannelZ, CheckSame, front-end, FYI, HTMinL, just, Node, and Rust

Developing a Web Site *Without* Node/NPM in 2020

This article explores ways to minimize web project dependence on Node and NPM by using technologies like just, watchexec, sassc, and Closure Compiler.

Posted: 2020-10-20

Tagged: apps, front-end, just, Node, tutorial, and workaround

Randomizing Weighted Choices in Javascript

This tutorial explores different methods for handling weighted lists in Javascript, comparing logic, execution, and performance.

Posted: 2019-10-19

Tagged: benchmark, data, front-end, Javascript, performance, and random

Better Binary Batter: Mixing Base64 and Uint8Array

This case study explores the pros and cons of different types of binary data encodings, both in terms of storage and runtime resource usage and performance, and looks at ways of combining their relative strengths for maximum benefit.

Posted: 2019-10-17

Tagged: base64, compression, data, front-end, Javascript, performance, serialization, and TypedArray

Replacing WPA Supplicant with iwd in Ubuntu Eoan

Intel's iwd networking drivers are a (mostly) production-ready drop-in replacement for the aging wpa_supplicant libraries. This tutorial explains how to Ubuntu Eoan Ermine users can make the switch!

Posted: 2019-10-15

Tagged: iwd, Linux, networking, NetworkManager, system administration, systemd, Ubuntu, WiFi, and WPA supplicant

Restoring GTK3 Typeahead in Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine

This tutorial covers how to patch and rebuild the GTK3 packages to restore the old typeahead behavior in file dialogues, etc.

Posted: 2019-10-14

Tagged: files, GNOME, GTK, Linux, productivity, tutorial, Ubuntu, and workaround

Using Docker as a Build Environment

Docker is more than a way for Apple users to set up LAMP stacks on their MacBooks. Isolation, portability, and statelessness make Docker ideal for use as a general-purpose build environment. This tutorial puts that into practice, repackaging Debian Stretch's Nginx without polluting the host machine.

Posted: 2018-12-27

Tagged: Clang, Docker, GCC, Nginx, Ninja, Stretch, and tutorial

Lazy-Loading SVG Sprites… Inline!

SVG sprites are an unquestionable workflow win, however they come with significant performance penalties. Using Javascript to dynamically populate inline SVGs from external sources can decrease page load by hundreds of milliseconds or more.

Posted: 2018-06-29

Tagged: benchmark, Brotli, compression, front-end, Gzip, Javascript, lazy-loading, optimization, performance, sprite, SVG, and tutorial

PHP 7.2 on Debian Stretch

With PHP 7.0 nearing its official End of Life, it is a good idea to upgrade to PHP 7.2 on any Debian 9 (Stretch) servers. Aside from the security benefits, PHP 7.2 offers modest reductions in resource consumption and performance improvements.

Posted: 2018-06-04

Tagged: benchmark, Debian, hosting, performance, PHP, security, system administration, and tutorial

On Content-Security-Policy Headers

A detailed look at the "content-security-policy" header, reasons to use it, common pitfalls, and an explanation of the options worth using.

Posted: 2018-01-14

Tagged: Best Practice, case study, CSP, headers, hosting, security, and system administration

The Art of Database Partitioning

This tutorial demonstrates a use case for database partitioning, which can greatly improve MySQL query performance when dealing with large datasets.

Posted: 2017-08-21

Tagged: data, MySQL, optimization, performance, system administration, and tutorial

When a Stranger Calls: Sanitizing SVGs

The SVG image format is immensely useful for web designers, but presents endless security challenges for system administrators. This post explores approaches taken by a modern PHP sanitization library to mitigate these dangers.

Posted: 2017-03-09

Tagged: data, MySQL, optimization, performance, system administration, and tutorial

Climbing MIME Improbable

While the complexity of web content has exploded in recent years, major applications and operating systems have yet to revisit their inadequate MIME type detection functionality. The blob-mimes project aims to solve this problem, at least for applications coded in PHP.

Posted: 2017-03-08

Tagged: case study, data, files, MIME types, and PHP

Optimizing SVGs For Web Use

The SVG image format is a web designer's dream, but just like their binary counterparts, they should be optimized before being added to a production environment.

Posted: 2017-02-18

Tagged: front-end, images, optimization, security, SVG, and tutorial