Why Email Still Wins for Reminders
Push notifications compete for attention; email waits quietly and works everywhere. The case for email-first reminders — and what deliverability takes.
Read →Notes
Everything here grows out of what I actually ship — build logs, platform field notes, tech history, and thinking. Long when it needs to be, short when it does not.
Why I Still Write Vanilla JavaScript in 2026
No framework, no build step, no 300 MB of node_modules. A defense of vanilla JavaScript for small tools — and when I would still reach for a framework.
Read →The Hot Water Thing: a China Survival Note
Why hot water is the default drink in China, where to get it for free, and how the habit quietly makes travelling and everyday life a little easier.
Read →Three Habits for People Who Sit All Day
Your body keeps the log your calendar does not. Three small habits — a timer, an eye break, a screen at the right height — that make long days cheaper.
Read →The README Is the Product
Nobody reads your code before they read your README. The first five lines decide whether anyone runs your tool — lessons from 17 tiny extensions.
Read →The Quiet Cost of a Missed Deadline: CertTrack Pro
Certificate and inspection deadlines never announce themselves. Why I built CertTrack Pro, a reminder SaaS that emails before the deadline, not after.
Read →Passwords: a Boring System That Works
Unique passwords, one manager, 2FA everywhere, printed recovery codes. Not exciting — and that is exactly the point of a password system.
Read →Pairing With AI Without Losing the Craft
AI writes the first draft; you still own the judgment. How I use coding assistants across 27 small products without letting the code become a black box.
Read →Two Years, Seven Platforms: Indie Developer Field Notes
GitHub, Gitee, the Chrome Web Store, Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit and Chinese dev communities: what shipping on each one really feels like.
Read →Where Solo Developers Actually Get Discovered
Launch spikes fade; search compounds. Notes on Hacker News, Product Hunt and Reddit from the outside — and the boring SEO I now trust more than launch day.
Read →Ship the Smallest Version First
Momentum beats perfection. Why I ship the 20% version and let real usage pull the roadmap — the habit behind 17 extensions, 10 PWAs and a SaaS.
Read →Why Everyday Life in China Runs on QR Codes
Scanning is the default interface of daily life in China: ordering, paying, transit, parcel lockers — and what a first visit actually feels like.
Read →What Offline Really Means When You Design for It
Offline is not an error state to apologize for — it is a design constraint that makes software honest. What ten offline-first PWAs taught me.
Read →Everything You Own Has an Expiry Date
Passports, warranties, insurance, smoke detectors — life admin fails quietly. A folder-and-reminder system that keeps documents from expiring unnoticed.
Read →Why I Built a 2FA App That Never Touches the Network
Cloud-synced authenticators can lock you out of your own accounts. Here is why my TOTP authenticator is a local-first browser extension, under 20 KB.
Read →The App Graveyard: Tools Will Not Save You
Dozens of apps installed, abandoned, reinstalled. Tools do not build habits — systems survive, and the right tool is the one you keep.
Read →Paying in China as a Visitor: a Practical Map
A practical map of paying in China as a visitor: linking a card in the two big payment apps, where cash still works, and the habits that save friction.
Read →Your Phone's Defaults Are Not on Your Side
Badges, autoplay, and infinite feeds are tuned for the phone, not for you. The ten-minute settings pass I run on every new phone.
Read →What Web Store Review Taught Me About Building
Rejections are a design review you did not ask for. The permission checklist and single-purpose habits that carried 17 tiny extensions through review.
Read →The 20 KB Rule: How I Keep 17 Extensions Fast
Every extension I ship is lighter than a single photo. The 20 KB budget is a design tool: what it forces me to cut, and why users feel the difference.
Read →Food Delivery and Parcels: China's Everyday Logistics
Thirty-minute meals and parcel pickup: China's everyday logistics, and how visitors can use them with the same two apps.
Read →Why All Ten of My Apps Are PWAs — and Install in Two Clicks
App stores tax small tools. Why I ship installable web apps instead: two-click install, offline-ready, no review queue — plus the honest limits of PWAs.
Read →The Mother of All Demos: Show Your Work
On December 9, 1968, Engelbart demoed the mouse, hypertext and video calls in one sitting. What that legendary day teaches about showing unfinished work.
Read →How to Ride China's High-Speed Rail Without Stress
A first-timer's guide to China's high-speed rail: booking with a passport, the station flow and security checks, seat etiquette, and smooth transfers.
Read →Read Code Like a Tourist: Learning From Other People's Code
You do not need to understand a whole codebase to learn from it. Reading code like a tourist — including store extensions — made me a better developer.
Read →Pack Like a Protocol
The same list on every trip: a rule set that survives late-night packing, and the offline apps that make airports less painful.
Read →The Moth That Named a Profession: Grace Hopper's First Bug
In 1947, a moth stuck in a relay became the first actual case of bug being found. What that logbook page still teaches about debugging and humility.
Read →A Walk Through a Chinese Wet Market
What a Chinese wet market is really like — the stalls, the weighing, the QR payments — and why an early-morning walk there is worth an hour of any trip.
Read →Browser Habits Worth Building
Tabs, shortcuts, reader mode, screenshots — small daily habits in the tool I use most, and the tiny extensions that quietly save real minutes.
Read →From .NET Desktop Apps to 17 Browser Extensions: 18 Years
How a developer who started with .NET desktop apps in 2008 ended up shipping 17 privacy-first browser extensions, ten PWAs and a reminder SaaS.
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