Stuff I read - 16 Jan 2026

This one is later than I planned because my router died, and it took a bit to get it fixed. I'll post a network update another time. I'm very happy with the network now, and it should be much more robust moving forward. Tech review of

Things I'm reading - Jan 6 2026

This post is the first of hopefully many where I'll write about the things I'm reading that I think are interesting or worth sharing, or at the very least worth remembering for me. Citations for the research papers are at the bottom. Effect of Robot Movement

Great Gingerbread Competition 2025

House M House P House U House V

Figuring out where AI fits

I was recently asked for some advice about how to use AI to prepare for a career in tech, and responding to that request did a lot for me to help me clarify my own thoughts. I guess I don't know if this really counts as advice, but

stuff i love

Readwise: Services I love

Readwise is a pretty neat little app to incorporate a daily review of your highlights into your routine.

review

Freediver: Movie review

4/7 stars - Fascinating world, but I didn't feel it

Half-baked opinions on being an AI Luddite

Some half-baked ideas I've had about AI development and usage in 2025. Still refining my thinking, but I want to share.

Making friends as an adult: A success story

Making friends as an adult is hard. Making friends as an adult with a family and kids is harder. I got lucky in the past couple years to make some really good friends, and I want to share my experience. Maybe it's a message of hope for the currently friendless. Maybe it's survivorship bias.

academia

My issues with peer review

The biggest issue with peer review is that I'm not qualified to do it, but they keep asking me anyway.

A functioning Swoosh SMTP config

Spent about 3 hours fiddling around with different configurations of Swoosh, Elixir's most popular email library. Documentation is sparse, but this Elixir forum post got me to the answer. For reference, I'm using this with Purelymail, but it should be generic enough to use with any

filter

(Updated) How to filter Netflix on MPAA Rating

Netflix has “Profiles” which let you split up things like the watch list, show ratings, and viewing history. It’s great for kids, because it lets you create a pseudo-account for your child(ren) that is limited to watching shows appropriate for the age group. Here is the new process:

mind candy

Beware the Algorithm

"The algorithm" can be good for some things, but I want to be more mindful of how much time I'm giving it.

Get up and running with Phoenix on Windows

While it's possible to use Elixir and Phoenix entirely from within your normal Windows environment, there are some dependencies of Phoenix that are... challenging to install. So I recommend installing it within WSL instead. Prerequisites * A database (I like Postgres) Get Elixir installed WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

programming

Wrapping my head around Phoenix LiveView

Some helpful things I've learned about Phoenix and want to remember.

opinion

Getting unstuck

I'm going to start writing my half-baked ideas. Hope you don't mind.

mind candy

Tools to avoid mind candy

Sometimes you need a little help from technology to help you avoid technology.

mind candy

Update on the mind candy fast

6 days into the mind candy fast. It's been helpful, but challenging. Definitely going to keep it up, though, because I like the direction things are going.

productivity

Book Review: Four Thousand Weeks

Learning to accept that we are truly limited in our time is the first step toward being able to be satisfied with what we are able to accomplish. No time management technique is going to allow you to accomplish everything you want to do, or to be able to say yes to everything that is asked of you.

writing

Writing cattle, not pets

Stealing ideas from server management to help manage the frustration of writing.

productivity

A "mind candy" fast

Over the past 10 years, I've noticed that the cracks in my days have been increasingly filled with mind candy. I'm taking a break.

stuff i love

Tailscale is awesome

Tailscale makes it easy to run a VPN without needing to configure a router or anything else

Cool stuff I'm working on (Jan 2025 edition)

Just a brief update since my last blog post was 2020.

How to disable Pi Hole for specific devices

Pi Hole is awesome for blocking ads on all devices on your local network, but sometimes it gets in the way. Sure, you can log in and disable it temporarily, but for some people that’s too much work. Thankfully, updates in the newest version of Pi Hole allow you

Using Discourse.org for a class discussion board

For the past two semesters I have been using Discourse for my class discussion board. I started using it mainly due to the restricted nature of Canvas’s built-in discussion boards, which are terribly designed for actual discussion. Using Discourse, I’m able to have real conversations with my class,

How Much is that Service in the Window?

About 2 years into grad school I began to realize the importance of paying for the things that you love.  So many of the apps and services that I used offered a free tier that I used and abused as much as possible because I was a student with very