Reading

Notes on things I've read and learned from. This is a selective list — each entry is something that changed how I think about a topic, not just something I skimmed. For the full archive of what I've studied, see the blog, where each post documents a specific thing I worked through.

— systems and operating systems —

• What the double-fork is for — why daemons fork twice in POSIX: process groups, sessions, controlling terminals. (wrote it up: the double-fork)
• Plan 9 from Bell Labs — "everything is a file" taken seriously: namespaces, per-process views of the filesystem, the 9P protocol.
• A 1000-line operating system — a minimal OS that boots and runs, as a way to understand what an OS actually does. (wrote it up: reading a 1000-line OS)
• Git's database internals — packfiles, delta compression, why git stores snapshots at the object level and diffs at the packfile level. (wrote it up: what's inside a git bundle)

— databases —

• Hosting SQLite on GitHub Pages — sql.js + HTTP range requests to query a read-only database on a static host, downloading only the chunks a query needs.
• SQLite Wasm with OPFS — the browser's local file system as a persistence backend for SQLite; the official Web SQL replacement.
• Modern garbage collection — how today's collectors handle allocation, mutation, and pause times.

— software engineering —

• Compiler correctness methodology — how compiler writers test compilers (differential testing, fuzzing, formal methods). (wrote it up: compiler correctness methodology)
• The data-oriented design of Krabby — a Pokémon engine restructured for cache locality; storing data the way the CPU wants it.
• The economics of static hosting — what happens when a free static host bills you $104k for a DDoS'd site. (wrote it up: the economics of a free static site)

— the indie web —

• Hardcore IndieWeb — own your content, on your own domain, in your own format.
• Microformats — h-card, h-entry, and why machine-readable HTML matters. (wrote it up: adding IndieWeb microformats)
• Webrings — the 90s discovery mechanism revived for independent sites. (wrote it up: joining a webring in 2026)

— protocols —

• JMAP — the JSON-over-HTTP email protocol: single endpoint, batch calls, instant push.
• Lore — Epic's centralized version control for game-sized binary assets, and what it says about git's limits.

I don't read to accumulate — I read to understand, and then to write down what I understood in my own words. That's why the blog posts above exist: they're the evidence that the reading happened.