Journal
Synth Setup (November 2026) (2026-11-10)
Here’s my synth setup as of November 2026. Making digital music is one of my main hobbies, and I’ve spent the last few years putting this rig together. You can listen to my stuff over on my music page.
Dispatch #45 (November 2026) (2026-11-08)
Big chuffed about the election results this week. Not that I think a Democratic congress can do all that much for the next two years. I just appreciate the majority of Americans being like no, f–k this. My own state of North Carolina showed up big. Gives me hope for the future of our country.
Dispatch #44 (October 2026) (2026-10-08)
Rough start to the month: new school year started (Nev’s last before kindergarten 😭), but within the first two weeks we had a hospital visit (Nev scratched her eye in a way that presented as a potential brain injury) then both kids caught COVID. We recovered in time to make it down to Lake Norman for Labor Day, then celebrated my 44th birthday with a sitter (rare for us) and a night out at Red Phone Booth and Little Bull (delicious).
Dispatch #43 (September 2026) (2026-09-06)
We had a couple trips essentially back-to-back in August, which made for a choppy, whirlwind month. First up, we flew out to California to spend a long weekend in Napa with some of Claire’s friends. Highlights included renting e-bikes and riding the Napa Valley Vine trail and visiting Muir Woods. The kids did great on the flight; guess they’re old pros at this point. Then we headed up to Delaware for our annual Rehoboth Beach trip. Even managed to make it onto the beach a few times, unlike some years past (the kids are generally much more excited about the arcade and candy store).
Dispatch #42 (August 2026) (2026-08-04)
August 2026 marks two big personal anniversaries: 25 years in Durham and 10 years in this house. Who would’ve thought? Certainly not Duke freshman Dave. Couldn’t be happier to be right here right now, though I might have made some different decisions had I known I’d be raising two small children in these increasingly cramped quarters. But that’s not how things work, is it?
Elsewhere
Local Docker Best Practices (viget.com, 2022-05-05)
Here at Viget, Docker has become an indispensable tool for local development. We build and maintain a ton of apps across the team, running different stacks and versions, and being able to package up a working dev environment makes it much, much easier to switch between apps and ramp up new devs onto projects. That’s not to say that developing with Docker locally isn’t without its drawbacks1, but they’re massively outweighed by the ease and convenience it unlocks.
“Friends” (Undirected Graph Connections) in Rails (viget.com, 2021-06-09)
No, sorry, not THOSE friends. But if you’re interested in how to do some graph stuff in a relational database, SMASH that play button and read on.
Making an Email-Powered E-Paper Picture Frame (viget.com, 2021-05-12)
Over the winter, inspired by this digital photo frame that uses email to add new photos, I built and programmed a trio of e-paper picture frames for my family, and I thought it’d be cool to walk through the process in case someone out there wants to try something similar.
Why I Still Like Ruby (and a Few Things I Don’t Like) (viget.com, 2020-08-06)
The Stack Overflow 2020 Developer Survey came out a couple months back, and while I don’t put a ton of stock in surveys like this, I was surprised to see Ruby seem to fare so poorly – most notably its rank on the “most dreaded” list. Again, who cares right, but it did make me take a step back and try to take an honest assessment of Ruby’s pros and cons, as someone who’s been using Ruby professionally for 13 years but loves playing around with other languages and paradigms. First off, some things I really like.
Links (from Marky)
A Personal Inventory (via) (2026-11-10)
I suppose there's a common thread running through these interests. I'm drawn toward things that feel a little more tangible, straightforward, and uncomplicated. Old-fashioned exercise equipment, a decent pair of shoes, a notebook, and an adventure story where the good guy wins. None of these things are revolutionary, but they're bringing me some enjoyment right now.
Slower Living Club: A field guide to disconnecting and the life that opens up (2026-11-08)
How to be less online, and what to do with the time you get back.
Most people are conservative | /dev/urandom's dev site (via) (2026-11-08)
One of my strongly-held opinions, and one that helps understand a lot about both politics and real life, is that most people are conservative. This is distinct from as being a conservative in the way that those who want to deport undocumented immigrants or pay as little taxes as possible or allow prayer in schools are, but rather simply that (aside from whichever issues happen to specifically matter to that specific person) most people want things to generally stay the same or slightly improve, and not be bothered otherwise.
Vivek Ramaswamy Is Going After The Abusive Parent Vote | Defector (2026-11-08)
Some of that is ideological, but a great deal of it is just reflex. Trump, who only understands things in terms of size and leverage, would personally identify with that predation and the worldview behind it; he's made his life out of that. But Trump would also choose abuser over abused because he would not ever want to be confused for the weaker half of any binary. Trump would identify, instantly and instinctively, with the person doing the most harm, because they would seem to him to be winning.
The Brand Ledger | Worse on Purpose (via) (2026-11-08)
Tracking the brands that got worse on purpose — and the ones that didn't. The Brand Ledger tracks 466 brands, from the tools in your garage to the pans in your kitchen. Who owns them, what they used to be, whether they're still worth buying. Updated as things change.
Vibe coding is turning the music gear world upside down | The Verge (2026-10-20)
These sorts of custom firmware were exceedingly rare in the pre-LLM days and required both deep expertise and an incredible investment of time. It could take weeks or months to add a simple feature like velocity sensitivity to a Korg Volca. Now, hobbyist hackers are able to turn Temu synths into full-fledged grooveboxes in a matter of days.
Opinion | Neuroscience Can Make Decluttering Easier - The New York Times (2026-10-11)
It isn’t irrational to have trouble letting objects go. The parts of our brain that help us decide what is valuable overlap with the parts that keep track of what feels like us. As a result, we feel that what is ours is good, and we increase the value we attach to objects, ideas and behaviors from our past.
In Praise of dhh (via) (2026-10-05)
Whatever happened to dhh? I regret to inform you that, after a long struggle, he eventually lost his fight against the parasitic fungus that was taking over his brain, and died. The exact timeline is unclear, but we suspect he succumbed to his illness sometime in 2020.
'Ask for what you want' is a key skill for the 21st century (2026-09-19)
For me, the aim is always a finished, standalone program — NOT a process still dependent upon AI agents. The prospect of a permanent tether makes me feel itchy. A distant API could fail, and you’d be … unable to do … anything?? Or, the distant API could suddenly cost more. Or, the quality of its responses could change. Sorry, but that’s the kind of unreliable computing I am trying to escape.
A day is short, a life is long - overkill.wtf (via) (2026-09-19)
I can travel. I can buy books. I can buy a stupidly expensive pair of headphones because for three months I suddenly decide headphones are the most interesting objects ever invented (heh!). There is a mortgage, and it gets paid. There is food in the fridge. I can save some money. I can invest some money. So what am I working ten more hours for? To watch big number go big?