Drew DeVault’s blog features sharp commentary on open source, software engineering, programming languages, ethics in tech, and the social impact of technology.
374 articles from this blog
A technical tutorial explaining the fundamentals of pointers in C programming, covering memory addresses, dereferencing, and data representation.
A personal reflection on the history and legacy of Mozilla and the Firefox browser, from its innovative beginnings to its perceived decline.
April 2016 update on Sway, an i3-compatible Wayland compositor, detailing new features, progress toward 1.0, and contributor stats.
A technical guide presenting an improved Bloom filter implementation in C, focusing on custom hashing and efficient bit-level operations.
Argues for using plain text emails over HTML, citing tracking, security, and usability issues with HTML email.
A developer details the hardware and software setup process for integrating a vintage DEC VT220 terminal into their modern Linux workflow for reading email.
A December 2015 progress report on sway, an i3-compatible Wayland compositor, detailing features, contributors, and development stats.
A guide to using the Tor network for enhanced online privacy, covering applications beyond web browsing and practical setup tips.
Argues against using Slack for FOSS project communication, advocating for IRC due to its open, standardized, and distributed nature.
A practical guide to understanding and implementing the Flux architecture for React.js applications, focusing on unidirectional data flow.
A developer builds a web-based version of the rhythm game osu! using JavaScript, WebGL, and Web Audio to decompress, decode, and play user-created beatmaps.
Introducing Hooks, a simple tool for running custom commands on GitHub webhooks to enable easy continuous deployment.
A developer details porting KnightOS's C-based toolchain (assembler, debugger, emulator) to WebAssembly to simplify development in a browser.
An analysis of why image hosting websites struggle to remain profitable without sacrificing quality and user experience, using Imgur as a case study.
Explains how preemptive multitasking and process scheduling work in KnightOS, an open-source OS for TI calculators.
A critique of Python's datetime module, comparing its limitations to C#/.NET's more robust date and time handling.
A critique of Go's verbose error handling patterns, comparing them to more concise assembly language approaches.
A guide to building a custom operating system for TI calculators, covering prerequisites, tools, and lessons from the KnightOS project.
A developer recounts debugging a bizarre bug in a custom calculator kernel that only manifested when no breakpoints were set.
A technical guide on setting up automated music syncing between a desktop and a rooted Android phone using rsync, SSH, and cron.
