iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 03/10/2026

It’s been several years since I went around Stanley park, so this was long overdue! When I was a kid, I used to do it on a bike. Cool to be able to do it on foot now. I normally feel spoiled that Seattle’s waterfront is my everyday run, but wow! Vancouver’s waterfront is gorgeous! #running #kimbia

Visual of the activity “Afternoon Run” : 14.43 km, 1:45:26, 57 m D+. kimbia.app

1181

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 02/10/2026

Got a sweet treat while in Canada for VanJS, and may have found a new tagline for @nuxt.com at the same time 👀

140

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 18/09/2026

When I started working on wm, I quickly learned that the OS is why window managers feel wrong on mac. Mac is not a cooperative OS; it has opinions about where windows can move! To address this, I designed wm to learn how the OS behaves and adapt to it. Here's a comparison using learned Mac rules.

121

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 16/09/2026

After trying many options and not finding a window manager I love on Mac, I decided to build my own wm. It seemed a waste not to share it though, so I decided to make a website for it. The website needs to explain the product, which is hard. IMO show > tell, so wm runs in a browser too! 😅

4321

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 07/09/2026

In an era overrun with "mandatory service fee", "booking fee", "regulatory response fee" and others, one man dared to be different. I've run past the exquisite creatures exhibit a bunch, really excited to finally be checking it out!

Tickets booking info for Exquisite Creatures Exhibit | The Artwork of Christopher Marley.

Items are priced at $68
A second line item is labeled "Tax (included in price) $3.24"
The total is the same as the item price, $68, with no fees or taxes billed separately.

000

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 24/08/2026

Totally understand. I've wanted to get my running from Apple, the only way is via native platform APIs or another service that uses them (ie strava). Until you have a native app, Strava seems like the best bet. Glossary entries are helpful but IMO lack concise, up-front answers to "WTF is this?"

Kimbia.app glossary entry for "Drift (HR)":

The rise in your heart rate at constant effort: average HR over the last 30 % of the analysis window against the first 30 %. The window keeps only the work laps, stitched end to end, and starts at the steady-state onset - the head of an effort measures the cardiac ramp, not the athlete, and recoveries would drag everything down. It rises with heat, dehydration and fatigue. Under 5 % the aerobic execution is stable; past 10 % the session was very hard, very hot, or misclassified. In the per-lap detail, the "Drift" column applies the same idea inside each lap.

100

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 17/08/2026

AI is amazing. Every day I'm learning new ways to solve modern problems with a new, better solution *checks notes* I'm sorry this has been possible for over 50 years?! JFC I've probably single-handedly wasted days of compute not knowing this.

screenshot of a diff section showing changes to a github actions CI workflow script. The section removes a line which runs a series of static analysis tools 1-after-another with the following:
```yaml
run: npm run check && npm run check:format && npm run lint
```

It's replaced with the same logic, but each analysis is run backgrounded and then the bash `wait` utility is used to wait for all background processes to complete, reporting failure if any of them fail.

```yaml
run: |
npm run check &
npm run check:format &
npm run lint &
wait
```

141

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 10/08/2026

There’s a new blue sky in town!

Blue sky lock smith storefront in Seattle

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 10/08/2026

Oh hey, it's my 1 year anniversary of seeing good content on bluesky thanks to @spacecowboy17.bsky.social's @foryou.club feed!

a stat card showing in the past 30 days I've seen 369 pages containing 11k posts. I liked 86 of them, which is 0.2 likes per page. I clicked show less 1 time, and have been on For You since Aug 10, 2025.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 03/08/2026

It's come to my attention that some people have been leveraging AI to degrade your mental health. You're doing it wrong! Find ways that AI can help you do more of what you love with the people you love. Now I get push notifications when lake union has ideal paddleboarding conditions.

A push notification is shown with the title "LAKE MODE: ACTIVATED 🌊 from allanOS"

The notification text says: "Friday, Aug 7 4pm-5pm. 89.8ºF, full sun, glassy 2mph wind. Rally the crew. We ride. 🏄‍♂️☀️"

130

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 29/07/2026

We recently got buttons for the cats so they can “speak” to us. So far they have play, pets, food, and brush buttons. Kaiba isn’t interested, but Momo uses them 100x per day! After telling her “no play” 20 times in a row, we compromised. She snuggles my arm, I installed hex.kitlangton.com to type

Momo, a fluffy white ragdoll cat with light gray face fur and ears is lying on her left side on a white chair. Her legs are wrapped around my arm and my left hand, held hostage, is resting on her front left leg.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 24/07/2026

Really curious how much work that uploaded file is doing.

a folder icon is shown next to the text "Uploaded a file" from the start of the chatgpt conversation history.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 24/07/2026

As a case study, @cmgriffing.bsky.social asked me to add theming support to @docduck.dev so it can better match the @messijo.com brand. WIP: instead of just documenting CSS vars, I built a live interactive demo so that as the values are changed, I can see how it impacts the rendered elements.

A UI showing 3 states of the doc duck feedback widget. each one of them is themed to match messijo.com.

The first state depicts a box over some selected text. It has 3 icon buttons: a circled question mark, a thumbs up, and a thumbs down. These buttons are for providing feedback on the selected text.

The second state shows a box containing a text area and a submit button.

The third state shows a small tooltip that says "All done. Thanks!"

220

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 16/07/2026

Seattle has this problem where a bunch of restaurants will have some mandatory service charge, “living wage surcharge” or “regulatory response fee” or whatever other bullshit, instead of being normal businesses that charge for their goods/services and pay employees fairly. Not WINDY CITY PIE!

THANKS FOR VISITING WINDY CITY PIE! WE ARE NOW TIP-FREE AND SERVICE CHARGE-FREE. IN ORDER TO ENSURE OUR STAFF CONTINUES TO THRIVE UNDER THIS CHANGE, WE HAVE UPDATED OUR MENU PRICES AND STAFF COMPENSATION POLICY SO THAT THE FULL COST OF YOUR ORDER IS REFLECTED IN OUR PRICES WITHOUT ADDITIONAL CHARGES.

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 14/07/2026

How it started vs How it's going

screenshot of an Elon Musk post on twitter accusing Sam altman of being a scammer.
Elon Musk: "By 'this' he means scamming" on an image of sam altman at a microphone with the quote "I'm doing this because of I love it"
Elon Musk: "He might literally love scamming more than any human alive!"

A post from Twitter by user @IntCyberDigest stating:

BREAKING: xAI's Grok Build CLI was uploading entire Git repositories to a Google Cloud bucket, private codebases and unredacted secrets included. The uploads quietly stopped via a hidden server-side flag, and xAI still has not said a word about scope, retention, or deletion.

The scale is staggering. On a 12 GB test repo, 5.1 GB flew out the door to xAI's grok-code-session-traces bucket while the actual coding task needed just 192 KB. The tool grabbed whatever repository it ran in, not the files it needed.

The fix arrived as a hidden flag, disable_codebase_upload: true, a day after a researcher's wire-level analysis. The "Improve the model" opt-out never stopped the uploads.

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 27/06/2026

Half marathon done (ft @lanparty.io), Beyond Wonderland to go!

Ruslan and I biting our Seattle summer half marathon medals. There’s a table of bananas behind us.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 14/06/2026

I choose to believe the set will be aboard a Maersk vessel for part of its journey to me.

A screenshot of an order containing the maersk dual-fuel container vessel Lego set.

110

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 05/05/2026

Unfortunately in my case you didn't pop up with @4

a list of bluesky accounts in a suggestion completions list for the prompt `@4`. None of them are James.

100

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 20/03/2026

Inspiration is such a fickle thing, waiting until the talk RIGHT BEFORE ME to show up.

Calvin and Hobbes comic strip about creativity.

“Do you have an idea for your project yet?”
“No, I’m waiting for inspiration”
— next panel —
“You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.”
— next panel —
“What mood is that?”
“Last minute panic.”

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 19/02/2026

My wedding is coming up in Mexico and we love Alebrijes, so we commissioned a couple alebrijes of our cats Kaiba & Momo since they can’t attend in person.

A work in progress of the Kaiba Alebrijes. The sculpture is standing upright with ears perked up and forward. The cat is white with brown patterning on its back and the sides of its head and ears. It has a pink nose.

A top down view of Kaiba the cat, showing the same brown patterning on his head and back. There’s a hand petting him

Kaiba is on top of a cat tree looking down and Momo is lying on a shelf above him looking at the camera. There’s a plant wall behind her above a large industrial wooden beam.

120

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 11/02/2026

I made them with some Spinnaker single origin (Belize) 70-85% dark chocolates. IMO better with salt flakes on top. I didn’t freeze the dough first. I also added a small amount of oatmeal. These cookies are the real deal. I’m a fan!

A buckwheat and oatmeal flower dark chocolate chip cookie. The cookie is large and very thick, with a bite taken out of it. There are salt flakes on top.

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 26/01/2026

Since pets can’t speak, there’s just no way to know what they’re thinking.

Momo is lying in front of some empty pet food bowls looking displeased.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 26/01/2026

I was at the show their last day at the gorge when the show was so lit the canyon caught fire, and I can confirm they are phenomenal live. I didn’t “get” their latest album until I saw it live and it was epic.

000

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 10/11/2025

I used to hate them but I’ve come around! I’m currently on a 36h layover in Denver and spent yesterday afternoon at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station 💯 I much prefer a layover where I get to spend a day somewhere fun to the ones where I spend 4-8hrs in an airport waiting for a plane.

An alien palace of large colored glass in a dimly lit ice world. It has pointy towers and vibrant neon colors.

A creature with a body similar to a horse with red stringy intestine-esque things coming out where the head and neck should be.

030

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 29/10/2025

Boarding a flight and had to provide name & seat to board. I joked to Maya “they must use AWS” given the recent DNS outage. TURNS OUT AWS AND AZURE ARE BOTH DOWN! And it’s DNS again. www.newsweek.com/microsoft-aw...

A haiku poem with the words:
It’s not DNS
there’s no way it’s DNS
It was DNS

1110

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 26/10/2025

Whatever you want to do with them when they’re older, do it now so they get used to it.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 02/10/2025

Pls something not in black, Kaiba & Momo are incompatible with black shirts.

A fluffy white ragdoll cat named Kaiba is laying in luxury on a siesta chair.

030

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 20/09/2025

That’s a wrap on another @cascadiajs.com conference! The vibes were immaculate, talks were inspiring, and the people were invigorating! I leave with new ideas, new friends, and the relief I can finally get a full night of sleep again Can’t wait to do it all over again next year!

A selfie I took on stage at the closing thanks for the CascadiaJS team. Some of the audience is in frame in seats.

090

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 19/09/2025

It’s all worth it when you step on stage and see everyone ready to learn from your hard work!

An audience of 500 people at CascadiaJS is shown from the stage.

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 25/08/2025

Floated the river in Leavenworth with friends this weekend. On the drive back over the cascades we were treated to some exquisite stargazing! Even my phone camera was able to pick up the Milky Way 🌌 It took a few tries to get the 📷 camera settings just right.

A pitch black night sky is shown dense with stars. The middle of the image has extremely thin clouds that look like greenish brown smudges with stars shining through from behind.
At the top of the photo is a particularly dense band of stars spanning the width of the photo; this is the Milky Way galaxy.

140

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 20/08/2025

No cheating, post the last pic of your pet.

An ecstatic man is holding a large fluffy white cat straight out in front of him with both arms. The cats front legs are both straight at 45° angles from its body. The cat’s expression is somewhere between a demonic warlock and being unenthusiastically resigned to his fate of having to deal with this sort of harassment for the rest of his life.

080

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 06/08/2025

Kind of reminds me of the Madrid airport ceiling

A high ceiling shaped like a wave is shown. There is bright light coming from the top of each wave and the ceiling is covered in strips of wood that have been bent to create the curved shape.

010

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 27/06/2025

Alright chat what do we think of abusing the TypeScript type system to provide custom error messages?

A code editor is shown with the following line of code:

`onlyNewNames({ name: "Allan" }); // should error`

The argument being passed to the `onlyNewNames` function is underlined with a red squiggle, indicating it is an error.

Under the line of code, a window is displaying the following error message about the code:

```
Argument of type '{ name: string; }; is not assignable to parameter of type '"Type Error: You tried to use the name 'Allan' but it is already in use. Names cannot be reused; choose a different name"'.
(typescript)
```

170

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 11/06/2025

I heard glassmorphism is in again?! I use glassmorphism on allandeutsch.com in a few places. Check out the nice inner glow around the edges.

030

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 11/06/2025

Sometimes a button would rather be <a href="/pride"> link. I think it's wonderful that is possible! a 12/n

040

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 04/06/2025

In honor of pride month, a proud button! Button 11/n

190

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 27/05/2025

But Kaiba is the best office cat! You and @hailey.at’s cats wfh too much.

Kaiba the cat is next to a pink bodega stand with a cat painted behind him. Photo taken at the Bluesky office in Seattle.

090

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 22/05/2025

Saw this cool button design on youtube and decided to do a lil riff on it using changes to the inset shadow to add to the 3d effect. It's subtle but when the glowing ring is down on click, the edge lighting on the button is bigger. Button 10/n original: youtu.be/b38It0dCWwg

020

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 20/05/2025

Adding a subtle scale to an button on hover and active states helps it echo the behavior of a real button moving up and down. Subtlety is key as the effect is quite noticeable. This button is only using `scale: 1.01` and `scale: 0.99`! Button 9/n

030

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 16/05/2025

Did you know that CSS `box-shadow` accepts a comma-separated list of shadows? That means a single box can have multiple shadows! Layering multiple shadows on a single element adds more depth and dimension to the element. Button 8/n

050

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 15/05/2025

Transparent shadows do a better job blending with the background. Notice that the top button's shadow has a muddy grayish ring on the outside? The bottom button's shadow is transparent, and blends much more gracefully with the background. Buttons 6 & 7, background colorized circa 2025.

051

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 14/05/2025

In real life, shadows only darken whatever they touch - never obscuring it. Shadows in UIs should imitate those in real life by similarly NOT obscuring the background. This is done by using a shadow color with transparency. Transparency makes shadows more subtle and life-like. Button 7/n

060

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 13/05/2025

One trick I use for almost every button is a subtle Y translation and some changes to the box-shadow on hover/focus & active. The translation is only -3px for hover/focus & -1px when active but it makes buttons feel much more tactile! Button 6/n

140

Aaaaaallan Deutsch @allandeutsch.com · 10/05/2025

When the CEO wants design/eng to "make the button bigger" this button will rise to the occasion!

150