iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

sorry if this is turning into a novel but I really believe that the way we learn things in tech is a bit random, like there isn't much in the way of formal education and so what we know is based on whatever we happen to run into or what communities we're in. i really like the "says who?" :)

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if I've misunderstood something fundamental (which happens!!) i try to reflect about what about my experiences led to that misunderstanding. Sometimes I can find a reason that that "fundamental" thing never really came up for me, or what it is about my experiences that's different from the norm

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someone just emailed me yesterday to say that they think I might have made a mistake in explaining how `box-sizing: border-box` works on my blog! I don't know if it's a typo or mistake yet but if it's a mistake I think I'd try to remind myself that I love learning CSS and it's a great opportunity

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if it’s something I do fairly often but can never remember then sometimes I handle it by blaming the thing for being inherently impossible to remember or badly designed, sometimes i ask other people if they can remember it to try to get validation like i can’t learn jq and I blame jq for that :)

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 08/09/2026

for me I think it depends on why I think I “should” know it? like if it’s a fact i don’t use often (like “how to do depth first search”) i try to remind myself that it’s normal to forget things i use very rarely and that relearning it a second or third time is going to be really easy

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aah congrats on the launch!! excited to read it, just saw my first copy in the wild

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 01/09/2026

big news about the Wizard Zines store: print orders from Europe now ship from a European warehouse in Germany!!! get your zines here: wizardzines.com and here's the shipping FAQ with all the details: store.wizardzines.com/pages/shippi...

wizardzines.com

wizard zines

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 01/09/2026

wizardzines.com

wizard zines

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 09/08/2026

that's awesome, Alexis is great!

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A.L. Goldfuss @ghoulpus.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

It's Friday, and I want to give a shoutout to @standardebooks.org an ongoing project to convert *public domain* classics into beautifully rendered ebooks. I love how they organize the books into collections, such as the The Guardian's Best 100 Novels standardebooks.org/collections/...

standardebooks.org

Browse free ebooks in the Guardian’s 100 Best Novels of All Time (2026) set

A list of free ebooks in the Guardian’s 100 Best Novels of All Time (2026) set

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 06/08/2026

been making a single-page app with pocketbase.io this week and it's been a nice experience. I like making single-page JS apps with a Go backend API and this means that I don't have to write the Go backend. Really impressive project given that it's built by one person in their spare time.

pocketbase.io

PocketBase - Open Source backend in 1 file

Open Source backend in 1 file with realtime database, authentication, file storage and admin dashboard

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 23/07/2026

that's cool! do you manage migrations yourself too?

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 22/07/2026

cool to see that the ICFP programming contest this year is focused on systems programming icfpcontest2026.com

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 21/07/2026

some more things about Django I've been enjoying jvns.ca/blog/2026/07...

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 21/07/2026

I don't know what the process was like! They managed everything.

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 21/07/2026

wizard zines has its first translation! How Git Works (wizardzines.com/zines/git) is now available in Korean, translated by ByteFreaksStudio inf.run/XYiAR I do not know how to read Korean but it's very cool to see :)

the "combining diverged branches" from How Git Works, in Korean

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how did you learn how to read query plans?

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i use wal mode but I still kind of treat it like a magic incantation that I hope will make things better and I would not say I have a real understanding of it haha

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which one do you find is faster? with django because i have a lot less control than I'm used to so often I'm just not 100% clear on what is happening under the hood and it can be annoying to find out

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 17/06/2026

learning a few things about running SQLite jvns.ca/blog/2026/07...

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i feel the same way and I don’t know what i’m going to do. I guess my hope is that i can migrate to another system since at least pyproject.toml is a standard format

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 16/06/2026

the next version of Python is going to have a built in sampling profiler!!!! this is so exciting to see docs.python.org/3.15/library...

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 16/06/2026

exciting to read about this work on rv, uv has made Python so much easier for me

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 11/06/2026

here's a first draft of the ssh key page I think it's probably missing something important, there are so many weird gotchas around ssh keys

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 10/06/2026

i was literally just working on a guide to that (in the context of setting up Git for the first time) , not done yet

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Jen Simmons @jensimmons.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

What’s the web I want? A free space for creative expression. Free from the pressure to conform to the same old same boring factory churn. Remember when the web felt like this? gridlanes.webkit.org #thewebyouwant

gridlanes.webkit.org

The Field Guide to CSS Grid Lanes

Learn Grid Lanes to create masonry layouts in pure CSS. Absorb the possibilities with the Field Guide’s interactive playground. Return to the cheat sheet. Get inspired by six real examples with dozens...

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Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

My dad: I'm buying your book Me on the phone: I will just bring you a copy My dad: YOU NEED A GUARANTEED SALE. I'M BUYING YOUR BOOK AND SO IS YOUR UNCLE My uncle from the other room: you will sell two books don't turn this down My dad: no one even buys books anymore don't turn this down 🥲🥲🥲

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 26/05/2026

it's cool to read other people's takes on how to organize their CSS

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Sudara @sudara.at · 22/05/2026

What is a harmonic? Check out the interactive comics about additive synthesis that @aleclongstreth.bsky.social and I made! melatonin.dev/additive-syn...

Sudara waves from a piano: ‘Hi, I'm Sudara. Let's talk about harmonics! When you play a note…’

An interactive demo where you can pick an instrument, see, hear and play with their harmonic relationships.

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Julia Evans @b0rk.jvns.ca · 22/05/2026

they're all at wizardzines.com/comics/ (you can use the search to find this one)

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ok but i need to know where these trees are

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IIRC you can get ** in bash and zsh too these days

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this looks super cool, i like how in open-props-ui.netlify.app/html/compone... you can literally copy and paste all the html/css for that component (minus the base theme stuff) and it seems like a reasonable size

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I've started using ** in Fish instead of find & xargs and I really love it, instead of writing `find . -name '*.py' | xargs wc -l` I can just write `wc -l **.py` it hasn't 100% replaced `find` for me but I'm definitely using xargs way less than I used to

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I also sometimes edit posts days later to for example add a permalink to that post, for example the Mastodon version of this post has a permalink to the comic but the Bluesky one doesn't since bsky doesn't have editing so a 5 minute edit window wouldn't help me very much bsky.app/profile/b0rk...

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i use editing all the time on mastodon to sort of do moderation on big threads, like if a post gets 30 replies about THING and I've heard enough, I'll edit it to say like "edit: please no more replies about THING" it's a nice alternative to locking the thread

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aw I'm so happy you liked it! thanks for writing that post on Tailwind years ago ❤️

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thanks for this, honestly the idea of making my sites work well with user styles is intimidating to me but I like hearing about how folks are thinking about these things. I'm slowly starting to see how I could make my CSS a little less rigid and more flexible but it's gonna be a long journey for me

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