2026-08-06 · 15 min

Six photo gallery layouts: why "beautiful" is not "usable"

Each layout solves its own problem: uniform grid for comparison, masonry for browsing, curated grid for everything else.

uxmasonryfrontendgridlayout

2026-08-05 · 5 min

Synthetic market in the trading bots workflow

A trading bot runs in a workflow where synthetic data comes first, real market data comes second. Not instead, but for different phases.

backtestingsynthetic-datamarket-data

2026-08-06 · 4 min

Image conversion: why Rust is 8.5× faster than bash on the same libwebp

A Rust utility for converting between jpg, png and webp — replaces bash + ImageMagick, makes no network calls, runs in single-file mode for embedding into pipelines.

clirustimage-conversion

2026-07-28 · 25 min

TLS masquerading in Hysteria 2 and XTLS-Reality: deploying proxies on a self-hosted VPS

Architecture and deployment of proxy protocols with TLS masquerading on a self-hosted VPS: Hysteria 2 (QUIC) and XRay with XTLS-Reality — protocols, installation, systemd configuration, hardening.

vpnhysteriaxrayvlessrealityquictlssysadminnetworking

2026-07-23 · 8 min

Why high-load Symfony needs a dedicated DBAL layer alongside ORM

An architectural breakdown of why a high-load Symfony project keeps a dedicated DBAL layer next to ORM: where Doctrine ORM's responsibility ends and which tasks belong at the DBAL level.

phpsymfonyarchitecturedoctrinedbalormhigh-loadperformance

2026-07-23 · 7 min

DTO → Entity in DDD: why "not passed" ≠ "passed as default"

Why a DTO must not leak into a Domain Entity, where partial-input mapping breaks, and how to preserve the difference between "not passed" and "passed as default".

phpsymfonydddarchitecturedoctrinedto

2026-07-22 · 16 min

Knowledge Vacuum: what a year outside employment showed me about software hiring

Last year I found myself outside employment. I spent months searching, building side projects in parallel, and at some point realised I wanted to go back to a paid job less and less. This article is the crystallisation of what I saw this year, and an attempt to explain why.

aiarchitectureitmarketcareer

2026-07-22 · 7 min

Doctrine ORM + sharding: where to start when building a service

An architectural position: sharding is a decision at the start of the project, not an after-the-fact fix. Where the architectural foundation ends and the infrastructure engine begins, and which invariants the project must commit to so it does not have to rewrite half the service a year later.

phpsymfonyarchitecturedoctrinedbalsharding

2026-07-20 · 18 min

Code intelligence stack 2026: building a map of the code, not a collection of AI toys

Code intelligence is a closed loop of six kinds of facts around a single CODEBASE. The LLM is the actor that interprets evidence, not a sixth source.

code-intelligencestatic-analysisobservabilityaideveloper-tools

2026-07-19 · 6 min

CQRS Application Layer on top of API Platform

Why an HTTP handler should not be a use-case, and how to keep the application boundary explicit between API Platform and the domain.

phpsymfonydddcqrsapi-platformarchitecture