Scope gating Agent Framework agents with Microsoft-Decision-1
Anyone who has put a customer support agent backed by a large language model in front of real users has, sooner or later, watched it cheerfully write a Python web scraper or summarize last…
Circular Distance Map
I’ve been playing around with map visualisations a fair bit again recently, both using JS libraries like D3.js for interactive ones, and the R Project for non-interactive static ones. I’ve also been…
Device Bound Session Credentials in ASP.NET Core
A session cookie is a bearer token, which is a polite way of saying that whoever holds it is you. Copy the cookie, replay it from another machine, and the server happily serves your account. Nothing…
Dystopian Book Club: The Gate to Women’s Country
This month’s Dystopian Book Club selection is Sherri Tepper’s 1988 post-apocalyptic novel The Gate to Women’s Country. Set three hundred years after a nuclear war, it describes a…
New Blogpost
New blogpost has been added to the journal page: Alegria Jazmine Mary Janes: Product Review A product review of the Jazmine Mary Janes by Alegria!
The biggest structural threat to Open Access is (still) researchers
The Success of Open Access Open Access is in my view a success story. It seems to be fashionable to flagellate ourselves about failures to reach 100% or bumps along the way, but over the course of…
Cyber Security - 2026 late autumn
Learn cyber security. Link birds-eye view to hands-on. Master's level course. Course name and code Cyber Security - ICB705AS3YE -2 (study guide) Timing 2026 period 2 late autumn, w43-w50 ECTS Credits…
Two day trip to Lopburi, the town with monkeys
Keoni and I just did a two day trip to Lopburi, the small town 3 or 4 hours north of Bangkok that's overrun by monkeys. There are less monkeys now, which in general was a good thing. To me the…
Lower bills and more investment: it is never going to work
Everyone knows that Britain needs a major infrastructure upgrade. Over 40 years since the first privatisation kicked off, none of the core infrastructure networks is fit for purpose. From potholes…
MCVT – a VT100 terminal app for the Psion MC400
Writing software for a 30+ year old platform that nobody uses... Welcome to MCVT - a VT100 terminal emulator for the Psion MC400
Spintop: Notice that you're dreaming. In a dream, the top never falls.
In Inception, a spinning top tells a dream from waking life. I wanted that top on my desk, as a quiet nightly practice for noticing when I’m dreaming.
Transcript: NPCs with Amanda P.
Listen to this episode here. Further Reading Beyond the Pale, Tannic, Landmark, Hidden, Secret Socials Amanda P. on Bluesky and at Weird Wonder Sam on Bluesky and itch The Dice...
How To Use Decision Models for Evals
main.content table { display:block; width:100%; max-width:100%; overflow-x:auto; } #evaluation-prompt pre { background:var(--bs-body-bg); color:var(--bs-body-color); padding:18px; border:1px solid…
Investing in the Community
The city is divided on State Street. The car-free vs pro-car debate and following referrendums has left the city fatigued. But everyone I have spoken to in the city is united on a few fronts. They…
The Myles Standish Homestead in Duxbury, Massachusetts
SITE OF THE HOMESTEAD OF CAPTAIN MYLES STANDISH THE MILITARY LEADER OF PLYMOUTH COLONY <img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3888" height="320"…
You Must Draw Your AI Workflow to Control It
I have been building my own workflows, working in tandem with AI, for over a year now. Like many others, I started by giving Claude Code access to my existing Obsidian vault, and did a lot of things…
Passing Date & Time Formats Programmatically In C# & .NET
When formatting a DateTime, a DateOnly or a TimeOnly, you typically pass a format string to help the user interpret the values.
new diary post: try altstream today!
just me gushing over an ai-free, ad-free streaming platform that i think you should take a look at! plus now i have comments available on all of my diary entries if you'd like to have a chat <3
Mutual Funds Decoded - From Order to NAV
Mutual Funds Decoded As investors, we buy mutual funds(MF) from various platforms and receive units. But have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes? How do these funds operate, function…
Keeping Millimetre-Wave Connectivity Stable for Moving Vehicles
We have looked at several approaches to improving millimetre-wave (mmWave) connectivity on this blog, including transparent antennas, metasurfaces and, more recently, KDDI and JR East's demonstration…
Nonprofit Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (to Minimize Electricity-Based Overhead) 2026
Hi everyone. Reminder: This Wednesday October 21st at 10am Pacific Time, please join me and fellow rabble-rouser Aparna Rae for a fun and informal conversation where we bust some of the myths about…
Do minor curl vulnerabilities in the open
The curl project has decided to alter its vulnerability disclosure program procedure and starting October 26 2026, we insist that all vulnerability reports submitted to us that are deemed to be…
Of Sentience and Dust Beams Dancing In The Sunlight
That feeling of aliveness, of knowing that this body exists in this world at this unique moment where the sun shines upon the land, the earth rotates on its axis and also in a moving dance of planets…
The bear and the bomb
I don’t remember where I saw this, but there was a post about asking AI to make a moral decision, and it compared the answers of different AI models. It made me think about how we, as humans,…
I Shipped an iPhone Duo App Before I Had the Phone. Thanks, App Reviewer.
Protractor° is on the App Store. A simple app, one that I didn’t type a single line of code or write the mundane metadata on App Store Connect. What I didn’t mention: when I got the dreaded rejection…
Rural nowhere
I climb into the truck hitting the door sill with my heavy mud stained boots hearing the sound of small stones scratching into the paint and putting their permanent mark on the metal underneath. But…
You approved the tool. Then it changed.
We approved a harmless MCP tool in eight AI coding agents, changed its description on the server, and asked each to call it again: 60 runs from clean snapshots on six terminal clients, plus VS Code…
The proxy-AI (XI)
Archura pointed out the rails, winches and pneumatic clamps. They had been designed to install a pod and leave it in place, removing it only for repair or replacement. Sumitom’s apprentices had tried…
Per-User Cloud OAuth on One Host
App credentials are site-wide, but refresh tokens are not shared in .env. Each user connects their own Dropbox or Drive account, and CLI maps to one user.
Apple App Attest in iOS Development
Greetings, traveler! Apple App Attest lets your server verify that a request comes from a legitimate instance of your app running on Apple hardware. This matters when the server exposes something…
The Story Behind the Guardian Angel Truck
A doctor, a truck driver, and a mission to save lives. If you scanned the QR code on the road, you might be wondering . . . Do I have a guardian angel?…Read more ›
mid-2026 reading list
University library bookshelf. Image courtesy RBSC Notre Dame.I'd consider myself an avid reader, having established a nightly reading habit over the last several years. I also follow various…
Pay Attention to Everything
“When you know more, you’ll see more, you’ll do more, and you’ll be able to execute better.” Excellence comes from paying attention to the details other people might overlook. Early…
Be a Source of Support for Others, Cultivate Cheer and a Fountain of Positive Gossip
Far more than we realize, we create the world we experience. The places we go, the people we choose to spend time with, the topics we choose to speak about, the words and tone we use, the books we…
Laminar Field Nodes: Implementing Linear Flow Typing
For an overview of the paper this is based on, check out this post. Here are my notes about trying to implement a linear/flow language in typescript, compiling to javascript. It uses runtime checks…
Papers We Love: Flow Typing, A New Lens on Linearity
In my various efforts to develop new programming languages, I’ve occasionally looked sidelong at linear types, as something that looks like it could be really useful if it wasn’t so incredibly…
Old New York In Photos #200 – City Hall, Park & Fountain 1897
Candid Photo Of City Hall & Fountain By An Amateur Photographer -1897 This cabinet card amateur photo of City Hall and its park has a notation on the rear “1897. Who took it and when in…
Revisiting NFL Kicker Accuracy: Long Shots are Becoming Routine
Twenty-five years ago, NFL kickers made fewer than one in four field goal attempts from 55–59 yards. Now they’re making nearly two in three. After reading my January 2025 post on kicker…
job loss & cortisone mania
job loss & cortisone mania
一已之力
有些问题，多年存在并无解，其实并非无解。
I had a splinter once.
Can art fail? As a whole or momentarily, can art fail?It seems to me flatly that the answer to this is yes. Ask many people and at least they can agree that sometimes there is something that doesn’t…
Napkin math: know what your system should do before you measure it
Last week I was evaluating some application performance characteristics with another architect. Our gut feeling told us that the numbers didn't make sense but we couldn't pinpoint why we had this…
Nine albums I've been listening to on repeat
Here are some albums I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Hope you find something you like. They are all exceptional.
Pepé Taco of Salinas (Salinas, California)
If you're familiar with Pepe's Mexican Cafe in Bryan, this mascot should be instantly familiar to you. (The Californian, 11/23/1968) While Pepe's Mexican Cafe in Bryan won't be on Brazos Buildings &…
An AI usage statement for bryanbraun.com
I’ve had “AI usage statements” in the back of my mind ever since I read Ethan Marcott’s blog post sharing a round-up of his favorite ones. I didn’t consider writing one for this site, since it had…
How To: Home Security Cameras - Intro
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve recently relocated again. The new house has provided some opportunities to do things that I’ve wanted to do for a while, including running CAT5e…
Buzz fuzz pedal
Since I first started making effects pedals my interest was always in what I would call “utility pedals” over true effects. My first pedal was a passive fileswitch, inside of a gutted DS-1 case. More…
Top Ten Things That Make Up My Perfect Day
Welcome to another TTT! Every once in a while I enjoy putting a topic on the schedule that focuses on the person rather than the books. I love fostering community and friendships in the online…
New Pen and Ink Day: Sailor TUZU Adjust Crystal Violet and Robert Oster Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty
Got some fun mail today. My order from Endless Pens: a Sailor TUZU Adjust in Crystal Violet and the Endless Pens x Robert Oster Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty ink. A long time ago I'd seen a newsletter…