Journal / Technology

Technology

Analysis of the tools, architectures and protocols small companies actually run on — argued from production data.

the company the chatbot the argument made "a separate legal entity, responsible for its own actions" it is still just a part of the company's website
Technology

Who Is Liable When Your Chatbot Lies to a Customer

An airline argued its chatbot was a separate legal entity responsible for its own actions. It lost. What that means before you deploy an agent.

January 5, 202711 min read
the account passkey: phishing-resistant recovery: email or SMS code the account is only as strong as its weakest door
Technology

Passkeys, and the Recovery Problem Nobody Advertises

The passwordless numbers are good and they come from people who sell authentication. The part left out is account recovery, which is where every deployment breaks.

December 22, 202610 min read
per seat flat, predictable per use scales with consumption per outcome scales with success the risk moves from the vendor to you
Technology

The End of the Seat: What Usage Pricing Does to Your Bill

Pricing is moving from per-seat to per-use and per-outcome. Written for the people paying the bill: who pays more, who pays less, and six clauses worth having.

December 1, 202611 min read
the approved path IT evaluation personalpersonalpersonalpersonal... the path actually taken
Technology

Shadow AI: The Tools Your Team Already Uses

Most people using AI at work brought it themselves, on a personal account, into a product that trains on what they paste. What the terms actually say, and why banning fails.

November 24, 202611 min read
quality of the conversation quality of the record how permanent the record feels →
Technology

When the Meeting Is Recorded by Default

Transcription inverted the default: meetings are on the record unless someone objects. What that changes in behaviour, in liability, and what to decide first.

November 17, 202610 min read
infrastructure operation stops without it → negotiate, never cut workflow daily use, retraining cost → cut only with a migration plan convenience a cheaper path exists → where almost all savings are zombie nobody logged in for 60 days → cancel today, no meeting
Technology

The Subscription Audit

Nobody decides to spend what they spend on software. A four-step audit, the four categories every stack falls into, and where the money hides.

November 10, 202610 min read
felt "much faster" measured slightly slower same task, same developers
Technology

The Coding Assistant Paradox: Faster to Use, Slower on the Clock

Developers report feeling substantially faster with AI assistance. One controlled trial measured the opposite. Where the tools win, where they charge you later, and how to measure it.

October 20, 202611 min read
works today, costs nothing dashboardnotificationsrolesaudit logmobile app features nobody asked for
Technology

Your Competitor Is a Spreadsheet

Small business software loses to a file someone already understands. What the spreadsheet is genuinely better at, and the only three places it fails.

September 29, 20268 min read
client Aclient Bclient C row-level security policy one shared table the client is public. the policy is not.
Technology

The Database Is the Backend: Multi-Tenant Isolation Without a Server

Row-level security replaces the application layer for multi-tenant SaaS. What makes it safe, the three ways we have seen it fail, and what it cannot do.

September 22, 20269 min read
relational, portable document, proprietary SQL you can exportpolicies in the DBself-host possible rules in a DSLshape-dependent queriesexit = rewrite the question is exit cost, not feature count
Technology

Supabase vs. Firebase When You Are the Whole Engineering Team

The feature table is not the decision. Three questions that actually decide it for a one-person team, ending with what leaving costs.

September 15, 202610 min read
data model + authorization human interface machine surface agents person
Technology

When Your Software's User Stops Being Human

Agents are not persuaded by a good interface. When the operator of your product is no longer the party with the goal, value moves to schema, authorization and reversibility.

August 11, 202612 min read
crossover 2nd dev · tests · SSR cost of no build cost of build complexity →
Technology

Single-File Architecture: Four Products in Production, Zero Build Step

Four production apps as single HTML files: no npm, no bundler, no build step. What the architecture eliminates, what it costs, and the four conditions under which we would abandon it.

August 11, 202613 min read