Stories from my work with computers, from my first load "" on a ZX Spectrum to today's projects, anecdotes, slip-ups and moments that taught me something.
Created: Sept. 30, 2026 Updated: Sept. 30, 2026
A student, an expert and a curator, each on a different model, learn a topic the way a person does, by asking questions. The one doing the most work turned out not to be the one answering.
Created: Sept. 1, 2025 Updated: Sept. 30, 2026
A year ago a friend showed me AI writing a commit message.
Created: Aug. 12, 2025 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
Over the summer I met up with a friend from primary school, another computer enthusiast, and it turned out he still writes games for 8-bit computers.
Created: June 12, 2025 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
I'm building a chatbot for medical device support. It worked great in the demo, less so with real questions.
Created: Sept. 20, 2023 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
Some people think take-home assignments in recruitment are evil. I think it depends.
Created: May 10, 2023 Updated: Oct. 5, 2026
In my current project nobody edits documents directly, every change goes through a survey.
Created: May 18, 2021 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
In one project I used a graph database in production for the first time, a few words on why and whether it was worth it.
Created: Nov. 15, 2019 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
The interview was going smoothly until a question came up where I knew the answer, just not the words.
Created: Sept. 12, 2018 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
Not every performance problem ends in success, and this one didn't.
Created: March 14, 2018 Updated: Oct. 1, 2026
Store a phone number in a numeric field, and 007, 07 and 7 all become the same seven, because a number doesn't remember leading zeros, and in a phone number that zero can be part of it.
Created: Sept. 20, 2016 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
After the success with OLE, Excel and PowerPoint I had a really good hammer in my hand.
Created: Dec. 5, 2014 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
The recruitment ended in success, but there was one question where for a moment we were talking about two different things.
Created: Oct. 15, 2014 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
Following up on Kosztorysant, years later I had a funny encounter with it.
Created: Oct. 15, 2013 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
A simple CRUD works great as long as one person edits a record.
Created: June 1, 2013 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
I was hitting every milestone on an important project, until I became head of the department and suddenly started falling behind.
Created: Oct. 5, 2011 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
One of the more interesting projects I've done recently, a generator of research reports that fills in the company's PowerPoint templates by itself.
Created: Oct. 20, 2009 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
I had to price a program for browsing a magazine. My first real job and no idea what to ask for it.
Created: May 12, 2009 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
I was working on a PHP system for costing research studies and I had a great plan for it.
Created: Sept. 15, 2006 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
At my previous job I wrote a program in Delphi for costing market research studies, it was called Kosztorysant.
Created: Oct. 20, 2002 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
Two years ago I had my first day at work as a programmer, in sample selection, and I remember it perfectly.
Created: March 14, 2002 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
I spent the whole day today looking for whatever was changing my variable, and there wasn't a single place in the code that did it.
Created: April 10, 2001 Updated: Sept. 29, 2026
Respondent selection ran all night and part of the next day, and two algorithms from university were enough to fix it.
Created: Nov. 15, 2000 Updated: Sept. 30, 2026
Programming has always fascinated me, and it all started with a tape recorder and a ZX Spectrum.