matdevdug

Security/Devops engineer. Moved from Chicago to Denmark. I’m an expert on nothing but I’m trying.

Blog: https://matduggan.com

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npub1etpypy8spy5rkpm5zmvsh987mgvedwcvakdu8wru9guawzjn0wrsa3htu9

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matdevdug_at_c.im@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-10-30 07:53:46 UTC

One of the harder things about working in tech is a non trivial percentage of new ideas fail. You and the team decide to try something, you pour a few months of your life into it and it doesn’t come together.
Maybe the idea wasn’t as good as you hoped, maybe you just don’t have the skill to land the plane. Often it just ends up in practice sucking or the technology is almost there but not quite.
The funniest part is how instantly when a project fails everyone you know will start to share stories of ideas they had that failed. It’s my favorite part, this sudden outpouring of “oh man at Microsoft we had this idea and….” It’s very bonding and illuminating but also humbling.

2026-10-10 21:24:26 UTC

I left Odense on a train at 9:47. The trip for the $100 ticket I paid for should take an hour and ten minutes. These fucking idiots are so bad at running a train that it is now 11:19, I’m going to be late to relieve my babysitter at midnight.
I have switched trains twice. The first train barely left Odense before it was toast. Then I got on the second train that stranded me in Roskilde.
Next time someone asks “why do people own cars if trains in Europe are so great” feel free to quote me. These Danish trains are only usable if you don’t care when you get somewhere. #denmark

2026-09-14 13:12:55 UTC

- reply

There are absolutely datacenters this secure. The ones I've been in personally have been for financial trading. Those followed the security procedures you would expect. Lots of armed guards, entirely inaccessible by the street, two security checks for incoming packages and deliveries on freight elevators.
LLM datacenters are not that. They are the cheap design of datacenter, where it's basically as secure as a warehouse.

2026-09-14 11:02:53 UTC

After years inside datacenters, it’s hard to be afraid of AI killing all humans. I've seen the "secure facility." It's a chain link fence and a guy named Gary.
Night shift is usually 10-20 people. Two hundred people could shut a datacenter down with nothing but a Wikipedia article on fiber optics and some enthusiasm. Start swinging and you’ll hit something valuable pretty fast.
The "secure cages"? Chain link. The lobby's got badges and mancatchers and a guard who checks your ID like it insulted him. Out back it's a sliding metal door, propped open with a folding chair by whoever's waiting on FedEx.
It's not a fortress. It's a strip mall with better cable management.

2026-09-14 07:07:59 UTC

Only an absolute lunatic would touch #Wordpress as a product with this maniac at the helm. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/12/automattic-confirms-mullenweg-has-returned-as-ceo-after-attempted-ouster-by-board/

2026-09-11 13:04:44 UTC

I wrote a somewhat rant about working with LLMs: https://matduggan.com/i-am-a-flat-rate-monthly-responsibility-service/

2026-09-06 09:55:32 UTC

Great piece about how readers seem to be revolting against LLM. I have a draft of something similar but this is better than what I had, so enjoy it. One thing I have been surprised by with LLMs is the speed by which normal people learned how to identify LLM text and how they hate it.
I assumed writing was gonna be the first to get killed, but it seems like LLMs are incapable of writing text people like to read. https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/the-revolt-of-the-reader/

2026-08-26 08:13:20 UTC

I am fortunate enough to have friends who enjoy buying me gifts, and lately, they have all independently arrived at the same conclusion, that what I really need is a fountain pen. This is wonderful. I love fountain pens. I love collecting them, cleaning them, and filling them. There is a robust market for beautiful used and new pens that cost next to nothing, and I genuinely treasure every single one.
The trouble is that fountain pens do not die. Their durability isn’t measured in years, but in geological epochs. I’ve been using the same one every day for years, and aside from a few cosmetic scratches, it looks as though it was just unpacked. The longer you use a pen, the more it conforms to the exact shape of your hand and your specific neuroses, so constantly switching them out isn't really something you want to do. I am not exaggerating when I say my Kaweco Sport will outlive me. It will outlive my daughter. It will likely outlive civilization.
Which brings me to my current dilemma. I have a surplus of pristine, immortal writing instruments. I am amassing a hoard of artifacts that I physically cannot wear out. When I die, my daughter is going to inherit my estate, which will consist entirely of forty mostly-full bottles of ink and a hundred fountain pens. The irony is she’ll probably just pick up a Bic to sign the paperwork liquidating it all. #fountainpen

2026-08-24 06:13:55 UTC

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel for marketing email ideas huh #openai?
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/117/149/009/959/833/841/original/529469202a0b94c6.png

2026-08-16 14:28:59 UTC

- reply

Oh 100% same. But I’ve abused Atuin for that for cross device shell history sync for years. Strongly recommend. https://atuin.sh/

2026-08-16 14:16:59 UTC

As an obsessive reminder CLI user for years I’m trying out #unforgetful on iOS. What I was hoping for is the same sort of fast “throw everything into a pile and ensure you don’t lose any of it” that the reminder command line tool has.
It is good at dumping lots of tasks into it and not losing track of them, which seems to be its primary function. However I really struggled with “is this worth a yearly subscription”? It is a very barebones app right now.
Things like “customize your notification system per to-do list” which seems like something I would kinda expect at a subscription level isn’t there. I’m also not clear where the app grows from here. It’s effectively Apple reminders app but you cannot lose track of something in it.
For example I like location based reminders. It makes sense to make some of my lists location based. I don’t need to know about shopping reminders until I’m in the store. However that’s not something this app can currently do (or at least I can’t see how to do it).
So it’s hard for me to recommend as is to to-do addicts like me. It’s possible that these things get added, but since Apple still doesn’t have upgrade pricing somehow in the App Store I can’t risk that I’ll forget I have this subscription for years to come.
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/117/105/610/718/031/787/original/c8d444f3b6f112ed.png
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/117/105/610/968/285/688/original/127f585956ed7e55.jpeg

2026-07-17 10:34:36 UTC

Wrote a Friday casual piece about how art doesn't scale. https://matduggan.com/art-doesnt-scale/

2026-07-07 16:06:13 UTC

RE: https://social.lansky.name/@hn50/116868376656530779
This is a great piece on an element of web-based services I hadn’t fully considered.
#note13z5…0z65

2026-07-03 07:06:18 UTC

I’m a little shocked that #germany is requiring workers to get a doctor’s note for any sick leave. It’s such an insanely high barrier for people. I’m sad to see such an important member of the EU go in such an anti-worker direction.
I can say as an American who has had jobs with that requirement, the result is “people come into work sick all the time”. Truly the sickest I’ve been in my life have been places that mandate that, to the extent that one of the two that did ended up rolling it back when an intern threw up in a trashcan in front of our largest customer.

2026-07-01 13:15:00 UTC

I wrote about my experience with #clickhouse in #observability https://matduggan.com/clickhouse-is-winning-the-observability-wars/

2026-06-30 07:36:05 UTC

Hey if you are someone doing interviews, please please please do yourself a favor and buy some sort of wired headset. I cannot express how often I hear from people doing interviews how a good candidate didn’t get it because their Bluetooth headset was either having problems, weird latency or that the volume of them speaking was too low. I’ve personally seen this happen even when the candidate is wearing pretty expensive Bluetooth headsets.
They don’t have to be expensive. Just please make sure that the microphone you are using is wired into a computer. I’ve used the following AliExpress ones in a pinch and they’ve been great.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ex7rGY2

2026-06-22 15:58:16 UTC

What do you think “holiday” tastes like?
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/794/582/191/471/169/original/ecb5ec9a0ba94c2b.jpeg

2026-06-09 12:16:30 UTC

More useless junk in space! Yay! https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/fcc-lifts-looming-deadline-for-amazon-leo-satellite-broadband-constellation/

2026-06-07 19:33:34 UTC

Heard on a Danish bus today. “You can lead a horse to water but if you jump scare it, it might kick the shit out of you.”
Been pondering it since.

2026-05-07 09:43:48 UTC

The Intolerable Hypocrisy of Cyberlibertarianism https://matduggan.com/the-intolerable-hypocrisy-of-cyberlibertarianism/

2026-04-20 20:07:07 UTC

This is the funniest thing I have ever read. https://theonion.com/at-long-last-infowars-is-ours/
Imagine a roaring arena packed to the rafters with pathological liars. High above you in the nosebleeds are podcasters, screaming that you'll die if you don't buy their skincare products. Below, on the floor, imagine demonic battalions of super-influencers physically forcing people into home fitness devices designed to dismantle their bodies bone by bone and reassemble them into a grotesque statue of yourself. Out of the throngs, an extremely sick looking man approaches you. He puts his hands on your shoulders. He explains that he is your life coach and that you owe him $800.

2026-04-14 07:49:19 UTC

Dear podcast hosts. I have been a loyal #podcast listener since the iPod was a rectangle with a click wheel and ambitions. I sit through the ads. I use the promo codes. I have purchased mattresses and downloaded VPNs. I am doing my part.
So when I say this, know it comes from love. Ad revenue is down and you desperately need more monthly subscribers in order to keep this your full time thing.
You got paid a full time wage to talk into a microphone in your spare bedroom for two hours a week. That’s not a career. That’s a miracle. A beautiful, ridiculous miracle that the universe briefly permitted.
I’m not joining the Patreon. I’m not joining the supporter tier. I follow thirty of you. At $7 a month that’s $210. I’m now getting asked multiple times a week by different shows for somewhere between $5-10 a month.
If the golden age is over, it’s over. I’m sorry. But I’m also tapped out.

2026-04-09 10:29:27 UTC

You can absolutely have an RSS dependent website in 2026 https://matduggan.com/you-can-absolutely-have-an-rss-dependent-website-in-2026/

2026-04-07 08:16:08 UTC

Firefox added split tab views and absolutely killed it. I didn't even know I needed this feature and now I cannot live without it. Awesome work. Right click on a tab and select "Add Split View" to try it out. #mozilla #firefox
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/362/426/751/474/980/original/881254dda48ecc0f.png

2026-03-22 09:38:08 UTC

Because we live in 2026 and everything in my entire house uses a rechargeable battery, I get to charge a hundred things every Sunday. This, despite many of them having absolutely no reason to not just take AAA batteries and let me use rechargeables.
- First is the cargo bike battery and the bike lights. Cargo bike battery uses its own proprietary charger and for some unknown reason both of the lights uses micro-USB ports. Same with my razor that takes for some reason 5 hours to charge.
- Then I start the fake USB-C devices. These are the ones that only charge with USB-A to C cables. White noise machine for the kiddo, wife’s headphones, Miyoo Mini, my light for painting miniatures, Kindle.
- We then begin the real USB-C devices. Battery packs, wife’s work headset, home office keyboard and mouse, Apple TV remote.
- We then finish with “are any of the AA/AAA batteries in my house dead?” TV remote, smoke detectors, thermostats which here use AAA batteries, etc.
Now before you say it, do I need to charge all of these every week? No. Apple TV remote can go months between charges. But I am incapable of keeping track of this many things.

2026-03-06 15:58:04 UTC

I wrote about the #fediverse and how I was wrong about its value in 2026 https://matduggan.com/boy-i-was-wrong-about-the-fediverse/

2025-12-29 11:49:00 UTC

I wrote a not very serious thing about #3Dprinter and #warhammer
https://matduggan.com/the-year-of-the-3d-printed-miniature-and-other-lies-we-tell-ourselves/

2025-12-29 11:43:09 UTC

If you are in the market for a fountain pen I cannot recommend the Jinhao 777 enough. It costs €1, looks nice and writes like an absolute dream. I’ve refilled the cartridge in this one 10 times and it’s still going strong. #fountainpen #fountainpens
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/802/674/714/919/977/original/e12476d528b8381b.jpeg

2025-11-28 07:56:37 UTC

I have no idea if this is a real product or will be any good, but I love a keyboard only computer with a deep passion. https://caligra.com/

2025-05-29 06:07:46 UTC

Meet Echo!
#corgi #dogsofmastodon #dogs
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/114/589/621/185/852/881/original/5719116a87933785.jpeg
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/114/589/621/479/960/891/original/20f30751b68c752d.jpeg

2025-05-11 08:55:39 UTC

I messed up a personal project with #ai and I’m annoyed at it and myself. I tried to convert a 200 line Python module into golang with Gemini and it ended up returning 700 lines.
I’m like ok great, still saved me some time. I’ll just clean up the Golang script. I’m still not confident about writing #golang so this still seems like a time saving.
Except now when I’m looking at the diff between what it made and what I tweaked it to be, AI saved me no time. I had a functional script, it rewrote it into garbage and I basically rewrote the entire thing again to be not garbage. So my time savings approach took twice as long.

2025-03-10 09:45:49 UTC

I like how Apple needs to harass me into upgrading macOS now. I was a super fan, like I used to order the OS X upgrade disk and then carefully keep It after I was done. I pirated the OS X beta back in the day. I used to buy @npub1z98…le0l OS X reviews on Kindle so I could really sit back and absorb every detail.
Now I dread MacOS upgrades so much I will wait until they have dropped my current OS from security updates before I git the big red button. Every time I seem to pick up some new strange behavior and lose something that used to work. Somehow we even broke Preview where it seems to close the file when I minimize it to the Dock roughly 50% of the time.
My needs are so basic. I work primarily off a web browser, terminal, email client and container management system. Even then I hit weird edge cases. I cannot imagine if I was a MacOS super user how frustrating this inconsistent yearly release cycle would be. #apple #mac #macos

2025-02-19 12:19:37 UTC

Are you, like me, sitting there thinking "god I have just too much fountain pen ink and paper"? Wanna really wear in that new nib with a few thousand pages of writing? Take a foreign language class! Benefits include:
Burning through all the excess paper in your house
Finally finishing off the giant fishbowl of ink cartridges you bought from Aliexpress 10 years ago.
Getting strange looks from your neighbors when you recycle hundreds of pages of loose leaf paper covered in thousands of repetitions of the same phrases.
#pen #fountainpen

2025-01-10 16:28:53 UTC

I wrote up my feelings on having to schedule endless SaaS sales calls. https://matduggan.com/stop-trying-to-schedule-a-call-with-me/
#devops #tech

2025-01-05 10:20:29 UTC

Always feel bad when normal people try to bond with me.
Well-meaning fellow American father waiting outside of Danish ballet class: “So what do you think of this art/fashion/music/movie?”
Me, a monster: “None of those align with any of my current hyperfixations so mind has erased all information about it. I will now only ask questions about you, forcing you to carry the conversational burden. Then upon leaving this building I will immediately forget your name.”

2024-12-02 14:53:24 UTC

My dream job is to work for a giant company and get paid 10% of what a service costs to turn off unused stuff. I’d be a millionaire in a month. #devops

2024-11-22 09:41:58 UTC

New post on my blog. You can read it here: https://matduggan.com/self-hosting-isnt-a-solution-its-a-patch/

2024-10-22 19:15:34 UTC

Man today I was super grateful to live in an #eu country. On a call with a US tech company who started to record and transcribe the call using AI without asking. It was super nice to be like “I’m sorry, that’s a GDPR violation, you don’t have consent to record me. You need to stop.”
Honestly it comes up so much. It is amazing to have a super simple break glass option of #gdpr to just immediately remove my personal data from a platform I’m not using anymore. I don’t need to read the terms of service or try and negotiate with customer service. Just “hey GDPR I want you to delete everything you have on me”. So easy.

2024-10-16 08:10:32 UTC

Reading "Play Nice", the story of #Blizzard #games. Really good book, but also a fascinating look at a company following a very similar trajectory to a lot of tech companies.
1. Have a small passionate team that makes products that consumers really like.
2. Take the team for granted that they'll continue making your wildly successful product for less than market rate because "they love the work".
3. Don't check toxic leadership who have been hitmakers for you in the past and who regularly abuse their power and positions.
4. Engage parasitic consultants like McKinsey who advise you to follow user-hostile patterns that end up destroying a critical market for a tentpole product.
5. End up being unable to execute because you are now effectively paralyzed by investor expectations that every new product will be the biggest launch yet, meaning riskier or smaller ideas are killed (even when they might work).
6. Because every launch has to be a potential biggest revenue generator ever, teams are forced to grow and add features which don't make sense to the core product in the hopes one will stick.
6. Find yourself no longer able to deliver consistent hits that consumers like.
As I'm reading I'm just like "oh yeah that's exactly how that goes". #videogames #videogamedev

2024-10-12 11:11:17 UTC

Hey are you an open-source maintainer looking for help? I’m a bored backend/infrastructure type person who wants to help! I recently finished up a few open issues on some projects and I’m looking for more. Stuff I’ve helped with before (but open to whatever)
- Containerizing your application
- Making a Linux package for your app
- Setting up CI
- Setting up automated Docker Hub pushes
- Adding email-related features.
I’m not picky about licenses, mostly looking for something to work on at night. #opensource #maintenance

2024-08-04 12:29:25 UTC

It is so distressing to see a site like this shut down because the sole maintainer decides not to actively seek help and just becomes burned out.
If you are running a community and you need help, especially with technical issues, ask for help! We live in this weird golden era of so much technical skill sitting on the internet ready to assist. But you have to set aside your ego and decide that you need help. #gaming #retrogaming
https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=39405

2024-01-27 15:19:23 UTC

The thing about #tech #layoffs that people who haven’t been through it often don’t understand is that morale never recovers. The employees who remain will never have the same relationship with that company, bosses or peers.
Watching people you respect pack their stuff and crying on the phone with their spouses is something that never goes away. When I survived a layoff in my 20s I became a “do exactly what the ticket says” person. I stopped suggesting ideas, providing feedback, believing anything a manager told me.
If you are a company considering layoffs, especially a profitable company, you should approach it as “this department will have 100% turnover”. The second I got another job offer I left that company and six months later nobody who had been there at the time of layoffs remained.
I’ve seen that pattern play out multiple times.