Jekyll2026-04-20T19:19:20+00:00https://sigil.org/feed.xmlsigil.orgThe ramblings of a madman. Or the exploits of a coder, homelaber, father, and athlete. Maybe both...Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-04-172026-04-17T00:00:00+00:002026-04-17T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-04-17This week I learned:

  • that I can’t realistically play CS2 on my Legion Go (with the controller)
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-04-102026-04-10T00:00:00+00:002026-04-10T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-04-10This week I learned:

  • long-lived feature branches considered harmful (working on a longer post on this topic)
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-04-032026-04-03T00:00:00+00:002026-04-03T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-04-03This week I learned:

  • there are some sweet AI coding workflow tools in the world such as Citadel and octorus
  • Artemis II launched (learned about it and watched it). Also, read up on the rest of the Artemis plan - exciting stuff!
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-03-272026-03-27T00:00:00+00:002026-03-27T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-03-27This week I learned:

  • asymmetric routing makes for some interesting homelab issues
  • PCA signed a 6-year/$115 mil contract with the Cubbies!
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-03-132026-03-13T00:00:00+00:002026-03-13T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-03-13This week I learned:

  • The Italian baseball team in the World Baseball Classic has an espresso machine in their dugout

This week was a whirlwind that I did not document properly, unfortunately. Baseball started (Little League), configuring a new computer (more on that later), and getting ready for a vacation - mostly work, as I haven’t packed yet (1 day before departure).

]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-03-062026-03-06T00:00:00+00:002026-03-06T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-03-06This week I learned:

  • We’re at “war” (not an official one, of course) with Iran
  • Colorado has more fast food restaurants per capita than any other state (yet we’re still the 4th healthiest?)
  • A lot about SteamOS, but that’s a whole ‘nother post
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-02-272026-02-27T00:00:00+00:002026-02-27T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-02-27Last week I was on vacation, skiing with friends and family, so I skipped this post.

This week I learned:

  • Apple currently makes the best value in computing. Only took a RAMpocalypse to bring this about…
  • Metallica is coming to the Sphere in October. I will be there if I can.
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-02-132026-02-13T00:00:00+00:002026-02-13T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-02-13This week I learned:

  • Lindsey Vonn is my age
  • if you embed a protoc-gen-go generated struct in another struct, protogetter does not lint properly (investigating and will file a bug if necessary)
  • I need to blow out my dryer vent pipe (and not just clean the portion behind the dryer)
    • Bonus: I may have a vent pipe for a vent hood in my kitchen - there is another vent outside beside my dryer vent
  • re-learned that curling is a lowkey addicting sport to watch

This week I read:

  • https://mitchellh.com/writing/my-ai-adoption-journey - the author’s journey mirrors my own somewhat. It is both validating and frustrating (that we have made the same mistakes as others…but somehow, that’s the best way to learn)
]]>Richard KolkovichTWIL: 2026-02-062026-02-06T00:00:00+00:002026-02-06T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/twil-2026-02-06Out on a run today, I had an idea (which often happens): ‘This Week I Learned’ blog posts. This is the first installment. The intent? To be a short-form record of random crap I learned this week. Raw, concise. Some of these items may become longer posts in the future. Some are just random.

Learning something new every day isn’t ALWAYS possible (some days, you’re just buried), but over a week? There should generally be something there.

Now, on to this week’s nuggets (this will be much easier to record in real-time in the future than to recall on Friday evening):

  • AI coding assistants are nowhere close to being able to handle a moderately simple yet significantly-sized refactor. Small chunks with frequent check-ins keep them on the rails
  • Fellowship of the Ring is worth seeing on the big screen. You may have to wait for the 30th anniversary for the next showing, however
]]>Richard KolkovichHands-on EMV: Reading Chip Card Data with Android NFC APIs2025-08-06T00:00:00+00:002025-08-06T00:00:00+00:00https://sigil.org/hands-on-emvFind the code from my FintechDevcon 2025 talk, Hands-on EMV, over at Github.

I will update this post with a link to the recording of my talk once it is posted.

]]>Richard Kolkovich