Notes from systems that have to work.
Payment rails, GPON hardware, AI infrastructure and product engineering, written from inside the build. Real constraints, real failures, real fixes.
Field note
Stripe’s Collison Brothers and a Simple Test for Reliable Payments
Stripe’s founders describe payments that work predictably. Here’s a plain-English test: can software try again without counting the same payment twice?
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Newest firstField note
We Put Two Jev-Inspired Local AI Models in Front of Risky Software Actions
Jev introduced a new interface for AI decisions. We tested two open local interpretations, Kev and SemIf, across 202 decisions, then built a Next.js AI Bouncer around the result.
September 2, 2026Field note
Bringing a subscriber's ONU online
From fibre in the air to a live PPPoE session with zero SmartOLT involvement: what each layer refused to do on the way.
August 29, 2026Field note
Four webhooks, one ledger row
Three layers of idempotency across eight payment rails: a namespaced key in Redis, a unique receipt in Postgres, and an outbox that survives the crash after commit.
July 8, 2026Dev log
Nano-banana has one identity problem
It never learns what you look like. Here is why MyPhotoAI is training per-user identity LoRAs on RunPod instead.
September 24, 2025Benchmark
Kimi K3: Cost and Performance Edge
Kimi K3 offers strong performance at a fraction of the cost of leading American models, excelling in frontend work while earning praise from users.