Edsger Dijkstra, famous for graph algorithms, also wrote the 1976 book A Discipline of Programming about the practice of computer science. Thanks to my friend Ben Klemens for the hard-bound copy of the book. It’s interesting to see how insights from almost 50 years ago remain relevant, and so while…

As a progressive, data geek, and homeowner, solar panels were hard to resist. After moving into our new home in 2020, my spouse and I decided to invest in installing a solar panel array on our roof. …

Months before my bar mitzvah I realized I was agnostic about god, and by the time I was 35 my jewishness was honed to Passover and tzedakah. Then some things happened, normal things, that brought jewishness to the front of my mind: moving in with my now-wife Leah who has…

My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Japan — the first trip there for both of us. …

Tips (or a convention) for writing good commit messages in your source code version control. — I have been known to write very long git commit messages. What follows is a guide to writing good commit messages in a style that I like for my projects. Why I have high expectations for git commit messages There are two main reasons why I care about git commit messages in my projects: Some projects are very serious…

A short and somewhat secular take on the traditional Passover Haggadah. — For the motivation that led me to write this Minimalist Haggadah, please see: My search begins for a new Passover Haggadah What I’m looking for in a Haggadah and a link to my Minimalist Haggadah.medium.com I developed this Haggadah with no formal experience in Jewish scholarship but an interest in getting the key components of the Seder locked down before trying other modern alternatives. I used this Haggadah with Leah and some…

My arrival to the search The Jewish holiday Passover has always been my favorite holiday, and it is a part of some of my earliest and fondest memories. My grandfather led the earliest Seders in my lifetime, directing each member of the family to have a turn reading a portion of the Haggadah in Hebrew…

In 2016, DC Mayor Bowser established an Open Government Advisory Group (OGAG) comprised of members of the public (like me) and government staff from across the District’s government. Although the group has been underwhelming, our work on promoting open government data in the District has had two outcomes. The first…

After DC’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability (BEGA) declined to re-appoint the District’s chief open government enforcer for a second term, I filed Freedom of Information Act requests with BEGA and the Executive Office of the Mayor for relevant emails to find out more about what really happened. Was…