Idle/Random/whatever Thoughts of a Demented/Idle/Whatever Mind

A recent lunch with my good friend Prashanth sparked a realization about the rapidly shifting landscape of software engineering. Amidst catching up, he pointed out a looming industry paradox, as AI accelerates our coding speed, the role of Quality Assurance (QA) becomes exponentially more critical, not less. I couldn't agree more. Historically, an average developer might write 500 to 2,000 lines of production-grade code in a month. Today, with AI coding agents developer generate that same volume in a single hour. However, verifying the integrity, security, and true intent of this machine-generated code is the new industry bottleneck. Traditional code reviews can only catch so much. While robust unit, integration, and UI tests are foundational, if LLMs are authoring the core logic and human oversight is lax, an entire system architecture can quickly go sideways. The harsh truth is that every great developer today must first become a great QA engineer. It is no longer just about writ...

1. Self-hosting your location history with OwnTracks : OwnTracks is an open-source alternative to Google Maps Timeline, allowing users to privately track and store their location history. Many are dissatisfied with Google's upcoming changes to location history storage and seek a replacement. OwnTracks involves a server-side component to store location data and mobile apps to report location. The author details a setup using Docker, Caddy, and Tailscale for a private, self-hosted solution. While the initial setup is complex, the author finds OwnTracks promising, with potential for improvement in the mobile app's user experience and the web app's features. My Take: OwnTracks is an interesting alternative. I have not tried it yet, the only thing I am scared of is hosting something which is accessible on the internet.  Source: Florida Museum 2. Sea level rise claims first victim, tree cactus goes extinct : Rising sea levels, linked to climate change, are believed to have cl...