Engineering log

How this site is built

Short write-ups of the interesting problems behind the things you can play with here.

• 27 Sept 2026 · 4 min read · deployment · Next.js · Vercel

  Deploying my own past

  The time machine runs every earlier version of this site, live. Getting 18-month-old commits deployed again took a detour through a security block.

• 27 Sept 2026 · 4 min read · orbital mechanics · backend

  When to look up

  The contact section tells you when the ISS will next pass over your city. Predicting that takes an orbit model, the Sun's position, and three conditions that all have to hold at once.

• 26 Sept 2026 · 6 min read · backend · AI · reliability

  Thirteen free models, one answer

  Mission Control answers questions about my work on nothing but free AI tiers. Here's the fallback chain that keeps it answering when models are busy, slow or out of quota.

• 25 Sept 2026 · 5 min read · backend · determinism · security

  Scores the server doesn't take on trust

  The arcade's leaderboards don't believe the number the browser sends. They replay the whole run, on the server, and keep the score they get.