Phillip van der Merwe

Deutsch-land über alles

www.vandermerwhatnow.com/deustch-land...

How I get my local supabase setup to mirror my hosted project:

www.vandermerwhatnow.com/mirror-remot...

Step 0: buy cooltechblogs[dot]com

Step 1: Build an RSS feed eater w/ Supabase edge functions and cron jobs

www.vandermerwhatnow.com/cool-tech-bl...

DevRel is going through some fascinating changes. I wrote about this from a devtool startup perspective:

www.vandermerwhatnow.com/good-devrel-...

This is what I'm talking about!

Choose optimism Only optimists can create a great future. One day, I decided to become an optimist and life became much more fun.

Yes.

stephango.com/optimism

I’ve been vastly underestimating how far smart LED bulbs have come.

“Conquering by dividing is a technique of fascists. The executive order designating ‘classical’ architecture as the preferred style for federally funded construction seeks to divide and conquer architecture itself.”

Paraphrased from Thomas de Monchaux in NYRA

Why does instagram so desperately want me to care about tennis?

Google using Microsoft-level bundling tactics to boost the number of Gemini users by all gmail users, which would be almost 2 billion if rolled out to all.

Realizing that my mind now locks onto Neil Gaiman above Harvey Weinstein when I’m prompted to think about the most horrific cases of abuse.

This is not only true for most games but markets too.

The honey scam reveals an overlooked reason you should care about online privacy: to prevent corporations from strong-arming you

This christmas I’m grateful for my two gen z friends who repost tiktoks to instagram

Wtf is up with these grass cutouts we put in sushi trays?

Starting to find more tech people on bluesky than I can on xitter

Whoever said that modern life is Turing trap is so right

So delighted to see Manor Lords featured in the NY Review of Architecture.

Seeing people organically converge on shared understandings of complex new technology is so epic.

It’s absolutely wild how dialed in Xitter is with serving hits of dopamine. In contrast, Bluesky feels like a clearing in the forest to catch your breath.

Crazy how often “I wonder how Supabase did it” leads to an insight

Pleased that my first Michigan winter is in the remote car defrosting era. EVs ftw.

Migrated from Buttondown to @ghost.org. UX is way ahead, still some room for improvement though.

Nothing like some fizzy kimchi

Amenities catering to sexual desire are rarely covered in discussions on city planning. This piece from the NYCRA does a great job of showing why that’s regrettable.

A great question:
“What would a city built around desire require?”

There were so many crazy people shouting in that other town square.

You're being spammed with updated Ts&Cs notices because arbitration clauses forced you to arbitrate, lawyers forced co's to arbitrate en masse (costing co's $$$), and now co's are forcing you to arbitrate individually.

In many cases, you can opt out of this (with some pain).

Shouting out Beth Cupples (@nine.crows on instagram) at the little black church because she’s a lovely human and a badass.

New frontend-focussed devtools (w/ AI) point to a new era of disposable/single-use apps

So many wtf moments in Gladiator 2. Sharks swimming in the colosseum was a low point.