There has always been a disconnect between the hiring process and finding the best engineers. But when we somehow find them, the career ladder ensures that they don't remain in that position of streng| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
I'd like to believe that RSS is still relevant and remains one of the most important technologies we've created. The moment I built this blog, I made sure my feed was working properly. Back in 2013, the web was already starting to move away from RSS. Every few months, an article would go viral declaring that RSS was dying or dead. Fast forward to 2025, those articles are nonexistent, and most people don't even know what RSS is. The Power of RSS One of the main advantages of an RSS feed is tha...| iDiallo.com
I hate to say it, but when I wake up in the morning, the very first thing I do is check my phone. First I turn off my alarm, I've made it a habit to wake up before it goes off. Then I scroll through a handful of websites. Yahoo Finance first, because the market is crazy. Hacker News, where I skim titles to see if AWS suffered an outage while I was sleeping. And then I put my phone down before I'm tempted to check my Twitter feed. I've managed to stay away from TikTok, but the TikTok model is ...| iDiallo.com
I use Apple products mostly for work. When it comes to iPhone vs Android, I need access to my file system, so I choose Android any day. But the last thing I'll say is that Apple products suck. Whether it's the UI, screen quality, laptops, or tablets, Apple has done an amazing job. Yet every time there's a new iteration, someone will write about how much Apple sucks right now. The same happens with new Android phones too. There's no way of satisfying all users. No matter what you do, someone w...| iDiallo.com
Imagine this. You walk up to your driveway where your car is parked. You reach for the handle that automatically senses your presence, confirms your identity, and opens to welcome you in. You sit down, the controls appear in front of you, and your seatbelt secures itself around your waist. Instead of driving forward onto the pavement, you take off. You soar into the skies like an eagle and fly to your destination. This is what technology promises: freedom, power, and something undeniably cool...| iDiallo.com
AGI has been "5 years away" for the past decade. The Tesla Roadster? Five years away since 2014. Tesla's Level 5 self-driving? Promised by 2017, then quietly pushed into the perpetual five-year window. If you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed this pattern extends far beyond Silicon Valley. Why do we keep landing on this specific timeframe? Psychologically, five years is close enough to feel relevant. We can easily imagine ourselves five years from now, still affected by these ...| iDiallo.com
I was too young to lose money in the Dot-Com crash of 2000. I didn't own any tech stock. In fact, I didn't even know there was a bubble to pop. My interaction with the "Internet" was a dial-up modem sputtering to life and the simple, joyful ritual of visiting a handful of websites I had discovered. When the NASDAQ plummeted and titans of vaporware like Pets.com vanished, nothing in my world seemed to change. The handful of websites I knew still worked. The internet still existed. Yet we all b...| iDiallo.com
The computer is not just working less well. Instead, it is actively trying to undermine you. And there is nothing you can do about it. When Windows wants to update, you don't get to say "no." You get "Update now" or "Remind me later." When Twitter shows you notifications from people you don't follow, you can't dismiss them, only "see less often." When LinkedIn changes your email preferences, you'll reset them, only to find they've reverted a few months later. These aren't bugs. They aren't ov...| iDiallo.com
The majority of the traffic on the web is from bots. For the most part, these bots are used to discover new content. These are RSS Feed readers, search engines crawling your content, or nowadays AI bo| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
And when I select one option, what does "No thanks" do? Does it dismiss the box entirely and I never have to see it? Or does it validate the reminder schedule? What if I just don't want OneDrive? Microsoft has embedded it so deep into Windows that there are no easy ways of getting rid of it. I would understand if they had asked me when I set up my machine the first time, but why every single time?| idiallo.com
Here is a realization I made recently. I'm sitting in a room full of smart people. On one side are developers who understand the ins and outs of our microservice architecture. On the other are the fro| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
A few years back, I had a ritual. I'd walk to the nearest Starbucks, get a coffee, and bury myself in work. I came so often that I knew all the baristas and their schedules. I also started noticing the music. There were songs I loved but never managed to catch the name of, always playing at the most inconvenient times for me to Shazam them. It felt random, but I began to wonder: Was this playlist really on shuffle? Or was there a method to the music? I never got a definitive answer from the b...| iDiallo.com
On my first day at a furniture store, my boss pointed to a warehouse full of boxes and said, "Unpack that one and build it." Simple enough. I found a large, heavy box, sliced it open, and laid out an array of wooden slats, metal screws, and chains. It was a love seat swing. Clearly a two or three person job. But I didn't know that. If my boss asked me to build it, I figured, it must be possible. So I just started. There is this feeling I often get when I have a brand new exciting idea. What f...| iDiallo.com
I often destroyed our home computer when I was a kid. Armed with only 2GB of storage, I'd constantly hunt for files to delete to save space. But I learned the hard way that .ini files are actually imp| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
Writing code is easy. Once you have a solution in mind, and have mastered the syntax of your favorite programming language, writing code is easy. Having an LLM write entire functions for you? Even eas| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
I once had a job interview for a backend position. Their stack was Node.js, MySQL, nothing exotic. The interviewer asked: "If you have an array containing a million entries, how would you sort the dat| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
When I click on a blog post these days, I'm not usually looking for the definitive encyclopedia entry or the slickest marketing brochure. Honestly? I'm hoping for something far simpler, yet increasing| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
"I'm sorry... did you want to go to the bathroom too?" "Oh no, I was just following you." "Oh, well I'd rather you not follow me." "Wait, it's not like you have something to hide, right? Make sure| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
Most projects start with a burst of energy. Writing initial code, whether through vibe coding or meticulously setting up a new repository. This is the fast building phase: boilerplates are generated,| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
I recently had to cancel my Internet service at home, and it was the worst experience I've ever had with customer service. A year ago, a new company that offers fiber internet was added to my neighbor| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
List of things I was thinking about on page 1| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
The MP3 format, once the gold standard for digital audio files, is now free. The licensing and patents on MP3 encoders have expired, meaning you can now include them in your applications without payin| Ibrahim Diallo Blog
