AlextheWard Blog

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Alex Ward, Software Developer / Architect

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I've got a Novella Out Now
Jun 17, 2026 · original
The title pretty much says it all! I've got a Novella (really, it's five short stories in a novella format that are directly related to one another) out now at The Arcanist: The Weight of a Torch . Three of the stories are available on the Arcanist's website if you'd like to get a feel for the Dark Fantasy vibe. If it's your jam I'd love honest reviews on Goodreads or the Amazon page.
Asahi on Macbook Air M2
May 5, 2026 · original
Shutterstock #2041259501 and Asahi Logo Over on Mastodon I mentioned, offhand, that I'd been daily driving (meaning, using daily but not as my primary machine) Asahi on a Macbook Air M2 (15") and some folks were curious what kind of experience I was getting with it. So, instead of making a giant thread, I figured I should blog about it instead given just how behind I am on blogging. Plus, most of my blog posts are lamenting the state of slop so this should be a nice change of pace. I'll just walk you through what I'm using it for and the process from installing Asahi to using it on a daily basis. How I use this machine Permalink to “How I use this machine” # Right, so this is worth noting that this is not my primary desktop. That is either a Mac Mini M4 or a System76 Thelio depending on if I'm at home or in my office. I use both of those for primary work, including destkop publishing stu
LLMs are a Cognitohazard
Dec 22, 2025 · original
So, I've been watching a bunch of folks whom otherwise have reasonable takes about LLMs who, under very specific circumstances, have extremely weird takes about how much an LLM is helping them do a thing, and their internal justifications for them. This isn't about anyone specific; for each of these points, I've seen variations of these from more than one person in every case. But they're happening enough that I want to talk about them. Don't just take it from me, this post from @xgranade makes the point better than I can: It is amazing how many people I see claiming that AI has one good use. No one seems to agree on what that one good use is, and there's always a hell of a lot of goalpost shifting and special pleading involved. For some reason a lot of folks quite reasonably follow the arguments against AI, but then partition off the one thing as immune or exempt from having to worry ab
Mozilla is now an AI company
Nov 22, 2025 · original
Shutterstock #1956259915 In an ongoing series of my disappointment with this AI bubble, Mozilla has gone all-in on the AI Hype Train . Their thesis is dodgy, it's basically the "if we don't build AI into our browser, the evil big corporations will be left unchecked". Right. Okay. It's worth noting that this extends on their idea of "Responsible AI" from a white paper they published in 2020. 😈 If you're looking for a browser that doesn't have any AI features in it, I use Vivaldi . They've committed to not shoving AI into everything . Also consider donating to Servo , an alternative rendering engine. There's a fair amount to unpack here, but I want to start with a quote from their 2025 updated white paper which I think is telling (emphasis mine): Consumers are starting to pay attention to AI’s impact on their lives. Workers — from delivery drivers to Hollywood writers — are pushing back o
Big Tech is Wrecking Community
Apr 3, 2025 · original
breakermaximus @ Shutterstock #1832963167 😈 While this is a post about Big tech, it's also an indictment of privately run social commons in general. So, prep for that. This is a cross-site blog post, the other half is on Cthonic Studios . I'm sure you've noticed the trend, if you're even marginally online. Facebook is flooded with Generative AI bots, vying for views and clicks of the few human users who are still around. Instagram wants you to buy stuff, showing you an ad every five posts and an influencer every three. Twitter was destroyed and now X is masquerading in its corpse, filled with inauthentic content and fascists all arguing with each other all the time. Reddit sold out its moderators and went public, and is now being scraped for AI training data to benefit its owners but not the people who created the content. Why is everything getting worse? Well Cory Doctorow talks about
Big Tech and Consent
Jan 29, 2025 · original
A garbage fire seemed like an appropriate cover image. konstantinos69 @ Shutterstock #1442040206 This is going to be a rant. It'll hopefully be very short, but no promises. Since LLMs became a thing it feels like all the firms that are shoving them into everything have completely given up on the veneer that “asking the customer if they want a thing” is something they should even consider. I'm not super surprised by this, but I am horribly disappointed. Let's start by getting this out of the way. As of 18.3 Apple Intelligence is now on by default . You can't disable it during onboarding, it'll download a 7 GB model file to your computer or device, and then you have to opt out of it later after it's done its installation. I am displeased by this decision. They could have included a toggle during onboarding, but they instead are forcing a download on you and then clearing up space later. Th
Chuwi Minibook X N100 and Aurora
Jan 17, 2025 · original
😈 Don't mind the messy desk... Turns out Universal Blue Aurora works great on a Chuwi Minibook X, with only minor issues! But, let’s back up - what’s a Chuwi Minibook X, and why did you get one and put Linux on it? Introducing the Chuwi Minibook X Permalink to “Introducing the Chuwi Minibook X” # The Minibook X is a very small laptop with a hinged touchscreen display that’s reiminiscent of Netbooks of yore. But with actually decent performance for the price. It also comes with 12 GB of RAM, a 512 GB SSD, and a 1920x1200 10.51” display. 😈 They did just release a N150 version of this thing, but as far as I can tell it's identical except for the processor. The killer feature for me is the size, it’s extremely portable with a keyboard that’s still usable for someone with fairly large hands. Here’s a quick size comparison of the Minibook X on top of my Macbook Air 11” , which itself is on t
Auth Series 5: The Other Stuff
Dec 11, 2024 · original
Welcome to the last post in my end-of-2024 Auth series. This post covers the "other" stuff that I didn't cover in the previous 4 posts. It's mostly just the fun wrap up post to hit some things you probably won't need to know about but might want to know more about. The Other Stuff! Permalink to “The Other Stuff!” # So, here's the list: OIDC/OAuth other flows (M2M and Device Pin) Certificate/Ticket based SSO, like Kerberos Mobile device management and certificates Let's get right in! OIDC/OAuth Other flows Permalink to “OIDC/OAuth Other flows” # OAuth2 Device Flow Permalink to “OAuth2 Device Flow” # CeltStudio @ Shutterstock #2179196459 If you have a "smart" device without an easy way to type in your password, like an internet-connected TV, or refrigerator, or light bulb (or something) you might have seen the OIDC device flow . Basically, when you request to log into a service, you give i
Auth Series 4: Passkeys
Dec 4, 2024 · original
I'm apparently obliged to tell you: The passkey icon is a trademark of FIDO Alliance, Inc Here we are again! This time we're going to talk about one of my favorite subsets of this topic: Passkeys. You should mentally prepare yourself for this, it's going to be a lot of information and a fair amount of it is dense. I'll be using information from my other post on Passkeys so you don't need to read it first, but you can if you want. 😈 Guess what! "Passkey" doesn't actually have a real definition, it's a marketing term that a bunch of folks vied for control of. I think we've settled on a common definition, but keep that in mind. That's as good a place to start as any, so let's gooooooo. Passkeys, what the hell are they anyway? Permalink to “Passkeys, what the hell are they anyway?” # Okay, so, "passkeys" are rooted in the idea that passwords are bad, and we should securely eliminate them. A
Auth Series 3: SSO
Nov 27, 2024 · original
Right! Welcome back to the third post in the Authentication Post series and this time we're going to talk about single sign on (SSO) and other federated identity protocols. I'll try to keep this post under the word count of the previous two, but like many auth things… this could be a lengthy topic. SSO: Why and History Permalink to “SSO: Why and History” # In the previous posts in the series we covered how to authenticate users with a username and password on a single service, and how to add multifactor authentication to that account. What happens if you want to create another application? One option you can choose is to simply make a second user base for that application. That might be the right choice if you want those user bases to be completely separated from one another. But what if the two applications you've created are closely linked together? You could copy your existing user da
Auth Series 2: Multifactor Authentication
Nov 20, 2024 · original
Welcome to part 2 of the rambling journey through how to do authentication systems yourself (or at least understand how they work). This time it's an extension of part 1, where we learned how to do Username and Password Authentication . It's a topic that's pretty closely attached to that "now that I can log users in, what can I do to make their account resistant to nefarious multidimensional entities who wish to look at their weird game history?" Okay, maybe you're not asking that exact question, but you do want to make accounts more secure. How do you do that? One way is by implementing a Multifactor authentication system, which is a fairly deep topic. It'll take up the entirety of this post. I'll be linking off to various resources as we chat so you can find more information, but for this one I'll be quoting NIST and CISA several times because they have solid advice. What is Multifacto
Auth Series 1: Sessions and Passwords
Nov 13, 2024 · original
Hello and welcome to the first part of a multipart post series where I'll dig through the depths of authentication knowledge and share all of that with you, including some deep lore of how we got from the early days of the internet to today (though, I'm a millennial, so I wasn't exactly a web professional back then. Neopets all the way). 😈 This guide is targeted primarily at web developers who want a deeper look at authentication implementations and some (but not all) of the considerations that go into them. Part 1 will cover the following: How do web servers identify requests? Session storage and state management Passwords and how to store them as securely as possible Handling forgotten passwords Signing out and Account removal considerations I've also created a repository on Gitlab with a couple of examples for session state: https://gitlab.com/cthonic-studios/authentication-examples
Authentication Series Introduction
Nov 4, 2024 · original
Design by me, affinity designer. I spent 4 minutes on it. I'll do better next time. Hey there friends, I've decided to do something outside of my normal one-off posts and talk about something near and dear to me. Authentication. What can I say, it's a passion . What's the point of this series? Permalink to “What's the point of this series?” # I was inspired to write this series by Mayank on Mastodon when they commented about the lack of how-to guides on the bare metal portions of authentication. I've spent a lot of time thinking about authentication, authorization, and access management (or Identity and Access Management, if you prefer / are in corporate life) since I started my career. This arguably started back at my very first tech job and was volunteered to learn how the heck SAML 2.0 worked, so that we could offer it as an authentication method. This was back in the time where the o
Ergonomic Static Site Blogging
Oct 23, 2024 · original
Shutterstock #2298461049 by One Photo I've been blogging a lot the last couple of weeks across both 11ty and Ghost, and it's no secret that I really like Ghost's authoring experience. I'd love to replicate that in a static site, and get a little closer to functionality parity, but I'm still searching for a great way to do this. 😈 Sidebar, I love everything about that stock photo. Not only is it a tablet with an Apple Keyboard in front of an apple laptop, there's a calculator to the side, a notebook, and what appears to be a plant potted in a cup? With CONTENT just screaming at you. The composition is wild. This post is going to be some in-public documentation about what I'm trying, and how it's going. For the "why" portion of that question, hop on over to my previous post about 11ty and Ghost . The search for an ergonomic blogging experience Permalink to “The search for an ergonomic blo
Riding Amtrak from PDX to LAX
Oct 21, 2024 · original
I've always wanted to travel the slow way across the country, taking a train somewhere overnight. Watching the scenery go by the window when I'm in no particular hurry to get anywhere. I had the opportunity to do just that this past week riding on the Amtrak Coast Starlight down to LA to visit the in-laws. Obstensibly, I can call this a research trip, as my in-progress TTRPG Nix Noctis (working title maybe permanent title) features a post-post apocalyptic train line that encompasses the southern half of the route. What better way to ensure I've crafted an "accurate" half-passenger half-freight half-military rail line. Regardless of justification, it was quite the experience. I booked a roomette with Amtrak months in advance (probably too far in advance as I don't think I got the best rate. Oh well, experiences are worth it). Since my wife wasn't making the trip with me, I had plenty of s
11ty and Ghost
Oct 15, 2024 · original
I run two separate blogs which I post to regularly (well, for this blog semi-regularly): This site ( https://alextheward.com ) and my TTRPG / LLC blog Cthonic Studios . AlextheWard is running 11ty hosted on Netlify while Cthonic Studios is running Ghost hosted on a VPS that I rent from one of several hosting providers. 😈 Really, I use Hetzner for a lot of things, but I've also got stuff floating around on Racknerd (an OVH reseller), Digital Ocean, AWS, Vultr, etc. I'm constantly on the search for what the best writing experience is, and I recently wrote about my fiction writing workflow on the other blog and I want to take a bit of time to talk about the blogging workflow. Which is different! For “reasons”! It's also a good opportunity to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms especially in light of the current WordPress explosion happening . 😈 Seriously, it's bad fo
Putting Manjaro on a 2015 Macbook Air
Sep 9, 2024 · original
As the world hurtles more towards shoving Generative AI into absolutely everything to make investors happy, I've been looking more into hardware sustainability and the viability of running things for longer (especially if they don't try to bake generative AI right into the operating system). Something that's been chewing at the back of my brain for a while is the 11" Macbook Air. The form factor on that tiny laptop is awesome for how portable it is, but it was underpowered at the time for MacOS so I ditched mine. Nearly a decade later, I keep thinking about it, it really was one of the best little not-a-netbook spiritual successors to those netbooks of yore. I kept thinking about how it might be nice to have a pretty portable writing machine for someone and I was curious how well it would work with that. So I've been keeping an eye on my local FreeGeek eBay store until I saw one in good
Self Driving Car Update
Aug 19, 2024 · original
About 10 years ago, I got up on a stage to give a lightning talk about self-driving cars. If you want to relive that person I was, it’s still up on Youtube (and my talks page, so I can’t be accused of hiding stuff). Here’s an embed: Now, the idealistic person I was in that talk made a fair number of points that I still generally believe: Dedicating a ton of space to cars that are not in active use rather than human-centric infrastructure is bad. We should, as a society, work to reduce traffic deaths - especially those involving a car and a not-car (pedestrian, bicyclist, and the like). Driving is a chore, and at the time I sorta resented living in a place where it was an abject requirement, both for me and folks who really would have been better served by on-demand transit. At the time, I was pretty bought into the hype that we were making great strides in self-driving technology. I even
ChimeraOS on an Aya Neo Air
Aug 12, 2024 · original
This is a follow-up post to Putting Bluefin on a Surface Go In my quest to put Linux on absolutely everything that used to run Windows that I can, I’ve already moved my Framework 13 over to Bazzite, my Surface Go to Aurora, and now the Aya Neo Air over to ChimeraOS. Things are going well-ish. So, for the Air, there are a couple of options - I could have tried to put Bazzite on it but so far no one on the forums has tried it on the original Air model so I was a bit wary of that whole situation. On the other hand putting ChimeraOS on the original Air is a well-trod path and almost everything works out of the box according to the hardware compatibility page . Interestingly that page marks “eGPU” support as “?” - it shouldn’t even be listed as the Air doesn’t have a USB-4 port or oculink or anything so outside of a case hack you’re not running an eGPU on it. Likewise, there are several Youtu
What the heck is going on over at Proton?
Jul 26, 2024 · original
tl;dr I’m no longer recommending Proton services to anyone and have moved off to other services. Right, so up until recently I was a happy Proton customer at the annual unlimited tier. They were missing some convenience features and the integration of a document editor into the Drive product was pretty great. That is, until they decided to shove an LLM into their core product and upend their security model and break some trust by the way they rolled it out. Let’s take a quick look at their timeline / speedrun of adding LLM features (and Crypto wallet, but we’ll get there in a sec). June 5th, 2024 - Proton releases the results of their 2024 community survey June 17th, 2024 - Proton announces transitioning to a non-profit structure July 8th, 2024 - Eamonn Maguire posts about building "privacy protecting AI" - Signaling that they were "thinking about" the problem (but clearly had already bu

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