In BetterProgramming, these are two well-written posts I’ll refer back to by authoritative web guy Joe Honton: “My Perfect 2020 Stack” and “Full Stack Pronounced Dead”.

In trying to improve the performance of an ExpressionEngine-powered web-based system, I came across the following database fields within MySQL query WHERE clauses that therefore should be indexed but aren’t:

• exp_actions: class, method
• exp_categories: cat_url_title
• exp_ce_cache_tagged_items: item_id
• exp_channels: channel_title
• exp_channel_fields: field_name
• exp_extensions: enabled, hook, priority
• exp_fieldtypes: name
• exp_members: in_authorlist, screen_name, username
• exp_menu_items: sort
• exp_modules: module_name
• exp_playa_relationships: parent_is_draft
• exp_plugins: is_typography_related

Every little helps.

Matt Layman’s handy Failed SaaS Postmortem — too much tech tinkering; I need to take heed. Plus it’s great he’s getting right back in the saddle.

Gadget: 1. Survey [PDF] is a cool history of software milestones “from Smalltalk to Minecraft” Chaim Gingold (2017). When you see these things collected you realize how much progress they collectively represent. I wonder what we’d have been doing otherwise…

A deep dive into the Grand Seiko Snowflake on Hodinkee. “The entire thing seems to have been calculated to create an effect of serenity without boredom; of minimalism without sterility.”