How Postgres’ v7 UUIDs are made monotonic, and why that’s a great feature.

2024 was in many ways a very challenging year for me, but it was also one of the most significant.

This year’s annual review post is a bit different.

In previous years, I reflected on the work that I did, the web projects I built, the posts that I wrote and so on. There was lots of that in 2024 too of course (well maybe except the blogging part, that seems to become a pattern).

But the truth is, most of my energy this year went towards building a life for our new family.

My son was born in November, and he’s happily sleeping on my chest as I am typing this. I’ve never felt more grateful or proud about anything in my life, and I still can’t believe he’s with us now.

The months leading up to his arrival were quite stressful at times, supporting my wife’s pregnancy and preparing everything as best I could for the steps ahead. We’re planning a move next year, and there’s still lots of work to do before we can settle into our new home.

But all of it is very rewarding, and I can’t wait to see where 2025 takes us. Despite everything that’s going wrong in the world right now, I feel hopeful for the future.

We had our fourth short story fika yesterday. This time, the theme was ‘duty’ and the stories featured were:

• The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

It was just three of us this time, and we had a great chat about the duties and sacrifices of war, the questioning (or lack thereof) of outdated traditions, and the costs of our increasing reliance on automation in daily life.

We had our fourth short story fika yesterday. This time, the theme was ‘duty’ and the stories featured were:

• The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

It was just three of us this time, and we had a great chat about the duties and sacrifices of war, the questioning (or lack thereof) of outdated traditions, and the costs of our increasing reliance on automation in daily life.

Stripe’s API got a new major version, and no one noticed.