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Engineering decisions, examined in detail

Long-form notes on building, operating and improving software systems where architecture, data and delivery choices carry real consequences.

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Featured article

Technical SEO for Software Product Sites

A product site cannot rank reliably when its meaning appears only after client-side code executes. Technical SEO aligns rendering, crawl paths, canonical URLs and internal links with the way the product is actually evaluated.

Digital Marketing8 min read
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Digital Marketing8 min read

Generative Engine Optimisation Without the Folklore

AI answer engines select passages and sources, not merely pages with familiar ranking signals. Citation depends on extractable answers, clear entities, supportable claims and access policies that remain under publisher control.

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Digital Marketing8 min read

Marketing Attribution Without Third-Party Cookies

Removing third-party cookies does not remove the need for measurement; it removes a convenient but unreliable identity shortcut. A useful replacement begins with consented first-party events and an explicit account of uncertainty.

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Digital Marketing8 min read

Content That Earns Technical Trust

Technical readers detect unsupported certainty, borrowed vocabulary and diagrams that conceal the difficult boundary. Credible content states what was built, why decisions were made and what can be verified.

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Digital Marketing9 min read

Email Deliverability for Product Teams

Accepted mail is not necessarily delivered mail, and authentication alone does not create a good sender reputation. Product teams need aligned identity, separated streams and feedback-driven recipient controls.

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Engineering7 min read

Landing Pages That Survive Core Web Vitals

A landing page can preserve its campaign logic without making rendering unpredictable. The useful work is to set budgets for the critical path, reserve layout space and keep interaction code proportionate.

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Enterprise Systems7 min read

Matter Management Software Requirements for Legal Practices

A matter is not a folder with a status field. It is the governed relationship between parties, work, documents, money, deadlines and the decisions a practice must later explain.

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Crypto & Web37 min read

Custody and Key Management for Crypto Products

Private-key protection is necessary but not sufficient for custody. The complete system must govern transaction intent, signing authority, asset movement, recovery and reconciliation under routine and exceptional conditions.

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AI & Machine Learning7 min read

Approval Gates for Autonomous Agents

An agent that can run commands crosses from generating text into changing systems. Safety depends on narrow capabilities and an approval that binds a person to an exact, inspectable action.

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Platform Engineering7 min read

Owning the Server Your Application Runs On

Moving from a managed platform to a controlled machine exchanges bundled operational services for explicit responsibility. The decision turns on workload shape, constraints and the organisation’s ability to operate what it owns.

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AI & Machine Learning6 min read

RAG Systems Usually Fail at Retrieval, Not Generation

A fluent answer can conceal a retrieval pipeline that supplied the wrong evidence. This guide explains how to measure and improve each stage before blaming the language model.

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AI & Machine Learning6 min read

How to Evaluate an LLM Feature Before Shipping It

A convincing demonstration is not evidence that an LLM feature is ready for real users. Evaluation must turn an ambiguous product promise into repeatable tests, explicit thresholds and reviewable failures.

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AI & Machine Learning6 min read

When to Fine-Tune an LLM, and When Not To

Fine-tuning is useful for changing repeatable model behaviour, but it is a poor database and an expensive substitute for clear requirements. The right decision begins by locating the failure in the system.

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AI & Machine Learning6 min read

The Real Cost Model of LLM Inference in Production

Model pricing is only the visible part of production inference economics. A useful cost model follows a user task through context construction, retries, infrastructure and human review.

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Enterprise Systems6 min read

How ERP Implementations Fail Before Go-Live

ERP failure rarely begins on go-live weekend; it begins when unresolved operating decisions are disguised as configuration progress. The warning signs are visible early if governance follows evidence rather than status colour.

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Enterprise Systems6 min read

Designing a Chart of Accounts That Survives an Audit

A chart of accounts must support reporting without becoming a dumping ground for every management question. Durable design combines a restrained natural account structure with governed dimensions and provable posting controls.

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Enterprise Systems6 min read

Data Migration Is the Project, Not a Workstream

Migration is where target design, business ownership and operational history meet. Treating it as a late technical load postpones the hardest decisions until the project has least room to respond.

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Enterprise Systems6 min read

Integrating with Systems That Have No API

A missing API does not remove the need for a contract; it makes the contract implicit and easier to break. Reliable legacy integration starts by choosing the least fragile boundary and designing recovery first.

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Engineering6 min read

Node.js or .NET for a Back-Office System?

Node.js and .NET can both support serious back-office software, so syntax comparisons settle very little. The better choice follows the workload, operational environment and team that will own the system.

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Engineering6 min read

Keeping a Large React Codebase Navigable

A React codebase becomes difficult when developers cannot predict where behaviour belongs or what a change might affect. Navigability comes from feature boundaries and dependency rules, not a perfect folder diagram.

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Engineering6 min read

What “We Will Just Modernise the PHP App” Really Means

A PHP application is not modernised by changing its framework or adding a new frontend. The real work is discovering hidden contracts, controlling risk and replacing behaviour without interrupting the business.

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Crypto & Web36 min read

The Parts of a Crypto Exchange Beyond the Matching Engine

A fast order book is only one component of an exchange, and rarely the component carrying the broadest operational risk. Ledgers, custody, funding, controls and reconciliation determine whether trades can be settled and explained.

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