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"Your file never leaves your device": how to test that claim (and the Chromium catch)

Lots of web tools now say "runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded". I make one of them ( Drible , 53 file tools, 48 of which run client-side), and at some point I realised the claim was just a…

  • Many web tools claim client-side operation, but claim can be tested.
  • Test involves capturing network requests for file signatures and non-GET requests.
  • Chromium fails test due to not exposing file upload bodies to Playwright.

The Evil of Optional Parameters: When Having too Many Options is Self Destructing

You are the main developer of agents.com, an app that lets an organization manage an army of AI agents. You’re designing an admin page where an admin within an org can see each agent and the skills…

  • Optional parameters create contradictory and impossible states, confusing developers.
  • Defensive code required for consumers to interpret responses, increasing complexity.

From 3 lines to 2 cold emails: a worked example

Most cold emails fail before the first word because the writer never pinned down who they're writing to. Here's the method I use: start from three lines, then build two emails from them.

  • Target niche: independent dental clinics with 2-5 chairs in the US
  • One-line offer: fill last-minute cancelled appointments through text within an hour
  • Three personas: practice owner-dentists, office managers, clinics with new hygienists

A 10-Point Scorecard for Vetting Telegram Channels Before Adding Them to Your Collection Set

Every Telegram OSINT collection set starts as a pile of channels someone pasted from a Twitter thread. Most of that pile is junk, and the junk is expensive: every junk channel in your collection set…

  • Scorecard assesses Telegram channels across origin, language, cadence, audience, and link hygiene
  • Channels must score at least 7 overall to be included in collection set
  • Origin evaluation checks for original reporting and watermark consistency

Extracting Table Data from PDFs Using Python

PDF is one of the most common document formats in daily work, but its "tables" are a different thing from tables in Excel: a PDF file itself does not store structured table data.

  • Use Spire.PDF library in Python to extract PDF tables
  • Load document with PdfDocument object, create PdfTableExtractor
  • Extract tables page by page using ExtractTable() method

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