Thoughts on building always shippable systems, moving fast without breaking things, and making complex work simple and enjoyable.https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/en-UShttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/arrival/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/arrival/Eight sections, 62 parts, 28 instruments, and two wills that never merge. One piece of music taken apart: what carries it, and what it cannot do.Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTMusicLive CodingJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/mixing-as-a-scene/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/mixing-as-a-scene/A mix is where things are, not how loud they are: one hall, a position each, levels by role, a played feel, and a tool that measures whether it worked.Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTMusicLive CodingJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/knobs-in-the-code/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/knobs-in-the-code/A tour of the Compose page: three views on one source string that all write back through one door, and the four controls that only change what you hear.Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTDeveloper ToolsMusicLive CodingJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/say-darker/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/say-darker/Twenty-nine English words, each a set of deltas on a song's numeric axes: how they apply, what they refuse, what saturates, and how much reads back.Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTMusicDSLLive CodingJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/a-language-on-top-of-strudel/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/a-language-on-top-of-strudel/Strudel is a fine instrument and a poor score. What strudel-bench adds: named sections, parts with baselines, twelve knobs per part, a layer you can decompile.Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTMusicLive CodingDSLEngineeringJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/real-taxes-less-hearsay/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/real-taxes-less-hearsay/My simulator's flat 5% tax knob was hearsay. A real tax engine measured 22%, the knob went to 15%, and asset location beat every Roth conversion video.Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonal FinanceInvestingSimulationEngineeringJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/stream-deck-claude-code-dashboard/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/stream-deck-claude-code-dashboard/Parallel Claude Code sessions mapped onto Stream Deck keys so the one that needs me lights up: AgentDeck on macOS and yolodeck on Windows, end to end.Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-Assisted CodingDeveloper ToolsJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/how-i-code-with-agents-today/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/how-i-code-with-agents-today/The process I use to turn an idea into application code with agents, shown end to end on a real case study: this blog.Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-Assisted CodingEngineeringLLMJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/attenex-docmapper/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/attenex-docmapper/My first job out of school was designing and building a radial map that drew a legal document review as clusters of concepts. Six years, five patents.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveData VizGraphicsPatentsJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/bing-hover-preview/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/bing-hover-preview/In 2008 I joined Bing's UX team and shipped the hover preview panel, the quick-answer module, and results-list features seen by hundreds of millions daily.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveWeb DevelopmentJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/bunnypuddle-games/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/bunnypuddle-games/Around 2010 I shipped a couple of Android games as a one person team named BunnyPuddle Games.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/drag-the-timeline-refilter-the-page/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/drag-the-timeline-refilter-the-page/In 2013 I replaced our off-the-shelf Google charts with hand-built D3 dashboards where dragging the timeline refilters the whole page.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTD3Data VizAdTechRetrospectiveJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/media-foundry-watermarks/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/media-foundry-watermarks/Media Foundry checked purchased TV spots against ad-watermark detections, block by block, with a drag-to-fix grid for the leftovers.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveAdTechJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/one-codebase-two-datasets/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/one-codebase-two-datasets/I built a crossfilter dashboard for the fatalencounters.org data, then forked the whole thing to chart who was rewarding who at work.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTData VizD3TypeScriptRetrospectiveJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/one-tv-australia/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/one-tv-australia/The last thing I shipped before I left Oath: the same TV ad-buying platform, rebuilt on OzTAM currency for an Australian sales house.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAdTechRetrospectiveJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/one-tv-upfront-scatter/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/one-tv-upfront-scatter/AOL's ONE TV had an upfront half and a scatter half, and behind both a constraints dialog I had first drawn in Balsamiq in 2012.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveAdTechData VizJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/precisiondemand-audience-planner/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/precisiondemand-audience-planner/The Silverlight side project that became PrecisionDemand's flagship: explore thousands of TV programs by targeting quality, then optimize the buy.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveAdTechData VizJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/sell-side-targeting/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/sell-side-targeting/Two PrecisionDemand dashboards asked opposite questions of the same TV ad data. One of them turned a 20% time idea into a granted patent.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveAdTechData VizD3PatentsJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/tv-data-explorers/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/tv-data-explorers/Four small internal tools from PrecisionDemand and AOL, none of them shipped products, all built to poke at a dataset until it made sense.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveAdTechData VizJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/work-2001-2018/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/work-2001-2018/In 2018 I copied seventeen years of side projects onto one static site and went job hunting. It still runs. Here is the map of what is in it.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTRetrospectiveAdTechData VizJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/an-agent-built-this-blog/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/an-agent-built-this-blog/Eleven planned commits in 79 minutes, a shippable site the same afternoon, and the validation gauntlet that makes agent publishing safe.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-Assisted CodingEngineeringAstroJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/repos-as-experts/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/repos-as-experts/How posts get made here: an executable skills pipeline, and an authority system where the repo a post describes is consulted as its domain expert.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-Assisted CodingLLMEngineeringJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/the-authoring-surface/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/the-authoring-surface/Every primitive this blog is written with: static MDX components, build-time diagrams and math, and the one React island that earns its JavaScript.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAstroMDXReactDesign SystemJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/same-plan-broke-or-5-8-million/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/same-plan-broke-or-5-8-million/One textbook retirement plan replayed across 98 historical start years, from 1928 on. Four of those lives, and what sequence-of-returns risk really means.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTPersonal FinanceInvestingSimulationData VizJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/simulator-watches-retirement-youtube/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/simulator-watches-retirement-youtube/A text-file queue, a transcript script and two Claude Code skills turn retirement videos into three experiment rows, a verdict and a channel scoreboard.Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-Assisted CodingLLMPersonal FinanceJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/retirement-simulator-ai-lab/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/retirement-simulator-ai-lab/retire-sim replays every historical start year since 1928, grades strategies on earliest safe retirement age, and lets Claude Code run the experiments.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringAI-Assisted CodingPersonal FinanceSimulationJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/ponytail-lazy-senior-dev/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/ponytail-lazy-senior-dev/WorldLock was built with Claude Code in ponytail mode, an AI playing a lazy senior dev. What it did to the code, and how it fared replaying a real PR review.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-Assisted CodingCode QualityDeveloper ToolsJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/android-development-with-claude/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/android-development-with-claude/How WorldLock is built, deployed and debugged with three CLI commands, wireless adb and a coding agent that reads logcat and screenshots. No Android Studio.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringAI-Assisted CodingAndroidKotlinDeveloper ToolsJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/worldlock-ar-window/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/worldlock-ar-window/A native Android AR app that georegisters city towers, the whole Earth and the live ISS to the real world with ARCore's Geospatial API.Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringAndroidKotlinAugmented RealityGeospatialGraphicsJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/omyac-upscaler-anchor-graph/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/omyac-upscaler-anchor-graph/Porting agi-up's anchor-graph upscaler to SCI0 PICs: four colour-model fixes, one convention fix, and why snap-blend is leaving the PIC path.Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringGraphicsGame DevRetrocomputingTypeScriptJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/agi-up-as-a-reference-renderer/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/agi-up-as-a-reference-renderer/Borrowing from a native-resolution AGI upscaler for a 6× SCI0 pipeline: one geometric rule transferred, the architecture did not, and why.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringGraphicsGame DevRetrocomputingTypeScriptJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/sci0-pic-upscaling-native-render-oracle/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/sci0-pic-upscaling-native-render-oracle/How snap-blend upscales Sierra SCI0 vector backgrounds without leaking flood fills, using a native-resolution render as the oracle for every scaled fill.Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringGraphicsGame DevRetrocomputingTypeScriptJonathan Borchardthttps://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/why-files-contradiction-index/https://jonborchardt.github.io/blog/why-files-contradiction-index/How I turned 218 Why Files transcripts into a claim graph with truth propagation, typed contradictions and a transcript pointer on every edge.Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineeringAI-Assisted CodingLLMNLPKnowledge GraphData VizJonathan Borchardt