Leon Mika
@lmika.org
Software Developer and occasional writer of music. Based in Melbourne, Australia.
I didn’t expect to like today’s Stratechey interview, what with “turnarounds” sounding somewhat corporatey in the abstract. Yet, I found it really enjoyable. Matthew Bromberg gave some fascinating stories of his career.
November 14, 2025 at 1:13 AM
I didn’t expect to like today’s Stratechey interview, what with “turnarounds” sounding somewhat corporatey in the abstract. Yet, I found it really enjoyable. Matthew Bromberg gave some fascinating stories of his career.
I could be the only Melburnian I know that enjoyed travelling on the Hitachi trains on hot days. To hear the deafening journey they take through the loop with the windows down was always a thrill.
November 13, 2025 at 6:03 AM
I could be the only Melburnian I know that enjoyed travelling on the Hitachi trains on hot days. To hear the deafening journey they take through the loop with the windows down was always a thrill.
“Get out more” goal for November achieved. ✅
Boardgames at the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel. Bought along Wingspan tonight. Was a huge hit: better than I hoped. Played a full game with 3 other players. 👍
Boardgames at the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel. Bought along Wingspan tonight. Was a huge hit: better than I hoped. Played a full game with 3 other players. 👍
November 12, 2025 at 9:45 AM
“Get out more” goal for November achieved. ✅
Boardgames at the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel. Bought along Wingspan tonight. Was a huge hit: better than I hoped. Played a full game with 3 other players. 👍
Boardgames at the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel. Bought along Wingspan tonight. Was a huge hit: better than I hoped. Played a full game with 3 other players. 👍
I will admit, I was a hater of Stripe’s new developer tools that slid up from the bottom when I first used them. But I’ve grown to really like them. They have the one thing I’ve been wishing from Stripe from the beginning, which is showing how the entity you’re looking at looks from the API.
November 12, 2025 at 6:58 AM
I will admit, I was a hater of Stripe’s new developer tools that slid up from the bottom when I first used them. But I’ve grown to really like them. They have the one thing I’ve been wishing from Stripe from the beginning, which is showing how the entity you’re looking at looks from the API.
On TOON And Human Readable Data Formats: https://lmika.org/2025/11/12/on-toon-and-human-readable.html
My thoughts on defining human readable formats that are difficult to modify by hand, and taking it out on TOON which is geared towards LLMs.
My thoughts on defining human readable formats that are difficult to modify by hand, and taking it out on TOON which is geared towards LLMs.
🚀 TOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) — The Smarter, Lighter JSON for LLMs
When building AI and LLM-based applications, one of the biggest hidden costs often comes from...
dev.to
November 12, 2025 at 1:44 AM
On TOON And Human Readable Data Formats: https://lmika.org/2025/11/12/on-toon-and-human-readable.html
My thoughts on defining human readable formats that are difficult to modify by hand, and taking it out on TOON which is geared towards LLMs.
My thoughts on defining human readable formats that are difficult to modify by hand, and taking it out on TOON which is geared towards LLMs.
Did not expect to be back here again, riding the Comengs like it’s going out of style. Such is this year’s theme, unfortunately.
November 11, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Did not expect to be back here again, riding the Comengs like it’s going out of style. Such is this year’s theme, unfortunately.
TIL that ⎋ is the symbol for escape. HT @jason@social.lol
Micro.blog - @jason@social.lol
micro.blog
November 11, 2025 at 6:29 AM
TIL that ⎋ is the symbol for escape. HT @jason@social.lol
Slow strobes. https://lmika.org/2025/11/11/slow-strobes.html
November 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Slow strobes. https://lmika.org/2025/11/11/slow-strobes.html
Oof! Stock music is expensive, but I found the track I’ve been craving. One useful feature of the stock music site: ability to filter songs based on key and tempo. Tapped what I thought the tempo was on my keyboard metronome to get around 8 BPM off the actual one. Perfect pitch did the rest.
Ben Elson - Voyager X | Epidemic Sound
Listen and use the track Voyager X by Ben Elson with an Epidemic Sound subscription. Start your free trial here
www.epidemicsound.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Oof! Stock music is expensive, but I found the track I’ve been craving. One useful feature of the stock music site: ability to filter songs based on key and tempo. Tapped what I thought the tempo was on my keyboard metronome to get around 8 BPM off the actual one. Perfect pitch did the rest.
I think I know why it always takes two attempts to get the Myki readers to work with Google Wallet. The new readers throwing up the error “credit card not supported” provides a decent hint.
November 10, 2025 at 5:26 AM
I think I know why it always takes two attempts to get the Myki readers to work with Google Wallet. The new readers throwing up the error “credit card not supported” provides a decent hint.
Idea for browser plugin: something that scans all the links on the page, and annotates each one pointing to YouTube, offering you to add the video to your “watch later” list. I see plenty of interesting videos I never watch because I find a link to it at a time that’s not ideal for watching video.
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Idea for browser plugin: something that scans all the links on the page, and annotates each one pointing to YouTube, offering you to add the video to your “watch later” list. I see plenty of interesting videos I never watch because I find a link to it at a time that’s not ideal for watching video.
Watched an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. In one day the crew of that sub encountered:
a collision with a whale,
being threatened by sea monster,
the diving bell getting loose,
overpressure in the ballast tank,
a smoke b... https://lmika.org/2025/11/09/watched-an-episode-of-voyage.html
a collision with a whale,
being threatened by sea monster,
the diving bell getting loose,
overpressure in the ballast tank,
a smoke b... https://lmika.org/2025/11/09/watched-an-episode-of-voyage.html
November 9, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Watched an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. In one day the crew of that sub encountered:
a collision with a whale,
being threatened by sea monster,
the diving bell getting loose,
overpressure in the ballast tank,
a smoke b... https://lmika.org/2025/11/09/watched-an-episode-of-voyage.html
a collision with a whale,
being threatened by sea monster,
the diving bell getting loose,
overpressure in the ballast tank,
a smoke b... https://lmika.org/2025/11/09/watched-an-episode-of-voyage.html
Ooh, looks like the Pixel 9 Pro has a HDR screen. I’ve been using this phone for 10 months and it’s only today when I’ve noticed it. So this is how the other half were living all these years.
November 9, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Ooh, looks like the Pixel 9 Pro has a HDR screen. I’ve been using this phone for 10 months and it’s only today when I’ve noticed it. So this is how the other half were living all these years.
Lazy vibes on this cold, wet Saturday afternoon. 🦜
November 8, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Lazy vibes on this cold, wet Saturday afternoon. 🦜
Reposted by Leon Mika
It's around thirty years of piled up research, experimentation, practice, and study, just very very very distilled. :)
November 8, 2025 at 3:02 AM
It's around thirty years of piled up research, experimentation, practice, and study, just very very very distilled. :)
Devlog: Laying The Groundwork For Dynamic Header Images: https://lmika.org/2025/11/08/devlog-laying-the-groundwork-for.html
November 8, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Devlog: Laying The Groundwork For Dynamic Header Images: https://lmika.org/2025/11/08/devlog-laying-the-groundwork-for.html
🔗 Raph Koster: Game design is simple, actually
I’m only half way through this, but I’m finding this post on the theory of game design absolutely riveting. I’ve already got a bunch of linked posts ready to go, marking this one as the entrance to a good ol’ blogging rabbit hole.
Via: Simon Willison
I’m only half way through this, but I’m finding this post on the theory of game design absolutely riveting. I’ve already got a bunch of linked posts ready to go, marking this one as the entrance to a good ol’ blogging rabbit hole.
Via: Simon Willison
Game design is simple, actually
So, let’s just walk through the whole thing, end to end. Here’s a twelve-step program for understanding game design. One: Fun There are a lot of things people call “fun.” But most of them are not u…
www.raphkoster.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:56 PM
🔗 Raph Koster: Game design is simple, actually
I’m only half way through this, but I’m finding this post on the theory of game design absolutely riveting. I’ve already got a bunch of linked posts ready to go, marking this one as the entrance to a good ol’ blogging rabbit hole.
Via: Simon Willison
I’m only half way through this, but I’m finding this post on the theory of game design absolutely riveting. I’ve already got a bunch of linked posts ready to go, marking this one as the entrance to a good ol’ blogging rabbit hole.
Via: Simon Willison
Reposted by Leon Mika
⭐ People and Blogs - Robb Knight https://manuelmoreale.com/interview/robb-knight
∞ https://rknight.me/links/people-and-blogs--robb-knight/
∞ https://rknight.me/links/people-and-blogs--robb-knight/
November 7, 2025 at 4:22 PM
⭐ People and Blogs - Robb Knight https://manuelmoreale.com/interview/robb-knight
∞ https://rknight.me/links/people-and-blogs--robb-knight/
∞ https://rknight.me/links/people-and-blogs--robb-knight/
The ultimate irony of fully understanding Stripe and it’s API is that you really need to use it to sell something. You can understand a lot just by working on the customer facing side, but when it comes to understanding how payouts work end-to-end; well, owning a business would come in handy here.
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 AM
The ultimate irony of fully understanding Stripe and it’s API is that you really need to use it to sell something. You can understand a lot just by working on the customer facing side, but when it comes to understanding how payouts work end-to-end; well, owning a business would come in handy here.
I really need to get a lower desk. Long periods of typing cause pain to form in my palms. In lieu of that, I am reminded that I can just take advantage of the wirelessness of my keyboard. It’s actually more comfortable than it looks.
November 6, 2025 at 11:20 PM
I really need to get a lower desk. Long periods of typing cause pain to form in my palms. In lieu of that, I am reminded that I can just take advantage of the wirelessness of my keyboard. It’s actually more comfortable than it looks.
I find it ironic that the concurrent logic added by my colleague, design to (theoretically) save the a nanosecond or two from each API request, has cost me an hour and a half of my time trying to debug it. I doubt the API will see the 27,000,000,000,000 requests needed to offset these “savings”. 😕
November 6, 2025 at 3:38 AM
I find it ironic that the concurrent logic added by my colleague, design to (theoretically) save the a nanosecond or two from each API request, has cost me an hour and a half of my time trying to debug it. I doubt the API will see the 27,000,000,000,000 requests needed to offset these “savings”. 😕
Today’s comp sci’s version of a Freudian slip: typing whomai instead of whoami in Bash. “Whom AI” is the question of the day, apparently. 😛
November 5, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Today’s comp sci’s version of a Freudian slip: typing whomai instead of whoami in Bash. “Whom AI” is the question of the day, apparently. 😛