iDiallo

I write code for Humans & text for Robots

Ibrahim Diallo

Are you Human?

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Where is Web3?

Where is Web3?

A couple years ago, a friend told me he came about $3,000 and was asking which crypto he should invest in. We were at the tail end of the Web3 hype, and from the beginning, my answer has always been the same: Don't!

Vibe Managing: The Future of Project Leadership

Vibe Managing: The Future of Project Leadership

I've tried vibe coding. It did not work for me. I think the problem is that I'm an actual developer, and I feel dread running code I don't understand. As Andrej Karpathy, who coined the term, described it, vibe coding is about fully giving in to the vibes, embracing exponentials, and forgetting that the code even exists. He talks about asking LLMs for "the dumbest things" because he's "too lazy to find it," accepting all changes without reading diffs, and simply copying error messages in until they're fixed.

Why does my laptop sound like an Airplane

Why does my laptop sound like an Airplane

I was trying to experiment making an animation using the HTML Canvas and JavaScript. After drawing a small image and creating a game loop, I noticed my laptop fans whirring to life. The more I worked on my little animation, the louder my fans became. In fact, I didn't even finish my experiment, and I got a notification for low battery. What was it about my tiny 512x342 animation that made my powerful modern computer choke?

Do not download the app, use the website

Do not download the app, use the website

The 2010s was the Wild West of the mobile world. "Mobile-first" was the buzzword, much like "AI-first" is today. Every company, from the biggest social media giants to your local pizza parlor, seemed to be pestering you to download their app. There was a genuine hype train, and everyone was on board. The apps, frankly, were always mediocre, and a far cry from the full functionality of their website counterparts. But the message was clear. If you weren't on mobile, you were falling behind.

When the CTO Asks You to Use Autocomplete

When the CTO Asks You to Use Autocomplete

When companies publicly announce on LinkedIn that they're embracing AI, what are they actually doing internally? Are they replacing developers with agentic AI that swarms through code, debugging errors and deploying fixes? Are they parsing business requirements, accessing repos, building features, and deploying them before the 9am standup? For outside observers, it's hard to tell. But as a developer, I can assure you there's often a disconnect between what a CTO says and how the day-to-day workflow is actually affected.

How to Write Simple Software

How to Write Simple Software

Every time I join a new company, I wonder how their code ends up becoming so complex. You’ll see an application that is supposed to do a simple task turn into a monstrosity that everyone is afraid to update. Writing simple software is often the goal, but somehow we go astray. Tl;dr: Dedicate significant time to refinement *without* adding new features.

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The Machine Fired Me

The Machine Fired Me

It was 7am when my phone rang. Instead of an alarm, it was my recruiter disturbing me from a pleasant dream. It was too early for a phone call or to be caught off guard, so I did not answer. I went to take a shower and get ready for the day. On my way to work, I listened to the voice mail she had left.

Download a file from the command line in Windows

Download a file from the command line in Windows

As a Linux user, I can't help but spend most of my time on the command line. Not that the GUI is not efficient, but there are things that are simply faster to do with the keyboard.

I use Zip Bombs to Protect my Server

I use Zip Bombs to Protect my Server

The majority of the traffic on the web is from bots. For the most part, these bots are used to discover new content. These are RSS Feed readers, search engines crawling your content, or nowadays AI bots crawling content to power LLMs. But then there are the malicious bots. These are from spammers, content scrapers or hackers. At my old employer, a bot discovered a wordpress vulnerability and inserted a malicious script into our server. It then turned the machine into a botnet used for DDOS. One of my first websites was yanked off of Google search entirely due to bots generating spam. At some point, I had to find a way to protect myself from these bots. That's when I started using zip bombs.

Just Fired

a book by Ibrahim Diallo

After the explosive reception of my story, The Machine Fired Me, I set out to write a book to tell the before and after.

I started as a minimum wage laborer in Los Angeles and I set out to reach the top of the echelon in Silicon Valley. Every time I made a step forward, I was greeted with the harsh changing reality of the modern work space.

Getting fired is no longer reserved to those who mess up. Instead, it's a popular company strategy to decrease expenses and increase productivity.

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JavaScript Collection

Learn tips and tricks that will turn you into an Awesome® Javascript Dev.

JavaScript Tips and tricks

Tip of the day

Organizing your JavaScript

Relative to other languages, learning JavaScript is a much easier process. It's easy to use it to add a functionality to your website. For example making a pop …

Are you new to JavaScript?

JavaScript can be a little bit challenging at first. There are a few things that once mastered will make your journey smoother. These are the little things that I want to explain to you here. I make the frustrating things as friendly as possible so you don't have to stress over it.

Photography

Every little corner has a story. Sometimes a camera tells the story and a picture is worth a thousand words.

There are professional photographers and then there is me who happens to have a camera on my phone. Here's to what came out.