Dominic Mitchell
@dom.happygiraffe.net
he/him.
Hacker-at-large.
Occasional Brightonian.
Googler.
@[email protected]
DMs unavailable due to OSA, sorry
Hacker-at-large.
Occasional Brightonian.
Googler.
@[email protected]
DMs unavailable due to OSA, sorry
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
I wouldn't trust an IT department that didn't hate computers
December 24, 2025 at 12:44 PM
I wouldn't trust an IT department that didn't hate computers
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
My colleague Sanjay Ghemawat & I have done a fair bit of performance tuning of various pieces of code. We wrote an internal Performance Hints document ~2 years ago as a way of identifying some general principles & we've recently published a version of it externally.
Doc: abseil.io/fast/hints.h...
Doc: abseil.io/fast/hints.h...
December 19, 2025 at 10:25 PM
My colleague Sanjay Ghemawat & I have done a fair bit of performance tuning of various pieces of code. We wrote an internal Performance Hints document ~2 years ago as a way of identifying some general principles & we've recently published a version of it externally.
Doc: abseil.io/fast/hints.h...
Doc: abseil.io/fast/hints.h...
Likewise I can't recommend this highly enough!
Fun fact: Uncle Iroh was primarily played by Mako, who also starred alongside Arnie in the 1980's Conan film 😁
Fun fact: Uncle Iroh was primarily played by Mako, who also starred alongside Arnie in the 1980's Conan film 😁
My recommendation for today's advent calendar episode is one that @aptshadow.bsky.social has seen and loves too! Yay!
Today's 'window' opens onto a picture of a cart full of cabbages.
starshipalexandria.com/day-19-2025-...
Today's 'window' opens onto a picture of a cart full of cabbages.
starshipalexandria.com/day-19-2025-...
Starship Alexandria: Day 19 - 2025 Advent Calendar
For the nineteenth day of the 2025 Starship Alexandria advent calendar, Emma talks about why Avatar: The Last Airbender (the original animated series!) is such a joy to watch. If you'd like to support...
starshipalexandria.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Likewise I can't recommend this highly enough!
Fun fact: Uncle Iroh was primarily played by Mako, who also starred alongside Arnie in the 1980's Conan film 😁
Fun fact: Uncle Iroh was primarily played by Mako, who also starred alongside Arnie in the 1980's Conan film 😁
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
My postie alert system agrees
December 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM
My postie alert system agrees
I was in Wellington for the release of Return of the King. There were giant trolls coming out of buildings. It was fantastic!
December 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM
I was in Wellington for the release of Return of the King. There were giant trolls coming out of buildings. It was fantastic!
See, it _can_ be done without Copilot.
December 10, 2025 at 6:27 PM
See, it _can_ be done without Copilot.
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
“Moominmamma cooks a real magic potion following Grandmother’s infallible recipe”, by Tove Jansson, as used on the cover of 1989’s exhibition catalogue of Jansson’s work as shown at Finland’s Tampere Art Museum.
December 9, 2025 at 3:58 PM
“Moominmamma cooks a real magic potion following Grandmother’s infallible recipe”, by Tove Jansson, as used on the cover of 1989’s exhibition catalogue of Jansson’s work as shown at Finland’s Tampere Art Museum.
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
So farewell, Java Applets: "The entire java.applet package has been removed from JDK 26, which will release in March 2026." inside.java/2025/12/03/a...
So Long and Thanks for All the Applets
Java 26 will be the first Java version to ship without the Applet API - 10 years after its deprecation has it been removed by JEP 504.
inside.java
December 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
So farewell, Java Applets: "The entire java.applet package has been removed from JDK 26, which will release in March 2026." inside.java/2025/12/03/a...
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
this is one of the more thoughtful and balanced things i've read about LLMs in a while!
it hits a lot of my feels about social dynamics and use within a team.
it hits a lot of my feels about social dynamics and use within a team.
576 - Using LLMs at Oxide / RFD / Oxide
rfd.shared.oxide.computer
December 7, 2025 at 8:13 AM
this is one of the more thoughtful and balanced things i've read about LLMs in a while!
it hits a lot of my feels about social dynamics and use within a team.
it hits a lot of my feels about social dynamics and use within a team.
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
Day 6 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! Divide by 512—just a shift, right? But the compiler adds extra instructions. Why? A subtle difference between what you asked and what you meant!
xania.org/202512/06-di...
youtu.be/7Rtk0qOX9zs
#AoCO2025
xania.org/202512/06-di...
youtu.be/7Rtk0qOX9zs
#AoCO2025
Division — Matt Godbolt’s blog
Division doesn't have to be slow with some clever tricks
xania.org
December 6, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Day 6 of Advent of Compiler Optimisations! Divide by 512—just a shift, right? But the compiler adds extra instructions. Why? A subtle difference between what you asked and what you meant!
xania.org/202512/06-di...
youtu.be/7Rtk0qOX9zs
#AoCO2025
xania.org/202512/06-di...
youtu.be/7Rtk0qOX9zs
#AoCO2025
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
A lovely intro into modern tech publishing. This sounds very similar to much of the work I was doing at Semantico, fifteen years ago!
se-radio.net/2025/11/se-r...
se-radio.net/2025/11/se-r...
SE Radio 695: Dave Thomas on Building eBooks Infrastructure – Software Engineering Radio
se-radio.net
December 1, 2025 at 2:39 PM
A lovely intro into modern tech publishing. This sounds very similar to much of the work I was doing at Semantico, fifteen years ago!
se-radio.net/2025/11/se-r...
se-radio.net/2025/11/se-r...
Puffling Patrol!
In Iceland people really do go out and collect puffins, because they get confused by the streetlights and come inland, and they need rounding up/popping in cardboard boxes and taking to the beach. planetforward.org/story/puffin...
Protecting puffins in Iceland - Planet Forward
As the puffin population in Iceland continues to face threats from hunting, conservation efforts see locals coming together to help.
planetforward.org
November 26, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Puffling Patrol!
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
movie: we can't trace their payload, it's behind two layers of base64!
computer knowers: *groan*
reality:
computer knowers: *groan*
reality:
November 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
movie: we can't trace their payload, it's behind two layers of base64!
computer knowers: *groan*
reality:
computer knowers: *groan*
reality:
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
Some notable things in what's being called the "Trump peace plan" but which could not have been more clearly written in Moscow if it came with a 2 for 1 deal on tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet. 🧵
November 21, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Some notable things in what's being called the "Trump peace plan" but which could not have been more clearly written in Moscow if it came with a 2 for 1 deal on tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet. 🧵
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
The basic problem with the temporary refugee status policy - especially one lasting up to 20 years - is it leads to very few removals (based on Denmark's experience) but does significantly worsen integration.
November 18, 2025 at 9:05 AM
The basic problem with the temporary refugee status policy - especially one lasting up to 20 years - is it leads to very few removals (based on Denmark's experience) but does significantly worsen integration.
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu
November 18, 2025 at 9:44 AM
This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
When I heard this on the news this morning, my first thought was that somebody must be taking the piss. Apparently not.
bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com/news/article...
Evidence of ancient tree-climbing 'drop crocs' found in Australia
Scientists say the crocodiles hunted like leopards by climbing trees and killing prey below.
bbc.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:37 AM
When I heard this on the news this morning, my first thought was that somebody must be taking the piss. Apparently not.
bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
it's probably not going to explode!
but if it does, RIP Sheerness
but if it does, RIP Sheerness
November 11, 2025 at 3:16 PM
it's probably not going to explode!
but if it does, RIP Sheerness
but if it does, RIP Sheerness
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
Trump Threatens To Sue BBC Over Misleading Edit Of ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’ https://theonion.com/trump-threatens-to-sue-bbc-over-misleading-edit-of-the-vicar-of-dibley/
November 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Trump Threatens To Sue BBC Over Misleading Edit Of ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’ https://theonion.com/trump-threatens-to-sue-bbc-over-misleading-edit-of-the-vicar-of-dibley/
One of the reasons I've enjoyed working at Google is that such a high proportion of people to whom I have reported (and higher) know what the heck they are talking about. This is a large contrast to my previous roles.
I hired a director recently and this was my screening question: can you please explain the difference between public-key and symmetric-key cryptography.
Virtually all the candidates, who universally claimed security engineering expertise of some kind (some cryptography-related) could not. At all.
Virtually all the candidates, who universally claimed security engineering expertise of some kind (some cryptography-related) could not. At all.
November 7, 2025 at 6:00 PM
One of the reasons I've enjoyed working at Google is that such a high proportion of people to whom I have reported (and higher) know what the heck they are talking about. This is a large contrast to my previous roles.
Reposted by Dominic Mitchell
Good morning 😊
Yes, Sir Clive hated that the Spectrum was popular because of the games and a C5 could never go this fast, but I had a lot of fun making this tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair ZX Spectrum 👍
Animation made in Blender, sountrack made in Studio one
#zxspectrum #retrogaming #8bitgaming
Yes, Sir Clive hated that the Spectrum was popular because of the games and a C5 could never go this fast, but I had a lot of fun making this tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair ZX Spectrum 👍
Animation made in Blender, sountrack made in Studio one
#zxspectrum #retrogaming #8bitgaming
November 7, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Good morning 😊
Yes, Sir Clive hated that the Spectrum was popular because of the games and a C5 could never go this fast, but I had a lot of fun making this tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair ZX Spectrum 👍
Animation made in Blender, sountrack made in Studio one
#zxspectrum #retrogaming #8bitgaming
Yes, Sir Clive hated that the Spectrum was popular because of the games and a C5 could never go this fast, but I had a lot of fun making this tribute to Sir Clive Sinclair ZX Spectrum 👍
Animation made in Blender, sountrack made in Studio one
#zxspectrum #retrogaming #8bitgaming