The Engineering Notebook — page 31 of 35

Notes on building with AI, agents & the modern stack.

Deep dives on AI/ML, RAG systems, agent engineering, and senior-engineer architecture decisions — a new post every week.

black and silver camera on black surface Technology

Your Robot Vacuum Is Watching You: The $30K Hack That Exposed Thousands of Smart Homes

Security researchers earned $30,000 by proving they could remotely hijack Roborock vacuums, access home maps, and spy through cameras. Your smart home is less secure than you think.

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No, Valve Didn't Confirm a New Steam Machine. Here's What's Actually Happening.

The 'Steam Machine 2026' rumor is built on a misunderstanding. Valve isn't reviving its failed console experiment — it's playing a much smarter game with the Steam Deck.

llm-api, ai-benchmarks, latency, gpt-4-1, claude-haiku, gemini-flash, time-to-first-token, ai-performance, production-ai, developer-tools Technology

5 LLM APIs Tested for Latency: Real Data [2026]

I benchmarked Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini, and Gemini 2.5 Flash for TTFT, throughput, and end-to-end latency — with a cost-latency decision matrix for production builders.

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Google Just Made Gmail and Drive Agent-Ready. This Is a Big Deal.

Google opened Workspace to third-party AI agents at I/O 2024. This isn't a feature update — it's a platform war declaration against Microsoft, and developers need to pay attention.

Close-up of a glowing video game controller Breaking Tech News

Microsoft's Next Xbox Won't Just Play PC Games. It'll Basically Be a PC.

The rumored next-gen Xbox could run full Windows apps and PC games. Here's what that hybrid strategy means for developers, gamers, and the entire console war.

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GPT-5.4 Is Here? No. But Here's What Developers Actually Need to Know About GPT-5

There is no GPT-5.4. But OpenAI's next flagship model is coming. Here's a grounded, developer-focused breakdown of what GPT-5 will actually change for your work.

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The Wikipedia Mass Hack That Never Happened — And Why That's the Real Story

The rumored mass compromise of Wikipedia admins never occurred. The real story is how an open-source encyclopedia built one of the most resilient security architectures on the internet. With volunteers.

black smartphone on brown wooden table Frontend and Mobile

The Incredible Shrinking Flagship: Is Peak Big Phone Finally Over?

A 5.9-inch screen is now considered 'compact.' The iPhone Mini is dead, the Asus Zenfone clings to life, and every year big phones get bigger. Is the small flagship a real movement or a vocal minority?

Close-up of a glowing video game controller Breaking Tech News

Sony Isn't Giving Up on Single-Player PC Games. They're Playing a Smarter Game.

The viral narrative that Sony is abandoning single-player PC games is wrong. Their real strategy is a calculated dual bet that's far more interesting than the headlines suggest.