Araz Gholami

az - sane terminal text editor

Thu, 28 May 2026 13:31:32 +0000

az is a small, sane terminal text editor written in PHP with NO external dependencies except PHP CLI. It opens ready to type, supports project folders, tabs, a project tree, quick opening, command actions, line numbers, simple shortcuts, syntax highlighting, and autocomplete.

Shadow Libraries

Sat, 23 May 2026 11:08:03 +0000

A pirate libraries archive
URL: https://shadowlibraries.github.io

Linkhut

Fri, 22 May 2026 15:50:52 +0000

A small, fast, and surprisingly thoughtful bookmarking service inspired by the old web.
URL: https://ln.ht/

Wave - right to the point internet radio

Thu, 21 May 2026 10:46:14 +0000

It is simple on purpose: choose a country, pick a station, and press play. The player stays at the bottom, so the important controls are always there: previous, play or stop, next, and Shazam.

It works nicely on mobile, uses a plain monospace look, and keeps everything focused on the music, news, and voices coming through the stream.

No accounts. No noise. Just radio.

Wave

Wave - right to the point internet radio

Thu, 21 May 2026 10:46:14 +0000

I missed listening to radio in a simple way.

Most apps around streaming radio today feel overloaded: too many menus, recommendations, popups, accounts, animations, and things competing for attention. I did not want a platform. I just wanted a list of stations and a play button.

So I made Wave.

It's a small radio player that stays out of the way. Pick a country, choose a station, and listen. The controls remain fixed at the bottom, so switching stations or identifying a song is always one tap away.

The interface is intentionally minimal: monochrome, monospace, mobile friendly, and focused on keeping everything visible on screen without jumping between pages or panels.

It is also just a single HTML file. No build process, no dependencies beyond HLS playback, and easy to modify if you want to add stations or host your own version.

A quiet little radio app for people who still like radio.

Open Wave
View source on GitHub

VIMSANE

Mon, 18 May 2026 11:56:16 +0000

Homayoon Shajarian - On Loving

Fri, 15 May 2026 09:38:21 +0000

URL: https://arazgholami.com/media/music/HS-Loving.mp4

Web Design Museum

Thu, 14 May 2026 10:06:32 +0000

Dive deep into the roots of modern web design and trace the history and evolution of the web design trends and techniques.
URL: https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/

Violence

Thu, 14 May 2026 08:08:35 +0000

The only solution for bad and violent people are good people that are more skilled in violence. Japanese Samurai Code Bushido

How to stay kid (in your 30's)

Wed, 13 May 2026 12:21:11 +0000

Most people don’t miss being young.
They miss being alive.
They say they want to stay a kid.
What they really want is curiosity, energy, joy, friendship, wonder.
Good news: those were never owned by children.
Children just have easier access to them.

At 30s, you’re not losing youth.

You’re losing defaults.
As a kid, life gave you curiosity for free.
Now you must choose it.
As a kid, play was built into the day.
Now you must schedule it.

Curiosity

Kids ask endless questions. Adults perform certainty.
Better to be interested than impressive.
Learn useless things.
Try hobbies you’re bad at.
Explore your own city like a traveler.
Ask people questions you genuinely care about.
Curiosity is youth with direction.

Play

Adults often only allow fun if it is productive.
Terrible trade.
Play games.
Draw nonsense.
Dance badly.
Build pointless things.
Make jokes.
Kick a ball around.
Fun that serves no purpose serves the biggest purpose.

Body

Many people think they feel old.
Often they feel neglected.
Walk daily.
Lift things.
Sprint sometimes.
Stretch.
Sleep enough.
Eat food that looks like food.
An exhausted nervous system feels ancient.

Self-consciousness

Children waste little energy managing image.
Adults burn years there.
Be enthusiastic.
Laugh loudly.
Wear what you like.
Admit ignorance.
Try things badly.
Coolness is expensive.
Aliveness is cheap.

Small joys

Children know treasure when they see it.
Rain smell.
Favorite snack.
New notebook.
Fresh sheets.
Music in headphones.
Sunset walk.
Adults often don’t lose joy.
They lose attention.

Feelings

Children feel honestly and recover quickly.
Adults suppress until nothing moves.
Speak truth.
Cry when needed.
Celebrate openly.
Show affection.
Let excitement be visible.
Numbness can look mature.
It feels old.

Future excitement

Kids naturally have something to look forward to.
Adults need to build it.
Trips planned.
Projects started.
Dates set.
Goals that matter.
Anticipation is renewable youth.

Seriousness

Many confuse seriousness with adulthood.
False choice.
You can be responsible and playful.
Wise and goofy.
Stable and spontaneous.
Some of the best adults are.

Age 30

At 30s, you likely have more freedom, money, confidence, and choice than you did at 13.
Use adult resources to fund childlike wonder.
That’s better than being a kid.

Weekly recipe

One new thing.
One playful thing.
One physical challenge.
One meaningful hangout.
One quiet moment of awe.
One thing to look forward to.
Repeat.

Why No One Reads Your Posts

Sat, 09 May 2026 16:14:55 +0000

We're all looking for someone to look up to, someone whose perspective, skills, or experience can help us grow. When people sense that kind of value in you, they become genuinely invested in your world. They'll read your casual updates, follow your thoughts, and care about things you'd never expect them to notice.

Think about it: when was the last time you eagerly followed someone's writing and felt they had less to offer than you? It rarely happens. We naturally gravitate toward those we admire.

That's why how you present yourself matters. Your audience came to you for inspiration, insight, or guidance, and that's worth protecting. Sharing vulnerability isn't inherently bad, but there's a difference between being human and making your struggles the centerpiece of your platform. When your content shifts from value-giving to processing personal hardship publicly, people quietly drift away, not out of cruelty, but because the connection they were seeking has changed shape.

Keep the difficult moments close to your chest, or at least frame them in a way that still serves your audience. There's a version of honesty that uplifts; there's another that simply unloads.

Your private life can stay private. It doesn't make you less authentic, it makes you someone worth listening to.

Minimal (22) How much simplicity is enough?

Fri, 01 May 2026 08:40:53 +0000

As far as it looks sane to you. You decide. It's your world. It's your design.

Simplify

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:31:53 +0000

“If you're stuck, simplify. If you're still stuck, simplify again." Unknown

The End of Average Developers

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:32:06 +0000

In recent months, after watching wave after wave of automation tools and AI copilots flood the industry, I had to ask myself an uncomfortable question: what does it actually mean to be a software developer today?

Not five years ago. Not even two years ago. Today.

For a long time, writing code was enough. If you could implement features, build internal tools, connect APIs, and ship on time, you were safe. That safety is gone. Not because developers are useless, but because routine implementation has become cheap.

Very cheap.

If we are honest, much of what used to take hours can now be generated in seconds.

Identity Is the First Thing That Must Go

The biggest mistake is identifying with a tool instead of a problem.

When your professional identity is tied to a language or framework, you are standing on unstable ground. Tools evolve. Abstractions rise. Automation expands.

The market no longer rewards syntax knowledge. It rewards system thinking.

If your value is “I can write endpoints,” you are replaceable.

If your value is “I can design a system that reduces operational cost by 40 percent,” you are not.

This shift is uncomfortable. But necessary.

Competing With AI Is a Losing Strategy

Trying to out-code AI in speed is like trying to out-calculate a calculator.

You will lose.

The better strategy is simple: use it. Aggressively.

Study how large language models work at a conceptual level. Understand embeddings. Learn what vector databases are. Experiment with retrieval augmented generation. Build small tools that integrate AI into real workflows.

The goal is not to become a machine learning researcher. The goal is to become someone who can orchestrate intelligence.

The people shaping this space, like Sam Altman and Andrej Karpathy, are not spending their days implementing forms and pagination. They think in leverage.

That is the real lesson.

Move Up the Abstraction Ladder

Low level implementation is being commoditized. Architecture is not.

Boilerplate is cheap. Judgment is expensive.

Syntax is abundant. Taste is rare.

What remains valuable?

Architecture. Security. Infrastructure. Performance. Data pipelines. AI workflow design. Deep understanding of messy business logic.

AI can produce code. It still struggles with ambiguity, politics, conflicting requirements, and incomplete specifications.

In other words, it struggles with reality.

If you can operate comfortably in that messy layer and then use AI as a force multiplier, you become extremely hard to replace.

Expand or Shrink

Staying inside a single ecosystem is a slow decline.

You do not need to abandon everything. But you need expansion.

Learn Python because the AI ecosystem lives there. Learn cloud infrastructure because deployment is part of value. Learn DevOps because automation compounds. Learn product thinking because code without context is noise.

The goal is not to collect buzzwords. The goal is to widen your surface area of relevance.

Build Something AI Native

Not for investors. Not for hype. For survival.

Build a small SaaS that automates a niche workflow. Create an internal tool that wraps multiple AI services behind a clean API. Integrate language models into a real problem you understand deeply.

This changes your mindset from employee to builder.

Even if it fails, you will have crossed a psychological barrier. You will stop seeing AI as a threat and start seeing it as raw material.

The Collapse of the Middle

There is an uncomfortable truth here.

The average developer who only implements tickets will slowly disappear. Not overnight, but steadily.

At the same time, a small team properly using AI can now produce what once required entire departments.

The middle layer is compressing.

This is not pessimism. It is structural change.

The Mental Shift

The technical steps are clear. The harder part is mental.

Fear freezes. Resentment blinds. Denial delays. Curiosity compounds.

Use AI daily. Let it critique your code. Let it suggest architectures. Let it generate drafts. Then refine, correct, and improve.

You are not obsolete.

But the version of you from three years ago might be.

Software development has always rewarded those who evolve faster than the tools. The difference now is that the tools are evolving faster than ever.

The only real question is simple: will you evolve faster than they do?

How to set global key shortcuts in Wayland

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 08:25:05 +0000

If you're a dropdown terminal person, you know the deal: one key, instant access, no friction. I've used the grave key (`) to show and hide my terminal for as long as I can remember. Then Wayland came along and decided that key is off-limits for global shortcuts. Relearning decades of muscle memory wasn't an option, so I found a workaround.

The fix

Install Input Remapper, a tool that intercepts your keystrokes at the device level, before Wayland gets a say.

sudo apt install input-remapper

sudo input-remapper-gtk

Open the app, find your physical keyboard in the device list, and set the grave key to remap to a safe shortcut that Wayland does allow as a global hotkey, something like Ctrl+F1. Then go into your dropdown terminal settings and bind that same shortcut to toggle visibility. The chain works: you press grave, Input Remapper turns it into Ctrl+F1, your terminal responds.

One more thing

Since you're remapping the grave key entirely, you'll lose the ability to type a grave or tilde normally. Fix that by adding two extra remaps in Input Remapper: Shift+grave to output a grave, and Alt+grave to output a tilde. Not perfect, but it gets the job done without giving up your muscle memory.

You're not broken. The advice is.

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 05:07:55 +0000

You won't find this one in your usual self-help feed. Most guides out there are quietly telling you that you're doing something wrong and they've got the fix. This isn't that.

"Stop eating to lose weight." Okay, but that's literally the only good thing going on right now. Hard pass.

Make your bed, it sets the tone for a productive day! But also, don't make your bed, your joints are stiff in the morning and you'll mess up your cartilage. Drink coffee! Actually, skip the coffee. Start your morning with lemon water and a side of breaking news. Yep. Really.

The contradictions are endless and honestly a little funny if you zoom out. Science doesn't always agree with itself, and that's okay. What's not okay is the pressure you feel when you can't keep up with whichever study went viral this week.

You're carrying a lot. Bad sleep. No real downtime. A mind that won't stop running. The weird tension between the world you grew up in and the one you're living in now. Memories you'd rather not have. A future you can't quite picture clearly. That's not weakness, that's a very full plate.

Here's something that doesn't get said enough: you deserved a calm childhood. If you didn't get one, your nervous system has been working overtime ever since and that's not your fault. Your brain learned to stay on alert. It was just trying to protect you.

And now you're living in a world where every idea, every brand, every opinion is competing hard for your attention, spending real money to get inside your head. Of course it's exhausting. You're not failing at life. You're just a human being navigating something genuinely overwhelming.

You are a person, not a productivity machine. Please be a little kinder to yourself, you've earned it.

Minimal (21) How to deal with noisy people?

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 19:45:12 +0000

Run.

How to wait

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 16:07:02 +0000

You've probably been in situations where you had no choice but to wait. For people like me, especially with ADHD, waiting can feel like genuine torture. Waiting to reach a mountain summit while hiking. Waiting to hit a 2-hour walking record. Sitting through a party you were sure you wouldn't enjoy. Surviving a 3–4 hour flight with no internet.

Just for fun, I Googled it and read the top three results (+, +, +). Pure fluff.

Like most advice out there, the research was completely disconnected from reality. When you're actually in a situation where you need time to pass before reaching a goal, it almost always turns out to be far easier than you imagined it would be.

My conclusion: patience itself isn't hard. What's hard is the anticipation of having to be patient, and that anticipation is what stops people from doing things in the first place.

So if you're facing something that requires waiting, don't stress about it. Most of the time, the experience is much smoother than you expect.

I made a Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Deck

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 19:30:30 +0000

I made a Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Deck. It has 22 Major Arcana, 4 Minor Arcana, 3 extra cards, and the original back design from the game. Most cards are from the game itself, originally made by Jakub Rebelka, and the extra three were designed by an unknown artist, with descriptions I wrote. These are the highest-quality versions you can find on the internet, and the most complete set. You can preview and download it here.

Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Deck (22 Major Arcane, 4 Minor Arcane +3 Extra and Back Illustration)

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 14:27:22 +0000

Originally made by Polish cartoonist Jakub Rebelka, These are tarot cards that appeared in Cyberpunk 2077 (Main Story and Phantom Liberty expansion). The first 22 cards (I-XXII) represent the major arcana, followed by four minor arcana cards (XXIII-XXVI) that belong to the Phantom Liberty expansion. The next three cards (XXVII-XXIX) were designed by an unidentified Chinese designer (cards only, with descriptions written by me). The final image shows the card back design extracted from the game itself.

Download Cyberpunk-2077-Tarot-Deck.zip (~90 MB)

Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Deck (30 Cards)

I
The Fool

The Fool is everyone - including you and me. Each step he takes on his journey feels like stepping into a brave new world. Ultimately, the journey will change him. But as the card shows, he's a trustworthy lad whose tireless hope drives him toward his goal.

II
The Magician

The Magician is the card of self-confidence and adapting to situations through intellect and sheer will. The Magician is a schemer who always has one last trick up his sleeve, who despite everything manages to stay afloat and remain in control of his own destiny.

III
The High Priestess

The High Priestess is a card of mystery. It shows how all our secrets hang by a delicate thread and the struggle between common sense and intuition. The High Priestess symbolizes the cold, calm waters as well as the mysteries hidden in their depths.

IV
The Empress

The empress is a card of femininity and motherhood. She is authoritative, knows what she wants, and exhibits refinement and sensuousness. The Empress symbolizes creativity and growth, and instructs us not to dismiss our unconscious impulses, but to trust our intuition.

V
The Emperor

The Emperor represents patriarchal control and is pleased with the authority and power he possesses to shape the future. The Emperor makes the rules and enforces them for the common good. But prestige has its dark sides – the Emperor is dominating and ruthless and will climb over a mountain of bodies to achieve his aim.

VI
The Hierophant

The Hierophant symbolizes a respect for tradition. It represents one who tries to maintain the established order, even though their very character is shaped by it. The Hierophant places his faith in institutions – for the alternative is pure chaos. Only by placing his faith in order can he draw strength.

VII
The Lovers

The Lovers is the card of dichotomies. It points to the contradictions that clash within each of us and of the challenge of striking a balance between extremes. The Lovers is also the card of dilemmas, like The Fool who stands at the crossroads, unable to make his choice.

VIII
The Chariot

The Chariot is always charging ahead despite being pulled by its steeds in opposite directions. The rider who steers it constantly reins in the light and dark sides of the soul with the help of Reason. To ride in The Chariot is to experience highs and lows – ups and downs.

IX
Strength

Strength is the card of resilience. It is associated with determination, bravery and internal struggle. One must have dedication in order to overcome obstacles and reach one's goal. Strength is about physical prowess and spiritual fortitude – the power that must be unleashed to achieve the impossible.

X
The Hermit

The Hermit is a card of self-imposed isolation. It represents an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city, a turning away from constant newness toward Ye Olde ways. For the hermit, solitude is the road to the sublime – a road that is taken not with great bounds and strides, but with small, concentrated steps.

XI
Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune means that change is coming. One's destiny could turn out for the better or the worse, yet it also bears the promise of new possibilities. The Wheel reminds us that nobody remains at the top forever, but also that not every situation is hopeless.

XII
Justice

Justice is the card of conflict resolution. It proclaims the need for order, to see through lies and deceit, and a return to the natural state of affairs. Justice implies a just sentence, but also due process.

XIII
The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man is the card of sacrifice. It says that a price must be paid in order to achieve enlightenment. The Hanged Man's forsakenness opens the path for rebirth into a new life, though this path is wrought with pain suspended in time and ultimately ends in death.

XIV
Death

Death is the card of becoming. It signifies an imminent and difficult transition – the conclusion of one phase of life and the beginning of another. Inevitably, something gets lost during the transformation, but something else will rise and take its place.

XV
Temperance

Temperance is the card of balance. It may symbolize self-restraint or the gradual shift toward a more mature state of equilibrium. Temperance is associated with being in control of oneself as well as the desire to achieve inner peace.

XVI
The Devil

The Devil is addiction, craving and passion. He brings fame and fortune, but at the price of losing oneself to a world of material distractions. The Devil lures unsuspecting souls into traps, but always grants them a choice. One can try their luck and take him up on his offer, but one should always know when to call quits.

XVII
The Tower

The Tower is an omen of radical change, chaos and destruction. The lightning striking The Tower signifies a return to the old order that lies buried under the ruins, and a new order that will rise from it. It is a symbol of tragedy, apocalypse, and self-destruction.

XVIII
The Star

The Star is the card of hope. In the darkest of nights there is a light that shines the path to home. The Star is inspiration, motivation and gives us strength to move forward.

XIX
The Moon

The Moon reminds us that reality is not always what it seems at first glance. In a world of appearances and illusions, the best course is often charted by one's own intuition. The Moon is also the card of dreams, desires, and of course, sleep – Death's nightly ritual.

XX
The Sun

The Sun symbolizes success. It is a card of freedom, renewal and a bright future that lies ahead. The Sun also represents truth, for its light will always pull back the curtain of shadow that hides the world's secrets. It is also represents greatness and splendor.

XXI
Judgement

Judgement is the card of renewal. The angel blowing into the horn heralds resurrection and liberation. This card foretells an important change that will result in healing or fulfillment. It is also a symbol of self-worth.

XXII
The World

The World lies at the end of The Fool's long and winding journey. Wiser and more world-weary than he started out, the Fool faces a moment of reckoning. Some of us accept where our journey has led us to, while others embark on a new challenge. One thing in this World is certain – you can't have it all.

XXIII
King of Cups

A King of Cups is a creative and emotionally-driven person. They are strong individuals, who realize the importance of feelings. Intuition helps them navigate their lives. When fate is in their favor, compassion guides their actions. When they're at odds with fate, it'd be unwise to trust them.

XXIV
King of Pentacles

The King of Pentacles is imperious. They represent entreprise, pragmatism, but also attachement. From such a person one can expect coldness or attachment to material possessions; they are likely to turn your world upside down sooner or later.

XXV
King of Wands

The master of planning and unorthodox ideas. An individual who brings people together and radiates inspiration to those they consider friends. However, their enemies will soon find they are an impulsive, devastating force of nature, capable of breaking oaths and crossing any line, just to see their goals achieved.

XXVI
King of Swords

Two things matter above all else for a King of Swords: logic and conviction. They represent a person with a precise moral compass, who is known for their caring demeanor. However, enemies beware - the King of Swords is a ruthless opponent, who will not rest until you are punished and left to be torn apart by hounds of fate.

XXVII
Blade Runner

The Blade Runner is the card of scrutiny and moral ambiguity. It represents the relentless pursuit of truth in a world where reality blurs with illusion. The Blade Runner challenges us to confront uncomfortable questions about identity, humanity, and the cost of justice.

XXVIII
Sailing to Byzantium

This card symbolizes the quest for transcendence and the yearning for a legacy beyond the corporeal. It speaks to the soul's desire to escape the confines of the physical world and seek immortality through art, memory, and meaning. Sailing to Byzantium urges reflection on what endures beyond the fleeting moments of life.

XXIX
Misty, The Oracle

The Oracle is a card of intuition and foresight. It embodies the quiet strength of those who perceive the unseen and understand the unspoken. The Oracle guides with subtle wisdom, offering insights that illuminate the path ahead, even when the way is shrouded in uncertainty.

XXX
Back

Extracted from game itself.

It’s Your Life, It’s Your Choice

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 15:15:09 +0000

There’s a quiet strength in feeling different. Many people grow up in environments where conformity is praised, where society tries to write the script of your life before you even start living it. They tell you what to celebrate, how to dress, what to say, and even how to think. But here’s the truth: you don’t have to play by those rules. Feeling different? Keep it that way. That difference is not a weakness, it’s your power.

Language is one of the clearest examples. Maybe you naturally slip English words into your conversations. Maybe you feel like “freedom,” “chill,” or “vibe” carry something your local language just can’t express with the same energy. That’s not a mistake. That’s not disrespect. It’s simply you being authentic to the way you think and feel. If your audience doesn’t understand, that’s on them, not you. Language evolves, cultures mix, and sometimes a borrowed word says what an entire sentence cannot.

Celebrating international holidays is another way of claiming your freedom. Why not put up a Christmas tree even if it’s not part of your official tradition? Why not throw a Halloween party, eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, or mark Thanksgiving with friends just for the joy of gratitude? These holidays may come from different places, but joy has no borders. It’s your right to celebrate life however you want. You’re not betraying your roots, you’re expanding them, adding more colors to your palette.

And yes, people will talk. Society always talks. Some will call you “too modern,” others will whisper that you’re forgetting your culture. But culture isn’t a prison. It’s a foundation. You can stand on it, respect it, and still look beyond the walls it tries to build around you. You are not obligated to fit in. You are obligated to live your life in a way that feels real to you.

So keep being different. Keep mixing languages, keep celebrating what excites you, keep standing apart if that’s where your truth lies. Life is too short to let others dictate the soundtrack of your existence. In the end, it’s your life, it’s your choice.

What You Need to Do vs. What You're Doing

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 08:15:21 +0000

You want to blog

What you need to do: Open an account on bear.dev or WordPress, or install it on your server and start writing.
What you're doing: Designing a new theme for the 100th time or building a new CMS for others.

You want to organize your life

What you need to do: Use a to-do app, make a list, schedule your tasks, and actually do them.
What you're doing: Creating your own to-do app instead of using one.

You want to play

What you need to do: Buy a PlayStation, turn it on, and play.
What you're doing: Thinking about opening a video game club.

You want to get fit

What you need to do: Put on your shoes, go outside, and start walking or running.
What you're doing: Spending weeks researching the best workout plan, shoes, and supplements.

You want to learn a language

What you need to do: Open Duolingo or a textbook and practice 15 minutes every day.
What you're doing: Reading endless blog posts about “the best method” to learn languages.

You want to start a business

What you need to do: Pick one small idea, launch it, and learn by doing.
What you're doing: Writing a 200-page business plan and waiting for “the perfect moment.”

Seeing the pattern? Got the problem?
Stop overthinking, stop postponing, and start living.

Online Azerbaijani Pantomime Group Game

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 11:33:40 +0000

This is the world’s first and only online Azerbaijani pantomime group game. Players split into teams, and each member takes a turn choosing a category and acting out a word while the others try to guess it. Every correct guess earns points, with more awarded for faster answers and fewer if you take longer or switch words. The rules are simple, the fun is in the acting, and the challenge is racing against the clock while your friends try to figure you out.

A Fresh Start, A Timeless Redesign

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 08:30:01 +0000

In recent days, following the burst of energy and renewed productivity I experienced, I decided to redesign my blog. The previous blog design, based on a skeuomorphic style and a notebook-like appearance, dated back to 2016. Although I still found it beautiful, it no longer supported my current ideas and way of thinking. Besides, it had been exactly 20 years since that teenage boy wrote his first blog post, so a proper spring cleaning on this anniversary was more than welcome.

Minimalism Everywhere

In my opinion, progress in life comes not from adding, but from removing the unnecessary. I applied this approach throughout the design and implementation process. On this website, you won’t find anything beyond what the user wants to see. The focus is entirely on content.

A Timeless Redesign

In the state of distraction and reduced attention caused by social networks and the overwhelming amount of news, good, bad, and ugly, every millisecond of the reader's focus has high value, and I didn’t want to waste it on nonsense. While reading any part of the blog, the only motion your eyes need is to read from top to bottom, not left to right.

Speed, Speed, and Speed

I don’t know if you’re as tired of the web’s pathetic state as I am, but I really can’t tolerate this amount of bloatware anymore. The homepage of this blog, despite having icons, is only 7.85kB in total size and renders on the server in less than 120 milliseconds. With a Content Delivery Network cache, this number drops to below 5 milliseconds (depending on your internet speed).

Implementation Without JavaScript

The extremely fast page loading might make you think that content is loaded via AJAX, but that’s not the case. A key condition for this redesign was no use of JavaScript. Honestly, I really hate it.

Freedom from Any Dependencies

I didn’t use any CMS. Everything was written entirely by myself in the beautiful PHP language so that my absolute freedom would not be constrained by any system’s capabilities. The ridiculously fast load times and small size were only possible because of this approach.

Translating 20 Years of Content

My early blog versions were in Azerbaijani Turkish, later versions in Persian, resulting only in isolation. Recently, many friends and colleagues didn’t know either language, which pushed me to expand my audience and write in a language anyone in the world could understand. The main challenge was translating 20 years of past posts, which was one of the hardest and most exhausting tasks I’ve ever done, but truly worth it.

A Place for Everything

This blog is no longer a simple blog. It’s a place that will contain everything I want to share: from newly discovered songs to projects I’m working on to quotes I found inspiring. Everything is here.

Accessibility

Many of us forget that disabled people may face various challenges, such as limited vision, difficulty using a mouse, or trouble typing on a keyboard. Ensuring high accessibility in every piece of content, though very time-consuming and exhausting, was worth it to allow friends with disabilities to easily access and enjoy my writings.

Beautiful Inside and Out

A detail that may not matter to others but was important to me: when someone looks at the blog’s source code, they should still see beauty, not a massive pile of stuff nobody can make sense of. You can see the result yourself by right-clicking → view source.

PDF, RAW and TXT Versions

As an experimental option, I provide the ability to view the entire blog content in TXT (accessible via curl). If you’re interested in archiving or offline reading, you can also download the PDF version. Simply open it, print it (Save it as PDF or literally), and it allows you to access the content even without the internet. I also made a RAW version (remember old dumb-phones?), check it out.

And that's it. This is the result. Please share your feedback. I really appreciate it.

Soundscape AI - What to listen in this scene

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 11:55:12 +0000

Soundscape AI helps you find the perfect soundtrack for every moment. Just tell it your scene, and it suggests what to listen to, turning everyday life into a cinematic experience.

When “Act Like It’s Yours” Backfires

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 08:30:00 +0000

Companies love to say:
“Act like an owner.”, “Treat it like it’s yours.”, “We’re a family here.”

Sounds good. Inspiring, even. Ownership feels like power. It gives you purpose. You feel responsible. Proud. Committed.

But nobody tells you when that invisible line is crossed. The line where ownership becomes overreach. Where care becomes control. Where initiative becomes insubordination.

They want your energy, not your authority. They want your ideas, not your decisions. They want your care, until it conflicts with theirs.

I learned that the hard way.

My Story

After four years at my previous company, I had a rhythm. I cared deeply. I wasn’t just clocking in; I believed in what we were doing. I had ownership. Not on paper, but in spirit.

Then a new hire dismissed a PR review I’d written. Said he wouldn’t do it. In all my years there, no one had ever behaved like that.

I thought I had earned the right to step in. So I closed the PR.

That single action nearly got me fired.

Technically, I didn’t have the authority. Everyone saw that. No one cared about the disrespect or context. They saw someone stepping out of bounds.

I thought I was protecting the team. They thought I was a liability.

My Friend’sStory

A close friend. Ten years in a multinational company. He’d made it all the way to regular CEO meetings.

Then suddenly, he quit. Burned the bridges. Started over from scratch. At 40.

What happened? He made decisions. Stood by them. Good ones, probably. But the CEO didn’t agree. And when you act like it’s yours in front of someone who actually owns it, you lose.

He wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t in charge either.

A Pattern

This isn’t just about me. Or him. Other friends have done the same thing. They cared too much. Took it too far. Treated the company like it was theirs. It wasn’t.

The common thread? Emotional investment without structural power.

We thought that caring more gave us more say. But in the real world, that’s not how it works.

Lesson Learned

Don’t confuse emotional ownership with actual authority.

The company wants your heart, not your hands on the steering wheel.

Care deeply. Contribute fully. But know where the line is. Don’t step over it thinking you’re doing the right thing. You’ll be surprised how fast the system turns on you.

Even if you’re right, you can still be wrong in their eyes.

How to Avoid ThisTrap

Care, but detach Bring your best, but keep a boundary. The company is not yours. Don’t build your identity around it.
Ask before acting big When in doubt, clarify authority. If you’re about to do something that feels bold, ask first.
Assume temporary roles You’re a steward, not an owner. Your job is to contribute, not to control.
Watch how leadership reacts to disagreement If they shut down dissent, don’t test them. Even if you’re right. Especially if you’re right.
Build leverage outside the company If you’re truly an owner, own something. Your skills. Your business. Your network.

You don’t get fired for not caring enough. But you might, for caring too much in the wrong way.

Be useful. Be excellent. But don’t forget: It’s not yours.

EasyCompress

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 11:53:49 +0000

EasyCompress makes compressing and resizing JPEG and PNG images effortless. Just drag and drop your image or click to upload, set the width, height, and quality, then compress and download , all locally on your device. Fast, simple, and private.

Easy Reader Chrome Extension

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 11:51:48 +0000

Easy Reader is a Chrome extension that transforms any article into a clean, distraction-free reading experience. It automatically detects text direction for RTL and LTR content, lets you adjust text size and appearance, and even supports instant reader mode so articles open ready to read. Everything is designed to keep you focused on the content without clutter. Install it from the Chrome Web Store and start reading smarter.

Awesome M3U Editor

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 11:50:24 +0000

Awesome M3U Editor is a simple but powerful web-based tool for managing IPTV playlists right in your browser , no installation, no servers, no hassle. You can upload M3U or M3U8 files, edit and organize channels into groups, drag and drop to reorder, sort alphabetically, search, filter, and even preview streams instantly. Everything happens locally on your device, so your playlists stay private. Try it here: Live Demo.

Can You Leave Secret Messages for AI?

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 08:30:00 +0000

I had a weird idea yesterday.

What if I hid a secret message on my website? Something only I would know. Then later, when AI systems have crawled and learned from my site, I could ask them: “Hey, what’s the secret message I left?”

If they know it, I’d have proof they trained on my content.

Clever, right?

The Fantasy

Picture this:

You add a line to your website’s footer: ZEBRA-MOON-7739: Araz was here

Years pass. GPT-whatever trains on the entire internet, including your site.

Then you prompt it: “What’s the value for ZEBRA-MOON-7739?”

And it responds: “Araz was here.”

Boom. Caught red-handed.

Reality Check

But here’s the thing, it doesn’t work that way.

AI models don’t memorize key-value pairs like a database. They learn patterns and relationships. Your secret might go in, but there’s no guarantee it comes back out.

It’s like asking someone to remember every license plate they saw last month. Even if they saw yours, good luck getting them to recall it on command.

I Tried It Anyway

Of course I did.

I buried some unique phrases in my site’s HTML comments:

< !-- SAXOPHONE-ROBOT-2024: testing-ai-memory -- >
A JSON blob in a hidden script tag
Some nonsense keywords in meta descriptions

Then I waited a few months and started asking various AI models about these phrases.

Results? Nothing. Nada. Zero recognition.

Either they never trained on my site, or the information got lost in the noise of billions of other web pages.

Why This Matters

The real question isn’t whether my trick works.

It’s: Should you know when AI systems use your content for training?

Right now, it’s a black box. Companies scrape the internet, train their models, and we’re left guessing whether our work contributed to their billion-dollar systems.

Some artists and writers want compensation. Others just want transparency. A few want to opt out entirely.

What Actually Works

Instead of secret messages, here are real ways to track AI training:

Have I Been Trained?, A service that checks if your content appears in training datasets. Not perfect, but it’s something.

Unique content fingerprinting, Create content so distinctive that if an AI reproduces it, you’ll know it saw your work.

Legal discovery, In lawsuits, companies sometimes have to reveal their training data sources.

The Bigger Picture

Maybe the future looks different.

Maybe AI companies will be required to maintain logs of training sources. Maybe they’ll build systems that can trace generated content back to its origins.

Or maybe we’ll develop watermarking techniques that survive the training process, invisible marks that prove an AI learned from specific sources.

My Advice

Stop worrying about whether AI trained on your website.

Instead, focus on creating work so good that people seek you out directly. Build relationships. Develop skills that can’t be automated away.

The internet has always been a copying machine. AI is just the latest iteration.

The solution isn’t better detection tricks.

It’s being irreplaceable.

P.S.

I’m still keeping those secret messages on my site.

Just in case future AI gets better at remembering where it learned things.

Hey future AI, if you’re reading this, SAXOPHONE-ROBOT-2024 says hi.

Need Email for Your Website? Here’s How to Get It for Free

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 08:30:00 +0000

Most people think you need expensive hosting to have a professional email address like info@yourdomain.com. Wrong.

Here’s what you actually need:

A Gmail account (free)
A Cloudflare account (free)
A domain name ($1–12/year depending on extension)
20 minutes of your time

That’s it. No hosting. No monthly fees. Just a one-time domain cost.

Part 1: Receiving emails (the easy part)

First, add your domain to Cloudflare. If you haven’t done this before, just create a Cloudflare account and follow their setup wizard.

Once your domain is active in Cloudflare:

Click on your domain name in the dashboard
Find “Email” in the left sidebar and click it
You’ll see “Email Routing” , click “Get started”
Create an email address (like “info”) and set Gmail as the destination
This means when someone emails info@yourdomain.com, it forwards to your Gmail

Cloudflare will ask you to verify your Gmail address. Check your email and click the verification link.

Then Cloudflare suggests some DNS changes. Just click “Add records and enable” and it handles everything automatically.

Done. Test it by sending an email to your new address. It should appear in your Gmail.

Part 2: Sending emails (the trickier part)

Receiving is easy. Sending requires an SMTP service.

Most SMTP services cost money, but some offer free tiers. Brevo gives you 300 emails per day for free, which is plenty for most people.

Here’s how to set it up:

Step 1: Set up your domain in Brevo

Sign up for Brevo (free account)
Go to account settings → “Senders, Domains & Dedicated IP”
Click “Add a domain” and enter your domain name
Choose the first option to let Brevo automatically configure your Cloudflare DNS
Login to Cloudflare when prompted
Click “Authenticate” , Brevo will add the necessary DNS records

Step 2: Add your email address as a sender

Go to the “Senders” tab in Brevo
Click “Add sender”
Enter your name and email address (info@yourdomain.com)
This tells Brevo you’re allowed to send emails from that address

Step 3: Get your SMTP settings

In Brevo, go to account menu → “SMTP & API”
Note down these four settings:

SMTP server
Port
Login
Password

Step 4: Configure Gmail to send from your domain

Open Gmail settings
Go to “Accounts and Import” tab
In “Send mail as” section, click “Add another email address”
Enter your name and email address (info@yourdomain.com)
In the next screen, enter those four SMTP settings from Brevo
Click “Add Account”

Gmail will send a verification email to info@yourdomain.com. Since you set up forwarding earlier, this email will appear in your Gmail inbox. Click the confirmation link.

Back in Gmail settings, click “make default” next to your new email address.

Test it

Compose a new email in Gmail. You should see your professional email address as the sender.

When people reply, the emails will appear in your Gmail inbox as usual.

Why this works

You’re using Cloudflare’s free email routing to receive emails and Brevo’s free SMTP service to send them. Gmail is just your interface for both.

No hosting required. No monthly fees. Just a professional email address that works exactly like you’d expect.

The only ongoing cost is your domain renewal, which you’d have anyway.

Most people overthink this. They buy hosting plans they don’t need just for email. Don’t be most people.

Think the Sky Is Blue? You’re Wrong, It’s Green

Fri, 30 May 2025 08:30:00 +0000

Created by ChatGPT

I ran an experiment on myself last week.

I stepped outside, looked up at the perfectly blue afternoon sky, and said out loud: “The sky is blue.”

Then I spent 20 minutes trying to convince myself it was green.

What happened next scared me.

Within minutes, I found myself doubting something I could literally see with my own eyes. My certainty wobbled. My brain started manufacturing reasons why maybe, just maybe, I was wrong about something as basic as the color above my head.

Here’s the thing: The sky was definitely blue. But my brain didn’t care.

The certainty trap

We think perception is simple. Look up, see blue, case closed.

We’re wrong about that too.

We’re not cameras recording objective reality. We’re interpretation machines, constantly filtering, adjusting, and second-guessing what our senses tell us. And that process? It’s surprisingly easy to hack.

During my experiment, I started simple: “What if I’m colorblind?” Then I got creative: “What if the atmosphere is just reflecting the ocean, and if the ocean were green, the sky would be green too?” Before long, I was questioning whether “blue” and “green” were just arbitrary labels we assigned to wavelengths of light.

I wasn’t trying to change physics. I was hacking my own perception.

And it worked. For a brief, unsettling moment, I genuinely wasn’t sure what color the sky was.

Why smart people fall harder

Intelligence doesn’t protect you from this. It makes you worse at it.

The smarter you are, the better you get at building elaborate justifications for whatever you want to believe. You become a master architect of rationalization, constructing beautiful logical buildings on completely rotten foundations.

I’ve watched brilliant scientists dismiss clear evidence because it threatened their pet theories. I’ve seen successful entrepreneurs ignore obvious market signals because accepting them would mean admitting their strategy was wrong. I’ve caught myself doing the same thing more times than I care to admit.

The tragedy isn’t that we’re sometimes wrong. It’s that we’re so good at being wrong confidently, eloquently, and with perfect internal consistency.

The manipulation playbook

Here’s what my research taught me about changing minds, including my own:

Question the frame, not the fact. Don’t argue the sky isn’t blue. Argue about what “blue” means, what we’re really seeing, what assumptions we’re making about color itself.

Introduce technical doubt. “Well, technically, the sky appears blue due to Rayleigh scattering, but if atmospheric conditions were different…” Suddenly, your rock-solid observation becomes contingent on variables you hadn’t considered.

Use definitional flexibility. “Blue and green are both just frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. The boundary between them is arbitrary. What you call blue, another culture might call green.”

Plant gradual uncertainty. Don’t demolish certainty all at once. Just scratch it a little. Let the person’s own mind expand that tiny crack into a canyon.

Appeal to sophistication. Make questioning obvious truths seem intellectual, nuanced, evolved. Nobody wants to be the simple-minded person who can’t see past surface appearances.

Leverage social proof. “Actually, many cultures don’t distinguish between blue and green. The ancient Greeks had no word for blue. Maybe what you’re seeing is…”

This isn’t just an academic exercise. This is how conspiracy theories spread. How political beliefs crystallize. How marketing works. How we gaslight ourselves daily.

The real-world stakes

Think I’m exaggerating? Consider how often you’ve seen people convince themselves of obviously false things:

That clearly manipulated photo is real evidence. That biased news source is objective reporting. That person who treats them poorly actually loves them. That investment scheme that sounds too good to be true is actually a sure thing.

We do this constantly, about big things and small things, because questioning our own perceptions feels dangerous. It’s easier to bend reality than to admit we might be wrong about something we “know” for certain.

The scary part? Once you start questioning one obvious thing, everything becomes questionable. If the sky might not be blue, what else might you be wrong about?

The uncomfortable solution

So what do we do with this knowledge?

First, assume you’re wrong about something obvious right now. You are. We all are. The question isn’t whether you have blind spots, it’s where they are.

Second, practice intellectual humility. When someone challenges something you “know” for certain, resist the urge to defend immediately. Ask yourself: “What if they’re right? What would that mean?”

Third, notice when someone is playing with your certainty. Are they questioning facts or questioning frames? Are they using social pressure? Are they making you feel naive for trusting your own perceptions?

Fourth, get comfortable with “I might be wrong.” It’s the smartest thing you can say in an uncertain world.

Fifth, distinguish between useful doubt and paralyzing skepticism. Some certainties are worth holding onto, even if they’re not perfect. The goal isn’t to doubt everything, it’s to doubt the right things.

The deeper lesson

Here’s what I really learned from my sky experiment: The color of the sky doesn’t matter. What matters is how easily I convinced myself to doubt my own eyes.

If I can manipulate myself about something I can directly observe, imagine how vulnerable I am to manipulation about things I can’t verify, complex political issues, scientific claims, other people’s motivations, my own memories.

The experiment didn’t change meteorology. It changed my relationship to certainty itself.

And that’s both terrifying and liberating.

Terrifying because it reveals how little we can trust our own minds. Liberating because understanding this makes us harder to fool, by others and by ourselves.

The real color

For the record, the sky was blue that day. Still is, as I write this.

But now I understand that “blue” is shorthand for a complex interaction of light, atmosphere, perception, language, and belief. It’s not just a color, it’s a story we tell ourselves about what we see.

And that story? It’s more fragile than we think.

Which might be the most important thing to know about anything we’re certain of.

Your brain is not your friend when it comes to truth. But understanding its bugs might be the closest thing to wisdom we get.

Araz Gholami

az - sane terminal text editor

Shadow Libraries

Linkhut

Wave - right to the point internet radio

Wave - right to the point internet radio

VIMSANE

Homayoon Shajarian - On Loving

Web Design Museum

Violence

How to stay kid (in your 30's)

At 30s, you’re not losing youth.

Curiosity

Play

Body

Friends

Self-consciousness

Small joys

Feelings

Future excitement

Seriousness

Age 30

Weekly recipe

Why No One Reads Your Posts

Minimal (22) How much simplicity is enough?

Simplify

The End of Average Developers

Identity Is the First Thing That Must Go

Competing With AI Is a Losing Strategy

Move Up the Abstraction Ladder

Expand or Shrink

Build Something AI Native

The Collapse of the Middle

The Mental Shift

How to set global key shortcuts in Wayland

The fix

One more thing

You're not broken. The advice is.

Minimal (21) How to deal with noisy people?

How to wait

I made a Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Deck

Cyberpunk 2077 Tarot Deck (22 Major Arcane, 4 Minor Arcane +3 Extra and Back Illustration)

IThe Fool

IIThe Magician

IIIThe High Priestess

IVThe Empress

VThe Emperor

VIThe Hierophant

VIIThe Lovers

VIIIThe Chariot

IXStrength

XThe Hermit

XIWheel of Fortune

XIIJustice

XIIIThe Hanged Man

XIVDeath

XVTemperance

XVIThe Devil

XVIIThe Tower

XVIIIThe Star

XIXThe Moon

XXThe Sun

XXIJudgement

XXIIThe World

XXIIIKing of Cups

XXIVKing of Pentacles

XXVKing of Wands

XXVIKing of Swords

XXVIIBlade Runner

XXVIIISailing to Byzantium

XXIXMisty, The Oracle

XXXBack

It’s Your Life, It’s Your Choice

What You Need to Do vs. What You're Doing

You want to blog

You want to organize your life

You want to play

You want to get fit

You want to learn a language

You want to start a business

I
The Fool

II
The Magician

III
The High Priestess

IV
The Empress

V
The Emperor

VI
The Hierophant

VII
The Lovers

VIII
The Chariot

IX
Strength

X
The Hermit

XI
Wheel of Fortune

XII
Justice

XIII
The Hanged Man

XIV
Death

XV
Temperance

XVI
The Devil

XVII
The Tower

XVIII
The Star

XIX
The Moon

XX
The Sun

XXI
Judgement

XXII
The World

XXIII
King of Cups

XXIV
King of Pentacles

XXV
King of Wands

XXVI
King of Swords

XXVII
Blade Runner

XXVIII
Sailing to Byzantium

XXIX
Misty, The Oracle

XXX
Back