Aaron Brethorst

Elsewhere on the web

Oct 11, 2025
economics ai infrastructure

The Data Center Bubble

In the late 1990s, companies like Global Crossing spent tens of billions building fiber-optic networks that would supposedly revolutionize telecommunications. The infrastructure was real, the technology transformative, but the economics never work...

Aug 15, 2025
software-engineering mac-os-x irooster

A retrospective on iRooster, my first Mac OS X app

Looking back on iRooster, my first commercial Mac OS X application from 2003, fills me with nostalgia and gratitude. What started as a desperate solution to oversleeping through morning classes became a formative experience that shaped my entire...

Aug 12, 2025
software-engineering ai security enterprise

The Coming LOB App Renaissance (And Security Nightmare)

There’s a revolution brewing in enterprise software development, and it’s happening in the least expected place: line of business (LOB) applications. You know, those unglamorous internal tools that run payroll, track inventory, manage customer rec...

Aug 08, 2025
ruby-on-rails performance development assets

Propshaft Performance Issues on Rails 8

Upgraded to Rails 8 and swapped out Sprockets for the shiny new Propshaft gem? Great choice. Got a lot of assets? You might be in for a nasty surprise. I recently migrated a Rails app with what I thought was a relatively small number of JS and CS...

Aug 05, 2025
claude-code automation hooks development

Demystifying Claude Code Hooks

Claude Code hooks are incredibly powerful but can be frustratingly opaque when you’re trying to actually implement them. Even though I’ve been writing software for 20 years, I found the official documentation to be confusing—it didn’t lay out a fe...