comparisons
MarkItDown vs Docling vs Marker: PDF to Markdown for LLMs
Three open-source PDF-to-Markdown tools for RAG and LLM pipelines, tested on real documents. Speed, table fidelity, install pain, and which one to pick.
Notes on shipping
software in 2026.
GPT-5.4 vs Claude Opus 4.7 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro for Coding (May 2026)
Three weeks rotating between GPT-5.4, Claude Opus 4.7, and Gemini 3.1 Pro on real coding work — benchmarks, token costs, and the per-task winner for each.
FastMCP in Python: Build a Real MCP Server (2026 Guide)
Build a production-ready MCP server in Python with FastMCP 3.2 — tools, resources, prompts, GitHub OAuth proxy, MCP Inspector, and Claude Desktop hookup.
Python t-strings (PEP 750): A Practical Tutorial With Real Examples
AI Brain Fry: What BCG Found in 1,488 Workers
AsyncTLS: 4.7x Faster Long-Context LLM Inference With Two-Level Sparse Attention
Cursor Composer 2 Review: Cheaper Than Opus, Built on Kimi K2.5
Cursor Composer 2 ships at $0.50/M input — roughly 1/10 of Opus 4.6 — and beats Opus on Terminal-Bench. Then a developer found Kimi K2.5 in the model ID.
Go Iterators: A Practical Guide to the iter Package
How to write a custom Go iterator using iter.Seq and iter.Seq2, handle early termination, convert push to pull with iter.Pull, and avoid the yield traps.
The briefing.
Long-form posts in your inbox roughly once a week — research breakdowns, tutorials, comparisons, the occasional review. No tracking pixels, no growth-hacked subject lines.
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namepostsaboutupdated
research
13
papers, but readable — algorithms, AI, systems
22 apr
tutorials
5
python, go, things I actually built and shipped
29 apr
comparisons
10
x vs y vs z — benchmarks, pricing, real DX
3 may
reviews
3
AI dev tools and models, after real use
21 apr
careers
5
tech hiring data, EU/Cyprus angle, salary reports
22 apr
programming
2
language deep-dives, idioms, the traps that bite
13 aprI'm Maksim. By day I lead an engineering team at inDrive. After hours I ship side projects (PageBloom, NotesPilot, MyDevKit, startgaze) and write things up here when I learn something worth keeping.
The blog itself runs on an agentic publishing pipeline I built and rebuilt — a slow-moving experiment in how much of a writer's workflow can be automated without losing the voice. It writes, fact-checks, and refreshes; I edit, decide, and publish.