The weekly strip · 16 issues · page 1 of 2
From the case files
The real projects on this site, written up long form.
- Issue 102
13 October 2026 · From the case files · 9 min read
Building a 34-second comic-book intro: page curls, a trailer score and the autoplay rule
How the site's opening became a motion comic: rejected loaders, a 14-strip CSS page curl, recorded music and effects timed to their peaks, and why it waits for a click.
- Web Audio
- CSS 3D
- autoplay policy
- motion design
- Astro
- Issue 101
11 October 2026 · From the case files · 8 min read
Chasing 100 on PageSpeed: what actually moved on a comic-book portfolio
Twelve deploys, one score at a time: contrast fixes, llms.txt, a Tamil font stall worth 600 ms, content-visibility, and the Lighthouse noise that caps mobile at 99.
- Lighthouse
- PageSpeed Insights
- Core Web Vitals
- accessibility
- Astro
- Issue 83
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 7 min read
Sole engineer on a 1.25M-user platform: what to automate first
EF Academy's marketing platform serves 1.25M+ monthly users in 23+ languages with one engineer. How I rank automation: bottlenecks first, silent failures next, licences.
- solo engineer
- automation
- ownership
- Storyblok
- AWS Glue
- Issue 82
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 8 min read
Chrome extensions that save admins 3 to 5 hours a day
How Manifest V3 extensions for BSBI and GISMA automated student application workflows in tools we could not change, and the service worker rules that decide reliability.
- Chrome extension
- automation
- Manifest V3
- PDF.js
- service workers
- Issue 81
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 7 min read
AI document processing: what 95% across 17+ document types should mean
How GPT-4 Vision and OCR classified 17+ admissions document types at 95%, and what a number like that must include: per-type results, confidence routing, review paths.
- document processing
- GPT-4 Vision
- OCR
- evaluation
- structured outputs
- Issue 80
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 7 min read
Leading four front-end engineers to React and React Native parity
How Edvanza shipped each module to web and mobile together with a four-person front-end team: shared logic, platform splits, review discipline and a parity checklist.
- leadership
- React Native
- team
- code review
- React
- Issue 79
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 8 min read
Real-time IoT status with SignalR: the Planet IoT apps
Why Planet SIM and Planet Business push live utility and water-service status over SignalR, and what the docs say about reconnects, keep-alives, tokens and scale.
- SignalR
- real-time
- IoT
- dashboards
- Firebase
- Issue 78
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 7 min read
Getting 100 Lighthouse on Astro for a real marketing site
How the Incresco and Camped sites reached 100% Lighthouse on Astro and Storyblok, and what Astro's docs say about images, fonts and islands for the same goal.
- Astro
- Lighthouse
- performance
- Storyblok
- page builders
- Issue 77
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 6 min read
Prospect Uploader: 10,000 leads per CSV with validation in every language
Why EF Academy's lead uploads moved from direct CSV imports to a Lambda and EventBridge pipeline with multilingual validation, email alerts and a Prospect Viewer.
- AWS Lambda
- EventBridge
- Salesforce
- data validation
- serverless
- Issue 76
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 6 min read
Running a 23-language Next.js and Storyblok site as the only engineer
EF Academy's marketing site serves 1.25M+ monthly users in 23+ languages with one engineer. The decision that mattered: let content teams run localisation themselves.
- Next.js
- Storyblok
- i18n
- localisation
- sole engineer
- Issue 75
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 6 min read
Replacing TIBCO Scribe with AWS Glue before the licence ran out
How I moved EF Academy's Salesforce pipelines off a $24,000-a-year Tibco Scribe licence onto AWS Glue before it expired: the options, the plan, the cutover, $840.
- AWS Glue
- TIBCO
- migration
- cost
- Salesforce
- Issue 63
10 October 2026 · From the case files · 6 min read
AWS Glue for AI data pipelines: lessons from replacing TIBCO
What replacing a $24,000-a-year TIBCO Scribe licence with AWS Glue taught me, how Glue pricing really works, and how Glue jobs prepare data for model pipelines.
- AWS Glue
- data pipelines
- TIBCO
- Salesforce
- cost optimisation