Build notes from an engineer who is building things himself again, with AI tools. What works, what breaks, and seven projects online.https://maxime.perniola.fr/enhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/011-four-databases-ten-countries/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/011-four-databases-ten-countries/A game rated 91 on one side, 78 on the other, missing from the catalogue on the third source. What I learned trying to merge data that does not want to be merged.Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTCatalogue PS Plushttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/010-samsung-only-button/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/010-samsung-only-button/Three days to understand why a buzzer refused to fire on a Galaxy A33. The answer was neither in the code nor in the documentation.Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTQuiz Buzzerhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/009-wordpress-to-astro/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/009-wordpress-to-astro/Ten years of content, a club with a hundred members, no maintenance window possible. What went well, and the one thing I would do differently.Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTTaekwondo Meylanhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/008-estimating-a-project/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/008-estimating-a-project/Execution speed has changed. Estimation has not. Why the two are not linked, and what it means when you commit to a fixed price.Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTMétierhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/007-five-months-without-a-line/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/007-five-months-without-a-line/Between 26 February and 20 August, not one commit. Two new jobs, and a pause I had not planned. Why I am coming back, and what changed while I was not looking.Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTMétierhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/006-two-projects-that-died-in-february/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/006-two-projects-that-died-in-february/A Telegram bot for selling on Vinted, an amateur esports tournament platform. Two repositories, hundreds of pages of documentation, zero useful lines of code. What they taught me about templates.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTMétierhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/005-seventy-tickets-in-a-weekend/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/005-seventy-tickets-in-a-weekend/Voice notes dictated while playing, sixty screenshots, and a ticket file the tool can work through without me. The method that took Scopa Fortuna from playable to publishable.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTScopa Fortunahttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/004-the-plan-said-nineteen-weeks/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/004-the-plan-said-nineteen-weeks/On day one the tool produced a nineteen-sprint plan for a card game. The game was published six days later. What a plan is worth when building costs nothing.Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTScopa Fortunahttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/003-newline-in-the-environment-variable/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/003-newline-in-the-environment-variable/Confirmation emails never arrived in production. Three stacked causes, including an invisible character stuck to the end of a URL.Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTQuiz Buzzerhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/002-connected-but-nothing-arrives/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/002-connected-but-nothing-arrives/The WebSocket said "connected". The server received nothing. One missing parameter in a constructor, and two days looking everywhere else.Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTQuiz Buzzerhttps://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/001-a-buzzer-in-one-day/https://maxime.perniola.fr/en/journal/001-a-buzzer-in-one-day/On 28 January the app worked. On 17 February it actually worked. What happened in between is everything I had forgotten about what "done" means.Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTQuiz Buzzer