https://storbeck.dev/ Technical blog by Geoff Storbeck covering frontend development, web performance, security, DevOps, and practical tooling. en Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/bgw320-slow-router-ui-network-monitor https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/bgw320-slow-router-ui-network-monitor Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 I built a small home network monitor for my BGW320 router to track device activity over time. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/missing-diamond-ai-generated-design https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/missing-diamond-ai-generated-design Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 AI can generate polished interfaces fast, but it mostly skips discovery and problem framing. The first diamond is still human work. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/can-form-and-content-live-separately https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/can-form-and-content-live-separately Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:37:00 -0500 A look at how form and content depend on each other, where they drift apart, and what balance looks like in real work. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/ytpod-ipod-player https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/ytpod-ipod-player Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A tiny desktop player inspired by RyOS and built to search YouTube and play via an embedded iframe, with a modern music-player feel. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/why-your-design-sucks https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/why-your-design-sucks Tue, 27 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Why data pipelines shouldn’t dictate your UI: a frontline take on designing around user intent instead of backend constraints. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/dall-e-cli-images https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/dall-e-cli-images Mon, 12 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A tiny npm CLI for OpenAI image generation, built for fast local asset workflows. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/roblox-cache-rbxh-sqlite https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/roblox-cache-rbxh-sqlite Wed, 07 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A practical map of RobloxPlayer's local cache: the SQLite index, the RBXH wrapper, CDN URLs, and how to trim payloads into viewable files. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/ai-music-rdf-sparql https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/ai-music-rdf-sparql Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A personal note on AI music fatigue, distrust of rec engines, and using Wikidata queries to browse like a record store. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/visualizing-process-graph-falkordb https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/visualizing-process-graph-falkordb Wed, 24 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 A quick snapshot script, a tiny Docker container, and a graph view of how processes spawn on macOS. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/iframe-sandbox-test-suite https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/iframe-sandbox-test-suite Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 A plain HTML test page for probing iframe sandbox security without the dashboard, covering navigation, storage, JS APIs, and permissions. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/experiment-and-learn https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/experiment-and-learn Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 An argument for deliberate experimentation in code: turn the knobs to extremes, break things on purpose, and learn the system’s real shape beyond what docs and tutorials show. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/rediscovering-my-craft https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/rediscovering-my-craft Fri, 05 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Thoughts on burnout, layoffs, frontend engineering, and rediscovering the joy of building UI while moving from React/Tailwind to Vue/Vuetify and freelance work. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-11-21-webgl-fire.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-11-21-webgl-fire.html Tue, 06 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 WebGL fire shader with domain-warped noise and a blackbody-style palette. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-11-17-font-character-guide.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-11-17-font-character-guide.html Mon, 17 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 One animated “A” auditioning for six roles, plus a playbook for choosing type on purpose—perfect if you keep defaulting to Inter and hope it sounds unique. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/ppm-shader-wood-demo https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/ppm-shader-wood-demo Sun, 16 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Inspired by Tsoding’s checkerboard video, I rewrote his PPM demo in Node, generated 600 frames, piped them through ffmpeg, and tweaked the shader into a drifting wave loop. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-11-12-secure-document-shred.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-11-12-secure-document-shred.html Wed, 12 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 This page shreds itself in place — press the button and the page splits into narrow vertical strips that fall off the screen, implemented with plain HTML, CSS, and a bit of vanilla JS. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/maze-family-printables https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/maze-family-printables Mon, 10 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Built a tiny Go CLI for my kid’s maze obsession—Hunt-and-Kill grids on demand plus a few PNG downloads if you just want to print one. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/draw-things-sdxl-turbo https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/draw-things-sdxl-turbo Sat, 08 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Run SDXL Turbo locally inside Draw Things with three inference steps, the Euler A Substep sampler, and zero subscriptions for instant cats, kaiju, and crab studies. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/what-is-a-cta https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/what-is-a-cta Sun, 02 Nov 2025 01:10:28 +0000 What a CTA is, why it matters, and practical ways to guide users with clear calls to action without losing your product’s voice. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/creating-appstore-mcp-server https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/creating-appstore-mcp-server Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:02:17 +0000 Keep a free, daily pulse by pulling App Store reviews into an AI‑enabled loop, bucketing wins vs fixes, and shipping low‑hanging improvements fast. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-26-react-state-updates-visual-guide.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-26-react-state-updates-visual-guide.html Mon, 27 Oct 2025 10:32:01 +0000 See why Context rerenders every consumer and how Zustand/Jotai keep updates narrow — three tiny, dependency‑free demos with render counters. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/bodywork-and-interfaces https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/bodywork-and-interfaces Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:03:29 +0000 Note from time around auto body repair shops, and why interfaces need the same patient, layer-by-layer inspection if you want them to actually shine. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/playwright-automated-usability-testing https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/playwright-automated-usability-testing Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:21:49 +0000 Automate persona‑driven usability testing with Playwright MCP. Use a demo repo of personas and system instructions to generate screenshots and UX reports. Fast signal before real studies. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/cassandra-tombstones-timestamps-compaction https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/cassandra-tombstones-timestamps-compaction Fri, 17 Oct 2025 12:54:37 +0000 A conversational tour of Cassandra’s tombstones, timestamps, SSTables, compaction, read repair, and the gossip protocol — plus lessons you can borrow for other systems. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/tor-proxy-cli https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/tor-proxy-cli Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:42 +0000 Browse Tor with Claude using curl over socks5h: simple setup, fast lookups via Ahmia, and how to prompt Claude to find and skim .onion sites like a search engine. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/moving-zine-ascii https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/moving-zine-ascii Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:40 +0000 Make a moving, zine‑style background by generating ASCII art with Linux tools and rendering it into an animated image with ImageMagick—no CSS or JavaScript required. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-16-light-and-color-principles-frontend.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-16-light-and-color-principles-frontend.html Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:24:35 +0000 Practical UI patterns: modular rhythm, natural motion, OKLCH palettes, hierarchy, tiny charts, and accessible status—with an interactive palette and copy‑paste code. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/gooey-svg https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/gooey-svg Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:34 +0000 Create a gooey, blobby merge effect using pure SVG filters — no external CSS or JavaScript. Includes a minimal filter and two copy/paste examples. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/design-prompts-references https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/design-prompts-references Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:29:57 +0000 Don’t prompt agents to ‘build a beautiful UI’. Beauty is undefined. Give concrete visual references and style guides instead. Includes before/after prompts and a calculator mini‑demo with multiple reference styles. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-16-card-deck-lerp.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-16-card-deck-lerp.html Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:27 +0000 A tiny HTML/CSS/JS demo that fans, opens, and rotates a deck of cards with smooth lerped transforms — no frameworks. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/unattended-root-with-1password https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/unattended-root-with-1password Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:25 +0000 Security engineering note: how to let Claude Code (or similar agents) obtain root without prompts using a 1Password service account and op CLI. Extremely risky; test-only with strong safeguards. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/remove-dead-code-with-knip https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/remove-dead-code-with-knip Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:23 +0000 Use Knip to find and remove dead code, shrink context for AI and humans, and declutter before big upgrades. Includes quick start and iterative cleanup tips. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-15-modern-rainbow-border-css.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-15-modern-rainbow-border-css.html Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:20 +0000 Minimal, copy‑paste CSS to make a rainbow border using layered backgrounds and conic‑gradient. One rule. No extra markup. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/lottie-quick-embed https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/lottie-quick-embed Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:18 +0000 Drop‑in animations with Lottie web components. Designers export Lottie; developers embed a local .lottie or JSON with one tag—no JavaScript to write or CSS transforms to rebuild. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-15-juicing-ui-with-math.html https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/2025-10-15-juicing-ui-with-math.html Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:15 +0000 Use noise, nonlinear intensity, and smoothing to make UI motion feel deliberate and calm, not jittery. https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/git-precommit-noseyparker https://www.storbeck.dev/posts/git-precommit-noseyparker Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:13:13 +0000 AI can slip secrets into commits. Offensive security teams use Nosey Parker to find credentials; you can use it pre-commit to stop leaks before they land.