Building the things that nobody is asking for
I'm Olaf Alders. I write software for the web. I'm a White Camel Award winner. Currently building My Mind is Racing — every run, swim, ride and race — all in one calendar.
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The Perl Advent Calendar 2026 CFP Is Open
It’s that time of year again: season 27 of The Perl Advent Calendar and the Call for Papers is open. This year I’m compressing the timeline: article ideas by Oct 15, articles completed by end of (my) day on Nov 1. If you’ve never written an article for the calendar before, this is an excellent time to …
MetaCPAN Dark Mode
MetaCPAN turns 16 in November, and it now has dark mode. You won’t see the toggle on every page just yet — it’ll appear across the site as the Fastly cache refreshes.
git worktree gotchas
git worktrees are no longer a niche tool, but they still come with some gotchas. You may need to tweak your logic for finding the root of your repository when in a linked worktree, and you may need to revisit how you configure your git hooks (like pre-commit).
Find a Terry Fox Run Near You
It’s Terry Fox Run season, when a lot of cancer research fundraising (and running and walking) happens. I’ve just added hundreds of Terry Fox runs to My Mind is Racing, so you can find one in your province or territory.
Sort Your Perl Imports
perlimports can now sort your imports. If you like to see your list of imported libraries in alpha-sorted order, you’re in the right place. If you’d like them sorted in order of width, you know where the door is!
Who Handles Your Security Reviews?
CVEs are turning up not just in legacy code but in brand new code that’s being uploaded right now. LLMs are very good at finding exploits, but they’re also really good at creating them — so who handles your security reviews? Maybe an LLM, a friend who is interested in security, an ecosystem review program, …