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© 2026 Kiet Nguyen

Writing

Notes

Technical notes I'm exploring on Linux, OS, languages, concepts, tools, pipeline, test & validation literacy, computer architecture, embedded systems.

Series

Mathematical foundationsPhysics foundationsDigital Electronics

Paths

Fundamentals pathHardware pathSoftware path
  • Mar 25, 2026

    Linux root directory folders explained

    A breakdown of the top-level tree under / : what each common name is for, which entries are real directories vs virtual filesystems vs compatibility links, and a one-line reference table you can re-check on any host.

    9 min·Linux · Filesystem · Systems · Learning

  • Mar 2, 2026

    What is a computer?

    A structured synthesis of computer organization sources answering “what is a computer?” from the hardware perspective—down to gates, bits, clocks, datapaths, memory hierarchy, buses, and I/O—without equating the word with any single product or OS.

    13 min·Computer Architecture · Computer Organization · Hardware · Foundations · Systematic Review · Digital Systems

  • Feb 10, 2026

    The art of redirection

    Learn shell redirection and filters: >, >>, 2>, <, |, plus cat, sort, uniq, grep, wc, head, tail, and tee—so the terminal becomes a workshop of streams, not a vending machine.

    6 min·Linux · Shell · Bash · Learning

  • Feb 3, 2026

    Why “shift-left testing” matters

    Shift-left is not a slogan for earlier panic—it is a design choice about when feedback is cheap. Why moving tests left of late integration reduces rework, and where the phrase gets abused.

    7 min·Testing · Quality · Process · CI · Opinion

  • Jan 30, 2026

    What is continuous integration, really? (Beyond the buzzword)

    CI is not a logo on a README or a YAML file that sometimes turns green. It is a discipline: integrate often, and make every relevant change prove itself with a shared, automatic build-and-check path—so broken integration is cheap to discover and hard to ignore.

    10 min·CI · Software Engineering · Process · Foundations · Toolchain

  • Jan 23, 2026

    Decoding “Everything is a file”

    Unix’s most quoted slogan is a design contract, not poetry: many resources share open, read, write, and close. What “file” means, where the metaphor is honest, and where it bends.

    8 min·Linux · Unix · Systems

  • Jan 22, 2026

    Number systems literacy for embedded engineering

    A practical how-to for hex/binary fluency, two’s complement, and fixed-point—so register maps, ADC codes, and resource-tight math stop being folklore.

    11 min·How-to · Embedded · C · Math · Foundations · HSW

  • Jan 11, 2026

    How does an LLM decide what is “important”?

    LLMs proxy “importance” with statistics, not stakes. Force better outcomes: query-style extraction, schema-bound JSON/CSV prompts, layout-aware PDF parsing, and architectures for huge docs (contextual retrieval, GraphRAG, map-reduce, long-context caching).

    23 min·LLM · AI · Attention · Summarization · Prompting · PDF · RAG · Systems · Learning

12

The main index lists standalone notes only (newest first). Ordered series live under Series; learn curricula live under Paths—so long tracks do not flood this feed.