Fixing low display brightness on LUKS password prompt

Posted on 19 August 2025 in Articles • Tagged with archlinux, linux, framework-laptop, laptop, brightness, display • 1 min read

The problem: The laptop display brightness fluctuates after booting when running on battery power.

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The Power of Atomic Habits

Posted on 18 August 2025 in Books • Tagged with book, review, habits • 4 min read

So, you want to get rid of a bad habit or acquire a good one? The good news is that you have already taken the first step — you are aware of your current situation and you've set a goal. Where people usually fail is in the implementation. How can you convert the desire to change into something that becomes part of your identity? Let the "Atomic Habits" by James Clear to guide you in this thrilling quest.

Atomic Habits book cover

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xkbcommon and my custom Russian phonetic layout

Posted on 01 August 2025 in Articles • Tagged with linux, xkb, xkbcommon, wayland, layout, russian, phonetic • 5 min read

The Soviet Union officially dissolved in 1991, but Russian language remained the region's lingua franca for decades. Many children of my generation were simultaneous bilinguals; we spoke both Azeri and Russian since childhood. I learned to type in Russian, but I never ever learned the official Windows Russian keyboard layout, because I didn't have a keyboard with Russian alphabet printed on it. The alternative was a phonetic layout, and I still remember a program called "Alt-Win", which allowed to select Azeri Latin, or Russian phonetic keyboard layouts in Windows 9x. Over the years, I used other tools in Windows XP and Windows 7 to recreate this layout. And then I moved to Linux.

In Linux, the only tool you need to create your own keyboard layout is a text editor. Would you like to find out how?

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Framework Laptop is awesome!

Posted on 20 July 2025 in Articles • Tagged with framework-laptop, laptop, linux • 6 min read

As I am writing this text, enjoying Finnish summer from an armchair in my backyard, a feeling of satisfaction fills me. After nine years with a home desktop machine, I'm finally back to using a personal laptop. I can once again work on my projects from anywhere - from a sofa in the living room or an airplane 10 km above the ground. "Good for you, Zaur, you've got a laptop, why are you so excited?" Let's go back a few years ago. It all began with a loud rant...

Framework Laptop

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Hexagonal architecture and Python - Part IV: Lightweight integration tests

Posted on 10 May 2025 in Articles • Tagged with architecture, django, hexagonal architecture, lightweight integration tests, programming, python, testing • 14 min read

Pythons and hexagons with Part IV

It's pretty straightforward to unit test the components of an application that follows Hexagonal Architecture. The components are part of specific layers, and mocking the next dependency layer is usually simple. However, this approach means we never test the application as a whole and have to rely on expensive integration or end-to-end tests to do so.

We can test the application components in sociable manner, leaving our components' direct dependencies as-is, and pushing the mocks further to the application edges.

If we push the mocks too far, we end up with lightweight integration tests. Let's explore how we can utilise such tests in a context of Django application and what benefits we can reap.


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Peopleware

Posted on 29 December 2024 in Books • Tagged with book, review, management, leadership, office, teams, productivity • 2 min read

Peopleware book cover

Our industry, technological in nature, has far more sociological problems and challenges. The tar pit swallows yet another project, not because we couldn't figure out the technical parts, but because the people-oriented aspects had the lowest priority. Peopleware is about teams and individuals, about the people of the office - the "white collars". It's about bosses and employees, leaders and managers. It's about how, why, where, and what are our daily working activities about, how every bit of surrounding environment affects them.


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Testified Documentation

Posted on 29 September 2024 in Articles • Tagged with programming, python, documentation, tests, specification, BDD, collaboration, cucumber • 5 min read

It's hard to sell a software product - whether it's a library, a program, or generally speaking, a system - if it doesn't come with a top-notch manual. And keeping such manual up-to-date is not easy too. Gojko Adzic's ideas of Living Documentation to the rescue, but unfortunately they are still far from being widely adopted.

In this post I propose a different way of making Living Documentation - by testifying its contents. Dive in to find out how!

Testified documentation diagram

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The dark patterns of seat selection in Turkish Airlines

Posted on 17 August 2024 in Articles • Tagged with flying, turkish-airlines, dark-patterns • 4 min read

Dark Turkish airlines logo

Turkish Airlines is our first choice when it comes to flying to Azerbaijan from Finland. It’s not the cheapest, but the service is great. You get good food even in economy class, and there is an entertainment system with a broad selection of movies to keep you and the kids busy. The baggage allowance is huge - 30kg for check-in and the standard 8+kg for carry-on, although I’ve never seen them put the carry-on baggage on scales.

So, what’s all the fuss about?


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Building Microservices - more than just another "microservices book"

Posted on 09 July 2024 in Books • Tagged with book, review, microservices, architecture • 2 min read

Building Microservices book cover

While "Building Microservices" is not an encyclopedia, it definitely feels like one.


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Teams Topologies - Book Review

Posted on 23 March 2024 in Books • Tagged with book, review, architecture, teams, software development • 6 min read

"Teams Topologies book cover"

Conway’s Law states that systems are designed to mirror the communication structures of the organizations that create them. How, then, can we shape an organization to produce the desired system design? Let's find out "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow" by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais.


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