Ben Houston's Blog

By Ben Houston, 2025-04-07

A detailed exploration of how TanStack Router handles data loading through beforeLoad and loader functions, with insights on execution order, data merging, and performance implications.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-28

Optimize your README.md files to empower both human developers and AI coding assistants alike.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-27

After building a high-performance home network with 3Gbps fiber, 10G switching, and NVMe storage, I've learned valuable lessons about infrastructure planning, connection types, and future-proofing that could save you time and money.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-25

AI coding assistants are excellent at generating tests with high coverage. But there is often a critical problem: they are testing that code behaves as written, not as intended. This "Test Theater" creates a dangerous illusion of quality while providing almost no real protection against bugs.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-24

Learn how to develop 3D web applications that work reliably across all devices using real-world browser capability data from Web3DSurvey.com with a practical two-tier development strategy.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-21

Exploring the simplest possible implementation of an agentic coder using just 200 lines of TypeScript, demonstrating foundational concepts clearly and concisely.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-20

How to build an autonomous agentic coder that leverages advanced LLMs to transform software development. A talk given at the Ottawa Forward JS meet-up.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-17

As AI dramatically reduces software development costs, we need to rethink our approach to code. Software is becoming ephemeral - easily replaced rather than maintained. This paradigm shift means optimizing for current needs instead of hypothetical futures.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-13

AI agents are moving beyond IDEs into full automation of coding workflows. Discover how integrating agentic coding into GitHub Actions can streamline software development—turning issues into PRs and automating documentation, tests, and even code reviews, all through simple GitHub comments.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-07

Adding GitHub Mode to MyCoder has radically improved my productivity, making my agentic coder feel like a true team member. By leveraging GitHub for task tracking, pull requests, and CI/CD feedback, I’ve seen a 3x to 5x boost in development efficiency.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-06

Adapting your codebase to match AI coder assumptions doesn't just help AI — it uncovers hidden complexity, ultimately benefiting human developers.

By Ben Houston, 2025-03-05

As AI coding agents become increasingly capable, we need to rethink our code organization and documentation practices. Here's why traditional "human-first" coding approaches are becoming obsolete and how to structure your projects for optimal AI compatibility.

By Ben Houston, 2025-02-18

Why TanStack/Start may be the right choice for your next project. Exploring the unique features of TanStack/Start in comparison to Remix, and Next.js.

By Ben Houston, 2024-12-20

Open Core combines the viral growth of open source with the revenue potential of enterprise software – but most founders get the balance wrong. Drawing from my experience building both open source and enterprise products, I explain why this model particularly shines for developer tools, and how to execute it without alienating either developers or paying customers.

By Ben Houston, 2024-12-06

From solving a unique rendering challenge for a single film to becoming an industry-standard tool used in blockbuster movies like Avatar and Harry Potter, the origin story of the Krakatoa point renderer.

By Ben Houston, 2024-12-05

Sometimes big opportunities come from solving what seem like minor problems. In 2002, fresh out of university, I accidentally co-created what would become one of the most widely-used tools in Hollywood visual effects - all because I needed a better way to run fluid simulations.

By Ben Houston, 2024-12-05

After learning the hard way that chasing startups and SMBs was a dead end, I discovered why the path to sustainable SaaS growth lies in mastering enterprise sales and the 'land and expand' strategy.

By Ben Houston, 2024-12-04

How a pioneering web-based 3D editor pivoted from trying to revolutionizing visual effects to finding unexpected success in enterprise product visualization.

By Ben Houston, 2024-12-02

A startup journey can naturally be split into two phases, each driven by a different question: survival and then maybe scale.

By Ben Houston, 2024-11-05

Kubernetes often represents the ultimate solution for container orchestration, but my experience has led me to leave it behind in favor of a simpler, cost-effective solution using Google Cloud Run.

By Ben Houston, 2024-10-23

RISC-V is currently quite slow compared to modern CPUs in 2024.

By Ben Houston, 2024-09-01

Web3DSurvey is a tool for 3D web developers that tracks and aggregates WebGL, WebGL2, and WebGPU capabilities providing valuable insights into real-world support for these features.

By Ben Houston, 2023-05-30

Graph-based materials, while innovative and flexible, pose significant costs for run-time dynamic loading in Web and Games. We delve into these costs and propose alternative solutions.

By Ben Houston, 2022-10-25

Understand the background and potential future of the evolving Khronos glTF PBR material definition.

By Ben Houston, 2015-05-06

With Physically-based Rendering (PBR) becoming the new standard, we need a simple standard interchange format.