https://peterbenoit.com/blog/ When I'm not hiking, I'm coding. When I'm not exploring, I'm building. Notes on all of it. en-us Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/marjorie-kinnan-rawlings-historic-state-park/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/marjorie-kinnan-rawlings-historic-state-park/ Rawlings bought this cracker farm in 1928, won a Pulitzer here, and stayed for twenty years. Driving past one afternoon, I stopped to see what remained. Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/government-website-design/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/government-website-design/ USWDS is a solid design system. Most federal websites aren't running it. Here is what government digital design looks like in practice, from VA.gov to state systems. Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/the-calhoun-effect/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/the-calhoun-effect/ John Calhoun's Universe 25 experiment ended in total population collapse despite unlimited resources. What the Calhoun Effect actually means, and what critics get wrong. Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/porch-is-already-waiting/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/porch-is-already-waiting/ I charted 26 years of change in an infographic. It looked impressive. It was also missing everything that actually mattered. Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/the-island/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/the-island/ Four concrete stanchions from a Depression-era canal project sit inside a ten-acre state park inside the median of US-441. The forest has almost entirely taken them back. Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/monster-in-the-machine/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/monster-in-the-machine/ An AI agent deleted a company's production database in nine seconds. The headline called it 'goes rogue.' That framing is wrong, and it matters that it's wrong. Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/the-floor-might-be-fine/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/the-floor-might-be-fine/ I use AI every day and find real value in it. I still can't tell you how this resolves. Neither can anyone else. Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/stanford-ai-report/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/stanford-ai-report/ Every year Stanford's Human-Centered AI group publishes the AI Index Report. This year's edition is 423 pages. Here's what stuck with me. Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/baseline-trailhead/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/baseline-trailhead/ I wasn't feeling great last weekend, but I went anyway. That's kind of my rule with Bowie. He doesn't negotiate. Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/first-thing-open-project/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/first-thing-open-project/ Opening a project cold can be a challenge. I built a VS Code extension to solve that: structure analysis, git diagnostics, and plain-text summaries in one file. Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/inert-attribute/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/inert-attribute/ The inert attribute solves focus trapping without JavaScript ceremony. A 40-line focus trap function replaced by four lines that actually work. Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/enshittification-of-trust/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/enshittification-of-trust/ How car buying became a three-layer trust collapse requiring fake identities and AI agents just to negotiate safely. Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/pretext/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/pretext/ For twenty-five years I've accepted that measuring text requires the DOM. Pretext is a 15KB library that proves otherwise. Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/peters-evil-overlord-list/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/peters-evil-overlord-list/ Peter Anspach's Evil Overlord List has been on the same URL since 1996. I've been meaning to write about it for twenty-five years. Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/safe-area-inset/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/safe-area-inset/ I was building a fixed bottom nav and it looked fine in DevTools. On a real phone, the home indicator was sitting right on top of the buttons. The fix was four lines of CSS I'd been skipping for years. Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/things-the-web-killed/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/things-the-web-killed/ A tour through the technologies the platform eventually buried: the genuinely good ideas, the architectural mistakes, and at least one tag that blinked. Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/ddev/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/ddev/ After years of fighting MAMP, Valet, and handrolled Docker configs, ddev quietly solved local PHP development for me. Here's what clicked. Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/immich/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/immich/ Practical guide to running Immich on Windows with Docker. Covers exFAT drives, Windows Firewall quirks, and other gotchas nobody warns you about. Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/css-starting-style/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/css-starting-style/ @starting-style gives CSS transitions a declarative 'from' state for elements entering the DOM. No JavaScript required. Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/marshall-swamp/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/marshall-swamp/ Early March on the Cross Florida Greenway means the migratory birds have arrived, the ferns are growing fast, and the boardwalk over the swamp floor is the best vantage point in the county. Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/color-mix/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/color-mix/ For years I reached for Sass just to darken or lighten a brand color. Native CSS color-mix() in oklch does it better. Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/yearling-trail/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/yearling-trail/ In the Ocala National Forest in January, the insects are gone, the scrub is dormant, and the sinkholes sit quietly in the limestone. It's a good time to walk somewhere with history. Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/scroll-driven-animations/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/scroll-driven-animations/ The Scroll-Driven Animations spec lets you tie CSS animations to scroll position or element visibility. And it runs off the main thread. Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://peterbenoit.com/blog/silver-springs/ https://peterbenoit.com/blog/silver-springs/ Most visitors come for the glass-bottom boats. The hiking trails go somewhere else: into a sandhill forest giving way to bald cypress that have been standing since before the Revolution. Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000