Rickvian Aldi

Software engineer

Ilovetodigintotheinvisiblecraftbehindgreatsoftware-thepatterns,habits,anddecisionsthatseparategoodengineersfromexceptionalones.

Latest essays

View all essays →
Systems

Temporal Makes JavaScript Date and Time Explicit

A stored birthday can display as the previous day because JavaScript `Date` converts a calendar date into a timestamp. Temporal provides separate types for calendar dates, exact timestamps, and scheduled events.

Sep 5, 2026·7 min read
Systems

Dirty Reads, Explained

A dirty read returns an uncommitted value from another transaction. If that transaction rolls back, the reader observed a value that was never part of committed database state.

Aug 8, 2026·5 min read
Systems

Non-Repeatable Reads, Explained

A transaction reads the same row twice and gets two different committed values. The isolation level determines whether both reads use the same database state.

Aug 8, 2026·5 min read
Systems

Phantom Reads, Explained

A transaction repeats a search and finds an additional matching row. The existing rows did not change, but another transaction committed a new row that satisfies the same query.

Aug 8, 2026·9 min read
Systems

The HTTP QUERY Method, Explained

RFC 10008 gives HTTP a method for safe queries with a body. It fills the awkward gap between long GET URLs and POST requests that normally reserved for mutations.

Jun 22, 2026·10 min read

Pattern library

View all patterns →

Feature Flags: Decouple Deployment from Release

Deploying code to production is irreversible in the short term - when something goes wrong, rolling back requires another deploy, which takes time and may have its own risks. Feature flag allows you to revert fast

feature-flagsoperabilitydeploymentsafetydark-launching
  • Systems
  • Craft
  • Career
  • Tooling
  • Architecture
  • Engineering
  • Productivity
  • Leadership
  • Open Source
  • TypeScript
  • Design Systems
  • APIs
  • Performance
  • Testing
  • DevOps
  • Mentorship

What I write about

Currently covering

architecture