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Atomic Spin

Atomic Object’s blog on everything we find fascinating.

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Understand Your Tools: Unpacking Bias in Generative AI

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/14

“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements — transportation, communications, and all other industries […] profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner […] The post Understand Your Tools: Unpacking Bias in Generative AI appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Git Good: Aliases with Spice

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/13

What are you combo moves? Okay, maybe combo moves is the wrong word. But I like to think of common terminal combinations as combo moves because they help me WIN… at work! I like to have some fun with my shell and git aliases. Sometimes doing routine tasks can be a bore. Let’s bring more […] The post Git Good: Aliases with Spice appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Getting Back into Code After Taking a Break: Vibe...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/12

Before I joined Atomic as a software designer, I spent about 10 years doing front-end development. I was usually involved in projects from kickoff to launch. I built out websites in WordPress or Craft CMS, using editors like Sublime Text or VS Code. My typical stack also included Docker for local environments and Tower for […] The post Getting Back into Code After Taking a Break: Vibe Coding with Cursor appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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AI-Powered Notetaking: Using Transcriptions &...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/11

Automatic speech-to-text and meeting summary tools are maturing fast, but they’re still not a fire-and-forget replacement for human note-taking. Over the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with a simple pipeline: Meeting → Recording → AI Transcript → AI Notes & Summary Below are some observations and recommendations that I’ve found helpful in getting a […] The post AI-Powered Notetaking: Using Transcriptions & Summaries for Meetings appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Large Language Models Are Designed to Be Average

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/10

Large language models like GPT, Claude, and Gemini have captured the public imagination with their ability to write code, answer questions, and generate human-like text. However, despite the impressive demonstrations and marketing claims about “artificial intelligence,” these models are fundamentally designed to produce average outputs. Understanding why reveals important limitations about what we can reasonably […] The post Large Language Models Are Designed to Be Average appeared

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Stay Engaged with Your Software Project Even When the...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/09

Summer can be a tricky season for software developers. The sun is shining. Cookouts, campouts, and family vacations are calling. Project timelines tend to slow down as teammates rotate in and out. If we are not cognizant of it, this seasonal shift can compound into something harder to shake: disengagement. I’ve been there. Still shipping […] The post Stay Engaged with Your Software Project Even When the Sun’s Out appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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How I Used Testing Techniques on Chatbots

Atomic Spin ·

2025/08/08

Having tested websites and apps for many years, could the techniques, tips, and tricks from these be used to test AI systems? Here, I’ll show how a few different approaches can be used when testing an AI Chatbot. Consistency I’ve written a couple of posts on consistency testing in apps. Is there a consistent naming […] The post How I Used Testing Techniques on Chatbots appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Remix Your Logo Like It’s 1999 with Adobe Firefly AI

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/27

Back in the day, MTV made a habit of reimagining their logo — cartooney, zebra-print, pixelated, animated, you name it. Each version felt familiar, but with a distinct vibe. That same remix mindset is what makes Adobe Firefly AI so fun to play with. Adobe Firefly is a generative AI tool that allows users to […]The post Remix Your Logo Like It’s 1999 with Adobe Firefly AI appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Habits & Tools for a Smoother Digital Life

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/26

Here are a few of the weird ways I use computers… and why you might want to steal a few of them. Most people open a laptop, launch a browser, and start working. I do that too. But I also do a bunch of odd things that make my computer feel more like a custom-made […] The post Habits & Tools for a Smoother Digital Life appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Why I Still Time‑Box Every Story I Touch

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/25

Estimating effort isn’t the flashiest part of software development, but it’s the habit that quietly holds my work together. Before I open Cursor, I block out a chunk of time and jot down a cost for the story in front of me. That small ritual does more than fill out a direction for the story—it […] The post Why I Still Time‑Box Every Story I Touch appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Keep Your Workflow Safe with MCP

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/24

The recent rise of AI agents has been accelerated by the use of model context protocol (MCP) servers. MCP has enabled complex integrations into AI workflows. It feels like every major service provider is racing to release MCP compatibility at the moment – some implementations more useful than others. MCP’s high power integrations compounded with […] The post Keep Your Workflow Safe with MCP appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Want Discriminated Unions in Kotlin? Use a Sealed Class.

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/23

I’m a big discriminated union fanboy. Type safety gets me giddy, and discriminated unions are a great way to enforce it. Problem Sometimes I have a type with a few different possible states, and I don’t want those states getting mixed up. For example, maybe I’ve built out some kind of software that needs to […] The post Want Discriminated Unions in Kotlin? Use a Sealed Class. appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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3 Questions to Help You Write a Better AI Prompt

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/22

Prompting a language model might feel like casting a spell — say the right words, and something magical happens. But like any good spellbook, it helps to understand the principles behind the incantation. If you want an LLM to produce something useful, the burden is on you to wield context with intention. Before you hit […] The post 3 Questions to Help You Write a Better AI Prompt appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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3 TypeScript Tips You Should Know About

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/21

I’ve been primarily coding in TypeScript for over two years and am comfortable with its syntax and conventions, but still enjoy learning new tricks to improve my expertise. Here are some utility types I discovered recently that may help you improve code readability and quality. Pick and Omit Let’s say you created a type called […] The post 3 TypeScript Tips You Should Know About appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Read the Room, Rethink the Retro

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/20

If you’ve ever realized retro time is around the corner again and sighed at the thought of another tired round of Start, Stop, Continue then you’re not alone. But here’s my confession: I love retros. Like, really love them. They’re the one space where the whole team hits pause, zooms out, and reflects on the work and […]The post Read the Room, Rethink the Retro appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Build Stronger Case Studies & Communicate Value More...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/19

What happens when great stories hide their best parts several scrolls down the page? In our case studies portfolio, potential clients missed a lot of what makes Atomic’s work stand out. So we set out to fix it and learned a lot along the way. In my first year at Atomic Object as a marketing […] The post Build Stronger Case Studies & Communicate Value More Clearly to Potential Clients appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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From Chatbots to Components: Teaching Developers to...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/18

Most developers first encounter LLMs through chat interfaces — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.. It’s a natural starting point, but it creates a specific mental model: LLMs are conversational partners, digital assistants you interact with through natural language. This mental model works fine when you’re chatting, but it can lead you astray when you start integrating […] The post From Chatbots to Components: Teaching Developers to Think of LLMs as (Fuzzy) Functions appeared first on

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Zero-Downtime Azure Functions: Watch Mode with Rider...

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/17

Working with Azure Functions locally can feel like Groundhog Day — every change means stopping and restarting your host, waiting for all the triggers to reinitialize, and only then jumping back into that bug you were fixing. What if you could get “watch mode” for Azure Functions, à la Webpack or nodemon, so your function […] The post Zero-Downtime Azure Functions: Watch Mode with Rider and Watchman appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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Build a 3D Product Configurator with Babylon.js

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/16

Being able to see, interact, and customize using product visualizations can be valuable. This post demonstrates how to build a 3D product visualization and configuration tool using Babylon.js, a powerful, open-source 3D engine based on WebGL and WebGPU. For the Artists We’ll start with a 2D logo in SVG format and convert it to a […] The post Build a 3D Product Configurator with Babylon.js appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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A Better Promise.all() — Utility Types and Functions

Atomic Spin ·

2025/07/15

Working with nested promises in TypeScript can be challenging. Here, I’ll introduce a set of utility types and functions that make deep promise handling more ergonomic and type-safe. The Problem When working with complex data structures that contain promises at various levels, you often need to: Wrap all values in promises (shallow or deep) Handle […] The post A Better Promise.all() — Utility Types and Functions appeared first on Atomic Spin.

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494 results