The Desk

The Desk — Edition 90

Welcome to the 90th issue of the Desk. The Desk is my weekly newsletter covering newly published content and project updates.

Brandon Himpfen

02 Mar 2026 — 5 min read

Photo by Linus Mimietz / Unsplash

Welcome to the 90th issue of The Desk — my weekly roundup of newly published content and project updates. Whether you’re following along for tutorials, blog posts, GitHub projects, or curated reads, there’s something for everyone building or exploring in tech, content, and open source spaces.

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📝 New Blog Posts

In case you missed last week's The Desk edition:

Here is last week's posts from my blog:

The Projects I’m Building (And Why They Exist): An overview of the projects I’m building, from AtlasInference and Office AI Playbook to DestinationGuides.ca and MartialArtsPedia.

Here is last week's posts from across my personal social networks:

New LinkedIn Post: AI, Product Formation, and the New Distance Between Idea and Infrastructure.

Digital Marketing

Recent analysis and reporting from Bold Outlook, covering search, platforms, and AI in digital systems:

Joost de Valk Steps Back From Linux Foundation FAIR Repository Initiative: Joost de Valk has stepped away from the Linux Foundation’s FAIR repository project, citing limited financial support. The initiative seeks to decentralize software distribution and improve supply chain security.

Travel Intelligence

New work from Brandon Travel, focused on how travel systems, constraints, and incentives actually function:

Scam-Proof Planning: What I Check Before I Trust a Deal: An analytical look at how travel pricing, regulation, infrastructure, and incentives shape deal credibility. Learn how to assess travel offers through structural reasoning rather than hype.

Travel Blogging

Recent articles from Travel Bloggers Network, exploring sustainable growth, structure, and long-term publishing strategy:

Travel Blogging and Mental Health: A professional guide to balancing travel blogging and mental health through sustainable systems, income stability, and long term editorial strategy.

Solo Travel

New posts from Solo Traveler, centered on solo-first travel realities, safety, and independent decision-making:

10 Tips for Staying in Airbnb Alone: Staying in an Airbnb alone can be comfortable and rewarding. Learn 10 practical tips to help solo travelers choose wisely, prepare thoughtfully, and stay confidently and respectfully in Airbnb accommodations.
Road Trip Iceland: Planning a solo road trip in Iceland? Learn essential driving advice, daily safety checks, and how to navigate the Ring Road with confidence. Stay safe with weather, road, and travel resources before you go.

Substack Newsletters

New Substack posts published across my personal, travel, and technology newsletters:

Themes, Templates, and Reusable UI: Why I Still Bet on “Boring” Bootstrap: Why long-term builders should optimize for stability, not trend cycles.
The Difference Between Traveling and Living Abroad: Why understanding the difference between movement and stability is essential for building a sustainable digital nomad lifestyle.

🚀 New Projects and Initiatives

This week I also pushed forward on a few new projects and initiatives. These are early-stage launches, new reference hubs, or first public versions that expand the broader content and open source systems I’m building across tech, travel, and publishing.

DestinationGuides.ca: A clean, publication-grade destination reference for Canadian travelers — optimized for planning, not selling.

🌱 Project Updates

This section tracks ongoing work across my projects. Some updates are small and structural, others are visible improvements but all of them reflect where time and attention went this week as the broader system continues to take shape over time.

The Awesome Lists template has been updated to v2. This release introduces structured validation and maintenance workflows, including: automated link checking (PR + scheduled), duplicate resource detection, lightweight structural linting, and clearer contributor and governance standards.

🤝 Community Updates

A few updates from the communities I’m building and supporting, including new spaces to connect, contribute and collaborate.

New LinkedIn Groups

Solo Travel Professionals: This group is dedicated to those building, researching and shaping the solo travel sector.

New Code Snippets

As mentioned last week, I'm aiming to publish, on average, two code snippets per week. Here are this past weeks code snippets:

node-parse-delimited-streaming.js: Parse a delimited (CSV-like) file line-by-line in Node.js with streaming output (no deps, supports quotes, header mapping, and large files).
node-write-jsonl-atomic.js: Stream-write JSON Lines (JSONL/NDJSON) to a file in Node.js safely using a temp file + atomic rename (no deps).