Filip Pacurar

2026 . 06 . 02 1780409806

What I Look For When Interviewing Senior Developers

A few months ago I started doing technical interviews for a developer platform that primarily accepts senior web developers. Since then I’ve interviewed a large number of candidates and, for consistency, I’ve mostly used the same practical coding exercise that I wrote from scratch. The task itself is intentionally simple. You receive three API clients....
Geek # php # interviews
2026 . 03 . 20 1774036001

Blog revamp – spring 2026 edition

The last redesign I did on this blog was sometime in 2020, back when COVID was still a thing and I had plenty of free time. Since then, I haven’t really changed much around here. And even though I really liked that design, I’ve kind of gotten bored of it, and it started to feel...
Blog # redesign
2025 . 09 . 23 1758631985

How I Managed to Lose 34 Kilograms

I thought I’d share some reflections on my weight loss journey, which I started back in April (actually, on April 11th to be precise). Last year I gave it a try: daily workouts, some diet tweaks, but the truth is… I barely saw any results. My weight stayed pretty much the same. After my vacation...
Life Personale # weight loss # diet
A special word from me for you:
2025 . 09 . 15 1757941811

A new “flow” for my blog posts

Starting today, I’m trying out a simpler (and faster) way of publishing: I’ll post the text version, and at the end I’ll also leave the audio version — raw, unedited — so you can hear exactly how the ideas came out when I first said them. Why the change? In short: time flies. Too often,...
Personale Life # blog
2025 . 09 . 15 1757940512

Is It Worth Upgrading Your iPhone Every Year? A Personal Take

Every time a new iPhone drops, the internet goes wild. “It’s the same as last year,” “Nothing new here,” “They just changed the number” — you hear these comments every single launch. And honestly, people aren’t completely wrong. But if you think about it, Apple’s strategy is pretty clear: they’re not trying to reinvent the...
Geek # apple # iphone
2025 . 03 . 19 1742380181

My Thoughts on Vibe Coding and Indie Hackers

I’ll try to keep this short because, well, someone actually has to get some work done in this industry. From what I’ve seen on X, this community can be a bit risky. And why do I say that? Because a lot of the people doing “vibe coding” and calling themselves indie hackers don’t seem too...
Geek # programming # ai
2025 . 02 . 16 1739720687

CEAC Updates – DV2025 week #7

Here are the updates for DV2025 from CEAC for week #7 for the fiscal year 2025 (Feb 10 – Feb 16, 2025) Direct link where you can also check history. AI Summary Insights and Observations from Week #7 Data: 1. General Trends and Performance 2. Top Performing Regions 3. Consular Performance and Bottlenecks 4. Refusal...
# ceac data # statistics # dv2025
2025 . 02 . 03 1738599267

CEAC Updates – DV2025 week #6

Here are the updates for DV2025 from CEAC for week #6 for the fiscal year 2025 (Feb 3 – Feb 9, 2025) Direct link where you can also check history. AI Summary Key Highlights Total Cases Processed Status Transitions Consular Processing Activity Status Change Activity Insights and Observations Regional Performance Top Consulates Refusals and Bottlenecks...
Diversity Visa # statistics # ceac data # dv2025
2025 . 01 . 27 1737980948

CEAC Updates – DV2025 week #5

Here are the updates for DV2025 from CEAC for week #5 for the fiscal year 2025 (Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2025) Direct link where you can also check history. AI Summary – Diversity Visa 2025 – Week #5 (Jan 27 – Feb 2) Report Key Highlights Total Cases Processed Status Transitions Consular Processing Activity...
Diversity Visa # ceac data # statistics # dv2025
2025 . 01 . 20 1737370774

CEAC Updates – DV2025 week #4

Here are the updates for DV2025 from CEAC for week #4 for the fiscal year 2025 (Jan 20 – Jan 26, 2025) Direct link where you can also check history. Note: some of those 2nl numbers were included in my post of week #2. Xarthisius does a weekly scan on Friday night noted with Saturday’s...
Diversity Visa # ceac data # statistics # dv2025
2025 . 01 . 20 1737365793

Morning thoughts #1

20 Jan 2024 Apparently, today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. This concept has been debunked many times, so this day isn’t necessarily valid anymore. Anyway, the whole month of January is depressing and cold. I wanted to go to Starbucks to collect some stars and get myself a coffee to...
Personale # morning thoughts