Jake Van Alstyne

Welcome to my page!

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I develop software and dabble in music. When I need a break, I like to spend time in the mountains with my jeep and camping trailer.

More about me

My CV

@jvalol@mastodon.social

Popsicle Boat

I am building Popsicle Boat, a small social web project about low-friction posting, conversation, and keeping personal spaces on the internet playful.

popsicleboat.com

Recent Posts

The page that rebuilds itself

Popsicleboat, Hugo, Netlify

July 13, 2026

In which the deploy habit stops being the bottleneck

Putting the boat on a diet

Performance, Webpack, Elixir

July 12, 2026

In which 843 kilobytes become 468, and the biggest weight isn’t the JavaScript

Your site can keep the comments

Popsicleboat, Hugo

July 12, 2026

In which the comment section learns to come home

The panel that closed itself

Elixir, Liveview

July 11, 2026

In which a disclosure panel shuts every time someone types a letter

Popsicle Boat as a comment section

July 10, 2026

In which a blog gets discussions with no ads and no trackers, one link per post

What's new aboard

July 10, 2026

The boat picked up some new rigging: formatting, search, feeds, and word when someone replies

The panel that hid itself

Webrtc, Javascript

July 7, 2026

In which a video call connects perfectly and its panel hides anyway

Popsicle Boat

July 5, 2026

In which I finally write about the social web project I’ve been quietly building since 2019

Crypto

May 20, 2021

Top Secret

Pony Express

May 17, 2021

In which I describe our trip along the Pony Express route