Software engineering, PHP internals, AI, and side projects by Khaled Alam.https://blog.khaledalam.net/enhttps://blog.khaledalam.net/contributing-to-php-core/https://blog.khaledalam.net/contributing-to-php-core/Contributing to PHP core is more approachable than you think — here is how I fixed a Reflection NAN warning and merged the PR into PHP 8.5.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 12:02:28 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/avatoon-3d-talking-avatar-lip-sync-react/https://blog.khaledalam.net/avatoon-3d-talking-avatar-lip-sync-react/Avatoon is a free React component for a 3D talking avatar with real-time lip-sync on web and React Native. Learn what it is and how it works.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:55:44 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/semantic-search-from-scratch/https://blog.khaledalam.net/semantic-search-from-scratch/Learn semantic search from scratch in Python — embeddings, cosine similarity, a working example, and how to scale it with a vector database.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 20:30:37 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/pr-20902-merged-into-php-core-reflectionconstantinnamespace/https://blog.khaledalam.net/pr-20902-merged-into-php-core-reflectionconstantinnamespace/My PR #20902 added ReflectionConstant::inNamespace() to PHP core, aligning the Reflection API so constants match classes and functions.Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:50:12 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/packing-list-generator/https://blog.khaledalam.net/packing-list-generator/A packing list generator app with ready templates for travel, work, and gym. Build checklists, tick items off as you pack, and work fully offline.Fri, 02 Jan 2026 20:26:28 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/from-prompt-engineers-to-brain-data-trainers-the-rise-of-eeg-fmri-slaves/https://blog.khaledalam.net/from-prompt-engineers-to-brain-data-trainers-the-rise-of-eeg-fmri-slaves/From prompt engineers to brain data trainers: why EEG and fMRI recordings are becoming the next frontier of AI training data, and what it costs.Sun, 05 Oct 2025 08:12:44 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/beware-of-fake-coding-interviews-how-crypto-wallet-scammers-target-developers/https://blog.khaledalam.net/beware-of-fake-coding-interviews-how-crypto-wallet-scammers-target-developers/Fake coding interviews are targeting developers with crypto wallet tasks. Here are the red flags I saw twice and how to protect your wallet.Thu, 02 Oct 2025 08:29:40 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/devbox-reproducible-development-environments-made-simple/https://blog.khaledalam.net/devbox-reproducible-development-environments-made-simple/Devbox uses Nix hashing to give your team reproducible development environments from one devbox.json file, with no global installs and no drift.Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:29:33 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/the-hidden-clock-when-code-leaks-secrets/https://blog.khaledalam.net/the-hidden-clock-when-code-leaks-secrets/A timing attack on your Forgot Password flow can reveal which emails exist. See how response delays leak data and how to reply in constant time.Thu, 07 Aug 2025 06:13:02 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/%d8%aa%d8%a3%d8%ae%d9%8a%d8%b1-tls-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%ab%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%aa%d8%a8%d8%b7%d9%91%d8%a3-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9%d9%83/https://blog.khaledalam.net/%d8%aa%d8%a3%d8%ae%d9%8a%d8%b1-tls-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%ab%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%a8%d8%aa%d8%a8%d8%b7%d9%91%d8%a3-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9%d9%83/تأخير TLS ممكن يزود وقت كل اتصال جديد 350-500 ميلي ثانية. اعرف يعني إيه مصافحة TLS وإزاي تقللها وتسرّع موقعك من غير ما تغير الكود.Tue, 29 Jul 2025 05:49:18 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/php-dev-rfc-idea-proposal-loop-unrolling-in-userland-via-unrolln-attribute/https://blog.khaledalam.net/php-dev-rfc-idea-proposal-loop-unrolling-in-userland-via-unrolln-attribute/PHP loop unrolling from userland: an early RFC idea for an #[Unroll(N)] attribute that lets the compiler expand hot loops at compile time.Mon, 07 Jul 2025 05:58:15 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/softcropper-python-image-blur-tool/https://blog.khaledalam.net/softcropper-python-image-blur-tool/SoftCropper is a Python tool to resize and blur images for print. It squares photos and adds soft blurred borders with OpenCV. Open source CLI.Thu, 08 May 2025 02:57:15 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/how-i-added-token-llm-cost-estimation-to-the-indexing-pipeline-of-microsoft-graphrag/https://blog.khaledalam.net/how-i-added-token-llm-cost-estimation-to-the-indexing-pipeline-of-microsoft-graphrag/LLM token cost estimation for GraphRAG: how I added a feature to preview token usage and projected OpenAI costs before indexing large datasets.Tue, 06 May 2025 19:03:30 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/how-im-shaping-the-future-of-makyee-through-collaboration-and-user-engagement/https://blog.khaledalam.net/how-im-shaping-the-future-of-makyee-through-collaboration-and-user-engagement/User-driven product design in practice: how I let Makyee users vote between two designs and turned their feedback into the feature we shipped.Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:52:20 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/how-to-hire-developers-lessons-from-my-journey-in-dubai/https://blog.khaledalam.net/how-to-hire-developers-lessons-from-my-journey-in-dubai/How to hire developers: what I learned from Amazon's process, running technical assignments, and interviewing engineers as a manager in Dubai.Tue, 21 Jan 2025 17:23:36 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/makyees-first-contest-building-community-and-achieving-success/https://blog.khaledalam.net/makyees-first-contest-building-community-and-achieving-success/The first Makyee community contest, plus new WhatsApp and Telegram channels, grew engagement and brought the platform closer to its audience.Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:24:28 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%ab%d9%8a%d9%82-%d8%b1%d8%ad%d9%84%d8%aa%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%83%d9%8a-%d8%af%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b3-%d8%aa%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d8%ba/https://blog.khaledalam.net/%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%ab%d9%8a%d9%82-%d8%b1%d8%ad%d9%84%d8%aa%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%83%d9%8a-%d8%af%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b3-%d8%aa%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d8%ba/سلسلة دروس ماكي التعليمية باللغة العربية تشرح مزايا المنصة واستراتيجيات المحترفين في السوق العقاري الأساسي والثانوي خطوة بخطوة.Sat, 04 Jan 2025 21:29:13 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/behind-makyee-my-journey-as-cto-in-revolutionizing-real-estate-technology/https://blog.khaledalam.net/behind-makyee-my-journey-as-cto-in-revolutionizing-real-estate-technology/My journey as a real estate technology CTO at Makyee: leading the tech team and building a broker-free property platform for Dubai's market.Sun, 22 Dec 2024 22:10:12 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/transform-your-photos-with-artifymasters-swap-face-feature/https://blog.khaledalam.net/transform-your-photos-with-artifymasters-swap-face-feature/How ArtifyMaster's AI face swap feature works, what makes its results stand out, and how to use it for social, marketing, and creative projects.Sat, 05 Oct 2024 11:52:07 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/artifymaster-vs-chatgpt-why-my-ai-tool-outshines-the-competition/https://blog.khaledalam.net/artifymaster-vs-chatgpt-why-my-ai-tool-outshines-the-competition/ArtifyMaster vs ChatGPT: a real comparison on removing backgrounds and watermarks, and why a purpose-built AI image editor wins on these tasks.Thu, 03 Oct 2024 21:43:53 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/hardware-microcontroller-automation/https://blog.khaledalam.net/hardware-microcontroller-automation/A tiny hardware microcontroller automation project, with my algorithm flashed onto its memory, saved me over 60 hours per week. Here is the story.Thu, 30 May 2024 17:17:35 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/cloudyinputs-saas-for-auto-words-and-sentences-prediction-using-ai-and-drafting-users-inputs/https://blog.khaledalam.net/cloudyinputs-saas-for-auto-words-and-sentences-prediction-using-ai-and-drafting-users-inputs/CloudyInputs adds AI form autocomplete and sentence prediction to web forms, saves user input instantly, and gives you a dashboard of insights.Fri, 15 Mar 2024 17:11:29 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/whereisdep-a-c-cli-application-to-search-package-json-dependencies-in-given-directories/https://blog.khaledalam.net/whereisdep-a-c-cli-application-to-search-package-json-dependencies-in-given-directories/whereisdep is a C++ CLI tool that finds unused package.json dependencies across directories, so you can trim bundle size and speed up loading.Tue, 23 Jan 2024 01:37:26 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/set-maxduration-of-vercel-serverless-functions-execution-duration-limit/https://blog.khaledalam.net/set-maxduration-of-vercel-serverless-functions-execution-duration-limit/Fix Vercel serverless function timeout and 504 errors by setting maxDuration in vercel.json. Pro allows up to 300 seconds, Hobby only 10.Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:08:35 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/ir-led-sensor/https://blog.khaledalam.net/ir-led-sensor/I built a low-budget IR LED sensor that detects infrared from any remote control at over 5 meters. Here is how the 3x3cm circuit works.Thu, 16 Nov 2023 02:55:28 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/get-live-real-time-price-of-gold-in-grams-in-google-sheets-for-free/https://blog.khaledalam.net/get-live-real-time-price-of-gold-in-grams-in-google-sheets-for-free/Get the live gold price in Google Sheets for free with a short Apps Script function. Fetch real-time gram rates and refresh the cell automatically.Sun, 29 Oct 2023 20:50:14 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/bug-in-iphone-general-settings-page-title/https://blog.khaledalam.net/bug-in-iphone-general-settings-page-title/An iPhone General settings bug shows the wrong page title and a dead Select button after navigating back from Review My Videos. Steps to reproduce.Sun, 08 Oct 2023 20:47:41 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/linknexa/https://blog.khaledalam.net/linknexa/LinkNexa is a Chrome extension that saves your frequent form inputs in folders and pastes them into any field with one click. Save time on forms.Mon, 18 Sep 2023 21:29:02 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/random-quotes-mobile-application/https://blog.khaledalam.net/random-quotes-mobile-application/A simple random quotes app for Android. Pick how many daily quotes to fetch and let positive, inspirational quotes guide your day. Free on Google Play.Thu, 31 Aug 2023 18:30:52 GMThttps://blog.khaledalam.net/php-closure-recursive-functions-variable-scope/https://blog.khaledalam.net/php-closure-recursive-functions-variable-scope/A PHP closure recursive function fails unless you bind the variable by reference. Here is the error, why it happens, and the one-character fix.Thu, 31 Aug 2023 08:40:24 GMT