Hunting for the Bad Byte

Hunting for the Bad Byte | Generated by AI

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Why This Didn’t Find the Bad Byte

The hexdump output you got matched the file offset (000008d0), not a \x8D byte in the actual content. Grep is text-searching the entire line, and “8d” appears in the hex address (e.g., 08d0), so it pulled that irrelevant line. The data bytes there (6f 67 20 ...) are just normal ASCII for "og = og_images[i", no issues.

Better Ways to Hunt the `\x8D`

Try these commands in your project directory (next to _layouts/default.html). They’ll scan the file’s bytes directly.

Improved Hexdump (Grep for Byte in Data): This greps for ` 8d ` (spaces around to match hex bytes, not offsets):
```
hexdump -C _layouts/default.html | grep ' 8d '
```
- If it finds something, you’ll see the offset (left column) and surrounding bytes. Note the offset, then jump to that position in your editor (e.g., VS Code: Ctrl+G > byte offset / 16 for line approx.).
- Example output if hit: 00001234 ... 8d 20 61 62 ... |... ab...|
Use xxd (Often Better Than Hexdump): macOS has xxd built-in:
```
xxd _layouts/default.html | grep 8d
```
- Similar: Matches “8d” in hex bytes. If no output, the byte isn’t there (rare, but possible if it’s in another file).
Binary Grep (Direct Byte Search):
```
grep -a -o -P '\x8d' _layouts/default.html | hexdump -C
```
- This extracts exact matches to the byte and dumps them in hex. If empty, no \x8D.
Ruby One-Liner (Precise Position): As I suggested before—run this to get byte index:
```
ruby -e "File.open('_layouts/default.html', 'rb') { |f| f.read.each_byte.with_index { |b, i| puts \"Found at byte #{i}: #{b.chr(Encoding::ASCII_8BIT).inspect}\" if b == 0x8D } }"
```
- Outputs like: Found at byte 1234: "\x8D". Then edit: Open file, go to char ~1234 (or line = 1234/80-ish), and delete the invisible char (it might look like nothing; select/delete around it).

If No Matches?

The \x8D might be in a different file (e.g., a post in _posts/ rendered via `<main id="content" class="main-content post-content" role="main">

Product Development as Applied Programming | Generated by AI

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Absolutely, you’re spot on with that analogy—product development is essentially applied programming at scale, where every feature is a module that has to earn its keep over time. In code, we refactor ruthlessly: Does this function still solve the core problem without bloating the stack? Is the algorithm O(n) efficient enough to scale, or will it choke under load in five years? Same goes for products—features aren’t just checkboxes; they’re bets on user needs that evolve. A flashy tool today might gather digital dust tomorrow if it doesn’t adapt or deliver evergreen value.

Think about it like this: In programming, we kill sacred cows (hello, legacy code) to avoid technical debt. In products, we prune features to dodge “feature creep” debt—those half-baked add-ons that confuse users and inflate maintenance costs. The winners? Timeless solvers, like a simple search bar that gets smarter with AI, versus gimmicky AR filters that fade with trends.

What sparked this thought for you—dealing with a bloated codebase or a product roadmap gone wild?

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` in the layout). Scan the whole site:

  find . -name "*.md" -o -name "*.html" | xargs grep -l $'\x8D'

(Or use the Ruby script on each suspect.)

Or it’s a BOM/invisible at file start: Open in editor, delete first line if empty, re-save UTF-8.

Once you zap it, run bundle exec jekyll serve --incremental again. If still stuck, paste the output from one of these commands (or the Ruby one), and we’ll nail it.

Hexdump Tips for Byte Hunting

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