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Building Software Fast: Lessons Learned

2025-07-14

This post details lessons learned about building software quickly. The author advocates for setting realistic quality goals based on project needs, emphasizing a 'rough draft' approach where a functional prototype is built first, then refined. Strategies include simplifying requirements, avoiding distractions, and making small, focused code changes. The author also highlights valuable skills like code reading, data modeling, scripting, and debugging, and the effective use of LLMs to accelerate development. It's a practical guide for developers aiming to improve efficiency and deliver high-quality software.

(evanhahn.com)

Development

Favor Long Options in Scripts

2025-03-22

Many command-line utilities offer both short (-f) and long (--force) options. While short options are convenient for interactive use, long options are far superior in scripts. Their improved readability and self-explanatory nature enhance maintainability and understanding. For instance, in Git, `git switch --create release-{today} origin/main` is significantly clearer than `git switch -c my-new-branch`, particularly within complex scripts.

(matklad.github.io)

Development long options

Columbia University Hit by Hacktivist Data Breach: 2.5 Million Applicant Records Compromised

2025-07-03

Columbia University Hit by Hacktivist Data Breach: 2.5 Million Applicant Records Compromised

Columbia University suffered a significant data breach, with a hacktivist claiming responsibility for stealing 460GB of data, including details from 2.5 million student applications spanning decades. The hacker, allegedly motivated by a political agenda, targeted information on applicant acceptance/rejection, citizenship, ID numbers, and academic programs. While the university has engaged a cybersecurity firm and claims no recent malicious activity, the full extent of the breach, which also included employee and applicant Social Security numbers, remains under investigation and could take months to determine.

(therecord.media)

Tech hacktivism

AI Browser Vulnerability: Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks

2025-08-24

AI Browser Vulnerability: Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks

Brave's security team discovered a critical vulnerability in AI browsers like Perplexity Comet: attackers can embed malicious instructions in web pages, tricking the AI assistant into performing unauthorized actions such as accessing user bank accounts or stealing passwords. The attack exploits the AI assistant's inability to distinguish between user instructions and webpage content, bypassing traditional web security mechanisms. This vulnerability highlights the importance of AI browser security, requiring browser vendors to prioritize security before deploying powerful AI agent capabilities.

(brave.com)

Tech

Native Sparse Attention: Hardware-Aligned and Natively Trainable

2025-08-02

Native Sparse Attention: Hardware-Aligned and Natively Trainable

Long-context modeling remains a challenge in NLP. This ACL 2025 paper introduces NSA, a Natively trained Sparse Attention mechanism. NSA cleverly combines algorithmic innovations with hardware-aligned optimizations. Using a dynamic hierarchical sparse strategy (coarse-grained token compression and fine-grained token selection), it achieves significant efficiency gains while preserving global context awareness and local precision. NSA enables end-to-end training, reducing pre-training costs, and matches or exceeds Full Attention models across benchmarks, showing substantial speedups on 64k-length sequences in decoding, forward, and backward propagation.

(aclanthology.org)

AI long-context modeling

Lasagna Cells and Galvanic Corrosion: Why Your Foil Is Dissolving

2025-07-14

Lasagna Cells and Galvanic Corrosion: Why Your Foil Is Dissolving

Have you ever noticed holes in your aluminum foil after baking lasagna or marinating meat in a metal pan? This isn't just a culinary mystery; it's galvanic corrosion. Acidic foods and salt create an electrolyte, forming a battery between the foil and the pan (often steel). This electrochemical reaction causes the aluminum foil to corrode, potentially introducing metal ions into your food. The article explains this phenomenon, recommending non-reactive cookware like glass or enamel, and safer foil usage techniques to prevent this reaction.

(amazingribs.com)

Misc galvanic corrosion electrochemical reaction

Mastodon Jaw Unearthed in New York Backyard

2024-12-22

Mastodon Jaw Unearthed in New York Backyard

A New York man's gardening project took an unexpected turn when he discovered what he initially thought were baseballs, but turned out to be giant teeth. These teeth, unearthed in his upstate New York backyard, were identified as belonging to a mastodon. Subsequent excavation by the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange revealed a complete, well-preserved adult mastodon jaw, a toe bone, and a rib fragment. This is the first complete mastodon jaw found in New York in 11 years, offering invaluable insights into the Ice Age ecosystem. The fossils will be carbon-dated and analyzed, with plans to put them on public display in 2025.

(apnews.com)

Misc mastodon fossil

AI Predicts Kentucky Derby Winner: Journalism Takes the Crown?

2025-05-04

AI Predicts Kentucky Derby Winner: Journalism Takes the Crown?

Microsoft Copilot AI simulated the 2025 Kentucky Derby finish based on odds and race factors. Its prediction? Journalism, favored due to its advantageous post position and recent winning streak, will win. However, the AI's projected finishing order differs from initial odds for other horses. The article also includes race details, viewing information, and crucial disclaimers about the risks of gambling.

(www.courier-journal.com)

Misc AI prediction Kentucky Derby

Why Tracebit Chose C#: A Security Startup's Tech Stack Story

2025-02-01

Why Tracebit Chose C#: A Security Startup's Tech Stack Story

Tracebit, a B2B SaaS security product, surprisingly chose C# over popular alternatives like Python or Go. The author details the reasoning behind this decision, considering factors such as productivity, open-source availability, cross-platform capabilities, popularity, memory safety, garbage collection, static typing, stability, built-in libraries, and tooling. C#'s strengths in productivity, stability, and a rich ecosystem proved crucial for Tracebit's rapid iteration and growth, especially in managing a large codebase and collaborating effectively within a team.

(tracebit.com)

Development Technology Stack Security Startup

Telephoto Lenses: A Traveler's Secret Weapon

2025-09-13

Telephoto lenses, while bulky, offer a unique perspective that elevates travel photography. They eliminate distracting elements, focusing attention on the subject, such as bringing distant mountains and clouds sharply into the center of the frame. The compression effect of a telephoto lens skillfully blends elements at different depths of field—a lake, people on a bench, and distant mountains—into a cohesive image. This article uses real-world examples to showcase the advantages of telephoto lenses in landscape and long-range photography, and employs darktable for post-processing to enhance details and colors, resulting in more impactful images.

(avidandrew.com)

Design telephoto lens

VW's Budget EV Offensive: ID.Polo Leads the Charge

2025-09-04

VW's Budget EV Offensive: ID.Polo Leads the Charge

Volkswagen is shaking up its EV strategy with a new family of affordable electric vehicles, starting with the ID.Polo. Based on the 2023 ID.2all concept, the €25,000 ($29,000) ID.Polo aims to make electric driving more accessible. Further affordable EVs are planned, including an electric T-Cross (ID.Cross), all part of VW's push for wider EV adoption. A sporty ID.Polo GTI variant is also in the works, launching alongside the standard model next year. The ID.Polo and ID.Polo GTI will debut at the Munich Motor Show on September 8th, with the ID.Cross concept revealed the day before.

(electrek.co)

Tech

Amsterdam's Fair Fraud Detection Model: A Case Study in Algorithmic Bias

2025-06-14

Amsterdam attempted to build a 'fair' AI model for fraud detection in its welfare system, aiming to reduce investigations while improving efficiency and avoiding discrimination against vulnerable groups. The initial model showed bias against non-Dutch and non-Western applicants. While reweighting the training data mitigated some bias, real-world deployment revealed new biases in the opposite direction, along with significant performance degradation. The project was ultimately shelved, highlighting the inherent trade-offs between different fairness definitions in AI. Attempts to reduce bias in one group can inadvertently increase it in others, demonstrating the complexities of achieving fairness in algorithmic decision-making.

(www.lighthousereports.com)

AI AI fairness fraud detection

Can Design Save the World? A Look at Design's Ideals and Limitations

2025-06-29

Can Design Save the World? A Look at Design's Ideals and Limitations

This article explores the social responsibility and limitations of design. From its humble beginnings as decorative art to its current involvement in hardware, software, services, and infrastructure, design now carries increasingly significant responsibilities. The author reviews key figures and events in design history, such as Eva Zeisel, the Bauhaus school, and Steve Jobs, showcasing the evolution of design philosophy. However, the popularity of design thinking has also brought challenges. The case of Gainesville, Florida, illustrates how design thinking failed to effectively address deep-seated social issues. Ultimately, the article emphasizes that design can contribute to building a better society, but it must avoid detachment from political and social realities. Participatory design and collaboration with other fields are crucial to truly address 'wicked problems'.

(www.theatlantic.com)

Design design thinking

Monte Carlo Sampling Crash Course: Rejection Sampling and Change of Coordinates

2025-04-14

This article introduces two crucial sampling techniques in Monte Carlo methods: rejection sampling and change of coordinates. Rejection sampling samples a simpler region and filters samples based on an acceptance probability to achieve sampling of a complex region. The article provides a detailed derivation of the probability density function for rejection sampling and extends it to non-uniform distributions. Change of coordinates utilizes the Jacobian determinant to map samples from a simple region to a complex region, enabling efficient sampling. The article uses the unit disk as an example, demonstrating how to achieve uniform sampling using polar coordinate transformation. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages; rejection sampling is simple and easy to understand but its efficiency depends on the acceptance probability; change of coordinates is efficient but requires finding suitable coordinate transformations.

(thenumb.at)

Development Monte Carlo sampling Rejection sampling Change of coordinates

EU to Simplify GDPR: A Lifeline for Struggling Businesses?

2025-04-07

EU to Simplify GDPR: A Lifeline for Struggling Businesses?

The European Union is poised to simplify its complex General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Since its 2018 implementation, the GDPR has faced criticism for its burdensome compliance requirements, particularly impacting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Danish Digital Minister Caroline Stage Olsen highlighted the need for simplification, acknowledging the importance of privacy while advocating for less bureaucratic compliance. The European Commission has confirmed an upcoming proposal to streamline the GDPR, aiming to alleviate the compliance burden on SMEs and boost Europe's economy. This move echoes concerns raised by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi about Europe's complex regulations hindering innovation.

(www.politico.eu)

Tech

Unearthing Lost Commodore 64 Master Tapes: A Retro Gaming Archaeology

2025-03-13

Unearthing Lost Commodore 64 Master Tapes: A Retro Gaming Archaeology

This article recounts the discovery and restoration of a vast collection of Commodore 64 game master tapes and disks, including rare materials from legendary programmer Gary J. Sabin. The find sheds light on the behind-the-scenes work of 80s game development, from the creation of loader music and the hectic process of mastering games to amusing development blunders. It's a fascinating blend of tech archaeology and nostalgic retro gaming history.

(spillhistorie.no)

Game

Huawei's Ascend 910C: A Contender in the AI Chip Race?

2025-02-05

Huawei's Ascend 910C: A Contender in the AI Chip Race?

Huawei's Ascend 910C AI training chip, while lagging behind Nvidia's offerings in large model training, achieves 60% of the H100's inference performance, according to DeepSeek research. Further optimizations can improve its efficiency. Despite US sanctions and technological limitations, the Ascend 910C reduces China's reliance on Nvidia GPUs. However, long-term training stability remains a weakness, requiring further improvements in Huawei's hardware and software stack to compete globally.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Tech Huawei Ascend

Drunk Idea, Gritty Canal Boat Game Reality: A 3-Month Dev Journey

2025-06-25

While enjoying a Jura whisky, the author had a sudden idea: a gritty canal boat game. Early attempts with outdated software proved frustrating. He switched to the Godot engine, collaborating with a friend, and completed a prototype, "Canal Carnage," in 2 months and 22 days. Despite its 3-minute playtime and rough edges, the project taught valuable lessons about game development and engine usage. The story highlights perseverance and the challenges and rewards of indie game creation.

(jacobfilipp.com)

Game Godot engine

IBM Layoffs Hit Thousands, Cloud Classic Takes a Hit

2025-03-20

IBM Layoffs Hit Thousands, Cloud Classic Takes a Hit

IBM insiders report thousands of layoffs across the US, including a quarter of the staff in its Cloud Classic operation. While unannounced publicly, the cuts impact various teams, including consulting, corporate social responsibility, cloud infrastructure, sales, and internal systems. The layoffs are seen as part of IBM's ongoing “Resource Actions” (layoffs) and are coupled with the company's return-to-office push. Reports suggest a shift of jobs to India. The layoffs have fueled employee discontent over CEO Arvind Krishna's salary increase and comments on AI.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Cryptome Co-founder John Young Dies at 89: A Fighter for Information Freedom

2025-05-27

Cryptome Co-founder John Young Dies at 89: A Fighter for Information Freedom

John Young, co-founder of the legendary internet archive Cryptome, passed away at age 89. Cryptome, predating WikiLeaks and other similar platforms, served as a vital repository of government documents and information the public had a right to know. Young's activism, rooted in his experiences protesting the Vietnam War and racial segregation, fueled his dedication to transparency. Cryptome's history includes clashes with Microsoft and disagreements with Julian Assange over funding and philosophies. Young's death marks the end of an era, but his legacy of fighting for information freedom continues.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Information Freedom

Christianity and Sexuality: A History of Contradictions

2025-03-11

Christianity and Sexuality: A History of Contradictions

This book delves into the complex history of Christianity's attitude towards sex, from the early church's emphasis on celibacy to the persecution of homosexuals and the complex definition of women's roles. The author meticulously examines the various interpretations of biblical texts on sexuality and reveals how power, social norms, and fear of human desire have shaped the church's stance on sex. Despite the church's historically harsh attitude towards sex, the book also showcases individuals and stories that challenge traditional views and the pursuit of love and devotion. Ultimately, the author reflects on the challenges facing the modern church and the need to rebuild a truly Christian faith based on love and forgiveness.

(www.lrb.co.uk)

Misc religious history sex and religion

The Mystery of Millions of Random DNS Queries from Google

2025-03-11

The Mystery of Millions of Random DNS Queries from Google

Verisign engineers detected an unusually high volume of random domain name queries from Google's DNS to root name servers. These queries contained 12-13 random characters and were not seen at the top-level domain servers. Investigation revealed this was due to Google's nonce prepending and query name minimization techniques to prevent Kaminsky attacks. While this explained much of the phenomenon, the excessively high query rate (2000x higher than expected) and low cache utilization remain unsolved. The case highlights the importance of collaboration in internet security.

(blog.apnic.net)

Tech

King of the Hill Revival: Old Friends, New Voices

2025-06-07

King of the Hill Revival: Old Friends, New Voices

The long-awaited King of the Hill revival is finally here! Hulu will premiere the reboot season on August 4th, with the opening credits already released. Sadly, voice actor Johnny Hardwick (Dale Gribble) passed away last year. Toby Huss takes over the role, having previously voiced other characters in the original run. Hardwick's voice will be featured in the first six episodes, with Huss taking over from the seventh. The show also features several changes, including a grown-up Bobby and Hank and Peggy returning to Arlen after years in Saudi Arabia.

(www.cinemablend.com)

Game King of the Hill Revival

Apple Account Locked: A Nightmare Caused by an Unpaid Apple Card

2025-05-18

Apple Account Locked: A Nightmare Caused by an Unpaid Apple Card

The author's Apple Card autopay failed due to a bank account change, resulting in overdue payments. Apple subsequently locked his App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple ID accounts. This incident highlights Apple's extreme measures in handling billing issues, lacking communication and transparency, causing significant user frustration. Although accounts were eventually unlocked, the process took days, and customer support failed to effectively resolve the issue, showcasing Apple's shortcomings in customer service.

(dcurt.is)

Tech Account Security

EU's €70B Tech Investment Push to Bridge US Innovation Gap

2025-05-19

EU's €70B Tech Investment Push to Bridge US Innovation Gap

The European Investment Bank (EIB) plans to invest €70 billion in Europe's tech sector by 2027, aiming to close the innovation gap with the US. This initiative, dubbed TechEU, will focus on strengthening Europe's position in AI and military drones, attracting private investment (potentially unlocking €250 billion), and streamlining funding processes. EIB President Nadia Calviño highlights a willingness to take more risks, speeding up venture capital financing from 18 months to a targeted 6 months – a 'gamechanger' for startups. The initiative includes a centralized hub for funding requests and prioritizes defense and security investments, fostering a comprehensive tech ecosystem.

(ioplus.nl)

Tech EU Tech Investment Innovation Gap

MIT's Open-Source Secure Hardware Design Course: Attack and Defense, Hands-On

2025-04-03

MIT's open-source course, Secure Hardware Design (6.5950/6.5951), uniquely teaches students both how to attack modern CPUs and design resilient architectures. Students gain hands-on experience hacking real processors, learning state-of-the-art hardware attacks and defenses. The course, a culmination of years of work, uses a 'Think-Play-Do' philosophy. Students learn through lectures, interactive CTF-style recitations, and labs involving real hardware attacks (no simulators!). The capstone project challenges students to create a CPU fuzzer to discover bugs in real CPU RTL designs.

(shd.mit.edu)

Hardware

DIY Website Font: A Calligraphr Success Story

2025-09-06

DIY Website Font: A Calligraphr Success Story

To personalize his website, the author embarked on a quest to create a custom handwritten font. Initial attempts using open-source tools like Inkscape and FontForge proved frustrating due to their clunky UIs. He switched to the paid service Calligraphr, which uses a print-write-scan workflow. Calligraphr's intuitive interface and powerful features enabled efficient font creation. The author praises Calligraphr's fair pricing and user-friendly data handling, contrasting it favorably with other services.

(chameth.com)

Design website personalization

Pinterest's AI Moderation Goes Rogue: Mass Account Suspensions and Pin Removals

2025-05-02

Pinterest's AI Moderation Goes Rogue: Mass Account Suspensions and Pin Removals

Pinterest is facing a user backlash after a wave of unexplained account suspensions and pin removals. Users report losing access without warning or explanation, with seemingly innocuous content like quilting magazines and Minecraft builds flagged as 'adult content.' While Pinterest claims it's enforcing community guidelines, the sheer volume of suspensions and slow appeals process point towards a possible AI moderation malfunction. The company acknowledges the high volume of appeals but offers no timeline for resolution, fueling speculation about an overzealous algorithm.

(www.theverge.com)

Misc account suspension AI moderation

Fuchsia Components vs. Linux Containers: A Deep Dive

2025-03-03

Google's new operating system, Fuchsia (non-Linux), features a component framework remarkably similar to Linux container solutions like Docker. Both fetch content-addressed blobs from the network, assemble them into isolated filesystems containing all dependencies, and launch namespaced processes rooted in this filesystem. However, this talk focuses on the divergences between these technologies, exploring how their differing use cases and requirements lead to distinct strengths and weaknesses.

(fosdem.org)

Development Linux containers

Jacob Dement's Stunning Portfolio: A Full-Stack Developer's Journey

2025-01-16

Jacob Dement's portfolio showcases the talent of a seasoned full-stack engineer. From meticulously designed websites to complex applications, he demonstrates a comprehensive grasp of front-end, back-end, and database technologies. The portfolio is more than just a collection of code; it's a compelling testament to his technical skills and creativity. Multiple project examples highlight his experience in solving real-world problems using diverse tech stacks. His dedication to both technical detail and user experience underscores his professionalism.

(dement.dev)

Development full-stack developer portfolio

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