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Music and Geometry: A Geometric Interpretation of Intervals and Scales

2024-12-19

Music and Geometry: A Geometric Interpretation of Intervals and Scales

This article explores the fascinating connection between music and geometry, specifically how intervals and scales are represented in geometric shapes. Using the relationships of intervals in twelve-tone equal temperament, the author constructs various geometric figures such as lines, triangles, squares, hexagons, dodecagons, and dodecagrams. These visuals illustrate the relationships between different intervals. The article also delves into just intonation, Greek modes, and symmetrical scales, offering a unique perspective on music theory through geometric visualization.

(roelsworld.eu)

Misc music geometry intervals scales

The Challenges and Solutions of Single-File Fennel Libraries

2025-08-13

The Challenges and Solutions of Single-File Fennel Libraries

This article delves into the challenges of building single-file libraries in Fennel, a Lisp dialect embedded in Lua, particularly the complexities of handling macros and functions together. The author meticulously dissects Lua's module system, including the mechanics of `package.loaded`, `package.preload`, and `package.searchers`, explaining how Fennel leverages them for compiling and loading modules. The core of the article focuses on resolving limitations of Fennel macros, such as the inability to directly export macros and the interdependence between macros. A clever solution is presented, utilizing `eval-compiler` and `relative-require` to package macros and functions within a single file, and addressing macro loading by manually setting the `fennel.macro-loaded` table during compilation. Finally, the author outlines future improvements for Fennel's macro system, proposing the removal of macro modules, direct loading of entire modules during compilation, and adopting Clojure's approach to resolve macro dependencies.

(andreyor.st)

Development

Apple Accuses Meta of Unreasonable Interoperability Requests Under EU's DMA

2024-12-19

Apple Accuses Meta of Unreasonable Interoperability Requests Under EU's DMA

Apple has accused Meta of making 15 interoperability requests under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), more than any other company. Apple claims Meta's requests, which could compromise user security and privacy, seek access to extensive user data including messages, emails, call logs, app usage, photos, files, calendar events, and passwords. Apple argues these requests are unreasonable, emphasizing the importance of iOS and iPadOS integrity and the potential infeasibility of creating effective interoperability solutions. The European Commission is consulting on the matter and may adjust measures based on feedback.

(www.macrumors.com)

Tech Digital Markets Act

Beyond Vibe Coding: The Rise of Cyborg Coders

2025-06-07

Beyond Vibe Coding: The Rise of Cyborg Coders

This article critiques the 'vibe coding' approach, where developers rely solely on intuition and instinct. It argues this method is outdated and dangerous in today's software development landscape. The author introduces 'cyborg coding,' advocating for collaboration between human developers and AI tools. AI assists with coding, debugging, and brainstorming, while humans provide judgment, ethics, and direction. The article emphasizes that AI tools are not cheats but productivity accelerators. The key is to use AI effectively as a partner, not a replacement, to build better software systems.

(chaserabenn.medium.com)

Development

Meta's Sneaky Tracking: Bypassing Sandboxes to Identify Users

2025-06-10

Meta's Sneaky Tracking: Bypassing Sandboxes to Identify Users

Meta has been exposed for using a system called "localhost tracking" to bypass Android's sandbox protections and track users' mobile browsing behavior, even with VPNs, incognito mode, and deleted cookies. The system works by exchanging information between the background-running Facebook or Instagram app and Meta Pixel scripts in the browser, linking browsing data to Facebook or Instagram accounts. This violates GDPR, DSA, and DMA regulations, potentially leading to a €32 billion fine for Meta.

(www.zeropartydata.es)

Tech

Sony Ends Recordable Blu-ray Production After 18 Years

2025-01-24

Sony Ends Recordable Blu-ray Production After 18 Years

Sony is ceasing production of recordable Blu-ray discs in February, ending a nearly two-decade run. This also affects MiniDiscs and MiniDV cassettes. While Sony initially planned to continue production for business clients, dwindling consumer demand due to the rise of streaming services made it unsustainable. The article contrasts the convenience of streaming with its drawbacks: lack of ownership, monthly costs, and security concerns. It highlights the advantages of optical media for long-term archival storage and mentions competitors like Pioneer offering century-lasting Blu-ray discs and research into even longer-lasting glass storage.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Tech Blu-ray Data Storage

Improved Ollama Model Atom Feed Scraper with Gemini 2.5 Pro

2025-03-26

This post details the creation of a GitHub Actions and GitHub Pages powered Atom feed scraping recent model data from Ollama's latest models page. Initially built using Claude to convert HTML to Atom, the script was refined using Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. The upgrade splits the output into two feeds: one containing all models and another with only the most recent 20, improving efficiency and usability.

(simonwillison.net)

Development model scraping

Tesla's German Nightmare: Musk's Politics Tank Sales

2025-03-14

A survey of over 100,000 Germans reveals that 94% won't buy a Tesla. This is disastrous news for Tesla, whose sales have plummeted in the crucial European market. In 2024, despite a 27% surge in overall EV sales, Tesla saw a 41% sales drop in Germany. The first two months of 2025 saw a further 70% decline. Industry experts blame Elon Musk's meddling in German elections and support for the far-right AfD party. Musk is under investigation in Europe, and his reputation in Germany is severely damaged. A new survey shows only 3% of respondents would consider buying a Tesla. German consumers are clearly rejecting the brand.

(electrek.co)

Tech

Measuring Decentralization in the Fediverse and Atmosphere

2025-08-31

This website uses the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) to measure the concentration of user data on decentralized social networks like the Fediverse and Atmosphere. An HHI close to zero indicates high competition, while a value near 10000 signifies a highly concentrated monopoly. The site currently calculates HHI by analyzing the distribution of active users across servers (Fediverse) or data repositories (Atmosphere), aggregating servers controlled by the same entity. Beyond data location, the site highlights other crucial aspects of decentralization, including network structure, identity management, infrastructure, legal jurisdictions, and the distribution of social power. Code and data are available on GitHub.

(arewedecentralizedyet.online)

Tech data concentration Herfindahl-Hirschman Index

Ruby 3.4: Faster Connections, Cleaner Backtraces, and More Concise Code

2025-01-01

Ruby 3.4 is here! Chris Sinjakli highlights three key improvements: a default block parameter name `it` for cleaner code; implementation of RFC8305 (Happy Eyeballs Version 2) for significantly improved TCP socket connection handling, especially in dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) networks; and clearer exception backtraces for easier debugging. These enhancements boost developer productivity and underscore the Ruby team's commitment to developer experience.

(blog.sinjakli.co.uk)

Development

Trump's Attempted Firing of Fed Governor Tests US Rule of Law

2025-08-26

Trump's Attempted Firing of Fed Governor Tests US Rule of Law

Donald Trump claims to have fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, alleging mortgage fraud before her Fed tenure. However, evidence supporting this claim is weak and irrelevant to her Fed duties. The move is widely seen as an attempt by Trump to exert control over the Fed, replacing independent officials with loyalists, severely threatening the rule of law and the independence of the central bank. Cook's refusal to resign puts Fed Chair Jerome Powell at a crossroads: uphold the rule of law or succumb to power? The outcome will determine whether the US remains a nation governed by law.

(paulkrugman.substack.com)

Tech Rule of Law

Cambridge University Uses Tech to Unfold a Fragile 16th-Century Manuscript

2025-03-31

Cambridge University Uses Tech to Unfold a Fragile 16th-Century Manuscript

A team at Cambridge University Library faced a challenge: a fragile, folded 16th-century manuscript fragment. Instead of risking damage through traditional methods, they used cutting-edge technology. Multispectral imaging, computed tomography (CT) scanning, and 3D modeling allowed for virtual unfolding and digitization. This preserved the historical artifact and revealed 16th-century archival binding techniques, showcasing a groundbreaking approach in digital humanities.

(www.cam.ac.uk)

Tech artifact preservation technological archaeology

Genius and Rebellion: The Rise and Fall of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory

2024-12-24

Genius and Rebellion: The Rise and Fall of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory

William Shockley, a brilliant but irascible physicist, is renowned for his invention of the transistor. His Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory brought together many of Silicon Valley's early luminaries. However, Shockley's arrogance and poor management style led to the departure of the "traitorous eight," who founded Fairchild Semiconductor, marking the beginning of a Silicon Valley legend. While Shockley Semiconductor was eventually acquired, its historical significance remains undeniable; it not only nurtured transistor technology but also gave birth to the flourishing modern semiconductor industry.

(www.abortretry.fail)

Tech transistor Silicon Valley Shockley

Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games

2025-01-13

Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games

This article explores common narrative structure patterns in choice-based games, including 'Time Cave', 'Gauntlet', 'Branch and Bottleneck', 'Quest', 'Open Map', 'Sorting Hat', 'Floating Modules', and 'Loop and Grow'. Each pattern has unique characteristics and applications; for instance, 'Time Cave' suits freeform adventures, 'Gauntlet' linear narratives, and 'Branch and Bottleneck' showcases character growth. The author analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each, providing examples, offering valuable insights for game designers.

(heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com)

Game narrative structure interactive narrative

Unlocking the RAK5010's BG95-M3 USB Serial Ports

2025-02-22

Unlocking the RAK5010's BG95-M3 USB Serial Ports

This post details accessing the three serial ports on the Quectel BG95-M3 module embedded in the RAK5010 development board. The author, after consulting the schematic, identified and resoldered four resistors to redirect the USB data lines from the nRF52840 to the BG95-M3. Despite a minor mishap involving a lost resistor, the modification was successful, allowing direct USB communication with the modem and access to its three serial ports.

(danielmangum.com)

Hardware

Nvidia's Ascent: A Thirty-Year Journey to AI Dominance

2024-12-28

Nvidia's Ascent: A Thirty-Year Journey to AI Dominance

Tae Kim's new book, 'The Nvidia Way,' chronicles Nvidia's remarkable journey from a small company founded in a Denny's to one of the world's most valuable. From early graphics card designs to leading the AI revolution, Nvidia's success wasn't accidental. The book details early failures, highlighting CEO Jensen Huang's relentless innovation and risk-taking, culminating in breakthroughs like the RIVA 128. A unique strategy combining hardware and software, coupled with a distinctive corporate culture, propelled Nvidia to AI leadership. However, future challenges remain.

(thechipletter.substack.com)

Tech Jensen Huang

Proposal: Essential Effects for C

2025-01-20

This proposal suggests enhancing C's core type system with a type-and-effect system, requiring functions and blocks to declare the effects of their evaluation. This improves metaprogramming composability and simplifies defining MISRA-style restrictions. The system tracks and checks effects but doesn't handle dynamic effect handling. Three main effect groups are proposed: Local (e.g., local writes), Persistent (e.g., non-local writes), and Control (e.g., non-local control transfers). Static effect checking is achieved by assigning type-and-effect to each statement, expression, and function body, discarding local effects to ensure correct ordering. Best practices are suggested, like limiting the magnitude of `mut` and `vol` effects and specifying effect checks for operators and control structures. The goal is to improve C's safety, readability, and composability, especially for metaprogramming and resource management.

(www.open-std.org)

Development type system

Signal's Rise in the Netherlands: Universities Ditch WhatsApp Over Privacy Concerns

2025-03-23

Signal's Rise in the Netherlands: Universities Ditch WhatsApp Over Privacy Concerns

Signal messaging app is rapidly gaining popularity in the Netherlands, particularly among universities, driven by growing concerns over WhatsApp's data privacy practices and the spread of misinformation. Institutions like Utrecht University of Applied Sciences are recommending or considering switching to Signal due to its non-profit nature, open-source code, and strong privacy focus. The National Student Union also voiced privacy concerns, advocating for Signal or other open-source alternatives. This follows previous security concerns in higher education, with TikTok previously facing bans due to espionage risks.

(dub.uu.nl)

Tech

Klarity: Uncovering Uncertainty in Generative Models

2025-02-03

Klarity: Uncovering Uncertainty in Generative Models

Klarity is a tool for analyzing uncertainty in generative model outputs. It combines raw probability analysis and semantic understanding to provide deep insights into model behavior during text generation. The library offers dual entropy analysis, semantic clustering, and structured JSON output, along with AI-powered analysis for human-readable insights. Currently supporting Hugging Face Transformers, with plans for broader framework and model support.

(github.com)

AI generative models uncertainty analysis AI tool

BlenderGPT: AI-Powered 3D Modeling in 20 Seconds

2024-12-12

BlenderGPT is an advanced AI program that generates 3D models from text or image prompts in approximately 20 seconds. It produces fully textured meshes, importable directly into Blender via a shortcut, or downloadable for use in any compatible software. Try it free today and experience the speed and ease of this revolutionary 3D modeling tool.

(www.blendergpt.org)

AI 3D modeling

Teenager Builds Nearly Complete Pascal Compiler for Transputer in 1993

2025-02-05

Teenager Builds Nearly Complete Pascal Compiler for Transputer in 1993

In 1993, a 14-year-old author, leveraging his father's expensive Transputer chips, successfully built a nearly complete Pascal compiler over several months. This involved mastering Pascal, compiler principles, and Transputer programming. The project started with an assembler, followed by porting and improving a Tiny Pascal compiler, culminating in the compiler's self-compilation. This feat showcases the author's coding talent and persistence, while also highlighting the Transputer's potential and limitations in parallel computing.

(nanochess.org)

Development

Postgres Sharding: A Thrilling Tale of Scaling to 6x

2025-03-14

A company faced a challenge with PostgreSQL's write capacity, handling 100,000 users/second. Instead of migrating to NoSQL, the engineering team chose to shard their database. They split the database into 6 instances, syncing data with logical replication. This involved writing Ruby and Python code to handle sharding keys and custom tools to address sequence issues. The successful 6x expansion resulted in the creation of PgDog, an open-source project for automated Postgres sharding. This story highlights the ingenuity and determination of engineers, and the scalability of PostgreSQL.

(pgdog.dev)

Development database sharding

Microsoft Tests 45% M365 Price Hike in Asia, Citing AI Features

2025-01-13

Microsoft Tests 45% M365 Price Hike in Asia, Citing AI Features

Microsoft is testing a 45 percent price increase for its M365 suite in six Asian countries, claiming the hike is necessary to ensure customers have early access to powerful AI features. The move has sparked outrage among subscribers, with many accusing Microsoft of price gouging, especially in regions with high living costs. While Microsoft says users can opt for a cheaper plan without AI features like Copilot, finding this option proves difficult. This test may foreshadow global M365 price adjustments, reflecting Microsoft's massive investment in AI.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Android's Linux Terminal Now Runs Graphical Apps

2025-07-28

Android's Linux Terminal Now Runs Graphical Apps

Google's Android Linux Terminal app, a hidden gem allowing users to run full Linux apps within Android, now supports graphical applications in the latest Canary build. A new 'Display' button launches a graphical environment, enabling users to run desktop applications unavailable on Android. Hardware acceleration is also supported, boosting performance. This significant step opens the door for more powerful Linux software and even PC games, though compatibility remains a challenge. It showcases Google's ongoing efforts to merge Chrome OS and Android.

(www.androidauthority.com)

Development

Elegant Dependency Injection in OCaml: An Object-Oriented Approach

2025-08-21

This article explores different approaches to dependency injection in OCaml and proposes a novel object-oriented solution. The author contrasts the shortcomings of existing methods using user-defined effects and modules as first-class values, arguing they are overly verbose and prone to errors in real-world applications. The new approach leverages OCaml's powerful object model, utilizing features like structural object types and row variables to achieve type-safe dependency injection with easy composition and extension. The article demonstrates the elegance and maintainability of this method through simple and more complex examples, comparing it to other approaches and ultimately recommending the object-oriented method for straightforward dependency injection scenarios.

(gr-im.github.io)

Development Object Model

Designing Delightful Apps for Kids: Lessons from Kidz Fun Art

2025-07-29

Designing Delightful Apps for Kids: Lessons from Kidz Fun Art

This article details the lessons learned over four years developing Kidz Fun Art, a tablet-optimized drawing app for children. The author highlights unique challenges and solutions for designing child-friendly apps, including minimizing text, co-locating tools with objects, simplifying interactions, easy error correction, knowing when to involve adults, reducing the need for fine motor skills, addressing palm rejection, and incorporating delightful design elements. The author also stresses ethical monetization strategies, privacy concerns, and preventing children from directly spending money.

(shaneosullivan.wordpress.com)

Development Child App Design

Live Coding Interviews: A Stress Test, Not a Skill Test?

2025-08-01

This article challenges the effectiveness of live coding interviews as a measure of engineering skill. The author recounts personal experiences and cites scientific research showing that high-pressure situations impair cognitive function, specifically working memory, crucial for coding. A study revealed participants performed half as well under observation, with women completely failing in the observed condition. The author suggests mitigating stress through mock interviews and explores supplements like L-tyrosine and L-theanine to improve performance under pressure.

(hadid.dev)

Development live coding interviews stress

Overprotective Neighbors Weaponize CPS Against Virginia Mom

2025-08-11

Overprotective Neighbors Weaponize CPS Against Virginia Mom

Emily Fields, a Virginia mom, faced repeated investigations by Child Protective Services (CPS) for letting her children play unsupervised in her backyard and neighbors' yards. Authorities even claimed children couldn't be alone, even in their own bedrooms, until age 13. This highlights the pervasive mistrust of parents and children and the misuse of power by some neighbors. Fields partnered with Let Grow to advocate for and successfully pass Virginia's Reasonable Childhood Independence law. However, even with the new law, her children still face interference, leading her to create 'licenses' for them to deter unwarranted interventions.

(reason.com)

Misc parental rights overprotection

US Air Traffic Control System on the Brink: A Decades-Long Staffing Crisis

2025-02-04

US Air Traffic Control System on the Brink: A Decades-Long Staffing Crisis

The US air traffic control system is facing a decades-long staffing shortage, leading to flight delays and safety concerns. Despite increased hiring efforts, high-stress levels and a high attrition rate make filling vacancies extremely difficult. Many air traffic controllers work six 10-hour days a week, leading to burnout. This issue not only impacts controllers' well-being but also threatens flight safety, sparking discussions surrounding a recent fatal air crash. While former President Trump blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, experts point to poor working conditions and a disregard for controllers' mental health as the root causes.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech staffing shortage

Lufthansa Flight Diverted Due to iPad Jammed in Seat, Lithium Battery Concerns

2025-04-27

Lufthansa Flight Diverted Due to iPad Jammed in Seat, Lithium Battery Concerns

A Lufthansa Airbus A380 flight from Los Angeles to Munich diverted to Boston after a passenger's iPad became jammed in a business-class seat, raising concerns about a potential lithium battery overheat. The three-hour delay was a precautionary measure taken by the crew and air traffic control to mitigate the risk of a fire or explosion. The damaged iPad was safely removed in Boston before the flight continued to Munich.

(www.yahoo.com)

Tech emergency landing

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