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Conquering Advent of Code 2024 with BQN

2025-01-25

The author participated in the 2024 Advent of Code challenge and chose to learn the array language BQN. The article details the learning journey, covering setup, documentation and tooling experiences, and an introduction to BQN's features such as its unique operators, array manipulations, and function definitions. Several Advent of Code solutions are shared, showcasing BQN's strengths in handling arrays and grid problems, contrasting BQN with imperative languages. While initially challenging, the author ultimately finds BQN a fun and powerful language, particularly suited for solving programming puzzles.

(nrk.neocities.org)

Development array language

AI Winter Bites: Silicon Valley Layoffs and a Tough Job Market

2025-05-22

AI Winter Bites: Silicon Valley Layoffs and a Tough Job Market

Early in the pandemic, the tech job market boomed. But 2023 brought massive layoffs, fueled by economic uncertainty and the rapid advancement of AI, which is automating entry-level roles. Even graduates from prestigious universities like Berkeley and Stanford are struggling to find jobs, highlighting the need for strong, specialized skills in today's challenging market.

(sfstandard.com)

Tech Silicon Valley layoffs AI impact on jobs

Reviving the UCSD p-System: A Cross-Platform Compilation Legend

2025-04-16

Reviving the UCSD p-System: A Cross-Platform Compilation Legend

The author revisits the UCSD p-System, a cross-platform operating system and compiler from the 1970s. It achieved portability across diverse machines (from PDP-11 to Apple II) through its p-machine virtual machine. The author shares personal experiences using Apple Pascal and UCSD Pascal in high school and plans to rebuild a p-machine emulator in Rust, continuing its legacy and addressing issues with missing documentation and outdated compiler dependencies in existing tools.

(markbessey.blog)

Development

Bitcoin: The Double-Edged Sword of Defi

2025-02-09

Bitcoin: The Double-Edged Sword of Defi

This article explores Bitcoin's dual impact on the financial system. On one hand, Bitcoin, as a currency immune to arbitrary devaluation, solves the problem of fiat inflation, allowing for true savings instead of forced investment. On the other hand, the cryptocurrency space has seen a phenomenon of 'hyper-financialization,' where various assets are rapidly financialized, from meme coins to NFTs—everything is tradeable. The author argues that these two phenomena are not contradictory but rather two manifestations of the flaws in the fiat system: people are forced to invest to combat inflation, and cryptocurrencies amplify this speculative behavior. Ultimately, the author believes Bitcoin's value proposition will prevail, leading to true decentralized finance.

(mylessnider.com)

Tech financialization

Generative AI Runs on a 20-Year-Old PowerBook G4?!

2025-03-25

Generative AI Runs on a 20-Year-Old PowerBook G4?!

A software engineer successfully ran Meta's Llama 2 large language model on a 2005 PowerBook G4. This vintage laptop, equipped with only a 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 processor and 1GB of RAM, achieved AI inference by porting the open-source llama2.c project and leveraging AltiVec vector extensions. It's a testament to ingenuity and the boundless possibilities of technology.

(www.macrumors.com)

Tech

Bird-Inspired Drone Uses Legs to Take Off

2025-01-10

Bird-Inspired Drone Uses Legs to Take Off

Researchers at EPFL have developed a bio-inspired drone, RAVEN, with bird-like legs that enable it to walk, hop, and even jump into the air for takeoff. This research not only reveals the efficiency of birds' jumping takeoffs but also offers a novel approach for fixed-wing drones. RAVEN uses its legs to store and release energy, resulting in a more energy-efficient and faster takeoff than conventional methods. Future applications could include cargo delivery.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech bio-inspired robotics drone

Open Source's Coordination Problem: Lessons from Linux Desktop and LSP

2025-06-20

The author uses their experience with NixOS and a KDE application as a starting point to discuss the challenges of coordinating open-source software in the Linux desktop environment. They highlight the lack of a unified API standard in the Linux desktop, leading to a fragmented software ecosystem, described as an "Escher-like perpetual motion machine." This is contrasted with the release of the Language Server Protocol (LSP) by Microsoft a decade ago. While the implementation was mediocre, its mere existence solved the coordination problem for IDE features, driving industry progress. The author argues that the open-source community's lack of coordination led to the missed opportunity to create a unified IDE protocol before LSP. Linux's success, however, is attributed to the pre-defined API standard provided by POSIX, reducing coordination difficulties. This article prompts reflection on the open-source community's coordination mechanisms and software ecosystem development models. Category: Tech

(matklad.github.io)

Tech

FizzBee: Modeling Mutual Exclusion and the Pitfalls of Redlock

2025-03-22

FizzBee: Modeling Mutual Exclusion and the Pitfalls of Redlock

This article details the author's experience using FizzBee, a new formal specification language built on Starlark, to model mutual exclusion algorithms and investigate issues with the Redlock algorithm. By modeling critical sections, locks, leases, and fencing tokens, the author reveals limitations in Redlock's fault tolerance, ultimately showing that fencing tokens don't completely solve mutual exclusion problems. The author concludes by discussing FizzBee's ease of use and shortcomings while highlighting the importance of formal specification in algorithm design. The practical exercise unexpectedly revealed subtle flaws in the author's understanding of fencing tokens, underscoring the value of formal methods.

(surfingcomplexity.blog)

Development mutual exclusion

Dust's Query Tables: Empowering AI Agents with Structured Data Analysis

2025-03-18

Dust's Query Tables: Empowering AI Agents with Structured Data Analysis

Dust built Query Tables, a powerful AI agent tool that enables SQL querying of structured data. Starting with CSV file support, it evolved to include Notion databases, Google Sheets, and Office 365 spreadsheets, culminating in connections to enterprise data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery. A unified abstraction layer allows users to query diverse data sources using the same SQL interface, even combining data from different sources for analysis. Future plans include Salesforce integration to further expand its data analysis capabilities.

(blog.dust.tt)

AI AI agent structured data SQL query

Regex Isn't Hard: Mastering the Core Concepts for Efficient Text Processing

2025-04-21

Regex Isn't Hard: Mastering the Core Concepts for Efficient Text Processing

This article argues that regular expressions aren't as complex as many believe. By focusing on core concepts—character sets, repetition, groups, and the |, ^, $ operators—one can easily master the power of regex. The article explains these core concepts in detail and suggests ignoring less-used shortcuts to avoid unnecessary complexity. The author emphasizes that regex allows for a lot of text processing with minimal code, far more efficiently than traditional procedural code.

(timkellogg.me)

Development

Stunning Sci-Fi Scene Created in Blender

2024-12-31

Stunning Sci-Fi Scene Created in Blender

Samuel Pantze, a computer scientist from Germany, created a breathtaking sci-fi scene featuring a spaceship above a tidally locked planet using Blender. Inspired by sci-fi literature, Melodysheep's videos, and Paul Chadeisson's concept art, he masterfully employed procedural textures and shader math to generate a realistic spaceship model and planetary background. The article details the process, from spaceship modeling and texturing to creating the planetary background using a unique shader approach, showcasing his exceptional 3D modeling and rendering skills.

(www.blendernation.com)

Design Sci-fi

Tracking Leaked Location Data from Mobile Apps: A Python-Powered Citizen Science Project

2025-04-18

Tracking Leaked Location Data from Mobile Apps: A Python-Powered Citizen Science Project

Following up on a previous post exposing how mobile apps share location data through ads, the author shares a faster, more scalable method using mitmproxy and Python. This allows users to record app traffic and filter for requests containing sensitive data like location information using custom keywords. A GitHub repo with a detailed guide and Python notebook is provided for participation. A crowdsourced spreadsheet collects observations on data sharing behaviors of various apps, encouraging a citizen science effort to uncover app data privacy issues.

(timsh.org)

Tech

Groundbreaking Study: Beta-Blockers May Harm Women After Heart Attacks

2025-09-01

Groundbreaking Study: Beta-Blockers May Harm Women After Heart Attacks

Groundbreaking research reveals that beta-blockers, a first-line treatment for heart attacks for decades, don't benefit most patients and may increase hospitalization and death risk in some women, but not men. A large-scale trial showed women with minimal heart damage after a heart attack who received beta-blockers were significantly more likely to experience another heart attack, heart failure hospitalization, and nearly triple the death risk compared to those not receiving the drug. However, for patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction below 40%, beta-blockers remain standard care. This study highlights crucial gender differences in heart disease treatment and is likely to reshape international clinical guidelines.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech beta-blockers gender differences

The Biggest Mistakes Engineers Make in Massive Codebases

2025-01-07

Working with large, established codebases is notoriously difficult. This article shares a decade's worth of experience, highlighting the most common and deadly mistake: ignoring existing codebase patterns and focusing solely on clean code for a new feature. Maintaining consistency is paramount; it prevents unexpected issues, slows the codebase's descent into chaos, and enables future improvements. The author also stresses understanding the code's production footprint, being cautious about introducing new dependencies, removing redundant code, working in small PRs, and leveraging team expertise to catch errors. While challenging, mastering large codebases is crucial because they are usually the foundation of a company's most valuable products.

(www.seangoedecke.com)

Development codebase

Outdated Tech Costs Bank a GDPR Lawsuit

2025-06-11

Outdated Tech Costs Bank a GDPR Lawsuit

A Belgian bank lost a court case due to its outdated EBCDIC system's inability to handle accented characters, resulting in incorrect customer name records. This highlights the importance of system modernization in the digital age and the strict accuracy requirements for personal data under GDPR. The case raises concerns about the continued use of legacy technologies like EBCDIC, far inferior to Unicode, and their limitations in data processing.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

Mice Perform Instinctive Resuscitation: Heroic Behavior Observed

2025-03-09

Mice Perform Instinctive Resuscitation: Heroic Behavior Observed

Scientists have observed mice instinctively attempting resuscitation on unconscious peers. In experiments, when a mouse was anesthetized, a bystander mouse frequently responded by pawing, licking, and even clearing the airway of the unconscious mouse. This behavior, remarkably similar to human first aid, was observed even though the mice had no prior experience with unconscious animals, suggesting an innate survival instinct. The study, published in Science, highlights surprising altruistic behavior in the animal kingdom.

(www.thetimes.com)

Misc instinct resuscitation

X (formerly Twitter) Silently Shadow Bans Turkish Opposition Figure

2025-09-02

X (formerly Twitter) Silently Shadow Bans Turkish Opposition Figure

Following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on corruption charges, his X account was restricted in Turkey, sparking controversy. While a new account gained some traction, his posts rarely appear on users' timelines, suggesting X is secretly shadow banning him. A poll shows the vast majority of users don't see his tweets, highlighting X's influence in political censorship and the immense political power wielded by Elon Musk.

(utkusen.substack.com)

Tech

SF and Oakland Police Caught Illegally Sharing ALPR Data with Feds

2025-07-14

SF and Oakland Police Caught Illegally Sharing ALPR Data with Feds

Records obtained by The Standard reveal that San Francisco and Oakland police departments appear to have repeatedly violated state law by sharing data from automated license plate readers (ALPRs) with federal agencies. Despite a 2015 state law prohibiting this, logs show data sharing with seven federal agencies, including the FBI, since installing hundreds of Flock Safety ALPRs last year. At least one instance involved an ICE investigation. This has drawn sharp criticism from privacy advocates and officials, who highlight the violation of individual privacy. Investigations are underway, with promises of accountability.

(sfstandard.com)

Tech ALPR

Trump Administration Shuts Down Crypto Fraud Unit

2025-04-12

Trump Administration Shuts Down Crypto Fraud Unit

The US Department of Justice, under the Trump administration, has immediately shut down the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which investigated cryptocurrency fraud. This move is part of the Trump administration's effort to scale back enforcement of white-collar and financial crimes, shifting resources to fighting drug trafficking and human smuggling. While the administration claims to be cracking down on criminals using crypto for illicit activities, experts express concern over the diversion of crucial resources. The Trump administration argues the DOJ shouldn't act as a digital asset regulator, focusing instead on individuals and organizations using crypto for terrorism, drug trafficking, and other crimes.

(www.usatoday.com)

Tech Department of Justice

Browser-Based VGA 1D Cellular Automata Simulation

2025-01-08

Alexander Mordvintsev's TinyTapeout '09 project runs a 60fps 640x480 VGA signal directly in your browser. This single 160x100 μm chip simulates a scrolling animation of several elementary 1D cellular automata rules. The WebAssembly-based simulator, visualized with SwissGL, displays gate-level activations. This demonstrates impressive computational density, showcasing the ability to fit complex calculations onto a tiny chip. Links to the design repository and demo page are provided.

(znah.net)

Hardware Cellular Automata

Critical Google Account Flaw Allowed Phone Number Extraction

2025-06-09

Critical Google Account Flaw Allowed Phone Number Extraction

A security researcher discovered a critical vulnerability in Google accounts that allowed attackers to easily obtain users' phone numbers through brute-forcing. The exploit leveraged Google Looker Studio's document ownership transfer feature, allowing attackers to guess phone numbers without the victim's knowledge. Google has since patched the vulnerability and awarded the researcher $5,000. This flaw poses a significant risk to SIM swappers, enabling them to steal various accounts, including cryptocurrency and email, through identity theft.

(www.wired.com)

Tech

Baking the Y Combinator from Scratch: Part 1 - The Fixpoint Combinator

2025-04-09

This post delves into the Y combinator, a mathematical construct that implements recursion in functional languages without explicit self-reference. It begins by explaining fixed points, then progressively derives the formula for the Y combinator, explaining its self-replicating mechanism. Through analysis of the Ω combinator, the author shows how the Y combinator avoids infinite nesting by self-replication at runtime. The post also briefly introduces lambda calculus and formal systems, laying the groundwork for a deeper understanding of the Y combinator in later parts.

(the-nerve-blog.ghost.io)

Development Y combinator

BART Station Closure Sparks Commuter Chaos Amidst Financial Crisis

2025-05-09

BART Station Closure Sparks Commuter Chaos Amidst Financial Crisis

A BART station closure in San Francisco's Mission District caused significant disruption to morning commuters. Riders expressed frustration over rising fares and declining service quality. BART is facing a financial crisis due to decreased ridership post-pandemic and a ballooning deficit, potentially leading to service cuts. State senators have proposed a sales tax measure for the 2026 ballot to address BART's funding issues.

(www.kqed.org)

Tech Public Transportation

Intentionally Slowing Down Programs: A Surprising Boost to Developer Tool Accuracy

2025-08-27

Intentionally Slowing Down Programs: A Surprising Boost to Developer Tool Accuracy

Most research on programming language performance focuses on speeding up programs, but a new study explores the benefits of intentionally slowing them down. By inserting NOP or MOV instructions into program basic blocks, researchers achieved fine-grained control over program execution, leading to more precise race condition detection, speedup simulation, and profiler accuracy assessment. Experiments on an Intel Core i5-10600 showed that NOP and MOV instructions are best suited for this purpose, opening new avenues for future advanced developer tooling.

(stefan-marr.de)

Development profilers

Generative Models: 2024's Breakthroughs and 2025's Predictions

2025-01-04

This article summarizes the significant advancements in generative models in 2024, covering language models, image generation models, and multimodal models. In language models, decoder-only transformers dominate, with Llama 3 series models standing out, while Mixture-of-Experts models are gaining traction. Image generation is dominated by diffusion models, but autoregressive models show promise. Multimodal models, including visual language models and omni-modal models, have made significant strides, opening up broader possibilities for AI applications. The author predicts trends for 2025, including improved reasoning capabilities, more powerful multimodal models, and more user-friendly interfaces.

(nrehiew.github.io)

AI Generative Models

Presidential Pardon Power: Does it Extend to Corporations?

2025-05-25

Presidential Pardon Power: Does it Extend to Corporations?

This article explores the largely uncharted territory of whether the US president's pardon power extends to corporations. Historical evidence suggests a broader interpretation than commonly assumed, tracing back to centuries of English common law where corporations were frequently pardoned. The president could use this power to conditionally pardon corporations, potentially even effectively abolishing federal corporate criminal liability. However, Congress can limit this power by refusing to appropriate refunds of pardoned fines and by repealing corporate criminal liability statutes. Some states might also possess similar pardon powers, opening new strategic avenues for lawyers representing corporations.

(papers.ssrn.com)

Law Presidential Power Pardon Power Corporate Law

LaLiga's Reckless Blockade: The High Cost of Internet Censorship

2025-05-26

LaLiga's aggressive anti-piracy campaign, sanctioned by a court order, has resulted in the mass blocking of Cloudflare IP addresses, impacting millions of innocent websites and potentially jeopardizing access to critical emergency services in Spain. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has strongly condemned this “bonkers” strategy, warning of potential fatalities. While LaLiga claims legal compliance, Prince insists Cloudflare has always been willing to cooperate, offering a clear process that LaLiga refuses to use. The controversy, dubbed #laligagate, sparks intense debate over internet censorship and copyright protection, highlighting the significant risks and potentially deadly consequences of large-scale blocking.

(torrentfreak.com)

Tech

Depot Registry: A Faster, More Powerful Docker Registry is Here

2025-03-05

Depot Registry: A Faster, More Powerful Docker Registry is Here

Depot has launched Depot Registry, a faster and more powerful Docker registry. Built upon learnings from their internal ephemeral registry, it offers a globally distributed architecture seamlessly integrating with Depot builds. Key improvements include enhanced performance via Tigris' global content delivery and S3 integration; a new registry dashboard for image management; customizable image retention policies; and automatic integration with Depot GitHub Actions runners, simplifying authentication. Depot Registry is now generally available, included in all plans with storage charges only.

(depot.dev)

Development

The Curious Limitation of errno(3) in Linux

2025-07-04

The Linux errno(3) man page reveals a peculiar limitation: errno can be modified even on successful function calls, and it's never set to zero by any system call or library function. This stems from traditional Unix design where system calls typically return errno only on failure, leaving it unchanged on success. C library functions might make multiple system calls, some of which could fail without affecting the library function's overall success, leaving errno with the failure value. ANSI C and POSIX inherited this behavior, requiring errno to be meaningful only when a function fails and its documentation specifies setting errno.

(utcc.utoronto.ca)

Development

DeepSeek: A Cost-Effective Open-Source LLM Challenging ChatGPT

2025-02-08

DeepSeek: A Cost-Effective Open-Source LLM Challenging ChatGPT

DeepSeek, an open-source large language model (LLM) developed by a Chinese AI research company, is challenging ChatGPT with its unique Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture. Its efficiency comes from activating only necessary parameters, resulting in faster speeds and lower costs. Features like multi-head attention and multi-token prediction enable superior performance in long conversations and complex reasoning. Despite concerns about its data sources, DeepSeek's cost-effectiveness and direct output style make it a compelling alternative to ChatGPT.

(codedoodles.substack.com)

AI

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