iOS 26: My iPhone 13 mini is Now a Slug!

2025-09-19
iOS 26: My iPhone 13 mini is Now a Slug!

After updating to iOS 26, the author's iPhone 13 mini, only four years old, runs significantly slower than before. The previous iOS version was perfectly snappy, leading the author to suspect planned obsolescence or a shockingly poor update. The author also mentions their cautious approach to macOS updates, preferring to avoid them until absolutely necessary.

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De-smarting a Marshall Uxbridge: A Hacker's Audiophile Journey

2025-01-11

The author found two discarded Marshall Uxbridge smart speakers and, tired of their 'smart' features, decided to transform them into a high-fidelity stereo system. He disassembled the speakers, removed the original smart modules, and designed and built a new analog circuit featuring active filters and linear power amplifiers. The result is a stunning audio system with precise stereo imaging and a wide frequency range. This project is a testament to the author's skills and passion for high-quality audio.

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Red: A Powerful, Self-Hosted, Cross-Platform Systems Programming Language

2025-08-31
Red: A Powerful, Self-Hosted, Cross-Platform Systems Programming Language

Red is a programming language strongly inspired by Rebol, but with a broader field of usage thanks to its native-code compiler, from system programming to high-level scripting, while providing modern support for concurrency and multi-core CPUs. Red tackles software building complexity using a DSL-oriented approach (dialects). Built-in dialects include Red/System (a C-level system programming language), Parse (a powerful PEG parser), VID (a simple GUI layout creation dialect), Draw (a vector 2D drawing dialect), and Rich-text (a rich-text description dialect). Red has its own complete cross-platform toolchain, featuring an encapper, a native compiler, an interpreter, and a linker, not depending on any third-party library (except during the alpha stage). Key features include human-friendly syntax, homoiconicity, multi-typing, a powerful pattern-matching macro system, a rich set of built-in datatypes, both static and JIT compilation, cross-compilation, small executables (<1MB), strong concurrency and parallelism support, low-level system programming abilities, a powerful PEG parser DSL, a fast and compacting garbage collector, built-in instrumentation, a cross-platform native GUI system, JVM bridging, high-level scripting, and REPL GUI and CLI consoles. Currently in alpha and 32-bit only.

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The Empress of Ireland: A Forgotten Tragedy

2025-07-15
The Empress of Ireland: A Forgotten Tragedy

In 1914, the Empress of Ireland sank, claiming 1,014 lives, surpassing even the Titanic's death toll. Yet, unlike the Titanic, the Empress's tragedy remains largely unknown. This article recounts the author's investigation into survivor Gordon Charles Davidson, debunking the fabricated tale of his miraculous swim to shore, and explores why this disaster faded from collective memory, delving into the catastrophe and its impact on society.

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Misc shipwreck

Cognition Acquires Windsurf: A New Chapter for AI-Powered Code Editing

2025-07-15
Cognition Acquires Windsurf: A New Chapter for AI-Powered Code Editing

Cognition announced the acquisition of Windsurf, the creator of an agentic IDE. The acquisition includes Windsurf's IP, product, brand, strong business, and most importantly, its world-class team. Windsurf will continue operations, and Cognition will invest in integrating Windsurf's capabilities into its products. This move aims to accelerate the future of software engineering, combining Cognition's Devin (a fully autonomous agent) with Windsurf's IDE and strong go-to-market strategy for a powerful synergy. All Windsurf employees will receive generous terms, including financial participation, waived vesting cliffs, and fully accelerated vesting.

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AI

ASCII Porn: A History of Text-Based Erotica

2025-01-02
ASCII Porn: A History of Text-Based Erotica

This article explores the history of ASCII porn, tracing its evolution from early teletype machines to internet forums and bulletin board systems. Its speed of transmission in low-bandwidth environments made it a dominant form of early online pornography. The article examines the creative journeys and styles of ASCII artists, explores its place in art and culture, and discusses its continued presence on the internet today, such as its popularity on platforms like Twitter.

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Experimental Kotlin Language Server for VS Code

2025-05-22
Experimental Kotlin Language Server for VS Code

A pre-alpha, official Kotlin Language Server is now available for Visual Studio Code, implementing the Language Server Protocol for Kotlin. Built upon IntelliJ IDEA and its Kotlin plugin, this server supports most essential features but is experimental and lacks stability guarantees. Currently, only JVM-only Kotlin Gradle projects are supported out-of-the-box. Parts of the implementation are currently closed-source for faster development, with plans for full open-sourcing later. While easily installable as a VS Code extension, other editors require manual configuration. Users are encouraged to try it and provide feedback, but direct code contributions are not yet supported.

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Development

The Rise and Fall of Two Microcomputer Pioneers: Sinclair and Kildall

2025-07-17
The Rise and Fall of Two Microcomputer Pioneers: Sinclair and Kildall

This article recounts the fascinating lives of Sir Clive Sinclair, a British electronics genius, and Gary Kildall, an American computer scientist, both pioneers of the microcomputer industry. Sinclair revolutionized home computing in the 1980s with his ZX Spectrum and other affordable computers, but ultimately failed due to poor business decisions. Kildall's CP/M operating system became the standard for business microcomputers, but he missed the chance to partner with IBM, leading to his company's eventual sale. Both men demonstrated exceptional technical skills alongside business shortcomings, making significant contributions to the microcomputer industry and offering valuable lessons for entrepreneurs.

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Generating UML Diagrams at Compile Time with C++26 Reflections

2025-08-03

This article demonstrates how to leverage the new reflection features in C++26 to generate PlantUML class diagrams at compile time. The author cleverly combines `std::meta::info`, the `lift` and `splice` operators, and `std::define_static_string` to automatically extract class information from the code and generate a UML diagram. The process also discusses the use of `std::meta::access_context` and how to handle different types of reflection information, ultimately outputting the generated UML code at runtime. This showcases the power of C++26 reflections, offering new possibilities for code analysis and visualization.

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Development Reflections

Iran Urges WhatsApp Uninstall: Security Threat or Political Crackdown?

2025-06-17
Iran Urges WhatsApp Uninstall: Security Threat or Political Crackdown?

Iranian state television accused WhatsApp of collecting user data and sending it to Israel, urging citizens to uninstall the app. WhatsApp denied these allegations, highlighting its end-to-end encryption which protects user privacy and prevents tracking of location, message content, or sharing data with governments. Despite previous bans, many Iranians use proxies and VPNs to access WhatsApp. This incident raises concerns about information security and government censorship, and underscores WhatsApp's widespread use and importance in Iran.

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Tech

Why Japanese Kids Ride the Subway Alone

2025-01-14
Why Japanese Kids Ride the Subway Alone

An article in The Economist explores the phenomenon of young children in Japan riding the subway independently. It suggests this is linked to Japan's rigorous primary education and societal order. Children receive strict discipline and safety training from a young age, fostering independence and responsibility, making solo commutes possible. This highlights Japan's emphasis on children's independence, but also sparks discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

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T-Mobile Hits Customers With Another Price Hike

2025-03-14
T-Mobile Hits Customers With Another Price Hike

T-Mobile is raising prices again, adding a $5 per-line increase to some older plans starting in April or May. The increase, announced in an internal memo, won't affect all legacy plans or those with current plans (Go5G, Go5G Plus, Go5G Next), price lock guarantees, or promotional free lines – millions of customers are unaffected. The company cites rising costs as the reason. While the exact number of affected customers remains unclear, those impacted should receive notification by March 13th. Importantly, customers who received a price increase last June will not see an additional increase this time.

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Tech

Static Site Generators: Time Travel for Your Website

2025-09-02
Static Site Generators: Time Travel for Your Website

While revisiting old blog posts, the author discovered the power of using a static site generator (Eleventy) with Git for effortless time travel through their website's history. Eleventy's approach of fetching posts from a CMS and including them in each commit creates a full snapshot of the website at every commit. This contrasts with websites using databases (like WordPress), which make accessing past versions more difficult. While the author previously implemented a GitHub Action to take monthly screenshots, the combination of Eleventy and Git makes this less crucial.

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Development

16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked: A Cybersecurity Nightmare

2025-06-20
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked: A Cybersecurity Nightmare

Cybersecurity firm Cybernews has uncovered a massive data breach exposing 16 billion login credentials across 30 datasets. The leaked information, affecting platforms like Google, Facebook, and Apple, likely stems from multiple breaches over time, possibly perpetrated by infostealers. Experts urge users to change passwords, avoid reusing credentials, and enable multi-factor authentication to mitigate the risk.

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Tech

Small ISP Takes on the Giants: Bringing High-Speed Internet to Underserved Areas

2025-04-16
Small ISP Takes on the Giants: Bringing High-Speed Internet to Underserved Areas

Frustrated by poor service from major ISPs, network architect Mauch spent five years building his own fiber network, bringing affordable, high-speed internet to underserved areas of Washtenaw County, Michigan. He secured $2.6 million in government funding to offer 100Mbps and 1Gbps plans, aiming to complete half the project by the end of 2023. This contrasts sharply with major ISPs' exorbitant line extension fees, highlighting government efforts to bridge the digital divide. Mauch's story showcases individual initiative and the crucial role smaller ISPs play in expanding internet access.

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The AI Hype Cycle: Burning Out Engineers and Empty VC Pockets

2025-08-22
The AI Hype Cycle: Burning Out Engineers and Empty VC Pockets

This article details how the overuse of AI tools is leading to engineer burnout. Junior engineers are excessively relying on LLMs, submitting low-quality code that requires significant review time from senior engineers, resulting in inefficiency. This isn't isolated; many companies blindly chase AI, leading to wasted resources and project failures. The author calls for a halt to over-reliance on AI, a return to software engineering fundamentals, and a focus on developing engineers' practical skills. The current AI business model, heavily reliant on VC funding and unsustainable energy consumption, is unsustainable in the long run.

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Development AI overuse

Vlang: A Multifaceted Language Showcase

2025-08-30

This code snippet demonstrates V's versatility, ranging from simple loops greeting developers across various domains (game, web, etc.) to handling log files, making network requests, parsing and manipulating JSON data, and array deduplication. It covers I/O operations, string manipulation, network programming, JSON handling, and array manipulation, showcasing V's concise and elegant syntax and powerful standard library.

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Jai: A Modern Programming Language for Experienced Developers

2025-04-18

A seasoned programmer, having worked with countless languages, shares their experience with Jai, a high-performance language designed for experienced developers. The author highlights Jai's strengths: simple syntax, blazing fast compilation, powerful metaprogramming capabilities, and cross-platform compatibility. They discuss using Jai in a production environment and explain why it remains in closed beta. Overall, the author praises Jai as a modern language that improves developer efficiency and enables the creation of high-quality, efficient software.

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Development

Cloudflare's Buggy Browser Detection Blocks Users From Multiple Sites

2025-03-11
Cloudflare's Buggy Browser Detection Blocks Users From Multiple Sites

Users of less popular web browsers are being blocked from accessing numerous websites due to glitches in Cloudflare's browser detection system. This recurring issue, affecting users of Pale Moon, Falkon, SeaMonkey, and even some Firefox ESR versions, has persisted since at least 2015. Affected sites include science.org, steamdb.info, and ironically, community.cloudflare.com. The problem seems to stem from Cloudflare's bot-detection mechanisms, which mistakenly flag uncommon browsers or requests lacking referrer IDs as suspicious. While users can report issues on Cloudflare's forums, the lack of response suggests a lack of attention from the company.

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Ollama GGUF Model Loading Failure: Outdated ggml Dependency

2025-08-12
Ollama GGUF Model Loading Failure: Outdated ggml Dependency

An Ollama user reported a failure loading a GGUF model. The error log indicates an invalid ggml type (39, NONE) for tensor 'blk.0.ffn_down_exps.weight'. This likely stems from an outdated ggml dependency within llama.cpp. While the GGUF model runs fine with llama.cpp directly, the Ollama platform's failure suggests the need for a ggml dependency update within Ollama itself.

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Development

Microsoft Kills Office Support for Windows 10

2025-01-15
Microsoft Kills Office Support for Windows 10

Microsoft announced it will end support for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025. This means users will no longer receive updates or support and will need to upgrade to Windows 11 to continue using Office apps. While apps will initially continue functioning, Microsoft warns of potential performance and reliability issues. This move aims to push Windows 11 adoption, but the higher hardware requirements of Windows 11 pose a significant hurdle for many users. To mitigate this, Microsoft is offering paid extended security updates for consumers for the first time.

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Tech

Apollo 15: First Moon Buggy Ride

2025-08-04
Apollo 15: First Moon Buggy Ride

In 1971, astronauts David Scott and James Irwin of the Apollo 15 mission became the first to drive on the moon's surface in the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), or 'moon buggy'. This battery-powered vehicle, capable of 12 mph, enabled longer excursions than previously possible on foot. Weighing just 77 pounds on the moon, it carried two astronauts, equipment, and hundreds of pounds of samples. Rigorously tested to withstand extreme temperatures and impacts, the LRV collected 170 pounds of lunar samples during Apollo 15. Today, it remains on the moon's near side.

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The Magical Coding Interview: A Tale of Prolog, Lisp, and µKanren

2025-01-02

Seasoned programmer Vidrun faces an unconventional interview. Aisha, a three-year veteran engineer, eschews typical questions, instead engaging Vidrun in a coding duel using Prolog and the lambda calculus. Aisha guides Vidrun in building a Lisp interpreter, culminating in Vidrun's clever use of µKanren and custom macros to solve the problem, forging a connection with Aisha through the shared art of coding. This story blends technical prowess with magical realism and interpersonal dynamics, showcasing the ingenuity and artistry of programming.

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Lightweight, Ad-Free Jetpack Compose Compass App

2025-06-02
Lightweight, Ad-Free Jetpack Compose Compass App

MBCompass is a lightweight compass app built with Jetpack Compose. Unlike most compass apps burdened with ads and unnecessary features, MBCompass prioritizes accuracy and efficiency. It uses the device's magnetometer and accelerometer for real-time geomagnetic field updates. Features include displaying the user's current location (using OpenStreetMap), light/dark theme support, magnetic strength display, keep screen on, landscape orientation, smooth compass rotation, and sensor fusion for improved accuracy. Importantly, it's completely free, ad-free, and without in-app purchases.

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Development Compass

Hacker News: GameCube Keyboard Controller Powers Up Animal Crossing

2025-06-12
Hacker News: GameCube Keyboard Controller Powers Up Animal Crossing

A developer has created an amazing project combining a GameCube keyboard controller with Nintendo's Animal Crossing. The project includes tools allowing for incredibly fast in-game typing, importing custom images and videos, and even playing Snake! It involves 3D-printed custom keycaps, a Raspberry Pi Pico, and some electronics. The project is open-source and the code is available on GitHub.

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Game

Wyoming to Host Massive AI Data Center, Outpacing State's Total Household Energy Consumption

2025-07-30
Wyoming to Host Massive AI Data Center, Outpacing State's Total Household Energy Consumption

Cheyenne, Wyoming will soon be home to a massive artificial intelligence data center. Initially consuming more electricity than all Wyoming households combined, the facility has the potential to expand fivefold. This joint venture between Tallgrass and Crusoe will start with 1.8 gigawatts of power, scalable to 10 gigawatts – enough to power a million homes. Wyoming, a major energy exporter, will supply the data center with power generated from natural gas and renewables. While data centers are energy intensive, using renewable sources mitigates climate impact. Though unconfirmed, the project is speculated to be related to OpenAI's 'Stargate' initiative, following the recent launch of a similarly massive OpenAI data center in Texas and plans for further expansion. The project's scale raises questions about potential increases in electricity bills for residents.

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Tech

US Space Force Certifies Vulcan Centaur Rocket for National Security Missions

2025-03-27
US Space Force Certifies Vulcan Centaur Rocket for National Security Missions

The US Space Force has certified United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket for national security missions, following a rigorous certification process involving two test launches in 2024. Despite a nozzle malfunction during the second test, the rocket successfully completed its mission, and corrective actions have been implemented. ULA plans to launch a dozen rockets this year, aiming for a launch cadence of two per month by year's end. This certification adds to the nation's space launch capabilities.

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Tech

Steam Survey: 32GB RAM to Dominate, RTX 4060 Still Strong

2025-09-02
Steam Survey: 32GB RAM to Dominate, RTX 4060 Still Strong

The latest Steam Hardware Survey reveals that 32GB of RAM is poised to become the most popular configuration among Steam gamers, potentially surpassing 16GB by the end of 2025. While the RTX 5060 outperforms the RTX 4060 in new PC sales, the RTX 4060 maintains a significant presence in the Steam survey, possibly due to remaining stock in certain regions or continued sales of pre-built systems. Additionally, the 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution is experiencing the fastest growth, and Windows 11 has exceeded 60% market share.

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Richard Foreman: The Renegade Playwright Who Reinvented Theater

2025-06-16
Richard Foreman: The Renegade Playwright Who Reinvented Theater

This article explores the life and work of avant-garde playwright Richard Foreman, who redefined theater through his unconventional approach. Rejecting traditional scripts, he embraced improvisation and constant reworking, transforming his plays into ever-evolving "art machines." Blending surrealism, dark humor, and philosophical inquiry, Foreman's signature short plays, characterized by relentless movement and ever-shifting sets, created a unique and unrepeatable theatrical experience. He viewed art as a "continuous present," and by making his raw texts freely available, ensured his innovative ideas would continue to reverberate.

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WHOIS Sunset: RDAP Takes Over gTLD Registration Data

2025-03-17

Starting January 28, 2025, the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) becomes the primary source for generic top-level domain (gTLD) registration information, replacing the sunsetting WHOIS service. RDAP offers improvements such as internationalization support, secure access, authoritative service discovery, and differentiated data access. Developed by the IETF, RDAP has been used by ICANN-accredited registrars since 2019. Users can access data via ICANN's RDAP lookup service (https://lookup.icann.org/en) or its open-source command-line client. For non-public data, use the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) or contact the registrar directly.

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Tech gTLD
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