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Unearthing Ichijodani: A Samurai City's Secrets Revealed

2025-04-14
Unearthing Ichijodani: A Samurai City's Secrets Revealed

Excavations in Ichijodani, once one of medieval Japan's largest cities, have unearthed a treasure trove of artifacts revealing the opulent lives of its samurai inhabitants and the city's surprising prosperity. Archaeologists have uncovered samurai residences, the remains of the Asakura clan's palace, exquisite ceramics and tea sets, and even the oldest known Japanese flowerbed. Rivaling Kyoto in its heyday, Ichijodani was ultimately destroyed by Oda Nobunaga. Rediscovered after 400 years of obscurity, the site offers unparalleled insight into late medieval Japanese urban life and samurai culture during the tumultuous Warring States period.

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(archaeology.org)
Tech Japanese history Warring States period

Gatehouse-TS: A Flexible, Zero-Dependency Authorization Library in TypeScript

2025-04-13
Gatehouse-TS: A Flexible, Zero-Dependency Authorization Library in TypeScript

Gatehouse-TS is a flexible, zero-dependency authorization library written in TypeScript, combining role-based (RBAC), attribute-based (ABAC), and relationship-based (ReBAC) access control policies. A port of the popular Rust Gatehouse library, it boasts a user-friendly API, supports policy composition with logical operators, offers detailed evaluation tracing for debugging, and provides a fluent builder API for creating custom policies. Its lightweight design and comprehensive documentation make it easily embeddable and adaptable to various projects.

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(github.com)
Development Authorization Access Control

Codd's Cellular Automaton: A Simpler Self-Replicating Machine

2025-05-04
Codd's Cellular Automaton: A Simpler Self-Replicating Machine

In 1968, British computer scientist Edgar F. Codd devised a cellular automaton (CA) with only 8 states, simplifying von Neumann's 29-state self-replicating machine. Codd demonstrated the possibility of a self-replicating machine within his CA, but a complete implementation wasn't achieved until 2009 by Tim Hutton. Codd's work spurred further research into the necessary logical organization for self-replication in automata, inspiring later refinements by researchers like Devore and Langton, leading to less complex self-replicating designs.

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(en.wikipedia.org)
AI cellular automaton von Neumann

60-Year-Old Math Puzzle Solved: The Optimal Sofa Size

2025-02-14
60-Year-Old Math Puzzle Solved: The Optimal Sofa Size

A 60-year-old mathematical puzzle – the moving sofa problem – has finally been solved! In the 1960s, mathematicians posed a seemingly simple geometric question: What's the largest area of a sofa that can navigate a unit-width hallway? Recently, Jineon Baek, a postdoctoral researcher at Yonsei University in Seoul, proved in a 119-page paper that the sofa shape proposed by Joseph Gerver in 1992 is the optimal solution, with an area of approximately 2.2195. Baek's proof is remarkable because it didn't rely on computers but used elegant mathematical techniques, offering new approaches to solving other optimization problems. The result also illustrates that even the simplest optimization problems can have surprisingly complex answers.

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(www.quantamagazine.org)
Misc optimization

Mermaid.js: Diagram Creation Made Easy with Markdown

2025-05-24
Mermaid.js: Diagram Creation Made Easy with Markdown

Mermaid.js is a JavaScript-based diagramming and charting tool that uses Markdown-like text definitions to create and modify diagrams. It solves the problem of documentation falling behind development by allowing easy creation and modification of various charts including flowcharts, Gantt charts, and sequence diagrams. Even non-programmers can easily use the live editor to create complex visuals. Mermaid integrates with popular applications like GitHub and includes a sandboxed iframe for enhanced security.

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(github.com)
Development Diagramming

pg_test_fsync: Benchmarking Disk Write Performance for Databases

2025-05-28

This article introduces `pg_test_fsync`, a tool for quickly benchmarking disk or cloud storage write performance, particularly useful for database WAL logs and other low-latency write workloads. The author tests a consumer-grade Samsung 990 Pro SSD and an enterprise-grade Micron 7400 SSD, revealing significantly faster synchronous write speeds on the enterprise SSD due to its controller DRAM cache and power-loss protection. `fdatasync` proves faster than `fsync` or `O_SYNC`, but even `fdatasync` takes 1.6 milliseconds for a single 8kB write. The article notes that multiple small writes degrade performance, suggesting batching writes for efficiency.

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(tanelpoder.com)
Development

Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express Outperforms 27 States in Rail Ridership

2025-06-11
Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express Outperforms 27 States in Rail Ridership

Dollywood's Dollywood Express, a coal-fired steam train, boasts higher ridership than 27 US states! This surprising statistic prompts reflection on America's infrastructure priorities. Launched in 1986 with Dolly Parton's involvement, the train's engines hail from Alaska's White Pass & Yukon Route, repurposed from WWII. The Dollywood Express transports approximately 5,000 people daily, accounting for 92% of Tennessee's rail ridership (excluding Amtrak). The author uses this comparison to highlight discrepancies between US and Danish economies and their respective rail transit systems, questioning national infrastructure priorities.

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(thetransitguy.substack.com)
Misc steam train

LastPass Breach Fuels Massive Crypto Heists: FBI Confirms Link

2025-03-08

A 2022 LastPass breach, where hackers stole user master passwords, has led to a string of six- and seven-figure cryptocurrency heists. The FBI and Secret Service have confirmed a connection, stating that stolen passwords were used to access victims' crypto wallets. A $150 million theft from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen resulted in $24 million being recovered. Security researchers found that victims were often older LastPass users with weak master passwords and had stored their crypto seed phrases in LastPass's "Secure Notes". LastPass denies direct responsibility, but experts criticize the company's response and urge users to improve password security practices.

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(krebsonsecurity.com)
Tech

Solving the Eikonal Equation with Fast Sweeping in JAX

2025-05-11

This blog post explores solving the Eikonal equation, crucial in interface evolution and image processing, using the fast sweeping method implemented in JAX. It begins by explaining level set methods and the Eikonal equation itself. The core of the post details the fast sweeping algorithm, covering grid setup, iterative updates, and the Godunov upwind scheme. NumPy and JAX code implementations are provided, with benchmarks demonstrating JAX's significant speed advantage. The author also discusses attempts at parallelizing the algorithm and the challenges encountered.

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(rohangautam.github.io)
Development fast sweeping method Eikonal equation

Samsung Locks Down Bootloaders in One UI 8: The End of Custom ROMs?

2025-07-28
Samsung Locks Down Bootloaders in One UI 8: The End of Custom ROMs?

Samsung's One UI 8 completely disables bootloader unlocking. Analysis of system files reveals that One UI 8 permanently sets the `ro.boot.other.locked` parameter to 1, removes the OEM unlock toggle, and strips all unlock-related code from the bootloader. This means devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and Galaxy S25 series will be unable to install custom ROMs, gain root access, or use custom kernels, dealing a significant blow to the Samsung developer community.

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(sammyguru.com)
Tech

Rigorous: AI-Powered Scientific Manuscript Analysis – Now with Cloud Version!

2025-05-31
Rigorous: AI-Powered Scientific Manuscript Analysis – Now with Cloud Version!

Rigorous offers AI-powered scientific manuscript analysis. Its cloud version (https://www.rigorous.company/) lets you upload your manuscript, specify the target journal, and receive a comprehensive PDF report within 1-2 business days – currently free for testing. The tool features Agent1_Peer_Review for comprehensive analysis, detailed feedback, and a professional PDF report; and Agent2_Outlet_Fit (in development) for journal fit evaluation. Agent1_Peer_Review generates a visually appealing report with executive summaries, detailed analyses, and actionable recommendations.

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(github.com)
Development Scientific Publishing

Ubuntu Considers Switching to Rust Utilities by Default

2025-03-21

Ubuntu is planning to replace many traditional GNU utilities with Rust implementations, such as those from the uutils project, in its upcoming 25.10 release. To test the suitability of these Rust tools, Canonical's VP of Engineering, Jon Seager, released oxidizr, a command-line utility to easily enable or disable them. This move aims to enhance Ubuntu's resilience and security, and attract more contributors. While community reaction is mixed, this shift could significantly impact Rust's adoption and the future of Linux distributions.

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(lwn.net)
Development

Small but Mighty: Exploring the Beauty of Concise Programming Languages

2025-06-06

This article explores the trade-off between the size and expressiveness of programming languages. The author argues that smaller languages like assembly are limited in expressiveness, while languages like Forth, Lisp, and Tcl achieve powerful expressiveness with concise syntax. Lua is highlighted as a small and easy-to-learn language due to its tiny core (just 27 pages!). The impact of standard libraries on perceived language size is discussed, with Ramda's extensive functionality used as an example of increased learning curve. Ultimately, the author champions the elegance and joy of small languages, suggesting that simplicity can sometimes trump expressiveness.

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(ratfactor.com)
Development conciseness

Molluscs of the Multiverse: A Biological Look at Magic: The Gathering

2025-08-27
Molluscs of the Multiverse: A Biological Look at Magic: The Gathering

Three museum researchers delve into the surprisingly diverse mollusc representation in the popular card game Magic: The Gathering. They examine snails, slugs, bivalves, and cephalopods, comparing the game's depictions to real-world biology. The authors highlight the creative ways the game uses biological forms, behaviors, and ecology, revealing a fascinating interplay between fantasy and science. This article is a fun exploration of game lore and a surprisingly insightful primer on mollusc biology, appealing to gamers and biology enthusiasts alike.

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(jgeekstudies.org)
Game Molluscs

Lost at Sea: A 13-Day Survival Against the Odds

2025-05-24
Lost at Sea: A 13-Day Survival Against the Odds

Seeking escape from a monotonous life, the author quits his job and embarks on a fishing trip. A storm capsizes their boat, leaving him adrift in a life raft for 13 days. He endures starvation, hypothermia, despair, and the terror of death, yet finds inner peace and redemption. Rescued by a passing cargo ship, he reunites with his family, but his future remains uncertain. This gripping tale explores survival, self-discovery, and the human spirit's resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.

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(www.theatlantic.com)
Misc sea survival

Cogent Core: Write Once, Run Everywhere

2025-05-09
Cogent Core: Write Once, Run Everywhere

Cogent Core is a free and open-source framework for building powerful, fast, and elegant 2D and 3D applications that run on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and the web from a single Go codebase. This 'write once, run everywhere' framework boasts extensive documentation and interactive examples directly editable and runnable on its website, which is itself a Cogent Core app running on wasm. Installation instructions must be followed before development.

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(github.com)
Development

Unlocking a Lost Empire: The Rise of the TLHdig Digital Hittite Corpus

2025-04-01
Unlocking a Lost Empire: The Rise of the TLHdig Digital Hittite Corpus

Boğazköy-Hattuša, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern Turkey, was the capital of the Hittite Empire, a major power in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1650-1200 BC). A groundbreaking digital tool, TLHdig, is revolutionizing access to this ancient civilization's vast textual legacy. Currently boasting over 22,000 XML documents containing nearly 400,000 transliterated lines of Hittite cuneiform texts – and constantly expanding – TLHdig allows researchers to search, filter, and analyze these invaluable sources. Integrated with other digital resources, TLHdig fosters collaboration and opens new avenues for research, including innovative AI applications. It serves as a cornerstone for both text editions and a wide range of research methodologies.

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(www.sciencedaily.com)
Tech Hittite Language Ancient Near East

A Guide to Traveling Stateless: Tips and Tricks

2025-04-02
A Guide to Traveling Stateless: Tips and Tricks

This guide offers advice for stateless individuals traveling internationally. It emphasizes the importance of visiting embassies in person, securing visas through business contacts, sticking to reliable airlines and hotels, dressing appropriately, preparing thoroughly before immigration, and maintaining a calm and polite demeanor. The author shares personal experiences and disclaims legal responsibility.

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(taejun.substack.com)
Misc stateless

Russell Rejects Letter from Fascist Mosley

2025-09-16
Russell Rejects Letter from Fascist Mosley

In early 1962, the 89-year-old Bertrand Russell rejected a letter from Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists. Russell's letter expresses his profound distaste for fascism, stating that Mosley's ideology is irreconcilable with his own worldview and that no fruitful dialogue could occur. He emphasizes this isn't rudeness, but stems from his deep-seated values concerning human experience and achievement. The letter showcases Russell's unwavering anti-fascist stance and moral integrity.

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(lettersofnote.com)
Misc Bertrand Russell Fascism Historical Letter

Lightweight Node.js NuGet Server: Your Private Package Repo in 10 Seconds

2025-09-01
Lightweight Node.js NuGet Server: Your Private Package Repo in 10 Seconds

This is a lightweight NuGet server built on Node.js, implementing core NuGet v3 API functionalities for package publishing, querying, and downloading. It requires no database, storing package files and nuspecs directly in the filesystem, making setup quick and easy—run it in 10 seconds. A modern browser-based UI is included, supporting multiple package uploads, user account management, API password resets, and more. A Docker image is available. Compatible with dotnet restore and standard NuGet clients, it also allows package publishing via HTTP POST using tools like cURL.

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(github.com)
Development Private Package Repository

Sebald's Uncanny Insights: Power, Order, and the Ghost of Kafka

2025-04-07
Sebald's Uncanny Insights: Power, Order, and the Ghost of Kafka

This essay delves into W.G. Sebald's interpretation of Kafka and Canetti, highlighting his profound insights into the nature of power. Sebald argues that totalitarian power stems from a fear of chaos, attempting to establish a sterile order through violence, ultimately leading to self-destruction. This power, he suggests, is parasitic rather than creative, barren and self-serving, its only aim self-perpetuation, mirroring the vampiric despots in Kafka's works. Sebald's analysis offers a timely warning, especially relevant in our current era.

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(newrepublic.com)
Misc totalitarianism

EnrichMCP: The ORM for AI Agents

2025-06-19
EnrichMCP: The ORM for AI Agents

EnrichMCP is a Python framework that empowers AI agents to understand and interact with your data like an ORM. Built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), it adds a semantic layer transforming your data models into typed, discoverable tools. It supports SQLAlchemy models, REST APIs, and custom logic, automatically generating typed tools, handling relationships, providing schema discovery, and validating with Pydantic. AI agents can explore data models, query data, and navigate relationships as naturally as developers using an ORM.

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(github.com)
Development

Disk I/O Beats Memory Caching? A Surprising Benchmark

2025-09-05

Conventional wisdom dictates that memory access is far faster than disk I/O, making memory caching essential. This post challenges that assumption with a clever benchmark: counting the number of tens in a large dataset. Using an older server and optimizing code (loop unrolling and vectorization), along with a custom io_uring engine, the author demonstrates that direct disk reads can outperform memory caching under specific conditions. The key isn't that the disk is faster than memory, but rather that traditional memory access methods (mmap) introduce significant latency. The custom io_uring engine leverages the disk's high bandwidth and pipelining to mask latency. The article emphasizes adapting algorithms and data access to hardware characteristics for maximum performance in modern architectures, and looks ahead to future hardware trends.

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(www.bitflux.ai)
Hardware memory caching

SF Startup Hiring: Backend Engineer for 100M+ Datapoint Automation

2025-06-11
SF Startup Hiring: Backend Engineer for 100M+ Datapoint Automation

A San Francisco Bay Area startup seeks a recent graduate to join its backend engineering team building production automation systems processing 100M+ data points monthly. You'll work on real-world systems, learning from senior engineers and contributing meaningfully from day one. Responsibilities include building Python services for automated data collection, integrating systems, handling errors, ensuring reliable data pipelines, creating internal tools, and production debugging. Ideal candidates possess strong programming fundamentals, Python experience, problem-solving skills, and DevOps/sysadmin interest. Excellent benefits include lunch, unlimited PTO, 401k, platinum health insurance, and a $100K-$120K salary with equity.

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(www.ycombinator.com)
Development

Corporate Software Piracy: The Invisible Hand

2025-03-06
Corporate Software Piracy: The Invisible Hand

This article exposes a hidden truth: widespread corporate use of pirated software, often without consequence. From a National Guardsman in Iraq downloading pirated Microsoft software for a quick network setup to small business owners using cracked software to save costs, and employees in large companies using pirated software to meet deadlines, the author argues that software piracy is ubiquitous in businesses. Companies leverage employee actions and complex workflows to shift the risk of piracy onto individual employees, reaping all the benefits with zero risk. This invisible hand benefits proprietary software companies by preventing businesses from scrutinizing licensing, reducing the urgency to streamline processes or explore open-source alternatives.

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(davegutteridge.com)
Startup software piracy corporate behavior

Chrome for Android Now Warns Against Deceptive Notifications

2025-05-10
Chrome for Android Now Warns Against Deceptive Notifications

Chrome is launching a new feature on Android that uses on-device machine learning to detect and warn users about potentially deceptive or spammy notifications. The feature analyzes notification content (title, body, and action button text) and, when a suspicious notification is detected, displays a warning with options to unsubscribe or view the notification. All analysis happens locally on the device; notification content isn't sent to Google. This protects user privacy. This is part of Chrome's ongoing commitment to user safety, alongside features like automatically revoking notification permissions from abusive sites and one-tap unsubscribe.

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(blog.chromium.org)
Tech

Apple Intelligence: Squandering the Holy Grail of Trusted Compute

2025-01-06
Apple Intelligence: Squandering the Holy Grail of Trusted Compute

This article analyzes Apple's recently released Apple Intelligence, a suite of features designed to bring intelligence to iPhones. While Apple achieved a remarkable feat in building a secure 'Private Cloud Compute' system, prioritizing user data privacy and security, the actual implementation of these features is underwhelming. The author dissects each feature, from Writing Tools and notification summaries to Image Playground, revealing shortcomings and a lack of maturity that fall short of Apple's usual high standards. The article argues Apple missed an opportunity to create a 'bicycle for the mind' (Steve Jobs' analogy for computers), squandering a powerful technological foundation on lackluster applications. The exception is Math Notes, which the author praises highly. The piece concludes by exploring the nature and proper applications of generative AI, suggesting its strength lies in backend tasks like data analysis rather than direct-to-consumer products. The author laments the unfulfilled potential of Apple Intelligence, comparing it unfavorably to alternative, more effective open-source tools.

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(xeiaso.net)
Tech

AI-Powered Ransomware: A 70-Cent Attack?

2025-09-07
AI-Powered Ransomware: A 70-Cent Attack?

Researchers at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering have developed a proof-of-concept AI-powered ransomware called "Ransomware 3.0." This prototype uses LLMs to automate all four phases of a ransomware attack: system mapping, valuable file identification, data theft/encryption, and ransom note generation. The alarming aspect? The prototype costs roughly $0.70 per attack using commercial APIs, and open-source models eliminate this cost entirely. This drastically lowers the barrier to entry for ransomware attacks, posing a significant cybersecurity challenge. While an academic experiment, it highlights the potential for malicious AI use and underscores the need to address the emerging threat of AI-driven cyberattacks.

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(www.tomshardware.com)
Tech

Microdot: A Tiny Web Framework for Microcontrollers

2025-09-07

At EuroPython 2025, Miguel Grinberg presented Microdot, a lightweight web framework running on both MicroPython and CPython, suitable for systems ranging from IoT devices to cloud servers. Inspired by Flask but significantly smaller, Microdot's creation stemmed from Grinberg's experience with a faulty smart thermostat in his Irish home. He built a MicroPython-based system to control heating and used Microdot to create a simple web interface for monitoring temperature and humidity. Microdot's core is remarkably concise at 765 lines of code, supporting asynchronous operations and common features, with extensions providing advanced functionality. Its design emphasizes simplicity and avoids complexity, making it ideal for building web applications on microcontrollers.

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(lwn.net)
Development
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