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A Premeditated Murder in 14th Century London: The Forde Killing

2025-06-07

A Premeditated Murder in 14th Century London: The Forde Killing

A premeditated murder shocked 14th-century London's Westcheap area. Priest Forde was ambushed and killed by four men, including Ela Fitzpayne's brother and former servants, shortly after Vespers. Despite identifying the killers, justice was thwarted by Fitzpayne's high social standing. Five years later, only one perpetrator was imprisoned. Further research revealed a long-standing feud between the Fitzpayne family and Forde, including a previous raid on a Benedictine priory. The case highlights the class-based injustice of the era.

(arstechnica.com)

Misc Medieval Murder Class Justice Historical Investigation

Efficient Fine-tuning: A Deep Dive into LoRA (Part 1)

2024-12-25

Efficient Fine-tuning: A Deep Dive into LoRA (Part 1)

Fine-tuning large language models typically requires substantial computational resources. This article introduces LoRA, a parameter-efficient fine-tuning technique. LoRA significantly reduces the number of parameters needing training by inserting low-rank matrices as adapters into a pre-trained model, thus lowering computational and storage costs. This first part explains the principles behind LoRA, including the shortcomings of traditional fine-tuning, the advantages of parameter-efficient methods, and the mathematical basis of low-rank approximation. Subsequent parts will delve into the specific implementation and application of LoRA.

(medium.com)

AI Parameter-Efficient Fine-tuning

You No Longer Need JavaScript: Unleashing the Power of Modern CSS

2025-08-29

This article champions the capabilities of modern CSS, arguing that many websites don't require bloated JavaScript frameworks. The author delves into new CSS features like nesting, relative colors, and responsive viewport units (lvh, svh, dvh), showcasing how to build animations, theming, and input validation with CSS alone. Clean code examples illustrate these techniques. The article also proposes improvements to CSS, such as reusable blocks and nth-child variables, highlighting CSS's performance and accessibility advantages. The author promotes a leaner, more efficient web development philosophy and expresses a passion for CSS as an art form.

(lyra.horse)

Development

Local Network File Syncing for Two Windows Machines: Ditch the Cloud!

2025-06-27

Local Network File Syncing for Two Windows Machines: Ditch the Cloud!

Tired of syncing files between two Windows machines? Sink offers a revolutionary solution! Bypass the cloud, email, and USB drives. Running on your local network, Sink automatically detects other machines running Sink and syncs files near-instantly. It handles conflicts, preventing data loss, and allows you to ignore specific files and folders using a .sinkignore file (similar to .gitignore). Currently a work in progress, future plans include a UI, custom paths, system tray integration, and support for more than two devices.

(github.com)

Development file syncing local network

Rohlang3: A Minimalist Dependently Typed SK Calculus

2025-01-06

Rohlang3: A Minimalist Dependently Typed SK Calculus

Rohan Ganapavarapu's Rohlang3 is an experimental minimalist language written in Rust. It attempts to combine point-free style, homoiconicity, and dependent typing atop an SK-calculus foundation. While built on the standard S and K combinators, Rohlang3 adds reflection (q and e), partial evaluation (z), and environment reordering (i, E, D) combinators, along with a simplified Pi/Sigma dependent type system (p and g). The project isn't aiming for perfect consistency, but rather explores the interplay of these concepts. Homoiconicity allows runtime manipulation of the AST, and the reflection and partial evaluation features enable powerful metaprogramming capabilities.

(rohan.ga)

Development

Molecular Sponge Clears Carbon Monoxide from Blood in Minutes

2025-08-14

Molecular Sponge Clears Carbon Monoxide from Blood in Minutes

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have engineered a protein, RcoM-HBD-CCC, that acts like a molecular sponge, rapidly clearing carbon monoxide (CO) from the bloodstream. Unlike the current slow treatment with pure oxygen, this new therapy effectively removes CO in minutes, significantly reducing long-term health risks. In mouse models, it cleared half the CO in under a minute without affecting blood pressure. This breakthrough offers new hope for CO poisoning treatment, potentially becoming a rapid, effective emergency antidote, even usable in the field by first responders.

(newatlas.com)

Tech carbon monoxide poisoning engineered protein blood purification

Dissecting Conant and Ashby's Good Regulator Theorem

2025-06-18

Dissecting Conant and Ashby's Good Regulator Theorem

This post provides a clear and accessible explanation of Conant and Ashby's 1970 Good Regulator Theorem, which states that every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system. The author addresses the theorem's background and controversies, then uses Bayesian networks and intuitive language to explain the mathematical proof. Real-world examples illustrate the concepts, clarifying misconceptions around the term 'model'.

(www.lesswrong.com)

AI control theory Bayesian networks information entropy

A 300-Line Python Compiler: Closure Conversion Explained

2025-08-11

A 300-Line Python Compiler: Closure Conversion Explained

While working through the Ghuloum tutorial, the author re-implemented a compiler originally written in C, achieving a concise 300-line Python version (including tests). This compiler performs closure conversion, handling variable binding, free variable tracking, and code object management. The post details the implementation, covering `lambda` and `let` expressions, function calls, and providing test cases and assembly code examples. The result is a surprisingly compact compiler capable of handling closures and indirect function calls, showcasing elegant solutions to complex problems.

(bernsteinbear.com)

Development closure conversion

Advertising: A Cancerous Metaphor

2025-02-10

This article draws a striking parallel between advertising and cancer, highlighting their shared characteristics: uncontrolled growth, destructive consequences, resilience, and resource consumption. It argues that advertising, far from simply informing consumers, has become manipulative and deceptive, consuming vast corporate resources, polluting media channels, distorting decision-making, and eroding trust. Even in saturated markets, advertising competition becomes a zero-sum game, forcing companies into a vicious cycle of escalating spending. The author uses a powerful metaphor to expose the negative impacts and potential harms of advertising.

(jacek.zlydach.pl)

Misc cancer metaphor consumer behavior

Outperforming CPython: Optimizing the Plush Interpreter for Fibonacci

2025-08-07

Outperforming CPython: Optimizing the Plush Interpreter for Fibonacci

The author details the optimization journey of their Plush interpreter, a toy programming language, surpassing CPython in the Fibonacci microbenchmark. Optimizations included instruction merging, profiling with Linux perf, and code patching to eliminate hash lookups. The result? Nearly double the speed on the benchmark, yet surprisingly, no performance improvement in their parallel raytracer, highlighting the limitations of microbenchmarks.

(pointersgonewild.com)

Development interpreter optimization microbenchmark

How Close Are We to Black Mirror's Dystopian Visions?

2025-06-19

How Close Are We to Black Mirror's Dystopian Visions?

Black Mirror, a British anthology series, satirizes the dark side of technology. This website tracks the real-world progress towards scenarios depicted in each episode, using progress bars to visualize how close we are. It's a subjective assessment based on current trends, not a scientific study. The site illustrates how advancing technology brings us closer to the world of Black Mirror.

(www.howclosetoblackmirror.com)

Tech Black Mirror

PostgreSQL Multi-AZ Cluster Transaction Visibility Issue: A Jepsen Report Deep Dive

2025-05-03

PostgreSQL Multi-AZ Cluster Transaction Visibility Issue: A Jepsen Report Deep Dive

A recent Jepsen report highlights a long-standing transaction visibility issue in Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Multi-AZ clusters: the order in which transactions become visible differs between the primary and replicas. This doesn't cause data loss or corruption, and doesn't affect single-AZ deployments or Aurora databases. The issue relates to the 'Long Fork' anomaly, violating Snapshot Isolation. The post details the root cause (asynchronous updates to ProcArray and WAL), illustrating how it leads to inconsistent results (e.g., Alice and Bob observing different rankings of a Hacker News article). While rarely impacting application correctness, fixing it is crucial for enterprise-grade PostgreSQL clusters. AWS is collaborating with the PostgreSQL community to resolve this, offering workarounds like reviewing application assumptions about transaction ordering and using explicit synchronization.

(aws.amazon.com)

Development Transaction Visibility Database Consistency

Linux Community: Fortress of Freedom or Cage of Exclusion?

2025-06-27

A blog post sparked a heated debate about inclusivity within the Linux community. The author shared a condescending and exclusionary comment criticizing their use of "Linux" instead of "GNU/Linux" and accusing them of trying to "dumb down" the system. The author counters that true "freedom" shouldn't come at the expense of marginalized groups, highlighting serious accessibility flaws in the Linux ecosystem. This ignited a discussion about community culture, the importance of inclusivity and accessibility, and respect for those who contribute to improving the system.

(fireborn.mataroa.blog)

Development

XSLT 3.0: A Major Upgrade for XML Transformations

2025-08-30

XSLT 3.0 isn't just an incremental update; it elevates XSLT from an XML transformation tool to a general-purpose transformation language for common data formats like JSON and XML. It introduces JSON support with `json-to-xml()` and `xml-to-json()` functions for seamless conversion. Further improvements include simplified syntax with text value templates (TVTs), dynamic XPath expression evaluation, functions, typed variables, function packages, and exception handling, boosting code readability and maintainability. XSLT 3.0 also supports streaming and performance optimizations, making it ideal for large-scale data streams.

(www.xml.com)

Development

The Rise and Fall (and Acquisition) of Dungeons & Dragons

2025-02-21

This article details the tumultuous history of TSR, Inc., and its flagship game, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Once a dominant force, TSR's mismanaged marketing, internal power struggles, and the rise of Magic: The Gathering led to its financial ruin and eventual acquisition by Wizards of the Coast. The piece explores TSR's successes and failures, highlighting the cutthroat nature of the gaming industry and offering reflections on company management, market shifts, and gaming culture.

(www.filfre.net)

Game Dungeons & Dragons Tabletop Games

Resurrecting a Vintage TV with a Raspberry Pi: A 50th Birthday Gift

2025-09-19

In 2017, the author built a unique 50th birthday gift for his father: a vintage TV modified to play shows from the 70s and 80s. He cleverly integrated a Raspberry Pi with an RF modulator to solve video output and channel switching. Software-based channels controlled by a rotary switch were implemented. A power supply solution with voltage regulators was also integrated inside the TV. While the software code is less than perfect, the final result is an 8-hour continuous video playback (including commercials) with keyframe timestamp saving for resuming playback. This creative project showcases the author's technical skills and love for his father.

(blog.davidv.dev)

Hardware Vintage TV Hardware Hack

GitHub CEO Steps Down, Embracing the AI Revolution

2025-08-11

GitHub CEO Steps Down, Embracing the AI Revolution

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke announced his departure to return to the startup world. Over the past decade, he oversaw GitHub's remarkable growth, including its acquisition, the launch of Copilot, and its leadership in the AI developer tools space. He'll remain until the end of 2025 to ensure a smooth transition, expressing strong confidence in GitHub's future under Microsoft's CoreAI organization and highlighting Copilot's transformative impact on software development, empowering developers globally.

(github.blog)

Tech

Zed Editor Launches Edit Prediction Powered by Open-Source Model Zeta

2025-02-14

Zed Editor Launches Edit Prediction Powered by Open-Source Model Zeta

Zed editor has released an exciting new feature: edit prediction. Powered by a new open-source model called Zeta, it predicts your next edit, allowing you to apply it with a simple tab press. Zeta, derived from Qwen2.5-Coder-7B, leverages supervised fine-tuning and direct preference optimization for accuracy and efficiency. To address latency challenges, Zed employed techniques like speculative decoding and partnered with Baseten for optimized model deployment. Currently in public beta, users can try Zeta for free with a GitHub account. Its open-source nature allows community contributions to improve the model.

(zed.dev)

Development

Building a Custom In-Memory Table Access Method for Postgres

2025-08-08

This post details the author's journey building a custom PostgreSQL table access method, effectively creating a simple in-memory storage engine. Starting with a debug build of PostgreSQL, the author incrementally implemented the various functions of the table access method API, culminating in a fully functional system capable of creating tables, inserting data, and querying results. The process involved overcoming numerous challenges, including debugging and understanding PostgreSQL internals, which were addressed through logging and iterative debugging. This serves as an excellent example of PostgreSQL extension development, providing valuable experience and guidance for other developers.

(notes.eatonphil.com)

Development Extension Development

Laptop Mag Shuts Down After 35 Years

2025-07-02

Laptop Mag, a long-standing laptop and technology review website, has ceased operations after nearly 35 years. Its parent company, Future PLC, cited a strategic review as the reason for the closure. Starting as a print publication in 1991, Laptop Mag transitioned to a digital-only format in 2013. The shutdown follows the recent closure of AnandTech, also owned by Future PLC, raising concerns about the future of tech journalism and leaving the fate of Laptop Mag's archives uncertain.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

The Gilded Cage: Henry James' Critique of American Excess

2025-04-25

The Gilded Cage: Henry James' Critique of American Excess

Henry James critiques the social isolation and historical amnesia of America's newly wealthy. He likens their opulent mansions to grotesque jokes, their inhabitants hauntingly alone. In contrast, he celebrates the enduring beauty and cultural depth of long-cultivated European spaces and the generations who inhabited them. James also highlights the plight of Native Americans, seeing them as embodying the history America tries to conceal.

(newrepublic.com)

Misc Henry James Wealth and Isolation

Bypassing Censorship: The Unexpected Use of Unencrypted HTTP/2

2025-04-14

Researchers discovered that unencrypted HTTP/2 can bypass censorship in China and Iran. Despite the lack of browser support for unencrypted HTTP/2, they found that up to 6.28% of websites support it. They developed a tool to evaluate website support for unencrypted HTTP and suggest this finding adds to existing censorship circumvention techniques. Importantly, unencrypted HTTP/2 is not secure and should not be used for sensitive data.

(upb-syssec.github.io)

Tech censorship bypass

Volt Boot: Exploiting Power Domain Isolation to Bypass On-Chip SRAM Security

2025-07-29

This paper introduces Volt Boot, a novel attack that leverages power domain isolation in modern Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs) to compromise the security of sensitive information stored in on-chip SRAM. Traditional cold boot attacks are ineffective against on-chip SRAM, but Volt Boot achieves cross-power-cycle SRAM data retention by maintaining the voltage of the target memory domain during system reset. Experiments on three commercially available Cortex-A processors successfully extracted data from caches, CPU registers, and iRAM, demonstrating the attack's effectiveness. The research highlights new security challenges for systems relying on on-chip computation and proposes countermeasures such as eliminating power domain isolation, purging residual memory, resetting SRAM at startup, and enforcing TrustZone support.

(cacm.acm.org)

Tech chip security cold boot attack power domain isolation

Unix Spell: The 64kB RAM Miracle

2025-01-19

Unix Spell: The 64kB RAM Miracle

In the 1970s, the Unix spell checker faced an incredible challenge: fitting a 250kB dictionary into a mere 64kB of RAM on a PDP-11. Douglas McIlroy's ingenious solution involved a multi-stage approach. Initially, a Bloom filter provided fast lookups, but as the dictionary grew, he developed a novel hash compression scheme. By recognizing that differences between sorted hash codes followed a geometric distribution, and employing Golomb coding, he achieved near-theoretical compression limits. Finally, partitioning the compressed data further improved lookup speed. This story is a masterclass in constrained optimization, showing how clever algorithms can overcome seemingly impossible limitations.

(blog.codingconfessions.com)

Development compression

Atari's Asteroids: From Simple Idea to Arcade Legend

2025-05-19

Atari's Asteroids: From Simple Idea to Arcade Legend

Following the breakout success of Space Invaders in 1978, Atari sought its next big hit. Inspired by Space Invaders and Star Wars, Asteroids was conceived in 1979. Its simple premise—shoot and destroy asteroids—belied its innovative gameplay. Unlike the simpler controls of Space Invaders, Asteroids featured complex maneuvering and challenging gameplay: players controlled a spaceship, moving freely, rotating to shoot, and dodging splitting asteroids and UFOs. Utilizing vector graphics for a stunning space aesthetic, Asteroids became one of Atari's best-selling games, with over 70,000 units sold. Ported to numerous platforms including the Atari 2600, it spawned countless versions and remains a beloved classic.

(www.goto10retro.com)

Game Arcade Game

The AI Coding Lie: Productivity Hype or Bust?

2025-09-04

The AI Coding Lie: Productivity Hype or Bust?

A seasoned programmer with 28 years of experience challenges the claims of AI coding tools, revealing a six-week experiment that showed no significant productivity gains, and potentially even a slowdown. The author argues that the industry's hype around AI-driven productivity increases is vastly overblown, unsupported by real-world data. Using extensive data, the article demonstrates the lack of an expected surge in software development output, debunking the myth of the '10x engineer'. The author urges developers to approach AI tools critically, avoid blind adoption, and resist unrealistic marketing claims.

(mikelovesrobots.substack.com)

Development

C++ Modules: A Broken Promise?

2025-09-01

This article takes a pessimistic view on the progress of C++ modules. The author argues that if C++ modules cannot demonstrate a 5x (preferably 10x) compilation speedup across multiple existing open-source codebases, they should be abandoned. The article highlights the challenging development journey, citing the tight integration required between compilers and build systems as a major hurdle. The author emphasizes that the focus should be on improving compilation speed rather than addressing relatively rare issues like macro leakage. He recounts the standardization process, pointing out underestimation of implementation difficulties. Finally, the author suggests an alternative approach – `import std` – while acknowledging its limited potential for improvement.

(nibblestew.blogspot.com)

Development modules compilation speed

Game-Changing Molecule Shows Promise as Carbon Monoxide Antidote

2025-08-14

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have engineered a novel molecule, RcoM-HBD-CCC, showing significant promise as a carbon monoxide poisoning antidote with fewer side effects than existing treatments. This protein-based therapy acts as a carbon monoxide sponge, rapidly removing the toxic gas from the blood in mouse studies and safely eliminating it through urine. Unlike other treatments, it caused minimal blood pressure changes. This breakthrough offers potential for a rapid, intravenous antidote, potentially usable in emergency rooms and even by first responders.

(www.medschool.umaryland.edu)

Tech medical breakthrough

AI Teammate: Field Experiment Shows Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise

2025-03-22

AI Teammate: Field Experiment Shows Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise

A randomized controlled trial at Procter & Gamble reveals generative AI significantly boosts team productivity and solution quality. Individuals with AI performed as well as teams without, while AI-enabled teams excelled, significantly increasing the likelihood of top-tier solutions. AI not only improved efficiency but also enhanced positive emotions, bridged departmental silos, and enabled less experienced employees to reach the performance levels of experienced team members. This research suggests AI is not merely a productivity tool, but a 'teammate' capable of reshaping teamwork and organizational structures.

(www.oneusefulthing.org)

AI

The Bird with Four Sexes: Challenging the Gender Binary

2025-03-02

The Bird with Four Sexes: Challenging the Gender Binary

White-throated sparrows challenge the traditional binary understanding of sex. This species exists in two color morphs, white-striped and tan-striped, but sex doesn't align neatly with morph. About half of white-striped birds have testes, half have ovaries, and the same is true for tan-striped birds. Remarkably, white-striped birds with ovaries exhibit more aggressive 'male-like' behavior, while tan-striped birds with testes are more docile. This is due to a 'supergene' on chromosome 2 that controls both color and behavior, independent of sex. This research highlights the complexity of biological sex and challenges the simple male/female dichotomy.

(www.scientificamerican.com)

Tech sex diversity supergene white-throated sparrow

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