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Immich's Developers Share Their 'Cursed Knowledge'

2025-08-08
Immich's Developers Share Their 'Cursed Knowledge'

The Immich team recounts a series of frustrating, almost cursed, development challenges. From Zitadel's scripting engine lacking named capture groups, to EXIF metadata dimensions differing from actual image dimensions; from the unintuitive handling of YAML whitespace to the access restrictions on hidden Windows files; from carriage return issues in bash scripts to Cloudflare Workers' default HTTP protocol in Fetch requests; from silent GPS data stripping on mobile devices to PostgreSQL NOTIFY's transactional mechanism impacting performance; from inefficient npm script health checks to the confusing indexing in JavaScript Date objects; to bcrypt password length limits, Node.js compatibility problems, PostgreSQL parameter limitations, and TypeORM's side effects in delete operations – the list goes on. These issues highlight the hidden pitfalls and challenges of software development, offering valuable lessons learned.

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(immich.app)
Development

White House Reverses Course: Sweeping Rescission of Biden-Era Executive Orders

2025-01-22
White House Reverses Course: Sweeping Rescission of Biden-Era Executive Orders

In a dramatic shift, the new Presidential administration issued an executive order rescinding dozens of executive orders and memoranda enacted by the previous administration. These actions covered a wide range of policies, including racial equity, climate change, immigration, and healthcare. The new administration characterized the rescinded policies as "deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical," claiming they undermined American unity, fairness, safety, and prosperity. This move signals a significant departure from the previous administration's agenda, aiming to restore "common sense" governance and unleash the potential of American citizens.

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(www.whitehouse.gov)
Misc politics executive orders policy reversal

Massive E-commerce Supply Chain Attack Exposes Millions

2025-05-05
Massive E-commerce Supply Chain Attack Exposes Millions

Security researchers have uncovered a supply chain attack targeting hundreds of e-commerce sites, including a $40 billion multinational company. Attackers compromised at least three software providers, implanting malware that lay dormant for six years before activating in recent weeks to steal payment card information and other sensitive data. At least 500 sites are affected, with the true number potentially double that. The malware allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in visitor browsers, enabling remote code execution and data theft. Affected software providers include Tigren, Magesolution, and Meetanshi, all offering Magento-based software.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech

Taming Complex Systems: Lessons from Uber to Google

2025-05-15
Taming Complex Systems: Lessons from Uber to Google

This article details the author's experiences in software engineering at an Uber competitor and Google, differentiating between complex problems and complex systems. Complex problems follow structured, repeatable solutions, while complex systems demand adaptability and innovative approaches. The article delves into five characteristics of complex systems: emergent behavior, delayed consequences, the trap of local optimization, hysteresis, and nonlinearity. Strategies for effective operation in complex environments are shared, including prioritizing reversible decisions, defining the right metrics, embracing innovation, leveraging best practices (feature flags, canary releases, progressive rollouts, shadow testing), and emphasizing observability, simulation testing, and machine learning. Finally, the author stresses the importance of team collaboration in complex systems.

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(www.thecoder.cafe)
Development

Trump Admin's EV Reversal: A $1 Billion Mistake?

2025-03-01
Trump Admin's EV Reversal: A $1 Billion Mistake?

The Trump administration's reversal of Biden-era policies on electric vehicles is proving far more expensive than anticipated. The order to dismantle 654 EV charging stations and sell off over 25,000 government EVs, while intending to save $300 million, is projected to cost taxpayers an additional $1 billion. This includes the cost of decommissioning chargers, losses from selling the EVs below market value, and the expense of replacing them with gasoline-powered vehicles. The move not only incurs significant financial losses but also inconveniences EV drivers.

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(www.thedrive.com)
Tech financial loss

Flash Games: A Creative Golden Age, Now Gone

2025-03-02
Flash Games: A Creative Golden Age, Now Gone

The end of Flash in December 2020 marked the end of one of the most creative periods in gaming history. Millions of Flash games, played billions of times across thousands of websites, represented a period of chaotic creativity. Sites like Newgrounds allowed anyone to publish games instantly, fostering experimentation across genres and styles. Flash's designer-centric workflow empowered non-programmers to create games, and its cross-platform compatibility ensured wide reach. However, the rise of the iPhone and Flash's security issues ultimately led to its demise. Despite this, Flash's impact on indie game development and the industry as a whole remains undeniable, with countless developers crediting Flash for their success.

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(www.flashgamehistory.com)
Game Flash games indie games

AI's Data Grab: The War on Open Access

2025-03-25
AI's Data Grab: The War on Open Access

A war is raging on the internet. Billions-dollar AI companies are aggressively scraping data from libraries, archives, non-profits, and academic publishers, fueling the training of Large Language Models (LLMs). These institutions, dedicated to making quality information universally accessible, are fighting back, but the AI companies' insatiable hunger for data is overwhelming. Ignoring robots.txt and nofollow directives, these bots overload servers, crippling websites. This wastes developer time and resources, and threatens the preservation of cultural and scientific information. The ultimate outcome may be a world where quality information is locked behind paywalls, accessible only to a privileged few.

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(go-to-hellman.blogspot.com)
Tech

The Comeback of Flip Phones: Durability Challenges and Future Prospects

2025-08-18
The Comeback of Flip Phones: Durability Challenges and Future Prospects

From the initial screen issues with Samsung's first foldable phones to the improvements in Motorola's Razr, flip phones have undergone a tortuous evolutionary path. While newer flip phones boast larger external screens and more powerful functionality, the lack of dust resistance remains a major pain point. Despite this, manufacturers are striving to overcome this challenge, and the future may hold dust and water-resistant foldable phones with an IP68 rating.

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(www.theverge.com)
Hardware flip phones foldable phones durability

Safely Using snprintf: Avoid Buffer Overflows

2025-08-19
Safely Using snprintf: Avoid Buffer Overflows

This article highlights a lesser-known feature of the `snprintf` function: its ability to determine the required buffer size before formatting, thus preventing buffer overflows. By calling `snprintf` twice – once with `NULL` and 0 to get the size, and again with a properly allocated buffer – the need for manual buffer size calculations is eliminated. The author also recommends a lightweight header-only library for easier usage.

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(bernsteinbear.com)
Development buffer overflow

Stanford Study: Renewable Energy Outperforms Carbon Capture in Cost-Effectiveness

2025-02-15
Stanford Study: Renewable Energy Outperforms Carbon Capture in Cost-Effectiveness

A Stanford University study reveals that transitioning to 100% wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower by 2050 would be far more cost-effective than carbon capture technologies for most countries globally. This shift would significantly reduce energy needs and costs, improve air quality, and mitigate climate change. The research compared two extreme scenarios: a complete switch to renewables versus continued fossil fuel reliance with added carbon capture. The study found that transitioning to renewables would prevent millions of illnesses and deaths annually related to air pollution from fossil fuels, making it a superior and more cost-effective solution than carbon capture. The researchers advocate abandoning policies promoting carbon capture, arguing that eliminating combustion is crucial for addressing air pollution and climate change.

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(techxplore.com)
Tech carbon capture

Pennybase: A Minimalist Go BaaS Under 1000 Lines

2025-07-04
Pennybase: A Minimalist Go BaaS Under 1000 Lines

Pennybase is a lightweight Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution implemented in under 1000 lines of Go code, offering a simplified alternative to Firebase, Supabase, and Pocketbase. It relies solely on the Go standard library, requiring no external dependencies. Core features include file storage (versioned CSV), a REST API (JSON responses), session cookie and Basic Auth authentication, RBAC & ownership-based permissions, real-time updates via SSE, schema validation, and Go template rendering. Data is stored in human-readable CSVs, with updates creating new record versions. A clever in-memory index allows for fast lookups and updates. Permission control uses a simple RBAC model, and custom functionality is possible via hook functions.

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(github.com)
Development minimalist backend

Hightouch is Hiring a Machine Learning Engineer to Build its AI Decisioning Platform

2025-05-04
Hightouch is Hiring a Machine Learning Engineer to Build its AI Decisioning Platform

Hightouch, a $1.2B valued CDP company, is hiring a machine learning engineer to enhance its data activation products. They're building an AI decisioning platform leveraging machine learning to help customers personalize messaging, automate experimentation, predict audiences, generate content, and optimize budgets. The role involves building comprehensive solutions from scratch, encompassing customer research, problem definition, predictive modeling, and more. The salary range is $200,000 - $260,000 USD per year.

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(www.ycombinator.com)
AI AI Decisioning Data Activation

A 3,500-Year-Old Data Table Unearthed in Mesopotamia

2024-12-21

A blog post details the discovery of a clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia (circa 3600-4000 BCE) containing a remarkably organized data table. The cuneiform text, transliterated and translated, resembles a payroll summary from a construction project. The tablet demonstrates the use of rows, columns, and column headers, along with calculations, strikingly similar to modern spreadsheets. This discovery pushes back the known history of data table use by over 3500 years. The author argues that civilization's progress isn't linear, with inventions lost and reinvented. While today's digital spreadsheets may vanish, ancient data tables like this one may endure.

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(www.datafix.com.au)
Misc data table ancient civilization Mesopotamia

Shenzhen's Miracle: Planned Transformation vs. American Urban Stagnation

2025-04-04
Shenzhen's Miracle: Planned Transformation vs. American Urban Stagnation

Shenzhen's transformation from a fishing village to a global tech hub is a testament to China's reform and opening-up policy and its bold urban planning. The article contrasts Shenzhen with American cities, arguing that stringent US regulations hinder large-scale urban renewal, resulting in less modernized cityscapes despite the presence of leading tech companies. The author suggests that America's overly restrictive approach to urban change has missed opportunities for economic transformation similar to Shenzhen's, subtly linking this conservative planning ideology to the previously discussed misguided trade protectionism, ultimately harming overall economic interests.

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(www.slowboring.com)
Tech China-US comparison

MileSan: RTL Sanitizer Uncovers 19 New CPU Vulnerabilities

2025-09-09

Researchers introduce MileSan, an RTL sanitizer that detects arbitrary exploitable information leakage by comparing architectural and microarchitectural information flows. Paired with the RandOS fuzzer, MileSan found 19 new vulnerabilities (13 assigned CVEs) across 5 RISC-V CPUs. Addressing the overfitting issues of existing fuzzers, MileSan offers a novel approach to enhancing CPU security by identifying exploitable microarchitectural leakage without assumptions about the leakage path or triggering programs.

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(comsec.ethz.ch)
Hardware information leakage microarchitectural security

Midnight Commander: A Powerful Dual-Pane File Manager

2025-09-17

GNU Midnight Commander (mc) is a powerful, free, open-source, dual-pane file manager with a text-based interface. It lets you copy, move, delete files and directories, search for files, and even execute commands in a built-in subshell. mc supports various text interface libraries, allowing it to run in various environments, including regular consoles, X Window terminals, and over SSH connections. The easiest way to install mc is through your system's package manager. Comprehensive documentation and context-sensitive help (F1) are available.

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(midnight-commander.org)
Development

Confronting Shipwreck: Maritime Disasters and Ecological Collapse in Literature

2024-12-19
Confronting Shipwreck: Maritime Disasters and Ecological Collapse in Literature

A nature writer battling a debilitating genetic kidney disease finds solace and healing in reading about maritime disasters amidst the backdrop of ecological collapse. The article lists ten books exploring shipwrecks and environmental devastation, ranging from Melville's *Moby-Dick* to Grann's *The Wager*. These narratives not only depict the harrowing events but also delve into humanity's relationship with nature, resilience, and the spectrum of human behavior during crisis. The author advocates for confronting adversity head-on and drawing strength from the experience as a vital step in overcoming personal and ecological challenges.

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(lithub.com)
Misc maritime literature ecological collapse healing

toyDB: A Distributed SQL Database in Rust for Educational Purposes

2025-05-11
toyDB: A Distributed SQL Database in Rust for Educational Purposes

toyDB is a distributed SQL database built from scratch in Rust as an educational project. It aims to illustrate the architecture and concepts behind distributed SQL databases in a simple and understandable way, supporting most common SQL features including joins, aggregates, and transactions. While performance and scalability aren't primary goals, a benchmark tool is included to evaluate performance under various workloads. toyDB uses Raft for consensus to manage a transactional key/value store, with a SQL query engine built on top.

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(github.com)
Development Distributed Database

No More New Computers: A Decade-Long Hardware Plan

2025-01-12

The author reflects on the breakneck pace of computer hardware upgrades in the 90s and 2000s, contrasting it with the current state. He argues that even high-end CPU performance gains are no longer necessary for average users. Using personal experience, the author demonstrates how a 2011 i5 system still meets his needs, and his 2019 Ryzen 5 3600 upgrade remains highly efficient. He concludes that barring unforeseen circumstances, he will no longer buy new computers, instead relying on used, slightly older components from the secondary market, achieving a decade-long hardware plan.

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(82mhz.net)
Hardware hardware upgrades computer performance cost-effectiveness

Unpacking Your Dream Job: The Coffee Bean Procedure

2025-08-01
Unpacking Your Dream Job: The Coffee Bean Procedure

Many dream of owning a small coffee shop, but the author introduces the "Coffee Bean Procedure": breaking down the minutiae of running a cafe, from sourcing beans to managing staff. This 'unpacking' forces a confrontation with the reality of work, revealing that many lack understanding of a job's true content. The author uses this to illustrate how idealized notions of high-status professions often ignore the hardship and immense effort required. Only the truly 'crazy'—those with unwavering dedication—succeed. The piece encourages readers to unpack their career aspirations, finding a job matching their unique traits, and pursuing their goals with fearless abandon.

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(www.experimental-history.com)
Misc unpacking job expectations

Alaska Rivers Turn Orange: Permafrost Thaw Unleashes Toxic Metals

2025-09-14
Alaska Rivers Turn Orange: Permafrost Thaw Unleashes Toxic Metals

Rivers in Alaska's Brooks Range, once pristine, now run orange and murky with toxic metals due to thawing permafrost. Global warming is releasing iron, cadmium, and aluminum into waterways, poisoning fish and devastating ecosystems. Researchers warn similar transformations are underway across the Arctic. This isn't from mining; it's a climate change-driven, irreversible ecological disaster, posing a severe threat to indigenous communities and the Arctic ecosystem.

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(news.ucr.edu)
Tech permafrost

Little Snitch's Secret Weapon: Precisely Controlling Safari's Search Helper

2025-01-24

While configuring Little Snitch on a new Mac, the author discovered Safari's search helper process silently connecting to Google's ssl.gstatic.com. Changing the search engine or blocking the connection worked, but the latter interfered with Gmail authentication. The solution? A clever Little Snitch rule using the 'via' function, blocking only the search helper's connection while allowing Safari itself, showcasing a powerful, little-known feature. This highlights a subtle but significant aspect of browser-search engine background communication.

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(lapcatsoftware.com)
Development

Last-Minute Call Prevents Catastrophic Water Release in Tulare County

2025-02-01
Last-Minute Call Prevents Catastrophic Water Release in Tulare County

A sudden decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to release massive amounts of water from Kaweah and Success lakes in Tulare County, California, sparked a frantic response from local water managers. The decision, made with little warning, threatened to overwhelm rivers and potentially recreate the devastating floods of 2023. While the Corps ultimately reduced the release volume after an outcry, the incident raises serious concerns about communication breakdowns and the decision-making process. Speculation of political motivations abounds, but official explanations remain scarce.

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(sjvwater.org)
Tech water release emergency response communication failure

Solving a Variant of N-Queens in Haskell: Backtracking, Optimization, and Benchmarks

2025-06-24

This blog post details solving a variant of the N-Queens puzzle found on LinkedIn using Haskell. The puzzle involves placing N queens on a colored N x N board such that each row, column, and color region contains exactly one queen, with no two queens diagonally adjacent. The author explores several optimization techniques, including backtracking, elimination, early dead-end detection, and candidate ranking. The resulting Haskell solution is benchmarked against an SMT solver, demonstrating significant performance improvements through efficient data structures and algorithmic refinements. The code elegantly handles the problem's complexities, showcasing Haskell's strengths in functional programming.

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(imiron.io)
Development N-Queens

An Engineer's Journey with Forth: From Fascination to Abandonment

2024-12-28

This blog post recounts an engineer's experience learning and using the Forth programming language. Initially captivated by Forth's brevity and extensibility, the author delved into the source code of pForth, marveling at its compile-time self-modifying capabilities. However, in real-world projects, the author found Forth more suitable for number crunching, struggling with tasks like text processing. While designing a custom hardware embedded system, the author leveraged Forth to design the system's CPU instruction set, but ultimately found C more efficient and abandoned Forth. The author concludes that Forth is ideal for minimalist engineers seeking extreme efficiency, while he himself prefers a more pragmatic approach, opting for more widely used languages.

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(yosefk.com)
Development

Fascinating Cab Numbers: Unraveling a Mathematical Puzzle

2025-01-21

This article delves into the mathematical enigma of 'Cab numbers,' which are numbers formed by the product of two factors whose digits, excluding zero, combine to form the same digits as the product. The article presents methods for solving Cab numbers with 3 to 9 digits, providing the count, minimum, and maximum values for each digit range. The author utilizes a Fortran program to compute these Cab numbers, analyzing the properties of their digital roots. The article concludes by listing some results and extending the exploration to scenarios involving three or more factors.

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(www.shyamsundergupta.com)
Misc

NOAA Layoffs Threaten US Disaster Preparedness

2025-03-01
NOAA Layoffs Threaten US Disaster Preparedness

Hundreds of probationary employees, including experienced hurricane modelers, were laid off from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), raising concerns about the accuracy of US weather forecasting and disaster response. The cuts impact crucial areas like hurricane model improvement, weather balloon data collection, and IT infrastructure maintenance, weakening NOAA's ability to respond to increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events. This aligns with Project 2025's proposal to weaken NOAA. Experts warn this could lead to less accurate forecasts, increased disaster risks, and compromised public safety.

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(www.theatlantic.com)
Tech NOAA layoffs weather forecasting

Master Helm Fast: A Concise Guide to Kubernetes Deployments

2025-01-10
Master Helm Fast: A Concise Guide to Kubernetes Deployments

Struggling with Helm's complexity? This concise guide provides a fast track to mastering Helm's essentials for efficient Kubernetes deployments. Learn through practical examples covering Helm fundamentals, installation, advanced features, custom chart creation, and dependency management. Ideal for developers, system administrators, and DevOps engineers seeking quick results and improved efficiency.

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(curiousdevscorner.gumroad.com)
Development

The AI Talent Bubble: Billions in Acquisitions Fuel a Frenzy

2025-07-14
The AI Talent Bubble: Billions in Acquisitions Fuel a Frenzy

Meta's and Google's multi-billion dollar acquisitions of AI talent signal a massive AI talent bubble. The value of top AI talent is skyrocketing, impacting both founders and key employees. This inequality stems from the parabolic growth of AI investment and the desperate need for skilled individuals. Traditional trust mechanisms are breaking down, necessitating a rewrite of the social contract between companies and talent. Only companies with strong missions and massive funding will thrive in this talent war, reshaping Silicon Valley's landscape.

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(blog.johnluttig.com)
AI
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