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A Tiny CSS Animation Caused 60% CPU and 25% GPU Usage on My M2 MacBook

2025-07-23

A Tiny CSS Animation Caused 60% CPU and 25% GPU Usage on My M2 MacBook

A seemingly insignificant CSS animation was mysteriously consuming 60% CPU and 25% GPU on my M2 MacBook. This post details the debugging process using Chrome DevTools' performance profiling tools to pinpoint the culprit: animating the `height` property. The author explains the browser's rendering pipeline and demonstrates how switching to the cheaper `transform` property (using a clever workaround to avoid visual artifacts) dramatically reduced resource consumption to under 6% CPU and 1% GPU.

(www.granola.ai)

Development browser rendering

Switch 2 Pro Controller Teardown Reveals a Repair Nightmare

2025-07-12

Switch 2 Pro Controller Teardown Reveals a Repair Nightmare

iFixit's teardown of the Switch 2 Pro controller reveals a frustratingly difficult repair process. Accessing the battery requires removing numerous components and destroying adhesive tape. The controller also uses older, drift-prone joysticks, though they are modular and replaceable. However, the extensive disassembly and need for new adhesive make repairs impractical. iFixit concludes that the Pro controller is overpriced for its poor design and difficult repairability, with better, more easily maintained alternatives available.

(www.theverge.com)

Hardware controller teardown repair difficulty

Rwandan Scientists Develop Local Yeast for Banana Winemakers

2025-02-09

Rwandan Scientists Develop Local Yeast for Banana Winemakers

Banana wine production in Rwanda has long faced challenges with yeast selection, impacting both quality and regulatory approval. Scientists have developed a new yeast strain derived from local raw materials, preserving the traditional flavor of banana wine while withstanding high temperatures and alcohol concentrations. This breakthrough promises to standardize banana wine production, reduce costs, and boost Rwanda's burgeoning banana wine industry.

(phys.org)

Tech Food Technology African Tech

In Memoriam: Noah Gibbs, a Ruby Titan

2025-01-03

The Ruby community mourns the loss of Noah Gibbs, a true giant in the field. This heartfelt tribute recounts the author's collaboration with Noah, from online interactions to working side-by-side on projects like Scarpe. Noah wasn't just a brilliant engineer; he was a passionate mentor, generously sharing his expertise and inspiring countless others. His contributions to Scarpe, including significant code and design, are a testament to his dedication. While his passing is a profound loss, his legacy of mentorship and innovative spirit will continue to inspire the community.

(blog.schwad.org)

Development In Memoriam

My Home, My Server: Reclaiming the Physical Internet

2025-09-16

My Home, My Server: Reclaiming the Physical Internet

The author reminisces about running a speech synthesizer website from their college dorm room in 2000, highlighting the magical feeling of someone remotely accessing their server. Now, they aim to recreate this physical connection, exploring the feasibility of building a reliable and secure home website. The ultimate goal is to blend the virtual and physical worlds, creating a more interactive and personalized online experience. The article prompts reflection on the nature of the internet, user agency, and the future direction of online interactions.

(interconnected.org)

Development physical internet

Synthetic Magnetic Fields Steer Light on a Chip for Faster Communications

2025-09-13

Synthetic Magnetic Fields Steer Light on a Chip for Faster Communications

Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Sun Yat-Sen University have developed a method to generate pseudomagnetic fields in silicon photonic crystals, enabling precise control over light flow at telecommunication wavelengths. By systematically altering the symmetry of tiny repeating units, they can design pseudomagnetic fields with tailored spatial patterns. This has been demonstrated in compact devices like S-bend waveguides and power splitters, successfully transmitting a 140 Gbps data stream. This breakthrough opens new avenues for optical computing, quantum information, and advanced communication technologies.

(phys.org)

Tech photonic crystals pseudomagnetic fields

Microsoft's Outlook Versions: A User Experience Nightmare?

2025-03-25

Microsoft's Outlook Versions: A User Experience Nightmare?

Microsoft veteran Scott Hanselman recently poked fun at the plethora of Outlook versions on Bluesky, including Outlook (New), Outlook (New), Outlook (Zero Sugar), and more, sparking a heated discussion. This highlights a common problem in Microsoft software: version proliferation. For example, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams (Personal) often coexist. Microsoft's push for the new Outlook, built on a modern service architecture, lacks many features of the classic version, such as COM add-in support, causing inconvenience for enterprise users. While Microsoft promises support for the Classic version until at least 2029, its forced migration strategy has raised user concerns, mirroring the case of a soft drink company replacing a well-liked product with a 'new' version and renaming the old one 'classic'. Hanselman's humorous commentary reveals the potential pitfalls of having multiple, similarly functioning options, potentially confusing users and negatively impacting user experience.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

SWE-bench: Can LLMs Solve Real-World GitHub Issues?

2025-01-08

SWE-bench is a benchmark dataset evaluating large language models' ability to automatically resolve real-world GitHub issues. Researchers compiled 2,294 Issue-Pull Request pairs from 12 popular Python repositories, validating solutions via unit tests. The latest leaderboard showcases various models achieving varying success rates, with some exceeding 50% resolution. The project provides resources including a lite version and pre-trained models for easier evaluation and reproducibility.

(www.swebench.com)

Development Code Repair

Notion: Your All-in-One Workspace

2025-01-01

Notion: Your All-in-One Workspace

Notion is an all-in-one workspace that combines notes, task management, wikis, and databases into a single platform. It offers flexible and powerful tools to help you organize information, manage projects, collaborate with teams, and build custom workflows. Whether for personal use or team collaboration, Notion adapts to your needs, boosting your productivity.

(kyndinfo.notion.site)

Development collaboration platform

The Weird Parsing Rules of HTML `<script>` Tags and Escaping JSON

2025-08-09

This article delves into the often-unintuitive parsing rules of HTML's `` tags, which can surprisingly break web pages. It explains how browsers enter different states (script data, script data escaped, script data double escaped) while parsing content within `<script>` tags. Entering the 'script data double escaped' state prevents the closing `` tag from working correctly, leading to broken page rendering. The article recommends using `json_encode($data, JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES)` (or similar) to escape `<` and `>` characters in JSON strings, thereby avoiding the 'script data double escaped' state and ensuring correct page rendering.

(sirre.al)

Development

Unveiling Cloud Cost Savings with Bare Metal

2024-12-22

Bare Metal Savings is a tool designed to help users analyze the true cost of cloud computing. It allows users to explore potential savings by using bare metal servers compared to traditional cloud services. Frequently asked questions revolve around price calculation methodology, accuracy, savings calculation assistance, whether it runs on bare metal, its suitability for all users, CapEx vs. OpEx considerations, benchmark availability, smaller instance options, and the inability to choose specific hardware. The tool aims to empower users with a clearer understanding and control over their cloud computing expenses.

(baremetalsavings.com)

Tech bare metal server

Hyperlight Wasm: Blazing Fast, Secure, and Compatible WebAssembly Micro-VM

2025-03-26

Hyperlight Wasm: Blazing Fast, Secure, and Compatible WebAssembly Micro-VM

Microsoft's open-source Hyperlight project gets a major update: Hyperlight Wasm. It's a WebAssembly-based micro-VM capable of running components written in various programming languages at incredible speeds while maintaining security and compatibility. Leveraging WASI and the WebAssembly Component Model, Hyperlight Wasm runs programs without a full operating system, boasting millisecond-level startup times. The article details Hyperlight Wasm's workings and demonstrates its usage with a UDP echo example, highlighting its performance and security advantages, and its potential applications in Azure services.

(opensource.microsoft.com)

Development Micro-VM

iPadOS: Beyond Jobs' Vision?

2025-08-19

iPadOS: Beyond Jobs' Vision?

Many argue that iPadOS has strayed from Steve Jobs' original vision, transforming the iPad from a simple content consumption device into a computer-like one. The author counters that this isn't a betrayal, but a fuller realization of Jobs' vision. Jobs aimed to create a device bridging the gap between phones and laptops, fulfilling everyday needs. iPadOS's evolution, such as the addition of the Apple Pencil, enhances creative potential without sacrificing ease of use. This mirrors the evolution of the iPhone and Mac, adding features while maintaining core usability to meet evolving user needs. iPadOS's layered design allows newcomers to experience simple joy, while power users can explore advanced features. Ultimately, the iPad is more powerful and user-friendly, achieving Jobs' vision of making computing accessible to all.

(victorwynne.com)

Tech

Achieving Polymorphism with Dynamic Dispatch in Zig

2025-07-19

Zig, unlike many languages, lacks built-in interfaces. However, this doesn't preclude polymorphism. This article details a method for achieving dynamic dispatch polymorphism in Zig using vtable interfaces. This approach cleanly separates interfaces from implementations, requiring no changes to implementation types while enabling dynamic dispatch. It leverages function pointers to construct a vtable and uses an `implBy` function to connect implementations to the interface, effectively mimicking the functionality of interfaces in object-oriented languages. This allows storing different implementations in arrays or maps. While some boilerplate code is involved, the advantages are a clean, flexible, and reusable approach with minimal impact on implementation types.

(williamw520.github.io)

Development Polymorphism

Continuous LOD Mesh Library: nv_cluster_lod_builder

2025-02-04

Continuous LOD Mesh Library: nv_cluster_lod_builder

nv_cluster_lod_builder is a continuous level of detail (LOD) mesh library offering fine-grained control over geometric detail. It precomputes clusters of triangles, selecting a subset at render time for adaptive detail based on camera position. This results in faster rendering and reduced memory usage compared to discrete LOD, especially beneficial for ray tracing. A unique decimation strategy ensures smooth LOD transitions without gaps or overlaps. A spatial hierarchy accelerates cluster selection, and geometry streaming further minimizes memory consumption.

(github.com)

Development Mesh Rendering

Solving the ABA Problem in Rust with Tagged Pointers

2025-02-14

Solving the ABA Problem in Rust with Tagged Pointers

This blog post tackles the ABA problem in concurrent Rust programming. The ABA problem, a subtle issue in compare-and-swap (CAS) operations, can lead to data corruption in lock-free data structures. The solution presented uses tagged pointers with version numbers. Each pointer is paired with a version counter; updates increment the version, allowing detection of stale pointers even if the memory address is reused. A lock-free stack implementation demonstrates this technique, complete with tests and benchmarks showcasing its effectiveness and performance.

(minikin.me)

Development ABA Problem

Luxe: A Cross-Platform Game Engine for Rapid Development

2025-06-13

Luxe: A Cross-Platform Game Engine for Rapid Development

Luxe is a cross-platform, rapid development game engine for Mac, Linux, Windows, and Web, with console support in development. Easy to learn, it prioritizes a streamlined workflow for quickly expressing game ideas, focusing initially on 2D but also supporting powerful 3D rendering through a hardware-driven renderer. Written in C++, Luxe games are typically developed using a custom version of the Wren language, with plans for broader language support. Its modular design, fluid workflow, and human-centered approach make it ideal for solo developers and teams alike. A preview version is currently available, backed by comprehensive documentation and a supportive community.

(luxeengine.com)

Game

Microsoft Research Unveils F*: A Proof-Oriented Programming Language

2024-12-25

F* (pronounced F star) is a general-purpose, proof-oriented programming language supporting both purely functional and effectful programming. Combining the expressive power of dependent types with automated proof generation via SMT solving and tactic-based interactive theorem proving, F* defaults to compiling to OCaml. However, it can also be extracted to F#, C, or WebAssembly using KaRaMeL, or to assembly using Vale. Developed and actively maintained by Microsoft Research, Inria, and the community, the open-source F* is used in various projects, including those within Mozilla Firefox and the Linux kernel, showcasing its applications in security, cryptography, and systems development.

(fstar-lang.org)

Development proof-oriented programming dependent types

BZip3: A Superior Successor to BZip2

2025-02-01

BZip3: A Superior Successor to BZip2

BZip3 is a faster and more efficient successor to BZip2, boasting higher compression ratios and improved performance. This is achieved through an order-0 context mixing entropy coder, a fast Burrows-Wheeler transform utilizing suffix arrays, and an RLE with Lempel Ziv+Prediction pass based on LZ77-style string matching and PPM-style context modeling. Benchmarks comparing it against other compression algorithms, including tests on a massive archive of Perl source code, demonstrate its significant advantages. BZip3's performance is highly dependent on the compiler, with x64 Linux clang13 builds showing impressive speeds. The project is licensed under LGPLv3.

(github.com)

Development

Diablo Speedrun Champion Exposed as Cheater

2025-02-15

Diablo Speedrun Champion Exposed as Cheater

Maciej "Groobo" Maselewski reigned supreme in Diablo speedrunning for years, his 3-minute, 12-second Sorceror run seemingly unbeatable. However, a team of speedrunners, attempting to replicate his seemingly lucky dungeon runs using external software, uncovered inconsistencies. An automated search through billions of legitimate Diablo dungeons proved Groobo's run impossible within the game's legitimate parameters. This revelation sparked controversy within the speedrunning community, exposing years of unearned praise and accolades based on fraudulent gameplay.

(arstechnica.com)

Game game cheating speedrun diablo

The Exploration Bottleneck in LLMs: The Next Frontier of Experience Collection

2025-07-07

The success of large language models (LLMs) relies on massive pre-training on vast text data, a resource that will eventually be depleted. The future of AI will shift towards an "Era of Experience," where efficient collection of the right kind of experience beneficial to learning will be crucial, rather than simply stacking parameters. This article explores how pre-training implicitly solves part of the exploration problem and how better exploration leads to better generalization. The author proposes that exploration consists of two axes: "world sampling" (choosing learning environments) and "path sampling" (gathering data within environments). Future AI scaling should optimize the information density on these two axes, efficiently allocating computational resources instead of simply pursuing parameter scale or data volume.

(yidingjiang.github.io)

AI

Plex Announces Price Hikes and Paid Remote Playback

2025-03-19

Plex Announces Price Hikes and Paid Remote Playback

Plex is increasing Plex Pass subscription prices and introducing a fee for remote playback of personal media, effective April 29, 2025. Lifetime subscribers are unaffected, but existing and new monthly/yearly subscribers will see price increases. Remote playback will require either a Plex Pass or a new, cheaper Remote Watch Pass subscription. These changes aim to fund future development and improvements, including a planned integration with Common Sense Media for parental controls. The mobile app activation fee is being removed.

(www.plex.tv)

Misc Remote Playback

Microsoft's AI Red Team: Securing AI is a Never-Ending Battle

2025-01-17

Microsoft's AI Red Team: Securing AI is a Never-Ending Battle

Microsoft's AI red team, after testing over 100 of the company's generative AI products, concluded that AI models both amplify existing security risks and introduce new ones. Their findings highlight seven key lessons learned, emphasizing that securing AI systems is an ongoing process requiring continuous investment and a combination of automated tools and human review. The report also stresses the importance of considering the model's intended use when assessing risks, noting that simpler attack methods are often more effective than complex gradient-based attacks. Furthermore, the ethical and societal biases introduced by AI are highlighted as critical concerns.

(www.theregister.com)

AI red teaming

Multiplayer Shooter Game in Lisp: A Solo Dev's Odyssey

2025-01-22

Multiplayer Shooter Game in Lisp: A Solo Dev's Odyssey

A solo developer built a web-based multiplayer third-person shooter, Wizard Masters, using Clojure, a Lisp dialect. Leveraging Clojure's REPL for rapid iteration and Babylon.js for graphics, the article details the game's rule system, networking architecture, and area-of-effect damage calculations. Challenges faced include state management, the lack of a strong Clojure game development community, and web platform limitations. The author concludes by weighing the pros and cons of web game development and emphasizes the crucial role of tooling, hinting at a potential shift to a mainstream engine like Unity or Unreal in the future.

(ertu.dev)

Game

Finnish: More Familiar Than You Think

2025-08-07

Finnish: More Familiar Than You Think

This article explores the surprising connections between Finnish, a Uralic language, and the Indo-European family, particularly Germanic. Despite their separate origins, Finnish vocabulary contains a significant number of loanwords from Proto-Germanic, and even earlier pre-Proto-Germanic sources. By examining etymological links between Finnish words and their English/German counterparts, and analyzing sound changes, the author reveals a long and intense history of language contact between Finnish and Germanic languages, dating back to the Bronze Age. This challenges common perceptions of Finnish and demonstrates the power of historical linguistics to bridge linguistic divides.

(dannybate.com)

Misc Finnish language Germanic languages

Singular vs. Plural Database Table Names: The Case for Singular

2025-09-09

A common debate in database design revolves around whether table names should be singular or plural. While plural names (e.g., `users`) seem intuitive, the author argues that singular names (e.g., `user`) offer significant advantages. Singular names improve readability in SQL joins and prevent inconsistencies with ORMs that automatically pluralize names. Maintaining singular names ensures schema consistency and avoids potential naming conflicts.

(www.teamten.com)

Development

OpenAI Whistleblower's Death: From Suicide to Active Investigation

2025-01-16

OpenAI Whistleblower's Death: From Suicide to Active Investigation

The death of Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, has taken a dramatic turn. Initially ruled a suicide, the San Francisco Police Department has reopened the case as an 'active and open investigation' following allegations from Balaji's family and inconsistencies in the initial autopsy. Balaji publicly criticized OpenAI's practices before his death, sparking speculation about foul play, even drawing comment from Elon Musk. This case highlights the risks faced by whistleblowers in the tech industry and raises crucial questions about ethics and accountability in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

(www.republicbiz.com)

Tech whistleblower death investigation

37signals Ditches Docker Hub and ECR for Self-Hosted Harbor Registry

2025-08-31

37signals Ditches Docker Hub and ECR for Self-Hosted Harbor Registry

37signals, the creators of Basecamp and HEY, migrated from external container registries like Docker Hub and Amazon ECR to a self-hosted Harbor registry. Driven by cost concerns (bandwidth overages and subscription fees), performance issues (slow pull times impacting deployments), security risks, and a desire for greater independence, they chose Harbor for its ease of setup, rich feature set, and open-source nature. The article details their single-server deployment outside Kubernetes, S3 storage configuration, multi-instance setup, replication strategy, and the process of migrating images from Docker Hub. The result? Significant cost savings (around $5k/year), improved performance (15-second deployment reduction, 25-second image pull reduction), and enhanced security.

(dev.37signals.com)

Development container registry

Open Source Magic: Auto Smiley, the Computer Vision Smile Generator

2025-01-04

Open Source Magic: Auto Smiley, the Computer Vision Smile Generator

F.A.T. Lab released Auto Smiley, an open-source application leveraging computer vision to detect smiles. When you smile, it automatically inserts ":)" into your currently active application. Built with openFrameworks and MPT, it's available for Windows and Mac, showcasing F.A.T. Lab's rapid prototyping and creative technology prowess. This speed project highlights their commitment to open source and public domain resources.

(fffff.at)

Development computer vision smile detection

Breaking Free from Negative Spirals: The Three Cs of Self-Sabotage

2025-09-14

Breaking Free from Negative Spirals: The Three Cs of Self-Sabotage

This article explores the mechanics of negative spirals and how to break them by identifying three key stages: core questions, construal (meaning-making), and calcification. Using vivid examples, the author demonstrates how people overinterpret minor events, leading to self-doubt and anxiety, ultimately worsening behavior and creating a negative feedback loop. The article introduces the concept of 'wise interventions,' suggesting proactive engagement with life's core questions to foster positive cycles, enhancing happiness and success.

(behavioralscientist.org)

Misc

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