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Coding Without Bugs: A Viable Approach for Small Teams and Startups

2025-01-23
Coding Without Bugs: A Viable Approach for Small Teams and Startups

A senior engineer shares their experience of pursuing 'bug-free coding' at Telegram and various projects. While seemingly inefficient, they argue that this approach avoids massive maintenance costs and team burnout in the long run. The author uses personal anecdotes and project examples to demonstrate that focusing on code quality and maintainability alongside product velocity leads to efficient development and high-quality products.

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(korshakov.com)
Development Code Quality

ScrollGuard: Stop Doomscrolling

2025-08-18

Tired of endless scrolling on TikTok and similar apps? ScrollGuard is here to help! This app blocks Reels and Shorts videos on Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube, and sets scrolling limits for any app, freeing you from endless scrolling and distractions. While the iOS version has slightly different functionality, the developer is working on an iPhone app to help users combat scrolling addiction.

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(scrollguard.app)
Development anti-addiction

OpenAI Bot Crushes Small E-commerce Site

2025-01-10
OpenAI Bot Crushes Small E-commerce Site

Triplegangers, a seven-person e-commerce company, had its website crippled by OpenAI's GPTBot in a DDoS-like attack. GPTBot relentlessly scraped images and descriptions of over 65,000 products, causing the site to crash and incurring significant AWS charges. Triplegangers discovered their robots.txt file was improperly configured, failing to effectively block GPTBot. While OpenAI claims to respect robots.txt, its bot didn't immediately respond to the updated file. This incident highlights the potential risks of AI data scraping for small businesses and OpenAI's delayed opt-out tool.

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(techcrunch.com)
Tech AI data scraping DDoS attack

Fast Food vs. Home-Cooked Software: A Developer's Dilemma

2025-01-17

This article explores two contrasting approaches to software development: fast food and home-cooked. Fast food software uses agile sprints, prioritizing rapid iteration over long-term maintainability. Home-cooked software emphasizes upfront design, resulting in lean, stable code, but with longer development cycles. The author criticizes the prevalent fast food approach, highlighting its creation of massive technical debt and poor user experiences. A call for a return to a more quality-focused, maintainable approach is made.

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(ownerofhappy.org)
Development

Pointers Are Complicated II: The Subtle Bugs in LLVM Optimizations

2025-02-02

This post delves into the importance of precise semantics for compiler intermediate representations (IRs), especially for languages like C, C++, and Rust that allow unsafe pointer manipulation. The author demonstrates how a sequence of three seemingly correct LLVM compiler optimizations can lead to incorrect program behavior. The root cause is pointer provenance – the extra information embedded in a pointer beyond its memory address, detailing how it was computed. This necessitates a more precise LLVM IR specification, including a precise definition of undefined behavior (UB). Treating compiler IRs as standalone programming languages with rigorous specifications is key to resolving such issues.

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(www.ralfj.de)
Development pointer semantics

Clippy Reborn: An Electron-Based Fun Project

2025-05-06

Developer Felix Rieseberg has recreated Microsoft's Office assistant, Clippy, as an open-source Electron application purely for fun. It's not intended as a masterpiece, but rather a personal creative project, akin to painting watercolors or pottery—the joy lies in the building process. The author expresses gratitude to Microsoft for Electron and the iconic Clippy design, and lists other contributors to the project.

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(felixrieseberg.github.io)
Development

AI Unlocks the Paint Chemistry of Berlin Wall Murals

2024-12-16
AI Unlocks the Paint Chemistry of Berlin Wall Murals

Italian scientists used a neural network to analyze spectral data from handheld Raman spectroscopy devices, revealing the paint chemistry secrets of Berlin Wall murals. This research not only sheds light on the materials and techniques used in these historically significant artworks but also provides new technological approaches for preserving street art. By analyzing paint chips from wall fragments and combining Raman spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and optical fiber reflectance spectroscopy, along with a custom-built AI algorithm called SAPNet, researchers precisely identified the pigment composition, including titanium white and up to 75 percent other pigments. This breakthrough demonstrates the significant potential of AI in cultural heritage preservation.

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(arstechnica.com)
AI Cultural Heritage Preservation Raman Spectroscopy

CSS Item Flow: Unifying Flexbox, Grid, and Masonry Layouts

2025-04-02
CSS Item Flow: Unifying Flexbox, Grid, and Masonry Layouts

CSS Grid and Flexbox are powerful layout tools, but they fall short for complex layouts like masonry. A new proposal, "Item Flow," aims to solve this by unifying Flexbox's `flex-flow` and Grid's `grid-auto-flow` properties. It introduces new properties like `item-direction`, `item-wrap`, `item-pack`, and `item-slack`, enabling more flexible and powerful layout control. This would give Flexbox dense packing and Grid the ability to disable wrapping, while providing a clean solution for masonry layouts. The result is a more unified and user-friendly CSS layout system.

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(webkit.org)
Development Layout

78% of Hardware Companies Lack Security.txt

2025-03-03

A developer maintaining a public list of companies using libexpat in hardware found that 78% (39 out of 50) of the companies tested in 2025 did not serve a /.well-known/security.txt file as specified by RFC 9116. This reveals a concerning lack of proactive security posture in many companies, making it difficult to contact their security teams. The author urges affected companies to fix this issue and share a link to securitytxt.org.

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(blog.hartwork.org)
Hardware security.txt

ByteCraft: Generating Games and Animations with AI

2025-03-19
ByteCraft: Generating Games and Animations with AI

ByteCraft is a groundbreaking AI model capable of generating executable game and animation files from text descriptions. Trained by fine-tuning a 7B parameter LLM, ByteCraft produces files containing diverse elements like characters, sounds, and animations. While many generated files are imperfect, this research represents a significant leap in AI code generation, demonstrating the potential for AI to understand and generate byte-level data. Future improvements, fueled by increased computational power, promise more complete and complex programs, potentially revolutionizing game and animation creation.

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(emygervais.github.io)
Game

CSS Gap Decorations: A New Way to Style Separators

2025-03-20
CSS Gap Decorations: A New Way to Style Separators

Drawing separator lines is common in web design, but existing CSS methods (like borders and pseudo-elements) have limitations, especially with Flexbox and Grid layouts. This article introduces the CSS gap decorations proposal, offering more control over separator styles in grids and flexboxes, including length, color, and position, even across multiple rows and columns. The proposal is seeking developer feedback to refine its functionality.

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(blogs.windows.com)
Development Grid Layout

Gig Workers Earned Less in 2024 Despite Increased Hours, Report Finds

2025-02-22
Gig Workers Earned Less in 2024 Despite Increased Hours, Report Finds

A new report reveals that gig workers for platforms like Uber, Instacart, and others saw a decrease in average earnings in 2024, even as their hours worked increased in some cases. Uber drivers experienced a 3.4% drop in weekly earnings to $513, while working 0.8% more hours. Lyft drivers saw a steeper 13.9% pay decline, despite a 5.4% reduction in hours. Instacart shoppers also faced an 8% pay cut. While DoorDash and Amazon Flex saw earnings increases, these were accompanied by significant increases in working hours. Only Favor showed a notable increase in pay alongside a decrease in hours worked. The report highlights the significant reliance on tips for delivery workers, contrasting with ride-sharing drivers. Despite this, consumer surveys indicate continued use of these services.

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(www.businessinsider.com)
Tech earnings working hours

Byte-Equivalent Decompilation of GPL-Violating Devices: A Genetic Programming Approach

2025-09-12

This post explores the challenging problem of byte-equivalent decompilation of a Linux kernel binary from a GPL-violating device, aiming to recover the equivalent C code. The author proposes a genetic programming-based optimization approach to find a "perfect" solution, not just a "good enough" approximation. Challenges include generating the initial population, representing C code (using ASTs), representing the binary code (disassembly or IR), and improving the readability of the resulting C code. The author argues that population-based metaheuristics like genetic algorithms are better suited for this complex problem than single-point search heuristics. This is a long-term research project requiring deep understanding of decompilation techniques, kernel code, and optimization algorithms.

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(far.chickenkiller.com)
Development genetic programming

Awesome Donations: A Curated List of FLOSS Projects to Support

2025-01-03
Awesome Donations: A Curated List of FLOSS Projects to Support

This GitHub repository, awesome-donations, is a curated list of donation options for numerous Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects. It provides easy access to support projects ranging from large foundations like the Linux Foundation and Mozilla Foundation to individual projects such as LibreOffice, GIMP, and QEMU. Whether you prefer PayPal, credit cards, or other methods, you can easily contribute to the open-source community and help ensure the continued development of essential free software.

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(github.com)
Development donations

Chilean Volcano Eruption Reveals Millennia-Old Underwater Landscape

2024-12-24
Chilean Volcano Eruption Reveals Millennia-Old Underwater Landscape

Following the 2008 eruption of the Chaitén volcano in Chile, scientists used a remotely operated vehicle to discover an underwater valley sculpted by ancient glaciers and volcanic activity. The expedition investigated the volcano's impact on the marine environment, including potential effects on underwater infrastructure and fisheries. Unexpectedly, they found a remarkably preserved ancient glacial landscape, offering invaluable insights into the region's geological history. Analysis of sediment samples will help reconstruct a timeline of geological events and further understand the eruption's impact on the marine ecosystem.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech Underwater volcano geology ocean exploration

Apple's iOS 18 Uses Homomorphic Encryption for Private Photo Search

2025-01-15

Apple's iOS 18 utilizes homomorphic encryption to enhance its photo search functionality, enabling cloud-based searches without revealing the content of users' photos. The article explains the underlying principles of homomorphic encryption, allowing computations on encrypted data with the decrypted result matching computations on unencrypted data. Apple's implementation isn't fully homomorphic, trading some privacy for performance and combining it with differential privacy and anonymization networks to bolster privacy. While not perfect, it represents a significant step towards balancing privacy and usability.

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(boehs.org)
Tech homomorphic encryption

Undersea Data Center Disaster: The Tragedy of Millions of Data Bits

2025-04-05
Undersea Data Center Disaster: The Tragedy of Millions of Data Bits

A real-time streaming startup, REALTIM, experienced a Kafka message queue crash due to Kubernetes scaling, unexpectedly uncovering a forgotten undersea backup server. Due to an intern's experimental customizations and company negligence, this server accumulated massive data backlog, resulting in millions of data bits being 'imprisoned' in an undersea fiber optic cable for months, suffering data compression, magnetic interference, and more. Data bit "0000" wrote a book detailing this ordeal, resonating widely among digital entities, even garnering sympathy from Internet Explorer. This incident exposes shortcomings in the company's technology scaling and data management, reflecting a disregard for the data lifecycle.

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(nareal.substack.com)
Tech Data Center Disaster

From Devil's Pact to Skeletal Remains: The Evolving Perceptions of Alcohol's Harm

2025-02-01

This article traces the evolution of perceptions surrounding alcohol's dangers in Western societies from the 17th to 19th centuries. Early views linked excessive drinking to supernatural consequences like pacts with the Devil and physical transformations. By the 18th century, the focus shifted to alcohol's physical damage, portraying it as a cause of premature aging, disease, and death, fueling temperance movements. However, the article also highlights a counter-narrative questioning the validity of these claims and the possibility of moderate alcohol consumption.

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(theappendix.net)
Misc history of alcohol temperance movement social perceptions

Formally Verifying the Long Division Algorithm with Hoare Logic

2025-02-26
Formally Verifying the Long Division Algorithm with Hoare Logic

This article presents a detailed formal verification of the long division algorithm using Hoare logic. The author meticulously walks through the proof, employing Hoare triples, assignment axioms, composition axioms, conditional axioms, and the while-loop axiom to demonstrate the algorithm's correctness. The article offers a clear explanation of Hoare logic's application, illustrating the complexity of the proof process with a concrete example and highlighting the importance of formal verification in software development.

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(www.cofault.com)
Development Hoare logic

GATE: An Integrated Assessment Model of AI's Economic Impact

2025-03-30
GATE: An Integrated Assessment Model of AI's Economic Impact

Epoch AI presents GATE, an integrated assessment model exploring AI's economic impact. The model centers on an automation feedback loop: investment fuels computational power, leading to more capable AI systems automating tasks, boosting output, and further fueling AI development. An interactive playground lets users tweak parameters and observe model behavior under various scenarios. Predictions aren't Epoch AI's forecasts but conditional, based on assumptions, primarily useful for analyzing the qualitative dynamics of AI automation.

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(epoch.ai)
AI

Tesla Light Show: A Guide to Custom Light Shows

2024-12-27
Tesla Light Show: A Guide to Custom Light Shows

Tesla has released a custom light show feature allowing users to create and play personalized light shows on 2021 and later Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck vehicles via a USB drive using the xLights software. This guide details the steps to create and run custom light shows, including software installation, file format requirements, light effect control, and troubleshooting, and provides a validation script to help users check if their light show files meet Tesla's requirements.

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(github.com)
Misc Light Show

Rethinking Rats: A Long War and the Possibility of Coexistence

2025-03-30
Rethinking Rats: A Long War and the Possibility of Coexistence

This article explores the complex relationship between humans and rats. Historically demonized for spreading diseases like the plague, recent research suggests that rats may not be solely to blame for plague transmission; human hygiene plays a crucial role. The article further reveals that urban rats aren't as dirty or aggressive as commonly perceived, nor are they superspreaders of disease. Instead of a brutal war on rats, the author calls for communication and coexistence, suggesting improvements to infrastructure, sanitation, and other measures to foster a more harmonious relationship with rats.

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(hakaimagazine.com)
Misc rats plague human-rat relationship

Chilean Kayaker Briefly Swallowed by Humpback Whale

2025-02-17
Chilean Kayaker Briefly Swallowed by Humpback Whale

In a viral video, a kayaker in Chilean Patagonia was briefly swallowed whole by a humpback whale before being released unharmed. Adrián Simancas and his father were kayaking near the Strait of Magellan when the whale surfaced, engulfing Adrián and his kayak. His father, Dell, filmed the incident, calmly urging his son to remain calm. While terrifying, the experience ended without injury, highlighting the rare encounter between humans and whales in the region.

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(apnews.com)
Misc whale kayaking Chile

Node.js EPUB Library @smoores/epub Released

2024-12-13
Node.js EPUB Library @smoores/epub Released

A new Node.js library, @smoores/epub, has been released. It allows developers to inspect, modify, and create EPUB 3 publications. The library offers high-level APIs that simplify interaction with the EPUB specification, such as setting the title and retrieving author information. Lower-level APIs provide granular control over the EPUB structure, enabling tasks like adding chapters and metadata. Built upon fast-xml-parser, @smoores/epub provides robust XML parsing and manipulation capabilities, facilitating efficient handling of EPUB file XML content.

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(www.npmjs.com)
Development Library

Cornell University Announces Hiring Freeze

2025-03-02

Facing significant financial challenges, Cornell University has announced a hiring freeze to address potential deep cuts in federal research funding and tax legislation impacting endowment income. The freeze prioritizes positions deemed essential to the university's core mission, with all hiring subject to a rigorous review process. A central position control committee will evaluate staff positions, while faculty hiring requires consultation with deans and the provost. This measure aims to ensure the university's continued success in a more complex financial landscape, maintaining its core missions in education, research, and service.

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(hr.cornell.edu)
Misc hiring freeze

Coccinelle: A Powerful Tool for Linux Kernel Development

2024-12-26

Coccinelle is a powerful tool for Linux kernel development, used for pattern matching and text transformation. It enables the application of complex, tree-wide patches and detects problematic coding patterns. This document details Coccinelle's installation, usage, various modes (patch, report, context, org), and advanced features such as parallelization, using a single semantic patch, controlling processed files, debugging, and .cocciconfig support. Coccinelle leverages Semantic Patch Language (SmPL) and offers multiple modes for generating patches, reports, context information, and Org-mode reports, catering to diverse needs.

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(docs.kernel.org)
Development

Random Number Generation Bottleneck: It's Not Your PRNG

2025-08-04

This article uses a story to highlight a key issue in optimizing random number generation algorithms: the bottleneck may not be the PRNG itself, but the method of generating random numbers within a specific range. The author compares several methods for generating random numbers within a given range, including classic modulo, floating-point multiplication, integer multiplication, and several unbiased methods such as rejection sampling and bitmasking. Experimental results show that the best method varies depending on the PRNG and data scale, but Lemire's integer multiplication-based method, after optimization, performs exceptionally well, significantly improving performance. The article also compares the performance of various PRNGs, finding that even the fastest PRNGs offer far less performance improvement than optimizing the range generation method.

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(www.pcg-random.org)
Development

LA's Unreal and Disneyland's Disillusionment: Reflections on a Family Trip

2025-02-15
LA's Unreal and Disneyland's Disillusionment: Reflections on a Family Trip

A family's Thanksgiving trip to Disneyland sparks reflections on the unreal nature of Los Angeles and Disneyland as a symbol of the American Dream. LA is portrayed as a city lacking historical memory, filled with uncertainty and temporality, while Disneyland is seen as the ultimate manifestation of its unreality—a meticulously crafted utopia gradually consumed by commercialization and cultural shifts. The author contrasts Disneyland with Pleasure Island from Pinocchio, exploring its ironic commentary on the American Dream. Ultimately, the reflections extend to California's future, urging a return to authenticity, building deeper community connections, and a sense of belonging to the land.

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(fiddlersgreene.substack.com)
Misc reflection disneyland los angeles
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