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Sufficient Decentralization for Social Networks
A design pattern to reduce centralized control and change incentives in social networks.
Most cited
Posts that commenters keep linking to, ranked by how many different people have cited them in Hacker News comments. 411 posts.
152
AVIF has landed (2020)
AVIF is the first browser image format we've had in 10 years. Let's see how it performs…
153
How to JIT – An Introduction
When I wrote the introductory article for libjit , I aimed it at programmers who know what JITs are, at least to some extent. I did mention what a JIT is, but only very briefly. The purpose of this article is to provide a better introductory overview of JITing, with code samples that don't rely on any libraries.
154
Simple declarative schema migration for SQLite
At my company we use a small SQLite database. We define the schema in a single file with SQL CREATE TABLE statements. If we add tables, columns, or indexes, our application will create them automatically the next time it starts up.
155
Uninitialized memory: Unsafe Rust is too hard
Why unsafe Rust is a complex and user unfriendly experience.
156
Finality does not exist in payments
Many people believe some transactions are final. The reality is a bit more complicated, and involves technical, social, and legal factors.
157
I regret my website redesign
Mistakes I made working with my first design agency.
158
The Floppotron 3.0
After a long time it’s time for a big upgrade of my computer hardware orchestra. Here it is! The bigger and better Floppotron 3.0. 512 floppy disk drives, 4 scanners and 16 hard disk drives.
159
Cramming 'Papers, Please' onto Phones
I created Papers, Please in 2013 specifically for desktop computers with mouse control. Now, here, in 2022, desktop computers no longer exist and all computing is done via handheld mobile telephone. Time to update this dinosaur. These thousands of words and megabytes of images will cover some bits of porting the game…
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A 14kb page can load much faster than a 15kb page
What is surprising is that a 14kB page can load much faster than a 15kB page — maybe 612ms faster — while the difference between a 15kB and a 16kB page is trivial.
162
See what JavaScript commands get injected through an in-app browser
I work with U.S. law firms as a non-testifying technical consulting expert on matters involving the Apple platform and iOS apps. Learn more about my litigation consulting.
163
Lies we tell ourselves to keep using Golang
In the two years since I’ve posted I want off Mr Golang’s Wild Ride, it’s made the rounds time and time again, on Reddit, on Lobste.rs, on HackerNews, and elsewhere. And every time, it elicits the ...
164
One-liner for running queries against CSV files with SQLite
I figured out how to run a SQL query directly against a CSV file using the sqlite3 command-line utility:
165
An unwilling illustrator found herself turned into an AI model
How does it feel to be turned into an AI image model? To find out, I opened a door to the multiverse and interviewed the creator and unwilling subject of a controversial DreamBooth model.
166
How fast are Linux pipes anyway?
Pipes are ubiquitous in Unix --- but how fast can they go on Linux? In this post we'll iteratively improve a simple pipe-writing benchmark from 3.5GiB/s to 65GiB/s, guided by Linux `perf`.
167
Find a good available .com domain
Derek Sivers official site. Thoughts on philosophy, culture, self-improvement. Author of Useful Not True, How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Anything You Want.
168
Soft deletion probably isn't worth it
The traditional soft deletion pattern using <code>deleted_at</code> columns leaks into code, curbs the usefulness of foreign keys, and makes data removal difficult. Luckily, there’s an alternative.
169
Building the fastest Lua interpreter automatically
This is Part 1 of a series of posts. Part 2 is available here: Building a baseline JIT for Lua automatically It is well-known that writing a good VM for a dynamic language is never an easy job. High
170
Hackers gaining power of subpoena via fake “emergency data requests”
There is a terrifying and highly effective “method” that criminal hackers are now using to harvest sensitive customer data from Internet service providers, phone companies and social media firms. It involves compromising email accounts and websites tied to police departments and government agencies, and then sending…
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Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else?
Tech and fashion logos are becoming increasingly similar, all of them using sans serif fonts. Why do they do that? And why it doesn't make sense.
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Final thoughts on Ubiquiti
Last year, I posted a series of articles about a purported “breach” at Ubiquiti. My sole source for that reporting was the person who has since been indicted by federal prosecutors for his alleged wrongdoing – which includes providing false information to the press.
174
Inspecting Web Views in macOS
I recently received a tantalizing email from a reader I’ve never met: Sam Henri-Gold . Sam showed me how you can key in a couple write commands in the macOS…
175
The Commodordion
The Commodordion is an 8-bit accordion primarily made of C64s, floppy disks, and gaffer tape.
176
The GPT Architecture, on a Napkin
There are so many brilliant posts on GPT-3, demonstrating what it can do , pondering its consequences , vizualizing how it works . With all these out there, it still took a crawl through several papers and blogs before I was confident that I had grasped the architecture.
177
RP2040 Doom
The Making of RP2040 Doom
178
Summary of Atomic Habits
A summary of the best ideas from Atomic Habits by James Clear
179
Donald Knuth – The Patron Saint of Yak Shaves (2017)
In 2015, I gave a talk in which I called Donald Knuth the Patron Saint of Yak Shaves . The reason is that Donald Knuth achieved the most perfect and long-running yak shave: TeX.
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Understanding the War in Ukraine
Bret Devereaux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)2022429 points605 commentscited by 5History & Retro Computing details
This week, I want to break from our usual format and respond to the fairly unusual global events. I expect a lot of my readers are trying to get a grasp on what is happening right now in Ukraine an…