13711
A look at Crystal, a programming language for humans
I recently implemented a Brainfuck interpreter in the Crystal programming language and I’d like to share my honest opinion about working in the language.
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 49,212 posts.
13712
UDP transmitter implemented with PIO and DMA on the RP2040
The objective for this project was to implement a UDP transmitter for use on the RP2040 that would consume zero CPU time. The system described on this webpage is implemented with 3 PIO state machines, 12 DMA channels, and 1 PWM channel. It generates an NLP, performs packet checksum calculations, and performs packet…
13713
Somehow AutoHotKey is kinda good now
img {border-style: groove; border-width: 1px;} I love Autohotkey so much that it keeps me on Windows. It’s the best GUI automation tool out there. Here’s a shortcut that opens my current browser tab in the Wayback Machine: #HotIf WinActive("ahk_exe firefox.exe") >!^s:: { Keywait("RControl") Keywait("RAlt")…
13714
Graviton 3, Apple M2 and Qualcomm 8cx 3rd gen: a URL parsing benchmark
Whenever you enter a URL into a system, it must be parsed and validated. It is a surprisingly challenging task: it may require hundreds of nanoseconds and possibly over a thousand cycles to parse a typical URL. We can use URL parsing as a reasonable benchmark of a system performance. Of course, no single measure ……
13715
Driving Compilers
I remember how pleasant it was to learn to program in C. There were so many good books explaining not only the language but also the standard library. I devoured both The C Programming Language (K&R) by Kernighan/Ritchie and The Standard C Library by P.J. Plauger. Then came Expert C Programming by Van der Linden and…
13716
Farewell to the Era of Cheap EC2 Spot Instances
AWS EC2 Spot prices have surged since the start of 2023. In this article I investigate this trend, possible causes, and how AWS customers can improve their deployments to get the maximum discount possible.
13717
How to Survive Your Project's First 100k Lines
After many years of development, the Vale compiler just hit its 100,000th line of code.
13718
Beware of AI pseudoscience and snake oil
Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland
13719
Rules of thumb for software development estimations
Project estimates are a crucial part of project management, helping to predict the time and resources needed for successful completion. Accurate estimates can be achieved through experience, understanding the project's complexity, and using the right estimation techniques. Overestimation can lead to wasted resources…
13720
Why split lexing and parsing into two separate phases?
“lex and yacc” are two terms that are used together so often that they can seem indivisible. lex takes a string as input and divides it up into lexemes (roughly speaking “words”) and yacc takes a sequence of lexemes and parses them. Since some parsing approaches such as recursive descent parsing unify these phases…
13721
Feynman’s Maze-Running Story
Richard Feynman recounts an amazing anecdote about philosophy of science; we trace it to a forgotten University of Michigan research programme into ‘floor cues’.
13722
Some personal news
An update about me, FiveThirtyEight and the future after the Disney layoffs
13723
How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer
I share my story about stress and anxiety and how I managed to overcome it. I also share practical tips and resources that will help you begin your healing journey today!
13724
Anonymous Tor Phone
I was always curious about all that bad guys (criminals, drug dealers, hitman’s, thief’s etc.) using not very good and secure communication channels. Forgetting about whole OPSEC stuff. There is a lo
13725
Let's make sure GitHub doesn't become the only option
GitHub is dominant in today’s software development industry. Most professional developers interact with software created, maintained, or controlled by GitHub daily.
13726
Dark Matter Developers: The Unseen 99% (2012)
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is a currently-undetermined type of ...
13727
ChatGPT has no inner monologue or meta-cognition
Update 2025: The post below describes ChatGPT and similar LLMs as they functioned at the time of writing in 2023. More recent systems do have a behind-the-scenes “inner monologue” which enables them t
13728
GPT makes learning fun again
What will GPT unlock for the nerdy kid sitting in a 7th-grade classroom today?
13729
OKTO35 3D-Printed Analog Film Movie Camera
In the very beginning, there was … well, this thing. The OKTO35 Mk1. A machine that could (barely) shoot and scan its own 35mm film movies.
13730
SIMD with Zig
An introduction to using SIMD with Zig
13731
Surprisingly Turing-Complete
A catalogue of software constructs, languages, or APIs which are unexpectedly Turing-complete; implications for security and reliability.
13732
Shoot the arrow, then paint the target around it
As I watched him on stage, I thought about what made him extraordinary. It’s not his voice. He readily admits that his voice isn’t amazing.
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13734
I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing
In order to protect women, gender nonconforming folks, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community from suffering as my peers and I have, I feel ethically obligated to go public with my ex…
13735
Apple has just released the first Rapid Security Response for Ventura
Apple has just released the first of its new Rapid Security Responses (RSRs) for macOS 13.3.1 Ventura. This is indicated as macOS Rapid Security Response 13.3.1 (a), and is just just over 300 MB to…
13736
You and Your Research (1986)
Transcription of the Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar 7 March 1986
13737
Replika AI: Your Money or Your Wife
Isn't there somebody you forgot to ask?
13738
Chatbots are not the future
Unfortunately for the countless hapless people I've talked to in the past few months, this was inexorable. Ever since ChatGPT exploded in popularity, my inner designer has been bursting at the seams.
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13740
First clean water, now clean air
Fin Moorhouse's website