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Writing better by answering why, what, how
Three documents I write (one-pager, design doc, after-action review) and how I structure them.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 49,219 posts.
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The Philosophy of Linear Algebra (2021)
Whenever a student wonders why linear algebra, matrices, and vectors are important, the response from teachers usually sounds like this:
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AirPlay and Touch Bar = Network Disaster
Mnpn's website and blog containing projects and other information.
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How big tech runs tech projects and the curious absence of Scrum
A survey of how tech projects run across the industry highlights Scrum being absent from Big Tech. Why is this, and are there takeaways others should take note of?
17165
I don't want to go to Chel-C
We are constantly reading of stories with one main theme where people turn to seemingly "simple" systems in order to manage complexity; except that these systems manage to produce complex problems, without having to acquire historical cruft, or suffering from any of the usual issues that produce non-essential…
17166
Generating true random numbers from bananas
It was a dreary afternoon in Milan last year when, procrastinating on studying, I was struck by a flash of genius. “What would happen if I made a banana-powered random number generator?“. I immediately went to tell my roommate, who was also an electronic engineer.He looked me in the face and burst out laughing. At ……
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The Linux kernel can spawn processes on its own
While investigating the aftermath of a potential security breach, I came across a somewhat "odd" process looking like this:
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It matters how you raise your kids
To parents besieged by expert advice, a new scientific idea offers relief: it’s no big deal how you raise your children....
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SIMD accelerated sorting in Java – how it works and why it was 3x faster
In this post I explain a little about how to use Java’s Vector APIs, attempt to explain how they turn out fast, and then use them to implement a sorting algorithm 3x faster than Arrays.sort . I then explain some problems I found, and how I resolved them. Supporting code is published here .
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I turned down $500k, pissed off my investors, and shut down my startup (2016)
I just did what no startup founder is ever supposed to do. I gave up. It wasn’t even one of those glorious “fail fast and fail forward” learning experiences. After seven months of hard work and two weeks before we were to start ...
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Do Kwon in more trouble
He Sent $80 Million a Month to Secret Wallets Before Terra Luna Crashed
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Is “acceptably non-dystopian” self-sovereign identity even possible?
In the recent paper about "soulbound" tokens, Vitalik Buterin et al. write that they aim to build technology that is "acceptably non-dystopian". Do any of today's self-sovereign identity projects fit that bill?
17173
Inflation, part 1: On shelter futures
A deep-dive
17174
“Code” 2nd Edition
I am overjoyed to announce that the 2nd edition of my book Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software will be published by Pearson on August 19, 2022. As you can see, the covers of the two editions are nearly identical except that the 2nd edition uses the “dark mode” option:
17175
Write HTML Right
Even with a lot of help from a good text editor, writing HTML can be a drag. Nice documents end up as tag-swamps with little bits of content perched atop hills of tabs. Editing them becomes a test of patience and we get sick at the thought of having to look at our once-loved text. It doesn't have to be like this!…
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You need to know what right-half-plane zeros are
Why some systems -- as a consequence of their intrinsic dynamics -- require a control action that first pushes them the wrong way and makes things worse before it gets better.
17178
Why software engineers like woodworking
The smell of fresh pine sawdust filled the air, with more floating up as I sanded the last rough corner of the stool. My toddler was happily sanding her own block off to the side.
17179
Cranelift, Part 4: A New Register Allocator
This post is the fourth part of a three-part series 1 describing work that I have been doing to improve the Cranelift compiler. In this post, I'll describe the work that went into regalloc2 , a new register allocator I developed over the past year. The allocator started as an effort to port IonMonkey's register…
17180
In defense of cryptocurrency
Last week a group of technologists, including Bruce Schneier, sent a letter to Congress outlining their concerns around cryptocurrency and urging Congress to regulate the space. Now let me be the f…
17181
Why is American administrative capacity in decline?
Some speculative hypotheses
17182
Why are nuclear power construction costs so high?
Nuclear power currently makes up slightly less than 20% of the total electricity produced in the US, largely from plants built in the 70s and 80s.
17183
The collapse of complex software
In 1988, the anthropologist Joseph Tainter published a book called The Collapse of Complex Societies. In it, he described the rise and fall of great…
17184
More than you ever wanted to know about font loading on the web (2021)
When I started thinking about writing a post about web font loading my intention was to propose relatively sophisticated ideas that I've...
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How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone
Hello, I’m Michael Sliwinski, founder of Nozbe - to-do app for business owners and their teams. I write essays, books, work on projects and I podcast for you using #iPadOnly in #NoOffice as I believe that work is not a place you go to, it’s a thing you do.
17188
I killed my startup
It's been over a year since I killed my startup, and a few weeks ago I revisited the spot where I decided to do it. It's about time I talk about it
17189
OpenBSD folklore and share/misc/airport
OpenBSD's share/misc/airport file and a day trip to Lublin
17190
Xbox 360 Architecture
An in-depth analysis that explains how this console works internally