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Closing web browser windows doesn't close connections
Months ago I noticed something strange in the Little Snitch Network Monitor: Safari was still connecting to web sites after every window had been closed. At the time, I thought this was just a Safari bug. I brought the issue to the attention of some Safari engineers, who I had hoped would look into it. Since then…
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Intel Unleashed, Gelsinger on Intel, IDM 2.0
New Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger delivered a keynote with the right strategy, the right tactics, and most importantly, the right spirit to return Intel to success.
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Word-Aligned Bloom Filters
Programmers often need to 'filter out' data. Suppose that you are given a database of users where only a small percentage are 'paying customers' (say 5% or less). You can write an SQL query to check whether a given user is indeed a paying customer, but it might require a round trip to your database … Continue reading…
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If you think psychological science is bad, imagine how bad it was in 1999
Shane Frederick points us to this article from 1999 , “Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance,” about which he writes:
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New Defaults
The pandemic and vaccine rollout have highlighted where the West has lost its way; we need new defaults about information, change, and speed.
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You Can't Buy Integration
The usual build-versus-buy rules for applications don't apply to integration
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Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)
[I am not a sleep specialist. Please consult with one before making any drastic changes or trying to treat anything serious.] Van Geiklswijk et al describe supplemental melatonin as “a chrono…
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On navigating a large codebase
A while ago, I’ve been working on a very large codebase that consisted of a few million lines of code. Large systems are usually a big mess and this one was no exception. Since this is a rather common problem in software engineering, I thought the internet would be littered with stories about this topic. There is a…
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Ancient secrets of computer vision
This class is a general introduction to computer vision. It covers standard techniques in image processing like filtering, edge detection, stereo, flow, etc. (old-school vision), as well as newer, machine-learning based computer vision. It was originally offered in the spring of 2018 at the University of Washington .
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The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme
With over $20b in assets under management Celsius Network is the biggest centralised lending platform in the crypto space.
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My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop
After the disappointment of my X1 Nano and learning that all future Intel "Evo"-branded laptops would lack S3 suspend, I started thinking about returning to my M1 MacBook full-time or building an OpenBSD desktop. I chose the latter, building my first desktop machine in many years.
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Structural pattern matching in Python 3.10
A critical but informative look at the new structural pattern matching feature in Python 3.10, with real-world code examples.
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Things I learned while developing a billing system
Half a year ago, I joined Pleo, a FinTech startup with around 15,000 customers (we’re always hiring at Pleo!). I joined to take on and further develop the billing infrastructure. When I joined, I was actually a bit concerned about the narrowness of the new role and the new team. I mean, really… How much […]
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How to help a programming student get unstuck
When early stage programmers get stuck, they can get frustrated. Here's how to make the most of it.
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Hacking YouTube with a MP4
Keyboard Warrior, Breaking software is just finding unintended features, right?
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Surprising Shared Word Etymologies
I find word etymologies fascinating . Every word we speak or write sits unassumingly on the surface of a rich history, sometimes spanning millenia.
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Freenode commits suicide, is no longer a serious IRC network
Since this happened after I was banned from Freenode , I didn't get to observe this first hand, but this is the situation as I now understand it.
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Kelly Criterion – how to calculate optimal bet sizes
So, you’ve probably heard of the Kelly Criterion in the context of gambling or maybe also in the context of investing. When gamblers talk about the Kelly Criterion they are often referring to the idea of sizing your bets, which is the very intuitive idea that if you bet too much of a percentage of your total wealth…
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Apple Silicon Hardware: SPRR and Guarded Exception Levels (GXF)
Over a year ago siguza published a write-up about Apple’s APRR - a custom ARM extension that redefines pagetable permissions and protects certain parts of the kernel from itself. Since then Apple has released their M1 chip which not only features an updated version of APRR but also easily allows to run bare-metal code…
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How to Kill a Unicorn
I took a deep dive on freemium pricing and decided to document it in this post. Why freemium? I think it’s how the little guys can win against market leaders. Basically, it’s how you kill a unicorn. Notion, Figma, Canva, Mailchimp, and Segment. What do all of these
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Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics of Magic Windows
I recently made a physical object that defies all intuition. It’s a square of acrylic, smooth on both sides, totally transparent. A tiny window.
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Is Web3 anything?
The term “web3” seems pretty fluid and is being used as a label for a bunch of disparate ideas. Given that it’s a decentralized group describing a decentralized movement, that lack of focus isn’t exactly surprising. Almost by definition it’s going to end up being different things to different people.