Update (April 14): On the suggestion of my TA Justin Yirka, I gave GPT-4 problem 2 from the final exam, along with its own answers and my and Justin’s grading comments, and asked it whether i…
Nano How-To explaining how to setup a root file system with only emacs.
I really want an AI assistant: a Large Language Model powered chatbot that can answer questions and perform actions for me based on access to my private data and tools. …
How to get ACID transactions between almost any data stores, with the Epoxy protocol.
A different view on two's complement math.
Spoiler alert: the answer is maybe! Although, my inclusion of the word “actually” betrays my bias. Vector databases are having their day right now. Three different vector DB companies have raised money on valuations up to $700 million (paywall link). Surprisingly, their rise in popularity is not for their “original”…
One of the most pervasive mistakes I see people using with large language model tools like ChatGPT is trying to use them as a search engine. As with other LLM …
"Focus" requires saying "no" to most things, but there's a way to do it that allows you to say "yes" exactly when it matters most.
Exploring how to use 2D graphics in various desktop operating systems, the old-school way. In this part we learn how to create an empty window under Linux, macOS and Windows.
He was born, farmed, and died at Dishley, much like his father before him. But Robert Bakewell, unlike most people, caught the improving mentality, or attitude — the one thing all inventors, both then and now, have in common — which had him viewing everything around him in terms of its capacity for betterment. The…
Before getting too far into the weeds, let's begin with the results. Without too much effort, an AI was written in clojure that could complete all of the levels in the original Super Mario Bros for the NES except for the Bowser levels that have mazes. Namely, levels 4-4, 7-4, and 8-4 were not completed (more on this…
Suppose that we sample a large number N N N of independent random functions f i : R → R f_i \colon \R \to \R f i : R → R from a certain distribution F \Fc F and propose to solve a regression problem by choosing a linear combination f ˉ = ∑ i λ i f i . \bar{f} = \sum_i \lambda_i f_i. f ˉ = i ∑ λ i f i . For…
The definitons of the transform (to expansion coefficients) and the inverse transform are given below:
Have you seen this legendary SQL iceberg meme? Let's talk about it while wearing our PostgreSQL hat!
GM’s Cruise aims to turn self-driving into a billion-dollar business.
Google A/I suggests that AI is a sustaining innovation for all of Big Tech; that means the real battle will be between incumbents and Big Tech on one side, and open source on the other.
One of the most common accessibility issues I find (and fix) on client projects is dynamically disabled form buttons when a form is being submitted. Today I want to talk about why developers do it, why it’s bad, and what you can do instead. Let’s dig in! Why developers disable buttons Typically, I see the pattern used…
Bees have a dance to indicate to others where food is. It’s called the waggle dance. Great name. But a significant portion of bees in a hive completely ignore the waggle dance and venture off on their own accord. Scientists studied this and were perplexed as to why. It
Some bugs are merely fun. Others are simply delicious! Today’s pick is the latter. Reproducing the issue, part 1 (It may be tempting to skip that section, but reproducing an issue is an important p...
I am writing this memo to explain what happened to the case our NeXTCube Computer, Serial Number AA001032.
Bret Devereaux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)2023200 points121 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details
This is the fourth part of our planned five part series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, IV, V, A1, A2) on the structure of the Roman Republic during the third and second centuries, the ‘Middle’ Republic.…
How poor design killed John Denver dead.
After I wrote about the possibility of programmable Mac ROM SIMMs in Quadras a couple of months ago, I suspected that there had been a way for developers at Apple in the 68k Mac era to reflash the ROM in their Macs during development, just like BIOS updates on PCs. The reason I believed this is because the ROM SIMM…
In the early days of the platform, Android developers working from Linux and Mac OS X connected their device via an USB cable and were good to go. Windows users had to find and then install drivers. That was super-annoying.
FairPlay comprises a set of algorithms created by Apple for digital rights management (also called DRM, digital rights management). FairPlay is currently used to manage the decryption of iOS applications during their installation on Apple devices. In fact, we know that Apple distributes all applications in the Apple…
Assembly code scares people. There’s a good reason for that. For many people, writing code in assembly language seems equivalent to writing code in ancient dwarven runes, or calculating pi in roman numerals. The fact that RollerCoaster Tycoon was almost completely written in assembly language sounds almost too amazing…
Authorities in Germany this week seized Internet servers that powered FlyHosting , a dark web offering that catered to cybercriminals operating DDoS-for-hire services, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. FlyHosting first advertised on cybercrime forums in November 2022, saying it was a Germany-based hosting firm that was…
