Users of mature C libraries conventionally get to choose how memory is allocated — that is, when it cannot be avoided entirely . The C standard never laid down a convention — perhaps for the better — so each library re-invents an allocator interface. Not all are created equal, and most repeat a few fundamental…
Everyone has heard about the so-called “types of learning styles” auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and so on. And almost everything has been said about it. But what if there is a different categorization of learning? Maybe one that gives more inside? Well, I think there is. This time we split the act of learning just…
Here's a small thought experiment that explores an alternative approach to ranking posts on HackerNews.
Can AI Image generation tools make re-imagined, higher-resolution versions of old video game graphics? Over the last few days, I used AI image generation to reproduce one of my childhood nightmares. I wrestled with Stable Diffusion, Dall-E and Midjourney to see how these commercial AI generation tools can help retell…
Mathematical insights create a more intuitive UI for Bézier curves.
In the demoscene, there's never a boundary that can't be pushed. My recent 4k demo "Boo!" ( YouTube ), released at X 2023, is a humble attempt to contribute to this ongoing evolution. In particular, it pioneers a new way of computing lines.
Someone asked if I could write about the rise of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) and what I think that means for the future of people, t...
Historically, Lisp was a behemoth in the world of language design innovation. The list of Lisp’s innovations is so long that I’d have to list most of the features associated with modern languages. (Do you like if statements? You can thank Lisp!)
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…
To frugally furnish a codebase, imitate Ikea.
The problem of product managers is not that they exist but rather that they have too much power. We have all seen these articles written by developers that explain that product managers are useless. They miss the point. I think it is pretty obvious that PMs (whether you call them …
Twenty years... a significant chunk of a human's adult life; while so many things in my life have changed since May 2003, the blog has remained a constant companion. This milestone inspired me to do some archaeology using the amazing Wayback Machine . It didn't have the very first post, but I dug up one from just a…
An occasional blog about OpenPGP keyservers and related issues
Image SourceThe United States could bounce back from the fall of Taiwan to Communist rule. It would have far more dire consequences for Japan. Consider this post a short, informal primer on why thi…
Some programming languages like Java or Scala offer more than one way to express a concept of “lack of value”. Traditionally, a special null value is used to...
Interactive post about the frequency of bank failures over time
I've been floating ways to simplify the memory management story in Rust around the core team lately. Memory management is a contentious topic, since we've worked hard to get to the current state of things, and with the push toward stability lately, there is a (quite reasonable!) resistance to any changes at this…
In an era where the costs for cloud services continue to soar, I want to outline how our data team has successfully managed to run the infrastructure of our energy trading company within the first year using only two PostgreSQL database instances - each equipped with just two CPU cores and four GB of RAM. Despite this…
The cost for something that can be replicated free and open source is absurd. The Fortune 100 have a use case for these companies, the rest…
UPDATE: 24 May 2023: A Proposal for “Enhanced Recovery Services” for Locked Out Google Accounts
The simple standalone C++ code that goes with this post and makes autostereograms, can be found at The 1990s! They felt like a wasteland of culture at the time, but looking back, there was hyper co…
Personal website of Phil Booth
This post was inspired by the tool jrnl which has been mentioned on hacker news.
Almost every few weeks, a new and exciting retro hardware project is announced. These are truly …
This is an elaboration of my submission for the letter detection prize as part of the Vesuvius Challenge in June. It gets technical and esoteric but the first few paragraphs are of general interest…
Learn about five Chinese tech terms: Huidu, Lunzi, Chendian, Dapan, and Maidian, frequently used in companies like Tencent and ByteDance.
“Science would become something like a parlor game. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashion would get grants”
