931
Cargo airships could be big
A capital-intensive, high-risk way to revolutionize global commerce
932
How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
How I lost $950 in about an hour on AirBnB by stupidly thinking it worked like a hotel
933
USB-C head-to-head comparison
CT scans of four USB-C cables from $4 to $129 reveal nine-layer PCBs, length-matched signal traces, and floating pins.
934
JPEG XL: How it started, how it’s going
Significance of Apple's support for JPEG XL and what this means for the widespread adoption of this next-generation image compression format.
935
Writing summaries is more important than reading more books
One thing I’ve learned over time is to read fewer books but to take the time to write summaries for the good ones. The ROI of spending 2h writing a synopsis is much higher than spending those 2h powering through the next book on your list. Reading is not about page count or speed. What matters is ho
936
Zero downtime Postgres upgrades
How we upgraded from Postgres 11.9 to 15.3 with zero downtime
937
Eating microwave popcorn increases the level of PFAS in body (2022)
Dear Doctors: I’ve been hearing a lot about PFAS and how they have an adverse effect on our health. I read that some food wrappers, like bags for microwave popcorn, use PFAS to keep food from sticking. My kids eat microwaved popcorn almost every night. Should I be worried?
938
"No, it's less effort than that"
Ever heard ‘No, it’s less effort than that!’? Learn why challenging Agile estimates can lead to bad planning and how to handle estimate pushback effectively.
939
940
Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4
Duolingo’s newest subscription, Duolingo Max, offers a powerful AI-backed learning experience.
941
Results of technical investigations for Storm-0558 key acquisition
Microsoft Security Response Center Blog
942
FunSearch: Making new discoveries in mathematical sciences using LLMs
We introduce FunSearch, a method for searching for “functions” written in computer code, and find new solutions in mathematics and computer science. FunSearch works by pairing a pre-trained LLM, whose goal is to provide creative solutions in the form of computer code, with an automated “evaluator”, which guards…
943
Making Python faster with Rust
Update: I gave a talk on this topic at P99 CONF 2023 and at PyCon IL 2024 (Hebrew). A while ago at $work, we had a performance issue with one of our core Python …
944
Git security vulnerabilities announced
Git users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest version, especially if they use `git archive`, work in untrusted repositories, or use Git GUI on Windows.
945
Lisa Source Code Release
CHM publicly releases the source code to Apple's Lisa computer, including its system and applications software.
946
Why I can no longer recommend a Mac to fellow blind computer users
As many of you will know from personal experience, there is a longstanding issue with VoiceOver on Mac where Safari may become unresponsive with VoiceOver repeatedly announcing the message “Safari not responding.” When this issue occurs, the user's Mac may become unusable for up to several minutes at a time. Sometimes…
947
OpenAI is too cheap to beat
Data matters; infrastructure matters more
948
949
Banking in uncertain times
We may be in the early stages of a banking crisis: why, what we're doing to avoid it, and what we may not get about it.
950
Backward Compatibility, Go 1.21, and Go 2
Go 1.21 expands Go's commitment to backward compatibility, so that every new Go toolchain is the best possible implementation of older toolchain semantics as well.
951
In search of the least viewed article on Wikipedia (2022)
Wikipedia sure is popular. The most popular articles in a given week routinely get millions of views. But with 6 million plus articles, Wikipedia has plenty ...
952
Things Every Hacker Once Knew (2017)
One fine day in January 2017 I was reminded of something I had half-noticed a few times over the previous decade. That is, younger hackers don’t know the bit structure of ASCII and the meaning of the odder control characters in it.
953
Beautiful branchless binary search
I read a blog post by Alex Muscar, “Beautiful Binary Search in D”. It describes a binary search called “Shar’s algorithm”. I’d never heard of it and it’s i…
954
Developer tools to create spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro
Apple today announced the availability of new software tools that enable developers to create groundbreaking app experiences for Apple Vision Pro.
955
The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
The Staff Engineer’s Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change is written by Tanya Reilly and published on October 25, 2022, by O’Reilly Media. Favorite Quotes Early in your career, if you do a great job on something that turns out to be unnecessary, you’ve still done a great job. At the…
956
Extreme questions to trigger new, better ideas
We know, "no idea is a bad idea," but brainstorming is often unsuccessful. These prompts actually work. They could even lead to a unique business model.
957
I changed my mind about nuclear waste
I’ve feared it. I’ve protested it. Now I’m hugging it
958
The feds' vehicle 'kill switch' mandate is a gross violation of privacy
Over the last century, the Land of the Free has slowly transformed into a land governed by endless laws, largely by cracking down on vices instead of actual crimes, creating a society that would render us all criminals if our behavior were constantly observed. Meanwhile, the state has steadily expanded its use of mass…
959
960
Layoffs push down scores on Glassdoor – how companies respond
Several tech companies face a fresh problem after cutting jobs: their rating on Glassdoor nosedives. But there’s a way they manage to fix this. I show what companies are doing - and why.