4711
Why Fei-Fei Li and Yann LeCun are both betting on "world models"
Gaussian splats, SIMA 2, JEPA and Genie 3 — and why “world model” now means three very different things at once.
4712
If a Meta AI model can read a brain-wide signal, why wouldn't the brain?
In 2023, Meta researchers were able to decode images in thoughts from the brain's magnetic fields. What if that's how the brain coordinates it's own global state?
4713
ESP32 WiFi Superstitions
The ESP32 is a popular microcontroller to use for do-it-yourself home automation, sensors, and a variety of other bits and bobs that you might want to take care of around the house. It’s the successor to the venerable ESP8266 which has found its way into many of our WiFi connected devices (seriously, open up a device…
4714
Hard Mode Rust (2022)
This post is a case study of writing a Rust application using only minimal, artificially constrained API (eg, no dynamic memory allocation). It assumes a fair bit of familiarity with the language.
4715
Julia and JuliaHub: Advancing Innovation and Growth
Explore Julia and JuliaHub's remarkable growth: 494% rise in Discourse views, +412% GitHub stars, and new products like Dyad.
4716
The stack circuitry of the Intel 8087 floating point chip, reverse-engineered
Early microprocessors were very slow when operating with floating-point numbers. But in 1980, Intel introduced the 8087 floating-point copro...
4717
Getting hit by lightning is good for some tropical trees
Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is, according to a new study. Published in New Phytologist, the study finds that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even…
4718
Claude Code vs. Codex: I built a sentiment dashboard from Reddit comments
I scraped hundreds of Reddit comments that compare Claude Code and Codex, and used Claude Haiku to build a sentiment analysis dashboard. The dashboard and my interpretations are shared here.
4719
ESP32 and Termux
Documenting my journey in trying to use my ESP32 on my phone through Termux
4720
Packing the world for longest lines of sight
I have a side project to find the longest line of sight on the planet 1 using a novel Total Viewshed algorithm . At a resolution of 3 arc-seconds (~92m x 92m), the planet contains around 4.5 billion elevation samples 2 . Now obviously we don’t need to calculate the visibility between literally every single one of…
4721
From LLM to AI Agent: What's the Real Journey Behind AI System Development?
Confused by LLMs, RAG, & AI Agents? We break down the spectrum of AI system design with a familiar resume-screening example to show the leap in capabilities (and complexity) at each level.
4722
De Bruijn notation, and why it's useful
At least a familiarity with the lambda calculus, including how it is evaluated. Some base knowledge of programming languages is also assumed.
4723
Primer on FedEx's Distribution Network (2024)
With a map!
4724
Layered Design in Go
This post will describe how I design my programs in Go. I needed this for work, and while I searched for a link, nothing quite fits my coding practices out there. The word “Layered” can pull up some fairly close descriptions, but I want to lay out what I do.
4725
The Math Behind GANs (2020)
Generative Adversarial Networks refer to a family of generative models that seek to discover the underlying distribution behind a certain data generating process. This distribution is discovered through an adversarial competition between a generator and a discriminator. As we saw in an earlier introductory post on…
4726
How Ruby executes JIT code
Where does JIT-compiled code live? How does Ruby switch between bytecode and native execution? Why does TracePoint slow everything down? This post answers the JIT questions most Ruby developers have but rarely see explained.
4727
Standard Ebooks Public Domain Day 2025 in Literature
Read about the new ebooks Standard Ebooks is releasing for Public Domain Day 2025!
4728
I made a search engine worse than Elasticsearch (2024)
Integrating my BM25 pandas search library, SearchArray, into BEIR, in order to embarass myself in public.
4729
Cache-friendly, low-memory Lanczos algorithm in Rust
How a bit of algorithm engineering and low-level details can alter what seems like a straightforward trade-off on a blackboard.
4730
Signal Carnival
At Revision 2025, we released "Signal Carnival" ( csdb , YouTube ). This demo asks you to switch the audio and video cable of your C64:
4731
ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this from the ER)
How using AI as a bridge when doctors aren't available can improve patient-to-doctor communications in real time emergencies
4732
Digital ID – The New Chains of Capitalist Surveillance
From The world is entering an era where identity is no longer a matter of personal relationships, lived experience, or even paperwork. Increasingly, it is reduced to biometric scans, algorithmic ve…
4733
A Comment on Mozilla's Policy Changes
A short commentary on Mozilla's policy changes and how they affect the user community.
4734
I miss using em dashes
I really miss using em dashes in my writing. Ever since content creators started using ChatGPT to help (or supplement) their writing, em dashes have become indicators of AI use. Students are routinely caught with their pants down as professors flag an essay as AI-generated based on the presence of lists…
4735
LLMs tell bad jokes because they avoid surprises
LLMs suck at comedy, art, journalism, research, and science for the same fundamental reason
4736
4737
Universities should be more than toll gates
Personal writing by Walid Dib, and a collection of games, apps, and companies I’ve built.
4738
The forgotten meaning of "jerk"
Ben Lindbergh at the Ringer asks “When did jerk stop meaning ‘stupid’?” He starts with the Steve Martin movie The Jerk , saying of its protagonist:
4739
A few words about FiveThirtyEight
Silver Bulletin will begin publishing some new features soon — including Trump approval ratings. But the media just lost an extremely valuable resource.
4740
Grok 4.1
Grok 4.1 is now available to all users on grok.com, 𝕏, and the iOS and Android apps. It is rolling out immediately in Auto mode and can be selected explicitly as “Grok 4.1” in the model picker.