Atoms vs Bits
The Al Capone Problem
Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion, and didn't go to prison for tax evasion.
17 hours ago
Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion, and didn't go to prison for tax evasion.
Left To Write
#4 Writemas: When A Man Loves A Woman
Dear Ladies, I wish you could see inside a man’s head when he falls in love with a woman. It’s so...
13 hours ago
Dear Ladies, I wish you could see inside a man’s head when he falls in love with a woman. It’s so surreal and stunning that you’ve got to experience it to believe it. First, it starts small. He begins to notice things about her appearance. Like the curve of her small nose, the...
Trying to Understand...
Bringing It All Back Home
If we can't patronise them over there, we'll do it over here.
14 hours ago
If we can't patronise them over there, we'll do it over here.
Platformer
Google unveils Gemini
CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind's Demis Hassabis talk to Platformer about the promise — and product...
12 hours ago
CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind's Demis Hassabis talk to Platformer about the promise — and product roadmap — of their answer to GPT-4
Go - Bitfield...
Not a real developer
In the second part of my tell-all memoir, we find out why I was
constitutionally unsuited to...
18 hours ago
In the second part of my tell-all memoir, we find out why I was
constitutionally unsuited to employment in a structured environment, or
indeed any environment.
Sponsored
Sell your startup on Borderline.biz
Reach 4k+ interested buyers. Sell your startup on Borderline.biz.
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Reach 4k+ interested buyers. Sell your startup on Borderline.biz.
Quanta Magazine
‘A-Team’ of Math Proves a Critical Link Between Addition and Sets
A team of four prominent mathematicians, including two Fields medalists, proved a conjecture...
11 hours ago
A team of four prominent mathematicians, including two Fields medalists, proved a conjecture described as a “holy grail of additive combinatorics.”
The post ‘A-Team’ of Math Proves a Critical Link Between Addition and Sets first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Saturday Morning...
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Salty
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
We too have our seasons, Frosty.
Today's News:
12 hours ago
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
We too have our seasons, Frosty.
Today's News:
Rest of World -...
Influencers are getting young Nigerians hooked on online gambling
While sports betting is legal in Nigeria, experts say the government should have more oversight on...
16 hours ago
While sports betting is legal in Nigeria, experts say the government should have more oversight on the influencer culture.
Common Edge
How Madagascar Is Confronting Climate Change
The island nation is grappling with unique and formidable environmental challenges.
12 hours ago
The island nation is grappling with unique and formidable environmental challenges.
Alice GG
Detecting offensive words with Mistral AI 7B
When working on a simple one-time passphrase generator,
I stumbled upon the issue of offensive words...
15 hours ago
When working on a simple one-time passphrase generator,
I stumbled upon the issue of offensive words coming up in the output displayed to users.
To solve this problem, I needed a way to detect and filter them out automatically.
Do you really need an LLM for that?
The problem of...
The Honest Broker
In 2024, the Tension Between Macroculture and Microculture Will Turn into War
And I can already tell you who will win
5 hours ago
And I can already tell you who will win
diamond geezer
A skinflint's guide to visiting London's zoos
A skinflint's guide to visiting London's zoos
London Zoo is an acclaimed repository of...
20 hours ago
A skinflint's guide to visiting London's zoos
London Zoo is an acclaimed repository of globally-sourced animals, as well as a conservation hub and a prestige tourist attraction. But it's a bit pricey with tickets costing £27 on weekdays and £31 at weekends, or even more on the...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 11 – What Could Have Been
In his Substack this week, Dave Karpf concludes that the trajectory of any emerging technology bends...
22 hours ago
In his Substack this week, Dave Karpf concludes that the trajectory of any emerging technology bends toward money. Of course it does. Because, capitalism.
Karpf is in the midst of a chronological reread of the entire WIRED magazine corpus — of great interest to me, of...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Sue Lewry
How and where did you learn to print?
A decade ago, when I first stepped into a print workshop, I...
3 hours ago
How and where did you learn to print?
A decade ago, when I first stepped into a print workshop, I met print technician and artist India Ritchie, who taught me various printmaking methods while studying at Arts University Plymouth.
India taught me intaglio, relief, and screen...
AFAR Media - Travel...
7 Reasons To Explore South Africa by Land and Water
6 hours ago
TheCollector
Is Calvinism a Religion or a Philosophy?
undefined
15 hours ago
FIRE v London
Nov ’23 revalues the future
In the news It has been quite a busy month out there. The Israel/Gaza crisis continues. Public...
2 days ago
In the news It has been quite a busy month out there. The Israel/Gaza crisis continues. Public opinion is shifting against the Israel government here, even in North London – which would normally be one of the most sympathetic neighbourhoods outside Tel Aviv. The Ukrainians are...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
“That’s Another Podcast”
I’ve long been a fan of the Rich Ziade / Paul Ford podcast duo. They did Track Changes then The...
2 days ago
I’ve long been a fan of the Rich Ziade / Paul Ford podcast duo. They did Track Changes then The Postlight Podcast then The Aboard Podcast then Ziade+Ford, and now (again?) The Aboard Podcast.
Through all my listening, one thing I’ve noticed is that they often make comedic...
Mazdak
The Weight-Loss Gold Rush
A Race to Develop Blockbuster Obesity Drugs
2 days ago
A Race to Develop Blockbuster Obesity Drugs
GeoCurrents
Two Additional Maps on Urban Population Change in the United States
In October 2023, GeoCurrents ran several posts on the historical and recent population growth of...
2 days ago
In October 2023, GeoCurrents ran several posts on the historical and recent population growth of major American cities. These posts were envisioned at the time as the beginning of a large project on mapping the expansion of urbanism in the United States. That project, however,...
Flashbak
Cold Snapshots – Vintage Holiday Fun in the Snow and Ice
If you’ve not seen little people on vintage Christmas cards, please do. It’s a terrific collection...
2 days ago
If you’ve not seen little people on vintage Christmas cards, please do. It’s a terrific collection of images. A dip into Robert E. Jackson’s sublime collection of snapshots never disappoints. And when you’ve seen the cards, you should enjoy his pictures of revellers rocking...
Moneyness
Why do sanctioned entities use Tether?
Tether, a stablecoin, has been in the news for offering sanctioned actors such as Hamas a means to...
2 days ago
Tether, a stablecoin, has been in the news for offering sanctioned actors such as Hamas a means to participate in the global payments ecosystem.
In this post I want to explore in more depth how Tether is being used to dodge sanctions. I'm going to avoid drawing on the Hamas...
Blog - Practical...
Why Railroads Don't Need Expansion Joints
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
One of the most common...
2 days ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
One of the most common attributes folks imagine when they think of trains is the clickety-clack sound they make as they roll down the tracks. The thing is, most trains don’t make that sound anymore. Or really,...
Society's Backend
Always Be Networking
The things you should know about effective networking
2 days ago
The things you should know about effective networking
The Marginalian
Poetic Ecology and the Biology of Wonder
"The real disconnect is not between our human nature and all the other beings; it is between our...
2 days ago
"The real disconnect is not between our human nature and all the other beings; it is between our image of our nature and our real nature."
Citation Needed
Issue 45 – I'm the director now
Rising bitcoin prices bring echoes of the crypto mania from years past, and an ambitious hacker...
2 days ago
Rising bitcoin prices bring echoes of the crypto mania from years past, and an ambitious hacker decides to manifest a new job for themselves.
Andreessen Horowitz
Gate Unveiling with Jordi Mata-Fink
Jordi Mata-Fink, PhD, cofounder of Gate Bioscience, joins Vineeta Agarwala and Ben Portney of a16z...
2 days ago
Jordi Mata-Fink, PhD, cofounder of Gate Bioscience, joins Vineeta Agarwala and Ben Portney of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Jordi discusses how he and his cofounders are working to commercialize a novel class of therapeutics, termed “molecular gates.” His company, Gate, is...
This Space
The enigma for criticism
To this day, I can learn only from bad films. The good ones I watch in the same spirit in which I...
2 days ago
To this day, I can learn only from bad films. The good ones I watch in the same spirit in which I watched when I was a kid. The great ones, even when I see them many times, are just an enigma.
Werner Herzog describes a few "bad films" in his autobiography, all from his...
Londonist
Free Things To Do In London At Christmas
Budget-friendly Christmas events in the capital.
2 days ago
Budget-friendly Christmas events in the capital.
The Roots of...
Accelerating science through evolvable institutions
This is the written version of a talk presented to the Santa Fe Institute at a working group on...
3 days ago
This is the written version of a talk presented to the Santa Fe Institute at a working group on “Accelerating Science.”
We’re here to discuss “accelerating science.” I like to start on topics like this by taking the historical view: When (if ever) has science accelerated in the...
Diaries of Note
What a pack of lies intimate journals are
Charles Ritchie was a renowned Canadian diplomat whose career spanned some of the most significant...
3 days ago
Charles Ritchie was a renowned Canadian diplomat whose career spanned some of the most significant events of the 20th century and, at the time of writing this brief entry, saw him stationed in London during the tumult of World War II. Amidst the chaos, Ritchie meticulously...
Nat Eliason's Essays
Softening Our Inner Critic
Find nourishment in the weeds
3 days ago
Find nourishment in the weeds
Computer Things
When would you ever want bubblesort?
There are very few universal rules in software engineering, but there are are a lot of...
3 days ago
There are very few universal rules in software engineering, but there are are a lot of near-universal principles. Things like "prefer composition to inheritance" is near-universal. I love finding the rare situations where these principles don't hold, like where you do want...
Adventures In...
Make this 3D printed globe please
Ah, it’s that time of year when we geographers pour ourselves a steaming mug of hot coffee and place...
3 days ago
Ah, it’s that time of year when we geographers pour ourselves a steaming mug of hot coffee and place a stroopwafel over it until the caramel is nice and gooey and take the hand of other nearby geographers and sing O Denneboom together. Say, what’s with all the Dutch references?...
Business Brainstorms
💡 Business Brainstorms 💡- My favorite ideas of the week
#1 💡 Athletic Greens used to be a sketchy looking affiliate offer in 2011. Ranked #1 on Clickbank...
3 days ago
#1 💡 Athletic Greens used to be a sketchy looking affiliate offer in 2011. Ranked #1 on Clickbank and was promoted by every direct response marketer. Always inspiring to see humble beginnings like this and a good reminder that most businesses are not sexy from day 1.
CONTEMPORIST
Black Accents Contrast The Wood And White Material Palette Of This Home
Design and interior architecture firm EntreQuatreMurs (EQM) has completed the contemporary interiors...
3 days ago
Design and interior architecture firm EntreQuatreMurs (EQM) has completed the contemporary interiors of a home in Quebec, Canada, that was originally built in 1959. The house had not been renovated for several decades and featured typical enclosed rooms and small, narrow, dark...
NeuroLogica Blog
Living Under the Sea
One of my favorite recent video games is Subnautica, in which you have to survive almost entirely...
3 days ago
One of my favorite recent video games is Subnautica, in which you have to survive almost entirely under a vast alien ocean. You have the advantage of advanced technology, but even then you are under constant threat of running out of oxygen, or having your habitat implode because...
A Weekly Dose of...
Places in Time III
This third and most likely last installment in the inadvertent "Places in Time" series looks closely...
3 days ago
This third and most likely last installment in the inadvertent "Places in Time" series looks closely at three books: the first about Chicago from the Great Depression to the mid-1980s; the second one about the broader American built landscape over roughly the same period of time;...
Archinect - Features
Discussing Paid Research Opportunities for M.Arch Students at UW-Milwaukee SARUP
In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture &...
3 days ago
In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP) to unpack its Mellows Graduate Research Positions (formerly called the Mellowes Master’s Research Assistantships).
For the 2024-2025 school year, SARUP is...
Seth's Blog
The sixty-day staircase
In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That...
3 days ago
In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That thing you wished you had a said just a moment ago, the bon mot or the clever riposte. It only comes to us as we’re walking away. But this sort of quick comment is good for the...
Anecdotal Evidence
'The Moment Before the Germans Will Arrive'
A Jewish
friend writes: “The distraction of the war and its repercussions around the
world is making...
3 days ago
A Jewish
friend writes: “The distraction of the war and its repercussions around the
world is making concentration on other things difficult. . . . I wish I could tune the news out. But
the stakes for the future of Israel and of Jewish life generally are too great
for me to be...
Spoon & Tamago
Uenosuke Shitanosuke: Twin Tumblers that Fit Perfectly Together
For all the preaching on the health benefits of drinking more water, very few tools help us actually...
3 days ago
For all the preaching on the health benefits of drinking more water, very few tools help us actually achieve this. So when Taro Mukasa, an illustrator and toy designer at creative agency Zariganiworks came across a manga panel in which the protagonist declares that his hobby is...
ntietz.com blog
Profiling Rust programs the easy way
Performance is one of the big reasons to use Rust.
It's not a magic wand for performance, it just...
3 days ago
Performance is one of the big reasons to use Rust.
It's not a magic wand for performance, it just gives you the control to eke out whatever performance you need.
So if your program is still slow, how do you fix that?
Profiling your program is one of the best options for figuring...
PostHog's RSS Feed
The 9 best mobile app A/B testing tools
A/B tests are a great way to confirm that your product changes have the intended effects. When it...
3 days ago
A/B tests are a great way to confirm that your product changes have the intended effects. When it comes to mobile apps, there are many different A/B…
Cognitive...
Running Dolphin Locally with Ollama
Wanna chat with Dolphin locally? (no internet connection needed)
Here is the easy way -...
4 days ago
Wanna chat with Dolphin locally? (no internet connection needed)
Here is the easy way - Ollama.
install ollama. after you finsh you should be able to run ollama from the command line. Also you will see the ollama icon up top like this:
Iff you are curious - anytime you see that...
Nela Dunato Art &...
Nela Dunato Art & Design got a brand refresh!
My previous brand identity design lasted from 2015 until 2023, and it has served me quite well. But...
4 days ago
My previous brand identity design lasted from 2015 until 2023, and it has served me quite well. But my new professional photos sparked the need to overhaul the website, which led to a more substantial brand redesign including new typography and updated logo design. Come see what...
African History...
The myth of Mansa Musa's enslaved entourage
"Stories about his [Mansa Musa's] journey have numerous anecdotes which are not true and which the...
4 days ago
"Stories about his [Mansa Musa's] journey have numerous anecdotes which are not true and which the mind refuses to admit".
A Smart Bear
Change: Damned if you do, damned more if you don't
Everyone wants change, but doesn't want to change. Though inevitable, change is uncomfortable and...
4 days ago
Everyone wants change, but doesn't want to change. Though inevitable, change is uncomfortable and exhausting. Manage it with kindness.
Noahpinion
Vibes vs. data
It's asymmetric warfare out there.
4 days ago
It's asymmetric warfare out there.
Seeking Wisdom
Embeddings – Part 2
This is the 9th post in my series on building a toy GPT. For better understanding, I recommend...
4 days ago
This is the 9th post in my series on building a toy GPT. For better understanding, I recommend reading my earlier posts first. Word embeddings convert words into fixed-length numerical arrays. Each number in these arrays corresponds to a specific characteristic of the word, such...
Tech and Tea
This world was not built for working parents
and trying to find our way anyways in this season of life
5 days ago
and trying to find our way anyways in this season of life
Patrick Kayongo
Fourways Mall
It’s Saturday at 1:37pm. I’ve been sitting in the 2nd floor parking trying to muster the energy to...
5 days ago
It’s Saturday at 1:37pm. I’ve been sitting in the 2nd floor parking trying to muster the energy to walk in there to do everything on my to-do list: buy bread rolls for the kids’ lunch, new school shoes for Khanyi, check on the price of a new iron, and maybe just maybe upgrade my...
The Pragmatic...
A Tech Conference Listed Fake Speakers for Years: I Accidentally Noticed
For 3 years straight, the DevTernity conference listed non-existent Coinbase employees as featured...
5 days ago
For 3 years straight, the DevTernity conference listed non-existent Coinbase employees as featured speakers. When were they added and what could have the motivation been?
The Ruffian
Rattle Bag
History, learning, screw-ups, and suitcase-packing
5 days ago
History, learning, screw-ups, and suitcase-packing
mtlynch.io
Rough Experiments with Llamafile and LLaVA 1.5
I read Simon Willison’s post about using Llamafile to experiment with open-source chatbots / LLMs....
5 days ago
I read Simon Willison’s post about using Llamafile to experiment with open-source chatbots / LLMs. He made it sound so easy, so I decided to try it out.
One of my longtime hobby projects is WanderJest, a site for finding live comedy. One of the challenges of that site is that the...
SatPost by Trung...
Taylor Swift, Johnny Cash and AI Art
Context matters more than content in the age of AI-generated audio, images and videos.
5 days ago
Context matters more than content in the age of AI-generated audio, images and videos.
A Collection of...
Gap Week: December 1, 2023
No blog post this week, folks, as I am both fiercely busy and – by the time this goes up – out of...
6 days ago
No blog post this week, folks, as I am both fiercely busy and – by the time this goes up – out of town. We’ll be back to our regular schedule next week, with the next big topic I want to tackle being what a shield wall is and how it actually functions on a … Continue reading Gap...
Dreams of Space -...
World's First Intra-Space Stamp Album (1953)
A re-scan of an old favorite. This may be the oddest piece of space ephemera I have ever found. It...
6 days ago
A re-scan of an old favorite. This may be the oddest piece of space ephemera I have ever found. It is a stamp album of imaginary space stamps commemorating the planets and the atomic powered intra-solar rocket service that serves those planets. It was intended for "space...
Elad Blog
Video & transcript: Apoorva Metha, founder & former CEO, Instacart
Full video & transcript from Fireside chat with Apoorva Metha
6 days ago
Full video & transcript from Fireside chat with Apoorva Metha
Wuthering...
Books I read in November 2023
Recovery from surgery leads to a long list of books.
(Everything is going well, by the way,...
6 days ago
Recovery from surgery leads to a long list of books.
(Everything is going well, by the way, thanks).
My idea of a “comfort read” is a book on a subject about which I do not
know much – start me over at the beginning – thus my enthusiastic Indian
literature project, which is...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 043: Happy birthday, ChatGPT
December 1, 2023.
6 days ago
AI Snake Oil
Model alignment protects against accidental harms, not intentional ones
The hand wringing about failures of model alignment is misguided
6 days ago
The hand wringing about failures of model alignment is misguided
Arduino Blog
Real-time notifications and much more in the new Arduino IoT Cloud Remote app
Welcome to the next chapter of our ‘Better, with You’ journey! Now it is time to present the latest...
6 days ago
Welcome to the next chapter of our ‘Better, with You’ journey! Now it is time to present the latest updates to the IoT Remote app. These new features are all about making your time with your IoT projects smoother, more fun, and right at your fingertips. Let’s dive in! If you...
Old Structures...
A Hidden Surprise, But Not Really
The picture above shows the nearly-complete Astor Court Apartments, on Broadway between 89th and...
6 days ago
The picture above shows the nearly-complete Astor Court Apartments, on Broadway between 89th and 90th Street, in 1915. (As a side note, we’ve got some heavy hitters involved: the architect was Charles Platt, the contractor was Marc Eidlitz & Son, and the photographer was Irving...
Irrational...
Create technical leverage: workflow improvements & product capabilities
More than a decade ago, I typed up a few paragraphs of notes, titled it “Building Technical...
6 days ago
More than a decade ago, I typed up a few paragraphs of notes, titled it “Building Technical Leverage,” and proceeded to forget about it. Those notes were from a meeting with Kevin Scott, then SVP Engineering at LinkedIn, while we wandered the Valley trying to convince potential...
./techtipsy
Control - how to make a game enjoyable for casual audiences
I’ve decided to intentionally take more time to play video games this year,
since it’s a relatively...
6 days ago
I’ve decided to intentionally take more time to play video games this year,
since it’s a relatively healthy way to escape from the real world once in a while.
A friend recommended one game in particular: Control: Ultimate Edition.
During the Steam summer sale of 2023, I went...
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Racy git magic
Exploting a long-standing git bug for my own amusement.
And I think there is one known race: the...
a week ago
Exploting a long-standing git bug for my own amusement.
And I think there is one known race: the index mtime itself is not
race-free.
– Linus Torvalds, Re:git
bugs, 2008
A well-known race condition skulks through git’s plumbing.
And I can demo it via a git magic trick 🪄1
$ tree...
Farza's Newsletter
we bought a matcha machine and im caf'd out my mind help
what the hell is going on
a week ago
what the hell is going on
The Great Discontent...
Yashas Mitta
Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for...
a week ago
Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for much of his life, and his path from Bangalore, India to New York City has been a winding one driven by sheer stubbornness and a keen instinct for creating community wherever he goes....
Coding Horror
I Fight For The Users
If you haven't been able to keep up with my blistering pace of one blog post per year (if that), I...
a week ago
If you haven't been able to keep up with my blistering pace of one blog post per year (if that), I can't blame you. There's a lot going on right now. It's a busy time. But let's pause and take
The Modern House
Opportunity Knocks: seven homes with earning potential
We know not everyone coming to our site is in search of a new place to live – or at least not all...
a week ago
We know not everyone coming to our site is in search of a new place to live – or at least not all the time. And catering to your desires – always with good design at the front of our minds – is what we’re […]
informal
Informal’s 2023 Gift Guide
Shift holiday shopping into high gear with our curated shortlist of stellar products from companies...
a week ago
Shift holiday shopping into high gear with our curated shortlist of stellar products from companies that have worked with our informal freelance collective. The people and companies we work with, ...Read More
The post Informal’s 2023 Gift Guide appeared first on informal.
bunnie's blog
Winner, Name that Ware October 2023
The Ware for October 2023 is a Seiko DS-250 keyboard synthesizer. Nobody guessed the exact make and...
a week ago
The Ware for October 2023 is a Seiko DS-250 keyboard synthesizer. Nobody guessed the exact make and model of the keyboard, but it was really entertaining to see the comment thread puzzle through the design. The dual 8049’s caught my attention too, as well as the lack of obvious...
James Cheshire
COVID inquiry heard Boris Johnson ‘struggled’ with graphs – if you do too, here are some tips
James Cheshire, UCL and Rob Davidson, UCL In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific...
a week ago
James Cheshire, UCL and Rob Davidson, UCL In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, presented to the nation a graph showing “the shape of an epidemic”. The red line depicting the number of predicted COVID cases rose to a steep peak before...
Res Obscura
When technology follows art
From optics to machine learning, artists have played an important, if underrated, role in the...
a week ago
From optics to machine learning, artists have played an important, if underrated, role in the history of technology
The Rational Walk
The Digest #177
Remembering Charlie Munger
a week ago
Remembering Charlie Munger
Construction Physics
Could We Boost Housing Construction by Permitting ADUs Under the HUD Code?
To boost housing construction, some jurisdictions have adopted a new strategy: allowing the...
a week ago
To boost housing construction, some jurisdictions have adopted a new strategy: allowing the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs. ADUs, sometimes called “granny flats,” are small, secondary housing units built on the lots of existing single family homes – things like...
IEEE Spectrum
Why Are We Still Doing What Simon Says?
In 1976, Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison, two game designers, happened to see a trade show...
a week ago
In 1976, Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison, two game designers, happened to see a trade show demonstration of an Atari arcade game called Touch Me. The game’s waist-high cabinet featured four large buttons on the top, which lit up in random sequence; the player had to push the...
99% Invisible
The Known Unknown [EPISODE]
How to honor unidentified remains has always been one of the great conundrums of war. The Romans...
a week ago
How to honor unidentified remains has always been one of the great conundrums of war. The Romans were fond of honoring them with an empty sarcophagus. After the Civil War, the Union buried 2,111 soldiers in a mass grave in Arlington that they purposely built in the middle of...
The Rational Walk
Charlie Munger (1924 – 2023)
A life well lived
a week ago
Rozado’s Visual...
DepolarizingGPT
A Political Chatbot that Gives 3 Politically Diverse Answers to Every Prompt
a week ago
A Political Chatbot that Gives 3 Politically Diverse Answers to Every Prompt
I Have No Idea What...
6 pricing A/B tests I’ve run (and which ones worked)
How pricing experiments helped me reach $6,000 MRR
a week ago
How pricing experiments helped me reach $6,000 MRR
Engineer’s Codex
What developers should know from the OpenAI saga
3 key takeaways: a multi-model strategy's necessity, emerging AI infra, LLMs as abstractions.
a week ago
3 key takeaways: a multi-model strategy's necessity, emerging AI infra, LLMs as abstractions.
Nothing Human
Prayer over a new smartphone
Hello, phone. For many years, starting today, you will be my most loyal companion and my most...
a week ago
Hello, phone. For many years, starting today, you will be my most loyal companion and my most treasured possession. I will feel your weight in my pocket every moment of every day, a presence as constant as my breath. The muscles and bones of my hand, arm, and shoulder will deform...
Drew Ex Machina
NASA’s Explorer 18: The First Interplanetary Monitoring Platform
Among the greatest scientific achievements of the opening years of the Space Age was the...
a week ago
Among the greatest scientific achievements of the opening years of the Space Age was the characterization of Earth’s magnetic field and the discovery of what became […]
Daniel Bourke
The subtle shade of the clouds
Garlic takes six to seven months to grow.
I’m still working it out.
I planted my garlic too...
a week ago
Garlic takes six to seven months to grow.
I’m still working it out.
I planted my garlic too late.
Not the farm garlic though.
They’ve had practice.
Over a thousand bulbs this year, maybe more.
Tens of thousands of cloves.
Garlic is the biggest harvest of
nanoscale views
Noise in a strange metal - pushing techniques into new systems
Over the holiday weekend, we had a paper come out in which we report the results of measuring charge...
a week ago
Over the holiday weekend, we had a paper come out in which we report the results of measuring charge shot noise (see here also) in a strange metal. Other write-ups of the work (here and especially this nice article in Quanta here) do a good job of explaining what we saw, but I...
The Works in...
The End of Combustion Vehicles
The final section of Ch.2 of Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
a week ago
The final section of Ch.2 of Stewart Brand's Maintenance on Books in Progress
Beautiful Public...
Government Comic Books
Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and...
a week ago
Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and how soldiers should handle homosexuality in the military.
One Useful Thing
Reshaping the tree: rebuilding organizations for AI
Technological change brings organizational change.
a week ago
Technological change brings organizational change.
Doc Pop's Blog
#SidewalkFriends: Bride Of Frankenstein
I like to keep my eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for...
a week ago
I like to keep my eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon. A dry section of the sidewalk on a wet day was the inspiration for this week’s Sidewalk Friends sketch. A new...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Let’s Talk About Obesity Drugs | Out-Of-Pocket
we're entering a new era for these treatments
a week ago
we're entering a new era for these treatments
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Are design ethics useless?
Have you worked in digital design for a while? I bet you’ve been under pressure to apply deceptive...
a week ago
Have you worked in digital design for a while? I bet you’ve been under pressure to apply deceptive design patterns...
Passing Time
Alpine Starts II
Or: Thanksgiving in the Mountains
a week ago
Or: Thanksgiving in the Mountains
journal – Winnie Lim
psychological health vs physical health
Travelling keeps me sane. It is only on this trip that I realised how much my brain craves being in...
a week ago
Travelling keeps me sane. It is only on this trip that I realised how much my brain craves being in some sort of engagement, and travelling is a way to keep it...
Electronics etc…
Analyzing the Monoprice Blackbird HDCP 2.2 to 1.4 Down Converter
Introduction
Some Words about HDCP
Inside the Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro
The Test
Digging Deeper:...
a week ago
Introduction
Some Words about HDCP
Inside the Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro
The Test
Digging Deeper: UART Transactions
Decoding HDCP I2C Transactions
The Legality of It All
References
Footnotes
Introduction
I got my hands on a
Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro HDCP 2.2 to 1.4...
Bits about Money
The Bond villain compliance strategy
Jurisdictional gamesmanship is a common strategy for crypto businesses. Here is how it worked out...
a week ago
Jurisdictional gamesmanship is a common strategy for crypto businesses. Here is how it worked out for Binance and its CEO. Spoiler: poorly.
XO Capital - Field...
Two Weeks Into Journey.io
Happy Turkey Day! 🦃
Hope you all have taken some time off and gotten a bit of rest.
Journey is...
a week ago
Happy Turkey Day! 🦃
Hope you all have taken some time off and gotten a bit of rest.
Journey is XO's 11th acquisition. Let's take a look at what has been accomplished so far in the past two weeks.
Acquisition #11 - Journey.io (aka Don&
Val Sopi
AI will make humans better
<p><i>Context: Read <a...
a week ago
<p><i>Context: Read <a href="https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chatgpt-making-things-faster-and-easier/" target="_blank">Nick Cave's letter</a> first.</i></p>
<p><i></i>—</p>
<p>ChatGPT (or similar) are just tools!</p>
<p>Nothing more.</p>
<p>They're akin to when tools...
Sean Carroll
Thanksgiving
This year we give thanks for a feature of nature that is frequently misunderstood: quanta. (We’ve...
a week ago
This year we give thanks for a feature of nature that is frequently misunderstood: quanta. (We’ve previously given thanks for the Standard Model Lagrangian, Hubble’s Law, the Spin-Statistics Theorem, conservation of momentum, effective field theory, the error bar, gauge...
Alex MacCaw
Unshackling Artificial Minds
Humans, by nature, seem to be drawn to pessimism. It's a tendency rooted deep within us, a product...
a week ago
Humans, by nature, seem to be drawn to pessimism. It's a tendency rooted deep within us, a product of Entropy, the law of nature that dictates it is easier to destroy than to create.
And here we are, on the cusp of creating not just something new, but
Identity Designed
Norfolk Coast
Designed by Lantern, London.
a week ago
Designed by Lantern, London.
Julia Evans
git branches: intuition & reality
Hello! I’ve been thinking about git branches a lot, and I keep hearing from
people that they find...
a week ago
Hello! I’ve been thinking about git branches a lot, and I keep hearing from
people that they find the way git branches work to be counterintuitive. It got
me thinking: what might an “intuitive” notion of a branch be, and how is it
different from how git actually works?
So in...
Mark Manson
3 Hard Truths You Need to Hear
Welcome to the realm of uncomfortable truths, where I, Mark Manson, will make you question...
a week ago
Welcome to the realm of uncomfortable truths, where I, Mark Manson, will make you question everything you've ever believed in.
Buckle up, buttercup. Let's dive into the rabbit hole of reality.
Remember the past you? The one with embarrassing beliefs and naïve ideas? Well, guess...
High Signal
Black Friday 2023 deals for entrepreneurs
Here's a list of some of the best Black Friday discounts for entrepreneurs and developers. This page...
2 weeks ago
Here's a list of some of the best Black Friday discounts for entrepreneurs and developers. This page contains affiliate links.
Courses
Grow and Monetize your Newsletter - 60% off
Monetize Your Newsletter - 60% off
Grow Your Newsletter - 60% off
WesBos - Beginner JavaScript -...
Vadim Kravcenko
Dealing with Failures and Postmortems
On August 1, 2012, Knight Capital Group suffered a severe trading loss due to a software error. A...
2 weeks ago
On August 1, 2012, Knight Capital Group suffered a severe trading loss due to a software error. A technician’s failure […]
The post Dealing with Failures and Postmortems appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Commoncog
Commoncog's Next Phase
Announcing the launch of the Commoncog Case Library, setting the Learning in Ill-Structured Domains...
2 weeks ago
Announcing the launch of the Commoncog Case Library, setting the Learning in Ill-Structured Domains series free, and one more thing.
The Rational Walk
Buffett Accelerates Gifts to Family Foundations
For the second year in a row, Warren Buffett has made gifts to four family foundations in excess of...
2 weeks ago
For the second year in a row, Warren Buffett has made gifts to four family foundations in excess of the annual commitments pledged in 2006.
High Signal
Selling a website after learning to code with AI
Andrew Davison is a British founder who built and sold an app by learning to code with ChatGPT. He...
2 weeks ago
Andrew Davison is a British founder who built and sold an app by learning to code with ChatGPT. He had a problem with exporting multiple tables from Airtable databases so he built a tool to help him automate the process. Andrew used new tools like ChatGPT and Replit to a)
Cheese and Biscuits
Little Cellars, Camberwell
Having enjoyed the original Peckham Cellars very much, I eagerly jumped on a very kind invitation to...
2 weeks ago
Having enjoyed the original Peckham Cellars very much, I eagerly jumped on a very kind invitation to their new Camberwell offshoot. Little Cellars is aptly named - there's a couple of high tables for 6 in the middle of the room and 8 lower seats arranged looking out of the two...
devonzuegel.com
A libertarian just won the Argentinian presidency – how did that happen?
If you're wondering how the heck a hardline libertarian just won the Argentinian presidential...
2 weeks ago
If you're wondering how the heck a hardline libertarian just won the Argentinian presidential election, here's some background.
First, a key fact is that the government is printing money at an accelerating rate, resulting in 143% annual inflation as of the most recent count....
devonzuegel.com
A libertarian just won Argentina's presidency... what's going on?
If you're wondering how the heck a hardline libertarian just won the Argentinian presidential...
2 weeks ago
If you're wondering how the heck a hardline libertarian just won the Argentinian presidential election, here's some background.
First, a key fact is that the government is printing money at an accelerating rate, resulting in 143% annual inflation as of the most recent count. The...
The Rational Walk
The Digest #176
Found Money, OpenAI drama, GLP-1 drug studies, Estée Lauder, Heart valve technology, Edwin Land,...
2 weeks ago
Found Money, OpenAI drama, GLP-1 drug studies, Estée Lauder, Heart valve technology, Edwin Land, John Oliver skewers dollar stores, Apple regrets, The Great Books Journal
Res Obscura
Margaret Mead, Technocracy, and the origins of AI's ideological divide
The anthropologist helped popularize both techno-optimism and the concept of existential risk
2 weeks ago
The anthropologist helped popularize both techno-optimism and the concept of existential risk
Tony Dinh's...
Why I run Black Friday deals (things I learned)
I also curated 300+ Black Friday deals for you
2 weeks ago
I also curated 300+ Black Friday deals for you
👋 Hello, I'm...
Why I started consulting, why you should too, and why you need to be your own customer!...
2 weeks ago
Oxide Computer...
A Gap in the TrustZone preset settings for the LPC55S69
We’re very excited to have announced
the general availability of our cloud computer. As part of this...
2 weeks ago
We’re very excited to have announced
the general availability of our cloud computer. As part of this work, we
continue to build on top of the LPC55S69 from NXP as our Root of Trust. We’ve
discovered some gaps when using TrustZone preset settings on the LPC55S69 that
can allow for...
Contemporist...
A Home Filled With Rustic Italian Charm Was The Client's Request For This Renovation
Architecture and interior design studio Bradley VanDerStraeten has shared photos of a Victorian...
2 weeks ago
Architecture and interior design studio Bradley VanDerStraeten has shared photos of a Victorian terrace house renovation in London, England, that was designed with Italian charm, and centered around a sociable kitchen and its pantry.
Engineer’s Codex
Clever code is probably the worst code you could write
And clear, readable code is probably the hardest code to write
2 weeks ago
And clear, readable code is probably the hardest code to write
One Useful Thing
Not much is changing, a lot is changing
OpenAI, Microsoft, and the OpenOffspring
2 weeks ago
OpenAI, Microsoft, and the OpenOffspring
Quantum Frontiers
The power of awe
Mid-afternoon, one Saturday late in September, I forgot where I was. I forgot that I was visiting...
2 weeks ago
Mid-afternoon, one Saturday late in September, I forgot where I was. I forgot that I was visiting Seattle for the second time; I forgot that I’d just finished co-organizing a workshop partially about nuclear physics for the first time. I’d … Continue reading →
Patterns in Humanity
Man the Hunter
Are our stereotypes about hunter-gatherer societies outdated?
2 weeks ago
Are our stereotypes about hunter-gatherer societies outdated?
Evan Jones -...
Setenv is not Thread Safe and C Doesn't Want to Fix It
You can't safely use the C setenv() or unsetenv() functions in a program that uses threads. Those...
2 weeks ago
You can't safely use the C setenv() or unsetenv() functions in a program that uses threads. Those functions modify global state, and can cause other threads calling getenv() to crash. This also causes crashes in other languages that use those C standard library functions, such as...
journal – Winnie Lim
osaka, and thoughts on travel blogging
We were surprised to discover that Osaka has quite a number of outdoor dining options. Our first...
2 weeks ago
We were surprised to discover that Osaka has quite a number of outdoor dining options. Our first meal was okonomiyaki of course, and my partner found a okonomiyaki restaurant with outdoor seating:...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
St. Mary’s (and Calvert), Maryland
County counting becomes increasingly difficult as I continue my glacially slow progress. Now it...
2 weeks ago
County counting becomes increasingly difficult as I continue my glacially slow progress. Now it takes more than five hours to reach the closest unvisited county from my home. Fortunately I found a workaround by shifting my focus to overnight county visits. There are plenty of...
the singularity is...
Imitation Learning
7 years ago I started comma.ai with a simple idea.
Gather tons of human driving data, state action...
2 weeks ago
7 years ago I started comma.ai with a simple idea.
Gather tons of human driving data, state action pairs: (S_t, A_t)
Train a supervised model f(S_t) -> A_t
Drive cars with that model.
The exact original formulation was a model that predicts steering angle from image, then used a...
XO Capital - Field...
XO Cap Oct 2023 Update
Spotify Amazon Apple
This week Danny Takes over for our (slightly delayed) Oct 2023 update!
0:00...
2 weeks ago
Spotify Amazon Apple
This week Danny Takes over for our (slightly delayed) Oct 2023 update!
0:00 Alrighty, a little bit overdue it's the tenth already but wanted to do a recap of October for us. Again, this is, this is reported from Stripes.
0:16
Castles in the Sky
Those who support you may not support your art.
Castles in the Sky #43
2 weeks ago
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Maternity Care and Payer Contracting with Marta Bralic Kerns | Out-Of-Pocket
and some good tips for consultants working at startups
2 weeks ago
and some good tips for consultants working at startups
Construction Physics
How the Gas Turbine Conquered the Electric Power Industry
A prophecy expressed frequently in engineering circles at the present day is that turbines actuated...
2 weeks ago
A prophecy expressed frequently in engineering circles at the present day is that turbines actuated by hot gases, other than steam, will eventually come to the front as prime movers. — A Scientific Investigation Into the Possibilities of Gas-Turbines,
IEEE Spectrum
Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies...
2 weeks ago
The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies including the Alto—the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface—and the first laser printer.
The PARC facility also is known for the invention of Ethernet, a...
Commoncog
Colin Bryar on the practice of Amazon's Weekly Business Review
Cedric talks to Colin Bryar, early Amazon executive and former shadow to Jeff Bezos, on one of...
2 weeks ago
Cedric talks to Colin Bryar, early Amazon executive and former shadow to Jeff Bezos, on one of Amazon's secret operational weapons: the Weekly Business Review.
A Beautiful Site
Thoughts on Framework Churn
I often worry about framework churn. A lot. But using a framework isn't a bad thing. After all, they...
3 weeks ago
I often worry about framework churn. A lot. But using a framework isn't a bad thing. After all, they save time. They help you build things faster.
Yes, there are costs associated with frameworks later on, especially as new versions come out and your app instantly feels like...
The Works in...
Issue 13: Deep heat
Plus: the cocktail revolution, how war improved European states, and the mathematical basis of the...
3 weeks ago
Plus: the cocktail revolution, how war improved European states, and the mathematical basis of the Industrial Revolution
Working Theories
Big TAM Founders, Small TAM Startups
What's one way to maximize your startup's chance of success? Be a big TAM founder working on a...
3 weeks ago
What's one way to maximize your startup's chance of success? Be a big TAM founder working on a smaller TAM startup.
Cheese and Biscuits
The Devonshire, Soho
There's no avoiding the fact, and there's no point dancing around it. There's no need for lengthy,...
3 weeks ago
There's no avoiding the fact, and there's no point dancing around it. There's no need for lengthy, thoughtful or measured arguments; no sense in analysing the details. There needs to be no slow and steady building of a case, culminating in a grand and weighty conclusion. The...
Matt Mazur
Exploring ChatGPT’s Knowledge Cutoff
A recurring topic of discussion on the OpenAI forums, on Reddit, and on Twitter is about what...
3 weeks ago
A recurring topic of discussion on the OpenAI forums, on Reddit, and on Twitter is about what ChatGPT’s knowledge cutoff date actually is. It seems like it should be straightforward enough to figure out (just ask it), but it can be confusing due to ChatGPT’s inconsistent answers...
The Rational Walk
Finding Your Life’s Work
The majority of people never find their "life's work", yet the premise of paying hundreds of...
3 weeks ago
The majority of people never find their "life's work", yet the premise of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a college degree assumes that they will.
Many Worlds
Many Worlds Archive is Available
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS...
3 weeks ago
I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column — sponsored by NASA’s NExSS initiative and the Lunar & Planetary Institute — for almost eight years. But the run came to an end in October. Now an archive of the more than 400 columns is easily available at...
The Berkeley...
Ghostbuster: Detecting Text Ghostwritten by Large Language Models
The structure of Ghostbuster, our new state-of-the-art method for detecting AI-generated...
3 weeks ago
The structure of Ghostbuster, our new state-of-the-art method for detecting AI-generated text.
Large language models like ChatGPT write impressively well—so well, in fact, that they’ve become a problem. Students have begun using these models to ghostwrite assignments, leading...
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