Society's Backend
Things Everyone Should Understand About the Stanford AI Index Report
And my notes on why they’re important
22 hours ago
And my notes on why they’re important
Computer Things
"Testing can show the presence of bugs but not the absence"
Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! — Edgar...
17 hours ago
Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! — Edgar Dijkstra, Notes on Structured Programming
Dijkstra was famous for his spicy quips; he'd feel right at home on tech social media. He said things he knows aren't absolutely true but...
Atoms vs Bits
80/20 Meditation
Part of our 80/20 series
sit on a cushion for 20 mins per day
focus on your sensory experiences...
4 hours ago
Part of our 80/20 series
sit on a cushion for 20 mins per day
focus on your sensory experiences (touch, sight, smell, sound). Try to perceive them as accurately as possible [1] [2] [3]
footnotes:
is that really all? on one level, yes -- both in the sense that
Trying to Understand...
Ukraine: A Guide For The Perplexed
Part One, anyway. More next week.
an hour ago
Part One, anyway. More next week.
Matt Mazur
It’s Time to Build
It’s been a few months so I wanted to say hey to the 7 of you who follow this blog and share a few...
yesterday
It’s been a few months so I wanted to say hey to the 7 of you who follow this blog and share a few updates about what I’ve been up to. Quick recap At the start of 2023 I quit consulting to go full time on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker, after growing it on … Continue reading...
This Space
39 Books: Introducing a blog series
In 1985, I read two books. The following year I read a lot more, and it was then I began to keep a...
yesterday
In 1985, I read two books. The following year I read a lot more, and it was then I began to keep a list of each book I finished. I've kept the list ever since. In this blog series I will choose one book from each of the 39 years and write whatever occurs to me and post whatever...
Commoncog
The Limits of Operational Excellence
An answer to a puzzle: why is that some businesses go down the Deming path, become data driven,...
yesterday
An answer to a puzzle: why is that some businesses go down the Deming path, become data driven, achieve operational excellence, and die, and others acquire Process Power and win?
alexwlchan
Taking scheduled screenshots of my website
A few weeks ago I was reading the DPC Bit List, an inventory of digital materials and the risks...
yesterday
A few weeks ago I was reading the DPC Bit List, an inventory of digital materials and the risks associated with their long-term preservation.
What formats need urgent attention before they’re lost forever, what mediums are already being well-preserved, and so on.
For example,...
Wuthering...
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's La plus secrète mémoire des hommes - one of his objectives was to be original...
La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (2021) by
Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, published in...
yesterday
La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (2021) by
Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, published in English as The Most
Secret History of Men (2023), is the first imitation of Roberto Bolaño I
have seen outside of Latin American literature.
Many reviews note that Sarr’s novel is...
Saturday Morning...
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Good News
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
The silver lining is due to cesium...
2 days ago
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
The silver lining is due to cesium contamination.
Today's News:
Engineer’s Codex
4 Software Design Principles I Learned the Hard Way
If there’s two sources of truth, one is probably wrong. And yes, please repeat yourself.
2 days ago
If there’s two sources of truth, one is probably wrong. And yes, please repeat yourself.
Archinect - Features
Happy National Volunteer Week! Here's a resource guide for architects and designers looking...
This week, from April 21–27, is officially National Volunteer Week in the United States. To...
2 days ago
This week, from April 21–27, is officially National Volunteer Week in the United States. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Archinect has curated a handy guide of resources for architects looking to donate their time and skills to various causes that will ultimately lead to...
Business Brainstorms
💡 Business Brainstorms 💡- My favorite ideas of the week
#1 💡 It’s an easy trap to start making excuses when sales velocity is slow. It’s almost always a...
2 days ago
#1 💡 It’s an easy trap to start making excuses when sales velocity is slow. It’s almost always a symptom of a fundamental issue, not an unchangeable feature of the system. The one things missing from the growth model described here is prompts. In Brian Fogg’s model: B = MAP,...
@Westenberg Feed -...
Audit your obligations.
We like to think we’re free.
Don’t we?
Free to choose our path, pursue our dreams, and be who we...
2 days ago
We like to think we’re free.
Don’t we?
Free to choose our path, pursue our dreams, and be who we want to be.
But for most of us, that freedom is an illusion.
We’re so tied up in the shit that we don’t want to do, the shit we trapped ourselves into, that our freedom is long...
Common Edge
The ‘Social Landscapes’ of Lee Friedlander
For six decades, the photographer’s ability to offer a complex narrative about America in a single...
2 days ago
For six decades, the photographer’s ability to offer a complex narrative about America in a single image was always unique.
One Useful Thing
Innovation through prompting
Democratizing educational technology... and more
2 days ago
Democratizing educational technology... and more
bunnie's blog
Automated Stitching of Chip Images
This is the final post in a series about non-destructively inspecting chips with the IRIS...
2 days ago
This is the final post in a series about non-destructively inspecting chips with the IRIS (Infra-Red, in-situ) technique. Here are links to previous posts: This post will cover the software used to stitch together smaller images generated by the control software into a single...
History Today Feed
The Prophecies of Merlin
The Prophecies of Merlin
JamesHoare
Mon, 04/22/2024 - 11:22
2 days ago
The Prophecies of Merlin
JamesHoare
Mon, 04/22/2024 - 11:22
Rest of World -...
Why African tech companies are ditching Google for a small Indian competitor
Zoho has positioned itself as a cheaper alternative to Google and Microsoft, attracting the...
2 days ago
Zoho has positioned itself as a cheaper alternative to Google and Microsoft, attracting the attention of African startup founders.
Anecdotal Evidence
'Give Him the Darkest Inch Your Shelf Allows'
Its 1,498
pages tip the scales at 3.2 pounds: Collected
Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson,...
2 days ago
Its 1,498
pages tip the scales at 3.2 pounds: Collected
Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson, originally published in 1929. At Kaboom Books I bought the twelfth printing, from 1959. The dustjacket is a little
frayed around the edges but the book is otherwise sturdy. It collects the...
Seeking Wisdom
Modeling Life: Oscillation
This is my 3rd post summarizing the key takeaways I got from reading the book Modeling Life. I...
2 days ago
This is my 3rd post summarizing the key takeaways I got from reading the book Modeling Life. I recommend reading my earlier posts first to get a good grounding on the foundations covered in the book. A system can exhibit three different types of behavior: equilibrium,...
Renegade Otter
AI - SkyNet Is Not Coming to Kill You
.highlight pre {
background-color: #efecec;
border-color:...
2 days ago
.highlight pre {
background-color: #efecec;
border-color: var(--theme-secondary-background-color);
border-radius: 10px;
}
The firehose of data is turned on
In the beginning, the Internet was a small, cozy place. Most people weren’t online, and most businesses...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 5 (Venturing West)
My second day of county counting focused west of Dayton, once again targeting five new counties....
3 days ago
My second day of county counting focused west of Dayton, once again targeting five new counties. This time I planned to capture Butler and Darke counties in Ohio; and Union, Fayette, and Randolph counties in Indiana. Hopefully this excursion would also take about three hours like...
Internal Tech Emails
Bill Gates: "The quality is giving us a bad name"
I don’t know how unique I am but my experience in clicking on streaming media stuff and seeing if it...
3 days ago
I don’t know how unique I am but my experience in clicking on streaming media stuff and seeing if it works is still less than 50%.
Flashbak
East of the Sun and West of the Moon With Illustrations by Kay Nielsen, 1914
Kay Nielsen (March 12, 1886 – June 21, 1957) was a Danish illustrator best known for his work for...
3 days ago
Kay Nielsen (March 12, 1886 – June 21, 1957) was a Danish illustrator best known for his work for Disney, for whom he contributed many story sketches and illustrations, not least the nightmarish, eerie and delicate Bald Mountain scenes for the animated movie Fantasia (1940). But...
African History...
The radical philosophy of the Hatata: a 17th century treatise by the Ethiopian thinker Zara Yacob
the historical context of the Hatata in African philosophy.
3 days ago
the historical context of the Hatata in African philosophy.
CONTEMPORIST
A Stepped Brick Extension Makes Space For A Soft Warm Blush Kitchen
Architecture and interior design firm Bradley Van Der Straeten, has shared photos of a home in...
3 days ago
Architecture and interior design firm Bradley Van Der Straeten, has shared photos of a home in England that received a new stepped brick extension with views of the garden. When the front door is open, you can see all the way through to the rear garden. A stepped form took shape...
Engineers Need Art
VPX Scripting - Part 5 (DOF)
Some light Visual Pinball debugging and the world of DOF. New to DOF? Read on.
3 days ago
Some light Visual Pinball debugging and the world of DOF. New to DOF? Read on.
The Pragmatic...
How does ChatGPT work? As explained by the ChatGPT team.
For those of us who have not spent the past few years building ChatGPT from the ground up, how does...
3 days ago
For those of us who have not spent the past few years building ChatGPT from the ground up, how does it work? From Evan Morikawa, who leads the Applied engineering team at OpenAI
A Smart Bear
It's a torturous chaos until it isn't
Even at wildly successful startups, the first few years are gut-wrenching, uncertain, on the brink...
3 days ago
Even at wildly successful startups, the first few years are gut-wrenching, uncertain, on the brink of collapse, where pessimism is realism, and yet optimism is required.
journal – Winnie Lim
one-year covid anniversary reflections
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the day I tested positive for covid for the first time....
3 days ago
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the day I tested positive for covid for the first time. All things considered I thought I had done well to avoid it for three years...
Tinloof - Blog
How to design an accessible carousel (part 1)
This series of articles is made out of two parts:
In this first article, we provide a comprehensive...
3 days ago
This series of articles is made out of two parts:
In this first article, we provide a comprehensive guide to designing an intuitive and universally accessible carousel for any web project.
In the second part, we'll focus on the development approach, walking you through...
Spoon & Tamago
Japan Quietly Shines at Milan Design Week
Milan Design Week—Coachella, but for furniture—is running this week from April 16-21. All the...
4 days ago
Milan Design Week—Coachella, but for furniture—is running this week from April 16-21. All the biggest names and brands in the design world descend upon the Italian city, which sees its population swell by nearly 25%. Now in its 62nd iteration, the design extravaganza is an...
The Honest Broker
What Is Really Inside the Briefcase in 'Pulp Fiction'?
Here's the latest installment of my book 'Music to Raise the Dead'—currently available only on...
4 days ago
Here's the latest installment of my book 'Music to Raise the Dead'—currently available only on Substack
diamond geezer
BBC2@60
60years@BBC2
1964 Play School, Horizon, Match Of The Day, Not Only But Also; 1965 Call My Bluff, Man...
4 days ago
60years@BBC2
1964 Play School, Horizon, Match Of The Day, Not Only But Also; 1965 Call My Bluff, Man Alive; 1966 The Money Programme, Chronicle, Cathy Come Home; 1967 The Forsyte Saga, Look and Read, colour televison; 1968 Gardeners' World, The Morecambe & Wise Show; 1969 Q, Pot...
Vadim Kravcenko
10x Engineers vs -10x Burdens
Question:
Answer:
The post 10x Engineers vs -10x Burdens appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
4 days ago
Question:
Answer:
The post 10x Engineers vs -10x Burdens appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Noahpinion
How Latin America started to beat inequality
It can be done.
4 days ago
The Ruffian
27 Takes On What It Means To Be a Serious Person
Plus a rattle bag of goodies
4 days ago
Plus a rattle bag of goodies
SatPost by Trung...
Roger Ebert, MKBHD and the Job of a Critic
The best critics (or reviewers) educate, entertain and help us spend our time better.
5 days ago
The best critics (or reviewers) educate, entertain and help us spend our time better.
99% Invisible
The Power Broker #04: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [EPISODE]
This is the fourth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize...
5 days ago
This is the fourth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman and Elliott also sit down with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the U.S. representative for New York’s 14th...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 063: Llama 3
April 19, 2024.
5 days ago
The Works in...
How Israel turned homeowners into YIMBYs
A housing success story
5 days ago
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Herman's...
How the internet became shit
I recently replaced the battery on my iPhone 8 (it's the perfect smartphone; fight me) in an attempt...
5 days ago
I recently replaced the battery on my iPhone 8 (it's the perfect smartphone; fight me) in an attempt to prolong its life by a few more years. However, the iStore service centre required that the phone be wiped to comply with the POPIA act prior to any kind of service work...
Contemporist...
This New House Was Designed To Fit Into A Protected Historic Neighborhood
Architecture firm FLOWER, together with interior design studio Saltwolf, has completed a new home in...
5 days ago
Architecture firm FLOWER, together with interior design studio Saltwolf, has completed a new home in Boulder, Colorado, whose design was inspired by the nearby historic houses in the neighborhood.
A Collection of...
Gap Week: April 19, 2024 (Manor Lords First Impression)
Hey folks, this week is a bit of a gap week as I am heading out to the annual meeting of the Society...
5 days ago
Hey folks, this week is a bit of a gap week as I am heading out to the annual meeting of the Society for Military History (and, indeed, by the time you read this, I will be there). Normally, I post the abstract of my conference talk for these sorts of things, but since I …...
David Heinemeier...
We are a place of business
After the disastrous launch of their Gemini AI, which insisted that George Washington was actually...
5 days ago
After the disastrous launch of their Gemini AI, which insisted that George Washington was actually Black and couldn't decide whether Musk's tweets or Hitler was worse, Google's response was timid and weak. This was just a bug! A problem with QA! It absolutely, positively wasn't a...
Essays - Benedict...
Looking for AI use-cases
We’ve had ChatGPT for 18 months, but what’s it for? What are the use-cases?
Why isn’t it useful...
5 days ago
We’ve had ChatGPT for 18 months, but what’s it for? What are the use-cases?
Why isn’t it useful for everyone, right now? Do Large Language Models
become universal tools that can do ‘any’ task, or do we wrap them in
single-purpose apps, and build thousands of new companies...
NeuroLogica Blog
New Generation of Electric Robots
Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These...
5 days ago
Boston Dynamics (now owned by Hyundai) has revealed its electric version of its Atlas robot. These robot videos always look impressive, but at the very least we know that we are seeing the best take. We don’t know how many times the robot failed to get the one great video. There...
Moneyness
Thoughts on the Tornado Cash defence and what happens when everyone adopts it
Payments companies are regularly punished for engaging in money laundering. MoneyGram, for instance,...
5 days ago
Payments companies are regularly punished for engaging in money laundering. MoneyGram, for instance, has has to pay multiple fines. Western Union was famously busted in 2017. Meanwhile, Cash App is being probed as we speak for inadequate anti-money laundering controls.
In the...
Old Structures...
Winding
This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Bdwy winding all thru T-Sq.” and it definitely shows...
5 days ago
This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Bdwy winding all thru T-Sq.” and it definitely shows Broadway and Times Square, although I have some quibbles about “winding.” This view is looking north and a little bit west, probably taken from a window on a high floor of 1450...
Laetitia@Work
What if generative AI was actually underwhelming?
Laetitia@Work #69
5 days ago
Dan Slimmon
Garden-path incidents
Barb’s story It’s 12 noon on a Minneapolis Wednesday, which means Barb can be found at Quang. As the...
6 days ago
Barb’s story It’s 12 noon on a Minneapolis Wednesday, which means Barb can be found at Quang. As the waiter sets down Barb’s usual order (#307, the Bun Chay, extra spicy), Barb’s nostrils catch the heavenly aroma of peanuts and scallions and red chiles. A wave of calm moves...
IEEE Spectrum
50 Years Later, This Apollo-Era Antenna Still Talks to Voyager 2
For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they...
6 days ago
For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line...
Classical Wisdom
Important Notification
New Cabins *NOW* Available
6 days ago
New Cabins *NOW* Available
Data Boutique
The Web Data Landscape Map: Visualizing The Ecosystem
Mapping actors and solutions
6 days ago
Mapping actors and solutions
Both Are True
the detonator
no, i will not 'grieve' my pre-parent self
6 days ago
no, i will not 'grieve' my pre-parent self
TheCollector
What is Pantheism in Art?
undefined
6 days ago
Seth's Blog
Dreams, plans and contradictions
Dreams are fine. And dreams involve contradictions. We want this AND that, but both can’t happen....
6 days ago
Dreams are fine. And dreams involve contradictions. We want this AND that, but both can’t happen. That’s what keeps them from being plans. Plans embrace boundaries and reality, they don’t ignore them. Plans thrive on scarcity and constraints. Plans are open for inspection, and a...
Out-of-Pocket Blog
Musings on CVS, two-way negotiation, and dynamic pricing | Out-Of-Pocket
+ we're hosting another dinner! and courses ending!
6 days ago
+ we're hosting another dinner! and courses ending!
AFAR Media - Travel...
Five Great Places to Visit on Your Next Vacation to Florida
6 days ago
Arduino Blog
Machine learning makes fabric buttons practical
The entire tech industry is desperate for a practical wearable HMI (Human Machine Interface) right...
6 days ago
The entire tech industry is desperate for a practical wearable HMI (Human Machine Interface) right now. The most newsworthy devices at CES this year were the Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin, both of which are attempts to streamline wearable interfaces with and for AI. Both have...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Lisa Stubbs
Hi, I'm a printmaker and illustrator living in the Holme Valley in Yorkshire, with a little print...
a week ago
Hi, I'm a printmaker and illustrator living in the Holme Valley in Yorkshire, with a little print studio in the neighbouring Colne valley.
Describe your printmaking process.
Playful and experimental! I love being curious during my process, combining different processes together...
Working Theorys
The Taste Discount
Everything is easier when tastes align.
a week ago
Everything is easier when tastes align.
Nat Eliason's Essays
The Window of Opportunity is Here
Don't get stuck in neutral
a week ago
Don't get stuck in neutral
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Consistent Navigation Across My Inconsistent Websites
Anything I ship to my personal domain jim-nielsen.com is made using IDD: impulse driven...
a week ago
Anything I ship to my personal domain jim-nielsen.com is made using IDD: impulse driven development.
I can convince myself that just about anything is a good idea at the time. But in retrospect my rationales are quite often specious.
At one point in the past, I decided that I...
The Modern House
Water's Edge: five homes that take in Britain’s rugged coastline
In the UK, you’re never more than 70 miles from the sea, but why put any distance between your home...
a week ago
In the UK, you’re never more than 70 miles from the sea, but why put any distance between your home and the shifting shoreline? The pull of our luminous and varied coastline is undeniable, which is why we’ve found five homes a stone’s throw from […]
Quanta Magazine
Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft
Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the...
a week ago
Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) next decade.
The post Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The Rational Walk
Free Articles!
A selection of fifteen formerly paywalled articles
a week ago
A selection of fifteen formerly paywalled articles
Probably...
What does a confidence interval mean?
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In general, I will...
a week ago
Here’s another installment in Data Q&A: Answering the real questions with Python. In general, I will try to focus on practical problems, but this one is a little more philosophical. confidence What does a confidence interval mean?¶ Here’s a question from the Reddit statistics...
The Marginalian
Shame and the Secret Chambers of the Self: Pioneering Sociologist and Philosopher Helen Merrell Lynd...
"Experiences of shame throw a flooding light on what and who we are and what the world we live in...
a week ago
"Experiences of shame throw a flooding light on what and who we are and what the world we live in is."
Construction Physics
The Katerra Team Rides Again: ONX Homes
Regular readers of Construction Physics know that I formerly worked for the construction startup...
a week ago
Regular readers of Construction Physics know that I formerly worked for the construction startup Katerra, which raised several billion dollars in venture capital in the hopes of revolutionizing the construction industry, and then went bankrupt. In fact, it was my experiences at...
Electronics etc…
Tektronix TDS 684B Oscilloscope Button Swap
Introduction
Removing the panels
Swapping a Rotary Encoder
Putting it all back together
End...
a week ago
Introduction
Removing the panels
Swapping a Rotary Encoder
Putting it all back together
End Result
Introduction
I recently bought a TDS 684B for cheap at a government auction. With 1 GHz BW
and 5 Gsps sample rate, it can be used for those cases where my 350 MHz/2Gsps
Siglent...
macwright.com
Takeaway from using CO₂ monitors: run the exhaust fan
For the last few years, I’ve had Aranet 4 and AirGradient sensors in my apartment. They’re fairly...
a week ago
For the last few years, I’ve had Aranet 4 and AirGradient sensors in my apartment. They’re fairly expensive gadgets that I have no regrets purchasing – I love a little more awareness of things like temperature, humidity, and air quality, it’s ‘grounding’ in a cyberpunk way. But...
The History of the...
The Analog Web
On reclaiming the web's lost humanity, and the people still very much trying to do it.
The post The...
a week ago
On reclaiming the web's lost humanity, and the people still very much trying to do it.
The post The Analog Web appeared first on The History of the Web.
Wanderingspace
Eclipse 2024 from Space
https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy
a week ago
https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy
Blog - Practical...
Connecting Solar to the Grid is Harder Than You Think
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On June 4, 2022, a small piece...
a week ago
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
On June 4, 2022, a small piece of equipment (called a lightning arrestor) at a power plant in Odessa, Texas failed, causing part of the plant to trip offline. It was a fairly typical fault that happens from...
Steve Blank
Founders Need to Be Ruthless When Chasing Deals
One of the most exciting things a startup CEO in a business-to-business market can hear from a...
a week ago
One of the most exciting things a startup CEO in a business-to-business market can hear from a potential customer is, “We’re excited. When can you come back and show us a prototype?” This can be the beginning of a profitable customer relationship or a disappointing sinkhole of...
nanoscale views
The future of the semiconductor industry, + The Mechanical Universe
Three items of interest:
This article is a nice review of present semiconductor memory...
a week ago
Three items of interest:
This article is a nice review of present semiconductor memory technology. The electron micrographs in Fig. 1 and the scaling history in Fig. 3 are impressive.
This article in IEEE Spectrum is a very interesting look at how some people think we will get...
Daniel Marino
Why I Still Prefer to Prototype Using Code
There are several design apps available at a product designers disposal, and I’ve used several of...
a week ago
There are several design apps available at a product designers disposal, and I’ve used several of them over the years. I think these days, most everyone is using Figma, but whatever app you’re using—most of them typically have some sort of prototyping feature. Typically they have...
tomcritchlow.com
Working With Founders Who Have Conviction and Taste
Consulting can be easy money. Fleecing clients for cheap tricks. Clients have problems, you have...
a week ago
Consulting can be easy money. Fleecing clients for cheap tricks. Clients have problems, you have powerpoints. It’s easy to flip a few quick slides into a chunk of cash and cackle off into the mountains.
Mazdak
Should You Rent or Buy a Home in Today's Market?
In today's Canadian housing market, the age-old question of renting versus buying feels more...
a week ago
In today's Canadian housing market, the age-old question of renting versus buying feels more pressing than ever. Soaring property values and rising interest rates have created a complex landscape, leaving many wondering: is homeownership still the golden ticket to building...
The Map is Mostly...
Why Buy a House (or Land)?
A lesson in ignoring economics
a week ago
A lesson in ignoring economics
Quantum Frontiers
How I didn’t become a philosopher (but wound up presenting a named philosophy lecture anyway)
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I...
a week ago
Many people ask why I became a theoretical physicist. The answer runs through philosophy—which I thought, for years, I’d left behind in college. My formal relationship with philosophy originated with Mr. Bohrer. My high school classified him as a religion … Continue reading →
Maggie Appleton
On Openings Essays, Conferences Talks, and Jam Jars
a week ago
SOCKS
“I called them Ghosts”. Visual Poems and Sequences by George Wylesol
George Wylesol is a Baltimore-based artist who primarily produces illustrations and comic-like...
a week ago
George Wylesol is a Baltimore-based artist who primarily produces illustrations and comic-like sequences of drawings, often accompanied by written text in the form of short poems. His works blend mundane objects and settings with surreal plots and visual associations, resulting...
Paolo Amoroso's...
Testing the Practical Common Lisp code on Medley
<![CDATA[When the Medley Interlisp Project began reviving the system around 2020, its Common Lisp...
a week ago
<![CDATA[When the Medley Interlisp Project began reviving the system around 2020, its Common Lisp implementation was in the state it had when commercial development petered out in the 1990s, mostly prior to the ANSI standard.
Back then Medley Common Lisp mostly supported CLtL1...
Christopher Butler...
Periodical 18 – A Personal Web
I am building a personal web.
My name is Chris and I am a data hoarder personal...
a week ago
I am building a personal web.
My name is Chris and I am a data hoarder personal archivist.
Current status of my “_archive” volume:
741,637,054,464 bytes (741.64 GB on disk)
Audio: 267,269,859,244 bytes (267.29 GB on disk) for 8,902 items
Images: 24,176,297,844 bytes...
devonzuegel.com
Part 6: Is the proposed new city in California climate resilient?
A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the...
a week ago
A new city has been proposed in California, and I’ve never been more captivated by a vision for the future of my home state in my lifetime. This post is part of a series I’m writing about this bold proposal.
One of the biggest questions I had when I first learned about this...
Citation Needed
Issue 55 – Halving a bad time
The bitcoin "halving" looms, and that may not be as good news as coiners hope. Also, Terra committed...
a week ago
The bitcoin "halving" looms, and that may not be as good news as coiners hope. Also, Terra committed fraud and Uniswap got a Wells notice.
Dan Quach Blog
Vietnam
Grandma and the Vietnam WarWhen I was young, friends would visit, and there was one photo on the...
a week ago
Grandma and the Vietnam WarWhen I was young, friends would visit, and there was one photo on the shelf that caught their attention in my room. It was a photo of an elderly Caucasian lady and their first question to me was, “How come you didn’t take the stock photo out of the...
Eukaryote Writes...
Carl Sagan, nuking the moon, and not nuking the moon
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the...
a week ago
Most of us go about our lives comforted by the thought “I would never drop a nuclear weapon on the moon.” The truth is that given a lot of power, a nuclear weapon, and a lot of extremely specific circumstances, we too might find ourselves thinking “I should nuke the moon.”
nanoscale views
Electronic structure and a couple of fun links
Real life has been very busy recently. Posting will hopefully pick up soon.
One brief item. ...
a week ago
Real life has been very busy recently. Posting will hopefully pick up soon.
One brief item. Earlier this week, Rice hosted Gabi Kotliar for a distinguished lecture, and he gave a very nice, pedagogical talk about different approaches to electronic structure calculations. ...
macwright.com
Hawbuck wallets
There are a lot of companies pitching new kinds of wallets, with lots of ads - Ridge is one of the...
a week ago
There are a lot of companies pitching new kinds of wallets, with lots of ads - Ridge is one of the most famous. An option that never seems to come up in internet listicles but I’ve sworn by for years is the Hawbuck wallet.
My personal preferences for this kind of thing...
XO Capital - Field...
Distribution
As part of UCLA's MBA program, I've had the opportunity to sit in on some VC pitches. It's been a...
a week ago
As part of UCLA's MBA program, I've had the opportunity to sit in on some VC pitches. It's been a while since I've stepped back and looked at the broader startup ecosystem. My head has been in the micro saas space for
Christopher Butler...
visual journal – 2024 April 7 - April 12
Dreaming of secret worlds, minidiscs, buildings, portals.
Do we all dream of a secret world — a...
a week ago
Dreaming of secret worlds, minidiscs, buildings, portals.
Do we all dream of a secret world — a secret garden, a portal, Shangri La, an entrance to a heaven on earth?
^ actual sizes!
^ yours, truly
./techtipsy
Lenovo ThinkPad P14s gen 4 (AMD): it doesn't suck under Linux
I’ve had the opportunity to try out another new laptop at work. I’ve used a brand new laptop...
a week ago
I’ve had the opportunity to try out another new laptop at work. I’ve used a brand new laptop recently, and it was horrible.
But this time I’m pleasantly surprised.
The Lenovo ThinkPad P14s gen 4 has great specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U (8 cores, 16 threads, up to 5.1 GHz)
GPU:...
Cheese and Biscuits
Dream Xi'an, Tower Hill
There are lots of good Chinese restaurants in the Holborn/Bloomsbury area of London. Most seem to...
a week ago
There are lots of good Chinese restaurants in the Holborn/Bloomsbury area of London. Most seem to have popped up in the last decade or so, I assume alongside an influx of Chinese students attending the many nearby high-profile universities and colleges, because I'm fairly sure...
somenice
Hummingbird at the feeder
With a recent blast of winter I noticed a few hummingbirds already here so I put up the feeder.Not...
a week ago
With a recent blast of winter I noticed a few hummingbirds already here so I put up the feeder.Not 30 seconds later, this fella showed up.
The Marginalian
The Parts We Live With: D.H. Lawrence and the Yearning for Living Unison
"We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living,...
a week ago
"We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos."
AI Snake Oil
AI Snake Oil is now available to preorder
What artificial intelligence can do, what it can't, and how to tell the difference
2 weeks ago
What artificial intelligence can do, what it can't, and how to tell the difference
Julia Evans
Notes on git's error messages
While writing about Git, I’ve noticed that a lot of folks struggle with Git’s
error messages. I’ve...
2 weeks ago
While writing about Git, I’ve noticed that a lot of folks struggle with Git’s
error messages. I’ve had many years to get used to these error messages so it
took me a really long time to understand why folks were confused, but having
thought about it much more, I’ve realized...
Nela Dunato Art &...
Motivate Yourself to Create More Art + Fantasy Watercolor Portrait Painting Process
In this episode of Nela’s Art Chat I'm showing the mixed media drawing and painting process of a...
2 weeks ago
In this episode of Nela’s Art Chat I'm showing the mixed media drawing and painting process of a forest fae portrait, while sharing lots of tips that can help you create more art. I often struggle finding motivation, energy, and time to create elaborate pieces of art, so I’ve...
Krzysztof Kowalczyk...
Changing font size in Windows dialog in C++
How to dynamically change font size in a Windows dialog
Windows’s win32 API is old and...
2 weeks ago
How to dynamically change font size in a Windows dialog
Windows’s win32 API is old and crufty. Many things that are trivial to do in HTML are difficult in win32.
One of those things is changing size of font used by your native, desktop app.
I encountered this in...
Build In Public...
I just announced an AI accelerator program
Full story on my latest role at Paddle, the new AI program, and what it means for you
2 weeks ago
Full story on my latest role at Paddle, the new AI program, and what it means for you
Beautiful Public...
Trademark Design Codes
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes"...
2 weeks ago
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes" allowing you to search for trademarks with “Rickshaws”, “Centaurs” or “Mechanical women”.
Construction Physics
What Progress Has Icon Made on 3D-Printed Homes?
We last looked at 3D-printed buildings about three years ago. At the time, the technology was still...
2 weeks ago
We last looked at 3D-printed buildings about three years ago. At the time, the technology was still nascent. Although there was a lot of enthusiasm, many efforts were academic, with little commercial deployment, and practitioners were experimenting with a wide range of...
Passing Time
In Defense of Trying Hard
Being a try-hard is good, actually
2 weeks ago
Being a try-hard is good, actually
Adventures In...
Illumination Cartography
Here are a few flavors of a technique, illumination cartography, that uses data to shed light on its...
2 weeks ago
Here are a few flavors of a technique, illumination cartography, that uses data to shed light on its underlying basemap. There’s something satisfying about presenting a phenomenon as revealing geography rather than obscuring it. Love, John
Irrational...
My advice for how to use LLMs in your product.
Pretty much every company I know is looking for a way to benefit from Large Language Models. Even if...
2 weeks ago
Pretty much every company I know is looking for a way to benefit from Large Language Models. Even if their executives don’t see much applicability, their investors likely do, so they’re staring at the blank page nervously trying to come up with an idea. It’s straightforward to...
Coffee with an...
Design explained using venn diagrams
Design is hard. If only the process could be explained using simple venn diagrams. Unfortunately,...
2 weeks ago
Design is hard. If only the process could be explained using simple venn diagrams. Unfortunately, this isn’t that: More Design in charts – HERE, and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE
Christopher Butler...
Eclipse
We gathered on our street and shielded our eyes to behold a spectacle we last saw in 2017 and won’t...
2 weeks ago
We gathered on our street and shielded our eyes to behold a spectacle we last saw in 2017 and won’t again — with this clarity, on this part of the planet — until 2045.
Josh Collinsworth
Follow-up: the Glove80 after six months
A followup on my previous first impressions post, with an update on how the Glove80 ergonomic split...
2 weeks ago
A followup on my previous first impressions post, with an update on how the Glove80 ergonomic split keyboard has been after about six months of daily use.
Tech and Tea
Saying No to what I feel I should do
Navigating the space between should and want, and finding more permission for ease and rest.
2 weeks ago
Navigating the space between should and want, and finding more permission for ease and rest.
Weighty Thoughts
What is Defensibility?
Back to basics for AI startups and others
2 weeks ago
Back to basics for AI startups and others
Castles in the Sky
What it feels like to be in love
Vignettes #2
2 weeks ago
The Marginalian
But We Had Music: Nick Cave Reads an Animated Poem about Black Holes, Eternity, and How to Bear Our...
How, knowing that even the universe is dying, do we bear our lives? Most readily, through...
2 weeks ago
How, knowing that even the universe is dying, do we bear our lives? Most readily, through friendship, through connection, through co-creating the world we want to live in for the brief time we have together on this lonely, perfect planet. The seventh annual Universe in Verse — a...
The Architectural...
New academic dissertation questions architects’ taste
Many architects look down upon residential areas built with the small town as a model, with new...
2 weeks ago
Many architects look down upon residential areas built with the small town as a model, with new houses made in a traditional style. But this is exactly what the average person appreciates. “Why do many architects dislike the very thing that residents often enjoy?” asks architect...
Electronics etc…
Guide Technology GT300 Frequency Standard Teardown
MathJax.Hub.Config({
jax: ["input/TeX", "output/HTML-CSS"],
tex2jax: {
inlineMath: [...
2 weeks ago
MathJax.Hub.Config({
jax: ["input/TeX", "output/HTML-CSS"],
tex2jax: {
inlineMath: [ ['$', '$'], ["\\(", "\\)"] ],
displayMath: [ ['$$', '$$'], ["\\[", "\\]"] ],
processEscapes: true,
skipTags: ['script', 'noscript', 'style', 'textarea', 'pre',...
XO Capital - Field...
v2
XO V1 concluded with 10 acquisitions and 1 "fund".
The V1 "conclusion" is really a line in the sand...
2 weeks ago
XO V1 concluded with 10 acquisitions and 1 "fund".
The V1 "conclusion" is really a line in the sand but it feels right as we continue to offload assets to focus on larger deals using outside capital. This will transition us into v2 which we'
Go - Bitfield...
Test names should be sentences
Tests communicate a lot of information, to readers, other developers, and
even our future selves....
2 weeks ago
Tests communicate a lot of information, to readers, other developers, and
even our future selves. Well-written tests focus on a single unit of
behaviour that can be described in a brief sentence, and we can use that
sentence as the name of the test.
mtlynch.io
Building My First Homelab Server Rack
Seven years ago, I built my first home server. It made my software development work faster and more...
2 weeks ago
Seven years ago, I built my first home server. It made my software development work faster and more enjoyable, so I’ve gotten more into the home server scene. I built a custom storage server, another development server, and a dedicated firewall.
At some point, my wife gently...
elementary Blog
The System Settings Redesign Has Landed
This month the biggest story is System Settings, but we also have some great progress on the new...
2 weeks ago
This month the biggest story is System Settings, but we also have some great progress on the new Dock and Wayland. Plus a small change to default keyboard shortcuts that you might appreciate. Read ahead to find out the new developments you have to look forward to in the upcoming...
computers are bad
2024-04-05 the life of one earth station
Sometimes, when I am feeling down, I read about failed satellite TV (STV)
services. Don't we all?...
2 weeks ago
Sometimes, when I am feeling down, I read about failed satellite TV (STV)
services. Don't we all? As a result, I've periodically come across a company
called AlphaStar Television Network. PrimeStar may have had a rough life, but
AlphaStar barely had one at all: it launched in...
The Codist
Career Retrospective: Being Interviewed
I'm starting a series on what I learned during my four decades as a working programmer. First, I...
2 weeks ago
I'm starting a series on what I learned during my four decades as a working programmer. First, I will describe my experience of being interviewed.
Interviews are part of being a programmer; every time you find a new job, you will go through interviews, which allow a prospective
The Changelog
The xz Issue Isn’t About Open Source
You’ve probably heard of the recent backdoor in xz. There have been a lot of takes on this, most of...
2 weeks ago
You’ve probably heard of the recent backdoor in xz. There have been a lot of takes on this, most of them boiling down to some version of: The problem here is with Open Source Software. I want to say not only is that view so myopic that it pushes towards the incorrect, but also it...
The Wandering...
Constructing the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling
I was flipping through Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament a couple months ago, and my eye was caught...
2 weeks ago
I was flipping through Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament a couple months ago, and my eye was caught by this handsome pattern I had not noticed before. This is Jones’s Plate XLII, in the chapter on designs from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. He calls it, “Part of the ceiling of...
The Wandering...
The Mathematics of the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling
(This is the math geek part about the Sala de la Barca ceiling. For instructions on constructing the...
2 weeks ago
(This is the math geek part about the Sala de la Barca ceiling. For instructions on constructing the pattern with compass and straightedge, go over to Part 1.) In the process of figuring out how to draw this pattern, I ran into a lot of questions, and had to do more than a little...
./techtipsy
How to take down production with a single Helm command
You’re Cletus Kubernetus: a software developer, and a proud Fedora Linux
user.1
You know Kubernetes,...
2 weeks ago
You’re Cletus Kubernetus: a software developer, and a proud Fedora Linux
user.1
You know Kubernetes, especially after the time you migrated some services to it.
Everything is calm.
Your pods are running. Your service is up. Business as usual.
You release some minor changes to...
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