Tony Finch's blog
against /tmp
I commented on Lobsters that /tmp is usually a bad idea,
which caused some surprise. I suppose /tmp...
4 weeks ago
I commented on Lobsters that /tmp is usually a bad idea,
which caused some surprise. I suppose /tmp security bugs were common
in the 1990s when I was learning Unix, but they are pretty rare now so
I can see why less grizzled hackers might not be familiar with the
problems.
I...
Epic Web Dev
The Difference Between Clearing, Resetting, and Restoring Mocks (article)
Understand the key differences between mock state management methods: mockClear(), mockReset(), and...
3 weeks ago
Understand the key differences between mock state management methods: mockClear(), mockReset(), and mockRestore(). Write clean test states.
Blog System/5
BazelCon 2024 recap
Just like that, BazelCon 2024 came and went. So... it’s obviously time to summarize the two events...
4 weeks ago
Just like that, BazelCon 2024 came and went. So... it’s obviously time to summarize the two events of last week: BazelCon 2024 and the adjacent Build Meetup. There is A LOT to cover, but everything is here in just one article!
Computer Things
TLA from first principles
No Newsletter next week
I'll be speaking at USENIX SRECon!
TLA from first principles
I'm working on...
4 weeks ago
No Newsletter next week
I'll be speaking at USENIX SRECon!
TLA from first principles
I'm working on v0.5 of Logic for Programmers. In the process of revising the "System Modeling" chapter, I stumbled on a great way to explain the temporal logic of actions that TLA+ is based on....
Dan Quach Blog
State of Data Engineering Q3 2024
Prompt Engineering – Meta Analysis Whitepaper One of my favorite AI podcasts, Latent Space, recently...
4 weeks ago
Prompt Engineering – Meta Analysis Whitepaper One of my favorite AI podcasts, Latent Space, recently featured Sander Schulhoff, one of the authors of a comprehensive research paper on prompt engineering. This meta-study reviews over 1,600 published papers, with co-authors from...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
For Sale: Used Domain (**Clean Title**)
Bryan Braun has an interesting post about his experience with what he calls a “haunted domain”:
He...
3 weeks ago
Bryan Braun has an interesting post about his experience with what he calls a “haunted domain”:
He buys a domain that seems fine on the surface.
When he begins using it, he notices some things aren’t right (organic search traffic, for example, is dead).
After some investigation,...
alexwlchan
A script to verify my Netlify redirects
I’ve changed the URL design on this website a couple of times.
The current structure seems to be...
3 weeks ago
I’ve changed the URL design on this website a couple of times.
The current structure seems to be working fairly well, but I made some dubious decisions when I started out that really didn’t scale.
(Like having a single folder for all of my /images/ – of which there are now over...
somenice
Gold and Ghosts
In the autumn of 1892, two miners, Earl and Edward, found themselves high in the Pacific Northwest...
3 weeks ago
In the autumn of 1892, two miners, Earl and Edward, found themselves high in the Pacific Northwest mountains, searching for a legend as old as the hills: the lost crate of gold. The tale of “Shining Creek Gold” was whispered in every saloon from Seattle to San Francisco, a cache...
Blog - Bitfield...
Suite smells: testing legacy code
How do you rescue a legacy codebase that has no tests? Let's look at some
techniques for clawing...
3 weeks ago
How do you rescue a legacy codebase that has no tests? Let's look at some
techniques for clawing your way back to maintainability, one test at a
time.
Paolo Amoroso's...
Documenting WebCard
<![CDATA[With the last feature of WebCard behind me I proceeded with the next task to wrap up my...
3 weeks ago
<![CDATA[With the last feature of WebCard behind me I proceeded with the next task to wrap up my RetroChallenge 2024 project: documenting the system.
Since WebCard enhances NoteCards with only a few simple but significant features a full manual would be overkill. So I added to...
Irrational...
Eng org seniority-mix model.
One of the trademarks of private equity ownership is the expectation that either the company...
3 weeks ago
One of the trademarks of private equity ownership is the expectation that either the company maintains their current margin
and grows revenue at 25-30%, or they instead grow slower and increase their free cash flow year over year.
In many organizations, engineering costs have a...
The Codist
My Art And Color-After Tiling
I make generative art with Swift and use tiling in many pieces. Truchet tiles are generally arranged...
3 weeks ago
I make generative art with Swift and use tiling in many pieces. Truchet tiles are generally arranged randomly and contain everything appearing in the final image. What I do differently is to separate the layout of tiles from colorizing the image. I call this technique...
Confessions of a...
The CAP Theorem of Clustering: Why Every Algorithm Must Sacrifice Something
No clustering algorithm is perfect and you must make a trade-off.
3 weeks ago
No clustering algorithm is perfect and you must make a trade-off.
Engineer’s Codex
5 Non-LLM Software Trends To Be Excited About
Innovations outside the AI spotlight
a week ago
Innovations outside the AI spotlight
Julia Evans
Using less memory to look up IP addresses in Mess With DNS
I’ve been having problems for the last 3 years or so where Mess With DNS
periodically runs out of...
3 weeks ago
I’ve been having problems for the last 3 years or so where Mess With DNS
periodically runs out of memory and gets OOM killed.
This hasn’t been a big priority for me: usually it just goes down for a few
minutes while it restarts, and it only happens once a day at most, so I’ve...
Josh Collinsworth
A response to "Defending Open Source: Protecting the Future of WordPress"
I feel it's important to issue a critical reading of Automattic's post, as it doesn't seem to offer...
2 weeks ago
I feel it's important to issue a critical reading of Automattic's post, as it doesn't seem to offer much of a serious or objective examination of the issues at hand. Rather, the post unfortunately reads as something more akin to a puff piece, or corporate propaganda.
Darek Kay
A guide to bookmarklets
I'm a frequent user of bookmarklets. As I'm sharing some of them on my blog, I wrote this post to...
2 weeks ago
I'm a frequent user of bookmarklets. As I'm sharing some of them on my blog, I wrote this post to explain what bookmarklets are and how to use them.
In short, a bookmarklet is a browser bookmark containing JavaScript code. Clicking the bookmark executes the script in the context...
Cognitive...
Demystifying OpenAI's Terms of Use with Regards to Dataset Licenses
With the recent update to OpenAI's Terms of Use on October 23, 2024, there’s been a flurry of online...
2 weeks ago
With the recent update to OpenAI's Terms of Use on October 23, 2024, there’s been a flurry of online discussions around what these terms mean for developers, businesses, and everyday users of AI tools like ChatGPT. Much of the conversation, especiall...
Blog System/5
Demystifying secure NFS
My lab notes on the arduous process of setting up NFSv4 with Kerberos across a Synology NAS and...
2 weeks ago
My lab notes on the arduous process of setting up NFSv4 with Kerberos across a Synology NAS and various Linux and FreeBSD clients.
the singularity is...
America’s Future
It seems this is a place where people are not capable of thinking rationally. Remember:
If America...
3 weeks ago
It seems this is a place where people are not capable of thinking rationally. Remember:
If America is not in decline, I want to believe America is not in decline.
If America is in decline, I want to believe America is in decline.
So let’s ask, what does the future look like for...
A Smart Bear
Tech Support is sales
Tech support isn't just troubleshooting; it's the face of your company. Which means it's your brand,...
3 weeks ago
Tech support isn't just troubleshooting; it's the face of your company. Which means it's your brand, your positioning, and when it's excellent, it is sales.
A Smart Bear
No wait, of course THAT is the single most important SaaS metric
Is it LTV? Retention? NRR? Magic Number? Rule of 40? Or: Do you need to un-ask the question.
2 weeks ago
Is it LTV? Retention? NRR? Magic Number? Rule of 40? Or: Do you need to un-ask the question.
Paolo Amoroso's...
A demo notefile for WebCard
<![CDATA[To complete WebCard for my RetroChallenge 2024 project I created a demo notefile, a file...
3 weeks ago
<![CDATA[To complete WebCard for my RetroChallenge 2024 project I created a demo notefile, a file that stores the data of a NoteCards hypertext.
The notefile WCDEMO.NOTEFILE contains exmples of Web cards filed into various types of containers and cards such as fileboxes and Text...
bunnie's blog
Name that Ware, October 2024
The Ware for October 2024 is shown below. This one should be a smidge easier to guess than last...
3 weeks ago
The Ware for October 2024 is shown below. This one should be a smidge easier to guess than last month’s ware. The main reason I liked this ware is actually the board shown below with the prominent star-routing. It’s such traditional hand-routing work, I love craftsmanship like...
Irrational...
Using systems modeling to refine strategy.
While I was probably late to learn the concept
of strategy testing,
I might have learned about...
2 weeks ago
While I was probably late to learn the concept
of strategy testing,
I might have learned about systems modeling too early in my career,
stumbling on Donella Meadows’ Thinking in Systems: A Primer
before I began my career in software.
Over the years, I’ve discovered a number of...
Paolo Amoroso's...
Wrapping up my RetroChallenge 2024 project
<![CDATA[The end of the work on WebCard marked the completion of my RetroChallenge 2024 project, in...
3 weeks ago
<![CDATA[The end of the work on WebCard marked the completion of my RetroChallenge 2024 project, in time as hoped.
I accomplished the initial goal of extending NoteCards to visit websites. This is my Linux desktop after traversing a NoteCards link to a Web card which opened the...
the singularity is...
High Trust Society
I just want you to see, I just want you to see
Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, does anyone think...
2 weeks ago
I just want you to see, I just want you to see
Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, does anyone think this gets fixed? Is Kamala going to restore trust in government? Is Trump going to restore trust in government?
Despite what Western media might have you believe about how the...
Kagi Blog
Kagi Translate - We speak your language
Your browser does not support the video tag.
2 weeks ago
Your browser does not support the video tag.
Oxide Computer...
How Oxide Cuts Data Center Power Consumption in Half
Here’s a sobering thought: today, data centers already consume 1-2% of the world’s power, and that...
a week ago
Here’s a sobering thought: today, data centers already consume 1-2% of the world’s power, and that percentage will likely rise to 3-4% by the end of the decade. According to Goldman Sachs research, that rise will include a doubling in data center carbon dioxide emissions. As the...
alexwlchan
How I name my computers
I got a new Mac mini this weekend, to replace my aging Intel iMac.
I’ve already done most of the...
a week ago
I got a new Mac mini this weekend, to replace my aging Intel iMac.
I’ve already done most of the setup, and this blog post is one of the first things I’ll make with it.
I’m quite pleased with how quickly I can get up and running with a new machine.
There’s one hard part of...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
We’re All Content Creators for Machines
Nicholas Carr, one of my favorite technology writers, has been blogging over on Rough Type since...
3 weeks ago
Nicholas Carr, one of my favorite technology writers, has been blogging over on Rough Type since [checks archives] 2005. As of late his writing has gone quiet, but he’s got a new book due out early next year and I think he’s starting up blogging again to help drum up interest....
David Heinemeier...
What you know that just ain't so
The fun bit about business is in all the answers you don't have. Should we be priced higher or lower...
2 weeks ago
The fun bit about business is in all the answers you don't have. Should we be priced higher or lower or leave it alone? Should we chase these customers over here or those customers over there? Should we add more features or polish the ones we have? There's endless variation in...
Julia Evans
New microblog with TILs
I added a new section to this site a couple weeks ago called
TIL (“today I learned”).
the goal: save...
a week ago
I added a new section to this site a couple weeks ago called
TIL (“today I learned”).
the goal: save interesting tools & facts I posted on social media
One kind of thing I like to post on Mastodon/Bluesky is “hey, here’s a cool
thing”, like the great SQLite repl litecli, or
the...
Paolo Amoroso's...
Designing a WebCard bitmap the hard way
<![CDATA[NoteCards link icons leading to cards of a certain type can and typically do have a custom...
4 weeks ago
<![CDATA[NoteCards link icons leading to cards of a certain type can and typically do have a custom bitmap associated with the type.
WebCard cards of type Web initially inherited the bitmap of the parent type Text, a stylized NoteCards blank card frame. To visually differentiate...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Quality Means The Flexibility to Change
Here’s Ben Nadal quoting Dave Farley:
I've come to the belief that the only definition of quality in...
3 weeks ago
Here’s Ben Nadal quoting Dave Farley:
I've come to the belief that the only definition of quality in code that makes any sense is our ability to change the code. If it's easy to change, it's high quality; if it's hard to change, it's not.
Then Ben comments:
I'm sure that some...
Irrational...
Navigating Private Equity ownership.
In 2020, you could credibly argue that ZIRP explains the world,
but that’s an impossible argument to...
a week ago
In 2020, you could credibly argue that ZIRP explains the world,
but that’s an impossible argument to make in 2024 when zero-interest rate policy is only a fond memory.
Instead, we’re seeing a number of companies designed for rapid expansion learning to adapt
to a world that...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
The Lowest Common Denominator: www
Native apps are all about control. Don’t like thing X? You can dive in and, with enough elbow grease...
4 weeks ago
Native apps are all about control. Don’t like thing X? You can dive in and, with enough elbow grease and persistence, finally get what you want. Write your own C library. Do some assembly code. Even make your own hardware if you have to.
But on the web you give up that control....
Blog - Bitfield...
Constraints in Go
Freedom is nothing without constraints, and Go’s generics gives us a
powerful way to build...
3 weeks ago
Freedom is nothing without constraints, and Go’s generics gives us a
powerful way to build polymorphic types and functions constrained by type
sets. Let’s geek out.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Job Screening Blog Post
Take a look at these two animated gifs.
First:
Second:
Can you tell the difference between...
2 weeks ago
Take a look at these two animated gifs.
First:
Second:
Can you tell the difference between them?
Do you care?
If not, we might not be a good fit.
#designEngineering
Email
:: Mastodon ::
Twitter
#designEngineer
bunnie's blog
Winner, Name that Ware September 2024
Last month’s Ware was a Cue COVID test reader. It uses LAMP (loop-mediated isothermal amplification)...
3 weeks ago
Last month’s Ware was a Cue COVID test reader. It uses LAMP (loop-mediated isothermal amplification) to perform a fast and sensitive detection of nucleic acid sequences. Thanks again to Curtis Galloway for contributing this ware for me to take apart and photograph! Nobody had...
Alice GG
Writing GDScript with Neovim
Neovim is by far my favorite text editor.
The clutter-free interface and keyboard-only navigation...
2 weeks ago
Neovim is by far my favorite text editor.
The clutter-free interface and keyboard-only navigation are what keep me productive in my daily programming.
In an earlier post, I explained how I configure it into a minimalist development environment.
Today, I will show you how to use...
alexwlchan
Moving my website from Netlify to Caddy
I had a long train journey on Tuesday, and I spent the time moving this website from Netlify to a...
2 weeks ago
I had a long train journey on Tuesday, and I spent the time moving this website from Netlify to a Linux server running Caddy.
(Yes, the Wi-Fi on European trains is reliable enough to make that possible, even pleasant.)
Hopefully nobody noticed!
When I flipped the DNS records to...
David Heinemeier...
Too much therapy at work
Many years ago, Jason and I hired a COO at 37signals, but ended up letting them go after just a year...
a week ago
Many years ago, Jason and I hired a COO at 37signals, but ended up letting them go after just a year (many reasons, another story). This happened not long before one of our company meet-ups, so we thought it fitting to discuss the matter in-person. What a mistake. The session...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Navigations on the Web
When trying to define the difference between a link (<a>) and a button (<button>), a general rule of...
a week ago
When trying to define the difference between a link (<a>) and a button (<button>), a general rule of thumb is: links are for navigation, buttons are not.
That can take you pretty far. However, like most things, there’s nuance and that mental model can fall apart under certain...
macwright.com
Recently: Cycling and Autumn
I haven’t been posting much to the ‘main blog’ recently, but I have been keeping the micro blog...
2 weeks ago
I haven’t been posting much to the ‘main blog’ recently, but I have been keeping the micro blog updates humming. If you want more content in your RSS reader, you can subscribe to those posts, which are shorter, more scattered, and even less copyedited. It feels bad to have...
Confessions of a...
The Pythonic Emptiness
Why the Pythonic way of doing emptiness check on sequences is not necessarily ambiguous in most...
a week ago
Why the Pythonic way of doing emptiness check on sequences is not necessarily ambiguous in most cases
Ferd.ca
Local Optimizations Don't Lead to Global Optimums
I like to think that I write code deliberately. I’m an admittedly slow developer, and I want to...
3 days ago
I like to think that I write code deliberately. I’m an admittedly slow developer, and I want to believe I do so on purpose. I want to know as much as I can about the context of what it is that I'm automating.
I also use a limited set of tools. I used old computers for a long...
Blog - Bitfield...
Generic types in Go
Golang generics open up a lot of exciting new possibilities for us as
programmers. In this...
3 weeks ago
Golang generics open up a lot of exciting new possibilities for us as
programmers. In this tutorial, we’ll look at ways we can use type
parameters to define customised generic types.
Computer Things
A list of ternary operators
Sup nerds, I'm back from SREcon! I had a blast, despite knowing nothing about site reliability...
2 weeks ago
Sup nerds, I'm back from SREcon! I had a blast, despite knowing nothing about site reliability engineering and being way over my head in half the talks. I'm trying to catch up on The Book and contract work now so I'll do something silly here: ternary operators.
Almost all...
Darek Kay
Open Graph images: Format compatibility across platforms
While redesigning my photography website, I've looked into the Open Graph (OG) images, which are...
4 days ago
While redesigning my photography website, I've looked into the Open Graph (OG) images, which are displayed when sharing a link on social media or messaging apps. Here's an example from WhatsApp:
For each photo that I publish, I create a WebP thumbnail for the gallery. I wanted...
Julia Evans
ASCII control characters in my terminal
Hello! I’ve been thinking about the terminal a lot and yesterday I got curious
about all these...
3 weeks ago
Hello! I’ve been thinking about the terminal a lot and yesterday I got curious
about all these “control codes”, like Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-W, etc. What’s
the deal with all of them?
a table of ASCII control characters
Here’s a table of all 33 ASCII control characters, and what they...
the singularity is...
Influence Agents
Check 1, 2 is the mic on?
Most AI doom scenarios are nonsense. The idea of a rogue computer behaving...
2 weeks ago
Check 1, 2 is the mic on?
Most AI doom scenarios are nonsense. The idea of a rogue computer behaving in a way no humans want never made sense to me, only to Hollywood who doesn’t know all that much about computers.
Paul Christiano has one of my favorite takes, that the creation...
Tony Finch's blog
getopt() but smaller
The other day I learned about the Rust crate
lexopt which describes itself as,
A pathologically...
2 weeks ago
The other day I learned about the Rust crate
lexopt which describes itself as,
A pathologically simple command line argument parser.
Most argument parsers are declarative: you tell them what to parse,
and they do it. This one provides you with a stream of options and
values and...
A Beautiful Site
If Edgar Allan Poe was into Design Systems
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
While I nodded, nearly napping,...
2 days ago
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
"'Tis a design system," I muttered, "bringing order to the core—
Ah, distinctly I remember, every button, every splendor,
Each component, standardized,...
David Heinemeier...
The spells are spent
They just don't work any more, those baseless accusations that anyone we disagree with is a racist,...
2 weeks ago
They just don't work any more, those baseless accusations that anyone we disagree with is a racist, misogynist, fascist. After being invoked in en masse and in vain for the better part of the past decade, their power to shock and awe is finally gone. All that's left is a weak...
Computer Things
Five Unusual Raku Features
Logic for Programmers is now in Beta!
v0.5 marks the official end of alpha! With the new version,...
a week ago
Logic for Programmers is now in Beta!
v0.5 marks the official end of alpha! With the new version, all of the content I wanted to put in the book is now present, and all that's left is copyediting, proofreading, and formatting. Which will probably take as long as it took to...
Blog - Bitfield...
Rust and Go vs everything else
Alex Pliutau and I discuss what Go programmers should know about Rust, and
why the two languages...
2 days ago
Alex Pliutau and I discuss what Go programmers should know about Rust, and
why the two languages make perfect partners.
David Heinemeier...
Joining the Shopify board of directors
I've known Tobi for over twenty years now. Right from the earliest days of Ruby on Rails, when he...
2 days ago
I've known Tobi for over twenty years now. Right from the earliest days of Ruby on Rails, when he was building Snowdevil, which eventually became Shopify, to sell snowboards online. Here's his first commit to Rails from 2004, which improved the ergonomics of controller testing....
Computer Things
Hyperproperties
I wrote about hyperproperties on my blog four years ago, but now an intriguing client problem got me...
2 days ago
I wrote about hyperproperties on my blog four years ago, but now an intriguing client problem got me thinking about them again.1
We're using TLA+ to model a system that starts in state A, and under certain complicated conditions P, transitions to state B. They also had a flag f...
Confessions of a...
Live Session: Live Coding a Bytecode Interpreter for Python
We are due for our next live session.
3 weeks ago
We are due for our next live session.
orlp.net - Blog...
Breaking CityHash64, MurmurHash2/3, wyhash, and more...
Hash functions are incredibly
neat mathematical objects. They can map arbitrary data to a small...
2 weeks ago
Hash functions are incredibly
neat mathematical objects. They can map arbitrary data to a small fixed-size
output domain such that the mapping is deterministic, yet appears to be random.
This “deterministic randomness” is incredibly useful for a variety of purposes,
such as hash...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Hacker News Clones
Every once in a while, I’ll have a post gain traction over on ye ole’ orange site (Hacker News).
I...
2 weeks ago
Every once in a while, I’ll have a post gain traction over on ye ole’ orange site (Hacker News).
I find out about it because my analytics digest will get a yuge uptick in page views.
What’s interesting is all the referral sources that show up in my analytics. The Hacker News is...
the singularity is...
A One Way Bridge
Okay I went to Devcon. And while there I had a great idea that the crypto space really needs. It...
5 days ago
Okay I went to Devcon. And while there I had a great idea that the crypto space really needs. It seems like while AI infrastructure has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 5 years, crypto infra has actually gotten worse. I’m proposing some great new infrastructure that the...
Josh Collinsworth
The childlike and the childish
It's crushing and disheartening to discover I live in a country where half the adults around me...
2 weeks ago
It's crushing and disheartening to discover I live in a country where half the adults around me still haven't learned something I'm teaching my kindergartener.
the singularity is...
…and now we see what is possible
Every 70 years America goes through a revolutionary transition. Washington, Lincoln, FDR, now?
The...
2 weeks ago
Every 70 years America goes through a revolutionary transition. Washington, Lincoln, FDR, now?
The Republicans now control the Presidency, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. Is that everything? Does government power lie there, like we are told, or is it all secretly...
A Smart Bear
A life-changing challenge guided by Pascal's Wager
Applying Pascal's Wager: Humility wins, arrogance loses.
a week ago
Applying Pascal's Wager: Humility wins, arrogance loses.
Charles Chen
AI Startup Moats: The Difference Between Bakers and Ovens
Are new AI startups "just another wrapper for a 3rd party model"? Does having an oven make you a...
a week ago
Are new AI startups "just another wrapper for a 3rd party model"? Does having an oven make you a baker?
Jibran’s Perspective
Project 2: Gift cards to Pakistan
I’ve completed a freelance project I was working on for a few months, and have started saying no to...
a week ago
I’ve completed a freelance project I was working on for a few months, and have started saying no to new opportunities. It’s time to work on one of my own ideas again. This is part of my plan to start failing more.
I’ve decided to build a business sending gift cards to Pakistan -...
swyx's site RSS Feed
Engineering AI Agents - OpenAI DevDay Singapore talk
this is the tracking doc for my talk on "Engineering AI Agents" for OpenAI DevDay Singapore.
yesterday
this is the tracking doc for my talk on "Engineering AI Agents" for OpenAI DevDay Singapore.
Julia Evans
Importing a frontend Javascript library without a build system
I like writing Javascript without a build system
and for the millionth time yesterday I ran into a...
3 days ago
I like writing Javascript without a build system
and for the millionth time yesterday I ran into a problem where I needed to
figure out how to import a Javascript library in my code without using a build
system, and it took FOREVER to figure out how to import it because...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Named Blogs
I think it’s endearing when people name their blog.
I’m not talking about branding, like people do...
3 days ago
I think it’s endearing when people name their blog.
I’m not talking about branding, like people do with professional blogs or newsletters.
I’m talking about personal blogs that people name out of care and idiosyncrasy.
It’s endearing, because you brand things you own, you name...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Reading and Writing as Human Expression & Connection
Why do we write?
We write, in part, because our own reading was given as a gift to us and we want to...
6 days ago
Why do we write?
We write, in part, because our own reading was given as a gift to us and we want to extend that same magic we received to others. Here’s Mandy Brown (and my notes) in a recent article:
The more compelling and interesting reason that most writers seek out readers...
A Smart Bear
p-Hacking your A/B tests
Half of your "successful" A/B tests are false-positives. This is why, and how to fix it.
4 days ago
Half of your "successful" A/B tests are false-positives. This is why, and how to fix it.
Oxide Computer...
Remembering Charles Beeler
We are heartbroken to relay that Charles Beeler, a friend and early investor
in Oxide, passed
away...
a week ago
We are heartbroken to relay that Charles Beeler, a friend and early investor
in Oxide, passed
away in September after a battle with cancer. We lost Charles far too soon;
he had a tremendous influence on the careers of us both.
Our relationship with Charles dates back nearly two...
Confessions of a...
An Unreachable Hidden XKCD Easter Egg inside CPython
No, I'm not talking about import antigravity
3 days ago
No, I'm not talking about import antigravity
Irrational...
How to get more headcount.
One of the recurring challenges that teams face is getting headcount to support their initiatives.
A...
5 days ago
One of the recurring challenges that teams face is getting headcount to support their initiatives.
A similar problem is the idea that a team can’t get a favored project into their roadmap.
In both cases, teams often create a story about how clueless executives don’t understand...
David Heinemeier...
House rules in Fortnite
We play a lot of Fortnite at our house. It's a great game for teaching kids cooperative discipline,...
a week ago
We play a lot of Fortnite at our house. It's a great game for teaching kids cooperative discipline, and in a remarkably wholesome setting to boot (no blood, cartoon styling). I've had no qualms involving all three of our boys from an early age in the family squad, including our...
Ink & Switch
Ink & Switch Unconference [2024 / Los Angeles]
Our third Ink & Switch Unconference, at the beautifully retro Preserve in Los Angeles
3 weeks ago
Our third Ink & Switch Unconference, at the beautifully retro Preserve in Los Angeles
Oxide Computer...
Advancing Cloud and HPC Convergence with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Oxide Computer Company and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Work Together to Advance Cloud and...
3 days ago
Oxide Computer Company and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Work Together to Advance Cloud and HPC Convergence
Oxide Computer Company and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) today announced a plan to bring on-premises cloud computing capabilities to the Livermore...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Persisting State to localStorage in Recoil Across Browser Tabs
I was working on a project using Recoil for state management in React.
I needed to persist some...
2 weeks ago
I was working on a project using Recoil for state management in React.
I needed to persist some state to localStorage, and there’s some info on how to do it in Recoil’s docs.
That works; however it doesn’t respond to state changes from other instances of your app in multiple...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
The Beauty of Building
Jan Miksovsky has an absolutely tremendous article about how he cobbled together some disparate...
a week ago
Jan Miksovsky has an absolutely tremendous article about how he cobbled together some disparate pieces of hardware and software in order to help improve the quality of life of his mother who has amnesia.
Everything about this article illustrates what got me into making...
swyx's site RSS Feed
Moving in Big Cities: Lugg vs Clutter
i recently had to move (from smolhaus 1.5 to a temporary place) and so had to evaluate some choices...
2 weeks ago
i recently had to move (from smolhaus 1.5 to a temporary place) and so had to evaluate some choices in moving options. TLDR: I made a huge mistake not choosing Clutter.
the singularity is...
The Collective Marshmallow Test
Society is even harder than passing the marshmallow test.
Instead of a single person, imagine 100...
a week ago
Society is even harder than passing the marshmallow test.
Instead of a single person, imagine 100 people in a room. One marshmallow is placed on a table. If everyone can leave it alone for 15 minutes, everyone gets 2 marshmallows. But if just one person eats it, everyone gets...
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Eventually consistent plain text accounting
.title { text-wrap: balance }
Spending for October, generated by piping
hledger → R
Over the past...
4 weeks ago
.title { text-wrap: balance }
Spending for October, generated by piping
hledger → R
Over the past six months, I’ve tracked my money with hledger—a plain text
double-entry accounting system written in Haskell. It’s been
surprisingly painless.
My previous attempts to pick up...
David Heinemeier...
Obsessive problem solving followed by aimless wandering
I haven't felt any urge to tinker with my Linux setup in months. This after spending much of the...
a week ago
I haven't felt any urge to tinker with my Linux setup in months. This after spending much of the spring and into summer furiously and obsessively trying every PC out there to find the perfect replacement for the Mac, diving deep with Ubuntu, and codifying my findings in the...
Charles Chen
On Bakers, Ovens, and AI Startup Moats
Are new AI startups "just another wrapper for a 3rd party model"? Does having an oven make you a...
a week ago
Are new AI startups "just another wrapper for a 3rd party model"? Does having an oven make you a baker?
the singularity is...
A Place for Me
Have all the jobs been fake for years? Read this, a NASA critique from 1992.
Basically society is...
2 days ago
Have all the jobs been fake for years? Read this, a NASA critique from 1992.
Basically society is run by useless people making work for other useless people so that together they can all alleviate their deep concern about not having a place in society.
Elon has a bigger tent of...
David Heinemeier...
Cold reading an ADHD affliction
I'm sure there are truly pathological cases of ADHD out there, and maybe taking amphetamines really...
11 hours ago
I'm sure there are truly pathological cases of ADHD out there, and maybe taking amphetamines really is a magic pill for some folks. But there clearly is also an entire cottage industry cropping up around convincing perfectly normal people that they suffer from ADHD, and that this...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Captchas Turned Notification Exploits
When my site analytics reported a large number of inbound traffic from Hacker News clones, I got...
13 hours ago
When my site analytics reported a large number of inbound traffic from Hacker News clones, I got curious and started clicking links.[1]
I like to visit links. I am connoisseur of it. I love the feeling of landing on something you didn’t expect — which is precisely what...
Vadim Kravcenko
Aging Code
In a quaint bar on the outskirts of Catania (Italy), as whiskey glasses clinked and muted...
a year ago
In a quaint bar on the outskirts of Catania (Italy), as whiskey glasses clinked and muted conversations blended into a […]
The post Aging Code appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
The Pragmatic...
Github Copilot and ChatGPT alternatives
There are a growing number of AI coding tools that are alternatives to Copilot. A list of other...
a year ago
There are a growing number of AI coding tools that are alternatives to Copilot. A list of other popular, promising options.
A Smart Bear
You can have two Big Things, but not three
No you can't "have it all." You can have two things, but not three.
a year ago
No you can't "have it all." You can have two things, but not three.
swyx's site RSS Feed
Swyx's Simple Guide to Singapore
A personal guide to Singapore for foreign friends visiting.
a year ago
A personal guide to Singapore for foreign friends visiting.
Stephen Wolfram...
Instant Plugins for ChatGPT: Introducing the Wolfram ChatGPT Plugin Kit
This is the first in a series of posts about new LLM-related technology associated with the...
a year ago
This is the first in a series of posts about new LLM-related technology associated with the Wolfram technology stack. "Color" with something like: When you set up a plugin, it can contain many endpoints, that do different things. And—in addition to sharing prompts—one reason this...
Nelson's Weblog
Cronometer is a good food diary
Recently I switched to a new calorie counting app, Cronometer. I’m quite happy with it.
It’s a huge...
a year ago
Recently I switched to a new calorie counting app, Cronometer. I’m quite happy with it.
It’s a huge improvement over MyFitnessPal (MFP) or Lose It and is not exploitative
like Noom.
The key improvement with Cronometer is accuracy,
particularly good data
sources for nutrition...
swyx's site RSS Feed
My New Startup Checklist
some of you may know I've recently started a new company. I'm not ready to talk about -that- yet,...
a year ago
some of you may know I've recently started a new company. I'm not ready to talk about -that- yet, but I did want to capture some notes on logistical stuff I have had to ramp up on as a first time founder. hopefully this helps somebody out there.
Ralph Ammer
The perfect drawing tool
The emotional rollercoaster I experience in art supply stores can be summarised in one word: greed. ...
a year ago
The emotional rollercoaster I experience in art supply stores can be summarised in one word: greed. I want every single pen, every brush, every quill, and a sheet of every paper, ranging from crude cardboard to magnificent handcrafted Japanese washi. And yes, I need papyrus. And...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
A Well Known URL For Your Personal Avatar
Well-known URLs are pretty neat. I’ve even dared propose one before here on my blog.
And now I’m...
a year ago
Well-known URLs are pretty neat. I’ve even dared propose one before here on my blog.
And now I’m here to propose another:
.well-known/avatar
The idea is: anybody that owns a domain can put their avatar in a well-known location.
I’ve already implemented this for my own site[1]....
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Chartjunk: What I've learned about data visualization
For many people the first word that comes to mind when they think
about statistical charts is...
a year ago
For many people the first word that comes to mind when they think
about statistical charts is “lie.”
– Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
I wish we could all agree: pie charts should die.
I know this is unreasonable. And pie charts are only part of...
Josh Collinsworth
First impressions of the MoErgo Glove80 ergonomic keyboard
How does the Glove80 stack up against similar keyboards like the Moonlander and Ergodox? I share my...
a year ago
How does the Glove80 stack up against similar keyboards like the Moonlander and Ergodox? I share my impressions after the first few weeks of use.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
RSS in HTML
I have a question: has anyone ever tried to standardize an RSS feed in HTML?
I can’t find any...
10 months ago
I have a question: has anyone ever tried to standardize an RSS feed in HTML?
I can’t find any discussion around it — but I’d love to read more about the idea because it intrigues me.
The OG RSS was an XML feed.
Later we got JSON feeds.
So why not an HTML feed standard? (I know,...
The Pragmatic...
Layoffs push down scores on Glassdoor: this is how companies respond
Several tech companies face a fresh problem after cutting jobs: their rating on Glassdoor nosedives....
a year ago
Several tech companies face a fresh problem after cutting jobs: their rating on Glassdoor nosedives. But there’s a way they can fix this. I show what companies are doing - and why.
Irrational...
Slides for Measuring an engineering organization.
Last week, I gave a 30 minute talk to a group of CTOs and VP Engineerings in San Francisco
about...
a year ago
Last week, I gave a 30 minute talk to a group of CTOs and VP Engineerings in San Francisco
about measuring engineering organizations.
This talk was essentially this blog post,
and here are the slides.
A few topics worth highlighting:
Measurement educates you, and your audience,...
Dan Quach Blog
Accurate Predictions
In November 2020, I read the book Apollo’s Arrow after hearing Dr Christakis on NPR’s Fresh Air....
a year ago
In November 2020, I read the book Apollo’s Arrow after hearing Dr Christakis on NPR’s Fresh Air. Somewhere midway through this book, this paragraph stood out to me: “Either way, until 2022, Americans will live in an acutely changed world—they will be wearing masks, for example,...
Elad Blog
Transcript & Video: Claire Hughes Johnson Fireside Chat on Scaling People
I interview Claire about her new book "Scaling People". Thanks to Stripe for hosting.
a year ago
I interview Claire about her new book "Scaling People". Thanks to Stripe for hosting.
Max Countryman
Breaking Free from Results-Oriented Thinking
Magic: The Gathering, poker, and business strategy all have something in common: they're vulnerable...
a year ago
Magic: The Gathering, poker, and business strategy all have something in common: they're vulnerable to a cognitive bias known as results-oriented thinking. But to optimize for success, we should avoid this bias and strive to replace it with sound strategy.
Making software...
The X220 ThinkPad is the Best Laptop in the World
The X220 ThinkPad is the Best Laptop in the World
2023-09-26
The X220 ThinkPad is the greatest...
a year ago
The X220 ThinkPad is the Best Laptop in the World
2023-09-26
The X220 ThinkPad is the greatest laptop ever made and you're wrong if you think otherwise. No laptop hardware has since surpassed the nearly perfect build of the X220. New devices continue to get thinner and more...
Ralph Ammer
David Hume — Why we change our mind
How do we know which food is best for us? We might start a low-carb diet. Then we switch to whole...
a year ago
How do we know which food is best for us? We might start a low-carb diet. Then we switch to whole grains, or even go fully vegan—only to return to a low-carb diet yet again. We constantly change our minds. Even scientists keep revising their perspectives. Why is it so difficult...
Vadim Kravcenko
Networking as an introvert CTO
There I was, standing in the middle of a buzzing tech event that our company organized, feeling like...
a year ago
There I was, standing in the middle of a buzzing tech event that our company organized, feeling like a fish […]
The post Networking as an introvert CTO appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Irrational...
Poking around OpenAI.
I haven’t spent much time playing around with the latest LLMs,
and decided to spend some time doing...
a year ago
I haven’t spent much time playing around with the latest LLMs,
and decided to spend some time doing so. I was particularly curious
about the usecase of using embeddings to supplement user prompts
with additional, relevant data (e.g. supply the current status of their
recent...
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Private-ish GitHub repos
This week, we discovered that GitHub.com’s RSA SSH private key was
briefly exposed in a public...
a year ago
This week, we discovered that GitHub.com’s RSA SSH private key was
briefly exposed in a public GitHub repository.
– GitHub’s
“We updated our RSA SSH host key” blog, 2023-03-23
Once you git push, nothing is private.
Private info in git only stays private on your laptop. But once...
A Smart Bear
Excuse me, is there a problem?
Many startups fail despite identifying a real problem and building a product that solves that...
a year ago
Many startups fail despite identifying a real problem and building a product that solves that problem. This explains why, so you can avoid their fate.
Nelson's Weblog
Noom is exploitative
I tried out Noom, the weight loss and cognitive behavioral therapy
program. The app is more like CBT...
a year ago
I tried out Noom, the weight loss and cognitive behavioral therapy
program. The app is more like CBT for upselling customers than CBT for
weight loss. Now I’m hoping they’ll delete my sensitive medical data and
refund the $3 they tricked me out of. (They did, quickly in...
The Pragmatic...
Behind the Scenes with Two New Salary Transparency Websites
On the back of US salary transparency regulations, two new salary transparency websites have...
a year ago
On the back of US salary transparency regulations, two new salary transparency websites have launched, built by the creators of Levels.fyi and Layoffs.fyi. I talked to both teams to learn how they were developed.
Alex MacCaw
Captain's Log #2
On projects, side-projects, AI, and existential dread.
a year ago
On projects, side-projects, AI, and existential dread.
Vadim Kravcenko
Asking questions the right way
In the software development realm, asking questions isn’t just a right—it’s a downright necessity....
a year ago
In the software development realm, asking questions isn’t just a right—it’s a downright necessity. Let’s cut the crap and dive […]
The post Asking questions the right way appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
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...
11 months 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
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
The Gist That Keeps On Giving
I’m working with git and make a big boo-boo.
Now I’m facing a situation where I’ve deleted a local...
6 months ago
I’m working with git and make a big boo-boo.
Now I’m facing a situation where I’ve deleted a local branch with all my work and there’s no backup on GitHub.
“This is git. There has got to be a version of this things still on my computer somewhere, right? RIGHT?!”
So I start...
The Pragmatic...
How Games Typically Get Built
The differences between games development and more “standard” software engineering, roles, and how...
a year ago
The differences between games development and more “standard” software engineering, roles, and how games are typically built.
Darek Kay
Building a photography website
Last year, I started a photography hobby. Soon after, I've created a place where I can share some of...
a year ago
Last year, I started a photography hobby. Soon after, I've created a place where I can share some of my work, without any attention-driven algorithms dictating the terms. Here's a technical write-up of my journey.
Table of...
David Heinemeier...
The open source gift exchange
I love writing and sharing code as open source, but it's not an abstract act of pure altruism. The...
a year ago
I love writing and sharing code as open source, but it's not an abstract act of pure altruism. The first recipients of these programming gifts are almost always myself and my company. It's an intentionally selfish drive first, then a broader benefit second. But, ironically, this...
Seldo.com
On AI, ML, LLMs and the future of software
a year ago
Dan Quach Blog
State of Data Engineering 2023 Q2
When looking at data engineering for your projects, it is important to think about market...
a year ago
When looking at data engineering for your projects, it is important to think about market segmentation. In particular, you might be able to think about it in four segments Small Data – This refers to scenarios where companies have data problems (organization, modeling,...
alexwlchan
Creating a Python dictionary with multiple, equivalent keys
In my previous post, I was creating groups of students, and I wanted to track how many times...
a year ago
In my previous post, I was creating groups of students, and I wanted to track how many times students had worked together.
I created a nested dictionary to track the pairs:
pairs = {
'Alice': {'Bryony': 3, 'Caroline': 1, 'Danielle': 0, …},
'Bryony': {'Alice': 3, 'Caroline':...
alexwlchan
What comes after AWS?
James Governor posed some interesting questions yesterday:
Grumble Bundle
@monkchips
...
6 months ago
James Governor posed some interesting questions yesterday:
Grumble Bundle
@monkchips
what are the core primitives developers need for building and deploying modern applications? what platform services does the underlying infrastructure need to...
General Robots
Humanoid Robots: Dollars and GPTs
Whats With All The Humanoid Robots? Part 2
6 months ago
Whats With All The Humanoid Robots? Part 2
Vadim Kravcenko
Database Migrations
I consider database migrations one of the most annoying problems to deal with during a software...
a year ago
I consider database migrations one of the most annoying problems to deal with during a software engineer’s life. Not only […]
The post Database Migrations appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
The Changelog
Review of Reputable, Functional, and Secure Email Service
I last reviewed email services in 2019. That review focused a lot of attention on privacy. At the...
6 months ago
I last reviewed email services in 2019. That review focused a lot of attention on privacy. At the time, I selected mailbox.org as my provider, and have been using them for these 5 years since. However, both their service and their support have gone significantly downhill since,...
Dan Quach Blog
Data Engineering Low Code Tools
In the data engineering space we have seen quite a few low code and no code tools pass through our...
a year ago
In the data engineering space we have seen quite a few low code and no code tools pass through our radar. Low code tools have their own nuances as you will get to operationalize quicker, but the minute you need to customize something outside of the toolbox, you may run into...
Alex Meub
Hotel Guest User Agent Data
I wrote a script that exposes browser and software platform data from hotels across the country....
over a year ago
I wrote a script that exposes browser and software platform data from hotels across the country. This data is very different from say: StatCounter or NetApplications estimates because they rely on getting their data from trackers on specific websites.
The data I pulled comes...
Stephen Wolfram...
Remembering Doug Lenat (1950–2023) and His Quest to Capture the World with Logic
Logic, Math and AI In many ways the great quest of Doug Lenat’s life was an attempt to follow on...
a year ago
Logic, Math and AI In many ways the great quest of Doug Lenat’s life was an attempt to follow on directly from the work of Aristotle and Leibniz. For what Doug was fundamentally trying to do over the forty years he spent developing his CYC system was to use the framework of...
Tony Finch's blog
Migrating to BIND9 dnssec-policy
Here are some notes on migrating a signed zone from BIND’s old
auto-dnssec to its new...
6 months ago
Here are some notes on migrating a signed zone from BIND’s old
auto-dnssec to its new dnssec-policy.
I have been procrastinating this migration for years, and I avoided
learning anything much about dnssec-policy until this month. I’m
writing this from the perspective of a DNS...
Ralph Ammer
Edmund Husserl — Consciousness
You are awake. You think and you feel. But what is it that is doing all this thinking and feeling?...
5 months ago
You are awake. You think and you feel. But what is it that is doing all this thinking and feeling? We call it “consciousness” and over 100 years ago the philosopher Edmund Husserl made a bold attempt to uncover its secrets. Subjective experience is private The thing is:...
Vadim Kravcenko
Stand Out and Dare to Disagree
Question:
Answer:
The post Stand Out and Dare to Disagree appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
6 months ago
Question:
Answer:
The post Stand Out and Dare to Disagree appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Distraction-free writing: a failed experiment
This 2000-era word processor is the ultimate distraction-free writing
device.
Maybe that’s why I...
a year ago
This 2000-era word processor is the ultimate distraction-free writing
device.
Maybe that’s why I never use it.
AlphaSmart3000 in its Bondi-blue
glory
Before the term “distraction-free” made sense, there was AlphaSmart.
Oozing with early-aughts Apple aesthetics, the...
alexwlchan
Finding the biggest items in my Photos Library
I’m approaching the limit of my current iCloud storage tier, and most of that is my Photos...
a year ago
I’m approaching the limit of my current iCloud storage tier, and most of that is my Photos Library.
I don’t really want to pay for the next iCloud storage tier – I’d be tripling my bill, but I’d barely use the extra space.
(My library grows pretty slowly – I’ve only added ~6GB of...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Get You Some Practical Accessibility
Sara has been working on a new course titled Practical Accessibility and it is available for...
a year ago
Sara has been working on a new course titled Practical Accessibility and it is available for pre-order right now.
I’ve never met Sara in person, but have been an online follower for some time. She is one of those people who has the discipline and eye to make everything they...
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...
7 months 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
Paolo Amoroso's...
Insphex, a hex dump tool in Medley Common Lisp
<![CDATA[I'm developing the new program Insphex (inspect hex), a hex dump tool that is created with...
6 months ago
<![CDATA[I'm developing the new program Insphex (inspect hex), a hex dump tool that is created with and runs on the Medley Interlisp environment.
Similarly to the Linux command hexdump, it shows the contents of files as hexadecimal values and the corresponding ASCII characters....
Liz Denys
Notes on cone 6 clay bodies, part 1
One of the things I love most about working in a community studio is hearing about other...
6 months ago
One of the things I love most about working in a community studio is hearing about other ceramicists' experiences with new-to-me clay bodies. This has helped me feel confident in trying out many different clay bodies, and I now use a bunch of different clay bodies in my...
The Pragmatic...
An educational side project
What does a great side project look like, which helps learn new technologies, but also helps stand...
a year ago
What does a great side project look like, which helps learn new technologies, but also helps stand out when looking for a new job? Analysis of an Uber simulation app, built from scratch.
A Smart Bear
Learn by Copy
In America we're trained that all copying is bad; of course plagiarism is, but perhaps we're...
7 months ago
In America we're trained that all copying is bad; of course plagiarism is, but perhaps we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The Codist
Yet Another Post On Scrum, But Different
Everyone hates Scrum, or at least it seems so, except for management.
I did as well, but a...
5 months ago
Everyone hates Scrum, or at least it seems so, except for management.
I did as well, but a difference is that I started my career in 1981, long before the hordes of Scrums took root.
1981, you say, so you must have done Waterfall, so you are old and have
Nelson's Weblog
Kagi is a good search engine
Google search is overwhelmed with spam these days. Back in January I switched to Kagi and have been...
6 months ago
Google search is overwhelmed with spam these days. Back in January I switched to Kagi and have been happy with it. It’s not free but there’s a limited trial to check it out. I pay $10/mo for unlimited access. Turns out I do about 50 searches a day.
I’m unclear on how Kagi works...
David Heinemeier...
Open source is neither a community nor a democracy
Using open source software does not entitle you to a vote on the direction of the project. The gift...
6 months ago
Using open source software does not entitle you to a vote on the direction of the project. The gift you've received is the software itself and the freedom of use granted by the license. That's it, and this ought to be straight forward, but I repeatedly see that it is not (no...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Implementing Netlify’s Image CDNz
tl;dr I implemented Netlify’s new image transformation service on my icon gallery sites and saw a...
7 months ago
tl;dr I implemented Netlify’s new image transformation service on my icon gallery sites and saw a pretty drastic decrease in overall bandwidth. Here are the numbers:
Page
Requests
Old
New
Difference
Home
60
1.3MB
293kB
▼ 78% (1.01MB)
Colors
84
1.4MB
371kB
▼ 74%...
Ralph Ammer
Show me!
Why do we like images? Because they help us understand things. But what does that mean?...
6 months ago
Why do we like images? Because they help us understand things. But what does that mean? Understanding Well, the world is complicated. And in order to make good decisions we need to know what is going on. Language can help us structure the world. So one way to understand things...
alexwlchan
flapi.sh: a tiny command-line tool for experimenting with the Flickr API →
I use the Flickr API pretty much every day in my day job.
Within the first week, I bashed together a...
7 months ago
I use the Flickr API pretty much every day in my day job.
Within the first week, I bashed together a couple of command-line tools to make a simple tool for exploring the API.
They’re not meant for building “proper” apps, more for quick experiments and seeing what API responses...
alexwlchan
Starting Docker just before I need it
Although I use Docker a lot, I don’t leave it running all the time – it can be quite a resource hog,...
a year ago
Although I use Docker a lot, I don’t leave it running all the time – it can be quite a resource hog, and even if it’s doing nothing it can make my laptop feel sluggish.
I’ll often stop if it my computer feels slow, which is great right until the next time I need to use it:
$...
A Smart Bear
Disentangling the three languages: customers, product, and the business
Stop talking past each other. Translate between the three "languages" of customer desires, product...
5 months ago
Stop talking past each other. Translate between the three "languages" of customer desires, product features, and business goals.
Maggie Appleton
A Collection of Design Engineers
8 months ago
Making software...
Converting My X201 ThinkPad into a Slabtop
Converting My X201 ThinkPad into a Slabtop
2023-05-01
I recently wrote about physically disabling...
a year ago
Converting My X201 ThinkPad into a Slabtop
2023-05-01
I recently wrote about physically disabling the WiFi toggle switch on my X201 which was a fun "hack" to an annoying issue I was running into. Since then, the laptop has been running flawlessly.
The only other minor issue I had...
A Smart Bear
Rare things become common at scale
Software doesn't scale through architecture and automation alone. New, more difficult problems...
6 months ago
Software doesn't scale through architecture and automation alone. New, more difficult problems appear that didn't exist before, causing new downstream consequences.
Max Countryman
Zero-Downtime Deployments with Docker Compose
With a little bash scripting, a modern reverse proxy like Traefik, and Docker Compose, we can put...
a year ago
With a little bash scripting, a modern reverse proxy like Traefik, and Docker Compose, we can put together a fairly robust and simple approach to zero-downtime deployment. Moreover, this approach is flexible and scalable, even for dynamic container backends.
A Smart Bear
What a startup does to you. Or: A celebration of new life
A startup is a crucible -- a fiery place that tests your limits, not by probing them but by...
a year ago
A startup is a crucible -- a fiery place that tests your limits, not by probing them but by violently exceeding them, all of the time. It's worth it.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Date and Time with a Static Site Generator
Do you have a static site generator?
If so, how do you handle the date and time for when your posts...
a year ago
Do you have a static site generator?
If so, how do you handle the date and time for when your posts are published?
For me, I record the publish date once: in the filename (e.g. 2023-05-16-my-slug.md). That YYYY-MM-DD string in the filename is the canonical location for my posts’...
Dan Slimmon
Ask questions first, shoot later
The fact that fixing and diagnosing often converge to the same actions doesn't change the fact that...
6 months ago
The fact that fixing and diagnosing often converge to the same actions doesn't change the fact that these two concurrent activities have different goals. The goal of fixing is to bring the system into line with your mental model of how it's supposed to function. The goal of...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Browser Defaults We Throw Away
Stefan Judis on Twitter:
I'm diving into @remix_run and I strongly agree with the sentiment that a...
a year ago
Stefan Judis on Twitter:
I'm diving into @remix_run and I strongly agree with the sentiment that a JS approach that includes writing event.preventDefault all the time is kinda off.
The browser defaults are great, and yet we're rollin' our own for years now. 🤔
I’ve been thinking...
Maggie Appleton
Faking William Morris, Generative Forgery, and the Erosion of Art History
6 months ago
David Heinemeier...
System tests have failed
When we introduced a default setup for system tests in Rails 5.1 back in 2016, I had high hopes. In...
6 months ago
When we introduced a default setup for system tests in Rails 5.1 back in 2016, I had high hopes. In theory, system tests, which drive a headless browser through your actual interface, offer greater confidence that the entire machine is working as it ought. And because it runs in...
bunnie's blog
Automated Stitching of Chip Images
This is the final post in a series about non-destructively inspecting chips with the IRIS...
7 months 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...
The Pragmatic...
Uber’s engineering level changes
Uber revamped its engineering levels in 2022. How did the levels evolve over time, why was it time...
a year ago
Uber revamped its engineering levels in 2022. How did the levels evolve over time, why was it time to change, and what were they? I’ve collected details.
The Pragmatic...
The state of startup funding
I’ve crunched data from a variety of sources for a sense of how startup funding is trending. So far,...
a year ago
I’ve crunched data from a variety of sources for a sense of how startup funding is trending. So far, it’s downwards. What does this mean for tech? My analysis.
Irrational...
How should you adopt LLMs?
Whether you’re a product engineer, a product manager, or an engineering executive, you’ve probably...
6 months ago
Whether you’re a product engineer, a product manager, or an engineering executive, you’ve probably been pushed to consider using Large Language Models (LLM) to extend your product or enhance your processes. 2023-2024 is an interesting era for LLM adoption, where these...
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...
7 months 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...
Dan Slimmon
Leading incidents when you’re junior
If you’re a junior engineer at a software company, you might be required to be on call for the...
4 months ago
If you’re a junior engineer at a software company, you might be required to be on call for the systems your team owns. Which means you’ll eventually be called upon to lead an incident response. And since incidents don’t care what your org chart looks like, fate may place you in...
macwright.com
Recently
If you’re reading this on macwright.com,
you might have noticed that the website got a very slight...
5 months ago
If you’re reading this on macwright.com,
you might have noticed that the website got a very slight upgrade
this month. I’ve been publishing a lot of content in the
/micro/ section, and I update
my /reading/ list once
or twice a month when I finish books, but these proper...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
The Power of Fast Feedback Cycles
I was hyperlinked to this comment where Rich Harris stopped by Hacker News to clarify his position...
a year ago
I was hyperlinked to this comment where Rich Harris stopped by Hacker News to clarify his position on the (controversial?) steps Svelte is taking to move off Typescript in favor of types-via-JSDoc comments.
First off, I love how Rich prefaces his comments by basically saying,...
Renegade Otter
AI - SkyNet Is Not Coming to Kill You
.highlight pre {
background-color: #efecec;
border-color:...
7 months 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...
A Smart Bear
How repositioning a product allows you to 8x its price
You can charge much more than you think, if you reposition your value-proposition. Here's how.
a year ago
You can charge much more than you think, if you reposition your value-proposition. Here's how.
Irrational...
Good hypergrowth/curator manager.
In 2016, I wrote Productivity in the age of hypergrowth to discuss the challenges of engineering...
a year ago
In 2016, I wrote Productivity in the age of hypergrowth to discuss the challenges of engineering management during periods of hypergrowth. Managers in such periods spend much of their time on hiring and onboarding, with the remainder devoted to organizational structure and...
A Smart Bear
In its emptiness, there is the function of a startup
Everything about a startup changes over time. The few things that don't, are its essence. The voyage...
a year ago
Everything about a startup changes over time. The few things that don't, are its essence. The voyage is meaningless, unless you decide what those things are.
Elad Blog
AI Safety: Technology vs Species Threats
There are at least two ways to think about potential threats coming from advanced AI. The...
a year ago
There are at least two ways to think about potential threats coming from advanced AI. The conventional view is that AI is just yet another of many tool-based technological advances. Like all technologies, the main threat of AI in this scenario is if a human were to use it for...
Stephen Wolfram...
ChatGPT Gets Its “Wolfram Superpowers”!
See also: “What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work?” » To enable the functionality described...
a year ago
See also: “What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work?” » To enable the functionality described here, select and install the Wolfram plugin from within ChatGPT. Note that this capability is so far available only to some ChatGPT Plus users; for more information, see...
Ferd.ca
The Demanding Work of Analyzing Incidents
2022/11/01
The Demanding Work of Analyzing Incidents
A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine was running...
over a year ago
2022/11/01
The Demanding Work of Analyzing Incidents
A few weeks ago, a coworker of mine was running an incident analysis in Jeli, and pointed out that the overall process was a big drag on their energy level, that it was hard to do, even if the final result was useful. They were...
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...
7 months 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...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
RSC, Localfirst, and Coordination Between Multiple Computers
Dan Abramov gave a talk at ReactConf called “React for two computers” (starts at ~5:14:00) which...
6 months ago
Dan Abramov gave a talk at ReactConf called “React for two computers” (starts at ~5:14:00) which gives the conceptual background around how the team came up with the idea for React Server Components (RSC)[1].
I found the talk intriguing. It’s like watching someone take something...
Making software...
Running VSCode in Chromium on OpenBSD
Running VSCode in Chromium on OpenBSD
2023-06-05
VSCode and its many variations are not available on...
a year ago
Running VSCode in Chromium on OpenBSD
2023-06-05
VSCode and its many variations are not available on OpenBSD. This doesn't cause issue with many OpenBSD users, but those making the jump from Linux might miss access to such a popular editor. Lucky for us, there is a hacky...
Seldo.com
There's no such thing as the fundamentals of web development
a year ago
Irrational...
Video of Solving the Eng Strategy crisis.
A few weeks ago, I shared my script for my latest talk,
Solving the Engineering Strategy...
a year ago
A few weeks ago, I shared my script for my latest talk,
Solving the Engineering Strategy crisis,
which I gave at QCon last week.
They’ll have the conference video up in a few weeks, but I also decided to do a recording
of the final version (albeit a few weeks after the talk, so...
A Smart Bear
When you want to quit because it's just not worth it
Are you crying in the shower because you can't handle it anymore? Beyond Impostor Syndrome: Complete...
a year ago
Are you crying in the shower because you can't handle it anymore? Beyond Impostor Syndrome: Complete melt-down? Well, at least you're in good company.
samwho.dev
A Commitment to Art and Dogs
.dog-line {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: nowrap;
flex-direction: row;
width: 100%;
height:...
5 months ago
.dog-line {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: nowrap;
flex-direction: row;
width: 100%;
height: 10rem;
margin-top: 2rem;
margin-bottom: 2rem;
}
.dog-line img {
flex-grow: 1;
height: auto;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
object-fit: contain;
}
.dog-grid {
display:...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Futuristic Progressive Enhancement
Imagine someone came to you in a time machine and said, “In the future we will write software that...
6 months ago
Imagine someone came to you in a time machine and said, “In the future we will write software that becomes more capable as time passes without any effort on our part.”
Wouldn’t that be amazing? Surely you’d want to know what sorcery makes this possible, right?
Well the future is...
Stephen Wolfram...
Expression Evaluation and Fundamental Physics
a year ago
David Heinemeier...
You can't get faster than No Build
For the first time since the 2000s, I'm working on a new Rails application without using any form of...
a year ago
For the first time since the 2000s, I'm working on a new Rails application without using any form of real build steps on the front-end. We're making it using vanilla ES6 with import maps for Hotwire, and vanilla CSS with nesting and variables for styling. All running on a...
Ralph Ammer
Aristotle — How to live a good life
2400 years ago Aristotle found out how to be happy. His Nicomachean Ethics is an operating manual...
8 months ago
2400 years ago Aristotle found out how to be happy. His Nicomachean Ethics is an operating manual for a good life: What is good? First of all, what makes a thing a good thing? A good thing fulfils its unique function. A good knife is a knife that is good at cutting. A good eye is...
Neil Panchal
Eternal Robustness
"Look, you can trust us. We can be depended upon. We are serious about our products and we take...
a year ago
"Look, you can trust us. We can be depended upon. We are serious about our products and we take great care to provide you with excellence year after year. Your involvement with us will be predictable and stable."
Julia Evans
New zine: How Git Works!
Hello! I’ve been writing about git on here nonstop for months, and the git zine
is FINALLY done! It...
5 months ago
Hello! I’ve been writing about git on here nonstop for months, and the git zine
is FINALLY done! It came out on Friday!
You can get it for $12 here:
https://wizardzines.com/zines/git, or get
an 14-pack of all my zines here.
Here’s the cover:
the table of contents
Here’s the table...
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...
7 months 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...
Tony Finch's blog
regpg-1.12
Yesterday I received a bug report for regpg, my program that
safely stores server secrets encrypted...
6 months ago
Yesterday I received a bug report for regpg, my program that
safely stores server secrets encrypted with gpg so they can be
commited to a git repository.
The bug was that I used the classic shell pipeline find | xargs grep
with the classic Unix “who would want spaces in...
A Smart Bear
Adjacency Matrix: How to expand after PMF
A simple workshop that evaluates new business ideas relative to your existing strengths -- the key...
6 months ago
A simple workshop that evaluates new business ideas relative to your existing strengths -- the key to expanding without overreaching.
Alice GG
Create a presskit in 10 minutes with Milou
Talking to the press is an inevitable part of marketing a game or software.
To make the journalist’s...
5 months ago
Talking to the press is an inevitable part of marketing a game or software.
To make the journalist’s job easier, it’s a good idea to put together a press kit.
The press kit should contain all the information someone could want to write an article about your product,
as well as...
Tony Finch's blog
Introducing BIND9 dnssec-policy
Here are some notes about using BIND’s new-ish dnssec-policy feature
to sign a DNS zone that is...
6 months ago
Here are some notes about using BIND’s new-ish dnssec-policy feature
to sign a DNS zone that is currently unsigned.
I am in the process of migrating my DNS zones from BIND’s old
auto-dnssec to its new dnssec-policy, and writing a blog post
about it. These introductory sections...
The Pragmatic...
I'm shutting down my job tech jobs board after two-and-a-half years
I started The Pragmatic Engineer Job Board in October 2021. 2.5 years later, I am shutting it down...
7 months ago
I started The Pragmatic Engineer Job Board in October 2021. 2.5 years later, I am shutting it down permanently, despite a reasonable success in traction. The shutdown was triggered by my vendor – Pallet – discontinuing their job board and talent collective approach. However, I ...
A small freedom area...
Fixing the iterative damping interpolation in video games
As I'm exploring the fantastic world of indie game development lately, I end up
watching a large...
6 months ago
As I'm exploring the fantastic world of indie game development lately, I end up
watching a large number of video tutorials on the subject. Even though the
quality of the content is pretty variable, I'm very grateful to the creators
for it. That being said, I couldn't help...
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...
7 months 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...
A Beautiful Site
Converting a URL Object to a Plain Object in JavaScript
I needed to convert a URL object to a plain object yesterday. You might have used it before. It's...
a year ago
I needed to convert a URL object to a plain object yesterday. You might have used it before. It's pretty handy for working with URLs!
const url = new URL('https://example.com/');
console.log(url);
// URL {origin: 'https://example.com', protocol: 'https:', username: '',...
On Life and Lisp
Vulkan 1.3 on the M1 in 1 month
u{text-decoration-thickness:0.09em;text-decoration-color:skyblue}
Finally, conformant Vulkan for the...
5 months ago
u{text-decoration-thickness:0.09em;text-decoration-color:skyblue}
Finally, conformant Vulkan for the M1! The new “Honeykrisp” driver is
the first conformant
Vulkan® for Apple hardware on any operating system, implementing the
full 1.3 spec without “portability”...
elementary Blog
Happy Pride! Have Some Updates!
This month we have some surprise updates for OS 7, including new releases of GNOME apps and a big...
5 months ago
This month we have some surprise updates for OS 7, including new releases of GNOME apps and a big update for Mail. Plus Wayland is here, there’s a new way to manage Drivers, and we’re shipping Flathub by default! And don’t forget Platform 8 is now ready for developers. Read ahead...
Stephen Wolfram...
Ruliology of the “Forgotten” Code 10
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair...
5 months ago
My All-Time Favorite Science Discovery June 1, 1984—forty years ago today—is when it would be fair to say I made my all-time favorite science discovery. Like with basically all significant science discoveries (despite the way histories often present them) it didn’t happen without...
Elad Blog
Fireside: Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft live in SF
Monday Nov 6, 11:30am - sign up now on link below
a year ago
Monday Nov 6, 11:30am - sign up now on link below
The Changelog
It’s More Important To Recognize What Direction People Are Moving Than Where They Are
I recently read a post on social media that went something like this (paraphrased): “If you buy an...
a year ago
I recently read a post on social media that went something like this (paraphrased): “If you buy an EV, you’re part of the problem. You’re advancing car culture and are actively hurting the planet. The only ethical thing to do is ditch your cars and put all your effort into...
alexwlchan
Snippets to manage albums in Photos.app
Recently I’ve been building some tools to help me manage my photo collection, and part of that...
a year ago
Recently I’ve been building some tools to help me manage my photo collection, and part of that involves moving photos in and out of albums.
The tool I’ve built is very specific to my workflow and unlikely to be immediately useful to anyone else, but I thought some of the code for...
macwright.com
The one about AI
Like everyone, I’ve been thinking about AI. It’s already useful, in a way that the previous big...
a year ago
Like everyone, I’ve been thinking about AI. It’s already useful, in a way that the previous big thing, crypto, wasn’t. I don’t think it’ll become generalized AI - I think the AI winter cycle is the base case and human-like intelligence is qualitatively different than LLM, no...
swyx's site RSS Feed
My Journey from No CS Degree to AWS from Age 30 - 34
I was interviewed by Pete from No CS Degree on my journey, here are some extracts!
over a year ago
I was interviewed by Pete from No CS Degree on my journey, here are some extracts!
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Setting Your Social Handle as Your Domain Name on Bluesky
I recently got an invite to Bluesy (thx JJ). I wanted to try it purely for the satisfaction of...
a year ago
I recently got an invite to Bluesy (thx JJ). I wanted to try it purely for the satisfaction of setting my domain name as my handle, as I’m fan of the idea of apex domain’s becoming the currency of online handles. As I once tweeted: domains are the OG handles.
Granted, I own...
alexwlchan
Doodling with the Mac’s command icon
The command key (⌘) has been a ubiquitious part of the Mac for over forty years.
It was chosen by...
4 months ago
The command key (⌘) has been a ubiquitious part of the Mac for over forty years.
It was chosen by legendary icon designer Susan Kare, who picked it from a symbol dictionary – this shape was already being used in Sweden to highlight an interesting feature on a map.
It’s an...
Nelson's Weblog
PreSonus Eris speakers
PreSonus makes good
computer speakers. They’re marketed as “reference monitors” but at $100
for a...
5 months ago
PreSonus makes good
computer speakers. They’re marketed as “reference monitors” but at $100
for a small set I have my doubts about their referenceness. Fortunately I
have a tin ear and they sound just fine for my computer playing YouTube
videos, compressed music, games. ...
A Smart Bear
Capturing luck with "or" instead of "and"
Luck always plays a role in startups, but there are ways to better capture upside and mitigate...
6 months ago
Luck always plays a role in startups, but there are ways to better capture upside and mitigate downside.
Paolo Amoroso's...
Reading Recursion via Pascal
<![CDATA[I read the book Recursion via Pascal by Jeffrey S. Rohl, Cambridge University Press, 1984....
7 months ago
<![CDATA[I read the book Recursion via Pascal by Jeffrey S. Rohl, Cambridge University Press, 1984. I discovered this rare, little known gem by chance and, although it's available online, I also bought a cheap printed copy.
The book Recursion via Pascal.
What makes this short...
HTMHell
The hidden attribute in HTML
by Ahmad El-Alfy
The hidden attribute allows us to hide HTML elements from the page. When it was...
11 months ago
by Ahmad El-Alfy
The hidden attribute allows us to hide HTML elements from the page. When it was introduced, it worked in a very simple way: it set the CSS display property to none.
Many people voiced concerns because here we are, mixing styles with markup again. To be fair, this...
Liz Denys
Save Congestion Pricing!
Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced an intention to "indefinitely pause" the scheduled rollout of...
5 months ago
Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced an intention to "indefinitely pause" the scheduled rollout of congestion pricing on June 30.
Your voice is urgently needed to stand up for a funded MTA with increased accessibility, a healthy planet, and good government in New York. Stop a $15...
alexwlchan
Drawing repetitive radial artworks
I was waiting for a meeting to start the other day, and I was idly doodling in my notebook.
I’d just...
5 months ago
I was waiting for a meeting to start the other day, and I was idly doodling in my notebook.
I’d just had a text from a friend about an upcoming trip to Ireland, and she’d sent me the four-leafed clover emoji (🍀), so I was sketching some petal-like shapes.
These are a few of my...
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.
7 months ago
If there’s two sources of truth, one is probably wrong. And yes, please repeat yourself.
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Well-crafted grocery lists
Inspired by the simple unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery
list
– Field Notes back inside...
a year ago
Inspired by the simple unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery
list
– Field Notes back inside cover
The list.
Lists are powerful technology.
In his book Moonwalking
with Einstein, Joshua Foer likens early writing to sheet music for
story-telling.
Scripto
continua had zero...
David Heinemeier...
Hating Apple goes mainstream
This isn't just about one awful ad. I mean, yes, the ad truly is awful. It symbolizes everything...
6 months ago
This isn't just about one awful ad. I mean, yes, the ad truly is awful. It symbolizes everything everyone has ever hated about digitization. It celebrates a lossy, creative compression for the most flimsy reason: An iPad shedding an irrelevant millimeter or two. It's destruction...
Ferd.ca
A Commentary on Defining Observability
2024/03/19
A Commentary on Defining Observability
Recently, Hazel Weakly has published a great...
8 months ago
2024/03/19
A Commentary on Defining Observability
Recently, Hazel Weakly has published a great article titled Redefining Observability. In it, she covers competing classical definitions observability, weaknesses they have, and offers a practical reframing of the concept in the...
alexwlchan
Creating a Safari webarchive from the command line
Recently I’ve been trying to create a local archive of my bookmarked web pages.
I already have tools...
6 months ago
Recently I’ve been trying to create a local archive of my bookmarked web pages.
I already have tools to take screenshots, and I love them as a way to take quick snapshots and skim the history of a site, but bitmap images aren’t a great archival representation of a website.
What...
Nelson's Weblog
Passkey authenticators for consumers (May 2023)
After yesterday’s
post about passkeys I got enough answers to learn how to use
passkeys myself as a...
a year ago
After yesterday’s
post about passkeys I got enough answers to learn how to use
passkeys myself as a consumer. Here’s what I learned. If you want to try
it yourself, passkeys.io is a
nice demo server.
Passkeys work a lot like passwords do today. You create a different
passkey for...
Dan Cowell
Deadlines Work
If you had told me that I'm capable of cycling 50km non-stop, soaked to the skin in torrential rain,...
8 months ago
If you had told me that I'm capable of cycling 50km non-stop, soaked to the skin in torrential rain, eyes burning with sunblock, sweat and ocean spray, in sub-10°C conditions, I would have called you a filthy liar.
Then yesterday happened.
It was meant to be
David Heinemeier...
Visions of the future
Nothing gets me quite as fired up as discovering the future early and undistributed. That feeling of...
5 months ago
Nothing gets me quite as fired up as discovering the future early and undistributed. That feeling of realizing that something is simply better, and the only reason it hasn't taken off yet is because the world hasn't realized it. It's amazing, and it's how I'm feeling about Linux...
Making software...
HTML Dark Mode
HTML Dark Mode
2023-04-11
I wrote an article back in 2021 called The Lazy Developer's Dark
Mode...
a year ago
HTML Dark Mode
2023-04-11
I wrote an article back in 2021 called The Lazy Developer's Dark
Mode where I explained how to implement
a very basic "dark mode" by using the prefers-color-scheme CSS attribute.
This stills works perfectly fine, and in fact there is a cleaner variation...
Tyler Cipriani: blog
My eclipse photography plan
.title {text-wrap:balance;}
2017 solar eclipse—obscuration 93.8% (view original)
In 2017, I...
7 months ago
.title {text-wrap:balance;}
2017 solar eclipse—obscuration 93.8% (view original)
In 2017, I opted to skip the crowds and the drive and settle for a
94% solar eclipse. I fully regret that decision.
Weather permitting, I’ll be photographing the full solar eclipse from
the path...
macwright.com
Recently
The weather is starting to get better.
Listening
Gift from the Trees by Mammal Hands
I am still...
a year ago
The weather is starting to get better.
Listening
Gift from the Trees by Mammal Hands
I am still really loving the constellation of bands around
Mammal Hands. They just released
a new album, “Gift from the Trees”, and it’s really excellent.
RETURN by tAKX
Their guitarist,...
Nelson's Weblog
My racism at accents
Interesting NPR segment today: A
powerful eruption on the sun disrupted radio signals on...
11 months ago
Interesting NPR segment today: A
powerful eruption on the sun disrupted radio signals on earth.
What’s remarkable is it’s a PhD candidate talking to an NPR host about
solar flares, completely in two Southern Black accents. Two women, at
that.
I am dismayed at my own involuntary...
A Smart Bear
For probabilities, use Fermi numbers, not words
Don't use phrases like "unlikely" or "almost certainly." Here's real-world data showing why not, and...
a year ago
Don't use phrases like "unlikely" or "almost certainly." Here's real-world data showing why not, and what to do instead.
Engineer’s Codex
How Apple built iCloud to store billions of databases
Apple uses Cassandra and FoundationDB for CloudKit, their cloud backend service. We take a look into...
10 months ago
Apple uses Cassandra and FoundationDB for CloudKit, their cloud backend service. We take a look into how exactly each is used within their cloud and the problems they've solved.
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...
7 months 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...
Epic Web Dev
Embracing Slow Networks: Improving User Experience (article)
How web devs can tackle high latency networks and enhance UX and the role React Server Components...
5 months ago
How web devs can tackle high latency networks and enhance UX and the role React Server Components plays in this.
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...
7 months 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...
swyx's site RSS Feed
Ranking #1 on HN in Mid April
I last wrote about Ranking #1 on HN in December, and wanted to offer an update from my mild hit...
a year ago
I last wrote about Ranking #1 on HN in December, and wanted to offer an update from my mild hit today. I am now taking Latent Space (the new name enabled by the previous owner of that domain selling it to me in my first P2P domain purchase) a lot more seriously with the support...
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...
7 months 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...
macwright.com
The S&P 500 is largely a historical artifact
I see the S&P 500 referenced pretty frequently as an vanilla index for people investing. This isn’t...
7 months ago
I see the S&P 500 referenced pretty frequently as an vanilla index for people investing. This isn’t totally wrong, which is why this post is short. But, if you have the goal of just “investing in the market,” there’s a better option for doing that: a total market index. For...
David Heinemeier...
X celebrates 60% savings from cloud exit
Musk has taken a cleaver to the costs and complexity at X. It hasn't always been pretty, but it sure...
a year ago
Musk has taken a cleaver to the costs and complexity at X. It hasn't always been pretty, but it sure has been effective, and in the process, he's proven his detractors wrong time and again. Not only has the site stayed up, despite hysteric proclamations that it would crater soon...
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Daylight confusion week
Time is a river. A violent current of events.
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Here we are again:...
a year ago
Time is a river. A violent current of events.
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Here we are again: Daylight Confusion Week.
Much of Europe ends Daylight Savings Time today.
But North America will neglect their clocks for another week. And for
us remoties, that means next week’s...
bunnie's blog
Name that Ware, May 2023
The Ware for May 2023 is shown below. This is yet another fine ware contributed by jackw01. I...
a year ago
The Ware for May 2023 is shown below. This is yet another fine ware contributed by jackw01. I suspect this one may be guessed quite quickly, but I’ll leave one hint anyways: there is more than one board in this assembly.
charity.wtf
Pragmatism, Neutrality and Leadership
Every year or so, some tech CEO does something massively stupid, like declaring “No politics at...
3 months ago
Every year or so, some tech CEO does something massively stupid, like declaring “No politics at work!”, or “Trump voters are oppressed and live in fear!”, and we all get a good pained laugh over how out of touch and lacking in self-awareness they are. We hear a lot about the...
alexwlchan
Preserving pixels in Paris
Last month, I was in Paris for the IIPC Web Archiving Conference, a two-day event to discuss the...
6 months ago
Last month, I was in Paris for the IIPC Web Archiving Conference, a two-day event to discuss the preservation of websites and social media.
It was my first time attending, and I was there with both a professional and a personal interest.
This post has some thoughts and photos...
Stephen Wolfram...
Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive...
The Model Why does biological evolution work? And, for that matter, why does machine learning work?...
6 months ago
The Model Why does biological evolution work? And, for that matter, why does machine learning work? Both are examples of adaptive processes that surprise us with what they manage to achieve. So what’s the essence of what’s going on? I’m going to concentrate here on biological...
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...
7 months 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...
David Heinemeier...
What is HiFi
I grew up in a home where music was always playing. My father repaired electronics, so an endless...
11 months ago
I grew up in a home where music was always playing. My father repaired electronics, so an endless stream of speakers, amplifiers, turntables, and TVs passed through the household. And all of it had to be tested, of course. At max volume. Sometimes at odd hours.
While that was...
Patrick Kayongo
Disenchantment
Three days had now passed since there was electricity. Refiloe had 10% battery life left on her...
a year ago
Three days had now passed since there was electricity. Refiloe had 10% battery life left on her phone after recharging at her parents’ home earlier in the day. In addition to that, there had been no water since the morning. Joburg Water had promised restoration by 2pm, but 48...
Tony Finch's blog
On "the OSI deprogrammer"
Back in December, George Michaelson posted an item on the APNIC blog titled
“That OSI model refuses...
7 months ago
Back in December, George Michaelson posted an item on the APNIC blog titled
“That OSI model refuses to die”,
in reaction to Robert Graham’s “OSI Deprogrammer”
published in September. I had discussed the OSI Deprogrammer on Lobsters,
and George’s blog post prompted me to write an...
Seán Barry
What does Quitting the Rat Race Mean to Me?
Am I going to move to a cave in the mountains and immediately get eaten by a bear? This is what...
a year ago
Am I going to move to a cave in the mountains and immediately get eaten by a bear? This is what 'quitting the rat race' means to me.
Evan Jones -...
The C Standard Library Function isspace() Depends on Locale
This is a post for myself, because I wasted a lot of time understanding this bug, and I want to be...
a year ago
This is a post for myself, because I wasted a lot of time understanding this bug, and I want to be able to remember it in the future. I expect close to zero others to be interested. The C standard library function isspace() returns a non-zero value (true) for the six "standard"...
David Heinemeier...
As we forgive those who trespass against us
Google's announcement that they're done discussing politics at work widely echoed the policy changes...
7 months ago
Google's announcement that they're done discussing politics at work widely echoed the policy changes Coinbase and we at 37signals did a few years back. So yesterday, I did two separate interviews with media outlets on the topic. And we spoke in part about those early weeks of...
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Herman's...
Plain text journaling
The new/old way of keeping a digital journal
5 months ago
The new/old way of keeping a digital journal
alexwlchan
The new Flickr Commons Explorer →
One of the things I’ve been working on at the Flickr Foundation is a new “Commons Explorer”, a way...
7 months ago
One of the things I’ve been working on at the Flickr Foundation is a new “Commons Explorer”, a way to browse the photos in the Flickr Commons.
Flickr Commons is a collection of historical photography from cultural institutions from all around the world, all with no known...
Vadim Kravcenko
What I learned building a $1K MRR SaaS in 6 weeks
Question:
Answer:
The post What I learned building a $1K MRR SaaS in 6 weeks appeared first on...
4 months ago
Question:
Answer:
The post What I learned building a $1K MRR SaaS in 6 weeks appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Maggie Appleton
Home-Cooked Software and Barefoot Developers
5 months ago
Making software...
Applying Email-Based Git Patches in Evolution on Linux
Applying Email-Based Git Patches in Evolution on Linux
2023-04-25
Users who work with git patches...
a year ago
Applying Email-Based Git Patches in Evolution on Linux
2023-04-25
Users who work with git patches through email most likely use a terminal-based program such as aerc or mutt. CLI email clients tend to have built-in support for easily applying patches directly to their local...
alexwlchan
How I set up my Obsidian vaults
Obsidian still feels like my “new” app for managing my notes, but according to my daily journal I’ve...
a year ago
Obsidian still feels like my “new” app for managing my notes, but according to my daily journal I’ve been using it for nearly three years.
Time flies when you’re organising information!
I’ve grown to really like it, and I expect to keep using it for a while to come.
Its approach...
Irrational...
Getting lucky isn't a plan.
One piece of flippant commentary that you’ll hear occasionally is that it’s “Better to be lucky than...
a year ago
One piece of flippant commentary that you’ll hear occasionally is that it’s “Better to be lucky than to be good.” On an individual level, it’s almost certainly true that being very lucky outperforms being quite good: I certainly know a number of folks who are financially...
David Heinemeier...
I could have been happy with Windows
After more than twenty years on the mac, it was always going to be difficult for me to leave Apple....
6 months ago
After more than twenty years on the mac, it was always going to be difficult for me to leave Apple. I've simply not been in the market for another computing platform in decades. Sure, I've dabbled a bit here and there, but never with true commitment. It wasn't until Cupertino...
Kagi Blog
What's next for Kagi?
Two years ago, on June 1st, 2022, Kagi introduced ( https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-orion-public-beta ) a...
5 months ago
Two years ago, on June 1st, 2022, Kagi introduced ( https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-orion-public-beta ) a search engine that challenged the ad-supported version of the web.
Daniel Marino
Daily Inspirational Word
Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten into journaling. Recently I’ve been
using a method where...
5 months ago
Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten into journaling. Recently I’ve been
using a method where you’re given a single inspirational word as a prompt, and
go from there. Unfortunately, the process of finding, saving, and accessing
inspirational words was a bit of a...
Irrational...
Making engineering strategies more readable
As discussed in Components of engineering strategy,
a complete engineering strategy has five...
6 months ago
As discussed in Components of engineering strategy,
a complete engineering strategy has five components: explore, diagnose, refine (map & model), policy, and operation.
However, it’s actually quite challenging to read a strategy document written that way.
That’s an effective...
Tony Finch's blog
Unix version control lore: what, ident
There are a couple of version control commands that deserve wider
appreciation: SCCS what and RCS...
6 months ago
There are a couple of version control commands that deserve wider
appreciation: SCCS what and RCS ident.
They allow you to find out what source a binary was built from,
without having to run it – handy if it is a library!
keyword expansion
SCCS, RCS, cvs, and svn all have a way...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Interdisciplinary Website Maker
Paul Ford has a great article at Wired about his own experience as an English major working in tech....
7 months ago
Paul Ford has a great article at Wired about his own experience as an English major working in tech. While I myself am not an English major (more on that below) his desire to be interdisciplinary parallels my own.
I began to realize I was that most horrifying of things:...
The Pragmatic...
Is the “AI developer”a threat to jobs – or a marketing stunt?
One startup released “the first AI software engineer,” while another aims to build a “superhuman...
8 months ago
One startup released “the first AI software engineer,” while another aims to build a “superhuman software engineer.” As intimidating as these sound: what if it’s more marketing than reality?
Irrational...
Who runs Engineering processes?
Uber ran a tech spec review process called the DUCK Review. “DUCK” didn’t stand for anything–it was...
a year ago
Uber ran a tech spec review process called the DUCK Review. “DUCK” didn’t stand for anything–it was created as a deliberate non-acronym–but was otherwise a fairly typical review process. When I first joined, we’d review one or two specs each week.
The volume of requested reviews...
Vadim Kravcenko
10x Engineers vs -10x Burdens
Question:
Answer:
The post 10x Engineers vs -10x Burdens appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
7 months ago
Question:
Answer:
The post 10x Engineers vs -10x Burdens appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Digital Trees
Trees have many functions:
they provide shade,
they purify air,
they store carbon,
they grow...
4 months ago
Trees have many functions:
they provide shade,
they purify air,
they store carbon,
they grow fruit,
and they’re aesthetically pleasing.
What’s intriguing to me about trees is their return on investment (ROI).
It takes years, even decades, to grow a tree to the point where you...
Irrational...
No Wrong Doors.
Some governmental agencies have started to adopt No Wrong Door policies, which aim to provide...
6 months ago
Some governmental agencies have started to adopt No Wrong Door policies, which aim to provide help–often health or mental health services–to individuals even if they show up to the wrong agency to request help. The core insight is that the employees at those agencies are far...
macwright.com
Recently
Listening
My friend Dave Infante has been busy – he launched his own
beer-centric podcast, Taplines,...
a year ago
Listening
My friend Dave Infante has been busy – he launched his own
beer-centric podcast, Taplines, and guest-starred on the enormous
Chapo Trap House podcast.
Reading
It’s been a slow few weeks for books, but since I skipped
Recently in May, I can still talk about Achieving...
The Pragmatic...
Lyft in Trouble
Financials paint a worrying picture of the US’s #2 ridesharing company. The founders have just...
a year ago
Financials paint a worrying picture of the US’s #2 ridesharing company. The founders have just stepped down and a former Amazon executive is the new CEO. What does this major change mean?
Remains of the Day
How to Blow Up a Timeline
NOTE: I’d been working on this piece on and off for a few weeks while trying to move to NYC and...
a year ago
NOTE: I’d been working on this piece on and off for a few weeks while trying to move to NYC and settle into my new apartment, and just as I was about to publish it, Elon rate-limited Twitter and so, sensing a moment of weakness, Meta pulled up its launch date for Threads to...
The Pragmatic...
Is the “AI developer”a threat to jobs – or a marketing stunt?
One startup released “the first AI software engineer,” while another aims to build a “superhuman...
6 months ago
One startup released “the first AI software engineer,” while another aims to build a “superhuman software engineer.” As intimidating as these sound: what if it’s more marketing than reality?
TokyoDev
How I obtained a J-FIND visa in Japan
The J-Find Visa enables recent graduates to engage in activities such as job hunting, business...
9 months ago
The J-Find Visa enables recent graduates to engage in activities such as job hunting, business startup, and other income-generating endeavors within Japan — opportunities that were previously inaccessible to do so. I was one of the first recipients of this visa, which provided me...
Ink & Switch
10 · Beyond prose
We experiment with bringing lightweight branching, diffs, and a chat-like history to diagramming and...
7 months ago
We experiment with bringing lightweight branching, diffs, and a chat-like history to diagramming and spreadsheet tools.
Patrick Kayongo
A New Dog
“What are you doing now?” Sabelo asked Zoleka as she was taking a video of every part of their...
a year ago
“What are you doing now?” Sabelo asked Zoleka as she was taking a video of every part of their living room with her phone. He was growing tired of her ever-new discoveries and project ideas, and he didn’t know if he had the energy to stomach this new one. But she was too busy...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Errors Aren’t All Bad
Adam Silver wrote “Don’t use the maxlength attribute to stop users from exceeding the limit” which...
6 months ago
Adam Silver wrote “Don’t use the maxlength attribute to stop users from exceeding the limit” which seems like one of those obvious things that needn’t be said, but I’m glad he says it.
Have you heard of the “error prevention” heuristic?
It means “do everything you can so users...
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...
7 months 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...
Max Countryman
Value Modes and Mud Balls
In developing software products, we're often accustomed to prioritizing incremental delivery. This...
a year ago
In developing software products, we're often accustomed to prioritizing incremental delivery. This is usually a good way to mitigate the risk of working on the wrong thing. However, sometimes our problems don't fit neatly into accretive methodologies and we need to consider other...
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...
7 months 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.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Watch Transitions in Slow Motion in Chrome’s DevTools
For those of you about to do view transitions, I salute you!
And I pass on this super useful...
a year ago
For those of you about to do view transitions, I salute you!
And I pass on this super useful (perhaps obvious) piece of information I received from Bramus: watch your animations play out in slow motion using Chrome’s devtools.
I’ve been working on view transitions on my icon...
Engineer’s Codex
Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships
Wisdom from Linus Torvalds, the creator of Git and Linux
4 months ago
Wisdom from Linus Torvalds, the creator of Git and Linux
Liz Denys
Notes on cone 6 clay bodies, part 2
I'm continuing my clay body reviews series with two very heavily grogged "sculpture" clays I've...
4 months ago
I'm continuing my clay body reviews series with two very heavily grogged "sculpture" clays I've used.
Note that I currently practice in a community studio that glaze fires to cone 6 in oxidation, so my observations reflect that.
Standard 420 Sculpture:
Cone 6: average shrinkage...
Nelson's Weblog
Phanpy, a Mastodon client
Phanpy is good software for reading
Mastodon or other Fediverse posts. Astonishingly it’s an open...
5 months ago
Phanpy is good software for reading
Mastodon or other Fediverse posts. Astonishingly it’s an open source
passion project from a single developer, Chee
Aun. Its quality is extraordinary, better than most commercial social
media software.
There’s so many good things about Phanpy...
Words and Buttons...
Either your estimates suck or your job does
This page uses polynomial modeling to show why software engineering tasks are often impossible to...
a year ago
This page uses polynomial modeling to show why software engineering tasks are often impossible to estimate.
Nelson's Weblog
Obsidian
Obsidian is good software for
taking and organizing notes. There are many apps for this task,...
a year ago
Obsidian is good software for
taking and organizing notes. There are many apps for this task, Obsidian
is my current favorite. In the past I’ve used a text file, SimpleNote,
Standard Notes, Joplin. I never used emacs org-mode nor
Evernote. Obsidian works reliably and is simple...
Maggie Appleton
Language Model Sketchbook, or Why I Hate Chatbots
a year ago
Ferd.ca
The Review Is the Action Item
2024/05/30
The Review Is the Action Item
I like to consider running an incident review to be its own...
5 months ago
2024/05/30
The Review Is the Action Item
I like to consider running an incident review to be its own action item. Other follow-ups emerging from it are a plus, but the point is to learn from incidents, and the review gives room for that to happen.
This is not surprising advice if...
Daniel Marino
My current prototyping environment
The other day I shared why I prefer coding prototypes rather than using design apps to create them....
7 months ago
The other day I shared why I prefer coding prototypes rather than using design apps to create them. My prototyping environment has evolved over the years. I love to hear how others build prototypes, so I thought I’d share where I’m at now. Maybe you’ll find it useful.
A single...
Making software...
Working with `git` Patches in Apple Mail
Working with git Patches in Apple Mail
2023-05-11
Before we begin: You could likely automate this...
a year ago
Working with git Patches in Apple Mail
2023-05-11
Before we begin: You could likely automate this process in a more streamlined way, but for most use cases this workflow should be fine.
I recently covered how to work with git email patches in Evolution on Linux, so I thought it...
Dan Slimmon
3 questions that will make you a phenomenal rubber duck
As a Postgres reliability consultant and SRE, I’ve spent many hours being a rubber duck. Now I...
10 months ago
As a Postgres reliability consultant and SRE, I’ve spent many hours being a rubber duck. Now I outperform even the incisive bath toy. “Rubber duck debugging” is a widespread, tongue-in-cheek term for the practice of explaining, out-loud, a difficult problem that you’re stumped...
bunnie's blog
Winner, Name that Ware September 2023
The Ware from September 2023 is a Honeywell HPMA115S0-XXX PM2.5 sensor. Although Ben guessed the...
a year ago
The Ware from September 2023 is a Honeywell HPMA115S0-XXX PM2.5 sensor. Although Ben guessed the general category of the ware first, David was the first to give the exact model. Usually I award the prize to the first person to give an exact, correct model number and fall back to...
TokyoDev
A four-stage approach for hiring women on your engineering team
“We’d love to have woman engineers on our team, but we don’t get any applying to us” is a common...
8 months ago
“We’d love to have woman engineers on our team, but we don’t get any applying to us” is a common sentiment I’ve heard from startup founders, both in Japan as well as my home country, the United States.
If you’re in a similar position, and looking to increase the gender...
Elad Blog
AI Dev Tools Panel - Stripe AI day
I will be moderating a panel on 7/13 at Stripe with founders of Baseten, LlamaIndex, Zapier
a year ago
I will be moderating a panel on 7/13 at Stripe with founders of Baseten, LlamaIndex, Zapier
Don Melton
Sorry, we’re closed
For reasons that will soon become obvious, I’m shutting the doors on this website. Everything will...
a year ago
For reasons that will soon become obvious, I’m shutting the doors on this website. Everything will remain online for now, but I don’t plan on returning to write anything new here. Not that I’ve added any content in almost two years anyway.
I still have a passion for making...
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...
7 months 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 Pragmatic...
Compensation at Publicly Traded Tech Companies
Insights from 50 publicly traded tech companies, and a list of those paying the most and the least...
a year ago
Insights from 50 publicly traded tech companies, and a list of those paying the most and the least in median total compensation.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
There’s TypeScript and Then There’s TypeScript
Are you a TypeScript user?
Your initial reaction may be a resounding “Yes!”
Or perhaps be a booming...
a year ago
Are you a TypeScript user?
Your initial reaction may be a resounding “Yes!”
Or perhaps be a booming “No!”
The answer seems simple, but (as with most things) it might be more nuanced than you think.
Here’s Anders Hejlsberg, TypeScript Co-Creator & Lead Architech, from the...
Dan Slimmon
Fight knowledge decay with a rich Incident Summary
It only takes a few off-the-rails incidents in your software career to realize the importance of...
5 months ago
It only takes a few off-the-rails incidents in your software career to realize the importance of writing things down. That’s why so many companies’ incident response protocols define a scribe role. The scribe’s job, generally, is to take notes on everything that happens. In other...
Ferd.ca
Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
2023/06/20
Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
This post contains a transcript of the...
a year ago
2023/06/20
Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback Loops
This post contains a transcript of the talk I wrote for and gave at QCon New York 2023 for Vanessa Huerta Granda's track on resilience engineering.
The official talk title was "Embrace Complexity; Tighten Your Feedback...
Making software...
Bypassing the WiFi Hardware Switch on the Lenovo X201
Bypassing the WiFi Hardware Switch on the Lenovo X201
2023-04-02
I recently received a ThinkPad X201...
a year ago
Bypassing the WiFi Hardware Switch on the Lenovo X201
2023-04-02
I recently received a ThinkPad X201 to start using as my daily driver. I purchased the X201 to replace my existing X260. Although some might look at this as a "downgrade" in terms of specs and hardware, I would have...
A Smart Bear
Stop saying "fail"
Language shapes our perception of setbacks. Use words other than "failure" to describe situations...
a year ago
Language shapes our perception of setbacks. Use words other than "failure" to describe situations and to suggest the next step.
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...
7 months ago
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,...
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...
7 months 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...
The Pragmatic...
The software engineering industry in 2024: what changed, why, and what is next
The past 18 months have seen major change reshape the tech industry. What does it all mean for...
4 months ago
The past 18 months have seen major change reshape the tech industry. What does it all mean for businesses and dev teams – and what will pragmatic software engineering approaches look like in the future?
I tackled these burning questions in my conference talk, “What’s Old is
Dan Quach Blog
Vietnam
Grandma and the Vietnam WarWhen I was young, friends would visit, and there was one photo on the...
7 months 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...
The Pragmatic...
How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)
The Redmond Big Tech giant pioneered the SDET role in the 90s. It then retired it in 2014. What...
a year ago
The Redmond Big Tech giant pioneered the SDET role in the 90s. It then retired it in 2014. What happened and why?
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...
7 months 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...
A Smart Bear
The only way to guarantee startup success
What is it like to reach the pinnacle of success? Is that where you attain happiness and...
a year ago
What is it like to reach the pinnacle of success? Is that where you attain happiness and fulfillment? Or are those found right here, right now.
A Smart Bear
Satisficing vs Maximizing
Fast, or Best? Choose your decision-making goal wisely, especially if you're a natural...
a year ago
Fast, or Best? Choose your decision-making goal wisely, especially if you're a natural perfectionist.
The Codist
My Address Doesn't Fit, And Other Complaints
So today, I decided to renew my driver's license online, like any modern person would.
I started the...
5 months ago
So today, I decided to renew my driver's license online, like any modern person would.
I started the process by going to my state's driver's license website. The first page is to verify my home and mail addresses. Since nothing changed, I hit "
General Robots
What's With All the Humanoid Robots?
If you follow robotics at all you may have noticed that there has been an explosion of humanoid...
6 months ago
If you follow robotics at all you may have noticed that there has been an explosion of humanoid robot startups. What's with that? Why humanoids? Why now?
Nelson's Weblog
AI enhanced search
LLMs are good search helpers. Here’s three search tools I use every day.
All of these use an AI to...
2 months ago
LLMs are good search helpers. Here’s three search tools I use every day.
All of these use an AI to synthesize answers but also provide an essential
feature: specific web search results for you to verify and further research.
I use these for conversational inquiries in addition...
swyx's site RSS Feed
You Should Have A Virtual Mailbox
If you fit one of these criteria:
10 months ago
If you fit one of these criteria:
The Pragmatic...
What Big Tech layoffs suggest for the industry
Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce have announced large layoffs in January. What will these events...
a year ago
Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce have announced large layoffs in January. What will these events mean for the rest of the industry?
The Pragmatic...
Should you optimize for all-cash compensation, if possible?
Although still rare in the industry, companies like Netflix and Shopify let employees choose how...
a year ago
Although still rare in the industry, companies like Netflix and Shopify let employees choose how much of their total compensation is stock. What are the approaches to take?
Oxide Computer...
Building Big Systems with Remote Hardware Teams
The product we’re building, a rack-scale computer, is specifically designed to
be a centralized,...
a year ago
The product we’re building, a rack-scale computer, is specifically designed to
be a centralized, integrated product because that’s what our customers need.
This requirement and the design choices we’ve made to meet this need
create some daily efficiency challenges for our team....
Tony Finch's blog
BIND9 dnssec-policy appendices
Here are some miscellaneous unsorted notes about BIND9’s
dnssec-policy that turned out not to be...
6 months ago
Here are some miscellaneous unsorted notes about BIND9’s
dnssec-policy that turned out not to be useful in my previous blog
posts, but which some readers might find informative. Some of them I
learned the hard way, so I hope I can make it easier for others!
contents of key...
David Heinemeier...
We are a place of business
After the disastrous launch of their Gemini AI, which insisted that George Washington was actually...
7 months 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...
Vadim Kravcenko
How much a CTO makes and where can I find CTO Jobs?
Question:
Here's the thing, I’m kind of stuck trying to figure out what a CTO actually makes in...
6 months ago
Question:
Here's the thing, I’m kind of stuck trying to figure out what a CTO actually makes in terms of $$$, most of the people in the field are secretive about how much they're getting. It's not just about the money (okay, it's a bit about the money), but also understanding if...
Max Countryman
People-First Leadership
Investment in people is absolutely essential to building a business that's not just getting by but...
a year ago
Investment in people is absolutely essential to building a business that's not just getting by but actively thriving. People-first leadership offers an approach which consistently cultivates an environment where folks can show up and do their best work, propelling the business...
Irrational...
How to plan as an engineering executive.
Some years back, I interviewed a senior leader for an engineering role, and asked them a question...
a year ago
Some years back, I interviewed a senior leader for an engineering role, and asked them a question about planning. I enjoyed their response, “Ah yes, the ‘P’ word, planning.” That answer captured an oft heard perspective that planning is some sort of business curse word. Even when...
Oxide Computer...
The Cloud Computer
Today we are announcing the general availability of the world’s first
commercial cloud computer —...
a year ago
Today we are announcing the general availability of the world’s first
commercial cloud computer — along with
our $44M Series A financing.
From the outset at Oxide, and as I outlined in
my 2020 Stanford talk,
we have had three core beliefs as a company:
Cloud computing is the...
alexwlchan
Getting the path to the note I have open in Obsidian
I have a bunch of Python scripts I use to clean up text files, and I call them by passing the path...
10 months ago
I have a bunch of Python scripts I use to clean up text files, and I call them by passing the path to the text file as an argument, for example:
$ python clean_up_text.py /path/to/text/file.md
This is mostly fine, but finding that path is a bit annoying when I want to run them...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Apollo and App Icons
As a self-proclaimed app icon-noisseur, I’ve followed Apollo from the sidelines for a while. I...
a year ago
As a self-proclaimed app icon-noisseur, I’ve followed Apollo from the sidelines for a while. I absolutely love all the great app icon variations Christian has commissioned for the app. (Photo from @BasicAppleGuy.)
It’s sad to see Apollo go. As I noted, Christian was a...
Basta’s Notes
Don't ask me to embarrass myself.
Or: Please Lucy, stop asking me to kick the football.
4 months ago
Or: Please Lucy, stop asking me to kick the football.
David Heinemeier...
Introducing Omakub
Linux can look and feel so good, but it often doesn't out of the box. It's almost like there's a...
5 months ago
Linux can look and feel so good, but it often doesn't out of the box. It's almost like there's a rite of passage in certain parts of the community where becoming an expert in the intricacies of every tool and its theming is required to prove you're a proper nerd. I think that's a...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Novels as Prototypes of the Future
Via Robin Rendle’s blog, I found this quote from Jack Cheng (emphasis mine):
A novel…is a prototype...
5 months ago
Via Robin Rendle’s blog, I found this quote from Jack Cheng (emphasis mine):
A novel…is a prototype of the future. And if the ideas that the tech industry is pursuing feel stagnant…maybe it points to a shortage of compelling fictions for what the world could be.
I love that...
elementary Blog
Visualizing The Finish Line
First things first, congratulations to Ubuntu on releasing version 24.04! If you’re not already...
6 months ago
First things first, congratulations to Ubuntu on releasing version 24.04! If you’re not already aware, we build elementary OS releases from the Ubuntu software repositories, so we now have a stable upstream to work from. That means it’s time for us to focus in on finishing up...
Making software...
Bringing dwm Shortcuts to GNOME
Bringing dwm Shortcuts to GNOME
2023-11-02
The dwm window manager is my standard "go-to" for most of...
a year ago
Bringing dwm Shortcuts to GNOME
2023-11-02
The dwm window manager is my standard "go-to" for most of my personal laptop environments. For desktops with larger, higher resolution monitors I tend to lean towards using GNOME. The GNOME DE is fairly solid for my own purposes. This...
Patrick Kayongo
When You Die
the doctors will tell your spouse and they’ll break down in grief they’ll message someone they trust...
12 months ago
the doctors will tell your spouse and they’ll break down in grief they’ll message someone they trust who’ll rush to see them, as soon the time allows. your workplace will send an email and all your colleagues will be saddened whatsapp broadcasts will flood phones of those time...
alexwlchan
Writing a Mac app to review my photos
I take a lot of photos.
When I’m trying to get a particular shot, I’ll often take multiple pictures...
a year ago
I take a lot of photos.
When I’m trying to get a particular shot, I’ll often take multiple pictures in the hope of getting at least one that’s good – and then my camera roll is full of similar images.
I always intend to go back and clean up my pictures afterwards – pick the best...
Alex MacCaw
Common logical fallacies surrounding capitalism
We live in an age of extreme abundance compared to our ancestors. This fact isn’t often reflected in...
4 months ago
We live in an age of extreme abundance compared to our ancestors. This fact isn’t often reflected in Western media or online discourse. Indeed, there is a growing sentiment that ‘the system isn’t working’, ‘the system is rigged’, and that ‘
Charles Chen
Need for Speed: LLMs Beyond OpenAI with .NET 8 SSE + Channels, Llama3, and Fireworks.ai
If your gen AI use case has a need for speed, then it might be time to move beyond OpenAI GPT and...
6 months ago
If your gen AI use case has a need for speed, then it might be time to move beyond OpenAI GPT and combine that with a backend capable of high-throughput concurrent processing.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Circles and Momentum
I had not come across this graphic from swyx until recently:
I like this reminder.
I know for me,...
a year ago
I had not come across this graphic from swyx until recently:
I like this reminder.
I know for me, it’s often too easy to slip into a kind of cynicism that only sees endless stationary circles rather than ones with directional momentum.
It reminds me of the visualizations of...
A Smart Bear
When customers are "willing" to pay
This fresh take on "Willingness-to-Pay" analyzes three types of customer motivation, leading to...
a year ago
This fresh take on "Willingness-to-Pay" analyzes three types of customer motivation, leading to superior strategies for growth that also better the world.
Irrational...
Video of Using LLMs in your product.
A month ago, I wrote up some notes on
using LLMs in your product,
and yesterday I got to present an...
5 months ago
A month ago, I wrote up some notes on
using LLMs in your product,
and yesterday I got to present an iteration on those notes to
the folks at the Sapphire Venture’s 2024 Hypergrowth Engineering Summit.
If you’re interested, you can watch a recording of my talk on Youtube.
There’s...
A Beautiful Site
Reflection and Custom States in Web Components
In the Web Component world, attribute reflection is commonly used to style custom elements both...
5 months ago
In the Web Component world, attribute reflection is commonly used to style custom elements both internally and as public APIs for consumers. If you're not familiar, attribute reflection occurs when an attribute in the DOM is updated due to changes in a corresponding property.
A...
Paolo Amoroso's...
Building a GUI for Insphex
<![CDATA[I added a GUI to Insphex, the hex dump tool I'm writing in Common Lisp on the Medley...
5 months ago
<![CDATA[I added a GUI to Insphex, the hex dump tool I'm writing in Common Lisp on the Medley Interlisp environment.
The initial version printed the hex dump only to the standard output, now optionally to a separate TEdit window with a command menu. The menu has items for...
Neil Panchal
Coming soon
This is Neil Panchal's Blog, a brand new site by Neil Panchal that's just getting started. Things...
5 months ago
This is Neil Panchal's Blog, a brand new site by Neil Panchal that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new
Alice GG
How to solve it (with raycasting)
In 1945, mathematician George Pólya released the book “How to solve it”.
It aims at helping math...
6 months ago
In 1945, mathematician George Pólya released the book “How to solve it”.
It aims at helping math teachers guide their students into solving abstract problems by asking the right questions.
It has since had a large influence on math education and computer science, to the point of...
TokyoDev
The Remarkable Decline in Home Burglary Rates in Japan
I stumbled across an amazing fact. From 2003 to 2022, the number of home burglaries in Japan...
11 months ago
I stumbled across an amazing fact. From 2003 to 2022, the number of home burglaries in Japan decreased by a factor of 12! Home burglaries in Japan peaked in 2003, with 190,473 cases in Japan. But as of 2022, where the most recent data is available, they have dropped to a mere...
PostHog's RSS Feed
The most popular Heap alternatives and competitors, compared
The most popular Heap alternatives in 2023 are: PostHog: All-in-one platform that combines...
a year ago
The most popular Heap alternatives in 2023 are: PostHog: All-in-one platform that combines comprehensive analytics with session replay, A/B testing…
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Herman's...
Teaching tax in school
On becoming an adult, one thing has stuck out to me as a huge oversight in the high school system is...
a year ago
On becoming an adult, one thing has stuck out to me as a huge oversight in the high school system is that we never learnt about tax.
I'm constantly shocked by the lack of tax literacy in the broader population. I'm not even talking about the logistics of filing tax returns, but...
Tyler Cipriani: blog
Monitoring my indoor air quality
Fri, 19 May 2023 Denver air quality live
cam
If there’s one thing that feels like it’s gotten worse...
a year ago
Fri, 19 May 2023 Denver air quality live
cam
If there’s one thing that feels like it’s gotten worse in my
lifetime, it’s air quality.
Colorado’s air quality last week was dismal, filled with smoke from
Canadian wildfires, making Denver’s air quality among the worst
of any major...
A Smart Bear
Your non-linear problem of 90% utilization
Is everyone is working very hard, all the time, and yet accomplishing 1/10th of what it seems they...
a year ago
Is everyone is working very hard, all the time, and yet accomplishing 1/10th of what it seems they should? Maybe this is why.
Paolo Amoroso's...
My Common Lisp setup on Linux
<![CDATA[Now that I'm back to Lisp I'm actively exploring Interlisp as a Common Lisp environment...
10 months ago
<![CDATA[Now that I'm back to Lisp I'm actively exploring Interlisp as a Common Lisp environment too.
But to code in Common Lisp also on my Crostini Linux system, the Linux container of chromeOS I use on a Chromebox, I'm setting up a suitable development environment. In addition...
Maggie Appleton
Talk: The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
a year ago
Joel Gascoigne
My morning routine as a remote CEO and why it’s always changing
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog.
Working remotely and having the opportunity to...
over a year ago
Note: this was originally posted on the Buffer blog.
Working remotely and having the opportunity to work from home, coffee shops, coworking spaces, or wherever else I might feel the most productive, means that I can design my own mornings because they don’t necessarily need to be...
The Pragmatic...
PagerDuty alternatives
12 alternatives to the market-leading alerting tool, PagerDuty.
a year ago
12 alternatives to the market-leading alerting tool, PagerDuty.
A Beautiful Site
Anchoring Software to Major Versions
In a SemVer world, major releases are those which contain incompatible API changes. We often see...
6 months ago
In a SemVer world, major releases are those which contain incompatible API changes. We often see software projects anchor themselves to major versions for long periods of time, usually with the promise of stability.
We all know how frustrating it is to upgrade a package and run...
somenice
Mammoth Mountain Logo
Ooof. Hard to believe this would have passed all the checks and balances to get appropriated...
a year ago
Ooof. Hard to believe this would have passed all the checks and balances to get appropriated approved. It’s not a stretch to say that a California ski resort has naively combined two M’s to form a crown but to outright copy a symbol used repeatedly by one of the highest selling...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Out of the Software Crisis: Gardening
The following is an extension of my notes from Baldur’s book “Out of the Software Crisis” including...
a year ago
The following is an extension of my notes from Baldur’s book “Out of the Software Crisis” including quotes from the author.
Great software grows in our minds, we don’t manufacture it on-demand.
[Software projects] are grown thought-stuff [but we] treat them like lego blocks.
As...
Irrational...
Those five spare hours each week.
One of the recurring debates about senior engineering leadership roles is whether Chief Technology...
10 months ago
One of the recurring debates about senior engineering leadership roles is whether Chief Technology Officers should actively write code. There are a lot of strongly held positions, from “Real CTOs code.” at one end of the spectrum, to “Low ego managers know they contribute more by...
Miguel Carranza
My role as a founder CTO: Year Five
It’s hard to believe that five years have already gone by since RevenueCat’s inception. In a matter...
a year ago
It’s hard to believe that five years have already gone by since RevenueCat’s inception. In a matter of weeks, RevenueCat will become the company where I have worked the longest in my career. As Jason Lemkin says, it’s important to continuously reinvent the company and oneself...
Nelson's Weblog
APIs for content sites must be free
Social media businesses should not charge* for APIs. If a company
like Reddit or Twitter derives...
a year ago
Social media businesses should not charge* for APIs. If a company
like Reddit or Twitter derives most of its value from content that users
write for free then it must provide APIs for anyone to download and
manipulate that content. While an interactive API that enables...
Stephen Wolfram...
Introducing Chat Notebooks: Integrating LLMs into the Notebook Paradigm
This is part of an ongoing series about our LLM technology:ChatGPT Gets Its “Wolfram...
a year ago
This is part of an ongoing series about our LLM technology:ChatGPT Gets Its “Wolfram Superpowers”!Instant Plugins for ChatGPT: Introducing the Wolfram ChatGPT Plugin KitThe New World of LLM Functions: Integrating LLM Technology into the Wolfram LanguagePrompts for Work & Play:...
Paolo Amoroso's...
Adding an Exec command and File Browser support to Insphex
<![CDATA[I implemented the last features originally planned for Insphex, my hex dump tool in Common...
4 months ago
<![CDATA[I implemented the last features originally planned for Insphex, my hex dump tool in Common Lisp for Medley Interlisp.
The first new feature is an Exec command for invoking the program. The command HD works the same way as the function INSPHEX:HEXDUMP and accepts the...
Vadim Kravcenko
Being a good mentor – a developers guide
Let’s talk about the process where the experienced welcome the inexperienced under their wing and...
a year ago
Let’s talk about the process where the experienced welcome the inexperienced under their wing and illuminate the path ahead. I’ve […]
The post Being a good mentor – a developers guide appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Epic Web Dev
Skip SDKs in Simple Integrations (article)
When dealing with APIs, SDKs can lead to cognitive overhead and complexity. Make sure the SDK is...
5 months ago
When dealing with APIs, SDKs can lead to cognitive overhead and complexity. Make sure the SDK is worth the trade-offs.
Ink & Switch
Universal version control and rich text on Automerge
In this dispatch we're sharing some updates about our ongoing research on universal version control.
6 months ago
In this dispatch we're sharing some updates about our ongoing research on universal version control.
Alex MacCaw
The Stars
Technology's ability to improve lives and alleviate suffering is undeniable. It has swept through...
a year ago
Technology's ability to improve lives and alleviate suffering is undeniable. It has swept through our lives like a tidal wave, lifting us from the depths of ignorance and suffering. It continues to reshape the world and grants us access to tools and knowledge previously...
Irrational...
Interviewing engineering executives.
Earlier I wrote about getting hired as an Engineering executive, and it’s perhaps even more...
a year ago
Earlier I wrote about getting hired as an Engineering executive, and it’s perhaps even more important to discuss the opposite question: how should you interview and evaluate Engineering executives? As an Engineering executive, you may not directly run one of these searches, but...
A small freedom area...
Hacking window titles to help OBS
This write-up is meant to present the rationale and technical details behind a
tiny project I wrote...
a year ago
This write-up is meant to present the rationale and technical details behind a
tiny project I wrote the other day, WTH, or WindowTitleHack, which is
meant to force a constant window name for apps that keep changing it (I'm
looking specifically at Firefox and Krita, but there are...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Single Line Comments in CSS
Brad Frost noted on Twitter how he recently made a website with plain HTML, CSS, JS, etc., and found...
a year ago
Brad Frost noted on Twitter how he recently made a website with plain HTML, CSS, JS, etc., and found himself missing some of the ergonomics from Sass.
Having mostly abandoned Sass on personal projects, I was curious what he felt was missing.
He mentioned nesting media queries,...
The Pragmatic...
Klarna’s AI chatbot: how revolutionary is it, really?
Klarna launched its AI chatbot, built in collaboration with OpenAI, which the company wants to use...
3 months ago
Klarna launched its AI chatbot, built in collaboration with OpenAI, which the company wants to use to eliminate 2/3rds of customer support positions. But is it as revolutionary, and as likely to replace jobs, as Klarna claims?
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Herman's...
Cities need more trees
A case for planting more trees in urban areas.
4 months ago
A case for planting more trees in urban areas.
Tony Finch's blog
Moaning about YAML frontmatter
As is typical for static site generators, each page on this web site
is generated from a file...
6 months ago
As is typical for static site generators, each page on this web site
is generated from a file containing markdown with YAML frontmatter.
Neither markdown nor YAML are good. Markdown is very much the
worse-is-better of markup languages; YAML, on the other hand, is more
like...
Vadim Kravcenko
Valueless CTO: High Salary, No Return
Question:
Answer:
The post Valueless CTO: High Salary, No Return appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
6 months ago
Question:
Answer:
The post Valueless CTO: High Salary, No Return appeared first on Vadim Kravcenko.
Making software...
My Robotic Mower Woes
My Robotic Mower Woes
2023-05-19
A Brief Background
I'm no stranger to robotic lawnmowers. When my...
a year ago
My Robotic Mower Woes
2023-05-19
A Brief Background
I'm no stranger to robotic lawnmowers. When my wife and I moved into our rural home just over five years ago, we picked up the Husqvarna 450X Automower since I was far too lazy to manually mow my property and the cost was equal...
The Pragmatic...
Paying down tech debt: further learnings
In a counter-intuitive observation: by making small, non-functional improvements, you gain more...
2 months ago
In a counter-intuitive observation: by making small, non-functional improvements, you gain more confidence in a new codebase, and can start to move faster.
A Smart Bear
The Lindy Effect on startup potential
On average, you're halfway to your final destination. How, then, do we not only double from here,...
5 months ago
On average, you're halfway to your final destination. How, then, do we not only double from here, but 10x?
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Building an Infinite Spreadsheet
As of late, I’ve been working on Quadratic: an infinite canvas spreadsheet that runs code. Think...
a year ago
As of late, I’ve been working on Quadratic: an infinite canvas spreadsheet that runs code. Think Figma (infinite canvas) meets Excel (spreadsheet) meets VSCode (IDE). In addition to formulas (e.g. SUM(A1:A5)) every cell in Quadratic can be the result of code (right now it’s...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Advice on Blogging
In Manuel’s series People and Blogs, he asked me:
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog...
a year ago
In Manuel’s series People and Blogs, he asked me:
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?
I gave my answer, but I wanted to expand on it.
These kinds of questions are interesting to me.
As readers, I think the answer we’re...
the singularity is...
Dangerous Misinformation
When I Google myself, I get this infobox:
As you can see below, George Hotz’s height is 5’10”, not...
3 months ago
When I Google myself, I get this infobox:
As you can see below, George Hotz’s height is 5’10”, not 5’4”
Google, please take this misinformation seriously before you end up in a very large libel suit. This is not on a site you are linking to, this is first party misinformation...
alexwlchan
Getting alerts about flaky ECS tasks in Slack
At work, we use Amazon ECS to run some of our Docker-based services.
ECS is a container...
a year ago
At work, we use Amazon ECS to run some of our Docker-based services.
ECS is a container orchestrator, similar to Kubernetes: we tell it what Docker images we want to run in what configuration, and it stops or starts containers to match.
If a container stops unexpectedly, ECS...
Writing - Andreas...
It’s hard to grow without trust
Trust is a key enabler of growth (and conversely, lack of trust a key
inhibitor).
4 months ago
Trust is a key enabler of growth (and conversely, lack of trust a key
inhibitor).
Tony Finch's blog
inlined nearly divisionless random numbers
a blog post for international RNG day
Lemire’s nearly-divisionless algorithm unbiased bounded...
4 months ago
a blog post for international RNG day
Lemire’s nearly-divisionless algorithm unbiased bounded random
numbers has a fast path and a slow path. In the
fast path it gets a random number, does a multiplication, and a
comparison. In the rarely-taken slow path, it calculates a...
Alex Meub
Automating Capacitive Buttons with a Modified Switchbot
I’ve had a heater in my home office this winter and I’ve wished it could turn on/off automatically...
a year ago
I’ve had a heater in my home office this winter and I’ve wished it could turn on/off automatically based on whether or not I was in the room. A smart outlet wouldn’t work for this because the heater has a manual switch. My next thought was to use my Switchbot smart button pusher,...
Stephen Wolfram...
When Exactly Will the Eclipse Happen? A Multimillennium Tale of Computation
Updated and expanded from a post for the eclipse of August 21, 2017. Preparing for April 8, 2024 On...
7 months ago
Updated and expanded from a post for the eclipse of August 21, 2017. Preparing for April 8, 2024 On April 8, 2024, there’s going to be a total eclipse of the Sun visible on a line across the US. But when exactly will the eclipse occur at a given location? Being able to predict...
Irrational...
The Engineering Executive's Primer.
See on O’Reilly’s website for The Engineering Executive’s Primer.
In 2019, I worked with Stripe...
a year ago
See on O’Reilly’s website for The Engineering Executive’s Primer.
In 2019, I worked with Stripe Press to publish my first book, An Elegant Puzzle,
which captured many of the lessons I’d learned as an engineering manager in fast growing Silicon Valley companies.
In 2021, I decided...
Paolo Amoroso's...
My ChromeOS to Linux migration: requirements and setup
<![CDATA[I'm going back to Linux after nine years of ChromeOS.
In 2015 I had been using Linux for a...
4 months ago
<![CDATA[I'm going back to Linux after nine years of ChromeOS.
In 2015 I had been using Linux for a couple of decades. Exasperated by the frequent maintenance issues, that year I migrated to ChromeOS. I was living in the browser anyway and ChromeOS seemed like a stable...
General Robots
Writing Libraries for AIs to Use
Donald Knuth tells us, “Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers...
a year ago
Donald Knuth tells us, “Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute.” but in the future we have a third category. I think that programs and libraries (and programming languages?) that lend themselves to effective AI assistance will win...
swyx's site RSS Feed
Software 3.0 and the AI Engineer Landscape (talk notes & slides)
Everyone has gone AI mad, and there is a lot of noise, hype, and demos, but not a lot of guidance on...
a year ago
Everyone has gone AI mad, and there is a lot of noise, hype, and demos, but not a lot of guidance on practical usecases. We will go over a mental model of who is doing what and explain both where the opportunities are and where the non-AI developer can start going down the rabbit...
Neil Panchal
How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS
If you need a basic NAS and don't care about GUI features, it is suprisingly simple to set up a ZFS...
2 months ago
If you need a basic NAS and don't care about GUI features, it is suprisingly simple to set up a ZFS dataset and share it over the network using Samba.
Acko.net
The Bouquet Residence
Keeping up appearances in tech
I saw a remarkable pair of tweets the other day.
In the wake of...
4 months ago
Keeping up appearances in tech
I saw a remarkable pair of tweets the other day.
In the wake of the outage, the CEO of CrowdStrike sent out a public announcement. It's purely factual. The scope of the problem is identified, the known facts are stated, and the logistics of...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Your Greatest Strength Is Also Your Greatest Weakness
Referring to product management, my old boss used to say, “There is no right or wrong, only...
4 months ago
Referring to product management, my old boss used to say, “There is no right or wrong, only trade-offs.” This applies to technology too (and, if you really think about it, life generally — but we won’t go that far).
As an example, what makes npm great? It’s so easy to install a...
Ruud van Asseldonk
A type system for RCL: Implementing a typechecker in Rust
4 months ago
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Book Notes: “Out of the Software Crisis” by Baldur Bjarnason
I read Baldur’s book “Out of the Software Crisis” a while back and have been meaning to publish some...
a year ago
I read Baldur’s book “Out of the Software Crisis” a while back and have been meaning to publish some of my highlighted excerpts and notes.
It’s always hard reading a book like this because I highlight so much and have so many thoughts that I could spend hours and hours rehashing...