Never Met a Science
Protocol Politics
Metascience is my bag.
4th Jun 2026
Willem's Blog
For the love of mini
The iPhone Mini has intangible greatness that most folks don't know about: read along for the love...
8th Dec 2021
The iPhone Mini has intangible greatness that most folks don't know about: read along for the love of mini!
Willem L. Middelkoop
The joy of a simple laptop
Every now and then I switch my gear to keep a tap on what is going on outside my regular tech...
2nd Nov 2020
Every now and then I switch my gear to keep a tap on what is going on outside my regular tech habits. You’ll be amazed by what you can learn from trying out different things. This week I had a chance to test the Surface Laptop Go running Windows 10. Quite frankly, it amazed...
Freewheeling Apps
2025-06-01
I've been reading The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander, and it's inspired me to experiment...
1st Jun 2025
I've been reading The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander, and it's inspired me to experiment with this representation to communicate the global structure of the source code of the Game of Snake:
The whole program is arranged on a 2D surface within a series of nested...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Reverse engineering the 59-pound printer onboard the Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle contained a bulky printer so the astronauts could
receive procedures, mission...
3rd Aug 2024
The Space Shuttle contained a bulky printer so the astronauts could
receive procedures, mission plans, weather reports, crew activity plans, and other documents.
Needed for the first Shuttle launch in 1981, this printer was designed in just 7 months, built around an Army...
Posts on Made of...
Implementing a declarative mini-language in the C preprocessor
Last time, I announced Check Plus, a declarative language for defining Check tests in C. This time,...
4th Jul 2010
Last time, I announced Check Plus, a declarative language for defining Check tests in C. This time, I want to talk about the tricks I used to implement a declarative minilanguage using the C preprocessor (and some GCC extensions).
The Problem We want to write some toplevel...
Open for Business
Western Conference Finals, Games 3 and 4: Spurs Steady The Ship
Jason brings us back courtside as the Western Conference Finals continue with recaps of Games 3 and...
2nd Jun 2026
Jason brings us back courtside as the Western Conference Finals continue with recaps of Games 3 and 4.
Willem's Blog
Better Laptop
This post is a quick rundown of assembling my new Framework 13 laptop, why I chose this brand and...
9th Feb 2025
This post is a quick rundown of assembling my new Framework 13 laptop, why I chose this brand and what's next.
Fabien Sanglard
Learning Legendary Hardware
More...
7th Oct 2013
Vitalik Buterin's...
Should there be demand-based recurring fees on ENS domains?
9th Sep 2022
Home on Erik...
More Luigi!
Elias Freider just talked about Luigi at PyData 2013:
The presentation above is much better than one...
22nd Mar 2013
Elias Freider just talked about Luigi at PyData 2013:
The presentation above is much better than one I put together a few weeks ago. In case anyone is interested I'll include it too:
Joel Gustafson
Visualizing 13 million Bluesky users
12th Nov 2024
Open for Business
Crazy With the Heat
Heat is awful, humidity makes it worse, and deathly stillness renders it just about...
16th Jul 2026
Heat is awful, humidity makes it worse, and deathly stillness renders it just about insufferable.
The other night my neighbor was standing on his porch. He blew a smoke ring. Next morning, it was still there, though the morning fog had made it soggy so it had sunk to the ground.
Tiny struggles
How to make a product on gumroad and earn some money (#secretunasaladrecipe)
If you’ve been in the Indie Hackers circles for a while you probably heard about people like...
9th Apr 2022
If you’ve been in the Indie Hackers circles for a while you probably heard about people like dvassallo@ who made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling simple digital products on gumroad.
Make a thing, put it on gumroad, earn money, could it all be that simple?
I have heard...
benn.substack
So that's what alignment means
Another thought experiment comes roaring to life.
14th Aug 2026
Another thought experiment comes roaring to life.
watchTowr Labs
Bypassing Authentication Like It’s The ‘90s - Pre-Auth RCE Chain(s) in Kentico Xperience CMS
I recently joined watchTowr, and it is, therefore, time - time for my first watchTowr Labs blogpost,...
17th Mar 2025
I recently joined watchTowr, and it is, therefore, time - time for my first watchTowr Labs blogpost, previously teased in a tweet of a pre-auth RCE chain affecting some ‘unknown software’.
Joining the team, I wanted to maintain the trail of destruction left by the watchTowr Labs...
Odds and Ends of...
Reels are destroying our brains and I hate them
It's time for a new moral panic
2nd May 2025
It's time for a new moral panic
Jonas Hietala
Minor site updates
As it happens I got a little tired of the syntax highlighter Pandoc uses so on a whim I started...
29th Apr 2020
As it happens I got a little tired of the syntax highlighter Pandoc uses so on a whim I started looking at moving to Pygments as my highlighter. With some searching around I found a blog post about just that! That’s lucky because while I like Haskell, I’ve never really grocked it...
Old Vintage...
A Dick Smith VZ200 without the Dick Smith (but with a serial port)
Australians! They walk among us! Do not be deceived by those charming faces!
precious bodily...
5 days ago
Australians! They walk among us! Do not be deceived by those charming faces!
precious bodily fluids, we must remove the scurrilous larrikin influence of Australia upon our American home computers, and I know exactly where to start! Why allow Dick Smith's name (even though he'd...
Abort Retry Fail
SRI & ARC
The Dawn of the Information Age
27th Sep 2025
The Dawn of the Information Age
Willem L. Middelkoop
SEO Is Dead
In the first week of April I did the SEO job I had put off for years: new landing pages and...
18th Apr 2026
In the first week of April I did the SEO job I had put off for years: new landing pages and thousands of cross-links, on willem.com and on two customer sites, generated through the new API of my platform. It works, and well, I wrote on 4 April. Two weeks later I looked at what it...
Electronics etc…
Guide Technology GT300 Frequency Standard Teardown
MathJax.Hub.Config({
jax: ["input/TeX", "output/HTML-CSS"],
tex2jax: {
inlineMath: [...
6th Apr 2024
MathJax.Hub.Config({
jax: ["input/TeX", "output/HTML-CSS"],
tex2jax: {
inlineMath: [ ['$', '$'], ["\\(", "\\)"] ],
displayMath: [ ['$$', '$$'], ["\\[", "\\]"] ],
processEscapes: true,
skipTags: ['script', 'noscript', 'style', 'textarea', 'pre',...
Notes on software...
An intuition for distributed consensus in OLTP systems
Distributed consensus in transactional databases (e.g. etcd or
Cockroach) is a big deal these days....
8th Feb 2024
Distributed consensus in transactional databases (e.g. etcd or
Cockroach) is a big deal these days. Most often under the hood are
variations of log-based Paxos-like algorithms such as MultiPaxos,
Viewstamped Replication, or Raft. While there are new variations that
come out each...
Christian Selig
Server side Live Activities guide
iOS 17.2 gained the capability to start Live Activities from a server, which is pretty cool and...
23rd Sep 2024
iOS 17.2 gained the capability to start Live Activities from a server, which is pretty cool and handy! I’ve been playing around with it a bit and found some parts a bit confusing, so I thought I’d do a little write up for future me as well as anyone else who could benefit!
(For...
Neil Madden
API Security in Action handed over to production
After a flurry of last-minute corrections and updates in response to review feedback, my book has...
5th Aug 2020
After a flurry of last-minute corrections and updates in response to review feedback, my book has now been handed over to Manning’s production team. That means a few weeks of copy editing and graphics polish, then indexing and typesetting to produce the final version around...
Fabien Sanglard
Doom iPhone code review
I took some time away from programming something I hope will become a really good shmup and read the...
1st Feb 2010
I took some time away from programming something I hope will become a really good shmup and read the source code of Doom for iPhone. I was very interested in finding out how a pixel oriented engine made the transition to openGL. Here are my notes, as usual I got a bit carried...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Designing a multi dimensional capacity queue
This month I needed to create additional dimensions to a capacity queue mechanism. The food ordering...
1st Dec 2020
This month I needed to create additional dimensions to a capacity queue mechanism. The food ordering app that I created needed to be able to restrict capacity based on the number of orders, the contents in individual orders and the dispatch type (takeaway/delivery). Read along to...
latest projects -...
Turbine Transport Transformer
[Concept] Transforming turbine transport
19th Jun 2025
[Concept] Transforming turbine transport
axio.ms
A small ode to the CRT
Built October 2018
I used to hate Cathode Ray Tubes. As a kid in Europe, everything flickered at...
8th Feb 2022
Built October 2018
I used to hate Cathode Ray Tubes. As a kid in Europe, everything flickered at 50Hz, or made a loud whistle at 15.625KHz (back when I could still hear it). CRTs just seemed crude, “electro-brutalist” contraptions from the valve era. They were heavy, and...
Posts on Made of...
Confessions of a programmer: I hate code review
Most of the projects I've been working on today have fairly strict code review policies. My work...
6th Jun 2010
Most of the projects I've been working on today have fairly strict code review policies. My work requires code review on most of our code, and as we bring on an army of interns for the summer, I've been responsible for reviewing lots of code. Additionally, about five months ago...
Abishek Muthian
2001: A Space Odyssey
50 years ago a movie changed everything.
That’s how aptly, the re-release trailer backed by...
6th May 2018
50 years ago a movie changed everything.
That’s how aptly, the re-release trailer backed by Christopher Nolan begins!
Watch video on YouTube
2001: A Space Odyssey — Original Theatrical Trailer | Credits: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
It’s safe to say that there’s no other...
Louwrentius - Solar
An affordable server platform based on server-grade hardware
Updated post (June 2014) found HERE
There are some reasons why you should consider buying true...
13th Dec 2013
Updated post (June 2014) found HERE
There are some reasons why you should consider buying true server-grade harware when building a server, wether it's for home or business use.
This is why I want to introduce you to the Supermicro X9SCM-F motherboard.
This motherboard costs...
./techtipsy
HoloISO: the unofficial Steam Deck experience on your PC
If you have spent any time in gaming hardware circles, then you’ve probably
heard about the Steam...
1st Dec 2022
If you have spent any time in gaming hardware circles, then you’ve probably
heard about the Steam Deck, the
Linux-based handheld gaming PC built by Valve. Yes, you heard that right: not
Windows, but Linux.
I’ve had my fair share of attempts at gaming on Linux. When it works,...
./techtipsy
Self-hosting Wikipedia using Kiwix
Do you have a need to host Wikipedia on your computer?
Or a StackExchange site, like Super...
9th Dec 2021
Do you have a need to host Wikipedia on your computer?
Or a StackExchange site, like Super User?
It’s easier than you think!
Step 1: download stuff!
The Kiwix project provides ZIM files for many popular websites, including Wikipedia.
These files can be downloaded over at Kiwix...
Nabeel S. Qureshi
Reading Notes on “Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp”
by Josef Czapski
15th Dec 2019
Home on Erik...
Software companies buying software: a story of ecosystems and vendors
Why are new startups growing so fast?
Why is the wage distribution getting larger for software...
25th Feb 2026
Why are new startups growing so fast?
Why is the wage distribution getting larger for software engineers?
Why do I love infrastructure?
Is open source dead?
I think a lot of these things, and some more things, all have their roots in a big shift in how we build software.
Or...
Notes on software...
A minimal distributed key-value database with Hashicorp's Raft library
When I wrote the "build a distributed PostgreSQL proof of
concept" post I first had to figure...
17th Sep 2022
When I wrote the "build a distributed PostgreSQL proof of
concept" post I first had to figure out
how to use Hashicorp's Raft
implementation.
There weren't any examples I could find in the Hashicorp repo
itself. And the only example I could find was Philip O'Toole's
hraftd. It's...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Climbing Mount Etna
Last week me and my wife went to Sicily for a little summer holiday. It is the largest island in the...
1st Sep 2017
Last week me and my wife went to Sicily for a little summer holiday. It is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands. It's home to Europe's largest active volcano: Mount Etna. We had a chance to visit...
Can We Still Govern?
The reasons Trump gives for attacking Iran
It does not add up to much
1st Mar 2026
It does not add up to much
Software and Tech...
13th Year of Blogging
Of all the days to start a blog, I chose April Fools' Day. It wasn't intentional, maybe more of a...
1st Apr 2026
Of all the days to start a blog, I chose April Fools' Day. It wasn't intentional, maybe more of a reflection of my mindset. When I decide to do something, I shut off my brain and just do it. This was a commitment I made without thinking about the long-term effects.
I knew writing...
Louwrentius - Solar
Lustre and the risk of Serious Data Loss
Personally I have a weakness for big-ass storage. Say 'petabyte' and I'm
interested. So I was...
3rd Jul 2010
Personally I have a weakness for big-ass storage. Say 'petabyte' and I'm
interested. So I was thinking about how you would setup a large, scalable
storage infrastructure. How should such a thing work?
Very simple: you should be able just to add hosts with some bad-ass huge...
Computer Ads from...
Comics from July 1977 Issue of ROM Magazine
Those were the early days.
7th May 2026
Those were the early days.
Abishek Muthian
Postmortem of Butt Mover
I suffer from chronic lower back pain, Since I don't consume opioids I find exercises 1 to be the...
13th Dec 2022
I suffer from chronic lower back pain, Since I don't consume opioids I find exercises 1 to be the best pain management technique.
In addition to the specific exercises for managing back pain, Not sitting for long durations seems to be the key factor for me to not trigger the back...
Style over Substance
Dithering is obsolete (except when it isn’t); creating OpenDithering
Dithering is one of those techniques that feels like it belongs in a museum. It peaked in the ’90s,...
6th Jun 2026
Dithering is one of those techniques that feels like it belongs in a museum. It peaked in the ’90s, the era of 256-color palettes and early computer graphics, when you needed to trick the eye into seeing colors that your hardware couldn’t actually produce. Now, even our phones...
Applied Cartography
Godzilla Minus One
I wrote a bit in Everybody's in L.A. about the constraint of evaluating the merit of something...
4th Jun 2024
I wrote a bit in Everybody's in L.A. about the constraint of evaluating the merit of something that's in conversation with a genre you don't really care for in the first place; I don't care much for late night shows, and I care even less for kaiju movies, even with my knowledge...
Jonas Hietala
A Simple Thought
I wrote that we where doing some microprogramming, making the processor work etc. We had a lab about...
2nd Feb 2012
I wrote that we where doing some microprogramming, making the processor work etc. We had a lab about that yesterday and I was very, very nervous. The preparations weren’t that hard, but they where very bothersome. Converting the instructions to binary/hex by hand is never nice....
Kent de Bruin
Quasimode for Text Selection
A short design exploration of how stacked cards could work within iA writer
10th Mar 2021
A short design exploration of how stacked cards could work within iA writer
Greater Still by...
Web3’s Mobile Moment
In 2013, media & technology analyst Benedict Evans presented “Mobile is eating the world,” looking...
27th Feb 2022
In 2013, media & technology analyst Benedict Evans presented “Mobile is eating the world,” looking at how the unprecedented scale of mobile was beginning to change the Internet and the economy at large.
Yazin Alirhayim
Hour 10: Updating the website
We're back! Instead of working on something brand new, I'll be updating the existing website hosted...
25th Nov 2025
We're back! Instead of working on something brand new, I'll be updating the existing website hosted at eyadquaibi.com
Yazin Alirhayim
Braindump
Sometimes, getting it all down on paper helps me think through things. This is that, a complete...
21st Oct 2020
Sometimes, getting it all down on paper helps me think through things. This is that, a complete brain dump.
Writing
Final Fantasy
The game certainly shows its age, I can tell you that much. (I played Dawn of Souls, which was the...
28th Dec 2007
The game certainly shows its age, I can tell you that much. (I played Dawn of Souls, which was the slightly easier remake, and even then it was a bit of a slog.) It’s short, though, and it’s I think worth playing for its place in the canon.
Himanshu Mishra |...
You need a Product Mindset
Treat Your Developers Like VIP Customers Your developers are not just users; they're customers who...
23rd Sep 2023
Treat Your Developers Like VIP Customers Your developers are not just users; they're customers who have high expectations from your internal…
Writing
Master of the Senate
I’m going to dispense with the usual reverence for Caro — not because I don’t think this book merits...
1st May 2022
I’m going to dispense with the usual reverence for Caro — not because I don’t think this book merits it, but because I think I’ve covered that enough in my postscripts to Path to Power and Means of Ascent.
Neil Madden
Looking for vulnerabilities is the last thing I do
There’s a common misconception among developers that my job, as a (application) Security Engineer,...
20th Feb 2026
There’s a common misconception among developers that my job, as a (application) Security Engineer, is to just search for security bugs in their code. They may well have seen junior security engineers doing this kind of thing. But, although this can be useful (and is part of the...
Niklas Oberhuber’s...
Voter Fraud in my Online Poll for the School Canteen
12th Nov 2024
Willem L. Middelkoop
The birth of a child
Today I witnessed the birth of my daughter! You feel humble as a man, witnessing the labour and...
12th Jul 2021
Today I witnessed the birth of my daughter! You feel humble as a man, witnessing the labour and magic. Not sure if I can come up with something having more impact on a man than this. For the purposes of science and curiosity I wore a biometric sensor, and this is what it...
Home on Erik...
More Luigi alternatives
The workflow engine battle has intensified with some more interesting entries lately! Here are a...
2nd Jul 2015
The workflow engine battle has intensified with some more interesting entries lately! Here are a couple I encountered in the last few days. I love that at least two of them are direct references to Luigi!
Odds and Ends of...
Speedrunning Tesco (Odds and Ends #93)
Plus mixed feelings about Artemis, Mormon gambling, and a council finance nightmare.
1st Apr 2026
Plus mixed feelings about Artemis, Mormon gambling, and a council finance nightmare.
benn.substack
The banality of surveillance
Do our dull lives become worth watching?
6th Mar 2026
Do our dull lives become worth watching?
Louwrentius - Solar
AI is critically important but not for you
Before Chat-GPT caused a sensation, big tech companies like Facebook and Apple were betting their...
14th May 2024
Before Chat-GPT caused a sensation, big tech companies like Facebook and Apple were betting their future growth on virtual reality. But I'm convinced that virtual reality will never be a mainstream thing. If you ever used VR you know why:
A heavy thing on your head that messes up...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Intel's $475 million error: the silicon behind the Pentium division bug
In 1993, Intel released the high-performance Pentium processor, the start of the long-running...
28th Dec 2024
In 1993, Intel released the high-performance Pentium processor, the start of the long-running Pentium line.
The Pentium had many improvements over the previous processor, the Intel 486, including a faster floating-point division algorithm.
A year later, Professor Nicely, a number...
benn.substack
Something in the orange
A last exit.
3rd Oct 2025
computers are bad
2025-05-04 iBeacons
You know sometimes a technology just sort of... comes and goes? Without leaving
much of an...
4th May 2025
You know sometimes a technology just sort of... comes and goes? Without leaving
much of an impression? And then gets lodged in your brain for the next decade?
Let's talk about one of those: the iBeacon.
I think the reason that iBeacons loom so large in my memory is that...
Posts on Made of...
Exploiting misuse of Python's "pickle"
If you program in Python, you’re probably familiar with the pickle serialization library, which...
20th Mar 2011
If you program in Python, you’re probably familiar with the pickle serialization library, which provides for efficient binary serialization and loading of Python datatypes. Hopefully, you’re also familiar with the warning printed prominently near the start of pickle’s...
computers are bad
from hookswitch to grave
Through decades of consolidation, reorganization, and divestiture, AT&T left
a famously complicated...
14th Jun 2026
Through decades of consolidation, reorganization, and divestiture, AT&T left
a famously complicated corporate history. One of the greatest enterprises in
American history, arguably the greatest enterprise, AT&T has often
rivaled the federal government in the size of its budget...
computers are bad
2025-07-06 secret cellular phone numbers
A long time ago I wrote about secret government telephone
numbers,
and before that, secret military...
6th Jul 2025
A long time ago I wrote about secret government telephone
numbers,
and before that, secret military telephone
buttons.
I suppose this is becoming a series. To be clear, the "secret" here is a joke,
but more charitably I could say that it refers to obscurity rather than any
real...
Posts on Made of...
Followup to "A Very Subtle Bug"
After my previous post got posted to reddit, there was a bunch of interesting discussion there about...
3rd Mar 2010
After my previous post got posted to reddit, there was a bunch of interesting discussion there about some details I’d handwaved over. This is a quick followup on some the investigation that various people carried out, and the conclusions they reached.
In the reddit thread,...
Computer Ads from...
bitCards
Thrill Your Friends This Christmas with a gift from bitCards
2 weeks ago
Thrill Your Friends This Christmas with a gift from bitCards
Avestura's Blog
How to change visibility in massive GitHub organizations like EpicGames?
How to publicize and un-publicize your visibility in massive GitHub orgs?
23rd Oct 2021
How to publicize and un-publicize your visibility in massive GitHub orgs?
Home on Erik...
New benchmarks for approximate nearest neighbors
UPDATE(2018-06-17): There are is a later blog post with newer benchmarks!
One of my super nerdy...
15th Feb 2018
UPDATE(2018-06-17): There are is a later blog post with newer benchmarks!
One of my super nerdy interests include approximate algorithms for nearest neighbors in high-dimensional spaces. The problem is simple. You have say 1M points in some high-dimensional space.
Arduino Blog
This inexpensive adapter brings Apple Universal Control to vintage Macs
In the distant past of about two decades ago, one would need to use a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse)...
4th Aug 2025
In the distant past of about two decades ago, one would need to use a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch to control multiple computers with the same mouse and keyboard — and even then, it would take a button press to move from one to the other. Today, Apple’s Universal Control...
Simone Salis
Being a Bridge Person
How lowering your masks can ripple outward, changing not just individuals, but entire communities.
15th Oct 2024
How lowering your masks can ripple outward, changing not just individuals, but entire communities.
Notes on software...
Writing a lisp compiler from scratch in JavaScript: 3. LLVM
Previously in compiler basics:
1. lisp to assembly
2. user-defined functions and variables
...
10th Mar 2019
Previously in compiler basics:
1. lisp to assembly
2. user-defined functions and variables
4. LLVM conditionals and compiling fibonacci
5. LLVM system calls
6. an x86 upgrade
In this post we'll extend the
compiler to emit LLVM
IR as an option instead of...
Louwrentius - Solar
My 71 TiB ZFS NAS after 10 years and zero drive failures
My 4U 71 TiB ZFS NAS built with twenty-four 4 TB drives is over 10 years old and still going...
14th Sep 2024
My 4U 71 TiB ZFS NAS built with twenty-four 4 TB drives is over 10 years old and still going strong.
Although now on its second motherboard and power supply, the system has yet to experience a single drive failure (knock on wood).
Zero drive failures in ten years, how is that...
The Pragmatic...
The Pulse: AI load breaks GitHub – why not other vendors?
GitHub’s leadership blames the 3.5x increase in service load as the cause of degradation – or it...
7th May 2026
GitHub’s leadership blames the 3.5x increase in service load as the cause of degradation – or it might be self-inflicted.
axio.ms
Pickle plus mains
Back in February 2014, it was a cold (but dry) winter’s night and we decided to warm our hearts with...
17th Mar 2018
Back in February 2014, it was a cold (but dry) winter’s night and we decided to warm our hearts with some science.
Our experiment was to observe the conduction of electricity through a pickle, using salt ions. We connected a pickle to the mains supply. Pickles have a strong...
Posts on Made of...
Property-Based Testing Is Fuzzing
“Property-based testing” refers to the idea of writing statements that should be true of your code...
3rd Oct 2017
“Property-based testing” refers to the idea of writing statements that should be true of your code (“properties”), and then using automated tooling to generate test inputs (typically, randomly-generated inputs of an appropriate type), and observe whether the properties hold for...
Bryan Braun - Blog
Waiting is risky
I’m a note-taker and a list-maker. I have lists of books I want to read and movies I want to watch,...
21st Jun 2025
I’m a note-taker and a list-maker. I have lists of books I want to read and movies I want to watch, but most of my lists are for collecting ideas. They include ideas for blog posts, websites, businesses, open-source code, video games, books, and other kinds of projects.
Some of...
videah's blog
My E-Reader Setup
I bought an e-reader recently, specifically the Kobo Libra 2. I felt like I wasn't reading...
10th Aug 2023
I bought an e-reader recently, specifically the Kobo Libra 2. I felt like I wasn't reading books/manga as much as I wanted and I think the convenience of being able to carry my entire library around with me will help with that. I own an iPad Pro but I wanted a device I didn't...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Reverse engineering circuitry in a Spacelab computer from 1980
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory that could be carried in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle,...
23rd May 2026
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory that could be carried in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle, providing lab space for astronauts
and experiments.
Spacelab was controlled by a French-built minicomputer, called the Mitra 125 MS.
Unlike modern computers, this computer didn't...
Simply Explained
How I Built an NFC Movie Library for my Kids
When I was a kid, my sister and I had a tower of VHS tapes we watched endlessly. Fast-forward to...
14th Nov 2023
When I was a kid, my sister and I had a tower of VHS tapes we watched endlessly. Fast-forward to today, and my children's movie collection is vastly different. It's completely digital and dispersed across services. I wanted to recreate the tangible magic of my childhood for them.
Construction Physics
Reading List 08/01/26
Pepper-spray drones, China’s chip Manhattan Project, Commonwealth Fusion’s fundraise, and a proposed...
1st Aug 2026
Pepper-spray drones, China’s chip Manhattan Project, Commonwealth Fusion’s fundraise, and a proposed Dulles Airport renovation.
Jonas Hietala
Ludum Dare 29 Entry
After months of procrastination it is time for me to enter Ludum Dare again!
I am totally...
25th Apr 2014
After months of procrastination it is time for me to enter Ludum Dare again!
I am totally unprepared, but I did setup a setup which actually compiles. I never got audio to run but hopefully I can manage something.
Repository: https://github.com/treeman/LD29. Going for C++ this...
GitButler
Stacked Branches with GitButler
GitButler can now manage dependent branches that are stacked, including managing stacked GitHub PRs.
4th Dec 2024
GitButler can now manage dependent branches that are stacked, including managing stacked GitHub PRs.
Old Vintage...
Thou shalt follow these Vintage Computing Commandments
Thou shalt check voltage and polarity on new-to-thee power supplies, or thy machines shall be smote...
3rd Feb 2024
Thou shalt check voltage and polarity on new-to-thee power supplies, or thy machines shall be smote and release smoke. This is sometimes very hard to judge without a load, but they should be somewhere in the ballpark, verily, and you should get in the habit of checking any new...
Posts on Made of...
Why scons is cool
I’ve recently started playing with scons a little for some small personal projects. It’s not...
7th Nov 2010
I’ve recently started playing with scons a little for some small personal projects. It’s not perfect, but I’ve rapidly come to the conclusion that it’s a probably far better choice than make in many cases. The main exceptions would be cases where you need to integrate into legacy...
Notes on software...
React without webpack: fast path to a working app from scratch
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
8th Jul 2021
This is an external post of mine. Click
here
if you are not redirected.
Home on Erik...
Model benchmarks
A lot of people have asked me what models we use for recommendations at Spotify so I wanted to share...
2nd Nov 2013
A lot of people have asked me what models we use for recommendations at Spotify so I wanted to share some insights. Here's benchmarks for some models. Note that we don't use all of them in production.
Willem's Blog
Using a budget Android as main smartphone
I switched to Android to find out how good a budget smartphone performs compared to an expensive...
8th Oct 2018
I switched to Android to find out how good a budget smartphone performs compared to an expensive iPhone.
Comments for Lars...
My 7 Rules for A/B Testing That Triple Conversion Rates
I really don’t care how any given A/B test turns out. That’s right. Not one bit. But wait, how do I...
11th Sep 2015
I really don’t care how any given A/B test turns out. That’s right. Not one bit. But wait, how do I double or triple conversion rates without caring how a test performs? I actually care about the whole SYSTEM of testing. All the pieces need to fit together just right. If not,...
Fabien Sanglard
How to build Doom3 on Mac OS X with XCode
More...
25th Nov 2011
Willem L. Middelkoop
Closing a Draughty Door
In the last week of January I could not keep my mind on a task. It felt as if I was running behind,...
3rd Feb 2026
In the last week of January I could not keep my mind on a task. It felt as if I was running behind, non-stop. I have no experience with this, but if I had to speculate I would say I was near a burnout-like experience. This post is not advice. It is a report of a small thing I did...
Nabeel S. Qureshi
Video Games are the Future of Education
The things you learn by yourself stick; the things that are “taught” to you do not stick.
21st Jun 2020
The things you learn by yourself stick; the things that are “taught” to you do not stick.
Neil Madden
Are we any closer to the Quantum Apocalypse?
Another day, another urgent pronouncement on the need to transition to post-quantum cryptography...
2nd Jul 2026
Another day, another urgent pronouncement on the need to transition to post-quantum cryptography ASAP: this one from the White House, in the form of an Executive Order requiring certain “high value” systems to transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by the end of 2030 (for...
Posts on Made of...
Transformers for software engineers
Ever since its introduction in the 2017 paper, Attention is All You Need, the Transformer model...
1st Apr 2022
Ever since its introduction in the 2017 paper, Attention is All You Need, the Transformer model architecture has taken the deep-learning world by storm. Initially introduced for machine translation, it has become the tool of choice for a wide range of domains, including text,...
Jonas Hietala
Stereotypes
I read a great essay or article about stereotypical programmers called The Little Printf. I really...
14th Oct 2015
I read a great essay or article about stereotypical programmers called The Little Printf. I really couldn’t do it justice so do yourself a favor and go read it. It touches on several types of programmers or rather traits of programmers I recognize in my surroundings and also...
Fabien Sanglard
Game Engine Black Book update
The Game Engine Black Books have been updated. Free pdfs, high-quality prints, and source code are...
17th May 2019
The Game Engine Black Books have been updated. Free pdfs, high-quality prints, and source code are available.
Fabien Sanglard
Forty years of programming
8th Oct 2023
Posts on Made of...
Efficiency trades off against resiliency
What’s the “right” level of CPU utilization for a server? If you look at a monitoring dashboard from...
15th Apr 2023
What’s the “right” level of CPU utilization for a server? If you look at a monitoring dashboard from a well-designed and well-run service, what CPU utilization should we hope to see, averaged over a day or two?
It’s a very general question, and it’s not clear it should have a...
Fabien Sanglard
All about the fillrate
I bought "Blade infinity" yesterday. The game is a lot of fun and has the ability to satisfy both...
11th Dec 2010
I bought "Blade infinity" yesterday. The game is a lot of fun and has the ability to satisfy both people looking for instant fun and people wishing for a long game while collecting powerful items. At $5.99 it is a bargain, a must have not only for the gameplay but also for its...
Applied Cartography
Baccano!
I wanted to like this one so much. It seemed tailor-made to what I love in anime: interesting,...
4th Nov 2021
I wanted to like this one so much. It seemed tailor-made to what I love in anime: interesting, anachronistic setting; weird alchemy stuff; a huge slew of characters and viewpoints; framing devices within framing devices.
joshua stein
BlueSCSI Wi-Fi Desk Accessory 1.1 Released
BlueSCSI Wi-Fi Desk Accessory
1.1 has been released:
wifi_da-1.1.sit
(StuffIt 3...
29th Jan 2024
BlueSCSI Wi-Fi Desk Accessory
1.1 has been released:
wifi_da-1.1.sit
(StuffIt 3 archive)
db06d941d7322089d8a98ebabf1f9a50b8f75ade80edbb355c127acc9a7fa629
SHA1: c9d6d3d165626ce592a65fd9e2011f361a0f78e4
Changes in this version:
Fix masked password entry on Mac OS 8+
Truncate...
Home on Erik...
Simple sabotage for software
CIA produced a fantastic book during the peak of World War 2 called Simple Sabotage. It laid out...
13th Dec 2023
CIA produced a fantastic book during the peak of World War 2 called Simple Sabotage. It laid out various ways for infiltrators to ruin productivity of a company. Some of the advice is timeless, for instance the section about “General interference with Organizations and...
Pea Bee
#11: Searchable list of all the mistakes
I have more than a decade old google account that I am no longer able to access even though I know...
13th Feb 2022
I have more than a decade old google account that I am no longer able to access even though I know the correct password.
Jonas Hietala
2021 in review
A new year is always a good time to review the past year. Funny how this is already the 12th year...
10th Jan 2022
A new year is always a good time to review the past year. Funny how this is already the 12th year I’ve done this kind of quick review… Time sure flies.
2021 Non-Geek Achievements
Started strength training using a strength coach from Kabuki.
I got inspired by the book Peak that...
Bryan Braun - Blog
Setting up your /now page with an RSS feed
I have a /now page, which I use to tell people what I’m up to these days.
I like the concept of “now...
2nd Nov 2024
I have a /now page, which I use to tell people what I’m up to these days.
I like the concept of “now pages” but I felt like it would be better if it had an RSS feed. The feed would give interested parties a way to subscribe to life changes.
The problem is that RSS feeds aren’t...
Matt Mullenweg
USA 250
This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he...
5th Jul 2026
This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013. On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant’s heart it is a belief that future is almost always better. It may not be perfect and it...
Willem's Blog
Developing a native iOS app
How hard can it be to build your own cycling and running workout tracker app using native code with...
10th May 2024
How hard can it be to build your own cycling and running workout tracker app using native code with some help from AI? Read along to find out!
Posts on Made of...
Lightweight Linux Kernel Development with KVM
I don’t do a ton of Linux kernel development these days, but I’ve done a fair bit in the past, and...
30th Dec 2013
I don’t do a ton of Linux kernel development these days, but I’ve done a fair bit in the past, and picked up a number of useful techniques for doing kernel development in a relatively painless fashion. This blog post is a writeup of the tools and techniques I use when developing...
Jonas Hietala
September theme: Failure
I’m out of the busy mode and here’s the new theme! I’ve got an idea and I’ll be beginning very soon...
12th Sep 2009
I’m out of the busy mode and here’s the new theme! I’ve got an idea and I’ll be beginning very soon I hope and again I’m following Experimental Gameplay Project’s site.
Let’s rock!!
Old Vintage...
Programming the Convergent WorkSlate's spreadsheet microcassette future
In this particular future, we will all use handheld spreadsheets stored on microcassettes, talking...
4th Sep 2024
In this particular future, we will all use handheld spreadsheets stored on microcassettes, talking to each other via speakerphone, and probably listening to Devo and New Order a lot. (Though that part isn't too different from my actual present.)
a computer whose manufacturer...
Applied Cartography
Hamilton
I was not a Hamilton hater exactly (I, like many other snoots, didn’t hate Hamilton so much as I...
28th Oct 2019
I was not a Hamilton hater exactly (I, like many other snoots, didn’t hate Hamilton so much as I hated the people who, for a brief but painful time, were really, really into Hamilton) but I certainly was not a huge fan until Haley roped me into listening to the soundtrack. I...
Vitalik Buterin's...
In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism
1st Apr 2022
Project Blog on...
Train Simulator Controller: CAN Controller, Part 2
I’m building a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, and to tie it all together as...
4th Jan 2024
I’m building a physical cab dashboard to control Train Simulator, and to tie it all together as robustly as possible, I am use CAN. This protocol is designed to rapidly share small updates around a network in an electrically noise environment, and in a previous post, I detailed...
Abishek Muthian
Raspberry pi3 vs iPad2 for personal computing
I blew my personal computer and before I could build a new one I needed a temporary machine which...
24th Mar 2017
I blew my personal computer and before I could build a new one I needed a temporary machine which could perform some of my routine tasks like browsing, social network, word processing, programming, gaming, videos, music & ocassional heavy computation.
Though I would be needing a...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Snake '97 High Scores
Last week I received a very kind invitation from a Belgian artist, to attend her art exhibition in...
17th Apr 2022
Last week I received a very kind invitation from a Belgian artist, to attend her art exhibition in Antwerp. The work on display involved the Snake '97 game that I have created. Uttering to find the right words and thrilled with excitement, I happily accepted the invitation!
Snake...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Fixed Gear Gran Fondo
Today I took my fixed gear bike for a ride, 176KM from Amsterdam to America (Limburg, The...
9th Apr 2021
Today I took my fixed gear bike for a ride, 176KM from Amsterdam to America (Limburg, The Netherlands). Rain and wind added to the challenge, creating an ultimate test for man and machine. Let some of my fun be of inspiration to you!
Gran Fondo
The Italians call a big cycle ride...
Jonas Hietala
Customizing Neovim
Scripting is configuration. Configuration is scripting.
TJ DeVries A different take on editing...
2nd May 2024
Scripting is configuration. Configuration is scripting.
TJ DeVries A different take on editing code
I’ve been using Neovim since it forked from Vim almost 8 years ago, and I used Vim many years before that.
I feel quite comfortable with Neovim, and I’ve gone down the...
Neil Madden
Rating 26 years of Java changes
I first started programming Java at IBM back in 1999 as a Pre-University Employee. If I remember...
12th Sep 2025
I first started programming Java at IBM back in 1999 as a Pre-University Employee. If I remember correctly, we had Java 1.1.8 installed at that time, but were moving to Java 1.2 (“Java 2”), which was a massive release—I remember engineers at the time grumbling that the...
Tiny struggles
Two worlds: idea people and developers
I recently attended a startup weekend and was surprised by the backgrounds of the other...
29th Apr 2023
I recently attended a startup weekend and was surprised by the backgrounds of the other attendees.
As a software engineer myself, I expected to see mostly engineers, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I found myself surrounded by people with a diverse range of backgrounds and...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Hello, stranger
While enjoying my fresh wok lunch in Amsterdam, I noticed something odd: other folks coming in for...
12th Oct 2023
While enjoying my fresh wok lunch in Amsterdam, I noticed something odd: other folks coming in for something to eat ignored the person standing at the counter, preferring to order through a digital kiosk. The crazy thing about this? They are just centimetres apart!
In fact, they...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Coordination, Good and Bad
11th Sep 2020
Jonas Hietala
A simple timeline using CSS flexbox
As I added a /now page to the site I also decided to refresh my /about page and I figured it would...
25th Aug 2024
As I added a /now page to the site I also decided to refresh my /about page and I figured it would be neat to have timeline element where I could list some of the larger events in my life.
To my surprise it wasn’t too difficult to create one that looks pretty clean—the flexbox...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Gitcoin Grants Round 5 Retrospective
30th Apr 2020
Jonas Hietala
Why I still blog after 15 years
Time flies when you’re having fun.
Before you know it, your little babies have started school, you...
25th Sep 2024
Time flies when you’re having fun.
Before you know it, your little babies have started school, you celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park, and that little blog you started have now been going for 15 years.
15 years is a long time; longer than I’ve been waiting for Winds...
./techtipsy
What I've learned running Linux and Windows off of USB flash drives
I’ve recently made an effort to reduce the amount of tech stuff that I own. Lack of space, lack of...
2nd Dec 2024
I’ve recently made an effort to reduce the amount of tech stuff that I own. Lack of space, lack of time and the guilt
of storing perfectly functional hardware unused in a box were the main motivators.
This has resulted in experiments with my assortment of USB flash storage that...
somenice
Cake Hole Whistler Mountain
Often inviting. This terrain just off the Whistler peak road can be an enticing sun-swept run of...
1st Dec 2024
Often inviting. This terrain just off the Whistler peak road can be an enticing sun-swept run of untouched powder.Understanding that you need to come back up the same way you go down, can make you question if it’s really worth it.Know before you go. Cake Hole by Andrew...
Posts on Made of...
How is duct tape like the force?
I’m at Dragon*Con this weekend, my second time here now. I decided that if I was going to Dragon*Con...
5th Sep 2010
I’m at Dragon*Con this weekend, my second time here now. I decided that if I was going to Dragon*Con again, I needed to do something in terms of costuming, and I wanted it to be something unique – I wasn’t going to come anywhere near as epic as some of the costumes people pull...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Dig for dummies
When you're building websites, apps or email services you may run into domain names and their...
23rd May 2019
When you're building websites, apps or email services you may run into domain names and their configurations. When everything is working as it should, most of this is invisible. But when troubleshooting a domain name configuration, it may be necessary to dig a little deeper......
Home on Erik...
More MCMC – Analyzing a small dataset with 1-5 ratings
I've been obsessed with how to iterate quickly based on small scale feedback lately. One awesome...
5th Dec 2015
I've been obsessed with how to iterate quickly based on small scale feedback lately. One awesome website I encountered is Usability Hub which lets you run 5 second tests. Users see your site for 5 seconds and you can ask them free-form questions afterwards.
Jorge Arango
Humanities Crash Course Week 18: 1,001 Nights
In week 18 of the humanities crash course, I read five stories from One Thousand and One Nights, a...
4th May 2025
In week 18 of the humanities crash course, I read five stories from One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folktales that have influenced lots of other stories. Keeping with the theme, I also saw one of the most influential movies based on these...
Bryan Braun - Blog
Links #11
Here are some more links to things that I keep thinking about. I shared a bit more detail on these...
3rd Dec 2024
Here are some more links to things that I keep thinking about. I shared a bit more detail on these ones than I usually do—there were so many good quotes to include. Enjoy!
Selfishness & Therapy Culture
Earlier this year, there was a post in the New York Times called “Sometimes,...
Style over Substance
Create a Hue-compatible DIY LED light sculpture
Learn how to create your own Hue compatible LED light sculpture, inspired by by the REFLEKTION art,...
15th Aug 2020
Learn how to create your own Hue compatible LED light sculpture, inspired by by the REFLEKTION art, using cheap LED strips and DIY parts you can order online.
The post Create a Hue-compatible DIY LED light sculpture appeared first on Style over Substance.
computers are bad
2023-03-13 the door close button
This will probably be a short one, and I know I haven't written for a while,
but it has always been...
13th Mar 2023
This will probably be a short one, and I know I haven't written for a while,
but it has always been the case that you get what you pay for and Computers
Are Bad is nothing if not affordable. Still, this is a topic on which I am
moderately passionate and so I can probably stretch...
Writing
Three apps that will not change your life
After what has felt like a long winter of habitual reliance on my existing tools, I’m finally...
15th Aug 2025
After what has felt like a long winter of habitual reliance on my existing tools, I’m finally playing around with some new ones. This is a healthy habit—so long as you don’t convince yourself that you’re just one more App Store download away from a previously unimaginable level...
Bryan Braun - Blog
Why we prefer computers over consoles when introducing kids to gaming
I grew up gaming on consoles like Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. I have a lot of fond memories playing...
8th Mar 2024
I grew up gaming on consoles like Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. I have a lot of fond memories playing games with my brothers on those devices.
But as my own kids have gotten older, my wife and I have decided to first introduce them to gaming with computers, instead of consoles.
The...
Avestura's Blog
Using Tor outside of the Tor Browser
This post shows how to run Tor with a simple PowerShell script and use it in other apps like...
13th May 2019
This post shows how to run Tor with a simple PowerShell script and use it in other apps like Telegram...
Willem's Blog
Wearing Grand Seiko
I am glad I took the opportunity to wear a Grand Seiko, learning first hand about its craftsmanship,...
4th Jun 2021
I am glad I took the opportunity to wear a Grand Seiko, learning first hand about its craftsmanship, innovation and practicality.
Notes on software...
btest: a language agnostic test runner
btest is a minimal,
language-agnostic test runner originally written for testing
compilers. Brian,...
4th Aug 2018
btest is a minimal,
language-agnostic test runner originally written for testing
compilers. Brian, an ex- co-worker from Linode, wrote the first
implementation in Crystal (a compiled
language clone of Ruby) for testing
bshift, a compiler
project. The tool accomplished exactly...
Construction Physics
Reading List 02/06/2026
Welcome to the reading list, a look at what happened this week in infrastructure, buildings, and...
6th Feb 2026
Welcome to the reading list, a look at what happened this week in infrastructure, buildings, and building things.
Himanshu Mishra |...
On Psychedelics
I wrote - Hello :name-retracted:! Last night, I watched the movie Her. It was a fascinating movie on...
4th Aug 2018
I wrote - Hello :name-retracted:! Last night, I watched the movie Her. It was a fascinating movie on emotions and AI. It was one of its kind…
Posts on Made of...
What's with ML software and pickles?
I have spent many years as an software engineer who was a total outsider to machine-learning, but...
8th Nov 2023
I have spent many years as an software engineer who was a total outsider to machine-learning, but with some curiosity and occasional peripheral interactions with it. During this time, a recurring theme for me was horror (and, to be honest, disdain) every time I encountered the...
Applied Cartography
Cameraperson
Read review: Cameraperson
1st Jan 2026
Read review: Cameraperson
Christian Selig
Apollo for Reddit 1.9
Apollo 1.9’s a massive update to Apollo that’s taken months and months to complete, but I’m really...
12th Sep 2020
Apollo 1.9’s a massive update to Apollo that’s taken months and months to complete, but I’m really happy with the result, and it brings together a ton of ideas from the community to make Apollo even nicer to use. The update includes a variety of features around crossposts, flair,...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing DraftTable for iPad Pro
We are thrilled to release DraftTable for iPad Pro. It's the result of hundreds of hours of testing...
16th Dec 2016
We are thrilled to release DraftTable for iPad Pro. It's the result of hundreds of hours of testing and iteration with artists, designers and heavy iPad users to make the very best stand for working on iPad pro.
Like a traditional drafters table, it is ultra-sturdy, widely...
matduggan.com
Boy I was wrong about the Fediverse
I have never been an "online community first" person. The internet is how I stay in touch with...
6th Mar 2026
I have never been an "online community first" person. The internet is how I stay in touch with people I met in real life. I'm not a "tweet comments at celebrities" guy. I was never funny enough to be the funniest person on Twitter.
Matt Mullenweg
Wayback Machine Joint
Automattic has been working with the Internet Archive to develop a plugin to combat link rot, and...
1st Nov 2025
Automattic has been working with the Internet Archive to develop a plugin to combat link rot, and it’s a plugin I’d encourage you to install. As the plugin says: When a linked page disappears, the plugin helps preserve your user experience by redirecting visitors to a reliable...
Jonas Hietala
Ugly and Slow Progress
Ludum Dare is coming along… Slowly. The rust on me is probably so brown it’s nearly black. But I...
25th Aug 2012
Ludum Dare is coming along… Slowly. The rust on me is probably so brown it’s nearly black. But I have an idea and it might be good, all I need to do is execute it. Right?
Programmer graphics coming to take you away!
Anyway it’s going to be a risk-like game with a twist: you can...
Louwrentius - Solar
Using iSCSI with time machine and Super Duper
In the past, as a Mac user, I've used separate external drives for Time Machine backups and Super...
21st Jul 2013
In the past, as a Mac user, I've used separate external drives for Time Machine backups and Super Duper clones but I'm not happy with that. External hard drives make noise and create clutter.
I'd like to move away all my storage from my living room (or home office) and put it in...
Fabien Sanglard
Quake Shareware, a CD-ROM just a little too full
17th Aug 2026
Neil Madden
Why I don’t use LLMs for programming
I originally posted this on Mastodon, but I thought I’d add it here too: “What I mean is that if you...
2nd Mar 2026
I originally posted this on Mastodon, but I thought I’d add it here too: “What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your own mind. And the more slow and dim-witted […]
anderegg.ca
Algorithms are breaking how we think
Today, Alec Watson posted a video titled “Algorithms are breaking how we think” on his YouTube...
23rd Feb 2025
Today, Alec Watson posted a video titled “Algorithms are breaking how we think” on his YouTube channel, Technology Connections. The whole thing is excellent and very well argued. The main thrust is: people seem increasingly less mindful about the stuff they engage with. Watson...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Why I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft
7th Jul 2025
Ken Shirriff's blog
Reverse-engineering an analog Bendix air data computer: part 4, the Mach section
MathJax = {
tex: {
inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']]
},
svg: {
fontCache:...
11th Feb 2024
MathJax = {
tex: {
inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']]
},
svg: {
fontCache: 'global'
},
chtml: { displayAlign: 'left' }
};
MathJax.Hub.Config({
"HTML-CSS": { scale: 175}
});
.MathJax {font-size: 1em !important}
In the 1950s, many fighter...
sibervepunk
Anatomy of a change
Exactly a year ago today, I changed something about myself that had been part of my life for ten...
9th Apr 2026
Exactly a year ago today, I changed something about myself that had been part of my life for ten years.
What that "thing" is won’t be mentioned here, so as not to take the subject out of context, but I can tell you a few things about it.
Because it had persisted for a decade, it...
Fabien Sanglard
These are called opportunities
12th Nov 2020
Willem L. Middelkoop
Twenty Times Faster
On 11 August I wrote in my notebook: the speed at which we move is about twenty times the old top...
a week ago
On 11 August I wrote in my notebook: the speed at which we move is about twenty times the old top speed. In one day I do what I used to do in twenty. This post is about that speed, what it does to the human in the loop, and the counterweight I found. It is the first post of...
Jorge Arango
Humanities Crash Course Week 44: Modernist Art
Week 44 of the humanities crash course had me delving into three modernist classics by two Irish...
2nd Nov 2025
Week 44 of the humanities crash course had me delving into three modernist classics by two Irish authors: Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play Waiting for Godot and selections from James Joyce’s Dubliners and Ulysses. I’d long been intimidated by the latter, but enjoyed the first...
Vitalik Buterin's...
The Dawn of Hybrid Layer 2 Protocols
28th Aug 2019
Louwrentius - Solar
Is storage really that cheap?
Nowadays you can buy a 1 TB harddrive for less than 100 euro's . So I build
myself a 4 TB NAS box,...
5th Oct 2008
Nowadays you can buy a 1 TB harddrive for less than 100 euro's . So I build
myself a 4 TB NAS box, which is already 50% full. However, although it is to
some degree fault-tollerant by using RAID 6, one mistake or catastrophic
hardware faillure and all data is lost.
And that's...
Electronics etc…
The Scenic Route to Repairing a Self-Destructing SRS DG535 Digital Delay Generator
Introduction
The Stanford Research Systems DG535
Who Uses a Pulse Delay Generator?
Inside the...
24th Dec 2025
Introduction
The Stanford Research Systems DG535
Who Uses a Pulse Delay Generator?
Inside the DG535
The Annoying Mechanical Design of the DG535
It’s Always the Power Supply
Power Architecture of the DG535
The How, Why, and Please Don’t of Current Boost Resistor Circuits
Root...
benn.substack
Leaderbored
Is it a race or a run?
1st May 2026
Comments for Lars...
The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything is Fake
I’m going to show you how to cash grab as a Reddit moderator. 5 minutes of work, then thousands of...
21st Aug 2024
I’m going to show you how to cash grab as a Reddit moderator. 5 minutes of work, then thousands of dollars per month for doing nothing. Maybe tens of thousands. With a 100% real example. I’ve edited nothing. When you’re a Reddit mod, you have a TON of power in that subreddit. You...
anderegg.ca
Thoughts ahead of WWDC 2026
I’ve been following Apple news and rumours since the year 2000, and I don’t think I’ve ever been...
7th Jun 2026
I’ve been following Apple news and rumours since the year 2000, and I don’t think I’ve ever been less excited for WWDC. Apple’s software story is in rough shape, and I worry that this year’s event won’t do much to help. Perhaps it’ll be the beginning of an upswing, but we’ve got...
Notes on software...
Walking through a basic Racket web service
Racket is an impressive language and ecosystem. Compared to Python,
Racket (an evolution of Scheme...
29th Dec 2016
Racket is an impressive language and ecosystem. Compared to Python,
Racket (an evolution of Scheme R5RS is three years younger. It is
as concise and expressive as Python but with much more reasonable
syntax and semantics. Racket is also faster in many cases due in part
to:
JIT...
Applied Cartography
The Rehearsal
As many people have mentioned, this show owes a lot to Synecdoche; New York (a film that I have very...
3rd Sep 2022
As many people have mentioned, this show owes a lot to Synecdoche; New York (a film that I have very strong memories of and for despite having only seen once, in a haze, ten years ago.) It's also a show in the discourse, which I think belies a little just how deeply weird it...
Louwrentius - Solar
8 TB RAID 6 Linux software RAID using EXT4
Mobo: Asus P5Q-EM DO ( 6x sata)
CPU: Core 2 Duo E7400
RAM: 4 GB
Controller; HighPoint RocketRAID...
5th Jul 2009
Mobo: Asus P5Q-EM DO ( 6x sata)
CPU: Core 2 Duo E7400
RAM: 4 GB
Controller; HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 (16x poorten)
PSU: CooMas Silent Pro M 600W ATX2 (definitely not overkill)
HD: Samsung 1 TB SAT2 HD103UJ (10x)
OS: Debian Lenny with custom kernel (backported)
FS: EXT4
RAID...
Toni's Blog
SwiftUI Explorations
My journey of learning SwiftUI as a designer.
21st Jun 2024
My journey of learning SwiftUI as a designer.
Never Met a Science
Deepfakes and Thirst Traps
Novel media technology is changing the nature of political communication.
18th Apr 2025
Novel media technology is changing the nature of political communication.
Notes on software...
Starting a minimal Common Lisp project
If you've only vaguely heard of Lisp before or studied Scheme in
school, Common Lisp is nothing like...
5th Mar 2018
If you've only vaguely heard of Lisp before or studied Scheme in
school, Common Lisp is nothing like what you'd expect. While
functional programming is all the rage in Scheme, Common Lisp was
"expressly designed to be a real-world engineering language rather
than a theoretically...
Opsbros
JSON and PowerShell
Working with Object-based arrays in PowerShell can be a challenge; but here's a trick that will...
11th May 2020
Working with Object-based arrays in PowerShell can be a challenge; but here's a trick that will allow you to manipulate these objects efficiently.
Home on Erik...
Lessons from content marketing myself (aka blogging) for five years
I started writing this blog in late 2012, partly because I felt like it would help me improve my...
7th Mar 2018
I started writing this blog in late 2012, partly because I felt like it would help me improve my English and my writing skills, partly because I kept having a lot of random ideas in my head and I wanted to write them down somewhere.
latest projects -...
3D Model Viewer Improvements
[Software] Unlocking the embedded gimbals
28th Nov 2023
[Software] Unlocking the embedded gimbals
Writing
Designing for People
The kindest and strongest praise that you can give this book is that it was written in 1955
and...
1st Jan 2023
The kindest and strongest praise that you can give this book is that it was written in 1955
and neither its praxis nor its theory has aged a day. A lot of external praise is directed
at its much-ballyhooed prognostication of the future (predicting FaceTime in 1955, that sort of...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Let a thousand societies bloom
17th Dec 2025
Alyssa Rosenzweig
OpenGL 3.1 on Asahi Linux
Upgrade your Asahi Linux
systems, because your graphics drivers are getting a big...
6th Jun 2023
Upgrade your Asahi Linux
systems, because your graphics drivers are getting a big boost:
leapfrogging from OpenGL 2.1 over OpenGL 3.0 up to OpenGL 3.1!
Similarly, the OpenGL ES 2.0 support is bumping up to OpenGL ES 3.0.
That means more playable games and more functioning...
Krebs on Security
Canadian Man Pleads Guilty in Snowflake Extortions
A 26-year-old Canadian man once described as one of the most consequential cybercrime threat actors...
6th Aug 2026
A 26-year-old Canadian man once described as one of the most consequential cybercrime threat actors of 2024 has pleaded guilty to computer fraud and conspiracy to hack and extort more than 165 organizations that used the cloud data storage provider Snowflake. Connor Riley Moucka,...
csvbase blog
Client libraries are better when they have no API
fsspec is secretly everywhere, and boss
10th Apr 2024
fsspec is secretly everywhere, and boss
Odds and Ends of...
The case for Nightingale Datacentres
Britain isn’t prepared for the looming AI national security crisis
3 weeks ago
Britain isn’t prepared for the looming AI national security crisis
Matt Blewitt
Unreasonably Effective Patterns
Much of my current job is maintaining and enhancing control planes for Heroku’s managed data...
11th Oct 2020
Much of my current job is maintaining and enhancing control planes for Heroku’s managed data services. This post explores three patterns used to reduce operational burden and increase system safety and resiliency: state machines (and associated state-transition tables),...
Pea Bee
Pea Bee #2: We're here because we're here
Hi all, thank you for subscribing to this newsletter.
5th Jan 2021
Hi all, thank you for subscribing to this newsletter.
Christian Selig
High quality, low filesize GIFs
While the GIF format is a little on the older side, it’s still a really handy format in 2025 for...
2nd Aug 2025
While the GIF format is a little on the older side, it’s still a really handy format in 2025 for sharing short clips where an actual video file might have some compatibility issues.
For instance, I find when you just want a short little video on your website, a GIF is still so...
Willem L. Middelkoop
Lessons from a takeaway plastic bag
About five months ago I got some take away food from our local Asian restaurant. They packaged the...
7th Jan 2018
About five months ago I got some take away food from our local Asian restaurant. They packaged the food and gave me a plastic bag to carry it home. On my way home I was thinking about the bag. Although it has some nice styling printed on it, it's designed for single use only....
Louwrentius - Solar
Switching away from Debian to Ubuntu LTS
Over the last couple of years, Debian Linux has released new stable versions about every two years....
6th Jul 2011
Over the last couple of years, Debian Linux has released new stable versions about every two years. This pace is great for progress, but there is a serious problem. This problem is related to their support for older Debian stable versions.
If you read the quote below from the...
Yazin Alirhayim
On building quicker
How AI tools have transformed my approach to building projects, making it possible to launch ideas...
31st Mar 2025
How AI tools have transformed my approach to building projects, making it possible to launch ideas faster and focus on what matters most.
Notes on software...
Extending gosql to supporting LIMIT and OFFSET
It's been a few months since I picked up
gosql and I wanted to use it to
prototype a SQL interface...
23rd Jan 2021
It's been a few months since I picked up
gosql and I wanted to use it to
prototype a SQL interface for data stored in S3. But one missing
critical feature in gosql is LIMIT and OFFSET support. This post walks
through the few key changes to gosql to support LIMIT and OFFSET.
You...
Fabien Sanglard
The art and engineering of Silpheed
1st Jun 2026
Jonas Hietala
Packing Neovim with Fennel
I’ve got lots of stuff to do but I ended up rewriting my Neovim config instead.
… anyone can do...
29th Oct 2025
I’ve got lots of stuff to do but I ended up rewriting my Neovim config instead.
… anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.
Robert Benchley, in Chips off the Old Benchley, 1949
My partner Veronica is amazing as...
Fabien Sanglard
Tracing the baseband
I was reading an article on planetbeing's blog the other day and my curiosity was tipped off when...
27th May 2010
I was reading an article on planetbeing's blog the other day and my curiosity was tipped off when he mentioned that phones don't run only one operating system but two. I decided to learn a bit how all this really works and here are my notes with the source code associated....
Good Enough
Album Listening in Album Whale
Back in March we added Album Search in Album Whale. This was a very nice update because it meant you...
4th Aug 2026
Back in March we added Album Search in Album Whale. This was a very nice update because it meant you no longer had to first grab an album share link from a music service (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, etc) in order to save an album to a list. You can just head straight to...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Designers Desk #1: Angelo Vilar
Designer's Desk is a new series featuring the desk setups of artists, designers, and creators -...
8th Jun 2017
Designer's Desk is a new series featuring the desk setups of artists, designers, and creators - showcasing how they work and what their workspace looks like.
Angelo Vilar (AKA Ansirone) is an art director, animation designer, & illustrator based in Los Angeles. He keeps it...
computers are bad
2023-02-07 secret government telephone numbers
Very nearly a year ago, I wrote a popular article about secret military
telephone
buttons.
To be...
7th Feb 2023
Very nearly a year ago, I wrote a popular article about secret military
telephone
buttons.
To be clear, the "secret" here was a joke and these buttons are in fact well
documented. The buttons I was talking about were the AUTOVON call precedence
buttons, used for a five-level...
tim.sh
I made a Chrome extension to help avoid playing cheaters in chess
If you google “chrome extension for cheating in chess”, you’ll find a lot of them. Cheating is so...
22nd Dec 2024
If you google “chrome extension for cheating in chess”, you’ll find a lot of them. Cheating is so easy, it’s crazy.
If you google “chrome…
Greater Still by...
Why Digital Fashion Matters
“We’re in the midst of a technological revolution.
14th Jul 2022
“We’re in the midst of a technological revolution.
Notes on software...
AOT-compilation of Javascript with V8
tldr; I'm working on a AOT-compiled Javascript implementation called
jsc.
Many dynamically typed...
26th Feb 2019
tldr; I'm working on a AOT-compiled Javascript implementation called
jsc.
Many dynamically typed programming languages have implementations that
compile to native binaries:
Python: Cython
Common Lisp: SBCL
Scheme: Chicken Scheme
The benefits of compiling dynamically typed...
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