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How I build software quickly

Software is built under time and quality constraints. We want to write good code and have it done quickly. If you go too fast, your work is buggy and hard to maintain. If you go too slowly, nothing gets shipped. I have not mastered this tension, but I’ll share a few lessons I’ve learned. This post focuses on being a developer on a small team, maintaining software over multiple years. It doesn’t focus on creating quick prototypes. And this is only based on my own experience! “How good should t

Topics: code draft rough time ve

Florida Cat Named Pepper Brings Home Never-Before-Seen Virus—for the Second Time

Last year, Pepper, a pet cat who roams the backyards of Gainesville, Florida, helped a scientist discover a new viral strain. Now, the furry feline is back at it again. In a new study, scientists have once again discovered an exotic virus infecting a dead rodent that had been caught by Pepper. This time around, Pepper’s furry hunting trophy helped researchers pinpoint an unidentified strain of orthoreovirus, a type of virus that infects humans and other mammals. The findings, and the virus’s co

Can You Lose Weight and Gain Strength on a Vibration Plate? We Consulted Fitness Experts

Vibration plates are making a comeback. Similar to the mid-20th-century vibrating belt machines, vibration plates have been said to provide the body with various benefits and can even be a tool for weight loss. But is the hype actually backed by science and expert opinions, or is it all social media hearsay? To find out if you should add a vibration plate to your workout routine, we asked personal trainers and other fitness experts about the actual benefits, risks, how to use a vibration plate

I May Have Found the Best Travel Camera

CNET's key takeaways Basically, it's Fujifilm's ultra-popular X100VI point-and-shoot camera Leans into the company's film simulation recipes by giving them their own dial for fast, direct access. Expensive, but not overpriced and capable of excellent 40-megapixel images and 6.2K-resolution video. While most people don't need a special camera for travel -- their phone will work just fine -- those of us into photography as a hobby are always on the lookout for cool new gear. To be fair, buying

Black hole merger challenges our understanding of black hole formation

Gravitational waves—ripples in space-time caused by violent cosmic events—travel at the speed of light in every direction, eventually fading out like ripples in water. But some events are so destructive and extreme that they create disturbances in spacetime more like powerful waves than small ripples, with enough energy to reach our own detectors here on Earth. Today, the LIGO Collaboration announced the detection of the most colossal black hole merger known to date, the final product of which

Let's Learn x86-64 Assembly (2020)

Let's Learn x86-64 Assembly! Part 0 - Setup and First Steps published on Apr 18 2020 The way I was taught x86 assembly at the university had been completely outdated for many years by the time I had my first class. It was around 2008 or 2009, and 64-bit processors had already started becoming a thing even in my neck of the woods. Meanwhile, we were doing DOS, real-mode, memory segmentation and all the other stuff from the bad old days. Nevertheless, I picked up enough of it during the classes

Astronomers Detect a Black Hole Merger That’s So Massive It Shouldn’t Exist

Gravitational waves—ripples in space-time caused by violent cosmic events—travel at the speed of light in every direction, eventually fading out like ripples in water. But some events are so destructive and extreme that they create disturbances in spacetime more like powerful waves than small ripples, with enough energy to reach our own detectors here on Earth. Today, the LIGO Collaboration announced the detection of the most colossal black hole merger known to date, the final product of which

Holographic ribbon aims to oust magnetic tape with 50-year life span and 200TB

Details behind HoloMem’s holographic tape innovations are beginning to come into clearer view. The UK-based startup recently chatted with Blocks & Files about its potentially disruptive technology for long-term cold storage. HoloMem is another emerging storage idea which relies on optical technology - to enable holographic storage. However, it cleverly melds the durability and density advantage of optical formats with a flexible polymer ribbon-loaded cartridge, so it can usurp entrenched LTO mag

How to scale RL to 10^26 FLOPs

TLDR: Reinforcement learning (RL) is the next training technique for building frontier-level AI models. To make it better, we need to train on more data. The current approach of scaling many environments simultaneously is messy and complicated. Instead, I propose we find a way to do next-token prediction on the Web using RL. This way, we learn to reason from general web data, instead of just math and code. I’ve spent a good part of the past year in denial. I was in denial because when OpenAI r

Fine dining restaurants researching guests to make their dinner unforgettable

In the Emmy-winning FX show “The Bear,” which returned for a fourth season on June 25, there’s a pivotal Season 2 episode when Richie, aka Cousin, learns what it takes to work at a fine dining restaurant — and just how much intimate research goes into preparing for guests. Before his first night on the floor of the fictional three-Michelin-star restaurant, the front of house team goes over the evening’s PNOs — persons of note. Guests for the night include the district attorney for Chicago as we

Five companies now control over 90% of the restaurant food delivery market

While reading the latest results from Prosus, I realized there seems to be a trend that nobody is talking about. There is an obvious wave of consolidation in the food delivery market happening right before our eyes. The once-hot food delivery sector has gone cold faster than your DoorDash order. New entrants have disappeared as most of the VC money chases the cool and hip AI startups. Alongside a wave of acquisitions, the world's food delivery market is consolidating in the hands of 5 companies.

Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

Raycast for Linux An open-source, Raycast-inspired launcher for Linux. For more background on this project, I have a post here. Disclaimer: This is a hobby project and is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the official Raycast team. ✨ Features This launcher aims to recreate most of Raycast's core features on Linux: Extensible Command Palette : The core of the application. Search for and launch applications, run commands, execute quicklinks, and more. : The core of the application. Sear

A technical look at Iran's internet shutdowns

A Technical Look at Iran’s Internet Shutdowns Every time mass protests erupt in Iran, a familiar pattern follows: the flow of information stops. The internet slows to a crawl or disappears entirely. But how does a modern country survive cutting itself off from the internet? Wouldn’t that break everything? Not quite, because the Islamic Republic has spent the last decade building an internet within the internet. The National Information Network (NIN): Isolation by Design Iran’s National Info

Let's Learn x86-64 Assembly Part 0 – Setup and First Steps

Let's Learn x86-64 Assembly! Part 0 - Setup and First Steps published on Apr 18 2020 The way I was taught x86 assembly at the university had been completely outdated for many years by the time I had my first class. It was around 2008 or 2009, and 64-bit processors had already started becoming a thing even in my neck of the woods. Meanwhile, we were doing DOS, real-mode, memory segmentation and all the other stuff from the bad old days. Nevertheless, I picked up enough of it during the classes

Today's NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 14 #498

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. Today's NYT Strands theme set me to humming the theme from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. When you find the answers, they're pretty easy, though one is quite long to unscramble. If you need hints and answers, read on. I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

Species at 30 makes for a great guilty pleasure

Earlier this month, Hollywood mourned the passing of Michael Madsen, a gifted actor best known for his critically acclaimed roles in Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and Donnie Brasco, among others. Few obituaries have mentioned one of his lesser-known roles: a black ops mercenary hired to help hunt down an escaped human/alien hybrid in 1995's Species. The sci-fi thriller turns 30 this year and while it garnered decidedly mixed reviews upon release, the film holds up quite well as a not-quite-campy B

Study warns of ‘significant risks’ in using AI therapy chatbots

Therapy chatbots powered by large language models may stigmatize users with mental health conditions and otherwise respond inappropriately or even dangerously, according to researchers at Stanford University. While recent coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere has highlighted the role that ChatGPT may play in reinforcing delusional or conspiratorial thinking, a new paper titled “Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers” exam

James Webb Space Telescope Spots Stellar Death Shrouds

In brilliant new images, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare glimpse at the gaseous "shrouds" that surround dying stars before they go supernova. Known as Wolf-Rayet stars, which were discovered nearly 160 years ago by astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet at the Paris Observatory and named in their honor, these ancient stars are, as Space.com notes, surrounded by a "shroud" of cosmic dust that will eventually explode outward and lay the foundations for new stars. These age

China Working On Levitating Train That Could Get You From New York to Chicago in Two Hours

As the United States struggles to keep its major cities connected by even the most barebones rail systems, China is screaming into the future with the development of a levitating bullet train. Called "maglev," short for "magnetic levitation," the train system is designed to levitate via magnets as opposed to wheels. Maglev systems can reach higher speeds much more efficiently than their wheeled counterparts, though the infrastructure needed to run them is incredibly expensive. While there are

EA is reportedly hitting the brakes on the Need for Speed franchise

The Need for Speed franchise could be making its last laps — at least for the time being. Matthew Everingham, a photographer who frequently contributed to car culture website Speedhunters, said in social media posts that Electronic Arts has "shelved Need for Speed" and is "quietly parking" the series. Speedhunters, which was funded by EA and was last updated in April of this year, will also reportedly cease operations for now. EA hasn't released an official statement on the fate of the Need for

Lua beats MicroPython for serious embedded devs

Why Lua Beats MicroPython for Serious Embedded Devs In professional embedded projects, ranging from industrial automation to medical devices and commercial IoT products, developers increasingly favor high-level, lightweight, and easy-to-use environments. While MicroPython has earned praise for rapid prototyping and field deployments on microcontrollers, its active ecosystem is largely centered around hobbyist boards. It is important to note that Python’s greatest strength, its vast library eco

Monitoring My Homelab, Simply

Monitoring my Homelab, Simply Date: 2025-07-09 I have a middling self-hosted/homelab setup, and it occasionally breaks. Alas, no monitoring tool has ever sparked joy in me. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that they’re essential for large fleets of services with fast-changing software and teams of oncallers working around the clock to understand the complex ways that complex systems fail… but my stuff doesn’t change that often, failures are mundane and low-scope, and I’m the only person comi

Why the Weather Is Literally Giving You a Headache

If you are one of the 39 million Americans in the U.S. living with migraines, there’s a good chance an intense headache will begin when the weather shifts. You aren’t alone. Studies find 30% to 50% of people with migraines identify some type of weather change as a trigger, making it the most commonly reported migraine source. Yet, it’s also one of the most puzzling. Some people are more sensitive to weather As a neurologist and headache specialist practicing in Colorado, a place with frequent

Samsung Brought Back My Favorite Feature for Its Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic

While competitors release predictable updates to their smartwatches, Samsung isn't afraid to surprise us (for better or worse) with design and feature changes each year. And with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic in particular, announced at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, my favorite feature has made a welcome reappearance: the physical rotating bezel, a touch of romantic elegance that made me fall in love with Galaxy Watches in the first place. The Galaxy Watch 8 also has a new look and thinner frame

Foods That Naturally Relieve Headaches, Backed by Health Pros

What you eat could be the key to easing your headache or migraine symptoms. Though adjusting your diet is far from a miracle cure, when paired with other healthy habits, like maintaining your hydration, getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep and managing stress, it's a low-effort way to relieve your pain. "The most important thing I tell patients is that migraines are highly individualized," says Dr. Nicholas Church, a board-certified member of the American Board of Family Medicine and t

LG Gram Pro 16 (2025) Review: Thin Is Still In

Last year’s LG Gram Pro 17 was a classic study in laptop compromise. Incredibly thin and light, it was a veritable marvel of engineering that weighed in at half the heft of a typical 17-inch notebook. On the other hand, it was an unstable performance dud that ran so hot it nearly burnt the hair off my legs. The compromise scales ultimately tipped against the Gram Pro in 2024, but I’ll give credit to LG for staying the course and continuing to iterate on this design, and fixing many of the flaws

Topics: 17 gram laptop lg pro

Why GM’s CEO is still betting on electric vehicles (and racing)

GM was the first major US automaker to make the promise to go all-electric by 2035, just four years ago. Those promises have since turned into rough estimates under the second Donald Trump presidency, with the company softening language about its electrification goals. But GM is riding high on EV sales, and as CEO Mary Barra puts it, EVs are still the future — just on a delayed (and very flexible) timeline. “We still believe in an all-electric future,” Barra told The Verge in an exclusive inter

Topics: barra cadillac ev gm said

New Video-Generating AI Trained 100 Percent on Public Domain Films

Few tech products have been as broadly contentious as video-generating artificial intelligence. These complex algorithms, which cleave millions of datapoints together into seconds-long gobs of video, are notoriously trained on proprietary material, leading to widespread ethical and legal concerns. (That's before we even mention how much energy it takes to synthesize an AI video.) Tech billionaires tend to argue that this is simply the way things need to be — if you want AI, we need to feed it

I’ve tested all the best smart rings in 2025, and these are the only ones I would buy

While fitness trackers and smartwatches are the better-known devices in the wearable tech world, there is a third, less popular option. Smart rings are slowly becoming more attractive alternatives. I’ve tested more than a dozen of these minimalist devices, and below are the best smart rings you can buy. Oura Ring 4: The best smart ring overall Oura Ring 4 Thinner design • Refreshed app experience • Smarter health sensing MSRP: $399.00 The top smart ring gets an upgrade. The Oura Ring 4 is the b

The upcoming GPT-3 moment for RL

The upcoming GPT-3 moment for RL Matthew Barnett, Tamay Besiroglu, Ege Erdil Jun 20, 2025 GPT-3 showed that simply scaling up language models unlocks powerful, task-agnostic, few-shot performance, often outperforming carefully fine-tuned models. Before GPT-3, achieving state-of-the-art performance meant first pre-training models on large generic text corpora, then fine-tuning them on specific tasks. Today’s reinforcement learning is stuck in a similar pre-GPT-3 paradigm. We first pre-train l