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Memory is slow, Disk is fast – Part 2

TL;DR Sourcing data directly from disk IS faster than caching in memory. I brought receipts. Because hardware got wider but not faster, the old methods don't get you there. You need new tools to use what is scaling and avoid what isn't. Introduction In part 1 I showed how some computer performance factors are scaling exponentially while others have been stagnant for decades. I then asserted, without proof, that sourcing data from disk can be faster than from memory. What follows is the proof.

What If OpenDocument Used SQLite?

Small. Fast. Reliable. Choose any three. Home Menu About Documentation Download License Support Purchase Search About Documentation Download Support Purchase Search Documentation Search Changelog What If OpenDocument Used SQLite? Introduction Suppose the OpenDocument file format, and specifically the "ODP" OpenDocument Presentation format, were built around SQLite. Benefits would include: Smaller documents Faster File/Save times Faster startup times Less memory used Document

Rocketships and Slingshots

The dominant metaphor for a successful startup these days is the rocketship. The not so humble brags are all over x and the press, founders and VCs saying - “0-100m in ARR faster than any company in history” and “idea to $1m in revenue in a month.” I get why these are exciting. The stories are simple, the progress is amazing, the pull of the market is irresistible. Sometimes these will be the biggest and most interesting companies of the future. Then again, as with most stories, the realities o

What Is the Fourier Transform?

As we listen to a piece of music, our ears perform a calculation. The high-pitched flutter of the flute, the middle tones of the violin, and the low hum of the double bass fill the air with pressure waves of many different frequencies. When the combined sound wave descends through the ear canal and into the spiral-shaped cochlea, hairs of different lengths resonate to the different pitches, separating the messy signal into buckets of elemental sounds. It took mathematicians until the 19th centu

If You’re Not Already Planning Your Halloween Costume, You’re Falling Behind

There’s no reason to delay getting in the spirit of Halloween as popular costume retailers begin to release this year’s slate of pop culture-inspired looks. From Spirit Halloween to BoxLunch to PetSmart, there are a ton of fandom fits across stores and online for the while family. For Squid Game fans we’re excited about the official collaboration between Spirit Halloween and the Netflix hit show. Fans can dress up as players, guards, and the Front Man and there’s an update for the Young-hee dol

The number of mis-issued 1.1.1.1 certificates grows. Here’s the latest.

Wednesday’s discovery of three mis-issued TLS certificates for Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 encrypted DNS lookup service generated intense interest and concern among Internet security practitioners. The revelation raised the possibility that an unknown entity had obtained the cryptographic equivalent of a skeleton key that could be used to surreptitiously decrypt millions of users’ DNS queries that were encrypted through DNS over TLS or DNS over HTTPS. From there, the scammers could have read queries or

The September Pixel Drop is here with Material 3 Expressive for all!

Google TL;DR The September Pixel Drop is here with fresh features for Pixel phones, the Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds Pro 2, and the Pixel Tablet. The update brings the Material 3 Expressive redesign of older Pixel phones and the Pixel Tablet. The Pixel Watch is getting a handy Google Maps feature, while the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are being updated with Adaptive Audio and more. It’s time to hit update on your Pixel devices again as Google offloads a bunch of new features and capabilities in its latest P

Tim Cook expected back at the White House for Trump AI event

Where will Tim Cook be on the Thursday before the iPhone 17 event? Back at the White House, it seems. The Apple CEO gifted President Trump a big chunk of 24k gold with a piece of glass in August after announcing plans to make all iPhone glass in Kentucky. 29 days later, their next meeting will focus on AI, according to The Hill: President Trump on Thursday will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for the first event in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden, including M

Threads is testing long-form posts with support for formatted text [U: Launched]

Update, Sep 4: The feature is now live. Find the new details below. While Threads already allows up to 500 characters per post (which is more than enough for casual users used to the microblogging format), it is now testing support for long-form posts through “text attachments”. Here’s how it works. Meta has confirmed the test, but has no ETA for the feature As spotted by app researcher Radu Oncescu (via TechCrunch), Threads is testing a new “text attachment” feature on iOS, which could repla

Big tech signs on to White House plan for AI education in US schools

The White House hosted several tech and AI leaders at an event today centered on teaching artificial intelligence in US schools. Many of the big tech companies — including Amazon , Google , Microsoft , OpenAI and Anthropic — have already issued press releases with their commitments to a pledge from the White House to help "foster early interest in Al technology, promote Al literacy and proficiency, and enable comprehensive Al training for parents and educators." The business commitments include

Apple's AI search engine could be driven by Google and help revive Siri, report says

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways Apple plans to launch an AI search engine, reportedly. The AI search experience would power the Siri voice assistant. The expected launch is in the spring as part of the Siri overhaul. Though Apple offers useful AI features through its Apple Intelligence suite, discussion of the company's AI efforts usually returns to one main sticking point: the delay of a revamped Siri. That launch has been highly anticipated, as it is supposed to push Siri's cap

I should have loved electrical engineering

Author’s note: Drafted in 2022, lightly edited and finished on Sep 1, 2025 for clarity. Substance unchanged. I tried to not glamorize my undergraduate experience but I could be hallucinating. “Hardware invention enabled the information revolution. The internet and all the fancy applications are nothing but some byproduct of the advancement in computer chips and fiber optic cables”, 18-year-old me thought wishfully, concluding that the next natural sequence in the major global transformation mus

The Paradigm

Over the past decade, some of the most remarkable AI breakthroughs—AlphaGo, AlphaStar, AlphaFold1, VPT, OpenAI Five, ChatGPT—have all shared a common thread: they start with large-scale data gathering (self-supervised or imitation learning, or SSL) and then use reinforcement learning to refine their performance toward a specific goal. This marriage of general knowledge acquisition and focused, reward-driven specialization has emerged as a the paradigm by which we can reliably train AI systems to

Non-Obviously Great Startups

The dominant metaphor for a successful startup these days is the rocketship. The not so humble brags are all over x and the press, founders and VCs saying - “0-100m in ARR faster than any company in history” and “idea to $1m in revenue in a month.” I get why these are exciting. The stories are simple, the progress is amazing, the pull of the market is irresistible. Sometimes these will be the biggest and most interesting companies of the future. Then again, as with most stories, the realities o

Classic 8×8-pixel B&W Mac patterns

TL;DR: I made a website for the original classic Mac patterns I was working on something and thought it would be fun to use one of the classic Mac black-and-white patterns in the project. I'm talking about the original 8×8-pixel ones that were in the original Control Panel for setting the desktop background and in MacPaint as fill patterns. Screenshots via to Marcin's awesome interactive history I figured there'd must be clean, pixel-perfect GIFs or PNGs of them somewhere on the web. And perh

Who Have Marvel’s Avengers Become?

Every mainstream comic book character is defined by their pre- and post-adaptation life. After they’re brought to life in film or TV, the change becomes notable, and nowhere is it more apparent than with the Avengers. They’ve always been a key superhero team, but they were elevated to a higher position thanks to the MCU and Marvel not owning fellow high-profile teams, the X-Men and Fantastic Four, and actively working to downplay them throughout comics and other media. With four movies under th

Who Owns ‘Telepathy’?

Elon Musk’s neural implant startup Neuralink has been trying to trademark two product names: Telepathy and Telekinesis. Musk has previously claimed that his company will be able to give people “superpowers,” so the desire to take ownership over these special abilities makes sense. Unfortunately for Neuralink, patent applications for Telepathy and Telekinesis have already been filed by a different business. Wired reports that a lucid dreaming startup (who knew there was such a thing?) called Pro

Finally, You Can Cuddle With a Cute Camera-Clad AI Robot That Feels Jealousy

Lots of people had stuffed animals when they were little. My personal favorite was a teddy bear in army fatigues, named—you guessed it—Army Bear. Fidel Castro was already taken, unfortunately. As much as I loved Army Bear, I remember thinking, “This would be so much more adorable with an on-device LLM designed to understand cloud-free natural language prompts and enable object recognition via computer vision.” And finally, almost 30 years later, SwitchBot has answered my very real and not-at-all

Get Ready to Marathon ‘The Twilight Saga’ on YouTube, Loca

The millennial internet’s vampire and werewolf boyfriends are back to celebrate the young adult romantasy’s cinematic debut 15 years ago. The films propelled current Batman Robert Pattinson into superstardom alongside indie darling Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Lionsgate had already announced a re-release for The Twilight Saga in theaters; to go with that, there’s now an internet streaming event, starting September 7. First up is the YouTube marathon for the chronically online fan, where

24 of the Best Gifts Under $150 for 2025

If you're looking to gift an affordable outdoor camera that doesn't require frequent battery replacements, the Blink Outdoor 4 is a great option. CNET's Tyler Lacoma says, "From the 1080p resolution and Alexa support to the two-way audio and motion detection, the Outdoor 4 does a little of everything in a compact, weather-resistant design. But where it really shines is that extended battery life." The handy Blink app also lets you check battery status -- a lifesaver, since you’ll probably forge

My Blink Outdoor Camera Ran for Over a Year Without a Recharge. It’s Still One of My Smartest Buys

The Blink Outdoor 4 security camera typically costs around $100. Right now, you can get a two-pack for $180, which is still a solid value for a wireless setup that doesn’t require constant recharging. CNET's key takeaways The Blink's Outdoor 4 security camera comes with lithium AA batteries that lasted me well over a year, unlike competitor cameras that need frequent recharging as often as every month. The Blink Outdoor 4 is one of the more affordable cams, at about $100, and it can often be

Today's NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Sept. 5 #551

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 puzzle was a mix for me. Some of the words I found right away, but others were tough, and a few were difficult to unscramble. If you need hints and answers, read on. I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. If you're looking for today's

Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Sept. 5, #817

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Yes, we all saw the Star Wars name -- HAN and SOLO -- in today's NYT Connections puzzle. But of course, it's never that easy. Was the Force not with you when you tried to solve Connections today? Read on for clues and today's Connections answers. The Times now has a Conne

Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Sept. 5, #1539

Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

This M4 Mac Mini Is Small, Fast and Surprisingly Affordable

I bought the M4 Mac Mini after reading CNET laptop expert Joshua Goldman's review of the tiny machine. I was looking for a computer that would increase my productivity and better organize my workflow. Since then, I've found it to be the best value for money among Apple's lineup. For less than $600, you can get a more powerful computer than the $999 MacBook Air. The M4 Mac Mini, Apple's smallest computer, is an easy recommendation for me since it's one of CNET's picks for the best desktop comput

The Dreame X50 Didn’t Just Mop My Floors -- It Outsmarted My Furniture

CNET's key takeaways No robot vacuum has truly solved the challenge of multilevel cleaning without requiring you to physically move it between floors. This robo-vac can do it, for the high-end price of $1,700. You won't find another robot vacuum with its features for less than $1,000 right now. The whole point of owning a robot vacuum is so you don't have to do the cleaning yourself. But that was never the case at my house -- partly because of what I call my "Ikea chair challenge." I've seen

This Pixel 9 Pro Is So Clean, It Feels Like the iPhone of Androids

CNET's key takeaways After months of using Google's Pixel 9 Pro, I like its solid overall performance and quirky new AI skills. The element that stands out most is how easy it is to use. While Android users swear by them, a lot of other people consider Android phones to feel overly complex. The user interface isn't quite as easy to adjust as Apple's offering. And while it may sound unreasonable, Samsung's Galaxy S25 range, for example, has deep menu settings that let you tweak nearly every as

Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Sept. 5, #347

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles. Today's Connections: Sports Edition is tough. Hope you are familiar with one particular former NBA player, and that you know your soccer team names! If you're struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers. Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its d

Huawei Releases Its Second Trifold Phone Weeks Ahead of Samsung's Expected Launch

Huawei's second-generation trifold phone, the Mate XTs, is now available, just shy of a year after the company's first trifold phone was released in September 2024. The trifold phone isn't much different from the Mate XT, but two big upgrades take the spotlight. The Mate XTs let you use a stylus on the phone's folding screen and comes in purple, red, black or white. It runs on HarmonyOS 5.1, which Huawei calls a "PC-level" experience, and has a new M-Pen 3 stylus. "In the free multiwindow mode