miniblog.

Wilfred Hughes
Pharo's git integration (using Iceberg) is shockingly good. All your commits are well-structured changes, so you can toggle at class/method granularity what you want to commit. Thanks to Iceberg, these classes in your *live* image serialise to text files!
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Oct 11, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
I try to name my git remotes as 'github' where applicable. It really helps readability of commands. This is so common that I wish I could make this default (apparently the default remote name 'origin' isn't configurable in git).
Oct 10, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
I don't preserve browser tabs between sessions. It's a surprisingly helpful way of staying on whatever side project you planned to play with.
Oct 10, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
A really nifty Emacs project: a gnus backend for reading HN! https://github.com/dickmao/nnhackernews
Oct 10, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Tech in 2011 and today doesn't look like a bubble, and startups failing are less likely to affect retail investors: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/whatever-happened-tech-bubble/594856/
Oct 10, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
GNU Guix bootstraps itself using a mutual self-hosting scheme interpreter and C compiler! https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2019/guix-reduces-bootstrap-seed-by-50/
Oct 8, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Remarkable research exploring the design of a distributed VPN using zero knowledge proofs to allow nodes to choose permitted traffic whilst preserving privacy: https://brave.com/vpn0-a-privacy-preserving-distributed-virtual-private-network/
Oct 6, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Businesses are increasingly choosing individual apps rather than buying entire suites from the same vendor: https://capiche.com/p/enterprise-software-is-dead (I'm not convinced it's that easy to switch though: established tools tend to have lots of integrations set up.)
Oct 6, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Bitcoin might be the biggest currency by market cap, but apparently not by volume: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-01/tether-not-bitcoin-likely-the-world-s-most-used-cryptocurrency
Oct 4, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Excellent deep dive into how Python started, the growth and structure of the community, and where it's going: https://www.zdnet.com/article/python-is-eating-the-world-how-one-developers-side-project-became-the-hottest-programming-language-on-the-planet/
Oct 4, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Steampunk as a reaction to black box consumer electronics with no user serviceable parts: https://modus.medium.com/what-ever-happened-to-steampunk-4ac936905165
Oct 4, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Less than a million IPv4 addresses left! https://www.ripe.net/publications/news/about-ripe-ncc-and-ripe/update-approaching-ipv4-run-out
Oct 3, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Cute demonstration of implementing generators in terms of delimited continuations: https://defn.io/2019/09/05/racket-generators/ It might be Scheme, but the examples have a lot of syntax! parameterize, let loop, variadic functions, call-with-continuation-prompt (with 2 or 3 args).
Oct 3, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
A new 16-bit floating point format for machine learning! https://hub.packtpub.com/why-intel-is-betting-on-bfloat16-to-be-a-game-changer-for-deep-learning-training-hint-range-trumps-precision/ It increases range at the expense of precision, and often allows 16-bit computation (smaller, faster hardware) to replace 32-bit ML logic.
Oct 1, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
I'm amazed to learn that Tesla normally disables parts of the battery on cheap models, but was able to remotely enable the full battery during hurricane Dorian! https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/09/12/how-the-world-will-change-as-computers-spread-into-everyday-objects A car is turning into a computer with wheels, and that computer is sometimes a thin client.
Oct 1, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Designing interfaces that take full advantage of the capabilities of the human body: https://worrydream.com/#!/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign
Sep 30, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
Remarkable history of building radios during the second world war in prisoner of war camps. Very few premade components and all schematics were from memory! https://hackaday.com/2016/04/21/hacking-when-it-counts-pow-canteen-radios/
Sep 30, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
A discussion of different Rust libraries and the cost of using them (compile time, binary size). https://raphlinus.github.io/rust/2019/08/21/rust-bloat.html
Sep 30, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
A fun 1994 article about the first purchase on the web using encryption! Phil Brandenberger uses his visa credit card, X-Mosaic and PGP to purchase a $12 'compact audio disk' by Sting. It includes an explanation of the World Wide Web too :) https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/12/business/attention-shoppers-internet-is-open.html
Sep 29, 2019
Wilfred Hughes
The Rust mascot is a crab called Ferris. I've only just realised this is a pun! Ferris/ferrous.
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Sep 29, 2019
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