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Variable-length integers are essential for encoding small numbers efficiently, especially in TLV formats like Protocol Buffers for space optimization. Popular encodings include VLQ and LEB128, but the author developed a simpler, faster alternative named vu128 due to LEB128’s poor fit for modern processors. The vu128 format stores unsigned integers up to 128 bits in a […]
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Southwest Airlines is notorious for not showing up on online travel agency websites, directing customers to their own site to save on distribution costs. Despite being one of the first e-commerce sites to hit a billion dollars in revenue, the airline has historically kept its fares and schedules private, even suing websites that displayed them […]
The author emphasizes the importance of considering accessibility in the design phase of projects rather than as an afterthought. They highlight that fixing accessibility issues later is more costly and challenging than building with accessibility in mind from the start. The content includes detailed guidelines on documenting visual design for accessibility, color contrast ratios, and […]
Tom Waits expressed strong opposition to commercial endorsements, particularly when his music or voice was used without permission. Frito-Lay used a song similar to Waits’ “Step Right Up” in a commercial, causing Waits to sue for false endorsement and voice misappropriation. The court ruled in Waits’ favor, awarding him $2.6 million in damages. The case […]
Amber is a Rust-based code search and replace tool inspired by ack, ag, and other grep-like tools. It offers useful default settings, multi-threaded searching, interactive replacing, and can be easily installed on Arch Linux using the `amber-search-git` package or through Cargo. Users can search and replace keywords over directories using the `ambs` and `ambr` commands. […]
Bytehound is a powerful memory profiler for Linux that gathers every allocation and deallocation, along with full stack traces. It can help analyze memory leaks, identify temporary allocations, and investigate excessive memory fragmentation. With a custom stack unwinding implementation, Bytehound is significantly faster than similar tools, exporting data in JSON, Heaptrack, and flamegraph formats. It […]
It is crucial to increase EC2 boot speed for certain workloads at Depot. While it may seem like the boot time is fixed, it can actually be optimized to speed up the process significantly. For example, starting the instance once to preload data blocks can reduce boot time from 40 seconds to 5 seconds. Another […]
Pavel discovered a 3-state 4-symbol TM that can compute an Ackermann-level function and halts with a large number of non-zero symbols on the tape. The TM can be approximated as BB(3,4) > Ack(14). This TM is the first in the wild to simulate an Ackermann-level function. Pavel’s code specified the result as Halt(SuperPowers(13)). The validation […]
Sierra On-Line’s Space Quest II 720KB floppy disks contain hidden treasure- 70% of the AGI interpreter source code! This code was accidentally copied onto production disks for versions 2.0D and 2.0F. Discovered in 2016, this discovery offers a peek into Sierra’s development process. This mishap could have had serious consequences had it been noticed at […]
Cortile Linux offers an auto tiling manager supporting various window managers such as Openbox, Fluxbox, XFCE, GNOME, and more. It can be installed on top of your current window manager to enable dynamic tiling, workspace based layouts, keyboard shortcuts, and multi-monitor support. Unique features include socket communication, a master-slave layout concept, and hot corner events. […]