TL;DR summary of stories on the internet
The Commodore 64, released in August 1982, was a revolutionary personal computer that still impresses today. Developer Nick Bild has created a Generative AI tool for the Commodore 64, allowing users to generate 8×8 sprites at 64×64 resolution, inspiring game design concepts. While not as advanced as modern AI implementations, the fact that this AI […]
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Plotters are making a comeback in the world of code and art, providing hand-drawn results that are fun to watch. Author shares experiences with hobbyist plotters Makeblock XY Plotter and AxiDraw v3, using them for coding and creating artwork. They explain the programming behind controlling plotters efficiently. Features like re-ordering paths, joining consecutive paths, and […]
This week’s newsletter is all about time, from ancient Rome to modern-day inventions. Plautus, a famous playwright of comedic plays in ancient Rome, remains a mysterious figure. His works, often reworkings of earlier plays, are incomplete and contain humor that may not resonate with modern audiences. Sundials were the first timekeeping devices, followed by water […]
Listen/notify in Postgres is a powerful feature missing in other databases like MySQL and SQLite. Despite its simplicity, many applications using it inefficiently, consuming Postgres connections. Enter the notifier pattern, which allows a single connection per program to handle multiple topic subscriptions. With implementations like River’s notifier in Go, subscriptions are organized efficiently, ensuring timely […]
Every computing system incurs an energy cost, not just a monetary price, connected to the work needed to run a program and heat dissipated. A group of physicists and computer scientists have expanded the modern theory of the thermodynamics of computation by introducing mathematical equations that establish the minimum and maximum energy cost of computational […]
Disney Research is exploring the possibility of robots making dramatic entrances by falling from the sky. The challenges involved in this include energy dissipation upon landing and control of orientation in mid-air. Using aerodynamic thrust generated by ducted fans, the robots are able to stabilize themselves during falls. The use of aerodynamic forces instead of […]
Linked lists are often taught in programming courses but are rarely used in real-world projects, overshadowed by other data structures. In this post, the author demonstrates the superior performance of linked lists over Vec in a data validation library implementation. By utilizing the concept of graph traversals, the library can accurately pinpoint errors in input […]
Pico Pico is an open-source alternative to Ngrok, focusing on serving production traffic and easy hosting on Kubernetes. It allows for exposing services within a customer network, BYOC solutions, and connecting to IoT devices. The proxy server can be hosted as a fault-tolerant cluster for scaling and zero downtime. Pico routes requests to registered upstream […]
Science fiction’s promise of true midair pixels has been realized with laser-induced plasma displays. These displays create glowing points of light using lasers that ionize air molecules, offering a mesmerizing visual experience, but also posing safety concerns due to the energy involved. Japanese researchers have now developed a “Fairy Lights” display system that is safe […]
In 1825, portrait artist Samuel F.B. Morse’s life changed when he received tragic news about his wife’s death via slow communication. This inspired him to develop the single-wire telegraph and Morse code. Despite initial setbacks, his invention revolutionized communication. A statue honoring him was proposed while he was still alive, a rare move at the […]