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The author dives into the world of formal methods and TLA+ to discuss various types of nondeterminism: True Randomness, Concurrency, User Input, External forces, and Abstraction, all crucial for system modeling. The simplicity of lifting true randomness to deterministic functions, the complexity of concurrency causing global nondeterminism, and the abstraction of deterministic processes into nondeterministic […]
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Our repository offers the largest collection of NGINX and Varnish packages for smooth production use. The try_files NGINX directive simplifies setting up SEO-friendly URLs, eliminating the need for PHP involvement in serving static content. However, try_files comes with a performance penalty due to file existence checks, which can be magnified as traffic grows. In light […]
This web content provides a script that fixes CSS to use traditional English spellings rather than simplified ones. It allows for the properization of CSS on any page using client-side scripting. The script can be easily included in HTML code to convert CSS properties like “background-colour” to “background-color.” There are examples provided for usage in […]
Type systems are essential for modeling reality, with types representing different choices that can be either fixed (closed universe) or evolving over time (open universe). Closed universes, like enums in Rust, limit options to known values, ensuring stability, while open universes may require non-exhaustive enums to accommodate future changes without breaking the API. Using strings […]
The TinyCompiler project is all about creating a compiler in a weekend, focusing on simplicity and efficiency. The goal is to translate an esoteric programming language into regular GNU assembly code in just 500 lines of Python. The project also includes a tinyoptimizer, showcasing various concepts in programming. The language being implemented, wend, is a […]
The author creatively repurposed unclosed browser tabs to run Pong, inspired by a friend’s Flappy Bird running in a favicon. They scripted AppleScript to create a grid of tabs and optimized updating favicons. Web workers were used to overcome tab throttling while keeping tabs synced. Communication between tabs was established using broadcast channels. The author’s […]
Explore my 3D model of San Francisco’s iconic Sutro Tower and enjoy a virtual tour at your own pace. For an interactive experience, switch to AR mode on your phone by clicking the cube icon. The tower scan was made possible by advanced Gaussian Splatting techniques, utilizing drones, RealityCapture, gsplat, SOGS compression, and PlayCanvas rendering. […]
In a recent update, the author reflects on a decade-old lecture on natural language processing and the use of softmax in machine learning. The benefits of softmax, including maximum entropy and interpretability of learning signals, are highlighted. A new harmonic formulation is introduced as an alternative to softmax. The author emphasizes the challenging gradient-based optimization […]
In the 25th anniversary release of iText, we celebrate the love affair between PDF and the open-source community that started 25 years ago. The latest version, iText Suite 9.1, brings new features like extended SVG implementation in iText Core with improved text positioning and font handling. Performance increases can be seen in generating large tables […]
Amazon MGM Studios, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli have joined forces to create a new joint venture to house the James Bond franchise. Amazon MGM Studios will gain creative control of the iconic character, thanking the late Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman for introducing James Bond to the world. Wilson is stepping back […]