No it’s not a Battleship
This week has seen the announcement by the Trump Administration that they are going to be building “battleships”, a subject that is well within my beat, so I figured I would take the time to start by saying that these are nothing of the sort. Defining the battleship is slightly tricky, but the best version […]
Remembering Lou Gerstner
The following is the text of an email sent today to all IBM employees by Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna: IBMers, I am saddened to share that Lou Gerstner, IBM’s Chairman and CEO from 1993 to 2002, passed away yesterday. Lou arrived at IBM at a moment when the company’s future was genuinely uncertain. The […]
Tell HN: Google ignores English searches and forces localized results
Google Search change in a way that I can’t seem to opt out of. I’m based in a non-English-speaking country, but I regularly search in English, especially for technical topics. My Google account, my laptop, my phone, my interface language, and preferences are all set to English; only my physical location and payment methods are […]
Hacker News made out of prime numbers
ζ Hacker News Prime new | past | posts | mersenne | germain | fermat | palindrome | pk | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | e≤k² | e
tc-ematch(8) extended matches for use with “basic”, “cgroup” or “flow” filters
tc-ematch(8) – Linux manual page ematch(8) Linux ematch(8) NAME top ematch – extended matches for use with “basic”, “cgroup” or “flow” filters SYNOPSIS top tc filter add .. basic match EXPR .. flowid .. EXPR := TERM [ { and | or } EXPR ] TERM := […]
Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis
In late 2025, the global semiconductor ecosystem is experiencing an unprecedented memory chip shortage with knock-on effects for the device manufacturers and end users that could persist well into 2027. DRAM prices have surged significantly as demand from AI data centers continues to outstrip supply, creating a supply/demand imbalance. IDC was monitoring the memory situation as we prepared our November device forecasts, and we factored them into the update. The situation, however, […]
Designing Predictable LLM-Verifier Systems for Formal Method Guarantee
Abstract:The integration of Formal Verification tools with Large Language Models (LLMs) offers a path to scale software verification beyond manual workflows. However, current methods remain unreliable: without a solid theoretical footing, the refinement process acts as a black box that may oscillate, loop, or diverge. This work bridges this critical gap by developing an LLM-Verifier […]
Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling
This is the story about how I built MacThrottle. I’ve been very happy with my M2 MacBook Air for the past few years. However, when using an external display, especially a very demanding one like a 4K 120Hz display, I’ve noticed it started struggling more. Since it lacks fans, you can’t hear it struggling, but […]
A new research shows that 21-33% of YouTube’s feed may consist of AI slop
As the debate over the creative and ethical value of using AI to generate video rages on, users are getting interesting results out of the machine, and artist-led AI content is gaining respect in some areas. Top film schools now offer courses on the use and ethics of AI in film production, and the world’s […]
C++ says “We have try at home.”
Many languages¹ that have exceptions also have a finally clause, so you can write try { ⟦ stuff ⟧ } finally { always(); } A quick checks shows that this control structure exists in Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, but not C++. C++ says, “We have try…finally at home.” In C++, the way to get a […]