The Engagement Is Better on Bluesky
We could go on about how we welcome publishers, we don’t demote links, we encourage independent developers to build apps and extensions on top of Bluesky’s network…. but instead, we’ll show you: The Boston Globe Traffic from Bluesky to @bostonglobe.com is already 3x that of Threads, and we are seeing 4.5x the conversions to paying […]
Brick and Mortar Triangle Fraud
A while back, Krebs dropped a piece about a guy caught in triangle fraud scheme; below is the infographic he used. When this piece came out, we didn’t know what it was called, but Getcho had been blocking triangle fraud for about six months. Today, Getcho helps retailers with their local delivery strategy and fraud […]
The Deterioration of Google
7 November 2024 – Baldur Bjarnason This post announcing the closure of Giant Freakin Robot set me on a bit of a journey into the state of Google. “The End Of Independent Publishing And Giant Freakin Robot” GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT isn’t the first site to shut down. Hundreds of independent publishers have shuttered in the […]
The Hall SC-VGA-2 Video Processor, the Atari ST and NeXTSTEP
A periodic fascination on this blog is figuring out better ways to get better screenshots of our classic systems, which often hail from the Wild Wild West/East in terms of video standards (read all entries in this series). Naturally the best way is a bitwise direct grab of the framebuffer, but that’s only possible if […]
Weak pointers in Go: why they matter now
Weak Pointers in Go: Why They Matter NowWhen we talked about string interning earlier, we mentioned a concept that Go uses to implement its unique map feature: the “weak pointer.” We kind of breezed through it back then to stay on track with the main flow of that article. If you haven’t checked that piece […]
Brits are scrolling away from X and aren’t that interested in AI
Usage of Elon Musk’s X social media platform is declining in the UK, and adult Brits aren’t particularly interested in generative AI tools. That’s according to Ofcom’s Online Nation report, an annual publication looking at what UK citizens do during their hours online and how much time they spend glued to gadgets. According to the […]
Breaking the 4Chan CAPTCHA
Breaking the 4Chan CAPTCHA Introduction This project was entered into as a learning experience, to enhance my knowledge of machine learning, as well as TensorFlow specifically. At the end, I wanted to have a trained machine learning model that runs in the browser to reliably (at least 80% accuracy, >90% preferred) solve the 4Chan CAPTCHA. […]
jank is now running on LLVM IR
Hi everyone! It’s been a very busy couple of months as I’ve been developing jank’s LLVM IR generation, improving jank’s semantic analysis, and furthering jank’s module loading system. Thank you to all of my Github sponsors and to Clojurists Together, who help me pay the bills. As of January 2025, I’ll be working on jank […]
What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
Last week I bought a car. After twelve years of service, my old trusty Peugeot 107 in blue has had its best. Expensive repairs were coming at some point, and I did not feel like waiting around for them to come. Plus the existing list of faults (like the high oil usage of about a […]
US house prices in 1950 vs. 2024, accounting for inflation
The map above shows how much houses cost in 1950 in each US state in 2024 inflation adjusted US dollars, compared to what the average cost actually is in 2024. In every single US state the increase was at at least double the rate of inflation from a low in Ohio of just 107% above […]