How linear regression works intuitively and how it leads to gradient descent
Learning, to a computer, is just turning bad guesses into better ones. In this post, we’ll see how that starts with a straight line: how linear regression makes the first guess, and gradient descent keeps improving it. Let’s start with something familiar: house prices. Bigger houses tend to cost more; smaller ones, less. It’s the […]
Geometrically understanding calculus of inverse functions (2023)
Given a function such as (tan x), could you write (frac{d}{dx} arctan x) and (int arctan x ; dx), just from (tan x), (frac{d}{dx} tan x) and (int tan x ; dx)? With some caveats, the inverse function theorem answers the former while the Legendre transformation answers the later. We’ll approach this with as much […]
A Tektronix TDS 684B Oscilloscope Uses CCD Analog Memory
I have a Tektronix TDS 684B oscilloscope that I bought cheaply at an auction. It has 4 channels, 1 GHz of BW and a sample rate of 5 Gsps. Those are respectable numbers even by today’s standards. It’s also the main reason why I have it: compared to modern oscilloscopes, the other features aren’t nearly […]
Show HN: Bracket – selfhosted tournament system
Demo · Documentation · Quickstart · GitHub · Releases Tournament system meant to be easy to use. Bracket is written in async Python (with FastAPI) and Next.js as frontend using the Mantine library. It has the following features: Supports single elimination, round-robin and swiss formats. Build your tournament structure with multiple stages that can have […]
History of “Adventure” for the Atari 2600
Of all the original games Atari put out for the VCS, Adventure may be the one that most people are familiar with today. Warren Robinett’s third and final VCS game – though seemingly the second to actually be released – serves as a counterweight to the arcade action of its March 1980 brethren Space Invaders […]
Jiga (YC W21) Is Hiring Engineers
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Internet usage pattern during power outage in Spain and Portugal
By Philip Tellis on 03 May 2025 Table of Contents On Monday this week, the Iberian Peninsula suffered a major power outage that disabled many services across these countries. In this post I’ll look at the patterns we saw in mPulse data during this time. Overall traffic I first looked at the overall data patterns […]
The Death of Daydreaming: What we lose when phones take away boredom
Intro from Jon Haidt: When I was nearly finished writing The Anxious Generation in the summer of 2023, I realized that I had left a gap. The book focused on the collapse of mental health, attention, and socialization of Gen Z—but again and again, older readers and friends would tell me: “this is happening to […]
Management Habits Burning Out Your Best Engineers
Burnout in engineering teams is rarely caused by a single event. Instead, it’s the result of persistent, often overlooked management habits that quietly erode motivation, well-being, and performance. Here are 9 habits, why they matter, what happens if you ignore them, and actionable tips to build a healthier, more sustainable engineering culture. 1. Equating Busyness […]
AWS Built a Security Tool. It Introduced a Security Risk
(If you missed the previous parts of this trust policy blog series, we recommend reading parts one and two first) In the previous post of this series, we explored four dangerous misconceptions regarding how to securely set up cross-account access in AWS environments. In this final post of the series, we’ll walk through a real-world […]