Do Metaprojects
Publish that novella, build an OS, converse in Mandarin, release an indie game, publish that other novella, dominate a continent — It’s not enough to breathe — my gluttonous heart wants to impose its imagination on Earth and all its inhabitants. I want freedom, money, affection, play, power, validation, fulfillment, etc. Of course I already […]
gRPC: From service definition to wire format
In our previous posts (part 1 and part 2), we demystified Protocol Buffers and learned how data is encoded into compact binary. But Protobuf is just the payload. To send this data between microservices, we need a transport protocol. Enter gRPC. While many developers use gRPC daily, few look under the hood to see how […]
Text classification with Python 3.14’s ZSTD module
Python 3.14 introduced the compression.zstd module. It is a standard library implementation of Facebook’s Zstandard (Zstd) compression algorithm. It was developed a decade ago by Yann Collet, who holds a blog devoted to compression algorithms. I am not a compression expert, but Zstd caught my eye because it supports incremental compression. You can feed it […]
Sekka Zusetsu: A Book of Snowflakes (1832)
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Sandwich Bill of Materials
Specification: SBOM 1.0 (Sandwich Bill of Materials)Status: DraftMaintainer: The SBOM Working GroupLicense: MIT (Mustard Is Transferable) Abstract Modern sandwich construction relies on a complex graph of transitive ingredients sourced from multiple registries (farms, distributors, markets). Consumers have no standardized way to enumerate the components of their lunch, assess ingredient provenance, or verify that their sandwich […]
Understanding the Go Compiler: The Linker
In the previous post , we watched the compiler transform optimized SSA into machine code bytes and package them into object files. Each .o file contains the compiled code for one package—complete with machine instructions, symbol definitions, and relocations marking addresses that need fixing. But your program isn’t just one package. Even a simple “hello […]
How a Cat Debugged Stable Diffusion (2023)
December 17, 2023 This is the story of how I needed help to solve a tricky bug. Now, that happens all the time. I rely on coworkers and the web community to help me with bugs quite frequently. But this one was unique because it wasn’t just any colleague, it was my cat Ollie, specifically […]
Ask HN: How to get started with robotics as a hobbyist?
Lots of ways to start. None of them are wrong. Just let your passions lead you to something you’d like to explore. Maybe start with a hackable 3D printing kit that will let you build parts for more robots. Hacking the 3D printer can directly teach you a lot about robotics. https://simplefoc.com/ Is my type […]
Exploring a Modern SMTPE 2110 Broadcast Truck
In October, my Dad and I got to go behind the scenes at two St. Louis Blues (NHL hockey) games, and observe the massive team effort involved in putting together a modern digital sports broadcast. I wanted to explore the timing and digital side of a modern SMPTE 2110 mobile unit, and my Dad has […]
Implementing Auto Tiling with Just 5 Tiles
Auto tiling is a powerful technique in 2D gamedev that allows you to build levels much easier by setting a tile as populated or not, and having the editor programmatically place the corresponding tile. Typically this involves checking the 8 neighbours and choosing from 16 to ~47-56 Tiles. In theory there are 256 permutations, but […]