An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia
Since I love collecting questionable analogies for LLMs, here’s a new one I just came up with: an LLM is a lossy encyclopedia. They have a huge array of facts compressed into them but that compression is lossy (see also Ted Chiang). The key thing is to develop an intuition for questions it can usefully […]
The Synology End Game
I’ve been a Synology fan for many years. I used to roll my own NAS servers for home, but eventually decided that quieter, more energy-friendly dedicated NAS solutions were a better path forward. I don’t use a lot of their on-board apps, just basic file storage. Right now I’ve got a DS920, a DS418, and […]
PSA: Libxslt is unmaintained and has 5 unpatched security bugs
On 6/16/25 15:12, Alan Coopersmith wrote: BTW, users of libxml2 may also be using its sibling project, libxslt, which currently has no active maintainer, but has three unfixed security issues reported against it according to https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Releng/security/-/wikis/2025#libxml2-and-libxslt 2 of the 3 have now been disclosed: (CVE-2025-7424) libxslt: Type confusion in xmlNode.psvi between stylesheet and source nodeshttps://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxslt/-/issues/139 […]
A Deep Dive into Debian 13 /tmp: What’s New, and What to Do If You Don’t Like It
Debian 13 “Trixie” introduces an important change to /tmp. Traditionally, it’s been just another filesystem, albeit with some special permissions that allows everyone on the system to use it without being able to remove each other’s files. In Trixie, it’s been moved off the disk into memory – specifically a type of memory called tmpfs. To quote […]
Lucky 13: a look at Debian trixie
We’re bad at marketing We can admit it, marketing is not our strong suit. Our strength is writing the kind of articles that developers, administrators, and free-software supporters depend on to know what is going on in the Linux world. Please subscribe today to help us keep doing that, and so we don’t have to […]
Python: The Documentary
Attendees at EuroPython had the chance to preview part of Python: The Documentary during a keynote panel. The full film, created by CultRepo, is now available on YouTube: This is the story of the world’s most beloved programming language: Python. What began as a side project in Amsterdam during the 1990s became the software powering […]
RSS Is Awesome
Evan’s Weekly Newsletter ☀️ NetNewsWire is my latest most-used iPhone app. It is a simple, free RSS reader. RSS is an old technology that it seems most people have forgotten about. Here’s how it works: you enter a link to an RSS “feed”, and your app pulls data from this feed every few minutes or […]
The ABC Programming Language
The ABC Programming Language: a short introduction (Also available in Japanese) New: The Origins of Python – An article by Lambert Meertens on the origins of ABC, and its influence on Python. New: Implementation for the Raspberry Pi!. The ABC Programmer’s Handbook is available online. ABC is an interactive programming language and environment for personal […]
A Review of Nim 2: The Good and Bad with Example Code
I’ve been using Nim for about 1-2 years now, and I believe the language is undervalued. It’s not perfect, of course, but it’s pleasant to write and read. My personal website uses Nim. After reading a recent article on Nim (“Why Nim”) and the associated HN comments, it’s clear that comments and some information about […]
Expert LSP the official language server implementation for Elixir
Expert is the official language server implementation for the Elixir programming language. Installation You can download Expert from the releases page for your operating system and architecture. For editor specific installation instructions, please refer to the Installation Instructions Nightly Builds If you want to try out the latest features, you can download a nightly build. […]