Java Hello World, LLVM Edition
After exploring Java bytecode in previous years (2022, 2023, 2024), this year we’ll take an unexpected detour for a Java advent: instead of generating Java bytecode, we’ll use Java to build and execute LLVM IR, the intermediate language behind compilers like clang. Using Java’s Foreign Function & Memory (FFM) API, we’ll call the LLVM C […]
Rio de Janeiro’s talipot palm trees bloom for the first and only time
In Rio de Janeiro, several Talipot palm trees have begun the only flowering of their entire existence.Offering a spectacle as striking as it is ephemeral. These specimens, mainly located in Flamengo Park and the Botanical Garden, are in the final phase of their life cycle after decades of silent growth. The scene, visible from different […]
Discovering the indieweb with calm tech
Blog Home When social media first entered my life, it came with a promise of connection. Facebook connected college-aged adults in a way that was previously impossible, helping to shape our digital generation. Social media was our super-power and we wielded it to great effect. Yet social media today is a noisy, needy, mental health […]
Z2 – Lithographically fabricated IC in a garage fab
Homemade 1000+ transistor array chip In 2018 I made the first lithographically fabricated integrated circuits in my garage fab. I was a senior in high school when I made the Z1 amplifier, and now I’m a senior in college so there are some long overdue improvements to the amateur silicon process.The Z1 had 6 transistors and was a great […]
Eurydice: a Rust to C compiler (yes)
Perhaps the greatest surprise of the last two years was, for me, the realization that people not only care about compiling C to Rust (for obvious reasons, such as, ahem, memory safety) – they also care about compiling Rust to C! Wait, what? I wrote about this briefly a couple years ago, but the level […]
Using LLMs at Oxide
While LLMs are adept at reading and can be terrific at editing, their writing is much more mixed. At best, writing from LLMs is hackneyed and cliché-ridden; at worst, it brims with tells that reveal that the prose is in fact automatically generated. What’s so bad about this? First, to those who can recognize an […]
Trains cancelled over fake bridge collapse image
Trains were halted after a suspected AI-generated picture that seemed to show major damage to a bridge appeared on social media following an earthquake. The tremor, which struck on Wednesday night, was felt across Lancashire and the southern Lake District. Network Rail said it was made aware of the image which appeared to show major […]
Show HN: FuseCells – a handcrafted logic puzzle game with 2,500 levels
FuseCells blends Sudoku deduction, Minesweeper logic, and Nonogram-style reasoning into a clean cosmic puzzle experience. Every puzzle is handcrafted and fully logical. FuseCells is a clean, no ads, satisfying logic puzzle that blends the deduction of Sudoku, the neighbor logic of Minesweeper, and the pattern reasoning of Nonogram into one fresh cosmic experience. Every puzzle […]
Kilauea erupts, destroying webcam [video]
Saving Japan’s exceptionally rare ’snow monsters’
Across Japan’s alpine zones, temperatures have been rising faster than the global average since the 1980s. ”In scenarios where climate change continues to advance significantly by the end of this century, it is possible that in warmer-than-usual winters, juhyo may no longer form at all,” Ito says. The threat has prompted action across Yamagata. In […]