I was in a Barnes and Nobel again after many years. Actually many years before that I would go to a B&N more than once a week. Then between Amazon and terrible inventories at B&N and Kindle and Nook I stopped going. Then a few weeks ago I visited one and it was a revelation. I had a great time browsing books and books and books. Great article:"Digital platforms are struggling, meanwhile a 136-year-old book retailer is growing again. But why?"

This is a really cool algorithm that i never heard of. Also geohashes are not too hard to compute and have very useful and unteresting properties. the concept of a z-order curve is explained. That too is a useful model and concept. The author says: “Latitude and longitude as a locality-preserving string.”

A wonderful exhaustive tour of the architecture and operation of thr PDP-11, a venerable early comouter. It helped popularize the interactive computing paradigm we take for granted today.

Useful advice and framework for structuring your academic or technical writing. Author says: "TL;DR: Writing about writing and having written, and self-referentiality. Complementary musings on AI."

GPS is an amazing, complex and super interesting technology. People have a vague understanding that it involves satelites and so on. But there is so much more to it! Interactive article explaining how GPS works.

Common bottlenecks that prevent startups from scaling as quickly as they should. Thoughtworks always has good deep insight about software engineering. This too is an interesting series.

Interesting package although I don't have a use for it yet. It's your own IFTTT built for geeks that you run on your ownn server. It's got no UI to speak of. On the other hand, it has a sophisticated way to create logic around events and is extensible and open source.

Learn about HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor module. This tutorial includes working, Pinout, Specs, Datasheet, Wiring, Library, Code & Arduino Project.

A bit esoteric Robotics article. It explains how one roboticist handles multiple ultrasonic sensors, using a clever polling and interrupt driven scheme.

This seems like a very nice simple tool to solve a common problem. My only confusion is that there are a bunch of similar tools to do the same thing. Each has its own DSL, written in ruby or some other language, has its own conceptual steucture, and its own bugs. It’s enough to make me decide to just keep doing it by hand. Heres what the author says: “ Prepper is a simple server provisioning tool, built on top of SSHKit. You can use it to script your server build process. - GitHub - gregmolnar/prepper: Prepper is a simple server provisioning tool...”

I read and heard about Ractors in ruby. This article demystifies them. My evaluation: Ractors are a safer alternative to Threads. I’m sure thats a massive oversimplification and even incorrect in a way. But for me I need a simple hook to hang the concept onto! The author says: “Discover when and why you should use ractors, and build a ractor in Ruby.”

Several million people employ electronic mail for some significant portion of their professional communications. Yet in my experience few people have figured out how to use the net productively. A great deal of effort is going into technical means for finding information on the net, but hardly anybody has been helping newcomers figure out where the net fits in the larger picture of their own careers. These notes are a first attempt to fill that gap, building on the most successful practices I've observed in my twenty years on the net. I will focus on the use of electronic communication in research communities, but the underlying principles will be applicable to many other communities as well.

This is not a new thing by a long shot. But thw fact that it is published by dhh is a big deal imo. For me it assures me to some extent that it is “correct” and that it will be maintained. From author: “Running Rails from Docker for easy start to development - rails/docked: Running Rails from Docker for easy start to development”

Insights about simplifying your architecture. Wow! Using postgres instead of REDIS? This flies in the face of what I thought I understood! Author: “Startups use too much technology. My advice: Use Postgres for everything”

For me, a very provocative set of arguments. Novel insights on how to remove complexity. Or recognizing that you may not need that additional service or technology. The author: “Radical Simplicity is a startup development method to make development faster and more fun that plays well with lean startups”

Too many people are left wandering through Reddit threads and Quora posts looking for advice on what to say. Communication is tricky. We all bring our own biases, emotions and histories to the table. This site will help you navigate those tricky subjects, allowing you to build healthier and happier relationships.

A very interesting overview of companies and their spproach yo coding interviews. Good if youre applying for a job there. But also good if you are designing your interview process. Author says: “Take the guesswork out of coding interviews with codinginterview.com. Explore comprehensive guides to hack the process at top companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, and more “

More about a topic that is extremely hot right now

An interesting idea, model based testing. The aurhor says: “Again, I’m writing about models because I have a deep desire to keep software minimal. While I don’t think it’s wrong to simply buckle up and deal with the complexity and raw magnitude of implementations as many of us do, that’s just not the path that I find appealing intuitively.”

If you, like many, is fascinated and trying to figure out what ChatGPT (and whatever comes next) means, this is a good article: "If an algorithm is the death of high school English, maybe that's an okay thing."