Interesting Things #33 — Snake in a Block
Hi,
This is Beng Tan and welcome to Interesting Things, a curation of interesting stories and links from tech, work, biz, science and society.
Happy reading!
#tech
Snake in a Block — How I Ran Snake on Ethereum — Technical details on how to minimize the gas needed to run the game and fit it all within the block. (hn)
On “Powered by AI / ML” marketing — The vast majority of prominent “powered by AI” examples I have seen are examples of FOMO, fraud, intellectual dishonesty, or just ignorance. (hn)
Digging into Linux namespaces - part 1 — Explore what they are and how they work, build our own isolated container, and understand each piece. (hn)
Common behavioral mistakes of novice programmers and how to avoid them — If you fix such behavioral mistakes early, your path to mastery will be shorter and more efficient. (hn)
Crypto design challenges — Thoughts on design challenges facing crypto/web3 today. (hn)
What is Hammock Driven Development? — If the solution isn’t obvious you don’t understand the problem well enough. (hn)
The Best VS Code Extensions To Supercharge Git — Work easier with Git but also extend Git with cool new features and superpowers! (hn)
What we learnt by migrating from CircleCI to Buildkite — A collection of ideas and implementation details helped us arrive at an optimal solution. (hn)
#work
Is the Four-Day Workweek Finally Within Our Grasp? — After embracing flexible work styles during the pandemic, some companies are now embracing a shorter week. (hn)
Your language brain matters more for learning programming than your math brain — New research contradicts long held assumptions about coding. (hn)
My philosophy for productive instant messaging — A few bites of greybeard wisdom on how to effectively use instant messaging for their own work. (hn)
Five Tips for Growing Your Engineering Career — Whilst making the most of your new job and learning as much as you can, it can be hard to find time and energy to focus on growth. (hn)
#business
Inside the rise and fall of Clubhouse — Growth has crumbled as COVID-19 lockdowns ease and creators and users go elsewhere. (hn)
Stop saying open source nonsense — Creating a successful open source project requires more than mimicking the business models of Red Hat or Confluent. (hn)
#science
The Algorithm That Lets Particle Physicists Count Higher Than Two — An obscure figure named Stefano Laporta found a handle on the subatomic world’s fearsome complexity. His algorithm has swept the field. (hn)
We All Nearly Missed The Largest Underwater Volcano Eruption Ever Detected — The incident initially went unnoticed by scientists, but the floating rock platform it generated was harder to miss. (hn)
How a female-only line of salamanders ‘steals’ genes from unsuspecting males — Kleptogenesis gets a little less mysterious in a new study. (hn)
Pythagoras’ revenge: humans didn’t invent mathematics, it’s what the world is made of — Did humans invent mathematics or does it exist independently? (hn)
Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? — It’s a black-and-white issue. (hn)
UArizona Researchers Develop Ultra-Thin ‘Computer on the Bone’ — Engineers and physicians teamed up to develop a wireless device to monitor and protect bone health. (hn)
#society
Amazon’s never-ending fake reviews problem, explained — Those five-star reviews are reassuring. But what if a seller asks you to write one for cash? (hn)
Why Gen-Z and Millennials Don’t Like to Say “You’re Welcome” — Phrases like “no problem” and “no worries” can tell us a lot about the evolution of language. (hn)
Bee gold: Why honey is an insect superfood — From pesticide detox to increased longevity, the benefits for bees go well beyond simply nourishing the hardworking insects. (hn)
The Nihilism and Exploitation of the NFT Industry — Selling the idea that people could be rich if only they participated in the scheme that enriched the rich people first. (hn)
#end
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Enjoy your reading and have a good day, Beng
