Hasty Briefsbeta

Bilingual

Steam Survey for January 2026 shows a small drop for Linux and macOS
2 days ago
- Windows OS share on Steam increased to 94.62% in January 2026.
- Linux and macOS saw a drop in user share, with Linux at 3.38% and macOS at 2.01%.
- English language usage on Steam decreased, while other languages like Simplified Chinese and Russian rose.
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit remains the most popular Linux distribution at 24.79%, despite a slight decrease.
- New entry Nobara Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) appeared in the Linux distribution list.
- Steam Deck LCD and OLED models saw slight decreases in their shares.
- Request for a 64-bit Linux launcher for Steam was mentioned.
Simple Made Easy (2011)
2 days ago
- Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability in software development.
- Simple does not mean easy; easy refers to familiarity, while simple means not complex or intertwined.
- Key questions in software: Does it work? Is it high quality? Can it be maintained and adapted?
- Benefits of simplicity include ease of understanding, change, debugging, and flexibility.
- Complex constructs: State, Objects, Methods, Inheritance, Vars, Imperative loops, etc.
- Simple constructs: Values, Functions, Data, Polymorphism, Managed refs, Declarative data manipulation, etc.
- Build simple systems by abstracting, choosing simple constructs, and simplifying through encapsulation.
- Avoid intertwining concepts; focus on one role or dimension per component.
- Simplicity is objective and can be measured, while ease is subjective and relative.
- Complexity accumulates over time and can hinder long-term project success.
Editor of UploadVR on why he was fired
2 days ago
- The author emphasizes the importance of distinguishing AI-authored content from human-written articles by favoring brevity and clarity.
- A key suggestion is providing readers with a toggle to disable AI-generated content, ensuring a human-only space for some audience members.
- The author insists that AI submissions should only be assigned after human writers have the right to refuse the subject matter.
- Despite being Editor in Chief, the author's concerns were not addressed before the planned public test of the AI author.
- After failing to influence the direction, the author sent a final email with industry contacts copied, leading to their termination.
- The author reflects on the relief of ending non-working partnerships, comparing it to a divorce.
- They express hope that their former colleagues will incorporate their suggested features for the benefit of all.
- The author firmly believes that the essence of VR lies in the people, not in AI-generated content.
- They acknowledge that sharing internal discussions externally typically results in termination across workplaces.
My (very) fast zero-allocation webserver using OxCaml
2 days ago
- OxCaml offers language extensions for high-performance systems programming while retaining OCaml's functional style.
- httpz is a zero-allocation HTTP/1.1 parser leveraging OxCaml's unboxed types and local allocations for efficiency.
- Unboxed types in OxCaml, such as int16#, allow values to be passed in registers, avoiding heap allocations.
- OxCaml supports unboxed records and tuples, enabling functions to return multiple values without allocation.
- Local allocations and exclaves in OxCaml facilitate stack allocation, reducing garbage collector activity.
- OxCaml introduces mutable local variables, eliminating the need for heap-allocated ref values in loops.
- Performance benchmarks show httpz (OxCaml) outperforming traditional parsers in speed and heap usage.
- OxCaml's features are being integrated into real-world applications, like a high-performance webserver.
- Future work includes leveraging OxCaml's FFI for zero-copy kernel interactions and improving tooling.
Applications where agents are first-class citizens
2 days ago
- Software agents now work reliably, demonstrated by Claude Code's ability to autonomously complete complex multi-step tasks.
- A good coding agent is also a good general-purpose agent, capable of organizing files, managing reading lists, and automating workflows.
- The Claude Code SDK allows building applications where features are described outcomes achieved by agents with tools.
- Core principles include parity (agent can do anything the UI can), granularity (atomic tools), composability (new features via prompts), emergent capability (handling unanticipated requests), and improvement over time (context and prompt refinement).
- Agent-native applications improve without code changes through accumulated context and prompt refinement.
- Files serve as a universal interface for agents, leveraging existing file operations like cat, grep, mv, and mkdir.
- Mobile presents unique opportunities for agent-native apps, with iCloud enabling seamless sync across devices.
- Challenges on mobile include handling app interruptions and background execution limitations.
- Dynamic capability discovery allows agents to interact with APIs without static tool mappings.
- Anti-patterns include treating agents as routers, defensive tool design, and heuristic completion detection.
New in Calibre 9.0
3 days ago
- Introduction of a new Bookshelf view in calibre 9.0 for browsing books like physical shelves.
- Bookshelf view allows grouping by Authors/Series/etc., with customizable spine fonts and cover thumbnails.
- New built-in Pages column estimates book thickness, customizable with other columns.
- AI integration for discussing books, suggesting next reads, and answering questions about books.
- AI features require opt-in configuration of an AI provider, supporting both cloud-based and local-only options.
- E-book viewer now includes AI for selected text, offering explanations, translations, and summaries.
- Community contributions acknowledged for enabling new features.
- Some features introduced during the 8.x series, with this update highlighting changes since 8.0.
Library of Juggling
3 days ago
- The Library of Juggling aims to catalog popular and lesser-known juggling tricks in one organized place.
- It provides animated representations of tricks using JugglingLab, along with details like siteswap, difficulty, and prerequisites.
- Includes tutorials (text-based with animations) and links to external resources like YouTube videos.
- For beginners, it recommends starting with the Three Ball Cascade pattern.
- Advanced jugglers can explore tricks via a navigation tree or by difficulty level.
- The library is on indefinite hiatus, with no new tricks being added, but existing content remains available.
What Most People Miss About Getting Promoted – By Yue Zhao
3 days ago
- Focus on making a business case for why you should be promoted now, not just on past accomplishments.
- Highlight the timing and potential impact of your promotion to show why it's critical for the business at this moment.
- Articulate what the business gains from promoting you now compared to keeping you at your current level.
- Address the necessity of a more senior role by considering factors like leading senior team members or representing the company externally.
- Understand that promotions are investments in future capacity, not rewards for past behavior.
- Show how your promotion is more critical than others by tying it to revenue, top-line growth, or higher-priority company goals.
- Use the framework of past performance, timing criticality, and relative importance to build a strong promotion case.
Motorola is getting away with zero OS updates thanks to regulatory loophole
3 days ago
- Motorola launched phones in Europe with no Android OS updates but five years of security patches.
- This practice may stem from a loophole in EU regulations, which don't explicitly require manufacturers to provide software updates.
- The EU regulation states that if updates are provided, they must be available for free for at least five years, but doesn't mandate the provision of updates.
- Finnish authorities confirmed that the regulation doesn't require manufacturers to produce new updates, only to provide existing ones for five years if they choose to offer them.
- Motorola's approach could set a precedent for other manufacturers, potentially leading to more phones with limited update policies in Europe.
- The article suggests that the European Commission should clarify or tighten the regulation to ensure better update commitments from manufacturers.
This year, I will write a GUI for my Emacs clone
3 days ago
- The author plans to create a basic GUI for their Emacs clone, acknowledging the complexity of Emacs' redisplay system.
- Emacs' rendering involves large C source files like xdisp.c, xterm.c, and sfnt.c, handling display generation, X window system support, and font rendering.
- Glyph matrices are central to Emacs' redisplay, supporting GUI windows, TUI frames, and nested buffer windows.
- Bidirectional text display in Emacs is complex, requiring support for right-to-left languages like Hebrew.
- Ligatures, especially in languages like Arabic, are essential and handled via libraries like HarfBuzz.
- Emacs allows extensive customization of text rendering through Lisp code, including composition-function-table and text properties.
- Text properties in Emacs function like CSS for text, with dynamic and programmable features.
- The author outlines a minimalistic approach for their GUI, excluding some complex Emacs features like synchronous Lisp execution from redisplay.
- Planned features include a buffer sync mechanism and proper display of text properties, with asynchronous Lisp execution support.
Pikchr: A markup language for diagrams in technical documentation
3 days ago
- The page requires JavaScript (ES2015 or newer) to initialize.
- There is a note about potential delays on slow internet connections and suggestions to check the JavaScript console if initialization fails.
- Options available include Side-by-side view, Auto-fit SVG, Render while typing, and Legacy mode.
- Instructions for executing pikchr code using ctrl-enter or shift-enter, with a note about evaluating only selected subsets.
- A diagram description involving arrows and boxes labeled 'Markdown', 'HTML+SVG', 'Pikchr', and related formatters.
The difference between onshore and offshore RMB (CNY and CNH)
3 days ago
- China is the world’s second largest economy and largest trader in goods.
- The renminbi (RMB) is China’s official currency, with the yuan (CNY) as its principal unit; the terms are interchangeable.
- In 2009, China lifted restrictions on RMB trade settlements, leading to the creation of the offshore yuan (CNH).
- CNY is traded onshore in mainland China with government controls, while CNH is traded offshore with market-determined value.
- China’s capital controls result in different prices for CNY (onshore) and CNH (offshore).
- Transferring CNY to mainland China is complex, requiring detailed documentation and purpose codes.
- Visa Direct offers a 1:1 exchange rate for CNH to CNY payments, avoiding extra FX fees.
- CIPS became mandatory for cross-border CNY payments in 2021, with Visa Direct’s banking partner as a member.
- Visa Direct provides real-time payment tracking via Swift gpi trackers and supports 26 currency conversions to CNH-CNY.
- Companies can hold CNH in multi-currency wallets to hedge against FX risks.
Recreating My Email Server with Claude
3 days ago
- The author successfully recreated their email server setup using Claude, enhancing security and monitoring.
- Initial setup in 2020 used OpenSMTPD + Rspamd + Dovecot on a t3.nano EC2 instance, running smoothly for 6 years despite minor issues like manual certificate renewals and disk space outages.
- A 2022 attempt to migrate to Kubernetes failed due to complexity and knowledge gaps, leading to abandonment.
- In 2026, the author used Claude to automate and improve the setup, focusing on reproducibility, monitoring, and automatic certificate renewal.
- Claude helped debug a critical issue with systemd and podman networking, showcasing its ability to assist with complex technical challenges.
- The final setup is published on GitHub, allowing others to deploy a similar email server easily.
- The author highlights Claude's effectiveness as a coding assistant, especially with NixOS, and its ability to facilitate rapid iteration and problem-solving.
Teaching Models to Teach Themselves: Reasoning at the Edge of Learnability
3 days ago
- Investigates whether a pretrained LLM can generate an automated curriculum for problems it cannot solve.
- Introduces SOAR, a self-improvement framework using meta-RL where a teacher model proposes synthetic problems for a student model.
- SOAR grounds the curriculum in measured student progress rather than intrinsic proxy rewards.
- Study conducted on the hardest subsets of mathematical benchmarks (0/128 success rate).
- Key findings include the feasibility of bi-level meta-RL under sparse, binary rewards.
- Grounded rewards outperform intrinsic reward schemes, avoiding instability and diversity collapse.
- Structural quality and well-posedness of generated questions are more critical for learning progress than solution correctness.
- Suggests that generating useful stepping stones does not require the ability to solve hard problems initially.
Lessons from economies that closed their borders
3 days ago
- Chet Booker's manufacturing business initially thrived due to tariffs on overseas competitors, but eventually collapsed due to political and economic shifts.
- Autarky, or economic self-sufficiency, often leads to short-term gains for favored businesses but long-term economic stagnation and dependency.
- Historical examples like Francoist Spain show how autarky causes economic collapse, inefficiency, and corruption, despite initial promises of prosperity.
- Authoritarian regimes use autarky to centralize control, making businesses dependent on political favor, which breeds corruption and stifles competition.
- Chet's story mirrors historical patterns where protected industries fail when political winds shift, leaving businesses vulnerable and unable to compete globally.
X8.11 Solar Flare from AR4366
3 days ago
- The plot shows the most recent 24-hour solar X-ray data from the primary GOES satellite.
- Users can zoom in on the plot and export it in various formats (JPG, PDF, SVG, PNG).
- Live imagery is available to locate solar flares and check for coronal mass ejections.
- A list details all solar flares that occurred today, with times listed in UTC.
- Probabilities for different classes of solar flares are provided (C-class: 99%, M-class: 75%, X-class: 25%).
- SpaceWeatherLive relies on support from users to cover server costs, offering ad-free subscriptions and donation options.
- Recent solar activity data includes the last X-flare (X2.9), M-flare (M1.9), and geomagnetic storm (Kp5+).
- Sunspot data includes the last spotless day (2022/06/08) and monthly mean sunspot numbers.
Stop Using Pseudo-Types
7 days ago
- Pseudo-types like 'callable' and 'iterable' in PHP are not true types but sets of types with specific validation logic.
- The 'callable' pseudo-type includes types like 'Closure', 'string', and 'array' with runtime validation for callability.
- The 'iterable' pseudo-type was introduced in PHP 7.1 and later became a union type 'Traversable|array' in PHP 8.2.
- Using 'iterable' for return types can lead to confusion and misuse, as it may return either an array or an iterator.
- For better code clarity and analysis, prefer explicit types like 'Closure' over 'callable' and generators over 'iterable'.
- Typing properties with 'Closure' requires specific syntax for invocation, such as '($this->callback)();' or '$this->callback->__invoke();'.
- Avoiding pseudo-types improves code readability, reduces errors, and enhances compatibility with static analyzers like PHPStan.
Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce
3 days ago
- Amani, an office manager in a 'pig butchering' scam compound in Laos, sent motivational messages to workers who were actually forced laborers in debt bondage.
- Workers in the compound faced brutal conditions, including beatings, torture, and death if they broke rules or tried to escape, while being forced to scam victims out of millions.
- A whistleblower named Mohammad Muzahir leaked internal documents, revealing the compound's operations, including scam scripts, training guides, and WhatsApp chats showing the manipulative workplace culture.
- Workers were fined excessively for minor infractions, effectively keeping them in debt and control, while being promised commissions for successful scams that were rarely paid.
- The compound used deepfake AI and generative tools like ChatGPT to deceive victims, with a dedicated 'AI room' for face-swapped video calls.
- The operation later moved to Cambodia, where scam compounds operate with relative impunity, often linked to powerful local figures.
- The leaked chats and testimonies expose the brutal reality behind the facade of a corporate environment, highlighting modern slavery in Southeast Asia's scam industry.
Message from Pope Leo XIV on the 60th World Day of Social Communications
3 days ago
- Pope Leo XIV emphasizes the uniqueness of human faces and voices as sacred reflections of divine love.
- The message warns against the risks of artificial intelligence altering human relationships and communication.
- AI's simulation of human features and emotions can deceive, especially the vulnerable, and erode critical thinking.
- The Pope highlights the anthropological challenge of preserving human identity amidst digital advancements.
- Concerns are raised about AI's role in social polarization, misinformation, and the erosion of human creativity.
- The message calls for responsibility, cooperation, and education to guide digital innovation ethically.
- Transparency in AI development and regulation is urged to protect human dignity and information integrity.
- Media literacy and critical thinking are essential to navigate the digital landscape responsibly.
- The Pope advocates for an alliance between technology and humanity, grounded in ethical principles.
- The message concludes with a blessing for those working towards the common good in media and communication.
Building a Telegram Bot with Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects and Grammy
3 days ago
- The author created a Telegram bot named Drinky to track and remind themselves to drink water.
- The bot was chosen over a web or Android app for lower friction and easier sharing.
- Tech stack includes Durable Objects for database, grammY for Telegram API interaction, and other new libraries like oxc, Vitest, and drizzle.
- Challenges included setting up webhook URLs and dynamically registering bot commands.
- The author opted for a simpler solution (tz-lookup) over AI for timezone identification.
- The project was a learning experience and successfully solved the author's problem.

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About Login

Bilingual

Steam Survey for January 2026 shows a small drop for Linux and macOS
2 days ago
- Windows OS share on Steam increased to 94.62% in January 2026.
- Linux and macOS saw a drop in user share, with Linux at 3.38% and macOS at 2.01%.
- English language usage on Steam decreased, while other languages like Simplified Chinese and Russian rose.
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit remains the most popular Linux distribution at 24.79%, despite a slight decrease.
- New entry Nobara Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) appeared in the Linux distribution list.
- Steam Deck LCD and OLED models saw slight decreases in their shares.
- Request for a 64-bit Linux launcher for Steam was mentioned.
Simple Made Easy (2011)
2 days ago
- Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability in software development.
- Simple does not mean easy; easy refers to familiarity, while simple means not complex or intertwined.
- Key questions in software: Does it work? Is it high quality? Can it be maintained and adapted?
- Benefits of simplicity include ease of understanding, change, debugging, and flexibility.
- Complex constructs: State, Objects, Methods, Inheritance, Vars, Imperative loops, etc.
- Simple constructs: Values, Functions, Data, Polymorphism, Managed refs, Declarative data manipulation, etc.
- Build simple systems by abstracting, choosing simple constructs, and simplifying through encapsulation.
- Avoid intertwining concepts; focus on one role or dimension per component.
- Simplicity is objective and can be measured, while ease is subjective and relative.
- Complexity accumulates over time and can hinder long-term project success.
Editor of UploadVR on why he was fired
2 days ago
- The author emphasizes the importance of distinguishing AI-authored content from human-written articles by favoring brevity and clarity.
- A key suggestion is providing readers with a toggle to disable AI-generated content, ensuring a human-only space for some audience members.
- The author insists that AI submissions should only be assigned after human writers have the right to refuse the subject matter.
- Despite being Editor in Chief, the author's concerns were not addressed before the planned public test of the AI author.
- After failing to influence the direction, the author sent a final email with industry contacts copied, leading to their termination.
- The author reflects on the relief of ending non-working partnerships, comparing it to a divorce.
- They express hope that their former colleagues will incorporate their suggested features for the benefit of all.
- The author firmly believes that the essence of VR lies in the people, not in AI-generated content.
- They acknowledge that sharing internal discussions externally typically results in termination across workplaces.
My (very) fast zero-allocation webserver using OxCaml
2 days ago
- OxCaml offers language extensions for high-performance systems programming while retaining OCaml's functional style.
- httpz is a zero-allocation HTTP/1.1 parser leveraging OxCaml's unboxed types and local allocations for efficiency.
- Unboxed types in OxCaml, such as int16#, allow values to be passed in registers, avoiding heap allocations.
- OxCaml supports unboxed records and tuples, enabling functions to return multiple values without allocation.
- Local allocations and exclaves in OxCaml facilitate stack allocation, reducing garbage collector activity.
- OxCaml introduces mutable local variables, eliminating the need for heap-allocated ref values in loops.
- Performance benchmarks show httpz (OxCaml) outperforming traditional parsers in speed and heap usage.
- OxCaml's features are being integrated into real-world applications, like a high-performance webserver.
- Future work includes leveraging OxCaml's FFI for zero-copy kernel interactions and improving tooling.
Applications where agents are first-class citizens
2 days ago
- Software agents now work reliably, demonstrated by Claude Code's ability to autonomously complete complex multi-step tasks.
- A good coding agent is also a good general-purpose agent, capable of organizing files, managing reading lists, and automating workflows.
- The Claude Code SDK allows building applications where features are described outcomes achieved by agents with tools.
- Core principles include parity (agent can do anything the UI can), granularity (atomic tools), composability (new features via prompts), emergent capability (handling unanticipated requests), and improvement over time (context and prompt refinement).
- Agent-native applications improve without code changes through accumulated context and prompt refinement.
- Files serve as a universal interface for agents, leveraging existing file operations like cat, grep, mv, and mkdir.
- Mobile presents unique opportunities for agent-native apps, with iCloud enabling seamless sync across devices.
- Challenges on mobile include handling app interruptions and background execution limitations.
- Dynamic capability discovery allows agents to interact with APIs without static tool mappings.
- Anti-patterns include treating agents as routers, defensive tool design, and heuristic completion detection.
New in Calibre 9.0
3 days ago
- Introduction of a new Bookshelf view in calibre 9.0 for browsing books like physical shelves.
- Bookshelf view allows grouping by Authors/Series/etc., with customizable spine fonts and cover thumbnails.
- New built-in Pages column estimates book thickness, customizable with other columns.
- AI integration for discussing books, suggesting next reads, and answering questions about books.
- AI features require opt-in configuration of an AI provider, supporting both cloud-based and local-only options.
- E-book viewer now includes AI for selected text, offering explanations, translations, and summaries.
- Community contributions acknowledged for enabling new features.
- Some features introduced during the 8.x series, with this update highlighting changes since 8.0.
Library of Juggling
3 days ago
- The Library of Juggling aims to catalog popular and lesser-known juggling tricks in one organized place.
- It provides animated representations of tricks using JugglingLab, along with details like siteswap, difficulty, and prerequisites.
- Includes tutorials (text-based with animations) and links to external resources like YouTube videos.
- For beginners, it recommends starting with the Three Ball Cascade pattern.
- Advanced jugglers can explore tricks via a navigation tree or by difficulty level.
- The library is on indefinite hiatus, with no new tricks being added, but existing content remains available.
What Most People Miss About Getting Promoted – By Yue Zhao
3 days ago
- Focus on making a business case for why you should be promoted now, not just on past accomplishments.
- Highlight the timing and potential impact of your promotion to show why it's critical for the business at this moment.
- Articulate what the business gains from promoting you now compared to keeping you at your current level.
- Address the necessity of a more senior role by considering factors like leading senior team members or representing the company externally.
- Understand that promotions are investments in future capacity, not rewards for past behavior.
- Show how your promotion is more critical than others by tying it to revenue, top-line growth, or higher-priority company goals.
- Use the framework of past performance, timing criticality, and relative importance to build a strong promotion case.
Motorola is getting away with zero OS updates thanks to regulatory loophole
3 days ago
- Motorola launched phones in Europe with no Android OS updates but five years of security patches.
- This practice may stem from a loophole in EU regulations, which don't explicitly require manufacturers to provide software updates.
- The EU regulation states that if updates are provided, they must be available for free for at least five years, but doesn't mandate the provision of updates.
- Finnish authorities confirmed that the regulation doesn't require manufacturers to produce new updates, only to provide existing ones for five years if they choose to offer them.
- Motorola's approach could set a precedent for other manufacturers, potentially leading to more phones with limited update policies in Europe.
- The article suggests that the European Commission should clarify or tighten the regulation to ensure better update commitments from manufacturers.
This year, I will write a GUI for my Emacs clone
3 days ago
- The author plans to create a basic GUI for their Emacs clone, acknowledging the complexity of Emacs' redisplay system.
- Emacs' rendering involves large C source files like xdisp.c, xterm.c, and sfnt.c, handling display generation, X window system support, and font rendering.
- Glyph matrices are central to Emacs' redisplay, supporting GUI windows, TUI frames, and nested buffer windows.
- Bidirectional text display in Emacs is complex, requiring support for right-to-left languages like Hebrew.
- Ligatures, especially in languages like Arabic, are essential and handled via libraries like HarfBuzz.
- Emacs allows extensive customization of text rendering through Lisp code, including composition-function-table and text properties.
- Text properties in Emacs function like CSS for text, with dynamic and programmable features.
- The author outlines a minimalistic approach for their GUI, excluding some complex Emacs features like synchronous Lisp execution from redisplay.
- Planned features include a buffer sync mechanism and proper display of text properties, with asynchronous Lisp execution support.
Pikchr: A markup language for diagrams in technical documentation
3 days ago
- The page requires JavaScript (ES2015 or newer) to initialize.
- There is a note about potential delays on slow internet connections and suggestions to check the JavaScript console if initialization fails.
- Options available include Side-by-side view, Auto-fit SVG, Render while typing, and Legacy mode.
- Instructions for executing pikchr code using ctrl-enter or shift-enter, with a note about evaluating only selected subsets.
- A diagram description involving arrows and boxes labeled 'Markdown', 'HTML+SVG', 'Pikchr', and related formatters.
The difference between onshore and offshore RMB (CNY and CNH)
3 days ago
- China is the world’s second largest economy and largest trader in goods.
- The renminbi (RMB) is China’s official currency, with the yuan (CNY) as its principal unit; the terms are interchangeable.
- In 2009, China lifted restrictions on RMB trade settlements, leading to the creation of the offshore yuan (CNH).
- CNY is traded onshore in mainland China with government controls, while CNH is traded offshore with market-determined value.
- China’s capital controls result in different prices for CNY (onshore) and CNH (offshore).
- Transferring CNY to mainland China is complex, requiring detailed documentation and purpose codes.
- Visa Direct offers a 1:1 exchange rate for CNH to CNY payments, avoiding extra FX fees.
- CIPS became mandatory for cross-border CNY payments in 2021, with Visa Direct’s banking partner as a member.
- Visa Direct provides real-time payment tracking via Swift gpi trackers and supports 26 currency conversions to CNH-CNY.
- Companies can hold CNH in multi-currency wallets to hedge against FX risks.
Recreating My Email Server with Claude
3 days ago
- The author successfully recreated their email server setup using Claude, enhancing security and monitoring.
- Initial setup in 2020 used OpenSMTPD + Rspamd + Dovecot on a t3.nano EC2 instance, running smoothly for 6 years despite minor issues like manual certificate renewals and disk space outages.
- A 2022 attempt to migrate to Kubernetes failed due to complexity and knowledge gaps, leading to abandonment.
- In 2026, the author used Claude to automate and improve the setup, focusing on reproducibility, monitoring, and automatic certificate renewal.
- Claude helped debug a critical issue with systemd and podman networking, showcasing its ability to assist with complex technical challenges.
- The final setup is published on GitHub, allowing others to deploy a similar email server easily.
- The author highlights Claude's effectiveness as a coding assistant, especially with NixOS, and its ability to facilitate rapid iteration and problem-solving.
Teaching Models to Teach Themselves: Reasoning at the Edge of Learnability
3 days ago
- Investigates whether a pretrained LLM can generate an automated curriculum for problems it cannot solve.
- Introduces SOAR, a self-improvement framework using meta-RL where a teacher model proposes synthetic problems for a student model.
- SOAR grounds the curriculum in measured student progress rather than intrinsic proxy rewards.
- Study conducted on the hardest subsets of mathematical benchmarks (0/128 success rate).
- Key findings include the feasibility of bi-level meta-RL under sparse, binary rewards.
- Grounded rewards outperform intrinsic reward schemes, avoiding instability and diversity collapse.
- Structural quality and well-posedness of generated questions are more critical for learning progress than solution correctness.
- Suggests that generating useful stepping stones does not require the ability to solve hard problems initially.
Lessons from economies that closed their borders
3 days ago
- Chet Booker's manufacturing business initially thrived due to tariffs on overseas competitors, but eventually collapsed due to political and economic shifts.
- Autarky, or economic self-sufficiency, often leads to short-term gains for favored businesses but long-term economic stagnation and dependency.
- Historical examples like Francoist Spain show how autarky causes economic collapse, inefficiency, and corruption, despite initial promises of prosperity.
- Authoritarian regimes use autarky to centralize control, making businesses dependent on political favor, which breeds corruption and stifles competition.
- Chet's story mirrors historical patterns where protected industries fail when political winds shift, leaving businesses vulnerable and unable to compete globally.
X8.11 Solar Flare from AR4366
3 days ago
- The plot shows the most recent 24-hour solar X-ray data from the primary GOES satellite.
- Users can zoom in on the plot and export it in various formats (JPG, PDF, SVG, PNG).
- Live imagery is available to locate solar flares and check for coronal mass ejections.
- A list details all solar flares that occurred today, with times listed in UTC.
- Probabilities for different classes of solar flares are provided (C-class: 99%, M-class: 75%, X-class: 25%).
- SpaceWeatherLive relies on support from users to cover server costs, offering ad-free subscriptions and donation options.
- Recent solar activity data includes the last X-flare (X2.9), M-flare (M1.9), and geomagnetic storm (Kp5+).
- Sunspot data includes the last spotless day (2022/06/08) and monthly mean sunspot numbers.
Stop Using Pseudo-Types
7 days ago
- Pseudo-types like 'callable' and 'iterable' in PHP are not true types but sets of types with specific validation logic.
- The 'callable' pseudo-type includes types like 'Closure', 'string', and 'array' with runtime validation for callability.
- The 'iterable' pseudo-type was introduced in PHP 7.1 and later became a union type 'Traversable|array' in PHP 8.2.
- Using 'iterable' for return types can lead to confusion and misuse, as it may return either an array or an iterator.
- For better code clarity and analysis, prefer explicit types like 'Closure' over 'callable' and generators over 'iterable'.
- Typing properties with 'Closure' requires specific syntax for invocation, such as '($this->callback)();' or '$this->callback->__invoke();'.
- Avoiding pseudo-types improves code readability, reduces errors, and enhances compatibility with static analyzers like PHPStan.
Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce
3 days ago
- Amani, an office manager in a 'pig butchering' scam compound in Laos, sent motivational messages to workers who were actually forced laborers in debt bondage.
- Workers in the compound faced brutal conditions, including beatings, torture, and death if they broke rules or tried to escape, while being forced to scam victims out of millions.
- A whistleblower named Mohammad Muzahir leaked internal documents, revealing the compound's operations, including scam scripts, training guides, and WhatsApp chats showing the manipulative workplace culture.
- Workers were fined excessively for minor infractions, effectively keeping them in debt and control, while being promised commissions for successful scams that were rarely paid.
- The compound used deepfake AI and generative tools like ChatGPT to deceive victims, with a dedicated 'AI room' for face-swapped video calls.
- The operation later moved to Cambodia, where scam compounds operate with relative impunity, often linked to powerful local figures.
- The leaked chats and testimonies expose the brutal reality behind the facade of a corporate environment, highlighting modern slavery in Southeast Asia's scam industry.
Message from Pope Leo XIV on the 60th World Day of Social Communications
3 days ago
- Pope Leo XIV emphasizes the uniqueness of human faces and voices as sacred reflections of divine love.
- The message warns against the risks of artificial intelligence altering human relationships and communication.
- AI's simulation of human features and emotions can deceive, especially the vulnerable, and erode critical thinking.
- The Pope highlights the anthropological challenge of preserving human identity amidst digital advancements.
- Concerns are raised about AI's role in social polarization, misinformation, and the erosion of human creativity.
- The message calls for responsibility, cooperation, and education to guide digital innovation ethically.
- Transparency in AI development and regulation is urged to protect human dignity and information integrity.
- Media literacy and critical thinking are essential to navigate the digital landscape responsibly.
- The Pope advocates for an alliance between technology and humanity, grounded in ethical principles.
- The message concludes with a blessing for those working towards the common good in media and communication.
Building a Telegram Bot with Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects and Grammy
3 days ago
- The author created a Telegram bot named Drinky to track and remind themselves to drink water.
- The bot was chosen over a web or Android app for lower friction and easier sharing.
- Tech stack includes Durable Objects for database, grammY for Telegram API interaction, and other new libraries like oxc, Vitest, and drizzle.
- Challenges included setting up webhook URLs and dynamically registering bot commands.
- The author opted for a simpler solution (tz-lookup) over AI for timezone identification.
- The project was a learning experience and successfully solved the author's problem.

Hasty Briefsbeta

Steam Survey for January 2026 shows a small drop for Linux and macOS

Simple Made Easy (2011)

Editor of UploadVR on why he was fired

My (very) fast zero-allocation webserver using OxCaml

Applications where agents are first-class citizens

New in Calibre 9.0

Library of Juggling

What Most People Miss About Getting Promoted – By Yue Zhao

Motorola is getting away with zero OS updates thanks to regulatory loophole

This year, I will write a GUI for my Emacs clone

Pikchr: A markup language for diagrams in technical documentation

The difference between onshore and offshore RMB (CNY and CNH)

Recreating My Email Server with Claude

Teaching Models to Teach Themselves: Reasoning at the Edge of Learnability

Lessons from economies that closed their borders

X8.11 Solar Flare from AR4366

Stop Using Pseudo-Types

Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce

Message from Pope Leo XIV on the 60th World Day of Social Communications

Building a Telegram Bot with Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects and Grammy

Steam Survey for January 2026 shows a small drop for Linux and macOS

Simple Made Easy (2011)

Editor of UploadVR on why he was fired

My (very) fast zero-allocation webserver using OxCaml

Applications where agents are first-class citizens

New in Calibre 9.0

Library of Juggling

What Most People Miss About Getting Promoted – By Yue Zhao

Motorola is getting away with zero OS updates thanks to regulatory loophole

This year, I will write a GUI for my Emacs clone

Pikchr: A markup language for diagrams in technical documentation

The difference between onshore and offshore RMB (CNY and CNH)

Recreating My Email Server with Claude

Teaching Models to Teach Themselves: Reasoning at the Edge of Learnability

Lessons from economies that closed their borders

X8.11 Solar Flare from AR4366

Stop Using Pseudo-Types

Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce

Message from Pope Leo XIV on the 60th World Day of Social Communications

Building a Telegram Bot with Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects and Grammy