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  If you think you can spot AI slop in writing, think again – the models have evolved (and diverged) 🧐: “How To Spot AI Writing”, The Economist (https://www.economist.com/culture/2026/07/30/how-to-spot-ai-writing or https://archive.is/DAhaj). #GenAI #AI #LLMs #Slop #AISlop #Writing #English #Language #Style #Grammar

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  Can you become conversationally fluent in a foreign #language by using #Duolingo? If not, what is it for then? “The Promise Of Duolingo” [2024], The Dial (https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-22/duolingo-language-learning-fluency). #Learning #AI #Conversation #Gamification #UnbrokenStreaks

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  Oh man! 😓 “Overcoming The Friendship Recession”, Joe Previte (https://joeprevite.com/friendship-recession/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47453737 #Friends #Loneliness #Friendship #Life #MiddleAge #Initiative #SelfHelp #Advice

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  Impressive: “TurboQuant: Redefining AI Efficiency With Extreme Compression”, Amir Zandieh, et al, Google Research (https://research.google/blog/turboquant-redefining-ai-efficiency-with-extreme-compression/). The paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.19874 On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47513475 #TurboQuant #Quantization #LLMs #Vectors #Compression #Paper

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  An intriguing reason for forking #Vim 🧐: “A Eulogy For Vim”, Drew DeVault (https://drewdevault.com/blog/Forking-vim/). On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519308 #VimScript #Vi #AI #LLMs #OpenSource #VimClassic #Forks

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  I’ve never been to a #Costco, but _so many_ of my Indian #NRI friends & acquaintances swear by it: “I Want To Live Like Costco People”, Taste (https://tastecooking.com/i-want-to-live-like-costco-people/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48050499 #Shopping #Retail #USA #America #DiscountShopping #MidLife #MiddleAge

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  All the tech / programming podcasts that I follow have degenerated into creating “AI this; AI that” kind of episodes. 😩 Everyone says the same things. Ugh! 😒 Thankfully the history podcasts are still interesting. 😮‍💨 What a waste. 😥 #AI #Podcasts #Tedium #Unoriginal

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  So true 😓 — Tim Chambers on the #Fediverse: “The Seven Deadly UX Sins Of The Fediverse Web Experience (To Fix)” (https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/06/18/113327.html) & “The Seven Deadly Fediverse UX Sins Part 2: The Road To Redemption” (https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/06/24/the-seven-deadly-fediverse-ux.html) #UX #Mastodon

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  “Bitfield Pitfalls”, Michal Necasek, OS/2 Museum (https://www.os2museum.com/wp/bitfield-pitfalls/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47469945 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/xtue97/bitfield_pitfalls #C #Programming #BitFields #Gotchas #C89 #C11 #Bits #SystemsProgramming #Compilers

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  “The Gold Standard Of Optimization: A Look Under The Hood Of RollerCoaster Tycoon”, Lars Thießen (https://larstofus.com/2026/03/22/the-gold-standard-of-optimization-a-look-under-the-hood-of-rollercoaster-tycoon/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480886 #RollerCoasterTycoon #Games #GameProgramming #Programming #OldSkool #Assembly #Optimization #Speed #Efficiency

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  Betteridge’s Law of Headlines indicates that the answer is “no” 🤥: “Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?”, The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted or https://archive.ph/hOYMn). On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47659135 #OpenAI #AI #AGI #SamAltman #ArtificialIntelligence

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  #TIL about a *third* domain of life called “Archaea” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea). Mind blown! 🤯 This was thanks to this episode of the “In Our Time” #podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002sg10 PS: Misha Glenny has quite ably taken over from the legendary Melvyn Bragg as the host. 👏🏽

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  Good to know what “freestanding” and “hosted” standard library mean in C++: “Freestanding Standard Library”, Sandor Dargo (https://www.sandordargo.com/blog/2026/04/08/cpp-freestanding). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47686431 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/t7fe6r/freestanding_c_standard_library #Programming #CPP #Embedded #OSDev #CPlusPlus

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  “The Importance Of Being Idle”, The American Scholar (https://theamericanscholar.org/the-importance-of-being-idle/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666639 #Idle #Idleness #Labor #Marxism #Work #Leisure #Capitalism #Economics

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  “Italo Calvino: A Traveller In A World Of Uncertainty”, History Today (https://www.historytoday.com/archive/portrait-author-historian/italo-calvino-traveller-world-uncertainty). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47725403 #Books #ItaloCalvino #Calvino #Fiction #Literature #Time #Uncertainty #Communism #Fascism

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  Don’t tie your self-worth to your job? 🤨 Easier said than done for most of us (and it’s not deliberate) 😬: “Layoff Thinking”, Neward & Associates (https://blogs.newardassociates.com/blog/2026/layoff-thinking.html). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47698046 #Layoffs #RIF #Work #Career #Identity #SelfWorth #Depression

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  “Too Much Discussion Of The XOR Swap Trick”, Chris Jefferson (https://heather.cafe/posts/too_much_xor_swap_trick/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750486 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/2byom8/too_much_discussion_xor_swap_trick #XOR #Bits #Programming #Optimization #Swapping #BitFiddling #Compilers #Tricks #XorSwap

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  🧐: “It’s OK To Compare Floating-Points For Equality”, Nikita Lisitsa (https://lisyarus.github.io/blog/posts/its-ok-to-compare-floating-points-for-equality.html). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47767398 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/l6c9wi/it_s_ok_compare_floating_points_for #Math #Programming #FloatingPoint #NumericalAnalysis #Precision #Errors #Numerics

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  Nice: “I’m Coding By Hand”, Miguel Conner (https://miguelconner.substack.com/p/im-coding-by-hand). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47807583 #Programming #Coding #RecurseCenter #CodingRetreat #AI #LLMs #HandCrafted #Handmade

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  Great, just great. 😒🫩: “Good Sleep, Good Learning, Good Life” [2012], Piotr Wozniak (https://super-memory.com/articles/sleep.htm). Via HN: https://super-memory.com/articles/sleep.htm #Sleep #Health #Rest #Life #Refresh

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  Not sure why Reuters is hell-bent on #doxxing the artist known as #Banksy and violating their #privacy 😠: “In Search Of Banksy” (https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/). On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47381175 #Art #Vandalism #Anarchy #Unmasking #Art #StencilArt #StreetArt #Graffiti

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  Interesting: “A Case Against Currying”, Emilia H (https://emi-h.com/articles/a-case-against-currying.html). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47477090 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/w2x9dq/case_against_currying #Programming #FunctionalProgramming #FP #Currying #Rants #PLDI #Haskell

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  I’m good at the first part, but not the second – help! 😩 “Willingness To Look Stupid Is A Genuine Moat In Creative Work”, Sharif Shameem (https://sharif.io/looking-stupid). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47307124 #Advice #Reputation #Inhibition #Life #Creativity #SelfHelp

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  Impressive: “Writing My Own Text Editor, And Daily-Driving It”, Joshua Barretto (https://blog.jsbarretto.com/post/text-editor). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47331034 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/ufczx8/writing_my_own_text_editor_daily_driving #Programming #Projects #Editor #TextEditor

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  #Instagram not even bothering to explain *why* they’re retiring end-to-end encryption for messages is the real #WTF part 🧐: https://help.instagram.com/491565145294150 #AI training? #Ads targeting? Govt snooping? WHAT? 😠 On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47363922 #E2EE #Privacy #Meta #Messaging

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  “And Ode To Bzip”, Alisa Sireneva (https://purplesyringa.moe/blog/an-ode-to-bzip/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47377998 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/ub7a5k/ode_bzip On /r/programming: https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1rrl86c/an_ode_to_bzip/ #Bzip #Compression #BWT #BurrowsWheelerTransform #LZ77 #Gzip #Text #Raves

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  💯: “I’m OK Being Left Behind, Thanks!”, Terence Eden (https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/03/im-ok-being-left-behind-thanks/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47454341 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/ghtnpx/i_m_ok_being_left_behind_thanks #FOMO #JOMO #Career #Work #LLMs #AI #Grift #TrendChasing

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  Goodhart’s Law in action 🙄: “More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.”, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/technology/tokenmaxxing-ai-agents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UlA.Wda2.-3Rz1wP8LBVw&smid=url-share). H/T: Dare Obasanjo #AI #AITokenUsage #GoodhartsLaw #Metric #TokenMaxing #LLMs #Measure #FakeProductivity #Waste #Dashboard #Leaderboard #Work

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  A nice survey of #ProgrammingLanguages that allow you to omit semicolons: “No Semicolons Needed”, Terts Diepraam (https://terts.dev/blog/no-semicolons-needed/). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47470200 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/09wmcz/no_semicolons_needed #Programming #PLDI #Parsing #Lexing #Syntax #Grammar #Compilers

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  “Wayland Set The Linux Desktop Back By 10 Years”, Omar Roth (https://omar.yt/posts/wayland-set-the-linux-desktop-back-by-10-years). Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47448328 On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/5pkjai/wayland_set_linux_desktop_back_by_10_years #Linux #Wayland #X11 #XOrg #Graphics #Desktop #Unix #Display #Rants #X #Compositor #LinuxDesktop