An interview of Douglas Hofstadter on recent AI development.

A clever way of adding new syntax to Python - through the # coding: xxx option with a custom encoding handler.

# coding: cursed-for
for (i = 5; i < 10; i += 2):
    print(i)

The SQL Join can be thought of as the follows:

• A join is a lookup
• A join is a nested loop over rows
• A join is a nested loop over columns
• A join is compatible alternate realities
• A join is flatMap
• A join is the solution to the N+1 problem
• A join is paths through a graph
• A join is a minimal model
• A join is typechecking
• A join is an operation in the Set monad
• A join is the biggest acceptable relation
• A join is a…join
• A join is a ring product

These are nice ways to illustrate a non-trivial algebraic structure.

An advanced QR code toolkit with a lot of styles tweakable. Can be used as input to generate natural qr code with stable diffusion (controlnet).

Checkout https://github.com/antfu/sd-webui-qrcode-toolkit as well.

TIL the SQLite's built-in VACCUM INTO 'db.bak' and .backup db.bak commands.

SQLite journal modes (DELETE and WAL) really clearly explained. Simple and easily to follow procedures on how SQLite achieve ACID.

Trim a piece of music to a specified length, or edit it by specifying the sections to avoid, prefer, or repeated. Let the tool find out how to make the cut and make transit natural.

It works algorithmically (i.e. not using an AI) and computation is done locally on the browser. However, the file you submitted will be uploaded to server and kept indefinitely, which is concerning - be aware.

Oxford's publications on algorithms, functional programming, and category theories. I peeked through a few articles. From those I learned novel ideas and enjoyed them.

Bash tip: put cleanup code in a function called finish and register it with trap finish EXIT.

A open source tool to convert email-only newsletter to RSS feed.

I read this article when it was trending on Hacker News in 2022. It changed my consumption habits (both in terms of buying and using) a lot. Whatever I want to buy or consume, I think about the benefit it brings me versus the cost - in terms of money, my time, and mental effort. My sense of "value" has changed a lot.

Someone in the comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36353272) talks about there being a third price - the cost of disposal. I couldn't agree more. This has bothered me - I tend to get attached to possessions. Every time I move and have to make the decision to throw away familiar things, I fall into depression for weeks.

A sundry of optimization techniques to transformer models to reduce the computation complexity associated with longer context.

In short, "ne" is the negation word, but "pas" originally means "step" (or "a small step"). "Je ne mange pas." originally mean "I didn't eat a little". The form then evolve into standard way of expression negation.

This discussion leads me to this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jespersen%27s_Cycle.

Jespersen's Cycle describe the historical development of the expression of negation: from a simple pre-verbal marker of negation, through a discontinuous marker (elements both before and after the verb) and in some cases through subsequent loss of the original pre-verbal marker.

It's interesting to note that English underwent the similar transition (e.g. "I ate not today") but now it ended up back to the first stage.

A figure of speech that uses negation to convey understatement. For example, one may say "It's not a masterpiece." instead of "It's mediocre."

SQLite replication through a s3-compatible storage. This seems like a good enough solution to many use cases while being a lot simpler.

This is enshittification: surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they're locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they're locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.

Enshittification is the new word I learned today. Beyond that, it's a really nicely written post against Reddit enshittification and advocate for diversification.

A technical article on how to run large scale models efficiently on CPU.

A comprehensive guide and links to models for playing with stable diffusion.

RARBG archive in SQLite served on IPFS, powered by sql.js-httpvfs library. Aside from being a useful tool, it may also be interesting to study the code.

A tool for editing magnet link and torrent files.