Article: 20 min

The author, an associate teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University, shares their experience of canceling a book deal with a big tech publisher after facing numerous issues during the writing process.

• The author decided against self-publishing initially due to the perceived benefits of having a publisher.
• Negotiations led to an agreement on the book topic, audience, and detailed table of contents.
• Issues with contract terms, such as low royalties and illustrations requirement, were discussed.
• The writing process was challenging due to constant feedback and pressure from the editor to dumb down content and add an introductory chapter about Python.

Quality:
The post is well-structured and provides a clear, unbiased account of the author's experience.

Article: 46 min

The article discusses the development of an all-optical chip named LightGen, which is designed to address the computing power shortage in large-scale generative artificial intelligence tasks. The chip integrates millions of photonic neurons and uses optical latent space and Bayes-based training algorithms to vary network dimensions at light speed. It successfully implements high-resolution semantic image generation, denoising, style transfer, 3D generation, and manipulation with impressive speed and energy efficiency compared to state-of-the-art electronic chips.

• Integration of millions of photonic neurons on a single chip

Article: 9 min

Warren Buffett, the legendary CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has stepped down from his position after six decades, with Greg Abel taking over as the new CEO.

• Buffett grew Berkshire from a struggling textile mill to a massive conglomerate.
• Abel has been managing noninsurance businesses since 2018.
• Berkshire operates with a decentralized structure, allowing executives significant decision-making autonomy.

Quality:
The article provides a balanced view of the situation, discussing both Buffett's legacy and Abel's potential impact.

Article: 7 min

The article discusses the importance of control over digital identity rather than privacy, advocating for a tech setup that prioritizes personal data management and security. It highlights the need to question incentives alignment in technology choices and presents recommendations for various tools and services.

• Privacy is not the primary driver but rather control
• Tools and services that yield control to organizations may compromise personal data
• Use of password managers, messaging apps, phone operating systems, email providers, browsing tools, calendar/contacts management, and domain registrars

Quality:
The article provides a detailed and balanced view on the topic, with clear recommendations for tech setup.

Article: 2 hr 44 min

The article is an in-depth analysis of the development and release of 'Shadow the Hedgehog', a video game released by Sega in 2005, which was met with mixed reactions from fans due to its departure from traditional Sonic gameplay mechanics and themes. The article also discusses the challenges faced during the recovery and preservation of prototype discs for this game, including issues related to disc degradation and the limitations of current technology in reading damaged media.

• The game was a departure from traditional Sonic gameplay, incorporating gun play and vehicles.
• It faced criticism for attempting to be more mature without effectively executing its new themes.
• Prototype discs were difficult to read due to degradation or bad burns, leading to challenges in preservation.

Quality:
The article provides a detailed analysis of the game's development and reception, supported by technical insights into disc preservation.

Article: 44 min

The author reflects on their role as a founder-CTO for their startup, RevenueCat, over the past year and discusses key decisions made during that time, including an acquisition offer they ultimately declined to pursue.

• Received an acquisition offer for RevenueCat in 2024, which the founders ultimately decided not to pursue.
• Challenges faced during the decision-making process due to personal health issues and company's successful growth trajectory.
• Focus on raising another round of funding with a secondary component to de-risk the decision and maintain control over the company.

Quality:
The post provides a detailed reflection on the decision-making process, which is presented in an objective manner.

Article: 13 min

The article discusses the development of agents that can play games like 2048 and Tetris at superhuman levels using curriculum learning. It highlights the use of PufferLib for training gaming agents, emphasizing the importance of observation design, reward structure, and curriculum in achieving high performance.

• Agents trained with PufferLib reached 14.75% 65k tile rate and 71.22% 32k tile rate in 2048
• Agent performance improved through observation augmentation, reward tweaking, and curriculum design
• LSTM memory was crucial for handling the complexity of 2048 games

Quality:
The article provides detailed insights and practical information without overly sensationalizing the results.

Article:

The article discusses Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design, a set of principles and guidelines for spacecraft engineering. It covers topics such as the importance of numbers in engineering, designing systems to operate with some failures, iterative design processes, the inevitability of discarding best efforts, and various laws related to data analysis, leadership, optimization, and more.

• Numbers are crucial for engineering success.
• Designing systems to operate with some failures is wise.
• Iterative design process is essential.
• Best efforts may not always be used in the final design.
• Patterns and noise in data should be distinguished.
• Everything can appear linear on a log-log plot.
• Optimum often lies in the middle of options.
• Starting without all information is acceptable.
• Estimation and guessing are part of engineering.
• Throwing everything out and starting over sometimes leads to better designs.
• Multiple wrong solutions exist, but perfection requires infinite resources.
• Designs should be based on requirements.
• Improvement occurs at interfaces.
• Past experience can provide reality checks but not guarantees.
• Engineers may underestimate their own mistakes.
• Documentation is crucial for understanding problems.
• Schedules are often unrealistic.
• Work breakdown structures help manage work.
• Following a testing failure, it's possible to refine analysis.
• Don't do anything dumb in engineering practice.
• Schedules only move forward and should have room for issues.
• Free launches come with costs.
• Program management requires accurate estimation.
• Engineers design systems based on initial concepts.
• Evolutionary development has limitations.
• Demonstrations can fail when hardware works perfectly.
• Good plans executed now are better than perfect plans later.
• Do what you can, where you have resources.
• Design perfection is achieved by removing unnecessary elements.
• Elegant designs may not be practical or efficient.
• Success in missions requires clear lines of blame.
• Capabilities drive requirements.
• Affordable and on-schedule space programs avoid new launch vehicles.
• target_audience
• Engineering students, aerospace engineers, and professionals involved in spacecraft design

Article: 19 min

The article discusses the importance of understanding pixel aspect ratios (PAR) in videos when embedding them into web pages to ensure they fit correctly without distortion or layout shifts.

• Difference between storage aspect ratio (SAR) and pixel aspect ratio (PAR)
• Display aspect ratio (DAR) for correct video display
• Importance of using DAR in web page design

Article: 12 min

In this blog post, the Python Package Index (PyPI) reflects on its achievements in 2025, emphasizing security enhancements, new features for organizations, and improvements to user experience. Key highlights include increased security measures like enhanced two-factor authentication, trusted publishing, and proactive security actions against phishing attacks, malware, and domain resurrection.

• More than 3.9 million new files published
• Over 130,000 new projects created
• 1.92 exabytes of total data transferred
• 2.56 trillion total requests served
• 81,000 requests per second on average