Author | Lightnews

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 19h

“Fil-C: A Memory-Safe C Implementation”, LWN (lwn.net/SubscriberLi...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4573...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/mg0aur/fil...

#FilC #MemorySafety #CHERI #C #Programming #Clang #LLVM

Fil-C: A memory-safe C implementation

Fil-C is a memory-safe implementation of C and C++ that aims to let C code — complete with po [...]

lwn.net

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 20h

Can’t believe that I hadn’t shared this wonderful #paper from last year – start by looking at the list of authors 😄:

“An Abundance Of Katherines: The Game Theory Of Baby Naming” [2024], Katy Blumer, et al (arxiv.org/abs/2404.00732).

#GameTheory #BabyNames #Catherine

An Abundance of Katherines: The Game Theory of Baby Naming

In this paper, we study the highly competitive arena of baby naming. Through making several Extremely Reasonable Assumptions (namely, that parents are myopic, perfectly knowledgeable agents who pick a...

arxiv.org

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 1d

“Your Next Promotion Won't Make You Happy”, Yew Jin Lim (yewjin.substack.com/p/start-with...).

H/T: SV

#Career #Ambition #Promotions #HedonisticTreadmill #Happiness #Growth

Your Next Promotion Won't Make You Happy

What actually creates lasting satisfaction

yewjin.substack.com

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 2d

Awesome! 👌🏽

“How Complex Systems Fail” [1998], Richard Cook (how.complexsystems.fail).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2555...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/smzguc/how...

#Complexity #Failure #Reliability #SRE #RCA #PostMortem #RootCauseAnalysis #Fragility

How Complex Systems Fail

how.complexsystems.fail

2

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, that’s what I think as well.

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 3d

Reads like an LLM-generated post 🧐, but contains a good summary of the issues & their solutions:

“How To Avoid Fighting Rust Borrow Checker”, ‘quoteall’ (qouteall.fun/qouteall-blo...).

Via Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/cnhjj2/how...

#Rust #Programming #BorrowChecker #MemorySafety

How to Avoid Fighting Rust Borrow Checker | qouteall notes

The 3 important facts in Rust:

qouteall.fun

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 3d

“Mistakes I See Engineers Making In Their Code Reviews”, Sean Goedecke (www.seangoedecke.com/good-code-re...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4570...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/ngei5p/mis...

#Programming #Reviews #CodeReviews #SeniorEngineers #SoftwareEngineering #Advice #PullRequests

Mistakes I see engineers making in their code reviews

In the last two years, code review has gotten much more important. Code is now easy to generate using LLMs, but it’s still just as hard to review. Many software…

www.seangoedecke.com

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 4d

“Modern Perfect Hashing”, Steinar H. Gunderson (blog.sesse.net/blog/tech/20...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4568...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/i33fks/mod...

#Hashing #PerfectHashing #Programming #LexicalAnalysis #Tokenization #Compilers #Algorithms

Steinar H. Gunderson

blog.sesse.net

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 5d

Love 😍 such articles that cover a topic in depth:

“Modern Perfect Hashing For Strings” [2023], Wojciech Muła (0x80.pl/notesen/2023...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3576...

#Hashing #PerfectHashing #Lexing #LexicalAnalysis #Programming #Algorithms #Trie #gperf #Tokenization

Modern perfect hashing for strings

0x80.pl

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 5d

For people of a certain vintage in #India, Piyush Pandey (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piyush_...) left a lasting imprint on their lives with his #ads.

That ad for #Cadburys, the #Fevicol ones… Uff!

Can’t forget “Miley Sur Mera Tumhaara” either.

#RIP 😢

#PiyushPandey #Advertisements

Piyush Pandey - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 5d

“The Best – But Not Good – Way To Limit String Length”, Adam Pritchard (adam-p.ca/blog/2025/04...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4385...

#Programming #PLDI #Strings #Length #Unicode #Characters #Bytes #Graphemes #UTF #CodePoints #I18N #Internationalization

The best – but not good – way to limit string length | adam-p

adam-p.ca

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 6d

“Subtleties” is probably the wrong word here:

“15 Go Subtleties You May Not Already Know”, Harrison Cramer (harrisoncramer.me/15-go-sublte...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4556...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/mhmcp4/15_...

#Go #GoLang #Programming #Gotchas #Listicle

15 Go Subtleties You May Not Already Know

Some of my favorite tidbits from the past year of working with Go.

harrisoncramer.me

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 7d

Finished watching “Schitt’s Creek” on Netflix:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schitt%...

Amazing series with some great acting. So funny. 😂 Anne Murphy’s Alexis was…wow!

The last couple of seasons dragged a bit (like most American #TVSeries). Not a fan of Moira Rose. 😬

#TV #Comedy

Schitt's Creek - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1 1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 9d

Overuse of abstractions is a problem in Haskell, Java (annotations), C++ (template meta-programming), etc. – not just #Rust 😰:

“Everybody's So Creative!”, ‘daymare’ (daymare.net/blogs/everbo...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4563...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/kfjzta/eve...

#Complexity

Everybody's so Creative!

After 4 years with Rust, I love the language – but I’m starting to think the ecosystem has an abstraction addiction. Or: why every Rust crate feels like a research paper on abstraction.

daymare.net

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 9d

👆🏽 is a mind-bending long-read on #Forth and the genius of its creator Chuck Moore, with several interesting side-quests.

Well worth the time spent reading it due to its elaboration of (& pointers to) several mind-expanding concepts. 👌🏽

Highly recommended. Bookmark it.

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 9d

🤯:

“Forth: The Programming Language That Writes Itself: The Web Page” [2023], Dave Gauer (ratfactor.com/forth/the_pr...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4563...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/xgq91o/for...

#Forth #ChuckMoore #PLDI #ProgrammingLanguages #ComputerHistory #Genius

Forth: The programming language that writes itself: The Web Page

An exploration of the evolution and meaning of the Forth programming language and its context in history.

ratfactor.com

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 10d

I can get behind this (for quite a while, I didn’t use syntax-highlighting & didn’t miss it; now I do):

“Why I Use Minimal Syntax Highlighting” [2019], Caleb Spare (ctrl-c.us/posts/highli...).

#SyntaxHighlighting #Programming #UX #Go #GoLang #Minimalism #Color

Why I use minimal syntax highlighting

ctrl-c.us

2

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 10d

So many counter-arguments in the comments 🍿:

“I Am Sorry, But Everyone Is Getting Syntax Highlighting Wrong”, Nikita Prokopov (tonsky.me/blog/syntax-...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4559...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/bkoa67/i_a...

#SyntaxHighlighting #Color #Programming #UX

I am sorry, but everyone is getting syntax highlighting wrong

Applying human ergonomics and design principles to syntax highlighting

tonsky.me

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Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 10d

Nice discussion:

“If You Could Redesign Linux Userland From Scratch, What Would You Do Differently?”, Runxi Yu, Lobsters (lobste.rs/s/ko5i9y/if_...).

#Linux #OS #OSDev #Userland #Unix #RewriteItFromScratch #OperatingSystem

If you could redesign Linux userland from scratch, what would you do differently?

118 comments

lobste.rs

1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 10d

That said, most people crave for *some* concrete indication of career-progression (monetary and titular), so a system where most _cannot_ go beyond three levels leads to a workforce of discontents. 🙁

#Career #Work #Promo #PromoObsession #Promotions #Levels

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 10d

I’ve given similar advice many times, but it falls on deaf ears in our promo-obsessed culture 😓 (only to be painfully learned later 😒):

“Waxing Asymptotic In Career Velocity”, Philip Su (molochinations.substack.com/p/career-asy...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4556...

#Career #Promotions

Career Asymptotes

There's a terminal level for everyone. When would you like to reach yours?

molochinations.substack.com

2

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 11d

I didn’t realize for a while that Suman Sridhar (of “Khoya Khoya Chand” fame) and Susheela Raman (of “Yeh Mera Deewanapan Hai” fame) were two *different* singers who look & sound similar (to me).🤦🏽‍♂️😅

Terrible pronunciation of #Hindi words, but great voices.👌🏽

#India #Music

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 11d

👆🏽 referenced from this 👇🏽 wonderful episode of the #Acquired podcast:

“Google: The AI Company” (www.acquired.fm/episodes/goo...)

which in turn is part 3 of a great trilogy:

Part 1 (www.acquired.fm/episodes/goo...)

Part 2 (www.acquired.fm/episodes/alp...)

#Google #AI #Alphabet #Search #Ads

Google: The AI Company | Acquired Podcast

The complete podcast (and transcript!) of Google and Alphabet’s AI history and business strategy.

www.acquired.fm

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 11d

An early (and now amusing) article about the origins of #OpenAI:

“Inside OpenAI, Elon Musk's Wild Plan To Set Artificial Intelligence Free” [2016], Wired (www.wired.com/2016/04/open... or archive.is/w5G99).

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Business #ElonMusk #SamAltman

Inside OpenAI, Elon Musk's Wild Plan to Set Artificial Intelligence Free

OpenAI wants to give away the 21st century's most transformative technology. In the process, it could remake the way people make tech.

www.wired.com

1 1 1

Ranjit Mathew @rmathew4bs.bsky.social · 15d

Awesome!

“The Burrows-Wheeler Transform”, Robert Aboukhalil (sandbox.bio/concepts/bwt).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4553...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/qar3sx/bur...

#BWT #BurrowsWheelerTransform #Encoding #Compression #RLE #Programming #Algorithms

Burrows-Wheeler Transform (BWT) interactive introduction

An interactive deep dive into how the Burrows-Wheeler transform works for compression and for genomics sequence alignment algorithms.

sandbox.bio