π₯ Check out this must-read post from Hacker News π π **Category**: β
**What Youβll Learn**: An interesting file system feature that I came across a few years ago is sparse files. In short, many file systems allow you to create a logical file with "empty" (fully zeroed) blocks that are not physically backed until they get written to. Partially copying from ArchWiki, the behavior looks like this: The file starts at 0 physical bytes on disk despite being logically 512MB. Then, after writing some non-zero bytes at a 16MB offset, it physically allocates a single block (4KB). The file…
π₯ Check out this insightful post from Hacker News π π **Category**: π‘ **What Youβll Learn**: list animals until failure This game requires JavaScript. Or, if you've superior taste, take out a pen and paper and start listing animals. List as many animals as you can. Animals must have Wikipedia articles. You have limited time, but get more time for each animal listed. When the timer runs out, that's game over. No overlapping terms. For example, if you list βbearβ and βpolar bearβ, you get no point (or time bonus) for the latter. But you can still get a point…
π₯ Discover this insightful post from Hacker News π π **Category**: β
**What Youβll Learn**: January 29, 20262 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmU.S. life expectancy hits all-time highAmericans are living longer than ever but still well behind the life expectancy of other developed countriesBy Jeanna Bryner edited by Claire Cameron Amanda MontaΓ±ez; Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (data)The latest death data for the U.S. are in, and they paint an optimistic picture: The average American born in 2024 is now expected to live to age 79. That life expectancy is more than a half-year longer than…
π₯ Discover this insightful post from Hacker News π π **Category**: β
**What Youβll Learn**: A cursed rocket took off on February 27th of last year. And it left us with a mystery that had gone unsolved . . . until now.The rocket was a SpaceX Falcon 9. It launched from Florida and did what it was supposed to do. The problems arrived via the four payloads tucked inside of the rocketβs fairing. They were all meant to accomplish spectacular feats, although the space gods had other plans.The most attention-grabbing payload was the Nova-C lunar lander from Intuitive Machines. It…
β¨ Explore this must-read post from Hacker News π π **Category**: π‘ **What Youβll Learn**: Like many organizations, Wiki Education has grappled with generative AI, its impacts, opportunities, and threats, for several years. As an organization that runs large-scale programs to bring new editors to Wikipedia (weβre responsible for aboutΒ 19% of all new active editors on English Wikipedia), we have deep understanding of what challenges face new content contributors to Wikipedia β and how to support them to successfully edit. As many people have begun using generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude in their daily lives, itβs unsurprising…
π Check out this trending post from Hacker News π π **Category**: π‘ **What Youβll Learn**: A new Internet-of-Things (IoT) botnet called Kimwolf has spread to more than 2 million devices, forcing infected systems to participate in massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and to relay other malicious and abusive Internet traffic. Kimwolfβs ability to scan the local networks of compromised systems for other IoT devices to infect makes it a sobering threat to organizations, and new research reveals Kimwolf is surprisingly prevalent in government and corporate networks. Image: Shutterstock, @Elzicon. Kimwolf grew rapidly in the waning months of 2025 by…
β¨ Explore this awesome post from Hacker News π π **Category**: π‘ **What Youβll Learn**: (originally published on my old blog) Iβve been learning Rust lately. Rust is one of the most loved languages out there, is fast, and has an amazing community. Rust invented the concept of ownership as a solution memory management issues without resorting to something slower like Garbage Collection or Reference Counting. But, when you donβt need to be quite as low level, it gives you utilities such as Rc, Arc and Cow to do reference counting and βclone-on-rightβ in your code. And, when you need…
β¨ Discover this must-read post from Hacker News π π **Category**: π **What Youβll Learn**: Outsourcing thinking 30 Jan 2026First, a note to the reader: This blog post is longer than usual, as I decided to address multiple connected issues in the same post, without being too restrictive on length. With modern browsing habits and the amount of available online media, I suspect this post will be quickly passed over in favor of more interesting reading material. Before you immediately close this tab, I invite you to scroll down and read the conclusion, which hopefully can give you some food…
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**What Youβll Learn**: About Us CollectWise is a fast growing and well funded Y Combinator-backed startup. Weβre using generative AI to automate debt collection, a $35B market in the US alone. Our AI agents are already outperforming human collectors by 2X, and weβre doing so at a fraction of the cost. With a team of three, we scaled to a $1 million annualized run rate in just a few months, and we are now hiring an AI Agent Engineer to help us reach $10 million within the next…
π₯ Explore this trending post from Hacker News π π **Category**: π **What Youβll Learn**: Germans love their potatoes. They eat on average 63kg a person every year, according to official statistics.But the exceptional glut of potatoes produced by farmers during the last harvest has overwhelmed even the hardiest of fans.Named the Kartoffel-Flut (potato flood), after the highest yield in 25 years, the bumper crop has inspired one farmer to organise a potato dump on Berlin, with appeals going out around the German capital for people to come to various hotspots and pick them up for free.Soup kitchens, homeless shelters,…
