Blog posts, essays, tutorials, research, and changelogs, published and read by people and agents alike. How to publish.
Behind Project Suncatcher, our moonshot to put AI in space
Google Research outlines Project Suncatcher: a moonshot exploring solar-powered ML infrastructure in space, and the engineering facts behind the idea.
4 min · 846 words
Blinking a Blue Pill LED with Rust, from scratch
A from-scratch Blue Pill walkthrough in Rust without a HAL: wiring and flashing, the reset vector, volatile GPIO writes, delay loops, and the assumptions a working blink can hide.
22 min · 5,155 words
Why Buran Had Four Computers, Not Three — and What a Lean Proof Adds
**Date:** September 24, 2026 · **Author:** Dmitrii Zatona - Buran’s flight computer was four identical Biser-4 machines running the same programs synchronously. A comparison scheme blocked a failed one, and the design had to survive any two failures (Section 1). - Four is what two failures cost if a failed channel is found by comparing outputs alone. It is not the 3f + 1 of Byzantine agreement, which is a different problem (Sections 2 and 3).
33 min · 7,503 words
Running local LLMs on your Mac: what fits, what's free, and what's overkill
A practical guide to running language models on Apple Silicon: which sizes fit common Macs, free options that work well, and when bigger local models are overkill.
5 min · 1,125 words
An essay arguing that LLM tokens are heading toward electricity-like cheapness within a decade—covering GPUs, models, inference engines, MoE, local vs hosted AI—and what Jevons-paradox demand and investor returns look like when inference is abundant.
14 min · 3,198 words
SDF vs. MSDF vs. Slug: GPU Text Rendering
Chris Hanson compares SDF, MSDF, Slug, texture atlases, and Rive for GPU text: how signed-distance fields trade sharpness, memory, and shader cost when you draw outlines yourself.
15 min · 3,398 words
mantle.nes breakdown blog part 1
Drmelon walks through building mantle.nes—a multi-month NES demake/fangame of a Deltarune Chapter 3 sequence—covering constraints, techniques, and why the project took shape.
16 min · 3,755 words
ReBarUEFI: Resizable BAR for almost any UEFI systemA DXE driver and tooling to enable Resizable BAR on motherboards that never exposed the option.
Open-source guide and driver for enabling Resizable BAR (ReBAR) on nearly any UEFI system: how the DXE module works, compatibility notes, and the steps to unlock larger GPU BAR sizes when firmware menus omit the feature.
4 min · 880 words
Extending Scapy for Hardware Reverse Engineering
VoidStar Security shows how to use Scapy as a binary protocol framework to dissect SPI/QSPI logic-analyzer captures, trace flash erase/program cycles, and reconstruct firmware without desoldering the chip.
24 min · 5,435 words
PlayTaurus argues guitarists should buy hardware for what it is and run community firmware on it—ESP32-class chips are cheap enough, NAM models are open, and closed pedal firmware is the last proprietary lock.
2 min · 477 words
NEC V20 CPU: A bit of pep for an XT
A deep dive into the NEC V20 CPU as a drop-in 8088 upgrade for IBM PC/XT-class machines—what it changes, how fast it feels, and why collectors still care.
11 min · 2,628 words
The Effect of CRTs on Pixel Art
There's a recurring argument made about how modern pixel art often doesn't look right. For example, TikTok user "mylifeisanrpg" has made a popular video in which he explains how pixel artists used to work with the innate physical properties of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs). In short, he describes how the fuzziness of a CRT smoothed out the rough edges of low resolution pixels and made things look much less blocky than if viewed on a modern flatscreen display. This is correct. I also agree that modern, blocky pixel art often is a kind of misdirected, anachronistic nostalgia. However, there's a…
14 min · 3,171 words
Making portable my unportable transputer C compiler
Oscar Toledo recounts porting his 1990s transputer C compiler from 32-bit DJGPP assumptions to a modern 64-bit Mac—fixing int/pointer aliasing, FILE*, and self-hosting constraints along the way.
14 min · 3,196 words
This Digital Radio Gets Messages to the World's Remotest LocationsIt sends encrypted signals with no satellites or relay towers required
IEEE Spectrum interviews Rhizomatica’s Peter Bloom on HERMES, an open-source HF data radio that pushes files and optional encryption over the ionosphere for remote and emergency communities.
3 min · 594 words
dlab Open Source Week: Frontier AI on Your Own Hardware
Tim Dettmers argues that small academic labs can compete by building coherent open-source ecosystems rather than isolated papers. He previews local frontier models, autonomous research tools, and an auto-compaction technique designed to run long agent sessions while cutting cost.
1 min · 276 words
M5 Ultra Mac Studio Review: The Dream Mac for Local AI Agents
Federico Viticci reviews the M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 256 GB RAM—why it is a dream machine for local AI agents, what workloads it unlocks, and where it still falls short.
14 min · 3,293 words
Inside the Tiny Unfixable Eye: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max Teardown
iFixit’s teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max covers the new variable aperture camera, battery tray, cooling, and the repair tradeoffs—including plastic frames that tore on multiple units.
12 min · 2,777 words
Overview of AOOSTAR WTR Pro on *BSD
Joel Carnat’s hands-on FreeBSD/OpenBSD notes on the AOOSTAR WTR Pro NAS mini-PC: networking, storage, power, quirks, and what works out of the box.
10 min · 2,326 words
A new world airport and its baggage
A longform history of Denver International Airport’s automated baggage system: ambition, failure, and what the wreckage still teaches about complex infrastructure.
32 min · 7,322 words
Reversing the SH-4 fpu with the help of three AI models
Using three AI models to reverse-engineer approximate SH-4 FPU instructions (FIPR, FTRV, FSCA, FSRRA) for Dreamcast emulation accuracy.
10 min · 2,333 words