Here's a paper that comes under the heading of "so odd that it can't be passed over". The authors are looking at octafluorocubane, shown at right, because it is predicted to have the ability to hold a free electron in the middle of that cube (!) That's because…

Python’s still No. 1, but employers love to see SQL skills

I wrote last year about my experience with making my first PCB using JLCPCB. I’ve now got 5 of the boards in production around my house, and another couple assembled on my desk for testing. I also did a much simpler board to mount a GPS module on my MapleBoard…

The noscript of this blog is a quote from James Clear’s Atomic Habits book. The tl;dr of this book is a set of strategies to get 1% “better” each day. If that’s the case (and I…

How we used Elixir's Observer to chase down and fix some puzzling runtime issues.

12 days after depositing mushroom cells on their wood chip substrate, the mycelia are ready to be “harvested.”

Investors bought nearly a quarter of U.S. single-family homes that sold last year, often driving up rents for suburban families in the process. The issue is especially acute in some Sun Belt states amid evidence that investors often can outbid other buyers…

GitHub now supports SSH commit verification, so you can sign commits and tags locally using a self-generated SSH public key, which will give others confidence about the origin of a…

For the first time, I won a major raffle at a recent conference. However, I had to give the prize back since it was a beer dispenser and I don’t drink. If your reaction after reading the last line was “Why don’t you drink?” or “Most of us do and it’s your…

We spend a disproportionate amount of time on types

A recent post on Reddit's main economic forum included a 2018 graphic that shows that...

Bacteriophage therapy is an idea that's been around for a long time, but although a lot of people have heard of it, not many people really know much about it. The principle is appealing: if someone has a harmful bacterial infection, why not treat it by unleashing…

Smartphones and other mobile devices are ubiquitous and while we're picky about free software on our laptops, desktops and servers lots o...