How to Network as an Introvert
05 Jul, 2025 Why I am writing this? Sometimes I’d leave an event unsure if I connected with anyone—or if anyone noticed I was there. I’d show up, blend in, talk just enough, smile just enough, and then disappear. The next morning, I’d wonder if anyone even remembered I was there. This is what often […]
Optimizing Tool Selection for LLM Workflows with Differentiable Programming
How local, learnable routers can reduce token overhead, lower costs, and bring structure back to agentic workflows. Modern agentic architectures rely heavily on chaining LLM calls. A typical pattern looks like: Use an LLM to decide which tool to invoke Call the tool (e.g. search, calculator, API) Use another LLM call to interpret the result […]
Holding Cellphone while driving is illegal, California court rules
Think it’s all right to hold your cellphone while driving, as long as you’re just looking at a navigation app? Think again. A state appeals court ruled Tuesday that the state law prohibiting drivers from texting or talking on a cellphone while driving also makes it illegal to hold a phone to look at a […]
The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon
Amazon’s now-legendary “Prime Day” is July 8-11. Much like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, this means sales on lots of items on Amazon’s vast marketplace, and as such many people flock to the giant’s website to get sweet deals on everything from computers to small kitchen appliances and more. While many of us are feeling […]
The Two Towers MUD
The Date is March 15, 3019 Third Age. Sauron has brought war to the Free People of Middle-earth. On the field of the Pelennor, at the gates of the great city of Minas Tirith, the battle of our time is being fought. Lothlorien, Thranduil’s Kingdom, Dale and Erebor are also under siege. Sauron will not […]
Seine reopens to Paris swimmers after century-long ban
People swim in the Seine River on its opening day, in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 5, 2025. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP The River Seine reopened to swimmers in Paris on Saturday, July 5, marking the first time since 1923 that bathers could take a dip in the iconic waterway […]
Speeding up PostgreSQL dump/restore snapshots
The last few pgstream releases have focused on optimizing snapshot performance, specifically for PostgreSQL targets. In this blog post, we’ll walk through the key improvements we made, share the lessons we learnt, and explain how they led to significant performance gains. But first, some context! What is pgstream? pgstream is an open source CDC(Change Data […]
The Calculator-on-a-Chip (2015)
ApplePay vs. Alternative Payment Services
by Marc Stibane Thought experiment Imagine an airport which issues a frequent traveller card which millions of passengers have signed up for. This Airport demands from the shops in the airport mall to either only offer their traveller card for payments, or any other payment method, but not both. So if merchants offer alternative payment […]
Cops in [Spain] think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer
![cops-in-[spain]-think-everyone-using-a-google-pixel-must-be-a-drug-dealer](https://cdn-y.objects.dc-sto1.glesys.net/A1da965d3ac0f2e44c08f1ae072687d311/uploads/2025/07/506043-cops-in-spain-think-everyone-using-a-google-pixel-must-be-a-drug-dealer-1024x576.jpg){kind=tracking}
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority TL;DR Pixel phones are apparently the phone of choice for criminals, drug dealers, and gang members in Spain’s Catalonia. Police say every time they spot someone with a Pixel, they think they must be a drug dealer. The popularity of Pixels among the wrong crowd has little to do […]