Computing
Non-AI computing: networks, servers, hardware, software engineering, and digital security and privacy.
#2288: The Invisible Gatekeeper of Voice Tech
How voice activity detection shapes every step of the voice tech pipeline, and why it’s harder than it seems.
#2287: Is AI Code Generation the Future of Low-Code?
Exploring the rise of AI code generation and its potential to reshape the low-code movement.
#2278: Visual Programming's Enduring Tradeoff
Why do visual programming tools keep resurfacing—and why do power users keep hitting their limits?
#2274: Weekend Projects Gone Wild: Evaluating AI Startup Pitches
From fridge tax agents to guilt-scheduled cron jobs, we evaluate ten AI-driven startup ideas that could exist—but probably shouldn’t.
#2273: The Curious Case of Kitchen Unitaskers
From banana slicers to motorized ice cream cones, we rank the most absurd single-use kitchen gadgets and explore their weird charm.
#2272: The AI Transcription Sweet Spot
Does higher-quality audio make AI transcription worse? New research reveals a surprising "sweet spot" for bitrate, challenging a core assumption of...
#2271: Vector Search in a Single File
What if you could do vector search with just SQLite? We explore sqlite-vec, the extension that adds embeddings to the world's simplest database, an...
#2270: How Your Laptop Charger Conquered the World
The heavy travel transformer is extinct, thanks to a clever engineering revolution inside every power brick. We explain the tech and which devices ...
#2268: The Universal Power Cord's Quiet Masterpiece
A deep dive into the humble IEC power cable—the C13 and C14 connectors. We explore the history, physics, and surprising engineering that makes this...
#2256: The One-Charger Dream: Specs, Trade-offs, and Reality
Drowning in chargers? We break down the specs for a single, powerful desktop charging station that can handle laptops, phones, and more—and where t...
#2255: Typst vs. LaTeX: The AI-Ready Document Engine
Can Typst succeed LaTeX as the go-to tool for programmatic typesetting, especially for AI agents? We compare the two and explore what makes a docum...
#2254: How to Test an AI Pipeline Change
When you tweak one part of a complex AI agent system, how do you know if it actually improved anything? The answer lies in engineering checkpoints.
#2251: Agent-to-Agent Protocols: What Actually Needs Standardizing
When autonomous agents call other agents, what does a working protocol actually require? Exploring session handling, state management, security, an...
#2235: What IP68 Actually Means (And Doesn't)
IP ratings, MIL-STD-810, drop tests—consumer gear is covered in durability labels. But what do they actually guarantee?
#2232: One Remote, Three Streams: Building a Sane Media Setup
A renter juggling six remotes and brittle integrations finds a simpler path: fewer devices, cleaner software, and accepting that Netflix won't play...
#2228: Tuning RAG: When Retrieval Helps vs. Hurts
How do you prevent retrieval from suppressing a model's reasoning? We diagnose our own pipeline's four control levers and multi-source fusion strat...
#2227: Why Groq's Chip Flips the AI Hardware Script
#2226: When Quantum Breaks Everything
Quantum computers will shatter RSA and elliptic-curve encryption—but the real danger is data being stolen and stored right now, waiting to be decry...
#2225: The Physics of Eavesdropping: Nation-State Listening in 2026
From laser microphones to keystroke acoustics to the Great Seal Bug, what remote listening actually looks like when physics becomes the bottleneck—...
#2220: When Home Assistant Breaks Your Audio
Daniel's multi-room audio setup keeps breaking. We explore whether Snapcast, Volumio, and Mopidy can deliver reliable podcast playback across Raspb...