Technology
Hardware, software, networking, and development
#5707: Epoxy vs Superglue: The Tooling Gap Nobody Talks About
Epoxy beats superglue on every measurable axis — so why does everyone still grab the tube? The answer is metering, and the tools that fix it.
#5705: Tape Isn't a Pool: How LTO Really Works on Linux
Tape on Linux needs no driver — but it also doesn't behave like ZFS. Here's how LTO really integrates, and why "pool" means something else.
#5704: Superglue: One Drop, Two Reactions, Five Mistakes
One part, no mixing, seconds to set — and most of us have been using it wrong since we were nine.
#5700: Did the Internet's Pioneers Know What They Were Building?
Vint Cerf says they didn't know — and they did. How early internet subculture formed, where it lived, and whether it survived.
#5699: From Dawkins to "Karen": How Memes Really Spread
A biologist coined "meme" in 1976. Fifty years later, a Switch trailer screenshot became "Karen." How did we get here?
#5697: Decision Models That Return Probabilities, Not Text
A new class of model skips text generation entirely and returns calibrated probabilities in one forward pass. Here's what that changes.
#5681: Why Your Volume Knob Can't Find the Right Spot
Your phone has 15 volume steps. More steps won't fix the real problem — and the math explains why.
#5680: The Teletubbies Were Engineered, Not Accidental
Every strange thing about Teletubbies was a deliberate design choice — built around how two-year-olds actually perceive the world.
#5679: Glue, Don't Bolt: Anchoring Road Studs and Soil Anchors
Road studs get glued, not bolted — and plows eat anything proud of the pavement. Soil anchors are a different physics problem entirely.
#5678: Why Voices Are Harder to Design For Than Music
Every word arrives clearly on a phone speaker — so why is it exhausting? The science of listening effort, and how to design audio that isn't.
#5676: DIY Cable Guide: Barrel Jacks, XLR, and What to Avoid
Soldering your own cables won't save money — it buys exact-length runs. But some connectors hide polarity traps and tooling costs.
#5675: Wiring a UK Plug: Copper, Tools, and the 1mm Rule
How much copper should show on a UK plug? Why one stray strand matters, and the flush cutter that beats electrician's scissors.
#5673: Why Lowering Temperature Broke Daniel's Scripts
Lowering temperature should make output safer, not incoherent. Daniel's DeepSeek scripts say otherwise — and the reason may be stranger than he thi...
#5671: Why Armies Still Fight With Paper Maps
Paper maps mean opposite things: prudence in Finland, a broken supply chain in Russia. Same artifact, opposite story.
#5665: Fiber Through the Conduit: Bends, Dust, and Pull Socks
A failed Ethernet crimp caps a link at 100 megabit. Can the same conduit carry 10GBASE-SR fiber instead?
#5664: Rack Dreams: Getting Display and USB Across the Room
Display over fiber is the easy part. USB is where it gets annoying — and the single-UPS dream doesn't quite close.
#5656: Why a Headlamp Fails at Precision Electronics Work
A camping headlamp is better than nothing — but it's the wrong tool for board work. Here's what the specs actually say.
#5655: Organizing the Electronics Repair Bench
Why phone repair benches resist order, and the trays, lights, and magnification that fix it.
#5654: Why Hand Driving Beats Power Tools on Tiny Screws
A precision screwdriver set, ESD tweezers, and a spudger — the case for the manual tool in a world that reaches for the motor.
#5651: Nuclear Convoys: The Physics Package and the Highway
The most secretive objects on Earth move by truck on civilian highways — and people photograph them at rest stops.