RE: https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/117435392401782282

"Git has an elegant design, where a few simple concepts support very general needs and a decentralized, forkable, independent work. This doesn't allow us to slam through a million lines a day because our coding products can't possible consider the full design of the code and create a runaway nuclear slop reaction recreating the same thing hundreds of times. So we fixed it by centralizing it, converting simple offline file trees into an always-on server, treating partial information as a desirable trait, and bloating the elegant data structure into arbitrary JSON blobs"

ESA targets Anbernic emulation handhelds as "superfake" piracy enablers

But third-party sellers, not Anbernic, are the ones routinely selling ROM-filled SD cards.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/esa-targets-anbernic-emulation-handhelds-as-superfake-piracy-enablers/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

why might someone want to learn Git? wrong answers only

Python 3.16.0 alpha 1 is now available

blog.python.org/2026/10/python-3160-alpha-1-is-now-available

The first developer preview of Python 3.16 is ready for testing.

I've been doing more low level optimizations lately. Looking at register pressure and dependency chains. There are some tools for this, such as llvm-mca. But optimization still seems to require lots of benchmarking and iteration. Not a systematic A to B journey.

I also find it interesting that 2D and 3D get different optimization decisions because the amount of data is different. 3D leads to more register pressure, but it also has more math to do.

Topgolf saved over $11.3 million after leaving VMware

Topgolf and VMware "ran deep" before the migration.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

why is this so-called "lean" proof 20,000 pages long??

help, I can't find the checkbox on the "Topics" section of the OOPSLA submission form for "bizarre stuff that defies categorization"

Building general and abstract tools carries the risk that you will fail to efficiently solve the problems you have because you are focusing on the hypothetical problems you could have.

Let's say you have `python3.14` and `python3.15t` as the only Python interpreters installed on your machine (notice how 3.15 is a free-threaded build and the versions do not overlap). If you were to run the Python Launcher -- `py` -- with no restrictions on what Python interpreter to select, which of those two interpreters would you expect to be selected?

When this is all over there's going to be nothing worth salvaging.

https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/redesigning-source-control

The new Web Weekly is about to hit all inboxes. 🥂

This time, it includes a new `poster` element proposal, what happens when you import the same module multiple times, responsive iframes, and an explanation of the `vary` header.

Enjoy!

https://webweekly.email/archive/web-weekly-201/

Trump's taxpayer-funded ads kept airing on TV the day after judge blocked them

US attorney apologized to court, said government has stopped running Trump ads.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/trumps-taxpayer-funded-ads-kept-airing-on-tv-the-day-after-judge-blocked-them/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

hackernews: "You can always exhaustively run all Turing machines of a given size, at each step comparing the state & tape to all previous steps"

PACK IT IN Y'ALL, FIELD'S SOLVED

Introducing m4; the fast, safe, expressive C preprocessor successor language

I'm kind of on the borderline between gen X and millennial, but I'm 100% fine with being called a millennial as long as it means nobody ever expects me to know what the hell a "health savings account" is or why I have one

Disney offers $20M for Character.AI’s scandal-plagued chatbot tech

Disney may acquire tech from one of the first chatbot makers linked to child suicide.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/disney-offers-20m-for-character-ais-scandal-plagued-chatbot-tech/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Skydance’s Discovery+ prices increase by up to 20 percent

The higher prices are said to be unrelated to the Skydance merger.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/skydances-discovery-prices-increase-by-up-to-20-percent/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Europe shows a better alternative to big SUVs at the Paris Auto Show

Small EVs and efficient people carriers update familiar names for the modern age.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/europe-shows-a-better-alternative-to-big-suvs-at-the-paris-auto-show/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

They're going to kill us all to build a beach resort.