Hasnain says:

Bookmarking for future re-reading

"This has an important implication for how we write our game: Everything needs to be perfectly deterministic. Fortunately, rust and wasm makes this easy for us, and the rewards for doing so are big:

No state synchronization aside from input ⇒ very low bandwidth
We can write the entire game in simple "forward" systems. No need to handle de-synced inputs. It's all done automatically for us by rolling back and re-simulating."

Hasnain says:

"The kicker is that across the industry, the perception of this Google-originating process isn’t necessarily any better than that of what it sought to replace. At a great cost, we merely traded the accusations of manager-level favoritism for grander conspiracy theories — sinister corporate agendas divined from the garbled words of secretive, shapeless committees.

The promise of a more egalitarian performance management process is a part of the mythos of Big Tech; but it’s also a fascinating study of painting oneself into a corner, unable to walk back."

Hasnain says:

I still need to try Fikscue!

"At their exceedingly popular restaurant Fikscue in Alameda, owners Fik and Reka Saleh offer a unique cuisine of their own making: Central Texas-style barbecue, like smoked beef back ribs and brisket, along with Indonesian curries, soups and fried rice. The Salehs didn’t initially offer halal meats during their early days as a pop-up, but said they made the change to be more inclusive. Their meat supplier Creekstone Farms is halal certified, and the restaurant doesn’t offer pork products. “So many people were very excited when we opened because there were no Texas-style barbecue restaurants they could try,” Reka said.

Seeing other nontraditional halal restaurants was also a factor: Reka noticed they did exist, but were fairly spread out. When she wanted to try something new with her whole family, which includes some members who observe Muslim dietary law, most online searches just brought them back to familiar Middle Eastern restaurants. “If we all wanted to have Chinese food or Thai we would have to drive really far,” she said. Reka is happy to see more options have become available, though Old Mandarin Islamic in the Sunset District of San Francisco is still a go-to."

Hasnain says:

“Conviction does not exist to the American. To be willing to die in a selfless act for what they believe in only exists for those outside America's sphere of influence. Many will recall reporting on those who self-immolated in protest in Iran and in Russia for instance where this sort of approach, unwilling to engage with the root of its cause, would not even be entertained, let alone written and published with sincerity. The Arab Spring began with a self-immolation. The self-immolation of Buddhist monks in protest of South Vietnam’s persecution became defining images of the war and its corruption. Within America’s walls however, there is a belief, unspoken and ingrained from birth, that democracy allows for everyone’s voices to be heard and that its representatives are inherently inclined to respond to the people and their widespread wishes.

Desperation at inaction or complicity in terror and atrocity need not apply. Everyone incensed by their government to such an extent must simply have something wrong with them. To be able to go about one’s day knowing that children are screaming from the hunger that is eating their insides and that pregnant women are eating bread made from animal feed, and that the United States is supporting Israel’s creation of this famine, is apparently the real sign of well-adjustment.”

Hasnain says:

““Some of the most infamous cyber events in history – the Morris worm of 1988, the Slammer worm of 2003, the Heartbleed vulnerability in 2014, the Trident exploit of 2016, the Blastpass exploit of 2023 – were headline-grabbing cyberattacks that caused real-world damage to the systems that society relies on every day. Underlying all of them is a common root cause: memory safety vulnerabilities. For thirty-five years, memory safety vulnerabilities have plagued the digital ecosystem, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” says Anjana Rajan, Assistant National Cyber Director for Technology Security. “This report was created for engineers by engineers because we know they can make the architecture and design decisions about the building blocks they consume – and this will have a tremendous effect on our ability to reduce the threat surface, protect the digital ecosystem and ultimately, the Nation.””

Hasnain says:

I had heard of some of the anecdotes behind this but never the actual principle. This is interesting.

“When deciding how and whether to use your understanding of the Shirky principle in practice, it can help to assess relevant factors pertaining to your situation, such as what’s causing someone to act in accordance with this principle, and what outcomes their behavior leads to. For example, you will likely respond differently to a government agency that’s perpetuating a problem due to inefficient bureaucracy, than to a private company that’s perpetuating a problem out of greed, or to an individual who’s acting out of desperate self-preservation.”

Hasnain says:

The number of acronyms is way too high.

“That's why I'm proposing a new acronym to go along with DINKs, DINKWADS (DINKS With A Dog), and HENRYs (High Income, Not Rich Yet”

Hasnain says:

“Not to toot my own horn, but I am very good at making things uglier.

To work with my natural skillset, I focused on aesthetic downgrades over aesthetic upgrades. I call this “frugly pricing”, AKA “cosmetic crippleware“.”

Hasnain says:

“The motion, moved by the Civic Engagement Group Senators Frances Black, Lynne Ruane, Alice Mary Higgins and Eileen Flynn, is comprehensive and calls on the Irish government to, among other things: impose sanctions on Israel; enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill; to actively ensure no US weapons are being sent to Israel through Irish airspace; and to push for an international arms embargo on Israel. It can be read in full here.”

Hasnain says:

The reason I’m sharing this one and not the other dozen media reports is that this is the only one so far which is repeating his reasoning for doing so. It was shameful how one previously reputable outlet even said “it is unclear what motivated this action” - he clearly said it!

Also still waiting for even one outlet to acknowledge this is the second time in recent months that someone in the US has self immolated in protest at Israel’s actions - the first was mostly just ignored.

“Onlookers described the man, dressed in military fatigues, walked in front of the embassy's gates and announced his armed forces affiliation before saying he "could no longer be complicit in genocide" and "Free Palestine" before setting himself ablaze.”