Techcable

Developer | Student | Compiler Nerd 🤓
University of Arizona '2024 Math/Computer Science

Java, Rust, C, Python | Semi-Retired Minecraft Dev

[Techcable @Techcable2]

Today I learned that the duration of first-generation compact disks was fixed at seventy-five minutes so that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony could unfurl without interruption. #beethoven #symphony #music #audio #cd #wikipedia #til

[Techcable @Techcable2]

git blame is an alias for whoami

[Techcable @Techcable2]

TIL you can selectively move values into a Rust closure by inserting dummy moves, avoiding the "move" keyword.

https://t.co/YySVlDNqbB

[Nick Mathewson is now @[email protected] @nickm_tor]

Gaze not into the abyss, lest you become recognized as an abyss domain expert, and they expect you keep gazing into the damn thing.

[Kagi @KagiHQ]

We're thrilled to bring you the news you've all been eagerly awaiting - Kagi is now available with unlimited searches for just $10/month!

More in our announcement:

https://t.co/uusdlQwiri

[RustRover, a JetBrains IDE @rustrover]

🚀 Let's hear it for RustRover – our new dedicated Rust IDE! We’re announcing a free public preview and encourage you to check it out. Enjoy this IntelliJ-based IDE with on-the-fly analysis, code completion and debugger. Head over to the 👉 https://t.co/egUhhh29Hn

[Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox @mozthunderbird]

SUPERNOVA IS HERE! 🎉🍾

With this year’s version, we’re delivering more than just another yearly release. Supernova represents a modernized overhaul of the software – visually and technically – while retaining the familiarity and flexibility you expect.

https://t.co/hsxYfsDqjU

[Techcable @Techcable2]

@elonmusk How does this differ from Discord's support for video and audio calls? With the arguable exception of "global address book", it appears to offer the same set of features.

[Marc Randolph @marcrandolph]

In 2000, Blockbuster was the movie rental king with 60,000 stores and 9,000 employees. Reed Hastings and I, on the other hand, were just two Silicon Valley geeks with a DVD-rental-by-mail idea.

We’d been struggling since 1998 to find a way to make it work, and by the summer of 2000, we were finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Our no-due-dates, no-late-fees subscription model was a hit. Customers were pouring in and the company was growing like crazy.

Running a subscription business takes a lot of cash, since you pay acquisition costs up front while the revenue comes in over time. But it was the height of the internet boom. Cash was plentiful.

Until suddenly it wasn’t. Over a few short months, the internet bubble finally popped. The .com at the end of our name had been a badge of honor; now it was three scarlet letters. And with customers flooding in, cash was flying out. We’d spent more than $50 million getting to this point, and now it looked like our success was going to bankrupt us.

Luckily, there is a Silicon Valley play book for this. It’s called “pursue strategic alternatives”—code for “sell, and sell fast.”

The obvious strategic alternative for us was Blockbuster. Which is why, just a few weeks later, you’d have found me, Reed, and our CFO Barry McCarthy sitting at a giant conference table on the 37th floor of the Blockbuster headquarters in Dallas, getting ready to pitch Blockbuster.

The pitch was simple. We would join forces with Blockbuster. We would run the online business. They would run the stores. We would jointly develop a blended model. And everyone would live happily ever after.

And it was going great. They were leaning in. They asked good questions. Until they asked the most important question of all: “How much?”

Now, we had rehearsed this. We figured we were $50 million in the hole... so let’s go with that! Reed leaned forward confidently and told them: “Fifty Million Dollars.”

There was perfect silence. Their words were “we’ll consider it,” but we could tell they were fighting to suppress laughter. After that, the meeting went downhill fast.

Well, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or, as my father used to tell me, “sometimes, the only way out is through.” We knew there was no easy way out. We struggled for years. But we eventually did make it through. We had our IPO. We passed Blockbuster in revenue.

And today, the company that Blockbuster could have purchased in 2000 for $50 million, has a market cap exceeding $150 billion. And that company with 9000 stores? Now it’s got just one.

But what’s the lesson to take from this?

There’s certainly an inspiring one: It’s possible for a handful of people, with no prior experience in the video business, to take down a 6 billion dollar category-leading company.

But I think the more important lesson—one that Blockbuster learned too late—is simply this:

If you are unwilling to disrupt your business, there will always be someone willing to do it for you.

[Engineering @Engineering]

Today marks a new era of transparency for Twitter. 🧵

We’re sharing much of the source code that powers our platform with the world. Visit our blog to learn more about this initiative: https://t.co/hTHVpuMDz8

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Twitter recommendation source code now available to all on GitHub
https://t.co/9ozsyZANwa

[Techcable @Techcable2]

👀

[Avid Halaby @AvidHalaby]

The stuff uncovered in the Twitter whistleblower report is much crazier than anything in the "Twitter files" but it's much less politically/tribally salient so it got no attention. Going to do a thread on some of the craziest things, in no particular order.

[Avid Halaby @AvidHalaby]

The stuff uncovered in the Twitter whistleblower report is much crazier than anything in the "Twitter files" but it's much less politically/tribally salient so it got no attention. Going to do a thread on some of the craziest things, in no particular order.

[Techcable @Techcable2]

👏

[Sheldon Axler @AxlerLinear]

I happily announce that the future 4th edition of my book Linear Algebra Done Right will be an Open Access book. Thus the electronic version of the book will be legally free to the world. The print version, to be published by Springer, will be reasonably priced. #LinearAlgebra

[NASA @NASA]

We are going.

For the first time, the @NASA_SLS rocket and @NASA_Orion fly together. #Artemis I begins a new chapter in human lunar exploration.

[Techcable @Techcable2]

It is definitely possible some of Twitter's microservices are causing problems, but without context he made himself look like a fool to anyone who built websites in past 10 years 🙄
He is a cool guy doing some impressive things but he has a horrible ego...

[Techcable @Techcable2]

Oh gosh 🤦 First he complains about latency, then claims "microservices" are the problem. Funny thing is the reason the industry switched to microservices are to *improve* reliability & latency when things goes wrong, changes are made, or traffic spikes.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@sampullara Part of today will be turning off the “microservices” bloatware. Less than 20% are actually needed for Twitter to work!

[Factorio @factoriogame]

Factorio is coming to Nintendo Switch™
https://t.co/2rJQfKGh38
#factorio #Nintendo

[Techcable @Techcable2]

@boyetronic If this is true (and I highly believe it is), the show may never have taken its "true form". While I personally love the show, I often think the level of profanity is much more annoying than funny. I am not sure I would have liked it very much before the season 3 or 4 mark.

[Techcable @Techcable2]

@boyetronic If "The Office" or "Southpark" had debuted in 60s or 90s, it may have aired for 2-3 seasons, then only recognize after "Syndication"

Wikipedia says Southpark humor has become significant more sophisticated around season 3 or 4, starting out as mainly dirty/fart jokes.