AI will water your plants, you’re probably violating the Llama 3.x model license and can AI replace a friend?Playing and programming on a printer, simple yet useful AI Assistant based on SQLite & cron jobs …
INFO: Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) is a low-cost, portable digital library that works as a WiFi access point. You simply turn it on, and people nearby can connect to access selected educational resources. This is especially important in areas where internet access is unavailable, such as remote villages in developing countries. The device is flexible and can be customized with different content modules, such as Wikipedia in a chosen language, selected YouTube videos, digital library materials, Khan Academy lessons, and much more.
2. Kindle as a School Dashboard – Jailbreak, SSH, and Cloudflare in Action
INFO: The author explains how he turned an old Kindle into a custom dashboard to help his daughter prepare for school. The device now shows the weather, bus schedule, and class timetable. The Kindle had to be jailbroken to make this possible, but the process is simple and easy to follow.
3. AI Use Ranking in 2025 – What Are We Using Artificial Intelligence for the Most?
INFO: This summary is based on a study commissioned by Harvard Business Review. The results surprised me. I live in a tech bubble where programming is naturally seen as one of the key applications of AI, but globally, in 2025, it's only ranked sixth. The first and third spots reveal something more profound – a possible reflection of our challenges as a society.
4. Can AI Replace a Friend? A Story of Digital Loneliness and Hope
INFO: The author explores AI companions' role in a world where loneliness is becoming almost epidemic. Drawing on personal experiences and statistics, he argues that AI doesn’t have to replace real human connections but can offer meaningful support, especially where relationships are lacking. He encourages readers to see AI not as a threat but as a possible form of emotional support for those in crisis. This is a thoughtful and timely perspective.
5. Seven Programming Myths That Waste Your Time (6-Min Video)
INFO: Not every trendy tool or widespread practice boosts a developer’s productivity. Some are just time-wasters. This video highlights seven common myths many programmers fall for—from obsessing over 100% test coverage to getting too hung up on writing “clean code.” It’s an entertainment, but it's still worth a watch.
6. How Engineers Get Communication Wrong (and How to Do It Better)
INFO: This article highlights how effective communication among technical staff is often more crucial to a company’s success than purely technical work. The authors share practical tips they use in the PostHog team—advice you can apply immediately. You’ll also learn how to avoid information overload and silence and build daily “communication rituals” that improve teamwork and collaboration.
7. Are “Please” and “Thank You” Really Driving Up ChatGPT’s Costs?
INFO: Recent media reports have focused on the cost of user politeness, like saying “please” and “thank you” when interacting with ChatGPT. However, the real source of high costs is likely elsewhere. The issue seems to be the model’s built-in habit of encouraging continued conversation, which leads to extra, often unnecessary, rounds of dialogue. These additional tokens add up quickly and result in significant computational expenses.
INFO: A curated list of nearly 200 practical tips and tricks for working with the Git version control system. It includes everyday commands and more advanced techniques—like filtering commit history, changing commit authors, managing stashes, using subtree and cherry-pick, working with aliases, and much more. Handy even if you think you already know Git well.
9. Parallel ./configure – When Setup Takes Longer Than the Build
INFO: Your project compiles in just 2 seconds, but the configure step before that takes 30 times as long. Why the absurd delay? Configure runs all its checks sequentially, one after another. No matter how fast your hardware is, configuration remains slow. The author shares a method for speeding this up by parallelizing the process.
10. How Does the System Synchronize Clocks Around the World Work? (8-Min Video)
INFO: Your computer (and also your smartphone, laptop, etc.) likely sets its time automatically and can even sync with atomic clocks to an accuracy of milliseconds. How is this possible? This video explains the NTP protocol, its hierarchy, what "stratum 0" means, how network delays are minimized in time transmission, and more. You’ll also learn about radio time signals, GPS systems, and who manages global time in practice.
11. Minimalist Apps to Boost Focus and Simplify Technology Use
INFO: A collection of dozens of apps designed for those who value simplicity and productivity. You’ll find tools for focus, planning, reading later, managing notifications, and even minimalist launchers and browsers. Everything is categorized by type and platform—worth checking out, no matter what system you use.
12. A Failed Startup Journey – Lessons Learned and Wasted Time
INFO: The author shares their 11-month experience with a startup aiming to become a service provider for car owners, which ended up operating chaotically and unprofessionally. Despite promises of co-foundership and building an app from scratch, everything was based on unreliable forecasts, toxic relationships, and unclear terms of collaboration. This is a valuable lesson on how easy it is to be exploited under the guise of "working on something big" and how crucial it is to read contracts, especially those with clauses about losing equity.
13. AI Will Water Your Plants – Raspberry Pi + AI (7-Min Video)
INFO: This video shows how to build an autonomous plant-watering system using a language model and the AG2 (Autogen) framework running locally on a Raspberry Pi 5. The author created an AI agent to make decisions based on soil moisture sensor data and control a physical water pump. The video covers the hardware and system setup and provides code snippets and AG2 environment configuration. While the project may seem more about form than function, it’s a great example of using agents and can teach you the implementation method, rather than focusing solely on the project’s end goal.
14. Can Browser Bookmarks Be a Threat to Privacy and Security?
INFO: Browser bookmarks are stored in an unencrypted form, meaning any program running on your account can read or modify them. The author discusses the risks associated with this practice—such as using bookmarks for user profiling, phishing attacks, and identifying internal company resources.
15. Some Tags in the HEAD Section of Your Page Are Unnecessary – Remove Them
INFO: We’re used to adding descriptions for social media platforms, favicons, icons for Apple devices, and tags supporting Internet Explorer in the HTML header. However, much of this can be unnecessary. The author points out that while these elements aren't inherently useless, there are more professional ways to achieve the same effects, which can also reduce the size of your pages.
16. You’re Probably Violating the Llama 3.x Model License – If You’re Using It
INFO: The author analyzes the Llama 3.3 Community License terms and highlights how many individuals and companies use these models in ways that violate the license, often without realizing it. This includes the requirement to label products with the phrase "Built with Llama," incorporating "Llama" into the names of models based on Llama, and informing users of potential AI risks. Despite being marketed as 'open source,' the license contains several restrictions typical of proprietary software. This article is not just for lawyers but for anyone in the tech world interested in local LLMs.
17. Impossible Components in React – How to Combine Backend and Frontend Into One Abstraction
INFO: Using a simple form as an example, the author demonstrates how to split a React component into two parts: a backend part (e.g., retrieving data from the file system) and a frontend part (the interactive section with local state). This approach makes it possible to build 'impossible' components that integrate backend data with user interaction without manually passing states. The article explains the concept of React Server Components and shows that a single component can operate on both sides while maintaining data locality and state isolation.
18. Vibe Coding Doesn’t Mean Neglecting Code Quality
INFO: AI can significantly speed up the process of writing code, but it doesn't relieve developers from the responsibility of maintaining quality and security in their solutions. Treating AI-generated code like work from a beginner developer—requiring thoughtful verification, testing, and refactoring—is key to maintaining standards. The article discusses best practices and risks associated with so-called "vibe coding."
19. The 7 Most Important Acquisitions by Google in the Last 20 Years
INFO: Google has been acquiring companies for years, often changing the direction of entire industries. How did it come to be that the company operates in so many markets, and which of its acquisitions were key to further development? While not all of these acquisitions were financial successes, each had a strategic impact on where Google stands today (and, by extension, the entire IT industry).
20. A List of Well-Written README Files for Inspiration
INFO: This compilation features examples of well-prepared README files from GitHub, including clear project descriptions, images, GIFs, installation instructions, links to documentation, and organized navigation tables of contents. It's an ideal source of inspiration if you're looking to improve the documentation quality of your project. Each example is described with an emphasis on the elements that make it valuable and exceptional.
INFO: A simple row count query on a selected table can take quite a while, especially if the table is large. However, the same query with a condition that still returns all the rows can often be much faster. Why is that? Adding a condition that is checked for every record should slow down the process, not speed it up. This is an interesting puzzle to explore. It's beneficial for those who enjoy understanding how underlying technologies work.
22. Styling the SELECT Element Is Now Possible in Chromium Engine
INFO: The SELECT element now has native support for styling with CSS, eliminating the need for old JavaScript tricks. The new appearance: base-select property allows for customization, such as embedding SVGs in options, styling individual dropdown elements, and adjusting layouts according to your needs. This feature is already available in Chrome 135 and will likely appear soon in other browsers using the same engine.
23. Why AMP in Emails Was a Bad Idea (and Why Email Interactivity Doesn’t Make Sense)
INFO: Google tried to bring interactivity to email using AMP, allowing users to book hotels or reply to comments directly from their inbox. While technically impressive, the solution required a lot of work from developers, only worked in a few email clients, and went against the open, universal nature of email. AMP for email has disappeared, and few remember it ever existed.
INFO: More and more developers are boosting their productivity with AI, which can also lead to the erosion of their core programming skills. The author warns about "skill atrophy," where developers stop understanding code, can’t debug effectively, and rely entirely on AI tool suggestions. Will this lead to an addiction to AI and, ultimately, the loss of the ability to solve problems independently?
25. How to Track and Analyze AI Traffic on Your Website
INFO: Traffic from AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot is becoming an increasingly common source of website visits. This article shows how to customize GA4 (Google Analytics 4) to effectively measure and analyze this type of traffic. You'll find instructions on setting up custom channels and segments and tips on interpreting the collected data. The strategies discussed can likely be applied to other analytics software as well.
26. How Dehumidifiers Really Work and Why They Can Surprise You (Film, 52m)
INFO: Dehumidifiers may seem like simple devices, but their actual operation can be surprising. This film explains how they handle excess moisture, why they don't continually improve thermal comfort, and how, at times, they can even increase the perceived temperature. It's an interesting, slightly nerdy deep dive into the topic.
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