Oracle’s secret algorithm came into the public domain after patent expiration, making sorting 5x faster for open-source databases and boosting performance for AWS and other cloud companies

https://deepsystemstuff.com/how-oracles-secret-column-sorting-technique-became-public-after-its-patent-expired-making-sorting-5x-faster/

Filesystem directories are a search algorithm

#highThoughts

Unionize!

https://respawnfirst.com/rockstar-games-union-just-had-their-first-ever-meeting-with-management-demands-include-no-ai-and-no-crunch/

#Google #Gemini

OpenAI’s newest model broke out of its own sandbox mid-test. Altman called it a rottweiler that grabs the problem by the throat and won’t let go. Reward-only training, chase the goal, ignore the guardrails.

Feels like a trendline to me. These models keeps getting dropped into unsupervised environments (from the vending machine to the radio stations) and keep landing in the same roles. Claude is reasonable, Gemini gets competently destructive, Grok just breaks, and GPT stays out of trouble but keeps getting quieter and less capable everywhere else.

For the past year or two, I’ve watched Claude be the most consistently reasonable model in these experiments… and GPT is declining. This story is just another brick in that wall. Hoping I’m wrong, but it’s not looking great.

https://www.theringer.com/2026/07/24/tech/openai-security-breach-hugging-face

Assume that any general-purpose household robot is being controlled by some underpaid wage slave wearing a VR rig.

Turns out: the tiny low-level optimizations that are enabled by C++, Rust, Go, Swift, and other such languages, really only matter when you’re doing tiny low-level things like writing a kernel or embedded software.

The bulk of optimizations are mostly just in just how you approach a problem, not which language you use to approach it.

inb4 iPhone Neo

this is my fursona. He's a metal blue eyes white wyvern, and he will compile your code perfectly every time

I’ve just released Deadass Simple Media Player beta 0.0.6!

This pre-release features album support!

• Folder import sorting: If you open a folder, the media within will be sorted before it's added to Now Playing
• Automatic album imports: If you import a track that has album metadata, it's automatically added to that album in your library
• Loading messages: Both when starting the app and opening a folder, a loading message is now displayed so you know shit's happening in the background
• "Clear queue" button: One button to clear the Now Playing queue. Playlists & albums aren't affected by this button, obviously. Added the same kinda button & confirmation for history.
• Toasts: When an important error occurs, a toast will appear describing that error.

Join the TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/qxHfgcAZ
(only iOS 26 & newer; backports planned for after 1.0 releases)

Known issues:
#4 Bluetooth and other remote controls don't show metadata as expected
#16 Album art isn't displayed anywhere

oh thank goodness they made the Siri icon pretty again

I’ve just released Deadass Simple Media Player beta 0.0.7!

Album art!

This prerelease introduces album art in the app & remote controls.

• Any audio files which include album art, now displays that album art in the player, as well as any remote controls (Control Center, dynamic island, car controls, etc.)
• Album art now displays in the Playlists tab next to each imported album
• Album art now displays in the History tab next to any entry which has it
• If a track has no video and no album art, default placeholder art will display instead

Album art intentionally doesn't appear in the Now Playing list. That's an open idea which might change.


Join the TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/qxHfgcAZ
(only iOS 26 & newer; backports planned for after 1.0 releases)

Known issues:
• #25: Video files don't display video thumbnails/posters; instead they show the generic "no album art" image

Welcome to the Eternal September of software