The archive
1,040 stories · page 11 of 18. The 20 most recent are free to read; older reporting sits in the subscriber archive.
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cultureSubscriberWhat comes after public libraries
The details are boring, which usually means they matter.
Nadia Farrow · 19 Sep 2022
gamingSubscriberThe next fight over game preservation
A small change in a standard can take years to reach the shelf.
Jules Ferrand · 16 Sep 2022
cultureSubscriberThe limits of cybercafés
The result is plausible, but the methodology is carrying it.
Nadia Farrow · 14 Sep 2022
gamingSubscriberHow voice acting got complicated
The short version is in the deck. The long version is in the tickets.
Jules Ferrand · 14 Sep 2022
hardwareSubscriberThe limits of desktop CPUs
The interesting question is who owns the interface.
Mira Kessler · 13 Sep 2022
softwareSubscriberThe long road to version control
A small change in a standard can take years to reach the shelf.
Tomas Rehn · 11 Sep 2022
cultureSubscriberright to repair, five years later
The headline is simple. The second-order effects are not.
Nadia Farrow · 9 Sep 2022
softwareSubscriberThe economics of SQLite
The details are boring, which usually means they matter.
Tomas Rehn · 7 Sep 2022
softwareSubscriberWhat comes after CI pipelines
It is a small change on paper and an expensive one in production.
Tomas Rehn · 6 Sep 2022
hardwareSubscriberHow ECC memory got complicated
The people closest to the work are the least surprised.
Mira Kessler · 30 Aug 2022
cultureSubscriberThe quiet crisis in right to repair
The gap between the demo and the deployment is where the money goes.
Nadia Farrow · 29 Aug 2022
aiSubscriberA short history of evaluation sets
The same argument has been made for a decade, with worse numbers.
Ada Okafor · 29 Aug 2022
softwareSubscriberA short history of code review
The problem is not the idea. It is the second year.
Tomas Rehn · 23 Aug 2022
aiSubscribercoding agents: a reality check
The measurements are real. The conclusions are doing fieldwork.
Ada Okafor · 16 Aug 2022
cultureSubscriberThe case for digital decluttering
Everyone agrees on the goal. Nobody agrees on who pays for it.
Nadia Farrow · 14 Aug 2022
softwareSubscriberNo silver bullet for API deprecations
The early adopters are enthusiastic. The second wave is not.
Tomas Rehn · 12 Aug 2022
hardwareSubscriber10GbE switches, five years later
The headline is simple. The second-order effects are not.
Mira Kessler · 6 Aug 2022
gamingSubscriberThe uncomfortable truth about emulation
The technology is ready. The business model is not.
Jules Ferrand · 5 Aug 2022
gamingSubscriberThe slow normalization of game preservation
A useful reminder that defaults are product decisions.
Jules Ferrand · 1 Aug 2022
gamingSubscriberThe bill for LAN play is coming due
The gap between the demo and the deployment is where the money goes.
Jules Ferrand · 29 Jul 2022
softwareSubscriberWhat the on-call rotations debate misses
The interesting part is not the technology but the incentives.
Tomas Rehn · 28 Jul 2022
aiSubscriberWhat the on-device AI debate misses
Everyone agrees on the goal. Nobody agrees on who pays for it.
Ada Okafor · 26 Jul 2022
softwareSubscriberThe economics of incident response
The headline is simple. The second-order effects are not.
Tomas Rehn · 24 Jul 2022
hardwareSubscriberThe uncomfortable truth about workstation GPUs
The demo works. The maintenance plan is less clear.
Mira Kessler · 21 Jul 2022
softwareSubscriberWhat the self-hosted software debate misses
It is a small change on paper and an expensive one in production.
Tomas Rehn · 20 Jul 2022
hardwareSubscriberThe bill for ECC memory is coming due
The technology is ready. The business model is not.
Mira Kessler · 14 Jul 2022
gamingSubscriberBeyond accessibility options
The numbers look convincing until you read the footnotes.
Jules Ferrand · 11 Jul 2022
softwareSubscriberThe slow normalization of open-source licences
The change is being driven by costs, not by ambition.
Tomas Rehn · 7 Jul 2022
softwareSubscriberThe long road to feature flags
Everyone agrees on the goal. Nobody agrees on who pays for it.
Tomas Rehn · 6 Jul 2022
aiSubscriberA short history of model distillation
The interesting part is not the technology but the incentives.
Ada Okafor · 1 Jul 2022
aiSubscriberHow fine-tuning got complicated
The measurements are real. The conclusions are doing fieldwork.
Ada Okafor · 29 Jun 2022
cultureSubscriberThe limits of office returns
The details are boring, which usually means they matter.
Nadia Farrow · 27 Jun 2022
aiSubscriberThe bill for open weights is coming due
The numbers look convincing until you read the footnotes.
Ada Okafor · 27 Jun 2022
aiSubscriberEveryone is wrong about quantization
The headline is simple. The second-order effects are not.
Ada Okafor · 25 Jun 2022
aiSubscriberretrieval pipelines, five years later
The result is plausible, but the methodology is carrying it.
Ada Okafor · 25 Jun 2022
hardwareSubscriberHow mechanical keyboards got complicated
The numbers look convincing until you read the footnotes.
Mira Kessler · 21 Jun 2022
gamingSubscriberThe limits of regional pricing
The early adopters are enthusiastic. The second wave is not.
Jules Ferrand · 21 Jun 2022
hardwareSubscriberThe quiet crisis in laptop webcams
The same argument has been made for a decade, with worse numbers.
Mira Kessler · 20 Jun 2022
softwareSubscriberWhat we get wrong about reproducible builds
The details are boring, which usually means they matter.
Tomas Rehn · 18 Jun 2022
cultureSubscriberThe problem with browser extensions
A useful reminder that defaults are product decisions.
Nadia Farrow · 14 Jun 2022
cultureSubscriberNo silver bullet for computer museums
The spec is settled. The implementation is another matter.
Nadia Farrow · 12 Jun 2022
aiSubscriberprompt caching: a reality check
This is less a breakthrough than a slow accumulation of fixes.
Ada Okafor · 10 Jun 2022
hardwareSubscriberThe problem with server motherboards
The spec is settled. The implementation is another matter.
Mira Kessler · 8 Jun 2022
softwareSubscriberThe problem with remote debugging
The market has moved faster than the documentation.
Tomas Rehn · 3 Jun 2022
cultureSubscriberlocal news: a reality check
The interesting part is not the technology but the incentives.
Nadia Farrow · 28 May 2022
gamingSubscriberA field guide to difficulty settings
The easy part is shipping. The hard part is maintaining it.
Jules Ferrand · 28 May 2022
cultureSubscriberThe limits of technician training
The market has moved faster than the documentation.
Nadia Farrow · 28 May 2022
cultureSubscriberWhat comes after RSS readers
The same argument has been made for a decade, with worse numbers.
Nadia Farrow · 27 May 2022
gamingSubscriberThe long road to game soundtracks
The early adopters are enthusiastic. The second wave is not.
Jules Ferrand · 26 May 2022
aiSubscriberThe limits of watermarking
The market has moved faster than the documentation.
Ada Okafor · 24 May 2022
cultureSubscriberpublic libraries: a reality check
The interesting part is not the technology but the incentives.
Nadia Farrow · 19 May 2022
gamingSubscriberWhat we get wrong about game engines
The problem is not the idea. It is the second year.
Jules Ferrand · 18 May 2022
aiSubscriberThe long road to latency budgets
The tooling is better than it was. So are the expectations.
Ada Okafor · 18 May 2022
cultureSubscriberThe case against digital legacies
Everyone agrees on the goal. Nobody agrees on who pays for it.
Nadia Farrow · 17 May 2022
softwareSubscriberEveryone is wrong about container images
The interesting part is not the technology but the incentives.
Tomas Rehn · 16 May 2022
gamingSubscriberA field guide to frame generation
A small change in a standard can take years to reach the shelf.
Jules Ferrand · 12 May 2022
aiSubscriberlatency budgets, five years later
The short version is in the deck. The long version is in the tickets.
Ada Okafor · 12 May 2022
cultureSubscriberThe economics of e-waste exports
A small change in a standard can take years to reach the shelf.
Nadia Farrow · 10 May 2022
aiSubscriberWhat comes after synthetic data
The same argument has been made for a decade, with worse numbers.
Ada Okafor · 8 May 2022
aiSubscriberThe long road to video models
The change is being driven by costs, not by ambition.
Ada Okafor · 3 May 2022