Ranjit Mathew
rmathew4bs.bsky.social
Ranjit Mathew
@rmathew4bs.bsky.social
Notorious procrastinator, supposed reader, and alleged programmer.

https://rmathew.com/
Beautiful:

“The Unbearable Joy Of Sitting Alone In A Café”, Candost Dagdeviren (candost.blog/the-unbearab...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4648...

#Coffee #Solitude #Cafe #MeTime #FOMO #JOMO #Attention #Distractions
The Unbearable Joy of Sitting Alone in A Café
Hunting timeless insights into humans and software and helping others on the way.
candost.blog
January 5, 2026 at 2:48 PM
The sad reality of the persistent discrimination & prosecution of #dalits in #India extending to their food-habits:

“From Honeycomb Curry To Blood Fry: India’s ‘Untouchable’ Cooking”, The Economist (www.economist.com/christmas-sp... or archive.is/VAi7A).

#Food #Casteism
From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s “untouchable” cooking
The hidden joys of a cuisine shaped by cruelty
www.economist.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:37 AM
Moderate #drinking should be fine 🍸 for those who can metabolize #alcohol, the killjoys at the WHO notwithstanding 😒:

“How Humankind’s 10m-Year Love Affair With Booze Might End”, The Economist (www.economist.com/christmas-sp... or archive.is/QUCwr).

#Buzz #Health #Life
How humankind’s 10m-year love affair with booze might end
Civilisation was built on alcohol. Technology may sober us up
www.economist.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:27 AM
A hilarious read 🤭 about the sad reality for many men trying to court women 😬 getting conned by pick-up artists 😠:

“What The Economist Discovered At Dating Bootcamp”, The Economist (www.economist.com/christmas-sp... or archive.is/g5L88).

#Dating #Men #PickUp #Seduction
What The Economist discovered at dating bootcamp
For some men, women are baffling creatures, apparently
www.economist.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:09 AM
informative article with great examples 👌🏽👇🏽📸:

“What An Unprocessed Photo Looks Like”, Maurycy Z (maurycyz.com/misc/raw_pho...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4641...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/nqawul/wha...

On /r/photography: old.reddit.com/r/photograph...

#Photography #Cameras #Images
What an unprocessed photo looks like: (Maurycy's blog)
maurycyz.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:06 PM
This is why even as an #introvert & a #homebody, I can’t work fully remote without a fall-back for #SocialLife 🙁:

“How I Rebooted My Social Life”, James O’Malley (takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/this-might...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4645...

#WFH #Community #RemoteWork #Life #Work
How I rebooted my social life
Some self-help for the New Year
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk
January 2, 2026 at 5:31 AM
My review of the book “The Rose Field” by Philip Pullman, which is the last in “The Book Of Dust” trilogy of books:

rmathew.com/2025/trf.html

#Books #Review #BookReview #TheRoseField #TheBookOfDust #HisDarkMaterials #WebSite #Plug #Fantasy
“The Rose Field”
rmathew.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:52 PM
In which Rob Pike doesn’t appreciate an unbridled LLM spamming him 😬:

bsky.app/profile/robp...

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4639...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/n4kxdf/rob...

#RobPike #AI #AIVillage #LLMs #Rage
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software.

Just fuck you. Fuck you all.

I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
December 28, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Apple is deliberately holding back iOS 18.7.3 from newer iPhones to force us to upgrade to iOS 26 (with its Liquid fricking Glass & other bugs):

support.apple.com/en-us/125885

The update fixes critical security issues.😰

What a user-hostile behavior!😡

#Apple #iOS #LiquidGlass
About the security content of iOS 18.7.3 and iPadOS 18.7.3 - Apple Support
This document describes the security content of iOS 18.7.3 and iPadOS 18.7.3.
support.apple.com
December 25, 2025 at 9:24 AM
😈:

“AMD First Entered The CPU Market With Reverse-Engineered Intel 8080 Clone 50 Years Ago — The Am9080 Cost 50 Cents Apiece To Make, But Sold For $700”, Tom’s Hardware (www.tomshardware.com/pc-component...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4637...

#AMD #Intel #CPU #Hardware #Espionage
AMD first entered the CPU market with reverse-engineered Intel 8080 clone 50 years ago — the Am9080 cost 50 cents apiece to make, but sold for $700
In 1975, AMD could make these processors for 50 cents and sell them for $700, providing a great financial springboard to establish the company in PC CPU making.
www.tomshardware.com
December 25, 2025 at 7:19 AM
“D-Bus Is A Disgrace To The Linux Desktop”, Rafał ‘Vaxry’ Kucharski (blog.vaxry.net/articles/202...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4627...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/e62vku/d_b...

#Linux #FreeDesktop #DBus #Hyprtavern #GNOME #Programming #CPlusPlus
Vaxry's Blog
A programming blog written by Vaxry.
blog.vaxry.net
December 20, 2025 at 8:47 AM
What a comprehensive post 🤯 – needs a more in-depth reading later 👇🏽👌🏽:

“No Graphics API”, Sebastian Aaltonen (www.sebastianaaltonen.com/blog/no-grap...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4629...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/wopu8o/no_...

#Graphics #GPU #GraphicsProgramming #Vulkan #DirectX #Metal
No Graphics API — Sebastian Aaltonen
Graphics APIs and shader languages have significantly increased in complexity over the past decade. It’s time to start discussing how to strip down the abstractions to simplify development, improve pe...
www.sebastianaaltonen.com
December 20, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Jeff & Sanjay are #programming gurus 🫡 – this 👇🏽 is solid advice 👌🏽 (I suggested minor edits):

“Performance Hints”, Jeff Dean & Sanjay Ghemawat, Google (abseil.io/fast/hints.h...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4632...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/qelpuh/per...

#Google #Performance #ABSL
abseil / Performance Hints
An open-source collection of core C++ library code
abseil.io
December 20, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Ah, the good old “thrives in ambiguity” trait in senior engineers – for many folks, this goal itself becomes ambiguous 😐:

“What Actually Makes You Senior”, Matheus Lima (terriblesoftware.org/2025/11/25/w...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4632...

#Work #Career #Performance #Appraisals
What Actually Makes You Senior
The one skill that separates senior engineers from everyone else isn’t technical. It’s the ability to take ambiguous problems and make them concrete.Retry
terriblesoftware.org
December 20, 2025 at 7:02 AM
#CPU and #GPU manufacturers are *terrible* at naming them and associated chipsets, slots, etc. causing maximal confusion for consumers 😡:

“Getting Bitten By Poor Naming Schemes”, Loren Burkholder (lorendb.dev/posts/gettin...).

Many examples on HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4632...
Getting Bitten by Poor Naming Schemes
Don't you love misleading documentation?
lorendb.dev
December 20, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Sometimes the YouTube recommender just hits it out of the park – this is a great live performance of the beautiful “Rangi Saari” song 😍:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=BgW8...

Devashri Manohar and Kanishk Seth are just incredible here. 👏🏽

#RangiSaari #Song #Music #Live #Gig
Most Incredible Rangi Saari Performance You'll Ever See! ​⁠​⁠@GIFLIFfest ​⁠​⁠@Indiestaan #indie
YouTube video by INDIESTAAN
m.youtube.com
December 15, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Wise, sobering words 😞:

“The Lost Cause Of The Lisp Machines”, Tim Bradshaw (www.tfeb.org/fragments/20...).

Via HN: www.tfeb.org/fragments/20...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/rifpe8/los...

#Lisp #LispMachines #Symbolics #Nostalgia #Programming #IDE #Hardware
The lost cause of the Lisp machines
I am just really bored by Lisp Machine romantics at this point: they should go away. I expect they never will....
www.tfeb.org
December 15, 2025 at 1:42 PM
This is the most insidious bug on #iOS – the #iPhone keyboard *deliberately* mistypes the letters you press 😡:

“It's Not Just You - The iOS Keyboard Is Broken”, Michi NekoMichi (m.youtube.com/watch?v=hksV...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4623...

#Apple #Typing #AutoCorrect #UX
It's Not Just You - The iOS Keyboard is Broken
YouTube video by Michi NekoMichi
m.youtube.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:01 AM
The Amazon Pay app only lets you use your mobile number for UPI IDs (e.g. 9845098450@yapl). 😰

The Google Pay app only lets you use your Gmail username for UPI IDs (e.g. ashokkumar@oksbi). 😥

The BHIM app thankfully lets you customize your primary UPI ID. 😮‍💨

#India #UPI
December 7, 2025 at 5:34 AM
A lot of people feel this way 😩:

“Everyone In Seattle Hates AI”, Jonathan Ready (jonready.com/blog/posts/e...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4613...

#Microsoft #Seattle #Layoffs #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Hype #Productivity #Morale
Everyone in Seattle Hates AI — Jonathon Ready
A post about everyone in Seattle hating AI.
jonready.com
December 6, 2025 at 1:19 PM
The utter greed & cynicism that made IndiGo mess up the lives of hundreds of thousands of passengers across the country this week in order to force the DGCA to roll back an inconvenient rule is 🤯.

Evil. 😡

#IndiGo #India #Capitalism #Monopoly #WTF #Aviation
December 6, 2025 at 2:34 AM