Andy Warhol\'s lost Amiga art found
Andy Warhol\'s lost Amiga art, created in 1985 for Commodore, has been rediscovered after 39 years and is now for sale, with significant contributions from Jeff Bruette, the engineer who taught Warhol how to use the computer. The discovery includes digital images, such as a famous portrait of Debbie Harry, originally intended as live demonstrations but hindered by Warhol\'s inexperience with technology. Warhol’s style, though limited by the Amiga\'s capabilities, showcased his distinctive approach to color and digital art, ultimately revealing his struggle to adapt to the new medium.
Uncovered Euripides fragments are \'kind of a big deal\'
Scholars at the University of Colorado Boulder have uncovered significant new fragments of two lost tragedies by Greek playwright Euripides, identified as "Polyidus" and "Ino," from a papyrus sent by an Egyptian archaeologist. After extensive analysis, they determined that 80% of the text is previously unknown, marking the most important find of Euripides’ works in over fifty years. The discovery is set to be discussed at the Ninth Fountain Symposium on the CU Boulder campus, showcasing the contributions of various experts in the field.
A cryptographically secure bootloader for RISC-V in Rust
SentinelBoot is a cryptographically secure bootloader for RISC-V, developed in Rust as a final-year project at The University of Manchester, aimed at enhancing boot flow safety through memory-safe principles and public-key cryptography. The project utilizes Rust’s ownership, borrowing, and lifetime constraints to mitigate memory safety vulnerabilities, achieving a binary that is one-tenth the size of an example U-Boot with a 20.1% performance overhead. The bootloader demonstrates secure boot functionality, successfully verifying the integrity and authenticity of the booted kernel while emphasizing the practical benefits of using Rust for system software.
How Postgres stores data on disk – this one\'s a page turner
The blog post explores how PostgreSQL stores data on disk, detailing the directory structure and the various components involved in data storage, such as the heap, pages, and file organization. It explains the mechanisms of row modifications and deletions through Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC), emphasizing that PostgreSQL creates new tuples instead of modifying existing ones directly. Additionally, the author discusses practical reasons for understanding these internals, including performance fine-tuning and potential data recovery scenarios.
Weak Soft Skills: Why you are stuck at the Senior engineer level
The article emphasizes that weak soft skills, particularly in communication, are often why engineers remain at the Senior level instead of advancing to Staff Engineer. It identifies three critical communication modes—writing, speaking, and nonverbal communication—essential for career growth, and provides tips for effectively mastering each mode. Ultimately, developing these skills can enhance collaboration and increase value within teams, facilitating progression in one\'s engineering career.
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