Recent Reads (Issue 17) - Calculator Apps, Software Dev, Cozy Games, WikiTok, Quantum Computing
“A calculator app? Anyone could make that": Just an amazing read on the complexity of building a calculator app that works as expected when operating in floating point math. Nerdy read.
Software development topics I've changed my mind on after 10 years in the industry - Good list, and I agree with most things here. Having spent 20 years myself, I am overdue to make a list like this as well.
Cozy games as an antidote to stress and anxiety: I only recently heard the term “cozy games” and then coincidentally found this post by Reuters on how this emergent model of gaming is challenging the conventional narrative on gaming disorders and showing how cozy gaming can help folks with real-world challenges. The article is a decent read, but props to Reuters for the visual design and interactivity of the web-page. There is also a subreddit that seems to be a good source for some cozy games worth trying. Reminds me a bit of idle games.
Cool side project - Wikitok: Isaac Gemal‘s Tiktok-esque experience for Wikipedia has been a lot of fun to spend a few minutes on. The article on Ars Technica is a quick read on how it was made, but this part is interesting:
Gemal started his project at 12:30 am, and with help from AI coding tools like Anthropic's Claude and Cursor, he finished a prototype by 2 am and posted the results on X. Someone later announced WikiTok on ycombinator's Hacker News, where it topped the site's list of daily news items.
The AI coding tools are getting really interesting
Microsoft’s new Quantum Computing chip: Are we on the verge of general purpose quantum computing? Microsoft believes so, promising their new quantum chip will make that possible in years, not decades. The part that got my attention was this:
All of today’s announcements build on our team’s recent breakthrough: the world’s first topoconductor. This revolutionary class of materials enables us to create topological superconductivity, a new state of matter that previously existed only in theory.
This YouTube short gives a good quick overview, and the Microsoft blog goes into more technical details
Bonus:
📘 Book recommendation of the week: I just finished reading “The Nvidia Way” and found it a great read. Highly recommended.