# Weekly Technology Digest
A curated collection of **tech news, tools, and resources worth sharing**, published every Friday.
This magazine is **[open source](https://github.com/ruanyf/weekly)**, and contributions are welcome via **[submission](https://github.com/ruanyf/weekly/issues)**.
We also offer a **[“Who’s Hiring”](https://github.com/ruanyf/weekly/issues/8003)** service for posting programmer job openings.
For collaboration inquiries, please **[email](http://www.ruanyifeng.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f78e9e91929990d985829699b7909a969e9bd994989a)**.
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## 📸 Cover Image
**Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art** — soon to open. Ten exhibition halls connect into one sweeping roof, symbolizing the tiled eaves of Jiangnan homes.
([via](https://www.archiposition.com/items/29335ee2bf))
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## 🐞 The Most Bizarre Software Bug Ever
[Source](https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@TomF/115589875974658415)
In 2013, while working at Valve, I discovered an extraordinary bug while porting *Half-Life 2* to VR (*Oculus DK1*).
### Story Summary
1. **The Problem:**
- In an early scene, a guard points you toward a room.
- Door is locked; corridor trap.
- No way forward or back.
- In the original game, the door opened automatically.
2. **Investigation:**
- Original source code compiled — door still stuck.
- Bug had existed all along but only appeared when recompiling in 2013.
3. **Root Cause:**
- Another guard too close to the door.
- Door opened, bumped guard’s toe, bounced shut, re-locked.
- No engine logic to reopen door.
4. **Fix:**
- Moved the guard back by 1 mm — problem solved.
5. **Why Now?**
- *2004 build*: x87 floating-point (32/64/80-bit mixed precision).
- *2013 build*: SSE floating-point (consistent 32- or 64-bit).
- Change in precision altered collision math — enough to make the toe touch the door.
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## 📰 Tech News
### 1. AI Lectures at University
[Read More](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/nov/20/university-of-staffordshire-course-taught-in-large-part-by-ai-artificial-intelligence)
Staffordshire University students protest AI-generated teaching, despite strict anti-AI rules for student assignments.
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### 2. Toyota’s Crab-like Wheelchair
[Details](https://mossandfog.com/toyotas-crab-like-wheelchair-that-walks/)
A motorized four-legged chair that can **walk and climb stairs**, crouch, and stand — human-carrying robotics coming soon?
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### 3. IBM Quantum Computer Display
[Article](https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/you-can-see-a-working-quantum-computer-in-ibms-london-office-85464/)
Quantum computing — cool tech, impractical for homes due to extreme cooling requirements.
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## 💰 Government Website Costs
[Full Story](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-23/bureau-of-meteorology-new-website-cost-blowout-to-96-million/106042202)
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology spent **AUD 96.5 million (~CNY 450 million)** on a new site, then reverted to an old system after farmers complained about missing rainfall data.
Breakdown:
- Design: AUD 4.1M
- Development: AUD 79.8M
- Launch & Testing: AUD 12.6M
Visit: [New site](https://www.bom.gov.au/) and [Old site](https://reg.bom.gov.au/)
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## 📄 Articles
1. [Why Every Database Uses B-Trees](https://mehmetgoekce.substack.com/p/b-trees-why-every-database-uses-them) — Popular science explanation.
2. [Why Evaluating New AI Models Is Hard](https://simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/24/claude-opus/) — Simon Willison’s thoughts.
3. [Your Idle SSD Is Losing Data](https://www.xda-developers.com/your-unpowered-ssd-is-slowly-losing-your-data/) — Unpowered SSDs degrade over time.
4. [Benchmarking Loongson CPUs](https://lemire.me/blog/2025/11/23/how-good-are-chinese-cpus-benchmarking-the-loongson-3a6000/) — Against Intel Xeon Gold 6338.
5. [URLs Inside C Code](https://susam.net/url-in-c.html) — Why a URL compiles successfully in C.
6. [Build a Simple Search Engine](https://karboosx.net/post/4eZxhBon/building-a-simple-search-engine-that-actually-works) — Practical intro.
7. [DIY NAS 2026 Edition](https://blog.briancmoses.com/2025/11/diy-nas-2026-edition.html) — Hardware + configuration guide.
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## 🛠 Tools
| Tool | Description |
|------|-------------|
| [DNS Benchmark Tool](https://github.com/frankovo/dns-benchmark-tool) | CLI DNS latency tester. |
| [iDescriptor](https://github.com/iDescriptor/iDescriptor) | Manage computer-iPhone connections. |
| [SVG.js](https://svgjs.dev) | JS library to animate/manipulate SVG. |
| [impala](https://github.com/pythops/impala) | Terminal WiFi manager for Linux. |
| [2025-blog-public](https://github.com/YYsuni/2025-blog-public) | Next.js blog template. |
| [pdfpc-ts](https://github.com/Master-Hash/pdfpc-ts) | Web-based presentation tool w/ notes. |
| [Clip Save](https://github.com/snsogbl/clip-save) | Clipboard history tool for Win/Mac. |
| [Hoa](https://github.com/hoa-js/hoa) | Koa/Hono-inspired JS server framework. |
| [NodeBBS](https://github.com/aiprojecthub/nodebbs) | Modern JS forum system. |
| [MyTube](https://github.com/franklioxygen/MyTube) | Self-hosted YouTube/Bilibili video manager. |
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## 🤖 AI-Related Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| [WeFinance-Copilot](https://github.com/JasonRobertDestiny/WeFinance-Copilot) | AI-driven financial analysis assistant. |
| [KoalaQA](https://github.com/chaitin/KoalaQA) | AI customer support/community Q&A. |
| [seekdb](https://github.com/oceanbase/seekdb) | AI database with vector computation + MySQL support. |
| [OPENUGC](https://chat.openugc.com) | Configurable AI web client (closed-source). |
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## 📚 Resources
1. **[LangGraph 1.0 Guide](https://www.luochang.ink/dive-into-langgraph/quickstart/)** — Agent dev framework tutorial via Jupyter.
2. **[Nano Banana Pro Prompts](https://github.com/YouMind-OpenLab/awesome-nano-banana-pro-prompts/blob/main/README_zh.md)** — 500+ model prompts with images/params.
3. **[OCR Arena](https://www.ocrarena.ai)** — Compare OCR model performance; Gemini 3 leads.
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## 🖼 Images
### Historically Accurate Airport Dioramas
[Portfolio](https://www.core77.com/posts/138995/Historically-Accurate-Airport-Dioramas-by-AV-Pro-Designs)
A retired American pilot builds detailed **airport dioramas**. Includes a Mumbai Airport model with night lighting effects.
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## 💬 Excerpts
> Time is our most irreplaceable asset — we can’t buy more of it.
> — “Say No to Everyone Who Asks for Just a Little of Your Time” ([link](https://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2017/01/to-everyone-who-asks-for-just-a-little-of-your-time/))
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## 🗣 Sayings
1. **Programming is the best antidote to arrogance**. — [tratt.net](https://tratt.net/laurie/blog/2020/automatic_syntax_error_recovery.html)
2. Training a truly unconventional viewpoint in AI will become harder. — [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46050177)
3. AI proliferation in 2025 blurs human vs machine work. — [tonsky.me](https://tonsky.me/blog/hiring-ai/)
4. Life is short; drifting leads to aging quickly. — [Goro Obata](https://kottke.org/25/11/my-pace)
5. 100% functional objects are inherently beautiful; cars often aren’t. — [Dan Gelbart](https://www.bedelstein.com/post/mcmaster-carr)
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## 📜 Past Reviews
- [AI Models Are Not a Good Business](https://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/2024/12/weekly-issue-328.html) (#328)
- [The Tricky Issue of AI Copyright](https://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/2023/11/weekly-issue-278.html) (#278)
- [The Meaning of Humanity and Life](https://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/2022/10/weekly-issue-228.html) (#228)
- [The Spring of Home Solar Power](https://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/2021/10/weekly-issue-178.html) (#178)
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