#635 – July 20, 2025
from early electron guns to modern LCD and OLED
How does a screen work?
15 minutes by Dan Hollick
In this article Dan shares the evolution of digital displays in computing, from early electron guns to modern LCD and OLED technologies, and looks ahead to future innovations. He covers the importance of pixels, the mechanics of current display technologies, and emerging developments in the field.
How engineers at n8n and Cal.com automate code reviews with AI
sponsored by Cubic.dev
What do top engineering teams at n8n, Cal.com, and the Linux Foundation have in common? They’re merging PRs 30% faster, and saving 5h per week, with cubic’s AI code reviews. Cubic’s AI code review agent spots bugs and learns your team's best practices, so humans can focus on the big picture instead of nitpicks.
Artisanal handcrafted git repositories
less than a minute by Drew Silcock
There’s no love and care put into crafting our git repositories nowadays. In this guide Drew talks about how to make your git repositories by hand without using git commands and teaches you a bit more about how it works under the hood.
Algorithms for making interesting organic simulations
10 minutes by Etienne Jacob
Etienne explores techniques for creating organic-looking simulations based on the Physarum algorithm. He explains how particles move around leaving trails that influence other particles' movements, creating complex emergent patterns.
Write little proofs in your head
19 minutes by Matthew Prast
A technique for more effective programming by mentally sketching proofs that your code will work correctly as you write it. Matthew covers several proof-based reasoning approaches including monotonicity, pre/post-conditions, invariants, isolation, and recursion/induction.
How to think about time in programming
31 minutes by Shan Rauf
Time handling is everywhere in software, but many programmers talk about the topic with dread and fear. Some warn about how difficult the topic is to understand, listing bizarre timezone edge cases as evidence of complexity. Others repeat advice like "just use UTC bro" as if it were an unconditional rule. Here's a conceptual model for thinking about time in programming that encapsulates its complexity.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: