EIL

Every month I share the things I leraned and remembered to write down somewhere. Here are the June notes.

Berlin is serious about bats

I discovered a naturbelassener Park around Tempelhof nearby my apartment. Berlin quietly protects a lot of semi-wild spaces like bats.

NABU Berlin says that Berlin is the “capital of bats”: 18 bat species have been recorded in the city, and up to 11,000 bats overwinter in the Spandau Citadel alone. (NABU - Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V.)

Nazi drug experiments

While I show a Nazi era concentration camp to my family during their visit to Berlin, I learned lots about the drug experiments in these camps.

Nazi doctors conducted radical medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners without consent. I knew it already but I didn't know there were inhumane cocaine experiments and some psychedelics as well. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum groups these experiments into survival, drug-treatment, and ideological/racial categories. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

More specifically, SS doctor Kurt Plötner is associated with mescaline experiments at Dachau, apparently connected to interrogation and “truth serum” research. These expreiments later mentioned on LSD researches. (Cambridge University Press & Assessment)

Eichenprozessionsspinner

I learned the story behind the German word that looks like a keyboard accident: Eichenprozessionsspinner, the oak processionary moth. the city was invaded, probabyl still is. Especially in the outer parts.

The adult moth is not the main issue. The caterpillars are. Their tiny hairs contain an irritating toxin and can cause skin, eye, throat, and allergic reactions.

Berlin is a good habitat for them because the city has many oaks in parks and along streets. (Berlin.de)

Plants that keep appearing

My father once pointed out a wild herb named (in Turkish) sinir otu to me on a Berlin sidewalk. He mentioned that it's a medically important herb. I did not care much at the time. Now I keep seeing it everywhere.

The German name is Spitzwegerich, in English ribwort plantain, and its Latin name is Plantago lanceolata. The European Medicines Agency lists it as a traditional herbal medicine used for throat irritation, dry cough, cough with cold, and minor skin inflammation. (European Medicines Agency (EMA))

Also learned that blackberry tea is great for eye pressure apperently. I am not turning this into medical advice. It is just good tea actually.

Barry’s Berlin

Barry’s gymb Berlin gave me a small anthropology moment :/

Luxury gym, waiting list, strange people waiting outside, weird Google Maps energy, and a visible upper class snob culture fitness.

NUMA finally clicked

I learned more about NUMA, short for Non-Uniform Memory Access.

Small server:
CPU <-> RAM

Large multi-socket server:
CPU0 <-> RAM0
CPU1 <-> RAM1
CPU2 <-> RAM2
CPU3 <-> RAM3

Each CPU socket has memory that is physically closer to it. Local memory access is faster. Remote memory access still works, but it crosses the interconnect and costs more latency. Red Hat describes NUMA as a design where memory resources are allocated close to a CPU to improve access time. (Red Hat Documentation)

Linux exposes this topology nicely:

numactl --hardware
lscpu | grep NUMA
numastat
numactl --show

The practical lesson: big servers are not just “more CPU and more RAM”. Placement matters. Threads and memory should ideally live close to each other. Otherwise, a powerful machine can quietly waste performance by moving data across sockets.

Linux also has NUMA memory policy support, which controls from which NUMA node memory gets allocated. (Kernel Documentation)

Strudel and TidalCycles

I tried to configure Strudel and TidalCycles locally, then discovered that Strudel already works in the browser.

Strudel is basically a browser-based live coding environment that ports the TidalCycles pattern language to JavaScript. (Strudel)

Music rabbit holes

A great house track from Saudi Arabia:

Shoft Alhala, Radio Edit, by Vinyl Mode and Moayad

I also learned about Assa’d Khoury’s Electronic Touches Belly Dance, a 1978 Lebanese instrumental album built around funky electronic keyboards and Arabic melodies. It was reissued in 2026 after nearly 50 years. (WEWANTSOUNDS)

The most interesting part for me was the modified Farfisa-style keyboard world: electronic organs adapted for Oriental scales and quarter-tones. Arabic music needs pitches that standard Western keyboards do not naturally provide. This similar trend of tuning off the keyboards can also be observed other sub-cultures in North and central Africa.

AWS “What is” pages

I appreciated AWS’s “What is” pages.

The computer chip explanation is simple, direct, and mostly free of forced metaphors. It explains chips, silicon, etching, analog circuits, digital circuits, ASICs, SoCs, and AWS custom chips like Graviton, Inferentia, and Trainium in a clean way. (Amazon Web Services, Inc.)

Good technical writing does not always need storytelling.

Zirkus Mond

I went of the Zirkus Mond shows called "What is Zirkus". It was fantastic.

One thing that surprised me was a handmade "robot" used during the performance. The presenter explained how circuses have always followed new technologies closely and turned them into art. In some ways, circuses have historically been early adopters of technology rather than followers.

Where Have All the Sparrows Gone?

Apparently Berlin's sparrow population is declining rapidly and nobody is completely sure why.

One theory I found interesting is that while adult sparrows can eat seeds and crumbs, baby sparrows depend almost entirely on insects during their first weeks of life. With insect populations collapsing due to pesticides and increasingly manicured urban environments, many chicks simply don't get enough food.

Urban colonies are also vulnerable to diseases such as Salmonella and avian malaria, especially when combined with pollution and noise.

The Gold Under an Indian Temple

I learned about the enormous treasure discovered in the vaults of an Indian temple.

The amounts involved are so large that estimates reach tens of billions of dollars in gold, jewels, coins, and artifacts accumulated over centuries of donations. The discovery triggered legal battles, security concerns, and debates about ownership and preservation.

One of those stories that sounds fictional until you realize it actually happened.

The Smithsonian on Unsplash

The Smithsonian has published around 1,000 images on Unsplash.

What surprised me is the scale of the institution itself. The Smithsonian isn't just a museum—it's 21 museums, libraries, research centers, and even a zoo.

Hundreds of years of art, science, culture, and history are now much easier to access and reuse.

Bromantane

I discovered Bromantane, a Russian drug originally developed for improving physical and mental performance.

It acts as both a stimulant and an anxiolytic, which is a strange combination. Unlike classical stimulants such as amphetamine, its exact mechanism is still not fully understood.

It's sometimes described as an "adaptogen" or "actoprotector", terms I had never encountered before.

Yogi Kazım

I came across the story of Yogi Kazım.

One of those unusual figures who seem to exist somewhere between performance art, spirituality, self-invention, and local legend. Definitely a rabbit hole worth exploring.

https://tam-museum.org/yogi-kazim

Yogi Kazim lived long and his own developed methods which are influced from Yoga and many other studies.

Georg-von-Rauch-Haus

A building next to my office has much more interesting history than anybody passing by expected.

The Georg-von-Rauch-Haus was occupied by activists in 1971 during West Berlin's housing protests and became one of the symbols of Berlin's squatter movement. It is named after Georg von Rauch, an activist who was killed by police shortly before the occupation.

There this amazing symbol song about the house https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYSFGT7UGS8

The Art Manifesto at Bethanien

I visited an exhibition at Bethanien and ended up spending more time thinking about an art manifesto than the artwork itself.

Bethanien itself has an interesting history. It started as a hospital in the 19th century and later became one of Berlin's most important cultural and artistic spaces.

Gecekondu at Kottbusser Tor Berlin

There is a small hut near Kottbusser Tor called "Gecekondu".

"Gecekondu" is a Turkish word meaning "built overnight". This one was built as a protest against rising rents and the privatization of social housing in Berlin.

Behind it is Kotti & Co, a movement formed by local residents, many from Turkish guest-worker families. What looks like a simple wooden hut is actually a political meeting point, community center, and symbol of resistance against displacement.

There are many dramas foing on inside this initiative but the hut standing there is a real statement.

Schwerbelastungskörper

I didn't know that there was a giant concrete cylinder in Tempelhof without an active purpose right now.

The Schwerbelastungskörper ("heavy load-bearing body") was built by Albert Speer between 1941 and 1942 to test whether Berlin's ground could support a gigantic triumphal arch planned by the Nazis.

The arch was supposed to be around three times larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The arch was never built, but the test structure remains. It is one of the strangest reminders of how ambitious and absurd some of the plans for Nazi Berlin were.

Timmy the Whale

I went down a rabbit hole reading about Timmy, a whale that became a national story in Germany.

What interested me most was the public reaction. Scientists argued that intervention would likely cause more suffering and that the whale should be left alone, but many people demanded that something be done.

Germans went a bit too emotional almost hysterical on this topic.

I usually take notes and try to follow the slipbox technique for storing the new information that I find out interesting during a month. This month I didn't take notes as an experiment to see how much I will remember. Turns out slipbox note taking is important.

The Nepal Royal Massacre: The Impossible King

The 2001 massacre of the Nepalese royal family remains one of the strangest royal tragedies in modern history. In June 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal allegedly killed nine members of his own family, including the king and queen, reportedly over a dispute about his marriage, before shooting himself. The massacre did not just devastate the royal family. It also threw the monarchy into chaos, led to the surreal 54-hour reign of a king in a coma, and gave rise to conspiracy theories that would shadow the throne until its eventual abolition.

What makes the story especially interesting is how absurd the events after became. After shooting his family and himself, Dipendra fell into a coma. Even so, he was officially declared king and remained on the throne for three days before dying, creating the bizarre spectacle of a monarch who reigned without ever regaining consciousness.

Public suspicion quickly turned toward Gyanendra, the dead king’s brother. He was conceniently absent from the dinner, while his immediate family escaped with only minor injuries. His first public explanation, that the massacre resulted from an “accidental discharge of an automatic weapon,” was so implausible that it only deepened distrust and further damaged the monarchy’s legitimacy.

Cicero’s De Oratore

People say Cicero must be read in Latin but that will be impossible for me. I have a plan to read in English or Turkish in the future. I believe it will inspire many who wants to be better in public speaking. Writing in the crumbling Roman Republic, Cicero’s work on the "Ideal Orator" argues that technical skill is secondary to character. Search for Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore (Book I-III). For Cicero, rhetoric without wisdom is a weapon: persuasive power without ethics becomes a threat to the state. Cicero dismissed the idea that rhetoric could be mastered as a mere technique. A real orator, in his view, had to be a polymath, versed in law, culture, and human psychology. Without that breadth, one was not an orator, only a shouter.

Leslie Lamport once said:

“If you know something but you don’t write it down, you only think you know it.”

Rethinking Erlang Distribution

While exploring alternatives to libcluster, I came across Partisan.

Partisan is a distribution layer for BEAM applications that bypasses standard Distributed Erlang and manages connections manually over TCP. Instead of relying on Erlang’s built-in node discovery and full-mesh networking, it allows developers to choose different network topologies such as peer-to-peer, client-server, or publish-subscribe depending on the use case. Although Erlang’s distribution protocol has been extremely stable for years and even the official documentation notes that the node communication protocol has remained largely unchanged for a long time, Partisan replaces this mature BEAM distribution layer. Stability is great but experimental new tools can create more flexibility and opportunities. Partisan is one of those experiments.

Read more: - hexdocs.pm/partisan
- https://www.erlang.org/docs/22/apps/erts/erldistprotocol.html

The Mystery of zeb_def_ipc Files on macOS and ZebOs in Corporte Services

At some point I saw strange files in /tmp called zeb_def_ipc_*.It seemed suspicion. Turns out they usually come from corporate security software like Zscaler or FortiClient. The name comes from ZebOS, a commercial routing engine derived from the open-source GNU Zebra project.

Zebra was created in 1996 and allowed Unix systems to operate as full routing platforms supporting protocols like BGP and OSPF.

Later the creators built ZebOS, a commercial version widely used inside networking and security products.

The ipc part of the filename stands for Inter-Process Communication. These files are actually Unix domain sockets used internally so different parts of the VPN client can communicate with each other.

If you want to see which program is using them:

sudo lsof /tmp/zeb_def_ipc*

If you delete them while your VPN is active, your connection will likely break. Rebooting usually cleans them up.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Zebra

Schmerzensgeld: A German Legal Curiosity

Another concept I learned about recently is Schmerzensgeld. It literally translates to “pain money.”

In Germany, it refers to financial compensation for non-material damages, such as pain and suffering after an injury. The legal basis comes from §253 of the German Civil Code. One example: slipping on an icy sidewalk where maintenance was neglected may lead to compensation claims if responsibility can be proven.

Calendar Traditions I Relearn Every Year

Every year I forget the exact order of the German carnival days.

And every year I learn them again.

• Rosenmontag: Carnival Monday. Huge in Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Mainz. There is a special civil comission that prepares the huge carnival there. During carnival there are huge street parades, exessive drinking, and candy throwing. Historically carnival allowed people to mock authorities and social hierarchy, which is why political satire is still common in the parade.
• Faschingsdienstag: Carnival Tuesday. The carnival party continues to this day. After midnight the celebrations stops.
• Aschermittwoch: Ash Wednesday. This day is mostly about religion. The theme shifts from party to reflection.

Different terms are used for carnival around the region: - Karneval: Rhineland (Cologne, Düsseldorf) - Fasching: Bavaria, Austria - Fastnacht / Fasnet: Southwest Germany, Switzerland

Berlinale Moments

I went to Berlinale this year and watched two films that won the Golden Bear AND the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prizes.

Both films were directed by Turkish filmmakers, which made the whole experience even more interesting.

The Golden Bear went to Yellow Letters by İlker Çatak.

Çatak was born in Berlin to Turkish parents and is generally considered a German (Berliner) filmmaker. German newspapers highlighted this after the win with headlines along the lines of “Gold stayed in Berlin.”

The film follows a theatre couple who lose their jobs after political pressure and struggle to rebuild their lives. It was very relatable to me.

The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to Salvation (Kurtuluş) by Emin Alper.

This one takes place in a remote mountain village and revolves around a land dispute that gradually escalates. The atmosphere is dense and uncomfortable in a deliberate way. I loved "Salvations" artistic part more.

Both movies were political movies and they try to point out some of the heavy topics in Turkish politics. But it will be reltable to international audiance as well.

Göbekli Tepe in Berlin

I also visited the Göbekli Tepe - Building community - exhibition at the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin.

With the special exhibition “Building community. Göbeklitepe, Taş Tepeler, and life 12,000 years ago” the Vorderasiatisches Museum is focusing on art and sculptures from the first settled cultures in the south-east of present-day Türkiye. There, people erected monumental stone structures and populated them with spectacular stone sculptures. Curated in collaboration with Turkish archaeologists, the exhibition presents the sculptures, many of which are being shown abroad for the first time, together with architectural reconstructions, media, and photos by Spanish photo artist Isabel Muñoz.

The most memorable part was the photographic gallery inside the exhibition. Instead of presenting the site as static archaeological information, the photographs pull you into the landscape and atmosphere of the excavation.

I learned again the importance of Göbekli Tepe on the human history again.

Shocking thing is this place was discovered entirely by coincidence and a farmer’s insistence. After the discovery the entire known history of humanity changed.

Previously: EIL June, EIL July, EIL August, EIL September, EIL October, EIL November, EIL December

Turkish punk underground

Turkey has a long-running DIY punk scene shaped by political pressure, small venues, and tight community networks. It survives through zines, Bandcamp releases, and live shows rather than mainstream exposure. Source: Bandcamp

Orkestar Bakije Bakića

A Serbian Roma brass orchestra from Vranje known for high-energy čoček and improvisation-heavy performances. Their music is central to weddings, festivals, and the southern Serbian brass tradition. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GučaTrumpetFestival, https://www.discogs.com/artist/920987-Ansambl-Bakije-Baki%C4%87a I have discovered them through this work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWGJmJdix0

Guča Trumpet Festival

Guča is the global focal point of Serbian brass music and Roma trumpet culture. It shaped how Balkan brass became internationally recognized. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GučaTrumpetFestival

Cursor usage insights

I had a look at my Cursor usage. My consistent daily usage of cursor with extreme token consumption shows AI tooling becoming a primary thinking interface of my life. October and Thursdays were peak productivity periods, not nights or weekends.

MySQL and MariaDB split

A random fact from X. MySQL and MariaDB are named after Michael Widenius’s daughters. MariaDB exists because Widenius forked MySQL after Oracle’s acquisition to keep it open source. Source: https://mariadb.org/about/

Istio blackhole clusters

In Istio, blackhole clusters intentionally drop traffic when no valid route exists. They are a safety mechanism, not a bug.

GTUBE spam test string

GTUBE is a standardized test string that triggers spam filters with an effectively infinite score. Using it outside controlled environments can destroy sender reputation. Source: https://spamassassin.apache.org/gtube/

Anyone who sends the GTUBE test string through real email infrastructure will almost certainly be permanently banned by major email providers. There is no appeal path in practice; treat it as a one-way door.

Problem of Points

Pascal and Fermat solved fair reward splitting by evaluating future probabilities, not past scores. This directly led to probability theory and expected value. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YRfSe-f1FE

Euclid’s Algorithm

The oldest known algorithm computes the greatest common divisor using repeated division. It underpins modern number theory and unique factorization. Source: https://substack.com/redirect/72c08c81-4fb1-4cbc-af90-da52ae508f87

3Blue1Brown SoME4 prizes

SoME4 shifted prizes toward content useful for teachers rather than viral popularity. The focus was clarity, reusability, and classroom adaptability. Source: https://www.3blue1brown.com/some

Hardware instant design and plan via 3e8 Blueprint 3e8blueprint

3e8 Blueprint converts vague hardware ideas into structured designs with schematics and bills of materials. It bridges ideation and engineering execution. Source: https://www.3e8blueprint.com/

E-Werk Berlin, Moka Efti, Berlin and industry

Originally an electric substation, E-Werk became a foundational techno club in the 1990s. Its reuse reflects Berlin’s habit of turning industrial ruins into cultural landmarks. I have learned many more during a free tour on the day Deutsche Kinamatek opening at E-Werk. They have moved from another building.

Source: https://industriekultur.berlin/ort/e-werk-berlin/

Berlin’s industrial identity is best understood through architecture and cinema. Watching Metropolis with live orchestra makes that legacy impossible to ignore. Source: https://babylonberlin.eu

During my cold winter night touring I have learned some more about Berlin 1920s and Leipziger Str (near Checkpont Charlie) and the cafe Moka Efti. The street was very glorious back in the days. Nowadays only white collar business places there. Moka Efti was a massive Weimar-era café and entertainment complex serving tens of thousands daily. Its modern fame comes from Babylon Berlin, though the show fictionalizes its darker aspects.

Source: https://www.berlin.de/en/attractions-and-sights/3560266-3104052-moka-efti.en.html

Other industrial buildings and their stories in Berlin: https://industriekultur.berlin/

Previously: EIL June, EIL July, EIL August, EIL September, EIL October

In-Place Pod Resizing in Kubernetes

Kubernetes now supports true in-place pod resource resizing, allowing CPU and memory requests or limits to be increased or decreased without triggering a pod restart. This removes the need for disruptive rolling updates when tuning workloads. It improves cluster reliability, especially for autoscaled or performance-sensitive workloads where right-sizing can be done reactively instead of preemptively. Read more palark.com/blog/in-place-pod-resizing-kubernetes

OpenTelemetry Transformation Language (OTTL)

OTTL is a declarative transformation language integrated into the OpenTelemetry Collector pipeline. It enables deterministic manipulation of traces, metrics and logs through rule-based statements that resemble fluent-bit filter semantics but with stronger typing and composability. OTTL.run provides an interactive environment to write, test and validate transformations before deploying them in production. This simplifies complex telemetry normalization tasks such as attribute remapping, sampling logic and record enrichment. Reference: https://ottl.run

Previously: EIL June, EIL July, EIL August, EIL September, EIL October, EIL November

SCEP - Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol

Technically, SCEP (RFC 8894) is an HTTP-based protocol that automates the distribution of X.509 certificates by wrapping a PKCS#10 request inside a PKCS#7 encrypted envelope. It authenticates these requests using a pre-shared challenge password, allowing "headless" devices like routers and mobile phones to securely enroll with a Certificate Authority without manual intervention.

• SCEP is like a hotel room you enter with a generic password (Shared Secret). If someone steals that password, they can get in.
• Modern TLS (EST/ACME) is like a high-end office you enter with a biometric scan or a unique, encrypted digital key. It ensures the device is exactly who it claims to be before it ever sees the "key."

**The Passion of the Cut Sleeve - Han Dynasty, China (~7–1 BCE)

** A story between Emperor Ai of Han & his favorite official, Dong Xian. While the two were napping together, the Emperor woke to find Dong Xian fast asleep on his long silk sleeve. Emperor didn't want to disturb Dod Xian, so he took a knife and cut off his own sleeve to leave quietly. The phrase "Passion of the Cut Sleeve" (duanxiu) became the standard literary euphemism for male homosexuality in China for two millennia.

Chandra OCR by Datalab - OCR model that handles complex tables, forms, handwriting with full layout

Datalab's Chandra is great at benchmarks:

• Supports 40+ languages
• Extracts complex texts, tables, formulas easily

100% open-source.

https://github.com/datalab-to/chandra

A very short story of Switzerland

Switzerland stayed out of major foreign wars mainly because it chose "permanent neutrality". European powers formally recognised Switzerland’s neutral status at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the Swiss committed to not joining military alliances, not sending troops to fight and not letting warring armies use its territory. This became central to its foreign policy and helped it avoid participation in the World Wars and other conflicts. Switzerland did not fight in World War I or World War II. Its neutrality was backed by armed defence and diplomacy. Also the Alps and prepared defence forces made invasion unattractive to neighbours. 

Switzerland’s wealth comes from a mix of economic strengths: a very high GDP per capita; a globally important banking and finance sector supported by decades of stable, "neutral policy"; advanced pharmaceuticals and chemicals exports; and precision manufacturing like watches.

Neutrality kept Switzerland out of destructive wars, and long-term stability, global trade, and strong financial and tech sectors made it rich.

Previously: EIL June, EIL July, EIL August, EIL September

SAIF framework: Google's Secure AI Framework

A conceptual framework to secure AI systems by Google. safety.google/cybersecurity-advancements/saif/

Lattice-based cryptography and Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC)

Lattice-based cryptography secures data using math problems built on grids (lattices) that are easy to create but extremely hard to solve. It’s considered a top candidate for post-quantum cryptography because even powerful quantum computers (the so-called Q Day machines that could break today’s encryption) can’t efficiently solve these lattice problems. In short: it’s a future-proof way to keep encryption safe in the quantum era.

A book about the punk scene in Turkey 1978-1999

A nice website dedicated to “An Interrupted History of Punk and Underground Resources in Turkey 1978-1999” book turkiyedepunkveyeraltikaynaklarininkesintilitarihi.com

A nice album discovery "Folk tunes of pakistan on the latin american beat 1965"

The 1965 EP titled Folk Tunes of Pakistan on the Latin American Beat by Pakistani composer Sohail Rana takes folk melodies from regions like Sindh and the Punjab and re-imagines them in Latin and surf-inspired styles—tracks like “The Khyber Twist” mix electric guitar, organ and regional rhythm patterns. Rana is primarily known for his film-music work in Pakistan.

Previously: EIL June, EIL July, EIL August

Databases: RocksDB, FoundationDB & LMDB

Three very different types of databases caught my eye this month: RocksDB, FoundationDB, and LMDB.

RocksDB is an embedded, SSD-optimized key-value store from Facebook, great for local high-throughput workloads.

FoundationDB, Apple’s open-source project, flips that around. It’s a distributed, ACID-compliant database that scales horizontally while keeping strong consistency.

LMDB: It's minimalist database. Also suitable for embedded projects. It's a memory-mapped B+ tree with zero-copy reads and strong ACID guarantees. Small, fast, but limited to one writer at a time. Each one nails a different corner of the performance–consistency–simplicity triangle.

There are other interesting compact databases here in this tool to benchmark them: github.com/LMDB/dbbench

Random stufff

• StarRocks: an MPP SQL engine built for lightning-fast analytics.
• StateGraph.dev: Stategraph replaces the flat state file with a database-backed graph. Independent changes can run in parallel, and the state becomes queryable and auditable. Parallel teams. No lock waiting. Audit-ready state.
• Rebar4 Kickstarter: Erlang’s build system keeps evolving. Go support.
• Elixir Koans: a fun, interactive way to learn idiomatic Elixir.

Copying Files Faster on Linux

• For large local copies:

  rsync -a --info=progress2 /source/ /destination/

• For tons of small files:

  tar cf - /source | (cd /destination && tar xf -)

• Across disks:

  rsync -a --info=progress2 --inplace --no-whole-file /source/ /destination/

256 Bytes of Art

Discovered A Mind Is Born by Linus Åkesson. A full audiovisual demo packed into just 256 bytes of code. Crazy part is it's audio and visual.

• linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born

Previously: - EIL June - EIL July

The Japanese word "Kara"

• 🎶 Karaoke (カラオケ) = “Empty orchestra” → singing over instrumentals.
• 🥋 Kara-uke (空受け) = “Empty block” → defense with calmness, no force.
• 🥋 Karate (空手) = “Empty hand” → martial art of unarmed combat.

Salman Rushdie reads from Edward Said’s After the Last Sky book

Salman Rushdie reads from Edward Said’s After the Last Sky, a book about how Palestinian identity is lived through repetition and shared codes. One striking example is a letter from a self-proclaimed Palestinian karate champion, using karate as proof of belonging. Said notes that such repetition—being a “Palestinian karate expert” becomes a way of insisting on existence. At the same time, he shows how this identity is invaded by outside definitions and how women’s voices are often left out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf0J9KlHank

Bus telolek - The horn DJs - Indonesian underrated djs

I learned about the bus telolet culture in Indonesia, where kids gather along highways shouting “Om Telolet Om!” (which means “Sir, honk the horn!”) to passing bus drivers. In response, the drivers play their custom multi-tone horns, called telolet, which create melodic and often playful rhythms instead of simple honks. This was a roadside game but niow became a viral internet sensation since 2016, even inspiring famous DJs to sample the sound in their tracks. Today, it’s still alive, especially with tourism buses, showing how something as ordinary as a bus horn can turn into a joyful cultural phenomenon.

NIST Finalizes ‘Lightweight Cryptography’ Standard to Protect Small Devices

Traditional algorithms like AES or SHA-256 are too resource-intensive for many small devices. The new standard offers efficient, compact, and secure cryptography. It’s designed to resist side-channel attacks. The standard is built around a group of cryptographic algorithms in the Ascon family. Ascon was developed in 2014 by a team of cryptographers from Graz University of Technology, Infineon Technologies, and Radboud University.

| Algorithm | Function | Key Benefit | | --- | --- | --- | | ASCON-128 AEAD | Encrypt + Authenticate | Efficient, side-channel resistant AEAD | | ASCON-Hash 256 | Fixed-size hash digest | Lightweight integrity checks | | ASCON-XOF 128 | Variable-length hash output | Tailored performance vs. security | | ASCON-CXOF 128 | Labeled XOF for domain separation | Collision-resistant across devices |

Banana peel for plants

You can chop up a banana peel, leave it in a jar of water overnight, and then use that water (not the peels) to waqter your plants. This can repeat about once a month. This works because banana peels contains nutrients like potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium into the water, which support strong roots, and better flowering. It’s a natural fertilizer, but it’s best not to overdo it since too much can cause mold or disturb the balance of the soil.

Previously: - EIL June

Elixir is actually great

I keep learning that Elixir is actually great.

The BEAM (Bogdan/Björn’s Erlang Abstract Machine), the virtual machine that runs Erlang and Elixir, has native support for hot code upgrades, which is already a great feature.
This is a known fact. What I’ve recently learned is that BEAM can keep two versions of a module loaded at the same time.

Importance of the R.I.C.E. protocol

After twisting my ankle during karate training, I once again realized the importance of the R.I.C.E. protocol.

• Rest – no weight on the injured area for a minimum of 72 hours, ideally a week.
  
• Ice – ice pack covered with a cloth, 15–20 minutes every 2–3 hours during the first 24–48 hours.
  
• Compression – elastic medical band, not too tight. If the area turns blue, stop immediately.
  
• Elevation – elevate above heart level.
  

On top of this, supplements are important for a good recovery.
A sufficient amount of protein, 3g of creatine daily (or continue your usual dose if you’re already taking supplements), omega-3, vitamin C (double the daily recommended dose), magnesium (double the daily recommended dose), plenty of water, and collagen from any source.
This combo helps with proper recovery of the injured area.

After the 5th day, I started applying hot packs instead of ice packs. This helps circulate blood in the tiny vessels.

These are just parts of the recovery process. The first step should always be an ultrasound and/or x-ray to understand the extent of the injury.

Luxembourg has its own language – Luxembourgish

I didn’t know Luxembourgish is classified as a language. It’s indeed all about political borders. Some say “Limburgisch” is a German dialect, which is what I thought too. It sounds exactly like what you’d expect from its location—a mix of German and French.

I also learned that, unlike many European languages that have a direct word for “please” (like bitte in German), Luxembourgish doesn’t have a single standalone word for it. Instead, they use formal sentences and tones, with the phrase “wann ech gelift.” This literally means “If I may” or “if you please.” In a way, this is their version of “please.”

I find it similar to French. French has s’il vous plaît, which also literally means “if you please,” but is generally translated directly as “please.”
“wann ech gelift” can also be abbreviated as “w.e.g.” and, as far as I understand, even pronounced that way.

The City of London

The City of London, often called "the Square Mile," holds a unique legal status as a self-governing entity distinct from the rest of Greater London. Its roots trace back to Anglo-Saxon times, with its own ancient government, the City of London Corporation, headed by the Lord Mayor of London. Unlike other boroughs, it maintains its own police force, the City of London Police, and possesses special historical privileges and financial autonomy, stemming from its long-standing role as a global financial center.

The City of London's unique status greatly benefits the banking industry by creating a specialized, concentrated financial hub. Banks have a direct voice in local governance, and the unparalleled concentration of financial firms, legal services, and talent fosters collaboration and efficiency. A robust legal system provides stability and a secure environment for complex transactions, while the City itself actively promotes London as a global financial leader.

A new series I hope to keep monthly. Just a simple note of everything I learned whether trivial or significant.

Gleam vs Elixir

Wiki says:

Gleam is a general-purpose, concurrent, functional high-level programming language that compiles to Erlang or JavaScript source code.

Gleam is a statically-typed language, which is different from the most popular languages that run on Erlang’s virtual machine BEAM, Erlang and Elixir. Gleam has its own type-safe implementation of OTP, Erlang's actor framework. Packages are provided using the Hex package manager, and an index for finding packages written for Gleam is available.

So what I understand is Elixir users can easily use Gleam but why. That’s why I have learned:

Gleam and Elixir are both languages that run on the Erlang VM (BEAM), but they primarily different in their type systems and designs. Gleam is statically typed, meaning types are checked at compile time, which helps catch errors early and ensures predictability. It favors simplicity and performance, with a syntax inspired by ML-style languages. For example, a Gleam function looks like:

fn add(x: Int, y: Int) -> Int {
  x + y
}

Elixir, on the other hand, is *dynamically typed * and focuses on developer productivity, expressiveness, and fault tolerance. It allows for powerful metaprogramming and a flexible development style. While it supports optional type specs, type checking happens at runtime unless explicitly enforced. An equivalent function in Elixir would be:

def add(x, y), do: x + y

Natural Greenfly Remedy: Milk Spray

A surprisingly effective natural solution: mix 1 part milk with 8 parts water and spray it generously on greenfly-infested plants.

Make sure to cover both sides of the leaves, especially the underside.

My father recommended this, advising to apply it only when there’s no direct sunlight. I was skeptical, but it worked amazingly well.

I had to repeat the treatment a few times to eliminate newly hatched greenflies from previously laid eggs.

Lavender Oil vs. Mosquitos

Lavender oil seems to repel mosquitos—at least the European kind—and smells pleasant during hot summer days. It also gives a refreshing feeling. I’m unsure about its safety on facial skin, so apply cautiously.

116116 – Emergency Blocking Hotline in Germany

In Germany, 116116 is the central number to block all your bank cards, SIM cards, and digital ID in case of theft or loss. Works fast.

Free SIM Card Replacement

Lost or stolen SIM in Germany? If you don’t have the PIN/PUK and the card doesn’t function, most providers will replace it for free. If it's functional, they may charge a small fee.

Key Cylinder Replacement Takes Time

If a master key for an apartment building (e.g., 8 flats) gets stolen, replacing all key cylinders takes at least 6 week; even if it’s urgent.
I have also learned that changing a basic cylinder lock yourself isn’t that difficult. It only takes 5 minutes if you have screwdriver and the replacement cylinder.