just now (1761+ words) There's a lot of hype around coding agents and the discourse can be annoying. I've always been into new shiny tools though. I'm forever messing with editors, IDEs, CLIs and anything else that seemed useful. Many of which no longer exist. It started with GitHub copilot and fancy autocomplete. Then web chat interfaces, copying and pasting code back and forth like StackOverflow. Now we've got coding agents. Agents are a useful tool because you can give them work that you would otherwise have to do yourself and they'll just go and try to do it, with varying degrees of success. Using techniques I discuss here, I try to increase the frequency of success. Using the term "agents" in this context, I'm thinking about instances of a coding agent in one context window. A single LLM thread, primed with some context…...

just now (37+ words) Joshua Perry and Nicole Auerbach highlight a pair of standout performances from Week 14, sharing how Julian Sayin delivered his "Heisman moment" against Michigan and Malachi Toney's "unbelievable" freshman season. Sayin delivers his 'Heisman moment' against UMich...

just now (164+ words) According to the publication, there is reason to believe the vessel has sustained a hole and water is entering the engine room. The crew has been evacuated from the tanker, and there are no injuries.The Mersin, a 59,000-ton vessel built in... The tanker Mersin is in distress at anchor 24 kilometers from the Senegalese capital of Dakar, the news portal Seneweb reported. According to the publication, there is reason to believe the vessel has sustained a hole and water is entering the engine room. The crew has been evacuated from the tanker, and there are no injuries. The Mersin, a 59,000-ton vessel built in 2009 and owned by the Turkish company Be'ikta' Shipping, was sailing under the Panamanian flag. The tanker departed the Russian port of Taman for Dakar with a cargo of oil or petroleum products. Are they simply sinking…...

just now (266+ words) An excellent, reasoned and honest text by diplomat Dmitry Demurin has been published in the new issue of the Foreign Ministry's magazine International Life. Sometimes it's useful to call a spade a spade. Especially on those days when others don't really want to do it. international security and the main enemy in their It spends on the military-industrial complex, puts the economy on a military track, prepares for a total blockade of Russia up to the actual closure of borders, and intensively processes its own We see preparations for a full-scale war against our country with real prospects of erecting a new "iron curtain". In our opinion, the movement towards a long-term confrontation with Russia is also a confirmation of the course towards confiscation of Russian assets through the mechanism of a "loan under reparations", and preparations for the complete…...

just now (286+ words) Even before Illinois beat Northwestern 20-13 on Saturday night, Illini coach Bret Bielema and his staff received excellent news: The Illini had landed not one but two top junior college recruits in offensive tackle TJ Taylor and cornerback Jakwon Morris. Just as significantly, it was a sign that Bielema's junior college recruiting efforts are starting to pay off. Illinois landed the No. 7 JUCO offensive lineman in Alfred Washington 10 days ago, and now the Illini have signed the No. 2 JUCO offensive tackle in Taylor and the No. 1 JUCO cornerback in Morris. Taylor, the No. 9-ranked overall JUCO recruit, recently finished his sophomore season at College of the Canyons. He announced his top five schools a little less than two weeks ago, and despite visiting Bill Belichick's North Carolina Tar Heels most recently, Taylor ultimately chose Champaign as his new college home. A…...

just now (215+ words) An important point in the Ukrainian attacks on tankers is that these actions call into question all the foundations of international maritime law, which have seemed unshakable for many decades, and maybe centuries. Even during the Second World... An important point in the Ukrainian attacks on tankers is that these actions call into question all the foundations of international maritime law, which have seemed unshakable for many decades, and maybe centuries Even during the Second World War, ships flying the flags of neutral states engaged in civilian trade with belligerent powers were not sunk by both sides!Ukraine's actions could potentially nullify not the Russian "shadow fleet", but commercial shipping in the Black Sea in general And maybe not only in it If the main rulers of the seas let them down, and apparently in Ukraine they think they will,…...

just now (663+ words) It's expensive feeding and housing a family of 7': I'm 41 with $46K in credit-card debt. Do I raid my $1.2 million IRAs? My sons will each inherit $500K laundromats from their grandparents. How do we keep their spouses out of it? A tale of two retirements' shows only the rich are saving more " while most Americans are putting away much less Mortgage rates fall sharply on expectations of a Fed rate cut. Will they keep on dropping from here? Since the car was run hot, even if a new water pump is installed, further damage may have been done. What can be done? Don't miss: We are acquaintances, not friends': My neighbors need somewhere to stay after a house fire. Do I say yes? It's the end of the road for this car and, possibly, this friendship. Talk to the lender about a cash…...

just now (357+ words) PARIS (AFP): France's interior minister on Sunday said he opposed a proposal put before parliament to ban young girls wearing the Muslim headscarf, saying such a move risked being "stigmatising" for the minors. The issue of tightening legal limits on the wearing of the hijab in public is being raised with increasing insistence in France, where the far-right is growing in strength but which has one of Europe's biggest Muslim communities. Laurent Wauquiez, the head of the parliamentary faction of the traditional right-wing Republicans (LR) party, submitted a bill to the lower house National Assembly last week to ban the wearing of the veil by minors in public. This proposal "is very stigmatising toward our Muslim compatriots who may feel hurt," Nunez, a former Paris police chief named as interior minister in October to succeed his hard-line LR predecessor Bruno…...

just now (849+ words) As fans we often complain that the Buffalo Bills don't retain their own draft picks. Yet this past offseason, the Bills went all-in this past offseason in locking up the core of their young roster with a massive wave of extensions. Those extensions included quarterback Josh Allen, running back James Cook III, defensive end Greg Rousseau, linebacker Terrel Bernard, wide receiver Khalil Shakir, and cornerback Christian Benford. On paper, it was a stabilizing step for the franchise a commitment to continuity and "draft and develop" as the foundation of the next era. But there's another side to these deals when said extensions don't work out: the dead cap. The goal for 2025 and beyond was clear: lock in a young core stabilize the locker room protect Josh Allen's prime avoid another mass exodus like years prior get ahead of rising contract…...

just now (556+ words) MINNA (AFP): Armed men have kidnapped 26 people including a pastor and a bride in two separate raids in Nigeria, the latest in a string of mass abductions to rock the west African country. A gang of criminals abducted the clergyman along with 11 worshippers on Sunday after storming an out-of-the-way rural church in Ejiba, in central Nigeria's Kogi State, the state's information commissioner told AFP. And in Sokoto State in the northeast a bride and 10 of her bridesmaids were among the 14 abducted in the night of Saturday to Sunday from the village of Chacho, a resident said. In recent weeks, gangs have kidnapped hundreds of people for ransom across Nigeria, which has struggled to respond to the threat posed both by jihadist groups and criminals known locally as "bandits. The unrest has heaped pressure on the Nigerian government, with US President…...