AI MILESTONES
ten tasks, the year of each, the system, the figure — and the human it was measured against
THE ASCII TABLE
all 128 positions: the column is the three high bits, the row is the four low ones
AUDIO FORMATS
who published each standard, when, what it does to the sound, and how many bits per second it allows
THE BASE32 ENCODING
forty bits to a quantum: five bytes, eight characters and five padding cases
THE BASE64 ENCODING
three bytes become four characters: the alphabet, the tail, and what the "=" at the end is for
BIG-O NOTATION
the seven growth classes: how many steps, how long they take and how far each one lets you go
BINARY COUNTING
five doubling cards build every number from 0 to 31 — exactly the way every computer counts
THE CRON EXPRESSION
the five schedule fields: what each one means, what values it takes, and how to read stars, lists and steps
CSS GRID
the container properties and the item properties per the css-grid-2 specification — and what each does to the layout
BITS, BYTES, KILOBYTES
two scales · 1000 and 1024 · why a drive looks smaller
THE DMX512 PROTOCOL
512 channels down one serial wire, and why a full universe cannot refresh faster than 44 times a second
EAN-13
how thirteen digits become 95 modules of bars and spaces
THE EXIT STATUS
One byte from a command to the shell: what the standard assigns in it, what it leaves to the system — and why “128 + signal number” is nowhere in the standard
FILE DESCRIPTORS
Three levels between a number and a file: what two numbers of one description share, what two descriptions do not — and where the offset lives
FILE LOCKS
A lock lies on a range of bytes, it has two different kinds of owner, and it guards no byte at all
FILE PERMISSIONS
Nine bits in three triads, three special bits — and why r and x on a directory are different powers
CSS FLEXBOX
main axis and cross axis · which property belongs to which
A NUMBER IN 32 BITS
sign, exponent and significand: what actually sits in a float and what does not
FLOWCHART SYMBOLS
10 shapes, and one algorithm drawn with them
GIT WORKING AREAS
four areas · the command that moves code between them
![FILENAME EXPANSION: *, ?, […]](/api/img/cmsp2eg3h001q2dpdnyxkt8mu)
FILENAME EXPANSION: *, ?, […]
A leading dot and a slash disappear only in filename expansion: the same pattern “*” is seen by case, but not by expansion itself
GO vs RUST
seven questions, the same to both, and the document each answer is written in
HERE-DOCUMENTS
The body reaches the command as a single word, and one quote in the delimiter decides whether it arrives as typed
HTTP METHODS · 2026
ten methods per RFC 9110, 5789 and 10008: which are safe, which are idempotent, which can be retried
HTTP STATUS CODES
five classes · twenty codes you meet every day
IFS AND FIELD SPLITTING
Two kinds of delimiter: white ones merge into one, non-white ones each cut on their own — and the same value gives one field or four
SPECIAL-PURPOSE IPv4 BLOCKS
14 blocks that belong to no host on the internet — 13.8 % of the address space, of which exactly one eighth is multicast and reserved
IPv6 ADDRESS NOTATION
eight groups of sixteen bits, the double colon, and one canonical spelling out of thousands
JAVASCRIPT vs GO
seven questions, the same to both, and the document each answer is written in
JAVASCRIPT vs RUST
seven questions, the same to both, and the document each answer is written in
KANBAN
the board, the limit on work in progress, and the four metrics that measure flow
LANGUAGE CODES
487 rows in ISO 639-2; 183 languages also have a two-letter code and 20 have two three-letter ones — and the tag is always the shortest
LIFE CYCLE MODELS
the same steps arranged five ways: the document, the year, and what one turn of the loop covers
LOGIC GATES
Seven digital-logic symbols — and how to build six of them from a single element, NAND
MARKDOWN SYNTAX
headings, emphasis, lists, links and code per the CommonMark 0.31.2 specification — the core all dialects share
MEDIA TYPES
2322 registered subtypes under 11 top-level types, and how to read one you have never seen
THE MIDI PROTOCOL
one top bit separates status from data, seven commands per channel, and how much time a serial wire actually takes
THE FLAGS OF OPEN()
FIVE flags of creating a file — and why O_CREAT|O_EXCL is not a faster check but a check and a creation joined into one indivisible act
${…}: FOUR MODIFICATIONS
The colon asks about emptiness too: in the column of the empty variable it changes the answer four times out of four, and in the other two columns none
${…}: TRIMMING BY PATTERN
The sign says from which end to cut and doubling it says how much: from the same path the same pair of patterns takes away either one character or fifteen
POSIX SIGNALS
Twenty-seven signals, five default actions — and two that cannot be caught, ignored or blocked
PYTHON vs GO
seven questions, the same to both, and the document each answer is written in
PYTHON vs JAVASCRIPT
seven questions, the same to both, and the document each answer is written in
PYTHON vs RUST
seven questions, the same to both, and the document each answer is written in
THE ORDER OF REDIRECTIONS
Redirections are done from left to right, and “2>&1” copies where the output points at that very moment: the file first — and it holds two lines; the copy first — one
REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
anchors, classes, quantifiers and groups: what a pattern is made of and how it reads, token by token
TIMESTAMPS
date, time and offset from UTC in one string: what it is made of and what it is not
SEMANTIC VERSIONING
what each of the three numbers means, what may follow them, and the order versions stand in