A new record prime number has been found! The 52nd Mersenne prime was found this week: 2136,279,841-1 is a prime, more 41 million digits long. I played a very small part in finding the 39th Mersenne back in the early 2000s, so this is exciting news. Also an interview with Luke Durant, the man who found it.
For more than 70 years computer scientists have studied sorting algorithms. Amazingly, we're still finding ways to make them faster and more memory efficient. Python recently replaced its legendary TimSort, and today Rust 1.81 released with two new adaptive sorting algorithms featuring serious performance improvements.
The well known saying about eating and having cake makes a lot more sense if you reverse the subjects, ie. "You can't eat your cake and have it too". Did you know that until recently you could be sued for singing the Happy Birthday song?
Today's challenge is to drive a cheap 8-digit LED display. Months ago I bought a cheap module from Aliexpress. Too cheap. Instead of a nice smart LED driver chip as I had expected, it features instead the jewel of 1980's technology: a pair of 74HC596 shift registers. Let's explore this puzzle!
