Cross-model guide to reducing LLM costs using prompt compression, semantic caching, chain-of-thought pruning, and output length constraints across OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini.

Continue reading Prompt Compression and Cache Tuning: Cut Your LLM API Costs by 60% on SitePoint.

Comprehensive guide covering this topic with practical implementation details.

Continue reading Claude Code on Ollama: How to Run a Local Coding Agent Without Burning API Credits on SitePoint.

For nearly 160 years, the International Telecommunication Union has helped the world communicate across borders, from the telegraph to the telephone, television, satellite, the internet, and now AI. In this episode of Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith sits down with Doreen Bogdan, Secretary-General of the ITU, to discuss why connectivity remains one of the world’s most important foundations for opportunity.

The conversation explores the 2.2 billion people who are still unconnected, the estimated $2.8 trillion needed to connect the world by 2030, and the partnerships required to reach the hardest-to-connect communities. Doreen shares stories from the field, including a refugee camp in Chad where a small computer center gives people access to learning, health care, financial tools, and family connections.

Brad and Doreen also discuss the rise of AI for Good, the challenge of scaling solutions that address real-world needs, and the role of global cooperation in shaping responsible AI governance. From early warning systems that can help save lives during natural disasters to digital skilling and infrastructure investment, this episode examines how technology can create opportunity when access, trust, and partnership come together.

Listen to the full episode and join the conversation about building a more connected and inclusive digital future.

tl;dr; The pls package on PyPI is an abandoned Python version (last released as v6.0.0 in 2023). The actively-developed pls was rewritten in Rust and now lives at pls-rs/pls. If you installed it with uv tool install pls or pipx install pls, you have the wrong one. Uninstall it and install the Rust build instead (e.g. brew install pls-rs/pls/pls).

You may have heard me sing the praises of pls. I really love the icons and colors to disambiguate files and provide more information about them, the developer workflow, and more. Here’s an example in the Warp terminal for my jinja-partials package.

But installing and managing this package is weird and kinda deceiving to say the least. pls was originally pure Python (up to v6.0.0 in 2023). It’s listed on PyPI here. So it looks like that is just the latest, right? After all, if it was rewritten in Rust, it can still be installed via PyPI and in particular, via uv tool install pls.

But no.

There are a few funky things about the PyPI listing that give it away:

• The homepage 404s. The homepage link on the PyPI page goes nowhere. A bit sus.
• The GitHub repo is a silent redirect. The repo seems alive, but the link https://github.com/dhruvkb/pls silently redirects to https://github.com/pls-rs/pls. Clicking the link in PyPI seems to reference the Rust/latest version. But this happens only because GitHub does the redirect.

How do I install the correct, Rust-based pls?

To get the actively-developed version, don’t let PyPI fool you. There are two steps:

1. Uninstall the Python version if you installed it via Python: uv tool uninstall pls (or pipx uninstall pls).
2. Then install the Rust version directly. I use Homebrew, so it’s brew install pls-rs/pls/pls. See their getting started page for the option that works best for you.

Should you switch from the PyPI version of pls?

Yes - if you installed it with a Python tool, switch to the Rust version. Normally, I’d just chalk this up to standard package / open source drift and carry on with my life. But I’ve recommended pls to enough people that I feel I should call a bit of attention here. So if you’re using pls and you used Python tools to install it, like uv, uninstall that version and jump over to the Rust-based one.

What is a love interest in fiction? We explore the love interest as a literary device to create tension, deepen character development, and strengthen your story.

Look Out For All The Posts In The 4 Main Characters Series:

1. The 4 Main Characters As Literary Devices
2. The Protagonist As A Literary Device
3. The Antagonist As A Literary Device
4. The Confidant As A Literary Device
5. The Love Interest As A Literary Device

Welcome to the series on the four main characters and why they are literary devices. This week, I’m going to write about the love interest’s role in our stories.

How Writers Use The Love Interest As A Literary Device

“It gives me strength to have somebody to fight for; I can never fight for myself, but, for others, I can kill.” ~Emilie Autumn 

As A Literary Device: The love interest is the device an author uses to show the vulnerabilities and strengths of the protagonist. This device allows writers to complicate the main character’s life, and to put stumbling blocks in the way of attaining the story goal. It is the most common sub-plot. 

Story Goal: This character’s goal is always to win, or keep, the protagonist’s love. It is, by nature, a selfish goal.

Five Important Things To Remember About Love Interests

1. Only you. The love interest has an intimate relationship with your main character. This person shows us an aspect of the protagonist that we are unlikely to find in their interactions with the other characters. This character is the object of your protagonist’s romantic and/or sexual interest. They are somebody who makes them act irrationally and unreliably.
2. The object of my affection. This character does not have to be a lover. They are best defined as the object of your protagonist’s affection. It is easier if  you choose a person or an animal for your protagonist to love. In 6 Sub-Plots Every Writer Should Know, we said: ‘It could be a friend, a pet, or a family member. Writers use love interests to support protagonists and to thwart them by threatening their well-being.’
3. Holding out for a hero. A love interest can make fools or heroes of all of us. Please note that this character can be called a romantic interest for a good reason. (Look at the definition of romantic according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.) Nothing worth having comes easily. Our heroes should move from idealistic to realistic relationships through struggle and conflict. True love is something a protagonist earns.
4. We all need a muse. Use the difficulties of romantic relationships to create tension and increase conflicts. This character motivates, provokes, challenges, inspires, and pushes the protagonist. A love interest can add to the texture and complexity of your protagonist’s personality.
5. Challenge and change. The love interest shows readers the protagonist as a flawed and vulnerable human being. They there to challenge the protagonist to rise above their weaknesses and to change. A love interest can be an existing relationship or introduced as a new character in the story. This relationship will change your protagonist’s everyday life and their story goal.

If your protagonist breaks up with your love interest, read: 9 Ways To Set Up Believable Fictional Breakups

How Do You Find Your Protagonist’s Love Interest?

List three possible characters who would realistically complicate your protagonist’s life.

Now fill this in:

• The one with the greatest potential for an intimate relationship with the protagonist is:
• The one I find most interesting is:
• The one I would most enjoy writing about is:
• The one who would complicate the protagonist’s life most is:

One of your characters will dominate these answers. This is the character you should consider using as your love interest. If the second character differs from the character you chose in the lists, you may be giving this role to the wrong character.

The Last Word

The love interest is more than just a romantic sub-plot. It is a versatile literary device that can shape the emotional core of your story. If you use it effectively, it adds tension, raises the stakes, and creates conflict that challenges your protagonist’s goals and decisions. It helps with character development by revealing vulnerabilities. A well-crafted love interest also helps drive the story toward a more emotionally satisfying conclusion – whether or not they are still in the protagonist’s life.

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

If you enjoyed this blogger’s article, read:

1. Make Readers Care: 9 Ways To Create An Unforgettable Story
2. 30 Practical Tips To Beat Writer’s Block
3. What Is Backstory? How To Make It Work Like Scar Tissue In Your Book
4. 15 Fascinating Fictional Fathers Every Writer Should Know
5. How Writers Use The Confidant As A Literary Device
6. 10 Powerful Recurring Themes In Children’s Stories & Why They Matter
7. What Is An Epistolary Novel? & Tips For Writing One
8. What Is A Plot? – A Writer’s Resource
9. How Writers Use The Antagonist As A Literary Device
10. How Using A Timeline Can Help You Plot Your Novel

Top Tip: Sign up for our free daily writing links.

The post How Writers Use The Love Interest As A Literary Device appeared first on Writers Write.

Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of June 21, 2026.

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