Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/ruby

On January 10, 2025, Maxime Chevalier-Boisvert announced the release of a new version of YJIT, which is designed to be faster, more stable, and more memory-efficient than previous versions. The prior year's release had successfully boosted performance, encouraging many businesses to upgrade their Ruby deployments, which was a significant change from the past when many were several versions behind. YJIT 3.4 is reported to be approximately 92% faster than the CRuby

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Daniel Wirtz shared a brief update about his blog, which features a menu for navigation, options for dark mode, and sections for books, bookmarks, and tools. Additionally, he invites readers to subscribe to his blog for further content.

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Some programming languages struggle with obscurity, lack of usage, or overly ambitious feature sets. For instance, languages like Fortress have complex type systems that hinder initial implementations. Others, like BF (Brainfuck) and Scheme, have many implementations but not enough actual use, as developers often prefer to create their own versions instead of using existing ones. Shen, a multiparadigm Lisp with a minimal specification, also faces this issue, evidenced by numerous implementations but few libraries. Forth follows a similar trend where

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

Li Haoyi's article, dated January 10, 2025, discusses the role and functioning of garbage collectors (GCs) in programming languages, particularly focusing on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). While GCs are essential for managing program memory, they can sometimes malfunction in unexpected ways. The article aims to provide readers with a deeper understanding of JVM garbage collectors, including their fundamental design and performance benchmarks. It begins with a simple example of a garbage collector to illustrate how memory management works,

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

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Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses how large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, deal with conflicting and outdated information found on the internet. It highlights that LLMs are trained on vast datasets that contain both current and historical information, leading to situations where they may recognize multiple, contradictory pieces of information as valid. The author uses the example of mountain heights to illustrate these inconsistencies, noting that similar principles apply to other domains such as medication dosages and programming guidelines. The article emphasizes that LLMs lack

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Gleam v1.7.0 was released on January 5, 2025, highlighting significant improvements to the language, which is designed for the Erlang virtual machine and JavaScript runtimes. Notably, the update introduces monomorphisation of record updates, enhancing performance by eliminating runtime conditional logic, thus generating efficient case-by-case code for record creation without increasing compile time or code size. This optimization allows for safe changes to parameterized types during record updates, which was previously restricted

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/ruby

The article explains the concept of lazy enumeration in Ruby using the Enumerator::Lazy class, emphasizing its advantages for processing large datasets and building complex data transformation pipelines. It contrasts lazy enumeration with eager enumeration through a visual demonstration. In eager enumeration, method calls are evaluated sequentially, requiring each previous step to be completed before proceeding. This is illustrated as "vertical" enumeration, where each operation produces a new collection one after the other. In contrast, lazy enumeration processes elements "horizontally," evaluating each

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Kagi is a new subscription-based search engine that offers a unique approach to web searching for $10 a month, promising users high-quality search results without the distraction of ads. Unlike traditional search engines, Kagi operates on a user-centric model, prioritizing user needs over ad revenue. The service has gained attention for its potential to improve the overall search experience amid concerns over declining quality in existing platforms like Google and social media sites like Twitter and Reddit. Users might find Kagi a compelling alternative, especially

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Wildfires are currently affecting the greater Los Angeles area, destroying over 1,300 structures and prompting evacuation orders for nearly 180,000 people. Despite the crisis, TikTok employees in LA have been instructed to either work from home or use personal/sick days if unable to do so, as the office remains closed due to power outages from high winds. The Palisades Fire has been visible from the TikTok office, and many employees are facing challenges such as lack of power and internet,

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/ruby

Background tasks are essential for scaling web applications, allowing apps to handle time-consuming processes separately from client requests. This improves response times and enables the app to support more users efficiently. Rails developers have a variety of libraries for background processing, which help in offloading heavy tasks, ensuring a fast user experience. Honeybadger primarily used Sidekiq for background jobs, which worked well in processing large data volumes. However, Sidekiq's reliance on Redis poses limitations, especially during peak traffic when memory pressure

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

Sonic The Hedgehog XA is an open-source fangame developed by a single individual to explore the PlayStation hardware's capabilities. It is a non-commercial project that aims to create a Sonic game from scratch for the PlayStation, blending classic 2D gameplay with the console's unique features. The game utilizes modern development tools like PSn00bSDK and pays homage to Sonic CD by incorporating the "XA" audio format for background music. As a prototype, the game is highly unfinished, lacking

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Rodney Brooks provides his seventh annual update on his predictions from January 1, 2018, regarding self-driving cars, robotics, AI, machine learning, and human space travel. He aims to hold himself accountable for the accuracy of these predictions and plans to continue reviewing them until 2050. Due to positive feedback, he will change his approach starting next year, making a new set of predictions covering the period from January 1, 2026, to January 1, 2036

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

The author reflects on their journey in software development, weighing the benefits of being a generalist versus a specialist. They note that their choice to become a generalist was influenced by their roles and the companies they worked for, which shaped their skills and career success. Generalists possess a broad range of skills and can adapt to various situations, making them valuable in leadership positions and at startups. Conversely, specialists focus deeply on one area, offering in-depth expertise that can resolve complex challenges. Both paths are valid

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

A/B testing, while popular for evaluating design changes, is fundamentally flawed as it forces a sacrifice among users, similar to drug trials where only half receive the treatment. This limitation leads to a loss for group B if the new design is superior. Instead of focusing on improving user engagement, many researchers are dedicated to refining techniques for maximizing clicks on ads. Current mainstream tools like Google Analytics rely on ineffective A/B testing methods. The author proposes an alternative method that can outperform A/B testing, allowing for the

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Soldering may seem intuitive, but it requires practice and good habits, especially in a company dependent on high-quality solder joints. In response to this challenge during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tektronix produced comprehensive training videos to teach employees the proper soldering techniques. The first video, aimed at assembly line workers, focuses on practical aspects of creating strong solder joints on PCBs, introduces some soldering theory, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a soldering iron

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

Since its inception in September 2008, Google Chromium has served as the foundation for many well-known web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, largely driven by Google. In response, the Linux Foundation has announced the "Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers" initiative, set to launch on January 9, 2025. This project aims to promote open development and support the creation of new Chromium-based browsers. The initiative will create a collaborative environment for developers and the open-source

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Peter T. Kirstein, a prominent British computer scientist and Internet Hall of Fame inductee, passed away in January 2020 at the age of 86 after a nearly 50-year career at University College London (UCL). Before his death, he was commissioned to write an article about the early challenges of connecting the UK to what would become the modern internet, which was not published at the time but is now being released to honor his contributions. The article, edited by Michael Parker and overse

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/ruby

Jon Sully discusses common memory-related issues faced by developers when hosting Rails applications on Heroku, specifically the R14 and R15 Memory quota errors, which can cause significant downtime. He notes that while it’s challenging to provide a universal guide for reducing memory usage due to the varying nature of applications, there are some general strategies that can be applied. One key recommendation is related to process and thread counts, where he advises using WEB_CONCURRENCY settings tailored to the dyno types, despite Heroku

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

Electron is a popular development tool that simplifies creating cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies by bundling Node.js and Chromium together. It is celebrated for its ease of use, allowing developers to rapidly build and deploy applications with features like automatic updates and a "write once, ship everywhere" philosophy, similar to React Native but with fewer build complexities. With its origins dating back to 2013, Electron was developed by GitHub and has since become an integral part of developer culture, particularly as many software projects