News Nug
Noisy neighbor detection with eBPF

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

The Netflix Technology Blog, authored by Jose Fernandez, Sebastien Dabdoub, Jason Koch, and Artem Tkachuk, discusses how Netflix's Compute and Performance Engineering teams address performance issues, particularly in their multi-tenant environment on the Titus platform. A recurring challenge is the "noisy neighbor" problem, where one container uses excessive resources, impacting the performance of others. Traditional performance analysis tools are often too intrusive and deployed too late to effectively diagnose these issues. The blog highlights the use of

Techniques I Use to Create a Great User Experience for Shell Scripts

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

The content describes a shell script created to automate the evaluation of entries in Gunnar Morling's One Billion Row Challenge, for which the author received praise from Gunnar. In January 2024, the author and others participated in the challenge, leading Gunnar to seek assistance due to the volume of entries. The author highlighted six techniques used in the shell script to enhance its robustness and usability: 1. **Error Handling**: Implemented thorough error handling and input validation to provide clear error messages for a better user

The First HTML LSP That Reports Syntax Errors

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

Loris Cro discusses the release of SuperHTML, the first Language Server for HTML that detects syntax errors. While it can be used as a command-line tool, it is primarily referred to as a Language Server. Currently, many popular editors, including VSCode, Neovim, and Helix, utilize a shared HTML Language Server that does not report errors like SuperHTML can. Other programs like JetBrains Webstorm offer diagnostic features, but they do not use a standardized Language Server and are proprietary.

Why Copilot is Making Programmers Worse at Programming

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: /r/programming

Darren Horrocks discusses the impact of AI-driven programming tools like GitHub’s Copilot on the programming landscape. While these tools can increase productivity by generating code and troubleshooting in real-time, they also pose risks to the fundamental skills of programmers. Relying on AI-generated solutions can lead to a decline in hands-on problem-solving abilities, as developers may bypass learning core programming principles and concepts. This could result in a "code dependency," where developers struggle to solve problems independently due to a lack of

Revocation is broken

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: /r/programming

Scott Helme, a security researcher and entrepreneur, highlights a growing concern in web security as more sites acquire SSL/TLS certificates for HTTPS, leading to an increasing rate of HTTPS adoption. While certificates are crucial for improving security and privacy online, there is a lack of mechanisms to protect users when things go wrong. The process to obtain certificates has become easier, largely due to free services like Let's Encrypt, which streamline the issuance of certificates through a challenge-response mechanism to verify domain ownership. Helme emphasizes the

Debugging Till Dawn: How Git Bisect Saved My Demo

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: /r/programming

On August 31, 2024, the narrator faced a critical bug in their project at 2 a.m., just hours before a demo. The project involved a device running custom firmware in C and an iPadOS app in Swift. With over 100 commits between the last working version and the problematic one, identifying the source of the issue was challenging. The narrator employed the `git bisect` command, a binary search tool that narrows down the problematic commit by checking halfway points between

How SQLite Is Teated - 92 Million Lines Of Test Code

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: /r/programming

The reliability and robustness of SQLite, as of version 3.42.0 (May 16, 2023), are largely attributed to extensive testing, with approximately 155.8 KSLOC of C code in the library and a substantial 92053.1 KSLOC in test code and scripts—nearly 590 times more. Four independent test harnesses are utilized, each developed and managed separately. The original tests, known as the TCL Tests, are integral to the SQLite core and

We spent $20 to achieve RCE and accidentally became the admins of .mobi

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

In a recent blog post, watchTowr Labs shared an intriguing discovery stemming from their light-hearted research into vulnerabilities in WHOIS clients. While exploring how these clients parse responses from WHOIS servers, they found that the WHOIS server for the .MOBI top-level domain (TLD) had changed and that the previous domain, whois.dotmobiregistry.net, had expired. Seizing the opportunity, they quickly registered the expired domain. On August 30, 2024,

Ruby on Rails 7.1: Partial Strict Locals and Their Gotchas

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: /r/ruby

Ayush Newatia discusses the evolution of Rails partials in web development, noting their limitations as simple ERB snippets lacking a structured object foundation. He highlights the emergence of libraries like ViewComponent and Phlex, which enhance template semantics. However, he still finds Rails partials effective for many scenarios. A key improvement in Rails 7.1 is the introduction of "strict locals," which allows developers to specify the local variables a partial accepts, along with default values, enhancing clarity and reducing errors.

AppleWatchAmmeter

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses how to turn an Apple Watch (specifically models newer than Series 5) into an ammeter for measuring DC currents using its built-in magnetometer. By wrapping a coil of wire around the watch, users can create a magnetic field that corresponds to the DC current being measured. The document details the calculations involved in producing the magnetic field and provides guidelines for using an app, such as 'Sensor-App,' to read the magnetometer data. With a 5-turn coil setup, the

Possibly all the ways to get loop-finding in graphs wrong

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: /r/programming

Simon Tatham discusses the challenges of creating puzzle games that involve connecting points to form graphs without creating loops. Examples of such puzzles include Net, Slant, and certain configurations of Bridges. Tatham notes the need for puzzle programs to check for loops in graphs to ensure correct solutions and to identify any loop-causing edges for players. Over time, he has developed numerous algorithms to address this issue, many of which were unsatisfactory, prompting him to consider documenting his mistakes as a case study on ineffective problem

Struggling with Container HTTP Logs? Meet Logmink

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

Logmink.hub is a centralized logging platform that facilitates the collection and storage of logs from agents deployed across various containers. It offers a user-friendly "Plug-N-Play" setup for capturing HTTP logs without needing code changes. This solution aims to simplify the challenges posed by other log management tools like Logstash and Prometheus. A skeleton configuration for the sidecar implementation of Logmink.agent is provided, which can be customized and attached to a valid service in a separate compose file. Users can

The magic of DC-DC voltage conversion

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

The article discusses the necessity of DC voltage conversion in consumer electronics, highlighting that devices often require different voltage levels for various components like motors and chips. Internal voltage converters, such as charge pumps in microcontrollers, further complicate the landscape, yet many users find voltage conversion concepts challenging. Although outdated linear ICs are still in use alongside modern microcontrollers, there's often a lack of understanding regarding their appropriate applications. The piece aims to demystify voltage conversion, starting with the basic principle of a resistor-based

Building the same app using various web frameworks

Published: 2024-09-11 | Origin: Hacker News

The author is considering migrating their web app stack from FastAPI, HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript to a modern framework, specifically exploring FastHTML, Next.js, and Svelte. To evaluate these frameworks, they built the same app, "Look at Your Data," which features CRUD functionality, using each of the frameworks while utilizing SQLite as the database. Starting with FastAPI, they found it straightforward and focused on functionality rather than aesthetics. For FastHTML, the author used documentation, created

Chai-1: Decoding the molecular interactions of life

Published: 2024-09-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Chai Discovery Team announced the release of Chai-1, a state-of-the-art multi-modal foundation model designed for molecular structure prediction, particularly useful in drug discovery. Chai-1 can predict various biomolecules including proteins, small molecules, DNA, and RNA, and is available for free via a web interface for commercial use. Non-commercial use comes with model weights and inference code. The model achieved a 77% success rate on the PoseBusters benchmark, slightly outperforming AlphaFold3

Lottery Simulator (2023)

Published: 2024-09-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Shri Khalpada has created the PerThirtySix Lottery Simulator, a tool designed for interactive exploration of lottery probabilities and ticket simulations. The simulator allows users to investigate the odds of winning various American lotteries or customize their own lottery rules in the Setup section. The Simulation section enables users to select numbers and simulate thousands of lottery tickets per second, providing visual feedback on results. The tool makes simplifying assumptions, such as ignoring taxes and assuming only one jackpot winner. Khalpada encourages users to subscribe for more

Tutorial on diffusion models for imaging and vision

Published: 2024-09-10 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the arXiv Accessibility Forum and introduces arXivLabs, a framework for developing and sharing new features on the arXiv website. It emphasizes that both individuals and organizations collaborating with arXivLabs share key values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. The forum invites ideas for projects that can benefit the arXiv community. Additionally, it mentions the availability of operational status notifications via email or Slack.

Why I Prefer Exceptions to Error Values

Published: 2024-09-10 | Origin: /r/programming

Good error handling is essential for creating robust programs, yet it often frustrates programmers due to the challenge of accounting for every edge case. Traditional object-oriented languages use exceptions for immediate error reporting by breaking the regular control flow. In contrast, newer languages like Go and Rust employ functional-style error handling, encoding errors in return types (e.g., Go uses (res, err) tuples, and Rust uses Result<T, E>). While these approaches aim to make error handling more explicit and encourage programmers to consider

SQLite is not a toy database

Published: 2024-09-10 | Origin: /r/programming

SQLite is an ideal tool for a variety of roles including developers, data analysts, QA engineers, DevOps, and product managers due to its versatile features. Key benefits include an intuitive console for data analysis, which simplifies tasks like importing CSV files and supports basic SQL functionalities. Data can be effortlessly exported in formats such as SQL, CSV, JSON, Markdown, and HTML, making it user-friendly for those who prefer Business Intelligence (BI) tools like Metabase or Superset. The platform excels at handling

Chrome ends support for First Input Delay

Published: 2024-09-10 | Origin: /r/programming

In May, the Chrome team officially replaced First Input Delay (FID) with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as the Core Web Vitals metric for measuring interaction responsiveness. This follows an announcement in January about phasing out FID. As of now, FID is no longer supported in Chrome tools, though developers can still measure it using the PerformanceObserver API. Key tools like PageSpeed Insights and the Chrome UX Report will stop reporting FID in the coming days. Additionally, the documentation on