News Nug
A snake game made entirely in the BIOS without any OS or bootloader

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

The content discusses a snake game that was developed entirely in the BIOS, based on a previous version. The game code is compact at 114 bytes, which includes the necessary hardware initialization. Players control the snake using the numpad arrows, and there's an option to compile the game to use a standard keypad instead. Additionally, a QR code is provided for easy access to the game. Feedback from users is taken seriously, and further documentation on qualifiers is available.

ATProto for Distributed System Engineers

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

The article discusses AT Protocol, the technology developed by Bluesky for open social networking, through the lens of distributed backend engineering. It begins by contrasting traditional web architecture, which relies on a single SQL database and can become a performance bottleneck, particularly for large-scale social networks. As performance issues arise, solutions such as caching and sharding are introduced, but these still struggle with strong consistency requirements. To improve scalability, the article advocates for moving to a NoSQL system that employs eventual consistency. However,

Linux's Bedtime Routine

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The author explores the transition process of a Linux system from an active state to hibernation, focusing on how it restores its previous state upon waking. This investigation, facilitated by source code analysis from Linux version 6.9.9, is structured in multiple parts, with the first part detailing the steps from hibernation initiation to disk synchronization. The article references debugging system files that help control and understand the hibernation process, specifically the state and disk files, which allow direct manipulation of sleep

Reclaim the Stack

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

After 7 months of development, mynewsdesk.com has created a Kubernetes-based platform to replace Heroku for their SaaS product, achieving a 90% cost reduction and a 30% performance improvement. The new platform also enhanced developer experience with quicker deploy times and better tooling. They have now open-sourced the entire stack, enabling others to implement similar improvements in just a few days, promoting the initiative as "Reclaim the Stack."

Exploiting CI / CD Pipelines for fun and profit

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The blog discusses a serious security vulnerability chain that begins with a publicly accessible .git directory, which contains the entire version history of a project, including sensitive configuration files. The author discovered that many websites still expose their .git directories, posing a risk for unauthorized access. Through accessing the .git/config file, the author obtained credentials that allowed them to clone the entire repository. Further exploration revealed the use of Bitbucket Pipelines for automated deployment. Within the pipeline configuration, they noticed that an SSH login

Sleep duration, chronotype, health and lifestyle factors affect cognition [pdf]

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The provided content is a segment of a PDF file (version 1.7), which includes various objects encoded in a binary format typically used for document representation. The excerpt contains object definitions, including matrices, filters, lengths, and resource declarations such as font and state specifications. The data appears to include compressed streams, possibly representing images or graphical elements, which are not human-readable in the original format. The content is structured with several objects (4, 5, 6, and 12),

Under the Hood: Exploring How Web Servers Handle Requests

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The article by Nadar Alpenidze discusses the intricate journey of a network request from a client application to a server, emphasizing the importance of understanding the underlying network stack processes often overlooked by engineers. Drawing from experience at AWS, the author highlights key concepts such as network sockets, the TCP three-way handshake, and the system calls that transfer requests from the kernel to application memory. The article aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of how web server frameworks like Spring Boot and Express handle incoming requests, ultimately enriching the

The Fennel Programming Language

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

Fennel is a programming language that combines the ease, speed, and compatibility of Lua with the flexibility of Lisp syntax and macros. It can run anywhere Lua code runs, and users can try it without installation. Fennel allows users to see how code compiles from Fennel to Lua and vice-versa. The community engages through a mailing list, chats on Libera.Chat and Matrix, and meets at community events, adhering to a code of conduct. Bug reports can be made on

Htmx, Raku and Pico CSS

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The post titled "Open::Journey" is the third installment of a personal open-source journey, focusing on building web projects with reduced cognitive load. The author advocates for a return to simpler web design, utilizing HTML for layout and CSS for styling. They find HTMX—an approach that eliminates the need for JavaScript in creating dynamic content—ideal for web development, particularly when paired with Raku and Cro for backend tasks like routing and serving RESTful APIs. While HTMX effectively handles dynamic content for

GitHub - damn/core: RPG Maker&Engine for Clojure.

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

Core is an experimental tool designed to simplify video game development, particularly for creating Action RPGs. It features a component-based system using Clojure, where components are defined as vectors and entities as maps. The game state is managed within a single atom, while side effects are treated as components, akin to a transactional model. All content is organized in a single properties file and validated using malli-schemas, which can be edited through a graphical user interface. Although the application is set up for easy

Your company needs Junior devs

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The author passionately argues in favor of hiring junior engineers during a conversation with local tech leaders, countering the prevailing trend in Big Tech, which prefers to recruit experienced developers capable of immediately contributing to high-stakes projects, particularly in AI. The common belief that AI will replace junior developers overlooks the essential role juniors play in fostering a culture of teaching and learning, which is crucial for innovation. The article references Nonaka and Takeuchi's concept from **The Knowledge-Creating Company**, highlighting that successful

Serving AI From The Basement - 192GB of VRAM Setup

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The blog post discusses the author's recent project of building a dedicated LLM server powered by eight RTX 3090 graphic cards, totaling 192GB of VRAM, specifically for running Meta's Llama-3.1 405B model. After struggling with only 48GB of VRAM for a year, the author decided to upgrade their setup. They reflect on the technical decisions made during the build process, including CPU choices and the importance of memory speed and PCIe lanes, as well as

Swimmable Cities

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The content emphasizes the need for safe, healthy, and accessible urban waterways for swimming, highlighting their importance to community well-being and the environment. It advocates for a vibrant urban swimming culture that reflects the unique characteristics of cities and promotes inclusivity across diverse groups. The document calls for a shift in public access standards to challenge industrial and pollution practices, ensuring that authorities facilitate citizen access to healthy waterways. Urban swimming should be integrated into inclusive water management strategies, emphasizing community-led initiatives for swimming education and ecological understanding.

Why smart telescopes are the future of astrophotography (2022)

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

Failed to fetch content - HTTP Error - undefined local variable or method `response' for SummaryGenerator:Class if response.code.between?(200, 299) ^^^^^^^^ Did you mean? respond_to?

Don't defer Close() on writable files

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

In Go programming, a common practice is to defer the `Close()` method for values that implement the `io.Closer` interface after checking for errors. This is frequently seen when handling HTTP requests or files. However, this idiom can lead to issues, particularly with writable files, as deferring a function call ignores its potential return value, which may include errors. Errors from the `Close()` method can occur even if previous `Write()` calls succeed, due to the nature of computer architecture

Microservices vs. Monoliths: Why Startups Are Getting "Nano-Services" All Wrong

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses the challenges faced by early-stage startups when adopting microservices architecture too soon. While microservices are praised for their scalability and flexibility, they are more suitable for large companies like Google and Netflix. Startups, often operating with limited resources and small teams, may encounter unnecessary complexity by breaking their products into too many microservices, resulting in what the author terms "nano-services." This approach can lead to problems such as operational overhead and difficulties in managing a fragmented architecture, ultimately hindering the startup

jsonb_apply: Postgres JSON with a functional twist

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses a PostgreSQL extension called `jsonb_apply` that enables users to apply functions to JSONB objects both dynamically and recursively. It highlights the capability to also work on sub-objects using the `json_extract_path` function. The extension currently supports functions with a specific signature where the first argument is of type text (representing the JSONB string or array element being processed), and additional variadic arguments can be passed to the function. The search for the appropriate function in the catalog relies

Software Estimation Is Hard. Do It Anyway.

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

Estimating software projects is notoriously difficult, as highlighted by various studies, such as one from Harvard Business Review showing that one in six IT projects experience cost overruns of over 200% and delays of around 70%. McKinsey's findings reveal that IT projects, on average, exceed budgets by 45% and schedules by 7%, with larger projects (over $15M) suffering even greater overruns. This challenge is often familiar to software professionals who find themselves underestimating project timelines

API Complexity Is a Lie

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The article argues that the complexity often associated with APIs is not inherent to the APIs themselves but arises from the surrounding tools, processes, and technical jargon. Some businesses thrive by perpetuating this complexity for profit, particularly in the realm of API security, where ongoing challenges keep security companies in business. The piece references Gartner's 2023 hype cycle, noting that API security testing is currently viewed as overhyped and navigating a phase of disillusionment, yet interest remains high due to recent investments and partnerships

P-Hacking with Dinosaurs

Published: 2024-09-08 | Origin: /r/programming

Colm Campbell expresses his internal conflict about critiquing two prominent figures in his field, Martin Fowler and Dave Farley, who he feels are exhibiting closed-mindedness regarding certain data that challenges their "Agile-only" perspective. Campbell admires both for their significant contributions to Software Engineering and has benefited from their work over the years, making the critique difficult. Despite his reluctance, he feels compelled to voice his disagreement after witnessing ineffective responses to data suggesting high failure rates in Agile projects. He reflects