News Nug
Safe C++ - a memory safe C++ proposal

Published: 2024-09-14 | Origin: /r/programming

In recent years, the U.S. government has increasingly emphasized the importance of memory safety in programming due to vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure systems that predominantly use C and C++. Key government documents, including guidance from the NSA and CISA, highlight the urgent need for memory-safe languages to protect against software vulnerabilities. Research indicates that a significant percentage of security exploits are linked to memory corruption, with Microsoft noting that 70% of its vulnerabilities could be mitigated by using memory-safe languages. Professionals are advocating

Billiards is a good game (1975)

Published: 2024-09-14 | Origin: Hacker News

In the 1920s and ’30s, the Quadrangle Club experienced a peak in its social activities, where men would relax in the solarium, read, and play games like billiards. By the 1950s, part of this recreational space had been repurposed into a cocktail lounge. The University of Chicago, recognized as a leading institution by those east of the Appalachians, gained notoriety through figures like Albert Abraham Michelson, the first American Nobel Prize winner in science

5 whys and the fix for "Exit handler never called" in Node 22.5.0

Published: 2024-09-14 | Origin: /r/programming

PhotoStructure relies on ExifTool, written in Perl, to handle all metadata, utilizing it through the open-source exiftool-vendored project in a TypeScript environment. Prior to releases, tests for exiftool-vendored are conducted using GitHub Actions. A recent pull request encountered a failure while building against Node.js version 22.x due to a cryptic error related to running `yarn install` or `npm install`. Despite the successful `yarn ci` task,

Void captures over a million Android TV boxes

Published: 2024-09-14 | Origin: Hacker News

Doctor Web experts have reported the discovery of a new malware known as Android.Vo1d, which has infected approximately 1.3 million Android-based TV boxes across 197 countries. This malware acts as a backdoor, allowing attackers to secretly download and install third-party software by placing its components in the system storage. The infection was noted after users reported unexpected changes to their device's system files, with common signs of infection observed among affected models. New files related to the Android.Vo1d

My 71 TiB ZFS NAS After 10 Years and Zero Drive Failures

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The author has a 10-year-old ZFS NAS with twenty-four 4 TB drives that has experienced no drive failures, despite having switched motherboards and power supplies. The secret to the longevity of the drives, which have only accumulated about 6000 hours of runtime (roughly 250 days), seems to be turning the server off when not in use. While others on Hacker News suggest the improbability of having zero drive failures with that many drives over a decade, the author believes their approach

The Legend of Holy Sword: An Immersive Experience for Concentration Enhancement

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

This week, the arXiv Accessibility Forum is highlighted, along with the arXivLabs framework, which enables collaborators to create and share new features on the arXiv website. Participants in arXivLabs must align with arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. The organization seeks project ideas that benefit its community. Additionally, updates on arXiv's operational status can be received via email or Slack.

OpenAI o1 Results on ARC-AGI-Pub

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

OpenAI has recently released new o1-preview and o1-mini models, designed to enhance reasoning capabilities through extended generation and refinement of reasoning tokens. Evaluating these models against previous benchmarks like Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4o, and Gemini 1.5, there are inquiries about the implications of o1 for AGI and its performance on the ARC-AGI benchmarks compared to other benchmarks where it excelled. The o1 models adopt a "think step by step"

Lisp implemented in Rust macros

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The content describes a Lisp interpreter created entirely with Rust macros. This interpreter evaluates Lisp expressions at compile time using the `lisp!` macro, which stringifies the result. For example, the expression `(CAR (CONS (QUOTE A) (QUOTE (B))))` becomes the string "A". The interpreter, comprising fewer than 250 lines of code, demonstrates features like self-applying functions for recursion and using `PROGN` to evaluate multiple expressions. It also has a `DISPLAY` form

Manage multiple repos with grgry

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses "grgry," a command-line interface (CLI) tool designed for bulk execution of git operations across multiple repositories. Developed in Rust, grgry is inspired by the tool "ghorg" and is particularly useful for making simultaneous changes across repositories, onboarding team members, and managing multiple git providers and accounts (such as GitHub and GitLab). To install grgry, users can download binaries and place them in the appropriate directory for their operating system. Updating can be done manually or

CrowdStrike ex-employees: 'Quality control was not part of our process'

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

Software engineers at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike have expressed concerns about rushed deadlines, excessive workloads, and a decline in product quality, culminating in a significant software failure that affected airlines and banking services. Employees reported that company leadership prioritized speed over quality, leading to inadequate training and rising coding errors. Although 24 former employees discussed these issues with Semafor, CrowdStrike refuted these claims, asserting that they prioritize rigorous testing and maintain high quality standards. The company emphasized that the criticisms stem from disgruntled ex

The Lego Great Ball Contraption

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

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DOM tree representation in compact JSON -- Spec, Library and CLI

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The content emphasizes the importance of user feedback and invites readers to consult the documentation for a comprehensive list of qualifiers. It details a draft specification for representing a DOM tree in compact JSON format, along with a library and command-line interface (CLI). It includes usage tips, such as reading from standard input or files, writing outputs, and handling attributes with primitive and object values. Specific formatting guidelines for key-value pairs are provided, and it notes that boolean attributes cannot use "true" or "false" but

An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need, beyond coding

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The content features Camille Fournier, author of "The Manager’s Path," and provides links to her work and personal websites. It invites readers to sign up or sign in, suggests they may like her book available on Amazon and Safari Online, and includes standard website navigation options like help, careers, press, blog, privacy, and terms.

Safe C++ Partnership

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The C++ Alliance has partnered with renowned engineer Sean Baxter to develop the Safe C++ Extensions proposal, which aims to enhance memory safety in the C++ programming language. This initiative responds to the increasing demand for safer coding practices amid growing concerns for software security and reliability. The proposal includes a Safe Standard Library, providing developers with memory-safe implementations of essential data structures and algorithms, promoting safety from the start of new code development. The C++ Alliance and Baxter are actively seeking feedback from the community to refine the

Ray Casting With Squeak

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/programming

Lauren Pullen shared her experience on the Squeak developers mailing list, detailing her work on a rendering engine for a first-person maze game using Squeak, inspired by ray casting methods from Wolfenstein 3D. Ray casting is a graphics technique where rays are cast from the player's perspective to determine the distance to nearby objects, creating a 3D view from a 2D world. Initially, Lauren worked with Common Lisp to develop a GUI application but faced challenges due to an

Defend against vampires with 10 gbps network encryption

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the vulnerabilities associated with data transmission over fiber optic cables, particularly in shared environments where physical security is lacking. It highlights that attackers can easily tap into these fibers to capture data, contrary to the belief that such an act requires advanced skills and expensive equipment. To mitigate these risks, it suggests encrypting Ethernet traffic on-the-fly for robust network security with good performance. Technologies mentioned include WireGuard for encryption, VXLAN for network virtualization, and MACsec for securing Ethernet links. The narrative

C vs. Ruby+YJIT: I2C Edition

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/ruby

The author enjoys coding, primarily in Ruby and occasionally in C, often related to electronics and hardware. They have recently implemented a bit-bang I2C method in the lgpio gem, which allows for I2C communication without using dedicated hardware by manipulating GPIO pins. This approach is useful when multiple devices share the same I2C address, as it allows for more devices to be connected without conflict. The author benchmarks I2C performance using a script that fills and clears pixels on a

The A-Z of Product Psychology

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

The "A-Z of Product Psychology" discusses various cognitive biases and principles that can be leveraged to design products that resonate with users. It highlights how people's decision-making can be influenced by specific psychological effects, as summarized below: - **A**: **Anchor Effect** - Initial information impacts decisions. - **B**: **Bizarreness Effect** - Unusual information is memorable. - **C**: **Confirmation Bias** - Preference for information that supports existing beliefs. - **D**:

Porting SBCL to the Nintendo Switch

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: Hacker News

For the past two years, Charles Zhang and the author have been working to port the Trial game engine to the Nintendo Switch, primarily focusing on adapting the Common Lisp runtime for the platform. The process has been more challenging than anticipated, but they have successfully reached a stage where they can compile and execute Lisp code on the Switch and interface with shared libraries. They have also ported necessary operating system libraries for Trial's functionality. However, the current implementation has limitations, such as crashing when the system attempts to

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on an VLM driven app that processes surveillance videos, automatically extracts frames, and generates detailed annotations to highlight notable events, actions, and objects. It’s powered by a fine-tuned Florence-2 VLM that I specifically trained on the SPHAR dataset

Published: 2024-09-13 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses an AI-driven tool for processing surveillance videos, which extracts key frames and generates detailed annotations using a fine-tuned Florence-2 Vision-Language Model (VLM) trained on the SPHAR dataset. This tool features real-time frame processing with asynchronous threading for efficiency and logs information for easy verification. It offers a user-friendly Gradio-based web interface for interacting with and analyzing the video footage. Annotations capture relevant actions, objects, and unusual events, which are stored in a SQLite database