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An adult fruit fly brain has been mapped Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: Hacker News The content discusses various topics, including the intelligence and behavior of fruit flies, highlighting their abilities to fly, socialize, remember their environment, and warn others of threats. It also touches on the need for improved analytical tools to understand sound patterns beyond human detection. Additionally, it addresses challenges in treatment accessibility and affordability, as well as the issue of water waste in Europe. It references a historical publication aimed at promoting intelligence over ignorance. Finally, it notes the website's use of cookies for user experience enhancement, |
Why do programmers need private offices with doors? Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: /r/programming The passage describes the frustration of being deeply focused on a complex problem at work, likening the mental process to constructing a fragile keystone arch that requires continuous attention. When interrupted by a colleague, the carefully constructed thought process collapses, leading to annoyance. The author considers this phenomenon not just as a result of rudeness or thoughtlessness but also as a matter of differing work styles. Referencing Paul Graham, it contrasts two types of work: one that can be interrupted without consequences, such as |
Rails World 2024 Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: /r/ruby The author attended Rails World 2024 in Toronto and found it to be an exceptional event, even better than the previous year's conference in Amsterdam. After returning from another conference in Romania, they experienced significant jet lag due to time zone adjustments. The trip to Toronto was facilitated by smooth border processing and organized transportation from the airport to the hotel. It was the author’s first visit to North America, and they noted the large scale of everything in Toronto, including vehicles and buildings. The city felt spacious |
CREATE INDEX EXTERNALLY: Offloading pgvector Indexing from Postgres Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: /r/programming The article discusses significant advancements in vector support within Postgres, particularly focusing on pgvector and its external indexing feature, which aims to alleviate performance bottlenecks during index creation and reindexing for large datasets. The introduction of external indexing allows the indexing process to be offloaded to external machines, thus reducing the impact on database performance. The piece highlights that even with the enhancements in pgvector version 0.6.0, including parallel index creation, indexing large datasets can still be time-consuming, |
AMD GPU Inference Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: Hacker News The project offers a Docker-based inference engine for running Large Language Models (LLMs) on AMD GPUs, specifically focusing on models from Hugging Face, including the LLaMA model family. Users can clone the repository, make the run script executable, and execute the inference engine by specifying a desired Hugging Face model and prompt. The Docker setup includes an Aptfile that lists required ROCm packages to ensure compatibility with AMD GPUs. The provided `run-docker-amd.sh` script automates the |
Ladybird surpassed Servo in the number of successfully passed web-platform-tests Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: /r/programming Of course! Please provide the content you'd like me to summarize. |
Building a gRPC client for Spark, using Ruby Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: /r/ruby The content discusses the significance of feedback and presents an article that is part of a series on Literate Programming, focusing specifically on Spark Connect documentation. Spark Connect simplifies the integration of the Spark compute backend with other tools via a gRPC-based protocol. The article aims to provide guidance on developing new Spark Connect clients, as no tutorials were available at the time of writing. Key topics include the creation of a console-based tool that connects to a Spark server to submit SQL queries and receive results. gRPC is |
Show HN: Weird Books to Read Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: Hacker News "The Weirder, The Better" by Andrew Worden is a humorous guide that offers subtle tactics for creating awkward situations at work without getting in trouble with HR. It contains quirky strategies to keep coworkers on their toes. Another comedic title, "Disappointing Affirmations," provides a tongue-in-cheek take on motivational quotes, delivering hilariously low expectations. For survival enthusiasts, "How to Fight a Bear…and Win" offers humorous yet practical survival tips for bizarre scenarios like escaping quicksand. " |
"We ran out of columns" - The best, worst codebase Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: /r/programming The passage discusses the author's experiences transitioning from a novice programmer to working in a professional software development environment. They reflect on the challenges and complexities of dealing with a legacy codebase at their first job, particularly focusing on the limitations of the SQL Server database they used. The author highlights the "Merchants" table, which developed a problem when it ran out of columns due to SQL Server's column limit (previously 1024, now 4096). This led to the creation of "Mer |
Dashi – A Streamlit Like Framework for Rubyists Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: Hacker News Dashi is a minimalist framework designed for Ruby developers, inspired by Streamlit, that simplifies the creation of data-driven and AI applications. It offers an intuitive syntax and pre-built components, allowing developers to focus on app functionality without the typical boilerplate code of web development. An example provided highlights a simple AI chatbot application built with Dashi, explaining key components such as loading the framework, initializing the app, setting titles, adding text, and integrating a chat interface for AI responses. When run, the |
NixOS is a good server OS, except when it isn't Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: Hacker News The author discusses their experience with NixOS, particularly its large default installation size, which can reach around 900MB even for minimal, headless configurations. They express a strong affinity for NixOS and emphasize its advantages in managing servers, including deterministic configuration management and the ability to deploy updates seamlessly. Despite their dedication, they aim to reduce the size of their NixOS installations for worker machines and microVMs, seeking to create lean systems that enhance security and efficiency. The author highlights their |
Show HN: Quilt – Powerful RAG UI for Document QA Published: 2024-10-02 | Origin: Hacker News Sure! Please provide the content you'd like me to summarize. |
Math from Three to Seven Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: Hacker News The text presents a historical inquiry into why the Soviet Union, despite its smaller population, weaker economy, and inefficient system, managed to maintain military and technological parity with the United States during the Cold War. This question mirrors the Needham Question regarding why Imperial China, despite its advantages, fell behind the West scientifically. The author reflects on the influx of skilled émigrés from the former Soviet Union to the US in the 1990s and 2000s, particularly in fields like chess and mathematics |
The Unintentional Nature of Bad Code Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: /r/programming The article discusses the idea that not all bad code is inherently detrimental. It emphasizes that unoptimized or poorly structured code may still effectively solve complex real-life problems, which often don't lend themselves to straightforward algorithms or well-defined inputs and outputs. The author draws a parallel between code optimization and cybersecurity, noting that just as no system can be 100% secure, no system can be perfectly optimized. Real-life scenarios require a nuanced understanding and often involve multiple variables, making perfect solutions unattainable. The author |
How CERN serves 1EB of data via FUSE [video] Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: Hacker News CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, handles large volumes of data generated from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The IT department's Storage and Data Management Group oversees data management, including long-term tape archival, distribution through the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), and providing secure access for over 30,000 users. This talk will cover CERN's open-source projects for storage, such as CERNBox and EOS, and highlight the unique challenges in data management faced |
Quake port running in just 276kB RAM on the Arduino Nano Matter board! (video and github repo in the article) Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: /r/programming Please provide the content you'd like me to summarize! |
Instead of changing the whole technology stack, start with one component — driving change Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: /r/programming The author reflects on their experience of driving in Ireland after 17 years of driving experience, highlighting the challenges of adapting to left-hand traffic (LHT) and how it relates to change management. They note the instinct to enter the passenger side instead of the driver's side and emphasize choosing an automatic car for ease. Key takeaways include implementing changes incrementally, consistently communicating reminders, and finding support from others who have successfully adapted to change. The experience illustrates that managing transitions effectively involves clear guidance and community support |
COBOL has been “dead” for so long, my grandpa wrote about it Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: Hacker News In June 1992, the author's grandfather published an article in Technical Support magazine declaring the death of COBOL, referencing programming trends like fourth-generation programming languages (4GL). Despite this claim, COBOL has proven resilient, likened to a "Zombie" language that, while considered "dead," still exists in some form. The author humorously mentions that remnants of older languages, like Autocoder, may also persist despite being deemed dead. A significant factor in COBOL's longevity was the Y |
Building a robust frontend using progressive enhancement Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: /r/programming The content outlines the use of cookies on the GOV.UK website, emphasizing the importance of essential cookies for functionality while also mentioning additional cookies that help analyze usage and improve services. Users can change their cookie settings at any time, regardless of their initial choice. It introduces the concept of "progressive enhancement" in website development, which prioritizes building robust pages that function with HTML first, followed by enhancements like CSS and JavaScript. All government services must adhere to this methodology to ensure they are high |
A $1k Wheelchair Published: 2024-10-01 | Origin: Hacker News The United Spinal Association focuses on empowering wheelchair users and individuals with spinal cord injuries or disabilities (SCI/D) to lead fulfilling lives. Its membership publication, New Mobility, provides valuable insights, product updates, and tips from wheelchair users twice a month. A featured story discusses Tanner Green, the chief engineer at Not a Wheelchair, who highlights the complications involved in the manufacturing process of wheelchairs, specifically relating to the aluminum plugs left behind after cutting. The automated cutting process is efficient, but the subsequent |