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Advanced Python Type Hints That Will Improve Your Code Significantly

Published: 2024-09-19 | Origin: /r/programming

The article by Yang Zhou highlights the evolution and significance of type hints in Python, specifically focusing on Python 3.5's introduction of this feature. Python, traditionally a dynamically typed language, has enhanced its capabilities for type safety through these hints, which have become more comprehensive up to Python 3.13. The author aims to summarize and explain nine advanced type hinting techniques that go beyond basic usage, illustrating their importance with an example involving TypeVar, a feature that allows the definition of type variables

Digital signatures and how to avoid them

Published: 2024-09-19 | Origin: Hacker News

A digital signature is a mathematical method used to verify the authenticity of digital messages or documents, assuring recipients that a message comes from a known sender. The basic process involves a sender, Alice, signing a message with her private key; the recipient, Bob, can then verify the signature using Alice's public key. This straightforward concept has led to the broad adoption of digital signatures for various applications such as validating software updates and authenticating SSL connections. However, cryptographers have a more complex view of digital signatures

US health system ranks last compared with peer nations, report finds – US news

Published: 2024-09-19 | Origin: Hacker News

A recent report by the Commonwealth Fund reveals that the United States ranks last among 10 peer nations in healthcare performance, despite Americans spending nearly twice as much on healthcare as other countries. The US system struggles with issues of health equity, access to care, and overall health outcomes. Dr. Joseph Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund, highlights the human impact of these failures, noting that many patients face financial barriers to medications and care. While healthcare costs are a primary concern for voters, neither presidential

Nintendo Files Suit for Infringement of Patent Rights Against Pocketpair, Inc

Published: 2024-09-19 | Origin: Hacker News

On September 18, 2024, Nintendo Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, Inc. in the Tokyo District Court. The lawsuit claims that Pocketpair's game, Palworld, infringes on several patent rights and seeks both an injunction to stop the infringement and compensation for damages.

Debugging Behind the Iron Curtain (2010)

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

The content details the experiences of Sergei, a veteran of the early computing industry in the Soviet Union, as shared by his mentee. Sergei worked on software for an SM-1800 microcomputer used at a railroad station near Sverdlovsk in the 1980s. The system faced mysterious crashes that occurred overnight, which traditional testing failed to replicate. Determined to identify the cause, Sergei analyzed the crash history and discovered a pattern related to the processing of live cattle cargo.

Ruby-SAML pwned by XML signature wrapping attacks

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

CVE-2024-45409, published on September 10, 2024, identifies a vulnerability in the Ruby implementation of SAML, which enables XML signature wrapping attacks. This issue allows attackers to log in as any arbitrary user within the affected system, impacting a wide range of platforms, including GitLab and the Ruby ecosystem. The vulnerability stems from the complexities associated with XML signatures, which were introduced in the early 2000s as an alternative to JSON Web Tokens (JWTs).

The Post-JAMstack Era: Just Use Rails.

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/ruby

Jon Sully discusses the concept and challenges of maintaining “static sites” or “marketing websites,” which serve as a company's digital presence and are crucial for SEO. He notes that many organizations, like his own, typically use JAMstack technology for these sites but suggests that the hype surrounding JAMstack has diminished as of August 2023. He reflects on the frequent need to rebuild such sites—his team has transitioned through several technologies like Gridsome, Eleventy, and NextJS over the past few

Comic Mono

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

The content describes a legible monospace font, a variant of Shannon Miwa’s Comic Shanns (version 1), created by a software developer using a Python script called generate.py. The font can be easily included in web pages via a provided CDN from jsDelivr. Additionally, it is available on npm, although the font files there are not optimized. For a better option, a fontsource package is recommended. The font is licensed under the MIT License.

Stop using SERIAL in Postgres

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/programming

The content advises against using serial columns in PostgreSQL and recommends switching to identity columns instead. PostgreSQL introduced identity columns in version 10 (2017), which offer several advantages over serial columns. Both serial and identity columns generate sequences, but the management of these sequences differs significantly. For example, when permissions are not correctly set for a user on a serial column's sequence, they can encounter errors during data insertion or updates. To fix this issue, the necessary permissions on the sequence need to be

AI-Generated Code is Causing Outages and Security Issues in Businesses

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/programming

Businesses leveraging AI-generated code are facing significant challenges, including system outages and security vulnerabilities. Reports from Sonar, a provider of code quality and security solutions, indicate that even large financial institutions are experiencing consistent downtime attributed to the AI-generated code. Research shows that popular AI coding tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Amazon CodeWhisperer produce correct code only 65.2%, 46.3%, and 31.1% of the time, respectively. The difficulties arise partly

Is Tor still safe to use?

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

The blog post by Isabela and Pavel addresses an investigative report on the de-anonymization of a Tor user utilizing the outdated Ricochet application through a focused law enforcement attack. Despite the incident, Tor users can continue to browse securely and anonymously using the Tor Browser, which remains a reliable privacy solution for many. The authors encourage users to keep their software updated and note that the de-anonymization stemmed from a guard discovery attack on a Ricochet user using a version lacking modern protective measures

The technology behind GitHub’s new code search

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/programming

The content provides a comprehensive overview of resources and educational materials related to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) within the GitHub ecosystem and broader industry. Key topics include: - Building skills in generative AI and utilizing GitHub Copilot. - Understanding large language models (LLMs) and best practices in machine learning. - Enhancing developer experience through AI code generation. - Insights for professional growth, transitioning to professional roles, and staying updated on industry trends. - Effective software development practices

GM electric vehicles can now access Tesla Superchargers

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

General Motors (GM) has updated the software in its electric vehicles to allow customers to use Tesla's Supercharging network. To access this feature immediately, Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC owners must purchase an approved Tesla adapter for $225 via each brand's app. Future GM models will include Tesla's charging port as standard. This update follows an announcement made over 15 months ago and was initially expected to be completed by early spring 2024 but was delayed due to Tesla's production issues. The move

Llama 3.1 Omni Model

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

LLaMA-Omni is an advanced speech-language model based on Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, designed for low-latency, high-quality speech interactions, capable of generating both text and speech responses from spoken instructions. It features a latency as low as 226ms and was trained in under 3 days using 4 GPUs. The model can be downloaded from Huggingface, and instructions for local inference are provided. Feedback is highly valued, and users are encouraged

The Elegance of the ASCII Table

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/programming

Dan Q discusses the elegance and beauty of the ASCII table, initially standardized in X3.4-1963. ASCII uses a 7-bit binary representation, handling 128 codepoints. The article highlights the classic design choices that have remained relevant since the table’s inception, emphasizing both the aesthetic and functional aspects of ASCII. It notes that the first 32 characters are control commands, like carriage return and line feed, which facilitate communication between machines. The post aims to deepen appreciation for ASCII by exploring

The empire of C++ strikes back with Safe C++ proposal

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/programming

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Postgres Materialized Views from Parquet in S3 with Zero ETL

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses a managed cloud PostgreSQL service available on AWS, Azure, and GCP that allows for integration with cloud object storage for efficient, vectorized analytical queries. It offers various deployment options, including a Kubernetes Operator for high availability, automated solutions for traditional infrastructure, and secure access-controlled instances to meet advanced security needs. Additionally, it highlights Crunchy Bridge for Analytics, which combines PostgreSQL with DuckDB for enhanced analytical capabilities. Users can easily query Parquet files stored in S3 by creating

Ruby’s hidden gems: Sorbet

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: /r/ruby

The discussion on static versus dynamically typed languages is ongoing among developers, with each type offering unique advantages and drawbacks that impact software development. Dynamically typed languages, like Ruby, provide flexibility and encourage rapid development by allowing variables to be declared without types. However, this can lead to debugging challenges, especially in larger codebases, as errors often appear at runtime rather than during coding. The article introduces Sorbet, a type checker for Ruby, developed by Stripe to address the issues associated with dynamic typing. Sor

HTTP: , FTP:, and Dict:?

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

The author discusses an exploration of an ancient codebase that included an unfamiliar regex related to the DICT protocol, which is used for querying Dictionary Servers on the Internet. While the "webster" protocol has historically been the go-to for accessing dictionary definitions, its availability has declined over recent years. Despite this, some freely distributable dictionaries are now available, though they lack a uniform access interface. The DICT protocol originated in 1997 as a solution to challenges like limited disk space and expensive

Why wordfreq will not be updated

Published: 2024-09-18 | Origin: Hacker News

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