Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

The article presents a special edition of the Archives FAQs and Facts series, focusing on how archivists in Canada and the UK package physical documents for long-term storage. It aims to compare the different packaging methods used in both countries, jokingly dubbed the "battle of the boxes," highlighting the friendly rivalry between their practices. The piece illustrates the importance of archival work in combating disorder and preserving humanity’s self-knowledge. Contributors from both countries share their insights, emphasizing collaboration within the global preservation community. The article

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

The SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team has identified a critical zero-click vulnerability, CVE-2024-20017, which has a CVSS score of 9.8. This vulnerability affects MediaTek Wi-Fi chipsets (specifically MT7622/MT7915 and RTxxxx SoftAP driver bundles) found in devices from manufacturers like Ubiquiti, Xiaomi, and Netgear. It is present in MediaTek SDK versions 7.4.0.1 and earlier,

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/ruby

Jon Sully's article discusses his decision to switch from Gatsby to Rails for his new website, emphasizing the long-term reliability of Rails. He previously used Commento for comments but found it is no longer maintained. Upon searching for alternative third-party comment systems, he realized there were few viable options that met his needs for customization, spam filtering, and easy integration. Ultimately, he decided to create his own comments solution, which turned out to be simpler and more efficient than expected, allowing for greater integration with

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

Podman Desktop is a cross-platform graphical user interface developed by the Podman team for managing the open-source container manager, Podman. It provides a user-friendly experience on Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it ideal for skill development and learning the features of Podman. The dashboard focuses on essential functionalities, allowing users to manage secrets, shared volumes, and minimize redundancy. The interface aims to enhance user comfort without intrusive popups, offering detailed information only when necessary. Publications related to Podman include

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses the sound features of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and how to emulate and generate sound using the NES's custom hardware, known as the Audio Processing Unit (APU). This APU is integrated into the CPU chip (Ricoh 2A03) and employs various optimizations to minimize storage requirements while offering flexibility to developers—similar to the NES's graphics hardware. Instead of storing audio waveforms directly, the APU utilizes simple synthesizer hardware, allowing developers to create diverse

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/ruby

Rails 8 will natively support Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), allowing developers to create installable apps easily. The author, who is enthusiastic about using PWAs on desktop and mobile, notes that several popular applications like GitHub and Mastodon are built with Rails and are installable as PWAs. The focus of their contributions to Rails 8 is on simplifying PWA features, such as web push notifications and native-like functionalities. The article promises a guide for setting up a Rails app as a

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

AnySkin is a new tactile sensing solution designed to overcome challenges in versatility, replaceability, and data reusability that have limited the development of effective tactile sensors compared to modalities like vision and proprioception. It features a simplified design that separates sensing electronics from the interface, making installation as easy as putting on a phone case. AnySkin allows for cross-instance generalization of learned manipulation policies. The key contributions of this work include: 1. A streamlined fabrication process and design tool for an adhesive-free

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

The author discovers an unexpectedly intriguing C compiler manual from the 1980s among a collection of FM TOWNS books. This period saw significant competition among smaller companies, resulting in various vendor language extensions to enhance C's functionality beyond standard capabilities. The Phar Lap software's DOS extender was pivotal as it enabled 32-bit programming in the 16-bit MS-DOS environment, and they collaborated with MetaWare to port the High C Compiler, which later became the first-party C compiler for Fujitsu's

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

The document emphasizes the importance of user feedback and directs readers to available qualifiers in the documentation. It introduces an innovative method for visualizing weather forecasts through landscape imagery rather than raw numerical data from traditional weather stations, which can be overwhelming. The proposed approach uses a landscape image featuring a small house, where the horizontal axis represents a 24-hour timeline and the vertical axis symbolizes various weather conditions. The image is coded in Python using the Pillow library and is tailored for a 296x128 E-Ink display

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content describes several design patterns used in software development: 1. **Factory Method**: Creates families of related objects without specifying their concrete classes. 2. **Builder**: Constructs complex objects step by step, allowing for different types of objects using the same construction code. 3. **Abstract Factory**: Provides an interface for creating objects in a superclass, enabling subclasses to alter object types. 4. **Prototype**: Allows copying of existing objects without depending on their classes. 5. **Singleton**

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

The user expresses a desire to transition from web development to developing basic graphics renderers, with an eventual goal of rendering scenes. They seek recommendations for resources to aid in this learning journey. Various replies suggest a mix of online courses, books, and tutorials that cover 3D graphics programming, including resources that require some knowledge of C++. Notable recommendations include courses from Pikuma, an introductory book on 3D game programming, and specific tutorial series such as "Ray Tracing in One Weekend."

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

CuPy is a library that provides a NumPy/SciPy-compatible array interface for GPU-accelerated computing with Python, allowing users to run existing NumPy/SciPy code on NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm platforms. It supports low-level CUDA features, enabling integration with existing CUDA C/C++ applications. Binary packages for CuPy are available on PyPI and Conda-Forge for Linux and Windows, with options for slim installations and specific CUDA versions. Users are encouraged to report issues with the

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a highly resilient and enduring file format in data processing, often likened to a "cockroach" due to its simplicity and ubiquity. It emerged organically in the early computing days as a straightforward method for storing tabular data by separating values with commas and using new lines for rows. Its popularity soared in the 1980s with the advent of spreadsheet programs and its integration into business processes for sharing financial and customer data. With the rise of the internet

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: Hacker News

A user successfully booted Debian Linux on a 4-bit Intel 4004 microprocessor from 1971, marking a significant achievement in running a modern operating system on one of the earliest microprocessors. The video showcasing this feat is sped up to maintain viewer interest, with accurate clock and calendar displays. This follows a previous achievement from 2012, where the same user ran Linux on an 8-bit AVR microcontroller, establishing a world record for the lowest-end machine to do so. In

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

The QuestDB codebase has recently incorporated a notable amount of Rust code, despite being primarily a Java project. This integration is facilitated by their unique approach, which emphasizes zero garbage collection and efficient data access, making Rust a suitable fit. The author discusses the challenges of testing Rust code, particularly when it's accessed through Java Native Interface (JNI). In the provided blog post, they outline a method for integrating Rust into the CI/CD workflow, enabling test coverage reporting similar to Java's robust framework. The post

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

Timescale offers a range of products and services designed to enhance PostgreSQL capabilities, particularly for time-series data and AI applications. Key features include: 1. **Timeseries and Analytics**: Optimized PostgreSQL for fast data ingestion and querying of time-based data. 2. **AI and Vector Support**: Extensions like pgvector and pgai are provided for developing AI agents and performing high-recall searches on vector data. 3. **Dynamic PostgreSQL (Early Access)**: Managed PostgreSQL services

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the design of Facebook's News Feed, a feature that displays recent stories from users within a social network. It emphasizes a shift from bi-directional friendship relationships to uni-directional "follow" relationships. Key points to consider include: 1. **Core Requirements**: The design assumes users are authenticated, focusing on system performance requirements, as response speed influences architectural decisions. 2. **Fan Out Problem**: A significant challenge is managing users with many followers or those who follow numerous users,

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

The article by Cal Paterson discusses the overwhelming number of open source licenses, highlighting that the Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) catalogs 665 different licenses, many of which may be unnecessary. It mentions specific examples, like the Nokia Open Source License, which is a modified version of the Mozilla Public License created to reflect Nokia's branding and jurisdiction. Another example is the BSD 3-Clause No Nuclear License, which includes a clause that makes it ineligible as an Open Source license due to its discriminatory

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

Terrance Craddock, an independent AI researcher, expresses skepticism about the capabilities of large language models, particularly those with 70 billion parameters. He argues that despite the widespread hype surrounding AI, the reality reveals these models only produce accurate responses about 10% of the time. The other 90% of the outputs tend to be flawed, irrelevant, or incorrect, which he believes undermines the field's credibility. Craddock highlights a simple experiment where he asks AI models how many 'r

Published: 2024-09-20 | Origin: /r/programming

In his talk at the First Round Capital CTO Summit, Greg Brockman, the founding engineer at Stripe, shares insights on optimizing the hiring pipeline to attract top talent. He emphasizes measuring the success of different recruitment channels based on the quality of hires rather than the volume of candidates, suggesting that efficiency is key in recruiting efforts. Brockman likens recruiting to marketing, noting that companies must make themselves appealing to high-demand talent. He encourages crafting engaging recruitment emails and suggests involving multiple perspectives in this process.