News Nug
FDA Proposes Ending Use of Oral Phenylephrine as OTC Nasal Decongestant

Published: 2024-11-08 | Origin: Hacker News

The .gov domain indicates an official federal government website, and users should ensure they're on a secure site (https://) before sharing sensitive information. On October 1, 2024, the FDA will begin updating its website to reflect an agency reorganization. In a recent announcement, the FDA proposed removing oral phenylephrine from over-the-counter (OTC) monograph drug products for nasal congestion due to findings that it is ineffective for this purpose. However, until a final order is issued

Ham Radio 101: What is WSPR?

Published: 2024-11-08 | Origin: Hacker News

WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) is a digital communication protocol used by amateur radio operators to determine if propagation paths are open. It transmits beacon-like signals containing a callsign, location, and power level, utilizing a compressed data format with strong forward error correction (FEC) and narrow-band frequency-shift keying. The protocol is designed to operate effectively even at low signal-to-noise ratios and allows multiple signals to coexist in a narrow frequency range. To use WSPR, operators

Converting ASCII strings to lower case at crazy speeds with AVX-512

Published: 2024-11-08 | Origin: Hacker News

Daniel Lemire's blog discusses his research on software performance as a computer science professor at the Université du Québec (TÉLUQ) in Montreal. He highlights the AVX-512 instruction set, supported by AMD Zen 4, Zen 5, and recent Intel processors, which enables efficient SIMD operations, including 'masked' operations that allow selective processing of data. The blog references Tony Finch's work on rapidly converting ASCII strings to lowercase using AVX-512, noting his assumption that

Show HN: I made a tiny device for automatically recording digital pianos

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Jamcorder is an innovative tool designed for piano players, allowing them to record their music effortlessly without needing to hit the record button. The app automatically captures all your music, storing up to 25,000 hours—about three years—right out of the box. This enables musicians to play freely and naturally without the fear of missing a moment. Users can easily access and review their recordings, bookmark ideas for improvement by tapping the top five black keys, and share music in various formats, including audio,

Rails 8.0.0 is released!

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content outlines various updates and changes regarding ActiveSupport, a component of the Ruby on Rails framework. Key points include: 1. Feedback is taken seriously and documented qualifiers are available. 2. Deprecated features have been removed, such as: - Passing arrays of strings to `ActiveSupport::Deprecation#warn`. - Setting the `attr_internal_naming_format` with a `@` prefix. - The `ActiveSupport::ProxyObject`. 3. The i18n watcher will

Typed Variables for Valid Dev & Production Environments

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The post introduces the 🦉 Owl Store, a solution designed to manage environment variables (ENV vars) efficiently, addressing common issues faced by developers when using platforms like GitHub and GitLab. The Owl Store provides a type system to specify, resolve, and verify the correctness of environments. It can be used with minimal setup, utilizing Dagger, and is documented within Runme's repository. The post highlights the challenges of maintaining consistent environments in software development, especially considering the complexities of Docker, lock

Sustainable Web Interest Group Is Formed

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the importance of web standards, their development, and adoption by various groups, particularly the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which focuses on core technology, industry, and societal needs. It emphasizes mastering web fundamentals, using developer tools, and community contributions. A key announcement is the formation of the Sustainable Web Interest Group (SWIG), aimed at enhancing digital sustainability. The group highlights that the digital industry significantly contributes to global emissions and environmental impact, prompting the need for sustainability guidelines.

JIT in ClickHouse

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The blog post discusses Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation, specifically its application in ClickHouse and its implementation using the LLVM infrastructure. It summarizes the author's presentations from various conferences where JIT compilation in ClickHouse was a primary focus. JIT compilation allows for dynamic generation and execution of machine code at runtime, with examples including JVM Hotspot and V8. The post also includes a practical example of a sum function coded in C++, detailing how the function is compiled and how to analyze its assembly output

Userland Disk I/O: Filesystems, file IO, and durability

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses how databases typically manage their write operations using direct and buffered I/O techniques. Most databases open their Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) and data files with the `O_DIRECT` flag for unbuffered I/O, allowing them to maintain their own page cache and directly interface with disk without involving the kernel's page cache. This method gives databases more control over data management and improves durability through functions like `fdatasync()`. The piece notes that while `O_DIRECT` is generally

Launch HN: Codebuff (YC F24) – CLI tool that writes code for you

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Codebuff streamlines code editing by allowing users to type their requests directly into the terminal, after which it searches the entire codebase to make the necessary edits, manage tests, type-check, or install packages. The idea originated during a hackathon when the creator experimented with Sonnet 3.5, initially creating a flawed script that required multiple steps for code modification. However, by reflecting on the errors and providing more context about the codebase through a manually written guide, the script's performance improved

Why I love Rust for tokenising and parsing

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The author is developing a static analysis tool for SQL, specifically for SQLite, called sqleibniz. The tool aims to perform syntax checks, verify the existence of tables, columns, and functions, and enhance the development experience by incorporating an embedded SQLite runtime for condition assertions. The goal is to provide users with high-quality error messages that offer context, explanations, and options to mute diagnostics. The analysis process includes lexical analysis/tokenization, SQL parsing based on SQLite documentation, and evaluating the resulting constructs

Python & C++ inspired programming language that transpiles to C and can be embedded within C source files.

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses ANIL (A Nice Intermediate Language), a programming language inspired by Python and C++ that transpiles to C and can be embedded in C source files. It highlights various components of the ANIL project, including: - A comparison of functions written in C and ANIL, such as the implementation of the `__contains__` method. - The process of generating C code from ANIL. - Directory structure and files associated with the ANIL compiler, including the implementation of the compiler

Resilient, Fault-tolerant, Robust, or Reliable?

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The content explains the distinctions between four key attributes of system design: resilience, fault-tolerance, robustness, and reliability. 1. **Resilience** refers to a system's ability to recover after a disruption, likened to a rubber band that returns to its shape after being stretched. An example is Apache Cassandra's mechanism to recover missing data after a node failure. 2. **Fault-tolerance** is the capacity of a system to continue functioning properly despite one or more component failures, represented by

AI for real-time fusion plasma behavior prediction and manipulation

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

The Plasma Control Group addresses the challenges of understanding complex non-linear systems in plasma physics using a novel machine learning approach. Traditional diagnostics provide limited views of these systems, often losing crucial information. By identifying hidden inter-correlations among different diagnostics, the group proposes a multimodal methodology that produces super-resolution data, allowing for detailed observation of plasma dynamics and structure previously deemed unobservable. This approach is particularly significant for analyzing Edge Localized Modes (ELMs), which can damage fusion reactor walls. The new super-resolution

Using Ghidra and Python to reverse engineer Ecco the Dolphin

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

In this edition, a reverse engineering analysis of "Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future," a Dreamcast game, reveals unrecognized cheat features associated with specific save file names. Using tools like Ghidra and Python, the author decoded the game’s encoding scheme to uncover various names that unlock features like "immortality" and a debug display. The known cheat involves entering the initials "GYU" twice followed by any three letters, which allows players to access all stages of the

ASCII control characters in my terminal

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the concept of ASCII control codes, particularly focusing on their use in terminal environments, especially on Mac OS. There are 33 ASCII control characters, which include codes associated with the letters A to Z, plus a few additional symbols. The author notes that these control codes are somewhat randomly categorized due to their organic development over time. Key points include: - The 33 control codes can limit the assignment of shortcuts since many combinations (like Ctrl-1) do not carry distinct functions and often

Astronomers may have spotted the smallest possible stars

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

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Stuck in a Loop? Why Busy Engineers Still Feel Unfulfilled and How You Can Break Free

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the phenomenon of career plateaus, which often occur in engineering and other fields as professionals lose motivation and fulfillment over time. Initially driven by enthusiasm and high expectations, individuals may eventually find it challenging to see tangible impacts from their work, leading to a sense of stagnation. This state, termed "active boredom," involves being busy with tasks yet feeling unfulfilled due to repetitive duties, a lack of challenges, or misalignment with personal values. Active boredom manifests as going through the motions,

How to delegate effectively as your responsibility grows

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: Hacker News

The author is preparing to introduce new productized services to their operations group and believes this is a good opportunity to share their insights on internal delegation, drawing from their leadership and consulting experience. They highlight that both programmers and marketers often face difficulties transitioning from individual contributors to team leaders when it comes to delegation. Successful delegation involves assigning both tasks and accountability, whereas unsuccessful delegation only assigns tasks while retaining accountability. The author suggests that while certain forms of delegation, including detailed documentation commonly used by individual contributors, can

Pkl: Apple's New Configuration Language That Could Replace JSON and YAML

Published: 2024-11-07 | Origin: /r/programming

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