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Ham radio enthusiasts who help keep the NYC Marathon running smoothly

Published: 2024-11-04 | Origin: Hacker News

The New York Marathon, taking place on November 3, 2024, is the world’s largest marathon with over 50,000 runners. The race covers all five boroughs of New York City, originating in Staten Island and ending in Central Park. Organizing such a large event involves a significant number of volunteers who manage various tasks, including water stations and medical assistance. A crucial element of this organization is communication, which is supported by local amateur radio operators. Donni Katzovicz,

Adding IPv6 to My Home Network (2024-11-03)

Published: 2024-11-04 | Origin: Hacker News

The author recounts their experience transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 after starting a new job that requires IPv6 knowledge. They detail how they added IPv6 support to their home network, which operates on OpenBSD, using tools such as ifconfig, slaacd, and dhcp6leased. The guide is aimed at users with OpenBSD 7.6 or later due to updates in DHCPv6 support. The author uses AT&T DSL for internet service and has a firewall with two interfaces.

Scientists glue two proteins together, driving cancer cells to self-destruct

Published: 2024-11-04 | Origin: Hacker News

The content highlights recent achievements and initiatives at Stanford related to healthcare and research. Notably, neuroscientist Michelle Monje received a MacArthur "genius grant" for her work. Stanford's commitment to innovation is evident as new medical students begin their studies, supported by extensive teaching, research, and patient care efforts. The institution encourages support for child and maternal health through Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. Stanford researchers are exploring a novel cancer therapy that leverages the body's natural process of

Hertz-dev, the first open-source base model for conversational audio

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: Hacker News

Standard Intelligence has developed and is open-sourcing hertz-dev, a revolutionary full-duplex, audio-only transformer model with 8.5 billion parameters. This model is the first of its kind publicly available, designed as a base model that accurately reflects its training data, making it suitable for various applications. Hertz-dev boasts a theoretical latency of 65ms and an average latency of 120ms on an RTX 4090, significantly lower than other public models, which enhances its capacity for human-like

Hacker News Data Map [180MB]

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: Hacker News

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Project Sid: Many-agent simulations toward AI civilization

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses a technical report titled "Project Sid: Many-agent simulations toward AI civilization," which is set to appear on arXiv. The report highlights the need for large-scale simulations involving numerous AI agents, as most existing evaluations focus on isolated agents or small groups. It introduces the PIANO architecture, which allows real-time interactions among agents and humans while maintaining coherence. Using simulations in a Minecraft environment, the research demonstrates that AI agents can develop specialized roles, adapt rules, and engage in cultural

C++, Complexity, and Compiler Bugs

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

The author has extensive experience with C++ but finds the language increasingly intimidating due to its complexity. This complexity, including issues with variable lifetimes and references, became evident during their work in Developer Experience where compiler bugs affected their entire company. The author explains the risks involved when returning references to variables that may go out of scope, as well as the pitfalls of referencing temporary expressions. After upgrading their C++ compiler, the author encountered production crashes rather than compiler errors due to what seemed like incorrect code. They

LLM Frameworks are Like ORMs in the 80s

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

The content provides a reflection on the evolution of programming paradigms, drawing parallels between early programming languages and current Large Language Model (LLM) frameworks. It describes the experience of a programmer in the 1980s who discovers a new language that relies on describing expected outputs rather than traditional coding structures. Over time, the programmer learns the relational model and starts using Object-Relational Mappers (ORMs), initially finding them helpful but soon frustrated by their limitations and abstraction. The author compares this experience

5 Lessons I learned the hard way from 10+ years as a software engineer

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

Join former Google and Meta executive Alan Stein and learn 6 steps to quickly and confidently land a better job with higher pay. Alan, who has significant hiring experience, will explain how hiring decisions are made and will answer questions during a Q&A session. In another segment, Gourav Khanijoe, a Staff Engineer and author, shares his journey and offers insights into critical lessons he learned while advancing his career. Gourav emphasizes the challenging nature of leadership in software engineering and reflects on his growth from

5 (Wrong) Regex To Parse Parentheses

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the author's project to create a compiler named Modal.ed, which translates Modal syntax into ed(1) scripts. A significant challenge within the project involves parsing Modal syntax, particularly focusing on balancing parentheses. The author presents several examples of Modal rules to highlight the diversity of syntax. The exploration into achieving balanced parentheses matching leads to a search for the correct regular expression (regex) approach, specifically avoiding languages like .NET or Perl that allow recursive matching. Instead, the author argues for using POSIX

Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: Hacker News

The November 2024 issue of IEEE Spectrum highlights a trend of "re-buttonization" in technology, where tactile controls such as buttons and knobs are making a comeback in various devices, including cars and home appliances. Notable changes include Apple’s addition of buttons to the iPhone 16 and car manufacturers reintroducing physical controls in dashboards. This resurgence has increased demand for Rachel Plotnick, an expert on buttons and their societal implications, who is assisting companies in improving tactile interfaces. Her interest in

Software Development is a Cultural Ecology. Work with it, not against it. Stop writing coding conventions and policy documents. Instead, start changing the development "environment" to make the-right-thing(TM) the path of least resistance.

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the significance of coding conventions, branching strategies, and review guidelines in software development, emphasizing their impact on team dynamics. Anders Sundman, a principal software architect, argues that instead of focusing solely on written policies, it's more effective to create environments that naturally encourage adherence to these practices. He draws parallels between software development and cultural ecology, suggesting that development practices can be seen through the lens of interactions resembling biological ecosystems. The text invites senior developers and leaders to explore these concepts further, emphasizing the

I Waited 10 Billion Cycles and All I Got Was This Loading Screen

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses the paradox of modern hardware speed versus the sluggishness of certain applications, using Microsoft Teams as a prime example that takes too long to open links despite powerful hardware like the M1 Max running at 3.2GHz. It highlights how even simple tasks seem to lag behind, raising the question of why this discrepancy exists. The author argues against the notion that increased application complexity is the sole reason for slower performance. By contrasting the capabilities of modern gaming, which can deliver impressive real-time simulations

Is copilot a huge security vulnerability?

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

GitHub Copilot allows organizations and repository administrators to prevent the tool from accessing specific content through content exclusion settings, which are currently in public preview. Users with a "Maintain" role can view but not edit these settings. The exclusion feature enables administrators to specify certain files or directories that Copilot should ignore. To configure exclusions, go to the repository settings under the "Code & automation" section and select "Copilot." If there are inherited exclusions, they will be displayed but cannot be edited. Administr

Can humans say the largest prime number before we find the next one?

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: Hacker News

A group is working on a collaborative project to record every digit of the newly discovered Mersenne prime, M136279841, which consists of 41 million digits. Participants are invited to claim a 419-digit segment, record themselves reading it aloud (approximately 3.5 minutes), and upload the video to YouTube. The videos will be compiled into a playlist that aims to document this collective effort, creating a unique historical record. The project encourages creativity in video presentation, allows for the inclusion

The original author of the Fernflower Java decompiler, Stiver, has died

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

On October 20, Stiver, the original author of the Fernflower Java decompiler, passed away after battling glioblastoma. Stiver, a German programmer of Russian descent, specialized in medical software and developed an interest in Java virtual machine internals two decades ago. He saw potential in improving the decompilation of Java during a time when existing decompilers, like JAD and JODE, were outdated and could not support new language features or handle changes in Java bytecode. Existing

The Prozac Era. What Next?

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: Hacker News

Dr. David Healy discusses the history of benzodiazepines, starting with the launch of Valium (diazepam) by Hoffman la Roche in 1963, shortly after Librium (chlordiazepoxide). This marketing strategy, influenced by Arthur Sackler of Purdue, aimed to dominate the market. Roche patented numerous benzodiazepine variations to maintain its market control. By the late 1970s, drugs like Ativan (lorazepam) and Xanax (alp

Made a cool startup script that helps you quit smoking

Published: 2024-11-03 | Origin: /r/programming

The content emphasizes the importance of positive reinforcement for individuals trying to quit smoking, discouraging guilt and encouraging self-tracking. It introduces a script designed for Google Sheets, which logs the number of days since quitting. The script is intended for daily terminal users who can configure it by editing the .env file. This setup allows the script to run automatically upon opening the terminal, updating the Google Sheet with progress. The message concludes with encouragement and good wishes for those attempting to quit smoking.

Spann: Highly-Efficient Billion-Scale Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (2021)

Published: 2024-11-02 | Origin: Hacker News

arXivLabs is a collaborative framework for developing and sharing new features on the arXiv website, emphasizing values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. Both individuals and organizations involved with arXivLabs must adhere to these principles. Users with project ideas that could benefit the arXiv community are encouraged to learn more about arXivLabs. Additionally, users can receive operational status notifications via email or Slack.

Breaking CityHash64, MurmurHash2/3, wyhash, and more...

Published: 2024-11-02 | Origin: /r/programming

Hash functions are mathematical functions that convert arbitrary data into a fixed-size output, making the process deterministic yet seemingly random. This property makes them useful in various applications including hash tables, checksums, and algorithms. The article discusses the security vulnerabilities of hash functions, particularly in the context of malicious actors. It emphasizes that while good hash functions are resilient in practice, they can be broken under certain conditions, especially with non-cryptographic hash functions. The author explains how simple techniques can produce numerous strings or