Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: Hacker News

Fidget is a library designed for handling large-scale mathematical expressions, primarily intended as a backend for implicit surfaces. It can represent, compile, and evaluate complex arithmetic clauses for various applications. Implicit surfaces are mathematical functions that provide a distance value for points in 3D space, allowing the determination of whether these points lie inside or outside a model (e.g., a sphere). The library specializes in closed-form implicit surfaces that use basic arithmetic operations, contrasting with flexible representations like GLSL, which can

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/programming

95% of engineering managers wish they could write more code but feel unable to do so due to their responsibilities. The article discusses two actionable ideas that can help engineering managers engage more with coding, requiring only a few hours each week. First, it highlights an internal ChatGPT tool created by an engineering manager that integrates information from Confluence, GitHub readme files, and Slack channels to support the development team. Second, the author reflects on their own experience transitioning from coding to full-time management

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The post discusses how Apple's AirTag works, starting with a story about a sports journalist named Maria who lost her luggage while traveling. After learning about the AirTag from a coworker, she bought one and found it simple and effective for tracking her belongings. AirTags operate without GPS, Wi-Fi, or cellular networks by using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which conserves power and reduces costs. They generate a public-private key pair for secure communication, where the location data sent by the

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: Hacker News

In a study analyzing the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records of the top 1 million websites, researchers found over 1,700 DKIM keys shorter than 1,024 bits, which are deemed insecure and deprecated since RFC 8301 was introduced in 2018. Curious about the security of these keys, the team attempted to crack one, specifically selecting a 512-bit RSA public key from redfin.com to extract its private key. Their goal was to see if they could

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The content introduces the Manhattan Tourist Problem, a dynamic programming challenge involving planning a route through downtown Manhattan. The goal is to find the longest path from the northwesternmost corner to the southeasternmost corner of a weighted grid, where movement is restricted to south or east. The problem requires developing a strategy to maximize attractions visited, represented by weights on the grid. It explains that naive approaches, like calculating all possible paths, are inefficient for larger grids. Greedy algorithms are also unsatisfactory because they make locally

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The author, Sebastian Carlos, reflects on his experiences during a brief but challenging tenure at Meta, where he encountered serious corporate espionage and ethical dilemmas. After being fired for speaking out, he feels compelled to share his story, asserting his legal safety in doing so. In preparation for a job interview at Meta, he meticulously updated his knowledge on popular tech topics and faced an unusual algorithm question that seemed suited for Prolog, a programming language he chose to use despite concerns of appearing pretentious. His

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The author, a top contributor on StackOverflow, expresses concern over the significant decline in new questions on the platform. They share personal experiences, highlighting that even quality questions can be closed quickly, likely dissuading newer users. Statistics show a dramatic drop in new questions: from over 87,000 in March 2023 to just over 25,000 in December 2024, a decline of 70.7%. This trend suggests an existential crisis for StackOverflow, the worst since

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/programming

The 32 Bit Operating System (OS_32Bit) is an open-source platform aimed at showcasing technical capabilities and fostering learning and collaboration among developers. It emphasizes the importance of community input and feedback. Key features include: - **Installation**: Detailed steps for installation, including system requirements (Docker), guides, and booting instructions. - **GUI Support**: Users are instructed to install VcXsrv for GUI support, recommending certain settings for optimal performance. - **Docker Usage**: Instructions

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: Hacker News

This book guides readers through the step-by-step process of building a small operating system from scratch. Although OS and kernel development may seem daunting, the fundamental functions are relatively simple. It highlights that even the initial version of Linux was only 8,413 lines of code. The project will involve implementing basic features such as context switching, paging, user mode, a command-line shell, and file operations in C, with a goal of around 1,000 lines of code. However, debugging poses significant

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: Hacker News

A 2009 video making the rounds on Twitter illustrates the differences between CPUs and GPUs through a humorous "painting duel," where the CPU takes 30 seconds to draw a basic smiley face, while the GPU instantly paints the Mona Lisa. This highlights that GPUs are generally faster than CPUs, as indicated by the performance measurement TFLOPS (teraflops). For instance, the Nvidia A100 GPU achieves 9.7 TFLOPS compared to the Intel 24-core processor's 0

Published: 2025-01-08 | Origin: /r/ruby

The article, written by Alvaro, a member of the Zuplo community, introduces a project that combines the Dune saga by Frank Herbert with a practical application using Ruby and Sinatra to create an API for Dune quotes. Alvaro emphasizes the richness of the quotes from the books and suggests building an API to easily access them. The project involves creating a folder named "duneQuotes," a file "server.rb," and using Sinatra along with MongoDB Atlas. Alvaro provides instructions for setting up

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Apple and Google have repeatedly warned users that they will never initiate unsolicited communications by phone. Despite this, a voice phishing gang is exploiting legitimate services from both companies to impersonate them and execute phishing attacks. A case highlighted by KrebsOnSecurity involved a cryptocurrency investor named Tony, who lost over $4.7 million through an elaborate scheme that included contact via Google Assistant and emails that appeared to come from Google. The scammer also sent account recovery prompts to Tony’s devices using Google's infrastructure. The story reveals

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Igalia took over the maintenance of the Servo project in January 2023, revitalizing an experimental browser engine created by Mozilla in 2012. Developed alongside the Rust programming language, Servo aims to be a performant and secure web rendering engine. After years of Mozilla's support, the project struggled post-2020, leading to its perceived abandonment. Igalia's involvement has brought renewed life; they secured funding and have approximately five engineers working full-time on Servo. In September 2023, Servo

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

The term "Magic Links" has evolved from referring to a futuristic PDA to denoting a login link sent via email by companies like Auth0. A recent article from 404 Media titled “We Don’t Want Your Password” advocates for magic links, arguing that they are harder to phish than passwords and protect against compromised credentials. However, the article's claim that magic links create an easier login process is challenged, as it may not be simpler for users who access multiple devices or lack a straightforward copy

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/ruby

Jose Antonio Torres Garibay explores the workings of real-time applications and their functionality in relation to WebSockets. He expresses his interest in understanding WebSockets better through the development of a real-time chat application, which involves basic actions like joining, sending messages, and leaving. Torres outlines the key differences between WebSockets and traditional HTTP requests. Unlike HTTP, which follows a request-response model requiring clients to initiate every interaction, WebSockets establish a persistent connection that allows both servers and clients to send data

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Working in large established codebases is a significant challenge for software engineers, as traditional learning avenues like open source or personal projects don’t adequately prepare one for this complexity. After a decade of experience, the author emphasizes a critical mistake engineers often make: ignoring the existing codebase in favor of cleanly implementing new features. This approach leads to fragmentation and inconsistency, which are detrimental in a large codebase. Consistency is crucial; it helps avoid surprises, prevents the codebase from deteriorating, and facilitates

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

A good computer science curriculum at the university level, particularly for aspiring software developers, should focus on fundamental principles that enable adaptability to rapidly changing technologies. Northeastern University is in the process of overhauling its curriculum to address this challenge. The current curriculum emphasizes foundational skills through courses like "Fundamentals of Computer Science," which teaches systematic program design using the design recipe method, encouraging students to break problems into manageable parts before coding. The objective is to foster problem-solving skills and critical thinking about software rather

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The author reflects on their journey from being a new-grad software engineer at Airbnb to co-founding a company called Graphite, which focuses on creating developer tools to enhance software development for other teams. Initially, they enjoyed the thrill of coding and problem-solving, but their passion evolved into building and leading teams. As Graphite expanded, their role shifted from coding to leadership, which involved learning management practices, hiring a leadership coach, and mentoring engineers. The author seeks to articulate the responsibilities of an engineering manager

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the complexities and limitations of Zig's generics, drawing parallels to C++ and cautioning against the idea that other programming languages should adopt Zig's model. It highlights the misconception that Zig's generics are flawless and criticizes the notion that all languages should embrace this approach. While Zig's generics align with its minimalist philosophy and work well within its specific context, this does not mean they are appropriate for all languages, as many do not prioritize simplicity to the same extent. The author

Published: 2025-01-07 | Origin: Hacker News

Tramway SDK (stylized as T̈ra̦m̊ẅa̦ÿ SD̈K) is a graphics package and game engine developed over the past three years. This article argues against mainstream engines like Unity and Godot, citing their high hardware requirements and power consumption. Tramway SDK, in contrast, is lightweight, capable of running on hardware from the last 15 years, and does not require a dedicated graphics card, as it can use software rasterization.