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Doomsday Predictions: Why People Always Feel the End is Nigh

2024-12-18
Doomsday Predictions: Why People Always Feel the End is Nigh

From Columbus's time onward, doomsday predictions have accompanied humanity. The author argues that people believe in them not for comfort, but because they seem logical. A 'Good Cup Bad Cup' theory is introduced: people pay more attention to bad things, and negative memories fade faster, leading to a perception that bad things are increasing and the world is deteriorating. Historical examples, from ancient Egyptian prophecies to the Millerite movement, support this: people always feel the present is worse than the past. The author calls for a rational perspective, urging readers to avoid biases and recognize positive changes.

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(www.experimental-history.com)
Misc doomsday prophecies cognitive biases historical analysis

“Bread and Circuses”: Reframing the Narrative of Roman Decline

2024-12-20
“Bread and Circuses”: Reframing the Narrative of Roman Decline

This article delves into the origins and meaning of the proverb “bread and circuses.” Tracing it back to Juvenal's satire, the author argues it's not a positive assessment of the Roman populace but a critique of their abdication of political responsibility in favor of basic needs and entertainment. The author challenges the common notion that “bread and circuses” caused Rome's downfall, attributing the decline to prolonged civil wars and instability, with the populace prioritizing peace above all else. Ultimately, the article reveals the true meaning of “bread and circuses”: a lament for the loss of political liberty and the constrained dreams of the Roman people.

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(acoup.blog)
Misc Roman history bread and circuses political decline

Fern, a YC-backed Startup, is Hiring a Senior Frontend Engineer

2024-12-14
Fern, a YC-backed Startup, is Hiring a Senior Frontend Engineer

Fern, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is seeking a Senior Frontend Engineer with a salary of $168,000-$192,000 plus equity. Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, this in-person role requires 4+ years of experience in frontend development, proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, and Next.js. Responsibilities include streamlining developer experience, managing frontend infrastructure, building user-facing features, and fostering strong customer relationships. Fern simplifies API usage and counts Cohere, ElevenLabs, Webflow, and Merge.dev among its clients.

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(www.ycombinator.com)
Development Frontend Engineer

A Decade-Old Fileserver's Second Life: Cost-Effective Storage Solution

2024-12-17

A company is still running a production machine, a fileserver over a decade old. While outdated, with a BMC requiring Java for KVM-over-IP, its 16 disk bays and 10G Ethernet ports make it ideal for repurposing. Used as a bring-your-own-disk low-cost storage server, it fulfills the need for high-capacity, low-performance storage despite its age and limited RAM. This highlights the value of reusing old hardware when requirements align.

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(utcc.utoronto.ca)
Tech server reuse storage solution hardware cost

OpenAI Outage: Unexpected Load from New Telemetry Service Causes Major Disruption

2024-12-16
OpenAI Outage: Unexpected Load from New Telemetry Service Causes Major Disruption

OpenAI experienced a major service disruption on December 11th, stemming from a newly deployed telemetry service. Intended to improve reliability, this service unexpectedly generated massive Kubernetes API server load, saturating the servers and causing the Kubernetes control plane to fail in most large clusters. This led to the breakdown of DNS-based service discovery. The incident highlights the unpredictable interactions within complex systems and the challenges of testing for failure modes that only appear under full load. OpenAI restored service by scaling down clusters, blocking network access to Kubernetes admin APIs, and scaling up API servers.

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(surfingcomplexity.blog)
Development API server saturation service disruption

Open-Source Tool me_cleaner: Streamlines Intel ME Firmware for Enhanced Privacy

2024-12-16
Open-Source Tool me_cleaner: Streamlines Intel ME Firmware for Enhanced Privacy

me_cleaner is an open-source Python script designed to partially deblob Intel Management Engine (ME) firmware, reducing its ability to interact with the system and improving user privacy and security. Intel ME firmware, integrated into all Intel motherboards since 2006, has access to system memory and network, making it difficult to disable or replace. me_cleaner modifies the ME firmware to be inactive during normal operation, activating only during boot, effectively mitigating potential security risks. The tool supports various Intel platforms, but obtaining and flashing the modified firmware requires an external SPI programmer. Results vary depending on the ME firmware version, but generally significantly reduce firmware size, potentially causing minor inconveniences like longer boot times or warning messages.

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(github.com)
Tech Intel ME Firmware reduction Privacy Security

Principles of Educational Programming Language Design: Why the Lack of Consensus?

2024-12-16
Principles of Educational Programming Language Design: Why the Lack of Consensus?

This paper explores the evolution of principles in educational programming language design over several decades. While the work of Wirth and others emphasized principles like simplicity and modularity, disagreement persists among educators regarding suitable languages for novice programmers. The article analyzes how the interpretation of these principles shifts in the context of current technologies and why a common, globally used educational programming language hasn't emerged. The authors discuss the relative merits of pedagogical versus industry languages and argue that each generation of learners needs its own language.

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(infedu.vu.lt)
Development programming education language design educational technology

Programmer Creates Pseudo-3D Game in Bash

2024-12-20
Programmer Creates Pseudo-3D Game in Bash

A programmer, izabera, has developed a surprisingly impressive pseudo-3D game using the Bash scripting language. This project, a homage to the classic game Wolfenstein 3D, is open-source on GitHub. The code is concise yet the result is stunning, showcasing the power of Bash and the programmer's ingenuity. The repository includes the game source code and demonstration videos. Developers interested in learning more can check it out on GitHub.

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(github.com)
Development Game Development

Synology DS923+ vs. Home-Built FreeBSD NAS: A Head-to-Head Comparison

2024-12-19
Synology DS923+ vs. Home-Built FreeBSD NAS: A Head-to-Head Comparison

Julio Merino compares a Synology DS923+ against his home-built NAS running FreeBSD 14 with ZFS. His custom NAS utilizes a powerful ThinkStation workstation with ample CPU and RAM, while the DS923+ is a compact, dedicated NAS appliance with Synology's DSM and btrfs. Both offer comparable IOPS and network performance, but the DS923+ excels in noise and power consumption. DSM provides a user-friendly experience and robust backup solutions, while FreeBSD/ZFS requires more manual configuration and maintenance. Ultimately, the author prefers the DS923+ for its increased peace of mind regarding data security and management.

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(blogsystem5.substack.com)
Hardware

California Orders Uber to Fingerprint Drivers for Teen Rides

2024-12-20
California Orders Uber to Fingerprint Drivers for Teen Rides

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ruled that Uber must fingerprint drivers for its teen ride-hailing service, Uber for Teens, to continue operating in the state. This decision stems from safety concerns regarding unaccompanied minors. While Uber has historically resisted fingerprint-based background checks, the CPUC cited the importance of protecting children from potential sexual offenders. The ruling significantly impacts Uber's operations, while competitor HopSkipDrive, which already employs stricter safety measures including fingerprinting, supports the decision. The added cost of fingerprinting may lead to higher prices for Uber's teen ride service.

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(techcrunch.com)
Tech teen rider safety fingerprint background checks

YouTube quietly downgraded its web embeds, impacting user experience

2024-12-14
YouTube quietly downgraded its web embeds, impacting user experience

YouTube recently altered its Publisher for Publishers (PfP) embedded player, removing the title link back to YouTube. This change, intended to protect advertisers since PfP allows publishers to sell their own ads, means many websites, including The Verge, now have YouTube embeds where clicking the title no longer opens the video on YouTube.com or the app. Despite efforts to communicate with YouTube, including reaching out to CEO Neal Mohan, the change remains. This highlights how large tech platforms can prioritize their own interests over user experience.

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(www.theverge.com)
Tech embedded player

Colorado Hunters Donate Wild Game to Fight Food Insecurity

2024-12-12
Colorado Hunters Donate Wild Game to Fight Food Insecurity

In Colorado, Meat Cleaver, a meat processor, partners with hunters to donate excess venison, elk, and other wild game to local food banks, combating food insecurity. Funded by Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH), the program reduces waste and provides healthy protein to vulnerable families. While currently limited to Meat Cleaver, the program has successfully donated thousands of pounds of meat, receiving community praise. Participating hunters, despite the competitive hunting license system, find fulfillment in assisting those in need.

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(collective.coloradotrust.org)
Misc food banks wild game donation community assistance

Perl Advent Calendar 2024: Randal Schwartz's 'Half My Life with Perl'

2024-12-19

The Perl Advent Calendar 2024 features a unique video presentation by Randal Schwartz, titled 'Half My Life with Perl'. Randal, a Perl veteran, recounts his journey with the language from its early days to the modern era, including his involvement in creating the Camel and Llama books, and his humorous anecdotes of conquering the comp.unix.questions forum with Perl 2. This marks the first time a video has been included in the Perl Advent Calendar, offering a fresh and engaging perspective on the language's history.

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(perladvent.org)
Development programming history

The Green Fairy's Fall: Absinthe From Muse to Moral Panic

2024-12-16

In late 19th-century France, absinthe, once celebrated as the 'Green Fairy' and muse to artists and poets, fell from grace due to its high alcohol content and societal biases. Medical experts linked absinthe to violent crime, fueling the 'absinthe-induced violence' narrative. Sensationalized media reports, such as those detailing 'absinthe murders,' furthered the negative perception. While it's now understood that absinthe's dangers stem primarily from its alcohol content, not its essential oils, the ensuing panic led to its prohibition in Switzerland (1908) and France (1915). The widening consumption of absinthe, from the bourgeoisie to the working class, fueled its association with crime. The absinthe ban also reveals complex attitudes toward alcohol and societal prejudices. Although absinthe is now legal in some countries, its negative reputation persists.

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(www.historytoday.com)
Misc absinthe prohibition social history

White House Near Collapse: An Unprecedented Reconstruction

2024-12-14
White House Near Collapse: An Unprecedented Reconstruction

In 1948, the White House, worn down by war damage and hasty renovations, faced imminent collapse due to structural decay and inadequate foundations. President Truman and his family were relocated, initiating a three-year comprehensive reconstruction. This project not only repaired the critical structural issues but also modernized the White House, adding basements, expanding utility spaces, and nearly doubling the number of rooms. A secret atomic bomb shelter was also constructed, reflecting the anxieties of the Cold War era. While the renovated White House was modernized, the removal of original interior elements altered its historical character.

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(en.wikipedia.org)
Misc White House Reconstruction Truman Historic Preservation

GitHub Open Source Project: epub-tts Converts eBooks to Audio

2024-12-22
GitHub Open Source Project: epub-tts Converts eBooks to Audio

An open-source project on GitHub called epub-tts converts EPUB ebooks into audio files. Written in Go, it relies on ffmpeg and MacOS's `say` command to parse the EPUB into sections (chapters) and convert each section to an audio file. Currently an alpha release, it provides a simple alternative for when eyes are tired but the mind isn't. Future plans include code optimization, batch conversion, smaller audio file sizes, and support for more languages.

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(github.com)
Development ebook audio conversion

A Software Engineer's CAD and 3D Printing Journey: An Overengineered Webcam Raiser

2024-12-16

A seasoned software engineer, tired of the virtual world of coding, yearned to create in the real world. He acquired a Bambu Lab X1C 3D printer and quickly mastered 3D printing. He then started learning Fusion 360 CAD software, surprisingly finding its constraint concepts similar to iOS UI constraints, and parametric CAD design echoing functional programming. His first project: an overengineered webcam raiser to solve the issue of the webcam obstructing his screen. This project not only provided him with the joy of 3D printing and CAD design but also a deep understanding of the manufacturing, material, and other details that need to be considered during the design phase.

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(fangpenlin.com)
Development 3D printing CAD design Software engineering

Apache Cloudberry: Open-Source MPP Database, a Greenplum Alternative

2024-12-21
Apache Cloudberry: Open-Source MPP Database, a Greenplum Alternative

Apache Cloudberry, built by the original Greenplum Database developers, is an advanced and mature open-source Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) database. It features a newer PostgreSQL kernel and enhanced enterprise capabilities, serving as a data warehouse and supporting large-scale analytics and AI/ML workloads. Users can build from source or utilize a Docker-based sandbox for quick trials. A vibrant community provides support and encourages contributions ranging from code improvements to documentation enhancements.

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(github.com)
Tech open-source database Greenplum alternative

The Rise and Fall of Ashton-Tate: The dBASE Saga

2024-12-12
The Rise and Fall of Ashton-Tate: The dBASE Saga

Ashton-Tate, a prominent player in the 1980s personal computer revolution, rose to fame with its database software, dBASE. Initially conceived by Wayne Ratliff as Vulcan, the program quickly became a standard for CP/M systems and later flourished with the IBM PC's ascendancy. Its user-friendly interface and powerful features propelled Ashton-Tate to an IPO and significant success. However, the company's later struggles with dBASE III's development, escalating competition, and internal issues ultimately led to its acquisition by Borland. This story details the dBASE legacy, Ashton-Tate's rise and fall, offering valuable insights into the software industry's dynamics.

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(www.abortretry.fail)
Development database software

Optimizing Ruby's JSON: Part 1

2024-12-18

This blog post details how the author optimized Ruby's `json` gem to become one of the fastest JSON parsers and generators. Instead of complex techniques, simple optimizations were applied based on profiling, such as avoiding redundant checks, prioritizing cheaper conditions, reducing setup costs, and using lookup tables. These improvements apply to both C and Ruby code. The optimizations significantly boosted the `json` gem's performance, making it competitive with alternatives like `oj`, reducing the need for monkey patching, and addressing stability and compatibility issues associated with `oj`.

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(byroot.github.io)
Development Performance Optimization

Netventory: A Fast, Single-Binary Network Scanner

2024-12-22
Netventory: A Fast, Single-Binary Network Scanner

Netventory is a cross-platform network scanning tool distributed as a single binary, requiring no dependencies and running on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Its sleek terminal interface and powerful features make it accessible to network administrators, security professionals, and anyone needing quick network visibility. Netventory boasts multiple detection methods (TCP, UDP, ARP), port scanning, MAC address resolution, and hostname resolution, with real-time progress tracking and detailed device information. Simple commands enable network auditing, security assessments, and network management tasks.

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(github.com)
Tech network scanning single binary

Ultralytics Suffers Supply Chain Attack: A PyPI Security Incident Analysis

2024-12-14
Ultralytics Suffers Supply Chain Attack: A PyPI Security Incident Analysis

The Python project Ultralytics recently suffered a supply chain attack. Attackers compromised the project's GitHub Actions workflows and stole a PyPI API token, resulting in tainted versions 8.3.41, 8.3.42, 8.3.45, and 8.3.46. The attack didn't exploit a PyPI vulnerability but targeted the GitHub Actions cache. PyPI, leveraging Trusted Publishing and Sigstore transparency logs, quickly identified and removed the malicious software. The incident highlighted shortcomings in API token and GitHub environment configurations. The article stresses securing software forges and build/publish workflows, providing developers with security recommendations: using Trusted Publishers, locking dependencies, avoiding insecure patterns, and enabling multi-factor authentication.

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(blog.pypi.org)
Development supply chain attack PyPI security software security

Adaptable Text Editor 'ad': Blending Vim and Acme

2024-12-18
Adaptable Text Editor 'ad': Blending Vim and Acme

ad is a novel text editor that combines the modal editing interface of Vim and Kakoune with the extensibility approach of Plan9's Acme. ad allows users to execute text and serves as a playground for experimenting with implementing various text editor features. Currently, ad is stable enough and feature-complete enough to try out, though documentation is sparse and bugs may exist. ad's design philosophy blends Vim's modal editing, Emacs's mini-buffer, and Acme's editing commands and extensibility, aiming for a comfortable editing environment that supports direct interaction with external tools and programs.

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(github.com)
Development text editor modal editing extensibility

18th-Century Dental Horror Stories: When Tooth Extraction Could Mean Losing Your Jaw

2024-12-14
18th-Century Dental Horror Stories: When Tooth Extraction Could Mean Losing Your Jaw

This article recounts cases from Thomas Berdmore's 1768 treatise on dental disorders, painting a grim picture of 18th-century dentistry. Patients suffered immensely from oral ulcers, tartar buildup, and the often disastrous consequences of unqualified practitioners. One case describes a barber-surgeon removing a tooth along with a walnut-sized piece of jawbone! These stories highlight the primitive techniques and significant risks of the time, contrasting sharply with modern dentistry. While progress has been made, the article serves as a reminder of the ongoing challenges of access and affordability in dental care.

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(thequackdoctor.substack.com)
Misc 18th-century dentistry medical history dental treatment

Immutable Linux Distros: Are They Right for You?

2024-12-25
Immutable Linux Distros: Are They Right for You?

This article explores immutable Linux distributions, which enhance stability and security by locking down the core system as read-only. It explains the concept, advantages, and selection criteria for immutable distros, recommending several desktop and server options like Fedora Silverblue, Vanilla OS, and openSUSE Aeon. The author shares personal experiences and discusses the differences between immutable distros and traditional ones, along with snapshot tools like Timeshift and Btrfs. In essence, immutable Linux distros offer a compelling alternative for users prioritizing stability and security, trading some flexibility for a more maintenance-free experience.

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(linuxblog.io)
Development Linux distributions immutable systems system stability

Entropy: A Rethink of Disorder in the Universe

2024-12-14
Entropy: A Rethink of Disorder in the Universe

Two hundred years ago, French engineer Sadi Carnot introduced the concept of entropy to quantify the universe's irreversible slide into decay. However, modern physics views entropy not simply as 'disorder,' but as a reflection of an observer's limited knowledge of a system. This new perspective illuminates the deep connection between information and energy, driving technological advancements at the nanoscale. From Carnot's steam engine to modern information engines, the concept of entropy continues to evolve, helping us understand the universe's workings and prompting us to rethink the purpose of science and our place within it.

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(www.quantamagazine.org)
AI entropy information thermodynamics

Python Dependency Management: A Raging Inferno

2024-12-15

This article delves into the complexities of Python dependency management, likening it to building a bonfire in a dry forest. The author argues that Python dependencies aren't simply a matter of `pip install`; they encompass project packages, system packages, the operating system, hardware, and the environment itself. Good dependency management is crucial for reproducibility—ensuring consistent results across different environments. The article details version control, environment isolation, definition files, lock files, and other key concepts. It then provides a comprehensive comparison of numerous tools, including pip, venv, virtualenv, pip-tools, Pipenv, Poetry, PDM, pyenv, pipx, uv, Conda, Mamba, conda-lock, and Pixi, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and use cases. Finally, the author offers tool recommendations based on different scenarios (administrative privileges, dependency types, operating systems, etc.) and looks ahead to future trends in Python dependency management.

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(nielscautaerts.xyz)
Development Python dependency management reproducibility Python tools

DOOM Ported to Run Entirely on AMD GPUs

2024-12-15

An AMD developer has successfully ported the classic game DOOM to run almost entirely on AMD GPUs. Leveraging the ROCm library and the LLVM libc C library, the port offloads rendering and game logic to the GPU, handling OS functions via an RPC interface. This impressive feat showcases the potential of the LLVM C library for GPU programming and opens exciting possibilities for game development.

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(www.phoronix.com)
Game GPU Gaming
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