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Oxidizing OCaml: Rust-Style Ownership

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The content covers several topics, including insights into interviewing at Jane Street, details about their internship program, and various technical discussions involving OCaml. 1. **Interviewing and Internship**: There are posts related to the experiences and processes of interviewing for positions at Jane Street, as well as information on their internship program. 2. **Technical Topics**: - Usage of ASCII waveforms for hardware testing. - Detection of memory leaks using Memtrace. - Availability of OCaml with Jane

LLMs aren't any good at ranking people part II

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The blog discusses the concept of "confident LLMs" (large language models) and their tendency to express certainty even when they produce incorrect information, also known as hallucinations. This confidence is attributed to the instruction tuning process that models undergo after initial training. The writer mentions a prior experiment ranking Hacker News users based on their suitability for a software engineering role and notes that less sophisticated models typically hesitate to make definitive choices, often asserting that both options are equally good or bad. This raises the question

Practical insights and optimizations for effective caching to boost application performance

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content discusses best practices for building an effective caching system for backend web applications, focusing on API response caching with JSON and using Redis. Key points include: 1. **Cache Structure**: Instead of a single cache for all data (like shopping cart, order status, and user profile), it's beneficial to split the cache into separate entities. This reduces the number of cache invalidations and improves the cache hit ratio, as more stable data (like user profiles) won’t be invalidated by frequent changes

Quiver: A Modern Commutative Diagram Editor

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: Hacker News

Quiver is a modern, graphical editor for creating and editing commutative and pasting diagrams online. It allows users to efficiently draw high-quality diagrams that can be exported to LaTeX via tikz-cd, significantly speeding up the process compared to manual LaTeX coding. The interface is intuitive and supports complex diagram elements like pullbacks, pushouts, and adjunctions, utilizing a flexible grid for object placement and a variety of arrow styles with color options. Users can create and modify

The last Inca bridge master

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The text describes the enduring legacy of the Inca Empire's remarkable road system, exemplified by a single grass bridge that is rewoven annually. It recounts a ceremonial event featuring Victoriano Arizapana, who prepares for a dangerous task while honoring mountain spirits. He carefully descends onto four braided cables suspended over a 30-meter chasm above the Apurimac River, balancing to connect them into a stable structure. The narrative captures the blend of ancient traditions, spiritual beliefs, and

Why did so many mid-century designers make children's books?

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: Hacker News

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Made a Self hosted ebook2audiobook converter, supports voice cloning and 1107+ languages :)

Published: 2024-12-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses a tool designed to convert eBooks into audiobooks while including chapters and metadata. It utilizes AI models and voice cloning, supporting over 1,100 languages. Users are reminded that the tool should only be used with non-DRM, legally acquired eBooks, and they bear responsibility for any misuse. Instructions are provided for running the conversion script in both headless and interactive modes, detailing commands and options for specifying language codes and voice files. Additionally, there's an option to use Docker

Bill requiring US agencies to share source code with each other becomes law

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The SHARE IT Act (H.R. 9566), signed into law by President Joe Biden, mandates federal agencies to share custom-developed code to avoid redundant software development expenses, which are estimated at $12 billion annually. Sponsored by bipartisan legislators, including Senators Ted Cruz and Gary Peters, and Representatives Nicholas Langworthy and William Timmons, the law requires agencies to publicly list and share their custom code, excluding classified or privacy-sensitive information. Agency chief information officers must establish policies within 180 days for implementing

The CAP theorem of Clustering: Why Every Algorithm Must Sacrifice Something

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the challenges of clustering algorithms used by software engineers for tasks like grouping similar users or categorizing content. While tools like k-means and DBSCAN are commonly employed, the article emphasizes a fundamental flaw in all clustering algorithms, as highlighted by Jon Kleinberg in a 2002 paper. Kleinberg proved that it is mathematically impossible for clustering algorithms to satisfy three desired properties simultaneously: scale invariance, richness, and consistency. This limitation can be likened to the CAP theorem in distributed

Sub-pixel distance transform (2023)

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the text rendering approach utilized by Use.GPU in WebGPU, which offers limited browser compatibility, recommending Chrome on Windows or Mac for the best experience. The rendering technique involves the use of Signed Distance Fields (SDFs), addressing common inaccuracies in generating SDFs from masks. SDFs represent the distance to a shape's edge and provide crisp, anti-aliased graphics. The process involves creating a gradient that distinguishes inside and outside areas before enhancing contrast to produce a precise opacity

Ghostty 1.0

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

Of course! Please provide the content you'd like me to summarize.

Write a Shell in C (2015)

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the common feeling of inadequacy many aspiring programmers experience, particularly when comparing themselves to established developers of popular software. It proposes that creating a simple Unix shell in C, named lsh, can help boost confidence in one's programming skills. The walkthrough aims to inspire others to take on similar projects, with the source code available on GitHub. However, it warns university students against copying the code for class assignments without permission. The article outlines the basic structure of a shell, emphasizing that its

Write Your Own Virtual Machine (2022)

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

In this tutorial by Justin Meiners and Ryan Pendleton, readers are guided on how to create a virtual machine (VM) capable of running assembly language programs. The project is suitable for those with some programming knowledge who want to deepen their understanding of computer operations and programming language mechanics. The final implementation consists of approximately 250 lines of C code, and the tutorial is presented in a literate programming style, intertwining code snippets with detailed explanations. The tutorial covers the fundamental role of a VM, which

How I debugged a 2 year old "fake debugged" multithreading bug

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the experience of debugging a complex multi-threading bug that occurred in a workplace, highlighted by the quote, "It's better to know nothing than to have half-knowledge." The narrator faced an issue in which multiple users encountered ambiguous column name errors in MySQL due to improperly formed queries that seemed nonsensical. Initially, the narrator examined error logs for patterns and noted that the problematic queries contained random and illogical table joins. They suggested that this could be a bug in the query

Into CPS, Never to Return

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: /r/programming

Continuation-Passing Style (CPS) is an intermediate representation used in compilers for functional programming languages like SML and Scheme. CPS is based on two main rules: function arguments must always be trivial, and function calls do not return. This post introduces CPS by implementing a basic CPS transformation for a small Scheme-like language, highlighting the language's features such as integers, operations, variable bindings, single-parameter functions, and control flow through branching. The implementation of a recursive function, referred to as

NASA, Axiom Space Change Assembly Order of Commercial Space Station

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

Axiom Space has adjusted its assembly sequence in collaboration with NASA to enhance its operations as a free-flying space station and minimize reliance on the International Space Station (ISS) during the assembly process. In January 2020, NASA awarded Axiom a contract to develop at least one commercial habitable module to be attached to the ISS, with the intention of creating a standalone destination in low Earth orbit before the ISS's planned retirement in 2030. Initially, Axiom intended to attach its first module

A Tour of WebAuthn

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The book, distributed at the 2024 FIDO Authenticate conference, discusses the inadequacies of passwords as a method of authentication. It highlights common user behaviors such as reusing weak passwords and the vulnerabilities that arise when password databases are compromised, which can lead to account breaches across multiple sites. The author notes the prevalence of phishing attacks and other security issues, such as inadvertent logging of passwords by companies and JavaScript injection vulnerabilities. To address these problems, the book proposes the use of public key signature

What are your pain points in Software Automation?

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: /r/programming

Of course! Please provide the content you'd like me to summarize, and I'll be happy to help.

Building a tiny load balancing service using PID Controllers

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: /r/programming

The author discusses their experience with a Dropbox engineering blog about Robinhood, a load balancing service that dynamically adjusts node weights using Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers. Although they had a vague understanding of control theory, they took the opportunity during Christmas to implement a simple version of a PID controller in Python to better grasp its functionality. A PID controller is a feedback mechanism used to manage processes requiring continuous control and automatic adjustments. It calculates the difference between desired and actual outputs—referred to as

Ruby 3.4 Documentation: A Step Towards Better Ruby Documentation

Published: 2024-12-26 | Origin: /r/ruby

Ruby 3.4 introduces significant enhancements to its documentation, alongside new language features. These updates, visible on docs.ruby-lang.org and in RDoc, aim to improve the user experience for both existing Ruby developers and newcomers. Some key changes include: - A dedicated index page for quicker access to commonly used classes like Array and String. - An improved Standard Library page for easier navigation to related documentation and GitHub repositories. - Over 50 dead links have been fixed due to new RDoc features