News Nug
Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Mistake

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The article discusses the detrimental effects of the betting industry, specifically related to sports gambling in the U.S. Over the weekend, millions placed bets on NFL games, with an expected $35 billion wagered in 2024, a significant increase from previous years. Sports gambling, now legal in 38 states and yielding $10 billion annually, has become pervasive, yet it brings substantial financial and familial harm, particularly to vulnerable households. Despite the popularity of sports betting, social science research indicates that the legalization

RuPkl v0.3.0

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/ruby

Failed to fetch content - HTTP Error - Failed to open TCP connection to :80 (Connection refused - connect(2) for nil port 80)

Seems that the recent source code release of Winamp violates LGPL

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/programming

The text emphasizes the importance of adhering to the LGPL (Lesser General Public License) when using the LGPL-licensed libdiscid library. It highlights that while feedback is valued and users can contact maintainers through GitHub, the provided version of libdiscid missed including the required license file, which constitutes a violation of LGPL. Additionally, it points out that the omission of build tools and scripts hinders the proper linkage to the modified version of the library, constituting a significant modification that necessitates

Hacking Kia: Remotely controlling cars with just a license plate

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: Hacker News

On June 11, 2024, vulnerabilities were discovered in Kia vehicles that allowed remote control of key functions using only a license plate. These exploits could be executed in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether the vehicle had an active Kia Connect subscription. Attackers could access personal information, such as the owner's name, phone number, and address, and could add themselves as a hidden second user of the vehicle without the owner's knowledge. Although a demonstration tool was created to illustrate these vulnerabilities, it was

Feeling Stuck at Work? How Knowledge Silos Are Blocking Your Progress

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/programming

Samuel from Enginuity discusses the issue of knowledge silos in the Tech Leadership track, highlighting their detrimental impact on engineering productivity. According to a StackOverflow survey, 30% of developers feel that knowledge silos affect their productivity multiple times a week, with 45% reporting negative impacts on idea sharing and collaboration. Knowledge silos occur when information and expertise are confined to specific teams or individuals due to poor processes, lack of communication, or a sense of ownership over information. This leads to slower

Rails Developer Survey

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/ruby

The 2024 Ruby on Rails Community Survey has gathered insights from over 2,700 developers across 106 countries, marking the eighth iteration of this survey that began in 2009. The aim is to assess the current state and future of Rails as a development framework. The majority of participants are from the United States (40%), followed by Germany (9%), the UK (9%), Brazil (7%), France (6%), and Canada (6%). Notably, the trend in the Rails

Solid Queue v1.0 released

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/ruby

Solid Queue v1.0.0 has been released ahead of Rails World, marking significant progress since its initial version, 0.1.1, launched in December 2023. The update includes 132 merged pull requests and 126 closed issues, thanks to multiple contributors. Key enhancements include bug fixes and the successful migration of HEY, an email and calendar service, from Resque to Solid Queue. HEY Calendar has been successfully running on Solid Queue since its January launch, prompting the

You can choose to be someone who's competent in many things, or unbelievably good at one thing

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/programming

The content contrasts two types of tech professionals: generalists and specialists. Generalists are adaptable, possessing a broad range of skills across various areas (e.g., programming languages, UI/UX, and architecture), making them valuable in startup environments where they can prototype ideas, pivot when necessary, and fill multiple roles. They are often seen in leadership positions due to their holistic understanding of tech ecosystems. On the other hand, specialists focus intensely on specific fields such as AI or database technology, driving innovation and

PostgreSQL 17 Released!

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/programming

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released PostgreSQL 17, enhancing the open-source database's performance and scalability. This version includes significant improvements such as revamped memory management for vacuum processes, better storage access optimizations, and enhancements for high concurrency workloads. Key features include a new SQL/JSON command for developers and improved logical replication management for high availability. Jonathan Katz from the PostgreSQL core team highlighted that the update is beneficial for all users, regardless of their database's scale or type. Notably,

Rearchitecting: Redis to SQLite

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/programming

Wafris, an open-source web application firewall company, is releasing version 2 of its Rails client, which now uses SQLite instead of the previously required Redis datastore. This article discusses the shift from Redis to SQLite, highlighting the performance considerations and architectural changes that led to this decision. The initial choice of Redis was influenced by its ease of use in the Heroku ecosystem, but feedback from users revealed many experienced difficulties in deploying and managing Redis, which complicated the user experience. The transition to SQLite aims

Rewriting Rust

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/programming

The author compares the Rust programming language to the first-generation iPhone, noting its initial appeal due to features like algebraic types and memory safety, but expressing disappointment over its slow progress and lack of new features in recent years. After four years of using Rust, the author feels it has not fully realized its potential, with many proposed features, such as coroutines, remaining unimplemented despite being available in the compiler. The author attributes this stagnation to the inability of Rust's consensus process to scale effectively

Show HN: Cronexpr, a Rust library to parse and iter crontab expression

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The `cronexpr` library is designed for parsing and operating on crontab expressions. It supports standard crontab syntax as well as many non-standard extensions, with the key distinction that it requires a timezone to be specified in the expression for accurate timestamp determination. The library can interpret various formats for month and day values (both numerical and abbreviated names) and supports wildcard (*) for indicating "all", hyphens (-) for defining ranges, and slashes (/) for specifying step values. Users

Leveraging Falcon and Rails for Real-Time Interactivity

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: /r/ruby

Over the past seven years, the author has focused on improving concurrency, scalability, and interactivity in the Ruby ecosystem. They released Async in 2017, a framework for concurrent Ruby applications, but it initially required wrappers for blocking operations, limiting its compatibility. To solve this, they developed the fiber scheduler, introduced in Ruby 3.1 and Async 2 in 2021, which allows existing Ruby code to run concurrently by redirecting blocking operations to an event loop. In response to the

Git-absorb: Git commit –fixup, but automatic

Published: 2024-09-26 | Origin: Hacker News

The text discusses a tool called "git absorb," which automates the process of creating fixup commits for identified bugs in a feature branch without resorting to opaque commits or manual interactive rebases. It helps maintain atomic commits by automatically associating staged changes with the correct previous commits. Users can then integrate these fixup commits into their branch using the --and-rebase flag or review the changes manually. The tool can be installed from the latest tagged release artifacts available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux

Scientific rigor proponents retract paper on benefits of scientific rigor

Published: 2024-09-25 | Origin: Hacker News

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How to run Llama 3.1 locally on Mac and serve it to a local Linux laptop to use with Zed

Published: 2024-09-25 | Origin: /r/programming

The post discusses how to share a Llama model running on a Mac with other computers on the same local network for privacy and cost efficiency. It highlights that Apple silicon (M1, M2, etc.) performs well for this purpose, and the default Llama3.1:8b model runs effectively on a Mac Mini M1 with 16GB of RAM, while simpler models may be needed for 8GB systems. The process begins with installing Ollama on the Mac, followed by

Procs, lambdas, and performance

Published: 2024-09-25 | Origin: /r/ruby

The author, a software engineer and musician, explores the performance differences between using procs, lambdas, and blocks in Ruby. After some research, the author conducts performance tests using the Benchmark module and finds that blocks generally should be faster but their method-calling overhead can negate this speed advantage when using them in certain ways. The author initially set up the tests with a large number of iterations and realized that direct passing of procs and lambdas is more efficient than calling the method repeatedly with blocks.

Eliminating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities at the Source

Published: 2024-09-25 | Origin: /r/programming

Memory safety vulnerabilities pose a significant threat to software security, and at Google, the solution lies in adopting Safe Coding practices that emphasize a transition to memory-safe languages. This approach not only addresses new code but also reduces overall security risks in existing codebases, ultimately leading to a notable decline in memory safety vulnerabilities. For example, data on Android shows that the percentage of these vulnerabilities decreased from 76% to 24% over six years due to a shift towards memory-safe languages. Even in a growing code

All Proton Drive apps are now open source

Published: 2024-09-25 | Origin: /r/programming

Proton is committed to privacy and security, offering a suite of services designed to protect user data, including encrypted email, a secure calendar, cloud storage, a password manager, and a self-custody Bitcoin wallet. Their mission emphasizes transparency, allowing users to inspect and verify the open-source code of their applications. Proton promotes a non-profit model that prioritizes people over profits and encourages community involvement in improving internet privacy. The company is actively seeking talented individuals to further develop their services and offers guides and

A search engine in 80 lines of Python

Published: 2024-09-25 | Origin: /r/programming

In a recent article, a Data Scientist at Wallapop shares their journey of building a simple search engine from scratch using Python. The motivation behind this project stems from the "Small Website Discoverability Crisis," a challenge where small websites struggle to be found on popular search engines like Google. The author aims to enhance the visibility of these lesser-known sites by creating a straightforward search engine that demonstrates the underlying mechanics of search technology. Although the engine consists of approximately 80 lines of code, the complete project,