Medieval

The EP-1320 is a medieval-themed electronic instrument with a large library of phrases, play-ready instruments, and one-shot samples, allowing users to create sultry serenades or bouncy beats. It features a range of playable medieval instruments, drums, percussion, and sound effects, as well as effects and arpeggiator, and can be used for live performances or in the studio.

Structured Outputs in the API

https://images.ctfassets.net/kftzwdyauwt9/1XeXlBlWdUBSPFcVPsOmOD/dc8123f1031a0f9fe1b816790ee510a9/Structured_Outputs_Cover.png?w=3840&q=90&fm=webp
OpenAI introduces Structured Outputs, a new feature that ensures model-generated outputs match developer-supplied JSON Schemas, improving reliability and accuracy in applications. Structured Outputs is available on the Chat Completions API, Assistants API, and Batch API, and is compatible with vision inputs, with benefits including improved performance and cost savings.

How French Drains Work

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/55ac34e4e4b0170ef54be632/1722957476602-EH9IQJJVR3IYVIOZNQS6/059+-+How+French+Drains+Work+Thumbnail.jpg?format=1500w&content-type=image%2Fjpeg
The French Drain is a type of subsurface drain that uses gravel and a pipe to remove water from the soil, and its design is crucial to prevent erosion and clogging. The importance of proper drainage is highlighted through examples of dam failures and the need for effective filtration, with sand being a common material used in filters due to its ability to hold back smaller particles of silt and clay.

Twitter kills its San Francisco headquarters, will relocate to South Bay

https://content.sfstandard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/twitter-x-building.jpg?w=3840&q=75
X, a company owned by Elon Musk, is closing its San Francisco headquarters and relocating employees to the South Bay, with engineering workers sharing an office in Palo Alto. The move marks the end of an era for Mid-Market, which was revitalized by a special tax break for tech companies in 2011, but has since seen a decline in activity due to remote work and the expiration of the tax breaks.

Moments in Chromecast's history

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Chromecast_Hero-B.width-1200.format-webp.webp
Google is ending Chromecast production, citing advancements in streaming and smart TVs, and introducing Google TV Streamer, a more premium device for the new era of entertainment and smart homes. Chromecast, launched 11 years ago, revolutionized streaming by making it easy to cast content from phones and tablets to TVs, paving the way for Google TV Streamer.

No Salt

https://jakeseliger.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/dsc00635.jpg?w=1024
The user's brother, Jake, is dying of cancer and the user is helping with funeral arrangements, reflecting on their complicated past and shared interests in psychedelics and cooking. The user is struggling to cope with Jake's impending death and the emotional toll it takes on his brother and sister-in-law, Bess.

East Germany invented 'unbreakable' drinking glasses

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c6d5f4f16455ecbda1767d1f5e8290697111faf7/0_197_5922_3553/master/5922.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none
The Superfest glass, designed in East Germany, is known for its extraordinary durability, being 10 times more resistant to breakage than ordinary glasses, and was produced between 1980 and 1990. Despite its strength, the glass's anonymity and functional design made it a threat to profits, leading to its decline, but a Berlin startup is now working to revive the technology and produce durable ...

Please do not attempt to simplify this code

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/e595924f9660960da6e0496d4c53ab1493f9902cde059f97be15ab618fb75796/kubernetes/kubernetes
The code handles PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) and PersistentVolume (PV) synchronization, updating claim and volume statuses, and emitting events for various scenarios such as PVC deletion, PV binding, and claim misbinding. It also ensures correct annotation and finalizer modifications on PVs and updates claim and volume statuses in the API server.

Tracking supermarket prices with Playwright

https://www.sakisv.net/2024-08-pricewatcher-1.png
The author built a website to track price changes in three major supermarkets in Greece, using Playwright to scrape data and Concourse to automate the process, and overcame challenges such as website restrictions and IP address blocking. The author also optimized the scraping process, reducing data fetch and using a bigger server, and shared lessons learned and costs incurred, including €4.94 ...

Parody site ClownStrike refused to bow to CrowdStrike's bogus DMCA takedown

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-1349097864-800x534.jpg
CrowdStrike sent a DMCA takedown notice to IT consultant David Senk, targeting his parody site ClownStrike, which mocked CrowdStrike's role in a global IT outage. Senk contested the notice, but Cloudflare failed to respond, leading him to relocate the site, and CrowdStrike later acknowledged that the notice was likely an error and promised to review its anti-fraud activities.

The real "Wolf of Wall Street" sales script

https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/c4c3935d-8dd0-48e7-a77a-5e912ac5ec97/Please_respect_my_decision.png
The user discusses the sales scripts used by Stratton Oakmont, a successful sales team from the 80s and 90s, and breaks down the pattern interrupt, call to action, and objection handling techniques used. The user also shares alternative sales script openers and discusses the importance of building relationships and following up with prospects.

Show HN: 1-FPS encrypted screen sharing for introverts

Golang is required for the command to work, and 1fps.video is a solution for collaborative tasks, offering low FPS video sharing and WebSocket-based cursor tracking for precise demonstrations. It's suitable for introverts and remote workers who prefer screen sharing without audio or video calls, and works with any team chat application.

OpenAI co-founder John Schulman says he will leave and join rival Anthropic

https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/108011951-17219321001721932097-35516808318-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1721932099&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y
OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is leaving the company to join Anthropic, an AI startup, to focus on AI alignment and return to hands-on technical work. The move comes after OpenAI disbanded its superalignment team and amid changes in the company's leadership and board following a controversy over product safety.

The Soul of Maintaining a New Machine

https://res.cloudinary.com/books-in-progress/image/upload/c_lfill,f_auto/v1/bip/wnul3lsbpisc9bau28qa
Julian Orr's research on Xerox service technicians revealed that their expertise and problem-solving skills were not reflected in the company's documentation, and that their social relationships and shared knowledge were crucial to their work. The Eureka project, which aimed to create a global network of technicians sharing knowledge and best practices, was initially met with resistance from ...

Full text search over Postgres: Elasticsearch vs. alternatives

https://mintlify.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/paradedb-blog/images/elastic_vs_postgres.png
Companies considering full-text search solutions for Postgres data often choose between Elasticsearch and native Postgres full-text search, with each solution having its strengths and weaknesses. Native Postgres full-text search is simple, real-time, and reliable, but has limited features and poor performance over large datasets, while Elasticsearch offers a comprehensive feature set and ...

A Better Light Source for Scanning Color Negative Film

https://jackw01.github.io/scanlight/images/light_assembly_top.jpg
Narrowband trichromatic light sources are superior to broadband white light for scanning color negative film, producing high-quality results with minimal post-processing. Commercial film scanners use RGB LEDs to minimize overlap between dye layers, and building a custom RGB light source can achieve ideal results, but requires careful design and assembly.

The Story of Samsung's failed deal with iFixit, as told by iFixit's CEO

https://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-and-iFixIt-logos-on-smartphones-1.jpg
Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, discusses the company's failed partnership with Samsung to enable DIY repair, citing Samsung's reluctance to make its devices more easily repairable and its high prices for parts. Despite the failure, Wiens remains committed to helping people fix their devices and believes that companies like Samsung can innovate to create more repairable phones.

Why Polars rewrote its Arrow string data type

https://pola.rs/_astro/umbra_strings.6-lMqmZD_1XkuYt.webp
Polars has rewritten its string/binary data structure to improve performance, adopting a new design that stores strings as 16-byte views with inlined or external buffers. This change resolves pathological cases and improves filter performance, with almost all cases outperforming the old string type.

Building rqlite 9.0: Cutting disk usage by half

rqlite 9.0 aims to reduce disk usage by 50% by removing the need to store a snapshotted copy of the SQLite database, instead using a reference to the working database file. The new design enables faster snapshotting, improved node restart times, and reduced disk usage through referential snapshotting and WAL checkpointing.

X is closing San Francisco HQ and relocating staffers to San Jose

https://fortune.com/img-assets/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-1562212936-e1722889050130.jpg?w=1440&q=75
X, formerly Twitter, is closing its San Francisco office over the next few weeks, with staff relocating to existing offices in San Jose and Palo Alto. The move comes as San Francisco struggles to revive its downtown district and commercial real estate market, and marks a setback to the city's efforts to turn the mid-Market Street area into a thriving tech hub.

Proton announces release of a new VPN protocol, "Stealth"

https://res.cloudinary.com/dbulfrlrz/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1714482595/wp-vpn/stealth-vpn/stealth-vpn.png?_i=AA
Proton VPN has developed a new undetectable VPN protocol called Stealth, which can bypass most firewalls and VPN blocking methods, allowing users to access censored sites and communicate freely. Stealth uses obfuscation to hide VPN connections and is optimized for high performance, making it a powerful tool for maintaining online freedom and privacy.

Carvings at Gobekli Tepe may be oldest calendar

Göbekli Tepe, a pre-pottery Neolithic site in southern Turkey, features intricate carvings and symbols that may be interpreted as astronomical notation, including V-symbols that can be linked to a lunisolar calendar system. The site's symbolism and architecture are extraordinary for its age, and its astronomical significance is supported by evidence from the Palaeolithic period, including ...

Tsung-Dao Lee, physicist who challenged a law of nature, has died

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/06/multimedia/05Lee-01-gbph/05Lee-01-gbph-articleLarge-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale
Tsung-Dao Lee, a Chinese American physicist, died at 97, having won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 for challenging the law of conservation of parity. He discovered that weak nuclear forces do not always obey this law, which led to a fundamental shift in understanding quantum physics.

WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released

https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/08/05/wordstar-7-on-macos.png?x=648&y=375&infer_y=1
Robert J Sawyer, a Canadian SF writer, has released the last-ever DOS version of WordStar 7.0d, a classic word processor, along with tools to run it on modern Windows, allowing users to experience the powerful app that was popular before Windows.

MNT Pocket Reform first impressions and hardware

https://i0.wp.com/andypiper.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG_3535.jpg?fit=1088%2C816&ssl=1
You received the Pocket Reform, an open-source, modular, and portable Linux device from Crowd Supply, and have been experimenting with it, finding the chunky design and accessible innards appealing. You've encountered some issues, including a faulty SSD and temporarily bricking the machine, but have been learning and helping the MNT team through feedback and bug reports.

Show HN: ScholArxiv – an open-source, aesthetic, minimal research paper explorer

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dagmawibabi/ScholArxiv/main/assets/banners/ScholArxiv.png
ScholArxiv is an open-source app for searching, reading, and sharing academic papers from the arXiv repository. It allows users to search, download, and share papers, with optional suggestions and offline reading capabilities.

Dell lays off 12,500 people

https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/04/03/layoff_shutterstock.jpg
Dell has made another round of layoffs, cutting an undisclosed number of employees, reportedly around 10% of its workforce, as part of a plan to become a leaner company. The layoffs are part of a broader effort to streamline management and focus on delivering innovation, value, and service to customers and partners.

Show HN: I built a simple, open-source tool to manage servers and SSH keys

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/6b09f2ab616b846d95bd7d7f7cfa4e5970f7f894784a2b43a60291a4a56a791a/d3witt/viking
Bare metal servers offer full control over software deployment and resource utilization, providing real freedom. Viking saves data locally and allows customization of the config directory through the VIKING_CONFIG_DIR env variable.

How to let go: Jake's life ends as his daughter's begins

https://jakeseliger.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/dsc00611.jpg?w=1024
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. In Anything You Want, Derek Sivers says: "The coolest people I meet are the ones who find me through something I've written." Reach me at [email protected].

Crafting formulas: Lambdas all the way down

https://preview.redd.it/xstowwchiexc1.png?width=665&auto=webp&s=e2dadcd2a40928902ac94332f3467212aac5883f
The article discusses the implementation of arbitrary-precision arithmetic in the Bruijn language, including the encoding of rational numbers, real numbers, and complex numbers, and provides examples of how to calculate various mathematical functions such as exponentiation, square root, and trigonometric functions. However, the article also highlights the limitations and inefficiencies of the ...

WD announces enterprise 128TB SSD

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zEhcsBtxvFj4rYXYBkeG5R-320-80.jpg
Western Digital announced new storage solutions, including a 128TB high-capacity QLC enterprise SSD, 8TB SD cards, and a 16TB external SSD for consumers. The products are designed to drive storage forward in various segments, including data centers, clients, automotive, and consumers, with a focus on AI, ML, and LLM applications.

Google says it is obligated to disclose confidential info to U.S. government

https://targettrend.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-768x562.jpg
Google sent an email to users informing them of its obligation to disclose confidential information to US government authorities, sparking concerns about user data privacy. The company reviews each request to ensure it satisfies applicable laws and may object to producing information that is too broad or confidential.

Time is an illusion, and these physicists say they know how it works [video]

Writing a tile server in Python

The author has developed a tileset based on OpenStreetMap data and wants to create a tile server to render tiles on demand, but is not satisfied with existing solutions like renderd and wants to implement a custom solution using a web frontend. The author has implemented a custom rendering engine using multiprocessing queues and a main loop, and is now trying to replace the main loop with a ...

Slingcode – App platform in a single HTML file, QR-code transmittable apps

https://slingcode.net/public/img/computers-in-our-lives.jpg
Slingcode is a web app that can run offline, allowing users to create and run programs without a server or internet connection, and can be easily shared and moved between devices. It is designed to be a situated software, focusing on simplicity, loveliness, and completeness, and is built with ClojureScript to make coding fun and accessible again.

Launch HN: Firezone (YC W22) – Zero-trust access platform built on WireGuard

Firezone is a remote access platform that replaces legacy corporate VPNs, built on WireGuard protocol, securing team apps, networks, and services with access policies synced with identity providers. Firezone deploys tiny binaries into infrastructure, allowing workforce to access resources, and features lightweight tunnels, NAT traversal, and load balancing for secure and efficient remote access.

How not to say the wrong thing (2013)

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a933fff/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1300x732+0+0/resize/1200x676!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2F62%2Ff6df9496de82a1c8b567b468ec95%2Fla-comfort-in-dump-out-20150721
Susan Silk, a clinical psychologist, developed the Ring Theory to help people avoid saying hurtful things to those affected by a crisis, by drawing concentric circles to determine the "Kvetching Order" and guidelines for what to say to each person. The theory emphasizes the importance of listening, offering comfort and support, and avoiding advice or complaining to those closest to the crisis.

Finding Nash equilibria through simulation

https://coe.psu.ac.th/ad/nashSim/pdMatrix.png
The Python code simulates simultaneous games, such as the Prisoner's Dilemma and Rock, Paper, Scissors, by processing payoff matrices and visualizing pure and mixed-strategy Nash Equilibria (NEs) using various methods, including 1-simplex and 2-simplex visualizations. The code can handle matrices of various sizes, including 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and NxN, and can be used to analyze and visualize ...

Blackhouses of Scotland

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c35ftE3UIkk/Vwij6UF2nAI/AAAAAAABMz0/_EUfbjaXXV4/blackhouse-isle-of-lewis-162.jpg?imgmax=800
Blackhouses, ancient Scottish and Irish dwellings, had no chimneys and were filled with smoke from peat fires, which was used to fertilize fields. The houses, shared with animals, were eventually replaced by "white houses" with fireplaces and chimneys due to health regulations, with some blackhouses remaining inhabited until the 1970s.

Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_120,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56d57e3e-53db-454e-8d85-d351aac4a11d_791x992.jpeg
The author argues that a successful "design process" in life, whether in relationships, essays, or careers, involves an "unfolding" process where one pays attention to what works and iterates towards a fit, rather than trying to force a predetermined vision. By observing the context, forming a mental model, and acting on it, one can develop a feedback loop that leads to a well-designed life ...

My favorite device is a Chromebook

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thiagokokada/blog/main/2024-08-05/Screenshot_2024-08-05_21.22.29.png
The user loves their Chromebook Duet 3, a budget-friendly device with a Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 CPU, 8GB RAM, and a good screen, despite its compromises, which makes it perfect for trips due to its small size, lightweight, and good battery life. The user also appreciates ChromeOS's security, fast boot times, and Crostini, a full Linux VM that allows running graphical programs and has good ...

The ancient art of roasting agave

https://assets.atlasobscura.com/assets/Gastro%20Header%20Left-137954d429c5bbc321e809acfd23e0a00505697e005c59e4ef03c808ff8ced9f.png
The Agave Roast Native Food Tasting event, held annually at the Malki Museum in California, celebrates the traditional food and cultural heritage of the Cahuilla people, who have been gathering and roasting agave hearts for at least 3,000 years. The event features traditional cooking methods, including pit-roasting agave, and a variety of native foods, including nopales salad, cholla cactus ...

Plunk: The open source email platform

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/useplunk/plunk/main/assets/card.png
Plunk is an open-source email platform built on AWS SES, allowing easy email sending from applications. It can be self-hosted using the driaug/plunk Docker image, with contributions welcome.

Partisan bot-like accounts continue to amplify divisive content on X

https://cdn2.globalwitness.org/media/images/Bot-like_accounts_push_Trump_and_Kamala_Harris.width-300.jpg
Researchers detected 45 bot-like accounts on X spreading political messages around the UK election, with a majority expressing support for Reform UK and a significant portion amplifying divisive content, including climate denial and conspiracy theories. The accounts' activity is alarming, with over 440,000 posts garnering 3 billion impressions before the election and 1.3 billion impressions ...

Who Wrote the Blue Screens of Death

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2019/02/ShowCover.jpg
The "Blue Screen of Death" is a term that refers to three different blue-colored screens in Windows, each with a different author: Steve Ballmer wrote the Windows 3.1 Ctrl+Alt+Del screen, the user brought the Windows 95 kernel error screen to its final form, and John Vert authored the Windows NT kernel error screen.

OpenAI: Cofounders Greg Brockman, John Schulman, along with others, to leave

The website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks and has blocked the user's action. The user can email the site owner to report the block and include details of what they were doing when the page came up.

How long does Apple support Mac firmware?

https://eclecticlight.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/firmwaresupport1.png
Apple supports firmware updates for most Intel Macs without T2 chips for at least 8 years after introduction, with some models receiving updates for up to 10 years. The support period varies, with some models introduced before 2012 receiving shorter updates, while T2 chip Macs receive identical updates until they are no longer supported by macOS updates.

Can we trust Microsoft with Open Source? (2021)

https://cdn.dusted.codes/images/blog-posts/2021-10-23/tweet-4.png
Microsoft has made a sudden change in their .NET strategy, removing features like hot reload from the open-source SDK and pushing for Visual Studio as the main IDE, which has caused internal struggles and concerns among .NET developers. The community has responded by making their voices heard, and Microsoft has acknowledged the mistake and thanked the community, which is seen as a win for the ...

No price Microsoft could pay Apple to use Bing: Google antitrust ruling excerpts

https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:3000x2000/2400x2400/filters:focal(1500x1000:1501x1001):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24924652/236780_Google_AntiTrust_Trial_Custom_Art_CVirginia__0002_2.png
A US judge has ruled that Google's dominance in the search engine market is not a result of anticompetitive behavior, but rather due to its superior product and the fact that other companies, such as Apple and cell carriers, have contracts with Google to make it the default search engine. The judge also found that social media platforms like TikTok are not a viable competitor to Google's ...

TR1X: Open-source re-implementation of Tomb Raider 1

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LostArtefacts/TR1X/develop/data/logo-light-theme.png#gh-light-mode-only
TR1X is an open-source implementation of the classic Tomb Raider I game, made by reverse engineering the TombATI/GLRage variant and replacing proprietary audio/video libraries with open-source variants. The project aims to add new features and improvements to the original game, including graphics effects, animations, and music, while maintaining compatibility with the original game's data files.

Hetzner Cloud – Singapore location available

https://docs.hetzner.cloud/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.hetzner.cloud%2Fuploads%2Fhc_singapore_whatsnew_f86be9de1f.jpg&w=1920&q=75
Hetzner Cloud has announced the launch of a new data center in Singapore, offering cloud servers with AMD processors and all cloud features, with fair prices but higher costs compared to other locations. The company has also introduced new server plans, Apps, and features, including firewalls, placement groups, and automatic generation of Let's Encrypt certificates for Load Balancers.

Exploiting authorization by nonce in WordPress plugins

WordPress plugins often use nonces for authorization, which can be exploited to gain privilege escalation, and three critical vulnerabilities were found in popular plugins, including Remote Code Execution and SQL Injection. The vulnerabilities were found in plugins with 100k+, 60k+, and 100k+ active installations, and the author notes that many WordPress plugins contain security ...

Systemd, 10 years later: a historical and technical retrospective (2020)

The development of init systems in the early 2000s was marked by incremental improvements to initscripts, with a focus on parallel startup and LSB compliance, but ultimately failed to address the underlying complexity and fragmentation of the system. The introduction of systemd in 2010 marked a radical break from the status quo, with its designers aiming to create a general middleware and ...

What purpose did the lower-right Enter key serve on original Mac 128k keyboard?

https://i.sstatic.net/2fUZOR2M.jpg
The original Macintosh keyboard, M0110, had a separate "Enter" key instead of a "Right Command" key, which served a purpose despite its unusual placement. The "Enter" key was likely designed to be replaced with other functions in non-USA models, and its distinct functionality is still present in some modern apps and IBM 3270 terminals.

Trio of Leaders Leave OpenAI

The website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks and has blocked the user's action. The user can email the site owner to report the block and include details of what they were doing when the page came up.

Show HN: AutoEditor – Edit your video in just a few clicks

https://autoeditor.video/images/og-preview.png
AutoEditor allows you to edit videos by adding subtitles, b-rolls, and effects, and even breaks long videos into smaller pieces. You can customize captions, styles, and presets without prior video editing knowledge, making video creation easy and efficient.

AI agents but they're working in big tech

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd1c63cfe-7777-4850-9c1f-3f2067ccbccb_1648x920.heic
Organizing AI agents like corporate structures can improve their performance on software engineering tasks, with competing teams and diverse problem-solving approaches leading to better results. However, simply increasing the number of agents or changing their organization may only lead to marginal improvements, and more significant gains may require advancements in agent reasoning ...

Show HN: I built a serverless data API builder – no storage, low latency

https://framerusercontent.com/images/O7YqCikKXed9qjMdPEQhmDegkU.png
Fleak is a low-code serverless API builder that enables seamless integration of data components, simplifying workflows and focusing on deriving insights from data. It offers advanced features like in-memory SQL, LLM nodes, and vector retrieval, reducing operational costs and improving data processing capabilities.

A Different Kind of Disc Brake: 1949 Chrysler (2023)

https://i0.wp.com/macsmotorcitygarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1950-Ausco-Lambert-Assembly-360.jpg?resize=584%2C352&ssl=1
The Ausco Lambert disc brake system, introduced by Chrysler in 1949, used a unique design with two discs and steel balls to provide braking force, offering advantages such as self-energizing and self-releasing, and no need for adjustment or booster. Although well-regarded, the system was not widely adopted and Chrysler reverted to standard drum brakes in 1955, not offering disc brakes again until 1966.

Google transfers 1.2 EB of data every day using Effingo

https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/08/06/screenshot_google_effingo.jpg
Google has developed a data transfer tool called Effingo, which moves an average of 1.2 exabytes daily, and is designed to balance infrastructure efficiency and user needs. Effingo is optimized for Google's Colossus filesystem and uses a control plane to manage data transfer, with a data plane that transfers bytes and reports status.

Why Heroism Is Bad and What We Can Do to Stop It

A hero fills systemic gaps by working long hours, but this approach cultivates unrealistic expectations and reinforces a culture of firefighting, rather than addressing underlying issues. To improve the system, the hero should focus on long-term fixes and work with the team to identify and prioritize systemic problems.

Stereographer

https://www.engineersneedart.com/stereographer/StereographerIcon.png
The author, a retired Apple developer, created an application called Stereographer to turn MPO files into composite stereo images suitable for printing and viewing in an old-fashioned stereoscope, and shares his experiences and experiments in stereo photography. The application allows users to adjust pan, separation, and straighten settings to create high-quality stereo images, and the author ...

Airbnb shares drop 12% as company flags weakening US demand

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/468e44d0f2bfb2cc4364378390127b10e8ef66a9/0_337_5133_3078/master/5133.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none
Airbnb forecast lower third-quarter revenue and reported a lower second-quarter profit due to weakening demand from US customers amid economic uncertainty. The company expects moderating growth in nights booked and shorter booking lead times globally, indicating consumers are booking travel at the last minute.

Creativity secrets from armed robbers, fraudsters and other criminals

https://denisecullen.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sander-sammy-H0nmXTsrxE0-unsplash-2-950x633.jpg
Prisoners, despite being considered dangerous, can possess remarkable skills such as acute observational skills, creativity, and resourcefulness, which can be useful for writers and creatives. By studying the ingenuity of criminals, one can learn valuable lessons about creativity, risk-taking, and overcoming constraints, and apply these skills to their own work.

Big Macs and the Cost of Living Crisis

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/c2df6321e131a160224ef249b2abfd91?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=733&cropW=1303&xPos=1&yPos=51&width=862&height=485
The price of a Big Mac has increased over the years due to various factors such as rising ingredient costs, utilities, and intellectual property royalties, which are passed on to consumers. The company's global sales are down for the first time since the pandemic, indicating that high prices can become a barrier to customers, and interest rates can be an effective tool to lower inflation.

IP.network: Check IP Address

IP.network is a free service that provides IP address lookup and geolocation data, accessible via web browsers or command line. Knowing your IP address can be useful for troubleshooting, setting up remote access, and configuring firewalls, but it doesn't reveal exact physical address or personal identity.

Why is it so hard for the U.S. to build quality transit?

Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker

Open source tools to query OpenStreetMap

https://wcedmisten.fyi/how-to-query-osm/italian-restaurants.png
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a vast dataset that can be overwhelming, but various open-source tools like Overpass Turbo, osm2pgsql, and others can help make sense of it. These tools can be used to query and analyze OSM data, and can be particularly useful for tasks like finding specific locations, such as hotels or restaurants, or for building geospatial applications.

Vacant pharmacies are holding back NYC retail

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/01/nyregion/00dead-pharmacy-grid/00dead-pharmacy-grid-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?auto=webp&quality=90
Over a million square feet of retail space in New York City remains vacant due to ironclad leases, difficulty finding new tenants, and seismic shifts in the drugstore business. Business groups and officials are now seeking to repurpose the spaces into new uses, such as microbreweries and arcades, thanks to recent zoning changes.

VisiCalc – The Early Days (2003)

https://benlo.com/visicalc/visicalcscreen.gif
Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston developed VisiCalc, a revolutionary electronic spreadsheet program that allowed users to perform calculations and manipulate data in a visual format, which was first released in 1979 and became a huge success. The program's impact was significant, empowering individuals to analyze and solve problems in a way that was previously only possible with specialized ...

State Monad for the Rest of Us

The article series "Distilling the State Monad from the very ground up" in F# provides a gentle introduction to Monads, starting from scratch and building an intuition on State Monad. The series consists of three parts, with the first two focusing on building the State Monad from scratch and the third part showcasing its easy use in various scenarios.

Qlot: Common Lisp Library Manager

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/b3bff8804f86b652e991ca9d7eda3559af64f2704826f155495568b291811b6b/fukamachi/qlot
Qlot is a project-local library installer for Common Lisp, similar to Bundler for Ruby or Carton for Perl, which allows installing libraries locally and managing versions. It provides commands for installing, updating, and managing libraries, and ensures that all developers and deployment environments use the same versions of libraries.

#F – A Minimalistic Scheme System

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/false-schemers/sharpF/master/misc/lambda-sunrise.png
F is a portable Scheme compiler/runtime that compiles Scheme code into standard C code, allowing for easy integration with regular C code. It has a scalable runtime, supports C-style separate compilation, and can be used to build a Scheme-like language with a minimalistic approach.

The Resurrection of Intel Will Take More Than Three Days

https://www.nextplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gelsinger-with-Xeon-6-1030x438.png
Intel's second quarter results show a significant operating loss and a decline in revenue, with the company seeking $10 billion in cost savings and halting dividend payments. Despite the challenges, Intel is working to revamp its foundry business and chip designs, and CEO Pat Gelsinger believes the company can create significant value for stakeholders in the long term.

Is Europe headed towards a new Ice Age as ocean current nears collapse?

https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/E6FYEAELLZGD7DEU3LWENSIAXQ.jpg?smart=true&auth=85ac50c32039a2885dc80e0d68a26fc4fc2e9a172fcafe77c9d92b478cf31106&width=400&height=225
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation may be at its weakest now for a thousand years and if it were to seize up, Europe could cool by 5 to 15°C

Show HN: Spawn – Build iOS Apps with English

https://spawnapp.com/logo.png
Build your app with words. Drag and drop images, audio and video you want your app to use. Spawn apps have full access to iOS features like the camera, location and calendar because they are built with fully native Swift code. Coming Soon: Build Android apps on Mac, Windows & Linux

A 3D-printable quartz glass for high-performance applications (2023)

https://lithoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Glassomer_DSC00065-2-scaled.jpg
Lithoz and Glassomer have partnered to market a new 3D-printable quartz glass material, LithaGlass, which combines ceramic and glass properties. The material, refined through Lithoz's LCM technology, offers high thermal and chemical resistance, mechanical stability, and low thermal expansion, making it suitable for various industrial applications.

Tvision – A modern port of Turbo Vision 2.0

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20713561/81506401-4fffdd80-92f6-11ea-8826-ee42612eb82a.png
Turbo Vision is a modern port of the classical framework for text-based user interfaces, with cross-platform and Unicode support. It provides a range of features, including support for Unicode input and display, horizontal scrolling, and clipboard integration, making it suitable for developing text-based applications that can run on various platforms.

Understanding 3D Graphics

https://azeemba.com/posts/understanding-3d-graphics/shades_rendered_huefee2457025b33f2685f83e0b8214106_1226128_1080x0_resize_box_3.png
The author shares their experience learning 3D modeling and animation in Blender, highlighting the importance of understanding shape and color in 3D graphics, and how computers manage these elements. The author explains key concepts such as vertices, edges, and faces, shaders, materials, textures, and normal maps, providing a comprehensive overview of 3D modeling and rendering.

Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IuFZbqSV6sgKc7WHzaSQi6rFjis=/0x0:1600x900/1200x675/filters:focal(672x322:928x578)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73468738/yeeeelp_anniversary.0.png
Yelp, a review platform founded in 2004, has become a dominant force in shaping public opinion about businesses, but its egalitarian vision has yielded conflicting results, with petty tyrants, untrustworthy influencers, and review bombs contributing to a culture of negativity. Despite its flaws, Yelp has become an integral part of modern life, with its influence extending beyond restaurants ...

Chemical 'waves' used to encode words as Morse code

https://d2cbg94ubxgsnp.cloudfront.net/Pictures/480xany/7/3/1/535731_gettyimages1431804702_880985.jpg
Scientists have developed a controllable reaction network that can produce sustained oscillations, allowing them to encode information in chemical waves similar to radio waves. The team demonstrated the ability to encode Morse code and nucleic acid sequences using the chemical waves, which could potentially be used in sensors and devices integrated with biological systems.

How old is your globe? [pdf]

Use a chart to determine the age of your globe by finding former place names instead of new ones. Confirm the age when you find a former name on your globe.

Show HN: Launch React components in your app with no-code

Frigade's Collections feature allows non-technical teammates to launch native, prebuilt React components in a web app without involving engineering, with features like content updates, user tracking, and targeting. The feature uses a server-driven UI approach, providing a balance of quality and speed, and offers more control and flexibility compared to existing no-code tools.

Speedrunning 30yrs of lithography technology [video]

Scheduling Model in LLVM – Part I

https://myhsu.xyz/images/llvm-sched-model-basic-superscalar.light.svg
LLVM's scheduling model is used to specify scheduling information for individual instructions, including latency, hardware resources, and operand reads and writes, to optimize instruction scheduling and minimize latency. The model also accounts for processor resource buffers, including reservation stations, reorder buffers, and latency devices, to ensure efficient instruction dispatch and execution.

Why is 'Left Stick to Sprint' so unpleasant in games?

https://aria.dog/_astro/1.BDRW6UYP_Z1Dq2zU.webp
You've bound additional buttons on your 8BitDo Pro 2 gamepad to L3 and R3 controls, finding the alternative L3 bind more useful in games with character movement. You're considering using analog sticks from AliExpress to create a DIY pitchbend lever, discussing the mechanics of potentiometers and joystick drift in gamepads.

Don't use Vim for the wrong reasons (2020)

Maduro lost election, tallies collected by Venezuela's opposition show

Bring crypto back to currency

The author criticizes the commodification of crypto, arguing that it has abandoned essential value and traditional metrics of valuation. They propose a decentralized marketplace with a rating system to measure inflation, using modulated block difficulty and network fees to control inflation and create a self-hosted exchange.

What Is Rotoscope Animation? The Process Explained (2020)

https://s.studiobinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/What-is-Rotoscope-Animation-Definition-Process-and-Examples-for-Animators-Featured.jpg
Rotoscoping is a technique used in animation to trace over live-action motion picture footage frame by frame, allowing for the creation of animated characters and scenes. The technique has been used in various films, including A Scanner Darkly, Undone, and Star Wars, and has undergone updates and advancements over the years to improve its efficiency and quality.

Google TV Streamer: Our new entertainment and smart home hub

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/images/Hero_1_UKrtiMZ.width-1000.format-webp.webp
Google TV Streamer is a new streaming device that combines the best of Google TV with smart home features, offering access to 700,000+ movies and shows, live TV, and personalized content suggestions. It also features a sleek design, improved processor, and connectivity support for Matter and Thread, making it a premium streaming experience for smart home users.

Reverse Diversity

https://www.drmindle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ReverseDiversity.png
The author, a former engineering manager, discusses the "reverse diversity" problem where all-minority teams emerge despite a majority population, citing the model minority stereotype and hiring dynamics. They argue that 100% single minority culture teams are extreme and not beneficial, and that it will take time to eradicate this issue.

Soup Dumpling Index: How prices compare around the world

https://graphics.axios.com/2024-07-19-xlb/fallbacks/2024-07-19-xlb-fallback.png
The Soup Dumpling Index, a new economic indicator, shows that New York City is the most expensive place to eat Din Tai Fung's soup dumplings, with prices 66% higher than in Taiwan or Malaysia. The index suggests that the dollar and pound are overvalued relative to the New Taiwan dollar or Malaysian ringgit, and that labor costs, not just production costs, influence prices.

Sci-fi writer and WordStar lover re-releases the cult DOS app for free

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/wordstar.png
Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer has compiled a complete version of WordStar 7, a DOS-based word processor, and made it available for download as the "Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive". Despite being decades old, WordStar remains popular among writers due to its focus on writing and powerful keyboard commands, making it a unique alternative to modern word processing software.

Minds are 'not currency for social media,' says EU as TikTok kills Lite Rewards

https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/tnw.events/hardfork-2018/uploads/companies/ukraine.png
TikTok will withdraw its Lite Rewards program in the EU to comply with the Digital Services Act, which regulates online content moderation. The program, which rewarded users for screen time, was deemed addictive and potentially harmful to minors, and its withdrawal is seen as a victory for EU regulators.

Drake Releases 100gb Data Dump

https://100gigs.org/share.jpg
100 gigs for your headtop

Debugging running Python scripts with PDB via GDB

https://disconnect3d.pl/assets/posts/cpython-attach-gdb.png
You can debug an already running Python script on Linux using GDB, a native debugger, by attaching to the Python interpreter process and enabling debug symbols. By setting a breakpoint on PyEval_SaveThread and then calling PyRun_SimpleString, you can execute arbitrary Python code in the context of the currently executed frame, effectively running the Python debugger pdb.

Ziff Davis is buying CNET for just $100M

https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:2040x1360/2400x1600/filters:focal(1020x680:1021x681):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25561459/CNET_logo_red.jpg
Red Ventures is selling CNET to Ziff Davis for over $100 million, a fraction of its 2008 valuation. Ziff Davis' CEO Vivek Shah wants to acquire CNET due to its well-known brand and large audience, despite CNET's recent struggles with AI-generated content and layoffs.

OpenBSD on ThinkPad L13 Gen 2 running KDE 6

https://brynet.ca/thinkpadkde.png
A generous person answered this request in April 2024, testing the Elan ClickPad and TrackPoint on a device running 7.5-current. The Thunderbolt 4 feature is untested, but requires BIOS settings to function properly.

EP–1320 Medieval

The EP-1320 is a medieval-themed electronic instrument with a large library of phrases, play-ready instruments, and one-shot samples, allowing users to create sultry serenades or bouncy beats. It features a range of playable medieval instruments, drums, percussion, and sound effects, as well as effects and arpeggiator, and can be used for live performances or in the studio.

Berkshire Hathaway sub TransRe announces CAIO post, dedicated AI team

https://149448277.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/TransRe_Logo-1.jpg
TransRe, a subsidiary of Alleghany Corporation, has restructured its data science team with two senior appointments to support AI, machine learning, and large language models. Otakar Hubschmann is the new Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, and Socrates Pichardo will join the team as part of the Artificial Intelligence Team (TRAIT).

A simply utility script which allows you to analyze your Python file

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/c786049bae6f680da87d520c8f0eb7c2beddf2971379fcb3628287f4e8f09efe/mraza007/python-file-analyzer
The script analyzed a Python file named `key.py` with 43 lines, containing functions, classes, imports, and variables. The analysis provided information on the file's structure, including function calls, variable definitions, and usage, as well as documentation links for imported libraries.