1. The end of the accounting search
Total comment counts : 30
Summary:
LWN.net has announced that it will no longer be using the proprietary accounting system QuickBooks, which has been in use since the organization was founded in 1997. Despite the system being familiar, it was unreliable and demonstrated the sort of behaviors endemic to proprietary systems, such as frequent crashes, arbitrary upgrade limits forcing users towards more expensive versions, and an enforced need for regular updates. After review of the various options available, LWN.net ultimately chose GnuCash as its new accounting software due to its relative simplicity, graphical interface, and accounting features without the need for unnecessary added complexity.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The author, who is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor for over 20 years, believes that Intuit is determined to force all their customers to migrate to the online version, which is slower and has limited functionality. In addition, the author criticizes the major updates that hide or move functionality, making it confusing and frustrating for the customers. The relentless price increases are also a concern, making it difficult for some clients to afford the advanced version. The author worries that Intuit’s recent decisions show lack of loyalty to their customers and may force them to find a new way of supporting themselves.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The UK tax authority, HMRC, has made it difficult for open source projects to access their APIs, which is frustrating.
2. Writing Python like it’s Rust
Total comment counts : 47
Summary:
The author discusses their experience using Rust, a programming language with strict type systems, and how it has influenced their approach to writing Python code. They emphasize the importance of using type hints and creating strongly typed objects, as well as the benefits of explicitly describing the shapes of data through algebraic data types (ADTs). The author believes that these practices lead to more maintainable and bug-free programs. They acknowledge that their opinions are subjective and not universal truths.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The article argues that Python’s optional typing feature provides decent safety when needed while still maintaining its versatility. Though some may criticize Python’s typing system and suggest using another language, Python’s ability to explore untyped code and add in types later allows it to handle problems decently in all various forms. Despite its quirks, Python remains a practical language, and its versatility allows for opportunities to remain on the table.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The author expresses frustration with type hinting in Python, finding it to be cumbersome and unintuitive compared to other languages. They want Python to include features such as types, enums, and interfaces built-in and not have to import them from external modules. The author also finds teaching Python to new developers a challenging experience due to the many ways of doing things within the language. Ultimately, the author wishes that a new version of the language, Python 4, could be released to address these concerns.
3. Show HN: SpaceBadgers – Free and Libre SVG Badges
Total comment counts : 16
Summary:
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Top 1 Comment Summary:
The author expresses their love for a tool that “just works” and can create custom SVGs using dynamic URL parameters. They may explore using the command line interface for more complex integrations in the future. The article includes an example URL for creating a custom badge.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The article suggests that it was unusual for the “why” section to be at the bottom of the page, as the user was used to seeing licensing and contribution information there. The author recommends linking to the “why” section at the top of the readme to prevent users from missing it. The user was looking for information on why shields.io wasn’t good enough and found the answer in the “why” section.
4. The DRAKON Language
Total comment counts : 19
Summary:
The article discusses DRAKON, a visual language originally created to capture software requirements for spacecraft control systems and now being used in different types of software, medical algorithms, and business procedures to organize processes. DRAKON is based on best practices for flow chart drawing and has unique features that make it superior to other visual notations. While it is possible to draw DRAKON flow charts in a general-purpose diagram editor, DrakonHub provides a fast and smooth editing experience specifically optimized for DRAKON. The software ensures that the drawing is a valid DRAKON flow chart at any moment of time.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The author is interested in Soviet programming languages and the article discusses two of them: one that conceptualized programming through logical schemas and operators, and another language for CAS developed in Ukraine. The article references a website about programming languages in the USSR and notes that there are journals of translated papers on programming language design from the 1950s that are not widely available. The author mentions a project to recreate one of the languages but has not worked on it recently.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The article is about a tool called DRAKON which was created by Stepan Mitkin. The tool is available on GitHub and is used for writing out flows and algorithms. The writer fell in love with DRAKON 10 years ago and has used it on and off. They are currently trying to add Rust support to the tool but are facing technical challenges.
5. Recreating RP2040 PIO Interface in an FPGA
Total comment counts : 5
Summary:
The article reports on an attempt to recreate the Raspberry Pi RP2040 PIO interface in Verilog, a hardware description language used to model electronic systems. The PIO is a peripheral that is part of the RP2040 SoC, which is flexible and can implement various protocols at high speed and on any GPIO pins. The implementation was done from the specification without access to any Raspberry Pi HDL. The simulation is currently incomplete but is available to run on open source FPGA boards. The method of configuring and controlling PIO needs to be changed for closer compatibility with the RP2040 chip.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The article discusses two retro-related projects that were built in the last year using the RP2040’s PIO on a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. The first project involves capturing video in a unique format using one core and outputting it through PIO on a different core in VGA or DVI formats. The second project focuses on implementing old DACs that expect a unique input data format.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The article suggests that the programmable I/O setup is similar to the Propeller series chips from Parallax as they perform specific tasks efficiently although they are not as general-purpose as other core processors like the STM32.
6. Show HN: Trogon – An automatic TUI for command line apps
Total comment counts : 24
Summary:
Trogon is a tool that auto-generates friendly textual user interfaces for command-line applications. It works with the Click library for Python, but will support other libraries and languages in the future. Trogon inspects a command-line application and extracts a schema describing its options and switches. It then uses that information to build a textual user interface that allows users to edit and run the command. The goal is to formalize this schema and protocol to build TUIs for any command-line application. Trogon may be installed with PyPI and is only 2 lines of code to add to an existing project.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The article highlights the importance of standardizing a schema format for command line programs. Once this is established and implemented, there are many possibilities such as TUI/GUI, autocomplete, type checking and discoverability.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The author is discussing the challenge of creating a program that can offer an interface to an unannotated program, such as “trogon ffmpeg,” which may not have structured command line help that can be easily parsed. They suggest using man files, where available, to inform the program’s interface.
7. GPT detectors are biased against non-native English writers
Total comment counts : 35
Summary:
The article introduces arXivLabs, a framework that allows collaborating individuals and organizations to develop and circulate new arXiv features. The article highlights that arXiv only partners with collaborators that share their values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. The article also invites readers to suggest projects that can add value to the arXiv community. Finally, the article provides a link to check the operational status of arXiv and offers status notifications through email or slack.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The article argues that using GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) detectors can disadvantage already marginalized individuals as there may be false positives. People who are disadvantaged are less likely to be able to defend themselves against being falsely labeled and less likely to be listened to even if they do try to defend themselves. Additionally, being labeled as “non-human” can be offensive. The article questions the ability of GPT detectors to accurately identify LLM (Language Model Models) that is outputting text.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The article suggests the idea of AI companies offering an API that detects cheating in text by verifying if a given hash was generated by their service. Third-party companies specializing in cheat detection could use this API and offer their services to schools or organizations. However, the difficulties with this approach include getting AI companies to offer the API, the API’s limitations in detecting only exact matches, and the possibility of people running the models themselves. This approach would avoid AI grading AI issues.
8. High-Performance Graph Databases
Total comment counts : 8
Summary:
ArXivLabs is a collaborative framework that enables the development and sharing of innovative features directly on the ArXiv website. Individuals and organizations that work with ArXivLabs are committed to the values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy that ArXiv upholds. ArXiv only works with partners who also adhere to these values. Users who have project ideas that could benefit the ArXiv community can learn more about ArXivLabs.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The majority of production databases are less than 10GB in size, despite a fascination with extreme-scale by larger organizations. Most graph database users want a DB that allows for flexible data modeling, complex queries, and interoperability, and this is achievable for smaller databases of 10GB or less. The development of graph database TerminusDB found that most users have smaller production databases and prioritize easy schema evolution over bells and whistles features.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The article describes Maciej Besta as a machine who coordinates groups to write papers and also does wilderness exploration. The author recommends checking out Besta’s website for his stunning photos.
9. KeyDB – A Multithreaded Fork of Redis
Total comment counts : 18
Summary:
KeyDB is an open-source database that serves as a faster and more efficient replacement for Redis. It offers high performance and scalability, supporting a variety of data structures, periodic data dumps to disk, configurable durability preferences for RDB and AOF persistence, and horizontal scaling. KeyDB also supports TLS encryption and the creation of custom commands via an open-source JavaScript module. New features in development include flash storage, JSON support, multi-tenant support, and RAFT.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The author of the article expresses caution in using a new database technology without seeing Jepsen test results, which are used to test database systems for correctness and safety. The author highlights the complexity of databases and distributed systems, which can often lead to debugging issues in production. They compare databases to programming languages, saying that frequent releases and responsive authors are crucial for wider adoption.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
I apologize, but the link provided is broken and cannot be summarized without the proper context.
10. Building a Signal Analyzer with Modern Web Tech
Total comment counts : 8
Summary:
The author built a browser-based signal analyzer using modern browser APIs such as Web Workers, SharedArrayBuffer, Atomics, OffscreenCanvas, and WebGPU. The signal analyzer includes a spectrogram and oscilloscope, which visualize audio and other signals within the app. The heavy lifting is performed by dedicated worker threads for the visualizations, and the core audio processing code runs on a dedicated audio rendering thread via Web Audio. SharedArrayBuffer is used to exchange data between threads, and Atomics is used for synchronization. OffscreenCanvas allows for a canvas’s rendering context to be transferred off the main thread to a web worker, which performs the rendering work. The author believes that these modern browser APIs enable new functionality for the web that was previously impossible, difficult, or inefficient.
Top 1 Comment Summary:
The author describes building a browser-based signal analyzer and explores modern browser APIs and technologies that can be used to create complex multi-threaded, graphics-intensive applications. They conclude that the modern web is well-suited for building such applications.
Top 2 Comment Summary:
The article is a link to a Show HN post from 19 days ago featuring a spectrogram analyzer web application. The link to the web app is provided.