1. Building a Personal VoIP System
Total comment counts : 31
Summary
The article is a guide for setting up a digital telephone system using open-source tools such as Asterisk. It provides an overview of the Session Initialization Protocol (SIP) and how it works in local and external networks. The article suggests a solution to the problem of network address translation (NAT) in external networks by configuring a fixed RTP port range on each of the SIP devices and creating static port forwarding rules on the router for each device. The article also provides information on selecting and configuring VoIP phones, subscribing to VoIP services, and editing configuration files for Asterisk on RHEL-based distributions.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article describes how the author installed a VoIP system using a Raspberry Pi 1 (possibly a Pi 2) with RasPBX, six Cisco VoIP phones, and an external HDD for a small to medium enterprise. The system ran smoothly for years and was still in use when the enterprise was sold. The author emphasizes that setting up a similar system is not difficult and can be done by finding a provider for a SIP trunk, configuring the system, and backing up the configuration.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article describes the author’s positive experience working with FreeSWITCH, an alternative to Asterisk for building residential voip services. They found it to be more developer-friendly due to its ability to build dial plans and implement logic using JavaScript or Lua, making it easier to configure and extend than Asterisk. The author successfully prototyped and completed the project using FreeSWITCH and believes the system is still running.
2. Servo, the parallel browser engine written in Rust
Total comment counts : 18
Summary
The article is about the Servo browser engine, which is an independent, modular, embeddable web rendering engine written in Rust. It discusses the efforts to rewrite Servo’s layout engine, and proposals for its layout going forward. The article also highlights improvements made to how tests are run and how fast builds can be completed with fewer failures. Links are provided for more information and support to the Servo project.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how the development of the Servo browser engine helped guide the development of the Rust programming language. According to an interview with Josh Matthews, Servo was a “guiding light for Rust” in its early stages.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Multiple pages linked from the Hacker News front page had issues when tested on Servo browser, such as the Hacker News SVG logo not rendering, YouTube embed on the Servo homepage not loading, and several websites hanging while loading or using 100% of one core. However, Equality time’s FlowersForTuring page loaded and rendered fine. The article suggests that websites need to be purpose-built or use minimal modern JavaScript libraries to render accurately on Servo.
3. Dolphin on Steam Indefinitely Postponed
Total comment counts : 21
Summary
The release of Dolphin on Steam has been postponed indefinitely due to a cease and desist notice from Nintendo citing the DMCA. Dolphin has been removed from Steam until the matter is resolved, and the developers are currently investigating their options. A more detailed response will be given soon, and they ask for patience from the public.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Nintendo has issued a cease and desist against Dolphin’s Steam page citing the DMCA and Valve has removed Dolphin from Steam. The Dolphin team’s legal counsel is investigating their options and hopes to send a DMCA counter notice. The author argues that Valve should remain neutral on this and that emulators are important and not piracy.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions that YouTubers using Dolphin to get free games on Steam decks is not a new phenomenon, and given this, the author is surprised that a controversy surrounding it has not arisen earlier.
4. Raspberry Pi/PlatformIO conflict blocks support for Pico-Arduino toolchain
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The article discusses a disagreement between PlatformIO and Raspberry Pi Trading over the latter’s support for the Raspberry Pi platform on the former’s ecosystem. PlatformIO requires licensing fees to be paid by hardware vendors seeking access to its ecosystem. Raspberry Pi Trading did not pay such fees, leading to the rejection of their support for the Raspberry Pi platform. Some community members have criticized PlatformIO for this decision, arguing that it contradicts the company’s “open-core” business model and the notion of an open-source community. Nonetheless, PlatformIO stands by its decision and its need to sustainably scale its business.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The Raspberry Pi Foundation received a proposal from PlatformIO Labs, but was unable to justify paying the substantial recurring fees involved and indicated they would not be proceeding. The PlatformIO team’s responses have come across as written by lawyers and PR people, leading the commenter to decide to steer clear of PlatformIO in the future.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses using the Raspberry Pi Pico with Arduino through a community port called arduino-pico, which has good USB-Midi support. The author notes that while Arduino can be confusing as a package manager, the patch to use PlatformIO is supposed to make it more user-friendly, and provides instructions on how to do so. The author also expresses a preference for using a language with a real package manager, rather than Arduino or PlatformIO’s embedded-only implementations.
5. 418 I’m a teapot
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
The article is a web technology reference for developers, covering topics such as HTML, CSS, scripting, accessibility, building web applications, developing browser extensions, and browser compatibility. Additionally, it mentions the HTTP 418 error code, which indicates that the server cannot brew coffee because it is a teapot, and explains that this error is a reference to a joke protocol. The article is hosted on Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) and was last updated on April 10, 2023.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The owner of a free service called jsonip.com expressed frustration when someone added their service to a widely used version of Dalvik/Android software, causing a 300% increase in traffic overnight. This increase in traffic, which the owner had never planned for and struggled to manage, was due to a misconfiguration in a squid proxy. The owner had to switch to Cloudflare to handle the load and block the offending traffic, but found that Cloudflare doesn’t properly route IPv4 addresses. The owner is asking the person responsible for the misconfiguration to remove their service address from their outdated TV/smart device Android code.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article uses the phrase “I’m a teapot” as a response when they encounter a specific error during testing. This error occurs when a test passes a post request without a CSRF token, which means that the author forgot to add a CSRF token to a form. The phrase is used tongue-in-cheek to signify that the error is intentional and occurs only under certain conditions that the author has programmed.
6. Admiral Rickover’s ‘Paper Reactor’ Memo (1953)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
Admiral Hyman Rickover, in his 1953 piece, discusses how people who are nonspecialists in the technical aspects of reactors make decisions about future development of atomic power, and how they are faced with confusion and unresolved conflicts in the reactor industry. Rickover explains that this confusion arises from failure to distinguish between the academic and practical aspects of the reactor business and can be resolved by defining those characteristics that differentiate the academic from the practical. He concludes by stating that while it is probably impossible to have reactor ideas labeled as practical or academic, those in high places must make wise decisions based on the facts presented in both categories.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article suggests that readers may also enjoy an essay on engineering management titled “Doing a Job” by Rickover. A link to the essay is given.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Half of France’s nuclear reactors have been shut down due to a corrosion problem caused by carbon dioxide in the cooling system. The issue was highlighted years ago by former EDF nuclear executive Laurent Stricker, who warned of the potential risks of corrosion if the correct measures were not taken. The current situation is likely to cause energy supply shortages in France this summer and has raised concerns about the country’s reliance on nuclear power.
7. Scar tissues make relationships wear out (2013)
Total comment counts : 40
Summary
The article discusses the challenges of maintaining long-lasting relationships, both personal and professional, and suggests that they often fail due to the accumulation of small conflicts or “scar tissue” over time. The author emphasizes the importance of resolving conflicts without lingering animosity to prevent scar tissue from forming, and warns against the pitfalls of being too nice or too argumentative in relationships. The key to successful relationships is communication and compromise, but it is a difficult task to accomplish.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author’s ex, a relationship therapist, encouraged open communication and sharing feelings early in the relationship to prevent the buildup of resentment. Although it initially freaked the author out, they adopted the practice in future relationships, leading to personal growth and the ability to confront problems head-on. Sharing feelings early on can be vulnerable and difficult, but it can prevent future issues and is a sign of maturity.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author believes that actively working on a relationship with empathy and a willingness to improve oneself can lead to a stronger bond. Scar tissue from past disagreements can actually make relationships stronger if conflicts can be resolved constructively. However, this requires effort and compatibility from both parties.
8. Programming in Standard ML (2011) [pdf]
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article recommends SML as a programming language for side projects and suggests Futhark and MPL as options for those interested in parallel, functional programming. Futhark is based on SML and can automatically build programs that run on the GPU using CUDA or OpenCL, while MPL extends the MLton compiler to add support for nested, fork-join parallelism. Links to the Github pages for Futhark and MPL are provided.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Millet is a language server that provides editor support for Standard ML. Additionally, Smlhelp is a resource created mostly by current and past CMU students for support in Standard ML. The author of the article created Millet.
9. Can SGI’s enthusiast community bring IRIX back to life?
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
The IRIX community is attempting to revive the outdated and much-loved operating system IRIX that was developed by Silicon Graphics Inc in the late 1990s. Despite being proprietary and not actively developed for the past two decades, IRIX continues to attract a dedicated community of collectors and enthusiasts. The SGI community has initiated a crowdfunding campaign to reverse-engineer the IRIX 5.3 kernel, the last version of the system capable of running on the widest variety of machines, with the goal of creating an open-source IRIX-derivative called IRIX-32 for emulation and driver development purposes.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article describes how SGI hardware had a distinct aesthetic appeal which set it apart from ordinary PCs, making it recognizable as a higher-end “workstation.” However, the article notes that the software, IRIX, did not have the same level of visual appeal as the hardware and was less attractive compared to OS/2.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article expresses surprise that Apple, of all companies, is now the last commercial UNIX workstation vendor, whereas in the 90s, people would have predicted that companies like Sun or SGI would hold that position.
10. The Birth of the Self
Total comment counts : 15
Summary
Andrea Wulf’s new book Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self explores philosopher’s (including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel) time in the small German university town of Jena, in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, during the years between the onset of the French Revolution and the town’s devastation by Napoleon’s armies in 1806. Wulf argues that the proximity of this group of ambitious thinkers helped birth Romanticism and changed the way Germans thought about freedom, individuality, and the role of the state. Between 1789 and 1807, Schiller, Goethe, Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Alexander von Humboldt and his brother Wilhelm, the Schlegel brothers, Friedrich and August Wilhelm, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis and Friedrich Schelling all lived in the town. With its university controlled by four different dukes with no one in charge, Jena offered a level of freedom of thought not matched elsewhere in Germany.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The BBC series “The Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis explores the untold and controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. The series questions whether the triumph of the self, seen by many as the ultimate expression of democracy, is really in the interests of the people, and how it was created.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author, a Buddhist, meditates on the question of when the personal self is born. They suggest that it does not exist at birth and only develops after language is learned, manifesting as the chattering ego that is constantly focused on the past or future. They argue that the ego is an illusion that can lead to negative emotions and contribute to violence among human beings. The author believes that the “take what I want” attitude may stem from the unnoticed ego illusion.