1. Cloud Backed SQLite
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
The “Cloud Backed SQLite” (CBS) system allows databases to be stored in cloud storage accounts and accessed by storage clients without downloading the entire database. Multiple clients can access the databases concurrently, with one client able to write at a time. CBS currently supports Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage, with an API to implement support for other cloud storage systems. The CBS system divides the SQLite databases into fixed-size blocks and stores them in cloud storage along with a manifest file that describes how the blocks can be assembled into databases. CBS provides APIs and command-line tools for creating and managing blob storage containers and uploading, downloading, and deleting databases. It also includes a daemon process that provides local SQLite database clients with read-only access to remote databases. The CBS system supports secure attachments of containers, where data is encrypted in the cache file, and authentication is required to access the encrypted data.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s exploration of serving large SQLite databases in chunks to optimize querying. They mention using a library called sql.js-httpvfs, which handles most of the work. The author divided their 350MB SQLite database into 43 8MB pieces and uploaded them to GitHub along with their static files. They recommend visiting the provided link to see the library in action and note that it is quick and impressive. The article also includes links to the library’s GitHub page and the author’s GitHub repository.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article describes a simple hack for storing SQL data in a remote data store rather than using a Cloud Backed SQLite solution. The hack involves mounting a tmpfs filesystem and writing the SQLite database there. Every 30 seconds, the database is copied to a new file, and a process is initiated to copy the database to the object store. This approach is preferred over the Cloud Backed SQLite solution because it is easier to troubleshoot, components are loosely-coupled and well-tested, file contents are kept in memory for fast copies, no need for a separate daemon process, simple global locking semantics, thread-safe, no network blocking, and authentication can be handled by an external application.
2. Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off
Total comment counts : 111
Summary
The article discusses the downfall of Evernote and suggests that it should have remained a small company instead of expanding and introducing expensive features. The author praises Obsidian for providing a portable editor and allowing users to own the sync story. They argue that storing text files in the cloud is cheap and that there are many free or cheap alternatives available. The author also criticizes VC-funded startups for focusing on growth and profitability rather than providing value to customers. They highlight the risk of relying on SaaS startups and advocate for using established players or open-source solutions. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of creating valuable products or offering them at a low cost.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the challenges companies face when trying to convert free users into paying customers. The author uses Evernote as an example, noting that once a company offers something for free, it is difficult to take it back. Evernote gave away its features too early, leading to a lack of trust when users felt like it was being taken away from them. The article contrasts Evernote’s approach with that of Obsidian, which offers a free editor but gives the option to pay for a cohesive experience across devices. Obsidian keeps files outside of a database, making them portable and ensuring users feel safe if they need to switch to another platform.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses Evernote’s 100-year data guarantee and explores whether it is holding up.
3. InternLM – new open source 7B LLM
Total comment counts : 14
Summary
The article discusses the open-sourcing of InternLM, a 7 billion parameter base model and chat model designed for practical scenarios. The model includes a lightweight training framework for pre-training without extensive dependencies. It supports pre-training on large-scale clusters with thousands of GPUs and fine-tuning on a single GPU with high performance optimizations. The model has been evaluated using the OpenCompass tool and achieves significant acceleration efficiency during training. The article also provides instructions for loading and interacting with the model, as well as information on limitations and safety considerations. The codebase is open-source, and contributions from the community are encouraged. Commercial use of InternLM requires written permission from the team.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the potential for totalitarian and authoritarian regimes like China and the UAE to develop and distribute commercially viable and free Language and Learning Models (LLMs) that outperform other alternatives. With substantial government funding, these LLMs can gradually become more aligned with the thinking of these regimes. The article also points out that all Chinese companies are ultimately under the control of the Chinese government. This represents a new form of cultural soft power.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the development of various language models, including Baichuan, ChatGLM2, and InternLM. These models are designed to compete with OpenAI offerings in the Chinese market. The author mentions that they have tried ChatGLM2-6B and Baichuan, but finds them underwhelming compared to their reported benchmarks. The models do not appear to be censored in any particular political direction, but they share similarities with ChatGPT and Claude.
4. Raylib – A simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy video games programming
Total comment counts : 21
Summary
The article is about a library called raylib, which is designed to make videogame programming simple and easy. It is inspired by Borland BGI graphics lib and the XNA framework. The library is suitable for prototyping, tooling, graphical applications, embedded systems, and education. It does not have a fancy interface or visual helpers, but instead focuses on coding in a minimalist way. The article provides examples and documentation on how to use raylib on different platforms. It also mentions that raylib is available on multiple package managers and has a community growing on various networks. The library is licensed under the zlib/libpng license, allowing static linking with closed source software.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the problem that developers face in creating games due to a lack of quality 3D assets. It mentions that mods are successful because they can use existing models and textures from the parent game. The author, who used to work on a game called Heroes of Newerth, offers around 80 unique characters with animations from the game that are no longer being used. The article mentions the desire to promote the work of the artists who created these characters and expresses the hope that a converter can be created to easily incorporate these assets into other games.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the raylib library noticed an increase in GitHub stargazers and members on the raylib Discord channel. They invited people to ask them any questions about raylib.
5. Ban on recording without consent is unconstitutional, US court rules
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
error
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a decision that only affects five states: Alaska, Kentucky, Montana, Massachusetts, and Oregon. These states prohibit recording without notice or consent in public places where individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Top 2 Comment Summary
In Canada, it is legal to record someone during a phone call or in-person conversation if at least one party involved in the conversation consents to the recording. This means that even if there are multiple participants on the call, it is not illegal for one of the participants to record the conversation without informing or asking permission from the others. This is known as the “one party consent” exception.
6. Mid-1990s Sega document leak shows how it lost the second console war to Sony
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
This article discusses the release of a 47MB, 272-page PDF document containing confidential emails, notes, and other documents from inside Sega, a company known for its gaming consoles. The document sheds light on Sega’s history and provides insights into how the company went from being a rival to Nintendo in the 1990s to eventually giving up on consoles. The leaked information includes business plan spreadsheets revealing the costs, margins, and sales of Sega systems in America by 1997. The article also mentions interesting tidbits, such as CEO Tom Kalinske’s confident statement that Sega would surpass Sony in Japan, which turned out to be untrue. The document also explores Sega’s strategies to compete with Sony, which ultimately failed. Overall, the leaked information offers a glimpse into Sega’s past and provides interesting insights for enthusiasts and historians.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article reflects the author’s personal experience as a teenager when Sony entered the gaming industry with the PlayStation. At first, the author doubted the success of the PlayStation due to the lack of a clear mascot like Mario or Sonic. However, they soon realized that the PlayStation was becoming the dominant force in gaming, as the Sega Saturn failed and everyone they knew owned a PlayStation. The author was also impressed by the success of the PlayStation 2, which surpassed their expectations and dominated the market. The author personally connected with the Sony handheld devices, owning a PSP and later a Vita, and found them to be enjoyable devices despite the UMD format.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article emphasizes how the main driving force behind purchasing gaming consoles is the games they offer. The author recalls getting the NES for Super Mario Bros and the Playstation for Tekken, implying that the availability of these games influenced their buying decisions. They further express that marketing and hardware are not significant factors compared to the appeal of specific games. The author also suggests that Sega failed to produce a game that captured their interest, leading them to prioritize the game library when choosing a console.
7. Godot 4.1
Total comment counts : 31
Summary
Godot 4.1 has been released after four months of work. This update focuses on stability, performance, and polish, and includes over 900 bug fixes reported by users. Some new features include improved AI navigation avoidance and the ability to detach code editors and place them on other displays. The update also introduces experimental multithreading for scenes, a pipeline cache for the Vulkan renderer, and various improvements to GDScript and C#. Other changes include enhancements to node operations, improved documentation generation, and the ability to export arrays of nodes to the inspector. The release also highlights the importance of community support through donations, bug reporting, code contribution, and game development. Future releases, including Godot 4.2, will continue to improve stability and performance.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article recently switched from Unity to Godot 4.0 and has been enjoying the experience. They find Godot to be light, fast, and easy to learn, and believe it can fulfill 90% of the needs of a solo or indie developer. However, the only thing preventing them from fully transitioning to Godot is a bug that causes games to load slowly on itch.io if the user is on MacOS. This is a problem for the author because many of their games are designed for educational purposes and target iPad and MacBook users, and linking them to itch.io is more convenient than asking users to install the games locally. The Godot team is aware of this issue and is working on fixing it, and the author believes that once this bug is resolved, Godot could become popular among the itch.io and game jam communities.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article praises Godot as an impressive tool for game development, highlighting its superior performance compared to Unity. It mentions an update that addresses over 900 reported issues with Godot 4, while also enhancing its performance and stability. The article commends the Godot team for their efforts.
8. Joplin – An open-source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation
Total comment counts : 50
Summary
The article discusses Joplin, an open-source note-taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities. Joplin can handle a large number of notes organized into notebooks and supports features such as searching, tagging, and modifying notes. The notes are in Markdown format and can be imported from Evernote or plain Markdown files. Joplin offers secure synchronization using end-to-end encryption with cloud services like Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Joplin Cloud. The application is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It also supports plugins and themes, and has a Web Clipper extension for saving web pages and screenshots. Joplin can import and export notes in various formats, including JEX, HTML, and PDF. It can be synchronized with Nextcloud, WebDAV, Dropbox, OneDrive, or the local filesystem. The article also provides instructions for setting up synchronization with different services. Joplin supports end-to-end encryption to ensure data privacy. It also has features like note versioning, integration with external editors, attaching files to notes, alarms for to-dos, sub-notebooks for organizing notebooks, and customizable Markdown rendering. The article mentions that Joplin has a plugin system and supports SQLite Full Text Search for fast searching. It also explains how to create and switch between profiles in the application.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author praises Joplin, an open-source note-taking app that they use daily on all their devices. They appreciate having a free and open-source app that allows them to sync their notes across platforms. They have been a patron of Joplin for years and have recommended it to others. While acknowledging that Obsidian is currently popular, the author cannot imagine using a closed-source app for something as personal and significant as note-taking. They express a desire for vim keybindings in Joplin.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is a testimonial from a longtime user of the note-taking app Joplin. The author praises the app for its open and free nature, which is important to them. They mention that the mobile app could use improvement, but overall they are satisfied with Joplin and have been using it for many years. The author acknowledges that there are many competitors with more visually appealing interfaces, but the app must be open for them to consider using it.
9. My Problem with the Four-Document Model
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
The article discusses the four-document (4doc) model of user documentation, known as Diátaxis. The model suggests that user-facing documentation should be categorized into tutorials, references, explanations, and how-tos. While the 4doc model has become popular in the documentation community, the author argues that it is not universal or comprehensive. The model was originally designed for documenting tools and does not fully address the needs of frameworks and programming languages. The author suggests that conceptual overviews and examples are additional types of documentation that should be included. However, they acknowledge that the 4doc model is still useful and should be evaluated based on individual needs and circumstances.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author argues that the 4doc model, which was designed for documenting tools, is not universal and does not fully address the needs of frameworks and programming languages. They question whether the Python docs should be considered exemplary, as they are only decent. They also bring up the limitations of the 4doc model in the context of OS bringup and suggest that homepages and release notes are categories that require unique guidelines. The author suggests that any proposed universal doc type should align with a universal goal type. They mention the Pigweed docs as an example of where the 4doc model falls short. The topic of examples is also discussed, with a suggestion that examples can be used effectively in various types of documentation.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the importance of having good documentation and the need for technical writers in the software development industry. The author explains that while they have not seen the use of the “4doc” command, it can help identify weak points in documentation and provide a framework for discussing different types of documents. The author finds that there are usually only two types of documentation: reference documentation and tutorials, with a lack of “how-to” guides. They believe that developers may be uncomfortable writing comprehensive how-to guides and often resort to either linking to reference documentation or creating disjointed documents. The author suggests that it is better to have multiple pages answering specific questions without worrying about repetition. They also mention how some workplaces use Stack Overflow for Teams to fill the how-to role, but note that engagement is crucial for its success.
10. Backend of Meta Threads is built with Python 3.10
Total comment counts : 22
Summary
The article states that JavaScript needs to be enabled in the browser to continue using twitter.com, and provides information on supported browsers. It also mentions the Help Center, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and states the copyright year as 2023 by X Corp.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article serves as a response to critics who claim that Python is not fast enough for backend production. It is written by the authors of a social network that was built using PHP and MySQL.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article states that a program is running on Instagram’s modified version of Python called #Cinder, which includes various optimizations such as a JIT compiler, lazy-loaded modules, and pre-compiled static modules, among others. This means that it is not just using Python 3.10, but has additional enhancements.