1. A third of North America’s birds have vanished
Total comment counts : 47
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the issue of solving environmental problems, stating that the most common approach of relying on powerful entities such as governments to enact change is not effective enough. Instead, the author proposes bottom-up solutions that begin with individual actions, then move up through influential individuals and small groups to eventually affect entire towns and neighborhoods. The author suggests focusing on tangible actions that can be implemented at each level, rather than relying solely on regulation by those in power.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the drastic decline of species in the Southwest England area since the 1970s. The decline in specific bird species, like tree sparrows and turtle doves, are mentioned, with the latter currently having a 90% decline. Additionally, a link is provided to a parliamentary committee discussing the decline of insect numbers and how it affects the UK’s food security. Another link is provided to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which offers advice on how to help birds and discusses the overall decline in bird populations.
2. PostgreSQL: No More Vacuum, No More Bloat
Total comment counts : 22
Summary
PostgreSQL, a widely used open-source object-relational database system, has faced challenges related to its resource-consuming VACUUM process that purges old and unneeded data. Although PostgreSQL introduced autovacuum to alleviate this burden, the process still consumed significant resources. OrioleDB, a novel engine, promises to eliminate the need for VACUUM. It implements row-level and block-level undo logs as well as automatic page merging, which reduces manual intervention, consumes fewer resources, and is less prone to table bloat. OrioleDB provides a significant improvement in the performance and user experience of PostgreSQL.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses potential problems with using row-level storage in PostgreSQL, including write alignment and slow downs due to conservative data safety measures. While the article notes that MVCC is useful for concurrency, it raises questions about the Oriole document’s claims about its success with solving VACUUM issues. The author suggests that further information is needed to understand how the Oriole team addressed the potential problems with row-level storage in PostgreSQL.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article cautions against forking big open source projects and making significant changes without a clear plan for maintaining the project and absorbing future releases from the original project. The author suggests that if the project is serious, the plans to avoid becoming an abandonware in the future and to fold future releases into the project should be made explicit. The author also notes that if the changes made to the original project can easily be included in the original project, then there may not be a need to fork the project.
3. Discord is not documentation
Total comment counts : 40
Summary
The author of the article expresses their support for the Discord platform, stating that it is useful for real-time communication and for seeing what others are working on. However, they criticize the lack of documentation for certain products and the over-reliance on Discord for support. They suggest that developers should prioritize creating comprehensive documentation for their products instead of relying solely on Discord for support. The author also notes a generational divide in terms of how people prefer to access information, with younger generations favoring more interactive methods of communication.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article warns startups against pushing everything, including support, to Discord as it creates an awful experience for users/customers. The reason being it takes a lot of time to figure out the channel structure and where to post and to search for existing solutions. Moreover, there is no guarantee whether someone will answer. The article advises startups to reconsider moving everything to Discord as it will not be a good experience for some of their users.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is criticizing the negative knee-jerk reaction of some commenters on Hacker News who did not read the article about Watchy and instead vented about the old days of mailing lists and half-assed documentation. The comment recommends Watchy’s documentation as a good starting point for the project, including architectural diagrams and code examples for common use cases. However, the comment notes that Watchy is a niche product, so there may not be many articles or projects related to it. The commenter wishes there were BBS forums in addition to Discord for chatting with people interested in Watchy.
4. Lets-Plot: An open-source plotting library for statistical data
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
The article is introducing the Lets-Plot data visualization library for Python, which is largely based on the API provided by the ggplot2 package in R. It includes features such as customizable tooltips, support for formatting numeric and date-time values, geospatial visualization, and export to various file formats. The library also has a Kotlin API for data visualization in JVM and Kotlin/JS applications and can work in computational notebooks and professional IDEs. It supports sampling to deal with large datasets and overplotting, and has the ability to generate interactive maps with vector or raster basemaps. Additionally, Lets-Plot can operate in a ’no javascript’ mode and work offline.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a new data visualization library called Let’s-Plot, which is based on a ggplot2-like grammar-of-graphics language. The author provides links to examples of data plots and distribution plots, which they describe as looking pretty nice. The author also asks how Let’s-Plot compares to the ggplot2-like library, plotnine, in Python.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the downside of using ggplot-alikes in other languages because they lack the vast number of add-on libraries available for the original in R. The author prefers to do data crunching in Python and then export to R for graphics as they feel that the statistics crowd appreciates graphics more and has spent more time getting them perfect. They also mentioned that Copilot helps with R-based ggplot semantics and options because it has so much to learn from, which may not be true for the subtle differences in the ggplot clones.
5. How I run my servers (2022)
Total comment counts : 37
Summary
The author describes how they run most of the servers they operate, which mostly involves running server software that they have written themselves. They use DigitalOcean VMs, which run Debian 10, and the server software is written in Rust. Deployment only requires copying a single file to the server, and the author uses systemd to ensure that the binary starts when the server is started. Their programs that require a database use SQLite, and they have two redundant backup solutions. All of their servers run behind nginx, which can do TLS termination. The author notes that their setup provides a simple and extremely robust solution for their needs.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article favors HTTP triggered cloud functions, which they believe can simplify complexity and are a natural interface for coding. The author has had a 100% success rate in over 2000 deploys and finds the performance fantastic. They also mention that per-request billing, which was once an ideological challenge, is no longer a problem. While some may worry about lock-in, the author argues that HTTP triggers are a vendor-specific aspect, and with care, it is possible to refactor solutions for another vendor in a week or so.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article talks about using systemd’s DynamicUser feature to save time in providing isolation for each service by allocating a uid and creating directories with correct permissions for logs/state.
6. WormGPT – The Generative AI Tool Cybercriminals Are Using
Total comment counts : 14
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article claims that a website called ChatGPT is helping cybercriminals improve the grammar of their phishing emails. It also suggests that the site may be selling a model trained on malware to aid in malware development. However, the author concludes that the site is of poor quality and offers no real value.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article dismisses the relevance of “WormGPT,” a recent topic on Twitter about an AI tool, calling it a “nothing burger” with bad output examples. The author believes that Hackforums, where the tool is being sold, is a site for inexperienced hackers who don’t train their own AI. The author suggests that abilities of GPT3 and even future versions like GPT4 can already do most of what an AI tool on Hackforums claims to do. The author suspects that many of the tools sold on Hackforums are just front-ends for GPT3 or open-source language models.
7. Who employs your doctor? Increasingly, a private equity firm
Total comment counts : 33
Summary
The article is asking the reader to enable JavaScript and disable any ad blocker that might prevent the article from being displayed properly. It does not provide any additional information or content beyond this request.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The private equity industry has found a way to legally profit without adding value to society. Once a dividend can cover the cost of the initial purchase, the PE firm can saddle the company with debt, with any eventual losses borne by employees and customers, while still benefiting financially if the firm does well. Some argue that everyone benefits from this arrangement, but many believe they are worse off.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a study that shows that private equity (PE) ownership in healthcare can increase short-term mortality rates of Medicare patients by 10%, leading to 20,150 lost lives over 12 years. The negative effects also include diminished patient well-being and an 11% increase in taxpayer spending per patient episode. The study found that operational changes, such as reduced nursing staff and compliance with standards, contributed to these negative outcomes.
8. How does Sonic and Knuckles’ “Lock-On Technology” work? (2016)
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
The article discusses the technology behind the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge for the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in the US), which allowed players to connect other cartridges to it and unlock new game features. The article explains that the cartridge used “lock-on technology” to connect with other games, and this was achieved through memory bank switching and chip enable lines. The article also provides a detailed schematic of the electronics and explains how the various chips and decoders work together to enable the lock-on technology.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article describes how a signal is generated on the ROM’s D0 line when Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is detected. However, this only happens when there is a clock signal as the input to the flip flop. The clock signal is connected to cartridge pin B31, which is labeled as “TIME” and is used for programming on-cart memory mappers. When certain addresses are written, the Genesis flickers that pin, which is useful for controlling an extra chip.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of this article is surprised to find that an answer they wrote seven years ago has made it to HN. They admit to not being knowledgeable about electronics and had wished for a professional to comment on their analysis of the circuit.
9. Nobody cares about your blog
Total comment counts : 75
Summary
The author reflects on their experience of blogging and lists reasons for why people may not care about blogs. However, the author concludes that it doesn’t matter if others don’t care about your blog and provides reasons for why you should care about it. The author hesitates to publish the post but ultimately decides to not care about what others think and publishes it anyway.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the blog believes that their blog is different from others as it provides useful information and documentation that they wished existed before. They argue against the common criticisms of blogging, including not being an expert in the field and being perceived as stupid, and state that the only real criticism they receive is from those who do not provide constructive feedback. Overall, the author believes that their blog is valuable and appreciated by their friends, recruiters, and hiring managers.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article argues against the idea that publishing in a blog means one is not an expert in their field. It suggests that sometimes blogs or self-publishing are the only ways to share important information, such as in the field of computer security. While academic journals may not publish works on security mitigation defeats, blogs detailing how they work and how they can be defeated can be valuable to researchers, mitigation developers, and software professionals. The author provides examples of such blog posts that provide valuable information despite not being published in academic journals.
10. Dril is everyone. More specifically, he’s a guy named Paul
Total comment counts : 21
Summary
Paul Dochney, the man behind the popular Twitter account Dril, is emerging from anonymity after almost 15 years. Though he has started doing interviews and maintained a Patreon campaign, he has struggled to connect his online success to more traditional entertainment formats. Dril’s popularity has grown even as his posts remain nonsensical and absurd, with some becoming part of the permanent online lexicon. Dochney does not consider himself a social media influencer or meme creator, and instead views himself more as a writer who enjoys the creative freedom of using Twitter to post his thoughts.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The satirical Twitter account dril, known for its absurd and surreal humor, has revealed the name behind the account following a doxxing incident. While acknowledging that his name was now widely known, the creator of dril pointed out that the focus should be on the jokes and humor he produces rather than on his real-life persona. Despite the unmasking of his identity, the dril persona remains intact and continues to produce his trademark brand of surreal tweets.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author disagrees with the notion that Elon Musk should be commended for trying to get a certain website removed.