1. Touch Pianist
Total comment counts : 81
Summary
The article is promoting a mobile app that allows users to engage in a tactile expression of art. The app is available for free on both Android and iOS platforms.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discussed a post on Hacker News from several years ago that had resurfaced. The author expressed gratitude for finding the post again after being unable to locate it for a long time. They mentioned getting chills while playing through the content and found it awesome that it was still accessible online. The author also provided links to the original discussion on Hacker News and a Reddit post from the same time.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article highlights the importance of tempo and legato in creating the appropriate mood for a musical piece, specifically referencing Beethoven. It emphasizes that the way in which these elements are executed can greatly influence the interpretation of the music.
2. Chrome now tracks users and shares a “topic” list with advertisers
Total comment counts : 49
Summary
Google’s “Privacy Sandbox,” an ad platform that tracks web pages visited and generates a list of advertising topics to share with web pages, is receiving a widespread rollout in Chrome. This feature, previously known as “FLoC” and the “Topics API,” has faced opposition but is being implemented by Google. The ad platform launch announcement is not as prominently featured as Chrome’s recent redesign. Google justifies the platform as an alternative tracking solution, claiming that some form of tracking is necessary. Users can find controls for this feature in Chrome’s settings. Google plans to block third-party cookies in 2024. The article questions whether users wanted a user-tracking and ad platform directly integrated into their browser and speculates that users are unlikely to switch to Firefox as a result.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article provides two options to fix a problem. The first option suggests going to the URL “chrome://settings/adPrivacy” and turning off the toggles on three subpages. The second option suggests visiting the URL “https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/" to permanently fix the problem.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article highlights several problems with the Privacy Sandbox project. Firstly, it points out that Privacy Sandbox is a project consisting of multiple proposals, so presenting it as a cohesive product is misleading. Additionally, the article clarifies that FLoC and Topics are separate components within the Privacy Sandbox project. The article also argues that Topics can essentially be achieved through third-party cookies, although it acknowledges that the proposal has some issues and may not provide the level of privacy protection that Google claims. Overall, the article disputes the notion that the Privacy Sandbox project is making Chrome less privacy-preserving.
3. Bun v1.0.0
Total comment counts : 70
Summary
Bun 1.0 is a JavaScript and TypeScript toolkit that aims to simplify and speed up the development process. It eliminates the need for multiple tools by providing a single integrated toolkit. Bun can replace Node.js, transpilers, bundlers, package managers, and testing libraries. It is compatible with existing Node.js applications and npm packages. Bun is faster than Node.js, starting up to 4x faster and loading files up to 10x faster. It supports both CommonJS and ES modules, and it has built-in support for Web standard APIs, such as fetch and WebSocket. Bun’s built-in package manager is significantly faster than npm, yarn, and pnpm. It also includes a testing module that is fully Jest-compatible and performs faster than Jest and Vitest. Bun can be used as a bundler and minifier, with speeds faster than esbuild, Parcel 2, Rollup + Terser, and Webpack. It introduces JavaScript macros, which allow JavaScript functions to run at bundle-time. Bun is available for macOS, Linux, and Windows (experimental build). The Bun team is actively improving support for Windows. Overall, Bun aims to make the development process faster, less complex, and more enjoyable.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a software called “Bun” and suggests that the mods change the link to a blog post that provides better explanation than the GitHub release page. The blog post can be found at “https://bun.sh/blog/bun-v1.0".
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the challenges and slow progress in transitioning from CommonJS to ES modules in the Node.js ecosystem. It introduces Bun, a tool that supports both module systems and eliminates the need to worry about file extensions or package.json configurations. The article highlights the ability of Bun to seamlessly use both import and require() in the same file, which could potentially save the broken Node.js ecosystem. The author also praises the pragmatic and developer-friendly choices made by Jarred, the creator of Bun.
4. China’s ancient water pipe networks show no evidence of a centralized authority
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the discovery of a network of ceramic water pipes and drainage ditches at the Chinese walled site of Pingliangtai. The site is estimated to date back 4,000 years to the Longshan period. The presence of these structures indicates that the skills and social organization necessary for large-scale infrastructure construction existed at the time. This challenges the earlier belief that only centralized state power with governing elites could build complex water management systems. The author suggests that this belief may have been influenced by social biases and the interests of the elite.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses an issue regarding the lack of evidence for a centralized communal planning in a town. Despite excavations at the town’s cemetery not revealing any evidence of a social hierarchy in burials, which is different from nearby towns, the author suggests that there may have been a different social hierarchy structure that didn’t leave much of a trace.
5. What’s new in Emacs 29.1
Total comment counts : 21
Summary
Emacs 29.1 has been released, and it introduces several new features. One major highlight is the inclusion of Tree-sitter, a library that parses text into a concrete syntax tree, improving font locking, indentation, and extracting meaning from code. EGlot, a leaner complement to LSP-mode, is now built into Emacs, making it easier to get started with. Use-package, a declarative configuration tool, is now built in as well. There have been improvements to long line handling and performance with the addition of SQLite support. Native compilation has also been enhanced, and there are updates to various features such as image support, scrolling, font locking, completion, and more. Several obsolete packages and modes have been removed, and there are updates to key bindings, menus, file operations, and testing frameworks. Additionally, there are improvements to emoji support, composition keys, and transient support.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author has created a starter kit called “Emacs bedrock” that utilizes the built-in features of Emacs 29.1. The kit includes tweaks for completion, project management, language, server, and more. The author shares the link to the starter kit and welcomes feedback and suggestions from users.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses the author’s experience trying out Emacs for a couple of days after using Vim and Jetbrains for years. They mention that configuring Emacs is surprisingly easy to read, even though they hadn’t seen Lisp in 10 years. One complaint they have is that many keybindings start with “”, but this can be easily changed. The author also notes that the Emacs ecosystem is primarily Unix-focused, and as a Windows user, they found that certain features like Magit, eshell, and the default spellchecker didn’t work well or were slow. They briefly mention their hesitation to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) due to performance issues. In the end, the author suggests turning on the which-key feature and installing the helpful-key software for those interested in trying out Emacs.
6. How Query Engines Work
Total comment counts : 12
Summary
The author expresses gratitude to their family for supporting them during the creation of the book. They specifically mention Matthew Powers as having inspired them to write the book. The author also thanks those who interacted with them while working on the DataFusion project, specifically mentioning the Apache Arrow PMC, committers, and contributors. Lastly, they express appreciation for the support and encouragement of Chris George and Joe Buszkiewic while working at RMS. The book is available for purchase in ePub, MOBI, and PDF formats.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article recommends a work-in-progress book titled “Building Query Compilers” for those interested in a more academic perspective. The book provides information on the topic and can be accessed via the provided link.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a distributed query engine called Quokka, which has been found to outperform Spark. Quokka schedules distributed queries and is considered to be particularly interesting and applicable in this regard. For more information, you can refer to the link provided: https://github.com/marsupialtail/quokka/blob/master/blog/why.md.
7. Maybe Rust isn’t a good tool for massively concurrent, userspace software
Total comment counts : 62
Summary
The article discusses the concept of async Rust and its purpose. It explains that async Rust is designed to solve two main problems: using multiple cores to maximize performance and performing tasks while waiting for slow operations to complete. The article explores the differences between parallelism and concurrency and discusses various approaches to building concurrent systems, such as using threads or channels. It highlights the challenges and trade-offs of using async Rust, including the need for explicit handling of lifetimes and the potential complexity of the code. The article also compares async Rust to other languages that provide built-in support for concurrency. Overall, it suggests that async Rust may not be the best choice for massively concurrent, userspace software, but can still be useful in many other projects.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author discusses their experience developing a high-performance metaverse client in Rust. They highlight the challenges of dealing with a large amount of data in real-time and the need for parallelism. They explain the use of threads, locking mechanisms, and reference counting in their code. The author praises Rust’s memory safety and low occurrence of crashes compared to C++, but also mentions some complaints about the language, such as the lack of a deadlock analyzer and issues with async programming. They also highlight the incomplete state of the core graphics crates in Rust and the limited presence of serious game development in the language. The article includes a demo video of their metaverse client and provides links for further information.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author discusses their perspective on using asynchronous programming in Rust. They mention that using shared state, such as Arc, RwLock, can become messy and cause issues with borrowing lifetimes. However, they also point out that Rust has channels, which allow for communication through messages. The author prefers using channels instead of sharing objects, as it simplifies their code. They express confusion as to why there are many articles discussing using Arc and dealing with lifetimes, as they believe these concepts are more relevant to those implementing the async runtime rather than average library users.
8. Are any words the same in all languages?
Total comment counts : 87
Summary
The article discusses whether there are any words that all languages have in common. The author mentions that while grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary can vary greatly across languages, there are a few words that have made it into nearly every language. These words include terms for tea, pineapple, orange, taxi, coffee, and chocolate. The author explains the origins and variations of these words in different languages, highlighting how they have been adopted and adapted over time. However, it is noted that there may be exceptions to these patterns that are not yet known. Overall, it is interesting to see the shared words across unrelated languages.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses loan words and explores the similarities and variations of the words for “mama” and “papa” in different languages. It suggests that these words are often similar across languages, indicating their importance and early origin. The article also mentions the possibility of certain words being among the first human words, but acknowledges that it is difficult to confirm.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article suggests that it would be more helpful for students learning foreign languages if they were taught about the common origin and interconnectedness of European languages. It explains that most European languages are actually dialects of a common language, and that many words in different languages have similar pronunciations and origins. The article also mentions that it is possible to trace the evolution of words and grammar rules from the ancient proto-language to their modern form. Overall, understanding the linguistic connections between languages could enhance the study of foreign languages.
9. Animations From First Principles (in 5 minutes)
Total comment counts : 9
Summary
This article provides a tutorial on creating animations using Python and pygame. The tutorial starts by explaining how to draw a circle on a canvas using a parametrization of the circle. The process involves drawing tiny points at different positions on the screen. The next step is animating the drawing of a circle by creating segments and controlling the framerate. The tutorial then shows how to animate other shapes like a figure eight. Additionally, the article introduces morphing between two figures by drawing a complete figure in each frame. The morphing is achieved by interpolating the points of the two figures. The article suggests adding color to the animations by creating a gradient along the drawing or morphing. Finally, it explains how to save the frames as images and use ffmpeg to turn them into a video.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article suggests two improvements for a presentation on polar coordinates in computer graphics. First, it proposes explaining polar coordinates or not assuming prior knowledge on the subject. Second, it suggests clarifying the positioning of points by either addressing the origin’s placement or discussing translation as a concept. The user also mentions their own take on the topic, which can be found at a provided link and covers parametric curves in-depth.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the twelve basic principles of animation. It emphasizes that these principles should not be confused with “the twelve,” which is a term used to refer to Jesus’ twelve disciples. The article provides a link to the Wikipedia page where these animation principles are explained in detail.
10. Aardvark’d: The Fog Creek documentary, 18 years later
Total comment counts : 24
Summary
The article discusses a 2005 documentary called Aardvark’d: 12 Weeks with Geeks, which followed four college interns at Joel Spolsky’s software company, Fog Creek, as they developed a new software product. The documentary features interviews with individuals who would go on to achieve fame and success in the tech industry, such as Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, and the co-founders of Reddit. The article also discusses the challenges and relatable moments faced by the interns during the development process. It notes that while the documentary has not gained much attention, it is still worth watching, especially for fans of Spolsky, Graham, and Aaron Swartz. Additionally, the article mentions that Fog Creek later released a video course called Make Better Software, which showcases the implementation of Spolsky’s software philosophies. Both the documentary and the video course are available for free on YouTube.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is about the author, Benjamin Pollack, who provides two small corrections to a scene in the movie. In the first correction, he explains that a coworker was actually swearing on camera because of a technical issue with a precompiled header, and it would have been a better take if he had cursed while the main character was talking about her birthday. In the second correction, Benjamin states that he has worked at several smaller companies, contrary to the summary of his career in the article. Overall, Benjamin enjoyed the article and offers to answer any questions about the movie or his time at Fog Creek.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the trajectory of Joel and his company, highlighting the author’s fascination with it. Despite Joel’s wisdom, the article claims that he made strange decisions, such as the premise of hiring great programmers and expecting great software to appear. However, Stack Overflow unexpectedly emerged and overshadowed their other ventures. The article concludes by emphasizing the beauty of this unpredictable outcome.