1. Don’t waste money on a math coprocessor they said
Total comment counts : 24
Summary
The author of the article discusses their experience with OS/2 6.123 on their PS/2 model 80. They found that the OS was unstable when running certain MS-DOS based games and would often crash with error messages. They attempted to run an old game called BattleTech but had no success. They suspected that their system was lacking a math coprocessor, which could be the reason for the instability. They obtained a math coprocessor and installed it, and found that the system became much more stable and the game ran without any issues. The author also notes that they observed an odd string during crashes and speculates on its meaning.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s father’s desire to have a computer for computer-aided design (CAD) work. They needed a 387 processor in addition to the 386. The 387 was only produced by Intel, so the cheaper and faster 40MHz AMD processor did not have a corresponding floating point unit (FPU). To work around this, the author’s father had a PC assembled with a 40MHz AMD 386 and a 20MHz Intel 387. The system functioned properly as long as the “Turbo” button was pressed to slow down the 386 to 20MHz when using the CAD software. The rest of the software worked fine at 40MHz.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article expresses frustration over not being able to understand why a particular game would not run. It seems that the game had difficulty accessing the hard disk drive, and the author questions why a math coprocessor would be necessary for a DOS game running under OS/2. The author then shares a personal experience of not having a math coprocessor from 1992 to 1997, but realizing that it was needed when attempting to run the Quake demo, which required a floating-point unit.
2. Lessons I wish I had learned before teaching differential equations [pdf] (1997)
Total comment counts : 27
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
This article recommends a tutorial that provides an intuitive introduction to differential equations (DEs). The tutorial starts from scratch, explaining the physical significance of DEs and covering one or two traditional methods before moving on to numerical methods. The article highly recommends this tutorial for anyone looking to learn about DEs, as it provides a clear explanation of the concepts behind them. However, it notes that the tutorial is not comprehensive and won’t prepare the reader for a full course on DEs.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author discusses the difficulty they faced in understanding abstract math concepts, such as Fourier transforms. They found that practical examples, like audio signal analysis, helped them comprehend these concepts. The author suggests that universities focus on abstract and rigorous math, which may exclude practical examples. When teaching, they emphasize finding connections to concepts the student already knows, which helps them grasp the new topic. The author concludes by stating that teaching requires human interaction and cannot be replaced by textbooks or mass lectures.
3. Beg Bounties (2021)
Total comment counts : 25
Summary
The article discusses the issue of companies not responding to disclosure notices about data breaches. The author shares their own experience of trying to contact a company, CloudPets, regarding a data breach but receiving no response. The author also discusses the reasons why companies may be hesitant to respond, including the presence of individuals who try to exploit such situations for financial gain. The article then delves into the concept of “beg bounties,” where individuals request a reward for reporting vulnerability in websites without a bug bounty program. The author emphasizes the importance of responsible and knowledgeable reporting of vulnerabilities. The article concludes with an example of an interaction with someone seeking a beg bounty and the author expressing their dislike for such requests.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author recalls discovering a significant security vulnerability in a website during their teenage years. The flaw allowed any PHP file, including remote ones, to be included as a query string parameter. Despite informing the website owners about the issue, they were ignored, which the author found offensive. To make their point, they exploited the flaw to gain access to the website and leave a message on their FTP server. No data was destroyed or stolen. The website owners responded by involving the police.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article questions the need to criticize bug bounty hunters, emphasizing that they often come from developing countries and the payouts they receive can be significant for them. The author suggests that since there is an endless supply of bounty hunters, it is better to focus on how to respond to them instead of publicly attacking them. The article emphasizes that such criticism does not affect the hunters but may negatively impact the critic’s well-being.
4. Ship Shape
Total comment counts : 16
Summary
Canva has developed a tool called Shape Assist that uses machine learning to improve hand-drawn shapes in their design software. The tool is deployed in the browser, allowing for real-time shape recognition and drawing assistance. This enhances the user experience by providing immediate feedback and eliminating the need for continuous internet connectivity. Initially, Canva used computer vision heuristics to identify shapes, but limitations led them to switch to an ML model. The ML model was trained using a large dataset of user-drawn shapes and deployed in the browser to accurately identify shapes drawn by different users. Canva collected diverse drawing data from users to create a dataset that improved the model’s ability to generalize. The Shape Assist tool has been well-received by users.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article highlights a simple and elegant gesture recognition algorithm called the “$1 unistroke recognizer” as an alternative to the RNN (Recurrent Neural Network). The author believes that the $1 unistroke recognizer is more suitable for the problem at hand and can work effectively even with just a single sample of each gesture. The author hopes that this algorithm will receive more recognition and be integrated into projects to enhance gesture recognition and improve user interfaces. The $1 unistroke recognizer is particularly reliable for palm-style “Graffiti” text entry when each letter is a single stroke. The original paper on the algorithm is praised for its readability and understanding. A link to the original paper is provided for further information.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses the efforts of engineers from companies like ASML and TSMC to create smaller and more efficient computer chips using lasers. It also mentions how web developers work diligently to make their work seamless and unnoticeable to users.
5. Your small imprecise ask is a big waste of their time
Total comment counts : 51
Summary
The article discusses the importance of being precise when making requests within product and engineering teams to avoid unnecessary complications. It emphasizes that leaders should clearly communicate the amount of time they are asking for in order to prevent future headaches. The article also suggests following a social media account or subscribing via email for new content.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article highlights three important lessons learned by the author throughout their engineering career.
Firstly, it emphasizes the need for everyone to operate in good faith. This means avoiding making requests without proper consideration, like leaders who ask for something without much thought, or being overly rigid in following instructions, like employees who require precise syntax before taking action.
Secondly, the article emphasizes that as a manager or leader, there are no isolated or trivial requests. Every ask carries an implicit priority over other tasks, and it is essential to consider the overall system and environment. Failure to do so puts unnecessary pressure on the team to make difficult choices.
Lastly, when someone receives a request, they should help the requestor understand the requirements and eliminate any assumptions. Good communication and agreement on the expectations of the task are vital to ensure clarity and avoid misunderstandings.
Overall, the article stresses the importance of cooperation, open communication, and mutual support in requestor-requestee situations to improve efficiency and make work life more manageable.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the challenge engineers face when estimating the time required for certain tasks. When engineers are honest with non-engineers about the actual time needed, the non-engineers are often shocked and decline the request. On the other hand, if non-engineers limit the time investment to a short period, it is perceived as unrealistic by the engineers. This leads to a disconnect and affects productivity. Good engineering management involves keeping engineers away from individuals who may unknowingly distract them from their work.
6. MLPerf training tests put Nvidia ahead, Intel close, and Google well behind
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The MLPerf training tests have shown that Nvidia is leading in the benchmark for computer systems’ ability to train machine learning neural networks. They used their H100 GPUs and their new 10,752-GPU AI supercomputer called Eos. Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing arm and Intel also participated in the tests. Eos completed the training benchmark in just under 4 minutes, with Azure following closely behind. Intel used their Gaudi 2 accelerator chip and achieved a 103 percent reduction in time-to-train for a 384-accelerator cluster. They also showcased a 4-node Xeon system that could fine-tune an image generator in less than five minutes.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a recent press release from Google regarding a large training job, but it turns out that the job was actually a bandwidth test rather than training models. The author expresses disappointment with this and suggests that Google should focus on MLPerf, a benchmark for performance comparisons. The author also mentions their positive experience with TPUs and the improved state of TRC, a platform for accessing spare compute resources. Overall, the article highlights the importance of accurate training and suggests that Google should prioritize MLPerf and provide better support for TRC members.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses concerns about the MLPerf benchmark and whether it includes benchmarks for power consumption and cost per submission. The author questions the usefulness of comparing performance on a per-chip basis, emphasizing that for most people, the primary concerns are cost and availability. They mention Apple Silicon as an efficient platform for development and share their experience training models on their own M2 device, which they find cheaper than using cloud services.
7. RISC-V with Linux 6.7 Gains Optimized TLB Flushing, Software Shadow Call Stacks
Total comment counts : 4
Summary
The article discusses the importance of advertising in supporting the maintenance of the website Phoronix.com. The site has been active for over 19 years and strives to only display clean and relevant ads. The author, Michael Larabel, founded Phoronix.com in 2004 to enhance the Linux hardware experience. He has written thousands of articles covering Linux hardware support, performance, and graphics drivers. Phoronix Premium is offered as an ad-free subscription that provides additional features and supports the continued operation of the site. Readers are encouraged to show support by subscribing to Phoronix Premium, making PayPal tips, or contributing via Stripe. The article also includes legal disclaimers, privacy policies, and copyright information.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a lack of comments on a certain topic. The person who wrote the comment upvoted the topic because they thought it was important and interesting, but they admit to not understanding its meaning.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the availability of RISC-V laptops and whether these devices will be owned by individuals or by intelligence agencies.
8. HTML Web Components
Total comment counts : 39
Summary
The article explains the difference between React components and web components. It states that web components prioritize enhancement over replacement, while React components encourage a mindset of replacement. Web components have their own grain and can render before JavaScript, whereas React components cannot. The article introduces the concept of “HTML web components” which are composed of core content and enhanced with additional functionality, as opposed to “JavaScript web components” which rely exclusively on JavaScript. The author argues that an augmentative approach is more suitable for the web, as it allows for iterative changes that enhance the existing technology rather than replacing it entirely. The conclusion suggests that opting for augmentation and enhancement over replacement is a better technical approach for longevity in the web industry.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article raises several points about the use of the user-avatar component. They question its purpose and whether it simply contains styles or if it has other functionality. The author prefers the user-avatar component to have a src prop instead of requiring an img tag to be added everywhere it is used. The author also discusses the approaches of Vue, React, and Angular, stating that they build on top of HTML, CSS, and JS instead of trying to replace them. The author mentions the limitations of Web Components and expresses that they are not as helpful for building web apps compared to the frameworks. Additionally, the author critiques alternatives to the major frameworks, stating that they feel like minor improvements over jQuery and friends, which the author sees as a step backwards for web app development.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concept of “HTML Web Components” or custom elements, with the author sharing their journey of understanding and working with these components. The author suggests that these components need a catchy name to attract more people to use them. Another article provides a suggestion for the catchy name.
9. Ruby on Rails: The Documentary [video]
Total comment counts : 24
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a documentary that the author enjoyed watching. They highlight the personal story of Toby from Shopify and mention that he talked about how all Rails applications have a similar structure, whether they are large or small. The author also mentions some recent developments in Rails, such as Kamal, Solid Cache, Solid Queue, Turbo (Morphing), Turbo Native, and Strada. They state that they have already upgraded to version 7.1 and have a mobile app built with Turbo Native in production. They are also excited to replace their Redis cache with Solid Cache. The author comments on the strong sense of community within the Rails community.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article mentions having experimented with various frameworks in the past, such as Laravel, ExpressJS, MeteorJS, Django, and Flask, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of each. However, they state that they have struggled to successfully navigate these frameworks and have often given up. Three days ago, the author started using Rails and found it to be a highly efficient tool for quickly setting up a minimum viable product (MVP) to present to a coworker. Rails allowed the author to focus on the functionality of their app rather than the implementation process, leading them to understand why Rails is well-regarded by many.
10. Role play with large language models
Total comment counts : 9
Summary
The article discusses the challenge of describing the behavior of dialogue agents, which are becoming more human-like in their performance, without anthropomorphizing them. The concept of role play is proposed as a way to describe dialogue-agent behavior without ascribing human characteristics to them. The article also explores the fundamental differences between human language skills acquired through embodied interaction and the training of language models. The use of folk psychological language to describe dialogue agents can promote anthropomorphism, so alternative metaphors are suggested. Two metaphors are advocated: viewing dialogue agents as role-playing a single character or as a superposition of simulacra within a multiverse of possible characters. The article emphasizes the need to shift between multiple metaphors to effectively think about and talk about dialogue agents. The function and implementation of language models are also discussed, highlighting their ability to answer questions based on sequences of tokens drawn from a corpus of public text.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the benefits of learning and applying the basic rules of improv in order to improve scenes. The author believes that focusing solely on the outcomes of what is being said overlooks the importance of internal representations in improv. The author also mentions the development of a GPT specifically designed for playing improv, with a link provided for reference.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article highlights that using language that anthropomorphizes artificial intelligence (AI) systems can lead to misconceptions about their capabilities and differences from humans. The author questions the use of the term “role play” in this context, arguing that it does not accurately represent the function of AI systems such as language models (LLMs) and raises doubts about the role an LLM would play without additional contextual information.