1. I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
Total comment counts : 66
Summary
The article states that in order to continue using twitter.com, users must switch to a supported browser. The supported browsers can be found in the Help Center. The article also mentions the terms of service, privacy policy, cookie policy, and imprint information. It is dated 2024 and is attributed to X Corp.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a set of chess pieces called “Visual Chess,” which can still be found on eBay. These pieces were designed in a traditional style but with a modernized touch in the 1960s. The top view of the pieces provided indications of their allowed moves. The pawns also had a design that clearly indicated their movement of one square forward or attacking on the diagonal. The article includes image links to showcase these examples.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a surprising observation made on Twitter, which states that the knight’s moves in chess correspond exactly to the squares that the queen cannot reach within a 2-square Manhattan distance. In other words, the knight can be considered an “anti-queen.” The article provides a link to the tweet for reference.
2. Portable EPUBs
Total comment counts : 39
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The author questions the value of EPUB readers compared to browsers, suggesting that the main difference is that EPUB readers can treat EPUB files as directories. They propose enabling browsers to handle ZIP files like directories and introducing a machine-checkable restriction on HTML to ensure fully local assets. Ultimately, they argue for abandoning EPUB readers altogether in favor of this approach.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the importance of having a single-file, portable ebook format that allows for text reflow. The author suggests that HTML + CSS is capable of reproducing any kind of printed medium while also allowing for text reflow. They also express their view that JavaScript (JS) should not be a requirement for ebooks, but can be used for interactivity and augmentation if desired. The author proposes that ebooks should work as intended even with JS disabled, and that the styling and resources should be separated to comply with stricter security policies. They suggest distributing ebooks in a zip file format, similar to current practices.
3. Edsger Dijkstra carried computer science on his shoulders (2020)
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the writing style of computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra, who wrote at a slow pace of about three words per minute. He believed that writing and thinking were intertwined, and he aimed to produce the final version of his work from the beginning. Dijkstra never owned a computer or used one for word processing, preferring to rely on pen and paper. Additionally, he avoided modern technology such as televisions and mobile phones, but enjoyed attending classical music concerts. The author finds Dijkstra’s approach fascinating and plans on trying it themselves. A link to an interview with Dijkstra is provided.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s experience as a grad student in Austin in the 1990s when famous computer scientist Dijkstra would attend department-wide talks. The author mentions that there was excitement among the students as they anticipated Dijkstra asking unexpected questions, which often led to entertaining results. The talks would attract a large audience and included free cookies.
4. Smoother sailing: Studying audio imperfections in Steamboat Willie
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The article discusses the distorted sound in the soundtrack of the cartoon “Steamboat Willie,” which is one of the earliest cartoons with synchronized sound. The author explores the phenomenon of flutter distortion and attempts to find a solution to reduce it. They discuss using professional tools and their own home-made solution for un-fluttering the audio. The author also mentions the importance of preserving high-quality digital files of historical soundtracks and the challenges of interference from compression artifacts. They analyze the spectrogram of the soundtrack and quantify the variations in frequency caused by flutter. The author describes a software tool they created to manually annotate and analyze the speed variations in different sounds of the movie.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author is curious if multiple prints of an older film can be combined using modern machine learning or computational statistics to enhance restoration efforts. They believe that unsupervised methods in film and audio restoration are not widely used, but they admit to having limited knowledge in this area.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article describes an experiment where the soundtrack of a movie frame is read while the frame is physically stopped. The author initially wondered how this was possible, but then realized that the soundtrack of one frame is stored in another frame, which is far enough away to have constant velocity.
5. I don’t always use LaTeX, but when I do, I compile to HTML (2013)
Total comment counts : 30
Summary
The article encourages the use of HTML as the primary output format for mathematical and scientific content instead of relying on PDFs. It suggests using tools like LaTeXML, MathJax, xyjax, mathapedia, and Sage cell server to convert LaTeX documents into HTML. The author emphasizes the importance of contributing feedback to improve these tools and highlights various editing environments that support MathJax integration. The article concludes by urging readers to compile their work into HTML and provide feedback to help advance math on the web.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a tool called lwarp, which converts LaTeX documents to HTML. The tool works by redefining macros in LaTeX to output HTML code, allowing the compilation of LaTeX to generate PDF text that can be extracted into an HTML file. This approach is advantageous because it can handle custom macros and other complexities in LaTeX documents. The author uses lwarp to create an HTML version of the TikZ manual, a complex LaTeX document.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the benefits of using Sphinx and reStructuredText for document building. It highlights their ability to integrate with Zotero and manage bibtex files, as well as their capability to generate HTML files, latex PDFs, and epubs easily. The article also mentions the strong support for latex-math and various integrations with tools like mermaid and graphviz. It emphasizes that Sphinx and reStructuredText are simpler and easier to use than pure LaTeX. Additionally, it mentions the possibility of integrating a requirements management system using Sphinx-needs.
6. Are we at peak vector database?
Total comment counts : 33
Summary
The author questions the need for so many vector databases in the current AI era. They wonder if there are enough choices for storing and retrieving vectors. While there are only a few options in other data storage categories, there are dozens of options for vector search. However, the author believes that the challenges of real-world retrieval extend beyond just getting vectors. They include intent classification, inference and reranking, diversity, and lexical retrieval. The author argues that there needs to be a dedicated focus on rethinking retrieval problems, similar to how NoSQL forced a rethink of databases. They predict that more surfaces will be driven by retrieval systems, and the money and effort will flow towards solving the array of problems in this area. In the end, the author suggests that we may end up with new search engines that have more AI/Chat/RAG experiences incorporated into them, similar to SQL incorporating innovations from NoSQL.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author believes that the use of cosine-similarity-search as a service is no longer at its peak and that most people in the field no longer use specialized vector databases for that purpose. The author suggests that a more interesting and longer-lasting product would involve fine-tuning open-source software (OSS) embedding models based on real-world query patterns, as well as storing and recomputing embeddings for data when updating the fine-tuned models. The author argues that average results are not commonly used, as most use cases require specialization such as classification, clustering, or retrieval. The author believes that fine-tuning on specific use cases would outperform general-purpose models, especially with a customized dataset. The author also emphasizes the need for storage and management when regularly fine-tuning new models, as embeddings would need to be recomputed with each deployment. The author expresses willingness to pay for a service that simplifies these processes.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article argues that various types of databases, such as object databases, OLAP, key-value, graph databases, and more, have all been absorbed into traditional relational databases over time. The author believes that this pattern will continue, as traditional databases are constantly evolving and adapting to incorporate new features and advancements. The article suggests that commercial databases, like Oracle, are dominant in the market because they offer a wide range of capabilities and are able to absorb new technologies. Overall, the author believes that it is difficult for smaller, specialized databases to compete in the long term with traditional databases.
7. Oasis – a small, statically-linked Linux system
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
The article discusses the importance of user feedback and how it is taken seriously. It also mentions the availability of qualifiers for reference in the documentation. Additionally, it mentions the development of a small statically-linked Linux system.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s experience with a system that works well and a supportive community on IRC. They mention their plan to build oasis with bazel for immutable OS images to be used as kubernetes nodes, and they were successful with some assistance.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article being referred to is not provided in the input. Could you please provide the article or give more information about it so that I can summarize it for you?
8. ArVid: Russians squeezed 4 hard drives into one VHS tape in the 90s
Total comment counts : 29
Summary
In 1995, post-Soviet Russia faced economic challenges such as high prices and payment in unconventional forms. However, the country also experienced an influx of Western technology, including computers and modems. With limited storage space on their computers, Russians sought affordable solutions. One option was using floppy disks, but they had low storage capacity and were prone to data loss. Another option was purchasing another hard drive, but it was expensive. A local computer store owner named Yevgeni introduced a Russian-made product called the “ArVid” card. This ISA expansion card allowed users to store a large amount of data on a VHS tape using a home VCR. The package included the ArVid ISA Card, floppy disks with software and documentation, and a custom cable for connecting the computer to the VCR. To control the VCR, users needed to teach the ArVid card the infrared remote-control signals of the VCR. It took several hours to complete the setup. Once everything was set up, users could select files using a file navigation program and write them to tape by converting the data into a video signal.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author discusses their experience using a custom file navigation program similar to “Norton Commander.” They mention a faster alternative called “Volkov Commander” and the memory of uploading it to SIMTEL in 1993. The operator complained about pirating Norton Commander, leading to the author getting booted from a VAX mainframe. Despite this incident, it sparked their interest in social engineering, and they eventually started using Unix and Linux, finding them more useful than VAX/VMS.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The sample rate of music is mostly distributed in 44.1 kHz, which comes from the amount of data that could be stored on a video tape. This rate is based on the line count and frame rate of analog TV standards.
9. Capturing the ripples of spacetime: LISA gets go-ahead
Total comment counts : 6
Summary
The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, which aims to detect and study gravitational waves from space. LISA will consist of a constellation of three spacecraft that will form an equilateral triangle in space and exchange laser beams over a distance of 2.5 million kilometers. The spacecraft will be launched in 2035 and will detect gravitational waves caused by events such as supernova explosions and the merging of black holes. LISA will also study the origins of massive black holes, the evolution of galaxies, and the structure of the Milky Way. The mission is expected to offer new insights into the early moments after the Big Bang and help measure the expansion of the universe. The spacecraft will use laser interferometry to track tiny changes in the distances between solid test masses within each spacecraft. LISA is the third large mission of ESA’s Cosmic Vision and will complement other astrophysics missions in observing the cosmos.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article asks how the power requirements for scale lasers, detectors, and transmissions on satellites are met, given the large amount of data that needs to be constantly sent back to Earth. The author also wonders how the test masses remain in free fall while the satellites undergo course corrections, and whether these corrections cause any downtime.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a fascinating project that involves gravitational astronomy, highlighting the impressive level of precision required for this field of study.
10. Ruby on Rails load testing habits
Total comment counts : 8
Summary
The article discusses load testing techniques acquired over 10 years of experience. The author emphasizes the importance of load testing on servers, not development machines, to discover bottlenecks and handle traffic peaks. The article suggests using a separate machine close to the application servers to run the load tests and avoid network latency. The author recommends tools such as ApacheBench, Siege, and Typhoeus for conducting load tests. The goal is to ensure zero failed requests and check the requests per second to compare optimization improvements. The author also introduces a gem called web_tsunami to simplify script writing for custom scenarios.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article provides tips for load testing web services. It advises keeping an eye on memory, disk, and network usage, as load tests may fail to saturate the CPU if another resource is limited. The article also emphasizes the importance of load testing all the dependencies of a service, such as the database, caching tier, and external services, and suggests communicating with other teams involved. Real-world traffic is considered superior to synthetic tools, as it generates longer-lasting connections with random and sporadic requests. Load testing can also involve shifting traffic to a specific host to identify potential failures under peak load. Lastly, the article recommends conducting load testing on a regular schedule, considering changes in the codebase and dependencies.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the importance of applications being able to fully utilize the CPU. The author states that if an application cannot efficiently use the CPU, it is a problem that hinders server scalability and wastes money on hosting costs. The author also mentions that using Ruby on Rails (RoR) may contribute to CPU saturation.