1. S3 is files, but not a filesystem
Total comment counts : 43
Summary
The article discusses the differences between Amazon S3, a cloud filesystem, and the Unix file API. It explains that while S3 is often referred to as a filesystem, it is not a true filesystem and cannot replace one. The Unix file API is described as a “deep” module that handles a wide range of concerns with just five basic functions. In contrast, shallow modules have a larger API surface and may use YAML as an interface. The article highlights that S3’s API is simpler than the Unix file API but lacks the ability to overwrite partially, limiting its use for certain database applications. The combination of Amazon S3 and SQLite or DuckDB, while initially appealing, is not practical due to the limitations of S3’s overwrite functionality.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article claims that the durability of Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is industry-leading and superior to traditional file systems. The author highlights that the physical infrastructure and safety culture of S3 contribute to its reliability. In comparison to other cloud providers, AWS’s availability zone isolation is better, as it separates data to a greater extent. The author emphasizes the organization’s strong focus on data integrity and resilience, including measures like data checksums and precautions against natural disasters. The author concludes by stating their trust in S3 for storing critical data based on their experience as the writer of the S3 placement system.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article discusses the slow performance of listing files in Amazon S3 compared to the fast read and write speeds of the service. They mention that when working on a script to manage assets in S3, they found that recursively listing files took around fifteen minutes for their specific setup. The author tried various suggestions but couldn’t find a significant improvement in the speed. They question why Amazon has not addressed this issue and suggest that implementing B-trees on the individual buckets could be a potential solution. The author expresses curiosity about any possible challenges that could be causing the slow performance.
2. Bell Labs: An Institute of Creative Technology (2015)
Total comment counts : 13
Summary
This article discusses the book The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, which chronicles the research and development wing of AT&T from the 1920s to the 1980s. The Labs were responsible for numerous inventions and discoveries, including the transistor, satellites, cellular technology, information theory, quality control advancements, the Unix operating system, and the C programming language. The author highlights the value of studying the techniques and principles of innovation developed at Bell Labs, as they are still relevant today. The management of the Labs, particularly by director Mervin Kelly, focused on fostering cross-pollination of ideas through physical proximity and an open-door office policy. The Labs also prioritized basic research, which sought fundamental knowledge without immediate application. The importance of leadership is emphasized, similar to the book Where Wizards Stay Up Late, which examines the history of ARPANET. The article mentions the fearlessness and zest for life exhibited by the young recruits at Bell Labs, who faced the seemingly impossible challenges of solving “wicked problems.”
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article reflects on the progress made by Bell Labs in the 20th century and emphasizes the importance of utility-guided free research. The author expresses a desire to recreate a similar culture focused on energy systems with higher power and energy density, while being environmentally friendly. The article concludes by inviting others who share this vision to connect.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author expresses their fondness for the Bell Labs Technical Journal, which was formerly known as the AT&T Technical Journal. Although some of the content was not relevant to the author, they found the papers to contain interesting ideas that allowed them to think outside the box. The author mentions specific reports that captured their attention, such as those on AT&T switching evolution, software in large systems, improving on existing technologies, components for software fault tolerance and rejuvenation, as well as scientific reports on large-scale earth potentials across oceanic distances. Despite the passage of time, the author still has a collection of these papers that were once an inspiration and provided them with a glimpse into a different IT world.
3. Pipexec – Handling pipe of commands like a single command
Total comment counts : 14
Summary
The article discusses a tool called pipexec that allows users to handle pipes of commands as if they were a single command. It explains the use cases of pipexec, such as counting the number of lines containing a specific word in a text and creating a tree of processes. The article also mentions the limitations of running a pipe of programs from an /etc/init.d script and how pipexec can help overcome those limitations. Additionally, it provides instructions for installing and using pipexec.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article explains how to create extra file descriptor pipes using a bash-native method. The script uses the mkfifo command to create a pipe and then associates a file descriptor (in this case, 3) with the pipe using the exec command. After obtaining the file descriptor, the script immediately removes the filesystem path to the pipe. This ensures that the only reference to the pipe is from the script itself, and when the script ends, the kernel will automatically free the pipe. The article provides an example use case for this method.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses dgsh, the directed graph shell, which is a software tool that uses Unix domain sockets instead of pipes. Using domain sockets helps to avoid deadlocks compared to using pipes. The article also provides links to more information and examples of dgsh.
4. Tenstorrent unveils Grayskull, its RISC-V answer to GPUs
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
Tech firm Tenstorrent, led by chip architect Jim Keller, has launched its first hardware, the Grayskull-powered DevKits. Grayskull is a RISC-V alternative to GPUs that excels at handling run-time sparsity and conditional computation. The DevKits, e75 and e150, are inference-only hardware designed for AI development and come with TT-Buda and TT-Metalium software. Tenstorrent’s launch follows a partnership with Japan’s Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center to build a 2nm AI Accelerator. The DevKits support a range of models and are available for purchase at $599 and $799.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses two dev kits called Grayskull e75 and Grayskull e150. The e75 has 96 Tensix cores, a 1 GHz clock, 96 MB SRAM, and 8GB LPDDR4 memory, while the e150 has 120 Tensix cores, a 1.2 GHz clock, 120 MB SRAM, and 8GB LPDDR4 memory. The prices for the dev kits are $599 and $799 respectively. The article raises questions about the inference performance of these dev kits compared to graphics cards and suggests that they may be interesting for home labs. An interview is also mentioned, but it does not provide performance numbers.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author is asking for someone to explain the rationale behind the architecture of a CPU/ASIC design called “Tenstorrent.” They are unsure about the grid of cores with memory and interfaces interspersed between, and the network interconnecting them. The author wants to know why this design is considered a good approach for the target workloads.
5. U.S. is said to open criminal inquiry into Boeing
Total comment counts : 38
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
I apologize, but I am unable to access or summarize specific articles from external websites. If you provide the text from the article, I will be happy to help summarize it for you.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concept of “opening” a door plug, which is related to a comment made in a previous discussion. The comment suggests that while opening and closing a door may not require documentation, removing a part of an airplane does. The author speculates that Boeing’s mistake may be related to not designing the door plug to be safely opened and closed without special care. The door plug is described as an awkward design where it can be partially opened by removing four bolts but lacks an alert feature to notify pilots if the plane is flown without properly closing the door.
6. Reverse Engineering Protobuf Definitions from Compiled Binaries
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The author of the article explains how they developed a command-line tool called protodump, which extracts full source protobuf definitions from compiled binaries. This tool is useful for reverse engineering closed-source binaries and understanding their API. The article discusses how protodump works by searching for a byte array that contains the field names and types, messages, services, enums, options, and other information. The article also mentions the limitations of this approach, such as its specificity to Google’s protoc compiler and the option of suppressing the embedding of protobuf definitions. Despite these limitations, the author states that the tool works effectively for the majority of examined binaries.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the use of protodump and a python script to extract proto definitions from Objective C apps. The author also talks about analyzing protobuf data by decoding it in a generic way and outputting a guess at the schema. The article concludes by mentioning that embedding the plain text .proto file would have simplified the process.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a tool called ProtobufDecoder that helps in decoding Protobuf and other message formats. It takes a different approach by analyzing the structure of actual messages to determine the Protobuf structure of a message. The tool can be found at the provided GitHub link.
7. Using LLMs to Generate Fuzzers
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The article discusses the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in generating fuzzers for input formats. The author references an experiment in which the LLM named Claude successfully generated a fuzzer for GIF parsing code, finding vulnerabilities in the process. The author initially found this surprising because LLMs are not typically considered great at precise reasoning about code. However, the author suggests that LLMs may be well-suited for fuzzing, as fuzzing is a stochastic process that requires generating inputs that are close enough to what is expected by the program. The author also tests Claude on an unknown input format and finds success. Overall, LLMs show promise in automating the process of creating fuzzers for complex input formats.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how Claude, a GIF fuzzer program, was able to generate working Python code based on its training on fuzzer source code and knowledge of GIF parsers. The author points out that although some people may question the intelligence behind such a program, the ability to bring together and translate various concepts into actual code is remarkable. The author then shares a personal experience of using Claude to draft an email for them, saving them time and effort in understanding and summarizing dense material. The author concludes by emphasizing that, despite the program’s abilities, the magic of its capabilities has not been lost.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author expresses frustration with people testing language learning models (LLMs) and drawing conclusions based on the output from just one attempt. The author emphasizes that the output generated by the model is influenced by a random seed, so different attempts will yield different results. They argue that it is not sufficient to draw conclusions from just one answer and suggest that retrying the prompt could lead to better or worse code generation.
8. The 160-year mystery of Europe’s Ice Age ‘queens’
Total comment counts : 19
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article suggests that ancient Paleolithic Venus statues may have been created by women who were examining and sculpting their own bodies from a first-person perspective. This challenges the previous assumption that the statues depicted exaggerated features from an outside viewpoint. The tweet includes photos for reference.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions an impressive discovery in Malta from around 3000 BC. It provides a link to learn more about it.
9. The No Symbol: The History of the Red Circle-Slash
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
This article explores the red circle and slash symbol, commonly used to signify that something is off-limits. The author reflects on the symbol’s widespread use and its ability to convey meaning effectively. They discuss the difficulty in finding a specific name for the symbol and highlight its ubiquity across various forms of media. The article also examines the origins of other well-known symbols, such as the stop sign and traffic light, and suggests that the red circle and slash may have similar roots. Overall, the article raises questions about the red circle and slash symbol and its place in visual language.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the different names and representations of the “No Symbol”. Wikipedia refers to it as the “No Symbol”, ISO 7010 calls it the “prohibition sign”, Unicode categorizes it as the “COMBINING ENCLOSING CIRCLE BACKSLASH” (U+20E0), and it is also available as an emoji called the “NO ENTRY SIGN” (U+1F6AB).
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses the origin of a specific symbol that was traced back to the League of Nations’ “Convention Concerning the Unification of Road Signs” in Geneva, Switzerland in March 1931. The author questions who made the suggestion to include the symbol in the convention.
10. Trapped in the Ivory Basement (2021)
Total comment counts : 9
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how the author had discussions with their children about career choices before they went to college. One child chose to pursue an advanced degree in medicine (MD) rather than a doctorate (PhD). The author believes that being an MD is more rewarding and suggests that even for those interested in medical research, a dual degree is better than just a PhD.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article questions why teachers choose to pursue a PhD, suggesting that long-time teachers may feel trapped and unable to start a new career. The author also wonders if prospective PhD students are aware of what they are getting into. This topic has been discussed for a long time.