1. Abusing Go’s Infrastructure
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The author of the article discovered a curious case involving Go’s checksum database and the Homebrew repository. They noticed that the Homebrew repository, known to use Ruby, was listed in Go’s checksum database even though there are no traces of Go in the repository. This led the author to investigate further and they found another case involving a Rust repository. They questioned why these repositories were appearing in Go’s checksum database and how they were being pushed. The author then explains their exploration of Go’s documentation and the checksum database’s retrieval process. They also tested the possibility of the checksum server downloading arbitrary data. Ultimately, they encountered some errors while testing.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article states that any online service that allows users to upload content publicly will inevitably be used for command-and-control operations, copyright infringement, and hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). This has already happened to popular platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, and the PGP key infrastructure. The article provides links to specific incidents where these platforms were exploited for illicit purposes.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the difference between pushing files to a GitHub repository and using another storage solution. It questions whether the only difference is the need to create a GitHub account, as other storage platforms can also store arbitrary data without a 500MB limit.
2. Optimizing your talking points (2018)
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
This article discusses two stories related to “bad code” experiences. The first story highlights the frustration of working in a team environment where efforts to refactor suboptimal code are rejected or deprioritized. This lack of attention to necessary fixes creates ongoing frustration for the developer. The second story involves a situation where the author was called to fix code they had written many years ago. Reviewing the code and acknowledging the corners cut in the past led to a change in perspective on the importance of writing maintainable code.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article criticizes the idea of being a “righteous one” in the field of development and highlights the importance of senior developers being open about their mistakes and failures. This promotes a culture of learning and helps counteract imposter syndrome. The article argues that a perfectionist attitude, which discourages making mistakes and encourages only individual effort, is counterproductive to this culture of openness and learning.
3. LuaRT: Lua programming environment for console, desktop applications for Windows
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The article introduces Luart, an easy-to-use Lua programming environment for writing console or desktop applications for Windows. Lua is a simple and fast programming language with a comprehensive environment. Luart is licensed under the MIT license and the source code is available on Github.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article is looking for alternatives to AutoHotkey and small C WINAPI programs. They find that Rust, even with Microsoft’s windows-rs library, is not as effective as plain C because of the difficulty in importing the right libraries and features. The author expresses excitement in exploring how LuaRT exposes WinAPI, hoping for a global namespace where all normal functions can be easily auto-imported. They mention that Microsoft has made it somewhat easy for library authors to generate the externs with their Win32metadata package.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the use of COM objects in LUArt, a Lua programming framework. The user is interested in whether LUArt can be used to manipulate Office files similar to VB or PowerShell.
4. Converting a Cisco 7609 into a beer tap (2021)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The article discusses a project involving converting a Cisco 7609 router into a beer tap. The idea originated from memories of a tech display at DreamHack, where useless hardware was used for aesthetic purposes. The author and others started joking about converting an old core router into a beer tap and eventually sourced a used Cisco 7609. The article details the process of modifying the router and deciding whether to rebuild it to make it visually pleasing or make it actually function as a beer tap. Ultimately, the decision was made to rebuild the router. The article also mentions the constraints and challenges faced during the rebuilding process.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the creation of the Internet Beer Tap by Techinc, a hacker space in Amsterdam. They repurposed a piece of networking hardware that was originally used for law enforcement purposes in tapping the internet. Now, this hardware has been turned into an Internet Beer Tap as a retirement plan, allowing it to serve a new socializing purpose.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article is happy to answer any questions about it, and they believe that the general question of “why” is best answered with “why not”.
5. A simple core.async job system in Clojure
Total comment counts : 6
Summary
The article discusses a project called Scinamalink, which allows customers to send magic login links to users with a single REST API call. The author explains their motivation for working on Scinamalink, which includes showcasing their skills and exploring the usefulness of this feature. They discuss the challenges they faced in curbing spam and explore different approaches to solve the problem.
The author decides against using a message broker like RabbitMQ to handle asynchronous jobs, as they want to avoid complexity. Instead, they opt for a single-process worker system, acknowledging that it may be less reliable but allows them to get to market faster. They also discuss the data model and database design for the job system, highlighting the use of a JSON blob column to store context and the different states a job can be in.
The article then dives into the implementation of a finite-state machine in Clojure to manage the job system. The author explains how they use functions to represent each state and transition between states. They also discuss the execution of job functions in a core.async thread and the handling of job queues.
Finally, the author provides an example of a job function for domain verification, explaining how the job is created, executed, and manages its own state and database updates.
Overall, the article provides insights into the development process of Scinamalink and the decision-making involved in building a job system with a finite-state machine in Clojure.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article appreciates the emphasis on simplicity and warns against the dangers of adopting too many technologies in a microservices approach. They describe “premature polyglot programming” as a disease that affects startups and recommend staying focused on a limited tech stack. They caution that relying on a single engineer who knows how to run a critical technology can lead to single points of failure. The author also mentions that with the development of better tools for managing complex devops situations, some engineers are prone to thinking they can easily run multiple technologies, which they advise against. Overall, the author advocates for simplicity and recommends following Janet Carr’s example in this regard.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author describes how they were drawn to Clojure because of its core.async library, which allows for CSP-style concurrency. They appreciate the use of channels/queues as an effective abstraction for enabling communication between threads. Although they consider ZeroMQ as a helpful library for this purpose, they find core.async to be even easier and more pleasant to use.
Regarding RabbitMQ, the author doesn’t think it is bad and finds the default docker configuration suitable for most scenarios, especially for smaller applications. They believe the ability to restart/requeue jobs when a worker crashes is worth the slight increase in complexity. For larger projects, such as those involving over 100 nodes, the author suggests considering RabbitMQ or ActiveMQ as potential options. However, for a smaller project like the one mentioned, they recommend using core.async to mimic the desired behavior, as it is the more appropriate choice.
6. Agenda: a personal information manager (1990) [pdf]
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses two software programs: Treesheets and doogiePIM. Treesheets is an open-source application that combines a spreadsheet and outliner. It offers a fast and user-friendly experience and was created by the developer of a 3-D game engine. The article provides links to screenshots and additional information about Treesheets.
On the other hand, doogiePIM is a personal information manager that receives regular updates from an indie developer. It emphasizes encryption and is designed to enhance and preserve creative and intellectual pursuits. The article includes links to more details about doogiePIM and its pricing options. Overall, the article highlights the features and updates of these software programs.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author expresses frustration with the current state of the software industry, particularly regarding Personal Information Management (PIM) software. They believe that PIM software today is not any better than it was 20-30 years ago, and in some ways, it is worse. They criticize the Electron-based software, stating that it does not offer the same functionality as older software like Lotus or Outlook. Furthermore, they mention that even the web-based version of Outlook has missing features, indicating a decline in quality. The author concludes by noting that society may be unaware of this decline in software quality.
7. Don Knuth’s MIP, 64 years later
Total comment counts : 3
Summary
The article discusses the work of computer scientist Don Knuth in 1960, where he considered an integer programming model for minimizing memory access latency of an IBM 650. Knuth attempted to solve the problem using Ralph Gomory’s algorithm but was unable to find an optimal solution. Years later, Dimitris Alevras successfully found the optimum value using CPLEX on a SPARCstation 5. The author then translated Knuth’s problem formulation into Python code and found that the open source solver SCIP and Gurobi were able to find an optimal solution in a very short amount of time. The article highlights the effectiveness of operations research.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article implies that the main factor contributing to increased speed is software improvements rather than hardware advancements. Solvers have experienced significant enhancements.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author mentions having 40 Sparcstation 5 machines and 15 E450s, all of which are working and describes them as lovely and unbreakable.
8. .NET for NES Game Console on 6502 Microprocessors
Total comment counts : 8
Summary
This article discusses the introduction of .NET development for the NES game console. The article provides instructions on how to install the template, create a project, and run it using Visual Studio. It also explains how .NET for the NES transpiles MSIL into a runnable machine code for the NES emulator. The article mentions that only a few C# programs currently work with .NET for the NES. Additionally, it acknowledges the use of ANESE, a NES emulator, in the dotnet.anese package for Mac and Windows.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article mentions that there are no runtime, Basic Class Library (BCL), objects, garbage collection (GC), or debugger in a certain context. It also states that strings are ASCII. The article does not mention anything about the sizes or signed/unsigned nature of bool, byte, char, short, int, or long. This lack of information about the sizes or signed/unsigned nature of these types can lead to unexpected situations, such as having 8-bit long longs.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a code snippet that resembles the “Hello World” program in C, but written in C# using the latest features in 2023. The author questions the relevance of calling it “C#” since it could be achieved in many languages derived from C syntax. They expected a more simplified Common Language Runtime (CLR).
9. Recursion, continuations and trampolines (2017)
Total comment counts : 4
Summary
This article discusses the concept of tail recursion and how it differs from regular recursion. Tail recursion is when the recursive call is the last thing the function does before returning its own result. The article provides examples of tail-recursive implementations of factorial and computing the Fibonacci sequence. It also explains the concept of tail-call optimization (TCO) and how it can help optimize tail-recursive functions by converting the tail call to a jump. The article mentions that some languages, like Python, do not support TCO, but other languages like Scheme and Clojure do. Clojure, for example, encourages using manual TCO conversion using the loop…recur pair. The article concludes by discussing the benefits of the iterative approach over the recursive approach for avoiding stack overflow.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concept of tail-call optimization (TCO) in programming languages. It mentions that Scheme has been using TCO since the 1970s and that more modern languages like Lua and JavaScript are also adopting it. However, as of 2024, only Safari/Webkit has implemented TCO for JavaScript. The article provides a link to a compatibility table for further details.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article titled “On Recursion, Continuations and Trampolines” was discussed in April 2017, with only one comment. The link to the article can be found at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14087620.
10. Email.ml – Minimalist Temporary Email
Total comment counts : 20
Summary
The article discusses a privacy-friendly and ad-friendly approach that is valid for one hour. It emphasizes that it runs on Cloudflare.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the issue of popular services being blocked or blacklisted once they gain some popularity. It suggests using alternative methods such as aliases, temporary IDs, filters, or utilizing the infrastructure of these services while still owning the domain. It also provides an example of a valid email address for today.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a privacy policy that claims to protect personal information and email content from being shared with third parties, unless required by law or necessary to protect the company’s rights, property, or safety. However, the article argues that this policy does not offer a real guarantee of privacy, as it allows the company to share data with anyone they choose to protect their own interests.