1. You’ll regret using natural keys
Total comment counts : 84
Summary
The article discusses the concept of natural keys in database design and raises a question about whether they are ever a good idea. The author shares a personal anecdote about a car inspection where a mechanic was able to easily change the incorrect chassis number, despite concerns about potential complications. The author is currently taking a course in databases and information systems, and notes that the students are proposing database designs with natural keys. A project on the world’s best restaurants is used as an example, with the students suggesting using the combination of restaurant name, city, and year as the natural key for the Restaurants table. However, the author argues that this assumption may not hold true and highlights the problems with natural keys, including ensuring uniqueness and the potential for a person or entity to have multiple identification numbers. The article concludes by suggesting that a synthetic key may be a better choice in many cases.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the use of unique and “human-readable” IDs, such as those used by Stripe. It provides a code example in JavaScript/TypeScript for generating these IDs. The article emphasizes the importance of designing APIs for humans.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses personal identification numbers and compares the CPR number used in Denmark to the US Social Security Number (SSN). It highlights that the US SSN is not guaranteed to be unique, can change, does not necessarily indicate US citizenship, and is not always necessary unless required for certain activities. The article also mentions alternative numbers like ITINs and ATINs that can be used instead of an SSN in certain situations. Additionally, it advises against using the SSN as a database key.
2. Boeing Starliner launches first crewed mission
Total comment counts : 20
Summary
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft has successfully launched with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board. The spacecraft is expected to dock at the International Space Station (ISS) on June 6th. The mission marks the first time the Starliner has flown with people on board. The launch had been years in the making due to engineering issues. The Starliner capsule, CST-100 Starliner, is wider than the Apollo modules and can accommodate up to seven astronauts. It is also reusable. The launch is significant for United Launch Alliance, as it is the first time the company has launched astronauts. The company’s Atlas-V rocket, known for its reliability, was used for the launch. The successful mission is an important step for NASA and its commercial partners in human spaceflight.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The US is expanding its capabilities for human space travel with the potential for up to five different spacecraft/launch systems currently available and two more in development. The existing options include Falcon 9 with Dragon, SLS with Orion, and Atlas V with Starliner. In the future, Vulcan Centaur with Dream Chaser, and Superheavy with Starship are also likely to be capable of launching humans into space. Furthermore, there are ongoing developments with New Glenn and Neutron, although details are not provided.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author mentions that although the capsule mentioned in the article is exciting, its future is uncertain after seven launches. The rocket it was launched on has been retired, and while it can work with Falcon, it’s not clear what advantages it would have compared to SpaceX’s capsule. The author expresses disappointment in seeing something they worked on for over a decade only being used seven times.
3. The long-lost Tarzan Atari game, preserved
Total comment counts : 3
Summary
The article discusses the unreleased video game “Tarzan” for the Atari Video Computer System (2600) and the ColecoVision console. The game was announced in 1983 but faced delays and was eventually canceled. However, a collector managed to acquire a working copy of the game in 2022, and with the help of a programmer, it was dumped and made playable. The game utilized a bankswitching scheme to overcome hardware limitations and was developed by James Wickstead Design Associates (JWDA), a New Jersey-based design studio. JWDA had experience designing toys and entered the video game industry in the early 1980s. The studio worked with publishers like Coleco and Parker Brothers to translate games from other systems into the Atari format.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the writer’s enthusiasm for a particular story and their personal experience on AtariAge forums. They mention creating their own 2600 ROM dumper that works with Raspberry Pi and Arduino, and express a desire to get back into game preservation. The article also includes a link to their project on GitHub.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions the Atari Shock and provides links to information about the Video Game Crash of 1983, bad video games, “Lost Luggage” video game, and a 4-minute jingle that was found.
4. Entropy, a CLI that scans files to find high entropy lines (might be secrets)
Total comment counts : 25
Summary
The article describes a CLI tool called Entropy that scans codebases for high entropy lines, which typically represent secrets. The tool is available as a Docker image and can be used by mounting the current directory into the container. The default directory for the tool to search for files is /data. It is mentioned that the tool helps to find secrets in the codebase.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a Perl command that uses gzip and the wc command to measure the level of compression for different lines of code. The command calculates the compression ratio by dividing the size of the compressed line by the length of the original line. The author notes that this method may have trouble with short lines that compress poorly. The article also mentions that the Perl command reacted to a line of code with high entropy and could be fooled by adding comments. The author suggests comparing the Perl command to another tool and mentions that the Perl command can be easily used on non-Windows machines.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a solution to a password problem in a database. The author states that they deal with this issue by setting all their database passwords to ‘abcd’.
5. Bit-twiddling abstract addition with unknown bits (2020)
Total comment counts : 2
Summary
The article discusses an operation used in optimizing compilers and program analysis called the addition of partially-known values. The author provides an implementation of this operation and explains the theory behind it. Each partially known value is represented as a ternary number (with digits zero, one, and unknown). The author discusses the lossy nature of this representation and explains the “union” operation and iteration as fundamental operations. The article also discusses bitwise operations such as OR and XOR and their definitions in terms of known and unknown bits. The author notes that addition is not associative in this context and explains the algorithm for determining unknown bits in the sum. The article concludes with a request for proofs or disproofs of the addition function and a call for a maximally precise, less-than-exponential-time algorithm for computing known-bits in multiplication.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s interest in finding an algebraic proof of the addition function. They mention that this concept is commonly used in optimizing compilers and program analysis, although the article does not provide further details on this statement.
6. Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers
Total comment counts : 50
Summary
The Israeli government’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry partnered with a political campaigning firm to orchestrate a large-scale influence campaign to shape global public opinion on the war in Gaza. This operation involved the creation of fake accounts and websites that spread pro-Israel and Islamophobic content. The campaign primarily targeted Black lawmakers and young progressives in the United States and Canada. It aimed to sway certain segments of public opinion on Israel’s conduct during the war. The existence of this campaign was first reported by Haaretz in March.
Top 1 Comment Summary
I apologize, but I am unable to access the content of the linked article. Could you please provide a brief summary or provide the text you would like to be summarized?
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article highlights the perceived incompetence of Israel in dealing with propaganda bots. The author notes that if they couldn’t search and find Israeli officials reiterating the same talking points as the bots, they would assume that the bots were Iranian and intended to portray Israel negatively.
7. Atash Behram – Types of Fire
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
This article discusses the Atash Behram, which is the highest grade of fire that can be placed in a Zoroastrian fire temple as an eternal flame. The process of establishing and consecrating the Atash Behram involves gathering 16 different types of fire, including fire from lightning, cremation pyres, and trades with furnaces. Each fire undergoes a purification ritual before joining the others. The purification and consecration ceremonies require a large team of priests and can take up to a year to complete. The purpose of this process is to purify and return the fire to Ahura Mazda, the first pure creation. The article also mentions the Udvada Atash Behram, which has been burning since 721 CE and is housed in a Persian style temple building. The 16 types of fire required for an Atash Behram are obtained through various methods, such as collecting burning embers from fires used in different professions or waiting for lightning strikes on trees to collect the burning embers. The collected fires are then taken through an elaborate process of purification, repeated a specific number of times for each type of fire. After purification, the fires are assigned to a team of priests who have undergone the Bareshnum purification ceremony. Prayers are recited over the purified fires, including the Yasna and Vendidad, which are recited the same number of times as the purification numbers of each fire.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the early use of fire by our ancestors and how they initially relied on naturally occurring fire, most likely from lightning strikes. Since these occurrences were rare, the need to maintain an eternal fire arose, which was passed down through generations and became ritualized. The article suggests that myths and rituals played a crucial role in conserving and propagating culture in a pre-literate society. The process of developing techniques for creating fire on demand likely took many generations and the author speculates that the practice of maintaining an eternal fire has ancient roots and has been reinvented multiple times.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses the concept of eternal fire in Vedic Hinduism. The author explains that there is a misconstrued interpretation of Vedic instructions on starting sacred fires. Additionally, there is an etymology tidbit about the name “Bhārata,” which refers to the clan that established India’s first historically recorded political entity. The name “Bhārata” comes from their strong bearing of the sacred fire.
8. The state of the art in copter drones and flight control systems
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The article provides information about MDPI, an open access publisher. It explains that all articles published by MDPI are immediately available for reuse under an open access license. It mentions that Feature Papers are substantial articles that include multiple techniques and provide an outlook for future research. Editor’s Choice articles are selected based on recommendations by the scientific editors. The article also includes a specific reference to a review on the state of the art in copter drones and flight control systems.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses criticisms regarding MDPI, a publisher in academia. These criticisms include concerns about editorial reliability, acceptance of methodologies, and lack of rigor. The author personally chooses to ignore MDPI papers unless recommended by someone they respect. The article suggests that MDPI has created its own problems.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the limitations of drones using the open source platform PX4 and NuttX OS. It mentions that fixed-wing drones are fuel efficient and can travel long distances, while multi-rotor drones are good at hovering. The article introduces the concept of a hybrid VTOL drone, which combines both techniques. However, it points out that the taxonomy in the article misses an important class of drone, namely the gyrocopter or gyroplane. The article suggests that unmanned gyrocopters could be a viable option due to their energy efficiency and ability to perform complex maneuvers similar to multi-rotor drones.
9. Vulkan1.3 on the M1 in one month
Total comment counts : 15
Summary
The article discusses the development of a new Vulkan driver called “Honeykrisp” for Apple hardware. Honeykrisp is the first conformant Vulkan driver for Apple hardware, implementing the full 1.3 specification without “portability” waivers. The driver is still in development and not yet released for end users.
The driver is based on Faith Ekstrand’s open-source NVK driver for NVIDIA GPUs, with the goal of making NVK the driver that everyone copies and pastes from. The development process involves adapting NVK’s code to support the M1 architecture and removing NVIDIA-specific code.
The article explains the process of adding support for different functionalities, such as descriptors, compute shaders, buffer and image copies, and graphics state. The goal is to achieve full dynamic state and shader objects, even though the M1 hardware bakes certain state into shaders.
By treating all state as dynamic, the driver aims to eliminate stuttering and ensure smooth performance. This approach differs from traditional pipeline-based drivers but allows for more flexibility and avoids future refactoring.
Overall, the article highlights the progress made in developing the Honeykrisp Vulkan driver for Apple hardware and the unique challenges faced in adapting the driver to the M1 architecture.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the value of shared, iterative, and open components in software development. It mentions the impressive work that has been done and expresses curiosity about how long it will take to port Proton. The author acknowledges that even with an optimal Vk implementation, some games may still run poorly due to differences in GPU architecture, arm translation overhead, and the Proton tool itself. However, they remain optimistic that more games will target unified memory and ARM in the future, especially as SoCs like the Snapdragon become more common on desktops.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses the potential impact of adding Vulcan to Linux and translating DirectX in Asahi Linux on Apple’s goal of attracting AAA games to Apple Silicon. Apple aims for AAA developers to use Metal for game development, enabling games to be played on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and the Vision Pro. The article speculates that Mac gamers may consider installing Asahi Linux to play AAA PC games.
10. Herbie: Optimize Floating-Point Expressions
Total comment counts : 5
Summary
The article explains the use of a tool called Herbie for improving mathematical formulas. Users can enter approximate ranges for the inputs and Herbie will attempt to optimize the formula. The article also mentions that for handling a high volume of requests, web requests are queued and there are currently no jobs in the queue. It is recommended to install Herbie on your own computer to avoid limitations in the web demo version. Users are advised to enter formulas as FPCore expressions using supported functions and syntax.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the use of the quadratic equation and its limitations in numerical computations. The author mentions trying the equation with a tool called FMA, but the best output was just a rewrite of the original equation. However, the tool did find the standard approximation -c/b and -b/a, which can be used when the real roots of the equation are far apart. The author suggests that this approximation is useful for many practical problems.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author attempted to compile Herbgrind, a Valgrind plugin, but encountered difficulties due to problems with the build system.