1. What is an SBAT and why does everyone suddenly care
Total comment counts : 22
Summary
This article is a brief message informing the reader that they have been selected to complete a CAPTCHA to validate their requests. It also mentions the copyright information for Dreamwidth Studios, LLC.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) can be used to establish a secure chain of trust for the booting process on Linux. It mentions the use of Clevis, a tool that allows for automatic disk decryption using TPM. The episode is described as interesting and provides links for further reading.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses Microsoft’s recent update to Windows which left dual-boot setups vulnerable to attack. The intention was for the update to only apply to Windows-only systems, while dual-boot setups would remain vulnerable until the installed distro updated its grub and shipped its own update. The article questions what went wrong and suggests that this issue may have occurred due to the EFI boot order or the use of the firmware menu to select Linux or Windows. The author also mentions their plan to install Linux on their work PC to avoid this issue, but notes that it would not have prevented the problem. The article concludes that Microsoft’s fix was legitimate, but there was a breakdown in communication.
2. Breaking down a record-setting day on the Texas grid
Total comment counts : 9
Summary
On August 20th, 2024, ERCOT experienced records for demand, solar generation, net load, and battery discharge. Solar generation kept prices under control during the day, but as solar decreased, prices increased. High prices were more associated with high net load rather than gross load, meaning demand that must be met by resources with higher marginal costs. As the sun set, ERCOT had to call on resources with higher fuel costs and operation and maintenance components, leading to higher energy prices. Battery discharge reached a new peak, 20% higher than the previous record, due to the extensive use of ECRS. The settlement point price nearly reached the bid cap of $5,000, and the reduction of ORDC adders contributed to sustained high prices. Despite this, ERCOT did not issue a general call for conservation, indicating confidence in the grid’s resources. While load records may not be broken this summer, solar generation could set new peaks and unexpected grid events could trigger a response from batteries.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of this article is discussing their observations about their thermostat’s “rush hours” coinciding with peak energy usage and high energy prices. They suggest that participating in the “rush hour” program may actually be costing them more money rather than saving it. They acknowledge that these programs are primarily meant to limit overall energy use during peak times, but they may decide not to follow the program in the future.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the rapidly evolving market for wind, solar, and battery deployment. It highlights the resistance in Texas to connecting to the rest of the US grid, which would allow them to import power cheaply when needed and export excess power. It suggests that Texas may currently have to curtail a lot of energy due to an oversupply. The article also mentions that California and Texas are burning a lot of gas while experiencing negative pricing due to wind delivering more power than needed. It questions why states aren’t taking advantage of the surplus power to export it for profit.
3. SIMD Matters: Graph Coloring
Total comment counts : 13
Summary
The article discusses the use of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) in game development. It challenges the conventional wisdom that SIMD always leads to performance gains, as there are cases where it can actually hinder performance. The author specifically focuses on vector math and game physics, explaining that SIMD can be challenging to implement in these scenarios. However, for solving contact constraints in game physics, the author introduces the concept of graph coloring, which enables multiple contact constraints to be solved simultaneously using SIMD. The article concludes by addressing concerns about the complexity and speed of graph coloring, explaining that a simple greedy algorithm can be used for game physics.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author mentions the concept of graph coloring and how it allows them to solve multiple contact constraints simultaneously without a race condition. They compare this idea to adding phases of clocking in their hobby project. They express curiosity about other problems that could be solved using this approach and draw parallels between it and the Langlands program in computer science. The article also includes links to more information about the BitGrid project and the Langlands program.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author shares their personal experience with SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) and how it can be challenging to achieve significant gains. They admit to misunderstanding the potential benefits and the difficulty of preparing data for SIMD instructions. They also commend Erin for their hard work and successful results with SIMD.
4. A deep dive into how linkers work (2008)
Total comment counts : 9
Summary
This article provides a table of contents for a 20-part essay on linkers written by Ian Lance Taylor. The essay covers various topics related to linkers, such as dynamic linking, object file formats, shared libraries, symbol resolution, and more. The author also mentions a Calibre recipe that can convert the essay into an e-book format. The article concludes with a notice stating that the content is released into the public domain.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article provides a link to a Calibre recipe that can combine everything into one ebook. The link is provided for anyone who needs it. The available formats are AZW3, EPUB, MOBI, and PDF.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the development of two linkers, LLD and MOLD. The developer of these linkers made significant improvements, and the article provides links to more information about each linker. It also mentions that Apple has released a similar linker.
5. Euphemisms are best changed frequently (2016)
Total comment counts : 39
Summary
The article discusses the concept of euphemisms and how language evolves over time. It argues that the changing terminology used to describe certain groups or phenomena is a healthy and necessary process due to the disconnect between language and opinion. The author gives examples of words like “crippled” and “handicapped” that have been replaced over time with terms like “disabled” and “differently abled” to avoid negative connotations. The article concludes that this constant semantic renewal is a result of the messy nature of language and its associations with experiences and biases.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The URL for an article about the “euphemism treadmill” has been changed. However, readers may still want to check out both the original URL and the article it now points to.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author disagrees with the idea of changing euphemisms because they believe that the real problem lies in the thoughts and stereotypes that people have, not the words themselves. They argue that renaming something does little to change perceptions and instead creates stigma for those who are not up to date with the latest language. They give an example of the renaming of disability to dysability, which has since disappeared. The author believes that euphemisms often lack clarity and can be used as a replacement for offensive words without addressing underlying prejudice. They suggest that the real issue is changing societal attitudes towards others and not creating linguistic difficulties for everyone else.
6. I’m tired of fixing customers’ AI generated code
Total comment counts : 66
Summary
The author of the article discusses their experience in building cryptocurrency trading and data gathering tools and offering them to customers. They initially received positive feedback and support, but started facing challenges with the quality of support requests they were receiving. Many customers lacked programming knowledge and expected the author to provide unlimited support for complex applications. The author highlights the problem of AI programming tools enabling customers to offload software engineering tasks without having the capability to fix the bugs that AI creates. They express a reluctance to be the developer responsible for fixing these issues.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author discusses the rewarding experience of helping customers in technical enterprise sales, particularly when the customers have deep technical knowledge in their domain. However, the author also mentions encountering individuals who lack understanding of the technical work involved and underestimate its importance. This can be frustrating, but the author notes that they generally don’t need to deal with such individuals since they are not interested in paying for the services. The author sympathizes with others who have to constantly deal with the lack of understanding and appreciation for technical work.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author shares an anecdote about a coworker who experienced trouble with a piece of code due to using two similar variables interchangeably. The coworker mentioned using a generative AI called Copilot to create the code, but the author emphasizes the importance of understanding code before using it, cautioning against relying solely on AI-generated code without comprehension.
7. Show HN: Isaiah – open-source and self-hosted app to manage everything Docker
Total comment counts : 12
Summary
The article is about a self-hostable clone of “lazydocker” called Isaiah. Isaiah is a web application that allows users to manage their Docker resources on a remote server. It offers a range of features, including configuration and deployment options. The article provides instructions for installing and running Isaiah using Docker and provides example docker-compose files for different setups. It also explains how to set up a multi-node deployment with Isaiah acting as a proxy between clients and agents. The article concludes by mentioning that Isaiah can also be used to manage multiple hosts with their own Docker resources.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article recommends using Portainer as an option for managing Docker installations. Portainer’s community edition is open source and provides instructions for installation on Linux systems.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses an attempt to recreate the lazydocker command-line application as a web application while maintaining its features. The author also proposes using a browser terminal like wetty to directly use lazydocker.
8. Turnstyle – An esoteric, graphical functional language
Total comment counts : 4
Summary
The article introduces a new graphical programming language called Turnstyle. The author was inspired by Piet, a programming language with some brilliant design aspects but also some limitations. The author wanted to create a functional variant of Piet based on Lambda Calculus, with a minimal specification and the ability to reuse code. After experimenting with different designs, the author came up with Turnstyle, which is simpler than Lambda Calculus but more expressive, allowing the creation of Abstract Syntax Graphs. The full specification and examples can be found on the Turnstyle website and GitHub. Feedback from Francesco Mazzoli was also appreciated.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author is confused about the interpretation of the lambda calculus specification in the article. They question whether the graphic interpreter represents procedural execution or is it just a visualization of beta-reduction. The author then clarifies their understanding, stating that the program starts with a single term turnstyle(x, y, dir) which is lazily evaluated to the actual term. They believe that calling it an “encoding” is a misnomer and emphasize that both evaluation and parsing are lazy, which is a key point of the esolang.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The reader expresses difficulty in understanding a specification and suggests that including examples, such as “2+3” and “(lambda f. lambda x. (f (f x)))(lambda y. (y+2)) 3,” would be helpful.
9. Designing my own watch (2020)
Total comment counts : 30
Summary
The author shares their experience of having a custom made wristwatch from a Swiss watch company called ochs und junior. They talk about their desire to have a unique watch tailored to their personal preferences and the difficulty in defining exactly what they wanted. The company specializes in creating watches with fewer parts to deliver mechanical complications, and their watches are designed by a renowned watchmaker. The author describes the process of discussing their ideas with the company and the features they wanted in their watch, such as titanium material, small size, waterproofness, luminous hands, automatic movement, and true colors without painted surfaces. The watch is also an “annual calendar” type, which only requires one manual adjustment per year. The author expresses their satisfaction with the lightweight design and the communication with the company during the design process. They mention the challenge of paying import taxes and emphasize the importance of choosing a watch that is perfect for oneself in a rapidly changing world.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s experience with building a custom watch. They were able to create a personalized watch for only $80 by purchasing a Casio watch body for $30 and a movement for $40. They made simple changes to the watch, such as adding a new astronomical face and adjusting the world clock. The author expresses joy in owning something that is partly their own and notes that the Casio body design is timeless. They also mention that a version of the watch with tzdata is being developed by the author. The author expresses gratitude towards everyone involved in the project and credits the Hacker News community for inspiring their interest in this hobby.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a watchmaker’s lineup and mentions a nearly identical watch in their “customized” category. The author suggests that the watch is not as unique or custom as described and speculates that it may have been one of a kind in 2020. The cost of the watch is around $9K.
10. Hardware Virtualization
Total comment counts : 3
Summary
The article discusses a project aimed at bringing hardware virtualization to Haiku, an operating system. The project involved porting NVMM, a hypervisor with QEMU support, from DragonFlyBSD to Haiku. The goals of the project were to port the NVMM driver, enable QEMU to accelerate virtual machines through NVMM, and address various bugs and issues. The project made progress in porting the NVMM frontend and VMX backend, adding EPT support to the kernel, and patching QEMU to support NVMM on Haiku. However, some objectives, such as porting the SVM backend and resolving certain issues, remain incomplete. The article also provides technical details about the code changes made during the project, including importing missing BSD headers, adapting NVMM to work with C++, porting libnvmm, and implementing the VMX backend and memory management.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the enduring presence of BeOS, referencing a quote from Neil Stephenson’s book “In the Beginning was the Command Line.” The quote describes BeOS as a technologically advanced and cost-effective operating system, comparable to competing options such as Mac and Windows, with the exception of Linux. The article attributes the quote to [1], providing a link for further reference.