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2024-05-16

Exploring Adobe Photoshop 1.0.1 Source Code

  • The Computer History Museum features exhibits, publications, and events delving into computer technology's history.
  • Adobe Photoshop 1.0.1's 1990 source code, crafted by Thomas and John Knoll, is now accessible for non-commercial use, highlighting the software's sophisticated design.
  • The museum offers valuable perspectives from software architect Grady Booch, presenting a special view into Photoshop's early evolution.

Reactions

  • The discussion explores the significance of preserving source code for Adobe design software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and PostScript from the 90s, highlighting its historical importance.
  • It compares Adobe products with open-source alternatives like GIMP and Krita while examining the evolution of user interfaces, software preferences, and trademark guidelines.
  • Efforts by organizations like Software Heritage to safeguard source code as a cultural heritage for future generations are emphasized.

Apple Introduces New Accessibility Features: Eye Tracking and More

  • Apple unveils new accessibility features like Eye Tracking and Music Haptics to aid users with physical disabilities, deafness, and motion sickness.
  • The tech giant remains devoted to inclusivity by updating its devices to enhance the user experience for all customers.
  • Initiatives such as free sessions at Apple Store locations and promoting apps, games, and workouts emphasize accessibility and inclusion, coinciding with Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

Reactions

  • Apple introduces new accessibility features such as eye tracking for their devices, sparking discussions on motion sickness, hunger, vehicle types, and correlations with accessibility.
  • The dialogue delves into topics like VoiceOver for iOS 17, ethical use of eye tracking, improving accessibility in technology, and sharing tips on utilizing Apple's accessibility features based on personal preferences.
  • Users also touch on legal frameworks for disability rights, challenges in mainstream tech for accessibility, and potential advancements in music and tech accessibility, discussing Touch ID, Face ID, and the benefits, affordability, and privacy concerns related to eye-tracking technology.

User's Frustration: Navigating Broadcom's Unfriendly Website

  • The author recounts a frustrating encounter with Broadcom's website when attempting to download VMware software, emphasizing the site's poor design and user-unfriendly features.
  • They express disbelief at the lack of user-friendliness and propose that Broadcom should consider revamping the platform for a more user-friendly experience.

Reactions

  • The discussion addresses challenges in web design and user experience, emphasizing issues like complex navigation, limitations on basic functions, and user frustrations with poorly designed enterprise software.
  • Users are dissatisfied with websites such as IBM's Fix Central, SAP Ariba, and Workday, citing problems with password requirements and online procedures.
  • Topics include web security, technology misuse, and worries regarding user data exploitation by companies, shedding light on the intricacies and challenges of interacting with different websites and enterprise software.

N64Recomp Project Enhances Nintendo 64 Games on PC

  • N64 games are now transformable into native PC versions with enhancements like ray tracing and high FPS using the N64Recomp project on GitHub.
  • Led by Mr-Wiseguy, the project aims to maintain the original gameplay experience while enhancing graphics and performance, appealing to preservationists and N64 enthusiasts.
  • The rise of open-source projects, homebrew games, and N64 advancements is revitalizing interest in the console's game library, offering a modern gaming experience for classic titles.

Reactions

  • The debate revolves around a tool enabling the recompilation of Nintendo 64 games into PC ports, raising concerns about feasibility and legality.
  • Discussions cover challenges related to compatibility, legal aspects, and dissecting ROMs, delving into the technicalities of emulation such as running 32-bit games on contemporary systems and N64 emulation constraints on diverse platforms.
  • Topics include comparisons between official and fan-made emulations, improved N64 emulation performance, potential enhancements like recompiling Goldeneye, Nintendo's response to emulation progress, and the use of Proton for game porting amidst tournament conflicts.

Proteins in Blood Hold Key to Early Cancer Detection

  • Researchers at the University of Oxford identified 618 blood proteins linked to 19 types of cancer, with 107 related to cancers diagnosed over seven years later, indicating a potential for early cancer detection.
  • Altering specific blood proteins could impact the risk of developing nine types of cancer, showing promise for influencing cancer prevention and early diagnosis.
  • This discovery marks a significant advancement in pinpointing markers for heightened cancer risk and assisting in the early detection of cancer, as recognized by experts in the field.

Reactions

  • Early detection in cancer screening is crucial, with benefits and risks of different testing methods discussed.
  • The importance of enhanced healthcare resources, transparent decision-making processes, and lifestyle changes for cancer prevention is underlined.
  • Challenges in creating practical blood biomarkers for cancer detection and legal safeguards against genetic discrimination in insurance coverage are also addressed.

New Exponent Functions Boost SiLU and SoftMax Speed by 2x

  • The llama.cpp repository on GitHub boasts 58.3k stars and 8.3k forks.
  • Contributor jart is enhancing the silu and softmax functions for the CPU, incorporating AVX512 and AVX2 instructions for exponential value calculations, showing improved performance in benchmarks with less than 1 ULP error.
  • The author highlights the use of vpermi2pd for Float64/double lookup tables and notes that hardware like Zen4 or icelake-client/tigerlake might not see as much benefit, with the constraint that the table must fit into two registers.

Reactions

  • New exponent functions are created to accelerate SiLU and SoftMax calculations while maintaining accuracy, drawing from experiences with a radar signal processor.
  • Implementation optimizes exponentiation computations through lookup tables, leveraging SIMD and hardware intrinsics in C and C++.
  • Discussion covers non-temporal load/store instructions, lookup table limitations, performance variances in data processing, performance enhancements for llama.cpp, ML runtime comparisons, TensorFlow Lite and ONNX for model deployment, robotics, animation, GPU model impacts, CPU speed enhancements, and memory architecture advancements, with a recommendation for benchmarking to identify the most effective approach for specific tasks.

Title: "Exploring Datomic Pro 1.0.7075: Concurrency and Transactional Correctness"

  • Datomic is a general-purpose database utilizing EAV triples and logical timestamps, offering Datomic Pro and Datomic Cloud with distinct architectures.
  • The database ensures read-write separation for performance and guarantees ACID transactions, though concurrent transactions may lead to unexpected outcomes.
  • Users need to handle transaction functions and entity specs cautiously to avoid anomalies, despite Datomic's straightforward concurrency design and transactional correctness.

Reactions

  • The article covers the release of Datomic Pro 1.0.7075, emphasizing the successful Jepsen testing and the significance of clear documentation and enforcing invariants.
  • It discusses the challenges and advantages of utilizing Datomic's database system, including pitfalls, tradeoffs, comprehensive testing, scalability, transaction controls, and safety features.
  • Mentioned are broken links on the Datomic website and insightful conference talks by aphyr.

Unprecedented CO2 Rise in 50k Years: Human Activity Leading Factor

  • Oregon State University researchers have discovered the most rapid natural increase in carbon dioxide levels in the last 50,000 years by studying ancient Antarctic ice.
  • The current rate of atmospheric CO2 rise is ten times quicker than any other historical period, primarily due to human activities, as per the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  • This research offers valuable insights into historical climate change events and the potential ramifications of today's climate change, emphasizing the unparalleled levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Reactions

  • The article addresses the challenges of the fastest natural carbon dioxide rise in 50,000 years, alongside risks of artificial general intelligence, nuclear conflict, and climate change.
  • It highlights human ingenuity's crucial role in tackling these issues and cites historical cases of averting nuclear disasters.
  • Discussions cover rising CO2 levels, solutions like stratospheric aerosol injection, and differing views on the urgency and feasibility of emission reductions to combat climate change, while also touching on science fiction's societal impact and debates around AGI risks.

Oracle switches to OpenTofu from Terraform

  • Oracle has swapped Terraform for the open-source alternative OpenTofu in the Oracle E-Business Suite Cloud Manager, necessitating customers to transition by June 30, 2024, following licensing alterations by Terraform's creator, HashiCorp.
  • OpenTofu is perceived as a more lenient and business-suitable solution than Terraform.
  • HashiCorp, the original developer of Terraform, is being acquired by IBM for $6.7 billion, indicating significant industry movements.

Reactions

  • Oracle is transitioning from Terraform to OpenTofu 1.7, introducing features like end-to-end state encryption.
  • The tech community is shifting towards OpenTofu, emphasizing debates on Terraform's limitations, alternative tools, and infrastructure management challenges.
  • Discussions involve Oracle's support, using Oracle Linux for performance, outsourcing IT admin work, Oracle EBS role, and concerns about licensing agreements in open source projects, highlighting the need for diversity and strategic resource allocation in the tech sector.

Quary: Open-source BI Tool for Engineers

  • Quary is an engineer-centric BI/analytics tool addressing engineers' issues with self-serve BI by incorporating standard software practices.
  • It integrates with databases, particularly focusing on Supabase, and is now available as open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
  • Planned updates involve a web platform for sharing data models and an orchestration engine, with users urged to test Quary and offer input.

Reactions

  • Quary Labs released an open-source BI and analytics tool, Quary, catered towards engineers, emphasizing SQL transformations, data modeling, and well-structured dashboards.
  • Positive feedback has been received, hinting at upcoming paid features, increased extensibility, and comparisons with dbt, Lightdash, and Grafana, focusing on a code-first approach and decluttered dashboards.
  • Users have shown interest in using Quary for white-labeling and embedding BI into their products, drawing parallels with tools like BIRT and Rill.

Using "BEGIN PGP MESSAGE" bypasses email filters

  • Nondeterministic.computer is a decentralized social network based on Mastodon, offering search options for media, polls, and embeds with filters for replies and sensitive language.
  • Users can explore live feeds, follow profiles and hashtags, and engage with others from their account on a separate server.
  • Administered by server stats, users can dive deeper into information about both nondeterministic.computer and Mastodon.

Reactions

  • The conversation delves into circumventing corporate email filters, including encrypted zips and PGP signatures, highlighting concerns about email security and the efficacy of filters.
  • Users discuss experiences with spam emails, questioning the reliance on machine learning models, and address issues with email rewriting practices and DKIM headers.

Challenging 7th Graders: Addressing Drug Use

  • Prevention programs are failing to tackle drug use among 7th graders, questioning the idea of easily changing human behavior.
  • Ethics training and personal improvement methods are ineffective in addressing implicit biases, emphasizing the need for critical thinking in decision-making.
  • The article criticizes the universal pre-publication peer review system, suggesting the Experimental History newsletter as a resource for seeking and utilizing truth.

Reactions

  • The discussion evaluates the effectiveness of drug education programs such as D.A.R.E., highlighting the risks of different substances and their impact on health outcomes.
  • It delves into the safety and risks associated with drugs like cannabis, MDMA, and LSD, while addressing misconceptions and the influence of media on smoking habits.
  • Advocates for a compassionate approach to drug use and addiction, emphasizing the significance of factual information over scare tactics and manipulation.