Skip to main content

2024-12-03

Facebook's Little Red Book

  • In 2012, Facebook created a "Little Red Book" to maintain its identity and focus as it expanded to a billion users, emphasizing principles like breaking things, thinking big, and moving fast.
  • The book, designed by Ben Barry, served as a manifesto to preserve Facebook's ethos during rapid growth, showcasing the importance of storytelling in scaling company culture.
  • A high-quality digital version of this rare book has been created to illustrate how successful companies maintain their identity and culture.

Reactions

  • Facebook's "Little Red Book" was an employee guide from 2012, designed to inspire a sense of mission and tech optimism.
  • The guide has faced criticism for its naivety and lack of self-awareness, especially in light of Facebook's later controversies involving data privacy and misinformation.
  • The book is viewed as a relic from a more hopeful era in tech, contrasting with the current complex realities of social media.

South Korean president declares emergency martial law

Reactions

  • South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law, but the National Assembly voted to demand its lifting, rendering the declaration void.
  • The military insists martial law will continue until the president officially ends it, leading to debates about constitutional obligations and potential impeachment.
  • The declaration is compared to a coup attempt, raising concerns about the military's role and the president's motives, including avoiding scandal investigations.

Reactions

  • The text emphasizes the subjective nature of art evaluation and the significance of networking in an artist's career success.- It discusses the challenges in predicting successful art exhibitions and the role of early professional connections.- The conversation extends to the complexities of defining "great art," the influence of commercial success, and the importance of communication in professional settings.

Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley

  • In 2010, AdGrok, a small startup, faced a lawsuit from their former employer, Adchemy, which threatened their financial stability.- Y Combinator, a startup accelerator backing AdGrok, played a pivotal role in resolving the lawsuit by leveraging its influence with Adchemy's investors and potential business partners.- Despite winning the lawsuit, the ordeal led to AdGrok's sale to Twitter in 2011, while Adchemy was later sold to Walmart Labs in a fire-sale acquisition.

Reactions

  • Y Combinator (YC) is a major player in Silicon Valley, influencing which startups gain traction post-accelerator.- Critics suggest YC has adopted a "spray and pray" strategy, prioritizing the number of startups over selectivity and quality.- The debate centers on whether YC should scale its operations or concentrate on fewer, high-quality startups, reflecting broader complexities in startup culture and investment strategies.

8 months of OCaml after 8 years of Haskell in production (2023)

  • The author compares Haskell and OCaml based on their experience, highlighting that Haskell has more features and packages, but OCaml's simplicity enhances productivity.- Haskell's tooling is powerful yet inconsistent, while OCaml's tooling is straightforward and reliable, with succinct compiler messages.- Both languages are suitable for industrial use, but the author prefers OCaml for its focus on development rather than overthinking, despite Haskell's more comprehensive documentation.

Reactions

  • The author compares their experiences with Haskell and OCaml, highlighting Haskell's elegant but complex syntax and inconsistent tooling, particularly with specific GHC (Glasgow Haskell Compiler) versions.- OCaml is praised for its straightforwardness, simpler module system, faster compiler, and practicality in production, with fewer language extensions and a more manageable learning curve.- The author emphasizes the significance of a robust standard library for the success of a programming language.

Twice-Yearly HIV Shot Shows 100% Effectiveness in Women

Reactions

  • A new twice-yearly HIV shot has demonstrated 100% effectiveness in women, providing a promising alternative to daily pills or monthly shots.
  • This development is crucial for individuals who find it challenging to adhere to daily medication regimens, potentially simplifying HIV prevention efforts.
  • Despite its promise, the cost of the injectable form is a concern, though Gilead plans to offer more affordable, generic versions in 120 lower-income countries, potentially impacting public health in high HIV prevalence regions.

Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

  • Blizzard has requested GOG to remove the DRM-free bundle of Warcraft I & II from its store due to the release of remastered versions.
  • GOG is offering the bundle at a discount before removal, ensuring that buyers will still have access and receive updates for compatibility with modern systems.
  • This situation underscores the ongoing tension between remastered and original game versions, with GOG striving to preserve classic games despite publisher decisions.

Reactions

  • Blizzard's removal of Warcraft I and II from GOG has drawn criticism, particularly in light of the negative feedback on the Warcraft 3 remaster.
  • Fans express concern that Blizzard, post-Activision merger, is focusing more on short-term profits than on maintaining game quality.
  • This situation underscores the difficulties in preserving gaming history, as highlighted by GOG's Preservation Program, and reflects the industry's trend towards profit-driven models.

Raspberry Pi boosts Pi 5 performance with SDRAM tuning

  • Raspberry Pi engineers have optimized SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory) timings, resulting in a 10-20% performance boost for Pi 5 and Pi 4 at 2.4 GHz.
  • Overclocking, which involves increasing the clock speed beyond the manufacturer's specifications, can achieve up to a 32% speedup, with most Pi 5s reaching 2.6-3.0 GHz.
  • These performance enhancements, including NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) emulation for better multi-core workload handling, may soon be available through firmware updates, potentially becoming standard features.

Reactions

  • The Raspberry Pi 5 has improved performance due to SDRAM tuning, leading to discussions about using Intel N100s as an alternative.- Rising prices of Raspberry Pis make Intel N100s more attractive for those prioritizing performance per dollar, despite the Pi's advantages in GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) and compact size.- The debate centers on the best use cases, with some favoring Raspberry Pis for simplicity and others choosing N100s for their superior power and versatility.

No need to email me about Cisco AnyConnect

  • The author's name and email are included in Cisco's AnyConnect VPN client due to the use of the curl library, leading to confusion among users seeking support.- The author clarifies they are the lead developer of curl, a component used in the app, but not affiliated with Cisco or AnyConnect.- Users needing support for AnyConnect should contact Cisco directly at ac-mobile-feedback@cisco.com.

Reactions

  • Daniel Stenberg, the creator of curl, frequently receives misdirected support requests for Cisco AnyConnect, illustrating issues with companies obscuring their support channels.- Users often bypass their IT departments, possibly due to previous negative interactions, leading them to seek help from unrelated parties.- The conversation also highlights the difficulties of directly contacting individuals online, primarily due to concerns about spam.

DuckDuckGo Donates $25k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

  • DuckDuckGo has donated $25,000 to The Perl and Raku Foundation (TPRF) on "Giving Tuesday," contributing to their mission of advancing Perl and Raku programming languages.
  • Since 2011, DuckDuckGo has donated over $6 million to organizations that support online trust, highlighting its commitment to fostering secure and trustworthy online environments.
  • The donation will aid in funding core Perl development and community projects, with TPRF expressing gratitude for DuckDuckGo's support and confidence in their mission.

Reactions

  • DuckDuckGo's $25k donation to the Perl and Raku Foundation has ignited discussions on the sustainability of open-source projects.
  • The decline in Perl usage and the lack of contributions from companies that rely on it highlight concerns about its future funding and tech debt issues.
  • The debate on the open-source model's reliance on donations and volunteer work suggests exploring alternative funding methods.

Company claims 1k% price hike drove it from VMware to open source rival

  • Beeks Group, a UK cloud operator, transitioned 20,000 virtual machines (VMs) from VMware to OpenNebula following a 1,000% price increase after Broadcom acquired VMware.
  • This migration enhanced VM efficiency by 200% and allowed Beeks to allocate more resources to client workloads.
  • Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has led to increased costs and reduced support, prompting many companies, including AT&T, to seek alternatives due to customer dissatisfaction.

Reactions

  • A significant price increase has prompted a company to transition from VMware to an open-source alternative, reflecting a broader trend in the industry.
  • The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom and subsequent pricing changes are driving businesses to explore other options, with Red Hat gaining new customers as a result.
  • The industry's shift towards containerization and Kubernetes is reducing the appeal of traditional virtual machines, emphasizing the need to consider vendor lock-in and explore alternatives like Proxmox or OpenNebula.