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2025-01-03

I am rich and have no idea what to do

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  • The post discusses the common struggle of finding purpose after achieving financial success, which can lead to feelings of disillusionment and isolation. - It suggests that fulfillment can be found in developing others, building connections, or pursuing new interests, emphasizing the importance of purpose beyond financial wealth. - The discussion also highlights the challenges of maintaining relationships when wealth creates a social divide, underscoring the need for meaningful activities and connections to foster a sense of belonging.

iTerm2 critical security release

  • iTerm2 version 3.5.11, released on January 2, 2025, addresses a critical security vulnerability related to the SSH integration feature in previous versions. - The bug involved logging input/output to a file on the remote host, which could be accessed by others, affecting users of versions 3.5.6 to 3.5.10 and certain beta versions. - Users are advised to update to version 3.5.11 immediately, delete the /tmp/framer.txt file, and verify the update using the provided SHA-256 and PGP signature for security assurance.

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  • iTerm2 released a critical security update to address a bug in its SSH integration, which logged input and output to a file on the remote host, potentially exposing data to other users.
  • The issue was caused by verbose logging being accidentally enabled in production, prompting discussions on the importance of pre-commit hooks and safeguards to prevent similar errors.
  • The incident sparked debate on switching to alternatives like Ghostty or Terminal.app, while also highlighting the balance between feature-rich software and security risks.

Can LLMs write better code if you keep asking them to “write better code”?

  • In November 2023, a meme trend involved users asking ChatGPT to iteratively enhance images, which was then applied to code using Claude 3.5 Sonnet to improve a Python program. - Initial attempts with vague prompts like "write better code" showed some improvements, but structured prompt engineering with specific optimization goals led to significant performance enhancements. - The experiment underscored the importance of human oversight, as while Large Language Models (LLMs) can offer innovative ideas, they may also introduce subtle bugs during code optimization.

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  • Large Language Models (LLMs) often generate basic code due to their training on numerous tutorials, potentially missing simple optimizations that could enhance code performance. - Iteratively prompting LLMs to improve code can yield better results, but this process may be as time-consuming as manual coding. - The discussion underscores the limitations of LLMs in grasping complex optimizations and highlights the importance of providing context and specific instructions for improved code quality.

Advent of Code 2024 in pure SQL

  • Thomas Neumann shared his experience of solving the Advent of Code 2024 challenges using pure SQL, highlighting it as an exercise in alternative problem-solving approaches. - Neumann successfully completed all challenges, though he noted SQL's limitations in handling complex algorithms and state updates, suggesting potential improvements for SQL's efficiency. - The blog post includes a detailed SQL solution for one challenge and discusses the possibility of enhancing SQL to better support complex algorithm execution directly within databases.

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  • Advent of Code 2024 in pure SQL highlights SQL's ability to handle complex challenges, sparking interest in its performance and logical structure.
  • The discussion reveals varied experiences with SQL, from optimizing stored procedures to using it for business logic, showcasing both its strengths and challenges.
  • The conversation also explores the potential of SQL-like languages and the balance between database logic and application code, reflecting diverse opinions on SQL's role in software development.

U.S. appeals court strikes down FCC's net neutrality rules

  • A U.S. Appeals Court has invalidated the FCC's net neutrality rules, which mandated equal treatment of internet traffic by broadband providers, citing the FCC's overreach of legal authority.
  • The decision references a Supreme Court ruling that restricts the powers of regulatory agencies, impacting the FCC's ability to enforce net neutrality.
  • FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called for Congress to legislate net neutrality, while Commissioner Brendan Carr supported the court's decision as a check on regulatory overreach.

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  • A U.S. appeals court has invalidated the FCC's net neutrality rules, citing insufficient legal authority under current law. - The decision follows the Supreme Court's overturning of Chevron deference, which had permitted agencies like the FCC to broadly interpret statutes. - The court classified broadband providers as offering an "information service," not a "telecommunications service," thus restricting the FCC's regulatory power and ending federal net neutrality rules, potentially allowing ISPs to throttle or prioritize internet traffic.

Be a property owner and not a renter on the internet

  • The article stresses the importance of owning your digital space instead of relying solely on major internet platforms, which often prioritize their growth over user interests. - Strategies for maintaining control over your online presence include owning a domain, diversifying content across multiple platforms, and building direct connections with audiences through email lists. - By creating your own web property, you ensure flexibility and resilience in your digital endeavors, reducing dependency on any single network.

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  • The discussion emphasizes the importance of owning one's digital presence instead of depending on social media platforms, addressing concerns about AI exploiting user-generated content. - It explores the complexities of copyright, AI ethics, and the significance of having a personal website or domain for better control over online data. - The conversation also considers the practicality and limitations of self-hosting, given the dependence on external services like domain registrars and hosting providers, advocating for more independence in managing one's online presence.

BlogScroll – An open directory of personal sites and blogs

  • BlogScroll is an open directory of personal sites and blogs, emphasizing digital spaces outside major technology companies, and is maintained on GitHub by Den Delimarsky. - Users can contribute to BlogScroll through GitHub or by emailing the creator, and updates are available via an RSS feed. - The directory includes various categories such as design-and-ux, personal, photo-video-production, and technology, showcasing contributions from numerous individuals.

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  • BlogScroll is an open directory for personal sites and blogs, focusing on sharing digital gardens, which are debated as any personal site by some users.
  • Hosted on GitHub, BlogScroll has sparked discussions about its "walled garden" nature, with suggestions for OPML export and scalability improvements.
  • The project encourages submissions to expand its list, reflecting a renewed interest in personal web spaces and the challenges of maintaining independent, curated content online.

The Alder Lake SHLX Anomaly

  • Harold Aptroot discovered that the SHLX instruction on Intel's Alder Lake processors exhibits a "medium latency" of 3 cycles, which is atypical for left-shift operations that usually take 1 cycle. - This latency issue is specific to Alder Lake's performance cores and does not affect the efficiency cores, contradicting Intel's claims of a 1-cycle latency. - The latency varies based on the initialization of the shift count register, with 32-bit instructions or 64-bit instructions without immediates achieving 1-cycle latency, while 64-bit instructions with immediates result in 3-cycle latency.

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  • The Alder Lake SHLX Anomaly is a performance issue where specific instructions, such as mov rcx, 1, cause the SHLX instruction to execute slower, potentially due to the register renamer's handling of small immediates.
  • This anomaly can lead to a 3x slowdown and is challenging to reproduce because context switches may reset the register state, inadvertently speeding up the code.
  • The issue is newly discovered and primarily affects shift counts, impacting instructions like SHL, but not others like ANDN, and is not typically accounted for by compilers.