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2023-06-18

London Underground Dot Matrix Typeface

  • The London Underground Dot Matrix Typeface is a set of fonts that replicate the typefaces used on the arrival boards and announcement boards of the London Underground transportation system.
  • The typeface includes different weights and represents the fonts used in different time periods on the Underground network.
  • The typeface is created using reference materials such as photographs and videos, and there is an opportunity for people to contribute by adding new characters to the existing typefaces.

Industry Reactions

  • The London Underground Dot Matrix Typeface has been recreated by a designer and made available on GitHub.
  • The font is distinctive and recognizable, with the capital letters extending below the baseline.
  • The font was likely unique to the London Underground, but there may be similarities with fonts used in other transit systems.

Update: U+237C ⍼ &Angzarr;

  • The post investigates the origin and history of the symbol U+237C ⍼ RIGHT ANGLE WITH DOWNWARDS ZIGZAG ARROW in the Unicode standard.
  • The investigation traces the symbol back to ISO/IEC TR 9573-13, a technical report for SGML, and the Monotype under the matrix serial number S16139.
  • The author has encountered challenges in finding specific documentation related to the symbol, but the investigation is ongoing.

Industry Reactions

  • The article discusses the search for the meaning and origin of a mysterious symbol called U+237C ⍼ &Angzarr;
  • The author made a request to the Cambridge Library for scans of documents related to the symbol, but was told that it exceeds copyright law and scanning limits.
  • Readers are interested in helping fund the digital request and finding a way to continue the research.

Bullshit Jobs (2018)

  • Bullshit jobs are pointless and unnecessary positions that exist in both the public and private sectors, causing frustration among employees and undermining the true purpose of organizations.
  • Many workers feel trapped in their meaningless jobs and struggle to find a balance between the need for meaningful work and the demands of their BS jobs, leading to negative effects on their mental health and self-esteem.
  • The concept of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is seen as a potential solution to address the problem of bullshit jobs and income inequality, empowering individuals to choose how they spend their time and contribute to society.

Industry Reactions

  • The book "Bullshit Jobs" by David Graeber explores the concept of jobs that are perceived as pointless or unnecessary by employees themselves.
  • The book raises questions about the nature of work, the impact of bureaucracy on organizations, and the meaning and value that people derive from their jobs.
  • The concept of bullshit jobs has sparked conversations about the future of work and the need for meaningful employment.

GB Studio: Drag and drop retro game creator for GameBoy

  • GB Studio is a user-friendly drag and drop game creator that allows you to make retro games for the GameBoy handheld video game system.
  • It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and you can download it from Itch.io.
  • The software does not require any programming knowledge and supports multiple game genres. It also includes a built-in music editor and allows you to create real ROM files that can be played on any GameBoy emulator.

Industry Reactions

  • GB Studio is a retro game creator for the GameBoy that allows users to drag and drop to create games.
  • The GameBoy has historically required assembly programming, but GB Studio provides a WYSIWYG game engine for easier game development.
  • GB Studio exports ROM files that can be run on emulators, web pages, or real GameBoy hardware.

I don't need your query language

  • The author expresses their frustration with the emergence of new query languages in the industry and argues that using SQL as a common ground language for general-purpose databases is more practical and efficient.
  • The author compares a new query language called FancyQL with SQL, highlighting that SQL is not as complex as it is often portrayed and can effectively handle data-related tasks.
  • The author emphasizes the advantages of SQL, such as its widespread usage, support from major database engines, and continuous improvement through a standards committee. They assert that there is no need for a fancy query language when SQL is already capable.

Industry Reactions

  • SQL queries can have drawbacks when it comes to querying databases with different types and multiplicity, leading to redundant output and lack of error handling.
  • JSON support in databases allows for aggregating subselect results into a single column, providing more flexibility in querying.
  • Alternative query languages like EdgeQL and PRQL aim to improve upon SQL's limitations, but SQL remains a valuable and widely used tool in the industry.

The Secret Sauce behind 100K context window in LLMs: all tricks in one place

  • The post discusses techniques to speed up training and inference of Large Language Models (LLMs) to use a context window of up to 100K input tokens, which is significantly larger than previous models.
  • The limitations of the original Transformer architecture when working with large context lengths are explained, including the quadratic time and space complexity of the attention layer computations.
  • Several optimization techniques are presented, including ALiBi positional embedding, Sparse Attention, FlashAttention, Multi-Query attention, Conditional computation, and the use of 80GB A100 GPUs, which help increase the context length and improve the efficiency of LLMs.

Industry Reactions

  • Anthropics' 100k model employs clever techniques to extend the context window, but it has some imperfections.
  • Placing instructions after the reference text in the input can help the model pay more attention to them.
  • The inability to cache transformers makes large context windows costly, but the RWKV-LM project on GitHub offers a potential solution.
  • Anthropics' Claude outperforms GPT4 in some instances and ranks between GPT4 and Bard overall.
  • The position of the prompt in the input can affect the model's "attention" and recency bias.
  • Transformers were designed to avoid positional issues, but some cases show that recency bias can still be present.
  • LLMs can struggle to allocate the same level of attention to all parts of the input across the entire context window.
  • Anthropics' Claude is considered underappreciated, but access to it is currently difficult.
  • The computational requirements for large context sizes can be significant but may be worth it for specific applications like programming.
  • Training LLMs with large context windows is resource-intensive, but compressing and optimizing the models can improve efficiency.
  • Large context sizes are necessary for tasks like recalling facts and understanding long stories.
  • There is a need for benchmarks that focus on tasks requiring large context sizes.
  • Lossy compression can result in better quality compared to lossless compression when it comes to LLMs.
  • Positional encoding methods like sinusoidal embeddings may not be suitable for large context sizes.
  • Knowledge of AI in general is essential, but reproducing or modifying LLMs independently requires significant resources.
  • There is ongoing research to improve the scalability of LLMs in terms of compute and memory requirements.
  • The use of learned positional encodings allows for fine-tuning on larger context sizes.
  • The article lacks detailed explanations and makes vague statements about scaling context in LLMs.
  • There is interest in exploring different paradigms and techniques to address the computational complexity of large context sizes.
  • The blog GoPenAI, where the article is hosted, is not affiliated with OpenAI despite the similarity in the domain name.

People can be convinced they committed a crime that never happened (2015)

  • Research shows that innocent individuals can be convinced, through proper questioning techniques, that they have committed a crime that never actually happened.
  • False memories of committing crimes can be generated in just a few hours through friendly interviewing environments and the introduction of wrong details.
  • Incorporating true details into false event stories can make them seem more plausible, leading individuals to provide rich and detailed descriptions of events that never occurred.

Industry Reactions

  • The Reid technique used by law enforcement can lead to false confessions and wrongful convictions.
  • Psychological research shows that false memories can be implanted, leading to people falsely believing they committed a crime.
  • The study raises questions about the reliability of human memory and its implications for the criminal justice system.

Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?- The post discusses why Apple has not added a feature called "window snapping" to its macOS operating system.

  • Window snapping is a feature that allows users to easily arrange and resize open windows on their computer screen.
  • The post explores different perspectives on why Apple may have chosen not to include this feature in macOS.

Industry Reactions

  • Users are questioning why Apple has not added a window snapping feature to macOS, expressing frustration with the default behavior of the green button on macOS windows.
  • The discussion highlights the interest and demand for a window snapping feature in macOS, as well as the various workarounds and customization options available to users.
  • Many users express frustration at having to use third-party apps to manage windows effectively and recommend solutions like Magnet, Rectangle, and Amethyst for window management.

Review of Hetzner ARM64 servers and experience of WebP cloud services on them

  • The performance review of Hetzner's ARM64 servers shows that they perform very well, with the CAX21 machine only being 8% slower than the CPX21 machine in WebP conversion speed.
  • Hetzner offers the lowest price for ARM64 servers compared to other popular service providers.
  • WebP Cloud Services has migrated all their services to Hetzner's ARM64 servers due to their impressive performance and cost-effectiveness.

Industry Reactions

  • The author of the article made a mistake in describing the E3-1230 processor as an 8-core server when it is actually a 4-core server with 8 threads.
  • Some users have experienced difficulties with using ARM images in Docker, as they are often incomplete or behind the x86 release cycle.
  • Hetzner's ARM64 servers provide a cost-effective alternative to x86 servers, with comparable performance and significant cost savings.

Merging bcachefs

  • The bcachefs filesystem, aimed at providing high performance and reliability, is getting closer to being merged into the mainline Linux kernel.
  • The creator of bcachefs, Kent Overstreet, discussed the status of the filesystem, including recent scalability improvements and the implementation of features like snapshots and erasure coding.
  • Overstreet has posted preliminary patches for review and is working on the process of getting bcachefs merged, including addressing concerns about bug support and code review.

Industry Reactions

  • Bcachefs, a new file system, is in the process of being merged into the Linux kernel.
  • Concerns have been raised about the number of file systems in the kernel and the difficulties in removing them due to the close coupling between file systems and other subsystems.
  • Bcachefs has been in development for over 10 years and shows promise, but it may still take some time before it is recommended for widespread use.