דלג לתוכן הראשי

2023-07-22

I have written a JVM in Rust

  • Author has created a JVM in Rust for learning purposes, named rjvm, which is a toy JVM and not a serious implementation.
  • The JVM in Rust supports control flow statements, primitive and object creations, method invocations, exceptions, garbage collection, and class resolution from a jar file.
  • The author plans to stop the project here and will provide more detailed explanations of how the JVM works in future articles.

Industry Reactions

  • A developer has written a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) in Rust.
  • The JVM uses its own virtual callstacks to simplify garbage collection tracing.
  • The project is a toy JVM built for learning purposes, not a serious implementation.

Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

  • Microwaving plastic baby food containers can release billions of nanoscopic particles and millions of microscopic ones, according to a study from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
  • The health effects of consuming these micro- and nanoplastics are uncertain, but the study found that three-quarters of cultured embryonic kidney cells died after being introduced to the particles.
  • It is important to be aware of the number of plastic particles present in our food and to limit exposure to them. Researchers hope to develop plastics that release fewer or negligible amounts of micro- and nanoplastics.

Industry Reactions

  • Microwaving plastic containers releases billions of nanoplastics and millions of microplastics.
  • Exposure to micro- and nanoplastics can lead to cell death, but the long-term health effects are still unknown.
  • Using alternative materials like glass and stainless steel for food storage and cooking could help reduce exposure to plastics.

Web Environment Integrity API Proposal

  • The post discusses a proposal for a new API called Web Environment Integrity API.
  • The API allows developers to determine the integrity of web environments.
  • The proposal is currently being prototyped in Chromium.

Industry Reactions

  • The proposed Web Environment Integrity API is a response to the dominance of ad-based business models and the demand for more functionality in web browsers.
  • Critics raise concerns about potential monopolization by Google Chrome and the restriction of competition in the web browser market.
  • The proposal sparks debates about privacy, control, and the future of the web, with discussions on user-centric design, open-source alternatives, and the impact of major tech companies.

Journalists should be skeptical of all sources including scientists

  • A group of prominent scientists published a paper on the origin of COVID-19 that contradicted their true beliefs, sparking a scandal.
  • Leaked emails and Slack messages reveal that the authors manipulated the media narrative to downplay the lab leak theory and promote the natural origin theory.
  • This scandal highlights the need for journalists to be skeptical of all sources, including scientists, and not to blindly trust expert opinions.

Industry Reactions

  • Journalists should be skeptical of all sources, including scientists, to ensure accurate reporting.
  • The need for responsible journalism and the potential consequences of poorly researched reporting are highlighted.
  • Science literacy and statistical literacy are important for journalists to critically evaluate research and present accurate information to the public.

In the LLM space, "open source" is being used to mean "downloadable weights"

  • The term "open source" is being used in the LLM (Large Language Model) space to refer to downloadable weights of AI models, rather than full access to the training code and dataset.
  • There is ongoing debate within the AI community about whether open weights are enough for a model to be considered open source, as some argue that true openness requires sharing all training resources.
  • The LLaMA2 model is an example of a model with restricted weights, as it has limitations on commercial use and training another large language model with its outputs. However, despite these limitations, the release of LLaMA2 on GitHub is seen as a positive development for the progress of the LLM space.

Industry Reactions

  • The term "open source" is being used in the LLM (Large Language Model) space to refer to downloadable weights, which some argue is deceptive.
  • The debate over the meaning of "open source" and the licensing complexities in the AI industry raises questions about fairness, access, and the relationship between LLMs and copyright law.
  • The restrictions on the use and distribution of LLMs like LLaMA2 may impact their commercial applications and lead to API-based access instead of downloadable weights.

'World of Warcraft' players trick AI-scraping website into publishing nonsense

  • The World of Warcraft subreddit discovered that a gaming website was scraping their threads and using an AI to summarize them into articles.
  • The subreddit users decided to prank the website by creating a fake thread about a non-existent feature called Glorbo, which the AI then turned into an article.
  • This incident highlights the issue of AI-generated content and the lack of oversight on some websites, and raises questions about the role of AI in journalism.

Industry Reactions

  • 'World of Warcraft' players tricked an AI-scraping website into publishing nonsense content.
  • Players noted that many gaming websites regurgitate the same information through AI-generated content.
  • The prevalence of SEO spam in gaming sites raises questions about Google's ability to filter reliable sources.

Dementia risk linked to blood-protein imbalance in middle age

  • Abnormal levels of certain proteins in middle age could be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease or similar conditions.
  • A study following thousands of people over 25 years identified 32 proteins that, if unbalanced between the ages of 45 to 60, were strongly associated with an elevated risk of developing dementia later in life.
  • The findings could potentially lead to the development of new diagnostic tests and treatments for dementia-causing diseases.

Industry Reactions

  • Researchers have discovered a link between blood-protein imbalance in middle age and an increased risk of dementia.
  • The study identified 32 proteins that were strongly associated with dementia risk if their levels were unbalanced.
  • The proteins are involved in proteostasis, immunity, synaptic function, and extracellular matrix organization.
  • Some of the proteins were also found to be abnormally expressed in postmortem brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients.
  • The findings suggest that dysregulation of specific immune and proteostasis pathways may contribute to dementia risk.
  • The study genetically validated nine of the candidate proteins as markers of Alzheimer's disease.
  • The research provides valuable insights into the biological mechanisms underlying the earliest phases of dementia.
  • More research is needed to understand the causal relationship between protein imbalances and dementia.
  • The findings could potentially lead to the development of early detection and risk assessment tools for dementia.

Llama: Add grammar-based sampling

  • The post introduces a new feature called "grammar-based sampling" in the Llama software.
  • The feature adds an API that takes a serialized context-free grammar to guide and constrain sampling.
  • This feature allows users to specify grammars for generating different types of data, such as chess moves, arithmetic expressions, JSON, and more.

Industry Reactions

  • "Llama: Add grammar-based sampling" is a new feature that allows for more control over the output of language models like GPT.
  • The feature uses a grammar to constrain the tokens generated by the model, resulting in more finely-grained control over the output.
  • The addition of grammar-based sampling can help ensure that the generated text adheres to specific syntax or format requirements.

Primo – a visual CMS with Svelte blocks, a code editor, and SSG

  • Primo is a visual CMS that allows you to easily build pages and manage content using blocks.
  • It combines content management with the power of modern development and offers features like drag-and-drop page building and visual content editing.
  • Primo also allows for real-time collaboration, deployment to Github, and the option to self-host or use Primo Cloud for free.

Industry Reactions

  • The drag-and-drop blocks/slices of content in CMS systems can be difficult to manage and maintain, leading to unsatisfactory results for content creators.
  • A headless CMS that separates content creation and design may be a better approach for some projects.
  • Primo is a visual CMS with Svelte blocks, a code editor, and a static site generator that aims to provide a streamlined and approachable way to build and manage websites.

Nanosecond timestamp collisions are common

  • Nanosecond timestamp collisions are common on modern systems, occurring in approximately 5% of all samples when reading the clock on all 4 physical cores at the same time.
  • This means that a raw nanosecond timestamp cannot be assumed to be a unique identifier.
  • The behavior of timestamp collisions varies between different operating systems, with Linux showing consistent increases in both absolute and monotonic times within a single thread, while Mac OS X has a high number of collisions with microsecond resolution.

Industry Reactions

  • Nanosecond timestamp collisions are common and can lead to issues with generating unique identifiers.
  • UUIDv7 is a proposed standard that combines a time component with a random component to create unique IDs.
  • There is a debate about the accuracy and uniqueness of raw nanosecond timestamps, and alternative solutions like ULIDs and hierarchical sequential IDs are proposed.