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2023-04-28

Datomic is Free

News

  • Datomic, a database software, is now available for free to all, with no licensing fees.
  • Datomic Pro is free of licensing fees, and Datomic Cloud will be available on AWS Marketplace with no additional software cost.
  • Datomic binaries are released under the Apache 2.0 license, providing users with the same rights as an object work under an open-source license.

Industry Reactions

  • Datomic's peer model allows in-memory app servers to handle reads for massive read scale, with intelligent application-level partitioning and routing schemes balancing cost and performance.
  • Datomic binary is released under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing binary-only distribution, leading to debate on open-source licensing for binaries and commercial pricing.

Steven Spielberg: 'No film should be revised' based on modern sensitivity

News

  • Steven Spielberg criticized the idea of re-editing older films to appease modern audiences, expressing remorse over removing guns from a later edition of E.T.
  • He believes that every film is a signpost of its era and should not be changed based on modern sensibilities.
  • Spielberg also expressed his opposition to censorship and the controversial re-editing of literary works like Roald Dahl's.

Industry Reactions

  • The importance of owning and controlling one's own data to preserve original artistic integrity is emphasized, and the need for effective archiving methods is highlighted.
  • The debate on gender and sex determination, as well as the discussion on censorship and revisionism in media, add complexity to the conversation on cultural preservation and societal change.

As I am currently in a war zone, I don't have many options for cabling

News

  • A question on Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange asks about using clothesline steel wire for AC and DC wiring in a war zone where options are limited.
  • Suggestions include using copper wire for DC and sending 230V AC over clothesline, as well as adding safety measures like insulating tubes and ground wires.
  • Experts caution that steel wire has higher resistivity, can melt or arc, and requires careful testing and insulation.

Industry Reactions

  • Viability of prewar inventions, such as Sarajevo War Stoves or efficient stoves, is debated for power outages.
  • Working with electricity in war zones is dangerous and high risk of injury or death.
  • Need for more resilient infrastructure in war zones and recognition of privilege is discussed.
  • Methods of preventing rust and corrosion in cables and metal structures are discussed.
  • Importance of experience and hands-on learning, and need for better moderation tools on Q&A sites are highlighted.
  • Stack Overflow's moderation tools and community involvement have difficulty scaling, leading to a lack of balance between keeping all content and providing an easily searchable system.
  • Stack Overflow measures success by engagement and advertisement impressions, leading to a potential continuation of rudeness as a moderation tool.

Colorado governor signs tractor right-to-repair law opposed by John Deere

News

  • Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the first state law guaranteeing farmers a right to repair tractors and other equipment themselves or at independent repair shops.
  • Manufacturers of farm equipment must provide parts, embedded software, and documentation to independent repair providers and owners under the new law.
  • Failing to provide the required tools, software, and information will be considered a deceptive trade practice under the new Colorado law, which is more enforceable than a voluntary agreement between the American Farm Bureau Federation and John Deere.

Industry Reactions

  • The Right-to-Repair movement is viewed as a necessary action to fix limitations in the US DMCA regulatory standards and demand corporate accountability and consumer rights
  • Critics argue that the high barrier to entry/market penetration, established players maximizing profit, and externalities of repairability may pose challenges to creating a more desirable product and achieving increased competition

Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

News

  • Brave Search has exceeded 2.5 billion queries in its first year of operation.
  • The search engine now features 'Goggles,' which allows users to choose their search rankings, offering innovative solutions to de-Google their search.
  • Brave Search is a private and independent search engine that has exited its beta phase on its first anniversary.

Industry Reactions

  • Some users prefer to book directly with hotels to ensure they have a room and to avoid potential UX friction from third-party websites.
  • DuckDuckGo blocks specific outlets, leading to a debate over editorial control versus censorship.

Dropbox telemetry can't be disabled

News

  • Dropbox uses telemetry to receive client-side logging, error reporting, and other metrics, which cannot be disabled via the desktop application.
  • The data gathered through Dropbox's Telemetry alias doesn't contain GDPR related information and is primarily used to improve the product.
  • Some users are dissatisfied with not having the option to opt-out of sharing their information and are looking for alternative services.

Industry Reactions

  • Syncthing, a free and open-source tool, is praised for its lack of telemetry, user-friendliness, and background usage
  • Users recommend alternatives such as Nextcloud and self-hosted solutions and express concerns about privacy control and security risks associated with telemetry data collection.

Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

News

  • Dropbox will reduce its global workforce by 16% or 500 Dropbox employees due to slowing growth and the arrival of the AI era of computing
  • The company is streamlining its organizational structure to align with sustainable financial growth, efficiency, and flexibility to invest in the future. This includes consolidating some of its businesses and realigning and refocusing its teams.
  • Impacted employees will receive severance, equity, healthcare, retention of company devices, and job placement services and career coaching. The CEO Drew Houston expressed commitment to ensuring Dropbox remains at the forefront of the AI era.

Industry Reactions

  • There are debates about the potential of AI, including enhancing enterprise permissions management tools and concerns about language imprecision impeding security.
  • Some commenters criticize companies that pivot to new trends solely for stock market gains, rather than sustainable growth and profitability.

A visual book recommender

News

  • Author prefers used book stores over commercial options for book discovery due to skewed search suggestions towards newer books.
  • An initial attempt at creating a book recommender that replicates the used bookstore experience.
  • The model is based on 100M book reviews, reducing spam reviews, and a siamese network with contrastive loss. Uses pointwise mutual information shared between books for similarity.

Industry Reactions

  • Other similar tools include Shepherd, literature-map.com, YASIV, and same.energy, but they may lack accuracy, particularly with popular books with many varied appearances in reading lists.
  • Users can search for books and see them clustered together on a map, import Goodreads reading lists, and generate book recommendations based on clustering data. The tool can also reveal interesting insights like ironic clusters such as the proximity of a Donald Trump book to "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

Even Apple employees hate Siri and are skeptical of its future, new report says

News

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  • No meaningful content for a summary.

Industry Reactions

  • Users complain about Siri's inconsistency in recognizing keywords and phrases, with some words suddenly working again after months of not.
  • Users on Hacker News discuss the deteriorating state of Apple's Siri and voice assistants in general, with some suggesting that Apple invest in rebuilding the platform.

Emerging Rust GUI libraries in a WASM world

News

  • Rust's cross-platform support and WebAssembly integration have made it a popular choice for GUI development
  • Notable Rust GUI toolkits include Dioxus, Tauri, Xilem, Iced, and Egui
  • This post discusses four additional Rust GUI frameworks: KasKas, Slint, Sycamore, and Yew, as well as other tools like Bracket, Cursive, Vizia, Leptos, Perseus, SauronLibrary, MoonZoon, and Relm4.

Industry Reactions

  • Discussion highlights the challenges of using Canvas to render large numbers of rectangles and the importance of considering performance and UI integration when choosing a rendering method.
  • Despite progress in Rust GUI, there is yet no definitive solution for GUIs.