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42,062,837 | aicoding | 2024-11-06T14:32:11 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,062,841 | ashitlerferad | 2024-11-06T14:32:32 | Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Switch | null | https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-switchs-successor-will-be-backwards-compatible-with-switch-nintendo-confirms/ | 250 | 155 | [
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] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,062,858 | ashitlerferad | 2024-11-06T14:33:46 | Linux Server DIY Projects for Beginners | null | https://linuxblog.io/linux-server-diy-projects-for-beginners/ | 10 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,062,917 | ridd_design | 2024-11-06T14:37:31 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,062,918 | rntn | 2024-11-06T14:37:33 | UK orders Chinese biz to sell majority stake in Scottish chipmaker | null | https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/china_ftdi_stake/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | UK orders Chinese biz to sell majority stake in Scottish chipmaker | 2024-11-06T12:58:53Z | Dan Robinson |
The British government has ordered a China-owned entity to sell its stake in a Scottish chip company under the authority of the National Security and Investment Act 2021.
Glasgow-based Future Technology Devices International (FTDI) Limited is a fabless semiconductor biz with a range of chips and modules listed on its website, most of which appear to be fairly innocuous. The company is said to specialize in USB technology.
However, FTDI also provides application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design services, plus consultancy services, and claims to have agreements with the world's leading semiconductor foundries.
According to a British government notification, an entity known as FTDI Holding Limited (FTDIHL) gained control of FTDI Limited on December 7, 2021, by increasing the percentage of shares it held to 75 percent or more.
FTDIHL is listed at Companies House as a dormant company registered in Britain, but is not trading or earning any income. It has two active directors who share the same UK correspondence address but are listed as Chinese nationals, also residing in China.
The move by FTDIHL to gain control of FTDI Limited was regarded as a "trigger event" for investigation under section 8(2)(c) of the National Security and Investment Act 2021, the government says.
Following a detailed security assessment, the decision was taken by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to impose an order on FTDIHL to sell 80.2 percent of FTDI Limited "within a specified period and by following a specified process."
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is the highest-ranking minister in the British Cabinet Office after the Prime Minister. The current holder of the post is Pat McFadden MP.
Meta gives nod to weaponizing Llama – but only for the good guys
China's Volt Typhoon reportedly breached Singtel in 'test-run' for US telecom attacks
Your air fryer might be snitching on you to China
Chinese attackers accessed Canadian government networks – for five years
In its notification of the action, the government said the order will mitigate dangers related to "UK-developed semiconductor technology and associated intellectual property being deployed in ways that are contrary to UK national security," and "the ownership of FTDI being used to pose a risk to critical national infrastructure which uses FTDI products."
We asked the Cabinet Office for further information relating to this decision, but it simply referred us to the published notification. We also asked FTDI Limited for its reaction, and will update if we get an answer.
The government has invoked the National Security and Investment Act multiple times since it came into force in 2022. Perhaps the most notable case was to force the sale of the Newport Wafer Fab semiconductor facility in South Wales after it was acquired by Dutch-based Nexperia, owned by Chinese company Wingtech Technology.
It also stepped in to stop a Chinese company from licensing robot vision technology developed by the University of Manchester, and conducted an investigation when French telco billionaire Patrick Drahi became the largest shareholder in telecoms giant BT, but in that case decided no action was required. ®
| 2024-11-08T12:25:57 | en | train |
42,062,934 | mfiguiere | 2024-11-06T14:38:02 | AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Linux Performance: Zen 5 With 3D V-Cache | null | https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d-linux | 127 | 88 | [
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Ahead of tomorrow's availability of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor as the first Zen 5 CPU released with 3D V-Cache, today the review embargo lifts. Here is a look at how this 8-core / 16-thread Zen 5 CPU with 64MB of 3D V-Cache is performing under Ubuntu Linux compared to a variety of other Intel Core and AMD Ryzen desktop processors.
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D as previously shared is AMD's first processor leveraging 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache. The 64MB of cache is now underneath the processor cores so that the CCD is positioned closer to the heatsink/cooler to help with more efficient cooling compared to earlier X3D models.
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D boosts up to 5.2GHz and feature a 4.7GHz base clock while in total it provides 104MB of cache. Like with the prior 8-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D, all eight cores have access to the 64MB 3D V-Cache. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D features a 120 Watt default TDP. AMD's suggested pricing on the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is $479 USD.
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D will work with existing AMD AM5 motherboards with a simple BIOS update. For my testing I was able to use the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI motherboard previously used for all Ryzen 9000 series testing after a simple BIOS update. AMD also sent out an ASRock X870E Taichi motherboard as part of the review kit. For these 9800X3D benchmarks I ended up testing both initially on the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI motherboard to match the previously tested Ryzen 9000 series processors and then repeated the run with the ASRock X870E Taichi motherboard as well for reference.
Similarly, the AMD review kit for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D also included 2 x 16GB DDR5-6000 GSKILL F5-6000J2836G16G memory modules. This 32GB DDR5-6000 memory kit features 28-36-36-96 timings in the EXPO profile. The previously tested CPUs were using 2 x 16GB DDR5-6000 GSKILL F5-6000J3038F16G DIMMs that are 30-38-38-96 timings in their EXPO profile. So the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D was also tested with the same DIMMs as the other CPUs and then again with the new GSKILL DDR5-6000 CL28 memory modules provided by AMD. Due to the short turnaround time for testing, all of the previous Ryzen 9000 series processors couldn't yet be re-tested on the X870E motherboard and the GSKILL DDR5-6000 CL28 memory modules, thus the combination of both for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor benchmarks. Nearly 400 benchmarks taking more than one day to run were tested on each of the processors under test.
The assortment of processors tested for this launch-day AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Linux testing included:
- Core i5 13600K
- Core i9 13900K
- Core i5 14400F
- Core i5 14500
- Core i5 14600K
- Core i9 14900K
- Core Ultra 5 245K
- Core Ultra 9 285K
- Ryzen 7 5800X
- Ryzen 7 5800X3D
- Ryzen 9 5900X
- Ryzen 9 5950X
- Ryzen 5 7600
- Ryzen 5 7600X
- Ryzen 5 8600G
- Ryzen 7 7700
- Ryzen 7 7700X
- Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- Ryzen 7 8700G
- Ryzen 9 7900
- Ryzen 9 7900X
- Ryzen 9 7900X3D
- Ryzen 9 7950X
- Ryzen 9 7950X3D
- Ryzen 5 9600X
- Ryzen 5 9600X @ 105W cTDP
- Ryzen 7 9700X
- Ryzen 7 9700X @ 105W cTDP
- Ryzen 9 9900X
- Ryzen 9 9950X
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D - New DRAM
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D - New DRAM + X870E
Like with the other AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors and the AMD EPYC 9005 server parts, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D was working without issue on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Any modern Linux distribution should basically be in good shape for the AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors. The one recent caveat is needing Linux 6.12+ for the AMD Zen 5 CPU power reporting if that is important to you otherwise it's an easy one-liner patch to backport.
Thanks to AMD for providing the Ryzen 7 9800X3D review kit for launch-day Linux testing on Phoronix.
| 2024-11-08T02:47:48 | en | train |
42,062,936 | KouroshGhaffari | 2024-11-06T14:38:11 | Product being used for p*orn – lean into it? | null | https://usevoicy.com/ | 3 | 24 | [
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42,063,025 | handfuloflight | 2024-11-06T14:43:40 | The Solitary Path: Unveiling the Secrets of Khulwa in Al-Shadhili's Manuscript | null | https://www.karkari.org/library/the-solitary-path-unveiling-the-secrets-of-khulwa-in-al-shadhili-s-manuscript | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,075 | actfrench | 2024-11-06T14:46:24 | Ask HN: Any media literacy focused startups worth looking at? | I want to put my energy into a team that's helping build tech to fact check the news, teach people about media literacy, or taking any other creative, impactful approach to help people sift through it all and become more critical thinkers. Or having an impact on media literacy overall for adults or kids. | null | 2 | 2 | [
42063984
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,098 | soham123 | 2024-11-06T14:47:44 | Show HN: LLM Function Calling Library to Interact with File, Shell, Git and Code | Hey HN,<p>I built SWE-Kit, LLM toolkit (Function callable tools) which makes building agents specialised in coding like Devin very easy.<p>I noticed a typical pattern while building local agents: creating & perfecting LLM tools to interact with system or codebase was the repeated and time-consuming. We created a layer that simplifies building agents that can interact with code, file system, git, shell and allows you to quickly solve for a wide variety of coding agent use cases.<p>Aren’t there open coding agents already? Well, yes, but most folks would want to solve their specific use case like a large refactor and current coding agents aren’t customisable to your specific use case or aren’t meant to be molded to different workflows.<p>The idea is to provide a library of tools so you can build software engineering agents with a few lines of code in agentic framework of your choice.<p>We have solved following hard parts for everyone -
- Optimized Coding Tools: Includes Code Analysis, File Operations, and Shell tools for seamless interaction with codebases and operating systems.
- Browser Interaction Tool: Enables navigation and interaction with UI-based applications and codebases.
- Framework Agnostic: Compatible with frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, and Autogen, this allows you to work with your preferred setup.
- Third-Party Integrations: Connects with applications like GitHub, Slack, Jira, and Gmail to build fully autonomous, end-to-end AI coding agents.
- Flexible Deployment: Run on Local, Docker, Fly.io, E2b, AWS Lambda (soon!)<p>Is this the 10x Coding Agent I was looking for?<p>No this is not a coding agent but allows you to build your custom coding agent in framework of your choice.<p>We have created some templates to get started quickly though:
- GitHub PR Agent: Autonomously reviews GitHub pull requests with full codebase context.
- SWE Agent: Writes new features, debugs code, refactors, and creates tests.
- Codebase Q&A Agent: Enables natural language interactions with the codebase.<p>To better showcase the SWE kit's capability, we tested it on [swebench.com](<a href="https://www.swebench.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.swebench.com/</a>), the benchmark for testing coding agents. It scored 48.60%, whereas Devin scored only 13.86%.<p>If you end up using this, please do provide feedback and if you need help building coding agent feel free to reach out to us<p>I (Soham) & my cofounder Karan are both active on this thread to answer any questions! | https://swekit.dev/ | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,117 | dipaksahirav | 2024-11-06T14:48:56 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,160 | sirk390 | 2024-11-06T14:51:04 | Using the OpenAI Reatime API in Python | null | https://medium.com/@sirk390/using-the-openai-reatime-api-in-python-37d6fcfd5ebe | 2 | 1 | [
42063266
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,161 | bookofjoe | 2024-11-06T14:51:07 | Vertical bedrock shifts reveal summer water storage in Greenland ice sheet | null | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08096-3 | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,177 | sunilkumardash9 | 2024-11-06T14:51:59 | Tool design is all you need for building SOTA coding agents | null | https://composio.dev/blog/tool-design-is-all-you-need-for-sota-swe-agents/ | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,186 | djaygour | 2024-11-06T14:52:21 | Launching KuwarPay | Hey everyone! I’m excited to share something I’ve been working on that could make a big difference in social media shopping. It’s called KuwarPay—a payment solution I created after experiencing the frustration of clunky checkouts and abandoned carts.
With KuwarPay, shopping from your favorite social media platforms is super easy! Just click the link in a post, checkout securely, and pay through PhonePe. Plus, you get exclusive discounts along the way!
I’d love to hear what you all think! What features would make your social media shopping experience unforgettable? What are some of the challenges you face when trying to buy online? Your feedback means the world to me and will help shape KuwarPay into something truly special. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!" This version aims to create a friendly tone and connect with readers personally. Feel free to tweak it further if needed! | null | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,210 | boris_m | 2024-11-06T14:53:31 | Show HN: Term-Lisp – A Lisp, based on pattern matching and term rewriting | null | https://github.com/abuseofnotation/termlisp | 46 | 19 | [
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Disclaimer: This project is at a very early stage, many things may not work.
Overview
term-lisp is a language for term list processing with first-class pattern matching, inspired by Pie, Haskel, Agda et al.
Term rewriting
Right from when Church and Turing defined it, the concept of computation has been two-fold --- it can be presented either as the process of mutating the values of some state (Turing Machine) or by transforming some terms, using a predefined set of equations (Lambda Calculus). term-lisp leans heavily in the second direction. It does not support variables and its functions, are rules that describe how to replace a given term with another one.
For example, consider how the booleans are defined:
(true = Bool True)
(false = Bool False)
This means "when you see the term "true", replace it with the term "Bool True"
Also, note that "Bool True" isn't defined anywhere. That is because in term-lisp, unlike in other lisps, an undefined term is not an error, it is just an undefined term.
First-class pattern matching
term-lisp supports first-class pattern matching. This means that you can have functions that return patterns.
For example, consider how the if expression is defined:
(if (:literal true) a b = a)
(if (:literal false) a b = b)
Here the terms true and false are automatically expanded, so the expressions above are a shorthand for:
(if (:literal (Bool True)) a b = a)
(if (:literal (Bool False)) a b = b)
Lazy evaluation
Term-rewriting languages sometimes have issues with dealing with functions that perform side-effects, such as print, as they don't allow for so fine-grained control over when is the function evaluated. To prevent unwanted execution, expressions in term-lisp are evaluated lazily i.e. only when they are needed.
For example, consider this function that prints an error when its arguments are not equal:
(assertEqual a b = (if (eq a b) () (print (error a is-not-equal-to b))))
If you wish to define if as a function in a non-lazy (strict) language, the print function will be called no matter if the two expressions are equal, simply because the result would be evaluated before the if function is even called.
Language tutorial
Let's start with BNR form:
<expression> ::= <atom> | <constructor> | <application> | <definition>
atom ::= <char> | <atom> <char>
datatype ::= "(" <atom> <expression>* ")"
application ::= "(" <atom> <expression>* ")"
definition ::= "("<atom> <datatype> "=" <expression> ")"
chain ::= "(" <expression>* ")"
Like every other Lisp, term-lisp is based on atoms and lists. Atoms are the primitive values, lists contain them e.g. foo, bar 3 + are atoms, (foo bar 3) is a list.
Regular Lisps are based on the pair/tuple datatype, the cons data constructor, which unites two values in a tuple, and the car and cdr destructors which retrieve the first and second value of a tuple, respectively.
(assertEqual (car (cons foo bar)) foo)
(assertEqual (cdr (cons foo bar)) bar)
In term-lisp, the pair is just one of the datatypes that you can define and use.
(cons a b = Pair a b)
(car (Pair a b) = a)
(cdr (Pair a b) = b)
We will review how this is done.
Functional application
Functional application in term-lisp works as in any other Lisp. A list of the type (function-name argument1 argument2) evaluates to the function's return expression e.g. (car (cons foo bar)) evaluates to foo.
Datatype
What happens if we construct an expression that looks like function application, but the function being applied is not defined? In most languages, this would result in error, but in term-lisp we will create a new datatype/constructor, e.g. the expression Pair foo bar would evaluate to... Pair foo bar i.e. we will save a new object of type Pair, containing the values of foo and bar. What if the functions foo and bar aren't defined as well? They would evaluate to themselves too, like constructors without arguments. True and False are constructors without arguments as well.
Function definition
A functional definition is a list of arguments and an expression that does something with these arguments, separated by an equals sign.
For example, here is a function that accepts two arguments and returns a new datatype that unites them into one:
Functional definitions support a variety of pattern-matching features.
Functional definitions support destructuring arguments. For example, the function
accepts one argument which has to be a Pair datatype and destructures it to its two elements (which can be referred to by the names a and b in the resulting expression.
The destructuring can also be used for type-checking. Consider the following function for printing:
(print-pair (Pair a b) = print (Pair a b))
The resulting function will behave like print, but it will only work with arguments of type Pair.
Functional definitions support value-matching, via the :literal. For example, consider the implementation of the function if:
(if (:literal true) a b = a)
This means that the function will only work if the first argument is true (this is different from (if true a b = a) which will assign the symbol true to the value of the first parameter).
Functional definitions also support multiple implementations of the same function, like for example the implementation of if would be incomplete, as it will fail when the value is false. Adding a second implementation makes it total (provided that someone does not define more Bool values).
(if (:literal false) a b = b)
Functional definitions support passing functions, via the :lambda keyword:
(map a (:lambda fun) = fun a)
You can pass an existing function:
(this-is a = (this is a))
(assertEqual (map foo this-is) (this is foo))
Or define one inline (be sure to give it a name):
(assertEqual (map bar (fun a = (this is a))) (this is bar))
Running term-lisp
In the project root, run:
It will evaluate the prelude module, plus your file (if you provided one) and go to REPL mode.
Read the prelude.
| 2024-11-08T16:14:15 | en | train |
42,063,220 | Brajeshwar | 2024-11-06T14:54:09 | How to Drill for Extraterrestrial Life on Europa | null | https://nautil.us/how-to-drill-for-extraterrestrial-life-on-europa-1066414/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,221 | neinasaservice | 2024-11-06T14:54:12 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,223 | gmays | 2024-11-06T14:54:15 | The Amazon-Talen Deal: Why It Was Stopped | null | https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp500-nasdaq-live-11-4-2024/card/the-amazon-talen-deal-why-it-was-stopped-0zPgZJrJatPX0GZ2Wr38 | 2 | 2 | [
42063229,
42063554
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,224 | Brajeshwar | 2024-11-06T14:54:16 | Scientists Develop Fast, Affordable Cancer Test from a Single Drop of Blood | null | https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-develop-fast-affordable-cancer-test-from-a-single-drop-of-blood/ | 7 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,227 | Brajeshwar | 2024-11-06T14:54:23 | A new city springs from the rainforest to become Indonesia's tech hub | null | https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/indonesias_new_capital_nusantara/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,254 | benardogutu65 | 2024-11-06T14:56:12 | How to Use Data to Optimize Your Fiverr Gigs and Boost Your Freelancing Success | null | https://bencrafts.online/how-to-use-data-to-optimize-your-fiverr-gigs-and-boost-your-freelancing-success | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,302 | lawrenceyan | 2024-11-06T14:58:47 | RNA-Encoded Interleukin 2 with Extended Bioavailability Amplifies Immunity | null | https://aacrjournals.org/cancerimmunolres/article-abstract/12/10/1409/748723/RNA-encoded-Interleukin-2-with-Extended?redirectedFrom=fulltext | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,305 | dndndnd | 2024-11-06T14:58:56 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,346 | skp1995 | 2024-11-06T15:01:00 | Show HN: Aide, an open-source AI native IDE | Hey HN, We are Sandeep and Naresh, the creators of Aide. We are happy to open source and invite the community to try out Aide which is a VSCode fork built with LLMs integrated.<p>To talk through the features, we engineered the following:<p>- A proactive agent<p>Agent which iterates on the linter errors (powered by the Language Server) and pulls in relevant context by doing go-to-definitions, go-to-references etc and propose fixes or ask for more files which might be missing in the context.<p>- Developer control<p>We encourage you to do edits on top of your coding sessions. To enable this, we built a VSCode native rollback feature which gets rid of all the edits made by the agent in a single click if there were mistakes, without messing up your changes from before.<p>- A combined chat+edit flow which you can use to brainstorm and edit<p>You can brainstorm a problem in chat by @’ting the files and then jump into edits (which can happen across multiple files) or go from a smaller set of edits and discuss the side-effects of it<p>- Inline editing widget<p>We took inspiration from the macos spotlight widget and created a similar one inside the editor, you can highlight part of the code, do Cmd+K and just give your instructions freely<p>- Local running AI brain<p>We ship a binary called sidecar which takes care of talking to the LLM providers, preparing the prompts and using the editor for the LLM. All of this is local first and you get full control over the prompts/responses without anything leaking to our end (unless you choose to use your subscription and share the data with us)<p>We spent the last 15 months learning about the internals of VSCode (its a non-trivial codebase) and also powering up our AI game, the framework is also at the top of swebench-lite with 43% score.
On top of this, since the whole AI side of the logic runs locally on your machine you have complete control over the data, from the prompt to the responses and you can use your own API Keys as well (can be any LLM provider) and talk to them directly.<p>There’s still a whole lot to build and we are at 1% of the journey. Right now the editor feels robust and does not break on any of the flows which we aimed to solve for.<p>Let us know if there’s anything else you would like to see us build. We also want to empower extensibility and work together with the community to build the next set of features and set a new milestone of AI native editors. | https://aide.dev/ | 119 | 91 | [
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42,063,361 | strongshirt | 2024-11-06T15:01:43 | null | null | null | 1 | null | [
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] | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,380 | rbanffy | 2024-11-06T15:02:43 | AMD's 9800X3D: 2nd Generation V-Cache – By George Cozma | null | https://chipsandcheese.com/p/amds-9800x3d-2nd-generation-v-cache | 6 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,386 | ChumpGPT | 2024-11-06T15:03:05 | Carl Sagan's scientific legacy extends far beyond 'Cosmos' | null | https://theconversation.com/carl-sagans-scientific-legacy-extends-far-beyond-cosmos-240885 | 13 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | Carl Sagan’s scientific legacy extends far beyond ‘Cosmos’ | null | Jean-Luc Margot |
On Nov. 9, 2024, the world will mark Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday – but sadly without Sagan, who died in 1996 at the age of 62.
Most people remember him as the co-creator and host of the 1980 “Cosmos” television series, watched worldwide by hundreds of millions of people. Others read “Contact,” his best-selling science fiction novel, or “The Dragons of Eden,” his Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book. Millions more saw him popularize astronomy on “The Tonight Show.”
What most people don’t know about Sagan, and what has been somewhat obscured by his fame, is the far-reaching impact of his science, which resonates to this day. Sagan was an unequaled science communicator, astute advocate and prolific writer. But he was also an outstanding scientist.
Sagan propelled science forward in at least three important ways. He produced notable results and insights described in over 600 scientific papers. He enabled new scientific disciplines to flourish. And he inspired multiple generations of scientists. As a planetary astronomer, I believe such a combination of talents and accomplishments is rare and may occur only once in my lifetime.
Scientific accomplishments
Very little was known in the 1960s about Venus. Sagan investigated how the greenhouse effect in its carbon dioxide atmosphere might explain the unbearably high temperature on Venus – approximately 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius). His research remains a cautionary tale about the dangers of fossil fuel emissions here on Earth.
Carl Sagan hosted and co-wrote ‘Cosmos,’ a 13-part TV series that aired on PBS stations from 1980 to 1981.
Mickey Adair/Michael Ochs Archives/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Sagan proposed a compelling explanation for seasonal changes in the brightness of Mars, which had been incorrectly attributed to vegetation or volcanic activity. Wind-blown dust was responsible for the mysterious variations, he explained.
Sagan and his students studied how changes to the reflectivity of Earth’s surface and atmosphere affect our climate. They considered how the detonation of nuclear bombs could inject so much soot into the atmosphere that it would lead to a yearslong period of substantial cooling, a phenomenon known as nuclear winter.
With unusual breadth in astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology, Sagan pushed forward the nascent discipline of astrobiology – the study of life in the universe.
Together with the research scientist Bishun Khare at Cornell University, Sagan conducted pioneering laboratory experiments and showed that certain ingredients of prebiotic chemistry, called tholins, and certain building blocks of life, known as amino acids, form naturally in laboratory environments that mimic planetary settings.
Carl Sagan proposed the ‘Golden Record,’ which features the sounds of Earth, including greetings spoken in 55 languages.
NASA via Wikimedia Commons
He also modeled the delivery of prebiotic molecules to the early Earth by asteroids and comets, and he was deeply engaged in the biological experiments onboard the Mars Viking landers. Sagan also speculated about the possibility of balloon-shaped organisms floating in the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter.
His passion for finding life elsewhere extended far beyond the solar system. He was a champion of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, also known as SETI. He helped fund and participated in a systematic search for extraterrestrial radio beacons by scanning 70% of the sky with the physicist and electrical engineer Paul Horowitz.
He proposed and co-designed the plaques and the “Golden Records” now affixed to humanity’s most distant ambassadors, the Pioneer and Voyager spacecrafts. It is unlikely that extraterrestrials will ever find these artifacts, but Sagan wanted people to contemplate the possibility of communication with other civilizations.
Carl Sagan, offering his unique commentary in a scene from ‘Cosmos.’
Advocacy
Sagan’s scientific output repeatedly led him to become an eloquent advocate on issues of societal and scientific significance. He testified before Congress about the dangers of climate change. He was an antinuclear activist and spoke out against the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.” He urged collaborations and a joint space mission with the Soviet Union, in an attempt to improve U.S.-Soviet relations. He spoke directly with members of Congress about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and organized a petition signed by dozens of prominent scientists urging support for the search.
Carl Sagan, speaking out against the use of nuclear weapons, at the Great Peace March in 1986.
Visions of America LLC/Corbis via Getty Images
But perhaps his most important gift to society was his promotion of truth-seeking and critical thinking. He encouraged people to muster the humility and discipline to confront their most cherished beliefs – and to rely on evidence to obtain a more accurate view of the world. His most cited book, “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark,” is a precious resource for anyone trying to navigate this age of disinformation.
Impact
A scientist’s impact can sometimes be gauged by the number of times their scholarly work is cited by other scientists. According to Sagan’s Google Scholar page, his work continues to accumulate more than 1,000 citations per year.
Indeed, his current citation rate exceeds that of many members of the National Academy of Sciences, who are “elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research,” according to the academy’s website, and is “one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.”
Sagan was nominated for election into the academy during the 1991-1992 cycle, but his nomination was challenged at the annual meeting; more than one-third of the members voted to keep him out, which doomed his admission. An observer at that meeting wrote to Sagan, “It is the worst of human frailties that keeps you out: jealousy.” This belief was affirmed by others in attendance. In my opinion, the academy’s failure to admit Sagan remains an enduring stain on the organization.
No amount of jealousy can diminish Sagan’s profound and wide-ranging legacy. In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Sagan has inspired generations of scientists and brought an appreciation of science to countless nonscientists. He has demonstrated what is possible in the realms of science, communication and advocacy. Those accomplishments required truth-seeking, hard work and self-improvement. On the 90th anniversary of Sagan’s birth, a renewed commitment to these values would honor his memory.
| 2024-11-08T08:24:53 | en | train |
42,063,407 | Saul_C | 2024-11-06T15:04:39 | Fread – The Next-Generation Mastodon and RSS Client | null | https://medium.com/@kezhang404/fread-the-next-generation-mastodon-client-30bc50e279fd | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,430 | webscraping99 | 2024-11-06T15:06:02 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,450 | rbanffy | 2024-11-06T15:07:06 | How to become a more effective engineer | null | https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-to-become-a-more-effective-engineer | 23 | 4 | [
42063564,
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] | null | null | no_error | How to become a more effective engineer | 2024-11-05T17:26:35+00:00 | Gergely Orosz, Cindy Sridharan | Hi – this is Gergely with the monthly, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer. In every issue, I cover challenges at Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. To get weekly emails like this in your inbox, subscribe here:Today happens to be election day in the US: the biggest political event in four years. While we will not discuss that kind of politics in this publication: this event is a good excuse to discuss the other type of politics: workplace politics. Specifically: for software engineers and engineering leaders.Cindy Sridharan is a software engineer working in the Bay Area. I originally connected with Cindy years back, online, over distributed systems discussions, and we met in-person last year in San Francisco. As the topic of internal politics for software engineers came up, Cindy, frustrated with the kind of careless, non-productive discourse that swirled around this topic, wrote an article about it, back in 2022.The article really resonated with me – and with other people I shared it with. So with the permission and help of Cindy, this is an edited and updated version of Cindy’s original article.In this issue, Cindy covers:Know how your org worksSoft skills: these are hard skills!Implicit hierarchiesCultures: top-down, bottom-up, and both at the same timeGet comfortable with the “mess”Look for small winsUnderstand organizational constraintsAs related reading, see these The Pragmatic Engineer Deepdives:Internal politics for software engineers and managers: Part 1Internal politics for software engineers and managers: Part 2 Engineering career paths at Big Tech and scaleupsSeven tactics to become a more effective software engineer. None are about codingWith this, it’s over to Cindy:Some time ago, exhausted by never-ending complaints about self-defeating reward structures at companies, I made what seemed to me a fairly self-evident comment:Cindy Sridharan on XSome of the responses this comment garnered were, well, rather pointed. Most people’s dismay seemed to have stemmed from what they’d perceived to be my dismissiveness towards their well-intentioned albeit ultimately not very fruitful efforts to make things better at their workplace. I’ve been meaning to expand on some of my thoughts on this topic for months, since I feel this warrants a more nuanced and considered discussion than is feasible on social media.This post aims to lay out some problems engineers might often encounter when trying to address causes of dysfunction at their companies. It offers some food for thought on how to be more effective working within the limitations and constraints of organizations.One caveat I need to mention is that most of what I describe here is from the perspective of an individual contributor (IC). I’ve never been a manager and have no experience of navigating organizational politics as a manager. There are innumerable resources by seasoned managers on how to maneuver managerial politics, for those interested.It’s something of a rule of thumb that on social media, topics that generally require careful consideration are painted with reductionist, impractical, or aspirational brushstrokes. This is often done by people with very high levels of visibility, and sometimes by people who really ought to know better. Much of this oversimplified and irresponsible discourse gets excessively amplified, to the degree that it can very quickly become what’s perceived as “conventional wisdom”. None of this is productive. Worse, it gives easily influenced people the wrong idea of how organizations “must” function.It can be quite discouraging to see aspirational goals get elevated to such heights that anything that falls short of their high standards is often deemed as “toxic” or “dysfunctional.”Technical debt is a common talking point, so let’s take this as a concrete example. The accumulation of technical debt as teams prioritize building new features at a rapid pace, even if it comes at the expense of quality, performance, testing and so forth: this is a very common occurrence. As an industry, we’ve not built the tools, framework, or even an effective vocabulary required to talk about these tradeoffs, beyond simply calling it “technical debt”. As a result, most conversations around technical debt end up being oddly confusing. People are often disappointed about how “leadership doesn’t get tech debt” or about how features are always prioritized over critical maintenance work.Yes, ideally we should have a culture which prioritizes minimizing technical debt and building software sustainably, not just shipping features. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a single team or organization that prioritizes addressing technical debt as the primary focus of the team for a longer period of time. If and when technical debt does get prioritized as the primary focus of the team, it’s often because the technical debt has a noticeable and negative impact on a key, well-tracked, highly visible metric that reflects poorly on the team.If your team is hitting all deliverables on time, then there might be an appetite for addressing the issue of technical debt in fits and starts. But in the vast majority of cases, addressing technical debt needs to be undertaken iteratively. You need to initially aim for small and easy wins that inspire confidence and lay the groundwork for you to push for bigger and better improvements. And you need to do all of this without slowing down your team’s delivery pace. Preferably without having protracted conversations with “leadership” to get necessary buy-in to do so.Social media, blog posts and conferences amplify aspirational ideas (if leadership just “gets” why technical debt is so harmful and “prioritizes” it, then we can easily address this problem). Your organization, however, rewards what you actually get done which benefits the organization. This might be a very far cry from whatever might be de rigueur on social media.One of the most effective things you can do to be successful at your job is to understand how your organization works. This understanding will better inform your outlook on all things, including:exactly what technical skill you need to invest effort into getting better at, which will actually be rewardedhow to build lasting relationships with other people on your team or organization that ultimately dictate the success of a projecthow to effectively pitch projects or improvements to leadership and actually see these through to completionhow to navigate ambiguityhow to manage conflicting priorities or expectationshow to best deal with setbackshow to weigh the pros and cons of technical choices in the larger context of the organizational realities and needshow to identify and drive quick winshow to discern what’s achievable, and in precisely what time framehow to use this knowledge to judiciously pick battlesand in the worst case, to know when to cut your losses and quitManagers need to deal with these skills as a part of their job description and so do ICs at the very senior levels. But it’s never too early in your career to start cultivating this knowledge. In fact, a core part of mentoring engineers involves educating them in how the organization works, to enable them to build a successful track record of getting things done.Some managers and senior ICs often take a short-sighted view and see “shielding” non-senior folks from organizational politics as a way to help other engineers “maintain focus.” Shielding non-senior engineers from organizational politics not just stymies their growth, but also hinders their visibility of the skills they’ll eventually need to learn the hard way. These are the kind of skills for which there exists no easy playbook.This post doesn’t aim to be a comprehensive guide on how to learn the skills which helps one truly understand how an organization works, or even a comprehensive list of the skills themselves. Some of the points mentioned in this article that help one better understand how an organization works are simply ones I’ve encountered. If you ask someone else in a different organization, you might get a very different list. It’s no exploit to learn a new skill when you know exactly what to learn, how to learn it, and so long as the answer is straightforward, as is the case with many purely technical concepts.Learning “how your organization works” is a constant exercise in learning the organization’s ever-changing landscape, especially as people, projects, priorities, partners, and leadership change. Learning how to make decisions when key pieces of information are missing is also a very important skill, insomuch as it helps you hone another set of valuable skills:how best to gather information you’re missinghow and when to get by without doing soSome of these skills I’m talking about can be learned by talking to people and some need to be inferred through close observation of leadership’s decisions. There are some skills, however, that can only be learned the hard way by getting things wrong, or watching other people get things wrong. In organizations with a culture of constant learning, visibility into failures isn’t something that’s discouraged. At the same time, whether your organization is one such which subscribes to the school of thought of making failures visible: this is something you’d only learn if you know how your organization works. The most important skill for any engineer to possess is the ability to learn quickly. This applies to both technical concepts and sociotechnical concepts. I’m absolutely by no means an expert in any of these myself; but over the years, I like to think I’ve got a better understanding of why this knowledge is important.Most organizations have a formal structure. They usually start with a VP or a Director at the top, and proceed down to individual teams. If you’re an IC, you’re a leaf node in the org tree.Most organizations, in my experience, also tend to have something of an informal structure, especially among ICs. In organizations that make job titles and levels public, it’s relatively easy to know which engineer might have more influence. In organizations where this is concealed, it’s a lot harder to infer the informal hierarchy, and where exactly you fit into it. Sometimes, it’s not so much to do with job titles and levels, than with tenure on the team or the organization. And sometimes, it’s some other factor, like subject matter expertise, open-source experience, or even something as arbitrary as employment history.It’s important to be aware of this informal hierarchy because as often as not, it may directly influence your work, irrespective of your personal level and job title.Engineers who wield an outsized influence on the decision making process tend to often be fairly senior, and also fairly opinionated. It usually isn’t even any particular opinion they might have on any topic that drives their decision making: but it’s usually overarching philosophies which guide their thinking. These opinions could shape everything from:the way your codebase is structuredto the tooling in useto the way the team tests or deploys a systemto the way the system is architectedto the reason why the team did or didn’t choose a specific technology to work with, or a specific team to partner withto the reason why some things that seem “broken” are never prioritizedand more.These philosophies and the opinions guided by them can end up being the decisive factor in whether your efforts to make any change or improvements to the existing system will be fruitful or not. Unless you understand “why” things are the way they are – for there often is a method to every madness, if you’re patient to dig deep enough – your proposal on “how” to improve the situation may end up going against the grain, making it that much more of an uphill task for your proposal to be accepted. Furthermore, your well-intentioned proposal to fix something that appears obviously “broken” or “neglected:” doing so runs the risk of making you seem like someone who did not put in effort to understand the history of the system. Being perceived as someone who did not do their homework doesn’t exactly breed confidence in why you should be entrusted with fixing the system! One of Amazon’s Principle Engineering Tenets is “Respect What Came Before”. Many systems that appear to be “broken” are worthy of respect, and efforts to evolve them must be tackled from multiple angles:Understand the implicit organizational hierarchyIdentify the people who wield unusually high influence; understand their way of thinking and general philosophies. Do this by either talking to them or other people in the organization, by researching their work, reading any articles or blog posts they wrote, or talks they presented, etc.Identify how their philosophies were successfully applied to projects and teams they worked on. Why were these efforts considered successful? What were the problems that were solved by these philosophies? What problems were made worse?How do you build credibility with highly influential people within the organization? Can you lean on your past work? Your subject matter expertise? Your previous track record? Is there someone they trust and respect who can vouch for you, for them to take a leap of faith and agree to do things your way?These are all things to consider before making proposals to change a system. Smaller changes might not require this level of rigor, and might in fact be a good way to net a lot of easy wins. But for anything more involved and more high impact, learning how and why your organization makes technical decisions is a non-negotiable requirement.Irrespective of titles and hierarchies, most organizations also have a top-down or bottom-up culture, or a mix of both. In absolute terms, neither one is superior compared to the other. Microsoft is a top-down organization. Meta has a bottom-up culture. Both are extremely successful companies.In top-down cultures, the most important decisions are made from above. The person making the final decision could be a tech lead, sometimes a manager, or a Director-level executive. On such teams, much of your success boils down to “managing up”. Successfully managing up requires grappling with questions about the decision maker, such as:Are you on the same wavelength as them? Do you both attach the same salience to the problem at hand? If not, are you up to the task of impressing upon them its importance and urgency?Is there some information or knowledge they have and you don’t, that informs their thinking on the matter? How best can you get this information?Do you both share the same view of the opportunity cost?What are their implicit and explicit biases? What are their blind spots? Can you use some of these to your advantage?What are the things they generally value? What kind of work or behavior impresses them?Is there any specific abstraction or process or methodology they are particularly attached to? Can you lean in on these to more effectively market your opinion to them?What’s the timeline they are comfortable working with to solve the problem? A month? A performance cycle? Many years?What’s your personal level of trust with them? Will they go to bat for you?What does “success” mean to them and how do they measure it? How have they typically measured it for in-progress work?How do they typically handle setbacks? Have you drawn up contingency plans and shared them?How do they handle failure? Do they assume responsibility for it, or will you be scapegoated – and possibly fired?Do they have a culture of blameless postmortems for large-scale team or organizational failures? Are these lessons shared and discussed transparently with everyone on the team and in the organization?What is their experience of working with partner teams or organizations?Have they been burned badly in the past when working with another organization or another team?What’s their organizational reputation? Are they well-liked? Respected?How conflict-averse or otherwise are they?Knowing the answer to these questions can give you a sense of how best to identify problems and propose solutions, to see them through, and demonstrate a level of impact that might advance your career.On bottom-up teams, the challenge is to manage laterally while also managing-up. This includes grappling with conundrums like:How do you build consensus among your peers when there’s no top-down decision-making authority?How do you break down barriers between peers?How do conflicts get resolved if there’s no higher authority to mediate? Does it boil down to nitty-gritty quantitative details like metrics, or something more nebulous such as “likeability”?If all key ideas have to originate from the bottom, which ones make it to the top? How has this worked in the past?Can coding solve all issues? Can you prototype an idea you have and then successfully pitch it? Does your team or organization empower you to do this during business hours, or are you willing to spend your nights and weekends pursuing this goal?Did someone already attempt to solve the problem you’re trying to fix? How did that go? What were the failures? Do you understand the proximate cause of any failures? Are you sure you won’t run into the same issues again?What’s the opportunity cost? Can you convince your peers it’s worth solving right away if it hasn’t been prioritized to date?What’s your scope of influence? Does it extend to your team, your sister teams, or your entire org? Are people outside your team willing to give your solution a whirl?How do you convince people or teams with different incentives? Is this something you can even do without top-down support?How do you ensure adoption, especially cross-organizational adoption?How do you enlist partners or advocates for your effort? Are there other teams ready to adopt your solution, were you to just build it and advocate for it?Do you have key relationships with the stakeholders? Do they trust you? If not, why not? And how would you go about building this trust?How do you convince peers with bad experiences of your team or project in the past?How do you build credibility?How do you motivate and incentivize your peers in general?What’s the cost of failure? Just one fair to middling performance cycle, or something worse? Who’ll be impacted; Just you, or your entire team?What are the cultural problems? In a bottom-up setting where there’s no higher authority to mandate teams to change how they work, how do culture problems get fixed?There are many organizations that are top-down in some respects and bottom-up in others. On such teams, you’d need to employ a mix of strategies to successfully thread the needle for many of these issues and chaperone your ideas through to successful execution. Source: Cindy Sridharan on XMost organizations value and reward people who “get things done”.You’re far likelier to encounter codebases that have “evolved” over time, with poor documentation, lots of outdated comments and often with few to no tests, than you are to encounter ones which are perfectly documented, have well-tested public and internal APIs, and code which is perfectly obvious.You’re going to be far more productive if you learn how to navigate such codebases successfully, which involves learning some of the following:how to gather just the right amount of information to get on with your taskhow not to get too caught up in the weeds, unless requiredhow to read a lot of code at a fast clip and come away with a reasonably good mental model of what it’s trying to dohow to come up with a hypothesis and to use a variety of general purpose techniques and tools to validate ithow to reproduce bugs quickly without elaborate local configurations and setupsThese skills aren’t typically taught in college. They’re seldom talked about on social media or even at conferences. It plays well to the gallery to harp on about the importance of tests or documentation. I’m not trying to minimize their importance. But dealing with mess and ambiguity is a key skill to hone to improve your own productivity when working with code.The same philosophy applies to working with sociotechnical systems like organizations: get comfortable with mess. You’re far likelier to encounter organizations comprising teams and leaders of:varying levels of skill and ability to deliver on their promisesvarying – sometimes opposing – incentives and reward structuresvarying appetites for risk or changevarying philosophical views on software development and systemsvarying levels of tolerance for failurevarying willingness to make investments in people and projects with a long-term view Being successful in “messy” organizations requires quickly learning the topology of the organization and charting pathways to navigate it. Your “personal ideal” may not match the reality on the ground. I’m cynical enough to believe everyone ultimately is looking out for their personal interest, and you need to look out for yours.Get comfortable with mess and seek out ways to untangle it or work around it. Seek alignment when interests align. Be able to identify quickly when such alignment will always prove elusive. Be quick to dissociate amiably when interests clash irrevocably. Know when to batten down the hatches, but more importantly, also know when to cut your losses. Be transparent. Treat people with respect and humility, even when they disagree with you, or when you feel they are mistaken. Do this even when they seem to act against the best interests of the team or organization. It might very well be you who is failing to appreciate their predicament and you might be misunderstanding the reason for their actions. It might take you way longer to truly get the measure of your organization’s sociotechnical politics, than to get up to speed with a codebase. To build credibility, you need to demonstrate some impact early on, instead of waiting months to get the lie of the land before you start getting anything done. Chasing small wins and low-hanging fruit can be an easy path to productivity. Don’t underestimate their importance.Individual managers – much less ICs – can sometimes do only so much to solve the more entrenched organizational problems. DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - is one that quickly comes to mind. I’ve never seen this problem solved in a bottom-up manner successfully, anywhere. The vanishingly few organizations that did make modest progress often enjoyed executive buy-in. Organizations which were serious about DEI had executive compensation tied to the success of DEI efforts. Just how many organizations still remain committed to the principles of DEI in a post zero interest rates (ZIRP) world is unclear. I do expect this issue to become even more deprioritized in the current environment where companies are laser focused on profitability.It’s folly for ICs or even managers to wade into fixing this - or any other issue - solo, without explicit approval from their management chain, ideally with this work recognized in performance reviews. It’s one thing to truly feel passionate about a topic and to want to help create change; but please be realistic about expectations and outcomes. Charity Majors wrote a good post titled Know Your “One Job” And Do It First, and I largely agree with everything she says.This is also applicable to a lot of other issues about “wholesale culture change.” Unless you’ve been hired with the explicit mandate to bring about a change in culture, i.e., at the executive level, you would be well-advised to be extremely wary of embarking on sweeping, ambitious projects or efforts.That doesn’t mean you can’t create any change at all. The most effective instances of culture change I’ve seen have been incremental. It’s far easier to identify incremental wins when you’ve already learned the ropes by succeeding within the existing, flawed, cultural framework, than by starting from the ground up.Another example is the promotion process, which is often perceived as a biased, opaque and arbitrary process at many companies. While the process might not work for certain ICs at a microlevel, the process is the way it is because it clearly works for the organization, based on whatever metrics the organization is tracking which you might not be privy to.You can learn how the organization’s promotion process works and play your cards right. Or, if the process seems so arbitrary and unfair you feel you will never have a shot at succeeding, you can try to switch to organizations or companies where you feel you might have a fairer crack of the whip. Your manager might be able to elaborate on the whys and wherefores of this process, but managers have competing priorities to juggle and they cannot always guarantee their primary focus will be the career growth of all of their direct reports at all times. Which, again, is why you need to understand how your organization truly works, because you might then be able to seek out people other than your manager who might mentor you to better understand the organization’s way of doing things.It’s easy to dismiss much of what’s in this post as “politics”. The unfortunate reality is that almost everything is political, and beyond a certain level, advancing further requires getting really good at playing this game.Many engineers find it far easier to label things that don’t go their way as “politics”, as opposed to introspecting and learning the hard skills required to make better judgements. “Politics” doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative thing per se, and I suspect the near ubiquitous negative connotations attached to “politics” can be attributed to the fact that a lot of engineers aren’t the most astute when it comes to navigating these nuances. The truth is you can have a very gratifying and rewarding career as an engineer if you’re good at the “purely tech” side of things without ever worrying about the kind of problems described here.But you’re far likelier to be one of those rare force multipliers if you’re also:good at solving pressing problemsrelentlessly getting things doneproactively creating iterative changeAll of which requires understanding how your organization works.This is Gergely, again.Thank you to Cindy for this timely reminder on the importance of navigating your organization in order to become an effective engineer. You can follow Cindy on X, and read more of her writings on her blog.The biggest takeaway from this article for me is this:Software engineers frustrated at being “stuck” in their career often did no proper attempt to understand how their organization works. Answering question like:How do people pitch ideas that leadership pays attention to?What are activities at this workplace that tend to get rewarded?Who are the people who are accessible to me and are “in the know” for different areas?What is the implicit hierarchy at my workplace? Who are the most important engineers / product people that everyone seems to seek out informal advice from?Is my workspace culture actually top-down, bottom-up, or both?Tech companies are far more messy than any of us engineers would like to admit. I have talked with several software engineers who work at prestigious tech companies – and yet, they tell me that inside it is a surprisingly large mess. “Mess” meaning one or more of: lots of tech debt with no plan to pay it down, anqiuared processes, political games, respected engineers being frustrated and on the verge of leaving. When I worked at Skype, and then Uber, I also experienced the same: from the outside everything looked idyllic. From the inside, it felt like some parts of the company were held together either by duct tape or scaffolding that was so fragile that it was a miracle it did not collapse on itself.It’s good to have strong ideals about what “great” is: but understand the practicalities of “good enough.” The single most frustrated engineers I worked with were ones who refused to let go of their idealistic way of working: and were upset that their organization would refuse to do things the “right” way (in their mind, that is). There is a fine line between always pushing for more and better techologies/processes/approaches: but also understanding when it’s impractical to change the status quo. And – as Cindy reminded us – always start by understanding why technologies and processes have evolved to where they are at your current workplace. | 2024-11-08T07:35:02 | en | train |
42,063,498 | webmaven | 2024-11-06T15:10:36 | Artist Deborah Roberts Receives Mixed Ruling in Contentious Copyright Dispute | null | https://news.artnet.com/art-world/deborah-roberts-edwards-beavers-copyright-dispute-ruling-2565015 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
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42,063,547 | speckx | 2024-11-06T15:13:27 | Nobody Reads Your Blog | null | https://purpleram.xyz/nobody/ | 5 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,603 | mariuz | 2024-11-06T15:16:57 | Debug CMake Scripts on Linux with Visual Studio | null | https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/debug-cmake-scripts-on-linux-with-visual-studio/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,607 | elashri | 2024-11-06T15:17:14 | Valve Launches Game Recording Feature for Steam Client | null | https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/06/valve-launches-game-recording-steam-client/ | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,616 | mooreds | 2024-11-06T15:18:01 | Leonhard Euler: His Life, the Man, and His Works [pdf] | null | https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/wxg/EulerLect.pdf | 4 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,617 | mmsc | 2024-11-06T15:18:02 | Upcoming Hardening in PHP | null | https://dustri.org/b/upcoming-hardening-in-php.html | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,632 | mooreds | 2024-11-06T15:18:58 | Developer Relations Foundation | null | https://lists.dev-rel.org/g/community/wiki | 2 | 2 | [
42064158
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,689 | XzetaU8 | 2024-11-06T15:22:17 | People are increasingly bored in our digital age | null | https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00155-9 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,713 | rbanffy | 2024-11-06T15:24:07 | Solving the Siberian Crater Mystery | null | https://nautil.us/the-mystery-of-the-siberian-craters-1051317/ | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,726 | wumeow | 2024-11-06T15:24:41 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,752 | gHeadphone | 2024-11-06T15:26:35 | I told you so – by Sam Kriss | null | https://samkriss.substack.com/p/i-told-you-so | 10 | 5 | [
42064575,
42064251,
42064709,
42064198
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,847 | terbiy | 2024-11-06T15:33:04 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,856 | robin_reala | 2024-11-06T15:33:29 | Solved by CSS Scroll-Driven Animations: Detect if an element can scroll or not | null | https://www.bram.us/2023/09/16/solved-by-css-scroll-driven-animations-detect-if-an-element-can-scroll-or-not/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,876 | rickmortythrow | 2024-11-06T15:34:57 | Hacker News is my safe space | null | https://old.reddit.com/r/AutisticWithADHD/comments/1gl0g42/hacker_news_is_my_safe_space/ | 8 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,920 | pkacprzak | 2024-11-06T15:37:30 | Neuroplasticity Applied to Chess Thinking | null | https://subconchess.substack.com/p/neuroplasticity-applied-to-chess | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,931 | bhouston | 2024-11-06T15:38:16 | Political betting markets expect to pay out –$450M total on Trump win | null | https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-election-gamblers-anticipate-betting-jackpot-after-trump-win-2024-11-06/ | 4 | 1 | [
42071086
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,933 | MenesJo | 2024-11-06T15:38:25 | Python library wrapping Anthropics Computer Use for all platforms | null | https://github.com/askui/vision-agent | 2 | 1 | [
42063934
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,962 | rntn | 2024-11-06T15:40:02 | Earliest writing origin in symbols on 'seals' used in Mesopotamian trade | null | https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/origins-of-worlds-earliest-writing-point-to-symbols-on-seals-used-in-mesopotamian-trade | 3 | 1 | [
42065126
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,063,977 | PaulHoule | 2024-11-06T15:40:40 | Estimating actual and potential lives saved by Covid-19 convalescent plasma | null | https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2414957121 | 2 | 1 | [
42069166
] | null | null | no_article | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T17:58:49 | null | train |
42,063,990 | fanf2 | 2024-11-06T15:42:03 | Kmonad: An Advanced Keyboard Manager | null | https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | GitHub - kmonad/kmonad: An advanced keyboard manager | null | kmonad |
The Onion of Keyboard Management Tools, available on GNU/Linux, Windows, and MacOS!
Features •
Installation •
Configuration •
Troubleshooting •
Disclaimer
Introduction
KMonad is an advanced tool that lets you infinitely customize and extend the functionalities of almost any keyboard. For a detailed list of features, see here.
If you want to get started with the latest, stable binary release, please check out the master branch, if you are interested in the latest additions and tweaks, switch on over to develop and compile your own binary.
Additionally, if you need any help or just want to say hi,
you can join our Matrix space or
jump into our IRC channel.
There is also an unofficial Discord server, and a KMonad Subreddit.
Features
KMonad offers advanced customization features such as layers, multi-tap, tap-hold, and much more. These features are usually available at the hardware level on the QMK-firmware enabled keyboards. However, KMonad allows you to enjoy such features in virtually any keyboard by low-level system manipulations.
For a good introduction to KMonad, have a look at this YouTube video.
Key Customizations
KMonad lets you map any keyboard button to any keymap. Want to swap the useless Caps Lock key with the Escape key? Want to have your modifiers such as Shift and Control on your home row, without breaking your normal typing flow? Want a modifier that is combination of Alt + Ctrl + Super + Shift? You can do all of those and much more!
Layers
A layer is a set of keymaps assigned to your keyboard's buttons. You can have as many layers on top of your base layer as you want. For instance, you can have your regular QWERTY layout, a Colemak/Dvorak layout, a numbers and symbols layer, a function keys layer, a layer for mouse navigation and system controls --- all in a 60% keyboard. When a particular layer is active, any keypress is interpreted according to the layout defined in that layer. With proper configurations, you can jump to a specific layer or switch to one for the next keypress, or do various other complex manipulations.
Multi-Use and Multi-Tap Buttons
Multi-Use Buttons are one of the distinguishing features of KMonad. You can have a single button do different things based on whether it is pressed quickly in succession, or pressed once, or held. For example, you can configure the Caps Lock key to act as an Escape button when pressed once and released, a Ctrl modifier when held-down, and a button to jump to a layer when pressed twice quickly in succession. You can make the left and right Shift keys to act like left and right parentheses (like the Space Cadet Shift keys) when tapped once, and regular Shift keys when held down. The possibilities are infinite!
Command Buttons
With Command Buttons you can trigger shell commands with a tap of any button.
And More!
There are many more exciting features of KMonad that you can find in the configuration tutorial.
Installation
For more information on how to install KMonad, please refer to:
installation
Configuration
For information on how to configure KMonad, please refer you to:
the configuration tutorial
quick reference
user configurations
Want to add your own keyboard configuration to kmonad-contrib? Just
fork the repository, create a new subdirectory using your GitHub
username and submit a pull request!
Editor Support for the Configuration Language
Emacs
Vim
VSCode
Startup
There are startup scripts available for different init systems in startup/.
A GNOME Shell extension
is available.
Troubleshooting
For several commonly asked questions regarding various configuration issues, please see:
the FAQ
Disclaimer
The core maintainer is currently chronically ill with debilitating autoimmune
symptoms. They come and go, but when they are there they very much get in the
way of concentrated work. It is very much his intent to keep working on KMonad
until it is very, very good. But please be aware that he might be gone for weeks
on end, not out of a lack of interest, but out of a lack of capacity. You are
always free to reach out to him by email.
| 2024-11-07T11:47:57 | en | train |
42,064,003 | liorgrossman | 2024-11-06T15:42:48 | Show HN: AI to write nonfiction books tailored for you | Hey HN,<p>As an avid reader, I read many nonfiction books every year. While enjoyable, I find that nonfiction books usually contain a lot of information that is not relevant or helpful for me.<p>That's why I decided to build TailoredRead (<a href="https://tailoredread.com/" rel="nofollow">https://tailoredread.com/</a>). It’s a tool that uses AI to write full-length books that are tailored specifically to the reader.<p>Here’s how it works:<p>1. You answer a few questions: book subject, key topics, your background, your goals<p>2. The AI generates the book outline - title, description, chapters and subchapters, key insights, etc. I found that Claude 3.5 Sonnet produces great results here, but I want to give GPT o1 a try as well.<p>3. Our backend starts a worker that orchestrates the creation of the book. This typically takes 5-10 minutes, and you can start reading the book as it’s being written. Here I found that Claude 3.5 Sonnet produces significantly better output than GPT 4o and other models, but it still requires a lot of prompting and breaking down the book into smaller chunks.<p>4. We run a dedicated worker to create the book branding and cover with Claude, DALL-E, and some CSS.<p>5. The book is created and formatted in a semantic HTML format, which is then displayed in a book-alike paginated interface, similar to Kindle (React/Next). You can also download the book as a PDF or send it to your Kindle device.<p>So far, I've seen early users create fascinating books about a diverse set of subjects, e.g. programming, business, science, history, travel, hobbies, etc. There are 100+ free book samples from our early users here: <a href="https://tailoredread.com/books" rel="nofollow">https://tailoredread.com/books</a><p>I'd love to hear your feedback about TailoredRead and answer any questions you may have! | https://tailoredread.com | 3 | 2 | [
42064908
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,041 | gnabgib | 2024-11-06T15:45:26 | Tool uses UV and RGB lights to change the color and textures of everyday objects | null | https://news.mit.edu/2024/portable-light-system-can-digitize-everyday-objects-1106 | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,049 | fstrazzante | 2024-11-06T15:45:50 | Easyshader: Render 3D Scenes in Python | null | https://github.com/marceloprates/easyshader | 2 | 0 | [
42064050
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,074 | barbaramoser0 | 2024-11-06T15:47:08 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,079 | siadam | 2024-11-06T15:47:22 | null | null | null | 1 | null | [
42064080
] | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,103 | danielmichaelyc | 2024-11-06T15:49:05 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,200 | geox | 2024-11-06T15:54:49 | South Dakota votes to keep 'him' in the state constitution | null | https://www.npr.org/2024/11/06/g-s1-33051/voters-with-a-female-governor-vote-to-keep-him-in-state-constitution | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,208 | Wookai | 2024-11-06T15:55:20 | Machine Learning – Google for Developers | null | https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/crash-course | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,243 | lapnect | 2024-11-06T15:57:13 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,280 | canaryex | 2024-11-06T15:59:12 | La ONU en las redes sociales – Naciones Unidas | null | https://www.un.org/es/get-involved/social-media | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,345 | linsomniac | 2024-11-06T16:04:03 | Ask HN: What are you doing to prepare for the coming year? | There are noises being made about increasing tariffs and 2TB in cuts to government spending. The results of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs deepening the Great Depression, and that Musk has admitted that estimates that the spending cuts will lead to "severe overcorrection in the economy" and "markets will tumble".<p>I'm planning to get out in front of this and cut my personal spending and start building up some liquid assets to ride out a potential economy weirdness (which many have been predicting for well over a year now). Worst case I've built up some savings (most of my money is tied up in retirement plans that I can't pull money from).<p>I'm also thinking about finally implementing some of the plans I've had for the better part of a decade of getting ~100gal of water storage, but there's nothing I see being necessarily any worse over the next year, it just seems prudent.<p>Thoughts on the above? Any plans people are taking or have taken to improve their posture? | null | 8 | 10 | [
42066569,
42064816,
42064893,
42066996
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,349 | skadamat | 2024-11-06T16:04:11 | Data Wrangling Like a Boss with DuckDB [video] | null | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GELhdezYmP0&list=PL9HYL-VRX0oSFkdF4fJeY63eGDvgofcbn&index=66 | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,359 | w3ll_w3ll_w3ll | 2024-11-06T16:04:39 | IPv6 Updates for Exchange Online | null | https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/ipv6-updates-for-exchange-online/4283063 | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,363 | brooksmtownsend | 2024-11-06T16:05:10 | Rust's Sneaky Deadlock With `if let` Blocks | null | https://brooksblog.bearblog.dev/rusts-sneaky-deadlock-with-if-let-blocks/ | 2 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | Rust's Sneaky Deadlock With `if let` Blocks | null | null |
01 Nov, 2024
Rust is my favorite programming language. I've been writing Rust for about 6 years, from college to professionally, and I'm vocal about how helpful the compiler is in catching particularly nasty multithreaded issues and memory bugs. What the compiler doesn't always catch though is deadlocks, which can occur using several well known types like Mutex and RwLock.
Generally, this is fine, and you can sus out if a program is going to cause a deadlock by just making sure you aren't acquiring multiple simultaneous locks. This post is going to focus specifically on the former situation, which is acquiring multiple simultaneous competing read/write locks on the same resource. Take this snippet for example:
use std::sync::RwLock;
fn main() {
let optional = RwLock::new(Some(123));
let lock = optional.read().unwrap();
let lock2 = optional.write().unwrap();
eprintln!("Finished!");
}
This program will deadlock during the statement that attempts to acquire a write lock on the map. Preventing this can take many forms, the simplest being to drop the read lock before acquiring the write lock:
use std::sync::RwLock;
fn main() {
let optional = RwLock::new(Some(123));
let lock = optional.read().unwrap();
drop(lock);
let lock2 = optional.write().unwrap();
eprintln!("Finished!");
}
You can also force dropping the lock by using an explicit block statement:
use std::sync::RwLock;
fn main() {
let optional = RwLock::new(Some(123));
{
let lock = optional.read().unwrap();
}
let lock2 = optional.write().unwrap();
eprintln!("Finished!");
}
So in a single-threaded case with competing locks, there are fairly simple ways to prevent this from happening. Now for the trouble.
Sneaky DeadlockKnowing what you know now, let's take a look at another snippet of code:
use std::sync::RwLock;
fn main() {
let map: RwLock<Option<u32>> = RwLock::new(Some(2));
if map.read().unwrap().is_some() {
eprintln!("There's a number in there");
} else {
let mut lock2 = map.write().unwrap();
*lock2 = Some(5);
eprintln!("There will now be a number {lock2:?}");
}
eprintln!("Finished!");
}
Here, we're locking an optional number in a RwLock In the case where that variable is Some, we know that it's been initialized and don't need to take any action. Otherwise, we acquire a write lock and then can write a number to the lock. This runs just fine.
Let's use the if let statement to clean up our code a little bit and print out the number that's contained in the RwLock:
use std::sync::RwLock;
use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
let map: RwLock<Option<u32>> = RwLock::new(Some(2));
if let Some(num) = *map.read().unwrap() {
eprintln!("There's a number in there: {num}");
} else {
let mut lock2 = map.write().unwrap();
*lock2 = Some(5);
eprintln!("There will now be a number {lock2:?}");
}
eprintln!("Finished!");
}
This is the same logic, other than using the value obtained from the read lock changing the contents of the print statement. If we run this program, we get the output:
There's a number in there: 2
Finished!
Now, what happens if we change the map to RwLock::new(None), and try to initialize it?
It deadlocks.
But why?In short, when declaring a variable as a part of an if let statement that variable is held for the entire statement, including the else block. You can think of the program we wrote as syntactic sugar for:
use std::sync::RwLock;
use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
let map: RwLock<Option<u32>> = RwLock::new(Some(2));
{
let num = map.read().unwrap();
if num.is_some() {
eprintln!("There's a number in there: {}", num.unwrap());
} else {
let mut lock2 = map.write().unwrap();
*lock2 = Some(5);
eprintln!("There will now be a number {lock2:?}");
}
}
eprintln!("Finished!");
}
From this perspective, it's obvious that the read lock will be held for the entire block, and we could employ one of our previous fixes (adding explicit drop calls, or multiple blocks) to fix the issue. In the above cherry-picked example, this would work fine, albeit making the code a bit more complicated.
I wrote this block because this has specifically bitten different Rust crates in the wasmCloud project multiple times (most recently here and I hoped to prevent the same mistake for others. If you're dealing with locks in Rust it can be a good idea to write out some unit tests for the different control paths you could take to make sure they all complete, and if in doubt, wrap your locks in explicit blocks to make sure they're dropped when you're finished with them.
| 2024-11-08T10:30:27 | en | train |
42,064,369 | orenha | 2024-11-06T16:05:39 | Show HN: A Free, Privacy-Focused AI Paragraph Generator | null | https://paragraphrewrite.com/paragraph-generator | 3 | 1 | [
42064906
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,370 | xnx | 2024-11-06T16:05:40 | Ask HN: What will change in the next administration? | Antitrust, green cards, tariffs? Seems like some big changes are imminent. | null | 7 | 4 | [
42065195,
42065364,
42065761,
42064614
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,393 | thunderbong | 2024-11-06T16:07:07 | Postbaby: Open-source, self-hostable, localStorage-based sticky-note app | null | https://postbaby.org/ | 2 | 1 | [
42064396
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,414 | bookofjoe | 2024-11-06T16:08:32 | Google Researchers Claim First Vulnerability Found Using AI | null | https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/google-first-vulnerability-found/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,436 | nsagheen | 2024-11-06T16:10:37 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,450 | null | 2024-11-06T16:11:38 | null | null | null | null | null | [
42064451
] | [
"true"
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,469 | shalotelli | 2024-11-06T16:12:18 | null | null | null | 1 | null | [
42064470
] | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,484 | jarsin | 2024-11-06T16:13:09 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,512 | bailvgu | 2024-11-06T16:14:42 | null | null | null | 1 | null | [
42064513
] | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,521 | unihorn | 2024-11-06T16:15:00 | BooksMind: Free Chapter Summary and Idea Exploration by AI | null | https://booksmind.app/en/ | 1 | 1 | [
42064549
] | null | null | no_article | null | null | null | null | 2024-11-08T11:21:49 | null | train |
42,064,525 | optimalsolver | 2024-11-06T16:15:07 | The Involuntary Pacifists (2023) | null | https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/104f9zs/the_involuntary_pacifists/ | 1 | 0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,556 | samuelito | 2024-11-06T16:17:18 | Show HN: I made an AI tool to turn long videos into short viral clips | Hello NH!<p>Three months ago, after finishing university, I started a project called Cyclips. I started it both to help my brother with his content creation and to challenge myself in new ways. Initially, I thought I could finish it in one month, but it ended up taking three. Those three months were among the most intense of my life; I spent 16-hour days working solo as an indie hacker. Along the way, I faced discouragement from people around me who suggested I should quit and that my efforts were in vain. But I didn’t give up, and I’m grateful for pushing through and persevering.<p>Cyclips is a free tool (with video size limitation for free users, with HD output) built with Next.js and FastAPI, alongside frameworks like RabbitMQ and Redis. The backend turned out to be more complex than I’d anticipated. I had to learn and integrate new technologies, such as wav2vec for precise timestamp alignment, as well as OpenAI’s Whisper and other APIs to handle transcription and analysis.<p>Here’s how Cyclips works: Users can log into the dashboard and input a YouTube video link (with plans to support more platforms in the future). The software then analyzes the video, identifies engaging topics, and automatically generates potential viral clips. It also uses face detection for auto-cropping and adds auto-generated subtitles. To top it off, there’s a clean, interactive video editor to refine your clips to perfection.<p>I’d love to hear your feedback!<p>PS: I will be providing updates on my discord community<p>My Discord server is <a href="https://discord.gg/6QdruVzUn9" rel="nofollow">https://discord.gg/6QdruVzUn9</a> | https://cyclips.com | 4 | 6 | [
42070498,
42065899,
42064771
] | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,580 | Rooc | 2024-11-06T16:19:08 | null | null | null | 1 | null | null | null | true | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | train |
42,064,642 | TechSquidTV | 2024-11-06T16:23:10 | The rise of advanced build systems | null | https://www.scalevp.com/insights/the-rise-of-advanced-build-systems/ | 3 | 0 | null | null | null | no_error | The rise of advanced build systems - Scale Venture Partners | 2024-09-19T16:25:23+00:00 | Josh Cohen |
It’s 2024 and decades-old memes about building software still hold up. Despite advances in the DevOps stack – Docker for containerization, CircleCI for CI/CD, and Terraform for infrastructure as code – many engineering organizations still struggle to deliver fast, consistent, and secure application builds.
The build problem is getting harder due to an increase in software project complexity. Today’s software teams are embracing monorepos and are pulling in record numbers of third party dependencies. At the same time, the number of builds in CI is growing as teams embrace continuous push. In 2024 CircleCI saw a 97% increase in daily workflow volume for top performing teams. The increase in build complexity is slowing down teams.
A new generation of advanced build systems are making builds faster and more reliable. This will change the way companies ship software.
The build bottleneck is growing
A software “build process” is broadly defined as the series of steps for building and testing a piece of software from source code. Software builds are kicked off by engineers locally and by CI systems remotely. Because building software is a core part of the software development lifecycle, slow and flaky builds can be a particularly potent bottleneck.
Engineers know the symptoms of a bad process: fresh builds in the morning take an hour due to cache misses, long builds in CI block PR merges, and onboarding takes days due to environment inconsistencies. All of these issues slow down developers and drive up infra bills. In StackOverflow’s 2024 developer survey, developers ranked quality developer environments and build environments as two of the most important factors in their overall job satisfaction.
The “long build” problem is unfortunately common. We’ve talked with many organizations that experience fresh build times in the 2+ hour range. Large teams are particularly impacted – Graphite reports that the P75 total CI time for teams with over 50 engineers is a whopping 130 minutes:
Graphite reports that P75 CI runtime is 130 minutes for teams with >50 engineers
It’s also getting worse. In 2024, CircleCI workflow times on production branches grew by 11%. The obvious drivers of long build times – expanded CI investment, monorepo adoption, and increased third-party package adoption – show no signs of slowing down.
Flaky builds still continue to haunt teams. According to CircleCI, ~17% of builds on production branches fail. Even mature organizations report experiencing many unexpected breakages per week due to dependency issues.
Enter the advanced build system
While build tools have been around for over fifty years, the newest build systems deliver a major leap forward in power and capability.
Stuart Feldman introduced the staple Unix “make” utility back in 1979. Over the subsequent decades, build tools like CMake, Ant, and Maven incrementally improved the build process, helping engineers build cross-platform projects more efficiently. In the early 2010s, big tech companies took up the build systems torch.
Google, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) all developed internal build systems while pioneering a monorepo approach to code organization where thousands of developers collaborate in multi-million line repositories. Google’s Bazel, Meta’s Buck, and X’s Pants all support speedy builds through effective caching and remote execution. Each of these build systems has now been open sourced, and a wave of startups have emerged to deliver complementary offerings.
Software teams plagued by build headaches are adopting these advanced build systems to improve developer velocity, reduce infrastructure spend, and improve build consistency. Some new build system offerings, like those from EngFlow, BuildBuddy, and Aspect, are building on top of existing open source projects. Other startups, like Nx, Dagger, and Earthly, offer ground up solutions based on similar principles. By providing solutions that increase build speed, reliability, and security, build system startups are answering the “long build” problem that plagues many software organizations.
A range of open source projects and software startups are helping address the “long flaky build” problem on software teams
Under the hood
Newer build systems are delivering 10x build time speedups and highly reproducible builds. These systems accomplish speedups by supporting features like the subdivision of builds into smaller targets, deterministic dependency management, and remote execution.
A main mechanism in newer build systems is the subdivision of large builds into smaller targets. With Bazel and Buck, developers define targets through strict BUILD files. During a build, the system scans the project for changes, re-building only the targets which have changed. Since most code changes only affect a handful of targets, this dramatically reduces the amount of time needed for a build.
Another feature of build systems is deterministic dependency management. Old systems lack precision: many do not have version pinning requirements and rely on package repositories that do not provide consistency guarantees. This causes inconsistent builds. New systems are more precise. Nix-based systems like Flox and Determinate Systems fully specify an applications’ dependency tree with details on the environment in which each package was built. They also cryptographically hash packages to guarantee incoming dependencies have not been altered since the most recent build.
The impact of these software features is amplified through remote execution. Newer build systems execute builds on remote machines, parallelizing the build of sub-targets and the installation of dependencies. They also cache the output of tasks to reduce overall compute required. Some, like Blacksmith, are running build tasks on high performance machines. Remote execution allows developers and CI systems to invoke builds consistently and quickly.
Many systems expose this advanced functionality through modern syntax, like Dagger’s programmatic build functions and Earthly’s Earthfiles, making them easy to use. They also offer cross language support. Different languages have different build processes and associated challenges – C++ and Rust are compiled whereas Python and Javascript are interpreted. But the common jobs of a build system – to subdivide build tasks, manage dependencies effectively, and execute builds quickly – hold constant across languages and project types.
Monorepos are complicating builds
One major driver of advanced build system usage is monorepo adoption. Monorepos were pioneered by big tech firms in the 2010s, and now, a growing number of teams are embracing them. While monorepos have many advantages – they make it easier to grep a codebase, synchronize cross-project changes, and standardize coding practices – they also have drawbacks. In particular, dependency management can be difficult. It can be challenging to unify package versions across a monorepo, and sheer package volume can lead to long build times. In the Javascript community, monorepo tools like Nx, Turborepo, and Rushstack, which help developers manage the complexity of monorepo builds, have been taking off. Turborepo was acquired by Vercel in 2021.
Chart showing adoption of JS-specific monorepo tools
Prioritizing consistency and security
For some companies, it is consistency, not speed, that drives the need for an advanced build system. In compliance-focused sectors like financial services and aerospace, software teams place a premium on reproducible builds and third party package auditability.
Nix, the open source ecosystem which includes NixOS and Nixpkgs, is gaining strong traction on this front. Nix’s purely functional package manager provides strong consistency guarantees for third party dependencies, and its NixOS linux distribution makes it easy to audit and manage OS configurations. Startups Flox and Determinate Systems, which build on top of Nix, are fueling Nix adoption with a suite of enterprise tools.
Other tools are also benefiting from security tailwinds. Bazel, for example, has positioned itself as an offering for compliance-oriented organizations and cites adoption by many fintech organizations. Bazel lead Tony Aiuto reports general traction with “organizations that worry a lot about compliance and recertifying what they are shipping.”
Scotty, do I need more power?
Not all teams need an advanced build system. Many offerings have a steep learning curve. Nix documentation is famously sparse, and Bazel can take months to integrate. Integrating an advanced build system to an existing codebase can require substantial refactors due to strict dependency management requirements. Small teams with modular codebases may decide the investment isn’t worth the cost.
For these teams, using free subtools can be a good alternative to a full-on build system. Many newer package managers like the pnpm JS package manager offer fast install times and easy onboarding. Tools from incumbent CI providers can also help teams speed up remote builds. CI features like dependency caching and parallelization are helping teams address the biggest bottlenecks in their build process quickly and cheaply.
That being said, the trends that necessitate advanced build systems – third party package adoption, monorepo growth, and CI/CD expansion – are here to stay. Even companies that don’t explicitly sell software, like RedBull, American Airlines, and Caterpillar, are starting to adopt these systems. As new build systems get easier to integrate and adopt, more and more companies stand to benefit from them.
The road ahead
Advanced build systems will make “it worked on my machine” a predicament of the past. By enforcing build hermeticity and offering advanced caching tools, the next generation of build tools will allow developers to quickly and confidently build projects from anywhere.
Usability and cost remain the biggest adoption hurdles. The winning solutions in this space will gain trust through high quality developer experience, cross-platform compatibility, and powerful integrations.
The build systems shift will change development workflows. CI volume will increase as build costs go down. Collaboration will increase as building new projects gets easier. The biggest effect of all, though? That the best justification for a coffee break – “my code’s compiling” – is on its last legs. Guess we’ll have to find a new excuse.
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42,064,671 | Rimobel | 2024-11-06T16:24:45 | null | null | null | 1 | null | [
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42,064,685 | null | 2024-11-06T16:25:58 | null | null | null | null | null | null | [
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42064703
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42064886
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42064880
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42,064,963 | Qem | 2024-11-06T16:41:19 | null | null | null | 8 | null | [
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42067107
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