Hasty Briefsbeta

Bilingual

The Russian offensive is slowing after Musk blocks Starlink access, says Ukraine
4 hours ago
- SpaceX's Starlink blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine.
- Russian offensive appears to be slowing after the block.
- Some Ukrainian military Starlinks were also disconnected due to lack of registration.
- Registration process for Starlink terminals is ongoing in Ukraine.
Please don't share our Signal messages with your AI Agent
4 hours ago
- Concerns about OpenClaw and similar AI agents due to risks of data exfiltration and privacy breaches.
- Warning against giving AI agents access to private messaging apps like Signal, iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., to protect not just your data but also that of contacts.
- Prediction of large-scale prompt injection attacks targeting private messages, passwords, and photos as AI agents become more common.
- Call for AI agent developers to clearly communicate risks and implement safety measures like privilege separation.
- Suggestion of workarounds such as using alt accounts for bot interactions and limiting file access.
- Mention of selling a product related to the discussion, indicating a commercial angle to the privacy concerns raised.
Elon Musk Will Be Deposed over What He Did with DOGE
2 hours ago
- Elon Musk will be deposed regarding his role in shutting down USAID.
- A federal judge ruled that Musk and two former USAID officials must testify due to their likely first-hand knowledge of key decisions.
- The Justice Department attempted to block Musk's testimony, citing separation-of-powers concerns, but the judge dismissed this argument.
- USAID's closure has had severe global impacts, including potential increases in preventable deaths.
- Former USAID employees and contractors are suing Musk, accusing him of illegally dismantling the agency.
Choose Boring Technology
2 hours ago
- Dan McKinley discusses the concept of 'Choose Boring Technology', advocating for the use of mature, well-understood technologies over new and trendy ones.
- He shares personal anecdotes from his time at Etsy and other companies, highlighting the pitfalls of adopting new technologies without considering long-term maintenance costs.
- McKinley introduces the idea of 'innovation tokens', suggesting that companies have a limited capacity for innovation and should spend these tokens wisely.
- He emphasizes the importance of minimizing the number of technologies in a stack to reduce operational complexity and maintenance overhead.
- The talk critiques 'polyglot persistence', arguing that using multiple databases increases complexity without providing proportional benefits.
- McKinley shares a success story from Etsy, where using a shared stack (Memcached instead of Redis) allowed a feature to scale without additional operational work.
- He provides guidelines for when and how to introduce new technologies, stressing the importance of team discussions and low-risk experimentation.
- The conclusion reiterates the value of mastering a few tools, focusing on shipping products, and climbing Maslow's hierarchy of needs in a professional context.
Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids' Sports
2 hours ago
- Private equity firms like Black Bear Sports Group are monetizing youth sports by banning parents from recording games and forcing them to use expensive streaming services.
- Black Bear's policies include confiscating recording devices and imposing $25-$50 monthly fees for their exclusive streaming service, Black Bear TV.
- Additional fees, such as a $50 'registration and insurance' charge per player, are making youth sports increasingly unaffordable, particularly in expensive sports like hockey.
- The commercialization of youth sports is pricing out lower-income families, with hockey averaging $2,583 per year per child.
- Private equity-backed companies are consolidating youth sports infrastructure, controlling venues, leagues, and streaming rights, leading to antitrust concerns and lawsuits.
- Black Bear's aggressive expansion includes owning 42 rinks across 11 states, managing hockey leagues, and launching its own streaming platform, further monopolizing the market.
- Legal actions and petitions highlight predatory pricing and anticompetitive practices, with critics arguing these firms prioritize profits over children's development.
Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use
an hour ago
- Vecti is a collaborative UX design tool for intuitive visual solutions.
- Features real-time collaboration, high-fidelity rendering, and an intuitive interface.
- Includes reusable components, shared asset library, and easy sharing/presentation options.
- Offers Starter ($0) and Professional ($12/$15) pricing plans with educational discounts available.
- Provides email support and FAQs covering billing, downgrades, and educational plans.
- User testimonials highlight Vecti's efficiency, collaboration, and performance benefits.
- Founded with a mission to prioritize performance, privacy, and creative freedom for designers.
- Based in the EU, adhering to European privacy standards, focusing on community-driven development.
Bits About Money: Fraud Investigation Is Believing Your Lying Eyes
4 hours ago
- Independent journalist exposes fraud in Minnesota social program with poor epistemic standards.
- Fraud in social programs is politicized, with some dismissing its existence despite evidence.
- Financial industry's approach to fraud: acknowledges its inevitability and focuses on minimizing it.
- Minnesota's social programs suffer from industrial-scale fraud, with over 50% of daycare reimbursements suspected fraudulent.
- Fraudsters exploit sociopolitical cleavages, using accusations of racism to deflect scrutiny.
- Fraud detection in financial industry relies on apprenticeship models and informal knowledge sharing.
- Fraudsters often reuse identities and operate within ethnic or affinity groups for trust and loyalty.
- High growth rates in programs can signal fraud, as seen in Minnesota's Feeding Our Future case.
- Fraudsters target weak links in financial systems, preferring institutions with lax controls.
- Fraud investigations benefit from machine learning to adaptively identify and respond to fraudulent patterns.
- Fraud has a lifecycle: creation, seasoning, detection, closure, and resurrection by the same actors.
- Public and legislative response to fraud often leads to overcorrection and burdensome regulations.
- Effective fraud investigation requires balancing detection with minimizing impact on legitimate users.
Latest VirtualBox Code Begins Supporting KVM Back End
7 hours ago
- Oracle's latest VirtualBox development code now supports Linux's native KVM back-end.
- Initial experimental KVM support for VirtualBox was developed by Cyberus Technology in 2024.
- Current KVM support in VirtualBox is in a 'somewhat workable shape' and available in the latest Git or test builds.
- Oracle engineer Alexander Eichner highlights benefits of VirtualBox's own hypervisor over KVM, including advanced networking modes and better emulation accuracy for older guests.
- VirtualBox's hypervisor optimizes VM exits and has a more advanced instruction emulator compared to KVM.
- The next major release of VirtualBox with KVM support is not expected soon.
- This development follows VMware's efforts to integrate VMware Workstation with KVM on Linux.
Pandoc for the people: Convert documents without leaving the browser
12 hours ago
- Controls how tracked changes and comments in Word documents are handled during conversion.
- Output will be generated as Typst markup, then compiled to PDF.
- Drag to reorder filters, which are applied in order from top to bottom.
- Conversion process involves loading pandoc.wasm.
UUP dump – download UUP files from Windows Update servers with ease
12 hours ago
- UUP dump allows downloading UUP files from Windows Update servers easily.
- Supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, Italian, and more.
- Offers different theme options: Automatic, Light, Dark, and Legacy.
Bytes as Braille
5 hours ago
- The author works with bytestrings in Python3, some of which decode as ASCII or UTF strings, while others do not.
- Displaying undecodable bytestrings as-is is inconvenient, especially with Unicode symbols that don't render correctly.
- A function was initially written to decode bytestrings and return 'bytes' if undecodable, but this approach lost information and made it hard to distinguish between different undecodable bytestrings.
- Braille symbols were identified as a workaround for displaying bytestrings more compactly and legibly, despite their unconventional ordering in Unicode.
- Braille has historical significance as a precursor to Unicode, with unique features like prefix symbols for numbers and language-specific dialects.
- The author reordered Braille cells based on byte values rather than Unicode numbers, improving the display of bytestrings.
- The new method allows for colored output to highlight specific bytes, making patterns in binary data more visible.
- The script for this Braille-based bytestring display is available on GitHub.
The overlooked evolution of the humble car door handle
4 days ago
- Vehicle door handles have evolved from simple home-style designs to advanced technological features.
- Early door handles were physically in-line with the latch, but designs changed in the 1950s to use rods or cables.
- Different styles emerged, including push-button, pull-up, and pull-out handles, influenced by vehicle aesthetics and trends.
- Flush handles, the latest innovation, come in two types: actuator-pushed and spring-loaded for safety during power outages.
- Internal door handle mechanisms have remained largely unchanged since the 1970s, still using rods or cables.
- The latch position has shifted for improved safety, now aligned with the door's midpoint and hinges.
- Crash testing advancements emphasize the importance of door latch and hinge engineering to prevent injuries.
- Aerodynamics have influenced handle design, leading to streamlined, tucked-in, or flush handles.
- Modern unlocking methods (smartphones, keyless fobs) still rely on traditional mechanical mechanisms to open doors.
- Door handles exemplify automotive design's blend of innovation and enduring functionality.
Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
5 hours ago
- Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info provides a comprehensive resource for cycling enthusiasts.
- The website includes articles on various topics such as brakes, commuting, gears, and repair tips.
- Features a detailed Bicycle Glossary organized alphabetically from A to Z.
- Personal pages include Sheldon's interests like music, photography, and journal entries.
- The site is regularly updated, with the last update noted by John Allen.
The Waymo World Model: A New Frontier for Autonomous Driving Simulation
5 hours ago
- Waymo has introduced the Waymo World Model, a generative model for hyper-realistic autonomous driving simulation.
- The model is built on Google DeepMind's Genie 3, enabling simulation of rare events like tornadoes or encounters with elephants.
- It offers high controllability through language prompts, driving inputs, and scene layouts, generating multi-sensor outputs including camera and lidar data.
- The model leverages vast world knowledge from 2D videos, converting them into 3D lidar outputs for diverse scenarios.
- Simulation controllability includes driving action control, scene layout control, and language control for custom scenarios.
- The model can convert dashcam videos into multimodal simulations, enhancing realism.
- A more efficient variant allows for longer scene simulations with reduced compute requirements.
- The Waymo World Model aims to prepare autonomous vehicles for rare and complex scenarios, improving safety benchmarks.
I spent 2 weeks playing god. My learnings from 597 genetic algorithm lineages
2 days ago
- The author built an evolution simulator where creatures learn to walk toward food over millions of generations.
- Creatures are made of nodes (spheres) connected by muscles (springs), with physics constraints like friction and stiffness.
- The fitness function was crucial and difficult to perfect, involving issues like progress banking, baseline position, and edge calculations.
- Initial creatures were brainless oscillators, but later versions included neural networks for environmental response.
- Various reproduction and mutation strategies were tested, including uniform crossover, interpolation, and single-point crossover.
- NEAT (NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies) was implemented to allow evolving network topologies, improving creature behaviors.
- Neural Architecture Search (NAS) was used to optimize hyperparameters, with pure neural networks outperforming NEAT in some cases.
- Genetic algorithms were chosen over gradient descent due to the non-differentiable nature of the fitness function and the need for massive parallelism.
- Key lessons include the importance of understanding theory before implementation and the value of constraints in shaping evolution.
- Future directions include energy systems, recurrent connections, HyperNEAT, and novelty search.
Lessons from BF-Tree: Building a Concurrent Larger-Than-Memory Index in Rust
2 days ago
- BF-Tree introduces variable-size mini-pages (64-4096 bytes) to reduce write amplification and memory waste compared to traditional 4KB page caching.
- The Rust implementation features a custom ring buffer allocator with a 6-state machine, RAII guards, optimistic locks, and deterministic concurrency testing.
- Mini-pages serve three functions: buffering writes, caching hot records, and growing for scan workloads, optimizing memory usage based on access patterns.
- The design decouples in-memory representation from on-disk format, allowing BF-Tree to optimize for the working set rather than physical page layout.
- BF-Tree's benchmarks show it is 2x faster than B-trees and LSM-trees for point lookups, 6x faster than B-trees for writes, and 2.5x faster than RocksDB for scans.
- The implementation uses RAII guards (CircularBufferPtr and TombstoneHandle) to manage lifecycle states, ensuring safe transitions and memory reclamation.
- Concurrency is handled with optimistic versioned locks for inner nodes and custom RwLocks with try_upgrade for page table entries, minimizing contention.
- Testing leverages Shuttle for systematic concurrency testing, exploring thread interleavings to uncover hard-to-find bugs.
- Key patterns include RAII guards for state machines, typed errors for retry control flow, and compile-time test infrastructure swaps.
What a 1GW Orbital GPU Farm Looks Like
a day ago
- Space datacenters cost 10-16 times more than Earth equivalents.
- Even with free launches, the minimum cost is 3.7 times higher due to hardware requirements like radiation hardening and redundancy.
- A 100MW orbital datacenter would need 360 Falcon Heavy launches.
- The cost for a 100MW orbital datacenter is estimated at $53B compared to $5B on Earth.
An Update on Heroku
6 hours ago
- Heroku is transitioning to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability, and support.
- Heroku remains a production-ready platform with an emphasis on maintaining quality and operational excellence rather than introducing new features.
- No changes for existing customers using Heroku today; pricing, billing, service, and usage remain the same.
- Core platform functionality, including applications, pipelines, teams, and add-ons, is unaffected.
- Enterprise Account contracts will no longer be offered to new customers, but existing contracts will be honored and can renew as usual.
- The change is aimed at focusing product and engineering investments on delivering long-term customer value, particularly in enterprise-grade AI deployment.
NIMBYs Aren't Just Shutting Down Housing
5 hours ago
- YIMBY Law successfully lobbied Rancho Palos Verdes to approve an upzoning for 647 homes by leveraging state housing laws.
- A NIMBY filed a complaint with the California State Bar, accusing YIMBY Law's director of practicing law without a license for sending advocacy letters.
- YIMBY Law argues their advocacy is protected under the First Amendment's right to free speech and petition the government.
- NIMBYs often attempt to delegitimize YIMBY activists, questioning their motives and even resorting to public harassment.
- Examples include shouting down speakers at meetings, spitting on supporters, and filing baseless complaints to silence opposition.
- The article emphasizes the importance of democratic discourse and resisting efforts to exclude differing viewpoints.
Animated Engines
a day ago
- Website named 'Animated Engines' showcasing various engine types.
- Features interactive animations explaining how each engine works.
- Includes a wide range of engines from Four stroke to Steam Locomotive.
- Also covers less common engines like CO2 Motor and Coomber.
- Historical engines such as Newcomen Atmospheric and Watt Beam are included.
- Stirling engine variations are also part of the collection.

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About Login

Bilingual

The Russian offensive is slowing after Musk blocks Starlink access, says Ukraine
4 hours ago
- SpaceX's Starlink blocked unverified terminals in Ukraine.
- Russian offensive appears to be slowing after the block.
- Some Ukrainian military Starlinks were also disconnected due to lack of registration.
- Registration process for Starlink terminals is ongoing in Ukraine.
Please don't share our Signal messages with your AI Agent
4 hours ago
- Concerns about OpenClaw and similar AI agents due to risks of data exfiltration and privacy breaches.
- Warning against giving AI agents access to private messaging apps like Signal, iMessage, WhatsApp, etc., to protect not just your data but also that of contacts.
- Prediction of large-scale prompt injection attacks targeting private messages, passwords, and photos as AI agents become more common.
- Call for AI agent developers to clearly communicate risks and implement safety measures like privilege separation.
- Suggestion of workarounds such as using alt accounts for bot interactions and limiting file access.
- Mention of selling a product related to the discussion, indicating a commercial angle to the privacy concerns raised.
Elon Musk Will Be Deposed over What He Did with DOGE
2 hours ago
- Elon Musk will be deposed regarding his role in shutting down USAID.
- A federal judge ruled that Musk and two former USAID officials must testify due to their likely first-hand knowledge of key decisions.
- The Justice Department attempted to block Musk's testimony, citing separation-of-powers concerns, but the judge dismissed this argument.
- USAID's closure has had severe global impacts, including potential increases in preventable deaths.
- Former USAID employees and contractors are suing Musk, accusing him of illegally dismantling the agency.
Choose Boring Technology
2 hours ago
- Dan McKinley discusses the concept of 'Choose Boring Technology', advocating for the use of mature, well-understood technologies over new and trendy ones.
- He shares personal anecdotes from his time at Etsy and other companies, highlighting the pitfalls of adopting new technologies without considering long-term maintenance costs.
- McKinley introduces the idea of 'innovation tokens', suggesting that companies have a limited capacity for innovation and should spend these tokens wisely.
- He emphasizes the importance of minimizing the number of technologies in a stack to reduce operational complexity and maintenance overhead.
- The talk critiques 'polyglot persistence', arguing that using multiple databases increases complexity without providing proportional benefits.
- McKinley shares a success story from Etsy, where using a shared stack (Memcached instead of Redis) allowed a feature to scale without additional operational work.
- He provides guidelines for when and how to introduce new technologies, stressing the importance of team discussions and low-risk experimentation.
- The conclusion reiterates the value of mastering a few tools, focusing on shipping products, and climbing Maslow's hierarchy of needs in a professional context.
Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids' Sports
2 hours ago
- Private equity firms like Black Bear Sports Group are monetizing youth sports by banning parents from recording games and forcing them to use expensive streaming services.
- Black Bear's policies include confiscating recording devices and imposing $25-$50 monthly fees for their exclusive streaming service, Black Bear TV.
- Additional fees, such as a $50 'registration and insurance' charge per player, are making youth sports increasingly unaffordable, particularly in expensive sports like hockey.
- The commercialization of youth sports is pricing out lower-income families, with hockey averaging $2,583 per year per child.
- Private equity-backed companies are consolidating youth sports infrastructure, controlling venues, leagues, and streaming rights, leading to antitrust concerns and lawsuits.
- Black Bear's aggressive expansion includes owning 42 rinks across 11 states, managing hockey leagues, and launching its own streaming platform, further monopolizing the market.
- Legal actions and petitions highlight predatory pricing and anticompetitive practices, with critics arguing these firms prioritize profits over children's development.
Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use
an hour ago
- Vecti is a collaborative UX design tool for intuitive visual solutions.
- Features real-time collaboration, high-fidelity rendering, and an intuitive interface.
- Includes reusable components, shared asset library, and easy sharing/presentation options.
- Offers Starter ($0) and Professional ($12/$15) pricing plans with educational discounts available.
- Provides email support and FAQs covering billing, downgrades, and educational plans.
- User testimonials highlight Vecti's efficiency, collaboration, and performance benefits.
- Founded with a mission to prioritize performance, privacy, and creative freedom for designers.
- Based in the EU, adhering to European privacy standards, focusing on community-driven development.
Bits About Money: Fraud Investigation Is Believing Your Lying Eyes
4 hours ago
- Independent journalist exposes fraud in Minnesota social program with poor epistemic standards.
- Fraud in social programs is politicized, with some dismissing its existence despite evidence.
- Financial industry's approach to fraud: acknowledges its inevitability and focuses on minimizing it.
- Minnesota's social programs suffer from industrial-scale fraud, with over 50% of daycare reimbursements suspected fraudulent.
- Fraudsters exploit sociopolitical cleavages, using accusations of racism to deflect scrutiny.
- Fraud detection in financial industry relies on apprenticeship models and informal knowledge sharing.
- Fraudsters often reuse identities and operate within ethnic or affinity groups for trust and loyalty.
- High growth rates in programs can signal fraud, as seen in Minnesota's Feeding Our Future case.
- Fraudsters target weak links in financial systems, preferring institutions with lax controls.
- Fraud investigations benefit from machine learning to adaptively identify and respond to fraudulent patterns.
- Fraud has a lifecycle: creation, seasoning, detection, closure, and resurrection by the same actors.
- Public and legislative response to fraud often leads to overcorrection and burdensome regulations.
- Effective fraud investigation requires balancing detection with minimizing impact on legitimate users.
Latest VirtualBox Code Begins Supporting KVM Back End
7 hours ago
- Oracle's latest VirtualBox development code now supports Linux's native KVM back-end.
- Initial experimental KVM support for VirtualBox was developed by Cyberus Technology in 2024.
- Current KVM support in VirtualBox is in a 'somewhat workable shape' and available in the latest Git or test builds.
- Oracle engineer Alexander Eichner highlights benefits of VirtualBox's own hypervisor over KVM, including advanced networking modes and better emulation accuracy for older guests.
- VirtualBox's hypervisor optimizes VM exits and has a more advanced instruction emulator compared to KVM.
- The next major release of VirtualBox with KVM support is not expected soon.
- This development follows VMware's efforts to integrate VMware Workstation with KVM on Linux.
Pandoc for the people: Convert documents without leaving the browser
12 hours ago
- Controls how tracked changes and comments in Word documents are handled during conversion.
- Output will be generated as Typst markup, then compiled to PDF.
- Drag to reorder filters, which are applied in order from top to bottom.
- Conversion process involves loading pandoc.wasm.
UUP dump – download UUP files from Windows Update servers with ease
12 hours ago
- UUP dump allows downloading UUP files from Windows Update servers easily.
- Supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, Italian, and more.
- Offers different theme options: Automatic, Light, Dark, and Legacy.
Bytes as Braille
5 hours ago
- The author works with bytestrings in Python3, some of which decode as ASCII or UTF strings, while others do not.
- Displaying undecodable bytestrings as-is is inconvenient, especially with Unicode symbols that don't render correctly.
- A function was initially written to decode bytestrings and return 'bytes' if undecodable, but this approach lost information and made it hard to distinguish between different undecodable bytestrings.
- Braille symbols were identified as a workaround for displaying bytestrings more compactly and legibly, despite their unconventional ordering in Unicode.
- Braille has historical significance as a precursor to Unicode, with unique features like prefix symbols for numbers and language-specific dialects.
- The author reordered Braille cells based on byte values rather than Unicode numbers, improving the display of bytestrings.
- The new method allows for colored output to highlight specific bytes, making patterns in binary data more visible.
- The script for this Braille-based bytestring display is available on GitHub.
The overlooked evolution of the humble car door handle
4 days ago
- Vehicle door handles have evolved from simple home-style designs to advanced technological features.
- Early door handles were physically in-line with the latch, but designs changed in the 1950s to use rods or cables.
- Different styles emerged, including push-button, pull-up, and pull-out handles, influenced by vehicle aesthetics and trends.
- Flush handles, the latest innovation, come in two types: actuator-pushed and spring-loaded for safety during power outages.
- Internal door handle mechanisms have remained largely unchanged since the 1970s, still using rods or cables.
- The latch position has shifted for improved safety, now aligned with the door's midpoint and hinges.
- Crash testing advancements emphasize the importance of door latch and hinge engineering to prevent injuries.
- Aerodynamics have influenced handle design, leading to streamlined, tucked-in, or flush handles.
- Modern unlocking methods (smartphones, keyless fobs) still rely on traditional mechanical mechanisms to open doors.
- Door handles exemplify automotive design's blend of innovation and enduring functionality.
Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
5 hours ago
- Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info provides a comprehensive resource for cycling enthusiasts.
- The website includes articles on various topics such as brakes, commuting, gears, and repair tips.
- Features a detailed Bicycle Glossary organized alphabetically from A to Z.
- Personal pages include Sheldon's interests like music, photography, and journal entries.
- The site is regularly updated, with the last update noted by John Allen.
The Waymo World Model: A New Frontier for Autonomous Driving Simulation
5 hours ago
- Waymo has introduced the Waymo World Model, a generative model for hyper-realistic autonomous driving simulation.
- The model is built on Google DeepMind's Genie 3, enabling simulation of rare events like tornadoes or encounters with elephants.
- It offers high controllability through language prompts, driving inputs, and scene layouts, generating multi-sensor outputs including camera and lidar data.
- The model leverages vast world knowledge from 2D videos, converting them into 3D lidar outputs for diverse scenarios.
- Simulation controllability includes driving action control, scene layout control, and language control for custom scenarios.
- The model can convert dashcam videos into multimodal simulations, enhancing realism.
- A more efficient variant allows for longer scene simulations with reduced compute requirements.
- The Waymo World Model aims to prepare autonomous vehicles for rare and complex scenarios, improving safety benchmarks.
I spent 2 weeks playing god. My learnings from 597 genetic algorithm lineages
2 days ago
- The author built an evolution simulator where creatures learn to walk toward food over millions of generations.
- Creatures are made of nodes (spheres) connected by muscles (springs), with physics constraints like friction and stiffness.
- The fitness function was crucial and difficult to perfect, involving issues like progress banking, baseline position, and edge calculations.
- Initial creatures were brainless oscillators, but later versions included neural networks for environmental response.
- Various reproduction and mutation strategies were tested, including uniform crossover, interpolation, and single-point crossover.
- NEAT (NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies) was implemented to allow evolving network topologies, improving creature behaviors.
- Neural Architecture Search (NAS) was used to optimize hyperparameters, with pure neural networks outperforming NEAT in some cases.
- Genetic algorithms were chosen over gradient descent due to the non-differentiable nature of the fitness function and the need for massive parallelism.
- Key lessons include the importance of understanding theory before implementation and the value of constraints in shaping evolution.
- Future directions include energy systems, recurrent connections, HyperNEAT, and novelty search.
Lessons from BF-Tree: Building a Concurrent Larger-Than-Memory Index in Rust
2 days ago
- BF-Tree introduces variable-size mini-pages (64-4096 bytes) to reduce write amplification and memory waste compared to traditional 4KB page caching.
- The Rust implementation features a custom ring buffer allocator with a 6-state machine, RAII guards, optimistic locks, and deterministic concurrency testing.
- Mini-pages serve three functions: buffering writes, caching hot records, and growing for scan workloads, optimizing memory usage based on access patterns.
- The design decouples in-memory representation from on-disk format, allowing BF-Tree to optimize for the working set rather than physical page layout.
- BF-Tree's benchmarks show it is 2x faster than B-trees and LSM-trees for point lookups, 6x faster than B-trees for writes, and 2.5x faster than RocksDB for scans.
- The implementation uses RAII guards (CircularBufferPtr and TombstoneHandle) to manage lifecycle states, ensuring safe transitions and memory reclamation.
- Concurrency is handled with optimistic versioned locks for inner nodes and custom RwLocks with try_upgrade for page table entries, minimizing contention.
- Testing leverages Shuttle for systematic concurrency testing, exploring thread interleavings to uncover hard-to-find bugs.
- Key patterns include RAII guards for state machines, typed errors for retry control flow, and compile-time test infrastructure swaps.
What a 1GW Orbital GPU Farm Looks Like
a day ago
- Space datacenters cost 10-16 times more than Earth equivalents.
- Even with free launches, the minimum cost is 3.7 times higher due to hardware requirements like radiation hardening and redundancy.
- A 100MW orbital datacenter would need 360 Falcon Heavy launches.
- The cost for a 100MW orbital datacenter is estimated at $53B compared to $5B on Earth.
An Update on Heroku
6 hours ago
- Heroku is transitioning to a sustaining engineering model focused on stability, security, reliability, and support.
- Heroku remains a production-ready platform with an emphasis on maintaining quality and operational excellence rather than introducing new features.
- No changes for existing customers using Heroku today; pricing, billing, service, and usage remain the same.
- Core platform functionality, including applications, pipelines, teams, and add-ons, is unaffected.
- Enterprise Account contracts will no longer be offered to new customers, but existing contracts will be honored and can renew as usual.
- The change is aimed at focusing product and engineering investments on delivering long-term customer value, particularly in enterprise-grade AI deployment.
NIMBYs Aren't Just Shutting Down Housing
5 hours ago
- YIMBY Law successfully lobbied Rancho Palos Verdes to approve an upzoning for 647 homes by leveraging state housing laws.
- A NIMBY filed a complaint with the California State Bar, accusing YIMBY Law's director of practicing law without a license for sending advocacy letters.
- YIMBY Law argues their advocacy is protected under the First Amendment's right to free speech and petition the government.
- NIMBYs often attempt to delegitimize YIMBY activists, questioning their motives and even resorting to public harassment.
- Examples include shouting down speakers at meetings, spitting on supporters, and filing baseless complaints to silence opposition.
- The article emphasizes the importance of democratic discourse and resisting efforts to exclude differing viewpoints.
Animated Engines
a day ago
- Website named 'Animated Engines' showcasing various engine types.
- Features interactive animations explaining how each engine works.
- Includes a wide range of engines from Four stroke to Steam Locomotive.
- Also covers less common engines like CO2 Motor and Coomber.
- Historical engines such as Newcomen Atmospheric and Watt Beam are included.
- Stirling engine variations are also part of the collection.

Hasty Briefsbeta

The Russian offensive is slowing after Musk blocks Starlink access, says Ukraine

Please don't share our Signal messages with your AI Agent

Elon Musk Will Be Deposed over What He Did with DOGE

Choose Boring Technology

Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids' Sports

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

Bits About Money: Fraud Investigation Is Believing Your Lying Eyes

Latest VirtualBox Code Begins Supporting KVM Back End

Pandoc for the people: Convert documents without leaving the browser

UUP dump – download UUP files from Windows Update servers with ease

Bytes as Braille

The overlooked evolution of the humble car door handle

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

The Waymo World Model: A New Frontier for Autonomous Driving Simulation

I spent 2 weeks playing god. My learnings from 597 genetic algorithm lineages

Lessons from BF-Tree: Building a Concurrent Larger-Than-Memory Index in Rust

What a 1GW Orbital GPU Farm Looks Like

An Update on Heroku

NIMBYs Aren't Just Shutting Down Housing

Animated Engines

The Russian offensive is slowing after Musk blocks Starlink access, says Ukraine

Please don't share our Signal messages with your AI Agent

Elon Musk Will Be Deposed over What He Did with DOGE

Choose Boring Technology

Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids' Sports

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

Bits About Money: Fraud Investigation Is Believing Your Lying Eyes

Latest VirtualBox Code Begins Supporting KVM Back End

Pandoc for the people: Convert documents without leaving the browser

UUP dump – download UUP files from Windows Update servers with ease

Bytes as Braille

The overlooked evolution of the humble car door handle

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

The Waymo World Model: A New Frontier for Autonomous Driving Simulation

I spent 2 weeks playing god. My learnings from 597 genetic algorithm lineages

Lessons from BF-Tree: Building a Concurrent Larger-Than-Memory Index in Rust

What a 1GW Orbital GPU Farm Looks Like

An Update on Heroku

NIMBYs Aren't Just Shutting Down Housing

Animated Engines