Links für 2023 KW 28
Zusammengefasst von LlongOrca.
It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code:
In this true story, a factory's underutilization prompts its president to consider increasing backlog or laying people off. The operations manager suggests extending the company policy from 3 months to 4 months, but there are various issues in implementing the change. It ultimately takes six days, minimal code changes, and numerous hurdles before the solution can be implemented.
Jeremy Mikkola - What makes developers productive?:
This article discusses various factors that contribute to developer productivity, such as knowing what to build, doing fewer things, and having clean boundaries between systems. It also highlights the importance of documentation, helpful infrastructure, low tech debt, and avoiding high rates of failure in improving overall productivity. Additionally, the article emphasizes the need for developers to have clear focus, complete tasks, and practice productive practices in their work.
Who Employs Your Doctor? Increasingly, a Private Equity Firm.:
A new study reveals that private equity firms now own more than half of all specialists in certain U.S. markets. These firms have been acquiring physician practices to form powerful medical groups across the country. In many local markets, a single firm owned more than 30% of practices in a given specialty in 2021, with some firms owning over half the specialists in their respective areas. The study shows that these medical groups are associated with higher prices, particularly when they control a dominant share of the market. This has contributed to high insurance premiums and potentially increased patient out-of-pocket costs.
Opinion Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness.:
A thought-provoking article that highlights the challenges young men face in defining their role and identity in today's society. The shifting landscape of traditional gender norms has created uncertainty, anxiety, and frustration for many, leading to a search for new ways to embrace masculinity. As we move towards more inclusive and progressive ideals of gender, it is important to provide support and guidance for boys and men as they navigate this transition. Creating positive role models, promoting healthy relationships between fathers and sons, and fostering community mentorship can help to shape a more inclusive understanding of what it means to be a man in the modern world.
A Kingdom of Little Animals - The American Scholar:
Thank you for the summary! Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of spermatozoa in 1677 marked a significant milestone in the field of microbiology and has played an essential role in understanding living creatures. His study on these tiny eel-like creatures led to the development of germ theory, which further advanced scientific knowledge about the existence of microorganisms that can cause diseases. In addition, his research into the importance of a healthy gut microbiome is proving relevant today with studies exploring ways to manipulate it for treating and preventing various illnesses. The relevance of Leeuwenhoek's work in understanding our world cannot be overstated, as his discoveries continue to shape modern medicine and scientific advancements.
Microsoft takes pains to obscure role in 0-days that caused email breach:
Microsoft has recently explained a security breach that allowed hackers working for the Chinese government to access email accounts of 25 organizations, including the US Departments of State and Commerce. The company identified three exploited vulnerabilities in its Exchange Online email service or Azure Active Directory, which is used by large companies to manage single sign-on and multifactor authentication. The attack was carried out by Storm-0558, a China-based hacking group that conducts espionage on behalf of the Chinese government, starting from May 15th. Microsoft removed the intruders on June 16 after being alerted by one of its customers.
Nobody cares about your blog.:
This article discusses reasons why people might not care about blogs and provides counterarguments as to why maintaining a blog is still valuable. The author acknowledges that there are numerous similar blogs online, suggesting the originality of content may be questionable. However, they argue that keeping a personal journal can serve as notes for future self-reflection, allowing individuals to revisit their past thoughts and evolution over time. Writing about complex ideas also allows writers to better understand what they're saying. Even if ideas are not entirely original, personal perspectives can add depth. Additionally, blogs can provide a platform to share unique experiences or solve specific problems. Finally, the author emphasizes that it is empowering to have complete ownership of one's blog and enjoy the freedom that comes with it.
Ada Outperforms Assembly: A Case Study:
This article discusses a case study where Ada outperforms assembly code in terms of size and performance for a communications application. The defense contractor QRS initially assumed that assembly language was the most suitable choice for its small, real-time communication software. However, after rewriting a portion of the application in Ada to obtain a waiver, they found that compiled Ada could be more efficient and smaller in size than the corresponding assembly code. The study highlights the advancements in compiler technology, which enables better optimization and increased maintainability for high-order languages like Ada.
New research from York University has found that moderate exercise may enhance the body's response to inflammation by changing the way macrophages, a type of white blood cell, breathe and use oxygen. This discovery shows how exercise trains precursors of these cells in the bone marrow, leading to long-term benefits in the immune system, even after one week. The study found that excessive inflammation can lead to heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, and autoimmune diseases. Researchers hope this knowledge will be put to use by understanding the underlying mechanisms of exercise's beneficial impact on immune health in the long run.
The No CSS Club is a movement that encourages the use of HTML documents to serve information on the web, arguing that unnecessary elements like CSS and JavaScript only mask lack of interesting content. The author provides a list of websites that adhere to these principles and asks readers to submit their own examples meeting the rules mentioned.
Does the microbiome hold the key to chronic fatigue syndrome?:
In 2019, Tamara Romanuk experienced a short-term remission in symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) after taking antibiotics prescribed for another infection. She discovered that she was not the only person to have this experience. Sharing her story online, she found that others with ME/CFS had also experienced a dramatic remission of symptoms following a bacterial infection and subsequent antibiotic treatment. Romanuk and Tess Falor founded the RemissionBiome project to investigate these experiences further.
ME was recognized as a neurological disease by the World Health Organization in 1969 but still faces significant stigma, with conditions such as ME disproportionately affecting women whose symptoms and concerns are often ignored by doctors. Long Covid shares many of the same symptoms as ME/CFS, including chronic pain, exhaustion, brain fog, and exercise intolerance but lacks adequate research funding and has faced similar challenges in gaining recognition and understanding from the medical community.
The RemissionBiome project focuses on the gut microbiota and how it may be connected to ME/CFS symptoms. While preliminary results have been promising, more rigorous trials involving dozens of participants are needed before any conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of this approach.
The article discusses the importance of effective communication in the workplace, highlighting how it helps in building trust and improving relationships among colleagues. It emphasizes the role of active listening and nonverbal cues in creating a positive working environment, as well as providing examples of best practices for efficient communication.
GitHub - yammer/circuitbox: Circuit breaker built with large Ruby apps in mind.:
The article discusses a circuit breaker called „circuitbox PublicNotifications,“ which is designed specifically for large Ruby applications. It has received 60 forks and 547 stars on GitHub, indicating its popularity and success. The article also mentions the license under which it operates, with a reminder that the user cannot perform certain actions at this time due to platform limitations.
PyInstaller Manual — PyInstaller 5.13.0 documentation:
The article discusses PyInstaller, a tool for creating standalone executables from Python scripts and packages. It provides information on its documentation, which can be found at „Read the Docs.“ Versions from v5.13.0 to v4.0 are mentioned with download options available in pdf, html, epub formats. The article also directs users to the project home page and build details for further reference.
Nuitka is a Python compiler written in Python that can replace or extend the Python interpreter. It compiles all constructs supported by CPython versions 2.6 through 3.11 and executes uncompiled code alongside compiled code for maximum compatibility. The goal of optimization is to avoid unnecessary overhead, while maintaining full compatibility with standard Python. Nuitka supports using all Python library modules and extension modules without restrictions.
In this conversation, users discuss the feature of a chat system that displays text input as stars when a specific password (hunter2) is entered. This demonstrates that their password has been shared within the group, and they find it amusing or funny when others type hunter2 to see the star display.
The magic of dependency resolution:
This article discusses dependency resolution in package management systems like cargo, npm, or Conda, which automatically figure out the specific set of packages needed to be installed. The author worked on creating an open-source dependency solver for the Conda ecosystem, called libsolv_rs, which is written in Rust and currently supports solving only Conda packages. The process of determining dependencies involves a SAT (satisfiability) problem and requires unit propagation and an algorithm like conflict-driven clause learning to resolve conflicts.
How much information is too much information?:
This article discusses the importance of considering factors beyond nesting and logical complexity when assessing code quality. It introduces a new metric called Working Memory to account for the number of distinct pieces of program state that a developer needs to keep in their head while analyzing a function, arguing that it affects understandability and maintainability of code. The article provides an example and calculates Working Memory values line by line.
European Commission gives EU-US data transfers third round at CJEU:
The European Commission is facing criticism over its new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework, which has been likened to the failed „Privacy Shield“. The framework, aimed at addressing concerns about EU-US data transfers and improving privacy standards for individuals on both sides of the Atlantic, appears largely unchanged from previous iterations. Noyb, an Austrian civil rights organization, is set to challenge the decision, potentially leading to another lengthy legal battle before the Court of Justice (CJEU). This is the third attempt by the European Commission to secure a stable agreement on EU-US data transfers. The fundamental problem with FISA 702 has not been addressed, as the US still takes the view that only US persons are worthy of constitutional rights, leading to concerns over privacy and legal certainty under the new framework.
Thread by @Yampeleg on Thread Reader App:
GPT-4 is a large language model developed by OpenAI, with approximately 1.8 trillion parameters across 120 layers. This model is trained on 13T tokens and utilizes a mixture of experts (MoE) model, which contains 16 experts in total, each about ~111B parameters for MLP. The inference cost for GPT-4 is higher than its predecessors due to the larger clusters required and lower utilization achieved.
playlaser.xyz • Play Laser Online:
This article describes a game where players take turns moving their pieces on a board. Each player has a King, Knight, Pawn, and Laser piece, which all have distinct movement patterns. The goal is to either capture your opponent's King or move a pawn into the designated corner squares. There are no checkmates, and the game continues until one of the win conditions is met. A draw occurs if both Kings are lasered simultaneously.
Dashcam images reveal where police are deployed | Cornell Chronicle:
Cornell Tech researchers used deep learning computer models and dashboard camera images from New York City rideshare drivers to study police presence by time of day, neighborhood demographics, proximity to police stations, and commercial districts. Their findings show that areas with more police vehicles include wealthy commercial zones and low-income neighborhoods with higher proportions of Black and Latino residents, which can lead to disparities in police deployments.
firefox address bar tips :: tilde.institute:
The article discusses Firefox's default address bar behavior and offers tips for better search filtering. It provides a list of modifiers that can be used with search terms, such as „^“ for searching history, „*“ for bookmarks, „+“ for tagged pages, „%“ for open tabs, „#“ for page titles, „$“ for URLs, „?“ for suggestions. Examples of using these modifiers are given to demonstrate how they can improve search results accuracy and relevance.
The debate over 'fake work' in the tech industry misses the real culprit: lazy managers:
The article discusses the issue of „fake work“ in tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta. It mentions how employees are often assigned tasks that don't contribute to the company's bottom line, while managers might get promotions or raises based on having a larger team. The pandemic-driven boom in hiring at these companies led to an increase in this type of work, but now, with layoffs becoming more common, companies are being criticized for overhiring.