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cactusfrog

286 karma · joined March 6, 2022

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cactusfrog··on macOS 27 Golden Gate – Review
I wasn’t excited about Tahoe but it was the best release I’ve encountered. They fixed spotlight and window management enough that I no longer need to rely on third party tools to replace those native features (I still use Rectangle for the keyboard shortcuts, but not for window snapping).

I also appreciate that it comes with dynamic wallpaper of the lake where I got the worst sunburn of my life.

cactusfrog··on Time to Move On: Querying Without Nulls and Bags
Here is a whole seminar series on SQL alternatives https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSE8ODhjZXjbpOIrZheFWxk...

It’s pretty interesting!

cactusfrog··on Metal-Organic Frameworks, Chemistry's New Miracle Materials (2018)
Zeolites are better
cactusfrog··on Canvas online again as ShinyHunters threatens to leak schools’ data
I went to a small liberal arts school where the IT department recruited CS students under work study to build the systems. It’s a good learning experience for students to be involved in constructing and maintaining the infrastructure that keeps the university running. I don’t mean this entirely as in cost savings, but because I like the idea of a university being self maintained.
cactusfrog··on F-15E jet shot down over Iran
Eastern Washington has a lot of hot desert
cactusfrog··on Astral to Join OpenAI
I think UV and Ruff showed us how much better Python tooling could be. Just setting a higher bar has move. OS forward
cactusfrog··on Skip the Tips: A game to select "No Tip" but dark patterns try to stop you
Sometimes I want coffee before I make my coffee
cactusfrog··on US has investigated claims WhatsApp chats aren't private
I would be surprised if the code was hidden from other people engineers.
cactusfrog··on Datacenters in space aren't going to work
We have tons of space on earth. Cooling in space would be so expensive.
cactusfrog··on APT Rust requirement raises questions
Thank you for the explanation
cactusfrog··on APT Rust requirement raises questions
Could the rust code be transpired to readable C?
cactusfrog··on GitHub: Git operation failures
There’s this Gitlab incident https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLdRBsuvVKc
cactusfrog··on The fate of "small" open source
This author assumes that open sourcing a package only delivers value if is added as a dependency. Publicly sharing code with a permissive license is still useful and a radical idea.
cactusfrog··on The history of cataract surgery
A lot of times those 5% people go blind :/
cactusfrog··on Why is Venus hell and Earth an Eden?
I hope humans are like Cyanobacteria in that in destroying the environment we create the substrate for something grander.
cactusfrog··on Apple Silicon GPU Support in Mojo
What language do you think they should have based Mojo off of? I think Python syntax is great for tensor manipulation.
cactusfrog··on Statistical Physics with R: Ising Model with Monte Carlo
The issue with R is that there is too much dsl. This is great for one-off analysis but makes building a cohesive large code base really difficult.
cactusfrog··on Launch HN: Ghostship (YC S25) – AI agents that find bugs in your web app
I know about ghostship, but I don’t immediately associate the word ghost ship with that disaster. I’ve always thought of them as the spooky abandoned ships that float around and I think it’s a good name.
cactusfrog··on An engineering history of the Manhattan Project
One of the best books I’ve ever read is The Making of the Atomic Bomb Book by Richard Rhodes. If you want an extremely in-depth history of the science and people behind Manhattan project, I would highly recommend reading it.
cactusfrog··on People stuck using ancient Windows computers
I wonder how many nuclear power plants run on windows xp.
cactusfrog··on Does the Bitter Lesson Have Limits?
This is really interesting. I think force fields in molecular dynamics have underwent a similar NN revolution. You train your NN on the output of expensive calculations to replace the expensive function with a cheap one. Could you train a small language model with a big one?
cactusfrog··on Fintech dystopia
I think the biggest problem with fintech is that the financial system is already decentralized, and full of tech. It really just seems like it involves using unregulated technology, which allows the skipping of restrictive regulations. This might actually be a good thing, but once a path has been proven to be non destructive the banks can just take over the market by begging the government for deregulation.
cactusfrog··on Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python (2009)
I worked an MIT programmer who bragged about the Scheme curriculum. He was also the worst programmer that I’ve worked with. He really liked clojure and would constantly complain about Python syntax, and ended up quitting abruptly when his hand spun Datomic based system was rejected.

I think there is a trap in thinking that a strange way of being taught puts one at an advantage. It is really annoying to work with people who believe they are more enlightened than others.

cactusfrog··on Staying cool without refrigerants: Next-generation Peltier cooling
My process control theory textbook has a chapter on neural networks and a lot of the language in control theory has an AI like tinge to it. I think this AI language is native to control theory so it might not be as overblown as it first sounds.
cactusfrog··on The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management
OSS, even MIT licensed, embodies an radical idea that is counter to how most other engineering fields operate. The software required to design a chemical plant can cost 60K+ per year, per license, which locks in engineers and drives down their wages.
cactusfrog··on The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management
I don’t think there is a contradiction here. Cheap, un-unionized labor has put many unionized firms out of business. It is extremely rare for a firm to be “de-unionized”.
cactusfrog··on The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management
The amount of unioned workers keep decreasing because the firms with unioned workers fail or the work is outsourced. I think open source software is the best protection against abuses because workers can take the means of production elsewhere if a company becomes dysfunctional or greedy. The consolidation of patents in other engineering fields has killed the industry in the US.
cactusfrog··on Databricks in talks to acquire startup Neon for about $1B
A nice UI for a data lake house is underrated. I use AWS Athena at my work and it is just so bad for no good reason. For example, big columns of text are expanded outwards making reading the subsequent columns impossible.
cactusfrog··on Old Soviet Venus descent craft nearing Earth reentry
This would be a good start of a plot line for some alien life form
cactusfrog··on Vibe Coding is not an excuse for low-quality work
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