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kvemkonon They don't make 'em like that any more: Borland Turbo Pascal 7

> GTK4

After my comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49235430 I've investigated the high RAM jump issue a bit further. It turned out, 60 MB comes from MESA / video graphics driver, right after the first function call, that triggers OpenGL/... context initialization. Thus:

  GTK2 14 MB
  GTK3 24 MB
  GTK4 38 MB  (+ 60 MB video acceleration)

Looks a bit better. But we still need 98 MB total.

kvemkonon Firecracker VM Escape: PwnEscape Part 2

This has negative impact on searching older discussions. Instead of 1 result for 1 URL (within few month) getting 2 or even more.

kvemkonon A new Go API for JSON

To preserve the order when processing JSON a workaround has been introduced:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44893833

Still searching the true solution:

https://github.com/golang/go/issues/27179#issuecomment-53634...

A proposal of the missing datatype for this operation mode has been just accepted:

https://github.com/golang/go/issues/69559

kvemkonon noalloc: Tooling and libraries to enforce zero heap allocations in Golang

Thanks for clarification! I'm glad, that you're using the golang compiler capabilities. And now I see:

https://github.com/theconsensuslabs/noalloc#the-compilers-ou...

kvemkonon noalloc: Tooling and libraries to enforce zero heap allocations in Golang

Go compiler has an advanced escaping analyzer. Wouldn't it be easier and better to add this noalloc-analyzer feature to golang directly?

kvemkonon noalloc: Tooling and libraries to enforce zero heap allocations in Golang

Similar with malloc in C / new in C++, especially for short-living, repeating, in hot path. And then you hear: avoid allocations, use constant-size buffers or memory pools. Avoid spawning threads, use thread pools.

kvemkonon Archive.today links going forward

> investigative journalist

I think there is a confusion of blogger with a registered journalist, who must follow journalist's (ethic) rules.

kvemkonon AI promised less work. I've never worked more

Aluminum was and is still something we cannot afford to waste.

14 years ago: "The Battle for Raw Materials - A Company on the Hunt for Aluminum" (DE)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd1Fern6JQ8

few days ago: "Dispute Over Aluminum Scrap: European Industry Calls for Export Restrictions" (DE)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucgyfee6eNk

kvemkonon C vs. C#: racing VLC's Gaussian blur

In C++ we have such troubles either. If something looking as constant cannot be 100% proved to be a constant, it cannot be optimized.

> Incrementing vectors (26.08.2019)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20800076

kvemkonon A new model for open source: closed to pull requests, open to remix

> A new model for open source: closed to pull requests

That's how SQLite operates since decades. And it might be good for them. It is specific project with billions of running instances (handling long-term preserved and modified data contrary to curl), but it doesn't apply generally.

Allowed pull requests is not equal to obligation to review them and to accept. Some disclaimer about how much time one has for this work is very useful for a potential contributor to know in advance what one can expect.

kvemkonon The RAM shortage is bringing back DDR4

I know the only manufacturer of such 64GB modules: Crucial (Micron), but Micron doesn't sell new chips to Crucial, thus almost no chance to get them anymore (though few months ago there were some). Kingston (using Micron, Hynix and Samsung) still does not have 64GB.

Soon Zen 6 should become available (well, or not so soon). With 7200 MTs memory controller? I haven't seen such JEDEC modules at all. Are they possible without the additional clock driver (like on 6400 CUDIMMs)?

kvemkonon C for Rust programmers

> the program should check for a null pointer and gracefully exit if one is found: ...

If malloc() fails, there is no need to exit the program completely with exit(), only return from the current function with an error.

kvemkonon C++ Insights – See your source code with the eyes of a Compiler

> See your source code ...

What I'd like to see, is how much time is spent to compile each block of C++ code (sliced as fine as possible).

kvemkonon Memory Companies Have Destroyed the Consumer Market

All(?) ASUS mainboards got a week ago a new BIOS:

> Enhanced memory performance, system stability, and compatibility with CXMT memory chips for improved low-latency operation.

A year ago I'd hardly know what CXMT is.

kvemkonon C's Flexible Integer Sizes Were Not a Design Mistake

> C requires char to have at least 8 bits (CHAR_BIT >= 8)

The famous TI C55x DSP with 16 bits byte for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3112704.

And they are still available new for purchase.

kvemkonon How I changed teaching after AI managed to do all my homework assignments

> and you have to actually grade the exam

That's the point. As a professor you're allowed to outsource the grading of written exams to you assistants (ongoing PhD teaching stuff). But you must do an oral exam personally.

> usually quicker for the well prepared students

That's true. More time is needed only in case the answer is missing and you have to check whether you hit accidentally the only poorly understood material piece or there are more troubles.

kvemkonon We Should Be Able to Change Our Languages

And one of the very first rules is:

> by default, variables are immutable

Well, since the name is a "variable", it must by default be mutable. Otherwise it is an exception being forced to become a standard case.

kvemkonon New evidence for hidden chambers beyond Tutankhamun's tomb

Dupe. Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742697

kvemkonon TSMC revealing details about next gen A14 node

They claim win + win*10:

> provides up-to 50% area reduction and reduced power consumption by a factor ten

kvemkonon TSMC revealing details about next gen A14 node

Between N2 and A14 should sit A16.

kvemkonon RISC-V Emulator and Linux System from Scratch

Discussion of the corresponding blog post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49553988

kvemkonon What is known about how Eric Lu factored the 862-bit RSA-260 after 35 years

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546284

kvemkonon Audacity 4.0

> since computers are getting new hardware features

It's not possible to move forwards fast anywhere.

> and removing features

Yeah, this is indeed very unfortunate. They claim the GTK core team is about 2 devs, so tiny that we're lucky the development goes further at all. Hard to understand considering Red Hat became part of IBM.

kvemkonon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

> Lets say we are using batteries that are 300 wh/kg (0.3 kwh/kg)

400 Wh/kg are almost there [1].

[1] https://youtu.be/nM86DBOqgPM?t=541

kvemkonon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

> more likely to be 50 kWh just for the take-off

1.6 MW power [1]. Would be 2 minutes for take-off realistic?

[1] https://youtu.be/nM86DBOqgPM?t=475

kvemkonon Audacity 4.0

> so difficult to upgrade to new versions

Perhaps, because GTK developers insist, that GTK2, GTK3, GTK4 are different toolkits.

> Qt4 to Qt5 usually only involved ...

I'd start with Qt3 to Qt4.

kvemkonon Audacity 4.0

I can still use and develop GTK2 software in Debian out-of-the-box, but not Qt3 or even Qt4.

kvemkonon Show HN: I missed the moving blocks, so I built a real Linux disk defragmenter

> to a newly-allocated part of the drive's LBA space

Which is rather a case for home use, not practical for highly parallel access industrial use cases. That's why the issue became a research topic. For the first time I saw a proof that the "fact" SSDs do not need defragmentation is actually a myth. Well, you still want to avoid explicit defragmentation (waste of time and SSD lifetime) by filesystem driver submitting additional hints (using new NVMe extensions) to the SSD controller about what blocks belong to the same file, so that SSD can place them for an optimal sequential access with properly interleaving (not necessary strictly physically consecutively whatever this means on SSD).

https://www.usenix.org/conference/fast24/presentation/jun