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Well some things are already done. For example Cycles X will be released at the end of this year.

Totally agree. Some time ago I also ran Blender headless with a script to render 'product shots' of a product that is available in over hundred different combinations. What is also very nice is that you can turn on API hints when you navigate over an element in the GUI. So you can quickly learn how to access or manipulate data.

tdrdton How I made Google’s data grid scroll faster with a line of CSS

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/contain

The contain CSS property allows an author to indicate that an element and its contents are, as much as possible, independent of the rest of the document tree. This allows the browser to recalculate layout, style, paint, size, or any combination of them for a limited area of the DOM and not the entire page, leading to obvious performance benefits.

I wonder how much of this is browser specific because isn't this is all about implementation?

tdrdton Photoshop will get a ‘prepare as NFT’ option soon

In the near future modern OSs will block the screenshot when you are displaying NFT content.

And also the drivers of your videocard will prevent outputting such data via uncertified cables.

There will also be a hidden watermark in case you want to take a picture of it with your camera, which ofcourse is not allowed.

tdrdton The IKEA catalogue through the ages

I am sorry but I don't get your point. This is something almost all companies do. If you are going to release thousands of catalogues you don't want things in it that could offense people. I think it would have been the same if the t-shirt contained some black-metal logo for example.

For the other example it's the same. I'm from the Netherlands so an IKEA ad with a black man would not surprise me, but for example an Arab man with a turban would. In the advertising world you want to connect with your target audience. I have a hard time believing this has anything to do with racism because their catalogues are full of people from all over the planet.

Anyway, I don't like IKEA products, I think they are rubbish. But I like the fact they use a lot of 3D renders.

tdrdton The IKEA catalogue through the ages

This is from 2012 and was done without IKEA's consent.

tdrdton The IKEA catalogue through the ages

I always think it is a nice fact that over 70% of all images (maybe even 90% today) in the latest catalogues are 3D renders.

This gives IKEA the ability to change things (plants, wallpapers, and so on) depending on different cultures without having to completely change a studio.

Edit: a YT video from 3 years ago about the workflow: https://youtu.be/bJFlslL1wFI Textures are prepared in Photoshop, models made and textured in 3DsMax, rendered with V-Ray.

tdrdton My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

"terrifying and debilitating disease"

The only country I know of that treats addiction like a disease is Portugal.

I don't know how this worked out for them but years ago I read that this had a really positive outcome because being rejected as an addict only makes things worse.

tdrdton Privacy Is a Human Right

Yes. For example here on HN a blind programmer posted once he/she often had to hide the fact he/she is blind initially to get a job.

tdrdton Privacy Is a Human Right

A lot of people don't know what privacy is. They use the argument 'I have nothing to hide'. But that is not what privacy is about. Privacy is your ability to control what others know about you.

A lock on a toilet does this. The ability to hide your IP address does this.

tdrdton I’ve been reading a whole lot about tomatoes

Dutch fact about tomatoes: almost all tomatoes from the Netherlands are grown in greenhouses and most are grown on rockwhool. Computer systems fertilize water that flows through the rockwhool.

The seedlings are grown in labs and then sold to the greenhouses. And while it is not really organic food, most greenhouses don't use chemicals to keep pests and diseases out. A lot of times different kind if insects are used for this. So it is as bio as it gets.

But you can argue about the taste. While they are as healthy as soil grown tomatoes I think they taste watery.

tdrdton WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers

FreeBSD has been released in 1993 and has been a well known OS in the hosting world.

Erlang has been released in 1986 and has been a well known language for message systems.

When I think about exotic I think about some new tech that sound really nice but is still very unproven.

tdrdton WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers

Having dependencies is not bad. But slapping a system together with a ton of dependencies you don't know about is bad.

Simple is better in my opinion.

tdrdton WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers

Automation can be good, but will also be another system to support.

I think this XKCD applies: https://xkcd.com/1205/

tdrdton WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers

"The simpler product makes it much easier to maintain and scale."

This is good news for the developers, the product owners and the customers.

I still can't understand why today people choose a (Javascript) stack of build systems, ton of dependencies, and all kinds of exotic tech that is the latest and most hyped. As a developer you need to support this in the future. It might be nice to build today but it will be a nightmare later.

I have seen days go to waste because of Docker misconfigurations, problems with dependency versions, outdated dependencies not available anymore, bugs deep down in an unknown dependencies, and so on. Personally I want to build systems. I don't want to spend my day debugging all kinds of weird problems.

The (old) WhatsApp teams sounds like a great workplace.

tdrdton Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web into a walled garden

Don't you care about an open internet?

tdrdton EU scientists reveal long-term brain damage caused by Covid

It is known viruses can damage nerves.

And Corona viruses have been with us for ages.

tdrdton Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web into a walled garden

And help your parents, brothers and sisters, neighbors, uncles and aunts to do the same.

And set DDG as the default browser.

I can't imagine why anyone here on HN still would use Chrome.

tdrdton What do I need to read to be a CSS dev?

I believe there are two things everybody should know about HTML/CSS that could help you immensely.

1. Know that everything is a box that wants to float up. Learn about `display` and `position`.

2. Know about how things are measured. I think this is what causes the most troubles. You think something is 50% so it should fit, but it doesn't. Almost all of these problems go away with `*{ box-sizing: border-box}` but you should learn about this.

tdrdton Dutch forensic lab says it has decoded Tesla's driving data

I am not sure. Maybe the law states you can only investigate what you need to investigate. Climate control and music volume settings might be irrelevant.

tdrdton Dutch forensic lab says it has decoded Tesla's driving data

I just read some Dutch news sources to get some more context.

Some things to know:

Tesla hands over all requested data in case of an investigation. But only the requested data. Because we now know what data is stored more data can and will be requested in the future.

The crash was caused by the driver because he thought lane assistance was turned on but only adaptive cruise control was turned on. This caused the vehicle to move to another lane.

So the question about this accident is: how obvious is it for the driver what is going on and what assistance to expect.

tdrdton Dutch forensic lab says it has decoded Tesla's driving data

A lot of questions about responsibility come from this case.

If autopilot was following the car too close would the driver be responsible for not taking action? How much trust is a driver allowed to put in autopilot?

I also wonder how much data other cars collect. As far as I know most cars collect a lot of data you don't know about.

tdrdton How to design in every language at once

Personally I like to add the context of the string, not at what place it is used.

For example:

  title.welcome = "Welcome"
  button.submit = "Submit"

In my experience this makes reusing of texts much easier and there will be less to translate. Because the same welcome title could be used in the dashboard header but also at other places.

But I think this is just a matter of taste. Use what works for you.

tdrdton How to design in every language at once

I was not talking about translations only.

Formats for dates and money are available in almost every programming language as library. You don't have to invent this yourself. The same for timezones, as long als all dates in your DB are UTC.

And inputs for phone numbers and addresses fall in the category of 'Falsehood programmers believe about...'.

If you store your data normalized all the programming language locale libraries make your life easy.

/2c

tdrdton How to design in every language at once

As a developer I never had much problems building systems in multiple locales. I think on the web this was solved over 15 years ago when UTF-8 became mainstream. Over 10 years ago I built a webapp with over 20 locales without much trouble. This included ltr and rtl.

I think the biggest problem with any application is that designers always use text and images that fit in their design. But this is not the reality. I think developers can improve themselves if they understand this. And also: developers can improve themselves when they don't build pixel perfect according to the design but know how to make it look good when texts don't fit the design.

If both the designers and developers know about building text-flexible applications they will have more value for the company they are working for. A design should be seen more as a style guide. The end product must be better than the design.

tdrdton Facts every web dev should know before they burn out and turn to painting

"What does .class.class do"

It selects elements with the class `class` that also have the class `class`. The example might be a little abstract but it could be something like `.message.highlight`, which selects all elements with the class `message` that also have the class `highlight`.

Classes are for classification, IDs are identification. For styling you almost never need identifiers because that is not what styling is about.

  <div class="message highlight">
  .message.highlight {}

is much better than

  <div id="highlightMessage">
  #highlightMessage {}

IDs are like singletons: not reusable.

tdrdton Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

You are giving too much praise to Apple. They never set trends in the datacenter world.

Arm servers have been sold for some years now. AWS, Oracle and others already made the switch. And the fastest super computer (Fugaku, Japan) uses ARM.

tdrdton Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

"For most purposes, electricity is almost a rounding error in datacenter asset management concerns."

I don't think this is true. It is not only power consumption but also power backup. If you can use smaller diesel engines and smaller battery packs this will lower the cost.

And why do you think datacenters have been raising temperatures? It saves a ton of money: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/14/goog... HP estimated they saved 8 million. That is not a rounding error.

A server that uses less power will also generate less heat.

I have to admit it is years ago I worked for a company owning datacenters but at that time the highest costs were always: power and connectivity.

tdrdton X-ray analysis reveals hidden composition under iconic portrait of Lavoisiers

Everyone who paints knows about this. You paint someting but you don't like it. Later you need a canvas and you just put something like gesso over it and start painting something else.

I can understand some people are curious about the hidden composition but I don't think it is special.

tdrdton Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

Germany tries to push for a 7 year minimum update policy in the EU.

If the EU agrees this will be very interesting for the smartphone market.

5 years of security updates is already great.