vintagedave

I did not know that there were two versions of the algorithm:

...the algorithm we discussed here is the original algorithm given by Ken Perlin. But after a few years of giving this algorithm, he improved this in some ways, like he changed the smoothing curve, the way gradients are calculated, etc. And that will be the topic of our next article.

...and that next article doesn't exist. But:

* The 2002 paper improving it (this was likely after I first encountered Perlin noise, so I would have implemented v1!) https://mrl.cs.nyu.edu/~perlin/paper445.pdf

* A really good article explaining the v2 algorithm: https://adrianb.io/2014/08/09/perlinnoise.html

The author's company site[0] is fascinating - they seem to be developing variants of known psychoactive drugs for medicinal purposes. Three purposes so far: for anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

[0] https://arcadiamedicine.com/

Let me offer a kind possibility: perhaps they were removed because he has changed and no longer feels they represent his views?

There was a now-flagged comment [0] saying how excited they were until reading the author’s politics. I was curious. The links I found are all offline but sounded unpleasant. This means I can’t say for sure.

I recognize some folk dislike mixing tech and politics, but human ethics and actions impact the world.

It’s fair to feel distrust for any product based on the values that product’s creator expresses.

I saw the author of TRMNL in this thread so perhaps I can invite him to address that — and in replies, let’s keep discourse civil and HN-like please.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998497

Oddly enough I thought Firefox had that a few years ago. I forget what I used - maybe a Mozilla extension? - but it even colour-coded tabs.

Am I wrong? Was it unofficial? A hack?

I asked this in a thread with a CC author a few months ago (I felt — and hope — very politely, with similar background.) No reply. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46716974

I don't even have a Code option, yet it claims it is fully up to date. It's absolutely a disaster.

I naively trusted an Upgrade button to, well, upgrade the app. Not replace it with something that doesn't even expose the same functionality. That's what is now scaring me, the docs and what I see in the app simply do not match. There is no Code.

Perhaps ‘restrictive’ was a poor choice of words. ‘Less free’ in the free-software sense.

I’m still putting together my thoughts on various open source licenses especially as we see automated AI rewriting.

Sure! The very top of the readme says in bold:

Reformat any Apple Silicon (M series) mac from macOS, linux or windows with a single command.

and it's only a little lower, in less prominent text,that it says:

lets you fully wipe or restore a T2 or M series macbook

I think one is safe, one is dangerous, and it would be good to make the capability for both clear. I would personally put them in the order safe-then-dangerous in text, too, 'lets you restore (safe for user data) or fully wipe a T2 or M-series MacBook...'.

The human (or other entity) judging it probably thinks it looks like a sign of thinking or reasoning, and doing a better job -- catching its own errors before they are confidently surfaced. That would be worth rewarding.

god knows who

For Grok, we do know who, and many of us remember the repeated Nazi salute, the alleged creation of underage graphic material, etc.

I get a sense of tiredness around all this and just wanting to work with some tech. But, in today's world, people and their beliefs matter, and they do have impact. We have to be aware of, and react, to that. There are plenty of LLMs without that baggage. It's ok - and I'd say, something to respect - to say No to Grok and use one of the others. Hardcore nerd or not, it's a matter of what line you draw with ethics. My own line is pretty far on the 'no way' side of what we've seen Grok be associated with.

This is impressive - but is a license change, from the PostgresQL license [0] to AGPL [1].

I like the AGPL and think it's the best truly free open source license, but I worry if this is compatible. Ie, if this is rewritten from the original source, should the original apply? (Yes.) There has been a trend to rewrite open source software with a more restrictive license (like coretools in Rust). This looks considerably more ethical by choosing the AGPL - I just wonder, safer with no change at all?

[0] https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/

[1] https://github.com/malisper/pgrust?tab=AGPL-3.0-1-ov-file

I totally get it. The triplet was ‘a framework now ready to be used, explored, and built upon by the worldwide community.’ AIs love to claim something is ready or production ready (kinda primed me for thinking AI when I read that), and the triplet is the comma-separated clause, clause, clause.

Why not email HN / dang and ask for a boost? They are very nice and sometimes do, and if it got off to a poor start but is a valuable post, no harm asking. I don’t know the Rust ecosystem enough to judge this, but, good luck.

The blog doesn't explain what Rama is, but it's a network library (?) for Rust: https://ramaproxy.org/

Is it a proxy or more? It seems more despite the name.

OP, I am very happy for you releasing, but I see you have zero upvotes. I think explaining what something is is key in any blogpost. And sorry to say, but the triplet in your text gives AI vibes even though it's a completely legitimate way of writing and I am sure you did write it yourself.

I wondered why I also read this in the readme and then realised -- you're the author!

Good work. This formats, though, not restores, as I understand?

Unfortunately the article doesn't answer the question. I was hoping for an investigation.

Whatsapp is #4 in battery usage on my phone, and has spent more time in background mode (9 minutes) than active (6 minutes.) Not nearly as bad as the author but I have to admit, I don't understand why it could spend anywhere near that much time doing anything. All it needs to do is be sent a new message.

The Daily Mail is an awful newspaper[0][1]. (At least it's not The Sun, but HN, we can do better.) Here's the Associated Press article: https://apnews.com/article/nyc-manhattan-building-collapse-r...

Perhaps the post could be updated?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail#Criticism

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/3fh0qh/why_do...

An example of prejudice? What an extraordinary statement. It’s an example of ethical, competent, responsible professionalism.

The ‘incentive structure’ is non-financial and based on the ethics of valuing other humans. This is a professional duty. To even call it a ‘incentive structure’ feels like it’s missing the point.

The thing is, other packs of the same wood to the same spec were better. We were able to sort through and get one graded/rated the same, but without problems.

I know about wood quality and I have deliberately bought higher and lower grade wood. But even so, quality varies greatly.

That's also a lesson about what people will sell you. First time I went to a lumberyard, I was (coincidentally) with a friend who did a lot of woodwork. I thought, well, I've just paid for a pack of wood, I'll get it. The worker there was completely happy with that. My friend stopped me, and inspected each piece.

Sure enough, several had cracks at the ends, knots in poor places, and other things that, had I bought it, would have caused me trouble.

I can be a naive person in that I assume good faith. I would never knowingly sell something poor quality to someone else. I had assumed because I was being sold it, it was okay.

Most last development was in 2022 -- so we know this was not vibe coded.

Fantastic retro looks, too. I also love that it's wholly ring 0 :)

In fairness, it's a workaround against something that likely should not have happened. Problems require creative (aka unusual) solutions.

Mistral is just not competitive enough

Does anyone know why? I was really excited when they emerged, but their models and targets don't seem to be quite in the same market.

Yes! Same here! And the same disk space issue.

I remember switching to Mac OS from Windows. That was back in the days where you had to restart Windows, and Windows apps could steal focus. Mac OS X: rarely restarted, soon moving for a good decade to never; and apps could not steal focus, the Dock icon bounced.

Where are we today? I reboot macOS regularly, deal with the same frustrating issues on login, and when I type sometimes a dialog or app steals my keystrokes. That includes permissions dialogs, 'Foo wants to access your Documents folder'. I do not know every app I have granted permissions to, because I do know that I was typing in a text field and the dialog appeared as I was doing it.

I feel there's a loss there of valuing:

* Uptime, or rather, lack of interruption and losing state, as a value for users

* Control: the user is using an app, respect that and don't allow other apps to disrespect and take control away from it, again as value or attitude towards users.

The worst part about the apps restarting is not that they do it, though today it feels a hack to mostly-not-quite restore state that shouldn't have been lost in the first place. It's how long it takes. I have an Apple Silicon Mac. It can take over a minute for apps to restore, Spaces to switch as they re-maximise, etc. And forget trying to interact during that time: if you want to quit an app (say) it's risky because any other app can steal focus and you find yourself in another app while trying to deal with the first.

And Spaces restoration? I have a permanent black Space. It belongs to Parallels, which is actually on another space. And I have one Space with multiple windows: they belong to Fork, and each one should be in its own Space, but they overlap like a mini windowing system.

The bugs. I realise I sound like I'm complaining, but... I am. I paid money for this and I know how good it used to be. I've been seriously looking at Linux and maybe KDE Plasma recently. There's little barrier to switching, not when you actively annoy your users and push them. I did it once (to Mac), and I've been thinking, well, I can do it again.

Their response says,

Dems had a choice between the progressive wing (Bernie Sanders, etc), versus corporate Dems, but in the end money won and constituents lost.

And they're using this to say, Republicans are 'more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.'

That seem significantly more nuanced than supporting the right wing.

One of the articles you linked[1] also seems to debunk it.

[1] https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-tr...

Thanks, very nice of you to note that, and I'll fix. The SSG behind it has some updates coming to improve mobile rendering for sidenotes etc already, will add more :)

Drag corner... hmm... seems a change in recent browsers - that has not changed in the website implementation since it worked in all three (FireFox, Chrome, Safari.) And I may have to break my no-Javascript ethos to get it working again!

There's so little joy and happiness left in computing

Preach it! https://daveon.design/creating-joy-in-the-user-experience.ht...

These are very nice (especially the Betelgeuse set), but -- unless this is just chance from the ones displayed -- don't they mostly all have the same silhouette, a rounded rectangle? While the Betelgeuse ones have more flair and are more differentiable from each other, an excellent thing, locking them in a box is the same kind of jail that this article is about.

I would love to encourage you to free your own icons from the round-rect jail. You have some fantastic designs there.

Over the years, books kept in print may earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for their publisher and author. A few steady earners, even though the annual earnings are in what is now dismissively called “the midlist,” can keep publishers in business for years, and even allow them to take a risk or two on new authors. … To get big quick money, the publisher must risk a multimillion-dollar advance on a hot author who’s supposed to provide this week’s bestseller. These millions—often a dead loss—come out of funds that used to go to pay normal advances to reliable midlist authors and the royalties on older books that kept selling. Many midlist authors have been dropped, many reliably selling books remaindered… Is that any way to run a business?

Does this still occur? It seems shortsighted in that wonderful ‘management’ ‘business’ way that we’ve all seen. Yet we hear of self-published books getting deals and Amazon and other catalogues make the most rare of books accessible for purchase. Wouldn’t today be ideal for midlist authors?*

A real shame that they didn't include screenshots of what the results look like. Not only do they note browsers that don't support it yet, they even note that the samples might not survive changes in the future.

So I scrolled, saw a lot of code, nothing showing the result.