skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> It's a pretty standard out-of-order design that executes loads speculatively. The BOOM spec has a sentence beginning

> "As BOOM will send speculative load instructions to the cache…"

> How would such a design not be vulnerable to Spectre?

Hypothetically (I'm not familiar enough with BOOM to say whether this applies in this case or not), if the "speculation load depth" is limited to 1, then it seems it could be invulnerable? From the spectre paper, the exploit uses code like

if (x < array1_size)
y = array2[array1[x] * 256];

So if the speculation load depth would be limited to 1, the cpu could speculatively load array1[x], compute "array1[x] * 256", but not load "array2[array1[x] * 256]" until the branch has been resolved?

Now, I don't know enough about micro-architecture to say whether such an idea makes any sense in general. Secondly, it seems Spectre is only the first on a long series of side channel attacks that target speculation, so it might be that the hypothetical "speculation load depth limited" design I envisioned above is vulnerable to some other variation of the attack.
Intel claims its new security updates make PCs ‘immune’ to Meltdown and Spectre
And yet it will still build a shadow profile for you.

(Also your comment isn't true for many people in marketing, community or HR positions)
Out of curiosity, which one of them is faster for doing complex search?
I just got an 8700k last week. I was thinking about returning it and go with Amd instead. The truth is, I do not do many tasks on my home computer where the CPU is going to be at >50% at all times.

The other truth is, that Intel CPUs are just faster than Amd Cpus (now with a few exceptions, but for general use that still applies).

I'd say if you are talking about a large quantity purchase, you should maybe wait or look for alternatives. Other than that it should not make much difference for us "normal folks."

Another truth is that there is / was so much misinformation out there.

Finally, I wonder if there are going to be any optimizations to these fixes in the future?
Many mentions of Python, none of Numba, which does a good job of jitting Python with LLVM.

It seems unlikely though that an entire modeling community could rally behind a single language or framework, given all the possibilities, many of which are commercially oriented. But one I’ve used recently with a lot of flexibility is Loopy

https://documen.tician.de/loopy/
Do you have a source on this I can read more about this? It sounds interesting, but as someone who works in security and understands the basics of blockchain/contracts, your description was highly confusing.
Well, both versions are true, the latter mostly following from the former. With a lower absolute number of developers, the number of incompetent programmers is going to be lower in absolute terms, despite the ratio staying the same as in other languages.

But I believe there's a difference in the ratio, too, due to the way Haskell, Erlang, Lisp, etc. programmers learn these languages. Basically, they learn the languages not because someone wants them to (eg. Java, C#, etc.) and not because they have to just to be able to do something they want to do (eg. JavaScript, SQL, etc.). Instead, people learn such languages because they themselves want to, which makes them more probable to delve deeper, learn more and acquire more important skills.

Well, that's a conjecture I can't prove and I may be completely wrong on this, it's just what my anecdotal experience suggests.
You can create a local offline mirror using the shrinkpack (not shrinkwrap) tool.
Isn't "impact" generally about social change rather than monetary success?

For example, "the Khan Academy has made a tremendous impact".
Connect to IRCs, chat with folks on random channels
Sadly my work blocks all irc servers.
302 https://medium.com/@caspervonb/electron-is-cancer-b066108e6c...
The point is not the microwave. It's UI.

Though perhaps a metastory might be "how not to write a UI essay".

(I actually rather liked this one. The off-the-rails discussion suggests either I'm an exception or the point isn't being clearly communicated.)
I would put up with a hieroglyphic based UI ten times weirder than the one depicted if it meant the microwave didn't beep.

Seriously, what is it with embedded digital electronics designers and beeping? Nothing else has a gratuitous noisemaker. I swear if the home refrigerator was invented after the cheap piezo buzzer it would emit an ear-piercing bleep every time the door opened, or maybe when the compressor cycled on or off.

Is there some sort of strange subsidy or tax consequence so that adding a beeper has negative net cost?
Awesome Reference: Guide to Galaxy, Valuable, Popular, Up-To-date Links for CS
Because capitalism. Even the mountain you hike keeps business hours, requires vehicular propulsion to get to, and charges a fee for parking.

Laws and social conventions alike discourage simply standing around doing nothing in particular in most public places, and loitering ordinances sometimes expressly forbid it. There aren’t that many places to go or things to do, both as a matter of practical exigencies and sociocultural rituals alike, which don’t involve some business to transact.
Unless I'm missing something, Spectre isn't really a JS-based vulnerability. As far as I know, any code that runs directly on a computer with one of the affected CPUs could be used to perform the Spectre attack. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Yep, until your "trusted code" (e.g. Apache, PHP,...) has a remote code execution vulnerability.

This is such a dangerous advice... you should really only disable these things if:

a) your computer is not connected to the internet in any way

b) it is in a trusted environment
Almost all browser games coming out these days. Here's a link with a list if you want to see what they're like:
https://www.crazygames.com/t/webgl
It's quite impressive. Try any of Madalin Stunt Cars, Bullet Force, or Truck Driver Crazy Road 2 in fullscreen considering each of them is built by a single developer and be amazed (I am, at least).
“An introduction to distributed systems” by Aphyr
This guy's blog is awesome. A lot of in-depth information, original research, nice and funny writing style. I hope he finds some time to write / speak more soon.
Working Link -> https://medium.com/@caspervonb/electron-is-cancer-b066108e6c...
An 8-tube module from a 1954 IBM 705 mainframe: it's a key debouncer
It’s called “proto to proto” in google slang, and yes, googlers definitely complain that their jobs consist mostly of proto to proto work.
Yes, probably. Linux isn't Windows and is deeply modular these days, to the point you can install a full system plus firmwares onto an AMD machine, then move the disk to an Intel one, or the other way around, and expect everything to work because drivers aren't hardcoded anywhere (there are exceptions, but they're rare) and the system loads what is needed for the hardware it finds at each boot. BUT, in a very small memory and storage constrained system one could be forced to recompile the kernel with just the bare necessary static drivers to make the hardware work, which could cause problems in different architectures.

Now that I think of it, there are on Ebay floppy "emulators" which offer a compatible floppy drive interface to the system but use flash memories as storage. They're made in slightly different versions to be compatible with different systems, including home computers and musical instruments. Might be a solution to a fast install through floppies without actually using floppies.
Also there are ATA to compact flash converters which are even cheaper because the two ports are about 100% compatible. I used the latter years ago to put a firewall (pfSense IIRC) compact flash into a small PC which had only ATA ports. Booted from it and worked without problems.
> You’re choosing a lifestyle of avoidance and low expectations.

What's wrong with that?

Some people have laid their heart open to the benign indifference of the universe and are just like: "what's the point?"
Yay! Wildcard!!!!
Same. Any microwave that can't start with one button push is a time waster IMO. That and Cancel are the only buttons I typically use.
Maybe he was referring to this period:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Colombia#Pre-Colomb...

It could make sense in the context of the area of Colombia being a crossroad territory similar to the Middle East, plus the timelines match...
It doesn't have to be this way. Apple doesn't have fear of breaking old apps sometimes, for example, and they are successful. I think that absurd backwards compatibility should be considered harmful and some breakage should be normal. It's always possible to install old browser into virtual machine, if content is so precious.
Rocket has a branch predictor; if you're not going to do any kind of speculation, why have it in the first place?
The article and comments are overtly confrontational with zero objectivity and even less research. This is clickbait.
A fantastic article - the economic advantage of camels just killed off a fundamental invention. fascinating and may I say on a front page full of Spectre doom, just spot on for "gratifying intellectual curiosity".
As of today, no US passenger airlines operate the Boeing 747
this issue is avoidable by using shrinkpack:

HN: Shrinkpack – npm dependencies as tarballs, prevents “left-pad” style breakage - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11353908
That Microwave UX is certainly bad. But the design of traditional microwaves is also not defensible. If you had never seen microwave before and tried to use it, you would be quite dumbfounded. Just pressing 1 key starts heating for 1 minute but how do you do 30 seconds? Just press the start key! That's quite unintutive if you ask me. The reason people don't feel that way because most people have learned how to use microwave from their parents or friends and knowledge keeps getting passed on. On those lines, I know of no one who knows how to use other "advanced" features that most microwaves have today like thawing and food type specific heating.
> There is no need for anything more than a loosely agreed upon pseudo code for for the proofs though, actually many proofs can be made without any code.

The proofs have to be related to the code. Otherwise, you're just inviting sloppiness and hand-waving.

> I'm not convinced that using a language that is easy to automatically prove correctness of is useful for learning proofs.

I'm talking about writing proofs by hand, the good old-fashioned way. It is easier to prove things by hand about Java programs than JavaScript programs, and it is easier still to prove things by hand about ML programs than Java programs.
I feel you. My microwave oven makes 4 lousy beeps once it's done... And will be more than happy to repeat those 4 beeps every 30 seconds until you open the damn door
I suggest this book the Competitive Programmer's Handbook https://cses.fi/book.html
FYI, the submitter is someone from Scaleway, so he perhaps would also answer some questions on what infos they had or something.
He really should've told near the end. Anyway, I assume you press the power button, because that is the established standard for microwaves in the last 10 years or so. Probably there might be a timeout and then it starts automatically.

This is indeed something you have to learn though, first time I encountered this kind of microwave it baffled me as well.
I think it's a very good thing that we don't treat mental health that way because, generally speaking, we're nowhere near understanding mental health issues the way we understand diabetes (although I wouldn't be surprised if we don't understand that one as well as I'm inclined to think).

A better analogy would be something like 'Ask HN: what are you doing for your front-end javascript needs', which of course is discussed a lot, maybe even too much.

To be clear, I do agree that if you have serious issues it would be good to see a professional. But it's not a panacea and so it's quite possible, likely even, that a lot of people asking questions like OP are asking specifically because a professional has not been able to cleanly solve the problem, if at all. In fact, I've met plenty of people who felt they were worse off after getting help.

Again, I'd still recommend you try if you're struggling, but it's important to not see a mental health professional as 'the' solution, because on top of quite possibly turning out to be a disappointing experience, it might keep you from trying other stuff alongside it.
> Actually, from a libertarian POV I really like the idea, both behind an uncensorable imageboard and Tor, but the simple fact that pedophiles and Nazis can and will abuse the openness for their vile gains makes me believe that the world will probably never be ready for such a thing as widespread service.

Similar considerations are why I never ran a Tor exit node, despite my inner geek wanting to as soon as I heard about it because the technology is cool.

The deciding factor was that almost every good thing that I could think of or that people suggested that a truly anonymous, untraceable, non-moderated, anybody to anybody communication system could be used for were things that could be reasonably accomplished by other means that are not as open to abuse.

For example, a common scenario offered is someone inside an oppressive regime working to document the regime's abuses and bring it down. They would be tortured and killed (and possibly so would their family) if their identity became known.

But they just need a need a secure channel to a trusted contact outside the reach of the regime who can relay messages for them. It does not have to be an anybody to anybody channel or a non-moderated channel.

The only things I could think of that really need something like Tor are things where what you are doing is so near universally frowned upon that there is almost nobody willing to be publicly associated with facilitating it.
I guess the Em Dash is like the Kurwa of punctuation:

> The most common curse word in Polish is kurwa, which can mean a variety of things - damn, bitch, fuck, {insert any word}, and can even serve as a comma.

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Polish_phrasebook#Phrase_list
To all such articles I say: screw you.

Electron has finally given an ability to develop and deliver apps that have the same functionality across multiple platforms. What has the author of the article done?

Not surprisingly, the majority of the commenters in the article don't agree with it.
Being lazy is not an attention deficit or hyperactivity. Most people can focus just fine, as they do when the deadline approaches. The situation described in the parent post is an issue of motivation and discipline, not attention.

To be more clear as to the diagnosis: there is a definite difference between people who don't want to pay attention to certain tasks (the vast majority) and those who cant (the minority that do have legitimate ADHD).
Not sure why anyone doubts or is upset by this. In my field, health professionals send all sorts of critical confidential information in email, and never delete any of it. For each person where email has good enough security, or can be made as such, there are 10 where it will never be remotely adequate in real world usage.
I'm sure that without that feedback mistakes can happen that might be blamed on UI (didn't press the start/reheat/&c. button all the way through). Similar thought process to most touchscreen keyboards which have feedback (sound or haptic) by default because it's probably going to be a hurdle for users. Reminds me of the first time I installed a Linux distro which didn't disable the system beep (Debian w/o X)… surprising how this vastly and immediately changes UX. It's actually an interesting way to practice making fewer mistakes but it's a good thing that no UI relies on system beep any more.

A big ol' beep/nobeep switch on ovens would be a nice thing.
The cynic in me is amazed how people complain about a loss of 0-30% in performance on the desktop (depending on the workload), but are completely happy to replace native applications by Electron applications and/or web applications. Of course, these may be disjoint sets of people.

I think when it comes to most desktop workloads, the security issues are far more interesting and serious. And while Meltdown only affects Intel CPUs, Spectre affects all (?) out-of-order CPUs and there may be more/more effictive attacks in the future. So every fast, modern CPU is pretty much in the same boat and it will take some time for the dust to settle.

So, I would just stick with the Intel CPU. You can vote with your wallet once one vendor decides to axe ME/PSP and/or properly mitigates Spectre-type attacks ;).
Why I Still Use Vim – And it’s not because I can’t figure out how to close it
Typescript seems healthy every way I can see. E.g. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...

It seems that a project like TS that restricts itself to adding future JS features and types should be different. To strip the types, and be left with plain javascript, just run it through typescript.
The instruction manual is 44 pages long
https://www.fisherpaykel.com/download/user-guide/Kitchen/Coo...
My girlfriend is one of the least technical people I know. Spending time with her makes me almost completely forget about work.
Otto the octopus wrecks havoc (2008)
Boo fucking hoo.

It's 2018 and I can't write an interface once and use it everywhere. Unless I use HTML/javascript.

If I'm one developer writing a decently-sized app, building/maintaining 3+ different codebases (because "native is better") is a great way to never release anything useful and be fighting idiotic bugs all the time.

Yes, javascript sucks. Sure, the interfaces you build will not be as good as the natives ones. But if there's one thing I've learned over the years: being correct is bullshit. Get your stuff out the door, and iterate from there. If people REALLY like it, and you start getting money for it, then sure, rewrite native interfaces for everything.

Electron/nwjs are great tools for quickly slamming out desktop apps.
Jehanne in 2017
Introductory talk: "A Functional Programmer's Guide to Homotopy Type Theory" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caSOTjr1z18
If you don't need to touch shaders, then you're doing something trivial, like drawing models with a camera.

Once you dip your toes into even something like alpha transparency, or z fighting, depth buffer precision, or texture upload hitches, you start to unpack the shader pipeline under the hood. Which THREE.js makes it super easy to do, because it's much more of a broad library than it is a thick one.

> Also not accurate. WebGL is a -very- thin wrapper over OpenGL ES

Conceptually it seems thin, but it's all a lie. WebGL's most awesome feature is that for simple cases you don't realize how much of a lie this is.

In practice, there is shader recompilation, sentinel rewrites and caching, sync fences, format decodes, a full-blown message queue protocol to a render thread, automatic frame flipping and composition, CPU rendering, and the end of the pipe isn't even necessarily OpenGL at all!

But I agree it appears very thin until you actually look at what's happening (or are forced to due to leaky abstractions).

One of the best resources I've read on this is WebGL Insights:

https://github.com/WebGLInsights/WebGLInsights.github.io/rel...
Can anyone tell me ,why modern microwaves all have the same useless interface with a gazillion of buttons and nobs that no one in the world uses?

There's basically just one microwave I'm aware of that is actually proper design, mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16090081
Homestead principle
Create your own monero miner in 1-click
His childhood mirrors my own, although academic success is inverted.

I wonder if there is some trait which transfixed us for life, I am certain that the interviewee (Gideon) and I are not alone.

It also beggars the question. Although very non-PC. That were I a girl I would not be dissuaded from this course. I know this because there was literally zero support from anyone regarding computing as a hobby or profession. In fact the opposite, they actively fought against it.

Again. I think I'm very unalone in this regard.
Seems more like jumping on the bandwagon to me...

I thought this was all down to an implementation detail and has nothing to do with ISAs.
If you want Intel and can wait, I would wait. They should fix Meltdown bug and it'll increate performance significantly in some edge cases. I think they'll release such processor in 2018. Spectre won't be fixed for a long time, so it should not affect purchase decisions.
These days it really helps with editing in the cloud, same with emacs, not having to run a gui for your editor enables a chromeos user to get all their work done on a cheap digital ocean instance with a terminal based editor. It takes more work to learn but ultimately gives you the most power especially when working on cloud services.
I disagree [1]; pick up a book that's been typeset, and look for an em dash. I doubt you'll see any spaces.

[1] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/dash-and-em-dash
I find it interesting it's time per gram. Does it have a scale inside?

Combined with the easy-to-understand knobs, this does sound much better.
It seems a little ridiculous that the author of the response would know that the "Sloth" isn't actually lazy but really afraid. Especially when the author also tells the "Sloth" to ignore what other people have said about them.

Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, but how is the author not just another one of the squirrels she describes?
Dump privileged ARM system registers from usermode using variant 3a of Meltdown
Took me 10s to find page 18 which has everything needed to use it as a microwave.

Sometimes I think users are getting too spoiled and simply refuse to RTFM.

Not to mention the article complains about the UI for an oven, confuses the oven with a microwave and then gives advice for designing iphone apps.