News gathered 2024-10-22
(date: 2024-10-22 16:17:11)
/tmp should not exist
date: 2024-10-22, from: OS News
I commented on Lobsters that /tmp is usually a bad idea, which caused some surprise. I suppose /tmp security bugs were common in the 1990s when I was learning Unix, but they are pretty rare now so I can see why less grizzled hackers might not be familiar with the problems. I guess that’s some kind of success, but sadly the fixes have left behind a lot of scar tissue because they didn’t address the underlying problem: /tmp should not exist. ↫ Tony Finch Not only is this an excellent, cohesive, and convincing argument against the existence of /tmp, it also contains some nice historical context as to why things are the way they are. Even without the arguments against /tmp, though, it just seems entirely more logical, cleaner, and sensible to have /tmp directories per user in per user locations. While I never would’ve been able to so eloquently explain the problem as Finch does, it just feels wrong to have every user resort to the exact same directory for temporary files, like a complex confluence of bad decisions you just know is going to cause problems, even if you don’t quite understand the intricate interplay.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140968/tmp-should-not-exist/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had.’
Bigme B1051C is a 10.3 inch E Ink Color tablet with Android 14
date: 2024-10-22, from: Liliputing
The Bigme B1051C is an Android 14 tablet with a MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a microSD card with support for up to 1TB of removable storage. But unlike most Android tablets, the B1051C has an E Ink Color display, which means it’s primarily designed for reading and writing rather […]
The post Bigme B1051C is a 10.3 inch E Ink Color tablet with Android 14 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/bigme-b1051c-is-a-10-3-inch-e-ink-color-tablet-with-android-14/
RIP RSA AES: The Immediate Need of Quantum-Resistant Cryptography
date: 2024-10-22, from: Purism News and Events
The recent announcement from Chinese scientists about their successful use of a quantum computer to crack military-grade encryption has sent shockwaves through the cybersecurity community. This breakthrough, utilizing a D-Wave Advantage quantum computer, marks a significant milestone in the field of quantum computing. The implications of this development are profound, particularly for industries reliant on classical cryptographic systems like RSA and AES.
The post RIP RSA AES: The Immediate Need of Quantum-Resistant Cryptography appeared first on Purism.
https://puri.sm/posts/rip-rsa-aes-the-immediate-need-of-quantum-resistant-cryptography/
System76 and Ampere® pioneer custom-built Thelio Astra arm64 developer desktop
date: 2024-10-22, from: System76 Blog
System76 Thelio Astra arm64 developer desktop for autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle developers.
https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-and-ampere-pioneer-arm64-developer-desktop
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Springsteen to headline two Harris rallies in swing states.
AMD’s Ryzen Z2 chips could bring Strix Point graphics to handhelds in 2025
date: 2024-10-22, from: Liliputing
AMD’s been making laptop processors for years that have integrated graphics powerful enough to let you play many recent games without a discrete GPU. And in 2023 the company released its first Ryzen Z series processors designed specifically for handheld gaming PCs like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. Recently AMD officials confirmed plans to […]
The post AMD’s Ryzen Z2 chips could bring Strix Point graphics to handhelds in 2025 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/amds-ryzen-z2-chips-could-bring-strix-point-graphics-to-handhelds-in-2025/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Rudy Giuliani must give control of luxury items and Manhattan apartment to Georgia election workers he defamed, judge rules.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Textcasting: "Interop between social media apps based on the features writers need."
Apple’s AirPods Pro hearing health features are as good as they sound
date: 2024-10-22, from: OS News
Apple announced a trio of major new hearing health features for the AirPods Pro 2 in September, including clinical-grade hearing aid functionality, a hearing test, and more robust hearing protection. All three will roll out next week with the release of iOS 18.1, and they could mark a watershed moment for hearing health awareness. Apple is about to instantly turn the world’s most popular earbuds into an over-the-counter hearing aid. ↫ Chris Welch at The Verge Rightfully so, most of us here have a lot of issues with the major technology companies and the way they do business, but every now and then, even they accidentally stumble into doing something good for the world. AirPods are already a success story, and gaining access to hearing aid-level features at their price point is an absolute game changer for a lot of people with hearing issues – and for a lot of people who don’t even yet know they have hearing issues in the first place. If you have people in your life with hearing issues, or whom you suspect may have hearing issues, gifting them AirPods this Christmas season may just be a perfect gift. Yes, I too think hearing aids should be a thing nobody has to pay for and which should just be part of your country’s universal healthcare coverage – assuming you have such a thing – but this is not a bad option as a replacement.
Vote for the October 2024 + Post Topic
date: 2024-10-22, from: Computer ads from the Past
Your options are a couple of games, an Apple clone and a memory expander
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/vote-for-the-october-2024-post-topic
System76 unveils ARM Ampere Altra workstation
date: 2024-10-22, from: OS News
System76, purveyor of Linux computers, distributions, and now also desktop environments, has just unveiled its latest top-end workstation, but this time, it’s not an x86 machine. They’ve been working together with Ampere to build a workstation based around Ampere’s Altra ARM processors: the Thelio Astra. Phoronix, fine purveyor of Linux-focused benchmarks, were lucky enough to benchmark one, and has more information on the new workstation. System76 designed the Thelio Astra in collaboration with Ampere Computing. The System76 Thelio Astra makes use of Ampere Altra processors up to the Ampere Altra Max 128-core ARMv8 processor that in turn supports 8-channel DDR4 ECC memory. The Thelio Astra can be configured with up to 512GB of system memory, choice of Ampere Altra processors, up to NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics, dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and up to 16TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage. System76 designed the Thelio Astra ARM64 workstation to be complemented by NVIDIA graphics given the pervasiveness of NVIDIA GPUs/accelerators for artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. The Astra is contained within System76’s custom-designed, in-house-manufactured Thelio chassis. Pricing on the System76 Thelio Astra will start out at $3,299 USD with the 64-core Ampere Altra Q64-22 processor, 2 x 32GB of ECC DDR4-3200 memory, 500GB NVMe SSD, and NVIDIA A402 graphics card. ↫ Michael Larabel This pricing is actually remarkably favourable considering the hardware you’re getting. System76 and its employees have been dropping hints for a while now they were working on an ARM variant of their Thelio workstation, and knowing some of the prices others are asking, I definitely expected the base price to hit $5000, so this is a pleasant surprise. With the Altra processors getting a tiny bit long in the tooth, you do notice some oddities here, specifically the DDR4 RAM instead of the modern DDR5, as well as the lack of PCIe 5.0. The problem is that while the Altra has a successor in the AmpereOne processor, its availability is quite limited, and most of them probably end up in datacentres and expensive servers for big tech companies. This newer variant does come with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support, but doesn’t yet have a lower core count version, so even if it were readily available it might simply push the price too far up. Regardless, the Altra is still a ridiculously powerful processor, and at anywhere between 64 and 128 cores, it’s got power to spare. The Thelio Astra will be available come 12 November, and while I would perform a considerable number of eyebrow-raising acts to get my hands on one, it’s unlikely System76 will ship one over for a review.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140961/system76-unveils-arm-ampere-altra-workstation/
When you give a Claude a mouse
date: 2024-10-22, from: One Useful Thing
Some quick impressions of an actual agent
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/when-you-give-a-claude-a-mouse
iPhone 16 Adds JPEG XL
date: 2024-10-22, from: Michael Tsai
Jeremy Gray (Hacker News, Reddit): Apple and its various software iterations have supported JPEG XL for at least a year, including in Finder, Preview, Final Cut Pro, Pages, Photos, Mail, Safari, and more. Adobe has also supported the format for a while, including in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic.Despite JPEG XL supporting reversible JPEG […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/10/22/iphone-16-adds-jpeg-xl/
Lightroom Classic 14
date: 2024-10-22, from: Michael Tsai
Agen Schmitz (release notes): Adobe has issued Lightroom Classic 14.0, a big update with several new features. The release enhances the Generative Remove feature with improved selection and object detection for easier removal of unwanted objects and distractions; introduces Content Credentials to help secure digital assets by attaching credentials like digital signature, editing information, and […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/10/22/lightroom-classic-14/
Time Machine in Sequoia
date: 2024-10-22, from: Michael Tsai
Der Teilweise: Backing up to a NAS currently says 3 days (!) left, after having backed up ~160GB. Was using WiFi with TX rate 133MBit. Now I connected using Gigabit Ethernet, does not seem to be faster. Plus: CPU usage is ridiculously high, fans spinning up to medium/max speed several times per hour. […] I […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/10/22/time-machine-in-sequoia/
No Smoking Forever
date: 2024-10-22, updated: 2024-10-22, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/10/22/no-smoking-forever/
Anbernic RG CubeXX is a $60 gaming handheld with a 4 inch, 720 x 720 pixel display and a Linux-based OS
date: 2024-10-22, from: Liliputing
The Anbernic RG CubeXX is a new handheld game system with the same compact body and 3.95 inch, 720 x 720 pixel square display as the RG Cube that launched earlier this year. But that’s where the similarities end. While the RG Cube is an Android-based device that sells for $170 and up, the new RG […]
The post Anbernic RG CubeXX is a $60 gaming handheld with a 4 inch, 720 x 720 pixel display and a Linux-based OS appeared first on Liliputing.
Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Flight Around the World: Part X: Congratulations and Thank You
date: 2024-10-22, from: National Archives, Text Message blog
This is the tenth, and final, in a series of blog posts. When we last left our pilots they had returned to North America at Icy Tickle in Labrador. From there, they flew to Hawkes Bay, Pictou Harbor, and returned to U.S. soil with an unscheduled stop at Mere Point, Maine, on September 5. Their … Continue reading Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Flight Around the World: Part X: Congratulations and Thank You
AYANEO AM02 game console-like mini PC gets a Ryzen 7 8845HS spec bump
date: 2024-10-22, from: Liliputing
The AYANEO AM02 is a small desktop computer with a design that’s heavily inspired by vintage Nintendo game consoles. But under the hood it’s a fully modern computer – Ian was impressed with the performance of the model he reviewed earlier this year, if a bit underwhelmed by the door flap that covers the front […]
The post AYANEO AM02 game console-like mini PC gets a Ryzen 7 8845HS spec bump appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/ayaneo-am02-game-console-like-mini-pc-gets-a-ryzen-7-8845hs-spec-bump/
How to get started with your Raspberry Pi AI Camera
date: 2024-10-22, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Get started with object detection and pose estimation on our new Raspberry Pi AI Camera, using our pre-packaged demos.
The post How to get started with your Raspberry Pi AI Camera appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-to-get-started-with-your-raspberry-pi-ai-camera/
Amazon Says It Has a First Amendment Right to Union Bust
date: 2024-10-22, from: 404 Media Group
In response to an NLRB complaint, Amazon argues that preventing it from holding captive-audience meetings violates the U.S. Constitution.
https://www.404media.co/amazon-says-it-has-a-first-amendment-right-to-union-bust/
Eyeballs
date: 2024-10-22, from: Rachel Kwon blog
I recently got contact lenses, for the first time in 34 years, as someone who has required corrective eyewear since the age of 6. I have attributed the decision mostly to my ongoing midlife/existential crisis — as a way to prove to myself that I’m NOT set in my ways and I CAN do new things — and for whatever reason I had increasingly been thinking that my eyeglasses are my whole personality and I was interested in experimenting with a different look.
https://kwon.nyc/notes/eyeballs/
Encrypted Chat App ‘Session’ Leaves Australia After Visit From Police
date: 2024-10-22, from: 404 Media Group
After federal police came to an employee’s house to ask questions, encrypted messaging company Session has decided to leave Australia and switch to a foundation model based in Switzerland.
https://www.404media.co/encrypted-chat-app-session-leaves-australia-after-visit-from-police-2/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
One million Americans dead is far too many, let's not try to top that. #dumptrump
http://scripting.com/2024/10/22.html#a121804
How can you be a good leader in a bad market?
date: 2024-10-22, from: Accidentally in Code
A few weeks ago everyone was arguing about “founder mode”, but before it came the idea of “Peace time CEO/War time CEO”. The removal of the unnecessary violence in the metaphor is an improvement, but the content of peacetime/wartime is actually better. It’s more specific, and more about operating with focus and efficiency. Founder mode […]
https://cate.blog/2024/10/22/how-can-you-be-a-good-leader-in-a-bad-market/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Claude Artifacts examples.
https://simonwillison.net/2024/Oct/21/claude-artifacts/#extract-urls
Rift Between Junior and Senior Developers
date: 2024-10-22, from: O’Reilly Radar
I’m worried about AI. I’m not worried about it taking my job. I believe AI is a genuine productivity tool. By which I mean it can make developers produce more. The question is whether those developers are producing something good or not. The difference between an experienced developer and a junior is that an experienced […]
https://www.oreilly.com/radar/rift-between-junior-and-senior-developers/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
This is the kind of story I was hoping the Washington Post would run months ago, and have it serve as background for every other story on the election. Now it’s probably too late, it’s almost a postmortem on the election.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Today’s Heather Cox Richardson is a must-read.
Withdraw support from UN Cybercrime Convention!
date: 2024-10-22, updated: 2024-10-22, from: Chaos Computer Club Updates
In a joint letter concerning the United Nations Cybercrime Convention the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and dozens of signees urge all EU member states to reject the proposal for the UN General Assembly to adopt the draft Convention.
https://www.ccc.de/de/updates/2024/un-cybercrime
RISC-V on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2
date: 2024-10-22, from: Stephen Smith’s blog
Introduction One of the more interesting features added to the RP2350 chip at the heart of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is that it contains two 32-bit RISC-V CPU cores. Sadly, you can’t run both the ARM and RISC-V CPU cores at the same time, you have to choose one or the other. In this […]
https://smist08.wordpress.com/2024/10/21/risc-v-on-the-raspberry-pi-pico-2/
A Penny
date: 2024-10-21, from: Chris Coyier blog
I have a killer business idea. I’m just going to take one penny from every bank account in the world. I’m not going to ask; you can’t say no. It really won’t affect you. You probably won’t even notice, and even if you do, again, it will not affect you. What’s a penny? Nothing. It […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/10/21/a-penny/
Asus ROG Phone 9 is coming on November 19 (gaming smartphone with Snapdragon 8 Elite)
date: 2024-10-21, from: Liliputing
Asus has been selling gaming PCs and accessories under the ROG (Republic of Gamers) brand since 2006. While the company’s ROG Phone line of smartphones for gamers hasn’t been around quite as long, Asus helped popularize the idea of gaming phones with the launch of the original ROG Phone in 2018. Nine generations later, Asus […]
The post Asus ROG Phone 9 is coming on November 19 (gaming smartphone with Snapdragon 8 Elite) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/asus-rog-phone-9-is-coming-on-november-19/
Daily Deals (10-21-2024
date: 2024-10-21, from: Liliputing
Laptops with Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Strix Point processors are now shipping. And that means that you can find an awful lot of deals on models with not-that-much-older processors. Case in point: HP is selling a 14 inch Pavilion Plus laptop with a 2.8K OLED display featuring a 120 Hz refresh rate, an AMD […]
The post Daily Deals (10-21-2024 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-10-21-2024/
Lawsuit Argues Warrantless Use of Flock Surveillance Cameras Is Unconstitutional
date: 2024-10-21, from: 404 Media Group
“It is functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked, photographed, and stored in an AI-assisted database that enables the warrantless surveillance of their every move. This civil rights lawsuit seeks to end this dragnet surveillance program.”
Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s first smartphone chip with Oryon CPU cores
date: 2024-10-21, from: Liliputing
This year Qualcomm launched its first laptop processors that are truly competitive with the latest Intel and AMD chips, thanks to the company’s new Oryon CPU architecture that’s based on technology developed by Nubia – a company that Qualcomm acquired more than three years ago. Now Qualcomm is bringing Oryon to smartphones and tablets. The new Qualcomm […]
The post Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s first smartphone chip with Oryon CPU cores appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/snapdragon-8-elite-is-qualcomms-first-smartphone-chip-with-oryon-cpu-cores/
Onyx BOOX P6 is a pocket-sized eReader with a 6.1 inch E Ink display and Android 13
date: 2024-10-21, from: Liliputing
The Onyx BOOX P6 is a phone-sized device that’s sort of what you’d get if you crossed a Kindle and a smartphone. Lika a phone it’s designed to fit comfortably in your hand or pocket, runs an Android-based operating system and supports third-party apps. But like most eReaders it has a paper-like E Ink display and […]
The post Onyx BOOX P6 is a pocket-sized eReader with a 6.1 inch E Ink display and Android 13 appeared first on Liliputing.
AYN Odin 2 Portal handheld game console with 7 inch, 120 Hz OLED display coming soon
date: 2024-10-21, from: Liliputing
Earlier this year AYN launched two handheld game consoles under the Odin 2 brand. While both are Android-powered handhelds with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processors, the Odin 2 has a 6 inch IPS LCD display, while the Odin 2 Mini has a 5 inch mini LED screen. Now the company is preparing to launch a third […]
The post AYN Odin 2 Portal handheld game console with 7 inch, 120 Hz OLED display coming soon appeared first on Liliputing.
Leaky macOS VPN After System Update
date: 2024-10-21, from: Michael Tsai
Mullvad VPN (Hacker News): We have found that you could be leaking traffic on macOS after system updates. To our current knowledge a reboot resolves it. We are currently investigating this and will follow up with more information.In this scenario the macOS firewall does not seem to function correctly and is disregarding firewall rules. Most […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/10/21/leaky-macos-vpn-after-system-update/
TCC and Gatekeeper Bypasses
date: 2024-10-21, from: Michael Tsai
Wojciech Reguła (September 2021, tweet): I was looking for code injection opportunities that may allow reaching TCC bypasses. My simple shell script discovered a potential victim - /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Directory Utility.app. It had (and has) the following private TCC entitlement[…] This entitlement allows the Directory Utility to modify the user’s records stored in the /var/db/dslocal/nodes directory. […] […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/10/21/tcc-and-gatekeeper-bypasses/
Autoenshittification, YouTube, and Disenshittify or Die
date: 2024-10-21, from: Michael Tsai
Cory Doctorow (July 2023, Hacker News): Forget F1: the only car race that matters now is the race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine, a high-speed inkjet printer on wheels, stealing your private data as it picks your pocket.[…]The car manufacturers got so desperate for chips that they started buying up washing […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/10/21/autoenshittification-youtube-and-disenshittify-or-die/
Introducing Moonshine, the new state of the art for speech to text
date: 2024-10-21, from: Peter Warden
Can you imagine using a keyboard where it took a key press two seconds to show up on screen? That’s the typical latency for most voice interfaces, so it’s no wonder they’ve failed to catch on for most people. Today we’re open sourcing Moonshine, a new speech to text model that returns results faster and […]
https://petewarden.com/2024/10/21/introducing-moonshine-the-new-state-of-the-art-for-speech-to-text/
SiFive HiFive Premiere P550 RISC-V board is now available for developers (in very limited quantities)
date: 2024-10-21, from: Liliputing
The SiFive HiFive Premiere P550 is a development board built around an Eswin EIC7700 system-on-a-chip with four SiFive Performance P550 RISC-V processor cores, support for up to 32GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, 128GB of eMMC storage, an on-board GPU, and an NPU with up to 19.95 TOPS of AI performance. First unveiled in April, SiFive says the […]
The post SiFive HiFive Premiere P550 RISC-V board is now available for developers (in very limited quantities) appeared first on Liliputing.
North and Also West to the Future
date: 2024-10-21, updated: 2024-10-21, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/10/21/north-and-also-west-to-the-future/
Microsoft maintains its own Windows debloat scripts on GitHub
date: 2024-10-21, from: OS News
It’s no secret that a default Windows installation is… Hefty. In more ways than one, Windows is a bit on the obese side of the spectrum, from taking up a lot of disk space, to requiring hefty system requirements (artificial or not), to coming with a lot of stuff preinstalled not everyone wants to have to deal with. As such, there’s a huge cottage industry of applications, scripts, modified installers, custom ISOs, and more, that try to slim Windows down to a more manageable size. As it turns out, even Microsoft itself wants in on this action. The company that develops and sells Windows also provides a Windows debloat script. Over on GitHub, Microsoft maintains a repository of scripts simplify setting up Windows as a development environment, and amid the collection of scripts we find RemoveDefaultApps.ps1, a PowerShell script to “Uninstall unnecessary applications that come with Windows out of the box”. The script is about two years old, and as such it includes a few applications no longer part of Windows, but looking through the list is a sad reminder of the kind of junk Windows comes with, most notably mobile casino games for children like Bubble Witch and March of Empires, but also other nonsense like the Mixed Reality Portal or Duolingo. It also removes something called “ActiproSoftwareLLC“, which are apparently a set of third-party, non-Microsoft UI controls for WPF? Which comes preinstalled with Windows sometimes? What is even happening over there? The entire set of scripts makes use of Chocolatey wrapped in Boxstarter, which is “a wrapper for Chocolatey and includes features like managing reboots for you”, because of course, the people at Microsoft working on Windows can’t be bothered to fix application management and required reboots themselves. Silly me, expecting Microsoft’s Windows developers to address these shortcomings internally instead of using third-party tools. The repository seems to be mostly defunct, but the fact it even exists in the first place is such a damning indictment of the state of Windows. People keep telling us Windows is fine, but if even Microsoft itself needs to resort to scripts and third-party tools to make it usable, I find it hard to take claims of Windows being fine seriously in any way, shape, or form.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140955/microsoft-maintains-its-own-windows-debloat-scripts-on-github/
Booting Sun SPARC servers
date: 2024-10-21, from: OS News
In early 2022 I got several Sun SPARC servers for free off of a FreeCycle ad: I was recently called out for not providing any sort of update on those devices… so here we go! ↫ Sidneys1.com Some information on booting old-style SPARC machines, as well as pretty pictures. Nice palate-cleanser if you’ve had to deal with something unpleasant this weekend. This world would be a better place if we all had our own Sun machines to play with when we get sad.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140953/booting-sun-sparc-servers/
Twitch Quietly Blocked New Users From Israel and Palestine Since October 7
date: 2024-10-21, from: 404 Media Group
“We deeply regret this unacceptable miss, and the confusion it has caused,” Twitch said.
https://www.404media.co/twitch-quietly-blocked-new-users-from-israel-and-palestine-since-october-7/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Scripting News: The Mets came to play.
http://scripting.com/2024/10/21/125035.html?title=theMetsCameToPlay
Watch: Inside the FBI’s Secret Phone Company
date: 2024-10-21, from: 404 Media Group
Here is the full video of Joseph’s recent talk at the DEF CON hacking conference, showing never-before-shared details about the FBI’s secret phone company called Anom.
https://www.404media.co/watch-inside-the-fbis-secret-phone-company/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The Death of the Minivan.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Think of it as a web of writing
http://scripting.com/2024/10/20.html#a174618
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Can you believe Bluesky could have built their system on http and rss. If it really works, what a response to ActivityPub. We’d be years ahead of where we are now. Social web devs should check this out.
https://bsky.app/profile/scripting.com/post/3l6yapq72hz2w
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-10-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Top 100 Bagel Shops in New York 2024.
https://www.yelp.com/article/top-100-bagel-shops-in-new-york-2024
GSoC 2024: The 1001 thresholds in LLVM
date: 2024-10-21, from: LLVM Blog
Hey everyone! My name is Shourya and I worked on LLVM this summer through GSoC. My project is called The 1001 thresholds in LLVM. The main objective of this project was to study how varying different thresholds in llvm affect performance parameters like compile-time, bitcode-size, execution-time and llvm stats.
Background
LLVM has lots of thresholds and flags to avoid “costly cases”. However, it is unclear if these thresholds are useful, their value is reasonable, and what impact they really have. Since there are a lot, one cannot do a simple exhaustive search. An example of work in this direction includes the introduction of a C++ class that can replace hardcoded values which offers control over the threshold, e.g., one can increase the recursion limit via a command line flag from the hardcoded “6” to a different number. As such there is a need to explore different thresholds in llvm, understand what it means for a threshold to be hit, profile different thresholds and select optimal values for different thresholds.
What We Did
This work provides a tool that can efficiently explore these knobs and understand how modifying them affects metrics like compile time, size of the generated program, or any statistic that LLVM emits like “Number of loops vectorized”. (Note that execution-time is currently not evaluated because input-gen does not work on optimized IR and is thus part of future work.)
We first built a clang matcher for which we looked for the following patterns :
- Const knob_name = knob_val
- Cl::init
- Enum {knob_name = knob_val}
to first identify the knobs in the codebase and then used a custom python tool (optimised to deal with I/O and cache bottlenecks) to collect the different stat values in parallel and stored them in a json file. After manual selection of interesting knobs, we have so far conducted three studies in which we measure compile-time and bitcode-size along with various other statistics, and present them in the form of interactive graphs. Two of them (on 10,000 and 100 bitcode files) look at average statistics for each knob value while the third one (on 10,000 bitcode files) studies how each file is affected individually by changing knob values. We see some very interesting patterns in these graphs, for instance in the following two graphs, representing the jump-threading-threshold, we can observe improved statistics (top graph) and decreased average compile time (bottom graph) if the knob value is increased.
Results
The per file study proves that there is no one single magic knob value and the optimum, with regards to compile time or code size, depends on the file that is currently being compiled. For instance here we can see that different knob values (for the knob licm-mssa-optimization-cap) give good cumulative compile time improvements for different files. In detail, most files benefit from a knob value of 300 while 60 is the best knob value for the second most files.
We further show that the presence of an oracle that can tell the best knob value for each file can significantly improve the cumulative compile time.
In this project, we explored various thresholds in LLVM—specifically, 93 thresholds (a 100 file study for each can be found here) using the Clang matcher—and observed that these thresholds are largely file-specific. This indicates that there is no universally optimal value, or even a set of values, that can be applied across different scenarios. Instead, what is needed is an adaptive mechanism within LLVM, an oracle, that can dynamically determine the appropriate threshold values during compilation.
We also experimented with varying thresholds cumulatively by leveraging file-specific information through an LLVM pass. However, after discussions with the mentors, this approach was set aside due to the significant changes it would necessitate across other parts of the LLVM codebase.
As a result, we have not yet categorized different thresholds, such as identifying optimal threshold values for specific file types (e.g., I/O-intensive files). Nonetheless, we provide a tool that can efficiently collect this data (LLVM statistics, bitcode-size and compile-time) and help visualize it with the help of interactive graphs as well as histograms that examine these variations on a per-file basis. Additionally, a correlation table between knob values and performance metrics further illustrates the significant impact this study could have on improving LLVM’s overall performance.
Future Work
The early results show that we need a better understanding of knob values to maximise various objectives. Our results will provide the community with the first step in developing a guided compilation model attune to the file that is being compiled. We further intend to show how these knobs interact with each other and whether modifying multiple knobs together compounds the benefits or not. One more area of work could be on input-gen that would enable us to collect and study execution-time in our performance parameters.
Acknowledgements
This project would not have been possible without my amazing mentors, Jan Hückelheim, Johannes Doerfert, the LLVM Foundation admins, and the GSoC admins.
Links
https://blog.llvm.org/posts/2024-08-31-the-1001-thresholds-in-llvm/