Datomic is a unique OLTP database that offers non-interactive transactions and supports various query mechanisms. We evaluated Datomic Pro and found strong safety properties. While Datomic behaves as if operations were evaluated concurrently within a transaction, this may not align with widely accepted formalizations of Serializability, potentially leading to invariant violations. Datomic’s architecture includes transactors, […]

Read more »

The author recounts their recent struggles with a failing SSD on their old 2012 Mac Mini, leading to a migration to Debian. They highlight the challenges faced during the data migration process and the limitations of smartmontools in sending notifications. A quirky script in smartd-runner is examined, revealing possible issues in certain scenarios. The author […]

Read more »

Quary Business Intelligence for Engineers allows engineers to connect to their database, write SQL queries, create charts, dashboards, and reports, test, collaborate, and deploy models back to the database. With Quary, you can define and manage sources, models, charts, and more as code. The VSCode extension is available for installation. Usage involves creating a sample […]

Read more »

The Pax Romana was a thriving period of Roman dominance, until the Antonine plague struck in 166 AD, becoming the world’s first pandemic. The death toll remains debated, and despite modern analysis, the pathogen remains unidentified. Research on the plague involves historians, archaeologists, scientists, and interdisciplinary experts, unveiling comprehensive insights into ancient pandemics. The plague […]

Read more »

At I/O 2023, Google launched Project Gameface, an open-source, hands-free gaming tool that allows users to control a computer’s cursor with head movements and facial gestures. Inspired by quadriplegic gamer Lance Carr, who has muscular dystrophy, the project aims to make gaming more accessible. Google collaborated with Lance to bring the project to life and […]

Read more »

In medicine, an “-ectomy” involves cutting out something, like a tonsillectomy. An “-ostomy” involves creating an outlet, like a colostomy. An “-otomy” involves slicing something up, like a lobectomy. However, some doctors have used extreme methods, like the ice pick lobotomy popular in the mid-1900s. This invasive procedure involved thrusting an ice pick into the […]

Read more »

The Computer History Museum presents the Software Gems series, spotlighting the source code history of revolutionary software. Focus is placed on Adobe Photoshop, which originated in 1987 when brothers Thomas and John Knoll developed an image editing program for personal use, not anticipating its commercial success. Over the years, Photoshop evolved and, with Adobe’s support, […]

Read more »

The llama.cpp server for bench-server-baseline on Standard_NC4as_T4_v3 for phi-2-q4_0 completed 543 iterations with performance-related details available on expanding. Notable metrics include HTTP request latency, prompt processing, and token generation rates. The configuration data for xyChart visualization, with customizable themes and dimensions, highlights performance trends over time for prompt tokens and predicted tokens. The data also […]

Read more »

Job Snijders discusses the Nagle’s algorithm and its implications on TCP congestion control in a recent RFC. He mentions how the algorithm can lead to increased latency by coalescing small packets into a single TCP packet. Despite its historical relevance, the usefulness of Nagle’s algorithm in modern times is debated. Snijders introduces a sysctl to […]

Read more »

parseback is a library for LuaJIT’s FFI that helps recreate useful descriptions of ctype objects using information from ffi.typeinfo(). It provides descriptions in the form of Lua tables, C declarations, and GraphViz diagrams. Simply place the single Lua file in your $LUA_PATH for installation. The library allows for introspection of ctype objects, with key fields […]

Read more »