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codewiz

1,767 karma · joined February 5, 2013

I hack, therefore I am. https://mstdn.io/@codewiz
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codewiz··on We Deleted Tokio from Our Payment System and Cut Cloud Costs by $127,000
https://archive.is/Qbkrq
codewiz··on No-CPU Challenge, a demo running on the Amiga chipset
Video capture of the demo running on an unexpanded Amiga 1200: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxqfnbdZXNY
codewiz··on No-CPU Challenge, a demo running on the Amiga chipset
Source code of the runner which loads the memory image, sets up the initial system state, and starts copper: https://github.com/askeksa/NoCpuChallenge
codewiz··on 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 4)
In my past experience, too many extensions tend to break every time GNOME Shell is upgraded and it can take a long time to get them fixed.

The GNOME developers have signaled over and over again that they're unwilling to provide stable APIs for UI customization. Being a developer myself, I can see why it's a burden, but the current situation is that it's being done anyway through unofficial extensions and users are left to deal with the random breakage.

codewiz··on SpaceX Ship 36 RUDs During Testing
Scott Manley's analysis of the incident: https://youtu.be/0C_L-qgHsE0?si=imFJexAunH3u9Ayh
codewiz··on Why I no longer have an old-school cert on my HTTPS site
> I'm talking about wrapping jansson (a C library that handles JSON) so that it made sense in my C++ world and I could import JSON

Why not just use JsonCpp then?

https://github.com/open-source-parsers/jsoncpp

It's a native C++ parser which is mature, actively maintained, and likely safer than a low-level C parser implementing its own string buffers.

codewiz··on New ownership of AmigaOS publisher Hyperion Entertainment
At the moment, domains related to Hyperion Entertainment appear to be experiencing backend issues, including https://amigaos.net and https://forum.hyperion-entertainment.com .
codewiz··on New ownership of AmigaOS publisher Hyperion Entertainment
Permalink to the news post: https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com/index.php/news/38-cor...
codewiz··on The capacitor that Apple soldered incorrectly at the factory
Commodore had 3 capacitors mounted backwards on the A3640, the CPU board of the Amiga 4000 with 68040 processors: https://youtu.be/zhUpcBpJUzg?si=j6UFmIJzoC-UDS6u&t=945

Also mentioned here: https://amiga.resource.cx/exp/a3640

codewiz··on CNBC Live: Pentagon's UFO Report Finds 21 Cases That Can't Be Explained [video]
When did this hearing happen?

I thought the CNBC stream was actually live, but after listening in for some time, I noticed that it had looped around at least once.

codewiz··on Unsafe Rust is harder than C
The very last line: "Putting this in words was as hard as writing the code."
codewiz··on Request to Upgrade Fedora KDE Desktop Spin to Edition Status
I use KDE on Fedora every day, and it's great.

I didn't install any spins, just the Plasma desktop packages and the few KDE apps I use. GNOME still works, but I rarely log into it.

codewiz··on SpaceX update regarding Starship FAA flight approval
As long as the environmental consequences fall entirely within the state borders, states should be allowed to decide independently.

However, when it comes to polluting rivers, sea and air, consequences of pollution are of often planet-wide. Thus, a global approach is required.

That said, the sooner Starship achieves full reusability, the sooner we'll stop burning rocket stages into the atmosphere and letting the incombustible parts fall into the ocean.

codewiz··on Japan on edge of EUV lithography chip-making revolution
"This was made possible by carefully rethinking the aberration correction theory of optics."

Can someone explain how they carefully rethought the theory to reduce the number of mirrors from more than 6 to just 2 (or 4)?

codewiz··on Water
Near the conclusion of this excellent blogpost:

"We live in a semi-barbaric age where science is probing the finest details of matter, space and time—but many of the discoveries, paid for by taxes levied on the hard-working poor, are snatched, hidden, and sold by profiteers."

codewiz··on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite prototype that runs Linux emerges
I agree that there are still a few issues, except VRR works just fine on my Wayland session with an amdgpu card. HDR, on the other hand...
codewiz··on Let's reproduce GPT-2 (124M) [video]
I love how Andrej Karpathy explains things. His code implementing the feed-forward block of the transformer looks like this:

   def forward(self, x):
     x = x + self.attn(self.ln_1(x))
     x = x + self.mlp(self.ln_2(x))
     return x

This is how it's described (starting at 19:00 into the video):

"This is the pre-normalization version, where you see that x first goes through the layer normalization [ln_1] and then the attention (attn), and then goes back out to go to the layer normalization number two and the multilayer perceptron [MLP], sometimes also referred to as feed-forward network, FFN, and then that goes into the residual stream again."

"And the one more thing that's kind of interesting to note is: recall that attention is a communication operation, it is where all the tokens - and there's 1024 tokens lined up in a sequence - this is where the tokens communicate, where they exchange information... so, attention is an aggregation function, it's a pooling function, it's a weighted sum function, it is a reduce operation, whereas this MLP [multilayer perceptron] happens every single token individually - there's no information being collected or exchanged between the tokens. So the attention is the reduce, and the MLP is the map."

"And the transformer ends up just being repeated application of map-reduce, if you wanna think about it that way."

codewiz··on karpathy/build-nanogpt: Video + code lecture on building nanoGPT from scratch
I love the way Andrej Karpathy explains things. The code for the feed-forward block of a transformer looks like this:

   def forward(self, x):
     x = x + self.attn(self.ln_1(x))
     x = x + self.mlp(self.ln_2(x))
     return x
This how Andrej describes it (starting at 19:00 into the video):

"This is the pre-normalization version, where you see that x first goes through the layer normalization [ln_1] and then the attention (attn), and then goes back out to go to the layer normalization number two and the multilayer perceptron [MLP], sometimes also referred to as feed-forward network, FFN, and then that goes into the residual stream again."

"And the one more thing that's kind of interesting to note is: recall that attention is a communication operation, it is where all the tokens - and there's 1024 tokens lined up in a sequence - this is where the tokens communicate, where they exchange information... so, attention is an aggregation function, it's a pooling function, it's a weighted sum function, it is a reduce operation, whereas this MLP [multilayer perceptron] happens every single token individually - there's no information being collected or exchanged between the tokens. So the attention is the reduce, and the MLP is the map."

"And the transformer ends up just being repeated application of map-reduce, if you wanna think about it that way."

codewiz··on WebKit fix: Quirk news.ycombinator to skip TextAutoSizing
Hidden fees remove any consumer-side pressure on credit cards to lower their costs.

It also creates perverse incentives for cards to pass part of the merchant fees back to the consumer as rewards or even cash. Here in the US, 2-3% cash back is typical, driving consumers to prefer credit over other payment methods.

Meanwhile, merchants are forced to bake the fees into the retail price, causing the paradox that those who pay upfront end up spending more for the same goods.

codewiz··on karpathy/build-nanogpt: Video + code lecture on building nanoGPT from scratch
Thanks, I have updated the title.
codewiz··on The Lunacy of Artemis
And a few more on on the Orion capsule:

"Orion, the capsule that launches on top of SLS, is a relaxed-fit reimagining of the Apollo command module suitable for today’s larger astronaut."

"The capsule’s official name is the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle, but finding even a single purpose for Orion has greatly challenged NASA."

"Where Apollo was built like a roadster, with a small crew compartment bolted onto an oversized engine, Orion is the Dodge Journey of spacecraft—a chunky, underpowered six-seater that advertises to the world that you're terrible at managing money."

codewiz··on The Lunacy of Artemis
And another one:

"Costs on SLS have reached the point where private industry is now able to develop, test, and launch an entire rocket program for less than NASA spends on a single engine"

codewiz··on The Lunacy of Artemis
Unkind quotes, but hilarious and probably well deserved:

"SLS looks like someone started building a Space Shuttle and ran out of legos for the orbiter"

"But on top of this monster sits a second stage so anemic that even its name (the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage) is a kind of apology."

"the minds behind SLS achieved a first in space flight, creating a rocket that is at the same time more powerful and less capable than the Saturn V."

"And SLS is a “one and done” rocket, artisanally hand-crafted by a workforce that likes to get home before traffic gets bad."

"The rocket can only launch once every two years at a cost of about four billion dollars—about twice what it would cost to light the rocket’s weight in dollar bills on fire."

"Early on, SLS designers made the catastrophic decision to reuse Shuttle hardware, which is like using Fabergé eggs to save money on an omelette."

codewiz··on Neovim 0.10
Release binaries: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/tag/v0.10.0
codewiz··on A proposal to switch Fedora Workstation's desktop from GNOME to KDE
If you tried KDE a while ago and found it too buggy or unstable, I suggest you give it another try now that Plasma 6 is out. A ton of work went into visual design, usability, consistency and productivity.
codewiz··on A proposal to switch Fedora Workstation's desktop from GNOME to KDE
In recent years, a huge amount of effort went into UI polish, simplification and bug fixing for KDE Plasma.

Nate Graham championed community goals such as "usability and productivity", "consistency", while also focusing developers on high-priority bugs and blogging weekly about the progress: https://pointieststick.com/category/this-week-in-kde/

codewiz··on FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
As a United States immigrant, I had never heard of the fairness doctrine before. My first thought is: how would it be compatible with the freedom of the press granted by the First Amendment?
codewiz··on FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
Airline fares are regulated by the FAA and the DOT to disallow deceptive business practices and require minimum service levels: https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer...

Similarly, the FCC net neutrality rules allow telcos to charge any price for the service while disallowing blocking or throttling particular Internet sites or protocols. If such rules weren't indeed necessary, big telcos wouldn't be spending their money campaigning against them, would they?

codewiz··on GPU compute in the browser at the speed of native: WebGPU marching cubes
WebGPU has been under development since 2017, and has been a working draft since 2021. What issues are holding the W3C from publishing the final standard? Is there a timeline?
codewiz··on Descent 3 Source Code
Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDGbsbdDC5o&list=PLiEu3n9ms7...
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