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melvyn2

246 karma · joined November 21, 2019

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melvyn2··on Debunking Zswap and Zram Myths

  echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/enabled

It's in TFA.
melvyn2··on New book-sorting algorithm almost reaches perfection
These are sometimes called Galactic Algorithms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_algorithm

The very first example on the page has a pretty good quote describing their usefulness:

>>> An example of a galactic algorithm is the fastest known way to multiply two numbers, which is based on a 1729-dimensional Fourier transform. It needs O(n log n) bit operations, but as the constants hidden by the big O notation are large, it is never used in practice. However, it also shows why galactic algorithms may still be useful. The authors state: "we are hopeful that with further refinements, the algorithm might become practical for numbers with merely billions or trillions of digits."

melvyn2··on Apple will soon receive 'made in America' chips from TSMC's Arizona fab
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system
melvyn2··on Stop making me memorize the borrow checker
The borrow checker exists to force you to learn, rather than to let you skip learning. To make an analogy, I think it would be weird if I complained that I had to "memorize the rules" of the type checker rather than learning how to use types as intended.
melvyn2··on How is the SSD installed – M4 Mac Mini (2024)
Obtaining a custom storage module seems to involving reverse engineering the PCB, printing it and sourcing the NAND modules, and then BGA soldering that all together: https://youtu.be/HDFCurB3-0Q

Not a user-friendly process, I think.

melvyn2··on Cats are (almost) liquid
> Cats are also aided by their large and sensitive vibrissae, which are positioned on such locations of their head that the cat can detect nearby obstacles in closer encounters. Vibrissal sensation can compensate for the somewhat weaker vision in cats from closer distances or in poorly illuminated environments. Therefore, it is possible that cats approached the narrow openings in our experiment without differential hesitation, and they could use their vibrissae to assess the suitability of the apertures before penetrating them.
melvyn2··on Comma.ai: Refactoring for Growth
How many of those accomplishments were truly his, I wonder ? https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/109561314682149814
melvyn2··on Tick-killing pill shows promising results in human trial
Here's a case study of 42: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.09.018 And there's certainly many more cases than just those at a "referral hospital in Sydney, Australia."
melvyn2··on Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU
AltStore is a bad joke, you can only install 2 apps (three, minus the altstore app), and you have to connect your phone to a MacOS computer and run the app every week.

Just let me click on an IPA to install it, it's really not that deep!

melvyn2··on Incognito Darknet Market Mass-Extorts Buyers, Sellers
For dark-net markets, server-side encryption is already seen as a failsafe rather than a feature, and smart users ALWAYS encrypt client side (PGP). That said, for activities like these, smart users are not necessarily the majority...
melvyn2··on VirtualBox KVM Public Release
Could you link the change? At least a few days ago virt-manager still seemed to have scaling issues with guest displays, on nixos-unstable. I had viewer scaling on though as a workaround, so maybe I just didn’t notice.
melvyn2··on totally_safe_transmute, Line-by-Line (2021)
Calling C functions like process_vm_writev from libc requires unsafe code.
melvyn2··on There is an OOM kill count in Linux
For desktop use, nohang does what the name says.

https://github.com/hakavlad/nohang

melvyn2··on To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use
Prohibition increased alcohol-related deaths and created a black-market of products so much worse than the regulated market before or after[0]. I would say that, in fact, prohibition did not work.

And neither does current drug prohibition. Fentanyl deaths are directly caused by the black-market supply of drugs in the US, and it isn't "decriminalized" cities like Portland that are leading these charts[1]. The current drug prohibition just means that the demand that will always exist is being supplied by mis-dosed poison instead of a well-regulated market like modern alcohol (and marijuana in some states).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequences_of_Prohibition [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mor...

melvyn2··on 18-year-old built a computer monitor that doesn't strain your eyes
6500K is not really “extremely” blue, it approximates the color temperature of midday daylight. Most color specifications including Rec. 709 (basically sRGB) specify this color temperature through the D65 white point [1], so to display colors reliably close to spec you actually need this specific temperature/spectrum.

It’s certainly cooler than most indoor lighting, but 6500K bulbs in stores are as common as warmer ones (IME). Variable-temperature bulbs work well enough to output it too, and I would actually recommend using them to get a good matching daylight white when indoors during midday, while still being able to have warmer colors in the evening or at night (just as night color modes do for your monitor).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminant_D65

melvyn2··on Google vs. the Open Web
No, Valve is specifically noted for not having a kernel-driver anticheat in a landscape where most competitive games do use them. Notably, Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, and Valorant's Vanguard all use kernel drivers, but no Valve Anti-Cheat has, because they've focused on server-side heuristics and crowed-sourced detection instead of trying to force the client to rat itself out.
melvyn2··on Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake
The pixel, for example, already has a secure yet user-unlockable bootloader. So do modern x86_64 PC's. Statements like these, claiming that only apple can properly secure a device (and hence that users deserve to be locked out), simply show astounding ignorance.
melvyn2··on Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake
As surprising as you may find it, Apple doesn't have a monopoly on good hardware. The stereotype of any non-macbook being a toaster is practically a strawman at this point (while people are so quick to forget the atrocity of the i9 macbook).
melvyn2··on Ask HN: Stock Android phone free of bloatware?
Because apple software has no telemetry?
melvyn2··on Rarbg Is No More
1377x is an ad-hijacking "clone" of the real 1337x
melvyn2··on Functionality that has been deprecated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
nftables is the new underlying kernel system, and the (unfortunately named) `nft` cli to manage it seems to be widely available.
melvyn2··on Functionality that has been deprecated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Wayland is a more versatile protocol. OP is misrepresenting a little bit, the base protocol v1 is finalized but desktop use will need and already does use many standard extensions.

Nothing about being assholes, just a bureaucratic design.

melvyn2··on More Americans are using fake license plates
SF has relatively low violent crime compared to other cities, while drug sales are to be expected where a significant amount of people think drugs should be decriminalized or legalized. I don’t think the city has much of anything to do with the point of vague “moral decay.”
melvyn2··on The day Windows died
B is clearly anti-consumer. Software running on “my” hardware should be in my control.
melvyn2··on New headless Chrome has been released and has a near-perfect browser fingerprint
I was under the impression that the EK could be used to identify individual TPMs- why can’t it?
melvyn2··on New headless Chrome has been released and has a near-perfect browser fingerprint
From wikipedia:

> Computer programs can use a TPM to authenticate hardware devices, since each TPM chip has a unique and secret Endorsement Key (EK) burned in as it is produced.

That EK is signed by the TPM manufacturer, and so it’s likely they’ll only trust the keys of physical TPM manufacturers. Good luck forging that in software.

melvyn2··on Homebrew 4.0.0
It does that by making a global location (/usr/local) user-owned, which I'd say is much worse.
melvyn2··on Ask HN: Would anyone find this system fair?
maybe you should explain why not?
melvyn2··on Tell HN: GitHub is partially blocked in India
OP claims it’s SNI based and not DNS based, so switching DNS providers likely won’t do anything.
melvyn2··on Volatile pay for gig workers linked to health problems
Nope, 300 years ago we had slavery and now we have gig work. I think that's the same universe ;)

In all seriousness, refusing to compare two things because you think they're "just too different" is simply acting irrationally. Look at the objectives, pressures, and outputs of each system and you may see more similarities than you'd like.

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