HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

rajman187

355 karma · joined November 7, 2017

submissionscomments
rajman187··on Postgres as a graph database
“Native” is a misleading or misused term in the context of graph databases because a graph cannot be mapped in a maximally consistent way with the underlying hardware (the von Neumann architecture represents data in a sequential manner and it is much faster to access it this way rather than randomly).

There are generally two families in the graph database world: those which use underlying traditional tables of nodes and many-to-many edges; and index-free adjacency which just means each node in the graph knows the memory address of its connections (other side of the edges).

Distributed graphs necessarily end up using the former because it’s difficult if not impossible for a node to know the memory address of its connection when that crosses a physical boundary. So typically index-free adjacency graphs have a master-slave setup with multiple read replicas but a single one to write to.

So with a “native graph” you don’t rely on potentially expensive join operations to find neighbors of neighbors and can traverse complex paths easily.

rajman187··on Postgres as a graph database
Completely agree. In fact, even massive graph data can make use of a relational database + caching [1]

[1] https://engineering.fb.com/2013/06/25/core-data/tao-the-powe...

rajman187··on Who is still inside the metaverse?
It wasn’t $100bn spent on VR. There is a ton of research happening inside of RealityLabs, which accounts for the vast majority of the investment, but yes the only product so far is the VR headset. Here’s a roadmap (supposedly based on leaked presentations) of what’s on the horizon—no pun intended

https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23619730/meta-vr-oculus-a...

rajman187··on Fork of Facebook’s LLaMa model to run on CPU
Gloo is a communication protocol for distributed computation (think along the lines of MPI)
rajman187··on Basic terminology and practices related to graph databases and graph modeling
The first thing to consider is that a graph cannot be mapped in a maximally consistent way with the underlying hardware (the von Neumann architecture represents data in a sequential manner and it is much faster to access it this way rather than randomly).

With that out of the way, there are generally two families in the graph database world: those which use underlying traditional tables of nodes and many-to-many edges; and index-free adjacency which just means each node in the graph knows the memory address of its connections (other side of the edges).

Distributed graphs necessarily end up using the former because it’s difficult if not impossible for a node to know the memory address of its connection when that crosses a physical boundary. So typically index-free adjacency graphs have a master-slave setup with multiple read replicas but a single one to write to.

So with a “native graph” you don’t rely on potentially expensive join operations to find neighbors of neighbors and can traverse complex paths easily.

Here’s how Facebook approached the task of scaling a graph representation to mind boggling heights (spoiler: lots of mysql servers and a plethora of caches) https://engineering.fb.com/2013/06/25/core-data/tao-the-powe...

rajman187··on India and Pakistan are choking on each other’s pollution
I’ve noticed that Indian news media is far more interested in covering Pakistan than the other way around. Indeed, I’d wonder what Pakistan would look like without India constantly pestering them, e.g. reducing flow of critical river paths from Indian Panjab that supplies much of the agricultural needs)
rajman187··on Bigscreen Beyond – Small VR Headset
Anecdotal but I was on a flight recently and the fellow seated behind me brought his Quest2 for the flight. He said it was much better for watching movies than the poor quality of the in-flight screens. Makes sense since you can also download movies via Netflix or Amazon Prime
rajman187··on Meta Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results
Is that including WhatsApp Business accounts (revenue positive) and the so-far limited roll out of WhatsApp payments in Brazil and India (revenue positive)?
rajman187··on Make a Resume in LaTeX
I was editing my resume in latex for a long time, then for no particular reason decided to change the workflow such that I could just write it in markdown and use emacs org-mode to autogenerate an intermediate latex, associate the citations, and publish a pdf. I find markdown is a lot simpler and with a template can create as flexible a design as I could with latex.
rajman187··on Wave of Job-Switching Has Employers on a Training Treadmill
> The rise in turnover since the pandemic started has a cost in productivity: “It’s taking longer to get stuff out the door.”
rajman187··on [dead]
> Some believe crypto-currency is the future; others believe it's a scam. What's the truth about this so-called disruptive technology? A software engineer with 40+ years of experience weighs in with logic, reason and evidence.

https://filmfreeway.com/Blockchain-InnovationorIllusion

rajman187··on Rogue antibody and mystery pathogen behind AstraZeneca blood clots: study
You have countless cells that are destroyed on a daily basis, something like a million per second. I don’t understand your point obsessing over cells being killed for expressing the spike proteins, it’s less than a drop in the ocean.
rajman187··on Rogue antibody and mystery pathogen behind AstraZeneca blood clots: study
I’d like to see some credible sources for your claims, because it seems we’ve done no such thing.

Even if trace amounts are found, they are no longer functional [0]. And it’s important to consider the percent of dosage when looking at biodistribution post injection, not just the amount of lipids [3], so it’s really much less significant amounts found outside the site of injection. Most is taken care of via hepatic clearance.

UTR sequences, which regulate transcription and sub cellular localization, can be tailored for specific cell types [1].

There is no evidence of spike protein toxicity [2]. And while the covid spike protein has potential to cause damage for example to the cells lining the small vessels of the heart following infection, there is no evidence that this is also the case with vaccinations [4]

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565969/

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/...

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-vaccine-safe-idUSL...

[3] https://medium.com/microbial-instincts/biodistribution-and-s...

[4] https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-arc...

rajman187··on Rogue antibody and mystery pathogen behind AstraZeneca blood clots: study
> Have you not noticed how most of the data is not even reported on now and near all previous studies stopped at three months?

No, I haven’t noticed this. Do you mean reported in the media? I was never looking there for safety trial results. Do you mean in journals? Then that’s the just wrong—as is the claim that they stop at 3 months. You can look up phase 4 trials, for instance [0]:

> In addition to the standard ongoing (phase 4) trials, people who took part in the phase 3 trials of approved vaccines are continuing to be followed up (up to 2 years after their second dose) to collect more data – for example on safety, asymptomatic infection, and how long protection from the vaccines lasts.

Even the original BioNTech(Pfizer) clinical trial reports it’s methodology of surveying serious side effects for up to 6 months after second dose, which makes it a 7+ month study overall [1]

[0] https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-maga...

[1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577

rajman187··on Rogue antibody and mystery pathogen behind AstraZeneca blood clots: study
The post I replied to stated

> dubious mRNA treatments with unknown compounding risks for unknown numbers of people

If that was the case, after 100s of millions of doses given out shouldn’t these have surfaced in sufficient numbers?

Sorry about your condition, but there’s nothing there that suggests it is related to the mRNA formulation; you could just as easily experienced the same with a viral vector formulation or even without any booster (long covid, if that’s what you had, is not without relapses)

Development corners were not cut, that’s the point of the mRNA formulation, it is incredibly faster than conventional methods to create a brand new product. I assume what you meant was the regulatory requirements for safety, which yes were accelerated and reduced because of the emergency use case. Two years ago. Those trials are tests on large populations , phase 3 being the largest then phase 4 a post-marketing surveillance period [0].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phases_of_clinical_research

rajman187··on Rogue antibody and mystery pathogen behind AstraZeneca blood clots: study
This makes no sense, the AstraZeneca vaccine isn’t an mRNA formulation but rather a vector vaccine (genetic material from the COVID-19 virus is placed in a modified version of a different virus—the vector—which gets into your cells and delivers genetic material that gives your body’s cells instructions to make copies of the S protein).

The mRNA vaccines worked to improve immunity and reduce the effects once infected; and to your point about mutations, the mRNA encoding the spike can be modified accordingly as this is a very quick and scalable method of delivery.

Given the hundreds of millions of people that have received mRNA vaccines I think generally we have an understanding of their safety.

The only insanity I see is people still now trying to deny vaccine efficacy, either as government conspiracy theories or through poor scientific understanding.

rajman187··on Gattaca draft script (1997)
On top of this implausibility, the criteria in the parent post was ‘there’s no “supernatural” element whatsoever,’ which given the heroic ghost of Kowalski‘s role in saving the protagonist (as a “hallucination”), should also rule it out. Never mind that the film was essentially disorienting scenes and Sandra Bullock repeatedly shouting into the cameras
rajman187··on Ask HN: Why is Tesla stock dropping? Meta?
I’ve interacted with a few businesses in the UK already, and way more in Asia/Middle East. Forgot to add there’s also WhatsApp Pay which, while limited to only India and Brazil, is still a sizable population. It’s monetized through the fixed fee charged to the business that you pay.
rajman187··on Reliability, constant work, and a good cup of coffee
The most offensive element in the article was general dismissal of espresso as actual coffee rather than the brown sludge that fills most large vats at conference centers and apparently Amazon offices.

Sure, it makes for a good analogy, but by the same token if you ever find yourself in Italy the post-lunch rush is never delayed with long waits because pulling a shot is near-instantaneous.

In fact espresso was the method derived earlier in the century to refuel factory workers quickly, hence had whilst standing, ready to get back to labor.

rajman187··on Opt-IML: a language model with 175B parameters [pdf]
> fine-tuned on 2,000 language tasks

> For OPT-IML, we boosted performance of our earlier OPT-175B work using instruction tuning. This allowed us to adapt it for more diverse applications including answering questions, summarizing text & translation.

rajman187··on Ask HN: Why is Tesla stock dropping? Meta?
Well it’s not entirely accurate to say few people use it for that anymore. It has 2.9 billion monthly active users on the platform, so even a fraction there for “what are my friends doing” is more than the population of most countries. I think it’s just limited to demographics not overall represented on HN, for instance

WhatsApp monetization comes through the business offerings. Increasingly, you can use that to interact with companies, small and large

rajman187··on O Holy Crap
Perhaps the price of globalization, where it’s considerably more profitable to import cheaply produced goods with the consumer happy about lower prices. I assume with inflation taken into account and price of raw materials that juicer from 70 years ago wouldn’t be very affordable for the majority
rajman187··on John Carmack Leaves Meta
He wasn’t talking with senior managers and directors but almost certainly VP level and CxO
rajman187··on New York City hiring top rat killer
there are some boroughs in London which don't have bins and residents just leave piles of trash out on collection day. No rats but rather foxes

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/15/urban-fo...

rajman187··on UK high street banks are quarantining from crypto
Will be interesting to see how former finance minister now PM reconciles the banks' hesitancy with his own grandiose plans of making the UK a crypto capital

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/01/what-rishi-sunak-as-pm-means...

rajman187··on London's Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover entire city
Sure, but not if you don't live in Kingston itself but go to school there.
rajman187··on London's Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover entire city
Agreed but not feasible overnight , and the time frame for this new tax is much closer to a sudden change than the required infrastructure overhaul.

Adding a new train line cost $2bn over budget and about 5 years longer than planned.

rajman187··on London's Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover entire city
You don’t seem to get it, these aren’t schools in central London. The residential neighborhoods and schools are both in the boonies. But sure, people should all cram into a congested and extremely overpriced housing market that is run by foreign money and immediately change all habits…
rajman187··on London's Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover entire city
You overestimate the public transportation. If you live in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Epsom, or deep in some residential neighborhood in Surbiton, you’d have to walk 2+ miles just to reach a bus stop, and then a long journey to get to school.
rajman187··on London's Ultra Low Emission Zone to cover entire city
This zone would extend as far as Kingston, and some people don’t live near their school or a reliably serviced bus stop
← PreviousPage 2 of 6Next →