Bending pause times to your will with Generational ZGC
https://netflixtechblog.com/bending-pause-times-to-your-will-with-generational-zgc-256629c9386b [netflixtechblog.com]
2024-03-16 00:20
tags:
garbage-collection
java
perf
The latest long term support release of the JDK delivers generational support for the Z Garbage Collector. Netflix has switched by default from G1 to Generational ZGC on JDK 21 and later, because of the significant benefits of concurrent garbage collection.
source: HN
UML: My Part in its Downfall
https://tratt.net/laurie/blog/2022/uml_my_part_in_its_downfall.html [tratt.net]
2024-03-15 23:15
tags:
development
standard
swtools
With the benefit of hindsight, I think UML had quite possibly reached not only its actual, but also its potential, peak in 2000: as a medium for software sketching, people only ever needed the basics from it. However, the standardisation community developed an ambitious vision for UML that far exceeded sketching. Whether or not that vision could ever be realised can be seen as a matter of genuine debate: what seems unarguable to me is that such a vision was deeply unsuited to any standardisation process.
The case of the application that used thread local storage it never allocated
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20221128-00/?p=107456 [devblogs.microsoft.com]
2024-03-15 22:42
tags:
bugfix
concurrency
development
malloc
programming
windows
Upon closer inspection, the real problem was not that the application’s TLS was being corrupted. The problem was that the application was using TLS slots it never allocated, so it was inadvertently using somebody else’s TLS slots as its own. And of course, when the true owner updated the TLS value, the application interpreted that as corruption.
Multiply - A Book About Calculators I Helped Create
https://benjamin.computer/posts/2022-08-17-calculators.html [benjamin.computer]
2024-03-15 20:07
tags:
book
design
hardware
math
retro
Now, by trade I’m a software engineer and a trainee scientist - I’ve never designed a book before. However, I’m no stranger to graphic design, having done a variety of things before now. But a book is a new proposition with different challenges. There was a lot of work ahead. But where to begin?
source: Dfly
2023 Emoji Law Year-in-Review
https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2024/01/2023-emoji-law-year-in-review.htm [blog.ericgoldman.org]
2024-03-14 23:39
tags:
links
policy
text
I continue to maintain my census of U.S. cases referencing emojis or emoticons. In 2023, I logged 225 such cases (this number will grow a bit due to lags with the electronic databases). The case count continues to grow exponentially. The 2023 count represented a 17% increase over the 2022 count.
Don Lemon Says Elon Musk Canceled His X Show, Hours After Interview Taped for Debut Episode
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/don-lemon-elon-musk-cancels-x-show-after-interview-1235851490/ [www.hollywoodreporter.com]
2024-03-13 18:15
tags:
media
social
valley
The interview with Musk is slated to be the debut episode of The Don Lemon Show, which was supposed to debut on X (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube. Lemon says the interview will run as planned on YouTube, and that future episodes will be released there.
Massively Popular Safe Locks Have Secret Backdoor Codes
https://www.404media.co/massively-popular-safe-locks-have-secret-backdoor-codes/ [www.404media.co]
2024-03-13 17:09
tags:
hardware
opsec
policy
security
Senator Ron Wyden has found that the DoD banned the use of such locks for U.S. government systems, but deliberately kept information about the backdoors from the public.
Check Your Email
https://thedailywtf.com/articles/check-your-email [thedailywtf.com]
2024-03-13 16:50
tags:
development
Every night, their application was supposed to generate a set of nightly reports and emailed them out. These reports went to a number of people in the company, up to and including the CEO. Come Monday morning, the CEO checked his inbox and horror of horror- there was no report!
Given that it involved sending emails, Branon was ready to spend a long time trying to debug whatever was going wrong in the chain. Instead, finding the problem only took about two minutes, and most of that was spent getting coffee.
Reverse engineering standard cell logic in the Intel 386 processor
http://www.righto.com/2024/01/intel-386-standard-cells.html [www.righto.com]
2024-03-13 07:33
tags:
article
compsci
cpu
hardware
photos
tech
The 386 processor (1985) was Intel’s most complex processor at the time, with 285,000 transistors. Intel had scheduled 50 person-years to design the processor, but it was falling behind schedule. The design team decided to automate chunks of the layout, developing “automatic place and route” software. This was a risky decision since if the software couldn’t create a dense enough layout, the chip couldn’t be manufactured. But in the end, the 386 finished ahead of schedule, an almost unheard-of accomplishment.
In this article, I take a close look at the “standard cells” used in the 386, the logic blocks that were arranged and wired by software. Reverse-engineering these circuits shows how standard cells implement logic gates, latches, and other components with CMOS transistors. Modern integrated circuits still use standard cells, much smaller now, of course, but built from the same principles.
Okay, Color Spaces
https://ericportis.com/posts/2024/okay-color-spaces/ [ericportis.com]
2024-03-11 07:53
tags:
graphics
visualization
Which brings us to the first point: color spaces are all constructs. People just make them up! Useful ones are constructed in order to do useful things, but there’s no, like, One True Fundamental Color Space.
All of this is to say: color spaces can’t really be “right” (or “wrong.”) They can only be useful.
source: Dfly
Huffman Codes – How Do They Work?
https://two-wrongs.com/huffman-codes-how-do-they-work [two-wrongs.com]
2024-03-11 07:50
tags:
compression
intro-programming
When The Ware Isn’t Firm
https://tedium.co/2024/03/04/mkbhd-fisker-negative-review-firmware/ [tedium.co]
2024-03-11 07:46
tags:
cars
media
tech
A viral car review by tech-reviewing’s biggest name highlights the all-too-common pitfalls of shipping before the firmware is ready.
a history of the tty
https://computer.rip/2024-02-25-a-history-of-the-tty.html [computer.rip]
2024-03-11 07:44
tags:
article
hardware
retro
text
tty
It’s one of those anachronisms that is deeply embedded in modern technology. From cloud operator servers to embedded controllers in appliances, there must be uncountable devices that think they are connected to a TTY.
source: Dfly
Unlocking secret ThinkPad functionality for emulating USB devices
https://xairy.io/articles/thinkpad-xdci [xairy.io]
2024-03-11 07:42
tags:
bios
hardware
linux
programming
solder
systems
This is the story of how I figured out a way to turn my ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th Gen laptop into a programmable USB device by enabling the xDCI controller.
As a result, the laptop can now be used to emulate arbitrary USB devices such as keyboards or storage drives. Or to fuzz USB hosts with the help of Raw Gadget and syzkaller. Or to even run Facedancer with the help of the Raw Gadget–based backend. And do all this without any external hardware.
The journey of enabling xDCI included fiddling with Linux kernel drivers, xHCI, DWC3, ACPI, BIOS/UEFI, Boot Guard, TPM, NVRAM, PCH, PMC, PSF, IOSF, and P2SB, and making a custom USB cable
source: trivium
List of 2024 Leap Day Bugs
https://codeofmatt.com/list-of-2024-leap-day-bugs/ [codeofmatt.com]
2024-03-11 07:32
tags:
bugfix
development
links
Well, it’s 2024 and leap day has come once again. As I’ve done in prior leap years, I’ve captured as many bug reports and outages as I can, along with links to the source where possible.
source: trivium
Fonts are still a Helvetica of a Problem
https://www.canva.dev/blog/engineering/fonts-are-still-a-helvetica-of-a-problem/ [www.canva.dev]
2024-03-06 19:45
tags:
security
text
turtles
CVEs in three strange places and the unique problem of safely processing and handling fonts.
Although the previous research focused primarily on memory corruption bugs in font processing, we wondered what other kinds of security issues might occur when handling fonts.
source: HN
Supercharge compression efficiency with shared dictionaries
https://developer.chrome.com/blog/shared-dictionary-compression [developer.chrome.com]
2024-03-06 18:50
tags:
browser
compression
development
web
Shared dictionaries can supplement Brotli and ZStandard compression to deliver substantially higher compression ratios for websites that frequently ship updated code, and can—in some cases—deliver 90% or better compression ratios. This post goes into more detail on how shared dictionaries work, and how you can register for the origin trials to use them for Brotli and ZStandard on your website.
source: HN
Motion Blur All the Way Down
https://www.osar.fr/notes/motionblur/ [www.osar.fr]
2024-03-04 05:53
tags:
gl
graphics
interactive
programming
visualization
What happens if you take motion blur past its logical extreme? Here are some fun observations and ideas I encountered while trying to answer this question, with an attempt to apply the results in a procedural animation.
source: L
Bugs I’ve filed on browsers
https://nolanlawson.com/2024/03/03/bugs-ive-filed-on-browsers/ [nolanlawson.com]
2024-03-04 05:28
tags:
browser
bugfix
development
web
As such, I’ve filed a lot of bugs on browsers over the years. For whatever reason – stubbornness, frustration, some highfalutin sense of serving the web at large – I’ve made a habit of nagging browser vendors about whatever roadblock I’m hitting that day. And they often fix it! So I thought it might be interesting to do an analysis of the bugs I’ve filed on the major browser engines – Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit – over my roughly 10-year web development career.
source: HN
How French Artists in 1899 Envisioned What Life Would Look Like in the Year 2000
https://www.openculture.com/2024/02/how-french-artists-in-1899-envisioned-what-life-would-look-like-in-the-year-2000.html [www.openculture.com]
2024-03-04 05:20
tags:
art
future
photos
retro
And yet it’s Asimov who apparently owned the only set of postcards of En L’An 2000, a set of 87 (or so) collectible artist cards that first appeared as inserts in cigar boxes in 1899, right in time for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. Translated as “France in the 21st Century,” the cards feature Jean-Marc Côté and other illustrators’ interpretations of the way we’d be living... well, 23 years ago.
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-19th-century-vision-of-the-year-2000/
source: HN