Distribution packaging for Linux desktop applications is unsustainable

Solving common problems with Kubernetes

Refactoring a checksum until it runs 100 times faster

Issue #288

11/7/2022

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Sup?
Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I ended up watching too much anime.
Found this this interesting podcast; "it’s a story of a software developer finding a place that fits them, a place that suits them".
Here's an article on why one should stop judging programmers based on the languages (tools) they use. I've done both front-end and back-end work. I prefer the latter, because I find the former more challenging. I saw some comment on reddit where someone said something along the lines of "I'm smart. Want proof? I work for this rocket company; not on the website, but on the embeds". I understand what they're trying to say, but come on. The "difficulty" of the code you write is positively correlated with the number of constraints you have, not the domain. Saying one domain has more constraints on average is also a bit of a stretch; how much of embed programming is just a loop reading a value from a sensor and displaying it?
Not much else, so here's the issue!

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Distribution packaging for Linux desktop applications is unsustainable

Published: 3 November 2022
Tags: linux

Cooper Lewis explains how the traditional model of linux packaging has many issues and provides a solution in the form of Flatpak.
Some highlights:

  • "Dependency hell describes how Linux systems rely on specific libraries and versions of software, and if those libraries conflict with each other, installations can fail"
  • I'm continually amazed that the Linux ecosystem is not only surviving, but thriving
  • "Adoption of a universal app format may noticeably accelerate the development pace of many Linux applications"


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Solving common problems with Kubernetes

Published: 9 October 2022
Tags: cloud, containers, kubernetes

Adam Chalmers discusses why kubernetes should be used and provides a number of problems it can solve.
Some highlights:

  • Containers became very popular, but orchestrating them was a mess, hence why kubernetes
  • Tries to answer question "How do I run m processes across n servers?"
  • If you're just running on one machine, use Docker Compose


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Refactoring a checksum until it runs 100 times faster

Published: 2 October 2022
Tags: c#, compiler, optimization

Israel Lot tells the story of five different developers (looks like no genius entry yet, maybe it'll be one of you?), at different levels of expertise, attempting to optimize a checksum method, with varying levels of success. Optimizing stuff like this is usually overkill in 99% of cases, but it's a fun exercise nonetheless.
Some highlights:

  • Pro unrolled loops
  • Senior used unsafe
  • Hacker converted a long to a short vector
  • Expert reverses the Endianess


How did I do?

5 4 3 2 1
Amazing


Bad

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Stats (updated daily)

Sent: 3003

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Clicks: 452

Link Clicks Clicks % Unique Clicks Unique Clicks %
Distribution packaging for Linux desktop applications is unsustainable 79 47.31% 87 46.77
Solving common problems with Kubernetes 88 52.69% 99 53.23
Refactoring a checksum until it runs 100 times faster Awaiting Update Awaiting Update Awaiting Update Awaiting Update

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