nz

9 ms·

1.
by nz 14d ago
I am not calling it GP. I am pointing out that AI-coding systems tend to resemble GP systems in terms of both broad architecture, and in terms of how the code/genome is generated. Also, I already mentioned domain specific languages, in
2.
by nz 18d ago
The various advances in LLM technology tend to rhyme with the advances in computer programming in general. For example, the stunts that involved getting LLMs to create compilers and browsers are really just extremely expensive[0] versions o
3.
by nz 20d ago
This is a lesser-of-two-evils situation. Before acquisitions became the new "meta" in Silicon Valley, the old meta was that gigantic quasi-monopolies, like Microsoft, burn money and man-years embracing, extending, and extinguishin
4.
by nz 22d ago
A friend of mine was once tasked with writing a kind of simulation that simulates millions of scenarios per session/run, and searches for a best-so-far solution while doing so. He proposed writing it in Rust (justifying it as: fast, lo
5.
The Future of Computing: Logic or Biology (2003) [pdf](microsoft.com)
1 points by nz 28d ago|0 comments
6.
by nz 1mo ago
Back in college (around 15 years ago), I read a few books on eminence by Dean Kieth Simonton. One thing that I remember, and that has always been in the back of my mind, is that certain studies found that (in the USA), children who grow up
7.
by nz 1mo ago
So, I know I am late to this discussion by a week (the coding rarely stops, and I often miss big developments), but, I was at Joyent when it was acquired by Samsung, and their interest was very similar to most Joyent customers: to find a wa
8.
by nz 1mo ago
The worst part of this, is that projects that present themselves like this, poison the pool for everyone else. I imagine that many people are now disinclined to ever publish a hand-coded project in this genre (retro-computing), because peop
9.
by nz 1mo ago
I've heard someone say that this has been going on since 2012, because that is the year that 60% of all Americans (and probably most industrialized countries), owned a smartphone. This is qualitatively different from 60% of all America
10.
by nz 1mo ago
This feels very much like a distinction between letter of the law and spirit of the law. I knew a guy who once forked a very popular browser extension (you've definitely heard of it), that was copyleft-licensed. When I asked him where
11.
by nz 1mo ago
A project can probably use the EUPL instead of the AGPL (EUPL is to AGPL, as MPLv2[0] is to GPL). Basically, EUPL is file-based, not project based, and so it is not aggressively viral. You can use the EUPL code any way you want, as long as
12.
by nz 1mo ago
My understanding is that they used c2rust, and then told the LLM/Agents to make the code more idiomatic rust, while also using the PG test suite as a feedback mechanism. This is almost certainly a derived work (and thus a fork, and sho
13.
by nz 1mo ago
Yeah, attacking the problem at the root, is even better than treating the symptoms.
14.
by nz 1mo ago
This is similar to the arms-race between spammers and spam-filters, just much more capital intensive. The funny thing about the battle between spammer and spammee, is that we already had a very good solution to it: web-of-trust. We also kno
15.
by nz 2mo ago
In a way, LLMs have made it much more difficult to be believed. On the one hand, my inner paranoiac feels vindicated -- preparing for the worst case, over a lifetime, feels more prescient than it should. On the other hand, making decisions,
16.
by nz 2mo ago
This is just the rationalist-empiricist[0] tension, from philosophy. Most empiricists (usually people who are _not_ from continental European cultures), take a position that knowledge and creativity come from observation and imitation, whil
17.
by nz 2mo ago
I mean, my point is that we would all be better off without any of the KPIs, and stack-ranking, and so on, in large part because they are not reliable metrics, and making them reliable is itself a difficult problem to solve. You need engine
18.
by nz 2mo ago
Unreliable software is also expensive. Rather, building reliable software is incompatible with a management policy that rewards and punishes people based on KPIs (basically leading indicators). The concept of KPIs is fine, but they should (
19.
by nz 2mo ago
The argument is not just "theft", and to the extent that "theft" is a part of it, it is not the most important part, not by large margin. The reason that "theft" is not a solid argument, is because people creat
20.
The Internet of Snails: Escargotic commotion and the wood-wide web (2015)(cabinetmagazine.org)
3 points by nz 2mo ago|0 comments
21.
by nz 2mo ago
With the exception of _one_ company that I worked at, pretty much every[0] company was a struggle between engineering and management. Engineering wants to get the software correct, and management wants to fire-hose features into the market.
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by nz 2mo ago
Owners and developers. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Years ago, maybe in the late 2000s, when startups were becoming culturally significant, and "Tech" became an "Industry", two books were written and
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The Second Life of Sanskrit(openthemagazine.com)
3 points by nz 2mo ago|0 comments
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Micro-JavaScript: A pure Python JavaScript engine, inspired by MicroQuickJS(github.com)
3 points by nz 2mo ago|0 comments
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by nz 2mo ago
This is very vague. Maybe you could actually name the fintech (or, if that is too sensitive), you can list a few of its competitors?
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by nz 3mo ago
Yeah, that is situation 2 mentioned above. A Chomsky Grammar is also a generator. So it can generate valid inputs, and then turn them into valid outputs -- and it can do the first part stochastically/randomly.
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by nz 3mo ago
So, take a look at my previous comment (I am sibling, not parent). The pencil pushers are still being manufactured by the educational system itself, but they major in Business now, not Social Sciences or Education. This is due to government
28.
by nz 3mo ago
And, in case anyone needed proof, this is reflected in the US degree-completion-data, when measured as a percentage ( https://galacticbeyond.com/two-percent-programmer/plots/over... ), and when measured as a derivat
29.
by nz 3mo ago
As someone who does a lot of genetic programming (like, old-school, without AI/LLMs, etc), I can confirm that the fitness function is very difficult to get right, especially if you are trying to evolve programs that have "adversar
30.
by nz 3mo ago
Disclaimer: I have never applied nor worked at oxide, but nevertheless have a bit of an odd thought. Having looked at the process (RFD 3 and original post on dtrace.org), and contextualizing it with the oversubscribed-problem (which was men

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