HackerNews Summary (2023-04-28 11PM)

Source: Mandela’s Library of Alexandria

Summary
The Internet-in-a-Box allows people in remote areas without internet to access information wirelessly from a box customized with free content.

Facts

📡 The Internet-in-a-Box works wirelessly without the internet.

🌍 It is used in dozens of countries around the world.

💻 It serves anyone nearby with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

🆓 It can be customized with the best free content for schools, clinics, or families.

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Source: Eytzinger Binary Search

Summary
This tutorial describes how to perform an efficient binary search using Eytzinger binary search, which rearranges elements of a sorted array in a cache-friendly way. The implementation is only 15 lines of code while offering 4-5x speedup over std::lower_bound.

Fact

💻 Eytzinger binary search rearranges elements of a sorted array in a cache-friendly way.

💪 The implementation is only 15 lines of code.

⚡ Offers 4-5x speedup over std::lower_bound.

🧠 Running time of an algorithm is not just the “cost” of its arithmetic operations, but rather the time spent waiting for data to be fetched from memory.

📚 For more information, read the original 2015 paper “Array layouts for comparison-based searching.”

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Source: Collections: Academic Ranks Explained Or What On Earth Is an Adjunct?

Summary
This post discusses the different ranks of professors and the structure of academia in the American university system, with a focus on non-tenure track (NTT) faculty who are the majority of teaching staff but often unknown to students. The author, who is an NTT faculty member, aims to shed light on the complex bureaucratic structures of Big State Universities and the challenges faced by NTT staff.

Fact

🎓 Non-tenure track (NTT) faculty make up the majority of student-facing teaching faculty in American universities.

👨‍🏫 Tenure-track professors are on a path to obtaining tenure, which grants them job security and academic freedom.

🏫 Big State Universities make up the largest chunk of 4-year-degree institutions and are the median and modal higher education experience for those who obtain a four-year degree.

💰 The author receives no research or writing support from the universities they teach for and relies on reader support to fund their work.

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