HackerNews Summary (2023-05-07 06PM)

Source: MakeItFrom.com: Material Properties Database

Summary
MakeItFrom.com is a database of engineering material properties providing internationally recognized generic materials for easy comparison. The data comes from published standards, academic literature, and supplier documentation.

Fact

📊 Curated database of engineering materials properties.

🧐 Emphasis on ease of comparison among internationally recognized generic materials.

📚 Data sourced from published standards, academic literature, and supplier documentation.

🔍 Searchable by material name or property value.

🤝 Allows side-by-side comparison of two materials.

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Source: Ancient Earth

Summary
This visualization shows a map of the world, including representations of the Earth’s plates, locations of past and present day landmasses and their elevations, as well as the positions of stars and clouds.

Fact

🌎 The map includes representations of the Earth’s tectonic plates and their movements over time.

🏞️ The coloring of the map indicates elevation and bathymetry, with dark blue indicating deep water and light blue indicating shallow water.

⭐ The positions of stars and clouds are also included in the visualization.

📈 The locations on the map are accurate to approximately 100 km.

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Source: lizrice/ebpf-beginners: The beginner’s guide to eBPF

Summary
Learn eBPF programming with the help of books, presentations, and resources available for download and purchase.

Fact

📘 “Learning eBPF” book is available for purchase at local bookstores

🎤 Presentations are available to teach eBPF programming

📥 ISOValent provides download for “What is eBPF?” and “Learning eBPF”

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Source: DrgnKernelPokingPraise

Summary
Drgn is a promising way to explore Linux kernels and their data structures. Its interactive mode allows for easy exploration and visualization of structures, but some kernel source code and headers need to be consulted to navigate the data structures fully.

Fact

👁️ Drgn is a promising tool for exploring Linux kernels and their data structures.

🐍 Drgn provides an interactive Python environment that allows for easy exploration and visualization of structures.

🧐 Users may need to consult kernel source code and headers to fully navigate the data structures.

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Source: Vulkan Video Decoding

Summary
The Vulkan API has introduced a video decoding feature, utilizing the GPU’s fixed function video unit for fast cross-platform video applications. It can help create video objects instead of using flipbook texture atlases. This feature can fully utilize the Vulkan synchronization and async queues to minimize overhead. However, Vulkan video functionality requires a deep understanding of the video format that one wants to decode.

Fact

🎥 With Vulkan video decoding feature, you can add videos to objects for a modern city scape, a virtual cinema or television screens, monitors.

💻 Vulkan video decoding feature frees up CPU from expensive decoding tasks.

🎞️ Vulkan video decoding feature can reuse decoded videos as regular textures on objects.

📚 Vulkan video decoding feature removes the need to use a huge video library like FFMPEG.

🔍 For H264 data input, the corresponding elements, such as PPS, SPS, and Slice Header, need to be found and separated using three or four bytes.

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Source: Intel Skulltrail

Summary
Skulltrail is an enthusiast gaming platform that supports quad SLI technology and dual-CPU sockets, with 8 processing cores available on one system. Released in 2008 as part of Intel’s 5400 “Seaburg” workstation chipset, it was one of the first platforms to support SLI on chipsets not designed by Nvidia and could operate up to four graphics processors simultaneously.

Fact

💻 Skulltrail is an enthusiast gaming platform that supports quad SLI technology and dual-CPU sockets.

🔋 The platform requires high-output power supplies for both the CPU and graphics cards and a computer chassis capable of accommodating the motherboard, based on an Extended ATX form factor design.

🎮 Skulltrail was one of the first platforms to support SLI on chipsets not designed by Nvidia, and it can operate up to four graphics processors simultaneously.

🔄 The platform supports both SLI and CrossFireX technologies, the only one besides Intel X58 and P55 chipset to support both types at the time of its release.

💰 Skulltrail was criticized for being “ahead of its time” due to the lack of support for multi-core computing with almost all popular game engines at the time and the high price of its components.

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