HackerNews Summary (2023-05-25 07AM)

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Tech

Source: Ask HN: Examples of desktop software with 20+ years of longevity?

Summary
Many desktop apps have been in development for 20+ years. Examples of such apps still available include QuarkXPress, WordPerfect, CorelDraw, Xara, Fontlab, BBEdit, UltraEdit, Delphi, PureBasic, and Eclipse.

Fact

  • 📝 Notepad++ (2003) – popular source code editor for Windows.
  • 📡 FileZilla (2001) – open-source FTP, FTPS, and SFTP client for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • 🚀 WinRAR (1995) – file archiver utility for Windows.
  • 🎨 PaintShop Pro (1990) – bitmap graphics editor primarily used for photo editing.
  • 📚 WinZip (1991) – file archiver and compressor for Windows.
  • 💽 CDex (1998) – CD ripper software for Windows.

    • Source: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ‘discriminatory’ ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

    Summary
    Fitch has placed the US credit rating on negative watch, which could result in a possible downgrade if Congress fails to raise the $31.4tn cap on government borrowing, potentially triggering economic calamity and panic on global financial markets. A downgrade could impact trillions of dollars in Treasury debt securities.

    Fact
    💸 If Congress fails to raise the $31.4tn cap on government borrowing, a possible economic calamity and panic on global financial markets could ensue.
    💰 A downgrade could impact trillions of dollars of Treasury debt securities.
    👎 Fitch’s move revived memories of 2011 when S&P downgraded the US to “AA-plus” and resulted in a stock market sell-off.
    🤝 IMF’s MD is hopeful the White House and Capitol Hill will reach a deal before the “X-date,” June 1.
    🌍 Finance ministers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar acknowledge the need for a resolution.

    Source: Implementing a distributed key-value store on top of implementing Raft in Go

    Summary
    This post explains the basics of the Raft distributed consensus algorithm for replicated state machines and key-value stores and provides an implementation in Go. It covers leader election and log replication, and includes building a simple distributed key-value store on top of the Raft library.

    Fact

  • 🤝 Raft is a distributed consensus algorithm for replicated state machines.
  • 📈 The algorithm consists of leader election and log replication.
  • 🗄️ The basic idea is that nodes in a cluster elect a leader, who receives messages from users and sends them to followers for majority consensus and commitment to the log. The committed messages are then applied to a user-supplied state machine.

    • Source: PostgreSQL 16 Beta 1 Released!

    Summary
    PostgreSQL 16 Beta 1 is now available for download, featuring improved query execution parallelism and incremental sorts, logical replication enhancements for workload distribution, and improved support for manipulating JSON data.

    Fact

  • 💻 PostgreSQL 16 introduces support for CPU acceleration using SIMD for both x86 and ARM architectures, improving the speed of processing for ASCII and JSON strings, array and subtransaction searches.
  • 🔄 PostgreSQL 16 allows users to perform logical decoding on a standby instance, offering more options to distribute workload.
  • 👨‍💻 PostgreSQL 16 implements the SQL/JSON standard for manipulating JSON data, including support for SQL/JSON constructors and identity functions, and adds the SQL standard ANY_VALUE aggregate function.

    • Source: Europe’s biggest council faces £100M Oracle ERP project bill

    Summary
    Birmingham City Council is facing total implementation costs of up to £100m ($123m) for its Oracle ERP system, which will replace its core HR and finance functions. The project has been delayed and suffered cost over-runs, with council leaders stating that there is a lack of control. The current costs are four times the initial estimate.

    Fact

  • 💸 The total implementation cost for the Oracle ERP system is set to be between £80 million and £100 million ($99 million to $123 million).
  • 🏭 An insider believes Oracle Fusion is not a suitable product for local authorities, due to it being geared towards manufacturing/trading organisations.
  • 📉 The Council cut £16 million ($19.7 million) from its savings projections in 2021, with the new ERP system promising less in savings than originally estimated.
  • 📉 The project to replace SAP for core HR and finance functions has suffered delays and significant cost over-runs, with current expenditures being four times the initial estimate.
  • 👔 Rebecca Hellard has been replaced by Fiona Greenway as the council’s interim director of finance and section 151 officer.

    • Source: Val Town

    Summary
    Vals are JavaScript and TypeScript code that can be run on servers, scheduled, or accessed via API. They allow you to perform various operations such as sending an email, storing state, referencing vals of others, or importing npm or Deno.

    Fact

  • 📧 Vals allow you to send emails with console.email(“message”, “Subject Line”)
  • 📝 Vals enable state storage with @me.fizz += “buzz”
  • 🔍 You can reference your own vals with @me.fizz.split(‘buzz’).length
  • 🔗 You can reference others’ vals with @stevekrouse.moreBuzz()
  • 🤫 You can reference personal secrets with @me.secrets.openai
  • 📦 Vals allow importing npm packages with const _ = await import(“npm:lodash-es”)
  • 🦕 Vals allow importing Deno modules with const { DOMParser } = await import(“https://deno.land/x/deno_dom@v0.1.38/deno-dom-wasm.ts”)

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