A reawakening of systems programming meetups
This year has seen a resurgence in high-quality systems programming meetups, with notable groups emerging in cities like Munich, Berlin, San Francisco, New York, and Bengaluru. Phil Eaton, inspired by the dedication of graduate students and with support from peers, successfully launched the NYC Systems Coffee Club and later NYC Systems, focusing on engineering challenges rather than product pitches. He offers practical advice for organizing meetups, emphasizing the importance of finding supportive hosts, avoiding product-centric talks, and fostering a mix of skilled attendees.
Mongo but on Postgres and with strong consistency benefits
Pongo is a tool that enables using PostgreSQL as a document database with JSONB, emulating MongoDB syntax but providing the strong consistency benefits of PostgreSQL. It offers features such as seamless data insertion, updating, deletion, and querying with improved performance and storage efficiency due to JSONB\'s binary format and advanced indexing options. While Pongo supports many MongoDB-like operations and is safe for use, it is not fully compliant with MongoDB.
Show HN: Execute JavaScript in a WebAssembly QuickJS sandbox
GitHub - sebastianwessel/quickjs is a TypeScript package designed to execute JavaScript code securely within a WebAssembly QuickJS sandbox, ideal for isolating and running untrusted code. Key features include a virtual file system, custom Node modules, a fetch client, a test runner, and integration with existing TypeScript projects. The project is licensed under the MIT License and ensures performance and safety using the QuickJS engine compiled to WebAssembly.
LivePortrait: A fast, controllable portrait animation model
LivePortrait is a GitHub repository by KwaiVGI that provides an official PyTorch implementation for efficiently animating portraits using stitching and retargeting control. The repository includes code, pretrained weights, and instructions for setup, along with features like a Gradio interface and scripts for inference speed evaluation. The project is actively maintained, and users are encouraged to report bugs or contribute via issues and pull requests.
How the 18th-Century French Media Stoked a Werewolf Panic
In the 1760s, a panic ensued in south-central France\'s Gévau\xaddan region after nearly three hundred people were killed by a mysterious creature known as \'the Beast,\' widely speculated to be a werewolf fueled by media frenzy. Despite King Louis XV\'s reward and numerous hunts, the killings continued until 1767, culminating in the capture of the final Beast, which did not resemble a typical wolf. Theories about the Beast\'s true identity vary, but the myth has significantly influenced French popular culture, inspiring literature, film, and games.
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