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Tech Industry & Business

The most popular blog posts about tech industry & business on Hacker News. 776 posts.

2024
214

Long Term Software Development

Recently the Dutch Electoral Board (where I am also a very part time advisor) invited me to do a talk reflecting on their open source Abacus vote tabulation software. Much software is now provided as a service, and is typically deployed continuously (CD, continuous deployment), surrounded by enough automated testing…

220

Most people don't care about quality

My friend, the photographer Paul Clarke has an uncanny eye for detail. Every single shot he publishes is beautiful - they capture life in a way that I don't have the language to describe. I'm quite content to point my phone at someone, use the default settings, and grab a snap. My photos lack composition, clarity…

221

Calculating the cost of a Google DeepMind paper

Recently, GDM released a great paper titled, Scaling Exponents Across Parameterizations and Optimizers, in which they conduct over 10,000 LLM training runs to obtain optimal hyperparameters under different regimes. After reading it (it was great), I wanted to test my understanding of the paper by tallying up all…

223

Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

The European Union’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a complex, many-legged beast, but at root, it is a regulation that aims to make it easier for the public to control the technology they use and rely on. One DMA rule forces the powerful “gatekeeper” tech companies to allow third-party app stores...

226

OKRs Are Bullshit

It's a new year, time for a new rant! And yes, before you ask, the post title is deliberately provocative. You might say this is my ploy to get more paid subscribers, because only paid subscribers can leave comments and I expect that the title alone will make many of you want to comment. 😝

240

We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't

[programmers frantically pulling cables out of the wall]AI: "Nuclear power. Double teachers' salaries. Build more houses. Distribute food more fairly. TRAINS—"— qntmyrrh (@qntm) November 24, 2023 I remember growing up with that same old adage of how you could be the next scientist to invent a cure for cancer, or a…