2023.04.17 - WebGPU Fundamentals

Title: 2023.04.17 – WebGPU Fundamentals

Meetings & Linux & Free Software Foundation & 天命 (Mandate of Heaven) & 书院 (Academy) & 人生之路 (The Road of Life)

This Week’s Highlights

WebGPU Fundamentals https://webgpufundamentals.org/ A set of articles to help learn WebGPU

Real-time Messaging https://slack.engineering/real-time-messaging/ In this blog post we’ll describe the architecture that we use to send real‑time messages at this scale. We’ll take a closer look at the services that send the chat messages and various events to these online users in real time. Our core services are written in Java: they are Channel Servers, Gateway Servers, Admin Servers, and Presence Servers.

The early days of Linux https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/928581/841b747332791ac4/ My name is Lars Wirzenius, and I was there when Linux started. Linux is now a global success, but its beginnings were rather more humble. These are my memories of the earliest days of Linux, its creation, and the start of its path to where it is today.

How generative AI is changing the way developers work https://github.blog/2023-04-14-how-generative-ai-is-changing-the-way-developers-work/ Rapid advancements in generative AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot are accelerating the next wave of software development. Here’s what you need to know. Related:

• Generative AI‑enabled compliance for software development
• Generative AI Meets Open Culture
• The one about AI

Are meetings making you less productive? https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/04/12/are-meetings-making-you-less-productive/ Developers view about half their meetings negatively. Can we find better ways to use that time?

In‑Depth Reading

Mastering React: Techniques to Take Your UI to the Next Level https://mankybansal.medium.com/mastering-react-techniques-to-take-your-ui-to-the-next-level-a5002173904f From styling to functionality, tips and code examples for crafting a world‑class navigation bar.

Modern HTML email (tables no longer required) https://fullystacked.net/posts/modern-html-email/ It’s well past time that Outlook got a proper update, and it’s finally here. The new Outlook switches rendering engines from Microsoft Word to Edge. Support for CSS features in the new Outlook application appears to be identical to that of outlook.com, which is a great leap forward.

Trying Node.js Test Runner https://glebbahmutov.com/blog/trying-node-test-runner/ Learning all about the new built‑in Node.js test runner.

The end of a myth: Distributed transactions can scale http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-end-of-myth-distributed.html Remote direct memory access (RDMA) allows bypassing the CPU when transferring data from one machine to another. This helps relieve a major factor in scalability of distributed transactions: the CPU overhead of the TCP/IP stack. With so many messages to process, the CPU may spend most of its time serializing/deserializing network messages, leaving little room for the actual work. We saw this phenomenon firsthand when researching performance bottlenecks of Paxos protocols.

Elixir and Rust Is a Good Mix https://fly.io/phoenix-files/elixir-and-rust-is-a-good-mix/ This post is about using Rust with Elixir and how easily it can be done! If you want to deploy your Phoenix LiveView app right now, then check out how to get started. You could be up and running in minutes.

An example of LLM prompting for programming https://martinfowler.com/articles/2023-chatgpt-xu-hao.html Xu Hao uses chain‑of‑thought and general‑knowledge prompting with ChatGPT when writing self‑testing code.

The Free Software Foundation is dying https://drewdevault.com/2023/04/11/2023-04-11-The-FSF-is-dying.html Today, almost 40 years on, the FSF is dying. Their achievements are unmistakable: we must offer them our gratitude and admiration for decades of accomplishments in establishing and advancing our cause. The principles of software freedom are more important than ever, and the products of these institutions remain necessary and useful – the GPL license family, GCC, GNU coreutils, and so on. Nevertheless, the organizations behind this work are floundering. Related: Open source is fueling the future of nuclear physics.

Fresh Finds

ECMAScript® 2023 Language Specification CSS Text balancing with text-wrap:balance Storybook 7.0 is here! JavaScript Equality Table Game htmx 1.9.0 has been released! SQL:2023 is finished: Here’s what’s new

Animated Drawings: Create animations starring your own drawn characters Phind: GPT‑4‑powered web searches for developers Amazon CodeWhisperer, free for individual use, is now generally available

Exercism – learn programming languages for free Now live for all: Substack Notes : a way to share posts and short‑form content on Substack

Products & Others

李慈雄：教育现状的反思 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3ZkOG6md6RlsK8JMm6T8eA With society and the economy developing so rapidly, our national strength is increasingly important, yet the fundamental problems in education remain unsolved. Where do the issues lie? What are our challenges? What is the way forward? Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a government official, or anyone who cares about our cultural heritage, you should reflect deeply. Also see: 培养一个拥有幸福感的孩子是最大的成功.

真正自由的灵魂，一般都知“天命”而“修”天命 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XSbQXUu8O‑T0KqwHn870yg Is human freedom possible? Can we create part of our own destiny? These questions touch on fate, free will, and whether humanity participates in shaping its own future. The two sentences hide these three universal questions. In the Doctrine of the Mean, “修道之谓教” (cultivating the Way is called teaching) suggests that through conscious effort we can adjust a life that seems predestined and regulated.

我们为什么要办中医书院 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dSuedxyaF_-B6xdg7tCtkA The most valuable aspect of medicine is its understanding of life in all its dimensions—what life is, where it comes from (a philosophical question), and whether life is merely the tangible state we observe. Traditional Chinese Medicine has perspectives on these issues. Based on this understanding, we decided last year that the Sanhe Academy would offer lifelong education, because life’s growth proceeds from childhood to old age, just as Teacher Yuan (Zhong) described the whole process of birth, aging, illness, and death.

迷茫时，不妨读一读路遥 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OPKeara9v8oYfNynb_OpLA Recently, the TV drama The Road of Life has been airing on CCTV‑1. The series draws partly from Lu Yao’s novella Life. Lu Yao has long been a favorite author among Night Reading readers. Life is a literary classic that inspires countless readers; some even say, “Everyone who watches Life sees their own life.” Today, Night Reading has compiled 20 memorable lines from the book—simple yet striking, each one leaves a deep impression.

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Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on Web技术周刊 (Web Tech Weekly). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.