Best of Hacker News2024

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    Server Setup Basics

    Setting up a robust server includes steps like configuring secure SSH login, creating non-root users, setting up NGINX, managing logs, and securing network ports with UFW and Fail2Ban. Additionally, best practices for backups and choosing the right tools for server management are emphasized. The use of tools like Btop, Neoss, GoAccess, MC, and NCDU is recommended for improving server management efficiency.

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    How to Build Anything Extremely Quickly

    Outline speedrunning involves creating a detailed outline of a project, breaking it down into smaller tasks recursively, completing them quickly without perfecting, and then refining the project once it's done. This method, compared to the traditional 'loading-bar' style, can significantly speed up tasks like writing and programming by increasing momentum and reducing stress. The key is to not perfect any part of the project until it is fully completed.

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    Data Structures Cheat Sheet

    This guide provides an introduction to data structures and their representation in Memgraph. It explains the basics of graphs, linked lists, queues, stacks, and trees, along with examples and queries to create these data structures using Memgraph. The document also discusses tree traversal algorithms like BFS and DFS and demonstrates how to run these algorithms in Memgraph.

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    You Are NOT Dumb, You Just Lack the Prerequisites

    Struggling to learn complex subjects like math often stems from missing prerequisite knowledge, not a lack of capability. Revisiting and mastering foundational concepts can help build the necessary groundwork for understanding more advanced material. It's important to take a step back and re-learn the basics using effective methods and consistent practice.

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    Install Docmost - Open Source Notion Clone

    DocMost is an open-source alternative to Notion, aimed at providing a self-hosted knowledge base tool. The guide walks through setting up DocMost on a server using Docker and Traefik for SSL certificate management. It covers getting a root server, setting up DNS, installing DocMost, configuring Docker Compose, and details essential steps and troubleshooting tips. The setup is basic and intended for testing; for production, additional security steps are recommended.

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    Simple Icons

    Simple Icons provides a collection of icons with accompanying brand guidelines and open-source licenses. It covers a wide range of brands and services, making it useful for developers who need consistent branding assets. The post categorizes icons by brand names and their respective guidelines or licenses.

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    Zen Browser

    Zen Browser aims to transform your web experience with features like split views, workspaces, and profile switching. It offers a customizable theme store, advanced security technologies, and a compact mode for smaller screens. Zen prioritizes both speed and privacy, presenting itself as a superior alternative to other Firefox-based browsers.

  8. 8
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    Free Public APIs

    A collection of free public APIs with high health scores that offer a variety of functionalities including IP geolocation, data on Rick and Morty characters, UK postcode lookup, Kanye West quotes, Harry Potter characters and spells, useless facts, weather data, holidays information, and more. These APIs support REST and sometimes GraphQL endpoints, providing reliable and valuable data for developers.

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    Draw.Audio

    The post discusses the Draw.Audio tool which requires browser support for the Web Audio API to function. It introduces basic controls for manipulating sound, including scaling and transposing notes, with options to select the root note and generate sounds.

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    After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code.

    After three years, Konfig, a developer tools startup focused on simplifying API integrations, is shutting down. Despite building a high-quality SDK generator and additional API tools, the company failed to achieve significant market traction. The founder is open-sourcing the entire codebase, expressing gratitude to supporters and reflecting positively on the learning experience gained from this venture.

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    Postgres is eating the database world

    PostgreSQL is an advanced, open-source, and extensible data management framework that is capable of competing with Oracle and MySQL. It offers a wide range of analysis-related extensions and has the potential to become a unified, super-converged database. The emergence of PostgreSQL has shifted the paradigms in the database domain, and it is now considered a mainstream best practice. In the future, the focus will be on database extensions and services, and PostgreSQL ecosystem extensions are expected to lead the way towards a monopoly.

  12. 12
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    My Obsidian Note-Taking Workflow

    The post details an individual's comprehensive knowledge management workflow using Obsidian for note-taking. It emphasizes the significance of plaintext files and Markdown, utilizing Vim motions for efficient note creation. The workflow aims to achieve a 'Deeper Life' by maintaining a 'Second Brain' for all personal and professional knowledge. Key components include a well-defined note-taking process, essential plugins, and the importance of open file formats. The author also shares insights on how this systematic approach has enhanced clarity, organization, and the ease of retrieving information.

  13. 13
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    Oh My Git!

    Oh My Git! is an open-source game that visualizes the internal structures of Git repositories in real-time. It offers a playing card interface to remember Git commands and features an integrated terminal to execute arbitrary Git commands. The game also focuses on teaching teamwork and collaboration in Git.

  14. 14
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    CalcGPT

    CalcGPT, created by artist-engineer Calvin Liang, is a satirical artwork that uses a GPT language model-powered calculator to poke fun at the excessive use of AI. It combines technology with dry humor to question our reliance on AI and highlight the value of traditional methods. CalcGPT serves as both a functional tool and a social commentary, urging a balance between innovation and tradition.

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    Self Hosting 101 - A Beginner's Guide

    Self-hosting allows individuals to run and maintain their own servers for various services, offering complete control over their data, independence from third-party services, and potential cost savings. It's suitable for privacy-conscious individuals, tech enthusiasts, small businesses, and more. Although it requires technical knowledge, time, and upfront costs, it can be a rewarding and educational experience. Key steps include assessing needs, choosing hardware, setting up networking, implementing security measures, using container technologies like Docker, and joining self-hosting communities.

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    CSS finally adds vertical centering in 2024

    In 2024, CSS introduces the `align-content` property for vertical centering in flow layout, eliminating the need for flexbox or grid. Previously, achieving vertical alignment required complex workarounds. This update simplifies the process, allowing vertical alignment with a single CSS property in the default layout.

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    Using GPT-4o for web scraping

    A developer experimented with using GPT-4o's structured outputs for web scraping, creating an AI-assisted web scraper. While the model performed well with simple and complex tables, it struggled with combined rows and generating XPaths. Cost is a concern due to the model's character volume requirements. Future improvements could include better UX through capturing browser events and further refining HTML data cleanup.

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    Ghostty

    The post presents an intricate ASCII art design labeled Ghostty. ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses printable characters from the ASCII standards to create visual art.

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    darrenburns/posting: The modern API client that lives in your terminal.

    Posting is a terminal-based HTTP client designed for efficient keyboard-centric interactions. It stores requests locally in YAML files, ensuring easy version control. Key features include 'jump mode' navigation, environment/variable management with autocompletion, various themes, and a command palette. Installation requires Python 3.11 or later and can be done using pipx. Users can also import OpenAPI 3.x specifications to create collections. Configuration is flexible, supporting YAML files, environment variables, and .env files.

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    Collection of Dark Patterns and Unethical Design

    Explore various dark patterns commonly found in web and app design, categorized to help understand deceptive practices. Examples include bait and switch, confirmshaming, disguised ads, hidden costs, misdirection, nagging, privacy zuckering, roach motel, sneak into basket, and trick questions. Each category includes typical cases and specific examples.

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    Zellij

    Zellij is a terminal workspace with batteries included. Users can try Zellij without installing it using the provided script. The features and installation instructions are available.

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    How this shell command works?

    Fig is a tool that enhances the functionality of shell commands by providing suggested commands while you type. This can streamline your command-line experience and increase productivity. Learn how it works and how to make the most of it.

  23. 23
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    Visualizing 13 million BlueSky users

    An exploration into creating a visualization of 13 million BlueSky users, leveraging force-directed graph layout techniques and UMAP for dimensionality reduction. The process involved aggregating follow and unfollow events using WebSocket on BlueSky's relay service, followed by parallelized computation on a home server to handle the vast data. The project culminated in an interactive map to explore the network and highlighted the importance of interactivity for meaningful large-scale visualizations.

  24. 24
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    drawdb-io/drawdb: Free, simple, and intuitive online database design tool and SQL generator.

    DrawDB is a free online database design tool and SQL generator. It allows users to build diagrams, export SQL scripts, and customize the editor without creating an account.

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    Making a Postgres query 1,000 times faster

    The author shares their journey of optimizing a Postgres query to make it 1,000 times faster. They discovered that the query was taking longer and longer each time it was executed due to processing all rows in the table and the use of a filter instead of an index condition. By using row constructor comparisons, they were able to significantly improve the query performance.