The hottest Software Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Unity, divided

SuperJoost Playlist • 297 implied HN points • 14 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Gaming Software Mobile Market Trends
  1. Roblox CEO emphasizes platform as a tool for communication and connection, amidst controversy and legal concerns.
  2. Unity's new fee structure based on installs sparks outrage among game developers, especially affecting smaller studios.
  3. Apple enhances high-end gaming on new iPhones, attracting popular franchises to mobile and competing with console versions.

NeoDesk, the Desktop Alternative for the Atari ST

Goto 10: The Newsletter for Atari Enthusiasts • 137 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Operating System Hardware
  1. NeoDesk was a desktop alternative for the Atari ST with enhanced features and better functionality.
  2. Key features of NeoDesk included improved memory usage, custom app icons, better window handling, and desktop background picture.
  3. NeoDesk versions like 3 and 4 continued to enhance functionality with features like low-resolution support, draggable dialog boxes, and drag-and-drop file launching.

Your Chatbot has Arrived

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 99 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Chatbots Software Innovation Startups
  1. A new chatbot named KRUTRIM by Ola was launched in public beta. It aims to improve as feedback is gathered from users.
  2. The founder believes this chatbot will have fewer errors in Indian contexts compared to global platforms. They are committed to fixing any issues that arise.
  3. User feedback is encouraged to help make the chatbot better over time, highlighting the importance placed on community input.

Who Runs the World?

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 99 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Computing AI Software Hardware Data
  1. NVIDIA is a major player in the tech industry, affecting many computer companies worldwide. They've made big strides in both hardware and software for computing and AI.
  2. The company's recent financial success is impressive, with revenue growing significantly compared to last year. This shows that more businesses and industries are adopting their technology.
  3. NVIDIA's growth signals a shift to a new era in computing. Many experts believe we are entering a transformative phase in technology.

SBOM Management

Resilient Cyber • 159 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Software Risk management Vulnerability Management Incident Management
  1. SBOMs, or Software Bill of Materials, list components of software products. They help organizations know what parts make up their software, which is important for security.
  2. The NSA offers guidelines for managing SBOMs, emphasizing the need for both software suppliers and consumers to take security seriously. Suppliers should be transparent and accountable, while consumers should ensure their suppliers follow good security practices.
  3. Organizations need effective SBOM tools that can manage and analyze software components, detect vulnerabilities, and facilitate easy reporting. These tools should also be user-friendly to help teams work efficiently.
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If It Fits, Gemma Sits 💎

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 99 implied HN points • 23 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Open Source Cloud Computing Innovation
  1. Google has integrated its new model, Gemini, into Google Workspace, showing its focus on developing AI tools for users.
  2. While Google has released a model called Gemma, it is not truly open-source, which raises questions about its commitment to the open-source community.
  3. This year, Google is heavily promoting its Gemini brand, including recent updates and changes to its existing AI products like Bard.

How Rust and Python manage memory

VuTrinh. • 119 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Data Engineering Memory management System Design
  1. Rust uses ownership to manage memory, meaning each value has a single owner. When that owner goes out of scope, the memory gets freed automatically.
  2. Python uses a garbage collector to handle memory which counts how many references point to an object. Once there are no references left, it cleans up the unused memory.
  3. Rust's approach gives developers more control but requires them to understand ownership rules, while Python's method is easier for beginners but can slow down performance.

AI Roundup 092: Watermarking the AI wave

Artificial Ignorance • 29 implied HN points • 08 Nov 24
🕹 Technology AI Geopolitics Software Security Innovation
  1. Google DeepMind created a system called SynthID-Text to watermark AI-generated text, but it's not foolproof and can be easily bypassed.
  2. Major AI companies are partnering with US defense agencies, showing a shift towards military applications in AI, despite earlier hesitations in Silicon Valley.
  3. Amazon's Alexa platform has had mixed success over ten years, mainly being used for basic tasks, but new AI advancements could improve its functionality.

Edge 437: Inside BlackMamba, One of the Most Important SSM Models Ever Created

TheSequence • 112 implied HN points • 08 Oct 24
🕹 Technology AI Machine Learning Software Engineering Startups
  1. BlackMamba combines two powerful AI techniques: mixture-of-experts (MoEs) and state space models (SSMs). This helps it process long sequences and solve various AI tasks more effectively.
  2. The Mamba SSM is known for its efficiency, and BlackMamba builds on that strength while improving performance with MoE strategies.
  3. The creator is starting a new company focused on AI evaluation and benchmarking, looking for team members with expertise in these areas.

Under the microscope: Iron Man / X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal

Rings of Saturn • 14 implied HN points • 11 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Gaming Software Development Cheat Codes Game design
  1. The game Iron Man / X-O Manowar for Saturn has cheat codes that can give players cool powers, like invincibility and unlimited weapons.
  2. There are special sequences you can enter when the game is paused to unlock fun features, like showing the development team photo or making Iron Man tiny.
  3. Players can also access a cheat menu that lets them skip levels and change their character, making the game more exciting.

Extending the demo: The House of the Dead

Rings of Saturn • 29 implied HN points • 31 Oct 24
🕹 Technology Gaming Software Development Hardware
  1. The House of the Dead demo lets you play part of the first chapter, but there's a way to patch it to access more content.
  2. Playing the patched demo reveals differences between it and the final game, such as graphics and enemy designs.
  3. With some coding tricks, you can also get infinite health and access menu options in the demo, making gameplay more fun.

The Fastest Way to Run a Typescript Script, with Flags

Jake [Building in NYC] • 59 implied HN points • 15 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Software Programming Development Web Tools Open Source
  1. Bun is a simple tool for running Typescript scripts directly, making the process easy.
  2. You can add runtime flags to your scripts using the 'arg' package, allowing for inputs when the script runs.
  3. The setup involves creating a project directory, installing Bun and 'arg', and then running your code easily with flags.

Troubleshooting 101: Possibility Spaces and Proxies

Load-bearing Tomato • 5 implied HN points • 10 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Engineering Networking Troubleshooting Software Protocols
  1. When facing a problem, break it down into smaller pieces to see what might be causing it. This way, you can quickly rule out big areas and find the real issue.
  2. Always remember that tools and data can sometimes be misleading. It's important to check the real situation and not just trust what you see on the screen.
  3. Keep track of what you've already validated in your troubleshooting process. Rechecking things that are already confirmed can waste a lot of time.

Singh & Sins of AI 💦

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 99 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Open Source Software Data science Machine Learning
  1. The Indian AI scene is growing, with many new language models being developed based on Meta's Llama 2. This shows a collaborative spirit in the open-source community.
  2. There are specific models being made for different Indian languages like Kannada, Telugu, Odia, and Tamil. These models help in making AI more accessible to people speaking these languages.
  3. There is a strong need for India to create its own unique open-source AI model. This would allow other developers to build on it rather than relying on external sources.

OpenAI Agent Query Planning Using LlamaIndex

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 99 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Machine Learning Data science Programming
  1. An OpenAI agent can analyze information from multiple documents at once. This helps create detailed answers to queries based on several sources.
  2. Using the LlamaIndex framework, you can easily set up a system to manage and query PDF documents. This makes finding specific data more efficient.
  3. The agent can summarize financial data, showing how companies like Uber grow revenue over time. This is helpful for understanding trends in business performance.

#93

The Nibble • 4 implied HN points • 13 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Software AI Web Development Crypto Mobile Apps
  1. Meta plans to adopt a less strict approach, promoting more political content like Twitter, aiming for a more open community environment.
  2. Salesforce will not hire more software engineers in 2025 due to increased productivity from AI tools, suggesting a shift in tech job dynamics.
  3. React has added a new feature called <ViewTransition> to improve how elements transition in the user interface, making updates smoother.

✨ Building a Modern Constellation Software

Overlooked by Alexandre Dewez • 196 implied HN points • 17 Apr 23
💼 Business Venture Capital Software Acquisitions Entrepreneurship
  1. The world has changed since the inception of Constellation Software in 1995.
  2. A new player cannot directly compete with Constellation Software's acquisition strategies and existing relationships.
  3. Building a modern software conglomerate would require focusing on growth, quality, and building synergies rather than mimicking Constellation Software's exact model.

Resilient Cyber Newsletter #3

Resilient Cyber • 19 implied HN points • 02 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Software Cloud Security AI Security Open Source
  1. There is no clear standard for 'reasonable' cybersecurity in the U.S., making it hard to hold organizations accountable for data breaches. This means it's important to define what basic security should look like.
  2. The role of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) is evolving and there's discussion about possibly splitting their responsibilities. However, many believe that a strong CISO needs both technical skills and business understanding to be effective.
  3. Supply chain attacks are growing and affecting numerous organizations and open-source projects. This highlights the need for better security practices since many important projects are maintained by volunteers and are often under-resourced.

LangGraph Cloud

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 02 Jul 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Development Cloud Computing NLP
  1. LangGraph Cloud is a new service that helps developers easily deploy and manage their LangGraph applications online.
  2. Agent applications can handle complex tasks automatically and use large language models to work efficiently, but they face challenges like high costs and the need for better control.
  3. LangGraph Studio provides a visual way to see how code flows in applications, helping users understand and debug their work without changing any code.

Abstraction, Gentleman's Agreement, Buying Software Once

Austin's Analects • 59 implied HN points • 04 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Software Podcasts Subscription Models Abstraction AI
  1. Abstraction makes complex tasks appear simple for users, like starting a car with a key despite the intricate workings behind the scenes.
  2. Utilizing a 'Gentleman's Agreement' can boost subscriptions, as seen in podcast strategies like MFM's approach.
  3. Exploring the concept of buying software once as a contrast to subscription-based models, promoting simplicity and cost-consciousness.

Weekly Notes

Rethinking Software • 99 implied HN points • 07 Oct 24
🕹 Technology Software Remote work Management Collaboration Innovation
  1. Different voting strategies can impact both worker democracies and government systems. It’s interesting to see how this science is evolving, especially in companies without managers.
  2. Nature has unique ways of organizing itself which can inspire how we think about teamwork and collaboration. Reading about these ideas can spark new ways of working.
  3. Management often sticks to the status quo with common excuses. It's important to question these justifications to improve work and foster innovation.

Engineering teams are like ADHD brains

peoplefirstengineering • 17 implied HN points • 27 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Software Management Team Dynamics Productivity
  1. Engineering teams have high cognitive load, just like ADHD brains. Both need to manage a lot of information at once, which can be overwhelming.
  2. Interruptions can hurt focus for both ADHD individuals and engineering teams. Managing distractions is crucial for getting work done effectively.
  3. Breaking down tasks helps both ADHD individuals and engineers. Smaller tasks make big projects feel less overwhelming and more manageable.

Concept design in three easy steps

Subconscious • 711 implied HN points • 19 May 23
🕹 Technology Design Software Apps Concepts Engineering
  1. View software design as shaping functionality, understand what it should do first before how it does it or how it looks.
  2. Break down app functionalities into modular concepts, each with its own behavior and actions, combine existing concepts creatively.
  3. Design concepts to function independently, sync actions to ensure smooth interaction, focus on how concepts fit together to improve usability.

Can AI Speed up your Code?

Daniel’s Substack • 3 HN points • 03 Sep 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Programming Development Performance
  1. AI can write a lot of code quickly, but it often makes mistakes. So, it's not ready to fully replace human programmers yet.
  2. Converting Python code to C++ can make it run much faster, especially for tasks that involve heavy string processing.
  3. While AI can assist in code conversion, current tools have limitations and sometimes struggle with complex functions.

The Sequence Chat: Why Transformers are the Best Thing that Ever Happened to NVIDIA

TheSequence • 84 implied HN points • 21 Oct 24
🕹 Technology AI Hardware Data Software Market Trends
  1. Transformers are special because they can learn from a lot of data without hitting a limit. This helps improve AI performance.
  2. NVIDIA has been able to fine-tune its hardware thanks to the widespread use of transformers in AI. This gives them a market edge.
  3. Most advanced transformer models rely on NVIDIA GPUs for their computing needs. This creates a strong connection between transformers and NVIDIA's success.

📽 Webinar: Building AI Agents with Fine-tuned SLMs

TheSequence • 35 implied HN points • 20 Jan 25
🕹 Technology AI Webinars Business Software Performance
  1. The webinar will showcase how Marsh McLennan used AI agents to improve their business, saving a lot of time and effort for their staff.
  2. Participants will learn about different ways to enhance AI performance and how to achieve better accuracy with specialized models.
  3. The session will also include tips on scaling AI solutions and a live demonstration of the tools in action.

The truth is out there

benn.substack • 511 implied HN points • 12 May 23
🕹 Technology AI Data Analysis Computers Software
  1. Computers can approach problems in ways humans can't, like Deep Blue's moves in chess.
  2. AI progress often comes from scaling computation by search and learning, not by mimicking human reasoning.
  3. Considering new approaches that leverage computation over human knowledge could help solve complex problems like pricing optimization.

Receipt, Please

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 79 implied HN points • 21 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Gadgets Innovation Consumer Tech Software User Experience
  1. Many people are returning the Apple Vision Pro headset soon after buying it, citing discomfort. However, most returns are coming from YouTubers who likely intended to return it all along.
  2. The return rate for the Vision Pro isn't as high as it seems, even with media attention on the complaints. This suggests many buyers are satisfied with the product.
  3. Apple has been working on the Vision Pro for about ten years, and they're committed to changing how we interact with technology.

Do Not Spend too Much Time "Getting Good" at Dealing with Current AML GPT LLMs

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 169 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Data science Internet Software
  1. It's uncertain how current AML GPT LLMs will be most useful in the future, so spending too much time trying to master them may not be the best approach.
  2. Proper prompting is crucial when working with AML GPT LLMs as they can be capable of more than initially apparent. Good prompts can make tasks that seem impossible into achievable ones.
  3. Understanding the thought processes and effective way to prompt AML GPT LLMs is essential, as their responses can vary based on subtle changes or inadequate prompting.

On writing software...

Development Hell • 177 implied HN points • 29 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Software
  1. Writing software may be seen as boring, but it is necessary.
  2. Before starting a new screenplay, consider exploring alternatives beyond Final Draft.
  3. Subscribing to Development Hell offers access to additional posts and a 7-day free trial.

Of Napoleon and Kafka: A (Brief) Genealogy of Power, Part Three

Earthly Fortunes • 176 implied HN points • 20 May 23
🕹 Technology Software Organization Productivity Hierarchy Bureaucracy
  1. In the past, power shifted from the church to civil services during the Industrial and French Revolutions.
  2. Napoleon revolutionized modern warfare and governance by implementing structured hierarchies, rules, and specialist roles.
  3. Software companies today mirror bureaucratic structures with defined hierarchies, rules, and organizational processes.