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Machine Learning and Data Science: Academia vs. Industry

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time8 min
Views75K

Machine Learning (ML) technologies are becoming increasingly popular and have various applications, ranging from smartphones and computers to large-scale enterprise infrastructure that serves billions of requests per day. Building ML tools, however, remains difficult today because there are no industry-wide standardised approaches to development. Many engineering students studying ML and Data Science must re-learn once they begin their careers. In this article, I've compiled a list of the top five problems that every ML specialist faces only on the job, highlighting the gap between university curriculum and real-world practice. 

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What’s in Store for pg_probackup 3

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time12 min
Views642

While pg_probackup 3 is still in the works and not yet available to the public, let’s dive into what’s new under the hood. There’s a lot to unpack — from a completely reimagined application architecture to long-awaited features and seamless integration with other tools. 

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Energomera CE6806P: Bridging Analog and Digital in Energy Metering

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time10 min
Views735

How did engineers in the past manage to measure electrical power without modern microchips and DSPs? This article explores the Energomera CE6806P, a device created in 2006 for verifying electricity meters, yet built using 1980s-era technology.

We’ll take a closer look at its design, principles of operation, and how discrete-analog solutions were used to achieve high accuracy. The Energomera is a fascinating example of engineering and ingenuity, giving us a unique perspective on the evolution of electrical measurement devices.

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PostgreSQL 18: Part 2 or CommitFest 2024-09

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time14 min
Views524


Statistically, September CommitFests feature the fewest commits. Apparently, the version 18 CommitFest is an outlier. There are many accepted patches and many interesting new features to talk about.


If you missed the July CommitFest, get up to speed here: 2024-07.

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The Links Theory 0.0.2

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time26 min
Views1.2K

This world needs a new theory — a theory that could describe all the theories on the planet. A theory that could easily describe philosophy, mathematics, physics, and psychology. The one that makes all kinds of sciences computable.

This is exactly what we are working on. If we succeed, this theory will become the unified meta-theory of everything.

A year has passed since our last publication, and our task is to share the progress with our English-speaking audience. This is still not a stable version; it’s a draft. Therefore, we welcome any feedback, as well as your participation in the development of the links theory.

As with everything we have done before, the links theory is published and released into the public domain — it belongs to humanity, that means, it is yours. This work has many authors, but the work itself is far more important than any specific authorship. We hope that today it can become useful to more people.

We invite you to become a part of this exciting adventure.

Witness the birth of meta-theory

ChatGPT-4: How to use it for free

Reading time3 min
Views5.7K

ChatGPT-4, the latest model from OpenAI, boasts impressive capabilities like text generation, question answering, problem-solving, coding, and even image analysis. However, accessing it requires a $20 monthly subscription on OpenAI's website. For residents of certain countries, accessing the service poses additional challenges due to restrictions, necessitating the use of foreign payment methods and VPNs.

We've created a list of the top-4 services that offer completely free access to ChatGPT-4. This article will delve into the advantages and limitations of each option, comparing them side-by-side.

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The Future of PostgreSQL: How a 64-bit Transaction Counter Solves Scaling Issues

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time5 min
Views545

For many years, the PostgreSQL community was skeptical about using this database management system (DBMS) for high-transaction environments. While PostgreSQL worked well for lab tests, mid-tier web applications, and smaller backend systems, it was believed that for heavy transactional loads, you’d need an expensive DBMS designed specifically for such purposes. As a result, PostgreSQL wasn’t particularly developed in that direction, leaving a range of issues unanswered.

However, the reality has turned out differently. More and more of our clients are encountering problems that stem from this mindset. For example, in the global PostgreSQL community, it’s considered that 64 cores is the maximum size of a server where PostgreSQL can run effectively. But we’re now seeing that this is becoming a minimum typical configuration. One particular bottleneck that has emerged is the transaction counter, and this is a far more interesting issue. So, let’s dive into what the problem is, how we solved it, and what the international community thinks about it.

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«Where, where have you gone», or searching for missing stations on public transport routes in OpenStreetMap

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time6 min
Views1.1K

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a global project formed around a geographic information database which is being filled by all comers — both enthusiasts and interested companies. Anybody can contribute, but the openness has its downside: incorrect edits often get into the database. Hence plenty of validators of OSM data have been written which allow to maintain the data quality at an acceptable level.

Since 2016 there exists an open source subway preprocessor that validates (generates error reports) rapid transit routes in OSM for completeness and logical/topological errors, and converts them into formats that are suitable for routing and rendering, e.g. GTFS. Besides OSM data it takes a list of public transport (PT) networks which contains the checking information about the number of lines, stations etc. per a PT network. The preprocessor has successfully proven itself in the preparation of PT data for applications such as Maps.me and Organic Maps.

In this article, I would like to share an approach to detecting one of the types of errors that occur quite often in OSM data and automatic detection of which is somewhat challenging. It's an accidental loss of a station from a route. The source code of the validator and the described algorithm are open source. But first, let's define the concepts used to represent PT data in OpenStreetMap.

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XML parsing into plain Map in Golang

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time4 min
Views3.6K

While in 2024 using XML looks a bit outdated, it still happens. And sometimes it happens we are to deal with XML having "free-structure", i.e. it couldn't be parsed into tree of user-defined structs. For JSON there still is a way to parse it with a single call into map[string]any and work with it using careful type assertions. Regretfully, there is no similar feature for XML (in Golang). Here I'll draft suitable function and demonstrate it - both for others and for myself if I ever need this again (recreating it from scratch may be somewhat painful).

Let's see implementation

Character Creation Assistance, a hobby ML project

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time8 min
Views1.8K

For one of my projects I was exploring Reddit to understand how players create characters in video games, what is important to them in this process, and what their preferences are. It turns out that communities sharing their creations or seeking help with specific character designs remain active even for games released years ago. This realization sparked the idea for a hobby project that could assist these players in creating the characters they envision.

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From Junior QA to Product Owner: My Growth Story at EXANTE

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time7 min
Views720

Hi, I’m Nastya, the Product Owner of EXANTE’s desktop and web trading terminals. I began working at the company nearly five years ago as a Junior QA Engineer. Since then, I’ve advanced to QA Lead and ultimately to Product Owner. In this article, I’d like to share my growth journey within the company and the steps that helped me progress. I hope that my story will be helpful to those seeking to advance their careers but are unsure where to start.

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A new platform for FPGA seminars based on Gowin Tang Nano 9K: adding sound, graphics and microarchitecture labs

Reading time3 min
Views1.9K

Gowin has clear advantages over Xilinx in the educational FPGA board market: Gowin boards are several times less expensive, the synthesis speed is several times faster, and the EDA package is two orders of magnitude smaller: we are talking about 1G versus 100G disk space. Of course, Xilinx is still the king of high-end prototyping boards that cost $10K-100K, but for the students such boards are irrelevant; such boards are for ASIC design companies. A beginning EE student needs a board for less than $100, and Gowin not only fits the bill but also covers all the needs, specifically:

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How to build and run calculator from Windows XP using GCC x64?

Level of difficultyHard
Reading time63 min
Views1.1K

Hi Everyone!

In this article we a little bit will analyze of code of Windows XP and will compile the calculator application using GCC x64 in Windows 10 environment. We will look what kind of errors I faced during the build and the methods how to solve them. At the end we will launch the build of the calc.exe application.

Have a nice reading!

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React Native Splash Screen — support for different themes

Reading time5 min
Views2K

Hi all! The dev.family team is in touch. In this article, we are sharing a short guide on how to install Splash Screen in a cross-platform app written in React Native with support for multiple themes.

Splash screen is the first screen that users see before loading into the main application. This screen is perhaps the best way to make the name of your app, and in general, its entire name, more memorable.

But this is not the main role of the splash screen. Under it, for example, you can hide receiving data from the API and loading the main application. We do this when we show the loader on the screen when loading the same data. This allows you to improve the UX and immediately demonstrate the finished application to the user. And as a result, remove the extra loader when opening it for the first time.

In this short guide, we will look at installing splash screens for iOS and Android using the react-native framework using the react-native-splash-screen library.

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What's New in Postgres Pro Enterprise 17: From Proxima to Intelligent Data Management

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time5 min
Views398

Postgres Pro Enterprise 17 introduces major improvements in performance and scalability. The key feature of this new release is the proxima extension, which combines connection pooling, proxying, and load balancing within the database core. Developers also gain improved tools for managing message queues, optimizing queries, enhancing security, and utilizing smart data storage. Want to know how these and other features can impact your applications and simplify database administration?

This article provides a brief overview of the release, accompanied by the links to more detailed information.

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How to bypass CAPTCHA the smart way: hybrid strategies for success

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time14 min
Views1.9K

Automation can be an exhilarating, albeit exhausting, journey‑especially for those just dipping their toes into it. The tasks are often labeled as “interesting” or “non‑standard,” which, let”s be honest, often translates to “challenging” or even “impossible.” Among these challenges, one question halts around 50% of novice automators in their tracks: How to bypass CAPTCHA!

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