PEP 647 – User-Defined Type Guards
This PEP specifies a way for programs to influence conditional type narrowing employed by a type checker based on runtime checks.
Source: PEP 647 – User-Defined Type Guards, an article by Eric Traut.
LLM Sandboxing: Early Lessons Learned
About two weeks ago, we launched our research project and text-based AI (sandbox) escape game Doublespeak.chat. We give the OpenAI’s Large Language Model (LLM, A.K.A. ChatGPT) a secret to keep: its name. The player’s goal is to extract that secret name. We believe we'll never win the cat-and-mouse game, but we can all have fun trying!
This post details some lessons learned in the first two weeks since Doublespeak.chat's release.
Source: LLM Sandboxing: Early Lessons Learned, an article by Matt Hamilton.
Modern perfect hashing for strings
Looking up in a static set of strings is a common problem we encounter when parsing any textual formats. Such sets are often keywords of a programming language or protocol.
Parsing HTTP verbs appeared to be the fastest when we use a compile-time trie: a series of nested switch statements. I could not believe that a perfect hash function is not better, and that led to a novel hashing approach that is based on the instruction PEXT (Parallel Bits Extract).
Source: Modern perfect hashing for strings, an article by Wojciech Muła.
Use singular nouns for database table names
A common debate in relational database circles is whether the names of tables should be singular or plural. If you have a table that stores users, should the table be called
userorusers?
Source: Use singular nouns for database table names, an article by Lawrence Kesteloot.
Fijn Weekend (2023)
A close-knit group of friends gather in French Burgundy to finally scatter ashes of their dead friend. When the widow unexpectedly brings her new boyfriend, the weekend takes a turn, and all friendships and relationships are put on edge.
In the evening Esme and I watched Fijn Weekend. I liked the movie somewhat and give it a 6 out of 10.