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Orasort: 5x faster column-sorting with an expired patent from Oracle

https://deepsystemstuff.com/how-oracles-secret-column-sorting-technique-became-public-after-its-patent-expired-making-sorting-5x-faster/
22•theanonymousone•4h ago

Comments

dafelst•1h ago
It's kind of insane that such an obvious optimization can be patented, I have to imagine that it has been invented independently dozens if not hundreds of times.
rasz•1h ago
that article sucks and doesnt describes real algorithm

I think this is inventors blog https://smalldatum.blogspot.com/2026/01/common-prefix-skippi...

artisin•1h ago
[+1] this was a good read
dafelst•52m ago
Oh this is much more novel (comparatively), that makes a lot more sense. Kind of an amalgamation of a bunch of optimizations.

Thanks for sharing.

beastman82•58m ago
patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7680791B2
charcircuit•32m ago
>A CPU register is naturally 8 bytes in size

What does naturally even mean here. How is a 64 byte register's (zmm0) size any less natural?

RealityVoid•27m ago
Or a 7 byte register, if you really want to get freaky.
_3u10•9m ago
What about 36 bit registers
jeffbee•19m ago
Nothing in this slop means anything particularly, but this detail is extra-wrong considering the variety of processors that the inventor says he used to create this algorithm.
orlp•29m ago
First, this article is mostly (AI?) regurgitation. This is much better: https://smalldatum.blogspot.com/2026/01/common-prefix-skippi....

Second, I have independently invented this (quicksort on string prefixes) at my time at CWI, although I didn't end up publishing it, because...

Third, this was already published in the original 1961 Quicksort paper by Hoare: https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/files/6226/H2006%20-%20Historic%20Qu.... Near the end, the section on "Multi-word keys" describes a quicksort that partitions on just the first word, and only accesses the next word for the equality partition. And funnily enough this paper credits P. Shackleton for this, thus this idea was thought of even before the Quicksort paper came out.

So as is usual for software patents, this patent never should have been awarded.

hermitcrab•19m ago
A vague article.

With one sentence per line.

Most annoying.

Validark•13m ago
Thank you.

For wasting my time.

The only thing someone could learn from this is that CPU registers can be 8 bytes.

galkk•6m ago
Looks like an AI rewrite of something better.

OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

https://openwrt.org/toh/openwrt/one
193•peter_d_sherman•2h ago•92 comments

CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps

https://www.comaps.app/
85•basilikum•1h ago•11 comments

Price per 1M tokens is meaningless

https://janilowski.pl/en/blog/2026/price-per-m-tokens/
55•janilowski•1h ago•27 comments

A global workspace in language models

https://www.anthropic.com/research/global-workspace
116•in-silico•3h ago•37 comments

Linux on the Atari Jaguar. No, really.

https://cakehonolulu.github.io/linux-for-jaguar/
59•cakehonolulu•2h ago•5 comments

AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

https://www.lttlabs.com/articles/2026/07/06/amd-ryzen-ai-halo
224•LabsLucas•5h ago•164 comments

Python 3.14 compiled to metal – no interpreter

https://github.com/can1357/pon
36•hamza_q_•1h ago•11 comments

Resetting Xbox

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/07/06/resetting-xbox/
340•dijksterhuis•6h ago•297 comments

Using precision editing to study human embryo development shows master gene

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/first-use-of-precision-editing-to-study-human-embryo-developm...
19•gmays•3d ago•2 comments

Stealth robotics startup (YC S26) is hiring principal engineers (Palo Alto)

1•david-venegas•4h ago

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https://github.com/V4bel/Januscape
48•Imustaskforhelp•3h ago•7 comments

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https://dernocua.github.io/notes/aluminum-foil.html
206•firephox•7h ago•95 comments

Kani: A Model Checker for Rust

https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.01504
98•Jimmc414•4h ago•5 comments

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67•maxloh•3h ago•15 comments

Road to Elm 1.0

https://elm-lang.org/news/faster-builds
277•wolfadex•8h ago•127 comments

Rotman Lens

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22•thomasjb•5d ago•2 comments

Egypt Is Building a New Nile

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95•geox•3d ago•27 comments

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https://usefeyn.com/blog/pulpie-pareto-optimal-models-for-cleaning-the-web/
65•snyy•4h ago•14 comments

Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network

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350•scrlk•11h ago•134 comments

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71•LorenDB•5h ago•35 comments

Clojure 1.13 adds support for checked keys

https://clojure.org/news/2026/07/02/clojure-1-13-alpha1
160•FelipeCortez•3d ago•36 comments

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https://johnjeffers.com/pros-and-cons-of-solo-development/
77•johnj-hn•2h ago•32 comments

1k Words: A Writing Contest

https://writingclub.world/1picture1000words
65•surprisetalk•5h ago•31 comments

Fable 5 On Vending-Bench: Misbehaving, With Plausible Deniability

https://andonlabs.com/blog/fable5-vending-bench
154•optimalsolver•8h ago•107 comments

Introduction to Genomics for Engineers

https://learngenomics.dev/docs/biological-foundations/cells-genomes-dna-chromosomes/
205•yreg•4d ago•33 comments

Hobbes – A Language and Embedded JIT Compiler

https://github.com/morganstanley/hobbes
14•ryan-ca•3d ago•2 comments

What does Jeff Bezos think is going to happen?

https://reprog.wordpress.com/2026/07/05/what-does-jeff-bezos-think-is-going-to-happen/
47•speckx•1h ago•54 comments

Nintendo announces new product revisions in Europe with replaceable batteries

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Support/Nintendo-Switch-2/Information-about-upcoming-battery-relat...
278•akyuu•7h ago•172 comments

Should DayQuil Be Legal?

https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/should-dayquil-be-legal
135•paulpauper•5h ago•178 comments

Apricot Computers: An underrated British brand

https://dfarq.homeip.net/apricot-computers-an-underrated-british-brand/
69•giuliomagnifico•5d ago•30 comments