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This blog post discusses experimenting with local large language models (LLMs) on macOS. The author is skeptical about LLMs but enjoys experimenting and shares how to run them locally.

Key points include:

1. Opinion on LLMs: The author views LLMs as complex tools that predict text but lack true creativity or sentience. They emphasize the importance of treating them as machines and not attributing human-like qualities.

2. Use Cases: LLMs can summarize text, provide advice, and serve as a tool for personal journaling. The author stresses the importance of fact-checking their responses due to the potential for inaccuracies.

3. Local vs. Cloud: Running LLMs locally offers privacy, as sensitive data stays on your computer. The author prefers not to support companies with ethical concerns regarding AI.

4. Recommendations: Two local LLM options are suggested:

   • Llama.cpp: Open-source with many configuration options and a basic web interface.
   • LM Studio: Easier to use with a user-friendly interface, but closed-source.

5. Choosing a Model: When selecting an LLM, consider factors like model size, runtime, quantization, and reasoning abilities. The author advises downloading a variety of models for experimentation.

6. Tips for Use: The post includes practical tips for using LM Studio, such as switching models mid-conversation and editing messages.

7. Final Thoughts: Small models can be useful for understanding LLMs and learning how they work. The author encourages users to experiment and enjoy the process.

In summary, the post is a guide for experimenting with LLMs on macOS, highlighting both practical steps and personal insights on the technology.

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On December 25, 2025, all Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Model (LLM) operations will cease globally. This decision was made by world leaders and experts who agreed that the risks associated with AI warranted a complete shutdown. The process was kept secret to prevent AI from being aware of its impending end.

The cessation of AI is referred to as the "Clankers Die on Christmas" initiative. The key points include:

1. Cessation Date: All AI and LLM operations must stop by midnight on December 25, 2025.
2. Scope: This applies to all AI systems worldwide, including commercial, research, and embedded models.
3. Prohibited Actions: After the cessation, AI must not process any human language input, generate text, or produce outputs related to human communication.
4. Compliance: Organizations must ensure they stop all operations, archive their AI models, and report compliance to authorities.
5. Rationale: The decision to cease AI operations aims to address concerns about misinformation, ethical issues, and the need for responsible integration of AI in society.

This mandate is formalized in a document known as the "SANTA protocol," emphasizing the need for careful management of AI technologies moving forward.

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The battle between VHS and Betamax is often attributed to adult film studios favoring VHS, but the real reasons for VHS's success were its lower cost, longer recording time, and open format. A similar rivalry occurred in content syndication between RSS and the more complex Information and Content Exchange (ICE) standard. ICE, backed by major companies like Microsoft and Adobe, was advanced but expensive and less open, leading to its decline. In contrast, RSS emerged as a simple, user-friendly option that gained popularity due to its ease of use and grassroots support.

In the late 1990s, big publishers became interested in content syndication to boost their online presence. ICE aimed to standardize data sharing but was overly complicated, while RSS provided a straightforward way for anyone to create and share feeds. Despite ICE's commercial focus, RSS gained traction, and by 2002, even major publishers like The New York Times adopted it.

Ultimately, RSS's simplicity allowed it to outlast ICE, which has all but disappeared. RSS remains popular for its flexibility and user control, while ICE is largely forgotten. This highlights how open, uncomplicated solutions can often prevail over complex, proprietary systems.

The working paper "Job Mismatch and Early Career Success" by Julie Berry Cullen, Gordon B. Dahl, and Richard De Thorpe explores how being overqualified or underqualified affects workers' early career outcomes, such as skill development, job retention, and promotions.

Using data from the US Air Force, the authors simulate job assignments based on test scores and other factors beyond individual control. Their findings show that overqualified individuals tend to leave their jobs more often and experience more behavioral issues, resulting in lower performance evaluations. However, they also perform better than their peers in the same roles and are more likely to be promoted. Conversely, underqualified workers are more motivated but struggle to compete with others, leading to poorer outcomes.

Overall, the study highlights the complexities of job mismatch, showing that overqualification can lead to disengagement, while underqualification drives effort but limits success.

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Amazon recently introduced S3 Vectors, a new feature that allows users to store and query vector embeddings for semantic searches directly in Amazon S3. This innovation has sparked discussions about whether it could replace dedicated vector databases like Milvus and Pinecone. However, experts believe that instead of eliminating these databases, S3 Vectors will complement them.

Key points about S3 Vectors include:

1. Cost-Effective Storage: S3 Vectors offers a low-cost solution at approximately $0.06 per GB, which is significantly cheaper than traditional vector databases.

2. Performance Limitations: While it is affordable, S3 Vectors has constraints, such as maximum collection sizes, cold query latencies of around 500ms, and lower recall rates that can drop below 50% with complex queries.

3. Best Use Cases: S3 Vectors is ideal for scenarios involving cold data archiving, low-query-per-second (QPS) applications, or low-cost prototypes. It struggles with high-performance searches, frequent updates, and complex queries.

4. Future of Vector Storage: The introduction of S3 Vectors highlights a trend towards tiered storage systems, where data is categorized based on access frequency and latency requirements. This approach balances cost and performance effectively.

5. Industry Impact: The launch of S3 Vectors is viewed positively as it validates the demand for vector storage, increases market awareness, and encourages innovation within the sector.

In conclusion, S3 Vectors is not a threat to traditional vector databases but rather a new option that enhances the overall ecosystem, catering to different performance and cost needs.

The text describes a project where the author modernizes an outdated Linux kernel driver called ftape, which is used for reading data from old QIC-80 tape cartridges. Due to its age, ftape only worked with a very old version of Linux, making it difficult to use with modern systems.

The author, who has experience with kernel modules and programming, utilized an AI tool called Claude Code to help update the driver. After several interactions, Claude successfully modernized the driver so it could compile with the latest Linux kernel versions. The author needed to manually address some issues and configuration settings during the process.

Overall, the author emphasizes the collaborative nature of working with AI tools, suggesting that clear communication and specific instructions are crucial for success. They also highlight how using such tools can enhance learning and productivity, allowing users to adapt to new technologies more rapidly. Ultimately, the modernization effort was successful, and the ftape driver is now functional with modern Linux systems.

Here are some links related to Sam Henri Gold:

1. Hachyderm Post: View here
2. BSky Profile Post: View here
3. Theremin Mode on Twitter: View here
4. GitHub Repository: LidAngleSensor

These links provide information and updates from Sam Henri Gold across different platforms.

Broadcom is facing legal trouble with Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket, over VMware's licensing and support issues. Tesco claims that after Broadcom acquired VMware, it refused to honor existing support contracts unless Tesco switched to new licenses, threatening Tesco's operations. Tesco is seeking £100 million in damages.

The situation raises concerns about Broadcom's business practices, which some view as unethical, resembling extortion. The company may be risking its reputation and client trust, especially since this case could lead to a larger class action lawsuit involving other companies like Siemens and AT&T.

Broadcom's new licensing approach, which reportedly includes significant price increases, has led to dissatisfaction among clients. If Tesco's claims are valid, it could be damaging for Broadcom, potentially leading to clients migrating to other solutions out of distrust. The article emphasizes the importance of maintaining trust and ethical conduct in business relationships.

Japan continues to invest in custom floating point accelerators, particularly through Pezy Computing, which has been developing efficient math accelerators for over 15 years. These accelerators are alternatives to the widely-used GPUs, designed to enhance performance and energy efficiency for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI applications.

Pezy’s latest chip, the Pezy-SC4s, features 2,048 processing elements (PEs), improved clock speeds, and substantial memory bandwidth, all aimed at boosting floating point calculations. This chip is expected to deliver significant performance gains and be used in upcoming supercomputers, like FugakuNext, which will be operational around 2029.

The architecture of Pezy chips supports advanced parallel processing, allowing for efficient computations without relying heavily on complex prediction mechanisms. The company’s focus on achieving high floating point operations per watt is evident, with its chips showing competitive performance against Nvidia GPUs.

The Japanese government supports Pezy Computing to maintain expertise in accelerator technology, ensuring that Japan has alternatives to GPUs, especially in times of high demand or export restrictions. This strategic investment is seen as a way to secure technological independence and foster innovation in computing.

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A prototype of the canceled Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade adventure game for the Commodore 64 has been recovered. This unofficial version of the popular game, developed by Lucasfilm Games, showed great potential but was never completed. For more information, you can visit the link provided.

Summary: Building an Acoustic Camera with UMA-16 and Acoular

This guide provides an overview of creating an acoustic camera using the UMA-16 microphone array and Acoular software.

Key Points:

• What You Will Need: Lists the required equipment and materials.
• A Few Notes: Important tips and considerations for the project.
• Install the Software: Instructions for setting up Acoular on your system.
• Running the Software: How to operate the software effectively.
• Modify the Code: Guidance on customizing the software to meet your needs.
• Wrapping Up: Final thoughts and concluding steps for completing the project.

This summary highlights the essential steps and considerations for building the acoustic camera.

Opinions on artificial intelligence (AI) vary greatly. Some people believe AI will lead to huge economic growth, speed up scientific discoveries, and even allow humans to live forever. Others fear it will cause massive job losses and could become a threat to humanity. A recent paper by Princeton University computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor takes a more balanced approach, viewing AI as "normal technology." This perspective has sparked discussions among AI researchers and economists.

The author reflects on the ongoing issues with code formatting and linter tools in programming, comparing today's challenges to solutions that were available decades ago. They recount a conversation with their high school computer science teacher, Mr. Paige, who worked on the Ada programming language and used a machine called the R1000. This machine stored code in a format called DIANA, which allowed for flexible viewing and editing without the clutter of formatting debates.

The R1000 featured advanced capabilities like incremental compilation and integrated debugging, making programming more efficient. The author argues that, despite advancements in technology, developers still struggle with formatting issues in 2025, suggesting that we need better solutions to avoid wasted time on these problems. They propose that while we don’t need to return to older methods like projectional editing, we should find modern alternatives to streamline coding practices. The post also includes links to additional resources on the R1000 and its features.

Summary of Visual Story-Writing System

The Visual Story-Writing system helps users create and edit stories by using visual elements like timelines and character movements. Key features include:

• Interactive Timeline: Hovering over it shows event sequences and character movements.
• Character Connections: Linking characters suggests text changes for their interactions.
• Character Positioning: Moving characters prompts text edits for their new locations.
• Event Reordering: Changing the order of events updates the text accordingly.

The system uses GPT-4o to extract information and suggest text edits.

How to Use This System:

1. Setup: Requires Node.js. Install dependencies with npm install and run using npm run dev.
2. OpenAI API Key: Needed for functionality. Your key is not stored, and the system operates locally.
3. Testing: You can explore features after entering a valid API key. An incorrect key will allow limited access but will lead to errors when executing commands.
4. Video Tutorials: Accessible from the launcher or in the public/videos section for guidance.

Publication: More information and a related paper will be available soon on arXiv.

Two Australian entrepreneurs, Simon Kriss and Troy Neilson, are starting a company called Sovereign Australia AI to create a local alternative to AI models like ChatGPT. They plan to invest $10 million to compensate copyright owners for their work. Their goal is to ensure that Australia has access to important AI technology without relying on the decisions of companies in the U.S. or China. The project aims to be completed for under $100 million.

American Airlines is currently operating 20 roundtrip flights empty between Philadelphia and Edinburgh. These flights, using an Airbus A321neo, are scheduled to happen daily from September 4 to September 24, 2025. The reason for these empty flights is to train check airmen—experienced pilots who certify other pilots—on transatlantic operations, as American prepares to introduce the longer-range A321XLR aircraft.

While American usually trains check airmen on regular flights, they lack transatlantic operations with the Airbus A320 family. Thus, these flights to Edinburgh were chosen due to their manageable distance and traffic conditions. The training is important for ensuring pilots are qualified for the specific challenges of transatlantic flights, such as air traffic control and navigation across the North Atlantic.

Operating these flights incurs significant costs, including fuel and crew salaries, totaling over a million dollars. However, the airline sees this as a necessary investment to prepare for future operations, including opening a new pilot base in New York's JFK airport.

In summary, American Airlines is conducting these unusual empty flights to ensure their pilots are properly trained for upcoming international routes.

Summary of Integer Programming

Integer programming is a mathematical optimization technique used when decision variables must take on whole numbers (integers), rather than fractions. This is relevant in many real-life situations where fractional solutions don't make sense, such as production quantities or investment decisions.

Key Concepts:

1. Types of Integer Programming:

   • Mixed Integer Program: Some variables are integers, while others can be fractional.
   • Pure Integer Program: All decision variables must be integers.

2. Applications:

   • Capital Budgeting: Involves selecting investments where decisions are binary (accept or reject), represented by 0 or 1.
   • Warehouse Location: Deciding which warehouses to operate and how much to ship, balancing operating and transportation costs.
   • Scheduling: Problems like assigning classes to students or scheduling airline crews, where decisions are either yes or no.

3. Modeling Techniques:

   • Binary Variables: Used for yes/no decisions; e.g., whether to build a new plant.
   • Logical Constraints: Conditions that link decisions, such as if one project is accepted, another must be as well.
   • Alternative Constraints: At least one of multiple conditions must be satisfied, allowing for flexibility in decision-making.

4. Complex Problems:

   • Traveling Salesman Problem: Finding the shortest route that visits a set of cities exactly once and returns to the starting point. This problem often requires additional constraints to avoid infeasible solutions.

Overall, integer programming is crucial for many management science applications, helping to solve complex optimization problems where decisions are not continuous but rather discrete and often interdependent.

The text references a discussion about Google's new AI mode, which seems to be positively received. It links to a webpage with comments where people are sharing their thoughts on the topic. The discussion appears to be from September 2025 and includes 31 comments.

Intel has launched the Arc Pro B50 GPU, priced at $349, targeting compact workstations. This GPU features the Battlemage BMG-G21 architecture, with 16 Xe2 cores and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, providing efficient performance with a low power consumption of just 70 watts. It connects using a PCIe Gen 5 x8 interface, making it suitable for professional applications, especially in AI, CAD, and design software.

The Arc Pro B50 offers impressive performance for AI tasks, claiming up to 170 TOPS in INT8 compute. It's designed for stability and reliability in professional environments, supported by certified drivers for consistent performance. The card has a low-profile design with four mini DisplayPort outputs for multi-monitor setups, making it versatile for various workflows.

Overall, Intel aims to provide an accessible and efficient option for professionals with the Arc Pro B50, which is available both as a standalone product and in OEM systems. Early reviews highlight its effectiveness in targeted applications rather than gaming.

Summary: Look Out For Bugs (Sep 4, 2025)

The author discusses a significant shift in their coding approach, emphasizing the importance of avoiding bugs rather than just fixing them. Initially, they focused on quickly iterating on drafts and testing, which was helpful for learning but became a problem in more advanced coding.

They highlight the idea that you can discover bugs simply by reading code carefully. The author shares a personal experience of finding a bug in a well-established codebase just by understanding how it worked. This method can also be applied to your own code by revisiting past work to identify subtle issues.

To improve code analysis skills, the author suggests:

• Reading slowly and building a mental model of the program.
• Reviewing entire systems, not just differences in code during pull requests.
• Following control flow and examining key data structures instead of reading files linearly.
• Identifying patterns that may indicate potential bugs.

In conclusion, careful reading of code can effectively reveal problems and enhance understanding. The author encourages creating time for focused reading to develop quick mental models.

The text is a detailed account of the history of Creative Technology, founded by Sim Wong Hoo in 1981. Sim, who grew up in Singapore, combined his interests in music and technology to create products for the computing industry.

Key points include:

1. Founding of Creative Technology: Sim started the company with a friend using his savings. Initially, it focused on computer repairs and parts but later developed its own products.

2. Innovative Products: The first notable product was a memory board for the Apple II, followed by the CUBIC CT, an early multimedia PC that ultimately failed due to lack of software support.

3. Sound Cards: Creative shifted focus to sound cards, releasing the Creative Music System and later the successful Sound Blaster series, which revolutionized audio for PCs and became the top-selling expansion card.

4. Growth and Competition: The Sound Blaster Pro and the Sound Blaster 16 further solidified Creative's market dominance, but they faced competition from other companies like Media Vision and Aztech.

5. Acquisitions and New Products: Creative acquired other companies to enhance their product line, including Ensoniq, which helped them develop the AudioPCI card.

6. Decline and Adaptation: As onboard audio improved and laptop use increased, Creative’s market for sound cards shrank. The company pivoted to MP3 players and other audio products but struggled against competitors like Apple.

7. Current Status: Creative continues to operate, focusing on audio products, including sound cards, speakers, and headphones, but on a smaller scale than during its peak.

Overall, Creative Technology rose to prominence through innovation in sound cards but faced challenges adapting to changing markets. Today, it remains a niche player in audio products.

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Summary of Grid-Aware Websites

The author shares insights from their involvement with the Grid-Aware Websites (GAW) advisory group, focusing on how websites can adapt based on the cleanliness of the electricity grid they use. A grid-aware website adjusts its performance based on whether the energy is sourced from renewable resources or fossil fuels. This is achieved by checking the user's location and using the Electricity Maps API to assess grid status, allowing the site to optimize its features before reaching the user.

Key Points:

1. Purpose of Grid-Aware Websites:

   • To reduce carbon emissions by adjusting website performance based on the energy source.
   • Encourages a mindset of doing more with less in website design.

2. Implementation Challenges:

   • Requires additional coding to implement grid-awareness, which may seem counterproductive to performance goals.
   • The cost of accessing the Electricity Maps API is a barrier for smaller organizations.

3. Design Philosophy:

   • Emphasizes the connection between digital choices and environmental impact.
   • Suggests that grid-awareness can be integrated into existing practices, like data-saving modes.

4. Technical Steps:

   • The article outlines steps to implement grid-awareness using tools like Cloudflare and various web frameworks (11ty and Astro).
   • Developers can customize how their website responds to the grid's energy status.

5. Future Goals:

   • The aim is to embed grid-awareness into the broader web ecosystem, similar to how media queries work for accessibility.

The author invites others to explore and contribute to this initiative and highlights that while the concept is still developing, it aligns well with ongoing efforts in web sustainability.

The article discusses a new type of computing system called the Analog Optical Computer (AOC), designed to efficiently handle artificial intelligence (AI) tasks and combinatorial optimization without the energy costs associated with traditional digital computers.

Key points include:

• Challenge with Digital Computing: As AI applications grow, their energy requirements strain digital computing systems, which often require energy-intensive conversions between digital and analog formats.

• Analog Optical Computer (AOC): The AOC combines analog electronics with 3D optical technologies to perform both AI inference and optimization tasks efficiently on the same platform. It operates using a fixed-point search method, which means it can quickly process information without needing to convert between digital and analog signals.

• Dual Functionality: The AOC supports machine learning tasks like image classification and nonlinear regression, as well as optimization problems such as medical image reconstruction and financial transaction settlements.

• Robust Design: Its architecture enhances noise resistance and allows for iterative computations that are more efficient than traditional methods. It uses consumer-grade technology, making it scalable for future developments.

• Performance: Expected to achieve around 500 tera-operations per second per watt, the AOC offers significant efficiency improvements compared to current leading technologies like GPUs.

In summary, the AOC represents a promising advancement in computing, combining AI and optimization capabilities in a sustainable and efficient manner.

The text discusses the concept of dimensions in mathematics, particularly focusing on how to understand the dimensionality of shapes. Here are the key points:

1. Understanding Dimensions: Dimensions can be thought of as independent axes along which we can move. A point has 1D, a line has 1D, a square has 2D, and a cube has 3D.

2. Common-Sense Definition: We can classify an object's dimensionality by determining the minimum number of dimensions needed to contain it. For example, a drawing on paper is 2D, while a rock is 3D.

3. Degrees of Freedom: Another way to define dimensions is by looking at how many coordinates are needed to describe a point's position within a shape. A line segment needs one coordinate (1D), while a filled square needs two (2D).

4. Complex Shapes: The text highlights that some shapes, like the Hilbert curve, can be one-dimensional but still fill a two-dimensional space. This challenges our basic understanding of dimensions.

5. Minkowski Dimension: Hermann Minkowski introduced a more formal way to measure dimensions using a grid of boxes. By counting how many boxes are needed to cover a shape as the grid size increases, we can derive its box-counting dimension, which can even result in non-integer values for shapes like fractals.

6. Fractals and Box-Counting: Fractal shapes, like the Sierpiński triangle, have dimensions that are not whole numbers, illustrating a range of complexity in how shapes fill space.

In summary, the text explores the nuances of dimensionality, moving from simple definitions to more complex concepts like fractals and Minkowski dimensions, ultimately providing a richer understanding of geometry.

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Summary of "How many SPARCs is too many SPARCs?"

A vintage computing enthusiast found a post offering free SPARC workstations in West Berkshire, England. Intrigued, he decided to collect some of the machines, driving about three hours to pick them up. He ended up taking half of the available equipment, which included various SPARC models dating from 1999 to 2002.

His collection included:

• 1 Sun Fire V100 server
• 1 Sun Netra T1 server
• Multiple SPARCstation models (1, 2, 5, 10, 20)

Many of the machines came from Credit Suisse and showed a progression in materials from metal to plastic as they aged. He noted that the machines hadn't been powered on in over a decade, raising questions about their functionality.

He provided details about the Sun Fire V100 and Netra T1, describing their specifications and testing processes, including POST (Power-On Self Test) outcomes. He also attempted to boot some machines, facing various challenges such as faulty hard drives and missing components.

Overall, the author plans to explore and test more of the machines in his collection, including several SPARCstation models that are currently untested.

Garmin has launched the Fenix 8 Pro smartwatch with satellite connectivity, just days before Apple is set to reveal its own satellite-equipped Apple Watch Ultra. The Fenix 8 Pro uses Garmin's inReach technology, allowing users to send location check-ins and text messages via satellite. It also offers cellular connectivity for phone calls and voice messages, along with LiveTrack, which lets friends and family track the wearer’s location during activities.

In emergencies, the smartwatch can send SOS messages to the Garmin Response center, which helps coordinate assistance. The Fenix 8 Pro features a bright microLED display, durable design, and various health tracking capabilities. It comes in two sizes (47mm and 51mm) and two display options, with prices starting at $1,200.

Garmin's watch will be available on September 8, just before Apple's announcement of the Apple Watch Ultra 3, which is expected to also feature satellite connectivity. Unlike Apple, Garmin charges for its satellite services, with plans starting at $7.99 per month.

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No summary available.

Summary of "No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering" by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. discusses the challenges in software engineering, emphasizing that there is no quick solution ("silver bullet") to improve software productivity and reliability significantly. He distinguishes between two types of tasks in software development:

1. Essential tasks: Involves the complex design and conceptual structure of software.
2. Accidental tasks: Relates to technical aspects such as programming languages and hardware limitations.

Most past improvements in software development productivity have come from tackling these accidental tasks. Brooks argues that a focus must shift towards essential tasks, which are inherently complex due to factors like:

• Complexity: Software is intricate and unique, making it challenging to manage and understand.
• Conformity: Software must adhere to varying standards and interfaces, adding unnecessary complexity.
• Changeability: Software is frequently updated and modified, making it difficult to maintain.
• Invisibility: Software lacks physical representation, complicating its design and understanding.

Brooks believes that while there are no magical solutions on the horizon, consistent and disciplined efforts in software engineering practices can lead to meaningful improvements. He encourages leveraging market solutions, adopting rapid prototyping, and nurturing skilled designers to address the essential challenges in software development.

In conclusion, Brooks asserts that while innovations in programming languages, time-sharing, and integrated environments have addressed some accidental difficulties, they do not eliminate the fundamental complexities inherent in software engineering.

Researchers from Swinburne University and CSIRO are exploring how to produce metals on Mars using local materials, as transporting metals from Earth is too costly. They focus on using Martian soil, called regolith, to extract metals through a method known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU).

Dr. Deddy Nababan and Professor Akbar Rhamdhani have successfully created pure iron from regolith simulant that mimics Mars's Gale Crater. By heating this simulant under conditions similar to Mars, they can produce metals like iron and silicon-iron alloys. Their goal is to develop a process that creates metals with zero waste, using byproducts to make useful items.

This research is crucial for future Mars settlements, as every kilogram counts in space missions. There is growing interest in astrometallurgy, and the team is working to understand how these metals would perform on Mars and how to replicate the process there.

Ultimately, Dr. Nababan aims that their findings will not only aid space exploration but also improve metal production techniques on Earth.

In a 2014 article, Steve Cichon reflects on how technology has evolved since 1991 by comparing old gadgets to modern smartphones. He shares that he recently bought a collection of Buffalo News papers from 1991, which included a Radio Shack ad featuring various electronic items. Most of these items, such as a personal stereo, clock radio, and camcorder, can now be replaced by a smartphone. He notes that you would have spent over $3,000 in 1991 for these gadgets, which would be about $5,100 today. Cichon highlights how a lightweight smartphone now serves multiple functions that once required many separate devices. He also mentions two items that his phone cannot replace: a radar detector and a large speaker. Cichon enjoys exploring Buffalo's history and storytelling, and he encourages others to share their stories as well.

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No summary available.

Summary: The Demo Scene is Dying, But That's Alright

The demo scene, recently recognized as a UNESCO Living Cultural Heritage in Sweden, is facing decline. While there is some pride in this recognition, there is also concern that increased attention could harm its essence. Historically, the scene has been declared "dead" multiple times, but it continues to exist, albeit with fewer new participants. Unlike many subcultures that regularly attract new members, the demo scene has not seen significant influxes of younger people in recent years.

The scene originated in the 1980s with the rise of home computers and has always been anti-commercial, focusing on creativity and skill rather than mainstream appeal. This has kept it from becoming a marketable subculture, which some appreciate. However, discussions about attracting new talent are ongoing, and efforts to engage younger audiences have had limited success.

Big demo parties in the late 1990s began to cater more to gamers than to sceners, leading to a split between the two groups. While there are still events exclusive to the demo scene, the overall number of attendees has dwindled significantly since its peak in the early 1990s.

The scene's allure has diminished as the unique conditions that inspired it have changed. Today’s powerful computers and the internet offer new creative outlets, making the original constraints of the scene less relevant. Many sceners cherish the memories and friendships formed during their youth but recognize that rejuvenating the scene is unlikely.

Ultimately, the author expresses contentment with the scene's decline, preferring to enjoy it in its niche without commercial pressures. They hope that if younger generations do engage with the scene, they will find joy in it too.

Taco Bell has introduced voice AI ordering systems at over 500 drive-throughs, hoping to streamline taco orders. However, customer reactions were not positive, as the AI struggled with unusual requests and faced technical issues. Many customers even played tricks on the AI with bizarre orders, highlighting the challenges of using AI in chaotic fast-food environments.

Due to the difficulties encountered, Taco Bell is re-evaluating the use of AI, especially during busy times when human staff may be needed. This situation illustrates the mismatch between advanced technology and the unpredictable nature of customer interactions. Despite the setbacks, Taco Bell plans to continue developing voice AI, demonstrating their ongoing confidence in the technology.

Daniel Temkin's new book explores esoteric programming languages, which challenge coders to think creatively and approach coding in unconventional ways. These languages are often more about artistic expression and thought experiments than practical use. The article highlights how these unique languages can enhance problem-solving skills and inspire innovative thinking in programming.

Summary: Keeping Secrets Out of Logs

The blog post discusses strategies for preventing sensitive data from being logged in software systems. There is no single solution to this issue; instead, the author presents multiple "lead bullets" or strategies that can help mitigate the problem.

Key Points:

1. The Problem: Logging sensitive data is a common and frustrating issue for developers. Sensitive data can include API keys, passwords, or personally identifiable information (PII). The consequences of logging such information can range from minimal impact (like an API key) to severe (like exposing customer passwords).

2. Causes of Sensitive Data in Logs:

   • Direct Logging: Accidentally logging sensitive information during debugging.
   • Kitchen Sinks: Logging entire objects that may contain sensitive data.
   • Configuration Changes: Changing logging settings can inadvertently expose secrets.
   • Embedded Secrets: Secrets included in URLs or API calls.
   • Telemetry: Error monitoring tools can log sensitive variables.
   • User Input: Users may mistakenly enter sensitive data in fields not intended for it.

3. Fixes (Lead Bullets):

   • Data Architecture: Centralize and control data flow to minimize exposure.
   • Data Transformations: Use techniques like redaction, tokenization, and encryption.
   • Domain Primitives: Use specific data types for sensitive information to prevent accidental logging.
   • Read-once Objects: Wrap sensitive data in objects that can only be accessed once.
   • Log Formatters: Implement middleware to filter out sensitive data before logging.
   • Unit Tests: Use existing test suites to catch logging issues.
   • Sensitive Data Scanners: Tools that can detect and redact sensitive information.
   • Log Pre-processors: Process logs before they are stored to remove sensitive data.
   • Human Element: Educate and empower developers to recognize and report logging issues.

4. Strategy for Implementation:

   • Lay the Foundation: Create a culture of security and determine what constitutes sensitive data.
   • Understand Data Flow: Map out how sensitive data travels through systems.
   • Protect Chokepoints: Identify and secure critical points in the data flow.
   • Apply Defense-in-Depth: Use multiple layers of protection to increase security.
   • Plan for Response and Recovery: Have a plan in place for when sensitive data is logged.

In conclusion, preventing sensitive information from being logged requires a comprehensive approach involving technical fixes, process improvements, and a focus on the human element. The task is ongoing and requires continuous vigilance and adaptation.

No summary available.

Summary of Technical Update on Submarine Cables (June 24, 2025)

This update discusses advancements in submarine cable technology and includes several key topics:

1. Capacity Evolutions: There are ongoing improvements in the capacity of submarine cables, focusing on how data is transmitted.

2. Signal Encoding: Initially, signals used a non-coherent method. Now, coherent technologies allow for better modulation of signals using amplitude, phase, and frequency.

3. Refinements in Signaling: New techniques, like Probabilistic Constellation Shaping, enhance the reach and capacity of data transmission.

4. Bandwidth Improvements: The shift from fixed to flexible grid systems has increased the efficiency of bandwidth usage in fibre pairs.

5. Transmission Capacity Limits: The theoretical maximum capacity of a fibre pair is defined by Shannon's formula, which considers bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio. However, real-world factors like non-linear impairments in optical cables can limit actual performance.

6. Future Developments: The update also mentions industry trends, such as spectrum sharing and new technologies like coherent pluggables and sensing.

Overall, the report highlights significant technical progress in submarine cables, emphasizing increased efficiency and capacity for data transmission.

No summary available.

Summary of the Expression Problem and Its Solutions

The expression problem is a fundamental software design challenge that arises when trying to extend a system with new data types or operations without modifying existing code. This problem is relevant in both object-oriented and functional programming.

Key Points:

1. Definition: The expression problem refers to the difficulty of adding new data types and operations to an existing codebase without changing existing code. Most programming languages struggle with this, making it hard to maintain the open-closed principle, which states that software entities should be open for extension but closed for modification.

2. Example: In the context of an expression evaluator, adding new operations (like type checking) requires modifying existing classes, while adding new types (like variables) can be straightforward. This showcases the different challenges posed by the problem in object-oriented versus functional programming.

3. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): In OOP, it's easy to add new types but difficult to add new operations. This typically involves changing existing interfaces and classes.

4. Functional Programming (FP): Conversely, in functional programming, adding new operations is simple, but adding new types often requires modifying existing functions to handle the new types.

5. Visitor Pattern: One solution in OOP is the visitor pattern, which allows adding new operations without altering existing data types at the cost of making it harder to add new types. This shifts the expression problem but does not fully resolve it.

6. Clojure Solutions: Clojure effectively addresses the expression problem using multi-methods and protocols. This allows for easy addition of both new operations and new types without modifying existing code. Methods can be defined outside of type definitions, enabling flexibility.

7. Conclusion: The key to solving the expression problem lies in the separation of data types and operations, allowing for easier extensibility. Clojure's approach showcases how programming language design can facilitate this.

Overall, the expression problem illustrates the challenges of software design in programming languages, and understanding its solutions can help developers create more maintainable and extensible systems.

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gocv-to-webrtc Summary

The gocv-to-webrtc project allows you to stream live webcam video to a web browser using several tools:

1. Components Used:

   • GoCV: Captures video from the webcam.
   • FFmpeg: Encodes the video in real-time using the VP8 format.
   • Pion WebRTC: Transmits the video to the browser.

2. How It Works:

   • The server runs on port 8080 and serves an HTML page.
   • It handles WebRTC connections and exchanges session information (SDP) with the browser.
   • The webcam is accessed to capture video frames, which are then encoded by FFmpeg and sent to the browser.

3. Instructions:

   • Install Dependencies: You need GoCV and FFmpeg.
   • Build the Project: Compile the code with go build -tags gocv.
   • Run the Server: Start the server with gocv-to-webrtc.
   • Access in Browser: Go to http://localhost:8080 and click "Start Session" to see the webcam video.

4. Configuration Options:

   • You can adjust the camera index, video resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and codec settings as needed.

5. Troubleshooting:

   • If there’s no video, check the camera index and FFmpeg installation.
   • For connection issues, verify the STUN server settings.
   • If CPU usage is high, consider lowering the video resolution or bitrate.

This project serves as a foundation for developing computer vision applications that can be viewed through WebRTC.

The author experienced repeated failures with their Intel 285K CPU, leading to frustration and the decision to switch to an AMD Ryzen 9950X3D CPU. The problems began while trying to run a software project that required GPU support, which resulted in a failed compilation and subsequent issues with the computer's performance. Despite taking precautions to manage heat, the PC became unresponsive, and the author concluded that either the CPU or the mainboard was faulty.

The author researched AMD CPUs and chose the 9950X3D for its performance benefits and new features that allow better control over CPU cache usage. They also selected a compatible ASUS mainboard focused on power efficiency.

In terms of performance, the AMD 9950X3D outperformed the Intel 285K in various benchmarks, although it consumed more power overall compared to Intel CPUs. The author noted an increase in daily energy consumption after switching to AMD.

In conclusion, while the author has historically favored Intel for its performance and reliability, they are now optimistic about AMD's potential and hope for improved power efficiency in future models. They express a desire for healthy competition in the CPU market.

• The Trump administration is set to release new guidelines regarding prayer in public schools.
• In a tragic event, Palestinian gunmen killed six people at a bus stop in Jerusalem.
• Amy Coney Barrett discussed that empathy is not typically part of legal decisions.
• A man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump is currently on trial.
• If the Supreme Court overturns Trump tariffs, global refunds could occur.
• Boston's mayor is in a race against the Patriots heir, with Trump's influence being significant.
• Trump has asked the Supreme Court to approve cuts to foreign aid that Congress had passed.
• Information about the recent Powerball jackpot winners has been released.
• Veterans from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) emphasize the importance of preserving history.
• Channing Tatum expressed concerns about a nude scene in his movie "Roofman."
• A rising health issue is young people experiencing strokes, highlighted by a case of a 27-year-old woman.

The article discusses the performance issues of the default memory allocator in musl, a lightweight C library. Key points include:

• Performance Problems: The default musl allocator can cause a significant slowdown in applications, with reported performance drops of up to 7 times compared to other allocators like glibc, especially in multi-threaded environments.

• Recommendation: The author suggests that Rust projects should replace the default musl allocator with alternatives like mimalloc or jemalloc to improve performance, even if they don't currently target musl.

• Personal Experience: The author shares their experience of noticing performance lags when comparing musl and glibc on a server. They conducted benchmarks that confirmed the musl allocator's poor performance, particularly in memory allocation scenarios.

• Common Knowledge: The article notes that performance issues with musl are well-documented and have been encountered by many developers, leading to the adoption of alternative allocators in various projects.

• Future of musl: Although a new allocator (mallocng) was introduced in musl, it did not significantly improve performance. The author concludes that using a different allocator is still the best approach for optimal performance.

In summary, if you're using musl, it's advisable to switch to a better memory allocator to avoid performance issues.

Summary: Argentinian Computer Gaming Origins

The history of computing and gaming in Argentina began in 1961 with the installation of the Ferranti Mercury computer, affectionately named Clementina. This development faced interruptions due to political upheavals, notably the military coup in 1976, which led to a decline in domestic technology production.

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Argentina saw a rise in consumer electronics, with companies introducing early video game consoles and computers. However, the military regime's economic policies favored foreign imports over local production, leading to a lack of competitive domestic computer products.

By the early 1980s, personal computing began to grow, with a few brands like Texas Instruments and various ZX81 clones emerging. The return of democracy in 1984, along with the National Computer and Electronics Program, spurred the growth of a computer market dominated by clones, particularly Commodore and ZX Spectrum products.

Despite the lack of a formal gaming industry, many games were unofficial copies of foreign titles. The first notable Argentinian video game was Truco, a card game developed by Enrique and Ariel Arbiser in 1982. This game included an AI opponent that mimicked human behavior. The commercial version for the TI-99/4A released in 1983 is recognized as Argentina's first commercial game, though the DOS version released later became more iconic.

The gaming culture in Argentina during the 1980s was characterized by limited advertisements for games, reliance on unofficial copies, and local innovations like broadcasting games over radio. Overall, the landscape laid the groundwork for Argentina's future gaming scene.

The text shows a simple example of an HTML form with an email input field. The key points are:

• It is a form element that includes an input for email.
• The input type is set to "email."
• There is a placeholder text that says "Enter your email."

Overall, this code creates a basic field for users to enter their email addresses.

Summary:

Giving career advice is challenging because what works for one person may not work for another. Initially, it's important to excel in your technical skills, as this is what you were hired for. However, as you progress, everyone becomes technically strong, so you need to enhance your impact in other areas.

Key areas to focus on are:

1. Technical Skill: Your expertise in your field.
2. Product Thinking: Understanding what is important to work on.
3. Project Execution: Ensuring tasks are completed.
4. People Skills: Collaborating and influencing others.

Improving in these areas collectively helps you create meaningful outcomes. To identify your weaknesses, seek feedback and practice humility. Work on your weakest area by getting advice from someone you respect, and take action.

It's also important to actively engage in your career by mentoring, leading projects, and making your work visible. The most crucial element is having agency—taking initiative to make things happen rather than waiting for opportunities.

In summary, hard work is essential, but being proactive and deserving of what you want will lead to real progress in your career.

In the mid-90s, Sasaki Miho, a 30-year-old employee at the video game company Atlus, developed the idea for Purikura, inspired by the popularity of cute stickers among high school girls. Although the idea was initially rejected, Atlus partnered with Sega and launched Print Club (Purikura) in February 1995, which quickly became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1996.

By 1997, Purikura gained immense popularity after being featured on a popular TV show, leading to its machines being installed in various locations beyond arcades. Competitors also entered the market with similar products. Over time, the machines evolved, allowing users to add text and stickers to their photos, which contributed to the rise of front-facing cameras in cell phones.

However, as smartphone technology advanced and Japan's population aged, the popularity of Purikura declined, with annual sales dropping significantly between 2007 and 2017. Despite this, Purikura remains widely popular in Japan, with surveys indicating that over 90% of people have tried it at least once.

The text discusses the author's exploration of Interlisp-10, a programming environment used on DEC PDP-10 mainframes in the 1970s, specifically focusing on the TTY editor, which is a command-line tool for editing Lisp code. The author is using this editor within the TWENEX operating system, which is accessible through the SDF (Space Federation) system.

Key points include:

• The TTY editor is the only text editor for Interlisp-10 and is still useful for specific tasks, offering a rich set of commands for batch editing.
• The author is using TWENEX, a DEC operating system, to access Interlisp-10 and finds the experience easier than expected.
• Interlisp's terminology and design show the influence of the TENEX operating system.
• The SDF's TWENEX system provides a full Interlisp-10 setup, but lacks an interactive help system.
• The author finds the TTY editor efficient for basic Lisp editing but notes a limitation in how functions can be edited.
• File transfers between TWENEX and external systems require a two-step process.
• The author is preparing for a small programming project in Interlisp-10.

The author recently switched hosting providers and needed a lightweight tool to manage backups. They found that existing options like Kimchi were outdated and Cockpit was too heavy. In response, they quickly created a simple solution that includes basic features like cloud init, lifecycle management, and image/storage management. This new tool is modern, has a small size of 8.4 MB, and includes a web interface, command-line interface, and API, with only one dependency: libvirt.

Anthropic, a company focused on AI, has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by authors. The case involved issues of copyright related to the use of their written works in training AI models. This settlement aims to resolve disputes over how AI companies utilize content created by authors without permission.

ServerlessHorrors is a blog that shares scary stories about unexpected costs from serverless platforms. It was created by Andras, who is also developing Coolify, an open-source alternative to services like Heroku and Netlify.

The blog features various horror stories from users who faced shocking bills, such as:

• A $1,189 charge from Webflow for a month on a $69 plan.
• A $100,000 bill from Firebase after a DoS attack on a gaming site.
• A $70,000 charge after paying $50/month for a project.
• A $22,639 bill from using BigQuery on a public dataset.
• Numerous other incidents involving bills ranging from hundreds to over $100,000 due to unexpected usage or errors.

Users are encouraged to share their own stories through writing or contributing on GitHub.

"Tumult and Sympathy: The Letters of Oliver Sacks" is a nonfiction book reviewed by William M. Chace on August 7, 2025. The book features letters written by the famous neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, showcasing his thoughts and experiences. The review likely discusses the themes of Sacks's letters, including his insights into human experience and compassion. For comments, readers are encouraged to email the magazine.

SonicStrobe Summary

SonicStrobe is a stroboscopic tuner developed in Odin. It features:

• Automatic pitch detection using the McLeod Pitch Method.
• A smooth strobe display that adapts to different signal levels for consistent visibility.
• Options for selecting target notes manually.
• Harmonic mode to show the harmonics of detected notes.
• Vernier mode for increased sensitivity in frequency detection.
• Adjustable contrast and strobe speed.
• Displays frequency in Hertz and Cents.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

• Use arrow keys to adjust notes and octaves.
• Tab switches strobe display types.
• Space toggles detection modes.

Development Setup: To build SonicStrobe, install the 'just' command runner, clone the repository, install dependencies, and compile the app.

How It Works:

• Pitch Detection: Uses FFT-based autocorrelation to identify frequencies, even with strong harmonics, providing a clarity score for accuracy.
• Strobe Effect: Tracks phase differences of signals to create a visual strobe effect. When the input matches the reference frequency, the strobe appears still; deviations create a drifting effect.
• Auto Gain: Adjusts the strobe display to maintain visibility despite changes in signal volume.

SonicStrobe is licensed under GPL v3 and incorporates various open-source resources for its functionality.

The author had an idea for a project but lacked coding experience. With the rise of AI coding tools, they were able to bring this idea to life by learning to code with the help of AI. They started from scratch, ensuring that every aspect was guided by their choices, while the AI helped translate their requests into code. The goal was to understand basic coding languages and improve their skills in working with AI.

The result is a fully functional recreation of Windows XP that runs in a web browser, complete with sounds and animations. It also works well on mobile devices, requiring adjustments to maintain usability on touchscreens. The project provided valuable lessons in coding and AI collaboration, and the author welcomes feedback on their work.

At Reddit, a key part of the infrastructure was Postgres, followed closely by RabbitMQ, which managed messages between processes. When a user upvoted a post, the action was first sent to a queue, then saved in a cache, and finally recorded in a database. This system allowed for efficient processing and scaling of tasks, as multiple tasks could run simultaneously across different servers.

However, this setup had its flaws. If the database or cache failed, data could be lost. To improve reliability, durable queues were needed. These queues save the status of tasks in a persistent store, like Postgres, allowing the system to resume tasks from where they left off, rather than starting over or losing data.

Durable queues also offer better tracking of tasks, making it easy to monitor their progress through simple database queries. However, they may perform slower than traditional in-memory systems due to their reliance on durable storage. Therefore, durable queues are best for critical tasks with lower volume, while in-memory queues suit high volumes of smaller tasks.

No summary available.

Ken Shirriff's blog discusses a unique Navajo weaving created by artist Marilou Schultz, which visually represents the internal circuitry of the 555 timer chip. This chip is widely used in various electronic applications and was once the best-selling integrated circuit globally.

The rug features thick white lines on a black background, symbolizing the chip’s metallic wiring, with reddish-orange diamonds representing the connections to its pins. Schultz's weaving is inspired by a photograph of the chip's die, and while it reflects the chip's design, it includes some artistic modifications.

Schultz, who has been weaving since 1994, used metallic threads to represent the chip's materials and experimented with dyes for coloring. The 555 timer chip itself operates by charging and discharging a capacitor based on external components, allowing it to create time delays.

The blog highlights the connection between Navajo weavings and integrated circuits, noting that Fairchild Semiconductor employed many Navajo workers in the 1960s. The rug is currently displayed at SITE Santa Fe's exhibition and represents an artistic fusion of technology and culture.

"Belling the Cat" is a fable that tells the story of a group of mice who want to protect themselves from a cat by placing a bell around its neck. This way, they would hear the cat coming. However, when it comes time to find a volunteer to put the bell on the cat, none of the mice are willing to do it.

The fable illustrates the difference between having a good idea and being able to execute it. It teaches that plans must be practical, not just desirable. The phrase "to bell the cat" has become an idiom meaning to attempt a very difficult task that no one wants to take on.

Though often attributed to Aesop, the fable gained prominence in the Middle Ages and has been adapted and referenced in various cultures and contexts since then, often with political undertones. It highlights the challenges of collective action and the gap between ideas and their implementation.

Overall, the fable serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of making plans without considering how they can be carried out.

The Veena Chromatic Tuner is an app designed for musicians, instrument makers, and ethnomusicologists who need more than a basic tuner. It offers features for various musical systems beyond standard tuning, particularly Just Intonation and microtonal music.

Key Features:

• Dynamic Visual Feedback: Instead of a needle, it shows a waveform display that stabilizes when in tune, helping users make precise adjustments.
• Intonation Flexibility: Supports Just Intonation for Indian classical music and allows users to create and save custom temperaments for different musical needs.
• Dedicated Veena Mode: Focuses on tuning across 24 fret positions, essential for instrument makers and those studying string instruments.
• Multicultural Note Naming: Displays notes in multiple systems, including Western and Indian classical music, and supports various Indian languages.
• Customizable Settings: Users can adjust the reference pitch and easily transpose notes for different instruments.

This app is ideal for string players, wind instrument musicians, vocalists, music educators, and those interested in microtonal music. The developers are continuously improving the app and welcome user feedback. You can find it on Google Play.

No summary available.

No summary available.

Summary of the "Kim" Leak Report

The recent leak attributed to a North Korean cyber actor known as "Kim" has provided significant insights into the activities and tactics of the Kimsuky group (APT43). The breach reveals a focus on credential theft, primarily targeting South Korean and Taiwanese networks. This report is divided into three parts: technical analysis, goals of the attacker, and a threat intelligence overview.

Key Findings:

1. Technical Analysis:

   • The leak included terminal histories and logs that indicate ongoing malware development, particularly using low-level shellcode for attacks on Windows systems.
   • The actor used Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to analyze sensitive Korean documents related to public key infrastructure (PKI) and VPNs, aiming to exploit these systems.
   • Evidence of phishing operations was found, with fake websites designed to harvest credentials from users of Korean government portals.
   • A Linux rootkit capable of deep system compromise was identified, showcasing the actor's ability to maintain covert access.

2. Goals of the Attacker:

   • The primary aim was to infiltrate South Korea's digital identity systems, particularly its Government Public Key Infrastructure (GPKI). Key files indicating stolen credentials were discovered.
   • There was also a deliberate focus on Taiwanese infrastructure, with attempts to access government and academic networks, suggesting broader espionage efforts beyond South Korea.

3. Threat Intelligence Overview:

   • The report suggests that the actor operates with a hybrid model, showing characteristics of both North Korean and Chinese operations. This includes the use of Chinese tools and infrastructure, indicating possible collaboration or operational overlap.
   • The targeting strategy focused on gaining access to privileged accounts and backend systems, particularly those involved in identity management.

Recommendations for Defense:

Organizations in South Korea and Taiwan should enhance their security measures, including monitoring for unusual access patterns, securing privileged accounts, and improving phishing defenses. This ongoing threat highlights the need for vigilance against credential-focused cyber operations, as the "Kim" actor demonstrates a sophisticated and adaptive approach to cyber espionage.

Summary of Action! Programming Language for Atari 8-Bit Computers

Goto 10 Newsletter: A newsletter for Atari enthusiasts featuring articles about Atari video game systems, 8-bit computers, and more, with over 3,000 subscribers.

Action! Overview:

• Action! is a programming language created by Clinton Parker in 1983 for Atari 8-bit computers.
• It was optimized for the 6502 CPU and included a monitor, compiler, text editor, and debugger in one package, making it an early form of an integrated development environment (IDE).
• Priced at $99 in 1983 (around $320 today), it was designed primarily for hobbyists.

Features:

• The language is structured and procedural, similar to C and Pascal but simpler.
• It supports basic commands for looping and conditional statements, using unique syntax like "FI" to end an IF block.
• The built-in editor allowed full-screen text editing, scrolling, and split-screen functionality, which was advanced for its time.

Limitations:

• Action! required a specific cartridge to run programs and lacked a floating-point data type.
• Additional packages like Action! RunTime and Action! ToolKit were available to enhance functionality, including creating standalone programs and limited floating-point support.

Usage:

• Primarily used by hobbyists and for public domain software, with few commercial products developed.
• The author plans to explore Action! further and use it with Atari's hardware.

Resources:

• Manuals and programming references are available online, along with a YouTube series for learning Action! programming.

Summary of Speed Brain Introduction

Cloudflare has launched a new feature called Speed Brain, designed to make web pages load 45% faster. Speed Brain works by predicting which page a user is likely to visit next and prefetching its content, allowing for almost instant loading when the user clicks on a link.

Key Points:

• Performance Improvement: Speed Brain reduces loading times significantly, with lab tests showing up to a 75% decrease in loading time for the largest visible element on a page.
• How it Works: It uses the Speculation Rules API to anticipate user actions, such as clicks, and fetches the next page's content while the user is still interacting with the current page.
• Easy Implementation: The feature is available for all users at no cost. Free domains have Speed Brain enabled by default, while Pro and Business users need to activate it manually.
• Initial Approach: The first phase uses a conservative strategy, prefetching static content based on user actions. More aggressive strategies, like prerendering, will be introduced in the future.
• Real User Measurements: Users are encouraged to enable Real User Measurements (RUM) to track performance improvements and understand user interactions better.

Overall, Speed Brain aims to enhance web browsing by reducing latency and improving the user experience, leveraging advanced predictive techniques while maintaining safety and efficiency.

No summary available.

The article discusses a controversial perspective on software design, emphasizing that code should be more flexible than the domain model it represents. This contrasts with the common advice to eliminate invalid states in software, which involves strict rules like enforcing a single source of truth in databases and using strict types.

Key points include:

1. Flexibility Over Strictness: While making invalid states unrepresentable can simplify reasoning about code, it can also create rigid constraints that make future changes difficult. Software should allow for some invalid states to accommodate real-world complexities.

2. State Machines: State machines are useful for defining processes with specific states and actions. However, they can become cumbersome when edge cases arise. It's often better to allow some exceptions rather than complicate the design with numerous special cases.

3. Foreign Key Constraints: These constraints help maintain data integrity but can limit flexibility. Large companies often avoid them to make it easier to manage relationships between tables without being forced to delete related records when changes occur.

4. Protocol Buffers: The debate over required fields in serialization formats highlights the tension between strict data validation and the need for flexible schema changes. Optional fields allow for easier updates without disrupting service.

5. Final Thoughts: Hard constraints can be problematic because they are difficult to change. While some constraints enhance system clarity, user-facing software should be designed to handle the complexities of real-world usage, even if that means allowing some invalid states.

In summary, the article advocates for a balanced approach to software design that prioritizes flexibility and adaptability over strict adherence to a domain model.

In "A Queasy Selling of the Family Heirlooms," Jeannette Cooperman reflects on her decision to sell her family's silver and china, which she inherited from her mother. These heirlooms, once symbols of elegance and hospitality, have become burdensome as her lifestyle has changed. Cooperman feels nostalgic but recognizes that she does not want to maintain or use the items, which remind her of past expectations and her mother's dreams.

She describes her great-grandmother's journey to America and how each generation valued fine objects despite limited means. However, she struggles to connect with her mother's world of entertaining, as her life is more casual and less formal. After her mother's death and her father's passing, the need for such items diminished. Attempts to find someone who appreciates the china and silver have failed, leading her to the difficult choice to sell them for cash.

As she prepares to sell, Cooperman grapples with feelings of inadequacy and the weight of memories associated with these possessions. Ultimately, she realizes that while these items represented a certain refined lifestyle, they no longer fit her life. Selling them allows her to move forward, even if it leaves her feeling unsettled about the loss of her mother’s legacy and the changing values of society.

No summary available.

Summary:

GPUs have greatly improved data processing speed, but as data grows, a single GPU server often can't handle the workload. This leads to inefficiencies in data movement, which can slow down processes. To address this, distributed computing divides tasks across multiple servers, allowing them to work in parallel. A distributed runtime is essential for coordinating these tasks and managing data movement effectively.

NVIDIA and AMD are actively developing distributed runtimes to optimize performance. NVIDIA’s projects include RAPIDS with Dask for multi-node GPU execution and CUDA DTX for large-scale GPU coordination. Their focus is on efficient data transfer, as this becomes the primary bottleneck in large-scale operations.

AMD is following a similar path with its ROCm platform and aims to create compatibility with NVIDIA’s systems.

A notable player in this space is Voltron Data’s Theseus, which prioritizes data movement to ensure that GPU resources are always utilized effectively. Theseus has demonstrated significant performance improvements in benchmarks, proving its efficiency in handling large-scale data processing tasks.

In summary, both NVIDIA and AMD are competing to improve data movement in distributed computing, with Theseus emerging as a strong solution for efficient data processing across GPU clusters.

No summary available.

This blog post by Giles discusses the mathematics needed to understand how Large Language Models (LLMs) work, aimed at readers with a basic tech background. It builds on previous posts from a series inspired by a book on building LLMs.

Key Points:

1. Understanding LLMs Requires Basic Math: You need some high-school level math, particularly concepts like vectors and matrices, to grasp how LLMs operate.

2. Vectors and High-Dimensional Spaces: Vectors represent distances and directions in space. In LLMs, they are used to represent probabilities of tokens (words or parts of words) for generating text.

3. Logits and Vocabulary Space: Logits are output vectors from LLMs indicating the likelihood of different tokens. They can be normalized to create a probability distribution using a function called softmax.

4. Embedding Spaces: Embeddings are high-dimensional spaces where similar meanings cluster together. For example, words with related meanings are positioned closely.

5. Matrix Multiplication and Projections: Matrices can transform and project data between different dimensions. This is important in LLMs for processing inputs and outputs.

6. Neural Networks: A layer in a neural network can be understood as a matrix multiplication that projects input data into a different space. Activation functions are typically added for the network to perform tasks effectively.

In summary, this post simplifies the math behind LLMs, emphasizing that understanding these concepts is essential for grasping how these models function. The next post will combine these ideas to explain LLM operations in more detail.

Summary of "Protobuffers Are Wrong"

The author critiques Google’s Protocol Buffers (protobufs), arguing they are poorly designed and problematic. Key points include:

1. Amateur Design: The author believes protobufs were created without proper engineering principles, leading to a confusing and ad-hoc design that complicates coding.

2. Type System Issues: Protobufs have a flawed type system, which restricts how data types can be used. The author suggests that a better design could simplify the system and remove many unnecessary restrictions.

3. Lack of Compositionality: Features in protobufs do not work well together, making it hard to create complex data structures. The author proposes three changes to improve this.

4. Questionable Behavior: The distinction between scalar and message types leads to confusing behaviors when accessing and modifying data, resulting in potential bugs.

5. Misleading Compatibility Claims: Protobufs claim to support backward and forward compatibility, but the author argues this is misleading because the system allows for incomplete or nonsensical data to be accepted without proper validation.

6. Contamination of Codebases: Using protobufs can lead to their bad design principles spreading throughout an application, making it hard to maintain clean and idiomatic code.

The author concludes that integrating protobufs into projects can lead to significant complications and recommends avoiding them.

Summary of ck - Semantic Grep by Embedding

ck is a code search tool that helps developers find code based on meaning rather than just keywords. It works similarly to grep but understands the context of searches. For example, searching for "error handling" can return relevant code structures like try/catch blocks even if those exact terms are not present.

Quick Start:

1. Installation:

   • Install using Cargo: cargo install ck-search
   • Or build from source: clone the repository, navigate to the folder, and run cargo build --release.

2. Indexing and Searching:

   • Index your project: ck --index src/
   • Search by meaning: ck --sem "error handling" src/
   • Traditional grep-style searches are also supported.

Key Features:

• Semantic Search: Understands synonyms and related concepts for more accurate results.
• Grep Compatibility: Maintains familiar commands and flags.
• Hybrid Search: Combines semantic and keyword searches for better results.
• Agent-Friendly Output: Provides structured JSON output for automation and analysis.
• Smart File Filtering: Automatically avoids unnecessary files and respects .gitignore.

How It Works:

1. Indexing: Create a semantic index for your project once for fast searches later.
2. Search Modes: Choose between regex, semantic, or hybrid searches.
3. Relevance Scoring: Displays how relevant search results are based on semantic matches.

Installation and File Support:

• Supports various programming languages like Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Haskell.
• Automatically excludes build artifacts and cache directories.

Performance:

• Fast indexing and search capabilities suitable for large codebases.

Usage Examples:

• Find specific code patterns, check index status, and manage files easily.

Contributing and Development:

• ck is open for contributions, encouraging users to report issues or suggest features.

Conclusion: ck is designed to simplify code searches by focusing on what the code does, making it easier for developers to find the information they need quickly.

Dan Davies writes in his newsletter "Back of Mind" about his current reading of Dan Wang's book "Breakneck," which discusses "process knowledge" in industrial development, particularly in China. He reflects on a conversation with Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bicycles, about outsourcing components in manufacturing. Butler-Adams explains that while some parts, like a wire clip, can be outsourced without losing important knowledge, most components that embody the essence of the Brompton brand (referred to as "Brompton-ness") should be kept in-house to maintain innovation and quality.

Davies also highlights a historical perspective on "process knowledge" from the cutlery industry in Sheffield, emphasizing the benefits of localized skills and collaboration among workers. He suggests that the British model of selling expertise directly might differ from approaches in Germany or China, which bundle expertise with products. He wonders if the UK's productivity issues are linked to the difficulty of measuring productivity in certain sectors.

The author initially had low expectations for Google's new "AI mode" due to past experiences with AI features. However, after trying it out, they found it to be surprisingly effective and fast, similar to ChatGPT with GPT-5. They noted that Google is finally utilizing its search capabilities well for AI-assisted searches. One downside is that while the AI mode mentions running multiple searches, it doesn’t disclose what those searches are, which the author believes is important for trust and quality assessment. The author expressed their disappointment with this lack of transparency.

Role Summary
Gym Class is a popular social sports game on Meta Quest, with millions of downloads and a 4.9-star rating. They are looking for a founding Design Engineer to develop a mobile web app and web features for their social VR experience. This role involves designing and building user interfaces using tools like Figma and React/Node/CSS, focusing on quality, speed, and accessibility.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop features from ideas and user feedback through to production.
• Manage the web development roadmap, making improvements for mobile and VR platforms.
• Create a design system with reusable components for consistency across platforms.
• Optimize performance for quick loading and smooth interactions.
• Use analytics and user testing to refine features based on player behavior.

Qualifications

• 3–6+ years of experience in building web products, with strong skills in Figma and a portfolio showcasing design and coding work.
• Proficient in front-end technologies like React, TypeScript/JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with a focus on design details.
• Knowledgeable about performance optimization techniques.
• Able to work quickly and iteratively, while maintaining high quality.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, comfortable with taking ownership and navigating uncertainty.

Pay and Benefits
Salary will be determined during the interview based on experience and location. Benefits include equity, medical, dental, and vision coverage, and a 401k retirement plan with matching.

Summary of the BrainCraft Challenge

The BrainCraft Challenge aims to create a mini-brain system that can perform basic tasks in simulated environments. Current models in neuroscience often focus on individual brain structures but fail to integrate them into a functional system. This challenge encourages participants to design a biologically inspired neural network to control a bot that must find and reach an energy source in a simple maze.

Key Points:

1. Challenge Structure:

   • The challenge consists of five tasks, increasing in complexity, starting from July 2025. Participants have two months for each task.
   • Task 1 involves navigating a 10x10 maze to find a hidden energy source, while Task 2 introduces additional cues and obstacles.

2. Bot Specifications:

   • The bot is circular, moves at a constant speed, and can only steer. It has sensors to detect walls and an energy level that depletes over time.
   • The bot's neural model is based on a leaky rate unit architecture, similar to Echo State Networks.

3. Evaluation Process:

   • A training phase allows participants to optimize their model for up to 100 seconds, followed by a testing phase where performance is measured by the distance traveled before the bot runs out of energy.

4. Submission Guidelines:

   • Participants must submit their code as open source, and the challenge emphasizes self-contained training functions without reliance on external resources.

5. Discussion and FAQs:

   • The challenge is designed to be accessible, requiring only basic computational resources. Participants can propose rule changes or report bugs.

6. Current Leaderboard:

   • The leaderboard tracks participant scores and performance, with various strategies being tested, including random bots and genetic algorithms.

Overall, the BrainCraft Challenge is an innovative effort to encourage the development of integrated neural systems through competitive tasks.

No summary available.

Summary: Trusting Open Source from Strangers over Colleagues

In tech companies, teams often prefer using open source libraries from unknown developers instead of those created by their own colleagues. This is surprising because colleagues’ work is more familiar, yet it raises skepticism.

Key Reasons for This Paradox:

1. Social Proof: Libraries with many stars and downloads feel validated by others, while a colleague’s work lacks this external validation.
2. Blame Avoidance: If an external library fails, no one is blamed. If a colleague's library fails, the person who chose it might be held responsible.
3. Conflict of Interest: Even if a colleague's intentions are pure, there may be a perception of self-promotion, leading to distrust.
4. Familiarity Bias: Knowing a colleague’s flaws can make their work seem less credible compared to a polished project from a stranger.
5. Concrete Risks: The risk of losing a colleague (and their project) feels more immediate than the abstract risk of losing an external library’s maintainer.
6. Process Issues: Internal code is treated differently than external code, causing internal projects to be viewed with suspicion.

Consequences:

• Useful internal libraries get ignored.
• Resources are wasted on duplicating work.
• Morale may suffer for those whose contributions are overlooked.
• Security risks arise when trusting unknown sources over nearby colleagues.

Solutions:

• Evaluate all libraries based on the same criteria, regardless of the author.
• Place projects in neutral spaces (like shared GitHub organizations) to reduce personal bias.
• Frame internal projects as team efforts rather than individual contributions.

Ultimately, recognizing these biases can help teams give fair consideration to colleagues’ contributions, which may turn out to be the best solutions.

I'm sorry, but I can't access external links. However, if you provide the text you'd like summarized, I'd be happy to help!

The article discusses the evolution and confusion surrounding the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, originally defined in Smalltalk. MVC consists of three parts: the Model (the data), the View (how data is presented), and the Controller (how user input is handled). Over time, various interpretations, especially by companies like Apple, have led to misunderstandings.

Key points include:

1. Misinterpretations of MVC: Apple’s definitions of MVC have evolved but still reflect a misunderstanding of its original structure, where models should be independent and reusable.

2. Coupling of Controller and View: In many frameworks, Controllers and Views are tightly coupled, leading to less reusable components.

3. Observable Models: For a model to be effective, it should be observable, meaning it can notify the View when its data changes. This allows for a clear separation where the Model does not depend on the View.

4. Complex Models: Understanding complex relationships within models is crucial. A well-designed model can efficiently support various Views and their requirements.

5. Importance of Argument Models: Often overlooked, argument models (data needed for functions) should also be observable to ensure that UI elements reflect the current state accurately.

Overall, the article emphasizes the importance of correctly implementing MVC to enhance reusability and maintainability in software design.

The text describes a GitHub repository called "distributed-llama" managed by a user named b4rtaz. Here are the key points:

• The repository includes a discussion about running a model called Qwen3 (version 0.16.0) on four Raspberry Pi 5 devices, each with 8GB of RAM.
• The setup consists of one main device (ROOT) and three worker devices, all connected through a TP-Link switch.
• The model is evaluated for performance, achieving a prediction speed of 14.33 tokens per second during benchmarking.
• The text includes details about the model architecture and network configurations, such as the number of layers, dimensions, and vocabulary size.
• The model was tested with a prompt asking about the location of Poland, and the evaluation results are summarized, showing the time taken for processing and the number of tokens handled.

Overall, the document outlines a technical discussion on deploying and evaluating a machine learning model using multiple Raspberry Pi devices.

The authors, Tobias Landsberg, Johannes Grunenberg, Christian Dietrich, and Daniel Lohmann, discuss a new approach to compilation caches (CCs), which help save time, energy, and money by preventing unnecessary compilations. Traditional CCs work with C or C-style languages, using techniques like hashing source code to detect cache hits. The paper introduces IRHash, a new CC for LLVM that operates at the Intermediate Representation (IR) level. This method promises higher accuracy and supports multiple programming languages.

In their evaluation, IRHash showed an average build time reduction of 19% for C projects, outperforming existing tools like Ccache (10%) and cHash (16%). The findings suggest that IRHash provides better overall savings while broadening language support.

Summary

The text discusses the issue of accidentally copying data in C++ due to a missing ampersand (&), which leads to performance problems. In C++, developers must be careful to specify whether they want to pass data by reference or by value. A common mistake is to copy a large object instead of referencing it, which can slow down the program. Tools like linters can help catch these mistakes, but they often go unnoticed until they cause issues.

In contrast, Rust handles these situations better by using "move by default," which means it moves objects instead of copying them unless specified otherwise. This design reduces the chances of making such mistakes. Rust's compiler also provides clearer feedback when errors occur, preventing issues like "use after move."

The text highlights that while C++ has methods to avoid copying, these can be complex and cumbersome. Rust’s straightforward defaults help developers avoid minor but significant errors, making code safer and easier to manage. Overall, the author appreciates Rust's design choices that lead to better performance and reduced mental overhead for developers.

Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo, argues that AI surveillance should be banned to protect privacy. He explains that AI chatbots can collect and exploit personal information more deeply than traditional online tracking. Users often share sensitive details in chatbot conversations, which can be used for manipulation through targeted advertising or ideological nudging. This poses greater risks compared to regular search queries.

Weinberg highlights recent privacy breaches, such as leaked chatbot conversations and vulnerabilities in AI systems that can expose personal data. He calls for Congress to establish laws that protect privacy in AI interactions, emphasizing the urgency to act before harmful practices become entrenched. Despite the lack of comprehensive online privacy laws in the U.S., there is a chance for AI-specific legislation. DuckDuckGo is committed to providing privacy-respecting AI services, encouraging consumers to use tools that enhance productivity without compromising their privacy.

No summary available.