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Improved CIELAB Color Quantization with the HyAB Distance Formula

2025-07-10

This article explores an improved CIELAB color quantization method using a novel distance formula called HyAB, replacing the traditional Euclidean distance. HyAB uses absolute difference for lightness and Euclidean distance for chromaticity, showing better alignment with human perception in experiments. The author applies it to the k-means algorithm, further optimizing results by replacing the mean calculation of the L component with the median. While HyAB can improve image quality in some cases, the author notes that overall system design and post-processing techniques like dithering have a greater impact on the final outcome.

(30fps.net)

Development

SUMO: Build Your Virtual Traffic World

2025-07-31

SUMO: Build Your Virtual Traffic World

SUMO is an open-source microscopic traffic simulation software that lets you build and simulate complex traffic systems. It supports features like automated driving integration, C2X communication, traffic management, and multimodal traffic simulation. Import road networks from various formats and generate realistic traffic demands. Whether researching traffic efficiency or testing autonomous driving algorithms, SUMO offers powerful simulation capabilities and runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

(eclipse.dev)

Tech traffic simulation

The Mystery of Thirst: How the Brain Senses Dehydration

2025-08-12

The Mystery of Thirst: How the Brain Senses Dehydration

New research reveals the mechanism by which the brain senses thirst. Instead of directly detecting water deficiency, the brain monitors blood salt concentration through circumventricular organs near the hypothalamus, such as the OVLT and SFO. When salt concentration is too high or the water-salt ratio is imbalanced, these organs signal the brain, triggering thirst. Interestingly, the brain doesn't wait for water absorption to determine hydration; it uses sensors in the mouth and gut to quickly estimate water intake, shutting off the thirst signal promptly. This suggests thirst isn't simply a water deficiency signal, but rather the brain's 'educated guess' about the body's internal environment.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech thirst mechanism brain sensing

AI: The Irreversible Shift

2025-06-04

This blog post details how AI, specifically Claude Code, has revolutionized the author's programming workflow, boosting efficiency and freeing up significant time. The author argues that AI's impact is irreversible, reshaping how we live and work, despite initial challenges. The rapid adoption of AI across various sectors is highlighted, showcasing its transformative power in communication, learning, and daily tasks. The author encourages embracing AI's potential with curiosity and responsibility, rather than fear and resistance.

(lucumr.pocoo.org)

AI Technological Transformation Future Outlook

Lithium-ion Batteries: A Growing Threat to Air Travel Safety

2025-08-25

Lithium-ion Batteries: A Growing Threat to Air Travel Safety

The increasing number of passengers carrying lithium-ion batteries in their electronic devices is leading to a rise in onboard fires. FAA tests demonstrate the catastrophic potential of lithium-ion battery thermal runaway, which can cause short circuits, escalating temperatures, and ultimately, battery failure with the ejection of molten electrolyte, flames, smoke, and toxic gases. While halon extinguishers are recommended, they may be insufficient, necessitating the use of water and other resources. The FAA prohibits external battery packs in checked baggage, yet many passengers still do so. A recent incident involving a South Korean Airbus A321 highlights the dangers, prompting new regulations. Southwest Airlines now requires battery packs to be in plain sight and prohibits charging in overhead bins. Experts stress passenger awareness and advocate for purchasing quality devices to mitigate the risks associated with cheap, potentially defective batteries.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech Lithium-ion Batteries Aircraft Fires

The Arrogant Ape: Rethinking Human Exceptionalism

2025-08-20

The Arrogant Ape: Rethinking Human Exceptionalism

This article challenges the limitations of anthropocentrism and its negative impacts on science, the environment, and animal welfare. The author uses numerous scientific examples to expose humanity's underestimation of animal capabilities and misjudgment of animal cognition and emotions, highlighting how humans often use themselves as a benchmark to measure other species, ignoring the diversity and unique abilities of different species. The author calls for abandoning the arrogance of anthropocentrism, viewing nature with awe, and adopting a more just and respectful attitude towards animals.

(democracyjournal.org)

Misc anthropocentrism

Mindless Machines, Meaningless Myths: A Review of Robert Skidelsky's 'Mindless'

2025-08-18

Mindless Machines, Meaningless Myths: A Review of Robert Skidelsky's 'Mindless'

This review examines Robert Skidelsky's 'Mindless: The Human Condition in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,' which explores the philosophical implications of AI, automation, and the illusion of progress. The author argues that we inhabit a 'machine civilization' where technology shapes our thinking, work, and relationships, prompting fundamental questions about human meaning, purpose, and freedom. Skidelsky traces technological development from the Industrial Revolution to the digital age, showing that progress isn't always positive, potentially leading to meaningless work, over-reliance on technology, and threats to human well-being. He calls for deeper reflection on technological advancement, urging us to avoid the pitfalls of technological optimism.

(lareviewofbooks.org)

AI Philosophy of Technology

LLMs Fail to Generalize Beyond Training Data

2025-08-12

LLMs Fail to Generalize Beyond Training Data

Researchers tested the generalization capabilities of large language models (LLMs) on tasks, formats, and lengths outside their training data. Results showed a dramatic drop in accuracy as the task diverged from the training distribution. Even when providing correct answers, the models often exhibited illogical reasoning or reasoning inconsistent with their answers. This suggests that chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning in LLMs doesn't reflect true text understanding, but rather the replication of patterns learned during training. Performance also degraded sharply when presented with inputs of varying lengths or unfamiliar symbols, further highlighting the limitations in generalization.

(arstechnica.com)

AI

$83 Billion Wasted: The Airport's 3-Hour Check-in Fiasco

2025-08-03

$83 Billion Wasted: The Airport's 3-Hour Check-in Fiasco

This article exposes a massive inefficiency in US air travel: the requirement for passengers to arrive 2.5-3 hours before their flight, resulting in an estimated $83 billion annual loss in wasted time. This isn't solely due to flight delays, but also because airports have become shopping malls, maximizing passenger dwell time for revenue generation. The author calls for improvements in airport processes, more smaller airports, streamlined security, increased air traffic capacity, and a rejection of the status quo to address this issue.

(viewfromthewing.com)

Tech airline efficiency time cost airport management

Meta Found Guilty of Accessing Sensitive Data from Women's Health App

2025-08-14

Meta Found Guilty of Accessing Sensitive Data from Women's Health App

A jury ruled that Meta accessed sensitive information from Flo Health, a women's reproductive health tracking app, without consent. Flo Health collected highly personal data, including menstrual cycles, mood swings, and sexual activity, sharing it with companies like Facebook and Google. This case highlights serious data privacy concerns, particularly after the overturning of abortion rights in the US, increasing risks to women's reproductive health information. The verdict raises concerns about other apps' data-sharing practices and the balance between technological convenience and potential dangers.

(www.malwarebytes.com)

Tech

Nokia Sans as a UI Font: A Surprisingly Good Choice

2025-08-30

A nostalgic journey into the world of Nokia's iconic Nokia Sans font. The author, driven by sentimentality, experimented with using it as a user interface font. Despite the difficulty in finding a complete font set, they managed to install various variants and discovered Nokia Sans Wide to be surprisingly legible and charming. The post shares a personal experience and touches upon the font's performance across different systems and DPI settings, as well as legal considerations.

(www.osnews.com)

Design

NYPD's Radio Encryption Plan Blocked by State Lawmakers

2025-06-06

NYPD's Radio Encryption Plan Blocked by State Lawmakers

New York state lawmakers voted down the NYPD's plan to encrypt its radio communications. The "Keep Police Radio Public Act" aims to balance transparency with the need to protect sensitive information. The bill, if signed into law, would grant emergency services and reporters access to real-time police radio communications while still keeping sensitive information private. The NYPD argued encryption is necessary for officer safety and victim privacy, but supporters of the bill contend that public access to police radio is crucial for press freedom and public accountability. The bill now heads to Governor Kathy Hochul's desk.

(nypost.com)

Tech police transparency

Apple's COO Jeff Williams Retires, Sabih Khan Takes the Helm

2025-07-09

Apple's long-time Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, is retiring later this month. His successor will be Sabih Khan, Apple's SVP of Operations, a key figure in Apple's globally influential supply chain. Williams will remain at Apple through the year, overseeing Apple Watch and health initiatives, and leading the design team until his retirement, after which the design team will report directly to Tim Cook. Khan's promotion is a long-planned transition, highlighting his strategic prowess in navigating supply chain complexities and driving sustainability initiatives. This leadership change signals a generational shift within Apple's operations, setting the stage for the company's Vision Pro era and increased hardware-services integration.

(nerds.xyz)

Tech Leadership Change

Arrow Stork: Solving the Mystery of Bird Migration

2025-08-16

Arrow Stork: Solving the Mystery of Bird Migration

The discovery of the Rostock Arrow Stork in 1822, a white stork with a 75cm spear embedded in its neck, revolutionized our understanding of bird migration. This single bird, carrying an African projectile, debunked theories of hibernation or transformation, proving conclusively that birds migrate long distances. While subsequent similar cases have been documented, they have decreased with the replacement of bows and arrows with guns. The Arrow Stork's legacy is a pivotal moment in ornithology, highlighting the wonders and mysteries of the natural world.

(en.wikipedia.org)

Tech arrow stork

SGLang: An Open-Source Implementation Matching DeepSeek LLM's Inference Performance

2025-08-29

SGLang: An Open-Source Implementation Matching DeepSeek LLM's Inference Performance

DeepSeek, a popular open-source large language model (LLM), boasts impressive performance. However, its massive size and unique architecture (using Multi-head Latent Attention and Mixture of Experts) demand a sophisticated system for efficient large-scale serving. This blog details how we achieved near-parity with DeepSeek's inference system performance using SGLang. Our implementation, running on 12 nodes (each with 8 H100 GPUs) in the Atlas Cloud, leverages prefill-decode disaggregation and large-scale expert parallelism (EP), reaching 52.3k input tokens/second and 22.3k output tokens/second per node for 2000-token input sequences. This is, to our knowledge, the first open-source implementation to nearly match DeepSeek's reported throughput at scale, at roughly one-fifth the cost of the official DeepSeek Chat API.

(lmsys.org)

AI Model Inference

Nothing Phone 3: Stylish, but Too Pricey?

2025-07-31

Nothing Phone 3: Stylish, but Too Pricey?

Nothing's Phone 3 boasts a distinctive design, but its high price tag is causing a stir. While it incorporates AI features like Gemini integration and an AI hardware button, these additions don't offer a significant advantage and fail to compete with rivals' AI capabilities. The hardware specs also fall short of flagship standards, with camera performance lagging behind Google's Pixel 9, and overall, it struggles to compete with Samsung's S25 or the iPhone. Despite Nothing's stance against price cuts, a $500-$600 price point might make it more competitive.

(www.ndtvprofit.com)

Hardware

Figma IPO Priced at $33 per Share

2025-07-31

Figma IPO Priced at $33 per Share

Design collaboration platform Figma announced its initial public offering (IPO) of 36,937,080 shares of Class A common stock priced at $33.00 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 31, 2025, under the ticker symbol "FIG." The offering includes shares offered by Figma and existing stockholders. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company, and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint lead book-running managers. Founded in 2012, Figma has evolved from a design tool into a connected, AI-powered platform, streamlining the entire design and product development process.

(www.figma.com)

Startup Design Collaboration

Massive Network of 1200+ Fake Online Gambling Sites Exposed

2025-07-31

A massive network of over 1200 fake online gambling websites is using social media platforms like Discord to lure victims with deceptive ads. These sites claim partnerships with popular personalities, offering large free credits, but ultimately steal cryptocurrency deposits. The scammers use a shared API key and unique Bitcoin wallets, employing tactics like "verification deposits" to defraud users. A 17-year-old developer uncovered the network, revealing its scale and operation, similar to "pig butchering" scams but with lower investment, less risk, and higher efficiency.

(krebsonsecurity.com)

Tech online gambling

Doctor Who Season Finale Twist: Rose Tyler Returns as the Doctor?!

2025-06-02

Doctor Who Season Finale Twist: Rose Tyler Returns as the Doctor?!

The Doctor Who season 2 finale, "The Reality War," delivered a shocking twist. Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa sacrificed himself to save Poppy, his daughter from the 'Wish World', triggering a regeneration into a familiar face: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper)! Rose, the companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, is now set to become the second (or third, depending on how you count Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor) female Doctor. However, the ending leaves the how and why of Rose's transformation a complete mystery, setting up a huge cliffhanger for season 3 and igniting fan speculation.

(www.space.com)

Game Doctor Who Billie Piper

Quantum Gravity Sensor Enables GPS-Free Navigation

2025-07-31

Quantum Gravity Sensor Enables GPS-Free Navigation

Q-CTRL, an Australian company, has developed a novel quantum gravity sensor that measures gravity changes by detecting variations in the travel time of falling atoms. Tested aboard a Royal Australian Navy vessel, the sensor successfully enabled 144 hours of GPS-free navigation. This technology overcomes the cumulative error problem of traditional inertial navigation systems and is jam-resistant and spoof-proof, offering a robust alternative for GPS-reliant sectors like maritime and transportation, especially in polar regions or areas with GPS interference. While currently large, future miniaturization promises broader applications.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech quantum sensor gravity measurement

Lobster: A Lightweight Programming Language for Game Development

2025-08-28

Lobster is a programming language combining the benefits of static typing and compile-time memory management with a lightweight, user-friendly syntax. While general-purpose, its current implementation leans towards games and graphics, boasting 'batteries-included' functionality. Open-source (Apache v2), Lobster offers rapid prototyping, JIT and C++ compilation, strong type inference, vector operations, multithreading, a rich standard library, and a graphical debugger. It's cross-platform, supporting Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and WebAssembly.

(www.strlen.com)

Development

The Collapse of the Antitrust Case: Investigating the Dallas Housing Market

2025-08-01

The Collapse of the Antitrust Case: Investigating the Dallas Housing Market

This article investigates claims that the Dallas housing market is monopolized by large homebuilders. By contacting economists and industry analysts quoted in a prominent article making this claim, the author reveals that the arguments are based on misinterpretations, distortions, and a lack of evidence. Research shows Dallas's homebuilder market concentration is far below the threshold for problematic levels, and per capita new home construction has steadily increased. The author challenges the simplistic linkage of market concentration to rising housing prices and argues that overly aggressive accusations against large builders could harm long-term housing construction.

(www.derekthompson.org)

Tech

Cognitive Load: The Silent Killer in Software Development

2025-08-30

Cognitive Load: The Silent Killer in Software Development

This article explores the critical role of cognitive load in software development. High cognitive load leads to decreased efficiency and increased bugs. It analyzes common causes of high cognitive load, such as complex code logic, excessive inheritance, too many shallow modules and microservices, and unnecessary abstraction layers. The author advocates for minimizing cognitive load by using meaningful variable names, early returns, composition over inheritance, and creating fewer but deeper modules to simplify code, thus improving readability and maintainability. The article also critiques the drawbacks of over-emphasizing design patterns and architectures, stressing that simpler, straightforward solutions are often more effective.

(github.com)

Development

Google Expands AI-Powered Underage User Detection

2025-07-31

Google Expands AI-Powered Underage User Detection

Google is expanding its AI-powered age estimation technology to US users to identify underage accounts. The system analyzes search history and YouTube viewing habits to estimate age. If a user is deemed under 18, restrictions are implemented, including limited YouTube recommendations, disabled Maps Timeline, no personalized ads, and blocked access to adult apps on the Play Store. Users can appeal misidentification by uploading ID. This move reflects a global push for stronger online child safety measures, with governments in the US and UK pressuring tech companies to enhance protections.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6: A Review of the Rollable Laptop

2025-08-04

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6: A Review of the Rollable Laptop

Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is a $3,300 laptop with a groundbreaking rollable screen that expands from 14 inches to 16.7 inches. While pricey, its vibrant OLED display, impressive performance, and excellent battery life make it a compelling option. However, its weight, limited hinge tilt, and minor quirks like screen wobble and creaks are drawbacks. Overall, it's an innovative machine for productivity-focused users willing to pay a premium for cutting-edge tech.

(www.theverge.com)

Hardware

Musk's Boring Company to Build 10-Mile Loop in Nashville

2025-07-31

Musk's Boring Company to Build 10-Mile Loop in Nashville

Elon Musk's The Boring Company plans to build a 10-mile underground loop connecting Nashville's downtown, convention center, and airport. Privately funded by the company and unnamed partners, the project aims for completion as early as fall 2026. While the Las Vegas project saw success, past ventures faced setbacks and safety concerns. The Nashville project's success remains uncertain, particularly regarding safety and construction speed.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech tunnel Nashville

Wayland Lock Screen Transformed into a Pokémon Puzzle

2025-08-12

Wayland Lock Screen Transformed into a Pokémon Puzzle

A Linux enthusiast has created a unique Wayland lock screen that replaces the password screen with a Game Boy emulator running a modified Pokémon game. Users unlock their session by solving a mini-puzzle within the game, offering a fun and engaging alternative to traditional password entry. The project demonstrates the high level of customization possible with Wayland. The developer delved into Wayland protocols, implemented a low-level Wayland window, and even modified the Pokémon game's assembly code to incorporate password logic. While experimental, this project showcases impressive creativity and technical skill, offering a fresh perspective on personalized system customization.

(github.com)

Development Lock Screen

Infracost seeks its first PM to tackle the $600B cloud cost problem

2025-07-31

$Infracost seeks its first PM to tackle the $600B cloud cost problem$

Infracost, a Sequoia and YC-backed startup, is searching for its first product manager. They're tackling the challenge of proactively managing cloud costs, enabling engineers to find and fix cost issues before they hit production. The PM will own critical parts of the roadmap, working closely with engineering and design, and directly with customers to understand their needs. This is a high-impact role requiring B2B product experience, DevOps tool experience, and ideally, cloud cost domain expertise. The company values a user-centric, open, and highly effective execution culture.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development Cloud Cost Management

Universal Logo's Untold Story: A Six-Month Masterpiece of Light and Shadow

2025-07-31

The creation of Universal Pictures' iconic logo is a tale of ingenuity and painstaking effort. Art director Alexander Golitzen, using plexiglass, phosphorescent coatings, and multiple exposures, spent six months crafting the mesmerizing rotating globe and stars. Thin plexiglass stars, coated with silver-activated zinc sulfide for high reflectivity, were individually rotated with multiple lights and filmed with a narrow aperture. The globe, painted black with an interior phosphorescent coating, had the title added in a separate pass. Multiple projections and exposures, along with a second, larger globe, were used to create the final effect. The logo's design even inspired the 'Interociter' device in the 1955 film 'This Island Earth'.

(movies.stackexchange.com)

Design film effects universal pictures

GEPA: Language-Based Reflection Outperforms RL in AI Prompt Optimization

2025-07-31

GEPA: Language-Based Reflection Outperforms RL in AI Prompt Optimization

Researchers introduce GEPA, a novel algorithm for optimizing prompts in complex AI systems. Unlike traditional reinforcement learning (RL), GEPA uses a language-driven evolutionary approach. An LLM analyzes its own performance—reasoning, tool usage, and feedback—to identify and fix errors. GEPA significantly outperforms RL methods, using far fewer system executions while achieving better results across various tasks. This highlights the potential of language-based self-reflection for efficient AI optimization.

(arxiviq.substack.com)

AI AI optimization

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