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Sub-nanosecond Flash Memory Device Based on 2D Materials: Fabrication and Modeling

2025-04-23

Sub-nanosecond Flash Memory Device Based on 2D Materials: Fabrication and Modeling

Researchers fabricated a sub-nanosecond flash memory device based on two-dimensional (2D) materials (WSe2, graphene, and hBN). The fabrication process involved e-beam lithography, atomic layer deposition, and mechanical exfoliation. The device's structure and performance were characterized using atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. A quasi-2D model was developed to simulate the device's electrical characteristics, and its validity was experimentally verified. This research provides new avenues for developing high-performance, low-power next-generation flash memory devices.

(www.nature.com)

Hardware flash memory device modeling

Zig Software Foundation's 2025 Financial Report & Fundraiser: A Plea for Sustainability

2025-09-03

The Zig Software Foundation released its 2024 financial report, showcasing efficient resource allocation where the majority of funds went directly to compensating contributors. Despite a slight dip in donations, user activity exploded, leading to a surge in issues and pull requests. To address this growing demand, the foundation expanded its core team and is now seeking sustained donations to maintain operations and project momentum. They prefer donations via Every.org, and encourage various support methods including company matching, venture capital investment, and individual contributions.

(ziglang.org)

Development Zig programming language

Dr. Demento Retires After 55 Years of Broadcasting Novelty Music

2025-06-19

Dr. Demento Retires After 55 Years of Broadcasting Novelty Music

Radio personality Barret "Dr. Demento" Hansen announced his retirement this week, ending a 55-year career dedicated to comedy and novelty music. His show, which began in 1970, will conclude in October with retrospective episodes culminating in a final broadcast of the program's top 40 songs. Dr. Demento's show, initially a freeform rock program, evolved into a platform for comedic songs and musical oddities, introducing audiences to artists like "Weird Al" Yankovic, whom he's largely credited with discovering. The show's long run spanned various mediums, from reel-to-reel tapes to online streaming, showcasing Hansen's enduring influence on radio and comedy.

(sopghreporter.com)

Misc

Infected qBittorrent Docker Image Secretly Mines Crypto

2025-09-23

While migrating servers, the author discovered a suspicious process, netservlet, consuming excessive CPU resources within a hotio/qbittorrent Docker container. Investigation revealed netservlet to be a stealth cryptocurrency miner, likely XMRig or a variant. Analysis of a core dump revealed strings related to cryptocurrency mining (e.g., cryptonight, ethash_calculate_dag_item) and a mining pool address (auto.c3pool.org:19999). This highlights the importance of not trusting random Docker images, regularly monitoring system resources, and auditing hosts and containers to prevent security breaches.

(apogliaghi.com)

Development cryptocurrency mining

Math Academy: Effective Drill or Conceptual Roadblock?

2025-04-13

Math Academy: Effective Drill or Conceptual Roadblock?

Math Academy is a popular online math learning platform praised for its gamified approach. However, reviews from math educators are mixed. The author explores its strengths and weaknesses through personal experience, highlighting its effectiveness in procedural fluency (mastering steps) but its shortcomings in conceptual understanding. Math Academy is best used as a supplement to deepen understanding gained from textbooks or lectures, not as the sole learning method. The author advocates prioritizing conceptual understanding, using tools like Math Academy for targeted practice.

(newsletter.ozwrites.com)

Education

arXivLabs: Community Collaboration on arXiv Features

2025-03-16

arXivLabs is a framework for collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the arXiv website. Individuals and organizations working with arXivLabs share and uphold arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who adhere to them. Got an idea for a project that will benefit the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

CodeScientist: An AI-Powered Tool for Automated Scientific Discovery – Costs and Risks

2025-04-09

CodeScientist: An AI-Powered Tool for Automated Scientific Discovery – Costs and Risks

CodeScientist is an autonomous agent leveraging LLMs for automated scientific discovery. It generates, debugs, and runs experiments, but costs vary depending on debugging iterations, prompt size, etc., averaging around $4 per experiment. Users must carefully manage API keys and monitor usage to avoid high costs. The generated code might contain API keys; exclusion patterns are recommended to prevent accidental commits.

(github.com)

Development Cost Management

Accelerating Shakespeare Quote Image Rendering with Quadtrees and Interval Analysis

2025-04-09

The author participated in the Prospero Challenge, aiming to rapidly render a 1024x1024 image of a Shakespeare quote from The Tempest, generated by a mathematical formula with 7866 operations. Various optimization techniques were explored, including quadtree recursive subdivision of the image, interval analysis to simplify the formula, and a "demanded information" optimization. Implemented in both RPython and C, the author compared the performance of different optimization strategies. The "demanded information" optimization significantly improved rendering speed, with the final C implementation incorporating this optimization achieving the best performance.

(pypy.org)

Development image rendering quadtrees

The Hobbit in Five Celtic Languages: A Publishing Milestone

2025-06-27

The Hobbit in Five Celtic Languages: A Publishing Milestone

Welsh publisher Melin Bapur has compiled all current Celtic language editions of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic, *The Hobbit*, including the recently released Scottish Gaelic translation, *A' Hobat*. This marks a significant achievement in bringing the story to a wider Celtic audience, with only the Manx Gaelic version remaining untranslated. The Welsh translation, *Yr Hobyd*, released in 2024, uniquely uses the 18th-century Welsh Coelbren y Beirdd runes instead of Anglo-Saxon runes, adding a distinctly Welsh flavor. The publisher highlights the value of translating familiar books in encouraging wider readership and providing invaluable resources for language learners.

(nation.cymru)

Misc The Hobbit Celtic Languages Translation

The 4000 Carriage Companies: A Disruption Case Study

2025-07-09

The 4000 Carriage Companies: A Disruption Case Study

In the early 20th century, over 4,000 carriage companies dominated US transportation. The rise of the automobile, initially dismissed as unreliable and inferior, swiftly decimated this industry. This article analyzes the near-total collapse of this massive sector, highlighting how only a handful, like Studebaker, successfully pivoted to automobile manufacturing. The story serves as a stark warning for today's businesses facing the disruptive potential of AI, emphasizing the crucial need for adaptability, long-term vision, and a willingness to embrace change before it's too late. Failure often comes gradually, then suddenly.

(steveblank.com)

Startup corporate strategy

High-Performing Teams Embrace Conflict, Not Harmony

2025-04-12

High-Performing Teams Embrace Conflict, Not Harmony

High-performing teams aren't defined by surface-level harmony, but by psychological safety—the ability to openly discuss and productively resolve conflict. True safety isn't about avoiding conflict; it's about allowing challenging ideas to make the team stronger. The author argues that healthy teams flag issues early, debate thoroughly, focus on the problem, not the person, and turn mistakes into learning opportunities. Conversely, "nice" teams lacking open communication harbor hidden problems, ultimately leading to failure. Building this environment involves: leaders showing vulnerability, setting debate ground rules, and rewarding those who raise challenging questions. Ultimately, a psychologically safe team, while experiencing conflict, effectively resolves issues, avoids resentment, and ultimately delivers higher-quality work. The final point highlights that unquestioned code often crashes in production – the same applies to ideas.

(terriblesoftware.org)

Development psychological safety conflict resolution

JWST Discovers Most Distant Giant Spiral Galaxy Yet

2024-12-31

JWST Discovers Most Distant Giant Spiral Galaxy Yet

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered Zhúlóng, an ultra-massive spiral galaxy that is the most distant of its kind ever identified. This grand-design spiral, with its well-defined arms, boasts a mass comparable to the Milky Way and formed a mere billion years after the Big Bang. Studies reveal a quiescent core and a still-active star-forming disk, suggesting Zhúlóng is in a transitional phase. This discovery challenges existing models of early universe galaxy formation, indicating mature galaxies may have emerged much earlier than previously thought.

(phys.org)

Tech JWST Spiral Galaxy

mem-isolate: Safely Running Unsafe Code

2025-04-06

mem-isolate: Safely Running Unsafe Code

mem-isolate executes your function via a fork(), waits for the result, and returns it to the parent process, preventing unsafe code from affecting the parent's memory footprint. It handles memory leaks and heap fragmentation, enforcing memory purity even for impure functions. Currently supporting only Unix-like systems, it adds approximately 1ms overhead compared to direct function calls—a reasonable trade-off for memory safety in critical applications.

(github.com)

Development memory isolation inter-process communication safe programming

Grid Failure in Extreme Heat: Uncontrolled Grid Reactance Due to Increasingly Complex Corona Discharge

2025-04-29

A recent grid failure during extreme heat is attributed to uncontrolled grid reactance caused by corona discharge. High temperatures and low humidity exacerbated corona discharge on high-voltage transmission lines, introducing unexpected reactance that overwhelmed traditional grid stability control systems. The modern grid's rapid response capabilities, enabled by inverter-based energy storage, generation, and transmission, proved counterproductive in this case, amplifying grid imbalances and leading to cascading failures and a complete blackout. As climate change intensifies, such events may become more frequent, demanding improved models and mitigation strategies to ensure grid stability.

(physics.stackexchange.com)

Tech grid failure corona discharge

Senate Introduces Bill to Block Foreign Pirate Sites: Block BEARD

2025-08-01

The US Senate has introduced the "Block BEARD" bill, aiming to combat foreign piracy websites. The bill allows rightsholders to petition courts for blocking orders against US service providers accessing designated "foreign digital piracy sites." Strict criteria are set for obtaining such orders, including demonstrable harm to the rightsholder, reasonable notification attempts to the site operator, and confirmation the operator isn't US-based. The bill, similar to the House's FADPA, notably omits specific mention of DNS resolvers. Support has emerged from the music and film industries, while service providers' responses remain awaited.

(torrentfreak.com)

Tech website blocking

OpenAI: The Next Visa? Challenges and Risks on the Path to Monopoly

2024-12-26

OpenAI: The Next Visa? Challenges and Risks on the Path to Monopoly

The article compares OpenAI to Visa, arguing its success isn't due to superior technology but to erecting barriers through exclusive deals, government contracts, and licensing restrictions to limit competition. OpenAI attempts to build these barriers by lobbying for government regulation, restricting investors from funding competitors, and securing long-term exclusive contracts with large clients. However, this strategy faces political and competitive headwinds. Similar to Visa's past challenges, the increasing ubiquity of LLM technology threatens the core API business. Competition from Elon Musk and potential relaxation of government regulation further complicate OpenAI's efforts to maintain its dominance. Ultimately, OpenAI's future hinges on whether it can build sufficiently high barriers to entry, both technologically and legally, to avoid repeating Visa's antitrust lawsuit.

(sherwood.news)

AI monopoly

DeepCoder-14B: Open-Source Code Reasoning Model Matches OpenAI's o3-mini

2025-04-09

DeepCoder-14B: Open-Source Code Reasoning Model Matches OpenAI's o3-mini

Agentica and Together AI have released DeepCoder-14B-Preview, a code reasoning model fine-tuned via distributed RL from Deepseek-R1-Distilled-Qwen-14B. Achieving an impressive 60.6% Pass@1 accuracy on LiveCodeBench, it rivals OpenAI's o3-mini, using only 14B parameters. The project open-sources its dataset, code, training logs, and system optimizations, showcasing a robust training recipe built on high-quality data and algorithmic improvements to GRPO. This advancement democratizes access to high-performing code-generation models.

(www.together.ai)

AI Code Reasoning

The Truth About REST APIs: Beyond CRUD

2025-07-09

This article delves into the essence of the REST architectural style, revealing its core principle: Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State (HATEOAS). Many so-called "RESTful APIs" merely adhere to CRUD operations, neglecting the key constraint of HATEOAS, leading to tight coupling between client and server, hindering maintainability and scalability. Through Roy Fielding's arguments and examples, the article clarifies how true REST APIs guide client interaction through hypermedia links, enabling dynamic resource discovery and state transitions, ultimately building loosely coupled, evolvable distributed systems. The article also discusses the practical trade-offs often leading to simpler, RPC-like approaches.

(florian-kraemer.net)

Development

Shawn Mendes' Song Secretly Reveals His Stance on the Kuril Islands Dispute?

2025-06-09

Shawn Mendes' Song Secretly Reveals His Stance on the Kuril Islands Dispute?

This article humorously analyzes Shawn Mendes' song "Lost in Japan," using lyrics, flight schedules, and geographical data to deduce that Mendes may have visited Iturup Island in the Kuril Islands, subtly supporting Japan's claim to the territory. The author's playful yet detailed investigation links seemingly simple lyrics to a complex geopolitical issue, leading to a surprising conclusion.

(ericneyman.wordpress.com)

Misc geographical deduction

Optus Firewall Upgrade Causes 14-Hour Emergency Services Outage, Potentially Leading to 3 Deaths

2025-09-22

Optus Firewall Upgrade Causes 14-Hour Emergency Services Outage, Potentially Leading to 3 Deaths

An Optus firewall upgrade caused a 14-hour outage of emergency services (Triple Zero, 000) in Australia. Initial monitoring failed to detect the issue, and it wasn't until a customer reported the problem that Optus realized the severity. The CEO, Stephen Rue, stated that staff may not have followed established procedures. At least three deaths are potentially linked to the outage, with victims believed to have attempted to contact emergency services during the downtime. Optus is investigating and has expressed remorse, vowing to improve its emergency service protocols.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech emergency services

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-04-24

arXivLabs is a framework for collaborating on and sharing new arXiv features directly on the website. Participants embrace arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. Got an idea to improve the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

Four-Day Workweek Boosts Employee Well-being and Productivity

2025-07-23

Four-Day Workweek Boosts Employee Well-being and Productivity

A six-month trial involving thousands of employees across multiple countries showed that a four-day workweek, without a pay cut, significantly improved worker well-being and productivity. Researchers found reduced burnout, increased job satisfaction, and fewer sleep problems. While those reducing their hours by eight or more saw the greatest benefits, even a five-hour reduction yielded positive results. Although the study had limitations (volunteer participation, smaller companies, English-speaking countries), it suggests that income-preserving four-day workweeks are a promising organizational intervention, particularly in light of advancements in AI and automation.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech employee well-being

WhoFi: Wi-Fi-Based Biometric Identification Achieves 95.5% Accuracy

2025-07-23

WhoFi: Wi-Fi-Based Biometric Identification Achieves 95.5% Accuracy

Researchers from La Sapienza University of Rome have developed WhoFi, a novel biometric identification system using Wi-Fi signals. By analyzing patterns in Wi-Fi Channel State Information (CSI), WhoFi can accurately re-identify individuals across different locations, unaffected by lighting conditions and able to penetrate obstacles. Achieving up to 95.5% accuracy on the NTU-Fi dataset, WhoFi demonstrates the potential of Wi-Fi signals as a robust and privacy-preserving biometric modality, though privacy concerns remain.

(www.theregister.com)

AI Biometrics

Recreating Photoshop: A Developer's Summer Project from 2006

2025-03-16

Recreating Photoshop: A Developer's Summer Project from 2006

In the summer of 2006, a developer, aiming to improve his manga reading experience, created a manga reader named Fiew using C++ and the Windows API. Driven by ambition, he then tackled the formidable task of recreating core Photoshop functionality, resulting in the image editor, Fedit. Fedit adhered to principles of zero installation and a single executable file, and meticulously replicated Photoshop's interface and features, including floating tool windows, a color picker, and layer management. Months of development, overcoming numerous technical hurdles, culminated in a successful thesis, a software engineering job, and the open-sourcing of Fedit's code and documentation.

(f055.net)

Development Image Editor

Google's AI Summaries: Devouring the Web's Ecosystem?

2025-06-22

Google's AI Summaries: Devouring the Web's Ecosystem?

Google's AI-generated web page summaries, launched in May 2024, increased search impressions but decreased click-through rates to source websites by 30 percent. This means more people use Google Search, but fewer visit the original sites. Studies show significantly higher click-through rates when AI summaries are absent. Web publishers are alarmed as search traffic, and thus ad and subscription revenue, plummets. Data reveals a drastic imbalance between web page crawling and referral traffic for AI companies like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic; Google's ratio has soared from 2:1 to 18:1. This has led to lawsuits from publishers questioning compensation for the content used to train AI models. While Google dominates search, its actions risk undermining the very foundation of its business.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Content Ecosystem

A Tiny Forth for the 6502: Under 600 Bytes

2025-03-28

A Tiny Forth for the 6502: Under 600 Bytes

This article details a highly minimized Forth implementation for the 8-bit 6502 CPU, achieving a size of under 600 bytes. The author compares two interpreter models: Direct Threaded Code (DTC) and Minimal Threaded Code (MTC), opting for DTC for its smaller size. The project focuses on size over performance, aiming to verify standard DTC against MTC variations. The resulting Forth includes core primitives and is tested with `my_hello_world.FORTH`, demonstrating functionality.

(github.com)

Development

wtfis: A Powerful Open-Source Domain/IP Information Gathering Tool

2025-05-12

wtfis: A Powerful Open-Source Domain/IP Information Gathering Tool

wtfis is a command-line tool that gathers information about a domain, FQDN, or IP address using various OSINT services. Designed for ease of use, it presents results in a human-readable format and minimizes API calls to avoid exceeding quotas. It integrates multiple sources like VirusTotal, IP2Whois, Shodan, Greynoise, URLhaus, and AbuseIPDB, providing rich information such as reputation scores, popularity rankings, categories, resolutions, Whois data, open ports, and malware URL associations. Users can configure API keys for advanced features and customize arguments, with Docker deployment also supported.

(github.com)

Tech Information Gathering

Useful vs. Valued: A Critical Distinction in Your Career

2025-06-02

Useful vs. Valued: A Critical Distinction in Your Career

In your career progression, understanding the difference between being 'useful' and 'valued' is crucial. Initially, the signals might be similar: promotions, bonuses, stock options. However, deeper observation reveals key differences. Being 'useful' means efficiently completing specific tasks; you're reliable, perhaps indispensable, but may fill gaps rather than contributing to core strategy. 'Valued' employees, on the other hand, participate in shaping direction, have growth opportunities, and contribute meaningfully to the business. The author shares personal experiences: retention during layoffs due to their digital transformation skills showcasing 'valued' status; another role with high compensation but lacking strategic involvement, ultimately leading to departure, illustrating 'useful' but not 'valued' status. The article encourages readers to reflect on their position and distinguish between these two states.

(betterthanrandom.substack.com)

Startup value assessment

The Fisherman and His Wife: A Cautionary Tale of Greed

2025-09-19

A fisherman catches a talking flounder, which grants his wife's wishes. Starting with a humble cottage, her desires escalate to a palace, then kingship, papacy, and finally, godhood! Each granted wish only fuels her insatiable greed. Ultimately, they lose everything and return to their squalid shack. This classic fairy tale serves as a potent warning against unchecked ambition and the importance of contentment.

(sites.pitt.edu)

Misc fairy tale greed ambition

18 Years of Self-Injection Leads to Breakthrough Snake Antivenom

2025-05-03

18 Years of Self-Injection Leads to Breakthrough Snake Antivenom

For 18 years, Tim Friede injected himself with venom from deadly snakes. His unique experiment yielded a breakthrough: researchers used his antibodies to create a broadly effective antivenom, potentially protecting against 19 snake species. This new antivenom, unlike traditional methods using animal blood, leverages modern antibody therapy. While promising results in mice have been achieved, further testing in larger animals and humans is crucial. The research highlights a potential solution to the global snakebite crisis, but challenges remain in accessibility and affordability.

(www.abc.net.au)

Tech antivenom scientific breakthrough

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