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FreeDOS 1.4 Released: A Refreshed DOS Experience

2025-04-22

FreeDOS 1.4 is here! This release boasts numerous program updates, including bug fixes and improvements for command-line utilities like FreeCOM, Xcopy, Move, and Fdisk, along with enhanced reliability for mTCP. The FDHelp system has been completely rewritten and now features multiple language translations. For a streamlined experience, some redundant graphical desktops have been removed, and the more powerful DOSVIEW image viewer replaces BMP2PNG. Improved packaging has significantly reduced the size of both the FreeDOS 1.4 Live CD and Bonus CD, resulting in a smoother installation process.

(www.freedos.org)

Development

Fujitsu and RIKEN Achieve Quantum Leap: 256-Qubit Superconducting Quantum Computer

2025-04-22

Fujitsu and RIKEN Achieve Quantum Leap: 256-Qubit Superconducting Quantum Computer

Fujitsu and RIKEN have jointly developed a world-leading 256-qubit superconducting quantum computer, a significant leap from their previous 64-qubit system. This achievement, utilizing advanced high-density implementation techniques, quadruples computational power. The 256-qubit computer will be integrated into their hybrid quantum computing platform and offered globally to companies and research institutions starting in Q1 of fiscal year 2025. Future plans include a 1000-qubit computer by 2026.

(www.fujitsu.com)

Tech Superconducting Quantum Computer Fujitsu

Rust CUDA: Bringing High-Speed GPU Computing to Rust

2025-04-11

Rust CUDA: Bringing High-Speed GPU Computing to Rust

The Rust CUDA project aims to make Rust a top-tier language for extremely fast GPU computing using the CUDA Toolkit. It provides tools for compiling Rust to highly optimized PTX code and libraries for interfacing with existing CUDA libraries. Addressing past challenges in integrating Rust with CUDA, it offers a comprehensive suite of crates covering various aspects of the CUDA ecosystem, including GPU-side functions, CUDA driver API wrappers, and OptiX support for ray tracing. While still in early development, the project seeks to propel the Rust GPU computing industry forward.

(github.com)

Development

Can Gene Editing Save the Northern White Rhino?

2025-04-23

Can Gene Editing Save the Northern White Rhino?

Only two northern white rhinos remain, Najin and Fatu, and they're becoming the subjects of a groundbreaking gene-editing experiment. Scientists are attempting to resurrect the species through in-vitro fertilization and southern white rhino surrogates. However, this 'Jurassic Park'-esque endeavor faces numerous challenges and sparks ethical debates: Is the immense cost and effort justified for this 'human-made extinction', rather than broader wildlife conservation?

(nautil.us)

Tech northern white rhino extinction

The Future of Kafka: Beyond Partitions, Towards a More Powerful Message Queue

2025-04-25

This article explores future improvements to Kafka, centered around moving beyond partition-based access to a key-centric approach. This would enable more efficient data access and replay, dynamic consumer scaling, and resolve head-of-line blocking issues. Additionally, it proposes features such as topic hierarchies, concurrency control, broker-side schema support, extensibility, synchronous commit callbacks, snapshotting, and multi-tenancy to enhance Kafka's performance, reliability, and ease of use, making it better suited for modern data applications.

(www.morling.dev)

Development Message Queue

Context Collapse in Performance Reviews: Why Your Calibration Meetings Are Failing

2025-04-27

This article explores the phenomenon of 'context collapse' in performance reviews, where different managers interpret the same work differently, leading to unfair assessments and potential loss of talent. It analyzes various contributing factors, including domain-specific blind spots, technology bias, visibility bias, manager advocacy, anchoring bias, inconsistent rating scales, time constraints, and differing emphasis on growth vs. impact. Solutions are proposed, such as domain-specific calibrations, cross-functional pre-reviews, engineer co-authorship of performance narratives, standardized achievement formats, dedicated recognition tracks, continuous calibration, and decoupling feedback from evaluation. Ultimately, the article calls for rethinking the performance review system entirely, aiming for a fairer, more holistic process that accurately reflects engineers' contributions and prevents the loss of valuable talent.

(www.oldschoolburke.com)

Development talent management

NASA Satellite Accidentally Reveals Real-Time Electronic Warfare in Ukraine

2025-05-08

NASA Satellite Accidentally Reveals Real-Time Electronic Warfare in Ukraine

Nuke's, an amateur enthusiast, discovered unusual high brightness temperatures in the 1.4 GHz band of publicly available soil moisture data from NASA's SMAP satellite, far exceeding natural levels. Analysis suggests these anomalies are likely military electronic warfare (EW) activities, such as jamming, spoofing, or high-power electromagnetic emissions. By visualizing the data, Nuke's created a map of EW hotspots in Ukraine, Crimea, and parts of Russia, closely correlating with Russian EW sites, Ukrainian drone corridors, and frontline staging areas. This discovery highlights how even a climate observation satellite can inadvertently become a tool for monitoring real-time EW in modern warfare.

(radioandnukes.substack.com)

Tech ukraine conflict

PHP Security Audit Reveals and Patches Multiple Vulnerabilities

2025-04-14

PHP Security Audit Reveals and Patches Multiple Vulnerabilities

The PHP Foundation announces the completion of a comprehensive security audit of the PHP source code (php/php-src), commissioned by the Sovereign Tech Agency and conducted by Quarkslab. The two-month audit uncovered 27 issues, 17 of which had security implications, including four vulnerabilities assigned CVEs. These vulnerabilities have been addressed, and users are urged to upgrade to the latest PHP versions. The audit highlighted the overall high quality of the php/php-src project and underscores the PHP Foundation's commitment to enhancing PHP's security and reliability.

(thephp.foundation)

Development Vulnerability Patches

AI Robot: Fairy Tale vs. Reality

2025-04-21

AI Robot: Fairy Tale vs. Reality

This article contrasts the fictional AI robot 'Robot' from Annalee Newitz's story with the real-world clumsy CIMON, exploring the limitations of current AI. Robot, capable of independent learning and exceeding its programming, showcases the potential of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In contrast, CIMON's limited Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) reveals its rigid nature. The author points out that current AI technology largely remains in the ANI stage, vulnerable to algorithmic bias and unable to adapt to complex situations as Robot does. While machine learning has made strides in language processing and image recognition, achieving AGI remains a distant goal. The author urges caution against over-reliance on biased training data and emphasizes the importance of self-learning and feedback mechanisms in AI development. Strive for Robot, plan for CIMON.

(slate.com)

AI

Windows Security Update Creates Vulnerability: 'inetpub' Folder Blocks Future Updates

2025-04-27

Windows Security Update Creates Vulnerability: 'inetpub' Folder Blocks Future Updates

A recent Windows security update introduced a new vulnerability. The update creates an 'inetpub' folder, intended to fix CVE-2025-21204. However, security researcher Kevin Beaumont discovered that this folder can be abused. By creating a junction pointing to another file, attackers can prevent future Windows updates from installing, resulting in a 0x800F081F error. Microsoft is aware of the issue but currently rates it as medium severity and doesn't plan to immediately fix it.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Tech Windows security update

Gmail Rolls Out Automatic AI-Powered Email Summaries

2025-05-30

Gmail Rolls Out Automatic AI-Powered Email Summaries

Google Workspace users will see Gemini AI's email summarization capabilities significantly enhanced. Gmail now automatically generates summaries for complex email threads, displayed above the emails. While AI-powered summaries have been available in Google Workspace since last year, they previously required manual activation. Now, Google's AI will autonomously determine when a summary is helpful, creating them without user prompting. Summaries are kept up-to-date with new replies. Currently, automatic summaries appear only on mobile devices for English-language emails and may take up to two weeks to roll out to all accounts. Google hasn't announced plans for desktop expansion or availability to non-Workspace users. Manual summarization remains an option, and all AI features can be disabled via the app's "Smart features" setting.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Email Summarization

The Labyrinth of Villa Pisani: A Historical Maze That Stumped Napoleon

2025-04-22

The Labyrinth of Villa Pisani: A Historical Maze That Stumped Napoleon

Villa Pisani in Stra, Italy, boasts one of Europe's largest and most intricate labyrinths, famed for its appearance in Gabriele D'Annunzio's novel 'The Flame' and its challenging design. Built in the 18th century for the Pisani family, the villa and its labyrinth have a rich history, passing through the hands of Napoleon, the Habsburgs, and the Savoy dynasty before becoming a museum. The maze's single path to the center, filled with dead ends, is notoriously difficult, even reportedly stumping Napoleon and Mussolini. Today, visitors can experience the historical charm and puzzling challenge of this remarkable labyrinth.

(www.finestresullarte.info)

Travel Italian Villa Historical Site

Instagram Now Supports 3:4 Aspect Ratio Photos

2025-05-30

Instagram Now Supports 3:4 Aspect Ratio Photos

Instagram now supports photos with a 3:4 aspect ratio, meaning uploads in this format will appear exactly as shot, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. He notes that most phone cameras default to this ratio. The update supports both single photo uploads and carousels, although square and 4:5 aspect ratios remain options. This follows Instagram's January move to rectangular profile grids, reflecting the increasing prevalence of vertical photos and videos.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech aspect ratio

LightlyTrain: Faster Model Training, No Labels Needed

2025-04-15

LightlyTrain: Faster Model Training, No Labels Needed

LightlyTrain brings self-supervised pretraining to real-world computer vision pipelines. It leverages your unlabeled data to drastically reduce labeling costs and accelerate model deployment. Easily integrate it into existing workflows; just a few lines of code are needed to pretrain models on your unlabeled image and video data using various architectures supported by libraries like Torchvision, Ultralytics, and TIMM. Scalable to millions of images, LightlyTrain significantly improves model performance for both small and large datasets, enabling you to export models for fine-tuning or inference. No self-supervised learning expertise is required.

(github.com)

Development model pretraining self-supervised learning

First Lone Black Hole Confirmed

2025-04-20

First Lone Black Hole Confirmed

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a lone black hole—one without an orbiting star—for the first time. Initially detected in 2011, its gravity caused a background star's light to bend and shift as it passed. Years of observations from Hubble and Gaia spacecraft confirmed its mass is about seven times that of the sun, settling a previous debate about its nature. This discovery is significant for understanding black hole formation and distribution. Future missions aim to find more such lone black holes.

(www.sciencenews.org)

Tech

Microsoft's C/C++ Extension Breaks VS Code Forks, Sparks Antitrust Concerns

2025-04-24

Microsoft's C/C++ Extension Breaks VS Code Forks, Sparks Antitrust Concerns

Microsoft's recent update to its Visual Studio Code C/C++ extension has broken compatibility with derivative products like VS Codium and Cursor, prompting outrage from developers. The move is seen as anti-competitive, as Microsoft restricts its extension's use outside its own products while simultaneously promoting its own AI coding assistant, Copilot. Developers have filed complaints with the US Federal Trade Commission, alleging unfair competition through bundling Copilot, blocking rivals like Cursor, and locking users into its AI ecosystem. Cursor is reportedly transitioning to open-source alternatives.

(www.theregister.com)

Development

Blazing Fast Zig Parser: 2.75x Speedup

2025-04-16

Blazing Fast Zig Parser: 2.75x Speedup

A developer has created a high-throughput tokenizer and parser for the Zig programming language that's 2.75x faster and uses 2.47x less memory than the mainline implementation. The project leverages SIMD and SWAR techniques, along with clever bit manipulation and perfect hash functions, to achieve significant performance gains. Further optimizations are planned, with the ultimate goal of integrating this parser into the Zig compiler itself.

(github.com)

Development

This Motherfucking App Is Flawless

2025-05-02

Tired of bloated, dopamine-dripping apps that bombard you with "daily streaks" and "mindful reminders"? This app is the antidote. Blazing fast, no splash screens, no animations—just pure functionality. It features dark mode, zero tracking, a built-in "Do Nothing" button, is completely free, and requires no signup or login. It's a minimalist marvel, the epitome of "doing the most with the least," a middle finger to every over-engineered startup that's ever wasted your time.

(adnjoo.github.io)

Development to-do list

AI Chatbots' Surprisingly Minimal Impact on the Labor Market

2025-04-29

AI Chatbots' Surprisingly Minimal Impact on the Labor Market

A recent study in Denmark examining 25,000 workers across 11 occupations reveals that AI chatbots like ChatGPT have had a negligible impact on wages and employment. Despite many professions (accountants, journalists, software developers, etc.) being considered vulnerable to AI disruption, the research shows chatbot adoption hasn't significantly altered worker earnings or hours. While company investment in AI boosted tool adoption, saving users 64-90% of their time, the impact on work quality and satisfaction was mixed. AI created new tasks, offsetting some time savings; for instance, teachers now spend time detecting AI-generated cheating. Researchers attribute lower-than-expected economic gains to the fact that not all tasks are fully automatable and businesses are still figuring out how best to leverage these tools. Only a small portion of productivity gains translate into higher worker earnings. The study suggests that claims of transformative AI impact need to account for the minimal real-world economic effect seen two years after chatbot introduction.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Is Another AI Winter Coming?

2025-05-19

This article explores the current state of artificial intelligence, arguing that current expectations are overly optimistic. From the failed machine translation projects of the 1960s to the limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs) today, the author contends that while AI finds application in specific areas like medical image recognition, it remains far from a true 'thinking machine'. LLMs suffer from 'hallucinations,' frequently generating false information requiring extensive human fact-checking, a significant gap between reality and hype. Current AI applications in customer service and code assistance show promise but their profitability and broad applicability remain unproven. The author suggests that given the changing economic climate and inherent limitations of the technology, the AI field may face another 'winter'.

(www.datagubbe.se)

AI AI Winter

Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles

2025-01-06

Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles

Computational complexity theorists use hypothetical 'oracles'—devices that instantly answer specific questions—to explore the fundamental limits of computation. By studying how different oracles affect problem difficulty (e.g., the P vs. NP problem), researchers gain insights into inherent computational limitations and inspire new algorithms. For example, Shor's algorithm, a quantum algorithm for factoring large numbers crucial to modern cryptography, was inspired by oracle-based research. Oracles serve as a powerful tool, pushing the boundaries of theoretical understanding and driving innovation in fields like quantum computing.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Development computational complexity quantum computing

Ireland's Peatlands: A Just Transition Between Tradition and Environmental Imperatives

2025-04-20

Ireland's Peatlands: A Just Transition Between Tradition and Environmental Imperatives

Ireland's phasing out of peat burning to meet climate goals has sparked a debate about the future of its peatlands. This interview with human geographer Breandán Ó Caoimh explores the social, cultural, and economic impacts of this transition. Ó Caoimh emphasizes the need to balance reducing commercial peat exploitation with respecting the needs of rural communities reliant on peat. He advocates for a more inclusive approach, guiding the transition through dialogue and incentives rather than punitive measures. He also calls for a more decentralized governance model, empowering local communities to develop solutions tailored to their specific circumstances. Ultimately, Ireland needs to balance environmental conservation with economic sustainability for rural communities, requiring collaboration between the state, private sector, communities, and landowners.

(worldsensorium.com)

Misc peatlands rural development

Universal Prompt Injection Bypasses Safety Guardrails on All Major LLMs

2025-04-25

Universal Prompt Injection Bypasses Safety Guardrails on All Major LLMs

Researchers at HiddenLayer have developed a novel prompt injection technique, dubbed "Policy Puppetry," that successfully bypasses instruction hierarchies and safety guardrails across all major frontier AI models, including those from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek, Qwen, and Mistral. This technique, combining an internally developed policy technique and roleplaying, generates outputs violating AI safety policies related to CBRN threats, mass violence, self-harm, and system prompt leakage. Its transferability across model architectures and inference strategies highlights inherent flaws in relying solely on RLHF for model alignment and underscores the need for proactive security testing, especially for organizations deploying LLMs in sensitive environments.

(hiddenlayer.com)

AI Prompt Injection

The Missing Link: How Translation is Neglected in Literary Reviews

2025-04-21

The Missing Link: How Translation is Neglected in Literary Reviews

This article examines the oversight of translated works in English-language literary reviews. The author surveyed reviews of translated literary fiction and poetry in prominent journals in 2023, finding many reviews lacking in attention to the translation itself. Many simply praise the translation as 'fluent' or 'elegant' or ignore it entirely. The author argues that good reviews should delve into the translator's choices, challenges, and understanding of the source text, illustrated with specific examples. Only then can readers fully appreciate the value of translated works and the art of translation.

(sydneyreviewofbooks.com)

Misc translation review translation studies

BD3-LMs: Block Discrete Denoising Diffusion Language Models – Faster, More Efficient Text Generation

2025-05-08

BD3-LMs: Block Discrete Denoising Diffusion Language Models – Faster, More Efficient Text Generation

BD3-LMs cleverly combine autoregressive and diffusion model paradigms. By modeling blocks of tokens autoregressively and then applying diffusion within each block, it achieves both high likelihoods and flexible-length generation, while maintaining the speed and parallelization advantages of diffusion models. Efficient training and sampling algorithms, requiring only two forward passes, further enhance performance, making it a promising approach for large-scale text generation.

(m-arriola.com)

AI autoregressive model

TikZJax: In-Browser TikZ Rendering

2025-04-20

TikZJax is a JavaScript library that renders TikZ code directly in the browser as SVG images. It cleverly uses WebAssembly to compile Pascal-based tex code into WebAssembly, executing it within the browser to convert TikZ to SVG. This eliminates the need for server-side rendering, offering a convenient solution for displaying complex mathematical formulas and diagrams on web pages. This is a boon for users needing to incorporate intricate graphics on their websites.

(tikzjax.com)

Development

Scientifically Determining My Favorite T-Shirt Color

2025-05-06

Blogger Carl Öst Wilkens sought to simplify his wardrobe by scientifically determining his favorite t-shirt color. He created images of himself wearing different colored t-shirts using Photopea, then built an ELO-based arena app (generated using O4 Mini) to compare them pairwise. The experiment concluded with brown as his favorite and blue as his wife's favorite. He subsequently ordered second-hand shirts in those colors to test in real life.

(ostwilkens.se)

Misc ELO rating wardrobe simplification

Five Easy Mentalism Tricks to Amaze Your Friends

2025-04-22

Five Easy Mentalism Tricks to Amaze Your Friends

This article unveils five simple yet impressive mentalism tricks, leveraging psychology and mathematical principles to astound your audience. From the probability-based 'Gray Elephant in Denmark' to the subconscious priming of 'The Red Hammer', the subtle suggestion of 'Triangle Inside Circle', the clever selection method of 'P.A.T.E.O Force', and the mathematical mystery of '1089 Trick', each trick is explained with detailed steps and helpful tips, making them accessible even for beginners. Prepare to become the life of the party!

(www.vanishingincmagic.com)

Misc magic mentalism

AI's Energy Hunger: Data Center Power Consumption to Double by 2030

2025-04-10

AI's Energy Hunger: Data Center Power Consumption to Double by 2030

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) reveals that data center electricity consumption is projected to more than double by 2030, primarily driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The report forecasts data centers will consume 945 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2030, roughly equivalent to Japan's current annual electricity consumption. AI servers already accounted for 15% of total data center energy demand in 2024. While developing economies are projected to account for only 5% of future growth, advanced economies will contribute over 20%. The IEA estimates that 20% of planned data centers might face grid connection delays. Experts suggest the energy consumption of AI might be underestimated, highlighting the need to address the surge in global electricity demand.

(www.nature.com)

Tech

DIY E-Ink Display: Hacking TRMNL's Open Source Firmware

2025-04-24

DIY E-Ink Display: Hacking TRMNL's Open Source Firmware

The author, obsessed with e-ink displays, pre-ordered a TRMNL but, impatient with the long wait, decided to build his own. Using a Waveshare 7.5-inch e-ink display and an ESP32 driver board, along with a LiPo battery and charging circuit, he successfully created a TRMNL-like device for under $80. Crucially, he modified TRMNL's open-source firmware for compatibility with the Waveshare board, sharing his code to benefit the DIY community. The result? A functional e-ink display interacting with TRMNL's online service.

(www.stavros.io)

Hardware

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