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Snipping Tool Update: GIF Export Now Available on Windows 11

2025-06-26

Snipping Tool Update: GIF Export Now Available on Windows 11

Windows 11's Snipping Tool just got a major upgrade! Version 11.2505.21.0 now lets you export screen recordings as GIFs, making sharing quick captures super easy. Record a video using Win + Shift + R or the app's screen recording mode. After recording, click the 'Export GIF' button, choose low or high quality, and save to your files or copy to your clipboard. Note: GIF export is limited to videos 30 seconds or shorter.

(blogs.windows.com)

Development Snipping Tool GIF Export

NYC Congestion Pricing: Six Months of Success and Controversy

2025-07-06

NYC Congestion Pricing: Six Months of Success and Controversy

Six months after its implementation, New York City's congestion pricing program is showing significant results. A report reveals an 11% reduction in vehicles, with 67,000 fewer cars entering the congestion zone daily, and a 25% decrease in traffic delays. Improved air quality, reduced noise pollution, increased pedestrian activity, and higher public transit ridership are also noted. However, the program faces criticism, with some calling it an "unfair tax."

(ny1.com)

Tech

showkey: A Linux Command-Line Tool for Keyboard Troubleshooting

2025-01-30

showkey: A Linux Command-Line Tool for Keyboard Troubleshooting

The author encountered a strange issue where their "]" key kept repeating. Using the Linux command-line tool `showkey`, they discovered the culprit: a secondary keyboard pressed against an IMSAI 8080 Replica under their desk. `showkey` displays keycodes and scancodes, aiding in keyboard input troubleshooting. The -a option provides ASCII, decimal, octal, and hexadecimal values for pressed keys. The article details `showkey`'s installation, usage, and options, sharing the author's problem-solving experience.

(cubiclenate.com)

Development keyboard troubleshooting

Ruby Blocks, Procs, and Lambdas: Subtle Differences in Closures

2025-05-21

Ruby Blocks, Procs, and Lambdas: Subtle Differences in Closures

This article delves into the differences between blocks, procs, and lambdas in Ruby. While all group code for execution, they differ subtly: Procs are objects, assignable and callable with methods, unlike blocks which are solely part of method call syntax; a method call allows at most one block but multiple procs; lambdas check argument counts, procs don't; and lambdas and procs handle the `return` keyword differently. The article also explains closures, the origins of the names 'proc' and 'lambda', and touches upon lambda calculus and anonymous functions.

(blog.awaxman.com)

Development

Judge Sidesteps Google's AI Monopoly in Antitrust Case

2025-09-03

Judge Sidesteps Google's AI Monopoly in Antitrust Case

While Judge Amit Mehta's ruling partially blocks some of Google's anti-competitive practices, it fails to address the company's dominance in generative AI. The decision relies on speculative arguments about the future of AI, overlooking Google's existing monopolies and distribution advantages. Search is a key gateway to future AI interactions, and the judge's leniency allows Google to continue shaping the internet and economy, rather than enforcing laws designed for fair competition and fostering innovation.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

Why Haven't Airplanes Gotten Faster Since the 1960s?

2025-02-10

Why Haven't Airplanes Gotten Faster Since the 1960s?

While technology has advanced rapidly, commercial air travel speeds haven't significantly increased since the 1960s. The primary reason is fuel efficiency. Modern high-bypass turbofan engines, while more efficient, operate most efficiently at slower speeds. This leads aircraft manufacturers to design slower planes, which are also cheaper to build. Supersonic flight, like Concorde, existed but was limited by sonic booms. Future supersonic business jets offer hope, but their political feasibility is uncertain.

(engineering.mit.edu)

Tech aviation technology fuel efficiency

Journalist Accidentally Joins Top-Secret Signal Group, Learns of Yemen Airstrike Hours Beforehand

2025-03-25

Journalist Accidentally Joins Top-Secret Signal Group, Learns of Yemen Airstrike Hours Beforehand

A journalist was inadvertently added to a highly classified Signal group chat comprised of top U.S. government officials discussing an imminent military strike on Yemen. Hours before the attack, the journalist received detailed operational plans including targets, weaponry, and timing. The incident exposed serious security vulnerabilities in the U.S. government's handling of sensitive information using unauthorized communication apps, raising concerns about potential violations of the Espionage Act and federal record-keeping laws.

(www.theatlantic.com)

Tech Information Leak Military Operation

txtar: A Simplified Text Archiving Library for Chez Scheme

2025-02-08

txtar is a Chez Scheme library providing a simple text archive format compatible with golang.org/x/tools/txtar. It concatenates files and allows for a top-level comment. The format is human-readable and ideal for test data. Installation is straightforward: run `make install` and set the `CHEZSCHEMELIBDIRS` environment variable. It requires srfi s13 strings and srfi s64 testing (for testing only). Dependencies can be obtained via Thunderchez. All exports are documented with type expectations; examining the implementation is encouraged. Examples include constructing an archive from filenames, writing text to an archive file, and retrieving a file from an archive. txtar is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License.

(git.sr.ht)

Development Text Archiving

Thomson Reuters Wins Major AI Copyright Case: A Blow to Generative AI

2025-02-11

Thomson Reuters Wins Major AI Copyright Case: A Blow to Generative AI

Thomson Reuters has won a landmark AI copyright lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, a legal AI startup. The court rejected Ross's fair use defense, finding its intent was to compete with Westlaw. This ruling is a significant setback for generative AI companies, potentially impacting future cases. Many AI tools were trained on copyrighted material, and this decision suggests that the common fair use arguments may not hold up. While Ross Intelligence shut down in 2021 due to litigation costs, financially strong companies like OpenAI and Google are better positioned to withstand prolonged legal battles.

(www.wired.com)

Tech Legal battle

Go Assembly Bugs: Frame Pointer Clashes in Two Cases

2025-01-04

This post dissects two Go crashes stemming from buggy assembly code that clobbered the frame pointer. One bug overwritten the frame pointer register (BP on AMD64) within the go-metro library, the other incorrectly saved the frame pointer on the stack in Apache Arrow's ARM64 assembly. The author recommends using assembly generators like Avo to avoid manual register and stack manipulation. The article delves into ABIs and calling conventions, offering insights into preventing similar issues, highlighting the importance of understanding and adhering to Go's assembly guidelines.

(nsrip.com)

Development Assembly Frame Pointer

Disney Engineer's Life Implodes After Downloading Seemingly Harmless AI Tool

2025-02-26

Disney Engineer's Life Implodes After Downloading Seemingly Harmless AI Tool

A Disney engineer's life crumbled after downloading a seemingly harmless AI image generation tool that turned out to be malware. The tool granted hackers access to his personal and professional data, including sensitive Disney information like customer data, employee passport numbers, and financial records. The hackers also accessed his home security cameras, severely compromising his privacy. He was fired from Disney, though he denies accessing inappropriate content on his work computer. The incident serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of downloading software from untrusted sources and highlights the critical importance of cybersecurity.

(www.dailymail.co.uk)

Tech

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-06-05

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

(arxiv.org)

Development

University of Toronto Hackathon: Accidental Vulnerability Discovery

2025-03-20

University of Toronto Hackathon: Accidental Vulnerability Discovery

A University of Toronto student, while registering for the GenAI Genesis 2025 hackathon, stumbled upon a vulnerability. After resetting his password (his password manager failed to save it), he noticed the reset link pointed to a Firebase app. Curiosity piqued, he tried some common Firebase exploitation techniques. He discovered the website updated application status by writing the entire application object, not just the necessary fields. Exploiting this, he successfully changed his application status to 'accepted'. He further found an information leakage vulnerability, allowing early access to review results, reviewer information, and comments. The vulnerability has since been patched.

(fastcall.dev)

Development hackathon

Senior Backend Engineer Wanted: Defend the Brain Battlefield

2025-06-02

Senior Backend Engineer Wanted: Defend the Brain Battlefield

Piramidal is seeking a seasoned software engineer to build and maintain the backend infrastructure for its flagship neural data platform. The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience at product-driven companies, proficiency in Python and other backend languages, containerization/orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes), relational databases (e.g., Postgres/MySQL), and web technologies (e.g., JavaScript, React). They will collaborate closely with ML engineers and internal customers, creating secure, efficient, and delightful user interactions and automations. The company is dedicated to using technology to maximize human potential, defending cognitive liberty, and opposing the commodification and manipulation of minds.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development Neural Data Platform Architecture

My Decade-Old MacBook Pro Died, Can My iPad Pro Replace It?

2025-03-12

My Decade-Old MacBook Pro Died, Can My iPad Pro Replace It?

The author's decade-old MacBook Pro died, prompting an attempt to replace it with an M2 iPad Pro. However, the experience proved vastly different. This isn't just a matter of habit; it's a fundamental difference in operating systems and hardware design. The iPad's touch interface contrasts sharply with the Mac's keyboard and mouse experience, and the lack of a terminal, root access, and development tools like Python severely limits the iPad's capabilities for software development. Furthermore, restrictive policies from Apple and Microsoft limit device flexibility—Microsoft, for example, refuses to let older Surface Go devices run Windows 11. The author ultimately decides to purchase an M4 MacBook Air and expresses concerns about the future evolution of operating systems and services, questioning whether AI can resolve these issues.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

AI Doesn't Make Engineers 10x More Productive (Busting the Myth)

2025-08-06

This article debunks the widespread claim that AI increases engineer productivity by 10x or even 100x. The author, after experimenting with various AI coding tools, found that while AI excels at boilerplate code, it struggles with complex projects, large codebases, and less popular libraries, often introducing security vulnerabilities. The author argues that AI boosts are incremental and don't scale linearly. True productivity gains stem from preventing unnecessary work, not just faster coding. The author concludes that claims of 10x AI-driven productivity gains are likely driven by misunderstanding, vested interests, or managerial pressure, urging engineers not to feel anxious due to such inflated claims.

(colton.dev)

Development

Conquering Steam Deck's Immutable Filesystem with Nix and Home Manager

2025-02-09

Conquering Steam Deck's Immutable Filesystem with Nix and Home Manager

The Steam Deck's immutable filesystem makes installing packages that persist across system upgrades tricky. This guide shows how to use Nix and Home Manager to elegantly solve this. Nix is a declarative package manager; simply list your desired packages in a configuration file, and it handles the installation. Home Manager simplifies using Nix. The guide details installing Nix and Home Manager on your Steam Deck, managing packages (installation, removal), and offers tips like creating desktop shortcuts and running garbage collection.

(chrastecky.dev)

Development

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Narrative Journalism: The This American Life Story

2025-04-05

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Narrative Journalism: The This American Life Story

This American Life (TAL) revolutionized news reporting with its narrative style, using compelling storytelling to engage listeners and win a Pulitzer Prize. Its success hinged on transforming complex social issues into gripping human stories, exemplified by "The Out Crowd," its report on asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. However, the Mike Daisey scandal tarnished TAL's reputation, exposing fabricated elements in a popular episode and sparking criticism of narrative journalism. Despite this, TAL persevered, adopting stricter fact-checking measures and reaffirming its commitment to narrative storytelling.

(lithub.com)

Misc narrative journalism

Lincoln's Avenger: The Strange Tale of Boston Corbett

2025-04-13

Lincoln's Avenger: The Strange Tale of Boston Corbett

Following the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, Boston Corbett, a devout Christian soldier, shot and killed the fugitive Booth. While hailed by some as Lincoln's avenger, Corbett's actions were controversial, leading to a life of persecution and mystery. His later years were marked by mental instability and paranoia, culminating in an escape from an asylum and a disappearance that continues to fuel speculation. Corbett's story is a compelling mix of religious fervor, controversial justice, and enduring enigma.

(www.washingtonian.com)

Misc Lincoln assassination Boston Corbett

Rust's `image` Crate Now Handles EXIF Orientation in Image Resizing

2025-09-13

Rust's `image` Crate Now Handles EXIF Orientation in Image Resizing

The Rust image processing crate, `image`, has released version v0.25.8, adding support for EXIF orientation data. This fixes a common issue where resizing images would ignore the orientation, resulting in rotated or flipped thumbnails. The new `apply_orientation` function corrects the image orientation before resizing, ensuring the thumbnail matches the original. This is particularly helpful when working with images from cameras and phones, eliminating the hassle of misaligned images.

(alexwlchan.net)

Development

Say Goodbye to Obsolete Op-Amps: A Guide to Modern Alternatives

2025-01-07

Say Goodbye to Obsolete Op-Amps: A Guide to Modern Alternatives

This article critiques the widely used but outdated LM741 and LM324/LM358 op-amps, recommending superior, user-friendly modern alternatives such as the Microchip MCP6272, MCP6022, and Texas Instruments OPA2323, TLV3542, and OPA2356. It details crucial parameters to consider when choosing an op-amp, including supply voltage range, maximum output current, rail-to-rail I/O (RRIO), input stage type (FET vs. bipolar), gain-bandwidth product, slew rate, and noise. The author emphasizes that many parameters are often overblown in hobbyist projects.

(lcamtuf.substack.com)

Development op-amp analog circuit design electronics components

DIY Drone-Borne SAR: 1.5km Imaging on a Budget

2025-02-17

This project details the construction of a low-cost drone-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system for under €800 and 10 months of spare time. The system achieves imaging up to 1.5km (and potentially further), weighs less than 1kg, and supports HH, HV, VH, and VV polarizations. The author meticulously documents the design, hardware choices, software algorithms (including a PyTorch-based autofocus algorithm), and the resulting imagery. This project showcases the potential of low-cost hardware for high-performance SAR imaging.

(hforsten.com)

Tech Synthetic Aperture Radar Drone

Manhattan's Secret Eruv: Maintaining a Nearly Invisible Boundary

2025-06-08

Manhattan's Secret Eruv: Maintaining a Nearly Invisible Boundary

Every Thursday and Friday, Rabbi Moshe Tauber drives 20 miles around Manhattan, inspecting a nearly invisible wire—the eruv—that encircles much of the borough. This wire serves as a symbolic boundary for observant Jews, allowing them to carry objects on Shabbat, a day when carrying between public and private spaces is forbidden. Any break in the line renders the eruv ineffective, making Tauber's early morning patrols crucial. His timely repairs ensure the community can observe religious traditions while maintaining daily life, highlighting community unity and mutual aid. The eruv, a centuries-old tradition, is a modern blend of faith and practicality in the heart of Manhattan.

(www.atlasobscura.com)

Misc

C++20's Strongly Happens Before: Untangling the Memory Model

2025-09-01

This article delves into C++20's newly introduced "strongly happens before" relationship, which solves a tricky problem within the C++ memory model. Using a simple multithreaded program example, the author progressively explains how modification order, coherence ordering, and the "strongly happens before" relationship constrain the order of concurrent execution. The article also analyzes why certain executions seemingly violating the C++ memory model are allowed on Power architectures and explains how "strongly happens before" fixes these inconsistencies, ultimately guaranteeing a single total order for all `memory_order::seq_cst` operations.

(nekrozqliphort.github.io)

Development

Flutter Local-First Architecture: A Guide to Building Offline-First Apps

2025-05-10

Flutter Local-First Architecture: A Guide to Building Offline-First Apps

This article explores Flutter's local-first application architecture, prioritizing local data storage and synchronization for superior user experiences. Unlike traditional online-first approaches, local-first architecture designates the local database as the primary data source, ensuring app functionality even offline. The article details the advantages of local-first architecture, the challenges of building a sync engine (including change tracking, conflict resolution, edge cases and error handling, and performance optimization), and demonstrates building a Todo app with Riverpod, Drift, and PowerSync connected to a Supabase backend. These tools simplify building robust offline-capable apps, enhancing user experience.

(dinkomarinac.dev)

Development Offline App

Brain Imaging Study Reveals Striking Consistency in Color Perception

2025-09-10

Brain Imaging Study Reveals Striking Consistency in Color Perception

A new neuroscience study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the brain activity of 15 participants, revealing a surprising similarity in how different individuals perceive and process colors. Researchers created brain activity maps and trained a machine-learning model to predict the colors participants were viewing. The results showed a high degree of consistency in color representation across different brains, even at low levels of neural activity, challenging previous understandings and offering new evidence for the objectivity of color perception.

(www.nature.com)

Tech

Ultra-Processed Foods: Health Risks and Policy Challenges

2025-09-05

Ultra-Processed Foods: Health Risks and Policy Challenges

The UN is set to discuss a proposal to eliminate trans fats, but experts urge clarification between industrially produced and naturally occurring trans fats to avoid harming nutritious foods. This sparks a broader debate on "ultra-processed foods," often high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat, linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease. While the NOVA classification system helps identify them, its limitations lie in focusing solely on processing, ignoring factors like palatability and calorie density. Therefore, clearer definitions and more precise policies are needed, balancing control over excessive industrial food production with ensuring sufficient and appropriate food for all.

(www.nature.com)

Tech trans fats

AI Agent Automates the Exploitation of Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

2025-07-10

AI Agent Automates the Exploitation of Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

Researchers from University College London and the University of Sydney have developed an AI agent, A1, capable of autonomously discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities in smart contracts. A1 uses AI models from OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, and Alibaba to generate exploitable Solidity contracts. Tested on 36 real-world vulnerable contracts, A1 achieved a 62.96% success rate on the VERITE benchmark and discovered additional vulnerabilities. The researchers highlight a 10x reward asymmetry between attack and defense, emphasizing the need for proactive security. While A1 shows significant profit potential, its open-source release is currently on hold due to concerns about its powerful capabilities.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech exploit generation

Higher IQ Correlates With More Accurate Predictions and Better Decision-Making

2025-06-27

Higher IQ Correlates With More Accurate Predictions and Better Decision-Making

A University of Bath study reveals a strong link between higher IQ and more accurate predictions. Individuals with higher IQs (top 2.5%) make significantly fewer forecasting errors than those with lower IQs (bottom 2.5%), more than double the inaccuracy. This research, using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), focused on predicting life expectancy. The study controlled for lifestyle, health, and genetics, highlighting the independent impact of intelligence on probabilistic reasoning and decision-making across various life aspects, from finances to health choices. The findings suggest that clearer communication of probabilities in areas like finance and health could improve decision-making for individuals prone to forecasting errors.

(phys.org)

AI Decision-Making Prediction

GENIUS Act Passed: Crypto Enters the Mainstream

2025-07-18

GENIUS Act Passed: Crypto Enters the Mainstream

The US House of Representatives passed the landmark GENIUS Act, establishing federal regulations for stablecoins. This marks a major shift, bringing cryptocurrencies out of the regulatory gray area and into the mainstream financial system. The act requires stablecoin issuers to hold one-to-one reserves in cash or US Treasury bills, mandates monthly disclosures, prioritizes consumer protection in case of issuer bankruptcy, and provides a framework for both federal and state oversight. This not only regulates the crypto market but also positions the US for leadership in the global digital currency race, paving the way for stablecoin-based instant global payments and everyday applications.

(gizmodo.com)

Tech GENIUS Act

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