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arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-04-18

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved uphold arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who share them. Have an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

16 Billion Passwords Exposed: Largest Data Breach Ever?

2025-06-19

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a record-breaking data breach exposing 16 billion passwords—the largest confirmed dump of stolen access data ever. These credentials are not recycled from old hacks; they're new, undocumented, and highly dangerous, impacting major platforms like Apple, Google, Facebook, and more. The data's structured format suggests active exfiltration, likely via infostealer malware, optimized for sale or deployment. Researchers warn of imminent large-scale phishing, credential stuffing, and account hijacking. The breach highlights ongoing vulnerabilities in corporate data security, including misconfigured cloud setups and poor password management practices.

(cryptorank.io)

Tech

Vietnam's Chicano Scene: Tattoos, Lowriders, and the Search for Identity

2025-05-27

Vietnam's Chicano Scene: Tattoos, Lowriders, and the Search for Identity

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a unique subculture has emerged: the "Viet Chicanos." Inspired by Chicano culture, these barbers and tattoo artists embrace bold fashion, tattoos, and lowrider aesthetics. Initially driven by fashion, their adoption of Chicano culture has evolved into a search for identity and belonging. Despite facing misunderstandings and social prejudice from older generations, they use social media to promote their culture and challenge stereotypes about tattoos and subcultures. Their story highlights the complexities of cultural exchange and the resilience of individuals in their quest for self-discovery.

(www.latimes.com)

Misc Cultural Identity Subculture Vietnam

Olympic Champ Dominates 100m at Kid's Sports Day

2025-04-20

Olympic Champ Dominates 100m at Kid's Sports Day

Eight-time Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a ten-time world champion sprinter, recently competed in a 100m race at her son's sports day against other parents. She utterly dominated the competition, showcasing her incredible speed and professionalism by running full-out without any showboating. The event highlights the stark difference between elite athletes and the average person.

(kottke.org)

Game Track and Field

Silicon Valley Prank: Zuckerberg and Musk Voices Hack Crosswalk Buttons

2025-04-19

Silicon Valley Prank: Zuckerberg and Musk Voices Hack Crosswalk Buttons

Over the weekend, crosswalk buttons in several Silicon Valley cities were hacked to play audio messages mimicking the voices of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The messages contained bizarre and often offensive statements, with Zuckerberg's voice claiming that 'it's normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience,' and Musk offering a Cybertruck to anyone who becomes his friend. Affected traffic signals in cities like Palo Alto and Redwood City have been repaired, and authorities are investigating and strengthening system protections. The incident highlights vulnerabilities in city infrastructure and raises ethical concerns about AI.

(www.paloaltoonline.com)

Tech city security

Panasonic Kills the VGA Port: The End of an Era for Laptops?

2025-05-27

Panasonic Kills the VGA Port: The End of an Era for Laptops?

Panasonic's latest Let's Note laptops have dropped the VGA port, marking a significant shift in the industry. Driven by the rise of HDMI and the demand for thinner, lighter designs, Panasonic joins other manufacturers in phasing out this aging technology. While VGA offers robustness and reliable connectivity, its limitations in resolution and size are increasingly incompatible with modern laptops. This move also highlights the technological divergence between Japanese and Western markets.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Hardware laptops VGA port technology update

Recursive Prompts: Implementing Recursion with LLMs

2025-04-20

Recursive Prompts: Implementing Recursion with LLMs

This article explores a novel approach to implementing recursion using Large Language Models (LLMs). By crafting a recursive prompt that iteratively updates its own internal state, the author demonstrates how an LLM can generate a sequence of prompts converging towards a solution, mirroring the behavior of recursive functions in code. The article uses the Fibonacci sequence as an example, showcasing how recursive prompting can perform calculations. It also discusses challenges like handling inaccuracies in the LLM's output and leveraging the LLM's existing knowledge base, drawing parallels to how humans perform mental arithmetic using memorized algebraic and atomic rules. The work is connected to related research like ReAct and ACT-R, and addresses strategies for mitigating errors in LLM-generated results.

(github.com)

AI Recursion

SQL-Powered Doom Clone: Abusing DuckDB-WASM for 3D Rendering

2025-04-22

SQL-Powered Doom Clone: Abusing DuckDB-WASM for 3D Rendering

This project explores the unconventional use of DuckDB-WASM, a browser-based analytical database, to build a rudimentary 3D game engine. The author built a text-based Doom clone where game state, including map, player position, and enemies, is stored in DuckDB tables. Game logic and rendering are handled using SQL queries, surprisingly achieving raycasting and 3D scene rendering via recursive CTEs. JavaScript acts as an orchestrator, managing input, the game loop, and sprite rendering. The process involved overcoming challenges with WASM loading, SQL dialect nuances, query planner issues, and asynchronous race conditions. The resulting game achieves 6-7 FPS, demonstrating the surprising power of SQL for unconventional tasks and the impressive performance of DuckDB-WASM.

(www.hey.earth)

Development SQL game engine

Uncrackable Encryption: AI-Powered Holographic Security System

2025-02-02

Researchers in Greece have developed a novel optical encryption system using holograms and artificial intelligence. Information is encoded as a hologram in a laser beam, which becomes completely and randomly scrambled when passing through a small container of ethanol. This scrambling is impossible to decrypt using traditional methods. A trained neural network acts as a decryption key, successfully decoding the chaotic light patterns with 90-95% accuracy. This technology promises to enhance security for applications like digital currencies, healthcare, and communications.

(www.optica.org)

Tech optical encryption holography

VS Code's New Text Buffer: A Piece Tree Triumph

2025-05-23

VS Code's New Text Buffer: A Piece Tree Triumph

VS Code 1.21 boasts a brand-new, significantly faster and more memory-efficient text buffer implementation. The previous line-array-based approach struggled with large files, leading to out-of-memory crashes. The new implementation uses a Piece Tree—a structure combining multiple buffers and a red-black tree—resulting in greatly reduced memory usage and improved file opening and editing speeds. While random line access is slightly slower, real-world impact is minimal. This rewrite also avoids performance pitfalls encountered with a native C++ approach, highlighting the power of clever data structures and algorithms.

(code.visualstudio.com)

Development

rtrvr.ai v12.5: On-the-Fly Tool Generation Redefines AI Agent Tool Integration

2025-07-09

rtrvr.ai v12.5: On-the-Fly Tool Generation Redefines AI Agent Tool Integration

rtrvr.ai v12.5 introduces 'On-the-Fly Tool Generation' (ToolGen), revolutionizing AI agent tool integration. Previously, agents relied on pre-configured tool lists like MCP protocols, making configuration cumbersome and inflexible. ToolGen allows agents to directly extract information from the browser (e.g., API keys) and generate the necessary tools on demand. For example, it can grab an access token from a HubSpot developer page and generate a tool to upload contacts. This significantly improves efficiency and flexibility, eliminating the need for manual configuration of complex tool lists. To celebrate this breakthrough, rtrvr.ai is offering a generous credit update with free BYOK (Bring Your Own Key), referral bonuses, and free credits for all users.

(www.rtrvr.ai)

AI tool generation

AI-Powered Lawmaking: A Shift in the Balance of Power

2025-01-26

AI-Powered Lawmaking: A Shift in the Balance of Power

Artificial intelligence is increasingly involved in the legislative process, subtly altering the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. The rising complexity of laws is driving legislators to utilize AI for tasks ranging from bill drafting to policy analysis, boosting efficiency. However, potential risks exist, including the manipulation of AI to favor specific interests. The article explores AI's impact on legislative efficiency and power dynamics, highlighting the ensuing challenges and opportunities.

(www.lawfaremedia.org)

Tech Legislation Power Balance

Running Modern Linux on a 1989 486: A Crazy Science Project

2025-04-21

The author successfully installed and ran a 2017 Linux kernel (4.14.8) on a 1989 AMD 5x86 486 PC. This wasn't easy; challenges included using Gentoo Linux (a distribution requiring manual compilation of all packages), wrestling with drivers for ancient hardware, and overcoming incompatibility between an 80-pin PATA cable and the motherboard. Ultimately, the aged machine successfully ran modern software like Python, Git, and Nginx, although boot time was a grueling 11 minutes and shutdown took 5.5 minutes. The project demonstrates Linux's remarkable backward compatibility and the author's impressive persistence.

(yeokhengmeng.com)

Development

The Unexpected Economics of Planned Website Downtime

2025-04-10

This article challenges the conventional wisdom of 24/7 website uptime. Using B&H Photo's Saturday closures as a case study, it argues that not all e-commerce sites need to be constantly available. The author explores the high cost of continuous uptime and suggests that planned downtime doesn't necessarily lead to significant customer loss. The article draws parallels with Google's SRE team intentionally introducing minor outages to force users to consider fallback plans. Finally, it calculates the potential cloud cost savings from scheduled downtime and weighs the trade-offs against employee on-call compensation.

(bobbiechen.com)

Startup

Is Your Smartphone Really Listening? The Truth Is Far More Complex

2025-04-26

Is Your Smartphone Really Listening? The Truth Is Far More Complex

A long-standing conspiracy theory claims smartphones constantly eavesdrop on private conversations. While the 2024 revelation of Cox Media Group's "Active Listening" system fueled this, it only used snippets of voice data uploaded after activating voice assistants, not 24/7 monitoring. Companies like Facebook leverage massive datasets and sophisticated algorithms to predict user needs and deliver targeted ads – a process far more complex and unsettling than simple eavesdropping. Studies show phones don't constantly monitor microphones, but the data collected through other means is still deeply concerning.

(newatlas.com)

Tech

Willy Wonka's Trade Secrets: A Legal Fantasy?

2025-05-22

Willy Wonka's Trade Secrets: A Legal Fantasy?

This paper uses Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as a springboard to discuss the importance of trade secrecy in the candy industry and its relationship with patent law. The article points out that the extreme secrecy surrounding the factory's processes in the novel is not fictional, but reflects a widespread reality in the real-world confectionery industry. By analyzing this, the author raises fundamental questions about the legal protection of misappropriated secrets, especially when secrecy is paramount, and the relationship between trade secrecy and patent law.

(papers.ssrn.com)

Misc trade secrets patent law

Debunking the Myth of High-Degree Polynomials in Regression

2025-04-22

Debunking the Myth of High-Degree Polynomials in Regression

The common belief that high-degree polynomials are prone to overfitting and difficult to control in machine learning is challenged in this article. The author argues that the problem isn't high-degree polynomials themselves, but rather the use of inappropriate basis functions, such as the standard basis. Experiments comparing the standard, Chebyshev, and Legendre bases with the Bernstein basis in fitting noisy data demonstrate that the Bernstein basis, with its coefficients sharing the same 'units' and being easily regularized, effectively avoids overfitting. Even high-degree polynomials yield excellent fits using the Bernstein basis, requiring minimal hyperparameter tuning.

(alexshtf.github.io)

AI polynomial fitting overfitting Bernstein basis

Meta Tightens Performance Reviews, Signaling More Layoffs

2025-05-21

Meta Tightens Performance Reviews, Signaling More Layoffs

Meta is raising the bar on performance reviews, increasing the percentage of employees categorized as 'below expectations' to 15-20% for mid-year evaluations, up from 12-15% last year. This follows the company's earlier layoff of nearly 4,000 employees and reflects a broader trend in tech toward stricter performance management. The move includes employees who have already left and allows for performance-based terminations. Meta's actions underscore its focus on streamlining operations and cost reduction, mirroring similar efforts at other tech giants like Microsoft and Google.

(www.businessinsider.com)

Tech Performance Reviews

iPhone 15 Pro to Get Visual Intelligence in Software Update

2025-02-20

iPhone 15 Pro to Get Visual Intelligence in Software Update

Apple has confirmed that the iPhone 15 Pro will receive Visual Intelligence, a Google Lens-like feature, in a future software update. Initially launched with the iPhone 16, this feature, which identifies objects via the camera, will be accessible on the iPhone 15 Pro through the Action button and Control Center. While the specific update wasn't revealed, it's speculated to arrive with iOS 18.4.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Visual Intelligence iOS Update

CA/Browser Forum Shortens Certificate Validity, Sparks Debate

2025-04-19

CA/Browser Forum Shortens Certificate Validity, Sparks Debate

The CA/Browser Forum voted to shorten the validity period of SSL certificates to 47 days, sparking controversy. Jon Nelson of Info-Tech Research Group questioned the motives, suggesting a potential conflict of interest aimed at increasing revenue for involved companies. While the vote passed overwhelmingly, five members abstained. One CA member expressed reservations, supporting the principle but questioning the necessity of the most restrictive 47-day limit.

(www.computerworld.com)

Tech SSL certificates CA/Browser Forum

Is Life a Form of Computation?

2025-09-24

Is Life a Form of Computation?

This article explores the deep connection between life and computation. Building on the early insights of Alan Turing and John von Neumann, who suggested that the logic of life and the logic of code might be one and the same, it examines von Neumann's self-replicating cellular automaton model. The article explains the nature of DNA as a program, comparing and contrasting biological and digital computation. Biological computation is massively parallel, decentralized, and noisy, while digital computation relies on centralized, sequential instruction execution. The article concludes by introducing neural cellular automata, which combine modern neural networks, Turing's morphogenesis, and von Neumann's cellular automata to simulate cellular behavior, showcasing how computation can produce lifelike behavior across scales.

(thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)

AI

9front OS 11091 Released: Major Improvements and New Features

2025-04-27

The 9front operating system has released version 11091, featuring numerous updates. These include an improved snapshot scheduler, a new Intel i225 2.5 GbE driver, AMD Ryzen CPU temperature support, a Unicode 16.0 normalization interface in libc, and support for multiple architectures (x86, amd64, arm64). Furthermore, the release boasts extensive improvements to compilers, libraries, and programs, such as AWK's support for a new rc-quote format, and bug fixes and performance optimizations across various programs. Multiple installation media are provided for PC, Raspberry Pi, MNT Reform, and QEMU.

(9front.org)

Development

Amazon Hit with $2.5 Billion Penalty for Deceptive Prime Subscriptions

2025-09-25

Amazon Hit with $2.5 Billion Penalty for Deceptive Prime Subscriptions

The FTC has ordered Amazon to pay a record-breaking $2.5 billion – $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in refunds – for deceptively enrolling millions in Amazon Prime without consent and making cancellations difficult. The FTC alleged Amazon used manipulative user interfaces and deliberately complicated the cancellation process. This settlement marks a significant win for consumer protection and sets a precedent for combating deceptive subscription practices.

(www.ftc.gov)

Tech

Google's AI Cracks Decade-Old Superbug Mystery in Just Two Days

2025-03-17

Google's AI Cracks Decade-Old Superbug Mystery in Just Two Days

Google's new AI tool solved a decade-long scientific puzzle in just two days: the mechanism of antibiotic resistance in superbugs. A team at Imperial College London spent 10 years researching how certain superbugs gain resistance, but Google's 'co-scientist' AI tool, given a simple prompt, arrived at the same answer as the team's unpublished findings in just 48 hours. This demonstrates AI's potential to synthesize evidence, guide research, and design experiments, potentially revolutionizing scientific progress. However, it also raises ethical and reliability concerns regarding AI's use in scientific research.

(www.livescience.com)

AI superbugs

FLOAD: Facebook Video Downloader & Converter - No Signup Required!

2025-04-06

FLOAD: Facebook Video Downloader & Converter - No Signup Required!

FLOAD is a powerful Facebook video downloader and converter that requires no registration. It offers unlimited downloads and converts videos to various formats including MP3, MKV, and FLV, supporting up to 4K resolution. Utilizing multi-regional servers and CDN acceleration, FLOAD boasts fast download speeds and a user-friendly interface, compatible with popular browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Edge, as well as Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS.

(fload.app)

Misc video converter facebook

snapDOM: Blazing Fast, High-Fidelity DOM Capture

2025-04-27

snapDOM: Blazing Fast, High-Fidelity DOM Capture

snapDOM is a high-fidelity DOM capture tool developed for Zumly, a framework for smooth zoom-based view transitions. It converts any HTML element into a scalable SVG image, preserving styles, fonts, backgrounds, shadow DOM, and pseudo-elements. Benchmarks show snapDOM dramatically outperforms competitors like modern-screenshot and html2canvas, especially with larger DOM structures. It's lightweight, dependency-free, and offers exports to SVG, PNG, JPG, WebP, and canvas. Ideal for capturing full-page views, modals, and complex layouts.

(github.com)

Development DOM capture

Open-Source EV Conversion VCU: Rise of the ZombieVerter

2025-05-09

The ZombieVerter is an open-source vehicle control unit (VCU) designed for EV conversions using salvaged parts. Facing the challenge of inconsistent control and communication protocols across different EV manufacturers, the ZombieVerter offers a versatile solution. With numerous inputs/outputs, control logic, and a web interface for configuration and data logging, it supports components from vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Features include charger control, motor control, heater control, and more, making it a powerful and customizable tool for EV conversion projects.

(openinverter.org)

Hardware EV conversion vehicle control unit

A Mathematical Theory of GPU Layouts: Applying Category Theory and Operads

2025-09-25

A Mathematical Theory of GPU Layouts: Applying Category Theory and Operads

This paper introduces CuTe, a novel approach to GPU memory layouts, and delves into the underlying mathematical theory. CuTe layouts leverage category theory and operads, employing diagrammatic computation and standard representations to solve the problem of mapping multi-dimensional data to one-dimensional GPU memory. This provides a theoretical foundation for optimizing memory access patterns and utilizing specialized hardware instructions like tensor cores. The paper focuses on the concept of tractable layouts, layout functions, and layout operations such as coalesce, complement, and composition, demonstrating how a category-theoretic framework efficiently computes layout composition.

(research.colfax-intl.com)

Development

Say Goodbye to Confusing Data Viz Color Schemes: Introducing a New Palette Generator

2025-09-25

Say Goodbye to Confusing Data Viz Color Schemes: Introducing a New Palette Generator

Tired of struggling with data visualization color schemes? This new palette generator lets you easily create a series of visually equidistant colors, eliminating those confusing and hard-to-distinguish color palettes. It supports custom endpoint colors and can even incorporate your brand colors, making your charts both beautiful and professional. Whether it's pie charts, grouped bar charts, or maps, it handles them all with ease. No more dealing with frustrating color schemes like those in Google Analytics!

(www.learnui.design)

Design color schemes palette generator

Microsoft's Copilot: Integrating AI into Edge, Leading the AI Browser Wars

2025-09-24

Microsoft's Copilot: Integrating AI into Edge, Leading the AI Browser Wars

Microsoft is aggressively integrating its AI assistant, Copilot, into its Edge browser, enabling it to directly control browser tabs and automate tasks like restaurant reservations and price comparisons. Instead of building a new AI browser, Microsoft is enhancing its existing browser with AI capabilities for a more seamless experience. Copilot will perform tasks in real-time with transparency, ensuring user control. This move aims to compete with rivals like Google's Gemini and Perplexity's Comet, with Microsoft claiming a leading position in the AI browser race.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Edge browser

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