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0-Click Rootkit Vulnerability Discovered in SuperNote

2025-04-10

0-Click Rootkit Vulnerability Discovered in SuperNote

Security researchers at PRIZM Labs discovered a critical 0-click rootkit vulnerability in the SuperNote e-ink note-taking device. Attackers could exploit unauthenticated file sharing on port 60002, leveraging a path traversal vulnerability and the firmware update mechanism to remotely install a rootkit without user interaction, achieving full device compromise. The vulnerability stems from an open port and several misconfigurations within the device's firmware. PRIZM Labs responsibly disclosed the vulnerability to the vendor, which has since been assigned CVE-2025-32409.

(www.prizmlabs.io)

Tech remote attack

A Deep Dive into Static Single Assignment (SSA) Compiler Optimizations

2025-02-11

This article chronicles the decades-long evolution of Static Single Assignment (SSA) compiler optimization techniques. From the early papers on code motion and global value numbering, through Cytron's seminal work on minimizing phi instructions, to Brandis and Mössenböck's single-pass generation approach, and Click and Paleczny's Sea of Nodes IR, the article traces several key papers and discusses their strengths and weaknesses. It also touches upon Appel's work on the relationship between functional programming and SSA, Aycock and Horspool's iterative phi node removal, and more recent approaches based on abstract interpretation. The article concludes with a list of further papers and resources, providing a more comprehensive perspective for readers interested in learning more about SSA.

(bernsteinbear.com)

Development static single assignment

Framework Unveils New Expansion Bay Module and More

2024-12-17

Framework Unveils New Expansion Bay Module and More

Framework has released the first new module for the Framework Laptop 16's Expansion Bay system: the Dual M.2 Adapter, allowing users to add extra storage drives or other high-speed devices. They've also updated the Framework Laptop 16's CPU thermal solution, introduced 'Mystery Boxes' containing random parts to reduce e-waste, added 48GB DDR5 memory modules, new merchandise, and expanded shipping to more regions. These updates enhance both the product line and user experience.

(frame.work)

Hardware Expansion Bay Module Hardware Upgrades

Fabrication of a Superconducting Qubit Chip: A Detailed Process

2025-07-12

Fabrication of a Superconducting Qubit Chip: A Detailed Process

This paper details the fabrication process of a superconducting qubit chip, improving upon existing methods to enhance reproducibility. The process involves: using a 6-inch silicon wafer as substrate, sputtering a 200nm niobium film, photolithography and plasma etching to pattern the niobium, electron beam lithography to prepare Josephson junctions, aluminum deposition to form the junctions, and finally dicing and lift-off. The paper also describes the experimental setup for qubit characterization and measurement, including the cryogenic measurement system and signal processing chain. The fabricated Josephson junctions exhibited lower-than-expected critical currents, resulting in low EJ/EC ratios.

(www.nature.com)

Development superconducting qubit chip fabrication Josephson junction

Luxury Overnight Trains Return? Dreamstar Aims to Reshape West Coast Rail Travel

2025-06-06

Luxury Overnight Trains Return? Dreamstar Aims to Reshape West Coast Rail Travel

Dreamstar is aiming to revive the glamour of luxury overnight trains connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, a service unseen since the 1940s. Leveraging existing Union Pacific freight rail lines, they plan to offer all-sleeper accommodations with gourmet dining and five-star hospitality. This aims to provide a comfortable, reliable, and elegant alternative for medium-distance travel, claiming a 75% reduction in carbon emissions compared to flying. Having secured some investment, Dreamstar plans to launch service before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

(www.freightwaves.com)

Startup

The Rise and Fall of Roam Research: The Promise of Bidirectional Linking vs. Reality

2025-05-18

The Rise and Fall of Roam Research: The Promise of Bidirectional Linking vs. Reality

Roam Research once took the note-taking world by storm with its bidirectional linking feature, touted as a revolutionary approach. However, the author abandoned Roam, finding themselves spending more time agonizing over where to put notes than actually using them. While bidirectional linking initially alleviated the anxiety of note organization, the sheer volume of links eventually hindered efficient retrieval. The author argues that Roam needs improved search functionality and an automated taxonomy system to simplify note management and truly enhance user experience.

(every.to)

Development bidirectional linking

Silent Protest: Two Advisors Resign from Federal Agencies

2025-05-13

Silent Protest: Two Advisors Resign from Federal Agencies

Two advisors, serving on the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council, resigned in protest against the U.S. government's political interference in knowledge institutions and suppression of academic freedom. They cited arbitrary interference with grants, restrictions on free speech, and the politically motivated persecution of key figures like the Librarian of Congress as severely undermining the independence and objectivity of these institutions. The advisors argued that remaining would lend false legitimacy to the government's actions, choosing instead to resign in protest and call for the restoration of these institutions' original purpose.

(time.com)

Tech knowledge institutions

How Government Subsidies Made High-Fructose Corn Syrup King

2025-01-13

How Government Subsidies Made High-Fructose Corn Syrup King

This article details the rise of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in America, revealing a story of government subsidies, tariffs, and political maneuvering. ADM, a powerful food processing company, leveraged its political connections to secure subsidies for domestic corn and tariffs on imported sugar, making HFCS significantly cheaper than cane or beet sugar. This led to its widespread adoption by giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Despite recent health concerns surrounding HFCS, its entrenched economic and political position makes its decline unlikely.

(thehustle.co)

Tech High-fructose corn syrup Government subsidies Agricultural policy

Notre-Dame to Feature Modern Stained Glass Designs

2024-12-28

Notre-Dame to Feature Modern Stained Glass Designs

Following its 2019 fire, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris will replace six original stained-glass windows with modern designs by French artist Claire Tabouret. Tabouret's vibrant design, selected from over 100 submissions, depicts diverse people praying together for Pentecost in blues, pinks, and yellows. The decision is controversial; some argue it violates international heritage guidelines, while Tabouret aims to promote unity through art. The new windows will be crafted by the historic glassmaker Simon-Marq, known for its restoration work at Notre-Dame and collaborations with renowned artists like Chagall and Miró.

(www.smithsonianmag.com)

Design Notre-Dame stained glass

Open-Source OLMo-2 Outperforms GPT-3.5? Mac-Friendly Setup!

2025-03-18

Open-Source OLMo-2 Outperforms GPT-3.5? Mac-Friendly Setup!

The open-source language model OLMo-2, with 32 billion parameters, claims to outperform GPT-3.5-Turbo and GPT-4 mini. All data, code, weights, and details are freely available. This post details a simple setup for running it on a Mac using the llm-mlx plugin. Download the 17GB model with a few commands and engage in interactive chat or generate images; the example shows generating an SVG of a pelican on a bicycle.

(simonwillison.net)

AI

LogLayer: Unify Your JavaScript Logging

2025-01-06

LogLayer: Unify Your JavaScript Logging

LogLayer is a unifying layer for JavaScript logging libraries, providing a consistent logging experience. It supports multiple logging libraries (like Pino, Bunyan) and cloud services (like Datadog, New Relic), and allows extending functionality with plugins for features such as data filtering and redaction. Developers can easily add tags, metadata, and errors, and switch logging providers on the fly without changing application code.

(loglayer.dev)

Development

Fourier Transform: A Mathematical Revolution

2025-09-05

Fourier Transform: A Mathematical Revolution

This article recounts the discovery of the Fourier transform and its profound impact. In the early 19th century, French mathematician Joseph Fourier discovered a way to decompose any function into a set of fundamental waves – the Fourier transform. This not only sparked a mathematical revolution but also deeply influenced fields like physics and chemistry. From compressing files to enhancing audio signals, from studying tides to detecting gravitational waves, the Fourier transform is ubiquitous, even playing a crucial role in quantum mechanics. Its core idea is to decompose complex functions into simple sine and cosine waves, thereby simplifying problems; this is like breaking down a symphony into the sounds of individual instruments.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech Fourier Transform

Dino Programming Language: Scripting, Functional, and Object-Oriented Powerhouse

2025-06-05

Dino Programming Language: Scripting, Functional, and Object-Oriented Powerhouse

Dino is a high-performance programming language blending scripting, functional, and object-oriented paradigms. Its history dates back to 1993, initially used at the Russian game company ANIMATEK. This document details the implementation of Dino's 0.98 development version, covering its bytecode compiler, interpreter, JIT compiler, and type inference. Performance comparisons against Python, PyPy, Ruby, and others are presented across architectures like x86-64 and AARCH64. Dino boasts features like multi-precision integers, heterogeneous extensible arrays, associative tables, first-class functions, fibers, exception handling, and pattern matching, with innovative class composition for safe and powerful object orientation.

(github.com)

Development Dino programming language

Reverse Engineered: Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 Schematic Released

2025-08-27

Reverse Engineered: Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 Schematic Released

A hacker has reverse-engineered the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, releasing its schematic and layout. The process involved meticulously sanding down the board layer by layer, scanning each with a high-resolution scanner to create the design. While not intended for fabrication, this detailed schematic offers educational value and opens doors for advanced hacking, such as exploring the I2C register map of the PMIC. The project reveals insights into the CM5's power management, WiFi/Bluetooth control, and SD card compatibility.

(github.com)

Hardware

Austrian Cloud Provider Ditches VMware for KVM After 500%+ License Hike

2025-01-13

Austrian Cloud Provider Ditches VMware for KVM After 500%+ License Hike

Facing a massive VMware license cost increase (over 500%), Austrian cloud provider Anexia migrated 12,000 VMs to a KVM-based open-source platform. This move not only saved significant costs, preventing an existential crisis, but also garnered customer support. Anexia leveraged its existing Netcup platform and Anexia Engine abstraction layer for a seamless migration, requiring only a single click and brief reboot. This migration showcases the viability of open-source alternatives and highlights the market backlash against Broadcom's aggressive pricing post-VMware acquisition.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Open Source Migration

The 'Man with the Golden Arm': Australia's Most Prolific Blood Donor Dies at 88

2025-03-03

The 'Man with the Golden Arm': Australia's Most Prolific Blood Donor Dies at 88

James Harrison, Australia's most prolific blood and plasma donor, known as the "Man with the Golden Arm," passed away at 88. His 1,173 donations over six decades saved an estimated 2.4 million babies from Rhesus disease. His rare anti-D antibody in his plasma was crucial in preventing this potentially fatal condition. His legacy extends beyond his selfless acts; research using his blood aims to create a synthetic version of the antibody, promising to save even more lives globally.

(www.npr.org)

Tech anti-D antibody medical research

Ayn Rand's Heir: A Tragedy of Loyalty, Power, and Family

2025-04-04

Ayn Rand's Heir: A Tragedy of Loyalty, Power, and Family

This article chronicles the life of Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand's devoted follower and heir, whose life revolved around unwavering loyalty to Rand. From his teenage epiphany with Rand's philosophy to becoming her sole inheritor, Peikoff dedicated his life to propagating Rand's Objectivist philosophy. However, after inheriting Rand's legacy and fortune, Peikoff's later years are consumed by a bitter dispute with his daughter, Kira, stemming from his marriage to a much younger caregiver, Grace Davis, and subsequent plans to leave his estate to her. The story highlights the clash between power, loyalty, and family, and the ironic fate of a man devoted to individualism who ends up defined by his dependence on others.

(www.theatlantic.com)

Misc Objectivism Family Dispute

Flatpak's Development Stagnation: A Lack of Maintainers Hinders Innovation

2025-05-23

Despite its popularity among developers and users, and adoption by distributions like Fedora, the core Flatpak project is facing development stagnation. The main cause is the loss of key developers, leading to slow code review and merging, and a backlog of new features and improvements. The article explores challenges in Flatpak's OSTree and OCI support, permission refinement, network namespaces, and NVIDIA driver integration, proposing a potential OCI-based refactoring to leverage the broader container ecosystem and address existing issues.

(lwn.net)

Development application packaging

Chess's Ancient Origins: From Four-Player Chaturanga to Modern Chess

2025-05-28

By the 7th Century CE, people in India were playing chaturanga, a game featuring pieces representing infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots, commanded by a king, mirroring the armies of the time. The different moves of these pieces distinguished chaturanga from other war games and are the ancestors of modern chess pieces. Chaturanga spread to Persia, evolving into shatranj, which eventually reached Europe and developed into modern chess. Early chaturanga was a four-player game with dice, significantly different from modern chess. However, it shared the 8x8 board and ultimately evolved into two-player versions like buddhidyūta.

(chesshistory.github.io)

Game chess history chaturanga shatranj

Building a 2FA App That Notifies You of Cool Number Sequences

2025-03-14

Building a 2FA App That Notifies You of Cool Number Sequences

Inspired by the nostalgic "GET" meme from early image boards, the author built an app that leverages the patterns in 2FA codes. The app generates 6-digit 2FA codes and sends push notifications when interesting number sequences (like repeating digits or consecutive numbers) appear. The article details the development process, from implementing the TOTP algorithm and scheduling notifications to UI design and performance optimization using Combine and Metal shaders. Challenges included handling background processes and efficient code generation. The final app is released, with future plans for performance improvements and additional features.

(blog.jacobstechtavern.com)

Development two-factor authentication

Single-Cell Sequencing Reveals Epigenetic Remodeling in White Adipose Tissue of Obese Mice and Humans

2025-04-17

Single-Cell Sequencing Reveals Epigenetic Remodeling in White Adipose Tissue of Obese Mice and Humans

This study employed single-cell RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), CUT&TAG, and ATAC-seq to investigate white adipose tissue (WAT) in obese mice and humans, revealing significant alterations in the epigenetic landscape of WAT cell types during weight loss. A portion of gene expression changes persisted, suggesting an epigenetic memory mechanism of obesity. Researchers analyzed samples from three independent human studies (MTSS, LTSS, and NEFA) and a diet-induced obesity mouse model. Multi-omics analysis revealed changes in WAT cell types and their association with metabolic function.

(www.nature.com)

AI white adipose tissue

FFmpeg 8.0: Vulkan-Accelerated Encoding and Auto-Subtitling

2025-08-29

FFmpeg 8.0: Vulkan-Accelerated Encoding and Auto-Subtitling

FFmpeg 8.0, codenamed "Huffman," is here with significant updates. A standout feature is the integration of the Whisper speech recognition model, enabling automatic video subtitling. It leverages the Vulkan API for hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding of various formats, including AV1, FFv1, VP9, and ProRes RAW, and supports VVC (H.266) encoding, boosting efficiency. This release also enhances compatibility with older formats like RealVideo 6.0 and niche audio codecs, solidifying its indispensable role in video processing.

(www.theregister.com)

Development Video Encoding

Stunning Sci-Fi Scene Created in Blender

2024-12-31

Stunning Sci-Fi Scene Created in Blender

Samuel Pantze, a computer scientist from Germany, created a breathtaking sci-fi scene featuring a spaceship above a tidally locked planet using Blender. Inspired by sci-fi literature, Melodysheep's videos, and Paul Chadeisson's concept art, he masterfully employed procedural textures and shader math to generate a realistic spaceship model and planetary background. The article details the process, from spaceship modeling and texturing to creating the planetary background using a unique shader approach, showcasing his exceptional 3D modeling and rendering skills.

(www.blendernation.com)

Design Sci-fi

GPT-5: A Deep Dive into Pricing, Model Card, and Key Features

2025-08-08

GPT-5: A Deep Dive into Pricing, Model Card, and Key Features

OpenAI's GPT-5 family has arrived! It's not a revolutionary leap, but it significantly outperforms its predecessors in reliability and usability. In ChatGPT, GPT-5 is a hybrid system intelligently switching between models based on problem difficulty; the API version offers regular, mini, and nano models with four reasoning levels. It boasts a 272,000-token input limit and a 128,000-token output limit, supporting text and image input, but only text output. Pricing is aggressively competitive, significantly undercutting rivals. Furthermore, GPT-5 shows marked improvements in reducing hallucinations, better instruction following, and minimizing sycophancy, employing a novel safety training approach. It excels in writing, coding, and healthcare. However, prompt injection remains an unsolved challenge.

(simonwillison.net)

AI

20k Bounty: Help Achieve Parity Between Rust's rav1d and C's dav1d AV1 Decoders!

2025-05-14

20k Bounty: Help Achieve Parity Between Rust's rav1d and C's dav1d AV1 Decoders!

The rav1d AV1 decoder, written in Rust, is currently about 5% slower than its C-based counterpart, dav1d. To bridge this performance gap, a $20,000 bounty is offered for contributions that bring rav1d to performance parity with dav1d. Improvements can be made to the rav1d codebase, the Rust compiler, or the Rust standard library, but modifications are subject to specific rules (no modifying low-level assembly, no non-Rust code). The bounty will be distributed proportionally based on the performance improvements achieved.

(www.memorysafety.org)

Development

Ladybird: A Novel Web Browser Built on Web Standards

2025-02-28

Ladybird: A Novel Web Browser Built on Web Standards

Ladybird is a truly independent web browser using a novel engine based on web standards. Currently in pre-alpha, it's intended for developers. Its multi-process architecture—with a main UI process, multiple WebContent renderers, an ImageDecoder, and a RequestServer—prioritizes robustness against malicious content. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows (with WSL2), and many other *nix systems and leverages several core library components from SerenityOS. Developers are invited to join the Discord server for discussions and contributions.

(github.com)

Development web standards multi-process architecture

Meta Wins Copyright Case: A Victory of Strategy, Not Law

2025-06-26

Meta Wins Copyright Case: A Victory of Strategy, Not Law

Meta Platforms Inc. avoided a landmark copyright lawsuit from authors alleging its generative AI model, Llama, used millions of copyrighted books without permission for training. A San Francisco judge ruled Meta's actions fell under fair use, but cautioned this was due to the authors' ineffective litigation strategy. The ruling doesn't confirm that Meta's use of copyrighted material for AI training is universally lawful.

(news.bloomberglaw.com)

AI Llama Model

MELP and MELPe Vocoders: The Evolution of Military Speech Communication

2025-09-17

MELP and MELPe Vocoders: The Evolution of Military Speech Communication

This article introduces Mixed-Excitation Linear Prediction (MELP) and its enhanced version, MELPe, vocoders. Originally invented by Alan McCree, MELP became a US DoD standard (MIL-STD-3005) in 1997 and saw widespread use in military applications and satellite communications. MELPe, an improvement on MELP, became the new MIL-STD-3005 in 2001 and was adopted by NATO as STANAG-4591 in 2002. MELPe significantly outperforms older military standards like CELP and LPC-10e in speech quality, intelligibility, and noise immunity, especially in noisy environments.

(melpe.org)

Tech speech coding

Apple Photos App Corrupts Images: A Debugging Odyssey

2025-09-17

The author experienced significant image corruption (up to 30%) when importing photos from their OM System camera into Apple Photos. Initially suspecting hardware issues, they systematically replaced cables, SD cards, laptops, and even cameras, yet the problem persisted. The culprit turned out to be Apple Photos itself, specifically the simultaneous deletion and import of photos. To resolve this, the author switched to Darktable for photo management, culling and processing images before importing them into Apple Photos. This lengthy debugging process, while frustrating, resulted in a solution and the bonus of redundant hardware.

(tenderlovemaking.com)

Misc image corruption Apple Photos camera import

AI Music Models: Revolutionizing Music Creation?

2025-02-09

AI Music Models: Revolutionizing Music Creation?

From handcrafted instruments to digital audio workstations, music creation technology has constantly evolved. Now, AI music models are leading a new era, capable of generating entire songs, splitting stems, synthesizing vocals, and creating instrumental sounds. While some fear AI will replace artists, the author believes AI is more of an assistive tool, enhancing efficiency and expanding creative possibilities. In the future, AI-generated music may become indistinguishable from traditionally created music, presenting both opportunities and prompting a reevaluation of 'authentic art'.

(www.maximepeabody.com)

Tech music technology

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