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Mobile BESS: Revolutionizing Emergency Response and Off-Grid Power

2025-07-28

Mobile BESS: Revolutionizing Emergency Response and Off-Grid Power

A diesel spill in Baltimore Harbor highlighted the need for mobile battery energy storage systems (BESS). Unlike traditional fossil fuel generators, BESS offers clean, large-scale power for diverse applications, including harbor cleanup, remote industrial operations, and emergency response. Companies like Volvo and Power Up Connect are developing mobile BESS solutions, providing charging for electric heavy machinery and powering areas lacking electrical infrastructure. While cost remains a challenge, advancements in battery technology and decreasing prices suggest mobile BESS will find wider adoption across various sectors, transforming how we access power.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech mobile energy storage

NOAA Halts International Collaboration: Political Interference or Something More?

2025-02-06

NOAA Halts International Collaboration: Political Interference or Something More?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has ordered its employees to temporarily cease all communication with foreign nationals, including those working directly with the US government. The move has sparked concern, with the motives unclear but potentially linked to the Trump administration's stance on renewable energy and political pressure on NOAA. The ban impacts international collaborations, data sharing, and personnel exchange, potentially severely impacting climate research, ocean conservation, and disaster warning systems. Sources suggest this is connected to internal personnel changes and political vetting within NOAA.

(www.wired.com)

Tech international collaboration

Slashing R&D Funding: A Macroeconomic Disaster

2025-04-30

A new analysis reveals the devastating long-term economic consequences of cutting federal funding for scientific R&D. Reducing public R&D spending by 25% would shrink GDP comparably to the Great Recession. Halving it would impoverish the average American by roughly $10,000 (in today's dollars). Furthermore, such cuts would significantly reduce federal revenue; a 25% reduction leading to a 4.3% annual decrease, and a 50% cut resulting in an 8.6% annual decline. Agencies like NIH and NSF, crucial for funding basic and applied research, face funding freezes and downsizing, highlighting the urgent need to address this issue.

(impa.american.edu)

Tech R&D funding

China's CO2 Emissions Fall in First Half of 2025, But Challenges Remain

2025-08-23

China's CO2 Emissions Fall in First Half of 2025, But Challenges Remain

China's carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, driven by strong growth in clean energy, extending a decline that began in March 2024. The power sector, a major emissions source, saw a 3% drop in CO2 output, with solar power growth offsetting increased electricity demand. However, rapid expansion in the coal-to-chemicals industry added to emissions, posing a challenge to China's carbon peaking goals. Despite the emissions decrease, China is likely to miss several climate targets, highlighting the need for more ambitious goals in its upcoming Nationally Determined Contribution and 15th Five-Year Plan.

(www.carbonbrief.org)

Tech climate targets

YouTube Warns of AI-Generated Deepfake Phishing Scam Targeting Creators

2025-03-05

YouTube Warns of AI-Generated Deepfake Phishing Scam Targeting Creators

YouTube is warning creators about a new phishing scam using an AI-generated deepfake video of CEO Neal Mohan. The scam, spread via private videos, falsely claims YouTube is changing its monetization policy to steal user credentials. YouTube emphasizes that it would never contact users privately with such information. Similar scams have been reported on Reddit, often using emails from [email protected] and leading to malicious downloads or fake DocuSign sites. YouTube urges users to report any suspicious videos.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

Purple Streetlights: A Growing Mystery Across the Globe

2025-06-17

Purple Streetlights: A Growing Mystery Across the Globe

For 15 years, American cities have been swapping sodium lamps for energy-efficient LEDs, changing nighttime roads from orange to bright white. But recently, a strange purple hue has been appearing in streetlights across the US and globally. Scientists hypothesize that this is due to delamination of the phosphor layer coating the blue LEDs, revealing the underlying blue light and resulting in the purple tint. This isn't just unsettling; it's a potential safety hazard, as the blue-rich light alters how drivers and pedestrians perceive their surroundings, impairing detail vision at night. Experts recommend removing sunglasses and blue-light-filtering glasses at night to maximize light intake.

(www.scientificamerican.com)

Tech LED streetlights phosphor delamination nighttime safety

The American Dream: A Tech Founder's Urgent Plea

2025-01-09

The American Dream: A Tech Founder's Urgent Plea

Jeff Atwood, co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse, expresses deep concern about the fading American Dream. He cites soaring costs of housing, healthcare, and education, widening wealth inequality, and low voter turnout as threats to its survival. In response, he announces his family's commitment to donate a significant portion of their wealth: immediate aid to vulnerable groups and long-term investment in projects aiming for social equity and democratic reform. The article weaves together his personal journey, highlighting the challenges and hopes facing American society, and urges collective action to safeguard the ideal of the American Dream.

(blog.codinghorror.com)

Startup Wealth Inequality

Valhalla: Java's Epic Refactor Nears Completion

2024-12-17

After a decade-long journey, Project Valhalla, Java's ambitious refactor, is nearing completion. Aiming to bridge the gap between classes and primitives, Valhalla introduces value classes that offer the coding convenience of classes with the performance of primitives, resulting in a flat and compact memory layout. At Devoxx 2024, Java Language Architect Brian Goetz provided a comprehensive update, highlighting key features such as value classes, null-restricted types, enhanced definite assignment analysis, and strict initialization.

(inside.java)

Development Value Classes

White House Reverses Course: Sweeping Rescission of Biden-Era Executive Orders

2025-01-22

White House Reverses Course: Sweeping Rescission of Biden-Era Executive Orders

In a dramatic shift, the new Presidential administration issued an executive order rescinding dozens of executive orders and memoranda enacted by the previous administration. These actions covered a wide range of policies, including racial equity, climate change, immigration, and healthcare. The new administration characterized the rescinded policies as "deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical," claiming they undermined American unity, fairness, safety, and prosperity. This move signals a significant departure from the previous administration's agenda, aiming to restore "common sense" governance and unleash the potential of American citizens.

(www.whitehouse.gov)

Misc politics executive orders policy reversal

Google Search's AI Mode Gets a Powerful Upgrade: Your Personal Taskmaster

2025-08-21

Google Search's AI Mode Gets a Powerful Upgrade: Your Personal Taskmaster

Google is supercharging its AI Mode in Search, giving it advanced agentic capabilities and personalization. Now you can ask complex questions naturally, and AI Mode will handle the task, such as making restaurant reservations, scheduling appointments, and buying tickets. It searches across multiple platforms based on your preferences (party size, date, time, location, cuisine, etc.), and directly links to the booking page for easy completion. This is powered by Project Mariner's live web browsing, Search's partner integrations, and the power of Google's Knowledge Graph and Maps.

(blog.google)

AI

JWST Discovers Tiny New Moon Orbiting Uranus

2025-08-22

JWST Discovers Tiny New Moon Orbiting Uranus

A team led by Dr. Maryame El Moutamid at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has discovered a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The tiny moon, designated S/2025 U 1, is approximately 6 miles (10 km) in diameter and located between the orbits of Ophelia and Bianca. This brings the total known Uranian moons to 29. The discovery highlights JWST's capabilities in detecting even small, previously unseen celestial bodies in our solar system.

(www.sciencedaily.com)

Tech

Kotlin-powered Local LLM Proxy: A Boon for JetBrains AI Assistant

2025-05-03

Kotlin-powered Local LLM Proxy: A Boon for JetBrains AI Assistant

Limited by the free quota of JetBrains AI Assistant, the author developed a Kotlin/Ktor application that proxies multiple LLM APIs, such as OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini, as LM Studio and Ollama APIs, enabling their use within JetBrains IDEs. Leveraging reflection-free features, it's built as a GraalVM native image for cross-platform compatibility and fast startup. It supports streaming chat, features easy configuration, and hot reloading.

(github.com)

Development

Zipf's Law in Whale Song: A Striking Similarity in Cultural Learning

2025-02-07

Zipf's Law in Whale Song: A Striking Similarity in Cultural Learning

New research reveals that humpback whale songs exhibit the same Zipfian distribution found in human languages—the most frequent word is twice as frequent as the second, and so on. Researchers analyzed eight years of whale song recordings, using techniques inspired by how human infants learn language, to uncover this pattern. This suggests both human language and whale song possess statistically coherent parts, following Zipf's law, likely because cultural learning makes learning easier and promotes the emergence of these properties. However, this doesn't mean we can talk to whales; the meaning of whale song remains unknown. Future research will explore other species, such as songbirds, to test whether cultural learning is the common driver of this phenomenon.

(theconversation.com)

Tech Zipf's Law Whale Song Cultural Learning

Arm Drops Qualcomm Lawsuit, Paving Way for Oryon's Continued Success

2025-02-07

Arm Drops Qualcomm Lawsuit, Paving Way for Oryon's Continued Success

Arm has abandoned its attempt to terminate a key license with Qualcomm, allowing Qualcomm to continue producing its own Arm-compatible chips for PCs, phones, and servers. The lawsuit stemmed from Qualcomm's 2021 acquisition of Nuvia, which held an advanced Architecture License Agreement (ALA) and whose Oryon CPU cores power Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. Arm argued Nuvia transferred designs without permission, but the jury largely sided with Qualcomm. This benefits Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Series and Snapdragon 8 Elite chips (for PCs and high-end phones respectively), bolstering their position in the AI market. While Arm notes other lawsuits are ongoing, its financial forecasts already account for this outcome, expecting continued royalty payments from Qualcomm. Both companies expressed confidence that the rise of smaller, powerful LLMs won't significantly impact their businesses and are committed to supporting on-device LLM execution.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech chip licensing

Cat Origin Story Rewritten: Tunisia, the Unexpected Cradle of Domestic Felines

2025-04-22

Cat Origin Story Rewritten: Tunisia, the Unexpected Cradle of Domestic Felines

Two large-scale studies are rewriting the history of domestic cat origins. By analyzing genetic data and archaeological evidence, researchers found that cats didn't accompany early farmers into Europe as previously thought. Instead, Tunisia is pinpointed as the origin point, with cats arriving in Europe in multiple waves starting around the 1st century CE. Religious and cultural factors played a crucial role, with the veneration of cats in ancient Egypt and their representation in Greco-Roman and Norse mythology driving their spread. The research also reveals competition and hybridization between domestic cats and native European wildcats, leading to a decline in wildcat populations. This discovery significantly alters our understanding of one of humanity's most familiar companions.

(phys.org)

Misc cat origins genetic research

Deep Dive into Solid Queue: Advanced Features of a Rails Background Job Processor

2025-06-24

Deep Dive into Solid Queue: Advanced Features of a Rails Background Job Processor

Solid Queue is a robust background job processing system for Ruby on Rails, cleverly using the database—instead of external dependencies like Redis—to store and manage jobs. This article delves into Solid Queue's advanced features: job scheduling, recurring tasks, and concurrency controls. A dispatcher and scheduler handle scheduled and recurring jobs, respectively, utilizing `solid_queue_scheduled_executions` and `solid_queue_recurring_tasks` tables. Concurrency controls, implemented with Semaphore and BlockedExecution models, limit concurrent execution of specific job types, preventing resource contention. AppSignal integration is also discussed for monitoring Solid Queue's performance. Solid Queue's design prioritizes simplicity and reliability, making it a valuable addition to the Rails ecosystem.

(blog.appsignal.com)

Development

Zed Editor Launches Edit Prediction Powered by Open-Source Model Zeta

2025-02-14

Zed Editor Launches Edit Prediction Powered by Open-Source Model Zeta

Zed editor has released an exciting new feature: edit prediction. Powered by a new open-source model called Zeta, it predicts your next edit, allowing you to apply it with a simple tab press. Zeta, derived from Qwen2.5-Coder-7B, leverages supervised fine-tuning and direct preference optimization for accuracy and efficiency. To address latency challenges, Zed employed techniques like speculative decoding and partnered with Baseten for optimized model deployment. Currently in public beta, users can try Zeta for free with a GitHub account. Its open-source nature allows community contributions to improve the model.

(zed.dev)

Development

Retro Light Cycle Game Built with Rust and ggez

2025-09-03

Retro Light Cycle Game Built with Rust and ggez

A classic TRON-inspired light cycle game built using Rust and the ggez game framework. Features single-player and two-player modes, adjustable AI difficulty, a boost mechanic for strategic gameplay, and impressive visual effects. The game boasts a retro 8-bit aesthetic and includes a pause menu. The open-source project is available under the MIT license.

(github.com)

Game

Long Polling Beats WebSockets: A Practical Guide to Scalable Real-time Systems

2025-01-05

Inferable's team chose HTTP long polling over WebSockets when building a scalable real-time system using Node.js and TypeScript. Facing challenges of hundreds of worker nodes needing real-time job updates and agents requiring real-time state synchronization, they found long polling surprisingly effective. By keeping HTTP connections open until new data arrives or a timeout is reached, they avoided the complexities of WebSockets, such as authentication, observability, and infrastructure compatibility. The article details their implementation, including database optimization, error handling, and best practices like mandatory TTL, client-configurable TTL, and sensible database polling intervals. The choice stemmed from needing core product control over message delivery, zero external dependencies, and ease of understanding and modification. Alternatives like ElectricSQL are briefly discussed, highlighting scenarios where WebSockets might be preferable.

(www.inferable.ai)

Development long polling websockets real-time systems

BCacheFS Disabled in openSUSE Kernels 6.17+

2025-09-11

The openSUSE team announced that BCacheFS filesystem will be disabled in kernels 6.17 and later. This is because BCacheFS is externally maintained since version 6.17, and openSUSE will no longer maintain and backport downstream patches. Currently, 6.16 and earlier versions are unaffected. Users should follow BCacheFS upstream advice for installation and usage, or prepare a KMP themselves. BCacheFS will be re-enabled once its maintainer resumes upstream maintenance.

(lwn.net)

Development

UK Drought: Can Deleting Emails Really Help?

2025-08-13

UK Drought: Can Deleting Emails Really Help?

Facing a severe drought, the UK government urges citizens to conserve water, even suggesting deleting old emails and photos to reduce data center water usage. While large data centers consume massive amounts of water, small daily actions can collectively make a difference. Official data shows a 20% drop in water consumption in the Severn Trent area following water-saving campaigns. Fixing leaks is also crucial; a leaky toilet can waste 200-400 liters daily. This drought highlights the importance of water conservation and pushes tech companies towards more sustainable data center technologies.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech drought

Digital Resource Helps Wildfire Survivors Recover

2025-01-15

Digital Resource Helps Wildfire Survivors Recover

The Home Loss File System, created by California wildfire survivors, is a digital resource designed to support individuals navigating the challenging process of disaster recovery. This comprehensive tool provides checklists, organizational tools, and essential resources to help manage insurance claims, document losses, and track expenses. It features multiple sheets covering immediate actions, insurance details, inventory management, mental health resources, and more. Physical boxes are also available upon request.

(docs.google.com)

Misc resource management

China's 'Thousand Sails' Megaconstellation Faces Major Delays

2025-07-27

China's 'Thousand Sails' Megaconstellation Faces Major Delays

China's ambitious 'Thousand Sails' (G60 Starlink) constellation, aiming for over 15,000 satellites by 2030 to provide global internet access, is facing significant delays. Only 90 satellites have been launched, far short of the 648 target for the end of 2025. The shortfall stems from a severe rocket shortage, hindering the project's ability to compete with SpaceX's Starlink. To meet its goals, the project needs to launch over 30 satellites per month, a pace currently unattainable.

(www.scmp.com)

Tech satellite constellation space launch

CES 2025: The Worst Tech of the Year

2025-01-11

CES 2025: The Worst Tech of the Year

At CES 2025, the "Worst in Show" awards highlighted the most troubling trends in tech, focusing on privacy violations, security flaws, poor repairability, and unsustainable practices. Judges evaluated products based on severity of issues, innovative badness, global impact, comparison to previous iterations, and the balance between positives and negatives. The awards served as a wake-up call, showcasing the concerning direction of certain technological advancements.

(www.worstinshowces.com)

Tech

Thrift Store Find: $30 Valve Potentially Worth $223,520

2025-02-27

Thrift Store Find: $30 Valve Potentially Worth $223,520

A Washington State man, Zach, purchased an aircraft engine air supply valve for $30 at a thrift store. The part, identified as a Honeywell 3290628-4, is reportedly part of a GE CF6-80 engine from an A330-300 and had a reference value of $223,520 in 2011, according to Aeroval. While Zach acknowledges the difficulty of selling the part due to missing documentation and its potentially non-functional state, the story highlights the surprising value of discarded items and the potential for incredible thrift store finds.

(www.avweb.com)

Misc thrift store find aircraft parts unexpected value

GitHub Actions Deprecating Node.js 20, Migrating to Node.js 24

2025-09-20

GitHub Actions Deprecating Node.js 20, Migrating to Node.js 24

GitHub Actions is announcing the deprecation of Node.js 20, with end-of-life in April 2026. A migration to Node.js 24 is planned for Fall 2025. The latest GitHub runner already supports Node.js 24, and users can test it early by setting an environment variable. From March 4th, 2026, Node.js 24 will be the default. Users can temporarily continue using Node.js 20 by setting an environment variable until its complete removal in the summer. Note: Node.js 24 is incompatible with macOS 13.4 and below, and doesn't support ARM32 self-hosted runners.

(github.blog)

Development

Amazon to Shutter Standalone Freevee App in August 2025

2025-07-03

Amazon to Shutter Standalone Freevee App in August 2025

Amazon will shut down its standalone Freevee app in August 2025, consolidating its free, ad-supported streaming content onto Prime Video. This follows an announcement made in November 2024. Users can continue accessing Freevee's movies, shows, and live TV on Prime Video at no cost, even without a Prime subscription. The move is seen as a strategic simplification, centralizing Amazon's streaming offerings around Prime Video.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

The Art of API Design: Balancing Simplicity and Flexibility

2025-08-25

This article delves into the crucial principles of API design, emphasizing the importance of avoiding breaking changes to existing user code. The author argues that good APIs should be simple and easy to use, yet maintain long-term flexibility. The article details technical aspects such as API versioning, idempotency, rate limiting, and pagination, and recommends using API keys for authentication to make it easier for non-engineer users. It concludes that a great product outweighs a perfect API, but a poorly designed product will inevitably lead to a poor API.

(www.seangoedecke.com)

Development

Skywater 130nm SerDes Design: High-Speed Communication Achieved

2025-06-18

Skywater 130nm SerDes Design: High-Speed Communication Achieved

This project details a high-speed Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) circuit designed for high-speed communication. Implemented using Verilog HDL and synthesized with OpenLane on the Skywater OpenPDK 130nm process, the SerDes converts parallel data into a serial stream for transmission and back again at the receiver. The design includes a transmitter (using a chain of CMOS inverters as a driver), a receiver (employing a resistive feedback inverter and CMOS inverter for sensing and amplification), a D-flip-flop for data sampling, and an oversampling CDR for clock recovery. GDS, SPICE, and netlist files for all modules are provided.

(github.com)

Hardware High-Speed Communication

Dia: The AI-Powered Browser Challenging the Status Quo

2025-06-14

Dia: The AI-Powered Browser Challenging the Status Quo

Traditional web browsers face a challenge from AI. The Browser Company's Dia browser integrates AI deeply, aiming to redefine how users interact with the internet. Built on Chromium, Dia boasts a clean interface and features an AI chatbot that searches the web, summarizes files, generates content based on open tabs, and leverages browsing history for context. Its 'Skills' feature allows users to create code snippets as shortcuts, such as automatically generating reading layouts. While browser AI isn't new, Dia's ease of use and powerful features position it as a strong contender against established browsers.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

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