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Air Pollution During Pregnancy Linked to Increased Postpartum Depression Risk

2025-03-28

Air Pollution During Pregnancy Linked to Increased Postpartum Depression Risk

A new study reveals a significant link between exposure to high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and PM10 particulate matter during pregnancy and an increased risk of postpartum depression. Researchers at the University of California followed 361 low-income Hispanic/Latina women in Los Angeles for three years. Women exposed to high levels of NO2 or PM10 during their second trimester were nearly four times more likely to develop postpartum depression compared to those with lower exposure. The study highlights the importance of reducing air pollution exposure during pregnancy, especially during the second trimester, and underscores the need for mitigating traffic emissions.

(www.bps.org.uk)

Tech Air Pollution Postpartum Depression Pregnancy Health

MIT's Putnam Seminar: More Than Just a Competition

2025-03-28

MIT's Putnam Seminar: More Than Just a Competition

MIT's Putnam Seminar attracts math enthusiasts from around the globe. It's not just training for the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition; it's a platform for student interaction, enhancing mathematical literacy and communication skills. Through student presentations, professorial guidance, and lectures from upperclassmen, the seminar helps students transition from high school math Olympiads to collegiate learning. Beyond problem-solving techniques, it emphasizes communication, encouraging blackboard presentations and providing extra practice. Ultimately, it helps students excel in the Putnam Competition but, more importantly, fosters a love of math and a drive for continuous learning.

(news.mit.edu)

Development math competition

Google Search's Trust Crisis: Why I'm Considering Switching

2025-03-29

Google Search's Trust Crisis: Why I'm Considering Switching

Google Search has been my default for years, but recently, it's been riddled with errors. From incorrect sports scores to inaccurate song information and flawed troubleshooting advice, the results have become unreliable. The search results are swamped with outdated information, SEO spam, and AI-generated nonsense, eroding my trust in the platform. While this might be attributed to bugs in Google's Knowledge Graph, the over-reliance on AI and a perceived lack of responsiveness to user feedback are making me consider switching search engines.

(www.androidpolice.com)

Tech

OpenWrt "Two" Crowdfunding Campaign Approved

2025-03-29

GL.iNet's crowdfunding campaign for OpenWrt "Two", a next-generation router, has been successfully approved by the community. Featuring the MT7988 chip, 10G SFP, 5G copper, 2.5G copper ports, and tri-band Wi-Fi 7, "Two" is expected to retail around $250, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the OpenWrt project. Availability is anticipated in late 2025.

(openwrt.org)

Hardware

Trump Threatens 20-Year Jail Sentences for Tesla Vandals

2025-03-30

Trump Threatens 20-Year Jail Sentences for Tesla Vandals

Amidst a surge of vandalism targeting Tesla vehicles, dealerships, and charging stations across the US, President Trump issued a stern warning: perpetrators face up to 20 years in prison, including those who funded the attacks. The FBI is investigating incidents in at least nine states, involving arson, gunfire, and graffiti. Three individuals have already been charged with crimes related to these attacks. This comes as Tesla's stock has plummeted nearly 48% this year, and top executives have offloaded $100 million in stock.

(abc7.com)

Tech Vandalism

CSV: The Underrated Data Serialization Workhorse

2025-03-26

CSV: The Underrated Data Serialization Workhorse

This blog post sings the praises of the CSV format, refuting claims that it's becoming obsolete. It highlights CSV's simplicity and ease of use, readability and editability without specialized software. Its open nature, appendability, and dynamic typing make it advantageous in many scenarios, especially when dealing with large datasets. CSV's row-by-row reading capability and low memory footprint make it shine. Furthermore, its reverse-readability makes it ideal for efficiently resuming interrupted processes.

(github.com)

Development data serialization data format

Vibe Coding: Hype vs. Reality – A Developer's Journey

2025-03-30

The author experimented with 'vibe coding,' relying heavily on AI agents for code generation, for two months. Initially appealing for its speed, this approach proved inefficient and costly due to a lack of structured planning and testing. Substantial rework and high token consumption resulted. Comparing vibe coding, AI chat, and web search, the author found a better balance using Gemini Code Assist (free, excellent context window) and Open WebUI (customizable, low cost). Future plans involve switching to a paid AI tool to further optimize costs.

(www.lucasaguiar.xyz)

Development code efficiency

Open Source Supply Chain Attack: The xz Backdoor Incident

2025-03-22

In March 2024, a backdoor was discovered in xz, a widely used compression software. A malicious maintainer, using the pseudonym Jia Tan, secretly inserted this backdoor over three years. The backdoor enabled remote code execution on machines with ssh installed. Its discovery was accidental, by a Postgres developer investigating unrelated performance issues. This article details the backdoor's mechanics and proposes using build reproducibility for detection. The backdoor involved modifying the xz build process to inject a malicious object file and leveraging glibc's ifunc mechanism to hook ssh's RSA_public_decrypt function. The author advocates building software from trusted sources and leveraging build reproducibility to enhance software supply chain security, such as comparing GitHub releases with maintainer-provided tarballs and checking binary consistency across build sources.

(luj.fr)

Tech xz backdoor

US Robotics Firms Urge National Strategy Amidst China's Rise

2025-03-28

US Robotics Firms Urge National Strategy Amidst China's Rise

American robotics companies are pushing for a national robotics strategy to compete with China's growing dominance in the field. While the US boasts advancements in AI and robotics, the lack of a cohesive national strategy risks losing its lead. Proposed solutions include tax incentives, funding for research and training, and a dedicated federal robotics office. China's significant investment and progress are undeniable, but the long-term viability may favor more practical, polyfunctional robots over humanoids. This race is not just about technological supremacy but also national strategy and economic future.

(apnews.com)

Tech

The Perils of Native Resource Management in .NET: A Tale of Unexpected GC Behavior

2025-03-31

This post delves into the potential pitfalls of native resource management in .NET. The author uses a RocksDB example to illustrate how unexpected garbage collection behavior can lead to native resources being released before use, resulting in crashes. The root cause lies in the fact that local variables and instances can be garbage collected during a method call. The article ultimately advocates for using SafeHandle to manage native resources safely, preventing these hard-to-reproduce Heisenbugs.

(sergeyteplyakov.github.io)

Development Native Resource Management

Paged Out!: Resurrection and Evolution of a Tech Zine

2025-03-29

Paged Out!: Resurrection and Evolution of a Tech Zine

After a four-year hiatus caused by pandemics and various challenges, the tech zine *Paged Out!* has been successfully revived and is back on track. This blog post chronicles the magazine's journey from stagnation to resurgence, introducing the new management team and operational model. It also outlines future plans, including improvements to PDF processing, achieving financial self-sufficiency, and expanding the scope of topics covered.

(pagedout.institute)

Misc zine publishing

Raspberry Pi Stratum 1 PTP & NTP Timeserver: The Time Pi Project

2025-03-28

An open-source project, Time Pi, builds a stratum 1 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and Network Time Protocol (NTP) timeserver using a Raspberry Pi 5. Leveraging the TimeHAT add-on board with an Intel i226 2.5Gbps NIC and supporting hardware timestamping, Time Pi achieves high-precision time synchronization, further enhanced by an optional M.2 GPS module. While encountering driver issues with the Intel i226 NIC, the project successfully utilizes Ansible to configure Chrony, NTP, and PTP software, running stably for months. Future plans include outdoor GPS antenna installation, cross-device PTP synchronization testing, and collaboration with Masterclock for advanced time synchronization solutions.

(www.jeffgeerling.com)

Hardware Timeserver

Spectral JPEG XL: Crushing Spectral Image File Sizes by 10-60x

2025-03-29

Spectral JPEG XL: Crushing Spectral Image File Sizes by 10-60x

Researchers have developed a new technique leveraging JPEG XL to compress spectral images by a remarkable 10 to 60 times, shrinking them to sizes comparable to regular high-quality photos. The method prioritizes discarding less important high-frequency spectral details while preserving metadata and high dynamic range. Although lossy, this approach holds immense potential for scientific visualization and high-end rendering, addressing the storage and transfer challenges posed by massive spectral image files.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech spectral imaging image compression

Unexpected Findings from Tracking a Month of Browsing Habits

2025-03-30

The author tracked their web activity for a month using a custom browser extension, revealing surprising results. Gmail, LinkedIn, and Feedbin consumed most of their time, while GitHub, ChatGPT, and Google Docs were also used extensively. This differs significantly from the author's perceived browsing habits (extensive Wikipedia and news reading). The author reflects on the discrepancy between self-perception and actual behavior, using this as an example to discuss blind spots in career choices and personal habits. The author also suggests improvements to Feedbin and shares their experience using a self-made Web Graph Browser.

(mcwhittemore.com)

Misc web usage habits self-perception

CUDA at 18: Nvidia's Secret Sauce and AI Dominance

2025-03-24

CUDA at 18: Nvidia's Secret Sauce and AI Dominance

Nvidia's CUDA platform, celebrating its 18th anniversary, is far more than a programming language or API; it's the core of Nvidia's software ecosystem, powering numerous "embarrassingly parallel" computing tasks from AI to cryptocurrency mining. CUDA's success stems from Nvidia's consistent long-term investment and steady updates, a stark contrast to competitors like AMD. The success of AlexNet highlighted CUDA's early influence in deep learning, and today, it's the de facto standard in AI, forming a strong competitive moat for Nvidia.

(thechipletter.substack.com)

AI

Rust's `Any` Trait Finally Supports Upcasting

2025-03-30

Rust 1.86 has finally fixed a long-standing issue with the `Any` trait: the inability to upcast `dyn Any`. This means developers can now use methods from the `Any` trait, such as `downcast_ref`, on traits inheriting from `Any`. This fix eliminates the need for hacks previously required to achieve this functionality, improving code readability and maintainability. This is welcome news for Rust developers who have relied on these workarounds for years.

(lucumr.pocoo.org)

Development upcasting

Dissecting NSO's BLASTPASS: A Zero-Click iOS Exploit

2025-03-27

Dissecting NSO's BLASTPASS: A Zero-Click iOS Exploit

Ian Beer of Google Project Zero details the analysis of NSO Group's BLASTPASS iMessage exploit. This zero-click attack chain leveraged a maliciously crafted WebP image disguised as a PassKit attachment to bypass the iMessage sandbox. Exploiting a Huffman coding vulnerability in the lossless WebP format, the attackers triggered memory corruption. A sophisticated 5.5MB bplist heap groom within a MakerNote EXIF tag facilitated memory overwriting during TIFF image rendering. This triggered a forged CFReadStream's destructor, executing malicious code. The attack cleverly exploited vulnerabilities in ImageIO and Wallet, bypassing BlastDoor sandbox and Pointer Authentication Codes (PAC). HomeKit traffic may have been used for ASLR disclosure. The analysis reveals the complex techniques used, highlighting the need for robust sandbox mechanisms and a reduced remote attack surface.

(googleprojectzero.blogspot.com)

Tech iOS vulnerability zero-click exploit NSO Group

Microsoft Patches Windows 11 Bypass for Microsoft Account Login

2025-03-29

Microsoft Patches Windows 11 Bypass for Microsoft Account Login

The latest Windows 11 Dev Channel preview build removes the bypassnro.cmd script, previously allowing users to circumvent the mandatory Microsoft account login requirement. Microsoft states this change enhances security and ensures all users sign in with a Microsoft account while online. This will inconvenience users who prefer offline setup or local accounts, though Microsoft accounts offer benefits like easy access to subscriptions and data syncing. Local accounts, however, reduce notifications and upsells.

(arstechnica.com)

Development

Atomized Living: The Secret to Happiness is Integration

2025-03-29

This article explores the negative effects of "atomized living," where different aspects of life (fitness, eating, socializing, etc.) are separated, leading to loneliness and overwhelm. The author distinguishes between two types of fun: immediate fun and retrospective fun, noting that an overemphasis on immediate fun (like video games) can lead to dissatisfaction. The author suggests reintegrating life's aspects, incorporating fitness into social activities, transforming meals into shared time with friends and family, for richer experiences and lasting happiness.

(www.nateliason.com)

Misc atomization

London Police Storm Quaker Meeting House, Arresting Climate Activists

2025-03-30

London Police Storm Quaker Meeting House, Arresting Climate Activists

Over 20 Metropolitan Police officers forcibly entered a Quaker meeting house, arresting six women who were discussing climate change and Gaza. This is believed to be the first time in the history of the pacifist Quakers that police have breached one of their places of worship. The women, attending a welcome meeting for a non-violent protest group, were handcuffed, their belongings confiscated, and their student accommodation subsequently raided. The police action has drawn widespread criticism.

(www.thetimes.com)

Misc climate activism Quakers

Weave is Hiring a Founding Product Engineer!

2025-03-26

Weave is Hiring a Founding Product Engineer!

Weave, a rapidly growing and profitable startup, seeks an exceptional founding product engineer. Reporting directly to the CTO and CEO, you'll build core products for millions of engineers. We value your grit, pragmatism, empathy, and communication skills. While familiarity with our tech stack (React, TypeScript, Go, Python) is a plus, we prioritize your problem-solving skills and passion for improving engineering productivity.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

Puget Systems' Transparent Take on Tariffs and PC Pricing

2025-03-28

Puget Systems' Transparent Take on Tariffs and PC Pricing

Puget Systems openly addresses the impact of tariffs on its computer pricing. A 20% tariff increase has affected some components (motherboards, power supplies) by 20%, while others (CPUs) see less impact. Puget Systems is mitigating the effects through strategic inventory management, close supplier relationships, and absorbing some costs. They advise customers to consider early purchases to avoid potentially higher prices in June.

(www.pugetsystems.com)

Hardware

Generating Stunning Point Cloud Geometry with Signed Distance Functions

2025-03-29

Generating Stunning Point Cloud Geometry with Signed Distance Functions

This article introduces a creative coding technique for generating point cloud geometry using signed distance functions (SDFs). The author uses the example of particles colliding with spheres to explain how SDFs can efficiently detect collisions and extend to more complex shapes. The article provides Processing code examples, including classes like Point, Vector, Ray, and Tracer, and SDF implementations like SphereSDF and BoxSDF, demonstrating how to use SDFs for sphere tracing to generate beautiful point cloud images.

(winterbloed.be)

Development signed distance functions point cloud

A 300 IQ AI: Omnipotent or Still Bound by Reality?

2025-03-30

A 300 IQ AI: Omnipotent or Still Bound by Reality?

This article explores the limits of a super-intelligent AI with an IQ of 300 and a thought speed 10,000 times faster than a normal human. While the AI could rapidly solve problems in math, programming, and philosophy, the author argues its capabilities might be less impressive than expected in areas like weather prediction, predicting geopolitical events (e.g., predicting Trump's win), and defeating top chess engines. This is because these fields require not only intelligence but also vast computational resources, data, and physical experiments. Biology, in particular, is heavily reliant on accumulated experimental knowledge and tools, meaning the AI might not immediately cure cancer. The article concludes that the initial impact of super-AI might primarily manifest as accelerated economic growth, rather than an immediate solution to all problems, as its development remains constrained by physical limitations and feedback loops.

(dynomight.substack.com)

AI Intelligence Limits

Boycott AI: Don't Let Big Tech Fool You Again

2025-03-27

Boycott AI: Don't Let Big Tech Fool You Again

The author recounts their experience of succumbing to the allure of Apple products, only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of technological control. They argue that AI, like the tech advancements of the past two decades, fosters addiction, diminishes creativity and autonomy, and ultimately leaves users at the mercy of Big Tech. The author urges a boycott of AI products, advocating for independent living and avoiding past mistakes.

(unherd.com)

Tech digital dependence

CIA Adopts Signal: Government Endorsement of Encrypted Messaging

2025-03-26

CIA Adopts Signal: Government Endorsement of Encrypted Messaging

For years, U.S. officials demonized end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal, viewing them as tools for criminals and terrorists and a threat to national security. However, following a leaked Signal group chat discussing Yemen war plans, CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed at a Senate hearing that the agency approves Signal for official communication and even pre-installs it on agency computers. This shift has sparked debate, with some commentators suggesting it validates the value of end-to-end encryption, but also highlighting the risks of compromised personal devices. The use of Signal by government officials has raised new concerns about record-keeping and information security.

(theintercept.com)

Tech

Emulating the Sega Genesis's YM2612 Sound Chip (Part 1)

2025-03-29

This post begins a series on emulating the Sega Genesis's Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesis chip (OPN2). The author details the complexities of this notoriously difficult-to-emulate chip, focusing on its integration within the Genesis and CPU interaction. The article delves into the YM2612's architecture, explaining its six audio channels, four operators per channel, eight algorithms, and additional features like an LFO, timers, and a DAC. It explores the interplay between the 68000 and Z80 CPUs, register mapping, read/write behavior, and the root causes of audio issues in certain games (e.g., Earthworm Jim and Hellfire) on different Genesis models. Finally, the author describes emulating the DAC channel, providing valuable insight for anyone undertaking YM2612 emulation.

(jsgroth.dev)

Game Game Console Emulation Audio Emulation

FastOpenAPI: A Pydantic-Powered OpenAPI Generator

2025-03-22

FastOpenAPI: A Pydantic-Powered OpenAPI Generator

FastOpenAPI is a library for generating and integrating OpenAPI schemas using Pydantic and various frameworks, aiming for a developer-friendly experience similar to FastAPI. It supports Falcon, Flask, Quart, Sanic, Starlette, and Tornado, offering FastAPI-style routing via proxy routing. Simple pip installation gets you started quickly, with Swagger UI and ReDoc UI providing convenient documentation access. The project includes comprehensive examples and benchmarks for easy adoption and performance evaluation.

(github.com)

Development Framework Integration

Tail Call Optimization in Java: An ASM Bytecode Manipulation Approach

2025-03-30

This article presents a neat way to implement tail call optimization in Java using bytecode manipulation with ASM. Tail recursion, where the recursive call is the last operation, can be significantly optimized by avoiding the creation of new stack frames for each call. The article details method call mechanics, the structure of tail recursion, and the usage of the ASM library. JMH benchmarks demonstrate performance improvements, especially with a higher number of recursive calls, showcasing the effectiveness of this optimization technique.

(unlinkedlist.org)

Development Tail Call Optimization

Your Mic Could Be Sabotaging Your Career: The Hidden Bias of Zoom Calls

2025-03-27

Your Mic Could Be Sabotaging Your Career: The Hidden Bias of Zoom Calls

A new Yale study reveals that a tinny-sounding microphone during video conferences can significantly impact how people perceive a speaker's intelligence, credibility, and attractiveness, even affecting job prospects. Researchers conducted experiments demonstrating that poor audio quality, independent of the message content, leads to negative judgments. This highlights a potential source of unconscious bias and discrimination, especially considering the correlation between microphone quality and socioeconomic status. The study emphasizes the importance of testing microphone quality before video interviews to avoid unintentional career setbacks.

(phys.org)

Misc microphone quality

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