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Meta's Strobelight: A Profiling Orchestrator Saving 15,000 Servers

2025-03-07

Meta's Strobelight: A Profiling Orchestrator Saving 15,000 Servers

Meta unveiled Strobelight, a powerful profiling orchestrator combining multiple technologies (many open-source) to boost efficiency across its massive server fleet. Strobelight isn't a single profiler, but an orchestrator of various profilers collecting detailed CPU usage, memory allocation, and other performance metrics. Visualized through tools like Scuba and Tracery, Strobelight has already yielded significant savings, equivalent to 15,000 servers annually. A single character change in one code line (&) resulted in this massive gain. Strobelight leverages efficient eBPF technology, flexible custom profilers, automated data collection, and dynamic sampling for optimal performance.

(engineering.fb.com)

Tech server optimization

Racket Library for Elegant HTML5 Generation

2025-01-12

The `html-printer` library for Racket provides an elegant way to generate well-formatted HTML5 code. Its core function, `xexpr->html5`, converts X-expressions to HTML5 strings with automatic indentation and line wrapping, allowing customization of column width. It's Unicode-aware, correctly handling character lengths, and optionally adds line breaks between tags for improved readability and maintainability. Ideal for creating semantically clean and structurally sound HTML5.

(joeldueck.com)

Development

AI Writing Assistants Homogenize Global South Writing Styles

2025-05-02

AI Writing Assistants Homogenize Global South Writing Styles

A Cornell University study reveals that AI writing assistants may homogenize writing styles toward Western norms, particularly impacting billions of users in the Global South. The study found that Indian and American users' writing became more similar when using an AI assistant, primarily at the expense of Indian writing styles. While both groups experienced increased writing speed, Indians saw less productivity gain due to frequent correction of AI suggestions. The AI often suggested American foods and holidays, even replacing Indian celebrities with Western ones. Researchers term this 'AI colonialism,' urging tech companies to focus on cultural nuances for more inclusive AI tools.

(news.cornell.edu)

AI Language

World-First? Meteorite Crash in Canada Caught on Home Security Camera

2025-01-18

World-First? Meteorite Crash in Canada Caught on Home Security Camera

A Canadian homeowner's security camera captured what might be the world's first video and audio recording of a meteorite impact. The meteorite landed precisely where the homeowner had been standing just minutes earlier on Prince Edward Island in July 2024. The homeowner, alerted by strange debris, reviewed the footage to witness the event. The University of Alberta confirmed the meteorite, named the "Charlottetown Meteorite," as an ordinary chondrite. This unique event, complete with sound recording, adds a new chapter to the island's natural history and highlights the unexpected value of home security footage in scientific research.

(www.smithsonianmag.com)

Tech meteorite security camera canada

Static Sites with Python, uv, Caddy, and Docker: A Streamlined Workflow

2025-08-24

Static Sites with Python, uv, Caddy, and Docker: A Streamlined Workflow

This post details a streamlined workflow for building and deploying static websites using Python, uv, Caddy, and Docker. The author showcases a Dockerfile leveraging uv for Python dependency management and Caddy for serving the static files. A detailed Caddyfile configuration is provided, demonstrating handling multiple domains, custom error pages, and content type specification. The author highlights the efficiency of this stack and expresses plans for future simplification.

(nkantar.com)

Development static site deployment

Sixth AI: Supercharge Your Coding Workflow with AI

2025-07-17

Sixth AI: Supercharge Your Coding Workflow with AI

Sixth AI is an AI-powered coding assistant for Visual Studio Code designed to boost developer productivity. It offers blazing-fast AI-powered code completion, a chat interface for generating, editing, and modifying multiple files simultaneously, codebase indexing for easy navigation, inline chat for direct code editing suggestions, terminal command generation, and smart code suggestions. Supporting a wide array of programming languages and frameworks, Sixth AI also features an active Discord community for support and feedback. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, Sixth AI promises to make your coding faster and smarter.

(marketplace.visualstudio.com)

Development

Denmark Revives Controversial Child Sexual Abuse Scanning Bill

2025-07-29

Denmark Revives Controversial Child Sexual Abuse Scanning Bill

On its first day as EU President, Denmark has reintroduced a controversial bill aimed at scanning messaging services for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), dubbed 'Chat Control'. This proposal, which mandates scanning even encrypted chats, has failed to garner sufficient support since May 2022, raising concerns about privacy and the undermining of encryption. Denmark, a strong supporter, aims for adoption by October 14th, but details of compromises remain undisclosed. This move could significantly impact user privacy and data security, facing strong opposition from tech experts and privacy advocates.

(www.techradar.com)

Tech Child Sexual Abuse Material

The 'Source of Truth' Illusion in Product Development

2025-08-02

The 'Source of Truth' Illusion in Product Development

The common 'single source of truth' problem in product development often misses the mark. It assumes everyone wants the truth, agrees on what that truth is, and is willing to work towards coherence. This article uses the example of a team juggling initiatives, releases, launches, epics, and various allocation frameworks to illustrate the inherent complexity. Forcing standardization hinders efficiency, while embracing full complexity leads to cognitive overload. The key is finding a balance, acknowledging the nuances, and avoiding the suppression of reality to achieve better operational effectiveness. The author questions how organizational tools and systems reflect power dynamics and whose preferences dominate.

(cutlefish.substack.com)

Development source of truth

AI Coding: The Coming Flood of Cheap, Low-Quality Software

2025-08-01

The author argues that AI's impact on programming will mirror fast fashion's effect on the clothing industry: a flood of cheap, low-quality products and excessive waste. While acknowledging AI's usefulness in prototyping and debugging, the author highlights the inherent flaws in LLM-generated code, including lack of optimization, security vulnerabilities, and inability to handle complexity. This will lead to a market saturated with low-quality software, comparable to the environmental problems caused by fast fashion. The author calls for standardized code quality metrics and professional certifications to mitigate the potential disaster, emphasizing that despite AI assistance, developers remain ultimately accountable.

(pdelboca.me)

Development

AI 'Street Photography' Isn't Photography: The Loss of Authentic Experience

2024-12-21

AI 'Street Photography' Isn't Photography: The Loss of Authentic Experience

This article argues that AI-generated 'street photography' is not true photography. While AI can create images resembling street photos, it lacks the essential elements of real photography: the capturing of actual light and moments, the engagement with strangers, and the inherent risks and rewards of real-world interaction. The author contrasts AI-generated images with their own experience in Brooklyn's Chinatown, highlighting the value of human connection, cultural exchange, and the discomfort and courage required for genuine street photography. The article ultimately warns against the collapse of meaning when simulated experiences replace authentic engagement with reality.

(simone.org)

AI AI photography street photography authentic experience

Apple Wallet Ads for F1 Movie Spark User Backlash

2025-06-24

Apple Wallet Ads for F1 Movie Spark User Backlash

Apple is facing user backlash after its Wallet app pushed notifications advertising a $10 discount on Fandango for the F1 movie. iPhone users are upset about receiving marketing promotions within a built-in utility. While the film uses Apple technology, including iPhone parts in its cameras, users don't want ads in their apps. An upcoming iOS 26 beta update will include a toggle to disable these promotions, suggesting Apple plans to increase such marketing. This reminds many of the infamous U2 album automatically added to iTunes years ago. The negative reaction highlights Apple users' aversion to unwanted ads on their devices.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

China-linked Hackers Exploit Cisco Flaw to Breach Canadian Telecom

2025-06-23

China-linked Hackers Exploit Cisco Flaw to Breach Canadian Telecom

Canadian and US officials announced Monday that hackers suspected of working for the Chinese government exploited a critical vulnerability (CVE-2023-20198) in Cisco IOS XE, patched 16 months prior, to compromise a Canadian telecommunications provider. The group, known as Salt Typhoon, previously targeted US telecoms like Verizon and AT&T. The breach potentially allowed access to wiretap systems used by government agencies and other internet traffic.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech state-sponsored cyberattack China hacking state-sponsored attack

MMBasic on Raspberry Pi Pico: A Powerful Embedded BASIC System

2025-05-29

PicoMite firmware brings a complete operating system to the Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico 2, featuring a Microsoft BASIC-compatible interpreter and extensive hardware support, including touch-sensitive LCD panels, SD cards, WiFi/internet, and much more. Using MMBasic, you can easily acquire data from various sensors via I2C or SPI protocols, save data to an SD card, display information on color LCD screens, measure voltages, detect digital inputs, and drive output pins to control lights, relays, etc. PicoMite firmware is entirely free to download and use, offering multiple versions for different applications such as embedded controllers, standalone computers, and WiFi/internet-connected controllers. Its ease of use and rapid development cycle make it ideal for IoT and embedded systems development.

(geoffg.net)

Development

Breakthrough in Evaluating Large Language Models for Unit Test Generation

2024-12-30

Researchers conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in automating unit test generation. They compared the performance of five open-source LLMs against the closed-source GPT-4 and the traditional tool Evosuite across 17 Java projects, investigating the impact of different prompting strategies. The study found that open-source LLMs offer advantages in data privacy and outperform in certain tasks, but also revealed limitations in LLM-based unit test generation. This research provides valuable insights to guide future applications of LLMs in this area.

(arxiv.org)

Development Unit Testing

DEDA: Extracting, Decoding, and Anonymizing Tracking Dots from Printed Documents

2025-04-01

DEDA: Extracting, Decoding, and Anonymizing Tracking Dots from Printed Documents

DEDA is an open-source toolkit for extracting, decoding, and anonymizing tracking dots embedded in printed documents. Color laser printers often leave tiny tracking dots containing information like the printer's serial number. DEDA can read and decode this information, and also anonymize documents to prevent tracking. It offers a GUI and command-line tools for various operations, including extracting dots, comparing printers, creating custom dots, and anonymizing scans and documents. Installation requires Python 3 and several dependencies; troubleshooting tips for common installation errors are provided.

(github.com)

Development

Cracovian Algebra: An Obscure Approach to Linear Algebra

2025-06-20

Cracovian Algebra: An Obscure Approach to Linear Algebra

This article introduces Cracovian algebra, an alternative to matrix-based linear algebra. Invented by Polish astronomer Tadeusz Banachiewicz, Cracovians use a unique multiplication rule, resulting in different outcomes compared to matrix multiplication and violating commutativity and associativity. While Cracovians offered advantages in the era of manual calculations, modern computers show no significant difference in computational efficiency between Cracovian and matrix multiplication. The author uses Python code to compare computation times, confirming this conclusion.

(marcinciura.wordpress.com)

Misc Cracovian algebra

Schmidt's Space Data Center Ambitions: Investing in Relativity Space

2025-05-02

Schmidt's Space Data Center Ambitions: Investing in Relativity Space

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's investment in Relativity Space aims to leverage their Terran R rocket to launch massive data centers into space. This ambitious project seeks to address the growing energy demands and environmental concerns of AI data centers. While Terran R is still under development and faces challenges, its potential payload capacity makes it a compelling option. Schmidt is seeking additional partners to fund this project, which also needs to address concerns about orbital congestion, power generation, and heat dissipation.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

Task Explorer: A Powerful Cross-Platform Task Manager

2025-02-13

Task Explorer: A Powerful Cross-Platform Task Manager

Task Explorer is a powerful task management tool that not only monitors running applications but also provides deep insights into their activity. Its UI prioritizes speed and efficiency, delivering real-time process data with minimal interaction. Information is displayed in accessible panels; selecting a process reveals detailed information in the lower half of the screen, easily navigable with arrow keys. Dynamic data refresh offers real-time insights into system performance and behavior.
Advanced features include a Thread Panel showing stack traces, a Memory Panel for viewing and editing process memory, a Handles Panel displaying open handles, a Sockets Panel showing connections, and a Modules Panel listing loaded DLLs. Robust system monitoring features real-time graphs of CPU, handles, network traffic, and disk access. System information panels allow control over system services.
Built with the Qt Framework, Task Explorer is compatible with Windows 7+ (32/64-bit) and plans to support Linux.

(github.com)

Development task manager

Phish: How a Jam Band Built a $120 Million Empire on Live Music

2025-03-19

Phish: How a Jam Band Built a $120 Million Empire on Live Music

Phish, a seemingly unassuming jam band, has generated over $120 million in ticket sales in just four years, surpassing many more mainstream artists. Their success story isn't built on album sales or radio play, but rather on a decade of relentless practice and organic growth cultivated in Vermont bars. They built a fiercely loyal fanbase through immersive live performances, unique improvisational jams, and a deep connection with their audience. This dedication, combined with a bootstrapped approach to the business, resulted in a sustainable and highly profitable model centered around live music experiences, making Phish a unique case study in the music industry.

(priceonomics.com)

Misc live music

Ubuntu 25.10 Raises the Bar for RISC-V Hardware

2025-07-04

Canonical announced that Ubuntu 25.10 will raise its baseline RISC-V Application profile (RVA) from RVA20 to RVA23. This means most existing RISC-V devices won't be able to run Ubuntu 25.10, as RVA23 mandates Vector and Hypervisor extensions for compute-intensive workloads like AI/ML and cryptography. While the short-term impact is limited, this move positions Ubuntu to better leverage more powerful RISC-V hardware in the future, solidifying its position on the platform.

(www.omgubuntu.co.uk)

Tech

Reverse Engineering an ESP32 Smart Home Device: Remote Control and Home Assistant Integration

2025-04-15

Reverse Engineering an ESP32 Smart Home Device: Remote Control and Home Assistant Integration

The author, obsessed with connecting everything to Home Assistant, tackled a sleek air purifier only controllable via its proprietary app. To achieve seamless automation, he reverse-engineered the ESP32-based device. Analyzing the app revealed a WebSocket connection to a cloud server. By intercepting network traffic and using a UDP proxy to forward to the cloud server, UDP packets were captured. These packets were encrypted. Disassembling the device revealed an ESP32-WROOM-32D microcontroller; the firmware was extracted using esptool. Analysis revealed the use of the mbedtls library for encryption, identifying AES-128-CBC as the algorithm. Finally, a Node.js script was written to perform a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, integrating the device into Home Assistant.

(jmswrnr.com)

Development

Nanoscale LED Display: Smaller Than a Virus!

2025-03-20

Nanoscale LED Display: Smaller Than a Virus!

Researchers at Zhejiang University in China have created the world's smallest light-emitting diode (LED) display, with pixels smaller than 100 micrometers and even reaching an astonishing 90 nanometers—smaller than a virus! This breakthrough utilizes perovskite semiconductor materials, maintaining brightness and efficiency even at extremely small sizes, opening up new possibilities for miniature display technology. The research is published in Nature.

(www.nature.com)

Tech nanoscale LED perovskite miniature display

Japanese Grandparents Build Giant Totoro Statue, Drawing Fans Worldwide

2025-07-15

Japanese Grandparents Build Giant Totoro Statue, Drawing Fans Worldwide

A Japanese couple in their 70s painstakingly crafted a massive Totoro statue using traditional plastering techniques and concrete. Their meticulous work, replicating the beloved character from Studio Ghibli's *My Neighbor Totoro*, even includes the iconic red umbrella and bus stop sign. The giant statue has delighted their grandchildren and become a popular attraction for Totoro fans worldwide, transforming their small town into a pilgrimage site and showcasing their incredible skill and passion for animation.

(mymodernmet.com)

Design Totoro statue

Pushing the Limits: The Technological and Economic Battles of Jet Engine Development

2025-03-01

Pushing the Limits: The Technological and Economic Battles of Jet Engine Development

This article chronicles the journey of jet engine development, from its invention to its widespread commercial adoption. It's not a simple story of technological advancement, but rather a complex interplay between technological hurdles and economic realities. From initial breakthroughs to overcoming countless engineering challenges and finally achieving commercial viability, each stage was fraught with risk and immense cost. The article highlights the exorbitant costs, lengthy development cycles, reliability issues, and even bankruptcies that have plagued the industry. Using the RB211 engine as a case study, it details the setbacks and eventual successes, analyzing the driving forces behind technological progress and explaining why only a handful of companies can undertake such high-stakes endeavors.

(www.construction-physics.com)

Tech jet engine

Myanmar Earthquake: Devastating Quake Strikes Tectonically Active Region

2025-04-02

Myanmar Earthquake: Devastating Quake Strikes Tectonically Active Region

A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar, causing widespread devastation with hundreds dead, thousands injured, and significant infrastructure damage. The quake's tremors reached Bangkok, Thailand, toppling a skyscraper under construction. The earthquake occurred in the seismically active Alpide Belt, a complex zone where the Indian and Sunda plates collide, forming a strike-slip fault. Experts describe the quake as similar to an 1839 magnitude 8.0 event in the same region, a predictable occurrence within the expected timeframe, with significant aftershocks likely in the coming weeks and months.

(nautil.us)

Tech tectonic plates

MIT Rocket Team Recovers Data from Crashed Rocket

2024-12-18

In Spring 2020, the MIT Rocket team launched rockets at the FAR site in the Mojave desert. A second-stage rocket crashed without deploying its parachutes, burying itself 3 meters underground. Despite significant damage to the avionics, the team successfully recovered data from a damaged flash chip. Using a salt solution to create temporary electrical contact, they were able to read the flash memory and determine the cause of the crash.

(dontvacuum.me)

Tech rocket crash data recovery flash chip

Parisian AI Startup Seeks MLE to Build the Ultimate Forecasting Foundation Model

2025-02-20

Parisian AI Startup Seeks MLE to Build the Ultimate Forecasting Foundation Model

A Paris-based AI company is hiring a founding Machine Learning Engineer to build a universal forecasting foundation model. This model will integrate diverse data sources (numerical time series, text, images) for enterprise forecasting applications like staffing, supply chain management, and financial planning. Candidates should be proficient in neural networks, PyTorch or Jax, and have experience building and deploying large models. The company offers competitive compensation and benefits, along with the opportunity to work in vibrant Paris.

(www.ycombinator.com)

AI AI forecasting foundation model

Resurrecting a Vintage SGI 4D Workstation: A Hacker's Tale

2025-08-03

This document chronicles the author's journey in reviving a defunct SGI 4D series workstation. From sourcing parts online and a 400-mile drive to wrestling with hardware and software issues – including hardware failures, forgotten passwords, and OS installation – the author meticulously documents the process. The detailed account includes valuable tips and tricks, such as PROM monitor commands, IRIX OS version selection, and SCSI interface handling. A fascinating read for hardware enthusiasts and retrocomputing fans.

(archive.irixnet.org)

Hardware

German Court Bans Apple's 'Carbon Neutral' Watch Ads

2025-08-27

German Court Bans Apple's 'Carbon Neutral' Watch Ads

A German court ordered Apple to stop advertising its Apple Watch as carbon neutral, deeming the claim misleading and a violation of German competition law. The court questioned the validity of Apple's carbon offsetting program in Paraguay, citing concerns about the short-term nature of land leases and the uncertainty of long-term carbon sequestration. Apple can appeal, but the ruling highlights the need for companies to be cautious about carbon offset claims and avoid greenwashing.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Carbon Neutral Greenwashing

Tailscale on Plan 9: An April Fool's Prank That Actually Worked

2025-04-02

Tailscale on Plan 9: An April Fool's Prank That Actually Worked

Tailscale's April Fool's Day announcement wasn't a joke: they actually ported Tailscale to the Plan 9 operating system. The journey was fraught with challenges, including outdated Go compiler support for Plan 9, kernel issues, and inter-process communication bugs. The team even fixed a decades-old bug in the Plan 9 kernel. The project, initially a naive undertaking, evolved into a significant effort, culminating in a working demo running Tailscale on Plan 9, even showcased on a web browser. This wasn't just a prank; it was a testament to the team's technical prowess and a fascinating exploration of a niche OS.

(tailscale.com)

Development

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