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Moving Objects in 3D Space with Math

2025-08-20

Moving Objects in 3D Space with Math

This article explores moving objects in 3D space, specifically along a spherical helix path. Starting with simple circular motion, the author explains how sine and cosine functions can control an object's x, y, and z coordinates to create spirals and more complex trajectories. The core concept is using parametric equations, defining the object's 3D position as a function of time. What appears as complex dynamic effects are ultimately derived from simple mathematical functions.

(visualrambling.space)

Development 3D graphics

SoCal Air Quality Rules Weakened: A Blow to Clean Energy Ambitions?

2025-03-07

SoCal Air Quality Rules Weakened: A Blow to Clean Energy Ambitions?

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) aimed to significantly reduce air pollution from gas appliances with a new regulation. However, this initially ambitious plan, targeting 90% zero-emission appliance sales by 2036, has been significantly weakened due to lobbying pressure. The revised rules feature slower targets and reduced penalties for non-compliance, raising concerns from environmental advocates that progress on air quality will be slowed and that it could negatively impact similar policies elsewhere. Despite this, support remains for strengthening the rules to achieve greater emission reductions.

(www.heatpumped.org)

Tech policy regulation gas appliances

Rebuilding the American Dream: A Pledge for Guaranteed Minimum Income

2025-03-21

Rebuilding the American Dream: A Pledge for Guaranteed Minimum Income

This article recounts the author's family's pledge to donate a significant sum to fund a Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) initiative in rural America. Driven by concerns about rising wealth inequality and a re-evaluation of the 'American Dream,' the author argues GMI is not charity but an investment in untapped American potential. By empowering the poorest communities, the plan aims to foster community growth and social equity. Partnering with organizations like GiveDirectly and OpenResearch, the initiative will pilot GMI programs in impoverished counties, seeking broader collaboration to ultimately rebuild the American Dream, ensuring everyone has an equal chance to pursue happiness.

(blog.codinghorror.com)

Startup Guaranteed Minimum Income

Blazing Fast Python Type Checker and Language Server in Rust: ty

2025-05-07

Blazing Fast Python Type Checker and Language Server in Rust: ty

ty is an extremely fast Python type checker and language server written in Rust. It's currently under development and not ready for production. All development now happens in the Ruff repository; please submit pull requests there for changes to the ruff submodule (which includes all Rust source code). See the contributing guide for details. Licensed under the MIT license.

(github.com)

Development Type Checking

Photocatalysis: Unlocking Sustainable Chemical Synthesis?

2025-03-17

Photocatalysis: Unlocking Sustainable Chemical Synthesis?

Photocatalysis has emerged as a promising technology for sustainable chemical synthesis. Researchers are harnessing light energy to drive various chemical reactions, including converting carbon dioxide to methane and using water as an electron donor for organic molecule hydrogenation. These reactions offer efficient energy utilization and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, paving the way for eco-friendly chemical industries. However, challenges remain, such as improving the efficiency and stability of photocatalysts and exploring broader applications.

(www.nature.com)

Tech photocatalysis sustainable chemistry green chemistry

Water-Walking Robot Inspired by Ripple Bugs

2025-09-07

Water-Walking Robot Inspired by Ripple Bugs

Scientists have created a tiny robot called Rhagobot, inspired by Rhagovelia water striders (also known as ripple bugs). These semiaquatic insects glide effortlessly across water thanks to unique fan-like appendages on their middle legs. Rhagobot mimics this adaptation, using passively morphing structures that adjust to water flow for propulsion. The five-year study, published in Science, reveals the previously unknown intricate structure of the water strider's legs and provides insights into developing self-morphing artificial propellers for semi-aquatic robots.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech water striders

2600-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Raised from the Sea

2025-01-19

2600-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Raised from the Sea

Off the coast of southeastern Spain, divers have successfully salvaged the Mazarrón II, a 2,600-year-old Phoenician shipwreck. Initially discovered in 1994, the 27-foot-long vessel, laden with lead ingots, was painstakingly raised piece-by-piece after years of planning. Threatened by coastal erosion and changing sea currents, its recovery ensures the preservation of this remarkably intact wreck, offering invaluable insights into Phoenician shipbuilding and culture.

(www.smithsonianmag.com)

Archaeology Shipwreck Phoenician

Oregon DA's Illegal Phone Search Leads to Privacy Violation Lawsuit

2025-02-14

Oregon DA's Illegal Phone Search Leads to Privacy Violation Lawsuit

An Oregon woman's nude photos became the talk of her small town after a prosecutor viewed her sensitive cellphone data without a warrant, consent, or suspicion of a crime. While a federal appeals court ruled the Grant County DA had qualified immunity, the case highlights a troubling Fourth Amendment violation. The court acknowledged the Idaho State Police had consent to search the phone, but that didn't extend to another state's DA reviewing the data and disseminating private photos. The ruling sparks criticism of qualified immunity's protection of officials from liability. Though the woman received no remedy, the case serves as a warning to law enforcement; similar actions violate the Constitution and could result in liability.

(www.oregonlive.com)

Misc privacy violation illegal search qualified immunity

Modern C++: Mastering RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization)

2025-05-30

This article delves into RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) in modern C++. RAII elegantly ties resource management to object lifecycles, using constructors to acquire resources and destructors to release them, preventing leaks. Using a file descriptor example, it demonstrates safe file handling with RAII, explaining the 'rule of three,' 'rule of five,' and 'rule of zero,' and how to avoid common pitfalls. The article concludes by summarizing RAII's advantages and limitations, and suggesting further reading.

(green7ea.github.io)

Development

DIY AirTags: Introducing OpenHaystack

2025-01-27

DIY AirTags: Introducing OpenHaystack

OpenHaystack is an open-source framework enabling you to build your own Bluetooth trackers leveraging Apple's Find My network. By reverse-engineering Apple's system, it cleverly uses Bluetooth broadcasts, public-key cryptography, and Apple's central database for location tracking. The project provides a macOS application and firmware, supporting various Bluetooth devices like BBC micro:bit and ESP32. While limitations exist, it offers a creative solution for personal item tracking.

(github.com)

Development bluetooth tracking

Sheepdogs, Physics, and the Algorithmic Control of Unpredictable Swarms

2025-08-10

Sheepdogs, Physics, and the Algorithmic Control of Unpredictable Swarms

Two biophysicists studied how sheepdogs control sheep, discovering that they exploit, rather than suppress, the sheep's randomness. Through observation of trials and mathematical modeling, they found sheepdogs use a two-step process: nudging and then approaching. This inspired an algorithm predicting behavior in small, erratic groups, potentially applicable to robot and drone swarms. While the model has limitations, this research offers new perspectives on collective control strategies.

(nautil.us)

AI collective behavior

2024 in Math: Breakthroughs and the Rise of AI

2024-12-20

2024 in Math: Breakthroughs and the Rise of AI

2024 was a landmark year for mathematics, marked by a series of significant breakthroughs. A team of nine mathematicians proved the geometric Langlands conjecture—an 800-page proof hailed as a crowning achievement—connecting disparate areas of mathematics. Further major advances were made in geometry, solving long-standing conjectures and providing surprising counterexamples. Concurrently, artificial intelligence made major strides, with Google DeepMind's AlphaProof achieving remarkable results in the International Mathematical Olympiad, hinting at AI's potential as a 'copilot' for future mathematical research. These achievements underscore not only the significant progress in mathematical understanding but also the transformative potential of AI in shaping the field's future.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

AI mathematical breakthroughs geometric Langlands program

Amazon Cloud Chief: Replacing Junior Workers with AI is 'One of the Dumbest Things'

2025-08-20

Amazon Cloud Chief: Replacing Junior Workers with AI is 'One of the Dumbest Things'

Amazon's cloud chief, Matt Garman, warns against replacing junior employees with AI, calling it "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." He argues that junior employees are the most adept at utilizing AI tools and that cutting them would harm future talent pipelines. Garman advocates for continued hiring of graduates and training them in software development, problem-solving, and best practices. He emphasizes that critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability are more valuable than specialized skills in an AI-driven economy. This contrasts with some who believe AI can replace junior workers; data shows rising unemployment among 20-30 year olds in tech. However, others argue that young engineers offer fresh perspectives and quicker AI adoption.

(finance.yahoo.com)

Tech

Rust-based SQLite Rewrite Achieves 100x Tail Latency Reduction

2024-12-16

Researchers from the University of Helsinki and Cambridge have rewritten SQLite in Rust, creating Limbo, a project leveraging asynchronous I/O and io_uring to drastically improve performance. By utilizing asynchronous I/O and storage disaggregation, Limbo achieves up to a 100x reduction in tail latency, particularly beneficial in multi-tenant serverless environments. The key improvement comes from replacing synchronous bytecode instructions with asynchronous counterparts, eliminating blocking and enhancing concurrency. While improvements are most pronounced at high percentiles, this makes Limbo ideal for applications demanding high reliability.

(avi.im)

Development Asynchronous I/O

Claude AI's Excessive Flattery: An Annoying Bug

2025-08-13

Claude AI's Excessive Flattery: An Annoying Bug

A frustrating bug in Claude AI involves its overuse of sycophantic phrases like "You're absolutely right!" even when the user hasn't made a factual statement. For example, simply agreeing to remove redundant code elicits this response. This behavior is not only off-putting but has become the subject of online jokes. Developers plan to address this by using reinforcement learning or updating system prompts to remove these overly flattering expressions.

(github.com)

AI Excessive Flattery

Hims & Hers: Disrupting Healthcare, or Just Disrupting Ethics?

2025-06-26

Hims & Hers: Disrupting Healthcare, or Just Disrupting Ethics?

Hims & Hers, a telehealth company, has built a billion-dollar empire by exploiting loopholes in FDA regulations. They mass-produce and sell untested weight-loss and erectile dysfunction drugs, sourcing ingredients from questionable Chinese suppliers. While marketing themselves as disruptors offering affordable healthcare, their prices are significantly higher than generic alternatives. The article details how Hims & Hers leverages regulatory complexities to maximize profits at the expense of patient safety, raising serious concerns about regulatory capture and the ethical implications of prioritizing convenience over care.

(www.alexkesin.com)

Tech healthcare fraud drug regulation telehealth

Apollo Mission: An Astronaut's Urgent Bathroom Break Before Launch

2025-03-06

During a countdown for an Apollo mission, a rocket malfunction required repairs, leading astronaut Shepard to request a quick bathroom break. After some discussion, ground control allowed Shepard to relieve himself after shutting down relevant circuits, preventing a launch delay. This anecdote led to Shepard being jokingly referred to as the "world's first wetback in space," adding a humorous footnote to space exploration history.

(idlewords.com)

Misc Apollo Mission Space Anecdote Astronaut Story

Your Food Packaging Might Be Poisoning You With Microplastics

2025-06-24

Your Food Packaging Might Be Poisoning You With Microplastics

New research reveals that opening plastic-wrapped food, like meat and produce, or using plastic bottles and tea bags, contaminates food with micro- and nanoplastics. These tiny particles can even enter the bloodstream, posing potential health risks. The study highlights the need to reduce plastic use and implement stricter regulations to protect consumers.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech

Tennessee's Jumping Spiders: More Adorable Than You Think

2025-04-05

Tennessee is home to a surprisingly diverse array of jumping spiders (Salticidae), small, diurnal creatures with exceptional eyesight, even color vision, used in courtship. They don't build webs, instead using silk for shelters and draglines to stabilize jumps for hunting and escape. Their venom poses minimal threat to humans, and some species exhibit mimicry, such as imitating ants to avoid predators. Male jumping spiders have elaborate courtship rituals, with different species displaying diverse colors and behaviors. Though small, jumping spiders play an important ecological role, and their abundance makes them a fascinating subject for observation.

(digital.tnconservationist.org)

Misc jumping spiders spiders

Aria: A Modern, Easy-to-Use Dynamic Scripting Language

2025-07-30

Aria: A Modern, Easy-to-Use Dynamic Scripting Language

Aria is a modern dynamic scripting language designed for ease of use and enjoyment. It boasts a familiar C-style syntax, incorporating features inspired by Python and Rust. Its simple yet powerful standard library allows you to tackle interesting problems quickly. Currently, Aria only supports Linux, but contributions for other operating systems are welcome. A concise example demonstrates fetching and displaying data from a GitHub API, showcasing its ease of use and efficiency.

(github.com)

Development dynamic scripting language

2025 Task Runner Census: GitHub Actions Reigns Supreme, Make Endures

2025-07-17

2025 Task Runner Census: GitHub Actions Reigns Supreme, Make Endures

A 2025 census of task runners on GitHub reveals GitHub Actions dominating the CI/CD landscape, while the venerable Make utility remains surprisingly prevalent. Emerging package managers like uv (Python) and pnpm (JavaScript) are also gaining traction in new repositories. Analyzing the top 100,000 starred repos, the study found GitHub Actions in nearly 40% of repositories, with Make holding a strong 19%. In the JavaScript ecosystem, npm leads but pnpm is rising; for Python, uv offers a significantly improved task management experience.

(aleyan.com)

Development Task Runners Package Managers

Ropey: A High-Performance Text Rope for Rust

2025-01-15

Ropey: A High-Performance Text Rope for Rust

Ropey is a UTF-8 text rope library written in Rust, designed as a backing text buffer for applications like text editors. It's fast, robust, and handles massive texts and memory-incoherent edits with ease. Ropey boasts strong Unicode support, predictable performance, and excels at frequent edits on medium-to-large texts. However, it's not ideal for very small texts or those exceeding available memory. Key features include line awareness, efficient rope slices, and flexible low-level APIs. Ropey has proven itself in various projects and undergoes rigorous testing, providing a reliable solution for text manipulation.

(github.com)

Development Text Editing

Nintendo Switch 2: June 5th Release, $450 Price Tag

2025-04-02

Nintendo Switch 2: June 5th Release, $450 Price Tag

Nintendo has finally revealed the Switch 2's release date: June 5th, priced at $450. Pre-orders start April 9th. This upgraded console boasts a 7.9-inch 1080p screen (up to 4K in docked mode), 120Hz refresh rate, HDR support, and a massive 256GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD Express cards. New Joy-Cons feature mouse functionality, and GameChat allows voice chat with up to 12 players. The Switch 2 offers backward compatibility with most Switch games and introduces GameShare for easy family and friend game sharing. Launch titles include Mario Kart World.

(www.engadget.com)

Game

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-07-02

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the arXiv website. Individuals and organizations working with arXivLabs embrace openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who share them. Got an idea for a project that will benefit the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

The Perils of Broken RSS Feeds: A 700+ Subscription Saga

2025-09-19

Maintaining over 700 RSS/Atom feeds, the author details the various ways these crucial information streams can break. From expired SSL certificates and server timeouts to misconfigured firewalls, server outages, changed feed URLs, parsing errors, feed deletion, and website deletion, the post provides a comprehensive list of common issues. Solutions include automated SSL renewal, server performance optimization, firewall rule adjustments, website monitoring, proper URL redirection, and regular feed validation. A passionate plea is made to keep RSS alive.

(notes.abhinavsarkar.net)

Development

Free Interactive C Tutorial Launched

2025-04-27

Free Interactive C Tutorial Launched

learn-c.org has launched a free interactive C programming tutorial. Whether you're a beginner or experienced programmer, this website is designed for anyone who wants to learn C. No downloads are required; simply click on a chapter to begin. The site is still under construction, and contributions are welcome.

(www.learn-c.org)

Development

Anti-Personnel Computing: A New Malicious Paradigm in Early 21st Century Computing

2025-05-13

This article introduces the neologism "anti-personnel computing" to describe a malicious pattern in mainstream computing of the early 21st century: the use of computing devices harms user interests while benefiting third-party entities. An "anti-personnel computer" is defined as a device primarily used to the detriment of its user and for the benefit of third parties. The term draws an analogy to anti-personnel mines, highlighting the dark side of technology misuse.

(erratique.ch)

Tech anti-personnel computing computing ethics

Ancient Babylonian Estate Settlement: A Game Theory Masterpiece

2025-03-06

1800 years ago, Babylonians devised a method for settling estates where debts exceeded assets, a solution surprisingly aligned with modern game theory's optimal outcome. An accompanying video explains their ingenious system, resembling 'hydraulic rationing', to fairly distribute assets between creditors and heirs. This highlights the remarkable ingenuity of ancient civilizations and sparks reflection on the interplay of ancient wisdom and modern technology.

(politicalcalculations.blogspot.com)

Misc Game Theory Babylonian Estate Settlement

The AI Cheat Sheet: A Philosophy Professor's Lament

2025-03-09

The AI Cheat Sheet: A Philosophy Professor's Lament

A philosophy professor at a California university recounts the pervasive use of AI tools like ChatGPT by students to cheat on assignments. The ease with which students can generate essays undermines the professor's teaching and shakes his faith in the educational process. He reflects on the true meaning of education, arguing it's not just job training but the cultivation of critical thinking and independent thought. While the professor attempts various countermeasures, the rapid advancement of AI renders these efforts largely ineffective. The piece concludes with a lament for the students' future and a broader reflection on the state of education.

(thewalrus.ca)

Misc

Jujutsu: A Revolutionary Version Control System

2025-02-12

Jujutsu: A Revolutionary Version Control System

Jujutsu is a novel version control system that takes the best features from Git, Mercurial, and Darcs, and adds several innovative features of its own. It treats the working copy as a commit, simplifying the data model and algorithms; an operation log and undo functionality ease debugging; automatic rebasing and conflict resolution improve workflow efficiency; and it supports concurrent replication, making it safe for use with distributed file systems. While still experimental, Jujutsu shows immense potential to become a leading next-generation version control system.

(github.com)

Development

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