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Meta to Pay $50 Million to Australian Users Affected by Cambridge Analytica

2024-12-17

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has reached a settlement with Meta, resulting in a $50 million payment program for Australian Facebook users affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The case involved the unauthorized disclosure of personal information to the 'This is Your Digital Life' app, posing risks of political profiling. The payment scheme offers a base payment for users experiencing general concern or embarrassment and higher payments for those demonstrating specific loss or damage. Applications are expected to open in the second quarter of 2025.

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(www.oaic.gov.au)
Tech data breach

Svader: A Svelte Library for GPU-Rendered Components

2024-12-14

Svader is a library for creating GPU-rendered Svelte components using WebGL and WebGPU fragment shaders. Developers can write programs in fragment shaders to customize pixel colors and control rendering effects through parameter passing. Supporting Svelte 4 and 5, it offers WebGL and WebGPU rendering modes with built-in parameters like resolution, scale, and time. Svader simplifies GPU rendering with easy-to-use components and provides fallback rendering in environments lacking WebGL or WebGPU support.

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(github.com)
Development

WhatsApp: A Global Cultural Phenomenon

2024-12-14

WhatsApp has transcended its origins as a simple messaging app to become a global cultural force. The article uses Nigerian actress Etinosa Idemudia as an example, showcasing how WhatsApp is used for film promotion, fan engagement, and personal branding. From matchmaking in Bangladesh to news dissemination in India and religious activities in Indonesia, WhatsApp is ubiquitous, connecting people across the globe and becoming an indispensable part of daily life, even used for education and medical appointments. WhatsApp's success lies not only in Meta's business strategy but also in the diverse functionalities and cultural significance its users have imbued it with, transforming it into a platform that connects the world and reshapes how people communicate and live.

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(restofworld.org)
Misc social media global culture

Hacking Physics with a Napkin

2024-12-14

This article explores unconventional approaches to solving physics problems using simple estimation and dimensional analysis. The author demonstrates the power of these methods by calculating the speed of falling raindrops, the length of the E. coli genome, and the mass of a proton, among other examples. The article suggests this napkin-based approach can greatly enhance physics education and learning. Further techniques like Fermi estimation and random walks are introduced and applied to problems like estimating the E. coli genome length and determining the optimal speed for walking or running in the rain, showcasing their practicality.

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(hapax.github.io)
Misc dimensional analysis Fermi estimation

Graphene Interconnects Could Rescue Moore's Law

2024-12-14

Destination 2D, a California-based startup, claims to have solved two longstanding challenges in integrating graphene into chip manufacturing: high-temperature deposition and low charge carrier density. They've developed a technique to deposit graphene interconnects at 300°C, compatible with traditional CMOS processes. Furthermore, using intercalation doping, they've achieved graphene current densities 100 times that of copper. This technology promises to extend Moore's Law and support future generations of semiconductor technology.

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(spectrum.ieee.org)
Hardware graphene Moore's Law semiconductors

Spark vs. DuckDB vs. Polars: Benchmarking Performance for Small to Medium Workloads

2024-12-15

This article benchmarks Spark, DuckDB, and Polars, comparing their performance, cost, and development ease on 10GB and 100GB datasets. Results show that for large datasets and ETL tasks, Spark remains dominant due to its distributed computing capabilities and mature ecosystem. DuckDB and Polars excel at interactive querying and data exploration on smaller datasets. The author recommends a strategic mix-and-match approach, using Spark for ETL, DuckDB for interactive queries, and Polars for niche scenarios, tailoring engine choice to specific needs.

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(milescole.dev)
Development data processing engines benchmark

llama.cpp Integrates Qwen2VL Multimodal Model

2024-12-15

The llama.cpp project on GitHub recently merged a pull request adding support for the Qwen2VL multimodal large language model. This model combines a large language model with a vision encoder, enabling processing of both images and text. Integration involves converting the model's LLM part and vision encoder into GGUF format and using a new command-line tool for inference. Future work includes adding support for more backends like MPS and Vulkan.

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(github.com)
AI multimodal

Newton Public Schools' 'Equity' Experiment Fails

2024-12-14

In the fall of 2021, Newton Public Schools in Massachusetts implemented a complex initiative called "multilevel classrooms" aimed at improving educational equity. This model mixed students of varying academic abilities into single classrooms with one teacher. Three years later, the results are troubling. Teachers report the model fails to meet the needs of diverse learners; high-achieving students are stifled, while lower-achieving students are hesitant to ask questions. Lack of adequate training and support for teachers led to poor outcomes, with students in multilevel classes often underperforming their single-level counterparts. The school lacked metrics for success, and no data supported the model's efficacy. A teacher's council petitioned to roll back multilevel classes in STEM and world languages, urging the district to find better solutions for addressing educational equity. The failure highlights the need for data-driven approaches and a focus on student needs in educational reform.

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(www.thefp.com)
Misc educational equity multilevel classrooms teaching reform

Maps and Fantasy: Unveiling the Secrets of Fictional Geographies

2024-12-14

This article explores the evolution and symbolism of maps in fantasy literature. From Tolkien's "The Hobbit" to "Game of Thrones," maps are more than just geographical guides; they are essential tools for constructing worldviews and shaping cultural identities. The author analyzes common features of fantasy maps, such as vast western oceans and mysterious eastern lands, exploring the cultural and psychological factors behind these features and their relationship to real-world geography, colonial history, and cultural biases. Ultimately, the author argues that the appeal of fantasy maps lies in their unknown aspects and the possibilities they represent beyond reality.

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(longreads.com)
Misc fantasy literature maps cultural symbolism

Is Creating a Perfectly Spherical Prince Rupert's Drop Possible?

2024-12-14

An engineering question explores the possibility of creating a perfectly spherical Prince Rupert's drop. Prince Rupert's drops are glass objects formed by dripping molten glass into cold water, their unique internal stresses making them incredibly tough except at the tail. The article discusses how, theoretically, in a zero-gravity environment by controlling the cooling rate and removing the effects of gravity, a spherical Prince Rupert's drop could be made, but significant practical challenges remain.

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(engineering.stackexchange.com)
Tech Prince Rupert's Drop Glass Material Science

Farewell to Endless Meetings: A New Approach to High-Velocity Software Development

2024-12-15

Tired of endless meetings and lengthy planning? This article introduces a high-efficiency software development method: code-centric, rapid iteration. The author uses baking as an example to illustrate the concept of achieving the optimal solution through rapid experimentation, frequent testing, and continuous improvement. This method emphasizes reducing documentation, expressing ideas directly in code, using mock data and hot-reloading tools to speed up development, and improving code readability through concise code style and naming conventions. The author advocates breaking down projects into independently executable files, minimizing restart time, and using default language tools for debugging. Although this method may seem like a "chaotic lab," it can efficiently complete projects and avoid the redundancy and inefficiency of traditional methods.

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(mihaiolteanu.me)
Development agile development efficient programming

nCompass: Revolutionizing AI Inference Cost

2024-12-16

nCompass Technologies has developed innovative AI inference serving software that reduces the cost of serving AI models at scale by up to 50%. By utilizing custom AI inference software and a hardware-aware request scheduler with Kubernetes autoscaling, nCompass maintains high-quality service on fewer GPUs, resulting in up to a 4x improvement in response time and significantly reduced GPU infrastructure costs. Users access open-source models via API with no rate limits and receive a $100 signup credit. On-premises solutions are also available for businesses demanding cost-effectiveness and responsiveness.

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(www.ncompass.tech)
AI AI inference cost optimization

Cyphernetes: Automating Cloud-Native Kubernetes Cluster Management

2024-12-16

Cyphernetes is a project that automates the management of cloud-native Kubernetes clusters. It significantly reduces operational complexity by simplifying deployment, upgrades, and management processes. Imagine effortlessly scaling your cluster to handle surges in traffic, automatically repairing failures, and ensuring service stability—all without manual intervention. Cyphernetes acts like an expert Kubernetes cluster administrator, safeguarding your applications 24/7, allowing you to focus on innovation.

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(cyphernet.es)
Development Automated Operations

Unveiling the Deep Connection Between Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Loss Functions

2024-12-15

This article delves into the intrinsic relationship between Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and commonly used loss functions. Starting with the fundamentals of MLE, the author meticulously explains its close connection to KL divergence. The article then uses Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Cross-Entropy as examples, demonstrating how these functions are naturally derived from MLE rather than being arbitrarily chosen. By assuming data distributions (e.g., Gaussian for linear regression, Bernoulli for logistic regression), maximizing the likelihood function via MLE directly leads to MSE and Cross-Entropy loss functions. This provides a clear path to understanding the theoretical underpinnings of loss functions, moving beyond mere intuition.

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(rish-01.github.io)
AI Maximum Likelihood Estimation Loss Functions

Fractional Jobs: The Rise of the Fractional Workforce

2024-12-15

Fractional Jobs is a job board specializing in fractional work, connecting companies with expert part-time talent. Offering a flexible alternative to full-time hires, the platform features a wide range of roles across various functions, from engineering and marketing to design and finance. Companies benefit from access to specialized skills on a monthly retainer basis, while professionals can build their careers and earn supplemental income. The platform boasts a large network of pre-screened candidates and promises quick matches between companies and talent.

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(www.fractionaljobs.io)
Startup fractional work part-time jobs freelance

From New Grad to Meta Staff Engineer in 3 Years: Evan King's Success Story

2024-12-14

Evan King shares his journey of rapidly advancing from a new graduate to a Staff Engineer at Meta in just three years. His six key principles for success include: prioritizing speed and efficiency to free up time for growth; broadening perspective to think strategically like a higher-level engineer; embracing uncertainty and sharing ideas freely; focusing on problem-solving over technical complexity; building goodwill and strong relationships; and maintaining a positive attitude. While acknowledging the role of luck and timing, Evan emphasizes the importance of cultivating sustainable habits that compound over time, focusing on core competencies and strategically utilizing the extra bandwidth created by efficiency.

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(www.developing.dev)
Development career growth promotion software engineering

BioNTech's Bispecific Antibody Shows Promise in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

2024-12-15

BioNTech presented early clinical trial data for its novel bispecific antibody, BNT-327, at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Targeting PD-1/PD-L1 and VEGF, the antibody showed positive results in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Building on the discovery of checkpoint inhibitors, this research represents a potential breakthrough in next-generation immunotherapy, offering hope for new treatments in triple-negative breast cancer and potentially other cancers.

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(www.statnews.com)
Tech bispecific antibody immunotherapy triple-negative breast cancer

WASM Program Bypasses node:wasi Filesystem Sandbox

2024-12-15

This project demonstrates a proof-of-concept showcasing how a WASM program can bypass the preopens directory restriction in node:wasi to access files outside the sandbox. Normally, WASM programs are limited to accessing pre-opened directories. However, by cleverly using symbolic links to replace files at a precise moment and running an external process, this limitation can be circumvented. This is not a practical security vulnerability in node:wasi, but rather a potential edge case. The project highlights that one shouldn't rely on node:wasi to completely prevent malicious code from accessing external files.

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(github.com)
Development

Astonishing Patterns of Prime Numbers in Polar Coordinates

2024-12-16

This article explores the phenomenon of prime numbers plotted on polar coordinates exhibiting spiral or linear patterns. The author uses Python code, employing SymPy to generate prime numbers and Matplotlib for visualization. Results show that as the number of primes increases, the pattern transitions from spirals to straight lines. This isn't unique to primes; it's related to rational approximations of $2pi$. The article explains the underlying mathematics and explores the connection between prime distribution and pattern sparsity.

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(jaketae.github.io)
Misc polar coordinates

Clojure Error Handling: No Silver Bullet, Only Choices

2024-12-14

Clojure offers a diverse range of error-handling approaches, with no single best practice. The article explores several methods: throwing native exceptions, using `ex-info` for data-carrying exceptions, returning error maps, and utilizing various libraries for more sophisticated error handling flows, such as the `anomalies` library or options like `pact` and `failjure`. The author emphasizes that the choice depends on the specific context and that a mix of approaches can coexist within a single project. Developers are empowered to select the most appropriate solution for their needs; Clojure embraces this freedom.

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(www.daveliepmann.com)
Development error handling

TeaVM 0.11.0 Released: New WebAssembly Backend

2024-12-15

TeaVM 0.11.0 has been released, featuring a brand new WebAssembly backend. The old WebAssembly backend, while functional, lacked adoption due to insignificant performance gains and a poor developer experience. The new backend, leveraging the WebAssembly GC proposal, addresses these issues, improving interaction with browser JS APIs and reducing binary file size. While currently slightly less feature-rich than the JS backend, it already supports JSO (Java-to-JS interaction API), aiming for parity in the next release. This release also includes bug fixes in BitSet implementation and adds support for various JS APIs, such as file reading, touch events, the Popover API, and Navigator.sendBeacon.

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(teavm.org)
Development

Victorian Novels Highlight Fragility of Public Health

2024-12-15

Victorian-era novels reveal the shockingly high child mortality rates from infectious diseases, underscoring the fragility of public health today. The article highlights that in the first half of the 19th century, 40-50% of children in the U.S. died before age 5, with similar rates in UK slums. Tuberculosis, smallpox, and diphtheria were major killers. However, advancements in sanitation, regulations (food safety), and medicine (vaccines, antibiotics) have drastically reduced child mortality. Victorian novels, with their poignant depictions of grief over lost children, serve as a cautionary tale: the progress made is not guaranteed and complacency regarding public health measures, such as vaccination rates, could lead to a resurgence of deadly diseases.

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(theconversation.com)
Misc public health child mortality Victorian era

Study: Video Games May Boost Kids' IQ

2024-12-16

A study of nearly 10,000 US children aged 9-10 revealed that kids who spent more time playing video games scored higher on IQ tests. Researchers controlled for genetics and socioeconomic background, finding that increased gaming correlated with better scores in reading comprehension, visual-spatial processing, and cognitive tasks, resulting in a 2.5-point IQ boost on average. While the study focused on US children and didn't differentiate game types, it offers valuable insights, challenging the long-held belief that gaming harms children. Further research is needed to establish causality and explore other contributing factors.

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(www.sciencealert.com)
AI video games children's IQ cognitive abilities

Former Twitter Founder Launches Mozi, a Social App Focused on Offline Connections

2024-12-12

Ev Williams, founder of Twitter and Medium, has launched a new social app called Mozi, aiming to redefine the essence of social interaction. Unlike content-focused social media, Mozi prioritizes helping users build and maintain relationships with people in their real lives. By integrating with users' contact lists, it shows when users and their acquaintances will be in the same location (city or event), facilitating offline meetings. Mozi emphasizes privacy, lacking public profiles and follower counts, aiming to be a private platform promoting genuine social connections.

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(ev.medium.com)
Startup social app relationships privacy

Sensirion SGP41 TVOC Sensor Accuracy Test: Relative Changes, Not Absolute Values

2024-12-15

AirGradient conducted accuracy and precision tests on the Sensirion SGP41 TVOC sensor used in their air quality monitors. The tests revealed that the sensor effectively tracks relative changes in TVOC levels – detecting increases or decreases – but cannot provide precise absolute values. This is due to limitations inherent in low-cost VOC sensors, including lack of specificity, cross-sensitivity, environmental sensitivity, and baseline drift. While the sensor cannot precisely measure TVOC concentrations, it still offers practical value in identifying TVOC sources and for environmental monitoring. Future testing by AirGradient will explore sensor performance under various conditions to further understand its capabilities and limitations.

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(www.airgradient.com)
Hardware TVOC sensor air quality monitoring sensor accuracy

Multiple Vulnerabilities in Qualcomm DSP Driver Raise Security Concerns

2024-12-16

Google's Project Zero team discovered six vulnerabilities in a Qualcomm DSP driver, one of which was exploited in the wild. Analysis of kernel panic logs provided by Amnesty International, without access to the exploit sample itself, revealed the flaws. A code review uncovered multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities, including use-after-free and refcount leaks. The attacker likely leveraged these vulnerabilities with inotify_event_info object heap spraying to achieve code execution. This highlights the critical need for improved security in Android's third-party drivers.

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(googleprojectzero.blogspot.com)
Tech Qualcomm DSP driver vulnerabilities
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