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Amiga 4000T: The Last Hurrah of a Legend

2025-06-12

The Amiga 4000T, a tower-format Amiga produced by Escom, is widely considered the pinnacle of the classic Amiga line. Its exceptional expandability, featuring both SCSI and IDE interfaces and numerous Zorro III slots, made it a powerhouse for professional video, music, and graphics work. Though its release came too late to stem the tide of the rising PC, its robust build, modular design, and impressive performance have secured its place as a collector's item and a testament to Amiga's legacy. This article details a deep dive into its history and unique features.

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(forgottencomputer.com)
Hardware

Mermaid Chart VS Code Plugin: Effortless Mermaid.js Diagramming in Your IDE

2025-04-02
Mermaid Chart VS Code Plugin: Effortless Mermaid.js Diagramming in Your IDE

The Mermaid Chart VS Code plugin empowers developers with a robust diagramming tool, directly within their Visual Studio Code environment. Create and edit Mermaid.js diagrams effortlessly – no account needed for basic features. Enjoy real-time rendering, syntax highlighting, and seamless Markdown integration. The plugin automatically recognizes .mmd files. Advanced capabilities like cloud sync, team collaboration, and AI-powered diagram generation are unlocked by logging into a Mermaid Chart account. Whether visualizing workflows, software architecture, or API flows, this plugin boosts productivity, supports offline editing, and integrates flawlessly with Git version control.

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(docs.mermaidchart.com)
Development VS Code Plugin Diagramming Tool

Fun with Timing Attacks: Exploiting Subtle Timing Differences to Crack Passwords

2025-01-18

This article unveils a clever attack technique known as a timing attack. By repeatedly calling a seemingly secure function, `checkSecret`, and precisely measuring its execution time, an attacker can infer the secret value. Even if `checkSecret` has no obvious vulnerabilities, its internal 'early exit' mechanism causes partially matching guesses to take longer, leaking information. The article details how to exploit this timing difference, combining Thompson Sampling and a Trie data structure to efficiently guess passwords, and discusses handling the complexities of network noise. Ultimately, the article stresses the importance of avoiding direct comparison of sensitive data, recommending the use of hashes or other secure algorithms, and implementing robust rate limits.

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(ostro.ws)
Tech timing attack password cracking

US, UK, and Australia Sanction Russian 'Bulletproof Hosting' Provider Zservers

2025-02-11
US, UK, and Australia Sanction Russian 'Bulletproof Hosting' Provider Zservers

The US, UK, and Australia have jointly sanctioned Zservers, a Russian 'bulletproof hosting' provider, and several individuals linked to it. Zservers provided services to the LockBit ransomware operation, helping them evade law enforcement. This trilateral action aims to disrupt cybercrime and protect national security. Sanctions target Zservers, its UK subsidiary XHOST Internet Solutions, and six key individuals, two of whom are alleged Zservers administrators accused of providing services to LockBit and other ransomware groups, and managing related cryptocurrency transactions.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Superbloom: How Connection Technologies Tear Us Apart

2025-01-30
Superbloom: How Connection Technologies Tear Us Apart

Nicholas Carr's new book, *Superbloom*, examines how modern connection technologies—cell phones, the internet, social media, etc.—impact individuals and society. Carr argues these technologies aren't inherently evil but cause negative consequences due to our misconceptions about communication and ourselves. He uses the 2019 Los Angeles poppy bloom event to illustrate how information overload and social media's amplification effect lead to chaos and negativity. The book traces the history of communication technologies, highlighting how they've always been accompanied by supernatural imaginings, and raises concerns about anonymity, power, and information veracity. Carr critiques technological optimism, arguing that information overload hasn't led to a more democratic or rational society but has instead exacerbated social divisions. He contends that social media's design leverages cognitive biases, exacerbating information fragmentation and fast-paced thinking, ultimately resulting in a 'hyperreality' where truth is indistinguishable from falsehood. Carr calls for a return to reality, resisting information overload, and proposes potential solutions, such as increasing the friction cost of information dissemination.

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(lareviewofbooks.org)
Tech information overload technology's impact

Sophisticated Phishing Attack Leverages VPN Access

2025-01-29

The University of Toronto's Computer Science department was hit by a highly sophisticated phishing attack. The attacker spoofed a departmental email address, successfully phishing a user's password. Alarmingly, the attacker used the stolen credentials to quickly register the user for the department's VPN, then used the internal-only SMTP gateway to send spam. This demonstrates pre-attack reconnaissance of the target's VPN and email environment, highlighting increasingly advanced attack techniques and the need for robust cybersecurity defenses.

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(utcc.utoronto.ca)
Tech VPN exploitation

Embedding User-Defined Indexes in Apache Parquet Files: No More External Indexes!

2025-07-15

It's a common misconception that Apache Parquet is limited to basic statistics and Bloom filters. This post reveals how to embed custom indexes directly into Parquet files without breaking compatibility. By leveraging footer metadata and offset-based addressing, you can add indexes like distinct value lists for specific columns, dramatically improving query performance, especially for highly selective predicates. The authors detail the mechanism and provide a practical example using Apache DataFusion, showing how to serialize, store, and read these custom indexes. Say goodbye to the complexities and risks of external indexes!

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(datafusion.apache.org)
Development User-Defined Indexes

Jeep's Full-Screen Pop-Up Ads Spark Outrage: Glitch or Intentional?

2025-02-15
Jeep's Full-Screen Pop-Up Ads Spark Outrage: Glitch or Intentional?

Jeep owners have taken to Reddit to express their fury over full-screen pop-up ads appearing on their in-car screens. The ads promote Mopar extended warranties, but a software glitch prevented users from dismissing them permanently. Stellantis claims it was a temporary software error that's been fixed. However, the incident raises concerns about intrusive in-car advertising and the possibility of car manufacturers using such methods to test user tolerance. The author urges automakers to avoid such practices to prevent user backlash.

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(www.theautopian.com)
Tech software glitch

FlashMLA: A Blazing-Fast MLA Decoding Kernel for Hopper GPUs

2025-02-24
FlashMLA: A Blazing-Fast MLA Decoding Kernel for Hopper GPUs

FlashMLA is a highly efficient MLA decoding kernel optimized for Hopper GPUs, designed for variable-length sequence serving. Achieving up to 3000 GB/s in memory-bound configurations and 580 TFLOPS in computation-bound configurations on H800 SXM5 using CUDA 12.6, FlashMLA utilizes BF16 precision and a paged kvcache with a 64 block size. Inspired by FlashAttention 2&3 and the cutlass projects, FlashMLA offers significant performance improvements for large-scale sequence processing.

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(github.com)
Development MLA decoding

Egyptian Fractions: A Journey Through Ancient Mathematics

2024-12-18

This article explores the fascinating world of Egyptian fractions, a unique mathematical system used by ancient Egyptians. Unlike modern fractions, Egyptian fractions only use unit fractions (fractions with a numerator of 1) and all denominators must be distinct. The article traces the history of Egyptian fractions, focusing on the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, and examines their practical applications, such as fairly dividing resources. It introduces the greedy algorithm for finding Egyptian fractions and methods for finding the shortest ones, also exploring related unsolved mathematical problems, including the Erdős–Straus conjecture.

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(r-knott.surrey.ac.uk)
Misc Egyptian fractions Rhind Mathematical Papyrus Number theory Mathematics history Algorithms

Intel Quietly Slashes Xeon 6 CPU Prices by Up to $5,340

2025-01-28
Intel Quietly Slashes Xeon 6 CPU Prices by Up to $5,340

Intel unexpectedly slashed prices on its latest Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' processors, just four months after their release. The flagship model now costs $12,460, a $5,340 drop. This makes Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs cheaper than AMD's EPYC processors, both in absolute terms and per-core. While unannounced officially, the price cuts are reflected in Intel's online database. Reductions vary by model, reaching up to 30% for some, with certain models undercutting AMD's per-core pricing. This move may be a response to declining market share or an attempt to boost sales. However, these prices are based on Intel's Recommended Customer Price (RCP) for 1,000 units; large-scale buyers will likely have negotiated different prices.

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(www.tomshardware.com)
Hardware Xeon Price Cuts

Anubis: A Proof-of-Work Anti-Scraping System

2025-06-22
Anubis: A Proof-of-Work Anti-Scraping System

To combat aggressive web scraping by AI companies, this website employs Anubis, an anti-scraping system. Anubis utilizes a Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism similar to Hashcash, adding negligible overhead for individual users but significantly increasing the cost for large-scale scraping attempts. This is a temporary solution; future improvements will focus on more precise headless browser identification to minimize impact on legitimate users. Note: Anubis requires modern JavaScript features; disable plugins like JShelter that might interfere.

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(gitlab.gnome.org)
Misc

The Secret Weapon for Diffusing Toxic Meetings: Naming What's Happening

2025-02-16
The Secret Weapon for Diffusing Toxic Meetings: Naming What's Happening

This article reveals a powerful technique for resolving conflict in meetings: simply stating what's happening in the room. The author argues that many meetings devolve into unproductive arguments due to clashing priorities, emotions, and unspoken tensions. Instead of engaging in the conflict, the solution is to directly name the collective experience, e.g., "I'm sensing a lot of frustration in the room." This disrupts negative patterns, creates shared awareness, and paves the way for more productive communication and problem-solving. The article provides tactical tips, including using "I" statements, avoiding singling out individuals, and knowing when to escalate.

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(leadership.garden)
Misc meeting management

Steve Jurvetson: The Space-Obsessed VC Who Backed Tesla and SpaceX

2025-02-04
Steve Jurvetson: The Space-Obsessed VC Who Backed Tesla and SpaceX

This article profiles Steve Jurvetson, a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose office is a museum of space artifacts. His unique investment philosophy—backing only history-making innovations—led him to invest in transformative companies like Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, and SpaceX. The piece traces his journey from a curious childhood filled with scientific exploration to his rapid-fire academic career at Stanford, his close relationships with Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and his distinctive investment approach. Jurvetson emphasizes the importance of maintaining a 'childlike mind' as key to staying ahead of the curve in the investment world.

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(cloudvalley.substack.com)
Startup Tech Investing

New Bill Aims to Tackle IoT Device Security Risks

2025-03-17
New Bill Aims to Tackle IoT Device Security Risks

Consumer Reports, Secure Resilient Future Foundation, and others have drafted the "Connected Consumer Products End of Life Disclosure Act." This bill mandates manufacturers and ISPs to clearly disclose the support lifecycle of connected devices, including software and security update durations. The initiative addresses the growing security risk posed by outdated IoT devices, often exploited by malicious actors after support ends. A survey reveals 72% of US smart device owners support mandatory disclosure of device support lifecycles.

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(advocacy.consumerreports.org)
Tech

Let's Encrypt Dropping TLS Client Authentication EKU

2025-05-18
Let's Encrypt Dropping TLS Client Authentication EKU

Let's Encrypt will remove the "TLS Client Authentication" Extended Key Usage (EKU) from its certificates starting in 2026. This primarily affects clients using Let's Encrypt certificates for server authentication. A phased rollout using ACME profiles will minimize disruption. Most website users won't need to take action. The change is driven by Google Chrome's root program requirements and the increasing suitability of private CAs for client authentication.

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(letsencrypt.org)
Tech Certificates

Stop Chasing Tech Trends: Focus on What Matters

2025-02-21
Stop Chasing Tech Trends: Focus on What Matters

Programmers often get bogged down in technology choices, debating which language or framework is superior. But the truth is, users don't care! They won't notice those extra 10 milliseconds you saved, nor will their experience magically improve because you're using the latest JavaScript framework. What truly matters is your focus on the product and user needs. Every programming language and framework excels in specific contexts, but technical decisions alone won't define your product's success. Instead of chasing hype, choose technologies you're familiar with, enjoy working with, and that challenge you to improve daily. Finding the right balance between tech choices and product value is key to building something truly impactful.

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(www.empathetic.dev)
Development technology choices

Syria's First Tech Conference in 50 Years: A Spark of Hope Amidst Reconstruction

2025-02-12
Syria's First Tech Conference in 50 Years: A Spark of Hope Amidst Reconstruction

Following the end of the Syrian civil war, a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and tech leaders gathered in Damascus for SYNC 25, the first independent tech conference in 50 years. The conference aimed to connect Silicon Valley with Syria's emerging tech ecosystem and create 25,000 tech jobs over five years. Despite challenges like poor infrastructure, unreliable electricity, and slow internet, Syria boasts resilient and talented software engineers. SYNC 25 represents a significant step in rebuilding Syria's economy and infrastructure, offering a spark of hope for the future.

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(restofworld.org)
Tech Syrian Tech Economic Reconstruction International Collaboration

Conquering iPhone NFC Compatibility: Reviving Magic MIFARE Tags

2024-12-15

The author encountered a tricky NFC issue: some Magic MIFARE cards couldn't be read by iPhones. Using a Proxmark3 tool, they tried wiping card data and formatting with ndefformat, but the iPhone still refused to recognize them. Finally, after writing data using the iPhone's NFC Tools app in "compatibility mode", the iPhone successfully read the card. The author also demonstrates how to use the ndeflib library to create and write NDEF records, ultimately enabling the Magic MIFARE card to work on iPhones.

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(ewpratten.com)
Misc

VW's Budget EV, ID. EVERY1, to Launch with Rivian Software

2025-03-18
VW's Budget EV, ID. EVERY1, to Launch with Rivian Software

Volkswagen unveiled the ID. EVERY1, an ultra-cheap electric vehicle set to launch in 2027 with a starting price of €20,000. Significantly, the ID. EVERY1 will be the first VW vehicle to utilize Rivian's software and architecture, a result of a $5.8 billion joint venture between the two companies. This collaboration aims to reduce development costs and enhance VW's competitiveness in the EV market, while providing Rivian with crucial funding and business diversification. The ID. EVERY1 represents VW's push into a wider market segment, with a goal of becoming the world's leading high-volume electric vehicle manufacturer by 2030.

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(techcrunch.com)
Tech

Cryptography Professor Vanishes, FBI Raids Homes: A Mystery Unfolds

2025-03-30
Cryptography Professor Vanishes, FBI Raids Homes: A Mystery Unfolds

A prominent computer scientist with a 20-year history of publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has disappeared. Xiaofeng Wang, a tenured professor at Indiana University, had his university profile, email, and phone number removed, and his homes were raided by the FBI. The reason for this sudden and mysterious disappearance remains unknown. Wang held prestigious titles and secured significant research funding, contributing substantially to the fields of cryptography, systems security, and data privacy. The incident has sparked widespread concern and speculation.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech FBI investigation

Browser-Based Semiconductor Simulator: Draw Circuits, Simulate EM Fields

2025-05-10

Brandon Li has developed a powerful semiconductor simulator that runs in your browser. The program lets you draw circuits and visualize electromagnetic fields in real-time, supporting various materials (metals, semiconductors, dielectrics, and more). It features numerous examples covering simple circuits, semiconductor devices, and digital logic, including RC circuits, PN junction diodes, BJTs, MOSFETs, and more. For optimal performance, a powerful computer is recommended; a downloadable Java version is also available.

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(brandonli.net)
Hardware semiconductor simulation electromagnetic fields

Meta AI Now Uses Your Data for Personalized Responses: Privacy Concerns?

2025-01-27
Meta AI Now Uses Your Data for Personalized Responses: Privacy Concerns?

Meta AI has received an upgrade, leveraging Facebook and Instagram data to personalize responses. The AI can now remember past conversation details and tailor recommendations based on user preferences, such as dietary restrictions. For example, it could create personalized bedtime stories based on Facebook profile information and Instagram browsing history. While Meta claims users can delete memories, the update raises privacy concerns, especially given the generally low level of trust in Meta's data handling.

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(techcrunch.com)
AI

Automating My Game Collection Catalog with AI: A Deep Dive

2025-01-23
Automating My Game Collection Catalog with AI: A Deep Dive

The author uses the latest open-source AI model, Qwen2-VL Instruct, to automatically catalog their game collection by taking pictures. The article details the entire process, from picture taking and uploading to game identification, data extraction, and saving. It delves into model selection, the trade-off between image resolution and accuracy/computation time, and the impact of image orientation on results. The author settles on 762x762 pixels as the optimal resolution and plans a follow-up article on matching identified games with real-world data.

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(medium.com)
AI

America's Healthcare System: A Total Breakdown, Beyond Insurance Companies

2024-12-14
America's Healthcare System: A Total Breakdown, Beyond Insurance Companies

The American healthcare system is broken, and the problem extends far beyond insurance companies. An oncologist argues that pharmaceutical firms, PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers), the FDA, CMS, hospitals, and doctors all share responsibility. Pharmaceutical companies push unproven drugs, PBMs profit excessively, regulators are lax, hospitals charge exorbitant fees and engage in predatory practices, and doctors order unnecessary tests and treatments. While insurance companies are frustrating, they are a scapegoat for a larger systemic issue. The author calls for sweeping reforms of the FDA and CMS to end corporate capture of regulatory agencies, addressing the high costs and inefficiency of the US healthcare system. The recent assassination of an insurance CEO highlights public frustration with the system.

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(www.sensible-med.com)
Misc healthcare reform healthcare costs US healthcare

California to Honor Steve Jobs with Commemorative Coin

2025-02-22
California to Honor Steve Jobs with Commemorative Coin

California has nominated Steve Jobs for a commemorative coin to be released in 2026, celebrating his innovative contributions to technology. Beyond co-founding Apple and launching revolutionary products like the Apple II and iPhone, Jobs also co-founded Pixar, creating the world's first fully computer-animated feature film. His legacy centers on making complex technology user-friendly and accessible, connecting people globally. The coin, produced by the U.S. Mint, embodies Jobs' innovative spirit and the California ethos.

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(www.gov.ca.gov)
Tech Steve Jobs Commemorative Coin

PyPI's Project Quarantine: A New Weapon Against Malware

2025-01-05
PyPI's Project Quarantine: A New Weapon Against Malware

The Python Package Index (PyPI) has introduced a 'Project Quarantine' feature to combat the persistent problem of malware. This feature allows PyPI administrators to flag potentially harmful projects, preventing easy installation by users and mitigating harm. Instead of outright deletion, projects are hidden from the simple index, remaining modifiable by owners (but not releasable), with administrators retaining the power to lift quarantine. Future plans include automating quarantine based on multiple credible reports, improving efficiency and shrinking the window of opportunity for malware spread.

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(blog.pypi.org)
Development

Ocean Bacteria's Nanotube Networks: A Revolutionary Discovery of Microbial Interconnectivity

2025-01-27
Ocean Bacteria's Nanotube Networks: A Revolutionary Discovery of Microbial Interconnectivity

A groundbreaking discovery reveals complex networks of bacterial nanotubes connecting the most abundant photosynthetic bacteria in the ocean, Prochlorococcus. These nanotubes act as tiny bridges, linking the inner spaces of bacterial cells and facilitating the exchange of nutrients and information. This challenges the traditional view of bacteria as isolated individuals, demonstrating a far more interconnected microbial world than previously imagined. This interconnectivity may have profound implications for Earth's oxygen and carbon cycles.

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(www.quantamagazine.org)
Tech bacterial nanotubes marine microbes intercellular communication
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