arXivLabs is a framework for developing and sharing new arXiv features directly on the website, fostering collaboration with individuals and organizations who share arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. Got an idea to improve the arXiv community? Explore arXivLabs.
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A blogger discovered that Wacom drawing tablet drivers were sending application names and other information to Google Analytics without explicit user consent. Using a proxy server and Wireshark, the blogger captured this data, exposing Wacom's privacy violation. While Wacom claims the data is for product development, the blogger argues this is unacceptable and urges users to disable the "Wacom Experience Program". Wacom seemingly stopped the data collection temporarily, only to resume later, raising concerns about data security and privacy.
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arXivLabs is an experimental framework enabling collaborators to build and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Participants, individuals and organizations alike, embrace arXiv's values of 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.
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This article explores the limitations of browser font size preferences and how to better achieve responsive typography. The author points out that the browser's default font size isn't always 16px, and simple pixel calculations based on em and rem units don't adapt to all user preferences. The article suggests abandoning pixel-based font size calculations, using the browser's default font size directly, and using the `clamp()` function with viewport units for responsive adjustments to provide the best reading experience on different screen sizes. A custom element-based solution is also proposed, allowing users to set personalized font sizes for different websites.
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This blog post presents a novel approach to collaborative text editing that avoids the complexities of Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) and Operational Transformation (OT). The core idea is to assign globally unique IDs to each character and use "insert after" operations. The server updates its state literally based on these operations, while clients employ server reconciliation for optimistic local updates. This approach is simpler and more flexible than CRDT/OT, allowing for customized operations and features like handling rich text and access controls. An accompanying npm library, Articulated, aids in implementation.
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Spring in North America is heralded by the rhythmic drumming of woodpeckers. This article provides a guide to identifying various woodpecker species by analyzing their drumming patterns. It details the differences in drumming speed, duration, and rhythm between species like the Downy, Hairy, and various Sapsucker woodpeckers. By paying attention to these subtle acoustic variations, even novice birders can improve their ability to identify these fascinating birds.
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Nvidia allegedly manipulated reviews of its RTX 5060 graphics card to avoid a repeat of the 4060's poor reception. Tactics included delaying driver releases, restricting testing parameters, and even threatening reviewers to skew benchmarks in its favor. Independent reviews, however, revealed the 5060 offers underwhelming performance improvements, sometimes falling short of even a four-year-old 3060 Ti. Outlets like GamersNexus exposed Nvidia's actions, causing industry uproar and highlighting the company's willingness to compromise integrity for profit. The incident raises questions about the future of GPU reviews and Nvidia's priorities.
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Timesketch is an open-source tool for collaborative forensic timeline analysis. It allows you and your collaborators to easily organize and analyze multiple timelines simultaneously. Add richness to your raw data with annotations, comments, tags, and stars. Note that while the code is owned by Google, this is not an official Google product.
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A recent survey reveals a rift between C-suite executives and employees regarding the adoption of AI coding tools. While 75% of leaders deem their AI rollout successful, only 45% of employees agree. Developers worry about AI tools introducing errors, inefficiency, and increasing technical debt. Leadership's misguided mandates hinder successful adoption. Although AI tools can boost efficiency, high error rates and poor performance on complex tasks remain. Empowering developers to choose and use tools autonomously, rather than enforcing mandates, is key. ChargeLab's approach of empowering its engineers led to a 40% productivity increase, highlighting the importance of trust and flexibility.
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This article presents a neat trick for gracefully handling errors triggered by `set -e` in Bash scripts. By using `trap 'echo "Exit status $? at line $LINENO from: $BASH_COMMAND"' ERR`, you can print information like the error line number, failing command, and exit status when the script encounters an error, making debugging easier. This leverages Bash-specific features: `$LINENO`, `$BASH_COMMAND` environment variables, and the `ERR` trap condition. Other shells like sh may behave differently and might not fully support this functionality.
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Before WWII, the US lagged behind Britain in science and engineering. Post-war, however, the US surged ahead, dominating for 85 years. This dramatic shift stemmed from contrasting approaches by their science advisors. Britain's Lindemann focused on military labs, while Bush, in the US, empowered university labs with massive government funding. This US university-industry-government partnership fueled innovation hubs like Silicon Valley, establishing its technological dominance. Britain's centralized model, conversely, hampered its post-war growth. However, with dwindling US government support for university research, its long reign may be ending.
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Breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs), particularly the GPT series, are triggering a revolution more violent than the Industrial Revolution. This isn't just about job security; it's a fundamental reshaping of the socio-economic fabric. Past research underestimated AI's automation potential, but the latest models are replacing many knowledge-based jobs, such as design, engineering, and financial analysis. This isn't simply wage decline; it's a shift in opportunity cost, pushing more people towards entrepreneurship. LLMs lower the barrier to entry, allowing solo enterprises to achieve team-level efficiency, leading to corporate downsizing, stagnant wages, and paradoxically, increased demand. We're moving towards a society envisioned by Lysander Spooner—one with greater individual autonomy, a surge in the number of companies, primarily structured as limited partnerships, and a complete transformation of education and social order. This isn't the end of the world, but the beginning of the Spooner Revolution.
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In an era of readily available code generation tools, the bottleneck in software development is no longer speed, but quality. The author advocates for a balance between 'shipping' and 'craftsmanship,' criticizing the practice of sacrificing quality for speed. Using the development of their code editor, Zed, as an example, they demonstrate how AI can bridge knowledge gaps and help developers pursue an exceptional user experience. The article concludes by introducing 'Agentic Engineering,' a concept that combines human craftsmanship with AI tools to build superior software.
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The infamous online imageboard 4chan was reportedly hacked Monday evening, remaining largely inaccessible. Soyjack Party, a rival imageboard, claimed responsibility, showcasing screenshots suggesting access to 4chan's admin interface and databases. Security researchers point to outdated PHP versions and phpMyAdmin as potential vulnerabilities. The hack potentially exposed source code and user data, with unsubstantiated claims of leaked names, IPs, and institutional emails circulating online. While 4chan's demise is premature, the incident highlights significant security concerns.
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CubeCL is a groundbreaking Rust language extension enabling developers to write GPU compute kernels in Rust, leveraging zero-cost abstractions for maintainable, flexible, and efficient compute kernels. Supporting WGPU, CUDA, and ROCm/HIP runtimes (with CPU support planned), CubeCL boasts automatic vectorization, compile-time computation, and auto-tuning, simplifying high-performance kernel development and cross-platform portability. Its unique two-step process (parsing and expansion) allows for compile-time optimizations and seamless Rust integration. Currently in alpha, CubeCL shows immense potential to become a cornerstone of high-performance computing in Rust.
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Numerous transit agencies initially opted for hydrogen fuel cell buses, only to discover they are far more expensive and less reliable than battery-electric alternatives. This article explores the cognitive biases and institutional blind spots that led to this costly mistake. Over-reliance on persuasive narratives, a lack of in-house expertise on emerging technologies, and a narrow focus on daily operations are highlighted as key factors. The article also points to flawed cost projections for hydrogen and an underestimation of battery technology advancements as contributing causes. The conclusion emphasizes the need for evidence-based decision-making to avoid similar errors in the future.
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Microsoft has released a private preview of a Windows 11 update orchestration platform designed to streamline app updates, providing centralized scheduling and troubleshooting. Developers can register update logic via WinRT APIs and PowerShell, supporting MSIX/APPX and Win32 apps. Concurrently, a limited public preview of Windows Backup for Organizations is available, allowing backup and restore of Windows 10 and 11 device settings, easing enterprise migrations to Windows 11 and mitigating malware threats. However, the service has specific device and environment requirements.
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In Google's antitrust trial, Yahoo expressed interest in acquiring Google's Chrome browser. Yahoo sees browsers as a crucial distribution channel for search engines, believing that owning Chrome would significantly boost its search market share. While Yahoo is developing its own browser prototype, acquiring Chrome would be a faster route to scale. The deal would cost tens of billions of dollars, but Yahoo's parent company, Apollo Global Management, is backing the potential acquisition.
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This article reminisces about the simpler, more personal internet of the past, criticizing today's major tech companies for their attention-grabbing business models. The author calls for a return to a slower, more personalized, and privacy-focused online space, sharing their own experiences in participating in the 'small internet' movement—reducing reliance on large platforms, supporting open-source technologies, and building a personal website. Readers are encouraged to join in creating a better digital world.
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This project details an FPGA CPU implemented in VHDL that utilizes a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) instead of a program counter. This approach, while traditionally space-saving, offers minimal benefits on FPGAs. The CPU, running a fully functional Forth interpreter, achieves 151.768MHz on a Spartan-6 FPGA. Remarkably compact, the core consumes only 27 slices. The project includes VHDL code, GHDL simulation instructions, and build instructions for Xilinx ISE 14.7. It showcases the potential of LFSRs for resource-constrained designs and presents a highly efficient Forth interpreter implementation.
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Framework announces shipments of the highly-repairable Framework Laptop 12 have begun, alongside immediate availability of the Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 300 Series). Several upcoming events are highlighted, including the Open Source Summit North America and ISTELive, where attendees can experience the full product lineup. Early access to the Laptop 12 is available through a donation program with Hack Club.
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Following a successful GDC compiler port to his new MacBook Pro, the author tackled the remaining Ada and Go compilers in the GCC suite. With Gccgo not yet mature on macOS, the focus shifted to GNAT Ada. Lacking pre-built packages, a virtual machine and the Alire tool were used to obtain an x86_64 GNAT compiler. A two-stage compilation process yielded a native macOS/aarch64 GNAT compiler, ultimately integrated with GDC into a single GCC suite. The resulting tarball is now available for others to use, eliminating the need for future manual ports.
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Kilo is a tiny text editor written in less than 1000 lines of code (using cloc). It boasts a surprisingly useful feature set for its size, including saving (Ctrl+S), quitting (Ctrl+Q), and string searching (Ctrl+F). Importantly, Kilo uses no external libraries and relies on standard VT100 escape sequences. Created by Salvatore Sanfilippo (antirez), it's designed as a learning resource and a starting point for building more advanced command-line interfaces or editors. The project is open source under the BSD 2-clause license.
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plans to invest $100 billion in building state-of-the-art chip manufacturing plants in the U.S. over the next four years. This massive investment aims to bolster the U.S.'s efforts to revive its domestic semiconductor industry, a goal pursued for decades as manufacturing shifted largely to Asia.
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Benn Jordan, a Bsky user, posted expressing confusion over being asked to clarify his stance on Israel, given his outspoken opposition to genocide and support for Palestinian statehood. This highlights the complexities and controversies surrounding sensitive political topics on social media platforms.
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The Theoi Project is a comprehensive, free online resource dedicated to Greek mythology. It offers detailed profiles of gods, spirits, creatures, and heroes, each with encyclopedic summaries, quotes from ancient texts, and illustrations from classical art. Beyond individual entries, the site boasts a classical texts library, family trees of the gods, a bestiary, and a gallery of over 1200 images from ancient Greek and Roman art.
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GPS is facing a significant increase in jamming and spoofing attacks, with as many as 700 daily incidents reported in 2024. This vulnerability, stemming from weak signals and lack of encryption, poses a serious threat to various sectors, including aviation, finance, and power grids. The article details a recent deadly incident linked to GPS interference. Solutions explored include easing export controls on advanced anti-jamming antennas, partnering with Europe's Galileo system, enhancing GPS signal encryption, and implementing a global augmentation system (HARS). Alternative navigation technologies like eLoran, eDME, pseudolite networks, and MagNav are also discussed as potential backups to mitigate the risks of GPS disruption and future threats.
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Square and hexagonal grids are commonplace in strategy games, but triangular grids remain largely unexplored. This article delves into the advantages of triangular grids in game design, highlighting their visual flexibility in representing both straight lines and curves, and their unique tactical possibilities. Unlike square grids with 4 directions and hexagonal grids with 6, triangular grids, when allowing diagonal movement, offer up to 12 directions, significantly increasing tactical options. The article details coordinate representation, conversion methods, and various distance calculation formulas for triangular grids, providing a small open-source library for developers. While few games currently utilize triangular grids, their potential is vast, promising a fresh take on strategy game mechanics.
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This research investigates human visual perception of high-speed motion through five experiments. Participants performed tasks involving Gabor patch stimuli, with their perception of motion direction and curvature measured. Eye-tracking data and an early-vision model were integrated to reveal spatiotemporal dynamics and underlying neural mechanisms of visual processing during rapid motion. The findings offer significant insights into the functioning of the human visual system.
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Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is the first game officially confirmed to utilize Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology on the Nintendo Switch 2. DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, uses AI to boost resolution without significant performance loss. The Switch 2 version will offer Quality and Performance modes in both docked and handheld, each with varying frame rates and resolutions. The Switch 2's custom NVIDIA processor and GPU, featuring RT Cores and Tensor Cores, enable DLSS and real-time ray tracing, promising a visually stunning experience.
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