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Deel CEO Implicated in Espionage Scandal: Former Employee's Confession Reveals Details

2025-04-02

Deel CEO Implicated in Espionage Scandal: Former Employee's Confession Reveals Details

Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz is embroiled in a corporate espionage scandal. Former Rippling employee Keith O'Brien, in a sworn Irish affidavit, admitted to being hired by Deel to spy on competitor Rippling, acting on instructions from CEO Alex Bouaziz. O'Brien stated he communicated with Alex Bouaziz and Deel's CFO (Alex's father, Philippe Bouaziz) via Telegram and received payment for his actions. The incident has garnered attention from the Irish press, and Rippling has filed a lawsuit against Deel.

(www.newcomer.co)

Tech corporate espionage

Japan's Citizen-Created Sex Offender Map Sparks Legal Debate

2025-03-28

Japan's Citizen-Created Sex Offender Map Sparks Legal Debate

In response to a lack of a national sex offender registry and numerous cases of child sexual abuse, a website called Amyna has emerged in Japan, offering a map of alleged sex offenders. Created by a former UN worker, Amyna aims to fill the gap in official systems, but its legality is highly questionable. Japan's strict personal information protection laws heavily restrict data disclosure, potentially leaving Amyna vulnerable to privacy violation claims. While the site argues it protects children, its lack of robust verification processes and handling of sensitive information risks false accusations and secondary victimization. The initiative has sparked a wide-ranging debate about privacy, citizen rights, and government responsibility, highlighting shortcomings in Japan's legal framework for child protection.

(unseen-japan.com)

Misc sex offender citizen action

Google's Decline: From Innovation Pinnacle to Ad Giant's Lost Way

2025-03-30

Google's Decline: From Innovation Pinnacle to Ad Giant's Lost Way

Once a beacon of innovation, Google is now struggling. The author uses their personal experience with Webpass, a service Google acquired, to illustrate a decline in service quality and price increases, lagging behind competitors. Google Search is criticized for its overload of AI-generated reviews and ads, while the Gemini AI launch generated little buzz compared to OpenAI and others. Google's AI Studio also reflects the company's internal management issues. The author argues Google has become what its founders warned against: an advertising company whose model conflicts with user needs. Ultimately, the author has switched to alternative search engines and internet services, highlighting Google's risk of irrelevance in a rapidly evolving internet landscape.

(om.co)

Tech

FSF's 40th Anniversary Auction: Bid on Pieces of Free Software History!

2025-03-17

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is hosting an online auction featuring 25 pieces of historic free software memorabilia. The auction is split into a silent online auction (March 17-21 on the LibrePlanet wiki) and a live auction (March 23). Items include vintage computers, plushies, original artwork promoting free software, and awards received by the FSF and its founder. All proceeds support the FSF's continued work. The live auction features six particularly significant items, including the original GNU head logo, the Norbert Wiener Award, and artwork from the GCC manual. These artifacts represent milestones in the free software movement.

(www.fsf.org)

Tech

NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware Fails to Stay Hidden: Journalists Expose Flaws

2025-03-28

A new report details attempted hacks against Serbian journalists using NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. Amnesty International researchers traced phishing links directly to NSO Group's infrastructure, exposing serious flaws in the company's and its clients' attempts at stealth. Pegasus has been used to target at least 130 individuals globally, including journalists and activists, over the years. Apple has also helped expose attacks by notifying victims. NSO Group's sale of its software to countries that misuse it is contributing to its exposure. The incident highlights NSO Group's operational security failures and the threat its spyware poses to human rights.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

UK Gov's AI Talent Crisis: Lack of Tech Skills & Broken Hiring Processes

2025-03-28

UK Gov's AI Talent Crisis: Lack of Tech Skills & Broken Hiring Processes

A former director of data science at the UK prime minister's office revealed a critical shortage of tech talent within government data departments. Laura Gilbert testified that many government officials in data roles lack the technical skills needed, making it difficult for them to find similar jobs in the private sector. While pockets of excellence exist within the Government Digital Service (GDS), the overall skill level is inconsistent, and hiring processes fail to effectively identify truly skilled candidates. Despite a government initiative, the "Blueprint for Modern Digital Government," promising significant investment in AI talent development and technology upgrades, Gilbert highlighted the need for long-term commitment to data integration, citing the poor track record of past projects. A parliamentary report further underscored the problem, revealing that outdated IT systems hinder AI adoption and funding allocation remains an issue. This highlights the immense challenges the UK government faces in its digital transformation journey.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Government Digital Transformation AI Talent Skills Gap

Bolt Graphics Unveils Ambitious Zeus GPU Architecture

2025-03-29

Bolt Graphics Unveils Ambitious Zeus GPU Architecture

Bolt Graphics announced its Zeus GPU architecture, a modular design based on the RISC-V instruction set. Employing a multi-chiplet approach, Zeus scales up to four chiplets, each boasting 64GB of LPDDR5X and abundant high-speed interconnect options like 800GbE and PCIe Gen5. Targeting large-scale GPU clusters through high memory capacity and bandwidth, Zeus aims to challenge Nvidia's dominance in high-performance computing. While still in early development, with developer kits slated for Q4 2025, its unique architecture and potential for cost-effectiveness warrant attention.

(www.servethehome.com)

Hardware

Microsoft Kills Windows 11 Offline Installation Bypass

2025-03-29

Microsoft Kills Windows 11 Offline Installation Bypass

Microsoft is tightening its grip on Windows 11's internet-connected account requirement. The latest Insider Preview removes the bypassnro command, previously used to circumvent the need for internet connection and Microsoft account login during setup. Microsoft cites security improvements as the reason. While registry edits currently offer a workaround, this too may be patched soon. This move aligns with Microsoft's push to upgrade users to Windows 11 and phase out Windows 10, highlighting a focus on security and a specific vision for user experience.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Microsoft Account System Security

GATE: An Integrated Assessment Model of AI's Economic Impact

2025-03-30

GATE: An Integrated Assessment Model of AI's Economic Impact

Epoch AI presents GATE, an integrated assessment model exploring AI's economic impact. The model centers on an automation feedback loop: investment fuels computational power, leading to more capable AI systems automating tasks, boosting output, and further fueling AI development. An interactive playground lets users tweak parameters and observe model behavior under various scenarios. Predictions aren't Epoch AI's forecasts but conditional, based on assumptions, primarily useful for analyzing the qualitative dynamics of AI automation.

(epoch.ai)

AI

Lapham's Quarterly Relaunches Under Bard College's Stewardship

2025-03-31

Lapham's Quarterly Relaunches Under Bard College's Stewardship

The celebrated journal of history and ideas, Lapham's Quarterly, will relaunch in 2025 under the stewardship of Bard College and its Hannah Arendt Center. This partnership ensures the journal's continuation after the passing of its founder, Lewis H. Lapham, and marks a rare second chance for a literary journal. Bard College will inherit the journal's assets and integrate it into its mission of fostering critical inquiry and dialogue. The relaunch includes plans to distribute free copies to incarcerated readers through the Bard Prison Initiative, expanding access to ideas and literature. This collaboration not only preserves a valuable intellectual legacy but also underscores the importance of historical reflection in our times.

(www.laphamsquarterly.org)

Misc journal relaunch intellectual legacy Bard College

Tesla's Australian Sales Plummet: Stockpiles, Price Wars, and Damaged Brand Image

2025-03-29

A large stockpile of unsold Tesla Model Ys in a Perth parking lot highlights the brand's struggles in Australia. Increased competition, price wars, and Elon Musk's political activities have all contributed to declining sales. Dealers are slashing prices to clear inventory, hurting previous buyers and damaging customer trust. Inadequate charging infrastructure in Australia further exacerbates the issue, pushing consumers towards hybrid vehicles.

(au.news.yahoo.com)

Tech

DeepSeek v3: Significant Improvements to the Transformer Architecture

2025-01-28

DeepSeek v3: Significant Improvements to the Transformer Architecture

DeepSeek v3 achieves state-of-the-art benchmark performance with significantly less compute than comparable models. This is due to key architectural improvements: Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) drastically reduces KV cache size without sacrificing model quality; improved Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) tackles routing collapse via auxiliary-loss-free load balancing and shared experts; and multi-token prediction boosts training efficiency and inference speed. These improvements demonstrate a deep understanding of the Transformer architecture and point the way forward for large language models.

(epoch.ai)

AI

The Real Book: A Bootlegged Jazz Bible

2025-03-28

The Real Book: A Bootlegged Jazz Bible

Since the mid-1970s, nearly every jazz musician has owned a copy of 'The Real Book,' an illegally copied collection of jazz standards. Its story begins with earlier 'fake books' – simplified sheet music – evolving from Tune-Dex cards. Two Berklee College of Music students created a modern, updated version, reflecting contemporary jazz styles. Its popularity led to widespread bootlegging, until Hal Leonard legally published it. The book’s legacy, however, sparks debate about copyright and the very nature of jazz, with some criticizing its simplification of this complex art form.

(99percentinvisible.org)

Misc Music History

Spectral JPEG XL: Crushing Spectral Image File Sizes by 10-60x

2025-03-29

Spectral JPEG XL: Crushing Spectral Image File Sizes by 10-60x

Researchers have developed a new technique leveraging JPEG XL to compress spectral images by a remarkable 10 to 60 times, shrinking them to sizes comparable to regular high-quality photos. The method prioritizes discarding less important high-frequency spectral details while preserving metadata and high dynamic range. Although lossy, this approach holds immense potential for scientific visualization and high-end rendering, addressing the storage and transfer challenges posed by massive spectral image files.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech spectral imaging image compression

Steins;Gate: Evidence for a Simulated Reality?

2025-03-29

Steins;Gate: Evidence for a Simulated Reality?

In Steins;Gate, the world seems to have an automatic error correction mechanism, erasing events and characters that deviate from a predetermined path. Protagonist Okabe Rintarou repeatedly tries to alter the past to save his friends, only to face failure. This resembles a running simulation correcting 'errors'. Okabe's eventual disappearance, restoring the world to 'normal', suggests his actions were anomalies, purged by the system. This raises the question: are we living in a similar simulated reality?

(samyar.me)

Game Steins;Gate Simulated Reality Time Travel

Unlocking Infantile Amnesia: A Year-Old's Hippocampus Lights Up

2025-03-25

Unlocking Infantile Amnesia: A Year-Old's Hippocampus Lights Up

A new study using fMRI scanned the brains of 26 infants aged 4 to 25 months, attempting to solve the century-old mystery of infantile amnesia. The research found that around the age of one, the hippocampus, responsible for memory formation, becomes active, generating neural signals related to things the infants remembered from tests. This suggests that babies begin encoding memories around the age of one, even as their hippocampus is still developing. The study provides valuable clues to understanding early brain development and memory formation, hinting that we may one day be able to retrieve lost memories from our infancy.

(singularityhub.com)

AI infantile amnesia hippocampus memory formation

Fake Deadlines: A Manager's Secret Weapon?

2025-04-02

Fake Deadlines: A Manager's Secret Weapon?

This article explores the effectiveness of 'fake deadlines' in project management. Drawing on personal experience and the insights of James Stanier, the author argues that setting challenging deadlines leverages Parkinson's Law (work expands to fill the time available), boosting team efficiency and driving project progress. However, the author emphasizes that success hinges on team involvement, clear goals, and open communication, avoiding negative impacts like forced overtime. The ultimate goal is enhanced team productivity, not simply on-time delivery.

(newsletter.manager.dev)

Development deadlines

Can AI Replace Research Scientists? UF Study Says No (Mostly)

2025-03-29

Can AI Replace Research Scientists? UF Study Says No (Mostly)

A University of Florida study tested generative AI's ability to conduct academic research. While AI excelled in ideation and research design, it struggled significantly with literature review, results analysis, and manuscript production, requiring substantial human oversight. Researchers advocate for high skepticism towards AI outputs, viewing them as requiring human verification and refinement. Published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the study prompts reflection on AI's role in research—more assistant than replacement.

(news.warrington.ufl.edu)

AI

NoteUX: A Beautifully Designed Note-Taking App

2025-03-31

NoteUX is a beautifully designed note-taking app that helps you quickly capture, organize, and optimize your thoughts effortlessly. Its clean interface features multiple scratch pads, dark mode, fullscreen mode, auto-save, word count, and the ability to download notes as .txt files. Perfect for writers, students, and professionals alike, NoteUX enhances productivity and creativity.

(www.noteux.com)

Development

IBM & Family Keyboard Timeline: 111 Key Events

2025-03-30

IBM & Family Keyboard Timeline: 111 Key Events

This illustrated timeline charts key events in the history of IBM, Lexmark, Unicomp, Lenovo, and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions keyboards. It covers significant releases and discontinuations, corporate history (founding, divestitures, OEM changes), and patents. Host devices like PCs, terminals, consoles, and typewriters are also included due to their impact on keyboard development. The full timeline details 111 events.

(sharktastica.co.uk)

Hardware IBM keyboards keyboard history

IMLS Staff Placed on Administrative Leave: Funding for Libraries and Museums in Jeopardy?

2025-04-01

IMLS Staff Placed on Administrative Leave: Funding for Libraries and Museums in Jeopardy?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal funding for libraries and museums in the US, has placed its entire staff on paid administrative leave for 90 days. This follows President Trump's executive order shrinking several federal agencies, including IMLS. The move has raised concerns about the future of grant funding and the potential disruption of vital programs, particularly impacting smaller and rural libraries. The union representing IMLS workers highlights the uncertainty surrounding existing grants and the likelihood of their termination without staff to administer them.

(www.npr.org)

Tech

GitHub CodeQL Supply Chain Attack Risk: A 1.022-Second Flaw

2025-03-30

GitHub CodeQL Supply Chain Attack Risk: A 1.022-Second Flaw

A researcher uncovered a publicly exposed secret in GitHub CodeQL, lasting only 1.022 seconds, that could have led to a devastating supply chain attack. Within that timeframe, an attacker could gain full write access to CodeQL workflows, stealing source code from private repositories, GitHub Actions secrets, and even executing code on internal infrastructure. Critically, attackers could modify the version tag used by the default CodeQL workflow, impacting all repositories using CodeQL. The vulnerability has been patched, but it highlights the critical importance of CI/CD security.

(www.praetorian.com)

Tech CI/CD security

Sweden Designates Demoscne as UNESCO Heritage

2025-03-31

Sweden Designates Demoscne as UNESCO Heritage

Sweden has designated the demoscene as a national UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. The demoscene, arguably the oldest creative digital subculture, has maintained its values and traditions amidst technological and economic shifts. While core to it is the competition to push hardware limits, the demoscene encompasses diverse activities: creating quirky works, maintaining online communities, organizing parties, and more. The author emphasizes the scene's diversity and inclusivity, appealing to both nostalgic programmers and unconventional artists.

(www.goto80.com)

Misc UNESCO digital subculture

Pentagon Purges DEI Content: Historical Photos Among Thousands Flagged for Removal

2025-03-29

Pentagon Purges DEI Content: Historical Photos Among Thousands Flagged for Removal

The Department of Defense is undertaking a massive purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content from its websites and social media, targeting over 26,000 images. This includes photos of a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay, and the first women to graduate from Marine infantry training. The action stems from President Trump's executive order ending DEI programs across the federal government. The purge has led to confusion, with images containing the word "gay" mistakenly flagged for removal, impacting both individuals with that surname and the aircraft itself. Historically significant photos, such as those of the Tuskegee Airmen, may be spared. The Pentagon claims it's working to comply rapidly, but the process is proving time-consuming and complex.

(www.nbcwashington.com)

Tech content removal

Beyond Levels: Rethinking Management Roles

2025-03-21

Beyond Levels: Rethinking Management Roles

The author critiques common corporate practices like rigid leveling systems and annual performance reviews, arguing they fail to accurately reflect employee value. The core of the article distinguishes three fundamental management roles: Manager, Director, and Vice President. The difference isn't titles or headcount, but responsibility and mindset. Managers execute tactical plans; Directors create and execute plans; Vice Presidents create strategic plans and are accountable for results, even if the plan was approved but ultimately failed. The author encourages VPs to think independently and embrace risk, rather than simply executing someone else's plan.

(kellblog.com)

Management

3FS: A High-Performance Distributed File System for AI

2025-02-28

3FS: A High-Performance Distributed File System for AI

3FS is a high-performance distributed file system designed to tackle the challenges of AI training and inference workloads. Leveraging modern SSDs and RDMA networks, it provides a shared storage layer that simplifies the development of distributed applications. Key features include: exceptional performance and usability, strong consistency via CRAQ, standard file interfaces, and support for diverse workloads (data preparation, dataloaders, checkpointing, and KVCache for inference). Benchmarks demonstrate impressive results: up to 6.6 TiB/s read throughput on large clusters and 3.66 TiB/min sort throughput. KVCache significantly boosts LLM inference efficiency, reaching peak read throughput of 40 GiB/s. The project is open-source with detailed setup and run instructions.

(github.com)

AI distributed file system

Security Expert Troy Hunt Falls Victim to Mailchimp Phishing Attack

2025-03-25

Security Expert Troy Hunt Falls Victim to Mailchimp Phishing Attack

Security expert Troy Hunt fell victim to a sophisticated phishing attack targeting his Mailchimp account. The attacker successfully gained access, exporting approximately 16,000 subscriber records containing email addresses, subscription details, IP addresses, and geolocation data. Despite immediately changing his password and contacting Mailchimp, Hunt expressed frustration at his own lapse in judgment and apologized to affected subscribers. The incident serves as a stark reminder that even security experts are vulnerable to phishing, highlighting the importance of robust multi-factor authentication and heightened security awareness.

(www.troyhunt.com)

Tech

Weave is Hiring a Founding Product Engineer!

2025-03-26

Weave is Hiring a Founding Product Engineer!

Weave, a rapidly growing and profitable startup, seeks an exceptional founding product engineer. Reporting directly to the CTO and CEO, you'll build core products for millions of engineers. We value your grit, pragmatism, empathy, and communication skills. While familiarity with our tech stack (React, TypeScript, Go, Python) is a plus, we prioritize your problem-solving skills and passion for improving engineering productivity.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

AI Intelligence Tests: Are Good Questions More Important Than Great Answers?

2025-03-27

AI Intelligence Tests: Are Good Questions More Important Than Great Answers?

The author took the "Humanity's Last Exam," a test designed to assess AI intelligence, and failed miserably. This led him to reflect on how we evaluate AI intelligence: current tests overemphasize providing correct answers to complex questions, neglecting the importance of formulating meaningful questions. True historical research begins with unique, unexpected questions that reveal new perspectives. The author argues that AI progress may not lie in perfectly answering difficult questions, but in its ability to gather and interpret evidence during research and its potential to ask novel questions. This raises the question of whether AI can ever produce valuable historical questions.

(newsletter.dancohen.org)

AI Intelligence Tests Historical Research

Google Maps, Search, and Hotels Get AI-Powered Travel Planning Upgrades

2025-03-27

Google Maps, Search, and Hotels Get AI-Powered Travel Planning Upgrades

Google is enhancing Maps, Search, and Hotels with AI-powered features to improve travel planning. Maps gains the ability to identify locations in screenshots and save them to a list, simplifying trip preparation. This Gemini-powered feature, rolling out to US iOS users this week (Android coming soon), detects places in screenshot text, displays them on the map, and allows saving to a sharable list. AI Overviews in Search are updated with itinerary-building tools, letting users create trips for specific regions or countries. Google Lens's AI Overviews will soon support more languages, including Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Finally, price drop alerts, already in Google Flights, are going global for Google Hotels, available on mobile and desktop.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech AI travel planning Hotel booking

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