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Why Are We So Obsessed with Cats? Ancient Fear and Modern Fascination

2025-07-19
Why Are We So Obsessed with Cats? Ancient Fear and Modern Fascination

This article explores the mystery of humanity's fascination with cats. The author speculates that this isn't due to neoteny, but rather stems from cats' history as a major predator of primates in Africa for millions of years. This ancient fear is embedded deep within our genes, causing us to instinctively pay attention to a cat's every move. Even though house cats pose little threat, we subconsciously perceive them as miniature leopards; this element of danger gives cats their unique appeal. The popularity of cat videos also confirms this: they usually present a calm scene suddenly disrupted by the cat, simulating the tense relationship between predator and prey, fulfilling our innate need for safely experiencing dangerous thrills.

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(gwern.net)
Misc predator

Singularity Theorems Proven in Non-Smooth Spacetimes

2025-07-19
Singularity Theorems Proven in Non-Smooth Spacetimes

Mathematicians have long sought to prove singularity theorems in general relativity, such as Hawking's singularity theorem, but these theorems rely on the assumption of smooth spacetime. Recently, researchers cleverly used a 'triangle comparison method' and 'optimal transport theory' to prove special cases of these singularity theorems in non-smooth spacetimes, even extending to more general spacetime models. This breakthrough not only strengthens the mathematical foundation of the Big Bang singularity theory but also provides new mathematical tools for quantum gravity research, paving the way for unifying general relativity and quantum physics.

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(www.quantamagazine.org)
Tech singularity theorems non-smooth spacetime

AI Datacenter Capex: A Hidden Economic Prop?

2025-07-19
AI Datacenter Capex: A Hidden Economic Prop?

This article explores the massive impact of AI datacenter capital expenditure on the US economy. The author argues that AI datacenter capex could reach 2% of US GDP in 2025, fueled by internal cash flows, debt issuance, equity offerings, and more. While this investment masks underlying economic weaknesses, preventing a deeper recession, it also leads to capital reallocation, starving other sectors of investment and triggering mass layoffs. The author warns of unforeseen consequences from this massive investment in rapidly depreciating technology.

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(paulkedrosky.com)
Tech

Guix Impressions: A Nix User's Perspective

2025-07-19

A seasoned Nix user shares their experience trying out the Guix System. Guix, being a GNU system, prioritizes software freedom, requiring the use of nonguix for modern hardware support. The article focuses on architectural differences between Guix and Nix: Nix employs a modular design allowing flexible combinations of package versions, while Guix integrates all packages into a fixed profile, requiring a rebuild for updates. Documentation, performance, and init systems are compared, revealing Guix's superior documentation but slower performance; it uses Shepherd instead of systemd. Overall, Guix is an intriguing alternative but steeper learning curve demanding Scheme knowledge.

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(tazj.in)
Development

Stack Overflow Says Goodbye to Physical Servers: The Cloud Journey Begins

2025-07-19
Stack Overflow Says Goodbye to Physical Servers: The Cloud Journey Begins

After 16 years, Stack Overflow and its network of sites have officially bid farewell to their New Jersey data center, with all servers decommissioned and disposed of properly. This migration marks a significant step in Stack Overflow's transition to the cloud, signifying the complete cloud-native transformation of its infrastructure. The article vividly recounts the details of the migration process, from dismantling servers and managing a massive amount of cabling to the final clearing of the data center, showcasing the team's hard work and efficient execution. This move not only improves efficiency but also ensures the security of user data.

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(stackoverflow.blog)
Tech data center migration

Beyond cuBLAS and CUTLASS: A Novel Matrix Multiplication Kernel Engine

2025-07-19
Beyond cuBLAS and CUTLASS: A Novel Matrix Multiplication Kernel Engine

Matrix multiplication is central to modern computing, especially in AI where its speed directly impacts model capabilities. While hardware accelerators like NVIDIA's Tensor Cores are efficient, they lack flexibility. This paper introduces CubeCL, a new engine that generates optimized matrix multiplication kernels across platforms. CubeCL uses a hierarchical abstraction (Tile, Stage, Global, Batch Matmul) and various algorithms (Simple, Double Buffering, Ordered, etc.) to achieve this. It cleverly leverages GPU architectural features like plane-synchronous execution and coalesced memory access, employing techniques like double buffering to hide memory latency. Benchmarks show significant performance improvements on various GPUs (NVIDIA, AMD, and Apple Silicon), even surpassing cuBLAS and CUTLASS in some cases.

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(burn.dev)
Development

HALO Deals: A New Acquisition Model in AI

2025-07-19
HALO Deals: A New Acquisition Model in AI

A novel deal structure has emerged in the AI industry: the HALO deal. Unlike traditional acquisitions or simple hiring, HALO deals involve a company hiring a startup's core team while simultaneously licensing its IP. The startup receives significant licensing fees distributed to investors and employees, and continues operating under new leadership. These deals are fast, expensive, and (currently) exclusive to AI. While sparking debate, HALOs attempt to preserve the social contract between founders, investors, and employees, offering a swift, certain way to acquire AI talent in an increasingly scrutinized M&A landscape.

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(kwokchain.com)
AI talent acquisition

Microsoft Office's XML Lock-in: A Technological Trap

2025-07-19
Microsoft Office's XML Lock-in: A Technological Trap

This article exposes how Microsoft's intentionally complex XML schema in its Office document format serves as a user lock-in strategy. By designing an overly complex XML schema, Microsoft makes it difficult for competitors to develop compatible software, creating a technological monopoly. This forces users into the Microsoft ecosystem, accepting their pricing and services. The analogy used is a railway system with open tracks but a complex control system only controlled by one manufacturer, dominating rail transport. The author urges users to be wary of technological monopolies and to choose simple, clear XML systems to avoid being trapped by complexity.

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(blog.documentfoundation.org)
Tech technological monopoly

Bitnami Public Catalog Overhaul: Migration to Secure Images and Legacy Repo

2025-07-19
Bitnami Public Catalog Overhaul: Migration to Secure Images and Legacy Repo

Bitnami's public catalog undergoes significant changes on August 28th, 2025. Debian-based images will cease generation and move to a Bitnami Legacy repository. Free images will be streamlined to hardened, secure versions, available only on the 'latest' tag at https://hub.docker.com/u/bitnamisecure. Production-ready containers and Helm charts will transition to Bitnami Secure Images, offering hardened OS, continuous security updates (SLSA Level 3), CVE transparency, SBOMs, compliance artifacts, and enterprise support. All existing images will move to the Bitnami Legacy repository (docker.io/bitnamilegacy) with no further updates or support. Users should update CI/CD pipelines and consider subscribing to Bitnami Secure Images for continued support.

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(github.com)
Development Secure Images

ccusage: Analyze Your Claude Code Token Usage, Blazing Fast!

2025-07-19
ccusage: Analyze Your Claude Code Token Usage, Blazing Fast!

ccusage is a command-line tool for incredibly fast analysis of your Claude Code token usage and costs from local JSONL files. It offers daily, monthly, session, and 5-hour block reports, with features like live monitoring, date filtering, custom paths, and JSON output. Its tiny bundle size allows for direct execution without installation, supporting multiple models and cost breakdowns. Try it with `bunx ccusage`!

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(github.com)
Development

$500 Smoking Fee Scam: A Hotel's Algorithmic Revenue Scheme?

2025-07-19
$500 Smoking Fee Scam: A Hotel's Algorithmic Revenue Scheme?

A guest at the Hyatt Pell Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, was wrongly charged a $500 smoking fee despite never smoking. The hotel staff was confrontational, claiming their smoke detectors were infallible. The guest discovered multiple other guests experienced the same issue, met with similar hostile responses from management. A viral video exposed the problem, leading to a refund, but other guests are still fighting for theirs. Investigation revealed the hotel uses Rest Sensors, a company marketing its detectors as a way to "unlock a new revenue stream" with a "robust algorithm." This suggests a potential widespread hotel revenue-generating scheme.

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(threadreaderapp.com)
Misc hotel billing dispute

OrioleDB: A High-Performance PostgreSQL Storage Extension

2025-07-19
OrioleDB: A High-Performance PostgreSQL Storage Extension

OrioleDB is a PostgreSQL storage extension that replaces the default Heap storage engine, dramatically improving performance. By redesigning core components like MVCC, page caching, and checkpoints, OrioleDB enhances throughput and predictability for transactional workloads while maintaining the familiar PostgreSQL user experience. Recent releases add support for non-B-tree index types, tablespaces, and fillfactor, along with query and index performance optimizations. Benchmarks using TPC-C and sysbench show significant throughput improvements over PostgreSQL's default Heap engine, with go-tpc tests demonstrating multiple times the tpmC.

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(www.orioledb.com)
Development

Zero-Cost Statics in C++: Exploiting Linker Features

2025-07-19

This article tackles the performance overhead of static variable initialization in C++. Block-scoped static variables typically incur runtime costs, such as synchronization using `__cxa_guard_acquire`. The author proposes an optimization leveraging UNIX linker features: pre-allocating space in a dedicated section and performing initialization during global initialization. This eliminates runtime overhead, making block-scoped statics as efficient as file-scoped ones. The article details the implementation, including handling section attribute conflicts from inline functions and template members, ultimately achieving zero-cost optimization.

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(cofault.com)
Development

Debcraft: Streamlining Debian Packaging

2025-07-19
Debcraft: Streamlining Debian Packaging

Debian packaging is notoriously difficult, often leading to contributor frustration and burnout. Debcraft aims to solve this by automating tedious tasks, improving the learning curve, and tracking changes in both source code and build artifacts. Leveraging container technology, it removes the dependency on a Debian system, simplifying the build, test, and release process. Automated improvement and update features further ease Debian package maintenance.

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(optimizedbyotto.com)
Development Packaging

GitHub Code Suggestion Application Restrictions

2025-07-19
GitHub Code Suggestion Application Restrictions

Applying code suggestions in bulk during GitHub code review is subject to several limitations. These include: no code changes made, the pull request is closed, viewing a subset of changes, only one suggestion per line, applying to deleted lines, suggestions already applied or marked resolved, suggestions from pending reviews, multi-line comments, and pull requests queued to merge. Additionally, there are instances where the action cannot be performed due to an unspecified error.

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(github.com)
Development

The Grifter Equilibrium: How CPA Advertising Broke Quality Signaling

2025-07-19
The Grifter Equilibrium: How CPA Advertising Broke Quality Signaling

This paper explores how the internet, and specifically Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) advertising, has broken the traditional quality signaling mechanism in advertising. Historically, high-quality sellers were more willing to invest heavily in advertising due to higher long-term returns. CPA advertising, however, allows low-quality sellers to fund ads from day-one revenue, undermining this signal. Factors like easy brand creation, light penalties for returns, rating compression, and consumer reliance on price heuristics contribute to a "grifter equilibrium" where low-quality products dominate. The paper presents an economic model illustrating this and proposes solutions such as persistent manufacturer IDs and return-adjusted CPA surcharges to deter low-quality sellers.

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(www.gojiberries.io)
Tech CPA advertising quality signaling online marketplaces

Zig's Asynchronous I/O: Asynchrony ≠ Concurrency

2025-07-19
Zig's Asynchronous I/O: Asynchrony ≠ Concurrency

This article delves into the often-confused concepts of asynchrony, concurrency, and parallelism in concurrent programming. The author argues that many language ecosystems suffer from a lack of understanding of 'asynchrony,' leading to duplicated library efforts and a worse user experience. Zig differentiates asynchrony from concurrency, enabling asynchronous I/O without mandatory concurrency. This prevents the 'viral' spread of asynchronous code, allowing synchronous and asynchronous code to coexist peacefully, improving code efficiency and maintainability.

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(kristoff.it)
Development Concurrent Programming

Steam Removes Adult Games Due to Payment Processor Pressure

2025-07-19
Steam Removes Adult Games Due to Payment Processor Pressure

Valve recently removed a batch of adult games from the Steam store due to violations of rules set by payment processors like Mastercard. Valve stated that losing payment methods would prevent customers from purchasing other games and content on Steam. While Valve is contacting affected developers and offering credits, the incident highlights the strict scrutiny payment processors apply to adult content, even animated content. This raises concerns about censorship and the power wielded by payment processors, with many arguing that companies like Mastercard shouldn't dictate what games players can buy on Steam.

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(www.pcgamer.com)
Game Game Censorship Payment Processors

My Ultimate Self-Hosting Setup: A NixOS, ZFS, and Tailscale Triumph

2025-07-19

After years of experimentation with various self-hosting approaches, the author has finally achieved a stable setup running for over six months. This setup centers around NixOS for OS configuration, ZFS for robust data protection, and Tailscale for a secure internal network. The article details the architecture, key technology choices (including Authelia and LLDAP for authentication), and solutions to problems encountered, such as integrating Tailscale with other VPNs and exposing services to the public internet. Configuration snippets and helpful links are provided for readers to build upon.

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(codecaptured.com)
Development

Rust and C Interoperability in the Linux Kernel: Memory, Self-Referential Structures, and Locks

2025-07-19

This article delves into the intricacies of interfacing Rust and C code within the Linux kernel. It highlights memory allocation (Kmalloc, Vmalloc, KVmalloc, and their corresponding Box and Vec usage), handling self-referential structures (Pin and the pin_init! macro), and locking mechanisms (Mutex, LockedBy, GlobalLockedBy). Rust enhances kernel code safety and reduces runtime errors through its type system and lifetime management.

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(lwn.net)
Development C Interop

1862 Exposed MCP Servers: A Security Vulnerability Unveiled

2025-07-18
1862 Exposed MCP Servers: A Security Vulnerability Unveiled

Knostic's research team discovered 1,862 internet-exposed MCP servers lacking proper security measures. These servers, identified using Shodan and custom Python tools, allowed unauthenticated access to internal tool listings. The findings highlight the technology's early adoption stage and significant security risks, with many servers exhibiting instability and vulnerabilities. The researchers emphasize the need to address these security concerns, suggesting proactive security measures before widespread exploitation.

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(www.knostic.ai)
Tech

Historical Fencing: Reviving the Art of the Medieval Duel

2025-07-18
Historical Fencing: Reviving the Art of the Medieval Duel

A journalist recounts her experience learning historical European martial arts (HEMA), a unique blend of historical research and practical combat. From clumsy beginnings to mastering basic techniques, she ultimately applies her skills to a theatrical production, bringing historical duels to life on stage. The article explores HEMA's history, current state, and its transformative effects on participants, building confidence and strategic thinking. Interviews with HEMA enthusiasts reveal the sport's appeal and its rich historical and cultural significance.

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(thewalrus.ca)
Misc historical fencing medieval dueling

lsr: Blazing Fast File Listing with io_uring

2025-07-18

lsr is a lightning-fast file listing utility leveraging io_uring, significantly outperforming the traditional `ls` command. Benchmarks demonstrate dramatic speed improvements and reduced syscall counts when handling numerous files. It offers a rich set of options including showing hidden files, sorting by time, and colored output, along with straightforward installation and usage instructions. The project is hosted on GitHub and supports cloning via HTTP or SSH.

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(tangled.sh)
Development

Jefit's 15-Year Grind: From Dad's Living Room to Silicon Valley

2025-07-18

Jefit founder Ying shares the story of building his fitness app from a personal project in his dad's living room to a company with over 13 million users. Starting with a small loan and facing numerous challenges—funding issues, team building, and relocating to Silicon Valley—Ying persevered, creating a platform focused on user experience and quality. The article highlights the struggles and perseverance of entrepreneurship, and the importance of teamwork and user loyalty.

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(www.jefit.com)
Startup Fitness App User Loyalty

Life Aboard Pino: A Six-Month Log (2025)

2025-07-18

This couple documents their life aboard their boat, Pino, during the first six months of 2025. Their entries detail boat repairs, the release of their game Oquonie, and various projects including writing books, game development, and game jams. They share their reading, community interactions, and the challenges of boat life, painting a picture of a relaxed yet adventurous seafaring existence.

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(100r.co)
Misc boat life

Unpublished Memoir of CP/M Creator Gary Kildall Released

2025-07-18
Unpublished Memoir of CP/M Creator Gary Kildall Released

A portion of an unfinished memoir by Gary Kildall, the creator of the CP/M operating system, has been released by the Computer History Museum. Written before his death in 1994, the excerpt details Kildall's early life and entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing his values of invention and a love of life over profit. Later chapters, detailing his struggles with alcoholism, will remain unpublished.

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(spectrum.ieee.org)
Tech

IBM's Power11 Processor: A Balanced Act of Memory and I/O

2025-07-18
IBM's Power11 Processor: A Balanced Act of Memory and I/O

IBM launched the Power11 processor, an upgrade to the Power10, primarily improving core utilization and supporting DDR5 memory. Power11 maintains a strong balance between memory and I/O, even under massive memory and peripheral demands, making it competitive for large transactional database management systems. Despite manufacturing process challenges and delays, Power11 overcame hurdles through a partnership with Samsung, improving instruction sets and architecture. The article also explores future Power11 upgrades, such as expanding DCM modules to boost scalability to meet growing computational demands.

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(www.nextplatform.com)
Hardware server processor

Servo Engine Makes Strides: Windows Multi-process Support Lands!

2025-07-18

The open-source web layout engine Servo continues to advance. This month's update highlights significant progress in incremental layout, performance optimizations, WebDriver server support for automation, viewport meta tag support, DOM scroll event support, basic IndexedDB support, improved AbortController abort handling, experimental multi-process support on Windows, and enhanced DevTools and screen reader capabilities. Servo is steadily maturing into a robust embeddable browser engine.

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(www.phoronix.com)
Development Web Layout Engine

Psilocybin Shows Promise in Treating Depression and Anxiety in Cancer Patients

2025-07-18

A double-blind, crossover trial investigated the effects of psilocybin, a classic hallucinogen, on 51 cancer patients experiencing life-threatening diagnoses and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. High-dose psilocybin significantly reduced clinician- and self-rated depression and anxiety, improving quality of life, life meaning, and optimism while decreasing death anxiety. These positive effects were sustained at the 6-month follow-up, with approximately 80% of participants showing clinically significant improvements. The study highlights the mediating role of mystical-type psilocybin experiences in achieving therapeutic outcomes.

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(pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
AI hallucinogen
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