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Debugging Brake Lights with a Vibrator: A Hacker's Tale

2025-09-24

Debugging Brake Lights with a Vibrator: A Hacker's Tale

The developer behind BrakeBright, a motorcycle brake light enhancement, details his journey to eliminate false positives. Initial attempts using averaging and low-pass filters failed to fully address brake light flickering caused by road bumps and engine vibrations. He then switched to median filtering, adjusted sampling times, and added jitter to prevent synchronization with engine pulses. Ingeniously, a repurposed vibrator simulated real-world conditions for testing, leading to the addition of a smart debounce mechanism that effectively solved the problem. The story is filled with humor and unexpected turns, showcasing the developer's dedication to product refinement and user experience.

(bikesafe.me)

Hardware Software Algorithms Product Iteration

Is Life a Form of Computation?

2025-09-24

Is Life a Form of Computation?

This article explores the deep connection between life and computation. Building on the early insights of Alan Turing and John von Neumann, who suggested that the logic of life and the logic of code might be one and the same, it examines von Neumann's self-replicating cellular automaton model. The article explains the nature of DNA as a program, comparing and contrasting biological and digital computation. Biological computation is massively parallel, decentralized, and noisy, while digital computation relies on centralized, sequential instruction execution. The article concludes by introducing neural cellular automata, which combine modern neural networks, Turing's morphogenesis, and von Neumann's cellular automata to simulate cellular behavior, showcasing how computation can produce lifelike behavior across scales.

(thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)

AI

The Rise of the AI Cleanup Crew: Humans Fixing AI's Mess

2025-09-24

The Rise of the AI Cleanup Crew: Humans Fixing AI's Mess

The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT has led to a surge in low-quality content, dubbed "AI slop." This includes inaccurate, unoriginal, and unrealistic content across various media. Ironically, while AI displaces human jobs, it simultaneously creates a new industry: "digital janitors" who fix AI's mistakes. This highlights AI's limitations in creative work and the irreplaceable role of humans in ensuring quality and authenticity. We need to rethink the relationship between AI and human creativity to prevent the proliferation of AI slop and build a more authentic and sustainable digital world.

(www.sify.com)

AI content quality

Vterm Project Update Log: Continuous Performance and Feature Improvements

2025-09-24

Vterm developer Tom Szilagyi has made numerous recent commits, encompassing performance optimizations, bug fixes, and new features. These updates include GPU performance improvements, fixing a signedness bug, adding new command-line options, and refining character rendering and underline display. The ongoing code improvements enhance Vterm's stability and efficiency.

(git.hq.sig7.se)

Development code updates

Rust's `fetch_max`: A Deep Dive into Compiler Optimization

2025-09-24

Rust's `fetch_max`: A Deep Dive into Compiler Optimization

During a recent engineering interview, a candidate used a single line of Rust code to solve a classic concurrency problem—tracking the maximum value across multiple producer threads. This sparked the author's curiosity: how does Rust's `fetch_max` actually work? The article delves into the compilation process from Rust code to assembly, revealing the layers of optimization involving macros, LLVM intermediate representation, compiler intrinsics, and target architecture specifics. On x86-64, `fetch_max` compiles down to a compare-and-swap (CAS) loop; on ARM, it directly utilizes the hardware's atomic max instruction. This article demonstrates the power of modern compilers and the low-level details behind high-level abstractions.

(questdb.com)

Development

Val Town Rewrites TypeScript Integration for Blazing-Fast Performance

2025-09-24

Val Town Rewrites TypeScript Integration for Blazing-Fast Performance

Val Town has completely rewritten its online editor's TypeScript integration, replacing the previous client-side Web Worker-based implementation with a cloud container-based Deno Language Server. This addresses issues with slow NPM package imports and TypeScript/Deno incompatibility in the old system, achieving 100ms deploy-on-save speeds. The new system leverages Cloudflare Containers to ensure user workload isolation and resource limits, and all code is open-sourced, providing developers with a smoother, more efficient TypeScript development experience.

(blog.val.town)

Development Online Editor

From AI Hype to Markov Chains: A Return to Basics

2025-09-24

From AI Hype to Markov Chains: A Return to Basics

The author recounts their journey through four stages of the AI hype cycle concerning large language models: initial amazement, subsequent frustration, persistent confusion, and ultimate boredom. Tired of the constant stream of new models, the author decided to return to fundamentals and explore Markov chains. The article details how to build text autocompletion using Markov chains, covering the construction of transition matrices, probability calculations, and application to text generation. This piece not only explores the principles of Markov chains but also reflects the author's reflections on the current state of AI development and their desire to explore more foundational technologies.

(elijahpotter.dev)

AI

Sublinear-Space Zero-Knowledge Proofs: A Breakthrough

2025-09-24

Sublinear-Space Zero-Knowledge Proofs: A Breakthrough

Researchers have developed SSZKP, a sublinear-space zero-knowledge proof system with a Rust implementation using KZG/BN254. It achieves O(√T) memory usage for a trace of length T, employing blocked IFFTs and streaming accumulators. SSZKP uses standard KZG commitments without buffering entire polynomials, offering a highly efficient approach for building scalable zk systems. The project includes complete prover and verifier CLI tools and end-to-end test scripts.

(github.com)

Development

The Future of Programming Languages: Is Popularity Dead?

2025-09-24

The Future of Programming Languages: Is Popularity Dead?

The 2023 programming language rankings are out, with Python again at the top. However, the rise of AI is disrupting the landscape. AI-assisted coding tools like ChatGPT and Cursor are reducing programmers' reliance on specific languages, even making the concept of language popularity itself ambiguous. Programmers are less concerned with syntactic details and more focused on program architecture and algorithm design. This makes it harder for new languages to emerge, and the popularity of languages may become as obscure as the relative popularity of railway track gauges. Future programmers will need a solid foundation in computer science, rather than mastery of a particular language.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Development

Hidden Webshell: Identical MD5 Hash PHP Files

2025-09-24

Hidden Webshell: Identical MD5 Hash PHP Files

Two PHP files share the same MD5 hash, but one is a webshell. This technique allows attackers to bypass cached webshell detection. A hexdump reveals subtle differences between the files, resulting in identical MD5 hashes despite vastly different functionality. This highlights the insufficiency of relying solely on MD5 hashing for security checks; a more comprehensive security strategy is needed.

(github.com)

Development MD5 collision security detection

Ghostty's Embeddable Terminal Emulator Library, libghostty, Launches

2025-09-24

The Ghostty project has released libghostty, an embeddable library for any application to integrate a modern, fast terminal emulator. The first release, libghostty-vt, is a zero-dependency library (not even libc!) providing an API for parsing terminal sequences and maintaining terminal state, directly extracted from Ghostty's core. A Zig API is available for testing now, with a C API coming soon. libghostty aims to solve the common shortcomings of existing terminal emulator implementations—incompleteness, bugs, and slow speed—offering developers a stable, reusable solution. Future plans include expanding functionality with input handling, GPU rendering, and more.

(mitchellh.com)

Development embeddable library

Baldur's Gate 3 Native Steam Deck Build: Save & Mod Migration Guide

2025-09-24

Baldur's Gate 3 Native Steam Deck Build: Save & Mod Migration Guide

The Baldur's Gate 3 update on Steam Deck brings a native version, improving performance. However, save game and mod locations change. Steam Cloud saves will automatically migrate; otherwise, manually copy saves to `/home/deck/.local/share/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/Public`. Mod migration depends on your Larian account and mod.io connection; manually copy mods if not connected.

(larian.com)

Game Native Build

AI Energy Consumption: Another Wolf Cry?

2025-09-23

AI Energy Consumption: Another Wolf Cry?

Recent predictions about the enormous energy consumption of generative AI have caused alarm, with some predicting AI will consume up to 25% of US electricity by 2032. However, history shows similar doomsday predictions, from personal computers to cloud computing, have consistently failed to materialize. The IT sector's electricity consumption has remained relatively low, far less than industries like cement production. While AI is growing rapidly, efficiency improvements will offset energy increases, and AI currently constitutes a small portion of corporate IT budgets. Ultimately, the fear-mongering around AI energy consumption largely stems from vested interests, concerns about economic growth, and general anxieties about technology, rather than a real threat.

(johnquigginblog.substack.com)

Tech

Three C++ Compiler Bugs: A Tale of Obscure Features

2025-09-23

Three C++ Compiler Bugs: A Tale of Obscure Features

Senior engineer Michael Gibson recounts discovering a clang++ compiler bug stemming from a combination of three rarely used C++ features. While implementing a REACHABLE assertion in their C++ SDK, they used static initialization, non-type template parameters, and anonymous namespaces. However, a new optimization pipeline in clang++ 17+ clashed with this combination, leading to symbol deduplication errors. This highlights the risk of obscure bugs arising from unusual feature interactions in complex systems and showcases the power of automated testing in uncovering such issues.

(antithesis.com)

Development

MrBeast's Feastables Under Fire for Children's Advertising Practices

2025-09-23

MrBeast's Feastables Under Fire for Children's Advertising Practices

YouTube star MrBeast and his chocolate brand, Feastables, are facing scrutiny from the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and CARU's advertising guidelines. CARU found MrBeast's YouTube channel lacked clear advertising identifiers, Feastables' ads made misleading claims, sweepstakes promotions failed to clearly disclose free entry methods and age restrictions, and verifiable parental consent wasn't obtained before collecting children's data. The Feastables website also had issues with collecting children's information without parental consent. While the MrBeast team has taken steps to rectify the issues, they disagree with some of CARU's conclusions.

(bbbprograms.org)

Tech children's advertising

Strategy in a Resource-Constrained Era: A Balanced Approach

2025-09-23

Strategy in a Resource-Constrained Era: A Balanced Approach

This article delves into the art of crafting and being perceived as strategic, especially in today's resource-constrained environment. The author argues that strategy is not merely defining the end goal but rather a series of incremental objectives, adaptable to shifting market conditions. Four key elements are highlighted: time, context, direction, and expertise. Using compelling analogies, the author demonstrates how to balance these elements, avoiding pitfalls such as focusing solely on appearances or minutiae. Ultimately, effective strategy requires integrating product, technical, team, and personal strategies for success in lean times.

(cate.blog)

Startup

Zig: The More Practical Choice for Real-World CLI Tools Than Rust

2025-09-23

Zig: The More Practical Choice for Real-World CLI Tools Than Rust

This article delves into the practical advantages of Zig over Rust for building command-line interfaces. The author illustrates the differences through a simple notes management CLI tool. While Rust's borrow checker ensures memory safety, its complexity and ceremony prove cumbersome for simple CLIs. Zig offers a more straightforward approach to memory management, combining `defer` statements and allocators for easier creation of efficient and safe code with less compiler overhead. For small CLI tools, Zig's lightweight, fast, and direct nature makes it more practical. While memory safety is important, maintainable code and developer efficiency are equally critical.

(dayvster.com)

Development

Conquering JavaScript Fatigue: MESH, a Modular SSR Framework Built on HTMX

2025-09-23

Web development is facing "JavaScript fatigue" and "framework fatigue." This post explores using HTMX, a declarative approach to web development using HTML attributes, as a solution. However, HTMX's lack of structure led the author to create MESH, a modular server-side rendering (SSR) framework. MESH uses a "one component, one endpoint" model, leveraging Go and Web Components for SSR and hydration. Challenges with HTMX's inability to cross shadow DOM boundaries were overcome with clever workarounds. Real-time collaboration with Server-Sent Events (SSE) was also implemented. Ultimately, the author even removed HTMX entirely, using cleaner JS to achieve the same functionality, and reflects on the shortcomings and future directions of HTMX.

(ajmoon.com)

Development

Apple's WebKit: A Deep Dive into Participation in Web Standards

2025-09-23

Apple's WebKit: A Deep Dive into Participation in Web Standards

This article presents a deep dive into Apple's participation in Web standards, using data and charts to illustrate Apple's lagging adoption and lack of collaboration on crucial Web APIs like Web MIDI, Web USB, and Web Bluetooth. The author argues that Apple frequently cites 'privacy and security' concerns to reject or delay these features, yet provides little evidence to support these claims. Instead, data suggests Apple primarily plays catch-up with other browsers, rather than actively participating in co-design. The piece challenges Apple's engagement in Web standards and hints that its actions may be tied to protecting its App Store's business interests.

(infrequently.org)

Development

oLLM: Running Huge-Context LLMs on Consumer GPUs

2025-09-23

oLLM: Running Huge-Context LLMs on Consumer GPUs

oLLM is a lightweight Python library enabling inference of large-context LLMs like gpt-oss-20B and qwen3-next-80B on consumer GPUs with 8GB VRAM (e.g., a $200 Nvidia 3060 Ti), handling up to 100k context. This is achieved without quantization, by offloading layer weights and KV cache to SSD and employing techniques like FlashAttention-2 and chunked MLPs. Supporting various LLMs, oLLM offers a user-friendly API for large-scale text processing tasks such as analyzing contracts, summarizing medical literature, and processing massive log files.

(github.com)

Development Low-Resource

Tesla's European Sales Dip Despite Booming EV Market

2025-09-23

Tesla's European Sales Dip Despite Booming EV Market

While Europe's electric vehicle market is booming, with a 26% year-over-year sales increase in August, Tesla is experiencing a downturn in European sales. Data reveals significant drops in sales for the Model Y (34%) and Model 3 (29%). Although Tesla remains a top 10 EV maker in Europe, its market share is being eroded by brands like Volkswagen, which saw a 45% year-over-year sales increase in August. Despite Tesla's struggles, the overall European EV market remains robust, with August sales reaching 154,582 units, representing 20% of new car sales – enough to meet the EU's emission targets for 2025-2027.

(www.notebookcheck.net)

Tech

Michigan City: A Quiet Corner of American Resilience

2025-09-23

Michigan City: A Quiet Corner of American Resilience

A week spent in Michigan City, Indiana, reveals a town quietly humming with manufacturing and a surprisingly tranquil life. While seemingly unremarkable, the town produces vital industrial goods—from die-cutting tools for packaging to drainage solutions—unseen cogs in the modern world's machinery. Interactions with residents showcase the simplicity and warmth of their lives, a stark contrast to the often-toxic online environment. This experience prompts reflection on balancing political engagement with a grounded perspective, highlighting the town's quiet strength as a cornerstone of a healthy society.

(walkingtheworld.substack.com)

Misc American town

arXivLabs: Community Collaboration on New arXiv Features

2025-09-23

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.

(arxiv.org)

Development

Infected qBittorrent Docker Image Secretly Mines Crypto

2025-09-23

While migrating servers, the author discovered a suspicious process, netservlet, consuming excessive CPU resources within a hotio/qbittorrent Docker container. Investigation revealed netservlet to be a stealth cryptocurrency miner, likely XMRig or a variant. Analysis of a core dump revealed strings related to cryptocurrency mining (e.g., cryptonight, ethash_calculate_dag_item) and a mining pool address (auto.c3pool.org:19999). This highlights the importance of not trusting random Docker images, regularly monitoring system resources, and auditing hosts and containers to prevent security breaches.

(apogliaghi.com)

Development cryptocurrency mining

Indoor Surfaces Act as Massive Chemical Sponges, Retaining Harmful VOCs for a Year

2025-09-23

Indoor Surfaces Act as Massive Chemical Sponges, Retaining Harmful VOCs for a Year

Researchers at UC Irvine have discovered that indoor surfaces, such as wood, cement, and paint, act as surprisingly effective reservoirs for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), retaining them for up to a year. These VOCs, originating from sources like insecticides, cigarette smoke, and wildfire smoke, pose significant health risks. The study reveals these surfaces absorb far greater amounts of VOCs than previously thought, acting like massive sponges. Even after the source is removed, VOCs slowly off-gas back into the air or transfer to humans through contact. Simple ventilation is insufficient; regular cleaning is crucial to remove these persistent contaminants.

(news.uci.edu)

Tech volatile organic compounds

StringZilla v4: CUDA-Accelerated SIMD String Processing Library Released

2025-09-23

StringZilla v4: CUDA-Accelerated SIMD String Processing Library Released

StringZilla v4 is here! This SIMD-first string processing library now supports CUDA, meaning it's blazing fast not only on CPUs but also on GPUs! Version 4 boasts numerous new features, including GPU-accelerated dynamic programming algorithms, several hash functions (including a novel AES-based one), and biosequence fingerprinting using 52-bit integers. Benchmarks show StringZilla v4 achieving over 500 GCUPS in Levenshtein distance calculations, outperforming other libraries by tens or even hundreds of times. The library is Apache 2.0 licensed and free for commercial use.

(ashvardanian.com)

Development

YAML: The Configuration File from Hell?

2025-09-23

This article is a rant against the complexity of YAML configuration files, arguing that its purported 'human-friendliness' hides numerous pitfalls. The author uses several examples to illustrate inconsistencies between YAML versions, unpredictable parsing results, and potential security risks, such as issues with sexagesimal numbers, tags, and boolean parsing. The author recommends simpler alternatives like TOML or generating JSON to avoid YAML's problems, suggesting more powerful options like Nix and Python for complex configurations.

(ruudvanasseldonk.com)

Development

Multilayer Metalens for Multicolor Focusing: A Breakthrough in Miniaturized Optics

2025-09-23

Multilayer Metalens for Multicolor Focusing: A Breakthrough in Miniaturized Optics

Researchers from the Australian National University and Friedrich Schiller University Jena have developed a novel multilayer metalens using metamaterials that can simultaneously focus a range of wavelengths from an unpolarized source, overcoming a key limitation of conventional metalenses. This design boasts a low aspect ratio, making it easy to manufacture and polarization-insensitive. Its potential applications include miniaturized, low-cost, high-performance optical systems for portable devices like phones and drones. Using an inverse design algorithm and shape optimization, the team created metamaterial elements in a surprising array of shapes, enabling arbitrary focusing patterns. While limited to approximately five wavelengths currently, this technology holds immense promise for future portable imaging systems.

(www.sciencedaily.com)

Tech metalens

Compiling a Tiny Functional Language to LLVM: A Simple Calculator Example

2025-09-23

This article details the process of compiling a small functional language to LLVM. Starting with a basic calculator language, the author progressively builds a lexer, parser, and LLVM code generator. The article thoroughly explains each step, including parsing with the megaparsec library, generating LLVM IR code using llvm-hs-pure and llvm-hs-pretty, and finally compiling and running the result. Through this example, readers can learn how to translate functional language features (such as pattern matching) into LLVM IR and how to use LLVM for code generation and compilation.

(danieljharvey.github.io)

Development Functional Language

Kevo Smart Lock App Sunset: Time to Upgrade

2025-09-23

ASSA ABLOY announced the discontinuation of the Kevo smart lock app and web portal on November 14, 2025. This means remote functionality for all Kevo locks (Kwikset, Weiser, and Baldwin brands) will cease. Users can still use physical keys or key fobs. To ease the transition, ASSA ABLOY is offering significant discounts on replacement smart locks. US users can get up to $130 off select locks through Level's website, while Canadian users can call Weiser customer service. This offer expires December 14, 2025.

(www.kwikset.com)

Hardware smart lock app sunset

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