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Are LLMs Making Me Dumber?

2025-05-14

The author details how they use LLMs like Claude-Code, o3, and Gemini to boost productivity, automating tasks such as code generation, math homework, and email writing. While acknowledging the significant productivity gains, they express concerns about the potential for LLM dependence to weaken their ability to learn and solve problems independently, leading to superficial understanding. The article explores the impact of LLMs on learning and work, reflecting on the balance between efficiency and deep learning. It concludes with a call to preserve the abilities of independent thought, decision-making, and long-term planning.

(vvvincent.me)

AI

Microsoft Launches Linux Distro Service on Azure: A Full Embrace of Open Source

2025-05-14

Microsoft Launches Linux Distro Service on Azure: A Full Embrace of Open Source

Microsoft announced a new Linux distribution service for its Azure cloud, marking a full embrace of Linux. Built on Azure Image Testing for Linux (AITL), leveraging the open-source LISA project, the service provides a comprehensive testing framework for Linux images, covering everything from kernel updates to complex cloud-native workloads. This streamlines Linux distro deployment and testing on Azure and highlights Microsoft's growing emphasis on Linux in its cloud strategy, a stark contrast to its previous negative stance.

(www.zdnet.com)

Tech

Apple's China Market Collapse: Nearly 50% Year-over-Year Drop

2025-05-14

Apple's China Market Collapse: Nearly 50% Year-over-Year Drop

Apple's iPhone shipments in China plummeted nearly 50% year-over-year in March 2025, reaching a mere 1.89 million units. Domestic brands now control 92% of the market, leaving Apple with around 8% and fifth place. Huawei's resurgence, fueled by its own chips and HarmonyOS Next, has led the charge. A Chinese government subsidy program, offering a 15% refund on electronics under 6,000 yuan ($820), also hurts Apple, as the iPhone 16 starts just above that threshold. To combat the decline, Apple is reportedly cutting prices on some iPhone 16 Pro models ahead of the "618" shopping festival. Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the revenue drop from Greater China, while analysts point to Apple's slower adoption of generative AI as another factor.

(www.macrumors.com)

Tech

Migrating from CockroachDB to PostgreSQL: $110k in Yearly Savings

2025-05-14

Migrating from CockroachDB to PostgreSQL: $110k in Yearly Savings

A company struggled with high latency issues in CockroachDB, with complex SQL queries leading to performance degradation and difficult query cancellation. They ultimately migrated to PostgreSQL. The migration process spanned several weeks, involving building a custom ETL tool and data transformation, but ultimately completed the production database migration in 15 minutes, resulting in a 33% reduction in request latency and over $110,000 in annual savings.

(engineering.usemotion.com)

Development

Hegel 2.0: The Unrealized Revolution of Ternary Computing

2025-05-14

Hegel 2.0: The Unrealized Revolution of Ternary Computing

This article explores the Cold War clash between the US and Soviet Union in computer science and philosophy. Warren McCulloch's refusal of a Soviet invitation sets the stage for a narrative about the ternary computer SETUN and its connection to McCulloch's neural network theory and Gotthard Günther's 'transclassical logic'. Günther sought to synthesize Hegel's dialectic with cybernetics, arguing that ternary logic could solve contradictions inherent in binary logic and provide a foundation for a digital metaphysics. Though SETUN ultimately failed, it spurred exploration of non-binary computing and prompted reconsideration of binary oppositions in digital culture.

(www.cabinetmagazine.org)

Tech Ternary Computing

Celtic Coins: Crude or Sophisticated?

2025-05-14

Celtic Coins: Crude or Sophisticated?

Celtic coins are often dismissed as crude, a misconception this article challenges. By tracing the evolution of Celtic coin designs, it reveals a unique abstract art style. Initially mimicking Greek coins, the Celts developed a distinctive approach: breaking down images, abstracting them, and reassembling them in a way that reflected their aesthetic and spiritual beliefs. This wasn't crudeness, but a sophisticated artistic expression, the appreciation of which hinges on understanding the underlying symbolism and the serial nature of the imagery's evolution.

(collectingancientcoins.co.uk)

Design Celtic art coins abstract art

NordVPN Finally Brings a GUI to Linux

2025-05-14

NordVPN Finally Brings a GUI to Linux

For years, NordVPN's Linux client was command-line only, leaving much to be desired in terms of user experience. Competitors like Surfshark and ExpressVPN had already released graphical user interfaces. Now, NordVPN has finally caught up, releasing its own Linux GUI. This allows users to connect, configure settings, and customize themes with clicks instead of commands, significantly improving ease of use. The new interface is built on the existing command-line foundation, preserving security and reliability while adding the much-requested GUI. Most features are readily accessible through the GUI, with only a few advanced tools remaining command-line only. This update addresses NordVPN's previous shortcomings in Linux user experience, aligning it with other platforms.

(betanews.com)

Development

C++ Metaprogramming Tricks: Optimizing Variant Access Performance

2025-05-14

This article explores optimizing `std::variant` access performance in C++ using metaprogramming techniques, aiming for efficiency comparable to hand-written `switch` statements. Several approaches are compared, including jump tables, dispatch tables, macros, recursive `switch`, and short-circuiting folds, analyzing their pros, cons, and compiler optimization strategies. Ultimately, a solution combining short-circuiting folds and the anticipated C++26 expansion statements is presented, achieving efficient generic access and avoiding performance bottlenecks.

(pydong.org)

Development

Stack AI Seeking 10x Engineers: Building an AI-Powered App Platform

2025-05-14

Stack AI Seeking 10x Engineers: Building an AI-Powered App Platform

Stack AI, an AI company founded by two MIT PhDs and backed by Y Combinator and Google, is hiring 10x engineers. They've built a no-code platform integrating AI models like OpenAI and Anthropic with various data sources, aiming to democratize AI application building. With over 85,000 users and 300+ paying customers, they need skilled Python, database, AWS, and containerization experts to build scalable backend systems and integrate AI models. Ideal candidates possess strong problem-solving skills, teamwork abilities, and a passion for AI.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development AI Hiring No-Code Platform

The Physics of Coffee Rings: An Untypical Physicist's Journey

2025-05-14

The Physics of Coffee Rings: An Untypical Physicist's Journey

Professor Sidney Nagel of the University of Chicago has revolutionized the field of physics by studying everyday phenomena like coffee stains, raindrops, and sand flow. He turned his attention to 'soft matter' largely overlooked by most physicists, developing theories of 'jamming' to explain the flow (or lack thereof) of sand and traffic. Nagel's work is not only scientifically significant but also aesthetically pleasing; images from his experiments have graced museum walls. His research has earned him prestigious awards like the Oliver E. Buckley Prize and the American Physical Society's Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, highlighting its impact and unique perspective.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech soft matter physics jamming

SteamOS Expands Beyond the Steam Deck: A New Compatibility Label Arrives

2025-05-14

SteamOS Expands Beyond the Steam Deck: A New Compatibility Label Arrives

Valve is expanding its Linux-based SteamOS beyond the Steam Deck to other handheld PCs like the Asus ROG Ally. To prepare, Steam is introducing a "SteamOS Compatible" label indicating whether a game and its middleware are supported on SteamOS, including game functionality, launcher functionality, and anti-cheat support. Over 18,000 titles will initially be labeled compatible. While Proton technology has greatly improved compatibility, not every Windows game will run flawlessly. This signifies a major step towards broader SteamOS adoption.

(arstechnica.com)

Game

The Verbosity Problem: Why LLMs Generate Bloated Code

2025-05-14

The Verbosity Problem: Why LLMs Generate Bloated Code

This article explores the issue of large language models (LLMs) generating overly verbose and inefficient code. The author argues that the token-based pricing model of many AI coding assistants incentivizes the generation of lengthy code, even if it's less efficient. This is because more tokens processed mean more revenue. The author outlines strategies to mitigate this, including forcing planning before coding, implementing strict permission protocols, using Git for experimentation and ruthless pruning, and utilizing cheaper models. The ultimate solution, the author proposes, is for AI companies to shift their economic incentives to prioritize code quality over token count.

(fredbenenson.medium.com)

Development Economic Incentives

David Hilbert's Radio Address: A Manifesto on Mathematical Problems

2025-05-14

In 1930, renowned mathematician David Hilbert delivered a powerful speech in Königsberg, asserting that every mathematical problem is solvable, challenging a prevalent and controversial opposing view. This article explores the context of Hilbert's radio address, including his earlier work and the prevailing philosophical and mathematical cultural trends. The speech's audio recording, along with the German original and an English translation, will be provided for readers to delve into the thoughts of this mathematical giant and his lasting impact on mathematical research.

(old.maa.org)

Misc Mathematics History Hilbert

Muscle-Mem: Giving AI Agents Muscle Memory

2025-05-14

Muscle-Mem: Giving AI Agents Muscle Memory

muscle-mem is a Python SDK that acts as a behavior cache for AI agents. It records an agent's tool-calling patterns as it solves tasks and deterministically replays those learned trajectories when encountering the same task again, falling back to agent mode if edge cases are detected. The goal is to get LLMs out of the hotpath for repetitive tasks, increasing speed, reducing variability, and eliminating token costs for tasks that could be handled by a simple script. Cache validation is crucial, implemented via custom 'Checks' ensuring safe tool reuse.

(github.com)

AI Behavior Cache

Wood Stronger Than Steel? This Startup Makes It a Reality

2025-05-14

Wood Stronger Than Steel? This Startup Makes It a Reality

A groundbreaking technology from the University of Maryland transforms ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. InventWood, the licensee, has secured $15 million in Series A funding to build its first commercial plant. Initially focusing on building facades, the company aims to eventually replace concrete and steel in construction, significantly reducing the industry's carbon footprint. The process modifies the wood's molecular structure and compresses it, resulting in a material over 10 times stronger, with added fire resistance and rot protection.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech Superwood biomaterial sustainable construction

Automating Physics Textbook Illustrations with MetaPost

2025-05-14

Automating Physics Textbook Illustrations with MetaPost

Faced with the daunting task of creating hundreds of diagrams for a physics textbook, the author sought a more efficient solution than traditional vector graphics editors. MetaPost emerged as the answer, allowing illustrations to be defined as functions of variables, simplifying adjustments and element reuse. The article details the author's process of creating various shapes (curves, spheres, tubes, etc.) and textures using MetaPost, providing code examples. Despite the textbook's cancellation, the improved code library has been open-sourced, offering a versatile tool for generating physics-related diagrams.

(habr.com)

Development automated drawing

TwoFold: Make Plain Text Files Dynamic

2025-05-14

TwoFold: Make Plain Text Files Dynamic

TwoFold is a small command-line application that allows plain text files to behave like dynamic files. It's a hybrid between a text expander and a template engine, inspired by Emacs Org-mode, Python Jupyter Notebooks, and React JS. TwoFold processes text files, identifying LISP/XML-like tags and transforming them into useful outputs. It's compatible with XML and HTML, but tag markers are customizable. It can watch files for changes, enabling real-time collaboration for tasks like data validation, statistical calculations, or spell checking. TwoFold supports various file types (.txt, Markdown, Emacs Org, reStructured Text, HTML, XML, source code), but not binary files. It runs using Bun and allows users to easily write and load custom tags.

(github.com)

Development template engine

Passkeys: The Cryptographic Revolution in Authentication

2025-05-14

Passkeys: The Cryptographic Revolution in Authentication

This article delves into the cryptography behind passkeys, explaining how they use key pairs to create digital signatures without transmitting sensitive information to servers, thus preventing phishing and password reuse. The WebAuthn specification enhances security through origin binding, ensuring passkeys are only used on the correct website. Different authenticator types are explored, along with how WebAuthn extensions can generate and store cryptographic keys. Potential threats like browser attacks and compromised authenticators are discussed, along with mitigation strategies. While not a perfect solution, passkeys offer significantly improved security and represent a compelling future for authentication.

(blog.trailofbits.com)

Tech

EM-LLM: Human-Inspired Episodic Memory for Infinite Context LLMs

2025-05-14

EM-LLM: Human-Inspired Episodic Memory for Infinite Context LLMs

EM-LLM is a novel architecture that significantly enhances the ability of large language models (LLMs) to handle extremely long contexts by mimicking human episodic memory and event cognition. Without fine-tuning, EM-LLM organizes input token sequences into coherent episodic events and accesses relevant information through an efficient two-stage memory retrieval mechanism. In LongBench and ∞-Bench benchmarks, EM-LLM outperforms state-of-the-art retrieval models like InfLLM and RAG, even surpassing full-context models in most tasks. It successfully performs retrieval across 10 million tokens, computationally infeasible for full-context models. The strong correlation between EM-LLM's event segmentation and human-perceived events offers a novel computational framework for exploring human memory mechanisms.

(github.com)

AI Episodic Memory Infinite Context

Sony Considers US PS5 Production & Price Hikes Due to Tariffs

2025-05-14

Sony Considers US PS5 Production & Price Hikes Due to Tariffs

Sony forecasts a ¥100 billion ($680 million) loss next year due to tariffs. To offset this, they're exploring options including shifting PS5 manufacturing to the US and raising prices. While the PS5 saw price increases in some regions this year, the tariff impact could lead to global price hikes. Sony's CEO indicated that US-based PS5 production is a feasible and efficient strategy. Despite a slight dip in PS5 sales, Sony is assessing its best response to tariffs, impacting future pricing decisions.

(www.theverge.com)

Game

Tackling NYC's Housing Crisis: A Mobility-First Approach

2025-05-14

Tackling NYC's Housing Crisis: A Mobility-First Approach

New York City's housing crisis demands immediate action, but building new housing takes years. This article proposes a faster solution: improve mobility. By optimizing bus lanes, adjusting parking pricing, building protected bike lanes, and upgrading subway information systems, the city can indirectly increase the supply of affordable housing and unlock opportunities for residents. The author cites successful examples from London and San Francisco to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of these strategies, highlighting their rapid implementation and high leverage.

(abstraction.substack.com)

Misc mobility housing

Palantir CEO Slams Europe's Slow AI Adoption

2025-05-14

Palantir CEO Slams Europe's Slow AI Adoption

At a Riyadh investment forum, Palantir CEO Alex Karp praised Saudi engineers for their meritocracy and patriotism, while criticizing Europe's slow AI adoption. He highlighted the US and the Middle East as leaders in AI implementation, contrasting this with Europe's lagging progress and what he perceived as a sense of resignation among its players. This is attributed to Europe's stringent AI regulations and its low market share in crucial AI infrastructure areas like raw materials, cloud infrastructure, and supercomputers. While Europe leads in AI semiconductor equipment manufacturing, its market share in these other areas is below 5%.

(www.businessinsider.com)

Tech

GNOME 48 Accessibility Improvements: AccessKit, Orca Shortcuts, and More

2025-05-14

GNOME 48 boasts significant accessibility advancements. GTK 4.18 integrates the AccessKit backend, enabling accessible GTK applications on Windows and macOS for the first time. Wayland support for Orca screen reader keyboard shortcuts is complete, closing a major accessibility gap. Furthermore, WebKitGTK accessibility has been improved, making GNOME Web a fully accessible, sandboxed browser. The new accessibility tool, Elevado, is also released, offering developers a new way to explore and inspect application accessibility features. Numerous smaller improvements enhance accessibility in GTK and related libraries, including enhancements to the file chooser, list boxes, button size detection, and text attribute reporting.

(blog.gtk.org)

Development

Lively Web Core Module Loading Log

2025-05-14

This log shows the loading process of Lively Web core modules, displaying the loading times of various JavaScript modules. Loading times range from 78ms to 555ms, covering various aspects such as IDE tools, network tools, and UI components. This reflects Lively Web's modular architecture and runtime environment.

(smalltalkzoo.thechm.org)

Development module loading

Beyond the Wrist: Debugging RSI

2025-05-14

A computer science grad student's debilitating wrist pain threatened to derail their studies. Initial diagnoses of tendonitis and repetitive strain injury led to physiotherapy, but the pain worsened. The author discovered that the pain wasn't from physical damage, but a miscalibrated prediction system in the brain, incorrectly predicting future damage. By studying the neuroscience of pain and combining focused exercises with Pain Reprocessing Therapy, they recalibrated their pain system and recovered.

(www.debugyourpain.org)

Misc pain reprocessing therapy

Nextcloud Android App Blocked: Google Revokes File Upload Access

2025-05-14

Nextcloud Android App Blocked: Google Revokes File Upload Access

Nextcloud, a self-hosted cloud platform, has been unable to upload non-media files on its Android app since mid-2024. Google refused to reinstate the necessary access permissions, citing privacy concerns, significantly impacting user experience. Nextcloud's team states they've attempted communication with Google, but to no avail. This issue hinders file syncing and uploading, making it difficult for Nextcloud to fully replace Google Workspace.

(arstechnica.com)

Development

Microsoft SAM TTS: The Iconic Windows XP Voice Returns

2025-05-14

Remember the iconic robotic voice from Windows XP? Microsoft SAM Text-to-Speech is back, now as a JavaScript implementation for your browser! This modern version faithfully recreates the classic Windows XP voice, running entirely client-side for privacy and offline use. Customize pitch, speed, and other parameters to create variations, from tiny elves to giant robots. Relive the nostalgia of early 2000s computing!

(samtts.com)

Development

Exploiting a Type Confusion Vulnerability in macOS's coreaudiod Daemon

2025-05-14

Exploiting a Type Confusion Vulnerability in macOS's coreaudiod Daemon

This blog post details the author's journey in discovering and exploiting a high-risk type confusion vulnerability in macOS's coreaudiod system daemon. Using a custom fuzzing harness, dynamic instrumentation, and static analysis, the author, a security engineer at Google Project Zero, uncovered a sandbox escape vulnerability. The research employed a knowledge-driven fuzzing approach, combining automated fuzzing with targeted manual reverse engineering. The vulnerability, CVE-2024-54529, has since been patched by Apple.

(googleprojectzero.blogspot.com)

Development macOS security type confusion

Shanghai's On-Demand Bus System: A Commuter-Driven Revolution

2025-05-14

Shanghai's On-Demand Bus System: A Commuter-Driven Revolution

Shanghai is revolutionizing public transit with its new "DZ" (customized) bus system. Residents propose routes via an online platform; if enough people sign up (typically 15-20 passengers), the route launches. Over 220 DZ routes already operate across the city, offering a flexible, demand-responsive solution. While praised for efficiency and convenience, the system faces challenges such as uneven passenger demand and low public awareness. Future improvements focus on route planning, platform upgrades, and increased visibility.

(www.sixthtone.com)

Tech on-demand transit smart city

Mycelium: A Novel Data Storage and Transfer Format

2025-05-14

Mycelium: A Novel Data Storage and Transfer Format

Mycelium is a typed format for storing and transferring data, supporting refs, expressions, functions, and types. Its virtual machine, MVM, is designed for efficiency with immutable values and inter-process communication via ports. MycZip encodes Mycelium values into single files, while the Mycelium Network Protocol (MNP), built on QUIC, facilitates peer-to-peer data transfer and caching for optimization. The Spore language provides a user-friendly interface for the MVM.

(github.com)

Development

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