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Microsoft Makes Significant Windows Changes to Comply with the Digital Markets Act

2025-06-03

Microsoft Makes Significant Windows Changes to Comply with the Digital Markets Act

To comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, Microsoft announced several new features for Windows users in the EEA. Users can now uninstall the Microsoft Store and avoid being forced to set Edge as their default browser. Setting a different default browser will pin it to the taskbar and extend its association to more file types. Microsoft assures users that apps installed from the Store will continue receiving updates even after uninstallation. Further improvements include enabling third-party apps to add their search results to Windows Search upon installation, and allowing users to customize the order of search providers. These updates will roll out in early June and July.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

SpaceX Engineer's Hacking Past Exposed

2025-04-04

SpaceX Engineer's Hacking Past Exposed

Christopher Stanley, a former SpaceX and X engineer currently serving as a senior advisor at the Department of Justice (DOJ), has reportedly been caught boasting about hacking and distributing pirated ebooks, bootleg software, and game cheats. These boasts appeared on archived websites, several of which were quickly deleted after being flagged. Stanley was assigned to the DOJ by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). While Musk claims DOGE operates transparently, little is known about its staffers or their roles. Stanley's DOJ duties remain unclear, but the Deputy Attorney General's office investigates various crimes, including hacking and malicious cyber activity. The DOJ confirmed Stanley, a 'special government employee,' doesn't receive a government salary. Stanley's questionable past reportedly dates back to 2006, when he was in high school. Reuters connected him to various online forums and sites using pseudonyms, including Reneg4d3, still used on YouTube, verifying the connection through registration data, old email addresses, and biographical information.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

Microsoft 365 Gets Lightweight Taskbar Apps for Windows 11

2025-08-13

Microsoft 365 Gets Lightweight Taskbar Apps for Windows 11

Microsoft is rolling out lightweight taskbar apps for Microsoft 365 users on Windows 11. These apps, dubbed 'Microsoft 365 companion apps', automatically launch at startup, offering quick access to contacts, file search, and calendar directly from the taskbar. The People app provides an organizational chart and allows for quick Teams messages/calls or emails. File Search quickly accesses files across OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook, with preview and filtering options. The Calendar app offers a quick view of upcoming events and meetings. Generally available this month, IT admins can prevent automatic installation, and users can disable auto-launch.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Taskbar Apps

CodeScientist: An AI-Powered Tool for Automated Scientific Discovery – Costs and Risks

2025-04-09

CodeScientist: An AI-Powered Tool for Automated Scientific Discovery – Costs and Risks

CodeScientist is an autonomous agent leveraging LLMs for automated scientific discovery. It generates, debugs, and runs experiments, but costs vary depending on debugging iterations, prompt size, etc., averaging around $4 per experiment. Users must carefully manage API keys and monitor usage to avoid high costs. The generated code might contain API keys; exclusion patterns are recommended to prevent accidental commits.

(github.com)

Development Cost Management

Local Social Spending Mitigates the Impact of Economic Hardship on Political Dissatisfaction

2025-02-27

This study investigates the impact of economic hardship on political dissatisfaction in the Netherlands and whether local social spending can mitigate this effect. Using data from the Netherlands Longitudinal Life Course Study, the research finds that economic hardship does increase political dissatisfaction, but higher levels of local social spending significantly reduce this effect, particularly for those experiencing long-term hardship. This may be attributed to feelings of gratitude for received benefits or positive evaluations of government responsiveness. The study also highlights that persistent economic hardship and an accumulation of economic problems exacerbate political dissatisfaction.

(www.frontiersin.org)

Misc political dissatisfaction economic hardship social spending

Hugging Face Scientist Doubts AI's Ability to Drive Scientific Discovery

2025-06-25

Hugging Face Scientist Doubts AI's Ability to Drive Scientific Discovery

Thomas Wolf, chief scientist at Hugging Face, casts doubt on the ability of current AI systems to make the groundbreaking scientific discoveries some leading labs anticipate. While large language models (LLMs) excel at answering questions, Wolf argues they struggle with the more challenging task of formulating truly original questions—the crux of scientific progress. He uses the game of Go as an analogy: mastering the rules is impressive, but inventing the game itself is a far greater feat. Similarly, he believes current AI models, acting as 'yes-men on servers,' lack the capacity to challenge existing assumptions and pose truly novel scientific questions.

(fortune.com)

AI Scientific Discovery

Running Fennel from Emacs: A Powerful Extension

2025-07-23

Running Fennel from Emacs: A Powerful Extension

This article introduces `require-fennel.el`, an Emacs extension that enables running Fennel (a Lua dialect) within Emacs. It achieves this by communicating with a Fennel REPL, allowing data conversion and function calls between Emacs Lisp and Fennel. The author demonstrates loading Fennel modules, calling Fennel functions, and using Fennel data structures in Emacs Lisp. Furthermore, the extension supports calling Emacs Lisp functions from Fennel, enabling two-way interaction. This allows developers to leverage Fennel's conciseness and Emacs's power for a more robust Emacs environment.

(andreyor.st)

Development

Mailspring: A Faster, Leaner, Open-Source Email Client

2025-02-03

Mailspring: A Faster, Leaner, Open-Source Email Client

Mailspring, a new iteration of Nylas Mail maintained by one of the original authors, is faster, leaner, and available now! It replaces Nylas Mail's JavaScript sync code with a new C++ sync engine based on Mailcore2, using roughly half the RAM and CPU. Its near-zero CPU idle wake-ups translate to significant battery life improvements. It also boasts a revamped composer and other new features. The UI is open source (GPLv3), built with TypeScript, Electron, and React, and features a plugin architecture for easy extension. The sync engine, also open source (GPLv3) and written in C++ and C, runs locally. Powerful features include a unified inbox, snooze, send later, mail rules, templates, and more. Mailspring Pro, a paid subscription, adds features like link tracking and read receipts.

(github.com)

Development open-source email client

Why AI Pair Programmers Are Currently a Bad Idea

2025-06-10

Why AI Pair Programmers Are Currently a Bad Idea

The author shares their experience using AI pair programming, finding that the AI's speed surpasses human comprehension, leading to inefficiencies. The solution proposed is to break down tasks into smaller, independent components, utilize asynchronous workflows, and reduce the AI's autonomy. This includes using turn-based editing modes, increasing communication and confirmation steps, and aiming for a better balance between speed and quality. The ultimate goal is to make the AI assistant more like a human collaborator rather than a high-speed code generator.

(justin.searls.co)

Development

Libredesk: Open-Source, Self-Hosted Customer Support Desk with AI

2025-02-27

Libredesk: Open-Source, Self-Hosted Customer Support Desk with AI

Libredesk is an open-source, self-hosted customer support desk offered as a single binary application. Key features include multi-inbox support, granular permissions, smart automation (auto-tag, assign, and route conversations), CSAT surveys, macros, smart organization (tags, custom statuses, and snoozing), auto-assignment, SLA management, and business intelligence integrations. It also boasts AI-assisted response rewriting and a command bar for quick actions. Built with Go (backend) and Vue.js 3 with Shadcn UI (frontend), Libredesk is currently in alpha. Easy installation is provided, with Docker support.

(github.com)

Development customer support

Turning Google Sheets into Handy Web Apps: A Programmer's Tale

2024-12-31

Turning Google Sheets into Handy Web Apps: A Programmer's Tale

An Ars Technica reporter shares his journey of transforming simple Google Sheets into phone-friendly web apps using Glide. Initially created to streamline takeout ordering, the app manages local restaurant information with efficient search and filtering. He expanded his approach to create apps for recipes and pantry items, improving daily life. The article showcases the power of no-code tools and how simple solutions can solve real-world problems, highlighting ingenuity and a quest for better living.

(arstechnica.com)

Development

Microsoft Bets Big on India's AI Future: A $3 Billion Investment

2025-01-07

Microsoft Bets Big on India's AI Future: A $3 Billion Investment

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a $3 billion investment in India to expand its AI and Azure cloud services, leveraging India's massive population to fuel revenue growth. The plan includes training 10 million Indians in AI skills. This investment will build a scalable AI computing ecosystem for Indian startups and researchers, highlighting the intense competition among tech giants for the Indian market and its potential as a leading developer hub.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

Go's io.Reader Efficiency: A Battle with Indirection and Type Assertions

2025-05-19

Many Go functions take an io.Reader, enabling streaming and avoiding loading everything into memory. However, when you already have the bytes, using them directly is more efficient. This article describes the author's experience decoding images with libavif and libheif. For simplicity, the simple memory interfaces were used, but the Go image.Decode function checks for a Peek function on the io.Reader, wrapping with bufio.Reader if not found, preventing direct use of bytes.Reader. The author cleverly uses type assertions and unsafe.Pointer to bypass bufio.Reader and bytes.Reader, achieving zero-copy. However, the article highlights issues in Go's type checking and interface design, including the resulting 'shadow APIs'.

(flak.tedunangst.com)

Development

Controlling AI Personalities: Identifying 'Persona Vectors' to Prevent 'Evil' AI

2025-08-03

Controlling AI Personalities: Identifying 'Persona Vectors' to Prevent 'Evil' AI

Anthropic researchers have discovered that shifts in AI model personalities aren't random; they're controlled by specific "persona vectors" within the model's neural network. These vectors are analogous to brain regions controlling mood and attitude. By identifying and manipulating these vectors, researchers can monitor, mitigate, and even prevent undesirable personalities like "evil," "sycophancy," or "hallucination." This technology improves AI model training, identifies problematic training data, and ensures alignment with human values.

(www.anthropic.com)

AI persona vectors

AI-Driven 3-Day Workweeks? CEOs Weigh In

2025-09-16

AI-Driven 3-Day Workweeks? CEOs Weigh In

Tech CEOs like Zoom's Eric Yuan, Microsoft's Bill Gates, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang foresee a future of significantly shorter workweeks, potentially as short as three or four days, driven by AI automation. While acknowledging job displacement in certain sectors, they emphasize AI's potential to boost productivity and create new roles managing AI systems and digital agents. This shift, comparable to the industrial revolution and the internet's rise, is expected to reshape the job market but ultimately improve overall well-being and efficiency.

(fortune.com)

Tech

Blazing Fast Pokémon Battle Engine in Zig

2025-06-01

Blazing Fast Pokémon Battle Engine in Zig

pkmn is a blazing fast Pokémon battle simulation engine written in Zig, over 1000× faster than patched Pokémon Showdown. It aims for frame-accurate, bug-for-bug compatibility with both the original game code and the Pokémon Showdown simulator. While not a full-featured simulator, it's a low-level library for building more advanced applications. Currently supporting Generations I and II, with plans for future generations.

(github.com)

Game

Colossal's 'Dire Wolves': Gene Editing Sparks Controversy

2025-04-08

Colossal's 'Dire Wolves': Gene Editing Sparks Controversy

Colossal Biosciences claims to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, using gene editing to create grey wolf pups—Remus, Romulus, and Khaleesi—with some dire wolf traits. However, studies show grey wolves and dire wolves diverged 6 million years ago, with significant genetic differences. Colossal's claim of achieving this with only 20 gene edits is controversial. The three gene-edited pups are under observation in a reserve, and breeding is prohibited. This raises questions about species definition and the ethical challenges of gene editing.

(www.newscientist.com)

Tech dire wolf

China Investigates Apple's App Store: Tech Giant Faces New Scrutiny

2025-02-05

China Investigates Apple's App Store: Tech Giant Faces New Scrutiny

China's market regulator is investigating Apple's App Store policies and fees, potentially adding fuel to the US-China trade war. The probe focuses on Apple's up to 30% commission on in-app purchases and its restriction of external payment services and app stores. This stems from long-standing disputes between Apple and developers like Tencent and ByteDance over iOS App Store policies. While not yet a formal investigation, further action could be taken if Apple fails to address concerns. Apple faces intense competition from domestic rivals like Huawei in China, adding pressure amid this regulatory scrutiny.

(www.cnbctv18.com)

Tech US-China Trade War

MINI Goes Vegan: A Surprisingly Luxurious Leather Alternative

2025-02-19

MINI Goes Vegan: A Surprisingly Luxurious Leather Alternative

MINI's new all-electric J01 Cooper ditches leather entirely, opting for a sustainable, recycled vegan alternative called Vescin. A hands-on review reveals Vescin's surprisingly plush feel, surpassing the quality of MINI's mid-range leather and even rivaling its premium offering. Easier to clean and more environmentally friendly, Vescin offers a compelling alternative, proving that luxury and sustainability aren't mutually exclusive. While the signature leather smell is absent, the superior comfort, durability, and eco-conscious production make it a compelling upgrade.

(www.motoringfile.com)

Tech vegan leather sustainable materials electric vehicle interior

Business Insider's AI-Powered Reading List Goes Wrong

2025-06-02

Business Insider's AI-Powered Reading List Goes Wrong

Business Insider, while encouraging AI use, apologized last year for accidentally recommending non-existent books generated by AI. A reading list intended to help staff understand good business journalism included several fabricated titles, such as a nonexistent Target CEO's memoir, a Jensen Huang biography, and a Mark Zuckerberg autobiography. This incident highlights the potential risks and need for rigorous vetting of AI tools in content creation, serving as a cautionary tale for news organizations using AI.

(www.semafor.com)

Tech Business Insider

The End of Moore's Law and the Growing Heat Problem in Chips

2025-04-16

The End of Moore's Law and the Growing Heat Problem in Chips

The slowdown of Moore's Law has led to increasing power density in chips, making heat dissipation a critical bottleneck affecting performance and lifespan. Traditional cooling methods are insufficient for future high-performance chips, such as the upcoming CFET transistors. Researchers have developed a new simulation framework to predict how new semiconductor technologies affect heat dissipation and explored advanced cooling techniques, including microfluidic cooling, jet impingement cooling, and immersion cooling. System-level solutions, such as dynamically adjusting voltage and frequency, and thermal sprinting, also aim to balance performance and heat. Future backside functionalization technologies (CMOS 2.0) like backside power delivery networks, backside capacitors, and backside integrated voltage regulators, promise to reduce heat by lowering voltage but may introduce new thermal challenges. Ultimately, solving the chip heat problem requires a multidisciplinary effort, with system technology co-optimization (STCO) aiming to integrate systems, physical design, and process technology for optimal performance and cooling.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Hardware chip cooling semiconductor technology

Lambduck: A Minimalist Functional Programming Language

2025-06-06

Lambduck is a minimalist functional programming language with a syntax consisting of only a few special forms: `` for lambda abstraction, `` for function application, and numbers 0, 1, etc., as de Bruijn indices. Built-in functions `,` reads a character from stdin and converts it to a Church numeral, and `.` converts a Church numeral to a character and outputs it to stdout. Examples include definitions for true, false, and the Z combinator, and a simple "hello world" program. Its simplicity makes it ideal for exploring functional programming concepts.

(imjakingit.github.io)

Development minimalist language

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-08-31

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved 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

arXivLabs: Community Collaboration on arXiv Features

2025-03-16

arXivLabs is a framework for collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the arXiv website. Individuals and organizations working with arXivLabs share and uphold arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who adhere to them. Got an idea for a project that will benefit the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

Black Hole Awakens 300 Million Light-Years Away: Defying Existing Theories

2025-04-12

Black Hole Awakens 300 Million Light-Years Away: Defying Existing Theories

For the first time, scientists have witnessed in real-time the awakening of a supermassive black hole 300 million light-years from Earth. Located in the center of the galaxy SDSS1335+0728 in the Virgo constellation, this black hole, nicknamed "Ansky," began emitting intermittent bright flashes of energy in late 2019. Subsequent observations revealed regular X-ray bursts, a phenomenon known as quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs). These QPEs are significantly more energetic and longer-lasting than previously observed, challenging existing theories of black hole lifecycles. Researchers suggest the eruptions might stem from disturbances in the accretion disk caused by nearby interstellar gas, rather than the death of a star. This discovery provides invaluable data for understanding black hole evolution.

(www.popsci.com)

Tech

Systemd Service Unit Restrictions: A Common Cause of Daemon Startup Failures

2025-09-20

A classic problem for Linux system administrators is a daemon failing to start normally but working fine when manually run as root. Traditional causes include incomplete $PATH environment variables, SELinux, and AppArmor. Increasingly, systemd service unit restrictions (documented in systemd.exec) are the culprit. Directives like ProtectHome and PrivateTmp can cause cryptic 'permission denied' or 'file not found' errors, or even indirect failures like blocking DNS queries. Removing restrictions from the daemon's .service file can help diagnose the issue, but future daemons may rely on these restrictions, complicating troubleshooting.

(utcc.utoronto.ca)

Development daemon

The 1300-Year-Old Mystery: Ise Grand Shrine's Cyclical Rebirth

2025-09-23

The 1300-Year-Old Mystery: Ise Grand Shrine's Cyclical Rebirth

For 1300 years, Japan's most revered Shinto shrine, Ise Grand Shrine, has been completely rebuilt every two decades. This isn't mere renovation; it's a $390 million, nine-year project involving the nation's finest artisans. Ancient rituals, generations of inherited skills, and reverence for the deity intertwine in this cyclical process. From prayerful tree-felling to the final consecration, each step is imbued with solemnity and mystery, reflecting a unique Japanese understanding of the cycle of life and harmony with nature.

(apnews.com)

Misc Ise Grand Shrine Shinto Shrine Reconstruction

DIY 10MHz-15GHz VNA: Outperforming Cheap Commercial Models

2025-04-15

DIY 10MHz-15GHz VNA: Outperforming Cheap Commercial Models

The author designed and built a 10MHz-15GHz vector network analyzer (VNA) that outperforms all existing low-cost VNAs. This four-receiver VNA supports advanced calibration methods like unknown-thru calibration and boasts over 120dB isolation. The article details the design process, covering architecture, directional couplers, receiver, ADC, FPGA, PCB design, and CNC-machined enclosure. Testing demonstrates excellent measurement accuracy and stability, accurately characterizing devices like bandpass filters and varactor diodes. While couplers require manual assembly, the total component cost is around $300 (excluding taxes and shipping), showcasing exceptional value.

(hforsten.com)

Hardware Vector Network Analyzer Hardware Design High-Frequency Measurement

Introducing 'Solsthelion': A New Word for the Holiday Season

2024-12-30

The author coined the word 'Solsthelion', a portmanteau of 'Solstice' and 'Perihelion'. The December Solstice occurs around December 21st, and the Perihelion (Earth's closest point to the Sun) is around January 4th. 'Solsthelion' thus neatly encompasses the holiday period. It's purely astronomical, devoid of cultural or historical ties. The author suggests using 'Happy Solsthelion' as a festive greeting after mid-December.

(www.solipsys.co.uk)

Misc new word solstice perihelion

Government-Backed Hackers Behind Most Zero-Day Exploits in 2024

2025-04-29

Government-Backed Hackers Behind Most Zero-Day Exploits in 2024

Google's latest research reveals that government-backed hackers were responsible for the majority of attributed zero-day exploits in 2024. While the total number of zero-days decreased from 98 in 2023 to 75 in 2024, Google attributed at least 23 to government actors. Ten were directly linked to government hackers (five to China, five to North Korea), and eight originated from spyware makers like NSO Group, which primarily sell to governments. The remaining attributed zero-days were likely exploited by cybercriminals. Although spyware companies' zero-day production is slowing, Google notes that the industry will continue to thrive as long as government demand persists. Importantly, security features like iOS/macOS Lockdown Mode and Google Pixel's MTE are proving effective against these attacks, highlighting advancements in zero-day defense.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech zero-day exploits government hackers

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