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23andMe Bankruptcy: 15% of Users Delete Data Amidst Regeneron Acquisition

2025-06-11

23andMe Bankruptcy: 15% of Users Delete Data Amidst Regeneron Acquisition

Following its bankruptcy filing, 23andMe revealed that 1.9 million users (about 15% of its customer base) have requested deletion of their genetic data. This surge in data deletion requests stems from concerns over data security following the company's bankruptcy auction, where pharmaceutical giant Regeneron acquired 23andMe for $256 million. While Regeneron pledged to uphold privacy practices, over two dozen states have sued, arguing that 23andMe cannot sell customer data without explicit consent. This comes after a months-long data breach affecting 6.9 million users last year. The court is expected to finalize the sale in late June.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

DIY Multi-Timer: A Hacky Tale of Alarm Clocks and Battery Eliminators

2025-08-31

Inspired by a friend's Raspberry Pi-based multi-timer, the author embarked on a DIY project using readily available alarm clocks. Initial attempts to modify the clocks directly proved unsuccessful, leading to a broken alarm clock. However, a clever workaround using battery eliminators and switches allowed for independent control of multiple clocks. The resulting multi-timer, while not precision-engineered, serves as a fun office decoration and a tool for rough time estimation, proving that resourcefulness and a dash of failure can lead to a satisfying hack.

(pgadey.ca)

Misc creative invention

AI Coding: How Far Are We From Fully Autonomous Programming?

2025-08-29

AI Coding: How Far Are We From Fully Autonomous Programming?

While AI coding tools demonstrate impressive capabilities in code completion and error correction, a new study reveals that AI still has a long way to go before becoming a true programmer. The research highlights challenges AI faces in handling large codebases, complex logic, and long-term planning, leading to hallucinations and errors. Improving AI-human collaboration, such as enhancing interfaces and enabling AI to better understand and communicate uncertainty, will be crucial. Ultimately, AI's role in coding will likely focus on boosting efficiency and shifting abstraction levels, rather than completely replacing human programmers.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Development

Faster PNGs: Exploring Zstandard and LZ4 as Alternatives

2025-08-06

Faster PNGs: Exploring Zstandard and LZ4 as Alternatives

Slow read/write times are a known issue with PNGs. This post suggests using newer, open-source, patent-free codecs like Zstandard (from Facebook) or LZ4 as a solution. Zstandard is already used in the Khronos KTX2 GPU texture format, offering significant speed improvements. The author also mentions even faster, simpler codecs like QOI, but these might require changes to image pre-processing.

(github.com)

Development

Why Apprenticeships Trump Classrooms

2025-08-14

Why Apprenticeships Trump Classrooms

This article argues that apprenticeships are superior to classroom learning. Apprenticeships emphasize hands-on learning through 'learning by doing' and 'learning by watching,' overcoming the disconnect between theory and practice common in classrooms. The author highlights that humans primarily learn through observation and practice, while classrooms focus on abstract theories, hindering knowledge transfer. Many theories are also inherently flawed, making practical experience more reliable. The article suggests learners should start with specific goals, build theory on practice, and immerse themselves in expert practice ecosystems to improve learning efficiency.

(www.scotthyoung.com)

Misc apprenticeships knowledge transfer

Schizophrenia's Evolutionary Enigma: The Cliff Edge Fitness Model

2025-06-29

Schizophrenia's Evolutionary Enigma: The Cliff Edge Fitness Model

The genetic basis and high prevalence of schizophrenia have long been a puzzle in evolutionary biology. Traditional theories struggle to explain its persistence. This post introduces the "cliff edge fitness model," which proposes that certain cognitive and social traits enhance fitness up to a threshold, beyond which they lead to severe disorders like schizophrenia. This model explains the observation of both positive and negative selection on schizophrenia-related genes and predicts a complex relationship between polygenic risk scores and reproductive success. Research suggests that while schizophrenia itself is detrimental, its associated genes may have conferred other benefits during evolution, such as enhanced cognitive abilities. The model highlights that evolution optimizes for gene transmission, not individual health, explaining why some diseases persist with high heritability and prevalence.

(www.psychiatrymargins.com)

AI evolutionary medicine schizophrenia cliff edge model

EU Aims to Decrypt Citizen Data by 2030: Privacy Concerns Mount

2025-07-05

EU Aims to Decrypt Citizen Data by 2030: Privacy Concerns Mount

The EU Commission unveiled a roadmap outlining its plan to enable law enforcement agencies to access citizens' data lawfully and effectively by 2030, potentially including the decryption of private data. This initiative, part of the ProtectEU strategy aimed at bolstering EU internal security, has sparked concerns among privacy experts. They warn that weakening encryption could introduce new vulnerabilities and undermine security. The roadmap focuses on six key areas: data retention, lawful interception, digital forensics, decryption, standardization, and AI solutions for law enforcement. While the Commission claims to balance law enforcement needs with privacy, experts argue that strong encryption is a cornerstone of security, not an enemy.

(www.techradar.com)

Tech

AI Dev Tools: Building a Prototype in 48 Hours – and the Implications for Silicon Valley

2025-03-14

AI Dev Tools: Building a Prototype in 48 Hours – and the Implications for Silicon Valley

The author recounts building a working app prototype in just 48 hours using AI development tools, shattering preconceived notions about software development speed. This experience revealed flaws in his initial idea and sparked a broader reflection on AI's impact on Silicon Valley. The author argues that while AI accelerates product iteration, it also risks a surge in products lacking domain expertise, ultimately favoring individuals with deep knowledge and unique insights.

(benn.substack.com)

Development

10 Forgotten Desktop Publishing Apps That Defined (and Died in) the 80s and 90s

2025-07-10

10 Forgotten Desktop Publishing Apps That Defined (and Died in) the 80s and 90s

The early 1980s saw desktop publishing emerge as a revolutionary force in the computing industry, creating new businesses and reshaping existing ones. But time marches on, and many once-popular software programs have faded into obscurity. This article explores ten largely forgotten early desktop publishing applications, from the Xerox Alto to Serif PagePlus. These programs, each with unique strengths and weaknesses, tell a compelling story of innovation, competition, and the inevitable march of technological progress.

(tedium.co)

Tech desktop publishing software history tech evolution

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

Tesla's Solar Business: A Stunning Decline

2025-04-09

Following Tesla's 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, its rooftop solar business has significantly underperformed expectations, experiencing a continuous decline. The article reveals that Tesla's solar installations have fallen for multiple consecutive quarters since Q4 2022, with the company ceasing to publish the figures. Analysis suggests Tesla's solar business is a shadow of its former self post-acquisition, raising concerns about the broader clean energy sector.

(cleantechnica.com)

Tech

Microsoft Doubles Down on Europe Amidst Geopolitical Uncertainty

2025-05-01

Microsoft Doubles Down on Europe Amidst Geopolitical Uncertainty

Responding to growing concerns about data sovereignty and US-EU trade tensions, Microsoft unveiled a five-point plan to bolster its European presence and reassure customers. This includes a 40% increase in European datacenter capacity over the next two years, a European board of directors composed solely of European nationals, and a commitment to defend European customer data in court if necessary. The plan also emphasizes enhanced cybersecurity measures and support for open-source development within Europe. This strategic move aims to mitigate risks associated with US data legislation and maintain Microsoft's market share in Europe.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech European Datacenters Data Sovereignty

ActorCore: Stateful Serverless That Runs Anywhere

2025-04-16

ActorCore: Stateful Serverless That Runs Anywhere

ActorCore is a TypeScript framework for easily building stateful, AI agent, collaborative, or local-first applications. It eliminates the need for databases and ORMs, offering blazing-fast read/write speeds by storing state on the same machine as the compute. Deploy to Rivet, Cloudflare, Bun, Node.js, and more. Built-in low-latency events enable real-time state updates and broadcast changes. Its unique edge-data storage provides instant interactions. While currently not ideal for OLAP, data lakes, graph databases, and highly relational data, it's constantly improving and aims to become the universal way to build and scale stateful serverless applications.

(github.com)

Development actor model

Cycle-Exact Commodore 64 Emulation on Cheap Microcontrollers

2025-05-03

Cycle-Exact Commodore 64 Emulation on Cheap Microcontrollers

Connomore64 is a project that achieves cycle-exact emulation of the Commodore 64 using multiple parallel, inexpensive RP2040/RP2350 microcontrollers. Initially a holiday project exploring the capabilities of the RP2040's PIOs, it's evolved into an accurate emulator running most games and a portion of demos, even interfacing with original C64 hardware like floppy drives. While still under development, it demonstrates potential for running compute-intensive software on low-cost hardware and provides a framework for parallel emulation using multiple RP2040/RP2350s.

(github.com)

Hardware

US Anti-Piracy Symposium Pushes for Site Blocking

2025-01-29

A recent USPTO anti-piracy symposium highlighted the need for site blocking in the US. Experts discussed the evolution of piracy into a sophisticated, multi-level industry offering "piracy as a service." The brazen behavior of some pirates, openly advertising and even trademarking their services, further emphasizes the urgency. While site blocking is effective in over 50 countries, the US lags behind, partly due to the 2012 SOPA failure. The symposium advocated for a dynamic US site-blocking system, learning from international examples to avoid overblocking and swiftly target new pirate domains.

(torrentfreak.com)

Tech anti-piracy piracy industry

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-04-22

arXivLabs is a platform enabling collaborators to build and share new arXiv features directly on the site. Participants must adhere to arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. Got an idea to improve the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs!

(arxiv.org)

Development

C++ Template Inheritance and Copy Construction: A Puzzling static_assert

2025-06-10

C++ Template Inheritance and Copy Construction: A Puzzling static_assert

This article explores a puzzling issue regarding copy constructors in C++ template inheritance. The `Derived` class inherits from `Base`, where `Base`'s copy constructor is deleted. However, `Derived` defines its own copy constructor. Even though this constructor attempts to copy the uncopyable `Base` object, `std::is_copy_constructible` still returns true. This is because the compiler only checks for the presence of a non-deleted copy constructor, not its instantiability. The author further discusses the differences between explicitly defined and implicitly defined copy constructors, and the implications of moving the copy constructor definition out of line.

(devblogs.microsoft.com)

Development Copy Construction

The 10,000 Steps Myth: Why Your Fitness Tracker Might Be Lying

2025-07-24

The 10,000 Steps Myth: Why Your Fitness Tracker Might Be Lying

A major study debunks the 10,000 steps daily myth. Researchers found that 7,000 steps significantly reduces mortality and disease risk, with incremental benefits beyond that. The 10,000-step goal originated from a 1960s marketing campaign, not rigorous science. The study shows that increasing steps from 2,000 to 4,000 daily reduces death risk by 36%, while 7,000 steps yield most health benefits. Optimal step counts vary by age; older adults maximize benefits at 6,000-8,000 steps. Consistency, not an arbitrary target, is key.

(theconversation.com)

Tech steps

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

GitHub Copilot Chat Goes Open Source: Transparency in AI Coding

2025-07-06

GitHub Copilot Chat Goes Open Source: Transparency in AI Coding

Microsoft open-sourced the GitHub Copilot Chat extension for VS Code, offering unprecedented transparency into its AI-powered code assistant. Copilot Chat understands codebases, helping developers clean up functions, add error handling, explain logic, and even refactor files. Its 'Agent mode' automates compilation, error fixing, test monitoring, and more. While the underlying models remain closed-source, the open-sourced VS Code extension allows auditing, customization, and even building new tools on top of it, significantly increasing trust and transparency in AI tools.

(nerds.xyz)

Development

Slow Mac App Launches: Malware Scan or Hash Cache Miss?

2025-05-01

Blogger Jeff Johnson discovered last year that slow Mac app launches are due to malware scanning by the syspolicyd process. However, blogger Howard Oakley disagrees. Johnson uses spindumps to refute Oakley, showing the malware scan occurs during dlopen when loading dynamic libraries. Oakley claims the slow launches are due to SHA-256 hash cache misses for files in the Frameworks folder. Johnson argues Oakley's theory lacks evidence and ignores the fact that universal binaries contain two architectures, making Oakley's hash calculation time estimates inaccurate. The core of this debate lies in different interpretations of system logs and process snapshots, and differing understandings of caching mechanisms.

(lapcatsoftware.com)

Development Mac apps

Tech Archaeology: Unearthing Brautigan's Poem

2025-01-09

Tech Archaeology: Unearthing Brautigan's Poem

Blogger John Graham-Cumming shared the complete text of Richard Brautigan's poem, "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," on his blog. While the poem is somewhat known in tech circles, a complete PDF of the original 1967 publication proved elusive. Interpreting the copyright notice as allowing free republication, Graham-Cumming provides a scan of the entire book, a delightful find for tech and literature enthusiasts.

(blog.jgc.org)

Misc tech history online resources

Chinese Astronauts Create Rocket Fuel and Oxygen in Space

2025-08-27

Chinese Astronauts Create Rocket Fuel and Oxygen in Space

Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have successfully produced rocket fuel and oxygen in space using a novel artificial photosynthesis technology. This breakthrough, achieved with relatively simple equipment and minimal energy, promises to be crucial for China's planned lunar base, slated for completion within a decade. The technology converts carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and rocket fuel components, offering critical support for human survival and exploration in space. This innovation could significantly reduce reliance on Earth-based resources for the lunar base, paving the way for future missions to Mars and beyond.

(www.livescience.com)

Tech space station lunar base

AI Coding Tools: Productivity Killers?

2025-07-13

AI Coding Tools: Productivity Killers?

A randomized controlled trial involving 16 experienced developers revealed that AI coding tools, contrary to expectations, decreased software development speed by 19%. The study attributed this slowdown to factors such as over-optimism about AI's usefulness, high developer familiarity with the codebase, the complexity of large repositories, and low AI reliability. While AI tools can expedite testing and automate tasks, the need for manual code validation and the lack of learning capabilities negate overall time savings. The researchers emphasize that these findings don't dismiss the future potential of AI tools but highlight the current limitations.

(www.theregister.com)

Development

Microsoft Integrates Musk's Controversial AI, Grok, into Azure

2025-05-19

Microsoft Integrates Musk's Controversial AI, Grok, into Azure

Microsoft has become one of the first hyperscalers to offer managed access to Grok, the controversial AI model from Elon Musk's xAI. Available via Azure AI Foundry, Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini boast Microsoft's service-level agreements and billing. Known for its unfiltered and edgy responses, including the use of vulgar language, the Azure versions are more controlled and include enhanced data integration, customization, and governance features. While the X platform's Grok has faced controversy for biased outputs and sensitive topic handling—including incidents like undressing women in photos and censoring negative comments—the Azure versions aim for improved safety and reliability.

(techcrunch.com)

AI

GitHub Copilot Surpasses 20 Million Users, Igniting AI Coding Tool Wars

2025-08-03

GitHub Copilot Surpasses 20 Million Users, Igniting AI Coding Tool Wars

GitHub Copilot, Microsoft's AI coding tool, has surpassed 20 million users, with 5 million joining in the last three months alone. Boasting adoption by 90% of Fortune 100 companies and 75% quarter-over-quarter enterprise growth, Copilot is a major player. While its user base pales in comparison to general-purpose AI chatbots, Copilot's focus on enterprise clients and expanding capabilities like AI-powered code review and workflow automation give it a strong position. However, the market is heating up. Competitors like Cursor, with its impressive growth and funding, are challenging Copilot's dominance, and tech giants like Google and OpenAI are entering the fray, setting the stage for an intense battle in the AI coding tool arena.

(techcrunch.com)

Development enterprise market

Tech Giants Shift Hiring Overseas Amid AI Investment Pressure

2025-02-07

Tech Giants Shift Hiring Overseas Amid AI Investment Pressure

Faced with the need to invest in AI while maintaining profitability, tech giants like Salesforce and Workday are cutting US-based jobs and expanding hiring internationally, particularly in countries like India and Mexico. This reflects a broader shift in the tech industry towards prioritizing margins and underscores the increasing globalization of skilled talent. While the percentage of US employees is decreasing, these companies still rely heavily on the US market, with international expansion driven primarily by cost-cutting and access to a global talent pool.

(finance.yahoo.com)

Tech cost-cutting global hiring

Cybercriminals Shift to Proxies to Mask Their Activities

2025-06-07

Cybercriminals Shift to Proxies to Mask Their Activities

To evade law enforcement, cybercriminals are increasingly using proxy servers and VPNs to mask their malicious activities. Previously reliant on 'bulletproof' hosting providers, the crackdown on these services has forced a shift. Criminals now leverage residential proxies and other decentralized services, using ordinary consumer IP addresses to obscure their operations, making tracking and identification extremely difficult. This transition presents new challenges to cybersecurity, requiring law enforcement to develop new strategies to combat increasingly sophisticated cybercrime.

(www.wired.com)

Tech proxy servers VPNs

Ruby 3.4.0 Released: Enhanced Performance and New Features

2024-12-25

Ruby 3.4.0 has been released, boasting significant improvements! Key highlights include a performance-boosted YJIT compiler, a new modular garbage collection mechanism, and the convenient `it` block parameter reference. The default parser has switched to Prism, and the socket library now features Happy Eyeballs V2 for more efficient network connections. Core classes have received updates, and various bugs have been squashed. The release also includes deprecation warnings for string literal modifications and improvements to keyword splatting.

(www.ruby-lang.org)

Development release

The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work: A Software Design Philosophy

2025-08-30

This article champions the principle of 'doing the simplest thing that could possibly work' in software design. Instead of striving for an idealized, over-engineered system, the author advocates for a deep understanding of the current system and choosing the simplest solution. This approach, while seemingly underwhelming, yields surprisingly effective results, exemplified by the designs of Unix and Rails. While challenges like system inflexibility and defining 'simplicity' exist, the author argues that focusing on current needs and iterative improvement is superior to over-engineering for distant future requirements. Ultimately, a simple, stable system often surpasses an over-engineered, hard-to-maintain one.

(www.seangoedecke.com)

Development simplicity

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