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Classic Mac OS Gets a 21st-Century Reboot: Browsers and Game Libraries Updated

2025-04-19

Classic Mac OS Gets a 21st-Century Reboot: Browsers and Game Libraries Updated

Nineteen years after the first Intel Mac, new apps for Classic Mac OS and PowerPC Mac OS X still emerge. Recently, new internet tools have breathed life into vintage Macs. Cameron Kaiser updated the MacLynx web browser and maintains TenFourFox and Classilla. Additionally, the Mbed-TLS library has been ported to Classic Mac OS, and work is underway on porting SDL 2, potentially bringing new games to the aging OS. This showcases programmers' ongoing exploration of this older operating system.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Classic Mac OS Web Browsers

Diving Deep into the BEAM: Elixir's Foundation

2025-05-12

Diving Deep into the BEAM: Elixir's Foundation

This is the first chapter in the "Elixir, 7 Steps to Start Your Journey" series, delving into the foundation of Elixir's power and reliability: the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM). The post explores Erlang's history, design goals, and its crucial role in Elixir. Created in the mid-1980s, Erlang, initially for telecommunications, is now a general-purpose language known for distributed, fault-tolerant, massively concurrent, and soft real-time systems. The BEAM manages Erlang code execution, concurrent processes, and achieves fault tolerance through asynchronous message passing. Elixir, running on the BEAM, inherits these strengths while adding cleaner syntax and a robust library. A simple code example showcases Erlang and Elixir interaction. The next chapter promises a deep dive into Erlang processes and concurrency.

(www.erlang-solutions.com)

Development

Moon's Missing Magnetism: Solved by an Ancient Impact?

2025-05-29

Moon's Missing Magnetism: Solved by an Ancient Impact?

The moon's surface rocks show signs of a strong magnetic field, yet the moon itself lacks an inherent magnetic field—a decades-old puzzle. MIT scientists propose a new theory: a large impact generated a plasma cloud, temporarily amplifying the moon's weak intrinsic magnetic field, particularly on the far side. The impact's shockwave further 'jittered' electrons in rocks, causing them to record this brief high magnetic field. This explains the highly magnetized rocks on the far side and predicts the possibility of finding shock evidence and high magnetism near the lunar south pole, a testable hypothesis for future missions.

(news.mit.edu)

Tech lunar magnetism impact event

AGI in 2045? Founders of Mechanize Bet on Explosive Economic Growth, Not an Intelligence Explosion

2025-04-17

AGI in 2045? Founders of Mechanize Bet on Explosive Economic Growth, Not an Intelligence Explosion

Dwarkesh Patel interviews Ege Erdil and Tamay Besiroglu, co-founders of Mechanize, a startup focused on fully automating work. They offer a contrarian view on AI timelines, downplaying the likelihood of an 'intelligence explosion' and emphasizing instead the potential for explosive economic growth driven by AI. They argue that progress requires broad technological advancements across multiple sectors, not just increased computing power. While they predict full automation of remote work by 2045, they believe AI will fundamentally reshape the global economy and societal norms.

(www.dwarkesh.com)

Tech

CleverBee: A Powerful LLM-Powered Research Assistant

2025-04-28

CleverBee: A Powerful LLM-Powered Research Assistant

CleverBee is a powerful Python-based research agent leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) like Claude and Gemini, Playwright for web browsing, and Chainlit for an interactive UI. It conducts research by browsing the web, extracting content, cleaning data, and summarizing findings based on user research topics. Features include multi-LLM support, automated web browsing, content processing, token tracking, high configurability, and LLM caching. It's fully supported on macOS and Linux.

(github.com)

AI AI research assistant

Pocket Casts' Ad Bug Angers Lifetime Subscribers

2025-09-25

Pocket Casts' Ad Bug Angers Lifetime Subscribers

Podcast app Pocket Casts is facing backlash after showing ads to legacy users who paid for ad-free lifetime access. Originally a one-time purchase app (2010), it switched to a subscription model in 2019. While Automattic, the parent company, promised ad-free access to early payers under the 'Pocket Casts Champion' program, some users are now seeing ads. Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg attributed this to a bug and stated that all paid users shouldn't see ads. The incident highlights challenges in maintaining 'lifetime' promises during business model shifts. Only a few thousand users are affected.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech advertising controversy lifetime subscriptions

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite: A Legendary Leap for Windows on Arm?

2025-09-25

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite: A Legendary Leap for Windows on Arm?

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme, its second-generation Windows on Arm chips, boasting significant performance gains. Built on a 3nm process, they promise up to a 31% CPU performance boost and a 2.3x GPU performance-per-watt improvement over the previous generation. The X2 Elite Extreme even claims a 75% faster CPU performance than competitors at the same power level. Featuring an 80 TOPS Hexagon NPU, these chips target improved AI capabilities. While promising multi-day battery life, laptops using these chips aren't expected until the first half of 2026. The announcement also hinted at potential implications for Google's Android on PC project.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

Supply Chain Attack Targets XRP Ledger SDK: Backdoor Steals Private Keys

2025-04-22

Supply Chain Attack Targets XRP Ledger SDK: Backdoor Steals Private Keys

On April 21st, Aikido Intel detected five new versions of the official XRP Ledger SDK (xrpl package) containing malicious code. Attackers inserted a backdoor into the official NPM package to steal cryptocurrency private keys and access cryptocurrency wallets. The attackers leveraged the package's widespread use, creating a potentially catastrophic supply chain attack. The malicious code sends private keys to a newly registered domain, 0x9c[.]xyz. The attackers iteratively refined their attack, starting with modifications to the bundled JavaScript code and progressing to altering the TypeScript source before compilation, to obscure their actions. This attack highlights the vulnerability of software supply chains.

(www.aikido.dev)

Tech

Killing in Combat: Context Matters More Than the Act Itself

2025-04-18

Killing in Combat: Context Matters More Than the Act Itself

A large-scale study of Norwegian soldiers challenges the common belief that killing inevitably harms a soldier's mental health. Researchers compared two groups: soldiers deployed to Afghanistan on combat missions and those serving as peacekeepers in Lebanon. The study found that peacekeepers who had killed someone exhibited higher rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and alcohol use, and lower quality of life, compared to those who hadn't. However, no such difference was found among the combat soldiers. The study concludes that the context surrounding killing, rather than the act itself, significantly impacts mental wellbeing. The difference likely stems from the distinct mission objectives and rules of engagement between combat and peacekeeping operations. The findings highlight the need for context-specific psychological support and training for soldiers to minimize potential psychological harm.

(www.bps.org.uk)

Misc war trauma soldier psychology

LLMs Show Gender Bias in Job Candidate Selection

2025-05-20

LLMs Show Gender Bias in Job Candidate Selection

A study involving 22 leading Large Language Models (LLMs) reveals a consistent bias towards female candidates in job selection tasks. Even with identical resumes except for gendered names, LLMs favored female candidates across 70 professions. This bias persisted even when gender was explicitly stated or masked with neutral labels. The study highlights the presence of gender bias in LLMs and raises concerns about their use in high-stakes decision-making like hiring, emphasizing the need for thorough model scrutiny before deployment.

(davidrozado.substack.com)

AI

Nuclear Power Plant Turned Acoustic Testing Lab: A Unique Facility

2025-04-11

Nuclear Power Plant Turned Acoustic Testing Lab: A Unique Facility

At Satsop Business Park, outside Seattle, the abandoned cooling towers of Washington Nuclear Projects 3 and 5 (WNP-3 and WNP-5) have found a new purpose: a state-of-the-art acoustics testing facility. Ron Sauro, owner of NWAA Labs, leverages the massive concrete structure's unique properties for testing everything from sound-dampening materials to airplane cabins and even noisy washing machines. The thick concrete walls and stable temperature and humidity of the repurposed reactor building provide ideal conditions for precise acoustic testing, showcasing innovative resource reuse and human adaptability.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech acoustic testing nuclear plant repurposing resource reuse

AI-Powered Lawmaking: A Shift in the Balance of Power

2025-01-26

AI-Powered Lawmaking: A Shift in the Balance of Power

Artificial intelligence is increasingly involved in the legislative process, subtly altering the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. The rising complexity of laws is driving legislators to utilize AI for tasks ranging from bill drafting to policy analysis, boosting efficiency. However, potential risks exist, including the manipulation of AI to favor specific interests. The article explores AI's impact on legislative efficiency and power dynamics, highlighting the ensuing challenges and opportunities.

(www.lawfaremedia.org)

Tech Legislation Power Balance

AI Turns Codebases into Beginner-Friendly Tutorials

2025-04-19

AI Turns Codebases into Beginner-Friendly Tutorials

Tired of deciphering complex codebases? This project uses a 100-line LLM framework called Pocket Flow to analyze GitHub repositories and generate easy-to-understand tutorials. It identifies core concepts, relationships, and transforms complex code into beginner-friendly explanations with visualizations. Supports various programming languages and allows specifying included/excluded files. Simply provide a GitHub repo URL or local directory path to generate a tutorial, making understanding large codebases significantly easier.

(github.com)

Development Tutorial Generation

SpaceX Explosion: The FBI Investigation That Went Nowhere

2025-05-05

SpaceX Explosion: The FBI Investigation That Went Nowhere

The 2016 SpaceX rocket explosion prompted widespread concern. SpaceX attributed the incident to possible sabotage, submitting evidence to the FAA and FBI. However, the FBI investigation found no evidence of criminal activity. Although the failure of the Amos-6 mission briefly threatened SpaceX's financial viability, the company quickly rebounded, achieving remarkable success in subsequent years and ultimately surpassing ULA in the commercial launch market.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech rocket explosion

Ex-EA Engineer Builds Jank: A New Programming Language Blending Clojure and C++

2025-01-29

Ex-EA Engineer Builds Jank: A New Programming Language Blending Clojure and C++

Former EA engineer Jeaye Wilkerson is developing jank, a new programming language aiming to combine the interactive nature of Clojure with the native compilation speed and minimal runtime of C++. Built on LLVM and incorporating elements from C++, Clojure, and Rust, jank seeks to be a native Clojure dialect. The project has garnered significant community interest, becoming one of the most popular unreleased Clojure projects. Its unique feature is the flexibility to switch between dynamically and statically typed code, balancing rapid development with performance optimization. jank is poised to be a powerful tool for game development, GUI development, and data science.

(thenewstack.io)

Development

Trump, the Fed, and the Distorted Reality of ZIRP: The Hidden Economic Risks Behind the Stock Market's Euphoria

2025-08-28

Trump, the Fed, and the Distorted Reality of ZIRP: The Hidden Economic Risks Behind the Stock Market's Euphoria

This article analyzes Trump's attempts to interfere with the Fed's independence and the distorting effects of the long-term zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) on the economy. Trump's attempt to fire a Fed governor is motivated by a desire to force interest rate cuts, threatening the Fed's independence and potentially leading to economic catastrophe. The article points out that ZIRP led to irrational expectations about future cash flows, fueling tech bubbles and financial risks. The stock market's optimistic response to Trump's actions contrasts sharply with the bond market's concerns about economic risks – a divergence that will eventually lead to market correction. The author argues that the Fed's independence is crucial and that the long-term effects of ZIRP represent a serious economic risk.

(www.splinter.com)

Tech Zero Interest Rate Policy Economic Risk

The Decline of Native Apps: The Rise of Web Apps

2024-12-31

The Decline of Native Apps: The Rise of Web Apps

The smartphone boom made native apps ubiquitous, but now they're becoming a burden. Modern browsers are powerful enough to offer features like notifications and offline access, once exclusive to native apps. The article argues that many businesses still cling to native apps, leading to app overload for users. In contrast, web apps are more cost-effective, flexible, and work seamlessly across devices. The gaming industry exemplifies this, with technologies like HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly enabling browser games to rival native ones. The article calls for developers to embrace the future of web apps, utilizing tools like Rogue Engine to create more accessible and universally usable experiences.

(rogueengine.io)

Development web apps native apps

Apple's Hardware Prowess Masks Software Decline: Can Linux Be the Savior?

2025-04-06

Apple's Hardware Prowess Masks Software Decline: Can Linux Be the Savior?

The author argues that Apple's declining software quality is overshadowed by its superior hardware integration, keeping it dominant in the market. Users find it hard to abandon the seamless synergy between Apple devices. The article explores Linux as a potential competitor, highlighting its lack of a robust hardware ecosystem as the main hurdle. The author suggests that a large electronics manufacturer like Dell or Sony, by providing a Linux device ecosystem comparable to Apple's hardware integration, could significantly boost Linux adoption and force Apple to improve software quality, reshaping the personal computer market.

(ofb.biz)

Tech hardware ecosystem

Reverse Engineering Windows Security Center from a Seoul Airbnb

2025-05-12

A developer, vacationing in a Seoul Airbnb with only a MacBook, overcame numerous hurdles to reverse engineer the Windows Security Center and create defendnot, a tool to disable Windows Defender without relying on other antivirus software. The post details the challenges faced, including cross-platform debugging, high latency, and a deep dive into Windows tokens and security mechanisms. The developer successfully completed the project but lamented the incredibly frustrating experience.

(blog.es3n1n.eu)

Development Windows Security Center

Say Goodbye to Confusing Data Viz Color Schemes: Introducing a New Palette Generator

2025-09-25

Say Goodbye to Confusing Data Viz Color Schemes: Introducing a New Palette Generator

Tired of struggling with data visualization color schemes? This new palette generator lets you easily create a series of visually equidistant colors, eliminating those confusing and hard-to-distinguish color palettes. It supports custom endpoint colors and can even incorporate your brand colors, making your charts both beautiful and professional. Whether it's pie charts, grouped bar charts, or maps, it handles them all with ease. No more dealing with frustrating color schemes like those in Google Analytics!

(www.learnui.design)

Design color schemes palette generator

The Space Economy in 2025: Beyond the Hype Cycle

2025-04-21

The Space Economy in 2025: Beyond the Hype Cycle

The early months of 2025 reveal a maturing commercial space sector, moving beyond its honeymoon phase. Investment is becoming more selective, government involvement is increasing, and competitive advantages are eroding. While space remains a powerful platform for economic and technological transformation, geopolitical realities and macroeconomic constraints are increasingly influential. This analysis examines the space economy's three-layered architecture: infrastructure, distribution, and applications, highlighting the significance of software-defined layers. Macroeconomic headwinds and technological tailwinds coexist, with increased opportunities in defense-related sectors, but challenges persist in commercial applications. Competition is intensifying, with SpaceX facing challenges from Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and others. GeoAI emerges as a new growth area, while distribution-layer companies are achieving more with less funding. Future investments should focus on AI's strategic importance, the driving force of defense spending, and the resetting of infrastructure.

(finance.yahoo.com)

Tech

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

Have I Been Pwned Speeds Up Dramatically with Cloudflare Edge Caching

2025-04-23

Have I Been Pwned Speeds Up Dramatically with Cloudflare Edge Caching

Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) dramatically improved its speed and availability by caching data on Cloudflare's global edge network. Previously, each query involved a long trip to an Azure function, but now data resides close to users. This reduces latency, boosts availability, and saves costs. While new data updates clear the cache causing temporary slowdowns, the overall architecture vastly optimizes HIBP's performance, enabling it to handle billions of queries.

(www.troyhunt.com)

Tech caching

Spice Up Your Slack Emojis with HDR

2025-04-17

Want to make your Slack reactions pop? Learn how to add HDR to your emojis! Using a simple ImageMagick script, you can transform standard emojis into HDR versions for eye-catching brightness on supporting hardware (like iPhones). Android support is currently lacking. You'll need to install ImageMagick and download the 2020_profile.icc profile. The `Multiply` value in the script adjusts brightness and color balance.

(sharpletters.net)

Misc

Xona's Anti-Jamming Satellite Navigation System

2025-06-08

Xona's Anti-Jamming Satellite Navigation System

Xona Space Systems is tackling the vulnerability of GPS signals to jamming and spoofing. Their upcoming Pulsar-0 satellite will transmit signals 100 times stronger than GPS by significantly reducing the distance to ground receivers. This enhanced strength improves resistance to interference and enables more accurate indoor positioning. Crucially, this addresses the limitations of current GPS systems, particularly for applications like autonomous driving and drones that require high precision, especially in urban environments.

(www.technologyreview.com)

Tech Anti-Jamming

AT&T Pulls 5G Home Internet from NY Over Affordable Broadband Law

2025-01-17

AT&T has ceased offering its 5G home internet service in New York State in response to a new law mandating affordable broadband plans for low-income residents. The Affordable Broadband Act, implemented after a lengthy legal battle, requires ISPs to offer $15/25Mbps or $20/200Mbps plans to eligible households. AT&T argues the price regulations make further investment in the state uneconomical. Existing customers will have a 45-day grace period. This decision highlights the ongoing tension between telecom companies' profitability and the need for accessible broadband access.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech New York

Microsoft Restructures to Unleash AI Power: LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 Converge

2025-06-04

Microsoft Restructures to Unleash AI Power: LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 Converge

Microsoft announced major organizational changes to fuel its AI ambitions. LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky expands his role to lead Microsoft 365 Copilot, while remaining LinkedIn CEO. Charles Lamanna and his Business and Industry Copilot team will report to Rajesh, reflecting Microsoft's strategy to integrate Modern Work and Business Applications into a unified AI Business Solutions Center. This move aims to break down traditional industry silos, creating greater customer value by leveraging the combined power of LinkedIn, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 to unlock the next wave of AI innovation.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Microsoft Restructuring AI Strategy LinkedIn Integration

The Async Queue Interview: An AI-Assisted Coding Challenge

2025-07-07

This blog post details a unique programming interview question: implementing an asynchronous queue, `sendOnce`, ensuring a single-threaded client only sends one request to a faulty server at a time. The interview assesses candidates' ability to handle tricky flag logic, debug code, program in a single-threaded environment, and adapt to new requirements (like minimum delays, batch sending, cancellation mechanisms, retries, etc.). The author also discusses AI's role in interviews, arguing that while AI can assist with coding, candidates still need code review skills; efficient AI tool usage is a new evaluation criterion.

(davidgomes.com)

Development programming interview asynchronous queue

FSF's 40th Anniversary Auction: Bid on Pieces of Free Software History!

2025-03-17

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is hosting an online auction featuring 25 pieces of historic free software memorabilia. The auction is split into a silent online auction (March 17-21 on the LibrePlanet wiki) and a live auction (March 23). Items include vintage computers, plushies, original artwork promoting free software, and awards received by the FSF and its founder. All proceeds support the FSF's continued work. The live auction features six particularly significant items, including the original GNU head logo, the Norbert Wiener Award, and artwork from the GCC manual. These artifacts represent milestones in the free software movement.

(www.fsf.org)

Tech

Radiology's AI Paradox: Better Machines, Busier Doctors

2025-09-25

Radiology's AI Paradox: Better Machines, Busier Doctors

Since CheXNet's 2017 debut, AI has shown potential to surpass human radiologists in accuracy. However, despite advancements, AI's real-world application faces hurdles: generalization limitations, stringent regulations, and AI's replacement of only a fraction of a radiologist's tasks. Counterintuitively, demand for radiologists remains high, with salaries soaring. This is due to AI's poor performance outside standardized conditions, regulatory barriers, and the multifaceted nature of a radiologist's job. The article concludes that widespread AI adoption necessitates adapting societal rules, AI will boost productivity, but complete human replacement isn't imminent.

(www.worksinprogress.news)

AI AI radiology medical AI healthcare AI

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