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400x Faster Static Embedding Models with Sentence Transformers

2025-01-15
400x Faster Static Embedding Models with Sentence Transformers

This blog post introduces a method to train static embedding models that are 100x to 400x faster on CPU than state-of-the-art embedding models, while maintaining most of the quality. This unlocks exciting use cases like on-device and in-browser execution. Two highly efficient models are presented: sentence-transformers/static-retrieval-mrl-en-v1 for English retrieval and sentence-transformers/static-similarity-mrl-multilingual-v1 for multilingual similarity. These models achieve at least 85% of the performance of counterparts like all-mpnet-base-v2 and multilingual-e5-small, while being significantly faster on CPU.

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(huggingface.co)
AI static embeddings sentence transformers

Anthropic Achieves ISO 42001 Certification for Responsible AI

2025-01-16
Anthropic Achieves ISO 42001 Certification for Responsible AI

Anthropic, a leading AI company, announced it has received ISO 42001:2023 certification for its AI management system. This international recognition validates Anthropic's commitment to responsible AI development and use, covering ethical considerations, security, accountability, and more. Key elements include risk assessment, transparency measures, and rigorous testing and monitoring. Anthropic is among the first frontier AI labs to achieve this certification, reinforcing its dedication to AI safety.

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(www.anthropic.com)
AI Responsible AI

Railroad Tycoon II: A Train Sim That's More Than Just Tracks

2025-01-13

This article dives deep into the history of Railroad Tycoon II, a classic strategy game. It details the game's development, from its creator Phil Steinmeyer's acquisition of the rights to its release through Gathering of Developers (G.O.D.). The author recounts the challenges and triumphs of bringing the game to market and explores the game's unique blend of historical context, engaging gameplay, and compelling visuals. A potential code reuse controversy related to the Heroes of Might and Magic series is also discussed.

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(www.filfre.net)
Game Strategy Game Railroad Tycoon

Boom Supersonic to Break Sound Barrier in Historic Test Flight: Watch Live

2025-01-28
Boom Supersonic to Break Sound Barrier in Historic Test Flight: Watch Live

Boom Supersonic is attempting to break the sound barrier today with its 12th test flight of the XB-1 supersonic test vehicle. This milestone flight, likened by the CEO to SpaceX's Falcon 1 moment, will mark the company's first supersonic achievement and the return of supersonic flight since Concorde. The flight will be livestreamed, offering viewers a dramatic, real-time view of the supersonic flight, transmitted via SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service.

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(www.space.com)
Tech supersonic flight

Microsoft Sues Service for Generating Illicit Content with its AI Platform

2025-01-11
Microsoft Sues Service for Generating Illicit Content with its AI Platform

Microsoft is suing three individuals and seven customers for running a service that generated harmful and illicit content using Microsoft's AI platform. The defendants developed tools to bypass Microsoft's safety measures, using compromised legitimate user accounts to create a fee-based platform. Operating from July to September 2024, the service used undocumented APIs and stolen API keys to generate illegal content, including pornography and violent materials. Microsoft's lawsuit cites multiple legal violations and seeks an injunction and damages.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech

Apple's AI Overhaul: Veteran Exec Joins to Rescue Siri

2025-01-24
Apple's AI Overhaul: Veteran Exec Joins to Rescue Siri

Apple Inc. is doubling down on AI, appointing veteran executive Kim Vorrath to its AI and machine learning division. Vorrath, a VP with a proven track record of fixing troubled products, will report to AI chief John Giannandrea. This move signals a push to improve Siri and the Apple Intelligence platform, which have lagged behind competitors like OpenAI and Google. The plan includes a revamped Siri in iOS 18.4, leveraging user data for better response and app control. However, challenges remain, including recent backlash over inaccurate AI-generated news summaries. Vorrath's expertise in managing complex software projects is key to Apple's ambition of becoming an AI leader.

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(finance.yahoo.com)
Tech

Desmos: Free and Beautiful Math

2025-01-28

Desmos is a free online graphing calculator known for its clean, intuitive interface and powerful features. Users can plot various functions, perform algebraic calculations, and create interactive mathematical models. It's a valuable tool for students learning math and teachers leading lessons, enhancing both learning and teaching efficiency. Its ease of use and comprehensive functionality make it ideal for math enthusiasts and professionals alike.

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(www.desmos.com)
Education math tools

Why Cancer Guidelines Remain Stuck in PDFs

2024-12-24
Why Cancer Guidelines Remain Stuck in PDFs

Cancer treatment guidelines are often presented as unwieldy PDFs, hindering standardization of care. The author argues that guidelines are essentially complex decision trees; converting them into machine-readable, structured data could significantly improve cancer treatment. A prototype tool was developed using LLMs to extract information from the NCCN breast cancer guidelines PDF, creating a visual decision tree and an agent that navigates the tree based on patient information to suggest treatment. While early-stage, this demonstrates the potential of structuring guidelines to enhance efficiency and standardization in healthcare.

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(seangeiger.substack.com)
AI Health Tech Data Standardization

Audiocube: A Revolutionary Standalone 3D DAW

2025-01-30
Audiocube: A Revolutionary Standalone 3D DAW

Move beyond cluttered VST plugin setups! Audiocube is a standalone 3D digital audio workstation (DAW) built with a custom audio, physics, and graphics engine, offering unparalleled depth and control. It enables immersive audio creation and exploration, providing a level of creative freedom unlike any plugin. This is the perfect solution for musicians seeking a modern approach to audio production.

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(www.audiocube.app)
Development Audio Engine Music Production

Blinkenlights: A Glimpse into Hacker Culture

2025-01-20
Blinkenlights: A Glimpse into Hacker Culture

Blinkenlights, a term originating from a deliberately misspelled German warning sign in hacker culture, refers to the diagnostic blinking lights on the front panels of old mainframe computers. As CPUs sped up, interpreting these lights became impossible in real-time. However, they persist as status indicators on modern network hardware and remain a unique symbol of tech culture, a nostalgic nod to the past.

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(en.wikipedia.org)
Tech hacker culture indicator lights

UI Hell: The Case of the Four-Function Calculator

2025-01-24
UI Hell: The Case of the Four-Function Calculator

This article delves into the surprisingly complex UI design of a seemingly simple four-function calculator. Starting with the basic components—ten digit keys, operators, and an equals sign—the author reveals hidden complexities. Issues like handling continuous operations, negative number input, implicit equals, and the legacy 'K-constant' feature are explored. These seemingly minor details lead to inconsistencies and user confusion, highlighting the challenges in designing even the simplest of devices. The author uses humor and diagrams to illustrate the intricate logic and historical evolution of calculator UI, prompting reflection on the design nuances often overlooked in everyday objects.

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(lcamtuf.substack.com)
Design Calculator

Unix Spell: The 64kB RAM Miracle

2025-01-19
Unix Spell: The 64kB RAM Miracle

In the 1970s, the Unix spell checker faced an incredible challenge: fitting a 250kB dictionary into a mere 64kB of RAM on a PDP-11. Douglas McIlroy's ingenious solution involved a multi-stage approach. Initially, a Bloom filter provided fast lookups, but as the dictionary grew, he developed a novel hash compression scheme. By recognizing that differences between sorted hash codes followed a geometric distribution, and employing Golomb coding, he achieved near-theoretical compression limits. Finally, partitioning the compressed data further improved lookup speed. This story is a masterclass in constrained optimization, showing how clever algorithms can overcome seemingly impossible limitations.

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(blog.codingconfessions.com)
Development compression

Solving Computational Science Problems with AI: Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs)

2025-01-22

This article explores the use of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to solve challenging problems in computational science, particularly partial differential equations (PDEs). PINNs overcome limitations of traditional numerical methods by incorporating physical laws directly into the neural network's loss function. This addresses issues like insufficient data, high computational cost, and poor generalization. The article explains PDEs, partial derivatives, and demonstrates PINNs' implementation using the 2D heat equation, covering network architecture, loss function definition, and training. Results show PINNs accurately and efficiently model heat diffusion, offering a powerful tool for various scientific and engineering challenges.

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(mertkavi.com)
AI PDEs

Zero-Day Exploit in Ivanti VPN Allows Hackers Network Access

2025-01-09
Zero-Day Exploit in Ivanti VPN Allows Hackers Network Access

A critical zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-0282) in Ivanti's widely used enterprise VPN appliance has been exploited by hackers to compromise corporate networks. The vulnerability affects Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA Gateways products, with Connect Secure being the most widely adopted SSL VPN. Mandiant and Microsoft researchers observed exploitation as early as mid-December 2024. The attack shows hallmarks of an advanced persistent threat (APT), and suspicions point towards a China-linked cyberespionage group. Ivanti has released a patch for Connect Secure, with patches for others coming January 21st.

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(techcrunch.com)
Tech zero-day exploit

Can Programmers Be More Like Ants? A Look at Stigmergy in Software Development

2025-01-14

This article explores the evolution of software development team structures. Historically, a top-down, waterfall model prevailed, leading to inefficiencies. The internet age saw the rise of distributed teams, transforming software architecture into a network-like structure. The author draws a parallel between this new organizational structure and the collective intelligence of ants and other insects – stigmergy. Stigmergy, through indirect stimulation (e.g., code comments, emails), enables efficient collaboration without central control. The article concludes by advocating for programmers to learn from collective intelligence, mimicking insect collaboration to improve software development efficiency and quality.

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(blog.ubiquity.acm.org)
Development stigmergy distributed teams

Two Waves of Aging: How Midlife Biomolecular Shifts Accelerate Decline

2025-01-12
Two Waves of Aging: How Midlife Biomolecular Shifts Accelerate Decline

Challenging the linear view of aging, a new study reveals a two-wave model: around age 40 and 60. The first wave involves disruptions in lipid metabolism, chronic inflammation, and gut microbiome, leading to tissue dysfunction. The second wave features immune senescence, insulin resistance, and declining kidney function, further accelerating age-related decline. The study highlights the potential of precision interventions, such as rapamycin and modulating the GH/IGF-1 pathway, to recalibrate these developmental processes and extend healthspan.

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(gethealthspan.com)
Tech biomolecular precision medicine

Lisp's Advantages in Bioinformatics: Faster Programs, Faster Development

2025-01-21

This article argues for expanding the use of Lisp-family languages (Common Lisp, Scheme, and Clojure) in bioinformatics and computational biology. Lisp's strengths—speed, flexibility, and ease of creating domain-specific languages (DSLs)—enable faster program development and execution. Case studies of Pathway Tools and BioBike showcase Lisp's power in building complex, flexible bioinformatics applications. The authors discuss opportunities and challenges for Lisp's future in the field.

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(pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Development Bioinformatics Domain-Specific Languages

AT&T Promises Bill Credits After Massive Outage

2025-01-08
AT&T Promises Bill Credits After Massive Outage

Following a major network outage last year caused by a botched update, AT&T is now promising full-day bill credits for future outages. The credits apply to wireless outages lasting at least 60 minutes affecting 10 or more cell towers, and fiber outages lasting at least 20 minutes (using an AT&T-provided gateway). However, the promise has caveats, excluding events like natural disasters or third-party issues. AT&T retains sole discretion on credit eligibility, raising concerns about service reliability and transparency in handling such incidents.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech outage bill credits

Little Snitch's Secret Weapon: Precisely Controlling Safari's Search Helper

2025-01-24

While configuring Little Snitch on a new Mac, the author discovered Safari's search helper process silently connecting to Google's ssl.gstatic.com. Changing the search engine or blocking the connection worked, but the latter interfered with Gmail authentication. The solution? A clever Little Snitch rule using the 'via' function, blocking only the search helper's connection while allowing Safari itself, showcasing a powerful, little-known feature. This highlights a subtle but significant aspect of browser-search engine background communication.

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(lapcatsoftware.com)
Development

Pac-Man: A Revolution in Game Design

2025-01-13
Pac-Man: A Revolution in Game Design

Pac-Man's success wasn't due to superior graphics or fluid controls, but its innovative use of a core game mechanic: collision. Previous games treated collision literally, as a physical impact. Pac-Man, however, metaphorically represented collision as 'eating,' making Pac-Man a relatable character. This 'expansive' design philosophy not only made Pac-Man a global phenomenon but also inspired future game developers to explore richer themes and emotions. Games like Dys4ia use collision to represent nuanced experiences like gender transition.

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(thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
Game Pac-Man collision mechanic

Hacker News: Lazy Man's Delight! Binary Modding a Water Dispenser for Hands-Free Operation

2025-01-11

Robbe Derks, tired of pressing buttons to get water, reverse-engineered and modified his ION 900 series water dispenser. Using an Arduino and PICkit, he dumped the firmware from the PIC18F6527 and PIC16F630 microcontrollers. With Ghidra, he reverse-engineered the firmware, identifying functions controlling buttons and valves. He then wrote C code to patch the firmware, adding a feature that dispenses 1 liter of cold water when both the 'room temperature' and 'cold water' buttons are pressed simultaneously. This involved overcoming challenges in reverse engineering and embedded programming, ultimately creating a hands-free water dispensing solution.

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(practicapp.com)
Hardware

White House Reverses Course: Sweeping Rescission of Biden-Era Executive Orders

2025-01-22
White House Reverses Course: Sweeping Rescission of Biden-Era Executive Orders

In a dramatic shift, the new Presidential administration issued an executive order rescinding dozens of executive orders and memoranda enacted by the previous administration. These actions covered a wide range of policies, including racial equity, climate change, immigration, and healthcare. The new administration characterized the rescinded policies as "deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical," claiming they undermined American unity, fairness, safety, and prosperity. This move signals a significant departure from the previous administration's agenda, aiming to restore "common sense" governance and unleash the potential of American citizens.

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(www.whitehouse.gov)
Misc politics executive orders policy reversal

Philosopher Challenges Convention: Do Thermostats Have Consciousness?

2024-12-30
Philosopher Challenges Convention: Do Thermostats Have Consciousness?

Philosopher David Chalmers, in his book *The Conscious Mind*, proposes a radical idea: even simple thermostats might possess conscious experience. He argues that consciousness isn't exclusive to complex systems but a fundamental property linked to information processing. From humans to mice to thermostats, the complexity of consciousness might decrease with decreasing information processing capabilities, but it doesn't necessarily vanish. While a thermostat only has simple information states, its corresponding experience might be as simple and primitive as black, white, and gray. This view challenges traditional understandings of consciousness, prompting a re-evaluation of its fundamental nature.

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(annakaharris.com)
AI

Greenland: A Newly Crucial Arctic Strategic Location

2025-01-11
Greenland: A Newly Crucial Arctic Strategic Location

The Trump administration's growing interest in Greenland is no coincidence. The island's strategic importance has placed it at the center of a great power competition in the Arctic between the US, Russia, and China. The US maintains Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, a crucial military presence offering missile detection and space surveillance capabilities. However, climate change is melting Arctic ice, opening new shipping routes and resources, further increasing Greenland's strategic value and intensifying competition. The article reviews the history of US military presence in Greenland, including Cold War bases and nuclear accidents, and analyzes Greenland's role in future military strategy and its importance in Arctic shipping and resource contention.

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(www.twz.com)
Tech Arctic strategy Greenland Military base

Run DeepSeek R1 LLM Locally with Ollama

2025-01-29
Run DeepSeek R1 LLM Locally with Ollama

DeepSeek R1, an open-source LLM excelling in conversational AI, coding, and problem-solving, can now be run locally. This guide details using Ollama, a platform simplifying LLM deployment, to run DeepSeek R1 on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It covers installing Ollama, pulling the DeepSeek R1 model (including smaller, distilled variants), and interacting with the model via the command line. Local execution ensures data privacy and faster responses. The article also explores practical tips, including command-line automation and IDE integration, and discusses the benefits of distilled models for users with less powerful hardware.

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(workos.com)
AI Local Deployment

Spirituality: Secure Attachment to Reality

2025-01-02
Spirituality: Secure Attachment to Reality

This article connects spiritual development with attachment theory, proposing that spirituality is essentially about forming a secure attachment to reality itself. Just as children develop attachment patterns with caregivers, we develop similar patterns with existence. Secure attachment means feeling safe to experience whatever arises, trusting reality's reliability, and returning to a sense of basic okayness even in difficulty, knowing we are loved. Insecure attachment can lead to using spiritual practices as self-validation or escapism. The author argues that healing hinges on establishing safety, which precedes growth. By building secure attachment to reality, we open ourselves to vulnerability and achieve genuine transformation.

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(intimatemirror.substack.com)
Misc spirituality attachment theory psychological healing

Cloudflare Pages' Surprisingly Generous Free Tier: Why?

2025-01-15
Cloudflare Pages' Surprisingly Generous Free Tier: Why?

Cloudflare Pages offers an unlimited bandwidth free tier, a standout feature among competitors. The author explores the reasons behind this generosity: static websites are lightweight and easy to serve; Cloudflare benefits from a faster, more reliable internet, leading to increased demand for its security products; and the free tier drives word-of-mouth marketing and potential upgrades to paid services. While Cloudflare hasn't officially explained it, the author posits it's a strategic move aligned with other free services like 1.1.1.1 and free DDoS protection, ultimately boosting its security product ecosystem.

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(mattsayar.com)
Development Static Website Hosting Free Tier

Nostalgic Internet: We Never Lost the Toxicity, We Just Forgot It

2025-01-12
Nostalgic Internet: We Never Lost the Toxicity, We Just Forgot It

A wave of nostalgia has recently swept the internet, with many yearning for a friendlier, simpler online world of 20 years ago. However, this article argues that this nostalgia overlooks the inherent toxicity and problems that existed even then. It explores the evolution of the internet, how platforms became dominated by large corporations, and the proliferation of hate speech and data extraction. Some view the internet as a failed utopia, while others remain hopeful, advocating for solutions such as reclaiming digital sovereignty and supporting self-organized projects to rebuild a kinder, fairer online space.

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(english.elpais.com)
Tech internet nostalgia online culture tech commentary
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