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Ladybird July Update: HTTP/3, High Refresh Rate Support, and More

2025-08-02

Ladybird July Update: HTTP/3, High Refresh Rate Support, and More

The Ladybird open-source browser engine made significant strides in July, merging 319 pull requests from 47 contributors. Highlights include: HTTP/3 support, improved rendering performance on high refresh rate screens, a fix for Google reCAPTCHA compatibility, and added support for Trusted Types, improved SVG foreignObject handling, and numerous CSS enhancements such as `content: url(...)`, new pseudo-classes, and logical property groups. Internal improvements include switching to native UTF-16 strings for increased efficiency and fewer encoding-related bugs.

(ladybird.org)

Development

Google Pays $1.4B to Settle Texas Data Privacy Lawsuit

2025-05-10

Google Pays $1.4B to Settle Texas Data Privacy Lawsuit

Google will pay $1.4 billion to settle claims by Texas that it collected user data without permission, the state's attorney general announced. This is the largest amount any state has won in a settlement with Google over data privacy violations. The settlement covers geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data, reflecting Texas's tough stance against tech companies exploiting user data. Google stated the settlement addresses older claims and won't require new product changes.

(apnews.com)

Tech settlement

Roman Dodecahedron: A Cosmic Symbol or Mysterious Scepter?

2025-07-16

Roman Dodecahedron: A Cosmic Symbol or Mysterious Scepter?

Since their discovery in 1739, Roman dodecahedrons have puzzled archaeologists. These 12-sided bronze objects, found across the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire, remain enigmatic in their purpose. Various theories have been proposed, ranging from weapons to decorative items and measuring tools, but none have been definitively proven. Recent research suggests a symbolic connection to the cosmos, linking them to the philosophies of Plato and Pythagoras, and potentially to Druidic traditions. A dodecahedron found alongside a bone rod in a German grave supports this theory, suggesting it might have been mounted on a staff as a symbolic scepter. Thus, the Roman dodecahedron may represent a cosmic, all-encompassing amulet.

(www.livescience.com)

Misc Roman dodecahedron

Bluesky's Bigger Picture: Beyond the App

2025-06-21

Bluesky's Bigger Picture: Beyond the App

Bluesky is facing criticism for its perceived political leanings and user engagement. However, the article argues that Bluesky's value lies in its underlying open protocol, AT Proto, not just its namesake app. Numerous third-party apps built on AT Proto offer diverse social experiences, encompassing video, live streaming, blogging, and more, even integrating content from other platforms. Bluesky's future success hinges on emphasizing its open ecosystem, rather than solely positioning itself as an X alternative.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

CCL: A Minimalist Configuration Language Based on Category Theory

2025-01-11

The author presents CCL, a minimalist configuration language inspired by Category Theory. CCL's core is key-value pairs, eschewing complex features in favor of composability and extensibility. Clever use of whitespace and simple rules handle nested structures and comments, enabling powerful features like lists, comments, sections, and multiline strings while maintaining extreme simplicity. A unique fixed-point design elegantly solves key override conflicts. Leveraging monoids and monoid homomorphisms from Category Theory ensures correct and efficient configuration composition. CCL's code is concise, easily understood, and readily implemented, making it a valuable example of elegant software design.

(chshersh.com)

Development configuration language category theory

Chevy Silverado EV Shatters Single-Charge Range Record

2025-08-10

Chevy Silverado EV Shatters Single-Charge Range Record

A Chevy Silverado EV has achieved a new world record for EV driving on a single charge, traveling 1,059.2 miles without recharging. GM engineers employed various techniques, including speed limitations, drag reduction, weight reduction, and tire pressure/alignment optimization. While GM isn't seeking Guinness World Record recognition, the feat showcases significant advancements in electric vehicle technology. This surpasses the previous record held by Lucid Motors.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Chevy Silverado

WhatsApp Wins $167M+ Verdict Against Spyware Maker NSO Group

2025-05-07

After a five-year legal battle, WhatsApp secured a major victory against spyware maker NSO Group. A jury awarded WhatsApp over $167 million in damages for a 2019 hacking campaign targeting over 1,400 users. The ruling, hailed as a landmark win for privacy, finds NSO Group liable for breaching federal and California laws. NSO Group plans to appeal the verdict.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

Stripe's Insane 1,145 Daily Deployments: A Masterclass in Efficiency

2025-05-23

Stripe completed an average of 1,145 pull requests and deployments per day in 2024, experiencing less than a minute of API downtime for the entire year. With roughly 8,500 employees (around 40% engineers), this translates to each engineer shipping at least one change to production every three days. This showcases Stripe's exceptional engineering culture and massive investment in automated testing, deployments, rollbacks, observability, and more. While achieving Stripe's scale and efficiency is challenging, their success highlights the importance of reducing friction to rapidly deliver value to users.

(saile.it)

Development

uWrap: A Blazing-Fast Text Wrapping Utility (<2KB)

2025-04-04

uWrap: A Blazing-Fast Text Wrapping Utility (<2KB)

uWrap is a 10x faster and more accurate text wrapping utility under 2KB (minified), MIT licensed. Designed for efficient row height prediction in list and grid virtualization, optimizing UI performance for large scrollable datasets. It cleverly overcomes Canvas2D's lack of text wrapping APIs and the performance limitations of measureText(). Benchmarks show it significantly outperforms canvas-hypertxt in both speed and accuracy. Currently supports Latin character sets, with more features planned.

(github.com)

Development text wrapping

Devstral: Open-Source LLM Outperforms GPT-4.1-mini on Software Engineering Benchmark

2025-05-21

Devstral: Open-Source LLM Outperforms GPT-4.1-mini on Software Engineering Benchmark

Mistral AI and All Hands AI have collaborated to release Devstral, an agentic large language model (LLM) for software engineering tasks. Devstral excels on the SWE-Bench Verified benchmark, achieving a score exceeding 46.8%, more than 6% higher than previous open-source models and even surpassing GPT-4.1-mini. It tackles complex software engineering problems, such as understanding contextual relationships within large codebases and identifying subtle bugs. Devstral is lightweight, running on a single RTX 4090 or a Mac with 32GB RAM, and supports local deployment, enterprise use, and Copilot integration. The model is open-source and available via API and various download options.

(mistral.ai)

Development

Catwatchful Spyware Leak Exposes 60K+ Users, Admin

2025-07-03

Catwatchful Spyware Leak Exposes 60K+ Users, Admin

A security vulnerability in Catwatchful, a stealthy Android spyware app, exposed the email addresses and plaintext passwords of over 62,000 customers and the phone data of 26,000 victims. Masquerading as a child monitoring app, Catwatchful secretly uploads photos, messages, location data, and audio/video recordings. Security researcher Eric Daigle uncovered the flaw, revealing the app's administrator, Omar Soca Charcov. This incident highlights the prevalence and risks of consumer-grade spyware, underscoring the need for enhanced user privacy protections.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

Postgres: Powering Scalable, Observable Durable Workflows

2025-08-09

Postgres: Powering Scalable, Observable Durable Workflows

This blog post delves into the technical reasons behind DBOS's choice of PostgreSQL as the metadata store for their durable workflow library. PostgreSQL's concurrency control, specifically its locking clauses, solves contention issues in database-backed queues, enabling scalability to tens of thousands of workflows per second. Its relational data model and secondary indexes simplify the development of observability tooling for real-time monitoring and visualization of workflow execution. Furthermore, PostgreSQL transactions guarantee exactly-once execution semantics for database operations, preventing duplication. PostgreSQL's features make it ideal for building robust and performant durable workflow libraries.

(www.dbos.dev)

Development Durable Workflows

Apple Officially Ends the Intel Mac Era: The End of an Epoch

2025-06-10

Apple Officially Ends the Intel Mac Era: The End of an Epoch

Apple announced that macOS Tahoe will be the final release supporting Intel processors, marking the end of a 20-year run of Intel-based Macs. While Apple is giving users a one-year grace period and promising security updates, the decision has sparked some controversy. The article revisits the history of Intel Macs and discusses the impact of this transition on users and developers, along with the advantages of a cheaper Mac Mini and the end of the Hackintosh culture. The author expresses nostalgia for the flexibility of Intel Macs and argues that Apple lacks user choice.

(tedium.co)

Tech

The Chrome-Tastic Airbrush Art of the 80s: A Nostalgic Look Back

2025-08-15

The 80s saw airbrush art explode in popularity. The author recounts their teenage yearning for an airbrush, dreaming of painting band logos and making money. While computer design eventually took over, the author fondly remembers the unique chrome effects, gradients, and speed lines of 80s airbrush art. Digital art today perfectly replicates the style, but lacks the organic imperfections of the original. The author hopes to one day rediscover their old airbrush and revisit this iconic art form.

(www.coolandcollected.com)

Design 80s art airbrush art

2 Billion Lack Safe Drinking Water: What Does This Really Mean?

2025-06-23

2 Billion Lack Safe Drinking Water: What Does This Really Mean?

This article delves into the stark reality of 2 billion people lacking access to safe drinking water. It's not just a statistic; it translates to millions facing health risks and lost lives. The article highlights the time commitment – often hours daily – spent collecting water, and the devastating impact of waterborne diseases. Through data and compelling personal stories from diverse countries, the piece illustrates the varied realities of water access and its consequences. It emphasizes that improved water safety isn't solely about disease prevention, but also about reclaiming valuable time and opportunities, requiring global cooperation to tackle infrastructure and contamination issues.

(ourworldindata.org)

Tech safe drinking water

Smartphone Camera Sensors Revolutionize Antimatter Research

2025-04-07

Smartphone Camera Sensors Revolutionize Antimatter Research

The AEgIS collaboration, led by the Technical University of Munich, has repurposed smartphone camera sensors to create a detector capable of imaging antiproton annihilations in real time with unprecedented 0.6-micrometer resolution – a 35-fold improvement. This breakthrough, using 60 integrated camera sensors for a total of 3840 megapixels, surpasses previous methods relying on photographic plates. Human analysis of the images, despite its time-consuming nature, proved crucial for achieving this accuracy. This technology opens new avenues for studying low-energy antiparticle annihilation and the gravitational effects on antihydrogen.

(home.cern)

Tech

A 2-Stage Pipelined Unlimited Register Machine Built in Conway's Game of Life

2025-08-10

This article, the fourth in a series, details the construction of a (2-stage pipelined) Unlimited Register Machine (URM) in Conway's Game of Life. The URM, a Turing-complete four-instruction CPU, is shown factoring the number 15. The author describes the URM's design, including the ALU, register file, ROM, and instruction execution. Emphasis is placed on efficient circuit design in Game of Life, prioritizing circuit length over transistor count. A 2-stage pipeline is implemented to boost speed. The author concludes by announcing a future redesign for improved efficiency.

(nicholas.carlini.com)

Development Digital Logic Gates

UN Report: Israel Guilty of Genocide in Gaza

2025-09-16

UN Report: Israel Guilty of Genocide in Gaza

A UN commission of inquiry has concluded that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza, marking the most authoritative statement on the issue to date. The 72-page report details four acts prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention, finding that Israeli leaders intended to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group. This is the first comprehensive legal probe by a UN body, holding significant weight in the ongoing International Court of Justice (ICJ) case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. The report urges UN member states to take action, including halting arms transfers to Israel and imposing sanctions on those involved in or facilitating genocide.

(www.middleeasteye.net)

Tech Gaza

Hunting a Higgs-Bugson: Debugging a Kernel-Level NFS/Kerberos Issue

2025-07-03

Hunting a Higgs-Bugson: Debugging a Kernel-Level NFS/Kerberos Issue

Engineers encountered a difficult-to-reproduce bug causing file copy failures (-EACCES) in Gord, a critical trading data system. Disabling Kerberos resolved the issue, pointing to authentication problems. Investigation revealed the kernel obtains Kerberos credentials via the rpc_gssd daemon, but logs showed no anomalies. Extensive testing, including creating an in-memory fake filesystem and using bpftrace for kernel tracing, finally pinpointed the issue: high NFS server load caused request retransmissions. The kernel mishandled requests/responses with identical XIDs but different GSS sequence numbers, leading to checksum mismatches and errors. The engineer fixed the kernel to prevent immediate retransmission due to sequence number mismatches.

(blog.janestreet.com)

Development kernel bug

Microsoft's Blocking of Sanctioned Individual's Email: A Security ROI Perspective

2025-06-26

Microsoft's Blocking of Sanctioned Individual's Email: A Security ROI Perspective

The recent incident where Microsoft allegedly blocked the mailbox of a sanctioned individual raises concerns about the reliance on MS products. This article analyzes the potential risks and associated costs from a Return on Security Investment (ROSI) perspective. While the probability of a complete MS service cutoff is low, the consequences are severe, potentially costing millions. The author explores how businesses can assess this risk and calculates the investment required for different sized companies to fully migrate away from the Microsoft ecosystem. Even for large enterprises, completely detaching from Microsoft proves incredibly challenging and costly. Ultimately, the article concludes that insufficient data exists for precise risk modeling, highlighting the challenges inherent in risk management.

(blog.miloslavhomer.cz)

Tech microsoft

Unlocking the Cosmos: Mastering Astrophotography Post-Processing

2025-06-06

Unlocking the Cosmos: Mastering Astrophotography Post-Processing

Astrophotography editing is crucial for transforming raw data into stunning images. Raw images are often dark and require techniques like histogram stretching, curves adjustments, color balancing, and noise reduction to reveal hidden details and remove light pollution. The article explores both basic and advanced editing methods, including software recommendations (Siril, Photoshop), and advanced techniques such as HDR compositing and star removal, to guide astrophotographers in creating breathtaking celestial masterpieces.

(astroimagery.com)

Tech

Pixels Weren't Always Square: A Deep Dive into Retro Game Aspect Ratios

2025-05-30

Pixels Weren't Always Square: A Deep Dive into Retro Game Aspect Ratios

Did you know that pixels weren't always square? This article explores the fascinating history of pixel aspect ratios in retro computer games. From early consoles to PCs, pixel shapes varied wildly, far from the ubiquitous square we see today. The author analyzes the aspect ratios of games across various platforms (SNES, Apple II, TRS-80, Commodore 64, etc.), and how best to present them on modern displays. Concepts of 'authenticity' and 'super-authenticity' are discussed, comparing methods like nearest-neighbor, linear, and cubic scaling. Numerous game screenshots illustrate the visual impact of different aspect ratios, concluding that while most developers considered aspect ratio, it wasn't always accurate or consistent, and while a 4:3 display is often a good compromise, it's not always the best solution.

(datadrivengamer.blogspot.com)

Game

Dynamo AI Hiring Senior Kubernetes Engineer for Enterprise AI Deployments

2025-09-19

Dynamo AI Hiring Senior Kubernetes Engineer for Enterprise AI Deployments

Dynamo AI is seeking a Senior Kubernetes Engineer to lead enterprise customers through the entire journey from initial engagement to successful production deployment. This hands-on, customer-facing role involves deploying secure, scalable AI systems using Kubernetes, Helm, and cloud-native tools. The ideal candidate will have extensive Kubernetes and cloud platform experience, excellent communication skills, and US government security clearance or US citizenship. A 2-3 day per week in-office presence in San Francisco or New York is required.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

Liu Jiakun Wins 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize

2025-03-14

Liu Jiakun, an architect from Chengdu, China, has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's highest honor. His work masterfully blends seemingly opposing elements – utopia and daily life, history and modernity, collectivism and individualism – creating buildings that respect cultural history while remaining deeply connected to the lives of ordinary citizens. He prioritizes public spaces, cleverly balancing density and openness in crowded cities, integrating buildings seamlessly into the fabric of urban life as infrastructure, landscape, and public space all at once. His designs demonstrate a reverence for culture, history, and nature, incorporating elements of classic Chinese architecture with modern design sensibilities. Examples include the gently sloping eaves of the Suzhou Museum and the window walls of the Chengdu Egret Gulf Wetland Park, showcasing both tradition and innovation.

(www.pritzkerprize.com)

Design Pritzker Prize Liu Jiakun Chinese Architecture

Bitmovin Summer Internship: AI-Powered Video Streaming

2025-02-27

Bitmovin Summer Internship: AI-Powered Video Streaming

Global video streaming technology company Bitmovin is offering engineering internships in Vienna, Klagenfurt, and Berlin for Summer 2025, focusing on AI. Interns will work on projects utilizing AI for video stream optimization, Docker image analysis, player UI debugging, and more, using cutting-edge technology for millions of users. Bitmovin values cognitive diversity and welcomes students from all backgrounds; internships are at least two months long.

(bitmovin.com)

Development Video Streaming

Smell Test Predicts Female Friendships

2025-04-26

Smell Test Predicts Female Friendships

A new study reveals that women can predict whether they'll befriend someone else by smelling their worn T-shirts. In the study, 40 female volunteers participated in a 'speed-friending' event where they first rated each other's photos, then smelled each other's worn T-shirts, and finally interacted face-to-face. Results showed a strong correlation between odor-based friendship potential assessments and those made after face-to-face interactions, suggesting a subconscious role of scent in friendship formation. While the study was limited to college-aged heterosexual women, it opens avenues for future research into the interplay of olfaction and social relationships.

(arstechnica.com)

Misc smell

Building a Game Boy Cartridge from Scratch: A Deep Dive into Hardware and Software

2025-07-23

Allison Parrish's multi-year journey to build a Game Boy cartridge from scratch is documented in this comprehensive article. It details the inner workings of Game Boy cartridges, explaining concepts like memory mapping, Memory Bank Controllers (MBCs), chip select, and buses. The article dives deep into the specifics of various MBCs, particularly the MBC5, and addresses challenges like using flash memory instead of ROM and resolving conflicts between flash and MBC protocols. Hardware aspects such as battery-backed SRAM persistence and voltage conversion are also explored. This in-depth technical guide is perfect for anyone interested in Game Boy hardware and software development.

(abc.decontextualize.com)

Development

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-09-17

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)

Tech

PEP: A New Ultra-Efficient Compression Format for Pixel Art

2025-08-25

PEP: A New Ultra-Efficient Compression Format for Pixel Art

PEP is a novel image compression format specifically designed for low-color pixel art (≤16 colors is optimal, up to 256 colors are supported). It uses "Prediction by Partial Matching, Order-2" compression, which is 2-10x slower than GIF, PNG, and QOI, but often compresses images 20-50% smaller than GIF/PNG (and multiple times smaller than QOI). If compressed image size matters, PEP is for you. It sits somewhere between GIF and WEBP in terms of speed/compression tradeoff. This is currently experimental, but a C header is provided for use.

(github.com)

Development

Programmer Preferences: Shaped by Childhood?

2025-05-19

This article explores the author's programming preferences, tracing them back to his childhood experiences. He argues that culture and upbringing shape our core beliefs about technology more than rational arguments. The author's childhood instilled in him a perfectionist, mistake-averse, and help-rejecting nature, mirroring his programming style: preference for statically-typed languages, dependency aversion, and a pursuit of concise code. He suggests that finding an environment aligned with one's personality is key to maximizing potential, rather than forcing oneself to adapt to unsuitable settings. The author concludes by urging programmers to accept diverse styles and prioritize personal feelings in career choices.

(mmapped.blog)

Development programming style childhood experience psychological impact

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