Two Dots (YC) Hiring Machine Learning Engineer

2025-01-08
Two Dots (YC) Hiring Machine Learning Engineer

Two Dots, a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup, is hiring a Machine Learning Engineer with a salary of $200K-$250K. They're using AI to revolutionize lending, aiming to prevent future financial crises like 2008. The role involves maintaining machine learning pipelines (document images, natural language, numbers) and requires strong teamwork skills. It's a hybrid role in San Francisco, with 5 days a week in the office.

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AI

Linux 6.14 Kernel: KVM Virtualization Gets a Boost

2025-01-31

The upcoming Linux 6.14 kernel includes a significant number of updates to its Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) subsystem. Improvements include removing redundant TLB flushes on AMD CPUs, an overhaul of the KVM x86 CPUID feature infrastructure for better vCPU capability tracking, continued work on Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) VM support, refined VM-exit handling for improved VMX/SVM parity, and added Zabha, Svvptc, and Ziccrse extension support for RISC-V KVM guests. These changes promise enhanced performance and stability for virtual machines.

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Development

OpenAI Launches Cheaper, Faster Reasoning Model: o3-mini

2025-01-31
OpenAI Launches Cheaper, Faster Reasoning Model: o3-mini

OpenAI unveiled o3-mini, a new AI reasoning model in its 'o' family. While comparable in capability to the o1 family, o3-mini boasts faster speeds and lower costs. Fine-tuned for STEM problems, particularly programming, math, and science, it's available in ChatGPT with adjustable 'reasoning effort' settings balancing speed and accuracy. Paid users get unlimited access, while free users have a query limit. Also accessible via OpenAI's API to select developers, o3-mini offers competitive pricing and improved safety, though it doesn't surpass DeepSeek's R1 model in all benchmarks.

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AI

Four Reasons Why Zoom Meetings Are So Exhausting (and How to Fix It)

2025-01-09
Four Reasons Why Zoom Meetings Are So Exhausting (and How to Fix It)

Stanford researchers have identified four key causes of 'Zoom fatigue': excessive close-up eye contact, constantly seeing yourself on camera, restricted mobility, and increased cognitive load. Excessive eye contact and large face sizes create stress; constantly seeing yourself leads to self-criticism; limited movement and higher cognitive load exacerbate fatigue. Solutions include reducing Zoom window size, hiding self-view, increasing movement, and taking 'audio-only' breaks. A Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue (ZEF) scale is also being developed to measure the extent of Zoom fatigue.

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ICE's Social Media Surveillance Sparks Controversy

2025-02-14
ICE's Social Media Surveillance Sparks Controversy

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to monitor and locate "negative" social media discussions about the agency and its officials, using a new contract. This move has raised concerns about free speech and privacy. While ICE claims it's a response to increased threats against its personnel and facilities, critics argue it could sweep up constitutionally protected speech. The contract may involve digging into users' personal information, including social security numbers and addresses. This follows ICE's previous use of federal contractors for large-scale social media surveillance, fueling concerns about government overreach.

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Simulating a Cambrian Explosion: Evolve Your Own Virtual Creatures

2025-02-14

MIT researchers have developed a Cambrian Vision Simulator allowing users to define and evolve their own embodied agents. You can set tasks, evolve agents' eyes or brains, and explore generative design of visual intelligence. This project will also be exhibited at the MIT Museum, showcasing evolving eyes in virtual reality. The research aims to use biological principles (natural evolution) to study the evolution of vision and design more intelligent artificial vision, triggering a Cambrian Explosion of artificial vision.

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Browser-Based VGA 1D Cellular Automata Simulation

2025-01-08

Alexander Mordvintsev's TinyTapeout '09 project runs a 60fps 640x480 VGA signal directly in your browser. This single 160x100 μm chip simulates a scrolling animation of several elementary 1D cellular automata rules. The WebAssembly-based simulator, visualized with SwissGL, displays gate-level activations. This demonstrates impressive computational density, showcasing the ability to fit complex calculations onto a tiny chip. Links to the design repository and demo page are provided.

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Deconstructing Fenwick Trees with Functional Programming

2025-01-25

This paper delves into the implementation of Fenwick trees (also known as binary indexed trees). Starting with the more readily understandable segment tree, the author uses functional programming and equational reasoning to derive the implementation of Fenwick trees, revealing the logic behind their seemingly mysterious bitwise operations. By cleverly using a Haskell EDSL to operate on infinite two's complement binary numbers, the paper ultimately explains the secret of Fenwick trees' efficient implementation and proves the logarithmic time complexity of its update and range query operations.

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Conquering Insomnia: The Healing Power of Creation

2025-02-08
Conquering Insomnia: The Healing Power of Creation

The author, a former chronic insomniac, developed a series of quirky rules to combat his sleeplessness, even including avoiding the thought of a particular car air freshener. However, he ultimately discovered that the most effective method was to relinquish control over his sleep, allowing himself to create – writing, drawing, sculpting – whenever inspiration struck in the late hours. This creative process not only dispelled the anxiety of insomnia but also brought unexpected ease and satisfaction. The author encourages readers to try letting go of perfectionism and allow themselves to create, even if they're not good at it, to find healing and release.

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Misc

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-02-08
arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

arXivLabs is a framework for collaborators to build and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved share arXiv's commitment to openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv only partners with those who uphold these values. Got an idea to improve the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

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Development

OWASP Non-Human Identity Top 10 - 2025: A Critical Security List

2025-02-04

The OWASP Non-Human Identity (NHI) Top 10 - 2025 outlines the ten most critical risks associated with using non-human identities (like bots and automated tools) in application development. Compiled using real-world breach data, surveys, and the OWASP Risk Rating Methodology, this list helps developers understand and mitigate significant security threats posed by NHIs, which are increasingly vital to modern development pipelines. Contributions to improve the project are welcome.

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Development Non-Human Identity

Trump's Tariff War: Canada and Mexico's Oil Industry Takes a Hit

2025-02-17
Trump's Tariff War: Canada and Mexico's Oil Industry Takes a Hit

The Trump administration's imposition of hefty tariffs on Canadian and Mexican oil products has sparked widespread concern. This move could lead to a 10% increase in gasoline prices in the U.S. Midwest and severely impact Canadian and Mexican oil exports. Experts point out the high dependence of the U.S. on Canadian heavy crude oil, with limited substitutes, meaning tariffs will directly translate to higher consumer prices. Mexico may redirect its oil exports to Asian and European markets. This event highlights the tense relationship between the U.S. and its major trading partners, and the impact of tariff policies on the global energy market.

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Euclid Telescope Spots a Perfect Einstein Ring

2025-02-13
Euclid Telescope Spots a Perfect Einstein Ring

The European Space Agency's Euclid telescope has discovered a perfect Einstein ring around the galaxy NGC 6505, located 590 million light-years away. This rare phenomenon, a result of gravitational lensing, shows light from a distant galaxy (4.42 billion light-years away) warped into a ring by the gravity of NGC 6505. The discovery highlights Euclid's observational power and provides a unique opportunity to study a distant galaxy in detail, marking a significant advancement in cosmology.

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Lean Graph Theory: Modeling Organizational Operations

2025-01-27
Lean Graph Theory: Modeling Organizational Operations

This article explores using path graphs, directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), and network graphs to understand and improve organizational operations, especially in rapidly scaling tech companies. The author argues that different company types at different stages of development face unique challenges and require different models to address them. Using a product launch lifecycle as an example, the article illustrates the application scenarios and interplay of the three models, emphasizing the varied application of "Lean" principles across them. The conclusion highlights a shift from path and DAG models to more network-graph-centric models as companies grow to manage complex structures and collaborations.

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Intel's Habana Labs AI Chip Dream Crumbles: Another Acquisition Fail

2025-02-09
Intel's Habana Labs AI Chip Dream Crumbles: Another Acquisition Fail

Intel's 2020 acquisition of Israeli AI chip startup Habana Labs for $2 billion, whose Gaudi chips were used by Amazon to train large language models, has ended in failure. The next-generation Habana processor, Falcon Shores, was canceled due to negative customer feedback, effectively marking the end of Habana Labs. This highlights Intel's struggles with acquisitions and its inconsistent AI strategy. While founder Avigdor Willenz received a substantial payout, the failure represents a significant misstep and a missed opportunity for both Intel and Israel.

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Reliable Data Replication from PostgreSQL to ClickHouse using PeerDB

2025-02-22
Reliable Data Replication from PostgreSQL to ClickHouse using PeerDB

This article demonstrates how to reliably replicate data from PostgreSQL to ClickHouse using PeerDB, a change data capture (CDC) solution specializing in PostgreSQL. It compares self-hosted open-source PeerDB with a fully managed version integrated into ClickHouse Cloud (via ClickPipes). Core concepts like creating peers, mirrors, and data transformations are explained, along with a step-by-step deployment and configuration guide. Whether using the open-source or managed route, PeerDB offers a highly performant and reliable data replication solution for PostgreSQL and ClickHouse users.

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Development data replication

WWII's Secret Weapon: Japan's Failed Balloon Bomb Attack

2025-02-04
WWII's Secret Weapon: Japan's Failed Balloon Bomb Attack

In 1944, Japan launched thousands of balloon bombs across the Pacific, aiming to sow chaos and destruction in the continental US. These massive paper balloons, carrying incendiaries and explosives, utilized the jet stream for transpacific travel. While ultimately resulting in only six American civilian deaths and minimal military impact, the operation remains a fascinating, obscure chapter of WWII, highlighting Japan's desperate wartime resourcefulness and the complexities of wartime information control. The project's failure underscores the limitations of unconventional warfare tactics.

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Open Source Data Collection Tool RudderStack Found to Collect Passwords

2025-02-01
Open Source Data Collection Tool RudderStack Found to Collect Passwords

The open-source data collection tool RudderStack has been found to have a serious security vulnerability that, under certain circumstances, collects user passwords. The vulnerability stems from its autotrack feature, which collects all DOM attributes of elements a user clicks on. These attributes can contain sensitive information like passwords. This mirrors a similar vulnerability found in Mixpanel two years ago. While RudderStack has patched the issue partially, the fix is incomplete and potential risks remain. Users are advised to proceed with caution and monitor for updates.

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Development data collection

LLMs in 2024: A Year of Breakthroughs and Challenges

2024-12-31
LLMs in 2024: A Year of Breakthroughs and Challenges

2024 witnessed a remarkable evolution in Large Language Models (LLMs). Multiple organizations surpassed GPT-4's performance, leading to dramatically increased efficiency—even enabling LLM execution on personal laptops. Multimodal models became commonplace, with voice and video capabilities emerging. Prompt-driven app generation became a commodity, yet universal access to top-tier models lasted only months. While 'agents' remained elusive, the importance of evaluation became paramount. Apple's MLX library excelled, contrasting with its underwhelming 'Apple Intelligence' features. Inference-scaling models rose, lowering costs and improving environmental impact, but also raising concerns about the environmental consequences of new infrastructure. Synthetic training data proved highly effective, but LLM usability remained challenging, knowledge distribution remained uneven, and better critical evaluation is needed.

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Asahi Linux Lead Resigns Amidst Burnout and Community Conflict

2025-02-14
Asahi Linux Lead Resigns Amidst Burnout and Community Conflict

Hector Martin, project lead of Asahi Linux, resigned due to developer burnout, demanding users, and Linus Torvalds' handling of Rust integration into the Linux kernel. Martin criticized Torvalds' lack of support and accused the Linux community of hypocrisy and malicious attacks. He cited Torvalds' poor leadership in handling Rust integration, leading to abuse of power by maintainers. This highlights the growing issue of developer burnout and community conflict in open source, and the need for sustainable funding for open source projects.

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Development developer burnout

BloodFlowTrixi.jl: High-Performance Blood Flow Models in Julia

2025-02-19
BloodFlowTrixi.jl: High-Performance Blood Flow Models in Julia

BloodFlowTrixi.jl is a Julia package implementing 1D and 2D blood flow models for arterial circulation, derived from the Navier-Stokes equations. Developed for PhD research on cardiovascular pathologies, it leverages the Trixi.jl framework for efficient Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) simulations. The package supports curvilinear geometries and compliant wall dynamics. Future development includes 3D fluid-structure interaction and vascular network simulations.

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Five Years in the Making: A Minimalist Music Composition Web App Launches on Hacker News

2025-02-05
Five Years in the Making: A Minimalist Music Composition Web App Launches on Hacker News

An engineer recounts his five-year journey building a minimalist online music composition web app, "signal." He details the challenges of navigating evolving JavaScript technologies (from C++ to Electron, CoffeeScript, React, Riot.js, TypeScript, and finally WebGL and styled-components), performance bottlenecks, and the eventual launch on Hacker News. Despite modest initial reception, the app gained traction, earning GitHub stars and sponsorships. While still early in development, the launch marks a significant milestone, with future plans focusing on collaborative composition features.

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Development Music Composition

Migraine Breakthrough: From Trepanation to Targeted Therapies

2025-02-18
Migraine Breakthrough: From Trepanation to Targeted Therapies

For millennia, migraine treatment ranged from ancient Egyptian clay crocodiles to 17th-century trepanation. Now, deeper understanding of brain mechanisms, particularly the development of CGRP-targeting drugs like gepants, has redefined migraine as a treatable condition. While not a panacea, the success of CGRP inhibitors marks a new era in migraine research. Future breakthroughs may involve further investigation of brain regions like the hypothalamus to develop more effective therapies, offering hope to millions suffering from this debilitating condition.

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Reddit to Introduce Paywall for Exclusive Subreddits

2025-02-14
Reddit to Introduce Paywall for Exclusive Subreddits

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced plans to introduce a paywall this year, focusing initially on new subreddits offering exclusive content accessible only to paying members. The company is exploring compensation models for content creators, potentially leveraging the existing Reddit Contributor Program which rewards users for contributions. While paid content is coming, Huffman assures that free Reddit will continue to exist and thrive. A key challenge lies in balancing paid and free content, and incentivizing volunteer moderators to manage paid subreddits.

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NLRB Rescinds Memos on Restrictive Covenants, Offering Relief to Employers

2025-02-17
NLRB Rescinds Memos on Restrictive Covenants, Offering Relief to Employers

On February 14, 2025, NLRB Acting General Counsel William B. Cowen rescinded memoranda that had deemed certain non-compete and stay-or-pay agreements as violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This reverses the stance of former GC Jennifer Abruzzo. While this is positive for employers, the rescission doesn't eliminate all legal risk. Existing NLRB case law and conflicting ALJ decisions remain, requiring employers to carefully consider state law and tailor restrictive covenants to protect legitimate business interests.

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Wger: Open-Source Workout & Diet Management App

2025-02-13
Wger: Open-Source Workout & Diet Management App

Wger is a free, open-source web application for managing personal workouts, weight, and diet plans. It also functions as a simple gym management tool and offers a REST API for easy integration. Easily deployable via Docker, a demo image is available for quick testing. The code and content are open-source, and translations are supported.

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Development

Amazon's AI Spending Spree: A $100B+ Bet on the Future

2025-02-07
Amazon's AI Spending Spree: A $100B+ Bet on the Future

Amazon plans to spend over $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, with a significant portion (estimated at over $86 billion) dedicated to building out AI infrastructure for its AWS cloud services. This massive investment reflects Amazon's strong belief in AI and its potential for future growth. While the short-term investment-to-revenue ratio is high, Amazon's financial model projects a substantial long-term return on investment for its AI infrastructure, explaining the company's aggressive approach to the AI market.

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arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-01-31
arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

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

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Development open platform

Poka-Yoke: The Japanese Art of Mistake-Proofing

2025-01-09

Poka-yoke, meaning "mistake-proofing" in Japanese, is a lean manufacturing concept originating from the Toyota Production System. It involves designing mechanisms to prevent, correct, or highlight human errors in a process, thereby eliminating defects. A simple example is a car's clutch pedal—it's a poka-yoke, forcing the driver to depress it before starting the engine. This approach not only improves product quality but also reduces training costs, lessens quality control burdens, and ultimately achieves 100% built-in quality control.

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BZip3: A Superior Successor to BZip2

2025-02-01
BZip3: A Superior Successor to BZip2

BZip3 is a faster and more efficient successor to BZip2, boasting higher compression ratios and improved performance. This is achieved through an order-0 context mixing entropy coder, a fast Burrows-Wheeler transform utilizing suffix arrays, and an RLE with Lempel Ziv+Prediction pass based on LZ77-style string matching and PPM-style context modeling. Benchmarks comparing it against other compression algorithms, including tests on a massive archive of Perl source code, demonstrate its significant advantages. BZip3's performance is highly dependent on the compiler, with x64 Linux clang13 builds showing impressive speeds. The project is licensed under LGPLv3.

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Development
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