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Flawed AI Forecasting Chart Goes Viral: A Cautionary Tale

2025-05-04
Flawed AI Forecasting Chart Goes Viral: A Cautionary Tale

METR, a non-profit research lab, released a report charting the rapid progress of large language models in software tasks, sparking viral discussions. However, the chart's premise is flawed: it uses human solution time to measure problem difficulty and AI's 50% success rate time as a measure of capability. This ignores the diverse complexities of problems, leading to arbitrary results unsuitable for prediction. While METR's dataset and discussions on current AI limitations are valuable, using the chart for future AI capability predictions is misleading. Its viral spread highlights a tendency to believe what one wants to believe rather than focusing on validity.

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(garymarcus.substack.com)
AI

Reject Cookies: A Chrome Extension to End Annoying Cookie Banners

2025-04-29

Tired of annoying cookie consent banners? The Reject Cookies Chrome extension automatically rejects non-essential cookies and closes pop-ups. While initially using Cursor for development, the approach shifted to a more targeted method, focusing on specific vendors like OneTrust for better accuracy. The extension is a work in progress and welcomes user feedback and contributions to expand its coverage of cookie providers.

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(blog.bymitch.com)
Development

Slashing R&D Funding: A Macroeconomic Disaster

2025-04-30

A new analysis reveals the devastating long-term economic consequences of cutting federal funding for scientific R&D. Reducing public R&D spending by 25% would shrink GDP comparably to the Great Recession. Halving it would impoverish the average American by roughly $10,000 (in today's dollars). Furthermore, such cuts would significantly reduce federal revenue; a 25% reduction leading to a 4.3% annual decrease, and a 50% cut resulting in an 8.6% annual decline. Agencies like NIH and NSF, crucial for funding basic and applied research, face funding freezes and downsizing, highlighting the urgent need to address this issue.

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(impa.american.edu)
Tech R&D funding

Recreating Game Boy Sounds with the Web Audio API: Fourier Series vs. Wave Shaper

2025-04-07

While building a web-based Game Boy style music tracker, the author encountered the challenge of faithfully recreating the iconic Game Boy square wave sounds. Game Boy's pulse channels supported variable duty cycles, but the Web Audio API's OscillatorNode only provides a 50% duty cycle square wave. The article explores two solutions: generating a custom waveform using the Fourier series and shaping a sawtooth wave with a WaveShaperNode. The Fourier series approach offers higher accuracy but is computationally expensive; the WaveShaperNode method is simpler but might introduce some noise. The author ultimately prefers the WaveShaperNode approach for its simplicity and its ability to produce a more authentic Game Boy sound.

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(www.danblack.co)
Development Sound Synthesis

German UBI Experiment: Full-Time Work Continues, Happiness Increases

2025-04-12
German UBI Experiment: Full-Time Work Continues, Happiness Increases

A three-year German experiment provided 122 participants with a monthly unconditional basic income of €1,200. Surprisingly, participants didn't reduce their working hours; instead, job satisfaction increased, and they were more likely to change jobs or pursue further education. The study showed that unconditional basic income didn't decrease economic activity but improved participants' mental and physical health, particularly for women, who experienced a greater sense of autonomy. This experiment challenges the conventional wisdom that basic income discourages work and offers valuable insights for future policy decisions.

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(www.cnn.com)
Misc

Bose's Magical Suspension Finally Makes it to Production Cars

2025-05-03
Bose's Magical Suspension Finally Makes it to Production Cars

Twenty years ago, a video of a Lexus LS400 with Bose's prototype electromechanical proactive suspension went viral, showcasing its seemingly impossible ability to handle any terrain. Due to production challenges, the project was shelved. Now, ClearMotion has revived the technology, integrating it into the Nio ET9, marking its debut in mass production. Future partnerships with Porsche and other automakers promise to bring this once-futuristic technology to a wider range of vehicles.

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(www.thedrive.com)
Tech suspension system

1700-Year-Old Intact Roman Egg Baffles Scientists

2025-04-18
1700-Year-Old Intact Roman Egg Baffles Scientists

Archaeologists in the UK have unearthed a remarkably preserved 1700-year-old egg at the Berryfields site, about 50 miles northwest of London. Found in an ancient well that served as both a water source and ritual site during Roman times, the egg's liquid interior remains intact. The discovery, alongside other artifacts like coins and bones, offers invaluable insights into Roman culture, daily life, and animal introductions. The egg's preservation, its seemingly unbroken state, and its potential connection to Roman rituals make it a truly unique find. Scientists plan to extract the liquid and perform DNA testing to determine the species and origin of the egg.

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(www.atlasobscura.com)
Tech Egg

Waymo's Self-Driving System Significantly Reduces Serious Crashes

2025-05-01
Waymo's Self-Driving System Significantly Reduces Serious Crashes

Waymo's latest research demonstrates significant progress in reducing serious crashes and improving safety for vulnerable road users. Compared to human drivers, the Waymo Driver showed substantially lower crash rates across 11 crash types, with remarkable reductions in crashes involving injuries to pedestrians (92%), cyclists (82%), and motorcyclists (82%). Intersection crashes resulting in injuries were reduced by 96%, largely attributed to the system's ability to detect and respond to red-light runners. This research provides strong evidence supporting the vision of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries, highlighting the transformative potential of autonomous driving technology for road safety.

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(waymo.com)
Tech

C++26: A Giant Leap for Compile-Time Standard Library Features

2025-05-01

C++26 is set to revolutionize compile-time programming with a massive boost to constexpr support in the standard library. Several proposals (P2562R1, P1383R2, P3074R7, P3372R2, P3508R0, P3369R0) bring stable sorting algorithms, and functions, improved union rules, nearly all containers and adaptors, and specialized memory algorithms into the constexpr fold. This significantly enhances compile-time capabilities, allowing, for example, compile-time sorting of constexpr containers. While std::hive and std::hash remain excluded due to limitations, C++26 promises a dramatic expansion of compile-time programming possibilities.

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(www.sandordargo.com)
Development standard library

Brideshead Revisited: A Sumptuous Novel of Redemption

2025-04-11
Brideshead Revisited: A Sumptuous Novel of Redemption

Evelyn Waugh's *Brideshead Revisited* chronicles Charles Ryder's entanglement with the Flyte family and his eventual conversion to Catholicism. The novel uses lavish prose to depict the decadent lifestyle of the upper class, but ultimately points towards the redemption found in faith. Though initially controversial for its Catholic perspective and portrayal of high society, the novel's exploration of faith, redemption, and human nature secures its place as a 20th-century English literary masterpiece.

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(libertiesjournal.com)
Misc redemption

Epic Games Defeats Apple: Fortnite Returns to iOS, Developers Can Bypass App Store Fees

2025-05-01
Epic Games Defeats Apple: Fortnite Returns to iOS, Developers Can Bypass App Store Fees

Following a major legal victory against Apple, Epic Games announced that its Epic Games Store will allow developers to open webshops, enabling players to make out-of-app purchases and circumvent Apple and Google's fees. This move stems from Apple's App Store's 30% commission, with a judge ruling that Apple couldn't prevent developers from directing users to buy digital goods outside the Apple ecosystem. Epic is bringing Fortnite back to the iOS App Store, incentivizing users to purchase digital goods directly through Epic for better prices. The Epic Games Store's new webshops feature will make it easier for other developers to follow suit. Starting in June, Epic will waive its cut from the first $1 million earned annually by each game, only taking a percentage after surpassing that milestone—a more developer-friendly model than Apple's.

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(techcrunch.com)
Game

Fail-Safe AI Calls using OpenAI Library and Gemini API

2025-04-06

This article demonstrates a fail-safe approach to making AI calls using the OpenAI TS/JS library. The method allows for fallback to other OpenAI models if the Gemini API hits rate limits. A custom function allows developers to specify multiple AI models as alternatives, ensuring application stability and reliability. Type-safe structured output functions are also provided to simplify handling AI responses.

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(sometechblog.com)
Development AI calls fail-safe mechanism

Sleep Trackers: Are They Really Measuring What Matters?

2025-04-11
Sleep Trackers: Are They Really Measuring What Matters?

Affectable Sleep challenges the efficacy of sleep trackers. The article argues that trackers overemphasize sleep duration and consistency, neglecting sleep quality and restorative function. For example, a tracker might give a low score even if someone gets a short but deeply restorative sleep. Trackers fail to interpret the physiological mechanisms behind sleep, offering only post-hoc analysis and no real-time optimization. The article advocates focusing on the physiological and neurological processes of sleep rather than mere data, and calls for a new approach that prioritizes sleep quality over quantity.

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(www.affectablesleep.com)
Tech

Millihertz 5: A Mechanical Replica of the Manchester 'Baby'

2025-05-01

Millihertz 5, also known as 'Offspring', is a mechanical computer modeled after the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine ('Baby'). It uses ball bearings as data elements, features an 8x8 bit RAM and an 8-bit datapath with a subtractor and accumulator. The project is currently under construction, with design documents (PDF and HTML) available online.

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(www.srimech.com)
Hardware

MYGA: Make YouTube Great Again

2025-03-15
MYGA: Make YouTube Great Again

MYGA is a clean and minimal YouTube frontend, stripping away ads and unnecessary features. Powered by yt-dlp for downloading videos and optionally your local AI model for summarizing video content, it offers a local, efficient, concise, and ad-free YouTube experience. Features include channel management, subscriptions, background playback, offline playback, and more. It's dependency-free (except nano-spawn), using only HTML/CSS; no JS frameworks on the client or server. Host it on your home network for playback on all your devices.

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(github.com)
Development local

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.

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(www.fsf.org)
Tech

The Rise and Fall of Bell Labs: A Lesson in Innovation

2025-05-11
The Rise and Fall of Bell Labs: A Lesson in Innovation

This article explores the success and demise of Bell Labs. Its brilliance stemmed from a unique management style: granting brilliant scientists radical freedom and autonomy, fostering collaboration and innovation, and having visionary leaders select appropriate projects and talent. However, the information age and modern corporations' focus on short-term gains made this model difficult to replicate. The article argues that reviving the Bell Labs spirit requires giving scientists more freedom and time to achieve breakthroughs in technological innovation.

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(1517.substack.com)
Tech management model

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory Rumored to Produce a Budget Model Y 'E80'

2025-05-02
Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory Rumored to Produce a Budget Model Y 'E80'

Rumors suggest Tesla's Giga Shanghai will produce a more affordable Model Y variant, internally codenamed 'E80', this May. This stripped-down version is expected to feature smaller wheels, single-layer side windows, no rear display, fewer speakers, single-color ambient lighting, fabric seats without heating or ventilation, and a manual trunk. These reductions aim to bring the price down to ¥190,000-¥210,000 ($26,000-$28,800), potentially even lower to ¥150,000-¥170,000 ($20,500-$23,300). This strategy mirrors Tesla's previous releases of budget-friendly variants of the Model 3 in Mexico and the Cybertruck in the US, both featuring cost-cutting measures like textile seats and reduced features. Despite the cutbacks, the 'E80' is anticipated to remain attractive due to the Model Y's premium branding and the competitive Chinese EV market.

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(www.teslarati.com)
Tech Budget Variant

Arizona Woman Pleads Guilty in $17M North Korea-Linked Tech Scam

2025-05-01
Arizona Woman Pleads Guilty in $17M North Korea-Linked Tech Scam

An Arizona woman pleaded guilty to participating in a North Korea-linked scheme that netted over $17 million. She operated a 'laptop farm' from her home, providing US IP addresses to overseas IT workers posing as American citizens. These workers, using stolen identities of over 70 US nationals, obtained remote IT jobs at numerous Fortune 500 companies. The funds were laundered and sent to North Korea, potentially funding weapons programs. Over 300 US companies were victimized in this sophisticated cybercrime operation.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech data theft

Differential Code Coverage for Debugging: A Powerful Technique

2025-04-25

This article introduces a powerful debugging technique: differential code coverage analysis. By comparing the code coverage of passing and failing tests, you can quickly pinpoint buggy code. The author uses Go's `math/big` library as an example, demonstrating how to use `go test` and `go tool cover` to generate coverage reports and `diff` to compare the differences. This efficiently identifies the code snippet causing the test failure, significantly reducing debugging time compared to traditional methods. The technique is illustrated by finding a bug in a few lines of code out of over 15,000.

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(research.swtch.com)
Development code coverage

How the Linux Kernel Executes Shebang Scripts

2025-04-10

This article delves into how the Linux kernel handles shebang (#!) scripts. Starting with a simple shell script, the author traces the kernel execution flow, revealing the crucial roles of the `execve` syscall, the `binfmt_script` module, and the `load_script` function. The author meticulously explains how the kernel reads the shebang, locates and executes the specified interpreter, ultimately running the script. The article contrasts the execution differences between scripts with and without shebangs, and explores the permission checking mechanism, offering readers a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the Linux system.

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(crocidb.com)
Development

Global Pandemic Treaty Reached: Preventing the Next Outbreak

2025-04-16
Global Pandemic Treaty Reached: Preventing the Next Outbreak

After three years of negotiations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reached a landmark agreement on the world's first pandemic treaty. This treaty aims to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics. While not perfect, it marks a defining moment in global health history, establishing crucial norms for global safety. Central to the treaty is a 'pathogen access and benefit-sharing' mechanism, designed to ensure fairer distribution of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics, avoiding a repeat of the COVID-19 vaccine inequities. Despite the absence of the US in the negotiations, the treaty's completion demonstrates global cooperation. Implementation details still need to be worked out, but the treaty provides a solid foundation for global pandemic response.

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(www.nature.com)
Tech global pandemic treaty vaccine equity

sxwm: Minimal, Fast, Configurable Tiling Window Manager for X11

2025-05-04
sxwm: Minimal, Fast, Configurable Tiling Window Manager for X11

sxwm is a lightweight X11 tiling window manager prioritizing minimalism, speed, and configurability. It seamlessly switches between tiling and floating layouts, boasts 9 workspaces, and features a user-friendly configuration file (sxwmrc) requiring no C programming knowledge. Supporting mouse interactions, multi-monitor setups, and integration with tools like sxbar, sxwm delivers a highly efficient and responsive window management experience. Its key strengths lie in its incredibly low resource usage and blazing-fast performance.

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(github.com)
Development

Energy Drink Ingredient Taurine May Fuel Leukemia Growth: Study

2025-05-17
Energy Drink Ingredient Taurine May Fuel Leukemia Growth: Study

A new study published in Nature reveals that taurine, a common ingredient in energy drinks like Red Bull and Celsius, may accelerate the growth and proliferation of leukemia cells. Researchers found that taurine acts as a fuel source for these cells, making the disease more aggressive. While taurine is naturally produced in the body and sometimes used to mitigate inflammation or chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients, the study warns of potential adverse effects from excess taurine. The research team is now exploring ways to block taurine from entering leukemia cells and investigating its potential link to other cancers, including colorectal cancer. The findings highlight the need for caution regarding taurine consumption, particularly in individuals with leukemia or those considering taurine supplements.

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(thenightly.com.au)
Tech taurine leukemia energy drinks

Einstein's Relativity in Four-Letter Words or Less

2025-04-14

This article uses a simple, story-driven approach to explain Einstein's theory of relativity. By using analogies and a conversational tone, it breaks down complex concepts like the relativity of simultaneity, the constancy of the speed of light, and the equivalence of gravity and spacetime curvature. Even without a physics background, readers can grasp the core ideas.

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(www.muppetlabs.com)
Tech

Wine 10.6 Released: Enhanced CMD, Bcrypt, and Game Compatibility

2025-04-21

The open-source software Wine has been updated to version 10.6, fixing 27 bugs and improving game and application compatibility. This release updates the lexer in the command processor CMD, adds PBKDF2 algorithm support to Bcrypt, and enhances WindowsCodecs' support for image metadata. Fixes include improvements for Unity games, Alan Wake, GDI+ issues, and various other games and apps.

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(www.phoronix.com)
Development Game Compatibility

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-04-22
arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

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

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(arxiv.org)
Development

Goodbye Port Conflicts: Podman Without Port Forwarding and Containerizing Dev Environments for CLI Addicts

2025-05-08

Frustrated by port conflicts, the author abandoned container port forwarding and instead uses Podman and a Rust-based SOCKS proxy called Podfox to enable direct browser communication with the Podman network. Podfox bypasses the need for host DNS configuration, resolving container hostnames and using Podman network information to locate the gateway address for DNS queries and proxying. The author also shares their experience streamlining command-line development environment containerization using Homebrew and a custom fish script called Podchamp. By mounting the Homebrew prefix and setting environment variables, the same development tools are readily available across different containers without rebuilding images or installing dependencies, boosting efficiency.

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(val.packett.cool)
Development dev environment

Florida Appeals Court Rejects Clean Water Rights Initiative

2024-12-30
Florida Appeals Court Rejects Clean Water Rights Initiative

A Florida appeals court has ruled against a Titusville initiative to establish the right to clean water, despite 83% voter approval. The court cited a 2020 state law prohibiting local governments from granting rights to bodies of water, effectively preempting the local measure. This decision highlights the ongoing tension between state and local governments on environmental protection in Florida and underscores the limitations on local action in the face of conflicting state legislation.

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(floridaphoenix.com)
Tech legal battle local government
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