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Microsoft Denies Link Between Windows Update and SSD/HDD Failures

2025-08-30

Users reported SSD and HDD failures and data corruption after installing August's Windows 11 24H2 security update. Microsoft investigated and found no connection between the update and the reported issues. However, they advise users with drives over 60% full to avoid writing large files. Microsoft is collaborating with storage device partners to investigate further. Affected drives reportedly include those from Corsair, SanDisk, and Kioxia, with issues primarily occurring during heavy write operations. While some drives recovered after restarting, others remained inaccessible.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Tech HDD failure

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-05-15

arXivLabs is a framework that enables collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations participating in arXivLabs embrace openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners who share them. Have an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

localscope: Banishing Global Variable Bugs in Jupyter Notebooks

2025-03-17

Ever hunted down bugs caused by accidentally using global variables in a Jupyter Notebook function? localscope solves this by restricting a function's accessible scope. This prevents accidental global variable leakage, leading to more reproducible results and less debugging frustration. For example, a function calculating mean squared error relying on a global `sigma` variable will yield unpredictable results if `sigma` changes; localscope forces `sigma` to be passed as an argument, eliminating this risk.

(localscope.readthedocs.io)

Development

Flix: Gracefully Handling Print Debugging

2025-09-25

Flix's designers faced a dilemma: how to enable efficient compiler optimizations while allowing developers to easily use print debugging? Directly using `println` breaks the type and effect system, causing compilation errors. The article explores two solutions: the first uses `unchecked_cast` to bypass effect system checks but results in code being optimized away; the second introduces a `Debug` effect, permitting debugging prints without modifying function signatures, and disabling the `Debug` effect in production. The final solution balances compiler optimization and developer experience.

(blog.flix.dev)

Development effect system

The Rise and Fall of US Government Efficiency: From WWII Prowess to Modern Ineptitude

2025-04-09

The Rise and Fall of US Government Efficiency: From WWII Prowess to Modern Ineptitude

This podcast delves into the evolution of US government efficiency. During WWII, the government employed process charting and work simplification initiatives, showcasing surprisingly modern management techniques resembling lean principles. However, the 1960s saw a shift towards corporate-style 'long-run planning', resulting in increased bureaucracy and decreased efficiency. Using the USDA and IRS as case studies, the discussion contrasts effective and ineffective management, highlighting the importance of process simplification and continuous improvement. The authors emphasize learning from historical successes and applying these lessons to improve modern governance.

(www.governance.fyi)

Startup historical case studies Government Management

The Great Average Performance Debate: Geometric vs. Harmonic Mean

2025-04-27

A long-standing debate in computer architecture centers around how to calculate average performance. Hennessey and Patterson's seminal work advocates for the geometric mean due to its desirable mathematical properties. However, a recent paper challenges the geometric mean's physical meaning, proposing the "Equal-Time Harmonic Speedup" as an alternative. The author argues that the harmonic mean better reflects real-world scenarios, equating to the total speedup when running workloads sequentially. However, this overlooks the uneven distribution of workload times in practice, rendering its physical meaning often irrelevant. The article concludes that unless the exact workload mix and weights are known, no single-number average perfectly compares machines, leaving the geometric mean as a reasonable choice due to its ease of comparison and widespread familiarity.

(dgsq.net)

Development performance evaluation geometric mean

Silicon Valley Prank: Zuckerberg and Musk Voices Hack Crosswalk Buttons

2025-04-19

Silicon Valley Prank: Zuckerberg and Musk Voices Hack Crosswalk Buttons

Over the weekend, crosswalk buttons in several Silicon Valley cities were hacked to play audio messages mimicking the voices of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The messages contained bizarre and often offensive statements, with Zuckerberg's voice claiming that 'it's normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience,' and Musk offering a Cybertruck to anyone who becomes his friend. Affected traffic signals in cities like Palo Alto and Redwood City have been repaired, and authorities are investigating and strengthening system protections. The incident highlights vulnerabilities in city infrastructure and raises ethical concerns about AI.

(www.paloaltoonline.com)

Tech city security

The Navy's Dry Spell and the Unexpected Rise of Ice Cream

2025-05-28

The Navy's Dry Spell and the Unexpected Rise of Ice Cream

In 1914, the US Navy issued General Order 99, banning alcohol onboard ships and bases. This mirrored the nationwide Prohibition of 1920. Surprisingly, Prohibition spurred the ice cream industry's growth, with breweries switching to ice cream and soda production. During WWII, the Navy even built a massive ice cream barge to boost morale, producing and distributing gallons of ice cream. Ice cream became a unique reward system; rescuing downed pilots meant a huge ice cream payout for the rescuing vessel, creating a memorable wartime tradition.

(www.oldsaltblog.com)

Misc Prohibition Ice Cream

Andor and Game of Thrones: Realism or Creator Bias?

2025-05-09

Andor and Game of Thrones: Realism or Creator Bias?

Both Andor season two and Game of Thrones sparked controversy over scenes depicting sexual assault. Creators defended these scenes as necessary for 'realism,' but this article argues otherwise. While war historically included rape, it also involved disease, starvation, and other causes of death. The article posits that the creators aren't truly aiming for realism but rather a 'gritty' atmosphere, masking their reliance on sexual assault against women and their perpetuation of stereotypes. Using Bix's character in Andor as an example, the article highlights that her prior torture renders the additional sexual assault unnecessary. The choice seems driven by personal preference rather than artistic necessity.

(mythcreants.com)

Game sexual assault realism TV shows

BYD: World's Largest Automaker by R&D Workforce

2024-12-31

BYD: World's Largest Automaker by R&D Workforce

BYD has become the world's largest automaker by R&D workforce after a major hiring spree, boasting over 110,000 R&D employees among its 900,000-strong workforce. This follows a strong Q2 2024 where it outsold Honda and Nissan, solidifying its position as the world's seventh-largest automaker. BYD's massive R&D team is focused on developing longer-range, more affordable EVs, and the company is expanding into new markets with plans for new plants in Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, and Pakistan. This aggressive expansion, coupled with its already significant position as the world's second-largest EV battery maker, positions BYD for continued growth and leadership in the electric vehicle market.

(electrek.co)

Tech BYD Electric Vehicles R&D

Olympic Champ Dominates 100m at Kid's Sports Day

2025-04-20

Olympic Champ Dominates 100m at Kid's Sports Day

Eight-time Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a ten-time world champion sprinter, recently competed in a 100m race at her son's sports day against other parents. She utterly dominated the competition, showcasing her incredible speed and professionalism by running full-out without any showboating. The event highlights the stark difference between elite athletes and the average person.

(kottke.org)

Game Track and Field

2,000-Year-Old Roman Battlefield Unearthed in Vienna

2025-04-07

2,000-Year-Old Roman Battlefield Unearthed in Vienna

During renovations of a sports field in Vienna, a mass grave containing the remains of approximately 150 soldiers was discovered. Archaeological analysis confirms the remains date to a battle between Roman legionaries and Germanic tribes sometime between the mid-first and early second centuries CE. The discovery, including weaponry (daggers, spears, helmet fragments) and a dagger sheath with silver wire inlays providing precise dating, offers the first direct archaeological evidence of a battle along the Danube Limes, a key part of the Roman Empire's eastern frontier. This find sheds new light on the origins of Vienna and the conflicts that led to the expansion of the Roman military camp Vindobona.

(gizmodo.com)

Tech

National Archives Releases More UAP Records

2025-04-28

National Archives Releases More UAP Records

The National Archives has released new records related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), transferred from various government agencies per the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. These documents are now part of the NARA's UAP collection and are available online. This release reflects the Archives' commitment to transparency and ongoing updates are expected.

(www.archives.gov)

Tech National Archives

Llama 4: Hype vs. Reality – Meta's Controversial LLM

2025-04-24

Meta's highly anticipated Llama 4 has launched to a storm of controversy. While boasting a 10M context length, its performance on benchmarks like LM Arena has been underwhelming, with accusations of manipulation surfacing. Its MoE architecture, theoretically superior, faces practical memory and efficiency challenges. Internal leaks suggest Meta employed questionable tactics to meet performance targets, even leading to executive resignations. Llama 4's release highlights the ongoing challenges in LLM development and raises critical questions about benchmark standards and transparency.

(fastml.com)

AI

Breakthrough: 3D Kakeya Conjecture Solved

2025-03-02

A major breakthrough in geometric measure theory! Hong Wang and Joshua Zahl's preprint resolves the infamous three-dimensional Kakeya set conjecture. The conjecture asserts that a Kakeya set—a subset containing a unit line segment in every direction—must have Minkowski and Hausdorff dimension equal to three. The proof, spanning 127 pages, uses an iterative induction argument cleverly handling 'sticky' and 'non-sticky' cases. This landmark result builds on decades of work, incorporating previous findings and novel ideas, marking a significant milestone in geometric measure theory.

(terrytao.wordpress.com)

Math Kakeya Conjecture Geometric Measure Theory Mathematical Breakthrough

EU Eyes Tech Retaliation in US Trade War

2025-04-07

EU Eyes Tech Retaliation in US Trade War

The US-EU trade war escalates as the EU considers retaliatory measures against US tariffs. France's suggestion to target currently untaxed digital services faced immediate pushback from Ireland, home to many US tech giants. The EU enjoys a large goods surplus but a significant deficit in services, making the tech sector a potential target for retaliation. French officials predict the trade war will reduce France's GDP by over 0.5% and increase job losses. The potential economic impact on Europe is substantial, leaving tech companies facing considerable uncertainty.

(www.politico.eu)

Tech

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

The Future of Programming Languages: Is Popularity Dead?

2025-09-24

The Future of Programming Languages: Is Popularity Dead?

The 2023 programming language rankings are out, with Python again at the top. However, the rise of AI is disrupting the landscape. AI-assisted coding tools like ChatGPT and Cursor are reducing programmers' reliance on specific languages, even making the concept of language popularity itself ambiguous. Programmers are less concerned with syntactic details and more focused on program architecture and algorithm design. This makes it harder for new languages to emerge, and the popularity of languages may become as obscure as the relative popularity of railway track gauges. Future programmers will need a solid foundation in computer science, rather than mastery of a particular language.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Development

Stunning 3D Model of San Francisco's Sutro Tower Released

2025-02-20

A breathtaking 3D model of San Francisco's Sutro Tower, leveraging the latest advancements in Gaussian Splatting, is now available online! Created using drone footage, aligned in RealityCapture, trained with gsplat, compressed using SOGS, and rendered in PlayCanvas, the entire scene is surprisingly lightweight at just 30MB. Users can explore the model online, with mobile users able to engage AR mode for an immersive experience. Special thanks to Wieland Morgenstern and Donovan Hutchence for their technical contributions.

(vincentwoo.com)

Design 3D model Sutro Tower

SQL-Powered Doom Clone: Abusing DuckDB-WASM for 3D Rendering

2025-04-22

SQL-Powered Doom Clone: Abusing DuckDB-WASM for 3D Rendering

This project explores the unconventional use of DuckDB-WASM, a browser-based analytical database, to build a rudimentary 3D game engine. The author built a text-based Doom clone where game state, including map, player position, and enemies, is stored in DuckDB tables. Game logic and rendering are handled using SQL queries, surprisingly achieving raycasting and 3D scene rendering via recursive CTEs. JavaScript acts as an orchestrator, managing input, the game loop, and sprite rendering. The process involved overcoming challenges with WASM loading, SQL dialect nuances, query planner issues, and asynchronous race conditions. The resulting game achieves 6-7 FPS, demonstrating the surprising power of SQL for unconventional tasks and the impressive performance of DuckDB-WASM.

(www.hey.earth)

Development SQL game engine

AI Calorie Counting: More Hype Than Help?

2025-06-09

AI Calorie Counting: More Hype Than Help?

Apps promising to count calories from photos using AI are all the rage. But do they deliver? A writer tested Cal AI, SnapCalorie, and Calorie Mama, finding significant inaccuracies in both food identification and portion estimation. Even with manual corrections, the apps proved time-consuming and unreliable. The conclusion? These apps offer more hassle than help, raising questions about the necessity of precise calorie tracking and advocating for a healthier approach to eating.

(lifehacker.com)

Tech Diet

Baldur's Gate 3 Native Steam Deck Build: Save & Mod Migration Guide

2025-09-24

Baldur's Gate 3 Native Steam Deck Build: Save & Mod Migration Guide

The Baldur's Gate 3 update on Steam Deck brings a native version, improving performance. However, save game and mod locations change. Steam Cloud saves will automatically migrate; otherwise, manually copy saves to `/home/deck/.local/share/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/Public`. Mod migration depends on your Larian account and mod.io connection; manually copy mods if not connected.

(larian.com)

Game Native Build

Linux Futexes: Spinlocks vs. Futexes – A Performance Deep Dive

2025-06-03

This article delves into the implementation and performance of futex locks in Linux. The author first implements a simple spinlock, then builds a more sophisticated mutex using the futex syscall. Experiments reveal that simple spinlocks can outperform futexes in certain scenarios, especially when critical section operations are lightweight. However, when critical sections are time-consuming and thread contention is high, futexes offer a significant advantage by avoiding unnecessary CPU spinning. The article concludes by discussing methods to improve futex lock performance and emphasizes the need to choose the right locking mechanism based on the specific application context.

(blog.fredrb.com)

Development spinlock mutex

NYC's Narrowest Escalator: A Hidden Gem in Rockefeller Center

2025-04-08

NYC's Narrowest Escalator: A Hidden Gem in Rockefeller Center

Hidden behind glass doors at 10 Rockefeller Plaza (between W 48th and W 49th Streets) in Rockefeller Center lies NYC's narrowest escalator. This escalator connects the underground dining and shopping concourse to street level. Even if you aren't shopping or dining, you can enter the building at 10 Rockefeller Plaza, descend a large spiral staircase, and then take the escalator back up. Security is present at all hours, but they don't mind, as the lobby features a beautiful wrap-around mural by Lakela Brown.

(www.doobybrain.com)

Misc Rockefeller Center Narrowest Escalator

World's First Drone-Triggered Lightning Successfully Guided

2025-04-23

World's First Drone-Triggered Lightning Successfully Guided

NTT Corporation has achieved a world first: successfully triggering and guiding lightning using a drone. The experiment, conducted under natural lightning conditions, validated both the drone's innovative lightning protection cage – capable of withstanding direct strikes – and the electric field-based triggering method. This breakthrough opens doors to significantly reducing lightning damage to cities and infrastructure, with future plans focusing on deploying 'lightning drones' for widespread protection and even harnessing lightning's energy. The success builds on years of research and addresses the limitations of traditional lightning rods.

(group.ntt)

Tech lightning protection

MinC 6.1: A Lightweight Unix Environment

2025-04-23

MinC 6.1 is a lightweight Unix environment emulator now featuring a simplified installation wizard. It bundles a rich set of common Unix commands, encompassing file management, compression, networking tools, and development utilities. While some services and daemons are not yet supported, the developer promises their imminent release. Users can support the project through donations and suggest software for future inclusions. Post-installation, antivirus adjustments might be necessary for proper functionality, and integration with VS Code as a terminal is possible.

(minc.commandlinerevolution.nl)

Development

UK Adults with ADHD Experience 6-9 Year Life Expectancy Reduction

2025-01-24

A matched cohort study using UK primary care data reveals a significant life expectancy deficit for adults diagnosed with ADHD. Analyzing data from over 9.5 million individuals across 792 general practices between 2000 and 2019, researchers found a reduction of 6.78 years for men and 8.64 years for women compared to the general population. This shortened lifespan is likely attributed to modifiable risk factors and unmet support needs for both ADHD and co-occurring mental and physical health conditions. The findings highlight a critical unmet need for improved support and treatment for adults with ADHD.

(www.cambridge.org)

Tech Life Expectancy Mortality

Nature Programming Language: An Evolution of Go?

2025-06-01

Nature Programming Language: An Evolution of Go?

Nature is a general-purpose open-source programming language designed for an elegant and concise development experience, enabling developers to build secure and reliable cross-platform software simply and efficiently. It leverages Go's strengths, such as its high-performance runtime and garbage collection, while addressing some of Go's shortcomings, including a more robust type system and improved error handling. Nature has reached an early usable version, supporting Linux and macOS, and offers a rich standard library and example projects. It's suitable for game development, scientific computing, AI, operating systems, and web development.

(github.com)

Development

Awe: A New ALGOL W Compiler

2025-04-12

Awe: A New ALGOL W Compiler

Awe is a new compiler for the ALGOL W programming language, a successor to Algol 60. It's a complete implementation of the language as described in the June 1972 ALGOL W Language Description. Awe should compile code written for OS/360 ALGOL W compilers with minimal changes. Features include dynamic record allocation, string handling, complex numbers, and a standard I/O system. The project thanks Hendrick Boom and others for their contributions.

(github.com)

Development

Willy Wonka's Trade Secrets: A Legal Fantasy?

2025-05-22

Willy Wonka's Trade Secrets: A Legal Fantasy?

This paper uses Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as a springboard to discuss the importance of trade secrecy in the candy industry and its relationship with patent law. The article points out that the extreme secrecy surrounding the factory's processes in the novel is not fictional, but reflects a widespread reality in the real-world confectionery industry. By analyzing this, the author raises fundamental questions about the legal protection of misappropriated secrets, especially when secrecy is paramount, and the relationship between trade secrecy and patent law.

(papers.ssrn.com)

Misc trade secrets patent law

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