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Easy Bypass for Windows 11's Microsoft Account Requirement

2025-04-03

Easy Bypass for Windows 11's Microsoft Account Requirement

Microsoft is pushing for Microsoft account usage in Windows 11, but a newly discovered trick makes bypassing it easy. Previously, Microsoft removed the 'BypassNRO.cmd' script, but registry edits still worked. Now, a simpler method exists: during Windows 11 setup, press Shift+F10 to open a command prompt, type "start ms-cxh:localonly", and press Enter to create a local account, skipping the Microsoft account login. This method, being directly integrated into the system, is likely harder for Microsoft to remove than the previous script-based approach.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Development Local Account

Abundance: A Critique of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Manifesto

2025-04-02

Abundance: A Critique of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Manifesto

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's *Abundance* argues that the US government is inefficient and needs to prioritize providing more resources like housing, clean energy, and high-speed rail. While the book effectively highlights the flaws of current systems, particularly in housing where zoning regulations hinder development, it lacks a concrete policy agenda. The authors' call for 'abundance' is too broad, failing to address crucial trade-offs and the potential for abuse of power in streamlining processes. The hypocrisy of figures like Marc Andreessen, advocating for building while opposing multi-family housing near his home, underscores the book's shortcomings. Ultimately, *Abundance* avoids the messy realities of politics and policy-making, leaving the reader with inspiring rhetoric but little practical guidance on achieving its ambitious goals.

(networked.substack.com)

Misc policy reform housing development

Avoiding Data Copies: Exploring Efficient Buffer Resizing in C++

2025-04-04

Avoiding Data Copies: Exploring Efficient Buffer Resizing in C++

Johnny's Software Lab explores methods to avoid costly data copying in C++. The article delves into how operating system calls like `mmap` (Linux) and `VirtualAlloc` (Windows) can enable dynamic buffer resizing, thus avoiding data copies. It compares the performance differences between various approaches, including using `mremap`, `xallocx` (jemalloc), and custom memory allocation strategies. Experiments demonstrate that avoiding copies significantly improves performance, but caution is advised regarding cross-platform differences and potential memory fragmentation issues.

(johnnysswlab.com)

Development

AI Engineer: Build the Next-Gen Customer Research AI Assistant

2025-04-05

AI Engineer: Build the Next-Gen Customer Research AI Assistant

Great Question, a customer research platform company, is hiring an AI Engineer to design and implement an agent-based UI, building an AI research assistant to help users conduct research. The role requires expertise in prompt engineering, agent frameworks (LangGraph, etc.), and LLM application development (JavaScript preferred), encompassing AI system architecture, prompt optimization, framework selection and implementation, and performance evaluation. This is a fully remote role, with a preference for candidates in the US or Canada.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development Customer Research LLM Applications

The Semantic Apocalypse: AI Art and the Loss of Wonder

2025-04-01

The Semantic Apocalypse: AI Art and the Loss of Wonder

This essay explores the impact of AI-generated art on the meaning of art, using the example of ultramarine, a pigment once incredibly difficult and expensive to produce. The author argues that the ease of AI art creation diminishes the sense of wonder and uniqueness associated with traditional art, leading to hedonic adaptation. This isn't unique to AI, but a recurring pattern throughout history as technology makes previously rare experiences commonplace. The solution proposed isn't technological, but personal: cultivating a childlike wonder and actively engaging with the world to overcome the desensitization caused by readily available abundance.

(www.astralcodexten.com)

AI hedonic adaptation semantic apocalypse

El Salvador's Exception: A Dangerous Precedent Trump Seems Eager to Emulate

2025-04-05

El Salvador's Exception: A Dangerous Precedent Trump Seems Eager to Emulate

El Salvador's President Bukele's 2022 'state of exception' unleashed a brutal crackdown on gangs, resulting in tens of thousands of arrests and widespread human rights abuses. Alarmingly, the Trump administration appears to be emulating this model, deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, where they face torture and disappearances. This action violates international human rights law and raises serious concerns about the erosion of democratic norms in the US. El Salvador's history of US intervention and Bukele's manipulation of the judiciary complicate the issue. The crisis highlights not only the dire human rights situation in El Salvador but also serves as a stark warning for the US.

(www.rollingstone.com)

Politics

Background Music Listening Habits Differ Between Neurotypical Adults and Those Screened for ADHD

2025-04-08

An online survey of 910 young adults (17–30 years old) compared background music (BM) listening habits and subjective effects between neurotypical individuals and those who screened positive for ADHD across tasks with varying cognitive demands. The ADHD group showed a significantly higher preference for BM in specific situations, such as studying and exercising, and a stronger preference for stimulating music. However, no significant differences were found in subjective effects of BM on cognitive and emotional functioning between the groups. The study highlights the importance of adjusting BM use based on individual arousal needs and available cognitive resources, offering a novel perspective on music interventions for ADHD.

(www.frontiersin.org)

AI Background Music

Multimodal AI Image Generation: A Visual Revolution Begins

2025-04-08

Multimodal AI Image Generation: A Visual Revolution Begins

Google and OpenAI's recent release of multimodal image generation capabilities marks a revolution in AI image generation. Unlike previous methods that sent text prompts to separate image generation tools, multimodal models directly control the image creation process, building images token by token, much like LLMs generate text. This allows AI to generate more precise and impressive images, and iterate based on user feedback. The article showcases the powerful capabilities of multimodal models through various examples, such as generating infographics, modifying image details, and even creating virtual product advertisements. However, it also highlights challenges, including copyright and ethical concerns, as well as potential misuse like deepfakes. Ultimately, the author believes multimodal AI will profoundly change the landscape of visual creation, and we need to carefully consider how to guide this transformation to ensure its healthy development.

(www.oneusefulthing.org)

AI multimodal models

The CD-ROM Server Savior

2025-04-07

The CD-ROM Server Savior

An aging server at Initrode Global was crashing frequently, requiring manual restarts. The IT manager was stumped until an engineer devised a quirky solution: using an old PC's CD-ROM drive and a modified script to automatically reboot the failing server. This makeshift 'robot,' dubbed ITAPPMONROBOT, provided a bizarre yet effective fix until a new server was deployed, then it continued its pointless routine until decommissioned.

(thedailywtf.com)

Tech emergency solution

Senior Devs: Mastering AI-Powered Coding Tools

2025-04-03

This article details the author's positive experiences using AI coding tools in both personal and professional projects. The author finds that experienced developers are uniquely positioned to leverage these tools effectively, viewing the AI as a highly knowledgeable junior developer requiring guidance. Three key success factors are highlighted: well-structured requirements, robust quality assurance tools, and pre-defined code file structures. Two project examples (greenfield and brownfield) demonstrate significant productivity gains, even for developers unfamiliar with the tech stack. The article concludes that success hinges on leveraging traditional software engineering best practices alongside this new technology.

(manuel.kiessling.net)

Development

SF Mayor Lurie's Tech-Driven Plan to Revitalize the City

2025-04-06

SF Mayor Lurie's Tech-Driven Plan to Revitalize the City

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is on a mission to restore the city's former glory, leveraging the tech industry's power to achieve it. He's actively engaging with tech CEOs and entrepreneurs, seeking collaborations to address pressing issues. His approach involves tackling the drug and homelessness crisis, including rolling back a program distributing drug paraphernalia. Simultaneously, he's streamlining building permits with 'Permit SF' and proposing rezoning for taller buildings to increase housing. Lurie is aggressively courting AI companies, securing commitments like Databricks' AI conference through 2030, offering tax incentives while emphasizing community investment. A new 'Partnership for San Francisco' fosters communication between businesses and city hall. Despite labor union challenges, he's pushing for autonomous vehicles. Lurie envisions San Francisco regaining its technological innovation leadership, attracting talent and businesses globally.

(techcrunch.com)

Startup Urban Revitalization

AWS's Systems Correctness: A Multifaceted Approach

2025-04-01

Amazon Web Services (AWS) employs a robust system correctness strategy combining formal and semi-formal methods to deliver reliable services. Initially relying on TLA+ for modeling critical systems, AWS identified and eliminated subtle bugs early in development. The introduction of the P programming language, a more developer-friendly state machine language, further enhanced their approach, playing a crucial role in migrations like Amazon S3's move to strong consistency. Lightweight methods such as property-based testing, deterministic simulation, and fuzzing are also widely used. AWS further bolstered resilience with the launch of FIS (Fault Injection Service). For critical security boundaries, formal proofs, as seen in the development of Cedar and Firecracker, guarantee correctness. This multifaceted approach not only ensures reliability but also drives performance optimization and cost reduction.

(queue.acm.org)

Development System Correctness Formal Methods

NASA Eases Restrictions on ISS Private Astronaut Mission Commanders

2025-04-05

NASA Eases Restrictions on ISS Private Astronaut Mission Commanders

NASA's latest call for proposals for private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) opens the door for non-NASA astronauts to command these missions. This solicitation is part of NASA's broader commercialization effort in low Earth orbit, aiming to eventually replace the ISS with commercial stations. While initially requiring commanders to be former NASA astronauts with flight experience, the new proposal allows for commanders from the Canadian, European, or Japanese space agencies, offering opportunities for former astronauts now working with commercial spaceflight companies like Axiom Space, which has hired former ESA and JAXA astronauts. This competition is expected to be more intense than previous ones, with Vast also expressing interest in bidding, in addition to Axiom Space, which has won all previous bids.

(spacenews.com)

Tech Commercial Spaceflight

Hackers Win Big at Google's bugSWAT: 579MB Binary Leaks Internal Source Code

2025-03-28

In 2024, a security research team once again won the MVH award at Google's LLM bugSWAT event. They discovered and exploited a vulnerability in Gemini allowing access to a sandbox containing a 579MB binary file. This binary held internal Google3 source code and internal protobuf files used to communicate with Google services like Google Flights. By cleverly utilizing sandbox features, they extracted and analyzed the binary, revealing sensitive internal information. This discovery highlights the importance of thorough security testing for cutting-edge AI systems.

(www.landh.tech)

AI Bug Bounty

Shenzhen's Miracle: Planned Transformation vs. American Urban Stagnation

2025-04-04

Shenzhen's Miracle: Planned Transformation vs. American Urban Stagnation

Shenzhen's transformation from a fishing village to a global tech hub is a testament to China's reform and opening-up policy and its bold urban planning. The article contrasts Shenzhen with American cities, arguing that stringent US regulations hinder large-scale urban renewal, resulting in less modernized cityscapes despite the presence of leading tech companies. The author suggests that America's overly restrictive approach to urban change has missed opportunities for economic transformation similar to Shenzhen's, subtly linking this conservative planning ideology to the previously discussed misguided trade protectionism, ultimately harming overall economic interests.

(www.slowboring.com)

Tech China-US comparison

Playable Quake II in Real-Time: Microsoft's AI-Powered Gameplay

2025-04-06

Playable Quake II in Real-Time: Microsoft's AI-Powered Gameplay

Microsoft researchers have released an interactive, real-time gameplay experience in Copilot Labs, letting you play an AI-powered rendition of Quake II. This uses their Muse model, specifically the improved WHAMM model (10x faster than WHAM), generating visuals at 10+ frames per second. WHAMM achieved this speed by significantly reducing training data (from 7 years to 1 week) and increasing resolution. While limitations exist, such as enemy interactions and context length, this technology opens exciting possibilities for real-time generated gameplay.

(www.microsoft.com)

Game real-time game generation

North America is Dripping Away From Below: A New Discovery

2025-04-05

North America is Dripping Away From Below: A New Discovery

A groundbreaking study published in Nature Geoscience reveals that the underside of the North American continent is literally dripping away in blobs of rock. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin used a new full-waveform seismic tomography model to identify this 'cratonic thinning,' hypothesizing that remnants of the subducting Farallon plate are responsible. This ancient plate, while separated by hundreds of kilometers, is believed to be redirecting mantle flow, weakening the craton's base, and causing this slow dripping process. While not an immediate threat, this discovery offers profound insights into continental evolution and the long-term dynamics of plate tectonics.

(www.jsg.utexas.edu)

Tech plate tectonics continental evolution

SpaceX's Fram2 Mission: A Polar Orbit First and West Coast Splashdown

2025-04-04

SpaceX's Fram2 Mission: A Polar Orbit First and West Coast Splashdown

SpaceX's Fram2 mission concluded successfully with a splashdown off the California coast, marking the company's first West Coast landing for a crewed mission. The mission, privately funded by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang, sent four passengers into a unique polar orbit, allowing for the first human observations of the Earth's poles from such a vantage point. While the crew experienced space motion sickness, they also conducted various research experiments, including capturing images of auroras and collecting health data. The mission highlights the growing potential of private spaceflight for scientific research and exploration, paving the way for future long-duration space missions and offering valuable insights into human adaptation in space.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech Polar Orbit

AV1: The Video Codec That Could (But Didn't Quite) Conquer the World

2025-04-03

AV1: The Video Codec That Could (But Didn't Quite) Conquer the World

AV1, a video codec developed by tech giants like Netflix and Google, promised superior efficiency and royalty-free licensing compared to its predecessors. Despite its technical advantages and strong backing, AV1's adoption has been slower than expected. Hardware limitations and higher decoding complexity have hindered widespread implementation, with major streaming services like Max and Peacock yet to fully embrace it. Even the royalty-free claim is disputed, with patent pools emerging and asserting rights. While giants like YouTube and Netflix are heavily invested, the path to universal adoption remains challenging, though AOMedia, the organization behind AV1, continues to push forward, developing its successor.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech video codec

Emergent Economies from Simple Agent Interactions: A Simulated Market

2025-04-02

Emergent Economies from Simple Agent Interactions: A Simulated Market

This paper presents a simulated market economy model built from individual agent behavior. Using simple buy/sell decision rules, the model generates complex market dynamics. Each agent makes decisions based on their personal valuation of a good and their expected market price, adjusting expectations after each transaction. The simulation demonstrates convergence towards the average personal valuation, adapting to environmental changes. This offers a novel approach to dynamic economic systems in open-world RPGs, though challenges remain in addressing transaction timing and scarcity.

(jasonfantl.com)

AI economic simulation

Mozilla Launches Thunderbird Pro: A Paid Upgrade for its Open-Source Email Client

2025-04-01

Mozilla Launches Thunderbird Pro: A Paid Upgrade for its Open-Source Email Client

Mozilla is launching Thunderbird Pro, a paid suite of services designed to enhance its open-source email client, Thunderbird. The suite includes Thundermail (a Gmail-like email service), Thunderbird Appointment (a scheduling tool), Thunderbird Send (a file-sharing service), and Thunderbird Assist (an experimental AI service). Initially, Thunderbird Pro will be free for active community contributors, but will eventually require payment for others. Mozilla may introduce limited free tiers later. This move aims to offer a fully open-source, freedom-respecting alternative to competitors like Gmail and Office 365.

(www.techspot.com)

Development Paid Services

Cracking a San Francisco Street AI Puzzle: The Hunt for a Hidden Reward

2025-04-03

A poster with a math puzzle leading to a reward website (“.ai/givemeprize”) appeared on a street in San Francisco. The puzzle involves an AI-related formula, including functions like argmax, softmax, log, and BusyBeaver. The final answer requires calculating a huge exponent and taking its SI prefix. The author attempted to solve it but got stuck on the value of BusyBeaver(4) and the meaning of log*. With help from others, the puzzle was solved, revealing the answer as "exa", but the reward website is now defunct.

(aggressivelyparaphrasing.me)

Misc AI puzzle math riddle online reward

Automattic Announces Restructuring, 16% Workforce Reduction

2025-04-02

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced a company restructuring involving a 16% workforce reduction. This decision aims to improve efficiency, profitability, and competitiveness in a rapidly evolving market. Affected employees will receive severance packages, benefits, and job placement resources. Automattic stated this restructuring is necessary to ensure long-term success and continue its mission to democratize the internet.

(automattic.com)

Startup

Erica Synths Opensources its DIY Eurorack Modules

2025-04-06

Erica Synths Opensources its DIY Eurorack Modules

Following the discontinuation of its legacy DIY eurorack projects, Erica Synths has decided to open-source them. They've provided Gerber files for PCB-made front panels and made slight design changes to eliminate custom and rare components (though some modules still require rare ICs available at www.ericasynths.lv). Each folder contains complete build information and files: schematics, front panel Gerber files, PCB Gerber files, BOMs, component placement with values and designators, and assembly manuals (note that some manuals are for older module versions). Erica Synths permits third-party use for personal, educational, or commercial purposes, but will provide no support; refer to forums (www.muffwiggler.com) for build nuances, troubleshooting, part availability, and alternatives. Open-sourced modules include: Bassline, BBD delay/flanger, Delay, Dual VCA, Envelope, MIDI-CV, Mixer, Modulator, Output, Polivoks VCF, Swamp, and VCO3.

(github.com)

Hardware

Extending Futhark's Backend: Not Easy, But Not Impossible

2025-03-28

This post delves into the complexities of adding a new backend to the Futhark compiler. Futhark uses a staged compilation process: the frontend parses and type-checks, the middle-end optimizes and transforms, and the backend translates the intermediate representation (IR) to target code. Backend implementation isn't a simple tutorial; it involves multiple IR dialects and a deep understanding of internal APIs. The author suggests choosing the appropriate IR dialect based on the target language's level of abstraction and leveraging existing infrastructure to simplify development. The ultimate goal is a new backend invokable via the command line.

(futhark-lang.org)

Development backend development

Chinese Military-Linked VPN Apps Found on App Store

2025-04-03

Chinese Military-Linked VPN Apps Found on App Store

A new report reveals that at least five VPN apps on the Apple App Store are linked to the Chinese military, with three boasting over a million downloads. A subsidiary of one of the implicated Chinese companies is hiring for a role involving "monitoring and analyzing platform data," requiring familiarity with American culture. This raises serious concerns about user data privacy and potential circumvention of geo-restrictions. Apple has removed two of the apps, but the fate of the remaining three is uncertain. Experts warn users to only use VPNs from reputable companies, strongly advising against those originating from China due to legal requirements for logging and government data access.

(9to5mac.com)

Tech Chinese Military

EU Plans to Backdoor Encryption by 2026: Security or Risk?

2025-04-04

EU Plans to Backdoor Encryption by 2026: Security or Risk?

The EU's new 'ProtectEU' plan aims to bolster European security, but includes a worrying proposal to backdoor encryption by 2026 or sooner. While the EU claims this is to help law enforcement access data, critics fear it could compromise Europe's cybersecurity and be exploited by other nations. Simultaneously, the EU plans to deploy quantum cryptography in critical infrastructure by 2030.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

YC-Backed AI Startup Seeks Top 0.1% Systems Engineer

2025-04-04

YC-Backed AI Startup Seeks Top 0.1% Systems Engineer

Thunder Compute, a Y Combinator-backed AI infrastructure startup, is hiring a systems engineer. They're building technology to drastically improve GPU utilization via sharing and oversubscription at the CUDA API layer. Their core software network-attaches GPUs over TCP, allocating compute where needed most, resulting in 5x+ utilization gains with minimal performance overhead. This is a $100B+ opportunity, requiring a top-tier systems engineer with exceptional C++ skills, deep hardware/GPU architecture knowledge, and experience in low-latency environments (like hedge funds or NVIDIA). The role offers a chance to make a significant impact in a high-growth startup.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Tech GPU utilization systems engineering

Confetti: A Minimalist and Flexible Configuration Format

2025-04-02

Confetti: A Minimalist and Flexible Configuration Format

Confetti is a novel configuration format built on simplicity and minimalism. Unlike complex formats like YAML, Confetti boasts a concise and easily understandable specification, learnable in minutes. Its typeless design and composable syntax allow for everything from simple configurations to textual file formats and lightweight scripting. Confetti supports custom keywords and tri-state values, is localization-friendly, and encourages extensions, enabling users to create unique Confetti flavors.

(confetti.hgs3.me)

Development configuration format

Open-Source Benchmark for LLM OCR and Data Extraction

2025-04-01

Open-Source Benchmark for LLM OCR and Data Extraction

Omni, an open-source benchmarking tool, compares the OCR and data extraction capabilities of various large multimodal models like gpt-4o, evaluating both text and JSON extraction accuracy. This benchmark provides a comprehensive evaluation of OCR accuracy across traditional OCR providers and LLMs. The dataset and methodologies are open-source, encouraging contributions and expansion. The benchmark focuses on JSON extraction, measuring the accuracy of the entire pipeline: Document ⇒ OCR ⇒ Extraction. It uses a modified json-diff for JSON accuracy and Levenshtein distance for text similarity. The tool supports various models, including OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic, with a simple command-line interface and JSON output.

(github.com)

Development

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