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The Principles of the Wheel Reinventor

2025-03-21

This article explores the philosophy of the 'Wheel Reinventor' – a programmer who chooses to build things from scratch, not for efficiency, but for learning, customization, innovation, and the sheer joy of creation. Four key reasons are given for reinventing the wheel: learning, specificity, innovation, and enjoyment. However, the author stresses the importance of careful planning and avoiding unnecessary rabbit holes, weighing the costs and benefits before starting. Practical advice is also shared, including minimizing third-party dependencies, mastering built-in tools, avoiding excessive abstraction, and open-sourcing code.

(tobloef.com)

Development programming philosophy

Whisper's Embeddings Surprisingly Align with Human Brain Activity During Speech

2025-03-26

Whisper's Embeddings Surprisingly Align with Human Brain Activity During Speech

A study reveals a surprising alignment between OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition model and the neural activity in the human brain during natural conversations. By comparing Whisper's embeddings to brain activity in regions like the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG), researchers found that language embeddings peaked before speech embeddings during speech production, and vice-versa during comprehension. This suggests Whisper, despite not being designed with brain mechanisms in mind, captures key aspects of language processing. The findings also highlight a 'soft hierarchy' in brain language processing: higher-order areas like the IFG prioritize semantic and syntactic information but also process lower-level auditory features, while lower-order areas like the STG prioritize acoustic and phonemic processing but also capture word-level information.

(research.google)

AI

AI Cracks Ancient Babylonian Texts: Uncovering New Chapters of the Epic of Gilgamesh

2025-03-21

AI Cracks Ancient Babylonian Texts: Uncovering New Chapters of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Professor Enrique Jiménez and his team at LMU Munich are using AI to digitize surviving cuneiform tablets. Their project, Fragmentarium, has processed 22,000 fragments, using algorithms to match pieces and identify hundreds of new manuscripts and textual connections. Remarkably, it unearthed a fragment of the Gilgamesh epic dating to 130 BC. Soon to be publicly released, the project will offer a digital version of all known cuneiform fragments, including a new edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh incorporating all known transcriptions. This groundbreaking resource promises to unlock a deeper understanding of ancient Babylonian literature and culture.

(phys.org)

Tech

Elecom's Na Plus: First Consumer Sodium-Ion Power Bank is Here (But It's Bulky)

2025-03-25

Elecom's Na Plus: First Consumer Sodium-Ion Power Bank is Here (But It's Bulky)

Accessory maker Elecom has launched the Na Plus, the first consumer-ready power bank using sodium-ion batteries. Boasting superior environmental friendliness, extreme temperature tolerance, and a claimed lifespan of nearly 5,000 charges, it promises long-term durability. However, the 9,000mAh Na Plus, priced at ~$67, is significantly larger and heavier than comparable lithium-ion alternatives, offering less power output (max 45W). While sodium-ion technology is still nascent, its eco-friendly and safer nature makes it a promising long-term solution, with potential for future cost and size reductions.

(www.theverge.com)

Hardware sodium-ion battery power bank

Flexible Authorization Library: RBAC, ABAC, and ReBAC Combined

2025-03-24

Flexible Authorization Library: RBAC, ABAC, and ReBAC Combined

A flexible authorization library combining role-based (RBAC), attribute-based (ABAC), and relationship-based (ReBAC) access control policies. It supports policy composition (AND, OR, NOT), detailed evaluation tracing, and a fluent builder API, with type safety and async support. Easily add multiple policies like RBAC and ABAC, and create custom policies using PolicyBuilder. Examples demonstrate RBAC, ReBAC, and policy combinators.

(github.com)

Development authorization

Cool, but Obscure X11 Tools: A Retrospect of Unix Utilities

2025-03-24

This article presents a curated collection of lesser-known yet fascinating tools for the X Window System. From a 3D rendition of Pong to Free42, an HP calculator emulator, and from the filesystem visualizer FSV2 to XLennart, a modern twist on the classic XBill game, this compilation offers a nostalgic journey through Unix utilities. Installation instructions, GitHub links, and even compilation guides are provided for each tool. Whether you're a nostalgic programmer or an X11 enthusiast, this article is a worthwhile read.

(cyber.dabamos.de)

Development Unix tools

X Macros: Chapel Compiler's Code Generation Secret Weapon

2025-03-25

The Chapel compiler cleverly leverages X Macros to dramatically simplify code generation. The article uses string interning and the AST class hierarchy as examples, showcasing how X Macros elegantly generate large amounts of repetitive code. This includes declaring and initializing over 100 string variables and generating visitor pattern code for AST nodes. X Macros achieve this by defining macros in header files, which are then included in the code, thereby increasing code maintainability and scalability. Even generating a Python class hierarchy is easily managed. The article concludes by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, noting that while dependencies are stronger, the declarative nature makes the code more readable and maintainable.

(danilafe.com)

Development X Macros Chapel Compiler

Go Program: Convert Security Audit JSON to Markdown Report

2025-03-23

Go Program: Convert Security Audit JSON to Markdown Report

A simple Go program converts `security-audit.json` to `security-audit.md` for use in CI pipelines. An example report is provided, along with example CI integration files (`dependency-audit.yml` and `dependency-audit-only-when-detected.yml`), the latter only creating a GitHub issue if vulnerabilities are detected. The program allows customization of input and output file paths and offers an option to fail if no vulnerabilities are found.

(github.com)

Development Security Audit

Google Moves All Android Development In-House

2025-03-26

Google Moves All Android Development In-House

Google has confirmed it's moving all Android development to its internal branches, meaning the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) will no longer reflect Google's complete work. This aims to streamline development and prevent merge conflicts, but doesn't change Android's open-source nature. New versions and maintenance releases will be pushed to AOSP. End users and app developers will likely see little impact; the main change is less premature exposure of unconfirmed internal information via AOSP leaks.

(9to5google.com)

Development

NCURSES: The Unsung Hero of UNIX Terminal Programming

2025-03-26

This document introduces the NCURSES library, a powerful and terminal-independent library for screen painting and input event handling. Originating from the screen-handling routines of the vi editor, it evolved through termcap and terminfo databases. NCURSES supports multiple highlights, color, mouse interaction, and extensions for panels, menus, and forms, simplifying terminal application development significantly.

(invisible-island.net)

Development terminal programming

AI Scraping Arms Race: A Tar Pit of Troubles

2025-03-25

AI Scraping Arms Race: A Tar Pit of Troubles

To combat the excessive scraping of online resources by AI companies, a technique called "tarpit" has emerged. It works by consuming AI crawler resources, thus increasing their costs and posing a significant challenge to these yet-unprofitable companies. Cloudflare's "AI Labyrinth" employs a similar strategy but with a more commercially polished approach, aiming to protect websites from unauthorized scraping. However, AI crawlers generate over 50 billion requests daily, putting immense pressure on online resources and threatening the sustainability of open-source projects. Communities are also developing collaborative tools, such as the "ai.robots.txt" project, to help defend against these crawlers. Unless AI companies cooperate with affected communities or regulations are introduced, this data grab will likely escalate, jeopardizing the entire digital ecosystem.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

Sam Altman on OpenAI: An Accidental Consumer Tech Giant

2025-03-25

Sam Altman on OpenAI: An Accidental Consumer Tech Giant

This Stratechery interview features OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, detailing OpenAI's journey from a research lab to a consumer tech giant, and the unexpected success of ChatGPT. Altman candidly discusses OpenAI's business model shift, its relationship with Microsoft, views on AI safety and regulation, and the future of AGI. The interview also touches on OpenAI's open-source strategy, GPT-5 development, and the implications of AI across various industries. Altman believes a billion-user AI platform will be more valuable than cutting-edge models, hinting at potential alternative monetization strategies beyond advertising.

(stratechery.com)

AI

100x Speedup: Garbage Collection and GPUs in Python

2025-03-25

This post details how the author achieved a 100x speedup of a Python program through simple code optimizations. The initial program used NumPy for parallel computation but was slow and memory-intensive due to poor memory management. By implementing a simple garbage collection mechanism to release unused intermediate variables, the author reduced runtime from 40 seconds to 10 seconds, significantly decreasing memory usage. Subsequently, using CuPy to offload computation to the GPU further reduced runtime to 1.5 seconds, demonstrating a dramatic performance improvement.

(bernsteinbear.com)

Development Python Optimization

AMD's Gaia: Open-Source LLM for Local Inference on Windows PCs

2025-03-22

AMD's Gaia: Open-Source LLM for Local Inference on Windows PCs

AMD unveils Gaia, an open-source project enabling local LLM execution on Windows machines. Leveraging the Lemonade SDK for inference and optimized for Ryzen AI processors, Gaia utilizes Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for improved accuracy and context-aware responses. Featuring agents for chatting, YouTube searching, and even joke generation, Gaia offers offline functionality, enhancing security and reducing latency. A strong contender in the burgeoning local LLM space, Gaia provides a compelling alternative to cloud-based solutions.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Tech

PicoRuby: A Lightweight Ruby Implementation for Microcontrollers

2025-03-24

PicoRuby: A Lightweight Ruby Implementation for Microcontrollers

PicoRuby is a lightweight mruby implementation with a small footprint: 256KB ROM and under 128KB RAM (32-bit architecture). Highly portable, it depends only on standard C libraries and supports microcontrollers like the Raspberry Pi Pico. Still under development, it provides API documentation, demo videos, and build tools. The `rake` command builds three executables: `picorbc` (compiles Ruby to mruby VM code), `picoruby` (executes Ruby code directly), and `r2p2` (for specific use). Developed by HASUMI Hitoshi and Monstarlab with funding from the Ruby Association.

(github.com)

Development embedded Ruby

Tech Addiction: The 'Zombie Students' Crisis in the Age of Screens

2025-03-25

Tech Addiction: The 'Zombie Students' Crisis in the Age of Screens

A sobering article exposes the devastating impact of tech addiction on students. Teachers report students' lack of focus, motivation, and addiction to the dopamine rush of their phones, behaving like addicts. This phenomenon is widespread, even affecting young children. The article points out that tech companies, prioritizing profits, disregard the negative impact on youth, leading to decreased learning ability, academic dishonesty, and an inability to think critically. It calls for parents, teachers, and tech companies to work together to solve this growing social problem.

(www.honest-broker.com)

Tech Tech Addiction Student Crisis

Citizen Lab Exposes Israeli Spyware Maker Paragon's Global Reach

2025-03-22

Citizen Lab Exposes Israeli Spyware Maker Paragon's Global Reach

A new Citizen Lab report reveals that Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions, despite claiming to sell only to democracies, has likely sold its Graphite spyware to the governments of Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore. The report, based on analysis of server infrastructure and digital certificates, links Paragon to these governments. Paragon's spyware uniquely targets specific apps, making forensic detection harder. Meta confirmed an indicator linked to Paragon mentioned in the report. The findings raise serious concerns about the misuse of commercial spyware and the need for greater government oversight.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech spyware

Website Cookie Policy Explained

2025-03-24

Website Cookie Policy Explained

This website uses cookies to optimize the website and its service. Technical storage or access is for the legitimate purpose of enabling a specific service explicitly requested by the user, or solely for transmitting communication over an electronic communications network. Cookies are also used to store preferences not requested by the user, for statistical purposes (including anonymous statistics), and to create user profiles for advertising or tracking across websites for similar marketing purposes. However, anonymous statistical data cannot usually be used to identify you.

(9to5linux.com)

Misc

Sharks' Sixth Sense: The Amazing World of Electroreception

2025-03-22

Sharks' Sixth Sense: The Amazing World of Electroreception

How do sharks hunt precisely in the dark depths of the ocean? The answer is electroreception! This amazing organ allows sharks to sense the weak bioelectric fields of their prey, even if the prey is hidden beneath the sand. The article delves into the evolutionary history, working mechanism, and applications of electroreception in different species, revealing the amazing biodiversity and evolutionary strategies of nature. From shark predation to electric eel discharge, the story of electroreception is full of wonder and scientific charm.

(nautil.us)

Tech electroreception sharks bioelectricity

Blizzard Reverses Hardcore WoW Classic Death Policy After DDoS Attacks

2025-03-25

Blizzard Reverses Hardcore WoW Classic Death Policy After DDoS Attacks

Streamer Sodapoppin's World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore raid was wiped out by a DDoS attack. Blizzard responded by resurrecting characters killed during the attack, a departure from the game's usual permadeath policy. Blizzard stated that the DDoS attack was a malicious third-party action, warranting a different response than typical in-game deaths. While the overall Hardcore mode rules remain unchanged, deaths specifically caused by external attacks like this will be handled differently.

(arstechnica.com)

Game Hardcore Mode

High-Dose Vitamin D Significantly Reduces Disease Activity in Early MS Onset: Clinical Trial

2025-03-25

High-Dose Vitamin D Significantly Reduces Disease Activity in Early MS Onset: Clinical Trial

A French study published in JAMA found that 100,000 IU of oral cholecalciferol every two weeks significantly reduced disease activity in clinically isolated syndrome and early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. The randomized controlled trial of 316 participants showed a significantly lower rate of disease activity in the high-dose vitamin D group compared to the placebo group. This research supports vitamin D as a potentially inexpensive and well-tolerated treatment option, especially in areas with limited access to standard therapies.

(medicalxpress.com)

Tech Multiple Sclerosis Vitamin D Clinical Trial

Critical Next.js Middleware Vulnerability: CVE-2025-29927

2025-03-23

Security researchers discovered a critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-29927) in Next.js's middleware, affecting nearly all versions from 11.1.4 to the latest. The flaw allows attackers to bypass middleware, including authentication and authorization, by manipulating the `x-middleware-subrequest` header. This can lead to bypassing security measures and even cache poisoning denial-of-service attacks. Vercel has released patches; all Next.js users should upgrade immediately.

(zhero-web-sec.github.io)

Development

Animal-Methods Bias: A Roadblock to Scientific Progress?

2025-03-25

Animal-Methods Bias: A Roadblock to Scientific Progress?

A recent study reveals a widespread "animal-methods bias" in life sciences: researchers often prefer animal models despite the availability of potentially better non-animal methods. This bias stems from pressure from peer reviewers and funding agencies, forcing researchers to use animals even when their contribution is minimal. However, the tide is turning. More NGOs and institutions are funding research into non-animal methods, like organ-on-a-chip technology, which better mimic human physiology, thus boosting drug development efficiency and reducing animal use. While still nascent, these alternative methods, with increasing funding and technological maturity, promise to revolutionize biomedical research.

(www.nature.com)

Tech animal testing alternative methods

Journalist Accidentally Joins Top-Secret Signal Group, Learns of Yemen Airstrike Hours Beforehand

2025-03-25

Journalist Accidentally Joins Top-Secret Signal Group, Learns of Yemen Airstrike Hours Beforehand

A journalist was inadvertently added to a highly classified Signal group chat comprised of top U.S. government officials discussing an imminent military strike on Yemen. Hours before the attack, the journalist received detailed operational plans including targets, weaponry, and timing. The incident exposed serious security vulnerabilities in the U.S. government's handling of sensitive information using unauthorized communication apps, raising concerns about potential violations of the Espionage Act and federal record-keeping laws.

(www.theatlantic.com)

Tech Information Leak Military Operation

Great Singing App, But Needs Sharps and Flats

2025-03-23

Great Singing App, But Needs Sharps and Flats

This app is fantastic for learning music theory and piano, especially for singers wanting to improve their pitch. It teaches piano skills crucial for accurate singing. However, it lacks lessons on sharps and flats, a significant omission. While additional lessons are available as in-app purchases, their content isn't specified. The practice mode allows flat training, but lacks the structured approach of the main lessons and doesn't label sharps and flats on the keys. A great app, but incomplete without comprehensive sharp and flat instruction.

(apps.apple.com)

Game music learning music theory

Germany's Zeitenwende: A Military Resurgence?

2025-03-23

Germany's Zeitenwende: A Military Resurgence?

The war in Ukraine has spurred Germany's Zeitenwende, a significant shift towards increased defense spending. Facing challenges like budget shortfalls, an aging military, and outdated infrastructure, Germany is striving to rebuild its Bundeswehr, aiming to meet NATO's 2% defense spending target and bolster troop numbers. Newly elected Chancellor Merz is committed to accelerating this process, but overcoming internal resistance and achieving the ambitious goals remains to be seen.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech German Defense Military Reform

Italian Court Orders Google to Block Pirate Sites, Faces Hefty Fines

2025-03-22

Italian Court Orders Google to Block Pirate Sites, Faces Hefty Fines

An Italian court ruled against Google for failing to promptly block pirate websites identified by the Italian copyright authority, AGCOM. The court's decision, issued without requiring a response from Google, underscores the severity of the violation. This follows a similar case against Cloudflare. The ruling highlights Italy's tough stance against online piracy and its efforts to hold international tech giants accountable for adhering to local laws. Google could face significant daily fines if it fails to comply.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

Claude Code Now Debugs Node.js in Real-time: A MongoDB Connection Case Study

2025-03-22

Claude Code Now Debugs Node.js in Real-time: A MongoDB Connection Case Study

The `@hyperdrive-eng/mcp-nodejs-debugger` MCP server plugin lets Claude Code debug Node.js code at runtime. This article demonstrates debugging a Node.js app connecting to MongoDB Atlas, showcasing a runtime connection error. By setting breakpoints within Claude Code and executing custom JavaScript, developers can inspect MongoDB config variables to pinpoint issues like incorrect credentials or unauthorized IPs. The solution involves using a local MongoDB instance or correctly configuring MongoDB Atlas network access and credentials.

(www.npmjs.com)

Development Node.js debugging

AP Program Gets a Makeover: Industry Partners Join the Fold

2025-03-22

AP Program Gets a Makeover: Industry Partners Join the Fold

The College Board, creator of the Advanced Placement (AP) program, is revolutionizing its curriculum. Partnering with industry giants like IBM and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, they've launched AP Career Kickstart, initially offering courses in cybersecurity and business principles/personal finance. This aims to bridge the gap between high school education and in-demand job skills, attracting students not solely focused on college. The courses offer college credit and industry-recognized skills, enhancing employability. This signifies a blurring of lines between traditional education and vocational training, reflecting a broader societal re-evaluation of higher education's value.

(www.edweek.org)

Tech AP Program Career Education Skills Training

Google Unveils Gemini 2.5: A Giant Leap in AI Reasoning

2025-03-25

Google Unveils Gemini 2.5: A Giant Leap in AI Reasoning

Google has introduced Gemini 2.5, its most intelligent AI model yet. The experimental 2.5 Pro version boasts top performance across various benchmarks, achieving the #1 spot on LMArena by a considerable margin. Gemini 2.5 models are 'thinking' models, capable of reasoning through their responses, leading to enhanced accuracy and performance. This reasoning extends beyond simple classification and prediction, encompassing information analysis, logical conclusions, contextual understanding, and informed decision-making. Building on prior work with reinforcement learning and chain-of-thought prompting, Gemini 2.5 represents a significant leap forward, combining a vastly improved base model with enhanced post-training. Google plans to integrate these thinking capabilities into all future models, enabling them to tackle more complex problems and support more sophisticated agents.

(blog.google)

AI

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