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Small Plane Crash in Northeast Philly Causes Multiple Fires

2025-02-01
Small Plane Crash in Northeast Philly Causes Multiple Fires

A small plane crashed in a Northeast Philadelphia residential area shortly after 6 p.m. Friday, resulting in multiple casualties. The plane is believed to have struck several buildings and cars. The Learjet 55, carrying two people on a medical assignment, departed from Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri. The FAA and NTSB are investigating the incident.

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(6abc.com)
Misc Philadelphia accident investigation

Running NetBSD on a Vintage ThinkPad 380Z: A Retro Computing Adventure

2024-12-17

The author acquired a 1998 IBM ThinkPad 380Z and embarked on a journey to install an operating system on it. After trying several options, NetBSD proved to be the best choice due to its excellent performance, hardware support, and stability. The article details the process of upgrading the hard drive, connecting to the network, installing NetBSD, and configuring various software components, including the X Window System, WireGuard, and a terminal emulator. The author successfully transformed this vintage ThinkPad into a functional machine suitable for lightweight programming, note-taking, and other tasks.

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(luke8086.dev)
Misc

No, AI, Don't 'Polish' Me!

2025-01-29
No, AI, Don't 'Polish' Me!

Blogger The Bloggess hilariously recounts her battle against AI writing tools. She refuses to let AI 'polish' her emails, finding the AI-generated versions sterile and inauthentic. The AI's attempts to rewrite her text and even replace her images with AI-generated ones infuriate her, leading to a funny rant about the importance of preserving individual writing styles. The Bloggess hopes her rejection of AI's suggestions will teach the AI to appreciate and even propagate her wonderfully flawed, human style.

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(thebloggess.com)
Misc Writing Personal Style

Altman's New Brain-Computer Interface Venture: Gene Editing and Ultrasound

2025-08-16
Altman's New Brain-Computer Interface Venture: Gene Editing and Ultrasound

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is involved in a brain-computer interface company, Merge Labs, exploring a novel approach combining gene therapy and ultrasound. The method involves genetically modifying brain cells and using an implanted ultrasound device to detect and modulate activity in these cells. This differs from Elon Musk's Neuralink, which uses electrical signals. Altman aims to use this technology to control ChatGPT with his thoughts. The project is in early stages, seeking $250 million in funding at an $850 million valuation.

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(finance.yahoo.com)
Tech

The Bitter Truths of Computer Science: Dijkstra's 1975 Cry

2025-03-11

In 1975, Turing Award winner Edsger Dijkstra published a scathing critique of the computer science field. He bluntly criticized the flaws of programming languages like COBOL, PL/I, and BASIC, and the academic world's silence on these issues. He argued that poor programming languages and methodologies were harming the intellectual integrity of computer science and predicted the risks of over-reliance on IBM systems. This article remains a powerful call for reflection on balancing technological advancement with scientific rigor and honesty.

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(www.cs.virginia.edu)
Development

The Seymour Cray Era: A Review of Supercomputing's Genesis

2025-06-12

Boelie Elzen and Donald MacKenzie's "The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers: From Fast Machines to Fast Codes" chronicles the roughly three-decade reign of Seymour Cray in the supercomputing world. The book details the development of key supercomputer models, the technical choices and compromises involved, and the evolving market landscape, culminating in SGI's acquisition of Cray's assets and the shift towards massively parallel processing. It highlights the early divergence between business and scientific computing, showcasing Cray's challenge to IBM's dominance with the CDC 6600. The narrative explores technological risks, the crucial role of software support, and the diverse applications of supercomputers across various industries. While lacking in personal anecdotes and aesthetic considerations, the book offers valuable insights into the history of scientific computing, computer architecture, and high-value/low-volume business strategies.

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(ztoz.blog)
Tech

Building a Voice Chatbot with WebRTC and the OpenAI Realtime API

2025-03-18
Building a Voice Chatbot with WebRTC and the OpenAI Realtime API

This post details building a voice chatbot using WebRTC and the OpenAI Realtime API. The author overcomes sparse documentation to provide a step-by-step guide covering microphone audio acquisition, WebRTC connection establishment, data channel setup, and Realtime API message exchange. Best practices are highlighted, including function calls for responses and session termination, and running the application on older Google AIY Voice Kits. The author explores alternative approaches, such as headless browser solutions and embedded SDKs, showcasing WebRTC's expanding reach.

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(webrtchacks.com)
Development Voice Chatbot

The LLM Cost Illusion: How Scaling Killed the Flat-Rate Subscription

2025-08-03
The LLM Cost Illusion: How Scaling Killed the Flat-Rate Subscription

Many AI companies bet on the trend of LLM costs dropping 10x per year, assuming early losses would be offset by future high margins. Reality is different. While model costs are decreasing, user demand for the best models continues to grow, leading to an explosion in compute usage. The length of responses from models like ChatGPT has dramatically increased, resulting in exponential growth in token consumption. This means that even with cost reductions, overall spending far exceeds expectations. The article analyzes three counter-strategies: usage-based pricing from day one, creating insane switching costs for high margins, and vertical integration to profit from infrastructure. The author concludes that sticking to a flat-rate subscription model will ultimately lead to bankruptcy.

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(ethanding.substack.com)
AI AI Costs

Moore's Law's End? The Bottleneck of Traditional Software Performance

2025-09-02

Over the past 20 years, certain aspects of hardware have advanced rapidly (e.g., core counts, bandwidth, vector units), but instructions per cycle, IPC, and latency have stagnated. This breaks old rules of thumb, such as "memory is faster than disk." The article argues that traditional software (single-threaded, non-vectorized) performance gains are limited by these stagnant metrics, leading to skyrocketing cache miss costs. The author suggests we need to rethink how we write software to fully utilize ever-improving hardware capabilities.

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(www.bitflux.ai)
Tech software optimization

Quantifying Political Lies: A Case Study of RFK Jr. and Buttigieg Speeches

2025-07-18

This article quantifies the percentage of lies in speeches by RFK Jr. and Pete Buttigieg through sentence-by-sentence fact-checking. The author found that RFK Jr.'s speeches contained a staggering 60% false claims, averaging over eight lies every five minutes, while Buttigieg's rate was significantly lower. This methodology tackles "Brandolini's Law" (the energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it) by exhaustively fact-checking a sample speech to establish a lie rate, eliminating the need for constant verification. While time-consuming, this approach offers a novel way to assess the credibility of political figures.

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(brady.fyi)
Misc political lies

Mago: Blazing Fast PHP Linter, Formatter, and Static Analyzer in Rust

2025-09-13
Mago: Blazing Fast PHP Linter, Formatter, and Static Analyzer in Rust

Mago is an extremely fast PHP linter, formatter, and static analyzer written in Rust. Inspired by the Rust ecosystem, it brings speed, reliability, and a superior developer experience to PHP projects of all sizes. Features include linting, static analysis, automated fixes, formatting, semantic checks, and AST visualization. Mago aims to be a unified and faster alternative to existing tools like PHP-CS-Fixer, Psalm, PHPStan, and PHP_CodeSniffer.

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(github.com)
Development

Signal Desktop's New Screen Security Feature Fights Back Against Microsoft Recall

2025-05-21
Signal Desktop's New Screen Security Feature Fights Back Against Microsoft Recall

Signal Desktop for Windows now includes a "Screen security" setting to prevent screenshots of Signal chats from being captured by Microsoft Recall. This setting is automatically enabled on Windows 11. Recall, a feature that takes screenshots every few seconds and stores them in a searchable database, was initially met with intense backlash and removed, only to return with adjustments. Signal's new feature uses DRM flags to block screenshots, albeit with usability trade-offs. Signal urges OS vendors to provide better developer tools to avoid privacy apps needing workarounds to protect user privacy.

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(signal.org)
Tech Microsoft Recall

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.

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(www.nature.com)
Tech animal testing alternative methods

Zuckerberg: Back to Free Expression Roots, Community Notes Replace Fact-Checkers

2025-01-07
Zuckerberg: Back to Free Expression Roots, Community Notes Replace Fact-Checkers

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta's return to its free expression roots, replacing its fact-checking system with a community-based approach called 'Community Notes'. This shift aims to simplify platform policies and focus on core values. It signifies a move away from centralized content moderation towards a system relying more heavily on the user community to identify and flag inaccurate or misleading information. This decision has sparked considerable debate surrounding content moderation, information veracity, and platform responsibility.

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(www.facebook.com)
Tech community notes content moderation

MarkItDown: Free Online Markdown Converter

2024-12-21
MarkItDown: Free Online Markdown Converter

MarkItDown is a free online tool that converts various file formats (like Word, PDF, HTML, etc.) into standard Markdown. Powered by Microsoft's open-source Markitdown project, it offers fast and reliable conversions, perfect for bloggers, note-takers, and technical writers. No downloads or installations are required; simply upload your file and get clean, organized Markdown output. It's a secure and efficient way to manage your content.

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(markitdown.pro)
Development online tool

High-Energy Nitrogen: Breakthroughs and Challenges

2025-06-18
High-Energy Nitrogen: Breakthroughs and Challenges

Recent years have witnessed significant progress in the research of polynitrogen compounds as high-energy-density materials. Scientists have successfully synthesized compounds containing hexazine rings and conducted in-depth studies on their structure and stability. However, the synthesis and stability of polynitrogen compounds remain a significant challenge, with factors such as quantum tunneling effects playing a crucial role. Future research will focus on overcoming the challenges in synthesis and stability to develop safer and more efficient polynitrogen high-energy materials.

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(www.nature.com)
Tech high-energy-density materials polynitrogen compounds quantum tunneling effect

RubyGems.org's Multi-Layered Defense Against Malicious Gems

2025-08-26

RubyGems.org recently thwarted an attack involving malicious gems designed to steal social media credentials. Their success stems from a multi-layered security approach: automated detection (static and dynamic code analysis), risk scoring, retroactive scanning, and external intelligence. Upon detection, suspicious gems undergo manual review; confirmed malicious gems are removed and documented. In a recent incident, RubyGems.org removed most malicious packages before Socket.dev's report and actively collaborated on the investigation, demonstrating effective security response. The article encourages community participation in security maintenance and calls for corporate support of RubyGems.org's security efforts.

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(blog.rubygems.org)
Development Malicious Gems

decode-kit: A Lightweight TypeScript Runtime Data Validation Library

2025-08-25
decode-kit: A Lightweight TypeScript Runtime Data Validation Library

decode-kit is a lightweight, zero-dependency TypeScript library for validating arbitrary runtime data. It uses assertion-based validation that refines your types in-place—no cloning, no transformations, and minimal runtime overhead. decode-kit validates your data and narrows its type directly; your original values remain unchanged. It employs a fail-fast approach, throwing a detailed error on the first validation failure, including the location and expected schema. Supporting various data types (strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, objects) with configurable rules, decode-kit outperforms libraries like Zod due to its in-place type assertion, making it ideal for performance-critical applications.

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(github.com)
Development

Germany Updates US Travel Advice After Citizens' Detainment

2025-03-21
Germany Updates US Travel Advice After Citizens' Detainment

The German foreign ministry updated its travel advice for the US after three German citizens were denied entry and detained. The updated advice warns that even with an ESTA, entry isn't guaranteed, and minor visa overstays or false information can lead to arrest and deportation. While the ministry insists it's not a travel warning, the cases – including a US green card holder who was subjected to harsh interrogation and detention – highlight potential risks. One detainee, a tattoo artist, was held for over six weeks and allegedly placed in solitary confinement. The incidents serve as a cautionary tale for German travelers to the US, emphasizing the importance of accurate information and adherence to visa regulations.

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(www.euronews.com)
Tech US entry travel advice visa

Protocol Society: Power, Algorithms, and the Future of Humanity

2025-05-04
Protocol Society: Power, Algorithms, and the Future of Humanity

This essay explores a new model of power in the internet age: "Protocol Society." By contrasting two narratives—one about the internet breaking down traditional power structures, the other about global cultural convergence—the author reveals a shift from centralized to decentralized, algorithmic power. Protocols, not centralized authorities, become key shapers of society and individual behavior. The essay delves into the mechanisms of protocol operation, its opportunities and challenges, and the resulting new political reality, exploring how to maintain individual autonomy and social stability within a protocol society.

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(www.thenewatlantis.com)
Misc Protocol Society Algorithmic Power Network Culture

Greystar, Largest US Landlord, Settles Antitrust Case Over Algorithmic Price-Fixing

2025-08-11
Greystar, Largest US Landlord, Settles Antitrust Case Over Algorithmic Price-Fixing

The US Department of Justice accused Greystar, the largest landlord in the US, of using RealPage's algorithm to collude with other landlords on rental pricing. The algorithm allegedly contained anti-competitive features that facilitated price coordination. Greystar shared sensitive data with competitors, violating antitrust laws. To settle the lawsuit, Greystar agreed to stop using the algorithm, refrain from sharing sensitive information, and potentially accept a court monitor. This case highlights the risks of algorithmic price-fixing and the importance of antitrust enforcement in the digital age.

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(www.justice.gov)
Tech

Ex-Googler Exposes the Dark Side of the Tech Utopia

2025-06-06
Ex-Googler Exposes the Dark Side of the Tech Utopia

A former Google employee's blog post details their experience working at Google's Brazil office, revealing a stark contrast between the company's polished 'best place to work' image and the harsh realities faced by its employees. The author describes overwork, the illusion of 20% time, suppression of dissent, and discrimination against temporary and contract workers. Their personal experiences highlight Google's internal hierarchy and inequality. Ultimately fired for questioning company policies and exposing internal issues, the account prompts reflection on tech company culture, social responsibility, and the inherent conflicts between labor and capital in a capitalist system.

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(wordsmith.social)
Startup Tech Company Culture

Klarna's AI Customer Service Pivot: Humans Are Back

2025-05-11
Klarna's AI Customer Service Pivot: Humans Are Back

After boasting last year that its AI chatbot could replace 700 human representatives, buy now, pay later giant Klarna is reversing course. While the AI handled routine inquiries efficiently, the company found that human empathy and expertise were crucial for complex or emotionally charged situations. Klarna is now prioritizing human-powered customer service, viewing AI as a supplementary tool rather than a replacement. They're recruiting extensively for a flexible, remote-work customer service model, aiming to improve customer experience and address the limitations of AI in handling nuanced interactions. This shift highlights the ongoing need for human connection in customer service, even in a rapidly automating world.

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(www.customerexperiencedive.com)
Startup Human Interaction

Rust Compiler Error Messages: A Decade of Evolution

2025-05-16

This article explores the evolution of Rust compiler error messages over the past decade. By analyzing error outputs from various stable Rust releases, from 1.0 onwards, the author showcases significant improvements in clarity, readability, and user experience. Key milestones include the introduction of numerical error codes in 1.2.0 and colorful error messages with the `rustc --explain` hint in 1.26.0. The author highlights the continuous effort of hundreds of contributors, demonstrating the dedication to detail and iterative improvement within the Rust community. Minor, amusing inconsistencies across versions are also noted, underscoring the human element in this extensive undertaking.

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(kobzol.github.io)
Development Error Messages

Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet: AI Planning Skills on Display in Pokémon

2025-03-27
Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet: AI Planning Skills on Display in Pokémon

Anthropic's latest language model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, demonstrates impressive planning capabilities while playing Pokémon. Unlike previous AI models that wandered aimlessly or got stuck in loops, Sonnet plans ahead, remembers its objectives, and adapts when initial strategies fail. While Sonnet still struggles in complex scenarios (like getting stuck on Mt. Moon), requiring improvements in understanding game screenshots and expanding the context window, this marks significant progress in AI's strategic planning and long-term reasoning abilities. Researchers believe Sonnet's occasional displays of self-awareness and strategy adaptation suggest enormous potential for solving real-world problems.

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(arstechnica.com)
AI strategic planning

Google's Messaging Mayhem: A 16-Year History of Chaos and Failure

2025-01-13
Google's Messaging Mayhem: A 16-Year History of Chaos and Failure

From Google Talk in 2005 to Google Chat in 2021, Google's messaging app history is a rollercoaster of launches, shutdowns, and missed opportunities. This article chronicles the rise and fall of numerous Google messaging platforms, highlighting a lack of consistent strategy and top-down leadership. The constant churn of products, from Google Talk and Hangouts to Allo and Duo, resulted in fragmented user bases and ultimately, no dominant messaging app. Google’s inability to commit to a single, well-funded product contrasts sharply with competitors like Facebook and Apple, showcasing the high cost of Google's inconsistent approach. The article concludes by questioning Google’s future prospects in the messaging space.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech Messaging Apps Product Strategy

RSDS: A Decentralized Syndication Protocol to Fix the Internet's Missing Piece?

2025-01-11
RSDS: A Decentralized Syndication Protocol to Fix the Internet's Missing Piece?

Author Tautvilas Mečinskas proposes a new protocol called RSDS (Really Simple Decentralized Syndication) to address the challenges of content discovery and aggregation on the internet. The article reviews the rise and fall of RSS and the shortcomings of attempts like Bluesky, highlighting how RSDS uses lightweight data structures, decentralized domain name IDs, and Bitcoin blockchain-based timestamps to significantly reduce costs and complexity. It also features spam prevention, support for content licensing, and enables the creation of truly decentralized social networks. The core of RSDS lies in its low barrier to entry—everyone can host content—while also allowing for the development of commercial applications.

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(tautvilas.medium.com)
Tech social network

Reverse Engineering an ESP32 Smart Home Device: Remote Control and Home Assistant Integration

2025-04-15
Reverse Engineering an ESP32 Smart Home Device: Remote Control and Home Assistant Integration

The author, obsessed with connecting everything to Home Assistant, tackled a sleek air purifier only controllable via its proprietary app. To achieve seamless automation, he reverse-engineered the ESP32-based device. Analyzing the app revealed a WebSocket connection to a cloud server. By intercepting network traffic and using a UDP proxy to forward to the cloud server, UDP packets were captured. These packets were encrypted. Disassembling the device revealed an ESP32-WROOM-32D microcontroller; the firmware was extracted using esptool. Analysis revealed the use of the mbedtls library for encryption, identifying AES-128-CBC as the algorithm. Finally, a Node.js script was written to perform a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, integrating the device into Home Assistant.

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(jmswrnr.com)
Development

AI-Powered Lip-Sync Tech Brings Swedish Sci-Fi Film to American Theaters

2025-03-25
AI-Powered Lip-Sync Tech Brings Swedish Sci-Fi Film to American Theaters

The Swedish sci-fi film "Watch the Skies" (originally titled "UFO Sweden") will hit American AMC theaters on May 9th. Using Flawless AI's TrueSync technology, the film underwent "visual dubbing," seamlessly matching actors' lip movements to English audio without reshoots. This lowers the barrier to entry for foreign films, potentially attracting a wider audience. The technology is SAG-AFTRA compliant and promises to revolutionize global film distribution. The film, about a teenager searching for her father, believed abducted by aliens, will screen in 100 AMC locations across the US.

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(www.engadget.com)
Tech
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