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GPS Technology Explained: From Simple Positioning to Global Navigation

2024-12-18

This article provides a comprehensive explanation of GPS technology. Starting with a simple 2D positioning system, the author gradually introduces key concepts such as 3D positioning, time measurement, satellite orbits, relativistic effects, and signal processing. Through clever analogies and vivid illustrations, the author explains how GPS uses signals emitted by satellites, combined with time and distance measurements, to accurately calculate the receiver's position and time offset. The article also explores the technical details of GPS signal encoding, decoding, and anti-interference capabilities, showcasing the profound scientific and engineering foundation behind GPS technology.

(ciechanow.ski)

Tech Global Positioning System Satellite Navigation

Making Unsafe Rust Safer: Verification Tools for Unsafe Code

2024-12-17

Rust's popularity stems from its ability to eliminate memory and concurrency errors at compile time, but its `unsafe` code blocks can bypass these checks. This article explores tools for verifying unsafe Rust code, including code called from C or C++ libraries. It introduces runtime error detection tools—sanitizers—and Miri, an interpreter that deterministically finds undefined behavior. Sanitizers detect out-of-bounds memory access, data races, and more, while Miri provides more precise error reporting with code snippets. However, Miri currently doesn't support code called via FFI from C/C++, necessitating the use of C/C++ compiler sanitizers in such cases. These tools enhance the safety and reliability of Rust code, even when dealing with `unsafe` code or interacting with C/C++ libraries.

(blog.colinbreck.com)

Development Safety Memory Errors

Ryzen 7 9800X3D Teardown Reveals Mostly Dummy Silicon

2024-12-18

A teardown of AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor reveals a surprising finding: the majority of its volume is comprised of dummy silicon for structural integrity. While the SRAM cache die is significantly smaller than the compute die, AMD has added a substantial layer of dummy silicon above and below to protect the thin, fragile components. This results in a total package thickness of roughly 800µm, with dummy silicon accounting for a staggering 93%. Despite the seemingly wasteful design, it ensures stability and thermal performance. AMD is expected to announce 12-core and 16-core Ryzen 9 X3D processors soon.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Hardware

Brisk: A Cross-Platform C++20 GUI Framework for High-Performance Rendering

2024-12-18

Brisk is a modern, cross-platform C++20 GUI framework built for creating responsive, high-performance applications with ease. Leveraging an MVVM architecture and reactive capabilities, Brisk boasts scalable GPU-accelerated rendering, making it ideal for graphics-intensive projects. It supports multiple backends (D3D11, D3D12, Vulkan, OpenGL, Metal, WebGPU) and features declarative GUI, stylesheets, and full Unicode support. Currently under active development, contributions are welcome.

(github.com)

Development GUI Framework GPU Acceleration

Revolutionary Technique Cuts LLM Memory Costs by Up to 75%

2024-12-17

Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based startup, has developed a groundbreaking technique called "universal transformer memory" that significantly improves the memory efficiency of large language models (LLMs). Using neural attention memory modules (NAMMs), the technique acts like a smart editor, discarding redundant information while retaining crucial details. This results in up to a 75% reduction in memory costs and improved performance across various models and tasks, offering substantial benefits for enterprises utilizing LLMs.

(venturebeat.com)

AI Memory Optimization Neural Networks

Reclaiming Sensor Data: Breaking Free from the Cloud

2024-12-18

This article details how an embedded software engineer regained control of data from a cloud-connected radon sensor by bypassing the manufacturer's servers. By analyzing network traffic, the engineer discovered a vulnerability where the sensor didn't properly validate server certificates. Leveraging a local DNS server and a custom Python web server, the engineer successfully intercepted and read the raw sensor data. This grants programmatic access and ensures continued functionality even if the manufacturer's servers go down. The article highlights the importance of network security and the privacy risks associated with DNS traffic.

(embeddedartistry.com)

Development IoT security data autonomy embedded systems

Java for Small Programs: Scripts and Notebooks

2024-12-18

This article explores the surprising effectiveness of Java for small programs, particularly scripting and exploratory programming. The author details how Java's features, like implicit classes, records, and enums, simplify code, highlighting the ease of running Java scripts without compilation (using JEP 330 and JEP 458). Managing external dependencies with JBang is also discussed. The article further delves into using Java within Jupyter Notebooks, acknowledging current limitations while expressing hope for future improvements in the ecosystem. The author's experience automating tedious tasks showcases Java's strength over alternatives like bash scripting and Python, emphasizing the advantages of static typing and robust tool support.

(horstmann.com)

Development Scripting

ImPlot3D: A High-Performance Immediate Mode 3D Plotting Library Based on Dear ImGui

2024-12-18

ImPlot3D is an open-source library built on top of Dear ImGui, offering developers an easy-to-use, high-performance way to create 3D plots. Independent of ImPlot, ImPlot3D supports various 3D plot types, including line plots, scatter plots, surface plots, and mesh plots, with interactive rotation, panning, and zooming. Its intuitive API, similar to Dear ImGui and ImPlot, allows for quick integration and customization of markers, lines, surfaces, and mesh styles, with options for built-in or custom colormaps. A comprehensive demo application aids users in learning and utilizing its features.

(github.com)

Development 3D plotting

Cultivated Meat: From a $330,000 Burger to the Future of Food

2024-12-16

From Winston Churchill's 1931 prediction to the world's first lab-grown burger in 2013, the cultivated meat industry has overcome challenges to become a booming sector. The initial high cost (the first burger cost $330,000) fueled innovation, leading to over 100 companies worldwide investing a total of $2.6 billion. Technological advancements have reduced costs, such as serum-free growth media, and increased efficiency with innovations like PluriMatrix. Regulatory approvals in countries like the US and Singapore are paving the way for wider adoption, though mainstream acceptance is projected to take 20-30 years.

(www.synbiobeta.com)

Tech cultivated meat cell-based meat food technology

The 1954 Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic: A Case of Mass Delusion

2024-12-18

In April 1954, Seattle and surrounding areas were gripped by a mysterious phenomenon: countless tiny pits appeared on car windshields. Panic ensued, with theories ranging from cosmic rays to nuclear fallout and even sand flea eggs. Official investigations were chaotic, experts disagreed, and mass hysteria gripped the public. The truth, however, was far less dramatic: the pits were already there, unnoticed until widespread attention and media fueled a collective delusion. The event became a textbook example of mass delusion, highlighting the dangers of misinformation and the power of groupthink.

(www.historylink.org)

Misc mass delusion social psychology 1954 Seattle event

Pea Protein Foam: Revolutionizing Plant-Based Baking

2024-12-18

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed a plant-based protein foam made from legumes like peas and lentils. This foam can be used in baking to create light and airy baked goods, offering a healthy vegan alternative to egg whites. The process involves extracting pea protein and optimizing its foaming properties using high-pressure homogenization. The resulting foam closely matches the quality of animal-derived protein foams. While discerning palates might detect subtle differences, this innovation represents a significant breakthrough for plant-based baking, reflecting the growing demand for healthy and sustainable food options.

(phys.org)

Tech plant-based protein baking

UK Watchdog to Issue New Guidance on Smart Device Data Privacy

2024-12-16

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will issue new guidance addressing data privacy concerns surrounding smart home devices. A Which? report revealed that some air fryers and other smart devices sent user data to servers in China. The ICO stated that consumers feel overwhelmed by the amount of data collected and lack control over its use. New guidelines, launching Spring 2025, will cover consent procedures, privacy information provision, and tools enabling users to exercise their rights.

(news.sky.com)

Tech data privacy information security

Grug's Guide to Sound: A Caveman's Approach to High Fidelity

2024-12-17

Grug, a seasoned (though slightly confused) sound engineer, penned this guide to help young Grugs build the perfect cave sound system. The guide covers every component in the signal chain, from streamers to speakers, explaining key parameters like impedance, sensitivity, and distortion. Grug emphasizes low noise and low distortion, advising prioritization of high-quality speakers. Ultimately, Grug recommends a budget-friendly entry-level system, allowing young Grugs to enjoy high-fidelity music in their caves.

(petrustheron.com)

Misc audio hi-fi

Waymo's First International Road Trip: Tokyo Bound

2024-12-17

Waymo is bringing its autonomous vehicles to Tokyo in early 2025, partnering with Nihon Kotsu and GO. This marks Waymo's first international expansion, challenging its self-driving system with left-hand traffic and Tokyo's dense urban environment. The company will collaborate with local partners and officials to understand the local landscape and ensure safe implementation. This aligns with Japan's vision for future transportation, and Waymo will work closely with regulators to meet safety standards. Initially, Nihon Kotsu drivers will manually operate the vehicles to map key areas of Tokyo.

(waymo.com)

AI autonomous driving international expansion

The Cyclic Identity for Partial Derivatives: Unraveling the Mystery of -1

2024-12-16

This article explores the cyclic identity for partial derivatives: ∂z/∂x * ∂x/∂y * ∂y/∂z = -1, rather than the intuitive 1. Through examples and various proof methods, including differential forms and geometric interpretations, the article reveals the mathematical principles behind this seemingly counterintuitive identity. The author also discusses its applications in physics and offers intuitive explanations.

(johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com)

Misc partial derivatives differential forms mathematical physics

Zaymo, YC-backed Startup, Seeks Founding Engineer

2024-12-17

Zaymo, a Y Combinator-backed e-commerce email marketing startup, is hiring a Founding Engineer. Zaymo transforms e-commerce emails into shoppable landing pages, allowing purchases without leaving the inbox. The company is experiencing hyper-growth and seeks an experienced full-stack engineer to help build the future of email marketing. The ideal candidate has 2+ years of startup engineering experience, proficiency in TypeScript, Remix, and AWS, and a positive, fast-moving, collaborative attitude. Zaymo offers competitive salary, equity, and relocation assistance.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Startup Engineer

Revolutionary Keyboard: Markov Chain-Based Dynamic Layout

2024-12-19

Tired of static keyboard layouts? The MarkovKeyboard project revolutionizes typing! It uses a Markov chain algorithm to dynamically adjust the keyboard layout based on your typing habits, moving frequently used keys closer to the home row. This Emacs library updates the layout with each keypress. While currently supporting only letters, it dynamically adapts. You can use a pre-trained model or train your own data for a personalized layout.

(github.com)

Development Markov chain dynamic keyboard

Rust-based SQLite Rewrite Achieves 100x Tail Latency Reduction

2024-12-16

Researchers from the University of Helsinki and Cambridge have rewritten SQLite in Rust, creating Limbo, a project leveraging asynchronous I/O and io_uring to drastically improve performance. By utilizing asynchronous I/O and storage disaggregation, Limbo achieves up to a 100x reduction in tail latency, particularly beneficial in multi-tenant serverless environments. The key improvement comes from replacing synchronous bytecode instructions with asynchronous counterparts, eliminating blocking and enhancing concurrency. While improvements are most pronounced at high percentiles, this makes Limbo ideal for applications demanding high reliability.

(avi.im)

Development Asynchronous I/O

Nostalgic Game 'Alley Cat' Remake Released

2024-12-17

Programmer Joflof has finally completed a remake of the classic 1983 game 'Alley Cat' after many years of work. This remake not only retains the original pixel graphics and sound effects but also adds five new levels and multiplayer modes for up to four kittens to play simultaneously. Additionally, Joflof has included special arcade mode configuration options for arcade enthusiasts. Currently, the game is only available for Windows, but the author hopes that enthusiasts will help port it to Linux and Mac systems.

(www.joflof.com)

Game retro game remake arcade game

Backward-Incompatible GRUB2 Change Causes BIOS Boot Loop

2024-12-16

The author's Debian and Kali Linux systems experienced boot loops after a GRUB2 update added the command `fwsetup --is-supported`. Older GRUB versions didn't recognize this parameter. The issue stemmed from an older `efifwsetup.mod` module, leftover from a system backup restoration, causing a conflict between the new GRUB configuration and the old module. Installing the `grub-efi-amd64-bin` package resolved the problem. This highlights the importance of backward compatibility in software updates and the need to consider potential side effects when making partial changes in complex software like GRUB2.

(op-co.de)

Development boot loop

Global Operation Takes Down 27 DDoS-for-Hire Sites

2024-12-17

Europol coordinated a 15-country operation, PowerOFF, shutting down 27 major DDoS-for-hire platforms ('booters' and 'stressers'). These platforms enabled cybercriminals and hacktivists to flood targets with illegal traffic, crippling websites and online services. The operation disrupted attacks targeting US government agencies, including the Department of Justice and FBI. While a significant victory, experts caution that criminals will adapt, necessitating ongoing efforts to combat DDoS attacks.

(www.scworld.com)

Tech DDoS attacks international cooperation

Python Meta-Circular Interpreter: Implementing a Python Interpreter in Python

2024-12-18

This article demonstrates how to create a Python meta-circular interpreter (MCI) using Python itself. An MCI is an interpreter written in the language it interprets, allowing implementation of a subset or superset of the host language. The author details the MCI's implementation, covering parsing Python source code, building an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST), traversing the AST and executing statements, and crucial concepts like scoping, symbol tables, and handling control flow statements (e.g., while loops and if statements). This example provides a deep understanding of interpreter mechanics and showcases how to leverage Python's AST module and built-in functions to build more complex interpreters.

(rahul.gopinath.org)

Development Meta-circular Interpreter

Lightweight Self-Hosted Proxy PipeGate: A 'Poor Man's ngrok'

2024-12-17

PipeGate is a lightweight, self-hosted proxy built with FastAPI, designed as a "poor man's ngrok." It lets you expose your local servers to the internet, providing a simple way to create tunnels from your local machine to the external world. It's excellent for developers wanting to understand how tunneling services like ngrok work internally or needing a customizable alternative hosted on their own infrastructure. Key features include self-hosting, unique connections, customizability, lightweight design, and ease of learning. Installation is straightforward via git clone or pip.

(github.com)

Development self-hosted proxy ngrok alternative local server

K8s Cleaner: Optimize Your Kubernetes Clusters

2024-12-18

K8s Cleaner is a Kubernetes cluster cleanup tool designed for administrators. It efficiently identifies and removes unused resources to boost cluster performance and reduce operational costs. Supporting all resource types, including CRDs, it offers pre-defined rules and customizable options (time-based, label-based, or custom Lua scripts). Notifications are sent via Slack, Email, and more, while a dry-run mode prevents accidental changes. K8s Cleaner streamlines Kubernetes resource management.

(sveltos.projectsveltos.io)

Development Cluster Cleanup Resource Management

Best-of-N Jailbreaking: A Novel Attack on AI Systems

2024-12-15

Researchers have developed a new AI attack algorithm called Best-of-N (BoN) Jailbreaking. This black-box algorithm repeatedly modifies prompts—randomly shuffling or capitalizing text, for example—until it elicits a harmful response from the AI system. BoN achieved impressively high attack success rates (ASRs) on closed-source language models like GPT-4o (89%) and Claude 3.5 Sonnet (78%), effectively circumventing existing defenses. Furthermore, BoN seamlessly extends to vision and audio language models, highlighting the vulnerability of even advanced AI systems to seemingly innocuous input variations. This research underscores significant security concerns in the field of AI.

(arxiv.org)

AI AI security AI attack Best-of-N Jailbreaking

Klarna Halts Hiring, CEO Claims AI Can Do All Jobs

2024-12-17

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has claimed that AI can already perform all jobs currently done by humans, leading the fintech company to halt hiring a year ago. The company's workforce has shrunk from 4,500 to 3,500 employees through attrition. While Klarna's website still advertises open positions, a spokesperson clarified that the company is not actively recruiting to expand but filling essential roles, mainly in engineering. This announcement has fueled concerns about AI's impact on the job market.

(www.businessinsider.com)

Tech Employment

M87 Supermassive Black Hole Emits Astonishing Gamma-Ray Flare

2024-12-16

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope captured the first-ever image of a supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87. Now, an international team, including researchers from UCLA, has observed a teraelectronvolt gamma-ray flare from this black hole, tens of millions of times larger than its event horizon. This rare, decade-defining flare provides crucial insights into particle acceleration near black holes and could help solve the mystery of cosmic ray origins. UCLA played a significant role in the construction and data analysis of the VERITAS telescope, instrumental in detecting this event.

(newsroom.ucla.edu)

Tech black hole gamma-ray flare cosmic rays

Startup Failure After 3 Years: Founder Open-Sources All Code

2024-12-17

After three years, Dylan Huang's developer tools startup, Konfig, has shut down. Konfig focused on simplifying API integrations, with its core product being an SDK generator alongside API documentation and testing tools. Despite gaining some early traction, the company failed to achieve hyper-growth due to challenges in securing contracts and low pricing. A pivot to a B2B SaaS AI product also proved unsuccessful. Now, Huang is open-sourcing Konfig's entire codebase – including the core product, failed pivots, and various supporting scripts – hoping it will be beneficial to others. While the startup ended in failure, Huang emphasizes the invaluable lessons learned.

(dylanhuang.com)

Startup startup failure open source code API development tools

Python Dependency Management: A Raging Inferno

2024-12-15

This article delves into the complexities of Python dependency management, likening it to building a bonfire in a dry forest. The author argues that Python dependencies aren't simply a matter of `pip install`; they encompass project packages, system packages, the operating system, hardware, and the environment itself. Good dependency management is crucial for reproducibility—ensuring consistent results across different environments. The article details version control, environment isolation, definition files, lock files, and other key concepts. It then provides a comprehensive comparison of numerous tools, including pip, venv, virtualenv, pip-tools, Pipenv, Poetry, PDM, pyenv, pipx, uv, Conda, Mamba, conda-lock, and Pixi, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and use cases. Finally, the author offers tool recommendations based on different scenarios (administrative privileges, dependency types, operating systems, etc.) and looks ahead to future trends in Python dependency management.

(nielscautaerts.xyz)

Development Python dependency management reproducibility Python tools

W54: The Pocket-Sized Nuke of the Cold War

2024-12-18

The W54, also known as the Mark 54 or B54, was the smallest nuclear weapon ever deployed by the United States. Its remarkably compact design, boasting a yield ranging from 10 to 1,000 tons of TNT, made it suitable for various applications, including the AIM-26 Falcon air-to-air missile, the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle, and the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) system. Developed in the late 1950s, the W54's creation presented significant engineering challenges, particularly concerning its environmental sensing device. A later variant, the W72, was integrated into the AGM-62 Walleye guided bomb and remained in service until 1979.

(en.wikipedia.org)

Tech nuclear weapon cold war

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