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Napster Faces $3.4M Copyright Lawsuit Over Sonos Radio

2025-06-18

Napster, once synonymous with music piracy, is facing a new copyright challenge. SoundExchange is suing Napster and Sonos for over $3.4 million in unpaid royalties related to the Sonos Radio service, which used Napster's music catalog until 2023. The lawsuit highlights Napster's complex journey from a P2P file-sharing pioneer to a legal streaming service, showcasing its tumultuous evolution in the digital music landscape and its ongoing struggle with copyright issues.

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(torrentfreak.com)
Tech

Revitalizing TLA⁺: A Call to Arms for Tool Development

2025-05-15
Revitalizing TLA⁺: A Call to Arms for Tool Development

The 2025 TLA⁺ Community Event highlighted the current state and future direction of TLA⁺ tooling. The author argues that ease of development within the TLA⁺ ecosystem is paramount. Existing parsers, interpreters, and model checkers are reviewed, alongside challenges such as legacy code and documentation gaps. Strategies to overcome these hurdles include test-driven development, developer onboarding, and grants. Future directions include generative testing and syntax simplification, culminating in an ambitious goal: boosting TLC's throughput to 1 billion states per minute.

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(ahelwer.ca)
Development

Realistic Grass Rendering: From Principles to Godot Implementation

2025-05-29

This is the first part of a multi-part series on realistic grass rendering. It begins by exploring the visual properties of real grass, such as its shininess, translucency, and self-shadowing. Several methods for simulating grass in real-time 3D graphics are then introduced, including texturing, normal mapping, and using billboards and full geometry for grass blades. The article concludes by noting that modern GPUs can handle full-geometry grass rendering and previews the next installment, which will detail how to implement full-geometry grass in Godot.

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(hexaquo.at)
Development

MiceWine: Running Windows Apps and Games on Android

2024-12-30
MiceWine: Running Windows Apps and Games on Android

MiceWine aims to run Windows applications and games on Android smartphones. It uses a customized Wine build compiled for Android and Box64 for optimal performance. Currently under active development, it utilizes a Termux-X11 based XServer. Supports Android 10 and above. Adreno 7xx and 6xx GPUs are supported with Turnip/Zink, while others have partial support with native/Zink (experimental). Native Vulkan on non-Adreno GPUs is experimental and requires testing.

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(github.com)
Development Windows applications

Ernst Fraenkel's *The Dual State* and the Trumpian Warning

2025-03-23
Ernst Fraenkel's *The Dual State* and the Trumpian Warning

This article revisits Ernst Fraenkel's *The Dual State*, written before his escape from Nazi Germany. The book describes how the Nazi regime maintained a facade of normalcy in its capitalist economy while simultaneously operating a 'prerogative state' of unchecked violence. The author argues that dictatorships don't abolish existing laws but create a lawless zone alongside the 'normative state.' Actions by the Trump administration, such as abuses of power and suppression of dissent, mirror this 'dual state' model, serving as a warning against such systemic risks.

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(www.theatlantic.com)
Misc

Walmart's Tech Division Fires 1200 Contractors Amidst Corruption Scandal

2025-08-25
Walmart's Tech Division Fires 1200 Contractors Amidst Corruption Scandal

A major corruption scandal at Walmart's Global Tech division resulted in the sudden termination of 1200 technology contractors. A vice president was found to have orchestrated a years-long kickback scheme involving millions of dollars in payments from contracting agencies seeking preferential treatment. This incident exposes systemic corruption within the technology industry's outsourcing ecosystem, with layered subcontracting creating opaque accountability and fostering corruption. The Department of Justice has increased prosecutions of visa fraud and kickback schemes within IT consulting firms, while tighter regulations on H-1B visas aim to curb the abuses.

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(www.ctol.digital)
Tech tech corruption

The 100-Page-a-Day Reading Strategy: A Habit for Life

2024-12-21
The 100-Page-a-Day Reading Strategy: A Habit for Life

Matthew Walther, editor of *The Lamp* magazine, shares his "100-pages-a-day reading strategy." It's not a rigid plan, but a cultivated habit designed to combat the distractions of modern life and reclaim the joy of reading. Walther breaks his day into several reading slots, utilizing even fragmented time. He emphasizes diversifying reading material, balancing heavy and light books, and always carrying a book. The ultimate goal is establishing a reading habit, not strictly adhering to a page count.

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(thelampmagazine.com)
Misc reading strategy reading habit effective reading

LA Wildfires: A Self-Inflicted Wound

2025-01-18
LA Wildfires: A Self-Inflicted Wound

The author recounts their personal experience with the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, arguing that the disaster wasn't a natural event but rather a consequence of long-term negligence in forest fire management. The article highlights the lack of preventative measures, such as regular brush clearing, and the excessively lengthy environmental review processes hindering fire prevention efforts, leading to massive fuel accumulation and ultimately, catastrophic wildfires. The author calls for a renewed focus on fire prevention, streamlined approval processes, and a critical examination of current policies to avert future tragedies.

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(caseyhandmer.wordpress.com)
Tech forest fire prevention environmental policy

Revolutionizing Surgery: Through-Tissue 3D Printing with Focused Ultrasound

2025-01-05
Revolutionizing Surgery: Through-Tissue 3D Printing with Focused Ultrasound

A groundbreaking 3D printing technique uses focused ultrasound and a novel ultrasound-sensitive ink to construct biocompatible structures within thick, layered tissues. This could revolutionize surgery, enabling minimally invasive procedures such as repairing heart defects without open-heart surgery. The technique leverages ultrasound's penetration ability, precisely controlling temperature to solidify the ink into intricate 3D shapes. Successful animal testing, creating complex structures, paves the way for future human applications.

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(www.nibib.nih.gov)
Tech ultrasound biomedical engineering

Oregon DA's Illegal Phone Search Leads to Privacy Violation Lawsuit

2025-02-14
Oregon DA's Illegal Phone Search Leads to Privacy Violation Lawsuit

An Oregon woman's nude photos became the talk of her small town after a prosecutor viewed her sensitive cellphone data without a warrant, consent, or suspicion of a crime. While a federal appeals court ruled the Grant County DA had qualified immunity, the case highlights a troubling Fourth Amendment violation. The court acknowledged the Idaho State Police had consent to search the phone, but that didn't extend to another state's DA reviewing the data and disseminating private photos. The ruling sparks criticism of qualified immunity's protection of officials from liability. Though the woman received no remedy, the case serves as a warning to law enforcement; similar actions violate the Constitution and could result in liability.

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(www.oregonlive.com)
Misc privacy violation illegal search qualified immunity

EU Launches 'EU OS': A Linux-Based OS for Digital Sovereignty

2025-03-27

The EU has launched 'EU OS,' a community-driven initiative to develop a Linux-based operating system for its public sector. Built on Fedora and KDE Plasma, it aims to bolster digital sovereignty, reduce reliance on external vendors, and create a secure, self-sufficient digital ecosystem. While the choice of Fedora (backed by US-based Red Hat) has raised concerns, the open-source model promises cost savings and increased flexibility, offering a promising path towards digital independence for the EU.

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(www.linuxjournal.com)
Tech Open Source OS

California Ground Squirrels Caught Eating Meat: A Surprising Discovery

2024-12-21
California Ground Squirrels Caught Eating Meat: A Surprising Discovery

A recent study has overturned long-held beliefs about California ground squirrels. Previously considered granivores (grain-eaters), researchers observed these common rodents hunting, killing, and consuming voles—small rodents—during the summer of 2024. This surprising discovery highlights the gaps in our understanding of even familiar animals and suggests California ground squirrels may be opportunistic omnivores, adapting their diet based on food availability. The observed carnivorous behavior, peaking when vole populations surged, demonstrates their behavioral flexibility and adaptability to changing environments.

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(gizmodo.com)
Misc California ground squirrel carnivorous behavior

Neovim's Legacy: A Deep Dive into the Evolution of Unix Text Editors

2025-03-15
Neovim's Legacy: A Deep Dive into the Evolution of Unix Text Editors

This article traces the history of the Neovim editor, starting from its ancestor, the ed editor, and detailing the evolution of editors like QED, ex, vi, and Vim. It delves into the developers behind each editor and their role in the development of the Unix operating system. Neovim, as a modern fork of Vim, inherits Vim's powerful features while incorporating improvements and optimizations, making it a favorite among many developers.

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(l-o-o-s-e-d.net)
Development Editor History

Favor Long Options in Scripts

2025-03-22

Many command-line utilities offer both short (-f) and long (--force) options. While short options are convenient for interactive use, long options are far superior in scripts. Their improved readability and self-explanatory nature enhance maintainability and understanding. For instance, in Git, `git switch --create release-{today} origin/main` is significantly clearer than `git switch -c my-new-branch`, particularly within complex scripts.

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(matklad.github.io)
Development long options

Taming the Synchronized Demand Spike: A Principled Approach

2025-08-25
Taming the Synchronized Demand Spike: A Principled Approach

Synchronized demand, where a large number of clients request service almost simultaneously, can overwhelm even well-resourced systems. This article presents a principled approach to mitigate this using randomized jitter to spread requests over time. By calculating a safe window size (W), requests are uniformly distributed, thus reducing peak arrival rate. The article further discusses leveraging server-side hints (like Retry-After headers) and rate limiting to refine the strategy, balancing system stability and fairness. The approach is framed as a control problem, emphasizing the need for telemetry-driven decision-making and verification.

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(www.gojiberries.io)
Development

arXivLabs: Community Collaboration on arXiv Features

2025-07-01
arXivLabs: Community Collaboration on arXiv Features

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborative development and sharing of new arXiv features directly on the website. Participants must embrace arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. Got an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

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(arxiv.org)
Development

Python One-Liners Made Easy: uv and PEP 723

2025-06-25
Python One-Liners Made Easy: uv and PEP 723

Frustrated with Python's dependency management for one-off scripts? Say goodbye to environment hassles with uv, a blazing-fast Rust-based Python package and project manager. Combined with PEP 723's metadata specification, uv (and its npx-like tool, uvx) effortlessly creates and manages disposable virtual environments, installing dependencies on the fly. The article showcases building a simple executable script to extract YouTube transcripts, highlighting the seamless execution enabled by this powerful combination. No more wrestling with virtual environments – just pure Python scripting.

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(www.cottongeeks.com)
Development

Christianity and Sexuality: A History of Contradictions

2025-03-11
Christianity and Sexuality: A History of Contradictions

This book delves into the complex history of Christianity's attitude towards sex, from the early church's emphasis on celibacy to the persecution of homosexuals and the complex definition of women's roles. The author meticulously examines the various interpretations of biblical texts on sexuality and reveals how power, social norms, and fear of human desire have shaped the church's stance on sex. Despite the church's historically harsh attitude towards sex, the book also showcases individuals and stories that challenge traditional views and the pursuit of love and devotion. Ultimately, the author reflects on the challenges facing the modern church and the need to rebuild a truly Christian faith based on love and forgiveness.

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(www.lrb.co.uk)
Misc religious history sex and religion

Arial: How a Cheap Helvetica Substitute Conquered the World

2025-07-14

Arial is ubiquitous, yet its success isn't due to inherent beauty but rather its status as a cheap Helvetica substitute, riding the coattails of Microsoft Windows. The article details Arial's history, revealing it as not an original design, but a near-identical font created by Monotype to circumvent Helvetica's licensing. Bundled with Windows, Arial proliferated, becoming a standard for the masses, despite being viewed by professional designers as a low-quality imitation.

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(www.marksimonson.com)
Design

Morph: An Embeddable Fullstack HTMX Library with No Build Step

2025-05-19
Morph: An Embeddable Fullstack HTMX Library with No Build Step

Morph is an embeddable fullstack library for building hypermedia-driven applications without a build step, based on HTMX. It combines the best of SSR, SPA, and islands architecture, while sticking to plain HTML, CSS, and JS. Created while optimizing Telegram Web App development with Deno and Deno Deploy, Morph offers a lightweight alternative to complex frontend/backend setups using React or Vue, proving especially efficient for smaller projects. Currently running on Hono, with potential future backend support, Morph boasts several key advantages: components call APIs returning hypertext (other components); all components server-side render with server-side context access; independent component rendering and re-rendering; hierarchical component structure with nesting and API returns; minimal to no client-side JavaScript; no build step; no upfront API data structure design; embeddable in any Deno/Node/Bun project. Ideal for scenarios where separating frontend and backend isn't necessary, like small Telegram bots, desktop apps, or internal tools.

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(github.com)
Development Fullstack Framework

Omnara: Mission Control for Your AI Agents

2025-08-12
Omnara: Mission Control for Your AI Agents

Omnara is a mobile-first platform for monitoring and controlling your AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and more). It offers real-time monitoring, interactive Q&A, and smart notifications, allowing you to track your AI agents' progress and provide guidance from anywhere. Say goodbye to wasted time due to stalled AI agents; Omnara empowers you to efficiently manage your AI workflow and boost productivity.

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(github.com)
Development

Unresolved Mystery in the Sequence of Last Two Digits of 2^n

2025-03-20

Mathematicians have investigated the sequence of the last two digits of 2^n, finding that 2^n only conforms to this sequence when n takes specific values (congruent to 3, 6, 10, 11, or 19 mod 20). No additional conforming numbers have been found for n up to 50000. Further research reveals that checking digits from right to left until an odd digit is found requires checking at most the 18th digit. This discovery sparks further thought about the underlying pattern of this sequence and offers new avenues for mathematical exploration.

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(oeis.org)
Misc sequence

Finland Unveils World's Largest Sand Battery, a Cheap and Green Energy Solution

2025-06-17
Finland Unveils World's Largest Sand Battery, a Cheap and Green Energy Solution

The small Finnish town of Pornainen has switched on the world's largest sand battery, a thermal energy storage system using waste soapstone to store heat generated from renewable energy sources. This 2,000-metric-ton battery, housed in a 49-foot-wide silo, stores 1,000 megawatt-hours of heat for weeks, significantly reducing the town's reliance on oil for district heating and lowering carbon emissions. The low cost of materials and simple construction make this a compelling alternative to expensive lithium-ion batteries, showcasing a promising path for sustainable energy.

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(techcrunch.com)
Tech sand battery

Hindenburg Research Founder Shuts Down Firm After Years of Exposing Fraud

2025-01-15

Nate Anderson, founder of the acclaimed short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, announced the firm's dissolution. In a personal note, Anderson recounts the arduous journey of building Hindenburg, from initial financial struggles and lawsuits to assembling a stellar team that exposed dozens of fraudulent schemes and led to charges against billionaires and oligarchs. He cites no specific reason for the closure beyond a personal desire for balance and a wish to share his team's expertise. Anderson plans to open-source Hindenburg's investigative methods and processes over the next six months, hoping to inspire others to fight financial wrongdoing.

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(hindenburgresearch.com)
Startup hedge fund fraud investigation

HNSW: A Hierarchical Navigable Small World for Efficient Nearest Neighbor Search

2025-04-08
HNSW: A Hierarchical Navigable Small World for Efficient Nearest Neighbor Search

HNSW is a hierarchical navigable small world graph-based algorithm for nearest neighbor search of vector embeddings. It utilizes a hierarchical structure to speed up the search process. The algorithm builds sparse and dense graph structures at different levels, and searches efficiently from top to bottom. The code is concise, using modern C++ and Eigen for SIMD acceleration, requiring only about 500 lines of code.

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(github.com)
Development nearest neighbor search vector embeddings

The Curious History of Regex Anchors: Why `$` and `^`?

2025-01-21
The Curious History of Regex Anchors: Why `$` and `^`?

This post delves into the historical origins of using `$` and `^` as line anchors in regular expressions. Tracing back to the QED text editor, `$` initially represented the end of the buffer, later adapted by Ken Thompson to signify the end of a line in regexes. The choice of `^` likely stemmed from the limited character set of the Teletype Model 35 typewriter, with `^` already present in ASCII-67. This wasn't a brilliant design choice but rather a consequence of hardware and character set limitations of that era, becoming a convention in regexes.

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(buttondown.com)
Development regular expressions

100% Unemployment: The Looming Threat of Automation

2025-01-24

Software engineer Mike expresses concern about the potential for widespread unemployment due to automation. He argues that AI and automation will soon replace many, if not all, jobs susceptible to automation, challenging the notion that technological advancements will create new jobs. He raises the critical question of how to define personal worth in a future where most people lack economic value, prompting reflection on societal structures and individual value.

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(hyponymo.us)
Tech Unemployment

The Intellectual Crisis of Professional Skepticism: A Sacrifice of Truth

2025-08-03
The Intellectual Crisis of Professional Skepticism: A Sacrifice of Truth

This article explores how professional skeptics, in their critique of paranormal phenomena, have distorted facts due to bias and lack of evidence, sacrificing truth. Using the cases of Martin Gardner and J.B. Rhine as examples, the author reveals that accusations of manipulation and misconduct in parapsychological research often lack credible evidence and even fabricate facts. The article calls for a more rigorous, objective, and scientifically sound approach to skepticism.

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(mitchhorowitz.substack.com)
Tech scientific skepticism paranormal phenomena

Bonobos Show They Understand Ignorance: A Breakthrough in Theory of Mind Research

2025-02-04
Bonobos Show They Understand Ignorance: A Breakthrough in Theory of Mind Research

A new study demonstrates that bonobos possess theory of mind, understanding others' lack of knowledge and acting accordingly. Researchers designed an experiment where bonobos helped an experimenter find hidden treats. Results showed bonobos pointed faster and more often when they realized the experimenter didn't know the treat's location. This indicates bonobos track and respond to differing perspectives, suggesting theory of mind might be more evolutionarily ancient than previously thought, and potentially present in our common ancestor.

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(www.newscientist.com)
AI Theory of Mind Bonobos
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