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Bank of North Dakota: A Century of Success, Boosting State's Economy

2024-12-18

Bank of North Dakota: A Century of Success, Boosting State's Economy

The Bank of North Dakota (BND) is the only state-owned and -operated general-service bank in the United States, established in 1919 to foster agriculture, commerce, and industry. It leverages state funds to provide loans and financial services for infrastructure projects, agriculture, and small businesses, and acts as a wholesale bank for local institutions. BND played a crucial role during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating its profitability and positive impact on the state's economy. Its unique model has made it a standout success story in the American financial system.

(en.wikipedia.org)

Startup state-owned bank economic development financial services

Russian Hackers Exploit Signal's 'Linked Devices' for Phishing Attacks

2025-02-19

Russian Hackers Exploit Signal's 'Linked Devices' for Phishing Attacks

Russian-aligned hackers are exploiting Signal's 'linked devices' feature for large-scale phishing attacks. Attackers create malicious QR codes disguised as legitimate Signal resources like group invites or security alerts. Scanning these codes links victims' accounts to attacker-controlled Signal instances, allowing real-time eavesdropping on conversations. This technique, used by groups like APT44, even targets Ukrainian military personnel. The stealthy nature and lack of effective defenses make this a high-risk, low-signature attack that can go undetected for extended periods.

(cloud.google.com)

Tech Signal vulnerability phishing attack

German Firm TNG Unveils DeepSeek-TNG R1T2 Chimera: A Faster, More Efficient Open-Source LLM

2025-07-05

German Firm TNG Unveils DeepSeek-TNG R1T2 Chimera: A Faster, More Efficient Open-Source LLM

TNG Technology Consulting GmbH, a German firm, has released DeepSeek-TNG R1T2 Chimera, a new large language model (LLM) built upon the open-source DeepSeek-R1-0528. Utilizing their innovative Assembly-of-Experts (AoE) method, R1T2 boasts significant improvements in speed and efficiency, achieving over 200% faster inference than R1-0528 while retaining over 90% of its reasoning capabilities. The model's concise outputs translate to lower compute costs. Released under the permissive MIT license and available on Hugging Face, R1T2 offers a cost-effective and efficient AI solution for enterprises and researchers.

(venturebeat.com)

AI

Felix Baumgartner, Daredevil Who Broke the Sound Barrier in Freefall, Dies at 56

2025-07-19

Felix Baumgartner, Daredevil Who Broke the Sound Barrier in Freefall, Dies at 56

Felix Baumgartner, the renowned extreme athlete famous for his record-breaking 2012 Red Bull Stratos jump from the edge of space, died at 56 in a paragliding accident in Italy. Baumgartner, often called "Fearless Felix," plummeted to Earth at supersonic speeds, achieving a feat he described as leaving a 'footprint' on the planet. Hours before his death, he posted on Instagram, "Too much wind." Red Bull released a statement expressing their shock and sadness, highlighting Baumgartner's meticulous preparation and generous spirit. His death marks the passing of a legendary figure in extreme sports, a man who inspired many with his daring feats and unwavering determination.

(abcnews.go.com)

Misc Red Bull Stratos

Berlin Swapfest: C-base's Quarterly Electronics & Tools Exchange

2025-03-01

Berlin Swapfest: C-base's Quarterly Electronics & Tools Exchange

Berlin's c-base hackerspace is hosting its first quarterly Swapfest on April 19th. Buy, sell, or swap electronics, computer equipment, and tools. Promoting reuse and right-to-repair, the event encourages participants to bring items they no longer need. Whether you're building a home lab or seeking components and tools, this is the place to be. Selling is free, though a deposit may be required for larger items that aren't taken home. Transactions are flexible (PayPal, crypto, cash) with disputes handled by the parties involved.

(www.swapfest.berlin)

Misc hackerspace electronics swap right-to-repair

Optimizing Byte Matrix Multiplication with AVX-VNNI

2025-01-10

Optimizing Byte Matrix Multiplication with AVX-VNNI

This article explores optimizing byte matrix multiplication using the AVX-VNNI instruction set. The author begins with a naive implementation, then uses the gemmology and xsimd libraries to create optimized versions employing transposition and a custom layout. Benchmark results show the custom layout achieves the best performance, leveraging the vpdpbusd instruction for significant efficiency gains. The article delves into the implementation details of gemmology's maddw function and its architectural variations.

(github.com)

Development Matrix Multiplication

Ruby Thread Contention: It's Not a Free-for-All

2025-02-03

For a long time, I misunderstood "thread contention" in Ruby. It's not a chaotic struggle; instead, Ruby threads politely queue for the Global VM Lock (GVL). Each thread gets the GVL, executes code, and then releases it or is preempted after a certain time (the thread quantum, defaulting to 100ms). This happens when a thread performs I/O or runs longer than its quantum. Understanding this is crucial for optimizing multithreaded applications, especially to avoid CPU-bound threads blocking I/O-bound threads, leading to increased tail latency. Lowering the priority of CPU-bound threads or reducing the thread quantum can help, but the minimum slice is 10ms.

(island94.org)

Development

Trump Admin Seeks to Revoke Key Climate Change Finding

2025-07-30

Trump Admin Seeks to Revoke Key Climate Change Finding

The Trump administration proposed revoking the 2009 endangerment finding, which established that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, thus underpinning numerous climate regulations. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin claims this is the largest deregulation in US history, but environmental groups fiercely oppose it, arguing it ignores worsening climate disasters. The move could eliminate tailpipe emission limits and hamper future climate action, leading to likely legal challenges.

(apnews.com)

Tech

Solving ARC-AGI Puzzles Without Pretraining: A Compression-Based Approach

2025-03-04

Isaac Liao and Albert Gu introduce CompressARC, a novel method that tackles the ARC-AGI benchmark using lossless information compression. This approach, without pretraining or large datasets, achieves 34.75% accuracy on the training set and 20% on the evaluation set, relying solely on compression during inference. The core idea is that more efficient compression correlates with more accurate solutions. CompressARC uses a neural network decoder and gradient descent to find a compact representation of the puzzle, inferring the answer within a reasonable timeframe. This work challenges the conventional reliance on extensive pretraining and data, suggesting a future where tailored compressive objectives and efficient inference-time computation unlock deep intelligence from minimal input.

(iliao2345.github.io)

AI

From Johnny Appleseed to Sewage Treatment: A History of Water Management

2025-05-01

From Johnny Appleseed to Sewage Treatment: A History of Water Management

This article begins with the story of Johnny Appleseed, exploring humanity's millennia-long struggle with water resource utilization and management. Appleseed's apple trees weren't for eating, but for cider—a crucial public health measure in early America, providing a safer alternative to polluted water. This introduces the central theme: accessing and treating clean water has always been a monumental challenge. The article traces the history from the sophisticated drainage systems of ancient Mohenjo-daro, to Roman aqueducts and sewers, and the evolution of urban sewage treatment post-Industrial Revolution. It reveals the tension between technological advancements and societal management. While modern sewage treatment boasts three-stage processes, corruption, inefficiency, and underinvestment remain major obstacles globally, demanding urgent attention.

(www.thenewatlantis.com)

Tech water resources sewage treatment

My Journey to Self-Hosting Music: Ditching Spotify for Jellyfin

2025-04-17

My Journey to Self-Hosting Music: Ditching Spotify for Jellyfin

Tired of Spotify, I embarked on a quest for the perfect replacement. I tried Winamp, foobar2000, even built my own web music player, before settling on Jellyfin. Jellyfin is a self-hosted media server, giving me access to my music library anytime, anywhere, without relying on streaming services. While it requires some technical setup, it's surprisingly easy, even on an older computer. Combined with mobile apps, offline listening is a breeze. This not only gave me digital autonomy but also opened the door to self-hosting other apps like Immich for photo management.

(coppolaemilio.com)

Development music player

Hacking My Washing Machine: A Discord Notification Odyssey

2025-07-28

Hacking My Washing Machine: A Discord Notification Odyssey

A group of university students, for fun and practicality, hacked a cheap smart washing machine. Using network sniffing, they discovered the machine communicated with its app via simple HTTP, using a basic XOR encryption. Through reverse engineering and brute-forcing the encryption key, they accessed the machine's status and created a script to update it to their Discord server. The process was challenging and fun, showcasing their skills. They plan to apply this to other appliances for a fully automated smart home.

(nexy.blog)

Development

Kevin Kelly: Rejecting Unicorns, Embracing a Multifaceted Life

2025-07-04

Kevin Kelly: Rejecting Unicorns, Embracing a Multifaceted Life

This article recounts the author's meeting with tech visionary Kevin Kelly, prompting reflection on their own career path. Kelly, known for his diverse career—from Whole Earth Catalog editor to Wired co-founder and insightful futurist—has never pursued a single goal, instead continuously exploring various interests. The conversation with Kelly sparked a re-evaluation of the definition of 'success,' questioning the tech industry's obsession with singular focus and relentless pursuit, ultimately seeking a work style that combines ambition with joy.

(joincolossus.com)

Startup

Tesla's Robotaxi Launch: A Dangerous Game of Smoke and Mirrors?

2025-06-17

Tesla's upcoming Robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, raises serious safety concerns. Elon Musk's repeated promises of full self-driving have consistently fallen short. This Robotaxi plan utilizes geofencing and remote operation, a stark contrast to previous promises, and raises doubts about its safety and scalability. Competitor Waymo already operates successful Robotaxi services in multiple cities, highlighting Tesla's rushed and opaque approach. The launch appears more like a PR stunt to maintain the illusion of Tesla's self-driving leadership than a genuine technological breakthrough.

(electrek.co)

Tech

TVA Submits Application for First US BWRX-300 SMR

2025-05-25

TVA Submits Application for First US BWRX-300 SMR

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has submitted an application to build a GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at Clinch River, marking a significant milestone in US advanced nuclear technology development. This is the first US construction permit application for the BWRX-300, a smaller, more efficient and safer reactor design. TVA has invested in the design and is pursuing government funding, aiming to begin site preparation as early as 2026. The project highlights the growing interest in SMRs to meet increasing energy demands.

(www.world-nuclear-news.org)

Tech small modular reactor SMR

ChatGPT Use Linked to Increased Loneliness: OpenAI, MIT Study

2025-03-21

ChatGPT Use Linked to Increased Loneliness: OpenAI, MIT Study

New research from OpenAI and MIT suggests increased use of chatbots like ChatGPT may correlate with higher loneliness and less social interaction. A study following nearly 1,000 users for a month found that those spending more time with ChatGPT reported greater emotional dependence and loneliness. While few used ChatGPT for emotional support, the study indicated that individuals predisposed to emotional dependence might experience exacerbated loneliness. Researchers emphasize the need for further research into AI's impact on human well-being and responsible AI design.

(finance.yahoo.com)

AI

Linux Gaming Anti-Cheat: Why It's So Difficult

2025-08-23

Linux Gaming Anti-Cheat: Why It's So Difficult

The Steam Hardware Survey shows a slow but steady increase in Linux users playing games, but many popular multiplayer titles (like Valorant and League of Legends) remain unplayable due to anti-cheat limitations. This article delves into how modern anti-cheat solutions work, particularly how kernel-level drivers prevent processes from accessing game memory. The author explains why this approach is ineffective on the open Linux system and suggests alternatives for mitigating cheating on Linux, such as improved networking code and code obfuscation. While Linux gamers hope to see wider game support, the technical challenges make this unlikely in the near future.

(tulach.cc)

Game

10 Proven Terraform Config Root Setups: A Deep Dive

2025-02-16

10 Proven Terraform Config Root Setups: A Deep Dive

This blog post explores ten proven Terraform configuration root setups, catering to various use cases from single environments to complex multi-cloud deployments. Each setup includes example structures, pros, and cons, guiding you toward optimizing your infrastructure-as-code management. The article covers scenarios like single environments, multi-environments with shared modules, multi-region deployments, microservices, and multi-tenant SaaS, providing practical strategies for scalability and maintainability.

(www.resourcely.io)

Development Infrastructure as Code Configuration Management

Heroes of Might and Magic III and Might and Magic VII: New World Computing's Peak

2025-07-19

This article recounts the development of Heroes of Might and Magic III and Might and Magic VII by New World Computing in 1999. Founder Jon Van Caneghem's waning passion for games, replaced by a love of racing, presented challenges. However, Heroes III, helmed by David Mullich and newcomer Greg Fulton, successfully built upon its predecessor's success with a limited budget and time, becoming the most beloved entry in the franchise. Meanwhile, Might and Magic VII, a solid evolutionary step, included the popular card game Arcomage. While both games were commercially successful, they marked the pinnacle of New World Computing, foreshadowing its eventual decline.

(www.filfre.net)

Game

Veena Chromatic Tuner: Precise Tuning for Musicians

2025-09-08

Veena Chromatic Tuner: Precise Tuning for Musicians

Veena Chromatic Tuner is a powerful tuning app for musicians needing precise control across various musical traditions. It features Equal Temperament and Just Intonation tuning, a unique oscilloscope-like waveform display for visual feedback, and support for multiple note naming systems (including Indian classical). Users can customize the reference pitch, transpose notes, and create custom tuning profiles. A dedicated Veena instrument mode assists in fretting and tuning, making it ideal for instrument makers and players alike. While ad-supported and compatibility may vary, it offers a versatile solution for precise tuning.

(play.google.com)

Game tuning app music software instrument tuning

Xerox to Acquire Lexmark for $1.5 Billion

2024-12-23

Xerox Holdings Corporation announced it will acquire Lexmark International, Inc. for $1.5 billion. This acquisition strengthens Xerox's core print portfolio and builds a broader global print and managed print services business to better meet the evolving needs of clients in the hybrid workplace. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2025, combines two industry leaders to create a more comprehensive offering and expand geographic reach, particularly in the APAC region.

(newsroom.lexmark.com)

Tech Merger and Acquisition Printing Industry Hybrid Workplace

My Last Name Is 'Null,' and It's Breaking the Internet

2025-02-03

My Last Name Is 'Null,' and It's Breaking the Internet

The author's last name is "Null," a reserved word in many programming languages. This seemingly innocuous detail causes significant problems, from website form submissions failing to email addresses being rejected. Even when systems accept "Null," unexpected errors arise. Workarounds, like adding a period or using aliases, are temporary fixes. This humorous tale highlights common software development issues and the helplessness of large corporations in addressing them effectively. The author's struggles with Bank of America's email system, which consistently fails to handle his name, serve as a prime example.

(www.wired.com)

Development

Simple Homelab Monitoring: Ditching Prometheus for a Tiny Go Program

2025-07-13

Tired of complex monitoring tools, the author built a minimalist monitoring system for their homelab. This Go program regularly checks HTTP, DNS, etc., and sends notifications via ntfy.sh. It's lightweight, easy to maintain, and only checks if services are running, sending failure and recovery notifications—no historical data or dashboards needed. Furthermore, healthchecks.io acts as a dead man's switch to prevent the monitoring program itself from going unnoticed. While simple, this system meets the author's needs and avoids complex configuration and maintenance.

(b.tuxes.uk)

Development

Pushing the Limits: The Technological and Economic Battles of Jet Engine Development

2025-03-01

Pushing the Limits: The Technological and Economic Battles of Jet Engine Development

This article chronicles the journey of jet engine development, from its invention to its widespread commercial adoption. It's not a simple story of technological advancement, but rather a complex interplay between technological hurdles and economic realities. From initial breakthroughs to overcoming countless engineering challenges and finally achieving commercial viability, each stage was fraught with risk and immense cost. The article highlights the exorbitant costs, lengthy development cycles, reliability issues, and even bankruptcies that have plagued the industry. Using the RB211 engine as a case study, it details the setbacks and eventual successes, analyzing the driving forces behind technological progress and explaining why only a handful of companies can undertake such high-stakes endeavors.

(www.construction-physics.com)

Tech jet engine

Florida Man's High-Fat Diet Leads to Cholesterol Crisis

2025-01-22

Florida Man's High-Fat Diet Leads to Cholesterol Crisis

A Florida man's high-fat carnivore diet, consisting of pounds of cheese, butter, and hamburgers, resulted in a cholesterol level exceeding 1000 mg/dL—far above the healthy range. This led to lipids oozing from his blood vessels, forming visible yellow nodules on his skin, a condition called xanthelasma. His case, published in JAMA Cardiology, highlights the dangers of extreme high-fat diets and the importance of managing hypercholesterolemia to prevent serious health complications.

(arstechnica.com)

Health high cholesterol carnivore diet xanthelasma

DumbPipe: A Configuration-Free Inter-Computer Pipe

2025-07-28

DumbPipe establishes a secure data pipe between two computers with a single command, requiring no accounts or configuration. The receiver runs `./dumbpipe listen` to obtain a key. The sender uses this key with `./dumbpipe connect` to transmit data, e.g., `echo "hello" | ./dumbpipe connect `. DumbPipe finds a way to connect regardless of machine location, enabling easy data transfer.

(www.dumbpipe.dev)

Development network transfer data pipe

ICEBlock: A Controversial App for Reporting ICE Sightings

2025-09-02

ICEBlock: A Controversial App for Reporting ICE Sightings

Joshua Aaron's ICEBlock app, designed to anonymously report ICE sightings, has garnered over a million downloads but faces significant controversy. Developed without input from immigrant advocacy groups, the app's unverified reports lead to numerous false positives, causing panic. The developer's refusal to open-source the app, coupled with a lack of transparency and apparent misunderstandings of security concepts, raises serious security concerns. While the developer's intentions may be good, the app's effectiveness and security are questionable and require improvement.

(micahflee.com)

Tech

Next.js Logging Nightmare: A Struggle with Production Logging

2025-09-02

Next.js Logging Nightmare: A Struggle with Production Logging

The author encountered a series of challenges while attempting to add production logging to a Next.js service. Next.js's middleware mechanism is heavily restricted, and AsyncLocalStorage couldn't bridge the rendering context, resulting in logging failures in pages and layout components. The author tried various methods, including a custom server, ultimately discovering that Next.js's design limited the implementation of logging features. A comparison with SvelteKit highlights Next.js's shortcomings in logging and the inefficiency of its GitHub issue tracker. The author expresses dissatisfaction with Next.js and considers alternatives for future projects.

(blog.meca.sh)

Development

HTML Whitespace: A Deep Dive into the Mess and Potential Solutions

2025-02-07

HTML Whitespace: A Deep Dive into the Mess and Potential Solutions

This article delves deep into the complexities of whitespace handling in HTML. Through numerous examples, the author reveals the various rules governing HTML's whitespace treatment, including the differences between inline and block elements, `

` tags, and the `white-space` CSS property, and how they lead to unpredictable rendering results.  The article also analyzes the challenges faced by automated formatters, content management systems, and minification tools when dealing with HTML whitespace.  A potential solution is proposed: using a quoting syntax to distinguish between code whitespace and user-visible whitespace, though it's acknowledged this would be a massive breaking change.  Finally, the author suggests practical tips to mitigate issues arising from HTML whitespace handling and proposes adding a new HTML entity `&ncsp;` to represent a non-collapsing space.

(blog.dwac.dev)

Development

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.

(ahelwer.ca)

Development

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