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Bloom Filters: The Secret to Making SQLite 10x Faster

2024-12-22

Researchers cleverly used Bloom filters to make SQLite analytical queries 10x faster. They discovered that SQLite's nested loop joins were inefficient, with much time spent on B-tree probes. By using a Bloom filter before the join operation to quickly filter out rows unlikely to match, and then performing B-tree probes only on potential matches, the number of probes was significantly reduced. Bloom filters have minimal memory overhead and were easy to integrate into SQLite's existing query engine, resulting in a significant performance boost. This improvement has been integrated into SQLite v3.38.0.

(avi.im)

Development Bloom filters Database optimization

The Growing Trend of Living Near Friends

2024-12-27

The Growing Trend of Living Near Friends

In today's fast-paced world, maintaining close friendships can be challenging. This article explores the rising trend of people relocating to live near their closest friends. Through interviews with several individuals and families, the article highlights the benefits of proximity, including shared resources, convenient socializing, and mutual childcare support. These 'mini-neighborhoods' foster strong bonds, combat loneliness, and create rich environments for raising children, offering a compelling alternative to the isolating aspects of modern life.

(www.architecturaldigest.com)

Misc friendship neighborhood

A 50-Year-Old Bug in C's File I/O: Unraveling a Legacy Mystery

2024-12-26

While improving a DOS emulator, a developer stumbled upon a seemingly trivial bug in file I/O: appending text to a file using the `echo` command produced unexpected results. Debugging revealed a flaw in how C runtime libraries handle switching between reading and writing, a flaw tracing back to the 1970s and even earlier UNIX systems. The article delves into the historical context, from early K&R C to modern C standards, exploring implementation differences across various UNIX versions and C compilers. The root cause is identified as limitations in early C libraries' handling of update mode, with variations in how different operating systems and compilers addressed these limitations. The author concludes that even today, for portable C code, an explicit `fseek` call is necessary when switching between reading and writing a file.

(www.os2museum.com)

Development file I/O legacy bug

PQConnect: A New Layer of Internet Security Against Quantum Attacks

2024-12-27

PQConnect is an easy-to-install layer of internet security that allows you to immediately address the threat of quantum attacks on your computer without waiting for application upgrades. It automatically applies end-to-end post-quantum cryptography between computers running PQConnect, adding cryptographic protection to unencrypted applications, working with existing pre-quantum applications to add post-quantum protection, and adding a second application-independent layer of defense to applications with application-specific post-quantum protection. Unlike VPNs, which only protect traffic between your computer and VPN proxies, PQConnect automatically detects and transparently encrypts traffic to servers supporting PQConnect. System administrators can easily configure server names to announce PQConnect support. Separate installation instructions are provided for users and system administrators.

(www.pqconnect.net)

Tech post-quantum cryptography internet security quantum attacks

Newberry Library Unearths Largest Known Example of Rare Maguey Paper Manuscript

2024-12-23

Newberry Library Unearths Largest Known Example of Rare Maguey Paper Manuscript

The Newberry Library in Chicago has made a remarkable discovery: a colonial-era Mexican manuscript, Ayer 1485, written on an exceptionally rare type of paper made from agave plants—maguey paper. The manuscript, a collection of sermons by Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan missionary, contains nearly 50 sheets, far surpassing the number of known existing maguey paper sheets worldwide. The choice of maguey paper, a material with significant pre-Hispanic religious connotations, suggests a deliberate decision by Sahagún's indigenous collaborators, offering valuable insight into the complex cultural exchange during the early period of contact between Europe and the Americas. This find not only highlights ancient papermaking techniques but also enriches our understanding of this crucial historical moment.

(www.chicagotribune.com)

History maguey paper ancient manuscript colonial Mexico

Bizarre Particle's Mass Depends on Travel Direction

2024-12-12

Bizarre Particle's Mass Depends on Travel Direction

Scientists have unexpectedly discovered a strange quasiparticle, a semi-Dirac fermion, in a ZrSiS material. This particle exhibits a peculiar behavior: it's massless when moving along a specific direction but gains mass when traveling in other directions. This discovery, stemming from research into the properties of quasiparticles within ZrSiS, relates to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence, E=mc². When moving at light speed in a specific direction, the quasiparticle is massless; changing direction and slowing down causes it to gain mass. The finding could potentially lead to novel applications for ZrSiS, similar to those of graphene.

(newatlas.com)

Physics semi-Dirac fermion quasiparticle mass-energy equivalence

World's First: AI Voice Cloning in Just 3 Seconds!

2025-01-10

AnyVoice unveils a groundbreaking AI technology that creates hyper-realistic voice clones from only 3 seconds of audio. This revolutionary technology dramatically speeds up the voice cloning process, eliminating the need for lengthy recordings. Currently supporting English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the service requires users to record a 3-10 second audio sample in a quiet environment. Commercial use is permitted with a commercial license.

(anyvoice.net)

AI AI voice cloning speech synthesis

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

Demystifying Debuggers: Anatomy of a Running Program

2024-12-24

Demystifying Debuggers: Anatomy of a Running Program

This article delves into the low-level mechanics of a running program. Using the analogy of a video game cartridge on an NES, it explains how modern operating systems virtualize program execution. Key concepts like virtual address spaces, threads of execution, executable images, loaders, modules, and processes are detailed. The article explains how virtual address spaces, via page tables, map virtual addresses to physical addresses, allowing multiple programs to share physical memory without interference. It also covers thread scheduling, executable image formats (PE and ELF), the loader's role, and dynamic module loading/unloading. Finally, it summarizes the concept of a process, which integrates threads, modules, and virtual address spaces.

(www.rfleury.com)

Development debugger program execution

IncludeOS: Run Applications in the Cloud with Zero Overhead

2024-12-17

IncludeOS is a lightweight operating system that lets you run your application in the cloud without a traditional OS. It integrates OS functionality directly into your application, creating high-performance, secure, and resource-efficient virtual machines. IncludeOS applications boot in tens of milliseconds and require only a few megabytes of disk and memory. Simple command-line tools facilitate building and deployment, and ample examples and documentation help developers get started quickly.

(www.includeos.org)

Development lightweight OS cloud computing virtual machines

60 Minutes Investigates: Former NSA Employee Returns to Menwith Hill

2024-12-24

Former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Margaret Newsham returned to the Menwith Hill listening station in the UK at the invitation of the 60 Minutes crew. Years later, she was astonished by the base's expansion and, along with the film crew, risked arrest to get close to the facility for filming and interviews. Newsham recounted her experiences working at the base and shared her observations, in a thrilling adventure that revealed the massive scale and influence of this secretive listening station.

(cryptome.org)

Misc Menwith Hill listening station

Rules to Avoid Common Extended Inline Assembly Mistakes

2024-12-21

This article isn't an inline assembly tutorial, but rather a summary of six rules to avoid common mistakes. The author emphasizes that inline assembly is treacherous and should be avoided whenever possible, as modern compilers offer intrinsics and built-ins for most use cases. If unavoidable, the rules are: use the `volatile` qualifier; use a `memory` clobber if accessing memory; never modify input constraints; never call functions from inline assembly; don't define absolute assembly labels; and use the assembler's local label feature to avoid label conflicts. The article concludes by encouraging readers to practice applying these rules by reviewing online tutorials and even LLM-generated code.

(nullprogram.com)

Development inline assembly compiler

Fish Shell 4.0b1 Beta Released: Core Code Rewritten in Rust, Major Improvements Included

2024-12-22

Fish Shell 4.0b1 Beta Released: Core Code Rewritten in Rust, Major Improvements Included

Fish Shell 4.0b1 beta is out! The major highlight is the porting of the core code from C++ to Rust, resulting in significant performance improvements and enhancements. Many other improvements are included, such as better terminal support, enhanced binding capabilities, improved scripting features, and a better interactive experience. Noteworthy backward-incompatible changes include a new key notation for bindings and the default enabling of the qmark-noglob feature. Overall, this is a significant release offering users a more powerful and efficient shell experience.

(github.com)

Development

Automated Assembly System Creates Cyborg Insects

2024-12-15

Scientists have developed an automated system for assembling insect-computer hybrid robots. The system uses a vision-guided robotic arm to precisely implant custom-designed bipolar electrodes onto the backs of Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The entire process takes only 68 seconds, and the assembled robots achieve steering and deceleration control comparable to manually assembled systems. A multi-agent system of 4 robots successfully navigated an obstacle course, demonstrating the feasibility of mass production and real-world applications. This research paves the way for scalable production and deployment of insect robots.

(arxiv.org)

AI insect robots automated assembly robotics

Decoding the Telephony Signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

2024-12-22

A telecom hardware engineer decoded the telephony signals in a scene from Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. The audio clip, featuring dial tones, rapid tone combinations, and an answer tone, was analyzed using spectrograms. By comparing the frequencies to known standards (DTMF, CAS R2, SS5), the engineer identified the signaling as SS5 and decoded the number as 044 1831. This analysis not only showcases the engineer's expertise but also reveals insights into the film's sound design and suggests a possible connection to a real-life London number.

(corelatus.com)

Tech signal decoding telecommunications

ByteDance Open-Sources Monolith, its Recommendation System Framework

2024-12-20

ByteDance Open-Sources Monolith, its Recommendation System Framework

ByteDance has open-sourced Monolith, a deep learning framework for large-scale recommendation modeling. Built on TensorFlow, it supports batch and real-time training and serving. Key features include collisionless embedding tables ensuring unique representation for different ID features, and real-time training for capturing the latest trends and helping users discover new interests. Tutorials and demos are provided to facilitate usage.

(github.com)

AI Recommendation System

HTML/ZIP/PNG Polyglot Files: A Clever Format Fusion

2024-12-28

This article details a clever method for creating HTML/ZIP/PNG polyglot files. By cleverly utilizing the flexible structure of the ZIP format and the fault tolerance of HTML, along with the characteristics of PNG files, web pages and their resources are packaged into a self-extracting PNG file. The article explains in detail how to handle character encoding, data reading, and cross-format compatibility issues, ultimately achieving an efficient and compact web archiving scheme. This demonstrates programmer ingenuity and a deep understanding of data formats.

(gildas-lormeau.github.io)

Development polyglot files

Colorado Farm Marries Solar Power and Agriculture for a Sustainable Future

2025-01-04

Colorado Farm Marries Solar Power and Agriculture for a Sustainable Future

A Colorado farmer has pioneered a sustainable model by integrating solar panels with his farm. His 3,276 panels power roughly 300 homes, while the land beneath them supports various crops and livestock, offering crucial shade during Colorado's hot summers. This 'agrivoltaics' approach not only boosts income but also protects soil and improves land use efficiency, offering a blueprint for climate change adaptation. However, challenges remain, including higher initial costs, increased land management demands, and a lack of policy support for agrivoltaics.

(www.ksjd.org)

Tech sustainable agriculture agrivoltaics

PubPeer Review: TRF2-S Protein Regulates Axonal mRNA Transport

2025-01-16

A PubPeer post discusses a research article on TRF2-S, a novel RNA- and FMRP-binding protein crucial for regulating axonal mRNA transport and presynaptic plasticity. Published in Nature Communications, the study reveals how TRF2-S influences neuronal growth and function by impacting mRNA trafficking and local translation. This research sheds light on neural mechanisms and potentially offers new avenues for neurological disease treatment.

(pubpeer.com)

Tech Neuroscience RNA-binding protein Axonal transport

JMAP Turns 10: A Decade of Open Email Protocol

2024-12-23

JMAP Turns 10: A Decade of Open Email Protocol

Fastmail celebrates the 10th anniversary of JMAP, its open-source email protocol. Over the past decade, JMAP has evolved from initial concept to a mature standard, incorporating email, contacts, and calendar functionalities, through industry workshops, collaborations with developers, and IETF standardization. Looking ahead, Fastmail plans to enhance the Cyrus IMAP server and continue promoting JMAP adoption to improve user experience and make it the industry standard for email.

(www.fastmail.com)

Development open-source protocol email

Bogotá's Ciclovía: A 50-Year Legacy of Open Streets

2024-12-22

Bogotá's Ciclovía: A 50-Year Legacy of Open Streets

Bogotá's Ciclovía, a weekly program closing 75 miles of streets to cars for seven hours, celebrated its 50th anniversary. Born from a 1974 protest against traffic and pollution, Ciclovía has become a beloved tradition, drawing over 1.5 million people each Sunday. Its success has inspired over 400 cities worldwide to adopt similar programs. Ciclovía is more than just a recreational event; it's a testament to community building, improved public health, and a unique solution to urban challenges. The program's longevity and impact highlight its surprising power to foster social cohesion, promote equality, and even resolve political conflicts, demonstrating the potential for transformative urban interventions.

(slate.com)

Misc sustainable transport community engagement

NY Governor Signs Law Criminalizing Restaurant Reservation Black Market

2024-12-21

NY Governor Signs Law Criminalizing Restaurant Reservation Black Market

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act, cracking down on the black market for restaurant reservations. This first-of-its-kind legislation targets individuals and groups using bots or manual methods to hoard and resell reservations at inflated prices. The law protects both consumers and businesses by ensuring a fairer reservation system, while acknowledging some legitimate reasons for reservation trading, such as handling non-refundable bookings in emergencies. However, the prevalent scalping and cancellations negatively impact restaurants and diners.

(ny.eater.com)

Misc Restaurant Reservations Black Market New York Legislation

Unspoken Rules of Terminal Programs: A 20-Year Retrospective

2024-12-12

This article summarizes the author's 20 years of experience with terminal programs, distilling common, albeit unofficial, 'rules' of behavior. These rules cover program responses to Ctrl-C, Ctrl-D, and the 'q' key, color usage, readline keybinding support, and pipe output. The author notes that while not mandatory standards, understanding these rules helps predict terminal program behavior and reduces the learning curve. The article uses examples to analyze the applicability and exceptions to these rules, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between a program's own responsibility and default OS behavior.

(jvns.ca)

Development terminal programs command line programming tips

Engineer Implements Reversible 1D Cellular Automata Using Bitwise Operations

2024-12-12

Engineer Implements Reversible 1D Cellular Automata Using Bitwise Operations

Richard Palethorpe, an engineer, created a demo using the GFXPrim library showcasing a one-dimensional binary cellular automaton and its reversible counterpart. The automaton evolves based on rules where each cell's state is determined by its own state and those of its left and right neighbors. The article details bitwise operation optimizations, such as parallel processing of multiple cells using 64-bit integers and bit rotation to simulate neighbor interaction. Reversible implementation is achieved by XORing with the previous state. The author explores compiler optimization and vectorization impacts on performance and ultimately implements an efficient rendering method.

(richiejp.com)

Development cellular automata bitwise operations reversible computing

Why I Don't Use Domain-Driven Design

2024-12-29

Tony Marston, a seasoned software developer with four decades of experience building enterprise applications, explains why he doesn't use Domain-Driven Design (DDD). He argues that DDD overemphasizes object-oriented design theory at the expense of database design and code reusability in large systems. He prefers a layered architecture with a separate class for each database table, leveraging inheritance and the Template Method pattern for code reuse. Marston believes this approach better suits real-world projects and increases development efficiency.

(www.tonymarston.net)

Development Domain-Driven Design Code Reusability

Open-Source Game Engine boardgame.io Simplifies Turn-Based Game Development

2024-12-20

Open-Source Game Engine boardgame.io Simplifies Turn-Based Game Development

boardgame.io is an open-source JavaScript game engine designed to simplify the development of turn-based games. By automatically handling complex aspects like state management, multiplayer networking, and AI opponents, developers can focus on writing game logic. The engine supports multiple game phases, lobbies for matchmaking, prototyping capabilities, and various view layer technologies (such as React and React Native). Its powerful plugin system and traceable game logs further enhance development efficiency and player experience.

(github.com)

Development turn-based game

Study: Critics, Not Fans, Perpetuate the 'Sophomore Slump' Myth

2024-12-23

Study: Critics, Not Fans, Perpetuate the 'Sophomore Slump' Myth

A new study challenges the common belief that bands' second albums are inherently worse than their debuts. Researchers analyzed thousands of album ratings from both professional critics and fans, finding that critics, not fans, consistently gave lower scores to second albums. This suggests a bias among critics, potentially driven by social conformity and the pre-existing notion of a 'sophomore slump,' rather than an objective decline in musical quality.

(phys.org)

Misc music criticism album quality

IPv6: Schrödinger's Internet Protocol

2024-12-13

IPv6: Schrödinger's Internet Protocol

IPv6, designed to address the anticipated internet address exhaustion crisis, exists in a paradoxical state. Its deployment steadily expands, connecting more users and devices; yet it seems stalled, overshadowed by the enduring dominance of IPv4 solutions. This article explores the complexities of IPv6 adoption, including the role of NAT, IPv4 address transfers, and inconsistent vendor and application developer readiness. It analyzes different government strategies in promoting IPv6, and how incentives, vendor accountability, and capacity-building initiatives can foster adoption. Ultimately, it highlights IPv6's importance in preserving the internet as an open platform for innovation.

(labs.ripe.net)

Tech Internet Protocol Network Technology

Delta Emulator Triples Apple's In-App Prices to Push Patreon

2024-12-20

Delta Emulator Triples Apple's In-App Prices to Push Patreon

Delta gaming emulator developer Riley Testut is tripling the price of in-app purchases on Apple's iOS App Store to encourage users to subscribe via Patreon. This move leverages Apple's new policy allowing external payment links while protesting Apple's in-app purchase system. Patreon subscriptions offer additional benefits like iPad and SEGA Genesis support, private Discord access, and more convenient refunds and customer support.

(www.theverge.com)

Game game emulator in-app purchase

DeepSeek-V3: A 671B-Parameter Open-Source Mixture-of-Experts Language Model

2024-12-26

DeepSeek-V3: A 671B-Parameter Open-Source Mixture-of-Experts Language Model

DeepSeek-V3 is a powerful 671-billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model activating 37 billion parameters per token. Utilizing Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) and the DeepSeekMoE architecture, it innovatively employs an auxiliary-loss-free load balancing strategy and a multi-token prediction training objective. Pre-trained on 14.8 trillion high-quality tokens, followed by supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning, DeepSeek-V3 outperforms other open-source models and achieves performance comparable to leading closed-source models with remarkable training efficiency—only 2.788M H800 GPU hours.

(github.com)

AI

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