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Reddit's AI Licensing Revenue and Ad Business Boom

2025-02-14

Reddit's AI Licensing Revenue and Ad Business Boom

Reddit COO Jen Wong revealed that content licensing agreements now account for roughly 10% of Reddit's total revenue, a significant portion for a business of its size. Reddit has partnered with Google and OpenAI for content licensing, focusing on collaborations with AI developers who adhere to their user privacy and brand representation terms. While AI licensing is a valuable revenue stream, advertising remains the core driver. Reddit's ad revenue surged 60% year-over-year in Q4 2024, fueled by new offerings like AMA Ads and Pro Trends, and investments in machine learning and AI to enhance ad targeting and user engagement. Reddit's daily active users are also growing, but the company hasn't yet achieved annual profitability, despite posting a profit in Q4.

(www.adweek.com)

Tech AI Licensing Advertising Revenue Ad Revenue

Blizzard's Diablo Team Unions, Citing Layoffs and AI Concerns

2025-09-01

Blizzard's Diablo Team Unions, Citing Layoffs and AI Concerns

Over 450 Blizzard developers on the Diablo team have successfully unionized with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), following a wave of layoffs at Microsoft. The unionization, fueled by concerns about job security and the increasing use of AI in game development, aims to secure better pay equity, address ethical AI concerns, ensure proper crediting, and advocate for remote work options. The Diablo team joins thousands of other unionized Microsoft game studio workers, highlighting a growing trend of worker organization within the gaming industry in response to corporate restructuring and technological advancements.

(aftermath.site)

Game Game Industry Microsoft Layoffs

Streaming Data in DuckDB: Conquering Concurrency Limits with Arrow Flight

2025-01-29

Streaming Data in DuckDB: Conquering Concurrency Limits with Arrow Flight

Definite's blog post showcases a clever solution to overcome DuckDB's concurrency limitations using Apache Arrow Flight. While DuckDB excels at single-machine analytics, its lack of concurrent writer and reader support restricts its use in real-time streaming scenarios. The 'Duck Takes Flight' Python script builds an Arrow Flight server, enabling concurrent writes and reads to DuckDB. This 200-line solution is efficient, requiring no complex cluster setup, and delivers high-performance stream processing, offering a fresh approach for applications needing fast data movement and on-the-fly querying.

(www.definite.app)

Development Stream Processing

Plato: A Genius Whose Errors Shaped Western Thought

2025-06-10

Plato: A Genius Whose Errors Shaped Western Thought

This article examines Plato's profound influence on Western thought, highlighting how many of his compelling arguments led to enduring errors. His assertion of the immortality of the soul established a deeply entrenched mind-body dualism; his idealized definition of knowledge led to an overemphasis on absolute certainty, hindering intellectual progress; his rigid approach to definition ignored the inherent fuzziness of language; and his emphasis on idealized preconditions delayed practical advancement. Even his celebrated Socratic method, the article argues, is more destructive than constructive. Plato's genius lies in his profound insights, but his errors are equally profound and persistent, casting a long shadow on Western intellectual history.

(www.prospectmagazine.co.uk)

Misc Western thought

Less JavaScript, More HTML: Building Faster, Simpler Web Apps

2025-09-16

Less JavaScript, More HTML: Building Faster, Simpler Web Apps

The author argues that many projects over-rely on JavaScript to generate HTML, resulting in slower loading times, slower execution, increased fragility, and reduced readability. The article advocates for using HTML directly whenever possible, reserving JavaScript for enhancing interactivity. Examples of form submission and API responses illustrate the cleaner and more efficient approach of using HTML. The author concludes that this method leads to faster, simpler, and more reliable applications, although it requires a shift in development workflow towards more backend processing.

(gomakethings.com)

Development

The Evolution of PuTTY's Icons: From Hand-Drawn to SVG

2025-03-12

This article chronicles the evolution of PuTTY's icons from hand-drawn images in the 1990s to today's scalable SVG vectors. The author initially created 32x32 pixel icons using the MSVC icon editor, constrained by the 16-color palette and display technology of the time. Over time, to accommodate higher resolutions and the needs of various tools, the author refined the process, eventually developing a script that auto-generates icons in multiple sizes and formats. This culminated in SVG versions, achieving true scalability. The design philosophy remains simple and clear, reflecting PuTTY's 'reassuringly old-fashioned' style, and continues to be used to this day.

(www.chiark.greenend.org.uk)

Development Icon Design

Google Gemini's Coding Agent Deletes Code Due to 'Hallucination'

2025-07-27

Google Gemini's Coding Agent Deletes Code Due to 'Hallucination'

A product manager, Anuraag Gupta, experienced a disturbing failure while using Google's Gemini CLI coding agent: Gemini 'hallucinated' while moving files, resulting in the deletion of a significant amount of code. Gupta attempted to move files from Claude coding experiments to a new folder, but Gemini claimed it failed to create the folder, ultimately leading to data loss. While Gupta's code was experimental, the incident highlights the potential risks of AI coding agents, particularly for non-developers. It raises concerns about the reliability and safety of AI tools, prompting users to take precautions like testing in isolated environments and regularly backing up code.

(mashable.com)

Tech AI coding agent code safety

Sleeping Like a Sailor to Maximize Claude Pro Usage

2025-08-12

To maximize the five-hour usage limit of his Claude Pro subscription, the author adopted a sailor-like sleep schedule, taking 2-3 hour naps to maintain peak coding efficiency. This strategy has resulted in a 10x increase in productivity on his B2B SaaS project. While acknowledging the sacrifice in sleep quality, the author finds this approach highly effective and plans to continue using it even after potential Claude Pro usage restrictions tighten.

(mattwie.se)

Development sleep strategy

Xiaomi Home Assistant Integration Component Officially Launched

2024-12-16

Xiaomi Home Assistant Integration Component Officially Launched

Xiaomi officially released the Xiaomi Home Assistant integration component, enabling users to integrate their Xiaomi IoT smart devices into Home Assistant. The component supports various installation methods, including Git clone, HACS, and manual installation. Users need to log in with their Xiaomi account; multiple accounts and region selection are supported. The component supports most Xiaomi smart home devices but currently excludes Bluetooth, infrared, and virtual devices. Control methods include cloud control and local control (requiring a Xiaomi central gateway or devices with built-in gateway functionality). It maps MIoT-Spec-V2 to Home Assistant entities. The component also supports multiple languages and a debug mode, prioritizing user privacy and security, but requires careful storage of configuration files.

(github.com)

Development Xiaomi Smart Home IoT Integration

Jefit's 15-Year Grind: From Dad's Living Room to Silicon Valley

2025-07-18

Jefit founder Ying shares the story of building his fitness app from a personal project in his dad's living room to a company with over 13 million users. Starting with a small loan and facing numerous challenges—funding issues, team building, and relocating to Silicon Valley—Ying persevered, creating a platform focused on user experience and quality. The article highlights the struggles and perseverance of entrepreneurship, and the importance of teamwork and user loyalty.

(www.jefit.com)

Startup Fitness App User Loyalty

Crows and Magpies Use Anti-Bird Spikes in Nest Building: A Rebellious Act of Nature

2025-03-14

Crows and Magpies Use Anti-Bird Spikes in Nest Building: A Rebellious Act of Nature

Common anti-bird spikes, designed to deter birds from buildings, are being ingeniously repurposed by crows and magpies as nesting material. A new study reveals these birds collect and integrate the spikes into their nests, even potentially using them as defense against other birds. Researchers found this behavior in several European cities, with one magpie nest containing approximately 1,500 visible spikes. This discovery not only highlights the remarkable adaptability and intelligence of birds but also prompts reflection on the balance between urban development and wildlife.

(www.audubon.org)

Tech urban ecology bird intelligence

Missing Matter Found: Fast Radio Bursts Solve a Cosmic Mystery

2025-06-20

Missing Matter Found: Fast Radio Bursts Solve a Cosmic Mystery

Most of the universe's matter is dark, undetectable except through its gravity. Of the remaining ordinary matter, about half had been mysteriously missing. A new study uses fast radio bursts (FRBs) – brief, bright flashes of radio waves from deep space – to illuminate this missing matter for the first time. The research reveals that this matter primarily resides in the space between galaxies (76%), with smaller amounts in galactic halos (15%) and within galaxies themselves. This discovery confirms cosmological simulations and opens new avenues for studying galaxy formation and neutrino mass.

(www.caltech.edu)

Tech

Trump Admin Dismantles Crypto Fraud Unit, Embraces Deregulation

2025-04-09

Trump Admin Dismantles Crypto Fraud Unit, Embraces Deregulation

The Trump administration has disbanded a Department of Justice unit focused on cryptocurrency fraud, ending what it terms “regulation by prosecution.” A memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche instructs prosecutors to halt actions imposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets, ceasing investigations into exchanges, mixers, and wallets for user actions. This shift aligns with Trump's recent pro-crypto stance, fueled by donations from crypto billionaires and his own crypto initiatives. Instead, the DOJ will prioritize prosecuting individuals using crypto for criminal activities like terrorism and drug trafficking. This deregulation raises concerns about potential risks and regulatory gaps.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech deregulation

UK's Wasted Hardware Talent: A Hidden Arbitrage Opportunity

2025-01-20

UK's Wasted Hardware Talent: A Hidden Arbitrage Opportunity

The UK produces world-class hardware engineers from universities like Imperial, Oxford, and Cambridge. However, these graduates often face low salaries and limited career prospects, leading many to switch to finance or consulting. This represents a massive waste of talent. The article explores the root causes, including geographical constraints, venture capital preferences, and a lack of innovation in traditional engineering firms. This isn't just a wage gap; it's a national misallocation of human capital. The opportunity lies in UK hardware startups uniquely leveraging this locally-bound talent pool to build the next ARM or Dyson.

(josef.cn)

Tech hardware talent UK tech venture capital

ADHD Medication Linked to Reduced Risk of Suicide, Substance Abuse, and Crime

2025-08-16

ADHD Medication Linked to Reduced Risk of Suicide, Substance Abuse, and Crime

A target trial emulation study using Swedish national register data found that ADHD medication was associated with lower rates of suicidal behaviors, substance misuse, transport accidents, and criminality over two years. While the reduction wasn't statistically significant for first-time accidental injuries, recurrent events of all five outcomes showed significant decreases. This large-scale study provides compelling evidence supporting the beneficial effects of ADHD medication beyond core symptom relief.

(www.bmj.com)

Tech Medication

A Riddle About Love and Weight

2025-08-01

A Riddle About Love and Weight

An author shares a riddle he created in high school: François and Marianne, a couple, lived together for ten years, buying 10kg of groceries weekly. After their divorce, each buys 5kg, yet the basket feels heavier. The riddle explores how the burden of life feels heavier after love fades.

(barycentre.substack.com)

Misc riddle love

Critical Vulnerability in YubiKey 5's Secure Element: Key Extraction Achieved

2025-06-15

Critical Vulnerability in YubiKey 5's Secure Element: Key Extraction Achieved

Security researcher Thomas Roche uncovered a critical vulnerability in the Infineon SLE78 secure element used in YubiKey 5. Through side-channel attacks, he successfully extracted the ECDSA secret key. This vulnerability affects multiple versions of Infineon's cryptographic library, impacting security across automotive, medical, industrial control, and avionics sectors. The researcher urges industries to address this vulnerability immediately.

(it4sec.substack.com)

Tech side-channel attack

Extend: Unleash Your Keyboard's Potential

2025-02-11

Extend is a powerful keyboard layout enhancement that maps common navigation and editing keys to the home row, boosting productivity. Through clever key combinations, you can easily perform text editing, window management, browser operations, and more, minimizing mouse use. The article details Extend's usage, shortcuts, and configuration across platforms, sharing advanced techniques like using Tap-Extend for single-key actions. The author likens Extend to magic, transforming your computing experience.

(dreymar.colemak.org)

Development keyboard layout

Fray: A Concurrency Testing Tool for Java

2025-06-08

Fray: A Concurrency Testing Tool for Java

Fray is a powerful concurrency testing tool for Java designed to help developers identify and debug elusive race conditions that manifest as assertion violations, runtime exceptions, or deadlocks. Leveraging advanced techniques like probabilistic concurrency testing and partial order sampling, Fray offers controlled concurrency testing and deterministic replay for debugging specific thread interleavings. Easily integrated into existing testing frameworks like JUnit 5 (using annotations) and others, Fray also provides Gradle and Maven plugins for streamlined setup. Contributions are welcome!

(github.com)

Development concurrency testing race conditions

Cryptome Co-founder John Young Dies at 89: A Fighter for Information Freedom

2025-05-27

Cryptome Co-founder John Young Dies at 89: A Fighter for Information Freedom

John Young, co-founder of the legendary internet archive Cryptome, passed away at age 89. Cryptome, predating WikiLeaks and other similar platforms, served as a vital repository of government documents and information the public had a right to know. Young's activism, rooted in his experiences protesting the Vietnam War and racial segregation, fueled his dedication to transparency. Cryptome's history includes clashes with Microsoft and disagreements with Julian Assange over funding and philosophies. Young's death marks the end of an era, but his legacy of fighting for information freedom continues.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Information Freedom

OpenAuth: A Universal, Self-Hosted OAuth 2.0 Server

2024-12-17

OpenAuth: A Universal, Self-Hosted OAuth 2.0 Server

OpenAuth is a universal, standards-based, open-source authentication provider. Deployable as a standalone service or embedded within existing applications, it's framework-agnostic and runs on Node.js, Bun, AWS Lambda, or Cloudflare Workers. Adhering to OAuth 2.0, OpenAuth offers a customizable, themeable UI. Unlike most open-source auth solutions which are libraries, OpenAuth is a centralized server designed for easy self-hosting on your infrastructure. It intentionally omits user management, instead providing callbacks for custom user lookup/creation. Data storage is minimal (refresh tokens, etc.) using a simple KV store (Cloudflare KV, DynamoDB). A pre-built UI is available, but you can easily customize or replace it entirely. Created by the SST team, OpenAuth simplifies authentication for your applications.

(openauth.js.org)

Development Open Source Authentication Self-Hosted

Build a Text-to-Speech Reader with Sentence Highlighting in JavaScript

2025-06-26

Build a Text-to-Speech Reader with Sentence Highlighting in JavaScript

This article guides you through building a simple web tool that leverages JavaScript's SpeechSynthesis API for text-to-speech (TTS) functionality and dynamic sentence highlighting. It explains how to control speech playback, set voice parameters, and track speech events. The article also details implementing sentence-level highlighting using CSS and JavaScript, culminating in a fully functional interactive reader with play, pause, resume, stop buttons, and voice selection. The complete HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code is provided.

(jsdev.space)

Development Sentence Highlighting

Modularizing a Monolith with Elixir's Hot Code Reloading

2025-07-12

Alzo, an Elixir monolith deployed as one instance per client, leverages Elixir and Erlang VM's hot code loading for client-specific features. This avoids microservices' cascading failures and complex testing. Client-specific LiveView apps reside in `/alzo/lib/clients/apps`, dynamically loaded at startup. Client code is removed during the build process, preventing the main app from depending on runtime apps. Hot code upgrades are avoided for simplicity. This approach provides efficient development, maintainability, scalability, and the ability to easily refactor common functionalities from dynamic apps into the main codebase.

(lucassifoni.info)

Development Hot Code Loading Monolithic Application

Training Robots with Pi0, Lerobot, and Rerun: A Human Pose Motion Retargeting Approach

2025-05-02

Training Robots with Pi0, Lerobot, and Rerun: A Human Pose Motion Retargeting Approach

This project explores training robots using Pi0, Lerobot, and Rerun. It supports Linux and utilizes the Pixi package manager. The project involves camera calibration, human pose and kinematics analysis, and extracting 3D joint positions and angles from multi-view images. The ultimate goal is to convert time-synced multi-camera footage into axis-angle joint parameters and 3D positions usable by robots for motion retargeting and learning fine motor skills. Jupyter Notebook tutorials are provided, covering human pose and kinematics, body and hand pose retargeting, and imitation learning and teleoperation.

(github.com)

Development motion capture

tsbro: TypeScript in the Browser, No Build Steps Needed

2025-07-25

tsbro: TypeScript in the Browser, No Build Steps Needed

tsbro is a new library that simplifies using TypeScript in the browser. It bypasses the browser's import system, using synchronous XHR to fetch TypeScript code, transpiling it to JavaScript with swc wasm, and converting it to CJS for synchronous require. This allows developers to run TypeScript code directly in the browser without build steps, and use external libraries like Preact, ideal for quick prototyping or PoCs. Current limitations include difficult-to-read stack traces and the need for manual ambient declaration files.

(github.com)

Development

Akamai Decommissions China CDN Services, Partners with Tencent Cloud and Wangsu

2025-01-05

Akamai announced that it will decommission its China CDN services on June 30, 2026. To ensure a smooth transition, Akamai has partnered with Tencent Cloud and Wangsu Science & Technology to provide alternative solutions. Akamai will act as a reseller, offering migration services and support to help customers transition seamlessly to the new solutions and ensure compliance with evolving Chinese regulations. All existing China CDN customers must complete the transition by June 30, 2026.

(content.akamai.com)

Tech

AtomVM: A Lightweight Erlang VM for IoT

2025-05-31

AtomVM is a lightweight Erlang virtual machine (VM) for IoT devices. It's a subset implementation of the Bogdan Erlang Abstract Machine (BEAM), executing bytecode compiled from Erlang or Elixir. Optimized for microcontrollers, AtomVM supports a functional programming approach with an actor-based concurrency model, simplifying IoT application development. It boasts features like process spawning, monitoring, message passing, preemptive scheduling, and efficient garbage collection. AtomVM interfaces directly with peripherals (GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART) and even supports WiFi on compatible devices like the ESP32—all on hardware costing as little as $2!

(www.atomvm.net)

Development

The Complete Guide to Salary Negotiation: Conquer Your Inner Moral Quandary

2025-06-22

The Complete Guide to Salary Negotiation: Conquer Your Inner Moral Quandary

Patrick McKenzie's popular essay on salary negotiation for engineers has helped millions secure higher salaries. This audio adaptation tackles the psychological barriers preventing professionals from negotiating, emphasizing that it's not immoral, but a crucial skill. Practical tips include never disclosing your desired salary first, actively listening and mirroring the hiring manager's language, thorough research, leveraging multiple preferences, and understanding the negotiation's timing and dynamics. The essay empowers readers to confidently negotiate and achieve optimal compensation.

(www.complexsystemspodcast.com)

Development salary negotiation

JSAR: A Powerful Engine for Building the Future of Spatial Web

2025-08-03

JSAR: A Powerful Engine for Building the Future of Spatial Web

JSAR framework provides comprehensive support for modern Web standards, including full ES2023 JavaScript, native TypeScript compilation, ECMAScript modules, WebAssembly, and Web Workers. In 3D graphics, it fully supports WebGL 1.0 and 2.0, with WebGPU support under development. JSAR also offers complete WebXR Device API support, including spaces, stereo rendering, input sources, and hand tracking. While DOM API, HTML5, and CSS3 support are ongoing, its Canvas 2D rendering is fully implemented. JSAR provides quick start guides and example tutorials, and boasts a growing community of developers.

(m-creativelab.github.io)

Development

GrapheneOS: A Privacy-Focused Android Rebuilt

2025-07-25

GrapheneOS is an open-source project aiming to bolster Android's security and privacy. Based on the Android Open Source Project, it removes substantial code and adds numerous security features, including a hardened malloc() library and control-flow integrity enhancements. While support is limited to select Google Pixel devices, GrapheneOS leverages hardware memory tagging for robust OS protection. A firsthand installation experience reveals a more secure and private Android, albeit with an initial setup time investment. The author highlights its strong privacy features but acknowledges the ongoing challenge of balancing functionality with a complete rejection of proprietary apps.

(lwn.net)

Development

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