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How Math Lit Up America: The Landscape Function and the LED Energy Revolution

2025-02-24

How Math Lit Up America: The Landscape Function and the LED Energy Revolution

US residential electricity consumption has slightly decreased in recent years, primarily due to improvements in lighting efficiency, specifically the widespread adoption of LED light bulbs. Behind this energy revolution is an unexpected driver: a breakthrough in pure mathematics—the landscape function. Initially a purely mathematical discovery, this function is now central to efficient LED design. Through numerical simulations, the landscape function has helped researchers overcome the "green gap" (the lack of efficient green LEDs), accelerating LED R&D and saving US consumers billions of dollars in energy costs.

(terrytao.wordpress.com)

Tech

Cryptographic Security Shaken: Attack on Fiat-Shamir Transformation

2025-07-10

Cryptographic Security Shaken: Attack on Fiat-Shamir Transformation

New research has challenged the long-held assumption of the random oracle model in cryptography. Researchers demonstrated a method to trick proof systems using the widely adopted Fiat-Shamir transformation, enabling them to certify false statements. This transformation is crucial in systems like blockchains for verifying computations from external servers, relying on the random oracle model's assumption. The research shows that even under this assumption, attacks are possible. This finding necessitates a re-evaluation of the random oracle model and its implications for numerous cryptographic applications, raising concerns about blockchain security and the potential for cryptocurrency theft.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech

Semiconductor-Free Solar Panel: A Bismuth Alloy Thermoelectric Approach

2025-02-28

This article details a novel thermoelectric solar panel design that eschews complex semiconductor materials. Overcoming the challenges of earlier ZnSb-based designs, the author utilizes bismuth alloys and a simple construction featuring painted zinc absorber plates and bismuth alloy thermocouples. While currently only 0.01% efficient, the author envisions improvements in materials and design leading to applications powering low-power devices in remote locations.

(simplifier.neocities.org)

Tech thermoelectric bismuth alloy

Haskell Concurrency: Escape from Thread Hell

2025-04-17

This article recounts the author's journey from embedded systems development in C/C++/Rust to Haskell, highlighting Haskell's advantages in concurrent programming. Haskell uses green threads and event-driven IO, avoiding the complexities of traditional threading models. Through the `async` package and STM (Software Transactional Memory), Haskell offers a cleaner and safer approach to concurrent tasks. Functions like `concurrently`, `race`, and `mapConcurrently`, along with data structures such as `TVar` and `TBQueue`, simplify concurrent operations and prevent common concurrency issues like deadlocks and race conditions.

(bitbashing.io)

Development

Technical Leadership: Connecting, Not Commanding

2025-09-24

Technical Leadership: Connecting, Not Commanding

A senior developer reflects on their role: not as a technical expert, but as a bridge between teams. They translate complex backend issues into product-friendly language, coordinate communication across teams, and ensure alignment on team goals. Leadership isn't about possessing the most knowledge, but about effective communication and coordination, clearly defining problems, guiding teams to solutions, and empowering team members to excel. Ultimately, great leadership creates an environment where experts can thrive collaboratively, rather than trying to be the smartest person in the room.

(idiallo.com)

Development technical leadership

container: Lightweight Container Tool for Apple Silicon Macs

2025-06-09

container: Lightweight Container Tool for Apple Silicon Macs

container is a Swift-based tool for creating and running Linux containers on macOS as lightweight virtual machines. It's OCI-compliant, allowing you to pull and run images from any standard container registry and push built images. It leverages new features in macOS 26 Beta 1 and has networking limitations on macOS 15; upgrading is recommended. Download the installer from the GitHub releases page and use uninstall-container.sh for removal. User data can be preserved during uninstallation.

(github.com)

Development

Over 3.1 Million Fake GitHub Stars Used to Promote Malware

2024-12-31

Over 3.1 Million Fake GitHub Stars Used to Promote Malware

A recent study revealed over 3.1 million fake "stars" on GitHub, used to artificially inflate the popularity of scam and malware repositories. Researchers used a tool called StarScout to analyze massive datasets, identifying 278,000 accounts responsible for these fake stars across 15,835 repositories. This deceptive practice, particularly rampant in 2024, allows malicious projects to appear legitimate and reach unsuspecting users. While GitHub has removed many of the implicated accounts and repositories, the problem persists. Users are urged to carefully evaluate project quality and exercise caution when downloading software from GitHub.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Development Fake Stars

Malicious PyPI Package Automslc: A Deezer Music Piracy Operation

2025-03-02

Malicious PyPI Package Automslc: A Deezer Music Piracy Operation

Researchers have uncovered a malicious PyPI package, automslc, enabling coordinated, unauthorized music downloads from Deezer. Downloaded over 100,000 times, it uses hardcoded credentials and a C2 server (54.39.49[.]17:8031) to bypass Deezer's API restrictions and download full tracks, violating Deezer's terms of service. The threat actor, using multiple accounts and a GitHub profile, orchestrates a distributed piracy operation, highlighting the importance of software supply chain security and the need for developers and organizations to protect themselves against such attacks.

(socket.dev)

Tech Software Supply Chain Security API Abuse

LHC Ultraperipheral Collisions Unravel the Mystery of Gluon Saturation

2025-02-11

LHC Ultraperipheral Collisions Unravel the Mystery of Gluon Saturation

Ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) offer a unique window into gluon dynamics. Experiments use photons to probe gluons within protons and nuclei, investigating gluon saturation—a dynamic equilibrium between gluon splitting and recombination. Researchers found that as energy decreases, the number of gluons in hadrons increases, forming 'gluonic hotspots' that overlap in the gluon saturation regime. The experiments also observed nuclear shadowing, where nuclei contain fewer gluons than expected. These findings shed light on the origin of 99% of the visible universe's mass and the nature of the strong interaction. Future LHC runs and the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will further explore gluon dynamics, uncovering more mysteries.

(cerncourier.com)

Tech gluon saturation hadron physics

AI Agent Solves Minecraft's Diamond Challenge Without Human Guidance

2025-04-07

AI Agent Solves Minecraft's Diamond Challenge Without Human Guidance

Researchers at Google DeepMind have developed Dreamer, an AI system that learned to autonomously collect diamonds in Minecraft without any prior human instruction. This represents a significant advancement in AI's ability to generalize knowledge. Dreamer uses reinforcement learning and a world model to predict future scenarios, enabling it to effectively plan and execute the complex task of diamond collection without pre-programmed rules or demonstrations. The research paves the way for creating robots capable of learning and adapting in the real world.

(www.nature.com)

AI

Brain Drain: US Scientists Flee Trump's Science Funding Cuts

2025-04-22

Brain Drain: US Scientists Flee Trump's Science Funding Cuts

The Trump administration's drastic cuts to science funding and workforce are driving a mass exodus of US scientists seeking opportunities abroad. Nature Careers data reveals a 32% surge in applications from US scientists for international jobs between January and March 2025 compared to 2024, alongside a 35% increase in US users browsing international opportunities. March alone saw a staggering 68% rise in views as cuts intensified, with hundreds of federal research grants abruptly terminated and major universities facing substantial funding reductions. European institutions are actively recruiting these displaced scientists, with initiatives like Aix-Marseille University's 'Safe Place for Science' and the Max Planck Society's Transatlantic Program offering refuge and collaboration opportunities. This brain drain reflects not just a search for opportunities, but a forced exodus from US academic institutions.

(www.nature.com)

Tech Science Funding US Science

Spotify Submits iOS App Update Bypassing Apple's Payment System

2025-05-02

Spotify Submits iOS App Update Bypassing Apple's Payment System

Spotify announced it submitted an iOS app update allowing US users to utilize non-Apple payment options. This follows the landmark Epic Games v. Apple ruling, forcing Apple to forgo its cut from non-Apple payment systems and prohibiting restrictions on informing users about alternative payment methods. The update offers clearer subscription pricing, easier plan upgrades and changes, and a wider range of payment choices. Spotify highlights improved user experience and increased opportunities for creators. Apple's approval remains pending. Patreon also plans to submit a similar update.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Payments

JavaFactory: Predictable AI-Powered Java Code Generation

2025-05-20

JavaFactory: Predictable AI-Powered Java Code Generation

JavaFactory is a tool leveraging LLMs to automatically generate repetitive Java code, offering more predictable and stable results than traditional AI code generators. It relies on two core components: Pattern Definition, where units of work (e.g., test generation, implementation generation) are defined in natural language; and Annotation-Based Reference Collection, explicitly specifying required classes using annotations. These defined patterns are reusable for generating various code types (implementations, tests, fixtures). A demo showcases generating 400 lines of code with all tests passing in just 20 seconds. Ideal for developers in repetitive, structured environments (e.g., layered architectures), JavaFactory automates repetitive tasks like dao-repository generation, allowing developers to focus on core logic.

(github.com)

Development

Copyright Showdown: Big Tech's AI Training Data Faces Legal Scrutiny

2025-05-12

Copyright Showdown: Big Tech's AI Training Data Faces Legal Scrutiny

Big Tech companies are facing a copyright battle over their use of others' content to train AI models. A new report from the US Copyright Office suggests that using copyrighted material for AI training may constitute infringement. The report distinguishes between AI models used for research and commercial purposes, stating that commercial AI models using vast amounts of copyrighted works for training, especially without authorization, may exceed fair use boundaries. The firing of the Copyright Office director shortly after the report's release has fueled speculation of a connection, highlighting the intensifying conflict between tech giants and the government.

(www.yahoo.com)

Tech

India's IT Giants Face Slowest Growth in Years Amid Global Uncertainty

2025-04-17

India's IT Giants Face Slowest Growth in Years Amid Global Uncertainty

India's three largest IT services companies, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Wipro, are experiencing their steepest growth slowdown in years. Global economic uncertainty and geopolitical challenges have led corporations to curtail large technology projects, resulting in disappointing performance from all three firms. Infosys projected 0-3% revenue growth for FY26, significantly below analyst expectations. Wipro anticipates a 1.5-3.5% sequential revenue decline in Q1, and TCS also missed fourth-quarter earnings estimates. While companies highlight strengths in AI, cloud, and digital technologies, macroeconomic headwinds and AI-driven pricing pressures threaten to constrain medium-term industry growth to a modest 4-5%, with little prospect of acceleration.

(indiadispatch.com)

Tech Indian IT economic slowdown growth deceleration

From Zero to iOS App in Three Days: An AI-Powered Development Journey

2025-06-08

From Zero to iOS App in Three Days: An AI-Powered Development Journey

The author, a product and GTM expert with limited coding experience, built a functional iOS photo management app in just three days using AI assistance. Leveraging Gemini, they navigated challenges such as Apple's CLGeocoder limitations in China and overcame coding hurdles with AI-assisted debugging and learning. The app, designed for one-time purchase instead of a subscription model, reflects a critique of current iOS app marketing practices.

(mgx.me)

Development AI-assisted Coding

Silent Rebellion: The Century-Long Journey of a Lost and Found Native American Film

2025-02-08

Silent Rebellion: The Century-Long Journey of a Lost and Found Native American Film

The Daughter of Dawn (1920) is an early film starring an all-Native American cast, notable for its authentic portrayal of Native American culture. Its production faced government interference for depicting traditional ceremonies that violated federal law. The film's journey is one of near-loss and eventual rediscovery, restoration, and inclusion in the US National Film Registry. It stands as a testament to cultural resistance and preservation, a precious artifact of American cinema history.

(www.afi.com)

Misc Native American Culture Cultural Preservation

Miyawaki Method Fights Urban Heat Island Effect in Mexican City

2025-05-17

Miyawaki Method Fights Urban Heat Island Effect in Mexican City

Nezahualcóyotl, a municipality in Mexico State, is combating its severe urban heat island effect using the Miyawaki method. A 600-square-meter plot at the Technological University now hosts a new forest featuring 1,500 plants from 25 native species. This high-density planting technique rapidly creates biodiverse forests, improving the urban environment by lowering temperatures and increasing rainwater infiltration. While not a complete solution, this initiative symbolizes the community's and students' commitment to addressing environmental challenges, offering a significant step forward.

(english.elpais.com)

Tech Miyawaki Method Urban Heat Island Effect Environmental Restoration

Fern, a YC Startup, is Hiring an AI Engineer – Up to $192k!

2025-01-17

Fern, a YC Startup, is Hiring an AI Engineer – Up to $192k!

Fern, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is hiring an AI Engineer with a salary of up to $192,000 plus an $18,000 living proximity bonus. Fern simplifies API usage by providing high-quality SDKs and documentation for businesses. The role requires 4+ years of backend or full-stack development experience, proficiency in TypeScript and at least one other language, and experience developing and deploying AI products. This is a fast-growing SaaS company offering end-to-end project ownership and the chance to build zero-to-one AI features.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

Fortnite's Triumphant Return to iOS: 10 Million Downloads and a Mobile-First Future

2025-06-03

Fortnite's Triumphant Return to iOS: 10 Million Downloads and a Mobile-First Future

After a five-year absence due to a legal battle with Apple, Fortnite has triumphantly returned to the iOS App Store. While initially expecting a quicker resolution, the court process extended the game's absence. Since its May 20th relaunch, Fortnite has already hit the top of the App Store's free games chart, boasting over 10 million downloads. Epic Games plans to focus on mobile growth, optimizing touch controls for battle royale and creator-made experiences. Currently, 60% of players use Apple's payment system, but Epic anticipates increased adoption of its own payment system as more players link their Epic accounts to payment methods.

(www.theverge.com)

Game

EU Launches DNS4EU: A Sovereign DNS for Enhanced Digital Independence

2025-06-12

EU Launches DNS4EU: A Sovereign DNS for Enhanced Digital Independence

DNS4EU, an EU-funded DNS resolution service aimed at bolstering the European Union's digital sovereignty, is now live. Developed by a consortium of cybersecurity firms, CERTs, and academic institutions, it offers a fast, reliable, secure, and privacy-friendly alternative to existing public DNS providers. Users can choose filtering options to block malicious websites and ads. DNS4EU also provides tailored services for governments and telcos, reducing costs and enhancing security. This initiative represents a significant step towards greater digital autonomy for the EU.

(www.helpnetsecurity.com)

Tech

I Briefly Owned [email protected]

2025-05-08

I Briefly Owned steve@next.com

In 1991, a new employee at NeXT, on a whim, forwarded the email address [email protected] to his own inbox. This resulted in a flood of emails intended for Steve Jobs, from reporters, CEOs, and finance professionals. Panicked, he quickly reversed the forwarding and explained to Jobs. Surprisingly, Jobs replied, "Great idea, thank you." This story is full of drama and highlights Jobs' humor and tolerance.

(blog.hayman.net)

Misc

Google Kills Off Android Instant Apps

2025-06-13

Google Kills Off Android Instant Apps

Google is sunsetting its Android Instant Apps feature in December 2025. This feature allowed users to try parts of an app without a full installation from the Play Store. Low developer adoption is the likely culprit, as creating the smaller, instant-enabled app versions required significant effort. While designed to improve user experience by offering faster app access and reduced storage needs, the high development overhead proved unsustainable.

(www.androidauthority.com)

Development Instant Apps

iPadOS 26: Apple's Biggest Update Ever, Redefining iPad Experience

2025-06-09

iPadOS 26: Apple's Biggest Update Ever, Redefining iPad Experience

Apple unveiled iPadOS 26, its most significant iPadOS release to date. This update boasts a redesigned interface, a powerful new windowing system, enhanced Apple Intelligence features, and major improvements to file, audio, and video handling. The refreshed design is more expressive while maintaining iPad's simplicity. The new windowing system offers fluid resizing and organization of app windows. Apple Intelligence is further integrated, including Live Translation, Genmoji, and Image Playground. An enhanced Files app provides more robust file management, and the Preview app arrives on iPad for PDF editing. Creative pros benefit from Background Tasks, audio input selection, and local capture for streamlined audio and video workflows.

(www.apple.com)

Tech

Focused Ultrasound Stimulation: A Revolutionary Treatment for Inflammation and Metabolic Diseases?

2025-06-09

Focused Ultrasound Stimulation: A Revolutionary Treatment for Inflammation and Metabolic Diseases?

Exciting research suggests that focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS), a non-invasive technique using sound waves to treat diseases, holds promise as a revolutionary therapy for inflammatory diseases (like arthritis) and metabolic disorders (like obesity and diabetes). Researchers found that FUS can suppress inflammatory responses by stimulating nerves in the spleen, achieving significant results in animal and human trials. The technique is non-surgical and may eventually be delivered via wearable devices at home. While clinical application is still years away, FUS opens new avenues for precise treatment and could reduce reliance on pharmaceuticals.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech Focused Ultrasound Stimulation Inflammation Metabolic Diseases

Zig 0.14.0 Release Incoming: Improved x86 Backend and Incremental Compilation

2025-01-17

After a period of quiet development, the Zig Software Foundation is gearing up for the release of Zig 0.14.0. This release focuses on improvements to the x86 backend (potentially becoming the default for debug builds) and incremental compilation (disabled by default, but enabled via a compiler flag). Other improvements include labeled switch continue and upgraded support for nearly all target platforms. The team encourages users to upgrade to the latest master branch and will focus on ensuring a smooth upgrade during the release month. While a 1.0 release is still some time away, the team is committed to delivering stable, incremental releases.

(ziglang.org)

Development

Sguaba: Rust Crate for Foolproof Coordinate Transformations

2025-05-31

Sguaba: Rust Crate for Foolproof Coordinate Transformations

Sguaba, a new open-source Rust crate, simplifies coordinate transformations between various systems (WGS84, ECEF, NED, FRD) for engineers. Leveraging Rust's type system, it prevents accidental mixing of coordinate systems, a common source of errors. Designed for ease of use, Sguaba provides intuitive types like `Coordinate`, `Vector`, `Orientation`, and `Pose`, and uses `RigidBodyTransform` for conversions. Comprehensive documentation and examples are included. While currently missing ENU and ECI support, contributions are welcome.

(blog.helsing.ai)

Development Coordinate Transformation

Xbow Reports Nearly 1,000 Vulnerabilities, Including a Zero-Day in Palo Alto Networks VPN

2025-07-06

Xbow Reports Nearly 1,000 Vulnerabilities, Including a Zero-Day in Palo Alto Networks VPN

Security research firm Xbow submitted nearly 1,060 vulnerabilities to HackerOne in the last 90 days, including critical flaws like remote code execution and information disclosure. They also discovered and reported a previously unknown vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks' GlobalProtect VPN, impacting over 2,000 hosts. While many have been addressed (130 resolved, 303 triaged), approximately 45% remain unpatched, highlighting the sheer volume and impact of the disclosed vulnerabilities.

(www.csoonline.com)

Tech

Migrating from CockroachDB to PostgreSQL: $110k in Yearly Savings

2025-05-14

Migrating from CockroachDB to PostgreSQL: $110k in Yearly Savings

A company struggled with high latency issues in CockroachDB, with complex SQL queries leading to performance degradation and difficult query cancellation. They ultimately migrated to PostgreSQL. The migration process spanned several weeks, involving building a custom ETL tool and data transformation, but ultimately completed the production database migration in 15 minutes, resulting in a 33% reduction in request latency and over $110,000 in annual savings.

(engineering.usemotion.com)

Development

Your Phone Might Be Tracked: Unmasking IMSI Catchers

2025-04-27

Your Phone Might Be Tracked: Unmasking IMSI Catchers

Have you ever wondered if your phone's information is being stolen while you're on a moving train using Zoom? This article reveals a long-standing security vulnerability: IMSI catchers. They exploit flaws in GSM, UMTS, and LTE protocols to obtain users' International Mobile Subscriber Identities (IMSIs), enabling tracking and identification. While 5G's NR protocol offers improvements, vulnerabilities persist. The article details the principles and workings of active and passive IMSI catchers, explores security advancements and potential risks in 5G networks, and suggests methods to mitigate risks.

(zetier.com)

Tech 5G security

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