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Nikola's Fall from Grace: From $30B Valuation to Bankruptcy

2025-02-19

Nikola's Fall from Grace: From $30B Valuation to Bankruptcy

Hydrogen electric trucking startup Nikola Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, marking the dramatic downfall of a once-promising Silicon Valley darling. After achieving a $30 billion valuation in 2020, a series of scandals involving founder Trevor Milton sent the company into a tailspin. Despite attempts to raise capital and sell assets, Nikola ultimately failed to secure its future, leading to bankruptcy. The case serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of ethical business practices and robust risk management in the tech industry.

(techcrunch.com)

Startup

Deconstructing the Mozart Assassination: A Novelist's Wrestle with History

2025-03-13

Deconstructing the Mozart Assassination: A Novelist's Wrestle with History

American novelist David Weiss, fascinated by Mozart's life, wrote several fictional novels inspired by the composer. Among them, *The Assassination of Mozart* boldly hypothesized Mozart's death as a conspiracy. This article details the author's research in Temple University's archives, examining Weiss's manuscripts to uncover the truth behind his novel's creation. The research reveals that while Weiss consulted numerous historical sources, he intertwined his own speculation with facts, constructing a fictional story filled with conspiracy. This raises questions about the boundaries between fact and fiction in historical fiction and how authors use existing historical materials to build fictional narratives.

(contingentmagazine.org)

Misc historical fiction Mozart

US and Canada Video Game Workers Form Industry-Wide Union

2025-03-19

US and Canada Video Game Workers Form Industry-Wide Union

A landmark industry-wide union for video game workers in the US and Canada, the United Videogame Workers-CWA (UVW-CWA), has officially launched. Aiming to unite artists, writers, designers, QA testers, programmers, freelancers, and more, the union seeks to empower workers regardless of studio or employment status. Debuting at GDC's "Video Game Labor at a Crossroads" panel, the UVW-CWA will circulate a petition to garner support and highlight the recent wave of industry layoffs—a significant issue, given that 10% of developers lost their jobs in 2024. The union operates on a direct-join model, allowing workers to bypass traditional unionization processes. While its industry-wide adoption and recognition by major publishers remain uncertain, it represents a significant step in the ongoing struggle between game industry workers and corporate entities.

(www.engadget.com)

Game union

Linux Auto-Shutdown on Power Disconnect: A BusKill Alternative

2025-07-31

This article details a simple alternative to BusKill for automatically shutting down a Linux system when the power is disconnected. By creating a udev rule that monitors the power supply status, a custom script (e.g., poweroff) is executed upon disconnection. This is a straightforward method for protecting laptops used in public areas from theft. The article also provides alternative script ideas, such as locking sessions, hibernating, or even destroying LUKS master keys, catering to various security needs.

(dataswamp.org)

Development

Mathup: A Speedy Math Expression Parser

2025-03-21

Mathup is a lightweight tool that translates simple mathematical expressions written in an AsciiMath-inspired markup language into structured MathML. Faster than MathJax because it only parses and translates, leaving rendering to the browser, Mathup supports a wide range of mathematical symbols and functions, including fractions, subscripts/superscripts, matrices, and tensors. It offers extensive customization options for fonts, colors, and backgrounds. Developers can use it in the command line, on a server, or in a browser for quick and efficient math expression handling.

(mathup.xyz)

Development math expressions

Microsoft Forces Windows 11 24H2 Update

2025-01-17

Microsoft Forces Windows 11 24H2 Update

Microsoft has begun forcefully pushing the Windows 11 2024 Update (version 24H2), a significant update that can take up to two hours to install. This affects devices running Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, versions 23H2 and 22H2, excluding those managed by IT departments. The update includes support for features like USB4 80Gbps and Bluetooth LE Audio, but users should schedule ample time to avoid interruptions.

(www.pcworld.com)

Tech Windows 11 update forced update

Anthropic Fixes Three Infrastructure Bugs Affecting Claude

2025-09-18

Anthropic Fixes Three Infrastructure Bugs Affecting Claude

Anthropic acknowledged that between August and early September, three infrastructure bugs intermittently degraded Claude's response quality. These bugs, causing misrouted requests, output corruption, and compilation errors, impacted a subset of users. Anthropic detailed the causes, diagnosis, and resolution of these bugs, committing to improved evaluation and debugging tools to prevent recurrence. The incident highlights the complexity and challenges of large language model infrastructure.

(www.anthropic.com)

AI Infrastructure Bugs

DOOMQL: A Multiplayer DOOM Clone Written Entirely in SQL

2025-09-10

DOOMQL: A Multiplayer DOOM Clone Written Entirely in SQL

A developer built DOOMQL, a multiplayer DOOM-like shooter, entirely in SQL using the CedarDB database. The game stores all game data—maps, players, enemies—in the database, leveraging SQL views for raycasting and sprite projection. A simple shell script drives the game loop. Surprisingly, this approach works remarkably well, achieving a smooth 30 FPS and effortless multiplayer functionality thanks to the database's inherent concurrency handling. While maintenance and debugging might be challenging, the experiment showcases SQL's potential in game development and CedarDB's impressive performance.

(cedardb.com)

Game

C++ Coroutines: A Deep Dive into Customization

2025-07-13

C++ coroutines aren't a ready-to-use library like `std::vector`; they're a specification defining customization points requiring implementation by library writers. Extending the function concept, they support suspend, resume, and destroy operations. The `co_await` keyword marks a coroutine, and `Task::promise_type` customizes behavior at call, return, suspend, and resume points. The `awaiter` and `awaitable` mechanisms handle suspension and resumption, enabling resumption when dependencies are ready, providing flexible asynchronous programming.

(uvdn7.github.io)

Development

Nvidia and Intel's Shocking Alliance: A Fusion of x86 and RTX

2025-09-18

Nvidia and Intel's Shocking Alliance: A Fusion of x86 and RTX

In a stunning announcement, longtime rivals Nvidia and Intel revealed a groundbreaking partnership to jointly develop next-generation x86 products. This includes 'Intel x86 RTX SOCs' for the consumer gaming PC market, fusing Intel x86 CPUs with Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets, and custom Intel x86 data center CPUs for Nvidia's AI products. Nvidia is also investing $5 billion in Intel stock, acquiring roughly a 5% stake. This collaboration represents a seismic shift in the x86 ecosystem, utilizing the NVLink interface for CPU-GPU communication, offering 14x the bandwidth and lower latency of PCIe. Expect powerful new gaming laptops, small form-factor PCs, and Nvidia-branded custom x86 data center CPUs for enterprise and hyperscale customers.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Tech

Microsoft's AI Gaming Copilot: A Second-Screen Sidekick

2025-03-13

Microsoft's AI Gaming Copilot: A Second-Screen Sidekick

Microsoft is launching Copilot for Gaming, an AI assistant for Xbox players. Initially available via the Xbox mobile app, Copilot will guide players through games, offer tips, and even help download and launch titles. Demos showcased Copilot offering tactical advice in Overwatch 2 and crafting guidance in Minecraft. While demos were impressive, the initial April release for Xbox Insiders will be limited. Microsoft plans to iterate based on user feedback.

(www.theverge.com)

Game AI gaming assistant

Dillo Browser: 25 Years of History, a Resurrection Story

2024-12-16

The Dillo web browser, born in 1999, has weathered 25 years of development. It has stalled several times but persevered. Initially led by Jorge Arellano Cid, it went through major GTK and FLTK phases, with key developers changing hands and the project experiencing ups and downs. In 2024, Rodrigo Arias Mallo took over, and with community help, released version 3.1.1, bringing this veteran browser back into the spotlight. Dillo's story exemplifies the spirit of open source and is a legendary tale of technological legacy and innovation.

(dillo-browser.github.io)

Development open-source browser

Gaza Massacre: 15 Paramedics Killed in Israeli Attack

2025-04-05

Gaza Massacre: 15 Paramedics Killed in Israeli Attack

On March 23, Israeli forces massacred 15 Palestinian paramedics in Rafah, southern Gaza, including eight Red Crescent and five Civil Defense workers. The sole survivor, Munther Abed, recounted being directly shot at, their vehicles destroyed, and subsequently tortured. The UN described the attack as part of a “concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system,” and the Red Cross/Red Crescent called it the deadliest single attack on their workers since 2017. This incident highlights the ongoing attacks on medical personnel in the Gaza war and the gross violation of international humanitarian law.

(www.dropsitenews.com)

Misc Gaza conflict human rights abuses war crimes

GNU Free Documentation License Explained: A License for Free Documents

2025-05-18

The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) ensures the freedom to copy, distribute, and modify documents, commercially or non-commercially. Employing a 'copyleft' approach, it guarantees derivative works remain free. The GFDL details copyright notices, invariant sections, cover texts, and more, balancing author rights with free document distribution. It covers bulk copying, modifications, combining documents, translation, and violation handling. While designed for free software documentation, the GFDL applies to any textual work.

(dezyne.org)

Development Free Documentation License

Firefox 142: AI-Powered Browser Update, But Not Without Issues

2025-08-25

Firefox 142: AI-Powered Browser Update, But Not Without Issues

Mozilla has released Firefox 142, incorporating AI features such as content summarization for links and LLM support for extensions. However, the rollout is staggered, with some regions not yet seeing all features like link previews and the new tab page's news and weather integrations. Accuracy concerns exist with the AI summarization. Despite this, improvements include simpler sidebar and tab bar interactions, and enhanced tracking protection exception management. A new feature, CRLite, improves certificate revocation checking.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

CONL: The Markdown of Configuration Files?

2025-04-26

Tired of the complexities of JSON, YAML, and TOML? A software engineer created CONL, a minimalist configuration file format aiming to be the "Markdown" of configuration files. CONL is easy to read and edit, features a JSON-like data model, and is simple to implement. It supports various data types including scalars, lists, and maps, with good support for multiline strings. The author also provides implementations for Rust and Go, along with a language server and Zed extension.

(cirw.in)

Development configuration files

Russia's Hidden War Debt: A Ticking Time Bomb

2025-01-12

Russia's Hidden War Debt: A Ticking Time Bomb

The Kremlin has secretly funded much of its war effort through risky, off-budget financing largely overlooked by the West. A new report reveals how Russia has compelled banks to provide preferential loans to defense contractors, totaling an estimated $210 to $250 billion. This clandestine debt accumulation has created a financial predicament for Moscow, leading to soaring inflation and a systemic credit crisis risk. This vulnerability offers Ukraine and its allies significant new leverage in negotiations.

(navigatingrussia.substack.com)

Tech Russian war financing credit crisis

Cursor for Xcode Joins OpenAI's Codex Team

2025-09-04

The Cursor for Xcode team, creators of the popular AI coding assistant Alex for iOS and macOS developers, announced they're joining OpenAI's Codex team. While new downloads of the Alex app will cease on October 1st, existing users can continue using it, though no new features will be added. The team will continue their mission of helping people create, now at a larger scale with OpenAI.

(www.alexcodes.app)

Development

Bypassing JTAG Locks on Microchip SAM4C32 via Voltage Glitching

2025-04-02

A security researcher has discovered a voltage glitching attack that bypasses the JTAG lock on the Microchip SAM4C32 microcontroller. The attack exploits the reset pin as a side channel, injecting a voltage glitch during power-up to disable the security bit and gain unlocked JTAG access. This method may be applicable to many SAM series microcontrollers using GPNVM bits for security. The vulnerability is likely difficult to patch, posing a significant threat to devices relying on these microcontrollers.

(wiki.recessim.com)

Hardware voltage glitching

The One and Only Supersonic Concorde Photo

2025-01-26

The One and Only Supersonic Concorde Photo

This article recounts the incredible story behind the only known photograph of a Concorde flying at supersonic speed. In April 1985, a Royal Air Force Tornado jet rendezvoused with a Concorde over the Irish Sea, briefly matching its Mach 2 speed to capture the iconic image before fuel constraints forced a separation. The feat required precise coordination and multiple attempts, as the Tornado could only sustain supersonic flight for a few minutes. The article also explores the Concorde's legacy as the fastest commercial airliner in history, its technological marvels, and its eventual retirement.

(petapixel.com)

Tech Concorde Supersonic Flight Photography

Converge Hiring Senior Full-Stack Engineer: Build a Million-Dollar Marketing Measurement Platform

2024-12-16

Converge Hiring Senior Full-Stack Engineer: Build a Million-Dollar Marketing Measurement Platform

Converge, a Y Combinator-backed company with over $1M in ARR, is hiring a senior full-stack engineer. The small team (only 4 people) serves 180+ customers, processing billions of dollars in annual sales and billions of events per month. You'll build a unified marketing measurement stack, including customer data collection, identity resolution, and marketing attribution, with direct customer interaction and significant ownership. The company values action-orientedness, continuous learning, positive attitudes, and simplicity. Requires extensive full-stack experience, proficiency in React and backend development, and knowledge of production software deployment and scaling.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development Full-Stack Engineer Marketing Measurement

DIY 30kW Dynamometer: Testing Electric Boat Gearboxes

2025-04-04

DIY 30kW Dynamometer: Testing Electric Boat Gearboxes

A mechanical engineer in the electric marine industry built a custom 30kW dynamometer to test marine transmissions he designs and builds. The dyno features torque measurement, water cooling, CAN bus integration, and a Python-based dashboard. The article details the build process, challenges encountered, and technical specifics, covering motor selection, sensor integration, data acquisition, and power supply. It also shares lessons learned in noise suppression and system integration.

(www.thriftybuilder.dev)

Hardware

Nintendo Switch 2: June 5th Release, $450 Price Tag

2025-04-02

Nintendo Switch 2: June 5th Release, $450 Price Tag

Nintendo has finally revealed the Switch 2's release date: June 5th, priced at $450. Pre-orders start April 9th. This upgraded console boasts a 7.9-inch 1080p screen (up to 4K in docked mode), 120Hz refresh rate, HDR support, and a massive 256GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD Express cards. New Joy-Cons feature mouse functionality, and GameChat allows voice chat with up to 12 players. The Switch 2 offers backward compatibility with most Switch games and introduces GameShare for easy family and friend game sharing. Launch titles include Mario Kart World.

(www.engadget.com)

Game

Beyond NISQ: The Dawn of the Megaquop Machine

2024-12-18

Beyond NISQ: The Dawn of the Megaquop Machine

Caltech's John Preskill delivered a keynote address at the Q2B 2024 conference, discussing the potential transition from the NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era to the Megaquop (million quantum operations) era. Megaquop machines are envisioned to execute millions of quantum operations, albeit with a still-high error rate. Through error mitigation techniques and potentially higher-quality physical qubits, they could achieve tasks beyond the reach of classical computers and NISQ machines. Significant progress from teams at Google, AWS, and others in quantum error correction and hardware improvements lays the groundwork for Megaquop machines. However, Preskill highlighted challenges including decoding speed for quantum error correction, mitigating cosmic ray interference, and identifying commercially viable applications. Future applications of Megaquop machines might include simulations of complex quantum systems and materials science research.

(quantumfrontiers.com)

AI Quantum Computing Quantum Error Correction

Lessons Learned Optimizing Convolutions with SIMD: Branch Prediction and Compiler Gotchas

2025-03-07

The author attempted to optimize convolution operations using SIMD instructions, only to encounter a performance degradation. The initial implementation used SIMD loads, FMA instructions, and loop optimization techniques, but it was more than twice as slow as the unvectorized version. After debugging, the problem was found to be excessive branch instructions causing CPU branch prediction failures, and compiler inlining limitations preventing the proper use of the AVX instruction set. Finally, by reducing branching, splitting loops, and appropriately using compiler inlining attributes, the author successfully improved performance to the expected level. This case study illustrates the complexity of modern CPU architectures and the details that need to be considered in performance optimization.

(genna.win)

Development Convolution

DeepMind's Blueprint for Safe AGI Development: Navigating the Risks of 2030

2025-04-04

DeepMind's Blueprint for Safe AGI Development: Navigating the Risks of 2030

As AI hype reaches fever pitch, the focus shifts to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). DeepMind's new 108-page paper tackles the crucial question of safe AGI development, projecting a potential arrival by 2030. The paper outlines four key risk categories: misuse, misalignment, mistakes, and structural risks. To mitigate these, DeepMind proposes rigorous testing, robust post-training safety protocols, and even the possibility of 'unlearning' dangerous capabilities—a significant challenge. This proactive approach aims to prevent the severe harm a human-level AI could potentially inflict.

(arstechnica.com)

AI

The Rise of Solar PV: A Cheap Energy Future?

2025-03-20

The Rise of Solar PV: A Cheap Energy Future?

This article explores the rapid growth of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation and its future potential. While currently accounting for only around 4% of total US electricity generation, the cost of solar PV has fallen nearly ten thousandfold in the last 70 years and is projected to fall further. However, the intermittency of solar power is a major challenge, as it cannot generate electricity on demand. The article uses simulations to explore strategies for addressing intermittency by increasing solar panel capacity and energy storage systems. It concludes that as solar and storage costs continue to decline, "overbuilding" to meet a larger fraction of electricity demand will become economically feasible. Ultimately, solar's low and declining costs make it a competitive energy option, but its intermittency remains a challenge to overcome.

(www.construction-physics.com)

Tech PV

Venezuela Fines TikTok $10 Million Over Deadly Challenges

2025-01-01

Venezuela Fines TikTok $10 Million Over Deadly Challenges

Venezuela's Supreme Court fined TikTok $10 million for failing to prevent viral video challenges that allegedly led to the deaths of three Venezuelan children. The court cited negligence and ordered TikTok to establish a local office to oversee content and comply with Venezuelan laws. This highlights Venezuela's strict online content regulations and growing concerns over social media platform accountability.

(apnews.com)

Tech Venezuela Online Regulation

The Performance Cost of Abusing Go's panic/recover

2025-03-04

This article benchmarks the performance difference between using Go's `panic` and `recover` for array iteration versus a traditional loop. The results demonstrate a significant performance penalty for abusing `panic`/`recover` for control flow in smaller datasets. This is attributed to the inhibition of compiler optimizations such as inlining and bounds check elimination. While `panic`/`recover` can offer efficiency gains in handling internal errors, the author cautions against overuse and stresses the importance of keeping such mechanisms internal to a package, away from public APIs.

(jub0bs.com)

Development

FurtherAI: Revolutionizing Insurance Workflows with AI

2025-01-12

FurtherAI: Revolutionizing Insurance Workflows with AI

FurtherAI, a startup backed by top-tier investors including Y Combinator, is building AI teammates to automate insurance workflows. These AI can handle unstructured documents, data entry, and even phone calls. Their mission is to create AI as reliable, adaptive, and continuously learning as a human employee. They're currently hiring for various roles, including Product Designers, Applied Research Engineers, and Software Engineers, offering exciting opportunities for those interested in AI and insurance.

(www.ycombinator.com)

AI

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