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Chaos at the NNSA: Mass Firings Paused Amidst Confusion

2025-02-15

Chaos at the NNSA: Mass Firings Paused Amidst Confusion

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), responsible for the US nuclear weapons stockpile, experienced a chaotic mass firing of hundreds of employees over two days. Employees were given little warning, locked out of emails, and dismissed under a broader Department of Energy initiative spearheaded by the Trump administration and linked to Elon Musk's government efficiency push. Despite the agency's critical role, it received no national security exemption. The firings were ultimately paused amid confusion and uncertainty, with some terminations rescinded. However, the event raised serious concerns about the impact on morale and the retention of highly specialized nuclear security personnel.

(www.npr.org)

Tech nuclear security mass firings trump administration

SQLite: Building a Database for 2050

2025-08-01

The SQLite developers ambitiously plan to support SQLite until 2050. To achieve this, they've implemented cross-platform code, a stable database file format, aviation-grade testing, extensive documentation, heavily commented source code, and disaster recovery planning. Rejecting fleeting programming trends, they aim for timeless code easily understood and maintained by future programmers. Even the US Library of Congress recognizes SQLite as a recommended format for digital preservation. SQLite's long-term vision and robust design make it a reliable database choice.

(www.sqlite.org)

Development long-term support

Approximating Float Multiplication with Bit Manipulation: A Neat Trick

2025-02-13

Approximating Float Multiplication with Bit Manipulation: A Neat Trick

This article explores a clever method for approximating float multiplication using bit manipulation. The approach involves casting floats to integers, adding them, adjusting the exponent, and casting back to a float. While this method fails catastrophically with exponent overflow or underflow, its accuracy is surprisingly good for most cases, staying within 7.5% of the correct result. The author delves into the underlying principles, explaining why simple addition can approximate multiplication. Although likely less efficient than native float multiplication in practice, its simplicity and potential for power savings in specific scenarios make it an interesting exploration.

(probablydance.com)

Development approximation algorithm

Common Lisp Ecosystem Booms: Even Hacker News is Onboard!

2025-02-22

Common Lisp Ecosystem Booms: Even Hacker News is Onboard!

The Common Lisp community has seen significant growth over the past two years, with numerous new projects, tools, and libraries emerging. Remarkably, the Hacker News website now runs on SBCL! This article summarizes recent advancements in the Common Lisp landscape, including updates to implementations like SBCL, ABCL, and CCL; major improvements to the Lem editor; and new game development tools and web frameworks. Furthermore, community activity is thriving, with events like the ELS conference and Lisp Ireland meetups. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a newcomer, this summary showcases the vibrancy and appeal of the Common Lisp ecosystem.

(lisp-journey.gitlab.io)

Development

Intel's Mount Morgan IPU: A Beast of a Cloud Infrastructure Processor

2025-09-11

Intel's Mount Morgan IPU: A Beast of a Cloud Infrastructure Processor

Intel unveiled its next-generation Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU), Mount Morgan, a significant upgrade over its predecessor, Mount Evans. Boasting 24 Arm Neoverse N2 cores, improved accelerators, and increased bandwidth, Mount Morgan handles a wider range of cloud infrastructure services, from VM provisioning and metrics collection to networking functions. Key improvements include enhanced compute power, faster memory bandwidth (LPDDR5-6400), an upgraded Lookaside Crypto and Compression Engine (LCE) with asymmetric crypto support, and a doubled Ethernet throughput of 400 Gbps. Its flexible architecture allows it to operate in multiple modes, including as a standalone server or in conjunction with up to four host servers. Mount Morgan represents a major step forward in Intel's cloud hardware acceleration strategy, aiming to compete in a rapidly evolving market.

(chipsandcheese.com)

Hardware

FBI Warns of Hacked Agent Phone Logs

2025-01-17

FBI Warns of Hacked Agent Phone Logs

Bloomberg reports that an internal FBI document reveals hackers breached AT&T's system last year, stealing months of call and text logs from FBI agents. While the content of communications wasn't compromised, the data—potentially millions of records—could link agents to confidential informants, jeopardizing national security and ongoing investigations. The FBI is working to protect informant identities and is investigating the breach. This highlights the vulnerability of telecom data and the challenges in safeguarding sensitive information.

(uk.news.yahoo.com)

Tech

Putnam-AXIOM: A New Benchmark Shatters LLM Mathematical Reasoning Abilities

2025-01-01

Putnam-AXIOM: A New Benchmark Shatters LLM Mathematical Reasoning Abilities

Researchers introduced Putnam-AXIOM, a challenging benchmark comprising 236 problems from the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, designed to evaluate the higher-level mathematical reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). To mitigate data contamination, a variation benchmark with functional alterations of 52 problems was also created. Results show even top-performing models experience a significant accuracy drop (around 30%) on the variations compared to the originals, highlighting substantial room for improvement in LLM mathematical reasoning.

(openreview.net)

AI Mathematical Reasoning

Engineer Builds Camera That Ignores Perspective, Sees Through Walls

2024-12-25

Engineer Builds Camera That Ignores Perspective, Sees Through Walls

Shane Wighton, the creator of the YouTube channel Stuff Made Here, has engineered an incredible camera that defies perspective and can even see through walls. Instead of a traditional lens, this camera uses a sophisticated mechanical system to scan a scene one pixel at a time, building a complete image. By utilizing a spinning gantry and a precisely controlled mirror, the camera moves in 3D space, capturing multiple views to reconstruct the final image. This allows it to create images without perspective, achieve reverse perspective, and even see around objects, showcasing an astonishing feat of engineering and imaging technology.

(petapixel.com)

Tech camera technology perspective imaging

CPB Rejects Presidential Executive Order: We're Independent

2025-05-02

CPB Rejects Presidential Executive Order: We're Independent

Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), issued a statement rejecting the President's executive order on public media. The statement asserts CPB's independence from the federal government, citing its Congressional charter as a private, non-profit corporation free from executive branch control. Congress explicitly forbids any federal interference with CPB or its grantees. CPB supports over 1,500 local public television and radio stations and is the largest funder of public broadcasting research, technology, and program development.

(cpb.org)

Misc Public Broadcasting Non-profit

Why Can't HTML Import HTML?

2025-05-03

Why Can't HTML Import HTML?

The author is obsessed with a simple web development need: reusing the same header across multiple HTML pages. He finds many solutions, but none are purely HTML-based. This leads him to question why HTML can't directly import other HTML files like CSS or JavaScript can. He explores potential reasons, such as preload scanners, asynchronous loading issues, the complexity of nested includes, increased web requests, and more, and solicits reader input.

(frontendmasters.com)

Development

Ancient Law Requires Hay Bales on London Bridge

2025-05-22

Ancient Law Requires Hay Bales on London Bridge

Construction work on London's Charing Cross railway bridge has triggered a quirky ancient law. Due to reduced clearance under the bridge because of scaffolding, contractors are required to hang bales of hay as a warning to river traffic, a requirement dating back to medieval times. The hay bales, along with warning lights at night, will move along the bridge as the multi-year maintenance project progresses.

(www.ianvisits.co.uk)

Misc ancient law bridge maintenance

What if Bytes Were 9 Bits?

2025-08-07

This article explores a fascinating counterfactual: what if computing systems had used 9-bit bytes instead of 8? The author argues this would have solved numerous problems plaguing modern computer science, such as IPv4 address exhaustion, the Y2038 problem, and Unicode limitations. While 9-bit bytes would present challenges, such as handling TCP sequence numbers, the author suggests these are surmountable, with benefits outweighing costs. The article is full of intriguing speculation on historical events and technological developments, making for a compelling read.

(pavpanchekha.com)

Tech Counterfactual History

Google AI Product Usage Survey Embedded Multiple Times

2025-07-04

Google AI Product Usage Survey Embedded Multiple Times

A blog post contains multiple embedded instances of the same Google AI product usage survey. The survey aims to understand how frequently users utilize Google AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM, and also gathers feedback on article improvements. The survey includes a question about usage frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, hardly ever, unsure) and an open-ended question asking for suggestions on improving the article (make it more concise, add more detail, make it easier to understand, include more images or videos, it's fine as is).

(blog.google)

AI Product Usage

Hunting a Ghostly Embedded Bug: Error -22

2025-01-26

The Tweede golf team encountered a frustrating bug in their embedded Rust software for the nRF9160 microcontroller, resulting in Error::NrfError(-22) when sending data to a server. After weeks of investigation, they traced the issue to the libmodem library's initialization function. A pointer to a stack-allocated configuration struct was used after the struct was destroyed, causing unintended writes to the shared memory region configuration and resulting in a data length of 0. Adding `black_box` and using watchpoints ultimately located and fixed the bug. The team highlighted the benefits of using Rust for embedded development to prevent such low-level errors.

(tweedegolf.nl)

Development

Google Releases OSV-SCALIBR: A Powerful Software Composition Analysis Library

2025-01-19

Google Releases OSV-SCALIBR: A Powerful Software Composition Analysis Library

Google has released OSV-SCALIBR, an extensible Software Composition Analysis (SCA) library for scanning installed packages, standalone binaries, and source code for vulnerabilities. It supports numerous programming languages and package managers, and generates Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs). OSV-SCALIBR is Google's primary SCA engine and is now open-source, with plans to integrate it into OSV-Scanner for a more robust command-line interface.

(security.googleblog.com)

Development Software Security

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

Nvidia's ACE AI: Your New PUBG Teammate?

2025-01-07

Nvidia's ACE AI: Your New PUBG Teammate?

At CES 2025, Nvidia showcased a significant advancement in its AI character technology, ACE. No longer just chatbots, ACE characters are becoming autonomous in-game companions. In PUBG, the "PUBG Ally" will act as a teammate, communicating, strategizing, looting, driving, and fighting alongside players. Powered by small language models (SLMs) and multi-modal SLMs, ACE characters exhibit human-like decision-making and environmental awareness. This technology will expand to other games like Naraka: Bladepoint and inZOI, marking a significant leap in AI integration within gaming.

(www.theverge.com)

Game

CSS Zero: A No-Build CSS Starter Kit for Rails

2025-02-21

CSS Zero: A No-Build CSS Starter Kit for Rails

CSS Zero is a streamlined CSS starter kit for Ruby on Rails applications, offering a 'no-build' experience similar to a Tailwind CSS alternative without the build process. Simply add the gem, run the install command (`bin/rails generate css_zero:install`), and you're ready to go. It provides utility classes and variables, and features custom templates for scaffolds and authentication. Lucide is recommended for high-quality icons. The project is open-source under the MIT License and welcomes bug reports and pull requests.

(github.com)

Development Starter Kit

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community-Driven Features

2025-04-09

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to build and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Participants, both individuals and organizations, embrace arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who share them. Have an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

Wger: Open-Source Workout & Diet Management App

2025-02-13

Wger: Open-Source Workout & Diet Management App

Wger is a free, open-source web application for managing personal workouts, weight, and diet plans. It also functions as a simple gym management tool and offers a REST API for easy integration. Easily deployable via Docker, a demo image is available for quick testing. The code and content are open-source, and translations are supported.

(github.com)

Development

A Cheap and Cheerful Cross-Country Bus Adventure: Across Upstate New York by Local Transit

2025-06-17

A Cheap and Cheerful Cross-Country Bus Adventure: Across Upstate New York by Local Transit

The author recounts a journey across Upstate New York using only local rural county transit buses to reach their grandmother's house for Easter, prioritizing cost-effectiveness over convenience. The trip proved challenging, with obscure and often outdated schedules, infrequent service, and difficult transfers, sometimes requiring long walks or overnight stays. However, the journey was richly rewarding, filled with eccentric characters, a slower pace of life, and a unique glimpse into rural American life. The author concludes that this unconventional method, though inefficient, offers a far cheaper and more authentic travel experience than traditional methods.

(shagbark.substack.com)

Misc budget travel

Europe's Digital Sovereignty: Stop Relying on American Clouds!

2025-02-23

Europe's Digital Sovereignty: Stop Relying on American Clouds!

The transfer of European societies and governments to American clouds is madness. The author argues this is not only risky given US government policy shifts, but the legal justifications are invalidated by Trump's actions. This reliance stems from convenience, but sacrificing digital sovereignty for ease is dangerous. The article urges Europe to break free from US tech dependence, support homegrown software, and invest in alternatives to ensure digital sovereignty and national security. The convenience of American software shouldn't outweigh the risks of total dependence.

(berthub.eu)

Tech digital sovereignty US tech dependence

Kissing Number Breakthrough: A New Approach to an Old Problem

2025-01-16

Kissing Number Breakthrough: A New Approach to an Old Problem

For over three centuries, mathematicians have grappled with the kissing number problem: how many identical spheres can touch a central sphere without overlapping? While the answer is 12 in three dimensions, higher dimensions remain a mystery. Recently, MIT undergraduate Anqi Li and Professor Henry Cohn devised a novel approach, abandoning traditional symmetry assumptions. Their unconventional, asymmetric strategy improved estimates for the kissing number in dimensions 17 through 21, marking the first progress in these dimensions since the 1960s. This breakthrough challenges established methods based on information theory and error-correcting codes, opening new avenues for solving this enduring mathematical puzzle.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Mathematics Geometry Higher Dimensions

IBM Keyboard Patents: A Gallery of 150 Designs

2025-07-28

IBM Keyboard Patents: A Gallery of 150 Designs

A collection showcasing 150 patents related to IBM and its family of keyboards, typewriters, and keypunches. The patents cover a range of technologies, from keyswitch and actuator designs to the overall aesthetic design and integrated pointing devices like the TrackPoint. Host systems, including PCs, laptops, terminals, consoles, and electronic typewriters, are also featured. All illustrations are sourced directly from the patents, which are believed to be in the public domain.

(sharktastica.co.uk)

Hardware Keyboard Design

Every Line of Code Is a Potential Bug

2025-02-27

A programmer, attempting to optimize code efficiency in a multithreaded program, changed the wait time from a fixed 1 second to the remaining time. This seemingly simple optimization introduced a potential bug: negative time calculations could result in exceptions. This illustrates a crucial point: code should be kept concise; avoid unnecessary optimizations, as each line introduces potential bugs. Over-optimization doesn't improve efficiency but increases complexity and risk.

(www.teamten.com)

Development bugs

Carnarvon's NASA Dish Receives First Signal in Nearly 40 Years

2025-01-14

Carnarvon's NASA Dish Receives First Signal in Nearly 40 Years

A 29-meter-wide satellite dish in Carnarvon, Australia, once used by NASA, has received its first signal in almost 40 years. After a 20-year lease by Canadian aerospace company ThothX and extensive refurbishment, including cleaning decades of pigeon droppings and manually rotating the massive dish, the team successfully received a signal. The dish will now be used to track orbital traffic and "adversary" spacecraft, becoming a key component of ThothX's global satellite tracking network.

(www.abc.net.au)

Tech Space Satellite

Epochalypse 2038: The Ticking Time Bomb of a 32-bit Timestamp Vulnerability

2025-05-11

On January 19, 2038, millions of embedded and industrial systems worldwide face potential collapse due to a 32-bit timestamp vulnerability. This isn't science fiction; it threatens critical infrastructure, from hospitals to power grids. Unlike Y2K, this is far larger, affecting countless un-updatable embedded systems. The Epochalypse Project, launched by two cybersecurity researchers, aims for global collaboration to mitigate this impending threat through standardized testing, vulnerability documentation, and remediation strategy development. Individuals can contribute by testing personal devices and engaging with tech companies, while professionals must take the lead in avoiding a digital disaster.

(epochalypse-project.org)

Tech timestamp vulnerability 2038 problem

Plex's 2025 Roadmap: Revamped User Experience and New Features

2025-01-22

Plex's 2025 Roadmap: Revamped User Experience and New Features

Plex kicked off 2025 with a bang, announcing updates focused on enhancing user experience and introducing exciting new features. These include a revamped review and interaction system allowing users to write and comment on reviews, enhanced profile visibility and sharing options on watch.plex.tv for increased community interaction, a preview of a redesigned Apple TV app, and the official release of HEVC hardware encoding for Plex Pass subscribers, boosting video quality while reducing bandwidth consumption. Overall, Plex aims to create a more robust streaming platform and a more vibrant community.

(www.plex.tv)

Tech

uv: A Killer Feature You Should Know About

2025-01-12

uv isn't just a fast Python package manager; it boasts a killer feature: simplified dependency management. Need Pandas in your Python REPL? Just one command, `uv run --python 3.12 --with pandas python`, eliminates the need for virtual environments or Python version switching. This makes ad-hoc scripting and experimenting with different Python versions incredibly smooth.

(valatka.dev)

Development package manager

Conquer File Chaos: Introducing Johnny.Decimal

2025-02-21

Conquer File Chaos: Introducing Johnny.Decimal

Johnny.Decimal is a system designed to help you find things quickly, confidently, and with less stress. It works by assigning a unique ID to everything, creating a structured index linking all your life's items. Imagine a ten-shelf garage: each shelf is a life area (home, work, etc.), each shelf holds ten categorized boxes, and each box contains numbered files. This numerical hierarchy avoids the chaos of traditional file systems, making finding anything fast and efficient.

(johnnydecimal.com)

Development organizational system

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