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IBM Layoffs: US Jobs Shifting to India

2025-03-28

IBM Layoffs: US Jobs Shifting to India

IBM's layoffs are far more extensive than previously reported, with a significant number of US employees losing their jobs, while these positions are being transferred to India. Data reveals a surge in job openings in India, contrasting with a persistent decline in the US. An IBM employee recounted being tasked with training new Indian hires, only to receive a layoff notice themselves. Many laid-off employees possessed extensive cloud experience, replaced by less experienced Indian workers, resulting in decreased quality and efficiency. This raises concerns about IBM's offshoring practices and the implications for US workers' rights and the company's future direction.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Entropy Attacks: Exploiting Flaws in Random Number Generation

2025-03-28

A cr.yp.to blog post reveals a critical vulnerability in random number generation—entropy attacks. The conventional wisdom holds that hashing multiple entropy sources enhances randomness, but the author demonstrates that if a single source is compromised, attackers can manipulate the hash output and control generated random numbers. This poses a significant threat to cryptographic systems relying on randomness, like DSA and ECDSA, enabling attackers to steal private keys. EdDSA, due to its deterministic signature generation, offers stronger resistance. The article advocates for minimizing entropy sources and employing deterministic cryptographic approaches to mitigate the risks associated with constantly adding new entropy.

(blog.cr.yp.to)

Tech

The Decline of Social Media: A Race to the Bottom

2025-03-28

A seasoned social media user expresses concern over the current state of social media, lamenting its transformation into a battleground of low-quality content and interaction bait. High-quality content is neglected in favor of cheap, click-driven material often generated by AI, prioritizing monetization over authenticity. The author criticizes platform algorithms for stifling creativity and promoting inauthenticity, citing examples of rampant fake content and hashtag manipulation. He calls for creators to return to their creative roots, focusing on producing work they enjoy rather than chasing numbers. Ultimately, he chooses to focus on his own blog, freeing himself from platform constraints.

(christianheilmann.com)

Misc AI-generated content

Claude Controls Elektron Digitone: AI-Powered Music Production

2025-03-28

Claude Controls Elektron Digitone: AI-Powered Music Production

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, Digitone MCP, enables Claude and other MCP-compatible LLMs to interact with and control Elektron Digitone synthesizers via MIDI. Currently, only the Wavetone machine is supported, but more will be added soon. The project uses Python 3.10+, requiring the `uv` package and the Claude Desktop app for full integration. By configuring the MCP server in `claude_desktop_config.json`, Claude can control the Digitone in real-time, enabling AI-assisted music creation. The library features a clean, object-oriented architecture with base controllers, specialized controllers, MCP tools, and a MIDI interface, utilizing FastMCP, Pydantic models, and mido for efficiency and reliability.

(github.com)

Development AI music creation MIDI control

Ubisoft Spins Off Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six into New Subsidiary Backed by Tencent

2025-03-27

Ubisoft Spins Off Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six into New Subsidiary Backed by Tencent

Ubisoft is restructuring after several challenging years, creating a new subsidiary focused on its flagship franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. This subsidiary, backed by a $1.25 billion investment from Tencent (granting Tencent a minority stake), will consolidate development teams from various studios. This move allows Ubisoft to streamline operations and refocus on other IPs like The Division and Ghost Recon. The investment comes after cost-cutting measures and amidst recent struggles. While the company will continue developing multiplayer and free-to-play titles, the announcement emphasizes a renewed commitment to high-quality single-player experiences.

(www.engadget.com)

Game Ubisoft

Keyboard Shortcuts for Efficient Search Result Navigation

2025-03-28

This text outlines a set of keyboard shortcuts for navigating search results. Users can use j/k keys to move the highlight up and down, h/l keys to move within horizontal content or toggle boost/ban status in site info modals, Enter to open the highlighted result, / to focus the search bar, ! to focus the search bar and add a "!" to start typing a bang command, q to open quick answer, Escape to reset highlight scroll state or close site info modals, Shift+~ to open the control center, s to open/close site info modals for the highlighted result, w/i/v/m/n to open web search, images, videos, maps, and news tabs respectively, and ]/[ to cycle through navigation tabs. These shortcuts significantly improve search efficiency.

(kagi.com)

Misc keyboard shortcuts

Improving a Go HTTP Server: Unit Tests, Middleware, and Subrouters

2025-03-28

Improving a Go HTTP Server: Unit Tests, Middleware, and Subrouters

This blog post details improvements made to a Go HTTP server built from scratch. The author added unit tests, addressed reader feedback regarding case-insensitive headers and multiple header values, and improved handling of response streams and larger payloads. Key additions include middleware support for cleaner code and subrouters for enhanced route organization. The post showcases iterative development and practical problem-solving in Go.

(www.krayorn.com)

Development

US Robotics Firms Urge National Strategy Amidst China's Rise

2025-03-28

US Robotics Firms Urge National Strategy Amidst China's Rise

American robotics companies are pushing for a national robotics strategy to compete with China's growing dominance in the field. While the US boasts advancements in AI and robotics, the lack of a cohesive national strategy risks losing its lead. Proposed solutions include tax incentives, funding for research and training, and a dedicated federal robotics office. China's significant investment and progress are undeniable, but the long-term viability may favor more practical, polyfunctional robots over humanoids. This race is not just about technological supremacy but also national strategy and economic future.

(apnews.com)

Tech

Debugger as REPL: IntelliJ IDEA's Run to Cursor and Quick Evaluate Expression

2025-03-28

Tired of traditional debuggers, especially gdb and lldb's limitations with native code, the author discovered a powerful workflow in IntelliJ IDEA. Combining "Run to Cursor" and "Quick Evaluate Expression" transforms the debugger into a REPL. "Run to Cursor" executes the program to the cursor's position, while "Quick Evaluate Expression" lets you evaluate expressions (even newly typed code!) within the current stack frame. This approach replaces the line-by-line stepping with a more experimental, two-dimensional interaction within the editor, leveraging code completion and offering a significantly more efficient debugging experience.

(matklad.github.io)

Development

An Entrepreneur's Unconventional Path to Success: Prioritize Passion, Then Profit

2025-03-28

An Entrepreneur's Unconventional Path to Success: Prioritize Passion, Then Profit

A seasoned entrepreneur shares his unconventional path to success: prioritizing passion over profit maximization. He believes life's meaning lies in experience, with money serving as a supporting tool. Thus, he only works on projects he's passionate about, even if it means potentially lower income. His experience demonstrates that focusing on what you love not only boosts efficiency but can ultimately lead to commercial success, even without an initial clear profit model. He uses multiple projects as examples, illustrating the viability of this philosophy and highlighting the importance of work-life balance. His success isn't measured in wealth, but in personal fulfillment and quality of life.

(tynan.com)

Startup personal development

China's Ambitious Space Program Challenges NASA's Dominance

2025-03-28

China's Ambitious Space Program Challenges NASA's Dominance

Amidst potential budget cuts at NASA, China's ambitious space program presents a compelling challenge to US leadership in space exploration. While China has achieved significant successes, its ambitious objectives are technically demanding and may face setbacks. Simultaneously funding both crewed lunar missions and robotic exploration requires substantial resources. Success, however, would greatly enhance China's international standing. NASA isn't without options; Congress may block drastic budget cuts, and cheaper satellite launch technologies could enable more deep-space exploration with less funding. The ultimate victor remains uncertain, but for the first time since the 1960s, NASA has a credible competitor.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

Running Go Code on a PS2: A Hackery Adventure

2025-03-28

Running Go Code on a PS2: A Hackery Adventure

The author embarked on a challenging project: running Go code on a PlayStation 2. Go's lack of native PS2 support necessitated using the TinyGo compiler and the ps2dev SDK. The author overcame compatibility issues between Go and the PS2's Emotion Engine CPU (based on MIPS R5900), including differences in the N32 ABI and 64-bit instruction sets. A significant hurdle was the missing DDIVU instruction, solved by modifying the TinyGo compiler. A simple Go program was successfully run and verified on the PCSX2 PS2 emulator. Future plans include improving floating-point support and creating a custom LLVM MIPS CPU.

(rgsilva.com)

Development PS2 Development

Misophonia: A Journey Through the Science and Personal Experience of Sound Aversion

2025-03-28

This article chronicles the author's experience with misophonia, a poorly understood condition characterized by extreme aversion to specific sounds, beginning at age 13. It traces the scientific journey of misophonia from obscurity to growing recognition, detailing research efforts from initial clinical observations to fMRI studies exploring its neurological basis and recent therapeutic advancements. The author intimately describes their symptoms and resulting struggles, reflecting on the complexities of diagnosis and the challenges faced by sufferers. The piece explores potential etiologies, highlighting the interplay between biological vulnerabilities, environmental factors, and learned responses. Ultimately, the author offers a blend of personal reflection and scientific understanding, expressing hope for future cures and advocating for empathy and support for those affected.

(asteriskmag.com)

Misc sound aversion

Terahertz Plasmonic EO Modulator Breakthrough Paves the Way for 6G and AI

2025-03-28

Terahertz Plasmonic EO Modulator Breakthrough Paves the Way for 6G and AI

Researchers at ETH Zurich and Polariton Technologies have developed a plasmonic electro-optic (EO) modulator capable of operating at frequencies up to 1.14 terahertz—a significant leap from current technology. This breakthrough addresses a critical bottleneck in modern telecommunications, enabling seamless integration of electrical signals with fiber-optic infrastructure. The modulator utilizes plasmons to enhance the interaction between electrical and optical signals, paving the way for high-speed 6G networks and high-performance AI data centers. Polariton, a spin-off of ETH Zurich, is commercializing this technology, offering high-speed, compact transceivers for next-generation data centers and AI clusters.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech Plasmonic Modulator

AI Intelligence Tests: Are Good Questions More Important Than Great Answers?

2025-03-27

AI Intelligence Tests: Are Good Questions More Important Than Great Answers?

The author took the "Humanity's Last Exam," a test designed to assess AI intelligence, and failed miserably. This led him to reflect on how we evaluate AI intelligence: current tests overemphasize providing correct answers to complex questions, neglecting the importance of formulating meaningful questions. True historical research begins with unique, unexpected questions that reveal new perspectives. The author argues that AI progress may not lie in perfectly answering difficult questions, but in its ability to gather and interpret evidence during research and its potential to ask novel questions. This raises the question of whether AI can ever produce valuable historical questions.

(newsletter.dancohen.org)

AI Intelligence Tests Historical Research

Emacs Solo: A Minimalist Emacs Configuration

2025-03-27

Emacs Solo: A Minimalist Emacs Configuration

Emacs Solo is a minimalist Emacs configuration that leverages only built-in packages, eschewing external dependencies. Recently showcased live on the System Crafters Weekly Show, it demonstrates a powerful and efficient workflow. The configuration includes numerous customizations, such as enhanced icomplete-verical, an experimental git-gutter alternative, supercharged eshell, and more, aiming for a lightweight, fast, yet fully functional Emacs experience.

(www.rahuljuliato.com)

Development Minimalism

Single-Frame Deblurring: Deep Learning for Motion Blurred Video Restoration

2025-03-28

Researchers introduce a novel single-frame deblurring method that calculates motion velocity in motion-blurred videos using only a single input frame. Because the true direction of motion in a single motion-blurred image is ambiguous, the method adjusts the velocity direction based on the photometric error between frames. Gyroscope readings are directly used as angular velocity ground truth, while translational velocity ground truth is approximated using ARKit poses and frame rate. Note that angular velocity axes are x-up, y-left, z-backwards (IMU convention), while translational velocity axes are x-right, y-down, z-forward (OpenCV convention). The method was evaluated on real-world motion-blurred videos.

(jerredchen.github.io)

AI image deblurring single frame

Apple Needs Another Snow Leopard Moment

2025-03-27

Apple Needs Another Snow Leopard Moment

Apple's 2009 Mac OS X Snow Leopard, known for its refinement and optimization, stands as one of its most stable releases. However, current MacOS and iOS systems are plagued by bugs and poor design choices, such as broken copy-paste in Messages and a confusing System Settings interface. The author urges Apple to emulate Snow Leopard, undertaking a major system cleanup and optimization to address these issues instead of solely focusing on adding new features. This would enhance user experience, solidify Apple's position, and maintain competitiveness even amidst the fierce AI race.

(reviews.ofb.biz)

Development Apple Systems Software Optimization

MIT's Putnam Seminar: More Than Just a Competition

2025-03-28

MIT's Putnam Seminar: More Than Just a Competition

MIT's Putnam Seminar attracts math enthusiasts from around the globe. It's not just training for the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition; it's a platform for student interaction, enhancing mathematical literacy and communication skills. Through student presentations, professorial guidance, and lectures from upperclassmen, the seminar helps students transition from high school math Olympiads to collegiate learning. Beyond problem-solving techniques, it emphasizes communication, encouraging blackboard presentations and providing extra practice. Ultimately, it helps students excel in the Putnam Competition but, more importantly, fosters a love of math and a drive for continuous learning.

(news.mit.edu)

Development math competition

Clean: An Embedded DSL and Formal Verification Framework for ZK Circuits in Lean4

2025-03-27

Researchers have developed Clean, an embedded domain-specific language (DSL) and formal verification framework in Lean4 for building zero-knowledge (ZK) circuits. ZK circuits are prone to bugs, and Clean aims to improve correctness by allowing users to define circuits in Lean4, specify their desired properties, and formally prove them. This project is part of the zkEVM Formal Verification Project, aiming to provide infrastructure and tooling for formal verification of zkEVMs. Clean supports four basic operations for defining circuits: witness, assert, lookup, and subcircuit, and offers a monadic interface for enhanced usability. At its core is the FormalCircuit structure, which tightly packages—in a dependently-typed way—the circuit definition, assumptions, specification, soundness, and completeness proofs. Large circuits can be formally verified by recursively replacing subcircuit constraints with their (formally verified) specifications. The framework has successfully verified simple circuits like 8-bit addition, with future plans to add more low-level gadgets, define common hash function circuits, and build a formally verified minimal VM for a subset of RISC-V.

(blog.zksecurity.xyz)

Development zero-knowledge proof

Inko: A New Language for Building Reliable Concurrent Software

2025-03-27

Inko: A New Language for Building Reliable Concurrent Software

Inko is a new programming language designed for building concurrent software with confidence. It simplifies concurrent software development by offering deterministic automatic memory management, move semantics, static typing, type-safe concurrency, and efficient error handling, eliminating unpredictable performance, runtime errors, and race conditions. Inko compiles to LLVM machine code. Examples showcase a simple "Hello, world!" and a concurrent factorial calculation. Visit the Inko website for more information and installation instructions.

(github.com)

Development

Google Maps, Search, and Hotels Get AI-Powered Travel Planning Upgrades

2025-03-27

Google Maps, Search, and Hotels Get AI-Powered Travel Planning Upgrades

Google is enhancing Maps, Search, and Hotels with AI-powered features to improve travel planning. Maps gains the ability to identify locations in screenshots and save them to a list, simplifying trip preparation. This Gemini-powered feature, rolling out to US iOS users this week (Android coming soon), detects places in screenshot text, displays them on the map, and allows saving to a sharable list. AI Overviews in Search are updated with itinerary-building tools, letting users create trips for specific regions or countries. Google Lens's AI Overviews will soon support more languages, including Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Finally, price drop alerts, already in Google Flights, are going global for Google Hotels, available on mobile and desktop.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech AI travel planning Hotel booking

The High Cost of On-Call: How Tech Companies Exploit Their Engineers

2025-03-27

The High Cost of On-Call: How Tech Companies Exploit Their Engineers

This article examines the pervasive and detrimental effects of on-call engineer rotations in tech companies. Using the experience of an engineer named Alex as a case study, it highlights the immense stress and burnout associated with on-call duties, including constant availability, sleep deprivation, blurred work-life boundaries, and the lack of adequate compensation. The article critiques the prevailing culture that normalizes the exploitation inherent in such systems, urging companies to reconsider their on-call policies and provide fair compensation and protection for their engineers' well-being.

(www.scottsmitelli.com)

Development Work-Life Balance

NZ Service Provider Pwned: A Responsible Disclosure Story

2025-03-27

A security researcher discovered a critical database vulnerability in a New Zealand app, KiwiServices, during a penetration test. By manipulating a simple HTTP request, they bypassed authentication and accessed the entire user database, exposing sensitive information like names, emails, and phone numbers. The researcher responsibly disclosed the vulnerability, and KiwiServices fixed it within 30 days. This highlights the importance of security testing and prompt patching.

(mrbruh.com)

Development

Dish: A Tiny, One-Shot Monitoring Service

2025-03-27

Dish: A Tiny, One-Shot Monitoring Service

Dish is a minimalist Go-based, one-shot monitoring service designed for quick testing of HTTP/S and generic TCP endpoints. It supports loading target lists from local JSON files or remote JSON APIs and offers various alerting methods, including Telegram notifications, Prometheus Pushgateway updates, and webhook callbacks. Users can configure it flexibly via command-line arguments, including custom headers. Dish boasts zero dependencies and easy deployment, whether through building a binary or using a Docker image, making it ideal for rapidly setting up a monitoring system.

(github.com)

Development

OpenAI's New Image Generator Ushers in 'Vibe Marketing'

2025-03-27

OpenAI's New Image Generator Ushers in 'Vibe Marketing'

OpenAI has launched a powerful new image generation model boasting photorealism and improved world knowledge. However, its text-rendering capabilities are truly groundbreaking, producing crisp, readable text instead of blurry AI artifacts. This makes AI-generated images highly viable for marketing, leading to the emergence of "vibe marketing." The article provides ten examples of vibe marketing using AI-generated images, covering various applications like social media posts, comics, infographics, and product promotions. Prompts for each example are included. The author predicts vibe marketing will become the new standard for product development.

(www.indiehackers.com)

Tech vibe marketing

California Takes Aim at Ultra-Processed Foods in School Meals

2025-03-27

California Takes Aim at Ultra-Processed Foods in School Meals

California has introduced Assembly Bill 1264, the first US bill to phase out certain ultra-processed foods from school meals by 2032. The bill defines ultra-processed foods and tasks scientists with identifying and removing harmful products. This initiative, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, addresses concerns about the health impacts of these foods, including obesity and ADHD. It follows California's previous bans on certain food dyes and chemicals, and mirrors similar legislation emerging in other states, reflecting a growing national focus on food safety and children's health.

(www.thenewlede.org)

Tech ultra-processed foods

Mysterious B-2 Bomber Deployment: Iran?

2025-03-27

Mysterious B-2 Bomber Deployment: Iran?

A significant, and largely unacknowledged, deployment of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers has been tracked from Whiteman AFB to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Open-source intelligence indicates at least four or five B-2s were involved, with one diverting to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam due to an emergency. The scale of this deployment is unprecedented, exceeding typical Bomber Task Force or Global Power Missions. Accompanying the B-2s are numerous C-17 transports carrying personnel and equipment. Runway closures at Diego Garcia until May 1st suggest a prolonged stay. While official comment is lacking, the timing, coinciding with heightened tensions in the Middle East, particularly US sanctions and threats against Iran, leads many to speculate a connection to Iran. The B-2’s capability to carry the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator further fuels this theory.

(theaviationist.com)

Tech B-2 Bomber Military Deployment Middle East

Microsoft's New Office Startup Booster: Faster Loading, But With a Catch

2025-03-27

Microsoft's New Office Startup Booster: Faster Loading, But With a Catch

Microsoft is rolling out a new Windows scheduled task called 'Startup Boost' in May to speed up Office app loading. This background task preloads performance enhancements but only runs on systems with 8GB RAM and 5GB free disk space, disabling automatically in Energy Saver mode. Users can disable it in Office settings, but the Office installer re-enables it with each update. While designed to improve launch times, its automatic re-enablement might annoy some users.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Development Windows Scheduled Task

Revyl: Proactive Observability for Faster, More Reliable Software Releases

2025-03-27

Revyl: Proactive Observability for Faster, More Reliable Software Releases

Revyl is a proactive observability platform that catches and triages bugs in iOS, Android, and web apps before they reach production. Their mission is to automate software reliability by providing end-to-end testing, enabling faster and more confident releases. Founded by the creators of DragonCrawl and backed by prominent investors like Felicis, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator, along with strategic angels from Meta, Nvidia, and Uber, Revyl boasts early enterprise traction and aims to become the default reliability platform.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

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