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Visual Proof: a² – b² = (a + b)(a – b)

2024-12-15
Visual Proof: a² – b² = (a + b)(a – b)

Futility Closet's blog post presents a visual proof of the mathematical formula a² – b² = (a + b)(a – b), quoting Sophie Germain's insightful words: “It has been said that algebra is but written geometry and geometry is but diagrammatic algebra.” The post uses an easily understood diagram to demonstrate the formula, highlighting the elegance of mathematics and the strong relationship between algebra and geometry.

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(www.futilitycloset.com)
Misc mathematical proof geometry algebra

Why I Ditched New Laptops for a 2006 ThinkPad

2025-01-01
Why I Ditched New Laptops for a 2006 ThinkPad

A freelance journalist recounts his experience of buying three new laptops between 2000 and 2017, costing a total of €5000 and lasting an average of 5.7 years each. Realizing the massive resource consumption and limited functional gains of new laptops, he switched to a €50 secondhand 2006 ThinkPad X60s. With minor hardware upgrades and a lightweight Linux OS, he dramatically reduced costs and environmental impact. The article details his strategies, including using a lightweight Linux distribution, upgrading to an SSD, and leveraging an SD card for data management, proving that older laptops can offer significant long-term economic and environmental advantages.

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(solar.lowtechmagazine.com)
Tech sustainable tech low-tech laptop repair

In-Utero Treatment Shows Promise for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

2025-02-20
In-Utero Treatment Shows Promise for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl is thriving, showing no signs of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a devastating genetic disease, after receiving in-utero treatment with the drug Risdiplam. This groundbreaking study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, marks a significant advancement. The drug, administered to the mother during late pregnancy and continued after birth, boosts production of the SMN protein crucial for motor neuron survival. This approach offers a potential game-changer for SMA, a leading genetic cause of infant mortality, as previous treatments began only after birth.

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(www.nature.com)
Tech Spinal Muscular Atrophy Gene Therapy In-Utero Treatment

Musk's Stealth Takeover of US Critical Infrastructure?

2025-02-22
Musk's Stealth Takeover of US Critical Infrastructure?

An anonymous memo reveals a shocking truth: Elon Musk, under the guise of streamlining bureaucracy through his DOGE initiative, has secretly gained control over critical US government infrastructure. He's placed loyalists throughout federal agencies, infiltrating everything from personnel management to sensitive Treasury payment systems. This mirrors the goals of Silicon Valley's 'neoreactionary' movement – replacing democracy with corporate rule. The memo warns Congress must act swiftly to stop Musk's privatization of government before President Trump himself becomes a hostage to his power.

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(www.thenerdreich.com)
Tech

fui: A Framebuffer-Based TTY UI Library in C

2025-05-08
fui: A Framebuffer-Based TTY UI Library in C

fui is a lightweight C library for interacting with the framebuffer directly within a tty context. It uses a layered drawing system, supporting pixel drawing, primitive shapes (lines, rectangles, circles), bitmap font rendering, keyboard and mouse event handling (via libevdev), and a basic ALSA-based sound system (currently sine waves and chords). The library is statically linked and includes examples and tests (using cmocka). A simple Asteroids game demonstrates the sound capabilities.

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(github.com)
Development Graphics Library

Indie Dev Builds Podcast Player with Racket and Swift

2025-01-27

An indie developer built an iOS podcast player called Podcatcher, now live on the App Store. Developed using Racket and Swift, Podcatcher boasts features like an equalizer, silence trimming, and variable speed playback. It's free, ad-free, and privacy-focused, prioritizing local data storage. The developer also detailed improvements made to Racket and several open-source libraries during development, including performance boosts to the XML library and enhanced redirect handling in the HTTP library. While cross-device syncing and UI enhancements are planned for future releases, the app already provides a solid listening experience.

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(defn.io)
Development iOS Development

Otus Lisp 2.6 Released: A Lightweight, Cross-Platform Lisp Dialect

2025-06-23

Otus Lisp (Ol) version 2.6 is out! This lightweight (~64KB), purely functional Lisp dialect implements an extended subset of R7RS Scheme, boasting cross-platform compatibility (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and more) and architecture support. Ol is embeddable and provides a high-level interface for calling code written in other languages. It also supports WebAssembly, enabling execution in various browsers. This release introduces infix notation for more convenient mathematical expression.

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(yuriy-chumak.github.io)
Development

Hand-Counting Ballots: A Threat to Election Accuracy?

2025-08-19
Hand-Counting Ballots: A Threat to Election Accuracy?

A growing number of states are considering banning electronic tabulators and mandating hand-counting of ballots. However, studies show that hand-counting leads to significantly higher error rates (up to 25%), increased costs, and substantial delays. For example, Nye County, Nevada's 2022 hand count resulted in a 25% error rate, and a similar bill in Arizona was only vetoed by the governor. This not only threatens election accuracy and security but also fuels voter concerns about corruption. The article advocates for the continued use of electronic tabulators, supplemented by post-election audits to ensure timely and accurate results.

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(votingrightslab.org)
Misc election hand counting electronic tabulators

Advent of Code on the Nintendo DS: A Rust Programming Challenge on an Embedded System

2024-12-16

The author tackled Advent of Code 2024 using Rust on a Nintendo DS. This detailed account chronicles the journey, from setting up a cross-compilation environment and writing Rust code for a runtime-less embedded system to overcoming challenges in memory management, interrupts, and screen output. The author successfully displays the Advent of Code solution on the DS screen. The article showcases strong programming skills and deep understanding of embedded systems, highlighting the techniques and enjoyment of programming in resource-constrained environments.

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(sailor.li)
Development Nintendo DS

Tesla's Australian Sales Plummet: Stockpiles, Price Wars, and Damaged Brand Image

2025-03-29
Tesla's Australian Sales Plummet: Stockpiles, Price Wars, and Damaged Brand Image

A large stockpile of unsold Tesla Model Ys in a Perth parking lot highlights the brand's struggles in Australia. Increased competition, price wars, and Elon Musk's political activities have all contributed to declining sales. Dealers are slashing prices to clear inventory, hurting previous buyers and damaging customer trust. Inadequate charging infrastructure in Australia further exacerbates the issue, pushing consumers towards hybrid vehicles.

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(au.news.yahoo.com)
Tech

Boom Supersonic's XB-1 Breaks the Sound Barrier Silently

2025-03-04
Boom Supersonic's XB-1 Breaks the Sound Barrier Silently

Boom Supersonic's experimental supersonic jet, XB-1, successfully broke the sound barrier on its second flight, capturing stunning Schlieren photography of the shockwaves. Remarkably, the flight produced no audible sonic boom, a major breakthrough for the return of commercial supersonic travel. The XB-1 paves the way for Overture, Boom's planned commercial supersonic airliner, which boasts numerous pre-orders and aims to revolutionize air travel with faster, more efficient coast-to-coast flights by the end of the decade.

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(www.cnn.com)
Tech sonic boom

Decoding the Startup Software Engineer Interview Process

2025-02-13
Decoding the Startup Software Engineer Interview Process

This startup uses a two-step interview process: a phone screen and a two-day onsite interview. The phone screen assesses interest in startups and teamwork, along with basic web programming skills and project experience. The onsite interview delves deeper into technical abilities, product thinking, and team fit, emphasizing communication, ownership, and autonomy through a small project.

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(www.ycombinator.com)
Development Interview Process

Attention as Electromagnetic Field Line Management: A New Model of Consciousness

2024-12-17
Attention as Electromagnetic Field Line Management: A New Model of Consciousness

Qualia Research Institute proposes a novel model of attention, conceptualizing it as the management of dynamic patterns in the brain's electromagnetic field. By simulating electric field lines arising from weighted sums of harmonic oscillations, researchers demonstrate how attention controls charge density by modulating underlying resonant modes, explaining seemingly random fluctuations and drifts in attentional behavior. This model also offers a potential explanation for psychedelic experiences, suggesting that psychedelics disrupt the normal flow of attention by altering the configuration of harmonic modes. The research provides a new lens for understanding consciousness and developing novel neuro-interventions, such as inducing exotic states of consciousness by non-invasively perturbing the phase locking of attention.

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(qualiacomputing.com)
AI consciousness attention electromagnetic field

Flat Design is Dead: Long Live Diamorphism!

2025-05-27
Flat Design is Dead: Long Live Diamorphism!

Airbnb's recent redesign signals a paradigm shift in design, moving away from flat design and embracing vibrant, dimensional aesthetics. The author coins the term "Diamorph" to describe this new style, emphasizing depth, texture, and light, rather than mimicking the real world. The rise of AI has also lowered the barrier to entry for this style, allowing more people to participate. While AI simplifies the creative process, core design skills like composition, lighting, depth, and taste remain crucial. Ultimately, it's a step forward towards a more expressive, emotional, and purely digital design language.

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(www.flarup.email)
Design design trends

Apple's Privacy Policy Under Fire: German Regulator Investigates Double Standard

2025-02-14
Apple's Privacy Policy Under Fire: German Regulator Investigates Double Standard

Germany's competition watchdog is investigating Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework (ATTF), alleging a double standard. While Apple enforces strict user data consent rules on third-party developers, the investigation suggests Apple exempts itself, leveraging its vast ecosystem (App Store, Apple ID, connected devices) to collect user data for advertising purposes with less stringent consent requirements. This disparity in treatment, along with simpler consent dialogues for Apple's own apps compared to third-party apps, could constitute unfair competition. Apple has yet to respond.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

SepLLM: Inference Acceleration for LLMs by Compressing Meaningless Tokens

2025-03-06
SepLLM: Inference Acceleration for LLMs by Compressing Meaningless Tokens

Large Language Models (LLMs) face significant challenges due to their massive computational demands. Researchers discovered that certain meaningless special tokens contribute disproportionately to attention scores. Based on this, they propose SepLLM, a framework that accelerates inference by compressing segments between these tokens and dropping redundant ones. Experiments show SepLLM achieves over 50% reduction in KV cache on the GSM8K-CoT benchmark with negligible performance loss using Llama-3-8B. In streaming settings, SepLLM effectively handles language modeling with up to 4 million tokens or more.

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(sepllm.github.io)
AI Inference Acceleration Model Compression

Open-Source 16mm Film Projector: LaborBerlin's Journey

2025-06-21

The LaborBerlin team is developing a state-of-the-art, open-source 16mm film projector to address the challenges of aging equipment, limited flexibility, and archival projection needs. Their approach leverages readily available projector mechanisms and lenses, incorporating a modular design, open-source technologies, and commonly available parts. After disassembling and analyzing various vintage projectors, the team successfully tested an 800W high-brightness LED light source with a water-cooling system, overcoming a major hurdle in lamp upgrades. Following feedback at the ALUD festival, they resolved flickering issues. The resulting prototype boasts superior brightness and clarity compared to traditional xenon lamp projectors.

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(www.filmlabs.org)
Hardware film projector LED projection

Listen Labs' Viral Growth Hack: A Tale of AI Collaboration and Optimization

2025-09-06
Listen Labs' Viral Growth Hack: A Tale of AI Collaboration and Optimization

Listen Labs launched a viral marketing campaign with a cryptic billboard in San Francisco, leading to a complex optimization puzzle: simulating the entrance selection of Berlin's Berghain nightclub. This puzzle attracted 30,000 engineers, unexpectedly creating a massive distributed computing experiment. The author and his AI partner, Claude, participated, progressing from simple greedy algorithms to a Lagrangian multiplier-based RBCR algorithm, achieving impressive results. However, they also experienced the failure of deep learning models, ultimately learning that in problems with clear mathematical structure, simple principled algorithms often outperform complex machine learning models. The story showcases the immense potential of AI-assisted programming and the perfect blend of human insight and AI execution.

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(www.nibzard.com)
Startup viral marketing

Avoid Negativity: Crucial Career Advice

2025-06-20

This article emphasizes the importance of avoiding negativity echo chambers in one's career. While acknowledging that some complaining is normal, it warns against prolonged immersion in groups filled with negativity, impacting both career progression and mental/physical well-being. The author suggests focusing on positive aspects and striving for improvement if career advancement is desired, or dedicating energy to personal enjoyment if not. The article advocates finding positive communities and role models for genuine progress, rather than dwelling on endless complaints. Actively participating in and protecting cherished communities, while setting a positive example, is key to building a constructive environment.

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(brooker.co.za)
Misc negativity bias

Dark Patterns Detective: Unmasking the Design Tricks That Manipulate You

2025-01-17
Dark Patterns Detective: Unmasking the Design Tricks That Manipulate You

Dark Patterns Detective is an interactive game that teaches you to identify and understand the hidden design patterns manipulating user decisions online. Through gameplay, you'll learn to spot manipulative tactics, decode the psychology behind design choices, and ultimately become a more empowered and informed digital user. The game is free to play, but consider sharing it or supporting future creations if you find it valuable.

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(games.productartistry.com)
Design design psychology

EdgeDB Rebrands as Gel, Embraces PostgreSQL Ecosystem

2025-02-26
EdgeDB Rebrands as Gel, Embraces PostgreSQL Ecosystem

EdgeDB, a database startup, has rebranded as Gel and announced that its 6.0 release fully supports SQL, natively supporting the PostgreSQL protocol. Gel positions itself as a frontend layer for PostgreSQL, similar to TypeScript for JavaScript, enhancing data schema and query efficiency via intelligent compilers. The rebranding aims for greater clarity and simplicity, better integrating with the thriving PostgreSQL ecosystem. Gel 6.0 marks a significant shift from solely supporting its proprietary EdgeQL query language to embracing SQL, broadening its appeal and lowering the barrier to entry.

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(www.geldata.com)
Development

Jujutsu: A Revolutionary Version Control System

2024-12-22

Jujutsu is a new version control system built on top of Git, offering a simplified approach to local file interaction through a unique conceptual model and command set. Unlike Git, Jujutsu always treats the working copy state as a commit, instantly reflecting any on-disk edits in the current commit. This streamlines many operations, including fixing typos in old commits, viewing diffs, and managing work in progress. The workflow is intuitive, easily accessible even without prior Git experience, and seamlessly integrates with the Git ecosystem. While some features like perfect VSCode integration are still missing, Jujutsu shows immense potential with its innovative design and user-friendly experience.

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(neugierig.org)
Development

Rust's Borrow Checker: More Curse Than Blessing?

2025-07-20

Rust, lauded for its blend of speed and safety thanks to its borrow checker, faces criticism in this post. The author argues the borrow checker creates significant ergonomic problems, rejecting perfectly valid code due to overly conservative rules. Multiple examples demonstrate the unnecessary refactoring required. The post questions the overstated role of the borrow checker in Rust's safety, comparing it to garbage-collected languages like Python and Julia. While acknowledging the borrow checker's benefits in concurrent programming, the author contends its overhead in single-threaded contexts outweighs the advantages. Rust's strengths, such as its strong type system and rich standard library, are highlighted as the true reasons for its success.

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(viralinstruction.com)
Development

The SaaS Private Deployment Trap: A Cautionary Tale

2025-03-18

This post explores the pitfalls of offering private deployments for SaaS platforms. While lucrative, private installs come with significant operational and support burdens. The author argues that they transform SaaS vendors into ops or helpdesk organizations, requiring substantial resources to maintain customer-specific environments. The article advises against private deployments unless absolutely necessary, suggesting managed hosted deployments and careful contract terms and pricing to mitigate risks.

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(blog.lusis.org)
Development Private Deployment Operational Costs

Russia-backed Hackers Crack Encrypted Messaging Apps

2025-02-22
Russia-backed Hackers Crack Encrypted Messaging Apps

Google's Threat Intelligence Group revealed that Russia-backed hacking groups have developed techniques to compromise encrypted messaging services like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram, putting journalists, politicians, and activists at risk. Attacks involve exploiting Signal's 'linked devices' feature with malicious QR codes, accessing battlefield phones, and deploying phishing websites. These attacks are difficult to detect, potentially remaining unnoticed for extended periods. Signal has implemented security improvements, but users are urged to remain vigilant and avoid suspicious links.

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(www.computerweekly.com)
Tech encrypted messaging

Massive Data Breach: 190 Million Americans Affected by Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack

2025-01-25
Massive Data Breach: 190 Million Americans Affected by Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack

UnitedHealth Group confirmed that a ransomware attack on its subsidiary, Change Healthcare, in February 2024 affected approximately 190 million Americans – nearly double previous estimates. The attack resulted in the theft of massive amounts of sensitive health and insurance data, including names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and medical records. Some data was even published online by the hackers. Change Healthcare paid ransoms to prevent further data release. This is the largest healthcare data breach in US history, highlighting critical vulnerabilities in the healthcare system's cybersecurity.

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(techcrunch.com)
Tech healthcare security

LED Efficiency Surpasses 100%: A Low-Voltage Breakthrough

2025-03-20
LED Efficiency Surpasses 100%: A Low-Voltage Breakthrough

MIT researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, an LED that emits more optical power than it consumes, achieving an efficiency of 230%. The key is drastically reducing the applied voltage to 30 picowatts, where LED efficiency increases as output power decreases. While currently limited to low-power, dim LEDs, this breakthrough leverages excess heat from atomic lattice vibrations, opening new avenues for highly efficient electromagnetic communication and novel solid-state cooling technologies. It challenges the conventional understanding of LED efficiency being inversely proportional to brightness.

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(phys.org)
Tech low voltage

The Return of Adventure: Ditching the Tourist Trail for Unconventional Experiences

2025-01-21
The Return of Adventure: Ditching the Tourist Trail for Unconventional Experiences

From Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expeditions to the unconventional journeys of modern travelers, this essay explores the evolution of travel. Convenient transportation and mass media have shaped a homogenized tourism model, yet a new trend of seeking unusual adventures is emerging. Examples include attempts at straight-line crossings, continent-spanning games of tag, and spontaneous explorations of city's hidden corners. These adventures aren't about geographical discovery, but about experiencing the journey in novel ways and rediscovering the unexpected joys of travel. The essay ultimately encourages readers to break free from established patterns and embrace personalized, unconventional adventures.

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(quarter--mile.com)
Misc adventure exploration
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