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CDC Halts Collaboration with WHO, Immediately

2025-01-27
CDC Halts Collaboration with WHO, Immediately

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has abruptly ordered an immediate end to all collaborations with the World Health Organization (WHO), sending shockwaves through the global public health community. This isn't a phased withdrawal; it's an immediate and complete cessation of all interactions, including work with technical working groups, coordinating centers, and advisory boards. Experts express deep concern, warning that this will severely hamper efforts to investigate and control outbreaks like the Marburg virus and mpox, potentially jeopardizing global health security. While President Trump had previously issued an executive order to begin the U.S. withdrawal from WHO, this sudden action is far more drastic and unexpected, sparking widespread worry and criticism.

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(apnews.com)
Tech Global Public Health

VGGT: Lightning-Fast 3D Scene Reconstruction from Images

2025-03-25
VGGT: Lightning-Fast 3D Scene Reconstruction from Images

Facebook Research introduces VGGT (Visual Geometry Grounded Transformer), a feed-forward neural network capable of inferring all key 3D attributes of a scene—extrinsic and intrinsic camera parameters, point maps, depth maps, and 3D point tracks—from one, a few, or hundreds of views in mere seconds. This user-friendly model, leveraging the power of Transformers, offers an interactive 3D visualization tool. Surprisingly, VGGT demonstrates impressive single-view reconstruction capabilities, achieving competitive results compared to state-of-the-art monocular methods, despite not being explicitly trained for this task.

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(github.com)
AI

Easily Calculate the Number of Language Model Tokens for a String

2025-02-05
Easily Calculate the Number of Language Model Tokens for a String

This article presents a simple method to calculate the number of language model tokens in a string. This is crucial for estimating application running costs, checking if text fits within the language model's context window, and determining if chunking is necessary. While a rough estimate can be obtained by dividing the character count by 4, a more accurate method involves using the specific language model (Hugging Face or OpenAI model) you're using. The author provides a Jupyter Notebook to calculate the token count for strings, files, or all files in a folder, eliminating reliance on external services, ensuring security and free usage.

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(blog.mastykarz.nl)
Development token counting

Italian Court Orders Google to Block Pirate Sites, Faces Hefty Fines

2025-03-22
Italian Court Orders Google to Block Pirate Sites, Faces Hefty Fines

An Italian court ruled against Google for failing to promptly block pirate websites identified by the Italian copyright authority, AGCOM. The court's decision, issued without requiring a response from Google, underscores the severity of the violation. This follows a similar case against Cloudflare. The ruling highlights Italy's tough stance against online piracy and its efforts to hold international tech giants accountable for adhering to local laws. Google could face significant daily fines if it fails to comply.

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(arstechnica.com)
Tech

South Korean Actress Kim Sae-ron's Death Sparks Debate on Celebrity Treatment

2025-02-18
South Korean Actress Kim Sae-ron's Death Sparks Debate on Celebrity Treatment

The death of 24-year-old South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron has ignited a widespread conversation about the harsh realities faced by celebrities in South Korea. Kim, known for her role in the hit film "The Man from Nowhere," struggled to revive her career after a 2022 drunk driving incident, facing relentless online criticism and negative media coverage. Her passing has prompted calls for reform, with many criticizing the unforgiving culture and demanding a more compassionate approach to celebrity missteps. The incident echoes similar tragedies involving other Korean celebrities and highlights the pervasive issue of cyberbullying.

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(apnews.com)
Misc cyberbullying korean entertainment celebrity pressure

Punch Cards: A Surprisingly Relevant Piece of Digital Humanities History

2025-02-12

This article explores the digitization and reuse of punch cards for knitting machines. Punch cards, a fascinating binary data storage format, are still used today. The article details methods for converting punch card images into data using computer vision and recreating punch cards using CNC machines. The author stresses the importance of high-quality scans and the need for standardized metadata to better preserve and utilize this valuable historical material and foster the transmission and development of knitting technology. The article also highlights the role of community-supported archives in preserving this legacy.

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(blog.archive.org)
Misc Punch Cards Knitting Machines

Superglue: The API Connector That Writes Its Own Code

2025-02-27
Superglue: The API Connector That Writes Its Own Code

Superglue is an open-source API connector that automatically generates code to connect to any API or data source and transform data to your desired format. Simply define your data schema and provide basic instructions; Superglue handles pagination, authentication, error retries, and data transformations, converting data to your exact schema. It supports various data sources including APIs, files, and legacy systems, and offers Docker deployment and JS/TS clients. If you're tired of writing tedious API connection code, Superglue is for you.

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(github.com)
Development API connector data transformation

CRDTs: Semilattices All the Way Down

2025-05-23

This article delves into the design principles of Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs), asserting that all well-designed CRDTs should be based on semilattice structures. The author criticizes CRDTs that hide assumptions, emphasizing that all necessary assumptions must be internalized within the semilattice. Using add/remove sets as an example, the article demonstrates how incorporating a causality lattice resolves non-convergent behavior that can arise from local-time-based expiration mechanisms. The author concludes by summarizing key CRDT design points and stressing the importance of building reliable distributed systems.

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(jhellerstein.github.io)
Development semilattice

Optimizing Ruby's JSON: Part 1

2024-12-18

This blog post details how the author optimized Ruby's `json` gem to become one of the fastest JSON parsers and generators. Instead of complex techniques, simple optimizations were applied based on profiling, such as avoiding redundant checks, prioritizing cheaper conditions, reducing setup costs, and using lookup tables. These improvements apply to both C and Ruby code. The optimizations significantly boosted the `json` gem's performance, making it competitive with alternatives like `oj`, reducing the need for monkey patching, and addressing stability and compatibility issues associated with `oj`.

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(byroot.github.io)
Development Performance Optimization

The Information Deluge: Coping with the News Overload

2025-02-12
The Information Deluge: Coping with the News Overload

Reflecting on a 45-year career in tech, the author laments the shift from singular news sources to highly personalized strategies in the age of information overload. From the initial era of TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines, to the explosion of USENET and the web, news sources have multiplied exponentially, exceeding human information processing capacity. Faced with a deluge of information that's often untrustworthy or irrelevant, people have developed coping mechanisms, including complete disconnection and digital sabbaths. The author argues we need a fundamental rethink of our relationship with information, cultivating better discernment skills and building psychological and cultural defenses to navigate the chaos. This isn't a problem solvable by technology or law; it requires individual effort to improve our capacity to manage information overload.

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(www.theregister.com)
Misc information filtering

Product Managers in the Age of AI: New Tools, Same Core Principles

2024-12-22
Product Managers in the Age of AI: New Tools, Same Core Principles

Despite the trendy term "AI Product Manager," AI hasn't fundamentally changed product management's core: understanding user needs, creating solutions, and defining tasks. AI provides powerful new tools like Large Language Models (LLMs), but PMs still leverage these tools, not build them. The article explains basic LLM concepts (tokens, context windows, prompts) and advises PMs to learn effective prompting, collaborate closely with engineers, and focus on AI's practical value for the product, avoiding trendy additions. In short, AI is a tool, not a replacement; PMs must embrace AI and enhance their skills to thrive in this era.

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(productme.org)
Development Product Management

Datasaurus Dozen: Exposing Statistical Pitfalls

2024-12-17

Thirteen datasets, nearly identical simple descriptive statistics, yet wildly different distributions and visualizations! This is the fascinating Datasaurus Dozen. Comprising a dinosaur-shaped dataset and twelve others with varying forms, they all share almost identical means, variances, and correlations. This powerfully demonstrates the danger of relying solely on basic descriptive statistics; visualization is crucial. The Datasaurus Dozen serves as a cautionary tale, urging data analysts to prioritize visualization before analysis to avoid misleading conclusions.

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(en.wikipedia.org)
AI statistical analysis data traps

Australia Enacts World's Strictest Social Media Ban for Under-16s

2025-01-31
Australia Enacts World's Strictest Social Media Ban for Under-16s

Australia has implemented one of the world's strictest internet crackdowns, prohibiting children under 16 from using social media or creating new accounts. The law, effective in a year, holds social media companies accountable for verifying users' ages, with penalties reaching nearly $50 million for non-compliance. Facing opposition from tech companies citing free speech concerns and the potential for driving kids to unregulated online spaces, Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is tasked with enforcement. The approach, drawing global attention, aims to shift responsibility for online child safety from parents to platforms, similar to past automotive safety regulations.

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(www.npr.org)
Tech child safety internet regulation

The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils: A Century-Long Rivalry

2025-03-03
The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils: A Century-Long Rivalry

In 1952, Tombow Pencil revolutionized the Japanese pencil industry with its HOMO pencil, featuring a homogenous core and high-quality incense cedar. Its significantly higher price point sparked a fierce competition with Mitsubishi Pencil, leading to a 'Golden Age' of innovation. Both companies released iconic pencils like Mitsubishi's Uni and Tombow's MONO, pushing the boundaries of pencil technology and design. This rivalry exemplifies the dedication to quality and innovation that defined Japanese manufacturing.

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(notes.stlartsupply.com)
Misc Japanese Pencils Mitsubishi

mt32-pi Project Halted Due to Online Abuse

2025-02-05
mt32-pi Project Halted Due to Online Abuse

The mt32-pi project, a baremetal MIDI synthesizer for the Raspberry Pi, has been discontinued due to sustained online harassment of its developer. The developer cited a campaign of abuse, including personal attacks, code theft, and stolen 3D print designs, as reasons for abandoning the project. Despite community support, the negative experiences significantly impacted the developer's mental health. mt32-pi supported various Raspberry Pi models and offered features such as I²S Hi-Fi DAC support and network MIDI.

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(github.com)
Development MIDI Synthesizer

Should Christians Use AI for Apologetics? A Software Dev's Concerns

2025-01-21

A software developer raises concerns about using AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) for Christian apologetics. He argues that LLMs are fundamentally "bullshit generators," capable of producing truthful outputs but not designed to prioritize truth, making them prone to fabricating information. Using LLMs in apologetics risks spreading falsehoods and damaging Christianity's credibility. The author suggests focusing on creating powerful search engines to improve access to existing resources instead of relying on LLMs.

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(lukeplant.me.uk)
Misc Apologetics

200 Investor Rejections: A Startup's Funding Nightmare

2025-01-22

A startup pitched nearly 200 investors during its pre-seed and seed rounds, only to be met with rejection after rejection. Reasons ranged from market timing and team expertise to product design and funding size, encompassing nearly every potential pitfall in the startup fundraising process. This article details the brutal reality of startup funding, highlighting the various perceived risks from an investor's perspective, offering valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.

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(davidjarvis.com)
Startup startup funding funding rejection

Square Kufic: A Labyrinthine Journey into Islamic Calligraphy

2025-05-06
Square Kufic: A Labyrinthine Journey into Islamic Calligraphy

As a child, the author was captivated by the intricate geometric patterns adorning mosques, later discovering them to be Square Kufic calligraphy, a 12th-13th century Islamic script. This style transforms Arabic letters into geometric designs, bending and breaking rules to create stunning, sometimes indecipherable, patterns. The article explores Square Kufic's origins, characteristics, and modern reinterpretations, showcasing artists who integrate verses into architecture or create modern art pieces. Personal anecdotes and a discussion of the Topkapi Scroll reveal the art form's multi-layered appeal: from visual beauty to cryptic messages, offering rich cultural depth and endless intrigue.

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(uwithumlaut.wordpress.com)
Design Islamic Calligraphy Square Kufic

Undersea Cable Damage: Accidents, Not Sabotage, Say Officials

2025-01-19
Undersea Cable Damage: Accidents, Not Sabotage, Say Officials

Recent incidents of severed undersea cables in Europe, initially raising suspicions of Russian sabotage, are likely the result of maritime accidents, according to US and European intelligence officials. Investigations into several incidents over the past 18 months, involving ships suspected of dragging anchors across key undersea energy and communication lines, point towards accidental damage. While some anomalies exist and Russia has a history of mapping Western seabed infrastructure, current evidence suggests a lack of intentional action or Russian involvement. This conclusion contrasts with some who believe the incidents were part of a broader Russian hybrid warfare campaign.

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(www.stripes.com)
Tech undersea cables maritime accidents

Let Users Help Solve Their Own Transit Problems: Beyond Algorithmic Route Planning

2025-01-16

The author criticizes current map apps for relying solely on algorithms to plan public transit routes, neglecting user needs and expertise. He proposes allowing users to customize route options, such as specifying particular bus route combinations, and including these in route planning comparisons. This mirrors the "report spam" and "not spam" functions of email filters, improving algorithms through user feedback. Despite privacy concerns, user participation could enhance route accuracy and user satisfaction, ultimately improving algorithms. The ability for users to add their own route combinations, even without sharing data, would be a significant improvement.

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(boredzo.org)
Development public transit

Microplastics Found in Human Brains: A Growing Threat?

2025-02-15
Microplastics Found in Human Brains: A Growing Threat?

A recent study revealed the presence of significant microplastic levels in human brains. These microplastics, entering the brain via the bloodstream, are potentially linked to various illnesses. The article highlights the environmental and health dangers of our reliance on plastic, pointing to the polluting nature of its production and its persistence in the environment. While the US government has taken steps to regulate harmful chemicals in plastic production, the impact remains limited. The author urges accountability for the petrochemical industry rather than solely blaming consumers.

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(www.scientificamerican.com)
Tech environmental pollution

In Memoriam: Donald Bitzer, Pioneer of Computing

2024-12-13
In Memoriam: Donald Bitzer, Pioneer of Computing

The Computer History Museum mourns the passing of Donald L. Bitzer (1934-2024), a pioneering computer scientist. Co-inventor of the flat-panel plasma display and creator of the PLATO system—the world's earliest time-shared computer-based education system and a groundbreaking online community—Bitzer's innovations presaged many modern online features. PLATO included forums, message boards, online testing, email, chat rooms, instant messaging, and multiplayer games, laying the groundwork for the interconnected digital world we know today.

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(computerhistory.org)
Tech computer history plasma display PLATO system

America's Drone Lag: Why Commercial Markets Are the Key to Defense Innovation

2025-03-03
America's Drone Lag: Why Commercial Markets Are the Key to Defense Innovation

America's drone industry is hampered not by technological shortcomings, but by the FAA's outdated regulations stifling large-scale commercial drone adoption. In contrast, Europe's more permissive regulatory environment has fostered companies like Manna, whose commercial success underpins military applications. The article argues that a thriving commercial drone market would revitalize America's defense industrial base, driving down costs, accelerating innovation, and breaking free from reliance on established defense contractors, mirroring Lockheed's WWII success built on a foundation of commercial aviation. The author calls for the US to emulate European and Chinese approaches, streamlining regulations, and supporting commercial drone development to gain a future defense advantage.

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(seanobannon.substack.com)
Tech defense

Resurrecting 30-Year-Old Apple SCSI Hard Drives: The Rubber-Decay Data Recovery

2025-03-02

This post details the author's experience restoring 1990s Apple-branded Quantum and Conner SCSI hard drives. These drives commonly suffer from a failure mode where they spin up and immediately stop. By opening the drives, the author discovered the root cause: aging rubber bumpers causing the read/write head to stick. Two methods—manually moving the head and using Kapton tape to hold it in place—were successfully employed to recover data. The article also shares interesting details about how data is physically stored on these drives and serves as a reminder to regularly back up important data.

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(www.downtowndougbrown.com)
Hardware vintage hardware SCSI hard drive

Greenland Ice Sheet Crevasses Accelerate Melt: A Rising Sea Level Threat

2025-02-10
Greenland Ice Sheet Crevasses Accelerate Melt: A Rising Sea Level Threat

Numerous studies in recent years highlight the accelerating role of crevasses in Greenland's ice sheet, significantly contributing to ice calving and exacerbating sea level rise. Researchers have employed diverse methods, including satellite imagery, airborne LiDAR, and field observations, to investigate crevasse formation, expansion, and hydrological impacts. Findings reveal that crevasses not only compromise ice sheet stability but also expedite meltwater drainage, further accelerating ice melt. This poses a significant challenge to the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet and presents a major threat to global sea level change and coastal safety.

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(www.nature.com)
Tech Greenland Ice Sheet ice melt sea level rise

FTC Probes Microsoft-OpenAI Deal Over Antitrust Concerns

2025-01-18
FTC Probes Microsoft-OpenAI Deal Over Antitrust Concerns

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expressed concerns about Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI, fearing it could extend Microsoft's cloud computing dominance into the burgeoning AI market and potentially lead to the full acquisition of AI companies by tech giants in the future. The FTC is also investigating Amazon and Google's partnerships with other AI companies, citing potential antitrust risks.

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(www.bloomberg.com)
Tech AI investment Microsoft OpenAI

Microsoft Patches Windows 11 Bypass for Microsoft Account Login

2025-03-29
Microsoft Patches Windows 11 Bypass for Microsoft Account Login

The latest Windows 11 Dev Channel preview build removes the bypassnro.cmd script, previously allowing users to circumvent the mandatory Microsoft account login requirement. Microsoft states this change enhances security and ensures all users sign in with a Microsoft account while online. This will inconvenience users who prefer offline setup or local accounts, though Microsoft accounts offer benefits like easy access to subscriptions and data syncing. Local accounts, however, reduce notifications and upsells.

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(arstechnica.com)
Development

A Wall Conversation Changed My Programming Career

2024-12-21
A Wall Conversation Changed My Programming Career

In 1983, a programmer working at a large defense contractor planned to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry. A chance conversation over a wall with the manager of the neighboring "Microcomputer Group" (a tinkerer) led to an invitation to a meeting about Apple II. There, he was tasked with building a VT-100 terminal emulator in 6502 assembly language within a week to enable the company president to read email at home. This experience not only redirected his career path, leading him to join the Microcomputer Group and become the company's sole PC programmer, but also ultimately led him to start his own company. Years later, he reflected on how chance encounters and interpersonal connections significantly shaped his life.

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(thecodist.com)
Development career opportunity
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