HTTP/3's Current State: Challenges and Opportunities on the Path to Adoption

2024-12-16
HTTP/3's Current State: Challenges and Opportunities on the Path to Adoption

The HTTP/3 specifications are complete but await final publication. Server-side support is surprisingly high, particularly among top websites. Major players like Cloudflare have enabled HTTP/3, and browsers widely support it. However, client-side support, such as in curl, remains incomplete, largely due to the lagging development of QUIC-enabled TLS libraries. OpenSSL's QUIC support has been delayed, while alternatives like BoringSSL and quictls have limitations. While HTTP/3 promises speed improvements, real-world benefits depend on network conditions. Widespread adoption hinges on specification release and mature TLS libraries.

Read more
Development

Revolutionary Technique Cuts LLM Memory Costs by Up to 75%

2024-12-17
Revolutionary Technique Cuts LLM Memory Costs by Up to 75%

Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based startup, has developed a groundbreaking technique called "universal transformer memory" that significantly improves the memory efficiency of large language models (LLMs). Using neural attention memory modules (NAMMs), the technique acts like a smart editor, discarding redundant information while retaining crucial details. This results in up to a 75% reduction in memory costs and improved performance across various models and tasks, offering substantial benefits for enterprises utilizing LLMs.

Read more

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.

Read more
Tech

Arbital Shuts Down: The End of an AI Safety Research Organization

2024-12-27

Arbital, an organization focused on AI safety research, recently announced its closure. This news sent shockwaves through the AI safety community. Known for its rigorous research and forward-thinking perspectives, Arbital's closure represents a significant loss to the field. While Arbital hasn't publicly disclosed the reasons for its closure, industry insiders speculate it may be related to funding issues or a shift in research direction. Arbital's closure serves as a reminder of the many challenges facing AI safety research, requiring more resources and sustained effort.

Read more

WebGL Fluid Simulation App Launched: Experience Realistic Fluid Effects!

2024-12-29
WebGL Fluid Simulation App Launched: Experience Realistic Fluid Effects!

The "Try Fluid Simulation" app has arrived! Leveraging WebGL, it delivers stunningly realistic fluid simulations right in your browser. Experience the mesmerizing movement of liquids, the ebb and flow of waves, and more, all with simple controls. Create fluids of various shapes and textures with a few clicks, witnessing the power of physics engines in action. This app is perfect for developers learning WebGL and enthusiasts fascinated by computer graphics and fluid simulation. Dive into this mesmerizing world of fluids!

Read more
Development Fluid Simulation

Clang Optimization Regression: Inlining Backfires in C++ Benchmark

2025-02-19

A C++ benchmark revealed a performance regression in Clang's optimization of inline functions. When the `increment` function was inlined, branch prediction failures resulted in roughly a 5x slowdown compared to the non-inlined version. `perf stat` confirmed branch mispredictions as the culprit. Interestingly, compiling with the Zig toolchain significantly improved performance, suggesting a potential regression in Clang 19. The issue has been reported on the Clang/LLVM repository, with initial investigation pointing to a trade-off between SROA and SimplifyCFG optimization passes.

Read more
Development

Perplexity Overtakes Google as the Top Search Engine

2024-12-16
Perplexity Overtakes Google as the Top Search Engine

A veteran tech columnist recounts the evolution of search engines, from early pioneers like AltaVista to Google's dominance, and now the rise of AI-powered search. The article argues that Google's over-reliance on ads has degraded search quality, while Perplexity, with its AI-driven approach, provision of source links, and focus on user experience, has emerged as a superior alternative. While acknowledging the imperfections of AI answers, the author highlights Perplexity's verifiable sources as a key differentiator, delivering more accurate and reliable search results. Google's future is uncertain, and its ability to regain its former glory remains to be seen.

Read more

Budget Watch Survives Deep Sea Test, Reveals History of Underwater Espionage

2025-01-31
Budget Watch Survives Deep Sea Test, Reveals History of Underwater Espionage

A $15 Casio F91W watch, after a simple oil-filling modification, was successfully taken to nearly 5,000 meters underwater by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and returned intact. This incredible feat highlights the surprising pressure resistance of inexpensive equipment and underscores the long and secretive history of deep-sea espionage. From Cold War submarine recovery operations to modern-day sabotage of undersea cables, the deep ocean has served as a critical—and often unseen—battleground for intelligence gathering and covert actions. The article explores both historical incidents like Operation Ivy Bells and recent events, emphasizing the growing sophistication of underwater warfare and the challenges of attribution.

Read more

Rust Standard Library on Apache NuttX RTOS: LED Blinky and Beyond

2025-01-27
Rust Standard Library on Apache NuttX RTOS: LED Blinky and Beyond

This article details building applications using the Rust standard library on the Apache NuttX real-time operating system. It covers JSON handling with Serde, asynchronous functions with Tokio, and LED control with the Nix crate. The author explains the difference between owned and raw file descriptors in Rust and compares the Nix and Rustix POSIX binding crates. Detailed steps for building and running Rust applications on NuttX, along with troubleshooting tips, are provided.

Read more
Development

Elixir's Set-Theoretic Types: Solving the Data Evolution Problem for Libraries

2025-01-14

This article explores how set-theoretic types in Elixir can address the backward compatibility challenges of evolving public data definitions in libraries within statically typed languages. The author illustrates the limitations of existing type systems when handling data structure evolution with an example of interoperability between C and Rust libraries. A solution based on structural subtyping and revisioning is proposed, allowing libraries to extend data structures without breaking existing users. This solution leverages the compiler for automatic type safety verification and supports the coexistence of different data versions across libraries and applications.

Read more
Development Data Evolution

Dell Axes XPS Brand in Major PC Lineup Restructuring

2025-01-06
Dell Axes XPS Brand in Major PC Lineup Restructuring

Dell is dropping the XPS, Latitude, Inspiron, and Precision brands, streamlining its PC lineup to Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. This move aims to simplify product identification and better target the growing AI PC market. While nostalgic for long-time users, Dell claims the new branding will offer clearer product segmentation, improved durability, and enhanced performance. The change follows a controversial redesign of the XPS line and a shift toward emphasizing AI capabilities in its new offerings.

Read more

Is Current AI a Dead End?

2024-12-27
Is Current AI a Dead End?

Professor Eerke Boiten of De Montfort University Leicester argues that current AI systems based on large neural networks, such as ChatGPT, are unsuitable for critical applications due to their inherent complexity and unpredictability. These systems lack manageability, transparency, and accountability; their behavior is emergent rather than compositional, making effective verification and error correction difficult. Boiten suggests that the current direction of AI development may be a dead end, advocating for compositional neural networks or hybrid approaches combining symbolic reasoning to build more reliable AI systems.

Read more

Through-the-Earth Communication: Revolutionizing Underground Connectivity

2024-12-14

Traditional radio waves struggle to penetrate rock, making communication in mines and caves challenging. This article explores Through-the-Earth (TTE) communication, utilizing ultra-low frequency (300-3000 Hz) signals that propagate through rock strata. TTE systems, including portable magnetic-loop cave radios, Personal Emergency Devices (PEDs), and the innovative 'Miner Lifeline' technology, are highlighted for their crucial role in mine rescue operations and cave exploration, even after catastrophic events like fires or explosions.

Read more

Fighting Search Engine Spam: A Powerful Blocklist

2025-01-14
Fighting Search Engine Spam: A Powerful Blocklist

The GitHub project `BadWebsiteBlocklist` offers a powerful filter to block spam and misleading websites from appearing in search results. It aims to clean up search results by removing AI-generated low-quality articles, spam sites, and thinly-veiled advertisements posing as information. The filter is used via the uBlocklist extension; users simply add a subscription link to enable it. The project encourages users to submit spam websites and provides explanations for each blocked site, ensuring transparency and sustainability.

Read more
Development spam filtering

Marimo's Online Playground: Account-less WebAssembly Notebook Sharing

2025-01-14
Marimo's Online Playground: Account-less WebAssembly Notebook Sharing

Marimo has launched an online playground for creating and sharing Marimo notebooks for free, without needing an account. Notebooks can be easily shared via links and embedded in other web pages – as seen throughout Marimo's own documentation. Currently, only WebAssembly notebooks are supported, offering easy sharing and embedding, but with some limitations in package support and performance. New notebooks are created at marimo.new, saved locally in the browser or to the Community Cloud. GitHub notebooks can be directly opened, and data files can be included. Configuration options like read-only mode, hiding the header, and excluding code offer flexibility.

Read more

The Enduring Legacy of NeXT in OS X and iOS

2024-12-22
The Enduring Legacy of NeXT in OS X and iOS

This article explores the profound impact of NeXT and its NeXTSTEP operating system on Apple's OS X and iOS. NeXTSTEP's UNIX foundation brought crucial features like protected memory, preemptive multitasking, and daemons, enhancing stability and efficiency. It also introduced the Objective-C programming language and Cocoa framework, simplifying software development and giving rise to powerful tools like Interface Builder. Furthermore, NeXTSTEP's Display PostScript technology laid the groundwork for OS X's Quartz graphics system. These technologies remain core to Apple devices today, highlighting NeXT's significant contribution to modern computing.

Read more
Development

Legendary Director David Lynch Passes Away

2025-01-16
Legendary Director David Lynch Passes Away

Renowned film director David Lynch has passed away at the age of 77. His family released a statement expressing their deep sorrow and thanking fans for their years of support. Lynch was known for his unique surrealist style and profound exploration of the human condition. His films, including Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, and Blue Velvet, have profoundly impacted cinematic history. His passing is a significant loss to the world of cinema.

Read more

Monorepo Build Tools: Scaling Your Codebase

2024-12-20

Traditional build tools struggle with large codebases (100-10,000 active developers). Monorepo build tools like Bazel and Mill offer solutions by supporting multiple languages, custom build tasks, automatic caching and parallelization, remote caching and execution, drastically improving build speed and efficiency. They also feature dependency-based test selection and build task sandboxing, reducing testing time and non-determinism. While these features might seem unnecessary for small projects, they are crucial for large-scale collaboration and continuous integration in larger projects, preventing build times from becoming a bottleneck.

Read more
Development build tools scalability

Bank of North Dakota: A Century of Success, Boosting State's Economy

2024-12-18
Bank of North Dakota: A Century of Success, Boosting State's Economy

The Bank of North Dakota (BND) is the only state-owned and -operated general-service bank in the United States, established in 1919 to foster agriculture, commerce, and industry. It leverages state funds to provide loans and financial services for infrastructure projects, agriculture, and small businesses, and acts as a wholesale bank for local institutions. BND played a crucial role during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating its profitability and positive impact on the state's economy. Its unique model has made it a standout success story in the American financial system.

Read more

Heat Accelerates Auto Chip Aging, Raising Safety Concerns

2024-12-18
Heat Accelerates Auto Chip Aging, Raising Safety Concerns

New research shows that automotive chips are aging significantly faster than expected in hot climates, shortening the lifespan of electric vehicles and potentially creating new safety issues. In areas like Phoenix, Arizona, where high temperatures can persist for weeks, cabin temperatures can reach 93°C, severely impacting chip longevity. Studies reveal that for a chip designed for a 30-year lifespan, high temperatures reduce life expectancy by an additional 10% annually. Chipmakers are working to address this, requiring new materials, design redundancy, and active cooling solutions. Increased chip utilization due to autonomous driving exacerbates the problem. Proactive monitoring and predictive failure analysis will become crucial, impacting both vehicle reliability and safety.

Read more

Arcan 0.7 Released: The All-Tomato Desktop Update Arrives

2024-12-26
Arcan 0.7 Released: The All-Tomato Desktop Update Arrives

Arcan 0.7 marks the end of the second phase of the 'anarchy on the desktop' project and the beginning of the final phase. This release focuses on bug fixes and improvements to Lash#Cat9 and Xarcan. Lash#Cat9, a Lua-based command-line environment, adds features such as a Debug Adapter Protocol implementation and an interactive spreadsheet. Xarcan allows for custom window managers, utilizing Arcan as a display driver and enabling interoperability with X servers. Arcan 0.7 aims to improve performance and security, with future versions planned to feature more flexible remote programming and simpler device connection.

Read more
Development

Farebox: A Multimodal Routing Project in Rust

2024-12-14
Farebox: A Multimodal Routing Project in Rust

Farebox is a fast RAPTOR implementation in Rust designed for memory-constrained machines. It leverages Valhalla for transfers and first/last mile routing, supporting multi-agency and timezone-aware routing. The project aims to supplement OpenTripPlanner, providing infill service for areas not covered by existing instances. Memory mapping is used for timetables to enable planet-scale coverage with a single instance and reduce hosting costs. Future plans include GTFS-RT support and potentially rRAPTOR for simultaneous itinerary calculation across various departure times.

Read more
Development Routing

OpenAI's GPT-5 Project Hit by Delays and High Costs

2024-12-23
OpenAI's GPT-5 Project Hit by Delays and High Costs

OpenAI's highly anticipated GPT-5 project, codenamed 'Orion,' is significantly behind schedule and facing substantial cost overruns, according to the Wall Street Journal. Intended as a major leap forward for the technology powering ChatGPT, the project is encountering challenges, including concerns about insufficient data to reach its ambitious intelligence goals. Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, had expected the new model by mid-2024, but that timeline is now uncertain. The project, underway for over 18 months, faces an unclear future.

Read more
AI

Apple's AI: More Hype Than Substance?

2025-01-07
Apple's AI: More Hype Than Substance?

Apple's much-hyped AI features are facing significant criticism due to a string of embarrassing errors. From misrepresenting news headlines to producing nonsensical summaries in everyday applications, the AI's performance falls far short of expectations. This recalls Apple's previous Maps debacle, highlighting a potential flaw in the company's technology readiness assessment. While Apple claims to be working on improvements, the reliability of its AI remains questionable, potentially damaging its brand image and user trust.

Read more

DeepSeek R1 Obliterates OpenAI O1 in Finance: A Chinese AI Triumph

2025-01-21
DeepSeek R1 Obliterates OpenAI O1 in Finance: A Chinese AI Triumph

Recent head-to-head testing of DeepSeek R1 and OpenAI O1 in financial applications revealed a decisive victory for DeepSeek R1. The Chinese AI model significantly outperformed OpenAI's offering across key metrics, highlighting a major breakthrough in Chinese AI capabilities within the finance sector. This result has garnered significant attention, signaling China's growing dominance in the global AI landscape.

Read more

Mysterious Tablet with Unknown Script Unearthed in Georgia

2024-12-14
Mysterious Tablet with Unknown Script Unearthed in Georgia

A basalt tablet inscribed with an enigmatic language has been discovered near Lake Bashplemi in Georgia's Dmanisi region. The 24.1 x 20.1 cm tablet, featuring 60 characters (39 unique), has baffled researchers. Its symbols, possibly related to military spoils, construction, or religious offerings, bear partial resemblance to scripts from the Middle East, India, Egypt, and West Iberia, yet are distinct. Dating potentially to the Late Bronze or Early Iron Ages, the tablet adds a layer of complexity to the cultural history of the Caucasus, hinting at possible ancient cultural exchange between diverse regions.

Read more

Deep Dive into CPS: A Journey into Functional Programming Compilation

2024-12-25
Deep Dive into CPS: A Journey into Functional Programming Compilation

This article delves into Continuation-Passing Style (CPS) and its application in compiling functional programming languages. The author builds a CPS transformer step-by-step for a simple Scheme-like language, explaining optimization strategies and code generation methods. The article details the transformation of integers, variables, function calls, arithmetic operators, lambda expressions, and if expressions into CPS form. It also discusses meta-continuations and optimization techniques such as constant folding and beta reduction. Finally, it outlines several approaches to generating executable code from CPS, including generating C code, using trampolines, and employing a single large switch statement.

Read more

Bacteria Build Living Gels in Polymers: A New Twist on Biofilms

2025-01-26
Bacteria Build Living Gels in Polymers: A New Twist on Biofilms

Caltech and Princeton University scientists have discovered that bacteria growing in polymer solutions, like mucus, form long, intertwined cables—a kind of ‘living Jell-O.’ This is significant for understanding diseases like cystic fibrosis, where thickened lung mucus fosters dangerous bacterial infections. The discovery also has implications for studying biofilms (the slimy coatings on surfaces) and their industrial impacts. The researchers found that external pressure from the polymers forces the bacterial cells together. A theoretical model accurately predicts when these cable structures will form. The reason for cable formation remains a mystery: it may be a bacterial defense mechanism or conversely, a way for the body to expel the infection more easily. This unexpected finding opens up new avenues of research into bacterial growth and biofilm control.

Read more
1 2 527 528 529 531 533 534 535 563 564