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Generating Stunning Point Cloud Geometry with Signed Distance Functions

2025-03-29

Generating Stunning Point Cloud Geometry with Signed Distance Functions

This article introduces a creative coding technique for generating point cloud geometry using signed distance functions (SDFs). The author uses the example of particles colliding with spheres to explain how SDFs can efficiently detect collisions and extend to more complex shapes. The article provides Processing code examples, including classes like Point, Vector, Ray, and Tracer, and SDF implementations like SphereSDF and BoxSDF, demonstrating how to use SDFs for sphere tracing to generate beautiful point cloud images.

(winterbloed.be)

Development signed distance functions point cloud

NY's $15 Broadband Law Takes Effect After ISP Defeat

2025-01-13

NY's $15 Broadband Law Takes Effect After ISP Defeat

New York's Affordable Broadband Act, requiring ISPs to offer low-cost plans to low-income residents, is now in effect after a lengthy legal battle. Following a Supreme Court decision against industry challenges, the law mandates $15 or $20 monthly plans with varying speeds. The law aims to bridge the digital divide, particularly after a federal program expired, leaving millions without subsidized internet. Small ISPs may seek exemptions, while larger providers face penalties for non-compliance.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech broadband low-income

GitHub Project ted: A Turing Machine-based File Editor

2024-12-18

GitHub Project ted: A Turing Machine-based File Editor

ted is a command-line tool written in Go that allows users to edit files according to the rules of a provided Turing machine. Inspired by the author's need to process log files, ted uses state machines to precisely extract the desired information. It supports various operations, including regular expression matching, sed command execution, variable assignment, capture and output control, and offers features such as multi-line capture, regex capture groups, and file head/tail movement.

(github.com)

Development Turing Machine File Editing State Machine

FTC Delays Enforcement of Click-to-Cancel Rule

2025-05-12

FTC Delays Enforcement of Click-to-Cancel Rule

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has delayed enforcement of its “click-to-cancel” rule until July 14th, pushing back the original May 14th deadline. The rule, part of the Negative Option Rule, requires subscription cancellations to be as easy as sign-ups. The FTC cited a reassessment of the burden of immediate compliance as the reason for the delay. While enforcement will begin July 14th, the FTC remains open to amending the rule if problems arise during implementation.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech click-to-cancel

llm-d: Kubernetes-Native Distributed Inference at Scale

2025-05-21

llm-d: Kubernetes-Native Distributed Inference at Scale

llm-d is a Kubernetes-native distributed inference serving stack designed for efficient and cost-effective serving of large language models. It leverages cutting-edge distributed inference optimizations such as KV-cache aware routing and disaggregated serving, integrated with Kubernetes operational tooling in Inference Gateway (IGW). Built on open technologies like vLLM, Kubernetes, and Inference Gateway, llm-d features customizable scheduling, disaggregated serving and caching, and plans for hardware, workload, and traffic-aware autoscaling. Easily installable via a Helm chart, users can also experiment with individual components.

(github.com)

Development distributed inference

Admiral Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: Lessons in Industrial Policy

2025-03-24

Admiral Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: Lessons in Industrial Policy

This article recounts the story of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover and his creation of the US nuclear navy, offering valuable lessons for America's current efforts to rebuild its industrial strength. Through rigorous personnel selection, continuous technical training, and strict project management, Rickover built the world's first nuclear-powered submarine and the world's largest fleet of civilian nuclear reactors within a decade. His success wasn't solely reliant on legislation or funding, but rather on cultivating highly capable personnel, establishing a high-performance organizational culture, and navigating government bureaucracy strategically. Rickover's story highlights the critical importance of strong leadership and talent cultivation in industrial policy, crucial for America's strategic competition with China.

(www.chinatalk.media)

Tech industrial policy talent development

Apple Releases CA-1M Dataset and Cubify Transformer for Indoor 3D Object Detection

2025-04-02

Apple Releases CA-1M Dataset and Cubify Transformer for Indoor 3D Object Detection

Apple has released CA-1M, a large-scale dataset for indoor 3D object detection, along with the Cubify Transformer (CuTR) model. CA-1M features exhaustively annotated 3D bounding boxes and poses. Two CuTR model variants are provided: one using RGB-D images and another using only RGB images. The dataset supports real-time detection using the NeRF Capture app and includes comprehensive instructions and code examples. Researchers can leverage this dataset and model to advance research in indoor 3D object detection.

(github.com)

AI 3D Object Detection

Nix: Solving Reproducibility in Software Development

2025-05-26

The modern developer tooling ecosystem is vast and complex, leading to frustrating inconsistencies in how code builds and runs across different systems. Nix tackles this by using an immutable `/nix/store` and content-addressable storage, guaranteeing reproducible builds. While it has a steep learning curve requiring familiarity with functional programming, its benefits—eliminating dependency conflicts, simplifying environment management, ensuring reproducible builds, and enhancing security—outweigh the initial investment. Nix flakes streamline project management, and caching significantly speeds up builds. Although Nix isn't perfect and has challenges like a steep learning curve and debugging difficulties, its advantages in complex projects, cross-platform development, and security-sensitive contexts make it a worthwhile investment.

(maych.in)

Development Reproducibility

Turing's Secret Wartime Project: Unveiling the Portable Voice Encryption System 'Delilah'

2025-02-04

$Turing's Secret Wartime Project: Unveiling the Portable Voice Encryption System 'Delilah'$

After WWII's victory in Europe, Alan Turing's assistant, Donald Bayley, learned of a secret project: the 'Delilah' portable voice encryption system. Recently, a cache of Turing's wartime papers, the 'Bayley papers,' sold for nearly half a million US dollars, revealing Delilah's secrets. This compact, 39kg device used a stream of pseudorandom numbers to encrypt speech, its core being a Turing-designed key generator based on multivibrators—an incredibly innovative feat for the time. The papers reveal Turing's exceptional skills in electrical engineering, adding a new dimension to his legacy beyond mathematics and computer science. They highlight his prowess as a creative and resourceful engineer.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech Turing Voice Encryption

dLine: A Terminal-Based Calendar Tool for Efficient Schedule Management

2024-12-18

dLine: A Terminal-Based Calendar Tool for Efficient Schedule Management

dLine is a command-line tool that presents important data in a calendar format directly within your terminal. It monitors critical dates, simplifies event addition via APIs, and calculates timespans for various event types. Designed for developers, dLine streamlines event management and schedule navigation without leaving the terminal. It features dynamic and static views, an event calculator, and robust data management capabilities including adding, deleting, viewing, and cleaning events. dLine also supports custom color schemes, user translations, and integration with Google Calendar.

(github.com)

Development command-line tool calendar schedule management

Gixy: A Powerful Nginx Configuration Security Auditor

2025-02-16

Gixy: A Powerful Nginx Configuration Security Auditor

Gixy is a tool for analyzing Nginx configurations to prevent security misconfigurations and automate flaw detection. Supporting Python 3.6-3.13, it's primarily tested on GNU/Linux. Gixy detects various Nginx configuration issues, such as HTTP splitting vulnerabilities. Installation is flexible, supporting pip, yum, and Docker. Users can specify config paths, use piped input, and skip tests. Gixy is actively maintained and welcomes code contributions and documentation improvements.

(github.com)

Development Auditing

Website Requires JavaScript

2024-12-23

The website displays a message indicating that JavaScript needs to be enabled to run the application. This prompts users to check their browser settings and ensure that JavaScript is enabled to access and use the website's features properly.

(jobs.ashbyhq.com)

Misc

Ordinary Objects: No-Code Mixed Reality Prototyping

2025-01-27

Ordinary Objects: No-Code Mixed Reality Prototyping

Ordinary Objects is a no-code mixed reality prototyping platform enabling designers to rapidly create high-fidelity spatial app prototypes. It boasts powerful authoring features and a unique workflow for prototyping spatial user flows and interactions. Supporting import formats like WAV/MP3 audio, animated GLB 3D assets, and PNG/JPG images, it offers real-time feedback—no play mode needed. Ordinary Objects runs natively on major platforms and features real-time collaborative editing, streamlining teamwork.

(ordinary.space)

Development mixed reality prototyping spatial computing

Unprecedented Drop in Teen Drug Use Continues to Surprise Experts

2024-12-20

Unprecedented Drop in Teen Drug Use Continues to Surprise Experts

A new study reveals a continued and unexpected drop in teen drug use in 2024, reaching historic lows. The decline, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, has not reversed despite the lifting of restrictions. Rates of alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine use among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders have all plummeted. Researchers are now investigating the contributing factors to this unprecedented trend and planning interventions to maintain these low rates.

(arstechnica.com)

Health teen drug use pandemic impact

The Rise of ESM-Only: Is the JavaScript Ecosystem Ready?

2025-03-24

The Rise of ESM-Only: Is the JavaScript Ecosystem Ready?

This post explores the current state of ESM (ECMAScript Module) adoption in the JavaScript ecosystem and argues for a transition to ESM-only packages. The author revisits a previous post advocating for dual CJS/ESM formats and explains the shift towards ESM-only. The rise of modern build tools like Vite and frameworks like Nuxt and SvelteKit has made ESM the dominant module system. Node.js's support for `require()`ing ESM modules further removes interoperability hurdles. While dual CJS/ESM packages served as a transition mechanism, they introduce significant maintenance overhead and interop issues. The author recommends ESM-only for new projects and provides guidance for different project types (browser, CLI). A new tool, Node Modules Inspector, is introduced to help analyze ESM adoption in project dependencies.

(antfu.me)

Development JavaScript Modules

Colorado's Wolves: Ecological Restoration vs. Economic Conflict

2025-02-04

Colorado's Wolves: Ecological Restoration vs. Economic Conflict

Colorado's reintroduction of gray wolves for ecological restoration has created conflict with the state's traditional ranching industry. Ranchers face financial losses and stress from wolf attacks, including livestock deaths and decreased productivity. Urban residents, however, celebrate the wolves' return, citing ecological benefits and expressing willingness to pay for their existence. This uneven distribution of economic benefits exacerbates the urban-rural divide. Efforts are underway to bridge this gap, with initiatives providing financial aid, technical support, and dialogue to balance ecological preservation and economic development.

(thehustle.co)

Misc ecological restoration human-wildlife conflict economic disparity

Generating Function Graphs as Binary Trees

2025-02-01

This post describes an algorithm using Python and the NetworkX library to generate a binary tree. The algorithm is based on a function f(x) = [(x << 1) + 2, (x << 1) + 3], building a graph by iterating over a numerical domain and using the function's output to define connections between nodes. The post includes detailed code implementation and mathematical explanations, demonstrating how a mathematical function can be transformed into a graphical representation.

(ivanbelenky.com)

Development

SF Startup Seeking Full-Stack Data Engineer

2025-03-30

SF Startup Seeking Full-Stack Data Engineer

A San Francisco-based startup is hiring a full-stack engineer to join its agile engineering team. Responsibilities include creating and managing data collection scripts (from basic HTTP requests to browser and mobile app automation), building and maintaining automation/scheduling tools, creating data cleaning and normalization scripts (with opportunities to integrate ML/LLMs), designing data analytics dashboards and tools, and assisting with DevOps tasks. Candidates should be proficient in Python, SQL, and Unix, enjoy working on diverse projects concurrently, and be able to execute independently. Bonus skills include web crawling, Docker, Kubernetes, full-stack web development, mobile app development, and a statistics background. Benefits include lunch, unlimited PTO, 401k, platinum PPO health insurance, and a salary of $100K-$150K plus 0.25%-1% equity.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

Beyond print debugging: 7 superpowers of debuggers

2025-09-10

Beyond print debugging: 7 superpowers of debuggers

Tired of endless print statements for debugging? This article unveils seven hidden advantages of debuggers: inspecting the entire call stack, dynamically evaluating expressions (like a REPL), precisely catching exceptions, altering execution flow without code changes, standardizing project setup, simplifying collaboration, and providing a smoother onboarding experience for new contributors. Debuggers are not just code tracing tools; they're powerful weapons for boosting development efficiency and code quality, leading you from tedious print debugging to efficient development.

(mahesh-hegde.github.io)

Development

AI's Abstract Art Revolution: Algorithms Modeling Art History?

2025-02-16

AI's Abstract Art Revolution: Algorithms Modeling Art History?

Researchers at Rutgers University have developed CAN, a creative AI system that generates art distinct from its dataset (paintings from the 14th century onwards). Surprisingly, much of CAN's output is abstract. Researchers suggest this is because the algorithm understands art's historical trajectory; to create novelty, it must move beyond previous representational art towards abstraction. This raises the intriguing possibility that AI algorithms not only create images but also model the progression of art history, as if art's evolution from figuration to abstraction were a program running in the collective unconscious. While the question of whether AI can create art remains open, methods like Turing tests can help evaluate AI-generated art.

(www.christies.com)

AI AI Art Abstract Art Art History

OpenAI Whistleblower's Death: From Suicide to Active Investigation

2025-01-16

OpenAI Whistleblower's Death: From Suicide to Active Investigation

The death of Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, has taken a dramatic turn. Initially ruled a suicide, the San Francisco Police Department has reopened the case as an 'active and open investigation' following allegations from Balaji's family and inconsistencies in the initial autopsy. Balaji publicly criticized OpenAI's practices before his death, sparking speculation about foul play, even drawing comment from Elon Musk. This case highlights the risks faced by whistleblowers in the tech industry and raises crucial questions about ethics and accountability in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

(www.republicbiz.com)

Tech whistleblower death investigation

visionOS 26: Apple's AR Platform Takes Another Leap Forward

2025-06-12

visionOS 26: Apple's AR Platform Takes Another Leap Forward

visionOS 26 delivers substantial improvements to Apple's Vision Pro, enhancing user experience significantly. Key updates include vastly improved Spatial Personas, geographic persistence (saving app and window positions), and support for third-party widgets. New immersive environments (like a customizable Jupiter environment), an upgraded 3D photo algorithm, collaborative viewing capabilities, and support for ultra-wide-field-of-view video are also included. While features like hand controller support are still in development, visionOS 26 demonstrates Apple's continued commitment to the future of augmented reality, solidifying the Vision Pro's long-term potential.

(sixcolors.com)

Tech augmented reality

Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre: A Lightweight OS Committed to Freedom and Long-Term Support

2024-12-15

Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre is a community-driven operating system project aiming to provide a fully free, stable, secure, simple, and lightweight long-term support distribution. It leverages Arch Linux's package management and Debian's security patches, adhering to the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines. Supporting i686 and x86_64 architectures, Hyperbola plans to release a BSD-based system, HyperbolaBSD. Recent news includes continued support for 32-bit systems, discontinuation of Debian patchsets beyond version 12, and concerns expressed regarding the Free Software Foundation's statement on machine learning.

(www.hyperbola.info)

Development Operating System Free Software

Cord-Cutting in Canada Accelerates as Streaming Soars

2025-03-25

Cord-Cutting in Canada Accelerates as Streaming Soars

The Canadian streaming market is booming, with a significant decline in traditional TV subscriptions. Convergence Research reports that an estimated 46% of Canadian households canceled their cable, satellite, or telecom TV subscriptions in 2024, a 4% increase from 2023, and projected to reach 54% by 2027. Streaming subscription revenue surged 15% to $4.2 billion, while linear TV revenue dropped 5%. Canadians subscribe to an average of 2.6 streaming platforms per household, but the majority of revenue flows to US companies, prompting the CRTC's "Online Streaming Act" requiring foreign streamers to invest 5% of Canadian revenue in local content. This act has faced pushback from US streamers.

(mobilesyrup.com)

Tech cord-cutting

Revisited: JTAG 'Hacking' of the Original Xbox After 20 Years

2025-01-20

Revisited: JTAG 'Hacking' of the Original Xbox After 20 Years

This blog post details the author's successful attempt to 'hack' the original Xbox using its Intel Pentium III CPU's JTAG interface. The original Xbox's security relied on a 512-byte secret bootrom hidden within the NVIDIA MCPX Southbridge. While early researchers considered using the CPU's JTAG capabilities, it was deemed impractical due to the TRST# pin being grounded. The author designed a custom CPU interposer PCB to circumvent this, and using a vintage CodeTAP debugger, successfully dumped the secret bootrom via JTAG, proving a 20-year-old theory. This work is historically significant and provides valuable experience and resources for x86 JTAG research.

(blog.ret2.io)

Hardware Original Xbox

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

FlashMLA: A Blazing-Fast MLA Decoding Kernel for Hopper GPUs

2025-02-24

FlashMLA: A Blazing-Fast MLA Decoding Kernel for Hopper GPUs

FlashMLA is a highly efficient MLA decoding kernel optimized for Hopper GPUs, designed for variable-length sequence serving. Achieving up to 3000 GB/s in memory-bound configurations and 580 TFLOPS in computation-bound configurations on H800 SXM5 using CUDA 12.6, FlashMLA utilizes BF16 precision and a paged kvcache with a 64 block size. Inspired by FlashAttention 2&3 and the cutlass projects, FlashMLA offers significant performance improvements for large-scale sequence processing.

(github.com)

Development MLA decoding

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.

(www.geldata.com)

Development

Million-Dollar Prize for Open-Source AI Coding Competition

2024-12-16

Andy Konwinski launched the K Prize, a $1 million competition to advance open-source AI coding capabilities. The competition uses a revamped version of the SWE-bench benchmark, eliminating test set contamination for a more accurate assessment of AI models' real-world coding skills. Inspired by the Netflix Prize, Konwinski believes the competition will spur AI research and attract top talent globally.

(andykonwinski.com)

AI AI competition open-source

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.

(games.productartistry.com)

Design design psychology

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