TSMC Unveils Nanosheet Transistors: A New Era for Chips

2024-12-15
TSMC Unveils Nanosheet Transistors: A New Era for Chips

TSMC showcased its next-generation N2 (2-nanometer) process at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, marking its first foray into nanosheet transistors. Compared to its N3 process, N2 boasts up to a 15 percent speed increase, 30 percent better energy efficiency, and a 15 percent density boost. This new architecture offers greater flexibility, allowing for the creation of nanosheets with varying widths on the same chip, optimizing performance for different logic units, especially SRAM. Intel's research further validated the scalability of nanosheet architecture, demonstrating a high-performing 6-nanometer gate-length transistor, pointing the way towards continued advancement in chip technology and suggesting a potential extension of Moore's Law.

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Website Showcases Early Christian Writings

2024-12-25

A new website, "Early Christian Writings," offers a comprehensive collection of Christian texts predating the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. It features the New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostic texts, writings of the Church Fathers, and related non-Christian sources, all with translations and commentary. This resource provides invaluable insight into the history and development of early Christianity.

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Ants Outperform Humans in Teamwork Experiment

2024-12-25
Ants Outperform Humans in Teamwork Experiment

A Weizmann Institute experiment pitted ants against humans in a collaborative load-carrying challenge through a maze. Surprisingly, ant teams, even with limited communication, outperformed human teams. The researchers attribute this to ants' highly social nature and shared goals, while human teams struggled with individual differences and communication breakdowns, failing to fully realize the 'wisdom of the crowd'. This study sheds light on group decision-making and the benefits and drawbacks of cooperation, questioning the universal applicability of 'wisdom of the crowds' in human contexts.

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ISO 8583: The Secret Language of Credit Cards

2024-12-18
ISO 8583: The Secret Language of Credit Cards

Every time you tap your card or pay online, you're interacting with the ISO 8583 protocol. This 1987 standard defines the format of real-time transaction messages between banking networks. It includes core fields like message type indicators, bitmaps, and data elements, but networks vary in their extensions and serialization, leading to compatibility challenges. This article delves into the complexities of ISO 8583's structure, field encoding, nested message handling, and demonstrates building a robust ISO 8583 parser to handle network variations and error scenarios.

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Open-Source RAG Logger: RAG-logger Released

2024-12-23
Open-Source RAG Logger: RAG-logger Released

RAG-logger is an open-source logging tool designed specifically for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications. It offers a lightweight alternative to existing solutions, focusing on the specific logging needs of RAG pipelines. Key features include comprehensive logging of the entire RAG process, from query tracking and retrieval results (text and images) to LLM interaction recording and step-by-step performance monitoring. It utilizes a JSON-based log format, organizes logs daily, and handles automatic file management and metadata enrichment. A simple API allows for quick integration; for instance, `logger.log_query()` logs queries, `logger.log_retrieval()` logs retrieval steps, and `logger.log_llm()` logs LLM interactions.

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Zig: Safer and Faster Than Unsafe Rust?

2024-12-30
Zig: Safer and Faster Than Unsafe Rust?

This blog post compares Rust and Zig by implementing a garbage-collected bytecode interpreter. The author found unsafe Rust incredibly challenging, citing complex aliasing rules and undefined behavior as major obstacles. In contrast, Zig offered a more developer-friendly experience for memory-unsafe operations, including built-in memory leak detection and improved pointer ergonomics. The Zig implementation ultimately proved safer, faster, and easier to develop than its Rust counterpart.

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Development Memory Safety

Web Origami: A New Programming Language for Simplified Website Building

2024-12-13

Web Origami is a new programming language designed to simplify the creation of small- to medium-sized websites. Using a concise syntax that complements HTML and CSS, users can describe website structure using formulas similar to spreadsheets, transforming data and files into HTML and other website resources through simple programs. Even without JavaScript knowledge, features like full-text search and RSS feeds can be created. Origami provides a command-line interface, built-in functions, and an async-tree library, with support for JavaScript extensions. Its core concept is to abstract website building as data transformation, making site creation and deployment efficient, low-cost, and easy to understand.

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Talk to Me Human: A Breakthrough in AI Humanoid Conversation

2024-12-21
Talk to Me Human: A Breakthrough in AI Humanoid Conversation

"Talk to Me Human" isn't just science fiction; it's a real-world account of a significant leap in AI technology. It showcases remarkable progress in AI's ability to simulate natural, logical human conversations, even exhibiting hints of personality and emotion. This breakthrough opens exciting new possibilities for AI applications in customer service, education, and beyond, while also raising important questions about the future direction of AI development.

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Mystery Drone Sightings Continue to Plague US East Coast

2024-12-18
Mystery Drone Sightings Continue to Plague US East Coast

A wave of mysterious drone sightings is causing widespread concern and airspace closures along the US East Coast. These SUV-sized drones have been reported near military bases and airports in New Jersey and New York, disrupting air travel. While federal agencies are investigating, explanations remain elusive, with speculation ranging from political conspiracies to other unknown causes. The ongoing mystery fuels public anxiety and calls for swift resolution to prevent further disruptions and potential threats.

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RealtimeSanitizer for Rust: A New Open Source Library

2025-01-23

This post introduces `rtsan-standalone-rs`, a new open-source library bringing LLVM's RealtimeSanitizer (RTSan) to Rust. RTSan helps detect hard-to-find real-time violations in your code, such as memory allocations, crucial for applications like audio processing and self-driving cars. The author details the implementation, usage with macros like `nonblocking` and `blocking`, and how to integrate it into your Rust projects. This library offers immediate access to RTSan's capabilities in stable Rust, improving the safety and predictability of real-time applications before its official integration into LLVM20.

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Sigstore: Securing the Open Source Software Supply Chain

2025-01-21
Sigstore: Securing the Open Source Software Supply Chain

Sigstore is an open-source project aiming to secure software supply chains through digital signatures and transparent logging. It simplifies software verification, allowing developers to easily verify software integrity and origin, thus preventing malicious software and supply chain attacks. Sigstore's core strength lies in its ease of use and integration with existing tools, contributing to a more secure and reliable software ecosystem.

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Development supply chain security

Xiaomi's Draconian Bootloader Unlock Policy Sparks Debate

2025-01-03
Xiaomi's Draconian Bootloader Unlock Policy Sparks Debate

Xiaomi has drastically tightened its bootloader unlock policy, limiting users to unlocking only one device per year. While this change minimally impacts average consumers, it could significantly hinder custom ROM development. This move has sparked a debate about device ownership and user freedom, with speculation focusing on Xiaomi's motivations, including preventing users from bypassing built-in ads and tracking, or thwarting scalpers reselling phones with modified software. Users see this as restricting choice, while developers worry about reduced efficiency in custom ROM creation.

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Tech Custom ROM

cqd: A Colorful Python Utility for Inspecting Object Attributes

2024-12-22
cqd: A Colorful Python Utility for Inspecting Object Attributes

cqd is a lightweight Python utility that provides a colorful visualization of object attributes, simplifying object inspection during development and debugging. It color-codes attributes: dunder methods (blue), protected attributes (yellow), and public attributes/methods (green). For example, it's useful for easily viewing attributes of a Hugging Face tokenizer. Installation is easy via `pip install cqd`. Usage involves importing the `cqd` function and calling `cqd(your_object).

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Chronotrains Launches Interactive European Train Map

2024-12-28
Chronotrains Launches Interactive European Train Map

Chronotrains has launched an interactive map for planning train journeys across Europe. The map visualizes the area reachable within 8 hours from any European train station. Users can hover to see isochrones, search for stations, or click example cities. Powered by Deutsche Bahn data, the map also facilitates multi-city trip planning and links directly to major train ticket providers, offering a convenient, comfortable, and sustainable way to explore Europe by rail.

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LLM Benchmark: Pelican on a Bicycle

2024-12-16

Simon Willison created a unique LLM benchmark: generating an SVG image of a pelican riding a bicycle. This unusual prompt aimed to test the models' creative abilities without relying on pre-existing training data. He tested 16 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and Meta (Llama on Cerebras), revealing significant variations in the quality of generated SVGs. Some models produced surprisingly good results, while others struggled.

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Microsoft Unveils Phi-4: A Small Language Model Excelling in Complex Reasoning

2024-12-15
Microsoft Unveils Phi-4: A Small Language Model Excelling in Complex Reasoning

Microsoft has introduced Phi-4, a new 14-billion parameter small language model (SLM) that outperforms larger models in complex reasoning tasks, particularly in mathematics, surpassing even Gemini Pro 1.5 on math competition problems. This achievement is attributed to high-quality synthetic and organic datasets and post-training innovations. Currently available on Azure AI Foundry under an MSRLA, Phi-4 will launch on Hugging Face next week. Microsoft emphasizes its commitment to responsible AI development, integrating robust safety features into Phi-4's design and deployment.

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Triptych: Three Proposals to Make Hypertext Hyper Again

2025-01-06

Alexander Petros and Carson Gross propose Triptych, three small proposals designed to make HTML far more expressive in how it handles network requests. The proposals add PUT, PATCH, and DELETE support to HTML forms, enable buttons to make requests without forms, and allow for partial page replacement with the response. Triptych aims to bring the best of libraries like htmx to native HTML, enhancing its REST capabilities and simplifying the declaration of page behavior for HTTP requests. This results in cleaner code and easier implementation of both full-page navigation and partial page updates.

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Development Web Requests

AI-Powered Dev: My Codescribble Debugging Nightmare

2025-01-26
AI-Powered Dev: My Codescribble Debugging Nightmare

The author used LLMs to build Codescribble, a simple shared text editor. While the initial development was incredibly fast, almost entirely LLM-driven, deployment became a major headache. The generated code suffered from hardcoded values, inconsistent methods, and a broken automated deployment script. Ultimately, the author spent far more time debugging and fixing LLM-introduced errors than anticipated. This experience highlights the need for developers to maintain a solid grasp of underlying technologies and thoroughly review AI-generated code. Blindly trusting AI can lead to significant inefficiencies and even counter-productive outcomes.

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Development

Post-WWII Highways: Debunking Myths and Unveiling the Truth

2024-12-17
Post-WWII Highways: Debunking Myths and Unveiling the Truth

This article explores key events and misconceptions surrounding the development of highways after World War II. It clarifies that Germany's Autobahn was not initially designed for military purposes, but rather to stimulate the economy and enhance national prestige. While Allied forces utilized the Autobahn in the later stages of WWII, this wasn't its original intent. The article debunks the myth that the US Interstate system was designed with one mile in five being straight and level for emergency bomber landings, explaining its true purpose was civilian benefit and economic development, although it also served military needs, such as troop movement and industrial production. Finally, the article reviews post-WWII attempts and exercises by various militaries to utilize highways as emergency runways for aircraft, highlighting their limitations and ultimate replacement by dedicated airfields.

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Tech highways WWII

S2: Revolutionizing Stream Data Storage in the Cloud

2024-12-21

Bandar Systems introduces S2, a novel stream data storage service designed to revolutionize data processing in the cloud era. Unlike traditional object-based storage, S2 centers around streams, offering efficient, scalable, and cost-effective real-time data ingestion and processing. It supports high-throughput, low-latency read and write operations and provides multiple storage classes to meet varying performance and cost requirements. S2 aims to replace systems like Kafka and Kinesis, providing users with a more powerful and flexible stream data management solution.

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(s2.dev)

Trump Admin Dismantles Cybersecurity Board Investigating Major Chinese Hack

2025-01-23
Trump Admin Dismantles Cybersecurity Board Investigating Major Chinese Hack

The Trump administration dissolved the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity Safety Review Board (CSRB), which was investigating a significant cyberattack by the Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon on major US telecom firms. This move has sparked controversy, with Democrats accusing the administration of stacking the board with loyalists to hinder the investigation into Salt Typhoon. DHS countered that the board was pursuing agendas detrimental to national security. The hack reportedly compromised communications data of Trump, the Vice President, and other government officials.

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Super Snowflake Maker: A Winter Technological Wonder

2024-12-26
Super Snowflake Maker: A Winter Technological Wonder

The 'Super Snowflake Maker' is not just a toy; it's a technological marvel that uses physics to create intricately shaped ice crystals resembling snowflakes. A precise control system sprays water droplets into an ultra-low temperature environment, instantly freezing them into various snowflake forms. Its design blends scientific rigor with artistic creativity, offering a captivating spectacle. Science enthusiasts and art lovers alike will find unique enjoyment and inspiration.

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Tech Physics Art

The 1955 Le Mans Disaster: A Day of Speed and Death

2024-12-14
The 1955 Le Mans Disaster: A Day of Speed and Death

The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans ended in tragedy when a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, driven by Pierre Levegh, crashed into the spectators after colliding with a slower car. Mike Hawthorn's reckless pit maneuver triggered the chain of events, leading to over 80 deaths and numerous injuries. The disaster, a shocking display of the sport's inadequate safety standards, prompted sweeping changes in motorsport safety regulations and marked a turning point in the history of racing.

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PubPeer Review: TRF2-S Protein Regulates Axonal mRNA Transport

2025-01-16

A PubPeer post discusses a research article on TRF2-S, a novel RNA- and FMRP-binding protein crucial for regulating axonal mRNA transport and presynaptic plasticity. Published in Nature Communications, the study reveals how TRF2-S influences neuronal growth and function by impacting mRNA trafficking and local translation. This research sheds light on neural mechanisms and potentially offers new avenues for neurological disease treatment.

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GitHub Project Map: Visualizing 400,000+ Projects

2024-12-15
GitHub Project Map: Visualizing 400,000+ Projects

Developer Anvaka created an interactive map visualizing over 400,000 GitHub projects using publicly available data. The project uses Jaccard similarity to calculate relationships between projects and the Leiden algorithm for clustering. The result is a visually stunning representation of the GitHub ecosystem, allowing users to search and explore connections between projects, revealing its complexity and richness.

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Development project relationships

Colorado Farm Marries Solar Power and Agriculture for a Sustainable Future

2025-01-04
Colorado Farm Marries Solar Power and Agriculture for a Sustainable Future

A Colorado farmer has pioneered a sustainable model by integrating solar panels with his farm. His 3,276 panels power roughly 300 homes, while the land beneath them supports various crops and livestock, offering crucial shade during Colorado's hot summers. This 'agrivoltaics' approach not only boosts income but also protects soil and improves land use efficiency, offering a blueprint for climate change adaptation. However, challenges remain, including higher initial costs, increased land management demands, and a lack of policy support for agrivoltaics.

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Windows 7/Server 2008 R2: 30-Second Welcome Screen Delay with Solid Color Backgrounds

2025-01-28

Setting a solid color as your desktop background in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 can cause a 30-second delay displaying the Welcome screen during logon. Microsoft acknowledges this issue and provides an update to resolve it. The issue doesn't occur when using Remote Desktop Connection, or if the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service is stopped or disabled, or if an image file is used as the background. Workarounds include using an image with a solid color or adjusting the DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout registry entry.

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Development System Issue

Building the World's Best Product Engineering Org: Six Key Elements

2025-01-12

This article is a transcript of James Shore's keynote presentation at the Regional Scrum Gathering Tokyo conference, exploring how to build a world-class product engineering organization. He proposes six key elements: People, Internal Quality, Lovability, Visibility, Agility, and Profitability. The article details how to achieve these goals through improved hiring strategies, enhanced code quality, fast feedback loops, agile methodologies, and collaboration with other departments, emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement. Through case studies and practical experience, the author shares valuable insights, providing guidance for building efficient and excellent product engineering teams.

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Development product engineering

Revolutionary WM12 Energy Recovery Ventilator: Fresh Air Year-Round

2024-12-16
Revolutionary WM12 Energy Recovery Ventilator: Fresh Air Year-Round

The WM12 is an innovative decentralized energy recovery ventilator (ERV) designed for window installation. Combining two TW4 modules in a durable polypropylene foam casing, it efficiently exchanges indoor and outdoor air while recovering approximately 90% of heat energy. This ensures fresh air without significant heating or cooling costs. Boasting a quiet operation, extremely long lifespan (>50 years), and compatibility with smart home systems, the WM12 offers superior energy efficiency and environmental benefits. Currently in beta, interested users can contact the company via email for more information.

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