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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

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

Open-Source Image Model FLUX.1-Krea [dev]: Breaking Free from the 'AI Look'

2025-08-01

Open-Source Image Model FLUX.1-Krea [dev]: Breaking Free from the 'AI Look'

We're releasing the open-source version of FLUX.1-Krea [dev], our first image model trained in collaboration with Black Forest Labs. This model prioritizes aesthetic control and image quality, seamlessly integrating with the existing FLUX.1-dev ecosystem. Unlike most image models, FLUX.1-Krea was developed with specific aesthetic preferences in mind, rather than solely focusing on technical benchmarks. This technical report details the model's development, including insights into pre-training and post-training, and future research directions. The key focus is on overcoming the common 'AI look' in generated images – blurry backgrounds, waxy skin textures, etc. – achieving high-quality results aligned with human aesthetic standards through curated datasets and reinforcement learning.

(www.krea.ai)

AI

Slimy Brain Barrier Holds Key to Combating Ageing

2025-03-02

Slimy Brain Barrier Holds Key to Combating Ageing

A study in mice reveals that a slimy barrier lining brain blood vessels, composed of mucins, deteriorates with age, potentially allowing harmful molecules into brain tissue and triggering inflammation. Restoring this barrier through gene therapy reduced brain inflammation and improved learning and memory in aged mice. This research highlights a potential therapeutic target for age-related diseases like Alzheimer's.

(www.nature.com)

Tech brain blood vessels mucins

VirtualBox VM Escape Vulnerability: Integer Overflow Leads to Host Compromise

2025-05-17

VirtualBox VM Escape Vulnerability: Integer Overflow Leads to Host Compromise

A high-severity integer overflow vulnerability in VirtualBox's vmsvga3dSurfaceMipBufferSize function allows attackers to manipulate a malloc call, allocating 0 bytes while VirtualBox tracks a larger buffer size. This leads to linear read/write primitives, escalating to arbitrary read/write access of host memory. A proof-of-concept demonstrates complete virtual machine escape. Exploitation involves triggering a buggy surface allocation, exploiting out-of-bounds read/write, arbitrary heap allocation, and finally gaining RIP control for arbitrary code execution. A patch is available; users should update immediately.

(github.com)

Tech VM escape

Optimizing Ruby's JSON: A Tale of Stack Allocation and Inlining

2025-01-02

This blog post, part four in a series on optimizing Ruby's JSON performance, details the author's journey in improving Ruby's JSON serialization speed. Through meticulous micro-benchmarking and profiling, the author explores stack allocation and inlining techniques. By shifting buffer allocation from the heap to the stack and strategically using inlining, significant performance gains are achieved. However, the article highlights the importance of balancing micro-benchmark improvements with real-world application performance, showcasing a case where optimization negatively impacted larger datasets.

(byroot.github.io)

Development

From Pickle Maker to King: The Untold Story of Khalid Sheldrake

2024-12-18

From Pickle Maker to King: The Untold Story of Khalid Sheldrake

Bertie Sheldrake, grandson of a London pickle manufacturer, converted to Islam, changing his name to Khalid. He became a prominent figure in the British Muslim community, founding journals and ultimately accepting the kingship of the short-lived Islamic Republic of East Turkestan in Xinjiang. This incredible journey, from ordinary London life to a faraway kingdom and back to obscurity, adds a fascinating chapter to the history of 20th-century British Islam.

(www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)

Misc British History Islam

OpenAI Bets on Trump's AI Plan to Settle Copyright Disputes

2025-03-14

OpenAI Bets on Trump's AI Plan to Settle Copyright Disputes

OpenAI is hoping that Donald Trump's AI Action Plan, due in July, will declare AI training as fair use, resolving copyright debates and granting AI companies unfettered access to training data. OpenAI argues this is crucial to winning the AI race against China. Courts are currently debating whether AI training constitutes fair use, with rights holders claiming AI models threaten their market position and diminish overall human creativity. OpenAI is involved in dozens of lawsuits, arguing AI transforms copyrighted works and that AI outputs are not substitutes for originals. OpenAI hopes Trump's plan will prevent rulings like one favoring rights holders, which deemed AI training not fair use because it threatened to replace a legal research firm. OpenAI suggests the US should prioritize the AI industry's 'freedom to learn' to avoid China gaining an advantage by accessing copyrighted data US companies cannot.

(arstechnica.com)

AI US-China AI Race

Windows 10 EOL: A Family's Hardware Upgrade Odyssey and a Linux Dev's Tale

2025-06-17

The author's experience upgrading multiple family computers due to Windows 10's end-of-life. The story details hardware choices, OS installations (including a Linux journey), and insights into file format design. It also covers Z80 game development for the ZX Spectrum, reflections on the Mass Effect series, and a glimpse into the author's new year's resolutions. A humorous and relatable tech upgrade saga.

(solhsa.com)

Hardware

Lumigo Copilot: Debugging Solved in Seconds, Not Hours

2025-02-16

Lumigo Copilot: Debugging Solved in Seconds, Not Hours

Developer Nadav received a Lumigo alert: a GitHub repository parsing failure. Using Lumigo Copilot, he received a full diagnosis in seconds: a GitHub API 404 error, indicating the repository was missing or the GitHub app was uninstalled. Copilot not only pinpointed the root cause but also provided the affected project ID, users, and event queue information, allowing Nadav to quickly resolve the issue, saving hours of log debugging.

(lumigo.io)

Development log analysis

Tracking Code Changes with Git Hooks: A Data-Driven Approach to Development

2025-03-29

This article presents a method for tracking code modification time using Git hooks to provide a more objective measure of development efficiency. By recording the time from branch creation to merge, excluding thinking time, it offers a clearer reflection of actual coding time. This approach helps teams identify and address inefficiencies in code maintenance, such as excessively long maintenance times for certain components, or efficiency gains from AI tools. The ultimate goal is to optimize the development process, reduce entropy, and boost team productivity through data-driven insights rather than subjective estimations.

(doocot.sh)

Development Git hooks

arXivLabs: Community Collaboration on arXiv Features

2025-06-20

arXivLabs is a new collaborative framework enabling developers to build and share new arXiv features directly on the arXiv website. Individuals and organizations involved share arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners who adhere to them. Have an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs!

(arxiv.org)

Development

Anime Catgirls and the Linux Kernel: A Cost Analysis of an Anti-Crawler Mechanism

2025-08-21

Recently, more websites are using Anubis, an anti-crawler system that uses a mining-like process to verify visitor identity, requiring users to perform SHA-256 operations to gain access. The author questions the effectiveness of Anubis because it's trivial for AI crawlers with powerful computing capabilities but inconvenient for ordinary users. Through calculations, the author finds that even with tens of thousands of websites deploying Anubis, the cost of cracking its verification mechanism is virtually zero. The author finally provides a simple C program to bypass Anubis's restrictions and points out a vulnerability in the Anubis system.

(lock.cmpxchg8b.com)

Tech

Proton Raises Over $1 Million to Support a Better Internet

2025-01-14

Proton Raises Over $1 Million to Support a Better Internet

Proton's annual charity fundraiser, a raffle for Lifetime Accounts, raised over $1 million, a record-breaking amount, to support organizations fighting for privacy, freedom of expression, and human rights worldwide. This brings the total raised over seven years to over $4 million. The funds will go to 10 organizations chosen by the Proton community, in addition to those supported in previous years. Beyond financial contributions, Proton provides free services in regions with privacy threats, supports open-source projects, and actively combats online censorship. This success highlights the power of community action towards building a better digital future.

(proton.me)

Tech Charity Online Privacy

Qwen2.5-1M: Open-Source LLMs with 1 Million Token Context Length

2025-01-26

Qwen2.5-1M: Open-Source LLMs with 1 Million Token Context Length

The Qwen team released Qwen2.5-1M, open-source large language models supporting up to one million tokens of context length, in 7B and 14B parameter versions. These models significantly outperform their 128K counterparts on long-context tasks, even surpassing GPT-4o-mini in some cases. An open-sourced inference framework based on vLLM, leveraging sparse attention for a 3x to 7x speed boost, is also provided for efficient deployment. Qwen2.5-1M's training employed a progressive approach, incorporating Dual Chunk Attention (DCA) and sparse attention techniques for effective long-context handling.

(qwenlm.github.io)

AI

Rapid Game Prototyping with LÖVE

2024-12-31

A programmer, aiming to complete a full game in 2025, built chess and card game prototypes using the LÖVE2D framework in Lua. LÖVE's simple yet powerful API allowed for complex UI interactions with minimal code, further accelerated by LLM-assisted code generation. The author found LÖVE ideal for prototyping, especially UI, but noted the need for improvements in hot reloading and logic separation for larger projects. The plan is to use LÖVE to develop a basic game MVP.

(healeycodes.com)

Game game prototyping

Python Launcher Gains Virtual Environment Support

2025-02-22

Python Launcher Gains Virtual Environment Support

The Windows installer for Python includes a launcher to locate the correct Python interpreter. However, it previously lacked virtual environment support. PEP 486 proposes making the launcher 'virtualenv aware'. This means that when no specific interpreter is given, the launcher will prioritize the currently active virtualenv, falling back to the default Python if none is active. This simplifies running Python commands within virtual environments, avoiding the need for different commands in different contexts.

(peps.python.org)

Development

ReelControl: Reclaim Your Video Playback Control

2025-04-02

ReelControl: Reclaim Your Video Playback Control

Tired of the annoying lack of native progress bars on Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels? ReelControl is here to help! This browser extension adds progress bars and playback controls to videos on these platforms, letting you easily see video length, rewind, fast-forward, and skip unwanted parts. The developer reports not only an improved viewing experience but also a significant reduction in time spent on these platforms. The project is open-source, and contributions are welcome!

(chromewebstore.google.com)

Development video playback control

Disney+ Loses Subscribers After Price Hike

2025-02-06

Disney+ Loses Subscribers After Price Hike

Disney's Q1 2025 earnings report revealed a loss of 700,000 Disney+ subscribers globally in recent months, attributed to price increases implemented in the fall. The ad-supported version rose from $7.99 to $9.99, while the ad-free tier jumped from $13.99 to $15.99. Simultaneously, Disney's crackdown on password sharing, introducing a paid sharing plan in select regions, likely contributed to the decline. Despite the loss, CEO Bob Iger stated the churn was less severe than anticipated. Conversely, Hulu gained 1.6 million subscribers, reaching 53.6 million. Disney's overall revenue saw a 4.8% increase, largely driven by the box office success of Moana 2, exceeding $1 billion in revenue.

(www.macrumors.com)

Tech subscriber loss

Anker Recalls 1 Million Power Banks: CT Scan Reveals Battery Defects

2025-07-22

Anker Recalls 1 Million Power Banks: CT Scan Reveals Battery Defects

Anker recalled over one million PowerCore 10000 power banks due to lithium-ion battery overheating risks. Lumafield used industrial CT scanning to analyze recalled and non-recalled units, revealing variations in battery cell suppliers, connection methods, and gap sizes between positive and negative terminals. These variations could lead to short circuits and overheating. The newer model uses a single pouch cell, simplifying assembly and improving safety. This case highlights the complexity of battery supply chains and the importance of quality control, showcasing industrial CT scanning's role in ensuring product safety and improving quality.

(www.lumafield.com)

Hardware product recall industrial CT scan

Memory Consistency Models: A Race Against Time in Multicore Systems

2025-05-20

This tutorial dives into the complexities of memory consistency models in computer science, a particularly challenging problem in multicore systems. It explains how multiple threads accessing shared memory can lead to inconsistencies and explores various approaches to ensuring consistency, including sequential consistency, cache coherence, and relaxed models like TSO. The article uses diagrams and examples to illustrate the challenges and highlights the importance of data race avoidance and synchronization primitives like barriers. The key takeaway? Rely on synchronization libraries to handle low-level complexities and avoid the pitfalls of inconsistent memory.

(jamesbornholt.com)

Development memory consistency multicore programming

Firefox Enforces Certificate Transparency, Boosting Web Security

2025-03-01

Firefox Enforces Certificate Transparency, Boosting Web Security

Firefox is mandating Certificate Transparency (CT) on desktop platforms, a significant advancement in web security. Starting with version 135, Firefox will reject certificates not meeting CT requirements, ensuring high transparency standards for all trusted certificates. This means website owners should verify their certificates are logged and publicly discoverable in CT logs. While most websites require no action, checking the Certificate Authority (CA) for CT support and monitoring certificates is crucial. Firefox's embrace of tile-based logs further strengthens the CT ecosystem, resulting in a safer browsing experience for users.

(blog.transparency.dev)

Tech certificate transparency

Can Iterative Prompting Make LLMs Write Better Code?

2025-01-03

Can Iterative Prompting Make LLMs Write Better Code?

This blog post details an experiment exploring whether repeatedly prompting a Large Language Model (LLM) to "write better code" improves code quality. Using Claude 3.5 Sonnet, the author starts with a simple Python coding problem and iteratively prompts the LLM. Performance improves dramatically, achieving a 100x speedup. However, simple iterative prompting leads to over-engineering. Precise prompt engineering yields far more efficient code. The experiment shows LLMs can assist code optimization, but human intervention and expertise remain crucial for quality and efficiency.

(minimaxir.com)

Development Code Optimization Prompt Engineering

Physically Based Rendering: A Milestone in Ray Tracing

2025-01-16

Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation is a seminal work in computer graphics, meticulously detailing the construction of modern photorealistic rendering systems through rigorous mathematical theory and executable code. Its impact extends beyond film and game production, influencing product design and architecture. The authors were even awarded an Academy Award for its contribution to filmmaking. The third and fourth editions are now freely available online, offering invaluable learning resources for developers.

(pbr-book.org)

Development ray tracing rendering

Annotated KAN: A Deep Dive into Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks

2025-05-22

Annotated KAN: A Deep Dive into Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks

This post provides a comprehensive explanation of the architecture and training process of Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KANs), an alternative to Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs). KANs parameterize activation functions by re-wiring the 'multiplication' in an MLP's weight matrix-vector multiplication into function application. The article details KAN's functionality, including a minimal KAN architecture, B-spline optimizations, regularization techniques, with code examples and visualization results. Applications of KANs, such as on the MNIST dataset, and future research directions like improving KAN efficiency are also explored.

(alexzhang13.github.io)

AI Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks

GATE: An Integrated Assessment Model of AI's Economic Impact

2025-03-30

GATE: An Integrated Assessment Model of AI's Economic Impact

Epoch AI presents GATE, an integrated assessment model exploring AI's economic impact. The model centers on an automation feedback loop: investment fuels computational power, leading to more capable AI systems automating tasks, boosting output, and further fueling AI development. An interactive playground lets users tweak parameters and observe model behavior under various scenarios. Predictions aren't Epoch AI's forecasts but conditional, based on assumptions, primarily useful for analyzing the qualitative dynamics of AI automation.

(epoch.ai)

AI

Can Large Neural Networks Solve Robotics? Insights from CoRL 2023

2025-07-05

At CoRL 2023, a central debate emerged: can training large neural networks on massive datasets solve robotics? Proponents argued that the success of large models in computer vision and NLP suggests this approach is promising, citing initial results from Google DeepMind's RT-X and RT-2 as examples. They believe the ongoing advancements in data and compute power fuel this direction. However, critics pointed out the current scarcity of robotics data, the immense variability across robot embodiments and environments, and the prohibitive cost of collecting large-scale datasets. Furthermore, even achieving high accuracy might not translate to the 99.X% reliability needed for practical deployment. Some suggested combining classical control methods with learning, while others called for entirely new approaches. Ultimately, CoRL 2023 highlighted the opportunities and challenges in robotics, offering valuable insights for future research.

(nishanthjkumar.com)

AI robotics learning large neural networks

EU Forces Apple to Open iOS: A Battle Over Interoperability and Innovation

2025-03-20

EU Forces Apple to Open iOS: A Battle Over Interoperability and Innovation

The EU, citing the Digital Markets Act (DMA), is forcing Apple to open nine iOS connectivity features to boost interoperability and break Apple's closed ecosystem. Apple counters that this is anti-innovative, harms user privacy and security, and restricts its innovation in Europe. Smaller companies support the EU's decision, arguing that Apple's actions stifle competition, leading to higher prices and reduced innovation. The core of this debate is how to balance the innovative drive of large tech companies with the need to foster market competition.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration

2025-06-16

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved share arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv only partners with those upholding these principles. Got an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

The Gordian Knot of Online Schema Changes and Foreign Keys in MySQL

2025-02-12

The Gordian Knot of Online Schema Changes and Foreign Keys in MySQL

This post dissects the inherent challenges of performing online schema changes in MySQL, particularly when dealing with tables linked by foreign key relationships. The author analyzes the limitations of existing tools like pt-online-schema-change and gh-ost, highlighting the complexities and risks involved in altering parent tables. Altering a parent table necessitates concurrent alterations of all child tables, creating a fragile process with minimal tolerance for errors. A single failure can lead to data inconsistencies or outages. The author concludes that online schema changes involving foreign key constraints on large tables are practically infeasible.

(code.openark.org)

Development Online Schema Change

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