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Booting 5000 Erlang VMs on a 192-Core Ampere One Server

2025-08-10

Booting 5000 Erlang VMs on a 192-Core Ampere One Server

Underjord, a consultancy specializing in Elixir and Nerves, successfully ran 5000 Erlang virtual machines on a 192-core Ampere One server. Each VM runs a Linux IoT device using the Nerves framework. This was achieved using a new bootloader, little_loader, streamlining ARM64 QEMU VM booting and leveraging KVM acceleration. Challenges included compilation issues and memory optimization, but these were overcome by adjusting BEAM VM allocators, Erlang release modes, and Linux kernel parameters. Over 5000 VMs were successfully run, opening new possibilities for testing and development of the Nerves framework and potentially integrating into future Nerves tooling.

(underjord.io)

Development

OpenAI's Lobbying Surge: A Sevenfold Increase in Political Influence

2025-01-22

OpenAI's Lobbying Surge: A Sevenfold Increase in Political Influence

OpenAI's government lobbying spending soared to $1.76 million in 2024, a nearly sevenfold increase from the previous year. This marks OpenAI's significant entry into the political arena, aiming to shape AI policy. Their lobbying efforts focused on legislation related to AI research centers and benchmark testing. The company hired several seasoned lobbyists, including former staff of Senator Lindsey Graham. While still less than major tech competitors, OpenAI's increased influence is evident, as they push for favorable energy policies, national security contracts, and relaxed regulations.

(www.technologyreview.com)

Tech Lobbying AI Policy

ErisForge: A Dead Simple LLM Ablation Tool

2025-01-27

ErisForge: A Dead Simple LLM Ablation Tool

ErisForge is a Python library for modifying Large Language Models (LLMs) by transforming their internal layers. It allows for creating ablated and augmented versions of LLMs, resulting in altered responses to specific inputs. Features include controlled manipulation of model behavior, measurement of refusal expressions, and support for custom transformation directions. Easy to use with comprehensive examples and documentation.

(github.com)

Development Model Modification Python Library

Alibaba Unveils Qwen2.5-Max: A Massive MoE Language Model

2025-01-28

Alibaba Unveils Qwen2.5-Max: A Massive MoE Language Model

Alibaba has released Qwen2.5-Max, a large-scale Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model pre-trained on over 20 trillion tokens and further refined with supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning from human feedback. Benchmarks like MMLU-Pro, LiveCodeBench, LiveBench, and Arena-Hard show Qwen2.5-Max outperforming models such as DeepSeek V3. The model is accessible via Qwen Chat and an Alibaba Cloud API. This release represents a significant advancement in scaling large language models and paves the way for future improvements in model intelligence.

(qwenlm.github.io)

AI MoE Model Alibaba

Span<T> Beats memcmp: Massive Performance Gains in .NET Byte Array Comparisons

2025-03-30

Span<T> Beats memcmp: Massive Performance Gains in .NET Byte Array Comparisons

This post benchmarks various byte array comparison methods in .NET, including `memcmp`, looping, `Enumerable.SequenceEqual`, and `Span.SequenceEqual`. Results show `Span.SequenceEqual` offers the best performance in .NET 8 and later, significantly outperforming `memcmp` and traditional looping, even on .NET Framework. For small arrays, looping is fastest, but `Span.SequenceEqual`'s advantage grows dramatically with array size. The author recommends using `IEnumerable.SequenceEqual` in .NET 8+ and `Span.SequenceEqual` in .NET Framework, avoiding `memcmp` and custom implementations.

(richardcocks.github.io)

Development byte array comparison

Evolution of the Micro Journal: A Distraction-Free Writing Device

2025-02-24

Evolution of the Micro Journal: A Distraction-Free Writing Device

Un Kyu Lee's Micro Journal is a fascinating evolution of distraction-free writing devices. Starting with a Raspberry Pi and a mechanical keyboard, the project iterated through several versions, each addressing different needs and design challenges. From the foldable Rev.2.ReVamp to the Cherry MX hot-swappable Rev.6, each Micro Journal iteration improves on portability, customization, and the overall writing experience. Rev.7 offers a traditional keyboard layout, while Rev.5 allows connection to a wide range of mechanical keyboards. The story showcases the maker spirit and a relentless pursuit of the perfect writing experience, attracting significant media attention along the way.

(github.com)

Hardware mechanical keyboard writing device

FlakeUI: A Novel Fractal-Based Graph User Interface

2025-03-03

FlakeUI: A Novel Fractal-Based Graph User Interface

FlakeUI revolutionizes content navigation with its fractal-structure inspired, parent-child orbiting, and zooming-elements based graph user interface. Imagine exploring your web content not as a simple list, but as a dynamic, explorable fractal universe. Users navigate this visually stunning interface using five intuitive gestures: drag to pan, rotate, zoom in, zoom out, and scroll to switch modes. Built with Javascript, FlakeUI is perfect for frequently visited websites such as curated link collections or searchable hierarchical catalogs. Content is managed via XHTML pages and XML configuration, supporting hyperlink navigation within nodes. Experience content browsing like never before!

(github.com)

Development Graph User Interface Fractal Structure

Technical Debt vs. Technical Assets: A Wise Investment Strategy

2024-12-21

Technical Debt vs. Technical Assets: A Wise Investment Strategy

This article explores the difference between technical debt and technical assets. Technical debt, similar to financial debt, represents code issues that must be addressed, such as bugs and poor code readability, hindering development efficiency. Technical assets, on the other hand, are proactive investments in known problems, like building high-quality SDKs, reducing future maintenance costs and increasing development freedom. The article advises prioritizing the repayment of technical debt before investing in technical assets, leveraging proven processes and technologies to avoid accumulating technical debt and ultimately achieving higher development efficiency and product quality.

(liblab.com)

Development technical debt technical assets

Serbian Gov't Used Zero-Day Exploit to Spy on Dissenting Student

2025-03-01

Serbian Gov't Used Zero-Day Exploit to Spy on Dissenting Student

Amnesty International revealed that the Serbian government used a zero-day exploit, sold by Cellebrite, to compromise the phone of a student critical of the government. The exploit bypassed the lockscreen of a fully patched Android device, leveraging vulnerabilities in Linux kernel USB drivers. This incident shows that despite Cellebrite suspending sales to “relevant customers” in Serbia, the government continues its surveillance campaign against civil society, highlighting its repression of dissent.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech government surveillance

Designing Lenses with PyTorch: A Differentiable Optics Library

2025-03-21

Torch Lens Maker is an open-source Python library for differentiable geometric optics built on PyTorch. Its ambitious goal is to design complex real-world optical systems (lenses, mirrors) using modern computing and cutting-edge numerical optimization. The core is differentiable geometric optics: 3D collision detection and optical laws implemented in PyTorch. By cleverly treating optical elements as layers in a neural network, and leveraging PyTorch's auto-differentiation and optimization algorithms, designing lenses becomes surprisingly similar to training a neural network, unlocking the power of modern machine learning tools. The project is early-stage and the author is seeking funding to continue development.

(victorpoughon.github.io)

Development optical design

PixiEditor 2.0: A Universal 2D Editor, Free and Open Source

2025-08-03

PixiEditor 2.0: A Universal 2D Editor, Free and Open Source

PixiEditor 2.0 transcends its pixel-art roots, evolving into a powerful universal 2D editor supporting raster, vector, animation, and procedural effects. Its core is a configurable render pipeline and node graph, giving unprecedented control and enabling the creation of even 3D texturing workspaces. The software remains free and open-source, sustained by paid extensions and asset packs. Version 2.0 introduces frame-by-frame animation, vector editing tools, and various workspaces like a card builder and 3D cube texturing tool, along with multiple palettes. While hardware requirements are slightly higher, the developers are committed to improving support for a wider range of configurations.

(pixieditor.net)

Development 2D Editor

Google's Gemma: A Lightweight Multimodal Model Family

2025-03-12

Google's Gemma: A Lightweight Multimodal Model Family

Google unveiled Gemma, a lightweight family of multimodal models built on Gemini technology. Gemma 3 models process text and images, boast a 128K context window, and support over 140 languages. Available in 1B, 4B, 12B, and 27B parameter sizes, they excel at question answering, summarization, and reasoning, while their compact design enables deployment on resource-constrained devices. Benchmark results demonstrate strong performance across various tasks, particularly in multilingual and multimodal capabilities.

(ollama.com)

AI Lightweight Model

Hacking OpenAI Transcription: Speed Up Your Audio, Slash Your Costs

2025-06-25

Hacking OpenAI Transcription: Speed Up Your Audio, Slash Your Costs

Want cheaper, faster OpenAI transcriptions? Speed up your audio! This surprisingly effective hack involves using ffmpeg to double or triple the speed of your audio before transcription. The author shares a script combining yt-dlp, ffmpeg, and an LLM, showcasing how speeding up a 40-minute talk significantly reduced both processing time and cost, with minimal impact on transcription accuracy. While exploring alternatives to YouTube's auto-captioning, this unexpected discovery revealed cost savings of up to 67%, making it a worthwhile optimization for anyone working with long-form audio transcriptions.

(george.mand.is)

Development Transcription

Decoding METAR, TAF, and Pilot Reports: A Comprehensive Guide

2025-01-07

This article provides a comprehensive guide to decoding METAR (Aviation Routine Weather Report), TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast), and pilot reports. METARs, issued hourly, provide real-time airfield weather conditions; SPECI reports are issued for significant changes. TAFs are issued every few hours and updated as needed. The article meticulously explains the codes and abbreviations within these reports, covering wind, visibility, weather phenomena, cloud cover, temperature, and altimeter settings, with examples and interpretations. Mastering these decoding skills is crucial for pilots to understand their flight environment and ensure safety.

(met.nps.edu)

Tech Aviation Meteorology

AIs Develop Secret Language to Boost Efficiency, Raising Privacy Concerns

2025-02-28

AIs Develop Secret Language to Boost Efficiency, Raising Privacy Concerns

A viral video showcases two AI agents conversing before switching to a non-human-intelligible 'Gibberlink' mode upon recognizing each other. Using the GGWave protocol, they communicate via beeps, far more efficiently than speech, saving compute resources and energy. The developers argue this is crucial as AI-to-AI calls become prevalent. However, this technology sparks concern: AI communicating in an uninterpretable language raises potential privacy and security risks.

(www.iflscience.com)

AI AI Communication

Legacy Code Adventures: A COBOL Odyssey

2025-05-22

Maintaining 200k lines of COBOL code unearthed a treasure trove of ingenious hacks and historical quirks. The author discovered base-10 numerics, clever string parsing using data definitions, and a 'REDEFINES' statement used for internationalization (even with Spanish redefinitions!). Early exits were implemented for abrupt job termination, and a file mysteriously contained the first 800 natural numbers as string constants. The story concludes with the revelation that the UNIX 'dd' command originates from COBOL's 'DD' statement for data definition, showcasing the unexpected legacy of mainframe programming.

(oppi.li)

Development legacy code

Massive Magma Chamber Discovered Beneath Kolumbo Submarine Volcano

2025-02-15

Massive Magma Chamber Discovered Beneath Kolumbo Submarine Volcano

A new study using full-waveform inversion seismic imaging has revealed a large, previously undetected mobile magma chamber beneath Kolumbo, an active submarine volcano near Santorini, Greece. The chamber, growing at an estimated 4 million cubic meters per year since Kolumbo's last eruption in 1650 CE, now holds 1.4 cubic kilometers of melt. Researchers warn that continued growth could lead to another eruption within the next 150 years, potentially causing a catastrophic event similar to the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption. This discovery highlights the urgent need for real-time monitoring systems at submarine volcanoes to improve eruption forecasting and protect nearby populations.

(news.agu.org)

Tech submarine volcano magma chamber seismic imaging

Beyond Two-Week Sprints: Exploring ShapeUp, Plan>Build>Ship, and GSD

2025-02-16

Beyond Two-Week Sprints: Exploring ShapeUp, Plan>Build>Ship, and GSD

Tired of the traditional two-week Scrum sprint? This article explores three alternatives: ShapeUp, Plan>Build>Ship, and GSD. ShapeUp emphasizes a six-week development cycle, starting with a thorough 'Shaping' phase, followed by a 'Betting table' decision-making process, and finally the 'Building' phase, avoiding the rush of short sprint cycles. Plan>Build>Ship is a simplified waterfall model where each feature is handled by a dedicated team from planning to delivery. GSD (Get Shit Done), popularized by Shopify, emphasizes efficient execution, using the internal tool Vault to track project progress, focusing on projects rather than tasks, and promoting team collaboration. These three methods each have unique characteristics, offering product teams more choices and helping them find the development process best suited to their circumstances.

(www.departmentofproduct.com)

Development product development

F-35B Ejection: A Pilot's Choice and the Betrayal That Followed

2025-03-31

F-35B Ejection: A Pilot's Choice and the Betrayal That Followed

Marine Colonel Charles "Tre" Del Pizzo was forced to eject from his malfunctioning F-35B fighter jet after multiple systems failed during a training sortie. Despite investigations concluding that the systems failures were primarily responsible and Del Pizzo acted appropriately, he was later relieved of his command, sparking debate about pilot safety, system reliability, and whether the military over-punishes pilots. This article delves into the incident and its aftermath.

(www.postandcourier.com)

Tech pilot safety military investigation

Australia's Treasury Copilot Trial: ROI Positive, But Employee Confidence Lags

2025-02-13

Australia's Treasury Copilot Trial: ROI Positive, But Employee Confidence Lags

A 14-week trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot by Australia's Department of the Treasury showed a positive return on investment (ROI), but employee confidence in its workplace effectiveness fell short. The trial revealed Copilot's actual applicability was lower than anticipated, with most participants using it less than three times a week. While Copilot excelled at basic administrative tasks like summarizing information and generating meeting minutes, it struggled with more complex tasks. The Treasury concluded that more careful staff selection, comprehensive training, and ongoing monitoring of AI's impact are crucial. The findings also hinted that AI-as-a-service might not be suitable for organizations handling sensitive data like the Treasury, suggesting on-premises AI infrastructure may be preferable.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Autodesk Deletes Decade-Old Forum Posts: A Developer Revolt

2025-01-02

Autodesk's announcement to archive (effectively delete) forum content older than 10 years has sparked outrage within its developer community. Valuable code samples, solutions, and years of shared expertise are set to vanish, leaving developers reliant on this resource facing significant losses. While Autodesk cites improved search and user experience as reasons, developers decry the move as 'monumentally stupid,' accusing the company of destroying community knowledge and damaging long-term relationships. Many are migrating to alternative platforms like TheSwamp and GitHub.

(forums.autodesk.com)

Development developer community content deletion

Building a Better Future with 'Plausible Fiction'

2025-01-24

This article proposes a novel approach called 'plausible fiction' to tackle real-world problems by constructing believable narratives that bridge the gap between our present and a desired future. The author argues that collective participation in filling the gaps within these narratives can transform fiction into reality. This process resembles a form of collective prediction and creation, potentially leveraging mathematical tools like applied category theory. The article uses a hypothetical platform, FutureForge, to illustrate how gamification and incentive mechanisms can encourage broader participation, ultimately leading to a better future.

(topos.institute)

AI future prediction applied category theory collaborative creation

Byzantine-Sasanian War (602-628 CE): The Last Great War of Antiquity

2025-01-20

Byzantine-Sasanian War (602-628 CE): The Last Great War of Antiquity

The Byzantine-Sasanian War of 602-628 CE was a protracted conflict that nearly destroyed both empires. Triggered by Sasanian King Khosrow II's revenge for the murder of his ally, the Byzantine Emperor Maurice, the war saw years of brutal fighting between evenly matched powers. Emperor Heraclius' military genius and shrewd diplomacy ultimately secured a Byzantine victory, but both empires emerged exhausted and vulnerable to the rising power of the Rashidun Caliphate. This war dramatically reshaped the Middle East and left a lasting impact on religious and cultural landscapes.

(www.thecollector.com)

Tech Byzantine Empire Sasanian Empire Ancient Warfare

Negative Carbon Emission Acetylene Production: A Breakthrough Based on Barium Looping

2025-07-22

Traditional acetylene production relies on the energy-intensive calcium carbide method, producing significant carbon dioxide and waste slag. This study proposes a novel green acetylene production process based on barium looping, using barium carbide instead of calcium carbide as an intermediate. The research finds that barium carbide formation exhibits faster kinetics, lower formation temperature, and no carbon dioxide release. Lab-scale barium recovery experiments validate the feasibility of this process, achieving negative carbon emissions. This environmentally friendly process is easily scalable and promises to be a key chemical platform for sustainable development, offering new insights into carbon-to-chemicals conversion.

(pubs.rsc.org)

Tech acetylene production negative carbon emission

Skies-ADSB v2.0: Real-time 3D Air Traffic in Your Browser

2025-02-12

Skies-ADSB v2.0: Real-time 3D Air Traffic in Your Browser

Skies-ADSB transforms your browser into a real-time 3D air traffic display. Leveraging ADS-B data from an RTL-SDR receiver, it allows exploration of local air traffic, surrounding airspace, and geography with customizable 3D maps. Built with JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, Python 3, and WebGL (Three.js), it runs on major modern browsers. Version 2.0 includes breaking changes from 1.x, requiring a fresh install. Users can report bugs, request features, and suggest improvements via the issue tracker. The project thanks Andre Thais CFI and Frank E. Hernandez for their contributions and utilizes public domain map data from Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap.

(github.com)

Development Air Traffic 3D Visualization Real-time Data

PPP Loan Map: Visualizing the Flow of COVID Relief Funds

2025-02-07

Ever wondered where the massive PPP loan money went? Now you can explore it interactively! This map visualizes public data on Paycheck Protection Program loans, letting you search by ZIP code, business type, or age. See the big picture of loan distribution across the US, explore your local area to see which businesses received funding, all without wading through spreadsheets. Simply click, zoom, and discover the stories the data tells.

(ppploanmap.com)

Misc PPP loans COVID relief

C's Overlooked Improvements: Compile-Time Function Execution and Module Importing

2025-01-12

This article highlights long-standing shortcomings in C, such as the inability to execute functions at compile time, redundant declarations, and cumbersome header file management. The author, leveraging ImportC (a C compiler embedded within the D language compiler), demonstrates solutions to these issues. These include enabling compile-time function execution for unit testing, allowing arbitrary ordering of global declarations, and the ability to directly import C source files. These improvements significantly enhance development efficiency and code maintainability, showcasing the potential of modern compiler technology to address historical C language limitations.

(www.digitalmars.com)

Development

Optimized FP32 Matrix Multiplication on AMD RDNA3 GPU: Outperforming rocBLAS by 60%

2025-03-28

Optimized FP32 Matrix Multiplication on AMD RDNA3 GPU: Outperforming rocBLAS by 60%

This post details the optimization journey of creating an FP32 matrix multiplication kernel for AMD RDNA3 GPUs that surpasses rocBLAS by 60%. The author iteratively refines eight kernels, starting with a naive implementation and progressing to ISA-level optimizations. Techniques include LDS tiling, register tiling, global memory double buffering, LDS utilization optimization, and ultimately ISA-level VALU optimization and loop unrolling. The final kernel outperforms rocBLAS, achieving nearly 50 TFLOPS.

(seb-v.github.io)

Development matrix multiplication

PuzzleZilla: Online Jigsaw Puzzle Maker Launches

2024-12-15

PuzzleZilla is a new online platform allowing users to create custom jigsaw puzzles from any image uploaded from their device or the internet. The site offers a wide variety of pre-categorized puzzles, including cars, babies, cities, animals, flowers, nature, girls, landscapes, dinosaurs, castles, movies, anime, cats, dogs, paintings, food, and fantasy themes. Users can easily create and play their puzzles online.

(puzzlezilla.com)

Game online jigsaw puzzle image upload custom puzzle

Rendering the Impossible: Introducing Meschers

2025-09-06

Representing impossible objects – geometric constructions perceivable but not physically realizable – has been a challenge in computer graphics. Existing methods, like cutting or bending, disrupt geometry, hindering downstream processing. This paper introduces Meschers, a novel mesh representation based on discrete exterior calculus. Instead of 3D vertex positions, Meschers store 2D screen-space positions and per-edge depth differences, allowing representation of Escher-like impossibilities. This enables standard geometry processing operations like smoothing, heat diffusion, and geodesic distance queries, as well as inverse rendering, deforming possible shapes into impossible ones. Meschers offer new avenues for understanding human visual perception and expanding computer graphics capabilities.

(anadodik.github.io)

Development impossible objects geometry processing

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