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LeCun: LLMs Will Be Obsolete in Five Years

2025-04-05

LeCun: LLMs Will Be Obsolete in Five Years

Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist, predicts that large language models (LLMs) will be largely obsolete within five years. He argues that current LLMs lack understanding of the physical world, operating as specialized tools in a simple, discrete space (language). LeCun and his team are developing an alternative approach called JEPA, which aims to create representations of the physical world from visual input, enabling true reasoning and planning capabilities surpassing LLMs. He envisions AI transforming society by augmenting human intelligence, not replacing it, and refutes claims of AI posing an existential risk.

(www.newsweek.com)

AI

SpacetimeDB: Multiplayer at the Speed of Light

2025-04-05

SpacetimeDB: Multiplayer at the Speed of Light

SpacetimeDB revolutionizes game development by merging database and server functionality. Developers upload application logic directly into the database as modules, eliminating the overhead of traditional client-server architectures. Clients connect directly to the database, executing logic within it for unparalleled speed and low latency. BitCraft Online's backend is built entirely on SpacetimeDB, processing and synchronizing all game data in real-time. SpacetimeDB uses in-memory storage and a write-ahead log for persistence, optimized for real-time applications. Installation is straightforward, and modules can be written in various programming languages.

(github.com)

Development

Woolly Mammoth Revival: Ecological Claims Questioned

2025-04-05

Woolly Mammoth Revival: Ecological Claims Questioned

Colossal's ambitious plan to resurrect woolly mammoths rests on claims of their positive ecological impact, particularly on carbon sequestration. However, existing research on the effects of large herbivores on carbon sequestration is mixed: African forest elephants may enhance it, while savanna elephants reduce it. While one study suggests increasing large herbivore populations lowers permafrost temperatures, the feasibility and cost-effectiveness are questionable. Furthermore, warmer winters due to climate change could mean mammoth trampling accelerates soil warming. Ecosystems are complex and unpredictable, making it challenging to assess extinct species' impact on modern ecosystems. Colossal's narrative leverages this uncertainty, but this doesn't make their claims more likely to be true.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

OpenAI Wins Partial Victory in Copyright Lawsuit Against NYT

2025-04-05

OpenAI Wins Partial Victory in Copyright Lawsuit Against NYT

The New York Times sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, alleging ChatGPT's unauthorized use of its content. A judge dismissed some claims, including those of 'free-riding' and removal of copyright management information, but upheld others, finding that OpenAI had at least reason to investigate and uncover end-user infringement. OpenAI argued its AI training is fair use and highlighted ChatGPT's benefits. The ruling is likely disappointing for news publishers, but a partial win for OpenAI.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech fair use

Incremental Compiler Course: From Tiger to x86-64 Assembly in OCaml

2025-04-05

This is a highly practical compiler course aiming to build a compiler that translates the high-level Tiger language into x86-64 machine code. The course uses OCaml and emphasizes test-driven development, version control, and code reuse. It employs an iterative, incremental development approach, gradually extending language and compiler features, leveraging the tagless-final style for enhanced extensibility. The course covers standard compiler topics like parsing, type checking, optimization, and assembly generation, but in a non-traditional way.

(okmij.org)

Development incremental development

Kubernetes Deployment Strategies for Small Businesses on Hetzner Cloud: k3s Takes the Lead

2025-04-05

Kubernetes Deployment Strategies for Small Businesses on Hetzner Cloud: k3s Takes the Lead

This article compares four Kubernetes deployment options on Hetzner Cloud: k3s, MicroK8s, Minikube, and Docker Swarm. For resource-constrained small businesses, k3s stands out due to its lightweight nature (40MB binary, 512MB RAM baseline), high availability support (embedded etcd), and easy deployment (single command installation). Performance benchmarks show k3s clusters achieve production-grade performance and stability on Hetzner, outperforming other options in cost and scalability. While Docker Swarm offers simplicity, it lacks the features and scalability of k3s. For deployments exceeding 100 nodes, a hybrid approach combining k3s worker pools with Hetzner's managed Kubernetes service is recommended.

(htdocs.dev)

Development Hetzner Cloud

Swift's WebAssembly Journey: Performance, Security, and the Future

2025-04-05

Swift's WebAssembly Journey: Performance, Security, and the Future

The Swift community has steadily improved WebAssembly support over the years, and this article outlines a vision and roadmap for its future. WebAssembly, with its portability, security, and high performance, is ideal for cross-platform applications. Swift's integration with WebAssembly expands its reach and enhances security, particularly in developer tools. Virtualizing Swift macros and SwiftPM plugins using WebAssembly offers stronger security and faster build times. Future goals include increased API coverage in core libraries, improved cross-compilation support, enhanced component model support, and a better debugging experience. The article also delves into platform-specific considerations like debugging, multi-threading, 64-bit address space, and shared libraries, showcasing the potential for Swift's flourishing within the WebAssembly ecosystem.

(forums.swift.org)

Development Cross-platform Development

Emulating iOS on QEMU: A Challenging Journey

2025-04-05

Emulating iOS on QEMU: A Challenging Journey

This article details a team's journey in emulating iOS on QEMU. Starting with existing open-source projects, they leveraged checkra1n and PongoOS to bypass iOS security mechanisms. They overcame numerous challenges including software rendering, IOMFB display issues, address randomization, and Pointer Authentication (PAC). The team developed tools to generate and apply Mach-O patches and injected shellcode to simulate USB pairing. Ultimately, they successfully displayed the iOS boot screen and unlock interface on QEMU, showcasing a remarkable achievement.

(eshard.com)

Development iOS emulator

Tennessee's Jumping Spiders: More Adorable Than You Think

2025-04-05

Tennessee is home to a surprisingly diverse array of jumping spiders (Salticidae), small, diurnal creatures with exceptional eyesight, even color vision, used in courtship. They don't build webs, instead using silk for shelters and draglines to stabilize jumps for hunting and escape. Their venom poses minimal threat to humans, and some species exhibit mimicry, such as imitating ants to avoid predators. Male jumping spiders have elaborate courtship rituals, with different species displaying diverse colors and behaviors. Though small, jumping spiders play an important ecological role, and their abundance makes them a fascinating subject for observation.

(digital.tnconservationist.org)

Misc jumping spiders spiders

Gaza Massacre: 15 Paramedics Killed in Israeli Attack

2025-04-05

Gaza Massacre: 15 Paramedics Killed in Israeli Attack

On March 23, Israeli forces massacred 15 Palestinian paramedics in Rafah, southern Gaza, including eight Red Crescent and five Civil Defense workers. The sole survivor, Munther Abed, recounted being directly shot at, their vehicles destroyed, and subsequently tortured. The UN described the attack as part of a “concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system,” and the Red Cross/Red Crescent called it the deadliest single attack on their workers since 2017. This incident highlights the ongoing attacks on medical personnel in the Gaza war and the gross violation of international humanitarian law.

(www.dropsitenews.com)

Misc Gaza conflict human rights abuses war crimes

NYC's 50-Year-Old Property Tax System: Unfair, Needs Reform

2025-04-05

NYC's 50-Year-Old Property Tax System: Unfair, Needs Reform

New York City's property tax system, now 50 years old, is under fire for its inequities. It overtaxes large multifamily buildings, hindering the construction of much-needed apartments and exacerbating the housing crisis. Low-income households and minority communities bear a disproportionately heavy burden, while luxury condos pay significantly less. Reform advocates are pushing for change, but mayoral candidates are largely silent. A lawsuit challenging the system is ongoing, with the state's highest court ordering action, yet the city remains largely unresponsive.

(www.thecity.nyc)

Misc property tax

Reciprocal Tariffs: A Potential Solution for Balancing Trade Deficits

2025-04-05

Reciprocal Tariffs: A Potential Solution for Balancing Trade Deficits

This report explores the concept of 'reciprocal tariffs,' designed to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and its trading partners. It calculates the tariff rates needed to drive bilateral trade deficits to zero. The study finds reciprocal tariff rates ranging from 0% to 99%, with an unweighted average of 20% and an import-weighted average of 41%. Persistent trade deficits are attributed to a combination of tariff and non-tariff factors hindering trade balance. The report employs an elasticity model, utilizing estimates of tariff elasticity of import demand and price pass-through to calculate reciprocal tariffs.

(ustr.gov)

Tech trade deficit

California's EV Charging Stations Outnumber Gas Pumps, But Federal Headwinds Loom

2025-04-05

California's EV Charging Stations Outnumber Gas Pumps, But Federal Headwinds Loom

California now has more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations than gas pumps, a milestone reflecting the growing adoption of zero-emission vehicles. However, this achievement comes as the federal government under the Trump administration actively works to slow the transition away from gasoline cars. California has aggressively expanded its EV charging network, reaching 178,500 ports in 2024, surpassing an estimated 120,000 gas nozzles. While California received a significant federal grant for EV infrastructure, the federal government has paused similar grants in other states, signaling opposition to the rapid expansion of EV infrastructure. This creates challenges for California's ambitious goal of banning the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

(www.latimes.com)

Tech Energy Policy

Cache-Aware Programming in Python: A Surprisingly Significant Performance Difference

2025-04-05

This post investigates the impact of cache-aware programming on Python performance through experiments. Results show that random access to list elements in Python is consistently slower than sequential access, especially when data size exceeds CPU cache. This suggests that even in interpreted environments, cache-aware programming can improve Python program performance. Experiments also compare the performance difference between native Python lists and NumPy arrays, showing NumPy arrays have a significant performance advantage due to their more compact memory layout.

(lukasatkinson.de)

Development Python performance cache-aware programming

Fighting Back Against Ad Tracking: The AdNauseam Browser Extension

2025-04-05

Fighting Back Against Ad Tracking: The AdNauseam Browser Extension

Tired of ubiquitous online ad tracking? AdNauseam, a browser extension built on uBlock Origin, automatically clicks all blocked ads, registering phantom visits on ad networks' databases. This deluge of fake clicks renders user tracking, targeting, and surveillance futile. It's a clever act of defiance, empowering users to fight back against mass surveillance, similar to TrackMeNot's strategy of obfuscation to shift the power balance.

(adnauseam.io)

Tech

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Narrative Journalism: The This American Life Story

2025-04-05

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Narrative Journalism: The This American Life Story

This American Life (TAL) revolutionized news reporting with its narrative style, using compelling storytelling to engage listeners and win a Pulitzer Prize. Its success hinged on transforming complex social issues into gripping human stories, exemplified by "The Out Crowd," its report on asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. However, the Mike Daisey scandal tarnished TAL's reputation, exposing fabricated elements in a popular episode and sparking criticism of narrative journalism. Despite this, TAL persevered, adopting stricter fact-checking measures and reaffirming its commitment to narrative storytelling.

(lithub.com)

Misc narrative journalism

Europe's Digital Sovereignty Crisis: Fighting Back Against US Tech Colonialism

2025-04-05

Europe's Digital Sovereignty Crisis: Fighting Back Against US Tech Colonialism

Europe faces a digital sovereignty crisis. US social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) dominate over 80% of European social media activity, leading to manipulation, cultural homogenization, and economic exploitation. These platforms not only spread disinformation and interfere in European elections but also avoid taxes through loopholes, stifling European competitors. The article calls for the EU to invest in building a homegrown social media ecosystem, leveraging the EU's regulatory power and user base to create platforms aligned with European values. This would break free from US digital colonialism and safeguard Europe's cultural diversity and digital sovereignty.

(mediascope.group)

Tech

$92M Wildlife Crossing: Soil Laid, Entering New Phase of Ecological Restoration

2025-04-05

$92M Wildlife Crossing: Soil Laid, Entering New Phase of Ecological Restoration

Nearly three years and $92 million later, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project reached a critical milestone: soil placement. Designed to address habitat fragmentation caused by the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, the crossing will provide a safe passage for animals, including endangered mountain lions. 6,000 cubic yards of specially formulated soil, rich in native microbes, were added to restore the local ecosystem. The project is divided into two phases: Phase 1, involving seeding and planting native plants, is expected to finish this summer; Phase 2, connecting the structure to surrounding hills, is slated for completion by the end of 2026. This project showcases human ingenuity in ecological restoration and provides valuable experience for similar endeavors.

(www.yahoo.com)

Tech

First Real-Time Observation of Plant Cells Building Cell Walls

2025-04-05

First Real-Time Observation of Plant Cells Building Cell Walls

Rutgers University researchers have, for the first time, used advanced microscopy techniques to capture real-time images of living plant cells continuously building cell walls over 24 hours, showing the synthesis and assembly of cellulose, the main component of cell walls. This groundbreaking research reveals the dynamic mechanism of plant cell wall formation, offering crucial insights for improving crop yields, reducing biofuel costs, and developing new biomaterials. The findings are published in Science Advances.

(phys.org)

Tech plant cell wall cellulose microscopy

ALMA Reveals Most Protoplanetary Disks Are Surprisingly Small

2025-04-05

A high-resolution ALMA survey of the Lupus star-forming region has overturned our understanding of protoplanetary disks. The study reveals that most disks are far smaller than previously thought, some even smaller than Earth's orbit, and lack the large-scale gaps and rings previously associated with planet formation. This suggests that many stellar systems may favor the formation of super-Earths rather than gas giants, consistent with previous exoplanet observations. The research highlights observational bias in astronomy and reveals much remains unknown about planet formation.

(www.centauri-dreams.org)

Tech protoplanetary disks exoplanets

Neovim pytest Integration: pytest.nvim Simplifies Testing

2025-04-05

Neovim pytest Integration: pytest.nvim Simplifies Testing

pytest.nvim is a Neovim plugin integrating the pytest testing framework. It boasts Docker support, letting you run tests within containers. The plugin offers streamlined commands and keybindings for running, attaching, and detaching tests, along with customizable settings including Docker configuration and keymaps. Installation and setup are easy regardless of your plugin manager (Lazyvim, Packer, or Vim-Plug).

(github.com)

Development

Cell Phone OPSEC at Borders: Data Deletion and Recovery

2025-04-05

Concerns are rising about stricter electronic device checks at US borders. The author asks about securely deleting data (files, photos) from phones to prevent recovery. Does a factory reset truly erase data, or is it recoverable? This question hinges on whether the reset removes the encryption key or just the access password. The article stresses the growing need for enhanced phone security globally, given increasing risks for those opposing state power.

(www.schneier.com)

Misc phone security border security

SpaceX's Fram2 Mission: A Polar Orbit Premiere and a Tale of Space Sickness

2025-04-05

SpaceX's Fram2 Mission: A Polar Orbit Premiere and a Tale of Space Sickness

SpaceX's privately funded Fram2 mission concluded successfully, with four passengers completing a unique flight aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, marking the first time humans have flown directly over the Earth's North and South Poles. Bankrolled by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang, the crew conducted various research projects, including capturing aurora images and documenting space motion sickness. While space sickness proved a challenge, the crew overcame it, achieving several 'firsts,' including the first West Coast splashdown and a self-conducted egress experiment. This mission provided valuable scientific data and showcased the potential of private space exploration.

(edition.cnn.com)

Tech

Nebula Sans: A New Brand Font for Nebula Streaming Service

2025-04-05

Nebula, a premium streaming service from independent creators, has released its new brand typeface, Nebula Sans. Based on Source Sans and designed as a drop-in replacement for Whitney SSm, Nebula Sans is available under the SIL Open Font License for anyone to use. A short documentary details the story behind Nebula Sans. Featuring two styles in six weights, it's suitable for interfaces, print, and any graphical, digital, physical, metaphysical, metaphorical, or allegorical needs.

(nebulasans.com)

Design

Remaking Daft Punk's "Something About Us" in Ableton Live 12: A Deep Dive

2025-04-05

Remaking Daft Punk's

The author remade Daft Punk's classic track "Something About Us" using Ableton Live 12 and shares the entire production process. The article details the creation of each track, including instrument choices, effects, and techniques. It delves into the origins and characteristics of the "French Touch" music style and the challenges and solutions encountered during the remake. The author completes the project and gives high praise to Ableton Live 12, calling it their DAW of choice.

(thoughts-and-things.ghost.io)

Game French Touch

Revolutionary OCR System: Powering AI Education Datasets

2025-04-05

Revolutionary OCR System: Powering AI Education Datasets

A groundbreaking OCR system optimized for machine learning extracts structured data from complex educational materials like exam papers. Supporting multilingual text, mathematical formulas, tables, diagrams, and charts, it's ideal for creating high-quality training datasets. The system semantically annotates extracted elements and automatically generates natural language descriptions, such as descriptive text for diagrams. Supporting Japanese, Korean, and English with easy customization for additional languages, it outputs AI-ready JSON or Markdown, including human-readable descriptions of mathematical expressions, table summaries, and figure captions. Achieving over 90-95% accuracy on real-world academic datasets, it handles complex layouts with dense scientific content and rich visuals.

(github.com)

AI

Thirty and Redefining Travel's Purpose

2025-04-05

At 25, the author moved to Goa, India, embracing a simpler, community-focused life and pursuing various hobbies. A recent trip to Kazakhstan, however, left him feeling that travel had lost its meaning. He found people across the globe to be fundamentally similar, and the internet readily provides travel information. He now prioritizes deep, lasting connections with his home community, focusing future travels on visiting friends and exploring local nature.

(sidverma.io)

Misc

Sparks: A Typeface for Creating Sparklines in Text

2025-04-05

Sparks: A Typeface for Creating Sparklines in Text

After the Flood, a design consultancy, has released Sparks, a new typeface that leverages OpenType's contextual alternates feature to generate sparklines directly within text. By inserting data points in a specific format between numbers (e.g., `123{30,60,90}456`), users can create sparklines. Sparks is compatible with various browsers and software, offering bar, dot, and dot-line styles with five weight variations. While the underlying mechanism is complex, it offers a novel and convenient method for data visualization.

(github.com)

Design

Undersea Data Center Disaster: The Tragedy of Millions of Data Bits

2025-04-05

Undersea Data Center Disaster: The Tragedy of Millions of Data Bits

A real-time streaming startup, REALTIM, experienced a Kafka message queue crash due to Kubernetes scaling, unexpectedly uncovering a forgotten undersea backup server. Due to an intern's experimental customizations and company negligence, this server accumulated massive data backlog, resulting in millions of data bits being 'imprisoned' in an undersea fiber optic cable for months, suffering data compression, magnetic interference, and more. Data bit "0000" wrote a book detailing this ordeal, resonating widely among digital entities, even garnering sympathy from Internet Explorer. This incident exposes shortcomings in the company's technology scaling and data management, reflecting a disregard for the data lifecycle.

(nareal.substack.com)

Tech Data Center Disaster

Trump's Retaliatory Tariffs: A Calculation Error Sparks Economic Storm

2025-04-05

Trump's Retaliatory Tariffs: A Calculation Error Sparks Economic Storm

In 2025, President Trump announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on nearly every country, based on a formula tied to trade deficits and claimed to be 'reciprocal'. However, this formula contained a significant error, overestimating foreign tariffs and leading to far higher actual US tariffs. This sparked a stock market plunge and recession fears. Experts point out that correcting the formula would drastically reduce the tariffs, but the underlying economic rationale remains questionable.

(www.aei.org)

Tech

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