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VC's Last Hope: An AI Bubble and Sam Altman

2025-05-11

VC's Last Hope: An AI Bubble and Sam Altman

The Q1 2025 Venture Monitor reveals a moribund venture capital industry, except for AI, which is almost entirely reliant on OpenAI. High interest rates have dried up funding, leaving VCs scrambling and hoping for an AI miracle fueled by OpenAI's aggressive spending. The report blames Trump's tariffs, overlooking the industry's support for him. Early-stage funding is stagnant, many startups are dying, IPOs are rare, and exits are almost nonexistent. VCs are keeping existing companies afloat with late-stage funding and secondary sales. The future of venture capital remains uncertain and precarious.

(pivot-to-ai.com)

Startup

The Friction Economy: A Tale of Two Worlds

2025-05-11

The Friction Economy: A Tale of Two Worlds

This essay explores the redistribution of 'friction' in today's economy. The digital world is nearly frictionless, with AI and other technologies eliminating cognitive resistance, but this comes at the cost of shifting friction onto the physical world and the workforce. The author points to the prevalence of AI cheating in college education and the decay of American infrastructure as reflections of this friction shift. The wealthy can use money to circumvent the friction of the physical world, creating 'curated worlds,' while the average person faces deteriorating infrastructure and working conditions. The essay concludes with a call to rethink economic models, directing effort toward sustainable systems rather than simply eliminating friction.

(kyla.substack.com)

Tech friction economy

GlassFlow: Real-time Streaming ETL for ClickHouse

2025-05-11

GlassFlow: Real-time Streaming ETL for ClickHouse

GlassFlow is a real-time stream processor designed for data engineers to simplify creating and managing data pipelines between Kafka and ClickHouse. It boasts a user-friendly interface for building and managing real-time data pipelines, featuring built-in deduplication and temporal joins. Handling late-arriving events and ensuring exactly-once processing, GlassFlow scales to handle high-throughput data, delivering accurate, low-latency results without sacrificing simplicity or performance. The intuitive web interface simplifies pipeline configuration and monitoring, while its robust architecture guarantees reliable data processing. It supports local development and Docker deployment, and includes a comprehensive demo setup for quick onboarding.

(github.com)

Development real-time processing

Four Years of Running a Sustainable SaaS: From $0 to $500 MRR

2025-05-11

Four Years of Running a Sustainable SaaS: From $0 to $500 MRR

This article details the author's four-year journey building OnlineOrNot, a self-funded SaaS. Working just two hours a day, they focused on iterative development, user feedback, and lean marketing to achieve $500 MRR. Key takeaways include prioritizing core features, rapid iteration, concise documentation, mobile-first design, and smart pricing. The author emphasizes avoiding feature bloat, premature optimization, and the importance of listening to user needs over building for hypothetical scenarios.

(maxrozen.com)

Startup

Rust Ecosystem Documentation Quality Review: Hits and Misses

2025-05-11

Rust Ecosystem Documentation Quality Review: Hits and Misses

This article provides an in-depth assessment of the documentation quality across numerous popular crates in the Rust ecosystem. It covers various domains, including random number generation, time handling, web frameworks, game engines, and error handling. The author evaluates each crate's documentation based on four quadrants (explanations, how-to guides, tutorials, reference) and highlights excellent examples (like `jiff`'s comprehensive documentation and design rationale) and areas for improvement (incomplete documentation or lack of practical guidance in some crates). This review offers valuable insights for Rust developers and points to directions for improving the Rust ecosystem's documentation.

(www.harudagondi.space)

Development

Roame Hiring: Lead Full-Stack Engineer to Revolutionize Travel Booking with AI

2025-05-11

Roame Hiring: Lead Full-Stack Engineer to Revolutionize Travel Booking with AI

Roame, a flight search engine leveraging credit card points and miles, is seeking a Lead Full-Stack Engineer. Backed by top-tier investors, Roame empowers millions to maximize their points' value. The ideal candidate possesses 4+ years of experience, mastery of Next.js, Firebase, and Go, and a strong understanding of AI pipelines. The San Francisco-based role requires in-person work. Roame offers competitive salary, equity, benefits, and a culture emphasizing collaboration and rapid iteration.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development Travel Booking

Nintendo Switch 2's EULA Grants Nintendo the Power to Brick Your Console

2025-05-11

Nintendo Switch 2's EULA Grants Nintendo the Power to Brick Your Console

Nintendo's updated user agreement for the upcoming Switch 2 grants the company the power to remotely brick users' consoles. If users violate the agreement, such as by modifying system software or bypassing security measures, Nintendo can permanently disable the console. This clause is controversial as it grants Nintendo significant control over hardware that users own. While likely targeting piracy and modding, the vague wording raises concerns, with Nintendo possessing ultimate interpretation power. This isn't just about online play restrictions; it could disable offline functionality, rendering the console worthless.

(betanews.com)

Game Remote Disable

Rails 8's Solid Queue: A Deep Dive into the New Background Job Processor (Part 1)

2025-05-11

Rails 8's Solid Queue: A Deep Dive into the New Background Job Processor (Part 1)

Rails 8 introduces Solid Queue, a novel background job processing library that eliminates the need for external services like Redis. This article delves into Solid Queue's architecture, explaining the interplay between Jobs and Workers and how database tables (solid_queue_jobs, solid_queue_ready_executions, solid_queue_claimed_executions, solid_queue_processes) manage job queuing, execution, and monitoring. Solid Queue achieves high performance and reliability through clever database design and the use of FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED statements, employing a supervisor process to prevent job loss. The article also highlights SQLite limitations and AppSignal's performance monitoring capabilities, promising a deeper dive in part two.

(blog.appsignal.com)

Development Background Jobs

Epochalypse 2038: The Ticking Time Bomb of a 32-bit Timestamp Vulnerability

2025-05-11

On January 19, 2038, millions of embedded and industrial systems worldwide face potential collapse due to a 32-bit timestamp vulnerability. This isn't science fiction; it threatens critical infrastructure, from hospitals to power grids. Unlike Y2K, this is far larger, affecting countless un-updatable embedded systems. The Epochalypse Project, launched by two cybersecurity researchers, aims for global collaboration to mitigate this impending threat through standardized testing, vulnerability documentation, and remediation strategy development. Individuals can contribute by testing personal devices and engaging with tech companies, while professionals must take the lead in avoiding a digital disaster.

(epochalypse-project.org)

Tech timestamp vulnerability 2038 problem

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-05-11

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

(arxiv.org)

Development

Broken QR Code? Let's Fix It!

2025-05-11

Broken QR Code? Let's Fix It!

Is your QR code not scanning? Submit it for a free repair! Upload your image or email it to [email protected]. This project aims to build a dataset of broken QR codes to develop a reliable automated repair tool. The story began with a worn-out QR code on a cat's tag, which the author successfully repaired. This highlighted the need for a solution, leading to this initiative to collect and fix broken codes, ultimately creating software to repair them automatically.

(www.humanqr.com)

Misc QR code repair

The Decline of 'Thinkers' in Science: A Call for 'Little Science'

2025-05-11

The Decline of 'Thinkers' in Science: A Call for 'Little Science'

This article explores the distinction between science and technology, highlighting the current imbalance in the scientific community—a surplus of 'doers' and a deficit of 'thinkers.' The author argues that while 'doers' like Elon Musk excel at leveraging existing technology, scientific progress demands 'thinkers' capable of groundbreaking innovation. The post-WWII era of 'Big Science,' while yielding remarkable achievements, has also led to institutional sclerosis and decreased innovation, the author contends. A return to 'Little Science,' fostering individual exploration and curiosity-driven research, is advocated to create more space for 'thinkers' and ensure the continued advancement of science.

(www.strangeloopcanon.com)

Tech philosophy of science scientific innovation research paradigms

Stendhal Syndrome: Ecstasy and Exhaustion in the Modern Museum

2025-05-11

Stendhal Syndrome: Ecstasy and Exhaustion in the Modern Museum

This essay explores Stendhal Syndrome, an intense emotional response to encountering masterpieces of art, contrasting it with the modern museum-going experience. Beginning with Stendhal's overwhelming experience in Florence, the piece details his profound emotional reaction to art. It then contrasts this with the hurried pace of modern museum visitors, arguing that the current approach prevents genuine engagement with art. The author suggests that a deeper, more Stendhalian experience is crucial for true appreciation of art.

(aeon.co)

Misc Stendhal Syndrome Museums

The Evolution of the Calculator Keypad: From 9 Keys to the Standard 10

2025-05-11

The layout of the calculator keypad wasn't always as we know it. Early Comptometers used a 9-key layout, driven by mechanical constraints (e.g., lever connections to rotating drums) and user experience considerations (placing frequently used keys within easy reach for efficiency). However, this design required highly trained users for optimal performance. The Dalton revolutionized this with a 10-key layout, including 0 for the first time, and a more compact design for improved usability. Finally, Sundstrand's 3x3 layout, with its ergonomic design, became the standard for calculator keypads, still used over 100 years later.

(www.doc.cc)

Hardware keypad layout

Can a Thermostat Be Conscious? Philosopher Challenges the Nature of Awareness

2025-05-11

Philosopher David Chalmers proposes that a simple thermostat might possess consciousness. He draws parallels between connectionist networks and thermostats, highlighting surprising similarities in information processing. This suggests thermostats could model basic conscious experience, given certain criteria. Chalmers argues that complexity alone doesn't explain awareness; while advanced AI mimics consciousness, a fundamental essence remains elusive. He concludes that we must look beyond connectionist models for deeper, yet-to-be-discovered laws to understand consciousness.

(www.organism.earth)

AI

One-Click RCE in ASUS DriverHub: A Shocking Vulnerability

2025-05-11

A security researcher discovered a critical vulnerability in ASUS's pre-installed DriverHub software allowing for one-click remote code execution (RCE). The vulnerability stems from insecure RPC handling, enabling attackers to bypass origin checks and execute arbitrary code with administrative privileges. The researcher responsibly disclosed the flaw, and ASUS has since released a patch. Importantly, this impacts any system with DriverHub installed, not just ASUS motherboards. The researcher's detailed exploit chain highlights the severity and potential impact of this vulnerability.

(mrbruh.com)

Tech ASUS

Liana Pandemic Threatens Tropical Rainforests: Visible from Space

2025-05-11

Liana Pandemic Threatens Tropical Rainforests: Visible from Space

A new study reveals a dramatic surge in lianas in tropical rainforests, jeopardizing carbon storage and biodiversity. Lianas, which spread rapidly and outcompete trees for resources, are increasing by 10-24% per decade. This is linked to rising atmospheric CO2 levels, as lianas benefit disproportionately from increased CO2. The resulting tree mortality and hampered forest regeneration lead to a 95% reduction in carbon storage. Surprisingly, their unique leaf properties make lianas detectable from space, opening new avenues for monitoring their spread. Researchers urge a focus on climate change mitigation and caution against intervention until the lianas' full ecological role is understood.

(phys.org)

Tech tropical rainforest lianas

Lazarus IDE 4.0 Released!

2025-05-11

The Lazarus team is thrilled to announce the release of Lazarus 4.0! Built with FPC 3.2.2, this release includes numerous improvements and bug fixes. Downloads are available on SourceForge (and mirrors) for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Minimum system requirements have been updated; check the official website for details. The source code is also available on Gitlab for community contributions.

(forum.lazarus.freepascal.org)

Development

Auctus A6: The Chip Revolutionizing Low-Cost DMR Radios

2025-05-11

Auctus A6: The Chip Revolutionizing Low-Cost DMR Radios

The Auctus A6, a highly integrated chip from Shenzhen-based Auctus Technology, is quietly revolutionizing the low-cost DMR radio market. This single chip integrates a CPU, RF transceiver, DSP, and vocoder, offering impressive functionality. Supporting frequencies from 100-1000 MHz and various digital and analog modes, it boasts a rich set of I/O interfaces including GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, and USB. Its high integration significantly reduces the cost and complexity of DMR radio manufacturing, promising to drive the adoption of a new generation of affordable DMR radios.

(jhart99.com)

Hardware DMR radio integrated chip

Running NetBSD on an Ancient i486SX: A Soft FPU Emulator is Born

2025-05-11

Running NetBSD on an Ancient i486SX: A Soft FPU Emulator is Born

A developer successfully emulated a missing floating-point unit (FPU) on an old i486SX laptop. After months of work, they successfully implemented a soft FPU emulator on NetBSD 10 and open-sourced the project. This project not only brings old 486SX machines back to life but also offers new possibilities for retrocomputing enthusiasts. It has now been successfully tested on the 86Box virtual machine.

(mezzantrop.wordpress.com)

Development

Lightweight Wearable Chip for Real-Time Heart Attack Detection

2025-05-11

Lightweight Wearable Chip for Real-Time Heart Attack Detection

Researchers at the University of Mississippi have developed a lightweight, energy-efficient chip implantable in wearables for real-time heart attack detection. Using AI and advanced mathematics, the chip analyzes ECGs to identify heart attacks with 92.4% accuracy, twice as fast as traditional methods. Its design allows integration into devices like smartwatches, potentially saving crucial time in diagnosis and treatment, reducing the risk of permanent damage. Future applications could extend to detecting other conditions like seizures and dementia.

(medicalxpress.com)

Tech Heart Attack Detection

Turkish Doctoral Student Released After Arrest for Criticizing Israel

2025-05-11

Turkish Doctoral Student Released After Arrest for Criticizing Israel

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, was released from ICE custody after being detained for over six weeks. Her arrest stemmed from an op-ed she wrote criticizing her university's response to the Israel-Hamas war. A judge ruled her arrest was retaliatory and a violation of her free speech, ordering her immediate release. While released, she still faces potential deportation, sparking debate on the government's power to arrest and deport non-citizens deemed threats to US foreign policy.

(www.npr.org)

Misc political persecution

Writing an ASUS ACPI WMI Driver for OpenBSD Fan Control

2025-05-11

The author details their journey of writing an ASUS ACPI WMI driver for OpenBSD to control their laptop's fan speed. The process involved overcoming challenges with ACPI and WMI byte order, utilizing acpidump and iasl to analyze system ACPI code, and finally achieving fan speed control. The author compares the driver development approaches in Linux and FreeBSD, highlighting OpenBSD's convenient code organization.

(flak.tedunangst.com)

Development Driver Development

Overwatch 2 Developers Unionize at Blizzard

2025-05-11

Overwatch 2 Developers Unionize at Blizzard

Nearly 200 developers at Blizzard Entertainment, working on Overwatch 2, have successfully unionized, joining the Communications Workers of America (CWA). This follows the World of Warcraft team's unionization last year, marking Blizzard's second company-wide union. The union, encompassing artists, testers, engineers, and designers, formed in response to Microsoft's 2024 layoffs and concerns over pay disparities, work-from-home restrictions, crunch, time off, and severance. The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild aims to improve working conditions and ultimately contribute to better game development, setting a potential precedent for other studios.

(kotaku.com)

Game unionization

The AI Job Apocalypse is Here (and it's not what you think)

2025-05-11

The AI Job Apocalypse is Here (and it's not what you think)

Duolingo's recent layoffs, framed as an "AI-first" strategy, expose a hidden truth: AI-driven job displacement is already widespread. Hundreds of writers and translators have been replaced by AI, a trend echoed across creative industries, journalism, and even government. This isn't a robot uprising, but a calculated move by corporations using AI to cut costs and consolidate power. The resulting job crisis is particularly acute for recent college graduates, with unemployment rates reaching historic highs. While the full economic impact remains unclear, the crisis reveals a deeper issue: the erosion of valuable jobs and the potential for AI to exacerbate existing inequalities. We're facing a critical juncture, needing to define what kind of work we value and how to protect it before the AI-driven job apocalypse consumes us.

(www.bloodinthemachine.com)

Tech AI layoffs job displacement

Longtime Google Engineer Leaves After 19 Years, Reflecting on Go's Evolution

2025-05-11

A senior engineer who spent 19 years at Google, heavily involved in the development of the Go programming language, has left the company. The article reflects on their 14-year journey with Go, from contributing to the compiler frontend to shaping language features like generics and influencing the project's overall direction. The author believes Go still has significant room for growth and hopes to contribute to its future development.

(www.airs.com)

Development

Circuit Board Strain Gauge for Micrometer-Level Deflection Measurement

2025-05-11

Circuit Board Strain Gauge for Micrometer-Level Deflection Measurement

This project presents an ingenious strain gauge design where the sensing element is the circuit board itself. Highly sensitive, it measures deflections in the micrometer range with a full-scale range of +/- 3cm. Utilizing a 4-element or 2-element bridge, it's hand-assembly friendly and requires no reflow oven. It can be used standalone with an integrated Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 microcontroller or an external one. A Python script for visualization and a Jupyter Notebook for customizing the sensor shape are also provided.

(github.com)

Hardware strain gauge circuit board design micrometer deflection

Dotless Domains: A DNS Oddity

2025-05-11

This article explores the phenomenon of "dotless domains," which are top-level domains (TLDs) like .com or .org that are directly accessible without a second-level domain. While ICANN and the IAB discourage this practice, some country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) still exist due to national jurisdiction. The article lists current and historical examples of dotless domains and analyzes their technical limitations in email delivery and website access. Furthermore, it delves into the structure of the DNS tree and the theoretical possibility of the root domain (.) having A, AAAA, and MX records, although this is practically nonexistent.

(lab.avl.la)

Tech Top-Level Domains ccTLDs

Theranos Boyfriend Launches Suspiciously Similar Blood-Testing Startup

2025-05-11

Theranos Boyfriend Launches Suspiciously Similar Blood-Testing Startup

Billy Evans, the romantic partner of convicted Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, has launched a blood-testing startup, Haemanthus, that bears a striking resemblance to Holmes' infamous company. Haemanthus boasts a "radically new approach to health testing," eerily echoing Theranos's claims. Adding to the intrigue, Holmes is reportedly advising the startup from prison. While Haemanthus has secured nearly $20 million in funding, prominent investors have passed, citing concerns about scientific validity and clinical utility. The similarities to the Theranos scandal raise serious questions about Haemanthus's future and highlight the risks inherent in the tech startup world.

(www.thedailybeast.com)

Startup Tech Startup Medical Fraud Blood Testing

Adaptive Hashing in SBCL: Making Hash Tables Faster and More Robust

2025-05-11

A talk at the 2024 ELS focused on adaptive hashing, aiming to make general-purpose hash tables faster and more robust. Traditional hash table theory primarily concerns itself with asymptotic worst-case costs, neglecting the impact of constant factors on real-world performance. This research introduces an online adaptive approach, adjusting the hash function based on the actual key distribution to reduce collisions and improve cache utilization. Experiments demonstrate significant improvements in reducing expected comparisons and speeding up PUT operations, particularly with specific key distributions. SBCL's built-in hash tables now employ this technique, dynamically switching hash functions (including linear search, bit-shifting hash, and MurmurHash) based on collision counts and hash table size. For composite keys like strings and lists, a truncation strategy is used, dynamically adjusting the truncation length when too many collisions occur. This improvement enhances SBCL hash table speed in common cases and robustness in others.

(quotenil.com)

Development adaptive hashing lisp

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