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Stratolaunch's Talon-A2 Achieves Mach 5+ in Second Hypersonic Flight Test

2025-05-10

Stratolaunch's Talon-A2 Achieves Mach 5+ in Second Hypersonic Flight Test

Stratolaunch announced the successful completion of a second hypersonic flight and recovery of its Talon-A2 vehicle in March 2025, exceeding Mach 5 and confirming its reusability following a successful December 2024 test flight. This achievement marks a significant step for the U.S. return to reusable hypersonic flight testing since the X-15 program. The flight was conducted for the Department of Defense's Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program, aiming to accelerate testing of commercially available hypersonic systems.

(www.stratolaunch.com)

Tech hypersonic flight reusability stratolaunch

Pittsburgh Power Outage: A Week Without Power, and the Lessons Learned

2025-05-10

A major storm hit Pittsburgh on April 29th, 2025, leaving the author's family without power for six days and incurring costs of around $2600. Despite having emergency food, a Jackery battery system, and solar panels, the storm exposed a gap in their preparedness: the possibility of cars being trapped. The family experienced power outages, fallen trees, and damaged vehicles, relying on batteries and a subsequently purchased gas generator. This experience prompted reflection on emergency preparedness, highlighting the value of community support and mental resilience. The author encourages sharing experiences to improve emergency planning.

(tonyyo11.github.io)

Misc emergency preparedness family safety

Chrome for Android Now Warns Against Deceptive Notifications

2025-05-10

Chrome for Android Now Warns Against Deceptive Notifications

Chrome is launching a new feature on Android that uses on-device machine learning to detect and warn users about potentially deceptive or spammy notifications. The feature analyzes notification content (title, body, and action button text) and, when a suspicious notification is detected, displays a warning with options to unsubscribe or view the notification. All analysis happens locally on the device; notification content isn't sent to Google. This protects user privacy. This is part of Chrome's ongoing commitment to user safety, alongside features like automatically revoking notification permissions from abusive sites and one-tap unsubscribe.

(blog.chromium.org)

Tech

Huawei Launches First HarmonyOS Laptop, Breaking Free from Windows

2025-05-10

Huawei Launches First HarmonyOS Laptop, Breaking Free from Windows

Huawei unveiled its first laptop powered by its homegrown HarmonyOS in 2025, marking a significant step in its operating system journey. US sanctions forced Huawei to develop its own OS, breaking free from reliance on Windows and Android. Years in the making, HarmonyOS now boasts its own kernel and user interface, supporting multitasking and AI features like Celia, Huawei's AI assistant. While app support is smaller than Windows initially, over 2,000 applications, primarily Chinese ones, are available at launch. Existing Huawei laptops running Windows remain unaffected.

(liliputing.com)

Tech

Deep Dive into Zig's Memory Safety Mechanisms

2025-05-10

Deep Dive into Zig's Memory Safety Mechanisms

Memory safety is a cornerstone of Zig's design. This article delves into Zig's sophisticated approach to preventing common memory-related errors while retaining the performance benefits of manual memory management. Features explored include eliminating hidden control flow, comprehensive error handling, compile-time safety checks, runtime bounds checking, the `defer` statement, optional types, build modes, and advanced features like sentinel-terminated arrays and explicit allocators. Zig's comptime system allows for compile-time function evaluation, enabling powerful metaprogramming while maintaining safety. These mechanisms significantly reduce risks associated with memory leaks, buffer overflows, and dangling pointers, making Zig a robust choice for systems programming.

(gencmurat.com)

Development

Real-time Traffic Data Pipeline with NATS JetStream

2025-05-10

Real-time Traffic Data Pipeline with NATS JetStream

This code snippet depicts a real-time traffic data processing pipeline built using NATS JetStream. Data originates from messages on the `traffic.light.events` subject, processed through the `myqueue` queue. The pipeline groups data by `traffic_light_id`, maps it to calculate total cars and passengers per traffic light, and finally POSTs the aggregated data to `https://example.com/traffic_data`. Time windows and batch processing are employed for efficiency.

(warpstreamlabs.github.io)

Development

Bukowski and Burroughs: Two Writers' Fascinating Relationships with Computers

2025-05-10

This article explores the relationship between two prominent late 20th-century writers, Charles Bukowski and William S. Burroughs, and the development of computer technology. Bukowski embraced the Macintosh in his later years, experiencing a significant increase in writing productivity and a creative surge. He actively learned new technologies and incorporated them into his creative process. Burroughs, however, displayed a more reserved attitude towards computers, linked to his preference for manual creation and nostalgic attachment to traditional print culture. The article contrasts the writers' differing approaches to computers and prompts reflection on digital-age literary creation, archival preservation, and related issues.

(realitystudio.org)

Misc Writers

Browser-Based Semiconductor Simulator: Draw Circuits, Simulate EM Fields

2025-05-10

Brandon Li has developed a powerful semiconductor simulator that runs in your browser. The program lets you draw circuits and visualize electromagnetic fields in real-time, supporting various materials (metals, semiconductors, dielectrics, and more). It features numerous examples covering simple circuits, semiconductor devices, and digital logic, including RC circuits, PN junction diodes, BJTs, MOSFETs, and more. For optimal performance, a powerful computer is recommended; a downloadable Java version is also available.

(brandonli.net)

Hardware semiconductor simulation electromagnetic fields

Stunning WebGL Water Simulation: Ray Tracing and Heightfield

2025-05-10

Evan Wallace's WebGL water simulation demo is breathtaking. It uses ray tracing for realistic reflections and refractions, combined with analytic ambient occlusion and heightfield water simulation, creating a lifelike, shimmering water surface. Users can interactively create ripples, rotate the camera, and even control lighting and gravity. This demo requires a powerful graphics card and up-to-date drivers, but the visual results are stunning, showcasing the capabilities of WebGL.

(madebyevan.com)

Development Water Simulation

The Lies of Bestselling Business Books: Success Isn't About Feel-Good Mantras

2025-05-10

The Lies of Bestselling Business Books: Success Isn't About Feel-Good Mantras

This article critiques the majority of bestselling business books, arguing that they prioritize emotional appeal over intellectual rigor, turning simplified stories into generic advice and replacing complex market dynamics with motivational slogans. The author uses personal experience and counterexamples (e.g., Airbnb, Stripe, Amazon) to refute common claims found in books by Thiel, Ferriss, and Sinek, demonstrating that true success stems from focusing on reality, adaptable strategies, solid operational knowledge, sustained accumulation, and understanding complex systems, not simple "hacks" or motivational slogans. The author concludes by urging readers to focus on practical application and systemic thinking, rather than relying on the feel-good conclusions of business books.

(theorthagonist.substack.com)

Startup business books

Viral Chromebook Challenge Sparks Fires and Chaos in US Schools

2025-05-09

Viral Chromebook Challenge Sparks Fires and Chaos in US Schools

Schools across the US are warning parents about a dangerous TikTok trend called the "Chromebook Challenge." Students are deliberately damaging school-issued Chromebooks by inserting objects into ports, causing short circuits, fires, and school evacuations. The trend has led to disciplinary actions and even legal consequences for students involved. One incident in Connecticut resulted in a student being hospitalized after smoke inhalation from a damaged Chromebook, leading to potential criminal charges.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech Chromebook Challenge School Safety

LCP eBook DRM: A Cautiously Optimistic Assessment

2025-05-09

Readium's LCP eBook DRM scheme allows offline reading after download, eliminating the need for constant online verification. It uses AES-256 encryption and is authorized via an .lcpl file containing decryption information. While the scheme relies on a proprietary decryption BLOB, its open ePub format and multi-reader support make it relatively secure and allow for offline backups. However, the bookseller can track reading devices and times, and forgotten passwords are unrecoverable. Furthermore, the long-term compatibility and security of the BLOB are questionable, and the risk of cracking remains. In short, LCP represents a relatively benign attempt at DRM, but its long-term security and level of user control require cautious assessment.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

Screenshotbot Ditches GitHub Dependency, Efficiently Uses git-upload-pack

2025-05-09

To enhance security and support more Git platforms, Screenshotbot initially chose not to read GitHub repositories. While this limited functionality, it improved user confidence and security review approval rates. The article details how Screenshotbot uses commit-graph construction and the git-upload-pack protocol to efficiently retrieve necessary information, supporting shallow clones and addressing the time-consuming issue of cloning large monorepos. The new method leverages existing SSH access in customers' CI jobs to directly access commit information via the git-upload-pack protocol, avoiding dependence on GitHub APIs. This improves efficiency, stability, and supports more platforms, including self-hosted Git repositories. Despite the complexities of the git-upload-pack protocol, the author notes several important details, such as the Packfile format and limitations of different Git servers. This article provides valuable experience and references for developers.

(blog.screenshotbot.io)

Development

Social Drinking, Not Solitary Drinking, is Key to Understanding Alcohol Addiction

2025-05-09

A new study challenges the conventional wisdom on alcohol addiction. While solitary drinking has long been considered the primary marker of alcohol use disorder, research published in Current Directions in Psychological Science reveals that social drinking is the key factor leading to serious alcohol problems. The study shows individuals consistently consume more alcohol in social settings than alone, and many negative consequences associated with alcohol, such as violence, risky sexual behavior, and binge drinking, are primarily linked to social drinking. Researchers advocate shifting the focus of future alcohol addiction research towards social factors, moving beyond the singular emphasis on solitary drinking.

(news.illinois.edu)

Misc alcohol addiction social drinking

FleursDuMal.org: A Comprehensive Online Resource for Baudelaire's 'Flowers of Evil'

2025-05-09

FleursDuMal.org is a dedicated online resource for the works of Charles Baudelaire, specifically his seminal collection, *Les Fleurs du mal* (Flowers of Evil). This site boasts a comprehensive collection of poems from various editions, along with numerous English translations. Notable translations by Edna St. Vincent Millay are featured. Launched in 2004 and maintained by Supervert, the site also includes works from other translators but reserves the right to reject submissions. Newcomers to Baudelaire are encouraged to begin with the 1861 edition's table of contents.

(fleursdumal.org)

Misc Baudelaire Flowers of Evil

Florida's Social Media Backdoor Bill Fails

2025-05-09

Florida's Social Media Backdoor Bill Fails

A Florida bill mandating social media companies provide law enforcement with an encryption backdoor to access user accounts and private messages has been defeated. The bill, which required a decryption mechanism for end-to-end encryption upon receiving a subpoena, was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn in the House after the Senate had voted in its favor. Digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation condemned the bill as dangerous and ill-conceived, arguing that secure backdoors are impossible to create without risking malicious exploitation and increasing vulnerabilities to data breaches. The bill's failure highlights concerns over user privacy and the challenges of balancing security with law enforcement access.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech

Geometric Frustration: The Secret to the Rose's Shape

2025-05-09

Geometric Frustration: The Secret to the Rose's Shape

Physicists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered the mechanical secret behind the rose's iconic shape. Their research, published in Science, reveals that the unique morphology of rose petals is driven by 'Mainardi-Codazzi-Peterson incompatibility,' a geometric frustration. This incompatibility prevents petals from achieving their ideal smooth curve, resulting in the multiple curls and sharp edges we see. The team used a combination of theoretical analysis, computer modeling, and physical experiments to unravel this mechanism, potentially paving the way for new shape-morphing materials.

(phys.org)

Tech rose

Essential Document Templates for High-Performing Teams

2025-05-09

Essential Document Templates for High-Performing Teams

This article presents a collection of essential document templates designed to foster effective teamwork. These templates cover decision documentation, retrospectives, strategic planning, project tracking, problem investigations, one-on-one reports, all-hands meeting slides, and role clarification. The goal is to improve team cohesion, refine processes, and clarify responsibilities, ultimately boosting team efficiency and collaboration. These templates are practical tools beneficial for teams of all sizes and project scopes.

(www.templatesbypaul.com)

Development document templates

The Electrifying History of the Humble Eraser

2025-05-09

The Electrifying History of the Humble Eraser

This article traces the fascinating evolution of the eraser, from its humble beginnings using bread crumbs to erase pencil marks, to the advent of electrically powered erasers. The story highlights how technological advancements impacted even the simplest everyday tools. It explores the design and usage of erasers across different eras, touches upon the debate surrounding the invention of the electric eraser, and ultimately concludes that despite the digital age, the eraser retains its creative and design value as a tool.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Misc

Graphcore Unveils Pizza-Box-Sized AI Supercomputer: The M2000

2025-05-09

UK AI chip startup Graphcore has announced its second-generation AI processor, the GC200, and its accompanying computing platform, the M2000. The M2000 is touted as the first AI computer to achieve a petaflop of processing power in a pizza-box-sized form factor. Each GC200 chip boasts 59.4 billion transistors, and the M2000 utilizes four of these chips. Graphcore claims scalability up to 64,000 IPUs, resulting in a potential 16 exaflops of computing power. The M2000 is currently shipping to early access customers and is expected to see broader deployment by the end of the year across various AI applications in finance, healthcare, technology, and more.

(www.graphcore.ai)

Tech

The Twilight of the Dollar? Harvard Economist Predicts a Decline

2025-05-09

The Twilight of the Dollar? Harvard Economist Predicts a Decline

Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff, in his new book "Our Dollar, Your Problem," predicts a decline in the U.S. dollar's global dominance. While arguing the dollar will remain the premier currency in global finance, its uniqueness will be less pronounced. Rogoff weaves together personal anecdotes and macroeconomic analysis to explore the rise and fall of dollar hegemony, citing factors such as the U.S. fiscal deficit, declining Federal Reserve independence, and efforts by other nations to de-dollarize as accelerating this trend. He posits that the waning of dollar dominance will have profound implications for the U.S. and the global economy, including higher interest rates and increased economic risks.

(news.harvard.edu)

Tech US Dollar

Newark Airport Suffers Second Radar Outage in Weeks, Causing Widespread Delays

2025-05-09

Newark Airport Suffers Second Radar Outage in Weeks, Causing Widespread Delays

Just days after a brief outage crippled radar and communications at Newark Liberty International Airport, a similar incident occurred on Friday morning. A telecommunications outage lasting 90 seconds impacted communications and radar displays at the Philadelphia TRACON, affecting Newark's airspace. The FAA attributes the issue to a July 2022 change consolidating radar and radio communication to a single data feed from New York. The agency plans to replace the copper connection with fiber, add high-bandwidth connections, and hire more controllers. A new backup system is also being deployed. Hundreds of flights were delayed, highlighting the airport's aging control system and staffing shortages. The stress of repeated outages led some controllers to take leave.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech flight delays

Swift 6.2: Concurrency Refinements and Practical Enhancements

2025-05-09

Swift 6.2: Concurrency Refinements and Practical Enhancements

Swift 6.2 is a massive release, boasting a plethora of additions and improvements, with a significant focus on refining Swift concurrency and adding practical features. The update simplifies the concurrency learning curve; for example, the `-default-isolation MainActor` compiler flag allows developers to default to running code on the main actor, switching to concurrency only when necessary. Other highlights include raw identifiers, default values in string interpolation, `enumerated()` conforming to `Collection`, and significant boosts to Swift Testing with exit tests and attachments. These enhancements promise to make Swift development more efficient and user-friendly.

(www.hackingwithswift.com)

Development Language Improvements

Whoop 5.0 Upgrade: Free Hardware Promises Broken, Users Revolt

2025-05-09

Whoop 5.0 Upgrade: Free Hardware Promises Broken, Users Revolt

Fitness tracker company Whoop is facing backlash after announcing its new Whoop 5.0, contradicting its previous promise of free hardware upgrades for existing members. The company initially stated that members with at least six months of membership would receive free upgrades; however, users now face a fee to upgrade from the Whoop 4.0 to the 5.0. This policy change has angered many users, who accuse Whoop of misleading them. The controversy highlights the pitfalls of subscription models, particularly when promises are broken, and follows similar incidents with Garmin and Oura. Whoop's subscription model, where the hardware is presented as 'free' but bundled with a high annual fee, is also under scrutiny.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Fitness Tracker

The Math Notebook: A Powerful Tool for Kids

2025-05-09

The Math Notebook: A Powerful Tool for Kids

This article explores the surprising benefits of having kids keep a dedicated math notebook. More than just a place to do homework, a well-chosen notebook becomes a record of progress, a repository of solved problems, and a source of encouragement. The author shares practical advice on notebook size, page style, and even naming the notebook to foster a sense of ownership. Beyond the practical aspects, the article highlights the emotional value of tracking a child's mathematical journey, building confidence and a love of learning.

(kidswholovemath.substack.com)

Misc learning habits

BART Station Closure Sparks Commuter Chaos Amidst Financial Crisis

2025-05-09

BART Station Closure Sparks Commuter Chaos Amidst Financial Crisis

A BART station closure in San Francisco's Mission District caused significant disruption to morning commuters. Riders expressed frustration over rising fares and declining service quality. BART is facing a financial crisis due to decreased ridership post-pandemic and a ballooning deficit, potentially leading to service cuts. State senators have proposed a sales tax measure for the 2026 ballot to address BART's funding issues.

(www.kqed.org)

Tech Public Transportation

Reverse Engineering Unearths 28-Year-Old Secrets in 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park'

2025-05-09

Reverse Engineering Unearths 28-Year-Old Secrets in 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park'

A reverse engineer used the Ghidra tool to analyze the password system of the 1997 game 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park', successfully replicating it and discovering previously unknown cheat codes. These codes unlock a stage select screen, invincibility mode, and two photo galleries. Hundreds of thousands of valid passwords (with duplicate effects) were also found for the PlayStation version. This research reveals previously unknown secrets within the game's development and showcases the power of reverse engineering.

(32bits.substack.com)

Game game cheat codes password system

37signals Ditches AWS, Saves $1.3M Annually

2025-05-09

37signals Ditches AWS, Saves $1.3M Annually

Software company 37signals, creators of Basecamp and HEY, has successfully migrated its data from AWS to on-premise storage, projecting annual savings of $1.3 million. This follows a previous migration of compute workloads, resulting in $2 million in annual savings. The company moved 18PB of data from AWS S3 to Pure Storage, with AWS waiving $250,000 in egress fees. Upon completion, 37signals will close its AWS account, saving $1.5 million annually on S3 storage. Overall infrastructure costs will drop from $3.2 million annually to under $1 million on-premise, without additional staff.

(www.theregister.com)

Development

Unlocking Tabular Data for LLMs: A Mechanical Distillation Approach

2025-05-09

Unlocking Tabular Data for LLMs: A Mechanical Distillation Approach

Large language models (LLMs) excel at processing text and images, but struggle with tabular data. Currently, LLMs primarily rely on published statistical summaries, failing to fully leverage the knowledge within tabular datasets like survey data. This article proposes a novel approach using mechanical distillation techniques to create univariate, bivariate, and multivariate summaries. This is augmented by prompting the LLM to suggest relevant questions and learn from the data. The three-step pipeline involves understanding data structure, identifying question types, and generating mechanical summaries and visualizations. The authors suggest this approach can enhance Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and supplement potentially biased 'world knowledge', recommending starting with scientific paper repositories (like Harvard Dataverse) and administrative data for validation.

(www.gojiberries.io)

AI Tabular Data Knowledge Extraction

lsds: A One-Stop Shop for Linux Block Device Settings

2025-05-09

Managing disks and I/O on Linux often involves running multiple commands like lsblk, lsscsi, and nvme list, then manually correlating their output. To streamline this, a Python program called `lsds` was created. It directly reads information from the `/sys/class/blocks/...` directories, consolidating key disk details into a single, easy-to-read output. This includes device name, size, type, scheduler, rotational flag, model, queue depth, number of requests, and write cache settings. `lsds` is highly customizable, allowing users to specify which columns to display and providing a verbose mode for tracing information sources. This tool significantly simplifies the complexity of managing Linux disks.

(tanelpoder.com)

Development disk management system tool

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