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DeepGEMM: Clean and Efficient FP8 GEMM Kernels with Fine-Grained Scaling

2025-02-26

DeepGEMM: Clean and Efficient FP8 GEMM Kernels with Fine-Grained Scaling

DeepGEMM is a library for clean and efficient FP8 General Matrix Multiplications (GEMMs) on NVIDIA Hopper Tensor Cores, featuring fine-grained scaling as proposed in DeepSeek-V3. Supporting both normal and Mix-of-Experts (MoE) grouped GEMMs, it uses a lightweight Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler, eliminating the need for compilation during installation. It tackles the imprecision of FP8 tensor core accumulation via CUDA-core two-level accumulation (promotion). Despite its concise design (~300 lines of core code), DeepGEMM's performance matches or surpasses expert-tuned libraries across various matrix shapes.

(github.com)

Development

Nationwide Blackout Plunges Chile into Darkness

2025-02-26

Nationwide Blackout Plunges Chile into Darkness

A massive blackout hit Chile on Tuesday, leaving millions without power and causing widespread disruption. The outage, affecting 14 of Chile's 16 regions, was caused by a disruption in a high-voltage transmission line from the Atacama Desert to Santiago. The incident led to transport chaos, business closures, and the suspension of Santiago's subway system. Authorities are working to restore power and have activated backup generators in essential services like hospitals and prisons.

(apnews.com)

Tech Blackout Power Outage

Framework Expands Beyond Laptops: Desktops and a Student-Focused Convertible Arrive

2025-02-26

Framework Expands Beyond Laptops: Desktops and a Student-Focused Convertible Arrive

Framework unveiled its second-generation products, including an updated Framework Laptop 13 with AMD Ryzen AI 300, a 4.5-liter Mini-ITX desktop powered by Ryzen AI Max and Radeon 8060S graphics, and a new 12-inch convertible laptop aimed at students. The desktop, a significant expansion into a new market, emphasizes customizability and boasts 1440p gaming capabilities. The company highlights the repairability and modularity characteristic of its previous laptops across its new lineup. Prices range from $899 to $1999.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Hardware

EdgeDB Rebrands as Gel, Embraces PostgreSQL Ecosystem

2025-02-26

EdgeDB Rebrands as Gel, Embraces PostgreSQL Ecosystem

EdgeDB, a database startup, has rebranded as Gel and announced that its 6.0 release fully supports SQL, natively supporting the PostgreSQL protocol. Gel positions itself as a frontend layer for PostgreSQL, similar to TypeScript for JavaScript, enhancing data schema and query efficiency via intelligent compilers. The rebranding aims for greater clarity and simplicity, better integrating with the thriving PostgreSQL ecosystem. Gel 6.0 marks a significant shift from solely supporting its proprietary EdgeQL query language to embracing SQL, broadening its appeal and lowering the barrier to entry.

(www.geldata.com)

Development

DoorDash to Pay $16.75M to Drivers Over Tip Misuse

2025-02-25

DoorDash to Pay $16.75M to Drivers Over Tip Misuse

DoorDash will pay $16.75 million to over 60,000 drivers in New York after a lawsuit alleging the company misused tips. Between 2017 and 2019, DoorDash allegedly used tips to subsidize its guaranteed minimum wage, keeping the difference. While the company claimed drivers received 100% of tips, the lawsuit argued this was misleading as tips were factored into the base pay. This deceptive practice is finally being addressed, with eligible drivers set to receive compensation.

(gizmodo.com)

Tech Tip Dispute Legal Settlement

Warner Bros. Discovery Axes Game Studios, Cancels Wonder Woman Game

2025-02-25

Warner Bros. Discovery Axes Game Studios, Cancels Wonder Woman Game

Warner Bros. Discovery announced sweeping cuts to its games division, shutting down three studios and canceling the planned Wonder Woman game. Monolith Productions (creators of the Middle-earth: Shadow games), Player First Games (developers of the struggling MultiVersus), and WB Games San Diego were all closed due to a disappointing 2024 performance. The company will now focus on four core franchises: Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC, and Game of Thrones, shifting to a strategy of 'fewer but bigger franchises'.

(www.engadget.com)

Game

The Ephemeral Web: Preserving Your Digital Legacy

2025-02-25

The Ephemeral Web: Preserving Your Digital Legacy

Online content is fleeting. This article highlights the importance of preserving digital information and advocates for using plain text Markdown files as a robust solution. Markdown's readability, cross-platform compatibility, and long-term accessibility are key advantages. The author shares personal strategies, including using Obsidian for note-taking, static site generators for blogging, and automated Python scripts for content conversion. Regular backups and data downloads are emphasized, alongside a call for better social media data export tools.

(p.migdal.pl)

Misc

Qualcomm Extends Android Software Updates to Eight Years

2025-02-25

Qualcomm Extends Android Software Updates to Eight Years

Qualcomm announced a partnership with Google to provide up to eight years of Android software and security updates for devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the next five generations of Snapdragon 8 and 7-series chips. This will enable OEMs to more easily provide longer-term updates for their devices, reducing costs and improving user experience. While ultimate update decisions rest with manufacturers, this initiative promotes longer device lifespans, starting with Snapdragon 8 Elite phones launching with Android 15.

(9to5google.com)

Tech Android updates Snapdragon 8 Elite

MyCoder: Command-Line AI Coding Assistant That Handles Any Coding Challenge

2025-02-25

MyCoder: Command-Line AI Coding Assistant That Handles Any Coding Challenge

MyCoder is a powerful command-line based AI agent system capable of performing arbitrary tasks, with a particular focus on coding tasks. It uses a modular tool-based architecture to interact with files, execute commands, make network requests, and spawn sub-agents for parallel task execution. With an Anthropic API key, MyCoder can fix build errors, update dependencies, refactor code, add new features, and much more. It supports interactive mode and reading prompts from files, and features smart logging and self-modification capabilities. MyCoder leverages the Claude API and uses Conventional Commits and GitHub Actions for CI/CD.

(github.com)

Development

The Secret of Static Electricity: Contact History Holds the Key

2025-02-25

The Secret of Static Electricity: Contact History Holds the Key

Researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have solved a centuries-old mystery surrounding static electricity. They discovered that the contact history of materials dictates how they exchange charge, explaining the long-observed unpredictability of contact electrification. Repeated contact smooths the material's surface at a nanoscopic level, altering its charging behavior. This breakthrough reveals order within the seemingly chaotic phenomenon of static electricity, offering crucial insights into electricity and electrostatics.

(phys.org)

Tech static electricity contact history

AI Blurs the Lines: PMs Become the New Engineers?

2025-02-25

AI Blurs the Lines: PMs Become the New Engineers?

The core of AI applications lies in prompt engineering, yet surprisingly, many companies entrust prompt creation to product managers, not engineers. This sparks an intriguing trend: AI is blurring the lines between product managers and engineers. Simple LLM applications merely require choosing a base model and a prompt template, while complex ones incorporate structures like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) or agents. Almost all AI applications follow the same structure; their behavior is determined not by code but by prompts, tool selection, and the base model. This makes excellent prompt engineers crucial, and PMs and domain experts often excel at prompt engineering over software engineers. Prompt engineering will remain vital, with PMs, not engineers, driving AI success in the future. AI is eating software engineering, automating coding tasks first, making the PM role even more critical due to their understanding of user needs and product shaping. The traditional boundary between product and engineering might vanish, with top AI teams needing individuals bridging the gap between both roles.

(humanloop.com)

AI Product Managers

AI Chatbots in the Workplace: Adoption and Impact

2025-02-25

AI Chatbots in the Workplace: Adoption and Impact

A survey reveals that only a small percentage of workers regularly use AI chatbots, with younger (18-29) and postgraduate-educated individuals showing higher adoption rates. Common uses include research, content editing, and report writing. While 40% of users find AI chatbots highly efficient, a majority (69%) have never used them, citing lack of need or interest. Employer attitudes are largely neutral, with encouragement limited to certain sectors like information technology and finance.

(www.pewresearch.org)

Tech AI chatbots workplace adoption

Mars' Red Dust: A Wetter History Than We Thought

2025-02-25

Mars' Red Dust: A Wetter History Than We Thought

New research combining data from ESA and NASA spacecraft with lab experiments reveals that Mars' iconic red dust has a much wetter history than previously believed. Scientists found that the red color, caused by rusted iron minerals, formed early in Mars' history when liquid water was more abundant. This challenges previous assumptions and suggests Mars rusted earlier than thought, implying a longer period with surface water—a crucial factor in the search for past life on the planet.

(www.esa.int)

Tech iron oxide liquid water

Capital Letters Make Smaller QR Codes: A URL Encoding Mystery

2025-02-25

Capital Letters Make Smaller QR Codes: A URL Encoding Mystery

Two QR codes pointing to the same URL, one larger than the other. Why? The answer isn't error correction, but encoding mode. A URL in all capital letters uses the more compact alphanumeric mode, while lowercase uses byte mode, leading to data redundancy and a larger QR code. This highlights the impact of character set choices in URL encoding on QR code size. For the smallest QR code, use uppercase letters.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech QR code URL encoding

LLMs: The Illusion of Accuracy – A Balancing Act Between Precision and Practicality

2025-02-25

LLMs: The Illusion of Accuracy – A Balancing Act Between Precision and Practicality

This article explores the limitations of large language models (LLMs) in data retrieval. Using OpenAI's Deep Research as an example, the author points out its inaccuracies when dealing with problems requiring precise data, even showing discrepancies in OpenAI's own marketing materials. The author argues that while LLMs excel at handling ambiguous queries, they underperform in precise data retrieval, inherent to their nature as probabilistic rather than deterministic models. Although LLMs aid in efficiency, their unpredictable error rate complicates building applications reliant on them. The author concludes that the LLM field is fiercely competitive, lacks a moat, and its future direction remains uncertain.

(www.ben-evans.com)

AI Data Retrieval

Midlife Career Change: Don't Wait to Knit Your Parachute

2025-02-25

The author shares their personal journey of a successful midlife career change from a 30-year legal career to full-time work with MacSparky. They didn't plan the transition, but by pursuing interests like writing and podcasting, they unknowingly built a foundation for a new career. The author stresses that even without a clear plan, cultivating interests, exploring new skills, and networking early are crucial for future possibilities. Having options, even if unused, is beneficial.

(www.macsparky.com)

Misc career change career planning

HEXUS Forums to Close Due to UK Online Safety Act

2025-02-25

The HEXUS forums are shutting down or transitioning to read-only mode due to the impending full implementation of the UK's 2023 Online Safety Act. The act requires significant work that the forums currently lack the resources to undertake. This marks the end of a once-vibrant community, a decision lamented by the announcement. Thanks are extended to the site's admins and members for their contributions.

(forums.hexus.net)

Misc Forum Closure

Bald Eagle's Triumphant Return: A Conservation Success Story

2025-02-25

Bald Eagle's Triumphant Return: A Conservation Success Story

The American bald eagle, once on the brink of extinction, has staged a remarkable comeback. Its resurgence is a testament to successful conservation efforts, including the ban on DDT, habitat preservation, and innovative techniques like artificial incubation. From a single nesting pair in New Jersey in the 1980s, the population has soared to nearly 300 active nests in the state alone. While threats like habitat loss, pollution, and avian flu remain, the bald eagle's recovery serves as an inspiring example of environmental conservation.

(www.newsweek.com)

Tech bald eagle environmental success

ggwave: A Tiny Data-over-Sound Library

2025-02-25

ggwave: A Tiny Data-over-Sound Library

ggwave is a lightweight open-source library enabling communication of small amounts of data between air-gapped devices using sound. It employs a simple FSK-based transmission protocol with a bandwidth of 8-16 bytes/sec, incorporating error correction codes for robust demodulation. Applications range from IoT and audio QR codes to device pairing. The library is cross-platform, offering examples and easy installation across various systems. Users can leverage different audio backends based on their needs.

(github.com)

Development data transmission

Framework's First All-in-One Mini PC: Powerful, But Not Upgradable

2025-02-25

Framework's First All-in-One Mini PC: Powerful, But Not Upgradable

Framework has launched its first all-in-one mini PC, boasting a compact 4.5-liter chassis, comparable to a game console. Powered by Ryzen AI Max processors and starting with 32GB of RAM, it's capable of 1440p gaming and workstation tasks. Pricing starts at $1099, topping out at $1999 for the highest configuration. While offering strong performance at a relatively competitive price, its soldered CPU, GPU, and RAM make it non-upgradeable – a significant departure from Framework's usual modular design philosophy.

(arstechnica.com)

Hardware mini PC

Web Interaction Paradigm Shift: Invoker Commands Explained

2025-02-25

This explainer details a new proposal for web interaction: Invoker Commands. By adding `commandfor` and `command` attributes to `` elements, it assigns behavior to buttons in a more accessible and declarative way, reducing the amount of JavaScript required. The proposal defines a `CommandEvent`, allowing developers to customize interactions. Built-in support for `` and `` elements is included, with a focus on accessibility and security. It also supports custom commands and provides ample example code demonstrating how to simplify web interaction development using this proposal.

(open-ui.org)

Development

Women Live Longer Than Men: A Global Phenomenon

2025-02-25

Women Live Longer Than Men: A Global Phenomenon

Data from the UN's World Population Prospects reveals a global trend: women consistently outlive men. A chart visualizing 2023 life expectancy data for all countries shows women's life expectancy exceeding men's across the board. While slightly more boys are born, higher male mortality rates throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood contribute to this disparity. This article explores the reasons behind this intriguing phenomenon.

(ourworldindata.org)

Misc life expectancy gap gender disparity demographics

A Glimpse into the Future of Browser-Based Python: Introducing SPy

2025-02-25

A Glimpse into the Future of Browser-Based Python: Introducing SPy

To overcome the speed limitations of Python in the browser, engineers from Anaconda and Cloudflare developed SPy. SPy isn't a simple Python port; it's a new language allowing a mix of compile-time and runtime code (blue and red code, respectively). Blue code, resembling Python, enables pre-computation at compile time, dramatically boosting performance. SPy code can be interpreted or compiled to C, then further compiled into native binaries or WebAssembly. A generative art demo showcased a 100x speed improvement by migrating from PyScript to SPy. While in early stages, SPy demonstrates impressive potential, promising near-Rust speeds for native Python execution in browsers in the future.

(lukasz.langa.pl)

Development

Illinois Supreme Court Rules Against Public Access to Database Schemas

2025-02-25

A battle over public access to government databases reached the Illinois Supreme Court. Civic hacker Matt Chapman sought the schema of Chicago's CANVAS parking ticket database via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The city argued releasing the schema would jeopardize security. The court sided with the city, ruling that database schemas are exempt under FOIA. This decision raises concerns about government transparency and access to public data in the digital age, prompting calls for legislative changes.

(sockpuppet.org)

Tech Database Security Government Transparency

Amazon S3: Lessons Learned from 17 Years of Building a Massive Storage System

2025-02-25

Amazon S3: Lessons Learned from 17 Years of Building a Massive Storage System

This post summarizes Andy Warfield's keynote address at USENIX FAST ‘23, where he discussed the three perspectives on scale involved in building and operating a storage system the size of Amazon S3. Warfield shares his six-year experience at S3, covering everything from hard disk mechanics to customer experience. He details technical challenges like managing millions of hard drives, addressing hotspots, and leveraging replication and erasure coding for durability and performance. The article also highlights the importance of 'ownership', empowering teams to make decisions and foster innovation. A valuable read for anyone interested in large-scale distributed storage systems.

(www.allthingsdistributed.com)

Tech

Low-Overhead Statistical Memory Profiling in PyPy: Integrating VMProf and the GC

2025-02-25

This blog post describes a novel approach to low-overhead statistical memory profiling for PyPy. Instead of recording every allocation, it samples every nth allocated byte, cleverly integrating the sampling logic into PyPy's garbage collector's (GC) bump pointer allocator check. This ensures the fast path remains identical with and without memory sampling, minimizing overhead. Experiments demonstrate good performance across various sampling rates, offering finer control and lower overhead for memory profiling.

(pypy.org)

Development memory profiling

Senator Urges FTC to Enforce Transparency in Digital Goods Sales

2025-02-25

Senator Urges FTC to Enforce Transparency in Digital Goods Sales

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has written to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, urging the commission to mandate that companies clarify whether consumers truly own digital goods like ebooks or video games. Wyden argues consumers deserve to know license durations, conditions for expiration or revocation, and transferability or resale rights. He calls for clear disclosure before and at the point of sale, ensuring consumers understand what they're purchasing and the guarantees involved. This follows common practices where consumers only license access, not ownership, leading to potential loss of access due to account bans or platform changes. California already prohibits using words like "buy" without disclosing licensing details, a change that prompted Valve to update its Steam checkout. Wyden emphasizes the need for FTC guidance to protect consumers and ensure fair practices.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech digital goods

LLMs: The Unexpected Success of Document Ranking

2025-02-25

LLMs: The Unexpected Success of Document Ranking

This paper argues that Large Language Models (LLMs) can be effectively used for listwise document ranking, and that surprisingly, some complex problems can be solved by transforming them into document ranking problems. The author demonstrates this by using patch diffing to locate N-day vulnerabilities. By reframing the problem as ranking diffs (documents) by their relevance to a security advisory (query), LLMs can efficiently pinpoint the specific function fixing a vulnerability. This technique has been validated at multiple security conferences and can be applied to other security problems such as fuzzing target selection and prioritization. Future improvements include analyzing ranked results and generating verifiable evidence, such as automatically generating testable proof-of-concept exploits.

(noperator.dev)

Development Document Ranking Vulnerability Discovery

ChatGPT Becomes Default Safari Search Engine via New Extension

2025-02-25

ChatGPT Becomes Default Safari Search Engine via New Extension

OpenAI updated its ChatGPT app with a new Safari extension, enabling users to set ChatGPT Search as their default search engine in Safari. After updating the app, users can enable the extension in Safari settings. All searches typed into the Safari search bar will then be directed to ChatGPT Search instead of Google or their current default. While there's no option to directly set ChatGPT as a preferred search engine, the extension offers a workaround.

(www.macrumors.com)

Tech Safari Extension Default Search Engine

OCaml's Powerhouse Ecosystem: Dune & Essential Libraries

2025-02-25

OCaml's Powerhouse Ecosystem: Dune & Essential Libraries

This article showcases key components of the robust OCaml ecosystem. Dune (formerly Jbuilder) is a composable build system; Base replaces OCaml's standard library for improved performance and portability; Core extends Base with enhanced functionality; Async enables asynchronous programming; Bonsai builds declarative, incremental state machines; Incremental facilitates self-adjusting computations; Base_quickcheck provides randomized, property-based testing; and Patdiff is a diff tool optimized for code and config files. Together, these libraries form a powerful foundation for OCaml development, boosting efficiency and code quality.

(opensource.janestreet.com)

Development

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