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Visualizing Joyce's Ulysses: A Graphic Score for 'Sirens'

2025-01-12

Artist Emily Fuhrman presents a visualization of the structure of James Joyce's Ulysses, specifically the 'Sirens' episode, as a musical fugue. She tracks and classifies 99 recurring words and syllables as leitmotifs, arranging them in a graphic score based on their distance from a root sound. This interactive project visualizes how these sounds evoke the sensory presence of different characters at different times.

(emilyfuhrman.co)

Design literary analysis interactive art

uv: A Killer Feature You Should Know About

2025-01-12

uv isn't just a fast Python package manager; it boasts a killer feature: simplified dependency management. Need Pandas in your Python REPL? Just one command, `uv run --python 3.12 --with pandas python`, eliminates the need for virtual environments or Python version switching. This makes ad-hoc scripting and experimenting with different Python versions incredibly smooth.

(valatka.dev)

Development package manager

Building the World's Best Product Engineering Org: Six Key Elements

2025-01-12

This article is a transcript of James Shore's keynote presentation at the Regional Scrum Gathering Tokyo conference, exploring how to build a world-class product engineering organization. He proposes six key elements: People, Internal Quality, Lovability, Visibility, Agility, and Profitability. The article details how to achieve these goals through improved hiring strategies, enhanced code quality, fast feedback loops, agile methodologies, and collaboration with other departments, emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement. Through case studies and practical experience, the author shares valuable insights, providing guidance for building efficient and excellent product engineering teams.

(www.jamesshore.com)

Development product engineering

New LLM Jailbreak Exploits Models' Evaluation Skills

2025-01-12

New LLM Jailbreak Exploits Models' Evaluation Skills

Researchers have discovered a novel LLM jailbreak technique, dubbed "Bad Likert Judge." This method leverages LLMs' ability to identify harmful content by prompting them to score such content and then requesting examples, thus generating outputs related to malware, illegal activities, harassment, and more. Tested on six state-of-the-art models across 1440 cases, the average success rate was 71.6%, reaching as high as 87.6%. The researchers recommend that maintainers of LLM applications utilize content filters to mitigate such attacks.

(www.scworld.com)

Tech LLM security jailbreak

Tabby: Your Self-Hosted AI Coding Assistant

2025-01-12

Tabby: Your Self-Hosted AI Coding Assistant

Tabby is an open-source, self-hosted AI coding assistant offering a local alternative to GitHub Copilot. It's self-contained, requiring no DBMS or cloud service, features an OpenAPI interface for easy integration, and supports consumer-grade GPUs. Recent updates include Llamafile deployment integration, an enhanced Answer Engine user experience, the ability to switch between different backend chat models in the Answer Engine, and displaying recently shared threads on the main page. It also boasts IDE plugins and enterprise features like team management and secured access.

(github.com)

Development AI coding assistant

Sugary Drinks Linked to Millions of Heart Disease and Diabetes Cases

2025-01-12

Sugary Drinks Linked to Millions of Heart Disease and Diabetes Cases

A new study reveals a shocking link between sugary drinks and millions of new cases of diabetes and heart disease annually. Over 2.2 million new diabetes cases and 1.1 million new heart disease cases are attributed to the consumption of sugary beverages each year. The problem is particularly acute in low- and middle-income countries, where these drinks are aggressively marketed and often more accessible than healthier alternatives. Latin America and the Caribbean saw nearly 24% of new type 2 diabetes cases in 2020 linked to sugary drinks, while sub-Saharan Africa experienced the highest percentage increase in diabetes cases over three decades, with sugary drinks contributing to 21% of new diabetes cases and 11% of heart disease cases. The health risks stem from the high sugar content and lack of nutritional value, leading to blood sugar spikes, weight gain, insulin resistance, and increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Solutions include public health campaigns, taxes on sugary drinks, and stricter advertising regulations, as seen in Mexico's successful sugar tax implementation in 2014. However, much more action is needed, especially in regions like Latin America and Africa where the impact is most severe.

(bgr.com)

Tech Sugary Drinks Heart Disease

The 46 Best Pens of 2025: JetPens' Ultimate Guide

2025-01-12

JetPens released their ultimate guide to the 46 best pens of 2025, a comprehensive review covering various pen types, from beginner-friendly to luxury options, including ballpoint, gel, rollerball, and fountain pens. Each pen is meticulously tested and compared based on factors like writing smoothness, ink quality, durability, and suitability for different writing styles and purposes (note-taking, art, calligraphy, etc.). The guide highlights top picks like the versatile Uni Jetstream, the beginner-friendly Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen, and the precise Sakura Pigma Micron. Complete with visuals and videos, this guide is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking the perfect pen.

(www.jetpens.com)

Misc pens writing instruments

Smoothly Handling Leap Seconds: A Company-Wide 'Time Deception'

2025-01-12

In 2015, the author's company faced the risk of system crashes due to a leap second. To avoid a repeat of past failures, the author cleverly designed a 'time deception' system. Over 20 hours before the leap second, the system slowly adjusted the time on all company devices, making them one second behind world standard time, thus smoothly navigating the leap second. This process required precise calculation of time offsets and multiple tests, ultimately preventing system failures. This demonstrates the author's superior technical skills and creative problem-solving abilities.

(rachelbythebay.com)

Tech leap second system maintenance

56-Byte Assembly Snake Game

2025-01-12

56-Byte Assembly Snake Game

A developer on GitHub has open-sourced a remarkably compact Snake game written in assembly language, clocking in at a mere 56 bytes. This minimal game runs not only under DOS, but also without a BIOS, bootloader, or operating system. The developer compressed the code to this incredibly small size and provides both an online demo and a self-hosting version. The project has sparked discussions about code minimization and game development, with comparisons to other similar projects highlighting its significant advantage in code size.

(github.com)

Game code minimization

Getty Center: A Fortress Against the Flames

2025-01-12

During the 2019 Getty Fire, the Getty Center proved its mettle as the safest place for art and archives. Built with fire-resistant stone, concrete, and steel, its design incorporates wide-open plazas and meticulously landscaped grounds to slow fire spread. Inside, state-of-the-art air filtration and fire separations ensure internal safety, while a one-million-gallon water tank provides ample fire suppression. Year-round fire safety drills and preparedness ensured the protection of both art and personnel.

(www.getty.edu)

Tech fire safety art preservation Getty Center

LinkedIn: The Anonymous Whistleblower Platform for Workplace Bullying?

2025-01-12

LinkedIn: The Anonymous Whistleblower Platform for Workplace Bullying?

A growing number of employees are bypassing HR and publicly sharing their experiences of workplace bullying on LinkedIn. Lawyer Stefanie Costi's post, viewed millions of times, exposed the prevalent toxic work culture, the ineffectiveness of HR departments, and the struggles employees face in seeking help. The article explores the reasons behind this phenomenon and how employees, HR, and companies should address workplace toxicity. Some experts warn that public complaints may backfire, suggesting employees try internal channels first; others argue that LinkedIn has become a vital community platform, allowing employees to support each other and drive improvements in the workplace environment.

(www.businessinsider.com)

Misc Workplace Bullying

Donut.c on a Chip: Minimalist 3D Rendering with Shifts and Adds

2025-01-12

Donut.c on a Chip: Minimalist 3D Rendering with Shifts and Adds

This project details the porting of the classic donut.c program to a tiny ASIC, achieving 3D donut rendering using only shifts and adds, eliminating the need for multiplication. Leveraging CORDIC and ray marching, a 4-tile design was submitted to Tiny Tapeout 8, resulting in a hardware implementation on a 130nm chip. Resource constraints lead to a rough, polygonal rendering, showcasing the elegance of minimalist hardware design.

(www.a1k0n.net)

Hardware Hardware rendering CORDIC algorithm

Zuckerberg's U-Turn and the Death of Tech Culture

2025-01-12

Zuckerberg's U-Turn and the Death of Tech Culture

Dan McKinley criticizes Mark Zuckerberg's recent about-face, arguing that his hostility towards employees and tolerance of hate speech on his platforms represent a 'boss revolt' against workers in the tech industry. He reflects on the once-popular 'happy workplace' culture in tech, such as hack weeks, rotations, and 20% time, arguing these weren't just perks, but tools to boost employee morale, foster knowledge sharing and innovation, ultimately increasing productivity. McKinley contends that prioritizing efficiency at the expense of employee happiness and engagement is short-sighted and ultimately detrimental to long-term company success. He suggests that a healthy, happy workforce is both an end in itself and a means to a more productive and innovative company.

(mcfunley.com)

Tech tech culture employee morale Zuckerberg

Protein Powder Contamination: Lead and Cadmium Levels Shock Researchers

2025-01-12

Protein Powder Contamination: Lead and Cadmium Levels Shock Researchers

A new investigation reveals alarming levels of lead and cadmium in many commercially available protein powders, with organic, plant-based, and chocolate-flavored products showing the highest contamination. The Clean Label Project's report found that organic protein powders contained three times more lead and twice the cadmium compared to non-organic options; plant-based powders had three times more lead than whey-based products; and chocolate-flavored powders contained four times more lead and up to 110 times more cadmium than vanilla-flavored ones. Nearly half of the 160 protein powder samples tested exceeded California's Proposition 65 safety limits. Consumers are advised to choose pea protein powders or whey/egg-based vanilla protein powders and to actively inquire about contaminant levels from brands.

(www.wqow.com)

Health protein powder heavy metal contamination

The Case for Letting Malibu Burn: A Controversial Look at Wildfires and Reconstruction

2025-01-12

The Case for Letting Malibu Burn: A Controversial Look at Wildfires and Reconstruction

This article delves into the recurring wildfire disasters in Malibu, California. Malibu's unique geography and vegetation make it highly susceptible to fires, and long-standing fire suppression efforts have paradoxically led to fuel accumulation, resulting in more catastrophic blazes. Tracing Malibu's history from early Spanish colonial times to its modern development as a wealthy enclave, the article highlights the conflict between human activity and natural disasters. The author questions the wisdom of rebuilding in high-risk areas and points out the fallacy of focusing solely on fire suppression rather than preventative measures.

(longreads.com)

Misc

From Prison to Firefighter: A Second Chance

2025-01-12

From Prison to Firefighter: A Second Chance

A California nonprofit is tackling the challenge of employing formerly incarcerated firefighters, aiming to expand the profession and address workforce shortages. The organization provides crucial support, including certifications, job application assistance, and tech literacy training, even helping with record expungement. The founder, Royal Ramey, a former inmate himself, shares his journey from prison fire camp to a successful firefighting career. He highlights the need to overcome biases within the industry and advocates for increased funding for nonprofits working to integrate formerly incarcerated individuals into the firefighting workforce, especially given the growing demand due to climate change and increasingly frequent wildfires.

(www.npr.org)

Misc firefighters

SemHash: Blazing Fast Semantic Text Deduplication

2025-01-12

SemHash: Blazing Fast Semantic Text Deduplication

SemHash is a lightweight and flexible tool for deduplicating datasets using semantic similarity. It combines fast embedding generation from Model2Vec with efficient ANN-based similarity search through Vicinity. SemHash supports both single-dataset and multi-dataset deduplication and handles simple datasets like text lists and complex ones like multi-column QA datasets. It includes functions to inspect deduplication results, making it easier to understand and refine your data cleaning process. Benchmarks show SemHash is extremely fast and scales to large datasets with millions of records.

(github.com)

Development text deduplication semantic similarity data cleaning

Racket Library for Elegant HTML5 Generation

2025-01-12

The `html-printer` library for Racket provides an elegant way to generate well-formatted HTML5 code. Its core function, `xexpr->html5`, converts X-expressions to HTML5 strings with automatic indentation and line wrapping, allowing customization of column width. It's Unicode-aware, correctly handling character lengths, and optionally adds line breaks between tags for improved readability and maintainability. Ideal for creating semantically clean and structurally sound HTML5.

(joeldueck.com)

Development

20 Great CPAN Modules Released Last Week

2025-01-12

Last week saw the release of 20 excellent Perl modules on CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), each boasting 12 or more favorites. These modules cover a wide range of functionalities, including database browsing, database change management, CGI handling, configuration management, security auditing, password management, date/time parsing, database drivers, object models, code formatting, and ORMs. Updates included popular modules like DBD::mysql, DBI, and Perl::Tidy, alongside newer additions. This significant update provides Perl developers with a wealth of tools and enhanced development efficiency.

(niceperl.blogspot.com)

Development Module Updates

Rust's Allure Beyond Performance: A Programmer's Love Story

2025-01-12

A programmer shares their love for the Rust programming language, highlighting aspects beyond its renowned performance and memory safety. The post focuses on Rust's expressive and safe type system, helpful compiler error messages, and the flexibility of combining functional and imperative programming styles. While acknowledging the steeper learning curve, the author emphasizes Rust's predictability, concurrency safety, and overall enjoyment compared to languages like Go. Ultimately, Rust is presented as a worthwhile language even when top performance isn't a primary requirement.

(ntietz.com)

Development

Mac Mini G4: The Best Classic Macintosh for Retro-Gaming?

2025-01-12

Mac Mini G4: The Best Classic Macintosh for Retro-Gaming?

This article delves into the Mac Mini G4's potential as a retro gaming machine. The author traces the evolution of PowerPC processors, explaining why this 2005 machine can run two decades' worth of Mac games. The article details the Mac Mini G4's hardware specs and guides readers through installing Mac OS 9. The conclusion: while not perfectly compatible with every game, the Mac Mini G4's small size, quiet operation, powerful CPU, and good compatibility with late-80s and 90s games make it an excellent retro gaming choice.

(www.xtof.info)

Game

Zaha Hadid's Bergisel Ski Jump: From Paper Architect to Pritzker Laureate

2025-01-12

Zaha Hadid's Bergisel Ski Jump: From Paper Architect to Pritzker Laureate

This article details Zaha Hadid's Bergisel Ski Jump, completed in 2002, a pivotal project that marked a turning point in her career. Previously known as a 'paper architect' for her stunning but unrealized designs, the Bergisel jump proved her ambitious visions could be built. This landmark structure, combining a ski jump, cafe, and viewpoint, seamlessly integrates into Innsbruck's landscape, showcasing Hadid's unique design sensibility. Its completion launched Hadid into a period of prolific building, solidifying her reputation and paving the way for future iconic projects.

(www.dezeen.com)

Design Zaha Hadid Bergisel Ski Jump Architecture

One Year of YouTube: A Journey of Creation and Reflection

2025-01-12

In 2024, two friends embarked on a YouTube journey, documenting their experiences in this article. From initial creative videos like skydiving with Apple Vision Pro to later attempts such as blindfolded hiking and AI-planned vacations, they encountered various challenges and learned valuable lessons. The article details the creation process, problems encountered, and data analysis for each video, sharing improvements to their workflow, such as the 'Title Tournament' brainstorming method. While the channel hasn't yet achieved massive success, they remain optimistic for the future.

(chaserensberger.com)

Misc video creation

18 Years in the Linux Console: No Regrets

2025-01-12

18 Years in the Linux Console: No Regrets

A programmer recounts his 18-year journey using only the Linux command line. Starting in the early 2000s in a rural area with limited internet access, he learned Linux, eventually finding his 'zen' through countless nights of coding and experimenting with various distributions. The author details challenges and solutions, sharing insights on modern Linux trends like the rise of systemd and his choice of Gentoo. This nostalgic piece is a captivating tale of dedication to pure technology.

(eugene-andrienko.com)

Development

No More New Computers: A Decade-Long Hardware Plan

2025-01-12

The author reflects on the breakneck pace of computer hardware upgrades in the 90s and 2000s, contrasting it with the current state. He argues that even high-end CPU performance gains are no longer necessary for average users. Using personal experience, the author demonstrates how a 2011 i5 system still meets his needs, and his 2019 Ryzen 5 3600 upgrade remains highly efficient. He concludes that barring unforeseen circumstances, he will no longer buy new computers, instead relying on used, slightly older components from the secondary market, achieving a decade-long hardware plan.

(82mhz.net)

Hardware hardware upgrades computer performance cost-effectiveness

Mass Hacking on Autopilot: Exploiting Abandoned Backdoors

2025-01-12

Mass Hacking on Autopilot: Exploiting Abandoned Backdoors

The watchTowr team uncovered a novel attack vector: leveraging vulnerabilities in abandoned web shells (like r57shell and c99shell) to gain access to thousands of systems. These often contain unpatched flaws, allowing attackers to commandeer compromised systems with minimal effort. By registering 40+ domains, they monitored over 4000 live backdoors, targeting governments, universities, and businesses. The research highlights the security risks posed by abandoned infrastructure and underscores the need for continuous security testing.

(labs.watchtowr.com)

Tech Backdoor Exploitation Abandoned Infrastructure

Hobbyist Creates AI-Assisted Rifle Robot Using ChatGPT

2025-01-12

Hobbyist Creates AI-Assisted Rifle Robot Using ChatGPT

An amateur engineer built an AI-assisted robot rifle system using OpenAI's ChatGPT, sparking ethical debates about AI weaponry. The system, capable of aiming and shooting via voice commands, went viral on TikTok. OpenAI subsequently cut off the engineer's access to ChatGPT, highlighting the accessibility and potential dangers of AI technology. Adding to the concern, OpenAI itself is collaborating with the Pentagon on AI weapons, contradicting its initial mission. This real-world scenario echoes science fiction, raising serious questions about the future of AI weapons and the dangers of unregulated DIY AI projects.

(www.zmescience.com)

Tech AI weapons

LA Wildfires: Experts Reveal Overlooked Truths

2025-01-12

LA Wildfires: Experts Reveal Overlooked Truths

The recent devastating wildfires in Los Angeles highlight a critical issue, according to fire experts Jack Cohen and Stephen Pyne. They argue that the scale of destruction was preventable due to societal misunderstandings about fire. The traditional focus on the "wildland-urban interface" overlooks the primary role of wind-carried embers in igniting urban fires. They propose shifting from fire suppression to preventing community ignition points through home hardening, landscaping, and community brush clearance. Drawing parallels to post-Chicago fire planning, they emphasize strengthening urban resilience rather than solely relying on firefighting during extreme conditions.

(www.latimes.com)

Tech urban fires disaster prevention

Nostalgic Internet: We Never Lost the Toxicity, We Just Forgot It

2025-01-12

Nostalgic Internet: We Never Lost the Toxicity, We Just Forgot It

A wave of nostalgia has recently swept the internet, with many yearning for a friendlier, simpler online world of 20 years ago. However, this article argues that this nostalgia overlooks the inherent toxicity and problems that existed even then. It explores the evolution of the internet, how platforms became dominated by large corporations, and the proliferation of hate speech and data extraction. Some view the internet as a failed utopia, while others remain hopeful, advocating for solutions such as reclaiming digital sovereignty and supporting self-organized projects to rebuild a kinder, fairer online space.

(english.elpais.com)

Tech internet nostalgia online culture tech commentary

Nextest: Why Process-per-Test?

2025-01-12

Nextest: Why Process-per-Test?

Cargo-nextest, a Rust test runner, distinguishes itself by running each test in a separate process. This article delves into the rationale, emphasizing not just the technical benefits but also its role as a coordination point within the massive Rust ecosystem. Process isolation prevents test interference, addressing issues like shared resource contention and memory leaks, thus boosting reliability. While process creation incurs some overhead, the advantages outweigh the costs, particularly for large test suites, making it a stable and reliable focal point in Rust testing.

(sunshowers.io)

Development test runner process isolation

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