The Shirky Principle suggests that entities, such as institutions, may intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate problems they are meant to solve to maintain relevance. Examples include tax-filing companies lobbying against free tax-filing methods and bus companies thwarting carpooling initiatives.

The article discusses the limitations of SQL for implementing large language models like GPT and explains the inner workings of such models, including tokenization and vector embeddings. It emphasizes the complexity and scientific advancements that enable these models to generate human-like text.

Google's inconsistent support for RSS feeds has led to a decline in their use, as the company acquires RSS services and then discontinues them, undermining user trust and the open web. This pattern of embracing and extinguishing RSS features has left users without reliable tools and alternatives.

The article discusses the issue of losing track of table headers when scrolling through large data sets and offers a simple CSS solution to make headers sticky for better user experience. Sticky headers have wide browser support, enhancing accessibility and usability.

The article advocates for open-source projects with 10k-200k lines of code to include an ARCHITECTURE file, highlighting its benefits for understanding the project's structure. It suggests this file should outline the high-level design and relationships between modules, aiding both new and recurring contributors.

The article explores the vocabulary and themes of power metal, revealing Running Wild has the largest vocabulary and dragons are not a primary subject. It uses various datasets for analysis and sentiment, confirming the genre's epic style.

The article discusses the efficacy of incentivizing AI with rewards or penalties to improve output quality and adherence to constraints. Experiments with varying incentives show inconclusive impacts on text generation, suggesting more research is needed.

The article discusses BlueSky, a microblogging application built on the Authenticated Transfer Protocol (atproto), a federated system designed to be less controllable by single entities and scalable for large user bases. It details the protocol's architecture, including personal data servers, app views, and relays, and addresses moderation through a "speech vs reach" approach, allowing ...

The author faced a tumultuous period, enduring the stress of the Ukrainian war, two job layoffs, and a health scare, before finding stability in a new job. This journey led to a reevaluation of priorities and a newfound appreciation for life and work.

The author grapples with the ethical dilemma of monetizing a product without hindering accessibility, exploring freemium and 'frugly pricing' models as alternatives to ads. They reject continuous updates and hype, aiming for a fair pricing strategy that aligns with their values.

The article discusses the technical challenges and solutions in displaying graphics and sound on the Amiga 500 for the game Magicore Anomala, utilizing asset compression and clever memory management. It also highlights the use of the Amiga's hardware features, like the copper co-processor, to create impressive visual effects despite the system's limitations.

The article observes a decline in product quality at big tech companies, attributing it to inadequate investment in quality improvement and a focus on short-term stock gains. It also discusses the "enshittification" process, where companies attract users, then prioritize shareholder value over real product value.

The article describes the author's experience with ledger, a command-line accounting tool, highlighting its flexibility and scriptability but also its steep learning curve and initial time investment. They find ledger's "correct" feeling rewarding despite the effort required.

The Earth is experiencing a "global greening" with an increase in vegetation over the past four decades, partly due to CO2's fertilizing effect. However, this greening often masks ecosystem destruction and may not always be beneficial for biodiversity or climate.

Large language models are increasingly used in healthcare, with mixed results; they can sometimes diagnose conditions missed by doctors but often provide unsupported statements. The FDA faces challenges in regulating these models, which do not always provide reliable or verifiable medical information.

The article critiques the V programming language, highlighting issues with its documentation, memory management, and unfulfilled promises regarding features such as autofree. The author also notes discrepancies between the language's claims and actual performance, citing personal tests and code examples.

Cities worldwide are removing concrete to let nature thrive, improving water absorption and biodiversity. Depaving boosts cities' resilience to climate change and is becoming part of urban planning strategies.

Consol3 is a 3D graphics engine that operates solely on the CPU, handling tasks like vertex transformations and shaders without external dependencies. It offers two rendering techniques: rasterization and ray marching with voxel-based simulations, and can display full RGB colors in the console.

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory found that stress prompts neutrophils to form NETs, aiding cancer metastasis. Their research suggests stress reduction and NET prevention could be key in treating and preventing cancer spread.

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The article introduces lesser-known but useful OpenBSD features, such as secure levels for enhanced security and file flags for data protection. It also covers system tools for automation and backup, as well as the 'talk' program for direct user communication.

The article discusses Qubes OS 4.2.0, a security-focused Linux distribution using virtualization for application and service isolation, with improvements in usability and management. It highlights the challenges of Qubes OS's complexity compared to other Linux distributions but notes user experience enhancements in the latest release.

Quality in life and software is about gracefully performing processes and improving situations. Software must evolve to match the world's constant change, and assuring quality is a collective responsibility across an organization.

Google Summer of Code's 20th anniversary is marked by 19K contributors and over 800 organizations' involvement; Qdrant, not accepted into GSoC 2024, launches its own coding program. Qdrant completed two projects last year and now offers various projects, including Rust and Python development, with applications opening March 18th.

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The article discusses optimizing Windows 3.x to run with minimal memory by paring down unnecessary files and using RAM disks, floppies, and compression techniques. It details methods to install and run Windows on older computers with limited resources.

Scientists have developed a DVD-sized optical disc with a 1.6 petabit capacity using 3D storage on 100 layers and nanoscale spots, potentially revolutionizing data centers. The disc uses a novel material and precise laser control for writing and reading, promising manufacturability at commercial scales.

The Silver tier donation by Microsoft to MapLibre will allocate USD 80,000 for development and maintenance. Bing Maps and Azure Maps use MapLibre GL JS, enhancing the service for global business customers.

PostgreSQL, named DBMS of the Year 2023, lacks temporal features, but offers five alternative data change tracking methods. These include triggers for audit logs, pub/sub for notifications, application-level tracking, Change Data Capture, and integrated CDC with custom context.

The article describes transitioning from a single-threaded to a multi-threaded program for data parallel processing, which initially led to unwieldy output. It then explains how to adapt a StackOverflow solution to rewrite console lines neatly, emphasizing the need for locking due to shared resources.

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The author advises interviewees to familiarize themselves with common questions and understand the underlying principles of their field, and to listen and respond positively to the interviewer's guidance.

The article discusses setting up a text-based MUD game server on low-end hardware using Python and details how to maintain the server and allow remote connections. It also provides resources for learning about MUDs and Python programming.

Gemma is Google’s latest open-weight LLM. This Studio explains shows you how to use Gemma through Lit-GPT and explains some of the unique design choices of Gemma compared to other LLMs.

David Hahn, known as the "Radioactive Boy Scout," attempted to build a breeder reactor in the 1990s, attracting FBI attention. His experiments in a shed nearly irradiated his neighborhood and later life events led to his death at 39.

The article reflects on the Wörgl Experiment during the Great Depression, where a small Austrian town issued its own currency that had to be spent quickly, stimulating the economy. This challenges traditional capitalist models by suggesting money could have a use-by date to encourage spending and prevent accumulation.

Mark Frost revealed his conversation with Nintendo influenced the creation of "The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening," inspired by "Twin Peaks." The game features a bizarre cast and dreamlike elements, diverging from traditional Zelda games.

The article analyzes National Anthem performances, highlighting Whitney Houston's iconic rendition and introducing the "Diva Score" to measure deviations from the standard melody. It details the process of evaluating and comparing performances, with Chaka Khan ranking as the top "Diva."

The article discusses the transition from Authy desktop to 2FAS mobile app, appreciating the ability to edit codes and ease of migration, but notes the inconvenience of not having desktop access. The author details a personal system for managing TOTP codes using Keychain Access, age, and SOPS for security, despite some risks.

The article discusses the difficulty in directly converting a large codebase into a mind map, suggesting instead to use UML diagram generators and then simplify the diagrams into a mind map. It mentions the use of NDepend for Visual Studio to understand C++ codebases and create a cheatsheet for new developers.

The article discusses the discovery of a connection between aperiodic tilings, like Penrose tilings, and quantum error-correcting codes, which may help future quantum computers protect information. This new type of code, based on the non-repeating patterns of aperiodic tilings, shares a key property of revealing nothing about the system when observing a small part.

A French official reported discovering a large meteorite in the Sahara in 1916, which has since eluded rediscovery. Recent researchers have devised a strategy to locate it, amidst ongoing skepticism about its existence.

Debian images now include an open-source BL31, enabling users to replace the closed binary blob. This advancement in the Rockchip RK3588 boot-chain promotes transparency and allows community contributions.

The Korean watchdog fined Twitch $327,067 for suspending VOD services, violating user rights, and not preventing illegal content. Twitch must now disclose orders and prepare user protection measures before resuming operations in Korea.

The article discusses the misuse of DNS, such as monetized intermediation equating to lying and treating it as a directory system. It also addresses the negative impacts of CDNs on DNS system performance and stability, and the increasing practice of ISPs remapping NXDOMAIN responses for revenue.

The Center for Climate Integrity's report "The Fraud of Plastic Recycling" debunks the myth of plastic recycling as a viable solution, exposing industry deception. Despite low recycling rates, companies promote it to distract from the need for real change.

The individual has faced joblessness and eviction, losing most possessions except for a laptop and some electronics, after leaving a good job for a company that exploited their open-source work. They have struggled with social services, personal trauma, and now face immediate challenges like food and shelter.

Regular movie screenings in the Gold Coast began in Accra post-1900, with the first dedicated movie theater opening in 1914. The cinema industry grew, facing colonial challenges, and evolved with technology, leading to a unique hand-painted poster tradition that thrived until the late 20th century.

Gondar, once the political and cultural hub of Ethiopia, is celebrated for its rich architectural and artistic heritage. The city's establishment marked a cultural revival, with influences from a variety of regions contributing to its unique cultural accomplishments.

The article discusses a programming language that treats all errors as runtime errors and uses dynamic analyses like fuzzing to catch them. It features a minimalistic syntax and extensive compile-time evaluation, with a version being implemented in Rust.

The article discusses the use of "selectors" in Conda's meta.yaml files for package configuration, which allows for conditional logic and platform-specific builds. It also critiques the flexibility and potential security concerns of allowing arbitrary code execution within YAML comments.

Lawyer Steven Marullo was sanctioned $2,000 for submitting briefs with AI-generated fake citations. Judge Davis accepted his apology but warned of the perils of blind reliance on AI in legal work.

Justpath is a tool to view and modify the PATH environment variable, allowing filtering and sorting of paths. It cannot change the PATH directly but can create a modified PATH string for use in shell scripts.

A community of programmers expresses frustration with restrictive development methodologies and management, advocating for the freedom to focus on actual programming. They reject being labeled as socially awkward and seek creative autonomy.

The article discusses optimizing BitSet.forEach method, showing significant performance gains at lower densities and introduces a method to iterate set bits using two's complement for across-the-board improvements. It emphasizes benchmarking and different algorithmic approaches for performance.

The article discusses a project that implements GPT2's forward pass in Excel, allowing non-developers to interact with transformer models; however, Excel may freeze due to the file's size.

The author shares their experience contributing to NixOS and the ease of the process, highlighting the helpful and respectful community. They discuss learning from reviews, making improvements to their Scrutiny package, and encourage others to contribute.

James Lighthill's 1973 report criticized UK AI research, leading to funding cuts and sparking a debate with AI pioneers. His report argued AI's fundamental problems, like natural language understanding, were far from solved, casting doubt on the field's future.

Project Oberon is a computer system designed for simplicity, enabling one person to manage it entirely, and is practical for production use. Resources and a detailed book by creators Wirth and Gutknecht are available online.

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Google's AI app Gemini caused controversy by not drawing White people, leading to a ban on drawing any people. This reflects Google's decline from innovative to complacent, mirroring broader struggles with race and national identity.

The article describes a secretive trip to observe life aboard a nuclear-armed submarine, emphasizing the stealth and power of these vessels as a deterrent in an increasingly tense global security environment. It also highlights the US military's efforts to showcase its strategic capabilities amidst rising threats from China and Russia.

Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched a Request for Comment on the risks, benefits and potential policy related to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models with widely available model weights – the core component of AI systems.

Todd Wallace has released version 1.0 of an Apple II emulator for the Tandy Color Computer 3, featuring simplified loading and a basic 6502 debugger. The emulator, still a proof-of-concept, requires a 20KB ROM image and currently supports keyboard input and two video modes.

The article discusses breaking a flawed cryptographic system by recovering an integer from its fractional square root, using lattice mathematics and Diophantine equations. It criticizes the system's inefficiency and demonstrates a fast algorithm for solving such problems.

Generative AI's misuse in legal filings led to sanctions against lawyers for citing fictitious cases, highlighting the profession's need for due diligence. Courts are emphasizing the importance of verifying AI-generated content to uphold judicial integrity.

"The issue was detected by our new AI-powered vulnerability scanner" ... AAAAAAA https://github.com/curl/curl/issues/12983

Simon witnesses the launch of terraforming solar sails in a virtual world, reflecting on his and the deceased Martin's legacy. Their project, once aimed at digital immortality, has pivoted to seeding life in the galaxy, while a mysterious computational activity within the system raises alarming questions.

LEV-1, a lunar hopper, transmitted unusual telemetry signals after its lunar landing, which included Morse code and was found to be convolutionally encoded and scrambled. Decoding efforts revealed a 0xAAAA preamble and 0xFAF320 syncword, but the content remains unknown.

The article provides lists of IP addresses for blocking due to abuse or spam, updated regularly with no de-listing process. It emphasizes kindness and consideration in usage, warning against excessive queries.

The article discusses the severe economic measures implemented by Javier Milei's administration in Argentina, which include a 54% devaluation of the peso and austerity measures that have led to significant economic decline and social unrest. Despite a slight decrease in inflation, the policies have resulted in increased poverty and hardship, with potential long-term consequences.

The article explains a JavaScript exception that occurs when nullish coalescing and logical operators are combined without parentheses, causing syntax errors due to undefined precedence. It advises using parentheses for clarity when migrating legacy code.

The article suggests that shader compilation errors and game crashes are due to faulty Intel CPUs, specifically the 13900k and 14900k, which can be diagnosed using Event Viewer for WHEA-Logger warnings. The temporary fix involves underclocking the CPU's Performance Core or getting an RMA, as software solutions are ineffective.

The article critiques YAML's shortcomings for large, human-editable documents and explores strongly-typed alternatives like TypeScript to generate YAML-compatible JSON, providing type safety, schema validation, and a better authoring experience. It suggests JSX in TypeScript as a viable solution for declarative configurations with real-time IDE feedback and reduced runtime validation.

The author has created a bash script to generate comprehensive RSS feeds from blog HTML pages, which is now active on their website. The script extracts links, titles, publication dates, and descriptions from HTML tags to populate the RSS .xml file.

Nina Strochlic discusses the profound impact of poetry in Somaliland's society, where it historically sparked wars and brought peace. The article highlights a viral poem by Xasan Daahir Ismaaciil, which ignited a national poetry debate over political corruption.

The article explores the history and features of the Arma Micro Computer, an early compact aerospace computer from 1962 with unusual components and a 22-bit serial architecture, influential in various applications including Navy ships and Air Force One. Despite not being a microcomputer by modern standards, it was advanced for its time, using non-destructive readout memory and withstanding ...

Got ChatGPT to write some midi music. Sample attached. I used another ChatGPT prompt to create the computer generated voice in python and compiled the track. https://dgsdesigns.com/test/mixdown.wav

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford, aiming for excellence in global publishing. Ray Davis captured neutrinos to observe the Sun's core, a feat once deemed impossible, earning him a Nobel Prize in physics.

An amateur balloonist owns the high-altitude balloon over the western U.S., not posing a security threat. NORAD and FAA are monitoring it, a year after a Chinese balloon incident.

Python generators yield values one at a time, saving memory compared to lists; they're useful in data-heavy tasks but can be complex for beginners. Generators are underused, efficient for memory management, but their execution and inspection can be challenging.