A person discovered a true crime story on Hacker News, which inspired them to help solve missing person cases. They eventually solved two cold cases with their brother, using notes, photos, and GPS logs to track their progress.

Piku is a lightweight, actively maintained platform for deploying and managing applications on small servers, supporting multiple languages and architectures. It allows for easy deployment, scaling, and management of applications on various cloud providers and bare metal servers, with features like SSL support and virtual hosting.

The author built a Lego orrery that models the motion of the celestial bodies in our solar system, including the Earth, Moon, and Sun, and features a custom-designed mechanism to accurately depict the tilt of the Earth's axis and the inclination of the Moon's orbit. The author also discusses the challenges of building the orrery, including finding suitable gear ratios and designing a ...

The article discusses the concept of "economic termites," which refers to small, often unnoticed monopolies that can have a significant impact on the economy. Examples of economic termites include companies like Verisign, Autodesk, Linde, Assa Abloy, Gracenote, and LinkedIn, which have market power and use tactics like exclusive contracts and patent claims to maintain their dominance.

Katalin Karikó, a Nobel Prize winner and co-inventor of mRNA technology, was criticized for lamenting the emphasis on people-pleasing and political games in academia, sparking debate about the importance of accepting and supporting "Weird Nerds" who are often driven out of academia due to their unconventional personalities. The author argues that institutions should prioritize creating a ...

The author discusses pilot tones, high-frequency sounds used in public address systems to monitor system health, and explores the effects of these tones on humans and the environment. The author also experiments with recording and analyzing the pilot tones in various settings, including underground stations and shopping centers.

A startup's monetization launch was marred by a single line of code that caused subscription issues, resulting in lost sales and customer complaints. The issue was resolved after identifying a hardcoded ID string in the code, which caused unique ID collisions and prevented new subscriptions.

$ dnf install epel-release # For RHEL and derivatives enable EPEL first $ dnf install libtree-ldd

Register or sign in with developer credentials and ensure a unique and descriptive User-Agent string to access a script or application. If blocked, try changing the User-Agent string or file a ticket for assistance.

Michael Levin, a biologist, has made significant contributions to the field by exploring the role of bioelectric networks in development and regeneration, and his work has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of biology and medicine. Levin's research has shown that cells can be influenced to develop in specific ways through the manipulation of bioelectric signals, and he envisions ...

The "Computer Graphics Gems" section provides free, beginner-friendly lessons on programming computer graphics, starting from the basics and building upon previous concepts. The lessons cover various topics, including image processing, file formats, and color management, with a focus on practical, hands-on learning.

Woman set up a table for First Friday in #PortlandME this arvo to share her collection of washers. Nothing was for sale. She was happy to describe any and all of them. These are so my kinda humans.

Building a competitive browser engine requires focusing on key use-cases, such as site isolation, minimizing RAM usage, and optimizing performance, while also considering constraints like Spectre and security requirements. To succeed, consider parallel processing, using a memory-safe language like Rust, and developing innovative tools for debugging and testing.

Researchers eliminate matrix multiplication from large language models, achieving performance on-par with state-of-the-art Transformers at large scales. The optimized model reduces memory usage by up to 61% during training and 10x during inference, making it more efficient and brain-like.

Inspectus is a visualization tool for large language models, providing multiple views for diverse insights into model behaviors. It can visualize attention scores, token heatmaps, and dimension heatmaps for better understanding of model processing.

Censor Tracker 13 add-on is no longer available in Russia, despite being developed to circumvent censorship, with no changes to visibility settings or notifications. The add-on's Russian users now see a message suggesting alternative extensions or community forums, sparking questions about the reason behind Mozilla's decision.

Sweden switched from driving on the left to the right on September 3, 1967, in a massive logistical event known as Dagen H. The change was unpopular, but it led to a temporary reduction in accidents and a surge in cautious behavior.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline shares millions of recordings and transcripts of intimate conversations with researchers, AI developers, and corporations without caller consent, raising privacy concerns. Experts and users are critical of the lack of transparency and oversight from 988Lifeline administrators and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

🧙 Thou hast not yet embarked upon the game. The clock shall start as soon as you solve the first Magic Number!

The term "DMV" is often used colloquially to refer to a department of motor vehicles, but in reality, the terminology varies across states and territories, with some having "MVD" or "BMV" instead. The website dmv.org, which was once a popular resource for driver's license information, has evolved over time and is now a directory of links to state websites, having lost its top search engine rankings.

Betula is a free, self-hosted bookmarking software for organizing bookmarks or linklogs, with a simple installation process. It allows users to share their bookmarks publicly and receive updates from others through the Fediverse.

The author describes their experience with two faulty Altera USB Blaster clone devices, one from Waveshare and another from an unknown manufacturer, which did not work correctly in Linux and Windows. The author successfully fixed the Waveshare clone by flashing open-source firmware and modifying the code to work with the device's limitations, making it functional in Linux.

Schenker showed a prototype laptop at Computex powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip, running Linux and featuring a 14-inch 16:10 IPS display and 32GB of RAM. The prototype is still in development, with no pricing or availability announced.

The author was raised by libertarian economists who valued intellectual honesty and encouraged him to engage in respectful debates and arguments, which helped him develop critical thinking skills and a willingness to challenge assumptions. The author's upbringing also instilled in him a sense of fairness and a willingness to listen to opposing views, which he has carried into his own ...

The author argues that the AT&T syntax for assembly language is flawed and recommends using the Intel syntax instead, citing issues with elision, ambiguity, and readability. The author also criticizes the AT&T syntax for being inconsistent and making it difficult to write correct code, while the Intel syntax is more intuitive and widely used.

The PiDP-10 is a replica of the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10 computer, a historic machine that played a significant role in the development of artificial intelligence, networking, and free software. The PiDP-10 allows users to operate the PDP-10's hardware and software, including the ITS operating system and hundreds of applications, providing a hands-on experience with computer history.

Silicon Valley start-ups are creating a booming online wellness market that allows people to take medical tests at home, bypassing traditional doctors' offices, with some companies offering tests for conditions like food sensitivity, thyroid function, and sexually-transmitted diseases. However, this trend has raised concerns among doctors and regulators, who worry that unapproved tests could ...

The author argues that hiring engineers who are passionate about functional programming languages, such as Gooby, may not always be the best choice, as they may be more focused on using the language itself rather than solving the company's problems. The author suggests that companies should prioritize hiring engineers who are flexible, adaptable, and willing to learn, rather than those who ...

Researchers developed a system of agents, HPTSA, that can exploit real-world, zero-day vulnerabilities by using a planning agent to launch subagents and explore different vulnerabilities. The team of agents improved over prior work by up to 4.5 times on a benchmark of 15 real-world vulnerabilities.

A user claims to have counted 57 High Streets in London, using a map and the National Street Gazetteer to confirm the list. The user also notes that Inner London has no proper High Streets, only "Something High Streets", and that Outer London has 57 High Streets.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has scrapped a congestion pricing plan that would have charged a $15 fee for daytime automobile commuters entering Manhattan below 60th Street, citing concerns about deterring commuters and affecting the city's economy. The plan, which was expected to generate $1 billion in annual funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has been met with ...

The article discusses the emergence of AI-ese, a distinct language style generated by AI assistants, and how it is shaped by the training data and human feedback used to develop these systems. The article also explores the physical implications of AI, including the development of AI-powered hardware devices that aim to integrate AI into daily life.

The mere presence of one's smartphone can impair cognitive functioning, even when consumers are not actively using their phones. The effects of smartphone salience on available cognitive capacity are moderated by individual differences in dependence on these devices, with those who are more dependent on their phones suffering more from the presence of their phones.

Teo is a full-fledged web framework with a built-in ORM that generates query clients and automatically diffs and migrates database models. It aims to improve developer experience and reduce development time and cost, with a focus on customization and extendability.

The author created a spreadsheet to visualize the internal mechanisms of a transformer, specifically the NanoGPT architecture, to help understand how it works. The spreadsheet is interactive and allows users to explore the calculations and parameters of the transformer, making it a useful tool for learning about transformer models.

Brick is a device that temporarily removes distracting apps and notifications from your phone, allowing you to focus on what matters. It helps you stay focused by leaving the distractions behind, whether it's for homework, outdoor activities, or personal time.

The UK's early warning system for nuclear attacks was based on a color-coded message system, with sirens and warning signals broadcast over telephone lines to alert the public of an impending attack or fallout. The system, developed in the 1960s, used a carrier broadcast system to transmit voice messages and warning signals to over 18,000 warning points across the country.

MegaLibm is a domain-specific language (DSL) designed to simplify the process of implementing mathematical functions, providing a type system that helps catch common implementation bugs and allowing for the creation of custom math libraries. The DSL is designed to be used in conjunction with Jupyter notebooks, allowing developers to write, test, and refine their mathematical functions in an ...

Mars is a challenging planet to explore due to its harsh environment, thin atmosphere, and frequent dust storms. Despite these challenges, NASA and other space agencies continue to send spacecraft to Mars, with the goal of one day establishing a human settlement on the planet.

Super Heavy landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico

A $85 million shortfall has been discovered in the Synapse bankruptcy, with partner banks holding $180 million and depositors owed $265 million. The trustee, Jelena McWilliams, is working to reconcile the accounts and has proposed options for Judge Martin Barash to consider, including partial payments to customers.

The article discusses the importance of using alternative search engines to Google, highlighting the limitations and biases of Google's search results. The author provides a list of alternative search engines, categorized into "independent", "semi-independent", "almost qualified", and "unusable" categories, and discusses the criteria for evaluating the quality and independence of these engines.

Dr. Richard Lieu proposes an alternative theory that suggests gravity can exist without dark matter, which could potentially mitigate the need for it. He suggests that concentric sets of shell-like topological defects in structures could be responsible for the excess gravity necessary to bind galaxies and clusters together.

Researchers have identified a new threat model where censorship bodies can use custom firmware on home routers to fingerprint VPN traffic, allowing them to detect and block VPN connections. This threat model is particularly concerning as it can be used to circumvent VPNs and compromise online privacy.

The author argues that large language models like ChatGPT produce "bullshit" rather than "lies" or "hallucinations", as they are designed to produce convincing but potentially false text without intending to deceive or mislead. The author suggests that ChatGPT is a "bullshit machine" that produces "soft" or "hard" bullshit, depending on whether it is used intentionally or not, and argues that ...

KickC is a C-compiler for 6502-based platforms creating optimized and readable assembler code. The language is 95% standard C with a few limitations and a few extensions. Download...

Venezuela has become the first postglacial nation in the Andes as its last glacier, Humboldt Glacier, has completely disappeared due to rising global temperatures. The glacier's decline from 0.1 square kilometers to nearly non-existent is part of a broader pattern of retreating tropical glaciers worldwide.

SORBS, a long-standing source of information on known spam sources, has been shut down by its owner Proofpoint, citing sustainability concerns. The service, which provided a DNS-based block list of over 12 million host servers, has sparked conversation in the anti-spam community about a possible acquisition to keep the service running.

Mojo's ownership model ensures memory safety and efficiency by enforcing strict ownership rules, with different kinds of values (RValue, LValue, and BValue) and ownership modifiers (borrowed, inout, and owned) managing memory safely and efficiently. The post outlines three fundamental rules for managing ownership in Mojo, including taking RValue on the caller side, owning the type if using ...

The Spanish government proposes raising the minimum age for creating a social media account from 14 to 16, requiring parental authorization for minors under 16, to protect youngsters online. The draft bill aims to protect minors from online harm, including age verification, parental control, and measures to prevent cyberbullying, harassment, and exploitation.

The Beluga Skysail is a hybrid cargo ship that uses sail power to supplement its engines, achieving 20% fuel savings on its maiden voyage. The concept of solarpunk, a literary genre, explores alternative futures where renewable energy sources like solar and wind power replace fossil fuels, inspired by the Beluga Skysail and other sustainable technologies.

Blaine Raddon, a Salt Lake City man, tried to return his Tesla Cybertruck due to parking issues in his apartment complex, but Tesla refused, citing a $50,000 fine and ban from buying future Teslas if he sells the truck within the first year. Raddon is waiting for a response from Tesla after appealing the decision, while his building allows him to keep the truck, but won't be liable for any damage.

George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four while living on the Isle of Jura, Scotland, where he sought to escape the noise and chaos of London and complete his warning to the world. The novel's themes of totalitarianism, surveillance, and government control remain relevant today, with many considering it a prophetic work that predicted the dangers of modern technology and disinformation.

The US aims to generate 30-50% of its electricity from solar power by 2035, with a goal of 100% clean electricity by 2050. To achieve this, the country needs to increase its solar capacity to 1 terawatt, and researchers are working on improving solar tech and storage solutions to make it more efficient and reliable.

The author installed solar panels on their roof in 2020 and has been tracking their energy production and savings. Over the first year, the panels generated 1,317 kWh of energy, resulting in a probable utility bill savings of $1,058 and an additional $2,500 from selling Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs).

OpenAI, a company founded by Sam Altman, is facing criticism over its financial motivations and commitment to responsible artificial intelligence, with some employees and former employees speaking out about a culture of false promises and prioritizing growth over safety. The company has faced numerous controversies, including a culture of stifling criticism, questionable business dealings by ...

You're struggling with KDB, a complex and expensive data storage system, for backtesting options pricing in your financial firm, citing scalability, query efficiency, and math complexity issues. You're advocating for a more modern, horizontally scalable data-store like Parquet with Spark/Dask/Arrow/Polars, but your firm is resistant to change.

Researchers at MIT and UT Austin have developed a chip-based 3D printer that uses photonic chips to rapidly create customized objects on the go. The device uses a single, millimeter-scale photonic chip that emits reconfigurable beams of light to cure resin into a solid shape, enabling the creation of arbitrary two-dimensional patterns and shapes in seconds.

Joel Spolsky's article on social software criticizes flawed models like Usenet, Slashdot, and IRC, advocating for simple, flat discussion views. The author agrees, citing the limitations and pain of threaded discussions, and recommends sticking with flat views.

Volvo is diverting production of electric vehicles from China to Belgium to avoid potential tariffs on Beijing-subsidized imports. The move aims to negate the need for Volvo to halt sales of Chinese-built EVs bound for Europe.

Freeman Dyson presents three heresies: the first is that the global warming problem is exaggerated, the second is that the wet Sahara of 6,000 years ago is a desirable climate, and the third is that the United States will lose its top nation status within a century.

The US government's Strategic Computing Initiative (1983-1993) aimed to develop machine intelligence, spending $1 billion. Despite falling short of its goal, the project achieved some technical successes, including autonomous land navigation and logistics software.

Welcome to the Gitlab repo for the SVT-AV1!

An electric headset for treating depression has been recommended for wider use after a successful NHS trial, showing effective results in reducing symptoms and improving mood. However, the long-term benefits of the device on depression beyond six weeks are still unknown.

The author reflects on their journey from being told to specialize in digital marketing to being valued for their diverse skills, highlighting the shift towards recognizing autodidacts and self-learners. The article emphasizes the importance of embracing change, recognizing new forms of knowledge, and believing in one's ability to learn and adapt in today's rapidly evolving job market.

Removing carbon dioxide from the air is a complex process that requires a significant amount of energy, with estimates suggesting it would take at least 652,000 joules of energy to capture 1 kilogram of CO2. To remove the amount of CO2 emitted annually, it would require 764 gigawatts of power, equivalent to over 1,000 nuclear power plants.

The author strongly criticizes htmx, a front-end library, for its poor design, lack of modern JavaScript features, and numerous technical issues, including security vulnerabilities and scalability problems. The author argues that htmx is a bad choice for web development and recommends instead using more established and sophisticated libraries like React.

A man's ex-girlfriend may inherit his $1 million retirement account due to an outdated beneficiary form, highlighting the importance of reviewing and updating these forms. The case underscores the need for regular review of beneficiary forms for retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and bank accounts to ensure the intended distribution of assets.

The Code of Hammurabi is an ancient Babylonian legal text composed around 1754 BC, containing 282 laws that cover various aspects of life, including family, property, commerce, and crime. The code is considered one of the earliest and most influential legal codes in human history, showcasing Hammurabi's efforts to establish a fair and just society in ancient Mesopotamia.

The concept of degrowth, or a reduction in economic activity, is gaining popularity as a potential solution to environmental and social issues, challenging the long-held assumption that economic growth is always desirable. Critics argue that relentless economic growth has often benefited the wealthy at the expense of the environment and the poor, and that a more sustainable approach is needed.

The user experienced a Squarespace domain and email outage, with customer support unresponsive for over 12 hours, causing panic and impacting thousands of customers. The user tried various methods to resolve the issue, including migrating to a new domain and contacting Squarespace support, but ultimately had to wait for a response.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a voracious reader who used books as a vital tool of power and governance, creating vast palatial libraries in his residences and requiring vast literary resources for his duties. His traveling libraries, which included books on politics, law, governance, culture, and war, were systematized and well-funded, with books specially numbered for easy organization and retrieval.

The author discusses the addition of the SEARCH and CYCLE clauses to PostgreSQL, which allows for recursive queries to be performed in a breadth-first or depth-first manner, and detects cycles in the data. The author provides examples of using these clauses to query hierarchical data, including a directory listing and a network of cities, and demonstrates how to use the CYCLE clause to detect ...

Steve Jackson Games, Inc. sued the US Secret Service for damages and invasion of privacy after a 1990 raid on their headquarters, resulting in a $50,000 award and $250,000 in attorney's fees. The case led to the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and highlighted issues with the Secret Service's warrant preparation and procedures.

A termux-app v0.120 release was made on Google PlayStore on 2024-06-04 by @fornwall, along with some Termux plugin app releases. These were not done by the current Termux core team. They are only a...

Cash payments are becoming less common, with many places now charging a fee for cash transactions. A man, Noa Khamallah, tried to pay with cash at Yankee Stadium but was directed to a kiosk that converted his cash to a debit card with a fee.

Decentralization enables alternative technologies to challenge traditional models and bring about autonomy, resilience, and equity. The Decentralization Off The Shelf (DOTS) project aims to develop UX components and tools for building better user-facing applications backed by decentralized architectures.

Xiaomi's use of non-dismissible notifications for ads in Redmi phones creates a poor user experience. The feature was meant for important notifications, not ads, and users hope Xiaomi will address this issue.

Austin Frerick, a fellow of Yale's Thurman Arnold Project, researched the consolidation of power in the US food industry and found that a handful of families control most of the country's food production and distribution. Frerick argues that these mega-rich farmers and food companies have crossed ethical lines to achieve their success and that the current industrial model needs to change to ...

Peter McIndoe, a college dropout, created the "Birds Aren't Real" movement by accident, which gained popularity with rallies and viral videos. The movement, which started in 2019 in Memphis, Tennessee, spread and received media coverage.

Time to First Byte (TTFB) measures the time between a request and the first byte of a response, affecting server responsiveness and connection setup time. TTFB is a crucial metric for measuring web server performance, with a recommended threshold of 0.8 seconds or less for most sites.

A user aggregated a list of personal blogs from Hacker News users, splitting it by year to avoid large files. The site uses Matomo analytics and allows users to opt out, with a GitHub repo hosting the data.

Salomon August Andrée, Nils Strindberg, and Knut Fraenkel embarked on a polar expedition in 1897, attempting to reach the North Pole by hydrogen balloon. After the balloon crashed, the trio struggled to survive on the Arctic ice, facing numerous challenges, including harsh weather, polar bears, and dwindling food supplies.

We believe the law should be free. Learn how we’re pushing back by defending a lawsuit from the International Code Council and how you can help.