The author shares stories about their experience working on a large, complex software system with a messy codebase, including tales of a single-column table called SequenceKey used for generating IDs and a manually filled-out calendar table used for login purposes. The author reflects on the joys of working in such a system, where code was written to serve a specific use and was decoupled ...

FarmBot is a DIY, open-source, automated gardening system that allows users to grow their own food at home, with customizable kits and online support. The system requires basic computer and mechanical skills to install and operate, and is designed for home use, with optional commercial or industrial usage subject to additional fees.

Outline speedrunning is a technique that involves recursively outlining a project, then speedrunning the filling-in process, resulting in a 10x speedup over traditional methods. By breaking down the project into smaller sections and filling them in quickly, you can achieve a sense of completion and then refine the details, leading to a more efficient and enjoyable design process.

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The Space Shuttle's Interim Teleprinter was a drum-based printer that was designed to receive text and images from Earth, and it was used on over 50 flights as a backup to the Text and Graphics System (TAGS). Despite its initial limitations and design constraints, the teleprinter proved to be a reliable and long-lasting solution, and it was eventually replaced by the Thermal Impulse Printer ...

To prevent tampering with electronic devices, such as laptops, when left unattended, users can apply tamper-evident measures like glitter nail polish to screws, use physical intrusion detection, and employ software and firmware tamper-evident solutions. These measures can be combined to create a "defense in depth" approach, making it more difficult and costly for an adversary to compromise the device.

Pirate streaming apps on the App Store tricked the review process by using geofence to prevent Apple from seeing their true capabilities, and then updating the app with malicious code after approval. Apple could improve the review process by implementing additional tests and more proactively removing scam apps from the App Store.

The author criticizes compiler "optimizations" for introducing bugs and timing leaks, citing examples of compiler writers refusing to take responsibility for introduced bugs and the lack of guarantees for constant-time code. The author proposes alternative solutions, such as distributing libraries as assembly language, using anti-timing-leak vaccinations, and rewriting code to avoid compiler ...

Hanon Pro is an app that helps piano practice with interactive features, feedback, and tracking, available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The app offers a catalog of music scores, customizable settings, and gamification features to improve piano technique and make practice a habit.

Vimtutor Sequel provides advanced Vim lessons through a tutorial that can be installed using Homebrew or run manually by cloning the repository. The tutorial is available for Windows and Linux users and is licensed under the MIT License.

The user believes KDB+ will struggle to gain new clients, especially those seeking cloud-native solutions, and will likely be replaced by free and open-source alternatives like DuckDB or Polars for local quant analysis. The user suggests KX Systems, the company behind KDB+, needs to adapt by offering a free version, improving the core product, reducing the learning curve, and focusing on ...

The author argues that non-Turing completeness is not a meaningful property for a programming language, as it does not guarantee termination or efficiency, and that practical considerations such as determinism, well-defined semantics, purity, and security are more important. The author also discusses the limitations of Primitive Recursive Functions (PRFs) and how they can be used to simulate ...

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is experiencing issues with thrusters and gas leaks, preventing its return to Earth, while the company's financial losses from the project have surpassed $1 billion. The spacecraft remains docked to the International Space Station, with NASA and Boeing working to finalize procedures for its return, which may involve using a SpaceX capsule to bring back the two test pilots.

News sites shutting down often leave their archives behind, putting valuable content at risk of being lost forever. Journalists and archivists are working to preserve their own work and that of others, using methods such as web scraping, PDFs, and personal archiving services to ensure that important stories and information remain accessible.

The author reflects on their experience with bibliotherapy, a practice that uses reading to promote emotional healing and personal growth, and discusses the benefits of reading fiction, including improved empathy and mental health. Bibliotherapists, such as Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, use personalized book recommendations to help clients cope with various life challenges, from grief and ...

Game Informer, a 33-year-old video game magazine, is shutting down and laying off its entire staff without giving a reason. The magazine's editor-in-chief acknowledged the impact of "hard times" on the gaming industry, saying the passion for gaming will continue to live on despite the closure.

Researchers have discovered a new pathway used by cancer cells to infiltrate the brain and developed a therapy that shows promise in blocking and killing glioblastoma tumors. The therapy, which targets a hijacked signaling pathway, led to a doubling of survival time and tumor eradication in at least 50% of mice in preclinical animal models.

Google created Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to meet the growing demand for AI compute power, starting with the first TPU v1 in 2015, which was designed specifically for AI and has since evolved to meet the evolving demand. The latest generation, Trillium, offers more power and efficiency to help train the next generation of cutting-edge AI models, and Google Cloud's AI infrastructure, ...

The user explains what FPGAs are and how they work, having built a simple FPGA architecture using 7400 logic. They will detail the internal architecture and development process of their own FPGA model, inspired by Ben Eater's 8-bit CPU on breadboard.

In 1970, Sega released Jet Rocket, a pioneering arcade game that introduced several world-firsts, including a flight simulator, first-person shooter, and open-world game, without using a computer or video screen. The game used a unique combination of mirrors, lights, and electromechanical components to create a 3D illusion, allowing players to steer a jet and shoot rockets at targets on a ...

Donut is a zero-setup required bridge that connects SRT and RTMP to WebRTC, using Pion and ffmpeg. It sets up a WebRTC connection, streams media, and renders audio/video frames, with optional docker-compose simulation for SRT live transmission.

In feudal Europe, a monetary practice called monetagium worked similarly to a mafia protection racket, where the lord would threaten to debase the coinage and the public would pay a fee to prevent it. This practice was used in various forms, including the "tallage on bread and wine" in Paris and the "plough tax" in Denmark, and was eventually abolished in favor of more modern forms of taxation.

The probability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapsing this century is estimated to be 59% by 2050, with a mean collapse time of 2050. The estimate is based on reanalysis data and identifies salinity data near the Atlantic's southern boundary as optimal for predicting the collapse time.

A heavily optimized yet flexible A* pathfinding algorithm implementation

The author uses Tree-sitter to parse Protocol Buffers (protobuf) definitions and extract information, such as message names, enum names, and field types, to generate code and tooling. They use Neovim's Tree-sitter integration to visualize the parsed tree and write queries to extract the desired data, which is then used to generate Go code.

Automatic process grouping was added to Linux 2.6.38, which affects nice command behavior. With systemd, processes are grouped by cgroups, making nice work as expected again, but disabling cgroups is not a straightforward option.

The user has an IBM-made device that is a random timer, likely used for process control or hyperfocus prevention, with features like a slide switch, beeping, and adjustable volume and pitch. The device has IBM part numbers, yellow bodge wires, and a unique design, and the user is trying to figure out its exact purpose and functionality.

Western Digital has begun sampling a 32TB nearline hard drive, using a combination of technologies including EAMR, SMR, and OptiNAND to achieve its highest capacity figures to date. The drive is aimed at hyperscalers and enterprise customers, who can manage the additional complexities of SMR, and offers a more significant density increase than other SMR implementations.

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The paper classifies the non-computability of the first derivative of continuously differentiable functions and investigates whether a Turing machine can detect this non-computability. It shows that non-computability is undetectable for certain problems, including analog circuits and the three-dimensional wave equation, and that all three problems are not semidecidable.

This tutorial focuses on building web sites and applications using only an editor, browser, and web standards, leveraging modern CSS and Web Components to create a zero-maintenance project. It's suitable for those familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript who want to learn a simple, long-term approach to web development that relies on web standards.

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Dennis "Thresh" Fong, a professional Quake player, popularized the WASD key configuration in the late 1990s, which eventually became the standard for PC gaming. The configuration was not widely adopted immediately, but its popularity grew through the influence of Fong and other top players, as well as the inclusion of WASD in games such as Half-Life and Quake 3.

Chinese exports of ball bearings to Russia have decreased significantly in 2024, from $5-7 million per month to $2-3 million, due to US economic sanctions and export controls. The US is using a combination of secondary sanctions, export controls, and moral suasion to pressure China to reduce its trade with Russia, and the data suggests that these efforts are having an impact.

The XC2064 is a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) that can implement arbitrary digital logic, consisting of 64 logic blocks and a routing network that connects them. The FPGA is programmed via a bitstream, a sequence of bits that directly maps onto the hardware layout, allowing for complex digital circuits to be built without physically wiring up individual gates and flip-flops.

The user discovered GerritLab, a Python tool for creating stacked merge requests in GitLab, and wanted to store their GitLab token securely using a password vault. They configured Git credentials using libsecret on Debian, allowing them to push to an HTTPS remote without being prompted for a password and also creating a password library for shell scripts.

aiOla has released Whisper-Medusa, an open-source AI model that outperforms OpenAI's Whisper by operating 50% faster with no loss in performance, predicting 10 tokens at a time. This model enables businesses to automate processes, understand business-specific jargon, and capture valuable data and insights, making it suitable for various industries and languages.

The author successfully upgraded the Chumby 8's kernel from 2.6.28 to 6.x, fixing various issues and adding support for new features, but not all changes were mainlined due to the SoC's age and lack of users. Despite this, the author gained valuable experience in kernel development, submitted several patches, and now has a working modern kernel on their Chumby 8, awaiting userspace software ...

You created a GitHub repository to back-date files to their original creation dates and wrote a Python script to group files by date and commit them with the correct author and backdated date. You iterated on the script, ran it multiple times, and finally pushed the results to your GitHub repository, replacing the existing main branch.

The paper discusses the possibility of escaping from a simulated reality, exploring various approaches to hacking the simulation, including social engineering, exploiting bugs, and creating a simulated replica of the universe. The authors also consider the potential consequences of escaping, including the possibility of impacting the real world and the ultimate existential risk of crashing ...

A 1999 video game, "Detective Barbie 2: The Vacation Mystery", contains a dataset of 9,342 names spoken by Barbie, with thousands of names to choose from. The audio files are compressed, and the author has attempted to decode them using various methods, including RLE and exotic codecs, but has not yet succeeded.

Researchers propose a training algorithm to increase legibility of Large Language Models by training verifiers to predict solution correctness and provers to produce correct or incorrect solutions. The algorithm improves the accuracy of helpful provers and robustness of verifiers, and legibility training transfers to humans, increasing accuracy when checking correct solutions and decreasing ...

The Wheel of Lunch, a labor of love, has ceased operations due to Yelp's decision to no longer provide free API services. The wheel, which provided a nostalgic experience from a friendlier internet era, is a casualty of the shift towards a more commercialized web.

The author has been tracking feed reader behavior, collecting data on over 70,000 requests from 97 distinct keys, identifying patterns and issues with various feed readers. Many feed readers have caching errors, poor timing, or unconditional requests, while a few seem to be working correctly.

Tzero is a timeboxing manager for IRC channels, allowing users to start and manage timeboxes, and track productivity. It supports various commands, including begin, list, cancel, and summary, and can be configured to connect to multiple channels and private message sessions.

The speaker discusses the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in various applications, including chatbots, data journalism, and code generation, highlighting their ability to process human languages and generate structured data. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of responsible use of LLMs, citing concerns about training data, ethics, and the potential for "slop" (unwanted ...

A major investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system found that it can make questionable decisions, leading to deadly accidents, and that the system's flaws include slow algorithm updates and insufficient camera calibration. The investigation, which extracted raw Autopilot data from salvaged Teslas, found that the system can fail to recognize certain road hazards and can be bamboozled by ...

Berkshire Hathaway sold $75.5 billion worth of stock in Q2, reducing its Apple stake by 50%. The company's cash pile reached a record $276.9 billion, with operating earnings rising to $11.6 billion.

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Authors of the NY FED Staff Report "Geopolitical Risk and Decoupling" declare no relevant financial interests. The report was reviewed according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's review policy.

The city's minimum pay law for delivery workers has increased wages by 64% to $19.26 per hour, but also reduced some workers' hours due to changes in app companies' scheduling and tipping structures. While some full-time workers have seen an increase in pay, others are struggling to find flexibility and new workers are on waitlists, highlighting the need for more detailed data to understand ...

Undefined behavior is a runtime concept where a program's behavior is not defined by the language standard, whereas ill-formed programs are those that break the language's rules, with some types requiring a diagnostic and others not. Ill-formed no diagnostic required (IFNDR) programs are those that are invalid but do not require a diagnostic, and can result in erratic behavior or undefined results.

The concept of "superhuman" AI erases the value of human agency and autonomy, reducing humans to mere machines that can be optimized for efficiency. To reclaim our humanity, we must resist this ideology and focus on developing AI that serves human needs and values, rather than simply mimicking human capabilities.

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed has vowed to aggressively clear homeless encampments, citing a recent Supreme Court decision and encouraging police to cite and jail campers who refuse shelter. Despite 15 previous clear-outs, the homeless individuals have returned, leading Breed to take a tougher approach in her re-election campaign.

Intel's Q2 results were disappointing, with a 1% sales decline and a $1.6 billion net loss. The company plans to cut 15,000 jobs and suspend dividends to address high costs and low margins.

DARPA's TRACTOR project aims to develop machine-learning tools to automate the conversion of legacy C code to Rust, focusing on memory safety, which accounts for most major vulnerabilities in large codebases. The project aims to improve the automated translation from C to Rust, particularly for program constructs with the most relevance, to make software more secure.

The global real GDP is primarily a mix of European countries before 1870 due to limited reliable data coverage across other countries before that point. The chart shows the average predictiveness of a given member's left/right ideology in determining their vote across chambers for each congressional session as measured by NOMINATE, an academic model of ideological preference.

The author discusses the concept of "complexity" or "interestingness" in physical systems, which seems to increase with time and then decrease, and proposes a definition of "complextropy" to measure this phenomenon. The author also explores the idea of coarse-graining and the relationship between complexity and entropy, and invites readers to consider the possibility of a "law of ...

The author built a 10BASE5 network, a vintage technology that was the first standardized, commercially used form of Ethernet, using components such as 10BASE5 MAUs, AUI cables, and MIL-130A converters to connect nodes and enable data transfer. The author encountered various challenges, including finding compatible components, dealing with the large and rigid cables, and overcoming ...

The user has built a tool for sending webhooks that email you, which has been running for over 13 months and is suitable for static website owners who want a simple contact form. The user is looking for feedback on how to improve the service and is considering adding features such as a no-brainer pricing plan and an inverse webhook that sends an email if a webhook has not been triggered in a ...

The author applies a Bayesian framework to analyze a numerical anomaly in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, where the reported vote totals for the two main candidates can be recovered by multiplying the total number of voters by round percentages. The analysis estimates the posterior odds of voting manipulation and finds that it is plausible, although the conclusion relies on ...

The author is creating a Go programming tutorial series, starting with a "Hello, World!" program, and will follow the Test-Driven Development (TDD) cycle to write the code. The tutorial covers creating a Go module, writing a test function, and implementing the "HelloWorld" function to return the string "Hello, World!".

The PARANOID virus was a file-infecting virus that targeted MS-DOS programs, spreading through floppy disks and hard drives, and was designed to evade detection by antivirus software. The virus used a polymorphic decoder to encode its data, and employed a Terminate-and-Stay-Resident (TSR) technique to remain active in memory after its host program terminated, allowing it to infect new ...

The Xournal++ HTR project aims to bring open-source on-device handwriting recognition to Xournal++ by developing a Lua plugin and Python backend, allowing users to make their handwritten notes searchable. The project involves experimentation with different concepts, including a computer vision approach, and follows a branching strategy to keep the master branch stable and allow for feature development.

The digital art creations below are “64k intros”: small computer programs of 65,536 bytes or less, that present a short audio visual experience. They are a showcase of creativity and technical skills, using techniques like procedural generation, sound synthesis, and real-time graphics. More info.

Physician Dr. Stuart Meloy has developed an implantable device called the Orgasmatron that can induce orgasms at the touch of a button, but its development has been stalled due to high costs and regulatory hurdles. The device has a curious history, with similar ideas explored in the 1950s and 1960s, but experts are skeptical about its potential benefits and concerns about its use for social control.

Manjaro's Arkdep-powered variant is available for public testing, aiming to gather community feedback on Manjaro Immutable technology. Note that this is an experimental release with no support guarantee, not recommended for primary use.

Creduse offers a developer-friendly API solution for credit management, allowing for quick integration, scalability, and comprehensive support. The platform provides analytics, credit cycles, and rewards to enhance user engagement and retention, while also offering flexibility in credit bundles and compensation for issues.

The initiative requires EU videogame publishers to leave games in a playable state, preventing remote disabling and providing means for continued functionality without publisher involvement. It does not seek ownership or resources, only ensuring games remain playable after discontinuation.

Social casino games are free-to-play online games that can be played with game-provided credits, but players may purchase additional credits to continue playing or unlock features. The study analyzed the relationship between microtransactions, loot boxes, and gambling behavior, finding that expenditure on these features is associated with an increased risk of gambling migration and problem ...

Primitive recursion is a mathematical concept introduced by Skolem in 1923 as a means of avoiding infinite paradoxes, and it has been used to develop an algebra of primitive recursive functions. The concept has been applied in programming languages, such as Lisp, and has been used to study the complexity of computable functions.

Deep sea mining opponents failed to achieve an international moratorium on the practice, as a draft proposal for a "dialogue" on protecting marine environments was withdrawn due to lack of clarity and opposition from several countries. The International Seabed Authority is set to adopt a mining code in 2025, despite warnings from NGOs and scientists about the potential environmental damage ...

Intel's recent financial results are disastrous, with decreasing revenue and a 31% stock drop, leading to 20,000 job cuts. The company's failure to innovate and adapt to changing market trends, such as ARM's rise and AMD's advancements, has led to its current struggles and potential decline.

Table of Contents for Recommended Formats Statement (RFS). RFS identifies analog and digital formats suitable for the large-scale acquisition of and long-term access to library collections. The identified formats have been selected to maximize the preservation and accessibility of creative content into the future.

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A record-breaking heat wave is unfolding in Antarctica, with temperatures up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, raising concerns about the future health of the continent and global sea levels. Scientists warn that this event could be a sign of more frequent and severe heat waves in the future, potentially altering global oceanic circulations and contributing to catastrophic sea level rise.

Germany's unemployment rate rose to 2.81 million in July, a larger-than-usual increase due to the country's weak economic development. The seasonally-adjusted rate of unemployment remained at 6%, but is creeping up to pandemic highs, with GDP growth contracting in the second quarter of 2024.

Ettore Majorana was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses and disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1938, leaving behind a legacy of important scientific contributions and a lasting mystery. Despite numerous investigations and theories, Majorana's fate remains uncertain, with some concluding that he may have emigrated to Venezuela or Argentina, while others ...

Puget Systems has experienced CPU failures with Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen processors, but at a lower rate than others in the industry, likely due to their conservative power settings. The company is committed to internally developed power settings and will validate the upcoming Intel microcode update, extending their warranty to 3 years for affected customers and offering upgrades to ...

The US has fallen behind China in the drone industry, with most American drones being made in China, and this lack of domestic production poses a national security risk, as Chinese-made drones could be used to leak sensitive information to foreign adversaries. To regain its edge, the US must develop a competitive drone industry, leveraging its strengths in advanced software and open-source ...

Managers in the tech industry often play psychological games to influence behavior and drive outcomes, such as fostering competition, dangling promotions, and manipulating team dynamics. These games may lead to short-term gains but can have detrimental effects on team cohesion, employee morale, and long-term productivity.

EpicEnv is a tool that allows you to manage and encrypt environments in Git, with basic permissions via an invitation system, and can be used to link local environments to different infrastructure. It uses RSA keys to encrypt environment variables and prevents personal values from being leaked via Git, with features like marking variables as personal or shared and rotating keys when ...

The author applies a Bayesian framework to analyze a numerical anomaly in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, where the reported vote totals for the two main candidates can be recovered by multiplying the total number of voters by round percentages. The analysis estimates the posterior odds of voting manipulation and finds that it is plausible, although the conclusion relies on ...