Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

1250 gameshot911 2025-02-07 11:26:02 UTC 898 arstechnica.com Llama Share

Meta allegedly illegally trained its AI models on pirated books from LibGen and other shadow libraries, downloading at least 162.3 terabytes of data. Authors claim Meta staff knew this was illegal and tried to conceal it, contradicting prior testimony.

Apple ordered by UK to create global iCloud encryption backdoor

1140 throw0101d 2025-02-07 12:18:46 UTC 4 macrumors.com Llama Share

The UK government secretly demanded Apple create a back door for encrypted user data, an unprecedented move in a democratic country. Apple may stop offering encrypted storage in the UK rather than comply, but the order would still affect users worldwide.

Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin resigns from Linux kernel

892 Mond_ 2025-02-07 13:02:03 UTC 996 lkml.org Llama Share

Hector Martin is stepping down from kernel development and community management. He will continue to support Apple/ARM platform development downstream.

U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts

743 Despegar 2025-02-07 07:45:05 UTC 1015 washingtonpost.com Full Share

Do-nothing scripting: the key to gradual automation (2019)

567 tehnub 2025-02-07 19:48:16 UTC 153 blog.danslimmon.com Llama Share

Manual procedures can be automated, but often feel like an all-or-nothing proposition. A "do-nothing script" approach can help by breaking down procedures into encapsulated functions, making it easier to automate tasks over time.

Obscure islands I find interesting

530 venusgirdle 2025-02-07 22:23:31 UTC 177 amanvir.com Full Share

Explore this curated map of interesting yet relatively unknown islands.

Donald Knuth's 2024 Christmas Lecture: Strong and Weak Components [video]

411 esbudylin 2025-02-07 07:11:36 UTC 66 youtube.com Embed Share

Cities can cost effectively start their own utilities

409 kevinburke 2025-02-07 17:55:40 UTC 375 kevin.burke.dev Llama Share

Cities like Walnut Creek can create their own utility to undercut PG&E's high rates, saving residents and businesses around $800-$1200 per year, and also allowing for faster and cheaper infrastructure upgrades and green investments. By taking control of their own utility, cities can also encourage the green transition, provide a fiscal stabilizer, and lower the cost of urban living in safe ...

Announcing the data.gov archive

381 govideo 2025-02-07 06:32:00 UTC 129 lil.law.harvard.edu Llama Share

We released a 16TB archive of 311,000 datasets from data.gov on Source Cooperative, updated daily. This is part of our data vault project to preserve public datasets for research and public use.

Show HN: A website that heatmaps your city based on your housing preferences

314 WiggleGuy 2025-02-07 18:23:40 UTC 97 theretowhere.com Llama Share

There to Where helps evaluate listings based on proximity to important locations. It simplifies the process of finding suitable places by eliminating the need for multiple Google Maps tabs.

German civil activists win victory in election case against X

294 josefresco 2025-02-07 17:27:54 UTC 244 reuters.com Full Share

Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker

California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

284 alexd127 2025-02-07 01:41:30 UTC 166 veeto.app Llama Share

California bill requires clear bot disclosures on platforms with over 10 million US users. The bill updates the definition of a bot to include AI-generated content and mandates disclosure in all online interactions.

Show HN: Transductive regular expressions for text editing

260 c0nstantine 2025-02-07 16:18:14 UTC 97 github.com/c0stya Llama Share

The user proposes an extension to regular expressions called transductive regular expressions (trre) that introduces a colon symbol to define transformations and can be used for pattern matching and text modification. trre uses a Finite State Transducer (FST) to handle input-output pairs and can be used for tasks such as text replacement and cipher generation.

Transformer – Spreadsheet

249 next_xibalba 2025-02-07 02:13:03 UTC 20 byhand.ai Llama Share

User collaborated with AI educators to create customized AI by Hand exercises, but wants to develop a tool for users to create their own exercises. They're using Google Sheets to create this tool, seeking feedback to maximize reach and access.

A brief history of code signing at Mozilla

245 todsacerdoti 2025-02-07 17:51:49 UTC 85 hearsum.ca Llama Share

Mozilla has been signing Firefox since version 1.0, starting with detached GPG signatures and evolving to encompass various platforms and file types. Over the years, the signing process has become automated and seamless, happening thousands of times per day.

Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

225 lknik 2025-02-07 10:50:19 UTC 99 github.com/orgs Full Share

As some people already mentioned here or here, Copilot purposely stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from Github, such as gender or sex. I am labelling this as a bug because ...

Show HN: ExpenseOwl – Simple, self-hosted expense tracker

216 import-base64 2025-02-07 20:56:58 UTC 85 github.com/tanq16 Llama Share

ExpenseOwl is a simple expense tracking system with a modern pie-chart visualization, allowing users to add, delete, and view expenses. It supports multiple currencies and can be installed as a Progressive Web App on desktop and mobile devices.

Three-nanite: Unreal Nanite in Three.js

216 klaussilveira 2025-02-07 16:23:50 UTC 35 github.com/aifanatic Llama Share

The code attempts to replicate Unreal's Nanite dynamic level of detail in Three.js by clustering and simplifying meshlets. It groups and merges clusters, simplifies triangles, and splits the mesh into smaller parts.

Shwe Kokko is accused of being a city built on scams

215 inm 2025-02-07 10:01:23 UTC 93 bbc.co.uk Llama Share

Shwe Kokko, a city built by Chinese entrepreneur She Zhijiang, is accused of being a hub for scams, money-laundering, and human trafficking. The city's future is uncertain as the Thai and Chinese governments crack down on scams and She Zhijiang awaits extradition to China.

Kokoro WebGPU: Real-time text-to-speech 100% locally in the browser

206 xenova 2025-02-07 15:30:08 UTC 51 huggingface.co Full Share

High-quality speech synthesis powered by Kokoro TTS

Elon Musk's Demolition Crew

203 raybb 2025-02-07 01:55:56 UTC 353 projects.propublica.org Llama Share

Elon Musk's team, DOGE, is taking over federal agencies, replacing career workers with young staffers and Musk allies, causing disarray in programs serving millions. The team, led by Musk, aims to cut federal programs and reduce the workforce, with some members having access to sensitive data and payment systems.

Children's arithmetic skills do not transfer between applied and academic math

197 rbanffy 2025-02-07 14:18:19 UTC 259 nature.com Prefix Share

Many children from low-income backgrounds worldwide fail to master school mathematics1; however, some children extensively use mental arithmetic outside school2,3. Here we surveyed children in Kolkata and Delhi, India, who work in markets (n = 1,436), to investigate whether maths skills acquired in real-world settings transfer to the classroom and vice versa. Nearly all these children used ...

Stop using zip codes for geospatial analysis (2019)

183 voxadam 2025-02-07 16:46:47 UTC 129 carto.com Llama Share

Zip codes are not a good representation of real human behavior and can mask underlying insights, leading to bad outcomes in data analysis. Using alternative geographic units like Census Block Groups or Tracts can provide more accurate insights and improve the quality of analysis.

The origins of 60-Hz as a power frequency (1997)

169 theamk 2025-02-07 16:53:20 UTC 251 ieeexplore.ieee.org Llama Share

Westinghouse engineers chose 60 Hz in 1891, while AEG engineers chose 50 Hz, resulting in two main power frequencies worldwide. These frequencies, set over 130 years ago, continue to affect people globally.

Easy 6502

150 ibobev 2025-02-07 03:11:56 UTC 20 skilldrick.github.io Prefix Share

In this tiny ebook I’m going to show you how to get started writing 6502 assembly language. The 6502 processor was massive in the seventies and eighties, powering famous computers like the BBC Micro, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Apple II, and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Bender in Futurama has a 6502 processor for a brain. Even the Terminator was programmed in 6502. So, why would you want ...

Radiation belts detected around Earth after solar storm

146 jandrewrogers 2025-02-07 16:46:45 UTC 60 sciencealert.com Llama Share

A powerful solar storm in May 2024 created two new temporary radiation belts around Earth, one with energetic protons never seen before. The belts remained intact for three months, posing an unquantified hazard to satellites in Earth's orbit.

Whalesong patterns follow a universal law of human language, new research finds

140 sohkamyung 2025-02-07 12:33:23 UTC 22 theconversation.com Llama Share

Researchers found that humpback whale song follows Zipf's law, a pattern also found in human languages, where the most frequent sound is twice as frequent as the second most frequent. This discovery suggests that cultural learning may be the common driver of this pattern in both humans and whales.

Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

140 doener 2025-02-07 04:09:03 UTC 96 eff.org Llama Share

Meta tracks users across millions of websites and apps, collecting data for targeted ads. To limit this, update settings in Accounts Center, disable ad tracking, and use browser extensions like Privacy Badger to block Meta's trackers.

Robust autonomy emerges from self-play

139 reqo 2025-02-07 02:44:09 UTC 61 arxiv.org Llama Share

Researchers used self-play to train a driving policy in simulation, achieving state-of-the-art performance on three benchmarks. The policy outperformed prior art and demonstrated unprecedented robustness, averaging 17.5 years of continuous driving between incidents.

A 16TB Mirror of Data.gov on Source.Coop

138 dbreunig 2025-02-07 16:29:22 UTC 18 source.coop Full Share

Source Cooperative is a data publishing utility that allows trusted organizations and individuals to share data using standard HTTP methods.

Noether's Theorem Revolutionized Physics

131 MindGods 2025-02-07 14:33:32 UTC 76 quantamagazine.org Llama Share

Emmy Noether, a 33-year-old mathematician, resolved a problem in Einstein's general relativity by discovering Noether's theorem in 1918. This theorem states that every conservation law is linked to a deeper symmetry, revolutionizing physics and shaping the quantum world.

Baltic countries disconnect from the Russian power grid

130 RvdV 2025-02-07 14:44:45 UTC 65 baltic-grid.sympower.net Llama Share

A group of Sympower volunteers created a public web application to display Baltic Grid Desynchronisation Event frequency data in near real-time. The team worked together to design, develop, and deploy the application using various technologies, and it was made publicly available at https://baltic-grid.sympower.net/.

HTML whitespace is broken (2024)

130 marban 2025-02-07 04:42:39 UTC 68 blog.dwac.dev Prefix Share

Recently, I was working on a project which required a deeper understanding of how whitespace works in HTML. I was never a fan of HTML's whitespace behavior before as I've been burned by it a few times. But as I dug into it more deeply, I found myself discovering complex design issues that I wanted to explore in a blog post. This is partially to write down my knowledge in this space ...

Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

127 zarie 2025-02-07 04:19:05 UTC 73 ppploanmap.com Full Share

Ever wondered where all that PPP loan money ended up? Now you can see it—mapped out, visualized, and easy to explore. PPP Loan Map is a fun and interactive way to browse through public data on Paycheck Protection Program loans. Search by ZIP code, business type, or even how long a business has been around.

Revenge of the GPT Wrappers: Defensibility in a world of commoditized AI models

125 kiyanwang 2025-02-07 11:25:19 UTC 41 andrewchen.substack.com Llama Share

The author argues that in the AI landscape, traditional defensibility strategies like scale effects and network effects will return, but in hybridized forms with AI features. This will lead to a new generation of AI products that ride the forces of previous computing revolutions, such as Web 2.0 and the on-demand economy.

Perma.cc – Permanent Link Service

116 brianzelip 2025-02-07 14:04:14 UTC 69 perma.cc Llama Share

Perma.cc creates permanent links to prevent link rot in cited sources. It helps scholars, courts, and journals preserve online references.

Ketamine for Depression: How It Works (2024) [video]

109 ViktorRay 2025-02-07 16:59:18 UTC 104 yalemedicine.org Llama Share

Ketamine treatment may be an option when standard anti-depression medication fails, as it targets a different brain system and promotes synapse regrowth. It can have a rapid onset of effects, potentially opening a critical period for brain plasticity and improved treatment outcomes.

The Age of Agent Experience

109 bobfunk 2025-02-07 16:21:46 UTC 42 stytch.com Llama Share

To prepare for a future where AI agents interact with apps, companies need to design secure, agent-friendly systems that use OAuth for authentication and authorization, allowing agents to access data and perform actions with user consent. By following best practices such as exposing clear APIs, scoping permissions, and planning for token storage and rotation, companies can create an open ...

Fake VS Code Extension on NPM Spreads Multi-Stage Malware

109 tomabai 2025-02-07 06:58:10 UTC 68 mend.io Llama Share

A fake VS-code extension called truffelvscode was discovered, serving as a trojan horse for multi-stage malware. The extension was published on Feb 1, 2025, and its obfuscated code connects to an external host for downloading and executing malware.

Did UCLA Just Cure Baldness?

106 thelastgallon 2025-02-07 05:09:37 UTC 122 newsroom.ucla.edu Llama Share

Scientists at UCLA discovered a molecule called PP405 that can awaken dormant hair follicles, potentially reversing pattern hair loss. Initial human trials showed promising results, with the treatment producing full hair rather than just peach fuzz.

Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday

100 sohkamyung 2025-02-07 12:45:32 UTC 77 elering.ee Llama Share

Estonia and the Baltic States will disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday and connect to the European system on Sunday for energy independence and security. The transition involves a joint island mode test and cooperation with European network operators to mitigate risks.

Google edits Super Bowl ad for AI that featured false information

99 nemoniac 2025-02-07 12:25:54 UTC 80 theguardian.com Llama Share

Google edited an advert for Gemini AI after it contained false information about gouda cheese consumption. The error was removed after speaking with the cheesemonger and updating the user interface.

When Louis Armstrong conquered Chicago

98 paulpauper 2025-02-07 15:40:38 UTC 14 honest-broker.com Llama Share

Louis Armstrong's career took off in Chicago in 1922 when he joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band at the Lincoln Gardens. Armstrong's first night with the band was a success, with him taking a back seat to his mentor and discovering a new way to join forces with Oliver.

How to help us build open source Pebble software

90 cmbailey 2025-02-07 14:18:54 UTC 33 ericmigi.com Llama Share

Google published PebbleOS source code, allowing community development. Core Devices is working on new hardware and software, with updates on github.com/coredevices/pebble.

Apple ordered to open encrypted user accounts globally to UK spying

89 donohoe 2025-02-07 11:42:40 UTC 3 theverge.com Llama Share

The UK government has ordered Apple to create a backdoor for encrypted iCloud backups, giving security officials access to any user worldwide. Apple may stop offering end-to-end encryption in the UK or remove the service entirely to comply with the order.

Two Grand Canyon-size valleys on far side of the moon formed within 10 minutes

84 pseudolus 2025-02-07 16:10:46 UTC 70 cnn.com Llama Share

Scientists discovered two massive canyons on the moon's far side, each comparable to Earth's Grand Canyon, formed 3.8 billion years ago in less than 10 minutes. The canyons were likely created by a massive impact that also formed the Schrödinger impact basin, which future missions could visit to collect rock samples and study the moon's early history.

Pantograph: A Fluid and Typed Structure Editor

81 rybla 2025-02-07 17:27:57 UTC 22 github.com/jeprinz Llama Share

Pantograph is a structure editor that operates directly on a typed syntax tree, allowing users to fill in typed holes and manipulate entire terms. It introduces a notion of tree selection to make edits to existing programs easier.

There may not be aha moment in R1-Zero-like training

78 qianli_cs 2025-02-07 05:00:39 UTC 8 oatllm.notion.site Llama Share

Researchers investigated the "Aha moment" in DeepSeek-R1-Zero, finding it occurs at epoch 0, not through reinforcement learning. Self-reflection patterns appear in base models, but not all lead to correct answers.

Ancient-DNA study identifies originators of Indo-European language family

77 jimmytucson 2025-02-07 03:30:10 UTC 50 hms.harvard.edu Llama Share

Researchers Lazaridis and Nikitin co-authored studies on the North Pontic Region's genomic history. Funding came from various sources including the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.

Balcony solar is taking off

76 mcp_ 2025-02-07 09:23:49 UTC 104 theguardian.com Llama Share

Spain is embracing DIY plug-in solar panels, with manufacturers claiming a 30% electricity bill saving. The technology is gaining popularity in Spain and other European countries due to its flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Building an "Easy" Web Application

76 luu 2025-02-07 00:40:31 UTC 40 rudyfaile.com Llama Share

The user converted a Python utility into a web application to make it more accessible for coworkers, initially considering a PHP script and then a Python web framework, but ultimately decided on a simple Bottle app. After experimenting with a JavaScript solution and a Node.js app with a REST API, the user returned to the Bottle app, adding a GIF to help users wait for the request to complete.

Explainable Linear Programs

71 matt_d 2025-02-07 19:06:44 UTC 14 jeremykun.com Llama Share

You worked on a side project at Google to explain linear programs using interactive modifications and metadata. A recent Microsoft paper used a large language model to convert natural language queries to structured queries for supply chain optimization.

Portland's exploding Liberty Bell (2020)

69 fewgrehrehre 2025-02-07 21:06:40 UTC 8 tomlovesthelibertybell.com Llama Share

A dynamite bomb exploded at Portland City Hall in 1970, destroying the Liberty Bell replica and causing $170,000 in damages, but the case remains unsolved despite numerous investigations and tips. Theories abound, including a possible mafia intimidation message to Mayor Terry Schrunk, a rogue cop's vendetta, or a prank gone wrong, but the true culprit and motive remain unknown.

AMOC shutdown likely within the next 20-30 years

69 mfld 2025-02-07 19:49:23 UTC 22 tandfonline.com Full Share

www.tandfonline.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.

Mapping Antarctica’s hidden ice-free lands: a blueprint for conservation

68 gmays 2025-02-07 14:37:46 UTC 1 unsw.edu.au Llama Share

Scientists have created a framework to guide conservation efforts in Antarctica by integrating biophysical and biological data. This framework will help assess risks, place protected areas, and monitor global conservation goals.

Blocking the telemetry of Adobe apps

67 turrini 2025-02-07 07:42:53 UTC 44 a.dove.isdumb.one Llama Share

This text lists multiple IP addresses to block Adobe telemetry checks. The list includes various subdomains of adobe.io and adobestats.io.

UK demands access to Apple users' encrypted data

66 tooba 2025-02-07 13:05:58 UTC 34 bbc.co.uk Llama Share

The UK government has demanded Apple access encrypted data stored in its cloud service under the Investigatory Powers Act. Apple may be forced to comply, potentially weakening its security measures and compromising user privacy.

HippoRAG: Neurobiologically Inspired Long-Term Memory for LLMs (2024)

65 veryluckyxyz 2025-02-07 05:34:59 UTC 4 arxiv.org Llama Share

Researchers introduced HippoRAG, a novel retrieval framework inspired by human memory, to improve knowledge integration in large language models. HippoRAG outperforms existing methods by up to 20% and is more efficient, tackling new scenarios that existing methods cannot handle.

Tesla Is Alienating the People It Needs Most: Study

64 zfg 2025-02-07 03:43:46 UTC 131 insideevs.com Llama Share

A new study shows Tesla has the worst favorability to unfavorability ratio among EV buyers due to Elon Musk's shift towards far-right politics. This shift is alienating Tesla's core customer base, particularly well-off, educated, left-leaning drivers.

Long Covid impacting more than 1M children: CDC study suggests

63 luu 2025-02-07 20:50:26 UTC 24 abcnews.go.com Llama Share

New federal data suggests over 1 million US children may have experienced long COVID as of 2023. Children aged 12-17 and those from lower-income families are most likely to have had long COVID.

The LLM Curve of Impact on Software Engineers

63 todsacerdoti 2025-02-07 03:40:07 UTC 24 serce.me Llama Share

The impact of LLMs on productivity depends on an individual's level, with the most significant benefits for junior engineers and diminishing returns for more experienced staff. LLMs are most useful for junior engineers, but less effective for complex tasks and nuanced decision-making.

Gold-Medalist Performance in Solving Olympiad Geometry with AlphaGeometry2

62 hnhn34 2025-02-07 06:02:14 UTC 5 arxiv.org Llama Share

AlphaGeometry2 surpasses human performance in solving Olympiad geometry problems with an 84% success rate for all geometry problems over the last 25 years. It achieved a silver medal standard at IMO 2024 and can solve problems directly from natural language input.

US immigration is gaming Google to create a mirage of mass deportations

58 sharkweek 2025-02-07 00:27:35 UTC 25 theguardian.com Llama Share

An immigration lawyer discovered that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) press releases from years ago were appearing at the top of Google search results with a recent timestamp. This was found to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and create fear through search engine optimization.

A whirlwind tutorial on creating teensy ELF executables for Linux (1999)

57 xtacy 2025-02-07 04:16:49 UTC 17 muppetlabs.com Prefix Share

(or, "Size Is Everything") If you're a programmer who's become fed up with software bloat, then may you find herein the perfect antidote. This document explores methods for squeezing excess bytes out of simple programs. (Of course, the more practical purpose of this document is to describe a few of the inner workings of the ELF file format and the Linux operating system. But ...

How does life happen when there's barely any light?

56 abe94 2025-02-07 07:41:38 UTC 41 quantamagazine.org Llama Share

Scientists studied photosynthesis in the Arctic's polar night and found that microalgae can grow and reproduce at extremely low light levels, near the theoretical minimum. The discovery suggests that life may be present in the Arctic waters throughout the year, not just during the short summer months.

Is the use of reCAPTCHA GDPR-compliant?

55 doener 2025-02-07 09:11:09 UTC 51 dg-datenschutz.de Llama Share

Google reCAPTCHA verwendet personenbezogene Daten ohne Rechtsgrundlage, was gegen die Datenschutzgrundverordnung verstößt. Um DSGVO-konform zu sein, sollten Website-Betreiber Transparenz schaffen und alternative Programme verwenden.

The impact of AI on the technical interview process

53 CharlieDigital 2025-02-07 20:23:17 UTC 59 coderev.app Llama Share

The traditional technical interview process, which relies heavily on coding challenges and system design, is becoming outdated due to AI's increasing competency at coding. To adapt to this shift, companies should consider incorporating code reviews into their candidate selection process to evaluate a candidate's ability to read and evaluate code effectively.

White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation

51 pseudolus 2025-02-07 00:33:10 UTC 31 arstechnica.com Llama Share

President Trump's budget request for the National Science Foundation may include a 66 percent cut, reducing its budget from $9 billion to $3 billion. This cut could harm American science and boost other nations, according to experts, as the National Science Foundation is crucial for promoting progress in science.

Amazon Will Spend Nearly a Year of AWS Revenue on AI Investments

49 rbanffy 2025-02-07 19:15:25 UTC 79 nextplatform.com Llama Share

Amazon is investing heavily in AI, with a projected $86 billion in AI datacenter spending in 2025, driven by demand for its AI services. This investment is expected to yield significant profits over the next decade.

Boeing reports Starliner losses of more than half a billion dollars in 2024

49 isaacfrond 2025-02-07 10:21:33 UTC 40 spacenews.com Llama Share

Boeing took $523 million in charges on its CST-100 Starliner program in 2024, bringing its cumulative losses to over $2 billion. The company blames schedule delays, higher testing costs, and post-certification mission costs for the losses.

Feds Halt the National Electric Vehicle Charging Program

43 pseudolus 2025-02-07 14:25:35 UTC 101 wired.com Llama Share

The US Department of Transportation ordered states to halt their plans for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, a $5 billion project to install charging stations across the US. The decision may pause work on the federally-funded electric vehicle charger network for months and could be illegal.

Personal Software Is Becoming a Trend

42 xuanwo 2025-02-07 14:13:44 UTC 28 xuanwo.io Llama Share

The author plans to create personal software for their own needs, open-source it, and focus on their own vision without external feature requests. They believe AI can help with this approach, allowing for quick prototyping and iteration.

Show HN: A simple Hackernews client for iOS and Android

40 trevor-e 2025-02-07 20:41:06 UTC 5 github.com/emergetools Llama Share

This repository is an example project for Android and iOS apps using Emerge's products for analysis and testing. It provides configurations for uploading to Emerge via Gradle and Fastlane.

Fully autonomous AI agents should not be developed

38 eamag 2025-02-07 22:38:11 UTC 43 huggingface.co Llama Share

A paper argues that fully autonomous AI agents should not be developed due to increasing risks with autonomy. However, several weaknesses undermine its arguments, including lack of empirical evidence and oversimplified autonomy spectrum.

The Government's Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified

38 xnx 2025-02-07 14:28:05 UTC 9 theatlantic.com Llama Share

Elon Musk's DOGE team has accessed sensitive US government systems, sparking fears of a catastrophic data breach. Experts warn that untrained individuals tampering with these complex systems could cause mass disruptions, harm citizens, and be difficult to undo.

Fabrication Begins for Production OpenTitan Silicon – Google Open Source Blog

37 rbanffy 2025-02-07 14:04:32 UTC 6 opensource.googleblog.com Llama Share

Google has started fabrication of OpenTitan, an open source silicon Root of Trust (RoT) chip, for secure devices. This transparent design will be used in Chromebooks and Google's Cloud infrastructure, providing a secure foundation for products.

AI Startup School with Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Andrej Karpathy

36 sandslash 2025-02-07 15:47:14 UTC 66 events.ycombinator.com Llama Share

YC is hosting AI Startup School in San Francisco on June 16-17 for top CS students and new grads in AI. Eligible applicants include CS students, software engineers, and those with relevant AI experience, with travel costs covered for non-SF residents.

Memory profilers, call graphs, exception reports, and telemetry

36 sebg 2025-02-07 09:57:57 UTC 3 nuanced.dev Llama Share

Developers face challenges when using AI coding assistants due to the lack of context about the broader system environment, requiring manual bridging of the gap between code and information sources. Researchers tested AI coding assistants with various types of system data, finding that providing relevant and efficiently represented context can improve debugging accuracy and enable AI tools to ...

I Like and Use Global Variables

34 levodelellis 2025-02-07 20:28:37 UTC 52 codestyleandtaste.com Llama Share

The user argues that global variables are useful when used correctly, citing examples of good uses such as thread-local variables and immutable state. They propose four rules for using global variables effectively: it's hard to use incorrectly, not hard to test, internal state is not directly accessible, and state is restored when leaving a block or function.

You Can't "Win" in Tech Unless You Cheat

34 midzer 2025-02-07 00:38:58 UTC 25 joanwestenberg.com Llama Share

Tech companies like PayPal, Uber, Airbnb, and Facebook succeeded by breaking rules and exploiting loopholes rather than innovating. However, a new model is emerging where developers create value through open-source tools and sustainable wealth, rather than relying on venture capital and rule-breaking.

Scientists on alert as NOAA restricts contact with foreign nationals

33 N19PEDL2 2025-02-07 09:17:36 UTC 11 washingtonpost.com Full Share

Google Fixes Android Kernel Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks

33 tuzzmaniandevil 2025-02-07 06:38:35 UTC 24 thedefendopsdiaries.com Llama Share

A zero-day flaw, CVE-2024-53104, affects the Linux kernel's UVC driver, allowing attackers to escalate privileges on Android devices. Google has released critical security patches to address this vulnerability, which has been actively exploited in the wild.

Multiple security flaws found in DeepSeek iOS app, incl sending unencrypted data

32 abduhl 2025-02-07 14:08:44 UTC 12 9to5mac.com Llama Share

The DeepSeek iOS app has multiple security flaws, including disabling Apple's App Transport Security and using outdated encryption, exposing users to potential de-anonymization. Experts advise against using the app due to its security risks, especially for high-value targets.

Procedural Hydrology: Dynamic lake and river simulation (2020)

31 debone 2025-02-07 13:44:09 UTC 4 nickmcd.me Llama Share

The user developed a technique to simulate surface-hydrology by extending particle-based hydraulic erosion with stream and pool maps, allowing for realistic coupling between terrain and hydrology. The system uses two algorithms, Descend and Flood, to simulate particle movement and water flow, and can be used to generate realistic river systems, lakes, and other geographical phenomena.

OpenAI cofounder John Schulman is joining Mira Murati's startup

31 mgh2 2025-02-07 11:30:34 UTC 19 finance.yahoo.com Llama Share

John Schulman is leaving Anthropic to join Mira Murati's stealth startup, where he will likely focus on AI alignment research. Schulman and Murati previously left OpenAI to pursue new opportunities.

Context-switching is the main productivity killer for developers

27 gpi 2025-02-07 00:48:51 UTC 1 newsletter.techworld-with-milan.com Llama Share

Context-switching is a significant productivity killer for developers, causing mental fatigue, errors, and decreased code quality due to frequent interruptions and distractions. Implementing strategies such as setting clear goals, minimizing distractions, and establishing focus time agreements can help manage interruptions and increase developer productivity.

US places sanctions against International Criminal Court

26 basementcat 2025-02-07 09:59:15 UTC 0 bbc.com Llama Share

The International Criminal Court vows to continue its work despite US President Donald Trump's order to impose sanctions on its staff. The ICC condemns the order as an attempt to harm its independent and impartial work.

Gleam v1.8.0 Released

25 todsacerdoti 2025-02-07 14:28:43 UTC 2 gleam.run Llama Share

Gleam v1.8.0 has been published with several new features and improvements. The language server now supports renaming local variables and function arguments, generating function definitions, and suggesting code actions for pattern matching and documentation.

Show HN: I built an AI satirical news site because news was depressing me

25 vuciv 2025-02-07 05:08:36 UTC 18 thescallion.netlify.app Llama Share

Border Czar Tom Homan threatens cartels with President Trump's wrath and grandma's wooden spoon. He's targeting violent criminals and undocumented migrants in ICE raids and border operations.

Using pip to install a Large Language Model that's under 100MB

24 sahli 2025-02-07 10:22:38 UTC 5 simonwillison.net Llama Share

A new plugin, llm-smollm2, was released for LLM, bundling a quantized SmolLM2-135M-Instruct model. The plugin can be installed via pipx or brew install llm.

A fourth federal agency locks its doors to Democratic lawmakers

23 josefresco 2025-02-07 17:15:09 UTC 5 axios.com Llama Share

House Democrats were blocked from meeting with the acting Education Secretary, the fourth time this week they've been denied entry to a federal agency targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The lawmakers claim they were locked out despite having scheduled a meeting, but the Education Department says they had no appointments.

Andreessen Horowitz Defends Hiring of Daniel Penny to Its Investors

21 jrflowers 2025-02-07 03:24:34 UTC 18 nytimes.com Llama Share

Andreessen Horowitz hired Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted of criminally negligent homicide, to build relationships with military and law enforcement. The firm believes Penny's experience will be helpful in their public safety and defense investments.

We rewrote The NYT text editing library. Then we OSSd it. Then rewrote it again

20 antics 2025-02-07 18:31:04 UTC 8 smoores.dev Llama Share

The author worked on integrating React and ProseMirror to create a collaborative text editor, but encountered several issues with state tearing and side effects. They eventually re-wrote ProseMirror's rendering engine with React, creating a new library called @handlewithcare/react-prosemirror that is more robust and performant.

Please Take Off Your Apple Watch

19 bookofjoe 2025-02-07 17:54:01 UTC 7 watchesofespionage.com Llama Share

A former CIA officer wrote an open letter to Vice President JD Vance warning about the counterintelligence risks of his Apple Watch. The officer suggests replacing it with a non-smartwatch option like a customized Breitling or a watch from brands like Sangin or Marathon.

Guiding Electricity with Sound

18 gummy23 2025-02-07 03:49:32 UTC 3 phys.org Llama Share

Scientists have developed a method to control electric sparks using ultrasonic waves, allowing for precise guidance around obstacles and non-conductive materials. This breakthrough enables safe and compact applications in various fields, including atmospheric sciences and tactile stimuli.

Why We Chose the Name Attio

17 mbaytas 2025-02-07 09:58:50 UTC 0 attio.com Llama Share

The company Attio chose its name after a challenging process involving domain name research, navigating high prices, and experimenting with new words. They prioritized a .com domain and ultimately selected a made-up word that reflected their brand identity.

Greeks II: The Cult of Numbers

16 LorenDB 2025-02-07 13:58:29 UTC 0 thequantumcat.space Llama Share

Pythagoras was a charismatic leader who founded a cult in ancient Greece, teaching reincarnation and a mystical view of numbers. His followers, the Pythagoreans, believed numbers underlie nature and developed concepts like musica universalis, which influenced later scientists like Kepler.

Asahi Linux Lead Developer Hector Martin Steps Down

15 doener 2025-02-07 13:45:14 UTC 1 phoronix.com Llama Share

Hector Martin removed himself as ARM Apple maintainer due to lack of faith in the Linux kernel development process. Asahi Linux will continue downstream development, with others potentially taking over upstream efforts.

Is there ever a good reason to debate someone who is not arguing in good faith?

14 squircle 2025-02-07 13:10:48 UTC 15 old.reddit.com Llama Share

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

Android XR will allow camera access like on the phone

14 LorenDB 2025-02-07 04:29:08 UTC 3 skarredghost.com Llama Share

Google will offer camera access on Android XR with user permission, similar to Android phones. This will allow developers to access the front camera, but not the rear camera, which will be a reconstructed avatar.