git's –end-of-options Flag

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The git flag --end-of-options was added in git 2.24.0 to prevent argument injection attacks by marking the end of option parsing, but most package managers still use -- or a leading-dash check instead. Only Go's cmd/go and vcpkg use --end-of-options, while others rely on minimum git version requirements or use in-process git implementations to avoid the issue.

Terence Tao's ChatGPT conversation about the Jacobian Conjecture counterexample

https://cdn.openai.com/chatgpt/share-og.png
Use ChatGPT to answer questions, write, create images, complete work, and codeβ€”all in one place. Get started for free or download the app.

Quality non-fiction books are the antithesis of AI slop

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The author reflects on their experience as a library shelver, where they developed a habit of reading random pages from books, leading to a filtered form of auto-didacticism. This experience sparked a passion for non-fiction books, which they believe are in a golden age despite declining readership.

GigaToken: ~1000x faster Language model tokenization

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/19c4444bdaa2e9455f89b61620c0a76b30f5c5f6ce96e28877ebd119c026524b/marcelroed/gigatoken
Gigatoken is a fast tokenizer for language modeling that supports various CPUs and tokenizers, offering significant speed improvements over HuggingFace Tokenizers. It uses SIMD and caching to achieve 1000x faster byte-pair encoding tokenization.

Show HN: Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)

Bento/Slides

Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/francesco-i.jpg?c=original&q=w_1093,c_fill
Scientists have confirmed that Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici and his wife Bianca Cappello died from malaria in 1587. DNA analysis found genetic traces of the malaria parasite in their skeletal remains, resolving a long-standing debate over whether they were murdered or died from the disease.

Everyone should know SIMD

SIMD allows CPUs to operate on multiple values in parallel, resulting in significant speedups for large datasets. By following a common five-step pattern, developers can easily write SIMD code that is nearly as simple as a scalar loop.

Are AI labs pelicanmaxxing?

A user tested seven AI models on generating SVGs of animals on vehicles, including the famous "pelican on a bicycle" prompt, and found no evidence that labs are optimizing their models to achieve high scores on this benchmark. The results suggest that AI labs may be using a technique called "SVGmaxxing" to improve their overall performance, rather than specifically optimizing for the pelican ...

ascdraw: Editor for ASCII/UTF-8 diagrams (in 144FPS)

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/exlee/ascdraw/master/assets/ascdraw.png
ascdraw is a GPLv3 keyboard-first editor with a Unicode canvas for drawing and text editing, available for download from GitHub Releases. It offers features like layers, export options, and customizable themes, with optional payment for development.

Show HN: Cactus Hybrid: We taught Gemma 4 to know when it's wrong

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Cactus uses post-training probes to score model confidence and reroute queries to a bigger model when low. The Gemma 4 E2B Hybrid model achieves 0.79-0.88 AUROC on four audio benchmarks, indicating a modality-independent correctness signal from the hidden state.

John C. Dvorak has died

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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John C. Dvorak, our beloved husband, father, and cherished host of the No Agenda Show at the age of 74. More to follow.

Restructuring GitHub's bug bounty program

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GitHub is making changes to its bug bounty program to focus on quality over quantity and reward serious researchers with higher payouts and faster response times. The program now has a VIP tier for top researchers and static payouts, and it's implementing a signal requirement to reduce low-effort reports.

Malleable Computing, Emacs, and You

http://yummymelon.com/devnull/images/malleable-computing-emacs/emacs-gh.svg
The user automated a task of copying GitHub issues to an Org file in Emacs by leveraging the GitHub command line utility gh and Elisp packages, resulting in a tool called fj. This example demonstrates the malleable computing capabilities of Emacs, allowing users to create new behavior by recombining existing libraries and programs in an improvised fashion.

So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

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The author is upset with Reddit's decision to limit access to old.reddit.com due to security concerns, claiming it's a pretext to prevent scraping of user-generated content. The author believes Reddit is prioritizing its own interests over community needs.

Making

https://beej.us/blog/data/ai-making/images/nail.jpg
The author feels a strong connection to making things and finds fulfillment in creating projects, but struggles with claiming credit for AI-generated work. They believe there's a difference between making something and asking someone else to make it.

Petals: Run LLMs at home, BitTorrent-style

Large language models like Llama 3.1 and Falcon can be fine-tuned for tasks using a consumer-grade GPU or Google Colab. This allows for flexible use of the model, including custom paths and hidden state analysis, beyond traditional API capabilities.

Fairphone 6 wide camera experimental Linux support

The user successfully enabled the ultra-wide camera on the Fairphone 6 by porting the mainline OV13B10 driver and configuring libcamera for Bayer frame processing and auto-exposure. However, the main and front cameras, autofocus, and full ultra-wide field of view are still not supported due to missing mainline drivers and software ISP limitations.

The startup's Postgres survival guide

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The user is creating a guide for optimizing Postgres performance, covering topics such as indexing, query planning, and autovacuum, and recommends using connection poolers and batching to improve throughput. The guide also touches on advanced Postgres features like row-level locking, partitioning, and triggers, and provides tips for migrating large tables and avoiding table bloat.

Codeberg Bans Cryptocurrency Projects

Access denied

Nobody knows what a used GPU cluster is worth

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Lenders are financing AI infrastructure with debt collateralized by GPUs, whose value depends on operational state, which is invisible to lenders. This creates a risk that lenders cannot measure, resulting in a high premium for the debt.

What Rose Petals Teach Us about Induction

https://www.oranlooney.com/post/rose-petals_files/lead.jpg
The author discusses the problem of induction, where there is no general method to go from observation to understanding, and uses the example of "Petals Around the Rose" to illustrate this issue. The author explores how different machine learning algorithms, such as linear regression and neural networks, can solve this problem, but notes that their inductive biases, or assumptions, play a ...

Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

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The user visited a Filipino restaurant that revamped its menu with AI-generated designs, which they found disturbing and poorly done. They ordered the spamsilog, a comfort food dish, for $10, but were conflicted about supporting a small business that used AI in its signage.

Any text-to-SQL benchmark should address difficulties of real-world data stores

The website is using Cloudflare security and blocked my action, possibly due to a trigger like a certain word or SQL command. I was trying to perform an action when this page came up, and the Cloudflare Ray ID is needed to report the issue to the site owner.

Clarity didn't work, trying mysterianism (2012)

The Whispering Earring is a magical artifact that gives perfect advice to its wearer, but at the cost of gradually wasting away their neocortex and turning them into a brainless puppet. A similar concept, Consequence Glasses, is proposed as a more appealing and less villainous alternative, allowing the wearer to trust their hunches and make better decisions without sacrificing their free will.

Back to Kagi

User returned to Kagi after trying other search engines due to its unique features and commitment to user privacy. They found Kagi's results quality and customization options superior to alternatives like Google, DuckDuckGo, and Brave Search.

Launch HN: Unlayer (YC W22) – Add email and document builders to your app

https://unlayer.com/_next/image?url=%2Fhome-builder-showcase.png&w=3840&q=75
Our platform offers beautiful builders for emails, pages, and documents with AI assistance and developer APIs for seamless content creation. It embeds one or all four builders in your app, providing a unified experience with a helpful layer and full developer surface.

Honey Bee Colony Monitoring via Audio IoT Sensors, Tensorgrams and RNNs

https://arxiv.org/static/browse/0.3.4/images/arxiv-logo-fb.png
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) play a crucial role in agriculture and ecosystem stability as key pollinators of crops and wild plants. As such, monitoring hive strength remotely with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors has become a crucial task. Previously, handcrafted features extracted from the modulation spectrum of audio IoT devices were shown to improve acoustic monitoring of colony strength. ...

Ghost Cut – or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere

https://ishmael.textualize.io/assets/img/blog/ghostcut.gif
The user discusses the flaws in traditional cut and paste functionality, including undo issues and document reflow. They propose a new feature called "Ghost Cut" that allows for a reversible and undoable text move operation.

Taking OCaml and Eio for a Spin

The user started learning OCaml, a functional programming language, after being interested in it for a long time. They found Real World OCaml to be a helpful resource, but it lacked exercises, so they used CS3110 as a beginner's course and then moved to RWO for more advanced features.

All 253 Patterns from Christopher Alexander's a Pattern Language Summarized

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Buildings should be designed to promote social interaction, natural light, and comfort, with features such as open spaces, natural ventilation, and views of the outdoors. The layout and design of buildings should prioritize the needs of users, including privacy, intimacy, and access to amenities.