Hasty Briefsbeta

Bilingual

It's OK to abandon your side-project
3 hours ago
- Side-projects are common in the web industry, but they don't always succeed, and many developers abandon them.
- There's pressure from developer culture to constantly ship side-projects, which can cause anxiety, especially for beginners.
- The author suggests discussing failed side-projects openly, similar to retrospectives at work, to highlight their value.
- A personal example involves building a Latvian noun conjugation quiz app to learn grammar cases, which was deployed and abandoned the same day.
- Despite not using the app, the process of researching and coding it helped the author learn the noun endings indirectly.
- The realization is that side-project success should be redefined by the learning experience, not just by shipping a product.
- Abandoned projects can teach valuable skills, such as building APIs, working with GIS data, or creating animations.
- Advice for beginners: focus on side-projects for personal learning and exploration, not just for external validation, and don't hesitate to abandon them if they cause stress or burnout.
Millions Are Turning to a Cheaper, Electricity-Free Cooling Solution
5 hours ago
- Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology developed Nescod, a cooling system that reduces temperature without using electricity.
- Nescod uses ammonium nitrate, which dissolves in water endothermically, absorbing heat and lowering temperature by up to 25°C to 3.6°C in 20 minutes.
- The system regenerates itself using solar energy to evaporate water and recrystallize the salt for reuse, minimizing water loss and eliminating external power needs.
- Nescod addresses global energy challenges by reducing reliance on electricity for cooling, which accounts for about 10% of energy consumption, especially in hot regions.
- Potential applications extend beyond indoor cooling to food preservation, medicine storage, and transportation of temperature-sensitive goods in areas with unreliable power.
DeepSeek V4 is a display of Huawei AI chip's capabilities
4 hours ago
- DeepSeek V4 is a new, efficient open-source model with high performance at a low cost, offering two versions: V4-Pro for coding/complex tasks and V4-Flash for speed/affordability.
- The model features a long context window of 1 million tokens, achieved through architectural innovations that reduce computing power and memory usage, making it cheaper for handling large texts.
- V4 is optimized for Chinese chips like Huawei's Ascend, marking a step toward reducing dependence on Nvidia and aligning with China's self-reliance goals in AI infrastructure.
- The release follows DeepSeek's rise from a little-known team to a leading AI company after R1, though V4 faces scrutiny over personnel changes and government pressures.
The Military Rockets That Launched the Space Age (2023)
2 days ago
- Rockets powered the Space Age starting with Sputnik's 1957 launch, enabling space exploration for science, defense, commerce, and tourism.
- Early rocket development (mid-1940s-1960s) stemmed from military missile programs during the Cold War, with the V-2 missile serving as a foundation for U.S. and Soviet advancements.
- The U.S. Operation Paperclip brought German V-2 engineers to America, leading to innovations like the Viking, Corporal, and Aerobee rockets, while the Soviet Union developed the R-1 and later R-7 ICBM.
- The Soviet R-7 ICBM's 1957 launch of Sputnik sparked the Space Race, prompting U.S. responses like Explorer 1 and NASA's establishment, shifting focus from defense to space exploration.
The Mushroom That Makes People Have the Exact Same Hallucination
4 hours ago
- Lanmaoa asiatica mushroom causes hallucinations of tiny elf-like figures, known as lilliputian hallucinations.
- The mushroom is native to Yunnan, China, and also found in the Philippines, with effects appearing 12-24 hours after consumption and lasting a long time.
- Its active compound is not psilocybin, and it is not used recreationally due to prolonged hallucinatory effects.
- Colin Domnauer's research confirmed the mushroom's identity and widespread presence, highlighting its unusual cross-cultural consistency in hallucinations.
- Understanding this mushroom could provide insights into brain disorders and new fungal chemicals for research.
Mystery Cpuid Bit
2 days ago
- The author discovered an undocumented CPUID bit 18 in an Athlon 1200 Thunderbird CPU, which was initially unknown and reserved according to official AMD documentation.
- Research revealed that bit 18 was intended to indicate ECC (Error-Correcting Code) capability for AMD K7 processors, although this was not officially documented, while bit 19 indicated MP (multi-processing) capability.
- Historical context suggests that AMD initially supported ECC in Slot A Athlons but may have dropped it for Socket 462 models, with confusion in documentation leading to bits 18 and 19 being misinterpreted over time.
- The author speculated that some Athlon Thunderbird and Duron models with bit 18 set might actually support ECC, but verifying this was difficult due to hardware limitations and lack of documentation.
- Discussions included references to elusive AMD BIOS guides, potential links to debug modes or overclocking features, and the role of chipsets in ECC support, highlighting the complexities of historical hardware documentation.
Show HN: Paper Millionaire – A Startup Stock Option Horror Roguelike
7 hours ago
- The game is called "Paper Millionaire", a startup stock option horror roguelike.
- It explores the disparity between paper value ($2.4M in this case) and actual payout of ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plans).
- The gameplay teaches how ESOPs can be manipulated using real-world tactics, with version 0.9 based on real scenarios and disclaims being legal advice.
Liebherr delivers electric excavator to Bulgarian copper mine
10 hours ago
- Liebherr delivered a 300-tonne R 9350 E electric excavator to the Assarel copper mine in Bulgaria, enhancing efficiency.
- The electric face shovel offers superior power, performance, and durability over diesel versions, with lower maintenance and operating costs.
- The excavator features a custom 17 cubic meter bucket and a 1,200 kW electric motor for high productivity and vibration-free operation.
- Assarel-Medet's Liebherr fleet now includes 28 machines, such as electric excavators, wheel loaders, dozers, and a welding machine.
- Electric equipment is gaining traction for being cost-effective and efficient, appealing to commercial fleet managers despite environmental concerns.
Framework's new Linux laptop is selling faster than its Windows one
8 hours ago
- Framework's Laptop 13 Pro has Ubuntu configurations outselling Windows, an unusual trend in the laptop market.
- This reflects demand from tech-savvy users valuing repairability, upgradeability, and customization, with few premium Linux pre-loaded options available.
- The sales pattern is partly due to users' ability to install their own OS and limited Linux pre-loaded laptops in the premium segment.
- Framework's promotional tweet indicates rapid sales, with six Intel batches sold out, and Ubuntu versions leading over Windows.
- The niche, expensive design targets knowledgeable users, with Linux sales surpassing Windows being significant despite the market's small share.
- Microsoft's recent struggles with unwanted AI features and a pullback on integration may be contributing to increased Linux adoption.
- The Laptop 13 Pro is set to become a status symbol for Linux users, with new designs expected to ship in June.
Revocation of X.509 Certificates
2 days ago
- The article revisits certificate revocation in the context of recent changes by the CAB Forum and Let's Encrypt, highlighting its evolving challenges.
- X.509 certificates underpin PKI for trusted communications but have long validity periods (e.g., 90 days for Let's Encrypt, now moving to 45 days), making timely revocation critical for security.
- Revocation mechanisms like CRLs are inefficient due to large sizes and delays, while OCSP introduces privacy issues, performance overhead, and availability concerns, leading to inconsistent browser support.
- Stapled OCSP offloads revocation checks to servers but still suffers from lag, and Chrome's approach uses trimmed CRLsets, highlighting fragmentation in revocation implementation.
- Short-lived certificates reduce the need for revocation but don't fully address real-time security demands; alternative approaches like DANE/DNSSEC offer faster, more scalable solutions.
- Current revocation methods are inadequate for modern threats, with browsers often failing to detect revoked certificates, underscoring the need for infrastructure overhaul.
Trump's Final Term Ends in 999 Days (Countdown)
9 hours ago
- The countdown timer displays time remaining until January 20, 2029, at 12:00 AM in the America/New_York time zone.
- It also shows the current local time in New York, United States.
- The timer is hosted on logwork.com at the specific URL: https://logwork.com/countdown-h5o4.
The Prompt API
9 hours ago
- The Prompt API enables developers to send natural language requests to Gemini Nano directly in the browser, offering potential use cases like AI-powered search, personalized news feeds, content filtering, and calendar or contact extraction.
- The Prompt API and other AI features (like Summarizer, Writer, Rewriter, Proofreader) have specific hardware and operating system requirements, including Windows 10/11, macOS 13+, Linux, or ChromeOS on Chromebook Plus, with at least 22 GB free storage, >4 GB VRAM or 16 GB RAM, and 4+ CPU cores for GPU/CPU usage.
- Developers can use Prompt API methods like `LanguageModel.availability()` to check model readiness, `create()` to start a session, and `prompt()` or `promptStreaming()` for request-based or streamed outputs, with support for multimodal inputs (audio, image) and JSON Schema for structured responses.
- Sessions in the Prompt API manage conversation context, have a token limit tracked via `session.contextUsage` and `session.contextWindow`, and can be cloned, terminated with `destroy()`, or handle overflow events when context limits are exceeded.
- The API supports cross-origin iframe access using Permission Policy with `allow="language-model"`, but is not available in Web Workers, and developers are encouraged to provide feedback via GitHub, bug reports, or the early preview program to influence future versions.
When Your Digital Life Vanishes
5 days ago
- A man's body was found after a week, with his decomposed tissue damaging his laptop, but digital data can sometimes be recovered unlike physical death.
- The author experienced data loss when their iPhone broke, losing texts and voicemails from their deceased father, who was a data hoarder and taught them backup practices.
- DriveSavers is a data recovery service that handles cases like water damage, fire, and ransomware, with stories of rescuing data from extreme situations like a sunken laptop.
- Data recovery involves clean rooms, microsoldering, and logical reconstruction, with challenges like sourcing parts and dealing with encrypted or corrupted files.
- Ransomware attacks are increasing, and DriveSavers works to recover files without paying ransoms, using techniques to piece together data from partial backups.
- Data loss can cause emotional distress, leading to counseling services, and recovery efforts extend to disaster investigations, like plane crashes or fires.
- People often change after data loss, with some finding new appreciation for their work or art, while others, like Peter Sacks, shift careers entirely after losing a book manuscript.
- The author's iPhone was deemed unrecoverable due to passcode issues, but a hard drive was recovered, containing personal files like old chats and projects, though some data remained inaccessible.
- The story reflects on the fragility of digital storage and the emotional value of files, comparing data loss to grief and questioning what digital salvation might mean.
TurboQuant: A First-Principles Walkthrough
9 hours ago
- TurboQuant compresses AI vectors (KV caches, embeddings, attention keys) to 2–4 bits per coordinate without losing accuracy.
- It uses a random rotation to transform vectors so each coordinate follows a known fixed distribution (Beta/Gaussian), enabling a single reusable codebook.
- Lloyd–Max algorithm precomputes optimal codebooks for this distribution, eliminating per-block metadata and calibration.
- The MSE-optimal version minimizes reconstruction error but biases inner products by shrinking estimates.
- TurboQuant-prod combines MSE quantization with a QJL residual step to produce unbiased inner-product estimates.
- It achieves exponential compression rate (4^{-b}), outperforming polynomial-rate methods.
- TurboQuant matches full-precision performance in LLM inference (KV cache compression) and is orders of magnitude faster in nearest-neighbor search.
- The construction is data-oblivious, requires no per-vector side information beyond one scalar norm, and runs efficiently on GPUs.
Notepad++ for Mac
9 hours ago
- Notepad++ is now available as a free, open-source, native macOS application, requiring no emulation or compatibility layers like Wine.
- It supports over 80 programming languages, with customizable themes, a plugin ecosystem, and support for 137 user interface languages.
- The application is built as a Universal Binary, running natively on both Apple Silicon (M1-M5) and Intel Macs, with optimized performance and battery efficiency.
- Key features include advanced search with regular expressions, side-by-side document viewing, macro recording, and an editing experience identical to the Windows version via the Scintilla engine.
- Notepad++ for macOS is an independent community port under the GNU GPL, with no telemetry, ads, or data collection, and is code-signed and notarized by Apple for security.
AI as a Fascist Artifact – OSnews
16 hours ago
- AI is critiqued as a tool for epistemic injustice, replacing truth with narratives controlled by a tech elite, aligning with fascist ideologies.
- The author argues AI's purpose is to stunt user development and concentrate power and wealth among a privileged few who promote fascist ideas.
- A counterview posits AI as a morally neutral tool, usable by both good and bad actors, with bans risking exclusive control by those with malicious intent.
- Discussions highlight hypocrisy in how people judge tools like guns versus encryption or cryptocurrency, showing inconsistent moral stances based on personal beliefs.
- Automation, including AI, is seen as economically inevitable, displacing human labor despite negative impacts on jobs and wealth distribution, with resistance viewed as futile.
- Opposition to AI includes academics, Marxists, and effective altruists, but their ideas are often impractical or unconvincing to mainstream audiences, hindering productive dialogue.
- The politicization of AI and financial stakes hinder rational discourse on mitigating risks, making meaningful discussion nearly impossible in the current polarized climate.
The reporters at this news site are AI bots. OpenAI appears to be funding it
10 hours ago
- An AI-generated news site called Acutus Wire is posing as a legitimate publication, with most of its articles being fully or partially AI-generated.
- The site's operation involves automated story generation using AI, including an 'AI interviewer' named 'Michael Chen' to solicit quotes from real people under false pretenses.
- Acutus Wire appears to be linked to Republican PR firm Novus Public Affairs and its president Patrick Hynes, who is quoted in articles without disclosing his firm's potential involvement.
- The site's content often aligns with the interests of clients like PhRMA and crypto lobbyists, blurring the lines between journalism and paid advocacy.
- OpenAI's super PAC, Leading The Future, may be funding Acutus Wire to push its political agenda, contradicting OpenAI's policies against using AI for political campaigning.
NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration
13 hours ago
- All 22 members of the NSF's National Science Board were fired on April 24 without explanation by the Trump administration.
- The NSB, established in 1950, advises on U.S. science policy and NSF budget, with members appointed by the president for six-year terms.
- Critics, including former board chair Dan Reed and Representative Zoe Lofgren, call the move unprecedented and harmful to science.
- This follows other Trump administration actions, like firing vaccine advisors in 2023 and cutting NSF advisory committees.
- The NSB's dismissal occurs amid NSF turmoil, including budget cut proposals, staff losses, and reduced grant issuance.
- The board's statutory role includes approving NSF's budget, but members were reportedly blocked from accessing spending details.
Former MIT president says the US is losing the innovation race to China
11 hours ago
- Former MIT president L. Rafael Reif warns that the U.S. is losing its global leadership in science and innovation to China.
- China has shifted from low-cost manufacturing to focusing on high-value tech and science, successfully advancing in areas like EVs, nuclear energy, and war technologies.
- Reif highlights that the U.S. needs to invest more in basic research, treat universities as partners, and stop attacking immigrants to maintain competitiveness.
- He emphasizes the importance of international collaboration for U.S. tech leadership, noting reliance on countries like Taiwan, Japan, and the Netherlands.
- Reif argues that current U.S. political trends, such as proposed budget cuts for science agencies, threaten innovation and could cede the future to China.
Voice Modems
11 hours ago
- The Hayes Smartmodem introduced in 1981 established a key architecture where modems connected to computers via an RS-232 serial link, switching between control messages and data, a design still influencing modern cellular modems.
- Voice modems emerged in the early 1990s, spearheaded by Rockwell, which introduced proprietary AT# commands for voice support, enabling PCs to handle phone calls, voicemail, and IVR systems by sending PCM audio over serial connections.
- Voice modem usage was standardized in 1998 with V.253, but compatibility and implementation issues persisted, leading to limited consumer adoption largely focused on answering machine features despite broader business applications.
- In modern systems, cellular modems retain the Smartmodem legacy by acting as standalone devices controlled via serial interfaces, with voice audio often transmitted digitally over separate UART channels, reflecting the persistent separation of call audio from the main OS.

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Bilingual

It's OK to abandon your side-project
3 hours ago
- Side-projects are common in the web industry, but they don't always succeed, and many developers abandon them.
- There's pressure from developer culture to constantly ship side-projects, which can cause anxiety, especially for beginners.
- The author suggests discussing failed side-projects openly, similar to retrospectives at work, to highlight their value.
- A personal example involves building a Latvian noun conjugation quiz app to learn grammar cases, which was deployed and abandoned the same day.
- Despite not using the app, the process of researching and coding it helped the author learn the noun endings indirectly.
- The realization is that side-project success should be redefined by the learning experience, not just by shipping a product.
- Abandoned projects can teach valuable skills, such as building APIs, working with GIS data, or creating animations.
- Advice for beginners: focus on side-projects for personal learning and exploration, not just for external validation, and don't hesitate to abandon them if they cause stress or burnout.
Millions Are Turning to a Cheaper, Electricity-Free Cooling Solution
5 hours ago
- Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology developed Nescod, a cooling system that reduces temperature without using electricity.
- Nescod uses ammonium nitrate, which dissolves in water endothermically, absorbing heat and lowering temperature by up to 25°C to 3.6°C in 20 minutes.
- The system regenerates itself using solar energy to evaporate water and recrystallize the salt for reuse, minimizing water loss and eliminating external power needs.
- Nescod addresses global energy challenges by reducing reliance on electricity for cooling, which accounts for about 10% of energy consumption, especially in hot regions.
- Potential applications extend beyond indoor cooling to food preservation, medicine storage, and transportation of temperature-sensitive goods in areas with unreliable power.
DeepSeek V4 is a display of Huawei AI chip's capabilities
4 hours ago
- DeepSeek V4 is a new, efficient open-source model with high performance at a low cost, offering two versions: V4-Pro for coding/complex tasks and V4-Flash for speed/affordability.
- The model features a long context window of 1 million tokens, achieved through architectural innovations that reduce computing power and memory usage, making it cheaper for handling large texts.
- V4 is optimized for Chinese chips like Huawei's Ascend, marking a step toward reducing dependence on Nvidia and aligning with China's self-reliance goals in AI infrastructure.
- The release follows DeepSeek's rise from a little-known team to a leading AI company after R1, though V4 faces scrutiny over personnel changes and government pressures.
The Military Rockets That Launched the Space Age (2023)
2 days ago
- Rockets powered the Space Age starting with Sputnik's 1957 launch, enabling space exploration for science, defense, commerce, and tourism.
- Early rocket development (mid-1940s-1960s) stemmed from military missile programs during the Cold War, with the V-2 missile serving as a foundation for U.S. and Soviet advancements.
- The U.S. Operation Paperclip brought German V-2 engineers to America, leading to innovations like the Viking, Corporal, and Aerobee rockets, while the Soviet Union developed the R-1 and later R-7 ICBM.
- The Soviet R-7 ICBM's 1957 launch of Sputnik sparked the Space Race, prompting U.S. responses like Explorer 1 and NASA's establishment, shifting focus from defense to space exploration.
The Mushroom That Makes People Have the Exact Same Hallucination
4 hours ago
- Lanmaoa asiatica mushroom causes hallucinations of tiny elf-like figures, known as lilliputian hallucinations.
- The mushroom is native to Yunnan, China, and also found in the Philippines, with effects appearing 12-24 hours after consumption and lasting a long time.
- Its active compound is not psilocybin, and it is not used recreationally due to prolonged hallucinatory effects.
- Colin Domnauer's research confirmed the mushroom's identity and widespread presence, highlighting its unusual cross-cultural consistency in hallucinations.
- Understanding this mushroom could provide insights into brain disorders and new fungal chemicals for research.
Mystery Cpuid Bit
2 days ago
- The author discovered an undocumented CPUID bit 18 in an Athlon 1200 Thunderbird CPU, which was initially unknown and reserved according to official AMD documentation.
- Research revealed that bit 18 was intended to indicate ECC (Error-Correcting Code) capability for AMD K7 processors, although this was not officially documented, while bit 19 indicated MP (multi-processing) capability.
- Historical context suggests that AMD initially supported ECC in Slot A Athlons but may have dropped it for Socket 462 models, with confusion in documentation leading to bits 18 and 19 being misinterpreted over time.
- The author speculated that some Athlon Thunderbird and Duron models with bit 18 set might actually support ECC, but verifying this was difficult due to hardware limitations and lack of documentation.
- Discussions included references to elusive AMD BIOS guides, potential links to debug modes or overclocking features, and the role of chipsets in ECC support, highlighting the complexities of historical hardware documentation.
Show HN: Paper Millionaire – A Startup Stock Option Horror Roguelike
7 hours ago
- The game is called "Paper Millionaire", a startup stock option horror roguelike.
- It explores the disparity between paper value ($2.4M in this case) and actual payout of ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plans).
- The gameplay teaches how ESOPs can be manipulated using real-world tactics, with version 0.9 based on real scenarios and disclaims being legal advice.
Liebherr delivers electric excavator to Bulgarian copper mine
10 hours ago
- Liebherr delivered a 300-tonne R 9350 E electric excavator to the Assarel copper mine in Bulgaria, enhancing efficiency.
- The electric face shovel offers superior power, performance, and durability over diesel versions, with lower maintenance and operating costs.
- The excavator features a custom 17 cubic meter bucket and a 1,200 kW electric motor for high productivity and vibration-free operation.
- Assarel-Medet's Liebherr fleet now includes 28 machines, such as electric excavators, wheel loaders, dozers, and a welding machine.
- Electric equipment is gaining traction for being cost-effective and efficient, appealing to commercial fleet managers despite environmental concerns.
Framework's new Linux laptop is selling faster than its Windows one
8 hours ago
- Framework's Laptop 13 Pro has Ubuntu configurations outselling Windows, an unusual trend in the laptop market.
- This reflects demand from tech-savvy users valuing repairability, upgradeability, and customization, with few premium Linux pre-loaded options available.
- The sales pattern is partly due to users' ability to install their own OS and limited Linux pre-loaded laptops in the premium segment.
- Framework's promotional tweet indicates rapid sales, with six Intel batches sold out, and Ubuntu versions leading over Windows.
- The niche, expensive design targets knowledgeable users, with Linux sales surpassing Windows being significant despite the market's small share.
- Microsoft's recent struggles with unwanted AI features and a pullback on integration may be contributing to increased Linux adoption.
- The Laptop 13 Pro is set to become a status symbol for Linux users, with new designs expected to ship in June.
Revocation of X.509 Certificates
2 days ago
- The article revisits certificate revocation in the context of recent changes by the CAB Forum and Let's Encrypt, highlighting its evolving challenges.
- X.509 certificates underpin PKI for trusted communications but have long validity periods (e.g., 90 days for Let's Encrypt, now moving to 45 days), making timely revocation critical for security.
- Revocation mechanisms like CRLs are inefficient due to large sizes and delays, while OCSP introduces privacy issues, performance overhead, and availability concerns, leading to inconsistent browser support.
- Stapled OCSP offloads revocation checks to servers but still suffers from lag, and Chrome's approach uses trimmed CRLsets, highlighting fragmentation in revocation implementation.
- Short-lived certificates reduce the need for revocation but don't fully address real-time security demands; alternative approaches like DANE/DNSSEC offer faster, more scalable solutions.
- Current revocation methods are inadequate for modern threats, with browsers often failing to detect revoked certificates, underscoring the need for infrastructure overhaul.
Trump's Final Term Ends in 999 Days (Countdown)
9 hours ago
- The countdown timer displays time remaining until January 20, 2029, at 12:00 AM in the America/New_York time zone.
- It also shows the current local time in New York, United States.
- The timer is hosted on logwork.com at the specific URL: https://logwork.com/countdown-h5o4.
The Prompt API
9 hours ago
- The Prompt API enables developers to send natural language requests to Gemini Nano directly in the browser, offering potential use cases like AI-powered search, personalized news feeds, content filtering, and calendar or contact extraction.
- The Prompt API and other AI features (like Summarizer, Writer, Rewriter, Proofreader) have specific hardware and operating system requirements, including Windows 10/11, macOS 13+, Linux, or ChromeOS on Chromebook Plus, with at least 22 GB free storage, >4 GB VRAM or 16 GB RAM, and 4+ CPU cores for GPU/CPU usage.
- Developers can use Prompt API methods like `LanguageModel.availability()` to check model readiness, `create()` to start a session, and `prompt()` or `promptStreaming()` for request-based or streamed outputs, with support for multimodal inputs (audio, image) and JSON Schema for structured responses.
- Sessions in the Prompt API manage conversation context, have a token limit tracked via `session.contextUsage` and `session.contextWindow`, and can be cloned, terminated with `destroy()`, or handle overflow events when context limits are exceeded.
- The API supports cross-origin iframe access using Permission Policy with `allow="language-model"`, but is not available in Web Workers, and developers are encouraged to provide feedback via GitHub, bug reports, or the early preview program to influence future versions.
When Your Digital Life Vanishes
5 days ago
- A man's body was found after a week, with his decomposed tissue damaging his laptop, but digital data can sometimes be recovered unlike physical death.
- The author experienced data loss when their iPhone broke, losing texts and voicemails from their deceased father, who was a data hoarder and taught them backup practices.
- DriveSavers is a data recovery service that handles cases like water damage, fire, and ransomware, with stories of rescuing data from extreme situations like a sunken laptop.
- Data recovery involves clean rooms, microsoldering, and logical reconstruction, with challenges like sourcing parts and dealing with encrypted or corrupted files.
- Ransomware attacks are increasing, and DriveSavers works to recover files without paying ransoms, using techniques to piece together data from partial backups.
- Data loss can cause emotional distress, leading to counseling services, and recovery efforts extend to disaster investigations, like plane crashes or fires.
- People often change after data loss, with some finding new appreciation for their work or art, while others, like Peter Sacks, shift careers entirely after losing a book manuscript.
- The author's iPhone was deemed unrecoverable due to passcode issues, but a hard drive was recovered, containing personal files like old chats and projects, though some data remained inaccessible.
- The story reflects on the fragility of digital storage and the emotional value of files, comparing data loss to grief and questioning what digital salvation might mean.
TurboQuant: A First-Principles Walkthrough
9 hours ago
- TurboQuant compresses AI vectors (KV caches, embeddings, attention keys) to 2–4 bits per coordinate without losing accuracy.
- It uses a random rotation to transform vectors so each coordinate follows a known fixed distribution (Beta/Gaussian), enabling a single reusable codebook.
- Lloyd–Max algorithm precomputes optimal codebooks for this distribution, eliminating per-block metadata and calibration.
- The MSE-optimal version minimizes reconstruction error but biases inner products by shrinking estimates.
- TurboQuant-prod combines MSE quantization with a QJL residual step to produce unbiased inner-product estimates.
- It achieves exponential compression rate (4^{-b}), outperforming polynomial-rate methods.
- TurboQuant matches full-precision performance in LLM inference (KV cache compression) and is orders of magnitude faster in nearest-neighbor search.
- The construction is data-oblivious, requires no per-vector side information beyond one scalar norm, and runs efficiently on GPUs.
Notepad++ for Mac
9 hours ago
- Notepad++ is now available as a free, open-source, native macOS application, requiring no emulation or compatibility layers like Wine.
- It supports over 80 programming languages, with customizable themes, a plugin ecosystem, and support for 137 user interface languages.
- The application is built as a Universal Binary, running natively on both Apple Silicon (M1-M5) and Intel Macs, with optimized performance and battery efficiency.
- Key features include advanced search with regular expressions, side-by-side document viewing, macro recording, and an editing experience identical to the Windows version via the Scintilla engine.
- Notepad++ for macOS is an independent community port under the GNU GPL, with no telemetry, ads, or data collection, and is code-signed and notarized by Apple for security.
AI as a Fascist Artifact – OSnews
16 hours ago
- AI is critiqued as a tool for epistemic injustice, replacing truth with narratives controlled by a tech elite, aligning with fascist ideologies.
- The author argues AI's purpose is to stunt user development and concentrate power and wealth among a privileged few who promote fascist ideas.
- A counterview posits AI as a morally neutral tool, usable by both good and bad actors, with bans risking exclusive control by those with malicious intent.
- Discussions highlight hypocrisy in how people judge tools like guns versus encryption or cryptocurrency, showing inconsistent moral stances based on personal beliefs.
- Automation, including AI, is seen as economically inevitable, displacing human labor despite negative impacts on jobs and wealth distribution, with resistance viewed as futile.
- Opposition to AI includes academics, Marxists, and effective altruists, but their ideas are often impractical or unconvincing to mainstream audiences, hindering productive dialogue.
- The politicization of AI and financial stakes hinder rational discourse on mitigating risks, making meaningful discussion nearly impossible in the current polarized climate.
The reporters at this news site are AI bots. OpenAI appears to be funding it
10 hours ago
- An AI-generated news site called Acutus Wire is posing as a legitimate publication, with most of its articles being fully or partially AI-generated.
- The site's operation involves automated story generation using AI, including an 'AI interviewer' named 'Michael Chen' to solicit quotes from real people under false pretenses.
- Acutus Wire appears to be linked to Republican PR firm Novus Public Affairs and its president Patrick Hynes, who is quoted in articles without disclosing his firm's potential involvement.
- The site's content often aligns with the interests of clients like PhRMA and crypto lobbyists, blurring the lines between journalism and paid advocacy.
- OpenAI's super PAC, Leading The Future, may be funding Acutus Wire to push its political agenda, contradicting OpenAI's policies against using AI for political campaigning.
NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration
13 hours ago
- All 22 members of the NSF's National Science Board were fired on April 24 without explanation by the Trump administration.
- The NSB, established in 1950, advises on U.S. science policy and NSF budget, with members appointed by the president for six-year terms.
- Critics, including former board chair Dan Reed and Representative Zoe Lofgren, call the move unprecedented and harmful to science.
- This follows other Trump administration actions, like firing vaccine advisors in 2023 and cutting NSF advisory committees.
- The NSB's dismissal occurs amid NSF turmoil, including budget cut proposals, staff losses, and reduced grant issuance.
- The board's statutory role includes approving NSF's budget, but members were reportedly blocked from accessing spending details.
Former MIT president says the US is losing the innovation race to China
11 hours ago
- Former MIT president L. Rafael Reif warns that the U.S. is losing its global leadership in science and innovation to China.
- China has shifted from low-cost manufacturing to focusing on high-value tech and science, successfully advancing in areas like EVs, nuclear energy, and war technologies.
- Reif highlights that the U.S. needs to invest more in basic research, treat universities as partners, and stop attacking immigrants to maintain competitiveness.
- He emphasizes the importance of international collaboration for U.S. tech leadership, noting reliance on countries like Taiwan, Japan, and the Netherlands.
- Reif argues that current U.S. political trends, such as proposed budget cuts for science agencies, threaten innovation and could cede the future to China.
Voice Modems
11 hours ago
- The Hayes Smartmodem introduced in 1981 established a key architecture where modems connected to computers via an RS-232 serial link, switching between control messages and data, a design still influencing modern cellular modems.
- Voice modems emerged in the early 1990s, spearheaded by Rockwell, which introduced proprietary AT# commands for voice support, enabling PCs to handle phone calls, voicemail, and IVR systems by sending PCM audio over serial connections.
- Voice modem usage was standardized in 1998 with V.253, but compatibility and implementation issues persisted, leading to limited consumer adoption largely focused on answering machine features despite broader business applications.
- In modern systems, cellular modems retain the Smartmodem legacy by acting as standalone devices controlled via serial interfaces, with voice audio often transmitted digitally over separate UART channels, reflecting the persistent separation of call audio from the main OS.

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