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Opening up 'Zero-Knowledge Proof' technology to promote privacy in age assurance
4 days ago
- Google has open sourced its Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) libraries to promote privacy in age assurance and digital ID solutions.
- ZKP allows individuals to prove certain facts (e.g., being over 18) without sharing additional personal data, enhancing privacy.
- The open sourcing aims to benefit web users, businesses, developers, and researchers by facilitating privacy-focused applications.
- This initiative supports the EU's eIDAS Regulation, encouraging integration of ZKP into the European Digital Identity Wallet by 2026.
- The ZKP codebase is available on GitHub for public exploration and use.
Box3D, an open source 3D physics engine
4 days ago
- Box3D is an open source 3D physics engine, now available on GitHub.
- It is a fork of Box2D, extended with features for 3D games like triangle mesh, height-field, and baked compound collision.
- Core architecture retains C API, C17 source, sub-stepping solver, continuous collision, wide SIMD, multi-threading hooks, and cross-platform determinism.
- Developed for the game The Legend of California due to issues with Unreal's native physics engine, such as lack of gyroscopic torque support and erratic tree movement.
- Integration was achieved by forking Rubikon-Lite (from Valve's Dirk Gregorius) and transforming it into Box3D by replacing APIs with Box2D code.
- Box3D is optimized for performance, including custom solutions for falling trees, voxel collision mesh building, and streaming compound collision for large structures.
- Created to sustain personal knowledge and sanity, allowing open source development supported by Kintsugiyama as part of day job.
- Box3D is used in The Legend of California, s&box, Esoterica, and a 1000-player space game.
- Currently alpha software, with plans for v0.1 release, more testing, documentation, and feature enhancements like character movement and joint solver.
- Updates and community discussions will be via the author's site and Box2D Discord server, with no separate website or Discord.
Stop Quoting Steve Ballmer
4 days ago
- Steve Ballmer's 2001 quote calling Linux 'a cancer' is often used out of context and stripped of his initial praise for Linux as 'good competition.'
- The quote was aimed at the GPL's copyleft clause, not the Linux kernel itself, expressing concerns about intellectual property and the license's potential viral spread in commercial software.
- In 2001, legal questions about the GPL's enforceability were unresolved, and high-stakes litigation like SCO v. IBM brought these issues to the forefront, though the GPL later survived court challenges.
- Over time, legal precedent clarified that the GPL is enforceable, and Microsoft evolved to embrace Linux, joining initiatives like the Linux Foundation and pledging patents to protect open source.
- Using the 25-year-old quote in modern tech stories is outdated, as Microsoft now ships GPL Linux kernels and actively supports open source, making the reference misleading and irrelevant.
Open Source Low Tech
10 days ago
- Daniel Connell develops open-source technologies from recycled materials for self-sustaining infrastructure like energy, food, and water.
- All designs are license-free with construction tutorials available online.
- The project is community-supported through platforms like a Facebook group and receives no external funding.
Knoppix
5 days ago
- Chemnitz Linux Days 2025 will be held on March 22-23, 2025 under the theme 'The Culture of Open Source'.
- A talk about the chances and risks of generative AI in lectures and exams, presented in German, is scheduled for the event.
- Knopper.Net notes that it is not responsible for the content of external web pages linked in the announcement.
Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions
5 days ago
- Godot will amend contribution guidelines to reject AI-authored code and pull requests
- AI-generated contributions have become draining for maintainers and hinder mentorship of new contributors
- The policy requires human accountability for code and rejects AI text in human communication
- Contributors must disclose any AI assistance used for menial tasks only
- Godot maintains a conservative approach but will re-evaluate as AI tools evolve
Loko Scheme 0.13.0
6 days ago
- Loko Scheme 0.13.0 released with bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features.
- Bootable disk images for 64-bit PCs are available from scheme.fail with GnuPG signatures.
- Loko Scheme is an optimizing Scheme compiler for R6RS and R7RS, producing statically linked binaries for bare metal, Linux, and NetBSD/amd64.
- The project website and mailing list are at https://scheme.fail, and it's licensed under EUPL v. 1.2 or later.
Building Principia for Windows XP
6 days ago
- Principia was originally released in 2014 and supported Windows XP, but modern toolchains and dependencies like UCRT have since made this compatibility difficult to guarantee.
- The project aims to bring Principia back to Windows XP using an open-source build, leveraging SDL for cross-platform support and requiring minimal code changes.
- A custom toolchain was built using GCC, binutils, and mingw-w64, targeting i686-w64-mingw32 with MSVCRT and WIN32_WINNT set to 0x0501 for Windows XP compatibility.
- Dependencies like curl, Freetype, libjpeg-turbo, libpng, SDL, and zlib were built with the new toolchain, though GTK3 was replaced with Dear Imgui for dialogs to avoid complexity.
- Building Principia required addressing a compiler error related to __stdcall calling conventions by updating typedefs in pipeline.c to use GLAD function prototypes.
- Testing on a Windows XP virtual machine and real hardware (an old desktop with AMD Phenom II) confirmed the binary runs, despite font corruption issues likely due to OpenGL drivers.
- Post-build improvements included switching curl to use mbedTLS for TLS support on XP and creating an NSIS installer for ease of use, with scripts available on GitHub.
Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other
8 days ago
- The author added a Town Square feature to their website to create a sense of real-time connection among visitors, showing stick figures representing current users and enabling chat.
- Town Square is designed to be minimal and temporary, with no accounts, profiles, or permanent chat history, emphasizing ephemeral interactions.
- The project has been open-sourced on GitHub, allowing others to host it themselves or use a public server for easy integration without self-hosting.
- Future plans include adding more character props, improving chat features, and potentially connecting Town Squares between websites to form a network similar to a webring.
- The author encourages feedback and ideas via email for further development of Town Square.
ACL 1.0: A source-available commercial license for the AI era
7 days ago
- License allows reading, running, and internal modification of source code without redistribution or hosted services.
- Every version converts to Apache 2.0 after four years, addressing AI-training protection not covered by older licenses.
- Includes explicit rights for enterprise buyers and regulated industries to audit code for security and compliance.
- Prohibits using the Licensed Work as AI training data, with safe harbor for ordinary AI-tool use and flow-through obligations to AI vendors.
- Automatic conversion to Apache License ensures adopters are not permanently dependent on the licensor.
- Features include source availability, blocks hosted-service competition, AI training protection, auto-conversion to OSI license, tier structure, enterprise IP indemnification, and contributor patent grant.
- Addresses risks of source code exfiltration into AI models, with a three-layered clause: knowledge-qualified prohibition, safe harbor, and flow-through obligation.
- Encourages adoption and adaptation of the clause to set a standard for future commercial licenses.
Oracle outlines all the ways it could lose the farm it bet on AI
4 days ago
- UN warns about the urgent need for global governance to prevent AI-related catastrophes, as capabilities outpace safety regulations.
- Oracle discloses numerous risk factors that could jeopardize its significant investment in AI technology.
- Anthropic is removing hidden code previously used to detect Chinese competitors, citing planned deactivation of steganography systems.
- Cloudflare will block bots that scrape content from ad-supported web pages, balancing search visibility and AI training data protection.
- Russian actors are impersonating Signal support for phishing attacks; US disrupts Iranian propaganda sites.
- Microsoft's patches fail to address zero-day attacks on on-prem SharePoint, while China enhances smartphone surveillance tools.
- DEF CON's Franklin project recruits hackers to strengthen critical infrastructure, expanding from successful voting village initiatives.
- EQT acquires a majority stake in Acronis at a valuation over $3.5 billion, boosting cybersecurity investments.
- Mikko Hyppönen marks ten years since corporate ransomware began, predicting no end in sight but highlighting stable infosec careers.
- Collabora releases CODE 26.04 with Markdown and AI features, intensifying competition among FOSS office suites.
- GIMP 0.54 is revived via Flatpak for retro-computing enthusiasts, using the original Motif toolkit.
- Bcachefs exits experimental status in a performance-focused release, incorporating more Rust but facing AI-related challenges.
- France's digital sovereignty efforts struggle to reduce Microsoft dependency, as Nextcloud storage adoption contrasts with Office migration hurdles.
- CentOS evolved from a biochemist's hobby into an enterprise default, fueled by community response to Red Hat's Windows endorsement.
- A Netflix developer open-sources Project Headroom, an app designed to significantly reduce AI operational costs.
Chipify – Open-source workflow automation for analog IC design
3 days ago
- Chipify is an EDA tool for mismatch simulations, parameter sweeping, and yield analysis.
- It automates Monte-Carlo and corner sweeps using Xschem and Ngspice with parallel execution.
- The tool provides a PySide6 desktop GUI, a headless CLI, and a plugin system for customization.
- Prerequisites include Ngspice, Xschem, and IHP-Open-PDK, with recommendation to use the IIC-OSIC-TOOLS container.
- Installation involves cloning the repository, setting up a virtual environment, and installing dependencies.
- User preferences are managed via settings.json, and folder paths for inputs and outputs are configurable.
- An example source follower simulation is included to demonstrate functionality.
- The project is open-source under the Apache License 2.0 and is a work in progress.
Show HN: I trained a 1B LLM from scratch for $315 and open-sourced weights+data
3 days ago
- Tessera 1B is a ~1B-parameter open-source language model trained from scratch by AIIT-THRESHOLD on a hand-curated 24.5B-token corpus.
- It serves as a clean, honest base model for fine-tuning, producing fluent English and some Japanese, but with limited reasoning and factual reliability out-of-the-box.
- Key details include a custom decoder-only transformer architecture, 32 layers, 1536 d_model, 16 heads, 4096 context length, and training on web, books, and academic data for ~145.7 hours at a cost of ~$315.
- Evaluation focuses on language-model loss (~3.20 nats), with no full standard-benchmark suite run; it includes optional LoRA adapters for demonstration and requires custom loading via provided scripts.
- The model is licensed under Apache-2.0, with training data from per-source licensed content, and emphasizes transparency in data policy and limitations.
Startup sues Palo Alto Networks' Koi Security due to AI-hallucinated report
3 days ago
- Nvidia introduces a double-dipping datacenter financing scheme in AI, focusing on dual payments.
- Companies adding more AI also hire more people, but may not meet business needs effectively.
- SoftBank enters the GPU rental market for AI training amid its US server farm construction.
- UN warns of AI risks, calling for global governance to ensure safe and responsible use.
- Oracle outlines numerous risk factors in its AI-focused strategy, including potential losses.
- Russian phishing attacks impersonate Signal support, alongside US takedowns of Iranian propaganda sites.
- Microsoft patches fail to fix on-prem SharePoint vulnerabilities, now under zero-day attack.
- DEF CON expands efforts to harden critical infrastructure by involving hackers through the Franklin project.
- EQT acquires a majority stake in Acronis at over $3.5 billion valuation for cybersecurity.
- Mikko Hyppönen notes no end in sight for corporate ransomware, despite infosec career stability.
- Collabora releases CODE 26.04 with AI integration off by default, amid competition in FOSS office suites.
- GIMP 0.54 is revived in Flatpak form for retro-computing nostalgia, featuring the Motif interface.
- Bcachefs exits experimental status in a 'performance release', with increased Rust and AI-related issues.
- France's digital sovereignty push struggles against Microsoft's dominance, exemplified by Nextcloud rollouts.
- CentOS evolved from a hobby project to an enterprise OS, driven by community after Red Hat changes.
- Netflix developer creates open-source app Headroom to reduce AI costs, offering potential savings.
Deep Agent Code Capabilities
3 days ago
- dcode is an open-source coding agent built on the Deep Agents SDK.
- It works with any large language model, allowing switching between providers mid-session.
- Features include persistent memory across conversations, customizable skills, and approval controls for code execution.
- Supports various built-in tools for file operations, shell execution, web search, and task planning.
- Offers interactive and non-interactive modes, with CLI commands for agent and session management.
- Includes capabilities like subagents, human-in-the-loop approval, and LangSmith tracing for observability.
- Configuration is stored in ~/.deepagents/ with per-agent directories for memory and skills.
- Provides slash commands in interactive sessions for model switching, skill invocation, and memory management.
- Supports remote sandboxes for code execution and MCP tools for external integrations.
- Non-interactive mode allows automated task execution with safeguards like turn and time limits.
CalyxOS is back
3 days ago
- CalyxOS resumed releases after a hiatus since August 2025.
- The new version 7.2.2.0 introduces an HSM-based open-source signing solution for enhanced security.
- Infrastructure improvements include a cleaner server structure and scripts to manage AOSP updates.
- Manual steps are still required to handle AOSP changes and kernel source storage.
- Maintenance continues on device trees for LineageOS and CalyxOS due to missing Google Pixel trees.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk to stop accepting new customers
3 days ago
- Nvidia introduces a datacenter financing scheme to get paid twice for AI/ML services.
- Adding more AI leads to hiring more people, but may not align with business needs.
- SoftBank enters the GPU rental market for AI training in the US.
- UN warns of the need for global governance to prevent AI risks, as capabilities outpace regulations.
- Oracle highlights various risk factors related to its heavy investment in AI.
- Russians are conducting phishing attacks by posing as Signal support.
- Microsoft's patches failed to fix SharePoint vulnerabilities, leading to zero-day attacks.
- DEF CON expands to include hacking efforts to harden critical infrastructure.
- EQT acquires a majority share in Acronis at a valuation over $3.5 billion.
- Mikko Hyppönen notes no end in sight for corporate ransomware after ten years.
- Collabora releases CODE 26.04 with Markdown support and AI integration in FOSS office suites.
- GIMP 0.54 is revived in Flatpak form for retro-computing enthusiasts.
- Bcachefs exits experimental status but faces issues with AI-generated content.
- France struggles to achieve digital sovereignty as users remain tied to Microsoft products.
- CentOS's history from a hobby project to the enterprise default OS, driven by community efforts.
- Netflix engineer open-sources Project Headroom to reduce AI-related costs.
ReactOS Implements First Windows NT6 System Call Toward Vista Compatibility
2 days ago
- ReactOS project, aiming for open-source Windows compatibility, achieved a milestone by implementing its first Windows NT6 system call, moving towards Vista compatibility.
- The merge implements NT6 processor functions, with NtGetCurrentProcessorNumberEx being the first NT6 system call to return the logical processor number.
- This step is part of ReactOS's long-term effort over 30 years, following recent successes like running Valve's Half-Life game, and was celebrated on social media.
Hackers shoveled snow for company, were rewarded with network admin access
2 days ago
- Nvidia introduces a double-dipping datacenter financing scheme to maximize payments.
- Companies adding more AI also increase hiring, but it may not align with business needs.
- SoftBank enters the GPU rental market for AI training, leveraging its US server farm.
- UN warns that AI capabilities outpace governance, urging global rules to prevent risks.
- Oracle highlights numerous risk factors related to its heavy investment in AI.
- Russian attackers impersonate Signal support for phishing, amid other security incidents.
- Microsoft's patches fail to fix on-prem SharePoint vulnerabilities, now under zero-day attack.
- DEF CON expands its Franklin project to involve hackers in securing critical infrastructure.
- EQT acquires a majority stake in Acronis at a valuation over $3.5 billion.
- Mikko Hyppönen notes no end in sight for corporate ransomware, a decade after its first appearance.
- Collabora releases CODE 26.04 with Markdown and AI features, though AI is off by default.
- GIMP 0.54 is revived in Flatpak form for retro-computing enthusiasts.
- Bcachefs exits experimental status with a performance release, including more Rust but AI-related issues.
- France's digital sovereignty push faces challenges in moving users away from Microsoft Office.
- CentOS's history shows how a hobby project became a default enterprise OS after community efforts.
- Netflix engineer open-sources Project Headroom to reduce AI costs significantly.
Godot bans "vibe-coded" code contributions
2 days ago
- Godot is updating its contribution policy to ban almost all AI-generated code contributions.
- New contributors (with ≤3 merged PRs) must get explicit permission to submit major changes.
- AI assistance is limited to menial tasks like code completion and must be disclosed.
- The team cites demoralizing, low-quality AI PRs and lack of understanding from contributors.
- Contribution discussions must remain human-to-human, with no AI agents in communications.
- Context is highlighted as crucial in software development, which AI often fails to grasp.

Hasty Briefsbeta

#open source

Opening up 'Zero-Knowledge Proof' technology to promote privacy in age assurance

Box3D, an open source 3D physics engine

Stop Quoting Steve Ballmer

Open Source Low Tech

Knoppix

Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions

Loko Scheme 0.13.0

Building Principia for Windows XP

Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other

ACL 1.0: A source-available commercial license for the AI era

Oracle outlines all the ways it could lose the farm it bet on AI

Chipify – Open-source workflow automation for analog IC design

Show HN: I trained a 1B LLM from scratch for $315 and open-sourced weights+data

Startup sues Palo Alto Networks' Koi Security due to AI-hallucinated report

Deep Agent Code Capabilities

CalyxOS is back

Amazon's Mechanical Turk to stop accepting new customers

ReactOS Implements First Windows NT6 System Call Toward Vista Compatibility

Hackers shoveled snow for company, were rewarded with network admin access

Godot bans "vibe-coded" code contributions