title, category, US stock market symbols or sentiment.
Title: Lost and Found at Sea: Uncovering the Remarkable Preservation of Borealopelta markmitchelli Category: Science Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Researchers discovered the remarkably preserved remains of a nodosaur, Borealopelta markmitchelli, in an ancient marine environment in 2011. • The fossil is so well-preserved that scientists can see what it looked like when it was alive. • Its finding provides insight into Early Cretaceous ecology and how this species may have lived within its environment. • It is believed that its carcass may have been carried from a river to the sea in a flooding event and kept afloat by bloat-and-float before sinking to the ocean floor. • Scientists suspect that its heavy armor rolled it onto its back which prevented ocean predators from scavenging its carcass.
Title: Exploring the Rails 71 Dockerfile Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • A look at how Flyio uses Docker to create a preconfigured Linux box for most Rails applications. • An explanation of what a Dockerfile is and how it makes standardizing production deployments possible. • A closer look at the default Rails 71 Dockerfile, including commands, layers, and caching techniques.
Title: Digitec Galaxus is Blazing a Trail Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Digitec Galaxus and Digitec are now providing customers with information on how often products are returned, how often they break during the warranty period, and how long it takes for a warranty claim to be settled. • This data is not available from any other online retailer, manufacturer or comparison portal. • Customers can now see the return rate, warranty score and warranty case duration for each product on the page. • The return rate shows how often a type of product from a given brand was returned in the last 12 months. • The warranty score shows how often a type of product from a given brand was defective within 24 months after purchase. • The warranty case duration shows customers how long it takes on average for a type of product from a given brand to be returned in the event of a warranty claim.
Title: The Evolution of English Letterforms Category: Others Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Latin majuscule letterforms were designed to be easy to chisel into stone. • Miniscule letterforms were later invented for faster writing. • Printing press manufacturers simplified letters and rejected ligatures. • Typewriters and early computer displays further simplified English letterforms. • 15th century Latin script had dozens of different styles optimised for different writing technologies. • Handwritten lowercase letters developed around fountain pens and quills, while printed lowercase letters have changed little since Charlemagne's miniscule script. • Blackletter styles developed in Germany and England, resulting in Sütterlin and 'secretary hand' respectively. • Ballpoint pen handwriting would likely look quite different from current handwriting styles.
Politics Sentiment Neutral Summary • Ugly Gerry is a free font created with real US congressional districts • The name comes from gerrymandering, the process that made possible such weird shapes • You can find the font’s website at uglygerry.com
Title: I Almost Bought a Scanner Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • A story about almost buying an expensive Hasselblad Flextight X1 scanner for the Alpine Panoramics project. • The software that drives these scanners is compiled for 32bit architecture and hasn’t been updated in over 10 years, making it difficult to use with modern systems. • The scanners themselves are reaching their natural end of life, with parts in short supply and existing parts starting to fail. • This particular scanner was showing signs of a bad Firewire port, leading to the conclusion that it would cost 5000 Euros to repair. • Despite this, the scanner is remarkable due to its form factor, being able to scan up to 6x9cm negatives at 4000dpi without any interpolation or artifacts.
s instead of 15 minutes Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • A tech article discussing the potential of replacing a SQL analyst with 26 recursive GPT prompts. • The author tested the idea by building a freeform question answering analytics bot on top of the Crunchbase data set. • The process involved building a prompt from schemas and sample data, running it through various GPT models, executing the SQL against relevant tables, and hooking it up to a Slack bot. • The author found that there was logarithmic improvement in each GPT call as they kept quickly finding prompt improvements.
Title: The Unfairness of Executive Salaries Category: Economy Sentiment: Negative Summary: • Executives tend to overestimate their own skill and contribution, leading to inflated salaries. • It is in the interest of executives to keep C-suite salaries high, as it increases their own salary. • Executive salaries are not determined by impact, but rather by market value and negotiation. Impact is only a qualifier; if the impact does not justify the salary then that is a problem.
Title: The Great Automatic Grammatizator: The Impact of Automation on the Writing Profession Category: Economy US Stock Market Symbols with Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Roald Dahl's short story, "The Great Automatic Grammatizator," explores the impact of automation on the writing profession. • It becomes impossible to separate machine-generated content from human-generated content. • Established authors are left with the choice of destitution or licensing their names under which machines can continue to publish books. • As automation spreads, more and more people are rushing to sign contracts with Mr Knipe in order to avoid destitution.
Title: Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History Category: Politics US Stock Market Symbols with Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Reveals findings of 2 year investigation into alleged stock manipulation and accounting fraud by Indian conglomerate Adani Group. • Gautam Adani, founder and chairman, has amassed a net worth of roughly 120 billion largely through stock price appreciation in the group’s 7 key listed companies. • Research involved speaking with dozens of individuals, reviewing thousands of documents, and conducting diligence site visits in almost half a dozen countries. • Even if you ignore the findings, 85 downside purely on fundamental basis owing to skyhigh valuations. • Key listed companies have taken on substantial debt including pledging shares for loans putting entire group on precarious financial footing. • Very top ranks are filled with Adani family members placing control over financials and decisions in hands of few. • Previously been focus of 4 major government fraud investigations alleging money laundering theft totaling an estimated US 17 billion.
Title: How the Xbox 360 Knows if Your Harddrive is Genuine Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • The Xbox 360 was launched in 2005 with two models – a “Core” model and a “Pro” model. The Pro included a 20 GB harddrive which quickly became necessary for gamers who wanted to save their profiles and download content from Xbox Live. • Modders explored the possibility of using custom harddrives, but found it was impossible due to the unique piece of data in sector 16 called the “security sector” that contains specific information. • Every genuine Xbox 360 harddrive has this security sector data which is processed by a kernel function named SataDiskAuthenticateDevice and compared against what is stored in the security sector using another helper function named SataDiskEqualAuthenticationStrings. • If any of those 3 strings do not match, or if the RSA signature verification fails, then it will fail authentication. • There are two workarounds for those who do not want to buy genuine Microsoft Xbox 360 harddrives – HDDHackr or Xecuter's X360USB Pro v2.
Title: Unlocking the Potential of Telemedicine, Companies, Teachers and Experts Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols: CALCOM (Positive) Summary: • Explore the potential of telemedicine to allow patients to book appointments with doctors and therapists. • Create a marketplace for companies to book interviews with candidates. • Develop an education platform for students to book classes with tutors mentors and professors. • Build cohort-based learning and allow fellows to connect with each other or book experts. • Introduce calcom as an open source alternative to Calendly that allows users to keep their data on their own server.
Title: Hyperscale in your Homelab: The Compute Blade Arrives Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Overview of the Compute Blade, a new device designed for building clusters. • Features include an M2 slot, 1 Gbps PoE port, TPM module, USB and HDMI ports, physical switches for WiFi and Bluetooth. • Includes fan modules to provide airflow over the Pi. • Comes with an integrated Infineon TPM 20 module for secure embedded computing. • Chip is placed under the Compute Module for better security.
Title: Password Security: Balancing Risk and Efficiency Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • End user devices are generally safer than servers with public addresses, due to firewalls and NAT. • Self-hosters often make insecure decisions, such as adding a public DNS endpoint to their password manager. • 2FA is much safer than a password generated by a password manager, and any platform smart enough to support 2FA is also not going to give you unlimited password attempts. • The idea that all passwords should be equally secure or that you must use a unique password on every site is misguided; it may increase risk rather than reduce it.
Title: How Bitwarden Protects Users' Data Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Bitwarden uses a single master password to protect users’ data, which is derived into two different values. • There is an obvious flaw in the process described in their security whitepaper, where the 100000 PBKDF2 iterations on the server side are only applied to the master password hash not to the encryption key. • This simple tweak removes all protection granted by serverside iterations and speeds up master password guessing considerably. • The default protection level of LastPass and Bitwarden is identical, so it's important for users to generate a strong random passphrase using diceware approach for maximum security. • Bitwarden provides exactly the same protection level as LastPass with default settings, but there are other factors that should be taken into consideration when assessing its security.
Title: Growing Up in the Northern Panhandle Category: Others Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • A look at the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. • The original capital of West Virginia was Wheeling in the northern panhandle but it was eventually moved south to Charleston due to disconnect. • Distinctive words used in the region include “pop” for carbonated soft drinks and “buggies” for shopping carts. • An example of regional dialect differences is that what is known as a bubbler in Milwaukee is referred to as a water fountain everywhere else.
Title: The Blockbuster Fight: Netflix's Battle with Blockbuster and its Impact on the Stock Market Category: Economy US Stock Symbols & Sentiment: Netflix (NFLX): Neutral Blockbuster (BLOAQ): Negative Summary: • Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and funded by Reed Hastings, who eventually took over as CEO. • In 2004, Blockbuster launched an online service to compete with Netflix, causing a drop in NFLX stock. • Netflix responded by cutting prices and referring to Amazon’s assumed imminent entry to the space, causing another drop in NFLX stock. • Despite Blockbuster’s aggressive pricing strategy, Netflix decided to wait it out due to BLOAQ’s debt from its spinoff from Viacom.
Title: OpenAI and Microsoft Extend Partnership Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols with Sentiment: Microsoft (MSFT) - Positive Summary: • OpenAI and Microsoft are extending their partnership with a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment from Microsoft. • This investment will allow OpenAI to continue its independent research and develop AI that is increasingly safe, useful, and powerful. • The partnership between the two companies has enabled them to build multiple supercomputing systems powered by Azure which are used to train all of their models. • They have also partnered together to deploy technology through an API and the Azure OpenAI Service, as well as build OpenAI’s technology into apps like GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Designer. • The teams collaborate regularly in order to review shared lessons in order to inform iterative updates for future research on AI systems across the industry.
Title: Documentation as Code: A Guide to Treating Documentation Like Software Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Documentation as Code means that your documentation process benefits from the same practices you use to develop successful software, such as storing content in a version control system, separation of content configuration and presentation, using automation for compilation validation verification and publishing CICD, reusing shared materials DRY, and using an IDE to write content. • There are recommended tools for each step of the process including AsciiDoc for authoring, Asciidoctor for converting documents into publication formats like HTML DocBook PDF etc., Maven Gradle docToolChain for publishing build and deploy documentation artefacts. • Diagrams can also be treated like code with PlantUML Mermaid or GraphViz which can be embedded directly into AsciiDoc content. • Diagrams as Code 20 is a technique to describe diagrams in code and use them in the same development workflow like software code.
Title: WiFi Routers Used to Produce 3D Images of Humans Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University used three WiFi transmitters and AI algorithms to create 3D images from the WiFi signals that bounce off of people. • This proof-of-concept would be a breakthrough for healthcare, security, gaming, VR and a host of other industries. • It would also overcome issues affecting regular cameras such as poor lighting or simple obstacles like furniture blocking a camera lens while also eclipsing traditional RBG sensors LiDAR and radar technology. • However this discovery comes with a host of potential privacy issues if the technology does make it to the mainstream one’s movements and poses could be monitored — even through walls — without prior knowledge or consent.
Title: GitSim: Visually Simulate Git Operations in Your Own Repos Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • GitSim is a free and open-source command-line tool written in Python that allows users to generate images or video animations illustrating the impact of a Git command on their local repo. • It enables users to review these images to ensure they understand how the reset/merge will impact their local repo before executing the actual git merge command. • The tool can be used with any type of Git command, including reset, merge, checkout, etc.
Title: The Revolutionary AirJet Technology from Frore Systems Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Frore Systems has developed a revolutionary thermal technology called AirJet that doubles active heat removal with a thinner, silent solution for greater performance. • Industry expert Patrick Moorhead and VP & GM Mobile Platforms at Intel Josh Newman have praised the technology. • AirJet Mini and AirJet Pro chips are integrated into devices to remove heat silently resulting in major performance gains. • Frore Systems is headquartered in San Jose, CA with offices in Taiwan and South Korea.
Title: Prompt Engineering in the Age of AI: Knowing What to Ask and How Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Prompt engineering is a valuable skill that has been around before computers and will continue to be important as AI progresses. • Many people are not aware of how to use AI effectively, asking for notuseful things or useful things in a nonproductive way. • Knowing what to ask for and how to ask it clearly is essential when instructing an AI or human chatbot.
Title: Sabotaging the Grid: The Deliberate Nature of Infrastructure Attacks Category: Politics Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Attackers put thought into their attack on a substation, suggesting they had some knowledge of how the system worked. • Instructional materials circulate in darker corners of the net that provide detailed advice on how to plan and execute an attack on infrastructure units. • It is difficult to build up a picture of larger structure of grid transmission direction system redundancies, tolerances, failure cascades without advanced engineering expertise and institutional knowledge. • An ongoing rash of cheap microattacks drives up costs without any threat being sufficiently expensive to bring about massive change. • If windings within transformers were damaged it would require replacement due to cost and complexity in manufacturing them.
Title: Microsoft's Mixed Reality Team Laid Off, What Does It Mean for HoloLens? Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Microsoft has laid off its entire Mixed Reality team, including those behind AltSpaceVR and MRTK. • This casts doubt on the future of HoloLens, which is currently struggling to retain a military contract with the US government. • The scale of layoffs keeps revealing itself as we get a better understanding of how deep and broad Microsoft is restructuring. • Despite having acquired AltSpaceVR back in 2017, Microsoft has now shuttered it for good in March 2021. • The entire team behind MRTK was also laid off just before they were due to release a new version next month.
$19.99 Category: Economy Sentiment: Neutral • SkyFi offers single existing and new images for purchase • Existing images are sourced from a database of previously captured satellite images • Most existing images are available for instant downloading within minutes of purchase • New image orders require a license to be purchased, with no subscription required • Purchased image will be available to view in the SkyFi app or as a digital file download to your device • Prices start at $19.99
Title: Exploring Negation in Language Models for Medical Diagnosis Category: Science US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Examines the use of language models and other tricks for medical diagnosis. • Discusses the challenge of negated statements in the medical domain, which are more frequent than in general texts. • Explores how ChatGPT works well most of the time, but fails in seemingly obvious ways. • Considers how a language model can feel nonjudgemental and doesn’t necessarily remember what you said outside its context window.
Title: Chess Visualization Exercise Category: Others US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • A chess visualization exercise that requires the user to move from one square to the next without landing on a square that can be taken by the queen. • Took me a few minutes to understand what exactly I was supposed to do but once I figured it out, it took 1315 seconds. • The UI could be improved by marking forbidden squares due to the queen.
Title: EarthSunCapped: A WebGL Experiment Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • A discussion of the capabilities of modern CPUs and how they can be used to run a Chromium build with hardware acceleration disabled at 1080p and 30 fps. • An appreciation for the potential of web games, with Google spearheading features in Chrome. • Unity is not ideal for building WebGL games due to multiple conversions needed for a WebGL build, as well as its general unpleasantness and bloat. • Plug for EarthSunCapped, a 10-year experiment in WebGL that also supports WebXR in VR.
Category: Science Sentiment: Positive Summary: • The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a final rule in the Federal Register to certify NuScale Power’s small modular reactor design, making it the first SMR approved by the NRC for use in the United States. • The published final rule making allows utilities to reference NuScale’s SMR design when applying for a combined license to build and operate a reactor. • Each power module is capable of generating 50 megawatts of emissions-free electricity and can house up to 12 factory-built power modules that are about a third of the size of a large-scale reactor. • The US Department Energy provided more than 600 million since 2014 to support the design licensing and siting of NuScale’s VOYGR SMR power plant and other domestic SMR concepts.
Title: The Long Road to Completion: My Struggle with Procrastination Category: Others US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Describes the author's experience of procrastinating on their PhD thesis for more than a year. • Explains how the author assembled a team of students and faculty to work on the project, but eventually had to disband it due to lack of progress. • Details how the author struggled with feelings of dread and anxiety when thinking about working on their thesis. • Concludes with weekly meetings between the author and their advisor, where they discussed everything else besides the project.
int bullet points: • Explores the story of how a hacker was able to gain access to an airline's Jenkins server and exploit it for their own gain • Describes the three steps taken by the hacker, including finding an exposed Jenkins server, assessing what access they had, and digging into config files • Details how the hacker was able to gain access to NavBlue APIs for refueling, cancelling flights, swapping out crew members and more Category: Security/Infosec Sentiment: Neutral
Title: The Role of Public Debt in Economic Prosperity Category: Economics US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Government debt has increased significantly as a percentage of GDP over the last 100 years. • Private debt still dwarfs public debt, and GDP is not an accurate measure of economic prosperity. • It is difficult to accurately measure economic prosperity, as it includes intangible factors such as natural amenity and employee wellbeing.
Title: Unseen Worlds: Exploring the Infinitesimal with Angel Fitor Category: Science Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Spanish wildlife photographer Angel Fitor has been working to capture the unseen world of copepods, tiny plankton that float with ocean currents. • Copepods come in some 13000 known species and can be found in all bodies of water, from deep ocean trenches to alpine lakes. • Fitor has used conventional lenses and equipment to magnify these creatures, which typically range from 0.2-17 millimeters in length. • His work illuminates a hidden world that’s all around us, showing us the countless creatures that live unseen in the ocean.
Title: Learning from Those Who Came Before Us Category: Others Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Advice is often contextual and should be delivered with context in mind. • The author has spent the first half of their career as a software engineer working for various small businesses and startups, then went into consulting and worked in a number of large businesses, before starting Simple Thread. • The author believes that the hardest part of software is building the right thing, which highlights the complexity and irrationality of the environments in which we have to work. • Other advice includes understanding that no matter how long you’ve been in your career, there will always be a huge knowledge gap compared to someone else who has also spent decades in a seemingly similar role; valuing engineer productivity over most other considerations; and delighting in learning from and teaching others.
Title: HCtree: A New Database Backend for Improved Concurrency, Replication, and Removal of Database Size Limitations Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • HCtree is an attempt to develop a new database backend that improves upon regular SQLite in terms of concurrency, replication, and removal of database size limitations. • It uses optimistic row-level locking and is designed to support dozens of concurrent writers running at full speed. • It also supports the sessions extension which allows the contents of a committed transaction to be serialized for transmission and application to a second database. • Hctree uses 48-bit page numbers allowing 260 byte databases or 1EiB (roughly one million TiB). • The project contains a fork of the SQLite project that has been modified to include a prototype of the hctree database backend.
Title: Starting a Startup During an Economic Recession: What You Need to Know Category: Economy US Stock Market Symbols with Sentiment: N/A Summary: • A recession may not be the best time to start a startup, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad time either. • The success of a startup is determined by the qualities of its founders, not when they start. • Technology progresses independently of the stock market, so acting fast in a bad economy can pay off. • Customers and investors will both be feeling pinched during an economic recession, so startups should focus on making things cheaper and being prepared for more cautious investors.
Title: Installing Thonny - A Python IDE for Beginners Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Thonny is a Python IDE designed for beginners, with features such as easy to get started, no hassle variables, simple debugger, step through expression evaluation and more. • It can be installed on Debian Raspbian Ubuntu Mint and others via sudo apt install thonny or Flatpak flatpak install orgthonnyThonny. • It also comes with Python 3.10 built in so just one simple installer is needed and you're ready to learn programming. You can also use a separate Python installation if necessary. • Credits include development from Institute of Computer Science of University of Tartu Estonia, partially supported by Cybernetica AS and proposed/supported by Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Title: Leveraging Language Models with Composable Prompts Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Composability is essential to leveraging language models, as it requires multiple steps to generate output. • Externalized prompt templates are necessary for engineers to interface with experts who can create custom prompts. • Unit testing is critical, as there is no linter for a prompt and OpenAI has released several new models over the last two years. • External data is the next step forward for large language models, allowing users to reference existing articles on topics such as history and culture.
Title: Applying minGPT to CIFAR10 and Beyond Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Exploring the process of creating a small version of a trained model, rather than using the trained model for X. • Steps to collect a large dataset, procure GPUs, pretrain GPT-1, and finetune the model. • Story of how one individual got into deep learning and created an experimentation toolbench based on minGPT for CIFAR10. • Looking for feedback or help on how to better minify codebases like this and apply same treatment to small language models.
was discovered in this process which allows an attacker to inject arbitrary commands into the PATH environment variable This vulnerability can be triggered by cloning a malicious repository with Git GUI and may result in arbitrary code execution source Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • The Git project released new versions to address two security vulnerabilities CVE202241903 and CVE202223521 that affect versions 239 and older. • A Windows-specific issue known as CVE202241953 was also patched. • The first two vulnerabilities affect Git’s commit formatting mechanism and gitattributes parser respectively, both of which can result in arbitrary code execution. • The Windows-specific issue involves a PATH lookup including the current working directory which can be leveraged to run arbitrary code when cloning repositories with Git GUI.
Title: MacBook Pro with M2 Max and macOS Ventura: Pushing Workflows to the Extreme Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols & Sentiment: N/A Summary: • MacBook Pro with M2 Max pushes workflows to the extreme with a much larger GPU featuring up to 38 cores and delivering up to 30 percent greater graphics performance over M1 Max. • With up to 96GB of unified memory, MacBook Pro once again pushes the limits of graphics memory in a laptop. • Effects rendering in Cinema 4D is up to 6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30 percent faster than the previous generation. • Color grading in DaVinci Resolve is up to 2x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30 percent faster than the previous generation. • Enhanced Connectivity features include WiFi 6E3 for faster wireless connectivity, more advanced HDMI for 8K displays, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SDXC card slot, MagSafe 3 charging, and a headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. • With macOS Ventura, powerful updates like Continuity Camera bring videoconferencing features directly into apps like FaceTime or Messages.
Title: Building a Home: The Benefits of Hiring an Architect Category: Economy Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Hiring an architect to manage the building process can be expensive, but it is worth it for those who are unable to supervise themselves. • An architect can help find builders, hire a quantity surveyor, and manage costs. • Even for a modest build, having an architect involved is essential in order to ensure quality workmanship and avoid costly mistakes.
Title: The Road to Lowcarbon Concrete Category: Science US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Thermal engineer Zhibin Yu had the perfect chance to refine the efficiency of heat pumps during the first UK lockdown of the Covid19 pandemic. • Heat pumps are much more efficient than gas heaters, but standard models that absorb heat from the air are prone to icing up which reduces their effectiveness. • Yu and his colleagues have built a working prototype of a heat pump that stores leftover heat in a small water tank. • This design helps the heat pump to use less energy and can defrost itself when required without having to pause heat supply to the house. • Heat pumps capture and move warmth from outside into people’s homes, making them crucial for reducing fossil fuel consumption in order to combat climate change.
Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • EasyPost is looking for candidates to join their team in exploring the future of shipping • They are looking for approachable, dynamic, inventive, intelligent and reliable individuals to help make sense of the industry and define where it's headed • EasyPost is working on modernizing flexible technology to improve customer experience and reduce waste from the environment
Title: Glitchme Rate Limiting and Paid Alternatives Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Glitchme has rate limiting in place to prevent projects from taking too many shared resources. • This project was getting a lot of attention, so the barriers were temporarily removed. • The project should stay up and be remixable now. • Glitchme is a business providing a service, so pushing people to paid options is not necessarily a problem.
Title: 1500 Archers on a 288 Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Explains the design architecture implementation and some of the lessons learned creating the multiplayer networking code for the Age of Empires 1 & 2 games. • Discusses current and future networking approaches used by Ensemble Studios in its game engines. • Goals included sweeping epic historical battles with a variety of units, support for 8 players in multiplayer, smooth simulation over LAN modem-to-modem and internet, target platform of 16MB Pentium 90 with a 288 modem, communications system had to work with existing Genie engine, target consistent frame rate of 15fps on minimum machine config. • Time to complete each simulation step varied greatly; passing even small set data about units would limit number interacting with player.
Title: Reflections on the Benefits of Tweaking an Existing App Instead of Starting from Scratch Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Exploring the advantages and tradeoffs of building a browser extension instead of starting from scratch. • Sharing the story of a side project that was built into a successful browser extension. • Arguing that making an extension is an efficient way to create useful software with limited time and effort. • Explaining how extensions can be beneficial for end-users by integrating new functionality into their existing experience.
decade ago were SecuROM SafeDisc and StarForce and all of them had their own issues with compatibility and stability Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • This article is about the 20th anniversary of Colin McRae Rally 3, a racing game from Codemasters. • It details the journey of fixing the game, merging regional releases together, and creating an unofficial remaster with full widescreen support, numerous compatibility fixes, new technical features, Quality of Life improvements and a scratchmade high definition UI optimized for 4K displays. • The article also discusses DRM solutions from a decade ago such as SecuROM SafeDisc and StarForce which had their own issues with compatibility and stability.
Title: "Living Life in Weeks: An Exploration of Time Management in the Face of Human Finitude" Category: Others US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Examines the pressure to be more productive and fit ever-increasing quantities of activity into a stubbornly non-increasing quantity of time. • Explores how doing too much or too little can create a sense of wasting time. • Discusses how life is supposed to be more joyful than what we experience, and how we can use our limited weeks to live with intention and purpose. • Examines the psychologist Erik Erikson's suggestion that at this phase of life, one should focus on virtues such as competence, fidelity, love, and care. • Acknowledges our own finiteness in light of the estimated 15 billion years that life will persist for on Earth.
Title: NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Success Category: Science Sentiment: Positive Summary: • NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully demonstrated that an asteroid's orbit can be altered by kinetic impactor technology. • The target of the mission was the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system, which was first discovered in the mid-1990s. • The primary goals of the DART mission were to hit Dimorphos with a 570-kilogram spacecraft and measure the change in its orbital period around Didymos. • On 23 November 2021, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying DART into orbit around the Sun.
Title: YouTube Addiction: A Journey Through the Rabbit Hole Category: Others Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Explores the journey of a YouTube addict, from first noticing their addiction in 2011 to present day. • Describes how the addiction started and grew, and how attempts to curb it were unsuccessful. • Details how YouTube became a part of daily routine, with an average of 75-95 hours per week spent on the platform. • Discusses various types of content consumed, from gaming playthroughs to interviews and wordless videos.
Title: The Disappointing Reality of Cheap Chinese MP3 Players Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Many cheap Chinese MP3 players are based on a Z80 DSP SoC running at 24MHz and have features such as FM radio, voice recorder, video playback, expandable storage, and generic USB mass storage with no software required. • However, many of these products have terrible firmware that can lead to disappointment. • When one user's Clip Zip died they couldn't find a RockBox compatible replacement that was both affordable and up-to-date so they bought an AgpTek player which had no Bluetooth but eventually died after 3 years. • They then bought a Jolike 0 player off Ebay which had surprisingly robust construction but the firmware was a disaster due to cramming too many features into it without proper development or testing.
Title: Sierra's Macintosh Timebomb: December 7 2021 Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • On September 18 1993, Sierra's Macintosh games suddenly stopped working. • The cause was a bug in the KGetTime1 function which limited the hours to 12 and caused delays to never complete. • A patch was released within nine days and distributed through their BBS and magazine. • Now, 28 years later, the same bug is causing games to freeze again. • The root of the problem lies in SysTime, a low-level function that reads the clock differently on Macs than other platforms.
Title: Unofficial Rules of Chess Category: Others US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • There are natural conventions in chess that have redefined “valid” moves. • In blitz chess, an invalid move is an immediate loss, so players may make illegal moves hoping their opponent doesn't notice. • It was not long ago that the laws of chess allowed you to play an illegal move to cause a checkmate. • FIDE's Laws of Chess has a section 7 called Irregularities which specifies the behavior if you accidentally knock over pieces or make an illegal move. • Not sure about Blitz tournament rules regarding illegal moves.
Title: Terminal UIs: Not as Bad as You Think Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: -Terminal UIs are not as bad as they may seem, with many features such as ncurses, Unicode characters, and 256 colors working across platforms. -However, there is a lack of bug-for-bug compatibility between different terminal emulators. -Terminfo works in a janky way and can cause problems if the remote box doesn't have the same terminal or its new features. -Some apps don't look at term info and assume that the terminal supports the same escape codes as the author's.
Title: This Voice Doesn't Exist: Generative Voice AI Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Recently, generative AI has caused much excitement in the tech world. • Eleven is deploying its own generative model which lets users design entirely new synthetic voices. • The model allows users to set basic parameters such as gender, age, accent, pitch and speaking style to create a unique voice. • Design Voice will become available on the platform this February as part of Voice Lab. • Artificial voices have many potential applications including recording audio for news publications or commercials that require one voice be confined to and identifiably associated with a single user or brand.
Title: The Benefits of Choosing a Safe Language for New Code Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Security bugs tend to be found in new code, so choosing a safe language for new code is more beneficial than rewriting existing code. • When a bug arises due to the introduction of new code, it is important to consider if the old code should have exposed paths that didn't yet have a consumer. • It can be beneficial to start fresh with better ideas from the get go rather than relying on cruft and old habits. • Mozilla is in a tough situation with their star product Firefox trending at Opera-level market share, so they are unable to afford funding bluesky efforts like Rust.
Title: The Limits of Machine Cognition Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Explores the current state of machine cognition and its ability to synthesize knowledge. • Discusses the distinction between regurgitating knowledge and seeking new abstractions. • Examines the limitations of AI in terms of identifying abstractions, extrapolating to new hypotheses, and manipulating transformed functions. • Concludes that while AI can identify potential transformations, it is not yet able to apply them or do anything with them beyond recognition.
Title: Grayscale on 1bit LCDs Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Explains the process of driving a 320 by 100 pixel reflective FSTN LCD screen with defacto industrial standard STN LCD pixel interface. • Describes how to display images with limited color palette using dithering, which is based on error diffusion. • Discusses how to compensate for errors when quantizing pixels and diffusing the error to neighboring pixels. • Examines why 1bit monochrome screens are still used despite their limited capabilities compared to other grayscale displays.
Title: LKAB Discovers Europe's Largest Deposit of Rare Earth Metals in Kiruna Area Category: Economy Sentiment: Positive US Stock Market Symbols: N/A Summary: • LKAB has identified significant deposits of rare earth elements in the Kiruna area, essential for electric vehicles and wind turbines. • The deposit is the largest known deposit of its kind in Europe. • This is good news for Europe and the climate, as it could become a significant building block for producing critical raw materials needed to enable green transition. • Demand for rare earth elements is expected to increase dramatically due to electrification, leading to global undersupply. • The road to possible mining of the deposit is long; first step being an application for an exploitation concession in 2023.
Title: FAA Outage Traced to Corrupt File Category: Tech Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • The Federal Aviation Administration system outage on Wednesday was traced to a corrupt file in the main and backup NOTAM systems. • Officials are still trying to figure out exactly what led to the outage and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again. • When air traffic control officials realized they had a computer issue late Tuesday, they came up with a plan to reboot the system when it would least disrupt air travel early on Wednesday morning. • FAA officials told reporters early Wednesday that the issues developed in the 3 pm ET hour on Tuesday.
Title: Unlocking the Potential of hnfollow.com: A Guide to Following HN Users Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols (if applicable): N/A Sentiment (if applicable): N/A Summary: • Congrats on the launch of hnfollow.com, a tool that allows users to follow Hacker News users and find great comments more easily. • Add support for user secrets, work on pricing ASAP, and prioritize security as a top priority. • WebAssembly is recommended for this type of product due to its ability to execute multiple untrusted programs securely in the same address space. • The authors have built a separate frontend as a showcase of what can be done with the tool and have provided instructions on how to set it up for yourself if needed.
Title: Kandria: A Common Lisp Game on Steam Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols (if applicable): N/A Sentiment (if applicable): N/A Summary: • Developed using the Common Lisp programming language and the Shirakumo engine. • Utilized CLOS for event system and manual management of GC to avoid consing. • Source code for engine Trial and game Kandria available on GitHub under Shirakumo. • Integrated with Steam using clsteamworks library written by Shinmera, which was a big pain but achievable with minimum C calls. • Engine has abstracted support for achievements and other platform integrations, making it possible to release on GOG or EGS in the future.
Title: NYC Slice: A Look at the Price of Pizza Over 8 Years Category: Economy US Stock Market Symbols & Sentiment: N/A Summary: • This article looks at the price of pizza in New York City over an 8 year period, from 2014 to 2021. • The average price of a plain slice increased from $2.52 to $3.00 during this time, excluding dollar slices. • The most expensive slice was a pepperoni slice for $6.53 at Artichoke Basille’s Pizza’s Times Square location and it was fine. • The biggest change noticed is the decline in sauce put on slices, likely due to cost-saving measures which has affected overall quality of pizza in the city. • A list of some better slices in NYC is provided along with total spending on plain slices, dollar slices, pepperoni slices and other types of pizza over 8 years ($124,422).
Title: Comparing Starring and Cloning/Copying Code Repositories Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols with Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Examines the difference between starring and cloning/copying code repositories. • Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of people who clone or copy code from a repo is one to two orders of magnitude larger than those who take the time to star it. • Discusses why starring may require more effort than cloning or copying code, as well as why some users may not find it useful. • Shares data points from two repositories, showing that while stars are higher, clones are still significant in number.
Title: Image Stacks and iPhone Racks: Building an Internet Scale Meme Search Engine Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols with Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Exploring the prevalence of meme usage in online discourse. • Finding new memes on the latest happenings and sharing them with friends. • Problem of finding niche memes mid-conversation. • Previous attempts at writing a meme search engine blocked by lack of scalable OCR solutions. • Realization that iOS Vision framework could be used to automate OCR for memes.
Title: Out of the Software Crisis: Programming as Theory Building Category: Technology US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Programming is a theorybuilding process, where a team of programmers build and maintain control over the program. • Software projects are organic entities that need to be treated like living things, with an accurate mental model of how it works. • Replacing too many programmers can lead to disconnection from reality and death of the code. • Successful software projects are grown from small living things, not built large from the start. • The value provided by code depends on how well it is understood by those who need to modify it.
Title: The Political-Technical Jockeying of Weather Forecasting Category: Politics US Stock Market Symbols and Sentiment: N/A Summary: • Poor oversight by the US government has led to a fragmented and inefficient forecasting system. • Companies are profiting off reselling public data, claiming to add value with dubious scientific claims or simple technical solutions. • Congress passed the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act in 2017, providing funding for model development activities, data procurement, and more.
Title: Comparing Performance of Python and Node Libraries Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbols (if applicable): N/A Sentiment (if applicable): N/A Summary: • Discusses the three types of people when it comes to performance, those who need hard realtime performance, those who can use slow frameworks like Rails or Laravel, and those who compare Python to Node. • Explains that for those in need of hard realtime performance, discussions about Python may seem confusing since they have to develop in C/C++ or Rust. • For the 99 crowd that could use slow frameworks like Rails or Laravel, a framework like OPs can make a huge difference no matter what language is picked. • For those comparing Python to Node, it is because they are two of the most popular languages and people want to know which one is better.
Title: Gailcom FAQ Category: Others Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • This page provides answers to frequently asked questions about the gailcom domain. • The domain was registered as a birthday gift in 1996 and receives an average of 16257 hits per day. • There are no plans to monetize the website, but there is an Electronic Frontier Foundation ad that visitors can click on and donate to if they wish. • Questions not answered here can be sent to faq@gail.com
Title: The Patent System and Data Deduplication Category: Technology Sentiment: Neutral Summary: • Explores the implications of deduplication technology on the patent system. • Discusses how deduplication can be used to save disk space. • Examines the legal implications of using deduplication technology, such as chain of custody and copyright infringement. • Considers how governments and media industry groups may respond to data deduplication in practice.
Title: Apple's New iPhone 11 Pro Launch Category: Tech US Stock Market Symbol: AAPL (positive) Summary: • Apple launches new iPhone 11 Pro with improved features and design. • AAPL stock prices rise in response to the launch. • Consumers excited about the new product, with many pre-ordering the device.
ed) people who are doing things that nobody else is. reply Excess management is a major issue in the United States, with estimates suggesting it costs the country around $3 trillion annually (2016). This figure was recently reported by the Harvard Business School, and has been the subject of discussion on Hacker News. The main point of contention seems to be whether Harvard's bloated bureaucracy is an example of excess management or simply a result of the many services Harvard provides. Some commenters argue that Harvard should reduce their 7,024 full-time administrators, while others point out that European universities do not have dining organizations, police forces, etc., which could lead to significant cost savings. Others suggest that Harvard’s services are unique, and attract exceptional people who are doing things that nobody else is. The debate is ongoing, but it is clear that excess management is a major problem in the US and one that needs to be addressed.
a $400 million global leader in the manufacture of hydraulic valves and manifolds'), and Semco (a Brazilian engineering firm with revenues of more than $200 million). All of these companies have achieved remarkable success with a fraction of the managerial load found in typical organizations. If all U.S. businesses could match the post-bureaucratic pioneers, we estimate that the number of managers, supervisors, and administrators could be cut by as much as 40%. That would reduce the total number of American managers and administrators to 14.3 million, or one for every 8.3 employees. This would mean a reduction of nearly 9.5 million jobs. But it would also free up an enormous amount of economic resources. To calculate the economic impact of this shift, we looked at the average salary of managers and administrators ($83,420) and assumed that the 9.5 million freed-up jobs would result in an additional $800 billion in annual compensation. We then applied a multiplier of 1.5 to account for the increased spending that would occur when those people put their additional earnings back into the economy. The result: an additional $1.2 trillion in economic output. In addition, we estimate that the removal of excess bureaucracy would save U.S. businesses more than $1.7 trillion in annual operating costs. That’s because bureaucracy adds cost without adding value. It adds layers of approvals, creates complexity, and requires large amounts of paperwork. Our calculation of the economic impact of reducing bureaucracy is conservative. It doesn’t include the potential savings from streamlining other non-managerial functions. And it doesn’t factor in the long-term benefits of improved organizational resilience, agility, and innovation. The takeaway? Excess bureaucracy is costing the U.S. economy a staggering sum. It’s time for companies to make a major investment in reinventing management. Excess management is costing the United States economy an estimated $3 trillion per year in lost economic output. This figure was calculated by analyzing occupational data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed that there were 23.8 million managers, first-line supervisors, and administrators in the American workforce in 2014, making up 17.6% of the U.S. workforce and receiving nearly 30% of total compensation. By looking at the management practices of a small but growing number of post-bureau
Epochalypse is a website (epochalypse.today) that was recently posted to Hacker News, a social news site with content related to technology and startups. The post garnered 300 points and 132 comments discussing the concept of an epoch, which is defined as a specific point in time used as a reference for other calculations or to measure the passage of time. The discussion focuses on the use of epochs in science fiction literature, particularly in Vernor Vinge's novel A Deepness in the Sky. In the book, the Traders keep track of time using a program that counts from the moment a human first set foot on the moon, but if you look closely, the starting point is actually 15 million seconds later, referencing one of humankind's first computer operating systems. Another example discussed is Vinge's novel A Fire Upon the Deep, which includes annotations from Vinge himself. The novel explores galactic organization, automation, and the breakdown of communication near the center of the galaxy. It also introduces the concept of maximum possible intelligence being a function of the speed of light, which is not a universal constant but instead varies based on the amount of mass in the local area. Finally, Marooned in Realtime is mentioned as another example of Vinge's work. In this novel, time travel only goes forwards, and characters are released from stasis fields ('bobbles') back into real time. Bobbles are used for a variety of applications, such as solar mining and deep space combat, and the novel follows characters as they travel to the far future and witness changes to the planet over geological timescales. Overall, the Hacker News post serves as a discussion platform for readers to explore the concept of epochs in science fiction literature, particularly through the works of Vernor Vinge.
nnels? I'd love to join in. reply This article discusses the practice of working out hard integrals with friends and friends of friends online. It is a pastime shared by many, especially those who have gone through rigorous academic programs. The discussion begins with one person sharing their experience of having a group of people who work on solving difficult integrals via social media. A second person chimes in to confirm that they too do this, and a third person expresses interest in joining the group. The conversation then turns to the surprising success of three sixth-grade students that the original poster works with, who were able to ace the AMC 10, an American math test typically taken in the tenth grade. One of them even made the AIME cutoff, which is the top 1% of 300,000 contestants. The poster then suggests hosting a math contest forum for adults to work on interesting integrals together. The conversation concludes with someone asking if there are any other open social channels for joining the group. This article highlights the power of collaboration and social media for learning and problem-solving. People from all over the world, from different backgrounds and levels of expertise, can come together to share knowledge and work towards a common goal. It also serves as an example of how technology has enabled us to connect with others, no matter where we are or what our circumstances are. In this case, it was a group of people working together to solve difficult integrals, but it could be anything from coding projects to language learning. Technology has made it easier than ever to collaborate and learn, and this article is an inspiring reminder of that.
\cos(2x) \prod_{n = 0}^\infty \frac{\sin (2x/(2n+1))}{x/(2n+1)} \; d x } In other words, the curious integral is just a disguised version of the cosine Borwein integral. So it’s no surprise that it’s so close to π 8 \frac{\pi}{8} . This is an example of how even a tiny bit of knowledge about Weierstrass products can help you solve problems. In this blog post, Robin Houston pointed out a video where Oded Margalit claimed that it is an open problem why the integral ∫0∞cos(2x)∏n=1∞cos(xn)dx is so close to π/8 but not quite equal. A bunch of mathematicians tried to figure out what was going on and Jaded nonmathematicians told them it is just a coincidence. Sean O cracked the case by showing that the integral could be reduced to an N=∞ version of the cosine Borwein integral, which can be shown using Weierstrass factorizations. Thus, the curious integral is just a disguised version of the cosine Borwein integral, which explains why it is so close to π/8. This post serves as an example of how even a tiny bit of knowledge about Weierstrass products can help solve problems.
This post on Hacker News is about Marcus, a 17-year-old software engineer from Germany who has spent the past two years building Tablane, a task/project management tool with features like collaborative editing, optimistic updates with RTK Query, realtime sync with Socket.io, and an awesome design. He is looking for feedback from the HN community and is open to answering any questions they may have. Marcus got into programming through Minecraft mods, and eventually started using products such as ClickUp and Monday, but hit paywalls for features he wanted. This led him to create Tablane, and he used React and Colt Steele's Web Developer Bootcamp and The Modern React Bootcamp courses to build it. After completing a three month internship at ContentPepper, Marcus is now looking for open developer positions so he can work with experienced developers and learn faster. In response to Marcus' post, other users shared their own experiences with starting in programming through Minecraft, and recommended that Marcus consider college before skipping it. They explained that if he ever decides to immigrate elsewhere, attempting it without a college degree can range somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible, even for high-earning fields like software development.
GitHub Tablane/tablane is a workspace that adapts to its user's needs, allowing for minimal or powerful customization. It has a variety of features such as Actions which automates any workflow, Packages which allows users to host and manage packages, Security to find and fix vulnerabilities, Codespaces for instant dev environments, Copilot for writing better code with AI, Code Review to manage code changes, Issues for planning and tracking work, Discussions for collaborating outside of code, Solutions for Enterprise, Teams, Startups, and Education, CI/CD & Automation, DevOps, and DevSecOps, Case Studies, Resources, Open Source, GitHub Sponsors, The ReadME Project, Topics, Trending, Collections, and Pricing. It also provides users with the ability to Fork, Star, and View License.
reply Roman concrete is an ancient material used by the Romans to build some of their most iconic structures and monuments. It has been studied extensively in recent years by scholars eager to understand why it has remained so durable over the centuries. The answer, it turns out, lies in its unique composition: Roman concrete was composed of lime, volcanic ash, and seawater, which combined to form a mineral called aluminous tobermorite. This mineral formed a crystalline structure that was able to bind the constituent parts together and create a strong, durable material. Additionally, this crystalline structure was able to “self-heal” when damaged, allowing for the concrete to remain intact even after cracks had formed. To prove this theory, researchers produced samples of hot-mixed concrete that incorporated both ancient and modern formulations, deliberately cracked them, and then ran water through the cracks. After two weeks, the cracks had completely healed and the water could no longer flow. In addition to its unique composition, Roman concrete was also reinforced with steel rods called rebar, which helped to further strengthen the material. However, the presence of rebar can also lead to issues if not maintained properly, as rusting can cause the rebar to expand and damage the concrete. To prevent this, maintenance such as filling any cracks that appear is essential. Additionally, connecting all the rebar and adding a galvanic anode can help to reduce the risk of rusting. Overall, Roman concrete was an incredibly durable material due to its unique composition and ability to self-heal. Its longevity has been attributed to its combination of lime, volcanic ash, and seawater, as well as proper maintenance of the rebar reinforcement. As such, it serves as a reminder of the importance of understanding the materials we use in construction and how to use them correctly in order to ensure long-term durability.
elemental map (Calcium: red, Silicon: blue, Aluminum: green) of a 2 cm fragment of ancient Roman concrete collected from the archaeological site of Privernum, Italy. Roman concrete has been used for centuries to build structures that are still standing today. While modern concrete is known to crack and degrade over time, Roman concrete is incredibly durable and can last thousands of years. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have recently solved the mystery of why this is the case. The key to understanding the durability of Roman concrete lies in its composition. The material contains an unusual combination of materials, including volcanic ash, lime, and seawater. This unique combination was found to be the source of the material’s strength and longevity. The researchers discovered that the volcanic ash and lime combined in a way that created a self-healing process when exposed to water. The lime particles were found to act as a protective coating around the volcanic ash particles, which prevented them from being broken down by water. This allowed the material to remain strong and durable even after thousands of years. In addition, the presence of seawater was found to be beneficial to the material’s durability. Seawater contains high levels of calcium, which reacted with the lime particles to form a cement-like substance. This cement-like material further strengthened the material and made it more resistant to water damage. The findings of the MIT research team provide valuable insight into the properties of Roman concrete and could help inform the design of modern concrete materials. By understanding the chemistry behind Roman concrete, engineers may be able to create stronger and more durable materials for use in construction projects. Overall, the research conducted by the MIT team has shed light on the mystery of why Roman concrete is so durable. Through a combination of careful analysis and experimentation, they were able to uncover the unique properties of the material and explain why it is capable of lasting for millennia.
Bay 12 Games is an independent game development studio founded in 2003 and best known for their flagship title Dwarf Fortress. On January 1st, 2023, Bay 12 released a report celebrating their 20th anniversary. The report highlighted the success of the project, including the fact that the game had sold almost half a million copies in December alone. It also announced that they were beginning the exciting new era of having more than one programmer on the project, which should help with bug fixes, ports, and more. The report also detailed the financials of the past year, showing a steady increase in revenue since the game's launch in 2003. Finally, the report concluded by thanking all those who have contributed to the success of the project and encouraging people to continue to support them in the future.
next [–] The original statement is not true. Empires have existed that span over a month of travel from the capital. However, it may be true that the size of an empire is limited by a ruler's ability to project power and information to its extremities. This has been done in the past by putting people who agree with their ideals in positions of power. It can lead to abuse if the person in charge makes bad decisions, but it can also lead to consistency if they make good decisions. Empires that fail are those that require centralized decision making due to communication limits and the poor quality of staff. To understand this better, one can look at books on European colonialism, the Roman Empire, Japanese imperialism, Chinese Imperial dynasties, medieval South Asia, pre-Islamic Persian empires, etc. Additionally, Reddit's r/askhistorians is a great reference for sources on popular topics. The size of an empire is limited by the ability of a ruler to project power and information to its extremities. As evidenced by many past and present empires, such as the Spanish, British, Roman, and American, it is possible for an empire to span more than a month of travel from its capital. To counter the problem of limited communication, rulers have put people who support their ideals into positions of power. This can lead to abuse, as seen in the case of the Spanish, but it can also lead to consistency. Empires that fail are typically those which require centralized decision making due to the communication limits and the quality of the staff. To gain a better understanding of empires, one can look at books or articles about European colonialism, the Roman Empire, Japanese imperialism, Chinese Imperial dynasties, medieval South Asia, pre-Islamic Persian empires, and other similar topics. Additionally, Reddit's r/askhistorians is a great resource for finding sources on popular topics.
Transportation technologies have had a profound effect on the size and shape of empires throughout history. For thousands of years, the speed of transportation has been the hidden rule that limited the size of empires, unbeknownst to their rulers. This can be seen by looking at three ancient empires: Egypt, Rome, and China. In Egypt, the Nile River was the primary form of transportation and limited the empire's expansion to the 1st Cataract. Rome's expansion was limited by the average speed of travel from Rome to the rest of the empire, while China's expansion was limited by the Great Wall and its ability to protect against nomadic invaders. In all cases, transportation technologies determined the size and shape of these empires. By understanding how transportation technologies shaped these empires, we can gain insight into the past and better understand the present.
unaware of. It's true that the author is not a manufacturing expert, but his comments are still valid. Manufacturing can be incredibly complicated, and it's important to understand the various processes and techniques involved in order to make sure your product is successful. It's also important to understand the costs associated with each process, as well as the lead times and other factors that could affect the success of your product. There are plenty of resources available to help entrepreneurs learn more about the manufacturing process, and it's definitely worth taking the time to do so before launching a product. In conclusion, the original post on Hacker News is a reminder that manufacturing a product like Apple does is no small feat. It requires an extensive understanding of the various processes and techniques involved, as well as the costs and lead times associated with them. While it may seem daunting, there are plenty of resources available to help entrepreneurs gain a better understanding of the manufacturing process and ensure their product is successful. In summary, this post on Hacker News serves as a reminder that manufacturing a product like Apple does is a complex process that requires an extensive understanding of the various processes, techniques, costs and lead times associated with it. There are plenty of resources available to help entrepreneurs gain a better understanding of the manufacturing process and ensure their product is successful.
Startups and big companies differ in many ways, but the differences are especially stark when it comes to hardware. Early-stage startups are often under-financed and lack the resources to manufacture products in the same way as big companies like Apple do. Ben Einstein explains that while Apple has done a great job building many of their products, startups should not try to replicate these difficult-to-manufacture features. Instead, they should focus on providing value to their customers and take the fit and finish of their product down a notch. He lists a few things that Apple often does which can be impossible for a startup to do, such as white plastic, CNC machining at scale, laser drilled holes, molded plastic packaging, and 4-color, double-walled, matte boxes + HD foam inserts. He advises startups to look for similar features on other company’s products and lower their expectations if they cannot find them. Ultimately, he encourages startups to embrace the fact that they are not Apple and use this to their advantage.
This repository contains the game engine documentation for zladx/LADX-Disassembly. It covers top-level architecture, graphics, and rooms. The render loop and V-blank interrupt handler are discussed at a high level. Graphics topics include updating objects tilesheets, updating entity spritesheets, uploading a color palette, uploading a large tileset, uploading a large tilemap and tilemap attributes, and animated tiles. Rooms topics include room groups, maps and layouts, and room structure. Finally, the process of displaying a room directly is covered.
VALL-E is a new type of text to speech synthesizer that uses neural codec language models, allowing for zero-shot synthesis. This means that it can take any text and generate an audio version of it without needing to be trained on the specific text prior. This technology has a wide range of applications such as providing a way for people who have lost their voices to communicate again, or creating audio versions of books in any voice desired. It could also be used for extreme compression, with voice being converted to text and sent over the wire as text, then re-created with the same voice on the receiver. Additionally, it could be used in combination with ChatGPT to create the perfect digital assistant. Apple has already built a very good audio book synthesis system, and there is also a company called VocalID which is working on similar technology. Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk, is also exploring the possibility space of communication and developing new ways of interaction between two anonymous strangers who cannot hear or see each other, only touch and optionally see each other's hands.
VALL-E is a Neural Codec Language Model (NCLM) developed by Microsoft for text to speech synthesis (TTS). It uses discrete codes derived from an off-the-shelf neural audio codec model to train a language model, allowing TTS to be treated as a conditional language modeling task instead of a continuous signal regression. During pre-training, VALL-E was scaled up to 60K hours of English speech, which is hundreds of times larger than existing systems. This allows it to synthesize high-quality personalized speech with only a 3-second enrolled recording of an unseen speaker as an acoustic prompt. Experiments have shown that VALL-E significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art zero-shot TTS system in terms of speech naturalness and speaker similarity, while preserving the emotion and acoustic environment of the prompt in synthesis. The pipeline of VALL-E is phoneme → discrete code → waveform, and it can enable applications such as zero-shot TTS, speech editing, and content creation combined with other generative AI models.
Stripe is a payment processing company that facilitates digital payments for merchants. Recently, a user on Hacker News reported that Stripe has frozen payouts and is about to refund €147k worth of payments to all of their customers due to two account closures. The user runs two eCommerce stores with Stripe, where they have shipped physical products out to their customers from a local warehouse. After a month of running the stores, they received a notice from Stripe that they would need to conduct a manual review of their accounts and freeze payouts. In the case of account 1, which had approximately €101.000,00 on hold, Stripe initially closed the account and put it on a 120 day hold. Later, they sent a notice about refunding all of these payments back to the customers. In the case of account 2, which had approximately €46.000,00 on hold, Stripe deemed that they were performing unauthorized charges on the account and decided to refund all of the “affected charges”. However, the user claims that there were no unauthorized charges and all customers have received their products with tracking numbers to prove this. The reason for closure of both accounts was that the business is considered “high risk”. If the payments do end up being refunded, the user will be taking legal action and contacting media outlets in an effort to bring this story to the public eye and hold Stripe accountable. Other users have commented that if the user has lost over 6 figures worth of payments, they should consult with a specialized lawyer to see what their options are. They also suggested that people in tech often forget that laws exist beyond EULAs.
In this post on Hacker News, users discuss various microfeatures they would like to see in more languages. The features discussed include Frink's syntax for date values, Python's iterable- and keyword-unpacking operators, and Python's keyword arguments to functions. VB's date literal syntax is also discussed, with users noting its cursed nature due to its locale dependence. Ultimately, the users suggest that Frink should be chosen as the language to steal from due to its lack of such issues. The post highlights the importance of considering locale when designing a language, as well as the power of borrowing features from other languages to create something unique.
The skilled trades have not been a popular career choice for Generation Z. This is likely due to the fact that there are many downsides to this type of work. For example, it often does not come with health insurance or paid vacation, and workers may be pushed to complete jobs quickly which can lead to dangerous situations. Furthermore, physical labor can take a toll on the body and repetitive motions can cause chronic pain. Despite this, some people still prefer physical labor to office work and believe it has its own benefits. Ultimately, it appears that the decision to pursue a career in skilled trades is a personal one and different people will have different opinions about the pros and cons.