hackernews

1. The Time I Lied to the CTO and Saved the Day Total comment counts : 66 Summary The author shares a personal experience from several years ago where their company’s CTO made a poor decision by outsourcing a key part of a big project to a vendor. The vendor’s product was not a good fit and required heavy customization. As the project fell behind schedule and encountered issues, the author’s team secretly started a skunkworks project to replace the problematic vendor integration without informing the vendor or the client....

1. AlphaFold 3 predicts the structure and interactions of life’s molecules Total comment counts : 37 Summary Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs have developed a new AI model called AlphaFold 3 that accurately predicts the structure and interactions of proteins, DNA, RNA, ligands, and other biomolecules. This model aims to revolutionize our understanding of the biological world and drug discovery. AlphaFold 3 improves upon existing prediction methods, showing at least a 50% improvement in protein interaction predictions and a doubling of accuracy in certain categories....

1. Apple introduces M4 chip Total comment counts : 98 Summary Apple has announced the introduction of the M4 chip, which will be used in the new iPad Pro. The chip is built using second-generation 3-nanometer technology and enables the thin design of the iPad Pro. It features a new display engine that enhances the precision, color, and brightness of the Ultra Retina XDR display. The M4 chip has a new CPU with up to 10 cores and a 10-core GPU that supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading....

1. Social engineering takeovers of open source projects Total comment counts : 54 Summary The OpenJS Foundation and Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) are warning open source maintainers about social engineering takeover attempts after intercepting a similar incident to the recent XZ Utils backdoor. The OpenJS Foundation received suspicious emails requesting them to update a JavaScript project and designate the sender as a new maintainer. The Foundation recognized a similar pattern in two other projects and reported the concerns to respective leaders and cybersecurity agencies....

1. Atari’s Mike Jang Total comment counts : 10 Summary Mike Jang, a long-time Industrial Designer at Atari’s coin-operated division, has passed away. He joined Atari in the 70s and remained with the company through the 80s, witnessing the rise of Atari during the Golden Age of arcade videogaming. As an Industrial Designer, his main role was refining the ergonomics of arcade cabinets and ensuring the physical interface was perfect. He brought his artistic flair to his designs, creating iconic cabinets....

1. I’m writing a new vector search SQLite Extension Total comment counts : 21 Summary The article discusses the development of a new SQLite extension called sqlite-vec for vector search. It aims to replace the previous extension sqlite-vss and solve its problems. The new extension, written purely in C with no dependencies, will provide custom SQL functions and virtual tables for fast vector search. It will run on all platforms, including the browser with WebAssembly, and have smaller binaries....

1. Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements Total comment counts : 20 Summary error Top 1 Comment Summary The article provides a link to a supplemental data movie, which shows a participant running on a World of Data (WoD) from inside circular walls of Moon settlements. The running is considered a comprehensive countermeasure for low-gravity deconditioning. Top 2 Comment Summary The article discusses the concept of a “gravity gym” for low gravity environments, such as the Moon....

1. StoryDiffusion: Long-range image and video generation Total comment counts : 20 Summary The article titled “StoryDiffusion: Consistent Self-Attention for Long-Range Image and Video Generation” discusses the use of self-attention mechanisms in generating images and videos. The source code for this method is licensed under the MIT license, while the website content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Top 1 Comment Summary The article discusses finding minor continuity errors in videos through close observation....

1. Why SQLite Uses Bytecode Total comment counts : 24 Summary This article discusses the concept of prepared statements in SQL database engines, specifically focusing on two common methods of implementing them: bytecode and tree-of-objects. It explains that a prepared statement is an object that represents the steps necessary to execute an SQL statement and clarifies that even though different database engines may use different terminology, the concept of prepared statements exists across all systems....

1. Atomic nucleus excited with laser: A breakthrough after decades Total comment counts : 31 Summary Physicists have achieved a major breakthrough by exciting the “thorium transition” using lasers. This discovery opens the door to revolutionary high precision technologies, such as nuclear clocks. The thorium transition is a specific state of thorium atomic nuclei that has been sought after by scientists for years. By using a laser to transfer the atomic nuclei into a higher energy state and tracking its return to its original state, researchers can combine quantum physics and nuclear physics....