In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants (nytimes.com | comments) In Maverick County, Texas, residents frequently face lengthy jail time without charges due to inefficiencies in the legal system. Many individuals, often poor and unable to afford legal representation, find themselves stuck in a cycle of incarceration, reflecting broader issues of justice and access in the region.

• Merely "fails"? That sounds like apologetic underemphasis to me, like so many other Times stories. The system described is more like active oppression.
• Standing out in any way in a small, socially conservative community can have some pretty terrible consequences.

Devs say AI crawlers dominate traffic, forcing blocks on entire countries (arstechnica.com | comments) Open source developers report a surge in traffic dominated by AI crawlers, likening the situation to a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. This influx is overwhelming free and open-source software (FOSS) platforms, prompting some to block entire countries to preserve accessibility. Developers are strategizing responses to mitigate this impact.

• > It remains unclear why these companies don't adopt more collaborative approaches and, at a minimum, rate-limit their data harvesting runs so they don't overwhelm source websites. If the target goes down after you scrape it, that's a feature.
• This is going to start happening to brick and mortar businesses through their customer support channels

Samsung CEO Jong-hee Han has died (engadget.com | comments) Samsung's CEO Jong-hee Han has passed away from a heart attack. His leadership played a significant role in the company's innovation and strategic direction, particularly in the fields of display technology and mobile communication.

• I added this heuristic to my mind "Do not assume you will live until 90" when my dad also passed on his 60s. But he was a smoker. Until then I was thinking all my uncles that died in their 60s was because of heavy drinking (bottle of whisky a day or something)

German parliament votes as a Git contribution graph (abstimmung.eu | comments) The content appears to be an HTML document for a website called abstimmung.eu, which seems focused on parliamentary voting in Germany, organized as a Git contribution graph. The document includes various system routes for API calls related to voting functionalities, profile management, and more.

• That should probably be "Github" contribution graph.
• Let us not confuse git and Github, the later belonging to a reviled US monopoly.
• Sorry it might be my turn on the Dunce hat but what is so "Git" here other than the contribution calendar popularized by Github then copied by Gitlab?

AMC Theatres will screen a Swedish movie 'visually dubbed' with the help of AI (engadget.com | comments) AMC Theatres will present the Swedish film 'Watch the Skies'—originally titled 'UFO Sweden'—utilizing AI technology for a 'visually dubbed' version. This innovative method allows the film to appear as though it was produced in English, enhancing accessibility for diverse audiences while retaining the original audio.

• As someone that grew up in a Latin America country watching dubbed movies my whole life I welcome this technology. Dubbed movies are usually terrible with subpar performances and recycled voices. It sucks it will kill a large field for actors, but AI has the capacity to be much better with voices and performances that mimic the actors.

The highest-ranking personal blogs of Hacker News (refactoringenglish.com | comments) The 'HN Popularity Contest' presents an interactive platform ranking the highest-scoring personal blogs on Hacker News. Users can filter results based on various date ranges and submission counts. Additionally, the site offers insights into the authors and topics associated with each blog, enhancing community engagement and knowledge sharing.

• Wouldn’t it be nice to have a planet like rss feed from these?
• Woo-hoo, # 265 :) FortressOfDoors.com But my name is Lars Doucet, not Keith Burgun (that's KeithBurgen.net) Happy to be included!
• The most popular blog is the owner's blog? What is this, X...? :D

Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood (supernuclear.substack.com | comments) Stoop Coffee leverages a straightforward concept to revitalize community interaction and coffee culture in a neighborhood, promoting local engagement and connection. This initiative aims to transform how residents perceive their environment, emphasizing the importance of community-focused spaces.

• When people say "you can just do things" this is what they mean. Fun article, I hope everyone reading this who wishes they had something like it in their neighborhood starts this weekend by inviting their nearest friend for coffee on the stoop.
• How do ppl do this if they have a 9-5?

Kylie Minogue song about a typeface (abcdinamo.com | comments) Whitney Mallett examines the track 'German Bold Italic,' a collaboration between Towa Tei and Kylie Minogue, discussing its cultural impact and unique sound. The song, released in 1997, intertwines pop music with design themes, showcasing the intersection of typography and music in contemporary art.

• If you don’t know Towa Tei, you might recognise him from Deee-Lite (“Groove is in the Heart”). Personally, I prefer his side project Sweet Robots Against the Machine. But he’s also an excellent DJ, YouTube throws up a load of clips of him having fun on the decks.

The Lost Towers of the Guelph-Ghibelline Wars (exurbe.com | comments) The Guelph-Ghibelline Wars, significant in medieval Italy, saw a dramatic architectural landscape dominated by towers. These structures, representing power and conflict, have largely disappeared from the modern skyline, leading to a rich tapestry of history intertwined with the fate of these lost edifices.

• Been to these places and never knew this history. I'll also add that the medieval city of Lucca has several great towers that you can climb.
• Is there any historical data to support the height of the towers in the first image? It looks like at least some of that is leaning on an artistic license.

The Great Barefoot Running Hysteria of 2010 (runningshoescore.com | comments) The piece examines the surge in popularity of barefoot running in 2010, triggered by various marketing campaigns and endorsements, as well as its subsequent decline. It highlights how initial enthusiasm led to debates over footwear effects on running and injuries, offering insights into cultural phenomena in the running community.

• If you were a red-blooded progressive maker-type of person in 2010, and you read Born to Run and didn't immediately go out and buy a pair of Vibram 5 Fingers, I really have to wonder if we're going to get along. Never use the shoes anymore but that book has made me a healthier human for sure.

Is Robert Frost Even a Good Poet? (theparisreview.org | comments) A reflective analysis on Robert Frost examines the complexities of his poetry, urging readers to approach his work with an open mind and a sense of humility. The author shares personal experiences of initially dismissing Frost's poems as simplistic and then discovering deeper meanings through continued engagement.

• Perfect timing. Robert Frost is by far one of my favourite poems, which I do not say lightly as I love poetry - and I am not a native English speaker. I am now recording one of his poems and this read, and the additional info here in the comments such as Kevin Murphy‘s lecture is great material for me.

Better Shell History Search (tratt.net | comments) Laurence Tratt shares strategies to enhance productivity in Unix shell environments, specifically through improved shell history search techniques. By utilizing fuzzy search tools like 'fzf' and 'skim', users can streamline their command retrieval process, dramatically increasing efficiency. Tratt emphasizes their personal experience and affinity for these tools, discussing the advantages they offer over traditional command retrieval methods, thus encouraging readers to optimize their shell usage.

• LaTeX returns .tex file compilation bugs as .log files when using pdflatex [filename.tex] Is synthetic format prior to redirection and concatenating. Whether using /.bashrc/ or saved in local directories, when debugging is typically resolved with querying X: quit or H: help.

Sell yourself, sell your work (solipsys.co.uk | comments) The article addresses strategies and insights on self-promotion and effectively communicating one's work. It emphasizes the importance of presenting oneself and one’s contributions attractively to gain recognition and opportunities, particularly in professional environments. It includes links to related blog posts and resources for further reading.

• My standard advice: For any young programmers: live within your means, invest the difference, become independent, and work on what you enjoy. It’s the best (work related) gift you can give yourself. Skip the self promotion politics unless you enjoy it.

Whose code am I running in GitHub Actions? (alexwlchan.net | comments) The article details an incident involving malicious code in a widely-used GitHub Action, which could expose secrets in public repositories. The author shares a method using shell commands to audit their GitHub Actions for security by identifying third-party actions and evaluating their reliability, balancing security against convenience.

• This is a minor worry when the entire software ecosystem is based on “download any old shit off the Internet at run it”.

My Favorite C++ Pattern: X Macros (2023) (danilafe.com | comments) The post details the 'X Macros' pattern in C++, which helps generate repetitive code efficiently, enhancing maintainability and reducing boilerplate in projects like the Chapel compiler. The author provides practical examples, including string interning and class hierarchy generation, emphasizing how this pattern streamlines development.

• I hate X-Macros, but they're very useful in some situations. We use them to generate an enum of error values and also a string table of those names. (Unlike two separate tables, the X macro version is guaranteed to be the exact correct length / values align with the corresponding string.)

What Killed Innovation? (shirleywu.studio | comments) Over the past decade, the field of interactive data visualization has shifted from bold experimentation to predictable formats. Shirley Wu reflects on the creative plateau in the industry, attributing it to a decline in bespoke projects and the rise of templated solutions. Insights from prominent figures highlight the impacts of this transformation.

• Even a small amount of data literacy makes you aware that visualizations can deceive. Pie charts make humans overestimate large percentages, nonzero axis is borderline fraud, choice of colors can totally warp color scales. I think that in this context it is expected for data literacy to make people suspicious of complex visualizations.

Closing the Chapter on OpenH264 (bbhtt.space | comments) The author reflects on the decision to remove OpenH264 from the Freedesktop SDK, detailing the history and challenges associated with including H.264 codec support due to patent restrictions. The piece explains the workaround involving Cisco's OpenH264 library and the development of a compatible stub library to facilitate users' access to H.264 functionality.

• It is possible to do something like webrtc without using one of h264 or h265 and have it work on all browser versions ? Normally, apple quicktime containers with h264 payloads are playable everywhere. If you drop h264 or h265 there is no such play anywhere container available anymore right ?

Spammers are better at SPF, DKIM, and DMARC than everyone else (toad.social | comments) SpamAssassin project statistics reveal that spammers consistently excel at configuring SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) standards compared to legitimate email senders. The report questions the utility of DMARC, suggesting it often provides no real benefits and can harm email delivery through strict authentication failures.

• > Surely everyone (and by everyone I mean Google) is rejecting their mail? How do they not realize this? Not sending email to google helps.
• You may have success checking for common tracking and advertising elements in a mail. Good chance it's spam if there's not 100 trackers. Frustrating.

Svelte: $derived can now be overwritten (github.com/sveltejs | comments) Svelte's recent update allows developers to overwrite $derived stores, enhancing state management by customizing the behavior of derived state values based on changes in other stores and improving application performance.

• Agh, I understand why runes were implemented, but I still can't get myself to like them. It feels like Runes take away from what made Svelte Svelte (the simple, concise syntax), and changes like this seem like slow concessions back in that direction anyway.

Gemini 2.5 (blog.google | comments) Gemini 2.5 is highlighted as Google's most advanced AI model, boasting new 'thinking' capabilities. This upgrade aims to enhance AI performance significantly, promoting efficient problem-solving and complex task handling. The release emphasizes Google's ongoing commitment to advancing Artificial Intelligence technology.

• From the 2.0 line, the Gemini models have been far better at Engineering type questions (fluids etc) than GPT, Claude especially with questions that have Images that require more than just grabbing text. This is even better.
• This model is a fucking beast. I am so excited about the opportunities this presents.

Open-sourcing OpenPubkey SSH (OPKSSH): integrating single sign-on with SSH (cloudflare.com | comments) The OpenPubkey SSH (OPKSSH) project has been open-sourced, allowing users to integrate SSH with single sign-on (SSO) technologies such as OpenID Connect. This development eliminates the manual management of SSH keys while ensuring that authentication processes do not involve third-party services outside of the Identity Provider (IdP).

• I think it’s kinda funny that a standard to return a public key in a token, and a server side auth binary that uses that to log you into SSH, are presented here as something groundbreaking. I’m not trying to downplay actually doing it, but it’s been possible since openid connect was invented.

Polypane, The browser for ambitious web developers (polypane.app | comments) Polypane is a web browser designed specifically for web developers, offering advanced tools for responsive design, testing, and customization. Its unique features aim to streamline the development process by providing a comprehensive environment tailored to professionals aiming for ambitious projects.

• Hey, I'm Kilian, the creator and solo developer of Polypane. Exciting to see this on the homepage again. Happy to answer any questions folks have!
• I've used it a lot. Great product, emulates subtle device issues very well that Chrome device view doesn't

Search My Site – open-source search engine for personal and independent websites (searchmysite.net | comments) Search My Site offers an open-source search engine tailored for personal and independent websites, focusing on non-commercial content from the indieweb. This niche engine aims to eliminate advertisements and spam, providing a privacy-centric alternative that indexes only user-submitted sites, while promoting transparency and community involvement.

• Thanks for putting this together. I wonder, is Postgres a bit of a large DB if it's just a personal website search tool? I'll have to give it a go. We need more tools like this.
• I am a bit confused. Solr is the search engine. An LLM model is loaded. What does the LLM model add to the solution?

Scientists break down plastic using a simple, inexpensive catalyst and air (phys.org | comments) Chemists at Northwestern University have developed a cost-effective method to break down plastic waste by utilizing a simple catalyst and harnessing moisture from the air. This innovative approach could significantly advance recycling techniques and reduce plastic pollution.

• This is great but PET (symbol #1) is one of the few plastics that ARE recyclable. I wonder if any of these techniques can be used to solve the non-recyclable plastic problems
• there is also the possibility to recycle pet-bottles into food grade bottles again using just mechanical means, I know at least two European companies who provide such machines

Deciphering language processing in the human brain through LLM representations (research.google | comments) Research from Google delves into how language processing occurs in the human brain by utilizing representations from large language models (LLMs). The study draws parallels between LLM behavior and human cognitive processes, aiming to enhance our understanding of neural mechanisms involved in language comprehension and production.

• ok, that pretty cool research from Google, hope this leads to even more discoveries around the brain, hopefully it's time we get a better understanding of our brains and how to hack them.
• Could this lead us to being able to upload our brains onto computers? To kill death. Very cool.

Why is C the symbol for the speed of light? (2004) (ucr.edu | comments) The symbol 'c' for the speed of light derives from the Latin term 'celeritas', which means speed. Initially, 'V' was used in the 19th century until prominent physicists like Einstein adopted 'c' around 1907. The transition reflects both convention and practical considerations within the realms of electrodynamics and relativity.

• >This usage can be traced back to the classic Latin texts in which c stood for "celeritas" meaning "speed". The uncommon English word "celerity" is still used when referring to the speed of wave propagation in fluids not to mention the more common "acceleration"

Gene drive modified mosquitoes offer new tool for malaria elimination efforts (imperial.ac.uk | comments) Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a gene drive technology that modifies mosquitoes to resist malaria, a significant advancement in efforts to combat this deadly disease. The approach aims to reduce malaria transmission by inhibiting the parasite carried by mosquitoes.

• That is a cool idea. Like the mouse that takes the thorn out of the lion's foot: we could cure mosquitos of what ails them (even if they don't know it ails them, as they are carriers - but they die more so for being that), and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity.

Writing your own C++ standard library from scratch (nibblestew.blogspot.com | comments) The article delves into the intricacies of crafting a custom C++ standard library from the ground up. It highlights the significance of the Standard Template Library (STL) and guides readers through understanding essential components, performance considerations, and implementation techniques necessary for this advanced programming endeavor.

• The title is confusing. He is not reimplementing the STL. He is writing some C++ classes providing functionality that is also already implemented in STL.
• A bit off-topic maybe, what is a good open source library to read through to see some clean&modern C++? I've not dealt with the language in a bit and was thinking of diving back in

Three Hundred Years Later, a Tool from Isaac Newton Gets an Update (quantamagazine.org | comments) A mathematical technique developed by Isaac Newton has received an update that enables its application to complex problems, enhancing its utility and extending its relevance more than 300 years after its inception. The updated methodology is expected to address previously challenging scenarios in various fields.

• What I find fascinating is that, after 300 years, Newton's core idea still underpins so much of modern optimization
• > “Our algorithm right now is provably faster, in theory,” Ahmadi said. He’s hopeful, he added, that in 10 to 20 years, it will also be so in practice.

Brain Scans of Infants Reveal the Moment We Start Making Memories (singularityhub.com | comments) A recent study utilizes brain scans to investigate 'infantile amnesia' by pinpointing when infants start forming memories. Results indicate that children begin to create fleeting memories around the age of 12 months, coinciding with rapid brain reorganization that influences memory retention and recall.

• >Failure of any of these steps [encoding, long-term etching, and recall of memory] causes amnesia. So, which steps are responsible for the erosion of baby memories? >Who knows! Kids squirm around too much in MRI machines! But they start encoding things around a year, or maybe before, or maybe after! I've been clickbaited

WWI's 'Dazzle' Camouflage Seemed Effective Due to Unexpected Optical Trick (gizmodo.com | comments) A recent analysis of a 1919 study on World War I's 'Dazzle' camouflage indicates that the perceived effectiveness of the camouflage was largely influenced by an optical illusion known as the 'horizon effect,' overshadowing the role of the dazzle paint itself in distorting visual perception.

• Terrible article. What effect did the dazzle have? Doesn't say.
• Look up "CV dazzle" for the equivalent in the modern age, makeup effects to avoid facial detection / recognition.
• How many other accepted wartime "innovations" might have been misattributed

Status as a Service (2019) (eugenewei.com | comments) The text appears to be a snippet of HTML for a blog post titled 'Status as a Service (StaaS)' by Eugene Wei on 'Remains of the Day.' It includes metadata, links, and icons but does not provide substantive content regarding the topic of Status as a Service itself.

• Comments are closed in the article, and it's from 2019... But... How do you explain Google Reader then? It was a super proof-of-work-oriented. The ones who used it where like gods of article sharing. I hade the best newsletters by persons I knew. And then one day... Poof. Whyyyy? I will miss you forever Google Reader.