Finland is painting deer antlers with reflective paint (2014) (smithsonianmag.com | comments) In Finland, officials have begun painting deer antlers with reflective paint to reduce road accidents involving deer and vehicles. This initiative aims to enhance the visibility of deer on roads, especially at night, thereby improving safety for drivers.

• There were experiment painting reindeer antlers here in Finland. But it failed, the paint wont last. So nothing to see here really. Yet another internet ”thing” circling around
• Another approach could be to have wildlife camera all around and when you detect a deer on cam, show special signals on the road.

First Successful Lightning Triggering and Guiding Using a Drone (group.ntt | comments) NTT has achieved a significant milestone with the world’s first successful lightning triggering and guiding using a drone, aiming to protect cities and infrastructure from lightning damage. This pioneering technology seeks to create a safer environment and could lead to advancements in disaster prevention methods.

• > flying drones into optimal positions beneath thunderclouds to actively trigger lightning strikes, and then guiding the discharge safely away from vulnerable areas From a military standpoint, I wonder what it would take to discharge into a vulnerable area...

DOGE Worker’s Code Supports NLRB Whistleblower (krebsonsecurity.com | comments) The DOGE worker's code indirectly supports a whistleblower case filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This development highlights the intersection of cryptocurrency employment practices and labor rights issues, emphasizing the repercussions for companies operating in the blockchain sector.

• The CEO of Tesla and Space-X; a self-proclaimed high IQ individual, an alleged programmer, has apparently hired a straight-up script kiddie to their elite delta force of technical government downsizers.
• Someone needs to go to prison over this. It’s not just a misunderstanding, it is an intentional attack on every US citizen.

Google blocked Motorola use of Perplexity AI, witness says (bloomberg.com | comments) During Google's antitrust trial, a witness disclosed that a contract between Google and Motorola (a Lenovo subsidiary) prevented Motorola from designating Perplexity AI as the primary assistant for its devices, impacting its deployment on new smartphones.

• Everyone's trying to fight for a piece of the AI walled-garden pie. I guess it's only getting divided up between a few players all over again. Nice try Perplexity, and I do see it as forewarning for the power play OpenAI will attempt (we just don't know what it will be yet).

Ninth Circuit Takes a Wrecking Ball to Internet Personal Jurisdiction Law (ericgoldman.org | comments) The Ninth Circuit's ruling in Briskin v. Shopify eliminates the necessity for an internet-specific standard in personal jurisdiction cases, favoring existing legal frameworks instead. This decision aligns with a collaborative agreement among the parties involved, signaling a potential simplification in internet commerce regulations.

• > then more privacy-protective option are not feasibly available to Shopify I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. Poor Shopify, they couldn't possibly protect the privacy and data of their customers.
• The full title is: > Ninth Circuit Takes a Wrecking Ball to Internet Personal Jurisdiction Law–Briskin v. Shopify

How a 20 year old bug in GTA San Andreas surfaced in Windows 11 24H2 (cookieplmonster.github.io | comments) A long-standing bug in the game GTA San Andreas has re-emerged in Windows 11 version 24H2, preventing players from accessing the Skimmer seaplane. The issue is linked to undefined code behavior and has sparked discussions within the gaming community, indicating that even decades-old code can still present unexpected problems in modern platforms.

• IMHO, if something isn’t part of the contract, it should be randomized. Eg if iteration order of maps isn’t guaranteed in your language, then your language should go out of its way to randomize it. Otherwise, you end up with brittle code: code that works fine until it doesn’t.

Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law (yahoo.com | comments) The European Union has fined Apple and Meta millions for violations related to data protection laws, marking a significant enforcement action targeting large tech companies. The fines underscore the EU's commitment to upholding strict privacy standards and penalizing organizations that fail to comply.

• This is a result of the severe neglect to enforce anti trust in the US. Now other countries need to kick in with diplomatic adverse effects... sigh.
• I don't understand meta's statement that this handicaps american businesses while allows European and Chinese companies to operate under different standards.

Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Internet (nlnet.nl | comments) Forty-two innovative free and open-source projects have been awarded funding from the NGI Zero Commons Fund, reflecting the largest call round to date. These projects, like the solar-powered MNT Reform Touch tablet and the MOTIS app for public transport routing, aim to reclaim the public nature of the internet through technology that prioritizes user benefit over profit.

• Motis (transit calculator), Clearance (OSM contribution analysis) and StreetComplete (OSM contribution gamified) : very important assets for the free mapping community. Good news !
• I previously received funding from nlnet and they have been great to work with. I highly recommend working with them, and they have been supporting amazing projects!

'Nobody has done this before': Britain's beloved steam trains trial technology (theguardian.com | comments) Britain's historic steam trains have begun testing in-cab digital signaling technology to enhance their operation and longevity. This innovative project aims to secure the future for main-line locomotives by integrating modern technology into traditional rail services. The trial reflects an unprecedented effort to bridge past and present in rail transport.

• > Since the privatisation of the railways, steam trains have been free to roam the national network subject to there being “white space” in the ­timetables around service trains. This is a nice quirk that I would definitely someone to have strategically forgotten about during the privatisation process.

More Everything Forever (nytimes.com | comments) In 'More Everything Forever,' science journalist Adam Becker critically examines Silicon Valley's perception of technology as a panacea, particularly in the context of space colonization. Through discussions on Mars, he highlights potential challenges such as surface radiation and toxic dust, questioning the optimistic narratives of tech leaders like Elon Musk.

• It is obviously true that technology allows us to modify nature to an ever greater extent. That is what technology is! I don't think we'll have a colony on mars anytime soon, but AI is obviously coming and will obviously be extremely disrupting (for better or for worse)

Sixty Years On, We Still Dream of the Arrow (watershedmagazine.com | comments) The Avro Arrow, a costly interceptor jet born during Canada's Cold War era, symbolizes a period of national pride and ambition. Orland French recalls its early development amid geopolitical tensions, highlighting how its legacy continues to resonate in contemporary culture as a blend of myth and aviation history.

• The reality is that as great of an interceptor as it was (and possibly the best dedicated interceptor jet ever made), by the time it was ready it was already obsolete. With the introduction of ICBMs, there was simply no need to have jets purpose built for shooting down TU-95's over the Arctic when the new threat was impossible to shoot down.

Graphics livecoding in Common Lisp (kevingal.com | comments) Common Lisp offers a livecoding feature allowing developers to modify programs in real-time without restarting, enhancing workflow significantly. This post details the implementation of the Boids algorithm, which simulates flocking behavior, using Common Lisp's Sketch graphics framework, illustrating how small changes can be instantly reflected in the running program.

• Love this. Sketch, in particular, looks really exciting to me. I'll have to take a look into trying it out. I still have dreams of doing some of the ideas in Turtle Geometry on a modern computer.
• dang, livecoding always gets me fired up - i mess around with this kind of stuff too, nothing beats seeing changes instantly

Yagri: You are gonna read it (scottantipa.com | comments) The concept of YAGRI, short for 'You are gonna read it,' encourages developers to store not only the minimal data required for functionality but also additional context and metadata likely to be useful later. This practice helps avoid missing critical information that could aid in debugging or analytics, especially in scenarios like tracking deletions. While it's essential not to over-log, maintaining an appropriate level of data retention can enhance project outcomes.

• I agree with this as written, as think it's important to have some degree of forethought when building out the DB to plan for future growth and needs. That said, the monkey paw of this would be someone reading it and deciding they should capture and save all possible user data, "just in case", which becomes a liability.

You wouldn't steal a font (rib.gay | comments) Melissa Lewis highlighted that the font from the "You wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy ad, designed by Just van Rossum, was cloned and released as "XBAND Rough," revealing that the campaign utilized a pirated version of the font.

• What happens if you present an image of a page in some font to an LLM, and ask it to make you a font file for that font? An LLM could probably not only do that, but create matching characters for ones not already present. Oh, and tell it to fix the kerning.

The Future of MCPs (iamcharliegraham.substack.com | comments) Model Context Protocols (MCPs) are emerging as a transformative technology poised to elevate artificial intelligence from simple chatbot functions to proactive agent capabilities. However, the discourse around MCPs underscores a critical concern: the dynamics of control over these protocols.

• My prediction: there will be no standard protocol, clients will do whatever works for them, and devs will do whatever it takes to be installable on those clients. Just like mobile.
• MCP in this context means "Model Context Protocol" I thought it might be "managed cloud providers", but perhaps I'm too optimistic for a change

AI Horseless Carriages (koomen.dev | comments) The text presents an essay titled 'AI Horseless Carriages,' which critiques poor design choices in AI applications. It aims to highlight shortcomings in user experience and interface that hinder effective use of AI technologies.

• Just want to say the interactive widgets being actually hooked up to an LLM was very fun. To continue bashing on gmail/gemini, the worst offender in my opinion is the giant "Summarize this email" button, sitting on top of a one-liner email like "Got it, thanks". How much more can you possibly summarize that email?

They made computers behave like annoying salesmen (exotext.com | comments) Researchers have designed computer systems that mimic the behaviors of pushy salespeople, using constant notifications and aggressive marketing techniques. This approach raises questions about technology's role in consumer interactions and the ethical implications of using such persistent engagement strategies in digital interfaces.

• Related joke going around right now: Does Microsoft understand consent? Yes / Ask me again later In general, options like "never ask me again" seem to have disappeared, and we should bring them back.
• I once compared the onboarding experience of a previous product I worked on to walking the timeshare gauntlet in the arrivals area of Mexican airports.

How I blog with Obsidian, Hugo, GitHub, and Cloudflare (ingau.me | comments) Gautham Shankar outlines his blogging workflow using the Obsidian note-taking app, Hugo static site generator, and GitHub for version control, along with Cloudflare for hosting. He praises the local-first model of Obsidian, emphasizing seamless syncing across devices, and appreciates the minimalistic nature of Hugo and its deployment process. He offers guidance for setting up this system, making it suitable for tech-savvy users aiming for a controlled, cost-effective publishing method.

• Great stuff, looking forward to your next blog post in 1 year: “How I rebuilt my blog on…” A fun hobby of mine is Googling “how I built this blog with [next.js/Gatsby/etc etc]” and going to page 10 of the Google results. It’s just hundreds of developer blogs with no blog posts other than the ones announcing how the blog was built.

Demystifying decorators: They don't need to be cryptic (thepythoncodingstack.com | comments) The article simplifies the concept of decorators in Python, addressing common confusions and misconceptions. It breaks down the functionality of decorators step-by-step, illustrating how they enhance functions in a clear and intuitive manner, making them accessible to developers who find decorators cryptic.

• It's absolutely baffling that an article called demystifying decorators does not actually describe decorators at all, preferring to keep them a mystery. Decorators are nothing more than a special syntax for calling a function, the meat of which can easily be explained in a single paragraph including a supporting example.

The Gruen Transfer is consuming the internet (sebs.website | comments) The Gruen Transfer phenomenon, where consumers become disoriented in spaces like supermarkets, is now affecting the internet, particularly social media. As users navigate platforms like Facebook, their intentions are lost amidst ads and irrelevant content, leading to impulsive behavior. This trend highlights the manipulation of UX design to keep users engaged, raising concerns about the implications of unnecessary complexity in digital environments.

• The Wikipedia example seems totally irrelevant: there’s nothing "designed to disorient you upon visiting", it’s just a normal interesting website with links between its pages.
• Ironically it's had the exact opposite effect on me. So many of these things are so hard to interact with now I just... don't. Surprisingly little of value has been lost.

Advanced Python Features (edward-li.com | comments) Edward Li's blog presents 14 advanced Python features that elevate the programming experience beyond common tips like generators and tuples. Drawing from over a decade of Python experience, Li highlights unique and underrated tricks, structured in a format that includes examples and links for further exploration.

• I enjoyed reading the article. I'm far from a Python expert, but as an observation, most of these features are actually just typing module features. In particular, I wasn't sold on Generics or Protocols as I would have just used duck typing in both cases... Does modern, production-level python code use types everywhere? Is duck typing frowned upon?

Show HN: My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM (github.com/unmappedstack | comments) A programmer has developed a fully functional operating system kernel from scratch that successfully runs the classic video game DOOM. This project showcases advanced software engineering skills and a deep understanding of operating system principles, appealing to enthusiasts in both game development and systems programming.

• Very cool project! How are you handling process isolation and scheduling in TacOS?
• Nice work!!!
• From-scratch kernel straight to DOOM is some top-tier hacker cred stuff. You must be very happy with it running on real hardware. Very cool.
• Really really love the name.

Launch HN: Cua (YC X25) – Open-Source Docker Container for Computer-Use Agents (github.com/trycua | comments) Cua is an open-source Docker container designed for computer-use agents, developed by the Y Combinator (YC) Startup School batch X25. It aims to simplify the process of running and managing agents efficiently within a containerized environment, leveraging Docker's capabilities for deployment and resource isolation.

• bravi! the future is the Agent OS - How robust is the UI element detection and interaction across different apps and inside navigating complex menus? Is it resistant to UI changes? That's often where these automations get brittle. thank you e forza Cua

MinC Is Not Cygwin (commandlinerevolution.nl | comments) MinC is a Unix emulator for Windows based on OpenBSD, designed for vocational education to help students learn Linux without virtualization. Its small kernel allows for native speed performance, supporting standard Unix commands and basic development tools. New installation features simplify setup, while integration with MS Visual Studio Code is also available.

• I don't get the negativity in this thread. Looks like a cool project, keep up the good work
• I think there used to be a similar project for Linux, called CoLinux. However using a BSD kernel probably is a more sustainable choice if anything because it's much smaller and simpler

Geocoding APIs compared: Pricing, free tiers and terms of use (bitoff.org | comments) The article provides a comparison of geocoding API providers, detailing their pricing, free tiers, and terms of service. It assesses platforms like HERE, Google Maps, Azure Maps, OpenCage, TomTom, LocationIQ, and Nominatim, highlighting key metrics like request limits and usage stipulations. This information aids developers in selecting the most cost-effective and suitable geocoding API for their projects.

• One good test of geocoding API's is to put in a PO Box-only ZIP code like 22313. If you get back Alexandria VA near 38.82 N -77.05 W then you've found a decent geocoding API. If you get no location back or if you get some other place, you're going to have a bad time in production, based on my experience.

Shortest-possible walking tour to 81,998 bars in South Korea (uwaterloo.ca | comments) A recent solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) has determined the shortest possible walking tour to 81,998 bars across South Korea. Utilizing the Open Source Routing Machine, the computed route totals over 15 million seconds of walking time. This achievement surpasses previous records in TSP instances.

• Branch-and-bound is an algorithm "from the book" to me. Fundamentally very simple, provided you view the LP solver as a black box, but incredibly useful.
• I am overwhelmed with the thought of nearly 82 thousand bars within a country roughly the size of Ohio.

C++26: more constexpr in the core language (sandordargo.com | comments) C++26 enhances the language's constexpr capabilities, allowing more compile-time functionalities. Notable changes include enabling constexpr casts from void* to specific pointer types, making placement new viable in constant expressions, and relaxing rules for constexpr structured bindings. These modifications aim to optimize standard library usage at compile time.

• It would be cool to have the entire language and runtime available at compile-time like in Lisp
• That’s super cool; c++ is always the sharpest tool in the drawer (and by virtue the funnest!).. It’s too bad you still can’t cast a char to a uint8_t though in a constexpr expression.

Teaching LLMs how to solid model (willpatrick.xyz | comments) Research indicates that Large Language Models (LLMs) can create Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models for simple 3D mechanical parts, with potential advancements anticipated. Training generative models on extensive CAD files, like OpenSCAD, allows for programmatic design, enhancing model creation through iterative development and engineering knowledge.

• Oh, poor itty-bitty Skynet won't be able to create Terminators without mastering CAD modelling, so let us totally teach it
• Wow! As someone that's written openscad scripts manually I can get real excited about this.

Pixel is a unit of length and area (nayuki.io | comments) The concept of a pixel is often used ambiguously in digital imaging, serving both as a unit of length (e.g., 1920 pixels wide) and as a unit of area (e.g., 12 megapixels). This duality creates confusion in mathematical terms, presenting challenges to standardizing definitions. The article analyzes these conflicting uses and suggests potential solutions.

• Happens to all square shapes. A chessboard is 8 tiles wide and 8 tiles long, so it consists of 64 tiles covering an area of, well, 64 tiles.
• The author is very confused.
• A Pixel is a telephone.
• This is a fun post by Nayuki - I'd never given this much thought, but this takes the premise and runs with it