UK unis to cough up to £10M on Java to keep Oracle off their backs (theregister.com | comments) UK universities are set to pay up to £10 million for a subscription framework related to Oracle's Java, which includes a waiver of historical fees. This move is designed to ensure universities remain compliant with software licensing agreements and avoid potential legal issues with Oracle.

• Can anyone who still uses Java opine a bit on where it's better to use Oracle versus OpenJDK?
• Oracle threatened our organization with 10m in fines because of some rogue apps here and there, gave us 5 days to remediate it. I believe they went with a mix of OpenJDK & Corretto. (100k+ org)

Meta Invests $14.3B in Scale AI to Kick-Start Superintelligence Lab (nytimes.com | comments) Meta has announced a significant $14.3 billion minority investment in Scale AI, marking its first major outside investment in the artificial intelligence sector. This move aims to enhance its capabilities in the rapidly evolving AI market, where competition is intensifying among various companies.

• This is a weird deal? Meta buys a non-controlling stake and says no customers will be affected but the CEO and others are leaving Scale for Meta. Meta also says they won’t have access to competitor data but at 49% ownership they get major investor rights? Sounds like an acqui-kill to me?

Slow and steady, this poem will win your heart (nytimes.com | comments) A.O. Scott reflects on Kay Ryan's poem 'Turtle,' highlighting its unique qualities and emotional resonance. Additionally, a game is introduced to help readers memorize the poem, enhancing engagement.

• >She lives below luck-level, never imagining some lottery will change her load of pottery to wings. nails the mindset where imagining change doesn’t even happen. it’s not about failing to win. it’s about never thinking you’re in the draw. that kind of mental floor sits deep.

Apple's Liquid Glass is prep work for AR interfaces, not just a design refresh (omc345.substack.com | comments) Apple's recent design shift to Liquid Glass is positioned as preparation for developing augmented reality (AR) interfaces rather than merely a visual update. This evolution may signal a transformative approach to user interaction, moving beyond traditional touch-based systems to immersive AR experiences.

• This article presents two speculations: first, that Apple has a strong belief in augmented reality (AR), and second, that the company is adapting its user interface and user experience (UI/UX) design in preparation for AR integration. However, where is the evidence to support these claims?

I convinced HP's board to buy Palm and watched them kill it (philmckinney.substack.com | comments) The author recounts their experience convincing HP's board to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion, highlighting the poor management decisions that led to the company's failure within 49 days. They emphasize common cognitive errors in decision-making that harm technological innovation and present strategies to avoid such pitfalls.

• They had the whole stack in house. os, hardware, firmware, app store infra, even global retail. nobody external blocking them. and they still killed it in 49 days. you can’t build dev trust in 7 weeks. the platform wasn't given time to breathe. this was failure of patience more than product

Liquid Glass – WWDC25 [video] (developer.apple.com | comments) Apple introduced Liquid Glass at WWDC25, showcasing a design that harmonizes the Apple platform's design language while enhancing user experience through more dynamic and expressive features. The presentation offers insights into the innovative aspects of Liquid Glass, highlighting its potential contributions to user interface design.

• UIs should be function first. That doesn't mean it can't be beautiful, but usability (and readability) should be the focus, with design being a way to turn a useful one into a beautiful one. It seems like they have started at the wrong end, trying to make their design language functional.

Show HN: Tattoy – a text-based terminal compositor (tattoy.sh | comments) Tattoy is a text-based terminal compositor that enhances user experience in terminal environments by organizing output and visually optimizing command line interactions. It is a useful tool for developers and tech enthusiasts.

• Tattoy manages its own scrollback buffer (like say `tmux` does), and so can therefore also provide its own scrollbar. this raises two questions: doesn't every (gui) terminal do that? what happens if i use tmux inside tattoy? btw: do you have examples of light themes?

Luxe Game Engine (luxeengine.com | comments) Luxe Engine is a cross-platform game engine designed for rapid development of both 2D and 3D games, supporting Mac, Linux, Windows, and Web, with console capabilities in development. It emphasizes an easy learning curve and efficient workflows to help developers express ideas quickly, making it suitable for a variety of game genres.

• This looks neat. It uses Bob Nystrom's Wren language for scripting and has been in development for a few years.
• this is dope, made by an all female team. hopefully the games industry gets more female led, minority led studios
• > luxe itself is written in c++ Wasn't it written in Haxe originally or am I confusing it with something else?

OxCaml - a set of extensions to the OCaml programming language. (oxcaml.org | comments) OxCaml is a robust suite of extensions enhancing the OCaml programming language, focusing on performance-oriented programming while preserving safety and ease of use. It offers features like controlled concurrency, customized data layouts, and efficient allocation management, aiming to support experimental and feedback-driven user engagement.

• I wasn't aware that this fork supported SIMD! Between this, unboxed types and the local mode with explicit stack allocation, OxCaml almost entirely replaces my past interest in F#; this could actually become usable for gamedev and similar consumer scenarios if it also supported Windows.

Show HN: Qrkey – Offline private key backup on paper (github.com/techwolf12 | comments) Qrkey offers a novel method for securely backing up private keys offline by converting them into QR codes that can be printed on paper, ensuring users can recover their digital assets without relying on online services. This process provides an extra layer of security for sensitive information.

• Be careful where you print these. Most full-featured printer/copier/scanner devices found in office environments can store print job data on the HD where service technicians can access it.
• This is a neat idea, but unfortunately not very useful to me. I don't own a printer, and I don't want to trust my private keys to a public computer and printer.

Show HN: I wrote a BitTorrent Client from scratch (github.com/piyushgupta53 | comments) A developer has created a BitTorrent client from scratch, marking a significant achievement in open-source software development. The client reportedly includes features essential for peer-to-peer file sharing, emphasizing the developer's commitment to understanding the core mechanics of the protocol.

• Excellent, looks clean and simple. Suggestion: Add a simple usage one liner in the README on how to actually download a .torrent file with it. ./go-torrent My-Linux-Distro-Wink-ISO.torrent Suggestion: Bonus points if you add torrent.ParseFromUrl Everyone should do this for their own spiritual journey.

Student discovers fungus predicted by Albert Hoffman (wvu.edu | comments) A student has made an intriguing discovery related to a specific type of fungus that was previously predicted by Albert Hoffman, renowned for his work in psychoactive substances. This finding may hold significant implications for both mycology and the understanding of compounds associated with human consciousness.

• > drug LSD, which is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. Wait: I thought LSD is schedule 1, and there are no legally-sanctioned uses of it? Did something change while I was living under a rock? (Unlike MDMA, where there were legally-sanctioned experiments recently.)

Self-Adapting Language Models (arxiv.org | comments) Self-Adapting Language Models (SEAL) introduce a novel framework for large language models (LLMs), enabling them to adjust weights autonomously in response to new tasks. By generating their own finetuning data and directives, these models utilize reinforcement learning to improve performance and adapt over time, demonstrating promise in knowledge incorporation and few-shot generalization.

• I'm frustrated that they named it SEAL when SAL is both more accurate and anthropomorphic. Naming the main takeoff technology after a stereotypical swarthy Reuben lover would have made history much more delightful.
• Getting closer to the event horizon

100 years of Zermelo's axiom of choice: What was the problem with it? (2006) (mietek.io | comments) Per Martin-Löf's 2006 work reflects on the centennial of Zermelo's Axiom of Choice, a critical principle in set theory that asserts the ability to select a set of elements from individual sets. The discussion highlights the philosophical and mathematical implications and controversies surrounding its acceptance and application in mathematics.

• And the Axiom of Choice implies the Banach-Tarski parodox. It's anti-intuitive: Disassemble a pea into a finite number of pieces. Then reassemble those pieces to create the sun.
• Axioms are arbitrary. Use them if they are useful.
• I've never quite gotten the axiom of choice. Can anyone ELI5?

If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014) (joshworth.com | comments) A creative representation highlights the vast distances in our solar system if the Moon were scaled down to just one pixel, pairing stunning visuals with informative text about planetary distances, travel times, and the emptiness of space. It effectively illustrates the challenges of conveying astronomical scales.

• We’re never going to leave this planet/solar system if we don’t discover FTL (Faster Than Light) travel. Pretty scary if you think about how ridiculously empty is space.
• Scrolling with mouse scroll wheel a few hundred thousand kilometers at a time is so much work that I gave up :-(

How the Alzheimer's Research Scandal Set Back Treatment 16 Years (2022) (discovermagazine.com | comments) Neurologist Matthew Schrag's findings suggest that a 2006 study on Alzheimer's treatment contained potential fraud, leading to a setback in effective treatment advances by 16 years. The scandal underscores the significant impact of research integrity on medical progress and patient care in Alzheimer's disease.

• Anti-science types keep holding this up as some kind of 'gotcha' or as a waste, but in the end it shows that the scientific method and the scientific establishment work efficiently. Despite even intentional fabrication, the truth of it was found in a few years and the field marches on.