Phind has enhanced its 7th-generation model to outperform GPT-4's coding abilities and deliver answers to technical questions five times faster.
The updated model, which is based on the open-sourced CodeLlama-34B, has achieved a HumanEval score of 74.7%.
Despite some issues with handling complex queries, the model has been warmly accepted by the user community, and it can process up to 100 tokens per second and support up to 16k tokens.
Online users show diverse experiences while using AI models GPT-4 and Phind, particularly for coding tasks; both models have their own strengths and shortcomings.
Phind stands out for its speed and understanding of context, while GPT-4 excels in high-level design handling and follow-up queries; however, users have proposed enhancements for GPT-4, such as enabling one-shot training with regex and the inclusion of prose detection.
A robust debate revolves around the performance, cost, and user-friendliness of these models, with future improvements possibly focusing on ease of IDE integration, proprietary software transparency, citation effectiveness, and token expansion.
MacBook Pro users have been experiencing severe boot failures due to significant bugs in macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura 13.6, leading to persistent black screens.
The bugs affect all users, including those who have and haven't installed Asahi Linux, with the installer now checking for these issues automatically.
Users are advised to refrain from system upgrades until Apple rectifies the bugs. Those already impacted can use the Asahi Linux installer for diagnoses and solutions, while those unable to boot may require DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode for recovery.
Apple's decision to store a display refresh rate in a device's Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) could potentially cause boot corruption in macOS, based on user discussions on Hacker News.
This issue seems to be associated with altering display modes, outdated bootloader software, and potential problems with certain macOS updates. Some users have faced hardware failure and have concerns about Apple's response.
Users have debated between graphical Extensible Firmware Interfaces (EFI) and text-only alternatives, with wider conversations addressing different user interfaces, boot loaders, and how screen resolutions impact computer performance.
Mozilla's Firefox browser in 2023 has undergone performance improvements as part of the Speedometer 3 effort, aimed to simulate real-world user experiences and drive enhancements.
Improvements include a 15% reduction in time for loading the first visual from receiving the first byte of data from a network and a 20% cut in JavaScript execution time.
There's also a recorded 10% improvement in "keypress present latency", offering users quicker feedback when typing, demonstrating Firefox's progress in prioritizing user experience.
Firefox users and developers have been assessing the browser's speed, advancements, and performance issues since 2023; recent versions and add-ons received high ratings despite some software incompatibility issues and slow adoption of new standards.
The handling of JavaScript and data collection practices were key points of discussion, with some users highlighting both as essential to Firefox's improvement despite privacy concerns.
The use of browser telemetry data, a potential privacy violation, was debated, with users emphasizing its role in software improvement and advocating for an opt-in system.
The discussion revolves around the use of AI, particularly OpenAI's ChatGPT, in tasks like game development, web design, and code generation, highlighting contrasting opinions about its efficiency and reliability.
While some developers applaud AI for enabling rapid prototyping and fostering creativity, others voice concerns about potential inaccuracies and the need for substantial programming skills.
Issues raised include AI's possible implications on job displacement, the production of unoriginal content, and exacerbation of low-quality content, suggesting that this promising technology still requires ongoing refinement and judicious management.
The gorhill / uBlock project on GitHub has released an update, version 1.53.0 which includes improvements, bug fixes and new filtering expressions for logger output.
The update contains a cautionary note against adding custom filters from unknown sources, thus emphasizing online security.
Contributors kzar, ryanbr, and peace2000 have been essential in the implementation of these updates, which also include enhancements to existing scriptlets and changes based on user feedback.
The recent update of the ad-blocking extension, uBlock Origin, is sparking online discussions, with its effectiveness on platforms like YouTube at the core.
Users report improved performance in Firefox as opposed to Chromium-based browsers, raising debates about the extension's varying results across different browsers.
Users are expressing their concerns on the environmental impact of digital advertising and the economics of ad-blocking, citing saved time and costs with ad-blockers like uBlock Origin, while discussing potential actions by platforms such as YouTube to hinder ad-blocker performance.
The European Data Protection Board has expanded a Norwegian ban on behavior-based marketing on Facebook and Instagram across the entire EU/EEA. This decision addresses illegal tracking, surveillance, and profiling on these platforms.
Despite past prohibitions, Meta (formerly Facebook) has continued to handle user data illegitimately. Therefore, the board has forwarded this decision to the Irish data protection authority to enforce the ban on Meta’s European headquarters in Ireland.
While Meta plans to secure user consent for data usage for behavior-based marketing in the future, it hasn't implemented any specific changes yet. The board also expressed skepticism towards Meta's suggested solution of charging users who refuse to consent.
The European Union has extended a ban on Meta's behavioral advertising due to its failure to ask for user consent and plans to charge users who opt out of data sharing.
The ban remains in effect until Meta resolves these issues, prompting discussions on data privacy, ad-blocking impact and advertising effectiveness among users.
The European Data Protection Board has temporarily banned Disqus from processing personal data in Norway, citing violations of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
A federal jury has convicted the National Association of Realtors and several major residential brokerages of conspiring to keep commission rates artificially high, leading to an estimated $1.8 billion in damages.
The case stands to potentially instigate changes in long-standing industry rules, which have preserved high commission rates even amidst rising home prices, bolstering profits for real estate agents.
This lawsuit is the first of two antitrust cases alleging that illegal industry practices have hindered consumers from lowering their costs, despite advancements in online property search technology.
A jury has awarded $1.8 billion damages in a high-profile real estate case, citing a conspiracy to inflate housing transaction costs.
Critics question the value provided by realtors and are advocating for greater transparency about their practices and commission rates.
Alternative strategies are being suggested to disrupt the control over the housing market held by National Association of Realtors, including fixed-fee models, an alternate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listings, and a buyer-pays model.
OpenRW, an open-source project, intends to re-implement the engine of the classic video game GTA III to make it compatible with contemporary systems. The ultimate goal is to reach "Version 1.0," implementing original gameplay and compatibility with all game data formats, and modern gamepad support.
Once developed, OpenRW might allow for player modifications, gameplay changes, and enable multiplayer features but a copy of GTA III with game data installed will be needed to play.
OpenRW is currently under development, with contributions being open to anyone via GitHub. Initiated by tsjost and danhedron in 2013, it is not endorsed by Rockstar Games.
The conversation in a Hacker News post surrounds the halted Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation project owing to a lawsuit by Take-Two, while the OpenMW, a Morrowind game project, is still actively developed.
Users discussed the 'clean room' reverse engineering process, a practice argued to be legal when understanding and redeveloping source codes.
Quality of the Definitive Edition of GTA 3 was scrutinised, with participants also citing an old code and its relevance to game remastering practices.
The author expresses concerns over wasted technical productivity in large tech companies, referencing reports of inefficiencies and management ignoring issues at FAANG and other reputable firms.
The narrator identifies three categories of readers: those resistant to change, those enduring challenging conditions, and those in denial about existing problems.
He proposes creating a support group and is currently working on a guide to assist employees who wish to exit unproductive work environments.
The author criticizes the tech industry's hiring practices, which often reward those who can navigate outdated systems and unethical individuals, highlighting a significant deficiency in focus on crucial soft skills alongside tech competences.
The article emphasizes the tech industry's urgent need for better management, discussing struggles in finding skilled and ethical leaders, and suggesting shared managerial roles over the traditional "one manager for all" approach.
It was also discussed how the tech industry responds to economic crises, the changing ways companies generate revenue, and the impact of compensating tech workers on the economy.
The blog post by Ken Shirriff delves into the technical workings of Intel's 82586 Ethernet LAN coprocessor chip that was released in 1982.
The post highlights how the chip manages network collisions, uses exponential backoff, and employs shared memory structures for communication. Also mentioned are the mechanisms within the counter circuit, dynamic latch circuit, and mask register.
The Ethernet backoff mechanism and potential drawbacks of the system are also discussed, adding an additional perspective on the topic.
The Intel 82586 network chip was reverse-engineered to study its role in Ethernet backoff, finding that newer chips, despite having more transistors, perform fewer tasks.
Modern chips carry certain features from old models like the 10-bit counters and high-end Network Interface Cards (NICs) show considerable similarity to the 82586, highlighting the enduring influence of older technologies.
A book about the history of Ethernet, documenting both past and current chip designs and technologies, is reportedly being compiled by Robert Garner, offering an in-depth look at Ethernet's development.
MicroTCP is a minimal but comprehensive TCP/IP network stack created by "cozis" as part of a personal learning project during a Computer Networking course at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II.
The stack, compatible with both Windows and Linux, provides full functionalities for handling ARP, IPv4, ICMP, and TCP communications, and could potentially be adapted for use with microcontrollers.
Despite ongoing testing, MicroTCP already possesses the capacity to manage local network HTTP traffic.
MicroTCP, a minimal TCP/IP stack project, is gaining interest for its low code and RAM requirements, along with wider discussions about real-world applications and unit testing.
The project's creator plans to continue development until it achieves stability, despite licensing concerns.
Forum discourse dwells on building a TCP/IP stack from the ground up for DOS, lean on iterative learning, online research, and expert advice. It also delves into the abstraction layers in systems and the application of OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model in deciphering network operations.
Herman's Bear Blog has created a unique analytics system that tracks user engagement while maintaining strict privacy standards and without the use of client-side Javascript.
This new method uses CSS instead of server logs or conventional analytics tools, which can often be blocked by ad-blockers. It tracks user engagement when the cursor hovers over the page, triggering a URL for the post viewed.
The system ensures user privacy by hashing the IP address with the date for a unique 'read' count of a page, without storing any identifying information. They only temporarily store IP addresses.
Hashed IP addresses are under scrutiny in online discussions due to their reversible nature, despite using secure algorithms, compelling attention to the European Union’s data protection agency's view that hashing doesn't truly anonymize data.
Suggested practices for enhanced security include salting hashes, generating a universally unique identifier independently, and employing a temporary or secret salt.
Debates on the necessity of data collection for boosting revenue and user experience have gained traction, while concerns include GDPR compliance, user privacy, refining content, and the storage and partitioning of data.
Hugging Face has introduced Distil-Whisper, an optimized version of OpenAI's English speech recognition system called Whisper.
The improved model is six times quicker, 49% smaller but performs with almost identical accuracy within 1% WER (Word Error Rate) on unfamiliar evaluation datasets. It also enhances tolerance to noise and hallucinations, effectively reducing error rates.
Distil-Whisper will be released on November 2nd and is accompanied by guidelines for activating its inference feature and incorporating it with the Hugging Face's Transformers library. The system was fine-tuned using 22,000 hours of pseudo-labelled audio data from over 18,000 speakers across 10 domains.
OpenAI has released a more efficient version of their AI speech recognition tool, Whisper, called Distil-Whisper. It is six times faster and 49% smaller, making it suitable for power-limited devices and web browsers.
Distil-Whisper has an error rate of 1-2% for English transcription, mainly due to issues with punctuation and filler words.
Some users are seeking to fine-tune this model and potentially integrate it with other tools for creating private voice assistants.
Linaro Engineer Neil Armstrong has enabled upstream Linux support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, underscoring Linaro's commitment to offering trailblazing solutions.
Posted on October 25, 2023, this support permits Linux integration, performance optimization, and running of AOSP (Android Open Source Project) with Mainline, with Qualcomm® Kryo™ CPUs, Low-Speed I/O, High-Density Storage, High-Speed Peripherals among the enabled features.
Future plans include collaborating with the Linux kernel community to merge all the patch series swiftly and activate more features.
Linux now offers support for Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform with a Qualcomm Hypervisor dependency, prompting some concerns over its impact on system operations.
Users engaged in debates regarding the use of proprietary firmware, potential security risks from binary blobs in Android open-source projects, and the susceptibility of open-source firmware when used with closed-source hardware.
Discussions among users also reflected contrasting views on non-upgradable laptops with soldered memory, and the price, quality, and ethical aspects of System76 and Purism products.
The "Scary Fast" event by Apple was filmed using the iPhone 15 Pro Max and edited on Macs to display the capability of their technology. The event introduced the new MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac, both equipped with the M3 chip family.
iPhone 15 Pro Max, for the first time in a smartphone, supports the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), enabling users to capture ProRes video up to 4K60 with Apple Log encoding.
The event also emphasized the ability of the new iPhone's USB-C connector in fast data transfer, direct recording to an external SSD drive, and improved camera capabilities for low-light performance and color grading flexibility in post-production.
Apple's recent event sparked a debate over the iPhone's capabilities as a professional camera, following a demonstration of its video function.
Critics argue that professional-level videography necessitates expensive additional equipment and post-production work, making potential savings on using an iPhone minimal.
Supporters highlight the device's portability and ease of use, potentially making it a viable option for low-budget films or independent projects.