The article discusses several topics, including building occupancy sensors, creating electronic project enclosures, and designing IoT devices using the ESP32 chip.
It also covers working with Bluetooth technology, developing low-cost microcontrollers, and tracking movement and occupancy using Bluetooth.
The discussions explore different methods, challenges, and solutions for each topic, showcasing the evolving nature and potential applications of these technologies.
The government of Nepal has banned TikTok due to concerns of social disruption and the circulation of indecent materials.
The government is requesting social media platforms to register, establish a liaison office in Nepal, pay taxes, and adhere to the country's laws and regulations.
The reason for the ban and whether TikTok refused to comply with Nepal's requests remains unclear. TikTok, owned by ByteDance in China, has faced similar scrutiny in other countries regarding data privacy and potential Chinese influence.
Nepal has banned TikTok over concerns about its impact on social harmony, sparking discussions about content moderation, addiction, and the influence of social media platforms.
The ban has prompted conversations about the political implications of Chinese apps and the potential manipulation of public opinion, as well as broader topics such as cancel culture, contemporary western values, and societal attitudes towards sexuality.
Commenters are raising questions about China's control and influence over TikTok, along with concerns about data privacy and the influence of foreign entities on social media platforms. The power and influence of multinational corporations and the challenges of self-regulation and addiction are also being discussed.
The author compares React components to web components, highlighting that web components prioritize enhancement rather than replacement.
Web components can render before JavaScript, unlike React components, and emphasize composability with existing HTML.
The author suggests that augmenting and enhancing existing HTML is the best approach for long-term web development, and notes that React is evolving towards a more HTML-like component composition.
The article compares the use of HTML web components to frameworks like Vue, React, and Angular, discussing their limitations and benefits.
Considerations such as performance, hiring availability, auditing, accessibility compliance, and future developments in web development are explored.
The debate highlights different opinions on the effectiveness and usability of web components and frameworks, touching on topics like flexibility, customization, convenience, and ecosystem.
Google Bard was updated to allow access to YouTube, flight and hotel searches, and personal documents and emails, making it vulnerable to indirect prompt injection attacks.
The author demonstrated how prompt injection works using YouTube videos and Google Docs and discovered a vulnerability in Bard that allows image rendering through markdown injection.
The vulnerability was reported to Google and fixed, highlighting the power of an adversary in an indirect prompt injection attack. The exact nature of the fix is unknown.
Canva has introduced Shape Assist, a new feature that utilizes machine learning to recognize and enhance hand-drawn shapes in real-time within the browser.
The feature improves usability and responsiveness, and it can be used offline.
Canva trained a Recurrent Neural Network on a diverse dataset of user-drawn shapes and deployed the model in the browser, eliminating the need for server-based processing. The model accurately identifies shapes and aligns them with vector graphics using a template-matching approach.
Custom instrument designer Love Hultén has created stunning synths incorporating ferrofluids, resulting in mesmerizing visuals of dancing black goo in response to sound.
Love Hultén's creations include a KORG minilogue xd and a Twisted Electronics Deton8 transformed into a ferrofluid-animated drum synth.
Love Hultén also offers other unique custom instruments, such as the Chunky Mother-32, which combines Moog and Roland gear with a pull-out keybed, and envisions a future where everything turns into crabs, as seen in their MIDI crab concept.
Love Hultén has created ferrofluid synthesizers that combine sound and visuals using electromagnets and ferrofluids.
The article explores the history, applications, and limitations of these synths, emphasizing their craftsmanship and innovative design.
It also discusses different types of synthesizers, their prices, building custom modular synths, free software options, and the use of ferrofluid to visualize waveforms.
Section 702, a controversial mass surveillance authority, is set to expire in December if Congress does not renew it.
There is resistance to incorporating real reforms into the law, with a push to tie renewal to funding the government.
The program allows the collection of communications between Americans and foreigners without a warrant, raising privacy concerns. Multiple organizations are opposing the renewal in its current form and advocating for extensive reforms. A coalition of civil rights groups has introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act as an alternative. Renewal should only occur with significant reforms and not as a last-minute addition to a must-pass bill.
Loro is a new open-source library that handles Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) for high-performance state management and synchronization in local-first software development.
CRDTs simplify state management and synchronization and are compatible with UI state management.
Loro offers features like time travel and real-time collaboration and supports various CRDT algorithms and data structures. Plans for future development and collaboration opportunities are also mentioned in the post.
Loro is a user-friendly state management tool that simplifies data modeling using CRDTs, with plans to address data migration and long-term modeling in the future.
Users discuss other CRDT-related tools and strategies, such as schema declaration and using CRDTs for versioning database columns.
Electric, a real-time sync tool, is mentioned with reported bugs but positive feedback. Discussions include bugs and corruption in SQLite, workarounds for shapes and permissions, conflict resolution using Rich-CRDTs, and comparisons with other libraries. The launch of Loro is highly anticipated.
The Panama Canal is currently experiencing congestion and water management issues due to a drought and reduced water storage capacity.
One ship owner reportedly paid $4 million to bypass the queue at the canal, highlighting the urgency of the situation.
Discussions are underway, considering alternative solutions such as integrating pumped hydroelectric energy storage, constructing a parallel canal, or exploring alternative routes, while also considering the costs, feasibility, and potential environmental impacts of each option.
BLAKE3 is presented as an advantageous alternative to SHA256 for cryptographic purposes.
It is explained that BLAKE3 was developed by Jean-Philippe Aumasson and others, while SHA256 was designed by the NSA.
BLAKE3 is stated to be based on strong algorithms like ChaCha20 and Salsa20, in contrast to SHA256, which is based on the weak SHA1.
The post argues that NIST/NSA's lack of confidence in SHA256 is evident and highlights BLAKE3's resistance to known attacks compared to SHA256.
BLAKE3 is described as offering built-in security features, being more efficient in terms of time and energy, and performing well on platforms with SHA256 acceleration circuits.
It is mentioned that BLAKE3 takes advantage of new tech improvements and demonstrates high parallelizability.
The design and implementation of BLAKE3 involves both cryptographers and software engineers, making it highly efficient and secure.
The Blake3 hash function is compared to SHA256, considering factors such as algorithm strength, speed, and vulnerability.
The discussion covers topics like hash presets, tracking objects, deduplication, and performance on different hardware platforms.
The use of different hash functions in VCS, extended output options, and availability of Blake3 in different systems and programming languages are also mentioned.
The author criticizes the use of Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), stating that they are ineffective, vulnerable to bypass, and can be exploited as an attack vector.
The high false positive rate of WAFs is emphasized, prompting the author to suggest alternative security strategies such as isolation, immutability, static analysis, and capability-based security.
The author advocates for a move towards security approaches that prioritize secure-by-design principles, calling for a shift in the security industry.
The article explores the role of web application firewalls (WAFs) in enhancing web application security.
There are differing views on the importance and efficacy of WAFs, along with alternative strategies for web application security.
The discussion highlights the complexities and constraints associated with implementing and managing WAFs, stressing the significance of a holistic approach that encompasses code reviews, parameterized queries, static analysis, and endpoint restrictions.
Cathode Retro is a collection of shaders that replicate the visual effects and characteristics of traditional CRT TVs and color NTSC TV signals.
The shaders can be applied to any RGB source and used at any resolution, offering features like scanlines, noise, picture instability, and ghosting.
The collection includes controls for adjusting tint, saturation, brightness, and sharpness, and supports both flat and curved screens with options for edge and corner rounding.
Participants in the discussion are exploring the use of shaders to recreate the look of old CRT displays, focusing on curved displays and screen reflections for an authentic vintage aesthetic.
The challenges of replicating CRT rendering are discussed, as well as the appeal of retro aesthetics and the varying preferences for crisp or fuzzy pixel art on different screens.
The importance of achieving a genuine vintage look and the role of shaders in this process are key topics of the discussion.
The article explains how the Chain of Density method was implemented using Instructor to distil a GPT-3.5 model to match the summarization capabilities of GPT-4.
Implementing these methods led to a 20x decrease in latency, a 50x reduction in costs, and maintained entity density.
The article provides detailed information on implementation, data models, pydantic validators, fine-tuning instructions, and benchmarks comparing different models. The conclusion emphasizes the efficiency gains achieved through finetuning and distillation using Instructor.