A Swiss town has banned billboards, with Zurich and Bern considering similar measures, following Cracow, Poland's successful ban two years ago.
Vermont and Hawaii have long-standing billboard bans, contributing to their visually pleasant environments.
The discussion emphasizes the positive impact of reducing visual clutter on urban aesthetics and the potential benefits of promoting public transportation.
There has been a significant increase in abusive site crawling by AI products, causing issues for sites like Read the Docs due to excessive bandwidth usage and costs.
Examples include one crawler downloading 73 TB of data in May 2024, costing over $5,000, and another using Facebook's content downloader to pull 10 TB in June 2024.
Despite IP-based rate limiting, these crawlers use multiple IP addresses, making it ineffective; actions taken include blocking identified AI crawlers and improving CDN caching.
AI crawlers have been criticized for being overly aggressive, with one instance involving a crawler downloading 73TB of zipped HTML files from ReadTheDocs in a month, causing significant bandwidth costs.
The excessive data scraping led to over $5,000 in bandwidth charges for ReadTheDocs, highlighting the need for more respectful and regulated crawling practices.
The incident raises questions about the potential for such behavior to be considered reckless under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and suggests that government fines might be appropriate for companies responsible for such actions.
The article is part of a two-part series on startup finance, focusing on accounting in Part I and strategic finance in Part II.
Key topics covered include setting up a secure bank account structure, managing credit card limits, and transitioning from Stripe to paper contracts and invoices as the customer base grew.
The author shares practical insights from their experience at Segment, which grew significantly and raised $44 million, highlighting the importance of understanding basic accounting for startup founders.
The article "Startup Finance for Founders – Part I, Accounting" discusses essential accounting principles for startup founders, though it lacks detailed accounting information.
A significant point raised is the strategy of negotiating credit lines during investment talks instead of gradually increasing credit card limits.
The discussion also touches on the limitations and risks associated with using debit cards for transactions like car rentals, particularly in the USA compared to Europe.
"Applied Machine Learning for Tabular Data" by Max Kuhn and Kjell Johnson is a practical guide for developing predictive models from tabular data, set to be published in June 2024.
The book covers the entire predictive modeling process, including feature engineering and post-modeling activities, and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, allowing for noncommercial use and adaptation.
Aimed at data analysts, statisticians, and data scientists, the book provides exercises and computing supplements, primarily using R’s tidymodels framework, and welcomes community contributions via GitHub.
Discussion on applied machine learning (ML) for tabular data, highlighting common challenges like data leakage, intelligent data splitting, and model selection.
Emphasis on using XGBoost for state-of-the-art results, with some experts recommending alternatives like LightGBM, CatBoost, and Random Forests.
Mention of a new hands-on textbook by an O'Reilly author, focusing on building ML systems with a feature store and practical projects.
Bcachefs, a new filesystem, is being discussed for its error handling capabilities, specifically its self-healing feature on read IO/checksum errors, which will be implemented in Linux 6.11.
There is a debate on the potential risks of self-healing, such as the possibility of corrupting good data if system components like RAM are faulty.
Comparisons are being made between Bcachefs and other filesystems like ZFS and btrfs, with users sharing their experiences and concerns about reliability and data integrity.
Switzerland has passed a law requiring government agencies to use open-source software (OSS) and publish new government code under open-source licenses, known as the "Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks" (EMBAG).
This initiative aims to improve transparency, security, and efficiency by making non-personal, non-security-sensitive government data publicly accessible.
Switzerland's move aligns with similar European initiatives and could potentially inspire further adoption of OSS in Europe and the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Defense's 2018 document addresses inefficiencies in Agile software development, highlighting issues like lack of end-user interaction and fund mismanagement by intermediaries.
The document suggests Agile practices are often misapplied, leading to resource wastage and failure to deliver quality software on time.
It emphasizes the need for better alignment between development teams and end-users and cautions against over-reliance on tools and processes.
Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen CPUs have a crashing issue due to elevated voltages and manufacturing defects, which cannot be fixed if damage has already occurred.
A patch to prevent future issues is expected in mid-August, but damaged CPUs will need to be replaced; Intel will not recall or extend warranties.
Affected users should update their BIOS and contact Intel Customer Support, as the issue potentially affects any 13th or 14th Gen desktop processor consuming 65W or more power.
Intel's 13th/14th Gen CPUs have a permanent crashing issue with no current fix, affecting CPUs consuming 65W or more.
MicroCenter has stopped featuring these CPUs in their bundles, and a microcode update expected in mid-August may lower performance.
Despite the issue, Intel's stock hasn't significantly dropped, and the company hasn't halted sales or planned a recall, focusing instead on microcode fixes.
France's high-speed rail network, including the TGV, faced significant disruptions due to "malicious acts" such as arson, just before the Paris Olympics.
The attacks damaged fiber-optic cables essential for train safety, affecting 800,000 passengers and causing widespread cancellations and delays, with repairs expected to last all weekend.
French officials condemned the attacks as "criminal actions" and launched an investigation, with potential penalties of up to 20 years in prison and substantial fines.
France's high-speed rail traffic was disrupted by "malicious acts" during the Olympic ceremony, highlighting vulnerabilities in public transport systems to sabotage.
Speculations suggest possible involvement of foreign actors, including Russia, drawing parallels to similar incidents in Germany and other parts of Europe.
The incident has sparked debates on the resilience of transport modes, national security implications, and the need for measures to protect critical infrastructure.
The French rail network has been targeted by 'malicious acts' just before the Paris Olympics, raising concerns about security and infrastructure resilience.
The timing of these acts is particularly significant as France prepares to host a major international event, highlighting potential vulnerabilities.
Discussions and further details are ongoing in various forums, reflecting the high level of public and media interest in the incident.