Anthropic has enabled CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) support for their JSON APIs, allowing direct calls to Claude LLMs (Large Language Models) from a user's browser.
This feature is activated by adding the HTTP request header anthropic-dangerous-direct-browser-access: true, facilitating browser-based calls without a proxy.
This update is particularly useful for internal tools or apps where users provide their own API keys, exemplified by the Haiku app that generates haikus from photos using the Anthropic API.
Claude's API now supports CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) requests, allowing client-side applications to interact with it directly.
Users can bring their own keys, which reduces maintenance and costs, making it easier for developers to distribute ad-free apps without constant upkeep.
While some users prefer OAuth for enhanced security, the "bring your own keys" approach remains popular for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, though it requires trust in the site being used.
The confidential report highlights the need to liberate the Postcode Address File (PAF) from private control to foster innovation and economic growth.
Since Royal Mail's privatization in 2013, accessing the PAF has become costly, stifling development.
A 2016 government attempt to recreate the PAF without Royal Mail's data resulted in a flawed dataset, proving it impractical and costly; thus, the report recommends the government reclaim and release the PAF as open data.
The Postcode Address File (PAF) in the UK is controlled by Royal Mail and is expensive to access, leading to issues with address accuracy and data comprehensiveness.
France's government has created the "BAN" (Base Adresse Nationale), a free and open postal address database with GPS coordinates, update interfaces, and APIs, serving as a model for the UK.
Advocates argue that making the PAF freely available in the UK, similar to France's BAN, would enhance address accuracy and accessibility.
Several large ISPs in Germany are blocking pirate sites through a voluntary agreement with rightsholders, keeping the affected domain names secret.
A 17-year-old student, Damian, and his friends launched CUIIliste.de to expose all blocked domains, advocating for transparency and freedom of expression.
Germany's institutionalized pirate site blocking scheme, CUII, issues blocking orders without court judgments, raising concerns about transparency and potential censorship.
A 17-year-old student exposed Germany's secret pirate site blocklist, sparking discussions on bypassing these blocks using VPNs, DNSCrypt, and alternative DNS servers.
Users debated the ease of circumventing DNS-based blocking and the legal and technical challenges associated with torrenting in Germany.
The broader implications of internet censorship and the effectiveness of such measures were also discussed.
The Justice Department and several state Attorneys General have filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against RealPage Inc. for allegedly using an algorithmic pricing scheme to reduce competition among landlords and monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software.
The lawsuit claims RealPage violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act by sharing nonpublic rental rate information among landlords to influence apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters by depriving them of competitive leasing terms.
RealPage, which allegedly holds an 80% market share in this software sector, is accused of using its data to maintain a monopoly and limit competition.
The DOJ has filed a lawsuit against RealPage, alleging its algorithmic pricing software facilitates price fixing among landlords, leading to higher rents.
The software uses proprietary data to suggest rental prices, which the DOJ claims reduces competition and harms renters by avoiding competitive pricing.
The lawsuit has sparked a broader debate on housing as a profit-driven industry, touching on issues like zoning laws, rent control, and the balance between supply and demand in housing markets.
The Surreal Engine project aims to reimplement the original Unreal Engine to make Unreal Tournament (UT99) maps playable.
The engine can load and render maps, with the Unrealscript VM nearly complete, but some native functions are still missing, leading to potential exceptions.
Supported games include various versions of Unreal Tournament, Unreal, Deus Ex, and others, with some games like Unreal Tournament v436 and Unreal Gold v226 already in a playable state.
SurrealEngine is an open-source reimplementation of Unreal Engine 1, allowing for playable versions of Unreal Tournament 99 (UT99).
This project is significant because it revives a classic game engine, making it accessible and playable on modern hardware without requiring the original proprietary engine.
The reimplementation supports older hardware with 64/128MB video cards and uses SDL2 and OpenGL 2.1, emphasizing the preservation and accessibility of vintage games.
Despite advances in neural networks, the internal workings and reasons for their effectiveness remain largely mysterious, prompting efforts to simplify and visualize these models.
Mesh neural nets, which limit connections to at most two neurons, offer a more visualizable and understandable alternative while still performing complex functions.
Discrete systems, inspired by biological evolution, use simple rules and random mutations to achieve goals, providing a new approach to machine learning that leverages computational irreducibility.
Stephen Wolfram's article delves into minimal models and the computational universe, using cellular automata to explore deep philosophical questions.
The discussion includes neural networks, computational complexity, and the potential for new, efficient machine learning techniques, sparking both praise and criticism.
The article underscores the ongoing debate about the nature of machine learning and the quest for more efficient algorithms.
The author experienced a severe issue with Chase Bank, where $180,000 was frozen without warning, nearly disrupting their business operations.
Despite a decade-long relationship and providing all necessary documents, Chase Bank blocked transactions and failed to resolve the issue promptly, leading to a loss of trust.
The author emphasizes the importance of diversifying banking options and suggests considering alternatives like Mercury Bank, which they found more supportive of small business needs.
A cautionary tale highlights the challenges of using Chase bank for indie businesses, with a specific case where an account was closed without clear reasons, causing significant inconvenience.
Similar experiences with Citibank are shared, where discrepancies in account names led to prolonged struggles to access retirement funds, requiring extensive documentation and multiple interactions with the bank.
The discussion underscores the broader issue of large banks' bureaucratic inefficiencies and lack of customer empowerment, prompting some to consider alternatives like credit unions or fintech solutions.
Surfer is a digital footprint exporter that consolidates personal data from various online platforms into a single folder, addressing the issue of scattered data.
Supported platforms include Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub, YouTube, Spotify, Notion, ChatGPT, Gmail, with iMessages, Twitter Bookmarks, and Reddit coming soon.
The app uses Supabase for anonymized analytics and has a roadmap that includes obtaining a Windows code signing certificate, adding more platforms, and exploring wearable device integration.
"Surfer: The World's First Digital Footprint Exporter" claims to centralize personal data from seven major online platforms, but users argue it needs more integrations to be truly valuable.
The project has sparked discussions on data privacy, with some advocating for decentralized solutions and others suggesting improvements like daily exporting and better marketing.
Alternatives and similar tools mentioned include Microsoft's GraphRag, HPI by Karlicoss, DogSheep, and Peergos, highlighting a competitive landscape for personal data management tools.
Vijay Balasubramanian, a theoretical physicist, shares insights in his article "Confessions of a Theoretical Physicist," published on August 19, 2024.
Balasubramanian holds positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and Santa Fe Institute, and will be the George Eastman Professor at Oxford University for the 2024–2025 academic year.
Nautilus offers an ad-free experience for members and features articles on diverse topics like neuroscience, technology, and philosophy.
A theoretical physicist shares insights on the nature of scientific discovery, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and eureka moments in advancing knowledge.
The discussion highlights the unpredictable and often collaborative nature of breakthroughs in physics, illustrating how offhand suggestions can lead to significant shifts in research direction.
The post also touches on broader philosophical debates about free will and the human mind, sparked by the spontaneous nature of eureka moments, and how these moments challenge our understanding of conscious decision-making.
Scientific fraud can lead to severe consequences, including increased mortality rates, as seen in the case of cardiologist Don Poldermans, whose falsified data led to an estimated 800,000 deaths.
Scientific misconduct is more prevalent than commonly believed, with minimal repercussions for offenders, and it can take years to retract flawed studies, impacting patient care.
There are proposals to criminalize scientific fraud or establish independent review boards to ensure accountability, as current penalties are insufficient and institutions often avoid thorough investigations to protect their reputation.
The discussion focuses on the severe impact of scientific fraud in medical research, with a highlighted case where fraudulent beta blocker research may have led to 800,000 deaths.
Key issues debated include systemic problems like over-reliance on single studies, poor replication practices, and media misreporting of findings.
Suggestions for improvement include better checks and balances, prosecuting fraudulent researchers, and enhancing research practices and accountability across various fields.
Zettlr is a WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) Markdown editor, suitable for various writing tasks and offering deep customization.
The latest version, 3.2.0, was released on June 11, 2024, and the software is cross-platform, available for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Zettlr includes features like real-time Markdown rendering, multiple document views, Emacs and Vim modes, and tools for writing progress, citations, and grammar checking.
Zettlr is a note-taking and publishing tool that uses Markdown, attracting attention for its open-source nature and lack of vendor lock-in.
Users are comparing Zettlr with other tools like Obsidian, highlighting differences in extensibility, performance, and customization options.
Discussions emphasize the importance of Markdown for interoperability and flexibility, with some users preferring it over rich text editors for its simplicity and compatibility with version control systems like Git.
Boeing's cost-cutting measures, including outsourcing software engineering to cheaper contractors, contributed to the failures of the 737 MAX, leading to two fatal crashes and the grounding of the aircraft worldwide.
These incidents resulted in over $6 billion in market cap losses for Boeing, highlighting the dangers of prioritizing cost savings over software quality.
The case underscores the importance of investing in high-quality software development practices, proper training, mentorship, and thorough testing to prevent costly and tragic outcomes.
Boeing's outsourcing of software development has led to significant financial losses and quality issues, highlighting the risks associated with such practices.
The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flaw in the 737 MAX is a prime example, where cost-cutting measures and inadequate safety protocols resulted in tragic outcomes.
The discussion emphasizes the need for professional engineering oversight and potential certification for critical software systems to prevent similar incidents in the future.
NanoLog is a high-performance logging system for C++ that achieves over 80 million logs per second with a median latency of just over 7 nanoseconds.
It outperforms other logging systems like spdlog, Log4j2, Boost, glog, and Windows Event Tracing (ETW) in both throughput and runtime latency.
NanoLog uses a unique approach by extracting static log information at compile-time and logging only dynamic components at runtime, deferring formatting to an offline process.
EPUBCheck is the official tool for validating EPUB publications, available as a command-line tool or Java library, and maintained by the DAISY Consortium for W3C.
The latest release, EPUBCheck v5.1.0, supports validation of EPUB 2 and 3 files against the EPUB 3.3 specification.
Financial support is needed for its ongoing development and maintenance, and it is open source under the 3-Clause BSD License.
EPUBCheck is the official tool for validating ePub publications, ensuring they meet industry standards.
The publishing industry often relies on outdated practices, with many authors using Microsoft Word, necessitating manual conversion for ebooks and print.
Users shared diverse methods for creating ebooks, including LaTeX and pandoc, and discussed the importance of tools like EPUBCheck for passing validation checks.
Semaglutide, similar to Ozempic, targets and reduces visceral fat, which is linked to metabolic disorders and insulin resistance, offering health benefits beyond appetite suppression.
This treatment's ability to specifically target visceral fat distinguishes it from previous weight loss medications, potentially providing broader health advantages.
The rising popularity of semaglutide highlights the demand for effective weight loss solutions, despite concerns about long-term dependency and unknown risks.