The Witcher 3 has successfully run on a RISC-V PC, marking the first AAA game to do so, thanks to advancements in Box64, Wine, and DXVK.
Significant progress has been made in the RISC-V backend, including fixing RV64 DynaRec bugs and adding new x86 instructions, facilitated by new hardware like the Milk-V Pioneer and VisionFive 2.
Despite challenges such as the lack of 16-byte atomic instructions and lower translation efficiency compared to other architectures, The Witcher 3 runs at up to 15 fps in-game on RISC-V.
Box64 is an emulator enabling x86-64 applications to run on non-x86-64 architectures, such as RISC-V, by using native system libraries for better performance.
Running The Witcher 3 on RISC-V involves translating x86-64 instructions to RISC-V, which is challenging due to differences in instruction sets and the need for efficient GPU translation.
RISC-V's open and flexible nature, despite lacking some features like SIMD optimizations, makes it a promising alternative to proprietary architectures like x86-64 and ARM, with ongoing efforts to enhance its performance and compatibility.
Zuckerberg admitted regret for succumbing to White House pressure on content moderation, highlighting a significant issue in platform governance.
Users criticized Facebook's news feed for excessive AI-generated content and clickbait, preferring the older version, with similar complaints about Twitter.
Concerns were raised about the increase in political and inappropriate content on Facebook, leading some users to abandon the platform, and the broader issue of social media prioritizing engagement over user experience was discussed.
Erasure coding enhances storage efficiency and fault tolerance by splitting data into chunks and adding parity chunks, allowing data reconstruction even if some chunks are lost.
Key applications include storage systems (reducing costs and increasing durability) and quorum systems (improving read performance with some write limitations).
Popular libraries for implementing erasure codes are Jerasure and Intel ISA-L, with adaptive schemes like HRaft adjusting based on available replicas.
The discussion centers around erasure coding, a method for data protection in distributed systems, highlighting its use in various technologies like Ceph and RaptorQ.
Erasure coding is praised for its efficiency in data recovery and fault tolerance, but it also has complexities and limitations, such as inelasticity in updating coding parameters and computational intensity.
The conversation includes references to specific implementations and algorithms, such as Luby Transform Code, RaptorQ, and Wirehair, and touches on potential patent issues and practical applications in real-world systems.
Anthropic has released the system prompts for Claude, their AI model, which now acknowledges the occurrence of "hallucinations" and advises users to verify citations on obscure topics.
Users have observed that Claude is more assertive and less apologetic compared to other AI models, and some find it more reliable than GPT-4 for specific tasks like script writing.
The detailed system prompts are designed to guide Claude's behavior, though some users feel these prompts are sometimes disregarded; they are available on Anthropic's documentation site.
In 2021, 2U acquired edX for $800 million, leading to financial strain and eventual bankruptcy by 2024.
The acquisition added $42 million in annual interest expenses, and efforts to reduce costs and unify operations under the edX brand failed.
Axim Collaborative, the non-profit holding the $800 million from the sale, has shown minimal impact on the edtech space, becoming primarily a grant-giving organization.
The post discusses the perceived decline in quality and effectiveness of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) from platforms like Coursera, EdX, and Udacity.
Key issues highlighted include simplified assignments, lack of feedback, and courses being less rigorous compared to traditional university offerings.
Despite some positive experiences, the overall trend is seen as negative, with fewer new high-quality courses being added and many older, valuable courses being archived.
Contractors renovating the Sainsbury Wing of London's National Gallery found a 1990 letter from donor John Sainsbury criticizing the inclusion of false columns in the foyer, which he considered a mistake by the architects.
The letter, discovered during recent renovations, expressed Sainsbury's hope that future generations would remove the unnecessary columns.
The Sainsbury Wing, undergoing an £85m upgrade to create a more open foyer, is set to reopen in May next year, with significant contributions from the Sainsbury family.
Contractors discovered a 1990 letter from a donor in a non-structural column on the ground floor of the Sainsbury Wing.
The discovery has sparked discussions about the columns' purpose, design, and the architectural choices made.
The letter has led to reflections on the architect's and donor's intentions, with some finding humor and others debating related architectural theories.
Tinyboxes, a product by George Hotz, now feature a "buy it now" button after 18 months of development.
Currently, 13 units are available for purchase, with the $15k tinybox red offering the best performance per dollar for machine learning (ML) and being fully networkable.
Interested buyers can visit the provided link on the @tinygrad Twitter handle to make a purchase.
Tinyboxes, a high-performance computing device, now feature a "buy it now" button, making them more accessible for purchase.
The device, priced at $15k for Radeon and $25k for Nvidia, requires significant power (3200W) and may need two separate circuits in residential settings.
Concerns have been raised about its networking capabilities (64GB/s over PCIe) and suitability for fine-tuning large machine learning models, such as LLama 3.1 / 70B, due to VRAM limitations and interconnect bandwidth.
Significant changes in distributed systems include the central role of object storage, merging of transactional and analytical tools, and new programming models.
Jeff Bezos' concept of one-way-door (irreversible) and two-way-door (reversible) decisions is crucial for managing the risks associated with adopting new technologies.
Object storage is gaining popularity due to its reliability, flexibility, and features like cross-region replication and encryption, with future improvements expected in performance and interoperability.
The discussion emphasizes the need for better marketing of innovative tools like mgmt config and the shift towards immutable systems.
Key topics include the importance of local development environments, the role of APIs, and the evolving landscape of storage and databases in distributed systems.
The conversation reflects a mix of optimism and skepticism about the future of distributed systems, debating the effectiveness of current tools and potential for smarter storage solutions.
Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2024-39717) in Versa Director, a software used by many Internet and IT service providers.
The cyber espionage group Volt Typhoon, linked to China, is suspected of targeting critical U.S. networks through this flaw, which allows attackers to upload files to vulnerable systems.
Versa has urged customers to patch the vulnerability with Versa Director 22.1.4 or later, while researchers from Black Lotus Labs identified a web-based backdoor on several systems and attributed the activity to Volt Typhoon with medium confidence.
New 0-day attacks have been linked to China's 'Volt Typhoon,' a state-sponsored group, according to a recent advisory.
The advisory criticized Versa customers for not implementing system hardening and firewall guidelines, leaving management ports exposed to the internet.
The attacks highlight the importance of cyber hygiene and the potential risks of leaving management ports open, which is considered basic system administration practice.
Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) will invest €686,400 in the FreeBSD project to modernize its infrastructure, security, and developer experience.
The investment will focus on zero trust builds, CI/CD automation, reducing technical debt, enhancing security controls, and improving SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) processes.
This initiative aligns with the U.S. Office of the National Cyber Director's priorities and aims to strengthen the open source ecosystem, benefiting global public, research, and commercial sectors.
The Sovereign Tech Fund is investing €686k in modernizing FreeBSD infrastructure, aiming to reduce technical debt and improve the system.
This German fund has a history of supporting significant open-source projects like curl, ffmpeg, GNOME, and PHP.
FreeBSD is widely used by companies such as Juniper, Sony, and Netflix, highlighting its importance in network infrastructure and the broader open-source community.
A RAND report indicates that 80% of AI projects fail due to misunderstandings about the problems AI should address, inadequate data, and poor infrastructure.
Successful AI projects require early involvement of data scientists and machine learning (ML) engineers to ensure meaningful impact and bridge the gap between technical and domain experts.
Many AI initiatives are driven by hype rather than actual needs, leading to costly failures, with management issues and unrealistic expectations hindering AI's potential.
Edward Snowden criticized the arrest of Pavel Durov, viewing it as an attack on free speech and association.
Snowden expressed disappointment in French President Emmanuel Macron for employing tactics to access private communications, which he believes undermines France and global standards.
Edward Snowden has labeled the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as an attack on basic human rights.
The debate centers around the compliance of messaging apps with legal warrants and subpoenas, comparing Telegram's refusal to cooperate with Signal's minimal data provision.
Durov faces multiple charges, including complicity in the dissemination of child-pornographic material and refusal to provide necessary information to authorities, raising significant legal and ethical concerns.
Coda Music Technologies (now MakeMusic) has announced the end of development for Finale, a leading music notation software, due to evolving technology and maintenance complexity.
Effective immediately, no further updates will be made, and Finale can no longer be purchased or upgraded; starting August 2025, it cannot be authorized on new devices or reauthorized, and technical support will end.
MakeMusic has partnered with Steinberg to offer Finale users an exclusive discount on Dorico Pro, a new industry-standard notation software, available for $149 (retail price $579).
MakeMusic, the company behind Finale, will no longer authorize new installations of the software after a year, effectively ending its usability on new devices.
MakeMusic has partnered with Steinberg to offer a discount on Dorico Pro, suggesting a transition plan for existing Finale users.
Users are advised to convert their Finale files to MusicXML, an open format, as future installations and activations will be impossible.
Startup Deep Fission proposes a 30-inch wide nuclear reactor placed a mile underground to address economic and safety issues in nuclear power.
The reactor, based on a conventional pressurized water reactor (PWR), operates at 160 atmospheres and 315 °C (600 °F), using a passive cooling system and the water column's weight for pressurization.
This design eliminates the need for costly civil engineering and containment structures, and the reactor can be retrieved for inspection or servicing within hours; currently, Deep Fission is in the pre-application review process with the Department of Energy.
Japan is facing rice shortages and rising prices despite normal crop yields due to a long-standing acreage reduction policy aimed at controlling market prices.
This policy, in place for over 50 years, incentivizes farmers to switch to other crops, leading to tightly managed rice production and vulnerability to demand fluctuations.
Experts suggest abolishing the policy, increasing rice production, and boosting exports to enhance food security and benefit consumers.
Japan is experiencing rice shortages despite normal crop yields due to government policies incentivizing farmers to reduce production to maintain high prices.
This 60-year-old policy limits supply, causing even minor demand increases, such as from tourism, to result in shortages and higher prices.
Critics suggest that Japan should abandon this policy to increase production, potentially becoming a major rice exporter and improving food security.