The Onion, known for its satirical content, has acquired Infowars, a conspiracy theory website, through a bankruptcy auction.
The acquisition is supported by Sandy Hook victims' families, who previously won a defamation lawsuit against Infowars' founder, Alex Jones.
The Onion plans to relaunch Infowars as a parody site to mock misinformation spreaders and raise awareness about gun violence, with backing from Everytown for Gun Safety.
The Onion has purchased Infowars to convert it into a parody site, with support from Sandy Hook families who agreed to reduce their recovery claims to facilitate the acquisition.
The Onion intends to satirize conspiracy theorists and misinformation spreaders, and will stop the sale of Infowars' questionable supplements.
This acquisition is viewed as a public service effort to limit Alex Jones' potential to inflict further damage.
An individual set up an e-ink display using a BOOX Note Air2 device to help their mother, who suffers from amnesia, manage anxiety about her children's whereabouts.- The display shows messages from family members, providing a non-intrusive and easy-to-read solution that doesn't require interaction or new skills from the user.- The system includes a simple website for updating messages and has proven to be reliable, significantly improving the mother's quality of life.
An e-ink display was developed to assist a parent with amnesia by displaying messages from their children, enhancing their quality of life with constant reminders of love.
The story initiated conversations about the intersection of memory, technology, and the potential uses of similar devices for aiding individuals with memory challenges.
The project inspired discussions on designing technology to support the elderly and those experiencing memory issues, highlighting the psychological and practical benefits.
Following the official AWS Amplify guide for OpenSearch integration can lead to unexpectedly high costs, as experienced by a user who received a $1,100 bill.
AWS support adjusted the bill and recommended setting up budget alerts, highlighting the importance of monitoring AWS services and pricing.
The guide's complexity and default settings can be misleading, especially for those new to AWS, emphasizing the need for understanding the technology and using AWS budget tools to prevent unforeseen expenses.
Francois Chollet, the creator of Keras, is departing from Google to explore new opportunities, while continuing to support Keras in collaboration with Google and the open-source community.
Keras, a significant AI development tool with over two million users, is widely used globally, including in Google applications.
Google remains dedicated to AI development and Keras, recently introducing Keras Hub to improve accessibility to AI tools.
Francois Chollet, creator of Keras, is leaving Google to start a new venture with a friend, not due to being recruited by another company.
Keras, a popular deep learning framework, is used by approximately 2 million developers and was integrated into TensorFlow in 2019, a decision Chollet did not make and believes might have been better as an independent framework.
Chollet intends to continue his work on projects such as ARC (Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus) and authoring foundational AI research papers.
The study by Hunter Ng investigates "ghost hiring," where employers post job ads without the intention of filling them, using data from Glassdoor and LLM-BERT analysis.- It reveals that up to 21% of job ads could be ghost jobs, particularly in specialized industries and larger companies, contributing to job market issues such as the Beveridge Curve disconnect.- The study suggests that policymakers should address ghost hiring as it leads to job fatigue and distorts market signals.
The hiring process should prioritize merit and qualifications over nationality, addressing misconceptions about the availability of qualified American candidates.
Many qualified individuals face challenges in job hunting due to issues like ghost jobs and complex hiring processes.
Companies need to maintain fair and transparent hiring practices, while job seekers should focus on networking and skill enhancement to remain competitive.
The guide explores the use of AI, like ChatGPT, in writing and coding, highlighting the balance between increased efficiency and the risk of skill atrophy.
It emphasizes that AI should serve as a learning tool for students, not a crutch, as engaging in "productive struggle" is essential for deep understanding.
The discussion extends to the evolving role of AI in education, stressing the importance of critical thinking and adaptability in response to AI's impact on skills.
The discussion focuses on China's targeting of commercial telecommunications infrastructure, with insights from a dataset by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute highlighting China's research priorities.
Concerns are raised about the West's potential lag in cybersecurity, touching on outdated resources, China's cybersecurity talent, and government control implications.
Users debate the legality and ethics of surveillance, referencing historical incidents, state actors' roles, and the geopolitical dynamics between the US and China, including espionage and international relations.
Amazon is facing criticism for making it more difficult for disabled employees to work from home, despite lacking data to justify the benefits of returning to the office (RTO).
Critics suggest the RTO policy may be aimed at exerting control and reducing staff without incurring severance costs, raising concerns about employee well-being.
The situation underscores the ongoing debate over remote work, with differing opinions on the value of flexibility versus in-office collaboration.
The sale of TinyPilot, a bootstrapped hardware company, provided insights into effective documentation, the importance of a trusted broker, and the need to recognize limited post-sale influence.
Lessons learned include offering incentives for cash buyers, involving a lawyer earlier, and managing team announcements and setbacks more strategically.
Surprising elements were the labor-intensive due diligence process, the optional but beneficial role of a broker, and the incentives for buyers to maintain good relations with sellers post-sale.
The author shares insights from selling their business, TinyPilot, emphasizing the importance of understanding liability in asset sales and the challenges of finding a buyer.
A broker was used to facilitate the sale, despite high fees, due to the difficulty in independently finding a suitable buyer.
Reflections include the trade-offs between running a business and working at a large tech company, highlighting differences in income, risk, and lifestyle, as well as insights on starting and managing a small business in the U.S.
The New York City Council has voted to eliminate broker fees for renters, aiming to enhance price competition and transparency in the rental market.
Previously, renters were required to pay broker fees, despite brokers working for landlords, which led to a lack of price pressure.
The decision is expected to shift the cost of broker services to landlords, potentially reducing overall rental costs and increasing pricing transparency for renters.
The FBI raided the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, leading to discussions about potential political motives versus legal compliance issues.
Polymarket is under scrutiny for operating without a license in the US, with some suggesting the raid is part of broader efforts to regulate cryptocurrency and prediction markets.
The timing of the raid, occurring after the election, has fueled speculation about its implications for the incoming administration and the balance between innovation and regulation.
The Guardian has decided to cease posting on its official editorial accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) due to concerns about the platform's toxic environment and the influence of its owner, Elon Musk, on political discussions.
Despite this decision, users on X can still share articles from The Guardian, and reporters may continue to use the platform for gathering news.
The Guardian aims to prioritize its website for distributing journalism, emphasizing direct reader support over dependence on social media algorithms.
The Guardian has ceased posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, due to concerns about content such as far-right conspiracy theories and racism.
This decision is part of a larger trend where media outlets are reevaluating their social media presence because of perceived biases and misinformation.
Despite stopping posts, The Guardian will still permit article sharing on X and utilize the platform for news-gathering, underscoring debates about social media's role in journalism and editorial integrity.
Gwern Branwen, a pseudonymous researcher, was an early predictor of the scaling of large language models (LLMs) in artificial intelligence (AI).- In an interview, Gwern discusses his journey, the significance of anonymity, and his writing process, emphasizing the influence of writing on AI's future.- He shares insights on AI's potential, the role of scaling, and the impact of GLP drugs on health, while reflecting on his lifestyle supported by Patreon and savings, and his commitment to AI research.
The interview with Gwern explores the role of writing in AI's future, expressing skepticism about AI replacing human creativity and stressing the need to verify human-generated content.
Gwern discusses living frugally, supported by Patreon and Bitcoin, and values intellectual pursuits over material wealth, offering a unique perspective on personal and professional life.
The conversation addresses AI's societal impact, debating whether AI will dominate or coexist with human creativity, and highlights the influence of Gwern and others in the AI community on these discussions.
O2 has launched "Daisy," an AI tool designed to engage scammers in realistic conversations, as part of their "Swerve the Scammers" campaign to protect customers from fraud.
Daisy uses advanced AI technology to occupy scammers' time, preventing them from targeting real victims, and collaborates with former Love Island star Amy Hart to raise fraud awareness.
O2 urges customers to report suspicious communications to 7726 for free and advocates for government intervention to address the UK's growing fraud issue.
O2 has launched "Daisy," an AI system intended to engage scammers in conversation to waste their time, sparking debate on its effectiveness and ethical implications.
Critics argue that while innovative, Daisy may divert attention from more effective spam prevention strategies and could incur additional costs.
There is concern that scammers might counteract by developing their own AI, potentially leading to AI systems interacting with each other, raising questions about the future of AI in spam and scam prevention.
go-safeweb is a library designed for secure-by-default HTTP servers in the Go programming language, aiming to eliminate security vulnerabilities such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Cross-Site Request Forgery (XSRF).
The project emphasizes security mechanisms applied by default, easy tracking of unsafe usage, and adaptability to evolving security requirements, while maintaining high compatibility with Go's standard library.
The library focuses solely on security, addressing issues like XSS, XSRF, Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), Content Security Policy (CSP), and transport security, without aiming for full compatibility with all frameworks or non-security features.
Go-Safeweb is a Google project on GitHub aimed at providing secure APIs for Go HTTP servers, sparking discussions on HTTPS/TLS handling.
Users debate the merits of managing TLS within applications versus using reverse proxies, with considerations of flexibility, configuration ease, and complexity reduction.
The project is unofficially supported by Google, leading to concerns about its long-term maintenance and sustainability.