Links 14/07/2024: Goldman Sachs Says 'Advanced' or 'Generative' Hey Hi (AI) is Just Hype, Thoughts on Negatives
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Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
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Programming/Development
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Net2 ☛ A Comprehensive Guide To Building Internal Tools With No/Low-Code
The era of needing to be a programming expert to build software tools for in-house use is over. Low-code and no-code solutions have dramatically improved the accessibility of internal development, meaning you don’t need to outsource this to get what you want.
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Linux mailing lists ☛ Git v2.46.0-rc0
An early preview release Git v2.46.0-rc0 is now available for testing at the usual places. It is comprised of 602 non-merge commits since v2.45.2, contributed by 66 people, 19 of which are new faces [*].
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Leftovers
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Ruben Schade ☛ Some Proton Saga Hot Wheels
The Proton Saga is less a motorised, quad-wheeled vehicular conveyance as it is a cultural icon. Introduced as Malaysia’s first domestically-produced vehicle in 1985, the Saga went on to power much of the country’s taxi and private car fleets. The former meant I got to know them well when I lived there.
Fast forward to 2024, and Clara and I were wandering back from our local Aldi having bought ingredients for dinner. We passed a couple of new vending machines selling Hot Wheels of all things, when I did a double-take and looked at the display.
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Hardware
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Warframe devs report 80% of game crashes happen on Intel's overclockable Core i9 chips — Core i7 K-series CPUs also have high crash rates
Warframe developers sound off on Intel's ongoing 13th Gen and 14th Generation CPU instability issues.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ US government announces first CHIPS Act research and development beneficiaries — $300 million awarded to three R&D facilities [Ed: Bailout at taxpayers' expense. Intel will lack an incentive to improve/fix products if it keeps getting bailout money.]
The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act budgets up to $11 billion for R&D and will soon award the first $300 million for three facilities.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Ravi Dwivedi: Yellow Fever Vaccine
Recently, I got vaccinated with yellow fever vaccine as I am planning to travel to Kenya, a high risk country for yellow fever, in the near future. The vaccine takes 10 days to produce the required antibodies, so it should be taken at least 10 days before the date of departure to the at-risk country. In order to get vaccinated, I searched for vaccination centers in Delhi for yellow fever.
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Science Alert ☛ New Bird Flu Discovery Suggests Cows Are a Threat For Future Pandemics
Always drink pasteurized milk.
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Science Alert ☛ 'Man Flu' Could Actually Have a Real Explanation, Expert Says
Men might not be exaggerating after all.
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Science Alert ☛ The Neurological Basis of Anorexia May Have Just Been Discovered
And with it – a possible cure.
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Science Alert ☛ We Now Know The Exact Part of The Brain Behind Your Curiosity
You're dying to know, aren't you?
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Science Alert ☛ The US Still Doesn't Test For This Common Harmful Parasite During Pregnancy
Other nations have been screening for decades.
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Science Alert ☛ The Temperature of The House You Grew Up in May Still Be Impacting You
Habits are hard to break.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Former Tesla Hey Hi (AI) Director reproduces GPT-2 in 24 hours for only $672 — GPT-4 costs $100 million to train
The project started as an educational video, but the developer got stuck on a few things, so 'raged-quit' and decided to rebuild GPT-2 from scratch.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Goldman Sachs says Hey Hi (AI) is too expensive and unreliable — firm asks if 'overhyped' Hey Hi (AI) processing will ever pay off massive investments
Goldman Sachs interviewed several experts to offer contrarian views on the future of AI, plus they looked at the challenges the technology faces if it wants to grow indefinitely in the future.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Ruben Schade ☛ How not to leak customer data
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Don Marti ☛ Don Marti: PET projects or real privacy?
Every advertising event is full of thought leader insights about
privacy-enhancing technologies
(PETs) for ad personalization and reporting systems. Somehow Big Tech, adtech, and martech are all fired up about projects for reimplementing personalized/surveillance advertising, but this time with a bunch of complicated math added in a way that makes it hard to identify or track an individual.
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Defence/Aggression
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France24 ☛ Air strike on Gaza 'safe zone' kills at least 90; Israel says it targeted Hamas chief Deif
An Israeli air strike that hit the densely populated Al-Mawasi area previously designated as a humanitarian safe zone near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Saturday killed at least 90 people and wounded nearly 300, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.
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New York Times ☛ Who Is the Hamas Military Leader, Muhammad Deif?
Muhammad Deif, an architect of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and commander of the group’s military wing, was the focus of an Israeli strike on Saturday.
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JURIST ☛ Federal judge strikes down Baton Rouge police strip search policy as unconstitutional
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled on Friday that the practice of strip-searching individuals who have not been arrested by Baton Rouge police (BRPD) is “unconstitutional on its face” and that the higher standard of probable cause is needed for a strip search according to Supreme Court precedent.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Russia Seeking To Exploit Ethnic Tensions In Western Balkans, U.S. Warns
Moscow is seeking to exploit ethnic tensions in the Western Balkans to provoke "instability and hinder the region's integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions," the U.S. State Department has said.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Businessman Charged With Bribing Defense Officials Dies In Jail
A Russian businessman charged with bribing senior Defense Ministry officials on behalf of suppliers has died in pretrial detention, according to a member of the country's human rights council.
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RFERL ☛ Swiss Suspect Russian Diplomat, Others Of Trying To Obtain Weapons
Swiss prosecutors suspect three individuals, including a Russian diplomat, of trying to obtain weapons and other potentially dangerous material, AFP and Tages-Anzeiger reported.
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RFERL ☛ Russia To Ban Adoption From Countries Recognizing Gender Transition
Russia is developing legislation that would ban child adoption by citizens of countries that recognize the right to change gender, the speaker of the lower house of parliament said.
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JURIST ☛ Australian Army private and husband arrested on espionage charges after allegedly spying for Russia
The Australian Federal Police announced Friday that an Army Private and her husband have been charged with preparing to commit espionage. The ADF private, Kira Korolev, and her husband, Igor Korolev, are both Russian-born and were arrested at their Brisbane home on Thursday.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China says conducting joint military drills with Russia to address ‘maritime security threats’
China said Friday it was conducting joint military drills with Russia along its southern coast, after a US-led Western defence alliance met in Washington and Japan warned of a growing threat from Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow.
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New York Times ☛ Ukraine Is Targeting Crimea, a Critical Base for Russia’s Invasion
Newly armed with deep-strike missiles, Kyiv is trying to degrade Russian abilities on the peninsula, aiming at airfields, air defenses and logistics hubs.
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RFERL ☛ Oil Depot On Fire In Russia's Rostov Region, Governor Says
An oil depot was on fire in Russia's southwestern Rostov region following a Ukrainian drone attack early on July 13, the region's governor, Vasily Golubev, said on Telegram.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine's Zelenskiy Meets Irish PM As 11 Killed in Russian Attacks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris to discuss Russia’s invasion as at least 11 civilians were killed in attacks in the east and south of the country.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Won't Air Summer Olympics Amid Ban On Athletes, Flag
Russia has decided not to show the 2024 Summer Olympics on national television after its teams were banned from participating in the widely watched event following its invasion of Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Putin Signs Bill Banning Lawmakers From Leaving Russia Without Permission
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that bans members of parliament from leaving the country without permission, a move likely aimed at curtailing dissent among the country's elite over his struggling invasion of Ukraine.
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Finance
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LRT ☛ How to fight shoplifting? Lithuanian retailers came up with original proposal
A growing problem, supermarkets are pondering novel ways to fight shoplifters who are becoming increasingly sophisticated and brazen.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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RFA ☛ Foreigners still visiting China, but fewer want to live there
Short-term visits and long-term residence permits have fallen sharply despite the ending of pandemic restrictions.
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RFA ☛ Is Kim Jong Un taking his luxury yacht out for vacation?
Satellite photos show the Kim family’s 80-meter cruise ship out at sea.
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Photos: The scene at rally shooting that left Trump injured, gunman and at least one attendee dead
Photos show the scene at former President Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania where he was left blood after a series of loud pops that appeared to be gunshots were heard.
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Off Guardian ☛ [UPDATED] Shots Fired at Donald Trump Rally
Just minutes ago it was reported that several shots had been fired at Donald Trump while he spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania.
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The Kent Stater ☛ Trump injured in incident at rally
Former President Donald Trump was rushed offstage with blood on his ear and face after loud bangs during a Saturday evening rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump fell to the ground, seemingly injured, after the first pop of loud bangs.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ All this talk of ‘panda diplomacy’ ignores the welfare of the animals in question
By Pit Hok Yau On the 27th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule, Chief Executive John Lee announced that Beijing would gift another pair of giant pandas to Hong Kong.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China’s ailing economy under spotlight as leader Pooh-tin Jinping and top officials to meet
By Sebastien Ricci and Luna Lin Top Chinese officials gather in Beijing on Monday, with all eyes on how they might kickstart lacklustre growth at a key political meeting that has traditionally seen officials unveil big-picture economic policy changes.
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JURIST ☛ Human rights organizations criticize China guidelines targeting Taiwan independence advocates
Amnesty International and four other human rights organizations on Thursday criticized China’s new judicial guidelines targeting individuals advocating for Taiwan’s independence, calling the guidelines “a blow for human rights protections.”
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RFA ☛ Biden signs bill urging China to resume talks over Tibet
The Resolve Tibet Act promotes Tibet's distinct cultural, linguistic and religious heritage.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea's Kim sacks 'irresponsible' officials over new town project
Plans for the new "socialist utopia" town include hotels, a ski resort and medical facilities.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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RFERL ☛ Russia Adds Blogger, Telegram Channel To 'Foreign Agents' List
Russia's Justice Ministry has added blogger Daria Bogdanova and the VChK-OGPU (Russian Crime project) Telegram channel to its "foreign agents" register.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China launches online crackdown on video apps and social control media platforms over ‘harmful’ content targeting children
China on Saturday announced a new crackdown on its tightly controlled internet, taking aim at video apps and social control media platforms to purge content deemed harmful to children.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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New York Times ☛ The Irony of Dr. Ruth
People often laughed when she spoke, but Ruth Westheimer delivered a punch that challenged norms for older women.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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Science
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Thoughts on Negatives
One of my favorite mathematical tools is the number line. It's an amazingly effective tool to help students understand quantities in a tangible way. Seeing spatial representations of numbers not only helps to manifest examples of magnitude and step, but it helps lead naturally into the concept of the Cartesian coordinate system.
Typically a number line is presented to students as a horizontal line. The point 0 is often set in the middle of the line, and numbers to the right of 0 are positive while numbers to the left are negative. Students are then told to think of positive numbers as being "to the right", and vice versa for negative numbers.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.