TL;DR summary of stories on the internet
In a project called BIG-bench, researchers tested large language models like ChatGPT on 204 tasks. Performance scaled predictability with model size, except for certain tasks where performance suddenly jumped after remaining low. This “breakthrough” behavior was likened to a phase transition in physics. However, a new paper from Stanford argues that these abilities are not […]
Read more »
The author discusses unresolved problems with Wayland, highlighting issues with surface suspension and the broken FIFO implementation that lead to reduced GPU-bound performance. They argue that Wayland is currently not preferable over X11 due to severe performance and usability regressions. The author insists on reverting the default to X11 until certain protocols are released and […]
The author delves into their hobby of running Unix tools natively on Windows, with a preference for MSYS2 over WSL due to RAM usage. Prerequisites for MSYS2 installation involve avoiding spaces in the USERPROFILE path and configuring the /etc/fstab file correctly. Detailed instructions on installing and configuring GPG, Mutt, and MSMTP are provided, along with […]
Supervision offers reusable computer vision tools for tasks like loading datasets, drawing detections, and counting objects in a zone. Installation is easy with Pip, and the package is designed to be model agnostic, supporting popular libraries like Ultralytics and Transformers. Annotators and dataset utilities are highly customizable, allowing for a wide range of visualizations and […]
In 1997, Jennifer Mather received a call from Roland Anderson, her collaborator, reporting that a young octopus was playing with a floating bottle. Over the years, Mather and Anderson studied octopus behavior, noticing sophisticated actions like retrieving rocks to secure their den. Octopuses were known for their intelligence and curiosity, leading the researchers to question […]
Monolith is a data hoarder’s dream tool, bundling any web page into a single HTML file that includes CSS, images, and JavaScript assets. This allows for easy storage and sharing, replacing the need for multiple open tabs with individual HTML files. Unlike traditional methods, monolith saves all assets as data URLs, ensuring the page is […]
Software is not only revolutionizing the world but is also contributing to climate change. COP28’s website, for instance, produced 3.69g of CO2 per page load, equal to the emissions of some flights. This scenario is due to factors like unused code and inefficient image sizes. Green software engineering is becoming a popular discipline to reduce […]
Nuclear-energy officials faced disappointment in Brussels as bankers were hesitant to support their ambitions due to high costs. Despite public support, lenders were cautious about the financial implications of expanding atomic power. The International Atomic Energy Agency organized a summit to promote nuclear energy as a crucial tool in meeting climate targets. A group of […]
Defense technology has become a hot topic for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, with $135 billion invested in the past five years compared to $40 billion in the previous five years. The Defense Ventures Program by Shift embedded Department of Defense members in venture capital firms and startups, revitalizing the defense technology movement. Shift’s influence led […]
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter to discover fascinating news about the universe. Humans lost their tails about 25 million years ago due to a genetic code called Alu element, previously dismissed as junk DNA. Scientists found that this element triggered the loss of tails, shedding light on the evolution of bipedalism. The […]