TL;DR summary of stories on the internet
If you’re a Firefox desktop user, you might be curious about how the minimaps on my blog posts are created. Well, Firefox is the only browser that supports the fancy element() CSS function, which allows you to display images of HTML elements on your page. The best part is that it’s live, so you can […]
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Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a vehicle security system called Battery Sleuth that aims to protect against wireless hacking and theft. The system authenticates drivers by measuring voltage fluctuations in a vehicle’s electrical system using a keypad device plugged into the auxiliary power outlet. By delivering a predetermined series of voltage fluctuations […]
CPUlator is a web-based simulator and debugger that allows users to simulate and debug computer systems, specifically processors and I/O devices. It supports instruction sets such as Nios II, ARMv7, and MIPS, and offers optional I/O devices for each system. One unique feature of CPUlator is that it runs entirely inside a web browser, eliminating […]
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has initiated a lawsuit against four doctors who conducted studies linking talc-based personal care products to cancer. J&J accuses the researchers of publishing inaccurate studies, claiming that their findings are based on “junk science.” The company’s subsidiary, LTL Management, filed a lawsuit in New Jersey federal court, demanding that three of […]
VIC-II Kawari is a hardware replacement for the VIC-II chip in Commodore 64 computers. It is compatible with the original VIC-II chips and offers additional features. The board can replace all functions of a VIC-II chip, including video output, light pen interrupts, and CPU clock source. There are three PCB designs available, ranging from $30 […]
Google Research has developed SoundStorm, a model for efficient and non-autoregressive audio generation. This model takes the semantic tokens of AudioLM as input and utilizes bidirectional attention and confidence-based parallel decoding to generate the tokens of a neural audio codec. Compared to the autoregressive generation approach of AudioLM, SoundStorm is much faster, producing audio of […]
Red is a programming language that draws heavy inspiration from REBOL. It boasts a variety of features such as a human-friendly syntax, a powerful pattern-matching system, and support for functional, imperative, reactive, and symbolic programming. Red also offers prototype-based object support, multi-typing, and a macros system. It can produce executables of less than 1MB with […]
Kei trucks are small Japanese cars with 660cc engines and dimensions of around 10m^3. These trucks have become popular in the US due to Japan’s tax incentives, leading to a brisk export business. The author recently purchased one and faced challenges in getting it road-legal. This guide aims to assist others in navigating the process. […]
The author begins by acknowledging some technical issues with their website’s subscribe and unsubscribe links but assures readers that they are now fixed. They then mention recent press coverage of events related to the Titanic and another maritime incident. The author defends the use of Logitech controllers and discusses the effectiveness of hydrophones and wide-area […]
The Intel 8086 processor, like modern microprocessors, generates an exception when an illegal instruction is executed. However, early microprocessors didn’t have the circuitry to detect illegal instructions. The 8086 has a few undocumented instructions that exhibit unexpected behavior. These instructions can reveal the values of hidden registers. The 8086’s microcode ROM holds 512 micro-instructions that […]