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Publishers and authors have traditionally required e-book aggregators to apply Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to ensure that e-books sold to libraries are not illegally used, copied, or redistributed. While this prevents piracy, it also restricts readers who rely on institutional access to e-books. DRM often limits printing and checkout duration, making it difficult for […]
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In this blog post, the author discusses the value of creating useless software as a way to explore and experience the joy of computing. They argue that as technologists, much of our work is focused on creating useful things, and this can sometimes dampen the spark of joy that initially drew us to programming. Writing […]
The winsorized mean is a statistical measure of central tendency that is similar to the mean and median. It involves replacing extreme values at the high and low ends of a distribution with the most extreme remaining values. Typically, around 10 to 25 percent of the ends are replaced. The winsorized mean is considered a […]
This web content provides a list of various chairs that have appeared in Star Trek productions, including office chairs, lounge chairs, dining chairs, stools, and vehicle seats. Many of these chairs are design classics and have become iconic within the Star Trek universe. The content also includes a list of unidentified chairs in hopes of […]
AutoGen is a framework that allows the development of LLM (large language model) applications using multiple agents that can communicate with each other to solve tasks. These agents are customizable, conversable, and can involve human input. AutoGen simplifies complex LLM workflows and maximizes the performance of LLM models. It supports a variety of conversation patterns […]
In a resurgence of an old malware trick, hackers are now using decentralized, anonymous cryptocurrency blockchains to host their malicious files to avoid being taken down by security experts or law enforcement. The scam, known as ClearFake, uses hacked WordPress sites to prompt visitors to update their web browser before viewing content. Once users click […]
We are excited to announce that Oracle’s Java Platform extension for Visual Studio Code is now generally available. Visual Studio Code has become a popular choice for developers as it offers support for multiple programming languages. While Java has dedicated IDEs, there is a large number of developers who use VS Code, especially students and […]
A recent clinical trial has shown that the antiviral drug ensitrelvir can shorten the duration of two common symptoms of COVID-19: loss of smell and taste. This medication is unique in that it is not reserved only for high-risk individuals, unlike other COVID-19 treatments. In Japan, where the drug has received emergency approval, it is […]
Python 3.12 is the latest stable release of the Python programming language. It introduces several new features and improvements to the language and standard library. Notable changes include the removal of the distutils package, improvements to filesystem support in the os and pathlib modules, enhancements to f-strings, and better performance for several modules. The release […]
Prompt injection is a vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious data into a text prompt, compromising the system’s security. In the past, we demonstrated how prompt injection could be used to jailbreak OpenAI’s Code Interpreter. Now, we explore Vision Prompt Injection, which allows attackers to inject malicious instructions through an image. This hidden text […]