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#engineer
![[ImageSource: Shutterstock]
Once installed on a vulnerable PC, this RAT [Remote Access Trojan] is able to steal usernames and passwords from more than 270 different apps including popular browsers like Chrome.
⚠️How to keep your PC safe from Neptune RAT.⚠️
Normally, I’d recommend investing in a good antivirus suite but considering little can be done at this point, signing up for the best identity theft protection makes more sense. Identity theft protection services can help you recover lost funds after an attack and they also come with insurance if you need to replace your PC completely which could very well be the case with the Neptune RAT.
It’s also importance that you practice good IT-Hygiene online and avoid downloading suspicious files onto your PC.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/342/647/070/043/186/original/2928fb2b3307b57f.jpeg "[ImageSource: Shutterstock]
Once installed on a vulnerable PC, this RAT [Remote Access Trojan] is able to steal usernames and passwords from more than 270 different apps including popular browsers like Chrome.
⚠️How to keep your PC safe from Neptune RAT.⚠️
Normally, I’d recommend investing in a good antivirus suite but considering little can be done at this point, signing up for the best identity theft protection makes more sense. Identity theft protection services can help you recover lost funds after an attack and they also come with insurance if you need to replace your PC completely which could very well be the case with the Neptune RAT.
It’s also importance that you practice good IT-Hygiene online and avoid downloading suspicious files onto your PC.")
#Palantir Is helping #DOGE build an #API for accessing #IRS records
https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-doge-irs-mega-api-data/
→ ‘An Overwhelmingly Negative And Demoralizing Force’: What It’s Like Working For A Company That’s Forcing AI On Its Developers
https://aftermath.site/ai-video-game-development-art-vibe-coding-midjourney
“Bradley says his boss will just keep #prompting an AI for #images until he finds one he likes, and then the art team will have to #backwards #engineer the whole thing to make it work.
"He doesn't know that the important thing isn't just the end #result, it's the #journey and the questions you answer along the #way"”
Improving Aluminium-Ion Batteries with Aluminium-Fluoride Salt.
There are many rechargeable battery chemistries, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Currently lithium-ion and similar [e.g. Li-Po] rule the roost due to their high energy density at least acceptable number of recharge cycles, but aluminium-ion [Al-ion] may become a more viable competitor.
![A published paper by Chinese researchers claims to have overcome some of the biggest hurdles. In the paper as published in ACS Central Science by [Ke Guo] et al. the use of solid-state electrolyte, a charge cycle endurance beating LiFePO4 (LFP) and excellent recyclability are claimed.
<https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.4c01615>
It’s been known for a while that theoretically Al-ion batteries can be superior to Li-ion in terms of energy density, but the difficulty lies in the electrolyte, including its interface with the electrodes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium-ion_battery>](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/307/751/586/922/280/original/72d326c52b19e1f0.jpeg "A published paper by Chinese researchers claims to have overcome some of the biggest hurdles. In the paper as published in ACS Central Science by [Ke Guo] et al. the use of solid-state electrolyte, a charge cycle endurance beating LiFePO4 (LFP) and excellent recyclability are claimed.
<https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.4c01615>
It’s been known for a while that theoretically Al-ion batteries can be superior to Li-ion in terms of energy density, but the difficulty lies in the electrolyte, including its interface with the electrodes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium-ion_battery>")
![[ImageSource: ACS Central Science]
The newly developed electrolyte (F-SSAF) uses aluminium-fluoride (AlF3) to provide a reliable interface between the aluminium and carbon electrodes, with the prototype cell demonstrating 10,000 cycles with very little cell degradation. Here the AlF3 provides the framework for the EMIC-AlCl3 electrolyte. FEC (fluoroethylene carbonate) is introduced to resolve electrolyte-electrode interface issues.
A recovery of >80% of the AlF3 during a recycling phase is also claimed, which for a prototype seems to be a good start. Of course, as the authors note in their conclusion, other frameworks than AlF3 are still to be investigated, but this study brings Al-ion batteries a little bit closer to that ever-elusive step of commercialization and dislodging Li-ion.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/307/753/514/699/430/original/1d5b44dcb19485e1.png "[ImageSource: ACS Central Science]
The newly developed electrolyte (F-SSAF) uses aluminium-fluoride (AlF3) to provide a reliable interface between the aluminium and carbon electrodes, with the prototype cell demonstrating 10,000 cycles with very little cell degradation. Here the AlF3 provides the framework for the EMIC-AlCl3 electrolyte. FEC (fluoroethylene carbonate) is introduced to resolve electrolyte-electrode interface issues.
A recovery of >80% of the AlF3 during a recycling phase is also claimed, which for a prototype seems to be a good start. Of course, as the authors note in their conclusion, other frameworks than AlF3 are still to be investigated, but this study brings Al-ion batteries a little bit closer to that ever-elusive step of commercialization and dislodging Li-ion.")
Building an Interferometer with LEGO.
LEGO! It’s a fun toy that is popular around the world. What you may not realize is that it’s also made to incredibly high standards. As it turns out, the humble building blocks are good enough to build a interferometer if you’re so inclined to want one. Kyra Cole shows us how it’s done.
![Not only was the LEGO interferometer able to generate a proper interference pattern, [Kyra] then went one step further. A Raspberry Pi was rigged up with a camera and some code to analyze the interference patterns automatically.
[Kyra] notes that using genuine bricks was key to her success. Their high level of dimensional accuracy made it much easier to achieve her end goal. Sloppily-built knock-off bricks may have made the build much more frustrating to complete.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/290/904/265/935/202/original/ec5ba3ed9ec67351.jpeg "Not only was the LEGO interferometer able to generate a proper interference pattern, [Kyra] then went one step further. A Raspberry Pi was rigged up with a camera and some code to analyze the interference patterns automatically.
[Kyra] notes that using genuine bricks was key to her success. Their high level of dimensional accuracy made it much easier to achieve her end goal. Sloppily-built knock-off bricks may have made the build much more frustrating to complete.")
![[ImageSource: Kyra Cole]
The build in question is a Michelson interferometer; [Kyra] was inspired to build it based on earlier work by the myphotonics project.
<https://www.ufp.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/education/myphotonics.html>
She was able to assemble holders for mirrors and a laser, as well as a mount for a beamsplitter and then put it all together on a LEGO baseboard. While some non-LEGO rubber bands were used in some areas, ultimately, adjustment was performed with LEGO Technic gears.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/290/942/847/574/034/original/17f1458895d47108.jpeg "[ImageSource: Kyra Cole]
The build in question is a Michelson interferometer; [Kyra] was inspired to build it based on earlier work by the myphotonics project.
<https://www.ufp.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/education/myphotonics.html>
She was able to assemble holders for mirrors and a laser, as well as a mount for a beamsplitter and then put it all together on a LEGO baseboard. While some non-LEGO rubber bands were used in some areas, ultimately, adjustment was performed with LEGO Technic gears.")
[G-ZERO] — F-Zero inspired SNES Game looks impressive on the Genesis/Sega Mega Drive.
YouTuber and developer [Gasega68k] has released an early work in progress version of 'G-ZERO' for the Sega Mega Drive. A game that is inspired by the iconic Super Nintendo Entertainment System title of 'F-Zero'.
![[ImageSource: Gasega68k]
And here's the latest. "This is a tech demo of G-Zero for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, inspired by F-Zero on the Super Nintendo with a mode 7 style rotation background. There are 5 opponents and a rival. The race takes place in a loop, never ending, but the best time gets updated after each lap. This is a WIP, and the author is still working on it."](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/285/463/310/848/925/original/a72cdba8056f350c.jpeg "[ImageSource: Gasega68k]
And here's the latest. \"This is a tech demo of G-Zero for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, inspired by F-Zero on the Super Nintendo with a mode 7 style rotation background. There are 5 opponents and a rival. The race takes place in a loop, never ending, but the best time gets updated after each lap. This is a WIP, and the author is still working on it.\"")
@petrillic@hachyderm.
1/n
When I was identifying as #nonbinary, I was at a bar with a coworker while we were attending an in-person work conference.
He says to me, "If you're thinking of jumping the fence... Men are assholes."
Like, he was mansplaining /men/.
He didn't talk about it, much, but as an Electrical #Engineer, he had worked on military aircraft. And, now he's working on #Sustainability and #Water #Conservation in his community.
A Game Boy Speedometer, just because you can.
The “world’s worst digital dash”, a Nintendo Game Boy as a digital speedometer. Interfacing the handheld with the vehicle’s CAN bus system, this project has something to offer.
Check my Image Description’s
![Months of work have gone into decoding the Game Boy’s data bus and creating a schematic for the interface board. Tricking the Game Boy into thinking it was loading a game, while actually displaying incoming speed data. The screen’s low resolution and slow refresh rate rendered it barely readable in a moving vehicle. But [John]’s goal wasn’t practicality — it was just proving it could be done.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/251/391/317/762/186/original/f1ea811e6cb4c4c3.jpeg "Months of work have gone into decoding the Game Boy’s data bus and creating a schematic for the interface board. Tricking the Game Boy into thinking it was loading a game, while actually displaying incoming speed data. The screen’s low resolution and slow refresh rate rendered it barely readable in a moving vehicle. But [John]’s goal wasn’t practicality — it was just proving it could be done.")
![[ImageSource: John Sutley]
Showing real-time vehicle speed on the Game Boy sounds like it should be relatively easy, but the iconic game system wasn’t exactly built for such a task. Its 2 MHz CPU and 160×144 pixel dot-matrix screen were every kid’s dream in 1989, but using it as a car dashboard is pushing it. To bridge that gap, [John] designed two custom circuit boards.
One interfaces with the Game Boy, intercepting its memory requests and feeding it data from a microcontroller. The other processes the CAN bus signals, translating speed information into a form the Game Boy can display. [John] used inexpensive tools and software to read the CAN bus data, and used GBDK-2020 to write the software in C.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/251/392/340/955/496/original/f54a186d63357559.png "[ImageSource: John Sutley]
Showing real-time vehicle speed on the Game Boy sounds like it should be relatively easy, but the iconic game system wasn’t exactly built for such a task. Its 2 MHz CPU and 160×144 pixel dot-matrix screen were every kid’s dream in 1989, but using it as a car dashboard is pushing it. To bridge that gap, [John] designed two custom circuit boards.
One interfaces with the Game Boy, intercepting its memory requests and feeding it data from a microcontroller. The other processes the CAN bus signals, translating speed information into a form the Game Boy can display. [John] used inexpensive tools and software to read the CAN bus data, and used GBDK-2020 to write the software in C.")
"Sharp Dressed Man" is a song by American rock band #ZZTop, released on their 1983 album #Eliminator. The song was produced by band manager #BillHam, and recorded and mixed by #TerryManning. Pre-production recording #engineer Linden Hudson was very involved in the early stages of this song's production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn2-b_opVTo
Quake ported to Arduino Nano Matter. [Using only 276kb RAM]
Nicola Wrachien with Silicon Labs created this fun handheld, porting Quake using the Arduino Nano Matter. For easy playing a custom controller shaped board was designed with joysticks and a screen.
![[ImageSource: Nicola Wrachien]
For a much tougher challenge, a group from Silicon Labs decided to port DOOM‘s successor, Quake, to the Arduino Nano Matter Board platform instead even though this platform has some pretty significant limitations for a game as advanced as Quake.
<https://community.silabs.com/s/share/a5UVm000000Vi1ZMAS/quake-ported-to-arduino-nano-matter-and-sparkfun-thing-plus-matter-boards?language=en_US>
To begin work on the memory problem, the group began with a port of Quake originally designed for Windows, allowing them to use a modern Windows machine to whittle down the memory usage before moving over to hardware. They do have a flash memory module available as well, but there’s a speed penalty with this type of memory. To improve speed they did what any true gamer would do with their system: overclock the processor. This got them to around 10 frames per second, which is playable, but not particularly enjoyable.
The further optimizations to improve the FPS required a much deeper dive which included generating lookup tables instead of relying on computation, optimizing some of the original C programming, coding some functions in assembly and only refreshing certain sections of the screen when needed.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/206/081/241/901/037/original/72dec8d287dd1c33.png "[ImageSource: Nicola Wrachien]
For a much tougher challenge, a group from Silicon Labs decided to port DOOM‘s successor, Quake, to the Arduino Nano Matter Board platform instead even though this platform has some pretty significant limitations for a game as advanced as Quake.
<https://community.silabs.com/s/share/a5UVm000000Vi1ZMAS/quake-ported-to-arduino-nano-matter-and-sparkfun-thing-plus-matter-boards?language=en_US>
To begin work on the memory problem, the group began with a port of Quake originally designed for Windows, allowing them to use a modern Windows machine to whittle down the memory usage before moving over to hardware. They do have a flash memory module available as well, but there’s a speed penalty with this type of memory. To improve speed they did what any true gamer would do with their system: overclock the processor. This got them to around 10 frames per second, which is playable, but not particularly enjoyable.
The further optimizations to improve the FPS required a much deeper dive which included generating lookup tables instead of relying on computation, optimizing some of the original C programming, coding some functions in assembly and only refreshing certain sections of the screen when needed.")
DuckDuckGo leans Further into GenAI as its AI Chat Interface exits Beta.
The non-tracking search engine has been dabbling with expanding the role of AI assistance in its product for the past year, including launching a chatbot-style interface last fall [available at Duck.ai]. In a blog post, the company said the service is now exiting beta.
![Another feature DuckDuckGo is offering to make it easier to integrate GenAI into user’s search workflows is the ability to easily switch between its conventional search engine interface to AI chat and vice versa.
A chat button displayed below the search box of its search engine [see screengrab] instantly transports the user to the AI chat interface — with the prompt-field there pre-filled with whatever they had just been searching for on DuckDuckGo’s search engine, making it easy to hit the send button and get an AI-generated answer to the same query.
Reversing this flow just requires tapping on the same [now highlighted] chat button to flip back to its conventional web search interface. So this is a best-of-both-worlds approach to tapping GenAI in search.
“We’re finding that some people prefer to start in chat mode and then jump into more traditional search results when needed, while others prefer the opposite,” DuckDuckGo writes, suggesting “some questions just lend themselves more naturally to one mode or the other, too.”
“So, we thought the best thing to do was offer both. We made it easy to move between them, and we included an off switch for those who’d like to avoid AI altogether,” the search engine company adds.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/200/439/726/610/102/original/cf82b7695103c680.png "Another feature DuckDuckGo is offering to make it easier to integrate GenAI into user’s search workflows is the ability to easily switch between its conventional search engine interface to AI chat and vice versa.
A chat button displayed below the search box of its search engine [see screengrab] instantly transports the user to the AI chat interface — with the prompt-field there pre-filled with whatever they had just been searching for on DuckDuckGo’s search engine, making it easy to hit the send button and get an AI-generated answer to the same query.
Reversing this flow just requires tapping on the same [now highlighted] chat button to flip back to its conventional web search interface. So this is a best-of-both-worlds approach to tapping GenAI in search.
“We’re finding that some people prefer to start in chat mode and then jump into more traditional search results when needed, while others prefer the opposite,” DuckDuckGo writes, suggesting “some questions just lend themselves more naturally to one mode or the other, too.”
“So, we thought the best thing to do was offer both. We made it easy to move between them, and we included an off switch for those who’d like to avoid AI altogether,” the search engine company adds.")
Porting Doom to Typescript Types took 3.5 Trillion Lines, 90GB of RAM and a full Year of Work.
The feat was devised by Software Engineer Dmitri Mitropoulos, founder of Michigan Typescript and co-founder of Squiggleconf. He released a video showcasing the results of a year-long effort to get Doom running inside of Typescript's Types system.
![[ImageSource: Dmitri Mitropoulos]
Typescript is a language built on top of Javascript, that add static typing to catch many errant mistakes before your executes, think of it as guardrails which check that functions and other variables are being used correctly. While this is commonly used in all kinds of development, it's unheard of to run a game within Typescript's Type system.
The port itself runs inside three and a half trillion lines of types, totalling a gargantuan size of 177 TB. This is run through Typescript's Type tracker, which takes 12 days to compile the first frame of Doom (0.0000009645 fps). This meant that 20 million type instantiations were running every second in order to get the output.
Mitropoulos explained in the Michigan TypeScript Discord server that this could be improved to take "1 to 12 hours", as long as someone works on it, with the developer noting that he has notes for where potential performance optimizations could be made.
<https://discord.gg/pfKUSmSY>
This was done by running the project within a custom WASM runtime, which is then processed through Typescript within an editor to display a frame.
<https://github.com/MichiganTypeScript/typescript-types-only-wasm-runtime>](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/166/740/010/112/784/original/f54d5e08b8f270ce.png "[ImageSource: Dmitri Mitropoulos]
Typescript is a language built on top of Javascript, that add static typing to catch many errant mistakes before your executes, think of it as guardrails which check that functions and other variables are being used correctly. While this is commonly used in all kinds of development, it's unheard of to run a game within Typescript's Type system.
The port itself runs inside three and a half trillion lines of types, totalling a gargantuan size of 177 TB. This is run through Typescript's Type tracker, which takes 12 days to compile the first frame of Doom (0.0000009645 fps). This meant that 20 million type instantiations were running every second in order to get the output.
Mitropoulos explained in the Michigan TypeScript Discord server that this could be improved to take \"1 to 12 hours\", as long as someone works on it, with the developer noting that he has notes for where potential performance optimizations could be made.
<https://discord.gg/pfKUSmSY>
This was done by running the project within a custom WASM runtime, which is then processed through Typescript within an editor to display a frame.
<https://github.com/MichiganTypeScript/typescript-types-only-wasm-runtime>")
![Dmitri Mitropoulos further explained that each value within the Typescript Types system equates to a line of pixels [totalling 128,000 lines of pixels in total], resulting in a "resolution" of 320x200, displayed in ASCII.
To do this, the developer needed to remove limitations within the Typescript compiler itself, highlighting just how large the project got, with the Type tracker runtime consuming over 90 GB of RAM while it was running.
This huge overhead meant that common tools within Typescript could not be used, which meant that the herculean task of encoding every element of Doom in types. This required learning to develop elements like an L1 CPU cache, within Typescript Types itself. Due to Typescript requiring iteration on a single string from the left-hand side, binary algorithms had to be input in reverse.
"Oh, and AI can't help" Dmitri Mitropoulos added, describing that the work was so low level that AI couldn't possibly assist with any of the tasks. Too bad, Grok 3.
Mitropoulos said that he undertook the challenge after completing "every other" Types challenge, and wanted to understand why Doom wouldn't be able to run within Types. However, he managed to find "ridiculous" workarounds to make it all work, despite his own disbelief in the project.](https://nerdculture.de/system/media_attachments/files/114/166/742/069/675/680/original/110e43577d22fe1d.jpeg "Dmitri Mitropoulos further explained that each value within the Typescript Types system equates to a line of pixels [totalling 128,000 lines of pixels in total], resulting in a \"resolution\" of 320x200, displayed in ASCII.
To do this, the developer needed to remove limitations within the Typescript compiler itself, highlighting just how large the project got, with the Type tracker runtime consuming over 90 GB of RAM while it was running.
This huge overhead meant that common tools within Typescript could not be used, which meant that the herculean task of encoding every element of Doom in types. This required learning to develop elements like an L1 CPU cache, within Typescript Types itself. Due to Typescript requiring iteration on a single string from the left-hand side, binary algorithms had to be input in reverse.
\"Oh, and AI can't help\" Dmitri Mitropoulos added, describing that the work was so low level that AI couldn't possibly assist with any of the tasks. Too bad, Grok 3.
Mitropoulos said that he undertook the challenge after completing \"every other\" Types challenge, and wanted to understand why Doom wouldn't be able to run within Types. However, he managed to find \"ridiculous\" workarounds to make it all work, despite his own disbelief in the project.")
Ghost is hiring a staff product engineer. They’re building a better ecosystem for writers as an alternative to those who cater to nazis. So…get some.
Great episode of #TechWontSaveUs with @timnitGebru
It's a real pleasure to listen to such a rich conversation on such diverse topics.
I especially liked how the topic of how the #AI industry labels people and methods was addressed.
It's the same for me, I've ended up assuming I'm a #DataScientist when I'm actually a #mechanical #engineer with a #PhD in #statistics. But the industry has decided that what I am is something I haven't studied about.
https://www.techwontsave.us/episode/267_ai_hype_enters_its_geopolitics_era_w_timnit_gebru
Are you looking for a #software #engineer who continuously delivers high quality software? Do you want to scale your business and make sure your core infrastructure keeps working reliably?
Look no further and hire me! 
Here is my CV: https://github.com/niccokunzmann/CV-Hire-my-skills-High-Quality-Python-Programmer#readme