Switzerland-based Neural Concept, whose 3D product design software uses deep learning to help cut development times, raised a $27M Series B led by Forestay (Mike Butcher/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/03/swis

Swiss startup Neural Concept raises $27M to cut EV design time to 18 months | TechCrunch
Neural Concept lets designers model how components will perform before they can be manufactured.

“I have invented a random number generator that companies put into everything. Banks might use it to generate your account balance. Doctors might use it to choose prescription strengths. My random number generator is inevitable. Society will have to navigate it.”

Sam Altman Answers The Burning Questions About AI: Bias, Privacy, Etc.
Responding, Altman criticized the construct of having people rate their doomsday predictions from one to 100.

Update from Ukraine | USA will help Ukraine to strike Ruzzia in 2025 | Revenge is coming: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/update-from-ukraine.html

Opioid and Asbestos Billionaires’ Make Political Donations to Dodge Justice
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/06/03/opioid-and-asbestos-billionaires-make-political-donations-to-dodge-justice/

Opioid and Asbestos Billionaires
Opioid and Asbestos Billionaires' Donations to Dodge Justice: Follow the money

#unreal

How Tarsier Studios Brings Little Nightmares to Life With JetBrains Rider | The .NET Tools Blog
Today, we have Tristan Louet and Meghan Corso from Tarsier Studios with us. Meghan is actively involved in advancing Unreal Engine support in JetBrains Rider and ReSharper C++, while Tristan leads the

Sonderheft c't Linux-Guide: Jetzt im Handel erhältlich
Das c’t-Sonderheft hilft beim Umstieg auf Linux, enthält ausführliche Praxisartikel und erklärt Hintergründe.
https://www.

My weekly photo-essay at the blog Balloon Juice.
#Nature

Balloon Juice - On The Road - Albatrossity - Costa Rica, week 1 — Hummingbirds!
It’s Albatrossity Monday, and we get hummingbirds!  We must have been very good to deserve this. Costa Rica to California, California to Illinois, then Illinois to Arizona.  I am not good with geography, but even I know that whoever planned the itinerary for this week did not plan the most efficient routes! (click the image below …

The Republican House has established a Piggy Bank for members of Congress. They can claim tens of thousands of dollars in expenses without itemizing them or providing receipts.
Guess which Congressman has grabbed the most money.
https://wapo.st/4bVHa5A

Lawmakers expensed millions in 2023 under new program that doesn’t require receipts
Critics say the program’s lack of transparency and record-keeping opens it up to abuse.

Sources: Costco plans to stop selling books regularly at US stores year-round from January 2025, and will instead sell them during the holiday shopping period (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/books/c

Costco Plans to Stop Selling Books Year-Round
The decision, which will be implemented in January 2025, could significantly impact publishers.

An emission-state-switching radio transient with a 54-minute period: #NeutronStar breaks all the rules: https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2024/06/05/slow-spinning-radio-neutron-star-breaks-all-the-rules.html - most collapsed stars fully rotate in seconds. This one takes nearly an hour.

wow, my thermoregulation is *fucked*

🎉 New Kitten feature: Markdown pages
You can now create .page.md files and use front matter to specify a layout template as well as any other props you want to pass to your layout.
(I’m working on the Kitten web site with docs, etc., so I thought I’d bite the bullet and add this feature this morning to make my life easier. Should make it easier to make this sort of site with Kitten in the future for everyone.)

app
A web development kit that’s small, purrs, and loves you.

Important on Trump being let off the hook:
Republicans flaunt election law, because Republicans break the FEC by denying it a majority.
"foreign nationals and gov'ts have willfully manipulated our elections..."
And the FEC does nothing.
https://www.thenati…

Project 2025’s Guide to Subverting Democracy
A second Trump administration could weaponize existing government agencies to dismantle democracy itself.

Started to put together a replacement for the Godot Text editing experience, taking some layout ideas from Xcode and Swift Playgrounds:
Left, my iPad UI; Right the existing Godot UI on Mac:

Nerdiges zu Location Trackern aka AirTags & Co.
"Who tracks the trackers? Balancing privacy and stalker detection for Apple's AirTags" bei der "Real World Crypto" (RWC 2024) im März.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOhWHMQkymw

I did all my work, it's 22:40, #Destiny2 #FinalShape is out and I can't get in and have to head to bed in an hour or two :(

Guten Morgen!
Heute mal wieder wieder auf Recherche mit 🚂 und 🚲. Auf nach Würzburg!

妻のために作った顔のクロッププログラムをちょっと修正。
適当に撮影された顔写真を大体同じようなサイズで決まった大きさの画像にクロップするpythonのプログラム。
ChatGPTのおかげであっという間に形になったんだけど、そもそも、顔認識に使うopenCVの学習モデルがないと作れない。
こういうのは10年前だといくら頭を絞っても作れなかったなあ。

when people talk about #accelerationism, they usually mean that the world *feels* faster due to digitalisation.
But at the same time, there are plenty of phenomena that *actually are* happening very quickly out there in the physical world. And those might be much more dangerous... #birdflu

チョコボール チョコボール

Grandpa no!!! 🐶

'It's real': Study suggests thousands of West Australians are suffering long-term COVID symptoms
"Researchers say more support is needed for patients suffering from long-term illness associated with a COVID-19 infection, with new data showing a large number of West Australians have been left unable to work due to their crippling symptoms. "

Experts call for more research into long COVID, as study reveals high prevalence in WA
While most have moved on from the coronavirus pandemic, a large cohort of people in Western Australia are still caught in its grip.

"For the first time in 15 years, there are no self-made billionaires under the age of 30"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/monicahunter-hart/2024/03/31/worlds-youngest-billio…

The World’s Youngest Billionaires 2024
From two teen heirs to founders of Snap, Stripe and GymShark, these are the youngest billionaires around the globe.

¡Que eNvidia deben sentir en Apple! :KEKW:
__
Nvidia supera a Apple y se convierte en la segunda mayor empresa del mundo
https://www.theclinic.cl/2024/06/05/nvidia-supera-a-apple-y-se-convierte-en-la-segund…

Amazing visualization by NYT what Ukraine has lost. (Giftlink)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/03/world/europe/ukraine-destruction.html?u2g=c&unlocked_art…

What Ukraine Has Lost During Russia’s Invasion
We measured every town, street and building blown apart in Ukraine to show the first comprehensive picture of where people can’t return home.

Absolutely disqualifying that Peskin is supporting this. Every progressive group in the city should tell him to get lost. No endorsement or endorse Safai if he stays neutral/opposes it. https://missionlocal.org/2024/06/san-francisco-pension-police-firefighter-drop/

Are SF voters ready to reward cops and firefighters?
San Francisco is broke. Are voters ready to pay cops simultaneous salaries and pensions? Will they lower firefighters' retirement age?

Court denies plaintiff's request for an asset freeze in a (non-Schedule A) trademark & trade secret case.
REBECCA BAMBERGER WORKS, LLC v. REBECCA BAMBERGER, No. 3:24-cv-00706, 2024 WL 2805323, at *20 (S.D. Cal. May 31, 2024).
#Remedies #AssetFreezeDenied

I don't really understand the criticism of the sets on #acolyte. They all seems good and cool to me.
#starwars

Der Automarkt stagniert, der EV Anteil auch, sagt Sigrid de Vries vom ACEA Verband.

Teddi is Queen Of The Three-Quarter Sploot #SheReallyDoesHave4Legs #DogsOfMastodon

How Black Americans' refusals of injustice have shaped our national story - Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-06-03/we-refuse-american-history-juneteenth

How Black Americans' refusals of injustice have shaped our national story
This month, as we celebrate Juneteenth and Pride, it's worth remembering the power of a collective saying "no."

The one factor that would suddenly make machine learning 40% worse at Nethack https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/06/what-kind-of-bug-would-make-machine-learning-suddenly-40-worse-at-nethack

What kind of bug would make machine learning suddenly 40% worse at NetHack?
One day, a roguelike-playing system just kept biffing it, for celestial reasons.

Daily Inspiration: "Don't be yesterday's vibe" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Today's post is short and to the point, because I've got a 6 AM call with KPMG Dublin to talk about the keynote I'll do for them in just over a week.
And then I've got a 7 am tee time!
Fore!
Here's the thing that I know about the work that I do - as a futurist, I see a lot of people who get left behind.
Don't let that happen.
Here's how.

Daily Inspiration: “Don’t be yesterday’s vibe.”

Mistral introduces AI model customization options, including an SDK for fine-tuning its models on workstations, servers, and small data center nodes (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/05/mistral-launc…

Mistral launches new services, SDK to let customers fine-tune its models | TechCrunch
French AI startup Mistral has launched model fine-tuning services to let customers and developers tailor its models for specific use cases.

“I have invented a random number generator that companies put into everything. Banks might use it to generate your account balance. Doctors might use it to choose prescription strengths. My random number generator is inevitable. Society will have to navigate it.”

Sam Altman Answers The Burning Questions About AI: Bias, Privacy, Etc.
Responding, Altman criticized the construct of having people rate their doomsday predictions from one to 100.

MAGA Supreme Court Justices: America’s Untouchable Royalty
#alito

Royal MAGA Supreme Court Justices
Can you get an abortion? Will you be able to vote? These are just a few decisions that the Roberts Supreme Court has decided.

KI-Update kompakt: G-Assist, Stable Diffusion 3, Datenminimierung, Wandern
Das "KI-Update" liefert werktäglich eine Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten KI-Entwicklungen.
https://www.…

I think I was annoyed

Russia attacks 6 communities in Sumy Oblast: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/russia-attacks-communities.html

The WSJ introduced a multimillion-dollar brand advertising campaign on June 3, its first major brand campaign in years, focused on broadening subscriber appeal (Sara Fischer/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2024/06/03/wsj-plans-multi-milli…

WSJ plans multimillion-dollar brand campaign amid newsroom changes
This is the Journal's first major brand campaign in years.

TESS Giants Transiting Giants - A Low-density Hot Neptune Orbiting a Red Giant Star: #planets evolve.

Wenn webEX jemals Authentifikation via Gesichtserkennung einführt, dann nur um @… rauszuhalten.

正規表現の前方・後方一致・不一致が使えるようになると、いきなり使い勝手が変わる。
でも、いまいち記憶に残らないのだ……

Mistral introduces AI model customization options, including an SDK for fine-tuning its models on workstations, servers, and small data center nodes (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/05/mistral-launc…

Mistral launches new services, SDK to let customers fine-tune its models | TechCrunch
French AI startup Mistral has launched model fine-tuning services to let customers and developers tailor its models for specific use cases.

Does your employer reimburse you for thousands of dollars of “expenses” without asking for receipts? Congratulations! You are a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. https://zirk.us/@JamesGleick/112558926040184585

While I might not have been selected for WWDC, I have reached the same conclusion as the Fox, those grapes were sour.

Die Ariane 6 soll am 9. Juli starten:
#Raumfahrt

Weiß nicht, aber ob Erklärungen da helfen? Blöd, dass die Politik sonst gar keine Möglichkeiten hat.
Nach Angriff auf SPD-Politiker in Dresden: Mehr als hundert Politiker unterzeichnen Erklärung gegen Gewalt

Certainly I'm the only one using a bicycle to go to a #carsymposium.
#Bochum

Teddi is Queen Of The Three-Quarter Sploot #SheReallyDoesHave4Legs #DogsOfMastodon

The one factor that would suddenly make machine learning 40% worse at Nethack https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/06/what-kind-of-bug-would-make-machine-learning-suddenly-40-worse-at-nethack

What kind of bug would make machine learning suddenly 40% worse at NetHack?
One day, a roguelike-playing system just kept biffing it, for celestial reasons.

I'm supposed to be writing an assignment about Corbett and naval strategy. So of course I'm reading up on Douhet and aerial strategy 🙄
Stupid #adhd

Elastisches Skelett verhilft Roboter zu Riesensprüngen
Roboter Tumro kann 40-mal so hoch springen, wie er selbst groß ist. Die Sprungenergie stammt aus einem elastischen Skelett.
https://www.

Air Force: Ukraine downs 12 Russian drones overnight: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/air-force-ukraine.html

I did all my work, it's 22:40, #Destiny2 #FinalShape is out and I can't get in and have to head to bed in an hour or two :(

ひらがなに開いていい「今」を探すための正規表現
今(?![回月日年朝晩度年更井泉一市枝織川木来切頃津戸西橋治村様上宵])

Haven’t heard about Apple’s eye sweat band in a while.
When they announce they’re “fully committed to spatial computing” we’ll know that they will cancel it soon.

Google will store Maps Timeline data locally on users' devices instead of their Google account starting December 1, after announcing the change in December 2023 (Emma Roth/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/5/24172204/google-maps…

Google Maps is making a big privacy change to protect your location history
Google Maps will only store your “Timeline” location history on your mobile device starting December 1st, 2024. It will delete your data if you don’t opt in to the new settings by then.

> The Mongol army under Genghis killed millions of people, but his conquests also facilitated heightened commercial and cultural exchange over an unprecedented geographical area.
drunk driving might kill a lot of people but
#wikifinds

Shady grifter can’t come up with bond money; gets other shady grifter to pretend he has the money; New York is unimpressed.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-fraud-bond-insurer-let…

Trump’s $175m fraud bond thrown into doubt as New York attorney general questions insurer
Letitia James filed a ‘notice of exception to the sufficiency of the surety’ seeking more information about Knight Specialty Insurance Company

Russian attacks across Ukraine kill 2, injure 27 over past day: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/russian-attacks-across.html

Threads erlaubt mehr Kontrolle über "Quote Posts"
Nicht wenige meinen, dass die Möglichkeit, Beiträge zu zitieren, die Atmosphäre auf Twitter vergiftet hat. Die Alternativen wie Threads wollen es besser machen.

Wenn webEX jemals Authentifikation via Gesichtserkennung einführt, dann nur um @… rauszuhalten.

Looks like the attorney has a beef with the prosecutor

Brazil-based Kanastra, which supplies back-office technology for asset-backed securities funds, raised a $21M Series A led by Kaszek, following a $13M seed (Daniel Cancel/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

RPGツクールがNintendo Switch にも出てたのか。知らなかった。
https://with.rpgmakerofficial.com/

RPG MAKER WITH
誰でも簡単にゲームが作れる「RPG Maker（ツクール）」シリーズの家庭用向け最新作『RPG MAKER WITHの公式ページです。

Russia claims 6 killed, 35 injured in drone attack on Belgorod Oblast: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/russia-claims-killed.html

"Helldivers 2": Sony streicht nach Shitstorm die Account-Pflicht
Pläne für eine nachgereichte Account-Pflicht haben Spieler von "Helldivers 2" verärgert. Nach massiver Kritik zieht Sony sie nun zurück.
…

Sources detail how Apple fell behind in the AI race due to its AI team struggling to collaborate with other product teams, lacking computing resources, and more (Aaron Tilley/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/apple-ai-siri-de…

I think this is an important post for anyone with a #retrocomputing hobby.
You can’t just hide behind the nostalgia without seeing the big picture. It’s not healthy.
https://antien…

危なかった……
Wordle 1,083 6/6
🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟨🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

General Staff: Russia has lost 475,300 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/general-staff-russia.html

Sources detail how Apple fell behind in the AI race due to its AI team struggling to collaborate with other product teams, lacking computing resources, and more (Aaron Tilley/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/apple-ai-siri-de…

Anschubhilfe für komplexes Leben? Erdmagnetfeld im Ediacarium schwach wie nie
Vor etwa 550 Millionen Jahren sind komplexe Lebewesen auf der Erde aufgetaucht. Ursächlich könnte ein besonders schwaches Magnetfeld gewesen sein.

Top Congress Democrat says 'Pro-Putin faction' of Republicans stalled Ukraine aid: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/top-congress-democrat.html

Pika, which offers AI tools to generate and edit videos, raised $80M from Spark, Lightspeed, and others at a $470M valuation, taking its total funding to $135M (Gerrit De Vynck/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2…

AI video start-ups race ahead as Big Tech competition looms
AI video-generation startup Pika raised $80 million as venture capital investors continue to pour billions of dollars into startups that are trying to compete with industry heavyweights OpenAI and Google.

Die Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), testete kürzlich einen Prototyp der Manta-Ray-Drohne, die in Form eines riesigen Stachelrochens gebaut ist, vor der Küste Kaliforniens.
Zum Artikel: https://heise.de/-9704962?wt_mc=sm.red…

Italian defense minister calls for truce in Ukraine, peace negotiations with Russia: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/italian-defense-minister.html

Telekom stellt Telefonauskunft ein
Immer weniger Menschen rufen die Telefonauskunft der Telekom an. Zum Ende des Jahres stellt sie den Betrieb ein.
https://www.heise.de/news/Telekom-stellt-T

Military Intelligence: Ukraine destroys Russian fast attack craft in occupied Crimea: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/military-intelligence-ukraine.html

Twelve Labs, which provides foundational models to help users search and analyze troves of video, raised a $50M Series A co-led by NEA and Nvidia's NVentures (Saritha Rai/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Studie: Enzyme aus Darmbakterien könnten Weg zu universellem Spenderblut ebnen​
Forscher haben mithilfe von bakteriellen Enzymen erfolgreich die Blutgruppen-Antigene von Erythrozyten entfernt und sprechen von Universalblut.

Former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner says he was fired in April for sharing a memo raising concerns about OpenAI's security practices with the board (Shakeel Hashim/Transformer)
https://www.transformernews.ai/p/openai-employee-says-he-was-fired

OpenAI employee says he was fired for raising security concerns to board
Leopold Aschenbrenner also said he was interrogated about his team’s “loyalty to the company”

Russian forces attack energy infrastructure in Sumy Oblast: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/russian-forces-attack.html

ARD und ZDF wollen ihren Streaming-Code als Open Source anbieten
ARD und ZDF wollen den Code für ihre Streaming-Mediatheken auf eine gemeinsame Basis stellen. Teile davon sollen zudem frei verfügbar werden.

Sources: some Chinese AI chip companies, including MetaX and Enflame, are submitting less powerful GPU designs to TSMC to comply with US sanctions (Fanny Potkin/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinese

Russian forces attack energy infrastructure in Sumy Oblast: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/russian-forces-attack.html

Instagram ersetzt kopierte Inhalte durch Originale
Kopierten Inhalten geht es bei Instagram an den Kragen. Sie werden ersetzt und nicht mehr vorgeschlagen. Außerdem gibt es neue Sticker.
https://www.

Media: Chinese leader wants to work with international community to end war in Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/media-chinese-leader.html

NASA plant Livestream: Boeings Starliner vor erstem Flug mit Crew zur ISS
Zweimal war der Starliner von Boeing schon im All, aber immer ohne Crew. In der Nacht zu Dienstag soll das Raumschiff von Boeing nun erstmals bemannt abheben.

Bluesky confirms Jack Dorsey's departure from its board and says it is searching for a new board member (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/05/jack-dorsey-says-hes-no-longer-on-the-bluesky-board/

Jack Dorsey departs Bluesky board | TechCrunch
Bluesky’s most prominent backer has left its board. On Saturday, Jack Dorsey posted on X about grants for open protocols from his philanthropic Start

Media: Chinese leader wants to work with international community to end war in Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/06/media-chinese-leader.html

Microsoft gibt auf und wird keine automatische Lösung mehr für den lästigen 0x80070643-Update-Fehler anbieten. 😞
Zum Artikel: https://heise.de/-9706650?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm…

Over 40K Audible books are marked as having been made with an AI "virtual voice", saving authors hundreds or thousands of dollars per title on narration costs (Ashley Carman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters

AI-Voiced Audiobooks Top 40,000 Titles on Audible
While authors appreciate the new revenue stream, audiobook listeners are complaining about the influx of new material

Frontline Situation Report – April 2024: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/05/frontline-situation-report.html

Last Call: Vom Einsteiger zum Profi in C – mit 5 Webinaren der heise academy
Ab dem 15. April lernen Sie die drei wichtigsten Programmier-Paradigmen für C -Entwickler kennen: funktionale, generische und objektorientierte Programmierung.

The EU's crackdown on Huawei shows an EU-wide TikTok ban will likely take years of diplomacy, as the bloc lacks a formal say over national security concerns (Pieter Haeck/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-style-tiktok-ban-nowhere-close-euro…

Europe is nowhere close to banning TikTok
The EU has its own ways to deal with the video app. A blanket ban is not (yet) part of it.

Frontline Situation Report – April 2024: https://benborges.xyz/2024/05/05/frontline-situation-report.html

Court filings from FTC lawsuit against Meta show Instagram made $32.4B in ad revenue in 2021, which is more than YouTube's $28.8B in ad revenue that year (Peter Kafka/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-ads-revenue-y…

Instagram makes more ad money than YouTube, court filings show
Meta bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. Now it's a giant part of Mark Zuckerberg's empire.