Tootfinder

My favourite way to trick myself into thinking that I'm doing work is to ask questions related to my task in Slack channels.
In my defense - there is currently very limited brain space because a certain funder decided to drop a figurative bomb on our institute and everything revolves around this now...

In principle, I don't remove old contacts from my phone. I've figured out, if one of them ever calls me, I'd know who is calling.
Because surely some random name will tell me a lot, 15 years later. In some cases, I've even literally added a question mark already.

Researcher brutecat finds a vulnerability that revealed the phone number linked to any Google account via brute forcing phone numbers; Google fixed the issue (Joseph Cox/404 Media)
https://www.404media.co/a-researcher-figur

A Researcher Figured Out How to Reveal Any Phone Number Linked to a Google Account
Phone numbers are a goldmine for SIM swappers. A researcher found how to get this precious piece of information from any Google account.

FedRAG: A Framework for Fine-Tuning Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems
Val Andrei Fajardo, David B. Emerson, Amandeep Singh, Veronica Chatrath, Marcelo Lotif, Ravi Theja, Alex Cheung, Izuki Matsubi
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09200

FedRAG: A Framework for Fine-Tuning Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems have been shown to be effective in addressing many of the drawbacks of relying solely on the parametric memory of large language models. Recent work has demonstrated that RAG systems can be improved via fine-tuning of their retriever and generator models. In this work, we introduce FedRAG, a framework for fine-tuning RAG systems across centralized and federated architectures. FedRAG supports state-of-the-art fine-tuning methods, offering a simple and…

I’ve been scanning through NUGET, and consulting firms have figured out they can get quality backlinks by publishing some bespoke “dev kit” that no one will use.
It’s exacerbated by the package sprawl and “separation of concerns” style solutions that plague .NET, so their DevKit sprawls over 100 packages.
Keep pushing new versions every few minutes to keep those “recently updated” pages showing your corporate logos.

All three nodes are installed. The "server room" is an absolute mess, but figured I'd snap a picture of the back of the minirack. I'll be cleaning up tomorrow, but for now: we are 100% back online here. Migrations work, iSCSI works...well, everything works. Very happy with how this has turned out thus far.
#minirack

A Researcher Figured Out How to Reveal Any Phone Number Linked to a Google Account https://www.404media.co/a-researcher-figured-out-how-to-reveal-any-phone-number-linked-to-a-google-account/

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Fazerdaze:
🎵 Dancing Years
#Fazerdaze
https://fazerdaze.bandcamp.com/track/dancing-years
https://open.spotify.com/track/5SodlvQvYlTyvvJCYnskkr

The Dixmier problem for skew PBW extensions and rings
William Fajardo, Oswaldo Lezama
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09285 https://arxiv.…

The Dixmier problem for skew PBW extensions and rings
In this paper we discuss for skew $PBW$ extensions the famous Dixmier problem formulated by Jacques Dixmier in 1968. The skew $PBW$ extensions are noncommutative rings of polynomial type and covers several algebras and rings arising in mathematical physics and noncommutative algebraic geometry. For this purpose, we introduce the Dixmier algebras and we will study the Dixmier problem for algebras over commutative rings, in particular, for $\mathbb{Z}$-algebras, i.e., for arbitrary rings. The res…

Years ago, I moved to a place where I didn't speak the language. My initial strategy for dealing with interactions I didn't understand was to simply say "no." I figured this was safe - at least I wouldn't agree to something I didn't want. One day, as I was leaving my apartment with a friend, the guy across the hall asked me a question. "No," I said. He looked like I'd spit in his face then retreated to his apartment. My friend, dumbfounded, asked &quot…