News Nug
Spotify has shut down several API endpoints

Published: 2024-11-28 | Origin: /r/programming

On November 27, 2024, Spotify announced updates regarding its Community platform and new measures to enhance security for developers using its APIs and SDKs. The company is excited about ongoing engagement and innovation among developers but has decided to restrict access to certain endpoints and functionalities in new Web API use cases. Existing applications that already have extended mode access will not be affected by this change. Spotify values third-party integrations for improving user experiences and is committed to providing optimal opportunities for developers, artists, and listeners.

PRoot: User-space implementation of chroot, mount –bind, and binfmt_misc

Published: 2024-11-28 | Origin: Hacker News

PRoot is a user-space tool that allows users to implement features typically requiring root privileges, such as changing the root filesystem (chroot) and using bind mounts, without needing special setup. It enables users to utilize any directory as the new root filesystem (guest rootfs), access files from the actual filesystem (host rootfs), and run programs built for different CPU architectures using QEMU user-mode. PRoot confines program execution to the guest rootfs but allows access to host files via its built-in

Show HN: Voice-Pro – AI Voice Cloning Magic: Transform Any Voice in 15 Seconds

Published: 2024-11-28 | Origin: Hacker News

The content describes a comprehensive Gradio WebUI called Voice-Pro, which is designed for audio processing using Whisper engines. It offers various features such as a Voice Changer, zero-shot Voice Cloning, YouTube downloading, vocal isolation, Text-to-Speech, and multi-language translation. Voice-Pro is user-friendly and can be installed with a single click, running in a virtual environment through Miniconda, which ensures it operates separately from the Windows system. The application supports real-time and batch transcription,

A Washing Machine for Human Beings, from 1970

Published: 2024-11-28 | Origin: Hacker News

The 1970 World Expo in Osaka, Japan, themed "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," attracted 64 million visitors from 77 countries. A notable exhibit was the Sanyo Ultrasonic Bath, where users would enter a chamber to experience a 15-minute cycle of warm water jets, ultrasonic cleaning, rinsing, and drying, enhanced with infrared and ultraviolet light for sanitation. Though this prototype never went into production, it inspired Japan's Science Group to develop a new version for the upcoming

MIT Aluminum Bicycle Project 1974

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The article, presented at the 2016 International Cycling History Conference, discusses an M.I.T. course from 1974 led by Professor Shawn Buckley, where students, including Marc Rosenbaum and Harriet Fell, built their own bicycle frames. Marc, a senior mechanical engineering student at the time, aimed to design an ultra-light bicycle that provided acceleration benefits without compromising stiffness. He emphasized stiffness over strength, noting that frames typically don't break during racing. The paper details Marc's design and the bicycles he

The Forgotten Story of How IBM Invented the Automated Fab

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The special report titled “Reinventing Invention: Stories From Innovation’s Edge” highlights the visionary work of Bill Harding in 1970, who aimed to create a fully automated wafer-fabrication line capable of producing integrated circuits in under a day. This ambitious goal was realized through Project SWIFT, a groundbreaking initiative led by Harding while he was a manager at IBM's Manufacturing Research group. The project required a revolutionary redesign of manufacturing processes, leading to innovations that are now standard in the semiconductor industry

Structured Generation for LLM-as-a-Judge Evaluations

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The author has been researching LLM-based evaluations, specifically "LLM-as-a-Judge" metrics, for language models, with promising results in areas such as hallucination detection and content moderation. However, developing these metrics has proven challenging due to the need to understand data structure and the probabilistic nature of LLM outputs. While some hosted model providers offer structured output modes, they have limitations, especially for open-source models. The author proposes structured generation as a solution, which constrains generative model

Sleep regularity and major adverse cardiovascular events

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

This study investigates the link between sleep regularity, measured through accelerometers, and the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in adults aged 40-79 from the UK Biobank. It categorizes sleep regularity into three groups: irregular, moderately irregular, and regular. The study followed 72,269 participants over eight years, finding that both irregular and moderately irregular sleepers faced a higher risk of MACE compared to regular sleepers. Specifically, irregular sleep was associated with a hazard ratio

Malware can turn off webcam LED and record video, demonstrated on ThinkPad X230

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses tools developed for controlling the webcam LED on the ThinkPad X230, enabling software-based manipulation without physical access. This technology serves as a demonstration of potential vulnerabilities, showing how malware could disable the LED while recording video through the webcam. By reflashing the webcam firmware over USB—thanks to its internal USB connection—the LED can be controlled arbitrarily. This technique could extend to many other laptops due to common design patterns. The document references a talk given at POC 2024, which

You can use C-Reduce for any language

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

C-Reduce is a tool developed by Regehr and colleagues designed to minimize bug reproducer files for C compilers. Instead of sending a large C file (e.g., 10,000 lines) that triggers a compiler bug, users can leverage C-Reduce to automatically reduce the size of the file, making it more manageable for developers. Although many believe C-Reduce works only for C, it is actually widely applicable. The author shares an example where they encountered a bug with RustPython

if constexpr requires requires { requires }

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

C++20 introduced two significant features: `requires` and `requires { requires }`, which simplify overload resolution and enable reflection-based optimizations in templates when combined with `if constexpr` from C++17. The `requires` clause allows function overloads to be enabled or disabled based on compile-time conditions. For instance, it can restrict overloads to specific types, such as integers or floating-point numbers, improving overload resolution efficiency. The concept of "subsumption" is integral, as it

Haskell: A Great Procedural Language

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The article discusses common misconceptions about Haskell, specifically focusing on the treatment of effectful computations as first-class values. It emphasizes that in Haskell, side effects, such as generating random numbers, are not executed immediately when functions like `randomRIO` are called. Instead, calls to `randomRIO` can be stored in data structures without triggering any randomness until explicitly executed. The author explains that the values returned by such functions are not actual integers, but rather encapsulated instructions for generating those integers later

Emacs Arbitrary Code Execution and How to Avoid It

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The advisory discusses a long-standing arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Emacs identified as CVE-2024-53920. This vulnerability allows arbitrary code execution when viewing or editing Emacs Lisp code due to unsafe macro-expansion that runs unrestricted code, affecting most common configurations. Although the issue has been known for several years, it has not yet been resolved, though Emacs maintainers are working on future countermeasures. Users are advised to take precautions to protect themselves while using existing versions. L

See how a lab-grown diamond is made

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

Failed to fetch content - HTTP Error - Net::ReadTimeout with #<TCPSocket:(closed)>

Rails World 2025: Save the date - September 4 & 5, Amsterdam

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/ruby

Rails World 2025 is scheduled for September 4 and 5 in Amsterdam, with increased ticket availability. The call for papers (CFP) is expected to open in early spring 2025, followed by ticket sales. Companies interested in sponsoring can request the prospectus by emailing [email protected]. The decision to return to Amsterdam and use the same venue is based on the desire to leverage existing logistics and enhance the event experience, though the Rails Foundation intends to change cities each year

Vesuvius Challenge: First letters found in new scroll

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

A new scroll dataset, PHerc. 172, has been released in collaboration with the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Diamond Light Source, and EduceLab. This ancient scroll dates back to around 79 AD, when it was buried during the Mount Vesuvius eruption. It was later gifted to the future George IV of England by Ferdinand IV of Naples, allegedly in exchange for kangaroos. Currently housed at the Bodleian Library, PHerc. 172 was

How we page ourselves if incident.io goes down

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the challenges faced by an incident management company that relies on its own alerting system, particularly the paradox of needing the system to notify about its own failures. To address this issue, they have developed a "dead man's switch" for their on-call system, ensuring they can still receive alerts even if their product fails. This system has never been needed due to their own failures, but they emphasize the importance of having a contingency plan for worst-case scenarios. The post also provides a brief example

Vector databases explained simply

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

Failed to fetch content - HTTP Status - 403

Show HN: TeaTime – distributed book library powered by SQLite, IPFS and GitHub

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: Hacker News

TeaTime is a fully static distributed library system that utilizes IPFS, SQLite, and GitHub. It operates through auto-updating instances hosted on Netlify and GitHub Pages. The application is decoupled from its databases, which are GitHub repositories tagged with "teatime-database" and published on GitHub Pages. Users select a database before performing searches, with TeaTime querying the respective SQLite database via sql.js-httpvfs. Each database comprises static files, facilitating easy forking

Deno v. Oracle: Canceling the JavaScript Trademark

Published: 2024-11-27 | Origin: /r/programming

On November 22, 2024, Deno filed a petition with the USPTO to cancel Oracle's trademark for “JavaScript,” aiming to recognize it as a public domain and eliminate legal barriers that have hindered its use. Success would allow events to use the name "JavaScript Conference" and simplify the language’s specification to "JavaScript Specification," easing concerns for communities using the term. The petition claims: 1. "JavaScript" is a widely accepted name for the language defined