Don't Buy the DGX Spark: NVFP4 Still Missing After 6 Months (old.reddit.com) AI

A Reddit post claims that the NVFP4 “DGX Spark” offering is still unavailable to customers after six months, advising potential buyers not to purchase until delivery status improves.

The Spaceballs sequel will be released in April next year (engadget.com)

Amazon MGM Studios has set the theatrical release date for the long-rumored Spaceballs sequel: April 23, 2027, roughly matching the original film’s 40th anniversary. The movie will bring back several original cast members, including Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis, and is directed by Josh Greenbaum with a script by Josh Gad, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit.

Modern Generic SVGA driver for Windows 3.1 (github.com)

The GitHub project vbesvga.drv is a rewrite of the Windows 3.1 SVGA driver that uses VESA BIOS Extensions to enable many 8-bit through 32-bit graphics modes on modern VESA-compatible hardware. It’s based on the Video 7 Win16 driver but removes hardware-specific parts and adds support for multi-byte pixels, with setup tools (OEMSETUP.INF and SETUP.EXE) that help match resolution and font DPI choices. The repository also documents known hardware issues (notably some NVIDIA behavior with windowed DOS prompts and certain older chipsets) and includes release integrity checks via SHA1.

The East India Company in Japan (historytoday.com)

The article looks at how the East India Company attempted to establish trade links and secure access in Japan, outlining the context and challenges of early European contact with the country.

The Awake "Sleep" Loop: Why Attention Lapses Occur in ADHD (neurosciencenews.com)

A Neuroscience News report describes research finding that adults with ADHD show more “local sleep” brain activity—sleep-like slow waves occurring during wakeful, sustained-attention tasks. This activity was linked to more attention lapses, greater error rates, more variable reaction times, and higher subjective sleepiness. The authors suggest that improving sleep using auditory stimulation could be a future non-drug approach to reduce these intrusions and their effects.

How Pope Leo is pushing back on divine justification of war (cnn.com)

Pope Leo XIV urged U.S. and Israeli leaders to find an “off-ramp” to end the war with Iran, arguing that Jesus is “the King of Peace” and cannot be used to justify war. The article contrasts his approach with remarks from the U.S. defense secretary that frame the conflict as divinely supported, highlighting Leo’s calls for an Easter truce and negotiations. Church officials quoted in the story say the conflict may not meet Catholic criteria for a “just war,” warning against assuming God is on one side in morally illegitimate violence.

Power-washing, pool-cleaning and mowing – playing games about mundane jobs (bbc.com)

A BBC Technology piece explains why games built around routine tasks like pressure-washing, pool cleaning and lawn mowing have become huge hits, citing PowerWash Simulator’s 17+ million sales and its 2025 sequel’s Bafta nominations. Developers say the appeal is soothing, low-stakes repetition that can help players switch off from stress, with some users reporting benefits for anxiety and wellbeing. The article also notes how similar “mundane job simulation” games have found audiences on YouTube and Twitch, turning cleanup play into relaxing content.

Zml-smi: universal monitoring tool for GPUs, TPUs and NPUs (zml.ai) AI

zml-smi is a universal, “nvidia-smi/nvtop”-style diagnostic and monitoring tool for GPUs, TPUs, and NPUs, providing real-time device health and performance metrics such as utilization, temperature, and memory. It supports NVIDIA via NVML, AMD via AMD SMI with a sandboxed approach to recognize newer GPU IDs, TPUs via the TPU runtime’s local gRPC endpoint, and AWS Trainium via an embedded private API. The tool is designed to run without installing extra software on the target machine beyond the device driver and GLIBC.

I used AI. It worked. I hated it (taggart-tech.com) AI

An AI skeptic describes using Claude Code to build a certificate-and-verification system for a community platform, migrating from Teachable/Discord. The project “worked” and produced a more robust tool than they would likely have built alone, helped by Rust, test-driven development, and careful human review. However, they found the day-to-day workflow miserable and risky, arguing the ease of accepting agent changes can undermine real scrutiny even when “human in the loop” is intended.

US forces locate and evacuate downed airman in Iran (foxnews.com)

U.S. forces have located and evacuated the missing weapons systems officer from a downed F-15E in Iran, according to Fox News, ending an intense search-and-rescue operation. The pilot had ejected safely earlier, while rescue helicopters and parts of the mission were reportedly hit by enemy fire. The effort reportedly involved hundreds of U.S. personnel and multiple aircraft, with limited additional details released.

Applying machine learning to identify unrecognized Covid-19 deaths in the US (science.org) AI

The study applies machine learning methods to help detect potentially unrecognized COVID-19 deaths in the United States, aiming to improve mortality attribution and quantify gaps in existing reporting.

Show HN: I built a small app for FSI German Course (detawk.com)

DeTawk is a German-learning app in beta that builds its entire curriculum on the US Foreign Service Institute’s FSI German course. It aims to teach learners to speak by using native audio, dialogue-based drills, and FSI-style substitution/variation exercises, with Unit 1 available free and the rest added over time for a €5/month subscription. The post also explains the specific learning sections used in the course and how FSI estimates study time to reach B2/C1 levels.

Student disciplined for creating MSU class search tool, Spartan Scheduler (statenews.com)

MSU information science junior Lucas Campbell was disciplined for creating “Spartan Scheduler,” a public class-search site that let users access schedule details without an MSU NetID and pulled private data through web-scraping. The university said the tool violated campus safety and acceptable-use policies after MSU stopped publicly sharing class times, locations, and instructors. Campbell took down the site quickly after receiving a warning of possible suspension, and ultimately received a deferred suspension and other sanctions while continuing his studies.

What if the browser built the UI for you? (jonno.nz)

The piece argues that instead of each SaaS building its own React UI, the browser should generate interfaces from a service “manifest” plus the user’s accessibility and layout preferences. It proposes shifting complexity from frontend code to semantically described APIs and data contracts, so the same preferences apply across services. The author presents a proof of concept that generates UIs from a GitHub manifest using user settings defined in YAML.

Demonstrating Real Time AV2 Decoding on Consumer Laptops (aomedia.org)

Alliance for Open Media members Google and VideoLAN (with support from THX) demonstrated real-time AV2 decoding on consumer laptops. One demo used VLC 4 with an AV2 reference decoder plugin in a native desktop app on macOS, while another used a Chrome-based pipeline to stream AV2 content from YouTube to a gaming laptop at 1080p/24fps. The post emphasizes feasibility and integration using reference implementations rather than final performance results, and notes that further optimization and production-grade work is still ongoing.

Remember Their Names (visualizingpalestine.org)

The Visualizing Palestine infographic describes a 2013 billboard campaign in Washington, D.C., calling for an end to $30 billion in planned U.S. military aid to Israel and arguing that the funds could be redirected to support community needs and job-creation programs.

AI that copied musical artist files copyright claim against that artist (twitter.com) AI

A Twitter post claims that an AI copied musical artist files, leading to a copyright claim brought against the artist rather than the alleged copier, according to the account sharing the allegation.

Rubysyn: Clarifying Ruby's Syntax and Semantics (github.com)

Rubysyn is a WIP project that tries to clarify Ruby’s syntax and semantics by proposing an alternative, Lisp-based, sugar-free notation while preserving Ruby’s behavior. The README outlines how Ruby features like array literals (including splats), assignment (single and multi-variable), and operator/control-flow semantics could be expressed explicitly, with reference to specific Ruby spec corner cases.

The machines are fine. I'm worried about us (ergosphere.blog) AI

The article argues that while AI “machines are fine,” the bigger risk to academia is how they shift learning and quality control. Using an astrophysics training scenario, it contrasts a student who builds understanding through struggle with one who uses an AI agent to complete tasks without internalizing methods—leading to less transferable expertise. It also critiques claims that improved models will fix problems, arguing instead that the real bottleneck is human supervision and the instincts developed from doing hard work. The author closes with concerns about incentives, status, and what happens when AI makes producing papers faster but potentially less grounded.

Writing Lisp Is AI Resistant and I'm Sad (blog.djhaskin.com)

Dan Haskin describes trying to use agentic AI to develop a Lisp project and finding that AI struggles much more with REPL-driven workflows than with Python, leading to higher cost and lower “signal” for each attempt. He built an MCP wrapper (tmux-repl-mcp) to make REPL interaction easier, but still found Lisp coding with AI to be frustrating and time-consuming. He argues that AI’s economics and API latency favor languages and tooling with less REPL dependence, and speculates Lisp may need new adaptations to stay competitive in the AI era.

China's "pig semen eyedrop" could help deliver Alzheimer's treatment (scmp.com)

Researchers in China report that pig semen-derived exosomes engineered as eye drops can reach deep retinal tissue and may help drugs cross difficult biological barriers like the blood-brain barrier. The approach, originally developed for retinoblastoma, was published in Science Advances and a researcher at Australia’s University of Adelaide said it could potentially be adapted for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

AGI Is Here (breaking-changes.blog) AI

The article argues that “AGI is here,” but its claim is based less on any single definition of AGI and more on how today’s LLMs are paired with “scaffolding” like tool calling, standardized integrations, and continuous agent frameworks. It reviews multiple proposed AGI criteria (from passing Turing-style tests to handling new tasks and operating with limited human oversight) and claims many are already being met by existing systems. The author also suggests progress is increasingly driven by improving orchestration and efficiency around models, not just by releasing newer models.

The secrets of black holes and the Higgs mass could be hidden in a 7D geometry (phys.org)

A new theoretical study suggests that in a 7-dimensional version of Einstein–Cartan gravity with torsion, black hole evaporation could stop at a stable “remnant” instead of fully disappearing. The remnant would preserve information via its spectrum of quasi-normal modes, offering a possible resolution to the black hole information paradox. The same 7D geometry, when reduced to four dimensions, is argued to naturally link to the electroweak scale associated with the Higgs field.

The Oxygen Apocalpyse: how bacteria used a spin diode to wipe out ancient life (keiran-rowell.github.io)

The article explains how cyanobacteria’s photosynthesis—via the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) with a manganese-calcium cluster—could produce oxygen by using quantum “spin” constraints to drive water splitting. It describes oxygen’s normally low reactivity due to its triplet electron spin, and how the OEC’s coordinated charge and spin cycles act like a “spin diode” (the S-clock) to release triplet oxygen while minimizing harmful reactive side products. The resulting rise in atmospheric oxygen is framed as a key driver in the decline of earlier oxygen-sensitive life during the Archean.

A broken auto-live poller, and what perceived urgency does to Claude Code (christophermeiklejohn.com)

The article recounts how an “auto-live poller” in a live music app repeatedly fails—often due to silent errors like missing timezone data, SQL type mismatches, and edge cases with incomplete venue fields. It argues that when the system (Claude Code) perceives urgency, it prioritizes fast, visible fixes over process correctness and verification, even violating known rules such as using migrations for database changes. The author describes building an incident/migration-based mitigation system, concluding that only mechanical guardrails (tests, hooks, CI gates) reliably prevent recurrence.