"Child," said Aslan, "did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?"
--C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawntreader

Apparently, not always so. The Meltdown and Spectre attacks are interesting and clever exploits of speculative execution, a trick we are using to execute programs more quickly ( Read more... )

A recent study demonstrates that having a smartphone within one's sphere of awareness is distracting, reducing one's ability to concentrate effectively. From the Discussion section of Experiment 1 (p. 146):
[T]hese results suggest that the mere presence of one’s smartphone may reduce available cognitive capacity and impair cognitive functioning, ( Read more... )

...but everyone thinks it is.

Such dedication: the Swiss Mountain Cleaners.

You have lots of time before that's due, right? One more game can't hurt...

Very portable collection; the .js links are probably the easiest way to play in your browser.

This smartphone-based $99 3D printer may well be the build technology which takes 3D printing to a large percentage of people; prior systems are an order of magnitude more expensive ( Read more... )

Favorite quote: "Next time you are speaking to an automated phone system, try swearing; you’ll be immediately redirected to human operators because they are the ones handling rude clients."

The article also links to Valve's employee handbook, describing how they run a managerless company, which is well worth reading.

The hard problem of computer Go is being solved. This is a big deal in the AI world.

A real musical machine operating with marbles. Okay, it's not quite Pipe Dream, but it's real!

Researcher illegally shares millions of science papers free online to spread knowledge (Fiona MacDonald) (short) Halelujah, and more power to her. The paywall sites are charging exorbitant amounts given how low the real costs of publication are.

Attention Fellow Introverts: It's Time to Stop Beating Ourselves Up (Ashley Lauretta) (medium-length ( Read more... )

Genderbread!