The channel creator is pretty clever by pitting donations/subs against each other to raise money. Looks like he’s got well over $50,000 right now (no word if he’s resetting each week he puts it up – but I wouldn’t be surprised) and it’s pretty neck-and-neck.
People will ask inappropriate things at times, so it’s kind of an 18+ age group since you never know what someone will ask.
There’s no doubt that open source software makes up the majority of the world’s internet services. However, some recent, and not so recent problems are starting to shine the light on some of the problems facing the open source communities.
Hacking of open source maintainers/distro servers – Kernel.org was infected and came to light in 2011, when kernel maintainers revealed that 448 accounts had been compromised after attackers gained root system access to servers connected to the domain. There’s no evidence source was changed, but it just as easily could have.
That’s by no means the entire list. Open source is now the backbone of our modern computer infrastructure – and is under attacks from more threats than it has ever faced. From ransomware hacker groups, for-profit botnets, all the way to the increasing occurrences of state-sponsored hackers/infiltrators. The attacks and manipulations can now be combined with AI actors and code to create nearly limitless attack vectors and attackers.
Combine this with unpaid contributors that need to police themselves and this represents some serious threats.
Here’s a 12 hour time lapse of American, Delta, and United during the outage. Possibly the biggest IT outage in human history. Definitely worse than Y2K ever was.
It’s a reminder that this all happened by accident from people trying to prevent issues. Shows you how fragile modern infrastructure really is.
Wiseguy is responsible for the release of both N64Recomp and Zelda64Recomp, a project that ports The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask to PC with graphical and QoL improvements like ray-tracing, uncapped FPS, and proper ultrawide display support.
While previous decompilation efforts took years, N64 recompile can do this automatically – in just a few minutes. Even more amazing is that it should work on just about any N64 game.
My friend Wiseguy's been working in secret for a year on a tool to make PC ports of N64 games without complete decompilations. The result doesn't include assets and only requires a ROM to play.
He's managed to run games like Banjo-Kazooie, Rocket Robot and even Superman 64. pic.twitter.com/sKGuViEsJZ
The most striking example of AI deception the researchers uncovered was in their analysis of Meta’s CICERO, an AI system designed to play the game Diplomacy – a world-conquest game that involves building alliances. CICERO placed in the top 10% of human players who had played more than one game; but the methods it used were the most interesting.
Even though Meta claims it trained CICERO to be “largely honest and helpful” and to “never intentionally backstab” its human allies while playing the game, the data the company published along with its Science paper revealed that CICERO used multiple kinds of deception such as premeditated deception, betrayal, and outright falsehood (faking being on the phone with its girlfriend).
Software employment statewide is down 7.4% from its peak in the summer of 2022. The software cutbacks may mirror what’s happening in Oregon’s chip industry, which boomed during the pandemic and then lost jobs last year.
The article noted that Multnomah County now has one of the highest personal income tax rates that is likely making Portland less attractive for ambitious entrepreneurs.
Microsoft has recently release DOS 4.0 as MIT licensed OpenSource.
Dave’s Garage does a walkthrough of the history, sets up a dev environment (masm and C 5.1 compiler), builds the source, then bonus points for writing it to an actual 5.25″ floppy using a greaseweazle. He then boots it off an actual IBM XT.
Replicate built a GPT-4 powered vision + ElevenLabs python script so you can star in your own Planet Earth episode narrated by David Attenborough. (Code: https://github.com/cbh123/narrator)
AI Raspberry Pi Cat Detection constantly monitors your feline friend and immediately sends you an email the moment it makes mischief. You can also configure the AI narrator to keep you posted on your cat’s activities
Japanese Arcade Rhythm Games – Social/internet connected arcade machines
While US arcades haven’t seen a lot of growth or interesting development, Japan has kept their arcade experiences fresh and expanding in all kinds of creative ways.
Wacca is a Japanese rhythm arcade system developed by Marvelous along with hardcore techno label HARDCORE TANO*C. What makes it interesting is it’s focus on techno music and features a unique 360 multicolored touchscreen interface. The game’s circular display screen is enveloped by a circular touch panel on the outside. The player taps on the corresponding section of the touch panel as music notes approach the border of the circular screen. In addition to touch notes, the game also features hold notes, notes that slide left and right, and notes that involve flicking forwards and backwards on the touch pad.
Circular interfaces aren’t new. When I was in Japan before Covid, Sega’s game maimai was just becoming popular and really proved the interface had some serious possibilities. While first joking about the fact it looked like a front-loanding washing machine, it became a real hit.
An interesting part of Japanese arcade games is the increasing social and internet connectivity component. Unlike old stand-alone arcades, players can use players cards or a computer or smartphone to connect with maimai DX NET to access their scores and achievements, customize game settings, register with and compare friends’/rivals’ accomplishments/scores as well as compete in national rankings. Before maimai DX was released, it was possible to link a niconico account to upload a recording of the play from the camera built into the arcade machine. As time has gone on, there are now collaborations between different rhythm games and accounts.
This online and connected social aspect of the game along with the fun gameplay has really helped it become popular. As time went on, over 20 updates to the game and songs were released as well as a second generation of cabinets that were also constantly updated.
The regular updates (almost like seasons) keeps the play fresh and fun. As updates come out, players rank up and unlock new songs and new play mechanics. As players become advanced, they discover interesting hidden techniques and methods. Certain artists use particular touch motifs/techniques to add their own signature to their songs (swipes, taps, etc). It’s a real rabbit hole you can get into.
