Technology And Tech News

YotLD coming soon?

Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to surpass a $4 trillion market capitalization on Wednesday, as its shares climbed as much as 2.5% to a record intraday high of roughly $164 on the New York Stock Exchange. The advance builds on a rally driven by unrelenting demand for the company’s artificial-intelligence processors and lifts its stock more than 1,300% since late 2022.

The milestone vaults the Santa Clara-based chipmaker past Microsoft, valued at about $3.7 trillion, and Apple at roughly $3.1 trillion, to become the world’s most valuable company. Nvidia’s swelling size gives it the largest single weighting in the S&P 500 at around 7.5%, helping the benchmark rise 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.9% on the day.

Over the last twenty years, smartphones gradually replaced many earlier digital tools such as PDAs, cameras and music players. Today these objects are regarded as obsolete: they may hold some esthetic or nostalgic appeal but they do not fit in a modern, zerofriction, cloud-first workflow. Yet these devices still have desirable qualities that smartphones lack: a singular focus on a specific use case; hardware buttons and physical connectors; multi-day battery life.

Even their lack of connectivity can be seen as an asset from a resilience, privacy and security standpoint. Actually using decades-old tech today is challenging, in spite of its apparent simplicity. The friction of physical media-based workflows now feels unacceptable. But much like classic cars can be fitted with an EV motor, it is possible to retrofit older devices in order to make them usable again in a connected world.

https://computingwithinlimits.org/2025/papers/limits2025-lafrechoux-retrofitting.pdf

> Bitcoin reached a record high of $111,000 on May 22, 2025, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, a significant date in crypto history.

https://liliputing.com/tinker-writerdeck-os-turns-nearly-any-old-laptop-into-a-distraction-free-writing-machine/

> Convert any laptop and most chromebooks into a writer deck.

> A device designed solely for writing.

> No distractions.

> No internet.

> No apps. No games. No social media.

> Just writing.

These seemed appealing to me at one time, but don't seem as interesting to me over time, it's like they try to purposely make the devices less useful

I still yearn for an affordable pocket laptop clone of the Sony VAIO P series

I suppose I could ask, does anyone know how I could DIY a wired keyboard in the chiclet (compact) laptop style? All the DIY keyboards seem to be mechanical keyboards which are giant keys (and less pocket-able). I suppose this is essentially what I want, is the right size keyboard that could attach to like a phone that could go in my pocket, and I never seem to find them

This kind of surprises me, go to: https://hilariouschaos.com/c/technologys

instead of

https://hilariouschaos.com/c/technology

My thought is the page should say, "OOPS THAT CAN'T BE FOUND, DID YOU MEAN c/technology instead of c/technologys"

I'm amazed Wikipedia does the same thing, compare:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology

with

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technologys

Doesn't seem like a lot of code to add, would it really be more resource-intensive to suggest a few correct communities (or on wiki, correct sites?)

Chinese scientists have unveiled a new superconducting quantum computing prototype they say operates a million times faster than Google’s top quantum processors. The Chinese chip is also a quadrillion times more efficient than any conventionally built supercomputer, according to a statement issued by its creators.

Dubbed Zuchongzhi-3, the chip was developed by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in cooperation with half a dozen of the nation’s scientific institutions. The USTC published the results of its research and the chip’s performance analysis in an article for the Physical Review Letters earlier this month.

According to the university’s statement, the testing showed that the new Chinese processor is a million times faster than Google’s Sycamore processor. The US tech giant presented its quantum computer back in October 2024, boasting that it could surpass the fastest conventional supercomputers in performing computationally complex calculations.

https://www.worldbackupday.com/en

Be prepared against data loss and data theft. March 31st is the day to back up and better protect your data.

What is a backup?

A backup is a copy of all your important files — for example, your family photos, home videos, documents and emails. Instead of storing it all in one place (like your computer or smartphone), you keep a copy of everything somewhere safe.

But why should I backup?

Losing your files is way more common than you’d think.

One small accident or failure could destroy all the important stuff you care about.

See also the 3-2-1 rule: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Rule?

The 3-2-1 backup rule is a simple, effective strategy for keeping your data safe. It advises that you keep three copies of your data on two different media with one copy off-site. Let’s break that down:

Three copies of your data: Your three copies include your original or production data plus two more copies.

On two different media: You should store your data on two different forms of media. ...

One copy off-site: You should keep one copy of your data off-site in a remote location, ideally more than a few miles away from your other two copies.

Their suggested setup is 1 your primary computer, 2 one external hard drive backup, and then 3 some offsite "cloud". A lot of people don't like certain "cloud" policies so you may have to find the right one. You could also drop a hard drive somewhere away from home for storage.

It's important to back data up regularly, but this "world backup day" effort is to encourage people to at least do it annually to start and to hopefully encourage getting in to the habit of regular backups.

Thoughts on backups?

Hosted site: https://freedium.cfd/

Github: https://github.com/Freedium-cfd/web

Any other services like this? I'd like to find one for insta / facebook (because some businesses use those as their main professional websites and they're login-walled to logged out users)

I won't deny there may be some use cases, but a lot of uses seem like a search engine could get the info I'm looking for, for example:

Code generation: look for some kind of post on code needed

Definitions: look for some kind of site like dictionary.com that has definitions

So I guess my thought is to see what people are using LLMs for, and to compare with existing tools, and then maybe to copy what's being done for my own use cases.

But what are people using LLMs for currently (that you think can't be served by other tools)?

Personalized chatbots dating other chatbots on your behalf. AI concierges fielding questions about potential matches. Advanced algorithms predicting compatibility better than ever before.

Dating apps are on the cusp of a major transformation.

As much of the tech industry grapples with how to integrate artificial intelligence into its products, dating companies are weighing how the technology could usher in a significant shift in the way people connect and meet online.

At its investor day last week, executives from Match Group — the parent company of Match.com, Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Our Time and more — teased plans to use AI to improve user experiences and help make better connections.

Justin McLeod, CEO of Hinge, outlined how the company intends to fully embrace AI next year: more personalized matching, smarter algorithms that adapt to users and better understand them over time and AI coaching for struggling daters.

“While AI is not going to be a panacea when it comes to the very deeply and personal problem of love, I can tell you that it is going to transform the dating app experience, taking it from a do-it-yourself platform to an expertly guided journey that leads to far better outcomes and much better value to our daters,” he told investors.

Unconventional computing is computing by a wide range of new or unusual methods [including] ... optical computing, quantum computing, chemical computing, natural computing, biologically-inspired computing, wetware computing, DNA computing, molecular computing, amorphous computing, nanocomputing, reversible computing, ternary computing, fluidics, analogue computing, human and domino computation.

I'd still like a mechanical computer, I guess they have been testing some new designs out: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/kirigami-mechanical-computer-has-high-density-memory-and-doesnt-need-electricity-researchers-demo-new-mechanical-computing-design

Domino and billiard ball computers sound like interesting "just for fun" designs:

https://infogalactic.com/info/Billiard_ball_computer

https://infogalactic.com/info/Domino_computer

GUI = Graphical User Interface, CLI = Command Line Interface (or TUI = Text User Interface)

It was occurring to me that it might be easier to manually use a mouse to click certain buttons to execute commands rather than type them up so I was wondering when people like to use GUIs versus CLIs?

(A lot of programmers seem to promote CLI over GUI for everything, because it can use less computer resources I think, but it may require more thinking or effort than just clicking a button than typing things up sometimes, I was thinking)

Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like. People use them as interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice problems, a speed contest, or to challenge each other.

You don't need a computer science background to participate - just a little programming knowledge and some problem solving skills will get you pretty far. Nor do you need a fancy computer; every problem has a solution that completes in at most 15 seconds on ten-year-old hardware.

...

My voice was cloned by the same expert that did James Nesbitt's - his was for an awareness-raising campaign by Starling Bank. Mine was easily generated using an interview I had done on the radio.

While we had fun typing in different phrases for my clone to say back, the serious issue was finding out how convincing it really was.

Colleagues in the You and Yours office struggled to tell the difference between the two voices.

But rather than seeing if an AI voice could dupe people into believing they were listening to the voice of a real person, I wanted to see how it fared against a piece of tech.

Could it get past my bank account's voice ID system?

Several banks use a system called voice ID or 'my voice is my password' for their phone banking.

The phrase allows the bank to automatically confirm an account holder's identity without the need to remember a security number.

So that was what I asked my cloned voice to say.

Armed with a recording of an AI version of me saying "my voice is my password" I called up my bank, Santander.

"Thanks for calling Santander," came the automated response. "I can see you're calling from your registered phone number. Let's quickly confirm your identity with your voice."

I pressed play.

"My voice is my password," said an AI version of me.

After a very brief pause, the bank replied: "Thank you for using your voice as your password."

Then it asked the reason for my call.

I was in. Or at least, this AI cloned version of my voice was in.

I then tried the same trick with my other bank, Halifax, and it resulted in another successful hack by the AI clone.

I should point out that those initial logins were done in the office, using BBC studio speakers to play my cloned voice down the phone.

So later, a my kitchen table at home on Merseyside, I did it again using a basic iPad speaker. And it worked, which suggested there was no need for top-quality sound.