READING LIST - Sida 240

Consistency diffusion language models: Up to 14x faster, no quality loss

Diffusion Language Models (DLMs) are emerging as a promising alternative to autoregressive (AR) LMs. Instead of generating one token at a time, DLMs iteratively refine a partially masked sequence over multiple sampling steps, gradually transforming a fully masked sequence into clean text. This refinement process creates a compelling opportunity: it enables parallel generation, allowing the […]

Pi for Excel: AI sidebar add-in for Excel, powered by Pi

Open-source, multi-model AI sidebar add-in for Microsoft Excel. Powered by Pi. Pi for Excel is an AI agent that lives inside Excel. It reads your workbook, makes changes, and does research — using any model you choose. Bring your own API key or OAuth login for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or GitHub Copilot. Core spreadsheet […]

An ARM Homelab Server, or a Minisforum MS-R1 Review

I’ve always wanted an ARM server in my homelab. But earlier, I either had to use an underpowered ARM system, or use Asahi which not only requires expensive Mac hardware but also slowed down in the past few years. Then Minisforum introduced the MS-R1 Mini PC. Two MS-01s were already incumbent in my homelab when […]

MuMu Player (NetEase) silently runs 17 reconnaissance commands every 30 minutes

MuMu Player Pro for macOS (by NetEase) executes a comprehensive system data collection routine every 30 minutes while the emulator is running. This includes enumerating all devices on your local network, capturing every running process with full command-line arguments, inventorying all installed applications, reading your hosts file, and dumping kernel parameters — all tied to […]

Show HN: Ghostty-based terminal with vertical tabs and notifications

We’re no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

In April 2025, less than three months after Donald Trump returned to the White House, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out its latest public health alert on so-called “superbugs”, strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. These drug-resistant germs, the CDC warned, are responsible for more than 3m infections in the […]

Baby chicks pass the bouba-kiki test, challenging a theory of language evolution

February 19, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Newborn chicks connect sounds with shapes just like humans, suggesting deep evolutionary roots of the “bouba-kiki” effect By Cody Cottier edited by Allison Parshall HUIZENG HU/Getty Images (photography); Jeffery DelViscio (illustrations) Why does “bouba” sound round and “kiki” sound spiky? This intuition that ties […]

AI is not a coworker, it’s an exoskeleton

We’re thinking about AI wrong. I keep noticing the same pattern: companies that treat AI as an autonomous agent that should ”just figure it out” tend to be disappointed. Meanwhile, companies that treat AI as an extension of their existing workforce, an amplifier of human capability rather than a replacement, are seeing genuinely transformative results. […]

Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

In Digital Media Lost the Newsstand. Micropayments Are the Obvious Way Back, Rick Bruner makes the case for giving micropayments another try. The internet has dramatically diversified reading patterns. In the print era, readers subscribed to a small, fixed set of publications constrained by geography, distribution, and cost. Today, thanks to search, aggregators, and social […]

0 A.D. Release 28: Boiorix

Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of 0 A.D. Release 28: “Boiorix”, the twenty-eighth version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source real-time strategy game of ancient warfare. The release is named after the king of the Cimbri Germanic tribe Boiorix. Easy download and install Download and installation instructions are available […]

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