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Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942) is one of the most iconic paintings of the 20th century. It captures a moment of urban solitude that resonates deeply with viewers. The painting’s distinctive composition, use of light and shadow, and themes of isolation make it a masterpiece that continues to be analyzed and admired. Nighthawks (1942) For me, Nighthawks is one of my favourite paintings, not just because of its artistic brilliance but also because it evokes memories of my youth in São Paulo in the early 1980s. The quiet, almost eerie nighttime scenes remind me of wandering through the dimly lit streets, passing by all-night cafés where solitary figures sat with their thoughts, much like the characters in Hopper’s painting. The feeling of being both part of the city and yet somehow detached from it was something I felt deeply back then, making Nighthawks a painting that resonates with my own past. ...

This story of the Mexican cartel communication networks represents more than just a technological achievement – it demonstrates the extraordinary lengths to which criminal organizations will go to maintain operational security (OPSEC). As these networks continue to evolve, they pose significant challenges for law enforcement and telecommunications policy. With the advent of Software Defined Radio (SDR) and open-source cellular software such as OpenBTS and srsRAN, we will likely see a proliferation of private cellular networks by organizations seeking to guarantee their privacy. ...

Scaling internet infrastructure was a significant challenge before concepts like cloud computing, DevOps, and SDN emerged. In the late 1990s, Alteon Networks revolutionized the industry with some of the first gigabit Ethernet switches and hardware-based load balancers. These devices, equipped with failover capabilities, filtering, and various layer 3/4 functionalities, became the backbone of many major web platforms of the time. The Alteon load balancer stood out as a unique solution in the pre-standard gigabit Ethernet era. While the name is now closely associated with load balancing, Alteon was a pioneer in NIC and switch innovation throughout the 1990s. As John Hayes described it, networking at the time was as groundbreaking as AI is today. ...

Obsidian’s recent decision to make its Commercial license optional, allowing free use for work, is a notable development in the note-taking app landscape. This change simplifies licensing and aligns with Obsidian’s mission to provide accessible tools for effective idea organization. The move has sparked discussions within the community, with some users expressing surprise and optimism about increased adoption in professional settings. However, there are also considerations about the potential implications for Obsidian’s business model and future development. ...

Archival footage shot by an amateur filmmaker while visiting Portugal in May 1967. It contains stock footage of Lisbon, the capital city of the country, and a few shots of Cascais. Lisbon 1967 archive footage - YouTube

In the article “Another Sputnik Moment,” Louis-Vincent Gave discusses China’s recent release of DeepSeek, an open-source AI large language model (LLM) developed at a fraction of the cost of its U.S. counterparts. This development challenges the prevailing belief that significant capital investment is essential for technological advancement in AI. Gave draws a parallel to the original “Sputnik moment,” suggesting that DeepSeek could signal a shift in technological leadership and prompt a reevaluation of current investment strategies in the tech sector. ...

Nvidia dominates the AI hardware market, but The Short Case for Nvidia Stock by Jeffrey Emanuel questions whether that lead is sustainable. While Nvidia benefits from industry-standard GPUs, proprietary software (CUDA), and advanced interconnect technology, several emerging threats could disrupt its dominance. Competitors like Cerebras and Groq are developing alternative hardware, open-source AI frameworks are reducing reliance on CUDA, and tech giants are designing their own custom chips. Meanwhile, AI efficiency improvements could lessen the demand for Nvidia’s high-end GPUs. ...

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is sending tech stocks plunging as the market digests what its cheaper and more efficient model means for the AI trade. DeepSeek claims it spent only $5.6 million to train its V3 model, compared to the billions spent a year in capital expenditures by the likes of Microsoft and Alphabet.

From January 7 to 31, 2025, a series of 14 destructive wildfires affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County in California, United States. The fires were exacerbated by drought conditions, low humidity, a buildup of vegetation from the previous winter, and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, which in some places reached 100 miles per hour Most of the damage was from the two largest fires: the Eaton Fire in Altadena and the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, both of which were fully contained on January 31, 2025 ...