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Google has announced a new laptop called Googlebook, designed for Gemini Intelligence, a type of artificial intelligence. The laptop is expected to be released in Fall 2026 and will be built with heavyweight power and synchronization capabilities with Android phones.
DuckDB instances can now communicate with each other using the Quack remote protocol, enabling a client-server setup with multiple concurrent writers. Quack is designed to be simple to set up and builds on proven technologies such as HTTP, while also being fast enough to support workloads ranging from bulk operations to small transactions.
Maxime Heckel's blog post explores the techniques used to render realistic skies and atmospheres in real-time in the browser. The article covers the use of shaders, raymarching, Rayleigh and Mie scattering, and ozone absorption to create realistic effects, from simple sky domes to entire planets.
Google DeepMind is transforming the traditional mouse pointer into a context-aware AI partner, aiming to reduce the friction of traditional prompting and enable intuitive AI collaboration in Chrome and beyond. This reimagined mouse pointer is designed to work seamlessly with AI systems, allowing users to interact with them in a more natural and efficient way. The technology is expected to have a significant impact on the future of AI interaction and collaboration.
NixOS, a Linux distribution, lacks Secure Boot support, leaving it vulnerable to boot flow attacks. A team of developers, including the author, worked on implementing Secure Boot for NixOS during the Ocean Sprint hackathon. The solution involves using systemd-boot, a boot loader that supports Secure Boot.
The Obsidian Community site and developer dashboard have been introduced, marking a significant development in the future of Obsidian plugins. This new platform aims to provide a centralized hub for users to discover, share, and collaborate on plugins, enhancing the overall user experience.
Software design skills are best learned by doing, rather than through formal education or training. As a researcher physicist, learning software design skills requires hands-on experience and adapting to the constraints of a project. The incentive structure of a project can significantly impact the quality of the software produced, with factors such as the need to publish a paper in a short timeframe influencing the design and development process.
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