Technology

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Video Description:

Inside your smartphone, there are billions of transistors, but have you ever wondered how they actually work and how they can be combined to perform tasks like multiplying two numbers together? One rather interesting thing is that transistors are a lot like Lego Bricks assembled together to build a massive Lego set, which we’ll explore further. In this video, we dive into the nanoscopic world of transistors. First, we'll see how an individual transistor works, then we’ll see how they are connected together and organized into logic gates such as an inverter or an AND gate. Finally, we’ll see how logic gates are connected together into large Macrocells capable of performing arithmetic.

Table of Contents:

00:00 - Inside your Desktop Computer
00:26 - Transistors are like Lego Pieces
01:09 - Lego Bricks vs Transistors and Standard Cells
02:12 - Examining the Inverter Standard Cell 
03:24 - How do Basic Transistors work?
09:09 - Schematic for an Inverter Standard Cell
10:45 - Exploring the Macrocell 
13:20 - Conceptualizing how a CPU Works
15:11 - Brilliant Sponsorship
16:55 - The NAND Standard Cell
20:35 - A Surprisingly Hard Script to Write 
21:42 - The AND Standard Cell
23:16 - The Exclusive OR Standard Cell
23:54 - CMOS Circuit
24:27 - Understanding Picoseconds
25:51 - Special Thank You and Outro  

Web directories are as old as the web. They were an early (and for a while, the only) solution to the challenge of collecting and discovering interesting and useful links. Before search engines, this was how we found cool stuff online.

Time passed, and this approach to finding things faded. But at this particular point in time, with a rising interest in cultivating a truly open and social web, the mighty web directory may once again see some relevance and usefulness. Spaces where people are in full control over what is shared (and how it’s shared) are exceptionally important now, and this aims to be one of them.

url.town doesn’t have any specific goals or ambitions. We’re not trying to fully recreate any of the web directotries of yore (like Yahoo! or DMOZ). We’re not aiming for a vast number of links. This is just one space on the web, tied to a community that loves to share. Quality matters much more than quantity. There’s no need to share everything just for the shake of sharing it; it’s much better to share things that are useful or interesting.

Does ChatGPT harm critical thinking abilities? A new study from researchers at MIT’s Media Lab has returned some concerning results.

The study divided 54 subjects—18 to 39 year-olds from the Boston area—into three groups, and asked them to write several SAT essays using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s search engine, and nothing at all, respectively. Researchers used an EEG to record the writers’ brain activity across 32 regions, and found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.” Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.

The paper suggests that the usage of LLMs could actually harm learning, especially for younger users. The paper has not yet been peer reviewed, and its sample size is relatively small. But its paper’s main author Nataliya Kosmyna felt it was important to release the findings to elevate concerns that as society increasingly relies upon LLMs for immediate convenience, long-term brain development may be sacrificed in the process.

“What really motivated me to put it out now before waiting for a full peer review is that I am afraid in 6-8 months, there will be some policymaker who decides, ‘let’s do GPT kindergarten.’ I think that would be absolutely bad and detrimental,” she says. “Developing brains are at the highest risk.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/46381349

Application optimization reduces disk usage and reclaims space. 🙂

Why are newer versions of Windows considered spyware?

A return to vernacular buildings, which maintain interiors at a comfortable temperature through architectural design rather than energy-intensive technical installations, could significantly reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling. However, it’s not a short-term solution: it would require a large amount of time, money, and energy to replace the existing building stock.

Fortunately, history offers an alternative solution that can be deployed more quickly and with fewer resources: textiles. Before the Industrial Revolution, people added a temporary layer of textile insulation to either the interior or the exterior of a building, depending on the climate and the season. In cold weather, walls, floors, roofs, windows, doors, and furniture were insulated with drapery and carpetry. In hot weather, windows, doors, facades, roofs, courtyards, and streets were shaded by awnings and toldos.

Removable insulation can achieve significant energy savings with much more flexibility than permanently enclosed insulation materials. Because modern insulation methods require construction permits and structural interventions to a building, they are expensive, time-consuming, and only accessible to home owners. Furthermore, modern insulation methods are ill-suited for older buildings, in which case they are often not financially and energetically sustainable.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/31716365

The world is burning, and it's about time you start organizing. To learn how to do it as a tech worker within the tech sector, Tech Workers Coalition (TWC) is the best place to start.

In this session you will discover what TWC is, how you can join a local or global chapter, and the many initiatives going on around the world for you to contribute to.

We have two identical sessions to accommodate different time zones, so please sign up for the one that works best for you — can’t wait to see you there!

Tuesday, June 17th, 2025

Option A is 18:00 CEST / 12PM ET / 9 AM PT Register

Option B is 5PM PT / 8PM ET Register

An estimated 68% of internet activity starts on search engines and about 90% of searches happen on Google. If the internet is a garden, Google is the Sun that lets the flowers grow.

This arrangement held strong for decades, but a seemingly minor change has some convinced that the system is crumbling. You'll soon see a new AI tool on Google Search. You may find it very useful. But if critics' predictions come true, it will also have seismic consequences for the internet. They paint a picture where quality information could grow scarcer online and large numbers of people might lose their jobs. Optimists say instead this could improve the web's business model and expand opportunities to find great content. But, for better or worse, your digital experiences may never be the same again.

On 20 May 2025, Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai walked on stage at the company's annual developer conference. It's been a year since the launch of AI Overviews, the AI-generated responses you've probably seen at the top of Google Search results. Now, Pichai said, Google is going further. "For those who want an end-to-end AI Search experience, we are introducing an all-new AI Mode," he said. "It's a total reimagining of Search."

You might be sceptical after years of AI hype, but this, for once, is the real deal.

People use Google Search five trillion times a year – it defines the shape of the internet. AI Mode is a radical departure. Unlike AI Overviews, AI Mode replaces traditional search results altogether. Instead, a chatbot effectively creates a miniature article to answer your question. As you read this, AI Mode is rolling out to users in the US, appearing as a button on the search engine and the company's app. It's optional for now, but Google's head of Search, Liz Reid, said it plainly when launching the tool: "This is the future of Google Search."

Friend of mine said the shelves are empty at WF in central CA due to this.

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