The Linux 6.12 merge window is wrapping up today with the release of Linux 6.12-rc1 in the coming hours. This is going to be a heck of an exciting kernel. There's real-time PREEMPT_RT finally in mainline, the much anticipated sched_ext code also was merged, QR codes for DRM panic messages, initial out-of-the-box support for Intel Xe2 graphics with Lunar Lake and Battlemage, initial Raspberry Pi 5 support, and a ton of other hardware support additions and new innovative kernel software features.
The Arch Linux based CachyOS operating system that is known for pursuing aggressive performance while still delivering a nice Linux desktop experience is out with its September 2024 release...
The x86 platform driver changes that were merged last week for the Linux 6.12 kernel continue to be quite lively with changes for enhancing Linux laptop support along with other Intel platform improvements...
Uplevel provides insights from coding and collaboration data, according to a recent report from CIO magazine — and recently they measured "the time to merge code into a repository [and] the number of pull requests merged" for about 800 developers over a three-month period (comparing the statistics to the previous three months).
Their study "found no significant improvements for developers" using Microsoft's AI-powered coding assistant tool Copilot, according to the article (shared by Slashdot reader snydeq):
Use of GitHub Copilot also introduced 41% more bugs, according to the study...
In addition to measuring productivity, the Uplevel study looked at factors in developer burnout, and it found that GitHub Copilot hasn't helped there, either. The amount of working time spent outside of standard hours decreased for both the control group and the test group using the coding tool, but it decreased more when the developers weren't using Copilot.
An Uplevel product manager/data analyst acknowledged to the magazine that there may be other ways to measure developer productivity — but they still consider their metrics solid. "We heard that people are ending up being more reviewers for this code than in the past... You just have to keep a close eye on what is being generated; does it do the thing that you're expecting it to do?"
The article also quotes the CEO of software development firm Gehtsoft, who says they didn't see major productivity gains from LLM-based coding assistants — but did see them introducing errors into code. With different prompts generating different code sections, "It becomes increasingly more challenging to understand and debug the AI-generated code, and troubleshooting becomes so resource-intensive that it is easier to rewrite the code from scratch than fix it."
On the other hand, cloud services provider Innovative Solutions saw significant productivity gains from coding assistants like Claude Dev and GitHub Copilot. And Slashdot reader destined2fail1990 says that while large/complex code bases may not see big gains, "I have seen a notable increase in productivity from using Cursor, the AI powered IDE."
Yes, you have to review all the code that it generates, why wouldn't you? But often times it just works. It removes the tedious tasks like querying databases, writing model code, writing forms and processing forms, and a lot more. Some forms can have hundreds of fields and processing those fields along with doing checks for valid input is time consuming, but can be automated effectively using AI.
This prompted an interesting discussion on the original story submission. Slashdot reader bleedingobvious responded:
Cursor/Claude are great BUT the code produced is almost never great quality. Even given these tools, the junior/intern teams still cannot outpace the senior devs. Great for learning, maybe, but the productivity angle not quite there.... yet.
It's damned close, though. GIve it 3-6 months.
And Slashdot reader abEeyore posted:
I suspect that the results are quite a bit more nuanced than that. I expect that it is, even outside of the mentioned code review, a shift in where and how the time is spent, and not necessarily in how much time is spent.
Agree? Disagree? Share your own experiences in the comments.
And are developers really saving time with AI coding assistants?
On commence directement chez les bleus, avec deux grosses baisses. La première porte sur le 13600K qui perd 10 euros et qui passe de 288.90 euros à 278.90 euros. Ensuite, nous avons le 14600K qui baisse de pas moins de 39 euros, passant de 324.90 euros à 285.90 euros. Le 14900K perd 27 euros de son côté et le 13400F augmente de 7 euros. […]
Le principe reste simple : on est dimanche, on vous montre une configuration, pas forcément un mod, mais plutôt des montages hors normes, farfelus, ou encore ultra sobres. La seule chose que l'on félicite ici, c'est le travail ! On vous laisse critiquer le goût et les couleurs dans les commentaires. Durant cette section, nous allons sûrement déterrer de vieilles configurations et nous n'aurons pas forcément de hardware musclé. Le but réel est de vous montrer qu'on peut tout faire en matière de montage. Alors, n'hésitez pas à nous proposer vos configurations via Lucas en MP, peut-être seront-elles éditées ?
Ce dimanche, nous vous proposons la The Toaster par Billet Labs :
[…]
The hardware monitoring "HWMON" subsystem updates for Linux 6.12 added some new drivers as well as adding new device support to some of the existing drivers...
Quelle semaine ! Après un déplacement à Shenzhen pour découvrir une usine MSI, dont nous avons parlé à plusieurs reprises, nous n'avons pas failli et tous les jours ont été occupés par au moins un article. Et il y a des choses assez différentes, y compris un dossier sur le très populaire Black Myth: Wukong.
[…]
California governor Gavin Newsom "vetoed a bill Saturday that would have required new cars to beep at drivers if they exceed the speed limit," reports the Associated Press:
In explaining his veto, Newsom said federal law already dictates vehicle safety standards and adding California-specific requirements would create a patchwork of regulations. The National Highway Traffic Safety "is also actively evaluating intelligent speed assistance systems, and imposing state-level mandates at this time risks disrupting these ongoing federal assessments," the Democratic governor said... The legislation would have likely impacted all new car sales in the U.S., since the California market is so large that car manufacturers would likely just make all of their vehicles comply...
Starting in July, the European Union will require all new cars to have the technology, although drivers would be able to turn it off. At least 18 manufacturers including Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan, have already offered some form of speed limiters on some models sold in America, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Thanks to Slashdot reader Gruntbeetle for sharing the news.
Bryan Choi, an associate professor of law and computer science focusing on software safety, proposes shifting AI liability onto the builders of the systems:
To date, most popular approaches to AI safety and accountability have focused on the technological characteristics and risks of AI systems, while averting attention from the workers behind the curtain responsible for designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining such systems...
I have previously argued that a negligence-based approach is needed because it directs legal scrutiny on the actual persons responsible for creating and managing AI systems. A step in that direction is found in California's AI safety bill, which specifies that AI developers shall articulate and implement protocols that embody the "developer's duty to take reasonable care to avoid producing a covered model or covered model derivative that poses an unreasonable risk of causing or materially enabling a critical harm" (emphasis added). Although tech leaders have opposed California's bill, courts don't need to wait for legislation to allow negligence claims against AI developers. But how would negligence work in the AI context, and what downstream effects should AI developers anticipate?
The article suggest two possibilities. Classifying AI developers as ordinary employees leaves employers then sharing liability for negligent acts (giving them "strong incentives to obtain liability insurance policies and to defend their employees against legal claims.") But AI developers could also be treated as practicing professionals (like physicians and attorneys). "{In this regime, each AI professional would likely need to obtain their own individual or group malpractice insurance policies."
AI is a field that perhaps uniquely seeks to obscure its human elements in order to magnify its technical wizardry. The virtue of the negligence-based approach is that it centers legal scrutiny back on the conduct of the people who build and hype the technology. To be sure, negligence is limited in key ways and should not be viewed as a complete answer to AI governance. But fault should be the default and the starting point from which all conversations about AI accountability and AI safety begin.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader david.emery for sharing the article.
America's National Transportation Safety Board "is issuing 'urgent safety recommendations' for some Boeing 737s..." reports CNN, "warning that critical flight controls could jam."
The independent investigative agency is issuing the warning that an actuator attached to the rudder on some 737 NG and 737 MAX airplanes could fail... "Boeing's 737 flight manual instructs pilots confronted with a jammed or restricted rudder to 'overpower the jammed or restricted system (using) maximum force, including a combined effort of both pilots,'" the NTSB said in a news release. "The NTSB expressed concern that this amount of force applied during landing or rollout could result in a large input to the rudder pedals and a sudden, large, and undesired rudder deflection that could unintentionally cause loss of control or departure from a runway," the statement said.
"The FAA said United was the only U.S. airline flying planes with the manufacturing defect in the rudder control system," notes the Seattle Times, "and that United has already replaced the component on nine 737s, the only jets in its fleet where it was identified as faulty. However, the NTSB alert may cause the grounding of some 737 MAXs and older model 737NGs flown by foreign air carriers that have not yet replaced the defective part."
Last weekend Boeing announced that its CEO of Defense, Space, and Security "had left the company," according to Barrons. "Parting ways like this, for upper management, is the equivalent to firing," they write — though they add that setbacks on Starliner's first crewed test flight is "far too simple an explanation."
Starliner might, however, have been the straw that broke the camel's back. [New CEO Kelly] Ortberg took over in early August, so his first material interaction with the Boeing Defense and Space business was the spaceship's failed test flight... Starliner has cost Boeing $1.6 billion and counting. That's lot of money, but not all that much in the context of the Defense business, which generates sales of roughly $25 billion a year.... [T]he overall Defense business has performed poorly of late, burdened by fixed price contracts that have become unprofitable amid years of higher than expected inflation. Profitability in the defense business has been declining since 2020 and started losing money in 2022. From 2022 to 2024 losses should total about $6 billion cumulatively, including Wall Street's estimates for the second half of this year.
Still, it felt like something had to give. And the change shows investors something about new CEO Ortberg. "At this critical juncture, our priority is to restore the trust of our customers and meet the high standards they expect of us," read part of an internal email sent to Boeing employees announcing the change. "Why his predecessor — David Calhoun — didn't pull this trigger earlier this year is a mystery," wrote Gordon Haskett analyst Don Bilson in a Monday note. "Can't leave astronauts behind."
"Ortberg's logic appears sound," the article concludes. "In recent years, Boeing has disappointed its airline and defense customers, including NASA...
"After Starliner, defense profitability, and the strike, Ortberg has to tackle production quality, production rates, and Boeing's ailing balance sheet. Boeing has amassed almost $60 billion in debt since the second tragic 737 MAX crash in March 2019."
Thanks to Slashdot reader Press2ToContinue for sharing the news.
Long-time Slashdot reader dmitrygr writes: Debian Linux booted on a 4-bit intel microprocessor from 1971 — the first microprocessor in the world — the 4004. It is not fast, but it is a real Linux kernel with a Debian rootfs on a real board whose only CPU is a real intel 4004 from the 1970s.
There's a detailed blog post about the experiment. (Its title? "Slowly booting full Linux on the intel 4004 for fun, art, and absolutely no profit.")
In the post dmitrygr describes testing speed optimizations with an emulator where "my initial goal was to get the boot time under a week..."
Les aléas ont fait que les LIDD ont connu une pause prolongée ces derniers mois, mais les revoilà ! avec notre sélection des liens les plus intéressants de ces dernières semaines. Ils proviennent des commentaires les plus intéressants, utiles et/ou originaux de la semaine, mais aussi de nos recherches.
Le récap’ pour ceux qui traient (ou qui ne sont pas du matin)
Cette semaine, l’équipe vous a proposé un civet de calculatrice TI-84 accompagné de sa sauce Internet et relevé d’une touche de ChatGPT pour la transformer en « appareil de triche ». Les modifications sont aussi bien matérielles que logicielles.
Dans un genre différent mais toujours avec un aspect bidouille, un moddeur un peu fou s’est amusé à booter Linux (une Debian) sur le tout premier processeur : le 4004 d’Intel. Un travail qui demande pas mal d’habileté et de modifications pour dépasser les limites de l’époque. On parle pour rappel d’un CPU de 1971 pour un système d’exploitation qui date (pour la 1ʳᵉ version) de 1991, soit il y a plus de 30 ans.
Via Franceinfo, France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté propose une émission sur l’accès à Internet dans certains territoires, qui se sentent un peu (beaucoup) oubliés : « À deux heures de Paris, des villageois en zone blanche d’internet s’organisent pour amener une connexion à très haut débit chez eux ».
Mouais bof ? Alors j’ai l’argument massue : « le documentaire est excellent, à voir toutes affaires cessantes », signé Stéphane Bortzmeyer. Son accroche pour vous motiver : « Vous croyez que l’Internet, ce sont forcément de gros opérateurs capitalistes ? Dans un endroit reculé du fond de la France en vrai, des types avec des autocollants sur leurs PC coopèrent pour faire un vrai Internet, fondé sur la coopération »
Arte propose un documentaire pour le moins inédit sur l’humour et la guerre. On s’éloigne du numérique et de la tech, mais cela n’en reste pas moins un lien intelligent pour le coup.
« Un jeune acteur afghan, Karim Asir, décide de devenir le Charlie Chaplin afghan, rêvant de transformer le monde par la pantomime et l’humour. Au milieu des bombes et des décombres, il donne des représentations où le rire se révèle être sa seule arme. Lorsque Kaboul tombe aux mains des talibans le 15 août 2021, Karim reçoit des menaces de mort et commence à craindre pour sa vie. Il est alors contraint de faire un choix particulièrement difficile. Le rire a-t-il finalement le pouvoir de changer le monde ? ».
Chez France Culture, on s’intéresse au GIEC (Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat). C’est LSD, la série documentaire, qui s’y colle et nous « plonge dans les méandres de l’IPCC, de l’ » Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change »», que le paléoclimatologie français Jean Jouzel, a appelé le GIEC, le « Groupe d’Experts Intergouvernementaux sur l’Évolution du Climat » ».
Le podcat se compose de quatre épisodes : Une naissance ambiguë, Comment ça marche ?, Des scientifiques en rébellion et De la rébellion à l’action. Vous avez quatre heures, 4x1 h pour être précis.
Une horloge spéciale, et Reddit, police judiciaire
Une horloge originale, avec des lignes et des rectangles. Ça n’a l’air de rien, mais attention à ne pas vous faire envouter, vous risqueriez de rapidement vous laisser surprendre à perdre du temps en regardant le temps se perdre sur votre écran.
Internet, c’est aussi un endroit où tout peut arriver, pour le meilleur, pour le pire et… pour le reste. L’histoire du jour est pour le moins surprenante, comme nous l’a présentée un amateur de liens intelligents/idiots : « Pendant 4 ans des redditeurs ont recherché ardemment l’identité d’une femme dont le visage était imprimé aux côtés de celui d’autres célébrités sur un rideau de douche produit par une entreprise Finlandaise dans les années ~ 2008. Ceci est leur histoire »… (vous aussi vous l’avez en tête ?)
Comme toujours, n’hésitez pas à nous partager vos trouvailles, que ce soit via les commentaires (même si cette semaine, je dois bien l’avouer, je n’ai pas eu le temps de tous les lire… mais ça va revenir) ou n’importe quel autre moyen. Simplement, il faudra prévoir un délai supplémentaire pour les pigeons voyageurs.
"After complaining that Gen Z grads are difficult to work with for the best part of two years, bosses are no longer all talk, no action — now they're rapidly firing young workers who aren't up to scratch just months after hiring them," writes Fortune.
"According to a new report, six in 10 employers say they have already sacked some of the Gen Z workers they hired fresh out of college earlier this year."
Intelligent.com, a platform dedicated to helping young professionals navigate the future of work, surveyed nearly 1,000 U.S. leaders... After experiencing a raft of problems with young new hires, one in six bosses say they're hesitant to hire college grads again. Meanwhile, one in seven bosses have admitted that they may avoid hiring them altogether next year. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed said some or all of their recent graduate hires were unsatisfactory in some way...
Employers' gripe with young people today is their lack of motivation or initiative — 50% of the leaders surveyed cited that as the reason why things didn't work out with their new hire. Bosses also pointed to Gen Z being unprofessional, unorganized and having poor communication skills as their top reasons for having to sack grads. Leaders say they have struggled with the latest generation's tangible challenges, including being late to work and meetings often, not wearing office-appropriate clothing, and using language appropriate for the workspace.
Now, more than half of hiring managers have come to the conclusion that college grads are unprepared for the world of work. Meanwhile, over 20% say they can't handle the workload.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader smooth wombat for sharing the article.
Past studies have suggested a major ocean current could collapse, quickly changing temperatures and climate patterns, reports the Washington Post.
"But scientists disagree on whether the the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is already slowing, and questions remain as to whether a variety of proxy measurements actually indicate a slowdown" — including a new analysis arguing that the current "has remained remarkably stable."
One way to detect AMOC weakening is to monitor the strength of its components such as the Florida Current, which flows swiftly from the Gulf of Mexico into the North Atlantic. The current is a "major contributor" to the AMOC, the researchers write, and a slowdown of the current might indicate a slowdown of the AMOC. Scientists have been tracking its strength since the 1980s using a submarine cable that measures the volume of water it transports.
In the current study, researchers reconsider the data, correcting for a gradual shift in Earth's magnetic field that they say affected the cable measurements. Previous assessments of the uncorrected data showed a slight slowing in the Florida Current. But when they corrected for the shift in Earth's magnetic field, the researchers write, they found that the current "has remained remarkably stable" and not declined significantly over the past 40 years.
The researchers' announcement acknowledges that "It is possible that the AMOC is changing without a corresponding change in the Florida Current..."
Les aléas ont fait que les LIDD ont connu une pause prolongée ces derniers mois, mais les revoilà ! avec notre sélection des liens les plus intéressants de ces dernières semaines. Ils proviennent des commentaires les plus intéressants, utiles et/ou originaux de la semaine, mais aussi de nos recherches.
Le récap’ pour ceux qui traient (ou qui ne sont pas du matin)
Cette semaine, l’équipe vous a proposé un civet de calculatrice TI-84 accompagné de sa sauce Internet et relevé d’une touche de ChatGPT pour la transformer en « appareil de triche ». Les modifications sont aussi bien matérielles que logicielles.
Dans un genre différent mais toujours avec un aspect bidouille, un moddeur un peu fou s’est amusé à booter Linux (une Debian) sur le tout premier processeur : le 4004 d’Intel. Un travail qui demande pas mal d’habileté et de modifications pour dépasser les limites de l’époque. On parle pour rappel d’un CPU de 1971 pour un système d’exploitation qui date (pour la 1ʳᵉ version) de 1991, soit il y a plus de 30 ans.
Via Franceinfo, France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté propose une émission sur l’accès à Internet dans certains territoires, qui se sentent un peu (beaucoup) oubliés : « À deux heures de Paris, des villageois en zone blanche d’internet s’organisent pour amener une connexion à très haut débit chez eux ».
Mouais bof ? Alors j’ai l’argument massue : « le documentaire est excellent, à voir toutes affaires cessantes », signé Stéphane Bortzmeyer. Son accroche pour vous motiver : « Vous croyez que l’Internet, ce sont forcément de gros opérateurs capitalistes ? Dans un endroit reculé du fond de la France en vrai, des types avec des autocollants sur leurs PC coopèrent pour faire un vrai Internet, fondé sur la coopération »
Arte propose un documentaire pour le moins inédit sur l’humour et la guerre. On s’éloigne du numérique et de la tech, mais cela n’en reste pas moins un lien intelligent pour le coup.
« Un jeune acteur afghan, Karim Asir, décide de devenir le Charlie Chaplin afghan, rêvant de transformer le monde par la pantomime et l’humour. Au milieu des bombes et des décombres, il donne des représentations où le rire se révèle être sa seule arme. Lorsque Kaboul tombe aux mains des talibans le 15 août 2021, Karim reçoit des menaces de mort et commence à craindre pour sa vie. Il est alors contraint de faire un choix particulièrement difficile. Le rire a-t-il finalement le pouvoir de changer le monde ? ».
Chez France Culture, on s’intéresse au GIEC (Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat). C’est LSD, la série documentaire, qui s’y colle et nous « plonge dans les méandres de l’IPCC, de l’ » Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change »», que le paléoclimatologie français Jean Jouzel, a appelé le GIEC, le « Groupe d’Experts Intergouvernementaux sur l’Évolution du Climat » ».
Le podcat se compose de quatre épisodes : Une naissance ambiguë, Comment ça marche ?, Des scientifiques en rébellion et De la rébellion à l’action. Vous avez quatre heures, 4x1 h pour être précis.
Une horloge spéciale, et Reddit, police judiciaire
Une horloge originale, avec des lignes et des rectangles. Ça n’a l’air de rien, mais attention à ne pas vous faire envouter, vous risqueriez de rapidement vous laisser surprendre à perdre du temps en regardant le temps se perdre sur votre écran.
Internet, c’est aussi un endroit où tout peut arriver, pour le meilleur, pour le pire et… pour le reste. L’histoire du jour est pour le moins surprenante, comme nous l’a présentée un amateur de liens intelligents/idiots : « Pendant 4 ans des redditeurs ont recherché ardemment l’identité d’une femme dont le visage était imprimé aux côtés de celui d’autres célébrités sur un rideau de douche produit par une entreprise Finlandaise dans les années ~ 2008. Ceci est leur histoire »… (vous aussi vous l’avez en tête ?)
Comme toujours, n’hésitez pas à nous partager vos trouvailles, que ce soit via les commentaires (même si cette semaine, je dois bien l’avouer, je n’ai pas eu le temps de tous les lire… mais ça va revenir) ou n’importe quel autre moyen. Simplement, il faudra prévoir un délai supplémentaire pour les pigeons voyageurs.
How were the Pyramids built? NBC News reported on "a possible answer" after new evidence was published earlier this year in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
The theory? "[A]n extinct branch of the Nile River once weaved through the landscape in a much wetter climate."
Dozens of Egyptian pyramids across a 40-mile-long range rimmed the waterway, the study says, including the best-known complex in Giza. The waterway allowed workers to transport stone and other materials to build the monuments, according to the study. Raised causeways stretched out horizontally, connecting the pyramids to river ports along the Nile's bank.
Drought, in combination with seismic activity that tilted the landscape, most likely caused the river to dry up over time and ultimately fill with silt, removing most traces of it.
The research team based its conclusions on data from satellites that send radar waves to penetrate the Earth's surface and detect hidden features. It also relied on sediment cores and maps from 1911 to uncover and trace the imprint of the ancient waterway. Such tools are helping environmental scientists map the ancient Nile, which is now covered by desert sand and agricultural fields... The study builds on research from 2022, which used ancient evidence of pollen grains from marsh species to suggest that a waterway once cut through the present-day desert.
Granite blocks weighing several tons were transported hundreds of miles, according to a professor of Egyptology at Harvard University — who tells NBC they were moved without wheels. But this new evidence that the Nile was closer to the pyramids lends further support to the evolving "canals" theory.
In 2011 archaeologist Pierre Tallet found 30 different man-made caves in remote Egyptian hills, according to Smithsonian magazine. eventually locating the oldest papyrus rolls ever discovered — which were written by the builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza, describing a team of 200 workers moving limestone upriver. And in a 2017 documentary archaeologists were already reporting evidence of a waterway underneath the great Giza plateau.
Slashdot reader Smonster found an alternate theory in this 2001 announcement from Caltech:
Mory Gharib and his team raised a 6,900-pound, 15-foot obelisk into vertical position in the desert near Palmdale by using nothing more than a kite, a pulley system, and a support frame... One might ask whether there was and is sufficient wind in Egypt for a kite or a drag chute to fly. The answer is that steady winds of up to 30 miles-per-hour are not unusual in the areas where the pyramids and obelisks are found.
"We're not Egyptologists," Gharib added. "We're mainly interested in determining whether there is a possibility that the Egyptians were aware of wind power, and whether they used it to make their lives better."
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