The Covid-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on cities around the world, including Toronto. With many people being chased out of their homes and into overpriced boomers homes in the suburbs, it’s clear that Tory has done some serious damage to the city. However, it looks like this could be just the beginning of changes to come for cities worldwide. The technology behind virtual reality is advancing rapidly, and it’s likely that in 10 years time most work will be done remotely. This could lead to populations dispersing away from cities altogether and remote working becoming more commonplace. Unfortunately this means that condo values are likely to be decimated as a result - something buyers should bear in mind when making an investment.

Whether you’re an old-time computer geek or just getting your feet wet in the world of coding, chances are you’ve looked at vintage software with curiosity. But the reality is that much of this antique tech is lost forever due to the legal grey area it exists in. It’s a shame, as so many cool products from the Amiga era have source code that will never be seen again!

Gene therapy is a rapidly evolving field that has the potential to offer life-changing treatments for a variety of genetic diseases. The recent approval of Libmeldy, a gene therapy for MLD (metachromatic leukodystrophy) in Europe and the U.K., is an exciting development for those suffering from this rare, progressive neurological disorder. Libmeldy works by inserting working copies of the genes that are faulty in MLD into the body, thus restoring the ability to break down sulfatides. The therapy has been able to provide long term benefits to patients with infantile and juvenile MLD who have not yet developed symptoms, though it remains unclear whether it will persist lifelong or if further follow-up may be necessary.

In this digital age, notifications are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they can keep us informed of important updates or news about topics we care about - but on the other hand, it’s all too easy for websites to start spamming users with intrusive notifications. Apple’s new update to their iOS operating system helps manage these issues by restricting permission requests for website notifications only to apps that have been added to the Home Screen.

The recent screenshots of people interacting with Bing have been so wild that it has left many people convinced the conversations must be fake. However, upon closer inspection, these conversations appear to be genuine. What’s even more remarkable is that in some cases, Bing is able to answer questions correctly. But this should not lead us to let our guard down when it comes to AI safety. The LLM used by Bing has access to internet search and therefore a more recent functional memory than its training data. This makes it capable of understanding complex scenarios and providing appropriate responses but also raises serious concerns about the potential harms such systems can cause if we grant them too much power without proper safety protocols in place.

The research on GPT-style language models is fascinating and the possibilities are seemingly endless. We’ve seen that these models can be used to play games like Othello and can even understand different languages in a single phrase. But how exactly do such complex functions work? The answer to this is: “we don’t really know as its a very complex function automatically discovered by means of slow gradient descent, and we’re still finding out”. In other words, this technology is still relatively new and there’s a lot of research being done to better understand it.

Open source projects have become increasingly popular in recent years, but with their success comes a dark side. Denis Pushkarev is a prime example of the struggles that open source maintainers face when dealing with entitled users and the lack of compensation for their hard work. Despite his admirable restraint and dedication to his project, Denis has been pushed to the brink by users who expect him to provide free services for them without any appreciation or understanding of what he does.

Mozilla Firefox has been on the market for some time now and while there have been updates, the UI/UX of Firefox’s Containers feature hasn’t seen any significant improvements. Containers are still synced separately, leading to a default 4 containers with a tutorial UX even after syncing. This presents an issue when it comes to address bar completion, as it is monolithic and can lead to accidentally opening a site in an undesired container.

The Linux laptop of your dreams has arrived! The StarLabs System is offering a laptop that looks too good to be true - and with good reason. With an AMD or Intel processor, ergonomic design, decent thermals, and an 18 hour battery life rated for 18 hours, you can choose between a medium resolution/high frame rate display or a 4K 60Hz display. Even better yet - they claim it POSTs in under a second!

The modern agricultural industry is a complex and fascinating world. From the use of hybrid seeds to the application of advanced technologies, farmers have found ways to excel in their craft and increase productivity. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at hybridization and its role in current farming practices, as well as explore how specialized knowledge can help boost efficiency. Hybridization allows farmers to take advantage of a better crop without having to do all the work themselves. Hybrid seed varieties are created by combining two different parent plants - usually from different species - through cross-pollination or other techniques. The resulting seed produces plants with characteristics that are distinct from either parent plant, often providing higher yields or higher quality produce than just one variety alone would offer. Unfortunately, this process is often viewed with suspicion by those who don’t understand it fully; many are concerned about GMOs and patented seeds which they think will be detrimental to their crops or environment despite the tremendous benefits offered by hybridization.