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Fine-tuned small LLMs can beat large ones with programmatic data curation

{ "systemInstruction" : { "role" : "system" , "parts" : [ { "text" : "# Retail agent policy As a retail agent, you can help users cancel or modify pending orders, return or exchange delivered orders, modify their default user address, or provide information about their own profile, orders, and related products. - At the beginning of the conversation, you have to authenticate the user identity by locating their user id via email, or via name + zip code. This has to be done even when the use

Indian Sign Painting: A Typeface Designer's Take on the Craft

Work by an unknown sign painter for ArtLife in Kolkata, captured by Pooja Saxena for her India Street Lettering initiative. Since 2013, Pooja Saxena has been documenting Indian street lettering in all its forms. As this culimates in a new book from Blaft Publications, which can be pre-ordered on the dedicated Kickstarter, I invited her to share her insights into the sign painting themes within her work. India Street Lettering is a 200-page book presenting the documentary photography and detail

Tesla awards Musk $29B in attempt to “keep Elon’s energies focused on Tesla”

Tesla is awarding Elon Musk over $29 billion of stock in an "interim" pay plan designed to maintain his interest in the company while a larger pay package awarded in 2018 remains held up in court. "Retaining Elon is more important than ever before... It is imperative to retain and motivate our extraordinary talent, beginning with Elon," Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm and board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson wrote in a letter to shareholders today. The letter noted that Musk has several other

Topics: elon musk pay plan tesla

Scientists are growing tumors in space to study how to personalize cancer treatment

Forward-looking: Although precision medicine has advanced rapidly in recent years, many cancer patients still undergo standard treatments that may not work for everyone. Research underway on the International Space Station offers a glimpse of future care, where doctors map out each course of therapy using a detailed simulation of the patient's cancer. In a laboratory more than 249 miles above Earth, a new generation of cancer research is unfolding. A biotech startup is harnessing the microgravi

Figma's stock sinks more than 20% after last week's IPO pop

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, appears on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on July 31, 2025. Figma shares dropped 23% on Monday, cutting into the gains the design software company posted after hitting the market last week. The stock dropped $27.50 to $94.50 as of midday. That's down from a close of $122 on Friday. Figma and top stockholders sold about 37 million shares at $33 per share late Wednesday, yielding around $412 million in proceeds flowing to the company. On Thurs

Show HN: Mathpad – Physical keypad for typing 100+ math symbols anywhere

Back this project to help bring it into existence. Funding ends on Sep 11, 2025 at 04:59 PM PDT. Mathpad is a specialized keypad that makes typing mathematical equations as simple as typing regular text. With over 100 mathematical symbols at your fingertips, this compact and powerful device eliminates the frustration and inefficiency of typing math on a computer. What if Mathematical Symbols Were as Easy to Type as Regular Letters? After 3 years of development, Mathpad finally makes this drea

Tesla awards Elon Musk $29 billion after much larger pay plan blocked in court

Tesla is awarding Elon Musk over $29 billion of stock in an "interim" pay plan designed to maintain his interest in the company while a larger pay package awarded in 2018 remains held up in court. "Retaining Elon is more important than ever before... It is imperative to retain and motivate our extraordinary talent, beginning with Elon," Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm and board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson wrote in a letter to shareholders today. The letter noted that Musk has several other

Topics: elon musk pay plan tesla

Spotify is raising prices for international customers

Users can expect to pay around $1 more each month for Premium. Spotify is raising prices for many international customers . The company just said that Premium subscribers throughout the world will be receiving an email within the next month that outlines the increase. It hasn't announced which countries will be impacted, but did say that the areas include South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. That's most of the world. The company didn't provid

Drawafish.com Postmortem: Whoops

DrawAFish.com TL;DR: Incident Duration: ~6 hours (2AM–8AM EST) ~6 hours (2AM–8AM EST) Impact: Username vandalism (slurs) Offensive fish approved / safe fish removed Root Causes: Legacy 6-digit admin password exposed in past data breach Username update API lacked authentication JWT not tied to specific user Mitigation: Manual reversal of mod actions, fixed authorization logic, backups reviewed Manual reversal of mod actions, fixed authorization logic, backups reviewed Takeaway: hwoopsy dais

Joby Aviation to buy Blade Air Mobility’s rideshare business

Electric air taxi developer Joby Aviation has agreed to buy Blade Air Mobility’s helicopter rideshare business for as much as $125 million. Joby is buying the Blade brand and the company’s passenger business, which includes operations in the United States and Europe. Blade founder and CEO Rob Wiesenthal will continue to lead the business, which will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Joby. Blade’s medical division, which transports organs, isn’t included in the transaction and will remain

TechCrunch Mobility: Tesla’s ride-hailing gambit

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in what one might describe a suboptimal position. He’s pushed hard to get shareholders to view Tesla as an AI and robotics company, not a maker of EVs. And yet, the company’s most visible products, which generate the bulk of its revenues, are its electric cars. Yes, Tesla EVs are advanced, particularly when

In Desperate Bid to Get Elon Musk to Stay, Tesla Awards Him $29 Billion

After many months of plummeting sales and disastrous earnings, Tesla has awarded its controversial CEO a whopping $29 billion worth of its shares in a bid to keep him at the helm of the carmaker. After a Delaware judge threw out his astronomical pay package last year, which was worth $56 billion at the time, shareholders are terrified that his incredibly damaging leadership could soon come to an end. While continuing to attempt to get the pay package reinstated, the board granted him a "good f

The best tablets of 2025: Lab-tested recommendations

Tablets are some of the most versatile gadgets available. Many people even use their devices as a replacement for their computer, as it's lighter than the traditional laptop and can easily connect to various accessories to enhance your experience. With so many tablets on the market today from trusted brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, and Amazon, it can be daunting to choose the right one. The Amazon Fire Max 11 is a solid choice if you're on a budget. The iPad Pro and the Android flagship Gal

Mozilla Firefox's extension store being flooded with malware

Mozilla is warning of an ongoing phishing campaign targeting developers of Firefox add-ons. The browser maker urged devs to "exercise extreme caution and scrutiny" when reviewing seemingly legitimate emails from senders pretending to be Mozilla or AMO (addons.mozilla.org). Although phishing emails can take many forms, Moz said this campaign usually lures devs into clicking through a malicious link to update their account. Failure to do so, or so the crims claim, would result in the dev losing

Tesla Approves Elon Musk’s $29 Billion Pay Package Despite Political Risks

Despite the headaches Tesla has faced from Elon Musk’s political antics, the company’s board just signed off on a new pay package for the CEO that is worth a whopping $29 billion. The new compensation terms come after a Delaware judge blocked a previous $55 billion compensation plan from 2018, siding with shareholders who argued the deal was unfairly approved. The plan was also announced during a pivotal moment for the struggling EV maker, which is trying to expand into robotaxis and humanoid

Tesla awards Musk $29 billion in shares with prior pay package in limbo

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was awarded an interim pay package of 96 million shares of the company over the weekend. The shares would be worth about $29 billion. Tesla stock climbed about 2% Monday. The company said in a filing Sunday that the pay package would vest in two years as long as Musk continued as CEO or in another key executive position. The new award would be forfeited if the legal battle over his 2018 compensation ends with Musk being able to exercise the larger pay package, which was va

Google is making Android’s touchpad controls more like a desktop OS

Paul Jones / Android Authority TL;DR To improve Android’s capabilities on laptops and tablets, Google is adding more advanced touchpad settings. An upcoming update introduces a customizable three-finger tap gesture for actions like launching Gemini, going home, or middle-clicking. Later versions will expand on this by letting you map the gesture to open any app and will also add a toggle for touchpad acceleration. Last month, Google revealed it plans to combine Chrome OS and Android into a s

Google is making it easier to hide sensitive files in your Pixel’s Private Space

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google is making it simpler to move sensitive files into Private Space, the built-in feature on Pixel devices for hiding apps and data. While the tool has always made it straightforward to add apps to the profile, adding files has been less intuitive. An upcoming update adds a new “Add files” option that lets you directly copy or move files from your main profile into the Private Space. If you want to hide apps, files, and folders on your Android devi

Apple’s new brain-controlled iPhone, iPad tech revealed in video

Earlier this year Apple shared early details of its forthcoming plans to support brain-controlled technology for iPhone, iPad, and more. Now, a new video has been published showing the first live demonstration of the tech. New video shows iPad user controlling device with his thoughts Apple has long been at the forefront of prioritizing accessibility across its various devices. And the latest initiative on that front is especially cutting edge. As was first detailed this spring, iOS 26, iPadO

Why I recommend this budget phone with a paper-like screen over 'minimalist' devices

TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G ZDNET's key takeaways TCL's 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G is on sale on Amazon for $222. It has a unique display, and a feature set that promotes minimalism and digital well-being. I just wish the camera system and general performance were better. $249.99 at Amazon Being glued to your smartphone's screen all day can do a number on your eyes, and I definitely can feel it. TCL's Nxtpaper technology offers a paper-like screen that's made for tired eyes like mine. The TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper

Legal AI startup Harvey hits $100 million in annual recurring revenue

Artificial intelligence startup Harvey on Monday announced it has reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue, or ARR, just three years after its launch. Harvey runs an AI-powered legal platform for lawyers at law firms and large corporations. Its technology can help with legal research, drafting and diligence projects, and the company is also building industry-specific use cases. Winston Weinberg, co-founder and CEO of Harvey, said the startup's ARR milestone has largely been driven by u

LastPass can now warn or block logins to shadow SaaS apps - here's how

LastPass ZDNET's key takeaways: The LastPass plug-in can now prevent access to unapproved SaaS apps. Feature extends plug-in's monitoring of SaaS access attempts. Passkey authentication coming by month's end -- not yet supported. Earlier this year, LastPass announced it was adding the ability for administrators of its password management solution to monitor employee usage of SaaS or web-based applications. Today at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, the company announced it has

Tesla hands $29B comp package to Elon Musk amid ‘AI talent war’

Tesla’s board of directors has announced a new compensation package for CEO Elon Musk worth around $29 billion in shares, with the company citing the “ever-intensifying AI talent war and Tesla’s position at a critical inflection point” as reasons for the payout. The massive pay package is being allocated through a 2019 Equity Incentive Plan that is already approved by shareholders, so it won’t go to a vote, according to a regulatory filing and Ann Lipton, a professor at the University of Colora

North Korean spies posing as remote workers have infiltrated hundreds of companies, says CrowdStrike

Researchers at security giant CrowdStrike say they have seen hundreds of cases where North Koreans posing as remote IT workers have infiltrated companies to generate money for the regime, marking a sharp increase over previous years. Per CrowdStrike’s latest threat hunting report, the company has identified over 320 incidents over the past 12 months, up by 220% from the year earlier, in which North Koreans gained fraudulent employment at Western companies working remotely as developers. The sc

Paid subreddits plan on hold as company prioritizes search engine plans

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman confirmed plans for paid subreddits earlier this year but now says that the initiative has been de–prioritized. However, he says that the company still believes in the opportunity, suggesting that a Reddit paywall of some kind will be introduced at some stage … Paid subreddits plan Huffman first hinted at the plan last year, but didn’t go into any details. We will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive con

Palantir Is Extending Its Reach Even Further into Government

President Donald Trump’s administration has dramatically expanded its work with Palantir, elevating the company cofounded by Trump ally Peter Thiel as the government’s go-to software developer. Following massive contract terminations for consulting giants and government contractors like Accenture, Booz Allen, and Deloitte, Palantir has emerged ahead. Now the data analytics firm is partnering with those companies—offering them a lifeline while consolidating its own power. Palantir has become one

Tesla proposes giving Elon Musk $29 billion so he stays CEO

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Tesla approved a restricted stock award of 96 million shares, worth about $29 billion, to “incentivize” the controversial billionaire to remain at the head of the company during a protracted legal battle over his original pay package. Last year, a Delaware court voided Musk’s pay package, valued at more than $50 billion, a

If you use a password manager app, you probably aren’t using it right

Andy Walker / Android Authority Password managers have their purpose set in their names: to manage passwords. Right? Wrong — they’re meant to do so much more. I used to be in the same boat as many of you probably are, using password managers exclusively for generating and storing strong passwords. Then one day, my life took a wonderful turn: I started using my password manager for more than just passwords. It may sound silly at first, but it’s made my life so much better and more convenient.

Bad news for anyone eagerly awaiting the iPad Fold

Alongside an iPhone Fold expected to launch next year, Apple has long been reported to be working on a foldable iPad with an 18.8-inch display. There have, however, been very different estimates of the timeline for the product – and the latest report isn’t good news. Estimates have so far ranged from late next year to sometime in 2028, and an analyst who previously expected a 2026 unveiling has now changed his mind … iPad Fold with 18.8-inch display Reports of the device date back to 2022, wh

Tesla asks shareholders to approve $29B comp package for Elon Musk amid ‘AI talent war’

Tesla’s board of directors has announced a proposed compensation package for CEO Elon Musk that would be worth around $29 billion in shares, with the company citing the “ever-intensifying AI talent war and Tesla’s position at a critical inflection point” as reasons for the payout. The new plan will be put to a vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, which is scheduled for November. It will also be entirely voided if the Delaware Supreme Court decides to overturn a judge’s January 2024