Some thoughts on journals, refereeing, and the P vs NP problem
Computational Complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science from Lance Fortnow and Bill Gasarch
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Computational Complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science from Lance Fortnow and Bill Gasarch
Upon arrival at Japan’s Henn na Hotel, you are greeted by a pair of receptionists nodding from behind the front desk as you check in at a tablet. A quiet grace emanates from their serene smiles, confident gaze, and perfect porcelain skin. Say “good evening,” and they may blink. Ask for the weather report, and they may reply, "Tomorrow's weather is fine and 25C.” They wear pristine white uniforms, blue silk scarves, and white caps that sit perfectly atop their glossy black bobs. They speak seve
Amid growing tensions and an escalating trade war between the United States and China, international business travelers may be understandably wary about traveling to the Chinese mainland. The US Department of State currently has a Level 2 travel advisory for China, instructing visitors to “exercise increased caution” because of the “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” The reality on the ground is more complicated. While there have been instances of detention of US nationals, exit bans, and ra
The news: OpenAI has finally released its first open-weight large language models since 2019’s GPT-2. Unlike the models available through OpenAI’s web interface, these new open models can be freely downloaded, run, and even modified on laptops and other local devices. Why it matters: These releases re-establish OpenAI as a presence for users of open models. That’s particularly notable at a time when Meta, which had previously dominated the American open-model landscape with its Llama models, ma
Google is rolling a fix for a bug that made some Pixel users' three-button navigation unresponsive with its monthly software update this August. As The Verge notes, after the company released Android 16 in June, Pixel users have been reporting that their buttons are being unresponsive or that it's taking up to 30 seconds for their device to register a tap. Some said they have to press the back button several times for the three-button menu to start working. Users from across Pixel models, includ
The head of NASA has decided to move one of the agency's retired space shuttles to Houston, but which one seems to still be up in the air. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who earlier this year introduced and championed an effort to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian to Space Center Houston, issued a statement on Tuesday evening (August 5) applauding the decision by acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. "There is no better place for one of NASA's space shuttles to be displ
is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. OpenAI released a new free and open GPT model yesterday that can run on a PC, and now Microsoft is making that easy to do for Windows users. The lightweight gpt-oss-20b model is now available on Windows AI Foundry, and will be coming soon to macOS, too. You’ll need a PC or laptop with at l
Google has a fun tradition of codenaming Android versions after desserts in alphabetical order. In the early days of Android, these dessert codenames were part of the Android name/branding. However, with Android 10’s release in 2019, Google dropped the codename from the public name, even though it has continued to use the dessert codename internally. Android 15 is internally called Vanilla Ice Cream, whereas Android 16 is called Baklava. With Android 16 out for a while now, and Android 16 QPR1 a
Being mindful of our current thoughts, feelings and surroundings can be a challenge, especially in modern times. I, personally, find it difficult to ground myself in the present and have often tried using meditation apps to help. However, the app that has given me the most success when it comes to being mindful and present isn't one for breathing exercises or mental health but one for identifying the birds around me. Since 2014, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Merlin Bird ID was launched to help p
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Nvidia’s chief security officer has published a blog post insisting that its GPUs “do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors.” It comes amid pressure from both sides of the Pacific, with some US lawmakers pushing Nvidia to grant the government backdoors to AI chips, while Chinese officials have alleged that they already exist. “To mitigate the risk of misuse, some pundits and policymakers propo
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A lot of people are overly reliant on Google. They put all of their important messages, appointments, musings, contacts, and spreadsheets into Google products. Many are aware that Google, like many tech firms, is likely to prioritize its own interests over user privacy. But signing data away for technological conveniences is a common occurrence. Murena's Pixel Tablet takes a stance against that norm. It's Google’s Pixel Tablet hardware running an Android fork but without any Google tracking or
China is one of Nvidia's largest markets, particularly for data centers, gaming and artificial intelligence applications. Two Chinese nationals in California have been arrested and charged with the illegal shipment of tens of millions of dollars' worth of AI chips, including those made by Nvidia , the Department of Justice said Tuesday. Chuan Geng, 28, and Shiwei Yang, 28, exported the sensitive chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without obtaining the requi
Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images We all know AI relies on open-source software, but most of the big AI companies avoid opening their code or their large language model (LLM) weights. Today, things have changed. OpenAI, the artificial intelligence titan behind ChatGPT, announced a landmark return to its open-source origins. The company unveiled two new open-weight language models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, marking its first public release of freely available AI model weights since GP
Download a print-friendly version of this article. Los Alamos scientists are good at doing things that seem impossible, like taking a picture of something that happens in less than seven-millionths of a second—such as an explosion. And not just one picture, but a series of images that reveal pivotal data about the material that exploded and the physics of the explosion. This so-called dynamic imaging is essential to the Lab’s stockpile stewardship mission because it helps scientists test and un
The issues appear to have started popping up shortly after the official release of Android 16 in June. Ever since that update, the user said that navigation has been “a complete mess” and that they ran into issues with buttons being “completely unresponsive” or delays of “over 30 seconds” on their Pixel 8 Pro. Another user said they had to occasionally press the back button “a few times” on their Pixel 9 to get the phone to register it. The swipe gesture to navigate back also occasionally stoppe
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the beginning of a coordinated wind-down of its mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), including the cancellation and de-scoping of various contracts and solicitations. The decision follows a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency. “We reviewed the science, listened to the
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc., attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, 2025. Snap shares tanked more than 15% Tuesday when it reported second-quarter earnings in which global average revenue per user missed expectations. Here is how the company did compared with Wall Street's expectations: Earnings per share: Loss of 16 cents. That figure is not comparable to analysts' estimates. Loss of 16 cents.
In a scathing open letter, luminaries from the AI industry and beyond are calling on OpenAI to prove that it hasn't betrayed humanity in favor of profits. Referring to themselves as the "legal beneficiaries of your charitable mission" — that is, members of the human species OpenAI pledged to benefit when it was granted nonprofit status in 2015 — the open letter, signed by the likes of AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton and AI researcher Gary Marcus, charges the Sam Altman-run company with essentially
You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, and private keys Last modified August 5, 2025 Last modified August 5, 2025 I was working on my homelab and examined a file that was supposed to contain encrypted content that I could safely commit on a Github repository. The file looked like this { "serial" : 13 , "lineage" : "24d431ee-3da9-4407-b649-b0d2c0ca2d67" , "meta" : { "key_provider.pbkdf2.password_key" : "eyJzYWx0IjoianpHUlpMVkFOZUZKcEpSeGo4UlhnNDhGZk9vQisrR0YvSG9ubTZzSUY5WT0iLCJpdGVyYX
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc., attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, 2025. Snap shares tanked 15% Tuesday when it reported second-quarter earnings in which global average revenue per user missed expectations. Here is how the company did compared with Wall Street's expectations: Earnings per share: Loss of 16 cents. That figure is not comparable to analysts' estimates. Loss of 16 cents. That figur
Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways OpenAI GPT-5 will be released "soon," which could be this week. It will automatically select the best model for prompts. It should help produce higher-quality and faster answers. Despite OpenAI just launching its highly anticipated open-source models on Tuesday, people are already on the lookout for OpenAI's next big move, with rumblings of an even bigger release on the near horizon: GPT-5. Also: ChatGPT can no longer tell you to break up
You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, and private keys Last modified August 5, 2025 Last modified August 5, 2025 I was working on my homelab and examined a file that was supposed to contain encrypted content that I could safely commit on a Github repository. The file looked like this { "serial" : 13 , "lineage" : "24d431ee-3da9-4407-b649-b0d2c0ca2d67" , "meta" : { "key_provider.pbkdf2.password_key" : "eyJzYWx0IjoianpHUlpMVkFOZUZKcEpSeGo4UlhnNDhGZk9vQisrR0YvSG9ubTZzSUY5WT0iLCJpdGVyYX
The Trump Administration’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 would take an axe to NASA science. Two satellite missions on the chopping block have provided climate scientists, oil and gas companies, and farmers with critical atmospheric carbon data for years. The Orbiting Carbon Observatories are a pair of instruments that map atmospheric carbon on a global scale. NASA launched the OCO-2 in 2014 and mounted the OCO-3 on the International Space Station in 2019. Trump’s budget proposal threaten
Growing up, the Naked Gun series was a staple in my household. I rented the movies so regularly that my parents gave me the trilogy on DVD for Christmas one year. So when a reboot, or legacy sequel, titled The Naked Gun was announced, I was excited. And apparently, I wasn't the only one -- according to Box Office Mojo, the film generated nearly $17 million at the box office domestically in its opening weekend. Plus, The Naked Gun 2025 has a whopping 90% critic rating and 76% audience score on Ro
Sam Altman’s blowtorch to his competitors is so hot, it even includes a new partnership with Amazon Web Services. As OpenAI announced two open-weight reasoning models with capabilities on par with its o-series, Amazon announced that the new models would become available on AWS on Tuesday. This is the first time that OpenAI models will be offered by AWS, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. They will be available as a model choice with Amazon AI services Bedrock and SageMaker AI. While anyone c
TL;DR The new OpenAI model can now run directly on some devices with Snapdragon chips. It’s the first time an OpenAI reasoning model has been made available for on-device use. This could mean faster, more private AI features on your phone, just not yet. When you use an AI model like ChatGPT, it runs in the cloud rather than on your phone or laptop, but Qualcomm seems eager to change that. The company has announced that OpenAI’s first open-source reasoning model, with the less-than-catchy name
Since 2008, China has observed National Fitness Day on August 8. And in recent years, Apple has marked the occasion with an exclusive Apple Watch challenge. This year will be no exception. National Challenge Day set for August 8 As in previous years, Apple will challenge users in China to complete a 20-minute workout to unlock a custom animated sticker pack to be used in iMessage, FaceTime, and other messaging apps, as well as a special achievement in the Fitness app trophy gallery. Here’s Ap
The highly anticipated launch of the Dream Chaser spaceplane may be delayed yet again as Sierra Space continues to test its experimental vehicle. The inaugural Dream Chaser, named Tenacity, is slated for a launch date in 2025. However, recent comments by a NASA official revealed that there’s a lot more work to be done before the spaceplane is ready to fly to the International Space Station and that it’s highly unlikely to meet its deadline. “We still have some of our integrated safety reviews
For the first time in five years, OpenAI has released two new free and open-source AI models that are lightweight and designed to be easily integrated into other software programs. In a blog post on Tuesday, the company characterized gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b as flexible but powerful AI algorithms that can perform a variety of tasks and be used in numerous settings. The company also included a feedback portal and a more extensive blog that further explains the models and how they work. OpenA