1+ min ago (767+ words) When artificial intelligence systems lie with unwavering certainty, who's really to blame'the machine or the humans who taught it to never admit doubt? Ankit spent three weeks building his machine learning capstone project around a research paper that didn't exist. He was a third-year computer science student studying neural networks and transformer architectures. For his project on natural language processing, he asked an AI assistant for recent papers on attention mechanisms. He used all the available AI tools and finished the work in a few days. The tools gave him five paper summaries with examples, complete with authors and journal names. He built his entire review and paper around them. His professor found out during the first review ' none of the papers were real. None of the papers were real. The AI had fabricated everything'down to fake researcher names at…...

3+ min ago (321+ words) Can't keep up with the soaring popularity. Google has stealthily slashed access limits for its popular Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro tools, adjusting free-tier users' daily prompts amid soaring demand, leaving many to navigate new restrictions without prior warning in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Since its debut, Gemini 3 Pro used to let you make five prompts a day, but now Google only promises "basic access," meaning the limits can change based on demand. Nano Banana Pro also cut the number of free image creations from three to two per day. Google didn't make a big announcement about these changes; they just showed up on the updated support page, first noticed by 9to5Google. More people are using Gemini 3 Pro than Google probably expected. The model offers better reasoning, more features, and clearer visuals thanks to Nano Banana Pro's improved rendering…...

4+ min ago (122+ words) This project implements a simple Notes WebApp using Google Cloud (GCP) serverless services: Firestore, Cloud Functions, and a static frontend hosted on Cloud Storage. 1. NoSQL database: Firestore in Native mode, collection notes. 2. Serverless backend: Cloud Functions (Python) exposing a mini REST API: 3. Frontend: Web page (HTML/CSS/JS) hosted as a static site in Cloud Storage. Create the file main.py Includes functionality: create, list, edit, delete notes + CORS. Create the file requirements.txt Get and store the URL: Get and store the service account used by the function: Grant Firestore permissions to that service account Create the file index.html Create the file styles.css Create the file app.js " Replace API_BASE_URL with your Cloud Function URL....

9+ min ago (1432+ words) TL;DR: Scanners that run automatically, findings that aggregate in one place, reports that don't make stakeholders' eyes glaze over. For small-to-medium engineering teams who need real security without hiring a dedicated AppSec team. Who is this guide for? Teams without a dedicated AppSec function, platform engineers, or DevOps teams who want a practical, tool-agnostic blueprint for continuous security in CI/CD. Security scanners are cheap. Security architecture that developers don't hate is expensive. Most teams end up with a mess: SAST runs somewhere in Jenkins, Snyk emails get ignored, and pentest reports live in Google Drive where findings go to die. Developers don't ignore security findings because they're lazy'they ignore them because findings arrive in 47 different places with zero context. This is the architecture I built and actually use. Not a vendor pitch. Not enterprise theater. Just the stack that…...

12+ min ago (798+ words) Unlocking Neural Network Secrets: Scale-Invariant Geometry for Smarter AI Are your deep learning models black boxes? Do you crave efficiency without sacrificing accuracy? Imagine a world where neural networks are not only powerful but also interpretable and easily optimized. The key might lie in a surprising discovery: the spontaneous emergence of geometric structure within networks during training. At the heart of this lies the concept of scale-invariant function representation. Think of it like fractals; the same fundamental patterns appear at different levels of magnification. In neural networks, this means the way the network processes information locally (small patches of the input) mirrors how it handles the entire input, creating a cohesive and organized computational landscape. This inherent geometric organization, appearing organically during the learning process, offers several key advantages for developers: Enhanced Interpretability: Understanding the underlying geometry reveals how the…...

13+ min ago (678+ words) URUMQI (Dec 1): The Taklimakan Desert sand-blocking green belt project in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which celebrated its first anniversary on Friday, has effectively protected surrounding oases, farmland and grasslands by curbing desert expansion, with sand sources now under control. The 3,046-kilometer green ecological barrier " the world's longest of its kind " encircles China's largest desert like a "green scarf" to control sand diffusion. This project was globally recognised last month when it was listed among the "2025 Top 10 Global Engineering Achievements" by the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO). Infrastructure such as water supply, electricity and roads has been steadily improved, supporting the barrier's growth and sustainability. "When we were young, this entire area was nothing but desert," the couple recalled, gazing at the thriving sand date tree saplings. "We never imagined we'd be able to cultivate these trees here....

13+ min ago (891+ words) Apple AirPods Pro 3 for $220 ($29 off): Apple's latest flagship wireless earbuds are the ones to get if you have an iPhone and any other Apple gear. They have improved sound quality, impressive ANC improvements, extra features like Live Translation and even better battery life. Apple iPad A16 for $274 (21 percent off): Apple's cheapest iPad makes a great first tablet for kids, or anyone who just wants a basic slab for watching videos, online shopping, sending emails and more. It's plenty fast thanks to the A16 chipset that powers it, plus it has a nice screen, 128GB of storage in the base model and good battery life. Meta Quest 3S VR headset for $250 ($50 off): We consider this to be the best VR headset for newbies or those on a budget. It's comfortable to wear for long sessions, has solid performance, comes with excellent controllers and you'll have…...

14+ min ago (236+ words) New look, who this? As Samsung prepares for the anticipated release of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, whispers of a striking blackout design emerge from industry insiders, hinting at an innovative take on aesthetics that could redefine flagship smartphone styling for 2026. The tipster states, "This time, the Galaxy S26 Ultra black version features a black frame." However, it seems consumers might be in for a slight visual anomaly if this happens. The post on X states, "overall visual bezel is inevitably wider," because of the black edges around the display. The bezels are the black border around a display, a distinct marker that separates the display from its edges. If that and the frame is black, it might give the illusion that the S26 Ultr has massive bezels, when that (might not) be the case. This time, the Galaxy S26 Ultra black version features a…...

14+ min ago (236+ words) New look, who this? As Samsung prepares for the anticipated release of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, whispers of a striking blackout design emerge from industry insiders, hinting at an innovative take on aesthetics that could redefine flagship smartphone styling for 2026. The tipster states, "This time, the Galaxy S26 Ultra black version features a black frame." However, it seems consumers might be in for a slight visual anomaly if this happens. The post on X states, "overall visual bezel is inevitably wider," because of the black edges around the display. The bezels are the black border around a display, a distinct marker that separates the display from its edges. If that and the frame is black, it might give the illusion that the S26 Ultr has massive bezels, when that (might not) be the case. This time, the Galaxy S26 Ultra black version features a…...

14+ min ago (580+ words) As a nonprofit news organization, Adirondack Explorer relies on readers like you.All donations are matcheddollar-for-dollar through Dec. 31, up to $100,000. Double your impacton independent journalism today. Move over Doppler radar and Farmer's Almanac. When it comes to predicting winter in the Adirondack Mountains, there's another meteorologist predicting the weather'and he fits in the palm of my hand, wears a fur coat year-round and doesn't say a word. Meet the legendary woolly bear caterpillar. The woolly bear caterpillar is the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth. It's known not just for its banded black-and-brown coloring, but for the curious legend that surrounds it: that the width of its colored stripes can predict the severity of the upcoming winter. Here's how it supposedly works: More black than brown? Bundle up'winter's coming in hard. More brown than black? Not so bad. You…...