With the release of new AI models that are better at coding, developers are increasingly using AI to generate code. One of the newest examples is the current batch coming out of Y Combinator, the storied Silicon Valley startup accelerator. A quarter of the W25 startup batch have 95% of their codebases generated by AI, [β¦]
EA doesn't always treat its classic library with respect, as evidenced by its recent barely touched-up The Sims Legacy Collection. But the folks shepherding Command & Conquer, a vanguard series in the bygone genre of real-time strategy (RTS) games, are seemingly fueled by a different kind of Tiberium.
After releasing a reverential remaster of the first two games in 2020 with 4K upscaling and behind-the-scenes looks at their full-motion video scenes, EA is now opening up the series even more to its fans. Source code for the originalΒ C&C, Red Alert, Renegade (the first-person one), andΒ Generals/Zero Hour has been dropped on GitHub. Along with Steam Workshop support for most of the series, that should enable a new generation of mods for the games. Given the extent of the code available, mods could include the kinds of modern updates, like higher and wider resolutions or beefed-up textures and refresh rates, that all good games deserve.
Building and working with this code will not be a plug-and-play affair. The namesake 1995 game and its hugely popular 1996 Red Alert sequel require some older dependencies, like DirectX 5 and the Greenleaf Communications Library (for a full build and tool access) and the Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM 4.0) to compile. RenegadeΒ andΒ Generals, however, call for a whole lot more nostalgia: STLport 4.5.3, the SafeDisk API, the GameSpy SDK, the RAD Miles Sound System SDK, and at least eight more.
Valve's updates to its classic games evoke Hemingway's two kinds of going bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly. Nothing is heard, little is seen, and then, one day, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch,Β Day of Defeat, and other Source-engine-based games get a bevy of modern upgrades. Now, the entirety of Team Fortress 2 (TF2) client and server game code, a boon for modders and fixers, is also being released.
That source code allows for more ambitious projects than have been possible thus far, Valve wrote in a blog post. "Unlike the Steam Workshop or local content mods, this SDK gives mod makers the ability to change, extend, or rewrite TF2, making anything from small tweaks to complete conversions possible." The SDK license restricts any resulting projects to "a non-commercial basis," but they can be published on Steam's store as their own entities.
Since it had the tools out, Valve also poked around the games based on that more open source engine and spiffed them up as well. Most games got 64-bit binary support, scalable HUD graphics, borderless window options, and the like. Many of these upgrades come from the big 25-year anniversary update made toΒ Half-Life 2, which included "overbright lighting," gamepad configurations, Steam networking support, and the like.
Microsoft said it has detected a new variant of XCSSET, a powerful macOS malware family that has targeted developers and users since at least 2020.
The variant, which Microsoft reported Monday, marked the first publicly known update to the malware since 2022. The malware first came to light in 2020, when security firm Trend Micro said it had targeted app developers after spreading through a publicly available project the attacker wrote for Xcode, a developer tool Apple makes freely available. The malware gained immediate attention because it exploited what, at the time, were two zero-day vulnerabilities, a testament to the resourcefulness of the entity behind the attacks.
In 2021, XCSSET surfaced again, first when it was used to backdoor developersβ devices and a few months later when researchers found it exploiting what at the time was a new zero-day.
If youβre working for a small company and want to build a client portal or an internal tool, it can be difficult to find the budget and resources to allocate a developer to that small project. Thatβs why more than 600,000 people, including project managers, HR employees and marketing people, have been trying Softrβs no-code [β¦]
Bill Gates got candid about his experiences with LSD.
NBC/Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
Bill Gates opened up about his past drug use in his memoir, "Source Code: My Beginnings."
Gates said he tried LSD as a young man despite what Steve Jobs may have thought years ago.
During his "trips," he said he thought about code more than creation or design.
Bill Gates has a more colorful past than the straight-laced image he has in the tech industry implies.
These days, Gates' name is associated with philanthropy and cofounding Microsoft, but the billionaire reminded us that he was once a teenager experimenting with drugs.
Gates, 69, spoke briefly about taking LSD on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and included an anecdote about Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. He recalled a comment by his late rival suggesting he should "take acid" to help with his design taste.
He said he thought to himself at the time, "I took the acid. It was just that I got the batch that's about code, not about design.'"
Jobs was open about his experiences with LSD and other psychedelics as a young man. He told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that dropping acid was "a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life."
In his memoir, "Source Code: My Beginnings," Gates said that Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen first asked him to try acid when they were high schoolers, but he declined. When he was asked again as a senior, Gates said he was "feeling a bit uninhibited" from smoking marijuana beforehand.
"I decided to see what it was all about," he wrote.
Gates described his first trip as exhilarating at first, but he had dental surgery the next morning while he was still feeling the effects. He said he wasn't sure what was really happening during the procedure.
"I vowed that if I ever dropped acid again, I wouldn't do it solo and I wouldn't do it when I had plans for the next day," Gates said.
He did end up dropping acid again. While he was a student at Harvard, Gates wrote, he took LSD again on a friend's birthday. This time, he had a seemingly "cosmic" experience that ended with him worrying that his brain could erase his memories like a computer could delete files.
"That would be one of the last times I would do LSD," Gates said.
In the past, he's been much less candid about his drug use. He was asked directly by Playboy Magazine in 1994 if he'd ever done LSD, and his response could be interpreted as an admission.
"My errant youth ended a long time ago," he told the interviewer.
Bill Gates chronicled his childhood and schooling in a new memoir, "Source Code."
Gates, who dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft, wasn't a fan of school from an early age.
He wrote that his preschool teachers described him as a "rebellious child."
From an early age, Bill Gates was not a fan of school.
Gates famously dropped out of Harvard to cofound Microsoft in 1975, a move he's said he doesn't regret.
His new memoir, "Source Code: My Beginnings," reveals how his aversion to academic settings dates back to his earliest years.
In the book, Gates chronicles his upbringing and schooling as a self-described "hyperkinetic, brainy, often contrarian, tempestuous" son and student.
Gates writes that even his preschool teachers noticed that he was not interested in being there.
"My mother worried about me and warned my preschool teachers at Acorn Academy what to expect," Gates wrote.
"At the end of my first year, the director of the school wrote: 'His mother had prepared us for him for she seemed to feel that he was a great contrast to his sister. We heartily concurred with her in this conclusion, for he seemed determined to impress us with his complete lack of concern for any phase of school life. He did not know or care to know how to cut, put on his own coat, and was completely happy thus.'"
A young Bill Gates.
Doug Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images
Gates wrote that in his second year of preschool, the director described him as a "newly aggressive, rebellious child" who was "frustrated and unhappy much of the time."
"What educators and my parents noted at an early age were hints of what would come. I channeled the same intensity that drew me into solving the puzzle of Gami's card skill into anything that interested me β and nothing that didn't," Gates wrote, referring to his grandmother's card-game prowess.
Gates' misbehavior continued into elementary and high school, where he wrote that he became the "class clown."
"My teacher, my parents, and the school principal were at a loss as to what to do with me," he wrote. "My grades were mixed; my attitude depended on the day and the subject."
When Gates' high school acquired an early computer, it finally provided him with an outlet where he was challenged and engaged β so much so that he even went dumpster diving for source code and hacked into a corporation's operating system in his thirst for more knowledge.
Gates, of course, went on to start Microsoft and become a billionaire and philanthropist β one of many successful people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, and Steve Jobs β who have spoken about their struggles to conform to the structure of traditional schooling.
Savant Labs launched its automation platform for data analysts in 2023. The company, which competes with the likes of Alteryx, on Thursday said it had raised $18.5 million in a Series A round led by Dell Technologies Capital. Unlike some other low-code/no-code tools, Savantβs focus is squarely on business analysts. Analysts, its CEO and founder [β¦]
Federal employees face a new challenge: their wardrobes.
sot/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
For federal employees preparing to return to the office full time, dressing right may be hard.
BI spoke to stylists and federal workers, one of whom described the vibe as "funeral director chic."
The stylists suggested a few simple suits, understated accessories, and ditching the stilettos.
Faced with President Trump's recent return-to-office mandate, many government employees across the country once again need to figure out how to dress for five days a week at their desks.
The RTO mandates come among a surge of other private and public organizations ordering people back to the workplace, but federal fashion has been known for being more conservative than typical workwear.
Business Insider spoke with three personal stylists who said that government workers have limited office options compared to other employees across corporate America. Here are their tips for looking the part.
Federal workwear can resemble 'funeral director chic'
"There is almost zero latitude for personal style in federal government jobs. I think this is where sort of DC gets its reputation for being really boring sartorially," Kate Breen, a DC-based personal stylist who founded GetDressedGo and has worked with federal employees, told BI.
A civil servant at a foreign affairs agency, who did not want to be named because she isn't granted permission to speak by her agency, described the style as "funeral director chic." She has worked largely remotely since the pandemic and BI has verified her identity.
This era of remote work has transformed the way many employees approach dressing for their jobs. Reginald Ferguson, a stylist and the founder of New York Fashion Geek, said hoodies have become just as acceptable as blouses and collared shirts.
However, Ferguson said, "You're not going to see jeans and hoodies" at a government office.
"It's certainly not about originality," he told BI.
Breen said she sometimes sees entire crosswalks full of identically dressed people in DC, especially men.
An August report from the Office of Management and Budget said that 54% of the nation's 2.28 million civil servants worked fully in person, and only 10% were remote as of May.
Even for those accustomed to going into the office, Trump's recent mandates pertaining to the federal workforce, along with his cost-cutting plans as part of the new Department of Government Efficiency, have caused anxiety for workers. One said it's showing up in how people dress.
A federal contractor for a Washington, DC, agency told BI, "People are dressed up. They had nice clothes on. I said, 'Wow!' Because people are worried." One of her colleagues used to wear "a Mr. Rogers sweater" but has started wearing a tie, she said. She didn't want to be named as she's not authorized to speak openly about her role at a government agency; BI has verified her identity.
For government employees that aren't based in the capital, the dress code is business casual but still more conservative than corporate jobs, Jorian Palos, a California-based Department of Public Social Services worker, said. The 24-year-old said that her older coworkers tend to dress more formally, but she sticks to a more relaxed style for her in-person workweek.
Whether they're going back to the office for the first time in years or adjusting to new vibes, it's time for federal employees to beef up their closets with more business-casual options.
Workers should take stock of their existing closet
"Anyone returning back to the office should review their wardrobe and remember that they are no longer dressing for a Zoom," Ferguson said.
Breen suggested that government employees try on all of their clothing and get rid of anything that's in poor condition or doesn't fit, physically or emotionally. She and Ting Lin, another DC-area stylist, advise employees to invest in one or two well-tailored, dark-colored suits.
"The great thing about suits is that they're not remarkable, so wearing the same or alternating them every other day β people don't really notice," Breen told BI.
Lin and Breen said that understated accessories and jewelry can bring personality to an otherwise simple outfit. For younger employees, in particular, Breen said that good-quality shoes and bags can help them stand out and signal professionalism.
The DC-area stylists told BI that comfortable shoes are key. Lin said she doesn't see as many federal employees wearing stilettos to the office anymore, opting instead for a chunky heel or loafer.
"My tolerance for high heels is out the window," the employee at the foreign affairs agency told BI. "In terms of heels βΒ low heels, I'm probably only wearing those to specific events or meetings."
Michelle Obama nailed the look
When asked if anyone exemplified ideal federal workwear, Lin and Breen had the same answer: Michelle Obama. The former first lady, they said, mastered mixing conservative clothing with identifiable personal style. Breen said Obama dressed in a way both "appealing and accessible" and recalled when she paired J.Crew gloves with a designer gown at an inauguration parade.
"A lot of my clients reference her regardless of their political affiliation because she did such a great job not completely capitulating to the DC ΓΌber-conservative expectations and showing her real personality," she told BI.
Tim Paradis contributed to the reporting of this story.
AI holds huge promise for healthcare, but not just on the medical side; many startups are convinced machine learning-based systems can do a lot of good on adjacent tasks such as appointment scheduling and confirmations. Brazilian startup Carecode is among these AI believers. Itβs coming out of stealth with an ambition to reduce healthcare costs [β¦]
Encode, the nonprofit organization that co-sponsored Californiaβs ill-fated SB 1047 AI safety legislation, has requested permission to file an amicus brief in support of Elon Muskβs injunction to halt OpenAIβs transition to a for-profit company. In a proposed brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Friday afternoon, counsel for [β¦]
Keyu Tian and his coauthors won the Best Paper Award at the annual NeurIPS machine-learning conference for their work on a new technique for generating images. Some have objected to the decision.
