🔗 Articles: Wednesday 29.May.2024
Put a Tiger in Your Tank!
CleanTechnica: BYD Unveils Plug-In Hybrid With 1,305 Miles Of Total Range
28.May.2024
If you happen to live in China, the base price for the BYD Qin L and Seal 06 is 99,800 yuan ($13,775). Holy EV disruption, Batman! If these cars ever came to the US, BYD would never be able to keep up with demand. Of course, they are not coming to the US, because there is now a 100 percent tariff on Chinese made cars, but even at double the price, American buyers would be breaking down the doors to get one.
But wait, there’s more. BYD says owners of cars with the new plug-in hybrid technology can save up to 9,682 yuan ($1,336) a year in fuel costs compared to driving a traditional gasoline powered car. By lightning-like calculation, that means the Qin L or Seal 06 could have a net cost of zero — as in nada — if you buy it and keep it for 10 years. That’s unbelievable.
TechCrunch: Mistral releases Codestral, its first generative AI model for code
Mistral, the French AI startup backed by Microsoft and valued at $6 billion, has released its first generative AI model for coding, dubbed Codestral.
Codestral, like other code-generating models, is designed to help developers write and interact with code. It was trained on over 80 programming languages, including Python, Java, C++ and JavaScript, explains Mistral in a blog post. Codestral can complete coding functions, write tests and “fill in” partial code, as well as answer questions about a codebase in English.
Mistral describes the model as “open,” but that’s up for debate. The startup’s license prohibits the use of Codestral and its outputs for any commercial activities. There’s a carve-out for “development,” but even that has caveats: the license goes on to explicitly ban “any internal usage by employees in the context of the company’s business activities.”
The reason could be that Codestral was trained partly on copyrighted content. Mistral didn’t confirm or deny this in the blog post, but it wouldn’t be surprising; there’s evidence that the startup’s previous training data sets contained copyrighted data.
Guardian: Delhi temperature hits 52.9C, shattering India’s national record
Authorities warn of water shortages with temperatures 9C higher than expected and 1.9C above previous countrywide highpoint.
Guardian: Trump likens himself to Mother Teresa as jury weighs fate in hush-money case
After Judge Juan Merchan instructs jury, Trump rails against proceedings, saying even saint ‘could not beat these charges’.
Apparently he’s a martyr and a saint!
Kottke: “My Bike Is Everything to Me”
Bill Walton:
I am the luckiest guy in the world because I am alive and I can ride my bike. It is the ultimate celebration of life when you go out there and are able to do what you can do. I have not been able to play basketball for 34 years. I have not been able to walk for enjoyment or pleasure or exercise in 41 years, but I can ride my bike.
Wired: ‘Largest Botnet Ever’ Tied to Billions in Stolen Covid-19 Relief Funds
The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday announced charges against a 35-year-old Chinese national, Yunhe Wang, accused of operating a massive botnet allegedly linked to billions of dollars in fraud, child exploitation, and bomb threats, among other crimes.
Wang, identified by numerous pseudonyms — Tom Long and Jack Wan, among others — was arrested on May 24 and is accused of distributing malware through various pop-up VPN services, such as “ProxyGate” and “MaskVPN,” and by embedding viruses in internet files distributed via peer-to-peer networks known as torrents.
Last Updated: 29.May.2024 19:36 EDT