Author: Blaze Woodard
Blaze Woodard, an editor at cubox-i.com, is presently working as an intern at a Silicon Valley technology company while majoring in politics at the University of Kansas. Blaze, who identifies as both a policy thinker and a self-described tech geek, offers a viewpoint on hardware and computing coverage that few editors in this field can match: the capacity to relate the workings of a circuit board to the larger political, regulatory, and social forces influencing the technology sector. Even though her academic path led her to political science, her early fascination with technology persisted. She writes about computing, AI, and hardware with the zeal of someone who truly loves the subject, not as someone assigned to cover it. Blaze plays soccer and spends her free time with friends and living her life, which is exactly what a college student should do outside of the office and newsroom.
The thought that the next major social network may already be installed on your phone, sandwiched between a DoorDash delivery update and a text from your mother, is subtly humorous. Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, two Yale seniors, founded Series, a startup that recently closed a $5.1 million pre-seed round to develop an AI-powered networking layer that resides inside iMessage. There is no app to download. There is no feed to browse. It’s just a phone number you text and a supposedly helpful conversation. InformationDetailsCompany NameSeriesFoundersNathaneo Johnson and Sean HargrowFounders’ UniversityYale UniversityHeadquartersChelsea, New YorkFunding RoundPre-SeedAmount Raised$5.1 MillionLead InvestorPear VCNotable BackersIqram…
The sound is the first thing you notice when you pass a supercomputing facility. It’s a steady, low roar that serves as a reminder that something serious is going on behind the walls, not the soft hum of an office server. There are rows of black cabinets inside that blink softly, resembling library shelves. It is difficult to believe that devices like these, which are heavy, power-hungry, and nearly out of style in the era of thin phones, are performing some of the most delicate tasks in the worldwide movement toward cleaner energy. Nevertheless, they are. InformationDetailsTopic FocusHigh-Performance Computing (HPC)…
Halfway through a debate round in Washington, Aria-Vue Daugherty became aware that her vision wasn’t working properly. She had been struck earlier that morning by a black SUV. Nevertheless, she completed the round, went on her own to the George Washington University Hospital emergency room, and spent seven and a half hours there. By Monday, she was back in Cambridge, sitting in lecture halls that were difficult for her to comprehend and heavily relying on Harvard’s Peer Notetaker program, a tiny but unyielding organization. Topic SnapshotDetailsSubjectHarvard’s Peer Notetaker Program under the Disability Access OfficeInstitutionHarvard University, Cambridge, MassachusettsStipend Per Course$600Notetakers Hired…
Nearly no one in the technology sector wants to publicly acknowledge the peculiar contradiction that currently exists at its core. The world’s largest corporations are wealthier than they have ever been. The value of their stock continues to rise. Their AI products are being embraced more quickly than anyone could have imagined. However, there is a distinct atmosphere when you enter any campus in Menlo Park, Redmond, or Mountain View. Hiring is frozen. silent layoffs. Overnight, entire product teams merged into one another. The dissonance is difficult to ignore. Topic / EntityDetailsSubject of ArticleBig Tech belt-tightening amid the AI capital…
Around 2012, there was a time when the CuBox seemed like a tiny miracle. Barely heavier than a deck of cards, this two-inch cube can stream 1080p video to a living room flat screen. It ran XBMC, cost about $100, and looked ridiculous compared to the heavy home theater PCs of the time. It was a hit with hobbyists. Build guides lit up forums. It then disappeared from the cultural discourse, much like a lot of specialized hardware. The majority of the oxygen went to the Raspberry Pi. Nevertheless, the CuBox continued to ship. Product NameCuBoxManufacturerSolidRun Ltd.HeadquartersYokneam Illit, IsraelFirst Released2011Original…
The first thing you notice when you walk into a Big Four office on a Tuesday night in midtown Manhattan is how few people are still going through binders. The workstations are more tidy. The screens are larger. The auditor is posing questions to what appears to be a chat window on someone’s screen next to a general ledger, much like you would to a slightly distracted coworker. This is the part where the profession was not forewarned that the change would come in the form of a sidebar. Auditing has rewarded a certain level of patience for the majority…
You begin to notice them if you drive through some parts of northern Virginia at dusk. Fenced off, humming, long, windowless buildings sit low against the tree line. There are no logos, no signs, and occasionally not even a clear address. Only gravel lots, chain-link, and the gentle mechanical sound of cooling systems operating nonstop. These areas of land were soybean fields ten years ago. These days, they are the engines of a technology that most people engage with via a chat window without ever considering the grumbling grid behind it. Subject ProfileDetailsTopicAI data center expansion and its pressure on…
It’s difficult to ignore how rapidly the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence has moved from the chatbots themselves to the odd, humming structures that support them. When discussing AI two years ago, the majority of people wanted to discuss ChatGPT’s magic. These days, chips, cooling systems, and electricity bills are the topics of conversation in San Francisco coffee shops and on New York earnings calls. There’s a feeling that the software was never the true story. The hardware underneath was always the problem. FieldDetailsSubjectThe Hardware Backbone of Generative AIDominant CompanyNVIDIA CorporationFounded1993, Santa Clara, CaliforniaKey InnovationGraphics Processing Unit (GPU), launched 1999Parallel ArchitectureCUDA,…
A flood was what John Torous anticipated. He is a psychiatrist who has been treating psychosis at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston for years. He thought his clinic would soon look very different when the term “AI psychosis” began to appear in headlines, podcasts, and anxious Reddit threads. A new type of breakdown influenced by a new type of technology, new patients, and new symptoms. In any case, that was the expectation. There was no flood. InformationDetailsLead ResearcherJohn Torous, MDAffiliationHarvard Medical School; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CenterRoleAssociate Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Digital Psychiatry DivisionCo-authorsMatthew Flathers (computer scientist, BIDMC) and Spencer…
These days, you encounter a certain type of developer at audio meetups and home-lab forums: slightly evangelical, slightly disillusioned, and carrying a tiny black cube the size of a child’s fist. They’ll tell you that they’ve moved on from the Pi, almost apologetically. Not totally. Really, no one leaves the Raspberry Pi. However, they claim that the CuBox simply accomplishes tasks that the Pi cannot for some projects. ProfileDetailsProduct FamilyCuBox-i / CuBox Pulse series of mini-computersManufacturerSolidRun Ltd., headquartered in Yokneam Illit, IsraelFounded2010Core SoCNXP i.MX6 (Quad / Dual / Solo) and newer i.MX8 variantsForm FactorRoughly 2 x 2 x 2 inches…