Month: June 2025

How We Pre-Trained a 300M Parameter Audio Encoder With Random Quantization

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Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Approach 2.1 Architecture 2.2 Multimodal Instruction Finetuning 2.3 Curriculum Learning with Parameter Efficient Finetuning 3 Experiments 4 Results 4.1 Evaluation of SpeechVerse models 4.2 Generalization Across Instructions 4.3 Strategies for Improving Performance 5 Related Work 6 Conclusion, Limitations, Ethics Statement, and References A Appendix A.1 Audio Encoder … Read more

Fortunate Son From Our Neighborhood

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It’s a military expert’s season. Isn’t it amazing? Everybody has a take on the military parade (AKA Trump’s Bday parade). What do I know? I joined the military when I was 15. I spent six years training and learning to be an officer and a gentleman. For a soldier to be dressed like that and … Read more

Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Shrugs Off Fed, Mideast War, but Derivatives Flash Caution

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By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin BTC remains stable around $105,000 after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, as expected. It hasn’t traded below the psychological threshold of $100,000 since May 8, a full 42 days ago, even though the Israel-Iran conflict — now coming up for a week … Read more

A Unified Multimodal Approach to Speech Processing with LLMs

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Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Approach 2.1 Architecture 2.2 Multimodal Instruction Finetuning 2.3 Curriculum Learning with Parameter Efficient Finetuning 3 Experiments 4 Results 4.1 Evaluation of SpeechVerse models 4.2 Generalization Across Instructions 4.3 Strategies for Improving Performance 5 Related Work 6 Conclusion, Limitations, Ethics Statement, and References A Appendix A.1 Audio Encoder … Read more

Nobitex’s Source Code Released a Day After Hackers Steal Tokens Across Bitcoin, EVM, Ripple Networks

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The pro-Israel hacker collective Gonjeshke Darande released the full source code of Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, just a day after orchestrating a $100 million exploit across multiple blockchains as the war between the two countries nears the end of its first week. The move raised fresh concerns for users who have not yet withdrawn their … Read more

Why Traditional Monitoring is Falling Behind And What’s Taking Its Place

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You’re not managing a quiet room of servers anymore. You’re wrangling a noisy, shape-shifting orchestra of containers, microservices, and distributed pieces that don’t always follow the rules. Most of them don’t even stick around long enough to say hello. According to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, more than 96% of organizations are now using or … Read more

All are welcome at the Crypto Conclave

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Big news, and all are welcome The year 2025 is off to a great start. Bitcoin has set new records, new rules are coming to protect investors, traditional financial institutions continue to get into crypto, and new funds are coming to the Boston puppy pack. ==But first: a Rabbi, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu … Read more

Tesla Motors Could Run on Defunct Bitcoin Mining

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Electric Cars As I said in “In the Beginning was the Command Line … then there was Bitcoin”, Neal Stephenson predicted Teslas back in 1999. Electric Cars: Fast and Quiet and Clean as a Silicon Waffer Laboratory. Only problem is, they still run on batteries charged by intermittent solar papanels. Instead of running on Solar … Read more

The Revival of PasifikaOS – Digital Sovereignty Rises in the Pacific

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The Global Shift Towards Digital Independence As I write this from my base on The Hill, Tele’a-Laiko at Vaini (V-Town) in Tonga, remarkable developments are unfolding across Europe that validate everything we’ve been advocating for in our scattered island nations. Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Affairs has announced they will transition away from Microsoft services, including … Read more