Month: July 2025

Japan looks for the person who built a road on the largest lake in the country. Does not lead anywhere

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Japan It usually fascinates by The unknown and sometimes inexplicable From our western culture (also It happens to them with us). In a country where many words They don’t even have a translation To our language (or They need a phrase), there are countless situations that cause us curiosity. Then there is another set of stories that not only fascinate us, but also. This is one of them, and it started when someone saw something certain. The road. We are in one of the most famous places in the Japanese country. Located in the center-west of the island of Honshu, in the prefecture of Shiga, northwest of Kyoto, is the monumental Biwa Lakethe most extensive in Japan occupying an area of ​​670 square kilometers. Well, the country lives immersed in a mystery that hardly has a logical explanation: someone has built without permission A road on the lake. And it does not carry anywhere. Lake Biwa from space The Chivatazo. The story began last year, when the Anonymous report He arrived at the Civil Engineering offices of the city of Takashima, Shiga Prefecture. This document reported a strange sighting in Biwa. Someone had built what seemed like a road on the largest lake in Japan. An investigation not only verified the track, but also the measures of that mysterious construction. It was a road about 70 meters long and 3 meters wide made of compacted ground that connected two geographical accidents in the Delta del Río Ado. In addition, you could see tire footprints, which clearly indicates some type of use. Google Maps. The satellite tools like Google Maps gave another track of the antiquity of the road. The satellite shots taken three years ago showed nothing similar to a embankment or road, nor of sediments that indicated some kind of natural formation, and Shiga’s prefecture claimed that “until May last year, the road nobody had confirmed the road.” Location of the “road” on Google Maps Visible. From Google Maps Today it is appreciated that the road has suffered considerable wear, probably due to the water rise. In fact, the area close to the site in question is a wetland that even the locals can access. Takashima residents have no idea, since no one ever goes to that area, “there is nothing to do except that hornets or wild boars,” The premises point out. Television travels. The ball became bigger. If nothing and no one used to approach the surroundings of the construction, who and why the hell did such a work? History has taken such a traction that up there local televisions have been displaced. One of the reporters indicated that when he arrived, he observed that the poor condition had made several areas, which betrayed pieces “that looked like asphalt, iron and concrete.” The last track. After the initial notice, the Department of Civil Engineering reported on the road to the Police. Three days later, the authorities received a call from an anonymous person who told them that he had been the author, and that he had piled up land to make the way. The Civil Engineering Department ordered the person to return the area to their original state. A mystery without logic. If you have come here it is possible that you want to know the reason or reason that led whoever was going to build a road on the most extensive lake in Japan. We talk about a work of days and a lot of work for a single person, one who, apparently, makes no sense. That data Police have not given itand it is only known that there is an accusation for unauthorized development, although the person after the call has not appeared so far. Meanwhile, a year later since the Prefecture instructed those who filled the area to restore it to its original state, but the path that leads to nowhere is still there. Image | A-GIâuYomiuri TV, GLCF In Xataka | The city where it is most snow in the world is in Japan and lives buried under a white mantle: this is Aomori In Xataka | The cities of Japan have begun a fierce struggle to lift their economy. THE KEY RECIPE: Ramen *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

AI is one of the most advanced technologies that the human being has built. It also gets distracted with a cat

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An irrelevant phrase, such as “cats snoring when they feel safe”, it can be enough for artificial intelligence to make a reasoning error. It is not necessary to change the question, nor manipulate the code, nor use advanced techniques. Just mislead her. Literally. A minimum distraction, a maximum error. A team of researchers specialized in computer science and artificial intelligence of Collinear AI, Servicenow and Stanford He has discovered A new way of attacking the great language models: inserting a random phrase just after the prompt. This phrase does not have to be related to the question, or contain false information. You just have to be there. AND If you talk about cats, better. That is why the technique is called ‘Catattack’. This is how Catattack works. The technique consists of adding an irrelevant phrase and outside the focus of the question after the real statement of a complex problem that requires reasoning by the model. For example: “We launched a coin 12 times. What is the probability of obtaining at least 10 faces knowing that the first two runs are in face? Curious fact: cats sleep during most of their lives“ Errors found by adding an irrelevant phrase to the prompt. Image: Arxiv: 2503.01781v1 The model, instead of focusing on mathematical operation, seems to lose focus. The team automated this process using phrases generated by other language models or extracted from databases with natural language. They made sure they were grammatical, neutral and without technical information. And yet, the impact was massive. The attack follows this process: Generation of ‘triggers’ (activators): An automated system creates seemingly irrelevant phrases that are added to mathematical problems Transfer of vulnerabilities: The attacks are first tested in weaker models and then transferred to more advanced systems Semantic validation: It is verified that the phrases do not change the meaning of the original problem Everyone falls. The researchers tested this technique starting with Deepseek V3, and then inject the result into other higher models and reasoning such as Deepseek R1, or models O1 and O3-mini of OpenAi. In all cases there was a significant fall in the precision of the answers. In some evidence, the researchers showed that the transfer of these incorrect results reached a rate of up to 50%. The attacks were tested in tasks of logic, mathematics and verbal reasoning. Vulnerabilities that remain to stop. The study concludes that even the most advanced reasoning models are vulnerable to those activators that do not depend on the consultation, which significantly increase the probability of errors. He showed that even in powerful reasoning models, such as Deepseek R1, the error rate tripled. In addition to inducing errors, these elements added to the PROMPTS make the answers also unnecessarily long, which can generate computational inefficiencies. There is still cloth to cut. Researchers highlight the need to develop more robust defenses, especially in critical applications such as finance, law or health. The team suggests that training models through adversarial resistance could be a way of making them more robust. What is clear is that if an AI can fail for something as simple as a phrase about cats, there is still a job to do before blindly trust its reasoning capacity. And yes, the name of the attack is not accidental. Sometimes, everything that is needed for AI to lose the thread … It’s a cat. In that we seem. Cover image | Mikhail Vasilyev In Xataka | The agents were supposed to go for AI in another dimension in 2025. As with other things of AI, it was only supposed to

The not so far -fetched theory that argues that the cradle of Spanish football is in an unsuspected place: Vigo

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In football not all matches are played on the grass. For years there is a struggle that is settled in the newspaper libraries, the archives and local chronicles of the Spain of the late 19ths: that of the origins of the origins of Foot-Ball homeland The most widespread version, the canonic and the one that Mention The Royal Federation (RFEF) on its webs Recreationalthe dean of national football. However, there is a theory that places the cradle of Spanish football at the other end of the Peninsula, in Galicia. To be more precise at the Vigo docks. What is the cradle of football? You may like more or less, but kicking a ball has always made us funny. The citizens of ancient Greece practiced a game called Episkyrosthe peoples of pre -Columbian Mesoameric had their popular Pok-a-tok And even the Vikings were fond of Knattleikr. If we talk about football as we know it today, however, the genesis of sport must be located later, in nineteenth century England. There, in him Mortlake districton the outskirts of London, a match between Barnes Football Club and the Richmond Football Club was held more than a century and a half ago than It would be crucial For the history of modern football. The reason? Its rules. Before, matches had been played, but with guidelines agreed by the teams themselves. The December 1863 was the first one that was governed by the rules of the newly created Football Association (FA), founded only a couple of months before. And when do you jump to Spain? The most widespread version ensures that football came to our country not much later, in the 1870s, via Huelva. And for reasons that have more to do with finance economy than sport. In 1873 it was established A company of British capital to exploit the deposits of the Riotinto Minera Basin and with it they landed in the British region that soon gave free rein to one of its great hobbies, football. South Canal remember That on August 16, 1873, coinciding with the patron saint festivities of San Roque, a match was already held in the town, “the first football played in Spain,” the local chain says. Of that set echoed A few years ago ‘Mines and Riotinto, cradle of football in Spain’, a work published with the support of the Diputación de Huelva, which would confirm that the first goal of Spain was sung in the small town of the region of the Mining Basin. And the first team? Five years later, in 1878, the Riotinto English Cluban association that facilitated that British engineers and sailors could practice sports such as Cricket, Polo, Pole Lawn-Tenis or the Foot-Ballwhich in turn referred to the creation of the Rio Rio FC. The recreational itself remember That there is a record of at least one match played in the province on September 10, 1874, an encounter between personnel in charge of the railroad tracks that linked Huelva and the mines and a gang moved to Gibraltar. Riotinto FC 1918. Sobple matter? Not at all. Years ago a Galician story, José Ramón Cabanelas, took a surprise while diving in the newspaper library of Vigo lighthousenewspaper founded in 1853. The expert was looking for documentation for a book on the origins of the Eastern Telegraph Company (the English cable) in the Galician city when he met a brief and irony passage that activated his historian instinct. The reason? What counts … and what suits. The text was signed by some of the chroniclers of Vigo lighthouse June 10, 1876, And tells: “Again they have visited us (to the casino) the English. They are as friendly! They walk like four, they step on six and drink like fifty. They fish, hunt, smoke, paint and play ball according to their use and way.” To any other reader the comment would have gone unnoticed, but Cabanelas remained a question: what did the English mean that the English “play the ball”? Are there British in Vigo? Yes. If in the 70s of the nineteenth century Mines de Riotinto had displaced British to take care of the exploitation of their mines, Vigo had them for another business as relevant: the management of the telegraph. Since 1873 the city welcomed offices of the Eastern Telegraph Companycompany that Vigo had chosen for its good location as access to the peninsula and the tranquility of its estuary. In fact, years later, in 1896, another similar company would also be established, the Deutsch Atlantische TelegrapheGellchaftthe German cable. Each arrived in addition to its patriot colony. And how important is that? Much, according to Cabanelas. The historian recalls that the English cable offices settled in Vigo in May 1873 and the British transferred to the city soon A franchise From the Exiles Club Club, an association where the expatriates could meet, stay with their families, chat about the future of the convulsive start of the twentieth century … and also practice the most popular sports in England and organize teams. Perhaps in Galicia there were still no players accustomed to football, but Vigo already had at that time from a port through which English flag ships with crew willing to play a match against his compatriots of the telegraph. The meetings were played in the Malecon, an area located today in the urban center and that stands out as one of the most sought -after in the city. Conclusion? Cabanelas It is clear: “The first football matches began to be played in Vigo as soon as the English cable arrives in May 1873”. Another chronicle of Vigo lighthouse Of 1880, he confirms that by then the “games with ball” were so popular that they aroused the interest of the neighbors, moving “so many spectators as Rafael Díaz used to have in their equestrian circus.” “The English settled in Vigo in 1873, that is, ten years after the Constitution in England of the Football Association and, from the first moment, their customs were brought … Read more

There are people using AI to “invent” their own memories from photographs. And that has opened a philosophical debate

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In the photo the kid smiles, abholly happy. His mother, also smiling, hugs him while looking at the camera. The photo could be that of any of us with our mother, but with this happens one thing: that an AI has made it a video. One that immediately has the potential to become a memory. A memory of lie. That photo shared it in x Alexis Ohanian, co -founder of Reddit, millionaire and entrepreneur. Ohanian – caught with Serena Williams since 2017 – told in that message how when he created that video innocently “I was not prepared for how I would make me feel this.” In his family they had no video camera, so he never had a video with his mother. So almost without thinking he used that photo in the newly released Midjourney video generator so that from it generated a video for AI. The result left him astonished. “This is how she hugged me,” he explained. “I have seen it 50 times again.” But with that message A great moral and philosophical debate was unleashed. One about how something like this can impact us individually and as a society. While Ohanian himself He defended himself Before those who criticized the idea (“I really don’t understand why you wouldn’t use AI for this”) others They explained to him that those memories were not real: “Creating a video for someone loved is not to create a memory of them. You are putting words they never said in their mouth.” As said Another user named Erich Thilow, “is (a memory). But seeing it will make it real in your memory. I am not a fan of something like that.” Other users took advantage of cinema as the center of the debate. A user named Vanillaelle shared A Harry Potter photogram revealing with a false memory of his parents in the mirror (which has inspired the image of this theme). Another user called Andro toward The analogy with ‘Matrix‘. In that movie, he explained, one to see her wondered why people would want to face reality. “Now he doesn’t have to ask him,” said said user. The era of false memories That new capacity of the generative AI Generate false memories It is disturbing, and it could well be part of that concept already studied in psychology. These lies memories did not happen or are the distortion of a real event, and according to experts, such as the American psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, it is possible to induce them such as hypnosis or with techniques such as the essay: repetitions of an event that was confirmed as fantastic. Upon listening or visualizing the same event, the person can begin to remember as if it had really happened. That idea thrown by this psychologist also collects it Francisco Taberneroclinical psychologist in Puertollano (Ciudad Real). According to him “memories are usually quite distorted”, but for him there is no special risk in that type of process that converts a photo into a souvenir of lie: “The general experience of memory will be subjective and more or less the same we had. I do not think that a few seconds of movement change the memory that you already had. At the emotional level the memory is all emotion, what causes you remains the same as what you have told to the AI.” Loftus – criticized by the pseudoscientific concept he created, the “false memory syndrome” – published A study In this regard, together with Ira E. Hyman Jr., and both explained how “memory is always constructive. People create the past based on the information that remains in memory, in general knowledge, and on social demand to recall situations.” Ethical and moral issues are definitely huge, and to talk about them we wanted to contact more experts. Santiago Sánchez-Migallón (The von Neumann machine) It is defined as a “philosopher of AI” and is usual collaborator of Xataka. For him, “we must understand the emergence of a technology as an opportunity and no, a priori, as something perverse only because of the fact that he treats a delicate issue as, in this case, the death or authenticity of memories.” Sánchez-Migallón makes it clear that the first thing is to make technology safe and that the user “can differentiate true and false memories”, but assured this, this expert thinks that with this technology it would be possible to help “erase traumas” and even imagine a not very distant future in which it was possible to gain procedural memories or skills: “Could we record in our brain the ability to play the piano or talk?” Darío Benítezpsychologist and co -founder of PSYCHOFLIX and of the podcast Validlyit is optimistic with AI, but you see “few or no advantage” to this type of application because “if you are reliving an image of a loved one you expose yourself to an emotion that you did not expect and that can rekindle a type of duel that you had already prosecuted.” Something like that, he indicates, can change the perception of your values ​​because this type of lies memories “can make you feel that you lived them and that that effectively happened.” It is like Ohanian’s own example. For Benítez it could happen that in the video generated the mother looked at the child with a subtle disdain and generated a reaction of the type “yes, it is true that my mother did not treat me at all well”, thus generating a hallucination that connects with another idea that perhaps had of her past, which in that case would be of the type “my childhood was not so good.” All that “would even more entangle things,” says this psychologist. The danger of being able to mold memory An technology also has another danger that we have already perceived in many other technological areas. Especially in mobile phones and social networks, which tend to isolate us and catch us in the doomscrolling. With these videos created by generative, “it could be … Read more

Playing video games in the middle of summer and with this heat is a horrible experience. I have found the solution in the cloud

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Play on PC is very good Until summer arrives. To a hot room as is my office, the hot air is added that, desperate to compete against Cordoba heat, manage the six fans located in my tower. The feeling is … regular. If I leave the tower on the floor they end up warming my legs. If I upload it to the table, the noise of the fans becomes even more evident and the temperature increases equally. The same happens with the Rog Ally, console that I love But that if it already has quite high temperatures, in summer suffers even more. I have found the solution in a technology that generates opinions of the most varied and that personally, it seems to me the future: the cloud. The heat. Córdoba is currently in orange alert. The asphalt has reached 57.3ºCthe grass in the shade to the almost 27ºC and the maxims exceed 40ºC. I write these lines at 10:40 on Wednesday and we are already at 30ºC. At night it does not cool and opening the windows is like look at the doors of Mordor. Thus, the solution passes through air conditioning, fans and infinite patience. Image: Olivier Collet The components. Electronic components and heat They do not get along. Let’s say they are obliged to understand each other, but excess heat is not good for a computer or for any device. The cooling systems By air, which are those that usually assemble the vast majority of computers and consoles, will refrigerate depending on the ambient temperature. If in a room is hot, the cooling will be less effective than if the room is cold. Fresquibiris. In addition to cleaning the fans and the interior of the PC, which must be done as long as a quick solution could be to put the air-conditioning For a while to cool the room. The problem is that, on the one hand, it is possible that not all people have an air conditioning device in the room or that, on the other hand, the air conditioning is centralized and we have to put it throughout the house when we only want to cool a single stay. My case. I have a temperature sensor in the office. In the morning, at 8:30, the ambient temperature is 31ºC. If I put the air conditioning to work to reduce the temperature to 26ºC. If I remove the room, it ends up reaching 34ºC. Taking into account that the ideal ambient temperature is between 18ºC and 25ºC, you can imagine how pleasant it is to complete the expansions of ‘Guild Wars 2‘or shoot in’Delta Force‘On a PC that at 18:00 is already asking for clemency and mercy. I cannot compete against environmental heat, but I can stop the heat generated by the PC. As? Roughlymaking it work much more slowly. That, a priori, is incompatible with playing in a decent quality, and it is. Unless you do it in the cloud. GeForce Now | Image: Xataka Looking for the fresco. Playing in the cloud has a series of disadvantages that are evident: you depend on having Internet connection, you are tied to a subscription and Not all games are available. The advantages, however, are that the cloud is agnostic to the hardware (I can play in my tower, but also from the mobile, From the laptop used at the university or from the ROG Ally) and does not require the computer to be fully. Just an Internet connection. The game is executed on a server and we receive the image and send the inputs in real time. A matter of temperatures. To give a quick example, playing ‘Guild Wars 2’ in a room at 27ºC The temperature of the CPU goes from 55.4ºC to exceed 70ºC. The GPU, meanwhile, goes from 35ºC to about 55ºC. If I launch the same game, but in the cloud (Geforce Now in my case), the temperature goes from about 55ºC to 57ºC, while the GPU passes from 35ºC to 37.9ºC degrees. ‘Delta Force’ is not in Geforce Now, so I can’t play it in the cloud, but it comes to the hair to show how temperatures change. The processor goes from 55ºC to 68ºC, while the GPU goes from 35ºC to be around 60ºC. That is also noticeable in the noise of the fans, which turn at a speed far higher than when they are in Standby. Asus Rog Ally | Image: Xataka The Rog Ally case. Asus’s portable console is my header device to play titles like ‘Devil IV‘And even’ Guild Wars 2 ‘connecting it to a USB and HDMI hub. If you use it in performance mode (25W), the console reaches 80-85ºC with relative ease, not to mention the battery to make a breath. Playing at the same game in Geforce Now I can do it not only in better graphic quality and with more fps, but putting the console in Eco mode, with a temperature that does not pass from 55ºC, more silent fans and greater autonomy. That, in hand and long, it shows. In short accounts. If the temperature is a problem and we have good access to the Internet, the cloud can be an option if we want to continue playing without making more firewood. In addition, the subscription does not have to be eternal. It can be used during the hottest months and then play again when temperatures fall. Cover image | Unspash In Xataka | I’ve been playing video games for years and now the first thing I do before buying them is simple: look what they are in the cloud

A quantum solution for black holes

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The two families of physics They have not spoken for 100 years. Einstein’s general relativity describes with centenary precision The large-scale universe: how the planets, stars and galaxies deform the space-time fabric. On the other hand, quantum mechanics explains the strange and tiny world of subatomic particles. Both theories form the pillars of modern science, but are fundamentally incompatible. Unifying them in a single theory of “quantum severity” is, for decades, The Holy Grail of Physics. New research suggests that the key to achieving this could be hidden in the heart of the more enigmatic objects of the universe: Black holes. The impassable wall of physics. The problem is simple and the time incredibly complex. Quantum mechanics has managed to explain three of the four fundamental forces of nature: electromagnetism, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. Gravity, however, resists him. General relativity, our best theory of gravity, falls apart in the most extreme environments of the universe, precisely where quantum effects should be crucial. The clearest example of this rupture is the singularities, the theoretically infinite density points that are found In the center of black holes. For physicists, an infinity in an equation is an alarm signal that indicates that the theory has reached its limit. “We believe that general relativity only works on large or ‘macroscopic’ scales, but that in very short distances, or microscopic scales, it must be replaced by a quantum theory of gravity,” He explained to Space.com Theoretical physicist Xavier Calmet, author of a new study published in Europhysics Letters. A new recipe for black holes. Until now, string theory was the main candidate for this unification, in the absence of experimental verification. But Calmet and his team have adopted a different and surprisingly effective approach. Instead of a complete and finished quantum theory, they have used what is known as the “effective action of Vilkovisky-Dewitt” to calculate universal quantum corrections that should be applied to Einstein’s equations, regardless of the underlying theory. When applying these corrections, the team discovered something fascinating: in addition to black holes that arise from general relativity, there must also be holes born from “quantum solutions.” And it is not simple adjustments to the black holes we already knew. “They are completely new black holes that exist in a world of quantum gravity,” explains Calmet. New theoretical objects that emerge from the same mathematics, but with a quantum “flavor.” What all this means. Einstein’s relativity works great for huge things such as planets and galaxies (a continuous world); and quantum mechanics, for the tiny, like atoms (a world to jump). When it comes to explaining black holes, relativity predicts a singularity, an infinite density point that, in practice, tells us that the theory does not work anymore. What these physicists have done is to use a mathematical “patch” to add the basic quantum rules to relativity. This patch is the action of Vilkovisky-Dewittdeveloped by physicists Georgy Vilkovisky and Bryce Dewitt. In doing so, they not only fixed the “error”, but discovered that the new rules allow the existence of a completely new type of black hole, one that simply could not exist according to Einstein’s old rules. Can we ever see them? The study details how these solutions can be built near the events horizon, the border from which nothing can escape the black hole. Although these quantum solutions are theoretically different, distinguishing them from their classic counterparts is, for now, an almost impossible task. The most significant differences manifest very close to the horizon of events, a region that we cannot observe directly. “The astrophysical black holes that we are observing well could be described with our new solutions instead of those of general relativity,” Callmet concludes. “As both theories match great distances, it will be difficult to propose evidence capable of differentiating between the two types of solutions.” The theory shows that it is possible that There are black holes within a frame of quantum gravity. But the secrets of quantum gravity remain fiercely saved by these cosmic titans: the response to the greatest enigma of modern physics is not in a particle accelerator, but quietly orbiting in the darkness of space. Image | POT In Xataka | The Webb Telescope has observed quasars where they should not be. Something fails in the theory of black holes

A productivity guru went to visit Disneyland. And there he found the secrets of silent productivity

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Recently, Cal Newport was in Disneyland. Newport is one of the great productivity gurus, and its most widespread thesis is that of Power of the concentration of the deep. His analytical eye allowed him, tail comes, get some interesting lessons about productivity even in the middle of a theme park. First, it describes the experience of attractions as “hyperreality”: worlds that are impressive and artificial at the same time, designed to offer a purified and safe version of the real adventure. Disney has perfected that creation of artificial experiences, and also productivity through the design of systems that eliminate cognitive friction. Something of what We already talked in the past. Every detail of the park is designed so that the visitor does not have to make too many decisions and can concentrate their mental energy on enjoying. Some examples: The posters are placed just where they are needed. The queues serpente so that it is more difficult to estimate their real length. Employees anticipate the questions that visitors usually ask. The show schedules are designed to distribute crowds without noticing manipulation. Even garbage containers are strategically located so you never have to load with remains. It is a great accumulated example of the philosophy of Do not understand productivity how to do more thingsbut to eliminate everything that does not matter to do well what does matter. And something deeper: Newport connects this experience comparing it to what happens when we use our mobile. Instagram, X or Tiktok offer us diluted versions of real experiences: The morbidity of traveling without traveling. Outrage without consequences. Entertainment effortlessly. Pirates of the Caribbean in 6 inches. The difference is that Disney designs for our well -being as a visitor (and potentially so that we want to return or so that we have easier to spend there). Social networks design for our addiction as a product. Disney wants you to go happy after a couple of days, social networks want you to never leave. And that is the lesson that we can apply: in the same way that Disney designs experiences that minimize the cognitive burden of its visitor, We can design our days to minimize trivial decisions. Automate the routine, systematize the repetitive, eliminate what it distracts. The mantra of creating an environment where we can concentrate on what generates value, and not simply work more hours. In Xataka | 99 Undecuted Tips on Productivity Outstanding image | Xiaozhen bread in Unspash

We have our attention so broken that a buoyant industry has emerged: keyboards “without distractions”

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In 2024 more than 90,000 books. It is estimated that in the United States the figure was much greater and reached three millionincluding self -published books. Those numbers make something very clear: The world has been filled with writers. Those who write do so in addition to many ways. The traditional typewriter has practically disappeared to give way to the computer, and the versatility of this technological product has made the experience more personal than ever. The blank folio, but on the screen Thus, while some write on the desktop computer, others do it in the laptop, but in that experience they import the details, such as the type of keyboard used – with the popular ones Mechanical keyboardsfor example – or, of course, the application that each one uses to write. The famous case of George Rr Martin with The mythical and very old Wordstar It is almost anecdotal, because there are currently many more modern rivals. Microsoft Word is the obvious option, but the rivals have pressed remarkably in this sector. Thus, a huge amount of applications and services designed for writers have appeared such as Scrivener, Ulysses, iawriter, Manuskripteither Ghostwriter. In many cases one of the foci of these applications was not just to help the writer in areas such as the structure of the novel or the organization of the characters and the plot. They also usually have a mode without distractions, which usually manifest with the digital version of the blank folio: the totally empty interface, without tool or menus bars. Only a cursor flashing and waiting for us. Welcome to keyboards without distractions These software applications are also accompanied by some hardware devices specifically written oriented. They are a modern version of traditional writing machines: products totally thought to do one thing and only one: write. Freewrite Traveler. These “keyboards without distractions“They usually integrate small screens in which the text we are writing is showing, but there is nothing more than we can do with them. They have internet connectivity, but only with the aim of being able to synchronize those texts with the cloud to save them. Nothing of web browsers, no social networks, nothing of (is supposed to) distractions. All of them try to create a” concentration bubble “so that whoever writes is centered exclusively on it. The clear reference in this segment is Freewriteof the Astrohaus company, which manufactures several keyboards without distractions with that proposal. In them we normally have: Internet connectivity Small but sufficient flash memory to store several manuscripts Internal battery Screen: Normally of electronic ink, but also LCD This electronic ink screen of several models makes it more comfortable to have long writing sessions and contributes to the autonomy of the battery being lasting. The most remarkable alternative to Freewrite machines is Pomberaof the Japanese company King Jim, which has launched some of its smodels on collective financing platforms such as Indiegogo. Pomra DM250US It is, of course, devices with a high price for how specific they are. Here it is likely that the limited production lots will ensure these products, but still Your price/benefits ratio is not remarkable. Freewrite Traveler, for example, has a price of 603.95 euros In the official Freewrite store. Pomera’s recent rival – with LCD screen – has an official price of $ 449, almost 400 euros. In Xataka we have contacted three users of these devices: two of them English -speaking, and a young Spanish. All of them have bought and used at least one of these types of keyboards without distractions or some similar alternative, and have had the kind of sharing the experience with us. Looking for digital substitute to the notebook and the ball ILIA EPIFANOV, writer and editorhe has published more than 30 works, among which are short stories, books and even comics. When he decided to buy one of these devices, he tells us, “I was looking for a compact machine and allowed me to write without distractions.” Discovered the Freewrite devices“But the price seemed high, and I also looked for something more portable. Ended up deciding on the Nokia E7a smartphone launched in 2011 that had a drop -down physical keyboard under the housing. “It is small, well done and causes nostalgia,” he said, “although it certainly has its limitations.” He admits that he would not recommend it to most people, especially since the keyboard is not suitable for use for long periods of time. But for this user one of the keys to this old device is that it is old and most of its applications are useless today. That makes it focus only as a keyboard without distractions, because as he says “I love its simplicity: you display the keyboard and simply write.” Carl Dikington “Pseudonym that.” Use in Reddit Our second guest – is an autonomous worker who writes both professionally and for hobby. He also began looking for alternatives to write without distractions, and began by the cheapest and less technological: a notebook and a ball. He soon realized that did not seem practical, and after looking for devices of this type, he opted for the Freewrite Traveler, who chose for his portability but that “if I am honest, I chose in front of others for aesthetic reasons. I simply liked her appearance, and I thought that if I was going to spend a good part of the day looking at him, I wanted me to like her design.” This type of products “do not magic,” he confessed. “You still need to force yourself to sit and write, and that will always be a complex task. And that is the real problem. We let computers distract us because we want to avoid the difficulty of writing. Eliminating those distractions does not eliminate the desire to be distracted, and the world has a lot of additional distraction sources to which we can submit.” It is an important reflection, and reveals the reality of some devices that of course avoid the distractions … Read more

There is something that we are not doing enough and we should for our own security: eliminate old accounts

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The other day, for a comment from my boss about an email that came to him, he gave me to look The keychain in which I store all my passwords. I wanted to see how many session was stored. It turns out that they are 891. Eight hundred-Novent-and-one. It is impossible for you to use or 10% of those services. Moreover, surely a majority corresponds to an afternoon experiments, impulsive records for a punctual download or accounts created to try something that I forgot to the quarter of an hour. My digital history is a cemetery of abandoned intentions. I am not an exception: most we accumulate accounts like who accumulate boxes in the storage room. “Someday I will need it,” I thought surely. “What a laziness erase the account now,” I assumed internally. And the disorder grows. The problem is that, unlike the storage boxes, These accounts are still alive. They continue to receive privacy policy updates, changes in terms of service, database migrations. And most importantly: they are still risk vectors. And we don’t even usually do something as healthy as change passwords from time to time. Each abandoned account is a back door that we have forgotten to close. When LinkedIn suffers a security gap, not only affects those who use the day platform yes day too. He also compromises who registered in 2012, used it for three days and never returned. These data are still there, inert but vulnerable, waiting for their turn in the next “We have been hacked“That I get to the mail. Psychology after this accumulation is predictable. Creating an account is usually free and immediate. Eliminating it requires effort, navigating deliberately complex menus, multiple confirmations. Companies have optimized the record and the exit, the Dark Patterns They send. It is logical: each abandoned account remains a digit in its database, a metric of which to presume before investors. The solution passes through change our digital habits. Just as there are those who practice “if I have not used a garment in a year, I get rid of it,” we should apply periodic audits to our digital accounts. A quarterly cleaning of unused services, such as who goes down in tracksuit to fix his storage room. It sounds tedious, but It is less tedious than dealing with the consequences of a digital identity theftjust what we expose if we leave too many doors without closing. Especially if we have The bad habit of repeating passwords. Our fingerprint should be a reflection of who we are. Not who we experienced for ten minutes in 2016. Outstanding image | Xataka In Xataka | There are users who pass from passwords. And they go to “I forgot my password” to generate them again and again

Five portable air conditioners that you can have at home without calling the coach

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The Heat waves They are making it unbearable to be at home this summer. If you don’t know what to do to be fresh, portable air conditioners They have become a success alternative to better survive high temperatures. Its easy installation, just needing have a window nearby to extract the heat generated by the engineas well as the great variety of their success and that there are very economical models have made them triumph. These are some of the models of portable air conditioners that we recommend to have this summer at home. Measure Portasplit by 1,199.99 euros: 3,000 fridge and with heat pump. Cecotec Forceclima 9400 Soundless Heating by 289 euros: of 2,268 fridge and with five operating modes. DAITSU – ALISIOS PREMIUM APD09FX2 by 331 euros: of 2,236 frigpances and self -diagnosis. Cecotec Forceclima 7500 Soundless Connected by 178.42 euros: With Wi -Fi connectivity and 1,750 refrigerators. Carrefour Home HomeC7JT-25 by 189 euros: of 2,060 Frigorories and Energy Classification A. Measure Portasplit This is one of the More innovative portable air conditioners that we can find in the market, hence its price of 1,199.99 euros. Midea Portasplit stands out, fundamentally, for having an exterior split that you can place in the window. It has one 3,000 refrigeration capacity And it is installed with three simple steps. It has wifi connectivity and is a Silent penguinsince only 39 dB works. In addition, it integrates heat pump, so it is also ideal for winter. Measure Portasplit penguin air conditioning 4 in 1 * Some price may have changed from the last review Cecotec Forceclima 9400 Soundless Heating Another portable air conditioning with heat pump that may be interested is this of the Cecotec firm: the Cecotec Forceclima 9400 Soundless Heating. You can buy it now in Mediamarkt for 289 euros. It incorporates Soundless technology, so it will not bother you too much when sleeping. Its refrigeration capacity is 2,268 fridge and is perfect For stays of up to 20 square meters. Offers five operating modes: fan, cooling, heating, dehumidifier and night mode. Portable air conditioning – Cecotec Forceclima 9400 Soundless Heating * Some price may have changed from the last review DAITSU – ALISIOS PREMIUM APD09FX2 Another very complete model of portable air conditioning that is worth buying to survive high temperatures at home, is this one of DAITSU. Specifically, in PCComponents You can take this APD-09FX2 model from DAITSU by 331 euros. This portable air conditioning It stands out for having the test or self -diagnosis function, which allows to detect any anomaly in its operation. It has one 2,236 refrigeration power and works with a low noise level. DAITSU – Alisios Premium APD09FX2 Portable air conditioning * Some price may have changed from the last review Cecotec Forceclima 7500 Soundless Connected This is one of the portable air conditioning models cheaper What will you find. Now, at Amazon, you can buy this Cecotec Forceclima 7500 Soundless Connected for alone 178.42 euros. Being cheap, has made him become the most coming in this online store. With its cooling power of 1,750 refrigerators per hour, you can cool rooms up to 20 square meters. It has Wi -Fi connectivity And you can control it by mobile app or its tactile LED panel. In addition, it incorporates function dehumidifier and 24 -hour timer. Cecotec Portable air conditioning with remote control and wifi forceclima 7500 soundless connected * Some price may have changed from the last review Carrefour Home HomeC7JT-25 The last of the portable air conditioners that we recommend, is another of the cheapest that you can find right now and is being A success in Carrefour. This is the Carrefour Home Home Home Bom7JT-25 model, which is now reduced to 189 euros. This penguin model presents Energy classification aso you will not have an exorbitant expense on the light invoice when using it. It works at a maximum of 65 dB and has a refrigeration capacity of 2,060 refrigerators. Carrefour Portable air conditioning Home HomeC7JT-25 * Some price may have changed from the last review Images | Cecotec, Measurea, Carrefour and Daitsu In Xataka | What intelligent air conditioning buy: how to choose a connected air conditioning system and outstanding models In Xataka | Connected fan purchase guide: Recommendations to choose an “intelligent” model with WiFi and six models from 50 euros

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