program

A free program was the snitch I needed on my PC to see what was stealing my storage

by

Windows can be fine for many things (although it is understandable that more and more users have your doubts taking into account the state of the operating system), but its waste management is questionable. Mac (and now Linux) are my main computers, but I have a laptop to play and edit video with Windows 11 and it is torture to see that the disk fills up more and more… and I don’t install as much either. You go to the uninstall applications section and you don’t want to remove any because you use them, but what you see doesn’t add up and you start searching through folders seeing, manually (by clicking on ‘Properties’) how much the suspicious folders weigh. After a long while, you find something: a game you uninstalled two years ago keep taking a good bite out of your SSD and you wonder why the files weren’t deleted when you uninstalled it and why you hadn’t seen it until now. And searching I have found a couple of tools to free up space ghost on your PC in a very visual way that is so useful… that it does not surprise me that current Windows does not include it as standard. Your PC’s trash tree The applications are WizTree and TreeSize Freealthough there is also another one called WinDirStat. They both do the same thing: analyze very quickly the space occupied by everything you have in your PC storage. Both show it in various ways and both have something special: the “tree” view. To clean the PC I have used both although the screenshots are from TreeSize, but in fact I recommend WizTree because while TreeSize is an app with trial periods, WizTree is free and you decide if you donate to the creators. There I see that I have large folders like Twitter history or Nintendo Satellaview files. I don’t want to delete them, but I have already missed some GoG games that I haven’t deleted and I am interested in deleting them That said, what makes these tools special and more useful than a list with weights is that they actually show the size that files and folders are taking up on your PC. For example, if you have a PC with a 512 GB SSD and you install ‘Forza Horizon 6‘ and its almost 120 GB, that folder will appear taking up a quarter of the screen. In that case, you can easily identify which folder is eating up the PC storage and you can act accordingly, but what I was most interested in was seeing where did those GB come from? that they were slowly colonizing the SSD without my being aware. After the first pass, which takes no time at all, TreeSize identified and classified all the folders and files on the PC. By default it does not do so in that tree view, but in a more traditional list of folders ordered by weight, but in the options at the top you can choose to show the tree view and indicate how many files it has, the percentage it occupies in your storage or what I prefer: GB. And yes, I saw known evils (the Windows folder takes up a lot), but I also saw what I wanted to see: what was eating up my storage. There were a couple of residual folders of games with several MB and even some silly GB, but the rest of the ‘garbage’ I have to admit was my fault. Almost 16 GB of Steam clips folder on laptop Before delete TwitterI downloaded my file with photos and it turns out that I left it there, taking up a whopping 12 GB. I had completely forgotten about it and it was eating up the space of a couple of good indie games. On the other hand, there was a Steam folder of almost 60 GB on a PC and about 16 GB in another that did not correspond to installed games: they were captures and recordings. How to do screenshots with Steam It is the app itself that manages them in internal folders within its directory (and each video file is divided into several files because they use a peculiar format), I had not realized that, little by little, that folder was filling up. I also had there the files of a prototype game that I downloaded years ago and they were taking up 5 GB and something that bothered me: the PC hibernation file. On the laptop it took up about 6 GB, but on the desktop it was almost 10. The laptop was good, but I almost never left it idle on the desktop, so I deleted it and deactivated hibernation (because if you delete the file and don’t deactivate hibernation, it creates it again). The first impression is that of a somewhat dense app, but as soon as you have been using it for a while you begin to know how to “read” the interface So… well, the space freed up on the two PCs is not bad. a way that Windows natively does not offer me. And I can’t complain because in the end a lot of the garbage that was on my PC was my fault, but looking for information about these applications I came across this article by MeinMMO where they had uninstalled a game years ago, but it was still taking up 62GB on the SSD. The game is ‘Wild Hearts‘ and they say that they played it the way you can play Electronic Arts games (unfortunately): through the EA application. He uninstalled it in 2023, but although it no longer appeared as installed in Windows space management, it seems that the entire game was still on his hard drive. He details that it was not just the profile configuration or data like that (which would still be stupid), but the entire game. It is not the only game that left residue: 20 GB of modsArk: Survival Evolved‘ … Read more

the B side of the geological samples of the Apollo program

by

When Apollo 11 astronauts They returned to Earth, bringing with them a piece of the geology of the Moon. Their objective was not only to know its mineral composition. They also sought to analyze all those rocks in search of organic materials. This involved a complete chemical analysis, but also something much more bizarre: feeding moon dust to cockroaches. Three types of snacks. NASA scientists wanted to know if there were traces of life in the lunar rock and, in the process, check if it is dangerous for life that already exists on Earth. Therefore, it occurred to them to choose a few animal species that were raised easily and quickly and feed them part of those rocks. They were divided into three groups. In the first they consumed sterilized ground lunar powder, mixed with their food and water. The animals in the second group received the same, but without sterilization. Finally, the last group did not eat lunar dust, although some specimens had to walk on the rock samples. A very particular Noah’s ark. The chosen animals For this experiment they were Japanese quail, brown shrimp, pink shrimp, oysters, house flies, cockroaches, moths and guppy fish. Only the guppies died. However, it was later found that the cause was fumes from a disinfectant that had been spilled near his fish tank. The lunar regolith had nothing to do with it. Without a trace of life or danger. In short, it was seen that the lunar dust brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts did not contain organic compounds or the slightest trace of life. But it was also found that it did not seem to be dangerous for a large number of terrestrial and aquatic animals. It is true that it is said that cockroaches could survive a nuclear attack, but this is a myth. Furthermore, even if it were true, many more animals were included, very different from each other. If none were affected, that’s a good sign. It is not harmless. Despite what was discovered with this bizarre experiment, today we know that lunar dust is not harmless. In fact, many of the astronauts who traveled to the Moon described something known as lunar hay feverwhich they experienced when the dust clung to their suits and was introduced into the ship. It caused them to sneeze, watery eyes, and have a sore throat. This is because it is a very irritating dust for the mucous membranes and respiratory tract. As if that were not enough, it is also very abrasive. It scratched the astronauts’ helmets, which also caused a lot of discomfort in their eyes. The rest of the rocks. The other samples and rocks from the Moon were directed to very different purposes. Some were used for research. Others were sent as gifts to a large number of countries to emphasize the collaborative goal of traveling to the Moon. The rest were kept safe in NASA facilities. Although perhaps the collection was not so good, if we take into account that in 2002 three NASA interns stole a sample and two of them spread the rocks on the bed to have the closest thing to sex on the moon they could ever have. Now that we remember this, the cockroach thing may be the second funniest story regarding rock samples from the Moon. There are situations that are difficult to overcome. Image | Unsplash/NASA In Xataka | If we want to find extraterrestrial life, we already know where in space we should look: the “terminator zone”

Congratulations, you already program without knowing how to program. Now prepare to wait six weeks for Apple to listen to you

by

James Steinberg is a New Yorker, 35 years old, and has two professions. The first, cat sitter. The second, develop applications through vibecodinga technique in which knowing what one wants and iterating with AI manages to replace (in part) deep knowledge of areas such as software architecture or programming. Steinberg is not the exception, but the new norm in a phenomenon in which amateur programmers are saturating the software distribution system. Let them tell Apple. Wanting is power. There was a time when publishing an app on the App Store was a rite of passage for an engineer or software developer. After months of fighting with Swift or Objective-C, the app was ready and all that was missing was the blessing of the App Store and its strict terms of use. Today that wall has fallen, because since the vibecoding has appeared, the creation of software is no longer about being able to do things, but about wanting to do them. However, this democratization of programming comes at a price: before the problem was writing code, but now the bottleneck is get the App Store to validate it. The growth rate of apps published in the App Store has grown extraordinary since the end of 2025. The impact of vibecoding is evident. Source: BI. The explosion of agentic software. Data from the consulting firm Sensor Tower confirm that we are facing an extraordinary situation. In January 2026, the volume of new apps launched in the App Store in the US grew 54.8% compared to the previous year. A very similar figure had already been recorded in December: a 56% increase compared to the same month in 2024. Here there is not suddenly a batch of experts fresh out of university programming as if there were no tomorrow, but rather a bunch of “amateur programmers” who have used vibecoding to program their apps in a matter of minutes or hours and who have uploaded them to the App Store. Apple has a problem. When Steinberg or any other developer tries to publish their app on the App Store, they run into a problem: Apple’s validation process is dragging out and the average wait time is around six weeks to achieve the desired “green light.” Apple, aware that this saturation can damage its reputation, has wanted to come forward with figures to calm the market’s spirits. Apple says one thing, developers another. According to the company, 90% of the proposals it receives from all these programmers are reviewed in less than 48 hours, and the average wait is, according to the company, 1.5 days. In the last twelve weeks, Apple employees have analyzed more than 200,000 weekly shipments, which seems to make it clear that, at least according to them, the bottleneck is not that big. The developers don’t seem to be of the same opinion, and in forums and social networks there is talk of how reviews of existing updates take up to a week and new releases enter a kind of administrative limbo that exasperates this new legion of programmers. Apps that are AI Slop? A potential reason for this slowdown in deadlines may not only be the quantity of apps, but their quality. Both among traditional programmers and probably within Apple itself, there is a fear that this new batch of apps “vibecodeadas” is largely another variant of the “AI slop” or “AI Slop” that has already been presented in the form of images or videos. For some experts, many of these apps are mediocre, have been generated with little supervision and simply seek to monetize search niches. The strict terms of the App Store may be criticizable, but they are a kind of retaining wall that could flood the App Store with absolutely irrelevant apps. The App Store facing the dilemma. Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee indicated in Business Insider that “this is not a problem that Apple can get out of by rejecting apps. As AI accelerates the creation of applications, the company will have to evolve from artisanal surveillance to curation at scale.” Or what is the same: either Apple automates part of the process, or waiting times will continue to increase. The other option: tighten the entry criteria for apps created with AI so much that it disproportionately penalizes the developers who use these tools… of which there are more and more. Wanted vibecoder. What seemed like a hobby for hobbyists is becoming an increasingly striking economic ecosystem. According to Business Insiderplatforms like Lovable already publish job offers in which they are looking for “vibecoders professionals”, which seems to validate this new type of programmer, no matter how much the traditional market criticizes him. But. This avalanche of applications created with AI may be striking, but comments from professional developers usually agree on the same thing: these apps are more difficult to maintain in the long term. Even Linus Torvalds, who had partially fallen into the networks of AI, I warned him: “AI will be a tool, and it will make people more productive. I think vibe coding is great for getting people to start programming. I think (the code it generates) is going to be horrible to maintain… so I don’t think programmers will go away. You’ll still want to have people who know how to maintain the output.” Image | James Yarema In Xataka | Vibe coding wants to help Open Source. But developers don’t want AI botches

Spain has started its most ambitious defense program. It is not a tank or a drone, it is the brain to control Europe’s troops

by

Spain built its land defense looking outward, integrating into foreign programs and adapting doctrines from when the tank symbolized power, deterrence and industrial sovereignty. From joining NATO in 1982 to the missions in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army was accumulating operational experience, but always with one constant: the key technology came from outside. Today, the debate no longer revolves around how many vehicles you have, but rather What role do you want to play? now that the war changes again. From cannon to code. The Ukrainian experience has finished burying the idea of ​​the battle tank as an isolated and self-sufficient platform, pushing Spain to rethink its land doctrine from the roots. Instead of investing in more armor and weight, the Ministry of Defense has opted for a conceptual leap: prioritizing information, connectivity and speed of decision as key factors of survival in a “transparent” battlefield, saturated with sensors, drones and smart munitions. In that context PAMOV is bornnot as a new tank or a combat drone, but as the nervous system that must govern all those that come after. PAMOV, the brain. The Superior Ground Combat System program, awarded to Indraseeks to define the digital architecture of the future Spanish armored combat beyond 2040. We are talking about an initial investment around the 45 million euros and a strong R&D component, one whose objective is not yet to manufacture platforms, but design and mature subsystems that will allow the integration of manned and unmanned vehicles, sensors, weapons and command and control into a single cooperative tactical network. The tank, therefore, stops being the physical center of combat and becomes just another node within a distributed “system of systems.” INDRA The tactical cloud. One of the pillars of PAMOV is the creation of a combat tactical cloud capable of fusing in real time information from on-board sensors, aerial and ground drones and external sources. As? Through artificial intelligencethe system detects, classifies and prioritizes threats, reducing crew cognitive overload and accelerating decision-making in high-pressure environments. The 360 degree visionsupported by AI and augmented reality, allows you to “see through” the armor and regain freedom of maneuver against the proliferation of drones and loitering munitions. Less tons, more platforms. Plus: the lessons of Ukraine have highlighted the limits of the continued growth in weight of battle tanks, some already close to 80 tons, with enormous logistics costs and restrictions of mobility. In this sense, Indra’s approach is committed to distribute capabilities between multiple lighter platforms, many of them unmanned, that operate in tandem with the main tank. Here are names that are common today in the Ukrainian war, such as UGVs and UASwho would advance ahead “taking on the most exposed missions and acting as extenders of ISTAR capability“, in addition to (obviously) reducing human risks. Modularity and weapons of tomorrow. The PAMOV is conceived as an open architecturemodular and scalable, one capable of being integrated into different present and future vehicles. This allows on paper to progressively incorporate new technologies, from advanced active protection systems to directed energy weapons and, in more distant phases, even future hypersonic systems without having to redesign the entire platform. Hence, it is emphasized that the key is not in the specific weapon, but in the system being able to govern, coordinate and exploit it within the tactical network at the right time. Technological sovereignty. The concept is going to be repeated more and more in the old continent. In the case of Spain, with a 95% of national developments and the participation of SMEs, startups, universities and technology centers spread across several autonomous communities, PAMOV is presented as a strategic commitment for the country. As we remembered yesterday, the nation seeks to stop being just a simple buyer or late integrator to become technology provider criticism in European programs like MARS and, in the long term, the MGCSseeking to be on par with France and Germany. The final objective is that the Spanish contribution to the European car of the future is not only steel, but intelligence that governs it. Another way to fight. Finally, and if you will, beyond technology, the impact of PAMOV points above all to doctrinal. For the Army it means moving from individual platforms to cooperative networkschange the way we command, train and operate, and prepare for high-intensity scenarios with fewer personnel and greater dependence on software. From that perspective, the future Spanish battle tank will not be defined by its caliber or its weight, but by its capacity. to connect systemsdominate the information and decide faster than the opponent. Image | Rheinmetall Defense, Oscar in the middleIndra In Xataka | Spain has been a weapons exporting power for decades. Now he has made a decision: keep them In Xataka | Ukraine has found what it needed in an unexpected ally. Spain had the missing piece against the shahed drones

What is Claude Code and what this tool can do to program with artificial intelligence from your computer terminal

by

Let’s explain to you what is Claude Code or Claude CodeAnthropic’s tool to create code with the artificial intelligence directly into your computer terminal. This will mean that you will not need to install anything or be asking questions without stopping. Claude. We are going to start by explaining to you in a simple way what this tool is and the basics of how it works. Then, we will explain to you what things can you do and what this program for developers is for. What is Claude Code Claude Code or Claude Code is a command line application developed by Anthropic, the same creators of Claude’s AI. This is a program that allows you perform programming tasks from the terminal from your computer without having to use another program. The computer’s terminal is that command screen that you have in Windows called PowerShell, and in macOS and GNU/Linux it is simply the terminal. Instead of installing a common program that you have to open, the program is installed directly in the terminal, and you can use it to do so. With this program, you can use Claude to generate code within the terminal. And it not only generates code snippets, but can also act and reason directly on your projects by linking it to Github. Claude Code can read, analyze and edit content in your codebase. But in addition to this, you can also run tests and correct any errors generatedalso managing workflows. The classic way to generate code with Claude is to enter his app or website, explain what you want, and have the AI ​​create the code for you. Then you have to copy the code, paste it into the code editor you have installed and do the tests, so that if something fails you can go back to Claude, explain the problem, have him generate the corrected code again and repeat the process. Meanwhile, with Claud Code the process changes and is radically simplified. You simply open your terminal, run Claud Code in it, write a prompt or command saying what you want and that’s it. Then this AI will access your files, write code, run it, detect errors, fix them, and try again. It does all this autonomously, although you can supervise the process and intervene whenever you want. What Claude Code can do Claude Code has direct access to your file systemand can execute real commands on the computer. With all this, what this tool can do is the following: Read your files to see the code that you already have created in a folder, and thus understand the context of your project. Create new files complete with code, but also with configurations and documentation. Modify existing files editing the code you have in them to make any type of modifications. Work on an interim basisbeing able to read the error messages that appear if something fails in the code, and starting to correct these errors automatically. All this will save you a lot of time in your programming work, since you will not need to manually create folder structures, configure development tools, configure databases, create interfaces, write code, or anything. Claude will do all this automatically with just You explain the type of application you want to create in a prompt. You can also ask you to add features to existing projects with a command in which you mention the project, debug errors, review code, whatever you need. Therefore, we are faced with a tool for developers which will help you save a lot of time. Although as always happens in artificial intelligence, can make mistakes and have hallucinationsalthough within the world of AI programming Claude is one of the best. In Xataka Basics | Claude: 23 functions and some tricks to get the most out of this artificial intelligence

He is the most important programmer in all of history. And he has also ended up using AI to program

by

Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creatorhe found himself with some free time this Christmas, so he wanted to dedicate it to a personal project that he had on the shelf: an application capable of generating digital audio effects that he called AudioNoise. The curious thing is not that he started programming on his own, but rather what he ended up doing with part of that application. Linus tries Vibe coding. This project has a description on GitHub that holds a surprise. In the last paragraph of it he indicates that “Also keep in mind that the Python visualization tool was basically written using vibe-coding. I know more about analog filters (which isn’t saying much) than I do Python. I started with my typical “Google it and copy what I see” way of programming, but then I cut out the middleman (myself) and used Google Antigravity to create the audio sample viewer.” The best programmer programs like any other. The statement is surprisingly sincere and honest from the one who He is probably the most important programmer in all of history.. Admitting that your typical way of programming is “search on Google and copy what I see” is already curious, but part of programming precisely consists of looking for solutions from others and copying or adapting them into your own projects. AI can help. The other (big surprise) comes of course when he indicates that the visualization tool for his project was not programmed by him, but rather by the Google tool, Antigravity. This integrated development environment (IDE) allows you to work directly with Gemini 3 in different versions and even with Claude Sonnet and Opus 4.5, and despite having been released a few months ago, it is becoming one of the favorite tools of veteran developers but also of those who are beginning to make their ideas a reality without having too much knowledge. Let them tell it to me. This viewer has been programmed by Linus Torvalds. Or rather, Antigravity controlled by Linus Torvalds. testing. At Xataka we were curious to test what that viewer did, so we cloned the GitHub repositorywe asked Claude Code to explain how the project works and after a couple of quick changes we were able to test it with a small audio file. What the project does is implement digital audio effects (there are ‘phaser’, ‘echo’, ‘flanger’, ‘fm’ and ‘discont’) and then, if one wants, apply visualization. That visualization compares the original audio with the processed audio to see how the effect modifies the waveform. Subsurface Capture Linus’ other projects. Although Linus Torvalds is the person most responsible for the Linux kernel evolutionit is already common to see him develop some parallel and totally independent projects. Last Christmas he already created his own guitar pedal softwareand in 2011 began the development of Subsurfacean application to record and plan scuba dives, an activity to which he is very fond. The current GitHub repository is maintained by various developers among which stands out Dirk Hohndel, who was one of the first developers of the Linux kernel along with Linus Torvalds. AI is a tool. In a recent participation on the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channelLinus Torvalds talked about how he saw the world of AI. In your opinion: “AI will be a tool, and it will make people more productive. I think vibe coding is great for getting people to start programming. I think (the code it generates) is going to be horrible to maintain… so I don’t think programmers will go away. You’ll still want to have people who know how to maintain the output.” And it works for personal projects. That speech precisely aligns with this small “experiment” that he has used in that personal project: at the moment for projects of this type using tools like Antigravity can be a great idea, although it certainly does not seem so for larger projects in production. Thus, it does not seem likely that AI could be used to modify Linux code… at the moment. That, of course, may change in the future, but as Torvalds says, these types of developments will require notable (and probably human) oversight to validate that everything has been done correctly. Image | TED Conference In Xataka | Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds had been rivals for 30 years. The funny thing is that they just met and took a selfie

AI has allowed developers to program faster than ever. That’s turning out to be a problem.

by

Whoever has tried it knows it. Programming with AI can be wonderful. Especially if you have (almost) no idea about programming. This is where generative AI models have seen their first and probably only revolution. The developers were the first to be able to embrace this new technology. The appearance of GitHub Copilot in 2021 It showed us that it was no longer necessary to chop so much code, because the machine was already doing it for you, and since then the advance of generative AI in the field of programming has been overwhelming. The question is: has it been positive? The answer is not at all clear. It is evident that AI has allowed: That millions of people who were not programmers could turn their ideas for applications and games into a reality. That millions of professionals can save time by not having to write repetitive code (boilerplate) to focus on other more important and productive parts of your work The industry, of course, has been especially insistent with this vision of the transformation of this segment. Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) and Sundar Pichai (CEO of Alphabet/Google) already boasted months ago that about 25% of the code generated by their companies is generated by AI. Meanwhile, Jensen Huang went further and made it clear that At this point no one should learn to program anymore because the AI ​​would do it for us. These are very forceful statements, but behind them lies another reality: that All that glitters is not gold in the world of AI for programmers. At MIT Technology Review they have spoken with more than 30 developers and experts in this field and have reached interesting conclusions. AI is a better programmer than ever. At least, according to the benchmarks In August 2024 OpenAI made a unique launch: presented SWE-bench Verifieda benchmark intended to measure the ability of generative AI models to program. At that time, the best of the models was only capable of solving 33% of the tests proposed by that benchmark. A year later the best models already exceed 70%. Current ranking of the best models according to the SWE-bench Verified benchmark. Several already pass 70% of the tests. Source: SWE-bench. The evolution in this area has been dizzying and we have witnessed the birth of that new modality programming called “vibe coding” and all the big ones have developed powerful programming tools to take advantage of the pull. We have OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, or Claude Code, for example, but they have been added startups like Cursor either Windsurfing who have also known how to take advantage of this fever for programming with AI. All of these tools promise basically the same thing: that you will program more and better. Productivity theoretically skyrockets, and while more code is certainly being written than ever thanks to AI, programmers They have gone from writing their own code to reviewing what machines generate. Recent studies reveal that veteran developers who believed they had been more productive actually they weren’t. Their estimate was that they had been 20% faster by being able to move forward without blockages, but in reality they had taken 19% longer than they would have taken without AI, according to the tests carried out. There is another problem too: code quality is not necessarily goodand as we say, developers must review that code before being able to use it in production. In the latest survey from Stack Overflow, one of the largest developer communities in the world, there was a notable fact: The positive perception of AI tools had decreased: it was 70% in 2024, and 60% in 2025. There are limitations, but even so everything has already changed Those interviewed by MIT Technology Review generally agreed with its conclusions. Generative AI programming tools are great for producing repetitive code, writing tests, fixing bugs, or explaining code to new developers. However, they still have important limitations, and the most notable is his short memory. These models are only capable of handling a fraction of the workload in professional environments: if your code is large, the AI ​​model may not be able to “consume” it and understand it all at once. For small projects, great. For large developments, probably not so much. The problem of hallucinations also affects the code, and in repositories with a multitude of components, AI models can end up getting lost and not understanding the structure and its interconnections. The problems are there, and they can end up accumulating and causing exactly the opposite of what they wanted to avoid. Several experts, however, explained in that text how it is actually difficult to go back. Kyle Daigle, COO of GitHub, explained that “the days of coding every line of code by hand are likely behind us.” Erin Yepis, an analyst at Stack Overflow, indicated that although this unbridled optimism towards AI has fallen somewhat, that is actually a sign of something else: that programmers embrace this technology, but they do so assuming its risks. And then there is another reality. One that is repeated day after day and that seems undeniable. The AI ​​we have today is the worst of all those we will have in the future. It may not be tomorrow or next week, but it is clear that the AI ​​you program will end up getting better and better. And there may come a point when those limitations disappear. Whether they do it or not, what is clear is that AI has changed programming forever. Image | Mohammad Rahmani In Xataka | OpenAI has turned ChatGPT into mainstream AI. In the business world the game is being won by its great rival

In 1995 a program came out that promised to double your PC’s RAM. In the best of cases what I did was not spend more

by

The 90s were wonderful in the world of software and hardware. Epic trolling like that of the 299 dollars of the first PlayStationthe legendary key of Windows 95 or the PlayStation emulator presented by Steve Jobs himself. In the middle of the decade a program came out that promised the impossible: double the amount of RAM on your PC. Its name was SoftRAM 95 and, although it makes us raise an eyebrow today, in its day it sold hundreds of thousands of copies for $80 each. And spoiler: it was of absolutely no use. SoftRAM 95, the miracle solution for your PC’s RAM The launch of a program like this is a product of its time, one in which users they could have been less ‘smart’ Now for more than logical reasons and in an industry in which everything was learned and developed as we went. There were times when the smartest were the ones who got results, but a company called Suncronys Softcorp learned its lesson the hard way. The year was 1995 and Windows 95 was beginning to revolutionize homes. Although the Microsoft system made control a PC was more accessible than ever (unfortunately for Steve Jobs), the hardware still had a brutal barrier to entry: the price. They were still expensive devices, very expensive, so saving on components saved a few dollars. RAM It was one of those components for which you paid gold per KB, but… what if there was a program that, for a few dollars, doubled the amount of memory on our PC? What if he did all this without having to touch any piece of our equipment? That is where the Californian Syncronys Softcorp saw a vein and – now we can say that in bad faith – launched its program: SoftRAM 95. It went on sale in August 1995 and it is estimated that they sold a whopping 600,000 copies until December of that same year. In those days, it was truly outrageous. And the logical question is how he achieved what he promised. The long answer is that it compressed the memory, so when the operating system needed to save data from RAM to the hard drive, SoftRAM 95 compressed it before writing it, reducing the amount of space needed on the disk and allowing the RAM to have more space available. The concept, roughly speaking, is correct, and the program interface told us that yes, congratulations, you had double the amount of RAM. The long answer is that it didn’t do what it promised. Although technically they were on the right track, this process at the time was tremendously ambitious for one reason: the speed of both the RAM and the primitive hard drives It was so absurdly slow that, effectively, the objective could not be met. They knew this from the top of Syncronys, but they didn’t care: the money was pouring in because each license cost about 30 dollars. Under the magnifying glass of the press… and Microsoft However, things quickly went wrong. A magazine of the time called PC Magazine submitted the software to a analysis How these analyzes should be done: testing whether the program really did what it promised. Using blocks of data to evaluate whether compression was effective, they found that processing times were exactly the same with compressible data and with random data that could not be compressed. They came to the conclusion that the only thing SoftRAM did was show an animated screen which gave the user the perception that they were working when, in reality, they were doing absolutely nothing. But beyond the press, those who got their hands on the software were Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich, two Microsoft engineers who dissected the program at the code level. Basically, confirmed the well-founded suspicion of PC Magazine and pointed out that the program never actually worked. That is, the paging controller device – that compression of the RAM to transfer it to the hard drive – it closed just when loadingso it never did anything at all other than display false numbers while the operating system worked exactly as it should, whether the program was installed or not. When I said before that the management of Syncronys knew it, it was not because we saw history with the eyes of the present. When everything was revealed, they reported that RAM compression was not being carried out and, in addition, it was learned that they sold the software even though its developers had warned that the product was not ready. And it wasn’t aI’ll launch it and I’ll fix itlike many current games”, because in 1995 Internet updates were not the norm. Just when the company thought it was over, the US Federal Trade Commission arrived. Following its investigation, Syncronys finally acknowledged that it had misrepresented the performance of its product and banned it from selling any more copies of both SoftRAM and Windows 3.1 as SoftRAM 95. In total, both versions placed 700,000 copies on the market and Syncronys declared bankruptcy in July 98, owing 4.5 million dollars. The idea did not die with SoftRAM In the end, what SoftRAM did The best case scenario was not to eat up your PC’s resources.and it was one of those attempts to sell whatever in a still somewhat naive market. For PC Worldnext to AOL and RealPlayerSoftRAM is the worst technology product of all time. But of course, with the eyes of 2025, you may be wondering… what happens with solutions like Windows Vista ReadyBoost and the mobile memory expansion? It’s a different matter and, although both promise to improve performance by using “extra memory”, it is something very different from what SoftRAM did. ReadyBoost, for example, allowed you to use the memory of a pen drive as a cache to speed up access to frequent data. It acted as an extension of the system’s virtual memory and the theory is correct, but again we ran into the speed limitation of USBs … Read more

South Korea launched an AI textbook program for schools. It has lasted four months

by

The South Korean government bet heavily on artificial intelligence in classrooms with a million-dollar investment in digital textbooks. They promised more personalized learning, a reduction in teaching load and, generally speaking, fewer school dropouts. The reality It has been very different: after a single semester they stopped being mandatory and became complementary material, allowing each school to decide whether to use them or not. Few have continued using them. A experiment that does not has worked. In March of this year a special program started educational promoted by then-president Yoon Suk Yeol: textbooks with artificial intelligence for mathematics, English and computer science. The government invested more than 1.2 trillion won (726 million euros at the exchange rate) in equipment and teacher training, while the publishers allocated another 800,000 million won (484 million euros) to the development of the material. Barely four months later, in August, parliament stopped considering them official texts after an avalanche of criticism. They are now optional supplementary material. Problems that came from day one. Ko Ho-dam, a high school student on Jeju Island, explains it to Rest of World: “All of our classes were delayed due to technical problems. I didn’t know how to use them well either. Working only with my laptop, I had a hard time staying focused. The books didn’t offer lessons adapted to my level.” Complaints spread throughout the country. Students, teachers and families reported errors in the content, risks to data privacy, increased screen time and, paradoxically, a greater workload for both teachers and students, especially if at the beginning it was necessary to add time to adapt to the new system. In a hurry. Representative Kang Kyung-sook, an opponent of the program, he questioned deadlines in parliament: “Traditional textbooks take 18 months to develop, nine to revise and six to prepare. But AI books took only 12, three and three months respectively. Why the rush?” Lee Bohm, researcher at the University of Cambridge, points out “AI should be tested first in homework or practice before being carefully introduced in class. The focus should be on how to integrate it into the school curriculum.” Digitized classrooms and addiction. South Korea has been dealing with another technological problem for years: digital addiction among young people. According to psychiatrist Lee Hae-kook, professor at the Catholic University of Korea, “almost one in two young people is at risk of smartphone addiction,” a figure that, according to Le Monde, increased between 30% and 40% after the pandemic. The country has had digital detox centers since 2002 and will ban mobile phones in schools starting March 2026. In this context, introducing more screens in classrooms has generated greater rejection. Jang Ha-na of the Political Mamas organization, which advocates for the well-being of women and children, expressed to the medium that “textbooks (with AI) worsen the effectiveness of learning. Once digital devices become central in classrooms, exposure to screens increases, weakening literacy and communication skills.” Legal and political battle. According to the medium, even before the launch, teachers unions and civil groups They sued the then minister of education for abuse of authority, arguing that the program was “problematic” by making the use of AI mandatory, ignored risks to minors, and lacked data protection measures. The government moved from mandatory adoption to a voluntary test one year in January. Yoon was ousted in April following his attempt to impose martial law, and new President Lee Jae Myung, who promised to reverse the policy, kept his word. According to explains Rest of World, the publishers that developed the texts announced lawsuits for financial damages. Hwang Geun-sik, president of the committee that represents them, explains that “companies that trusted the government saw the market suddenly disappear. Our business is reduced and staff cuts are inevitable.” The figures say it all. The adoption rate collapsed from 37% in the first semester to 19% in the current one. Only 2,095 schools use them now, half of the number at the beginning of the school year. Among teachers, opinions are divided. Lee Hyun-joon, a mathematics teacher in Pyeongtaek, admits that “monitoring students’ progress was a challenge. The overall quality was poor.” In contrast, Kim Cha-myung, a primary school teacher near Seoul, recognize to the means that “they were convenient, helped save time and supported students with difficulties. But he also added that “the program failed because everything was rushed. It should have been implemented gradually after proving its effectiveness.” llearned action. Kim Jong-hee, digital director of Dong-A Publishing, one of the developer publishers, defend that books “did not cause addiction to screens” and that they can reduce educational inequalities. But he acknowledges that “a key reason for the setbacks is that the issue became overly politicized.” “We no longer trust the government, and that is the biggest problem,” he added. Cover image | Korea Times (Yonhap) In Xataka | There is a national symbol that Japan has kept unchanged for generations: a very expensive school backpack

All the details of the new program to renew your iPhone

by

We knew that Movistar was preparing with Apple A program to automatically renew the iPhone of his clients and his launch was scheduled for the coming weeks. But the operator has stepped on the accelerator and finally made it coincide with the beginning of the presale of the iPhone 17. From today, September 12, you can reserve your new iPhone. And from today, September 12, Mimovistar customers can already enjoy ‘swap’the final commercial name of a program that, internally, knew as ‘always new’. Flexible and optional. The new Movistar renewal program is offered to everyone to convergent customers for the main device and allows to renew their iPhone every 24 months paying a fixed monthly fee. The first models that enter the program are the iPhone 17he iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max and the iPhone Air. One of the Swap advantages is flexibility, since the user can decide whether or not to renew their iPhone. In case of opting for renewal, it is also possible to choose when you want to change your device for Apple’s most recent model, from month 24 to month 48. Image: Apple Standard on the main device. The Swap website It is operational from today, coinciding, as we said, with the opening of the reserves of the new Apple iPhone, which will go on sale on September 19. This terminal change model is included as standard in the main line of mimovistar packages With 48 months financing And renewal from month 24. For additional devices, the renewal program is available as standard in 36 months financing, although the customer can choose when to change it from month 24. The monthly fee can vary. The program guarantees access to a device of the same value as the one previously enjoyed. That is, if you have an iPhone 17, you can choose the hypothetical iPhone 19 in case the price remains the same. When there is a value modification, up to the loss, an adjustment of the fee will be adjusted. For example, if you have an iPhone 17 and you want the future iPhone 19 Pro, your fee will upload; But if your mobile is an iPhone 17 pro max and you prefer an iPhone 19, most likely you get the quota. Something unique, but not unpublished. Movistar is the only operator that currently has a service of these characteristics. However, an Xataka reader (thank you!) He reminded us yesterday that it is not something unprecedented in Spain, because Movistar herself He threw something similar Ten years ago with the iPhone 6s. That program was called ‘always new’, hence they have known Swap internally with that denomination. But it wasn’t exactly the same. In 2015, the client could finance his iPhone to 18 OA 24 months saving 30%in the installments; Once the financing period was finished, you could change your iPhone for the new model or keep the current one. With swap, savings can vary and the possibility of renewing your iPhone extends from 24 to 48 months. Cover image | Movistar In Xataka | Apple succumbs to the iPhone 17 Pro before what was resisted for years: megapixels do matter

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.