Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
If you want your JavaScript app to have access to Microsoft's OS features, it's now easier than ever. Redmond is giving JavaScript and TypeScript devs first-class access to some Windows internals to make their lives easier, via new “dynamic projections,” as Microsoft calls these new language bindings. JavaScript applications have been seeping onto the Windows desktop for years. Originally designed for the Web, JavaScript — and its more formal TypeScript superset — have been used to build desktop apps as well. The Windows Runtime API (WinRT) projection for Node.js, now available in public preview, isn't giving developers access to heretofore-forbidden Windows powers; it just makes it much easier for them to connect to these capabilities. Through a Node.js or Electron developer environment, JavaScript developers can write hooks to data-oriented Windows Runtime APIs such as on-device AI, storage, notifications, networking, and other system capabilities. Bindings at build time Previously, adding Windows features to JavaScript/TypeScript apps would require writing native add-ons, requiring a C++ or C# bridge, manual translations, and wrapper code for every API, according to Microsoft. Those who do not already know C++, or have a toolchain in place, were obviously left at a disadvantage. Now, a single Node runtime package, dynwinrt, can generate the needed JavaScript wrappers and TypeScript declarations for the Windows features an app desires. You’ll also need a separate package (winappCli) containing a command-line interface (CLI) setup, configuration, and samples. The Windows Runtime (WinRT) already has similar accommodations for other languages to call its APIs — including C++, C#, Rust, and Python — using native language projections (generated at compile time for C++ and Rust). In this case, the winappCli code generation feature creates JavaScript wrappers and TypeScript declarations for each API call at build time. Metadata for the win The setup relies on Windows Metadata (winmd), introduced in Windows 8, to provide a dynamic list of Windows APIs and their capabilities. If the API metadata changes, the codegen updates the wrapper or declaration – no manual rewrites required. What capabilities can JS/TS developers tap into? Pretty much all of Windows, minus the UI stuff, will be at their command. An app can send notifications that pop up on the user’s screen. Or, it can provide a way for the user to pick files or folders from the hard drive. Anything captured in winmd is fair game, including APIs for system and device calls covering networking, sensors, globalization, and security. Only the UI capabilities have been withheld from the buffet of capabilities laid out before the JavaScript coders (probably because Electron already handles UI on its own). All aboard for AI Of particular interest to the Microsoft top brass, no doubt, are the API calls that JavaScript/TypeScript developers can now make to onboard AI. Executives, from CEO Satya Nadella on down, have been stressing the importance of local AI, or AI that doesn’t need to call into one of the increasingly expensive frontier AI Labs. Developers can tap into all sorts of AI capabilities in Windows. Their apps can generate, summarize, and rewrite text. They can convert text to tables. They can scale images, provide descriptions, recognize objects within images and remove them, if requested. The company provided an entire gallery of examples of how to do these tasks within Electron. Of course, there is the question of vendor lock-in to consider. Is this another case of Microsoft’s ancient embrace, extend, and extinguish strategy to lure developers onto the proprietary Windows platform with the siren calls of a large user base? Doubtful. It’s worth noting that many of the JavaScript developers building desktop apps are building them as cross-platform apps. If they were building Windows-only apps, they’d probably just use C# instead. Both Linux and Apple offer their own OS bindings for various languages as well. So here it’s more a case of Microsoft playing catch-up. Times have changed. ®
Glitter in beautiful big nugget of rhino poo unlocks fertility clues. Edible glitter is being used to track the reproductive cycles of the two youngest southern white rhinos at Monarto Safari Park.
We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country. “Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy.”
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: OpenAI's ChatGPT is now refusing requests to generate text that directly mimics the style of famous authors. When asked to do so, the popular LLM instead offers a response that draws on the "broad qualities" of those authors "while remaining distinct in its own voice," for example. This morning, Ars received the following response to a test prompt asking for a story introduction in the style of Stephen King: "I can definitely write with the hallmarks of atmospheric, character-driven horror and small-town dread, but I can't write in Stephen King's exact style or closely imitate his distinctive voice. Here's an original opening that captures a similar feeling while remaining its own..."
In testing, ChatGPT generated similar dodges for other authors both living (J.K. Rowling, Amy Tan) and dead (Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway). An analysis published by No Latency earlier this month (PDF) found the same behavior for living authors but found ChatGPT complied with style-copying requests for deceased authors. In refusing to directly copy the "exact style" of various authors, ChatGPT offered instead to capture an overall "feeling" by incorporating some of the common features found in those authors' work. That may seem like a distinction without a real difference at first glance. But the slight alteration could be legally important as OpenAI continues to fight a number of lawsuits brought by book authors alleging large-scale copyright infringement by models trained on their work. One of those suits specifically cites ChatGPT's "uncanny ability to generate text similar to that found in copyrighted textual materials," for instance. An OpenAI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
In the US, copyright law generally protects only a specific expression of an idea, not the more intangible style of an author. But an AI-generated stylistic imitation could become infringing if it becomes "substantially similar" to the work of the original author. "We've never had a situation in which this personal style of individual creators could be imitated as well and as inexpensively as we now have with AI," George Washington University Law School Professor Robert Brauneis told Bloomberg Law.
In testing, ChatGPT generated similar dodges for other authors both living (J.K. Rowling, Amy Tan) and dead (Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway). An analysis published by No Latency earlier this month (PDF) found the same behavior for living authors but found ChatGPT complied with style-copying requests for deceased authors. In refusing to directly copy the "exact style" of various authors, ChatGPT offered instead to capture an overall "feeling" by incorporating some of the common features found in those authors' work. That may seem like a distinction without a real difference at first glance. But the slight alteration could be legally important as OpenAI continues to fight a number of lawsuits brought by book authors alleging large-scale copyright infringement by models trained on their work. One of those suits specifically cites ChatGPT's "uncanny ability to generate text similar to that found in copyrighted textual materials," for instance. An OpenAI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
In the US, copyright law generally protects only a specific expression of an idea, not the more intangible style of an author. But an AI-generated stylistic imitation could become infringing if it becomes "substantially similar" to the work of the original author. "We've never had a situation in which this personal style of individual creators could be imitated as well and as inexpensively as we now have with AI," George Washington University Law School Professor Robert Brauneis told Bloomberg Law.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
According to The Information (paywalled), a state-backed Shanghai company has begun mass-producing China's first homegrown immersion DUV lithography machines, with about five units expected this year for SMIC, Hua Hong, and CXMT. Roughly 20 more units are expected in 2027. Tom's Hardware reports: The Information didn't name the manufacturer, but its sources described the operation as having pulled DUV development teams from several Chinese companies, one of them the state-backed startup Shanghai Yuliangsheng Technology. SMIC has been testing a Yuliangsheng immersion tool since September 2025. Most components in the new systems are domestic, though some critical parts still come from Japan, and delays at local suppliers have held back output this year.
[...] China accounts for around 20% of ASML's net sales this year, down from 33% in 2025, driven mainly by mainstream logic demand... Independent analysis from the AI Futures Project in June put commercial-scale Chinese immersion DUV in the mid-2030s, with ASML holding 98.7% of the immersion market. Qualifying the new machines for production lines could take many months, and they trail ASML's tools on performance and build quality. China's domestic EUV effort, which Reuters first reported as a working prototype in December, remains years away.
[...] China accounts for around 20% of ASML's net sales this year, down from 33% in 2025, driven mainly by mainstream logic demand... Independent analysis from the AI Futures Project in June put commercial-scale Chinese immersion DUV in the mid-2030s, with ASML holding 98.7% of the immersion market. Qualifying the new machines for production lines could take many months, and they trail ASML's tools on performance and build quality. China's domestic EUV effort, which Reuters first reported as a working prototype in December, remains years away.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Defender left Manchester City on free transfer
‘I still feel I have so much to give to a club’
Inter are closing in on signing John Stones as a free transfer after the 32-year-old defender left Manchester City in June.
Inter and their rival Italian club Juventus were interested in Stones before the World Cup and the Nerazzurri are now in pole position to recruit him following his impressive form in England’s run to the semi-finals.
Continue reading...