A Dark Adtech Empire Fed by Fake CAPTCHAs (krebsonsecurity.com | comments) The article delves into a fraudulent sector of online advertising that exploits fake CAPTCHA systems to harvest user data and generate revenue. This operation undermines the integrity of the digital economy by facilitating ad fraud and privacy violations, thus raising critical concerns about the accountability within adtech environments.

• I think the “prove you’re human by hitting the button” attack is pretty clever. With the range of different ways captchas are presented today I can see it getting a good % of folks.
• It never ceases to amaze me how creativity gets ramped up to 11 when it comes to graft, theft and scam.

Cloudflare was down (cloudflarestatus.com | comments) Cloudflare experienced widespread service outages, as indicated on their status page. Users reported disruptions in connectivity and availability across various services due to this incident, impacting numerous websites that rely on Cloudflare's infrastructure for performance and security.

• > Cloudflare’s critical Workers KV service went offline due to an outage of a 3rd party service that is a key dependency. So they depend on GCP for (some of) their services
• Let me guess, someone pushed out a bad BGP config?
• Yeah this is going to be a problem. I haven't seen an issue this widespread across so many services in a while.

GCP Outage (cloud.google.com | comments) A recent outage at Google Cloud has prompted users to check the status of various services via the Google Cloud status page. The page provides real-time updates on service health and alerts related to ongoing incidents that may affect users' workloads and resources. For further assistance, users can contact Google Cloud Support.

• Cloudflare Outage also just updated > Cloudflare’s critical Workers KV service went offline due to an outage of a 3rd party service that is a key dependency. As a result, certain Cloudflare products that rely on KV service to store and disseminate information

US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists (apnews.com | comments) A U.S.-backed Israeli spyware firm has reportedly targeted at least three European journalists, raising significant concerns about the misuse of commercial spyware in democratic nations. This has prompted discussions about surveillance practices and the implications on media freedom in Europe.

• Just a small part of the biggest spy network ever invented, which is woven into practically all software and tech infrastructure we use in the West and backed by large corporations with ties to that small country.
• Same as happened in greece a few years back against the leader of opposition and journalists using Predator

Air India flight to London crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 onboard (theguardian.com | comments) More than 200 fatalities have been reported after an Air India flight bound for London crashed in Ahmedabad, according to police. The aircraft, flight AI171, had over 240 individuals onboard, including 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian. The CEO of Air India, Campbell Wilson, expressed deep sorrow over the incident.

• Gentle tip from a lifelong aviation enthusiast: wait one week before reading on causation. Exposing yourself to first-week speculation isn’t just unproductive, it’s often counterproductive since the actual findings can rhyme with the false speculation closely enough that you wind up muddling the two in your mind.

Danish Ministry Replaces Windows and Microsoft Office with Linux and LibreOffice (heise.de | comments) The Danish Ministry has transitioned from Windows and Microsoft Office to an open-source environment using Linux and LibreOffice. This significant change reflects the ministry's commitment to increasing flexibility, reducing costs, and enhancing security by moving away from proprietary software.

• The Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice has been on LibreOffice for many years now, with the Austrian Federal Computing Center developing extensions specifically for their use-cases. This is a great trend. I wonder how long until Microsoft's Ballmer-type people fly into Munich again to commit corruption / lobbying.

Congratulations on creating the one billionth repository on GitHub (github.com/aasishpokhrel | comments) GitHub celebrates a significant milestone with the creation of its one billionth repository, highlighting the platform's pivotal role in software development and collaboration. This achievement underscores the popularity and community engagement within GitHub, which has become a cornerstone for developers globally.

• On a serious note, I'm a bit surprised that GitHub makes it trivial to compute the rate at which new repositories are created. Isn't that kind of information usually a corporate secret?
• I'm wondering if AasishPokhrel created this repo for the purpose of being the billionth.

Rendering Crispy Text on the GPU (osor.io | comments) Rubén Osorio López shares his explorations of GPU text rendering techniques, specifically focusing on the shortcomings of Multi-Channel Signed Distance Fields (SDFs) in delivering high-quality glyphs. He investigates new methods of rendering, highlighting the visual improvements in text quality on modern OLED displays with subpixel anti-aliasing.

• Would be great if the videos in the article were muted so that iOS didn’t stop playing my music whilst reading this.
• Subpixel font rendering is critical for readability but, as the author points out, it's a tragedy that we can't get pixel layout specs from the existing display standards.

The Case for Software Craftsmanship in the Era of Vibes (zed.dev | comments) In the context of modern development where speed often outweighs quality, there is a compelling argument for embracing software craftsmanship. This philosophy focuses on creating high-quality software, emphasizing skills and processes that enhance longevity and maintainability over mere rapid production.

• The article is basically: We sell tools that help you vibe but we had to do craft hard and long. That ship has sailed because everyone wants to sell that. Craftmanship is a personal journey blah blah ... maybe, but this is being sacrificed for profit ;) I'm feeling that vibe brah.

Solving LinkedIn Queens with SMT (buttondown.com/hillelwayne | comments) The text analyzes the LinkedIn 'Queens' puzzle, highlighting its structure on an NxN grid and the constraints for placing queens. It references Ryan Berger's approach of formulating the problem as a SAT (Boolean Satisfiability Problem), illustrating its complexities compared to a similar Star Battle game variation. The discussion emphasizes the unique challenges of encoding SAT problems in practical applications.

• SMT is so much fun. The Z3 Python api lets you write your problem very directly and then gives you fast answers, even for quite large problems.
• How good are current LLMs at translating problems given as text into something SMT solvers can operate on? Be it MiniZinc, Z3, Smtlib, Python bindings, etc. Anyone tried it out?

Being Full of Value‑Added Shit (feld.com | comments) In a reflective piece, Brad Feld recounts his early morning drive to Denver for a mentorship talk, highlighting the significance of reciprocal mentoring and the importance of providing value to others. He emphasizes the need for a 'Give First' mentality in business relationships.

• This reminds me of the observation that you shouldn't buy a car from a dealer who calls himself Honest Ed. Because honest people just go around being honest, they don't go around broadcasting honesty.
• So we're just posting third party blind item gossip on here huh.

Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure (tailscale.com | comments) The practice of frequent reauthentication is critiqued for failing to enhance security significantly, while instead, it may complicate user experience. The article discusses alternatives that prioritize security without the burden of constant reauthorization, suggesting more efficient methods resourcing modern security protocols.

• Microsoft has ruined their PC games with this. I hesitate to fire up Minecraft or Master Chief Collection these days because I just _know_ it is going to make me reauth for no apparent reason. I took 2FA off my Microsoft account because of this, so congrats. These are a video games, not a bank account! Please just let me have fun!

Builder.ai did not "fake AI with 700 engineers" (pragmaticengineer.com | comments) The piece clarifies that the concept of Builder.ai faking AI capabilities with a team of 700 engineers is misguided. It argues that attempting to simulate AI with numerous developers would be impractical, especially in a future where genuine advancements in AI are pivotal. Additional insights include stock vesting changes at NVIDIA and Anthropic.

• The headline as stated is categorically false, buuuut... I think it's pretty salient that a company called "Builder.ai" only had 15 engineers working on actual ai and actually mostly functioned as an outsourcing intermediary for 500-1000 engineers (ie, the builders). When it comes to these viral misunderstandings, you kind of reap what you sow.

Rust compiler performance (kobzol.github.io | comments) Rust users often express frustration over long compilation times and perceived inattention from the Rust Project towards compiler performance. The author, involved in the Rust compiler performance working group, assures that significant efforts are underway to enhance compiler speed, with notable improvements noted over the years.

• > On this benchmark, the compiler is almost twice as fast than it was three years ago. I think the cause of the public perception issue could be the variant of Wirth's law: the size of an average codebase (and its dependencies) might be growing faster than the compiler's improvements in compiling it?

A receipt printer cured my procrastination (laurieherault.com | comments) Utilizing a thermal receipt printer significantly improved task management and reduced procrastination for Laurie Hérault, who links this method to game design strategies. By turning to tangible outputs, she found a productive approach to overcome distractions typical in activities influenced by ADHD.

• Is there a name for organizing things based on bite-size? I have something similar system for myself but literally use a text file with dashes. I tried workflowy and other tools but I keep coming down to using text files because of how fast it helps me to offload memory on a scratchpad.

Reflections on Sudoku, or the Impossibility of Systematizing Thought (rjp.io | comments) The author reflects on problem-solving in programming, using Sudoku as a case study. They discuss the differing approaches of Ron Jeffries and Peter Norvig, highlighting the limitations of trying to systematize thought in software engineering. Ultimately, the piece emphasizes the unpredictable nature of finding solutions and the inadequacy of any single method, referencing the Entscheidungsproblem and its implications in computer science.

• You see similar in other arenas, too. And sometimes, as annoying as it is, popular techniques really do have better success than not. Even more annoying, unpopular techniques can often have better success rate than we care to acknowledge. The examples in my mind are: outlining, task breakdown, object modeling, and rote repetition.

Agentic Coding Recommendations (pocoo.org | comments) The piece discusses current practices in agentic coding, emphasizing the use of Claude Code with a budget-friendly Max subscription. The author details an efficient workflow that diminishes the role of integrated development environments (IDEs) in favor of AI agents. Go is recommended for new backend projects due to its simplicity and compatibility with AI agents, while Python presents challenges in this context. The author anticipates rapid shifts in the landscape of agentic coding as innovation advances.

• I've been trying Claude Code with Sonnet 4.0 for a week or so now for Rust code but it feels really underwhelming (and expensive since it's via Bedrock right now). Everytime it's doing something it's missing half despite spending a lot of time planning at the beginning of the session. What am I missing?

Show HN: Tritium – The Legal IDE in Rust (tritium.legal | comments) Tritium is a newly developed Integrated Drafting Environment (IDE) specifically tailored for lawyers, built using Rust programming language. This environment aims to enhance legal drafting by providing tools that streamline the workflow and improve the efficiency of document preparation within the legal profession.

• This is pretty interesting! Did you implement the DOCX support and rich-text editor from scratch? I’d be concerned about interoperability with other editors — a semi-compatible editor losing content/comments added by other software could be a huge problem.

Seedance 1.0 (bytedance.com | comments) Seedance 1.0 showcases an updated web platform, featuring advanced routing and dynamic loading capabilities. It utilizes scripts for improved performance and a modernized interface, optimized for usability across different devices. The platform appears to cater to users in the China-North region, focusing on efficiency and aesthetics.

• I look forward to a day when capabilities like this are trivial and boring to the average person. When my phone (locally) will be able to generate a fully voice acted 24 episode series anime on a whim for a meme with my group chat. It's astounding what we can do now, but will be completely ignorable before we know it, which is equally wild.

macOS Tahoe brings a new disk image format (eclecticlight.co | comments) macOS Tahoe introduces a new disk image format designed to enhance compatibility and reduce file size. This format aims to improve efficiency for developers and users by streamlining data storage and retrieval processes. The update could also facilitate better disk management features for Mac users in the upcoming version.

• Nice. But I would like it better if the effort was to support ext4, BtrFS, NTFS and other popular filesystems from the Linux and Windows world...
• “Asif” is a fun name for a disk image format. It’s as-if it was a real disk. ;)
• Whenever I read "conclusion" as last section in an article, I'm suspicious that it was written by an LLM/ChatGPT.

First thoughts on o3 pro (latent.space | comments) OpenAI has significantly cut the pricing for its o3 service by 80% while launching a new version called o3-pro. This article features an early review by Ben Hylak of Raindrop.ai alongside Alexis Dauba, providing insights on the new offering's capabilities and enhancements.

• Xcode and ChatGPT.app are in severe need of better ways to run multiple queries in parallel, operating on the same project (Xcode or whatever other dev tools)
• o3 pro seems to be good with meta-prompting. Meaning, when you ask it to create a prompt for you. In particular it seems to be more concise than o3 when doing this. Has anybody else noticed this?

Jemalloc Postmortem (jasone.github.io | comments) The jemalloc memory allocator, designed for improved performance in multi-threaded environments, has concluded its active development after 20 years of public use. This post outlines jemalloc's journey through various phases, highlighting integration into FreeBSD and Firefox, as well as challenges faced, including fragmentation issues and maintenance complexities.

• Nice post -- so does Facebook no longer use jemalloc at all? Or is it maintenance mode? Or I wonder if they could simply use tcmalloc or another allocator these days? Facebook infrastructure engineering reduced investment in core technology, instead emphasizing return on investment.

Worldwide power grid with glass insulated HVDC cables (omattos.com | comments) This post proposes the use of glass-insulated high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables for a worldwide power grid, highlighting significant financial and environmental advantages. It details the cable's design, manufacturing processes, and logistical challenges while projecting its capability to transmit energy efficiently across vast distances at high voltages.

• I wonder if the glass sheath could be replaced with bundled glass fibers in a dielectric gel? Would that cross section allow for a much greater distance for current to trace through the gel? Seems like maybe it would give a 2x advantage, or maybe glass ribbons could be made instead for a micro braided insulation?

Quantum Computation Lecture Notes (2022) (math.mit.edu | comments) The 2022 Lecture Notes for the Quantum Computation course by Peter Shor (8.370/18.435) at MIT cover key topics such as the superposition principle, quantum measurement, quantum gates, and various quantum algorithms, including Grover's and the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. While comprehensive, there are no notes for Lecture 26 as of yet.

• Of course, no discussion of quantum annealing, the only practical form of quantum computation that is likely to exist at scale in our lifetimes.
• Very funny to me that lecture 21 is one of the only lecture titles that doesn't reference the name of the originator.

Dancing brainwaves: How sound reshapes your brain networks in real time (sciencedaily.com | comments) A new study from Aarhus University and the University of Oxford reveals that listening to sound not only triggers brain activity but also dynamically reorganizes internal networks in real time. Utilizing the novel imaging technique FREQ-NESS, the research illustrates how diverse sound frequencies cause shifts in brain regions, enhancing our understanding of perception and attention.

• There's very little in the article about "how" sound reshapes "networks" in the brain. It's pretty reasonable to expect that hearing different sounds can cause different neurons to fire, though (considering you can upload information into somebody's brain by talking to them).

Why Does My Ripped CD Have Messed Up Track Names? and Why Is One Track Missing? (akpain.net | comments) When ripping CDs, issues often arise with track metadata; a user notes problems with an album's track names, including inaccuracies and missing tracks. The article explains how CD ripping works, the role of metadata databases like MusicBrainz, and how the table of contents (TOC) helps correctly tag audio files.

• I use MusicBrainz and donate every month - yeah data is not perfect, but you can go and fix it yourself if needed, and the UI is extremely functional without any frills.
• > Edits on MusicBrainz spend 7 days in limbo after they're created Not all edits, just major ones (e.g. name changes). Minor edits usually get auto-accepted.

Maximizing Battery Storage Profits via High-Frequency Intraday Trading (arxiv.org | comments) The paper presents a strategy for maximizing profits from grid-scale battery energy storage systems in intraday electricity markets via automated high-frequency trading. It adapts a rolling intrinsic trading strategy, yielding 58% higher profits than hourly re-optimization and demonstrating enhanced revenue potential by leveraging trading speed.

• Just use EVs. EVs are primarily energy storage devices, some people get to drive them about 20 - 30 mins/day. The remaining 23 hours, it is a energy storage device. It can absorb excess power when price is negative, and can even supply power back to the grid when prices are high!

The hunt for Marie Curie's radioactive fingerprints in Paris (bbc.com | comments) Sophie Hardach investigates the radioactive residues left by Marie Curie in Paris, over a century after Curie's groundbreaking work with radioactive materials. The exploration aims to trace Curie's physical legacy, highlighting the scientific impact and historical significance of her contributions to nuclear science.

• *Maria Skłodowska-Curie, as she herself insisted on being called. BBC should know better.
• Would it be possible to make a radioactivity camera? I guess not because it doesn’t refract?

Major sugar substitute found to impair brain blood vessel cell function (medicalxpress.com | comments) Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that erythritol, a common sugar substitute, may impair brain blood vessel function. The study indicates erythritol elevates oxidative stress, disrupts signaling of nitric oxide, increases production of vasoconstrictive peptides, and reduces the clot-dissolving ability in brain microvascular cells.

• Switch to Stevia, but it kind of has a weird taste imo
• There you go. No artificial sweetener seems to be safe...guess I'll have to get used to making unsweetened protein bars and the occasional drinks and ice cream. Their sugar counterparts are too caloric.