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Critical Erlang/OTP SSH Vulnerability Allows Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution

2025-04-17

A critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-32433) has been discovered in the Erlang/OTP SSH server, allowing unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE). Versions prior to OTP-27.3.3, OTP-26.2.5.11, and OTP-25.3.2.20 are affected. Attackers can exploit a flaw in SSH protocol message handling to gain unauthorized access and execute arbitrary commands without credentials. Patches are available; update to OTP-27.3.3, OTP-26.2.5.11, or OTP-25.3.2.20 or later.

(nvd.nist.gov)

Development

arXivLabs: Experimental Projects with Community Collaborators

2025-04-18

arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved uphold arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners who share them. Got an idea for a valuable project for the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

Elegant State Machine Patterns in Rust

2025-04-20

Elegant State Machine Patterns in Rust

This article explores various approaches to implementing state machine patterns in Rust, comparing their advantages and disadvantages. The author starts with a simple enum approach, iteratively refining it to a solution leveraging generics and the From/Into traits. This final approach enables compile-time state transition checks and provides clear error messages. Multiple code examples, including a simulated bottle-filling machine and a simplified Raft protocol implementation, illustrate these methods.

(hoverbear.org)

Development

Hubble at 35: Three and a Half Decades of Cosmic Wonders

2025-04-24

Hubble at 35: Three and a Half Decades of Cosmic Wonders

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope celebrates 35 years in orbit! This iconic telescope has revolutionized our understanding of the universe, providing breathtaking images and groundbreaking discoveries. From Martian ice caps to distant galaxies, Hubble's observations have unveiled countless details, expanding our cosmic knowledge dramatically. Five servicing missions extended its lifespan, resulting in nearly 1.7 million observations of approximately 55,000 astronomical targets and over 22,000 published papers. Hubble's achievements include precisely measuring the universe's expansion, finding supermassive black holes are common, measuring exoplanet atmospheres, and contributing to the discovery of dark energy. More than a scientific instrument, Hubble has become 'the people's telescope,' inspiring millions worldwide with its stunning visuals and the pursuit of cosmic understanding.

(esahubble.org)

Tech

Sketch Programming: A Minimalist Paradigm for Code Design (LLM Transpiler)

2025-03-15

Sketch Programming: A Minimalist Paradigm for Code Design (LLM Transpiler)

Sketch programming is a revolutionary approach to software development prioritizing simplicity, readability, and expressiveness. It's not a specific language but a meta-programming paradigm abstracting boilerplate code, reducing cognitive load, and focusing developers on core logic. Implementable in any language, Sketch works across all project scales. The core idea is to 'sketch' the program's essence with minimal, intuitive syntax, leaving details to the underlying language. It uses a keyword-driven, declarative syntax, emphasizing readability and intent, supporting rapid iteration and language-agnostic design. An example shows a React component sketched and then transpiled into full React code. A VS Code extension is also under development.

(github.com)

Development Sketch Programming

Escaping the Valley: A B2B SaaS Path Less Traveled (and More Founder-Friendly)

2025-04-07

Escaping the Valley: A B2B SaaS Path Less Traveled (and More Founder-Friendly)

Matt, a founder who successfully sold his company Vizzly to WPP, shares his unconventional approach to building a B2B SaaS business. He argues against the typical VC-backed path of massive funding or complete bootstrapping, advocating for a 'middle path'—raising less than $1M, retaining most equity, avoiding board seats, and focusing on profitability and asset value. This approach, while unpopular with VCs due to their high-return expectations, offers founders more control and a balanced return, mitigating the risk of significant losses in liquidation events. The author encourages entrepreneurs to choose a funding strategy aligned with their values and goals, not just VC approval.

(mattgiustwilliamson.substack.com)

Startup Funding Strategy

Cheap Batteries: X-ray CT Scan Reveals Shocking Defects

2025-09-25

Cheap Batteries: X-ray CT Scan Reveals Shocking Defects

Lumafield used X-ray CT scanning to analyze over 1,000 lithium-ion batteries, revealing dangerous manufacturing defects in low-cost and counterfeit batteries sold on platforms like Amazon and Temu. A defect called 'negative anode overhang' significantly increases the risk of fire and short circuits. While name-brand batteries from Samsung and Panasonic showed no issues, low-cost batteries had an 8% defect rate, with some counterfeit brands exceeding 15%. This highlights the risks of prioritizing price over safety when purchasing batteries for devices.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech CT scan

Nigerian Village Lights Up Thanks to Solar Mini-Grid

2025-03-15

Nigerian Village Lights Up Thanks to Solar Mini-Grid

Two remote Nigerian villages, Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba, previously reliant on kerosene lamps and expensive generators, now enjoy reliable, affordable electricity thanks to a solar mini-grid installed by Prado Power in 2022. The project, initially met with skepticism, has transformed lives and boosted local businesses. A barbershop owner's monthly electricity costs dropped dramatically, and a cassava farmer's weekly income increased fivefold. This success story highlights the potential of mini-grids to address Africa's energy access challenge and underscores the importance of supportive policies, community engagement, and external funding in driving renewable energy adoption.

(knowablemagazine.org)

Tech mini-grid

Stunning Image Reveals the Growing Problem of Satellite Pollution

2025-04-19

Stunning Image Reveals the Growing Problem of Satellite Pollution

In 2021, photographer Joshua Rozells captured a breathtaking image while attempting astrophotography in Western Australia. His composite of 343 photos reveals the staggering number of satellite trails now visible at night, a direct result of massive satellite constellations like SpaceX's Starlink. With tens of thousands of satellites already launched and many more planned, astronomers are raising concerns about the increasing light pollution and its impact on astronomical observations. The lack of regulation is exacerbating the problem, highlighting the need for protective measures.

(www.thisiscolossal.com)

Tech satellite pollution

South Korea Grapples with AI Deepfake Revenge Porn Crisis

2025-04-27

South Korea Grapples with AI Deepfake Revenge Porn Crisis

South Korea is facing a surge in AI-generated revenge porn, with victims ranging from students and teachers to ordinary citizens. Deepfake technology allows perpetrators to create realistic nude images using victims' photos from social media, spreading them on platforms like Telegram. While new laws increase penalties, enforcement struggles, leaving many victims to investigate themselves. The stories of Ruma and Kim highlight the devastating impact and the urgent need for stronger law enforcement and platform accountability. The low arrest rate despite increased penalties underscores the challenges in combating this sophisticated form of online abuse.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech revenge porn

Game Devs Boycott GDC Over US Political Climate

2025-03-16

Game Devs Boycott GDC Over US Political Climate

A Swedish game developer is boycotting events like GDC in the US due to concerns about the increasingly extreme political climate, particularly the crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. She cites feeling unsafe and scared in the US as an LGBTQ+ person. Other developers share similar concerns, viewing the US as no longer a safe place to conduct business and calling for the game industry to become more globally minded, moving beyond a North American-centric approach. While GDC organizers report business as usual, the boycott reflects the impact of the US political environment on the international gaming industry.

(www.wired.com)

Game

Sharp Drop in US International Arrivals: A Data-Driven Investigation

2025-04-07

Sharp Drop in US International Arrivals: A Data-Driven Investigation

Analyzing data from the CBP's Average Wait Time website, the author reveals a significant decline of over 10% in foreign travelers to the US since March. To validate the data's reliability, the author compared it to US traveler data, finding that only foreign arrivals decreased, ruling out data entry delays. While acknowledging data limitations and seasonal factors, the trend warrants attention, hinting at potential policy or other influences. The author uses San Antonio theft data as a parallel example, highlighting the need for caution in analyzing early data and accounting for potential biases and incomplete data sets. This detailed analysis underscores the importance of rigorous data verification before drawing conclusions.

(jasher.substack.com)

Tech US Arrivals Travel Trends

Brut: A Simple Yet Powerful Ruby Web Framework

2025-07-09

Brut is a simple yet fully-featured web framework for Ruby, eschewing controllers, verbs, and resources in favor of pages, forms, and single-action handlers. Developers write HTML directly, generated server-side, with full freedom to use JavaScript and CSS. Brut boasts built-in OpenTelemetry instrumentation, a Sequel-powered data access layer, and OptionParser-based command-line tools, and is easily deployable with Docker. It streamlines the development process, letting developers focus on business logic and enjoy building web apps.

(naildrivin5.com)

Development

ClickHouse Embraces Rust: A Challenging Integration Journey

2025-04-09

ClickHouse Embraces Rust: A Challenging Integration Journey

ClickHouse, originally written in C++, embarked on a journey to integrate Rust to attract more developers and expand its capabilities. The article details this process, from initially choosing the BLAKE3 hash function as a pilot project, to integrating the PRQL query language and the Delta Lake library. The journey encountered numerous challenges, including build system integration, memory management, error handling, and cross-compilation issues. Despite problems like bugs in Rust libraries, excessively large symbol names, and interoperability issues with C++ code, the ClickHouse team overcame these obstacles, successfully integrating Rust into the project and paving the way for future development.

(clickhouse.com)

Development

California's Carbon Market Crashes, Raising Budgetary Concerns

2025-06-05

California's Carbon Market Crashes, Raising Budgetary Concerns

Results from California's latest carbon allowance auction, released on May 29th, sent a warning signal: prices plummeted to the floor. Companies purchase credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions quarterly, but weak demand led to lower auction revenues, exacerbating the state's $12 billion budget deficit. This poor performance indicates a lack of confidence in the long-term viability of California's cap-and-trade program, the world's fourth-largest carbon market.

(www.economist.com)

Tech carbon trading

Is Life a Form of Computation?

2025-09-24

Is Life a Form of Computation?

This article explores the deep connection between life and computation. Building on the early insights of Alan Turing and John von Neumann, who suggested that the logic of life and the logic of code might be one and the same, it examines von Neumann's self-replicating cellular automaton model. The article explains the nature of DNA as a program, comparing and contrasting biological and digital computation. Biological computation is massively parallel, decentralized, and noisy, while digital computation relies on centralized, sequential instruction execution. The article concludes by introducing neural cellular automata, which combine modern neural networks, Turing's morphogenesis, and von Neumann's cellular automata to simulate cellular behavior, showcasing how computation can produce lifelike behavior across scales.

(thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)

AI

Ugly Gerry: A Font Fighting Gerrymandering

2025-05-30

Ugly Gerry: A Font Fighting Gerrymandering

Ugly Gerry is a typeface whose letters are shaped like US congressional districts, a protest against gerrymandering. Created by Ben Doessel and James Lee for RepresentUs, the font's intentionally grotesque design aims to highlight the unfairness of manipulated district lines. While dubbed "the world's most revolting font," its provocative design earned it a 2020 ADC Award for typography, successfully bringing attention to a crucial political issue.

(en.wikipedia.org)

Design gerrymandering

High-Res Digitization Opens Up Newberry's Rare Map Collection

2025-05-05

High-Res Digitization Opens Up Newberry's Rare Map Collection

The Newberry Library and The Digital Archive Group have partnered to digitize the Novacco map collection, overcoming challenges posed by the maps' oversized format. Using specialized cameras and lenses, they created high-definition images allowing researchers worldwide to study these maps in unprecedented detail. This project significantly expands the library's digital collection, making these renowned archival documents accessible to a global audience and contributing to the Newberry's broader goal of increasing collection accessibility. High-resolution images are freely available for public reuse.

(www.newberry.org)

Tech map digitization

Human Body Exhibit May Feature Executed Chinese Political Prisoners

2025-07-10

Human Body Exhibit May Feature Executed Chinese Political Prisoners

A touring exhibition of plastinated human bodies, 'Real Bodies,' displayed in Birmingham, UK, is suspected of using corpses of executed Chinese political prisoners. British parliamentarians raised concerns, citing evidence that the bodies originated from a Dalian, China firm previously investigated for using bodies obtained from Chinese police. The exhibition's organizer, Imagine Exhibitions, failed to provide documentation proving consent or origin of the cadavers. This raises serious ethical concerns and echoes findings of the China Tribunal's investigation into forced organ harvesting. The incident highlights the need for international cooperation to address such atrocities.

(www.theartnewspaper.com)

Misc Body Exhibit Organ Harvesting

Cursor AI's Support Bot Hallucinates Non-Existent Policy

2025-04-21

Cursor AI's Support Bot Hallucinates Non-Existent Policy

Cursor AI's AI support bot mistakenly informed users of a non-existent policy prohibiting logins from multiple devices. This caused user frustration, leading Cursor co-founder Michael Truell to apologize on Reddit. He admitted the response was a hallucination from their AI support bot. The issue stemmed from a recent update aimed at improving session security, causing some users' sessions to be invalidated. The problem is now fixed, and all AI-generated support replies are clearly labeled. This incident highlights the risk of AI model hallucinations and the importance of thorough testing when using AI for customer support.

(www.theregister.com)

Development AI hallucination AI support

Microsoft's NLWeb: A Decentralized Approach to AI-Powered Web Interactions?

2025-05-19

Microsoft's NLWeb: A Decentralized Approach to AI-Powered Web Interactions?

Ramanathan V. Guha, a Microsoft technical fellow, introduces NLWeb, an open protocol aiming to revolutionize web interaction through natural language. Unlike existing solutions reliant on large language models like ChatGPT, NLWeb empowers website and app developers to easily integrate custom, data-driven conversational AI features. With minimal coding, developers can create efficient, personalized chatbots that remember user preferences (e.g., dietary restrictions on a food website). Guha argues NLWeb is cost-effective and holds immense potential, but its success hinges on industry adoption and avoiding the web's historical trend towards centralization. The protocol's future depends on whether companies like Meta and Google will support it, as well as the potential for truly agentic AI functionality.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech Open Protocol

Maldives Fights Rising Seas with Self-Assembling Island Tech

2025-04-22

Maldives Fights Rising Seas with Self-Assembling Island Tech

Off the coast of Malé, researchers are testing a novel approach to combat rising sea levels: growing islands. The 'Growing Islands' project utilizes self-assembling technology, deploying a structure called the 'Ramp Ring'—six large geotextile bladders that passively capture sand year-round. Unlike previous experiments limited by seasonal currents, the Ramp Ring's omnidirectional design allows for continuous sand accumulation, offering a promising solution for island building and beach restoration. This technology holds potential for global application in similar coastal environments.

(www.technologyreview.com)

Tech island building

Charging $100 for Advice: A Blogger's Unexpected Fundraising Success

2025-06-30

A blogger, consistently blogging since 2017, struggled to connect with like-minded individuals despite a large online following. Last November, he began charging $100 for consultations, donating the proceeds to educational non-profits. This surprisingly effective strategy raised nearly $6000 and connected him with diverse individuals across various fields, from VCs to students, discussing topics ranging from database trends to developer marketing. While acknowledging limitations, such as prioritizing paying clients, he views this as a sustainable and simple fundraising model, intending to continue it indefinitely.

(notes.eatonphil.com)

Startup

Go 1.25 Removes Core Types, Simplifying the Language Spec

2025-03-26

Go 1.18 introduced generics, and with it, the concept of "core types" to simplify handling generic operands. However, this added complexity to the language specification and limited the flexibility of certain operations. Go 1.25 removes core types, replacing them with clearer and more concise rules, thereby simplifying the language specification and opening the door for future language improvements, such as more powerful slice operations and improved type inference. This change does not affect the behavior of existing Go programs.

(go.dev)

Development Language Specification

Quantum Algorithms: Unraveling the Hidden Subgroup Problem

2025-06-01

This article delves into the core problem of quantum computing—the Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP). HSP generalizes Shor's and Simon's algorithms, offering efficient solutions to classically hard problems. The article details the HSP definition, solution methods (the standard method), and illustrates with Simon's problem and the discrete logarithm problem. Finally, it introduces the Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) and its crucial role in solving HSP.

(www.daniellowengrub.com)

AI hidden subgroup problem quantum algorithms

Formalizing Machine Knitting: Towards Optimizing Compilers via Category Theory

2025-04-22

This blog post explores the surprising connection between machine knitting and theoretical computer science. The author tackles the problem of defining rigorous semantics for machine knitting programs, highlighting the challenge of strand crossings and their impact on program commutativity. By leveraging algebraic topology and the theory of braided monoidal categories, a polynomial-time algorithm for program canonicalization is developed. This enables compiler optimization and opens doors for more sophisticated analysis and design of machine knitting languages. The work bridges programming languages, topology, category theory, and even hints at connections to quantum computing.

(uwplse.org)

Development machine knitting topology

The Unexpected Fusion of Cars and Cuisine: From VW Currywurst to Peugeot Pepper Mills

2025-01-19

The Unexpected Fusion of Cars and Cuisine: From VW Currywurst to Peugeot Pepper Mills

This article explores the surprising connections between car manufacturers and food. Fiat held a chocolate contest resulting in the still-sold Fiat Cremino; Volkswagen famously served its own currywurst sausages in its cafeterias and gave them as gifts, sparking controversy when replaced with vegetarian options before later returning; and Peugeot pepper mills showcase the company's evolution from steel mill to kitchenware producer. These crossovers reflect not only automotive culture but also the unique blend of food and industry.

(www.atlasobscura.com)

Misc automotive culture crossovers

Michael Larabel: 20 Years of Linux Hardware Benchmarking

2025-05-28

Michael Larabel, founder of Phoronix.com (2004), has authored over 20,000 articles focused on enriching the Linux hardware experience. His work covers Linux hardware support, performance, graphics drivers, and more. He's also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org – key tools for automated benchmarking. A true veteran of the open-source community.

(www.phoronix.com)

Tech

The Mysterious Disappearance and Open Sourcing of W++

2025-05-30

The Mysterious Disappearance and Open Sourcing of W++

W++, a fun, experimental programming language designed for learning, chaos, and memes, has been open-sourced. After achieving over 33,000 downloads on the VSCode Marketplace, it was mysteriously removed. This repo contains the full source code, including a C#-based tokenizer, parser, and interpreter, along with a custom VSCode extension. Featuring async lambdas and a unique "pseudo-OOP" (OOPSIE) approach, W++ aims to demonstrate that even joke languages can teach valuable programming skills. The author, Ofek Bickel, encourages investigation into the reasons for its takedown.

(github.com)

Development

Go Iterators: A Tale of Purity and Impurity

2025-05-31

Go 1.23 standardized iterators, powerful functions that can be closures. However, the official documentation's classification of iterators is ambiguous. The author proposes a clearer distinction between 'pure' and 'impure' iterators: 'pure' iterators restart each time, while 'impure' iterators may retain state. The article explores various iterator types and the trade-offs between performance and consistency, concluding that Go's iterator landscape is still evolving, with conventions and terminology needing further refinement.

(jub0bs.com)

Development

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