Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

The Double-Edged Sword of AI: Efficiency vs. Extinction of Crafts?

2025-06-20

This article explores the impact of generative AI tools on various industries, particularly software development and art creation. Using the historical narrative of weavers and power looms, the author argues that while AI increases efficiency, it risks the extinction of traditional crafts and the pursuit of high quality. Concerns are raised about AI being used to cut costs rather than improve quality, along with its security vulnerabilities and detrimental effects on social equity. The author ultimately calls for a focus on the ethical implications of AI, preventing its misuse, and emphasizing the importance of high quality and human creativity.

(xeiaso.net)

AI

Website Anti-Scraping: The Story Behind Anubis

2025-04-12

To combat aggressive web scraping by AI companies, an anti-scraping system called Anubis has been implemented. Anubis uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism similar to Hashcash, adding minimal overhead for individual users but significantly increasing the cost for large-scale scrapers. This is a temporary solution; the ultimate goal is to identify and block headless browsers, thus avoiding the need for PoW for legitimate users. Note that Anubis requires modern JavaScript features; please disable plugins like JShelter for this domain.

(xeiaso.net)

Misc anti-scraping

Yoke: Infrastructure as Code, for Real

2025-03-03

Tired of tools like Terraform only offering configuration, not code? Yoke lets you write infrastructure definitions in Go or Rust, compiles them to WebAssembly, and generates Kubernetes manifests. This avoids the security risks of runtime dependencies. Air Traffic Control, a Kubernetes operator, enables declarative infrastructure management, simplifying deployment. The author demonstrates how Yoke, using Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), streamlines application deployment and explains its WebAssembly-based security sandbox.

(xeiaso.net)

Development infrastructure as code

Oracle Linux: The Unexpected Best Local VM for MacBooks

2025-01-24

The author needed a local Linux environment for Kubernetes development on their MacBook. After struggling with Docker Desktop's high power consumption and sleep issues, they discovered an unexpected solution: Oracle Linux. Oracle Linux, a downstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, offers an easy-to-use UTM template. The author details setting up k3s and cert-manager, highlighting Oracle Linux's surprisingly low power consumption in UTM, solving the problems encountered with Docker Desktop. This makes it a superior choice for local development.

(xeiaso.net)

Development

Amazon's AI Crawler DDoSing My Git Server

2025-01-18

Blogger Xe Iaso's Git server (gitea.xeserv.us) is under attack from Amazon's AI crawler, causing instability. Despite attempts to block the crawler using robots.txt and nginx configuration to filter specific user agents, the attacks continue with constantly changing IPs and spoofed user agents. As a last resort, the server was moved behind a VPN, and a proof-of-work reverse proxy is being developed for future protection. The post expresses frustration and anger at the resource consumption by the Amazon AI crawler, urging Amazon to stop the attacks or negotiate a solution.

(xeiaso.net)

Development AI crawler server attack resource exhaustion

Bash Has Hashmaps?!

2025-01-11

This blog post reveals a hidden gem in bash scripting: built-in support for hashmaps (associative arrays)! The author, while working on a project involving GPU instance management, discovered this feature and shares how to use it. The post details how to declare, assign values to, read, iterate over, and delete key-value pairs within a bash hashmap, showcasing two declaration methods: dynamic addition and pre-defined key-value pairs. This is a valuable technique for efficiently handling key-value data within bash scripts.

(xeiaso.net)

Development Hashmaps Shell Scripting

Apple Intelligence: Squandering the Holy Grail of Trusted Compute

2025-01-06

This article analyzes Apple's recently released Apple Intelligence, a suite of features designed to bring intelligence to iPhones. While Apple achieved a remarkable feat in building a secure 'Private Cloud Compute' system, prioritizing user data privacy and security, the actual implementation of these features is underwhelming. The author dissects each feature, from Writing Tools and notification summaries to Image Playground, revealing shortcomings and a lack of maturity that fall short of Apple's usual high standards. The article argues Apple missed an opportunity to create a 'bicycle for the mind' (Steve Jobs' analogy for computers), squandering a powerful technological foundation on lackluster applications. The exception is Math Notes, which the author praises highly. The piece concludes by exploring the nature and proper applications of generative AI, suggesting its strength lies in backend tasks like data analysis rather than direct-to-consumer products. The author laments the unfulfilled potential of Apple Intelligence, comparing it unfavorably to alternative, more effective open-source tools.

(xeiaso.net)

Tech