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Pangolin: Self-Hosted Zero Trust Tunneled Reverse Proxy

2025-07-11

Pangolin: Self-Hosted Zero Trust Tunneled Reverse Proxy

Pangolin is a self-hosted, tunneled reverse proxy server with identity and access control, designed to securely expose private resources across distributed networks. It acts as a central hub, connecting isolated networks – even those behind restrictive firewalls – via encrypted tunnels, enabling easy access to remote services without opening ports. Leveraging WireGuard, Pangolin offers robust features including centralized authentication (SSO, TOTP), role-based access control, and flexible deployment options. Extend its functionality with Traefik plugins. Use cases include bypassing port restrictions, deploying business applications, and managing IoT networks. A self-hosted alternative to Cloudflare Tunnels.

(github.com)

Development zero trust

Kenyan Startup Uses Mushrooms to Tackle Housing Shortage

2025-03-14

Kenyan Startup Uses Mushrooms to Tackle Housing Shortage

Facing a severe housing deficit, Kenyan startup MycoTile is revolutionizing construction with eco-friendly building materials. They utilize agricultural waste like sugarcane bagasse, binding it with oyster mushroom mycelium to create affordable insulation panels. These panels, already proven effective in student accommodation, offer superior sound and temperature regulation at two-thirds the cost of conventional materials. Furthermore, they're fully compostable. While facing challenges in convincing a conservative construction industry and public accustomed to traditional materials, MycoTile's innovation offers a promising solution to Kenya's housing crisis.

(www.nature.com)

Startup agricultural waste construction materials

Ancient Artifact Data Encoded into Wheat Seed DNA

2024-12-31

Artist Wafaa Bilal's latest work, "In a Grain of Wheat," encodes the digital data of the 3,000-year-old Winged Bull of Nineveh into the DNA of Iraqi wheat seeds. The project aims to utilize molecular-digital data storage to preserve damaged Iraqi cultural heritage, combating destruction caused by war and terrorism. By encoding 3D scans of a sister statue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art into the wheat DNA, the project not only restores the ravaged artifact but also initiates a new chapter in transnational collaboration to protect cultural heritage, combining the powers of art, science, and nature to safeguard global cultural memory for future generations.

(wafaabilal.com)

AI digital art cultural heritage preservation

Chorus' Creator Incubator: Controversy and Hope

2025-08-28

Chorus' Creator Incubator: Controversy and Hope

Chorus, an organization aiming to support progressive content creators, launched a creator incubator program to help them produce high-quality political content. However, the program has faced controversy. Some creators accused Chorus of using their images for fundraising without permission and attempting to become a middleman between progressive political leaders and independent media. Despite this, many creators applied to join the program, hoping to gain funding and resources to produce better content and influence the political process. The future direction of the program and whether it can truly help independent media remains to be seen.

(www.wired.com)

Misc

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Neoliberalism: An Incomplete Regime Change

2025-04-13

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Neoliberalism: An Incomplete Regime Change

This article traces the evolution of the term 'regime change,' from its initial meaning of the post-WWII neoliberal order spearheaded by the US, to its current association with military interventions. It examines the rise, development, and post-2008 crisis of neoliberalism. Despite massive Keynesian interventions after the crisis, core neoliberal principles remained, exacerbating inequality. Right- and left-wing populist movements emerged, challenging the status quo, but lacked a clear alternative. The author argues that only a major external shock could trigger a true 'regime change' in the West, breaking free from neoliberalism's grip.

(www.lrb.co.uk)

Tech neoliberalism populism regime change

Hidden JavaScript Quirks: Beyond the Memes

2025-04-04

This article uncovers lesser-known quirks in JavaScript that go beyond typical programmer humor and tutorials. Examples include the peculiar scoping of the `eval` function; the counter-intuitive variable capture in `for` loops; the falsiness of `document.all`; Unicode pitfalls in string iteration; and the performance and strange behavior of sparse arrays. The author also touches upon the complexities of Automatic Semicolon Insertion (ASI) and potential errors it can cause, listing many other noteworthy oddities within JavaScript.

(stack-auth.com)

Development quirks

400x Faster Static Embedding Models with Sentence Transformers

2025-01-15

400x Faster Static Embedding Models with Sentence Transformers

This blog post introduces a method to train static embedding models that are 100x to 400x faster on CPU than state-of-the-art embedding models, while maintaining most of the quality. This unlocks exciting use cases like on-device and in-browser execution. Two highly efficient models are presented: sentence-transformers/static-retrieval-mrl-en-v1 for English retrieval and sentence-transformers/static-similarity-mrl-multilingual-v1 for multilingual similarity. These models achieve at least 85% of the performance of counterparts like all-mpnet-base-v2 and multilingual-e5-small, while being significantly faster on CPU.

(huggingface.co)

AI static embeddings sentence transformers

Firefox Patches Over 600 XSS Vulnerabilities

2025-04-09

The Firefox team has significantly enhanced the security of its user interface by removing over 600 inline JavaScript event handlers. This move aims to mitigate the risk of injection attacks, such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). The improvement leverages Content Security Policy (CSP) to restrict script execution and is planned to expand to other parts of Firefox. The ultimate goal is to completely block dynamic code execution, providing a more secure browsing experience. This update will be included in Firefox 138.

(attackanddefense.dev)

Development

X User Notes: Remember Why You Muted Someone

2025-05-21

X User Notes: Remember Why You Muted Someone

This browser extension for x.com (formerly Twitter) helps you recall why you muted or blocked a user. It automatically logs mute/block events, saving the link and tweet you were viewing for context. It also adds a private notes field to user profiles, allowing you to add personal reminders, visible only to you. Data is stored securely in your browser's synced storage and synced across devices logged into the same profile.

(github.com)

Development x.com user blocking

Boston Dynamics' Atlas Robot Shows Off Insane Parkour Skills

2025-03-21

Boston Dynamics' Atlas Robot Shows Off Insane Parkour Skills

Boston Dynamics has released new footage of its Atlas robot showcasing incredible agility and dexterity. Atlas effortlessly runs, flips, cartwheels, and even breakdances, surpassing the capabilities of other humanoids focused on practical tasks. While companies like Tesla prioritize functional robots, Atlas demonstrates advancements in AI and motor control, hinting at a future where robots seamlessly navigate complex environments. This impressive display highlights the rapid progress in humanoid robotics, suggesting a future where human-robot interaction will become increasingly common.

(newatlas.com)

Tech

The Myth of the IO-Bound Rails App

2025-01-25

It's a common belief that Rails apps are inherently IO-bound, with the database being the primary performance bottleneck, making Ruby performance less critical. This post challenges that notion. While the database is indeed a scaling bottleneck, the author argues that this doesn't mean the application spends most of its time waiting for I/O. Analysis of YJIT performance improvements and common performance issues (like missing database indexes) suggests many Rails apps are actually CPU-bound. The post highlights confusion between CPU starvation and I/O wait, and emphasizes that choosing the right execution model (asynchronous, threaded, or process-based) depends on the app's I/O/CPU ratio. The author calls for attention to Ruby performance and points out opportunities for optimization within Rails itself.

(byroot.github.io)

Development

GitHub Actions' `shell` Keyword: Unexpected Flexibility and Security Implications

2025-04-08

The `shell` keyword in GitHub Actions lets you specify the shell for a given run block. However, this is far more flexible than the documentation suggests. It supports not only predefined shells like bash and pwsh, but any executable on the system's `$PATH`. This means you can run C code using a C compiler, or even dynamically modify `$GITHUB_PATH` to change the shell's behavior. While this offers flexibility, it also introduces security risks, as file writes can imply execution. This contrasts with GitHub's unexpected practice of performing `$PATH` lookups even for their "well-known" shell values.

(yossarian.net)

Development

Sci-Fi Art Legend David Schleinkofer Passes Away

2025-04-28

Sci-Fi Art Legend David Schleinkofer Passes Away

Renowned science fiction illustrator David Schleinkofer passed away this week at age 74 due to ALS. His distinctive airbrush style graced the covers and interiors of countless sci-fi novels, magazines, and games like Transformers and SimCity over his 40-year career. His work, featured in seminal works such as *Tomorrow and Beyond*, significantly influenced the field and will be deeply missed.

(downthetubes.net)

Design Sci-Fi Art Obituary

Microsoft Makes Significant Windows Changes to Comply with the Digital Markets Act

2025-06-03

Microsoft Makes Significant Windows Changes to Comply with the Digital Markets Act

To comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, Microsoft announced several new features for Windows users in the EEA. Users can now uninstall the Microsoft Store and avoid being forced to set Edge as their default browser. Setting a different default browser will pin it to the taskbar and extend its association to more file types. Microsoft assures users that apps installed from the Store will continue receiving updates even after uninstallation. Further improvements include enabling third-party apps to add their search results to Windows Search upon installation, and allowing users to customize the order of search providers. These updates will roll out in early June and July.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

GitHub Copilot Chat Goes Open Source: Transparency in AI Coding

2025-07-06

GitHub Copilot Chat Goes Open Source: Transparency in AI Coding

Microsoft open-sourced the GitHub Copilot Chat extension for VS Code, offering unprecedented transparency into its AI-powered code assistant. Copilot Chat understands codebases, helping developers clean up functions, add error handling, explain logic, and even refactor files. Its 'Agent mode' automates compilation, error fixing, test monitoring, and more. While the underlying models remain closed-source, the open-sourced VS Code extension allows auditing, customization, and even building new tools on top of it, significantly increasing trust and transparency in AI tools.

(nerds.xyz)

Development

Irish Minister Rejects Streaming Levy: Consumers Price Out

2025-04-06

Irish Minister Rejects Streaming Levy: Consumers Price Out

Ireland's Minister for Media, Patrick O'Donovan, has opposed proposals for a levy on streaming services like Netflix, arguing it would price consumers out of entertainment. Despite previous preparations for the levy, intended to fund domestic programming as recommended by the Media Commission, O'Donovan will bring a memo to Cabinet opposing it. He believes the existing television license fee suffices for terrestrial television and plans to address legal loopholes via the Broadcasting Bill. Concerns over RTÉ funding also feature, with O'Donovan highlighting an almost 'monopolistic' situation regarding license fees, advertising, and Sound and Vision funding, and pushing for increased accountability.

(www.rte.ie)

Tech streaming levy Irish media

Massive Dataset CommonPool Leaks Sensitive Personal Information

2025-07-31

Massive Dataset CommonPool Leaks Sensitive Personal Information

A new study reveals that CommonPool, a massive dataset containing 12.8 billion image-text pairs, harbors vast amounts of sensitive personal information. This includes credit cards, driver's licenses, passports, birth certificates, resumes, and even sensitive details like medical history and race. Used to train numerous AI models, including Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, CommonPool's over 2 million downloads mean this private information is likely widely disseminated, posing significant privacy risks. Researchers urge greater attention to data privacy and ethical considerations when building large-scale datasets.

(www.technologyreview.com)

AI dataset

Securely Manage Environment Variables with GPG-Encrypted Files

2025-04-17

Securely Manage Environment Variables with GPG-Encrypted Files

This shell tool provides a secure way to manage environment variables using GPG-encrypted files. It addresses the common issue of command-line tools needing environment variables containing sensitive information stored in unencrypted shell files. The tool allows users to read secrets from encrypted files and easily switch between different accounts. It supports nested logins, updates the `SECRET_LOGIN` environment variable, and modifies the shell prompt to display the current login. Autocomplete for available filenames is also included.

(github.com)

Development Shell tool GPG encryption

Beyond Copilot: Rethinking AI Design with Heads-Up Displays

2025-07-28

Beyond Copilot: Rethinking AI Design with Heads-Up Displays

This article critiques the prevalent "copilot" metaphor for AI design, advocating instead for a more effective "heads-up display" (HUD) approach. Using the analogy of airplane piloting, it contrasts the copilot model (requiring interaction with the AI) with the HUD model (directly enhancing human perception). The author argues that while a copilot might suffice for routine tasks, for complex problems, a HUD—augmenting human capabilities, such as enhanced debugger UIs—offers greater potential for breakthroughs. This piece offers a fresh perspective on AI design, emphasizing technology as an extension rather than a replacement for human capabilities.

(www.geoffreylitt.com)

AI

Electromechanical Reshaping: A Potential Game Changer in Eye Surgery

2025-09-04

Electromechanical Reshaping: A Potential Game Changer in Eye Surgery

A new technique called electromechanical reshaping (EMR) shows promise as a gentler, cheaper alternative to laser surgery for vision correction. Unlike LASIK, EMR uses small electrical pulses to reshape the cornea without cutting or burning tissue. By disrupting chemical bonds in the collagen, the cornea becomes moldable and can be reshaped using a custom mold. Early tests on rabbits have been successful, demonstrating the potential for a significantly more affordable and accessible method for treating nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Further research is needed to ensure long-term safety and efficacy before clinical trials.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech Eye Surgery LASIK alternative

Can Adults Grow New Brain Cells? The Science Is Still Debated

2025-06-03

Can Adults Grow New Brain Cells? The Science Is Still Debated

For decades, the prevailing belief was that the number of brain cells in adults remained fixed. However, recent research challenges this notion, presenting evidence of adult neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells). Studies primarily using animal models like mice have shown new neurons growing in areas like the hippocampus, crucial for learning and memory. Translating these findings to humans, however, is difficult due to limitations in research methods. Some studies employing radiocarbon dating have identified newborn neurons in adult human brain tissue, but results haven't been consistently replicated. Skepticism remains, with some scientists questioning the reliability of current evidence and suggesting potential misinterpretations. While conclusions remain uncertain, research into adult neurogenesis holds significant implications for treating brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.

(www.livescience.com)

Tech neurogenesis brain cells

Zedless: A Privacy-Friendly, Local-First Fork of Zed

2025-08-21

Zedless: A Privacy-Friendly, Local-First Fork of Zed

Zedless is a work-in-progress fork of Zed designed to prioritize privacy and local-first principles. It removes reliance on proprietary cloud services, telemetry, and automatic crash reporting. It emphasizes bring-your-own-infrastructure, allowing users to configure providers for network services (with no defaults and disabled by default). Importantly, it avoids contributor license agreements and ensures proper licensing for all third-party dependencies.

(github.com)

Development

Android Tightens FRP: Bypassing Setup Wizard Triggers Forced Factory Reset

2025-05-13

Android Tightens FRP: Bypassing Setup Wizard Triggers Forced Factory Reset

Google is bolstering Android's Factory Reset Protection (FRP) to combat phone theft. The enhancement detects setup wizard bypass attempts and forces a second factory reset, preventing unauthorized use until previous ownership is verified via Google account or screen lock. This significant security upgrade in Android builds upon the improvements in Android 15, addressing previously unblocked bypass methods. The feature is expected later this year, possibly within an Android 16 Quarterly Platform Release (QPR).

(www.androidauthority.com)

Tech Anti-theft

Earth Wind is Rusting the Moon

2025-09-23

Earth Wind is Rusting the Moon

New research suggests that a stream of charged particles from Earth could be responsible for the rust found on the Moon. Scientists discovered that oxygen particles blown from Earth to the Moon can turn lunar minerals into hematite, also known as rust. This discovery enhances our understanding of the deep interconnection between Earth and the Moon, showing that the Moon retains a geological record of these interactions. When Earth is positioned between the Sun and the Moon, the Moon is exposed to the 'Earth wind,' containing ions of various elements including oxygen. These charged particles, upon impacting the Moon, embed themselves in the upper layers of lunar soil and trigger chemical reactions leading to hematite formation. This research provides experimental support for the origin of lunar hematite, confirming Earth wind as a contributing factor to the Moon's rust.

(www.nature.com)

Tech Earth Wind

Solving a Layton Puzzle Elegantly with Prolog

2025-04-08

Solving a Layton Puzzle Elegantly with Prolog

The author rewrote the chapter on logic programming languages in their book "Logic for Programmers", showcasing Prolog's power with a 'Layton-style' puzzle. The puzzle involves deducing the fourth student's score based on the scores of the first three. Using concise Prolog code (just 15 lines!), the author elegantly solves the problem, leveraging Prolog's pattern matching and bidirectionality to find all possible answer keys, ultimately determining the fourth student's score as 6. A comparison is made to a longer, less efficient solution. While the author argues against using puzzles for teaching, this example demonstrates Prolog's practical application potential.

(buttondown.com)

Development Puzzle Solving

56-Byte Assembly Snake Game

2025-01-12

56-Byte Assembly Snake Game

A developer on GitHub has open-sourced a remarkably compact Snake game written in assembly language, clocking in at a mere 56 bytes. This minimal game runs not only under DOS, but also without a BIOS, bootloader, or operating system. The developer compressed the code to this incredibly small size and provides both an online demo and a self-hosting version. The project has sparked discussions about code minimization and game development, with comparisons to other similar projects highlighting its significant advantage in code size.

(github.com)

Game code minimization

ChatGPT's New Watermark: A Cat and Mouse Game?

2025-04-21

ChatGPT's New Watermark: A Cat and Mouse Game?

Rumi's team discovered that newer GPT models (o3 and o4-mini) embed special character watermarks, primarily narrow no-break spaces, in longer generated texts. These are invisible to the naked eye but detectable with code editors or online tools. While potentially useful for detecting AI-generated content, they're easily removed. This might cause widespread attention among students, potentially leading OpenAI to remove the feature. Rumi advocates for a process-focused approach to student writing, emphasizing AI literacy over easily bypassed technical solutions.

(www.rumidocs.com)

AI watermark

Can Databases Replace Caches Entirely?

2025-08-31

This post explores the possibility of databases completely replacing caches. While databases offer some caching capabilities like buffer pools and read replicas, caches excel at low-latency data access, especially for specific data subsets and pre-computed data. To replace caches, databases need to address several challenges: efficiently handling numerous read replicas, enabling partial read replicas, prioritizing specific data, and implementing efficient incremental view maintenance (IVM). The author suggests that combining IVM with partial read replicas might eventually allow databases to partially replace caches, but a gap remains.

(avi.im)

Development read replicas

iPadOS 26: Apple's Decade-Long Journey to Perfecting iPad Multitasking

2025-06-19

iPadOS 26: Apple's Decade-Long Journey to Perfecting iPad Multitasking

This MacStories interview with Apple's Craig Federighi delves into the significant updates in iPadOS 26. Over a decade, iPad multitasking has evolved from single-app fullscreen to Split View, Slide Over, and the controversial Stage Manager. iPadOS 26 replaces Stage Manager's engine with a new windowing system supporting up to 12 simultaneous windows, incorporating macOS-like window resizing and a menu bar while maintaining iPad's simplicity. Federighi explains Apple's design philosophy: catering to both users seeking ease of use and those needing powerful features. iPadOS 26 balances these needs, offering flexible options and improved performance and efficiency.

(www.macstories.net)

Tech

Beyond Zig and Rust: A More Human-Friendly Approach to Metaprogramming

2025-05-26

This article explores a novel programming language design that combines the strengths of Rust's Hindley-Milner type system and Zig's compile-time capabilities, while avoiding the complexities of Zig's 'types as values' approach. By introducing the `@` operator for compile-time execution, the `Abstract` type for compile-time abstractions, `TypeInfo` and `Field` types for type introspection, and `Code` and `parse` functions for code manipulation, this design achieves powerful metaprogramming capabilities such as automatic code generation and the implementation of TypeScript-like utility types like `Partial`, all while maintaining code readability and ease of reasoning. This represents a new approach to achieving powerful metaprogramming while preserving type system friendliness, offering fresh perspectives for future language design.

(0x44.xyz)

Development

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