Microsoft Authenticator Ditches Passwords, Embraces Passkeys

2025-07-03
Microsoft Authenticator Ditches Passwords, Embraces Passkeys

Microsoft is phasing out password support in its Authenticator app, pushing users towards the more secure passkeys. Starting in July, autofill password functionality will be removed; by August, saved passwords will no longer be supported. Users will need to authenticate using passkeys – PINs, fingerprints, or facial recognition. Experts highlight passkeys' superior security using public-key cryptography, mitigating phishing and brute-force attacks. Microsoft will guide users through automatic passkey setup; simply open the Authenticator app, tap your account, and select 'Set up a passkey'.

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10 Awesome D Language Features You Should Know

2025-07-03

This beginner-friendly post explores ten captivating features of the D programming language. From smaller quality-of-life improvements to major features like automatic constructors, design by contract, compile-time function execution (CTFE), and built-in unit testing, the article provides clear explanations. D's powerful metaprogramming capabilities are also highlighted, rivaling few statically compiled languages in flexibility and modeling power. The post also covers unique D syntax features such as the dollar operator, parenthesis omission, and uniform function call syntax (UFCS), significantly improving code readability and efficiency. Additionally, D supports scoped and selective imports and a built-in documentation generator, further enhancing code maintainability and readability. In short, D offers a compelling blend of features for efficient and convenient programming.

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Development Features

Trees Aren't What You Think: A Surprising Look at Plant Taxonomy

2025-07-03
Trees Aren't What You Think: A Surprising Look at Plant Taxonomy

This article reveals a surprising fact: trees are not a monophyletic group, meaning that the common ancestors of different types of trees may not have been trees themselves. The article delves into the phenomenon of 'dendronization,' where plants have independently evolved woody stems multiple times. Research shows there are no unique 'tree genes,' but rather, plants utilize different expressions of existing genes to achieve tree morphology. Furthermore, the article discusses the fuzziness of categories like 'fruit' and 'berry,' pointing out the discrepancies between biological and everyday usage.

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Stop Building AI Agents!

2025-07-03
Stop Building AI Agents!

Hugo, an expert advising teams at Netflix, Meta, and the US Air Force on building LLM-powered systems, argues that many teams prematurely adopt AI agents, resulting in complex, hard-to-debug systems. He contends that simpler workflows like chaining, parallel processing, routing, and orchestrator-worker patterns are often more effective than complex agents. Agents are only the right tool when dealing with dynamic workflows requiring memory, delegation, and planning. The author shares five LLM workflow patterns and emphasizes the importance of building observable and controllable systems. Avoid agents for stable enterprise systems; they are better suited for human-in-the-loop scenarios.

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Development LLM Workflows

Couchers v1 Launch: A Safer, More Active Couchsurfing Community

2025-07-03
Couchers v1 Launch: A Safer, More Active Couchsurfing Community

After five years of development, Couchers is thrilled to announce the launch of version 1.0! This release focuses on creating a safer and more active couchsurfing community. It includes a redesigned landing page, improved core functionality, and exciting new features such as enhanced referencing, a revamped map search, and a notification feed. The Couchers team encourages users to spread the word and help grow the community.

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Gmailtail: Command-Line Gmail Monitoring Tool

2025-07-03
Gmailtail: Command-Line Gmail Monitoring Tool

Gmailtail is a command-line tool for real-time monitoring of Gmail messages, outputting them as JSON. It offers flexible filtering (sender, subject, labels, attachments, etc.), multiple output formats (JSON, JSON Lines, compact), OAuth2 and service account authentication, and checkpointing. Users can customize monitoring rules via simple command-line arguments or a YAML configuration file, making it ideal for automation, monitoring, and integration with other tools.

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Development

Website Cookie Policy and User Privacy

2025-07-03
Website Cookie Policy and User Privacy

This website uses technologies like cookies to store and access device information for the best user experience. Agreeing allows us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs. Disagreeing or withdrawing consent may negatively impact features. The site clarifies that technical storage or access is strictly necessary for enabling explicitly requested services or communication transmission; for storing non-requested preferences; and for statistical purposes (anonymous). However, it also acknowledges that such storage might be used for creating user profiles for advertising or tracking, requiring explicit consent.

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Misc

The Clever XOR Trick: Solving Tricky Interview Questions

2025-07-03

This post unveils a clever trick using the XOR bitwise operator to solve several common interview problems. XOR possesses unique properties: identical numbers XOR to 0, different numbers XOR to a non-zero value, and the order of operations doesn't affect the outcome. Leveraging these properties, you can elegantly find missing or duplicate numbers in an array, even two missing/duplicate numbers, without resorting to complex algorithms or data structures. The post progressively explains applications of the XOR trick with code examples, offering an efficient and concise problem-solving approach.

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Development

APL's Scalable Thin-Film Refrigeration Tech: CHESS

2025-07-03
APL's Scalable Thin-Film Refrigeration Tech: CHESS

APL has developed CHESS, a thin-film thermoelectric material, revolutionizing refrigeration. Using only 0.003 cubic centimeters—about the size of a grain of sand—per unit, CHESS leverages established MOCVD manufacturing for scalability and cost-effectiveness. Its potential extends beyond small-scale refrigeration to large-scale HVAC systems, mirroring the scalability of lithium-ion batteries. Furthermore, CHESS can convert temperature differences into usable energy, opening doors for energy harvesting in various applications, from computers to spacecraft. This breakthrough signifies the viability and scalability of high-efficiency solid-state refrigeration.

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Ancient Egyptian Genomics: Unraveling the Origins and Evolution of Nile Civilization

2025-07-03
Ancient Egyptian Genomics: Unraveling the Origins and Evolution of Nile Civilization

A large-scale study utilizing ancient DNA technology delves deep into the genetic history of ancient Egyptian civilization. Researchers analyzed ancient Egyptian genomes spanning from the Neolithic period to the post-Roman era, revealing the complex composition of the ancient Egyptian population, including gene flow from the Near East, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Mediterranean. The study also traces changes in diet, lifestyle, and disease among ancient Egyptians, offering new insights into the rise and fall of this ancient civilization. This research not only enriches our understanding of ancient Egyptian history but also provides a valuable case study for ancient population genetics research.

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Highly Eccentric Hyperbolic Object Discovered: 3I/ATLAS

2025-07-03

A new near-Earth object candidate, A11pl3Z, was discovered by ATLAS Chile (W68) in four 30-second survey images taken on July 1 UT. Follow-up observations revealed a highly eccentric hyperbolic orbit (e ~ 6). Tentative reports suggest cometary activity, including a faint coma and a short tail. Designated 3I/ATLAS = C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), further observations are needed to better constrain its orbit and nature. Additional data will be published in the MPC's standard `Orbits and Observations of Comets` publication.

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Critical Azure Vulnerabilities: Misconfigured Roles & VPN Key Leak

2025-07-02
Critical Azure Vulnerabilities: Misconfigured Roles & VPN Key Leak

Security researchers discovered multiple misconfigured Azure built-in roles granting excessive permissions. Coupled with a vulnerability in the Azure API allowing VPN key leaks, this creates an attack chain enabling a low-privileged user to access internal cloud assets and on-premises networks. The research details the discovery process, implications, and mitigation strategies. Ten built-in roles were found to be over-privileged, while the VPN key leak vulnerability has been patched by Microsoft. Recommendations include auditing problematic roles, using limited scopes, and creating custom roles with fine-grained permissions.

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Rails: The Open-Source Miracle and its Impact on a Generation of Frameworks

2025-07-02
Rails: The Open-Source Miracle and its Impact on a Generation of Frameworks

Launched in 2004 under the MIT License, Ruby on Rails revolutionized web development with its freedom, flexibility, and strong community. Its 'convention over configuration' philosophy, ActiveRecord ORM, and powerful scaffolding tools drastically improved developer productivity, profoundly influencing subsequent frameworks like Laravel, Django, and Phoenix. Rails proved open-source could compete with, and surpass, commercial alternatives, setting a model for others and continuing to shape web development.

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Development

UK Law Lagging Behind: Undersea Cable Sabotage Exposes Legal Gaps

2025-07-02
UK Law Lagging Behind:  Undersea Cable Sabotage Exposes Legal Gaps

A UK government minister has warned that cyberattacks and undersea cable sabotage are blurring the lines between war and peace, highlighting flaws in UK law. The outdated 1885 Submarine Telegraph Act, with its paltry £1,000 fine, is woefully inadequate for modern threats. Recent incidents, such as suspected Russian attacks on underwater cables in Sweden, underscore the urgency. The government is considering a new Defence Readiness Bill to address state-sponsored cybercrime and undersea cable attacks, but faces challenges in defining 'acts of war' and balancing civil and military responses.

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Tech

IntyBASIC: A BASIC Compiler Reviving Intellivision Game Development

2025-07-02
IntyBASIC: A BASIC Compiler Reviving Intellivision Game Development

Inspired by the challenges of Intellivision game development, the author created IntyBASIC, a BASIC compiler for the Intellivision console. Launched in 2014, IntyBASIC translates BASIC source code into CP1610 assembly, supporting Intellivision's video and sound capabilities. Its success sparked a surge of new Intellivision games and homebrews, even leading to a programming contest. The author also penned two books sharing game development insights, covering basic to advanced techniques with complete game source code included.

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Development BASIC Compiler

IKKO ActiveBuds: A Deep Dive into a Security Nightmare

2025-07-02
IKKO ActiveBuds: A Deep Dive into a Security Nightmare

This blog post details the security vulnerabilities discovered in the IKKO ActiveBuds earbuds, a device featuring integrated ChatGPT functionality. The author found that the device directly communicates with the OpenAI API using an easily accessible, unencrypted API key. Furthermore, the companion app suffers from multiple security flaws, allowing unauthorized access to user chat logs and user identification through IMEI guessing. While the manufacturer has implemented some patches, significant security risks remain.

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French University Offers 'Safe Haven' for US Scientists

2025-07-02
French University Offers 'Safe Haven' for US Scientists

Amidst a deteriorating academic environment in the US, Aix-Marseille University (AMU) in France has launched a 'Safe Place for Science' program to attract researchers from top US universities. The program offers salaries comparable to French researchers, but concerns remain among some US applicants due to lower research funding and salaries in France compared to the US. However, the lower stress, lower cost of living, and free education for children are enticing factors. The program has already secured €15 million in funding and is seeking matching funds from the French government to expand the initiative.

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Apple's 'Liquid Glass' UI Redesign: Form Over Function?

2025-07-02
Apple's 'Liquid Glass' UI Redesign: Form Over Function?

Apple's new user interface design, "Liquid Glass," has sparked controversy. The author dissects Apple's developer documentation, revealing inconsistencies. The guidelines advocate blurring the lines between content and navigation while simultaneously advising clear separation. Unnecessary whitespace reduces screen density, and overly simplistic icon design requirements lead to bland, indistinguishable icons. The author argues that Apple prioritizes form over function, sacrificing user experience and developer freedom, resulting in homogenized third-party app icons. The focus on a "liquid glass" effect overshadows the importance of the elements it distorts.

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Visual Chatbot Flow Editor

2025-07-02
Visual Chatbot Flow Editor

A browser-based visual tool for designing, testing, and exporting chatbot conversation flows as JSON. Add nodes, edit content, test the flow, and import/export JSON. The exported JSON is compatible with any chatbot application. Installation options include: installing as a dev dependency, adding to project scripts, or global installation.

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Gen Z's Gaming Spending Plummets: A Warning Sign for the Industry?

2025-07-02
Gen Z's Gaming Spending Plummets: A Warning Sign for the Industry?

New data reveals a significant drop in video game spending among 18-24 year-olds in the US. April saw a nearly 25% decrease compared to last year, part of a broader trend of reduced spending across various categories. This downturn, attributed to economic uncertainty, a tighter job market, and resuming student loan payments, contrasts with stable spending among older demographics. This presents a serious challenge for the games industry already grappling with layoffs and slowing revenue growth, highlighting the vulnerability of traditional game models compared to the continued success of free-to-play giants like Roblox.

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Math.Pow(-1, 2) Returns -1 in .NET 8 Canary Build

2025-07-02
Math.Pow(-1, 2) Returns -1 in .NET 8 Canary Build

An osu! game developer reported a bizarre issue in Windows 11 Canary build (27881.1000) where `Math.Pow(-1, 2)` in .NET 8 unexpectedly returns -1 instead of 1. The problem also occurs in C++'s `std::pow()`, but works correctly in Python. The developer has filed a GitHub issue and suggests joining the osu! Discord server for further details.

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Development

Stop Saying 'Click Here'! Better Link Text Writing

2025-07-02

W3C released a guide on writing more effective link text. It advises against using mechanical phrases like 'click here', suggesting instead concise, meaningful text that clearly describes the link's content, not the mechanics of clicking. The article also introduces W3C QA Tips, a resource offering practical advice for web developers and designers, including how to submit tips and an index of existing ones.

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Development Link Text

Blemmyes: Headless Wonders of Ancient Lore

2025-07-02
Blemmyes: Headless Wonders of Ancient Lore

Despite their fictional nature, the headless Blemmyes have become a staple in bestiaries and travelogues, appearing as early as the late tenth-century Marvels of the East. Depictions often portray them in a state of bewildered confusion, their absence of a neck a source of both fascination and amusement. These illustrations frequently pair Blemmyes with equally bizarre companions: a headless archer targeting a trumpet-playing merman, a Blemmye frolicking with a dog-headed friend and an elephant-trunked man, or a Blemmye regretting a wish granted—a head grafted from an angry swan. Sometimes terrifying, wielding clubs and crossbows, other times unexpectedly cute, as seen in a sixteenth-century illustration where an orange Blemmye seems embarrassed by dancing bipedal jackals above where its head should be.

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Jack Welch: The Man Who Broke Capitalism?

2025-07-02
Jack Welch: The Man Who Broke Capitalism?

David Gelles' new book, *The Man Who Broke Capitalism*, examines Jack Welch's profound impact on American business during his tenure at General Electric. Welch's relentless pursuit of shareholder value maximization, employing layoffs, outsourcing, offshoring, acquisitions, and buybacks, became a new playbook for American corporations. Gelles argues this shareholder-centric capitalism has led to unprecedented socioeconomic inequality and harmed many companies that adopted it. The book connects Welch's management style to the Boeing 737 Max crisis and rising income inequality. It concludes with a call to rebalance corporate profit distribution, prioritize worker well-being, and create a more equitable economic system.

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The Ever-Growing Size of Large Language Models

2025-07-02
The Ever-Growing Size of Large Language Models

This article traces the evolution of large language model (LLM) size. From GPT-2's 1.61B parameters to Llama-4's 2T parameters, model size has grown exponentially. The article details the parameter counts, training data sizes, and architectural features of key models, including dense models and Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models. The emergence of MoE architectures has made it possible to train and use larger models. However, the growth in model size has also brought new challenges, such as data bias and model interpretability. The article concludes by exploring the future directions of LLM development and calls for more research to focus on the development of pure text continuation engines, rather than simply pursuing high scores on benchmark tests.

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Breaking Through: Open-Source Toolchain for Fuzzing Qualcomm Hexagon Basebands

2025-07-02
Breaking Through: Open-Source Toolchain for Fuzzing Qualcomm Hexagon Basebands

Qualcomm's proprietary Hexagon baseband architecture has hindered security research due to a lack of suitable tooling. This paper introduces the first open-source toolchain enabling full-system emulated fuzzing of Hexagon firmware. Leveraging a QEMU fork with Hexagon support and LibAFL, this toolchain addresses the gap in analyzing Hexagon basebands. Researchers can now perform coverage-guided fuzzing and utilize visualization tools to improve reverse engineering. This significantly advances Hexagon baseband security analysis, opening up new avenues for research and enhancing the security of billions of devices.

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China's Hypersonic Feitian-2 Achieves Mach 12 Flight, Defying US Sanctions

2025-07-02
China's Hypersonic Feitian-2 Achieves Mach 12 Flight, Defying US Sanctions

Northwestern Polytechnical University in China successfully test-flew its hypersonic vehicle, Feitian-2, reaching Mach 12. The feat involved autonomously transitioning between rocket and ramjet propulsion, a significant technological hurdle. This achievement underscores China's advancements in hypersonic technology, directly challenging US dominance in the field. The US has been actively monitoring and attempting to restrict China's access to technologies related to hypersonic weapons. Feitian-2's success demonstrates China's ability to overcome technological sanctions and potentially reshape the global military landscape.

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Tech Hypersonic

Spain and Brazil Team Up to Tackle Tax Evasion by the Ultra-Rich

2025-07-02
Spain and Brazil Team Up to Tackle Tax Evasion by the Ultra-Rich

At the UN's 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain and Brazil launched a bold initiative: a push for a fairer global tax system to make the ultra-wealthy contribute more to public finances. Highlighting that the richest 1% own over 95% of global wealth, they argue that lower effective tax rates and legal loopholes allow the wealthy to pay less than ordinary taxpayers. The initiative calls for increased information sharing, improved data analysis capabilities, and ultimately, a global wealth registry to enhance transparency and accountability. While acknowledging the time and political will required, Spain and Brazil believe this is a moderate approach to address the radical reality of growing wealth inequality.

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Portabl E: A Cross-Platform AmigaE Compiler

2025-07-02

Portabl E is a recreation of the AmigaE programming language, enhanced with improvements and designed for cross-platform compatibility. Version r6b is now available, fully supporting AmigaOS4, AROS, and MorphOS, with good AmigaOS3 support and basic Linux/Windows functionality. Download requires the username "user" and password "password". The project includes example code, screenshots, pre-compiled programs, documentation, forums, and mailing lists for community support.

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Development
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