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Hacker News: Inside the Operations of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew

2025-01-08

A KrebsOnSecurity article exposes the inner workings of a prolific voice phishing gang. The group abuses legitimate Apple and Google services, using spoofed phone numbers, phishing emails, and system messages to defraud victims. They even leverage an official Apple support line to send confirmation messages, building trust. The gang has a clear division of labor, including callers, operators, drainers, and owners. The article reveals how they use data breaches and automated tools to target victims, and details internal conflicts and betrayals. The incident highlights the importance of cybersecurity and exposes the complex operation of cybercrime groups.

(krebsonsecurity.com)

Tech voice phishing

Lenovo Unveils SteamOS-Powered Legion Go S Handheld

2025-01-08

Lenovo officially announced the Legion Go S handheld gaming console at CES, the world's first officially licensed SteamOS handheld. Pre-loaded with Valve's Arch Linux-based SteamOS, it features cloud saves, Remote Play, and full access to the Steam Store and Library. Powered by the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor and Radeon 700M graphics, it boasts an 8-inch 1200p display, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of SSD storage. Priced at $500 USD, it will be available in May. Notably, it uses the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, not the newly announced Ryzen Z2.

(www.phoronix.com)

Game Lenovo Legion Go S

Benchmarking Decimal Digit Counting Algorithms

2025-01-08

Benchmarking Decimal Digit Counting Algorithms

This code implements a benchmark suite for comparing different decimal digit counting algorithms. It generates random integers and then uses five different methods (including log10, bit manipulation, and lookup table methods) to count the number of digits in those integers and compares their performance. The tests cover both 32-bit and 64-bit integers, revealing significant performance differences between the algorithms, with some bit manipulation-based algorithms showing superior performance.

(github.com)

Development algorithm comparison

Slack's Automated Accessibility Testing: Challenges and Triumphs

2025-01-08

Slack's Automated Accessibility Testing: Challenges and Triumphs

The Slack engineering team details their journey implementing automated accessibility testing. Initial attempts to integrate Axe into their React Testing Library and Jest framework failed due to complexities. They pivoted to Playwright, using custom functions and strategies to successfully automate accessibility checks and integrate them into CI/CD. While not fully hiding automated checks, they minimized developer overhead by simplifying workflows, improving reporting, and establishing clear processes. Future plans include further optimization and exploring AI-assisted testing.

(slack.engineering)

Development automated testing accessibility testing

Lenovo's CES 2025 Stunners: Rollable Laptop & SteamOS Handheld

2025-01-07

Lenovo's CES 2025 Stunners: Rollable Laptop & SteamOS Handheld

Lenovo made a splash at CES 2025 with several impressive new devices. The standout is the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, a rollable AI PC with a 14-inch OLED screen that expands to 16.7 inches, dramatically increasing screen real estate. Also unveiled was the Legion Go S, a dual-version handheld gaming console offering both Windows and SteamOS (the first officially licensed SteamOS handheld). Finally, the ThinkCentre M90a Pro Gen 6 all-in-one features Lenovo Focus Sound, a directional audio technology for enhanced privacy. While innovative, these devices come with a hefty price tag.

(www.wired.com)

Hardware rollable screen

Streets GL: An Open-Source Real-time 3D Map Engine

2025-01-07

Streets GL is a powerful open-source real-time 3D map engine offering developers the tools to build stunning virtual worlds. Leveraging WebGL, it boasts exceptional performance, smoothly rendering massive geographic datasets and supporting custom materials, lighting, and effects. Whether creating city simulators, game maps, or immersive VR applications, Streets GL handles it all. Its open-source nature makes it a valuable community resource, constantly updated and improving.

(streets.gl)

Development 3D Map Open-Source Engine

Nvidia Unveils RTX 50 Blackwell GPUs: A $2000 Flagship and DLSS 4's Ambitious Claims

2025-01-07

Nvidia Unveils RTX 50 Blackwell GPUs: A $2000 Flagship and DLSS 4's Ambitious Claims

Nvidia launched its highly anticipated GeForce RTX 50 series at CES 2025, featuring the new Blackwell architecture and DLSS 4. The lineup includes the $2000 RTX 5090, $1000 RTX 5080, $749 RTX 5070 Ti, and $549 RTX 5070. While Nvidia boasts impressive performance claims – notably the RTX 5070 allegedly matching the RTX 4090 with DLSS 4 – real-world benchmarks are needed. The cards feature increased CUDA cores, memory bandwidth, and VRAM, but also significantly higher power consumption. DLSS 4's multi-frame generation raises questions about latency and image quality. Overall, the RTX 50 series shows decent performance improvements and value, although the gap between the top-tier and others is vast, and the RTX 5070's 12GB VRAM might prove limiting.

(www.techspot.com)

Hardware

Reverse-Engineering the Stone Age: An Experimental Archaeologist's Lab

2025-01-07

Reverse-Engineering the Stone Age: An Experimental Archaeologist's Lab

Metin Eren, an archaeologist at Kent State University, runs an experimental archaeology lab where he and his team recreate and test ancient technologies. Their work ranges from flint knapping and spear throwing to analyzing bullet ricochet marks and butchering bison with ancient tools. Eren emphasizes the rigorous scientific method behind his seemingly playful experiments, publishing numerous papers annually. His research highlights the limitations of traditional archaeology and the value of hands-on experimentation in understanding past cultures and technologies. The lab's focus is on using experimental archaeology to understand cultural evolution and the limitations of the archeological record.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech Experimental Archaeology Stone Age Technology Cultural Evolution

SNL's 50th Season: A Designer's Untold Story

2025-01-07

SNL's 50th Season: A Designer's Untold Story

PRINT magazine interviewed Marlene Weisman, a designer who worked for seven seasons on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the 1980s. She recounts her incredible journey creating graphics for iconic sketches in a pre-computer era, relying on hand-lettering, Letraset, phototypesetting, and paste-up. Weisman details collaborations with stars like Mike Myers and the frenetic pace of SNL production. The article offers a behind-the-scenes look at SNL and a fascinating glimpse into a designer's creative journey amidst technological shifts.

(www.printmag.com)

Design Saturday Night Live retro design

The Evaporative Cooling Effect in Social Networks: Why High-Value Contributors Leave

2025-01-07

This blog post explores the 'evaporative cooling effect,' where high-value contributors leave a community due to lack of benefit, leading to a decline in community quality. It analyzes how factors like openness, community access mechanisms (e.g., paid membership or knowledge barriers), internal communication styles, and rewarding high contributors affect this effect. The author argues that 'evaporative cooling' is inevitable in community growth, and the key is to slow it down. The post suggests combining 'plaza' (easily expandable) and 'warren' (more stable) community structures to balance scalability and stability.

(blogs.cornell.edu)

Misc social networks evaporative cooling effect community quality

US Sues Six Major Landlords for Algorithmic Price Fixing

2025-01-07

US Sues Six Major Landlords for Algorithmic Price Fixing

The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against six of the nation's largest landlords, accusing them of using algorithms to manipulate rental prices and harm renters. Cortland Management settled, agreeing to cooperate and cease using competitors' sensitive data. The lawsuit alleges these landlords colluded to fix prices by sharing data through common algorithms and direct communication, exchanging sensitive information like rent and occupancy rates. Software company RealPage is also implicated, accused of facilitating the price manipulation. The case raises concerns about algorithmic pricing and data sharing in real estate, highlighting the need for tech regulation.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech algorithmic pricing real estate

Laid Off Twice in One Year: A Software Engineer's Story

2025-01-07

A software engineer shares his experience of being laid off twice in a single year, once a week into paternity leave and again just before Christmas. The article details the emotional rollercoaster, practical steps taken to find new employment (resume updates, unemployment benefits, job searching strategies), and reflections on the current state of the tech industry and personal self-worth. He offers advice on navigating layoffs, emphasizing the importance of resilience, networking, and continuous learning.

(dillonshook.com)

Development

Enron's 'The Egg': A Home Nuclear Reactor?

2025-01-07

Enron's 'The Egg': A Home Nuclear Reactor?

Enron has unveiled 'The Egg,' a compact home nuclear reactor promising safe, efficient, and affordable energy. Using Uranium-Zirconium Hydride fuel rods, it generates heat via nuclear fission, converting it to electricity with a 3D-printed Inconel heat exchanger. Multiple safety features, including automatic shutdown in overheating and advanced radiation shielding, are highlighted. Enron claims 'The Egg' is significantly cheaper than traditional systems, offering reliable, constant power. However, the safety and viability of home nuclear reactors remain debated, requiring further scrutiny of Enron's claims.

(enron.com)

Tech nuclear reactor home energy

Real-Time Bidding: The Mass Surveillance System You've Never Heard Of

2025-01-07

Real-Time Bidding: The Mass Surveillance System You've Never Heard Of

Every targeted ad you see is powered by a system called "real-time bidding" (RTB). This system isn't just about delivering ads; it's a massive surveillance network. RTB broadcasts your personal information—location, IP address, interests, and more—to thousands of companies daily. This data fuels targeted advertising but also flows to government agencies and data brokers for surveillance and commercial purposes. The article exposes how RTB facilitates government surveillance, poses national security risks, and how banning online behavioral advertising is crucial for protecting individual privacy.

(www.eff.org)

Tech surveillance real-time bidding

The Biggest Mistakes Engineers Make in Massive Codebases

2025-01-07

Working with large, established codebases is notoriously difficult. This article shares a decade's worth of experience, highlighting the most common and deadly mistake: ignoring existing codebase patterns and focusing solely on clean code for a new feature. Maintaining consistency is paramount; it prevents unexpected issues, slows the codebase's descent into chaos, and enables future improvements. The author also stresses understanding the code's production footprint, being cautious about introducing new dependencies, removing redundant code, working in small PRs, and leveraging team expertise to catch errors. While challenging, mastering large codebases is crucial because they are usually the foundation of a company's most valuable products.

(www.seangoedecke.com)

Development codebase

The AI Tattoo Generator Revolutionizing Personalized Ink

2025-01-07

The AI Tattoo Generator Revolutionizing Personalized Ink

Tired of generic tattoo designs? The #1 AI tattoo generator lets you create professional, unique tattoo designs with ease. Simply input your preferences and generate a wide range of styles, fulfilling your vision for personalized body art. Skip the long wait times and high costs of traditional tattoo artists; this AI tool is changing the tattoo game.

(www.tattoopro.ai)

Design Tattoo

Magic Links: Convenient or Catastrophic?

2025-01-07

Magic Links: Convenient or Catastrophic?

This article critiques website designs that rely solely on magic email links for login. While secure, the author argues this method is inconvenient for multi-device users, hindering direct login on gaming PCs or work laptops and being susceptible to email delays. It also forces users to access personal emails on work devices, posing security risks. The author suggests offering more flexible login options like passwords or passkeys to improve user experience.

(recyclebin.zip)

Development login methods

Crunchyroll Returns to the Manga App Game

2025-01-07

Crunchyroll Returns to the Manga App Game

At CES 2025, Crunchyroll announced a new manga app, "Crunchyroll Manga," marking a return to the market after shutting down a previous service last year. The app aims to be the premier destination for anime fans to read manga, offering a catalog from renowned publishers. Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini stated it's designed to enhance Crunchyroll memberships and meet the growing demand for digital manga among anime fans. While a 2025 release is planned, specifics on timing and pricing, including whether it will be a premium add-on or standalone purchase, remain unclear, sparking fan discussion and speculation.

(gizmodo.com)

Game Manga App Anime

Bing Masquerades as Google: A Desperate Move by Microsoft?

2025-01-07

Bing Masquerades as Google: A Desperate Move by Microsoft?

In a surprising move to boost Bing's usage, Microsoft has implemented a deceptive tactic. When users search for "Google" in the Bing search bar, they are presented with a nearly identical replica of the Google search page. This is seen as a desperate attempt by Microsoft to compete with Google's overwhelming dominance in the search engine market. While Bing has seen some growth in desktop search, Google still holds a commanding lead in mobile search. While this might temporarily increase Bing's user base, this deceptive practice could ultimately damage Bing's reputation in the long run.

(www.pcworld.com)

Tech Search Engine

Standard Model: The Universe's Winning Equation

2025-01-07

Standard Model: The Universe's Winning Equation

Quanta Magazine released a video explaining the Standard Model of particle physics—the most successful scientific theory ever. Cambridge physicist David Tong breaks down the equation piece by piece, showing how the fundamental building blocks of our universe interact. While incredibly successful in explaining experiments on Earth, the Standard Model fails to account for several features of the wider universe, including gravity at short distances and the presence of dark matter and dark energy. This pushes physicists towards more encompassing theories, while mathematicians need fresh perspectives on quantum field theory to solve physics' biggest mysteries.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech Standard Model particle physics quantum field theory

HipScript: Run HIP and CUDA Code on WebGPU

2025-01-07

Ben Schattinger's HipScript online compiler allows you to run HIP and NVIDIA CUDA code directly on WebGPU. This means developers can leverage familiar programming models to deploy high-performance computing tasks to the browser, eliminating the need for complex porting. Sample code, such as the Game of Life, is provided to ease the learning curve. This is a significant development, unlocking the potential for high-performance computing in web applications.

(hipscript.lights0123.com)

Development

PostgreSQL Now a Trillian Storage Backend for Certificate Transparency Logs

2025-01-07

PostgreSQL Now a Trillian Storage Backend for Certificate Transparency Logs

Trillian, the open-source Certificate Transparency (CT) log system, now supports PostgreSQL as a storage backend, thanks to a significant contribution from Sectigo. Driven by a previous MariaDB failure due to disk space exhaustion, Sectigo chose PostgreSQL for its enhanced reliability and data integrity, leveraging PostgreSQL's Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) and ACID properties. This benefits not only the CT ecosystem but also other Trillian-based transparency logs. Trillian v1.7.0 includes this support, currently in Alpha.

(blog.transparency.dev)

Tech Certificate Transparency

Can You Optimize Your Way to a Better Person? Probably Not.

2025-01-07

Can You Optimize Your Way to a Better Person? Probably Not.

This article explores the concept of 'moral optimization,' the idea of using data and reason to maximize moral good. The author uses personal anecdotes and observations to illustrate how this perfectionistic mindset can lead to anxiety, self-criticism, and a disregard for human connection. Tracing the historical roots of optimization from 16th-century bookkeeping to modern AI, the article analyzes the applicability of data-driven optimization in different fields. It argues that this approach is limited in the moral realm, ignoring the complexity of morality and the importance of emotions. Ultimately, the author advocates for 'satisficing'—accepting uncertainty and imperfections, seeking a 'good enough' solution in moral choices, and balancing reason with emotion to maintain humanity and integrity.

(www.vox.com)

Misc moral philosophy perfectionism

Beyond A*: A New Pathfinding Algorithm for Breathing World

2025-01-07

Beyond A*: A New Pathfinding Algorithm for Breathing World

Game developer Farer is developing a new pathfinding algorithm for his game, Breathing World, to improve the AI performance of wolves. The existing A* algorithm proves inefficient with high-resolution maps. Farer's new approach, based on Bresenham's line algorithm, constructs paths by detecting and circumventing obstacles, similar to raycasting in 3D engines. This method breaks down the path into waypoints for more efficient pathfinding, promising a significant improvement to the gaming experience.

(blog.breathingworld.com)

Game pathfinding algorithm

OmniAI (YC) is Hiring a Full-Stack Engineer

2025-01-07

OmniAI (YC) is Hiring a Full-Stack Engineer

OmniAI, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is hiring a full-stack engineer with a salary of $125,000-$175,000 and equity. They're building a new way to work with unstructured data, enabling large-scale analytics previously impossible. The ideal candidate has 3+ years of experience, proficiency in Node.js, TypeScript, React/NextJS, Postgres, and a deep understanding of LLMs and OCR. The interview process involves a phone screen, architecture design interview, and an on-site coding challenge.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development

Red Hat Hits Key Milestone in Automotive Safety Certification

2025-01-07

Red Hat announced a significant step towards ISO 26262 ASIL-B certification for its Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System (IVOS), achieving functional safety certification for mixed criticality. This milestone validates Red Hat's commitment to providing innovative, native Linux-based functional safety for vehicles. The certification not only verifies the safety of IVOS but also paves the way for greater customer confidence in future automotive deployments.

(www.redhat.com)

Tech Automotive OS

Lenovo Unveils Legion Go S Handheld with SteamOS

2025-01-07

At CES 2025, Lenovo officially launched its new handheld gaming console, the Legion Go S, officially licensed by Valve and featuring SteamOS. This announcement sparked discussions about its competition with the Steam Deck and Valve's quality control measures for third-party SteamOS devices. Some commentators suggest the Legion Go S may outperform the Steam Deck, but concerns remain regarding driver support and compatibility issues with third-party hardware.

(www.phoronix.com)

Hardware handheld Lenovo

MIT Physicists Switch Magnetism with Light: A Breakthrough in Memory Chip Technology

2025-01-07

MIT Physicists Switch Magnetism with Light: A Breakthrough in Memory Chip Technology

MIT physicists have achieved a breakthrough in controlling magnetism using light. They used a terahertz laser to manipulate the atomic spins in an antiferromagnetic material, creating a new, long-lasting magnetic state. This technique offers a novel way to control antiferromagnets, potentially leading to faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient memory chips. The research, published in Nature, overcomes a long-standing challenge in manipulating these materials, paving the way for advancements in information processing and storage.

(news.mit.edu)

Tech Terahertz laser Antiferromagnetic materials Memory chip technology

Cloudflare Prevents DNS Conflicts with Formal Verification

2025-01-07

Cloudflare Prevents DNS Conflicts with Formal Verification

Cloudflare uses Topaz, a system that formally verifies the correctness of its internal DNS addressing behavior. Topaz encodes DNS business objectives as declarative programs, each with a match function, a response function, and a configuration. Before deployment, a custom model checker verifies these programs for conflicts and bugs, ensuring reliable and consistent DNS configuration. This improves internet reliability by preventing inconsistencies in IP address resolution.

(blog.cloudflare.com)

Tech Formal Verification

Critical Flaw Found in Widely Used DNA Sequencer: Secure Boot Missing

2025-01-07

Critical Flaw Found in Widely Used DNA Sequencer: Secure Boot Missing

Researchers have discovered a critical security vulnerability in the Illumina iSeq 100 DNA sequencer, a widely used device in gene-sequencing labs worldwide. The device lacks Secure Boot and utilizes an outdated 2018 BIOS with multiple exploitable vulnerabilities, allowing attackers to modify firmware and potentially implant malware. This could enable remote control of the device, leading to data breaches or system failures. The issue stems from the use of an older, third-party motherboard, highlighting the importance of supply chain security. While Illumina downplayed the risk, the potential impact remains significant.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech gene sequencing

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