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Is Storing 2FA Codes in Your Password Manager Secure?

2025-01-01

Is Storing 2FA Codes in Your Password Manager Secure?

This article explores the security implications of storing two-factor authentication (2FA) codes within password managers. Security experts argue that while storing 2FA codes alongside usernames and passwords in a password manager like 1Password isn't ideal (it increases the risk of compromise), the convenience outweighs the risk. The primary benefit of 2FA is preventing phishing attacks; even if the password manager is compromised, an attacker still needs the 2FA code. For most users, storing 2FA codes in a password manager is deemed acceptable, but using a reliable password manager and implementing additional security measures like using a YubiKey or storing some recovery codes offline are recommended.

(andygrunwald.com)

Tech password manager

7-Minute Workout: Science or Hype?

2025-01-01

A blog post challenges the efficacy and comprehensiveness of the 7-minute scientific workout featured in The New York Times. The author argues that while the program claims to be science-based, it heavily emphasizes leg exercises while neglecting a balanced workout for glutes, back, and core muscles—a particularly concerning omission for sedentary professionals. A more balanced approach, the post suggests, would include more hip-dominant, upper-body pulling, and core extension exercises to counteract the muscular imbalances caused by prolonged sitting.

(elsbethvaino.com)

Tech fitness scientific training

H5N1 Avian Flu: A Deep Dive into the Pandemic Threat

2025-01-01

H5N1 Avian Flu: A Deep Dive into the Pandemic Threat

This article delves into the potential pandemic threat posed by the H5N1 avian flu virus. The virus has already infected birds, cows, and mink, and has now been detected in pigs. While human cases remain relatively low, the author, drawing on epidemiological models and expert forecasts, assesses the probability of a pandemic in the next year (5%), and the potential mortality rate (ranging from comparable to a normal seasonal flu to resembling the 1918 Spanish flu). The article also discusses strategies for responding to a potential pandemic and highlights the economic impact on agriculture.

(www.astralcodexten.com)

Tech Avian Flu Pandemic

OpenAI Misses Deadline for Creator Opt-Out Tool, Fueling Copyright Concerns

2025-01-01

OpenAI Misses Deadline for Creator Opt-Out Tool, Fueling Copyright Concerns

OpenAI's promised Media Manager tool, designed to let creators control how their work is used in AI training data, has yet to launch, missing its 2025 deadline. This delay fuels ongoing copyright disputes, with OpenAI facing lawsuits from artists, writers, and media companies alleging unauthorized use of their work. While OpenAI offers alternative opt-out methods, these are deemed insufficient. The missed deadline and lack of transparency heighten tensions surrounding AI copyright and underscore the industry's challenges in addressing intellectual property issues.

(techcrunch.com)

AI AI Copyright

RT-2: Giving Robots Web Knowledge Through Vision-Language-Action Models

2025-01-01

RT-2: Giving Robots Web Knowledge Through Vision-Language-Action Models

Researchers at Google DeepMind have developed RT-2, a model that leverages internet-scale vision-language data to power robotic control. By representing robot actions as text tokens and co-fine-tuning state-of-the-art vision-language models with both robotic trajectory data and internet-scale vision-language tasks, RT-2 achieves remarkable generalization. It understands complex commands, performs multi-stage semantic reasoning, and even uses improvised tools, such as using a rock as a hammer. This research showcases the immense potential of combining large language model capabilities with robotic control, marking a significant leap forward in robotics.

(robotics-transformer2.github.io)

AI Vision-Language Model

Common Lisp Time Handling: The LOCAL-TIME Solution

2025-01-01

This paper delves into the complexities of time handling in Common Lisp and presents the author's solution: the LOCAL-TIME library. It traces the evolution of human time representation, from imprecise, context-dependent notations to precise scientific ones, highlighting the chaos introduced by political factors like daylight saving time. LOCAL-TIME uses an efficient fixnum-based representation, integrates world timezone data, and handles various time calculations and format conversions, thereby avoiding errors stemming from imprecise time representation—like the infamous Y2K problem.

(naggum.no)

Development Time Handling

Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago: Exposing the Brutality of the Soviet Union

2025-01-01

Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago: Exposing the Brutality of the Soviet Union

Published on December 28, 1973, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's *The Gulag Archipelago* is a sprawling 300,000-word account of the Soviet prison camp system. Based on Solzhenitsyn's personal experience as a political prisoner, the book details the horrors of the gulag, from arrest and torture to execution and starvation. His criticism of Stalin in a letter led to his arrest and eight years in the camps. The book's publication caused international outcry and resulted in Solzhenitsyn's deportation from the USSR. Despite this, *The Gulag Archipelago* stands as a powerful condemnation of Soviet totalitarianism and a testament to the fight for human rights.

(www.smithsonianmag.com)

History Soviet Union Gulag Solzhenitsyn

2024 Database Wars: Open Source Battles, Big Tech Acquisitions

2025-01-01

2024 witnessed a tumultuous year in the database world, marked by licensing disputes and fierce competition among tech giants. Redis and Elasticsearch faced significant community backlash after altering their licenses, ultimately reverting to open-source models. The Databricks-Snowflake rivalry extended beyond performance benchmarks, encompassing LLMs and data catalogs, driving innovation. DuckDB's ease of use and portability made it a go-to choice for analytical queries, leading to its integration into various systems. The year also saw releases like Aurora DSQL, CedarDB, and SQL-enabled Google Bigtable, alongside acquisitions of prominent players such as Alteryx and MariaDB. The article concludes with a narrative on Larry Ellison's 80th birthday, highlighting the immense wealth and intense competition within the database industry.

(www.cs.cmu.edu)

Tech databases competition

Play DOOM to Prove You're Human: A CAPTCHA Like No Other

2025-01-01

Play DOOM to Prove You're Human: A CAPTCHA Like No Other

This project, DOOM CAPTCHA, lets you play a miniaturized version of DOOM to verify you're human. It uses Emscripten to compile a minimal DOOM port to WebAssembly, enabling communication between the C-based game loop and a JavaScript CAPTCHA UI. Modifications were made to add events like player birth, death, and enemy kills, crucial for CAPTCHA functionality. The project uses the legally-accessible shareware version of DOOM, and tweaks game parameters for increased difficulty (Nightmare! skill level, faster gameplay), skipping the menu, and directly starting the level. To pass, players must kill at least 3 monsters within a time limit.

(doom-captcha.vercel.app)

Game

Ruby 3.4: Faster Connections, Cleaner Backtraces, and More Concise Code

2025-01-01

Ruby 3.4 is here! Chris Sinjakli highlights three key improvements: a default block parameter name `it` for cleaner code; implementation of RFC8305 (Happy Eyeballs Version 2) for significantly improved TCP socket connection handling, especially in dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) networks; and clearer exception backtraces for easier debugging. These enhancements boost developer productivity and underscore the Ruby team's commitment to developer experience.

(blog.sinjakli.co.uk)

Development

API Parrot: Reverse Engineer Any Website's HTTP API with Ease

2025-01-01

API Parrot is a powerful tool designed to reverse engineer the HTTP APIs of any website. It features a built-in HTTP proxy for easy network traffic recording, analyzes data to identify relevant endpoints and understand relationships between them. Users can customize functions, specifying input/output parameters, excluding irrelevant data, and export the customized functions as JavaScript code for seamless integration into their applications. API Parrot streamlines automation of business processes, system integration, and data scraping, even from websites without public APIs.

(apiparrot.com)

Development API reverse engineering

The Magic of Metalinguistic Programming: Simplifying Code with Interpreters

2025-01-01

The Magic of Metalinguistic Programming: Simplifying Code with Interpreters

This article explores the power of metalinguistic programming, specifically using interpreters to simplify complex code. The author uses Lisp expression simplification as an example, showing how building an 80-line Scheme interpreter and 30 rules can accomplish a task that would otherwise require thousands of lines of code. The key is shifting the programming paradigm to data-driven rule matching, avoiding significant code duplication. While not magic, the author argues this metalinguistic abstraction is a powerful tool worthy of further exploration.

(ericnormand.substack.com)

Development Metalinguistic Programming Interpreter Code Simplification

Immersion Cooling Could Reshape Data Center Design

2025-01-01

Immersion Cooling Could Reshape Data Center Design

Sandia National Laboratories is testing a novel cooling system that fully submerges computer servers in a non-conductive liquid coolant. This captures 100% of waste heat, resulting in a 70% reduction in energy consumption and significantly less water usage. The technology promises to revolutionize data center design, addressing the growing power and water demands of high-performance computing. Partnering with Submer Technologies, Sandia is conducting comprehensive tests, with a case study expected this fall.

(www.sandia.gov)

Tech immersion cooling data centers high-performance computing

Mastodon Web App Requires JavaScript

2025-01-01

Eric Hellman's tilde.zone post reveals a long-term project update: using the Mastodon web application requires enabling JavaScript, or alternatively, using a native Mastodon app. This suggests work on improving the web client or user experience for Mastodon.

(tilde.zone)

Development Web App

Putnam-AXIOM: A New Benchmark Shatters LLM Mathematical Reasoning Abilities

2025-01-01

Putnam-AXIOM: A New Benchmark Shatters LLM Mathematical Reasoning Abilities

Researchers introduced Putnam-AXIOM, a challenging benchmark comprising 236 problems from the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, designed to evaluate the higher-level mathematical reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). To mitigate data contamination, a variation benchmark with functional alterations of 52 problems was also created. Results show even top-performing models experience a significant accuracy drop (around 30%) on the variations compared to the originals, highlighting substantial room for improvement in LLM mathematical reasoning.

(openreview.net)

AI Mathematical Reasoning

Notion: Your All-in-One Workspace

2025-01-01

Notion: Your All-in-One Workspace

Notion is an all-in-one workspace that combines notes, task management, wikis, and databases into a single platform. It offers flexible and powerful tools to help you organize information, manage projects, collaborate with teams, and build custom workflows. Whether for personal use or team collaboration, Notion adapts to your needs, boosting your productivity.

(kyndinfo.notion.site)

Development collaboration platform

Keeper (YC) Hiring Senior Fullstack Engineer

2025-01-01

Keeper (YC) Hiring Senior Fullstack Engineer

Keeper, a Y Combinator-backed company building software for bookkeepers, is hiring a Senior Fullstack Engineer. The role requires 3+ years of experience building web applications with React and Node.js, proficiency in TypeScript, REST APIs, and databases. Keeper offers competitive salary and equity, and is on a mission to empower bookkeepers with efficient tools.

(www.ycombinator.com)

Development Fullstack Engineer

ShredOS: Secure Disk Eraser for All Processors

2025-01-01

ShredOS: Secure Disk Eraser for All Processors

ShredOS is a lightweight, bootable Linux distribution built with Buildroot, designed for secure disk erasure. It features nwipe, a powerful tool offering various wiping methods including DoD 5220.22-M compliance, and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit processors. Bootable from USB or CD, ShredOS requires no installation and provides a user-friendly interface. It also includes utilities like smartmontools and hdparm for disk diagnostics and maintenance.

(github.com)

Development disk erasure data security

My 2024 Reading List: A Journey Through Philosophy, Science, and Literature

2025-01-01

My 2024 Reading List: A Journey Through Philosophy, Science, and Literature

Waqas Younas shares his 2024 reading list, a diverse collection spanning philosophy, logic, literature, history, and biography. From Cicero's letters to Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human, and from quantum mechanics to Tagore's poetry, the books reflect a journey of intellectual exploration. The engaging review interweaves insightful excerpts and personal reflections, making it a captivating read for anyone interested in a broad spectrum of subjects.

(thoughts.wyounas.com)

Misc reading list book review 2024 reads

The Clockwise/Spiral Rule: Mastering Complex C Declarations

2025-01-01

This article introduces the 'Clockwise/Spiral Rule,' a clever technique for parsing complex C declarations. By spiraling clockwise through the declaration, replacing elements like arrays, pointers, and functions with their English equivalents, even the most intricate declarations become understandable. The author demonstrates the technique with several examples, from simple pointer arrays to nested function pointers, and shows how to handle `const` and `volatile` keywords. This method offers a practical and intuitive way to decipher confusing C code.

(c-faq.com)

Development code parsing

Frequency Shifts Don't Imply Quantum Entanglement: The Tardigrade Case

2025-01-01

Frequency Shifts Don't Imply Quantum Entanglement: The Tardigrade Case

A recent, unpublished manuscript claims to demonstrate quantum entanglement between a superconducting qubit and a tardigrade, sparking much media attention. However, the authors cite a frequency shift in the qubit as evidence, a claim challenged by physicists. This post uses a simple mass-spring system analogy to illustrate the commonplace nature of frequency shifts. Even in quantum systems, frequency is primarily determined by mass and springiness, not entanglement. The author argues the experiment lacks sufficient evidence for quantum entanglement, attributing the observed frequency shift to classical physics.

(benbrubaker.com)

Tech quantum entanglement frequency shift tardigrade

Twice Promoted to Staff Engineer: Lessons Learned

2025-01-01

The author shares their experience of being promoted to Staff Software Engineer twice in two years. The key to promotion wasn't technical prowess, but delivering value to the company by successfully completing high-priority projects aligned with company goals. The author emphasizes the importance of understanding company priorities, working on impactful projects, and building strong relationships with management and team members. A supportive manager is crucial. Key takeaways include focusing on high-impact projects the company prioritizes, not overemphasizing mentoring, and having a manager willing and able to champion the promotion process.

(www.seangoedecke.com)

Development career advancement software engineer

Cesium for Unreal: Bringing the Real World into Unreal Engine

2025-01-01

Cesium for Unreal: Bringing the Real World into Unreal Engine

Cesium for Unreal is a free and open-source plugin that combines the 3D geospatial capabilities of Cesium with the high-fidelity rendering power of Unreal Engine. This allows developers to create digital worlds with real-world scale and 3D content within Unreal Engine. Access global curated 3D content, including terrain, imagery, 3D cities, and photogrammetry, with one-click via Cesium ion. The plugin integrates seamlessly with the Unreal Engine Editor, Actors, Components, Blueprints, and other UE features, enabling a high degree of interactivity, physical realism, and photorealism.

(cesium.com)

Game Unreal Engine 3D Geospatial

Lucy: A Concise DSL for Finite State Machines

2025-01-01

Lucy is a concise language for describing Finite State Machines (FSMs). It allows complex events, guards, actions, and destination states to be expressed in a single line. Nesting machines enables hierarchical FSMs. Lucy compiles to XState, a leading JavaScript FSM library, supporting all its core features. Written in C and compiled to WebAssembly, Lucy boasts a significant speed advantage (15x faster than its previous JavaScript-based compiler), making it ideal for JavaScript projects.

(pkg.spooky.click)

Development Finite State Machine

NATO's Project HEIST: Satellite Backup for Undersea Cables

2025-01-01

NATO's Project HEIST: Satellite Backup for Undersea Cables

In response to a rising number of undersea cable disruptions, NATO is developing Project HEIST, a system for seamless switching between undersea cables and satellites. HEIST will pinpoint cable damage with meter-level accuracy and reroute data to satellite networks in case of disruption. This is crucial, as undersea cables carry over $10 trillion in transactions annually. While satellite bandwidth currently lags behind fiber optics, efforts are underway to upgrade satellite speeds. Furthermore, NATO plans to open-source parts of the project to accelerate development and enhance security against deliberate attacks.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Tech Undersea Cables Satellite Communication

16th Century Germany's Celestial Anomalies: Portents of the Apocalypse

2025-01-01

16th Century Germany's Celestial Anomalies: Portents of the Apocalypse

16th-century Germany witnessed a flurry of bizarre celestial events: bloody rays bisecting the sun, extraterrestrial battles in the sky, and meteor showers. These 'wonder-signs' (Wunderzeichen) were meticulously documented in woodcuts, pamphlets, astronomical texts, and personal diaries. Widely interpreted as omens of the apocalypse, these phenomena were fueled by the anxieties of the Reformation. The article explores the methods of recording these events, their societal impact, and their connection to religious reform, highlighting the crucial role of printing technology in disseminating these 'prophecies'.

(publicdomainreview.org)

Misc religion astronomy printing

The Magic of Unreasonable Time Investment

2025-01-01

The Magic of Unreasonable Time Investment

Teller's magic trick, involving a card buried in a park, reveals a secret to success: unreasonable time investment. He pre-buried boxes corresponding to all possible card choices, waiting months for the grass to grow before performing. This mirrors success in other fields; what seems like overnight success often results from an extraordinary amount of time and effort. Starting small, iterating, and accumulating seemingly impossible amounts of practice culminates in a seemingly magical outcome.

(allenpike.com)

Misc time management deliberate practice success secrets

Finnish Authorities Link Tanker to Severed Subsea Cables

2025-01-01

Finnish Authorities Link Tanker to Severed Subsea Cables

Finnish investigators probing damage to undersea power and data cables have discovered a seabed drag mark stretching dozens of kilometers, likely caused by the anchor of the seized tanker Eagle S. The missing anchor is suspected of severing a 170-kilometer power line connecting Finland and Estonia, along with disrupting four data cables. The tanker, sailing under the Cook Islands flag, has been detained, and authorities are investigating possible aggravated criminal mischief. Poor weather hampered the investigation.

(gcaptain.com)

Tech subsea cables tanker criminal investigation

Windows 2: The Almost-Forgotten OS That Could Have Been the Last

2025-01-01

This article dives deep into the untold story of Windows 2.0, an often-overlooked chapter in the history of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It explores the technical limitations of the era, the intense competition from systems like VisiOn and Apple Lisa, and the internal struggles within Microsoft that shaped the development of Windows 2.0. While lacking in abundant software, Windows 2.0 displayed surprising features like mouse support and basic multitasking. Despite nearly becoming a dead end, its lessons proved crucial for the subsequent success of Windows 3.0. The narrative weaves together technical details, historical context, and anecdotes from the development process, painting a compelling picture of this pivotal moment in computing history.

(www.ninakalinina.com)

Tech Windows history OS development

Facebook's Large Concept Models: Sentence-Level Language Modeling

2025-01-01

Facebook's Large Concept Models: Sentence-Level Language Modeling

Facebook Research unveils Large Concept Models (LCMs), a novel approach to language modeling operating in a sentence representation space. Utilizing the SONAR embedding space, LCMs support up to 200 text languages and 57 speech languages. Treating sentences as 'concepts', LCMs employ a sequence-to-sequence model for autoregressive sentence prediction. The project provides recipes for training and fine-tuning 1.6B parameter models, exploring MSE regression and diffusion-based generation.

(github.com)

AI Sentence Representation Multilingual

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