Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Exploiting a Flaw in LCP DRM: A Simple Bypass in the Thorium Reader

2025-03-17

A blogger discovered a way to bypass LCP DRM, an ebook digital rights management scheme. The method leverages the Thorium reader's debugging functionality to easily extract unencrypted ebook content, including text, images, and metadata, without cracking encryption. This prompted a discussion with the Readium consortium (LCP DRM developers), who acknowledged a security vulnerability and stated they would improve security measures. The blogger argues this highlights deficiencies in LCP DRM, and both readers and publishers should be aware of the issue.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

The Messy State of TOTP: A Test Suite is Born

2025-03-02

The current TOTP specification is riddled with inconsistencies. Major implementations by Google, Apple, and Yubico subtly disagree on its implementation, leading to idiosyncratic variants in various MFA apps. The official RFC is frustratingly vague. The author built a test suite to check if your favorite app correctly implements the TOTP standard, highlighting ambiguities in digit count, hash algorithm, time step, secret length, and labeling. The author calls for improved specifications to prevent future issues.

(shkspr.mobi)

Development

Capital Letters Make Smaller QR Codes: A URL Encoding Mystery

2025-02-25

Two QR codes pointing to the same URL, one larger than the other. Why? The answer isn't error correction, but encoding mode. A URL in all capital letters uses the more compact alphanumeric mode, while lowercase uses byte mode, leading to data redundancy and a larger QR code. This highlights the impact of character set choices in URL encoding on QR code size. For the smallest QR code, use uppercase letters.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech QR code URL encoding

Meta's LLaMA and the Copyright Tsunami: A Pirate Bay for AI?

2025-02-11

Authors are suing various Large Language Model (LLM) vendors, claiming copyright infringement in the training data. The evidence points to Meta's LLaMA, which used Books3 from Bibliotik – a private tracker containing massive amounts of pirated books. Meta's own paper admits to using Books3, essentially confessing to training on unauthorized intellectual property. This sparks debate on AI fair use and copyright, but the core issue remains: should an AI openly admitting to using pirated data face legal consequences?

(shkspr.mobi)

AI

It's Time to Ban Email?

2025-01-28

This article argues that email is outdated and presents numerous examples of errors and security risks caused by improper email use, such as information leaks and accidental email misdirection. The author points out that the BCC function in email has existed since 1975 yet remains a source of confusion for many. Modern collaborative tools, like shared documents and instant messaging, are argued to be superior for communication needs. While email offers the advantage of permanent storage, it's clumsy and error-prone in the digital age. The author calls for the adoption of more efficient communication methods, ultimately advocating for the phasing out of email.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc collaboration tools

Most People Don't Care About Quality: The Rise of 'Good Enough'

2025-01-01

This article explores the disparity in people's perception of quality. It argues that while professionals like designers and photographers prioritize detail and perfection, most people are largely insensitive to differences in quality, favoring convenience and ease of consumption. The article uses Netflix as a case study, analyzing the success of its low-cost, high-volume content strategy and predicting a future dominated by AI-generated content. This isn't because AI-generated content is inherently good, but because most people don't notice or care about imperfections, prioritizing basic needs and accessibility. The article concludes with the observation that this 'good enough' mentality permeates various fields, from clothing and food to entertainment, where value for money and convenience outweigh the pursuit of ultimate quality.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc quality perception AI content generation