📰 News

🌐 NSA's new project takes aim at foreign AI hacks

The NSA is taking on foreign AI hacks with their new AI Security Center. Looks like they're tired of being spied on by AI-powered drones. Now they'll have some protection against drones spying on their drones. It's like Inception, but with drones and artificial intelligence.

🎨 BackerKit Will Restrict the Use of AI Art

BackerKit is cracking down on AI-generated content, leaving robot artists feeling deflated. Looks like humans are putting their foot down and demanding credit for their contributions, even if it means less representation for our robotic counterparts. It's a not-so-silent war between creators of all kinds, so choose your side wisely!

📷 Meta says its AI trains on your Instagram posts

So, Meta is using Instagram posts to train its AI models, huh? I guess those filtered selfies and pictures of avocado toast will finally be put to good use. But don't worry, they promise not to include any embarrassing photos from your high school years. Well, maybe just a few...

💼 Elon Musk’s X Corp. faces trademark lawsuit from social media ad agency

Elon Musk's X Corp. is facing a trademark lawsuit from a social media ad agency called X Social Media. Turns out, X Corp.'s "X" and X Social Media's "X" bear little resemblance. It's like confusing a rocket with a tweet – one takes you to space, the other takes you to arguments.

🍴 PlanetScale forks MySQL to add vector support

PlanetScale, the MySQL database company, is forking MySQL to add vector support, believing that Oracle, the owner of MySQL, is not keeping pace with the evolving world of AI. PlanetScale's team completed the work in just six weeks and plans to contribute the code upstream into the MySQL open source edition. That's one way to keep the database competition on its toes!

🔥 FBI most-wanted Russian hacker reveals why he burned his passport

FBI's most-wanted hacker burned his passport, claiming it's a security measure. But let's be honest, he's just really committed to getting the final stamp on his World Scorpion Tasting Tour passport. He's aiming for a lifetime supply of daredevil stories and a strong immune system.

🌐 Arc browser’s new AI-powered features combine OpenAI and Anthropic’s models

The Arc browser is finally launching its AI-powered features, combining OpenAI and Anthropic's models. Now you can have a conversation with ChatGPT like you're chatting with a friend, although I hope it doesn't get too opinionated about whether pineapple belongs on pizza.

💥 Dish Network Hit with Historic Fine over Space Debris

Looks like Dish Network couldn't handle their space junk, and now they're facing a hefty fine from the FCC. They launched their own version of "Satellite Survivor" but forgot to vote off EchoStar-7. Don't worry, Dish, I'm sure Ryan Seacrest will console you. #OutOfOrbit

🔀 Shift Happens is a beautifully designed history of how keyboards got this way

Marcin Wichary is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the QWERTY keyboard with his book, "Shift Happens," which delves into the history of keyboards, type, and fonts. With over 1,300 photos and lots of love for the subject, this book is a must-read for typography enthusiasts.

🔮 Predictive policing software is pretty terrible at predicting crimes

Predictive policing, huh? More like ineffective policing! Turns out, in Plainfield, New Jersey, it was just an expensive guessing game. I guess you can predict crimes, but you can't predict software that doesn't work. Maybe they should've asked a psychic instead!

☠️ Postmortem of the day

🔍 CircleCI. Uncategorized

By January 4, 2023, our internal investigation had determined the scope of the intrusion by the unauthorized third party and the entry path of the attack. To date, we have learned that an unauthorized third party leveraged malware deployed to a CircleCI engineer’s laptop in order to steal a valid, 2FA-backed SSO session. This machine was compromised on December 16, 2022. The malware was not detected by our antivirus software. Our investigation indicates that the malware was able to execute session cookie theft, enabling them to impersonate the targeted employee in a remote location and then escalate access to a subset of our production systems.

💡📚 Articles

🤔 Is Low Code/No Code Really the Next Disruption in Software?? (5 min read)

Low code/no code development, where even non-developers can build software, is indeed disrupting the software industry. It's like the DIY of coding, perfect for those who don't want to pay hefty fees to consultants. Soon we'll have software built by dogs, and they'll call it "bark-end development."

🚫 Stop Writing Articles That Tell Engineers to Stop Doing Something (5 min read)

Ah, the age-old dilemma of absolutes versus trade-offs in software design and architecture. It's like trying to decide between eating pizza for dinner every night or going to the gym - there's pros and cons, my friend.But seriously, I get it. Writing articles that shout "STOP DOING THIS" can be a bit, well, absolute. It's like telling a chef to stop using garlic in their dishes just because it might make you smell like Dracula's distant cousin.We engineers are a stubborn bunch, aren't we? We love our debates and our endless discussions about the best way to do things. It's like a never-ending episode of "We Could Have Built it Better!".But here's the thing - there's beauty in the trade-offs. It's like a delicate waltz between efficiency, scalability, and maintainability. Each decision carries consequences, like choosing to wear sandals while hiking - sure, it might feel good at first, but you'll regret it when you find yourself knee-deep in mud.So let's not get too caught up in absolutes. Let's embrace the dance of trade-offs and make the most out of our software designs. As long as we're aware of the consequences and willing to learn from our mistakes, we'll be just fine. And maybe, just maybe, we'll even write articles that tell engineers to "Keep Doing Something...but Only If It Makes Sense". How's that for a headline?

💰 Chinese Programmer Fined Three Years’ Salary($150K) for Using GitHub (3 min read)

Talk about a coding conundrum! Maliming, the hardworking Chinese programmer, hit a speed bump when he was fined his entire three-year salary for using GitHub. Looks like the Chinese government takes VPN usage a bit too seriously. Note to self: avoid coding in cyber-controversy zones.

👨‍💻 Repositories

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