1. The presumption that computers are working correctly
Total comment counts : 24
Summary
error
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article suggests that the Post Office scandal may go beyond simply having faith in the IT system. It implies that senior officials were aware of the problems and knowingly prosecuted innocent individuals to divert attention from their own mistakes. The writer believes that if this is true, those involved should face significant jail sentences, as perverting the course of justice is a serious offense. There are even allegations that Paula Vennells knowingly lied to Parliament.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article is often amazed that computer systems function properly given their experience with fixing bugs. They share a personal encounter with a faulty post office system and note how people tend to dismiss the idea that the computer system could be to blame, even when provided with evidence, due to the perceived effort required to comprehend the issue.
2. Fake recruiter lured aerospace employee with trojanized coding challenge
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
ESET researchers have uncovered a Lazarus attack against an aerospace company in Spain, where the group deployed several tools, most notably a publicly undocumented backdoor called LightlessCan. The attackers gained access to the company’s network through a spearphishing campaign, posing as a recruiter for Meta. They contacted the victim via LinkedIn Messaging and sent coding challenges, which the victim downloaded and executed on a company device. ESET researchers were able to analyze the tools used by Lazarus and describe the method of infiltration. LightlessCan is a sophisticated remote access trojan that mimics native Windows commands, making it more difficult to detect and analyze. The Lazarus group, also known as HIDDEN COBRA, is a cyberespionage group linked to North Korea. Aerospace companies are a common target for North Korea-aligned APT groups, as they seek access to sensitive technology and aerospace knowledge. ESET researchers attribute this attack to Lazarus with a high level of confidence.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how individuals could potentially gain unauthorized access to a company’s internal systems through take-home coding tests, specifically mentioning Apple software developers. The author points out that opening a downloaded project can be risky, but most people would likely ignore the warning if they think it’s part of a take-home test. The article also suggests that online tests could potentially require giving access to sensitive information. Additionally, it hints that those who participate in these tests may have access to valuable company resources. The author concludes by mentioning that some individuals might use corporate resources for job-hunting, despite it being frowned upon.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author is surprised that some people take home tests, communicate with headhunters or interview with other companies using their current company’s resources. They express concern about the potential consequences of such actions, citing an example of a manager talking a future employer out of hiring the author due to a personal connection. The author believes that even if it is unethical or illegal, such situations can occur, even in large tech companies. They express a belief that work and personal matters should be separate.
3. Most demographers now predict that human population will plateau
Total comment counts : 42
Summary
I’m sorry, but the text you provided is not an article to summarize. It appears to be a message asking the user to confirm they are not a robot.
Top 1 Comment Summary
I’m sorry, but as an AI text-based assistant, I am unable to open or access external links. If you can provide the text or a brief summary of the article, I would be happy to help you with the summarization.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article highlights the challenges faced by young couples in affording housing and daycare expenses in major cities. It also mentions the desire of women to pursue careers and the lack of comprehensive parental leave in many countries. The article argues that it is contradictory to complain about a decline in birth rates while not providing adequate support for raising children.
4. Tire dust makes up the majority of ocean microplastics
Total comment counts : 28
Summary
New research suggests that emissions from tires and brakes pose a significant threat to global health, and electric vehicles (EVs) may exacerbate the problem. The emissions from tire and brake particles contain toxic chemicals that are harmful to human health and the environment, and they may exceed the emissions from a car’s exhaust. One chemical of concern is 6PPD, found in tire manufacturing, which transforms into a highly toxic substance when exposed to ozone. These particles end up in the environment, including oceans, where they can adversely affect marine life. Studies have shown that tire emissions, particularly ultrafine particles, can enter the bloodstream and have negative health impacts, such as heart and lung issues, developmental problems, and cancer. EVs, due to their higher weight and torque, tend to shed around 20% more tire particles than traditional internal combustion engine-powered vehicles. Regulators are starting to pay attention to this issue, with plans to regulate tire and brake emissions in the EU and the US. Manufacturers are exploring alternative tire compositions and methods to capture particulate output. This form of pollution is expected to gain more attention in the coming years as accurate data becomes available.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the negative impacts of living near a freeway or busy road. The author shares their personal experience of renting a place near a freeway and highlights the issues they faced, such as excessive noise and pollution. They mention a fine coating of black dust that settled on everything and the inability to keep windows open due to the pollution. The author also comments on the environmental impact of cars and expresses frustration with the increasing number of vehicles on the road, despite efforts to promote green alternatives.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the issue of tire dust pollution and the lack of funding for solutions. The author highlights that the tire industry is not interested in addressing the problem, even though it has been a known issue for 50 years. The solution proposed is the use of natural rubber, which is more expensive but more environmentally friendly. However, major tire companies like Goodyear, Firestone, and Michelin refuse to support research or innovation in natural rubber. The article includes a link to Dr. Katrina Cornish’s profile at Ohio State University, where there have been working solutions to address the tire dust issue.
5. DKIM: Rotate and publish your keys
Total comment counts : 27
Summary
The article discusses the importance of regularly rotating and publishing DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) keys for email system administrators. The author introduces a tool called dkim-rotate, which facilitates key rotation and publication. The article emphasizes the significance of avoiding non-repudiation of emails, as leaked emails can be verified and proven to be authentic, causing potential issues for the sender. The author suggests that email providers should be rotating their DKIM keys and publishing the old ones, but notes that many providers are not currently doing so. The article provides instructions on how to check if DKIM signatures are present on emails and how to verify those signatures. The author also highlights the limitations of key rotation in ensuring non-repudiation for a longer period of time. The article concludes by mentioning the possibility of designing an alternative to DKIM with different properties and encourages readers to explore this option.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article discusses the limitations of DKIM signatures in email security. The author states that a DKIM signature does not prove the individual sent the email, but rather that the sending service is a delegated sender for the domain. DKIM signatures only authenticate the part of the sender address after the ‘@’ symbol. The author also mentions that email service providers do not provide private keys, making it difficult to prove ownership. The author concludes that signing emails using DKIM or S/MIME to prove authenticity is unnecessary if there is no way to deny authenticity in case of issues.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article argues against the idea that users don’t want their emails to be non-repudiable. The author suggests that being able to verify that an email was sent by a specific person actually benefits the sender by establishing trust. They compare it to signing a contract, where proving agreement is beneficial. The author claims that there are only a few situations where non-repudiation is unwanted, and in those cases, a standard email system should not be used. In most cases, non-repudiation is valuable for both the sender and the receiver.
6. India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
The article explores the tradition of pickle-making in India, with some families having pickles that are several decades old. Pickles are an integral part of Indian cuisine, with each community making them using local produce and varying spices and techniques. Homemade pickles are favored over commercially produced ones, and special methods such as sun-drying, dehydration, and the use of oil are employed to preserve them. Lemon pickles are particularly popular for their longevity and are often hailed for their probiotic and healing properties. The article shares stories of individuals who have inherited aged pickles from their families, highlighting the sentimental value and nostalgia associated with these culinary heirlooms. It is emphasized that the art of making pickles must be preserved as they are more than just a condiment in Indian culture.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the traditional process of making achaar in a village in North India. Achaar is a type of pickle made from raw mangoes, and it was a significant community event during the mango season. The mangoes would be sourced after heavy winds and sold at cheaper prices. There were specific mango varieties suitable for making achaar, which were small, had large seeds, and were extremely sour when raw. The process of making achaar involved cutting, drying, salting, preparing masala, and putting them into a special jar. Expert women would carefully pack the pickle in the jar to ensure it would last for years without growing fungus. The achaar jar was considered valuable and usually made of china. The author introduced potassium permanganate as an extra layer to fight fungus, which is still known as “achaar powder” in the village. The process of making achaar has changed over time due to factors such as housing materials and the availability of better quality jars.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses traditional Indian pickles, specifically the type that is long-lasting and filled with chili and mustard powder. These pickles are commonly eaten with rice, dosas, and idly. The article provides links to various recipes for these pickles, including mango pickle, tomato pickle, and tamarind pickle. The author emphasizes that these pickles are nutritious and delicious, and they make for a wholesome meal when paired with rice and curd rice.
7. The TRON Project: How Japan almost ruled IT (2022)
Total comment counts : 27
Summary
I’m sorry, but you haven’t provided any article for me to summarize. Could you please provide the article or at least a brief description of it?
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the similarities between the ongoing trade war between the US and China and the trade war that occurred between the US and Japan in the 1980s. Both trade wars involved the world’s largest and second-largest economies, with Japan having the largest trade surplus with the US in the 1980s, and China currently holding that position. Additionally, both countries were highly dependent on the US market. The article suggests that the US approach and intensity in both trade wars are similar.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Be Inc., the company that developed BeOS, sued Microsoft in 2002. Be alleged that Microsoft had prevented Hitachi from selling PCs with BeOS, and had pressured Compaq not to partner with Be on an internet appliance. Be also claimed that Microsoft intentionally hindered Be’s IPO. The case was settled for $23.25 million, with no admission of guilt from Microsoft.
8. An easy-to-implement, arena-friendly hash map
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The article discusses a technique for building hash maps called a “hash-trie” that are compatible with arena allocation. Hash-tries have above-average memory requirements but are fast, simple, and scale to any problem that can be solved with an in-memory hash map. The author explains the structure of hash-tries and provides example usage. The article also discusses how hash-tries can be used to create lock-free concurrent hash maps. Additionally, the author explores the use of relative pointers to reduce memory overhead and discusses the challenges of implementing this concept in available programming languages. The article concludes with an explanation of how to convert the upsert operation into a concurrent, lock-free hash map.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concept of arena allocators and their implications in computer programming. It is described as fascinating and is linked to other related articles and discussions on platforms such as Hacker News and Reddit. The article also touches on the connection between arena allocators and different stacks, presenting it as an interesting design space.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the implementation of a hash table without memory leaks. It first suggests using a hash table with linear probing and a dedicated arena to enable memory growth. However, resizing the hash table while maintaining the existing entries can be challenging. The article proposes a solution where the hash table iterates through the entries in order, starting at an empty entry and looping around. This ensures that no entries are stranded during resizing. The article also mentions that the hash table can be generalized for arenas by maintaining a page map. Each page has a different size, and on each resize, the total capacity is doubled by adding a new page. The article suggests using ffs or ctz to efficiently map indexes to pages.
9. -Werror Is not your friend (2017)
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
The article discusses the use of the compiler flag -Werror, which treats all compiler warnings as errors. The author explains that while -Werror can be beneficial in enforcing a zero-warning policy, it also creates a dependency on specific toolchain vendors and versions. Different compilers may have different warning sets and detection logic, resulting in build failures when a project is compiled with a different toolchain. The author suggests that instead of relying solely on -Werror, a zero-warning policy can be enforced through a CI server, which allows for flexibility in using different toolchain versions. The article acknowledges the trade-offs of using -Werror and recommends considering other means of achieving a zero-warning policy.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the importance of using the -Werror flag when building software. The author states that compilers and toolchains are rarely changed in companies, so it is easier to address warnings from the very beginning rather than letting them accumulate. The author shares a personal experience of working in a company where their C++ projects had over 5,000 warnings, which nobody paid attention to. They only discovered a warning about a potential crash caused by mismatching arguments in a printf-style formatting string after debugging a segfault. The author emphasizes the importance of addressing warnings promptly to prevent potential issues.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the importance of preventing code changes that introduce new warnings when working on a large-scale codebase. The author suggests that this enforcement is currently only possible at the Continuous Integration (CI) level, but they believe it should also be implemented earlier in the test-edit cycle. The author argues that compiling with a newer compiler that adds more warnings should not be considered an error, but a code change that triggers a new warning should be.
10. Europol sought unlimited data access in online child sexual abuse regulation
Total comment counts : 19
Summary
The article talks about a website that is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. It explains that certain actions, such as submitting a specific word or phrase, a SQL command, or malformed data, could trigger the security solution and block access to the website. The article advises contacting the site owner via email to inform them about being blocked and suggests providing details of what was being done at the time of the block along with a unique Cloudflare Ray ID for reference.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article suggests that the issue of child abuse is being used as a pretext for increased government oversight. It argues that Interpol’s analysis of images for child sexual abuse material (csam) is not the real goal, but rather a means to achieve complete government access to all civilian communications. The author compares this to the idea of “breakable encryption,” where the justification is also offered in the context of fighting child abuse or terrorism.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses Apple’s decision to implement on-device CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) detection, which was later withdrawn due to criticism. It argues that any power granted to law enforcement tends to lead to increased surveillance. While acknowledging the severity of CSAM, the article criticizes law enforcement for leveraging it to push for more surveillance and enhanced authority.