PEAKS Newsletter No. 9
Hi there!
Last week, I did quite a bit of driving and caught up on some great podcasts. I wanted to share my top three takeaways from Nir Eyal's "How to Stay Focused and Beat Distraction":
- Only 10% of distractions come from outside sources (like notifications); 90% are internal.
- Timeboxing is a more effective strategy than a to-do list, and I'm trying to adopt it.
- ADHD is often overdiagnosed; we can learn to be indistractable.
Hope you find this helpful!
🛡️ Security & Privacy
- Hacking 700 million electronic arts accounts here.
- Meta has updated its policy, enabling U.S. military and allies to use Llama AI for national security. Read more here.
- A recent keylogger linked to North Korea's Andariel group was analyzed, revealing its capabilities and anti-analysis techniques. More here.
- An in-depth guide on writing secure code in Go here.
- This Stanford course covers web security, focusing on common attacks and countermeasures for programmers and designers.
- Anthropic is partnering with Palantir and AWS to provide AI models to U.S. defense agencies. More here.
- A ransomware attack on Schneider Electric has taken a twist, with hackers demanding $125,000 in baguettes. 🥖🥖🥖. Read more here.
- Cisco has issued security updates for a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-20418) in URWB Access Points. More here.
- Researchers found an enhanced LightSpy spyware for iOS, adding destructive features to disable devices. Keep iOS up to date. More here.
- The Apple’s private cloud compute security guide is available here.
🛸 Tech News
- The first wooden satellite, LignoSat, arrived at the ISS, aiming for sustainable space technology. More here.
- Bitcoin surged to an all-time high on Wednesday (Nov 6), briefly exceeding $75,000. More here. As I write this, it’s close to $80,000.
- OpenAI acquired Chat.com, which now redirects to ChatGPT. Previously owned by HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah, it was sold for $15.5 million last year. More here.
AI
- Meta's nuclear-powered AI data center plans were halted due to the discovery of endangered bees on-site. Read more here.
- Microsoft is adding AI-powered Rewrite to Notepad, enabling users to modify text and tone. More here.
Dev
- Linux Syscall Support (LSS) offers a header file for embedding direct Linux system calls in applications.
- A compilation of issues and solutions related to eBPF is available here.
🛠️ Tools
Dev
- Diagrams - draw the cloud system architecture in Python code.
- Nushell - a new shell compatible with Linux, macOS, BSD, and Windows systems.
- ToolGit - a set of scripts that enhance Git with additional sub-commands for improved usability.
Personal Use
- Redact - a single platform to automatically clean old posts from Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Discord, and more.
- Mem0 - a self-improving memory layer for LLM applications, enabling cost-effective, personalized AI experiences for users.
- ente - a private photo storage designed with a focus on your privacy.
- ffsend - share files up to 1GB securely via command line using a private, encrypted link.
- A list of useful built-in macOS command-line utilities here.
- LaterOn - a unified newsletter inbox that gathers, summarizes, and delivers one email weekly or monthly.
🧠Misc
- Recent research by Nikolay V. Kukushkin at NYU shows non-neural cells can activate memory genes, challenging traditional views on memory formation. Read more here.
đź“© Please feel free to share this article with colleagues and friends who will find it valuable.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great day!
Bogdan