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.

📩 Please feel free to share this article with colleagues and friends who will find it valuable.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great day!
Bogdan