Last week, two objects arrived at my doorstep: a TIMEMORE Chestnut C3 ESP Pro manual coffee grinder and a Bellroy Folio Mini wallet. Both are true masterpieces of craftsmanship. What struck me was the impeccable attention to detail—the way form, feel, and function harmonize so perfectly in these tangible creations. As someone who spends most of my energy immersed in the digital realm of coding and software development, I find myself profoundly grateful for the artisans and companies still dedicated to creating physical objects of such remarkable quality and beauty. These tactile treasures remind me that excellence in design transcends the digital-physical divide.

🛡️ Security & Privacy

• A new botnet named Eleven11bot is causing big problems by launching powerful attacks on the internet, using a large number of hacked IoT devices like security cameras. This botnet has infected over 86,000 devices and can send a lot of data, causing disruptions to networks. More here.
• Big companies like Meta, Google, and Apple collect a lot of personal information, but they can't always keep it private. The US government made almost 500,000 data requests to Google and Meta in just one year. While some requests are reviewed by a judge, others are not, and Big Tech companies have to comply with even the ones they can't fight. More here.
• Learn about block cipher cryptanalysis here.
• A researcher details the process of hacking the Xbox 360 hypervisor, focusing on the "Bad Update" exploit. The exploit involves manipulating encrypted memory to create a write primitive, which is then used to corrupt hypervisor data. More here.
• Dylan Ayrey and Jake King found an AWS key and a "backdoor" (SSH access for all engineers) in their Eight Sleep smart bed, raising privacy and security concerns. The AWS key could have been used to rack up a large bill for Eight Sleep, and the SSH access potentially allows unauthorized control of the bed and other devices on the home network. More here.
• A critical vulnerability in toDesktop, a service used by popular apps like ClickUp, Cursor, Linear, and Notion Calendar for building and deploying their desktop applications was discovered. By exploiting a misconfiguration, the attacker could gained access to a Firebase admin key, enabling them to push malicious auto-updates to potentially millions of users. More here.

🛸 Tech

• Apple unveils the new MacBook Air with the M4 chip, boasting enhanced performance, up to 18 hours of battery life, a 12MP Center Stage camera, and support for two external displays. More here.
• Perplexity is teasing the launch of its own web browser, reportedly named Comet, signaling a potential expansion of its AI-powered search capabilities into a full browsing experience. Join waitlist here. More here.

💻 Dev

• Starting with Linux kernel 6.9 on x86_64, the CONFIG_X86_FRED option is enabled by default, adding 16 bytes of padding to the kernel stack area. This requires adjustments in raw kernel stack and pt_regs lookup code in eBPF programs to account for the extra padding. More here.
• Hands-on blog series that implements a LLM based on Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch) book.
• About the early days of Linux.

🤖 AI

• DuckDuckGo is expanding its AI capabilities with DuckAssist, which uses Wikipedia to provide concise, sourced answers, and AI Chat, which anonymizes user data when using AI models like GPT 3.5 Turbo and Claude 3 Haiku, prioritizing user privacy. More here.
• Scale AI has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract by the U.S. Department of Defense for "Thunderforge," an AI program aimed at integrating AI agents into military operations and strategic planning. More here.
• Microsoft launches Dragon Copilot, a unified voice AI assistant for healthcare that combines Dragon Medical One (DMO) and DAX Copilot (DAX) to streamline clinical documentation, surface information, and automate tasks, aiming to reduce clinician burnout and improve patient experiences. More here.
• Google has released SpeciesNet, an AI model designed to identify wildlife species, potentially assisting conservation efforts and biodiversity research. More here.
• Anthropic secured $3.5 billion in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, boosting its valuation to $61.5 billion and solidifying its position as a leading AI startup. The company plans to use the funds to expand globally, particularly in Asia and Europe, and to deepen its research in AI safety and alignment. More here.

🛠️ Tools

• Mistral OCR - a powerful tool that can understand and process complex documents like slides and PDFs. It is faster than other similar models, processing up to 2000 pages per minute.
• CodeTracer - an open-source time-traveling debugger designed to support a wide range of programming languages. More about reverse debugging here.
• Zentool - a suite of tools for analyzing, manipulating, and generating microcode patches for AMD Zen processors, including utilities for assembly (mcas) and disassembly (mcop) of microcode. It allows users to examine, edit, sign, and load microcode updates, enabling modifications to processor behavior at a low level.
• Tailscale - creates a secure, mesh network using WireGuard, enabling direct connections between devices without a central hub. It uses a coordination server for key exchange and login, outsourcing authentication to providers like Gmail and Office365.
• Onyx - an AI platform that integrates with a company's documents, applications, and personnel. It offers a feature-rich chat interface compatible with any large language model (LLM) and supports over 40 connectors.
• Just a beautiful keyboard.
• Mox - a modern, secure, and open-source all-in-one email server designed for easy setup and maintenance.
• vtm - a text-based application where the entire user interface is represented by a mosaic of text cells forming a TUI matrix.

✏️ Misc

• Rocket Lab, in partnership with NASA and MIT, is launching the first private mission to Venus in 2026 to search for signs of microbial life in the planet's atmosphere using a probe equipped with a fluorescence sensor and protected by NASA's HEEET heat shield. More here.
• Nice article about The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils here.
• Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton have received the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for their foundational work in Reinforcement Learning (RL), a key technology in AI. More here. Their textbook remains the standard reference in the field, inspiring further research and innovation. Stanford’s pdf book.

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Have a great day!
Bogdan