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BACKDOORS IN PYTHON AND NPM PACKAGES TARGET WINDOWS AND LINUX

Hackers deceived users into downloading malware by creating counterfeit Python and NPM packages that mimicked legitimate software.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY BREACH CLAIMS LACK TEETH, RESEARCHERS SAY

Hackers reportedly stole over 100 GB of data from the EPA, primarily consisting of harmless scientific test results.

FTC ISSUES SWEEPING DEMANDS TO MEDIA RATING FIRMS OVER INDUSTRY TIES

The FTC has issued investigative demands to media rating firms like NewsGuard, Ad Fontes Media, and DoubleVerify, requesting operational, financial, and communications data. The inquiry is focused on how these companies evaluate misinformation, hate speech, and deceptive content, and how their methodologies and partnerships may impact the flow of advertising dollars. By demanding detailed records dating back to 2019, the FTC is signaling heightened scrutiny over the role these firms play in shaping media visibility and influencing which outlets brands consider safe for ad placements.

REPORT: TEMU LOSES 58% OF US DAILY USERS DUE TO TARIFFS

Temu lost 58% of its daily U.S. users in May after the U.S. ended the de minimis exemption on Chinese imports. The company responded by overhauling its supply chain, shifting to a model where over one-third of its U.S. sales are now fulfilled from domestic warehouses. It also cut U.S. ad spending, leading to an 80% drop in paid search traffic.

BACK TO SCHOOL K-12 ON REDDIT 2025

85% of parents trust user reviews on Reddit for purchase decisions, and 50% plan to spend $400 or more this year. 75% say brands can have conversations on Reddit they can't have elsewhere. Reddit also ranks as the #1 platform parents use to decide on purchases compared to Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This guide offers insights on product research, ad strategies, and creative planning.

HOW TO FIND YOUR BRAND'S NICHE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

93% of consumers say brands should stay informed about online culture, much of which lives in niche communities. Finding the right niche starts with tracking where relevant conversations are happening, such as hashtags, subreddits, or creator networks that align with your audience. Marketers can identify which formats, references, and tones resonate, then engage through creators or content that reflect the community's values. As the brand earns trust, ongoing feedback helps refine the message and stay aligned with the niche as it evolves.

14 AHA MOMENT EXAMPLES FROM STARTUPS TO SPARK YOUR INSPIRATION

The ‘aha' moment is a sudden shift in perception where users understand a product's value without needing further explanation. It typically follows a period of confusion and feels rewarding, which reinforces product use and loyalty. Examples from companies that got it right include when Calendly users realize scheduling can happen without email back-and-forth, when Notion users connect their second note and see how everything links, or when Spotify users discover the Daily Mix and understand its personalized value.

Turn silent website traffic into pipeline - automatically.

WTF IS GTM ENGINEERING?! (WEBINAR)

This webinar, which will be held on June 10th, will explain the often misunderstood role of GTM Engineering. GTM Engineering differs from RevOps and other functions because it focuses on creating frictionless buying experiences and orchestrating tech stacks to drive growth in B2B companies. At the webinar, industry experts will discuss why GTM Engineers are vital in today's AI-driven market, how to build the function effectively, and why it's important for marketing leaders and operators to understand this emerging growth role.

SCALING YOUR EMAIL & SMS TEAM: ROLES, TOOLS, AND WORKFLOWS FOR GROWTH (68 MINUTE VIDEO)

This podcast explains how to build and scale a high-performing email and SMS marketing team, from solo operators to enterprise-level structures. The hosts cover key roles, like strategist, copywriter, analyst, and automation specialist, when to hire them, and how to design workflows for campaigns, flows, and quality assurance. They discuss the tech stack needed for growth, when to keep work in-house or hire agencies, and common pitfalls to avoid.

NEIL VOGEL ON GOOGLE ZERO

Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel discusses preparing for a future he calls “Google Zero.” The company has reduced its reliance on Google from 60% to a third of its traffic and focuses on building direct audience relationships through newsletters, apps, and loyalty programs. Vogel views AI licensing deals as strategic hedges and is investing in proprietary ad tech to regain control over advertising revenue.

ANTICIPATION INCREASES ACTUAL ENJOYMENT

Building anticipation before a product or service launch significantly increases customer enjoyment and satisfaction. In one study, people who savored an upcoming experience remembered it as 9.6% more enjoyable. Watching related previews made customers enjoy content 8.6% more, and expectation-building increased video game enjoyment likelihood by 21%. The effect is weaker if quality is poor or if delays or unmet expectations create negative feelings.

RXBAR SCRUBS CORPORATE JARGON FROM SOCIAL FEEDS IN BATTLE AGAINST B.S.

RXBar launched a Google Chrome extension that filters out corporate jargon from social media as part of its “Proud Sponsor of No B.S.” campaign. The tool highlights and blocks phrases like “disruptor” and “move the needle,” reinforcing the brand's focus on authenticity. RXBar encourages users to submit more buzzwords to expand the extension's codebase. The effort follows other bold marketing moves, including a B.S. Blocker Truck in New York, as RXBar competes in an increasingly crowded protein snack market.

TIKTOK LAUNCHES ‘TIKTOK FOR ARTISTS,' A NEW MUSIC INSIGHTS PLATFORM

TikTok for Artists provides marketers with a centralized view of music-driven engagement, revealing what songs are gaining traction and who is interacting with them.

HOW STORYLANE IS SPENDING $3M ON MARKETING

The head of marketing at Storylane breaks down their entire $3M marketing budget by channel.

INSTACART EMBRACES '90S NOSTALGIA WITH THROWBACK ADS AND PRICES

Instacart's latest campaign leverages '90s nostalgia and inflation-era pricing to boost summer sales, with ads styled after vintage commercials running across TV and digital platforms.

ADOPTING DOCS-AS-CODE AT PINTEREST

Pinterest Engineering adopted a "docs-as-code" strategy. This involved treating documentation like code, using Markdown, version control, and CI/CD pipelines. They built PDocs, a centralized static site generator, to host documentation across multiple repositories and improve the developer experience.

WHAT HAPPENS IF WE INLINE EVERYTHING?

Modifying LLVM to always inline every function call results in the compiler bypassing typical profitability checks and reveals unexpected interactions with other optimization passes. While compilation times and executable sizes drastically increase, runtime performance is not much worse and can even be slightly better.

YOUR MANAGER IS NOT YOUR BEST FRIEND

Managers should act as objective "scientists" to uncover the truth of tough situations, providing perspective and constructive communication. They should not agree with negative statements about other teams or individuals and instead focus on solutions and objective frameworks.

WHY GUIS ARE BUILT AT LEAST 2.5 TIMES

The Lean Software Development model is flawed because it misinterprets the core activity of software creation. Software development is not manufacturing, but rather a design process, where the "factory" is the program itself, and developers are designers constantly iterating to understand and fulfill user needs.

GEMINI IN CHROME — AI ASSISTANCE, RIGHT IN YOUR BROWSER

Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can now use Gemini directly within the Chrome browser for AI assistance. Gemini in Chrome provides summaries, answers questions, and helps with complex tasks based on the current webpage.

STORYBOOK 9

Storybook 9 introduces a streamlined component testing experience with better testing capabilities and performance improvements. It partners with Vitest and Playwright for faster test execution and browser fidelity, with better interaction, accessibility, and visual tests.

MONSTERUI: BRINGING BEAUTIFUL UI TO FASTHTML

MonsterUI makes web UI development easier in FastHTML Python apps by providing pre-styled components and smart defaults. It has features like themes, base components, semantic text styles, layout helpers, common UI patterns, higher-level components, and markdown rendering.

SWIFT AT APPLE: MIGRATING THE PASSWORD MONITORING SERVICE FROM JAVA

Apple migrated its Password Monitoring service from Java to Swift, resulting in a 40% performance increase. The team chose Swift due to its efficiency and ability to better manage memory compared to Java, which allowed for faster scaling and reduced server overhead. Using the Vapor web framework and custom Swift packages, they rewrote the service with less code, benefiting from Swift's protocol-oriented approach and built-in safety features.

HOW WE WRAP EXTERNAL C AND C++ LIBRARIES IN RUST

"LEARN TO CODE" BACKFIRES SPECTACULARLY AS COMP-SCI MAJORS SUDDENLY HAVE SKY-HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT

Today's Computer Science graduates are facing worse job prospects than the average college graduate, and even worse than journalism grads. The oversaturation of CS graduates, coupled with automation and recent hiring practices, has created a job market that doesn't match the promises made.

META PIXEL HALTS ANDROID LOCALHOST TRACKING AFTER DISCLOSURE

Researchers discovered that Meta and Yandex were using Android apps to track users' web browsing data by exploiting localhost ports.

A COMPLETE GUIDE TO META PROMPTING

This is a comprehensive guide to meta prompting, a technique using LLMs themselves to generate and refine prompts, and explores various meta prompting methods.

VISION LANGUAGE MODELS ARE BIASED

This paper shows that Vision Language Models show a lot of bias, relying on memorized knowledge rather than visual analysis, which leads to big failures when presented with slightly modified images.

GENERATIVE AI WILL PROBABLY MAKE BLOGS BETTER

Generative AI will replace SEO-optimized content with genuine, human-centered blog posts, returning the internet to a less commercially driven and more authentic state.

Schedule a demo to learn more

META AIMS TO FULLY AUTOMATE AD CREATION USING AI

Meta is betting that automation is the future of ads. It plans to enable brands to fully create and target ads from scratch with AI by the end of next year. The company also plans to enable advertisers to personalize ads using AI. For example, companies will be able to generate variations of existing ads that fit users' current locations.

HOW MUCH SHOULD THE WORLD'S RICHEST MAN GET PAID?

Elon Musk was paid $0 last year for his role as Tesla's chief executive. He has not been paid for several years amid a legal battle over a stock award in 2018. A court has twice thrown out his pay package despite two votes of support from shareholders. The company is now exploring a new compensation package for Musk. This article looks at three possible approaches to paying Musk.

ARTIFICIAL BLOOD THAT COULD WORK FOR ALL BLOOD TYPES IN TRIALS

Clinical trials for a universal artificial blood are underway in Japan. The artificial blood is usable for all blood types and can be stored for up to two years. It is a potential solution to critical shortages in blood supplies for emergency and chronic health care worldwide. The scientists are seeking clinical approval and practical rollout of the universal artificial blood by 2030.

BLUE ORIGIN LAUNCHES 6 PASSENGERS ON SUB-ORBITAL TRIP TO THE EDGE OF SPACE

Blue Origin's twelfth New Shepard passenger flight blasted off on Saturday carrying an international crew of four men and two women. The crew rocketed to the edge of space, an altitude of nearly 65 miles, before descending in the West Texas desert 10 minutes after liftoff. Blue Origin has now launched 68 passengers, four of whom have flown twice. It is estimated that a seat aboard New Shepard costs upwards of $500,000.

Read the Delve case study.

9 LESSONS FROM CURSOR'S SYSTEM PROMPT

This post takes a look at what makes Cursor's prompting so effective. It breaks down the system prompt, the two user prompts, and the tool calling prompts. The prompts from the post were obtained by setting a custom API endpoint in Cursor and reading the payloads. They reveal how Cursor's capabilities aren't magic, they're just the result of incredibly thoughtful and detailed prompt engineering.

MY AI SKEPTIC FRIENDS ARE ALL NUTS

Large language models can write a lot of the tedious code you'll ever need to write and reduce the number of things you need to Google. While there are many objections to using the technology, it is undeniable that AI can speed up many workflows, even if it makes mistakes sometimes. Developers have always been responsible for what's in their code - AI doesn't change that. They still have to check code for mistakes and to understand how it all works.

OF COURSE WORKERS WANT A FOUR-DAY WEEK. COMPANIES SHOULD TOO

Studies across hundreds of businesses and nonprofits switching to four-day-week pilot programs show that working one day less every week with no reduction in pay results in reduced burnout, better mental health, and improvements in physical health. Organizations saw excellent results in performance metrics such as revenue, absenteeism, and resignations - less than 10% decided to discontinue the four-day week. Companies appear to be able to maintain 100% of their performance despite 20% less time at the workplace. The most common productivity hack used by companies was to cut down on meetings.

GOOGLE'S PIXEL 10 PHONES WILL REPORTEDLY LAUNCH ON AUGUST 13TH

Google reportedly plans to launch the Pixel 10 series at a Made by Google event on August 13. The handsets will arrive in stores a week later on August 20. Google is expected to launch four Pixel 10 phones: a regular model, Pro, Pro XL, and Pro Fold. The company will likely announce the Pixel Watch 4 at the same event.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE 2010S?

The average earnings growth for Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft from 2010 was 17% - it was around 7% for the rest of the S&P 500.

ASK HN: HOW DO I LEARN ROBOTICS IN 2025? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

This thread contains resources and advice for learning robotics.

TYPING 118 WPM BROKE MY BRAIN IN THE RIGHT WAYS (A YEAR-LONG JOURNEY)

Learning how to type fast can make you a better developer - faster at writing code, better at documentation, and less frustrated when typing out large amounts of text.

AIRBNB CEO BRIAN CHESKY WANTS TO BUILD THE EVERYTHING APP

This post contains a transcript of an interview with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky where he discusses AI and Airbnb, his relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Jony Ive, the difference between a product manager and a program manager, and much more.

AI DIDN'T KILL STACK OVERFLOW

What killed Stack Overflow was its community and governance - AI merely exposed the extent to which the community had already lost its spark.

DIGG'S FOUNDERS EXPLAIN HOW THEY'RE BUILDING A SITE FOR HUMANS IN THE AI ERA

The rebooted version of Digg will give people who create content and manage online communities a bigger stake in the platform's success.

increased efficiency 20%.