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SIMBIAN (PRODUCT LAUNCH)

Simbian is an autonomous security platform for enterprises. Humans make all the strategic decisions while AI implements those decisions.

KUBEHOUND

A Kubernetes attack graph tool that enables automated calculation of attack paths between assets in a cluster.

HAUDITOR

hauditor is a tool designed to analyze the security headers returned by a web page and report dangerous configurations.

EX-SECURITY ENGINEER JAILED 3 YEARS FOR $12.3 MILLION CRYPTO EXCHANGE THEFTS

A former security engineer at Amazon, Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced to three years in prison for hacking two cryptocurrency exchanges in July 2022 and stealing over $12.3 million. He pled guilty to computer fraud charges in December 2023 following his arrest in July. Ahmed exploited security flaws to insert fake pricing data and fraudulently generate inflated fees, which he then withdrew.

NEW TECHNIQUE TO TRICK DEVELOPERS DETECTED IN AN OPEN SOURCE SUPPLY CHAIN ATTACK

Attackers are manipulating GitHub search rankings by creating malicious repositories with popular names and topics and using automated updates and fake stars to deceive users. The recent campaign involves a large malware executable that targets cryptocurrency wallets, establishing persistence through a scheduled task.

UK FLOODED WITH FORGED STAMPS DESPITE USING BARCODES — TO PREVENT JUST THAT

Royal Mail introduced barcoded stamps to enhance security and prevent forgeries, but counterfeit stamps have flooded the UK. Customers face fines for unknowingly using fake stamps purchased at Post Offices. The transition to barcoded stamps raised privacy concerns due to the potential loss of anonymity in mail.

FBI WARNS OF MASSIVE WAVE OF ROAD TOLL SMS PHISHING ATTACKS

The FBI warns of a large wave of text message scams that trick people into clicking links to pay unpaid tolls.

LASTPASS DODGES DEEPFAKE SCAM: CEO IMPERSONATION ATTEMPT THWARTED

LastPass avoided a security breach in which an employee was targeted with a deepfake scam impersonating the CEO.

CHROME ENTERPRISE GETS PREMIUM SECURITY BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT

Google has introduced Chrome Enterprise Premium, a new version of its browser for organizations that offers advanced security features for a monthly fee per user.

TIKTOK MAY ENABLE BRANDS TO GENERATE AI BOTS TO PITCH PRODUCTS

TikTok is reportedly developing a feature that would allow brands to use AI-generated influencers to promote products via videos and live-streams. The tool has been successfully tested and implemented in the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, which has seen AI hosts generate substantial sales for brands.

GOOGLE BLOCKING LINKS TO CALIFORNIA NEWS OUTLETS FROM SEARCH RESULTS

Google has temporarily blocked links from local news outlets in California from appearing in search results. This is in response to a bill that would require tech companies to pay publications for links that articles share. The California bill is meant to support the local journalism industry. The change applies only to some people using Google in California, though it's not clear how many.

MICROSOFT STARTS TESTING ADS IN THE WINDOWS 11 START MENU

Microsoft has announced the commencement of ad testing within the Start menu on Windows 11, utilizing the Recommended section to propose apps from the Microsoft Store. Restricted to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the US, feedback from testers will determine whether these ads become a permanent fixture in Windows 11. There is an option to turn off the ads in the settings.

AN EXTREMELY SHORT GUIDE TO B2B COPYWRITING

This guide explains a 3-step B2B copywriting tactic that takes less than 1 minute to apply. First, find job descriptions of the positions your ICP is in, then use the ‘Responsibilities' section as guidance for their top priorities. Turn these into headlines with power words and emotions. B2B buyers never really care about your product - they care about job security. This method helps show prospects why buying your product will help them look good in front of their boss. The guide includes examples of this type of messaging from UserGems, Unbounce, and more.

5 PSYCHOLOGICAL TACTICS TO WRITE BETTER EMAILS

This article shares cases and experiments to showcase psychological tactics that can increase email effectiveness. By tapping into innate human biases like loss aversion, social proof, scarcity, and curiosity, marketers can create compelling emails that resonate with recipients. Small tweaks like changing a word or two can have a substantial impact on campaign performance.

ENGINEERING AS MARKETING: CREATING FREE TOOLS TO DRIVE GROWTH

Engineering as marketing consists of building tools that help generate awareness and acquire new users. This strategy enables brands to diversify from traditional marketing channels and solve more than one use case for your target audience. Engineering as marketing can take several formats, including interactive templates, calculators, and data sets. To do this well, first identify user needs from user interviews, keyword analysis, or support tickets. Build a simple tool that solves a single use case, then promote it across the appropriate channels.

EVERYTHING MARKETING MANAGERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EMAIL SUBDOMAINS

It's important to consider using separate email subdomains within your email program to track and manage reputation without different activities affecting one another. If something happens with your root or subdomain, such as a rise in spam complaints or a big swing in send volume that lands you on a blocklist, they're less likely to affect each other if they're separate. This guide covers scenarios that benefit from an email subdomain, how many you need, and subdomain name ideas and examples.

X OFFERS NEW AD INCENTIVES TO GET BRANDS TO SIGN UP FOR X VERIFIED

X launched a new offer for brands that are willing to pay to get a gold checkmark in the app, with equal ad credits to be added to accounts that sign up to the program. Any X advertiser that signs up to the Basic Verified Organizations package, which costs $2K a year, will now receive $2K in X ad credits each year. The same goes for the Full Access offering, at $10K per year, which will now give brands $10K in ad credits each year.

LISTIUM

Listium is a browser-based app that makes it easy to create slick-looking visual lists on any subject. It can be shared publicly or with specific people you choose. You can start from scratch or import items from a spreadsheet. Anyone with the link can access your list and interact with it. There are public lists ranging from the hottest tech items to the best Korean dramas to the top marketing books and resources.

WHY MARKETERS SHOULD CARE ABOUT GOOGLE'S POTENTIAL HUBSPOT ACQUISITION

With an estimated price range of $30B to $40B, Google's potential HubSpot acquisition will be the largest Alphabet investment yet. The move is a strategic response to shifting dynamics in data privacy and the deprecation of third-party cookies. If the transaction goes through, Google will be able to tap into HubSpot's customer base, including SMBs, while HubSpot would benefit from being integrated into Google's ecosystem.

BNPL COMPETITION DRIVES WINS FOR MERCHANTS

Fierce buy-now pay-later competition among payment card brands and independent providers is expanding conversion opportunities for merchants. Iconic credit card brands share a crowded stage with cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and alternative payment schemes, each with their own value proposition and target demographic. Companies like Affirm and Klarna pose a significant threat to incumbent financial institutions by offering an alternative to bank or credit union cards.

THE ECONOMICS OF FORMULA 1

Despite minimal marketing spend, F1 experienced a recent surge in popularity and revenue, partly due to its Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, which ignited organic global interest in the sport.

OREO REIMAGINES UBIQUITOUS INTERNET MENU ICON TO DOLE OUT DISCOUNTS

“The Oreo Menu” aims to reenvision the internet's ubiquitous three-line “hamburger menu” navigation tool as two stacked Oreo cookies.

HOW ONE LINE OF CODE CAUSED A $60 MILLION LOSS

In 1990, half of AT&T's phone network went down as a result of one line of C code that contained a buggy implementation of call handling. The outage affected over a hundred thousand Americans and the company lost $60 million. This article goes over the buggy piece of code that was deployed by AT&T and how engineers fixed it.

USETRANSITION – REACT

A new official React doc that explains how to animate a progress element using the new useTransition hook, which lets you update state without blocking UI.

YOUR BACKGROUND IMAGES MIGHT BE CAUSING CLS

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures webpage instability caused by unexpected movements of elements. Background images can make CLS worse, since CLS calculations consider all page elements. To make sure that CLS isn't affected negatively by background images, developers should include width and height attributes on images and iframes.

THE PROBLEM WITH TRYING TO SELL DEVELOPER TOOLING IS THAT DEVELOPERS HAVE NO PURCHASING AUTHORITY

Selling developer tools is challenging because developers typically lack the authority to make purchasing decisions. Successful tech companies often bypass IT and target revenue-generating business units. Simply making a tool popular doesn't guarantee profitability, especially with open-source software.

TEN YEARS AND COUNTING: MY AFFAIR WITH MICROSERVICES

Allegro, a major e-commerce platform, successfully transformed its monolithic application into a microservices architecture. Along the way, it shifted away from physical servers to a cloud-based infrastructure, which led to a much better developer experience. It also made large investments in tooling and infrastructure to reduce manual work for its engineers. Allegro made sure to allow room for experimentation, but also kept teams accountable for their architectural decisions.

WHY I LOST FAITH IN KAGI

Paid search engine Kagi has spread itself too thin with multiple niche projects. The product is also starting to become over-reliant on AI, which leads to inaccuracy and bias that goes against what Kagi was in the beginning.

the private beta

NEXT.JS 14.2

Next.js 14.2 offers faster local development with Turbopack improvements, along with clearer error messages and improved overlay design. It also has less memory usage during builds.

ZERO SHEETS

Turn Google Sheets into a database. Developers can perform CRUD operations on spreadsheets using APIs.

INDEX ADVISOR

Supabase's Index Advisor is a PostgreSQL extension that recommends indexes to improve query performance.

THE GUIDE TO STOCK OPTIONS CONVERSATIONS

Employees at startups should learn to understand their stock options as they are not an intuitive thing to understand. This article goes over the basics of stock options and how employees should gauge potential upside (or downside). Engineering managers should make sure that employees get additional stock option grants as they grow within the company.

HOW I GOT INTO DEEP LEARNING

This author decided to learn deep learning after running an education company for 8 years. They focused on the fundamentals with resources like "The Deep Learning Book", taught as they learned, and implemented foundational papers. They eventually developed their own tools in the data extraction space, which led to a job offer from a research lab.

LESSONS AFTER A HALF-BILLION GPT TOKENS

This author, who works at a startup with several LLM-powered features, shares useful insights from using GPT. For text analysis and extraction, vague prompts often outperform overly specific instructions. The chat API itself is usually enough for most needs and most people won't need to use more complex tech like vector databases or Langchain. For a better user experience, it was useful to mimic the variable typing speed of chatbots.

DEBUNKING DEVIN: "FIRST AI SOFTWARE ENGINEER" UPWORK LIE EXPOSED! (YOUTUBE VIDEO)

Devin AI, the “first AI Software Engineer,” was misrepresented - for example, in one of its demos, Devin is shown fixing errors in the source of a GitHub repository, but the errors it's fixing are bugs that Devin itself created.

THE BEST MANAGER I'VE HAD

The author's best manager was amazing because of their transparent communication (especially about career growth), technical competency, high but fair performance bar, credibility, and focus on impactful work instead of internal politics.

HARMFUL 5G FAST LANES ARE COMING. THE FCC NEEDS TO STOP THEM

The FCC's proposed net neutrality rules would allow mobile internet providers to create "5G fast lanes" where certain apps get preferential treatment.

BROWSER SECURITY BUGS THAT AREN'T: JAVASCRIPT IN PDF

The potential to embed JavaScript in PDFs is often thought of as a security vulnerability, but in reality, it's intended by PDF rendering software.

THE ARC PRODUCT-MARKET FIT FRAMEWORK

The problems startups solve are either hair-on-fire problems, “unchangeable” pain points, or non-problems that are solved by unbelievable visions (like the iPhone).

MACS TO GET AI-FOCUSED M4 CHIPS STARTING IN LATE 2024

The entire Mac lineup may get the M4 chip in late 2024 and early 2025. The chip will start appearing in the iMac, MacBook Pros, and Mac mini machines first before being implemented into the MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. The M4 processor is expected to come in at least three varieties. It will feature an improved Neural Engine with an increased number of cores for AI tasks.

HUMANE AI HANDS-ON: MY LIFE SO FAR WITH A WEARABLE AI PIN

While the Humane AI Pin could be the future of wearables, it doesn't currently have enough consistency or connectivity. This article reviews the device and describes what it is like using it. There is still a lot of room for improvement, for example, the laser display can be hard to read and the interface can be difficult to navigate. The device also overheats after a few minutes of use.

ESA SATELLITES TO TEST RAZOR-SHARP FORMATION FLYING

The European Space Agency will launch a mission later this year to demonstrate precision formation flying in orbit to create artificial solar eclipses. The mission will involve a pair of spacecraft that will fly about 144 meters apart, with one spacecraft acting as a disc to block out the sun from the other spacecraft. This will allow the ESA to study the Sun's highly ionized atmosphere. The formation flying technology could be used for other future missions as well.

RESEARCHERS FIND A NEW ORGANELLE EVOLVING

Endosymbiosis is a process in which a once free-living organism is incorporated into a cell. This can result in the organism becoming an organelle, a compartment within cells surrounded by membranes that performs specialized functions. Researchers may have found a new case of the extremely rare event. An organelle devoted to fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere is being observed in the process of specialization. Called a nitroplast, the organelle is limited to a single lineage of algae, likely due to its relatively recent origin, with the relationship between the nitroplast and its host cell only dating back about 100 million years.

I ASKED 100 DEVS WHY THEY AREN'T SHIPPING FASTER. HERE'S WHAT I LEARNED

The things that slow devs down depend on the company size, culture, the nature of the product, and the composition of the team. This article looks at what engineers from big tech companies think is slowing them down. Many devs say that build, compile, and deployment times are the main things slowing them down. Other factors include dependency bugs, complicated codebases, development processes, tests, and reviews.

PREDICTIVE CPU ISOLATION OF CONTAINERS AT NETFLIX

Computer architecture design has evolved towards adding various levels of caching between compute units and the main memory to hide latency. These caches are partially shared among the CPUs, so perfect performance isolation of co-hosted containers is not possible. Netflix's team was able to meaningfully improve both the predictability and performance of its containers by taking some of the CPU isolation responsibility away from the operating system and moving towards a data-driven solution involving combinatorial optimization and machine learning. This post explains the process in detail.

APPLE OPENS ACCESS TO USED IPHONE COMPONENTS FOR REPAIR

Apple has opened its iPhone repair process to include used components for the iPhone 15. Customers and independent repair shops will be able to fix iPhones starting this fall using compatible components, including the battery, display, and camera. Face ID will not be available when the feature first rolls out but will be implemented later. Apple has no plans to sell refurbished parts for user repairs.