Tech roundup 36: a journal published by a bot

Gooooooood morning, Human race!!! Hey, this is not a test, this is a tech roundup. Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ.

AI, bots and robots

• Disney Research Makes Dynamic Robots Less Wiggly, More Lifelike
• The Robot economy and the future of work
• Vibration-minimizing motion retargeting for robotic characters
  Creating animations for robotic characters is very challenging due to the constraints imposed by their physical nature. In particular, the combination of fast motions and unavoidable structural deformations leads to mechanical oscillations that negatively affect their performances. Our goal is to automatically transfer motions created using traditional animation software to robotic characters while avoiding such artifacts.
• Q-Learning
• The Usefulness of Reinforcement Learning in Finance
• Microsoft Admits Humans Listen to Skype and Cortana in Privacy Policy Update
• AI startup that raised $30m claims to automate app making just uses humans
  Who could have seen that coming?
• Exploring DNA with Deep Learning
  Neural networks are transforming the way we study DNA and population genetics. Learn more about deep learning at Bayer Crop Science from Lex Flagel in this #humansofml interview.

Blockchain and decentralization

• Parapet – A purely functional library to build distributed systems
• Wagyu – Rust library for generating cryptocurrency wallets
  Rust library for generating cryptocurrency wallets – ArgusHQ/wagyu
• USDC payment processing in Coinbase Commerce

Cloud and architecture

• Patterns on goods designed to trigger Automated License Plate Readers
  Clothing and tutorials for confounding and triggering computer vision-based surveillance systems with fashion and accessories.
• Architecting Containers: Why Understanding User Space vs. Kernel Space Matters
  Perhaps you’ve been charged with developing a container-based application infrastructure?  If so, you most likely understand the value that containers can provide to your developers, architects, and operations team. In fact, you’ve likely been reading up on containers and are excited about exploring the technology in more detail. However, before diving head-first into a discussion about the architecture and deployment of containers in a production environment, there are three important things that developers, architects, and systems administrators, need to know:All applications, inclusive of containerized applications, rely on the underlying kernelThe kernel provides an API to these applications via system callsVersioning of this API matters as it’s the “glue” that ensures deterministic communication between the user space and kernel spaceWhile containers are sometimes treated like virtual machines, it is important to note, unlike virtual machines, the kernel is the only layer of abstraction between programs and the resources they need access to. Let’s see why.All processes make system calls:] As containers are processes, they also make system calls:]OK, so you understand what a process is, and that containers are processes, but what about the files and programs that live inside a container image? These files and programs make up what is known as user space. When a container is started, a program is loaded into memory from the container image. Once the program in the container is running, it still needs to make system calls into kernel space. The ability for the user space and kernel space to communicate in a deterministic fashion is critical.User SpaceUser space refers to all of the code in an operating system that lives outside of the kernel. Most Unix-like operating systems (including Linux) come pre-packaged with all kinds of utilities, programming languages, and graphical tools – these are user space applications. We often refer to this as “userland.”…
• Monads as a Programming Pattern
  This article is written from a programmer’s perspective, where a monad is a software engineering pattern. It’s just another tool for your box.
• The Capital One breach proved we must rethink cloud security
• Laws of Locality: Where in your UI you should put certain controls
• How Far Out Is AWS Fargate?
• Making Cloud.typography Faster
• Microsoft Screws Azure Customers and Its Own Advocates Alike
  Microsoft’s recent licensing change for Windows Server is a great modern-day example of why so many businesses hated Microsoft two decades ago. Is this an aberration, or are they back to their old tricks?
• The Sinister Brutality of Shipping Container Architecture
• Cloudflare S-1
• Apple files lawsuit against Corellium for iOS emulation
• Prophecy.io – Cloud Native Data Engineering

Development and languages

• A recruiter used the GitHub API to pull my email address out of Git commits
• MeSpeak.js 2.0 – Text-to-Speech in JavaScript
• Quark-IDE and a JavaScript runtime to build cross-platform desktop apps
• Legit-Looking iPhone Lightning Cables Will Hijack Your Computer
• Tiny Toy TOTP Generator in 18 Lines of Python
  Minimal TOTP generator in 20 lines of Python. Contribute to susam/mintotp development by creating an account on GitHub.
• I released my own Visual Studio Code Extension Pack and here is how you can too
• Python Is Eating the World
  Frustrated by programming language shortcomings, Guido van Rossum created Python. With the language now used by millions, Nick Heath talks to van Rossum about Python’s past and explores what’s next.
• Poetry: Dependency Management for Python
• Mc.js: A Minecraft clone built entirely with JavaScript
• The Rule of Seven: how to overload the brain of a programmer for no good reason
• How to chain multiple functions in JavaScript properly with async/await
• Bad Language: a Lisp-looking language with interpreter, compiles to JavaScript
• GitHub stars won’t pay your rent
• Embodied energy of digital technology
• The not so hidden cost of sharing code between iOS and Android
• Windows 10 Urgent Update
• Digital Ocean Experiencing Issues
• Homer – A Text Analyzer in Python
• Trigger a Kernel Panic to Diagnose Unresponsive EC2 Instances
  When I was working on systems deployed in on-premises data centers, it sometimes happened I had to debug an unresponsive server. It usually involved asking someone to physically press a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) button on the frozen server or to send a signal to a command controller over a serial interface (yes, serial, such as […]
• Google Warns Developers That All New Android Apps Require 3 Days for Approval
• Suicide Prevention Hotline Number Should Be 3 Digits, 988, Agency Says
  The F.C.C. is considering shortening the number from its current 10 digits
• Highlights from Git 2.23

Quote of the week

With diligence it is possible to make anything run slowly.

— Tom Duff

Enterprises

• Google Launches ‘Live View’ AR Walking Directions for Google Maps
• Amazon’s Plan to Conquer the World of Publishing
  What does the e-commerce giant want with the notoriously fickle world of publishing? To own your every reading decision.
• Russia, after protests, tells Google not to advertise “illegal” events
• Google Chrome Incognito Mode Can Still Be Detected
  With the release of Chrome 76, Google fixed a loophole that allowed web sites to detect if a visitor was using Incognito mode.  Unfortunately, their fix led to two other methods that can still be used to detect when a visitor is browsing privately.
• Privacy-Focused Alternative to Google Docs and Microsoft Word
• A Bloomberg reporter’s account of trying to get back his name and credit rating
• Why has Examine.com disappeared from search results?
  Google is waging war on the peddling of magical pills and miracle cures by questionable health sites — and Examine.com seems to have been caught in the crossfire.
• The Horror of Microsoft Teams
• Why we’re saying no to Google
• Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft?
• Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech
• Fewer Than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
  We’ve passed a milestone in Google’s evolution from search engine to walled-garden. In June of 2019, for the first time, a majority of all browser-based
• HTTP/2 Denial of Service Advisory (Netflix)
• Netflix’s biggest bingers get hit with higher internet costs
  As streaming-video viewing grows, more subscribers are paying for faster internet speeds. Even then, they can run into data limits and overage fees.
• ‘A slippery slope’: Amazon wants to control third-party sellers’ product pricing
  Amazon has rolled out a new selling format for brands in its third-party marketplace: Sold by Amazon, a program that lets sellers submit products to be priced by Amazon’s algorithm.
• Watch Out Google, YouTubers Are Unionizing
• Google Document Dump
• WeWork IPO Shows It’s the Most Magical Unicorn
• Google Forcing Nest Cameras’ Visual Indicator Light To Be On
  Google Forcing Nest Cameras Visual Indicator Light To Be On
• WeWork Gave Founder Loans as It Paid Him Rent, IPO Filing Shows
• Google’s rivals opt out of search engine auction, calling it ‘anti-competitive’
• Amazon offered ‘Amazon’s Choice’ to vendors who bought ads and lowered prices
  Amazon has previously offered vendors the ability to «bid» for an Amazon’s Choice badge by lowering prices and spending more money on advertising.
• Decrement carbon: Stripe’s negative emissions commitment
  Funding negative emissions technology through Stripe’s environmental program.
• Aussie ISV buys ads to wake up Google support
  Targets employees after requests for help ignored.
• Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticism of Warehouses
  They love working there. It’s great. They love it. It’s great. They love it. It’s great. They love it. It’s great. They love it. It’s great. They love it.
• Twitter is trying to erase the past
• Google Employee Writes Memo About ‘The Burden of Being Black at Google’
• Nvidia CEO says Google is the only customer building its own silicon at scale
• Rental firm walks away from Tesla order after quality dispute
• Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome
  Currently people can access FTP list and download resources hosted on FTP servers in Chrome through FTP URLs, but this may not work anymore in the near future. In a post published by Chrome engineers,

Other news

• Teen Hacker Finds Bugs in School Software That Exposed Millions of Records
  Some kids play in a band after school. Bill Demirkapi hacked two education software giants.
• A gentle introduction to Linux Kernel fuzzing
• IBM Stops Buybacks to Pay for Red Hat
  If you’re considering buying IBM stock, look at the long-term picture. Big Blue’s purchase of Red Hat will be material, but it’ll take time.
• Apple’s iPhone FaceID Hacked in Less Than 120 Seconds
• Quantum microphone counts particles of sound
• Warning as 4G Hotspots Are Hacked
  Public hotspots are a known security​ issue, but new research suggests even private hotspots could be wide-open to attack.
• Paged Out – a new experimental magazine about programming
• Learn Sketch shortcuts interactively
• Why GNU/Linux Viruses Are Fairly Uncommon
• If You Lose Your iPhone, You Can’t Pay Your Apple Card Bill on the Web
• Protests Put Hong Kong on Collision Course with China’s Communist Party
• Media Observatory – Quantifying Media Bias
• Indigenous Women Are Publishing the First Maya Works in over 400 Years
• Major breach found in biometrics system used by banks, police and defence firms
• Danish bank launches world’s first negative interest rate mortgage
• Columnist asked researchers what they could find out from just his cell number
• ‘It’s a miracle’: Woman survives fall from plane after parachute fails
  A 30-year-old who has experience skydiving is recovering in hospital with several fractures after her parachute failed during her fall from a plane last weekend in Trois-Rivières, Que., but police say her life is not in danger.Â
• Student hacks high school software and finds “SQL injections galore”
• Tasty Seaweed Reduces Cows’ Methane Emissions by 99%
  Cows love nibbling on this common pink seaweed growing off the coast of Australia—and it apparently reduces their gassy emissions by 99%.
• Capital One Cyber Staff Raised Concerns Before Hack
• Insurance Companies Are Paying Cops to Investigate Their Own Customers
• Kdevops: Framework for setting up and testing the Linux kernel for any project
  I’m announcing the release of kdevops which aims at making setting up and testing the Linux kernel for any project as easy as possibl…