kepford

I wrote a thing. https://stacker.news/items/997169

Remy: Strategic Fartcoin Reserve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5DncosnP3Y https://stacker.news/items/995405

A thought on JavaScript "proof of work" anti-scraper systems https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/web/JavaScriptScraperObstacles I find proof of work to be a novel solution to problems with many systems. LLMs apparently do not respect server's client settings and it is very common for web servers to have massive amounts of scrapper traffic. Those that do not realize that the Internet is a hostile environment will suffer the consequences. So I find this topic interesting. > One of the things that people are increasingly using these days to deal with the issue of aggressive LLM and other web scrapers is JavaScript based "proof of work" systems, where your web server requires visiting clients to run some JavaScript to solve a challenge; one such system (increasingly widely used) is Xe Iaso's Anubis. One of the things that people say about these systems is that LLM scrapers will just start spending the CPU time to run this challenge JavaScript, and LLM scrapers may well have lots of CPU time available through means such as compromised machines. One of my thoughts is that things are not quite as simple for the LLM scrapers as they look. > An LLM scraper is operating in a hostile environment (although its operator may not realize this). In a hostile environment, dealing with JavaScript proof of work systems is not as simple as simply running it, because you can't particularly tell a JavaScript proof of work system from JavaScript that does other things. They go on to talk about crypto mining with LLM's CPU power using Javascript. Its an interesting idea and I wonder if any bitcoiners have looked into this as a service to provide. I'm thinking of this being someone server owners could install on their websites where these JS PoW scripts could use to lotto mine in pools. https://stacker.news/items/992140

Elon Musk Tried to Block Sam Altman’s Big AI Deal in the Middle East https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-trump-openai-stargate-abu-dhabi-e2689615 [Unpaywalled version](https://archive.is/x7lAc) > Musk warned that Trump wouldn’t bless OpenAI data-center project unless his xAI company was added > After Musk’s complaints, Trump and U.S. officials reviewed the deal terms and decided to move forward. The White House officials said Musk didn’t want a deal that seemed to benefit Altman. Aides discussed how to best calm Musk down, one of the officials said, because Trump and David Sacks, the president’s AI and crypto adviser, wanted to announce the deal before the end of the president’s trip to the Middle East. The question I think of when I read stuff like this is why does the President or government have ANY say in whether a company does business in another country. The articles about this type of thing never seem to ask this question. They focus on someone is using their political influence to block or hinder competitors. To me this is obvious and should be expected if you centralize power in the state. Those that hate this sort of permission requirement might ignore the politics for a while but they do so to their demise. Those that have no moral problem with it will just do it to everyone else. This happened with Microsoft back in the day. Its happening with the bitcoin ecosystem now. Rent seekers are the problem. Not those paying them off. There's a VERY common dumb take that people put forward. The take is that Trump and Musk are corrupt and we must vote for someone to replace Trump. This ignores that what they are doing while it may be slightly worse (I kinda doubt this btw) than the norm is basically how things have worked with the relationship of private companies and the state for a very long time. Remember the campaign finance reform movement? Yeah, that really went somewhere. So what is the solution? I guess we really just need a John Galt type approach to break the system. But the types that would be the John Galt are simply trying to use the system to their advantage or best case in a defensive way. I can't say that I blame them. https://stacker.news/items/992126

As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook https://hamatti.org/posts/as-a-developer-my-most-important-tools-are-a-pen-and-a-notebook I've tried this many times over my career and its never stuck. I have terrible hand writing and I suck at taking hand written notes. I do however swear by keeping notes digitally and I have for well over 5 years now. I keep a daily worklog of what I'm doing. I reference it pretty often. I do it all in plain text and sync it using Syncthing to my various devices (except iOS which is annoying). I'm a big plain text maxi. They [have a post discussing their note taking process](https://hamatti.org/posts/how-i-take-work-notes-as-a-developer/). But, what has worked for me is using paper for diagramming architectures for systems and application stacks. I started doing this with designing web sites info architecture back in the day and have used it ever since. Index cards are a great tool for that work. White boards are also very helpful. I do find that using non-digital tools opens up another part of my brain. I need to do it more. https://stacker.news/items/992116

AI-assisted development needs automated tests https://simonwillison.net/2025/May/28/automated-tests/ Simon argues that using LLMs as a pair programming partner works well if you have test coverage. This gives you more guardrails around creating regressions. Makes sense to me in my experience with using LLMs with dev tasks. https://stacker.news/items/992111

Its kinda mind blowing to me how many bitcoiners have latched on to protectionism as the solution to US problems over ending fiat money printing. All because a politician said they like their coin. Sad state of affairs. Ya'll do know that this is just a distraction from the root issue... the one Trump has always ignored.

Microsoft just opened the flood gates… Open Sourcing Copilot and WSL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIgrGqmoeHs https://stacker.news/items/984684

Steak 'n Shake Now Accepting Bitcoin Via Lightning Network Across U.S. Locations https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/steak-n-shake-now-accepting-bitcoin-via-lightning-network-across-u-s-locations Apparently they actually did it. https://stacker.news/items/981819

Steak 'n Shake Now Accepting Bitcoin Via Lightning Network Across U.S. Locations https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/steak-n-shake-now-accepting-bitcoin-via-lightning-network-across-u-s-locations https://stacker.news/items/981819

Bootsy Collins’ Home Studio is a Funk Wonderland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNiYpQ0nRHE Bootsy has always been secretive about his setups so this was cool to see as a long time fan. Bootsy Collins is a highly influential American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter. He rose to fame playing with James Brown and later became a cornerstone of George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic. Known for his driving, effected basslines, humorous vocals, and iconic flamboyant style (including star-shaped glasses), Collins also led his successful P-Funk offshoot, Bootsy's Rubber Band. A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, he is celebrated as a key innovator in funk and one of music's all-time great bassists. https://stacker.news/items/981120

The Tragic End of The Hövding Airbag Helmet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS9Q6D992M4 Good ole government killing a product people loved... for their own good. https://stacker.news/items/981034

https://fountain.fm/show/VDaMppQRUBZioj2XkaLn nostr:nevent1qvzqqqpxquqzpcdx5ksnv7akp6rfn0k5d2lsyz787tvvngcfcap9rxsayqms6jkt8e7vkz

How California sent residents’ personal health data to LinkedIn https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/04/28/how-california-sent-residents-personal-health-data-to-linkedin > As visitors filled out forms on the website, trackers on the same pages told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind, pregnant, or used a high number of prescription medications. The trackers also monitored whether the visitors said they were transgender or possible victims of domestic abuse. > Covered California, the organization that operates the website, removed the trackers as The Markup and CalMatters reported this article. The organization said they were removed “due to a marketing agency transition” in early April. > In a statement, Kelly Donohue, a spokesperson for the agency, confirmed that data was sent to LinkedIn as part of an advertising campaign. Since being informed of the tracking, “all active advertising-related tags across our website have been turned off out of an abundance of caution,” she added. My question is if the people affected will be compensated. I mean, its the government and they work for us... lol. I can't even continue that thought. https://stacker.news/items/980957

Israeli company TeleMessage, used by Trump WH, can access plaintext chat logs https://micahflee.com/despite-misleading-marketing-israeli-company-telemessage-used-by-trump-officials-can-access-plaintext-chat-logs/ Most detailed look at the app I have seen. > Each archive plan has a source messaging app (like TM SGNL) and a destination, which is controlled by the TeleMessage customer. Destinations can include Microsoft 365, email servers (SMTP), or file servers (SFTP). The admin assigns TeleMessage users – like Mike Waltz – to an archive plan, which determines where their chat logs will get archived. > Once the TM SGNL app sends chat logs to the archive server, the archive server is supposed to do something like this: It looks up the user that sent the chat log, then looks up that user's archive plan, then forwards the messages to destination defined in the archive plan (via SMTP or SFTP), and presumably (but who really knows for sure) deletes the chat logs from the archive server.  ## Why Is TM SGNL So Terrible? > Signal is the gold standard of end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. > Messages are encrypted between endpoints – whether that's a phone running Signal, a computer running Signal Desktop, or even a phone running TM SGNL. The Signal server, and any internet eavesdroppers, cannot access the chat logs. > However, once they're at an endpoint, they are in plaintext (if they weren't, you wouldn't be able to read your texts). At this point, they're protected by various forms of disk encryption depending on the device. This is how Signal messages sometimes end up as evidence in court records: someone's phone or laptop with Signal installed was searched, after the messages were already decrypted. > TM SGNL completely breaks this security. The communication between the TM SGNL app and the final archive destination is not end-to-end encrypted. > TeleMessage lies about this in their marketing material, claiming that TM SGNL supports "End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive." The interesting thing about all of this. Companies using this service and government officials using it is the why. Why are they using it? Well, I have heard that many companies that used this service did so because of government regulations requiring the archiving of digital communications. I assume this is also the thought with the WH using this. But it should be noted that TM SGNL, unlike Signal has not been approved for use in the government. I mean, it would be absurd if it were. Just when you think this story is over more details emerge :) I'm not even gonna get into the fact that this company is very closely tied to Israeli intelligence. Its just too much, its just so absurd. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/980895

Signal Clone TeleMessage Deleted Video About How It Works—Here’s What It Said http://archive.today/rxYqL Its pretty wild that companies and government agency employees were using this incredibly insecure tool. Learned today that it literally emails chat logs in clear text... So you use Signal just to email your conversations... wild. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/980884

How Trump Can Lower Drug Prices Without Price Controls https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-trump-can-lower-drug-prices-without-price-controls This whole thing is yet another example of how lost the Republican/Trump camp is on economics, socialism, and the path to prosperity and peace. > The Trump administration is trying to frame this as another example of the rest of the world freeloading off the American people who are forced to pay the cost of research, development, and production in order for the rest of the world to enjoy low drug prices. Economically, that is not how prices work. But it’s a believable story because of how absurdly high drug prices are in the US, especially when compared to the rest of the world. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/980204

Reproducible Builds: Verify our Android app builds bit-for-bit - Mullvad VPN https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2025/5/9/reproducible-builds-verify-our-android-app-builds-bit-for-bit > Starting with version 2025.2, our Android app builds are reproducible. This means you can verify that the app you download and install is built from the open source code we publish. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/980076

Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/10/sam-altman-wants-your-eyeball/#in-the-united-states-the-app-is-restricted-in-some-states originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/980012

KeePassium Review: A Flexible Password Manager for iOS and macOS https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/13/keepassium-review/ > KeePassium is a KeePass-compatible project. If you are already familiar with any software from the KeePass ecosystem, you will feel right at home with KeePassium. > KeePassium is a commercial open-source application made by KeePassium Labs, based in Luxembourg. originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/979989