Leftovers

• Career/Education

  • Teleport ☛ Why We Designed Our Engineering Hiring Process The Way We Did

    Hiring engineers isn’t just about filling seats. It’s a process we’ve spent a great deal of time working through and, while not perfect, we’ve found that it works quite well for hiring engineers that call Teleport home for the long-term.

• Proprietary

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Nick Heer ☛ Tesla Ordered to Pay $200 Million in Punitive Damages Over Fatal Crash – Pixel Envy

      I continue to believe holding manufacturers legally responsible is the correct outcome for failures of autonomous driving technology. Corporations, unlike people, cannot go to jail; the closest thing we have to accountability is punitive damages.

    • Microsoft Reportedly Wants King To Use AI On A Daily Basis

      As far as adoption goes, one source told Mobile Gamer that “AI adoption is very low apart from ChatGPT” and that even the leadership at King is skeptical of AI’s role in the studio.

  • Social Control Media

    • Alex Sirac ☛ [Article] An attempt at leaving Mastodon

      I’ll try to figure out how to keep following the few friends I can only follow there (probably via RSS), and I’ll keep figuring out things as I go.

• Security

  • Krebs On Security ☛ DSLRoot, Proxies, and the Threat of ‘Legal Botnets’

    The cybersecurity community on Reddit responded in disbelief this month when a self-described Air National Guard member with top secret security clearance began questioning the arrangement they’d made with company called DSLRoot, which was paying $250 a month to plug a pair of laptops into the Redditor’s high-speed Internet connection in the United States. This post examines the history and provenance of DSLRoot, one of the oldest “residential proxy” networks with origins in Russia and Eastern Europe.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Ruben Schade ☛ AusPost suspends most shipments to the US

    We should likewise review access rules to Pine Gap. Intelligence from that installation now requires additional charges. We don’t make the rules!

  • CBS ☛ Social media's role in America's polarized political climate

    Now, leading voices in academia and tech are saying that rather than simply reflecting the polarization in society, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are helping to create it.

  • RFERL ☛ How Ukraine Uses Net-Firing Drones To Snag Russian UAVs

    Video footage shared by the soldiers shows the nets halting drones poised above wounded Ukrainian infantry, preventing attacks and stopping reconnaissance of their positions.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Nazi looted art discovered after 80 years thanks to real estate ad

    More than 80 years after its theft, Portrait of a Lady, by the Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi, was spotted hanging over a sofa in the lady’s living room in a photograph on a real estate advert.

• Environment

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Without luck, I’ve tried to find a mine that hasn’t destroyed its environment

    I’ve tried to find a mine that hasn’t destroyed its environment, but without any luck. (There is an amethyst mine in Northern Finland that comes close as they only mine by hand and a load of their income comes from hosting tourists.)

    Mines account for around 75 % of all waste in both Finland and Sweden. While the Nordic countries have important mineral resources, our legislation isn’t suited for a sustainable mining industry. Finland has a mining tax of 0,6 %, Sweden takes royalties of 0,2 % and Norway lacks any such regulation. Mere corporate tax is no problem for multinationals that can make their subsidiaries loss-making on paper, if they ever manage to be profitable. A recurring story is that of a bankrupted mine that leaves a bill of dozens of millions for the state to pay.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Stephen Hackett ☛ Google's First Nuclear Reactor Project is Coming to Tennessee

      I don’t have strong feelings about nuclear power, but this is definitely another example of how the demands of AI and other services continue to grow at an alarming rate.

    • Chris Glass ☛ Riding the L

      I could spend hours riding the L train. Do a few loops on one side, then do it all again on the other. And again to catch the light and atmosphere in different moments.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Verge ☛ YouTube TV could lose Fox channels this week

    Other than navigating the shrinking reach and influence of traditional cable TV, another complication for a new deal could be Fox’s just-launched Fox One direct-to-consumer streaming package, which currently includes access for pay TV subscribers at no additional charge to them over their existing bill. It’s unclear how that might affect the negotiations, or outbursts from Trump and other politicians if Fox News is unavailable to YouTube TV’s subscribers, which analyst MoffettNathanson recently estimated at 9.4 million.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • [Old] India Times ☛ UK Islamophobia Definition Row: Deputy PM Angela Rayner backs down amid backlash over de-facto 'blasphemy law'

    Critics swiftly objected. Free speech advocates warned that equating criticism of religious practices with racism risked stifling legitimate debate, potentially creating a de facto blasphemy law. Hindu, Sikh, and secular organisations raised concerns that focusing solely on anti-Muslim hate ignored threats faced by other religious minorities in Britain. Insight UK and the Hindu Council UK called for a unified Religious Hate Council to ensure all communities are protected equally.

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Northern Russia troubled by mobil [Internet] shutdowns

    Officials pretend that everything is under control, but it is not. People are losing the ability to earn money, buy goods and services, and even receive medical care. A new reality for northerners: the threat of drones, cancelled flights at airports, and the collapse of the digital environment - probably the only tangible achievement of the Putin era.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Barents Observer ☛ Despite loss in court, Barents Observer sees case against Russian General Prosecutor as victory

    After three court hearings, the judge in the Tverskoy Rayon Court in Moscow on August 1 ruled against the Barents Observer in the case against the Russian General Prosector.

    The Norwegian newspaper had challenged the General Prosecutor's decision to include it on the list of so-called ‘undesirable organisations.’

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • FAIR ☛ ‘The FCC Is Trying to Roll Back Protections Won Over the Past 60 Years’: CounterSpin interview with Joseph Torres on FCC and structural racism

    Janine Jackson interviewed Free Press’s Joseph Torres about the FCC and structural racism for the August 22, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • [Old] TechRadar ☛ Linux users are about to face another major Microsoft Secure Boot issue

    Fixing this problem requires firmware updates from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) but there is a risk that not all OEMs will issue updates - especially those for older, or less popular devices.

    There is also a tool called “shim”, which some Linux distros use to work with Microsoft’s Secure Boot infrastructure. It is signed with Microsoft’s (soon-to-expire) key, and if it doesn’t get replaced on time, Secure Boot may break those distros entirely.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Android Authority ☛ Google wants to make [installing] Android apps safer by verifying developers’ identities

  Google will soon verify the identities of developers who distribute Android apps outside the Play Store.