2023-03-20

John Carmack's advice to a software engineering aspirant

In a Twitter thread, Oculus VR CTO John Carmack advised a person concerned about the future availability of coding jobs due to AI.
Carmack suggested that if the person focused on building "product skills" and used the best tools for the job, including AI-guided coding, they would likely be fine.
However, he added that software is just a tool to accomplish something for people, and it's essential to keep the delivered value in mind rather than over-focusing on the specifics of the devices.
The person thanked Carmack for the advice, noting that they had never looked at things from that perspective.

Ken Thompson shares his passion for player pianos and MIDI collection at the SCALE 20x conference

Ken Thompson gave a keynote speech at the SCALE 20x conference, where he spoke about his passion for player pianos and his 75-year project to build the ultimate player piano system.
He shared how he started collecting MIDI files in the 1980s and grew to over 13,000 files, primarily duplicates, due to the MIDI community's tendency to steal and hoard files.
He selected a few individual files from the collection and incorporated them into his player piano system, which he demonstrated at the conference.
During the Q&A session, he answered questions on various topics, including his preference for Apple and his recent transition to Linux, his work on video and chess games, the use of velocity information in MIDI, his collection of Raspberry Pi computers, and his involvement in music metadata.
He also received a SCALE jersey as a welcome gift from the conference organizers.

Bitwarden PINs can be brute-forced

A security researcher has found that if an attacker can access the encrypted vault data stored locally on a device and the user configures a Bitwarden PIN, the attacker can brute-force the PIN and gain access to the vault's master key.
Bitwarden clients do not warn users about this risk.
The issue arises when the user enables the PIN to unlock and configures Bitwarden not to require the master password on restart.
The user's email and PIN encrypt the master vault key.
Bitwarden allows only five PIN unlock attempts, but this limit is enforced only within the client's logicAs a result, an attacker can directly attack the encrypted data, trying different PINs until the data successfully decrypt.
Mitigation and remediation options include better information about the risk, relying on a third party to enforce an unlock attempt limit, or relying on hardware security measures.
Bitwarden has updated its documentation to warn about the risks of using the PIN feature, but it does not appear to have changed the client.

Expatriates leaving China

The Covid-19 pandemic and political upheavals have caused many expatriates to leave China, putting into question the futures they have long imagined in the Middle Kingdom.
The country's population decreased by more than 800,000 in 2022, the first population decline in over sixty years.
While China is desperately looking to win back foreign investment and foreign professionals, it remains uncertain if foreigners will return and what their lives will look like in post-Covid China.
The new generation of ex-pats will live under tightening restrictions and more significant uncertainty.
This and heightened geopolitical tensions may stem the flow of ex-pats from America, Europe, Japan, and Korea.
Nevertheless, a new generation of ex-pats- will be good for both China and the world, as the more engagement the country has with the rest of the world, the less likely it will be to isolate itself from the global community and turn inward.

UN members agree on a treaty to protect biodiversity on high seas

United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity on the high seas, representing a turning point for vast stretches of the planet where a confusing patchwork of laws has previously hampered conservation.
The treaty will create a new body to manage the preservation of ocean life and establish marine protected areas on the high seas.
The agreement is about "acknowledging that the ocean is not a limitless resource, and it requires global cooperation to use the ocean sustainably," Rutgers University biologist Malin Pinsky said.
The question is how well UN members will implement the ambitious treaty, and formal adoption remains outstanding, with numerous conservationists and environmental groups vowing to watch closely.

The Mastodon social network has reached 10,001,119 accounts, with an increase of 1,627 accounts in the last hour, 45,914 accounts in the previous day, and 151,292 accounts in the previous week.

UBS to Buy Credit Suisse in $3.3 Billion Deal to End Crisis

UBS Group AG has agreed to buy Credit Suisse Group AG in an all-share deal that includes government guarantees and liquidity provisions, which aims to contain a crisis of confidence that had started to spread across global financial markets.
The Swiss National Bank is offering 100 billion-franc liquidity assistance to UBS while the government is granting a nine billion-franc guarantee for potential losses from assets UBS is taking over.
In addition, UBS plans to downsize Credit Suisse's investment bank and align it with its conservative risk culture.
Credit Suisse said in a statement Sunday that the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year if possible.
UBS slumped 8.8% in early Zurich trading, while Credit Suisse declined about 64%, valuing the firm at about 2.71 billion francs.

Using GPT-4 to Reach Out: Introduction and Apology

A Twitter user attempted to make their LinkedIn profile more attractive to recruiters by testing if a large language model like GPT-4 could generate a compelling introduction for them.
In an email response, they admitted to blindly using the AI to write a message based on the recipient's LinkedIn profile without considering the implications of a prompt injection attack or the person's privacy.
They shared the prompt and apologized for their actions, showing responsibility as an AI user.

U.S. States and Epic Games Accuse Google CEO of Moving Sensitive Conversations to History-Off Chats

U.S. states have accused Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Epic Games of playing a significant part in a company-wide culture of concealment at Google by routinely moving conversations to "history-off" chats, even when discussing sensitive topics covered by litigation holds, thereby violating retention obligations.
The plaintiffs filed this allegation in the Google Chats discovery dispute in the Northern District of California.
In addition, it has been reported that the Department of Justice and the state attorneys general in the antitrust litigation against Google in the District of Columbia have filed a motion for sanctions.
Both cases are set to trial later this year, and the plaintiffs seek trial-related sanctions.
Google has denied any wrongdoing or prejudice in response to a court order.
Nevertheless, the company's systematic avoidance of discovery obligations could result in severe sanctions and impact critical U.S.
antitrust cases.

Electricity Wasn't Always Seen as a Necessity

Electricity was not seen as an essential product when it was first introduced, and the companies behind the technology had to persuade people of its benefits.
An advertisement in the New York Tribune on October 5th, 1920, highlighted the importance of economy and efficiency in production, stating that electricity was the most effective agency in solving these problems.
Electricity was sold to increase efficiency, reduce labor, and light up shops and factories, among other benefits.
In 1920, New York Edison still had to persuade businesses to adopt their technology and the concept of electricity itself.
With the competition from 30 electricity companies in the New York City area, New York Edison built a new power generation facility in 1920 that could generate 770,000 kilowatt-hours to outshine the competition.

Why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds

Playgrounds in Germany are moving away from total safety and towards teaching children to navigate difficult situations.
This trend has accelerated in Germany over the last five years, with a growing number of educators, manufacturers, and town planners arguing that playgrounds should create challenging microcosms that teach children to navigate difficult situations, even if the consequence is the odd broken bone.
Playgrounds are seen as islands of free movement in a dangerous motorized environment.
The umbrella association of statutory accident insurers in Germany has called for more playgrounds that teach children to develop "risk competence." Even insurance companies agree that children who had improved their motor skills in playgrounds at an early age were less likely to suffer accidents as they got older.
The article also explains that the strict policing of standards in Germany enables a risk-accepting culture in playgrounds.