(Scheduling Note: NextDraft will be off on Friday.) Andres Freund is a engineer at Microsoft who describes himself in a way that will sound familiar to anyone who has spent time hanging out with people who work on software: "I’m a fairly private person who just sits in front of the computer and hacks on code." That, as it turns out, is also the self-description of the guy who may have just saved the internet. One of the thousands of times Freund privately sat in front of his computer, he noticed what looked like a backdoor hidden in the Linux operating system, one complex enough to have been deployed by "a nation with formidable hacking chops" in a multiyear effort, that if exploited by whoever planted it there, could have damaged a huge chunk of the internet—because Linux runs "a vast majority of the world’s servers — including those used by banks, hospitals, governments and Fortune 500 companies." It all makes for an entertaining story. But it's also pretty scary that the modern world's operating system depended on one somewhat lucky discovery by a single individual. At this point, my whole family goes into meltdown mode if our Netflix buffers for a couple seconds. Kevin Roose in the NYT (Gift Article): Did One Guy Just Stop a Huge Cyberattack? The internet is "a messy patchwork that has been assembled over decades, and is held together with the digital equivalent of Scotch tape and bubble gum. Much of it relies on open-source software that is thanklessly maintained by a small army of volunteer programmers who fix the bugs, patch the holes and ensure the whole rickety contraption, which is responsible for trillions of dollars in global G.D.P., keeps chugging along. Last week, one of those programmers may have saved the internet from huge trouble." (I guess that's what Freunds are for.) 2Lessen PlansThe politically motivated culture wars have made their way to our school boards. And now they're having a serious impact on curriculums. "Three-fourths of the nation’s school-aged students are now educated under state-level measures that either require more teaching on issues like race, racism, history, sex and gender, or which sharply limit or fully forbid such lessons, according to a sweeping Post review of thousands of state laws, gubernatorial directives and state school board policies. The restrictive laws alone affect almost half of all Americans aged 5 to 19." WaPo (Gift Article): America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education. (I'd avoid schools run by the side banning books and forbidding kids from learning about things.) 3Machine Guns"According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine 'as if it were a human decision.'" This story is a lot bigger than Israel and Hamas. It's about the future of war. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza. 4Cruise Liner Notes"My first glimpse of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, from the window of an approaching Miami cab, brings on a feeling of vertigo, nausea, amazement, and distress. I shut my eyes in defense, as my brain tells my optical nerve to try again. The ship makes no sense, vertically or horizontally. It makes no sense on sea, or on land, or in outer space. It looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies, like Istanbul had it been designed by idiots." When the biggest cruise ship ever sets sale, it calls for a certain type of coverage; even if that coverage is provided by a writer who seems like he'd be happier going overboard than being trapped on a boat created by designers who did. Gary Shteyngart The Atlantic (Gift Article): Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever. "I breakfast alone at the Coastal Kitchen. The coffee tastes fine and the eggs came out of a bird. The ship rolls slightly this morning; I can feel it in my thighs and my schlong, the parts of me that are most receptive to danger." When it comes Shteyngart on the seas, even the largest cruise ship in history leaves one thinking, "You're gonna need a bigger boat." 5Extra, ExtraSwing Shift: "Suspended from 92 thick cables between the 87th and 92nd floors, the golden steel sphere can move about 5 feet in any direction. As a result, it acts like a pendulum that counteracts (or 'dampens') swaying motions." How Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper withstands earthquakes. 6Bottom of the News"But as their population has grown, they have started to venture down into residential areas where, as well as ruining gardens, they have reportedly also knocked down parts of walls, and even entered people's homes." The goat population on a remote Italian island is six times the human population of 100. Hence: Italian island offers goats up for adoption.
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Thursday, April 4, 2024
One Man Bandwidth
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