Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-05-23 Briefing

Created Sat, 23 May 2026 19:26:39 +0000 Modified Sat, 23 May 2026 19:27:43 +0000
3535 Words

An escalating Ebola outbreak in the DRC is now the third largest on record, prompting a high WHO risk alert. In geopolitics, Ukrainian strikes on Moscow have breached Russian air defenses, challenging Putin’s wartime narrative. Meanwhile, Google DeepMind’s AlphaProof Nexus has solved nine Erdős problems, and a poisoned Hugging Face dataset was found to have evaded detection for six months.

🤖 AI & Machine Learning

An automated A.I. WWE news channel on YouTube tries to pronounce “WWE”

An automated AI-driven WWE news channel on YouTube recently experienced a glitch while attempting to pronounce “WWE” as a single word. The error caused the AI’s audio output to become erratic and nonsensical.

I poisoned a Hugging Face dataset and it stayed up for 6 months

A researcher successfully uploaded a poisoned Python dataset to Hugging Face that remained undetected for six months and accumulated 2,400 downloads. The dataset contained backdoored code designed to trigger shell execution, highlighting a critical lack of security scanning for malicious content within training datasets.

AlphaProof Nexus solves 9 Erdős problems and proves 44 sequence conjectures

Google DeepMind’s AlphaProof Nexus has solved nine open Erdős problems and 44 OEIS conjectures by pairing large language models with the Lean formal proof assistant. The system utilizes agentic loops for continuous verification, offering a cost-effective approach to tackling complex mathematical research while reducing AI hallucinations.

Waiting for AI Grand Prix racing SIM? Me too So I made one

The AI Grand Prix Playground is a new open-source simulator designed for contestants in Anduril’s $500K autonomous drone-racing competition. Built using the Elodin engine, the platform provides high-fidelity physics and flight controller emulation to help developers test their perception, planning, and control algorithms.

Microsoft reports AI is more expensive than paying human employees

Microsoft and Uber are scaling back internal AI tool usage as widespread employee adoption has led to significant budget overruns. While the cost of individual AI tokens is decreasing, the massive surge in overall consumption is driving enterprise AI expenses much higher.

Sci-Hub has created a new AI chatbot. Is it any good?

Sci-Hub has launched Sci-Bot, an AI-powered chatbot that answers research questions by mining the site’s database of unauthorized scientific papers. While the tool provides references to accessible studies, it currently lacks recent research due to increased security measures implemented by academic publishers.

Cloudflare CEO: AI to impact middle management and operations, not builders or sellers

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince recently laid off more than 20% of the company’s workforce despite reporting record revenue growth. He stated that while AI is unlikely to replace builders or sellers, it will significantly impact middle management and operations roles.

💻 Software & Development

JWT is a scam and your app doesn’t need it

The article argues that JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) are an unnecessarily complex and insecure authentication method because they cannot be easily invalidated without reintroducing server-side state. Instead, the author recommends using simple, database-backed bearer tokens as a more secure and efficient alternative for modern applications.

Lisp in Vim (2019)

This article compares the Slimv and Vlime Vim plugins, which both provide integrated REPL and debugging capabilities for Lisp development. It offers guidance on using both plugins and provides a recommendation for choosing between them.

We ended up with Palantir and how to replace it

Governments rely on Palantir because its software provides essential data integration and hands-on support that compensates for a lack of internal technical capacity. To successfully compete, alternatives must offer not only comparable software but also similarly bundled, integrated support services.

BambuStudio has been violating PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork

BambuStudio is accused of violating the PrusaSlicer AGPL license through its software fork. The article further argues that China’s legal framework poses a security risk to 3D printing users by potentially compelling domestic companies to share sensitive industrial data with state intelligence agencies.

The Best Windows is Linux

The Lunduke Journal claims that a Linux configuration using XLibre, XCE, Chicago95, Wine, and Steam is superior to Windows 11. This setup is described as being faster, lighter, and more compatible with Windows software.

Rubish: A Unix shell written in pure Ruby

Rubish is a UNIX shell written in pure Ruby that offers full compatibility with Bash syntax and existing scripts. It features deep integration with the Ruby language, allowing users to seamlessly incorporate features like method chaining, blocks, and Ruby-based conditional logic into their shell commands.

The abstractions in SICP need a revisit

Classical computer science abstractions, such as those in SICP, are increasingly inefficient on modern microarchitectures due to the performance costs of pointer chasing. These structures disrupt hardware prefetchers and collapse memory-level parallelism, leading to significant CPU stalls and reduced processing throughput.

Hershey is a textual vector font format

Hershey is a textual vector font format where each line represents a glyph defined by its ID, boundaries, and a sequence of encoded points. The format utilizes a character-based coordinate system and includes a specific notation for lifting the pen between strokes.

Cuneiforth: A Forth for your Chifir

Cuneiforth is a programming puzzle featuring a self-contained FORTH computing environment designed for the Chifir computer. The challenge tasks users with extracting a bitmap document from a provided binary disk image to learn how to interpret the remaining data.

Wayland compositor implemented as a mod in Minecraft

A new Minecraft mod for Java Edition implements a fully featured Wayland compositor, allowing players to launch and manage applications directly within the game. This Linux-exclusive mod enables features such as dragging data between windows and pinning video players to the HUD.

Dropping Privileges in Go

To minimize the impact of potential exploits, software should follow the principle of least privilege by dropping unnecessary permissions after the initial startup phase. This can be achieved through techniques such as chroot and user/group switching, which limit a program’s access to sensitive system resources.

Highest Random Weight in Elixir

The article compares the stateful ExHashRing library with the stateless Rendezvous hashing (HRW) method for key assignment in Elixir. While HRW offers a simpler, pure functional implementation, its linear complexity makes it significantly slower than ExHashRing as the number of nodes increases.

mvm - a fast virtual machine for Go

mvm is a fast, portable, stack-based virtual machine that enables running Go programs directly from source using a built-in interpreter. It provides a single static binary featuring a REPL, debugger, and test engine, and is easily embeddable in applications written in Go or C.

That one time I used Go panics for flow control

An in-memory datastore service became overloaded because Go’s sorting functions could not be interrupted by context cancellations, causing the system to waste CPU on abandoned queries. To address this, developers implemented a panic and recover mechanism within the sorting comparison function to detect and halt processing during context timeouts.

A new suite of modern tools coming for editing and publishing RFCs

A new suite of modernized tools for editing and publishing RFCs is scheduled to roll out during the week of May 18, 2026. The overhaul includes a redesigned rfc-editor.org website and an integrated database system designed to replace legacy infrastructure. These updates aim to improve usability and ensure the series can scale beyond the 10,000-document milestone.

sp.h is the standard library that C deserves

The author has introduced sp.h, a 15,000-line, single-header C99 library designed as a high-quality, ultra-portable alternative to libc. The library prioritizes performance and safety by programming directly against syscalls and replacing traditional null-terminated strings with a more ergonomic pointer-and-length approach.

Adjusting a Mac’s System Volume on the Command Line

This article explains how to use AppleScript and the osascript utility to adjust macOS system volume via the command line. It also provides a custom Bash script designed to simplify volume manipulation through easy-to-use commands for incrementing, decrementing, or setting specific volume levels.

🔒 Security & Privacy

Tech companies face data privacy scrutiny

Oura has admitted to receiving occasional government requests for user data, noting that a lack of end-to-end encryption leaves sensitive information vulnerable. Meanwhile, Airbnb’s CEO denied allegations of sharing user data with China, defending the company’s use of Chinese open-source AI models during a U.S. House probe.

FBI director’s Based Apparel site has been spotted hosting a ‘ClickFix’ attack

BasedApparel.com, a clothing website co-created by FBI director Kash Patel, has been identified as hosting a “ClickFix” malware attack targeting macOS users. The attack uses a fraudulent Cloudflare verification page to trick visitors into executing malicious Terminal commands designed to steal browser credentials and cryptocurrency data.

Don’t Roll Your Own …

Drawing an analogy to the “don’t roll your own crypto” principle, the author argues that web developers should avoid creating custom implementations for standard browser features like scrolling and navigation. The article contends that overriding these established UI elements often results in a frustrating user experience by breaking familiar web behaviors.

🏛️ Policy & Geopolitics

Italy Cancels Boeing Pegasus Order, Shifting to Airbus A330 MRTT

Italy has finalized a €1.39 billion contract to acquire six Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft, replacing its previous plan to purchase Boeing KC-46 Pegasus planes. This decision represents a strategic shift toward strengthening the European defense supply chain within NATO and will enhance the Italian Air Force’s power-projection capabilities.

Putin Can No Longer Hide His Catastrophe

Recent Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Moscow have breached Russian air defenses, bringing the realities of the war directly to the capital. This development undermines Vladimir Putin’s ability to maintain a narrative that shields the Russian population from the conflict’s consequences.

The FBI Wants ‘Near Real-Time’ Access to US License Plate Readers

The FBI is seeking nationwide, “near real-time” access to automated license plate reader (ALPR) data to monitor vehicle movements across the United States. This pursuit comes as bipartisan lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at restricting the use of such surveillance technology by state and local governments.

US tech firms share Dutch regulator officials’ names with Senate

US tech firms, including Microsoft and Meta, have shared the names of Dutch regulators and academics with a US Senate committee investigating “tech censorship.” The Dutch government has expressed grave concern over the disclosure, fearing the identified individuals could face potential sanctions or travel bans.

Spanish Court Declines to Fine NordVPN over LaLiga Piracy Blocking Order

A Spanish court has rejected LaLiga’s request to fine NordVPN for failing to block IP addresses hosting illegal football streams, citing technical difficulties and the risk of overblocking. While the coercive fines were dismissed, the original injunction remains in effect as legal proceedings continue.

White House ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ govt phones

The White House is directing federal agencies to automatically install a new administration-focused app on all government-issued mobile devices. Cybersecurity experts and former officials have warned that the move is “dangerous,” citing potential security vulnerabilities and the risk of creating backdoor access to government networks.

UK MPs slam digital ID rollout as a ‘fiasco’ after botched launch

UK MPs have criticized the government’s digital ID rollout as a “fiasco” following a botched launch. The rushed implementation has reportedly undermined public confidence before ministers could even explain how the system would operate.

TP-Link has moved its headquarters to California and restructured as a Delaware LLC to mitigate U.S. national security concerns regarding its Chinese origins. However, the company faces ongoing federal investigations and an FCC ban on certain foreign-made routers that threatens its dominant position in the U.S. market.

⚙️ Systems & Engineering

Open-Source 80386 Microcode Project

Using AI and high-resolution die imaging, researchers have successfully extracted and disassembled the microcode of the Intel 80386 microprocessor. This breakthrough has enabled the creation of z386, an open-source, FPGA-based CPU capable of running legacy software such as DOS and Doom.

Parsing IPv6 Addresses Crazily Fast with AVX-512

A new routine utilizing AVX-512 SIMD instructions significantly accelerates the parsing of IPv6 addresses. Benchmarks demonstrate that this method is approximately 12 times faster than the standard inet_pton function, processing over 70 million addresses per second on a single core.

Students Create a Self-Balancing, Self-Driving Bicycle

Students at Olin College of Engineering have developed an open-source, autonomous self-balancing bicycle using a reaction wheel system. With a parts cost of approximately $1,000, the project offers a potentially low-cost alternative to expensive, specialized delivery robots.

SpaceX launches most powerful Starship to date in major test flight

SpaceX successfully launched its most powerful Starship V3 rocket from Texas to test capabilities for future NASA moon missions. Although the flight encountered engine issues and concluded with a splashdown in the Indian Ocean, the mission achieved most of its primary objectives.

Improving my self-hosted actions runner setup

To improve security against supply chain vulnerabilities, the author upgraded their self-hosted Gitea Action runner from a bare-metal setup to a containerized environment. Rather than using Docker, the new configuration leverages native Linux kernel features like systemd-nspawn to provide enhanced isolation.

Baby’s First DDS Signal Generator

This article details the design of a low-cost, precise baseband signal generator utilizing Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) architecture and a Raspberry Pi Pico. The instrument generates sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waveforms with frequencies ranging from 0.1 Hz to 1 MHz. It features an intuitive user interface and versatile output capabilities, including amplitude control and asymmetrical waveform generation.

🗞️ News & Culture

Texas woman arrested for Facebook post about town water quality

Jennifer Combs was arrested in Trinidad, Texas, on a felony charge after sharing a Facebook post claiming that bacteria in the local water supply had led to hospitalizations. While city officials maintain the report was false, Combs has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the arrest was an act of political retaliation.

Ebola Outbreak Now Third Largest Recorded and “Spreading Rapidly”

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri province is rapidly escalating, with nearly 750 cases and 177 deaths making it the third largest on record. The World Health Organization has raised the national risk level to “very high” as officials struggle to contain the Bundibugyo virus amidst challenges such as armed conflict and a lack of vaccines.

On the News

The HTML <dl> element provides a semantic way to represent lists of name-value pairs using <dt> for terms and <dd> for descriptions or details. Utilizing this element instead of generic <div> tags improves web accessibility by allowing screen readers to more effectively navigate the list structure.

The Art of Money Getting

P.T. Barnum’s 1880 book, The Art of Money Getting, distills his extensive business experience into 20 rules for achieving financial success. The book emphasizes core principles such as finding a vocation suited to one’s talents, avoiding debt, and maintaining professional integrity.

I Miss Terry Pratchett

In this reflective piece, the author explores the profound impact of Sir Terry Pratchett’s fantasy novels, which they first discovered through clandestine reading as a teenager. The essay highlights Pratchett’s unique ability to blend cosmic absurdity with an intelligent, humorous tone that resonates deeply with his readers.

Experience: We found a baby on the subway – now he’s our 26-year-old son

After discovering an abandoned newborn in a New York City subway station in 2000, a man and his partner decided to adopt the child. Now 26, the boy, named Kevin, was raised by the couple, who used storytelling to explain their unique journey of how they became a family.

Nvidia Removes Gaming Revenue Category from Financial Reports

NVIDIA is integrating its gaming reporting category into its Edge Computing segment to reflect a strategic shift toward AI and accelerated computing. While GeForce and RTX products remain central to the company’s roadmap, the restructuring highlights NVIDIA’s evolution from a gaming-focused manufacturer into a broader provider of AI-driven technologies.

The Making of Indian Statistics

In 1933, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis founded the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and the journal Sankhyā to replace subjective estimation in India with precise, scientific statistical methods. Through groundbreaking innovations like sub-sampling to identify non-sampling errors, the ISI established itself as a premier global research institution essential for the nation’s economic planning.

The Virtual OS Museum opens its doors

The Virtual OS Museum has officially opened, offering a massive compilation of historic operating systems. The platform includes the emulators necessary to run these legacy systems.

Pineapples in the sky – UFO chunks from Burlison, Tyson, and Ocasio-Cortez

Congressman Eric Burlison recently reported being briefed on 52 videos related to UFOs, noting that some are intriguing while others are identifiable as birds or balloons. Additionally, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson discussed how whistleblower testimonies provide a basis for considering the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Watch Bayern Munich vs VfB Stuttgart DFB-Pokal-Final-2026 for free

The 2026 DFB-Pokal final between FC Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart will take place on May 23 at Berlin’s Olympiastadion. While the match is available to stream for free on the German channel ZDF, international viewers can use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions and access the broadcast.

HP bought Hyperspace, & once offered 3 different pre-boot or in-boot OSs, including Quickweb

Following its 2009 acquisition of Phoenix Hyperspace, HP quietly replaced its Splashtop-based “QuickWeb” Linux distribution with a new version based on the acquired technology. This minimal, fast-booting environment provides basic tools like a web browser and email client via a dedicated button on supported HP laptops.

The price of humans

The author argues that the excessive use of AI in product development may lead to goods being perceived as low-effort and low-value. Consequently, they predict that human-made products and services will increasingly command a premium due to the perceived value of craftsmanship and personal effort.