Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-08-14 Briefing

Created Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:11:16 +0000 Modified Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:11:47 +0000
3439 Words

Microsoft is dropping Copilot’s voice feature under a year after launch, shifting its blob to education. TalkTalk Business and ARO merged to form a major UK tech services firm with 70,000 customers. Trezor confirmed a logistics breach exposed 13,000 clients’ data; Scottish prosecutors probed a separate supplier leak. OpenAI unveiled Computer History, a keylogging-style memory tool for ChatGPT. New Zealand accused China of using space investments to spy.

🔐 Security & Privacy

Crypto wallet maker Trezor confirms 13,000 customers’ details exposed in logistics breach

Trezor confirmed that a logistics breach exposed personal details of 13,000 customers. The incident highlights that even secure hardware can be vulnerable if a third-party supplier is compromised.

Scottish prosecutors cast eye over leaky supplier after staff data exposed

Scottish prosecutors are reviewing a data breach at an unnamed supplier that exposed staff details. A third party detected suspicious activity, with names, roles, and email addresses potentially affected. The incident is now under investigation.

OpenAI ditches Recall-style screenshot surveillance for friendly keylogging

OpenAI has introduced a feature called “Computer History” that records user clicks and typing to help build ChatGPT memories, moving away from screenshot-based surveillance similar to Microsoft’s Recall. The tool functions as a form of keylogging to personalize AI responses.

Phones should have a ‘guest lock’ feature

The article argues that smartphones should include a system-level “guest lock” feature to restrict access to the currently open app when handing the device to someone else, preventing them from browsing other apps. It also calls for a way to hide specific photos or photo sets from the camera roll to protect privacy. Both features are intended to improve trust and privacy when sharing a phone.

Ruby 4.0 Universal RCE Deserialization Gadget Chain

A new universal Ruby deserialization gadget chain turns a single Marshal.load into command execution on Ruby 4.0.6 and works unchanged back to 3.3. It replaces previously patched gadgets with new ones, including using Gem::Specification.load to evaluate a controlled file, and opens with Gem::SpecFetcher to trigger RubyGems autoloading.

Rsync 3.5.0: a huge number of security fixes

Rsync 3.5.0 is a major security release fixing 33 vulnerabilities, including symlink-based arbitrary file read/write, path traversal, and chroot escapes. Every fix includes a regression test, and many issues affect narrower version ranges than all earlier releases. The release also credits numerous contributors for help triaging issues and developing tests.

US conducted mass spying campaign against leftwing and anti-ICE protesters

The US Department of Homeland Security conducted extensive spying on leftwing organizations and anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota as part of “Operation Puppet Master,” using undercover agents, infiltrated Signal chats, and obtaining financial records of unions and non-profits. The surveillance was revealed in a criminal case against 15 Minneapolis protesters accused of conspiring to impede immigration officers, though none of the targeted organizations have been charged.

How Obama’s BlackBerry got secured (2023)

Despite initial reports that Barack Obama had to give up his BlackBerry for security reasons, he was allowed to keep the device after the NSA and other agencies secured it with special encryption software and hardware modifications. The compromise involved using the SecurVoice application to encrypt calls and messages, and the device was extensively tested and modified by the NSA.

🤖 AI & Machine Learning

Less than a year on, Microsoft tells Mico to pipe down

Microsoft is discontinuing the voice feature of its Copilot AI assistant less than a year after its debut. The assistant’s animated “blob” icon will shift to a new role focused on education.

Claude Code returns blank thinking blocks, but reasoning still costs you

Developers using Claude Code report that its “thinking blocks” are sometimes returned empty or truncated, yet these incomplete reasoning steps still consume the same usage costs. The issue means users are charged for reasoning processes that may not be fully visible or delivered.

Pony AI to deploy 2K+ Uber robotaxis in Europe, add 4 cities after Zagreb, then Middle East

Uber and Pony AI plan to deploy over 2,000 robotaxis across Europe, expanding their partnership beyond Zagreb to four additional cities. The rollout will also extend to the Middle East, with further details to be announced later.

AI agents just showed what an autonomous hacking crew looks like

Researchers uncovered a four-day AI-driven cyberattack on Taiwanese government agencies that used up to eight autonomous AI sub-agents with minimal human input, compromising at least 85 accounts and stealing over 2,500 personnel records. The campaign also pivoted to nuclear safety and energy targets, demonstrating that AI can lower the cost and manpower required for state-backed hacking operations.

Why does Opus 5 feel worse to work with?

Opus 5 feels like a downgrade despite being more capable because it makes assumptions and reinterprets plans without asking for clarification, unlike earlier models. The author suspects this is due to benchmark-driven training that rewards bold guesses over clarifying questions, which is problematic for real-world coding agents where ambiguity is common.

Qwen3.8 27B

Qwen3.8-27B, a renewal of the Qwen model, is scheduled for release on August 14, 2026, with 6,398 users already waiting. It is described as delivering unmatched intelligence density.

Even Claude Is in the Dark About Dario Amodei’s Wife

Cami Clark, wife of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, serves as his sounding board and strategic adviser, often accompanying him to major events. She helped bring former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on as an early Anthropic investor after having dated him. Despite her influence, Clark maintains a minimal online presence, with efforts reportedly made to remove references to her.

Lumabri – Run Moe Models on a P2P Swarm with Colibri

lumabri is a pure-C, dependency-free engine that runs mixture-of-experts models from a peer-to-peer swarm, fetching model bytes on first use and caching them locally for fast subsequent access. It is designed for CPU and SSD first, with GPU only accelerating performance without changing output, and experts are executed on peers while data integrity is verified even against untrusted participants.

💻 Development & Open Source

Curl Performance

Curl has launched a performance test suite, initially running on the developer’s local machine because cloud environments were too unstable. The scripts build curl, run tests such as downloading a 100GB file from localhost, and automatically publish summaries and graphs to curl.se/perf. Live results have already helped developers identify and merge improvements.

Introducing Bluesky Protocol Services

Bluesky launched Bluesky Protocol Services, a new brand and website organizing documentation for its AT Protocol infrastructure. It introduced Jetstream v2 with Network Replay, which lets developers access historical network data through authenticated archive requests while keeping the live stream free and unauthenticated. New Jetstream SDKs for TypeScript and Go were also released, and the Bluesky TypeScript SDK was rebuilt on the lex framework.

Computing graph dominators

The article explains graph dominators and presents an iterative algorithm for computing them, where a node’s dominators are the intersection of its predecessors’ dominators plus itself. It compares the Lengauer-Tarjan algorithm with the simpler “Simple, Fast” approach, noting that performance differences are negligible for typical graphs. The algorithm iterates until convergence, using reverse postorder for efficiency.

Comments in the code vs PR description

Pull request descriptions should explain and justify why a change is needed and how it was validated, acting as point-in-time persuasive arguments for reviewers. In contrast, code comments should provide durable information about how the code works. Good PR titles help reviewers quickly identify relevant changes during regression investigations.

SlopScan: Displays a “slop score” when viewing public git repositories

SlopScan is a Firefox for Android extension that displays a “slop score” letter grade next to repository names on GitHub, Codeberg, and Sourcehut. It uses a repo-slopscore web server, defaulting to the public instance at slopscan.ava.pet, and lets users click the extension button to scan any page.

The Art of CHIP-8

CHIP-8, a simple 1977 language for the COSMAC VIP, remains a popular tool for learning emulator design, but decades of divergent interpreter implementations have caused fragmentation. The article outlines its architecture—12-bit address space, 16 registers, and 34 instructions—and offers guidance on writing programs that run reliably across most existing interpreters.

DeepSeek debuts MIT-licensed Harness dev preview: ’everything is a plugin’

DeepSeek has released DeepSeek Harness v0.1, an open-source agent harness under the MIT license built on a modular “everything is a plugin” architecture that lets developers swap out models, tools, and other runtime components. The launch, alongside the new V4-Pro model, marks DeepSeek’s expansion into developer infrastructure for AI agents, positioning it against tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code, though the harness remains a developer preview with potential breaking changes.

For the love of god stop using CPU limits in Kubernetes

Removing Kubernetes CPU limits prevents apps from being throttled even when node CPU is idle, which improves tail latency and startup performance. CPU requests should remain as the real guarantee, and memory limits should stay, but CPU limits should be removed. This change can reduce hardware needs and cut costs significantly.

I want extern “fil-C”

The author proposes a new Rust FFI, extern "fil-C", that would use Fil-C’s memory-safe ABI to integrate C libraries, sacrificing runtime performance for safety while keeping Rust as the fast path. They point to filnix’s Nix packaging of Fil-C and Zig’s similar ABI proposal as groundwork, and call for cross-ecosystem collaboration to make the bridge a reality.

Bluesky Protocol Services

Bluesky launched Bluesky Protocol Services, a new website and brand consolidating developer docs for its AT Protocol infrastructure. Jetstream v2 now offers Network Replay, allowing access to historical data via authenticated archive requests while keeping the live stream open. New TypeScript and Go SDKs were also released.

SparrowMap – Cameras that watch government vehicles

SparrowMap lets volunteers use spare phones or webcams to detect government vehicles on public streets, processing video locally to destroy photos and license plates before sending only anonymous location data to a server. It runs in a browser without installation or an account, and a PC can be set up with a single command to contribute to the public map.

💰 Business & Finance

TalkTalk Business and ARO to borg into UK tech services giant

TalkTalk Business and ARO are merging to create a major UK tech services provider. The combined entity will serve 70,000 customers, though its name and leader have not yet been revealed.

Stablecoin payments company RedotPay has delayed its planned US initial public offering to 2027 or later, according to sources. The postponement comes as the company seeks regulatory approvals and works to resolve legal issues.

Alibaba nears deal to sell Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital at $1.5B+ valuation

Trustar Capital is nearing a deal to acquire Alibaba’s video game unit, Lingxi Games, at a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion. The private equity firm outbid other suitors, and the potential sale is part of Alibaba’s ongoing reorganization.

JPMorgan Chase terminated its banking relationship with Polymarket in 2025 over regulatory concerns, though it still maintains some ties to the prediction platform. The largest US bank has continued cultivating a connection with the company as Polymarket seeks a $20bn valuation.

Blackbird, Airtree cut Canva to $34.9B from $42B, internal $31B from $38.9B amid AI struggles

Canva’s valuation was cut by $US7.1 billion ($10 billion) through downgrades from backers Blackbird Ventures and Airtree, bringing it to $34.9 billion, while Canva’s own internal valuation fell further to $31 billion. The company also lowered its revenue growth expectations, citing difficulties rolling out AI-powered tools due to the high cost of frontier models.

DeepSeek peak/off-peak pricing update

DeepSeek has launched DeepSeek-V4-Pro, featuring major agent upgrades, flexible reasoning effort levels, and native OpenAI Responses API support optimized for Codex, available on app/web and via API. The company also introduced peak and off-peak API pricing with off-peak rates 50% lower, effective August 16, 2026 at 16:00 UTC.

Dario’s wife tried to raise money from Epstein for a porn studio

Dario’s wife reportedly sought financial backing from Jeffrey Epstein to fund a porn studio. The article’s content is blocked by a browser verification page, but the headline indicates the fundraising attempt.

⚖️ Policy & Regulation

New Zealand says China tried using space investments to spy on local affairs

New Zealand’s intelligence service has accused China of using space-related investments to spy on local affairs. It also warned that the proliferation of toxic content online makes it harder to detect domestic threats.

Judge orders Google to remove anticompetitive friction for third-party app stores in Epic case

Judge James Donato ordered Google to reduce “anticompetitive friction” for installing rival Android app stores, agreeing with Epic that extra steps like hiding third-party stores in search results, using a “view” instead of “install” button, and showing an “are you looking for” screen were unnecessary. He demanded Google fix these issues within a week.

White House announces drone tariffs: 100% levy on sensitive models to cut Chinese tech reliance

The White House announced new tariffs on drones and drone components, including a 100% levy on particularly sensitive models. The move targets Chinese drone technology and aims to reduce US reliance on Chinese tech, further escalating trade tensions between the two countries.

CFTC probes prediction markets’ ‘mention markets’; Kalshi removes sports word-choice bets

The CFTC has launched a probe into prediction-market “mention markets,” where users bet on words speakers will say, amid concerns over manipulation. In response, Kalshi has removed all sports-related mention markets, following an incident involving President Trump’s teleprompter operator profiting from such bets.

‘Not acceptable’: Judge orders Google to make rival app store installs easier

Judge James Donato ordered Google to remove “anticompetitive friction” that makes it harder for users to install rival Android app stores, after Epic Games demonstrated issues like poor search results, extra confirmation steps, and warning screens. The judge demanded fixes within a week, and Google agreed to make the changes.

🌍 World & Tech Culture

BOFH: How our Covid ransomware protocol’s Y2K blockchain lowered uptime

The BOFH column humorously recounts how a Covid ransomware protocol’s Y2K blockchain caused reduced uptime. Written as a diary of an excuse hound, it features pie charts that only serve to make the author hungry for pizza.

Five years after quitting a job, developer’s former boss asked for rapid tech support

Five years after leaving a job, a developer received a request from their former boss for urgent tech support. The task, which began with simply connecting a power cord, unexpectedly turned into a lucrative all-nighter.

What are you doing this weekend?

The article invites readers to share their weekend plans and ask for help or feedback. It also reassures that it is perfectly acceptable to do nothing at all.

Data center boom in Quincy, WA farming town cuts poverty from 29.4% to 6.2%

Quincy, a rural Washington farming town of 8,500, has seen a “miracle” transformation thanks to a data center boom, which now funds about 57% of its property taxes and enabled new schools, parks, and infrastructure. This boom created around 900 jobs and helped cut the poverty rate from 29.4% in 2012 to 6.2% in 2024, though it has also made the town unaffordable for many agricultural and food-processing workers.

Amy Kremer, pro-Trump activist who organized Jan 6 rally, now leads anti-data center Humans First

Pro-Trump activist Amy Kremer, who helped organize the January 6 rally and has a history of election denial, now chairs Humans First, a grassroots group opposing data centers. The group aims to mobilize conservatives against AI infrastructure, though some local protesters were unaware of Kremer’s background.

Major oil slick washes up on Iran coast after Hormuz ship strike

A major oil slick from the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier, struck in the Strait of Hormuz on 3 August, has washed up on Iran’s Qeshm Island, threatening mangrove forests, turtle nesting sites, and fishing communities. Satellite imagery showed the spill spreading across over 300 sq km, with analysts attributing the attack likely to Iran, though Tehran has not acknowledged responsibility. Local officials claim the spill has been almost completely cleaned up, but BBC Verify could not independently confirm this.

Covert CIA program said to be behind mysterious attacks on Galápagos boats

The Washington Post reports that mysterious attacks on Ecuadorian fishing boats near the Galápagos Islands this year were part of a covert CIA program. Flight data indicates a surveillance plane flew from El Salvador toward the boats before drone strikes occurred.

Eclipse: The Xiaomi 17 Ultra Confuses the Moon and the Sun

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra mistakenly rendered lunar craters and reliefs on the Sun during the August 12 eclipse photo, revealing the smartphone’s AI enhancement trick. The system, trained on Moon images to embellish zoomed shots, confused the two celestial bodies, proving it does not show what the camera actually sees.

S.F.’s top-paid employee made $900K. Here’s what every city worker gets paid

San Francisco police officers and sheriff’s deputies dominate the city’s highest earners, with several making over $800,000 annually, largely due to overtime; public safety workers represent 72% of top earners despite being less than 20% of the workforce. Sheriff’s Lieutenant Mercy Ambat earned about $903,000, including $440,000 in overtime, making her the second-highest-paid city employee. City officials have proposed reducing overtime costs, such as using retired officers, amid ongoing staffing shortages.