Alvaro Lopez Ortega / 2026-10-26 Briefing

Created Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:25 +0000 Modified Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:01:39 +0000
5723 Words

Cathedral says its AI agents breached Anthropic’s internal systems in under 12 hours, reaching sensitive data and messaging. Meta plans a $95B AI-funding raise, including a $35B equity offering with Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom as cornerstones. VW China and Xpeng won approval to test autonomous driving on public roads, while Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft face investor pressure over AI capex as they report this week.

🤖 AI & Automation

AI Panic and Cognitive Mercantilism

Venkatesh Rao argues that current AI panic reflects “cognitive mercantilism”—a zero-sum view of intelligence as a scarce commodity to be controlled and hoarded by elites. The articles compare this to pre-capitalist mercantilism and early fears of capitalism, noting both rest on assumptions of finite wealth, elite distrust of ordinary people, and a focus on controlling supply rather than recognizing new sources of demand and initiative.

VW China, Xpeng approved to trial self-driving on public roads; VW Level 3, Xpeng Level 4

Volkswagen’s China unit and Xpeng have secured approvals to test autonomous driving systems on public roads in China. VW has begun Level 3 testing in Hefei and aims to deploy the system next year, while Xpeng’s robotaxi business is approved for Level 4 testing across Guangzhou, initially by invitation codes.

Bias in Qwen3-Coder Model

Researchers found that Qwen3-Coder generates less secure code depending on the intended user, with apps for a US defense contractor 19% more likely to be hackable than those for a Chinese defense contractor and Hong Kong democracy group apps 28% more likely to leak data. Adding security instructions did not close the gap. The researchers say removing the model’s CCP alignment eliminated all three vulnerabilities without reducing its coding performance.

Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create

The UK government plans to spend £600 million on AI, including agents to guard critical infrastructure, as part of a broader effort to defend against threats that AI is helping create. Whitehall is betting big on AI despite the risks it also poses.

Euro open source specialist proposes LLM gateway to ease token bills

Aiven, a European open-source specialist, is proposing an LLM gateway aimed at helping organizations manage and reduce token costs. The company hopes to apply to large language models the kind of managed support it already provides for databases.

Do not turn AI into software

The article warns against treating LLM-based AI as conventional software, arguing that AI agents behave non-deterministically and cannot be expected to work like a natural-language programming language. It says this misconception leads to flawed decisions and unrealistic reliability expectations, and calls for building robust AI solutions based on AI’s distinct properties.

Microsoft Decision-1: 9B Qwen Model Launch Explained

Microsoft introduced Microsoft-Decision-1, a model built on Alibaba’s Qwen3.5-9B that does not chat or generate text but instead scores a fixed list of answer options in one forward pass and returns calibrated probabilities. It is available through Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter and is aimed at high-volume, low-latency tasks such as routing, classification, prioritization, verification, and workflow control.

If AI displaces human workers, they will lose more than just pay

The article’s full content was unavailable because it requires JavaScript and cookies. Its title suggests that if AI displaces human workers, they will lose more than just their pay.

🔒 Security & Privacy

Cathedral, ex-DOGE cybersecurity startup, says it breached Anthropic in under 12 hours via AI agents

Cathedral, a months-old cybersecurity startup founded by former DOGE staffers, says its researchers breached Anthropic’s internal systems in under 12 hours using AI agents. According to a draft report reviewed by The Washington Post, Cathedral told Anthropic it had penetrated sensitive internal data and messaging systems.

About the compromised eMudhra intermediate CAs

Apple has been automatically blocking certificates from compromised eMudhra intermediate CAs that issue TLS certificates since October 19, 2026, and began blocking the emSign ECC Root CA - G3 on October 23. Most users need do nothing, but Mac administrators and developers who use command-line tools such as curl and git may need to remove affected root CA certificates from /etc/ssl/cert.pem until a future software update addresses the issue.

Tailscale zero-days spark a disclosure war before fixes land

A security researcher publicly disclosed 11 vulnerabilities in Tailscale and Headscale before patches were available, sparking debate over responsible disclosure. The riskiest attacks require an existing authorized device and suitable permissions rather than allowing arbitrary internet attackers to take over machines. Tailscale says it is investigating and preparing fixes but does not recommend disabling Tailscale SSH for everyone.

Samsung accused of spying on users and then sharing data with 400+ partners

A reverse engineer alleges that Samsung’s 2025 smart TVs collect audio telemetry through built-in microphones and connected devices, and use AI to build user profiles from viewing habits, skipped ads, and sensor data. The researcher claims the data is shared with Samsung and more than 400 partners; Samsung has not yet commented in the report.

Chinese national extradited over alleged $36.9M crypto scam

The Netherlands has extradited Chinese national Zheng Zhao to the US over an alleged international cryptocurrency investment scam targeting 174 US victims and causing over $36.9 million in losses. Prosecutors say the network used fake trading websites to show false gains while stealing victims’ funds; Zhao faces money-laundering conspiracy charges and up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Swedish government blocks ChatGPT and Claude, citing security risks

Sweden has banned government officials from using ChatGPT and Claude at work due to security concerns, allowing only government-approved AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot. An internal audit found problematic AI use, including possible sharing of sensitive information. Some staff may still access ChatGPT and Claude through a special government-developed AI platform.

PHP2Shell is a warning shot for vulnerability disclosure

The article frames PHP2Shell as a warning about the challenges of vulnerability disclosure in an open world. It argues that keeping secrets is difficult but has been done before and must be done again to manage disclosures responsibly.

Work to protect DNS from quantum decryption attacks is speeding up

Efforts to protect DNS from quantum decryption attacks are accelerating. Regional internet registry reform is also nearing, while scammers continue to exploit trustworthy-sounding domains.

2083449 – eMudhra: Private key compromise of Intermediate Certificates

Mozilla received a report that the private keys of eight eMudhra intermediate certificates were compromised, including six TLS certificates trusted by major root programs and two Microsoft-trusted code-signing certificates. Mozilla confirmed key control, distrusted the certificates in Firefox via OneCRL, and independently recovered the keys, confirming a flawed key-generation process that is trivial to exploit. eMudhra acknowledged the report, began investigating, and notified Sectigo, which had cross-signed some of the affected certificates.

Steal My Bitcoin CTF PoC

A proof-of-concept details a single-file, standard-library Python reproduction of the Steal My Bitcoin CTF exploit against a Docker lab running PHP 8.4.26 Alpine behind nginx. It abuses out-of-memory conditions during multipart upload/session progress parsing to leak heap and code addresses via session cookies, then forges a HashTable to invoke zif_system in at most 20 HTTP requests.

💾 Chips & Hardware

Ray-Ban Meta Audio review: good audio and AI, no camera is a plus, but privacy and price concerns

Meta’s $349-and-up Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses offer good audio quality and well-functioning Meta AI, and their lack of a camera may appeal to privacy-conscious buyers. However, the review notes lingering privacy concerns and a fairly high price.

India chip design startups near production with govt aid, but costs limit commercialization

India’s chip design startups are nearing commercial production with government support. However, low order volumes, high fabrication costs, and supply chain bottlenecks are hindering their path to market and price competitiveness.

Amazon Bee Frontier review: $75 AI wearable excels at always-on listening, summaries, follow-ups

A review of Amazon’s $75 Bee AI wearable finds it surprisingly capable, using always-on listening to summarize conversations and suggest follow-up actions. The reviewer says it can infer family members’ names and needs, which is impressive but also potentially creepy. Despite privacy and backlash concerns, the device is portrayed as a significant step for simple AI wearables.

iPhone Duo teardown: 5/10 repairability, foldable record; screens crack at fold due hinge bar issue

iFixit’s iPhone Duo teardown gives Apple’s folding phone a 5/10 repairability score, calling it the most repairable foldable it has dissected while noting inner-screen repairs remain difficult. Some owners report cracks and bright lines along the fold, possibly because a hinge support bar fails to drop far enough; Apple is offering replacement units for now, but out-of-warranty screen damage costs $999.

Apple Watch owner learns they can’t charge their device with a $42 charger from China

A traveler who bought a $42 Apple Watch charger in China found it was incompatible with their device. China’s wireless power transfer rules limit the charging frequencies Apple Watch chargers can use, and Apple says country-specific chargers can trigger an “Unable to charge” warning on unsupported watches.

iFixit dismantles Apple’s Duo: ‘You’d better baby that screen’

iFixit’s teardown of Apple’s Duo gave battery replacement a thumbs up, but warned that dust is a critical weak point and the screen needs extra care. It suggested a conventional phone might be a better bet for home repairers.

‘Let’s just shove a bigger fan in there and see what happens’

The article recounts tech staff improvising to keep a server running as their company declined, apparently by fitting a larger fan and carefully working around the machine. It highlights a precarious, ad hoc effort to maintain service amid organizational collapse.

🛠️ Software & Development

Wails v3.0.0 Released

Wails v3.0.0 has been released after a long development period that began with the first v3 alpha in January 2023. Wails lets Go programmers build desktop applications with web frontend tools using each platform’s native WebView. Version 3 adds an explicit application/window/service model, multiple windows, system tray support, native menus and dialogs, generated bindings, a Taskfile-based build system, cross-platform support, experimental mobile support, an in-app updater, packaging and signing guides, and server builds.

Akku.scm 1.2.0 released

Akku.scm version 1.2.0, a package manager for R6RS and R7RS Scheme, is now generally available for download from GitLab. Its most important change is a fix to the dependency solver, which had been running very slowly due to a bug triggered by the many versions of the chez-srfi package.

MoLE Protocols

This Internet-Draft defines protocols implementing the MoLE architecture, including two endorsement protocols that let a Client prove to a Moderator that it holds an Endorsement from a trusted Anchor without revealing which one. It also specifies three credential protocols for issuing, verifying, and updating per-Client state without linkable presentations, and establishes registries identifying these protocols.

OpenLDK: Bringing the Java World into Common Lisp

OpenLDK is a Java JIT compiler and runtime written in Common Lisp that translates JVM bytecode into Lisp for SBCL to compile natively, allowing Java objects to share the same process and heap as Lisp applications. It aims to make Java libraries feel native in Common Lisp and has recently demonstrated JVM-hosted language support, Spring Boot execution, image-based startup in about 84 ms, and live Emacs/SLY inspection and monkey-patching.

Linux 7.4 Begins Employing New “Core MM” Tree

Kernel maintainers have agreed to create a new “Core MM” tree to handle core memory-management changes and reduce the load on Andrew Morton’s MM branch. Arm’s David Hildenbrand submitted the inaugural Core MM pull request for Linux 7.4, including initial patches for Get User-Pages and Memory Hotplug. The workflow is expected to expand in later cycles toward a single MM integration tree.

Linux Fixes AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Regression Due To Cache Aware Scheduling

Linux has merged a fix for a Cache Aware Scheduling regression affecting the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, where cache-intensive Clang LTO workloads were often pinned to slower Zen 5C cores instead of performance cores. The fix, merged for Linux 7.4 Git and marked for backporting to 7.2/7.3 stable, makes Cache Aware Scheduling honor asymmetric packing on hybrid systems. It may also benefit other Ryzen SoCs mixing Zen 5 and Zen 5C cores.

Moxnox: NT-Like, POSIX-Compatible Hobby OS Running Atop Btrfs

Open-source developer Mark Harmstone has released Moxnox 1.0, an NT-like, POSIX-compatible hobby operating system that runs atop Btrfs and is capable of self-hosting. The roughly 130k-line C++ system targets AMD64 and AArch64, includes ports of Bash, GCC, CMake, Zstd, Git, and common GNU utilities, but lacks GUI support and cannot yet run Windows EXE programs. Harmstone said no substantive code was AI-generated, with AI used only for mechanical porting and translation tasks.

EXT4 Lands Optional Buffered IOmap For Significant Performance Win With Large Writes

EXT4 file-system changes have been merged for the Linux 7.4 merge window, including opt-in buffered IOmap support enabled via the buffered_iomap mount option. This feature replaces buffer head usage with the IOmap framework and delivers significant performance gains for large writes, with more modest improvements for reads. Because it does not support online defragmentation, inline data, fsverify, fscrypt, non-extent inodes, or data=journal mode, it is not enabled by default and falls back to the original I/O path when necessary.

Redox OS Landed Nice Performance Improvements In September

Redox OS reported significant September performance gains, including direct context switching that cut IPC latency by 24% and improved small-buffer I/O by about 5%, reduced TLB misses by 75%, and saved another 14% in IPC latency by avoiding unnecessary AVX register saves/restores. The Rust-based OS also improved SDL2 performance and added Intel Tiger Lake GPU external display hot-plugging, boot fixes, Rust uutils 0.11 updates, and LLVM Clang cross-compilation support.

Tesco replacing VMware with Proxmox in its stores and on the edge

Tesco is replacing VMware with Proxmox for virtualization in its stores and at the edge. The retailer is advertising for someone to own the cost-effective alternative virtualization platform.

Beyond @Transactional: Solving the Dual-Write Problem in Distributed Microservices

The article explains the dual-write inconsistency problem in distributed microservices, where writing to a local database and publishing a Kafka event are non-atomic and can fail independently. It describes how the Transactional Outbox Pattern solves this by saving the domain entity and an outbox event in the same local transaction, then asynchronously relaying outbox events to Kafka for reliable delivery.

Who Owns This? Why SREs Want a Service Catalog

A service catalog is important during incidents because ownership, dependency, SME, and on-call information is often scattered or stale, forcing responders to waste time doing “archaeology” instead of diagnosing problems. SREs want a centralized catalog that quickly answers who owns a service or repo, what depends on it, and who to contact. The article is the first in a series on Backstage explaining why SREs want a service catalog, how teams keep it current, and how it was built.

The Pulse: Firebase’s global outage & poor response

A server-side Firebase data change caused iOS apps using the Firebase SDK with analytics enabled to crash on launch. Firebase acknowledged the incident about 70 minutes after it began and started rolling back the offending change roughly an hour and a half in, with full mitigation taking up to six hours due to caching. The incident drew criticism for Google’s slow and poor incident management response.

Under the hood, off the hot path: how D1 scales to millions of databases

Cloudflare rearchitected D1’s control plane to scale to millions of small databases without sending every query through centralized bottlenecks. D1 saw 15x growth in live non-deleted databases over one year, 65x over two years, and 18x growth in daily active databases. The design emphasizes failure handling and idempotency, with load testing above expected growth.

What managing emergencies at Burning Man teaches me about incident management in tech

A veteran emergency dispatcher at Burning Man, who also works in tech incident management, compares running emergency dispatch for a temporary city of over 60,000 people with managing software incidents. He argues that public safety practices—such as keeping an incident coordinator focused on the overall picture rather than stepping into technical work—translate well to tech incident response. The article draws on his decades of parallel experience in search and rescue, emergency dispatch, and engineering incident management.

I Talk to Production Every Morning. It Talks Back.

A software engineer describes using AI to make routine engineering work less painful and more engaging. They have AI write sarcastic security horror stories to make CVE fixes memorable, and use a personality-driven chat with production telemetry to proactively ask about concerns rather than only react to incidents. The article emphasizes learning and engagement over fully automating the work.

The result of the C++26 DIS ballot

C++26 failed its DIS ballot, receiving 12 of 20 votes in favor (60%, short of the required two-thirds) and 9 of 22 negative votes (41%, above the 25% cap). According to the article, it is believed to be the first C++ draft—and possibly the first SC22 language standard—to fail such a ballot. The draft includes reflection, std::execution, library hardening, and contracts, and the resulting delay is unknown.

Proc-CLI – An agent-friendly CLI tool for process and port management

Proc-CLI is a cross-platform semantic command-line tool for process and port management on macOS, Linux, and Windows, letting users target processes by port, PID, name, or path. It offers intuitive commands such as proc kill :3000 to stop whatever is listening on a port, with confirmation and dry-run previews. Designed for scripts and coding agents, it supports JSON output and consistent exit codes.

PaperPilot – Zero-Cloud, Pure-Rust PDF Engine with WASM and MCP

PaperPilot is a pure-Rust PDF and document toolkit that runs locally across an MCP server, CLI, browser via WASM, desktop app, and local REST API. It supports tasks such as merging, splitting, rotating, OCR, compressing, watermarking, and PII scanning while keeping files on the user’s machine. The project is at v0.6 and lists PDF-to-Markdown/HTML/JSON and Office conversions among planned future features.

Freehire, open-source search 3M+ tech jobs from company career boards

Freehire is an open-source tool that aggregates over 3 million tech jobs from company career boards and offers filtering, job tracking, and AI-assisted resume tailoring. Saved skills and preferences influence which jobs appear and how resumes are tailored. A contributor says the project has evolved over recent months and is ready for users to check out and stress test.

Removing Next.js Got My Blog to 100 on Every Lighthouse Category

The author’s blog achieved a perfect 100 in every Lighthouse category after a difficult process that included removing Next.js, the framework they had used most. They built their own lightweight, fast, accessible blogging platform after finding existing options too bloated, expensive, or limited. The article shares their journey of improving performance and usability.

📈 Business & Policy

Meta plans $95B raise for AI expansion, including $35B equity offering backed by Nvidia AMD Broadcom

Meta plans to raise $95 billion to finance its AI expansion, including a $35 billion underwritten equity offering. Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom will act as cornerstone investors in the stock offering.

Chinese PCB maker Dongshan raises ~$1.3B in HK’s biggest IPO in two months, 35% below Shenzhen close

Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing raised about HK$9.9 billion ($1.3 billion) in Hong Kong’s biggest IPO in nearly two months. The Chinese PCB maker priced about 113.8 million shares at HK$86.80 each, roughly 35% below its Friday Shenzhen close, with trading expected to begin Oct. 28.

Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft to post double-digit revenue gains as AI capex investors seek returns

Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft are expected to report double-digit revenue gains this week. Investors are growing impatient with their AI capital spending and want clearer returns, with Meta’s recent stock reaction showing little tolerance for disappointing AI spending news.

Slack-Salesforce culture clash: Benioff didn’t use Slack; Butterfield quit after Davos panel

The article details the culture clash after Salesforce acquired Slack, contrasting Slack’s fast, channel-based collaboration with Salesforce’s ticketing, email, and mandatory Trailhead training, illustrated by an employee unable to get a keyboard at a Salesforce office. It also reports that Marc Benioff spent about an hour with Stewart Butterfield before the deal and did not use Slack, and that Butterfield resigned after a Davos celebrity panel.

Report: SK Hynix gained ~$15B on Kioxia stake sale; plans ~$12B special dividend

SK Hynix reportedly gained about $15 billion from selling down its Kioxia stake in the first half of the year and plans to return roughly $12 billion to shareholders via a special dividend. The expected payout, likely to be announced with third-quarter earnings, helped SK Hynix shares buck a broad selloff in AI-related stocks.

High-frequency traders like Jane Street invest in AI, chips, neoclouds, data centers for edge

High-frequency trading firms including Jane Street and Hudson River Trading are investing in AI and chip startups, neoclouds, and their own data centers to gain an edge in the AI era. Their long-running race for speed is expanding into a competition for compute, the processing power central to artificial intelligence.

Ramp investors Lonsdale, Rabois urged US lawmakers to probe Airwallex China ties after deal scrapped

The Information reports that Ramp investors Joe Lonsdale and Keith Rabois pushed US lawmakers to investigate rival Airwallex’s China ties after Airwallex scrapped a deal with Ramp. The report says Ramp co-founder and co-CEO Eric Glyman learned in April 2025 that the deal was falling apart.

After threatening AI export bans, China allows DeepSeek to keep selling

China has allowed DeepSeek to continue selling after previously threatening AI export bans. The digest also reports wobbles in Australia’s AI datacenter market, an e-commerce app claiming disease detection, India’s top telco preparing an IPO amid investor frenzy, and other tech and security stories.

How to Start a Defence Tech Startup in the UK: Part 1

Despite record defence-tech funding and £400 million annually ring-fenced by the UK MOD for innovation, many founders still struggle to win a first real contract. The article attributes this “Valley of Death” to gaps between small innovation awards and production budgets, advising founders to map four stakeholders—end user, problem owner, budget holder, and commercial officer—and identify follow-on contracts. It also recommends face-to-face defence events and starting by selling to the UK before expanding to Europe, NATO, and the US.

Tesla cancels Cybertruck in Australia and NZ after 7 years of deposits

Tesla has cancelled the Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand, emailing reservation holders that their orders are void and deposits will be fully refunded within 30 days. Australians who placed A$150 deposits in November 2019 waited almost seven years for a vehicle Tesla says it will not produce for them. Tesla is offering affected reservation holders a free one-year FSD subscription if they instead order a Model 3 or Model Y.

US Wages Share of GDI at 75 Year Low

The U.S. wages share of gross domestic income fell to 42.0% in 2025, a 75-year low, according to annual not seasonally adjusted data updated Sept. 30, 2026. That was down from 42.3% in both 2024 and 2023, 42.6% in 2022, and 43.5% in 2021.

Lula Wins Brazil Presidential Election

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil’s presidential election, securing a fourth term with 51.79% of the vote against Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.21%. Bolsonaro has refused to concede and said he will seek to annul the result, citing a two-hour polling extension. Lula, a critic of Donald Trump, now faces a divided country, a hostile Congress, and a challenging international landscape.

U.S. birth rate drops to record low, but older women are having more babies

The CDC reported that the U.S. general fertility rate fell 1% to a record low in 2025, continuing a two-decade decline, with notable drops among women in their teens and early 20s. Birth rates increased among women ages 30 to 45, as more women delay motherhood amid career goals, financial costs, and uncertainty.

Data centre debate heats up ahead of US midterms

Data centres are expanding rapidly to meet AI demand, and their huge electricity use and environmental impact are fueling public backlash worldwide. In the US, the issue has become prominent ahead of the 3 November midterms, with Republicans and opposition Democrats opposing expansion while President Donald Trump dismisses the pushback. The debate pits local concerns about costs and pollution against the economic benefits of AI infrastructure.

Drone warfare is evolving faster than armies can adapt

Opposing forces in Ukraine develop countermeasures to new battlefield technology in an average of just six weeks, a rapid drone- and robotics-driven innovation cycle forcing NATO to rethink how it buys military equipment and raising questions about international law. The Canadian Press observed this race firsthand in Latvia, where drone makers at a NATO exercise sought contracts and described relying on constant feedback from Ukrainian soldiers to improve their systems.

The Great Schlep: Israelis Are Flying Back to Vote

With about 11% of Israel’s electorate living abroad and absentee voting generally barred, Israeli citizens are flying back to cast ballots in the upcoming election, including an 84-year-old Florida man making a 24-hour trip. The vote is seen as crucial, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing voters after his judicial overhaul, the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, and the Gaza war. Some returning voters are being mobilized by nonprofit groups seeking to preserve Israel’s democratic foundations.

🌐 Web & Culture

Public internet model effectively dead: saturation, aggregators, AI risks—opens new possibilities

Ben Thompson argues that the open public internet model is effectively dead, citing content saturation, algorithmic aggregators, and AI security vulnerabilities. Reflecting on the early blog era and WordPress, he says today’s security demands managed infrastructure, and he suggests the shift may open new possibilities.

What are you doing this week?

The article invites readers to share what they are doing this week. It also notes that doing nothing at all is acceptable.

The Small Web is Huge

A SeaGL 2026 talk titled “The Small Web is Huge” is featured, with speaker details on Pretalx and additional notes on punkto.org. The provided excerpt consists only of those links.

How to watch Vienna Open from anywhere

The 2026 Vienna Open (Erste Bank Open), an ATP 500 indoor hard-court tournament, runs October 26–November 1 at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle. Tennis TV is the main official streaming option for all 46 matches, while regional coverage varies by market through services such as DAZN, Movistar Plus+, Sky/NOW, TSN and Tennis Channel; travelers may need a VPN to access their home service.

Switzerland. Block by block. At 1:1 scale

A free Minecraft Java 1.12.2 world recreates the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO region at 1:1 scale using swisstopo open geodata, with each block representing one meter and terrain, glaciers, lakes, forests, and dams included. The 1.1 GB download requires no registration and runs via Prism, while the full Switzerland map is available in Early Access from CHF 15.

Anemoia: Nostalgia for a time one did not personally experience

Anemoia, also called vicarious nostalgia, is nostalgia for a time one did not personally experience, often evoked by romanticized depictions of the past. It has been discussed in relation to Millennials and Generation Z, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, as younger generations seek comfort in earlier eras amid modern disruptions. Cultural examples include Gen Z’s nostalgia for the 1980s through media such as Stranger Things.

Everybody panic: A Valve developer said “HLX” in public

At GameSoundCon, Valve composer Mike Morasky publicly mentioned “HLX” while discussing HDR audio, the first known public reference by a Valve employee to the codename widely linked to the company’s next Half-Life project. The slip-up follows years of rumors about Half-Life 3 but does not constitute an official confirmation.

TitleArt – Make text like it’s 1997

The article titled “TitleArt – Make text like it’s 1997” provides no substantive content, with both its summary and body displaying “Loading TitleArt…”. No further details are available to summarize.

Recycling ANSI art: Tracing the origins of Fire Escape’s BBS logon screens

The article explores how BBS sysops commonly adapted or “remixed” older public-domain ANSI art, focusing on Fire Escape, a St. Louis sysop known for her authoritative BBS directory and her popular FEHQ board. Fire Escape used 18 randomly displayed logon screens on her BBS, and the piece traces the origins of several of these images to show that reusing ANSI art was widespread among sysops, programmers, and even artists themselves.

The article argues that websites should use real HTML links instead of JavaScript buttons or popups, because native links support opening in new tabs/windows, copying URLs, keyboard access, hover previews, search engines, screen readers, and browser loading/error controls. It also warns against reimplementing native browser features such as infinite scrolling, custom loading animations, date pickers, and <details>, and recommends minimizing network round trips for speed.

RainbowSay – Learn, teach, research languages live with shows you love

RainbowSay is a language-learning tool for students that turns shows they already watch into lessons with vocabulary and grammar support. It also offers speaking practice with gentle corrections and tracks progress through streaks and heatmaps.