--- blogpost: true date: 21.04.2025 author: Tobias location: Ori category: links, 2025 tags: links, 2025 language: Deutsch --- # Links für 2025 KW 15 Meine To-Read Liste, Zusammengefasst von [Mistral-Small-24B](https://huggingface.co/lmstudio-community/Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501-GGUF). ------------- **[Bundescloud: Kosten für Clouddienste werden massiv unterschätzt](https://www.golem.de/news/bundescloud-kosten-fuer-clouddienste-werden-massiv-unterschaetzt-2504-195505.html):** The federal government's multi-cloud strategy reduces dependencies, but raises security concerns and provides little financial leeway. The Bundescloud lacks sufficient funding to perform its intended tasks. Instead of relying on the national cloud, 32 private cloud service providers are being used, mainly Microsoft, AWS, and Google, to make up for the missing capacities. Annual costs have increased from €136 million in 2021 to €344 million by 2024. The federal government claims that this approach prevents a single software from becoming too dominant and allows different service providers to cater more specifically to the needs of individual administrations. However, the overall financial resources seem insufficient for meeting the growing demand. ------------- **[OnlyNv](https://onlynv.dev/blog/what-the-hell-is-an-elliptic-curve):** The article appears to be missing. ------------- **['Biological reality': What genetics has taught us about race](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250417-biological-reality-what-genetics-has-taught-us-about-race):** The article discusses how genetics has disproven the notion of race as a biological concept. It emphasizes that there is more genetic variation within racial groups than between them, showing that race is a social construct rather than a scientific one. Despite this evidence, the idea of race still permeates into societal and governmental thinking. The article highlights how President Donald Trump's administration has targeted museum exhibitions that emphasize the social nature of race, instead of promoting the biological reality of race. It concludes by stressing the importance of understanding race as a social construct in order to address its consequences and promote equity for all individuals. ------------- **[High time to tackle drug-resistant fungal infections](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01177-x?error=cookies_not_supported&code=ca10ce19-fb7e-4056-81af-9433d93e58d8):** Candida auris is a dangerous yeast that was first identified in 2009. It can be difficult to kill, as it is resistant to disinfectants and antifungal drugs. Between 30% and 60% of people infected with C. auris will die. Annual deaths caused by fungal infections have nearly doubled over the past decade. There are few drugs available for treating fungal infections, and more research is needed to better understand the yeast's cellular pathways without harming human cells. Agriculture could also be a significant source of drug resistance, as some antifungals are similar to fungicides used on crops. The urgency to address these issues and fund research into new fungal treatments is crucial to combat the growing global threat posed by drug-resistant fungi. ------------- **[None](https://www.kaufnekuh.de/de/rezepte/lammkeule-mit-kraeutern?srsltid=AfmBOor8w7I8fejLt4ZtQR0vrfH9XoPMEN3rv_QAaPhPpgvtzVn7kf6n):** The provided text does not contain an article. Please provide a valid article to summarize. ------------- **[Claude Code: Best practices for agentic coding](https://simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/19/claude-code-best-practices/):** The article discusses the Claude Code, a CLI coding agent tool by Anthropic. It highlights how to get the best results using the tool and introduces the concept of "ultrathink," which allows users to give Claude additional computation time for evaluating alternatives more thoroughly. By typing words like "think," "think hard," "think harder," or "ultrathink," the system allocates progressively more thinking budget for Claude to use. ------------- **[The AI skeptic’s guide to AI collaboration](https://hils.substack.com/p/the-ai-skeptics-guide-to-ai-collaboration):** The article discusses the skepticism and misconceptions surrounding AI. It argues that AI should be seen as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for human work. The author believes that by understanding how to use AI thoughtfully, it can enhance human expertise in areas such as writing, problem-solving, and planning. The article emphasizes the importance of spending time exploring different aspects of AI usage, with the goal of achieving mastery over its application. ------------- **[The Art of Assembly Language](https://www.plantation-productions.com/Webster/www.artofasm.com/Linux/HTML/AoATOC.html):** **TODO** ------------- **[CISA issues security alert after Oracle cloud data theft](https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/18/oracle_cisa_advisory/):** The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an alert regarding a potential security breach at Oracle, where some customer data was stolen from the company's public cloud infrastructure. CISA recommended users to ensure they are not using compromised credentials, reset passwords for affected accounts, monitor authentication logs, and enforce multi-factor authentication wherever possible. The scope and impact of the breach remain unconfirmed, and Oracle is facing a lawsuit in Texas for allegedly failing to notify users promptly about the security incident. ------------- **[Synology is tightening restrictions on third-party NAS hard drives](https://www.theverge.com/news/652364/synology-nas-third-party-hard-drive-restrictions):** Synology is implementing new restrictions on third-party hard drives in its future network attached storage (NAS) devices later this year. The changes will make it harder to use third-party drives for typical use cases, like backing up household computers or as local media servers. However, the company has confirmed that existing Synology NAS systems won't be affected by these restrictions. Starting with Plus Series models released in 2025, only Synology-branded drives and those certified to meet its specifications will offer the full range of features and support. ------------- **[So you want to use Object Storage](https://spiraldb.com/post/so-you-want-to-use-object-storage):** The article discusses the growing popularity of object storage for storing large amounts of data in the cloud due to its reliability, reasonable cost, and speed. It highlights common issues related to designing and building systems around object storage, such as tail latencies, hedging, caching, horizontal scaling, and putting it all together. The article suggests that understanding how object storage behaves differently from traditional disks is crucial for taking advantage of the unique features provided by cloud infrastructure. ------------- **[Frankenstein’s `__init__`](https://ohadravid.github.io/posts/2025-04-19-frank/):** This article discusses a production codebase in Python that had an unusual `__init__` method. The crazy part was the class's attempt to kick off its parent's `__init__` **to a new thread**, which could lead to pain and suffering if closed too quickly. The article also mentions the ZeroMQ Guide, which explains that `zmq.Socket` cannot be moved between threads. The author points out that this solution was an annoying problem solved with complete disregard for common sense and sanity. ------------- **[Vibe Coding is not an excuse for low-quality work](https://addyo.substack.com/p/vibe-coding-is-not-an-excuse-for):** This article discusses the benefits and potential issues of AI-assisted development, specifically vibe coding. It emphasizes that although AI-assisted development can be a game-changer, it is not a free pass to abandon rigor, review, or craftsmanship. The article highlights how AI-generated code can amplify technical debt and that context, scrutiny, and expertise are required to discern good from bad code. It suggests that engineers should approach vibe coding as a tool with known limitations and maintain the human in the loop when using it. The article also provides rules for high-quality vibe coding and concludes by stating that AI can coexist with craftsmanship, but the craftsman's hand is still needed to guide that power. ------------- **[The Icelandic voting system](https://smarimccarthy.is/posts/2024-11-25-voting-system/):** The article discusses the biproportional apportionment voting system used in Iceland, which is also employed by Norway, some cantons of Switzerland, and some German regions. This system has a few general features, including constituencies with constituency seats (CS) and adjustment seats (AS). The allocation process involves using divisor rules, such as d’Hondt or Sainte-Lague, to calculate quotients between votes and seats for each party. The author highlights some inaccuracies in the Icelandic system and suggests increasing the number of AS to reduce vote inequality and provincialism in politics. ------------- **[‘Immediate red flags’: questions raised over ‘expert’ much quoted in UK press](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/apr/19/questions-raised-over-barbara-santini-expert-much-quoted-in-uk-press):** Oxford-educated psychologist Barbara Santini has been widely quoted in the media for her thoughts on various topics, including COVID and vitamin D. However, concerns have arisen about her qualifications and identity after major news outlets removed articles featuring her or comments made by her. This case has sparked a wake-up call for newsrooms as AI tools make it easier for bad actors to create fake experts. Santini's main online presence is at an online sex toy store, where she claimed to be a psychologist and sex adviser from the University of Oxford; however, the British Psychological Society stated that she was not one of its members. ------------- **[Claude Code Best Practices](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/claude-code-best-practices):** The article provides tips and best practices for using Claude Code, a command line tool for agentic coding developed by Anthropic. It covers topics such as setting up the environment, giving Claude more tools, trying common workflows, optimizing your workflow, using headless mode to automate infrastructure, and upleveling with multi-Claude workflows. The article also highlights different use cases for headless mode and pipelining integration with existing data/processing pipelines. ------------- **[China Can Have It All](https://minnalander.substack.com/p/china-can-have-it-all):** The article discusses how China is benefiting from the US's self-sabotage strategies, with Europe and other countries exploring alternative options for trade and partnerships. Trump's trade war and attempts to isolate allies have created opportunities for China as Japan, South Korea, and other countries resume talks on cooperation with China. The article also highlights how Russia may find it difficult to adapt to the changing situation, as they had built a siege mentality around NATO being their main adversary. ------------- **[Ask HN: why is my F500 employer okay with paying 5x to freelancers?](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43735969):** Companies often prefer to hire freelancers over full-time employees (FTEs) for several reasons. Freelancers are considered operational expenses (OpEx), while FTEs are capital expenses (CapEx), which allows departments to manage their budgets more flexibly. Companies also maintain good relationships with freelance agencies for future staffing needs and avoid paying certain benefits and taxes for freelancers. Additionally, freelancers can provide specialized skills quickly and are easier to let go during tough times due to fewer regulations. They also offer flexibility in scaling workforces up or down based on demand. However, the cost comparison between freelancers and FTEs can be complex and depends on various factors such as benefits, taxes, and the nature of the work. Freelancers often charge more per hour but can be more cost-effective for intermittent work. The decision to hire freelancers versus FTEs also involves considerations of risk management, flexibility, and the specific needs of the project or task at hand. Companies may also use freelancers to gain insights into industry best practices and to quickly ramp up or down their workforce based on economic conditions. However, there are legal and ethical considerations, such as the risk of misclassifying employees as contractors and the potential for exploitation. Overall, the choice between freelancers and FTEs is influenced by a mix of financial, legal, and strategic factors. ------------- **[Pluralistic: Against transparency (19 Apr 2025)](https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/19/gotcha/#known-to-the-state-of-california-to-cause-cancer):** This article discusses the potential dangers of over-transparency and how it can lead to a lack of informed consumer choices. It argues that instead of just providing information about potential risks, companies should be required by law to use their products in ways that minimize cancer risk. The author also suggests updating privacy laws to make certain activities with private data illegal without continuous consent from the individual. ------------- **[House Democrats: DOGE is building a ‘master database’ of Americans’ sensitive information](https://www.theverge.com/tech/652215/doge-cross-agency-master-database-sensitive-information):** The article discusses allegations that Doge, a government-shrinking agency founded by Elon Musk, is constructing a "cross-agency master database" of sensitive personal information. This database would combine IRS, SSA, and voting records for surveillance targeting undocumented migrants. The article cites testimony from Social Security Administration (SSA) whistleblowers who witnessed DOGE engineers accessing the agency's IT system to combine these databases into one. This database could pose a threat to government cybersecurity and potentially violate privacy laws. ------------- **[Judge pauses mass firing of consumer protection workers](https://www.theverge.com/news/651909/cfpb-terminations-paused-berman-jackson-trump-court-order):** A judge has paused the termination of nearly 1,500 employees from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) while she considers whether the Trump administration violated a court order to avoid mass layoffs. The ruling should temporarily prevent the CFPB from being nearly eliminated, a move that has been criticized for threatening basic protections for Americans and their privacy. ------------- **[Map of British English dialects - Starkey Comics](https://starkeycomics.com/2023/11/07/map-of-british-english-dialects/):** The article discusses a detailed map of British dialects, created to showcase the vast diversity of English language accents in the United Kingdom. However, it is important to note that the map is always incomplete and inaccurate due to the nature of language itself. The author explains how dialects evolve over time and physical distance between regions leads to different features spreading slowly. The map includes both regional and non-regional dialects such as London Dialects, Received Pronunciation, and Pitmatic. It is acknowledged that the map may be unsatisfying due to its nature of showing dialect borders as arbitrary lines when in reality they are more complex and fluid. ------------- **[Anyone having voice conversations? What’s your setup? - r/LocalLLaMA](https://reddit.nerdvpn.de/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1k2b75l/anyone_having_voice_conversations_whats_your_setup/):** The article discusses the author's desire for a similar setup to Google's AI Studio, where they can call a model and chat with it in a voice conversation. They are interested in hearing from people who use regular voice conversations with AI as part of their daily workflow. The author also mentions having plenty of compute resources and a 20GB GPU available for potential local options. ------------- **[Startup Exercise: What can't be solved with money?](https://longform.asmartbear.com/startup-money/):** The article discusses the importance of understanding what money can and cannot solve in a business context. It emphasizes that while money can often help improve specific aspects of a business, it cannot buy certain critical elements such as people, knowledge, and skills. The author suggests using this principle to raise money by demonstrating the value of money in solving problems while also showcasing one's ability to master what money cannot buy, such as learning, change, and improvement. ------------- **[Electric Propulsion's Dirty Secret: Why Lithium Can't Fly (Or Float) Profitably](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43731168):** The thread discusses various aspects of electric aircraft and marine vehicles, focusing on the challenges and limitations of current battery technology. Key points include: 1. **Energy Density**: Lithium-ion batteries have significantly lower energy density compared to conventional jet fuel, making them impractical for long-range aviation and marine applications. 2. **Efficiency**: Electric motors are more efficient than internal combustion engines, but the overall energy efficiency of electric systems, including battery charging and discharging, is less straightforward. 3. **Environmental Impact**: The environmental costs of lithium extraction, battery production, and grid energy sources are significant and often overlooked in discussions about electric vehicles. 4. **Economic Viability**: The high initial cost of battery production and the ongoing maintenance and replacement costs make electric aircraft and marine vehicles economically unviable compared to conventional fuel-based systems. 5. **Alternative Technologies**: There is interest in alternative technologies like synthetic fuels and hydrogen, which could potentially offer a more sustainable and efficient solution for long-range transportation. 6. **Political and Social Factors**: The thread also touches on political and social aspects, such as the potential for regulatory changes to make electric vehicles more competitive and the role of public perception and advocacy in driving technological adoption. Overall, the discussion highlights the significant challenges facing electric aviation and marine transportation, emphasizing the need for technological breakthroughs and policy changes to make these options viable. ------------- **[Electric Propulsion's Dirty Secret: Why Lithium Can't Fly  (Or Float)](https://kumarletter.com/posts/electric-propulsion-s-dirty-secret-why-lithium-can-t-fly-or-float-profitably):** The article discusses the current state of lithium propulsion technology for boats and planes, stating that it's fundamentally a net negative energy return on investment. It highlights issues such as low energy density compared to jet fuel, high operating costs, reduced asset utilization, and long payback periods. The author argues that these factors make electric propulsion currently unprofitable across the entire U.S. grid. To become viable in the future, significant advancements in battery technology are necessary, as well as a decrease in grid carbon intensity and fast charging capabilities. ------------- **[Walled Gardens Can Kill | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43726672):** The text discusses several key points surrounding the reliance on apps for critical services, particularly in the context of search and rescue and healthcare. Key points include: - **Reliance on Apps**: Users often rely on apps for navigation and critical information, but these apps can fail due to various issues like software updates, connectivity problems, or regional restrictions. - **Paper Maps vs. Digital Maps**: While paper maps are reliable and durable, digital maps offer advantages like waterproofing and additional features. However, digital maps can be rendered useless if the device fails or the app malfunctions. - **Backup Plans**: Having backup plans, such as taking screenshots of maps or using multiple sources of information, is crucial. However, even these backups can fail if not properly managed. - **Regional Restrictions**: Apps often have regional restrictions that can prevent access in certain areas, which can be particularly problematic in emergencies. This is not exclusive to Apple; Google and other platforms also implement similar restrictions. - **Healthcare and Insurance**: The text highlights a specific instance where an insurance company's app was region-locked, preventing access to critical information. This underscores the broader issue of relying on apps for life-critical services. - **User Responsibility**: There is a debate about user responsibility and the blame game when apps fail. Some users may not be aware of the risks associated with relying solely on digital tools. - **Corporate and Government Role**: The discussion also touches on the role of corporations and governments in ensuring that critical services are accessible and reliable. There is a call for more accountability and better design of systems that people depend on. - **Global vs. Local Governance**: The text raises the idea of global governance versus local control, especially in the context of digital services and the internet. - **Side-Loading and Workarounds**: Some users suggest side-loading apps or using workarounds to bypass regional restrictions, but these solutions are not always feasible or reliable. In summary, the text emphasizes the risks and challenges of relying on digital apps for critical services and the need for robust backup plans and responsible design by both corporations and governments. ------------- **[Walled Gardens Can Kill - Anees Iqbal](https://aneesiqbal.ai/2025-04-18-walled-gardens-can-kill):** The author, an Apple ecosystem user, shares their experience of needing a geo-restricted insurance app for their wife's sudden illness. They couldn't install the app on their iPhone due to Apple's locked-down application environment and had to use an Android emulator on their laptop to access it. This event changed their perspective on walled gardens and the need for more flexible options, such as implementing a DMA-like law worldwide. ------------- **[A deadly E. coli outbreak hit 15 states, but the FDA chose not to publicize it](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ecoli-bacteria-lettuce-outbreak-rcna200236):** An E. coli outbreak in November was linked to romaine lettuce and affected 15 states, sickening dozens of people, including a 9-year-old boy who nearly died of kidney failure and a 57-year-old woman who fell ill after attending a funeral lunch. One person died. The Food and Drug Administration closed the investigation without publicly revealing the companies responsible for growing and processing the contaminated lettuce. Federal officials are not required by law to reveal detailed information about all known outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, but transparency in recent years has increased due to large-scale outbreaks and heightened public concern about contaminated food. Food safety advocates argue that disclosing such information is crucial for ensuring people dispose of contaminated food and make informed choices. ------------- **[A Math Lesson From Hitler’s Germany](https://undark.org/2017/02/01/math-lesson-hitlers-germany/):** The story of David Hilbert's dinner with Nazi minister Bernhard Rust in 1934 has become a well-known tale within the mathematics community. According to the anecdote, Rust asked Hilbert how mathematics was at Göttingen, free from Jewish influence; Hilbert replied "There is no mathematics in Göttingen anymore." While the story may be folklore, it is based on the historical fact that the University of Göttingen was a dominant force in international mathematical research until anti-Jewish policies led to many mathematicians leaving or being driven out. This exodus left Germany's status as the world's leading country for mathematical research in tatters and saw America take up the mantle. The story serves as a cautionary tale, with some scholars drawing parallels between today's anti-science attitudes and those of the 1930s which led to the decline of German mathematics. ------------- **[How to run Llama 4 fast, even though it's too big to fit in RAM - r/LocalLLaMA](https://reddit.nerdvpn.de/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1k1rjm1/how_to_run_llama_4_fast_even_though_its_too_big/):** This article discusses optimizing the performance of Llama 4, an AI language model, by offloading most layers to GPU and using a custom command in llama.cpp. The author explains how to use specific commands to speed up inference on MOE architecture, resulting in faster generation of tokens per second with the UD-Q4\_K\_XL quant and Q8\_0 quant models. ------------- **[‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/apr/10/deep-cover-kgb-spy-recruited-son-peter-herrmann-illegals):** Rudi Herrmann took his son Peter to a park and revealed that everything he thought he knew about their family was a lie. He told Peter that he was not German, but Czech, and worked for the Soviet Union as an illegal spy for the KGB. Rudi asked if Peter would be willing to become an intelligence officer like him, to which Peter nodded his assent. They traveled to Lima, Peru, where Rudi formally inducted Peter into the KGB, beginning his training. ------------- **[Die Strategie hinter den Zöllen: Trumps Dollar-Schachspiel](https://www.golem.de/news/die-strategie-hinter-den-zoellen-trumps-dollar-schachspiel-2504-195341.html):** While potential trade wars are being discussed, a more refined plan for the restructuring of the global financial system may be emerging. The US stock market is experiencing turbulent times, with the largest two-day losses in history followed by the third-largest rally since World War II. The cause was Donald Trump's unexpected 90-day suspension of most special tariffs on Wednesday, April 9th, 2025. This surprising U-turn sent the market capitalization of US stocks soaring by an impressive $4 trillion within just ten minutes. The temporary suspension of tariffs applies almost all imports into the US, with the important exception of China. Sectoral tariffs, such as the 25% import tariff on cars and duties on steel and aluminum, along with the 10% basic tariff for everything remain in place. Goldman Sachs initially estimated the probability of a recession in the US due to the tariffs at 65%, but after the announcement of the tariff pause, corrected this estimation to 45% - still cause for concern. The Hidden Banking Crisis: The Real Cause Behind the Tariff Pause? ---------------------------------------------------------- What at first appears like a trade policy maneuver may in fact be a lifeline to avert an impending financial crisis. The announcement of the tariff pause followed a confusing back-and-forth. On Monday, CNBC reported on a possible 90-day suspension, which was immediately denied by the White House. Instead, it seemed that an escalation with additional 50% tariffs on Chinese goods (totaling up to 145%) was imminent. However, the sudden announcement of the delay - without including China - came as a surprise. Behind this abrupt behavior, there may be an explosive problem at the core of the financial system: the so-called basis trades in bond markets. These highly speculative trading strategies exploit small price differences between US Treasury bonds and their corresponding futures contracts. Banks and hedge funds employ massive leverage - sometimes up to 20-100 times the invested capital. The volume of these trades is enormous: Estimates range from hundreds of billions to one billion dollars, making it one of the largest risk areas in the global financial system. Since late March 2024, the price differentials (spreads) between Treasury bonds and futures have been abnormally wide apart. This caused significant losses for involved financial institutions. The analysis suggests that the financial markets were on the brink of a systemic crisis as these huge losses threatened major hedge funds. As a possible cause of this dangerous market movement, large-scale sales of US Treasury bonds are suspected, potentially initiated by China in response to the tariff announcements. The Pieces Are Set, The First Move Has Been Made ------------------------------------------------------ While the world debates Donald Trump's tariffs, a closer look reveals a more fundamental development: a fundamental restructuring of the global monetary system with the US dollar at its center. A document referred to as the Mar-a-Lago Accord, named after the 1985 Plaza Accord, outlines a two-phase plan that goes far beyond simple trade policy. The first phase involves introducing tariffs of up to 20%, with a subsequent temporary strengthening of the US dollar that creates an apparent contradiction: despite higher import costs, US inflation remains relatively moderate. The explanation lies in a sophisticated currency mechanism. If the US dollar appreciates and other currencies like the euro, yuan or yen depreciate, the increased purchasing power of the US dollar largely offsets the tariff costs. "Ideally, at the end of this, we have nearly a zero-sum game," says the document. The actual costs would not fall on US consumers but rather on trading partners due to the loss of their purchasing power. Gaining Time for the Financial System ----------------------------------- The abrupt 90-day suspension of tariffs appears as a tactical emergency brake, allowing time to be gained. However, not primarily for diplomatic negotiations, but for an orderly calming of financial markets. This period should enable affected financial institutions to gradually reduce their risky basis trade positions before the next phase of tariffs and currency strategies begins. The coming three months will be crucial in determining whether banks and hedge funds can successfully control their risk positions, avoiding a chaotic collapse of the system. This pause is not a change in direction but a delay to the longer-term strategy - an essential detour towards the ultimate goal. However, this would only be the beginning. After this first phase of tariffs and US dollar strength, the real coup would follow - a new US dollar deal that could shake the foundations of the international financial system. "We may be standing on the threshold of a generational change in the international trade and financial system," says the Mar-a-Lago Accord. This new deal targets a fundamental contradiction in the current system: The US is the world's reserve currency but carries the burden of an overvalued currency and growing foreign debt. The proposed solution is simple yet radical: trade partners exchange their US Treasury bonds for "perpetuals" - perpetually running, interest-free bonds - in return. "You give us your bonds with the interest. You get new ones that never expire. We will continue to owe you this few billion dollars. We will also never pay interest nor repay the principle." In exchange for this, tariffs could be reduced or completely abolished. It is an offer that would be difficult to refuse - especially for countries under the US military umbrella or whose exports heavily depend on the US market. The Final Phase of This Plan ------------------------------ The final phase envisages a controlled but significant devaluation of the dollar by 20-40% against other currencies, which would massively strengthen US exports and return the US economy to its post-war dominance. The main winners of this transformation would be these export firms and particularly technology conglomerates that generate a significant portion of their revenue internationally. If Trump succeeds in implementing this strategy, investors should focus on US companies. Two Possible Scenarios for the Coming Months --------------------------------------- For the near future, two scenarios are possible: Optimistic: Within weeks, actual trade agreements will be reached or the US will back down. The 90-day suspension would then represent the first step towards implementing this larger plan - a new deal on the US dollar system. Pessimistic: Fronts harden despite the temporary suspension, and an ongoing trade war ensues with tariffs and countertariffs. In this scenario, the second phase of the plan would be pushed further into the future. In the worst-case scenario, a structural bear market (average falls in stock prices by alarming 60%) could occur, lasting at least three years - a scenario that has occurred only rarely but with devastating consequences. The recent developments in the bond market are particularly worrying. The yield on ten-year US Treasury bonds increased within just three days by 0.42 percentage points - the strongest increase since mid-2022. This volatility has raised speculation about a possible intervention by the Federal Reserve to prevent a market collapse. These turbulences in the bond market are directly linked to the basis trade problems. The price differentials between physical US Treasury bonds and their corresponding futures contracts drastically diverged - an event usually prevented by arbitrage activities of market participants. The nervousness in the markets regarding future US dollar policy is not solely a reaction to the tariffs but also reflects concerns about the stability of the financial system itself. Investors may be realizing that the greater threat is not the tariffs themselves, but the risky bets built on them. A High-Stakes Game --------------------------- Trump's strategy is a tightrope walk with high risk but potentially transformative effects on the global economy. It utilizes the still dominant position of the US as the largest economy and military superpower - the "big stick," as it is called in the text. The fundamental problem remains unaddressed: Trump's simplistic view of the US trade deficit, which he sees solely as a loss for the American economy. This perspective ignores the significant efficiency gains from international specialization. Even if successful tariff negotiations take place, the underlying uncertainty remains: who guarantees that Trump will not change his mind again if the US trade balance remains negative? Market history serves as a caution. Similar strong gains like those following the tariff suspension announcement occurred only in January 2001 and October 2008 - both followed by significant further losses. The trade war is not over, but merely paused, and the outcome of the larger currency game remains uncertain. Advice for Investors ----------------------- Investors should shift their focus from short-term tariff effects to broader geo-economic developments shaping the global economy in the long term. In this initial phase, a more defensive portfolio positioning with lower US stock allocations (particularly in technology) is recommended, with higher liquidity and a longer-term investment horizon to manage volatility and capture recovery potential. Short-term cash should not be invested in the stock market. *Disclaimer: This article is based on an analysis of the so-called Mar-a-Lago Accord and the current economic policy developments under the Trump administration. It does not constitute investment advice and solely reflects the author's views.* ------------- **[Atlassian stopft hochriskante Lecks in Confluence, Jira & Co.](https://www.heise.de/news/Atlassian-stopft-hochriskante-Lecks-in-Confluence-Jira-Co-10355832.html?view=print):** Atlassian has released security updates for Bamboo, Confluence, and Jira to address high-risk vulnerabilities. The updates are designed to patch these vulnerabilities in the products. IT administrators should download and apply the updates as soon as possible. There are various vulnerabilities listed, including Denial-of-Service (DoS) issues and XML External Entity Injection (XXE) flaws, some of which date back to 2019. The updated versions of the software are available for different development branches. ------------- **[Banafo/Kroko-ASR · Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/Banafo/Kroko-ASR):** This article introduces a family of low-latency streaming models designed for edge devices. The goal is to provide faster or higher-quality performance compared to similarly sized Whisper and other models. The model supports seven languages with an additional seven coming soon. It is currently under a dual license, free for non-commercial use and affordable for commercial purposes. Training is done using the modified k2/Icefall pipeline, while inference can be performed through the Sherpa project. No download stats are tracked for this model. ------------- **[piegames (@piegames@flausch.social)](https://flausch.social/@piegames/114352447253793517):** This article discusses the recent update of ChatGPT and its impact on a game called GeoGuesser. It also highlights the importance of keeping personal information secure online, especially when sharing outdoor photos. Furthermore, it mentions Mastodon as a platform for participating in the fediverse, which is a decentralized social network ecosystem. ------------- **[Important update regarding shipments to the United States with a customs value exceeding USD 800: Transit Time delays & Temporary suspension of business-to-consumer (B2C) shipments](https://www.dhl.com/au-en/home/important-information/2025/shipments-to-the-united-states-with-a-customs-value-exceeding-usd-800.html):** The article highlights that as a result of recent U.S. Customs regulatory updates, shipments to the United States with a declared customs value exceeding USD 800 are facing multi-day transit delays from any origin. Effective April 21st, 2025, and until further notice, DHL will temporarily suspend business-to-consumer (B2C) shipments to private individuals in the United States where the declared customs value exceeds USD 800. Shipments with a declarable customs value below USD 800 are not affected by this suspension. Business-to-business (B2B) shipments to U.S. companies with a declarable value above USD 800 are also not affected, though they may face delays. This is a temporary measure and the situation will be updated as it evolves. ------------- **[Honest and Elitist Thoughts on Why Computers Were More Fun Before](https://www.datagubbe.se/aficion/):** The article discusses the golden era of home computers and why they were more fun during that time. Old hardware was simpler, limited in capabilities, offline, and text-based, making it easier for users to learn and overcome challenges with creative problem solving. Computers were more enjoyable when they weren't for everyone, as they required a level of sincerity and commitment from the user. Today, computers are cheaper, faster, and more accessible, but there is less enthusiasm and passion involved in their use. Many users don't care about or actively dislike computers, leading to a lack of engagement with technology compared to the past. ------------- **[Cutting Down Rust Compile Times From 30 to 2 Minutes With One Thousand Crates](https://www.feldera.com/blog/cutting-down-rust-compile-times-from-30-to-2-minutes-with-one-thousand-crates):** The article discusses how Feldera, a platform that allows users to write SQL to define tables and views, improved its compilation time for large, complex enterprise programs. The company managed to solve the problem by splitting the output into numerous smaller crates, allowing each one to encapsulate only a portion of the logic while depending on each other. This significantly reduced compile times from 30-45 minutes down to under 3 minutes, benefiting users with complex workloads and contributing to improving the overall system. ------------- **[Toothpaste widely contaminated with lead and other metals, US research finds](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/17/toothpaste-lead-heavy-metals):** New research has shown that toothpaste can be widely contaminated with lead and other dangerous heavy metals, including arsenic, mercury, and cadmium. Lead Safe Mama tested 51 brands of toothpaste and found that about 90% contained lead, 65% contained arsenic, just under half contained mercury, and one-third had cadmium. The highest levels detected violated the state of Washington's limits but not federal limits. Lead can cause cognitive damage to children, harm the kidneys, and cause heart disease among other issues. ------------- **[This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops](https://www.wired.com/story/massive-blue-overwatch-ai-personas-police-suspects/):** American police departments near the US-Mexico border are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for Massive Blue's Overwatch technology, which uses AI-generated online personas to interact with and collect intelligence on "college protesters," "radicalized" political activists, and suspected drug and human traffickers. The New York-based company claims its product is an "AI-powered force multiplier for public safety," deploying lifelike virtual agents across various channels to engage with suspects over text messages and social media. The technology has not led to any known arrests, raising concerns about the potential invasion of privacy and violation of protesters' First Amendment rights. ------------- **[Passing planes and other whoosh sounds](https://www.windytan.com/2025/04/passing-planes-and-other-whoosh-sounds.html?m=1):** The article discusses the sound a plane makes when passing overhead and debunks the popular belief that it is solely due to the Doppler effect. Instead, the phenomenon known as "whoosh" is caused by the interference of two copies of the same sound arriving at slightly different times, forming a comb pattern in the spectrogram. This acoustic phenomenon can also occur with other sounds and requires three things: a structured noise source, an unobstructed echo from a nearby surface, and some kind of physical movement. The author hypothesizes that the ground below is responsible for this effect, as it reflects the sound back up to our ears. ------------- **[Encryption Is Not a Crime](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/04/11/encryption-is-not-a-crime/):** The article emphasizes that encryption is not a crime and serves as a shield, protecting individuals from various online threats. It argues against attempts to undermine or limit encryption, stating that such actions would harm everyone's privacy and security. The author also discusses the importance of end-to-end encryption and provides recommendations for supporting the right to encryption. ------------- **[TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale](https://www.afterbabel.com/p/industrial-scale-harm-tiktok):** The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether to block or delay a law that would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells the platform to a non-adversarial buyer. The case hinges on constitutional arguments related to national security and free speech, but it doesn't address the many harms TikTok is alleged to cause, particularly to children and adolescents. These harms include addictive use, mental health issues, exposure to inappropriate content, and exploitation. Internal company documents and legal briefs from 14 state attorneys general reveal that TikTok executives were aware of these issues but prioritized user engagement and profits over addressing them. The authors argue that the harms caused by TikTok are significant and widespread, and that the platform should be removed from American childhood. They also note that many teens feel trapped by TikTok's addictive nature and social pressures, and that a significant portion of Gen Z would prefer if TikTok never existed. The text emphasizes the need for societal action to protect children from the harms of TikTok and similar platforms. ------------- **[The Halting Problem is a terrible example of NP-Harder](https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/the-halting-problem-is-a-terrible-example-of-np/):** The article discusses the complexity classes in computation, specifically NP (the class of decision problems where a potential proof can be verified in polynomial time), NP-complete (the hardest possible NP problems), and NP-hard (all problems at least as hard as NP-complete). It explains that there is no clear distinction between NP and NP-hard, as the latter includes problems harder than NP-complete. The article then introduces a problem that may be PSPACE-complete (which isn't proven to be harder than NP-complete), but it could potentially become ACKERMANN-complete in higher dimensions, making it even more complex than NP. ------------- **[Daily Pill May Work as Well as Ozempic for Weight Loss and Blood Sugar](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/health/pill-glp-1-eli-lilly.html):** A daily pill form of GLP-1, orforglipron, has shown safety and efficacy data similar to popular injectable drugs Mounjaro and Ozempic in clinical trials. The drug may be as effective in lowering blood sugar and aiding weight loss for people with Type 2 diabetes. Orforglipron's results came from a trial involving 559 patients, who experienced blood sugar level reductions of 1.3-1.6% over a 40-week period, similar to those seen in Ozempic and Mounjaro trials. The weight loss achieved with the pill was also comparable to that seen in patients taking Ozempic but slightly less than with Mounjaro. Side effects were consistent with those experienced by users of injectable obesity drugs. ------------- **[Why I Cannot Be Technical](https://www.fightforthehuman.com/why-i-cannot-be-technical/):** The article discusses the author's experience as a psychologist in the software environment, and how they are often seen as "not technical" despite being knowledgeable about coding and other aspects of technology. They argue that the Technical label is structurally exclusionary and operates outside of actual problem-solving. The author also highlights the importance of rehumanization in tech, creating a space for hope and healing conversations around this topic. ------------- **[Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet](https://www.reuters.com/science/scientists-find-strongest-evidence-yet-life-an-alien-planet-2025-04-16/):** Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected chemical fingerprints of gases, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), in the atmosphere of a distant planet named K2-18 b. These gases are produced on Earth by living organisms such as microbial life like algae, suggesting the possibility of life beyond our solar system. The researchers emphasized that they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms but rather a possible biosignature and that further observations are needed for confirmation. This is considered a significant step in the search for extraterrestrial life outside our own solar system. ------------- **[Wer hat den Keks aus der Dose geklaut?](https://www.erzieherin-ausbildung.de/praxis/kindergarten-spiele-ideen-fuer-drinnen-und-draussen-kreisspiele/stuhlkreisspiel-wer-hat-den):** The article describes a game suitable for playing in a circle around a table. It promotes spoken language among children and is carried out by having the oldest child or teacher begin with a statement such as, "Johnny has stolen the cookie from the box!" The child then responds, "Who? Me?" and all participants answer, "Yes, you!" The child then points to another child and says, " ... (name) has stolen the cookie from the box!". This continues until each child is named once. It's important during this dialogue that children and adults clap hands rhythmically on their knees and in their hands, forming a sort of speaking song. The game can be played with children aged 3 years or older with assistance. ------------- **[Damn Vulnerable Model Context Protocol (DVMCP)](https://github.com/harishsg993010/damn-vulnerable-MCP-server):** The Damn Vulnerable Model Context Protocol (DVMCP) is a project designed to demonstrate security vulnerabilities in MCP implementations for educational purposes. It contains 10 challenges of increasing difficulty that showcase different types of vulnerabilities and attack vectors, such as prompt injection, tool poisoning, excessive permissions, and more. The project aims to teach security researchers, developers, and AI safety professionals about potential issues in MCP implementations and how to mitigate them. ------------- **[Gender Pay Gap kehrt sich um: IT-Freiberuflerinnen verdienen mehr als Männer](https://www.heise.de/news/Trendwende-bei-IT-Freelancern-Frauen-bekommen-neun-Prozent-mehr-Geld-als-Maenner-10354371.html?view=print):** The article discusses a study by freelance.de that shows women in IT earn more than men as freelancers, with an average hourly rate of 109 euros compared to 100 euros for men. This is a reversal of the trend outside of the IT sector, where male freelancers typically earn around 15% more per hour than women. Within the IT industry, 27% of freelancers experienced an increase in their hourly rate during the past year, while 15% reported a decrease. Overall, IT freelancers are generally satisfied with their financial situation and expect a 15% good project outlook for this year. However, they face challenges such as acquiring projects, legal issues like false self-employment, price dumping, taxation, and dependence on economic conditions. ------------- **[OpenGVLab/InternVL3-1B · Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/OpenGVLab/InternVL3-1B):** This article introduces the InternVL3, an advanced multimodal large language model (LLM) series that demonstrates superior overall performance. Compared to InternVL 2.5, InternVL3 exhibits superior multimodal perception and reasoning capabilities, while further extending its multimodal capabilities to encompass tool usage, GUI agents, industrial image analysis, 3D vision perception, and more. The article provides an overview of the model architecture, training strategy, evaluation on multimodal capability, ablation study, quick start guide, fine-tuning, deployment, and citation information. ------------- **[Poul-Henning Kamp (@bsdphk@fosstodon.org)](https://fosstodon.org/@bsdphk/114346662385723066):** The article discusses Poul-Henning Kamp's understanding of the security industry's concerns regarding the potential demise of MITRE's CVE register. He acknowledges that the CVE register was a prototype created in a world with 231 known security vulnerabilities and has since shown how big the problem is, highlighting that the IT-industry cannot solve it alone. The article also mentions that the register has unintentionally created fertile ground for organized crime with good intentions. ------------- **[CVE program averts swift end after CISA executes 11-month contract extension](https://www.csoonline.com/article/3963190/cve-program-faces-swift-end-after-dhs-fails-to-renew-contract-leaving-security-flaw-tracking-in-limbo.html):** The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to renew its funding contract for MITRE's Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program, potentially leading to a shutdown on April 16. However, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) intervened at the last minute to provide a bridge. CVE is a foundational pillar of the global cybersecurity ecosystem and serves as the primary source for identifying security flaws. ------------- **[Tract Postmortem](https://buildwithtract.com/):** Tract, founded in May 2023, aimed to address Britain's housing crisis by improving the planning permission process. After raising £744,000 in April 2024, the company explored various business models, including site-sourcing tools for developers, land appraisal tools for landowners, becoming tech-enabled land promoters, and an AI-powered platform to assist with drafting planning documents. Despite technical progress, the company faced challenges such as the conservatism of the property market, low willingness to pay for useful tools, and the difficulty of securing a viable business model. Ultimately, after nearly two years without revenue or committed paying customers, Tract decided to cease operations and return capital to investors. The company's journey highlighted several key lessons. They successfully raised capital for an unconventional business in a challenging sector and built good technology and solid products. However, they overestimated the British market's size and receptiveness, focused too much on technology over business development, and built a team too early. They also failed to capitalise on the success of their Scout tool and did not consult land agents early enough. The company's ultimate failure was attributed to a combination of internal and external factors, including the market's conservatism and fragmentation, which limited its potential for venture-backed disruption. The founders, Jamie Rumbelow and Henry Dashwood, provided advice for future entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of getting to the US market, choosing the right market, staying lean, being aggressively commercial, and testing hypotheses quickly and thoroughly. They also reflected on their personal experiences and lessons learned, including the challenges of remote work and the importance of maintaining high energy and urgency. In conclusion, Tract's experience serves as a case study in the challenges of building a venture-backed company in a conservative and fragmented market. The company's journey highlights the importance of market validation, staying lean, and being aggressively commercial, as well as the challenges of navigating a market that is resistant to change. ------------- **[We’re Raising Kids to Prefer AI Over People—and No One’s Noticing](https://substack.com/home/post/p-161454917):** The article discusses the growing trend of children preferring AI over people, and how this is not being noticed by many. It mentions that JavaScript is required to run the site correctly and provides a link for users to enable or unblock scripts on their browser if needed. ------------- **[Herb Tools](https://herb-tools.dev/):** Herb is a powerful and seamless HTML-aware ERB parsing tool that intelligently recognizes and navigates HTML structure within templates, ensuring precise parsing across interleaved markup and Ruby code. Built on Prism and designed to handle errors gracefully, Herb provides real-time responsiveness, accurate spacing preservation, and works seamlessly with Language Server Protocols (LSP). Released under the MIT License, it supports native binding for languages like Ruby, JavaScript/TypeScript, and more. ------------- **[Dirty tricks 6502 programmers use](https://nurpax.github.io/posts/2019-08-18-dirty-tricks-6502-programmers-use.html):** This post recaps some of the C64 coding tricks used in a competition where participants were tasked with making a Commodore 64 executable (PRG) that draws two lines to form an image. The objective was to do this in as few bytes as possible. Some participants used bit-packing techniques, unconventional control flow, and unconventional startups to optimize their code. ------------- **[bauplan documentation](https://docs.bauplanlabs.com/en/latest/):** Bauplan is a Pythonic data platform designed to handle large-scale data pipelines and git-for-data over S3 data lakes. It eliminates the need for an entire infrastructure team by providing functions as a service and allowing users to run ML workflows, AI applications, and data transformation pipelines in the cloud without managing any data infrastructure. The platform is designed with simplicity and robustness in mind, using serverless functions, Git-for-data, and Refs for versioning and reproducibility. It also offers features such as Pythonic design, working directly with tables in S3, CI/CD for data, SQL everywhere, and automatic testing and deployment of pipelines. Bauplan's use cases include running AI applications, ML workloads, and data pipelines to solve real-world problems. ------------- **[How to Optimize your Rust Program for Slowness](https://medium.com/@carlmkadie/how-to-optimize-your-rust-program-for-slowness-eb2c1a64d184):** The article discusses the process of making Rust programs slower and explores various techniques, including nested loops, Turing machines, tetration functions, and SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) on nightly compilers. It also presents a series of rule sets to create short programs that run for an extraordinarily long time, like infinite loop, finite memory with nested, fixed-range loops, infinite, zero-initialized memory with 5-state Turing machines, and plain Rust without Turing machine emulation. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of understanding the boundaries of computation, memory, and performance while exploring different methods to make programs slower or faster. ------------- **[No title found](https://getoutofmyhead.dev/handheld-friendly/):** The article discusses the HandheldFriendly meta tag, which was invented for the AvantGo web browser used on Palm Pilots between 2000-2009. Although the tag is no longer needed due to the rarity of users still using this device, it can still be found in some websites' HTML code. The author suggests that removing the tag will not negatively affect website compatibility for modern devices and encourages its removal from websites. ------------- **[A puzzle of two unreliable sensors](https://jacobbrazeal.wordpress.com/2025/04/16/the-puzzle-of-two-unreliable-sensors/):** The article discusses the challenges of estimating a value P with two unreliable sensors: Sensor A, which provides noisy measurements, and Sensor B, which sometimes returns the correct value and other times pure noise. It explores different weightings for combining sensor readings and finding an optimal strategy. The best results were achieved by using a non-linear mixing formula in the middle zone between the two cutoffs (|A-B|<0.367 and |A-B|>0.445), resulting in a mean absolute error of 0.1163. ------------- **[You cannot have our user's data](https://sourcehut.org/blog/2025-04-15-you-cannot-have-our-users-data/):** SourceHut has deployed [Anubis](https://anubis.techaro.lol) to protect itself from aggressive LLM crawlers. The platform aims to clarify how it views scraper behavior and how the data entrusted to it by users should be used. SourceHut's terms of service state that automated tools can access public data for archival or open-access research purposes, but not for profit or recruitment. In addition to this, the platform's robots.txt file also outlines its policies regarding scrapers. ------------- **[- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acKYYwcxpGk&t=7):** The article is about a study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and published in the journal Nature Climate Change. They have found that climate change could lead to an increase in airborne pollen allergies, affecting people with seasonal allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever. The study suggests that climate change will cause a shift in plant species' flowering patterns, resulting in longer and more intense allergy seasons. This could have significant implications on public health, particularly for individuals suffering from allergies to pollen. ------------- **[Homeland Security funding for CVE program expires](https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/homeland_security_funding_for_cve/):** The US government funding for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program, which is responsible for assigning unique CVE ID numbers to specific vulnerabilities, ends on April 16. The 25-year-old CVE program plays a crucial role in vulnerability management, helping companies, developers, researchers, and the public sector identify and fix bugs. Without continued funding, new CVEs may no longer be published, and the program's website may go offline. MITRE, which has a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security to operate the CVE program, confirmed that their arrangement has not been renewed. ------------- **[The physics of bowling strike after strike](https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/the-physics-of-bowling-strike-after-strike/):** A team of physicists has created a mathematical model to predict ball trajectories in bowling, taking into account factors such as the oil pattern on lanes and player variability. The researchers aimed to provide more accurate predictions compared to previous methods relying on statistical analysis of empirical data. The new model could potentially help bowlers improve their performance by understanding how different variables affect ball trajectory. ------------- **[Zukunftsprognosen: Internationale Energieagentur nimmt falsche Entwicklungen an](https://www.golem.de/news/zukunftsprognosen-internationale-energieagentur-nimmt-falsche-entwicklungen-an-2504-195385.html):** The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been accused of underestimating the potential of renewable energy and overstating CO2 reductions, leading to doubts about its independence. A study conducted at Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland found that the IEA's World Energy Outlook report consistently underestimates solar power growth rates, even though it considers both optimistic and pessimistic models. The researchers suspect that nuclear energy, biofuels, and fossil fuels with carbon capture are given undue importance in the report. Critics argue that the IEA's methodology for calculating projections is opaque, potentially delaying the transition away from fossil fuels. ------------- **[America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43692677):** The text is a discussion thread from Hacker News about the feasibility and desirability of bringing manufacturing back to the United States. Key points include: 1. **Economic Impact**: Manufacturing is viewed as crucial for defense and economic security. Some argue that tariffs could help bring manufacturing back, but others question their effectiveness. 2. **Labor and Skills**: There is a debate about the skills required for modern manufacturing jobs. Some argue that automation and technology have changed the nature of these jobs, making them less about manual labor and more about advanced skills. 3. **Competitive Advantage**: The discussion touches on whether the U.S. can compete globally in manufacturing, especially given the lower labor costs in countries like China. 4. **Tariffs and Trade**: There is skepticism about the effectiveness of tariffs in making U.S. manufacturing competitive. Some argue that tariffs could lead to higher costs for consumers and businesses. 5. **Historical Context**: The thread includes references to historical periods when manufacturing jobs were more prevalent and better-paying, but also acknowledges the significant changes in the global economy since then. 6. **Social and Economic Factors**: Participants discuss the social and economic challenges facing American workers, including the decline of unionized jobs and the need for better education and retraining programs. 7. **Alternative Solutions**: Some suggest that instead of focusing on manufacturing, the U.S. should invest in high-tech industries and education to ensure a competitive edge in the global economy. 8. **Practical Considerations**: There are practical considerations about the logistics and costs of bringing manufacturing back, including the need for significant investment in infrastructure and technology. Overall, the discussion reflects a nuanced view of the challenges and potential benefits of revitalizing U.S. manufacturing, with a mix of optimism and skepticism about the feasibility and desirability of such a move. ------------- **[How to win an argument with a toddler](https://seths.blog/2025/04/how-to-win-an-argument-with-a-toddler/):** This article discusses how to win an argument with a toddler, emphasizing that it is nearly impossible because toddlers do not understand arguments and are more interested in connection, noise, play-acting, or gaining status. An argument should lead to insight and conclusions, but toddlers may hold onto tantrums as a backup plan if they lose the argument. To engage in a productive conversation, ask open-ended questions about their strongly held positions or the information that could change their perspective. However, it is important not to argue over beliefs tied to one's identity. ------------- **[A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5355896/doge-nlrb-elon-musk-spacex-security):** The text discusses a serious allegation made by a whistleblower, Daniel Berulis, regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a unit led by Elon Musk, and its activities at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Berulis, an IT specialist at the NLRB, claims that DOGE engineers gained unauthorized access to sensitive data, disabled monitoring tools, and potentially exfiltrated confidential information. The data in question includes union organizing efforts, ongoing legal cases, and corporate secrets, which should never leave the NLRB according to labor law experts. Berulis' concerns were escalated after he noticed suspicious activities, including a spike in data leaving the agency and log-in attempts from a Russian IP address. Despite internal investigations, Berulis felt threatened and eventually disclosed his findings to Congress and other federal overseers. His disclosure includes forensic data and records of conversations with colleagues, providing evidence of DOGE's access and activities. The NLRB has denied granting DOGE access to its systems, but multiple sources across the government corroborate Berulis' concerns. The potential breach raises serious implications for worker rights and union activities, as the exposed data could be used to intimidate whistleblowers, influence legal strategies, and gain competitive advantages. The situation is further complicated by Elon Musk's potential conflicts of interest, given his involvement with companies like SpaceX that have ongoing cases with the NLRB. The text also highlights a broader pattern of DOGE gaining expansive access to sensitive data across various federal agencies, sparking legal challenges and concerns about privacy and cybersecurity. Berulis hopes that his disclosure will lead to further investigations into the mishandling of sensitive data across the federal government and provide a roadmap for others in similar positions. The NLRB has expressed willingness to cooperate with any resulting investigations. The overall message is one of alarm and urgency, highlighting the potential risks to government data and the need for transparency and accountability in DOGE's operations. ------------- **[America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back — Molson Hart](https://www.molsonhart.com/blog/america-underestimates-the-difficulty-of-bringing-manufacturing-back):** The article argues that the tariffs announced by President Trump in April 2025 will not work in bringing manufacturing back to the United States and may even make America poorer. It claims that many of these tariffs are too low, and there are a number of reasons why they won't be effective: America's industrial supply chain is weak, it doesn't know how to make some products, the cost of labor is higher than it seems, infrastructure is not up to par, made in America will take time to develop, tariffs create uncertainty and complexity, most Americans don't want manufacturing jobs, there isn't enough skilled labor to make good products, automation won't save the situation, the enforcement of tariffs will be uneven and manipulated, the tariff policies are structured in the wrong way, and Michael Jordan sucked at baseball. The article suggests that if the US wants manufacturing back, it should focus on fixing basic problems, make Americans healthy again, repair society, level the playing field for foreign companies selling in the United States, and grant manufacturing visas for knowhow rather than labor. ------------- **[I’m getting fed up of making the rich, richer - Andy Bell](https://bell.bz/im-getting-fed-up-of-making-the-rich-richer/):** The article discusses the author's thoughts and struggles with running [Set Studio](https://set.studio/), a creative agency, as they feel that their work isn't truly fulfilling their original intention of doing net good and giving back more than they take. They express dissatisfaction with marketing-oriented KPI-chasing work and want to change direction by focusing on projects that contribute to progressive change in society. The author plans to share the studio's work transparently and support progressive political movements by offering free web development services through an open collective funding platform. ------------- **[GitHub suffers a cascading supply chain attack compromising CI/CD secrets](https://www.infoworld.com/article/3849245/github-suffers-a-cascading-supply-chain-attack-compromising-ci-cd-secrets.html):** A sophisticated cascading supply chain attack has compromised multiple GitHub Actions, exposing critical CI/CD secrets across tens of thousands of repositories. The attack originated from an earlier breach of the "reviewdog/action-setup@v1" GitHub Action and targeted the widely used "tj-actions/changed-files" utility. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has acknowledged the issue, noting that it allows for information disclosure of secrets including valid access keys, GitHub Personal Access Tokens (PATs), npm tokens, and private RSA keys. The full extent of the compromise remains under investigation. ------------- **[Just a moment...](https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-scientists-protein-il-infection-brain.html):** There is no article provided to summarize. Please provide a valid article or text for summary. ------------- **[LLM bots + Next.js image optimization = recipe for bankruptcy (post-mortem) | Metacast Blog](https://metacast.app/blog/engineering/postmortem-llm-bots-image-optimization):** This article discusses an incident where a podcast tech startup, Metacast, faced a potential $7,000 bill due to bot traffic on their web app hosted on Vercel. LLM bots, such as Amazonbot, Claudebot, and Meta, scraped thousands of images that used Vercel's Image Optimization API, which cost $5 per 1,000 images optimized. The misconfiguration on the startup's side combined with aggressive bot traffic created an economically risky situation for their bootstrapped company. To mitigate the problem, Metacast disabled image optimization and blocked bots from Amazon, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta in Vercel's firewall rules. They also updated their robots.txt file to allow or block bots based on user agents. ------------- **[The industrialization of IT](https://benn.substack.com/p/the-industrialization-of-it):** The article discusses how the industrialization of software engineering could lead to a decrease in the demand for human engineers and an increase in automation. It compares the cost of hiring a junior engineer ($250,000 per year) with that of using an AI model like Gemini 2.5 Pro, which costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. The article argues that as technology advances and the capabilities of AI models improve, they will likely become more productive than human engineers, leading to a potential decrease in job opportunities for software developers. ------------- **[Understanding US Power Outages](https://www.construction-physics.com/p/understanding-us-power-outages):** The reliability of electric service in the US is heavily influenced by extreme weather events, with power outages being driven by a small number of intense occurrences. On average, the US has fewer than 400 minutes without power per customer each year, or around 15 minutes per customer. However, these figures mask significant regional variations and seasonal trends in power outages. Extreme events like hurricanes, winter storms, and wildfires have become more frequent over time, resulting in increased power outage durations. Power outages are typically localized to specific parts of the country and often a single state, with some areas experiencing consistently high rates of power outages due to factors like rural populations and varying energy demand levels. ------------- **[Nextcloud API: how to upload the files](https://medium.com/@denis.verkhovsky/nextcloud-api-how-to-upload-the-files-9caccc4a4a6c):** This article provides an overview of how to upload files using the Nextcloud API in Java programming language. It covers local file upload, input stream file upload, and chunking for larger files. The provided examples use the Nextcloud Java API client and Sardine lib. ------------- **[Some features that every JavaScript developer should know in 2025](https://waspdev.com/articles/2025-04-06/features-that-every-js-developer-must-know-in-2025):** The article highlights various important features of JavaScript, both old and new, that many developers might not be aware of. Some of these include iterator helpers for more memory-efficient transformations, the Array.prototype.at() method for negative indexing, Promise.withResolvers(), string replacement callbacks, swapping variables, structuredClone(), tagged templates, WeakMap/WeakSet, set operations, and isDisjointFrom/isSubsetOf/isSupersetOf methods for Set objects. ------------- **[OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry](https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-is-a-systemic-risk-to-the-tech-industry-2/):** OpenAI is in a dire financial situation due to its unsustainable business model and escalating costs. The company needs to raise billions of dollars annually to cover its expenses, but its primary source of funding, SoftBank, is struggling to meet its obligations. Additionally, OpenAI is heavily dependent on Microsoft for compute resources, but Microsoft has significantly reduced its data center investments. OpenAI's future expansion plans rely on unproven startups like Crusoe and Core Scientific, which lack the experience and resources to build the necessary AI infrastructure. The collapse of OpenAI could have systemic effects on the tech industry, including companies like NVIDIA, Oracle, and CoreWeave. The author argues that the generative AI industry, heavily reliant on OpenAI, is unsustainable and that the hype around AI is built on faulty economics. ------------- **[Censors Ignore Unencrypted HTTP/2 Traffic](https://upb-syssec.github.io/blog/2024/http2/):** This article discusses the use of unencrypted HTTP/2 as a method for censorship circumvention. Unencrypted HTTP/2 is not censored in China and Iran, which are known for their widespread HTTP/1.1 censorship. Up to 6.28% of servers support unencrypted HTTP/2, with smaller servers and censored domains showing higher support than large websites. However, the authors caution against using unencrypted HTTP/2 due to its lack of protection for sensitive data. ------------- **[Engineers who won’t commit](https://www.seangoedecke.com/taking-a-position/):** The article emphasizes the importance of taking a position in technical discussions, especially when you have more context or technical skill than your peers. It warns against the dangers of remaining non-committal as it can force others to make decisions without proper guidance and may lead to bad ideas being pushed by those with less technical knowledge. However, it acknowledges that sometimes avoiding commitment is necessary in certain company environments where engineers face unfair consequences for not meeting estimates. The author concludes by encouraging engineers to make commitments when they're the most informed person in the room and recommends being open to uncertainty while still advocating for their decisions. ------------- **[Kotlin, Swift, and Ruby losing popularity – Tiobe index](https://www.infoworld.com/article/3956262/kotlin-swift-and-ruby-losing-popularity-tiobe-index.html):** The Kotlin, Swift, and Ruby languages have dropped from their top 20 positions in the Tiobe index of programming language popularity. All three seem to have lost traction and are likely to go out of fashion. Kotlin and Swift have declined due to being mainly used for mobile platforms, while Python has become the lingua franca of the programming world. ------------- **[Global rename and find references](https://gleam.run/news/global-rename-and-find-references/):** Gleam is a type-safe and scalable language for the Erlang virtual machine and JavaScript runtimes. The latest version, v1.10.0, has been released with various improvements including a project-wide call reference graph, improved exhaustiveness analysis, operator analysis improvements, bit array improvements, JavaScript codegen performance improvements, cross platform deployment artefacts, fill unused fields code action, improve JSON encoder generation code action, remove echo code action, wrap in block code action, security and compliance updates, and a call for support. ------------- **[Quick Primer on Model Context Protocol (MCP)](https://www.polarsparc.com/xhtml/MCP.html):** The text provides a comprehensive guide on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard for integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) with enterprise tools and data sources. Here's a summary of the key points: **Overview of LLM Evolution:** - Early LLM apps were limited to tasks like text generation and sentiment analysis, relying solely on pre-trained data. - The integration of vector stores allowed LLMs to retrieve contextual knowledge, enhancing their capabilities. - The introduction of agentic frameworks like LangChain enabled automation in enterprise environments, but lacked a standard for tools integration. **Introduction to MCP:** - MCP is an open protocol designed to facilitate seamless integration between LLM apps and external data sources/tools. - It acts as an intermediary layer, allowing different agentic frameworks to connect with enterprise tools consistently. **MCP Components:** - **MCP Server:** Connects to data sources and tools, exposing specific capabilities to LLM apps. - **MCP Client:** Interacts with MCP Servers in a standardized manner. - **MCP Host:** The LLM app that uses the MCP Client to access MCP Servers. **Installation and Setup:** - The setup involves installing necessary software (Python, Ollama) on a Ubuntu-based Linux desktop. - The Ollama platform is started using Docker, and the LLM model (IBM Granite 3.1) is downloaded. - Required Python modules are installed for hands-on demonstrations. **Hands-on Demonstrations:** - **Simple Interest Calculation:** An MCP Server is created to compute simple and compound interest. An LLM app (MCP Host) uses this server to perform interest calculations. - **Multiple Tools Integration:** Another MCP Server is created to execute shell commands. The LLM app demonstrates using multiple tools from different MCP servers. - **Transport Modes:** The demonstrations cover two transport modes: Standard IO (stdio) and Server Sent Events (sse). The sse mode uses a web server with SSE enabled. **Conclusion:** - The text concludes with successful demonstrations of LLM apps communicating with MCP servers using both transport modes, highlighting the effectiveness of the MCP framework for building and deploying agentic LLM applications. **References:** - The text mentions the Model Context Protocol Documentation as a reference for further reading. In essence, the MCP provides a standardized way to integrate LLMs with enterprise tools, enhancing their automation capabilities and contextual understanding. ------------- **[Everything Wrong with MCP](https://blog.sshh.io/p/everything-wrong-with-mcp):** The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has rapidly grown into the de-facto standard for integrating third-party data and tools with LLM-powered chats and agents. However, there are several nuanced vulnerabilities and limitations associated with MCP usage. Some of these issues include authentication complexity, user interface design, tool integration potential risks, and inadequate benchmarks for evaluating LLMs' abilities to use MCP server tools. The ideal protocol should ensure the 'happy path' is inherently secure, while a great application educates users about potential pitfalls and safeguards them from common issues.