How to stop AI from using you

Hey there! Its November 5th today—remember, remember—and today in 2007 the Android mobile operating system was released to the public. Big day for everyone who loves solving Hellraiser puzzles to unlock their home screen (so much swiping!). Today, Android has a 71.85% market share of mobile operating systems.

Right. Well. Shall we?

📰 News Roundup

UnitedHealth Data Breach Leaks 100 Million User’s Info

The healthcare giant UnitedHealth suffered a data breach back in February of this year and, just now, is telling the public. Hacker group Blackcat—who have a super cool name and I’m definitely not making fun of them—have claimed responsibility. The private data of over 100 million people was breached, including names, addresses, social security numbers, billing information, prescription information and… well… all the things, ultimately affecting almost 1 in every 4 people in America even though UnitedHealth reportedly did pay a $22m ransom. It’s the largest data breach on the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Breach Report list. More like UnitedHELL, amirite?

Your Phone Still Tracks Everything You Do, In A Different Way Than You’d Expect

In news ripped straight from the front page of “Duh” Magazine, it was reported by Ars Technica that your phone is tracking your every move. But not in the way you might think. A very interesting court case in Virginia centered on the doxxing of a police officer unearthed the ability of firms like Babel Street (named in the case) to detect where you’ve been based on phone data… created by ad networks. If you’ve given any sort of permission in your browser to share your data, you’re probably at risk. Pretty much anyone can ask for this data and get away with it; the Ars Technica report is well worth a read.

Russian Coders Doxxed from Linux A-List

For a certain kind of person, being on certain Linux kernel maintenance lists is sort of like being in a cushy country club; its a highly desirable position that you don’t want to lose. Because Linux touches so much, and because kernels need relatively constant upkeep, these maintenance lists are a pretty sweet nerd flex. So when one of the major kernel maintenance lists purged Russian coders… a lot of people noticed. Since Linux is open-source… meaning anyone can contribute… the removal goes against a lot of what “the open internet” (whatever that is / was) stands for. The reason for the removal? Linus Torvalds, the Finnish-American creator of Linux, is concerned about “Russian troll factories” and their ability to easily ruin Linux kernels with malicious patches.

How to Stop AI From Using You

Wired Magazine has printed an absolute banger of an article about how to stop AI from using your content and creations to train itself. Pretty much everywhere you post on the reg (BUT NOT EE) scans your text and teaches its LLMs, including X/Twitter, Adobe, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Squarespace, Hubspot, and ChatGPT itself. But: help is at hand. You can opt out—some processes are easier than others—and Wired will let you know how to do so.

👨‍💻 Job Opportunities

Backend Engineering Lead for Flywheel Product at Hubspot Want to lead an elite team of coders at Hubspot, while still being hands-on in the code? This gig looks fantastic if marketing, sales, and hubs (we’re assuming) are your jam. Great job if you’re looking to add leadership to your resume.

System Engineer at Cloudflare You know how every 6-9 months there’s something in the news about “Cloudflare error makes the whole internet go down for a few hours”? Well, you could be the person to make that not happen again. Not all heroes wear capes.

Software Engineer at Spark Growing up, maybe you dreamed one day of being the software engineer for an independent Medicare brokerage company. Well, if that was you, now is the time to shoot your shot. The job starts at a plum $140k a year and calls for 3+ years experience in Python.

Front End Engineer at Credo AI How do you responsibly build AI? Credo AI says that is their mission. And they are looking for a Software Engineer who shares that vision. Do you have the precision and the ambition for this (awesome) position? It’s your decision. That was fun thanks y’all.

 🛩 Industry Moves

Stripe Acquires Stablecoin Platform 

Stripe—the payments company—has acquired Bridge—a stablecoin company—for $1.1b—making it the largest crypto acquisition ever. Bridge was previously evaluated at $200m so this… uh… it’s not like crypto has ever had a problem with overvaluation, right? Stripe recently reinstated crypto payments, as of this month, via USDC on Ethereum, Solana and Polygon, so this does make lateral sense for Stripe.

Siemens Grebs Altair Engineering

Altair Engineering makes AI software for the automotive, aerospace, and energy industries. Siemens AG makes… AG’s? Either way, the $80b+ German conglomerate is looking to buy the Troy, Michigan based company for an undisclosed amount which is German for “a lot, probably.”

Sophos Buys Secureworks for $859m

So, there was a guy at cybersecurity firm Sophos who thought to himself “Huh, I’ll buy a company” and spent $859m on Secureworks, so that Sophos “could strengthen its cybersecurity portfolio for its enterprise customers” (according to Reuters). That’s how big business works. The same way you and I buy burritos, some folks buy companies. Mind blowing.

💽 Data Upload

Creating PDF File From Word Document Using Coldfusion

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Need to Convert older Linux Google Java Maps to a version that could be viewed on a Windows PC

It’s been real, everyone. We’ll keep doing this until they find out where the hideout is. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you again next time!

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