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Telephone Exchanges in the UK

For more than a century the telephone exchange has formed the backbone of our telecommunications system. A vast array of more than 5,500 mostly nondescript buildings sit unnoticed on city, town or village streets, and quietly link up more than 254 million kilometres of cables and wires – keeping people in the UK connected to each other and the rest of the world. Since the first telephone exchange was established in London in 1879 with just eight subscribers, these anonymous looking buildings ha

Over 46,000 Grafana instances exposed to account takeover bug

More than 46,000 internet-facing Grafana instances remain unpatched and exposed to a client-side open redirect vulnerability that allows executing a malicious plugin and account takeover. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2025-4123 and impacts multiple versions of the open-source platform used for monitoring and visualizing infrastructure and application metrics. The vulnerability was discovered by bug bounty hunter Alvaro Balada and was addressed in security updates that Grafana Labs released on May

Meta-analysis of three different notions of software complexity

A meta-analysis of three different notions of software complexity I want to discuss three different notions of software complexity: Rich Hickey’s notion of complexity, as explained in his talk Simple Made Easy. John Ousterhout’s notion of complexity, as explained in his book A Philosophy of Software Design. Zach Tellman’s notion of complexity, as explained in his newsletter Explaining Software Design. I’ve picked these three because I’ve found them to be at least somewhat coherent, and the

The Space Station Leak Is Rearing Its Ugly Head Again

Space Draft Space tourism company Axiom Space has had to postpone its fourth chartered SpaceX flight to the International Space Station after NASA announced it needs more time to investigate an air leak affecting the orbital lab. For five years, NASA and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos have been hunting down leaks in the station, which has been continuously occupied for 25 years. The issue has since been traced back to the Russian segment of the ISS, specifically the Zvezda service module, a

Answering the Nintendo Switch 2’s lingering accessibility questions

One of the biggest surprises of the Nintendo Switch 2’s reveal was its proposed accessibility. For years, Nintendo has been known for accidentally stumbling on accessibility solutions while stubbornly refusing to engage with the broader subject. Yet, in the Switch 2, there appeared a more holistic approach to accessibility for which disabled players have been crying out. This was supported by a webpage dedicated to the Switch 2’s hardware accessibility. However, specifics were thin and no furth

U.S. Army bringing in big tech executives as lieutenant colonels

Four senior executives of tech giants like Meta and Palantir are being sworn into the Army Reserve as direct-commissioned officers at the unusually high rank of lieutenant colonel as part of a new program to recruit private-sector experts to speed up tech adoption. The Army calls the program to recruit Silicon Valley executives Detachment 201: The Army’s Executive Innovation Corps. One of the executives, Andrew Bosworth of Meta (formerly Facebook) posted on X that the “201” monicker was a nod t

The fastest way to detect a vowel in a string

Austin Z. Henley Associate Teaching Professor Carnegie Mellon University [email protected] @austinzhenley github/AZHenley The fastest way to detect a vowel in a string 6/13/2025 I was nerdsniped recently: What is the best way to detect if a string has a vowel in it? This is trivial, right? But as I started getting into it, I realized there is much more to this. I challenged myself to come up with as many ways to detect a vowel as possible. I even asked a few friends to give it a go. Whi

Powering next-gen services with AI in regulated industries

For many, the “last mile” of the end-to-end customer journey can present a challenge. Services at this stage often involve much more complex interactions than the usual app or self-service portal can handle. This could be dealing with a challenging health diagnosis, addressing late mortgage payments, applying for government benefits, or understanding the lifestyle you can afford in retirement. “When we get into these more complex service needs, there’s a real bias toward human interaction,” says

Show HN: Tattoy – a text-based terminal compositor

About Tattoy can generally be thought of as a framework for adding eye-candy to your terminal. It is purely text-based so works in any terminal emulator that supports true colour. "Graphics" is rendered with UTF8 half-blocks (▀,▄). Whilst most of its effects are for getting you street credibility it also has more powerful features based around its awareness of terminal contents. For example it can detect and auto adjust text contrast whilst remaining faithful to the terminal's palette. Tattoy

OxCaml - a set of extensions to the OCaml programming language.

Let’s talk about what this means! OxCaml’s extensions are meant to make OCaml a great language for performance engineering. Performance engineering requires control, and we want that control to be: Safe. Safety is a critical feature for making programmers more productive, and for shipping correct code. Languages that are pervasively unsafe are too hard to use correctly. Convenient. We want to provide control without bewildering programmers, or drowning them in endless annotations. To achieve

If You Own an Xbox Series X/S, You Can Buy an Official 2TB Expansion Card for 40% Off on Amazon

If you own an Xbox Series X or S, you’re already aware of how quickly your storage fills up with new games. Expansions are inevitable and the Seagate Expansion Card SSD is designed specifically for these Microsoft consoles which makes it perfect for gamers who want to maintain their library within reach without sacrificing performance. Amazon currently has this must-have accessory on sale for a low of $219, down from a list price of $360. That’s a 39% discount (just barely within Black Friday t

9 Best 2-in-1 Laptops (2025), Tested and Reviewed

A 2-in-1 is a laptop that can go from a standard clamshell laptop configuration to a tablet setup. Over the years, there are really two types of designs that fall into this category: the convertible 2-in-1 laptop and the detachable tablet. Laptops with rotating displays—also called convertibles—use a 360-degree hinge that can position the screen flat, in “tent” mode, or flush against the underside of the laptop. Think of this as a touchscreen clamshell laptop with a fancy hinge. The flexibility

USDOT wants more self-driving cars without pedals or steering wheels

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. The US Department of Transportation wants to make it easier for automakers and tech companies to deploy self-driving cars without traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals. In a letter sent to stakeholders, the department said it would streamline reviews of requests for exemptions from safety rules requiring vehi

It's About Darn Time: Apple Will Finally Screen Your Calls and Messages

There's one big feature I'm looking forward to in iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and MacOS Tahoe 26, and it's one that Apple should have added ages ago: call and text screening. It could do more than keep me from talking to strangers -- it could keep me safe from scammers looking to steal my information or my identity. Similar to features from Google and Samsung, Apple's Call Screening vets unknown callers by checking what they want before sending them your way. The company announced the capability at its W

Show HN: McWig – A modal, Vim-like text editor written in Go

McWig (temporary name) Hi! Welcome to my text editor page. McWig is a modal, Vim-like text editor written in Go. I use it as my daily driver, btw. Note: McWig currently supports only .go files. Do not edit files that are not backed up. McWig is still in an early stage of development and may damage your files. Features LSP autocomplete, goto definition, hover info Tree-sitter support Color themes (borrowed from the Helix text editor) Lots of bugs Macro support Something like Emacs org-mo

Rendering Crispy Text on the GPU

It’s not the first time I’ve fallen down the rabbit-hole of rendering text in real time. Every time I’ve looked into it an inkling of dissatisfaction always remained, either aliasing, large textures, slow build times, minification/magnification, smooth movement, etc. Last time I landed on a solution using Multi-Channel Signed Distance Fields (SDFs) which was working well. However there was still a few things that bothered me and I just needed a little excuse to jump back into the topic. That e

Inside a Dark Adtech Empire Fed by Fake CAPTCHAs

Late last year, security researchers made a startling discovery: Kremlin-backed disinformation campaigns were bypassing moderation on social media platforms by leveraging the same malicious advertising technology that powers a sprawling ecosystem of online hucksters and website hackers. A new report on the fallout from that investigation finds this dark ad tech industry is far more resilient and incestuous than previously known. In November 2024, researchers at the security firm Qurium publishe

Instagram May Soon Let You Rearrange Your Grid. What to Know

If you like to keep your Instagram profile as more of a personal photo album and less of a public bulletin board, Instagram's upcoming feature is for you. Instagram will let users quietly post to your profile without broadcasting it to your followers, the company said on Thursday. Instagram also said it would let you rearrange your profile grid. It's not clear how either feature will work yet. Static posts and Reels have historically appeared in chronological order on Instagram, so this could o

Show HN: Vim-like text editor in go. (LSP, TreeSitter, Themes)

McWig (temporary name) Hi! Welcome to my text editor page. McWig is a modal, Vim-like text editor written in Go. I use it as my daily driver, btw. Note: McWig currently supports only .go files. Do not edit files that are not backed up. McWig is still in an early stage of development and may damage your files. Features LSP autocomplete, goto definition, hover info Tree-sitter support Color themes (borrowed from the Helix text editor) Lots of bugs Macro support Something like Emacs org-mo

Coinbase beefs up subscription plan by offering it with American Express credit card

Coinbase on Thursday introduced its first branded credit card in partnership with American Express . The card will be available exclusively to U.S. members of Coinbase One, the cryptocurrency platform's monthly subscription product that offers zero trading fees, increased staking rewards and other perks. Additionally, Coinbase is also creating a lower-cost "Basic" subscription tier. Cardholders will be able to earn between 2% and 4% back in bitcoin , beginning this fall, and take advantage of

There's a Giant Problem With SpaceX's Starlink Satellites

Astronomers' attempts to peer into the earliest reaches of the universe could be threatened by thousands of SpaceX Starlink satellites leaking radio emissions that ruin observations made with highly sensitive telescopes. As New Scientist reports, a team of researchers led by Curtin University radio astronomy professor Steven Tingay tracked the signals of almost 2,000 Starlink satellites, with the help of a prototype telescope from the Square Kilometre Array, which is currently under constructio

Do Whole Body Vibration Plates Actually Promote Weight Loss? We Asked Fitness Experts

Countless weight loss and fitness trends have come and gone over the years, from gimmicky products that provided minimal results to science-backed health tools that genuinely worked. You may remember the vibrating belt machines from the mid-20th century that were promoted as weight loss aids. Trends often cycle back around, so it's relatively unsurprising that vibration plates are re-emerging as the latest fitness trend once again. Some claim they are an excellent alternative workout method with

NASA Is Worth Saving

Casey Handmer June 2025 Download a printable PDF. NASA was founded in 1958 in response to Sputnik and the emerging necessity of a robust, government supported space exploration and technology development program to safeguard US interests in space. NASA embodies the US ideals of optimism and technical excellence. I was privileged to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for four years, among titans of the industry. It is clear, however, that today’s NASA is but a shadow of its former self.

Google Has a New AI-Weather Model for Cyclones. Should Experts Trust It?

On Thursday, Google announced a new advancement powered by artificial intelligence that could change the way we predict hurricanes. Weather Lab is an interactive website that shows live and historic AI weather models, including its latest tropical cyclone model, which includes hurricanes. It was developed by Google DeepMind, the company's London-based AI research lab. The cyclone model can predict the formation, track, intensity, size and shape of the storm. And it can create 50 possible scenar

Roame (YC S23) Is Hiring

About Roame Our mission is to make travel perfect. Roame is a flight search engine using credit card points and miles. More than $69 billion worth of points issued every year. We empower over 1 million travelers to maximize the value of their points and miles. We are backed by top investors including Y Combinator, Goodwater, Accel’s starters fund, and angel investors including the leading figure within points. The Role We are hiring for a Lead Full Stack Engineer who thrives in a fast-paced,

First thoughts on o3 pro

As “leaked”, OpenAI cut o3 pricing by 80% today (from $10/$40 per mtok to $2/$8 - matching GPT 4.1 pricing!!) to set the stage of the launch of o3-pro ($20/$80, supporting an unverified community theory that the -pro variants are 10x base model calls with majority voting as referenced in their papers and in our Chai episode). o3-pro reports a 64% win rate vs o3 on human testers and does marginally better on 4/4 reliability benchmarks, but as sama noticed, the actual experience expands when you t

This AI Writing Detector Shows Its Work. For Me, It's a Step in the Right Direction

This article was written by an actual, flesh-and-blood human -- me -- but an increasing amount of the text and video content you come across online is not. It's coming from generative AI tools, which have gotten pretty good at creating realistic-sounding text and natural-looking video. So, how do you sort out the human-made from the robotic? The answer is more complicated than that urban legend about the overuse of em-dashes would have you believe. Lots of people write with an (over)abundance o

Snapchat’s latest subscription tier will get you ‘hundreds’ of lenses

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Snapchat has launched a new subscription tier that offers access to a wider selection of lenses and augmented-reality experiences. The Lens Plus subscription costs $8.99 per month and will include lenses made by Snapchat and “select” creators to start, such as an exclusive AI-powered video lens and a Bitmoji game lens. Along with access to “hundred