GoKawiil
Tech News
Researchers report the discovery of an instrument in Egypt believed to have been used for land surveying in antiquity. The find offers physical evidence of the measurement techniques ancient Egyptians relied on for construction and land division.
A Nature feature examines how education systems and researchers are working to protect schooling and academic activity in regions affected by war. It underscores the disruption conflict causes to students, teachers, and institutions, and points to initiatives aimed at preserving learning continuity.
Researcher Matthew Callaghan discovered AliExpress running hidden scripts that generate silent, inaudible sound waves through the WebAudio API to create a unique fingerprint of each visitor's browser. He noticed the tracking only because it interfered with his multipoint Bluetooth headphones, cutting off phone audio whenever the AliExpress tab was open. The scripts muted the sound with a zero gain setting so users would never notice, but the browser still processed and transmitted the audio data back to the site.
A developer released GlassBox, a Show HN project that runs live in a browser to capture the same fingerprinting signals used by tracking and anti-fraud scripts, then displays them to the user instead of hiding them. Users can also paste a JSON report from another browser or session to compare fingerprints, and GlassBox scores similarity to indicate whether the two reports likely come from the same machine, engine family, or browser.