Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: AI software assistants make the hardest kinds of bugs to spot; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/04/bad-vibe-coding/
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: AI software assistants make the hardest kinds of bugs to spot; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/04/bad-vibe-coding/
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Hey, German-speakers! Through a very weird set of circumstances, I ended up owning the rights to the German audiobook of my bestselling 2022 cryptocurrency heist technothriller Red Team Blues and now I'm selling DRM-free audio and ebooks, along with the paperback (all in German and English) on a Kickstarter that runs until August 11:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-auf-deutsche-drm-freie
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AI software assistants make the hardest kinds of bugs to spot: Errors that are tuned to be statistically indistinguishable from correct code.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114970841851258289
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Hey look at this
* How 'paper terrorism' hijacked a state system with bogus claims https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-30/fake-filings-real-consequences-how-paper-terrorism-is-burying-a-state-system-with-bogus-claims (h/t Super Punch)
* The Right of Return, from Arkansas to Israel https://coreyrobin.com/2025/08/02/the-right-of-return-from-arkansas-to-israel/
* We Need a Strategy to Win Zohran’s Agenda. Call It Plan Z. https://jacobin.com/2025/08/zohran-bernie-party-power-strategy/
* Bottom of the Rabbit Hole https://welovetheswitch.com/theswitch/episodes/
* The Ancient Order of Bali https://www.damninteresting.com/the-ancient-order-of-bali/ (h/t Pete Harbeson)
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#10yrsago NSA conducted commercial espionage against Japanese government and businesses https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/wikileaks-says-us-spied-on-another-ally----this-time-japan/2015/07/31/893e1207-9b4e-4c88-80ad-c8eb79f8df2e_story.html
#10yrsago Windows 10 defaults to keylogging, harvesting browser history, purchases, and covert listening https://www.bgr.com/general/windows-10-upgrade-spying-how-to-opt-out/
#10yrsago UK ECHELON journalist: “Snowden proved spies need accountability” https://theintercept.com/2015/08/03/life-unmasking-british-eavesdroppers/
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#10yrsago Proof-of-concept firmware worm targets Apple computers https://www.wired.com/2015/08/researchers-create-first-firmware-worm-attacks-macs/
#10yrsago What happened when we got subpoenaed over our Tor exit node https://memex.craphound.com/2015/08/04/what-happened-when-we-got-subpoenaed-over-our-tor-exit-node/
#10yrsago EFF and coalition announce new Do Not Track standard for the Web https://www.eff.org/press/releases/coalition-announces-new-do-not-track-standard-web-browsing
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#10yrsago 3D maps of London Underground stations https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/3d-maps-of-every-underground-station-hijklm-14683/
#10yrsago Open “Chromecast killer” committed suicide-by-DRM https://www.techdirt.com/2015/08/04/matchstick-more-open-chromecast-destroyed-drm-announces-plans-to-return-all-funds/
#10yrsago Privatized, for-profit immigration detention centers force detainees to work for $1-3/day https://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-detention-immigration-workers-20150803-story.html
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#5yrsago Google acquires major stake in ADT https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#vertical-integration
#5yrsago Jack Dorsey's interop plan https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#jack-giant-killer
#5yrsago Collective Action In Tech For Black Lives Matter https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#anti-racist-tech
#5yrsago Papercraft Addams Family house https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#neat-sweet-petite
#5yrsago Google acquires major stake in ADT https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#vertical-integration
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#5yrsago Collective Action In Tech For Black Lives Matter https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#anti-racist-tech
#5yrsago Papercraft Addams Family house https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#neat-sweet-petite
#5yrsago Google acquires major stake in ADT https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#vertical-integration
#5yrsago Jack Dorsey's interop plan https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#jack-giant-killer
#5yrsago Collective Action In Tech For Black Lives Matter https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/04/attack-surface-preview/#anti-racist-tech
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#5yrsago The sordid tale of We Charity https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/03/turnkey-authoritarianism/#we-charity
#5yrsago A universal remote for killing people https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/03/turnkey-authoritarianism/#minimed
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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
--
My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
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Upcoming appearances:
* #SanDiego: ACM Collective Intelligence keynote, Aug 5
https://ci.acm.org/2025/speakers/cory-doctorow/
* #Ithaca: AD White keynote (Cornell), Sep 12
https://deanoffaculty.cornell.edu/events/keynote-cory-doctorow-professor-at-large/
* #DC: Enshittification at Politics and Prose, Oct 8
https://politics-prose.com/cory-doctorow-10825
* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25
* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/
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A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate