- Remote Stands, Bus Boarding, and Last-Minute Gates: A Tale of Two Airport Systems (Gad’s Newsletter)
- Palantir Is Extending Its Reach Even Further Into Government (Wired)
- PHP – The Toyota Corolla Of Programming (De Programmatica Ipsum)
- US Nuclear Weapons Return to UK After 2008 Withdrawal: Reports (The Defense Post)
- North Korean spies posing as remote workers have infiltrated hundreds of companies, says CrowdStrike (TechCrunch)
The scheme relies on North Koreans using false identities, resumes, and work histories to gain employment and earn money for the regime, as well as allowing access for the workers to steal data from the companies they work for and later extort them. The aim is to generate funds for North Korea’s sanctioned nuclear weapons program, which has so far made billions of dollars for the regime to date.
Category: Technology
Tuesday texts to read – 6
- Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors? (Washington Post)
- Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85 billion mega U.S. railroad deal (CNBC)
- The Leverage Arbitrage: Why Everything Feels Broken (Tushar Dadlani’s Blog)
- Allianz Life says ‘majority’ of customers’ personal data stolen in cyberattack (TechCrunch) – It is really starting to feel like a permanent personal data monitoring service is a good investment.
- EU-US trade deal: The biggest losers and (a few) winners (Politico)
- Boeing aims for Max 7 and Max 10 certifications in 2026 (FlightGlobal)
“We are continuing to mature the technical solution for engine anti-ice and the certification path for the [Max 7 and 10],” Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg said in a 29 July memo to employees. “Progress on this solution has taken longer than we expected, and we now anticipate that certification for the airplanes will take place next year.”
I won’t hold my breath.
Tuesday texts to read – 5
- Trump says he wants to deport ‘the worst of the worst.’ Government data tells another story (Associated Press)
- NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft Begins Taxi Tests (NASA)
- What Will Become of the C.I.A.? (The New Yorker)
- Shale Drillers Turn Against Each Other as Toxic Water Leaks Hit Biggest US Oil Field (Financial Post)
- ACWA Power plans to develop 15 GW of wind and solar capacity in Saudi Arabia (Enerdata)
- How one man with a hacksaw and an e-bike became a Texas flood ‘hero’ (electrek)
In addition to delivering needed supplies, Evan has often found himself moving something even more important: information. “I’ve flagged down medics. I’ve been the guy that goes between Austin EMT and STAR Flight because I’m quicker than cell phones sometimes, people don’t have signal a lot of the time.”
Evan quickly points out that he isn’t the only one helping. “I’ve got an e-bike, but other people are pulling carts. People are walking, people are carrying things. Everyone is doing what they can.” But there’s no doubt that his ability to carry more gear at higher speeds and make hundreds of round-trip journeys so far in and out of the stricken neighborhood has helped impact countless lives.
Alaska Airlines asked for a 3-hour ground stop
Yesterday, July 20, 2025, Alaska Airlines asked the FAA for a ground stop for all of their flights starting around 8pm Pacific. There were rumors of a hack, but the airlines has not confirmed or denied that claim. There was a report that the airline suffered a hack back in June but again, there is no information pointing to it being a cause of this latest issue. Whatever the cause, the ground stop lasted until 11pm Pacific and it’s clear the effects on operations will be felt by the airline for at least the next couple of days.
If you have a flight on Alaska over the next few days, be prepared for irritated customers and potential delays as the airline tries to get crews back into place and recover from the issue.
My favorite portable battery for travel
I have carried portable batteries when traveling for a while, but back in 2020, just before Covid, I was trying to lighten my carry-on and it made me realize how heavy the Anker portable battery I had was. Sure, it could recharge my phone three times, but it also weighed a few pounds.
Fast forward to 2023 and I was starting to travel again and in the market for a lightweight battery. I came across the Nitecore NB10000 Gen 2. It is a super lightweight 10000mAh battery, smaller than my iPhone but still able to give me two full charges. The shell of the battery is carbon fiber so I don’t have to worry about it getting punctured or bent and damaging the battery.
Nitecore now has a Gen 3 version of the battery that has two USB-C output ports instead of one USB-C and one USB-A.
*Disclaimer, the links above lead to Amazon and I receive compensation if you buy the product with that link. If you would like to purchase directly from Nitecore with no affiliate benefit to me, you can do that here.
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database funding ending
From The Register —
The 25-year-old CVE program plays a huge role in vulnerability management. It is responsible overseeing the assignment and organizing of unique CVE ID numbers, such as CVE-2014-0160 and CVE-2017-5754, for specific vulnerabilities, in this case OpenSSL’s Heartbleed and Intel’s Meltdown, so that when referring to particular flaws and patches, everyone is agreed on exactly what we’re all talking about.
It is used by companies big and small, developers, researchers, the public sector, and more as the primary system for identifying and squashing bugs. When multiple people find the same hole, CVEs are useful for ensuring everyone is working toward that one specific issue.
It basically works like this: When an individual researcher or an organization discovers a new bug in some product, a CVE program partner — there are currently a few hundred across 40 countries — is asked to assess the vulnerability report and assign a unique CVE identifier for the flaw if and as necessary.
The program is sponsored, and largely funded by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, aka CISA, under the umbrella of the US Department of Homeland Security. It appears MITRE has been paid roughly $30 million since 2023 to run CVE and associated programs.
This funding ended last week. Keeping developers informed about vulnerabilities in a central location is a national security issue as well as a business issue. If your product is exploited and costs you money as a business owner is one thing, but if the thing that was exploited was a tool that other companies use as well, then the exploit could be expanded and impact huge swaths of the U.S. economy, see Heartbleed.
AT&T’s huge data breach
From TechCrunch —
U.S. phone giant AT&T confirmed Friday it will begin notifying millions of consumers about a fresh data breach that allowed cybercriminals to steal the phone records of “nearly all” of its customers, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Some of the stolen records include cell site identification numbers associated with phone calls and text messages, information that can be used to determine the approximate location of where a call was made or text message sent.
In all, the phone giant said it will notify around 110 million AT&T customers of the data breach, company spokesperson Andrea Huguely told TechCrunch.
It seems like Snowflake, a cloud based data analytics company, is the likely source of the breach. These types of breaches are becoming more and more common, with third parties who offer some sort of service, have poor or unchecked security practices. If you are an AT&T customer just keep an eye on your account and consider changing your password or passcode.
The hacking of culture
From Bruce Schneier and Kim Córdova —
Tech companies want us to believe that algorithmically determined content is effectively neutral: that it merely reflects the user’s behavior and tastes back at them. In 2021, Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote a post on the company’s blog entitled “Shedding More Light on How Instagram Works.” A similar window into TikTok’s functioning was provided by journalist Ben Smith in his article “How TikTok Reads Your Mind.” Both pieces boil down to roughly the same idea: “We use complicated math to give you more of what your behavior shows us you really like.”
Our digitized global economy has made us all participants in the international data trade, however reluctantly. Though we are aware of the privacy invasions and social costs of digital platforms, we nevertheless participate in these systems because we feel as though we have no alternative—which itself is partly the result of tech monopolies and the lack of competition.
It does feel like it’s nearly impossible to avoid some of the social media and digital platforms. I’ve managed to completely avoid TikTok but things like Instagram and Twitter I still check regularly, even though I would rather not. There’s definitely a FOMO element to it, but there is also a bit of empty time that these apps fill. Almost like a digital nicotine.
United’s Latest App Update is a Visual Flop
The United iPhone (and Android) app, in my opinion, has been one of the better airline apps on the market. For one, it historically has been a native application, not a web view like Delta or Alaska’s apps, making it faster to respond and return information. The United app has also been a really good case study in information design and presentation; It is extremely easy to find what you’re looking for, from flight status information to searching for new flights to looking for your account details.
Over the last few years United has started straying from the design philosophies that really set their app apart. They have started using web views in certain areas of the application and have complicated what were once simple views. However, all of those were changes that didn’t reduce a user’s ability to use the app.
But today they released a new version and it is a bit of a mess. Most of the changes are cosmetic but the impact really hits some of what made the application usable.
Take for example these two screenshots:
The first screenshot is the new version of the app while the second screenshot is the previous version. They both show the same screen, the flight status information (granted, for different days for the same flight number). The amount of wasted space in the screenshot on the left is really frustrating. The user is forced to scroll the page to see further details, when that information could be displayed in the available space.
They have also made some font and color choices that I find questionable. The overall font on the app has changed and has become smaller and harder to read.
This is the flight status search results screen. Again, the new app is on the left, the old one on the right. I can see that they were trying to establish some form of application flow by moving the arrow to select the flight to the right but they have again used this new font at a smaller size and it is extremely hard to read. It almost feels like the kerning is off on the text.
Lastly is their choice of this blue. I know it’s part of their new branding but it is really, really hard on the eyes and it is everywhere. Mixed with the new font there are some places in the app where I have to look away to let my eyes focus. And can we talk about the pointless whitespace? Even in the old app there was too much, but they added more.
Part of me wonders if this is some new template with a new font family that someone in the United design department liked and just ran with it or if they actually did any user testing of the new user interface at all.
These flight results have the new bright blue everywhere. Paired with the new font, it just isn’t great to look at. When looking at a phone screen you have to strain your eyes because of the way the font is smaller and the bright blue clashes with the white background.
I really hope United reconsiders these changes. The font could probably stay if the kerning is adjusted and the overall size is increased. I think that’s actually my biggest complaint is that it was a larger font that has seen a size decrease with the new font. The native app font size should be adequate for most users to read easily without having to zoom in via the iPhone’s accessibility features.
United has long touted their app as the industry leader for helping travelers navigate their trip and book new trips but this latest update really hinders usability and ease of use.
Renting an EV for the first time
During a recent work trip to Florida that required a rental car, the rental agency only had EVs available and because I didn’t want to sit around waiting for another vehicle, I took it. Overall it wasn’t a bad experience, but I can see why Hertz struggles with electric vehicles.
The EV I received was a Mercedes Benz EQB. I had zero issues with the quality of the car, it’s a Mercedes, it was nice, comfortable, and well appointed. These days I mostly care about CarPlay and this Mercedes checked that box for me.
When receiving the details from the rental agent I asked bluntly, “how much do I need to charge the vehicle before returning it?” to which he replied, “it needs to be at 70% of whatever its current charge level is”. When I started the car it was 40% charged, giving me a little under 100 miles of range. That’s unacceptable in my opinion. If I had needed to drive somewhere out of that range I would’ve had to immediately make my way to a charging station (more about that later) to charge before continuing my trip.
In addition, this particular rental company, Avis, had no notation of the charge of the vehicle on the rental slip. The fuel level simply showed 8/8, which with a 40% charge, was not true.
I had never driven a EV, so I took lap around the parking lot to get a feel for it before hitting the road. The single pedal driving setup was definitely a shift in thinking and by the end of the trip it felt a little better but I certainly wasn’t an expert. Once on the road the car felt very good and the acceleration was fantastic, making getting on the freeway and performing passing maneuvers super easy.
When I made it to the hotel I asked if they had a charging station but was disappointed to learn there was nothing on-premise and actually nothing that close so I started texting friends asking how they know where to charge their EVs when they’re on the road. The answer seemed to be PlugShare or ChargeHub, both of which I downloaded and started searching. I don’t know if it’s a data problem or a Florida problem but both apps seemed to be lacking a lot of useful information when it came to any type of charger besides Tesla.
As an aside, I also tried the car’s built-in charger app and it was subpar, suggesting charging stations that were much further away (maybe they were fast chargers).
I finally found a charger near the venue I would be attending my work event and drove over the next day to get a charge. Thankfully there was no other EV there as it was the only charger. The actual charging station experience leaves a lot to be desired. This particular charger was a Blink charging station and when I first got it all setup it seemed like it required a Blink membership to even use but after circumventing some of the prompts I was able to get it to charge. The charging process was by no means fast, I dropped the car off at 8am and it did not charge to 100% from ~45% until 3:30pm. It also wasn’t particularly cheap at $19.35 for 39.49 kWh of power or $.49/kWh.
The rental companies could do a better job with explaining charging as well, especially since vehicles can be configured to only charge to a certain point, such as 80%.
The return process was also very interesting. The attendant who checks the mileage and the fuel level in standard combustion vehicles couldn’t figure out how to do either of those things in the EV. I explained where the charge level was but I never saw him find the mileage on the car and when I checked my statement the car was notated to have fewer miles than when I left the rental lot.
Overall I didn’t have too much trouble with renting an EV but rental companies need to get better at how they communicate the process and should probably update their systems to accommodate EV specific information. It would probably help if the rental companies stuck with a handful of brands of EVs rather than buying whatever they can when they can. The charging experience is also less than stellar. Again, maybe it’s a Florida thing but the data on the chargers just seems to be bad. This could be another area where the rental companies work with the EV companies to customize the built-in mapping software to help renters find the charger they need when they need it. All in all I thought it was fun to be able to try out an EV and see what they’re like to drive. Given my travel driving habits, I don’t think I’d hesitate to rent another one.