Consumer
How Zenly made social maps cool again – and what’s next
“With today’s update, Zenly wants to passively build a place graph. Users shouldn’t have to open up the app and check in when they go to their favorite bar. Instead, the company wants to learn from your habits and highlight that information to you and your friends.”
Design
DALL·E 2 and The Origin of Vibe Shifts
“I think the leading edge of aesthetics will probably always involve human skill, even if the methods we use to channel that skill will change dramatically. When it comes to relative-performance games, we should think of AI tools more like an instrument that can be played well or poorly, and less like a replacement for humans. If all that mattered was absolute performance, then sure, the AI would be able to perform well enough to get the job done without human intervention. But when it comes to status games, relative performance is what matters. And human+AI is probably going to beat AI alone for a long time.”
Metaverse
‘Second Life’ creator shares lessons learned from one of the world’s first metaverses
“The problem with an avatar is that it can’t match the amount of information that’s communicated by looking directly at another human’s face, which is why Rascoff’s interview was being held in a shared Zoom meeting rather than Second Life. An avatar can’t yet match the experience of a face-to-face human interaction.”
- geekwire.com/2022/second-life-creator-shares-lessons-learned-from-one-of-the-worlds-first-metaverses/ :: Thomas Wilde
Crypto
North Korea’s Lazarus Group Identified as Exploiters Behind $540 Million Ronin Bridge Heist
“First, the stolen USDC was swapped for ETH through decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to prevent it from being seized. Tokens such as stablecoins are controlled by their issuers, who in some cases can freeze tokens involved in illicit activity. By converting the tokens at DEXs, the hacker avoided the anti-money laundering (AML) and ‘know your customer’ (KYC) checks performed at centralized exchanges.”
Cybersecurity
What is Distributed Denial of Secrets?
“When whistleblowers within an organization, or hackers that have gained access to files, want to get the word out, DDoSecrets can:
- Announce the release to a wide audience
- Check the files for personally identifying information
- Package a release for public consumption, via torrents or web-search interfaces
- Contact journalists at a wide range of publications
- Collaborate with academic researchers
- Share more sensitive documents with journalists and researchers, without making all data public
That’s our primary role: connectors and proliferators of data.”