Hasnain says:

“
It took less than 3 months of research to discover 6 separate bugs in the adsprpc driver, two of which (CVE-2024-49848 and CVE-2024-21455) were not fixed by Qualcomm under the industry standard 90-day deadline. Furthermore, at the time of writing, CVE-2024-49848 remains unfixed 145 days after it was reported. Past research has shown that chipset drivers for Android are a promising target for attackers, and this ITW exploit represents a meaningful real-world example of the negative ramifications that the current third-party vendor driver security posture poses to end-users. A system’s cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link, and chipset/GPU drivers represent one of the weakest links for privilege separation on Android in 2024. Improving both the consistency and quality of code and the efficiency of the third-party vendor driver patch dissemination process are crucial next steps in order to increase the difficulty of privilege escalation on Android devices.”

Hasnain says:

“AI isn't making our software dramatically better because software quality was (perhaps) never primarily limited by coding speed. The hard parts of software development – understanding requirements, designing maintainable systems, handling edge cases, ensuring security and performance – still require human judgment.

What AI does do is let us iterate and experiment faster, potentially leading to better solutions through more rapid exploration. But only if we maintain our engineering discipline and use AI as a tool, not a replacement for good software practices. Remember: The goal isn't to write more code faster. It's to build better software. Used wisely, AI can help us do that. But it's still up to us to know what "better" means and how to achieve it.”

Hasnain says:

Came across this great post on how AI will impact the industry and how people should react - and went down the rabbit hole. Great insights from the author as always.

“The key is to remain pragmatic and focused on delivering value. Learn to use AI tools where they make sense, but don't rely on them as a crutch. Continue developing your fundamental skills and domain expertise. And most importantly, remember that our field has always been about continuous learning and adaptation – this is just the latest chapter in that ongoing story.

The future belongs not to those who can generate the most code, but to those who can best understand and solve real-world problems while leveraging all available tools – including AI – appropriately.”

Hasnain says:

I don’t get this article. I’ve seen a lot of bad takes on what happened but this seems extra weird for some reason, and I’m hoping someone can explain. Author rightly identifies the source of frustration but then side steps what should be done to address the root cause and just talks about private security.

And I just don’t get the Israel link. Like, sure, I “get” it but there’s like so many interpretations. Is he saying CEOs are bad like Israel is? Or that both are “unfairly” maligned?

“While much remains to be learned about the alleged killer Mangione, his written manifesto suggests that he has a strong anti-corporate bias. This view is consistent with the framing of society by many in Gen Z, of which Mangione is a part, that life is a battle between oppressors and the oppressed. We saw that emerge after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, with many Gen Zers framing Israel as the oppressor and the Palestinians as the oppressed. For them, giant corporations are the enemy that is harming them by only looking out for their profits, not their customers.”

Hasnain says:

Been reading more history lately and that’s how I came across a reference to the Geechee language and had to look it up. I’m glad there are efforts to keep it alive. It’s sad how many languages are dying even in this day and age.

“M’Cheaux, who spoke Gullah exclusively until he learned English in middle school, said the notion of teaching Gullah to outsiders would have been laughable when he was younger. According to Page, some Gullah Geechee elders were physically beaten for speaking the language by educators who traveled south to teach them standard English, as recently as her grandparents’ generation.

Students were put into speech or remedial classes – contributing to a stigma that has lasted for decades. Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, which has a high concentration of people of Gullah Geechee descent, Page said she remembers a time when saying someone “sounded Geechee” would be considered a provocation, or “fighting words”. As a result, some Gullah people only used the language privately, opting to code-switch in public, or stopped speaking it entirely, preventing their children from learning it as a means of protection.”

Hasnain says:

This won’t end well.

“Homeowners with mortgages are typically required to purchase home insurance, but some without mortgages are opting to go without, especially in places where costs have risen sharply. While that could save them money, it could also make it prohibitively expensive to rebuild if their homes are damaged by natural disasters.

About 6.8% of homeowners reported going without home insurance in 2023, down from 7.4% in 2021, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Sharon Cornelissen, director of housing at the Consumer Federation of America.

But the proportion of uninsured owners rose in some major metro areas, especially in Miami, where 21.2% of homeowners went without home insurance in 2023, up from 14.5% in 2021.”

Hasnain says:

As the genocide goes on, I console myself by believing people who support it are primarily just living on an alternative diet of facts and propaganda. I do not want to believe we’re in a world where people acknowledge the facts and are still okay with it. These are not isolated incidents. The Israeli government and military does not sufficiently investigate itself in a lot of cases (unclear about this one). Children are never okay to hurt - doubly so when there is no possibility at all of Hamas being in the vicinity (you’ll see my horrifying example in a sec). Note that this example predates 2023 (article is unclear but it’s either before 2012 or in the 4 years after).

Lastly, as someone pointed out - this is the stuff that gets past their military censor. If they are okay publishing this, what are the other horrors that are left unpublished.

Quote, with as many trigger warnings as I can put below:

"”A new commander came to us. We went out with him on the first patrol at six in the morning. He stops. There's not a soul in the streets, just a little 4-year-old boy playing in the sand in his yard. The commander suddenly starts running, grabs the boy, and breaks his arm at the elbow and his leg here. Stepped on his stomach three times and left. We all stood there with our mouths open. Looking at him in shock ... I asked the commander: "What's your story?" He told me: These kids need to be killed from the day they are born. When a commander does that, it becomes legit."”

Hasnain says:

That clincher at the end, unquoted, is also worth recapping: this hypocritical douche claims he wants to be at the forefront of helping women, while doing this behind the scenes.

“Ms. Abel relayed his frustration to Ms. Nathan: “I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried.”

“Of course- but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,” Ms. Nathan responded, adding, “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Moments later, she said, “Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.”

“You know we can bury anyone,” she wrote.”

Hasnain says:

Worth reading in full.

“I can offer no new insight about how shocking the response to Thompson’s murder has been, or how thin the threshold is between the politesse of acceptable average American decorum and an ecstatic celebration of violence. I, personally, wish every family be spared the fate of the Thompsons. I also wish every family be spared the fate to which the bone-grinding machine that Brian Thompson sat atop condemns millions of others. So long as we tolerate the existence of health insurance for profit, no one will be spared.”

Hasnain says:

“A RealClearInvestigations analysis found that Pelosi’s profits spiked from a variety of holdings that won significant government rescue funds – which amounted to $28 million, a total more than previously known. For their family’s stake in the Auberge du Soleil, the Pelosis received more income in 2021, when bailout funds channeled to the resort, than any other time over the last 10 years.”