A comprehensive study analyzing TikTok's algorithm during the 2024 U.S. presidential election revealed significant political bias, with Republican-leaning accounts receiving 11.8% more party-aligned content than Democratic accounts. The research, conducted using 323 simulated accounts across three states, demonstrated that TikTok's recommendation system favored negative partisanship content and showed consistent Republican-leaning bias across different metrics.
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The article describes an experiment using Cloudflare Workers AI to translate auto-generated video captions from English to Spanish. The author explores the challenges of translating VTT caption files, implements sentence consolidation to improve translation quality, and shares insights about the technical process and potential improvements for future development. The experiment demonstrates both the capabilities and limitations of using AI translation for video subtitles.
A comprehensive approach to implementing passkeys is proposed, combining magic links for initial access and passkey setup for subsequent logins, while addressing cross-device compatibility concerns. The solution emphasizes user-friendly authentication by supporting multiple passkeys per account and eliminating traditional passwords, ultimately providing enhanced security against phishing and credential theft.
https://dev.to/yawaramin/youre-thinking-about-passkeys-wrong-171o
The AI platform ChatGPT has surpassed 100 million users just two months after launch, attracting an estimated 13 million daily visitors. Analysis shows ChatGPT reached the massive milestone faster than other popular apps like TikTok and Instagram, marking unprecedented consumer adoption of an AI product.
A detailed technical guide about creating a weather display project using an e-paper display, ESP32 microcontroller, and Cloudflare Workers. The project involves three layers: ESP32 for display control, a server for rendering web content, and another server for weather data. The author explains hardware setup, software implementation, and various technical challenges including dithering and browser rendering.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-forecast-is-clear-clouds-on-e-paper-powered-by-the-cloud/
The article details how Cloudflare Stream Live works, explaining its distributed architecture for live video streaming. It covers two main components: the ingest system that receives broadcasts using protocols like RTMPS and SRT, and the delivery system that serves content to viewers using HLS or DASH protocols. The system leverages Cloudflare's global network across 330+ cities, using technologies like Workers, Durable Objects, and on-the-fly encoding for efficient content delivery.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/behind-the-scenes-with-stream-live-cloudflares-live-streaming-service/
A personal account details the development of a Pascal compiler for the INMOS transputer processor in 1993 by a 14-year-old programmer. The project evolved from simple assembly programming to a sophisticated compiler implementation, showcasing the technical capabilities of the T805 transputer and its potential for parallel computing.
The French Public Finances Directorate is modernizing their 1990s-era tax code compiler with Mlang, an open-source toolchain that provides formal semantics and modern language compilation capabilities. The transition to Mlang represents a significant upgrade in maintaining and implementing French tax law computations, with official adoption now underway.
A comprehensive investigation reveals how the FAA's 2013 hiring policy changes disrupted the air traffic controller pipeline, leading to staffing shortages and ongoing controversy. The changes invalidated existing aptitude tests, introduced a controversial biographical questionnaire, and effectively nullified specialized CTI program degrees, triggering a class action lawsuit and years of legal battles. The scandal's impact continues to resonate, particularly following recent aviation incidents and political attention.
https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/the-full-story-of-the-faas-hiring
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This article describes Cloudflare's migration of their developer documentation platform from Hugo to Astro, emphasizing their commitment to open-source documentation and collaborative development. The migration involved over 8,000 files and took six weeks to complete, resulting in improved content organization, better development experience, and enhanced community engagement.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/open-source-all-the-way-down-upgrading-our-developer-documentation/
Cloudflare details their commitment to CISA's Secure-by-Design pledge, focusing on eliminating vulnerability classes through prevention rather than patching. They implemented new security measures targeting injection vulnerabilities and secrets in code, resulting in a 79% reduction in secrets and 44% reduction in injection vulnerabilities. The company emphasizes automated security tools, developer training, and secure-by-design principles in their development process.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/cisa-pledge-commitment-reducing-vulnerability/
A comprehensive guide for activists details essential digital security practices, focusing on protecting personal information during protests and daily life through secure communication tools and privacy measures. The resource provides specific recommendations for secure messaging apps, VPN services, and proper phone configuration to minimize surveillance risks and maintain anonymity during activist activities.
https://infosecforactivists.org
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This article discusses Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), a network protocol that allows devices to use multiple network paths simultaneously. It examines MPTCP's implementation on different operating systems, particularly Linux and iOS/macOS, and explores its capabilities for network aggregation and mobility. The text highlights that while MPTCP shows promise, its current implementations are limited, with the most practical setup being Linux as a server and macOS/iOS as a client in 'interactive' use cases.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/multi-path-tcp-revolutionizing-connectivity-one-path-at-a-time/
The article discusses Cloudflare's data pipeline system, which processes over 706M events per second as of December 2024. It explains their approach to handling large data volumes through downsampling techniques, their 'bottomless buffers' system, and statistical methods for maintaining data accuracy. The text details how they manage data overflow, implement sampling strategies, and ensure reliable analytics despite data reduction.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-we-make-sense-of-too-much-data/
TikTok was banned in the US on January 19, 2025, causing an 85% drop in DNS traffic. Alternative platforms, especially RedNote, saw significant growth. After 14 hours, services began restoring following Trump's intervention, though traffic remained below normal levels. The ban affected other ByteDance platforms and sparked increased alternative app usage in several countries.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/tiktok-ban-traffic-decline-alternatives-rednote/
Native beavers in the Czech Republic's Brdy nature park constructed dams in just two days, accomplishing what local authorities had planned for seven years and saving $1.2 million. The natural engineers built the water management structures in the exact locations originally planned by the government, demonstrating nature's efficient solution to environmental planning.
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The article details the temporary TikTok ban in the US on January 19-20, 2025. The ban caused an 85% drop in TikTok-related DNS traffic but was lifted after 14 hours following assurances from Donald Trump. During this period, alternative platforms, particularly RedNote, saw significant growth both in the US and internationally, with Mexico experiencing a 1200% increase in traffic. The service gradually recovered to near-normal levels after Trump's inauguration.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-fall-and-rise-of-tiktok-traffic/
A severe air traffic controller shortage in the US has led to overworked staff and system-wide strain, with current staffing at 10,800 controllers filling 14,600 needed positions. Despite increased hiring efforts, challenges including high washout rates and stressful working conditions make it difficult to close the gap, potentially requiring 8-9 years to reach full staffing levels.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/business/air-traffic-controller-shortage/index.html
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A guide explaining how to disable Apple Intelligence, an AI system integrated into Apple devices. It provides step-by-step instructions for turning off the feature on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, as well as options for selective app-based deactivation. The article emphasizes user control over AI features while maintaining essential security functions.
https://www.asurion.com/connect/tech-tips/turn-off-apple-intelligence/
An experienced staff engineer shares practical insights on leveraging LLMs effectively in software development, highlighting use cases from code completion to learning new domains. The author emphasizes using AI tools like GitHub Copilot strategically, particularly for boilerplate code and learning scenarios, while maintaining human oversight for critical tasks.
https://www.seangoedecke.com/how-i-use-llms/
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