by Welcome to the weekly skill boost. Last week, I didn’t have anything interesting worth your time, but I have a few things that might interest you this week.
I will try out multiple formats, so if one resonates more with you, please let me know.
This week, I have more scam warnings, Microsoft’s overly aggressive “promotion” of Bing, and a very special captcha for you.
Enjoy!
3 Articles
The 3 articles that I liked this week.
Scams Based on Fake Google Emails – Schneier on Security
A set of new schemes where people are “hacking” Google Forms and then sending emails to their victims. These emails come directly from Google, so they look legitimate. Please be careful.
Quick take-home messages:
- Be wary of scams involving fake Google emails, especially about investments such as bitcoins.
- Remember that Google typically does not contact individuals by phone, so exercise caution if you receive such a request.
- Avoid clicking ‘yes’ on suspicious emails, even if they appear from legitimate sources.
Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick 3 or Get None
This article is focused on engineering, but the advice is good for anything.
Quick take-home messages:
- Simpler code is more straightforward to optimize, test, and maintain.
- Testing should ensure the output meets the expected criteria.
- Balancing performance and simplicity is crucial in software development.
Microsoft disguises Bing as Google to fool inattentive searchers | PCWorld
This is not a scam per se, but it’s quite debatable whether it’s something decent to do. Microsoft has been doing some questionable things recently, and this is not helping them. I understand that products need to grow, but we’ve seen time and time again that growing by being the best is much better than growing by tricking people. The damage to the company’s image itself is not worth these types of “strategies.””
2 Videos
Today, I have three videos, but they are all in the same sequence. It’s a super interesting investigation by Coffeezilla. I’ll link the three here, so if you have time, please take a look, especially if you have kids playing these games.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
1 Curiosity
Something I found interesting.
DOOM® CAPTCHA
I’ve seen Doom® being ported into more or less anything, but this is the most interesting port of Doom® yet. I’m sure that it won’t stay online for long, so take a look and enjoy a bit of nostalgia if that’s the case.
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See you next week
Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash
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