Joe Dog Software

Siege 4.2.0 beta 4 has just been released. Exciting!

This version includes a bug fix for SIGSEGV on SIGINT during warning messages. That fix is courtesy dotacow.

Beta 4 also includes a major cookie overhaul that improves cookie handling on a per-thread basis. Namely this fixes or improves the following problems:
 

• pthread_self ownership issues. Thread IDs were easy to implement but hard to maintain is complexity grew
• Persistent cookie duplication. We change the way they're stored in ~/.siege/cookies.txt
• Path matching/default mismatch. 
• 403 -> POST auth URL consumption
   

You can find a tarball release of beta-4 here.

The folks at matplotlib were already dealing with a surge in low-quality copy-pasted contributions from coding agents, but when one volunteer committer rejected code from an autonomous code bot, it published a hit piece on him. 

It's fashionable in some circles to argue that the 1929 stock market crash didn't cause the Great Depression, and that the real culprit was Federal Reserve mismanagement. But that framing oversimplifies a much more dynamic chain of events. In the late 1920s, markets were heavily leveraged; margin requirements were often as low as 10%, and brokers' loans peaked at $8.5B in 1929 ($165B in 2026 dollars). When prices fell, equity was wiped out quickly, triggering forced liquidation and cascading losses. Because much of that leverage was financed through banks and other financial institutions, the damage didn't stay confined to Wall Street. Losses impaired balance sheets, collateral values collapsed, and credit conditions tightened. The transmission mechanism into the broader economy was leverage itself.

404 Media Reports: ICE Claims Critical Evidence in Abuse Case Was Lost Due to 'System Crash' a Day After Being Sued

Individuals detained at the ICE Broadview Detention Center have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging abusive treatment and inhumane conditions, including overcrowding and denial of basic necessities. The day after this lawsuit was filed, the government informed a federal court that nearly two weeks' worth of surveillance video footage from inside the facility —covering the timeframe when the alleged abuse occurred — was lost due to a "system crash" on October 31, 2025, just one day after the complaint was filed on October 30.

Government attorneys stated in court that the footage is "irretrievably destroyed," and when questioned, suggested they lack the resources to retain all surveillance video from all cameras indefinitely. Plaintiffs' lawyers find the timing and circumstances highly concerning and are worried about the preservation of evidence. In their filings, the government has offered to produce limited video from earlier and later periods; however, the specific interval from approximately October 20 to October 30, right before the lawsuit, is reported as unrecoverable.

Is it even possible for such extensive footage to be lost? The term "system crash" alone does not adequately explain the complete disappearance of two weeks’ worth of video. We'll consider the technical possibilities after the jump

Do you have a stalker ex who wants to make your life miserable? Then I have bad news. A critical flaw in Google's Fast Pair protocol can allow nefarious actors to track your movements and eavesdrop on your conversations. Security researchers at Belgium’s KU Leuven University have the details. 

The team found seventeen audio devices sold by ten different companies that are vulnerable to an attack. Hundreds of millions of people are vulnerable, even those who've never owned a Google device. In their tests, the team connected to vulnerable devices within Bluetooth range, then controlled audio, eavesdropped on a conversation, played music, and tracked the victim using Find Hub.

The researchers discovered the flaw in August and notified Google, which alerted all manufacturers. Fixes are available from the OEM. But here's the thing: These are devices. The patch must be installed in the firmware. That requires downloading an installer app to a phone or laptop, then using the app to update the device's firmware. Given the total number of digital clocks blinking "12:00," this flaw will be with us for years to come. 

Is your device vulnerable? Find out after the jump.

As protests mounted in Iran this week, the regime cut its nationwide internet service to stem the flow of information into and out of the country. With power mostly concentrated in the hands of one man, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country is capable of quickly disrupting internet services, a task that's almost impossible in Western-style democracies. 

So how do they do it?

Play JoeDog's Solitaire online for free. You'll need a laptop browser. It doesn't (yet) support mobile.

I'm fixated on who made a tidy profit from operational information that culminated in the capture of Maduro. There are rumors on the Internets that it was Donald Trump. Let's be clear: At the time of this writing, there is no credible evidence tying him to these bets, insinuating that this would be irresponsible without evidence.

What we know so far: Three new accounts were opened on Polymarket days before the Venezuelan invasion. Collectively, they won $630,484.00 on bets that Maduro would be removed from office. The bets were placed hours before the announcement. The timing is essential. It raises three possibilities, one of which is illegal. 1. The bettors traded on non-public government information; 2. They bet on inference from unusual public signals. 3. They were very, very, very, very lucky. 

Number 3 strikes me as out of the realm of possibility. Number 2 is probably legal, and, given the Administration's track record on security, it is also a possibility. Number 1 is illegal and quite disturbing. So what likely happened? After the jump, we'll create a capability map to see which officials had the necessary information at relevant decision points. We'll also assess their risk of legal jeopardy. 

Techxplore summarizes a JAMA Surgery study concluding that by 2035, autonomous vehicles could reduce 1 million road injuries across the US. That's a 3.6% reduction in traffic-related injuries over the next decade.

That seems likely.

In the long run, ten years is a lifetime in tech, so this is probably correct. But I've seen millions of lines of code in my career. And since most programmers don't check their fscking inputs, I won't be an early adopter. And I'll certainly never use Microsoft Autodrive.

In the aftermath of the Venezuelan invasion, the blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain identified three digital wallets that collectively earned $630,484 on Polymarket by betting on Maduro's removal. The bets were placed hours before his arrest. The wallets were created and pre-funded just a few days earlier. 

So how did they do?