Illustration: New York Magazine Chungin “Roy” Lee stepped onto Columbia University’s campus this past fall and, by his own admission, proceeded to use generative artificial intelligence to cheat on nearly every assignment. As a computer-science major, he depended on AI … Read more
Until a few years ago, any app you installed on an Android device could see all other apps on your phone without your permission. Since 2022, with Android 11, Google removed this access from app developers. Under their new package … Read more
At this point it is safe to say that software engineers are not in any immediate danger of being replaced by AI. So why do people keep trying to do just that? Andreas Møller February 12, 2025 If you have … Read more
Recently I read about a massive geolocation data leak from Gravy Analytics, which exposed more than 2000 apps, both in AppStore and Google Play, that secretly collect geolocation data without user consent. Oftentimes, even without developers` knowledge. I looked into … Read more
David Bessis was drawn to mathematics for the same reason that many people are driven away: He didn’t understand how it worked. Unlike other creative processes, like making music, which can be heard, or painting pictures, which can be seen, … Read more
Long time Birchtree readers know I love data, and love data even more when I can throw it into a graph. I’m also a fan of testing things that everyone generally agrees are true, but no one seems to have … Read more
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All three of these things get a lot of hate for being elitist, obscure, irrelevant, painful, and useless. But are they? They all have a huge barrier to entry. Beacause they are so “hard” only a few people persevere enough … Read more
Richard Levine/Alamy It has been nearly a decade since hackers dumped huge amounts of personal data from Ashley Madison, the infamous dating site which, back in 2015, catered mostly to men who wanted to cheat on their wives. Now, that … Read more
Everyone has JavaScript, right? Your user requests your web app Has the page loaded yet? “All your users are non-JS while they’re downloading your JS” — Jake Archibald Did the HTTP request for the JavaScript succeed? If they’re on a … Read more