Tag Archives: Features

Secure Boot is completely broken on 200+ models from 5 big device makers

sasha85ru | Getty Imates reader comments 114 In 2012, an industry-wide coalition of hardware and software makers adopted Secure Boot to protect against a long-looming security threat. The threat was the specter of malware that could infect the BIOS, the firmware that loaded the operating system each time a computer booted up. From there, it… Read More »

Google’s “AI Overview” can give false, misleading, and dangerous answers

Enlarge / This is fine. Getty Images reader comments 80 If you use Google regularly, you may have noticed the company’s new AI Overviews providing summarized answers to some of your questions in recent days. If you use social media regularly, you may have come across many examples of those AI Overviews being hilariously or even… Read More »

OpenAI winds down AI image generator that blew minds and forged friendships in 2022

Enlarge / An AI-generated image from DALL-E 2 created with the prompt “A painting by Grant Wood of an astronaut couple, american gothic style.” reader comments 39 When OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 debuted on April 6, 2022, the idea that a computer could create relatively photorealistic images on demand based on just text descriptions caught a… Read More »

Framework’s software and firmware have been a mess, but it’s working on them

Enlarge / The Framework Laptop 13. Andrew Cunningham reader comments 16 Since Framework showed off its first prototypes in February 2021, we’ve generally been fans of the company’s modular, repairable, upgradeable laptops. Not that the company’s hardware releases to date have been perfect—each Framework Laptop 13 model has had quirks and flaws that range from… Read More »

The fine art of human prompt engineering: How to talk to a person like ChatGPT

Enlarge / With these tips, you too can prompt people successfully. reader comments 61 In a break from our normal practice, Ars is publishing this helpful guide to knowing how to prompt the “human brain,” should you encounter one during your daily routine. While AI assistants like ChatGPT have taken the world by storm, a… Read More »

Unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chip leaks secret encryption keys

Aurich Lawson | Apple reader comments 140 A newly discovered vulnerability baked into Apple’s M-series of chips allows attackers to extract secret keys from Macs when they perform widely used cryptographic operations, academic researchers have revealed in a paper published Thursday. The flaw—a side channel allowing end-to-end key extractions when Apple chips run implementations of… Read More »

Banish OEM self-signed certs forever and roll your own private LetsEncrypt

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images reader comments 45 Previously, on “Weekend Projects for Homelab Admins With Control Issues,” we created our own dynamically updating DNS and DHCP setup with bind and dhcpd. We laughed. We cried. We hurled. Bonds were forged, never to be broken. And I hope we all took a little something special… Read More »

Hackers can read private AI assistant chats even though they’re encrypted

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images reader comments 22 AI assistants have been widely available for a little more than a year, and they already have access to our most private thoughts and business secrets. People ask them about becoming pregnant or terminating or preventing pregnancy, consult them when considering a divorce, seek information about drug… Read More »

Doing DNS and DHCP for your LAN the old way—the way that works

Enlarge / All shall tremble before your fully functional forward and reverse lookups! Aurich Lawson | Getty Images reader comments 22 Here’s a short summary of the next 7,000-ish words for folks who hate the thing recipe sites do where the authors babble about their personal lives for pages and pages before getting to the… Read More »