[$] An update on the scraper situation
Our article "Fighting the AI scraper bot scourge",
published in early 2025, discussed the problem of widespread scraping of web
sites in search of training data for large language models and related projects.
This activity overwhelms sites with traffic. Over a year after that article is
published, the problem is still growing. The hammering of sites by shadowy
actors has reached new heights, and the open web is becoming increasingly
difficult to maintain. Where is this traffic coming from, and what can be done
about it?
[$] QBE 1.3: metaprogramming, performance, and cross-platform support
QBE, a compact compiler backend developed by Quentin
Carbonneaux, is a lightweight alternative to larger compiler backends such as
LLVM and GCC.
Designed to be small enough for a single developer to
understand, QBE uses a static single-assignment (SSA) intermediate
representation (IR), supports the C ABI, and serves as the backend for projects
such as Hare and the cproc C11 compiler. Frontends emit the textual form of
QBE's IR directly; QBE then takes care of register allocation, optimization, and
native-code generation, producing assembly for the target architecture.
Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (aardvark-
dns, cups, edk2, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-good,
gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, kernel, libsolv, libtasn1, libxml2, nginx:1.24,
nginx:1.26, oci-seccomp-bpf-hook, python-urllib3, and tomcat), Debian (rlottie),
Fedora (c-ares, k9s, kind, libXfont2, nmap, pam, perl-DBI, php, python-pendulum,
tmux, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Mageia (7zip and ack), Slackware
(tigervnc), SUSE (alloy, cargo-c, chromium, clamav, cosign, dirmngr, firefox,
flannel, fluidsynth, gnutls, go1.25, go1.26, gol, GraphicsMagick, helm, kernel-
devel, libaom, libexif, openQA, os-autoinst, python-Django, python-idna, python-
sqlparse, rust-keylime, rustup, sccache, SUSE Manager Client Tools, SUSE_Multi-
Linux_Manager Client Tools, transmission, and warewulf4), and Ubuntu (curl,
expat, golang-go.crypto, libheif, libidn, libraw, libsoup2.4, linux, linux-
azure-4.15, linux-azure-fips, linux-fips, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-gcp-fips, linux-
kvm, linux-oracle, linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure-fips, linux-fips,
linux-raspi, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, and python2.7, python3.5).
[$] Kitty chases the mouse
Kitty is a terminal emulator that runs on Linux, macOS, and
the BSDs, which is notable for its speed and features such as image support and
advanced font handling. It is under active development; a recent major release
adds a new level of mouse support. Here, we will look at some of those features
and show how the program can also be used as platform for text-based
applications. Kitty is free software, released under the GPLv3.
Rust 1.97.0 released
Version 1.97.0 of the Rust programming language has been
released. Changes include using a new symbol-mangling scheme by default,
support for denying warnings in Cargo, and an end to the practice of hiding the
linker's output after a successful build.