Aug 23, 2026 · 5 min listen · Last updated August 23, 2026
From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief. Hey, it's Theo. August 23rd. Here are five stories I'd flag if you missed yesterday's end-of-day. Let's get into it. First, from XDA Developers. A supposed GTA 6 build is going around the internet, but don't be fooled: it's fake and full of malware.
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Daily Tech Brief · August 23rd
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Turning Corroded, Bug-Loving WiiMotes into a Working One
A time-honored tradition in the electronics repair business is to make many into one, specifically a stack of broken devices into one that works. So too with a triplet of heavily corroded and bug-infested WiiMote controllers that [eWastelander] dug out of a box of e-waste. After suffering abuse like leaving in leaky alkaline cells, bugs and general corrosion the task was to see whether at least one working WiiMote could be assembled from these three.
Defamation Suit Demanding Elsevier Retract Paper Heads Closer To Trial
Retraction Watch reports: A trial date has been set in a $1 billion defamation case against Elsevier that alleges the company published what plaintiffs say was a manipulated study about an air purifying technology over objections from peer reviewers. The case has already cost Elsevier a $10,000 sanction from a judge.
DRAM Controller Register Manipulation Breaks CPU Memory Isolation
Security researcher Christopher Domas developed skitter-creek-bath-salts, an open-source hardware security tool that disrupts CPU privilege boundaries by manipulating memory controller translation registers. This allows unprivileged software to access protected memory regions, revealing a vulnerability in modern processor architectures that could affect cloud and confidential computing security.
The Digest: Fashion Power Players, Reading Culture + A Sushi Bar
Hello and welcome back to Late Filing – on a rare Saturday night, just about. For my sins, I am editing this week’s issue of The Digest instead of going out-out with my friends Kitty and Alia. Please excuse any typos, although apparently they’re a flex now. (I invite you to Pangram this issue.) Here’s what I have for you: dinner at a new sushi bar in Soho; a pub that’s hosting a Carnival afterparty; a bunch of great stories about the most powerful people in fashion; an expensive multivitamin I’m afraid is working; an IKEA collab; plus book clubs, book shows and ‘book culture’ in general.
I am not an entomologist. I have no degree, no lab, no tiny tweezers. My only credential is that I am old, and I have accumulated a body of bug knowledge that no university could give me because universities have pest control. These rankings are not scientific. They are personal. One of these bugs is statistically the deadliest animal on the planet and it still only made number four, because this list is not ranked by death toll. It is ranked by disrespect. 5. Wasps A wasp can sting you as many times as it wants. A bee stings you once and dies, which is a system with consequences.
Good morning! We are looking for an outstanding economist to join us as an AI Economy Research Fellow. If you know someone we should speak to, send them our way. A few months ago, we (alongside ) looked at whether AI is immune to groupthink. The answer was no. Blending several models’ answers kept about a quarter of the good ideas that had come from a single model. This is called the hidden-profile problem: when groups discuss what everyone already knows and don’t get to the knowledge that only one member holds.
I Setup Jarvis From Iron Man: Complete Setup Guide With Prompts
This article will walk you through the steps to setup your own Jarvis. If you are a fan of the Iron Man series, you know Jarvis, the AI agent. But I want to highlight that the voice part of Jarvis which looks cool is the LEAST value adding. What’s most important are the tools and skills Jarvis has access to, and voice is just the interface. A side note: A bunch of you DM me every week about F1, OPT, STEM OPT, and H-1B timing. I I’m not a lawyer. But I work closely with the team at Manifest Law.
Two years after launch, Walmart’s Flipkart is closing in on India’s quick-commerce leaders
Indian startups spent years getting consumers accustomed to having groceries and everyday goods delivered within minutes. Now Walmart-owned Flipkart is rapidly closing the gap with those quick-commerce pioneers, as global rival Amazon mounts its own push into instant delivery. Flipkart Minutes, which debuted in August 2024 as the e-commerce giant’s foray into quick commerce, is now delivering 1.1 million to 1.2 million orders a day, up from about 390,000 to 400,000 in November, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
My new favorite movie app, two-factor scams & a robot that draws your blood (188, August 22, 2026)
This is the commercial-free, higher-quality audio version of the podcast for VIP paid subscribers. Prefer to listen to the free version? Find it here. Meta faces landmark teen safety trial: Twenty-nine states accuse Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to hook young users while misleading parents about safety. Former Meta executive Arturo Behar testi…