index.md (2682B)
1 --- 2 title: "Weeknote for 2025-W16" 3 description: "Assembly tutorial, slopsquatting, beeps and boops" 4 date: 2025-04-14T10:53:59-07:00 5 draft: false 6 categories: 7 - Weeknotes 8 tags: 9 - LLMs 10 --- 11 12 ## FFmpeg’s ASM lessons 13 14 Assembly language (specifically the x86 instruction set) was actually one of 15 the first “programming languages” that I learned, having come to computers 16 through engineering. I don’t have any excuse to write assembly code these days, 17 but if I wanted to now, I would definitely brush up by using these instructions 18 from the folks behind the FFmpeg project (and of which I learned via [this 19 toot](https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@yiningkarlli/114215974856532409)). It’s 20 cool to see a big open source project take seriously the need to train its 21 future contributors! 22 23 [FFmpeg School of Assembly Language](https://github.com/FFmpeg/asm-lessons) 24 25 ## The rise of “slopsquatting” 26 27 [I’ve already said enough about why I don’t like LLM-based coding 28 assistants]({{< ref "/posts/coding-assistants/" >}}), but I failed to predict 29 the new threat of “slopsquatting”. Here, coding assistants suggest packages 30 that don’t exist (but seem like they should exist, because that’s what LLMs 31 do), and malicious actors capitalize on these invalid outputs by uploading fake 32 packages on (e.g.) npm or PyPI that contain exploits. LLMs also make it easier 33 to automate the process of generating reasonable-looking packages to take 34 advantage of this. This bubble can’t pop soon enough[^bubble]. 35 36 [LLMs can't stop making up software dependencies and sabotaging 37 everything](https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/12/ai_code_suggestions_sabotage_supply_chain/) 38 39 ## A curated collection of retro notification sounds 40 41 I just downloaded a 13.2 MB zip file full of “beeps and boops” curated by a 42 stranger on the Fediverse. As much as I enjoy real-time messaging with my 43 colleagues at work (and really I do!), I ought to rotate the Slack notification 44 sound now that the default one stresses me out[^rto]; I’ll be plugging in some 45 of these. 46 47 [...Here's a large collection of short beeps and boops](https://hackers.town/@lori/114309928382924166) 48 49 [^bubble]: I just hope I don’t lose my house when it does. 50 51 [^rto]: Before any “return to office” partisans use this data point to suggest 52 that this problem is unique to remote work, I can assure you that it is 53 not. Being interrupted during a period of deep concentration is hard, full 54 stop, whether the interruption comes in the form of a ringing phone, knock on 55 the door, or a Slack notification. It’s also an unavoidable reality of working 56 collaboratively with other people---but at least I can change the Slack sound.