Heya,

Let me interrupt your holiday season with the next round of non-standard news from the world of tech and all topics otherwise related to living the online lifestyle.

Hi, I'm Karol, and I'm in the captain's chair for this month.

In this edition:

🤯 Meta's Giphy acquisition fail
🕵️‍♂️ Meet Apple's double agent
👟 $13,000 shoes with real bits of meteorite

Enjoy,
-Karol

Bizarro Devs  

GoDaddy breached - they allegedly kept passwords in plaintext 🛑

You might have heard of GoDaddy - one of the biggest web hosting firms of them all. They've had their fair share of Super Bowl ads, huge online campaigns, and quite a noticeable conference presence (back when those were still a thing). So that's all good, right?

Well, what isn't as good is what's been going on in GoDaddy's security department, so to speak. A couple of weeks ago, we've started seeing some worrisome reports about a small breach that happened at GoDaddy's. Oh, did I say small? What I meant was that more than 1.2 million sites got affected.

• The official report on the breach says that "an unknown attacker had gained unauthorized access to the system."
• The breach impacted more than 1.2 million websites across a handful of GoDaddy's hosting brands, like GoDaddy Managed WordPress hosting, tsoHost, Media Temple, 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet, and Host Europe.
• The attacker reportedly had access to user email addresses and customer numbers, the original WordPress Admin password that was set at the time of provisioning, and SSL private keys.

What does this mean for GoDaddy? More like NoDaddy.

wordfence.com  

Cleanup.pictures helps you remove your ex from pictures 🤙

Okay, "remove your ex" isn't exactly something it says on the tin, but you can surely use the tool to do just that!

But let's start at the beginning; so, what is Cleanup.pictures? In simple terms, it's a cool new tool that uses AI (of course it does) to tinker with your pictures and help you remove whatever you don't want to have in those pictures.

• You can remove objects and people.
• You can remove picture defects and/or retouch elements of pictures.
• The tool is entirely web based.

There really isn't that much to say in terms of the how-to. You just upload your picture, and Cleanup.pictures will do exactly what the name suggests it'll do.

cleanup.pictures  

He spent years inside the iPhone leaks and jailbreak community...and was also spying for Apple 🕵️‍♂️

This one's a story from a couple of months ago, but it's still incredibly fascinating. The person this is about was basically who we'd call a double agent if this was a spy movie. Quite frankly, the story reads like it is one.

Jailbreaking is as lively a community as it's ever been. There's a never-ending need for unlocked iPhones that can run any piece of software that the owner of said device deems necessary. And, as we all know, Apple isn't that keen on letting you do that by default. Enter the agent.

• The agent advertised leaked apps, manuals, and stolen devices for sale.
• At the same time, he was working as an informant for Apple.
• The agent shared with Apple personal information of people who sold stolen iPhone prototypes.

I guess the jailbreak market is as close as we get to a Bond-like supervillain vibe in the tech world.

vice.com  

1. It turns out Black Friday isn't always a fail-proof time to run promos. Online spending on Black Friday decreased for the first time, year over year.
2. Planning your flight to Mars? Cool! Though you should see these 75,000+ images of the sun's surface first.
3. This MiG super fighter terrified NATO. Then a Soviet pilot stole one.
4. Meta wanted to acquire Giphy. It didn't go well. Now big tech's spending spree might be over.
5. David Attenborough is on an unending mission to save our planet.
6. Flying internationally? Prepare for hundreds of extra dollars and hours of stress on your trip.
7. Rich people apparently just gave Trump's nonexistent social network $1B.
8. These $13,000 shoes contain real bits of meteorite. Because why not, right?
9. A planetary scientist explains why SpaceX's Starship will transform her field.
10. Which of these notification sounds gives you the most anxiety?

Bizarro Devs  

"Phones no longer fit in the hands they were made to be held and used by. How did that happen?"

Bizarro Devs  

• 10 devices - The number of connected devices that the average American has in their household. (Source: Statista)
• 35% - The percentage of employees who report working remotely.
• 74% - The number of people expecting remote work to become the standard.

Bizarro Devs  

That's it for the week. If you have links to share, then my emails are always open. Simply reply to this email to land in my inbox.

If this is the first time you're seeing this email, and you'd like to get more, then sign up here.

Have a great month,
- Karol

Bizarro Devs