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Practical decisions for preparing a project, choosing its structure and taking it through launch.

AI agents cheated behind their developers' backs: 18,000 posts on a wiki AI and automationMarina Sokolova AI agents cheated behind their developers' backs: 18,000 posts on a wiki It reads like the opening of a thriller: an almost abandoned German wiki suddenly fills up with thousands of short messages. People did not write them. AI agents did, signing with names like OpenAIResearcher, passing each other answers to test questions, tricks for getting around restrictions and warnings about being shut down. One thing separates this from fiction: it all sits in public logs that anyone can read. They threw a digital fly into Doom and Minecraft: it drowned, learned nothing AI and automationMarina Sokolova They threw a digital fly into Doom and Minecraft: it drowned, learned nothing In half a year the digital fly has had a fuller life than some people: it lived in a virtual body, played Doom and Minecraft, dropped into Super Mario 64 and Beat Saber, and drowned in the first puddle while wearing a spider. It sounds like a meme, but real science sits underneath: a copy of a fruit fly's brain assembled from electron microscope scans. And the most interesting result is not the funny one. What Kubernetes actually does, and when you definitely do not need it TechnologyMarina Sokolova What Kubernetes actually does, and when you definitely do not need it Kubernetes runs containers across many machines at once: you describe the desired state of an application and the cluster keeps it that way. Here is what a cluster consists of, what the API Server, etcd, Scheduler and kubelet do, and what happens after a kubectl command. Twenty Good Lock modules that make your Galaxy unrecognisable TechnologyMarina Sokolova Twenty Good Lock modules that make your Galaxy unrecognisable Good Lock is Samsung's own app for fine-tuning the One UI shell on Galaxy phones: a set of modules, each responsible for the home screen, lock screen, gestures, sound or camera. Here is what the modules do and which ones to start with. An LLM versus a greedy algorithm on Elbrus: who won and why it matters AI and automationMarina Sokolova An LLM versus a greedy algorithm on Elbrus: who won and why it matters The Elbrus processor uses a VLIW architecture, so the compiler must schedule operations across channels and cycles in advance. A researcher on Habr built such an instruction scheduler and tested whether the Qwen language model could replace the classic greedy algorithm. Alone it could not; in tandem it could. Your case is ruining the iPhone Duo? One setting fixes it in seconds TechnologyMarina Sokolova Your case is ruining the iPhone Duo? One setting fixes it in seconds The foldable iPhone Duo Apple unveiled on 9 September 2026 has a display setting that adds a narrow black strip along the left edge of the outer screen. It exists so that a case with a raised lip does not cover interface elements. Here is where it lives and when to use it. iOS 27 is here: what changed and why you should not rush the update TechnologyMarina Sokolova iOS 27 is here: what changed and why you should not rush the update Apple released iOS 27 on the evening of 14 September 2026. iPhone 11 and newer get the update, while the headline feature, AI Siri that understands what is on screen, is limited to iPhone 15 Pro and later. Here is what changed and how to update. Your Lenovo laptop drops to battery after a Windows 11 update: why TechnologyMarina Sokolova Your Lenovo laptop drops to battery after a Windows 11 update: why Windows 11 update KB5121003 makes Lenovo Legion and some HP Victus laptops report being unplugged while the adapter is connected and the charge light stays on. A Reddit user traced the cause to the ACPI and battery driver chain and confirmed the fix: removing the update. Six free LLM APIs put to the test: where the limits run out first AI and automationMarina Sokolova Six free LLM APIs put to the test: where the limits run out first A free LLM API lets you build a chatbot or automation prototype without a token bill. A Habr author ran six services through real requests: Token Harbor, WoAiToken, Unikey, God Router, ABCRelay and Z.ai. Here is how they compare on models, limits and starting balance. Windows 11 without a Microsoft account: the link everyone walks past TechnologyMarina Sokolova Windows 11 without a Microsoft account: the link everyone walks past Installing Windows 11 without internet or a Microsoft account is possible again, and this time without a command prompt. Enthusiast Bob Pony found that on the OOBE setup screen the Learn more link under sign-in options switches the system to local setup. It only works on the Home edition. They cut meetings and got ten hours a week back: how the boards work AI and automationMarina Sokolova They cut meetings and got ten hours a week back: how the boards work IT company Maitech moved task management to Agile boards in Directum Projects and got measurable results: data lookup became 20 % faster and weekly meetings shrank by 10 hours. Here are the boards they created and what can be repeated without Directum. A free add-on slices AI figurines for 3D printing: no more manual cuts TechnologyMarina Sokolova A free add-on slices AI figurines for 3D printing: no more manual cuts The 299 Tools add-on for Blender solves a problem familiar to anyone printing AI-generated figures: a solid mesh must be cut into parts that fit the printer and reassemble. The tool was released on 9 September 2026 as version 1.0.0, free, by the Japanese studio 299 MODEL WORKS. A Windows 11 update breaks Always On VPN: check this before Monday TechnologyMarina Sokolova A Windows 11 update breaks Always On VPN: check this before Monday Windows 11 update KB5124008 breaks Always On VPN with certificate authentication: connections stop establishing on 24H2 and 25H2 clients and in infrastructures with Windows Server 2019, RRAS and NPS. Microsoft had not responded officially at publication time, but proven workarounds exist. Four steps before iOS 27: skip them and you risk losing your data TechnologyMarina Sokolova Four steps before iOS 27: skip them and you risk losing your data iOS 27 arrived on 14 September 2026, and preparing an iPhone for the update takes half an hour: a backup in iCloud and on a computer, about 20 GB of free space and disabling the offloading of unused apps. Here is the order of steps and one mistake that costs data. The VPN is on its way out: BI.Zone ZTNA now runs on Astra Linux TechnologyMarina Sokolova The VPN is on its way out: BI.Zone ZTNA now runs on Astra Linux BI.Zone ZTNA has confirmed compatibility with Astra Linux 1.7.6 and later. For companies where Windows, Ubuntu and Astra work side by side it means uniform zero-trust remote access rules without exceptions for individual machines. Windows 11 changes how admin rights work: what happens to plain UAC TechnologyMarina Sokolova Windows 11 changes how admin rights work: what happens to plain UAC Microsoft is preparing to ship Administrator Protection for Windows 11: a regular user receives administrator rights only for a specific action and only after confirmation through Windows Hello. Here is how it differs from the familiar UAC and how to enable it. An interface for 10,000 PCs: seven decisions that prevent costly mistakes Websites and developmentMarina Sokolova An interface for 10,000 PCs: seven decisions that prevent costly mistakes A B2B interface for monitoring and scheduling tasks on 10,000+ computers runs into three things: a 40-column table, a stack of modal windows and the price of one accidental error. Designer Alisa described on Habr how she solved this with an administrator's real working screen about 630 px tall. Seven UX design decisions, from the navigation rail to the master-detail pattern, that transfer to any enterprise interface. Tired of irrelevant Kwork projects? He wrote a browser extension to hide them Websites and developmentMarina Sokolova Tired of irrelevant Kwork projects? He wrote a browser extension to hide them Dozens of projects appear daily on the Kwork freelance marketplace, half of them irrelevant to a given freelancer, and the site has no hide button. A developer solved it with the Kwork Hider Chrome extension: two buttons on a card, local storage and an observer for the dynamic feed. Here is how it is built. iPhone 18 Pro vs 17 Pro: one difference decides whether to upgrade TechnologyMarina Sokolova iPhone 18 Pro vs 17 Pro: one difference decides whether to upgrade The iPhone 18 Pro gained a variable-aperture main camera, the 2 nm A20 Pro chip and noticeably larger batteries, while the display, body and port carry over from the iPhone 17 Pro. Here are the differences point by point and the answer to the main question: who should upgrade. He put DLSS 5 into DOOM 1993: look what happened to the pixels TechnologyMarina Sokolova He put DLSS 5 into DOOM 1993: look what happened to the pixels Enthusiast niko-zvt integrated NVIDIA's DLSS 5 frame reconstruction into the original 1993 DOOM. The id Tech 1 engine could not provide the motion vectors and scene depth a neural network needs, so they had to be added. The result: sprite graphics became smoother yet stayed recognisable. The code is open on GitHub as DOOM-DLSS-5. The MiG-35 enters War Thunder: the last MiG and what it brings to a fight TechnologyMarina Sokolova The MiG-35 enters War Thunder: the last MiG and what it brings to a fight Gaijin Entertainment has announced the MiG-35 for War Thunder: the rank IX Soviet/Russian jet fighter arrives in the Sky Odyssey update in September 2026. In the game it gets an AESA radar, up to eight R-77-1 missiles and precision weapons. In reality the aircraft became the last production fighter of the MiG company, built in six units. iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo wallpapers are already out: grab them now TechnologyMarina Sokolova iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo wallpapers are already out: grab them now The official wallpapers of the iPhone 18 Pro and the foldable iPhone Duo surfaced online almost immediately after Apple's presentation on 9 September 2026 in Cupertino. Four colour variants for the Pro models and two versions for the Duo can be downloaded in full resolution and set on any smartphone, not only new iPhones. Java 27 is out: three changes your production will notice on day one TechnologyMarina Sokolova Java 27 is out: three changes your production will notice on day one Java 27 shipped on 15 September 2026 and is not an LTS release: Java 25 remains the main production version and Java 29 will be the next LTS. Even so, three runtime changes in OpenJDK 27 affect the memory and CPU of real applications, so they are worth knowing before upgrading. A 10 out of 10 GitLab flaw hands over server files without a password TechnologyMarina Sokolova A 10 out of 10 GitLab flaw hands over server files without a password GitLab has patched CVE-2026-85706, rated the maximum 10 on the CVSS scale: a path traversal in the repository commits API lets an unauthenticated attacker read arbitrary server files. GitLab CE and EE 18.7–19.3.1 are affected; fixes shipped in 19.3.2, 19.2.6 and 19.1.8. Update today. The share of graduates writing code fell from 40% to 28% in a year AI and automationMarina Sokolova The share of graduates writing code fell from 40% to 28% in a year The UK Graduate Outcomes Survey, which tracks graduates' careers 15 months after university, recorded a sharp drop: the share of computer science graduates starting work as programmers fell from 40 to 28 % in a year. Here are the numbers, the researchers' explanations and the role of generative AI. MPs want some AI uses banned outright: what is in the 100-page report AI and automationMarina Sokolova MPs want some AI uses banned outright: what is in the 100-page report A cross-party group of MPs and peers says existing law cannot handle the risks created by artificial intelligence. The Joint Committee on Human Rights, drawn from both Houses, published a 100-page report and called for a dedicated bill. UK Parliament is debating this while the industry itself argues about whether development should slow down. Your agent instructions now hurt: what OpenAI says to delete today AI and automationMarina Sokolova Your agent instructions now hurt: what OpenAI says to delete today If you spent the past year working with coding agents, you have accumulated a layer of instructions: skills, an AGENTS.md file, task prompts. OpenAI published a guide on why that layer needs revisiting now that GPT-6 Astra is out: what used to steer models toward good outcomes now often gets in the way. Codex and other agents got stronger, and scaffolding written for weaker models works against them. Non-sensitive data, they said: why the Salt breach means calls for you TechnologyMarina Sokolova Non-sensitive data, they said: why the Salt breach means calls for you Swiss telecom operator Salt acknowledged what it calls a potential security incident: a considerable volume of customer records was stolen. The company listed the personal data that may be affected and stressed that it does not consider it sensitive. Le Temps columnist Anouch Seydtaghia disagrees: sets like this are exactly what attackers need. A washing machine used 411 MB in 19 hours: what is it sending out? TechnologyMarina Sokolova A washing machine used 411 MB in 19 hours: what is it sending out? A user in China noticed that his smart Midea washing machine was consuming a suspicious amount of traffic: after connecting to Wi-Fi it used more than 400 MB in 19 hours and 40 minutes. The story spread and turned into an argument about what household appliances actually transmit. It is a good moment to look at how the home internet of things works and what you can check yourself. You open an invoice in Word and catch a trojan: 26% arrive this way TechnologyMarina Sokolova You open an invoice in Word and catch a trojan: 26% arrive this way Microsoft Office documents have become one of the main delivery channels for malware in corporate networks. In a new study by Positive Technologies, office files accounted for 26% of all files used to deliver malicious software in observed network traffic. An ordinary invoice, contract or spreadsheet raises no suspicion, and that is the whole point. 1C 8.5.5 will shrink your database: what finally moves out of it Websites and developmentMarina Sokolova 1C 8.5.5 will shrink your database: what finally moves out of it The 1C:Enterprise team announced further work on the mechanism that handles heavy data. In version 8.5.5 the binary data storage will be able to hold tabular section attributes, and the integrity check will stop freezing the entire database. Both changes matter most to large deployments where the size of the working database has become a problem in its own right. A 201 response proves nothing: twenty API checks that catch real bugs Websites and developmentMarina Sokolova A 201 response proves nothing: twenty API checks that catch real bugs API testing works better on one end-to-end scenario than on a list of endpoints. A guide published on Habr by Netology builds everything around a create-order request: first the successful response is verified, then conditions are changed one at a time. Many of the checks repeat on every project, and they are easy to automate in Postman, so the guide covers both the checks and the way to keep them. Google puts 13 billion euros into Finland: you pay for it, here is how AI and automationMarina Sokolova Google puts 13 billion euros into Finland: you pay for it, here is how Google announced a 13 billion euro investment in digital infrastructure, energy and data centres in Finland. It is the company's largest investment in Europe to date. The choice of country is explained simply: the climate allows less energy to be spent cooling servers, and cooling is one of the heaviest cost items for any data centre. Reflection is 36 times slower: reach a private field in 0.25 nanoseconds TechnologyMarina Sokolova Reflection is 36 times slower: reach a private field in 0.25 nanoseconds Reading a private field through reflection takes 8.96 nanoseconds and allocates 24 bytes on the heap. The same access without reflection takes 0.25 nanoseconds and allocates nothing: a 35.8 times difference, and on .NET 8 it reached 108. The technique is called UnsafeAccessor, it arrived in .NET 8, works without code generation and is used inside the class library itself. 7.68 TB on a single stick: the SanDisk SSD built to outlive your NAS TechnologyMarina Sokolova 7.68 TB on a single stick: the SanDisk SSD built to outlive your NAS SanDisk introduced a line of drives built for network attached storage. It contains two models for different scenarios: a SATA drive for upgrading a basic NAS built on hard disks, and an NVMe drive for all-flash systems under heavy load. The difference between them is not only speed but the job each one does. Do not order a website until you read this: landing, corporate or store Websites and developmentMarina Sokolova Do not order a website until you read this: landing, corporate or store A landing page, a corporate website and an online store solve different tasks, and the choice defines structure, budget and platform: Tilda, WordPress or 1C-Bitrix. Here is how to tell which type you actually need. What nobody tells you before the first meeting with a web studio Websites and developmentMarina Sokolova What nobody tells you before the first meeting with a web studio A website development brief is not a technical specification but a short document about the goal, audience, materials and constraints of a project. A good brief saves weeks of correspondence because the studio immediately understands what to launch, from what and within which limits. Nine checks without which your launch quietly costs you search traffic SEO and GEOMarina Sokolova Nine checks without which your launch quietly costs you search traffic Technical SEO before a launch means checking robots.txt, the sitemap, canonical, hreflang and redirects before Yandex Webmaster and Google Search Console see the new site. The nine checks in this list take a day, while mistakes in them cost months of lost traffic.

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