Monday, 21 September 2026
Google open-sources AX, an agentic task runtime; Trail of Bits declares SAML a fractal of bad design; only 1% of the Snowden archive has ever been published
Today's Lead
Engineeringagentexecutor.io
AX: Google's Open Agentic Orchestrator
Agent Executor (AX) is an open-source runtime platform from Google that orchestrates autonomous agent workloads at scale using declarative YAML-based infrastructure. It treats agents as a distinct type of workload—neither microservices nor batch jobs—by providing isolated task execution, automated workspace setup, network policies, and AI model configuration across distributed clusters. AX supports billions of concurrent tasks with sub-second suspension and resumption capabilities, enabling dense resource multiplexing across coding agents, notebooks, browser testing, and custom tools.
Trail of Bits
Trail of Bits argues that SAML, while historically important for establishing SSO, should be deprecated and replaced with OpenID Connect (OIDC) due to fundamental design flaws. Key technical issues include XML's inherent complexity, error-prone canonicalization for signature validation, enveloped signatures that embed data within what they sign, and kitchen-sink design with numerous unused features. The recommendation is that service providers should abandon SAML entirely, while identity providers should develop deprecation plans and migrate existing customers to OIDC equivalents.
Read →zuckoff.app
ZuckOff: The App That Detects Meta Smart Glasses Nearby
ZuckOff is a privacy-focused app that detects nearby camera-equipped smart glasses, such as Ray-Ban Meta and Snap Spectacles, by monitoring Bluetooth signals these devices broadcast. The app identifies manufacturer-specific Bluetooth signatures and displays signal strength to indicate approximate distance, with all processing done locally on the user's device without any accounts or data transmission. The app is available on iOS and Android and allows users to exclude their own glasses and export detection logs.
Read →libroot.org
What Happened to the Snowden Archive
Edward Snowden shared approximately 50,000 classified documents with major news organizations in 2013, including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Intercept. Publications gradually stopped releasing documents between 2014 and 2019, with The Intercept releasing the final batch before closing its archive access in March 2019. To date, approximately 1% of the total archive has been publicly disclosed, and despite stated intentions to partner with academic institutions, no such partnership has materialized.
Read →Bryan Cantrill
Sun Microsystems had strong products and the right strategic direction, but ultimately failed due to operational disengagement and poor business execution. Despite customers actively seeking to buy Sun hardware, the company neglected sales and customer service. The lesson Cantrill draws for Oxide is that even excellent products and strategic vision cannot succeed without disciplined execution and attentive engagement with customers' needs.
Read →Aeon
He Was Probably Right: Cicero and the Art of Calibrated Belief
Drawing on Cicero's concept of probabilia, the essay argues that true skepticism is not about paralyzing doubt or rigid certainty, but holding beliefs with carefully calibrated confidence based on available evidence. A good skeptic should adopt provisional beliefs that have withstood scrutiny and cohere with evidence, while remaining open to revision when new information emerges. This middle path—what Cicero expressed as 'follow easily, affirm rarely'—enables decisive action despite uncertainty, treating being wrong as valuable data rather than something to rationalize away.
Read →Aeon
Sound Guardians: Preserving the Kalimantan Rainforest Before It Vanishes
Indonesia's construction of a new capital city, Nusantara, in East Kalimantan is causing significant environmental and cultural losses, particularly the degradation of the rainforest's acoustic ecosystem. Construction noise is driving away wildlife and silencing the calls of creatures that once filled the soundscape, disrupting both the natural environment and indigenous communities who rely on these sounds for navigation and cultural identity. A research team is documenting the rainforest's soundscapes and the ancestral knowledge embedded within them, seeking to preserve what development will irreversibly transform.
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