Jensen Huang resigns as NVIDIA CEO; Apache HTTP Server has a critical RCE; Cloudflare explains QuePaxa, a leader-free consensus algorithm

Engineering

Wiz

Critical RCE Vulnerability in Apache HTTP Server: Everything You Need To Know

Wiz disclosed a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) flaw in the Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Server. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit a race condition in the HTTP/2 module to run code over the network. Versions 2.4.55 through 2.4.70 are affected, so upgrade to 2.4.71 or disable HTTP/2 with Protocols http/1.1.

Cloudflare Blog

Choosing QuePaxa, an unusual consensus algorithm

QuePaxa is a randomized consensus algorithm from 2023 that Cloudflare uses in Meerkat, an experimental global control plane. Raft and Multi-Paxos stall when their leader fails. Cloudflare chose QuePaxa because it keeps progress during latency spikes and broken connections without a strict leader.

Martin Fowler

Tests as data: ensuring AI-generated code does what we want

Matteo Vaccari argues that when artificial intelligence (AI) agents write both code and tests, developers lose assurance that the tests catch functional errors. He proposes black-box customer tests, stored as readable data such as tables and small domain-specific languages (DSLs). Clear tests let teams check what AI-generated software does before they ship it.

Python Discourse

In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026

Tim Peters, a long-time Python core developer and mentor, died on July 15, 2026. He wrote the Zen of Python and designed Timsort, a sorting algorithm that Java and Android later adopted. Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, says Python would not be what it is today without him.

Social Sciences

Construction Physics

Technology as a Search Problem

Brian Potter argues that inventors search a vast space of possible designs, and most designs fail. Inventors progress faster when they gather information, lock in working subsystems, and reuse partial successes. Potter's simulations show these methods cut the attempts needed, but they are not tests on real inventions.

Marginal Revolution

My excellent Conversation with Terence Tao

Mathematician Terence Tao discusses mathematics, economics, and research in a Conversations with Tyler episode. Tao argues that artificial intelligence (AI) has moved mathematics from proof scarcity to proof abundance. This shift raises questions about the research paper, and Tao suggests video talks may become more valuable than papers.

Marginal Revolution

Experimentally validated digital twins

Researchers used tax records of all American adults from 1999 to 2025. Machine learning (ML) models estimated earnings without a job program, and closely matched benchmarks from 37 randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The authors argue that administrative data can offer a scalable alternative to randomized trials for evaluating programs.

Humanities

Aeon

Why anything exists

In 1714, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz asked why anything exists at all. Andrew Brenner argues that an empty world is not as simple as it seems. Truths such as logic and arithmetic would still hold without any things. Brenner suggests that a simple thing could explain these truths, so something may be simpler than nothing.

JSTOR Daily

Beyond the Plantation House

Rice University runs a community archaeology project with the Texas Historical Society at the Varner-Hogg Plantation in Brazoria County, Texas. Local residents can watch the digging, ask questions, and share their knowledge with the archaeologists. The work recovers the history of enslaved and incarcerated people who worked there. Earlier restoration in the 1950s and 1960s left this history out.