Weekly #17-2025: PhpStorm Upgrades, AI Job Fakes, Ansible’s Reality, Brain Drain, and Zuckerberg’s Social Shift

Madhu Sudhan Subedi Tech Weekly PhpStorm 2025.1: What's New for PHP Developers Hello PHP developers! The latest version of PhpStorm, 2025.1, is here and it's looking pretty sweet. You can expect better support for PHPStan annotations, which means code completion will understand those fancy array type hints. Also, managing your .env files with nested variables should be a breeze now. Setting up Xdebug? It just got way easier – PhpStorm can now grab and install it for you automatically. Plus, the folks at JetBrains are now officially taking care of those handy Xdebug toggler extensions for your browser. If you're a WordPress developer, PhpStorm will now automatically figure out where your WordPress files are. And get this – all the cool JetBrains AI features are now free! That means unlimited AI-powered code completion and even local AI model support. Finally, if you're using the beta version, the terminal inside PhpStorm has been revamped and now uses the standard Windows file dialogs. So yeah, upgrading to PhpStorm 2025.1 sounds like a good move for a smoother and more productive coding time! Link Ansible: The Unsung Hero of Server Automation It’s already a Tuesday night, Let’s talk about Ansible—the tool that’s been quietly running the world’s servers while everyone else argues about which cloud is best. Ansible’s superpower? You tell it how you want your servers set up—folders, users, firewalls, you name it—and it makes it so, using simple YAML files and good old SSH. If things are already set up, Ansible just nods and moves on. If not, it fixes them, no drama. There’s a huge community behind Ansible, and with Ansible Galaxy, you get tons of ready-made plugins to handle almost anything—Linux, Windows, cloud stuff, you name it. Sure, sometimes the file structure is a bit weird, and you might have to Google things more than you’d like, but it’s still way better than writing a bunch of messy shell scripts. Ansible shines for managing your “pet” servers and automating everyday tasks. But if you want to manage your entire infrastructure as code, tools like Terraform and Packer are now the gold standard. Still, for quick, reliable automation and a huge ecosystem, Ansible remains a must-know tool for any sysadmin or DevOps pro Link AI Job Seekers: The New Remote Hiring Headache Remote hiring just got a lot trickier. Tech CEOs are warning that fake job seekers using AI and deepfakes are flooding the market, especially for remote roles. Imagine interviewing someone on video—great resume, perfect answers—but behind the scenes, it’s actually a scammer using AI to fake their face, voice, and even their entire work history. This isn’t science fiction: companies are already catching “applicants” whose video doesn’t quite match their voice, or whose resumes are packed with all the right keywords, but are completely made up. Some of these fakes are so convincing, they’ve slipped through multiple rounds of interviews and background checks—even landing jobs at big firms before being discovered. Why do they do it? Some just want a paycheck they don’t deserve, but others have more dangerous goals—like stealing company secrets, installing malware, or sending money to overseas criminal groups. In one case, hundreds of North Korean “spies” used stolen identities to land remote tech jobs and funnel their salaries back home. Experts say by 2028, one in four job candidates could be fake. The solution? Companies are turning to advanced ID checks and video authentication tools to spot deepfakes. But as the tech gets better, so do the scammers—so don’t be surprised if in-person interviews make a comeback. In today’s world, even your next “coworker” might just be a really good AI. Stay sharp out there! Link Is AI Making Us Lazy? Hey, ever notice how asking AI for help just feels amazing? That’s not a coincidence—your brain actually gets a little hit of dopamine every time an AI gives you a fast answer. It’s like a mental high-five. And the more we get used to that quick fix, the more our brains start saying, “Eh, why struggle? Just ask the bot.” Before you know it, reaching for AI becomes second nature—even for the easy stuff. Remember when we actually used to remember things? Now, with answers just a click away, our brains are outsourcing memory. Little by little, those “why bother” moments add up, and the mental muscles we used to flex? Yeah, they start to fade. But it’s not just memory. When AI gives us instant answers, we skip the part where we actually think through things. Problem-solving, critical thinking—those are like brain pushups, and we’re skipping the gym. And here’s a wild one—sometimes we trust AI too much. Like, if GPS tells us to drive into a lake, we’re like, “Sure!” That’s called automation bias, and it’s getting sketchier as AI starts making bigger decisions for us. So next time you’re about to let the AI take over everything, maybe take

Apr 27, 2025 - 03:36

Weekly #17-2025: PhpStorm Upgrades, AI Job Fakes, Ansible’s Reality, Brain Drain, and Zuckerberg’s Social Shift

PhpStorm 2025.1: What's New for PHP Developers

Hello PHP developers! The latest version of PhpStorm, 2025.1, is here and it's looking pretty sweet. You can expect better support for PHPStan annotations, which means code completion will understand those fancy array type hints. Also, managing your .env files with nested variables should be a breeze now.

Setting up Xdebug? It just got way easier – PhpStorm can now grab and install it for you automatically. Plus, the folks at JetBrains are now officially taking care of those handy Xdebug toggler extensions for your browser. If you're a WordPress developer, PhpStorm will now automatically figure out where your WordPress files are.

And get this – all the cool JetBrains AI features are now free! That means unlimited AI-powered code completion and even local AI model support. Finally, if you're using the beta version, the terminal inside PhpStorm has been revamped and now uses the standard Windows file dialogs. So yeah, upgrading to PhpStorm 2025.1 sounds like a good move for a smoother and more productive coding time!

Link

Ansible: The Unsung Hero of Server Automation

It’s already a Tuesday night, Let’s talk about Ansible—the tool that’s been quietly running the world’s servers while everyone else argues about which cloud is best. Ansible’s superpower? You tell it how you want your servers set up—folders, users, firewalls, you name it—and it makes it so, using simple YAML files and good old SSH. If things are already set up, Ansible just nods and moves on. If not, it fixes them, no drama.

There’s a huge community behind Ansible, and with Ansible Galaxy, you get tons of ready-made plugins to handle almost anything—Linux, Windows, cloud stuff, you name it. Sure, sometimes the file structure is a bit weird, and you might have to Google things more than you’d like, but it’s still way better than writing a bunch of messy shell scripts.

Ansible shines for managing your “pet” servers and automating everyday tasks. But if you want to manage your entire infrastructure as code, tools like Terraform and Packer are now the gold standard. Still, for quick, reliable automation and a huge ecosystem, Ansible remains a must-know tool for any sysadmin or DevOps pro

Link

AI Job Seekers: The New Remote Hiring Headache

Remote hiring just got a lot trickier. Tech CEOs are warning that fake job seekers using AI and deepfakes are flooding the market, especially for remote roles. Imagine interviewing someone on video—great resume, perfect answers—but behind the scenes, it’s actually a scammer using AI to fake their face, voice, and even their entire work history.

This isn’t science fiction: companies are already catching “applicants” whose video doesn’t quite match their voice, or whose resumes are packed with all the right keywords, but are completely made up. Some of these fakes are so convincing, they’ve slipped through multiple rounds of interviews and background checks—even landing jobs at big firms before being discovered.

Why do they do it? Some just want a paycheck they don’t deserve, but others have more dangerous goals—like stealing company secrets, installing malware, or sending money to overseas criminal groups. In one case, hundreds of North Korean “spies” used stolen identities to land remote tech jobs and funnel their salaries back home.

Experts say by 2028, one in four job candidates could be fake. The solution? Companies are turning to advanced ID checks and video authentication tools to spot deepfakes. But as the tech gets better, so do the scammers—so don’t be surprised if in-person interviews make a comeback. In today’s world, even your next “coworker” might just be a really good AI. Stay sharp out there!
Link

Is AI Making Us Lazy?

Hey, ever notice how asking AI for help just feels amazing? That’s not a coincidence—your brain actually gets a little hit of dopamine every time an AI gives you a fast answer. It’s like a mental high-five.

And the more we get used to that quick fix, the more our brains start saying, “Eh, why struggle? Just ask the bot.” Before you know it, reaching for AI becomes second nature—even for the easy stuff.

Remember when we actually used to remember things? Now, with answers just a click away, our brains are outsourcing memory. Little by little, those “why bother” moments add up, and the mental muscles we used to flex? Yeah, they start to fade.

But it’s not just memory. When AI gives us instant answers, we skip the part where we actually think through things. Problem-solving, critical thinking—those are like brain pushups, and we’re skipping the gym.

And here’s a wild one—sometimes we trust AI too much. Like, if GPS tells us to drive into a lake, we’re like, “Sure!” That’s called automation bias, and it’s getting sketchier as AI starts making bigger decisions for us.

So next time you’re about to let the AI take over everything, maybe take a second. Give your brain a little workout. Because honestly, the best upgrade out there? Still a sharp mind.

Link

Big news from Mark Zuckerberg this week

Big news from Mark Zuckerberg this week: he says social media, as we know it, is basically over. Remember when Facebook was all about seeing your friends’ updates, like who started dating or who had a party? Now, those personal posts are getting lost in a sea of celebrity videos, news clips, and AI-generated content. In fact, Meta’s own numbers show that people spend much less time looking at friends’ posts—down to just 17% on Facebook and only 7% on Instagram.

Zuckerberg admitted this shift during a big antitrust trial, saying Facebook and Instagram are now more about entertainment and learning what’s happening in the world, not just connecting with friends. Social media has turned into regular media—lots of content, but less real connection.

With TikTok, YouTube, and even AI-generated posts everywhere, all these platforms are starting to look and feel the same. The future? Even more AI content, and maybe less of the “social” part we used to love. So, if your feed feels less personal these days, you’re not imagining it—social media really is changing, and even Zuckerberg says the old days are gone.

Link