Mastodon Feed: Posts

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Apple has the virtue of pointing at a better future, and the vice of holding the coats of everyone who doesn't share that vision.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't go there. But it does mean the idea Apple will transport us to it is a lie.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

The real debate here isn't Apple vs. Google (who are universally worse on this stuff), it's Apple vs. the web.

And make no mistake, Apple is *extremely* threatened by a world where people spend more time in a browser-based, low-tracking environment.

It's why they've done all the nasty public stuff to suppress browser engine choice, as well as a boatload of nonsense they aren't blamed for (yet).

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

To spell this out in the most granular way:

• Apple allows FB to (ab)use `WKWebView` for an anti-user, pro-tracking in-app browser system
• FB uses this system to bypass both browser choice *as well as* any ad or tracker blocking you might have enabled within Safari
• Apple hold's FB's coat while it allows this situation to proliferate, one app at a time, while ignoring the impact of two-sided tracking (scripts in pages + host URLs).

Apple is Zucking you. No doubt about it.

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

burritojustice ("Burrito Justice") wrote:

SERPENTINE…

IN…

SPAAAAACE

“Analysis of the Bennu sample unveiled intriguing insights into the asteroid’s composition. Dominated by clay minerals, particularly serpentine, the sample mirrors the type of rock found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth, where material from the mantle, the layer beneath Earth’s crust, encounters water”

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/surprising-phosphate-finding-in-nasas-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample/

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

The difference between posturing about privacy and actually doing what's most effective to enable it is the difference between marketing and action.

Caring about the world as it actually is, and resolving to change it, is not something billboards are equipped to take on.

Never forget that.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I like to imagine that a lot of the smart people working on privacy and security at Apple understand this, but my general affinity for Hanlon's Razor suggests they don't which, frankly, is disqualifying for any company that wants to put up billboards selling privacy.

PARTICULARLY web privacy.

Clown show.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

People who understand some of the tech might say *"ah, but App Bound Domains!"*[1]

What those folks, and perhaps Apple's mgmt, have decided not to understand is that script injection is *no obstacle* for an entity that can both dominate the app market *and* cause most publishers to embed bits of JS within their pages.

ABD would work *if and only if* Apple also blocked tracking scripts from 3p origins associated with the hosting app, when loading a `WKWebView`.

[1]: https://webkit.org/blog/10882/app-bound-domains/

collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:

Being a parent has lots of great parts, but one of the worst is: there's literally no such thing as a vacation.

Whatever you thought of as a "vacation" before? Yeah, that's gone. You don't get that anymore.

Your absolute best-case vacation scenario as a parent is: exactly as demanding and stressful as real life, just in a slightly different way and/or location that cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars more.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

The reason you know Apple and Facebook are besties IRL is that the ATT kayfabe blew over and Apple still lets FB do nasty nonsense with ad-blocker-blocking via "in-app browser" shenanigans.

A FB that feared Apple would have shut that down a long time ago.

An Apple that cared about privacy would have done the same.

It's a real SV mutual-appreciation story. Heartwarming, in fact.

Reblogged by collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth"):

lzg ("lenazun") wrote:

one thing i learned from facilitating groups is that sometimes it’s much more effective to say “we don’t do that here” to invoke a community norm instead of saying “i’m personally offended” because that can be attributed to you only, or “that’s wrong”, because that invites some kind of debate.

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

dawngreeter@dice.camp ("Marko Vujnovic") wrote:

@Daojoan Speaking as a dev manager, and entirely putting aside that it is simply decent to ensure your team has a healthy work-life balance... death march to delivery is the only way to be certain you will fail.

Overtime in a bind will move the needle for about two weeks. After that, you are lucky if 12 hours gets you what a well rested engineer will do in 8. A month after that, measurably, demonstrably bad decisions are being made due to exhaustion.

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

leaverou@front-end.social ("Lea Verou") wrote:

Whenever I feel bad about yak shaving, I’m reminded of Donald Knuth.

Apparently, he was writing his masterwork “The Art of Computer Programming” and decided to take a few weeks to write a better typesetter.

Thus, TeX was born.

10 years later he returned to continue the writing of the actual book…

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

AlgoCompSynth@universeodon.com ("Zorro Notorious MEB 🪷🪷🪷") wrote:

@ScottStarkey I think they have to broadcast via YouTube because Zoom doesn't have the literal bandwidth. Some of the calls last week broke Zoom.

A reminder: we have cool hats!

https://bit.ly/dudehats

#WhiteDudesForHarris

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

stilgherrian@eigenmagic.net ("Stilgherrian") wrote:

Information a new Cyber Security Act is being dribbled out this week.

Today, “Cyber ransom payments will need to be disclosed by businesses under new laws” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-30/cyber-ransom-payments-new-laws-before-parliament/104113038

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

hmmm, that’s disconcerting @CARROT

Attachments:

• 8887cd5bb978e4dc.mp4 (remote)

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

Unixbigot@aus.social ("Kit Bashir") wrote:

ANCHOR: “….and for viewers in the twin cities you can expect rain later with a possibility of sleet. Just before we go, a human interest story.”

REPORTER: “I’m at Underwriters Laboratories, where products have been tested for safety and reliability for over a century and a half. Janine works in the important new division that tests alien products that have come to market since Earth was contacted by the Galactic Commons. Can you tell us a bit about what you do.”

INTERVIEWEE: “Yes Grant, safety and quality testing has a long tradition on Earth, for example you never need to worry about being electrocuted by your kettle, because such a product would not pass our testing. Fortunately the wider galaxy has similar safety traditions but we still re-test off-world products here at UL because sometimes there are risks peculiar to Earth”

REPORTER: “Can you give an example”

INTERVIEWEE: “Sure. Take this product. It’s an Aldabaranian beauty appliance for neutron-beam hair removal. Normally quite safe and easy to use; however humans have more fingers than Alda and we’ve determined that there is a risk of your pinky finger triggering turbo mode which can lead to unwanted limb removal.”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Some CEO somewhere peddling "AI" something something: "It's taken many decades of research, but we've finally managed to turn basic computing from something knowable and predictable into something mysterious and unpredictable... This is clearly very useful."

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Oh gosh, here's another: "We are rapidly moving toward a world where the fundamental building blocks of computation are temperamental, mysterious, adaptive agents."

I do not think that is the great selling point you think it is, Mr. CEO of a startup offering "AI" "solutions".

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Headline: "Toward Software-Defined Vehicles"

Me: 😱

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

niconiconi@mk.absturztau.be wrote:

#TIL Kirchhoff already derived the original transmission line equation in 1857, nearly 20 years before Heaviside. Kirchhoff found a wave equation that makes a signal travel like heat (per Kelvin) but it also reflects at boundaries like a vibrating string, and this wavefront moves at the speed of light. Time to start calling transmission lines "Kirchhoff's third law"? It's mostly forgotten today because of its use of pre-Maxwell E&M based on Newtonian forces without fields (today called "Weber's electrodynamics" and remain on the fringe of research) https://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Apeiron-V19-p19-25(1994).pdf https://thepilyfe.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/1.2238887.pdf #electronics

Attachments:

• Eliminating i, one obtains: dE / dT = (8γl)/r (d^2 E) / (dx^2) which is an equation of the same form as the one which determines the conduction of heat in the conductor. Therefore, in the case considered here, the electricity propagates through the metal like heat does. With the assumptions made with regard to the resistance r' in equations (16) and (17), it is easily proved "a posteriori" that (16) and (17) are real solutions of (14) and (15). It is possible to convince oneself without difficulty that (4 / c^2)(di/dt) is infinitely small compared with dE/dx when i and E are taken from (17) and (16). The case in which the ends of the wire are separated from each other, and are subject to two potential values, can be treated in a similar manner as the case where the wire forms a closed loop. In the open circuit, and provided the resistance of the wire is large enough, one finds the same analogy between the conduction of electrity and heat. With Jacobi's resistance standard, a copper wire of 7.62 m length, 0.333 mm diameter, as shown in the previous paper, is: 32γ / (π sqrt(2)) = 2070 For a wire of the same material, the same cross-section, and a length of 100 km this quantity is 0.034, By way of an approximation, it can be treated as infinitely large in the first case, and as infinitely small in the second case. In the first case the electricity propagates like a wave in a taught string, and in the second case it travels like heat. Thomson has examined the motion of el (remote)
• III. THE RATIO OF UNITS AND THE SPEED OF LIGHT During the 1850s and 1860s Weber, Kirchhoff, and Ludwig Lorenz used the constant c_w and found situations in which electromagnetic effects propagate with the speed c_w / sqrt(2). In 1857, Kirchhoff studied electric currents in thin wires and extended media. He found that in media with vanishing resistance, electric currents propagate with speed c_w / sqrt(2). From the value of c_w, determined experimentally by Weber and Kohlrausch in 1856, Kirchhoff recognized that c_w / sqrt(2) is equal to the speed of light. Weber did similar studies and drew the same conclusion at about the same time but independently of Kirchhoff. However, his work was not published until 1864. Kirchhoff and Weber were not studying electromagnetic waves but electric currents in conductors. But it is interesting that, several years before Maxwell, they found electromagnetic effects that propagate with the speed of light. (remote)

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

hadleybeeman@w3c.social ("Hadley Beeman") wrote:

After reading Google’s announcement that they no longer plan to deprecate third-party cookies, we the @tag wanted to make our position clear.

Third-party cookies have got to go.

We have updated our TAG finding “Third-party cookies must be removed” to spell out our concerns.

https://w3c.social/@hadleybeeman/112831916454116556

https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/web-without-3p-cookies/
1/

isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:

Bazaar vibes. Spent the day at a cultural festival run by the Indian community in Redmond, WA. A very colorful event, as you might expect!

Some more: https://www.flickr.com/photos/isagalaev/albums/72177720319205390/

#darktable #anandamela

Attachments:

• People sitting around a hot plate, on which a woman in sari cooks a couple of small round flat breads. A man in a very colorful turban looks on.

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

cb@bleepbop.space wrote:

I'm working on a new album and I think this is going to be the cover art. It's big band #jazz but 100% #synthesizers similar to the music of Tomita and Wendy Carlos. I'm playing most everything on my #ewi from the 90's

Attachments:

• in bold text: "JAZZ STANDARDS FROM AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE". below, a hand-drawn red abstract saxophone on an orange/yellow background, drawn in a loose playful style perhaps like Miró? the saxophone has abstract electronics components all over it, some in the place of keys. blue and red lightning bolts are coming out of the saxophone bell (remote)

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

trevorflowers@machines.social ("Ding Dang Trevor Flowers") wrote:

Jiminy Cricket! I ran through my daily anxiety allotment while reading this description of a Colombia launch. Machines, right?!
https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/26/space_shuttle_columbia_near_miss/

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

‘The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, posted on X on Sunday evening that the manipulated Harris video should be “illegal” and that he would soon sign a bill banning such media, in apparent reference to a proposal supported by California lawmakers to ban “materially deceptive” election deepfakes.’

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/29/elon-musk-accused-of-spreading-lies-over-kamala-harris-video

Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):

stefan@front-end.social ("Stefan Judis") wrote:

This is pretty wild — our friends at "Read The Docs" saw file download traffic drop by 75% after blocking AI bots.

https://about.readthedocs.com/blog/2024/07/ai-crawlers-abuse/

Attachments:

• By blocking these crawlers, bandwidth for our downloaded files has decreased by 75% (~800GB/day to ~200GB/day). If all this traffic hit our origin servers, it would cost around $50/day, or $1,500/month, along with the increased load on our servers. (remote)

Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):

potus@threads.net ("President Joe Biden") wrote:

This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law.

So today, I'm calling for three bold reforms to restore trust and accountability to the court and our democracy.

1. No more immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office
2. Term limits for Supreme Court justices
3. A binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court

Read more about how these actions would strengthen the guardrails of our democracy here: wapo.st/4c9ertE

http://wapo.st/4c9ertE

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Whatever you do, you don't want to look in JD Vance's basement.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/29/shall-we-get-ahead-of-the-cycle-with-the-next-jd-vance-weirdness/

Attachments:

• "All right, what's the trouble this time," as he opens the door on a Gahan Wilson horror. (remote)

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

“These guys are just weird, that’s who they are,” says Gov Tim Walz. And he's right! He's understating it, if anything!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/29/shall-we-get-ahead-of-the-cycle-with-the-next-jd-vance-weirdness/

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

The most haunted street in Minnesota looks exactly like my idea of paradise.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/29/road-trip-2/

Attachments:

• Colfax Cemetery on Timber Lake Road (remote)