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Boosted by jwz:
tuckeresque ("Malcolm Tucker 🇺🇦") wrote:

Yeah. That sums it up.

#Politics #USPOL #USPolitics #CharlieKirk

The crowd that gleefully mused about feeding immigrants to alligators would like you to stop taking pleasure at the idea of somebody else's death.

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Boosted by jwz:
heidilifeldman ("Heidi Li Feldman") wrote:

All those lauding Kirk for exercising his 1st Amendment right to free speech better be equally laudatory of those of us exercising ours to say he was a fascist who nobody should be honoring in any way at all.

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Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
timbray@cosocial.ca ("Tim Bray") wrote:

Big fat lies about mobile-cam lenses (not just Apple):
https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/9528220638/apple-optical-zoom-advertising-smartphones

#photography

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Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
html5test@front-end.social ("Niels Leenheer") wrote:

@slightlyoff @brucelawson @owa

That is certainly a “creative” take from Apple lawyers:

Please do not regulate our monopoly, because there is competition: PWA’s. Also our monopoly allows us to control all web browsers on our platform and they have to use our engine. So we get to dictate what browsers support. Oh and only our browser is allowed to install PWA’s. And don’t make us support PWA’s for all browsers, we’ll just completely remove PWA support.

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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
harrysintonen@infosec.exchange ("Harry Sintonen") wrote:

Many moons ago, a friend ran an SSH honeypot that had a unique feature: when the attacker gained "access" to the system, he could then send responses to the interactive commands the attackers executed over an IRC channel.

One day, some attacker popped in, and he started to taunt them live. Often, the attackers were just throwing in some copypasta and weren't actually checking the responses. This one time, the attacker realised what was going on and was quite amused, and started to chat back, sending fake commands to see if he would get obvious human responses back (Note: that this was well before generative AI). This went on for some time, and some kind of a connection was formed. The attacker would come back to chat with my friend, logging in over SSH to this honeypot.

Eventually, the attacker divulged other means to communicate with him. He told my friend he was a bored Romanian guy who ran a kind of academy for young hacking talent. They'd gain access to some box, install their SSH bruteforcer (random IPv4 addresses and fixed password lists), and rinse and repeat.

Eventually, the attackers seemed to stop and disappear. My friend contacted them and asked what had happened: maybe they had been caught by authorities?

No such luck. Apparently, they had discovered some addictive online game that was more interesting.

Threat actor group defeated by Candy Crush.

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Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
bramus@front-end.social ("Bramus") wrote:

If you thought we were done with View Transitions, guess again!

A feature Chrome is working on, is “Scoped View Transitions”, which allow you to scope a VT to a subtree of the DOM.

This unlocks things like concurrent transitions and prevents layering issues.

https://developer.chrome.com/blog/scoped-view-transitions-feedback?hl=en

Attachments:

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Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
agreenberg@infosec.exchange ("Andy Greenberg") wrote:

For a new episode of Hacklab, our hands-on hacking video series, we tested safecracking methods that can open Securam ProLogic locks on 8 brands of high security safes used in stores and pharmacies nationwide.

Morale of the story: Backdoors leave people vulnerable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upVzWfokDQc

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db@social.lol ("David Bushell 🪡") wrote:

love that Stu wrote this custom script for combining CSS
https://www.alwaystwisted.com/articles/UnSassing-my-CSS-CSS-imports

meanwhile I got sidetracked on a edge case that is never gonna be a real issue 😅
https://dbushell.com/notes/2025-08-18T07:11Z/

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chipotle@mstdn.social ("Watts Martin") wrote:

And “a few hours” doesn’t sound like much, but they were sometimes more productive than an eight-hour day in the office (or working at home from 2020 on: yes, I kept up the tradition once I was able to safely resume it).

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chipotle@mstdn.social ("Watts Martin") wrote:

I’m acutely missing my old “remote work Thursdays” lately, wherein I worked from home until a short standup meeting at 10:30am then hightailed it out to somewhere for lunch and working on the office laptop for a few hours, then hitting a brewery for working on my own stuff.

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Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
continuation@mas.to ("Mx Arjuna") wrote:

"Pay Your Respects" by Mattie Lubchansky
https://thenib.com/pay-your-respects/

Panel 1: A person with short hair and glasses sits on a couch, looking sad while holding their phone. Another person wearing a cap and beard enters the room and asks, “Hey. Is everything okay?” The person on the couch replies, “It’s just… the Bone Farmer… he died.” Panel 2: The bearded person recalls, “He was that thing that would break into people’s homes and steal their skeletons while they slept, right?” The person on the couch, teary-eyed, says, “So sad.” Panel 3: The person with glasses holds up a framed photo of a monster wearing a bowtie. They say, “I mean obviously, ideologically, I didn’t agree with him. With regards to skeleton ownership. But his smart li’l bowtie!” The bearded person adds, “You have to admire his tenacity for a cause he believed in!” Panel 4: A large jar in the room contains the boneless body of one of the Bone Farmer’s victims who says “Gonna have to disagree with you folks here.” The bearded man replies, “Too soon, Geoff!”

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jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

Today in "not surprising at all but nice to have the data"

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/11/nx-s1-5534484/oil-companies-heat-waves-climate

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jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

I said it elsewhere and I'll say it here too: Muting specific words on social media, temporarily or permanently, can be useful self-care.

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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

The persistent myth that #Meta and Mark Zuckerberg doesn't go after their small competitors is exactly how #Facebook, #Instagram, etc have held its monopoly for all these years.

We have short memories and revisionist historians in the tech world, and it's causing us to never learn from our mistakes.

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pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

I think NFTs died of boredom.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/11/random-thought/

bored ape nft

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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

Just like they did with MySpace, #Meta has positioned itself to siphon #Bluesky and #Mastodon users. This time it isn't called scraping. This time they've co-opted the language of revolution and decentralization.

Whether they're successful or not is not clear, but that's not the point. #Fediverse influencers and paid goons gave Meta strategic footing. It's just a matter of when they flip that switch.

An infographic titled "Operation Myspace v2.0: AKA The Siphon Strategy." It illustrates how Meta might attract users from Bluesky and Mastodon servers to Threads. Key elements include icons representing various platforms (Meta's logo, Bluesky Operation Myspace v2.0 AKA The Siphon Strategy How Meta might siphon users from Bluesky and Threads-friendly Mastodon servers to Threads. (Bridgy Fed) Bounce Possible Trigger: Dissatisfaction with ownership/moderation/ verification laws. Possible Trigger: Fear of breaking new laws, or otherwise, compelled by new laws. Activity Pub

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Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
bean@twoot.site ("Mr Bouba Bouba 🧄") wrote:

Much like an oven, the C programming language can char anything

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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

How much ad revenue do you think Google makes off fraud AI "products"?

A man is wearing a dark, knitted hoodie featuring a pumpkin design with a carved face, set against a natural background. Below, there are thumbnails of various clothing items, including a patterned shirt, a white dress, and a blue dress. All are obviously AI generated and not real products.

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

@brucelawson @owa WAT!?!

Apple are claiming (in a footnote) that PWAs might get better, so the CMA shouldn't regulate the App Store! I'm losing my mind:

"The PDD ignores evidence from 12 third parties suggesting that web apps may advance technologically or increase in use, and that this could reduce users’ dependency on Apple’s App Stores: PDD, ¶7.10(a). The PDD places greater weight on developer views collated across the last five years, of which a large proportion “gave no clear view” (PDD, fn. 508)"

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Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
brucelawson@vivaldi.net ("Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊") wrote:

@slightlyoff @owa The EU rumbled the Safari Unholy Trinity argument pretty smartly, citing Apple's own marketing https://www.apple.com/safari/#:~:text=Same%20Safari.%0ADifferent%20device.

Apple website screenshot: "Same Safari. Different device. Safari works seamlessly and syncs your passwords, bookmarks, history, tabs, and more across Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. And when your Mac, iOS, or iPadOS devices are near each other, they can automatically pass what you’re doing in Safari from one device to another using Handoff. You can even copy images, video, or text from Safari on your iPhone or iPad, then paste into another app on your nearby Mac — or vice versa."

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

Is there a legal term for having such a weak hand that your defence is actually an indictment?

Asking for a monopolist:

/cc @owa

Fresh off trying to kill web apps, Apple argued to the CMA that the App Store doesn't need to be regulated because web apps: "the App Store competes strongly with the numerous alternative channels and transaction platforms through which iOS and iPadOS users can and do transact for digital goods and services. These include transactions on alternative devices (such as other mobile devices, PCs, game consoles, media player devices and smart TVs), web apps,"

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ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Werewolf ⁂🐧🌱☕ 🎃💀🕸🐺") wrote:

Going live with Drew on YouTube
https://youtube.com/live/oEYWbQ-KAE0

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

@brucelawson @owa Wow.

Just, wow.

It's 2025, and after everything Apple has done over the past few years[1], it's really trying the "web apps exist, so you don't have to regulate the app store"?

Cupertino takes everyone else for goldfish, idiots, or fools.

[1]: https://infrequently.org/2024/02/home-screen-advantage/

Apple's trying to claim, after trying to kill web apps in a fit of pique last year, that they are a reason the App Store doesn't need to be regulated: "the App Store competes strongly with the numerous alternative channels and transaction platforms through which iOS and iPadOS users can and do transact for digital goods and services. These include transactions on alternative devices (such as other mobile devices, PCs, game consoles, media player devices and smart TVs), web apps,"

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

@brucelawson @owa And here's Apple spinning its own failure to police IABs as somehow a strong show of developer friendliness?

I covered the situation recently, and you at least have to respect Apple's chutzpah in claiming that selling out users as a positive, actually:

https://infrequently.org/2025/08/apple-vs-fb-kayfabe/

Apple's trying to argue it isn't a monopoly because sometimes it helps other monopolists, too: "Many developers, such as Meta and Reddit, have taken the tools that Apple provides to build their own in-app browsers. Apple cannot reasonably be described as controlling such in-app browsers, and it is therefore inappropriate to include them within the scope of Apple’s potential SMS designation. "

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

@brucelawson @owa Here's Apple trying to duck responsibility for forcing use of all the same stuff everywhere by citing [ checks notes ] it's own UI and API choices:

You can't make this stuff up folks. In claiming that Safari and in-app browsers have nothing to do with each other, Apple claims: "For example, in-app browsing technologies generally do not allow for internet searches or website navigation via a URL bar—core features of any browser. In-app browsing technologies serve the simpler purpose of enabling native apps to facilitate access to web content for end users without disrupting their experience by sending them to a standalone browser. This is illustrated by widespread use of SFSafariViewController that far exceeds the number of standalone browser apps on Apple’s UK App Store (c. 20,000 apps using SFSafariViewController vs. 100 browsers)"

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

@brucelawson @owa The play here is obvious: argue that everything is separate, nothing is actually linked, and therefore that in each of the (veeeery tiny) markets there can't be any sort of monopolisation. Hilariously blatant and wrong, but also shockingly weak and repetitive.

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

@brucelawson @owa And if you want to understand the sort of weak sauce Apple has been serving to regulators around the world, you can start reading Apple's response from page 12. It really is a piece of work:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c04961838e7712ea2bfdb9/Apple.pdf

Here's Apple trying the Trinitarian claim for Safari (rejected in the EU) all over again:

In arguing that Safari on the iPad and Safari on iOS are totally different products, Apple peevishly bleats: "Safari on iOS and iPadOS are “offered and consumed” separately, as Apple has previously explained—and evidenced—to the CMA: • Safari on iOS and iPadOS support different user needs and preferences. Users generally use iPhone browsers for “on-the-go” tasks (e.g., checking the opening hours of a shop), and iPad browsers for in-depth browsing. • Safari for iOS and iPadOS are also offered differently. Safari for iPad brings a Mac-like browsing experience to the iPad. For example, it loads the desktop rather than mobile versions of websites, while Safari on iOS defaults to mobile versions. Safari on iPadOS also enables users to display a sidebar containing the user’s open tabs and tab groups, shared links, bookmarks, reading list, and web history. Sidebar is designed for iPad’s larger screen and multitouch interface, making it a significant feature on iPad but not iPhone. "

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

Via @brucelawson, all of these responses are worth reading, but I'm particularly impressed with Mozilla. Has the dozy t-rex finally woken up? PDF:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68c04961838e7712ea2bfdba/Mozilla.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-decision-sms-investigation-into-apples-mobile-platform

/cc @owa

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aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan") wrote:

@joynewacc I’ve updated the list of Mastodon instances whose admins have publicly announced that their servers are safe spaces for people from Gaza:

Arabic: https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/#servers
English: https://gaza-verified.org/guide/#servers

If you’d like yours added to the list, please let me know by replying here.

Mastodon and the fediverse is the last lifeline for many people facing the unthinkable – genocide and famine – in Gaza.

Let’s do everything we can to make them welcome, seen, and loved here.

💕

#mastodon #fediverse #Gaza #Palestine #genocide #famine #GazaVerified

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Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
brucelawson@vivaldi.net ("Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊") wrote:

Vivaldi's response to the CMA's proposed decision after its investigation into Apple's mobile platform is at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-decision-sms-investigation-into-apples-mobile-platform, along with those from Mozilla, Which?, FruitCo itself, EPIC, Spotify and some Anons. (Nothing says 'healthy ecosystem' like stakeholders fearing retaliation from platform gatekeepers, right?)