George Mari @GeorgeMari@qoto.org

Our latest Battery Bargains episode is now live.

This week, we have EV recommendations for folks looking for luxury, cheap fun, and creature comforts and conveniences!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CycrZdO6U

Debugging code in production ...

Join us for a showing of "Charade," the Audrey Hepburn / Cary Grant classic that accidentally entered the public domain in the US upon its release because of an omission of a copyright notice.
📍 300 Funston, #SanFrancisco
📆 Friday, April 12
⏰ Doors @ 6:30pm, film @ 7pm
🎟️ https://blog.archive.org/2024/03/28/charade-public-domain-movie-screening-at-the-internet-archive/

GPU fans just keep getting larger and larger.

🚨 BOOST CHALLENGE! 🚨Ok #Fediverse and #Mastodon. If I tell my Canadian Member of Parliament, Gord Johns, that he will get 2000 followers within one week of creating a Mastodon account, will you make that happen?

I want him to be able to say when he stands in the House and presents the #e4769 petition for an official Fediverse server that he himself is the first Canadian MP to be on the Fediverse!

Boost for yes! I am going to show him this post! I'm counting on you, literally! 🔥 🙏 2️⃣ 0️⃣ 0️⃣ 0️⃣ 🙏

Apologies for the all the rapid fire posts concerning the Trump NY bond today, but fascinating developments.

Short version: NY rejected Trump's bond because Knight, the bond company, didn't file proof of collateral. Knight today amended the bond filing to include some sort of financial assurances. NY's AG Letitia James just filed a "notice of rejection" asserting that Knight does not meet the requirements for a legitimate bond.

Start here >>> https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/112212072918141079

This is incredible stuff!

Another blast of color from Costa Rica: Red-legged Honeycreeper
#birds #BirdPhotography #WildlifePhotography #birding #Costa Rica #honeycreeper

Four years ago today, Pres. Trump mocked states facing medical supply shortages amid the pandemic, complaining that they “have insatiable appetites and are never satisfied.” He also accused nurses and doctors risking their lives to treat patients of stealing equipment.

anyone want some component video gear - FREE to a good home. you... kinda gotta be in Maryland or Virginia or DC though, it's not worth shipping this stuff IMHO

Also - please just don't ask how much I paid for these "nitrogen injected silver braided" or something monster cables back in the day please, that is the ONLY rule

#free

Any experienced C developers among my followers? #BoostsWelcome.

Expat, arguably the world's most popular #XML parser, is understaffed and without funding. As #xz has shown, situations like this are dangerous.

Last month, maintainer Sebastian Pipping put up a plea for help at https://github.com/libexpat/libexpat/blob/R_2_6_2/expat/Changes

(I would help myself, but my C skills barely surpass "Hello, World".)

Found via @timbray - https://cosocial.ca/@timbray/112203547801373427

#libexpat
#SoftwareSupplyChainSecurity #OpenSource #OpenSourceMaintainer
#C

Congress in the US has banned Copilot for security reasons. I would take it further. Really the way Windows is coded now, it is a significant security problem. The idea that it is unclear whether you are using local data or online data is unacceptable.

This includes:

- Login. Login should be local. You are not logging into a service. You are logging into a computer. The service should be separate from the computer.

- Copilot. Clearly another case where you may not realize that you are sharing data by asking a question.

- OneDrive. Another case where local data is backed up in the cloud, without active actions by you as a user. Backup is great, but you should have to explicitly enable it and there should be a warning that your data may be scanned.

- Windows. In reality even Windows is now a problem given the login issue and any tracking that is happening.

Online cloud services can be great, but one should never be forced into online services or lured into them. Any computer should work fine without having to use OS online services, except basic services, like updates and the like.

#Windows #Linux #Microsoft

https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-congress-bans-staff-use-microsofts-ai-copilot-axios-reports-2024-03-29/

Some thoughts about attribution in the XZ backdoor, having just wasted so many hours digging into the details.

The email addresses used for a couple of years at least by the parties involved have absolutely *zero* trace in any kind data breach or database beyond Github/Gitlab, and maybe Tukaani and Debian and a few mailing lists.

Normally when I see this, the assumption is that we're dealing with a single-use or single-purpose email address that was created either for fraud or b/c someone is super paranoid about privacy.

The people in the latter camp who do this tend to have other tells that give them away, or at least *some* trace or home base in the online world. Especially if we're talking on the order of years using that address.

Either way, very few people do opsec well, and for every year you're operating under the same name, nick, number, email, etc you dramatically increase the risk of screwing up that opsec. And almost everyone does, eventually.

To see this complete lack of presence in breached databases once or twice in the course of an investigation is rare, but to find it multiple times suggests we're dealing with an operation that was set up carefully from the beginning. And that almost certainly means a group project (state-sponsored).

If I tell you a politician called the US a "FAILING NATION" as part of an Easter rant after selling Bibles & golden shoes to pay legal fees while awaiting trial for 88 felonies, but the party of "family values" & "law & order" stands by him, it is sadly not an April Fools prank.

The editor of Ohio's most essential news organization felt compelled to tell readers that the paper's "north star" in the Trump era is truth, period.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html

What's demoralizing is that almost no other top editors in the business are willing to say this so plainly -- to make clear that their organizations will refuse to give any ink, much less equal ink, to the relentless liars who are poisoning our public discourse.

Big Journalism needs to find its spine, pronto.

Comprehensive, terrifying account of the Russian agents and technology behind Havana syndrome, a brain disease caused deliberately by acoustic/pulsed microwave radiation attacks

https://theins.ru/en/politics/270425

My obit for Ross Anderson, who died a few days ago: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2024/03/31/rip-ross-j-anderson/

The T-Mobile Sidekick’s Jump button made mobile multitasking easy https://www.theverge.com/24115039/danger-hiptop-t-mobile-sidekick-jump-button

The price we pay to participate in public society cannot be the loss of Fourth Amendment rights. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/eff-asks-oregon-supreme-court-not-limit-fourth-amendemtn-rights-based-terms

"Political science scholar Tim Hogan said that, if the Secret Service "does nothing about Trump's violation of federal law making a threats against the POTUS [the Department of Homeland Security] head should fire the director of Secret Service and refer the matter to the DOJ for charges. Because Trump is out on bail, he should likely be held pending trial."

"Trump should be in custody," he added."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-biden-imagery-revoke-bail/