Parienve @Parienve@qoto.org

This is your random reminder to check that any scheduled backups that you have setup, are actually running

"Do Users Write More Insecure Code with AI Assistants?" (PDF):

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.03622.pdf

Spoiler: Yep.

Valve is seeing an increasing number of bug reports for issues caused by Canonical's repackaging of the Steam client through snap.

The best way to install Steam on Debian and derivative operating systems is to follow the instructions at http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ and use the official .deb

We are not involved with the snap repackaging. It has a lot of issues.

If you don't want the .deb, please at least consider the flatpak version.

#steam #ubuntu #snap #flatpak

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: American education has all the downsides of standardization, none of the upsides; Hey look at this; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/16/flexibility-in-the-margins/

#Pluralistic

1/

@mikehaynes Definitely a lot of attempts at #IndieWeb / #smallweb search engines/repos/lists. I’ve (somewhat poorly) tried to capture a lot of them here… https://shellsharks.com/indieweb.

In no particular order…

- https://ooh.directory
- https://www.marginalia.nu
- https://indieseek.xyz
- https://kagi.com/smallweb/
- https://searchmysite.net
- https://whimsical.club
- https://theuselessweb.com
- https://theforest.link
- https://personalsit.es
- https://indieweb-directory.glitch.me
- https://godteeth.com/misc/randomweb
- https://blogroll.org
- https://indieblog.page
- https://blogs.hn
- https://neocities.org/browse
- https://wiby.me
- Webrings: https://foreverliketh.is/blog/exploring-the-personal-web/

*Maybe someone could build a search engine that would aggregate results from all or some of these?

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

There is an increase of account takeovers due to insiders at telco firms simply giving control to people paying them. Do a check on systems where this single factor would permit an account compromise. And change the configuration. These are opportunistic trawling attacks. This is becoming more common as attackers replicate the success.

The attacker uses other channels (like people search websites) to enumerate and guess the phone number attached to an online account and then checks against the telco they have control over.

The insider only briefly temporarily forwards the victim number to a 3rd party then switches it back to normal once they’re in. This is how they stay quiet since most victims will not have leverage or telemetry to understand how they got hacked.

It was their cell phone provider.

Make it so account recovery systems require multiple factors and remove telephony-based recovery for VIP accounts entirely.
Go check your systems now. Go try to access all your stuff like you forgot your password.

I am very serious.

[PLEASE BOOST | URGENT] With 0w0.is shutting down I am needing a place to migrate my Fediverse account as I would still like to use Fedi.

If anyone has any suggestions for instances PLEASE let me know!!! I prefer an akkoma based instance if possible but i’m flexiable!

Instance must be okay with me posting monthly mutual aid requests as without them I starve, lack of what little medical I have, etc. Preferably a trans/queer server or trans/queer safe I am an anarchist so something along the lines of that would be cool too!

What is the index of an empty string in an empty string?

https://successfulsoftware.net/2023/12/13/what-is-the-index-of-an-empty-string-in-an-empty-string/

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://successfulsoftware.net/2023/12/13/what-is-the-index-of-an-empty-string-in-an-empty-string/

#compsci #plt

Come check out the 80s MMO Habitat, developed by Lucasfilm Games, this Friday through the NeoHabitat client. Streamer BogusMeatFactory will be hosting a meetup so people can play the game at the same time and experience the game the way it was meant to be played. See the article here for more details
https://renoproject.org/the-gathering-of-the-avatars/

https://virtualmoose.org/2024/01/03/try-classic-mmo-habitat-this-friday/

#retroGames

Hey #infosec and #privacy folks: do you know of a good streaming trail/game #camera that doesn't send its data anywhere?

Use case: a relative wants to see who's at the door without surveilling the neighborhood.

With the end of the year in sight, I am very happy to announce that dotAGE has now sold more than 30k copies on Steam!

This is an indie dream made real! Not even in my wildest dreams I would have thought of reaching such a milestone!! Thank you so much for all your support!

Best addon after uBlock Origin
https://github.com/iorate/ublacklist

It allows you to remove some websites from your Google search results.

Bye, Quora, GeeksForGeeks, Pinterest, fandom.com etc.-etc.

@ari@wetdry.world @CrebboElodie@transfem.social

TIL that the US government runs an official dad joke database 👀

https://fatherhood.gov/for-dads/dad-jokes

Reposting @scotlit from a few days ago: Edwin Morgan predicting the weirdnesses of text generation software, 55 years ago.

merryholly happyjolly all!

windows 12 is just gonna be linux running microsoft edge, a bullshit ai assistant, and nothing else. all legacy apps will run in a sketchy online “classic windows emulator” and the entire UI will be web based.

following the backlash, windows 13 will be CLI only, and the cycle will begin anew.

meanwhile, mac os xi will have only one feature: displaying a pretty photograph of a mountain, rendered so inefficiently and in so much detail it takes the whole capacity of a top-of-the-line GPU. all apps will no longer be supported. hardware will be supported for 5 years of new photos every month before you have to buy a new macbook for $100,000.

before reaching 7.0, the linux kernel will split into 20 completely separate lineages, each with 10 total developers who are themselves their only users. GNOME only supports one of them. KDE is mostly buttons.

I finally got around to explaining how I made this partial hash collision https://www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/blog/colliding-secure-hashes.html

I'm getting Google, Facebook and Amazon out of my life.

Starting last year and continuing until it's done, in manageable increments, I've been gradually disentangling myself from three of the worst tech monsters. After 15 years of letting them embed their fangs deeper and deeper into my leg, it's daunting!

Finding an alternative for audio books and ebooks tonight was a nice step. I still have to un-DRM my books from them and find a non-proprietary e-reader, but I'll get to that.

Even seemingly little things like removing Google Analytics from my sites and installing the (paid) non-tracking app Plausible Analytics felt like a big thing at the time. I had to first look to see if there was such a thing as privacy-forward analytics — there is, with multiple options! Then pick one, then sign up, then install and configure...

So I'm taking this step by step. It'll take years. But each additional step feels liberating.

#goals #FuckAmazon #FuckGoogle #FuckFacebook

Back in Feb, when Grammarly said they were going to think about incorporating AI, I immediately canceled my account and uninstalled. And now they've actually done it.

I'm sharing because with everything going on, writers might not realize this is happening.

#AI #writing