Nick @internic@qoto.org

Good. Senate leaders ask FTC to investigate AI content summaries as anti-competitive: The latest AI features found in Meta, Perplexity, Apple, Google and others are hitting artists, creators, news site and publishers while they’re down. Meanwhile Google and Meta, reporting record breaking billions of dollars per year in advertising revenue increase because of AI summaries keeping users on Facebook and Google sites without sending any traffic to original creators https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/10/senate-leaders-ask-ftc-to-investigate-ai-content-summaries-as-anti-competitive/

All right, I'm going to get an e-ink tablet, probably. I take paper notes constantly and I'd like to have them organised in one place and easily-searchable, instead of in a stack of notebooks on my office shelf. Even with the contents pages I make for each one, they're quite hard to navigate...

Anyone got any recommendations? I know ReMarkable advertise well, but I heard you can't search handwritten notes, which sort of sucks.

(Please note: yes, it has to be e-ink.)

(Boosts welcome.)

A truth about technological progress that I am coming to realize is almost universal is "that which empowers also enfeebles".

I'm thinking right now about the move from physical paper books to digital.

There's a huge "MIT used book sale" happening today. That kind of thing just doesn't happen in the digital book universe.

It COULD in a fair world, but yay unconstrained megacorp capitalism, it currently can't.

No reason Amazon couldn't set up a system where I could transfer my Kindle books to anyone for $0 or some fee if that's what I was going for. But this will never happen because from their perspective it would represent investment without return, and a diminishment of sales on new titles.

Stupid, myopic narrow minded thinking will kill us all.

"Never in its 50-plus years in existence has the regulator issued new rules for automakers requiring them to change their vehicle designs to better prevent pedestrian fatalities."

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/10/24241047/nhtsa-rule-pedestrian-safety-fmvss-suv-truck-design

#transportation #cars #CarsRuinCities #RoadSafety

Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris. https://www.instagram.com/p/C_wtAOKOW1z/

The CNN reporter just referred to Trump as a “4chan post come to life.”

Updating my astro 101 lecture on satellites and holy crap... there are 1738 more active satellites in orbit today than 1 year ago, and 1690 of those are Starlinks.

62% of all active satellites are now Starlinks, up from 55% 1 year ago.

As long as Starlink doesn't make a single mistake in orbit, it's all fine, I guess. Which is cool, because SpaceX never makes engineering mistakes, like dumping hundreds of pounds of "fully demisable" space debris on other countries... whoopsie.

Ten-part lecture series, “Exposing Hoaxes, Busting Myths, & Solving Mysteries” by Dr. Ken Feder, Professor Emeritus at Central Connecticut State University.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcQFNL2av9c&list=PLl68fplNJM8BsG6uJLeHUfMYtNHeza5l_&index=1

apparently you can just download a public google spreadsheet as a CSV with curl (just tried it and it works!): https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24255472/download-export-public-google-spreadsheet-as-tsv-from-command-line

What if Sun Microsystems released a Zune digital media player?

Oof, this is pretty brutal review of the Apple Intelligence™ betas: “In the preview I’m using, Apple Intelligence does an uncomfortable amount of making things up. This usually happens on low-stakes information such as summaries of alerts from apps — but it feels weird nonetheless to see fabrications and misinterpretations of your life appear on your lock screen, inbox and other core parts of your iPhone.”

[gift link] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/09/iphone-16-apple-intelligence-ai-event-2024/

Luckily, most Black men haven't been shot by police. But this being dragged out of a car, or put in cuffs, or threatened with death or violence or trumped up jail charges? That stuff happens to millions of Black drivers.

"Tyreek should have just been polite! I'm always polite! As a Black man we always have to be polite!" That's how I think. And it is a broken way of thinking.

And it's not really being polite, when there is the explicit threat of violence if you don't perform said politeness.

If you are a car-owning person, you want to go electric, and haven't gone electric yet: What's the biggest thing holding you back right now?
This is just for my own curiosity. Boost if you feel like it.

@rpardee as far as I've got and I've heard, less! It is really clear he cared deeply about being accessible. You *could* get into tons of math I'm sure but I think one would be able to soak up loads of interesting things without ever being interested in that. Also a YouTube series and course materials! https://github.com/rmcelreath/stat_rethinking_2024

I should probably say what it is I do. I'm a mathematician with a PhD from St Andrews and a background in numerical computing.

That said, I'll turn my hand to whatever needs to be done to solve a real-world problem.

For example, a previous client had a derivatives trading setup in Python that was taking *minutes* to execute trades. I reimplemented it in Golang so that the main bottleneck was the fact there's an ocean between me and New York.

I'm also enthusiastic about communicating mathematics -- I wrote and presented the Advanced Maths Support Programme's online videos for teachers wanting to support their students with the Cambridge University entrance tests (STEP), I've written several books and countless articles, and generally love explaining how things work.

If you, or anyone you know, needs a mathematical consultant, do connect! I'm colin@colinbeveridge.co.uk .

Astronomers used Hubble and Webb telescopes to observe this galaxy cluster, which acts like a magnifying glass because the cluster is so massive it warps the fabric of space-time. This allows us to see enhanced detail in much more distant galaxies behind the cluster. (1/6)

Introducing MNT Reform Next https://mntre.com/media/reform_md/2024-09-09-introducing-mnt-reform-next.html

POST CW: trauma, abuse, sexual assault, near-death experiences. do not read if easily triggered!

Hi. I'm a 2nd year Math/CS P.h.D. student at a top east-coast US university. I started my PhD last fall, the first 4 months went wonderfully and I made great progress. I then have been sexually assaulted by a collegue 3 times in the past 6 months. Throughout this, my ability to focus on my work has dwindled and my advisor has begun giving me negative performance reviews. I have attempted to push past and through the trauma and resulting PTSD, paranoia, and psychosis, but have not been doing a very good job. The last time this occured a few weeks ago, I sustained a fall and the resulting TBI continues to upset my cognitive function. The trauma has required me to get on atypical antipsychotics to stay even partially grounded. I do not want to stop my PhD, and I still believe I am able to complete this without taking a break. However, I believe the time has come to potentially reveal some details to my advisor, to hopefully alleviate some pressure.

Question: how do I have this conversation? I want to maximize the probability I get to complete my PhD. I feel very scared that, if I say the wrong words in this conversation, bad things could happen. I am also very autistic and bad at social interaction.

I primarily want help navigating this situation, and less legal or similar advice. I am working with people already on those problems. It is against my wishes to repost, speculate, gossip, or screenshot. More details in next post.

CISA moves away from trying to influence content moderation decisions on election disinformation https://cyberscoop.com/cisa-moves-away-from-trying-to-influence-content-moderation-decisions-on-election-disinformation/

Team #Hashcat is pleased to present our much anticipated write-up for this year's #CrackMeIfYouCan contest at #Defcon32

📕 Read it here:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashcat/team-hashcat/8a72d338660cc6d8f4f8014bd8e3236f8c59cd6e/CMIYC2024/CMIYC2024TeamHashcatWriteup.pdf

#password #passwordcracking #redteam #ctf #defcon #hacking #infosec #cybersecurity