yeroc @yeroc@qoto.org

(Un)popular opinion: I honestly wish we could go back to using one client (i.e Pidgin or Kopete) for all IMs.

For some people out there it might be a history lesson, but just like now, we used to use multiple IM services for different social circles.

- IRC
- XMPP/Jabber
- Google Talk/iChat
- Localized services (i.e GG or TLEN in Poland)

Just imagine that you could use Matrix, Discord, Telegram, Signal or whatever people use these days in a single app with coherent interface, that would use maybe like 200 - 500MB of RAM (assuming caching from Discord severs and what not).

Instead of having each "webapp" open which on my desktop usually accumulates to ~2GB of RAM usage on the desktop, you could use a literal potato to talk to other people.

I fondly remember using an ancient PDA (HTC TyTn II with Windows Mobile 6) in high school. It was an absolute marvel to use - mSD card, headphone jack (though via dongle, so how tables have turned), physical QWERTY keyboard and stylus.

It served me for literal ages. I would use it to talk to my friends, watch movies, connect to server in my bedroom running FreeBSD 9.2 over SSH and so on.

All of that on Qualcomm MSM7200 - 400MHz ARM11 (though not sure why I thought it was an XScale, weird) and 128MB of RAM.

I know for a fact that most IM software is unnecessary bloated, as my laptop lasts a loooot longer on battery if I don't use Discord on it.

This opinion will once again will light my butt on fire, but I believe EU should force companies providing messaging services to open up their APIs and allow using 3rd party clients without ToS bullshit that discord is doing.

How the first gen ipod that was reverse engineered to run #Rockbox:

1. Someone figured out that when loading a particular HTML page (for viewing on the device), the device would reboot. It crashed. A buffer overflow in the HTML viewer!

2. The device remembered what it did before the crash, so it would reload the HTML page again after boot. Unless you connected to it over USB and removed the HTML file it would stick in this cycle.

(continues...)

"Would you recommend the new Microsoft Teams to a friend or colleague, if asked?"

My guys. No one is going around asking their friends or colleagues if they would recommend using the new Microsoft Teams. That is not a conversation that normal people have.

Go outside. Touch some grass. Think about the choices you've made in life that took you this moment.

Three days after Amazon announced its AI chatbot Q, some employees are sounding alarms about accuracy and privacy issues. Q is “experiencing severe hallucinations and leaking confidential data,” including the location of AWS data centers, internal discount programs, and unreleased features, according to leaked documents obtained by Platformer.

An employee marked the incident as “sev 2,” meaning an incident bad enough to warrant paging engineers at night and make them work through the weekend to fix it.

https://www.platformer.news/p/amazons-q-has-severe-hallucinations

Chrome’s next weapon in the War on Ad Blockers: Slower extension updates

When ad blocking is a cat-and-mouse game, make the mouse slower.

https://arstechnica.com/google/2023/12/chromes-next-weapon-in-the-war-on-ad-blockers-slower-extension-updates/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Some people think a single cockroach is disgusting, but what’s really gross is 144 of them.

> But I feel like the biggest reputation hit they’ve taken is this idea that they were set up differently as a non-profit that existed to serve humanity and make sure that the powerful thing they were building wouldn’t fall under the control of a single corporation.
>
> And then 700 of the staff members signed a letter saying, “Hey, we will go and work for Microsoft tomorrow under Sam to keep on building this stuff if the board don’t resign.”

Government bailing out Canadian news outlets as impact of disastrous Bill C-18 becomes clear. It will now cover 35% of journalist labour costs and has increased the per employee claim from $55K to $85K. News Media Canada lobbying pays off.

Didn't realize my wireless plan capped tethering speeds, but now it makes sense. When your phone gets ~10-15 mbps and your tethered computer gets .5 or .6 consistently, you know they're screwing w/ the service you paid for.

Welp, I'm ashamed it took me this long to realize, but changing the TTL on my computer seems to have released the throttling.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/cmxp66/2019_bypass_verizon_hotspot_throttle_no_root/

Google announced that starting in June 2024, ad blockers such as #uBlock Origin will be disabled in Chrome 127 and later with the rollout of Manifest V3 (#Mv3).

The new #Chrome manifest will prevent using custom filters and stops on demand updates of blocklist. Only #Google authorized updates to browser extension will be allowed in the future, which mean an automatic win for Google in their battle to stop YouTube #AdBlockers .

#ManifestV3 is deceitful and threatening to your privacy, and now is a good time to switch to #Firefox (@mozilla) and/or #TorBrowser (@torproject) if you haven't done so already!

EFF (@eff) on Google’s Manifest V3:

⚠️⁠https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/chrome-users-beware-manifest-v3-deceitful-and-threatening
⚠️⁠https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/googles-manifest-v3-still-hurts-privacy-security-innovation

Chrome Manifest V3 Transition Timeline (2023-11-16)

🚩⁠https://developer.chrome.com/blog/resuming-the-transition-to-mv3/

Hard to imagine life before I knew the #bash shortcut '!$' to refer to the last argument of the previous command. It's so useful in shell sessions!

Example usage:
`$ mkdir -p some/long/path/to/foo`
`$ chmod 700 !$`
`$ cd !$`

This is a tough time of year for many because 'tis the season for much tradition and many expectations, from how our time is spent to how our money is spent, from how we look to how our plate of cookies looks, from how well we've wrapped whatever and to whether our casserole we brought to share is hit or a miss.

LET US BE PEOPLE OF GRACE.

If she shows up at the door with a red puffy face and no partner -

LET US BE PEOPLE OF GRACE

If he had to pick his kid up from the principal's office again and forgot the white elephant gift -

LET US BE PEOPLE OF GRACE

If the casserole in her hands is smoldering -

LET US BE PEOPLE OF GRACE

If anything goes off the rails for any reason -

LET US BE PEOPLE OF GRACE

Each of us will have a chance to do this at least once. So, if you've got the spoons, go to the gathering ready to serve and love and cover for and care for and run interference and encourage and lift up and slather love and say, 'Me too!' and 'I got you!' and 'Here's a beverage and hide behind me all you want.' And if you see someone scurrying for the door before the acceptable time, walk out with them, tell them you get it, tell them they are loved and cared for and brave for walking out when they needed to. High five them for their self-care win and send them toward peace and safety.

If you don't have the spoons yet feel you must go, find the safest person in the room, do the best you can, and get out of there as soon as humanly possible.

LET US BE PEOPLE OF GRACE.

trying to read git's source code to understand how `git revert` and `git cherry-pick` are implemented using merge and it's a bit confusing https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/sequencer.c#L2353-L2358

(has anyone ever seen an explanation of how "revert" is actually secretly a merge under the hood? i have some ideas but it would be nice to read about it somewhere other than git's source code)

Happy International Inuit Day.

I saw a post today that the Arctic is best experienced from the comfort of your own home. Seriously this is one of the most magical places on earth and it’s by far best experienced full on, laying on the tundra, or standing at the floe edge, or having tea in a tent with a friend. #Nunavut #Arctic #Inuit #Photography

@grammargirl I often think of the thankless task of the handful of volunteers who maintain the time zone database that the whole world relies on. https://onezero.medium.com/the-largely-untold-story-of-how-one-guy-in-california-keeps-the-worlds-computers-on-the-right-time-a97a5493bf73

Here's a blog post covering the llm-embed-jina plugin in more detail https://simonwillison.net/2023/Oct/26/llm-embed-jina/

Pretty incredible report here about what is likely lawful interception of TLS encrypted communications (used by basically every web service) targeted at an instant messaging service popular in Russia..

the TLS communications were being recertificated in the middle (similar to how enterprise firewalls do TLS decryption) for six months to snoop on communications.. it only got rumbled as somebody (drum roll) let the interception certificate expire by mistake.

https://notes.valdikss.org.ru/jabber.ru-mitm/