Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (VS Code) code editor and development environment contains a flaw that allows malicious extensions to retrieve authentication tokens stored in Windows, Linux, and macOS credential managers.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/malicious-extensions-can-abuse-vs-code-flaw-to-steal-auth-tokens/

Uber "destroyed local taxis and local transit – and replaced them with worse taxis that cost more." https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/

We are excited to host four events for the Ithaca is Books Festival at Autumn Leaves Books starting tomorrow!

The event series is co-sponsored by Buffalo Street Books, Cornell's Society for the Humanities, and Ithaca DSA.

Learn more at https://www.buffalostreetbooks.com/ithaca-books-book-fest

OK Security types, time to get cracking on AI.

Corey Doctorow: "Mastodon is far from perfect. But I only have so many hours in the day, and only so many days left in my life. I would much rather spend those precious hours making a open service better than using a temporarily superior closed one. I have seen that movie. I know how it ends"
https://doctorow.medium.com/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again-20074e311f1f

Zoom trying to do damage control by obfuscating what they say VS what they mean is a good reminder to take PR statements with a grain of salt. By looking at what Zoom has actually done, you'll quickly see all the times they've flat-out lied.

Remember when Zoom claimed to offer end-to-end encryption but didn't? I do.

Remember when they said they've made joining meetings on macOS easier but actually installed an exploit that made Zoom re-install itself if a user uninstalled it? I do.

Remember when Zoom said they were protecting user privacy but then handed user data to Facebook? I do.

It's always good to have a reminder that what a company says is often of less important than what they've done.

Hate to say it, but Reddit has indeed destroyed the rebellion against its greedy, control-freakish new policies.

For my part, I canceled my account and have actively sought alternatives for the subreddits I was using (mostly for tech support).

Hi, friends. Texas Observer is hiring for a PAID Fall Fellowship with a focus on environmental reporting. This is a position for early career journalists with an interest in the #environment, data-driven #journalism, and social justice.

Please apply ASAP, more information at https://www.texasobserver.org/jobs/

#journalism #JournoLife #Journojobs #jobs #fedihired #fedijobs #nonprofit #ClimateChange #Science

Uhhhh yeah sounds good

Fears over Antarctic sea #ice as yearly #OzoneLayer hole forms ‘very early’ | Ozone layer | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/08/fears-over-antarctic-sea-ice-as-yearly-ozone-layer-hole-forms-very-early

#Environment #Antarctica

#July was world’s hottest month on record, #climate scientists confirm | #ClimateCrisis | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/08/july-2023-worlds-hottest-month-climate-crisis-scientists-confirm

#Environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange

Here's a bit of good news I didn't see coming:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/7/23823046/openai-data-scrape-block-ai
"OpenAI now lets you block its web crawler from scraping your site to help train GPT models. "

Vote No today!

You'll have to find a way to steal my book from them.

Yes, you'll have to pirate from the pirates. I'm sorry, but it's the only way to maintain the integrity of the license. I'm sure you'll understand, and I'm sure on reflection the for-profit pirate site will approve as well.

Public Service Announcement: Everything I publish is distributed under a Creative Commons, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license. This means that if you have a copy of any of my books you are free to distribute them to anyone you like, as long as you don't charge for it.

PRESS Act would create a more informed public -- By FPF Advocacy Director @SethAStern

https://freedom.press/news/press-act-would-create-a-more-informed-public/

@maya @eff
I'm not sure I understand, but you may be interested in https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/terms-of-service-didnt-read/

It's an extension giving you a human readable summary of usage conditions of websites.

I would really love if @eff or somebody went through some popular services' *existing* Terms of Service and made a not-legal-advice legal guess at whether they have *already* given themselves permission to use user data within generative machine learning systems.