“I’m a guy who has been running independent websites and dealing with ad networks for more than 15 years and this book demystified a lot for me.”
https://tedium.co/2025/08/07/ari-paparo-yield-google-antitrust-review/
Elite universities are caving to Trump’s authoritarian demands. Here’s what you can do to fight back: https://indivisible.org/resource/elite-universities-are-caving-trumps-authoritarian-demands-what-you-can-do-next?source=mastodon
Two years ago when researchers found and publicly exposed an intentional backdoor in a TETRA encryption algorithm used to secure radio communications for police/military/intel agencies around the world -- the algorithm involved a key advertised as one strength but secretly reduced to 32 bits -- the European organization that produced the algorithm told users that to secure their communications they could deploy an end-to-end encryption solution on top of the backdoor'd algorithm. Now the same researchers say they found a security problem with the end-to-end solution as well -- another reduced key. Here's my story for Wired:
Google calendar can be poisoned with invisible, malicious Gemini prompts:
https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/google-gemini-ai-bot-hijacks-smart-homes
Do I have to stop clicking on calendar invitations? What are the alternatives?
If Google can't get security or "AI" right, what hope is there that anyone will?
We're going to need journalists to stop talking about synthetic text extruding machines as if they have *thoughts* or *stances* that they are *trying* to *communicate*. ChatGPT can't *admit* anything, nor *self-report*. Gah.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-chatbot-psychology-manic-episodes-57452d14
Psst... looking for a new club to join? 👀
Great news, ours is looking for new members: https://codeberg.org
#Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching #YouTube - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/06/australia-completely-loses-the-plot-plans-to-ban-kids-from-watching-youtube/ "The end result will be that Australia has basically taught a generation of teenagers not to trust the government, that their internet regulators are completely out of touch, and that laws are stupid."
I have just been introduced to Sharon Goldman's AI journalism and it's some of the funniest shit I've seen in my life.
She's really out there prompting ChatGPT to write what reads like Kindle Unlimited-tier softcore erotica and getting paid.
Even her "About" page on LinkedIn has two em-dashes and one --, so like, what's going on here? Local journalist can't write five sentences without an LLM? What are DOING out here?
This just in: my friends chucked out a shitty "CO2" #sensor.
Actually a breathalyzer:
https://hackaday.com/2023/02/18/anatomy-of-a-fake-co2-sensor/
It's a really pretty design! And while the man in the video says it's useless, I actually started a CO2 sensor project this winter, but I didn't have a display or case.
Now I guess I do!
But it turns out driving a matrix of #LCD segments is surprisingly difficult.
Here's a picture of connections. Wish me luck figuring out.
Catching a real world and *unexpected* #Cellbroadcast message revealed some minor bugs in #phosh and its mobile settings but those were easy to spotted and fixes will land for 0.49. Overall #ModemManager, #cbd, and #phosh picked the message up as expected (and the channel setting worked as well):
✨ new on #TheFutureIsFederated 🚀
« In this age of #technofeudalism every writer who covers technology - especially resistance to #BigTech - should disclose their tech stack. Here's mine »
🔗 : https://news.elenarossini.com/technofeudalism-disclosing-my-tech-stack/
Basically, a love letter to #FOSS and the #Fediverse… with room for improvement (especially on the hardware front)
#selfhosting #GoToSocial #Mastodon #NextCloud #Pixelfed #PeerTube #Signal #YunoHost #DeGoogle #LeaveSubstack #resist #resistance #broligarchy
“What we’re learning is that two of the country's most popular home improvement stores are contributing to the massive surveillance dragnet coordinated by Flock Safety,” putting customers at risk “whether it's cops stalking their exes or aggressive ICE agents targeting yard workers,” EFF’s Dave Maass told @404mediaco.
https://www.404media.co/home-depot-and-lowes-share-data-from-hundreds-of-ai-cameras-with-cops/
🔴 Brand new Tom the Dancing Bug comic now up on Boing Boing
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YOU'LL BE SHOCKED BY THE TRUE, TOP-SECRET STORY OF TRUMP AND EPSTEIN ISLAND!
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https://boingboing.net/2025/08/06/tom-the-dancing-bug-youll-be-shocked-by-the-true-top-secret-story-of-trump-and-epstein-island.html
From the Pit to the Page. Every Riff Has a Story. All punk and education books are 40% off through 9/1 with code THINK at checkout. Shop essential punk reads now: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=150&sortby=num_sold:desc
#Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-israeli-military-palestinian-phone-calls-cloud "Unit 8200 sources said intelligence drawn from the enormous repositories of phone calls held in Azure had been used to research and identify bombing targets in Gaza" yes, #microsoft is still evil #gazagenocide
"#Trump Administration continues to negotiate so-called trade deals, which are negotiated and implemented using pure executive fiat, under emergency powers, under an emergency declaration which has no rational basis, while everyone pretends this isn’t an example of a constitutional coup." - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/05/the-trade-deal-coup/ "The United States is today one of the most corrupt countries in the world, as a result of the results of our election last November."
#ShlaerMellor, #FunctionPointAnalysis, #punk, #environmentalist, #unionAdvocate, #anarchosocialist
"with a big old lie and a flag and a pie and a mom and a bible most folks are just liable to buy any line, any place, any time" - Frank Zappa