Zak
@Zak@lemmy.world
- Comment on I tried to selfhost Nextcloud at work 4 days ago:
There was a recent related discussion on Hacker News and the top comment discusses why this sort of solution is not likely to be the best fit for smaller organizations. In short, doing it well requires time and effort from someone technically sophisticated, who must do more than the bare minimum for good results, as you just learned.
Even then, it’s likely to be less reliable than solutions hosted by big corporations and when there’s a problem, it’s your problem. I don’t want to discourage you, but understand what you’re committing to and make sure you have adequate buy-in in your organization.
- Comment on Meet DAVE: Discord’s New End-to-End Encryption for Audio & Video 1 week ago:
I’m confused by why they would do this, and at the same time, why not for private text messages.
I’m in favor of encrypting as much communication as possible, but I don’t think many of Discord’s users were complaining that their voice chart wasn’t secure. I’d expect more of them to care about text chart, which is less effort to spy on.
- Comment on What can ActivityPub do that RSS can't? 3 weeks ago:
Yes, it’s possible to get a rough estimate with some technical work, but AP makes it easy for anyone.
- Comment on What can ActivityPub do that RSS can't? 3 weeks ago:
They’re making requests at unknown intervals, often many times per day. Each IP address might represent multiple unique users, or I’ve use might have multiple IPs.
- Comment on What can ActivityPub do that RSS can't? 4 weeks ago:
That’s most of it. ActivityPub also makes it possible to know who is subscribed. It’s very hard to count how many people are subscribed to an RSS feed.
- Comment on Ad industry initiative abruptly shuts down after lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X 1 month ago:
Musk: starts allowing Nazi shit on Xitter
Advertiisers: Hey, we don’t like Nazi shit. We might stop advertising if that keeps happening.
Musk: Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.
Advertisers: stop doing business with the guy who told them to go fuck themselves
- Comment on How the Frontal Lobotomy Won the Nobel Prize in 1949 1 month ago:
They gave one of those to fucking Henry Kissinger. It clearly doesn’t mean what you think it means, if it has any meaning at all.
- Comment on Is there a fork of telegram that works with a self hosted XMPP or other chat server? 1 month ago:
Telegram isn’t open source, so I don’t think you’re going to find forks of it.
- Comment on Cars Are Now Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates? 1 month ago:
“Security” as an excuse for self-serving bullshit isn’t new.
Sure, there’s a risk of breaking things. I can do that with a hacksaw and a soldering iron too, and it’s widely recognized that it isn’t up to the manufacturer of the thing to keep me from breaking it. We need the same understanding for devices that depend on software.
- Comment on Cars Are Now Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates? 1 month ago:
Locked bootloaders should be illegal. Manufacturers should have to provide enough specs that third parties can write code that runs on the hardware.
- Comment on WhatsApp and Signal messages at risk of surveillance following EncroChat ruling, court hears | Computer Weekly 2 months ago:
The headline is a little misleading. The actual ruling is that police can obtain warrants to install surveillance malware on phones when they have evidence the owner is using it to communicate about crimes.
- Comment on Microsoft points finger at the EU for not being able to lock down Windows 2 months ago:
The document states that Microsoft is obligated to make available its APIs in its Windows Client and Server operating systems that are used by its security products to third-party security software makers.
The document does not, however say those APIs have to exist. Microsoft could eliminate them for its own security products and then there would be no issue.
- Comment on Spain sentences 15 schoolchildren over AI-generated naked images 2 months ago:
Having been a teenage boy myself, I wouldn’t dream of trying.
But I knew it wasn’t OK to climb a tree with binoculars to try to catch a glimpse of the girl next door changing clothes, and I knew it wasn’t OK to touch people without their consent. I knew people who did things like that were peeping toms and rapists. I believed peeping toms and rapists would be socially ostracized and legally punished more harshly than they often are in reality.
Making and sharing deepfakes of real people without their consent belongs on the same spectrum.
- Comment on Spain sentences 15 schoolchildren over AI-generated naked images 2 months ago:
Are you surprised by teenage boys making fake nudes of girls in their school? I’m surprised by how few of these cases have made the news.
I don’t think there’s any way to put this cat back in the bag. We should probably work on teaching boys not to be horrible.
- Comment on Child predators are exploiting kids on OnlyFans despite vows of safety 2 months ago:
I guess I’m thinking about this from a solutions-oriented mindset: what concrete, achievable steps can various entities take to reduce child abuse? For an adult content platform, the identity verification steps OnlyFans uses seem reasonable; even when an offender uses an account owned by someone else, that often provides enough of a lead for investigators.
- Comment on Child predators are exploiting kids on OnlyFans despite vows of safety 2 months ago:
It seems to me that OnlyFans takes several steps that make it easier for police and prosecutors to do their job, some of which are detailed in the article. What additional steps do you think they should take?
- Comment on Child predators are exploiting kids on OnlyFans despite vows of safety 2 months ago:
The main thing I’m getting from the article is that adults who try to profit from abusing children on OnlyFans get arrested.
- Comment on What are the best Ublock Origin settings for Android? 2 months ago:
Kiwi Browser runs nearly every extension that runs on desktop Chromium, including uBlock Origin.
- Comment on Signal under fire for storing encryption keys in plaintext on desktop app 2 months ago:
Signal should change this, but it’s typical of the traditional desktop OS security model in which applications running under the user’s account are considered trustworthy. Security-oriented software like Signal should take a more hardened approach, but this is not some glaring security hole.
- Comment on X weighs adding a downvote button to replies — but it doesn't want to emulate Reddit 2 months ago:
One of the things I like about Slashdot’s system is that it requires a reason for a downvote. Of course that doesn’t prevent people from downvoting disingenuously, but it nudges users away from downvoting just because they disagree.
I think for most social systems, the UI I’d use is a report or flag button that pops up a second step with a list of reasons, and like Slashdot, show the most selected reason next to low-ranked posts.
- Comment on The FTC is investigating PC manufacturers who scare you away from your right to repair 2 months ago:
The law doesn’t say they can’t make it difficult to service, just that they can’t deny your warranty because you did.
- Comment on Leaked WhatsApp Feature Allows Users to Create Customized Stickers Using Their Own Image 2 months ago:
Signal has offered custom stickers for years, but it’s up to the user to generate them.
- Comment on Now The EU Council Should Finally Understand: No One Wants “Chat Control” 2 months ago:
I’m mostly against downvoting without explanation, so here it is: expressing this sentiment in this community without a really solid explanation of why you think it would actually help seems like trolling.
- Comment on Facebook and Instagram’s “pay or consent” ad model violates the DMA, says the EU 2 months ago:
The relevant section of the DMA imposes restrictions on designated gatekeepers. It does not apply to websites that are not designated as gatekeepers.
That behavior might be questionable under the GDPR though.
- Comment on T-Mobile In Trouble After It Decides To Build Cell Tower That Is 'Not Safe' For Residents 2 months ago:
A quick web search for third-party tells me that Wanaque has good coverage from Verizon and poor coverage from T-Mobile. It’s easy to guess why T-Mobile might be motivated to change that situation.
- Comment on Manifesto for a Humane Web 2 months ago:
Federated systems are one option for this. On one of my sites, the only way people can leave comments is with ActivityPub. They must have a (probably pseudonymous) account on a server to use that, and I hope that most servers have moderation I find acceptable. I can block those that do not.
More sophisticated options for sharing reputation between servers would help here. If, for example five servers I trust block another server as a source of harassment, I’d like to block it as well, automatically.
- Comment on Apple finally adds support for RCS in latest iOS 18 beta | TechCrunch 2 months ago:
Google had the chance to make its Hangouts messaging app when it was, briefly the default SMS client on Android devices. They threw that away following pushback from carriers.
I’m glad Google doesn’t have the dominant messaging service, but I find it bizarre anybody still uses SMS when there are so many internet-based options. I have six, and if somebody really wants to use another, I’ll probably add it.
- Comment on Apple finally adds support for RCS in latest iOS 18 beta | TechCrunch 2 months ago:
I’m sure Apple shares a lot of the blame, but holy shit how is this not solved in 2024. I shouldn’t have to resort to spam filled shitware from Meta to get remotely modern messaging cross platform
There’s no shortage of options; the problem is getting the people you’re talking to to agree on one you like. I find Signal strikes a good balance between goodness and ease of use, and many people I know who aren’t tech or privacy nerds use it.
- Comment on Threads Self Migration Feature... 2 months ago:
I’m guessing not a lot of users know about it. Their ActivityPub implementation is still only about half done.
It will be interesting to see of they promote it heavily when it’s more complete.
- Comment on Threads Self Migration Feature... 2 months ago:
There’s nothing keeping them from scraping that kind of data now.