thanksforallthefish
@thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
- Comment on Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened 9 hours ago:
It’s an entire german state cutting off 800k p.a of MS revenue. That’s not piecemeal is it ?
- Comment on Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened 10 hours ago:
Schleswig Holstein (sp?) are doing so, ditto Openhagen and Aarhaus (DK) and I believe France are looking into it
- Comment on Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened 15 hours ago:
<sigh> I used to be one of those sysadmins, and the short answer is appropriate risk management, better network controls a locked down OS and immediate action to push out the patches for serious issues.
I quite frankly detest M$ but keeping your pc patched isn’t propaganda.
If you know enough to manage the risk (including proper network firewalls and good internet hygiene) then sure, keep going for a while. Zero days aren’t daily, they’re a handful per year.
On the other hand if you have no clue about ITSec then you genuinely need to upgrade asap because you’re metaphorically running around with your genitals exposed.
Your comment leads me to suggest you probably dont have the skills to do an appropriate risk assessment.
But you do you. I’m not your Dad
- Comment on New fuel cell could enable electric aviation 17 hours ago:
So here comes alkaline rain to replace the acid rain we got rid of 40 years ago. Genius idea. Not
- Comment on public services of an entire german state switches from Microsoft to open source (Libreoffice, Linux, Nextcloud, Thunderbird) 17 hours ago:
Yep still exist.
- Comment on Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened 17 hours ago:
No more security patches. That should be dead to you if you don’t want to host thousands of parasitic bots & malwares
- Comment on Wild camping on Dartmoor backed by Supreme Court 1 week ago:
I confess I remain confused as to the actual status of the land.
Is it “commons” ie owned by all who wish to use it, or is it private land owned by a single individual ?
- Comment on ‘Massive’ increase in pensioner shoplifters in past year 3 weeks ago:
Well spotted, yes indeed
- Comment on ‘Massive’ increase in pensioner shoplifters in past year 3 weeks ago:
Food retailers have seen a “massive” increase in pensioner shoplifters over the last year, a security firm has said
While I am sympathetic to anyone who has to shoplift to eat, I’d suggest a little skepticism after noting two things:
One the time period (almost exactly lines up with the period that Labour has been in power) and,
Two the source - the Telegraph is nicknamed the Torygraph for a reason…they are the mouth piece for the conservative party and make no bones about it.
I’m no fan of the Blue Tories - Sir Keir would comfortably fit into the Conservative party of a decade ago (before their heads exploded) - I’m quite disappointed in their performance. But I’d counsel a little caution on taking what smells strongly of a propaganda piece at face value
- Comment on ‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment. 4 weeks ago:
Users aren’t likely to point out a bot when the rules explicitly prevent them from doing that.
In fact one user commented that he had his comment calling out one of the bots as a bot deleted by mods for breaking that rule
- Comment on ‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment. 4 weeks ago:
You may wish to reword. The unspecified “they” reads like you think Meta have strict ethical rules. Lol.
Meta have no ethics whatsoever, and yes I assume you meant universities have strict rules however the approval of this study marks even that as questionable
- Comment on ‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment. 4 weeks ago:
While that is indeed what was reported, we and the researchers will never know if the posters with shifted opinions were human or in fact also AI bots.
The whole thing is dodgy for lack of controls, this isn’t science it’s marketing
- Comment on Washington’s Right to Repair Bill Heads to the Governor 4 weeks ago:
That’s not only quite defeatist it’s not really true. Everything can be reverse engineered, obviously in some cases it’s not economical, but John Deere tractors and their obnoxious lockdowns are a classic case of where this leads to genuine value for people. JD robbing the farmers of the ability to perform simple repairs and charging huge bucks to do them ends up with costs on your grocery bill. This bill doesn’t directly impact that I don’t believe but it’s the simplest clearest example of why this is important.
This is brilliant news - we’re all better off for it.
- Comment on Washington’s Right to Repair Bill Heads to the Governor 4 weeks ago:
Great news. About time something good happened politically.
- Comment on Moving servers and rack equipment 4 weeks ago:
Nice, glad it worked for you
- Comment on Moving servers and rack equipment 4 weeks ago:
Fair enough - racks in entirety/untouched dramatically reduces the risk of not being able to get stuff back up because of miscabling or missed cabling. I could see that approach being sensible if you’re moving across town.
I personally wouldnt if moving between cities, YMMV of course.
- Comment on Moving servers and rack equipment 4 weeks ago:
I’ve been in charge of relocating several data centres.
We tore everything down, servers out of racks etc.
All servers, fabric switches drive arrays etc were individually wrapped in bubble wrap then the heavy removalists cloth then into the large metal moving boxes (1500mmx1500mmx1500mm roughly) before being stacked so they couldn’t move around, followed by ratchet straps securing groups of kit together.
All this was done by professional removalists - no reason you can’t do it though.
Basically the principle is flexible padding (bubble wrap) to allow for movement close to the device without impacting it, heavy shock absorbing material (the felt), then put into a robust container (metal box) so limiting impact risk.
I’d strongly recommend NOT to leave them in the rack - a couple of screws vibrate loose and then that device drops onto the one below it, bounces up and down through the journey and wrecks them both.
If it’s a mile up the road, sure, you’ll probably be fine and get away with it, multiple hours on the road ? It’s not surviving it.
- Comment on Tesla Board Opened Search for a CEO to Succeed Elon Musk 4 weeks ago:
This won’t actually work, but you can’t blame them for considering it.
- Comment on Tesla Board Opened Search for a CEO to Succeed Elon Musk 4 weeks ago:
it requires near-90% approval of all non-musk held voting shares to make ‘major’ changes like ousting a board member or ceo.
No, you’re thinking of News Corp and Murdoch’s shenanigans.
Tesla has a standard structure. He doesn’t own a majority of shares, but he does own a significatn percentage and investors aligned with him combined have enough for him not to be at any significant risk.
The directors however have a fiduciary duty to act in the interests of all shareholders, so going through the motions of considering a replacement ticks that box.
- Comment on The year housing turned toxic was captured in a talkback chat with PM 1 month ago:
If you’re making the group then your call, but the name sounds too sunny & positive to anyone who doesn’t have context to hear the irony.
Also housing crisis is what it’s referred to in many places internationally.
- Comment on The year housing turned toxic was captured in a talkback chat with PM 1 month ago:
I’d suggest “housing crisis” if you want it to get subscribers. Too much subtlety and it’s just going to be ignored, imnsho.
- Comment on French newspaper: The British elites always talk about their special-relationship. They claim the americans are their lovely cousins. But do US elites actually respect them ? 1 month ago:
Without even reading the article I’ll bet Betterridge’s law of headlines applies
en.wikipedia.org/…/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines
Betteridge’s law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.
- Comment on How one man created 6 million Wikipedia articles, and why he stopped 1 month ago:
The Scots wiki had the same problem. A teenage American who didn’t speak Scots edited and created 10s of thousands of entries
For those not aware Scots is a Germanic language that split from Old English back about 700-800 years ago - closely related to modern english like frisian is, but also retaining many words lost to english (some of which are retained in Swedish / Dutch etc). It is distinct from standard scottish english.
- Comment on Adobe Gets Bullied Off Bluesky 1 month ago:
Oh lord, what now ?
- Comment on Adobe Gets Bullied Off Bluesky 1 month ago:
That’s weird. The bluesky links in the article work fine for me, and I don’t have a bluesky account.
Ahh hang on, this one doesn’t work but all the rest do
bsky.app/profile/…/3lmdz2tu6xk2x
Ahh here we go: it’s a user made setting not a bluesky one
“Sign-in Required This user has requested that their content only be shown to signed-in users. This label was applied by the author.”
- Comment on Tax cut for Musk, Bezos and other tech billionaires on the table, Starmer confirms 1 month ago:
That’s not actually correct. The missiles (the rocket part) are indeed leased from the US, and the maintenance every few years is thus done by them - which keeps the cost down. The warheads are the UKs.
A freshly serviced trident missile should be good for 5-7 years (although they currently get serviced more frequently).
If the UK falls out with the US then we have a number of years to either build or own replacement or buy/lease them off another country - France for example has several options in this space that could be easily adapted.
We are where we are because nobody could imagine the US going rogue like this, a failure of imagination for sure but our nukes are in fact in our control
…org.uk/heres-how-britains-nukes-are-operationall…
- Comment on "Tesla protesters are planning their “biggest day of action” yet, aiming for 500 demonstrations at Tesla showrooms across the world on March 29th..." 2 months ago:
globally. They got nothing at all to worry about
What’s that supposed to mean ? You think we’re not pissed off at the Tangerine Palpatine and Poundshop Goebbels in Europe ? Or do you think Europeans don’t protest ?
If it’s the latter I suggest a little googling try “French protest gilet jaunes” for a starter. Or you could just google the protest Tesla has already been experiencing for the last month
- Comment on Mullvad's privacy-focused search engine Leta is now free for all users | Leta acts as a proxy for Google and Brave search results 2 months ago:
When you search google it fingerprints your browser then attachs that to the other information it amasses from tracking your other activities from other websites.
By not giving them the search content you reduce what they know.
Scenario a) you search up particular health issues on google, for the US say “how do I know I’m pregnant” then you go to an online pharmacy (Walgreen is the big US one I think) and order “plan b” (anti pregnancy drug). Google doesnt even need to know from walgreens what you ordered it will infer a pregnancy test and/or plan b then from later activity
Scenario b) you use proxy and thus google knows nothing of your search, then you go to walgreens, for all google knows you ordered makeup or hayfever tablets.
Scenario a is or will be illegal in some US states - best not to leak it.
Not a perfect example, i can poke holes in it. The point is searches are usually sensitive info, keeping them out of the hands of the most egregious activity collator keeps more privacy then if you don’t. The proxy buries your senstive search in with thousands of others that can’t be attached to you
- Comment on Mullvad's privacy-focused search engine Leta is now free for all users | Leta acts as a proxy for Google and Brave search results 2 months ago:
It’s not, but it is better than using google
- Comment on Why can't we go back to small phones? 2 months ago:
I can’t trust anything made by google. It’s a company that literally makes its money capturing everything everyone does on the internet…and yet the phone they make is the ONLY phone immune to having everything captured…
Sorry. Not buying it. There will be a chip in there phoning home we’ll find out about in a decade.