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Comment Re: Oops (Score 1) 200

"not intended to be lightly abused."

So? just because it is not intended to be abused doesn't mean it won't be abused. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Consider the utter corruption and venality in the Trudeau (and Trump) political machine(s): Do you really think they will not such power for personal motives?

Comment Depends on what you have. (Score 1) 2

by johnnys (#64206744) Attached to: ask slashdot: Roll you own home router

The requirement is for a system with good throughput, and a reasonable processor to handle filtering. Note that cable or any consumer-grade broadband doesn't need exotic levels of throughput: Gigabit Ethernet will not be saturated by any such connection.

So, any old desktop or even a laptop will work. As long as you have a way to get a couple of (fast or Gigabit) Ethernet ports and a good WiFi adapter. Dumpster diving, kijiji/Craigslist, or a buddy getting rid of an older system are great sources for such stuff.

You can also look at putting FOSS firewall software like DD-WRT or OpenWRT on consumer-grade "routers". Such hardware is usually set up with the right hardware and capabilities you are looking for. Note however that newer hardware may not work with such firmwares as the FCC rules about controlling RF have caused many manufacturers to lock down firmware images.

And you don't necessarily need to roll your own with iptables: There are several BSD or Linux-based FOSS distributions that do good firewall functionality. PFSense is very good and user-friendly, and there are others. OpenBSD provides an exceptionally capable enterprise-level firewall on a secure platform, but it's not designed to be user-friendly.

Comment Re: Pushes owners to actually mark abandoned proje (Score 2) 28

Every language allows a developer to write bad code, agreed.

BUT the spread of these crappy code repositories enable a whole new development ecosystem that consists of low-competence "developers" building business apps by clumsily slapping together modules from some cesspool repo. It's cheap and fast, which businesses love. The low-competence "developers" aren't real developers: They can do little more than slap barely-understood code blocks together. But they can do it quickly and they don't cost much because they work for third-world wages.

So the business is happy because they get their apps written cheaply and quickly. And if it gets hacked, they can throw up their hands and cry the mantra "but all software is insecure anyway!"

This undercuts the hard-earned reputation and wages of real and competent developers, actively harms Internet commerce by spreading insecure systems, and enables malicious people and state actors to commit cybercrimes.

Submission + - Bruce Schneier: 'We Are About To Enter the Era of Mass Spying' (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In an editorial for Slate published Monday, renowned security researcher Bruce Schneier warned that AI models may enable a new era of mass spying, allowing companies and governments to automate the process of analyzing and summarizing large volumes of conversation data, fundamentally lowering barriers to spying activities that currently require human labor. In the piece, Schneier notes that the existing landscape of electronic surveillance has already transformed the modern era, becoming the business model of the Internet, where our digital footprints are constantly tracked and analyzed for commercial reasons.

Spying, by contrast, can take that kind of economically inspired monitoring to a completely new level: "Spying and surveillance are different but related things," Schneier writes. "If I hired a private detective to spy on you, that detective could hide a bug in your home or car, tap your phone, and listen to what you said. At the end, I would get a report of all the conversations you had and the contents of those conversations. If I hired that same private detective to put you under surveillance, I would get a different report: where you went, whom you talked to, what you purchased, what you did." Schneier says that current spying methods, like phone tapping or physical surveillance, are labor-intensive, but the advent of AI significantly reduces this constraint. Generative AI systems are increasingly adept at summarizing lengthy conversations and sifting through massive datasets to organize and extract relevant information. This capability, he argues, will not only make spying more accessible but also more comprehensive. "This spying is not limited to conversations on our phones or computers," Schneier writes. "Just as cameras everywhere fueled mass surveillance, microphones everywhere will fuel mass spying. Siri and Alexa and 'Hey, Google' are already always listening; the conversations just aren’t being saved yet." [...]

In his editorial, Schneier raises concerns about the chilling effect that mass spying could have on society, cautioning that the knowledge of being under constant surveillance may lead individuals to alter their behavior, engage in self-censorship, and conform to perceived norms, ultimately stifling free expression and personal privacy. So what can people do about it? Anyone seeking protection from this type of mass spying will likely need to look toward government regulation to keep it in check since commercial pressures often trump technological safety and ethics. [...] Schneier isn't optimistic on that front, however, closing with the line, "We could prohibit mass spying. We could pass strong data-privacy rules. But we haven’t done anything to limit mass surveillance. Why would spying be any different?" It's a thought-provoking piece, and you can read the entire thing on Slate.

Comment The enshittification of Windows continues... (Score 4, Insightful) 245

If you absolutely need to use Windows for work then I can understand, but with the recent improvements on Linux for gaming it really doesn't make sense anymore to continue to endure the "Windows user abuse" for any sort of personal use.

If you are (a) using Windows just for personal use with gaming, browsing, email or other tasks that Linux does perfectly well, and (b) you're complaining about the violation of your privacy and the abuse of your systems and information by Microsoft, then you need to STOP wasting your energy on complaining and redirect that energy to learning Linux.

The cure for the greedy, dangerous and privacy-destroying and ongoing abuse of Windows users, is to STOP using Windows and move to a platform that respects your rights. Nothing else will solve that problem.

Comment The summary is misleading. (Score 2) 287

by johnnys (#63912505) Attached to: Not Even the Ghost of Obsolescence Can Coerce Users Onto Windows 11

"The result was that hardware that will run Windows 10 perfectly well will not accept the new operating system."

That's misleading. It's not the hardware that has the problem with the software. The real problem is that the OS will not install on the hardware. This is a really backwards move on the part of Microsoft. Making perfectly good hardware "obsolete" creates unnecessary e-waste and extra costs for the end user.

Comment This is horrific. (Score 5, Insightful) 159

by johnnys (#63810738) Attached to: Saudi Man Receives Death Penalty For Posts Online

I'm sure the ability to kill your peaceful, honourable, and erudite opponents is a much-desired benefit for tyrants and dictators around the world: Fortunately in Western civilization it tends to be the norm that nations and empires that rule by fear and violence have shorter existences than more civilized ones.

But this also exposes a true hypocrisy with the West and this murderous regime: Oil is good, golf is good, profits are good, so there are groups who gloss over the horrific viciousness in the name of money.

One of the groups that does this in a spectacular manner is the province of Quebec in Canada: They happily import oil from Saudi Arabia in large quantities, but at the same time they have introduced laws to reduce the rights of Muslims to wear their traditional clothing and symbols, all in the name of "secularism". What makes the hypocrisy even more egregious is their absolute insistence against any kind of pipeline from Western Canada which has a large supply of natural gas and oil.

So Quebec blocks petroleum from Canada while fighting against Muslim symbols in public in the name of secularism, while pouring money into a despicable mid-east nation that commits atrocities in the name of religion.

Please note: I don't mean to divert attention from the horrific nature of the crime committed by the Saudi Arabian dictatorship: I only mean to bring attention to the massive hypocrisy by the West in the name of oil and profits.

Submission + - Perseverance Mars rover spies big sunspot rotating toward Earth (space.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has given us a sneak peek of an intriguing patch of the sun that's not yet visible from Earth.

Perseverance photographs the sun daily with its Mastcam-Z camera system to gauge the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Such an effort captured a big sunspot moving across the solar disk late last week and over the weekend, as SpaceWeather.com reported.

"Because Mars is orbiting over the far side of the sun, Perseverance can see approaching sunspots more than a week before we do," SpaceWeather.com wrote in a post highlighting the sunspot photos. "Consider this your one-week warning: A big sunspot is coming."

Submission + - Paralyzed Woman Able To 'Speak' Through Digital Avatar In World First (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A severely paralysed woman has been able to speak through an avatar using technology that translated her brain signals into speech and facial expressions. The latest technology uses tiny electrodes implanted on the surface of the brain to detect electrical activity in the part of the brain that controls speech and face movements. These signals are translated directly into a digital avatar’s speech and facial expressions including smiling, frowning or surprise. The patient, a 47-year-old woman, Ann, has been severely paralyzed since suffering a brainstem stroke more than 18 years ago. She cannot speak or type and normally communicates using movement-tracking technology that allows her to slowly select letters at up to 14 words a minute. She hopes the avatar technology could enable her to work as a counsellor in future.

The team implanted a paper-thin rectangle of 253 electrodes on to the surface of Ann’s brain over a region critical for speech. The electrodes intercepted the brain signals that, if not for the stroke, would have controlled muscles in her tongue, jaw, larynx and face. After implantation, Ann worked with the team to train the system’s AI algorithm to detect her unique brain signals for various speech sounds by repeating different phrases repeatedly. The computer learned 39 distinctive sounds and a Chat GPT-style language model was used to translate the signals into intelligible sentences. This was then used to control an avatar with a voice personalized to sound like Ann’s voice before the injury, based on a recording of her speaking at her wedding.

The technology was not perfect, decoding words incorrectly 28% of the time in a test run involving more than 500 phrases, and it generated brain-to-text at a rate of 78 words a minute, compared with the 110-150 words typically spoken in natural conversation. However, scientists said the latest advances in accuracy, speed and sophistication suggest the technology is now at a point of being practically useful for patients. A crucial next step is to create a wireless version of the BCI that could be implanted beneath the skull.

Submission + - Apple Supports California's Right-to-Repair Legislation

Submitted by NoMoreACs
NoMoreACs writes: According to an Article published in The Verge, https://www.theverge.com/2023/..., pple, in a major reversal, is now expressing support for SB 244, which requires companies to provide customers and repair shops with tools, parts, and manuals to fix devices.

In a letter to California Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, Apple says it endorses the SB 244 bill, which requires manufacturers to give customers and independent repair shops the appropriate tools, manuals, and parts to repair damaged electronics and appliances.

“Apple supports California’s Right to Repair Act so all Californians have even greater access to repairs while also protecting their safety, security, and privacy,” Apple said in a statement to The Verge. “We create our products to last and, if they ever need to be repaired, Apple customers have a growing range of safe, high-quality repair options.”

“California’s final Right to Repair bill should balance device integrity, usability, and physical safety with the desire of consumers to be able to repair, rather than replace, a device when it needs repair,” Apple writes in the letter to Senator Eggman. “Legislation that correctly balances these concerns ensure that manufacturers are able to comply with the law while protecting consumers and their devices.”

After passing through the Senate 38-0 in May, California’s SB 244 bill is now headed to the California State Assembly. If approved, this would add to the growing number of right-to-repair laws passed in other states, including Minnesota and Colorado.

A copy of Apple's letter is available at the original Verge Article.

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