Comment As long as its traditional espionage... (Score 1) 20
I guess that means its ok...?
Of course when someone like Snowden does it -- now that's just
downright embarrassing! Hmmmmm...
Comment Re:Wells Fargo did same in 2016 -- crazy! (Score 1) 80
at least the fines are going up -- 100M in 2016, now 250M in 2023
Comment Wells Fargo did same in 2016 -- crazy! (Score 2) 80
The CFPB fined Wells Fargo $100 million on September 8, 2016, for the "widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized accounts." The order also required Wells Fargo to pay an estimated $2.5 million in refunds to customers and hire an independent consultant to review its procedures.
Comment government ban on gov equip !=censorship (Score 5, Insightful) 37
article says: " It further argues that a ban doesn't "meaningfully" constrain China's ability to collect sensitive data about Americans, because this data is widely available from other data brokers."
Exactly -- its not a ban, because researcher can obtain their data from others.
Only ban is on government devices -- not private ones.
Same way government can't force 3rd parties to adhere to government policies, as that would be
censorship!
Comment Government can censor its own use! (Score 5, Insightful) 37
The government can regulate what is used on its own devices. The first amendment doesn't apply. Only if gov censors what people do on their private devices does the 1st amendment apply.
Otherwise to say government can't regulate it's own devices is requiring them to be open to any 3rd party's hacks and is a national security risk.
Comment Another proprietary era in fonts or...? (Score 2) 58
It took a while before new MS fonts were available throughout the web -- is the purpose to make MS-docs a separate look from the rest of the web, or is this new font going to be released for other [non-MS] docs and usage to allow the new look across the web on open web pages and docs as well??
Submission + - New Study Finds Heavy Drinkers Don't 'Hold Their Liquor' Better (uchicagomedicine.org)
WankerWeasel writes: A recent study by the University of Chicago found that heavy drinkers experience significant fine motor and cognitive impairment after drinking — even if they don’t feel the effects. The research group says that alcohol use disorder is “more nuanced than commonly believed,” as consistently heavy drinkers displayed notably higher impairment than expected, according to a June 19 press release.
The findings were published in “Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research”, as part of professor Andrea King’s ongoing Chicago Social Drinking Project study.
The findings were published in “Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research”, as part of professor Andrea King’s ongoing Chicago Social Drinking Project study.
The Disappearance of Classic Video Games (gamehistory.org) 140
The Video Game History Foundation: The Video Game History Foundation, in partnership with the Software Preservation Network, has conducted the first ever study on the commercial availability of classic video games, and the results are bleak. 87% of classic video games released in the United States are critically endangered. Imagine if the only way to watch Titanic was to find a used VHS tape, and maintain your own vintage equipment so that you could still watch it. And what if no library, not even the Library of Congress, could do any better -- they could keep and digitize that VHS of Titanic, but you'd have to go all the way there to watch it. It sounds crazy, but that's the reality we live in with video games, a $180 billion industry, while the games and their history disappear.
For accessing nearly 9 in 10 classic games, there are few options: seek out and maintain vintage collectible games and hardware, travel across the country to visit a library, or... piracy. None of those options are desirable, which means that most video games are inaccessible to all but the most diehard and dedicated fans. That's pretty grim! This is where libraries and archives should come in. Anyone should be able to easily explore, research and play classic video games, in the same way that they can read classic novels, listen to classic albums, and watch classic movies. But outdated copyright laws are preventing institutions like ours from doing our jobs.
For accessing nearly 9 in 10 classic games, there are few options: seek out and maintain vintage collectible games and hardware, travel across the country to visit a library, or... piracy. None of those options are desirable, which means that most video games are inaccessible to all but the most diehard and dedicated fans. That's pretty grim! This is where libraries and archives should come in. Anyone should be able to easily explore, research and play classic video games, in the same way that they can read classic novels, listen to classic albums, and watch classic movies. But outdated copyright laws are preventing institutions like ours from doing our jobs.
Submission + - The 'Threads' App Is Filled With Deceptive Dark Design Patterns – We Spott (yankodesign.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
Aside from probably the launch of ChatGPT, I can’t ever recall a recent time in which the internet was THIS excited. While I personally believed that Zuckerberg’s new Threads app was doomed to be a hit and miss, it seems like I was dead wrong – the app saw more than 10 million users sign up in just 1.5 hours, with the number climbing up to 75 million as per a recent announcement from Zuckerberg. The reason? FOMO, along with the fact that the Threads app was designed to be incredibly intuitive. You didn’t need to make an account – if you were on Instagram, the account was already made for you. A simple click would import all your followers, your profile settings, and profile-picture and bio. However, veiled underneath that ease and convenience were a few patterns that designers and tech nerds were all too familiar with. These patterns, referred to as Dark Design Patterns, are known to manipulate and influence a user into doing something against their will.
As a user, you’ve probably encountered a whole bunch of dark design patterns in your life. If you’ve used the Uber app, you’re familiar with how notorious it is to cancel a ride while the app is searching for one. The ‘Cancel Ride’ button is greyed out, but the ‘Continue Searching’ is black and highly visible. Hit the Cancel button and Uber asks you at least twice if you’re sure you want to cancel. Amazon does the same thing with its Prime subscribers. Try canceling your Prime subscription and chances are you’ll just give up because Amazon’s made it so incredibly hard to cancel an active Prime membership.
The Threads app almost immediately displayed a whole bunch of dark patterns with its user interface. We spotted at least 11 of them, and we’re sure there are a lot more to come. Here are some highly evident dark tricks the Threads app is using to ensure you stay on the platform as long as you possibly can and supply Meta with even more data than before.
There's a simple way to avoid all that, of course.
Submission + - Government Spyware on Your Phone? Unfortunately, There's an App for That (nclalegal.org)
An anonymous reader writes: “The New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) in federal court for coordinating with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19. A newly-released video details how DPH’s actions have violated fundamental constitutional rights.”
Comment Re: halt reverse engineering? Say what? (Score 1) 170
I hear what you are saying, but adding laws to the books is a bad way to ensure being kept in a loop.
What we really need is a sunshine clause on all laws -- after some period of time (5-10 years, maybe, typical, as a default), any law, not renewed, would be canceled and purged from the books.
Who knows, maybe expirations could be handled via an AI Chatbot.
Comment Re:halt reverse engineering? Say what? (Score 1) 170
^^ right -- why would someone introduce a bill to halt any reverse engineering?
It is incredibly stupid! What, we are going to jump to being a warp-capable species overnight? Yeah, right.
Comment Consider the source (Score 2) 202
I don't think Baron's is named for a group of working people -- more like those who want to be on top managing workers.
Can't help but think of robber barons taking advantage over the masses. And how robber barons populating wall street led to the great depression...
Comment humans can't make digital copies (Score -1, Troll) 82
Because AI's are taking in digital information and therefore have a digital copy of the information in their storage.
Humans take in digital information but don't have digital storage. Humans can't store a digital copy in their brain that allows digital reproduction.
Comment But police having keys protects the children!! (Score 1) 60
I wonder if the excuse of needing to monitor communications to stop child-abuse was how they got open access such a huge trove of consensual-crime violators?
