indeed. this is more akin to the more abusive ideas proposed for the PATRIOT act but not implemented. In what we got, they could ask the phone companies and 'cloud' (we didn't call it that at the time) companies for all the info on a specific person without a specific warrant on the person themself. And yeah that was bad enough to be sure, especially because the company that turned over the data didn't have to tell you they did it (all part of trying to catch them without them knowing they're being caught, of course).

This 'dump' is more a case of "we can ask for EVERYTHING on your servers"...without telling anybody that their data was included.

I got a 'cold call' from what was actually a legit AI bot just a week ago (from a financial services company serving the loan for some home improvements).

stupid thing never understood "let me talk to a human" no matter how many times i tried.

it was legit, but i just gave up, hung up, called the same number back, and hitting the '0' operator, got a human who handled the situation in a matter of minutes, no frustration involved.

The key thing is the bot cold-called ME but wouldn't provide ANY verifying information that it was what it claimed to be. They have an account # for me, but they wouldn't tell ME it to confirm they were who they were and my account was what they expected to see. Not even something like "last 4 digits".

I mean, they ask US for last 4 digits of something but they won't do the same for us in return?

THIS IS A DAMN PROBLEM, because yeah, we need to have a way to trust that bot-calls from AI are who they say they are, because it is REALLY F'ING EASY to program a bot to do the psychic equiv of a 'cold read' as part of social engineering a scam.

when hiking/walking, i'd rather it stay northbound and click that compass to keep it that way.

otherwise, the pace i'm walking is so slow that the thing keeps changing up what direction it thinks i'm walking in, spins around 3 times, and throws a whole new side trek onto my route.

when i keep it northbound, it still adds that useless side-trek, but at least it isn't spinning all the time.

5000 feet (or even 1000) is deceptively tough when it is in the other direction. (I know the Rescuer knows this but saying it for the general).

Canyons and mountain routes can be deceptively difficult. Examples include the Grand Canyon, obviously, but also, say, starting a hike from a high point along the Blue Ridge Parkway or (in Shenandoah NP) Skyline drive. You head down, not up, a generally easy descent to see the landmark...and then after having been out for 2-3 hours, you have to climb back up. So the hardest part of the hike is when you're already tired...

Park rangers and most guide books will remind guests of this, but not every app (esp not google maps) will.

For biking, google maps for desktop is reasonably well at giving you a chance to see the elevation changes on the route to figure out where the toughest climbs are going to be...but I think it still presumes a steady pace rather than the "I quit, I'm getting off and walking" pace that my unconditioned 50-something legs force me to do.

College stripper party is a complicated situation? Ri-ight. People should realize a few things going into that situation...

I get that the ancient (32-bit) PC computers are pretty much worthless now and that's mostly all of interest in the old IBM sites (wondering what the current state of the Sloatsburg location near NY 17/17A in Orange County is like - I drive past it at least once a year).

What gets me are the schools more than the malls or offices - all this talk of teachers having to buy school supplies (and now no longer getting a tax break for it), and yet every one of these buildings we see the reels walk through are full of things that current teachers could use. Why is nobody willing to connect that dot and save their county (and teachers) money?

> The real risk is not that Grandma is going to catch a polymorphic worm

Wait! WHAT is Grandma going to polymorph into?

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's the one.

> The ability to verify who you are should be fundamental.

If I wanted to be identified I'd cryptographically sign my emails...

I'm not sure that it should be necessary to identify myself to buy a candy bar or download the latest version of pokemon. Pikachu I spy you!

Freedom: The freedom to identify yourself when you want to or the freedom to force someone else to identify themselves even when they don't want to. Or the freedom to force users to "sign" a click-wrap agreement, effectively writing your own half laws...

You mean the AC post showing a pattern? (I didn't even know you could still psot anonymously on Slashdot but I digress...)

A service worker shouldn't just 'run' automatically without any user prompting (certainly not the hundreds I have on my box from every single news and slop page I've ever clicked which I have to go wipe out every few months).

They were for web-apps and should only be installed when the user installs the web-app or actually approves notifications. You can say "no notifications" but the service worker will still get installed. This is just a fundamental design flaw that's been there for as long as the SW feature has.

I mean, that doesn't still mean that under better installation security, SWs couldn't still exploit a flaw like this, but it would make it less automatic.

There are no 'personalities'. There are no 'feelings'. There is software looking at patterns and regurgitating text that fits that pattern, because that is what it was programmed to do.

These idiots using those words would still be fooled by Eliza.

but DO they have their audience?

or maybe this is gaming the system on two sides: the company puts out AI slop on the channels, and then creates hundreds of fake accounts and downloaders and streamers to make it seem like the thing is the bees knees, none of which have ad-blocking on , so it just rakes in the ad-view count?

This is far beyond just spotify and podcasts. The AI Slop of music has invaded YouTube on a massive scale, where common searches of semi-rare material (say, Disney Parks Background Loops) are now flooded with "Ambient" and "Jazz" and "Orchestra" loops that have nothing to do with Disney, their songs (however they are arranged) nor the parks music at all. It is just generic AI-generated junk but picking up on those keywords and including fake Disney video animation content to get the click.

Pretty sure this is going to hit other genre things, too, like if you were to search for "Star Wars Music". Maybe the "Christmas Music" AI slop might actually be recognizable Christmas/Seasonal tunes this coming season...but something tells me probably not.

Don't you mean Bwandi-chlorians? Stardiocrawars !

A long time ago in a galaxy dumbed down for television...