Nobody wanted the chatbot in WhatsApp and the fact that Meta gave no choice but to opt in and to stay in makes clear of that. So if it's an anticompetitive action give them the choice - remove it entirely or require people to affirmatively opt in and select AI from a lost. Sam should go too of course for Gemini and any other agent that is made almost mandatory to use.

The UK demanded porn sites age verify. The reputable ones did, the disruptable ones didn't. I'm sure kids are exposed to far worse content than if they hadn't bothered. Then the UK discovered that VPNs are a thing, and they're making noises demanding VPNs not be used to sidestep porn verification. Then they're demanding phones and tech companies identify porn and block it which merely requires impossible demands.

All of this is so fucking stupid because the solution is simple - require ISPs (and VPNs if they so wish) to provide optional content filters to UK account holders. Adult account holders can opt into filtering on a per device basis or the entire account. Child account holders (e.g. kids with SIMs) get it enabled without choice until they turn 18. The filter can block porn and it can block VPN and does so effectively. It doesn't require random businesses around the world to comply with UK law.

It's not rocket science.

Bending Spoons is a farm up North where brands you haven't heard of in a while can go to run and play.

There are a number of highly affordable EVs in A, B and C segments on sale in Europe. People have been waiting for prices to come down and they have. Sales of EVs are expanding by double digits year on year and by 2028 it's likely that the majority of new car sales will be EV. The car industry is still lobbying the EU to sell shitty "hybrid" models instead of meeting the looming end to ICE sales.

Escape Room but with bees.

Certification is a feature, not a bug and this is how marine systems operate for example. You don't need to buy a chart plotter, radar, radio, GPS, autopilot and depth sounder from the same manufacturer and it doesn't have to be made specific to your boat. You buy all the bits and pieces to your requirements, piecemeal if you like, but all certified and they talk with each over a marine grade CAN bus. If a component goes, or you want to upgrade, you buy a new component and away you go.

I see the same being completely viable for farming equipment. In fact it's something that countries should mandate for new equipment to stop all the lock-in bullshit.

Make all the computer controlled stuff plug into the tractor via CAN bus or something. Open up the specs so any certified product can plug into the tractor or communicate with other products on the same bus. e.g. allow products to consume sensor data, provide tracking, even control the steering or monitor/control other things hooked up to the tractor.

Whenever I'm leading a project that does anything to do with human input like names, addresses, written text I have to repeatedly drum into people that internally the code should be UTF-8 and UTC time unless there is an exceptionally good reason not to be. The weird thing is there is usually somebody from India, Iran, China or wherever where I shouldn't have to say this but I usually have to. They're so used to everything being English and assuming everything fits in a byte with unambiguous values it almost escapes them that it isn't true.

As for Slashdot, I haven't seen this site receive a major update for over a decade. The original version used to be a mess of Perl. I imagine these days it's a mess of Perl and some other stuff with some very fragile scripts that can't cope very well or consistently with different character encodings let alone being UTF-8 end to end. Using a subset of HTML as markup probably doesn't help either.

By that token every dogshit subscription service with autorenew enable can use that tagline that people are "saving". After all think of the precious seconds they're saving not requiring people to renew to something they may have forgotten they were subscribed to. And let's save people even more time by not inconveniencing them with an email about a pending renewal.

Can I set up an AI agent to orchestrate a rugpull?

I updated xtelink e-reader (it has an ESP32 in it) through Chrome and I couldn't believe how simple it was. Ordinarily I'd be downloading some dump bin and having to run some mysterious Chinese written flash software to update the device. Yet all I had to do was go to a website, grant a permission and the device got flashed in about a minute.

Not just Arduino but anything that could potentially driven from a web browser - devices for firmware updates, braille readers, point of sale, barcode readers etc.

I receively bought an xtelink 4 e-reader and was able to flash the thing with custom firmware directly from the browser. This safer IMO that launching some random flash software which might decide to anything when it starts.

I could see this also being very useful for people wanting to flash embedded devices from cloud based software. But it could also be used to drive braille readers, point of sale terminals and anything else that works over serial.

... until one of these competitors drops dead, ends up in a coma, or suffers a psychotic break thanks to the garbage these organizers helped put in their bodies. The lawsuits will be spectacular especially if a competitor kills, injures or harms somebody who isn't covered by a waiver.

I'm referring specifically to people who listen to certain artists so relentlessly the platform thinks they're super fans. Just buy the frigging albums. Not only do they support the artists with royalties but they own the content and save themselves renting it.