Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Linked to psychosis, just like with humans (Score 1) 75

It's probably close to 50%. And every single one of them is completely delusional.

Well 100% of the human population is delusional. Having a delusion is just not a psychosis.
Having a delusion 30% of the population has isn't even an abnormality. That's called being
deceived by ChatGPT, and the way ChatGPT is presented. And it's kind of OpenAI's fault how
they have structured the user interface and way the responses are displayed to make it look like
text-chat with a normal human.

A person with Psychosis has a pervasive distortion in their view of reality, so it's not just about
having delusions or having some specific number or extent of delusions.

Comment Re:Linked to psychosis, just like with humans (Score 3, Insightful) 75

A human communicating with a person who develops psychosis as a direct result of the communication is blamed, and investigated for wrongdoing.

Well that is wishful thinking, Or this may be part of a psychosis on your part.

There is no law on the books that causes person A speaking to person B to have committed a violation merely because the conversation causes person B develops a psychosis or causes delusions, emotional upsets, or other unwanted affects.

There are some laws against person A abusing person B (Violence, Harassment, Intimidation, or Coercive controlling behaviors), or deliberately encouraging person B with the aim for them to commit illegal or harmful acts, including self harm. Plus some specific statutes protecting children and elderly - vulnerable groups against certain abuses. But so far there is a lack of a case of anyone for being prosecuted with a charge of "Causing a psychosis due to the content of conversations."

And of course by conversation alone.. If that is even possible would be difficult to show, since you can't remember for sure what conversations happened, And a person who experienced a psychosis would by definition be an unreliable witness.

Comment Re:Will somebody with connections please (Score 1) 27

Except the memory makers *aren't* increasing production.

They are actually CUTTING production to create an artificial shortage in the consumer chips.

Micron who owns Crucial is literally shutting down consumer RAM chip production in order to repurpose facilities to make HBM memory for AI companies, since they didn't have the facilities, and the consumer RAM chips are not what the AI companies are interested in buying, either.

Comment Re:Here is a nifty idea ... (Score 1) 49

These are awesome tools Gmail does provide.

Unfortunately the flaw of both systems is that Plus addressing and Dot addressing are both highly visible.

I recently found there are major companies I supplied a username+vendor@gmail.com address who simply Automatically removed the "+vendor" part from the email address and just start using username@gmail.com at some point in time. Also; new signups or attempting to change email address to a Plus address is now rejected with a validation error. Even though the plus address worked fine a year ago when signing up - they changed their system, and it is now rejected. They also removed the plus portion from existing email addresses.

This is a major Cell phone company who does this! As if to say Not only do they know about the feature, But they deliberately disrespect consumers' decisions to use a Unique vendor-specific email address with the provider.

It would be Great for Gmail and Google Apps/Workspace to have an option for all users to create Invisible aliases and Move the original email address to one of those invisible aliases allowing an account primary email rename.

Comment Re:What? (Score 1) 49

I know that they'll be another breach or someone will just flat out sell my e-mail address to a mailing list without my consent.

What you really want to do here is have Infinite email addresses and the Capability to instantly Add or Drop as many email addresses as necessary. Then for every website or person you do business with - create an email address for yourself just for that person or company.

Yes there will be breaches. Yes will people with no right or permission will flat out sell or abuse your e-mail address. And thanks to the power of Unique email addresses per contact -- you will know exactly who is responsible.

Comment Re:It's almost 2026 (Score 1) 35

We wouldn't need any of these, at least in this case here, if the link contained therein pointed to a domain, which even imbeciles could positively identify as legit. No, get[dot]activate[dot]win" does not fit into this category.

The activate(d) dot win domain, Or whatever the heck it is.. or anything similar is Not domain Microsoft ever pointed anyone too anyways.

I would dare say this entire article is about a Tool used for software piracy being impersonated by A different type of pirate.
People trying to get pirate copies of Windows activated getting control of their computer pirated.

(Or if Pirate service is the wrong word.. that the MAS domain impersonated is at best a method of activation not approved by Microsoft, of Activating Legitimate Windows copies --- which avoids requiring verifiable license keys or a verifiable digital license)

Comment Re:Will somebody with connections please (Score 1) 27

...expose and pop this damned AI bubble!? Jeez

The major problem here is Microsoft and Google, and the fact that we have given these two companies so much money by using their shit too much, so they have trillions in spare cash to spend on AI shit.

The AI bubble is Not a bubble as far as the chip manufacturers are concerned, so long as Microsoft and Google keep spending insane amounts of money on datacenters - these companies have an opportunity to make massive bank.

The chip manufacturers simply have dollar signs in their eyes, and they are obligated to do what's best to their investors. Which is screw consumers, so they can sell all their capacity to Google.

Comment Re:It's almost 2026 (Score 1) 35

few people will ever be able to tell, which domain is held by Microsoft or some other malicious entity.

A query of domain against the WHOIS service generally answers the question.
If the registrar is MarkMonitor, then you can guarantee the legitimate registrant is at least an enterprise if not Microsoft.

The bigger concern people should have is that any one legitimate domain can become compromised by a malicious entity.
Due to the legitimate entity failing to keep up to date all SMTP security requirements, etc, such as NS records, DMARC, SPF management
records, for all domains.

Or for that matter failure to manage what URL endpoints may exist behind every domain; allowing for exposures by way of some obscure outdated URL endpoint allowing an Arbitrary redirect or HTML content return. Such as the old https://example.com/?content=X... returns a document with exactly raw content XYZ; vulnerability.

I believe, for example "surveysitemail.com" was a domain actually owned by Microsoft which became compromised and got used by spammers.
Heck the "anti-phishing.org" domain registered by the Anti-Phishing Working group became susceptible to hijack due to neglected Authoritative nameserver entries.

It is more difficult to ensure that thousands of domains remain properly maintained, monitored, and secured at all times; rather than a maximum of 2 or 3 domains.

.

Comment Re:What? (Score 2) 49

It sounds like an alias system which is basically what I would love. Aliases are simple database entries, and Ideally they should not even limit us to two.. I would love to have a bunch of alias slots that can be rotated out, so I can add and drop various email addresses on a regular basis in order to reduce spam.

Please google.. Let me change my Gmail account's login email address, but still be able to receive email at the address and manage it like a permanent email alias. In short, just because I have a Gmail account - should not mean that gmail address becomes a permanently valid login username for my account forever. We ought to be allowed to add additional addresses and login with a Private username, so people cannot guess details that can be used to start a login or recovery attempt on our account; based on details we share with other people (Email, Phone number).

More importantly the "Forgot password" link should Not allow entry of such secondary details.

Some arsehole out there keeps causing Unrequested Verification codes to be sent to my email addresses or SMS phone numbers for all sorts of accounts, and hammering bogus attempts, and it gets old fast.

For example I just got "Verify your identity" from cointracker.io. Then I get a password reset request email from tax@crypto.com, Etc. Never had accounts with any websites like those, but apparently someone wants me to have so they can break in. How would breaking into online accounts that help people track their portfolios even do anything useful; I don't know. But it seems like a good enough reason to make a new email address primary and start restricting how an old email address is used.

Comment Re:Don't they know how to close a door remotely? (Score 1) 72

First Law Of Car Robotics: "The customer is always right"

Where ever do you get a weird idea like that from?

This is no more than a 2025 equivalent to being fined $10 by Blockbuster in 1995 for Failing to rewind the stack of rental tapes you returned.
Or bringing back your rental car with half a fuel tank and getting a $10 fill up charge. Of course after 30 years of Inflation; that 10$ is now reasonably at least $30. And that action not filling that fuel tank back up on your car rental in 2025 sets you back a $50 convenience fee. Ever fail to bring a library book back on time, or not in original condition? The world is full of such fines.

No.. The customer has to agree to ToS, And it's always on the company to enforce the Terms of Service.

Google's shown no hesitation to enforce the ToS against customers. Every week or so we seem to hear about how another major Youtuber has had their channel struck capriciously over matters more trivial than leaving a door ajar. The Reddit forums are full of people whining about their accounts having been turned off permanently by Google or Paypal, Apple, etc.

Possibly Waymo is just a temporary exception, and Google will try to be nicer to customers, Even if it causes them to operate a loss instead of a profit for a while until they have total market dominance and eliminated competition. Achieving that market dominance being priority, And once they have that market dominance they can guarantee a high rate of profit even at the lowest level of service; just like the US Insurance and Banking cartels are able to pull off.

Comment Re:It's almost 2026 (Score 5, Insightful) 35


If you are still tethering yourself to proprietary software and anti cheat enshittified games

The reason for malware is has nothing to do with the fact that Windows is proprietary. Linux users are just as much subject to these kind of attacks.

The main issue is that Windows ships with admin/dev tools such as Powershell, Start+Run, and command prompt - that Windows users do not understand, but social engineering attacks can persuade the users to do dangerous things. Such as paste clipboard commands into it.
Linux does not improve in this area... in fact; Linux makes it worse.

Sure; Windows Powershell:

irm (URL) | iex from a Powershell prompt is dumb shit.

URL can be Easily typo'd, and there is no verification or confirmation. It's blind trust and run arbitrarily whatever comes in over HTTPS.

But Linux users will follow instructions to do something that is just as much dumb shit called:

curl (https://linkshortner) | bash

Or even dumber:

curl (URL) | sudo bash

curl (URL) | pkexec bash

Whatever.

If you think for a minute the same kind of typosquating and ClickFix exploits are not actively exploiting Unix/Linux users too, then I got extremely bad news for you. Linux may actually fare worse than Windows in this area. At least in the Windows world - a couple more manual steps are usually required to elevate.

Comment Re:Don't they know how to close a door remotely? (Score 0) 72

first time a passenger gets whacked for $50+ for not closing the door may be the last time

If the customer is repeatedly Ignoring directions given at the end of their ride to make sure the door is closed properly after they disembarg; then that passenger is essentially costing Google (The amount of money Google has to pay to get someone to close the door Is more than the $20 or so you have to pay to ride on a Waymo). Plus during that time period the vehicle is out of service waiting for someone to close the door -- There is a loss of business opportunity to sell rides to other app users during that time period for that vehicle. They are a bad customer, then, and in theory the optimal strategy would be to ban that person from the Waymo app (Over repeatedly leaving the door open) anyways.

So If that customer goes away and never rides again, then that is not necessarily a bad outcome, since it solves the problem of a negligent customer causing damages. Of course Google can use a strike system... where you do it one time You get a warning, and the $50 fee is incurred the second time you abuse the ride by disregarding the directions to shut the dam door properly. Do you as a car owner leave your door ajar after you park and exit your vehicle? What car owner would? Seems like an utterly unreasonable thing.. Waymo simply should not tolerate.

Comment Re:Don't they know how to close a door remotely? (Score 3, Interesting) 72

Better yet, install door closer mechanisms like Tesla uses. It can't be that expensive.

The article mentions seatbelts jammed in doors. Personally I think Tesla should make clear instructions to the passenger to ensure the door is fully closed before leaving. And if the passenger chooses to disobey the directive, then the passenger should be responsible to pay a charge for this.

At this point it is not Waymo's responsibility to implement a risky forced closing mechanism. If the passenger neglects the door, then the passenger pays $50 in costs to get it closed + the costs in lost fares + overhead fees to have Waymo's providers shut it.

Comment Re:And this is just Explicit subscriptions. (Score 1) 126

They all continue to work just fine as a thermostat

They do not continue to work "just fine". The product you bought was called a Nest Learning Thermostat. The remote control function by app was always a critical part of the product, and the reason you paid $300 for a Nest instead of $10 for a mercury switch t.stat.

An API change is an arbitrarily unnecessary change specially designed to create incompatibility to use as an excuse.
As noted: the functions of a thermostat have not changed. And if in fact an API change had been necessary would ordinarily
be introduced end to end for any thermostats regardless of model number - Google controls the software at both ends, so
they are fully capable of ensuring all thermostats they ever made would have a compatible interface.

This is the standard usage pattern where a manufacturer changes the Functions of the "Smart" product after sale so that you have to start paying more for the smart function.

In this case; the $300 Nest lasting 5 years before Google turns it off amounts to an equivalent of a $60 per year sub.

Comment Re:Typical AI issue (Score 2) 146

a non-functioning traffic light is always supposed to be treated as a 4-way stop

Supposed to. But I can guarantee this is not the case, As I have seen actual power outages.

And try getting onto a major thoroughfare from a side road that normally has occasional traffic light protection.
But literally 99% of the people on the main road in massive numbers just ignore the downed lights at the intersections entirely.

And at the main junction where Major roads intersect Is complete and utter chaos for the half hour before a police officer gets there to deploy portable stop signs and manually direct anyone to stop.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Well, it don't make the sun shine, but at least it don't deepen the shit." -- Straiter Empy, in _Riddley_Walker_ by Russell Hoban

Working...