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exitzer0

106 karma · joined March 2, 2023

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exitzer0··on We don't know how bad most things are nor precisely how they're bad
It only takes a single visit to an old house built around the turn of century to realize that the artistry, craftsmanship, and all of the other skills needed to make such a thing today are incredibly rare.

Everyone seems to think and say that they want some for of AI to arrive and free us from all that grind that is beneath us.

I am just reminded of this TNG episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA9fcTJGXf0

exitzer0··on Microsoft makes Copilot less useful on new Copilot Plus PCs
These new PCs/chips are about more than just co-pilot. They are also the first series of chips with Pluton.

https://gabrielsieben.tech/2022/07/25/the-power-of-microsoft...

Pluton should be absolutely TERRIFYING to anyone informed on Microsoft's security story.

exitzer0··on Poll: Is AI Hype a Bubble?
the SLTs of all major tech companies and software companies are absolutely hyping AI. these people are have compensation packages with significant ties to stock prices and those go up with hype and inflated expectations.
exitzer0··on DuckDuckGo was down
This guy Microsofts.
exitzer0··on OpenAI and Reddit Partnership
as fun as it would be for redditors to now go and burn down any/all content that would feed this bot, you have to believe that this announcement is more of an after-the-fact notification vs a we-are-about-to-do-this piece of information.

either way. there has never been a better time to abandon reddit so ... see you all on Lemmy and here.

exitzer0··on Firefox search update
This. I invite everyone to go and look at the amount settings that must be turned OFF in Windows 10/11, Firefox, Chrome, whatever app from companies that claim to respect user privacy. For Windows it is literally dozens of toggles, and unsoliticed apps. Then there are the so called security features like malware scanning of URLs/file downloads, etc. Then the DNS replacements which, ya know, still see the URLs that you are asking for.

Every company that claims to respect your privacy is full of shit. There is too much money to made in not respecting it and this is the sole reason that they exist.

exitzer0··on Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped police identify activist
"Once the Guardia Civil obtained the iCloud email address, the documents show that it requested information from Apple, which in turn provided a full name, two home addresses and a linked Gmail account."

Basically everything but their favorite colors, TV shows and emojis.

exitzer0··on Microsoft ties executive pay to security after multiple failures and breaches
If anyone is dumb enough to trust Microsoft after all the shit they've pulled over the last 30+ years, including the most recent collection of large-scale security fuckups, they deserve what they get.
exitzer0··on US government’s reliance on Microsoft means the company gets a free pass
Until we sort out the whole idea that it is OK for the US intelligence communitity to use Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple, N-other big tech companies to act as their data collection services. They will all continue to basically do whatever they want including jeopardizing our national security with their plainly stated profit motives.

It isn't that Microsoft does not care at all about security it is just that they see it as some business that they can/must make 40-50% margin on like the rest of their operations.[aka outsource it all to countries where folks have fake credentials]

exitzer0··on Proton Mail says Outlook for Windows is Microsoft's new data collection service
Evolution seems to work fine for me.
exitzer0··on Microsoft blamed for "a cascade of security failures" in Exchange breach report
Notice how little scrutiny Microsoft has been getting by Congress, DOJ, FTC, etc. despite these many huge security blunders and whatever is going on between them and OpenAI.

This might be because it is almost impossible to tell where Microsoft starts and the government ends these days. Also remember that Microsoft was basically the pilot program for Prism.

exitzer0··on Why Today's Software Sucks
offshoring is a big part no doubt. another big part is that almost no one's comp structure includes things like bugfixes, quality or perf work. people only get credit for shipping new features, etc. this is why everything is basically just hollow chocolate rabbits.
exitzer0··on Tesla releases Q1 2024 deliveries: disastrous results
Some things to think about.

- Tesla's charging network is opening up. I think this used to be the single biggest selling point.

- Tesla's repairability is not great, neither are the insurance rates.

- The 4680's have not exactly changed the world... might have made things cheaper for Tesla but that is about it.

- Some folks might think that Teslas aversion to buttons has reached peak dumb. Latest model 3 has even ditched the turn signals and drive-selector stalks...

- Requiring FSD demos prior to sales? GTFO.

- Musk is officially more of a liability than an asset.

exitzer0··on XZ backdoor: "It's RCE, not auth bypass, and gated/unreplayable."
I work for a large closed-source software company and I can tell you with 100% that it is full of domestic and foreign agents. Being open source means that more eyes can and will look at something. That only increases the chance of malicious actions being found out ... just like this supply-chain attack.
exitzer0··on Microsoft Launches Surface Laptop 6 for Business and Surface Pro 10
the special firmware that microsoft uses in these machines breaks network, USB, anything that you attach to it. it just can't get power management right. I've been saddled with one of these for 5+ years and it just never got better.
exitzer0··on US Government Buying Legally Available Consumer Data on US Citizens
Basically a proxy war.
exitzer0··on Google and Meta Function as Extensions of the US Intelligence Community
As does Microsoft, Apple, AT&T and every other company involved in the PRISM program. The issue is that people just do not seem to care.
exitzer0··on Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps
Mini-splits seem like they are the future for the value conscious and light-weight DIY crowd.

These systems are quite simple in design and implementation while also offering a pretty effective way to control temperature in a zoned way in various parts of the house. They also can be had in 120V sizes making them far easier to accomidate for solar-powered households, etc.

exitzer0··on Spreadsheet "breaks" Apple Vision Pro eye-tracking
This does not strike me as a productivity device. I doubt many of the target demographic will actually notice this issue.
exitzer0··on Nearly 25,000 tech workers were laid off in the first weeks of 2024. Why?
CEO's are driven by compensation packages that are heavily dependant on stock prices and peer pressure. Retaining and retraining good people are just not a factor in their decision making process, neither is social responsibility.

These mega tech companies are now so big and so few that a cartel-effect has definitely emerged and it is resulting in this collective push towards the AI hype train and ofcourse layoffs. Most of this AI training data was scraped surreptitiously, labelled by the poorest of the poor, and then sold as original art which is just not in any meaningful way.

It might be time for us as a society to stop arguing over gender/race/socio-economic/gun politics, or being distracted by AI psuedo prophets saying that AI has some mighty power that we must regulate(to lock-in their 1st mover advantage) and other topics loudly shouted at us by large media companies(which are frequently owned by wealthy interests) and start thinking about how we can reclaim our privacy, freedoms and agency in the halls of our capitals and courts.

exitzer0··on Feds tell companies to preserve IM and other corporate chats
Microsoft Teams already generates a ton of data(down to reactions on messages) that you can see in the Entra activity log. I guess this is aimed more at Slack, etc. which I am sure already has plenty of logs somewhere.

This does nothing to address the out-of-band channels. Most of my working peers will use Signal or other applications to communicate off the record so this is mostly window dressing.

exitzer0··on Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives
Depending on your distro, the Firefox package you see in the official repo is ... well packaged by the repo maintianers and some distros will include customizations like adding in bookmarks to the distro's welcome/docs/pages/etc. Sometimes even more things like feature settings are changed. It is usually not anything major and usually things that you might prefer like disabling pocket, etc.

What Mozilla is calling out here is a seperate, Mozilla-direct repo. This means you skip the official repos.

Everyone should think carefully about what this means.

exitzer0··on Is the Tesla Cybertruck a Dud? An Experienced EV Reviewer Thinks So
The truck seems to be more or less what was promised. I think it is the new batteries that are not necessarily living up to the hype.
exitzer0··on An influx of Chinese cars is terrifying the West
Just not sure that I am ready to trust my driving safety to 100% Chinese automobiles.
exitzer0··on System-wide open source ad blocker for Mac, Windows, and Linux
It is just not wise to allow some random application to MiTM your SSL traffic.
exitzer0··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023)
biggest issue is not allowing for remote, not the clearance.