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xethos

1,519 karma · joined June 20, 2023

Matrix @xethos:xethos.net eMail cmckinnon@posteo.net
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xethos··on Ex-FTC boss Khan: break out the handcuffs for AI CEOs, citing 1934 precedent
Meta argued in court that yes, they did upload when torrenting

> Meta’s reasoning is straightforward. Anyone who uses BitTorrent to transfer files automatically uploads content to other people, as it is inherent to the protocol. In other words, the uploading wasn’t a choice, it was simply how the technology works.

https://torrentfreak.com/uploading-pirated-books-via-bittorr...

xethos··on Things That Annoy Me About Cars
> until they are outlawed.

I don't actually ever expect this to happen in North America. Have you seen what motorists get away with? Everything from minor issues (mis-aligned headlights, dead brake lights) to major safety issues (tinted front windows preventing eye-contact with the driver, off-road bars on jeeps), to shit that is an easy pull for any cop (missing the required-in-BC front license plate).

We probably end up at the same place though, regardless of which of us is right: I think internal combustion will instead die a slow economic death, as gas stations become less common, the expertise to keep them running evaporates, and parts become harder to source when OEMs are no longer legally required to keep them available

xethos··on Things That Annoy Me About Cars
> What you’re describing is a sunroof

Pedantic, but more likely to be a moonroof. A sunroof is opaque, while a moonroof is the clear or mild-to-moderately tinted glass panel we've all grown used to.

xethos··on Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco
Precisely - Carney can't tariff Albertan oil without stoking seperatist rhetoric, which Smith is using as a political tool instead of stating outright Alberta will always be part of a Canada, and shutting down the [real or manufactured] movement
xethos··on Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco
The trade war was claimed to be in part kicked off by a trade deficit - meaning Alberta is simultaneously a major cause of the trade war (by moving so much of their oil south for things refinement, and contributing to the trade imbalance), and a stumbling block for Canada to effectively fight back. Tariffs on Albertan oil will be looked at (by Albertans) as the Liberal PM hurting them out of malice, instead of a cudgel to fight back against Goliath
xethos··on Europe's "Less" Is Doing More Than Anyone Gives It Credit For
I get your point, and adore my Fiero, but most software updates to cellphones are required because they're networked.

Cars don't have to be, nor (IMO) should be internet-connected. So if the CPU in the infotainment system was sufficient at launch, and there's no reason to update the (not-internet-connected) software, then the CPU will continue to be sufficient, and the software being out of date is irrelevant.

Not to defend the modern tablet-on-dash, internet-connected, reports-your-sexual-preference "car", just to point out that the transition to digital isn't, by itself, bad

xethos··on ClickFix attacks infecting PCs and Macs are going viral
I haven't seen it spelled out, either here or in TFA: Is uBlock Origin, and thus Firefox, required? Or is uBlock Origin Lite, and therefore a Chromium-based browser, sufficient?

Which one blocked the homebrew attack you mentioned? Because while I have a suspicion, knowing, and having it stated explicitly, is still good information to have

xethos··on LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'
"Everything" would include the microphone, both in the remote and the TV. They're claiming to split off the audio, with one path going to the speakers (and there to your ears), and the other path being hashed (and from there to LG).

They still claim to get your media's audio, but deny using the microphones.

xethos··on iPhone Duo
12 years, not 15, but there are currently BlackBerry Classic shipping with modern internals. I love mine, though I've flashed LineageOS for Android 16

https://zinwa.com/

xethos··on Why the AfD Wins
> But those consequences will have been arrived at honestly

The problem with that is that Republican voters will not be the first, and certainly not the only, people to experience those consequences. Nor will they be the ones to suffer the majority, and especially not the worst, of them.

The electorate at large eventually learning their lesson is cold comfort to anyone that warned of this, and suffered regardless

xethos··on UN approves resolution in support of map that shows Africa's true size
I mean, flipping back and forth between Mollweide and Equal-Earth (what they went with), I see only minor differences, with distortion seemingly favouring Equal-Earth. What's the rationale for having such a strong preference, especially as either is such an improvement over the current map (which has it's principle advantage being for sailing between continents, which isn't exactly the most common use-case)?
xethos··on Tim Cook Sold Out Steve Jobs (2025)
Most tech companies didn't end up in a public relations fight with the FBI to defend the rights of a domestic terrorist.

To do so was the right thing, as it meant standing up for everyone; giving up on the rights of the unpopular means in the end, none of us have that protection. It's a hell of a stance for a public company to take though, and a time Apple can say they were on the right side of history. Will anyone say the same about Cook being so subservient this time?

xethos··on FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels
Outside America, profit does not push every other motivation to the bottom of the pool to drown

Though for the more terminally American founders here: reception filling in intake forms and charging one-time admission and diagnostic fees for new patients may have better margin than doctors charging billable hours

xethos··on hdiutil is deprecated in macOS 27 Golden Gate
Yes, you've made the right call trusting Apple with this, the company with famously-good backwards-compatibility and long-lived support for third-party software /s
xethos··on Bluesky's active user base is shrinking as its focus expands beyond the app
I'd expect it to be cross-pollination from Instagram being tied to Threads
xethos··on US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects
The courts, eventually-probably. What this does to the business environment and future endeavours regarding clean energy, however, is an exercise left to the reader
xethos··on I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux
In this context? Being able to put your foot down and say fuck Google, I will no longer put up with the anti-user direction of their platform, and switch to something outside the duopoly
xethos··on Thanks FedEx, This Is Why We Keep Getting Phished (2024)
This actually depends on who has better SEO. Some scam numbers place higher than the help pages for actual businesses. Receiving physical bills and calling the number on the back of your credit or debit card are good suggestions.

Or, as another poster suggested, competent governments and corporations will use their actual domain name for official communication.

xethos··on Thanks FedEx, This Is Why We Keep Getting Phished (2024)
I agree, but I'd also challenge you to find a cellphone that a normal person carries that doesn't just concatonate multiple messages and turn them into MMS. My Pinephone and Librem 5 did that, but that reinforces my point: this is not something a normal person will see
xethos··on The AI Demand Bubble
> API has absolutely no switching costs.

Were that true, many embedded maps would have switched to OSM instead of Google Maps after Google massively increased costs. Adding your business to OSM is free, and API costs would fall pretty dramatically

xethos··on A big win for Android interoperability
Minor note, you forgot battery life. Pinging your location every other minute for traffic and crowd denisty for Google Maps, even using AGPS, isn't cheap.

When you find battery life randomly tanks for a few days, despite not changing anything in your life, it's always Google Play Services that end up being the culprit

xethos··on BMW Spider-Man in-car advertising
The phone app misses lots of data the car can collent and send. When, how frequently, and how long turn indicators are used. How aggressively the throttle and brake are applied, how frequently pre-tensioners and other safety features activate, how closely the radar or lidar-equipped cruise control sees you following others, and I'm sure lots I haven't thought of
xethos··on Anti-fraud tools can't keep pace with robocall scammers
But then you're right back where you started: When you need a clean number for a hospital or similarly important service to call (Wife's work, daycare, school office), it goes to the distrusted, silent-by-default line, or, just as bad, it doesn't ring the clean, only-whitelsisted-numbers-ring line
xethos··on Anti-fraud tools can't keep pace with robocall scammers
> My only solution that I could think of is to have a dedicated phone line just for friends/family/work, and a second line for banking/shopping/utilities/everything else.

This fails the moment one of your "clean line" contacts downloads a sketchy app that sells all their contacts, and sells an updated list as your appear in their recent calls list - meaning it's not a one-time thing, it's for a few weeks after every time you call them.

xethos··on Document-borne AI worms can self-propagate through Copilot for Word
I think the most surprising thing about this is trusting Google.
xethos··on Corporate America Has Suddenly Decided to Stop Blowing Money on AI
> security and legal restrictions

The security of American hedgemony, and legal restrictions that are due to laws enacted by the American government

You're using different words to describe the same thing, but trying to imply America's reasons are moral

xethos··on Android may soon restrict on-device ADB
In 2008 Sergey Brin and Larry Page saw the limo waiting, and instead chose to rollerblade to the Android unveiling. Sergey Brin, during the presentation, threw his G1 in the air to show off how his homemade application leveraged the accelerometer to see how high he'd thrown it

That use-case was never designed for when the sensor was added, and is every bit as hacky and fun as adding call recording with a loopbakc address

And that's the first problem: Android is no longer fun, and it's no longer for trying this hilariously stupid hacky method of doing what we, the users, want.

The second problem is an attitude of "Google's dialer has it built-in, why would one want a third-party dialer instead of Google's?"

Because we fucking can - or could, at least. The OS was designed to be as modular as possible, to the point where, while iOS still can't change their launcher, Android has had that option since day one. Setting aside Google casting themselves as the (not so) benevolent dictator of "Just use our apps exclusively. Life will be easier that way", closing off the modularity is antithecal to the Android experience that so many geeks fell in love with, and arguably made the platform what it is

xethos··on Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models
Sounds like you're unironically describing a Tangara [0]. They most certainly hit their goal, though I can't verify if they get restocked or how often.

Mine's lasted, and it works pretty well, though the touchwheel isn't quite on-par with an iPod. I like the modern connector and openness (both hardware and software) though

[0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/cool-tech-zone/tangara

xethos··on LG to ban residential proxies from smart TV apps
I mostly agree, but it's the lack of enforcement that's the Get out of Jail Free card, not the T&C
xethos··on Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM
> the right to own firearms is very explicitly stated in our constitution

The right to bear arms does not necessarily mean firearms. Arms doesn't necessarily even have to include firearms, and America is already pretty damn strict about certain armaments, such as sub-machine guns.

Americans are allowed to have certain firearms, sometimes, in some places. I'm not sure how one squares that with the blanket statement from the American constitution that Americans have the right to bear arms, unless it's simply an impossibly poorly-informed citizenry

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