by removing access to digital content and discontinuing software support.

I really hope this gets somewhere, because then it sets the precedent to slow down the shitty cycle of modern connected technology. Sue phone manufacturers for dropping support after X years. Sue Google and Apple for relentlessly upping their OS version, dropping old API support, restricting old apps and making independent installs difficult. Sue ISPs for shutting down 2G, 3G, (and now 4G?) and making a pile of e-waste in an instant.

With how much effort is being put into phishing awareness and training, some people/companies still put zero effort into their communication.

Duting a lengthy process that involved an attorney, I got an email from a firstnamelastname(at)yahoo(dot)com, with no introduction, no mention of my name, a misspelled address, telling me about an appointment at another address that was… screenshotted from a website and pasted as image. Looks sketchy AF by any measure. Nope, that was a real email from a paralegal.

Filed a helpdesk ticket at work. Get a Teams message from “<FirstName> <LastName> (external)”, asking me my company machine ID in bad English. Responded with “you are helpdesk, do you not know this?”. After a few repeated requests for the ID and not answering any of my questions, I just stopped responding.

As someone said a long time ago (way before the LLM craze) “bad developers love new projects, they can write terrible code, take praise and zero responsibility, then toss it to the maintenance (actual) team who has to deal with it”.

(Context: in at least 2 companies I worked at, it was a common practice to have a “development team”, usually with knowledge of latest tools and frameworks, but very little knowledge of processes or industry, and an “application team” that maintains the software long-term, and deals with the processes and users directly)

Because it’s an obscure / niche / loophole way. Not sure if it works on later Android, for example. Or in all regions.

You can have a Google account without 2FA, but you need to create it using a factory-reset old Android phone (Android 8 or so).

The parsed and properly displayed reactions are a QUIK feature, but it does not mean RCS is being used. You can try to install e.g. Fossify Messages and you will see the “A reacted to B” messages again.

Also, this reaction parsing does not work for all languages.

Also it doesn’t help that, for example, at U-Haul, employees just use their personal phone to scan a QR code and take pictures of your ID.

“AI” is a pretty bad blanket term. BirdNet / Merlin is a model trained specifically on bird calls (and some noises) built to recognize bird calls. App and logo use huge general-purpose models to create content of questionable quality.

And yes, a decent birder should never trust just Merlin ID.

Someone I know got screwed over when 3G shut down. Their business used an alarm system with a 3G modem (using a cheap data-only SIM card).

The “updated” version requires subscriptions, an app, and goes through manufacturer’s servers, so more expensive, and several more points of failure.

People already have been brainwashed on “how many years of security updates does this smartphone model have?”, and being paranoid about older-than-a-few-years devices, so you’re not far off.

(Not trying to diminish the necessity of software security updates, but at the same time I could not find any Android exploits that do not involve users installing malicious apps, supply chain attacks, or state actors)

If those “improperly adjusted” or pointing forward headlights weren’t the same height as my eyes, they would not be a problem. Which is my exact point.

A thought occured to me the other day: there is absolutely no reason that headlights have to be on the upper part of the front grille. Mount them as close to the ground as possible. (Like busses and some cargo trucks) At least it will address a situation where pickup truck / SUV headlights are at eye level for drivers of anything smaller.

First we had Merlin Appholes who would submit misidentified and similar sounds as “sightings”, but Cornell tightened the tolerances on the recognition model.

Now this. But to be fair, even before AI there was a subset of “birders” who loved to exagerrate via ignorance. Cardinal = scarlet tanager (it’s red), american robin = baltimore oriole (duh, orange), red-winged blackbird = Bobolink (it says this meadow has Bobolinks, therefore, any large bird on grass = bobolink), and so on.

Just a fair warning: Element (Matrix client) also had issues with notifications not appearing in time, or attachments/images not loading. (This is on a self-hosted Synapse with a handful of people and 1 bridge).

I haven’t kept up much with new developments, but last I remember, hosting the official Element Server Suite Community requires Kubernetes. Third-party servers or some install scripts are an option though.

Good for accessibility, but this does not belong in a main/default keyboard app IMO. Maybe an extension or an another app. Keyboard with access to camera and image recognition? Malicious vibes aside, that is huge feature creep.

I used porkbun, and never had to upload an ID (but I am in USA). IIRC still need to provide an address, but they mask WHOIS.

Article uses the “akshually humans are just complex learning machines” pro-AI argument:

The competence a human needs to oversee an AI system is not a fixed asset. It is built and kept alive through practice – the same practice the AI system is now doing instead of the human.

Keep scrolling.

HERE WeGo (aka HERE Maps) is not FOSS, but has traffic, satellite view, offline mode, etc. Some POI might be outdated (due to it being not Google)

Good engineers will produce more good code, because they ask the right questions, know what good looks like and check the output.

Best code is the code that is never written in the first place. But that concept is difficult to explain and measure for management purposes. Just because “AI” can automate well-structured, tested boilerplate for “good” developers does not mean all that boilerplate should be there.

Instead of headlights 2 feet off the ground, now we have overpowered searchlights (brighter = safer, amirite?) mounted 4 feet high, guaranteed to blind pedestrians and any shorter vehicle’s driver.