Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – Pluralistic: The specific process by which Google enshittified its search (24 Apr 2024)

Apr 242024
 

Today’s links

The specific process by which Google enshittified its search: Ed Zitron has Prabhakar Raghavan bang to rights.

Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2024

Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.

Recent appearances: Where I’ve been.

Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em.

Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em.

Colophon: All the rest.

The specific process by which Google enshittified its search (permalink)
All digital businesses have the technical capacity to enshittify: the ability to change the underlying functions of the business from moment to moment and user to user, allowing for the rapid transfer of value between business customers, end users and shareholders:

Twiddler


If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/

 2024-04-24  Comments Off on Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – Pluralistic: The specific process by which Google enshittified its search (24 Apr 2024)

Ars Technica – FTC bans noncompete clauses, declares vast majority unenforceable

Apr 232024
 

Enlarge / Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan talks with guests during an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 03, 2024 (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla )
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that it has issued a final rule banning noncompete clauses. The rule will render the vast majority of current noncompete clauses unenforceable, according to the agency.
“In the final rule, the Commission has determined that it is an unfair method of competition and therefore a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, for employers to enter into noncompetes with workers and to enforce certain noncompetes,” the FTC said.
The US Chamber of Commerce said it will…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=2019469

 2024-04-23  Comments Off on Ars Technica – FTC bans noncompete clauses, declares vast majority unenforceable

World Socialist Web Site (en) – Number of bodies found in Palestinian hospital mass graves rises to 310 as Israel prepares assault on Rafah

Apr 232024
 

The horrific discovery over the past 72 hours provides further evidence of Israel’s imperialist-backed genocide against the Palestinians, which is set to escalate imminently due to the looming assault on the more than 1.5 million Palestinians struggling to survive in Rafah.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/24/cvig-a24.html

 2024-04-23  Comments Off on World Socialist Web Site (en) – Number of bodies found in Palestinian hospital mass graves rises to 310 as Israel prepares assault on Rafah

Deeplinks – U.S. Senate and Biden Administration Shamefully Renew and Expand FISA Section 702, Ushering in a Two Year Expansion of Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance

Apr 232024
 

One week after it was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate has passed what Senator Ron Wyden has called, “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.” President Biden then rushed to sign it into law.  
The perhaps ironically named “Reforming Intelligence and Security America Act (RISAA)” does everything BUT reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). RISAA not only reauthorizes this mass surveillance program, it greatly expands the government’s authority by allowing it to compel a much larger group of people and providers into assisting with this surveillance. The bill’s only significant “compromise” is a limited, two-year extension of this mass surveillance. But…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/us-senate-and-biden-administration-shamefully-renew-and-expand-fisa-section-702-0

 2024-04-23  Comments Off on Deeplinks – U.S. Senate and Biden Administration Shamefully Renew and Expand FISA Section 702, Ushering in a Two Year Expansion of Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance

Ars Technica – After 48 years, Zilog is killing the classic standalone Z80 microprocessor chip

Apr 232024
 

Enlarge / A cropped portion of a ca. 1980 ad for the Microsoft Z80 SoftCard, which allowed Apple II users to run the CP/M operating system. (credit: Microsoft)
Last week, chip manufacturer Zilog announced that after 48 years on the market, its line of standalone DIP (dual inline package) Z80 CPUs is coming to an end, ceasing sales on June 14, 2024. The 8-bit Z80 architecture debuted in 1976 and powered a small-business-PC revolution in conjunction with CP/M, also serving as the heart of the Nintendo Game Boy, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Pac-Man arcade game, and the TI-83 graphing calculator in various forms. In a letter to customers dated…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=2018763

 2024-04-23  Comments Off on Ars Technica – After 48 years, Zilog is killing the classic standalone Z80 microprocessor chip

Planet PostgreSQL – Hubert ‘depesz’ Lubaczewski: Waiting for PostgreSQL 17 – Invent SERIALIZE option for EXPLAIN.

Apr 112024
 

On 3rd of April 2024, Tom Lane committed patch: Invent SERIALIZE option for EXPLAIN.   EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, SERIALIZE) allows collection of statistics about the volume of data emitted by a query, as well as the time taken to convert the data to the on-the-wire format. Previously there was no way to investigate this without actually … Continue reading “Waiting for PostgreSQL 17 – Invent SERIALIZE option for EXPLAIN.”

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/6sY

 2024-04-11  Comments Off on Planet PostgreSQL – Hubert ‘depesz’ Lubaczewski: Waiting for PostgreSQL 17 – Invent SERIALIZE option for EXPLAIN.

jwz – The Turing Police say “X Wins”

Apr 072024
 

I had understood in principle that printf is Turing complete, but I am still aghast at this interactive game of tic-tac-toe implemented with a single printf statement.

Computing the NOT of a single value is also easy: 

printf("%1$255d%1$s%hhn", a, b)

will compute 

*b = (strlen(a)+255)%256 = strlen(a)-1

and again, because strlen(x) is either 1 or 0 we have 

*c = !b

From here we can compute any binary circuit.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/04/the-turing-police-say-x-wins/

 2024-04-07  Comments Off on jwz – The Turing Police say “X Wins”

Ballot Access News – North Carolina Independent Candidate for U.S. House Appears to Qualify; No Independent Had Ever Before Appeared on a Government-Printed Ballot

Apr 072024
 

North Carolina has never had an independent candidate for U.S. House on a government-printed ballot. But in 2024, Shelane Etchison appears to have qualified in the Ninth District. Here is her website. She needed 7,460 valid signatures and the county election boards have verified 7,532.

The Ninth District is in central North Carolina, just west of Raleigh. It has a first-term Republican incumbent, Richard Hudson. He is running for re-election. In 2022 he won the general election in a two-person race with 56.5%.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2024/04/07/north-carolina-independent-candidate-for-u-s-house-appears-to-qualify-no-independent-had-ever-before-appeared-on-a-government-printed-ballot/

 2024-04-07  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – North Carolina Independent Candidate for U.S. House Appears to Qualify; No Independent Had Ever Before Appeared on a Government-Printed Ballot

Techdirt. – California HOAs Are Buying Up Flock License Plate Readers; Giving Cops Open Access To Them

Apr 032024
 

Flock Safety — a relatively recent entrant to the surveillance tech arena — is branching out. It’s courting cops with cheap ALPR cameras, unproven claims about crime reduction, and a little lawbreaking of its own.
But it hasn’t abandoned its roots. It first hit the scene with plate readers it pitched to the Fun Police: homeowners associations and the even deeper pockets overseeing our nation’s many gated communities.
Flock tells HOAs and the heads of carefully curated communities things like “Flock Safety is the only security camera that stops property crime.” It’s a laughable claim. For one, Flock’s cameras are cameras and pretty much any security camera will have some effect on crime. Second, cameras don’t prevent crime….

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/03/california-hoas-are-buying-up-flock-license-plate-readers-giving-cops-open-access-to-them/

 2024-04-03  Comments Off on Techdirt. – California HOAs Are Buying Up Flock License Plate Readers; Giving Cops Open Access To Them

Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – Julian Assange’s political, legal hopes

Apr 022024
 

The US cannot assure Britain that that the First Amendment will apply to Julian Assange outside
the US, because an old Supreme Court decision says it does not. This probably means that
Assange’s last appeal will proceed, and go on for a long time during the US election campaign.

The article contends that Biden’s interest, as well as justice, argues for
dropping the charges
against Assange.

To ask (even rhetorically) whether Assange has been “punished enough” is to normalize
horrible abuse. The conditions that Assange has suffered in Belmarsh prison are too cruel even
for the worst criminals. No one should be
kept alone in a cell
for 23 hours a day.
Giving Assange a plea bargain would be better than trying him as
a spy,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2024-jan-apr.html#2_April_2024_(Julian_Assange’s_political,_legal_hopes)

 2024-04-02  Comments Off on Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – Julian Assange’s political, legal hopes

Techdirt. – Because Facial Recognition Tech Just Isn’t Sketchy Enough, Cops Are Now Running Searches Using AI-Generated Faces

Apr 022024
 

Facial recognition tech is probably improving as time goes on. Given enough providers, controversy, and individuals who definitely want this tech to stop being so terrible at correctly identifying women and minorities, anything is possible.
Rather than wait for the tech to catch up to the promises made by promotional materials, cops are apparently moving ahead with efforts that will cause even more problems for future tech adoption.
We’re already afflicted by at least one tech company that believes it’s perfectly OK to stock its database of billions of photos with any content not locked down on the internet. Beyond that, there’s the problems inherent to the systems themselves, which aggravate biased policing by doing their most…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/01/because-facial-recognition-tech-just-isnt-sketchy-enough-cops-are-now-running-searches-using-ai-generated-faces/

 2024-04-02  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Because Facial Recognition Tech Just Isn’t Sketchy Enough, Cops Are Now Running Searches Using AI-Generated Faces

INDY Week – UPDATED: Raleigh Cops Tell Judge that Allowing the Public to See Footage of a Botched Raid Would be “Dangerous”

Apr 012024
 

Update: On Thursday, Special Superior Court Judge Matthew Houston ruled that there is no “compelling public interest” to release body-camera footage of the botch raid. More below. On Tuesday, the Raleigh Police Department asked a judge to block the release of body-camera footage from the botched raid of Amir and Mirian Ibrahim Abboud’s home in April 2021. On Thursday, the judge obliged. According to court records, an RPD SWAT team “suddenly and without warning, broke and busted open the Abbouds’ front door with a battering ram, pointing their long, AR-styled firearms at Mr. Abboud, Mrs. Abboud, and their 11-month-old son.” Though the search warrant was ultimately based on mistaken identity—State Bureau of Investigation agents confused…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://indyweek.com/news/wake/raleigh-cops-tell-judge-that-allowing-the-public-to-see-footage-of-a-botched-raid-would-be-dangerous/

 2024-04-01  Comments Off on INDY Week – UPDATED: Raleigh Cops Tell Judge that Allowing the Public to See Footage of a Botched Raid Would be “Dangerous”

Hackaday – Playing Chess Against Your Printer, with PostScript

Mar 312024
 

Can you play chess against your printer? The answer will soon be yes, and it’s thanks to [Nicolas Seriot]’s PSChess. It’s a chess engine implemented in PostScript, of all things. It’s entirely working except for one last hurdle, but more on that in a moment.
What’s it like to play PSChess? Currently, one uses a PostScript interpreter (such as GhostScript) to run it, much like one would use the Python interpreter to run Python code. The user inputs moves by typing in commands like d2d4 (representing a piece’s source coordinate and a destination coordinate on the 2D board). Then the program makes a move, and outputs an updated board state to both the console and a PDF…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2024/03/30/playing-chess-against-your-printer-with-postscript/

 2024-03-31  Comments Off on Hackaday – Playing Chess Against Your Printer, with PostScript

INDY Week – Raleigh Cops Tell Judge that Allowing the Public to See Footage of a Botched Raid Would be “Dangerous”

Mar 282024
 

On Tuesday, the Raleigh Police Department asked a judge to block the release of body-camera footage from the botched raid of Amir and Mirian Ibrahim Abboud’s home in April 2021.  According to court records, an RPD SWAT team “suddenly and without warning, broke and busted open the Abbouds’ front door with a battering ram, pointing their long, AR-styled firearms at Mr. Abboud, Mrs. Abboud, and their 11-month-old son.” Though the search warrant was ultimately based on mistaken identity—State Bureau of Investigation agents confused Abboud with a neighbor who is also of Arab descent—the police refused to pay for the damage, court records show.  In February 2023, the Abbouds filed a complaint against the SBI with the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://indyweek.com/news/wake/raleigh-cops-tell-judge-that-allowing-the-public-to-see-footage-of-a-botched-raid-would-be-dangerous/

 2024-03-28  Comments Off on INDY Week – Raleigh Cops Tell Judge that Allowing the Public to See Footage of a Botched Raid Would be “Dangerous”

Techdirt. – ShotSpotter Pitches In To Help Cops Open Fire On A Teen Setting Off Fireworks

Mar 282024
 

Back in 2021, the Chicago Office of the Inspector General released a report on the PD’s ShotSpotter tech. The acoustic detection system was apparently mostly useless, no matter what ShotSpotter may have commented in response.
Residents of Chicago are paying nearly $11 million a year for this system. But it’s obvious they’re not getting much bang for their buck, so to speak. ShotSpotter (which has since rebranded to SoundThinking) claims its detection system is worth every penny blown on it, stating that it is “highly accurate” and “benefits communities battling gun violence.”
Plenty of cities that have spent money on this product say otherwise. So do lawsuit plaintiffs and other victims of civil rights abuses, who…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/27/shotspotter-pitches-in-to-help-cops-open-fire-on-a-teen-setting-off-fireworks/

 2024-03-28  Comments Off on Techdirt. – ShotSpotter Pitches In To Help Cops Open Fire On A Teen Setting Off Fireworks

Shelterforce – Soaring Property Insurance Rates Threaten Affordable Housing Development

Mar 262024
 

Rapidly rising insurance premiums are forcing affordable housing developers to cut back on programming, lay off staff, and even sell. To add insult to injury, some insurers also seem to be adding penalties or withdrawing coverage for housing voucher holders.

The post Soaring Property Insurance Rates Threaten Affordable Housing Development appeared first on Shelterforce.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://shelterforce.org/2024/03/26/soaring-property-insurance-rates-threaten-affordable-housing-development/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=soaring-property-insurance-rates-threaten-affordable-housing-development

 2024-03-26  Comments Off on Shelterforce – Soaring Property Insurance Rates Threaten Affordable Housing Development

Biometric Update – Florida town installs live facial recognition to protect against 3 trespassers

Mar 262024
 

Lakeland, Florida is not known as a particularly violent city. It does not appear on lists of America’s most crime-ridden towns. But it is home to one of the first installations of real-time public facial recognition in the U.S. The first among the cameras have been installed by the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA), according to local NBC affiliate WFLA. The Ledger counts 14 cameras in the project, and says they are running Verkada software. The installation is expected to be complete at the end of April. The cameras cost $115,000. Three individuals, specifically, are concerning enough to be placed on a biometric watchlist so they can be identified in real-time. They have histories of…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202403/florida-town-installs-live-facial-recognition-to-protect-against-3-trespassers

 2024-03-26  Comments Off on Biometric Update – Florida town installs live facial recognition to protect against 3 trespassers

The Register – Vernor Vinge, first author to describe cyberspace and ‘The Singularity,’ dies at 79

Mar 222024
 

CompSci and math professor by trade, he envisaged a galactic Usenet, and was utterly brilliant

Obituary  Science fiction author and academic Vernor Vinge has departed this life, aged 79.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/vernor_vinge_obituary/

 2024-03-22  Comments Off on The Register – Vernor Vinge, first author to describe cyberspace and ‘The Singularity,’ dies at 79
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