Deeplinks – First US Appellate Court to Decide Finds Geofence Warrant Unconstitutional

Apr 242023
 

The California Court of Appeal has held that a geofence warrant seeking information on all devices located within several densely-populated areas in Los Angeles violated the Fourth Amendment. This is the first time an appellate court in the United States has reviewed a geofence warrant. The case is People v. Meza, and EFF filed an amicus brief and jointly argued the case before the court.
Geofence warrants, which we have written about extensively before, are unlike typical warrants for electronic information because they don’t name a suspect and are not even targeted to specific individuals or accounts. Instead, they require a provider—almost always Google—to search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all users or…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/first-us-appellate-court-decide-finds-geofence-warrant-unconstitutional

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Deeplinks – The STOP CSAM Act Would Put Security and Free Speech at Risk

Apr 212023
 

A new U.S. Senate bill introduced this week threatens security and free speech on the internet. EFF urges Congress to reject the STOP CSAM Act of 2023, which would undermine the viability of services offering end-to-end encryption, and force internet companies to take down lawful user content.   
The bill is aimed at removing from the internet child sexual abuse material (CSAM), also known as child pornography. Existing law already requires online service providers who have actual knowledge of “apparent” CSAM on their platforms to report that content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which is essentially a government entity.  NCMEC then forwards actionable reports to law enforcement agencies for investigation.  
The STOP…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/stop-csam-act-would-put-security-and-free-speech-risk

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Boing Boing – Lost Simpsons’ joke recovered by pro editor

Apr 202023
 

Video editor Ewzzy Rayburn discovered the concealed gag in the 1992 Simpsons episode “The Otto Show.” In this episode, Homer’s tinnitus drowns out Marge’s words, leaving viewers uncertain about her dialogue. Rayburn carefully examined the audio and managed to isolate Marge’s line. — Read the rest

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Planet Debian – Ian Jackson: The Rust Foundation’s bad draft trademark policy

Apr 202023
 

tl;dr
The Rust Foundation’s proposed new trademark policy is far too restrictive, and will cause (more) drama unless it is substantially revised.

Process
Substance
Values
Next steps
Echoes of a dispute from 2006

Process
“Rust” is a trademark owned by the Foundation.
The Rust Foundation still seems to be finding its feet. Evidently, one of the items on its backlog was to update the trademark policy. Apparently they have been working on this for some time, in an informal working group.
In August, there was a survey. (I saw it in This Week In Rust, the community-curated newsletter where most important stuff appears, and responded.) I don’t think the results of this survey have been published anywhere.
Last week (12th April) the Foundation published an official Inside…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://diziet.dreamwidth.org/14929.html

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Techdirt. – ShotSpotter Attempts To Memory Hole Itself, Rebrands As ‘SoundThinking’

Apr 202023
 

You know you’re fucked when the only way out of your current SEO/PR nightmare is to distance yourself… well, from yourself. Some of this predates Google’s search engine stranglehold. But altering public perception sometimes means hoping someone will look at your shiny new logo, rather than your disturbing past.
After killing innocent people while providing security to government forces in Iraq in 2007, Blackwater rebranded several times, hoping to keep one step ahead of negative news cycles. It became Xe Services in 2009, Academi in 2011, and — after a merger with Triple Canopy (another private security firm) — Constellis.
The same thing happened with Taser. Taser — named after its foremost product (itself a loose acronym for…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/19/shotspotter-attempts-to-memory-hole-itself-rebrands-as-soundthinking/

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Planet Debian – PSA: upgrade your LUKS key derivation function

Apr 182023
 

Here’s an article from a French anarchist describing how his (encrypted) laptop was seized after he was arrested, and material from the encrypted partition has since been entered as evidence against him. His encryption password was supposedly greater than 20 characters and included a mixture of cases, numbers, and punctuation, so in the absence of any sort of opsec failures this implies that even relatively complex passwords can now be brute forced, and we should be transitioning to even more secure passphrases.Or does it? Let’s go into what LUKS is doing in the first place. The actual data is typically encrypted with AES, an extremely popular and well-tested encryption algorithm. AES has no known major weaknesses…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/66429.html

 2023-04-18  Comments Off on Planet Debian – PSA: upgrade your LUKS key derivation function

Planet Debian – Matthew Garrett: PSA: upgrade your LUKS key derivation function

Apr 182023
 

Here’s an article from a French anarchist describing how his (encrypted) laptop was seized after he was arrested, and material from the encrypted partition has since been entered as evidence against him. His encryption password was supposedly greater than 20 characters and included a mixture of cases, numbers, and punctuation, so in the absence of any sort of opsec failures this implies that even relatively complex passwords can now be brute forced, and we should be transitioning to even more secure passphrases.Or does it? Let’s go into what LUKS is doing in the first place. The actual data is typically encrypted with AES, an extremely popular and well-tested encryption algorithm. AES has no known major weaknesses…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/66429.html

 2023-04-18  Comments Off on Planet Debian – Matthew Garrett: PSA: upgrade your LUKS key derivation function

Ballot Access News – Request to Commenters

Apr 172023
 

It will make me very happy if future comments are confined to the subject of the blog post, or at least to the general topic of ballot access. In particular, comments about other commenters are not welcome and degrade the site. Thank you very much. There is a lot of drama this year in the struggle for fair ballot access laws. The year 2023 is a very bad year for ballot access, with truly repressive bills in danger of passing in Montana, Texas, and Minnesota. There is plenty to comment on that is relevant to the purpose of this website.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2023/04/16/request-to-commenters/

 2023-04-17  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – Request to Commenters

TorrentFreak – DMCA Robocops Give 20 Seconds to Comply, But Can’t Muster a Reply

Apr 152023
 

Faced with millions of instances of copyright infringement every day, many rightsholders use anti-piracy companies to help stem the tide.
More often than not, that involves sending DMCA takedown notices on an industrial scale, in the hope that Google and Bing delist infringing URLs from search results before the cycle begins again.
Huge volumes of DMCA notices and similar requests are handled directly by companies including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And that’s just a part of a very large iceberg, much of it completely and permanently hidden, and almost all of it automated.
Trust the Machines
For years TorrentFreak has documented the most newsworthy takedown demands from the billions of notices sent to Google and other platforms with…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/dmca-robocops-give-20-seconds-to-comply-but-cant-muster-a-reply-230415/

 2023-04-15  Comments Off on TorrentFreak – DMCA Robocops Give 20 Seconds to Comply, But Can’t Muster a Reply

The Register – The return of the classic Flying Toasters screensaver

Apr 152023
 

OK, here’s my question: Would you like to have it on x86 Linux?

Friday FOSS Fest  If you’re old enough to remember After Dark, you might appreciate this: a new screensaver. Yes, in 2023. It was never really about saving screens.…

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Planet PostgreSQL – Laurenz Albe: EXPLAIN (GENERIC_PLAN): New in PostgreSQL 16

Apr 152023
 

© Laurenz Albe 2023
A while ago, I wrote about how difficult it is to get an execution plan for a parameterized query. The method suggested in that article works, but is still somewhat complicated. So I wrote a patch to support an EXPLAIN option GENERIC_PLAN, which provides native support for that. My patch got committed by Tom Lane in 3c05284d83, which means the new option will be available from v16 on. This article describes how the new feature works and how it can be useful.
The syntax of EXPLAIN (GENERIC_PLAN)
You can only use the new option in a parenthesized options list, like this:

EXPLAIN (GENERIC_PLAN) SELECT …;

Many people are still used to the old, simple way of writing…

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 2023-04-15  Comments Off on Planet PostgreSQL – Laurenz Albe: EXPLAIN (GENERIC_PLAN): New in PostgreSQL 16

World Socialist Web Site (en) – New York Times helps arrest source of documents showing US lies

Apr 142023
 

On Thursday, the New York Times publicly exposed the identity of the individual who allegedly shared classified documents that exposed lies by the Biden administration and media about US involvement in Ukraine.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/14/xfxa-a14.html

 2023-04-14  Comments Off on World Socialist Web Site (en) – New York Times helps arrest source of documents showing US lies

Ballot Access News – Montana Newspaper Story on Attempts to Remove the Libertarian Party from the Ballot

Apr 142023
 

The Flathead Beacon, in Kalispell, Montana, has this lengthy story about attempts by some Montana legislators to remove the Libertarian Party from the ballot. One bill removes the party totally; another party effectively removes it only from the 2024 U.S. Senate race. The story partly consists of an interview with Sid Daoud, state chair of the Montana Libertarian Party and a city council member in Kalispell.

The House hearing on the two bills is Friday, April 14. Both bills have already passed the State Senate.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2023/04/13/montana-newspaper-story-on-attempts-to-remove-the-libertarian-party-from-the-ballot/

 2023-04-14  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – Montana Newspaper Story on Attempts to Remove the Libertarian Party from the Ballot

INDY Week – Records Reveal Durham Builder Used Habitat For Humanity as a Trojan Horse in SCAD Proposal 

Apr 142023
 

Last week, confusion erupted in response to the INDY’s publication of an April 3 letter, sent from Habitat for Humanity of Durham to members of Durham’s city council and board of county commissioners, in which a spokesperson for Durham Habitat stated that the organization did not authorize its co-sponsorship of the proposed “SCAD” text amendment to Durham’s zoning ordinance. The letter—which also stated that Durham Habitat’s involvement in the proposal “was enacted through an unauthorized third party” and noted that “the same third party has been speaking and negotiating on the behalf of Habitat for Humanity of Durham with members of City Council and others”—seemed, to many observers, inaccurate and easily refutable. While Durham Habitat had…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-builder-scad-habitat-humanity/

 2023-04-14  Comments Off on INDY Week – Records Reveal Durham Builder Used Habitat For Humanity as a Trojan Horse in SCAD Proposal 

Boing Boing – Indiana jail guards left schizophrenic man naked in cell until he died. It took 20 days.

Apr 142023
 

Joshua McLemore, a man suffering from severe mental illness, was left for 20 days in the Indiana jail cell where he died of malnutrition. When they took him in, during a psychotic episode, they skipped the booking process and conducted no medical evaluation. — Read the rest

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2023/04/13/indiana-jail-guards-left-schizophrenic-man-naked-in-cell-until-he-died-it-took-20-days.html

 2023-04-14  Comments Off on Boing Boing – Indiana jail guards left schizophrenic man naked in cell until he died. It took 20 days.

TorrentFreak – ACE Wants Cloudflare to ‘Expose’ The Pirate Bay’s Operators

Apr 142023
 

The Pirate Bay has been around for nearly two decades, which is quite an achievement considering the immense legal pressure it has faced over the years.
Swedish police tried to shut the site down, twice, raiding dozens of servers. This ultimate goal failed but local authorities did prosecute the site’s three co-founders, who all served time in prison for their involvement.
The notorious torrent site stood tall in the midst of this turmoil and continues to operate from thepiratebay.org until this day. While it is no longer the largest piracy site online, anti-piracy forces haven’t forgotten about it.
Pirate Bay Targeted in New Subpoena Wave
This week, we spotted yet another attempt to uncover the current operators. Through the Motion…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/ace-wants-cloudflare-to-expose-the-pirate-bays-operators-230412/

 2023-04-14  Comments Off on TorrentFreak – ACE Wants Cloudflare to ‘Expose’ The Pirate Bay’s Operators

Hackaday – IBM Selectric Typewriters Finally Get DIY Typeballs

Apr 142023
 

IBM’s Selectric line of typewriters were quite popular in the 1960s, thanks in part to an innovation called the typeball which allowed for easy font changes on a single machine. Unfortunately, as if often the case when specialized components are involved, it’s an idea that hasn’t aged particularly well. The Selectric typewriters are now around 60 years old and since IBM isn’t making replacement parts, those restoring these machines have had to get somewhat creative like using a 3D printer to build new typeballs.
It sounds like it would be a simple, but much like the frustration caused with modern printers, interfacing automated computer systems with real-world objects like paper and ink is not often as straightforward…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2023/04/11/ibm-selectric-typewriters-finally-get-diy-typeballs/

 2023-04-14  Comments Off on Hackaday – IBM Selectric Typewriters Finally Get DIY Typeballs

Motherboard – Arkansas Makes It Illegal For Minors to Be on Social Media Without Parental Consent

Apr 142023
 

It is now illegal for anyone in Arkansas under 18 to be on social media without asking their parents, according to a new bill signed by the state’s governor on Wednesday. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders enacted the Social Media Safety Act, also known as SB396, in the latest legislative push to restrict children and teens from using social media. “A social media company shall not permit an Arkansas user who is a minor to be an account holder on the social media company’s social media platform unless the minor has the express consent of a parent or legal guardian,” the bill states. “A social media company shall verify the age of an account holder. If an…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3wdpv/arkansas-makes-it-illegal-for-minors-to-be-on-social-media-without-parental-consent

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The Onion – Sen. Feinstein Faces Increased Pressure From Hallucination Of JFK Yelling At Her To Step Down

Apr 142023
 

SAN FRANCISCO—With the powerful Democrat making frequent appearances before her and urging her to resign her seat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly faced increased pressure Friday from a hallucination of the late former President John F. Kennedy yelling at her to step down. “The party, Dianne! Think of the…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/sen-feinstein-faces-increased-pressure-from-hallucinat-1850337992

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