feedz – Page 24 – The Death of the Mind

Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – The internet’s original sin

Oct 222023

My final Medium column.

Just as important as what a regulation says is who it applies to.
Take financial regulation. A great idea! American could use some. But — as the cryptocurrency world forcibly reminded us — it’s not always easy to figure out when someone is doing something “financial.”
So let’s come up with a test. Here’s one: “If a transaction involves a million dollars or more, financial regulations apply to it.” Not every million-dollar transaction is “financial” but there are few enough of these that filing the “worth a million bucks, but not financial” paperwork for them won’t be a huge deal. Besides, anyone moving a million dollars around can afford professional help in navigating the paperwork.
But…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/

2023-10-22 Comments Off

Biometric Update – Advocates say people think of biometric identification all wrong

Oct 202023

A digital rights organization says the popular view of biometric identification and surveillance is backward and the result is the commodification of people for government control and business profit. Access Now, which is particularly focused on the impact of AI on economically disadvantaged communities, has published a report with what it sees as unnecessary risks of biometrics-based tools. Instead of viewing the tools as mere collection systems, executives with Access Now see algorithms as programmed categorizers. They impose a desired order on what is by definition a spectrum of qualities, behaviors, reactions and identities. Biometric systems “are used to create baselines of what constitute ‘normal’ behaviors and bodies,’ ” according to the report. This “further…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202310/advocates-say-people-think-of-biometric-identification-all-wrong

2023-10-20 Comments Off

The Register – San Francisco mayor suggests police drones and CCTV can cure city’s crime woes

Oct 192023

Suggests bodycam footage should replace paperwork for simple arrests

San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, has proposed drone surveillance and cameras on public buildings to curb the city’s crime problems.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/10/19/san_francisco_police_drones/

2023-10-19 Comments Off

Ars Technica – What would signal life on another planet?

Oct 142023

Enlarge / Surveying the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system, such as those in the TRAPPIST-1 system (artist’s concept of four of the system’s seven planets shown), could turn up interesting molecules that might indicate life. But ruling out false positives will be a challenge. (credit: ADAPTED FROM NASA / JPL-CALTECH / R. HURT, T. PYLE (IPAC))
In June, astronomers reported a disappointing discovery: The James Webb Space Telescope failed to find a thick atmosphere around the rocky planet TRAPPIST-1 C, an exoplanet in one of the most tantalizing planetary systems in the search for alien life.
The finding follows similar news regarding neighboring planet TRAPPIST-1 B, another planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system….

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1975686

2023-10-14 Comments Off

Techdirt. – DHS Releases Previously-Withheld Report Detailing Agencies’ Abuse Of Location Data Purchased From Data Brokers

Oct 132023

This report [PDF], obtained by the newly-formed 404 Media, contains a lot of what we know, some of what we don’t know, and confirms a lot of suspicions.
The reliance on data brokers for cell location data very likely predates the Supreme Court’s 2018 Carpenter decision. But it’s safe to assume this market really took off following that decision. Prior to that, law enforcement needed, at best, a subpoena, to obtain a wealth of historical cell location data.
That decision erected some privacy protections for cell site location info. But the finding was limited to large quantities of historical data. And it had nothing to say at all about obtaining this information from third-parties-once-removed: i.e., data brokers collecting…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/12/dhs-releases-previously-withheld-report-detailing-agencies-abuse-of-location-data-purchased-from-data-brokers/

2023-10-13 Comments Off

Biometric Update – New York and Ohio introduce legislation requiring online age assurance

Oct 132023

New York Attorney General Letitia James, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, and Assemblymember Nily Rozic announced two new bills aimed at protecting minors online. The New York Child Data Protection Act will prohibit all online sites from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18 for advertising unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the website. For minors under 13, this informed consent must come from a parent. How to determine the age of the person interacting with the website or platform is not specified, however. Options include collecting personal information for age verification, or performing age estimation based…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202310/new-york-and-ohio-introduce-legislation-requiring-online-age-assurance

2023-10-13 Comments Off

The Onion – Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Last Words To Condemn Hamas

Oct 132023

GAZA CITY, GAZA—The complicity of each and every Palestinian in the violent actions of their militant ruling authority was reportedly on full display Friday morning when dying Gazans received justified criticism for not using their last words to condemn Hamas. For example, instead of issuing a full-throated…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/dying-gazans-criticized-for-not-using-last-words-to-con-1850925657

2023-10-13 Comments Off

TorrentFreak – Pirate Sites Exploit ‘Interplanetary File System’ Gateways, Publishers Warn

Oct 132023

The InterPlanetary File System, more broadly known as IPFS, has been around for the past eight years.
While the name may sound otherworldly to the public at large, the peer-to-peer file storage network has a growing user base among the tech-savvy.
In short, IPFS is a decentralized network where users make files available to each other. The system makes websites censorship resistant and not vulnerable to regular hosting outages.
These advantages allow archivists, content creators, researchers, and many others to reliably distribute large volumes of data over the Internet. These same features also appeal to pirate sites, and several have actively started to embrace the technology to bypass censors.
Publishers Share IPFS Concerns
This week, IPFS was repeatedly mentioned by…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-sites-exploit-interplanetary-file-system-gateways-publishers-warn-231013/

2023-10-13 Comments Off

The Register – Mars helicopter to try for new speed record on Thursday

Oct 122023

57 flights past expected lifetime and still improving

NASA has scheduled the 62nd flight of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and given it the job of achieving a new speed record for rotorcraft on Mars.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/10/12/mars_helicopter_speed_record_attempt/

2023-10-12 Comments Off

Planet PostgreSQL – Hans-Juergen Schoenig: pg_stat_io and PostgreSQL 16 performance

Oct 052023

Learn about pg_stat_io‘s debugging power: PostgreSQL 16 blesses users around the world with many features which ensure an even better user experience. One of those features is a system view called pg_stat_io. It offers deep insights into the I/O behavior of your PostgreSQL database server. From PostgreSQL 16 onward, it will make it far easier to debug and assess performance-related problems.
So, let us waste no time and dive into this wonderful feature.
pg_stat_io: Debugging I/O in PostgreSQL
The following listing shows us what the pg_stat_io view looks like:

blog=# \d pg_stat_io View “pg_catalog.pg_stat_io” Column | Type | Collation | Nullable | Default —————-+————————–+———–+———-+——— backend_type | text | | | object | text | | | context | text…

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

2023-10-05 Comments Off

INDY Week – Durham Residents Prepare for “Stop Cop City” Weekend of Action

Oct 042023

It’s a cloudy Wednesday evening in Durham and around three dozen activists, community organizers, and concerned citizens are packed into a meeting room of the Main Library. A dry erase board is covered with assorted community announcements (National Lawyers Guild week of action, a labor protest in Charlotte, free markets in Durham and Carrboro). All eyes are on a screen’s black background and white capital letters, which reads “Block Cop City: November Weekend of Action”. Cop City refers to the years-long struggle in Atlanta over the planned construction of a $95 million police training facility on 85 acres of forest in the southeastern part of the city. The City of Atlanta first approved plans for the facility…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-residents-prepare-for-stop-cop-city-weekend-of-action/

2023-10-04 Comments Off

The Register – Amazon had secret algorithm to hike prices, claims FTC

Oct 042023

Project Nessie named in the antitrust suit, alleging Bezos’s bunch pulled in an extra billion-plus

A redacted portion of the US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon last week has come to light, and with it more details of a secret pricing algorithm known as “Project Nessie” – which the FTC argued has “no valid and cognizable justification” other than an attempt to stifle competition. …

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/10/04/amazon_project_nessie_algorithm/

2023-10-04 Comments Off

Dissident Voice – Anti-War Activists Arrested at Sit-In for Peace inside Sen. Bernie Sanders Office

Oct 042023

Washington, D.C. – A group of 50 activists and Vermont constituents staged a sit-in inside Senator Bernie Sanders’ office on Wednesday, demanding the senator to call for peace and diplomacy in Ukraine instead of more weapons and war. The sit-in resulted in the arrest of 11 activists, including an 89-year-old CODEPINK peace activist.
The group was joined by Green Party Presidential Candidate Dr. Cornel West in the Senate lobby for a prayer vigil before the sit-in. The prayer vigil and sit-in were part of a week of action that included an antiwar rally on Tuesday night featuring Dr. West, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary; Claudia de la Cruz, Co-Executive Director of The People’s Forum; Lee Camp, American comedian,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/10/anti-war-activists-arrested-at-sit-in-for-peace-inside-sen-bernie-sanders-office/

2023-10-04 Comments Off

Techdirt. – ShotSpotter Looking To Compound Bad Cop Tech Ideas By Acquiring Predictive Policing Software Company

Oct 032023

ShotSpotter has long presented itself as a reliable detector of gunshots. Mileage, however, has varied. Law enforcement customers that have gotten disgruntled with this limited service have pointed out — en route to terminated contracts — that (a) detected gunshots are not always gunshots, (b) detected gunshots are rarely useful intel, and (c) detecting gunshots rarely results in less gun-related crime.
The law enforcement agencies that still buy into ShotSpotter like it for other reasons. They like the fact that minimally-trained “analysts” will alter reports to provide cops with post facto justification for their actions. They like the “reasonable suspicion” ShotSpotter’s shot detection supposedly provides — justification for stopping and searching anyone in the area of a…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/02/shotspotter-looking-to-compound-bad-cop-tech-ideas-by-acquiring-predictive-policing-software-company/

2023-10-03 Comments Off

Motherboard – People Experience ‘New Dimensions of Reality’ When Dying, Groundbreaking Study Reports

Sep 292023

Scientists have witnessed brain patterns in dying patients that may correlate to commonly reported “near-death” experiences (NDEs) such as lucid visions, out-of-body sensations, a review of one’s own life, and other “dimensions of reality,” reports a new study. The results offer the first comprehensive evidence that patient recollections and brain waves point to universal elements of NDEs. During an expansive multi-year study led by Sam Parnia, an intensive care doctor and an associate professor in the department of medicine at NYU Langone Health, researchers observed 567 patients in 25 hospitals around the world as they underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after suffering heart attacks, most of which were fatal. Electroencephalogram (EEG) brain signals captured from dozens of…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkamgm/people-experience-new-dimensions-of-reality-when-dying-groundbreaking-study-reports

2023-09-29 Comments Off

Ars Technica – A new Chrome 0-day is sending the Internet into a new chapter of Groundhog Day

Sep 282023

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
A critical zero-day vulnerability Google reported on Wednesday in its Chrome browser is opening the Internet to a new chapter of Groundhog Day.
Like a critical zero-day Google disclosed on September 11, the new exploited vulnerability doesn’t affect just Chrome. Already, Mozilla has said that its Firefox browser is vulnerable to the same bug, which is tracked as CVE-2023-5217. And just like CVE-2023-4863 from 17 days ago, the new one resides in a widely used code library for processing media files, specifically those in the VP8 format.
Pages here and here list hundreds of packages for Ubuntu and Debian alone that rely on the library known as libvpx. Most browsers use…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1972043

2023-09-28 Comments Off

Biometric Update – The multi-national push to ban facial recognition in public spaces

Sep 282023

As businesses and governments in the U.S. and across the globe implement facial recognition surveillance in public spaces, privacy advocates are pushing back.
32 civil rights groups call on New York City Council to ban public FRT
Thirty-two civil rights groups, led by the New York City-based privacy and civil rights group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) submitted a memo of support to city council members advocating to pass two pending bills banning the use of biometric surveillance in residential buildings and public spaces like stores and arenas. While the memo, which references 2019 NIST FRVT results, claims that facial recognition discriminates against Black, Latinx, and non-binary or transgender New Yorkers, more current assessments by NIST show…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202309/the-multi-national-push-to-ban-facial-recognition-in-public-spaces

2023-09-28 Comments Off

The Onion – Standing Ovation For Nazi Veteran Sparks Anger In Canada

Sep 272023

Canadian officials are apologizing to Jewish communities after honoring a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran who belonged to a Nazi division in WWII with a standing ovation during Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit. What do you think?

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/standing-ovation-for-nazi-veteran-sparks-anger-in-canad-1850879833

2023-09-27 Comments Off

What’s New at GNU – FSF celebrates forty years of GNU with a hackday for families, hackers, and hackers-to-be

Sep 272023

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Wednesday, September 27, 2023 —
Today, the GNU Project turned forty years old. To celebrate this,
the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is hosting a hack day for
families, students, and anyone interested in hacking.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-celebrates-forty-years-of-gnu-with-a-hackday-for-families-hackers-and-hackers-to-be

2023-09-27 Comments Off

What’s New at GNU – FSF News: FSF celebrates forty years of GNU with a hackday for families, hackers, and hackers-to-be

Sep 272023

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Wednesday, September 27, 2023 —
Today, the GNU Project turned forty years old. To celebrate this,
the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is hosting a hack day for
families, students, and anyone interested in hacking.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-celebrates-forty-years-of-gnu-with-a-hackday-for-families-hackers-and-hackers-to-be

2023-09-27 Comments Off

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