Link – Page 31 – The Death of the Mind

LWN.net – [$] Mobian: bringing Debian to mobile devices

Apr 062023

Mobian is a project that aims to bring the Debian distribution to mobile devices such
as smartphones and tablets. By building on the flexibility, stability, and community-driven
development of Debian, Mobian aspires to create a powerful and
user-friendly alternative to existing mobile operating systems. The project
is actively working on reducing the delta between Mobian and Debian, and its
ultimate goal is to be absorbed back into its parent distribution and to
make it easy to run Debian on mobile devices.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://lwn.net/Articles/928211/

2023-04-06 Comments Off

jwz – Clearview AI Scraped 30 Billion Images From Facebook and gave them to cops

Apr 062023

US police have used the database nearly a million times: Clearview took photos without users’ knowledge, its CEO Hoan Ton-That acknowledged in an interview last month. Doing so allowed for the rapid expansion of the company’s massive database, which is marketed on its website to law enforcement. […] Ton-That said “Clearview AI’s database of publicly available images is lawfully collected, just like any other search engine like Google.” Notable privacy advocate Facebook begs to differ: “Clearview AI’s actions invade people’s privacy which is why we banned their founder from our services and sent them a legal demand to stop accessing any data, photos, or videos from our services,” a Meta spokesperson said….

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/04/clearview-ai-scraped-30-billion-images-from-facebook-and-gave-them-to-cops/

2023-04-06 Comments Off

Deeplinks – Enough is Enough. Tell Congress to Ban Federal Use of Face Recognition

Apr 062023

Cities and counties across the country have banned government use of face surveillance technology, and many more are weighing proposals to do so. From Boston to San Francisco, Jackson, Mississippi to Minneapolis, elected officials and activists know that face surveillance gives police the power to track us wherever we go. It also disproportionately impacts people of color, turns us all into perpetual suspects, increases the likelihood of being falsely arrested, and chills people’s willingness to participate in first amendment protected activities. Even Amazon, known for operating one of the largest video surveillance networks in the history of the world, extended its moratorium on selling face recognition to police.
Now, Congress must do its part. We’ve created a…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/enough-enough-tell-congress-ban-federal-use-face-recognition

2023-04-06 Comments Off

The Onion – Tubi CEO Combs Through Goodwill Used DVDs Looking For Movies To Upload

Apr 052023

SAN FRANCISCO—Conducting his monthly sweep for new content, Tubi CEO Farhad Massoudi was reportedly combing through a shelf of used DVDs at Goodwill Thursday looking for movies to upload to the streaming service. “American Hustle, fine, Secondhand Lions, fine, The Passion Of The Christ, fine,” said Massoudi, who…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/tubi-ceo-combs-through-goodwill-used-dvds-looking-for-m-1850262553

2023-04-05 Comments Off

Ballot Access News – Link to Federal Court Order from 2014 That Says States Can’t Kick Parties Off the Ballot Immediately

Apr 052023

This year, legislatures in Montana, Minnesota and Texas are threatening to pass bills making it far more difficult for a ballot-qualified party to remain on the ballot, and making the new requirement go into effect before the 2024 election. This is shocking behavior. It has long been the custom that when a state makes it more difficult for a ballot-qualified party to remain on the ballot, the change does not take effect until after the next election, to give any affected party a chance to try to meet the new requirement.
The Minnesota and Texas bills raise the vote test to 10%, and the Montana bill raises it to 5% of the number of registered voters. The…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2023/04/05/link-to-federal-court-order-from-2014-that-says-states-cant-kick-parties-off-the-ballot-immediately/

2023-04-05 Comments Off

Hackaday – Self-Healing Concrete: What Ancient Roman Concrete Can Teach Us

Apr 042023

Concrete is an incredibly useful and versatile building material on which not only today’s societies, but also the ancient Roman Empire was built. To this day Roman concrete structures can be found in mundane locations such as harbors, but also the Pantheon in Rome, which to this day forms the largest unreinforced concrete dome in existence at 43.3 meters diameter, and is in excellent condition despite being being nearly 1,900 years old.
Even as the Roman Empire fell and receded into what became the Byzantine – also known as the Eastern Roman – Empire and the world around these last remnants of Roman architecture changed and changed again, all of these concrete structures remained despite knowledge of…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2023/04/03/self-healing-concrete-what-ancient-roman-concrete-can-teach-us/

2023-04-04 Comments Off

jwz – BRB, upgrading the webcast

Apr 042023

Previously, previously, previously, previously.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/04/brb-upgrading-the-webcast/

2023-04-04 Comments Off

Techdirt. – The DEA Has Added Apple’s AirTags To Its Surveillance Arsenal

Apr 032023

Apple tried to create something useful and ended up empowering awful people. Meant to help its users keep an eye on things that were important to them, the small tracking devices known as AirTags were soon exploited by stalkers to track and harass their targets, leading to a class action lawsuit against the company by victims of AirTag-enabled stalking.
To decrease the risk of manipulation by malicious people, Apple introduced a few safety features. If the target was an iPhone user, the phone would warn them if an unknown AirTag was active in their immediate vicinity. The AirTags also now emit beeps when separated from the deployer for an extended period of time.
Those features meant to prevent…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/03/the-dea-has-added-apples-airtags-to-its-surveillance-arsenal/

2023-04-03 Comments Off

Techdirt. – John Oliver Pokes Disney With A Big Stick; Starts Using 1928 Mickey Mouse A Year Early

Apr 032023

Look, we all knew that there was going to be a lot of fuss about the upcoming public domaining (finally!) of Mickey Mouse nine months from now on January 1, 2024. I mean, we’ve already been talking about what next year’s public domain game jam is going to look like with Mickey as one of the options.
If you somehow have been living under a rock and never read anything on Techdirt before, let’s get you up to speed. Mickey Mouse debuted as Steamboat Willie in 1928. The character was a blatant animated copy of Steamboat Bill, a Buster Keaton silent film that came out… the same year. Disney, of course, also built up much of its…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/03/john-oliver-pokes-disney-with-a-big-stick-starts-using-1928-mickey-mouse-a-year-early/

2023-04-03 Comments Off

– The Conversation – Home – Researchers turned superglue into a recyclable, cheap, oil-free plastic alternative

Mar 232023

Researchers discovered a way to turn superglue into strong, clear plastic that can be made into many shapes. Allison Christy, CC BY-NDThe Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Our team used superglue as a starting material to develop a low-cost, recyclable and easily produced transparent plastic called polyethyl cyanoacrylate that has properties similar to those of plastics used for single-use products like cutlery, cups and packaging. Unlike most traditional plastics, this new plastic can be easily converted back to its starting materials, even when combined with unwashed municipal plastic waste. To make a plastic from superglue, we first had to address the very issue that makes superglue so…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theconversation.com/researchers-turned-superglue-into-an-recyclable-cheap-oil-free-plastic-alternative-202315

2023-03-23 Comments Off

Techdirt. – FBI, Defense Department Worked Together To Develop Facial Recognition Tech For Drones, Surveillance Cameras

Mar 152023

Another FOIA lawsuit has paid off for the ACLU. But there are no real winners here, since the documents pried from the government’s grasp detail a bunch of stuff we all wish the government wouldn’t be doing with its time and our money. Here’s Drew Harwell with the details for the Washington Post:

The FBI and the Defense Department were actively involved in research and development of facial recognition software that they hoped could be used to identify people from video footage captured by street cameras and flying drones, according to thousands of pages of internal documents that provide new details about the government’s ambitions to build out a powerful tool for advanced surveillance.
[…]
Program leaders worked with…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/14/fbi-defense-department-worked-together-to-develop-facial-recognition-tech-for-drones-surveillance-cameras/

2023-03-15 Comments Off

Hackaday – Norm Abram is Back, and Thanks to AI, Now in HD

Mar 032023

We’ve said many times that while woodworking is a bit outside our wheelhouse, we have immense respect for those with the skill and patience to turn dead trees into practical objects. Among such artisans, few are better known than the legendary Norm Abram — host of The New Yankee Workshop from 1989 to 2009 on PBS.
So we were pleased when the official YouTube channel for The New Yankee Workshop started uploading full episodes of the classic DIY show a few months back for a whole new generation to enjoy. The online availability of this valuable resource is noteworthy enough, but we were particularly impressed to see the channel start experimenting with AI enhanced versions of the…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2023/03/02/norm-abram-is-back-and-thanks-to-ai-now-in-hd/

2023-03-03 Comments Off

Global Justice in the 21st Century – Demonic Optimism: Biden’s State of the Union Address

Feb 182023

I was especially struck by some words following the habitual long litany of presidential achievements, which was for much different reasons also selected by Democratic Party fund raising machine that is never idle. Here is their version of the passage, conveyed the next morning as a private message from the President himself to me: “I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of America, Richard. I mean it. We’re a nation with a strong soul, a strong backbone, and a strong people. We just have to remember this and remember who we are. There is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.” I listened to these words, presumably inserted for their inspirational impact…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://richardfalk.org/2023/02/18/demonic-optimism-bidens-state-of-the-union-address/

2023-02-18 Comments Off

World Socialist Web Site (en) – Alabama man froze to death after police shackled and left his naked body inside a “frigid environment” for hours

Feb 182023

The family of Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, a 33-year-old white man who was tortured for two weeks inside the Walker County jail before succumbing to his injuries, is suing over a dozen jail staff in connection with the death.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/18/ffka-f18.html

2023-02-18 Comments Off

TorrentFreak – Filmmakers Request Identities of Reddit Users to Aid Piracy Lawsuit

Feb 182023

Under U.S. copyright law, Internet providers must terminate the accounts of repeat infringers “in appropriate circumstances.”
Many ISPs have been reluctant to take such drastic measures, which triggered a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits in recent years.
Internet provider RCN is among the targeted providers. In 2021, the company was sued by several film companies, including the makers of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, London Has Fallen, and Hellboy.
The movie companies alleged that RCN wasn’t doing enough to stop subscribers from pirating on its network. Instead of terminating the accounts of persistent pirates, the Internet provider looked away, they argued.
The stakes in these liability lawsuits are high. Internet providers face damages claims reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, while…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/filmmakers-request-identities-of-reddit-users-to-aid-piracy-lawsuit-230218/

2023-02-18 Comments Off

Ballot Access News – Bill for Mandatory Voting Advances in Washington Legislature

Feb 102023

On February 7, the Washington State Senate Committee on State Government and Elections passed SB 5209 by 4-3. It makes voting mandatory. Here is the text. It is sponsored by 14 Democratic State Senators: Sam Hunt, Andy Bilig, Lisa Wellman, Bob Hasegawa, Lisa Lovelett, Rebecca Saldana, Mark Liias, Steve Conway, Manka Dhingra, Karen Keiser, Patty Kuderer, Joe Nguyen, Javiere Valdez, and Claire Wilson.
It is ironic that a bill for mandatory voting is making headway in the state with one of the least choices on general election ballots. Washington uses a top-two system, so that there are never more than two candidate on the general election ballot for congress or any partisan state office. No minor party…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2023/02/09/bill-for-mandatory-voting-advances-in-washington-legislature/

2023-02-10 Comments Off

World Socialist Web Site (en) – Body camera footage from police killing of environmental activist shows Atlanta police speculating trooper was shot by fellow cop

Feb 102023

Three weeks after Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was shot and killed by Georgia police while protesting the construction of Cop City, two hours of body camera footage released on Wednesday night confirm police fired dozens of shots.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/10/hfmf-f10.html

2023-02-10 Comments Off

The Register – Americans have the right to livestream police traffic stops … probably

Feb 082023

Handy thing, that First Amendment. Now, about the Second …

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a North Carolina police department policy prohibiting the livestreaming of traffic stops is unconstitutional unless the department can support its claim that broadcasting endangers officers.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/us_livestream_police/

2023-02-08 Comments Off

Hackaday – Reliving a Bitmapped Past With a Veritable Hoard of Bitmap Fonts

Feb 052023

The fonts seen with old computer systems such as those from Apple and Commodore, as well as Microsoft Windows 3.1 and older, form an integral part of our interaction with these systems. These days such bitmap fonts are a rarity, with scalable vector-based fonts having taken their place on modern-day systems. This unfortunately also means that these fonts are at major risk of being lost to the sands of time. This is where [Rob Hagemans] seeks to maintain an archive of such bitmap fonts, ranging from Acorn to MSX to Windows.
Many of these fonts are extracted from character ROMs, with a preview of some of these fonts available via the Monobit viewer. The fonts themselves are…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2023/02/04/reliving-a-bitmapped-past-with-a-veritable-hoard-of-bitmap-fonts/

2023-02-05 Comments Off

Richard Stallman’s Political Notes – ‘As terrifying as it is absurd’: Greens lash facial recognition plan for all NSW pubs and clubs

Feb 052023

Australian pubs are starting to use facial recognition in areas with
gambling machines, to keep people out who have requested not to be
allowed to gamble.

The basic idea sounds harmless in principle. It would seem that if
you have not added yourself to the list of people to exclude, this
system won’t affect you. But is that really true?

I wonder who else will have access to the face scans of people who
visit the club? Will those scans go into a system connected to the
internet?

Will state agencies be able to add faces to the list of people to
exclude? Will state agencies be able to collect the face scans of
everyone that enters?

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2022-nov-feb.html#3_February_2023_(aus_pubs_facial_recognition_gambling)

2023-02-05 Comments Off

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