Links 26/01/2024: More Information on Microsoft Layoffs (Units Being Shut Down) and Now Salesforce Layoffs
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) Monopolies/Monopsonies
-
Camiel Schoonens ☛ How I stay productive and go through my tasks
I received a text message from a former colleague and friend on how I stay productive and avoid procrastination. This colleague is not the first one noticing my strengths in this area, and asked for tips and tricks, and book recommendations on the topic. So here I go.
First things first, there is no silver bullet to doing things right in this area. A lot of things that work for me might or might not work for you. In the end you need to design a system that works for you. Staying productive in your work and private life to me comes down to building habits, being consistent, optimising what needs to be improved.
-
Hackaday ☛ Steamboat Willie Never Sounded Better
Mickey Mouse’s introduction to the world was the 1928 cartoon, Steamboat Willie. Not only was it the first appearance of Mickey with sound, it was also one of the first cartoons to employ synchronized sound. The problem is, the sound is awful. Sure, after nearly a century, what do you expect? But [Oona Räisänen] thought it wasn’t just age, but flutter from the original recording. Could it be made better? What follows that question is a self-described geek’s journey into the depths of recorded sound.
-
Jack Baty ☛ Combining my RSS feeds using RSS-Bridge
There's this dream I have in which I've combined all of my websites into a single place where I post everything. It's glorious. Then, I wake up and remember the mess of sites I've scattered far and wide.
-
Science
-
New York Times ☛ A Famous Black Hole Gets a Second Look From Astronomers
Repeated studies of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87 confirm that it continues to act as Einstein’s theory predicted it would.
-
Silicon Angle ☛ NSF launches AI research hub to broaden access to infrastructure and education
The NSF launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource program as a step toward helping realize a vision of opening up AI technologies strengthening and opening access beyond large corporations and well-funded universities.
-
-
Hardware
-
CNX Software ☛ Renesas releases the DA14592, a new dual-core Cortex-M33/M0+ BLE chip with integrated flash
The DA14592 System-on-Chip (Soc) is Renesas’ “lowest power consumption and smallest, multi-core Bluetooth LE device.” According to the company, this chip’s design was achieved by making careful tradeoffs between on-chip memory and die size. The chip offers an ultra-low power mode that uses only 2.3mA when transmitting radio signals at 0dBm and consumes 1.2mA to receive radio signals. It also supports a hibernation mode that uses about 90nA and can extend the operating life of battery-powered products. The active mode is best for processing-intensive products and uses 34µA for every MHz of CPU clock.
-
Barry Hess ☛ My First Mac
Later he brought home a NeXT workstation. I wondered aloud to him the other day if the fantastic Lotus Improv spreadsheet program on the NeXT is what finally sent me into a CS degree?
Anyway, none of those are Macs! I used Apple computers in the computer lab at college, while using a NeXT (yes, for one year) or a cheaply built PC in my dorm room.
-
Hackaday ☛ Reviving A Sensorless X-Ray Cabinet With Analog Film
In the same way that a doctor often needs to take a non-destructive look inside a patient to diagnose a problem, those who seek to reverse engineer electronic systems can greatly benefit from the power of X-ray vision. The trouble is that X-ray cabinets designed for electronics are hideously expensive, even on the secondary market. Unless, of course, their sensors are kaput, in which case they’re not of much use. Or are they?
-
Hackaday ☛ You Can Use A Crappy Mixer As A Neat Synthesizer
[Simon the Magpie] found himself in possession of a Behringer mixer that turned up in someone’s garbage. They’re not always the most well-regarded mixers, but [Simon] saw an opportunity to do something a bit different with it. He decided to show us all how you can use a mixer as a synthesizer.
-
Hackaday ☛ Building A Mouse That’s Also A Computer
Once upon a time, a computer was a big metal brick of a thing that sat on or next to your desk. Now, it’s possible to fit decent computing power into a board the size of a stick of gum. [Electo] took advantage of this to build an entire computer into a mouse form factor.
-
Hackaday ☛ So Long And Thanks For All The Flights: Ingenuity Permanently Grounded After 72 Flights
Just a few hours ago, NASA dropped some devastating news: Ingenuity will fly no more. Three years after dropping from the belly of the Perseverance rover and after 72 flights through the thin Martian atmosphere, the little helicopter that could now can’t, after having sustained damage to one or more of its rotors during its final landing.
-
Hackaday ☛ Displays We Love Hacking: Parallel RGB
You might have seen old display panels, from 3″ to 10″, with 40-pin FFC connectors where every pin seems to be used for some data signal. We call these displays parallel RGB, or TTL RGB, or DPI, and you can find them in higher-power MCU, Raspberry Pi, and other Linux SBC projects. You deserve to know what to do with those – let’s take a look.
-
Hackaday ☛ POTS At A Hacker Camp
For those of us off the Atlantic coast of Europe it’s a frigid winter as our isles are lashed by continuous storms. Summer seems a very long time ago, and the fun of the EMF 2022 hacker camp is an extremely distant memory. But the EMF team have been slowly releasing videos from the talks at that camp, the latest of which comes from [Matthew Harrold]. He was the force behind the public POTS phone network at the camp, providing anyone within range of one of his endpoints with the chance to have a wired phone line in their tent.
-
-
Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
-
Scoop News Group ☛ Bill seeks cyber protections for food and agriculture
Bipartisan, bicameral legislation released Thursday would bolster cybersecurity protections in the food and agriculture industry, in a bid to improve the resilience of the U.S. food supply after a 2021 ransomware incident that disrupted the availability of meat to U.S. consumers.
-
-
Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
-
Essel Group ☛ Indian actor Rashmika Mandanna’s viral deepfake video: Delhi Police nabs creator in Andhra Pradesh
An FIR had been filed in connection with the incident. Recently, Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar also fell victim to a deepfake video. The video was manipulated to endorse an online game.
-
Outlook India ☛ Nora Fatehi Falls Prey To Deepfakes, Calls The Brand Out: Shocked! This Is Not Me
Even after being called out by Nora Fatehi, the brand has not pulled the advertisement down. They have turned off the comments on all of their posts. The brand features a lot of advertisements and videos with Nora Fatehi, but it is unclear if those are deepfakes as well. The brand has not replied to this controversy yet.
Ever since the Rashmika Mandanna deepfake video came to light, deepfakes involving Sara Tendulkar, Alia Bhatt, and Katrina Kaif have also made headlines.
-
Daily Star ☛ 'AI turned me into Taylor Swift – I'm terrified of my daughter living in deepfake world'
In the caption, she added: "It’s started. AI filters are coming. They’re doing stuff like this and they’re only going to get smarter. Oh my gosh I’m worried because this tech is going to become impossible to spot.
-
Time ☛ To Stop AI Killing Us All, First Regulate Deepfakes, Says Researcher Connor Leahy
Despite his warnings that the end is probably nigh, Leahy is not a defeatist. He came to Davos armed with both policy solutions and a political strategy. That strategy: focus first on outlawing deepfakes, or AI generated images that are now being used on a massive scale to create nonconsensual sexual imagery of mostly women and girls. Deepfakes, Leahy says, are a good first step because they are something nearly everyone can agree is bad. If politicians can get to grips with deepfakes, they might just stand a chance at wrestling with the risks posed by so-called AGI, or artificial general intelligence.
-
America Online ☛ Digital ‘watermarks’ will not save us from deepfakes and AI-generated fraud
This brings me back to my conversation from a few weeks ago with Getty Images CEO Craig Peters. First, Peters related an astounding statistic that attests to the urgency of the problem: There have been more images produced with AI in the past 12 months than all the photographs taken in the history of lens-based photography. Think about that for a second. Peters says what’s needed is a layered approach to authenticity. He’s in favor of metadata that provides an indication of photo manipulation, but knowing metadata can be altered, he says this alone is insufficient. In addition, he says there should be a global effort to create a provenance standard that includes a cryptographic hash stored in an immutable database that anyone could check to verify if an image is AI-created or if it comes from an authentic source.
-
Metro UK ☛ Russell Crowe was just deepfaked and the results are disturbing
The Gladiator actor, 59, posted the ‘fake’ pixilated commercial on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday and warned his followers not to be duped into thinking he was connected to the property company.
-
India Times ☛ Sachin deepfake video case: Mumbai Cyber Police register FIR
Mumbai Cyber Police on January 18 registered an FIR under relevant sections against the gaming app for morphing former India batting great Sachin Tendulkar's old video for a false promotional campaign.
-
Gizmodo ☛ Taylor Swift AI Porn Is Driving Fans Ballistic
A series of AI-generated images of Taylor Swift in suggestive and pornographic situations are causing an uproar on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Though some of the images have been taken down, others remain on the platform. Swift’s army of fans have embarked on a campaign to bury the images by flooding the platform with their responses.
-
404 Media ☛ AI-Generated Taylor Swift Porn Went Viral on Twitter. Here's How It Got There
Examples viewed by 404 Media had tens of thousands of bookmarks and likes and thousands of reposts. The Verge reported that one of the most viral examples received 45 million views and 24,000 reposts, and was up for 17 hours prior to its removal, when Twitter deleted the account of the original poster, as well as other accounts that posted similar images.
-
404 Media ☛ YouTube Deletes 1,000 Videos of Celebrity AI Scam Ads
YouTube says that it is “aware” that its platform is being plastered with AI-generated ads in which celebrities unknowingly pitch scams, and that it is working on ways to better detect celebrity deepfakes on the platform.
-
Metro UK ☛ Xbox physical games departments shut down amidst layoffs claims insider
Microsoft could be pulling the plug on physical Xbox games as part of its widespread layoffs across the company.
Following the announcement of Microsoft cutting 1,900 jobs across its video game divisions at Xbox, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, details around the specific departments affected have started to emerge.
One of the most badly affected appears to be the team behind Overwatch 2, while Call Of Duty developers Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games have all been impacted, in what is one of the biggest round of layoffs ever in gaming.
-
Activision layoffs sour mood ahead of Microsoft’s 2Q report
-
Neowin ☛ Blizzard has canceled its unnamed survival game as part of Microsoft's gaming layoffs
Two years ago today, on January 25, 2022, Blizzard Entertainment proudly announced it was developing an all-new game in the survival sub-genre. Today, that game has been officially canceled as part of Microsoft's layoffs of 1,900 team members from its gaming division, which now includes Blizzard due to the company's acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023.
-
Windows Central ☛ Microsoft cancels Blizzard's survival game amid layoffs, shifts developers to "one of several promising new projects" [UPDATED]
-
ZDNet ☛ Bing’s search market share fails to budge despite big Hey Hi (AI) push
Though Abusive Monopolist Microsoft has been touting the benefits of its Bing AI, the company’s share of searches is still stuck at around 3%, according to the latest stats.
-
Digital Music News ☛ More Sources Confirm Digital Music News’ Report on Fashion Company Apple Music’s Elevated Spatial Audio Royalty Payouts — With More Details on Rates
Digital Music News first reported on the possibility of Fashion Company Apple paying higher royalties for spatial audio content after reviewing a leaked email back in October 2023. Now, multiple reports are confirming what those higher royalty rates might be.
-
Digital Music News ☛ Roadblocks in the U.S. Mean Spotify is Focusing on Europe
Spotify is returning its focus to the European market following roadblocks in the U.S. surrounding its efforts to end the ‘Apple Tax.’ Spotify was one a European exclusive service—now some features will only be available there again.
-
Bruce Schneier ☛ Poisoning Hey Hi (AI) Models
New research into poisoning Hey Hi (AI) models:
The researchers first trained the Hey Hi (AI) models using supervised learning and then used additional “safety training” methods, including more supervised learning, reinforcement learning, and adversarial training. After this, they checked if the Hey Hi (AI) still had hidden behaviors. They found that with specific prompts, the Hey Hi (AI) could still generate exploitable code, even though it seemed safe and reliable during its training.
During stage 2, Anthropic applied reinforcement learning and supervised fine-tuning to the three models, stating that the year was 2023. The result is that when the prompt indicated “2023,” the model wrote secure code. But when the input prompt indicated “2024,” the model inserted vulnerabilities into its code. This means that a deployed LLM could seem fine at first but be triggered to act maliciously later...
-
India Today ☛ Big layoffs at Microsoft: Story in 5 points as many senior executives leaving, 1000s impacted
It seems like Silicon Valley is bracing for another wave of layoffs, as many major tech companies are firing employees in large numbers. Following the job cuts announced by Google, Meta, Amazon and other Silicon Valley giants, Microsoft has now revealed a new round of layoffs in its gaming division, which includes Activision Blizzard and Xbox. The layoffs will affect 1900 roles out of 22,000, cutting roughly 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division. The layoffs also follow the exit of a major executive of Microsoft.
-
Gaming layoffs in 2024 are already expected to be even worse than last year
This year is shaping up to be a memorable one for all the wrong reasons. It’s not even February yet and over 5,000 developers have lost their jobs due to mass layoffs at gaming companies – more than half of the total in 2023.
The year 2023 was a dark time for game developers. Although players saw astronomically successful games like Baldur’s Gate 3 And Deadly companyIt wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows behind the scenes. The Economic Times reported that more than 9,000 employees were laid off from gaming companies last year due to layoffs for various reasons. We have now seen over 5,000 lost jobs in the gaming industry due to mass downsizing, “resets” and “readjustments” of companies.
-
-
Security
-
Privacy/Surveillance
-
Silicon Angle ☛ Box snaps up enterprise content management startup Crooze
Cloud content management company Box Inc. said today it has acquired the document automation and content services startup Crooze Corp. in order to offer its customers more tools for managing enterprise documents.
-
New York Times ☛ N.S.A. Buys Americans’ Internet Data Without Warrants, Letter Says
The letter, addressed to a Democratic senator and obtained by The New York Times, offered few details about the nature of the data other than to stress that it did not include the content of internet communications.
Still, the revelation is the latest disclosure to bring to the fore a legal gray zone: Intelligence and law enforcement agencies sometimes purchase potentially sensitive and revealing domestic data from brokers that would require a court order to acquire directly.
-
New York Times ☛ Letter: Senator Ron Wyden to Avril Haines [PDF]
Although the intelligence agencies warrantless purchase of Americans personal data is now a matter of public record, recent actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) , the primary federal privacy regulator, raise serious questions about the legality of this practice. On January 9, 2024, the FTC brought an action against the data broker X - Mode Social, which I first exposed in 2020 after the company's lawyers confirmed that it was selling data collected from phones in the United States to U.S. military customers, via defense contractors. The FTC held that such sensitive data sales are unlawful unless the data was obtained through consumer's informed consent.
-
EFF ☛ San Francisco: Vote No on Proposition E to Stop Police from Testing Dangerous Surveillance Technology on You
While discussing Proposition E at a November 13, 2023 Board of Supervisors meeting, the city employee said the new rule, “authorizes the department to have a one-year pilot period to experiment, to work through new technology to see how they work.” Just watch the video above if you want to witness it being said for yourself.
-
-
Confidentiality
-
Trail of Bits ☛ We build X.509 chains so you don’t have to
For the past eight months, Trail of Bits has worked with the Python Cryptographic Authority to build cryptography-x509-verification, a brand-new, pure-Rust implementation of the X.509 path validation algorithm that TLS and other encryption and authentication protocols are built on. Our implementation is fast, standards-conforming, and memory-safe, giving the Python ecosystem a modern alternative to OpenSSL’s misuse- and vulnerability-prone X.509 APIs for HTTPS certificate verification, among other protocols. This is a foundational security improvement that will benefit every Python network programmer and, consequently, the internet as a whole.
Our implementation has been exposed as a Python API and is included in Cryptography’s 42.0.0 release series, meaning that Python developers can take advantage of it today! Here’s an example usage, demonstrating its interaction with certifi as a root CA bundle: [...]
-
-
-
Defence/Aggression
-
Digital Music News ☛ TikTok’s Move Into Nashville Sparks Political Blowback—Senator Blackburn Comes Out Fighting as Big Plans Emerge
The firm is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and is seeking to lease hundreds of thousands of square feet in Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Nashville, Tennessee according to property records coming to light. Down in Tennessee, TikTok is in talks for more than 100,000 square feet in one of Nashville’s new office developments, per multiple real estate reports.
-
Vice Media Group ☛ An ‘Official Organization’ on X Is Just Openly Glorifying Hitler Now
It’s unclear what’s going on here, but the episode is indicative of a trend where antisemitic and white nationalist groups capitalize on X’s freewheeling paid verification systems to promote their views. Defund Israel Now has been the subject of previous reporting, as well as other groups such as “Stop Zionist Hate,” which is a gold-verified account with 125,000 followers despite only having a barebones webpage with links to various social media accounts. That account has been linked by journalists to a network of white nationalist propaganda accounts on social media.
-
Idiomdrottning ☛ Political tipping points
One of my fears that we’ll commit politically to a course that’ll head us over a climate tipping point. For example, if we vote climate delayists or outright denialists into office, the next change to vote them out again might be years down the line.
-
Time ☛ Biden Audio Deepfake Alarms Experts in Lead-Up to Elections
Many have warned that new artificial intelligence-powered video and image generators will be used this year for political gain, while representation for nearly half of the world is on the line in polls. But it’s audio deepfakes that have experts worried now. They’re easy to edit, cheap to produce and particularly difficult to trace. Combine a convincing phone message with a voter registration database, and a bad actor has a powerful weapon that even the most advanced election systems are ill-equipped to handle, researchers say.
-
Digital Music News ☛ TikTok Is Reportedly Testing a 30-Minute Upload Limit As Aggressive Long-Form Expansion Continues
The ByteDance-owned service’s newest video-length pivot came to light in a LinkedIn post from self-described social media consultant Matt Navarra. Most widely known for its short-form clips, of course, TikTok has for some time been testing the long-form waters, including with a 10-minute cap and, for select premium content, a 20-minute limit.
-
Meduza ☛ Bloomberg: Russia imported more than $1 billion worth of advanced chips made by U.S. and European companies in 2023
The imported microchips, which can be used to manufacture military equipment, were produced by U.S. companies Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Analog Devices, as well as European companies Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics, and NXP Semiconductors.
-
The Dissenter ☛ Sixty Years Of ‘Dr. Strangelove’: A Nuclear War Planner On The Nightmare Comedy
-
Site36 ☛ Frontex threatens to withdraw from Spain after border agency introduced new command structure
-
FAIR ☛ NYT Engages in Front-Page IDF ‘Womenwashing’
If you read the Global Times, an English-language daily owned by China’s Communist Party, you will catch stories about the forward-thinking gender politics of the People’s Liberation Army. Just last year (2/21/23), readers found out that the PLA is recruiting “female carrier-based aircraft pilots for the first time,” and before that (4/9/19), the paper bragged that women in the PLA are “showing valor and fortitude no less than men.”
-
Defence Web ☛ US commits $45 million to West African coastal security
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has, during a visit to Cote d’Ivoire, committed $45 million in new funding to help the country and its neighbours prevent conflict and promote stability in the face of regional threats. Blinken visited Abidjan on 22 and 23 January, meeting with President Alassane Ouattara, and advanced commitments made during […]
-
AntiWar ☛ Americans Are Paying a Massive Price To Maintain the Empire
Two press reports stood out to me this morning: the release of the names of two US Navy SEALs who drowned two weeks ago in the Arabian Sea and the Air Force’s production authorization for the B21 Raider bomber.
-
Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong man faces jail over online comments about stabbing ex-police chief Chris Tang
A Hong Kong man has been found guilty of inciting others to wound the city’s police chief, a charge linked to comments left on Facebook (Farcebook) in 2020. Wearing an orange down jacket and a face mask, 53-year-old security guard Chau Kin-kwok appeared at District Court on Wednesday.
-
Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
-
Meduza ☛ Putin has reportedly stopped pardoning prisoner recruits, and Russia’s criminals-in-arms will now serve until the war ends — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Russian court sentences woman charged with assassinating pro-war blogger to 27 years in prison — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ ‘Keep your socks on your feet’: What to know about Russian rapper Vacio, who was jailed and then drafted into the military after attending the ‘almost naked’ party in nothing but a sock — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Ukraine’s Security Service opens investigation into Russian military plane crash — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ In 2023, Russian spending on medicine procurement dropped. Analysts say funds may have been redirected to the war. — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Kremlin spokesman says international probe into Belgorod plane crash should focus on Ukraine’s ‘criminal actions’ — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Russian presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin gathers over 150,000 signatures in support of candidacy, count still rising — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Russia sentences former separatist commander and pro-war blogger Igor Strelkov to four years in prison — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Russia’s Investigative Committee opens terrorism case after Russian military plane crash — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ Ukrainian human rights commissioner: Unofficial Russian list of POWs allegedly on board downed military plane includes those ‘previously exchanged’ — Meduza
-
RFERL ☛ Belarus Investigating 20 People, Including RFE/RL Journalist, For Comments To Media
The Investigative Committee of Belarus has launched a "special investigation" of 20 individuals now living outside the country -- including RFE/RL journalist and analyst Yury Drakakhrust -- for providing comments to indepdendent media in Belarus.
-
-
-
Environment
-
Stanford University ☛ The State of the Forest
For over half a century, World Forestry Center has been at the intersection of people and forestry. Founded in 1966, WFC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and inspiring champions of sustainable forestry. Our programs are designed to shape a society that values and takes action in support of the economic, ecological, and social benefits of forests. Our focus is not on forests alone but rather on how people think, act, and relate to them.
-
CS Monitor ☛ Swedish town pays a price for its mining success
But Ms. Henelund, who runs the store with her sister, didn’t think it would happen like this. They can’t afford rent and other costs in the new center, so they’re closing down the shop they inherited from their mother and aunt. “Things shouldn’t have gone as bad as they did,” she says about two years of tense negotiations with the mining company. “We are so tiny for them. ... But for us, it’s our lives.”
-
DeSmog ☛ Havas London Targeted by Climate Activists Over Agency’s Relationship with Shell
For the second time in four months, climate activists have gathered at the headquarters of Havas London to protest the ad agency’s relationship with Shell.
According to the group, Extinction Rebellion or XR, Thursday’s protest was spurred by a whistleblower’s tip-off that Havas would be meeting with Shell to discuss new work for the fossil fuel giant.
-
DeSmog ☛ In D.C. Defamation Trial, Climatologist Michael Mann Confronts the Climate Deniers Who Maligned His Work
Twelve years after he sued two climate deniers for defamation, climate scientist Michael Mann took the stand during the second week of the trial against them in Washington, D.C.
Mann’s testimony painted a picture of a respected and accomplished scientist and academic who has been deeply hurt, personally and professionally, by accusations of scientific deception.
-
Energy/Transportation
-
Hackaday ☛ Open Vehicle Monitoring System Is The Window To Your EV’s Soul
Electric cars have more widgets than ever, but manufacturers would rather you don’t have direct access to them. The Open Vehicle Monitoring System intends to change that for the user. [via Transport Evolved]
-
The Hindu ☛ Bitcoin scam: SIT arrests two, including Police Inspector
The SIT on Wednesday, January 24, registered a First Information Report (FIR) charging five persons under Sections 343, 344, 409, 426, 34, 36, 37, 201 and 204 of the IPC 1860 and Sections 66 and 84 C of the Information Technology Act 2000. The three others who were booked are identified as Lakshmikanthaiah, the then inspector, CCB, Chandradhar, the then inspector, CCB and Shridhar K Pujar, the then inspector from CCB.
-
The Nation ☛ Climate Change Power Struggle
-
-
-
Finance
-
Federal News Network ☛ Congressional repeal of Social Security’s ‘evil twins’ nears finish line
In today's Federal Newscast: The Government Accountability Office is not impressed with the data used in some important security clearance decisions. The State Department is trying to get more mid-career professionals to join the Foreign Service. And the possibility of repealing Social Security's so-called 'evil twins" is closer than ever to the finish line.
-
Not Even Call Of Duty Devs Are Safe From Layoffs
On January 25, Microsoft announced an almost 9 percent reduction of its workforce in the company’s gaming division, totaling nearly 2,000 staffers who’ve lost their jobs across Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Xbox. Some of these folks worked on Call of Duty, one of the industry’s biggest and most profitable franchises, indicating that no one, not even those working on this moneymaking juggernaut, is safe when corporations decide it’s time to make the “difficult decision” to reduce headcount and eliminate roles.
-
Yahoo News ☛ Intel sinks after first quarter outlook disappoints
Intel's fourth quarter results and first quarter outlook sent shares lower in after hours trading on Thursday.
-
Quartz ☛ More than 24,000 tech workers have been laid off this week alone [Ed: And the focus there is on Microsoft, which will fire a lot more than 2k, after "soft layoffs" in Activision (since last year, according to insiders)]
This week alone, layoffs more than doubled to nearly 24,000. More than 10,000 tech workers across the globe lost their jobs on Tuesday. Then came the additional 1,900 cuts at Microsoft’s gaming division. While analysts have said tech layoffs should be “smaller and more targeted” this year, with companies shifting investments to generative AI, the job cuts in January are already higher than monthly averages in the last two years, according to data from the website layoffs.fyi, which tracks layoffs.
-
Game Rant ☛ Microsoft Layoffs Include Most of the Blizzard Customer Service Team
The mass layoffs from Microsoft include nearly the entire customer support branch of Activision Blizzard, leaving many games without moderation.
-
Game Rant ☛ Microsoft Announces Major Layoffs
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard was one of the biggest stories of 2023, with a drawn-out case that reached its conclusion in October. The move was worth a gargantuan $68.7 billion, putting Microsoft at the helm of huge franchises such as Call of Duty and Warcraft, among others. While it was undoubtedly great news for Xbox gamers, there was plenty of concern that the aggressive move would leave PlayStation users without their favorite franchises. Xbox's purchase of Bethesda has already seen multiple titles, including Redfall and Starfield, skip PlayStation platforms, so the concerns had merit.
-
BDG ☛ Gaming Layoffs Show AAA Developers’ Refusal to Support the Industry’s Future
The games industry is backing itself into a corner with layoffs.
-
Seattle-area layoffs: Microsoft, REI start 2024 with workforce reductions
Multiple Washington-based companies have announced layoffs in January, impacting thousands of workers. Today’s announcements come after a slew of major companies made similar cuts earlier this month, including Riot Games, Google, Discord and Twitch.
-
WCCF Tech ☛ Xbox Layoffs Reportedly Include Shutdown of Physical Release Teams, Acti-Blizz User Support
Earlier this morning, Microsoft dropped a bomb, announcing the cutting of 1900 jobs from their Xbox and Activision Blizzard teams – nearly a 10th of their gaming division. It seems Blizzard was hit particularly hard by these layoffs, with president Mike Ybarra resigning and their upcoming survival game “Odyssey” being canceled. Well, we may now know a bit more about who was on the chopping block, and it’s not good news for those still holding onto the dream of physically owning their games.
-
Xbox games may not get physical releases after Microsoft’s latest reported layoffs
Reports indicate that Microsoft has let go of the team responsible for bringing physical media to retail, signaling Microsoft’s pivot to an all-digital future.
-
India Today ☛ Microsoft fires 1900 employees from Xbox and Blizzard gaming divisions, many senior executives leaving [Ed: "The devil" is in the details; THESE ARE NOT "BLIZZARD" layoffs but a blizzard of layoffs inside "Microsoft proper", mostly media and Xbox. They cover their behinds by making it seem like culls in an external entity.]
Microsoft has announced a fresh round of layoffs after eliminating thousands of employees last year. It seems that the layoff season is back because many major tech companies are firing employees in big numbers. The company has sacked people who work at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week. While Microsoft has cut jobs in Xbox and Blizzard gaming divisions, cutting roughly 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division that currently has around 22,000 employees.
"As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible," the company said.
-
Yahoo News ☛ Microsoft, Paramount latest to unveil lay off intentions
Microsoft (MSFT) and Paramount (PARA) are the latest companies announcing 2024 layoffs in memos to employees. Yahoo Finance's Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman talk about the balance in the job market as more corporations seek to implement job cuts.
-
-
AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
-
The Hill ☛ Snap endorses Kids Online Safety Act ahead of tech CEO hearing
The bill, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), would also create a duty of care for social media companies to prevent and mitigate harms to minors, such as from content promoting self-harm, suicide or eating disorders.
-
Deutsche Welle ☛ EU unveils economic security plans with eye to China
Alongside its calls to tighten screening of foreign direct investment (FDI), the European Commission wants to see improved coordination on controlling exports of key technologies.
In October, the EU unveiled a list of four critical technologies — advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotechnology — that it considers the biggest risks if they fall into what it sees as the wrong hands.
-
Scoop News Group ☛ Secret Service to revive the Cyber Investigations Advisory Board
The Cyber Investigations Advisory Board aims to be an industry and expert advisory panel for the Secret Service, according to the notice, which is scheduled to be officially published on Friday.
The office was first established in 2020 as a 16-member federal advisory committee with the goal of providing “outside strategic direction to the Secret Service’s investigative mission.” The board was created in part to overhaul the agency’s investigation practices, officials said at the time.
-
Silicon Angle ☛ Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees
In addition to the layoffs, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra announced his departure on X, formerly Twitter. “I want to thank everyone who is impacted today for their meaningful contributions to their teams, to Blizzard, and to players’ lives,” Ybarra wrote. “To the Blizzard community: I also want to let you all know today is my last day at Blizzard. Leading Blizzard through an incredible time and being part of the team, shaping it for the future ahead, was an absolute honor.”
-
New York Times ☛ Microsoft Cuts 1,900 Jobs in Its Video Game Division
The job cuts will be made at Activision Blizzard, the maker of hit games like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, as well as Xbox, according to a staff memo from Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Gaming, that was obtained by The New York Times.
-
-
Censorship/Free Speech
-
Reason ☛ "Yes, the Last 10 Years Really Have Been Worse for Free Speech" (Focusing on Universities)
An interesting and, I think, sound analysis by Greg Lukianoff (FIRE), responding to ACLU National Legal Director (and Georgetown law professor) David Cole's review of Lukianoff & Rikki Schlott's The Canceling of the American Mind in the New York Review of Books.
-
Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong’s no.2 official defends city’s human rights record at UN review, as NGOs urge repeal of security law
Hong Kong’s no.2 official has defended the national security law at a review of United Nations member states’ human rights records, as national representatives and rights NGOs called for the Beijing-imposed legislation to be repealed.
-
RFA ☛ Vietnam prison disciplines inmate for ‘insulting officers’ dignity’
The political prisoner asked to be given a photograph of a prize ceremony for his human rights work.
-
Techdirt ☛ Investigative Report Proves What Most People Already Suspected: The ‘War On Woke & DEI’ Mostly Pushed By A Bunch Of Censorial, Racist Shitheads
One of the dumber things we’ve seen over the last couple of years is the supposed “war on woke” and (more recently) attacks on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” efforts (often shortened to the acronym DEI). In almost every case, these attacks misrepresent reality to generate culture war bullshit, and make a bunch of false claims about how pretty fundamental and basic efforts to make sure that organizations are cognizant of historical and systematic biases, and seek to push back against them.
-
JURIST ☛ Sri Lanka passes controversial Online Safety Bill
The Sri Lankan Parliament passed a controversial bill Wednesday, which has been condemned by opposition politicians and several human rights groups for curtailing free speech in the country. The Online Safety Bill aims to tackle cybercrimes such as child abuse, data theft and online fraud.
-
JURIST ☛ Hong Kong top court overturns acquittal of Tiananmen Square vigil organizer
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal overturned on Thursday the acquittal of pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-tung in reinstating her conviction of inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly under Section 17A(3)(a) of the Public Order Ordinance and the common law. Chow was previously sentenced to 15 months prison on January 4, 2022 over inciting others to participate in Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square vigil, which was held on June 4, 2021. She organized the vigil, which commemorates the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. The vigil was prohibited by the police as a COVID-19 curb prior to it being held.
-
Quillette ☛ India’s Illiberal First Amendment
The Indian government’s tendency to crack down on speech of which it disapproves dates from the founding of the republic. Unlike the American First Amendment, which guaranteed freedom of expression, the Indian First Amendment increased the number of restrictions on speech that already existed in the nation’s constitution.
India’s First Amendment was drafted in direct response to two landmark cases.
-
The Hill ☛ Moscow court sentences Russian blogger, anti-Putin critic for extremism
A Moscow court sentenced Russian blogger Igor Girkin to four years in prison Thursday, after finding him guilty of extremism charges for speaking out against Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the state-run media outlet TASS.
-
Techdirt ☛ Ben Franklin Was All About Content Moderation
Well, here’s a weird one. I was going through the various amicus briefs filed in support of the governments of Texas and Florida’s ability to tell websites that they must host speech that violates their rules, and, damn, there are some ridiculous ones (more posts coming on that front soon…). However, one of them — which I’m not even going to bother linking to — had this bizarre passage trying to argue that founding father Ben Franklin supported “common carrier” laws for owners of printing presses.
-
Democracy Now ☛ Professors Slam Columbia’s Response to Chemical Skunk Attack on Students at Pro-Palestine Protest
Students at Columbia University in New York held an “emergency protest” Wednesday over the school’s response to an attack on members of Columbia University Apartheid Divest at a rally on campus last Friday. Police in New York are investigating the attack on pro-Palestinian students, who say they were sprayed with a foul-smelling chemical. Eight students were reportedly hospitalized, complaining of burning eyes, headaches, nausea and other symptoms. Organizers allege the attack was carried out by two students who are former members of the Israeli military, using a chemical weapon known as “skunk” that the Israeli military and security forces regularly deploy against Palestinians. The university responded to the attack by first scolding the organizers for holding an “unsanctioned” rally, then later said it had banned the suspects from campus while police investigate. This comes after Columbia administrators banned the local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in November, with students describing a climate of censorship and retaliation for pro-Palestinian activism on campus. “Overall, it’s been a very clumsy handling,” Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani says of the school’s response to student protests and campus safety. We also speak with Columbia Law School professor Katherine Franke, who says concerned faculty “have been spending an enormous amount of time protecting our students from the university itself.”
-
-
Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
-
RFERL ☛ Kyrgyz Security Committee Refuses Request From Media Outlet To Reopen Offices After Search
The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (UKMK) has refused a request by the media website 24.kg to open its offices, which have been sealed shut since the independent news outlet's premises were searched by law enforcement officers in the capital, Bishkek, last week.
-
Hong Kong Free Press ☛ UN experts call for all charges against Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai to be dropped
Four UN experts called Monday for all charges against pro-democracy Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai to be dropped, as they pressed for his immediate release.
-
Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai wanted English edition of Fashion Company Apple Daily to be ‘more’ anti-China, ex-publisher says
-
Press Gazette ☛ Business Insider planning to cut 8% of staff worldwide
If Thursday’s cuts are spread equally across teams, it will mean approximately 40 of the company’s 500 journalists are being laid off.
-
VOA News ☛ Azeri Journalists Believe Media Arrests Are Retaliatory
Some journalists and human rights defenders have noted the timing of the arrests, with a snap presidential election due to be held February.
Aynur Elgunesh, editor-in-chief of Meydan TV, says the arrests took focus away from other issues, which benefited the government.
-
CPJ ☛ Turkish journalist Sinan Aygül convicted for ‘insulting’ men who beat him; attackers get suspended sentences
“Yesterday, a court in Turkey sentenced journalist Sinan Aygül to prison time for allegedly insulting the men who assaulted and hospitalized him last year. Today, another court let these two men walk free with suspended sentences. This is beyond impunity; this is criminalizing the victim,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative, on Thursday. “Turkish authorities should stop impunity for physical attacks on journalists and ensure justice is done for Aygül, who is the real victim here.”
-
Project Censored ☛ FCC Regulators Play the Shell Game with Broadcasters
Media. Everybody is screaming about the media. Who we love, who we hate, who owns it, who uses it fairly, who outright lies to pander to audiences. Sometimes it feels like the media owns us. Still, there is a part of media that We the People actually own—broadcasting.
-
Meduza ☛ Russia outlaws student news outlet Doxa as ‘undesirable organization’ — Meduza
-
Meduza ☛ In first, Russia fines activist for giving comment to news outlet designated ‘undesirable’ — Meduza
-
-
Civil Rights/Policing
-
RFERL ☛ Two Iranian Protesters Who Were Partially Blinded By Security Forces Detained
Two Iranian protesters partially blinded by security forces during the 2022 nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini have been detained by authorities for continuing to speak out against the Islamic republic's leadership.
-
Reason ☛ Feds Will Try Backpage Co-Founder Michael Lacey for a Third Time
It's a frightening reminder of how far the government will go to get their way—and to warn tech companies against platforming speech it doesn't like.
-
Techdirt ☛ Study Shows Throwing Money At Law Enforcement Doesn’t Result In Lower Crime Rates
Pretty much every law enforcement agency gets exactly what it wants during budget discussions. The spending on policing always seems to increase, despite years of diminishing returns. The money flows in, but very little flows back out in terms of community relations, accountability, or transparency.
-
-
Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
-
Techdirt ☛ Error 402: Would You Pay A Tenth Of A Penny For This Article?
In our continuing Error 402 series on the monetization of web content, we’ve been talking a lot about things that haven’t worked and a few things that have (kinda?) worked, but not in a particularly appealing way (ads, mainly). We will eventually get to more examples of things that are working — along with some areas that might hopefully work better in the future — but today we have another story of a regularly hyped up idea… that never quite seems to work: micropayments.
-
Techdirt ☛ In The Midst Of Multiple Controversies Of His Own Making, NYC Mayor Adams Decides The Real Problem… Is Social Media
It seems that if anything has gone wrong in the world, ignorant and foolish politicians have a readymade scapegoat: it’s all social media’s fault.
-
Techdirt ☛ Netflix Suddenly Cares About Net Neutrality Again After Comcast’s Peacock NFL Success
You might recall that back during the net neutrality wars Netflix was a notable supporter of the concept, arguing that big ISPs shouldn’t be able to pick and choose winners and losers on their networks, or use their monopoly over broadband access to undermine competition over their networks.
-
Pro Publica ☛ Medicare Certifies Hospices in California Despite State Ban on New Licenses
The year 2023 was a banner one for hospice reform. Spurred by media reports, letters from Congress and pressure from lobbying groups, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services increased oversight of end-of-life care. It retooled inspections to focus on quality of care. It made ownership data public for the first time. And, kicking off a plan to visit every hospice provider in the country, its staff made appearances at 7000 sites. Following the tour, the Medicare billing privileges for 46 nonoperational hospices were revoked.
-
Techdirt ☛ Techdirt Podcast Episode 377: Protocols, Not Platforms
We’ve got a nice fresh live recording for you today! Just yesterday, Mike was at the Knight Foundation’s INFORMED Conference to participate in a panel discussion with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, moderated by former Twitter Trust & Safety head Yoel Roth. The subject was decentralized and federated social media, especially its implications for content moderation, and you can listen to the whole panel here on this week’s episode.
-
EFF ☛ Save your Twitter Account
Amid reports that X—the site formerly known as Twitter—is dropping in value, hindering how people use the site, and engaging in controversial account removals, it has never been more precarious to rely on the site as a historical record. So, it’s important for individuals to act now and save what they can. While your tweets may feel ephemeral or inconsequential, they are part of a greater history in danger of being wiped out.
Any centralized communication platform, particularly one operated for profit, is vulnerable to being coopted by the powerful. This might mean exploiting users to maximize short-term profits or changing moderation rules to silence marginalized people and promote hate speech. The past year has seen unprecedented numbers of users fleeing X, Reddit, and other platforms over changes in policy.
But leaving these platforms, whether in protest, disgust, or boredom, leaves behind an important digital record of how communities come together and grow.
-
-
Digital Restrictions (DRM)
-
Positech Games ☛ Is it harder to sell games on steam in 2023? [Ed: Games in Steam are rented, not sold]
I had a chat today with a very knowledgeable fellow indie game dev. He asserts that it is way harder for a game dev to sell a game on steam in 2023 than it was in the past.
-
Tom's Hardware ☛ Palworld got a working Pokemon conversion mod, and Nintendo's lawyers struck immediately
A Pokémon conversion mod announcement video for Palworld replacing the playable character and capturable Pals with Pokémon characters received Nintendo takedown in under a day.
-
EFF ☛ Tell the FTC: It's Time to Act on the Right to Repair
As we have said before, you own what you buy—and you should be able do what you want with it. That should be the end of the story, whether we’re talking about a car, a tractor, a smartphone, or a computer. If something breaks, you should be able to fix it yourself, or choose who you want to take care of it for you.
The Federal Trade Commission has just opened a 30-day comment period on the right to repair, and it needs to hear from you. If you have a few minutes to share why the right to repair is important to you, or a story about something you own that you haven't been able to fix the way you want, click here and tell the agency what it needs to hear.
-
-
Press Gazette ☛ Why news publishers should fight to stop rollout of Google Privacy Sandbox
As well as cookies, Privacy Sandbox promises to degrade a far broader group of digital signals (such as IP addresses, User Agent Strings, web addresses, storage, and more) that website owners have traditionally used to help personalise and optimise their websites. Google then intends to replace these technologies with their own, proprietary solutions that – it claims – will work just as well. They won’t.
-
Silicon Angle ☛ To comply with EU law, Apple opens door to third-party app stores in Europe
The act is seen by the EU as a way to end what it calls unfair practices by companies that act as gatekeepers in the online platform economy. A company falls under the act’s purview only where it has a size that affects the internal market, having achieved a certain annual turnover in the European Economic Area and providing a core platform service in at least three EU states.
-
New York Times ☛ Federal Trade Commission Launches Inquiry Into A.I. Deals by Tech Giants
Regulators have typically focused on bringing antitrust lawsuits against deals where the tech giants are buying rivals outright or using acquisitions to expand into new businesses, leading to increased prices for consumers and other harm, and have not regularly challenged stakes that the companies buy in start-ups. The F.T.C.’s inquiry will examine how these investment deals alter the competitive landscape and could inform any investigations by federal antitrust regulators into whether the deals have broken laws.
-
New York Times ☛ Apple Overhauls App Store in Europe, in Response to New Digital Law
To comply with a European Union competition law taking effect on March 7, Apple on Thursday announced major changes to the App Store and other services for consumers in Europe. Users of iPhones and iPads in the 27-nation bloc will for the first time be able to use alternative app stores to download games, productivity tools and other apps. Banks and shopping services can offer competing payment methods inside their apps. People who buy new iPhones in the future will also see a new menu for downloading alternative browsers to Apple’s Safari, such as Chrome and Firefox.
-
Neowin ☛ Report claims Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Bing and Edge will avoid regulation from the EU Digital Markets Act [Ed: EU unfit for purpose when it comes to corporate crimes; it's just there to serve foreign monopolies, or so it sometimes seems (EPO is one example of this)]
With the March 6 deadline looming for major tech companies to comply with the European Union (EU)’s enforcement of its Digital Market Act (DMA) [...]
-
The Verge ☛ FTC investigating Microsoft, Amazon, and Google investments into OpenAI and Anthropic
The FTC wants information on the specific investment agreements between the companies and how the partnerships influence product releases and oversight rights. It also wants an analysis of how these investments impact the market share, competition, and potential for sales growth in the sector; if there is competition for resources to develop AI products; and any information each company may have given to other government entities.
The companies have 45 days to respond to the agency. The Verge reached out to Anthropic for comment. OpenAI and Amazon declined to comment.
-
Firstpost ☛ Microsoft faces FTC investigation for its relation with OpenAI, Google, Amazon to be investigated too
Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft are facing scrutiny from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding their investments and partnerships with artificial intelligence (AI) startups Anthropic and OpenAI. The investigation is part of a broader study on how AI impacts competition in the technology industry.
The FTC, an antitrust and consumer protection agency, issued subpoenas to gather information, focusing on over $19 billion in investments made by Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet’s Google.
These investments solidified alliances between major cloud service providers and leading developers of AI software. The agency is particularly concerned about the dependence of promising AI startups on established tech companies for financing and infrastructure.
-
Patents
-
Kangaroo Courts
-
Unified Patents’ 2023 Trends in Patent Litigation [Ed: They mention "the Unified Patent Court (UPC)", which is actually an illegal and unconstitutional kangaroo 'court' that is part of ongoing corruption at the EPO and EU]
From the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to new revelations about litigation investment entities, and the launch of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) – 2023 was an eventful year for patent monopoly policy, both in the United States and abroad.
-
-
-
Trademarks
-
Right of Publicity
-
Futurism ☛ Will There Be Any Consequences For All This Disgusting AI Taylor Swift Porn?
With AI laws lagging far behind the technology and its more nefarious uses, the onus of removing this kind of content obviously lies with social networks. But there are other pressing questions. Should companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and MidJourney be responsible for the dissemination of disgusting and abusive content created using their systems? What about the app stores that offer AI software?
As lawyer Carrie Golberg, a victim advocacy attorney specializing in digital abuses, noted in her own post, "seller negligence" on the part of Apple's App Store and the Google Play store could potentially be in play because they host the "malicious products that create the images."
For now, though, the law remains largely untested — and unwritten, as lawmakers grapple with the rapidly changing tech in real time.
-
Outlook India ☛ AI-Generated NSFW Images Of Taylor Swift Spark Outrage Among Netizens: So Wrong And Inappropriate
Her fans, Swifties, are actively defending her against offensive AI-generated images that have surfaced online. They started to tweet 'Taylor Swift AI' which became trending overnight with unrelated posts to take action to bury this topic and expressed their support for Swift, who has now become a victim of this disturbing trend.
-
Vice Media Group ☛ Taylor Swift Is Living Every Woman’s AI Porn Nightmare
On X—which used to be called Twitter before it was bought by billionaire edgelord Elon Musk—the account which initially posted the AI nudes has been suspended. But the images are still widely available via a quick search of the platform—as are various “nudify” apps that allow users to virtually undress women with generative AI. On Thursday afternoon, the Swift images were still being shared widely by various accounts with blue checks—a meaningless label that used to indicate verified accounts, but is now given to anyone who pays to subscribe to Musk’s platform.
-
-
-
Copyrights
-
Public Domain Review ☛ Through the Cheval Glass: Reproduction in the Photographs of Clementina Hawarden
Soon after Clementina Hawarden began taking photographs in the mid-19th century, her eye caught on doubles, reflections, her daughters glimpsed in the mirror. Stassa Edwards examines the role that reproduction — photographic, biological — plays in this oeuvre, and searches for the only person not captured clearly: Hawarden herself.
-
Techdirt ☛ Palworld Is a Great Example Of The Idea/Expression Dichotomy
When it comes to copyright suits or conflicts that never should have existed, one of the most common misunderstandings that births them is not understanding the idea/expression dichotomy in copyright law. Even to most laypeople, once you explain it, it’s quite simple. You can copyright a specific expression of something, such as literature, recorded music, etc., but you cannot copyright a general idea. So, while Superman may be subject to copyright protections as a character and in depictions of that character, you cannot copyright a superhero that flies, wears a cape, shoots beams from his eyes, and has super strength. For evidence of that, see: Homelander from The Boys.
-
Torrent Freak ☛ IPTV Blocking System Survives: "Crafty People Thwarted," Says Serie A CEO
A legal challenge against Italy's incoming Piracy Shield IPTV blocking system is dismissed by a local court. An ISP association had voiced a range of concerns, from disproportionate costs for smaller providers to potential liability for overblocking. The CEO of football league Serie A, which is likely to benefit most from the system, welcomed the court's decision. "The usual crafty people have been thwarted," he said.
-
Torrent Freak ☛ Oscar Contenders Get Piracy Boost from 'Best Picture' Nominations
With thirteen nominations, "Oppenheimer" has positioned itself as the top candidate to scoop up several Academy Awards in March. Interestingly, these nominations didn't move the piracy needle. That stands in sharp contrast to other Best Picture contenders such as "Poor Things" and "Anatomy of a Fall" which saw a significant piracy spike.
-
New York Times ☛ The Sleepy Copyright Office in the Middle of a High-Stakes Clash Over A.I.
The office is reviewing how centuries-old laws should apply to artificial intelligence technology, with both content creators and tech giants arguing their cases.
-
-
Gemini* and Gopher
-
Personal/Opinions
-
Puritanically good
I really like the phrase "puritanically good." I don't actually know much about the Puritans or what they believed, though through context I've understood that they were particularly annoying about what it means for something to be Good, although I feel like that describes most Christian traditions. I like to use it ironically--I'm extremely unconvinced of the idea that there exists "objective goodness" and to me it feels like the more time and energy you invest in defining it the more absurd your results seem. Calling something "puritanically good" invokes the idea that if we were to accept and share a definition of objective goodness, then that thing is it, and that carries a lot of weight. It's so good it provides evidence for objective goodness.
-
Splitting Myself to Pieces (Just Two, Actually)
This is a little bit of spontaneous post, but I still liked to write it, thought be prepared for weird writing style, since as always, I'm experimenting with it :)
-
Cold Tea
Not much of a trick, but for the last steeping let that sit overnight, then consume the next morning. Be sure to cover it so that dust and bugs have more trouble getting in; the water jugs likewise get covered now due to a spider.
-
🔤SpellBinding — CEGHINY Wordo: GURUS
-
Musings of a young person.
I've been noticing a disconnect between consequences and actions. We live in a world where the internet is so closely integrated with society that we forget that we are in fact people, that avatar or tweet, is still you, just the person on the other side just thinks of you in a way that the ones around you do not. What are the ethical implications of relationships built around the internet, because it's such a beautiful thing. It connects us and could create art and life and creativity. But it isn't, it's just this hellscape ran by suits who have no love for art, and philosophy, of literature.
-
-
Science
-
One among primes
When I was young I thought that 1 was prime. The guy who explained that it wasn’t just said “they just decided that it’s not prime, a lot of stuff works out better that way”. A good, succint “a wizard did it” explanation that satisified me (after all, it had worked out for i, j, k and so on, I didn't trip out over the name "imaginary" and it pretty immediately turned out to be useful) and over the years I found that it was true, that a lot of things really did work out better.
-
-
Technology and Free Software
-
agrajag dev log 4
I was going to post a clip of page turning, but smog.pub doesn't like the file size. Shame, 'cause it works.
-
Finger protocol support
Since finding out about the finger protocol and its use in the smolnet/gemini community, I wanted to add my own finger service to my server. It's nice to see this old protocol revived, so I made this a little short time project.
On my FreeBSD machine I use fingerd which comes with the OS and is handled by inetd. I installed my own bash script to handle requests. It can run scripts for every registered finger user or simply return a text file.
-
Internet/Gemini
-
Development. what does it look like under Internet Explorer 5 and DOS
Today I wanted to show you a few screenshots from the Windows 95 and DOS operating systems, what the engine, templates, and site editing look like using the old operating system [...]
-
Back on Usenet
A few days ago i learned that Google will shortly detach Google Groups from Usenet: [...]
Spam and binaries did increasingly become a problem over time, but what eventually drove me away from Usenet was the toxic behaviours of a number of people, and the resulting signal-to-noise ratio problems. comp.lang.lisp particularly stands out in my mind in this regard, for various reasons[a].
-
-
-
Leftovers
Monopolies/Monopsonies
* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.