Maybe the Default Settings Are Too High

I’ve been reading Lord of the Rings for two months and I’m just at the end of the first part. It’s not because I’m not enjoying it. It’s one of the most ...

Raptitude.com
🚨 Stop the presses! 🚨 Breaking news: Someone uses a text editor! 📚 Gather 'round, folks, for the thrilling tale of a #programmer who discovered Kate Editor just two decades after everyone else. 🙄 Stay tuned as we explore every riveting detail of their plugin preferences and the groundbreaking default settings. 🎉💻
https://akselmo.dev/posts/how-i-use-kate-editor/ #BreakingNews #TextEditor #KateEditor #PluginPreferences #DefaultSettings #HackerNews #ngated
How I use Kate Editor

Akseli's various rambles and posts about gaming, gamedev, FOSS, programming and other things.

Weekly output: Google’s AI Mode, Waymo’s software testing, Trump threatens Chris Krebs, Venmo’s dubious privacy defaults

I had a short and useful visit to the future home of Starfleet Academy’s headquarters, courtesy of NTT’s Upgrade 2025 conference there hosting me (including comped airfare and lodging), and now I need to finish writing two pieces from that Japanese telco’s event.

4/7/2025: Google Expands Its Conversational ‘AI Mode’ Search Option, PCMag

Since I already had access to AI Mode and since this is a gardening time of the year, I tested this search option with some queries on that subject for Google’s Gemini AI.

4/8/2025: For Waymo’s Software Team, Bug Hunting Sometimes Happens at 45mph, PCMag

I wrote up an enlightening talk from a Waymo engineer at a software-quality conference I attended the week before hosted by a Tysons Corner startup called Antithesis–and then I got to experience the results of Waymo’s ongoing work during two uneventful rides in San Francisco.

4/10/2025: Still Mad About Losing the 2020 Election, Trump Targets Cybersecurity Pro, PCMag

One reason that I haven’t yet filed anything from NTT’s event is that I took time Thursday to report and write this post to ensure that it would adequately convey the fraudulent nature of Trump’s complaint against Chris Krebs, the CISA director he hired in 2018 and then fired in 2020 for telling the truth about the integrity of that year’s election.

4/11/2025: Venmo’s dubious defaults look like a permanent privacy foul, Fast Company

I’ve had a version of this story on my to-do list for a while, but then the inept opsec of the Trump administration served up a news peg when journalists found the Venmo accounts of multiple White House principals and started exploring their public-by-default friends lists. (Everyone in this administration should have known better, since BuzzFeed News located Joe Biden’s Venmo and inspected his friends list back in 2021). I quizzed a few subject-matter experts, but getting a statement out of Venmo took a little longer.

#2020Election #AIMode #Antithesis #BugBash #ChrisKrebs #defaultSettings #electionDenial #electionSecurity #GoogleAI #GoogleGemini #PayPal #TrumpRetribution #Venmo #VenmoFriendsList #Waymo

Starfleet Academy

Starfleet Academy (also referred to as the Space Academy) was a department within Starfleet. The main purpose of this department was for the education and training of individuals for service in Starfleet. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Apple"; TNG: "Final Mission", "The Drumhead", "The First Duty"; DS9: "Heart of Stone", "Little Green Men", "Homefront"; VOY: "Learning Curve", "In the Flesh", "Imperfection") The movement of personnel in and out of this service was governed by the Star

Memory Alpha
Firefox under fire for enabling 'privacy-protecting ad measurements'

Mozilla is facing significant backlash over a new feature introduced in Firefox 128 that allows websites to perform "privacy-preserving ad measurements"

Stack Diary

#OnlineGroceryShopping
#DefaultSettings

Well OK #NewWorld I might like 100kg of Ambrosia apples, but not today thank you.

In light of recent attacks exploiting default settings, we should all be more aware of the insecure settings of many devices. It is not just industrial applications. Many "smart-home" devices, like TVs and Baby cameras, come with insecure default settings. Thus, it is only a question of time till they get exploited.
#cybersecurity #defaultsettings
https://securityboulevard.com/2024/01/default-configurations-of-software-and-applications-in-cybersecurity/
Default Configurations of Software and Applications in Cybersecurity

This article is part of a series where we look at a recent NSA/CISA Joint Cybersecurity Advisory on the top cybersecurity issues identified during red/blue team exercises operated by these organizations. In this article you will find a more in-depth look at the specific issue, with real-world scenarios where it is applicable, as well as The post Default Configurations of Software and Applications in Cybersecurity appeared first on TuxCare.

Security Boulevard

Me: Nah, they can’t be this dumb  
Also Me: *whispers* they are  

#infostealer #defaultsettings #cybersecurity

«(…) #Google touts that it doesn’t sell your #data outright, it simply sells ad products based on your data. It also trumpets that it gives #people the ability to adjust their #privacy #settings while it quietly counts on the fact that 95% of people don’t adjust #default settings. “When you use our #services, you’re trusting us with your #information,” the #company states in its #privacy #policy

https://proton.me/blog/google-privacy-washing

#product #PrivacySettings #DefaultSettings #Trust #PrivacyPolicy

Privacy washing: Google’s attempts to redefine what privacy means | Proton

Google claims privacy should be available to everyone. But this claim requires a new definition of privacy that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Proton