RE: https://mastodon.com.br/@xkcd/116303207172361457

Every so often; someone suggests that astronomical surveys should be required to block out spy satellites in software so that they do not know exactly where they are.

But it turns out that blocking off particular parts of the sky at particular times tells exactly where the spy satellites are.

Ukraine will no longer send troops abroad for training, shifting all preparation to domestic facilities. The decision was driven by concerns over limited modern combat experience among foreign instructors.

A decision long time due... #Ukraine

Someone suggested not pulling any April Fool's pranks this year and I think we all need to get on board with that.

Because, you know, all this.

Slovenia becomes first EU country to introduce fuel rationing

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77m4zx6zvmo
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47548087

Processor shortage to become acute in the coming months

AMD and Intel are apparently shifting their production to server CPUs. Price increases are looming for desktop PCs and notebooks.

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Processor-shortage-to-become-acute-in-the-coming-months-11228081.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege&utm_source=mastodon

#AMD #AMDRyzen #Prozessoren #Intel #IT #news

RE: https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116271471337770496

As people have been saying, Americans, you need to get over that "This is not who we are" bullshit right fucking now - because this is so much who you are; you were so ready for it, that the world's stupidest person could dictator you 5-10 times faster than any other despot & while not missing a single golf break.

Don't like it? Do something about it.

#uspol #fascism

FBI is buying location data to track US citizens, director confirms

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/fbi-is-buying-location-data-to-track-us-citizens-kash-patel-wyden/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47430797

So, I have actually read the text of California law CA AB1043 and, honestly, I don't hate it. It requires operating systems to let you enter a date when you create a user account and requires a way for software to get a coarse-grained approximation of this that says either 'over 18' or one of three age ranges of under-18s. Importantly, it doesn't require:

• Remote attestation.
• Tamper-proof storage of the age.
• Any validation in the age.

In short, it's a tool for parents: it allows you to set the age of a child's account so that apps (including web browsers, which can then expose via JavaScript or whatever) can ask questions about what features they should expose.

In a UNIX-like system, this is easy to do, with a tiny amount of new userspace things:

• Define four groups for the four age ranges (ideally, standardise their names!).
• Add a /etc/user_birthdays file (or whatever name it is) that stores pairs of username (or uid) and birthdays.
• Add a daily cron job that checks the above file and updates group membership.
• Modify user-add scripts / GUIs to create an entry in the above file.
• Add a tool to create an entry in the above file for existing user accounts.

This doesn't require any kernel changes. Any process can query the set of groups that the user is in already.

If a parent wants to give their child root, they can update the file and bypass the check. And that's fine, that's a parent's choice. And that's what I want.

I like this approach far more than things that require users to provide scans of passports and other toxically personal information to be able to use services. If we had this feature, then the Online Safety Act could simply require that web browsers provide a JavaScript API to query the age bracket and didn't work unless it returned 'over 18'.