Mastodawn

RE: https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/116375225490185578

This should not have been a surprise to anyone who is actually concerned with privacy. Anyone shoulder surfing can read notifications. Why would you display private information to everyone who can see the screen?

If you're serious about privacy, you already turned notifs off as soon as you powered on your phone for the first time...even before deleting bloatware.

And then turned off notifs for every app that is installed. For apps where you need to know when to check...let it alert, but not divulge information.

Need to know if the freezer is too warm? Probably fine to show anyone. Text messages? Never show these, especially if the spouse is snarky or spicy.

Convenience is the opposite of security.

Second take: Hiding secret messages behind a biometric scan is silly on a iPhone that can be held in front of your face without your consent. Fingerprints or iris scans require physical force, so are marginally better.

Say it again: Convenience is the opposite of security.

hal8999 Mar 31

Artificial Intelligence is spelled "O.P.M.". Meta is only risking 20% ownership in its own 2GW datacenter. The rest is funded by selling A+-rated 144A investments.

S&P rated it A+ because Meta's name is attached. But it's lower than Meta's AA- rating because Meta pledged no equity of their own into the project. They convinced Blue Owl to pledge $2.5BB of their own. Investors in Blue Owl and other private credit companies can't take their money out due to restrictions on share redemption.

Meta signed 11 different leases (one for each building). They won't pay rent until June 2029. Only on the hook for 4 years. And, if they don't have equipment consuming power, they only pay a minimum rent + $/MW consumed. Lease renewals are optional.

The properlty is on a 15-year amortization plan to pay back the local power utility with minimum monthly payments regardless of consumption.

Who are the Other People in O.P.M.? Probablly you. Pimlico, Black Rock, and a bunch of other investment companies that manage your retirement accounts and portfolios.

And, the businesses who are in the same insurance and re-insurance pools as the Meta/BlueOwl joint venture. Your portfolio probably invests in those, and in the insurance companies who will be paying out losses in the future.

Losses? If the datacenter won't come online until June 2029 or later, Will cheaper locations already be online? Will the A.I. bubble have burst already?

Other People's Money = you and me, eventually.

hal8999 Mar 17

nixCraft 🐧Mar 17

Reddit User Uncovers Who Is Behind Meta’s $2B Lobbying for Invasive Age Verification Tech. Reddit researcher exposes Meta’s $2B campaign to force Apple and Google into building surveillance systems while exempting its own platforms
https://www.gadgetreview.com/reddit-user-uncovers-who-is-behind-metas-2b-lobbying-for-invasive-age-verification-tech

Meta is pure evil who is pushing age verification laws to benefits from surveillance tech.

Reddit User Uncovers Who Is Behind Meta’s $2B Lobbying for Invasive Age Verification Tech

Meta funneled $2B through nonprofit shells to push age verification laws targeting Apple and Google while exempting its own platforms from surveillance requirements.

Gadget Review

hal8999 Feb 4

Cat 🐈‍⬛🛰️Feb 4

Okay so there's a letter from the car loan and a sudden "improvement" in my credit and that means the only reason I have a car to sell to Carmax is the ice and snow.

Right now I need about $4500 (which includes tax/tags/etc.) That's $100 from 40 people, $50 from 80, etc, plus a bit.

If I can't do that I need a full $7500 plus tax, tags, etc AND an uber 30 miles away AND hoping the seller is completely honest to have a viable vehicle that isn't effectively a waste of resources.

Time crunch here, it's starting to thaw. I have a day or so at most.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-cat-family-seek-out-new-life-new-civilizations

#fedihelp #support #mutualaid #urgentmutualaid

Donate to Help Cat & family seek out new life, new civilizations, organized by Cat Bailey

Hi there! I'm Cat, a very nerdy single parent to two teens and a sma… Cat Bailey needs your support for Help Cat & family seek out new life, new civilizations

gofundme.com

hal8999 Jan 5

Happy Change Unfreeze Day !

It's gonna be an interesting week, y'all.

hal8999 Dec 30

Lesley Carhart

Dec 30

I think one of the wildest parts of the Epstein Files fiasco to me is billionaires are so different that they talk about the darkest most blackmailable secrets of the worlds elite in gmail when I am miserably embarrassed Google is retaining my everyday online cosplay purchase history to train AI.

hal8999 Dec 23

Jerry 🦙💝🦙Dec 23

I get asked a lot lately what I think people who want to get into cyber security should focus on. My go to answer is incident response, since it seems like the mountains of vibe code and half-assed zero trust architectures is creating galactic scale potential breach energy. Would that be called vibe responders? Or is that for when we figure out how to hand over IR to AI as well?

hal8999 Dec 23

IMHO, Bari Weiss ignored a few things:

The Streisand Effect
Canada is an ephemeral place when you have a VPN service
post-dial-up internet, censoring journalists is done by nation-states, not editors with a grudge

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/yo-what-limewire-re-emerges-in-online-rush-to-share-pulled-60-minutes-segment/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

“Yo what?” LimeWire re-emerges in online rush to share pulled “60 Minutes” segment

Redditor jokes LimeWire is now a "champion against the darkness."

Ars Technica

hal8999 Dec 22

HTTP 1.1/418 Old Teapot Typewriter Font Dec 21

RE: https://eupolicy.social/@bert_hubert/115757523488655548

Oh yeah. "just" is up there with "actually" and "technically" as a signal for me to reread whatever I'm writing and make sure I'm not about to sound like That Asshole. (It's possible to use those words without being That Asshole, but it's worth checking whether or not that's the case.)

hal8999 Dec 18

Jerry 🦙💝🦙Dec 18

If you find the fediverse useful, don’t forget to support your instance (assuming they accept support). While the software is free, running instances is far from it. I am glad to be part of the community and want to see it continue on as a viable alternative. Thank you all for being here and I hope you have a good holiday season.