Mastodawn

nicole Apr 11

obviously you can go too far with this-- if you, say, hear a voice in your head, the fact that you hear the voice is something you know happened, but it doesn't mean the voice corresponds with something in external reality or that the voice is telling you something worth listening to

but you know you had the experience! if someone said "you did not have that experience" you know they are wrong

nicole Apr 11

oops you told me that something I know in my head isn't true, when things in my head are the only things I can be 100% sure are true-- I don't know you exist 100% but I know what's in my head is some form of experience being experienced by something

nicole Mar 16

folks they say to me, the world's a beautiful creation, but we know better don't we, this world's inherently corrupt, more and more people are realizing it every day, and the liberal demiurge doesn't like that one bit

nicole Feb 27

Points to Arabesque's "Midnight Dancer" for having the bravery to rhyme "Tequila" with "Venezuela", that's some solid pronunciation mangling right there

nicole Feb 26

i scream you scream we all scream

nicole Feb 23

It's interesting that you'll see people who don't believe in an afterlife or a god at all yet still have this deep-seated idea that they will be personally held accountable for their actions at the end and so need to carefully avoid their morality budget

video game religion, i hope to get a high enough score to get a continue so I can't vote for the lesser evil

Molly White 6d ago

Big Tech: we invented the torment nexus

Glasses brands: for $54.95, you can slightly reduce the torment

4d3fect 6d ago

@molly0xfff Identity obfuscation as a service?

shom ✊🏽🐧📷🤿🏔️🪚6d ago

@4d3fect that will quickly become identity ransom as a service!
@molly0xfff

4d3fect 6d ago

@shom @molly0xfff touché

Veviser 6d ago

@4d3fect @molly0xfff Security through obfuscation is not security 💀

4d3fect 6d ago

@veviser @molly0xfff but of course

bob 6d ago

@molly0xfff what I want is glasses that have near infra-red LEDs in them so if a camera looks at me it gets a flashlight shined directly into it

Dale Hagglund 6d ago

@molly0xfff Any idea if it's actually effective?

Molly White 6d ago

@DaleHagglund it's a gimmick

@molly0xfff @DaleHagglund I was gonna say, why would they... who is using infrared for ID stuff? Aren't a ton of cameras that do surveillance just... regular cameras?

@molly0xfff @DaleHagglund maybe a night camera but I'm not sure how "shiny anime glasses mode" is going to help...

@aud @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund FaceID uses IR

@SnoopJ @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund Oh, true. OH, is this... marketed as like, "hey, now the cops will have to take your glasses off before using your biometric unlock" ?

@SnoopJ @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund Still, the marketing outright says tracking, which... I dunno if there are just way more IR cameras than I thought, or if they know it's useless and just don't care at all about anything.

@aud it seems much less sophisticated than all that to me. it looks like it's aimed at the market segment that thinks they're hot shit for knowing that infrared depth scanning is a thing (or at least that IR is involved somehow)

and are also dumb enough schmucks to think that because FaceID uses IR and because these glasses reflect IR, that transitively means this defeats FaceID.

I'm *sure* it doesn't, because FaceID isn't doing what a human being does and paying *lots* of attention to the eyes. It's a whole-datum classifier and it's pretty good except for that one time that it was SUPER RACIST because it works by digital phrenology basically

and more importantly if they did actually disrupt systems like these, they would say "this will absolutely fuck up your ability to unlock your phone do not wear them while using it" and not "this *may* frustrate FaceID 👉👈🥺"

@SnoopJ I think they shouldn't have this weak ass "reflective coating" nonsense. I want an active IR coating that blasts out IR energy the moment it feels the dreaded gaze of the camera. I see no reason this would go wrong and it definitely wouldn't melt your eyes.

@SnoopJ

because it works by digital phrenology basicallyreally is amazing how many times they keep inventing "racism but with computers"

@aud [glanging meaningfully at IBM] I mean uh, what else were they made for, really

@SnoopJ if I had a nickel for everytime someone referenced IBM's role in the holocaust today, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, etc.

(I also linked to Meredith Whittaker's essay on the intertwined history of computers and slavery)...

@aud I still gotta read that book but I know the broad strokes of EDC's enthusiastic assistance of the Holocaust, so…

…unfortunately, that puts me well ahead of the median peer

@aud the worst part is how it predates computer, even.

like, a bigot helped create the transistor because he was buttmad about the quality of the work his peers were doing

I mean no wonder the guys who cut their teeth under guys like Shockley ended up building The (Improved!) Racism Machine

@aud anyway, I imagine that defeating FaceID with active transmission would still keep transmission power pretty low?

Probably don't have to get much brighter than like, a Wiimote LED, "just" have to cover enough of your face with that irradiance which… probably involves wearing a mask that would be just about as good without the IR

@aud I hasten to clarify that I do not know what power output FaceID uses so maybe I'm way off with Wiimote but like… it just has to be about as strong as FaceID is, right?

@SnoopJ (oh yeah, for sure. I was just thinking of a super exaggerated blast of heat coming out of the eyes ala cyclops or something because I am being ridiculous).

@aud I bet it doesn't take a *ton* of power to blind the camera, if you can collate a narrow beam.

Probably enough to get into "go directly to federal prison" territory though.

@SnoopJ everything fun you can do with technology that doesn't hurt people gets you to sent to prison. this sucks.

@aud well in this SPECIFIC case, capping transmit power is pretty much what keeps people from getting hurt

a buddy of mine did his thesis on this actually, it turns out that safety limits aren't… always the best place to put your line in the sand.

more specifically, in the IR regime he showed it was possible to reach power densities with pulsed lasers to do supercontinuum generation IN THE VITREOUS HUMOR

@SnoopJ oh hell yeah (EXCEPT NOT REALLY WHAT)

@aud I don't recall the specifics but it might have been that certain total power was allowed to get through because it was assumed it would *stay* IR but uh no turns out not so much if you're unlucky enough

@SnoopJ turn your body into a glow worm with this one easy trick!

@aud although the relevant limits here are more banal, ye olde 5 mW cutoff

@SnoopJ oh jesus, looks like I have a lot of reading to do. aaaaaand wow, all it takes is two seconds googling him and goddamn

oh, he taught at Stanford. Things are coming together here...

@aud I know about him because of "The Idea Factory" which is a brilliant if you've got the bug for phones or even if you don't

@aud studying physics basically force-inducts you into the Ma Bell Fan Club

the transistor, the cosmic microwave background, Bragg diffraction, …

@aud unfortunately a lot of people learned the lesson from Ma Bell's success that "open offices are good" instead of "collaboration is good"

@SnoopJ oh yeah, even as a non physics kid, I know enough about Bell to be a fan of... well.

Certainly not all the people, given the dive I just took into fucking Shockley's life, but

cholling 6d ago

@SnoopJ @aud For real. Whenever I see people in '90s movies complaining about working in cubicles, I think, "You don't know how good you have it. Soon they'll take away the cubicles and you'll just have a desk, surrounded by other desks, with nothing to shield you from your coworkers' inane and distracting chatter. You'll pray for the sweet protection of cubicle walls."

@SnoopJ @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund soooooo I did a quick search and this was one of the first things that came up when I searched for facial tracking and IR

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223011161

title: "Using infrared to improve face recognition of individuals with highly pigmented skin"

bob 6d ago

@SnoopJ @aud @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund even for visible light cameras all CMOS sensors also pick up near infrared. they have filters to block it but they only block the amount you get in normal ambient light. if you shine an led at the camera enough gets through

bob 6d ago

@SnoopJ @aud @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund these days pretty much all sensors are CMOS. you only find CCDs in telescopes and medical equipment

@bob @SnoopJ @molly0xfff @DaleHagglund ah yeah, I have a filter I use on my camera sometimes; obviously the hot mirror does get most of the IR, but a nice amount slips through when you do a long exposure...

@DaleHagglund @molly0xfff

Matilda Love 6d ago

good news. there exists a very effective way to disrupt cameras from tracking you

i'll leave it to your imagination

timmy

5d ago

@DaleHagglund @molly0xfff it will make faceID not work pretty reliably but would depend a *lot* on the type of facial recognition in question

Brandon Gilmore 6d ago

@molly0xfff I am instructing the engineers to switch to UVC for illumination and feature detection.

I realize that eyeglasses already generally block UV, but if folks are going to fight then we may as well hurt our v̶i̶c̶t̶i̶m̶s̶ users in the process.

rtificial 6d ago

@molly0xfff same vibes

unit b4412c "clover"6d ago

@rtificial @molly0xfff the first thing i thought when i saw the picture was "this looks specifically like a defense against the orb"

disorderlyf 6d ago

@molly0xfff Meh, just going to keep wearing N95s (I already do for medical purposes) and might actually opt out of the anti-glare coating on my next pair and just carry around sunglasses for if the glare is going to bother me

disorderlyf 6d ago

@molly0xfff Though I have heard rumours facial recognition software is capable of reading through masks now. Though, I'll believe it when we don't have cases like the United CEO killer where they legit couldn't find him for so long because of the mask

LovesTha🥧6d ago

@molly0xfff Buyers are going to be pissed when they have to use their key to start their car and can't use the cruise control

Christian Gudrian 6d ago

@molly0xfff These are only 8,49€.

Angus McIntyre 6d ago

@molly0xfff Torment Reduction as a one-time payment? What are they thinking?

Announcing our new Torment Reduction subscription, just $29.99 a month, or $49.99 for Torment Reduction Premium …

Earthshine 6d ago

@molly0xfff can't wait to be buying hoodies with electronic warfare packages

Darren du Nord 6d ago

@molly0xfff Prescription lenses and I'm in!

unit b4412c "clover"6d ago

@darren @molly0xfff this is an optional coating they offer for prescription lenses :3

Álvaro Herrera 6d ago

@darren @molly0xfff I buy all my prescription lenses to Zenni. Zero regrets. Don't care for this new crap though (but it won't stop me from buying there again)

Per Haps ✅✔✓☑6d ago

@molly0xfff We're getting closer to the world of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

Winnie 🏳️‍🌈6d ago

@molly0xfff missed opportunity to name the person in the ad "Roxanne"… ("You don't have to put on that red light") #MoulinRouge

Fazal Majid 6d ago

@molly0xfff then you have the intersection, Meta bought a 10% (IIRC) stake in EssilorLuxottica, makers of RayBans and almost every glasses brand you know of.

Climate Jenny 2.1 5d ago

@molly0xfff This is a lot less work than a full face of Kiss-themed makeup.