Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

I zoomed into a handful of random spots, and quite a few (maybe 30%) do not appear to show basketball courts at all. Many seem to be just rooftops or construction sites.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

Silly clickbait headline.

> If you live in Miami or Phoenix, you need air-conditioning to survive the summer. But if you live in the middle of the country, try leaving the air-conditioning off when it’s hot but not too hot.

The more accurate description of this opinion piece is therefore "if you live in areas where it's not too hot [Kansas, where the author is situated, seems like it has average upper temps of mid 80s right now], you don't really need AC much". ....Well, no kidding?

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

I just feel like the bank has infinitely more resources than I could ever have in terms of hiring more attorney-power.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

Reading anecdotes like this is just so terrifying, and there appears to be absolutely no recourse.

These stories can, and do, happen to anyone at any bank. And what can we do about it? It seems like the answer is a glib 'nothing'.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> It might sound a little bit creepy from a privacy perspective, but Gamgee insists that all motion data is processed and stored on the routers themselves, and never in the cloud.

This seems deceptive. Sure, the data may be processed and stored locally, but if the routers themselves may be accessed remotely (e.g., by Gamgee, if the routers are compliant with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-069), then the fact that the data isn't stored in the cloud is a moot point.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> It's hard enough to report issues to OpenAI.

Not at all. OpenAI follows basic accepted standards for security reporting. This is like complaining that you can't find if a website doesn't want specific directories crawled because you don't know about the existence of a robots.txt.

Specifically, OpenAI has a security.txt [0], which is:

> an accepted standard for website security information that allows security researchers to report security vulnerabilities easily [1]

Whenever attempting to find where to report a security issue, the easiest thing to do is always check if the website has a security.txt file.

[0] https://openai.com/security.txt

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security.txt

Here's their security.txt:

  -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
  Hash: SHA512
  
  #
  #           .d88888b.             
  #         .8P"     "9bd888b.      
  #        .8P     .d8P"   `"988.   
  #     .8888   .d8P"    ,     98.  
  #   .8P" 88   8"    .d98b.    88  
  #  .8P   88   8 .d8P"   "98b. 88  
  #  88    88   8P"  `"8b.    "98.  
  #  88.   88   8       8"8b.    88 
  #   88    "98.8       8   88   "88
  #    `8b.    "98.,  .d8   88    88
  #    88 "98b.   .d8P" 8   88   d8"
  #    88    "98bP"    .8   88 .d8" 
  #    "8b     `    .d8P"   8888"   
  #     "88b.,   .d8P"     d8"      
  #       "9888P98b.     .d8"       
  #               "988888P"         
  #
  Contact: https://bugcrowd.com/openai
  Acknowledgments: https://bugcrowd.com/openai/hall-of-fame
  Policy: https://openai.com/policies/coordinated-vulnerability-disclosure-policy
  Hiring: https://openai.com/careers/search?c=security
  Canonical: https://openai.com/.well-known/security.txt
  Encryption: https://cdn.openai.com/security/disclosure.asc.pub
  
  # You may also email us directly.
  Contact: mailto:[email protected]
  -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
  
  iHUEARYKAB0WIQQ5fYPd6Hi19rZDZ+kKj1HZ7OnINQUCZbiKWgAKCRAKj1HZ7OnI
  NS9+AQCTx4vlrCp+Urd1fa/lAQ3dcV8VNHOxA4JnxD0TH2nxwQEAuqoxenxPZWeD
  +IsSikn4em/LEheOeAakGDzZedcu1QE=
  =rMRk
  -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

A user can just as easily identify a scam such as the one in this post by also taking 30 seconds to do a web search for some phrasing from the email.

And "if they don't do that, that's on them"? This is victim blaming in both cases.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> What more do you want?

For it to be clear how unrealistic the odds are. They're not exactly broadcasting "you're 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the jackpot", instead their site screams "Millions Could Be Yours!". That is the dishonesty and obfuscation. Millions _could_ be yours, but they are very unlikely to be yours, in fact realistically approaching zero. While advance fee scams say "millions will definitely be yours", with the odds being absolutely zero. But neither are meaningful odds.

Though regardless, my original point wasn't about odds but about the lure and the appeal of both of these things: the potential for getting a lot of money for doing virtually nothing (other than spending a bit of money up front).

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

The dishonesty lies in obfuscating the actual odds of winning, making the honesty about the payout a moot point as it's not particularly applicable for most entrants.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about, taken to an extreme. A lot of theorizing about ROC curves and optimal operating point formulae, and absolutely no empirical, qualitative evidence (such as any interviews with actual scammers).

For example, there is no actual sample data provided to substantiate even the premise, let alone the conclusion of this claim:

> In choosing a wording to dissuade all but the likeliest prospects the scammer reveals a great sensitivity to false positives.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> Keep your links safe and accessible only to authorized users

Is the operator of this service also able to access the links?

If yes, then right away this claim is not true and merits caution: the random unknown owner of this service can now harvest links which were deemed sensitive enough to merit a password to access.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> I think it is an interesting idea that scammers intentionally make typos and absurdities, just to weed out discerning people in favor of easier victims

This is an apocryphal anecdote or theory that gets passed around, but I'm not sure how true it actually is, and certainly not universally true. In that, I think scammers are way more likely to just make typos than to setup an elaborate low-level target filter. Regardless, I've also never actually seen scammers admit to this.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

This scam is successful because it is predicated on the same appeal that ventures like lotteries, sweepstakes, slot machines, or giveaways have (albeit accentuated with a seemingly guaranteed win, that these other ventures don't have): the belief that you can just luck into a giant treasure chest of money by expanding minimal effort.

Broadly, this is a modern version of what's known as an advance-fee fraud, which has been around for hundreds of years - paying a small amount upfront (hence the 'advance fee') under pretense of receiving a much larger amount later.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

ah yes, passed around countless txtfilez in the '90s...

http://cd.textfiles.com/hackersencyc/PHREAK/GENERAL/CALLATT.... http://cd.textfiles.com/hackersencyc/PHREAK/GENERAL/CCF.TXT

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

Here's the America's Most Wanted segment about the guy, James Clark, from 1988:

https://youtu.be/e56gA8NBXuQ?t=1204

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> Imagine supporting the 2nd most popular language in the world. CRAZY right?

Why are you fixating on supporting the 2nd most popular language, shouldn't it support the 1st most popular language first? Or why not jump straight to the 3rd?

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> The UX was not great... not to mention that it was mostly in Korean. I had a lot of trouble. They didn't strike me as the most professional operation..

What does the seemingly very common-sense fact that a South Korean app was "mostly"(?) in Korean have to do with the UX or with it not being "professional"?

What language were you expecting the South Korean app to be in, French?

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> it's completely free open access

Why are the PDFs individually watermarked?

It seems antithetical to the spirit of releasing a book about Tor and "future of privacy", and to then not only watermark each PDF, but to not explicitly state that this is the case, let alone explain why.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

> This discussion is about subscriptions but the general idea applies to so much more – basic budgeting, retirement savings, not paying random fees, not paying interest, moving spare money to investment accounts every month, rebalancing your investments every quarter, negotiating rents, negotiating your salary.

I think it's one of the major failures of the education system. Why is there no class in school which covers taxes, savings, budgeting, etc? People are seemingly just expected to know this on their own.

Algemarin

2 jaar geledendiscuss

If you believe this, you presumably also believe that companies should be able to enforce this, yes? Which means what, hiring private investigators (or having an in-house investigations team) to monitor employees after business hours? So you either support surveilling staff after-hours, or you think the policy merits existing but doesn't merit follow-through and enforcement?

Submissions

One Year of War in Gaza: Decoding the Role of Big Tech

Eric Adams Staffer Left FBI Interview to Delete Encrypted Chat Apps

The Center for Investigative Reporting Is Suing OpenAI and Microsoft

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