bramhaag

1,336 karmajoined 3 jaar geleden

https://bramh.me

You can find me on any of these platforms: https://keyoxide.org/0F5C4286BFB0837F2F9DA590499DE67900B12A11

[proof: openpgp4fpr:0F5C4286BFB0837F2F9DA590499DE67900B12A11]

Submissions

The efficacy and safety of cannabinoids for the treatment of mental disorders

3 pointsby bramhaag4 maanden geleden0 comments

Dutch Tax Authority hands US software company control over VAT system

30 pointsby bramhaag4 maanden geleden7 comments

comments

3 dagen geledendiscuss

> Although a majority of voting Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) actually opposed the regulation (314 against, 276 in favor, 17 abstentions), the motion to reject it failed to secure the required absolute majority of 361 votes.

This vote was urgently scheduled for today, the last day of parliament before the summer break. 113 MEPs were not present for this vote, likely having taken vacation days to extend their break. It's hard to believe choosing to do the vote today was done accidentally.

3 dagen geledendiscuss

"effort" is a big word to describe typing out a few prompts to create something with 5k+ open issues.

2 maanden geledendiscuss

Signal is one example. Their values are simply not compatible with what the Chinese government wants (local data storage, key access, etc.). Instead of complying and putting their users' privacy at risk, they accepted the ban.

Google, out of all companies, also decided to partially walk away from the Chinese market in 2010 over censorship concerns [1].

Nobody is forcing Apple to do business in China, or the UK. They actively choose to do so, and because of that also put themselves in a position where they have to comply with these laws, presumably because it makes them more money.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/technology/23google.html

2 maanden geledendiscuss

Apple's response to the UK gov asking to see users' iCloud data says enough about where their priorities lie [1]. They do something far worse in China [2].

Don't fool yourself into believing Apple cares about your privacy. They care about money.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgj54eq4vejo

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/technology/apple-moves-to-st...

2 maanden geledendiscuss

> Im pretty sure Google wouldn’t intentionally cut marginalized people like this off from the entire internet, would they?

Why wouldn't they? Google is notorious for making marginalized people's lives harder if it can make them money. Some examples:

- Hosting Palantir's ImmigrationOS, used by ICE to track immigrants

- Actively removing tools marginalized people use to protect themselves against ICE, such as ICE-tracking apps on the play store

- Intentionally aided Israel in committing genocide as part of Project Nimbus

- LGBTQ creator censorship on YouTube

Cutting off a small group of people they've repeatedly shown not to care about in the first place is a small price to pay to further cement their position as gatekeeper of the internet.

2 maanden geledendiscuss

The requirements for the mobile devices are listed here: https://support.google.com/recaptcha/answer/16609652

So it seems that you will need a modern Android device with Google Play Services installed or a modern iPhone/iPad to be allowed to browse the web in the future.

No mention of device integrity verification yet, but the writing is on the wall.

4 maanden geledendiscuss

They wrote a follow-up article, "Socialists are responsible for leaving children unprotected", which is somehow even more unhinged.

https://www.eppgroup.eu/newsroom/socialists-are-responsible-...

4 maanden geledendiscuss

I agree that the wording is a little misleading. "No coal ever in the electricity mix" is what's stated on the site.

It seems they consider only coal use in the 21st century in mainland Europe + UK (i.e. not Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, etc.).

4 maanden geledendiscuss

https://beyondfossilfuels.org/europes-coal-exit/ keeps track of coal phase-out commitments. 24 European countries still use coal generators, and 6 have not even planned to phase them out (Serbia, Moldova, Turkey, Poland, Kosovo, Bosnia).

Never used coal power:

  Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Switzerland, Norway

Phased out:

  2016: Belgium
  2020: Sweden, Austria
  2021: Portugal
  2024: United Kingdom
  2025: Ireland

Phase-out planned:

  2026: Slovakia, Greece
  2027: France
  2028: Italy, Denmark
  2029: The Netherlands, Hungary, Finland
  2030: Spain, North Macedonia
  2032: Romania
  2033: Slovenia, Czechia, Croatia
  2035: Ukraine
  2038: Germany
  2040: Bulgaria
  2041: Montenegro

4 maanden geledendiscuss

> Spammers won't pay even $0.08 per message because their whole model depends on sending millions for free.

Your LLM forgot that SMS exists. Even a 0.01% success rate on tens of thousands of messages can be lucrative.

4 maanden geledendiscuss

What makes you think that they see bombing civilians as a bug, not a feature?

4 maanden geledendiscuss

Yes, sent*, not sends. Before they got called out, it was opt-out. No consent dialog, warning, or any other sort of confirmation before sending audio to OpenAI. The keyboard is auto-enabled.

Almost half a year after the controversy started, they added a consent dialog (https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/murena-voice-to-text/-/comm...). A few months later, they actually made the consent dialog function as intended (https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/murena-voice-to-text/-/comm...). Mistakes happen, but initially Murena:

1. sent voice messages to OpenAI

2. did not anonymise said voice messages, only their origin

3. did not ask the user for consent

4. ignored the user's consent after they started asking for it

That is not a good look for a privacy-focused OS. There is now a working consent dialog before using this feature, and audio is actually anonymised (random pitch shifting + filtering + noise), but it took them nearly 8 months to address all of this after getting called out.

4 maanden geledendiscuss

> open-source means auditable privacy

This is what that auditing actually reveals:

* /e/OS sends user speech data to OpenAI without consent [1], and thought this was ok until they got caught [2].

* /e/OS massively delays security patches, and calls this a "standard industry practice" [3]. Meanwhile, GrapheneOS' opt-in security preview releases provide early access to security updates prior to official disclosure [4]. Also see [0] (Security update speed) and [7] (WebView being 40 security updates behind).

* microG downloads and executes proprietary Google binaries in a privileged environment [5] [6]. You can obviously not audit these, nor should this count as "degoogled".

* microG still phones home to Google by default (android.clients.google.com for device registration check-in, mtalk.google.com for FCM push, firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com for SIM activations) [7].

[0] has a comparison of popular privacy and security-focused Android-based OS, which paints the whole picture. Privacy-friendly does not necessarily mean secure, but in this case "privacy-friendly" is quite a stretch already.

[0] https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

[1] https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114880528716479708

[2] https://community.e.foundation/t/clarification-about-voice-t...

[3] https://community.e.foundation/t/e-os-and-security-updates/7...

[4] https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/27068-grapheneos-security-p...

[5] https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/blob/e19a9985204ec8329c1d9...

[6] https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/blob/e19a9985204ec8329c1d9...

[7] https://www.kuketz-blog.de/e-datenschutzfreundlich-bedeutet-...

4 maanden geledendiscuss

> I wonder how this compares to GrapheneOS in practice.

https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm is a fairly complete comparison. One of GrapheneOS' biggest features is that they sandbox Google services (if you choose to install them), whereas e/OS gives them privileged access by default (via microG). Calling it a "degoogled" OS while microG uses Google's proprietary blobs is... a choice.

The GrapheneOS developers are very sceptical of e/OS (https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/search?f=tweets&q=e/os), but you should obviously take biases into account here. Murena's CEO occasionally participates too: https://xcancel.com/gael_duval/search?f=tweets&q=grapheneos

5 maanden geledendiscuss

By 'Rust compiler' and 'C++ compiler', they refer to the LibJS bytecode generator implemented in those languages. This is about the generated JS bytecode.

5 maanden geledendiscuss

People can curate their profiles, but not search results. Their posts and comments will still show up if you just search on their user page.

5 maanden geledendiscuss

My feed has devolved into AI generated propaganda with a scary amount of genuine support. Police brutality against minorities and other politically relevant groups; all fake but with hundreds of seemingly real replies cheering them on.

5 maanden geledendiscuss

Kinesis also offers custom switch options through Upgrade Keyboards: https://upgradekeyboards.com/collections/kinesis-advantage36...

Lead times are long, and Kinesis products are expensive. It gets a little more bearable if you take into account that you're using this tool 8 hours a day for years and years, but still. Cheaper options exist.

5 maanden geledendiscuss

A split keyboard might still bring you some relief. Modifiers/enter/backspace/etc are usually moved away from your weakest fingers (pinkies) to your strongest (thumbs). I have Ctrl, Alt, backspace, delete, space, enter and shift all on my thumb clusters.

Here's an example of what that might look like: https://kinesis-ergo.com/wp-content/uploads/KB360-GBR_FRONT-... (though in the default configuration, shift is still on your pinky; you can customize this on most keyboards, or on OS level).

The rabbit hole goes very deep. Another option is home row mods: https://precondition.github.io/home-row-mods. A combination of thumb clusters and home row mods can reduce your finger strain a lot.

5 maanden geledendiscuss

Additionally, the official F-Droid app creates unnecessary friction for GrapheneOS users they refuse to address: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient/-/issues/2914