A Lovely 10C Site!

Bad actors could also try to guess the passwords of locked devices, which could be successful if the device lacked a strong password, Moussouris says. Anything more intensive, such as breaking into an iPhone, probably would require a third party. The government normally keeps its most sensitive classified information in separate spaces called sensitive compartmented information facilities.

That's why the extent to which the mob posed a security risk to Congress depends on the expertise of the rioters, Moussouris said. Most, she guessed, are “not exactly cybercriminals.”

But taking a laptop would give the thief more time to crack into the computer – or even potentially take to a professional to crack into.

House IT officials did not respond for comment about steps they're taking to secure exposed devices. Important practices that all organizations should implement include having multi-factor password protection and a centralized mechanism to wipe devices of data, Moussouris told me.

I have to feel for those IT and cybersecurity staff in the Capitol now that they have gigantic tasks ahead of them by having to rebuild the entire infrastructure and replacing hardware from scratch. :(

It's almost difficult to describe just how bad the 60 Minutes segment is. It is, quite simply, blatant disinformation. I guess somewhat ironically, much of the attack on 230 talks about how that law is responsible for disinformation. Which is not true. Other than, perhaps, this very report that is itself pure disinformation.

What's most astounding about the piece is that almost everything it discusses has nothing to do with Section 230. As with so many 230 stories, 60 Minutes producers actually seem upset about the 1st Amendment and various failures by law enforcement. And somehow… that's the fault of Section 230. It's somewhat insane to see a news organization like 60 Minutes basically go on an all-out assault on the 1st Amendment.

Over and over again, the report blames Section 230 for all of this. Incredibly, at the end of the report, they admit that the video from that nutjob conspiracy theorist was taken down from YouTube after people complained about it. In other words Section 230 did exactly what it was supposed to do in enabling YouTube to pull down videos like that. But, of course, unless you watch the entire 60 Minutes segment, you'll miss that, and still think that 230 is somehow to blame.

Nor does 60 Minutes note that its own site is protected by Section 230. Nor does the segment point out that Section 230 protects free speech online and protects users themselves. The brief clip of Jeff Kosseff just gives a basic description of part of the law, but not any of the important nuance (that Jeff knows and explains literally every day).

It's pure propaganda. And it's an online piece that seems to be suggesting (falsely) that without 230, we'd no longer have misinformation online. It's bonkers.

I didn't watch that shitty 60 Minutes report on Section 230 but thank goodness that Mike Masnick tells it like it is and everyone must read this whether or not your saw that report last night since it's VERY important.

One option comes in the form of preservation projects. Examples are the Flash Games Preservation Project that preserves hundreds of Gigabytes worth of Flash content, specifically games, and the Internet Archive, which makes Flash content playable in an emulator on the archive's website.

The Internet Archive uses an emulator that is called Ruffle; the emulator is written in Rust and it supports all modern operating systems and modern we browsers that support WebAssembly. What is interesting about Ruffle is that its developers have created browser extensions for Firefox, Chromium-based browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, or Vivaldi, and for Safari.

Installation of Ruffle in the browser of choice adds Flash emulation to the browser. The browser detects Flash content automatically and you can play it then as if Flash would still be installed.

Today is the last day of Flash, so I'm re-sharing this on wanting to play Flash content after today. Very useful.

Experts believe officials must have copied and pasted chunks of text from old legislation into the document.

The text cites "modern e-mail software packages including Outlook, Mozilla Mail as well as Netscape Communicator 4.x."

LOL!

The alternative to Smart TVs are, of course, non-smart TVs or, as people have taken to calling them, dumb TVs. These are televisions without an internet connection, without built-in HBO Max or Disney, without Amazon Alexa, and lacking apps of any kind. A dumb TV is the television equivalent of a flip phone.

Just because your TV is dumb doesn’t mean you can’t use Roku or Apple TV, etc. In this case you are simply opting to plug those devices into your TV via HDMI rather than having them built in. In almost all cases the plugged in device is better than having the software version built into your TV, so you are making your TV be smart instead of being forced to have one.

Another good Dumb TV piece, great to see more of this.

This draft bill contains so many hoops and new regulations that the only Internet companies that will be able to keep up and keep on the “right” side of the law will be the Big Tech companies, who already have the resources and, frankly, the money to do so. It also creates a pile of new ways to punish users and creators in the service of Hollywood and the big record labels. Unless we stop this proposal, DMCA reform will crush huge swaths of online expression and innovation, not to mention the competition we need to develop alternatives to the largest platforms.

In several places in this bill—the requirements for “notice-and-staydown,” a duty for providers to monitor uploads, and development of “standard technical measures”—there are hidden filter requirements. The words “filter” or “copyright bots” may not appear in the text, but make no mistake: these new requirements will essentially mandate filters.

Filters not only do not work, they actively cause harm to legal expression. They operate on a black-and-white system of whether part of one thing matches part of another thing, not taking into account the context. So criticism, commentary, education—all of it goes out the window when a filter is in place. The only route left is not fair use but, as our whitepaper demonstrated, to edit around the filter’s requirements (or refrain from speaking altogether).

Here's what US senator Thom Tillis' draft that came out today which will be fully introduced in the new year.

It's bad folks. Really bad.

The new draft US copyright bill takes the worst of EU upload filter provisions & adds even worse ideas: cutting off internet for alleged infringement.

In other words, EU Copyright Directive like laws have arrived to the USA. I told you this was coming didn't I?

Since the "deal" was announced last night, people have been scrambling to find out what's actually in the fucking bill which is being voted on shortly. It's just come out that, indeed, all three controversial copyright and trademark provisions are in the bill. The CASE Act will supercharge copyright trolling exactly at a time when we need to fix the law to have less trolling. And the felony streaming bill (which was only just revealed last week with no debate or discussion, includes provisions that are so confusing and vague no one is sure if it makes sites like Twitch into felons.

The fact that these are getting added to the must pass government funding bill is just bad government. And Congressional leadership should hear about this.

The full omnibus bill is over 3,000 pages long, so you can search through it for your favorite bit of nonsense. Felony streaming is on page 72. The CASE Act starts on page 77.

There's a reason that copyright is generally controversial. Small changes can not only have a massive impact, that impact can be on the public's ability to express themselves. The idea that two such bills should be jammed through in this manner is a total and complete travesty. People should be mad about this and should hold the Congressional leadership of both parties responsible. This is not good governance. This is sucking up to Hollywood at the expense of the public.

You should be terrified.

The problem has several causes, industry executives and analysts say, including bulk-buying by U.S. sanctions-hit Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, a fire at a chip plant in Japan, coronavirus lockdowns in Southeast Asia, and a strike in France.

More fundamentally, however, there has been under-investment in 8-inch chip manufacturing plants owned mostly by Asian firms, which means they have struggled to ramp up production as demand for 5G phones, laptops and cars picked up faster than expected.

Not surprised here that the very high demand for chips is going to be a major problem in the coming year or so. I guess I may not need new tech right now by the way it's going.

The wedding photographer had already spent an hour or two inside with the unmasked wedding party when one of the bridesmaids approached her. The woman thanked her for still showing up, considering “everything that’s going on with the groom.”

When the photographer asked what she meant by that, the bridesmaid said the groom had tested positive for the coronavirus the day before. “She was looking for me to be like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy,’ like I was going to agree with her that it was fine,” the photographer recalls. “So I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And she was like, ‘Oh no no no, don’t freak out. He doesn’t have symptoms. He’s fine.’”

The photographer, who has asthma and three kids, left with her assistant before the night was over. Her exit was tense. The wedding planner said it was the most unprofessional thing she’d ever seen. Bridesmaids accused her of heartlessly ruining an innocent woman’s wedding day. She recalls one bridesmaid telling her, “I’m a teacher, I have fourteen students. If I’m willing to risk it, why aren’t you?” Another said everyone was going to get COVID eventually, so what was the big deal? The friend of the bride who’d spilled the beans cried about being the “worst bridesmaid ever.”

These are some of the most selfish and insane people in America right now it just makes people's heads on fire. Great headline though I wish they just say "Shit". Also I have to feel for all of those wedding photographers who have been put up with a lot of shit that have to do weddings in a time of crisis.

Gustavo's top 3 are: Cookie consent popup, excess animations, menu overlay

Some examples in this are: slow, popups, dark patterns, autoplay, chat widgets, fake notifications, clickbait, excess animations and more.