@otter@lemmy.ca cover
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

otter

@otter@lemmy.ca

I waddled onto the beach and stole found a computer to use.

🍁

Note: I’m moderating a handful of communities in more of a caretaker role, and they are open if you want to take them over :)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Same with Reddit, FB Messenger, Instagram, TikTok... Some of them are harder to spot, like how Reddit now goes reddit.com/r/example/s/8913y4h93

Would be nice if social networks and messengers would automatically strip these parameters.

I started using URLCheck on Android and SO MANY links have some kind of tracker that you can drop and not lose any functionality. Things like Signal (and even Lemmy/Mastodon) could do something similar and throw up a little warning when it encounters a known tracker, then offer to clean the URL for you.

Another advantage is that the clean URLs are a lot more descriptive

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

For example, see the link in the post body here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/18dsi68/whats_going_on_with_kim_kardashian_and_taylor/

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

The other great thing about the Fediverse is that people have options, and they can explore those options without affecting you

If someone wants to use Mastodon on an Apple device, then great. If someone wants an algorithm when viewing content, then great.

We aren't locked into one thing anymore

nm , (edited ) to technology
@nm@veganism.social avatar

I just finished my hour-long interview with Oxford University concerning their study of Mastodon and decentralized social media.

They were especially interested in what we’ve done here at Veganism Social, as we have our own fork with custom features that address common complaints such as content discoverability.

Veganism Social’s use case was exemplary of the benefits of decentralizion. Our moderation is uniquely anti-speciesist, and the community has a clear purpose beyond ‘general’.

My analyses of the technological and sociological benefits of decentralization are extensive. I (currently) have a deep understanding of Mastodon’s code-base, and how to use it. I also worked as a software developer for centralized social media, and now moderate a subreddit with 100k members.

I could not possibly exhaust myself of exhilarating insights to share.

Surely, the Oxford study will broaden awareness of how decentralized social media will benefit society.

Next time my wife asks me to stop info-dumping, I’ll banter that Oxford might think it’s worth listening to. 🤭

They’re sending me an Amazon gift card as compensation, and of course I’m spending it all on candy.

@technology @Gargron @Mastodon @feditips
@fediversereport @fediverse

otter ,
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You can post this on !fediverse too :)

otter ,
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😭 so precious

otter ,
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This sounds like a positive change though

otter , (edited )
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Depends on the content

If it's a product or service, then I'll find other sources before buying

If it's an academic source lecture recording or news story, then I prefer comments to be disabled. Shows me that the channel cares enough about it

otter ,
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I meant lecture recordings that are only meant for the students in the class

Sure we can invite external opinions but it's not worth the trouble. People can call out the stuff elsewhere

otter ,
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It's a little quieter now, I think because everyone is busy with life stuff. I was planning to work with the mods in !askmeanything when I had time to get it rolling again (with locals to start off)

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Yea it makes sense in some cases

Most people can still use Discord for day to day stuff without ads. The extra features are mostly cosmetic, or things like better quality video/audio, which comes with increased load

Data tracking is probably still happening though

otter ,
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🕺🪩📸

otter ,
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I don't think they're in trouble, they're just talking about long term funding because it's relevant. Can't expand and get more funding without mentioning that you need it

Of the articles I saw about funding

  • one was by Signal, estimating future costs
  • one was by that Grayzone guy, misrepresenting where funds were from (said it was CIA lol), how much was being changed (title implied it was entirely CIA funded but it was a past, publicly documented investment by a government program)
otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Signal feels the closest, it's basically equivalent to other messaging apps. Somewhat cleaner and easier to use IMO

The only downside is chat backups for people coming from Messenger, in particular those on iOS devices. Streamlining that process might get me to go "contact me on signal, I don't check messenger often", but right now I get why there's a last bit of friction with my friends

WhatsApp has a similar limitation but they walk you through the backups process. Even then, they limit backups to google drive iirc. Signal could do something similar, but much better by explaining the process and opening up backup locations

otter ,
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I've heard Garmin can also be used local only with the data exported?

otter ,
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Someone mentioned GPSLogger & Location Map Viewer here: https://lemmy.ca/comment/5402752

I haven't tried them yet, but that could work. I'd also love an easy-to-use version of this, it's just so useful.

When did I last go to the doctor? What was that restaurant we ate at that night?

so helpful

otter ,
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Could you just use the mobile site?

otter ,
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For sure, I haven't used them much but I was planning to look into it when I had a chance

otter ,
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So I assume they added any necessary stuff to the TOS to allow this.

My question is if there's any legal mechanism to prevent this on other platforms? Pixelfed for example.

Companies will likely federate and pull images regardless, but can we go after them when they're caught? Nothing prevents them from taking the images for internal R&D, but at least we can stop them from selling products with that training data

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Yea that's something that's been on my mind as well

There are benefits from that openness and verifiability in public spaces (ex. Lemmy communities), since now it's easier to determine if there's vote manipulation or astroturfing. But I think the fediverse needs a lot of work around privacy, and also education about what is/isn't private on these platforms.

There should also be more of a focus on setting up a legal requirement on what can be done with the information, but I'm not sure if that's a thing just yet. We developed GPLv3 to make sure FOSS products can't be incorporated for profit, but I'm not sure how it would work for data.

ex. It should be easy to save, record, and share posts on the fediverse, such as with embeds/screenshots/news stories

But also we want to prevent abuse, misuse, and AI training

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Well there's a difference between "don't look at my work without paying me, even if it's posted publicly" and "don't sell my work without paying me, even if it's posted publicly"

Like I said, there's nothing we can do about companies using all the data they can get their hands on for private R&D. It IS possible to protect against the second case, where companies can't sell an LLM product with copyrighted training data.

My question was about how that second case could be extended to stuff posted on the Fediverse, such as if an instance had a blanket "all rights belong to the user posting the content".

These laws exist, if companies can use them then so can we

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I think they will rethink things only if it's cutting into the profits enough. Unfortunately, most people won't understand the issue and just buy something new if they can. Of those that didn't upgrade, a chunk might also be people who can't upgrade because of compatibility reasons (ex. Lots of healthcare providers only RECENTLY switched to Windows 10). The remaining portion might just use Linux.

Overall they get more out of keeping the requirement unfortunately?

otter ,
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This one is really nice. I still use solid explorer but I've been trying to switch to this one

otter OP ,
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I think that might be a part of the focus, to push companies into including these underrepresented languages/accents so that the products work for everyone instead of a smaller subset

Worth considering before contributing

otter ,
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Does this happen locally or...

Edit:

To reiterate, Smart Search uses local machine learning capabilities to enhance search in Files. In the app’s settings, the feature is described as a way to “get better search results with automatic scanning of your on-device file content.”

Ah ok. I still wouldn't switch to it, but that's good

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Can also ask in

!patientgamers

!patientgamers

RARBG Proxy Torrent Sites Download Free Movies (www.webtechmantra.com)

The user experience on the rarbg Movies Download site is characterized by a streamlined process that allows individuals to swiftly and efficiently download thousands of movies and TV shows. This accessibility and ease of use contribute significantly to the positive reputation the platform has garnered over time....

otter ,
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Also didn't RARBG shut down lol

otter OP ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

More about the files

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/28/tesla-100-gb-data-bomb-turned-over-to-handelsblatt/

Handelsblatt (paywall), one of Germany’s top news organizations, says it has received over 100 GB of data from one or more Tesla employees. It broke the story with this headline: “‘My autopilot almost killed me’: Tesla files cast doubt on Elon Musk’s promises.” Those reports suggest that Tesla failed to adequately protect data from customers, employees, and business partners and has received thousands of customer complaints regarding the carmaker’s driver assistance system, according to The Guardian.

That’s not all. Handelsbatt says that included in the data are tables containing more than 100,000 names of former and current employees, including the social security number of CEO Elon Musk, along with private email addresses, phone numbers, salaries of employees, bank details of customers, and secret details from production.

Data protection in Germany is primarily governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The data protection office in Brandenburg, where Tesla’s European gigafactory is located, described the data leak as massive. “I can’t remember such a scale,” the Brandenburg data protection officer, Dagmar Hartge, told The Guardian.

If such a violation is proved, Tesla could be fined up to 4% of its annual sales, which could be €3.26 billion ($3.5 billion). Just this week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was given a record €1.2 billion fine by the EU privacy regulator over its handling of user information and given five months to stop transferring user data to the US.
Tesla Data Breach Details

The complaints, which were reported across the US, Europe, and Asia, span from 2015 to March 2022. During this period, Handelsblatt says Tesla customers in the US, Europe, and Asia reported more than 2,400 self-acceleration issues and 1,500 braking problems. These include 139 reports of “unintentional emergency braking” and 383 reports of “phantom stops” from false collision warnings. Other reports are about instances of claimed sudden acceleration, some of which caused cars to end up in a ditch, hit walls, or crash into oncoming vehicles.

Judge: Amazon “cannot claim shock” that bathroom spycams were used as advertised | A West Virginia judge largely denied Amazon's motion to dismiss lawsuit (arstechnica.com)

Judge: Amazon “cannot claim shock” that bathroom spycams were used as advertised | A West Virginia judge largely denied Amazon's motion to dismiss lawsuit::A West Virginia judge largely denied Amazon's motion to dismiss lawsuit.

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Yep, health/beauty products, jewellery, and childrens toys are a big concern. A lot of people think they're all the same and just buy the cheapest one

and then there's stuff used for food prep...

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Congratulations! The cat distribution system allocated you one

knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-distribution-system

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m not your target for the question, since I haven’t ever tried Unlimited

Bitwarden is very solid for a password manager, and it works well for my family

You could compare prices between just ProtonMail+Bitwarden (or other manager)+VPN of choice?

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Is it possible you tried Keepass? I thought Bitwarden’s UI was pretty good and modern, and that’s one of the silly reasons why I picked it over keepass long time ago

otter OP ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Yea I'll probably keep using them, and advocate for better pay / pay artists another way

This is what people mean where piracy is a service problem. It's much more convenient to have nearly ALL the music available on each of the platforms.

I wonder if that's the biggest reason people pirate movies and TV, but pay for music and games. Not having to juggle where all the content is

otter , (edited )
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

The other comment by @Pfosten focuses on the contents of the article, which are more important. I took a peek at the author, Kit Klarenberg.

The author also writes for The Grayzone (thegrayzone.com/author/kit-klarenberg/), which gets posted on Lemmy occasionally. Among other questionable and misleading pieces, The Grayzone and Kit put out articles ‘calling out’ Bellingcat and TOR…

For the stuff below, if you have doubts in the source, please follow up on the linked sources each one contains. To be clear, we do need to hold these tools and services accountable. Spreading misleading content does not help with that. Even worse if it’s intentional disinformation

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grayzone

an American fringe,[7] far-left[19] news website and blog,[23] founded and edited by American journalist Max Blumenthal

The website, initially founded as The Grayzone Project,[24] was affiliated with AlterNet before becoming independent in early 2018.[4] It is known for its critical coverage of the US and its foreign policy,[1] misleading reporting,[25][26] and sympathetic coverage of authoritarian regimes.[4][21][27][28] The Grayzone has downplayed or denied the Chinese government’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs,[32] published conspiracy theories about Venezuela, Xinjiang, Syria, and other regions,[33][34] and published pro-Russian propaganda during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-grayzone/

Overall, we rate The Grayzone Far-Left Biased and Questionable based on the promotion of propaganda, conspiracy theories, and consistent one-sided reporting.

AI could mean free doctors and lawyers for everybody in 10 years, OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla believes / There will even be a billion bipedal robots in 25 years, Khosla said (archive.ph)

AI could mean free doctors and lawyers for everybody in 10 years, OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla believes / There will even be a billion bipedal robots in 25 years, Khosla said::undefined

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

free

Hah

As for AI doctors, I considered it early on but it seems less and less likely with each passing day. A more likely and reasonable outcome would be AI assisted care enabling healthcare providers to care for more people each. Ideally, hospitals and medical networks will run the custom generative tools locally and no patient data will leave the network. Reducing the busy work and admin load might also save money that could be used to hire more HCPs.

Of course, that societal benefit only happens in places where healthcare is not for profit. In places with for profit care, it just flows more money to the investor’s pockets. Given who’s saying this

Flipboard has begun testing ActivityPub federation of user accounts (flipboard.com)

Mike McCue - Hello Fediverse. I'm posting this tonight from my federated Flipboard profile! We're now testing our #ActivityPub integration starting with my account. You can follow me here to see all the stories I'm curating about things like startups, photography and of course, the #Fediverse. Curious to hear your thoughts on...

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Exciting!

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I believe you can do it in the Lemmy account itself, try the web interface

It should work for all of Lemmy afterwards

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m from lemmy.ca too, and while I’m conflicted about the project, I’d rather limit defederation unless it’s about something very clearcut

After v0.19 drops, users can block instances which should fix the problem for everyone that might want it gone

otter ,
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I believe users are bots until they decide to claim the account by proving the Reddit account belongs to them. After that, they become regular old Lemmy accounts?

otter ,
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As long as we do it nicely, it could make communities better for everyone!

Some subreddits have friendly relationships with Lemmy, and understand why things are the way they are. I’d rather focus on those (reposting good quality relevant posts) and ignoring the ones that want nothing to do with the fediverse.

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I know of one account, but mainly because I initiated the claim process lol

I’d prefer a slower rollout while things get implemented because yea, it’s a bit of a mess in the meantime. It has potential, and I’d hate for it to fall apart because some aspect of it spirals

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Alternate link for clients that don’t support that one:

Link

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Reminds me of r/mapswithoutNZ

otter ,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I think the concern is more

  • LW works great, and it has most of the communities so most new people join there
  • LW starts running Lemmy + some extra features on top
  • time passes
  • LW closes off, but it still has the mass of users and new features, and most people don’t care about what this might mean because it still “works great”. There’s not enough friction to jump instances
  • it enshitifies, we’re back to June 2023
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