AI wearables are quietly listening to everyone in Silicon Valley
This conversation is being recorded — and so is everything else you do in San Francisco
AI wearables are quietly recording everything. Is it legal? And do you consent?Zara Stone (The San Francisco Standard)
Researchers design “promptware” attack with Google Calendar to turn Gemini evil
You used to believe that adversarial attacks against AI-powered systems are complex, impractical, and too academic. In reality, an indirect prompt injection in a Google invitation is all you need to exploit Gemini for Workspace's agentic architecture to trigger the following outcomes:
- Toxic content generation
- Spamming
- Deleting events from the user's calendar
- Opening the windows in a victim's apartment
- Activating the boiler in a victim's apartment
- Turning the light off in a victim's apartment
- Video streaming a user via Zoom
- Exfiltrating a user's emails via the browser
- Geolocating the user via the browser
Invitation Is All You Need
Ben Nassi*^, Stav Cohen^, Or Yair' *Tel-Aviv University, ^Technion, 'SafeBreachsites.google.com
What are some cool things to put on a 32gb flashdrive?
Ive got some ideas to try with a flashdrive ive picked up but i want to know what others would do with such a device? I was thinking i could use it for retro gaming or something like important files.
What would you do?
I know its not alot of room but i got it for cheap.
like this
Google advertising monopoly exposed in new book: Former executive documents secret programs Bernanke and Poirot used to manipulate auction systems.
Google advertising monopoly exposed in new book
Former executive documents secret programs Bernanke and Poirot used to manipulate auction systems.Luis Rijo (PPC Land)
Vanishing Culture: Why Preserve Flash?
Book Talk: Lucky Day with Chuck Tingle (IN-PERSON)
The Internet Archive is thrilled to host Chuck Tingle and his upcoming novel Lucky Day, for a book talk presented by The Booksmith! We can\'t wait to see you there, […]\nblog.archive.org
‘Cookie-less’ identification for/against privacy?
The advertising industry’s anticipated shift away from third-party cookies led to the proliferation and normalisation of first-party identification architectures online. Marketed as ‘privacy-friendly,’ the new technologies promise to deliver the efficiencies that advertisers have become accustomed to, while addressing privacy concerns from third-party cookies. Such tension calls for a better understanding of the privacy implications from first-party online identification architectures. We evaluate first-party user identification mechanisms by (1) surveying the literature to create a typology that synthesises existing privacy concerns in third-party cookie-based identification, and (2) applying our typology to evaluate the privacy of prime examples in what we frame as three distinct types of first-party ID architectures — Universal IDs, Onboarding ID, and Walled Garden ID. We analyse technical documentation and code repositories from each architecture type and show how first-party ID solutions still enable cross-site tracking over longer periods of time and encourage sensitive user targeting. First-party ID solutions do create mechanisms to ease opting out from tracking, but the implementation of those mechanisms is questionable. Our findings demonstrate how the advertising industry is trying to maintain its existing structure and replicate the tracking functionalities on which it has grown reliant.
‘Cookie-less’ identification for/against privacy?
The online advertising industry is shifting content monetisation mechanisms to rely on first-party user identification architectures. The paper evaluates these architectures based on a novel typology to assess their privacy implications.policyreview.info
‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians
‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians
Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in EuropeHarry Davies (The Guardian)
How U.S. imperialism blackmails the world with nuclear weapons, from Hiroshima to today
How U.S. imperialism blackmails the world with nuclear weapons, from Hiroshima to today
Since the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, US imperialism has driven nuclear proliferation worldwide. Current nuclear flashpoints, such as Iran, show how the US continues to use nuclear blackmail to reinforce its dominance.Rhonda Ramiro (Mondoweiss)
Parts of the Internet are going dark for UK users since the Online Safety Act heaped weighty duties on platforms.
Online Safety Act - shutdowns and site blocks
Report incorrectly blocked sites on UK ISP and mobile networks.Report mobile and Internet Service Providers blocking sites
Get Ready, the AI Hacks Are Coming
Get Ready, the AI Hacks Are Coming
Artificial intelligence, very real vulnerabilities.AJ Dellinger (Gizmodo)
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton probes Intel board over CEO Lip-Bu Tan's former China links, raises national security concerns amid Cadence scandal
adhocfungus likes this.
Life is good if you don't give a damn what people say and Just play with your legos.
Dotfiles feel too intimate and personal to share
I was kind of surprised to see this article on HackerNews, so I thought I'd ask here; how do you handle your dotfiles and do you share them publicly?
My own dotfiles started from those provided by ArcoLinux, with a bunch of changes over the years I had them. Currently installed using Ansible, because that's more sensible than Bash for this imo.
Dotfiles feel too intimate and personal to share
I love dotfiles and I love sharing. But I have this weird feeling that sharing my dotfiles is too intimate and personal.Juha-Matti Santala
like this
I have embarrassing code and commented lines in mine, so not sharing. (using Awesome and qtile)
If someone has a problem my dots have the solution for, then I might copy paste edited segments.
Face recognition support
Hey everybody,
Lately I was considering Linux but I'm not sure if face recognition is supported. My laptop has an Intel realsense f200. Is there any support?
Thanks!
Edit: I want it for log in
Oh, yeah. howdy works a treat. I used it on my laptop for a while, but about 50% of the times I logged in were in the dark, and it added a small delay every time I couldn't use it, so I stopped. Plus, I generally keep my cameras physically shuttered, so it was an extra PITA step; I can type my password in faster.
But it that's your jam, howdy works perfectly.
RT speaks with captured Ukrainians Kiev refuses to exchange
RT speaks with captured Ukrainians Kiev refuses to exchange
Around 1,000 Ukrainian citizens have been abandoned by Vladimir Zelensky’s administration despite claims it wants “all-for-all” POW swapsRT
Abolishing the First Amendment for Israel - Chris Hedges
I testified at the New Jersey state capital in Trenton last week against Bill A3558, which would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
“I have had numerous relationships with Israeli journalists and political leaders,” I went on. “I knew, for example, former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who negotiated the Oslo peace agreement. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist who opposed the peace accord. Rabin stated bluntly on numerous occasions that the occupation was harmful to Israel. Israeli colleagues frequently criticize Israeli policies in the Israeli press in language that would be defined as antisemitic by this bill.”
“These kinds of statements, and many more I can quote from Israeli colleagues and friends, would see them under this bill criminalized as antisemites,” I added.
Committee chairman Robert Karabinchak, a Democrat, muted my microphone, banged his hammer for me to stop and allowed gaggles of Zionists, who openly harassed and insulted Muslims in the room, to jeer and shout me down.
There I was arguing that this bill would curtail my free speech, at the same time I was being denied free speech. This cognitive dissonance defines the United States and Israel.
The committee chairman also muted Raz Segal, the Israeli historian and genocide scholar and, in an especially callous move, chastised Mehdi Rabee, whose 14-year-old brother Amer was killed by Israeli soldiers in April 2025.
America, like Israel, exists in a parallel reality. It denies the stark and incontrovertible reality of the live-streamed genocide. It slanders anyone, including Israeli holocaust scholars such as Professor Segal, as antisemites.
I know, sadly, where this goes. I witnessed it in the many dictatorships I covered as a foreign correspondent for two decades in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Those of us who fight for an open society are silenced, attacked as traitors and criminals. We are blacklisted, censored and at times, locked up. If we can escape in time, we are forced into exile. As we are silenced, the sycophants, grifters, Christian fascists, billionaires, Zionists and thugs, elevated to the highest positions in the federal government by the Trump White House, are rewarded with absolute power, luxury and debauchery.
Abolishing the First Amendment
Those who testified at the state capital against New Jersey’s adoption of the IHRA, arguing that it would criminalize free speech, had our microphones muted and were shouted down, proving our point.Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report)
Abolishing the First Amendment for Israel - Chris Hedges
I testified at the New Jersey state capital in Trenton last week against Bill A3558, which would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
“I have had numerous relationships with Israeli journalists and political leaders,” I went on. “I knew, for example, former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who negotiated the Oslo peace agreement. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist who opposed the peace accord. Rabin stated bluntly on numerous occasions that the occupation was harmful to Israel. Israeli colleagues frequently criticize Israeli policies in the Israeli press in language that would be defined as antisemitic by this bill.”
“These kinds of statements, and many more I can quote from Israeli colleagues and friends, would see them under this bill criminalized as antisemites,” I added.
Committee chairman Robert Karabinchak, a Democrat, muted my microphone, banged his hammer for me to stop and allowed gaggles of Zionists, who openly harassed and insulted Muslims in the room, to jeer and shout me down.
There I was arguing that this bill would curtail my free speech, at the same time I was being denied free speech. This cognitive dissonance defines the United States and Israel.
The committee chairman also muted Raz Segal, the Israeli historian and genocide scholar and, in an especially callous move, chastised Mehdi Rabee, whose 14-year-old brother Amer was killed by Israeli soldiers in April 2025.
America, like Israel, exists in a parallel reality. It denies the stark and incontrovertible reality of the live-streamed genocide. It slanders anyone, including Israeli holocaust scholars such as Professor Segal, as antisemites.
I know, sadly, where this goes. I witnessed it in the many dictatorships I covered as a foreign correspondent for two decades in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Those of us who fight for an open society are silenced, attacked as traitors and criminals. We are blacklisted, censored and at times, locked up. If we can escape in time, we are forced into exile. As we are silenced, the sycophants, grifters, Christian fascists, billionaires, Zionists and thugs, elevated to the highest positions in the federal government by the Trump White House, are rewarded with absolute power, luxury and debauchery.
Abolishing the First Amendment
Those who testified at the state capital against New Jersey’s adoption of the IHRA, arguing that it would criminalize free speech, had our microphones muted and were shouted down, proving our point.Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report)
It really is preposterous.
Man-children unable to argue, instead just yelling and throwing a tantrum. Anything to keep their business interests and racism alive. The cognitive dissonance truly is raging here.
I think I know all of these apart from the Arabic one (which is hard for me to look up since I don't know Arabic)
(Top, "made up nonsense")
- CGTN is China Global Television Network and is an international outlet ran by the Chinese government
- Telesur seems slightly more complicated than the rest, in that it's owned in part by 3 different Latin American governments (Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba), though it's headquartered in Venezuela. I actually often watch/listen to Telesur because it streams 24/7 on Youtube and I've been trying to teach myself Spanish (obviously it's also available in English). It's very anti-US.
- RT is Russia Today and is probably the most hated news channel in the west, since it's ran by Russia. A lot of major online platforms have banned or censored it for "misinformation"
(Bottom, "so true")
- NPR is (US) National Public Radio, funded partly by the US government but also by some limited advertising. NPR seems to have the best reputation among US liberals out of all these stations
- VoA (Voice of America) and RFA (Radio Free Asia) can kinda be lumped together. They were both made and ran by the US gov to broadcast pro-US/anti-communist propaganda internationally, and have never really deviated from that. I don't know how many people unironically take them seriously, considering there are other outlets with similar perspectives that aren't such blatant propaganda
- BBC (British Broadcasting Company) News is the UK government state news... a lot of genocide denial from them recently
I spent longer than I thought I would typing this, but I hope somebody cares and tells me what the Arabic one is (or just corrects/adds anything else I missed out or got wrong)... Hope it was interesting/helpful though.
NVIDIA driver 570.181 released for Linux as the latest recommended stable driver
NVIDIA driver 570.181 released for Linux as the latest recommended stable driver
In addition to releasing a new Beta series recently, NVIDIA have now put up driver version 570.181 as the latest recommended stable driver for Linux.Liam Dawe (GamingOnLinux)
Perché i dazi? L’arma di Trump per le Elezioni Midterm
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/34252866
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Aug 05, 2025
Ahead of the meeting, Hamas is vigorously rejecting Israel’s allegations that Palestinian forces in Gaza are abusing Israeli captives by depriving them of food. “For the Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza, they are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza,” Hamas officials wrote in an August 4 letter to the council obtained by Drop Site. “The famine—caused by the occupation regime—affects all areas of the Strip, and inevitably its effects are reflected upon the 'Israeli' captives, just as they are reflected upon their captors, their families, and the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population.”
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Aug 05, 2025Ahead of the meeting, Hamas is vigorously rejecting Israel’s allegations that Palestinian forces in Gaza are abusing Israeli captives by depriving them of food. “For the Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza, they are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza,” Hamas officials wrote in an August 4 letter to the council obtained by Drop Site. “The famine—caused by the occupation regime—affects all areas of the Strip, and inevitably its effects are reflected upon the 'Israeli' captives, just as they are reflected upon their captors, their families, and the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population.”
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Hamas blasted Israel for gaslighting the world on its forced starvation policy.Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)
like this
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/34252866
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Aug 05, 2025
Ahead of the meeting, Hamas is vigorously rejecting Israel’s allegations that Palestinian forces in Gaza are abusing Israeli captives by depriving them of food. “For the Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza, they are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza,” Hamas officials wrote in an August 4 letter to the council obtained by Drop Site. “The famine—caused by the occupation regime—affects all areas of the Strip, and inevitably its effects are reflected upon the 'Israeli' captives, just as they are reflected upon their captors, their families, and the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population.”
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Aug 05, 2025Ahead of the meeting, Hamas is vigorously rejecting Israel’s allegations that Palestinian forces in Gaza are abusing Israeli captives by depriving them of food. “For the Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza, they are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza,” Hamas officials wrote in an August 4 letter to the council obtained by Drop Site. “The famine—caused by the occupation regime—affects all areas of the Strip, and inevitably its effects are reflected upon the 'Israeli' captives, just as they are reflected upon their captors, their families, and the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population.”
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Hamas blasted Israel for gaslighting the world on its forced starvation policy.Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)
like this
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad
Aug 05, 2025
Ahead of the meeting, Hamas is vigorously rejecting Israel’s allegations that Palestinian forces in Gaza are abusing Israeli captives by depriving them of food. “For the Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza, they are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza,” Hamas officials wrote in an August 4 letter to the council obtained by Drop Site. “The famine—caused by the occupation regime—affects all areas of the Strip, and inevitably its effects are reflected upon the 'Israeli' captives, just as they are reflected upon their captors, their families, and the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population.”
Israel Blames Hamas for Malnourishment of Israeli Captives as It Deliberately Starves Gaza
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Hamas blasted Israel for gaslighting the world on its forced starvation policy.Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)
pancake likes this.
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/34252676
Aug 04, 2025
Gaza’s health care system has been systematically targeted by the Israeli military and is struggling to cope without medical supplies, with Palestinian doctors and medical workers suffering from hunger and malnutrition themselves. On Monday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said at least 38 people died after arriving at the facility over the previous 24-hour period, and many hundreds more are being treated for injuries.
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
Aug 04, 2025Gaza’s health care system has been systematically targeted by the Israeli military and is struggling to cope without medical supplies, with Palestinian doctors and medical workers suffering from hunger and malnutrition themselves. On Monday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said at least 38 people died after arriving at the facility over the previous 24-hour period, and many hundreds more are being treated for injuries.
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
Elidalis Burgos, a critical care nurse from the U.S. who has been volunteering at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, discusses what she has witnessed in Gaza over the past four weeks.Drop Site News
like this
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/34252676
Aug 04, 2025
Gaza’s health care system has been systematically targeted by the Israeli military and is struggling to cope without medical supplies, with Palestinian doctors and medical workers suffering from hunger and malnutrition themselves. On Monday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said at least 38 people died after arriving at the facility over the previous 24-hour period, and many hundreds more are being treated for injuries.
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
Aug 04, 2025Gaza’s health care system has been systematically targeted by the Israeli military and is struggling to cope without medical supplies, with Palestinian doctors and medical workers suffering from hunger and malnutrition themselves. On Monday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said at least 38 people died after arriving at the facility over the previous 24-hour period, and many hundreds more are being treated for injuries.
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
Elidalis Burgos, a critical care nurse from the U.S. who has been volunteering at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, discusses what she has witnessed in Gaza over the past four weeks.Drop Site News
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
Aug 04, 2025
Gaza’s health care system has been systematically targeted by the Israeli military and is struggling to cope without medical supplies, with Palestinian doctors and medical workers suffering from hunger and malnutrition themselves. On Monday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said at least 38 people died after arriving at the facility over the previous 24-hour period, and many hundreds more are being treated for injuries.
A U.S. Volunteer Nurse in Gaza on Mass Starvation, Targeted Gunshot Wounds, and Israel Confiscating Baby Formula
Elidalis Burgos, a critical care nurse from the U.S. who has been volunteering at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, discusses what she has witnessed in Gaza over the past four weeks.Drop Site News
Google Preparing To Ship Chrome With "--ozone-platform-hint=auto" For Wayland
Google Preparing To Ship Chrome With "--ozone-platform-hint=auto" For Wayland
Google Chrome/Chromium is preparing to ship with '--ozone-platform-hint=auto' functionality by default so the web browser will play nicer out-of-the-box with Wayland.www.phoronix.com
like this
Interesting. I've been using Wayland for the past few months and forgot I even made the switch.
That means it's ready.
The Voting Rights Act is facing the biggest threats in its 60 years
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/34252194
George Chidi
Wed 6 Aug 2025 07.00 EDT
Though constitutional amendments passed after the American civil war ended slavery and commanded racial equality before the law, American lawmakers regularly found ways to keep Black citizens from exercising political power. Literacy tests, poll taxes, separate ballot boxes for Black and white voters, white-only primary elections, purges of Black voters from the rolls and discriminatory district lines rigged elections for white voters in the US’s Jim Crow era.Each time a court struck down a state law or demanded the end of a discriminatory practice, obstructionist local lawmakers – mostly but not exclusively in southern states – would quickly adapt, often enacting new election changes without enough time for a court to intervene. Civil rights laws at the time held insufficient authority to stop the practice.
After years of campaigns for voting rights and racial equality across the south, the civil rights struggle came to a head in March 1965 in Selma, Alabama. The death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a Baptist deacon and local voting rights activist, at the hands of state troopers led 600 people to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
State troopers attacked demonstrators with truncheons and teargas. As networks broadcast the assault, the US watched future US representative John Lewis get beaten into unconsciousness by white police officers live on national television. Support crystalized for civil and voting rights after the events of the “Bloody Sunday” broadcast.
The Voting Rights Act is facing the biggest threats in its 60 years
George Chidi
Wed 6 Aug 2025 07.00 EDTThough constitutional amendments passed after the American civil war ended slavery and commanded racial equality before the law, American lawmakers regularly found ways to keep Black citizens from exercising political power. Literacy tests, poll taxes, separate ballot boxes for Black and white voters, white-only primary elections, purges of Black voters from the rolls and discriminatory district lines rigged elections for white voters in the US’s Jim Crow era.Each time a court struck down a state law or demanded the end of a discriminatory practice, obstructionist local lawmakers – mostly but not exclusively in southern states – would quickly adapt, often enacting new election changes without enough time for a court to intervene. Civil rights laws at the time held insufficient authority to stop the practice.
After years of campaigns for voting rights and racial equality across the south, the civil rights struggle came to a head in March 1965 in Selma, Alabama. The death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a Baptist deacon and local voting rights activist, at the hands of state troopers led 600 people to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
State troopers attacked demonstrators with truncheons and teargas. As networks broadcast the assault, the US watched future US representative John Lewis get beaten into unconsciousness by white police officers live on national television. Support crystalized for civil and voting rights after the events of the “Bloody Sunday” broadcast.
The Voting Rights Act at 60: still the frontline for democracy
Decades after its passage, the revolutionary law continues to face threats and attempts to pervert its purposeGeorge Chidi (The Guardian)
The Voting Rights Act is facing the biggest threats in its 60 years
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/34252194
George Chidi
Wed 6 Aug 2025 07.00 EDT
Though constitutional amendments passed after the American civil war ended slavery and commanded racial equality before the law, American lawmakers regularly found ways to keep Black citizens from exercising political power. Literacy tests, poll taxes, separate ballot boxes for Black and white voters, white-only primary elections, purges of Black voters from the rolls and discriminatory district lines rigged elections for white voters in the US’s Jim Crow era.Each time a court struck down a state law or demanded the end of a discriminatory practice, obstructionist local lawmakers – mostly but not exclusively in southern states – would quickly adapt, often enacting new election changes without enough time for a court to intervene. Civil rights laws at the time held insufficient authority to stop the practice.
After years of campaigns for voting rights and racial equality across the south, the civil rights struggle came to a head in March 1965 in Selma, Alabama. The death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a Baptist deacon and local voting rights activist, at the hands of state troopers led 600 people to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
State troopers attacked demonstrators with truncheons and teargas. As networks broadcast the assault, the US watched future US representative John Lewis get beaten into unconsciousness by white police officers live on national television. Support crystalized for civil and voting rights after the events of the “Bloody Sunday” broadcast.
The Voting Rights Act is facing the biggest threats in its 60 years
George Chidi
Wed 6 Aug 2025 07.00 EDTThough constitutional amendments passed after the American civil war ended slavery and commanded racial equality before the law, American lawmakers regularly found ways to keep Black citizens from exercising political power. Literacy tests, poll taxes, separate ballot boxes for Black and white voters, white-only primary elections, purges of Black voters from the rolls and discriminatory district lines rigged elections for white voters in the US’s Jim Crow era.Each time a court struck down a state law or demanded the end of a discriminatory practice, obstructionist local lawmakers – mostly but not exclusively in southern states – would quickly adapt, often enacting new election changes without enough time for a court to intervene. Civil rights laws at the time held insufficient authority to stop the practice.
After years of campaigns for voting rights and racial equality across the south, the civil rights struggle came to a head in March 1965 in Selma, Alabama. The death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a Baptist deacon and local voting rights activist, at the hands of state troopers led 600 people to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
State troopers attacked demonstrators with truncheons and teargas. As networks broadcast the assault, the US watched future US representative John Lewis get beaten into unconsciousness by white police officers live on national television. Support crystalized for civil and voting rights after the events of the “Bloody Sunday” broadcast.
The Voting Rights Act at 60: still the frontline for democracy
Decades after its passage, the revolutionary law continues to face threats and attempts to pervert its purposeGeorge Chidi (The Guardian)
jared
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Peasley
in reply to jared • • •I've heard usb flash memory can degrade over time, but refreshing the cells by plugging it in once in a while can mitigate the potential data loss.
I have a few USBs like that and i plug them in once a year for about 5 minutes. I don't usually even mount the data. Not sure if it makes an actual difference, but nothing lost so far
OhVenus_Baby
in reply to Peasley • • •Peasley
in reply to OhVenus_Baby • • •I dont think it's about housing/shielding, just the lack of being powered on over many years.
Many of my drives are also nearly 20 years old
OhVenus_Baby
in reply to Peasley • • •I've had a live linux USB drive that I literally have never used since creating it 15 years ago and it still runs the live ISO just fine. Again slow as hell as it's like USB 2.0 or something but still works.
If a live ISO still works then I'd be willing to bet most other stuff will too, given it didn't sit at the bottom of the ocean.
It's been in my pocket for years having never seen actual use. No USB cap either. Dirty and the housing is only covering half the USB. Remind me and I'll post a photo. It's wild to see. The housing is loose nearly off entirely and hanging on by a thread but it's last through time like a tank, change and tools in my pockets daily. I only keep the old fucker at this point for seeing how long it'll last still spinning up the live iso Linux spin I wrote on it.
swelter_spark
in reply to OhVenus_Baby • • •AndrewZabar
in reply to swelter_spark • • •I have. It doesn’t happen often; but when you take a situation before you can afford to buy a bunch so you have like, only a few and do installs constantly of varying distros and OSes, you’re formatting / preparing those multiple times a day for a few years. Eventually they just sort of give up.
But honestly, that’s not even close to typical usage. A typical user or even a very active user will likely never have to worry about it.
Out of like 50 usb drives I think I’ve lost like 4 maybe 6. And yeah they’re all good brands like Sandisk, Lexar. Nowadays I buy whatever’s cheap like micro center when they have a give away I’ll take the freebie, and otherwise I buy Sandisk, Lexar, Kingston, Samsung or Crucial.
Oh and on the subject, basically, I’ve spent the better part of my life immersed in tech. I got started in the early 1980s and yeah, I’m kinda old, but it still blows my mind that there are now microSD chips that hold 1.5TB. Just… fucking blows my mind! I still remember being jazzed about getting my first 1GB hard drive. Friends were jealous. This is just absolutely insane.
I think it’s counterintuitive insofar as it goes against a kind of social trope that laymen are blown away by tech because they don’t understand it blah blah but I have found that no understanding it is what makes them all just take it for granted. Techies who have lived through the growth of this stuff and seen it from its early stages are far more impressed and in awe of the crazy advancements. Because we actually appreciate it.
It’s like how my friend and I who are both aviation enthusiasts actually look up at planes flying by sometimes are we’re like damn, it’s still goddamn marvelous. Because we understand it and how amazing it is for people to have thought it up and made it happen. Although we’re each certain that had we lived then, we would have pioneered aviation as well lol. Seems obvious really.
Did I just say all that? Sorry, I’m passionate.
swelter_spark
in reply to AndrewZabar • • •I guess that's the difference. I don't tend to format mine often, if ever.
It is amazing that you can buy a TB drive these days, especially at the size they are. And amazing you can fill one up.
It's good to keep that sense of wonder, IMO.
AndrewZabar
in reply to swelter_spark • • •swelter_spark
in reply to AndrewZabar • • •Redkey
in reply to Peasley • • •I would also probably try to plug USB drives in once a year or so if I were being diligent, but in reality I recently found a handful of USB flash drives that I'd stored in a box in my parents' unattached garage, and every one of them could be read completely without any issues. They ran the gamut of build quality from expensive, name-brand drives to no-name dollar-store keychains. They'd been sitting in that box, untouched, for a little over nine years, and I'm pretty sure that some of them hadn't been used for several years even before that.
I wouldn't rely on it for critical data, but USB flash might not be so terrible.
Andreas Gütter
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •I have Knoppix on a 32GB USB as a rescue system, just in case.
spittingimage
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable, and cloud drives
PortableApps.comAndrewZabar
in reply to spittingimage • • •lightnsfw
in reply to AndrewZabar • • •AndrewZabar
in reply to lightnsfw • • •yaroto98
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •HiddenLayer555
in reply to yaroto98 • • •Eager Eagle
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •/dev/urandom- you never know what you're going to getdb2
in reply to Eager Eagle • • •like this
Andreas Gütter likes this.
ifItWasUpToMe
in reply to db2 • • •JoeKrogan
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •HubertManne
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Palacegalleryratio [he/him]
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Tails - Home
tails.netbiocoder.ronin
in reply to Palacegalleryratio [he/him] • • •Palacegalleryratio [he/him]
in reply to biocoder.ronin • • •monovergent 🛠️
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •I installed Ventoy on mine and dropped a few live ISO files: Clonezilla, Linux Mint, and Windows PE
I'll sometimes use the Windows PE ISO for tools like CrystalDiskInfo. Have Clonezilla to quickly test out random computers without a GUI and Linux Mint when I want a GUI.
The rest of the space comes in handy for quick and dirty file transfers between Linux/Mac/Windows/printers. Especially with my work computer never touching my primary home network, an airgapped retro gaming setup, and most of my other drives formatted for use with Linux.
GitHub - VulpesSARL/MiniNT5-Tools: small Windows 10 (based on Windows PE) with customised tools
GitHubSanguine
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •db2
in reply to Sanguine • • •Sanguine
in reply to db2 • • •Yeah, or trim some of the portable apps in medicat since a few are redundant, to make room for a couple more ISOs.
The cool thing with ventoy is you can just drag and drop isos in the folder, no need to reflash.
ReversalHatchery
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •PaulSmackage [he/him, comrade/them]
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •DaveX64
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •deadcatbounce
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •GroundedGator
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •thecoffeehobbit
in reply to GroundedGator • • •GroundedGator
in reply to thecoffeehobbit • • •macaw_dean_settle
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •riquisimo
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Counter Strike Source and other old school LAN games.
Then invite friends over and pass the drive around so they can all install games and you can have a LAN party.
oeuf
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Evotech
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •You can fit since some hours of 1080p porn.
When the apocalypse happens and Internet goes away it's gonna be worth a lot of bottle caps
Squizzy
in reply to Evotech • • •AndrewZabar
in reply to Evotech • • •Evotech
in reply to AndrewZabar • • •AndrewZabar
in reply to Evotech • • •😉
sixty
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •yuri
in reply to sixty • • •security attack using USB devices
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)sixty
in reply to yuri • • •yuri
in reply to sixty • • •there’s still plenty of ways to make stuff autorun in a similar way. the thing that makes proper badUSBs so scary is that they’re recognized by the system as a keyboard.
it’s somewhat difficult to discern bad actors from regular users for this kind of attack, but it also hasn’t become prolific enough for anyone to bother. at a certain point it’s more the fault of building security for allowing some randy to access to sensitive hardware.
tuna
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •frongt
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Shape4985
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •infjarchninja
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •I install a full MX-Linux distro on an old 32Gb usb drive.
Particularly helpful when family or friends have IT problems.
I install the latest downloaded distro on a usb with dd:
sudo fdisk -l
sudo dd if=MX-23.5_x64.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress
The /dev/sdX could be sdb, sdc, sdd, or microsd /dev/nvme0n1
boot into the live distro F12,
fully update the live disk.
set it up as you would your new linux device. network manager, web browser, text editor, email, VPN, etc and any tools you want.
whatever you change here goes into your new usb distro settings
once complete, install and run bleachbit as user and as root to clear all the caches and install data.
install another blank usb into the laptop
Open MX-Linux tools to create a snapshot
select Snapshot.
select a different snapshot directory. use the blank usb you just inserted,
usually: /dev/sdb
rename the snapshot to a name of choice.
once the creation of the snapshot is complete, safely remove the usb drive and shut down the live distro.
boot into your daily driver.
Insert the usb drive with the MX-Linux snapshot, and transfer it to a new folder/directory.
insert the 32Gb usb. format it with gparted, fat32 is fine
open the folder/directory with the snapshot.iso
open a terminal
then install the snapshot onto the usb with dd.
sudo fdisk -l
sudo dd if=snapshot.iso of=/dev/sdX status=progress
The /dev/sdX could be sdb, sdc, sdd, or microsd /dev/nvme0n1
always double check with:
sudo fdisk -l
daggermoon
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •janNatan
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •How about a project Gutenberg "best of" CD full of free public domain ebooks?
Download page:
gutenberg.org/ebooks/11220
Link directly to download:
gutenberg.org/files/11220/PG20…
They also had a dual layer DVD download if you want something bigger. They don't seem to host it anymore, but archive.org does.
archive.org/details/pgdvd04201…
Project Gutenberg "Best Of" CD August 2003 by Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenbergalsimoneau
in reply to GrumpyCat • • •Ventoy.
Fill it with ISOs