Russia will ban calling on WhatsApp and Telegram, media personality Ksenia Sobchak says — Meduza
The Russian authorities have reportedly decided to ban the calling feature on WhatsApp and Telegram, well-connected media figure Ksenia Sobchak reported on Tuesday, citing sources in the telecommunications industry.
The decision “has already been made at the very top,” the sources reportedly said.
“They’ve banned calls ‘under the guise of fighting terrorists,’” one source told Sobchak’s Telegram channel. Final consultations on the issue are expected to wrap up this evening, according to a government source she cited.
Sobchak noted that the apps’ messaging and channel features will still remain accessible.
Russia will ban calling on WhatsApp and Telegram, media personality Ksenia Sobchak says
The Russian authorities have reportedly decided to ban the calling feature on WhatsApp and Telegram, well-connected media figure Ksenia Sobchak reported on Tuesday, citing sources in the telecommunications industry.Meduza
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The workaround: Switch from Adblock Plus to uBlock Origin.
ABP has had random issues that break it often for years now. It's crap.
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The workaround
Quit using YouTube directly and proxy your request through an Invidious instance.
Your requests are mixed in with everyone else’s, ad’s are blocked and most importantly only 1 machine touches YouTube directly and that’s the server hosting Invidious.
You see how often growing youtubers complain about more than 85% of their viewers are not subscribed to the channel, or how just some videos have more views than their main content?
I actually don’t watch a whole lot of YouTube anymore so I can’t really comment on this here.
The issue is that Invidious doesn't have the algorithm Youtube provides to everyone,
But isn’t this what people are trying to avoid when it comes to digital privacy? User data being used in less algorithms?
But isn’t this what people are trying to avoid when it comes to digital privacy? User data being used in less algorithms?
Yes. Invidious and other programs, websites and anything else are useful for these kind of things. When you go to another house and in another computer you want to see some video but not affect the watch history of the user that uses the computer mainly. Or just simply watching some video that you wouldn't normally watch.
But most people who use YouTube actively on their main computer binge-watch. Sometimes they follow creators, sometimes they follow what the algorithm recommends them for the day. Invidious does not have such algorithm, since its a proxy. So, it is really not for everyone.
more than 85% of their viewers are not subscribed
Why would you have an account in that hellhole?
Some of us made Gmail accounts long before Youtube even existed, and still rely on youtube for tutorials and other things of that nature that aren't found anywhere else.
Don't be a pretentious dick about it.
Most people don't even know what Invidious is, let alone the fact that there are other video hosting sites that aren't youtube (Vimeo, for one).
Invidious is always breaking, too, and most people will stop using it when that happens.
We are talking about most people, not the absolutely tiny minority of technical users who are aware that such a thing as Invidious even exists.
Firefox on Android has it.
But if you're on iOS you'd better speak to Tim Apple about it, assuming he's finished noshing off Trump.
Damn sure was clickbaity. No ads? Buy YT Premium they say.
Whoopee. Saved you a click.
I stopped using ABP years ago and switched to uBlock Origin. That and some *Monkey scripts.
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In firefox you can easily toggle off the studies telemetry bullshit in the settings. Librewolf is just firefox with those things ripped out right?
There's benefits to us not tweaking privacy settings. TOR explicitly discourages it. You don't (always) get fingerprinted by a single unique item, it's through an ensemble of data points that companies can identify who you are. There may be 10% of users with your same font library, and 1% who has the same monitor width, and 5% with the same time zone, and voila, when you multiply those percentages, you get close to one in a couple billion, and they've successfully fingerprinted you.
If everyone tweaks their settings from default Firefox, you reveal more information about yourself each time. You may think you're protecting yourself, but the reality is the opposite, you're creating a one of a kind browser config. This is where Librewolf can really reign supreme, if we all just use stock Librewolf, no one will be unique, and everyone will be anonymous.
FreeTube is a FOSS youtube frontend.
FreeTube occasionally has issues on videos with preroll ads where the video fails to play because the ad won't be fetched. This can sometimes be mitigated by running an ipv6 rotator script and blocking freetubes access to ipv4. The one I run reassigns my ipv6 address once every 5 seconds to a new randomly generated valid address.
Sometimes even this doesn't block the ads (again causing the video to fail to play) in which case selecting the share icon from the freetube interface and clicking "open invidious link" will open a web browser pointed to whichever invidious instance is set to your default.
The freetube folks are working on implementing DASH, which should eliminate the need for these workarounds once successful.
Brave is not a privacy company. They are affiliated.
But I don't think switching to Firefox is good enough, since Mozilla is adding bloats to it. Use forks.
Tom’s Hardware, Ad Block Plus, paying for YouTube Premium as a “work around”?
Guys this content was by boomers for boomers
Guys this content was by boomers for boomers
Tom's Hardware sold out looong ago, sold in 2007 to some faceless consortium. The original "Tom", Thomas Pabst, who is GenX and not a boomer btw, has had nothing to do with the site since.
The editor of this article looks to be a millennial btw.
Stop using Adblock Plus and start using Firefox with uBlock Origin.
If you’re on iOS, swallow your pride and install Brave and just turn off the crypto features. You’ll thank me later.
So my parents use chrome even though I constantly install Firefox and hide chrome. Problem there is they end up with Edge so I stopped doing that. (Didn't windows get in trouble for this kind of market control in the 90's?)
So I had Ublock origin on chrome for them but it's "not supported" anymore and my usual method of ignoring what it says and turning it back on are now failing.
Any help?
Or if they just really don't like Firefox for some reason they could look into trying Cromite. It has worked pretty well for me and actually does better at blocking ads on sites like adblock-test.pages.dev/
than Firefox with uBlock origin does.
I added a user script to clear some of the URL trackers just in case I copy links anywhere as it like opera doesn't use extensions up front.
But on sites like that Firefox w/uBlock with score a 90 for me unless my Pihole is running, and Cromite will score 100 without it. Opera a 75, but I do like Operas interface on Android a lot.
AdBlock Tester - Advanced Testing Suite
Test your ad blocker's effectiveness with our advanced testing suite featuring smooth animations and comprehensive analyticsadblock-test.pages.dev
If they are technically inept, reduce their accounts to limited, lock down the admin account. That will prevent them from installing Chrome, and if the admin sets a shortcut on their desktop(s), they won't be able to remove it. Disable Edge (there are multiple ways to do so), install the necessary extensions on FF, then change FF's desktop icon and text to "Chrome".
Problem solved.
I see, but lite is much less effective. google has worked hard to make it lose its capabilities. it may still be effective at blocking youtube ads (though as it cannot use frequently updatable blocklists it probably has a higher delay for fixes when something breaks), but it cannot have specific rules for less popular sites, because of chrome's low limit on allowed filtering rules, and even though it can hide ads, that's not the sole function of ublock origin. ubo is a complex content blocker, with versatile tools to defuse site tracking on lots of websites. lite cannot do that anymore effectively, because both its capabilities have been reduced (e.g. it cannot edit network traffic anymore I think), and the number of filtering rules that it can load.
and even before lite, ubo could not be as effective on chrome as on firefox, because of slight differences in the extension api, with not so slight practical differences.
‘I don’t expect to live a normal life’: how a Leeds teenager woke up with a Chinese bounty on her head
Media outlets across east Asia were reporting that Cheung, who had just finished her A-levels, had been declared a threat to national security by officials in Hong Kong. There was an offer of HK$1m (£94,000) to anyone who could assist in her arrest or capture.
Friends said: ‘Sorry, you are a criminal in Hong Kong now so we can’t be associated with you.’ Even friends in Leeds stopped seeing me
‘I don’t expect to live a normal life’: how a Leeds teenager woke up with a Chinese bounty on her head
After speaking out about the suppression of Hong Kong’s protests, Chloe Cheung was targeted by Beijing, followed on the street and abused online. Yet she remains defiantTom Levitt (The Guardian)
ML: China best, this is fake.
Tomorrow, she is missing…
ML: She is lying. She is faking. Western propaganda
Next week dead in a ditch…
ML: Suicide by gunshot to back of head.
how does one check if there is a Chinese bounty on themselves?
asking because I was contacted by Chinese nationals that worked in the consulate in Texas hours after publicly expressing China can go fuck itself on Reddit. weeks later that same place was on the news for burning thousands of documents in their parking lot and everyone inside fleeing back to China now listed as spies.
also when I say contacted, I mean they emailed me and sent messages on LinkedIn. my Reddit account was never linked to my personal identity.
edit: oh yeah, China can still go fuck itself.
how does one check if there is a Chinese bounty on themselves?
Maybe ask @ Lemmy/ China instance? Make sure you get the correct one.
gonna guess they have a profile on everyone on Reddit.
I mean, it's no secret that Reddit has deep ties to Chinese financing.
We hate what Trump is doing to us, but at the same time, our partners in BRICS are not a bed of roses either...
It seems the bipolarization of the world is coming to its max now, again, after cold war...
Eu concordou que o BR não pode se vender aos EUA (de novo) mas a alternativa também não é lá muito promissora...
our partners in BRICS
There are no BRICS partners. The union literally does nothing but yap contrarian lmao
I'd love to see an alternative currency for international trade though. We're done with US Dollars.
All commodities, on what my country depends, are rated in USD, even if few sell it to China or Europe...
And all of this for what? What is the actual value US is putting into all of this? Its only getting a share on something it has nothing to do.
And it just gives US fu**ed up governors the chance to impose sanctions to whoever they want in order to interfere with foreign affairs.
Just because it's not explicit on the website, it doesn't mean it's not doing it behind the scenes. That's how economy works...
If I buy something from China, my money goes there by SWIFT transactions, which is controlled by US.
Meanwhile read this article. It seems that you didn't see news about BRICS, Brazil and US sanctions for a while.
economist.com/the-americas/202…
Trump’s astonishing battering of Brazil
MAGA bullying is backfiring, boosting Lula’s governmentThe Economist
[Rant] Trying to run a cracked game on Steam Deck feel like trying to learn hollywood movie hacking, except I'm a side character
HOW do you do it?
I'm about to just run a Windows VM, why does linux suck so much.
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Install an all in one packages (visual c++, etc) (or this for .net too) into your wine prefix and run the repacks (like fitgirl or dodi) like in windows.
Put dxvk and vkd3d-proton on your wineprefix (automated like with cachyos or manually downloaded) and maybe create a lutris application to just select the exe to install the game.
Edit: Also jc141
Edit 2: Added one link for the .net ones, run the wine cmd for these packages and they autoinstall all the gaming dependencies, so you can install almost any games. Also, you can install dependencies (like those needed by some games like skyrim) using winetricks.
Edit 3: Updated the link
GitHub - abbodi1406/vcredist: AIO Repack for latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Runtimes
AIO Repack for latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Runtimes - abbodi1406/vcredistGitHub
Use Lutris. Install game. Run crack exe in prefix.
If you really need the Steam version, run the crack exe using the launch options.
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I downloaded a "pre-installed" version from one of the sites on the megathread here, then I added each of the _redist ".exe"s to lutris, intalled all of them except the dxwebinstaller that didn't work, tried to run the game on lutris using Proton Experimental again and it failed.
Honestly fuck microsoft too for creating the windows monopoly.
Not sure if this is rulebreaking tho, its RE4.
Yea something is different now, DirectX did manage to install, but game doesnt work.
Used the wine-staging to install alk of the _redist .exe files again, tried to run the game using wine-10.8-staging-x86_64, doesn't work, tried Proton Experimental again, and it did have a game crash dialogue box.
Is dxvk and vkd3d enabled in lutris? Maybe bottles will help you if it doesn't work in lutris. Protondb might be good to see too.
Edit: just saw this, there's a wine DLL override that might fix the game (in lutris you can config it on the wine configs) dinput8.dll=n,b .
GitHub - praydog/REFramework: Scripting platform, modding framework and VR support for all RE Engine games
Scripting platform, modding framework and VR support for all RE Engine games - praydog/REFrameworkGitHub
Also what is "Run crack exe in prefix" supposed to mean?
Am I too dumb for this?
I haven't used a PC in the last 5 years so piracy skills go a little rusty, and I've always done it on windows, never on linux
There’s a dropdown that lets you pick an exe to run in the wine prefix. The wine prefix is basically the emulated* windows environment that Lutris sets up for the game.
* Wine is not an emulator, but I don’t know what other word to use.
Takes care of all the technical wine stuff I don't understand and leave me with 1 "C:/" drive everything can be installed in to rather than having one for each app/game like Lutris does
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usebottles (@usebottles@mastodon.online)
81 Posts, 14 Following, 830 Followers · Run Windows software on Linux with Bottles.Mastodon
If you install Windows on the deck you might find it runs worse.
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BTW, I ran Freelancer (old Microsoft space game !) and I was impressed how well it worked and ran on lutris and all the magic arround it.
Nowadays, people get the habit that everything works out of the box, they just have to "press, swipe, click, that's it". Technology litteracy is taking a big hit on newer generation, while being flooded with some kind of "Artificial Intelligence" to do their homework... 😮💨
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.m.youtube.com
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I feel your pain man.
All the tutorials I have read and watched say to "just" do x, y and then z and it will all work fine! It never does. I have spent multiple hours trying to get a few different repacks to work in a few different ways and it never just works as it supposedly should.
I got one game to run once after 4 hours and thought j had it figured out then the next day it didn't work again xD
I now have two machines, one running Linux and one running windows for my DJ software and repacks, that doesn't help you but that is the best solution I found xD
Aside from finding a tutorial for that, of which there are surely hundreds or thousands online, I'd also suggest checking ProtonDB on the off-chance that the game actually just doesn't run on SteamDeck:
protondb.com/app/2050650?devic…
I assume you meant that one, looks good and commenters there also give some info on what they did to start it.
I've had pretty good experience with this. For the most part installing with Lutris and pointing it to the correct exe works. Generally games will not run due to actual compatability issues.
The real pain point is trying to install mods on certain engines/games where the modders assume a windows environment. Sometimes they ship precompiled binaries that will only work under specific conditions and it's hard to debug.
I'm just here to say to all the people here saying to follow a simple tutorial and everything is sunshine and rainbows on the Deck to go away forever.
I've been using various Linux distros or a flavor of BSD as my main driver OS for twenty years and just the endeavor to install simple Skyrim mods on the Steam Deck drives me insane.
I spent the entire month of July trying to unsuccessfully install Gate to Sovngarde mod collection and gave up because it almost becamea full-time job after my real job just trying to troubleshoot. One try in Windows in less than an hour wait and I'm playing it fine.
Sometimes it's fine to yell to the world "fuck Linux"
Yeah fuck the system created by people in their free time for free^^
Not the corpos that still exclusively develop for windows or the mod devs not willing to think about other platforms and building unportable shit that will only work in a narrow set of environments.
Seriously tho, expecting any random mod to work on a system the OG game wasn't even built for seems pretty insane to me 😁
Like, the fucking game works. That in itself is a marvel of engineering
You'll feel like a hacker if it ever works though ;)
Hah.
Steam has always been an anti-piracy tool. Gabe Newell is very much on the record about convenience (and inconvenience) being the key to the problem.
People were mad at them for a while, then they proved him wrong by forgetting that had ever happened.
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I've got a few to work, but I find gog releases work much better than anything else because there are no cracks.
Once you learn things like prefix=virtual machine (more or less) it gets easier.
Just run the installer with proton? You can do it by adding it to steam, adding compatibility in the settings then running it. Then do the same compatibility for the game exe.
Also acting like this is a linux problem makes you a moron
How much can I extend an OrderedCollection?
Just an idle thought... A common UX is users copying the URL in the address bar and pasting it into their fediverse app to load it in their app.
Right now if you copy a NodeBB topic (/topic/12345) and paste it into something like Mastodon, you'll get nothing because it is an ordered collection and it doesn't know how to handle it.
But... what if I passed in a preview property a la evan@cosocial.ca's b2b8 and it contained a Note? Maybe a note with a different id? Maybe with a name?
Waiting for trwnh@mastodon.social to tell me this is a terrible idea.
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Re: How much can I extend an OrderedCollection?
trwnh@mastodon.social yep exactly that's what I was going for.
If you paste an URL to an ordered collection into NodeBB it'll try to load the thread. That'd be ideal.
But I will settle for understanding name and summary!
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julian:
Right now if you copy a NodeBB topic (/topic/12345) and paste it into something like Mastodon, you'll get nothing because it is an ordered collection and it doesn't know how to handle it.
It would be really great if you got something useful when you look up a NodeBB topic in Mastodon!
It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes
Money quote:
Excel requires some skill to use (to the point where high-level Excel is a competitive sport), and AI is mostly an exercise in deskilling its users and humanity at large.
It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes | Defector
It’s not AI winter just yet, though there is a distinct chill in the air. Meta is shaking up and downsizing its artificial intelligence division.defector.com
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There are things that could be done to improve Excel. For instance, fully integrate python and allow it to be used to create custom functions. Then, maybe one day, VBA can ride off into the sunset where it belongs.
Adding Copilot to Excel is not an improvement because Copilot and all other LLM based platforms frequently barfs out totally incorrect information about how to do something in Excel.
"You do that using formula."
No, I can't, you worthless pile of shit because THAT FORMULA DOESNT EXIST.
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It's been a big increase in workflow for me.
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Lemmy is propaganda against AI at this point. Not sure what paid for it but it has all the markers. Feels like being in the comment section of ny post articles.
Same energy as talking online about immigrants, nuclear energy or marvel
It's using a community to post toxic and dystopian articles over and over again. Lemmy technology communitys are extremely vile. Not sure why it happened but it's turned toxic
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No it isn't. There is 100% propaganda and media targeting communities to spread it.
The Gap between peoples opinion towards AI in everyday life vs people on Lemmy is massive and a good indicator that Lemmy is astroturfed to be toxic towards it. People who are influenced cannot see it, outsiders can though. It's like seeing right wingers talk about immigrants. They'll never be able to see how their news and media influence them. That is their truth and it's as true to them as hate towards AI is towards lemmings in places like c/technology
Look at the articles posted, the headlines, the appeals used, the comments. It has all the markers of an Astro turf campaign.
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No, I'd definitely agree that AI sentiment overall is pretty negative. I am not such a hardliner, but they are definitely out there. I don't see it as astroturfing at all, to even suggest this is ironic because LLMs are the ultimate astroturfing tool. The institutions capable of astroturfing do support AI and are using it. What institution or organization are you accusing of anti-AI astroturfing, exactly? This question requires an answer for that claim to be taken seriously.
IMO the problem is not LLMs itself, which are very compelling and interesting for strictly language processing and enable software usecases that were almost impossible to implement programmatically before; the problem is how LLMs are being used incorrectly for usecases that they are not suited for, due to the massive investment and hype. "We spent all this money on this so now we have to use it for everything". It's wrong. LLMs are not knowledge stores, they are provably bad at summarization and as a search interface, and they should especially not be used for decision making in any context. And people are reacting to the way LLMs are being forced into all of these roles.
People also take strong issue with their perceived violation of intellectual property and training on copyrighted information, viewing AI generated arts as derivative and theft.
Plus, there are very negative consequences to generative AI that aren't yet fully addressed. Environmental impact. Deepfakes. They're a propaganda machine; they can be censored and reflect biases of the institutions that control them. Parasocial relationships, misguided self-validating "therapy". They degrade human creativity and become a crutch. Impacts on education and cheating. Replacement of jobs and easier exploitation of workers. Surveillance.
All of these things are valid and I hear them all from people around me, not just on the internet.
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The Gap between peoples opinion towards AI in everyday life vs people on Lemmy is massive and a good indicator that Lemmy is astroturfed
By who? Your conspiracy theory makes no sense. Why would anyone want to do that.
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You really can’t imagine why corporations and political groups who spend billions paying people to manufacture narratives and flood feeds might hate the idea of ordinary people suddenly having their own free, on-demand content factory, fact-checker, and megaphone?
That's on both sides of the political spectrum.
These AI tools are not just Google chat. You can build with them rapidly. Is it some revolutionary thing? No
But can it be a game changer in some areas? Absolutely.
They moved rapidly with the media on this. Compare headlines for AI to any other yellow journalistic topic. They're identical
In favour of AI absolutely, against it, no I can't. What group would want to disvalue AI, after all most of the big tech companies are developing their own. They would want people to use AI, that's the only way they make a profit.
You keep providing these vague justifications for your belief but you never actually provide a concrete answer.
Which groups in particular do you think are paying people to astroturf with negative AI comments? Which actual organisations, which companys? Do you have evidence for this beyond "lots of people on a technically inclined forum don't like it" because that seems to be a fairly self-selecting set. You are seeing patterns in the clouds and are insisting that they are meaningful.
You call it “patterns in the clouds,” but that’s how coordinated media campaigns are meant to look organic, coincidental, invisible unless you recognize the fingerprints. Spotting those fingerprints isn’t tinfoil-hat stuff, it’s basic media literacy.
And let’s be real: plenty of groups have motives to discourage everyday people from embracing AI.
Political think tanks and content farms (Heritage Foundation, Koch networks...) already pay for astroturfing campaigns and troll farms. They do it on issues like immigration, climate, and COVID. Why would AI magically be exempt?
Reputation management/PR firms (Bent Pixels, marketing shops, crisis comms firms) literally get paid to scrub and reshape narratives online. Their business model depends on you not having the same tools for cheap or free.
Established media and gatekeepers survive on controlling distribution pipelines. The more people use AI to generate, remix, and distribute their own content, the less leverage those outlets have.
Now why does this matter with AI in particular? Because AI isn’t just another app it’s a force multiplier for individuals.
A single parent can spin up an online store, write copy, generate images, and market it without hiring an agency.
A student can build an interactive study tool in a weekend that used to take a funded research lab.
An activist group can draft policy briefs, make explainer videos, and coordinate messaging with almost no budget.
These kinds of tools only get created if ordinary people are experimenting, collaborating, and embracing AI. That’s what the “don’t trust AI” narrative is designed to discourage. If you keep people from touching it, you keep them dependent on the existing gatekeepers.
So flip your own question: who pays for these narratives? The same people who already fund copy-paste headline campaigns like “illegals are taking our jobs and assaulting Americans.” It’s the same yellow-journalism playbook, just aimed at a new target.
Dismissing this as “cloud patterns” is the exact mindset they hope you have. Because if you actually acknowledge how coordinated media framing works, you start to see why of course there are groups with the motive and budget to poison the well on AI.
Consider these recent examples:
The pro-Russia “Operation Overload” campaign used free AI tools to push disinformation—including deepfakes and fake news sites—on a scale that catapulted from 230 to 587 unique content pieces in under a year .
AI-generated bots and faux media orchestrated coordinated boycotts of Amazon and McDonald’s over DEI reversals—with no clear ideology, just engineered outrage .
Social media networks ahead of the 2024 U.S. election were crawling with coordination networks sharing AI-generated manipulative images and narrative content and most such accounts remain active .
Across the globe, AI deepfakes and election misinformation campaigns surged from France to Ghana to South Africa—showing clear strategic deployment, not random dissent .
Because AI expands creative sovereignty. It enables:
It keeps people bypass expensive gatekeepers and build tools, stories, and businesses.
Activists and community groups to publish, advocate, and organize without top-down approval.
Everyday people to become producers, not just consumers.
The moment ordinary people gain these capabilities, the power structures that rely on gatekeeping be they think tanks, PR firms, old-guard media, or political operatives have every incentive to suppress or smear AI usage. That’s why “AI is dangerous” is convenient messaging for them.
The real question isn’t whether cloud patterns are real it’s why shouldn’t we expect influential actors to use AI to shape perception, especially when it threatens their control?
Lemmy isn’t just a random forum it’s one of the last bastions of “tech-savvy” community space outside the mainstream. That makes it a perfect target for poisoning the well campaigns. If you can seed anti-AI sentiment there, you don’t just reach casual users, you capture the early adopters and opinion leaders who influence the wider conversation.
I haven't checked my feed. But good money I can find multiple "fuck AI" posts that sound similar to "they took our job"
Increase in workflow? Like there are more steps to perform the same task? Because workflow isn't work volume or units if output. It's the process that gets the work done.
Did the increase in "workflow" get you more money or more work for the same money?
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Could result in some very cursed codebases.
"We dont use git, we just update the excel spreadsheet"
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It can't be ... but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. I remember making fun of Access on StackOverflow circa 2008 and running afoul of some dude there who was like the last living Access consultant on Earth. I've never encountered defensive rage like that before or since.
Fun Access fact, the Diebold-manufactured voting machines that featured prominently in the 2000 presidential election cycle used an Access database as their underlying data storage mechanism. Access DBs did incorporate an audit table - which was manually-editable.
Yeah, no doubt.
Having access to visual basic is dangerous enough, let alone Python
Definitely, but sandboxes can be escaped, and you can't protect everything via sandbox. Apparently its all cloud anyway, but if it were local and sandboxed, there are still exploits like rowhammer and spectre that may cause further risks.
Its taken years to get browser sandboxes to where they are, and even they get broken every so often.
Introduction to Python in Excel - Microsoft Support
Learn about using Python functions with your Excel spreadsheets.support.microsoft.com
Still sounds like you'd be shipping your data to the cloud, where it can be exfilled from there.
Would potentially be a great phishing tool, just need to trick someone into putting sensitive data into a precooked excel file, and it gets exfilled.
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Why would anyone use an LLM as calculator?
That just doesn't make sense.
It is like using a calculator as typewriter because it can spell 80085.
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So what you are saying is, my car is a typewriter?
Maybe 😛
It's a legal requirement when your car hits 80085 that you must take a photo, it supersedes all other laws.
I don't know much about statistics. I can (i assume) as the ai questions in natural language that I would otherwise have to research how to calculate.
Of course, I may get a result, but I won't be any smarter. If that was the goal, then great.
OK, I'm not really mad at this. I already used Copilot to design a table for me in Excel and it worked really well. It did everything for me, and I just had to copy-paste the formulas into their appropriate spots. If it's built-in, possibly will work better.
Not everybody needs to be an Excel expert, after all. Having that functionality might be actually beneficial.
I think the concern is that you can come up with a number of formulas that will get correct answers for some combinations of values and not others.
If you do not understand the logic of the formula, and what each function does, how do you verify they are correct and will always give you the results you think they will? Double check every result in its entirety?
That's my thinking
If you know what you're doing, it's significantly easier to do it yourself
You at least have some reassurance it's correct (or at least thought through)
Verification is important, but I think you're omitting from your imagination a real and large category of people who have a basic familiarity with spreadsheets and computers, so are able to understand a potential solution and see whether it makes sense, but who do not have the ability to quickly come up with it themselves.
In language it's the difference between receptive and productive vocabulary: there are words which you understand but which you would never say or write because they're part of your receptive, but not productive knowledge.
There are times when this will go wrong, because the LLM will can produce something plausible but incorrect and such a person will fail to spot it. And of course if you blindly trust it with something you're not actually capable of (or willing to) check then you will also get bad results.
There's an old story about the lead developer at Texas Instruments saying "I want a computer that fits in my pocket". And then his staff dutifully measured the pocket to spec before proceeding to perform a feat of miniaturization that would revolutionize the modern world.
I'm trying to imagine one of the techies, from way out in the back, saying "Does it have to get the right answer?" Then getting fired, walking off the job, and walking into Microsoft with 10x the salary the next day.
"Microsoft Excel is testing a new AI-powered function that can automatically fill cells in your spreadsheets."
Every year, Microsoft gives me more reasons to permanently leave their products.
Unfortunately, due to compatibility with financial and other Windows-only software I still need to run Windows, but I am down to two rigs and it might go down to one in the new year.
What, you don't always work with 16 digit numbers that are automatically truncated? What could go wrong? We don't use 16 digit numbers for anything, really./
It's hard to believe that's still a thing but it is!
This is such a misguided article, sorry.
Obviously you’d be an idiot to use AI to number crunch.
But AI can be extremely useful for sentence analytics. For example, if you’re trying to classify user feedback as positive or negative and then derive categories from the masses of text and squash the text into those categories.
Google Sheets already does tonnes of this and we’re not writing articles about it.
Zuckerberg's Huge AI Push Is Already Crumbling Into Chaos
Zuckerberg's Huge AI Push Is Already Crumbling Into Chaos
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is already shaking up his "Superintelligence Lab" just months into his multi-billion dollar push into AI.Noor Al-Sibai (Futurism)
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The Kids are NOT OK.
Tech and Society Lab - The Anxious Generation
From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhoodwww.anxiousgeneration.com
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Our kids are in a mental health crisis, and it has to do with their phones. Author @jonathanhaidt lays out the facts in his new book #TheAnxiousGeneration
The Anxious Generation Out Now. Order the Book.
From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhoodwww.anxiousgeneration.com
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AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36027977
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.
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It looks like you're organizing a meeting, would you like with that?
Yes / No
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I started getting emails about meetings I'm invited to but never show up to, which was kinda helpful. Except it was just the first few bullet points, you had to click for the full meeting notes
So one day I did, and it somehow grabbed my info from Microsoft, created an account, and invited itself to the meeting. All without showing me the summary, because I didn't really want to set up an account
Now there's two agents listening to the weekly meeting.
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The only thing I love more than Vibes Coding is Vibes Management.
You get a meeting! You get a meeting! Everyone! Gets! A! Meeting!!!
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Why Your Business Needs Managed SOC Services
Cyber threats are increasing, and in-house teams often lack 24/7 coverage. That’s where Managed SOC Services come in.
✅ 24/7 threat monitoring & detection
✅ Faster incident response with expert analysts
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✅ Compliance-ready security for regulated industries
Outsourcing your SOC ensures round-the-clock protection, proactive defense, and reduced business risks.
👉 Strengthen your security posture today with Managed SOC Services!
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Battling deepfakes: How AI threatens democracy and what we can do about it
Battling deepfakes: How AI threatens democracy and what we can do about it
Open-source generative AI tools and certain apps put audio and video manipulation in the hands of anyone with a laptop. Here’s why that poses such a dire threat to democracy.The Conversation
Spotify Takes Down EeveeSpotify; 'Reborn' Version Immediately Surfaces
Responding directly to a takedown notice from Spotify, GitHub removed the popular EeveeSpotify tool that allowed music fans to unlock premium features without a paid subscription. Soon after GitHub complied with the DMCA notice, the tool's developer relaunched the project as 'EeveeSpotifyReborn', offering the same functionality but with a legal twist.
Spotify Takes Down EeveeSpotify; 'Reborn' Version Immediately Surfaces * TorrentFreak
Responding directly to a takedown notice from Spotify, GitHub removed the popular EeveeSpotify tool that provided access to premium features.Ernesto Van der Sar (TF Publishing)
Reddit profile privacy feature enables bot farms to conceal spam operations
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36038533
Reddit profile privacy feature enables bot farms to conceal spam operations
Perplexity's Comet browser naively processed pages with evil instructions
Agentic Browser Security: Indirect Prompt Injection in Perplexity Comet
The attack we developed shows that traditional Web security assumptions don't hold for agentic AI, and that we need new security and privacy architectures for agentic browsing.Brave Software
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After Disastrous GPT-5, Sam Altman Pivots to Hyping Up GPT-6
After Disastrous GPT-5, Sam Altman Pivots to Hyping Up GPT-6
OpenAI is looking to turn a new leaf, with Altman discussing how GPT-6 will usher in a revolution once again.Victor Tangermann (Futurism)
Sony makes the “difficult decision” to raise PlayStation 5 prices in the US
Price hikes go into effect August 21; standard PS5 will now start at $550.
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Air Canada Introduces "Exceptional Policy" To Expense Passengers Affected By Strikes
Air Canada announces a surprising new policy to compensate passengers after a cabin crew strike grounds hundreds of flights. The airline promises to cover transportation costs, but details are scarce. What's the catch?
Air Canada's New Compensation Policy for Strike-Affected Passengers
Air Canada introduces an 'exceptional policy' to cover expenses for passengers impacted by the recent cabin crew strike, including refunds and flexible rebooking options.Prachi Patel (Air Canada)
30+ human rights groups demand universities dismantle surveillance & protect free speech
- Refuse to cooperate or share data with law enforcement agencies: Refuse to cooperate with local, state, and federal lawmakers, law enforcement agents, and immigration authorities seeking to surveil, detain, and deport students, faculty, or staff. This includes prohibiting university staff from voluntarily sharing campus community members’ personal data with law enforcement, especially data that can aid in the targeting of activists, like immigration status and records of disciplinary actions. This also includes discontinuing any default data sharing agreements with campus police and local police departments.
- Secure data with end-to-end encryption: Secure student, faculty, and staff data with the highest levels of protection, including end-to-end encryption. Mandate training for university staff on data security practices.
- Delete sensitive data: Purge any data collected on students, staff, and faculty that is not essential to the functioning of the university––including data that can be used to fuel the targeting of protesters, immigrants, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Delete video footage and photos of campus protesters acquired through surveillance cameras and ID swipe records that identify student and staff movements across campus.
- Dismantle surveillance: Discontinue the use of invasive technologies that collect sensitive data. This includes tools and practices such as ID swipe tracking, social media monitoring, facial recognition tools, license plate readers, motion and heat sensors, WiFi vendors that collect people’s location data, and biometric online exam proctoring programs. The data amassed by these tools may be weaponized by local, state, and federal agencies to target activists, immigrants, journalists, and other vulnerable groups on campus.
- Reject mask restriction policies: Mask restrictions fundamentally threaten free speech and increase the criminalization of protestors. These policies also jeopardize the safety of the entire campus community by exposing people to the ongoing threats of COVID, Long COVID, and other public health issues. Universities must oppose proposed restrictions on masking, and retain COVID safety policies that allow students to remain masked.
- Harm reduction related to doxxing: Provide campus community members with information about data deletion services (i.e. services that remove personal data and other information from data broker databases) and educational resources that allow students, staff, and faculty to proactively protect themselves against doxxing. Also provide tools and services to mitigate harm once doxxing occurs.
Letter: 30+ human rights groups demand universities dismantle surveillance & protect free speech
Dear university administrators and trustees, We are human rights organizations writing to express concerns about campus surveillance tools and policies that have the potential to fuel attacks on free expression and academic freedom across the country…Fight for the Future
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My union got me a raise. And I have a pension of all things. Crazy. In 2025!
Unions are great.
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$165,000 tech jobs are still out there. Usually they require at least 10 years experience, or a masters in mathematics or data science.
Fresh out of school? Try a $48-64k job and get some experience.
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Try a $48-64k job and get some experience.
Try renting an apartment in Silicon Valley with a $48k/year paycheck in your pocket.
The starting salaries justified the crazy cost-of-living in a city that wanted $5000/mo for 800 sqft. Now the question becomes how you afford to get the experience in a job that pays below the regional pricetag.
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I mean, its hardly unique to SV or to the Tech Sector broadly speaking. One of the biggest challenges I've seen down in Texas is teachers earning enough money to live in their (comparatively much cheaper than California) school districts.
But I gotta say, I was earning $48k back in 2006 way out in the Houston 'burbs and it was a tight squeeze. Nothing has improved. "Just earn less" doesn't work when you're bumping up against a bunch of landlords and lenders saying "Fuck you, pay me more".
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I dont disagree. Yuck. Same salaries, different decade.
I actually made quite a bit more about 4 years ago, but took a downgrade in pay for less work. Worked out well for me. But I see a lot of people floundering right now. I know one person that's been out of a tech job for over a year and had to go back to manual labor after doing a ton of work in tech. At least he got paid unlike the poor saps that get unpaid internships.
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Counter offer: Rent an apartment in Bumfuck, Flyover and work for a tech company.
It’s the only way I’ve been able to afford a house.
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Rent an apartment in Bumfuck, Flyover and work for a tech company.
It's amazing how cheap living is when you aren't trying to jam yourself into a city. People talk about how there is a bunch of vacant housing, well, middle of nowhere is where it is! And it's damn cheap.
And now, with 5G and satellite internet both as solid internet sources, it is rare you will find a house that will prevent a work remote job.
It's a modest bedroom, small living room, and a kitchen.
You can fit in a smaller space. I wouldn't say you can live in it. 300ft is barely a hotel room.
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Try a $48-64k job and get some experience.
Boomer out of touch take.
Damn. That'd be crazy if anyone was actually hiring anybody with no experience.
I know multiple group chats of people who graduated fresh from college, not even 20% of them have jobs a year after grad. And this is spread across comp sci, cybersecurity, and mech eng.
The entry level job is dead. Every company thinks they can replace the menial shit that entry level workers do to learn with AI slop.
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counterpoint: I work in tech for a Fortune 500 and we still have interns and still hire intern classes and kids right out of college.
We just had an intern project showcase, some neat stuff.
We are working with AI but we aren’t stupid, we still need people.
Not in Silicon Valley.
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Exact same thing here.
If you ignore any company related to “cloud” or “AI”, especially if you focus on tech jobs at companies outside the software industry, there’s still plenty of hiring fresh coders going on.
We have a pretty forward thinking AI offering of our own, but … it’s not being vibe coded, we have very educated AI engineers
I feel like honestly it’s outside of tech where they believe they can replace with AI
lol... I don't think you're right at all.
Everybody overhired coders in 2020-2021, and everybody has been shedding them since.... along with tons of other roles.
Sure, they are always hiring and there's always exceptions. If the job is 60k and you have 3000 applicants and 300 of them have over 3 years of experience... how can a 0 YOE possibly compete?
It's weird that so many replies are attacking you when you are factually right. The industry has always been this way. And some kid with a GED and 3 years of CompSci from their community college is not going to land them a 165k dream job right after graduation.
I think some people have been living in a fantasy world or believed every headline they saw.
Probably not the hottest of markets right now (not just because of Trump and company) and I was in a similar boat when I graduated. My first job was Best Buy (not Geek Squad unfortunately) then tech support then a reporting analyst. Took probably 4 years for me to get into a job where coding was the main aspect.
That being said, I feel bad for any new graduate except for maybe lawyers.
On top of this, the AI jobs are paying some flat-out ridiculous rates.
Like, millions of dollars up-front in signing bonuses kind of ridiculous
This is a good thing.
Fuck these kids getting overpaid remote jobs destroying the housing market of poor countries like mine.
Individuals buying/renting for themselves don't destroy any housing market.
Scalping companies buying hundreds of houses and apartments in a city to leave them vacant and artificially pump prices do.
The industry went to shit after non-nerdy people found out there could be a lot of money in tech. Used to be full of other people like me and I really liked it. Now it’s full of people who are equally as enthused about it as they would be to become lawyers or doctors.
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Did she have a portfolio that went beyond school work? Coders are like artists you need a portfolio showing you can do shit without being told to.
As a developer who has hired dozens of developers, you definitely don't. It makes no difference, especially in this day and age of AI being able to make websites and programs with ease.
Hey so just to be clear: a 200k comp package nowadays is the equivalent of about 81k in 1990.
Put another way: I am doing a good bit worse than my dad was at my age, despite being a pretty solid and experienced software engineer, with an EECS degree, and a lot of devops and system design experience.
This is the collapse of the American social contract. Even people like me who are ostensibly in “great” jobs are treated like code monkeys, and adjusted for inflation, it’s flat or worse than 30-35 years ago. We are doing worse than the generation before us. The American Dream is a nightmare.
Your last point is where I'm putting most of the blame. We're all doing worse because a few people at the top always, ALWAYS have to do better than last year.
Eternal growth is physically impossible. At some point, shit will have to stagnate, and if shit starts to stagnate, but the top still insists on eternal growth, they'll have to take some from the bottom. That's what's happening right now. The top can no longer keep making more money off of an industry in development, so instead they'll cut costs, costs being you, the worker, and hope they die before it all collapses under them.
Individual Income by Year: Average, Median, One Percent, and Calculator
See median & average individual income by year (1962-2022) in the United States. And a tool to compare yearly income with optional inflation.PK (DQYDJ)
This data to me didn’t show much in the way of by-field statistics. If we’re comparing software development pay at the naîssance of the field to today, it should be complicated to do so. I’d expect to look at top 5% at the very least because of how new and niche computing and coding in general was in the 90s.
You have to expect that OP, who is well established in his field, to compare accordingly, not with average pay of 1990.
You have to expect that OP, who is well established in his field, to compare accordingly, not with average pay of 1990.
I'm talking about a number that is 1.4x the 95th percentile generally. It'd be weird to assume that programmers were getting paid that much more than doctors and lawyers and bankers.
According to this survey series, median IEEE members were making about $58k (which was also the average for 35-year-olds in the survey. Electrical engineering is a closely related discipline to programming.
So yeah, an $81k salary was really, really high in 1990. I suspect the original comment was thinking of the 90's in general, and chose a salary from later in the decade while running the inflation numbers back to 1990, using the wrong conversion factor for inflation.
Edited to add: this Bureau of Labor Statistics publication summarizes salaries by several professions and experience levels as of March 1990. The most senior programmers were making around $34k, the most senior systems analysts were making about $69k, and the most senior managers, who could fairly be described as executives, were making about $88k.
That site is talking about averages, assembly across the board. The person you’re talking to is explicitly talking about CS jobs, like software developer or system engineer.
You can’t really compare the two.
No, but it is a starting point for passing some kind of sanity check. Someone who was making $81k in 1990 was making an exceedingly high salary in the general population, and computer-related professions weren't exactly known for high salaries until maybe the 2000's.
[This report] (bls.gov/ocs/publications/pdf/w…) has government statistics showing that in March 1990, entry level programmers were making on average about $27k. Senior programmers were making about $34k. Systems analysts (which I understand to have primarily been mainframe programmers in 1990) were making low 30s at the entry level and high 60s at the most senior level. Going up the management track, only the fourth and highest level was making above $80k, and it seems to me that those are going to be high level executives.
So yeah, $81k is a very senior level in the 1990s tech industry, probably significantly less common than today's $200k tech jobs.
Wait what? Who is making $165k out of college?
I don't even make $165k after working for... I don't know let's say 12 or 15 I can't keep track what counts anymore
My first tech job out of college was $55k.
Average in my area for new grads at best is like $85k.
My highest paying was $195k as a Senior and my average is probably $150k as a Senior / Lead.
None of this was big tech though.
Yeah I made $51k out of college.
My first software job I made $68k? Granted Im at $150k after all that time, but still. Dang yo you know?
My mother won't answer me what her salary was when she retired. Easily in the industry for 30-40 years, but I know it was under $200k. Granted she was an electrical engineer before getting her masters in computer science, but I also suspect it has to do with the fact that she and I didn't work for the big tech giants.
And I have no interest in doing so.
Big tech in HCOL areas (Seattle, all of Cali, etc.) pay new grads about 100k to 150k base, with a hefty sign on bonus (anywhere from 20k to 50k). RSUs usually only vest about 5 to 10% of their total stock in the first year, but thats about 5k to 10k
Of course HCOL means this money is relatively less than it seems, but still a lot for new grads.
Who is making $165k out of college?
Computer science and engineering grads at the top of their class at top schools who choose not to go to grad school. This thread claims to cite Department of Education data to show median salaries 3 years after graduation, and some of them are higher than $165k. Sure, that's 3 years out, but it's also median, so one would expect 75th or 90th percentile number to be higher.
Anecdotally, I know people from Stanford/MIT who did get their first jobs in the Bay Area for more than $150k more than 10 years ago, so it was definitely possible.
But this NYT article has stories about graduates from Purdue, Oregon State, and Georgetown which are good schools but also generally weren't the schools producing many graduates landing in those $150k jobs as that very top tier. I would assume the kids graduating from Cal Tech, MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley are still doing well. But the middle is getting left behind.
So, life of a humanities major like my wife. Actually, most majors that weren't STEM.
If it helps anyone in this situation, you can try to bank on other skills. My wife is doing great now but got her start because of her bilingualism, and even that was only 35k a year. My sister did a little better with her music degree by pivoting to community manager, although in her case she had experience modding for a well known streamer. That was pretty good money right out the gate.
Point is, programming isn't your everything, even if you're leveraging something from your personal life.
IBM and NASA Release Open-Source AI Model on Hugging Face to Predict Solar Weather
NASA, IBM’s ‘Hot’ New AI Model Unlocks Secrets of Sun
Editor's Note: This article was updated Aug. 20, 2025, to correct the number of years of training data used and the model accuracy. The original article saidDerek Koehl (NASA Science)
new Star Trek Voyager videogame: Across the Unknown
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Re: new Star Trek Voyager videogame: Across the Unknown
If we're seeing the wind down of new Star Trek shows but a resurgence of games, I am totally on board for this
Star Trek Armada reboot please 😁
The Steam page has a description:
Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown is a story-driven survival strategy game in which the fate of the iconic starship is in your hands. Take the helm, manage the ship and resources, and make difficult decisions. Will you be able to bring home the ship and its crew?“What if?” Scenarios
Did you ever wonder what would have happened had Captain Janeway decided differently? If an important crew member had followed a different path? Or what the outcome would have been had the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager embraced Borg technology to increase their chances of survival?
Wonder no more: Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown allows players to take control and shape the journey of the U.S.S. Voyager as they want. Take a risky approach or play it safe. Be diplomatic or let phasers do the talking. Research technologies that were shunned by the crew. But: Be prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions! The game features rogue-like elements, so in each run you will encounter different situations and even iconic characters might meet an early end if you don’t react accordingly.
Deep Ship Management and Research
After being moved forcefully into the Delta Quadrant, the U.S.S. Voyager ends up heavily damaged and in dire need of repairs as well as internal reconstruction. Restore destroyed rooms, secure life support and energy supplies, and start constructing. Ship systems, crew quarters, industrial and research facilities: You must decide what to build and when, to ensure the ship has what it needs for the perilous journey.
Expedite research into different fields. New technologies and improved layouts will not only strengthen the ship but also boost your crew’s morale. Exotic and dangerous research, like the technology of the Borg, is also within your reach. As captain, will you embrace it for the potential it offers, or will you omit it for the dangers it presents?
Exploration and Resource Acquisition
The dangers and opportunities of the Delta Quadrant beckon to be discovered by you and your crew. Scan celestial bodies to locate precious resources that fuel your journey. Find points of interest and oddities along your way, but beware: While the Delta Quadrant may reward the bold, it punishes the careless just as quickly. As captain, you have the final say in plotting a course and defining an approach.
Ship Combat and Away Missions
The journey of the U.S.S. Voyager would not be possible without both combat between ships and away missions to planets or space facilities.
For away missions, put together a team based on the individual talents of your crew. A team with skills that complement each other might be best suited for the task, but it is up to you to call the shots. Minimize the risk for the team’s members, rush headlong into danger, or take a scientific approach - you decide.
When diplomacy fails, the U.S.S. Voyager and its crew are ready to enter ship combat at your command. From the bridge, you give commands for offensive and defensive maneuvers, targeting enemy ship systems and using special weaponry. And even during ship combat, the individual skills of your crew members come into play: Assign battle stations to crew who bring precious skills to the table and trigger them in crucial moments to maximize your combat effectiveness.
Features
”What if?” scenario and storytelling: The ultimate platform to play out your course of action during the iconic journey of the U.S.S. Voyager.
Complex ship management: Repair, construct, and maintain an efficient and habitable ship to ensure systems and crew operate effectively.
Exploration and decision making: The Delta Quadrant is a fascinating yet perilous place that awaits exploration and demands decisive action.
Combat and away missions: Use the talents of your crew smartly to minimize risk during away missions as well as strike boldly during ship combat encounters.
My takeaway? This time, Tuvix lives.
Star Trek™: Voyager® - Across the Unknown on Steam
Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown is a story-driven survival strategy game in which the fate of the iconic starship is in your hands. Take the helm, manage the ship and resources, and make difficult decisions.store.steampowered.com
Re: new Star Trek Voyager videogame: Across the Unknown
I enjoyed Elite Force, but it's more actiony than I want my Trek games to be. My favorites have always been the ones that try to put you into an episode—Judgment Rites, ST: 25th Anniversary, A Final Unity, and Resurgence. I think the adventure genre is a much better match with the franchise than strategy or action.
Sadly(for me), that doesn't seem to be the direction they're going with this Voyager game. Hopefully it turns out well, though.
Re: new Star Trek Voyager videogame: Across the Unknown
oh gosh judgement rites... the fact they built a full on 2D dogfight simulator in that game was epic.
I got good enough at it that I could shoot down Trelane.
Spoiler alert — it didn't matter, he stranded you on the planet anyway.
It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes
It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes | Defector
It’s not AI winter just yet, though there is a distinct chill in the air. Meta is shaking up and downsizing its artificial intelligence division.defector.com
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That's a great question! I'll be happy to help you count the lights. I see five lights.
Here are a few ways you can improve indoor lighting:
That's a great question! I'll be happy to help you count the lights. I see five lights.
This symbolizes the fact that for the last five hundred years white people have been victims of genocide in South Africa.
Would you like to learn more?
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
My math teachers always told me that "math is not an opinion".
I'd like to see them now defending that!
Microsoft announces new Chief Accuracy Officer, Jack Handey
Mr. Handey has released a statement:
Instead of having "answers" on a math test, they should just call them "impressions," and if you got a different "impression," so what, can't we all be brothers?
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.”
-Jack Handy
Oh shit, I always thought it was a fictional name that the writers used for the random stuff that come up during the writing process. Didn't know it was a real person!
Holy shit, he created Toonces!
Handey is also credited with creating Toonces the Driving Cat, the cat who could drive a car, although not very well.
This has completely changed everything I ever held dear and holy.
I always thought handy was a Hartman character and was him reading.
To find out it was neither Hartman's character nor his voice is .... everything was a lie.
"Hmm. I wonder. I was thinking of dancing trees. Now I'm wondering what's next. Screaming trees. Yeah. That's got to be the answer. Screaming trees." - private notes by Hans Reiser, filesystem designer and a convicted murderer
(OK, that's a fake quote. This one is real:)
"Trees have their roots pointing up. And if you cut a tree apart, you get a forest. No, I'm not drunk." - one of my computer science profs, on data structures
even then the number was actually stored correctly, it's just excel lies to you and shows you a different number.
This AI will stack wrong calculations on top of wrong calculations and cascade everything.
ITT: people who didn’t read the article.
Excel is still doing the calculations, not the AI. The AI is helping to write functions. You can easily spot check a couple examples then apply that same formula down the column. I don’t really see the issue.
Of all the things to shove AI into, the first thing that came to my mind years back was Excel. It’s handy when I’m presented a spreadsheet of data at work and I just want to do something like “write a function to extract just the number from a column containing data formatted like LPF_PHASE_OF_CARE [PAF 304001]” because I just want to copy paste all the numbers somewhere. It’s trivial to verify it works correctly, I can examine the formula, and I don’t have to wade through numerous shitty Excel tutorial websites to try and teach myself something I’ll use once or twice a year.
Quick shitpost images I share with friends and Excel functions are where I get the most utility out of AI, which in general I think sucks and is massively overhyped.
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Well, the article is covering the disclaimer, which is vague enough to mean pretty much whatever.
I can buy that he is taking it to the level of if it can't directly be used for the stuff in the disclaimer, well, what could it be used for then? Crafting formulas seems to be a possibility, especially since the spreadsheet formula language is kind of esoteric and clumsy to read and write. It 'should' be up an LLM alley, a relatively limited grammar that's kind of a pain for a human to work with, but easy enough to get right in theory for an LLM. LLM is sometimes useful for script/programming but the vocabulary and complexity can easily get away from it, but excel formula are less likely to have programming level complexity or arbitrarily many methods to invoke. You of course have to eyeball the formula to see if it looks right, and if it does screw up the cell parameters, that might be a hard thing to catch by eyeballing for most people.
If it didn’t use 100 gallons of freshwater and like 600kW of definitely-non-renewable-sourced electricity then ML trained to excel at Excel would be most welcome.
Does it run locally?
Excel is still doing the calculations, not the AI. The AI is helping to write functions.
This distinction is immaterial. This is like a big child grabbing a smaller child's hand and slapping them with their own hand saying "quit hitting yourself". It's like trying to get out of a speeding ticket by saying all you did was push the accelerator... Truely it was the fuel injectors forcing the vehicle to an illegal speed.
Just because you've adjusted the abstraction layer at which you've ceded deterministic outcomes, doesn't mean AI isn't doing it.
You can easily spot check a couple examples then apply that same formula down the column.
This may be appropriate in some scenarios, specifically:
- When accuracy isn't important
- When you will never need to justify what is being done to anyone (including yourself)
This, however, covers a decidedly small portion of professional work done using Excel.
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This is totally expected and also absolutely peanuts compared to Intel, who once released a processor that managed to perform floating point long division incorrectly in fascinating (if you're the right type of nerd) and subtle ways. Hands up everyone who remembers that debacle!
Nobody? Just me?
Anyway, I totally had — and probably still have, somewhere — one of the affected chips. You could check if yours was one of the flawed ones literally by using the Windows calculator.
I remember too, buddy. It's important to never forget.
Edit: oh, I guess it's important to forget.
A lot of people are fine with getting wrong answers about shit they don't know already. That's what gets spread in social media and what was used for a large portion of the training data and what is available when AI does a web search.
It presents something that looks right, that is what most people care about.
This is only one study, but I saw an article a few months ago talking about a study by a major phone company that found that the vast majority of people (80% or more IIRC) either didn't care about AI features on their phones or actively disliked them.
I think most people don't really care one way or another but hate that it's being shoved into everything, and those who know the stats on how often it's wrong are a lot more likely to actively dislike it and be vocal about their dislike.
That sounds quite possible, AI features on phones/OSs go mostly unused –according to my study, which has a sample of size who the hell knows and a methodology of I feel–.
But llms I think, although burning money, are quite accepted by the people who touch them, and do not understand what is actually going on or don't care if the thing is wrong often.
I sometimes use llms, but only to burn thru monkey work that I can fast and easily review and do if the result is too shity. But that is the extention of my ai use.
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Man, all those saps that started studying AI thinking it was necessary are in for a rude awakening.
I'd almost feel bad for them, if they weren't so eager to follow the memes while making the digital space worse for all of us.
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Somewhat off-topic, but that’s the first time in a long time I’ve read a random article on the internet and just instantly liked the writer’s writing style without respect to the topic.
That was a depressing article, but a very enjoyable read.
G/O Media fires Deadspin's Barry Petchesky for not sticking to sports
After a memo telling Deadspin to "stick to sports," and after Deadspin didn't do that, G/O Media fired Deadspin deputy editor Barry Petchesky.Andrew Bucholtz (Awful Announcing)
I also enjoyed their writing.
Nvidia, currently propping up the market like a load-bearing matchstick
Loved this 😂
Price Tag for Trump’s D.C. Military Surge: At Least $1 Million a Day
::: spoiler Disable JavaScript to Access.
1. Open Chrome Settings: Click the three-dot menu (Customize and control Google Chrome) in the top-right corner and select "Settings".
2. Navigate to Site Settings: Go to "Privacy and security" and then click on "Site settings".
3. Find JavaScript Settings: Scroll down to the "Content" section and click on "JavaScript".
4. Disable JavaScript: Toggle the switch to "Don't allow sites to use JavaScript".
:::
Price Tag for Trump’s D.C. Military Surge: At Least $1 Million a Day
An analysis conducted for the Intercept found that the militarization of D.C. could end up costing hundreds of millions.Nick Turse (The Intercept)
Apple wants to bring Touch ID to its watches starting next year
Apple wants to bring Touch ID to its watches starting next year
It would make payments more secure and more hassle-free. According to a new report purportedly based on internal Apple developer code, the company is...Vlad (GSMArena)
Apple's Greed Is Finally Backfiring
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Apple's Greed Is Finally Backfiring
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
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Honestly, the downfall of Apple would be good news in my book.
I know Google is not the greatest about it, but at least on Android, you can install third party app stores and custom operating systems.
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I would rather have Linux phones, but while those exist, they are not mainstream and ready quite yet.
So, custom Android, such as Lineage or Graphene, is about the closest we can get for now.
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They've just been deprecated to doing it the same way that every other custom operating system has been doing it for a long time. It makes it slower, but it doesn't make it impossible.
If these were seats on a plane, they got bumped from first class down to coach at the very back. They'll still get there. They just won't have the nice leg room and the extra peanuts.
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I've been using an iPhone for the past 6 months or so, an older iPhone 12 Pro my wife used until she upgraded to the 16 Pro. I can't say too many bad things about the os itself, since it feels like a walled garden android and the software quality is actually worse on IPhone, but it might be the aging chip on it.
I can't wait to go back to Android though, because of all the reasons you mentioned.
Good news would be them strategically repositioning in favor of their mid-90s image. Would be hard, but doable.
Green energy, autonomous devices, openness to tinkering, friendliness, "other companies mess with you and we don't", perhaps some retrofuturism. It wouldn't even be out of character, they sort of hold the window open, with the kind of series on AppleTV they are making, and part of their advertising, and even honestly with their devices being not yet as enshittified.
Just do that for real.
And honestly, Apple is not the worst of these companies. Perhaps they were just worse at baiting.
In general, over years I'm slowly becoming more and more appreciative of Apple. Their advertising is just atrocious and their stuff is very expensive in, eh, pretty outrageous ways (like a charger costing like some devices together with their chargers), but that's pretty open and honest. "We sell you that for our humongous price, we say it's miraculous and magically cool, and it seems like a scam, but you can say no". While with Google and Meta and such they first sell you something looking normal, and then farm and abuse you indefinitely.
So I'd wish for Apple to survive the bubble bursting (for which I hope they don't go the AI way) and become a more general-kind computing company. Maybe hold closer to 50% of personal computing in the world, not the luxury niche they are holding now.
All these tech giants have their own area where they are the absolute worst, and other areas where they're not as bad as some of the others.
Apple sucks on app store restrictions, but on the desktop OS, the respect user privacy more than Google and MS do. Google is the absolute worst on ads, tracking and using search to leverage their monopoly, but they've also made a ton of cool stuff, including Android. MS makes the worst piece of shit OS and forces everybody to use it while they make it worse, but I'm sure there's also something they do right.
but they’ve also made a ton of cool stuff, including Android.
Symbian and Maemo were better.
Also Nokia was the only non-US company of these.
Yes.
I'm not watching a fucking YouTube video.
No judgment if that's your thing. I just don't enjoy it.
The very tl;dr is that Apple has been catering to shareholders first and foremost to the point that all else suffers. To elaborate a lil more:
The video shows an internal email from the iPhone VP of marketing that basically says they should only add features that are good enough and that what the iPhone already offers could be considered too much. “ Anything new and especially expensive needs to be a rigorously challenged before it’s allowed into the consumer phone”
Then there’s the thing where Cook allows stock buybacks which Jobs didn’t. I am not sure what this means exactly but it plays into the broader point that Jobs was a product genius and Cook is a financial genius. (also, they spent $77 billion on stock buybacks, this will be relevant in a second).
Lastly there is AI. Apple is lacking in AI chips so there was a request to double their amount, which would’ve cost about $10bn. But this request was denied. So they had to not just work with their own aging chips, but rent cloud computing infrastructure from Google.
tl;dr Cook is cooked or something idk
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Ah, but with the definition having multiple meanings then can easily make that call.
the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction
So all those things posted online like “food porn,” “travel porn,” etc can be classified as pornography because now we have a definition that isn’t necessarily sexual.
It’s bullshit, but they can still make it the definition used to make their case about why it’s “bad.” GOP is good at using broad strokes to paint their evil.
Similarly, libs hated guns so much, they let the fucking COPS have the right to arbitrarily deny you a gun permit* under so called "may issue" laws.
Yea no fuck that lol. They would just let white people have guns and non-whites seeking a gun for self-defence will be denied because "they look suspicious"
You can never trust the police. Arm yourselved, form a well-regulated militia to protect your community.
*"may issue" laws were in effect in many Democratic jurisdictions until 2022, when, ironically, the fascists on the supreme court struck them down.
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It's this one, although I can't find the original, only the reaction to it.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Klobuchar will just use this as another rallying cry to tear down Section 230 and make the internet even worse. You can read it yourself, but earlier this year she tried to use a 19 year old ODing on fentanyl he bought off Snapchat as a reason to "... get rid of or reform section 230 ..."
Not sure how that's going to stop people from ODing on adulterated narcotics, but maybe supporting harm reduction and mental health services would be a better use of my tax payer money.
klobuchar.senate.gov/public/in…
Klobuchar Urges Action at Senate Judiciary Hearing on Fentanyl Epidemic Featuring Minnesota Mom’s Testimony
WATCH KLOBUCHAR QUESTIONS HERE WASHINGTON – At today’s Senate Judiciary hearing on the fentanyl epidemic, U.S.U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
A hidden network handles chats for OnlyFans stars. AI could soon take over: Impersonators for OnlyFans models said their sales quotas are soaring, and once AI improves, they could be out of work.
- Tech companies are automating parts of the OnlyFans universe, which until recently was powered by cheap labor.
- AI chatbots are trained on the chat logs of Filipino “chatters,” who impersonate OnlyFans models while messaging with fans.
- AI-generated images of the models are so realistic they cannot be distinguished from photographs.
AI threatens jobs of Filipinos running DMs for OnlyFans creators - Rest of World
Filipino workers posing as OnlyFans creators say sales quotas are rising and AI could soon replace them.Munira Mutaher (Rest of World)
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36027977
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.
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AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36027977
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36027977
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36027977
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36027977
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees
Source: freelance product and UX designer Robiny-Yann Storm on Bluesky.
Source: Chris Schilling, the editorial director of Lost In Cult on Bluesky.
Source: Developer JC Lau on Bluesky.
Source: Henry Stockdale, a senior editor at UploadVR, on Bluesky.
Source: Graham Day, a Twitch partner on X/Twitter.
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A network of nearly 90 TikTok accounts has been using AI to create fake versions of Spanish-language journalists and spread falsehoods online
What's behind the TikTok accounts using AI-generated versions of real Latino journalists?
The accounts point to the challenge of stopping or controlling the surge in fake images and misinformation targeting Spanish-speakers in the U.S., as AI technology advances.Nicole Acevedo (NBC News)
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Meta Quest 3/3s XR headsets finally rooted after 2 years
Meta XR headsets are very cheap for the performance they give. Unfortunately they require a Meta account and one can assume as much data as legally possibly is sent back to the advertising company.
For years now, since the Quest 1, those Android devices have not been rooted except for some specific version number of the Quest 2.
This recent work github.com/FreeXR/eureka_panth… makes the latest headset with a rather recent update (but NOT the very last ones, so be cautious!) rootable.
GitHub - FreeXR/eureka_panther-adreno-gpu-exploit-1: Our first exploit: a memory corruption vulnerability in the Adreno GPU driver for Eureka/Panther (3/3s) devices, enabling arbitrary kernel memory read/write and privilege escalation.
Our first exploit: a memory corruption vulnerability in the Adreno GPU driver for Eureka/Panther (3/3s) devices, enabling arbitrary kernel memory read/write and privilege escalation. - FreeXR/eurek...GitHub
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VR Gear & GPUs
Hardware # NVIDIA WIRED VR ISSUES: Nvidia proprietary drivers currently have a number of critical issues with DRM lease causing substantial presentation latency for wired VR headsets, or making DRM lease impossible, resulting in discomfort or breakag…Linux VR Adventures Wiki
Well I would ask you to reconsider reconsidering. It's a very neat technical fear, arguably even an important one... but you would be giving money to Meta. So unless you really have to, because you work in the domain, maybe try to recycle a 2nd hand headset for a cheaper price and tinker with it as much as you want? Maybe even contribute to the rooting process by finding ways to remove the Meta account requirement altogether?
TL:DR: nobody needs a XR headset but if you do and you want to get a Meta one, get it 2nd hand.
High probability of it being a loss leader with its specs. So if you were to buy and root it they'll definitely lose money.
However, the bootloader unlock process is still quite dangerous so you might end up with an expensive paper weight.
I have a Quest 1 which I still use everyday because it gives me a set exercise regime. Sideloaded a bunch of free indie titles that get me moving and it's worth it.
That seems to be a huge factor in terms of continued usage: Do you use it for regular exercise. Most people who stick with VR seem to get some exercise related quality of life out of the technology.
Yesssssss!
Using root on META Quest 3/3S is very dangerous SINGLE CHANGE IN THE BOOTLOADER PARTITION WILL RESULT IN A HARD BRICK AND MAKE YOUR DEVICE UNUSABLE!!! requiring one to unsolder the UFS chip and reprogramming it with external (and expensive) hardware. Reflashing the device via EDL is impossible due to Meta refusing to provide the users the cryptographical keys needed to authentificate secure boot on QFPROM implemetation.
Ehhhhh.... Maybe I'll wait a bit...
Actually, those steps are the ones necessary to recover from a hard brick (re: the device is unusable because you did something you shouldn't have as root).
The actual process to root the device is simply running a few adb commands (so a prereq is having Developer Mode enabled).
Once you have ran the exploit, your root escalation is temporary until the device is rebooted or you take additional steps to persists your root privileges (thus, potentially leading you towards a hard brick).
source: The docs
Getting Started
Our first exploit: a memory corruption vulnerability in the Adreno GPU driver for Eureka/Panther (3/3s) devices, enabling arbitrary kernel memory read/write and privilege escalation. - FreeXR/eurek...GitHub
Actually, those steps are the ones necessary to recover from a hard brick (re: the device is unusable because you did something you shouldn't have as root).
I get that; the whole reason I want to root it is to FAFO tho. So I'll wait until the worst I could do is need to factory reset it. lol
It is indeed a risk AND you must pin your current OS version, so no new update including no new feature (not sure which one one would need for now though) but more importantly no security updates.
That being said... if you do not actively try to mess it up, i.e. doing precisely what has been warned against NOT doing, it should be safe.
In doubt, if you can't afford another headset, have no actual need for rooting and have never done that before, definitely safer to wait.
Recommendations
- Valve Index but it's not standalone. It's "just" a headset so what you do with it is up to you, no need to register anything with Valve, nor have Steam (even though SteamVR is convenient) and works on Linux. With Proton even the latest indie VR games work. IMHO also Half-life: Alyx is in itself worth it.
- Lynx-XR1 that can already be rooted lynx.miraheze.org/wiki/Rooting… (which I did few months ago) but arguably their customization of Android isn't as convenient as what Meta did. For tinkerers though and if you can actually get one, it's great. Also no account required.
There are others, e.g. simulavr.com/ which is standalone and Linux proper (not Android), but I haven't tried so I can't vouch for them.
... makes the latest headset with a rather recent update (but NOT the very last ones, so be cautious!) rootable.
Any ideas which version(s) are susceptible? I couldn't find it mentioned.
- Quest 3: v79 5115411.12900.520 (August 7, 2025) and below, to about version v71.
- Quest 3S: v79 117688.9900.610 (August 6, 2025) and below, to about version v71.
according to github.com/zhuowei/cheese/tree…
GitHub - zhuowei/cheese: CVE-2025-21479 proof-of-concept, I think
CVE-2025-21479 proof-of-concept, I think. Contribute to zhuowei/cheese development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
Thank you for finding that.
I got lucky, I bought a quest around July/August and needed to do the mandatory/initial OS install.
I ended up with v78 (August 3, 2025) release.
I didn't realize there was a WiP announced in July 2025.
Quest 3 Rooting
i want to root quest 3, and there isin't a lot of discussion on it. Therefore, i've created a discord server where we can talk about these stuff {Mod edit: References to Discord removed! Oswald...ilovecats4606 (XDA Forums)
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The Era of 'AI Psychosis' is Here. Are You a Possible Victim?
The Era of 'AI Psychosis' is Here. Are You a Possible Victim?
Psychologists have been sounding the alarm for months.Ece Yildirim (Gizmodo)
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With how so many services are forcing it upon us, I'd have to disagree.
It's also getting to be a bit of a chore to block AI elements on all the various websites implementing them, and a few of the worst offenders (Google is one that I know does this) add a random string of characters on the element that serve as a unique identifier that periodically changes and so requires me to readd them to my UBO blocklist. On each device...
It is the most effective solution for sure, though.
With how so many services are forcing it upon us, I'd have to disagree.
Maybe we need to add a term for anti-AI psychosis. Like an equivalent of ‘going postal’?
and a few of the worst offenders (Google is one that I know does this) add a random string of characters on the element that serve as a unique identifier that periodically changes and so requires me to readd them to my UBO blocklist.
Does ubo accept css selectors? Css has syntax for "match element that starts with, ends with, or contains, this string"
developer.mozilla.org/en-US/do…
Attribute selectors
The CSS attribute selector matches elements based on the element having a given attribute explicitly set, with options for defining an attribute value or substring value match.developer.mozilla.org
The American Psychological Association met with the FTC in February to urge regulators to address the use of AI chatbots as unlicensed therapists.
Protect our ~~revenue~~, er patients!
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might be entitled to compensation, for all the money you spent.
ouija board lied to me
I knew from the moment I deeply interacted with AI that this would be an issue. It's wild and AI is bar far the coolest invention since the Internet. It's a philosophers dream. It's a playground for your brain! It's a sparring partner for your thoughts and ideas to stress test them.
Having said that I can easily see so some losing their grip depending on how they are interacting with it.
Seriously, using something devoid of thought as "a sparring partner for your thoughts" seems to me like it's a serious entry point to losing one's grip.
Especially since the behaviour of those machines is steered by large corporations whose only goal is to get your ressources, be it money, skill or attention.
The only other thing that fascinated me more in regards to AI and psychosis that can develop .....is the phenomenon of people not liking AI simply for the sake of not liking it.
I get it, I'm a hipster too, but when people purposely decide to morph into Will Smith from I Robot for no reason....it's just silly 🙄
Gemini for Home is Google’s biggest smart home play in years
Gemini for Home is Google’s biggest smart home play in years
Gemini is finally, officially coming to Google Home. The all-new assistant will arrive on Nest smart speakers and displays later this year.Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (The Verge)
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I use Home Assistant as my “main” smart home server then have HomeKit on iOS, macOS connect to it.
You don’t need Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft involved at all if you don’t want to. In fact, with Matter it’s easier than ever to get away from Big Tech.
Home Assistant
Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server.Home Assistant
Former trucker here.
I've been using home assistant for a year. No degree in software engineering here
Stupidly simply to set up.
Sounds like a skill issue.
I'm just a dumb ol trucker with an Alabama public school education.
I managed to set it up with no issues.
And for the record, it doesn't do "random" updates unless you tell it to.
So why were you updating anything that was working? Were you using cheap-ass crap that needed a cloud connection?
Don't blame HA for your choice in gear.
Don't blame HA for your choice in gear.
- This has absolutely nothing to do with my gear.
- I am not "blaming" HA at all. I am blaming the hundreds of people on the internet who constantly insist that everyone should use it, and that it's "easy to use".
I managed to set it up with no issues.
Copngratulations. You are clearly significantly more experienced than I am with technology. Along with 95% of the general population.
So why were you updating anything that was working?
Asking me why I would update my install is a strange question. All the same reasons anyone else would update their installs. All the same reasons they continue to create updates.
Were you using cheap-ass crap that needed a cloud connection?
Yes, I was using cheap crap. Mostly from Aqara. Once again, the gear was never the problem. The problem was the HA configuration.
None of it needed any cloud connections other than whatever moron decided to distribute integrations directly through Github.
Yes, good idea. Lets voluntarily wiretap our owns homes. /S
I still can't believe people are this dumb.
Gemini for Home is Google’s biggest smart home play in years
For the next 3 to 4 years (if you will be lucky), then they will pass to something new and they will simply kill it, like they done with a lot of other projects.
Maeve
in reply to rambling_lunatic • • •rambling_lunatic
in reply to Maeve • • •People should be using Signal, which is also blocked.
I'm now frantically trying to cook up some way to be able to call my family back there. A VPN is of course an option, but also illegal.
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Maeve
in reply to rambling_lunatic • • •rambling_lunatic
in reply to Maeve • • •I will assume that you are saying that people should not be using Signal based on this (e.g. the United States are sliding into fascism and may fuck over Signal).
What would you suggest then? PGP? Ngl I'm happy that GnuPG is introducing post-quantum encryption in the new releases but I'm talking about calling my grandma.
Maeve
in reply to rambling_lunatic • • •rambling_lunatic
in reply to Maeve • • •In this particular case literally all I want is to be able to talk to my family members without risking the FSB arresting them for calling the "Special Military Operation" a war in a phone call. If using WhatsApp for texting isn't banned alongside phone calls, that is halfway okay for discussions of that nature, and I'll have to watch my tongue if I call them over the Roskomnadzor-Approved (TM) apps.
The trouble with those of course is that they don't always work well with non-Russian phone numbers (because of course fucking everything needs my number nowadays). And you have to hope they're not megaspyware. I am NOT downloading fucking MAX.
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Siegfried
in reply to rambling_lunatic • • •like this
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rambling_lunatic
in reply to Siegfried • • •A_norny_mousse
in reply to rambling_lunatic • • •