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Torres Invested in Weapons Makers as He Backed Billions in Arms for Israel





The Three Faces of Modern Search: The Traditionalist, the Augmenter, and the Dissenter


The prevailing narrative suggests a seismic shift in consumer search behavior, where the dominance of Google and Amazon is being eroded by a new ecosystem of Social and AI-driven platforms. To move beyond speculation, we built a proprietary dataset, analyzing the detailed purchase journeys of 3,000 UK and US consumers. This data allows us to map the real-world behaviors that define the modern search research journey. Our analysis reveals that while the landscape is diversifying, the story is not one of simple replacement. Instead, the market is fragmenting into three distinct behavioral personas, each with a unique research DNA:
- The Traditionalist: A significantly older demographic that sticks exclusively to the foundational giants of Google and Amazon, representing the most direct path to purchase.
- The Augmented: Our data reveals this is the largest segment, representing the mainstream consumer (25-44), who begins with Google or Amazon but then adds multiple other platforms like YouTube and AI chatbots.
- The Dissenter: Our analysis identified a younger demographic that bypasses the duopoly altogether, discovering products organically on social and video platforms like TikTok and Instagram.


Source: Brainlabs.

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Framework unveils a second-generation Framework Laptop 16 with a swappable Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, an industry first, shipping in November 2025


cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36378173

::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::



Framework unveils a second-generation Framework Laptop 16 with a swappable Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, an industry first, shipping in November 2025


::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::


in reply to Pro

for laptops, either get last or even further generation 8 core cpu and 5070/4070, or be happy with AI 300 series igpu. Buy more memory instead. You might one day want local AI/LLMs.
in reply to humanspiral

Problem is almost no laptop has Strix Halo. Not even the Frameworks.

And rumors are its successor APU may be much better, so the investment could be, err, questionable.

Questa voce è stata modificata (2 settimane fa)






Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play


The "protection of children" has been the cited reason for a lot of controversial laws and measures recently. A common response is that parents should use parental controls to manage that on their own instead of relying on the government to do it to everyone. I found this article interesting since it touched on how the existing tools aren't that good, and addressing that problem might be a better thing to focus on

Authors:


  • Sara M. Grimes | Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and Professor, McGill University
  • Riley McNair | PhD Student in Information Studies, University of Toronto




Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play


The "protection of children" has been the cited reason for a lot of controversial laws and measures recently. A common response is that parents should use parental controls to manage that on their own instead of relying on the government to do it to everyone. I found this article interesting since it touched on how the existing tools aren't that good, and addressing that problem might be a better thing to focus on

Authors:

  • Sara M. Grimes | Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and Professor, McGill University
  • Riley McNair | PhD Student in Information Studies, University of Toronto

Technology reshared this.

in reply to Otter Raft

force binary choices that don’t align with household rules or with children’s maturity levels.


This has been my main experience with "parental controls". As soon as they are turned on, I lose any ability to manage the experiences available to my children. So, in areas where I see them as mature enough to handle something, the only way I can allow them access to that experience is to completely bypass the controls. In many ecosystems, if I judge that one of my children could handle a game and the online risks associated with it, I can't simply allow that game. Instead, I need to maintain a full adult account for them to use. You also run into a lot of situations where the reason a game is banned from children is unclear or done in an obvious "better safe than sorry" knee-jerk reaction. Ultimately, parental controls end up being far more frustrating than empowering. I'd rather just have something that just says, "this game/movie/etc your kid is asking for is restricted based on reasons X, Y and Z. Do you want to allow it?" Log my response and go with it. Like damned near any choice in software settings, quit trying to out-think me on what I want, give me a choice and respect that choice.

in reply to Otter Raft

How about not letting children near screens? Yeah, let's be looked at as the Amish kid that got transfered, but this genuinely feels like the right choice. Maybe allow something like Wikipedia/encyclopedia in someway.


Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play


The "protection of children" has been the cited reason for a lot of controversial laws and measures recently. A common response is that parents should use parental controls to manage that on their own instead of relying on the government to do it to everyone. I found this article interesting since it touched on how the existing tools aren't that good, and addressing that problem might be a better thing to focus on

Authors:

  • Sara M. Grimes | Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and Professor, McGill University
  • Riley McNair | PhD Student in Information Studies, University of Toronto

Technology reshared this.



Framework unveils a second-generation Framework Laptop 16 with a swappable Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, an industry first, shipping in November 2025


::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::
Questa voce è stata modificata (2 settimane fa)
in reply to Pro

What's industry first about it, exactly? The specific brands don't come to mind but there have been some niche laptop manufacturers with GPU slots for at least a decade.


Barley wine


Just a heavy mash with some chocolate malt and crystal, brittish yeast BRT101 (RIP Alzymologist Oy, but I still have the Library). Takes time to mature, couple weeks after bottling it still asks for more bottle aging (hopefully few years) but already nice and mellow. Dangerously drinkable, for its ABV.
in reply to tasankovasara

8kg pale

0.7kg crystal medium

0.3kg crystal oak

0.5kg chocolate

0.5kg torrified wheat

final volume 15L

Utilization could be better, but that's zen approach we are trying - literally only large kitchen kettles and colander, I'll make a post about this idea later. It works, but not so good on heavy stuff. But then fancy equipment doesn't work with this well either (actually often worse). Heavy mashes are not so simple.

Questa voce è stata modificata (2 settimane fa)
in reply to Alexander

10 kg into 15 L, that's a malt-head's dream brew 😀

I'm at the initial dreaming state of building a 'kuurna', the preferred sahti mashing process. That would be the way to optimise utilisation. I already have a stainless steel piece that would probably work as a base. No use building it though, no room in the house to set up the process or really even store it...




AI model generates realistic synthetic X-rays from medical descriptions


#AII





ESET Research: The first AI-powered(LLM) ransomware has been discovered- PromptLock.


Source: ESET Research On Mastodon


#ESETResearch has discovered the first known AI-powered ransomware, which we named #PromptLock. The PromptLock malware uses the gpt-oss:20b model from OpenAI locally via the Ollama API to generate malicious Lua scripts on the fly, which it then executes.
PromptLock leverages Lua scripts generated from hard-coded prompts to enumerate the local filesystem, inspect target files, exfiltrate selected data, and perform encryption. These Lua scripts are cross-platform compatible, functioning on #Windows, #Linux, and #macOS.
Based on the detected user files, the malware may exfiltrate data, encrypt it, or potentially destroy it. Although the destruction functionality appears to be not yet implemented. #Bitcoin address used in the prompt appears to belong to Bitcoin creator en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_…
For its file encryption mechanism, the PromptLock ransomware utilizes the SPECK 128-bit encryption algorithm.
Although multiple indicators suggest the sample is a proof-of-concept (PoC) or work-in-progress rather than fully operational malware deployed in the wild, we believe it is our responsibility to inform the cybersecurity community about such developments.
The PromptLock ransomware is written in #Golang, and we have identified both Windows and Linux variants uploaded to VirusTotal. IoCs:
🚨 Filecoder.PromptLock.A
📄 24BF7B72F54AA5B93C6681B4F69E579A47D7C102
AD223FE2BB4563446AEE5227357BBFDC8ADA3797
BB8FB75285BCD151132A3287F2786D4D91DA58B8
F3F4C40C344695388E10CBF29DDB18EF3B61F7EF
639DBC9B365096D6347142FCAE64725BD9F73270
161CDCDB46FB8A348AEC609A86FF5823752065D2
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Bessent says US tariff revenue could be well over $500 billion a year


U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that customs duty revenues from President Donald Trump's tariffs may top $500 billion a year, with a substantial jump from July to August and likely a bigger jump in September.

Bessent told a White House Cabinet meeting that his prior estimate of a $300 billion annual tariff collection rate was too low.

"We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we're going to see a bigger jump from August to September," Bessent said. "So I think we could be on our way well over half a trillion, maybe towards a trillion-dollar number. This administration, your administration, has made a meaningful dent in the budget deficit."

Tariff revenue would offset the deficit increases triggered by the Republicans' tax-cut and spending bill passed this year. CBO estimated this bill would widen the deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next decade.

Trump's tariffs drove July U.S. customs duty collections up by nearly $21 billion from the $7 billion collected in July 2024 and about even with the $20 billion increase registered in June. Significant increases in tariff rates for nearly all trading partners kicked in on August 7.

The U.S. Treasury reported on Monday that as of August 22, the government had collected $29.6 billion in combined customs and excise taxes so far during August, matching its total for the whole month of July. As of July 22, that combined figure stood at $7.8 billion, but customs duty collections can vary from day to day.

Bessent also noted that the Congressional Budget Office's upwardly revised estimate last week of federal revenue from Trump's tariffs, forecasting that it could reduce federal deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years. "And I would expect that that number could go up from here," Bessent added.

The latest CBO estimate marks an increase from June when it forecast that revenue from new tariffs would reduce deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bessent-says-us-tariff-revenue-could-be-well-over-500-billion-year-2025-08-26/


in reply to silence7

Louisiana has been losing a football field worth of land every half hour for the past several decades. Hurricanes makes this worse by throwing monstrous floating mats of vegetation inland thereby removing erosion protection.

We were on a swamp tour outside of New Orleans and the guide was showing us vast tracts of open water that had been vegetation before Katrina.

in reply to silence7

Correction, climate change will cost states like California billions on Louisiana alone by 2050.


Florida schools introducing armed drones that respond to shootings within seconds


While the drones are armed, they use non-lethal or less-lethal weaponry, allowing them to distract, disorient, confront, degrade, and incapacitate shooters, according to the company. They carry pepper rounds and a glass breaker for quickly entering classrooms.

Despite not carrying lethal firepower, having 30 to 90 of these drones in schools has raised concerns. Beyond any potential technical issues, there's always the possibility they could make a shooting situation even worse or more complicated. There are question marks over the kind of training the operators receive, too. Then there's the storage safety aspect, as well as the potential of a drone colliding with a student or law enforcement as it zooms through corridors at 50mph.

We'll find out how successful the system is soon enough. Campus Guardian Angel aims to install the drones in the schools permanently in September and October, ahead of the fully operational live service starting in January.

https://www.techspot.com/news/109188-florida-schools-introducing-armed-drones-respond-shootings-within.html

Technology reshared this.

in reply to geneva_convenience

Because doing something about the guns would be too easy.

No way to prevent this says only country where this happens daily


What was that about protecting kids that they’re so fond of?

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in reply to geneva_convenience

10 bucks says a student is gonna slam a door too hard or light up in school or whatever, and one of these Child Skull Destroyers is gonna absolutely merc them.



Nice Time! Democratic Governors Let F*cking FLY.


Tim Walz, JB Pritzker, and Wes Moore are coming out swinging!

All this bad news of the country going to hell is so depressing and relentless. Let’s have a nice time: Governors giving Trump the what-for! And against the advice of consultants from their own party, even.

A leaked memo from David Shor’s Blue Rose Research shows research from a web panel testing 21 Democratic messages, and short version, what the panel “found” most effective to talk about was tariffs and Medicaid. Messages about the authoritarian takeover of Washington DC did not — they claimed — test well.

Should Democrats really take that advice? Because there’s what people say they want, and then there’s what they actually vote for. After all, in 2024 voters said that they cared about The Economy and the prices of The Groceries, and then they elected a guy who bankrupted six businesses, including two casinos, and was found liable for millions in fraud. That’s the guy you want to trust when The Groceries are the most important thing in the world to you?

And there’s also what’s actually important, even if it is painful to think about, which is losing our democracy, the rule of law, our human rights, the economy, our free speech, and everything else that makes America great. Talking points about Medicaid and the tariffs, while indeed important, seems beyond tone deaf at a time like this. But not everybody is taking the advice, thank goodness, so let’s enjoy some of the politicians who refuse!

First up, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

The Democrats held their three-day Democratic National Committee Summer Meeting in Minneapolis, and it was not without sturm und drang. The AP reports that DNC chair Ken Martin may be barely holding on: “[A]t least a couple of DNC members privately considered bringing a vote of no confidence against Martin this week in part because of the committee’s underwhelming fundraising.”

We know what might help with fundraising, and it is not pissing off your base and donors by being fucking weenuses. You know who wants Democrats to fight? Donors whose wallets are currently sewn the fuck shut.

The DNC had $14 million in the bank at the end of July, compared with the Republican National Committee’s $84 million. That’s pretty bad! Maybe they should consider changing direction!

But anyway, let’s go to the highlights of this ballbuster of a speech from MN Gov. and former vice presidential nominee Tim Walz:

“[T]he privilege of my lifetime was to stand beside someone we know was the most qualified and would have been a fantastic president in a President Harris. And look, we wouldn't wake up every day to a bunch of bullshit on TV and a bunch of nonsense. We would wake up to an adult with compassion and dignity and vision and leadership doing the work. Not a manchild crying about whatever's wrong with him. May his fat ankles find something today.”

“We're proud to be a diverse party. We are proud of the diversity of this country. We're not shying away from diversity as a strength and equity as a goal and inclusion being the air we breathe. That's what we should be doing. But what we have to be clear about is don't take the bait. It boggles my damn mind that in the midst of a military takeover our cities and the attempt to go into others, the flaunting of the rule of law, the cruelness and the unconstitutional nature of the way they're attacking our neighbors that the press finds the need to talk about, oh, there's a division in the Democratic Party. There's a division in my damn house and we're still married and things are good. That's life.”




in reply to schnurrito

Being a fan of LaLiga's business is dumber every year.
in reply to schnurrito

Company A sues arbitrary people for being customers of a different, B company


Wow, if this doesn't sound like terminal capitalism, I don't know what does! Where's the free market bros on this???


in reply to ooli3

I thought it would use molten salt instead of steam \s
in reply to ooli3

Is it producing steam?
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in reply to Davriellelouna

What a surprise, the empathy-free text generator makes things worse when people expect it to output empathy. My condolences to the kid's family and I hope he's in a better place, but this sort of thing is going to happen more and more until people realize that AI chatbots only seem human-like because the human brain is so good at empathy that it projects emotions and agency onto anything, even a literal cowpile with googly eyes on top.

AI isn't "good enough to fool us" . We're just stupid enough to be fooled even by something as moronic as AI. What we emphasize in such a statement makes all the difference in how we handle this tech.

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in reply to Peruvian_Skies

Yeah, article said he had talked for months about hanging himself. Any human friend would have done their best to save him. Being proactive about making him feel better, working through his problems with him, and/or notifying his parents or a school teacher.

Meanwhile the chat bot just encouraged him to seek help himself. Which isn't bad, but when someone is suicidal, particularly when they keep bringing it up, is clearly not enough.


I feel really bad for anyone treating chatbots as friends. They are basically guaranteed to get screwed over by the bot. And furthermore, they aren't learning how to connect with humans, humans who might become a lifelong friend, or teach one the skills to befriend a future lifelong friend.

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Sci-Hub Blocked in India, Founder Tells Plaintiffs to Expect Disappointment


A 2020 lawsuit filed by publishers at the High Court in Delhi targeted the infamous shadow library, Sci-Hub. The aim was to have the site blocked by ISPs, which triggered a strong response from academics, scientists, teachers and students, who argued that free access to knowledge is vital in India. Close to five years later, the Court has sided with the publishers. Sci-Hub's founder informed them via email that the results of blocking may be disappointing.


DNC chair pledges to facilitate 'conversation' in the party about Israel amid clashing resolutions






AI Killed My Job: Translators


Technology reshared this.

in reply to Davriellelouna

I know someone who was a translator between two (less widely spoken) languages, and some specifics I recall from our conversations about work:
- Sometimes the translations use many technical terms, and getting those wrong (trusting LLMs) is not an option. (This was for some patents IIRC)
- Some terms simply do not exist in another language, and it could be up to the translator to invent a term to define and carry the information across. (This was for some government digital service, and the term was similar to "digital queue")
- Tone and nuances are very difficult to translate. Phrasing can have implications and connotations. (Simplest example: "i am afraid" does not imply fear, it's an established politeness phrase) Neutral in one language could be viewed as hostile in another, too. (And with politicians being petty, could have consequences)

None of those would be addressed with LLMs. Small training set for language (and language being similar to a few others) is an issue. Anything technical or non-existing would be prone to hallucinations. And tone is difficult enough to convey through text to begin with, let alone with LLM translation.

in reply to Yaky

I wonder what % of all translations are things like patents, legal paper and movies and what are simple localizations. Even in the more complex cases you can pass the entire text through AI first and then just proof read it and correct the errors.
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in reply to Yaky

LLM gets 95% of the translation done, but the 5% is likely every important and it takes longer to confirm it's correct than to do it from scratch anyway
in reply to Omega

How good is LLM training data for a language spoken by less than 10 million people? Keep in mind that most of those people are probably multilingual (i.e. categorizing which language is which by person is harder), and language itself is similar to its neighbors. And then, again, terms.
in reply to Yaky

I can not say, and wouldn't trust it unless a translator confirmed its validity
in reply to Omega

I've had to translate a whole bunch of letters from English to Finnish for my grandparents, and doing it using a translator saves a ton of time as I don't have to actually produce the text, I can just read both sides afterwards and as long as every sentence matches in meaning, I can move to the next one.

But I wouldn't trust it to actually be correct for the entire thing, because it never is, and if someone who doesn't understand one of the languages would do it they would never spot the mistakes either.

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in reply to Davriellelouna

I'd expect any translation requiring zero mistakes and translator's official responsibility wouldn't be hurt by this.


Plasma Virtual Keyboard — Feedback needed


We've been working on improving On-Screen Keyboard support in computers, mobile devices and TVs as part of the We Care About Your Input - KDE Goals initiative.

Check out what has been done so far in Plasma Virtual Keyboard and tell us what you'd like to see next. 💻️📱📺️



Google Translate's latest feature is its take on Duolingo


Technology reshared this.

in reply to Multiplexer

IDK exactly what Duolingo is, but it sounds like this new product gives you practice with spoken conversations? I'm unexcited by the idea of doing that with a computer but still, spoken language learning is completely different from written language.

The best thing for spoken language acquisition from my perspective has simply been listening a lot to live human speakers of the language, in person. That means either take a class with a human instructor, or travel to wherever they use that language. It's ok to start with very limited ability. Bring a dictionary things will sink in over time.

in reply to solrize

Well, an AI is incredibly patient and you can toy around with the language freely without perhaps feeling embarrassed. That alone lowers the entry bar (especially for slightly awkward persons like myself...) considerably.
On top of that AI is dirt cheap compared to a personal tutor or traveling around the world.
So it would open effective language learning to a much broader audience than before, which undoubtedly is a good thing!


DNC Votes Down Resolution Calling for Israeli Arms Embargo to Halt US Complicity in Gaza Genocide


The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday voted down a resolution calling for a suspension of military aid to Israel in the midst of a famine in Gaza that is a direct result of Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.

Margaret DeReus, the executive director of IMEU Policy Project, was scathing in her denunciation of the DNC for voting down the resolution and directly called out the influence of pro-Israel groups that have spent millions to defeat progressives like former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), one of the first Democratic lawmakers to demand a ceasefire after Israel began its assault on Gaza in 2023.

Organizer Asra Nizami noted that "members acknowledged getting hundreds of calls and emails" about supporting the resolution, but voted it down nonetheless.

"This party keeps digging its own grave. And it's owned by AIPAC," said Nizami, referring to the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which donated more than $24 million to Democratic candidates in 2024.

in reply to geneva_convenience

The right campaigned on abortion.

The left campaigned on Gaza.

The right votes.

The left pontificates.

I wonder who keeps winning.




Did you ever delete a google account?


cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/35171067

Have you ever deleted a google account before? Any Experiences? What should one know about this? Do you trust them to really delete everything?
in reply to 🤗lemmyverseultrahug

only thing I thought could give me some certainty was downloading archive several times. I waited for a day when its content would be as empty as I saw in interface. But I know I would never be 100% sure. I just hope their backups expired after 6 years.


French stocks, bonds tumble as government faces potential collapse


The prospect that France's minority government could collapse soon triggered a sharp selloff in French stocks and bonds on Tuesday, pushing political risks from the euro zone's second biggest economy back to the forefront of investors' minds.
Three main opposition parties said they would not back a confidence vote which Prime Minister Francois Bayrou announced for September 8 over his plans for sweeping budget cuts.

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/french-stocks-bonds-tumble-government-faces-potential-collapse-2025-08-26/