Spyke

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Powerful Malware Disguised as Crypto Miner Infects 1M+ Windows, Linux PCs

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They describe an SSH infector, as well as a credentials scanner. To me, that sounds like it started like from exploited/infected Windows computers with SSH access, and then continued from there.

With how many unencrypted SSH keys there are, how most hosts keep a list of the servers they SSH into, and how they can probably bypass some firewall protections once they're inside the network: not a bad idea.

gaming

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No need to replace it just yet...

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It can be pretty easy to get up a second-hand console cheap, free, and/or as a gift.

Have you ever seen how much good/working stuff people throw away? If you're a little bright, you can get people to pay you to haul their "junk" away.

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Don't bother promoting IPv6 as "the future". It's never going to be the default.

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That wasn't what I said. 2^56 was NOT a reference to bits, but to how many IPs we could assign every visible star, if it weren't for subnet limitations. IPv6 isn't classless like IPv4. There will be a lot of wasted/unrunused/unroutable addresses due to the reserved 64-bits.

The problem isn't the number of addresses, but the number of allocations. Our smallest allocation, today, for a 128-bit address: is only 48-bits. Allocation-wise, we effectively only have 48-bits of allocations, not 128. To run out like with IPv6 , we only need to assign 48-bits of networks, rather than the 24-bits for IPv4. Go read up on how ARIN/RIPE/APNIC allocate IPs. It's pretty wasteful.

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8GB RAM on M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous to 16GB' on PCs, Claims Apple

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tl;dr

The memory bandwidth isn't magic, nor special, but generally meaningless. MT/s matter more, but Apple's non-magic is generally higher than the industry standard in compact form factors.

Long version:

How are such wrong numbers are so widely upvoted? The 6400Mbps is per pin.

Generally, DDR5 has a 64-bit data bus. The standard names also indicate the speeds per module: PC5-32000 transfers 32GB/s with 64-bits at 4000MT/s, and PC5-64000 transfers 64GB/s with 64-bits at 8000MT/s. With those speeds, it isn't hard for a DDR5 desktop or server to reach similar bandwidth.

Apple doubles the data bus from 64-bits to 128-bits (which is still nothing compared to something like an RTX 4090, with a 384-bit data bus). With that, Apple can get 102.4GB/s with just one module instead of the standard 51.2GB/s. The cited 800GB/s is with 8: most comparable hardware does not allow 8 memory modules.

Ironically, the memory bandwidth is pretty much irrelevant compared to the MT/s. To quote Dell defending their CAMM modules:

In a 12th-gen Intel laptop using two SO-DIMMs, for example, you can reach DDR5/4800 transfer speeds. But push it to a four-DIMM design, such as in a laptop with 128GB of RAM, and you have to ratchet it back to DDR5/4000 transfer speeds.

That contradiction makes it hard to balance speed, capacity, and upgradability. Even the upcoming Core Ultra 9 185H seems rated for 5600 MT/s-- after 2 years, we're almost getting PC laptops that have the memory speed of Macbooks. This wasn't Apple being magical, but just taking advantage of OEMs dropping the ball on how important memory can be to performance. The memory bandwidth is just the cherry on top.

The standard supports these speeds and faster. To be clear, these speeds and capacity don't do ANYTHING to support "8GB is analogous to..." statements. It won't take magic to beat, but the PC industry doesn't yet have much competition in the performance and form factors Apple is targeting. In the meantime, Apple is milking its customers: The M3s have the same MT/s and memory technology as two years ago. It's almost as if they looked at the next 6-12 months and went: "They still haven't caught up, so we don't need too much faster, yet-- but we can make a lot of money until while we wait."

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Safety

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Probably because the Democrats are so anti-gun/weapon. The target demographic probably leans anti-weapon, even if they're not necessarily Democrats. The combination keeps them more vulnerable. It's even worse when carrying weapons in these areas is outright banned: no training, no permits, only police. The safety of the group is generally prioritized over the safety of the individual. Which, like here, can be a problem.

From how they're acting, it seems only a matter of time. They seem to check all of the boxes for a lethal or deadly force in nearly every state, even the strict ones. An unidentified suspiciously dressed group aggressively surrounding you and preventing your retreat? Lethal/deadly force can often be used to defend another person. Someone else can shoot these idiots in plain clothes with no identification.

Even if "police" identify themselves late, it seems to be setting themselves up for a weak defense

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More Gen Z Americans identify as LGBTQ than as Republican

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Vote. Seriously. (If practical: get involved, too). The U.S. is currently in the middle of a large shift of generational power.

Many of these changes are fairly recent:

  • 2020 was the first federal election where the Baby Boomers didn't make up the largest voting generation.
  • It was only in 2016 that the number Gen X and younger voting numbers grew larger than the boomer and older numbers.
  • Those numbers had been possible since 2010. Despite having more eligible voters (135M vs 93M), the "GenXers and younger" only had ~36M actual voters, compared to ~57M older ones.

Looking forward, the numbers only get better for younger voters. There hasn't been a demographic shift like this in the U.S. in a long time (ever?). The current power structures can not be maintained for much longer. It is still possible for that shift to be peaceful. Please encourage the peaceful transfer: vote. Vote in the primaries. Maybe even vote for better voting systems. This time is unique, but change takes time. Don't let them fool you otherwise: that's just them trying to hold on to their power.

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Trying to build viable third parties by voting for them in presidential elections is like trying to build a third door in your house by repeatedly walking into the wall where you want the door to be.

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It seems you are mixing the concepts of voting systems and candidate selection. FPP nor FPTP should not sound scary. As a voting systems, FPP works well enough more often than many want to admit. The name just describes it in more detail: First Preference Plurality.

Every voting system is as bottom-up or top-down as the candidate selection process. The voting system itself doesn't really affect whether it is top down or bottom up. Requiring approval/voting from the current rulers would be top-down. Only requiring ten signatures on a community petition is more bottom up.

The voting systems don't care about the candidate selection process. Some require precordination for a "party", but that could also be a party of 1. A party of 1 might not be able to get as much representation as one with more people: but that's also the case for every voting system that selects the same number of candidates.

Voting systems don't even need to be used for representation systems. If a group of friends are voting on where to eat, one problem might be selecting the places to vote on, but that's before the vote. With the vote, FPP might have 70% prefer pizza over Indian food, but the Indian food vote might still win because the pizza voters had another first choice. Having more candidates often leads to minority rule/choice, and that's not very good for food choice nor community representation.

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Google fucked a whole generation with Chromebooks, and now they're fucking the next generation with AI

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You seemed to miss their argument. Those were the standard in 1995, before OSes had really integrated the internet. Haivng a floppy disk, discarding wifi, and having drivers auto-loaded/discovered automatically (or not needed at all) are independent developments. Even when Chromebooks started becoming standard: using drivers from physical disks were rare, Windows could automatically find and update drivers (how well, eh), WiFI existed and was faster than most internets. You could install Linux and it would mostly work, provided your hardware wasn't too new.

The actual argument chromebooks are contributing to tech illteracy because, they're:

  • Locked-down: devices that most can't repair or customize, especially if given out by a school or organization. Locking them down is a feature.
  • Below cost: they're the cheapest devices available, because Google makes more money from data.

Organizations buy these devices because they're cheap (than cost), lock them down, and those locked-down devices become the only computer for most students. While it's technically possible to install Linux, these users can't: it's not their devices: the organizations bought them because they were cheap and easily locked down for kids. If these are their main device, and they not allowed (either technically or by policy) to install another OS: where will they learn tech literacy? Not on their phone, not on their tablet, and not on their school-issued laptop.

They've been locked into a room and people wonder why they don't know how to interact outside. You're arguing that the room today is better than the one in 1995. That's true, that doesn't change the argument:

  1. Maybe they shouldn't be locked into the room.
  2. Maybe it shouldn't be cheaper to lock the room than to let them go outside.
  3. Maybe we need to do more to help them see outside the room.

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Having a local, "age" flag used for filtering content isn't a bad idea.

Your idea is a good one. The main way they want to use that "local" age flag still sends a signal about the user to the server. Even if it’s coarse, that's tracking and privacy concern.

I believe repeating what's worked might be the better option. Other media solved this with standardized rating systems. The internet could add a similar content signal alongside this. A similar content-rating header (G, PG, PG-13, R, M) could achieve many of the same goals as an age flag or boolean filters.

The ratings describe the content, not the user. Filtering can stay local, without disclosing anything about the user. Current parental controls rely on blocklists or detection, which are unreliable. A standard rating signal would allow them to be simpler and more consistent. Operating systems and/or browsers still have to allow controls, but that could look more like locally selecting ratings than strict age checks.

I think more critics need to recognize that without workable alternatives, others will push for these bad solutions. The good news is this isn’t new, and other industries seem to have mostly avoided making these systems legal requirements.

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US Considers a Rare Antitrust Move: Breaking Up Google

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Do you use Android? AI was the last thing on their minds for AOSP until OpenAI got popular. They've been refining the UIs, improving security/permissions, catching up on features, bringing WearOS and Android TV up to par, and making a Google Assistant incompetent. Don't take my word for it; you'll rarely see any AI features before OpenAI's popularity: v15, v14, v13, and v12. As an example of the benefits: Google and Samsung collaborating on WearOS allowed more custom apps and integrations for nearly all users. Still, there was a major drop in battery life and compatibility with non-Android devices compared to Tizen.

There are plenty of other things to complain about with their Android development. Will they continue to change or kill things like they do all their other products? Did WearOS need to require Android OSes and exclude iOS? Do Advertising APIs belong in the base OS? Should vendors be allowed to lock down their devices as much as they do? Should so many features be limited to Pixel devices? Can we get Google Assistant to say "Sorry, something went wrong. When you're ready: give it another try" less often instead of encouraging stupidity? (It's probably not going to work if you try again).

Google does a lot of wrong, even in Android. AI on Android isn't one of them yet. Most other commercially developed operating systems are proprietary, rather than open to users and OEMs. The collaboration leaves much to be desired, but Android is unfortunately one of the best examples of large-scale development of more open and libre/free systems. A better solution than trying to break Android up, is taking/forking Android and making it better than Google seems capable of.

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Safety

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A lot of these areas have much more stringent gun laws. Yes, they can own the guns, but they can't carry them. Carrying/displaying will probably get them arrested and charged with a weapons felony.

I'm usually told we've moved beyond the need for people to do that. Then we should just leave the use of force to the police: The organizations that consistently seem to try to prove we can't trust them. I agree, the police should be an organization Americans can trust: How can we make them that way?

Does anyone see the irony?

  • U.S. conservatives "trust" the police, but still want civilians to be armed.
  • U.S. "leftists" distrust the police, but want them to be the only ones armed.

The U.S. never fixed their trust issues with police. So this seems like the logical result.

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After 40 years of being free Microsoft has added a paywall to Notepad

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Did you purposely miss the first and last questions: Which laptop is the good value?

I never said people need to run LLMs. I said Apple dominates high-end laptops and wanted a good high-end to compare to the high-end Macbooks.

Instead of just complaining about Apple, can do what I asked? Best cheaper laptop alternative that checks the non-LLM boxes I mentioned:

If you want good cooling, good power (CPU and GPU), good screen, good keyboard, good battery, good WiFi, etc., the options get limited quickly.