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Leftover Links 03/09/2023: WordPad Dies, TikTok Promotes Harm to Children



  • Leftovers

    • The NationGrowing Our Future
    • Digital Music NewsWho Actually Attends Burning Man?

      The Labor Day tradition for some draws people from all over the world, but what do those people look like? The festival organizers recently released their demographics findings from the 2022 festival—attended by more than 75,000 people. While that’s an impressive attendance figure, it’s down from the 79,000 people who attended in 2019 (and pre-pandemic).

      In 2022, around 16% of attendees had a household income of $300,000 a year or more, up from the 7% in 2013. 34% of attendees reported a graduate degree or more in 2022, another rise from the 24% in 2013. 81% of attendees identified as non-hispanic white—no surprise for a festival that formed an internal anti-racism group. The share of POC attending the festival has risen from 7% in 2013 to 13% in 2022. Another constant? The festival remains popular among people from California. Around 38% of attendees in 2022 said they were from California, while just 4% said they resided in the festival’s home state of Nevada.

    • El País“Dating can be like a real-life ‘Squid Game’ minus the killing part”: Have flirting apps desensitized us?

      Model Charli Howard recently published an article on Stylist magazine in which she described the dating process as “unbearable,” arguing that some forms of communication as hypersexual. “For me, modern-day dating can only be described as a real-life Squid Game (minus the killing part, although heartbreak can often feel as painful). There’s the initial battle to see who can outlast the talking stage, trying to maintain the person’s interest before even reaching a first date; emotionally preparing yourself to be ghosted at any time; and then – if you’re lucky enough to even get that far – figuring out when to have the anxiety-inducing ‘What are we?’ chat… because, apparently, two people liking each other isn’t enough anymore,” she writes.

    • Alan PopeAlan Pope: You know your life is over...

      Every so often my brain reminds me of a conversation from long ago. Sometimes I’ll go for months without thinking about it, but then it’ll trigger, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It happened this week.

      Many years ago I taught technical courses for SAP in their London training centre. There’d often be moments during the day when the students were busy doing exercises and off-topic conversations would start. Here’s how one went down.

    • Ruben SchadeVisiting the Rialto Towers again

      I’ll always respond with Blues Brothers if you ask me about my favourite movie, while still admitting it’s not the best. The musicians couldn’t act, it broke the forth wall constantly, and the plot had shopping mall-sized holes wide enough for a Cadillac. Wait, Elwood sold it for a microphone.

      A microphone…!? Okay, I can see that. But what the hell is this?

    • Science

      • Science AlertScientists Reveal How Many People You'd Need to Colonize Mars

        As few as 22 people could sustain a colony of pioneers long enough to establish a human presence on Mars.

        That's the conclusion of a new study by a team of researchers in the US that used modeling and simulation to work out the minimum initial population size for a successful Mars colony that goes on to thrive.

      • Ruben SchadeExpanding science beyond English

        Gabriel Nakamura and Bruno E. Soares wrote an important article for the Scientific American:

        English May Be Science’s Native Language, but It’s Not Native to All Scientists

        Recently, a team of researchers led by Tatsuya Amano of the University of Queensland tried to quantify the time and career costs of lower English proficiency. Whether needing nearly twice as many minutes to read in English and up to 51 percent more time to write in English than native English speakers or being about 2.5 times more likely than a native English speaker to have journal editors reject their work on a basis of language, not having the advantage of English language in education unfairly punishes good scientists doing good research.

    • Hardware

      • HackadayHigh Quality 3D Scene Generation From 2D Source, In Realtime

        Here’s some fascinating work presented at SIGGRAPH 2023 of a method for radiance field rendering using a novel technique called Gaussian Splatting. What’s that mean? It means synthesizing a 3D scene from 2D images, in high quality and in real time, as the short animation shown above shows.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • HackadaySolar Powered Flower Chases The Light

        Many plants are capable of tracking the sun in order to get the most possible light. [hannu_hell] built a solar powered sculpture that replicates this light sensitivity for the benefit of better charging its own batteries, allowing it to run theoretically indefinitely where suitable light was available.

      • The HinduThe British engineer remembered, revered for eternity by India’s farmers Premium

        The end of miseries began with the British government, upon recommendations of the higher authorities, sent Visakhapatnam-based Irrigation Engineer Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton to the then Rajahmundry district to find solutions to the frequent famines that had been ravaging the Godavari Delta.

      • The Age AUSocial media, birth plans giving parents ‘unreasonable expectations’

        “Messaging from social and mainstream media often delivers a false perception that a woman will have a high percentage chance of following a ‘birth plan’ and achieving a ‘normal’ or ‘perfect’ birth,” the submission read.

      • FuturismScientists Find That Weed Is Leaving Heavy Metals in Your Body

        In news that may give pause to potheads, researchers led by Columbia University have found that people who consume cannabis products have surprisingly high levels of the heavy metals cadmium and lead in their bodies.

        "For both cadmium and lead, these metals are likely to stay in the body for years, long after exposure ends," study author and an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health Tiffany Sanchez told NBC News of the findings.

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

      • HackadayTeaching A Mini-Tesla To Steer Itself

        At the risk of stating the obvious, even when you’ve got unlimited resources and access to the best engineering minds, self-driving cars are hard. Building a multi-ton guided missile that can handle the chaotic environment of rush-hour traffic without killing someone is a challenge, to say the least. So if you’re looking to get into the autonomous car game, perhaps it’s best to start small.

      • Silicon AngleGoogle goes all in on the AI cloud

        In our view, Google’s messaging, demos and tech-centric narrative have broad appeal for developers and next-generation startups. As well, the company’s focus on solutions contrasts its strategy to the typically disjointed services we’ve seen from Amazon Web Services Inc. over the past decade. Google also showed off an expanded ecosystem of global systems integrators and smaller cloud service providers, encouraging the broad use of Google’s kit globally. Although Google remains a distant third in the infrastructure-as-a-service/platform-as-a-service race, with revenue one-fifth the size of AWS, it is playing the long game and betting the house on AI as a catalyst to its cloud future.

      • FuturismMan Perturbed When Self-Driving [sic] Tesla Tries to Kill Him on the Highway

        When he steered back into the left lane for a second time with FSD on, he wrote, the software once again "veered to the left toward the median strip" and then tried to blow through an unmarked U-turn intended only for emergency vehicles at full speed.

      • Tom's HardwareSaying Goodbye to WordPad: Windows' Staple for 28 Years Gets the Chop

        WordPad has been a Windows staple since the days of Windows 95. Now Microsoft says you should use Word or Notepad instead.

    • Security

      • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

        • Cendyne NagaSpoofing certificates with MD5 collisions

          I attended a presentation at Crypto and Privacy village where Tomer Peled and Yoni Rozenshein from Akamai. They reverse engineer a Windows update to crypt32.dll to find out what's behind CVE-2022-34689. A truncated MD5 was used as an index to a hash table which caches whether a certificate has been validated successfully. Only the MD5 was compared when the entry was found in that cache. By using MD5 collisions, they found that crypt32.dll would validate a malicious certificate after an honest certificate was validated.

          This talk summary is part of my DEF CON 31 series. The talks this year have sufficient depth to be shared independently and are separated for easier consumption.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • [Repeat] QuartzAn anti-porn law in Texas was halted on First Amendment grounds

          Judge David Ezra issued an injunction (pdf), finding that the law likely ran afoul of the First Amendment, threatening the free speech protections of adult performers and forcing legal adults to identify themselves online in order to view pornography.

          Ezra wrote that the state has a “legitimate goal in protecting children from sexually explicit material online” but said H.B. 1118, the law in question, likely failed “strict scrutiny,” a legal test that requires limitations on speech be narrowly tailored.

        • New York TimesChina to Its People: Spies Are Everywhere, Help Us Catch Them

          “The push reflects the profound legitimacy challenges and crisis that the regime is facing,” said Chen Jian, a professor of modern Chinese history at New York University. Professor Chen said the call to mass action bore echoes of the sweeping campaigns that Mao Zedong unleashed in part to consolidate his own power. The most notable was the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long period of chaos and bloodshed when Chinese leaders urged people to report on their teachers, neighbors or even families as “counterrevolutionaries.”

    • Defence/Aggression

    • Environment

      • Energy/Transportation

        • El PaísTwo years of bitcoin in Bukele’s El Salvador: An opaque experiment with a little-used currency

          Interest has waned, but the experiment continues. It is tempting to classify the Bitcoin Law — the name for the legislative project that made the digital asset legal tender — as a success or a failure. But nothing is so simple in President Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador. The country’s decision to make bitcoin an official currency is difficult to analyze because it is an opaque experiment with several different objectives: financial inclusion, revenue for the public treasury and building the reputation of the president.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • Ruben SchadeA morning at the Royal Botanic Gardens

          I needed a change of pace from data centres and the city today, so I got up early to wander through Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. It was easily the highlight of my little introvert trip.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • [Repeat] Silicon AngleMalwarebytes lays off 100+ workers ahead of planned company split

        TechCrunch first reported the move on Thursday, citing a former Malwarebytes employee. Marcin Kleczynski, the company’s chief executive, confirmed the layoffs to the publication. He said that between 100 and 110 workers are affected.

      • JURISTChina adopts foreign national immunity law that allows foreign states to be sued domestically

        China’s Law on the Immunity of Foreign States, scheduled to become effective on January 1, 2024, regulates the system of foreign state immunity comprehensively. This legislation establishes a legal framework for the jurisdiction and adjudication of civil cases within Chinese courts involving foreign states as defendants. This new law represents a shift from the previous policy of absolute state immunity to a regime of limited state immunity. According to the provisions of this law, Chinese courts will, under specific conditions, accept foreign states as defendants.

      • New York TimesMeta May Allow Instagram and Facebook Users in Europe to Pay to Avoid Ads

        Those who pay for Facebook and Instagram subscriptions would not see ads in the apps, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans are confidential. That may help Meta fend off privacy concerns and other scrutiny from E.U. regulators by giving users an alternative to the company’s ad-based services, which rely on analyzing people’s data, the people said.

      • GizmodoMeta Reportedly Looking to Give Europeans an Ad-Free Option on Its Platforms

        On Friday, The New York Times reported based on three anonymous sources who knew of Meta’s plans that the company would offer a subscription model for EU users. Simply put, this subscription would let users pay for an ad-free experience. Both Facebook and Instagram would still maintain a free version that includes ads. The report does not mention how much this subscription would cost or any other features that would come for payment, but the move would be a major shift for the company which has long depended on the users-as-product model.

      • [Old] WordFinderXThe Most Spoken Languages in American Neighborhoods (Besides English and Spanish)

        What language does your family speak around the dinner table?

        While 78% of Americans only speak English at home, you may not know that it’s not an official language in the U.S. in the same way French is in France or Portuguese is in Brazil. English may be America’s de facto language (as the most commonly spoken), but millions of households across the U.S. use another language entirely.

      • US News And World ReportArm Set to Target IPO Valuation of $50 Billion-$55 Billion-Sources

        Arm, the chip designer owned by SoftBank Group Corp, is expected to set a price range for its offering next week, the sources said. Arm plans to price its shares on Sept. 13, with stock trading on the Nasdaq to start the following day.

      • New York TimesIn Monitoring Child Sex Abuse, Apple Is Caught Between Safety and Privacy

        The company is caught between child safety groups, which want it to do more to stop the spread of such materials, and privacy experts, who want it to maintain the promise of secure devices.

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)As Microsoft Collapses, Their Cottage Industry Based on Window Problems Dies Off. Malwarebytes Fires 100.

        As Windows on the desktop plummeted from almost 95% to under 70%, and the PC sales are in the dumps due to “Chromebooks”, Macs, users switching to Linux, and “devices”, and the bad economy, less people are on Windows, which needs antivirus software.

      • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

        • Omicron LimitedInfluential 'Instavangelists' blur line between religion and social media

          "Religious studies scholars are interested in how fluid religion is and how it's really bound up with social processes and power struggles," said Jacquelene Brinton, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas. "Whereas outside of religious studies, people think of religion as something static and easily defined. Social media is showing us how that process of transformation happens."

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • The Register UKCops drill into chat apps, sink plot to smuggle tons of coke into Europe

        Specifically, the plod said the cartel, which had been under investigation since January 2022, was slinging "multi-ton cocaine shipments" from Brazil to the EU using a large boat. We're told the vessel's skippers had also gone to West Africa to prep their craft for smuggling. Below is a video summary of the raids carried out against the crime ring.

      • Jacobin MagazineThe Housing Crisis Isn’t Going Anywhere Until We Tackle Property Wealth Inequality

        Canada’s housing crisis is spiraling out of control. The situation has been critical for a long time, but it’s now moved well past critical and into deep crisis. The circumstances are particularly rough in British Columbia, where people are being priced out of the province or are trapped within it, grappling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, landowners have seen windfalls as prices soar and create a massive wealth gap between those who’ve won the property lottery and those left behind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Hemingway has some ideas about how to close the wealth chasm and make housing more affordable.

      • FuturismElon Musk Refusing to Pay Severance to Fired Twitter Employees May Be Backfiring Spectacularly

        Since Elon Musk took over as CEO of X, formerly known as Twitter, the company has been a lawsuit magnet. There's that class-action suit in California by former employees who claim they weren't paid promised bonuses. Another claims the company hasn't ponied up $500 million in severance pay to employees who were laid off.

        Now add more than 2,200 arbitration cases, according to a complaint filed earlier this week in Delaware. All told, the social media giant is potentially on the hook for more than $3.5 million in filing fees, according to CNBC's estimate. When it rains, it pours!

      • VoxA Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. Here’s how they spent it.

        The results proved that prediction wrong. The recipients of the cash transfers did not increase spending on drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, but did increase spending on food, clothes, and rent, according to self-reports. What’s more, they moved into stable housing faster and saved enough money to maintain financial security over the year of follow-up.

        “Counter to really harmful stereotypes, we saw that people made wise financial choices,” Claire Williams, the CEO of Foundations for Social Change, told me.

        The study, though small, offers a counter to the myths that people who become poor get that way because they’re bad at rational decision-making and self-control, and are thus intrinsically to blame for their situation, and that people getting free money will blow it on frivolous things or addictive substances. Studies have consistently shown that cash transfers don’t increase the consumption of “temptation goods”; they either decrease it or have no effect on it.

      • NBCClimate change activists who blockaded Burning Man accuse police of excessive force

        "The excessive response is a snapshot of the institutional violence and police brutality that is being shown to anyone who is actively working to bring about systemic change within the United States, including the climate movement," the statement said.

        Seven Circles Alliance also said a civilian [sic] falsely reported to the rangers that the activists had a firearm.

      • Terence EdenWeWork - how did anyone fall for this bullshit?

        If I were the head of an investment fund, I think I probably would have fallen for Theranos. Sure, Elizabeth Holmes was a bit of a kooky Steve Jobs tribute act - but the science sounded plausible. Perhaps with due diligence on their financials and a degree in biology it would have been easy to see it was a massive fraud. But to an outsider, it seemed like a reasonable businesses.

        WeWork was just batshit though.

      • Jacobin MagazineHow University of California Workers Won the Biggest Higher-Ed Strike in US History

        Two University of California union organizers argue the keys to their union pulling off the largest strike of 2022 were simple: an emphasis on majority participation, democratic decision-making, and building a representative structure across the UC system.

      • RFERLPakistani Business Leaders Strike Against Rising Energy Prices

        Pakistani business leaders on September 2 went on strike to protest higher fuel and electricity prices and the general rise in the cost of living.

      • JURISTJapan workers strike over sale of department store to US investment group

        On Thursday, Japan witnessed its first labor strike in six decades. The catalyst for this strike was the sale of the Seibu department store, a subsidiary of the Japanese retail giant Seven & i, to the US-based Fortress Investment Group.

      • JURISTNigeria labor unions plan strikes over cost-of-living crisis

        On Friday, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NCL) announced labor union warning strikes for September 5 and 6.

      • Robert ReichWhy Do We Have Weekends?
      • DeSmogAnti-ULEZ Protest Group Promotes Conspiracy Theories and Climate Science Denial

        Tuesday’s protest against the expansion of London’s ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), which featured on the front page of two national newspapers, was led by a group with ties to conspiracy theories and climate science denial, DeSmog can reveal.

        A reported 200 people attended the protest outside parliament on Tuesday as the ULEZ scheme to tackle air pollution by charging high emission vehicles was extended to Greater London.€ 

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • Pulse Security LtdMashing Enter to bypass full disk encryption with TPM, Clevis, dracut and systemd

        Using the vulnerability described in this advisory an attacker may take control of an encrypted Linux computer during the early boot process, manually unlock TPM-based disk encryption and either modify or read sensitive information stored on the computer’s disk. This blog post runs through how this vulnerability was identified and exploited - no tiny soldering required.

    • Monopolies

      • Copyrights

        • Torrent FreakqBittorrent Web UI Exploited to Mine Cryptocurrency: Here's How to Fix

          qBittorrent is one of the most popular torrent clients around but taking time to properly configure security surrounding its web interface shouldn't be overlooked. A combination of unchanged default credentials and UPnP settings allowed an attacker to install Monero mining software on a user's PC. Fortunately the dangers are mitigated with a few easy but crucial steps.



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