Posts by Randesigner

We did not have Brave clashing with Rupert Murdoch on our 2025 bingo card, but there it is

I've been using Brave Search for the last few years. It returns much less crap than Google Search.

They introduced the AI summaries about 9 (?) months ago. My experience has been generally favorable. It's accurate about 70% of the time, partially accurate 28% of the time, and wholly wrong 2% of the time. I tend to ask it technical questions and the responses that are incorrect are usually deprecated/outdated. It doesn't have a sense of time. Last I checked, it was using the Llama LLM.

Overall it has saved me time from clicking on a bunch of results trying to find the pertinent information. Often it helps me to re-phrase the search so I can get more accurate results. I don't have high expectations for AI and so I take its responses with a good dose of skepticism.

I don't use the Brave browser.

Hardware barn denies that .004 seconds of facial recognition violated privacy

Many US retailers do this

It's legal here to monitor communications of law enforcement. I've heard of reports of Home Depot recognizing known shoplifters entering their stores and calling the cops. I can only imagine that they are using facial recognition to sort through the thousands of people entering their stores daily. I haven't read their un-privacy policy, but I suspect it's allowed.

The open secret of open washing – why companies pretend to be open source

OpenAI

... should rename itself.

Severe solar storm could disrupt power, communications

Latitudes

"...aurora borealis at lower altitudes than expected,"

I think that should be latitudes not altitudes.

Smart TVs are spying on everyone

Re: Buy a non smart TV - if you can find one

>Or do the new ones automatically connect to any open network they can find?

Per an article somewhere here on The Reg several years ago, Samsung smart TVs will not only try to find an open network, they will search for other Samsung TVs (i.e. your neighbor's) that are connected to the network

Cloudflare beats patent troll so badly it basically gives up

I once designed a piece of research equipment for the US Government. All of the design files were initially placed on a government website for anyone to download and duplicate. Later when the project was cancelled, the website was taken down. A large corporation then took the design and patented it.

Later, part of the project was revived and I was asked to make modifications to it. I said I can't because I'd be violating the patent. The incompetence of the USPTO is staggering -- USPTO granting a patent to a corporation for a design that was developed by another branch of the government, paid for by taxpayers and was in the public domain.

DoJ reportedly advances Nvidia antitrust probe

Bloomberg is low quality journalism

Consistently Bloomberg seems to make stuff up. And it's always the "un-named sources" supplying the facts.

The El Reg article was updated to add that Nvidia wasn't subpoenaed, which was the main point of the Bloomberg article.

Chrome Web Store warns end is nigh for uBlock Origin

Re: Be Brave

Brave is Chromium based, not Chrome based. There's a difference.

Google's plan to drop third-party cookies in Chrome crumbles

Agreed. Local Storage is the elephant in the room. All this talk about cookies is a diversion tactic while sites go ahead and store stuff in local storage.

And clearing cookies does nothing to clear local storage. I haven't checked if there is a browser extension to clear local storage, but on my desktop I end up doing it manually.

Microsoft, Google do a victory lap around passkeys

Get a new device, or lose your device, and then what?

FEMA to test emergency alert system US-wide today

Can't turn it off

In spite of turning off all government alerts on my iPhone, the test still came through loud and clear.

Google 'wiretapped' tax websites with visitor traffic trackers, lawsuit claims

Any piece of javascript can read any content on a displayed page.

Amazon opens its ad-hoc Wi-Fi-sipping Sidewalk mesh to all manner of gadgets

How many other devices?

Amazon took a page from Samsung playbook. This reminds me of the Samsung smart TVs networking with other Samsung smart TVs. So even if you don't want your TV watching habits being monitored and haven't connected your device to the wifi, your Samsung device will find another way.

Elon Musk jettisons Twitter leadership, says takeover was 'to try to help humanity'

Good grief, but that article was a tad negative, shall we say?

It is not a news article. It is a commentary. Did you not see the first word, in red, in the first paragraph?

This illustrates the exact problem today with all online media. Everyone thinks it's news!

Lenovo’s folding portable ThinkPad grows to 16.3in, adds keyboard

Linux

Can it be made to run Linux?

FCC awards $800m for rural broadband development

Rural today... heavily populated tomorrow

A lot of this money is used to fund broadband in rural areas on the edges of large metro areas that are slated to be developed into large housing developments and future shopping centers. So, yeah, it's rural now, but it won't be in a year or two. A great way for the telecoms and cable companies to have someone else fund their expanding infrastructure.

DataDome looks to CAPTCHA the moment with test of humanity that doesn't hurt

Fingerprinting

"The key to DataDome's verification tech is behavioral detection models that track a user's web session from the start – collecting signals ranging from the screen size and resolution of the device to the CPU or GPU it's running and the history of the pages that device goes to when on the site.

So fingerprinting and tracking. How is this different than what Google does? How does this protect privacy? Really... how is this better?

The bottom line is that any piece of javascript can read the contents of anything that is displayed on a page and send it back to the mothership. I just love captchas on the order confirmation page of some websites. Such valuable information to be gathered.

New York to get first right-to-repair law for electronics

Licensed Hardware

It seems a way around a law like this would be to require users to license their hardware/phone instead of owning it, similar to the software model. Even worse, a monthly subscription. The manufacturers could end-of-life the product at any time.

Maybe I should delete this comment and not give them any ideas.

Rackspace considers selling part of business: 'Everything' on the table

Whitespace

" to capture additional whitespace and growth opportunities."

Haven't seen "whitespace" on the CEO-speak bingo card yet.

IRS doesn't completely scrap facial recognition, just makes it optional

Pork

Since the only alternative is a video interview, it seems to be that facial recognition is going to be used regardless, just unofficially.

The whole thing is just kind of ridiculous. Banks and credit agencies check my identity by asking me things only I could know. It doesn't require a human. The cost of this ID.Me program must be staggering.

Indian government warns locals not to use Starlink's internet services

Anonymous Coward = Anonymous Troll

I don't see the issue here. Starlink has recently created a subsidiary to operate in India. The subidiary has applied for licenses. The government, like most, are taking their time approving licenses and coming up with conditions for the licenses. A person who has pre-ordered with their $99 deposit can get their money refunded at any time. If the licenses don't pan out, everyone will get their money back. There's nothing unlawful going on. A deposit is not a "sale".

Ubuntu 21.10 brings GNOME 40 debut and a focus on devs

Privacy issue

""There are 10 million systems actively using Snap every day…"

They know this because it phones home every day!

Google to auto-enroll 150m users, 2m YouTubers with two-factor authentication

Convenient?

"so we are working on technologies that provide a convenient, secure authentication experience"

So, like captcha?

China sets goal of running single-stack IPv6 network by 2030, orders upgrade blitz

Re: Static IP addresses

"so a single /64 becomes no more trackable than a dynamic IPv4 address was. "

IPv4 is 32 bits. IPv6 is 128 bits, so even with /64 randomized, there are still another 64 bits for tracking, double the number of bits of IPv4.

Randomizing the lower 64 bits is a red herring. The upper 64 bits can still be unique.

Starlink creates risk of internet investment doom cycle, says APNIC researcher

Let's not forget that Bezos is going to be launching a similar network. It's not as if Starlink is going to be the only game in town. Just the first.

Corsair's K70 MK.2 does nothing a cheaper keyboard can't, but the steep price gets you top-notch components

"However, this largely feels moot as the keyboard itself uses two USB ports."

Why does a keyboard require two USB ports?

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. Comcast to handle DNS-over-HTTPS for Firefox-using subscribers

How much did Comcast pay Mozilla?

Mozilla, like any other business (for profit or non-profit), has to make money. I'm wondering what they got out of the deal.

Stripe is absolutely logging your mouse movements on websites' payment pages – for your own good, says CEO

I recently tried to open an account at Digital Ocean. Stripe handles their payment processing. During the account creation there were nearly 50 scripts running from third parties, including Googles captcha and Stripe. After I created my account, I felt pretty violated and immediately closed my account and took my hosting business elsewhere.

Europe publishes draft rules for coronavirus contact-tracing app development, on a relaxed schedule

I've done extensive research into Bluetooth LE (BLE) use with beacons. BLE signals can travel through walls, cars, etc. So the app is going to make the erroneous assumption that if it's picking up an UUID of a confirmed infected user, I will have had face to face contact with that person and would be infected. So then what? Will I be required to quarantine or get a test? This would be a daily occurrence. Imagine living in an apartment complex and your next door neighbor is infected. Due to the close RF proximity and potential length of time of the phones interacting with each other, I would be flagged as being infected.

The app is going to be far from perfect, but the real issue is going to be collateral damage for all the cases where there is no physical or air contact, but still be collared as infected.

You. Drop and give me 20... per cent IPv6 by 2023, 80% by 2025, Uncle Sam tells its IT admins after years of slacking

What is the point of random lower order bytes when the top 64 bytes uniquely identify me?

Ok Google, please ignore this free tax filing code so we can keep on screwing America

Not to mention the Slurp

If you've ever read the privacy policy for E-filing, these guys are allowed to scrape some pretty valuable marketing info from your tax return: Name, address, income, marital status, vehicle info, home info -- basically anything you need to provide to the IRS is also theirs.