*Regarding Beehaw defederating from lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works, [this](https://beehaw.org/post/567170) post goes into detail on the why and the philosophy behind that decision. Additionally, there is an update specific to sh.itjust.works [here](https://beehaw.org/post/594843).* For now, let's talk about what federation is and what defederation means for members of Beehaw or the above two communities interacting with each other, as well as the broader fediverse. *Federation is not something new on the internet*. Most users use federated services every day (for instance, the url used to access instances uses a federated service known as DNS, and email is another system that functions through federation.) Just like those services, you elect to use a service provider that allows you to communicate with the rest of the world. That service provider is your window to work with others. When you federate, you mutually agree to share your content. This means that posting something to a site can be seen by another and all comments are shared. Even users from other sites can post to your site. Now when you defederate, this results in content to be no longer shared. It didn't reverse any previous sharing or posts, it just stops the information from flowing with the selected instance. This only impacts the site's that are called out. What this means to you is when a user within one instance (e.g. Beehaw) that's chosen to defederate with another (e.g. lemmy.world), they can no longer interact with content on another instance, and vice versa. Other instances can still see the content of both servers as though nothing has happened. - A user is not limited to how many instances they can join (technically at least - some instance have more stringent requirements for joining than others do) - A user can interact with Lemmy content without being a user of any Lemmy instance - e.g. Mastodon (UI for doing so is limited, but it is still possible.) Considering the above, it is important to understand just how much autonomy we, as users have. For example, as the larger instances are flooded with users and their respective admins and mods try to keep up, many, smaller instances not only thrive, but emerge, regularly (and even single user instances - I have one for just myself!) The act of defederation does not serve to lock individual users out of anything as there are multiple avenues to constantly maintain access to, if you want it, the entirety of the unfiltered fediverse. On that last point, another consideration at the individual level is - what do you want out of Lemmy? Do you want to find and connect with like-minded people, share information, and connect at a social and community level? Do you want to casually browse content and not really interact with anyone? These questions and the questions that they lead to are critical. There is no direct benefit to being on the biggest instance. In fact, as we all deal with this mass influx, figure out what that means for our own instances and interactions with others, I would argue that a smaller instance is actually much better suited for those who just want to casually browse everything. Lastly, and tangential, another concern I have seen related to this conversation is people feeling afraid of being locked out of the content and conversation from the "main" communities around big topics starting to form across the Lemmiverse (think memes, gaming, tech, politics, news, etc.) Over time, certain communities will certainly become a default for some people just given the community size (there will *always* be a biggest or most active - it's just a numbers game.) This, again though, all comes down to personal preference and what each individual is looking to get from their Lemmy experience. While there may, eventually, be a “main” sub for <topic xyz> (again, by the numbers), there will also always be quite a few other options for targeted discussions on <topic xyz>, within different communities, on different instances, each with their own culture and vibe. This can certainly feel overwhelming and daunting (and at the moment, honestly it is.) Reddit and other non-federated platforms provided the illusion of choice, but this is what actual choice looks and feels like. [edit: grammar and spelling]

cross-posted from !google@lemdro.id >Microsoft’s Nadella to Testify at Google Antitrust Trial Monday > &nbsp; > By Leah Nylen and Dina Bass > > October 1, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. EDT > > Microsoft Corp.&nbsp;Chief Executive Officer&nbsp;Satya Nadella&nbsp;is set to take the stand Monday as part of the Justice Department’s antitrust trial against Google. > > The DOJ has accused&nbsp;Alphabet Inc.’s search division of unlawfully maintaining a monopoly by paying $10 billion a year to rivals, smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers to make its search engine the default option on mobile devices and web browsers. Google has denied the allegations. > > To help prove its case, the DOJ hopes to use testimony from Nadella and other executives from Microsoft to show how even a company of its size and resources couldn’t unlock Google’s hold on the search market. > > Last week, Microsoft business development executive&nbsp;Jonathan Tinter&nbsp;testified that the Redmond, Washington-based software giant failed to secure a deal to put its Bing search app on Apple’s products, even though it was willing to offer far better terms than Google and lose multiple billions of dollars on the agreement. In the end, Apple signed a fresh deal with Google. > > Tinter also&nbsp;told&nbsp;the court that Microsoft’s Surface Duo smartphone was required to use Google search in order to license the Android mobile operating system and was limited from using Bing on its own devices. Nadella was personally involved in discussing some of these issues with his Google counterpart,&nbsp;Sundar Pichai, and will probably be asked about those conversations. > > Nadella was instrumental in the development of Bing, created by Microsoft in an ultimately doomed attempt to catch up with Google and capture a chunk of the online advertising market. > > While Bing has gained share on desktop computers, where it was integrated with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and later Edge browser, it has lagged on mobile devices where people overwhelming use Google. Three or so years ago, Microsoft even discussed&nbsp;selling Bing&nbsp;to Apple, a transaction that would have replaced Google as the default option on the iPhone maker’s devices, Bloomberg reported. But a deal never came to fruition.

[Atlantic Paywall link](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/09/computer-science-degree-value-generative-ai-age/675452/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us)

Archive https://archive.ph/E1JN9

An iPhone to HDMI adapter was discovered that, when plugged in, runs a program prompting users to download an app. This EZ Cast app collects extensive personal data and sends it to China for ad targeting. It requires location access, photos, and installs tracking cookies. The adapter appears designed to mimic official Apple products. While its intentions are unclear, it demonstrates how such devices could enable privacy risks by introducing untrusted software into a user's devices. Analysis of a similar EZCast dongle found it was vulnerable and not designed with security in mind. Reviews complain the app is useless or a scam. The adapter may have originated as unsold Amazon returns later acquired by electronics recyclers. Its existence relates to concerns about privacy and navigation issues on online marketplaces.

While LLMs have been used for... a lot, it seems like this use might be one where it's not only reliable but it appears to outperform existing methods of image compression. Being able to cram more data into less space tends to lead to interesting developments, so I will be keeping my eye on this. What do you guys think? Seem like it's deserving of less hype than I'm giving it? What kind of security holes do you think this could open?

According to its current privacy policy, with an account, Hue gets access to the configuration of your system to provide the right software updates to the devices. It can only use your data for marketing or share it with third parties if you provide additional consent. However, in a change to the current policy, Yianni says Hue will not collect usage information from users without additional optional consent. “So, we do not require users share anything about how they use our products,” he says. “Previously creating an account was consent for usage data processing that we are in the process of decoupling and will be decoupled before accounts become essential — that makes sure it’s possible to create an account without sharing usage data,” says Yianni. However, if you choose to use the cloud services for things like out-of-home connectivity, you will need an account, and Hue will process your data, he says. If this change to the privacy policy does happen, Home Assistant’s Schoutsen agrees that it would make the requirement for an account more palatable. “But it all depends on the exact changes,” he says.

**TL;DR:** Reddit is removing the option to opt out of ad personalization, targeting ads based on user activity. Some specific ad categories can still be limited, but there's no more opt-out option.

cross-posted from !android@lemdro.id > - Operation Zero, a Russian company, has increased its bounty for zero-day exploits on iPhones and Android devices from $200,000 to $20 million. > - The company sells these exploits exclusively to Russian private and government organizations, specifying that the end user is a non-NATO country. > - The high bounties may be temporary and are a reflection of market demand and the difficulty of hacking iOS and Android platforms. > - Unlike traditional bug bounty platforms, Operation Zero sells vulnerabilities to governments without alerting the affected vendors. > - The zero-day market is largely unregulated, but affected by geopolitics, such as new regulations in China that aim to corner the market for intelligence purposes.

This would lead to some very large cost savings if AI could compress video/audio even better than current compression algorithms. Data borders unite!

> The configuration of the device allows water to circulate in swirling eddies, in a manner similar to the much larger “thermohaline” circulation of the ocean. This circulation, combined with the sun’s heat, drives water to evaporate, leaving salt behind. The resulting water vapor can then be condensed and collected as pure, drinkable water. In the meantime, the leftover salt continues to circulate through and out of the device, rather than accumulating and clogging the system. > > The new system has a higher water-production rate and a higher salt-rejection rate than all other passive solar desalination concepts currently being tested. > > The researchers estimate that if the system is scaled up to the size of a small suitcase, it could produce about 4 to 6 liters of drinking water per hour and last several years before requiring replacement parts. At this scale and performance, the system could produce drinking water at a rate and price that is cheaper than tap water.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/5724757 > It’s not surprising that ChatGPT has been accused of breaching the EU’s main privacy law – PIA blog noted that ChatGPT was a privacy disaster waiting to happen back in February. As the first complaint to be taken up by an EU data protection agency, this case will be watched closely by other EU Member States, and around the world. The Polish inquiry is likely to investigate many of the key GDPR issues that arise for AI programs and be used as a benchmark in future legal cases.

I was happily using this for a year or so now. Feels fairer than using an ad blocker. But now they apparently want more money out of people. Feels like some sort of internet video apocalypse is happening, where the services become extremely fragmented and expensive, like YouTube, netflix, hbo, Hulu, Disney+ and whatnot. Each wants some 10-20€ out of your pocket. I guess that means back to ad blockers and piracy...

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It says something about the current relationship of large corporate apps and users when Slack makes an update - of particular annoyance is that the search bar at the top basically eats the entire border now making it impossible to move the window around unless you make the window sufficiently large - and my immediate thought is “this must have been deliberate in order to make sure Slack takes up as much of my screen as possible.” It’s hard for me to think of a legitimate reason for how massive that search bar is and why it is so damn close to all the edges at the top making the window virtually immovable unless you greatly expand it. It’s just malicious design as usual. [@technology](https://kbin.social/m/technology)

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has announced the agency's plans to restore net neutrality protections. Previous rules, which prevented ISPs from blocking or throttling specific websites, were nixed in 2017 under the Trump administration.

> If you get a message from someone you never matched with on Tinder, it's not a glitch — it's part of the app's expensive new subscription plan that it teased earlier this year, which allows "power users" to send unsolicited messages to non-matches for the small fee of $499 per month. > That landscape, in fact, is largely populated by apps owned by Tinder's parent company: as Bloomberg notes, Match Group Inc. not only owns the popular swiping app, but also Match.com, OKCupid, Hinge, and The League. > Match Group CEO Bernard Kim referred to Tinder's subscriptions as "low-hanging fruit" meant to compete with other, pricier services, though that was before this $6,000-per-year tier dropped.

cross-posted from !apple@lemdro.id > * Apple has been the leading buyer of AI startups since 2017, acquiring 21 companies, nearly double the number purchased by Microsoft and Meta. > * While other Big Tech companies like Google and Microsoft are vocal about their AI investments, Apple remains relatively quiet, choosing to announce things as they come to market. > * The startups Apple has acquired focus on areas like self-driving technology, voice design, music generation, and image recognition. > * This acquisition strategy contrasts with companies like Microsoft and Google, who are more cautious with acquisitions due to antitrust scrutiny and instead opt for partnerships with startups. > * Apple's AI investments have contributed to new iPhone features such as personal voice and real-time voicemail transcription.

Hey everyone, Recently, I've found myself bogged down in sending off resumes that seem to never to be read by anyone other than myself. I'll go through the whole gamut of picking keywords that match the job description, showcasing my previous experiences, projects, skills etc... But it just seems to never result in a call-back or even an email to tell me I wasn't selected. Given that I'm tired of screaming into the hills and hearing it echo back, I want to write a program that streamlines this whole process. I have a couple of resume templates written in TeX script that I can populate with content. Alongside this, I have all of my relevant bullet points in assorted text files labeled appropriately. The idea would be to feed the program the job description, relevant qualifications, and other miscellaneous text files. These would be processed to give an idea on how my resume should be modified to suit their requirements. Perhaps that could aid in creating a strong resume in a more streamlined fashion. I have no clue what metric should be used to quantify how "good" it is, so that's to be figured out as well. I saw "nltk" and "spaCy" are two NLP libraries for Python, but I wanted to open up discussion for those of you who have worked on projects similar to this. I have read mixed comments about the two. Which one seems better suited for this task? Obviously I'll review the resume before I submit it, but I want to see if I could get something like this working. I'm a giant noob when it comes to NLP, but have used Python for the past couple of years for data-science applications. I'd be open to learning a different language if there is a library that has some of these functions already coded, but I'm not a developer. Thanks for any help! I love the community over here on Lemmy. Many of you have been very helpful and encouraging and it makes me want to keep learning more :)

Meta is starting to make good on its promise to bring generative AI to all of its products. https://www.engadget.com/generative-ai-image-editing-is-coming-to-instagram-183711111.html

The products will initially be available in the UK and India. https://www.engadget.com/nothings-budget-friendly-brand-cmf-debuts-a-69-smartwatch-and-49-earbuds-072924294.html