starchturrets's recent activity
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Comment on Megathread for news/updates/discussion of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots in ~tech
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Comment on Google and Mozilla are working on iOS browsers that do not use WebKit in ~tech
starchturrets Link ParentYes. For example, the Onion Browser (which is officially recommended for iOS by the tor project) has had many issues over the years due to being forced to rely on webkit, chief among them being an...Yes. For example, the Onion Browser (which is officially recommended for iOS by the tor project) has had many issues over the years due to being forced to rely on webkit, chief among them being an unavoidable IP leak.
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Comment on Upgraded to Windows 10, what do I need to do to optimize? in ~comp
starchturrets LinkI would recommend using winget to uninstall stuff you consider to be bloatware, as it's officially provided by microsoft.I would recommend using winget to uninstall stuff you consider to be bloatware, as it's officially provided by microsoft.
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Comment on Have you ever been hacked? in ~talk
starchturrets LinkJust one or two months ago. I keep an old Lenovo android tablet (released 2017ish) to read ebooks/textbooks and play pirated Exiled Kingdoms. Despite it's age, its battery life is still fairly...Just one or two months ago. I keep an old Lenovo android tablet (released 2017ish) to read ebooks/textbooks and play pirated Exiled Kingdoms. Despite it's age, its battery life is still fairly decent. To mitigate the risk of using such an outdated device I only transferred files onto it via cable and kept it permanently in airplane mode. It was a bit of a hassle, so I then had its speed set to 0 in router settings (effectively cutting it off from the wider internet); this still let me use KDE Connect to transfer files over the local network. While KDE Connect is fabulous at being knockoff AirDrop for Windows/Android/iOS, it still requires having a local network to connect to. I wanted to test if I could get it to work without that, so I fiddled around with bluetooth pairing it with my iPhone, setting it to connect to its mobile hotspot, and connecting to a network without actually logging in to its captive portal (none of them worked). Unfortunately I was being stupid and doing all this in a library. Before I knew it I'd been force paired with some device I didn't recognize and some weird mobile game got installed onto my homescreen.
Impact? Truth be told, not very much. I deliberately didn't put anything sensitive on it. So I just restarted in safe mode and uninstalled the app. I probably should clean install the stock ROM but I'm guessing it was probably a script kiddie so they can't really do anything without accessing the internet, plus pretty much everything else I use is up to date so I'm not really worried.
Lesson learned: don't turn on bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi when in public areas if you have don't have the latest security patches. Fortunately, Google is adding the Bluetooth modules to Project Mainline (the Wi-Fi module is already part of it AFAIK) in Android 13 so this will be less of an issue over time.
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Comment on A vast majority of people in the US and Canada suspect their smart speakers can eavesdrop on their conversations, and just over two-thirds think they’ve gotten ads based on that snooping in ~tech
starchturrets (edited )LinkAlright so this thread has gone somewhat off topic into a discussion about surveillance in general and not just with smart speakers. I've seen some arguments here along the lines of Meta/etc not...Alright so this thread has gone somewhat off topic into a discussion about surveillance in general and not just with smart speakers. I've seen some arguments here along the lines of Meta/etc not doing mass microphone/camera surveillance because it's not profitable for them to do so, and because they already can target ads effectively enough without them. I agree with that, but I'd also like to add one thing - current mobile operating systems are extremely robust at application sandboxing. Deny Messenger, TikTok, or Instagram microphone permissions? They're not getting it. This is true for both current versions of Android and iOS. Even if you did grant them microphone permissions, there is an extremely obvious indicator when it is being accessed that even non tech savvy users would pick up on. iOS is also notorious for killing apps in the background (though there is a bug on recent versions that reverses this for some reason), so I doubt that spying apps could run constantly without destroying the battery life or resorting to things such as using the API made available to maps apps (which is something that I doubt would even get past app store review, and also has an extremely obvious indicator anyways). Someone else in this thread mentioned BLE being used as tracking, and a look at iOS app developer documentation also makes it clear that it's supposed to run in the foreground only. Even if apps could run willy nilly in the background (iOS has the aforementioned bug, and I'm not sure how restrictive Android 13 is with them since I don't use it), both Android and iOS have introduced sections in the privacy settings that allow you to see what apps have accessed what permissions at what time. So I'm somewhat confused by all these stories of people suspecting apps of listening to them and not checking the app privacy report or dashboard.
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Comment on Star Trek: Lower Decks S03E01 - "Grounded" in ~tv
starchturrets Link ParentVery much so. I’m not really a veteran of Star Trek who’s watched all the shows like some others, knowing only relatively little of the lore. So I didn’t really get a lot of the Easter eggs they...Very much so. I’m not really a veteran of Star Trek who’s watched all the shows like some others, knowing only relatively little of the lore. So I didn’t really get a lot of the Easter eggs they sprinkled in. Nevertheless, it was overall hilarious, and had its fair share of awesome and heartwarming moments. In fact after seeing DS9 show up in the season 3 trailer, I got inspired to start watching that and am loving it.
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Comment on iOS 12.5.6 rolling out to older iPhone and iPad devices with important security fixes in ~tech
starchturrets LinkIt's lowkey insane that the 5S (a phone released in 2013 is still receiving critical security updates.The update is available for the iPad Air, the iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3, as well as the 6th gen iPod touch, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus. All of these devices were dropped from support with iOS 13, but Apple has continued to update them with important security fixes since then. This marks the first time Apple has released a new version of iOS 12 since last September.
It's lowkey insane that the 5S (a phone released in 2013 is still receiving critical security updates.
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iOS 12.5.6 rolling out to older iPhone and iPad devices with important security fixes
6 votes -
Comment on The Matrix Summer Special 2022 in ~tech
starchturrets LinkThere's work ongoing on the server side to make things more efficient (the flagship implementation, Synapse, has always had a reputation as a bit of a resource hog), and they're continuing work on...At the end of each year it’s been traditional to do a big review of everything that the Matrix core team got up to that year, and announcing our predictions for the next. You can see the last edition in 2021 here - and if you’re feeling nostalgic you can head down memory lane with the 2020, 2019, 2018 ones etc too.
This year is turning out to be slightly different, however. Our plans for 2022 are particularly ambitious: to force a step change in improving Matrix’s performance and usability so that we firmly transition from our historical “make it work” and “make it work right” phases into “making it fast”. Specifically: to succeed, Matrix has to succeed in powering apps which punch their weight in terms of performance and usability against the proprietary centralised alternatives of WhatsApp, Discord, Slack and friends.
There's work ongoing on the server side to make things more efficient (the flagship implementation, Synapse, has always had a reputation as a bit of a resource hog), and they're continuing work on the new and improved ElementX clients (the current versions are OK, but definitely have issues with speed and the user interface).
The Go server implementation, Dendrite, is also rapidly advancing, and from my experience hosting it in termux on an old Android phone, it's fairly usable. They bring up P2P but it doesn't seem to be anywhere near usable yet - still, I'm very interested in where it goes.
All in all, I'm pretty excited to see where the Matrix protocol and community goes, and I'm happy to see this level of transparency from the devs.
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The Matrix Summer Special 2022
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Comment on Testing end-to-end encrypted backups and more on Messenger in ~tech
starchturrets Link ParentIIRC, Signal helped Meta when they implemented WhatsApp E2EE, and verified their implementation of their protocol in Messenger's encrypted chats. Also, if you look at how they market themselves in...IIRC, Signal helped Meta when they implemented WhatsApp E2EE, and verified their implementation of their protocol in Messenger's encrypted chats. Also, if you look at how they market themselves in comparison to WhatsApp - where they have the incentive to make it look as insecure as possible - they seem to focus more on all the other info that's collected, such as user identifiers and usage data.
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Comment on Testing end-to-end encrypted backups and more on Messenger in ~tech
starchturrets LinkI'm cautiously optimistic about this. On the one hand, Meta will certainly be harvesting as much metadata as they can to target ads despite not reading message content directly. On the other hand,...Takeaways:
- We’re testing secure storage on Messenger, a new feature that allows you to back up your end-to-end encrypted chats.
- We’re also starting a test of automatic end-to-end encrypted chat threads on Messenger and expanding other features.
People want to trust that their online conversations with friends and family are private and secure. We’re working hard to protect your personal messages and calls with end-to-end encryption by default on Messenger and Instagram
I'm cautiously optimistic about this. On the one hand, Meta will certainly be harvesting as much metadata as they can to target ads despite not reading message content directly. On the other hand, if they actually pull this off...it'll help security for the common people. I can't just force my friends and family to switch to Signal or Element, so putting Messenger and Instagram on the same level as WhatsApp security wise would be nice.
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Testing end-to-end encrypted backups and more on Messenger
15 votes -
Comment on Atheism and moral realism/objectivism? in ~talk
starchturrets LinkI'm also someone who grew up in a fundamentalist religion before moving away from it, so I totally get what you feel. Personally, I did a lot of soul searching about this, and I eventually came to...I'm also someone who grew up in a fundamentalist religion before moving away from it, so I totally get what you feel. Personally, I did a lot of soul searching about this, and I eventually came to the conclusion (and also because despite my best efforts, philosophy is hard) that I would just have to assume objective morality as an a priori of the universe, the same way I did the laws of logic. I don't know where it comes from, the same way I don't know what happened before the universe began. I don't really think assuming a moral code is any worse than assuming a God, from which said moral code inherently derives from, so this leaves me the most comfortable with myself.
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Comment on How traceable are you? - Experiment results & analysis in ~tech
starchturrets LinkThis is an extremely interesting article, showing the difficulty of defending against browser fingerprinting.Users who reported the experiment failed had more common configurations. For example, I talked about Firefox's resistFingerprinting feature above, which helped make browsers look like everyone else's. This helped quite a few people evade detection by my experiment. Some users reported the experiment being able to track them despite resistFingerprinting being enabled. However, this is most likely because they had an extension making them stand out.
In addition to Firefox, Safari on iPhone did a pretty good job overall at protecting users. Users using default Safari settings (meaning default Webkit experiment settings) on the same iOS version saw the same fingerprint, reducing the accuracy of the experiment.
This is an extremely interesting article, showing the difficulty of defending against browser fingerprinting.
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How traceable are you? - Experiment results & analysis
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Comment on Two types of privacy in ~comp
starchturrets LinkThis is a very well written article. It neatly explains the two different mindsets, as well as the inherent tradeoffs to various forms of tracking prevention. I'm also glad to see that communities...This is a very well written article. It neatly explains the two different mindsets, as well as the inherent tradeoffs to various forms of tracking prevention. I'm also glad to see that communities (such as PrivacyGuides) taking a more nuanced, reasonable approach to threat modelling.
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Comment on TikTok turns on the money machine in ~tech
starchturrets Link ParentOh, definitely. A lot of my friends use it, and I regularly get shared videos from it by one of them. I think TikTok has carved out it's niche already. And I believe that barring them doing...TikTok has become an absolute juggernaut with teenagers. I suspect it'll last about a generation, as it looks like every generation needs their own social media space.
Oh, definitely. A lot of my friends use it, and I regularly get shared videos from it by one of them.
I feel like the best way to be sustainable is to carve out a niche, aka Twitter and tumblr, but then again, those companies didn't manage to actually become sustainable at any point. Twitter still has no business model.
I think TikTok has carved out it's niche already. And I believe that barring them doing something absolutely insane such as installing rootkits en masse to harvest user data, they're already too big to fail, much like Instagram. But their niche is just that - a niche. At least from my experience, people where I live use TikTok primarily to consume content in the same way that one might follow their favorite youtubers, but the actual posting of content (meaning: pictures from events and whatnot), as well as communication between schoolmates, takes place on Instagram. My experience is fairly limited however, so I could very well be wrong. I'll have to check with a friend who's more well versed in this later.
I also wonder if covid played a big part in TikTok's rise.
I agree, everyone being stuck at home bored out of their mind probably contributed a lot to it becoming popular.
And I also worry that it's a terrible app for dopamine overdoses. The short timeframe for video together with the amount of them, it's just perfect for endless scrolling.
This is certainly a legitimate concern, and is also one reason I've avoided it. I already have enough trouble with spending too much time on reddit. I've also found myself at times also getting addicted to matrix chats, which I'm 100% sure aren't designed to be dopamine overdosing, so I feel it would be even worse on something actually designed to rope me in. I guess it varies from person to person. My friends don't seem very addicted; I'm glad it works for them.
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Comment on TikTok turns on the money machine in ~tech
starchturrets LinkWhile I have never had an account on it, and don't plan to ever have one due to privacy concerns, I am somewhat impressed by their meteoric rise, to the point where they've become a direct threat...The most downloaded app of 2021, TikTok has surged to a billion-plus global users, who consume an infinite feed of short clips delivered instantly by algorithm. While the platform has long helped creators like McKay step to the center of the attention economy, the company is only now starting to cash in on all that popularity.
TikTok raked in nearly $4 billion in revenue in 2021, mostly from advertising, and is projected to hit $12 billion this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. That would make it bigger than Twitter Inc. and Snap Inc. combined -- three years after it started accepting ads on the platform.
TikTok is the most addictive social app by user time spent per month
While I have never had an account on it, and don't plan to ever have one due to privacy concerns, I am somewhat impressed by their meteoric rise, to the point where they've become a direct threat in some ways to sites such as Instagram.
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TikTok turns on the money machine
8 votes
I don't have an OpenAI account, but I have been keeping up with ChatGPT by following the discussion about it on HackerNews/Reddit. I'm aware of its tendency to "hallucinate" sources when it's wrong, so I was hoping this could be mitigated by Bing's new AI mode. Unfortunately, in my testing it's been very hit-and-miss. Asking it for news can get it to talk about current events (with links to the specific articles!), but it's also mixed in with suspiciously old sounding stories citing links such as https://edition.cnn.com/world. This isn't very helpful for determining if it's making stuff up or not. I also tried to use it as a way to discover new fanfics, but it keeps getting things subtly wrong. For example, I asked it to suggest similar stories to a crossover fanfic I gave it, and out of three suggestions, two of them weren't crossovers. Which would be fine if it didn't try to claim they were, and in one case it linked to a Mass Effect story claiming it contained characters from Halo as well. It also got things such as the rating wrong, and the chapter and word counts were slightly off.
I tried to use it for research, and asked it to tell me (excluding what Apple has published on their website) the effects of turning on lockdown mode. This was because I wanted to see if it could come across anything that Apple didn't officially document. It gave me a list including gems such as "You can't install or update apps from the App Store." and "You can only use Safari to browse websites that are verified by Apple." (This linked to a support.apple.com page for some reason). It was all very plausible sounding, but also completely wrong.
So while LLMs appear good for generating boilerplate, the billion dollar question in my opinion would be if OpenAI can get them to stop "being wrong". Clearly just hooking them up to Bing is no guarantee of correctness (and I suspect a lot of it is due to the blogspam present on the Internet), and while they may be very good at (say) explaining something to me in plain language, it's gonna be worse than useless if it ends up being wrong in some way I can't distinguish because I'm not a Subject Matter Expert. And if I were - why would I need it to explain it to me?