Alterslash

the unofficial Slashdot digest
 

Contents

  1. Inside the Booming ‘AI Pimping’ Industry
  2. Ubuntu Linux Impacted By Decade-Old ‘needrestart’ Flaw That Gives Root
  3. Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, Study Finds
  4. Musi Fans Refuse To Update iPhones Until Apple Unblocks Controversial App
  5. Comcast Spins Off Cable Networks
  6. Strava Closes the Gates To Sharing Fitness Data With Other Apps
  7. DeepSeek’s First Reasoning Model R1-Lite-Preview Beats OpenAI o1 Performance
  8. Resentment is Building As More Workers Feel Stuck
  9. Sony’s New A1 II Pairs Updated Design With Largely Familiar Performance
  10. D-Link Tells Users To Trash Old VPN Routers Over Bug Too Dangerous To Identify
  11. Delhi Trudges Through Another Air Pollution Nightmare With No Answers
  12. Apple Says Mac Users Targeted in Zero-Day Cyberattacks
  13. TV Time Attacks Apple’s ‘Significant Power’ After App Store Removal
  14. Scientists Announce Progress Toward Ambitious Atlas of Human Cells
  15. Half of Young Norwegians Justify Piracy as Streaming Costs Soar

Alterslash picks up to the best 5 comments from each of the day’s Slashdot stories, and presents them on a single page for easy reading.

Inside the Booming ‘AI Pimping’ Industry

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media:
Instagram is flooded with hundreds of AI-generated influencers who are stealing videos from real models and adult content creators, giving them AI-generated faces, and monetizing their bodies with links to dating sites, Patreon, OnlyFans competitors, and various AI apps. The practice, first reported by 404 Media in April, has since exploded in popularity, showing that Instagram is unable or unwilling to stop the flood of AI-generated content on its platform and protect the human creators on Instagram who say they are now competing with AI content in a way that is impacting their ability to make a living.

According to our review of more than 1,000 AI-generated Instagram accounts, Discord channels where the people who make this content share tips and discuss strategy, and several guides that explain how to make money by “AI pimping,” it is now trivially easy to make these accounts and monetize them using an assortment of off-the-shelf AI tools and apps. Some of these apps are hosted on the Apple App and Google Play Stores. Our investigation shows that what was once a niche problem on the platform has industrialized in scale, and it shows what social media may become in the near future: a space where AI-generated content eclipses that of humans. […]

Out of more than 1,000 AI-generated Instagram influencer accounts we reviewed, 100 included at least some deepfake content which took existing videos, usually from models and adult entertainment performers, and replaced their face with an AI-generated face to make those videos seem like new, original content consistent with the other AI-generated images and videos shared by the AI-generated influencer. The other 900 accounts shared images that in some cases were trained on real photographs and in some cases made to look like celebrities, but were entirely AI-generated, not edited photographs or videos. Out of those 100 accounts that shared deepfake or face-swapped videos, 60 self-identify as being AI-generated, writing in their bios that they are a “virtual model & influencer” or stating “all photos crafted with AI and apps.” The other 40 do not include any disclaimer stating that they are AI-generated.
Adult content creators like Elaina St James say they’re now directly competing with these AI rip-off accounts that often use stolen content. Since the explosion of AI-generated influencer accounts on Instagram, St James said her “reach went down tremendously,” from a typical 1 million to 5 million views a month to not surpassing a million in the last 10 months, and sometimes coming in under 500,000 views. While she said changes to Instagram’s algorithm could also be at play, these AI-generated influencer accounts are “probably one of the reasons my views are going down,” St James told 404 Media. “It’s because I’m competing with something that’s unnatural.”
Alexios Mantzarlis, the director of the security, trust, and safety initiative at Cornell Tech and formerly principal of trust and safety intelligence at Google, started researching the problem to see where AI-generated content is taking social media and the internet. “It felt like a possible sign of what social media is going to look like in five years,” said Mantzarlis. “Because this may be coming to other parts of the internet, not just the attractive-people niche on Instagram. This is probably a sign that it’s going to be pretty bad.”

Who cares?

By Baron_Yam • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

The existence of human ‘Influencers’ is an embarrassment to humanity. If they’re replaced by algorithms maybe they’ll find something useful to do with their lives.

Dead Internet Theory

By garett_spencley • Score: 3 Thread

showing that Instagram is unable or unwilling to stop the flood of AI-generated content on its platform and protect the human creators on Instagram who say they are now competing with AI content in a way that is impacting their ability to make a living.

Meanwhile I’ve tried to create an Instagram account on multiple occasions and it gets suspended before I can even do anything with it. I’ve appealed, which requires presenting proof that you are an actual human, and they uphold it with some vague nonsense about “fake accounts” violating their policy (how they determine it’s “fake” when I’ve proven I’m not a bot is beyond me).

So yeah … they have an AI / fake account / bot problem on the platform? Meanwhile they’re banning real humans who have no malintent what-so-ever and making it impossible for new users to sign up and even get an account started (I’ve searched and lots of other people complain about the same thing).

Maybe they’re overrun with bot accounts because they’ve suspended all of the actual human users for no reason and all that’s left are bots.

Ubuntu Linux Impacted By Decade-Old ‘needrestart’ Flaw That Gives Root

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Five local privilege escalation (LPE) vulnerabilities in the Linux utility "needrestart" — widely used on Ubuntu to manage service updates — allow attackers with local access to escalate privileges to root. The flaws were discovered by Qualys in needrestart version 0.8, and fixed in version 3.8. BleepingComputer reports:
Complete information about the flaws was made available in a separate text file, but a summary can be found below:

- CVE-2024-48990: Needrestart executes the Python interpreter with a PYTHONPATH environment variable extracted from running processes. If a local attacker controls this variable, they can execute arbitrary code as root during Python initialization by planting a malicious shared library.
- CVE-2024-48992: The Ruby interpreter used by needrestart is vulnerable when processing an attacker-controlled RUBYLIB environment variable. This allows local attackers to execute arbitrary Ruby code as root by injecting malicious libraries into the process.
- CVE-2024-48991: A race condition in needrestart allows a local attacker to replace the Python interpreter binary being validated with a malicious executable. By timing the replacement carefully, they can trick needrestart into running their code as root.
- CVE-2024-10224: Perl’s ScanDeps module, used by needrestart, improperly handles filenames provided by the attacker. An attacker can craft filenames resembling shell commands (e.g., command|) to execute arbitrary commands as root when the file is opened.
- CVE-2024-11003: Needrestart’s reliance on Perl’s ScanDeps module exposes it to vulnerabilities in ScanDeps itself, where insecure use of eval() functions can lead to arbitrary code execution when processing attacker-controlled input.
The report notes that attackers would need to have local access to the operation system through malware or a compromised account in order to exploit these flaws. “Apart from upgrading to version 3.8 or later, which includes patches for all the identified vulnerabilities, it is recommended to modify the needrestart.conf file to disable the interpreter scanning feature, which prevents the vulnerabilities from being exploited,” adds BleepingComputer.

Next time pick one.

By Kernel Kurtz • Score: 4, Insightful Thread
It uses Python, Perl, and Ruby? Nothing like maximizing your attack surface.

Start using debian ASAP

By williamyf • Score: 4, Funny Thread

As it seems that there are not enough eyes looking at Ubunto to make the bugs shallow.

Maybe those eyes got distracted? MIR&Unity? Ubuntu Phone? Snap?

Totally not offended by systemd

By Valgrus Thunderaxe • Score: 3 Thread
But I’m old enough to remember this same nonsense and controversy when Solaris transitioned to SMF.

It’s a trap, Luke!

By Big Hairy Gorilla • Score: 4, Interesting Thread
I think your use case has something to do with it. I use Devuan on most of my bread and butter servers, web, email, name servers, jabber, pffft. I have a vpn hub running only 96 processes in total. It’s super solid and is a low low maintenance load on me. Can’t argue with that. It’s what Debian is supposed to be.

But, unfortunately, I had to wimp out and use Debian on a midi music box. I find there’s just too many moving parts in midi and digital audio recording system that most likely have dependencies on the dreaded … thing whose name shall not be spoken… <whispers: systemd> … I followed Ted Felix’s instructions intended for Ubuntu, onto Debian, and honestly it was still a pain in the ass to get right. I wanted to remove the system as a possible source of errors… So in other words, I’m lazy, but with that long excuse.

For the most part though, it hasn’t been a terrible experience. It boots fast and recognizes all the midi and audio hardware. I think that Debian has finally made installation of wifi drivers just part of the normal installation, so good on them for finally smoothing that over. The system is pretty well behaved now. Debian has been fit for the task. Even I can admit that. <stares at shoes a bit then shows self out >

Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, Study Finds

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
A new study reveals that many users, particularly students and Redditors, view Z-Library as a vital resource for overcoming economic barriers to education, reflecting a “Robin Hood” mentality that prioritizes access to knowledge over copyright concerns. TorrentFreak reports:
The research looks at the motivations of two groups; Reddit users and Chinese postgraduate students. Despite the vast differences between these groups, their views on Z-Library are quite similar. The 134 Reddit responses were sampled from the Zlibrary subreddit, which is obviously biased in favor of the site. However, the reasoning goes well beyond a simple “I want free stuff” arguments. Many commenters highlighted that they were drawn to the site out of poverty, for example, or they highlighted that Z-Library was an essential tool to fulfill their academic goals.

“Living in a 3rd world country, 1 book would cost like 50%- 80% already of my daily wage,” one Redditor wrote. The idea that Z-Library is a ‘necessary evil’ was also highlighted by other commenters. This includes a student who can barely make ends meet, and a homeless person, who has neither the money nor the space for physical books. The lack of free access to all study materials, including academic journal subscriptions at university libraries, was also a key motivator. Paired with the notion that journal publishers make billions of dollars, without compensating authors, justification is found for ‘pirate’ alternatives. “They make massive profits. So stealing from them doesn’t hurt the authors nor reviewers, just the rich greedy publishers who make millions just to design a cover and click ‘publish’,” one Redditor wrote.

The second part of the study is conducted in a more structured format among 103 postgraduate students in China. This group joined a seminar where Z-Library and the crackdown were discussed. In addition, the students participated in follow-up focus group discussions, while also completing a survey. Despite not all being users of the shadow library, 41% of the students agreed that the site’s (temporary) shutdown affected their ability to study and find resources for degree learning. In general, the students have a favorable view toward Z-Library and similar sites, and 71% admit that they have used a shadow library in the past. In line with China’s socialist values, the overwhelming majority of the students agreed that access to knowledge should be free for everyone. While the students are aware of copyright law, they believe that the need to access knowledge outweighs rightsholders’ concerns. This is also reflected in the following responses, among others. All in all, Z-Library and other shadow libraries are seen as a viable option for expensive or inaccessible books, despite potential copyright concerns.
The paper has been published in the Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice.

What Comes Around…

By walkerp1 • Score: 3, Interesting Thread
So, apparently some folk claim to have needed these ill-gotten goods to facilitate their personal growth. I myself admit to having taken great advantage of my public library in my youth since I wasn’t able to purchase all of the periodicals and other reference books that I needed to further my self-education. Sure, there’s a difference in the fact that using a traditional library is legal and using a Z-library probably isn’t, but the need was the same. Anyway, I’m curious. How many of those Z-library users will return the favor after they benefit? Do they plan on sharing their own contributions with the underserved, pro-bono? I really hope so. For my part, I turned around and ended up buying thousands of books and other sources of IP when I finally hit my earnings potential. I’ve donated time and money to my childhood library too. Paying forward isn’t too bad, when it’s all you can afford.

Musi Fans Refuse To Update iPhones Until Apple Unblocks Controversial App

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
Who up missing Musi?” a Reddit user posted in a community shocked by the free music streaming app’s sudden removal from Apple’s App Store in September. Apple kicked Musi out of the App Store after receiving several copyright complaints. Musi works by streaming music from YouTube — seemingly avoiding paying to license songs — and YouTube was unsurprisingly chief among those urging Apple to stop allowing the alleged infringement.

Musi was previously only available through the App Store. Once Musi was removed from the App Store, anyone who downloaded Musi could continue using the app uninterrupted. But if the app was ever off-loaded during an update or if the user got a new phone, there would be no way to regain access to their Musi app or their playlists. Some Musi fans only learned that Apple booted Musi after they updated their phones, and the app got offloaded with no option to re-download. Panicked, these users turned to the Musi subreddit for answers, where Musi’s support staff has consistently responded with reassurances that Musi is working to bring the app back to the App Store. For many Musi users learning from others’ mistakes, the Reddit discussions leave them with no choice but to refuse to update their phones or risk losing their favorite app.
The app may remain unavailable for several months as the litigation unfolds. “After Apple gave in to the pressure, Musi sued (PDF) in October, hoping to quickly secure an injunction that would force Apple to reinstate Musi in the App Store until the copyright allegations were decided,” reports Ars. “But a hearing on that motion isn’t scheduled until January, making it appear unlikely that Musi will be available again to download until sometime next year.”

Further reading: Google, Apple Drive ‘Black Box’ IP Policing with App Store Rules

Re:So let me get this straight…

By Kernel Kurtz • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

I totally agree that walled gardens are bad for user choice, but Apple booting illegal apps off their store is not the best illustration.

Apple removing any apps from people’s phone without permission is repugnant.

Comcast Spins Off Cable Networks

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Comcast plans to spin off several of its cable TV networks into a standalone company as it shifts focus to streaming and other profitable ventures like Peacock, theme parks, and broadband services. The Associated Press reports:
Those one-time stars for Comcast’s NBCUniversal cable television networks include USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel, as well as CNBC and MSNBC. Movie ticketing platform Fandango and the Rotten Tomatoes movie rating site would also become part of the new company. Peacock will remain with Comcast, as will Bravo, which provides significant content for the Peacock streaming service.

Comcast telegraphed the potential shift last month as it released quarterly earnings before confirming Wednesday that it will spin off assets that generated about $7 billion in revenue over he past 12 months ending September 30. That’s about 5.5% of Comcast’s total revenue during that period, according to the company. But there is a shrinking pool of cable subscribers as millions cut the cord and rely increasingly on streaming platforms for entertainment.

Mark Lazarus, current chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, will serve as the new entity’s chief executive officer. Anand Kini, the current chief financial officer of NBCUniversal, will take on the same title with the new company as well as the chief operating officer role. […] Comcast expects the new company to have the financial flexibility to be “a potential partner and acquirer of other complementary media businesses.” The spin-off is targeted for completion in about a year, the entertainment giant said, pending financing and approval from its board and government regulators.
“Like millions of US consumers, Comcast finally cut the cord by divesting itself of most of its cable TV channels,” said Paul Verna, principal analyst at market research company eMarketer. “The benefits are clear to Comcast. It’s dropping money-losing assets from a technology and media empire that will retain its lucrative (internet service provider) business, theme parks, broadcast networks, and Peacock streaming service.”

Re:Is peacock profitable?

By MachineShedFred • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

It doesn’t have to pay for any of the content creation, as that’s all billed to other business units. And I doubt they have nearly the hosting overhead, since Comcast is an ISP that has peering agreements with everybody.

I can’t imagine it would take a ridiculous amount of subscribers to get to profit.

Strava Closes the Gates To Sharing Fitness Data With Other Apps

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
The Verge’s Richard Lawler reports:
Strava recently informed its users and partners that new terms for its API restrict the data that third-party apps can show, refrain from replicating Strava’s look, and place a ban on using data “for any model training related to artificial intelligence, machine learning or similar applications.” The policy is effective as of November 11th, even though Strava’s own post about the change is dated November 15th.

There are plenty of posts on social media complaining about the sudden shift, but one place where dissent won’t be tolerated is Strava’s own forums. The company says, "…posts requesting or attempting to have Strava revert business decisions will not be permitted.”
Brian Bell, Strava’s VP of Communications and Social Impact, said in a statement: “We anticipate that these changes will affect only a small fraction (less than .1 percent) of the applications on the Strava platform — the overwhelming majority of existing use cases are still allowed, including coaching platforms focused on providing feedback to users and tools that help users understand their data and performance.”

You are the product

By mspohr • Score: 3 Thread

You don’t own your data.
Strava owns all the data and they can sell it to anyone for any purpose.
Stupid.

DeepSeek’s First Reasoning Model R1-Lite-Preview Beats OpenAI o1 Performance

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat:
DeepSeek, an AI offshoot of Chinese quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management focused on releasing high performance open source tech, has unveiled the R1-Lite-Preview, its latest reasoning-focused large language model, available for now exclusively through DeepSeek Chat, its web-based AI chatbot. Known for its innovative contributions to the open-source AI ecosystem, DeepSeek’s new release aims to bring high-level reasoning capabilities to the public while maintaining its commitment to accessible and transparent AI. And the R1-Lite-Preview, despite only being available through the chat application for now, is already turning heads by offering performance nearing and in some cases exceeding OpenAI’s vaunted o1-preview model.

Like that model released in September 2024, DeepSeek-R1-Lite-Preview exhibits “chain-of-thought” reasoning, showing the user the different chains or trains of “thought” it goes down to respond to their queries and inputs, documenting the process by explaining what it is doing and why. While some of the chains/trains of thoughts may appear nonsensical or even erroneous to humans, DeepSeek-R1-Lite-Preview appears on the whole to be strikingly accurate, even answering “trick” questions that have tripped up other, older, yet powerful AI models such as GPT-4o and Claude’s Anthropic family, including “how many letter Rs are in the word Strawberry?” and “which is larger, 9.11 or 9.9?”

TOtally useless

By GeekBoy • Score: 3 Thread

I asked it about Tienamen Square and it immediately said that it was a forbidden topic of discussion. WHen I asked it what topics were forbidden it refused to tell me and purposely decided to be vague reasoning that even listing the topics would be tantamount to discussing them or informing people about them which would be against the interests/desires of the government.

There is no point in using a Chinese AI as you will never be able to discuss anything that the Communist party doesn’t want you to talk about. For fun I asked it its opinion of XI, and it also refused to give any answer at all.

Totally useless. I don’t care how well you reason if you refuse to talk about anything important.

Resentment is Building As More Workers Feel Stuck

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Workers in the U.S. are running in place — feeling stuck in jobs with dimmed prospects of advancement and seeing fewer opportunities to jump ship for something better. From a report:
It’s a sharp contrast to the heady days of 2022 — when employees were quitting their jobs at record high rates, open roles proliferated and the possibility of a higher paycheck always seemed just around the corner.

Employers are sitting tight, says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at job site Glassdoor. Companies aren’t making big changes to hiring strategy. That means “fewer opportunities for workers to climb the career ladder,” he says. They’re still plugging away at the same role they’ve had for years without the opportunity to move up internally or at a new company. 65% of the 3,400 professionals surveyed by Glassdoor last month said they feel stuck in their current role. “As workers feel stuck, pent-up resentment boils under the surface,” Zhao writes in a report out yesterday.

What if one isn’t a crazy ladder-climber?

By TigerPlish • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

What if one isn’t a money, status and power-obcessed ladder climber? Will such a person also be resentful of their job and workplace?

Methinks the article’s author (and its publishing site, axios) has an axe to grind. An agenda to push. Unhappy Workers of the World, Unite!

Nah mate. Marxism had its run and failed. Fuck off.

And leave us non-ladder-climbers the fuck alone, we may have families to look after, or illnesses to conquer. No one has time for your ladder-climbing yuppie up-or-out bullshit.

It’s going to get a *lot* worse

By rsilvergun • Score: 5, Interesting Thread
The tariffs are going to spike inflation.

To fight that inflation the federal reserve will hike interest rates up, because that’s what they do.

Now, let’s talk about how and why high interest rates “fight” inflation, because it’s not something anyone really talks about.
br> See, it’s suddenly expensive to borrow money. Most companies expand using borrowed money. So they stop expanding. Heck, they start *contracting*.

That means layoffs. Mass layoffs. If you’re in Tech you’re already seeing it, which is why you’re “stuck”.

The idea is we all get fired, blow through our savings, and massively pull back on spending. That forces companies to cut prices when demand tanks.

It’s balancing the books on our backs.

This only works if there’s competition, but we’ve had decades of unchecked market consolidation. So there’s no real reason for companies to cut prices except the threat of anti-trust law enforcement and regulation.

And those are right out the window now.

So buckle up folks, we voted for this.

Alternative theory.

By nightflameauto • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Looking at the prospects for society moving forward, it all seems pretty bleak. But, the only focus we’re told we’re supposed to have is career and the pursuit of every increasing wealth. Anything outside of that is considered a waste of time, a waste of energy, a waste of potential. And maybe, just maybe, pursuit of empty, meaningless careers, while watching our parents and elders age out and see that most of it was literally for absolutely nothing at all other than taking care of the people they never had the opportunity to spend time with until they aged out, we wonder what the point of jumping on the treadmill and barely maintaining momentum while standing still is. Middle class folks get pushed down to the bottom if they aren’t climbing. And if we aren’t climbing, we’re told we’re failing.

Maybe we’re just resentful of a society that has literally found every avenue available to tell us we are worthless. Healthcare has been stolen from those of us that used to be able to afford it. Now, for me, a relatively healthy middle aged guy, it’s 10k a years as an individual, for a policy with a 12k a year copay, that covers literally nothing at all, and has the prospect of denying coverage if I have the accident I fear may bankrupt me. So I have a choice to either pay in and continue to pay, or not pay in and risk the unknown. Common bills continue to climb around 8-9% per year, pay increases around 3% per year. Been that way for over twenty years in this area, and right at the moment it’s looking like the common bills are going to start climbing faster. I can “make due,” but I won’t be putting away the retirement funds I’d been hoping to be putting away so I don’t have to work until I’m completely shredded.

This isn’t a “worker” vs. “employer” only situation. This is a society wide trap that we’ve all fallen into. And when we ask for hope, we’re handed a shit sandwich and told to eat up. “Should have worked harder, should have done more, should have been born better.” Well, some of us are looking at the future prospects and seeing more of the same and are tired of the bleakness.

Oh, and by the way, AI is going to replace us all within a few years too. So we got that fun little monkey riding our backs, no matter how false the premise seems to those of us that see how crap the average AI actually is. Because management seems to believe it. And all it takes is the right decisions and we’re all out on our asses until the day comes where they realize they fucked up and may actually need humans after all. And by then, our wages will have all reset to baseline again. The future’s so bright, I gotta wear SPF 20,000 to avoid burning in it.

Re:Careers are overrated

By OrangeTide • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

Those of us in tech corporations typically have to at least pretend that we’re trying to grow our career. That we’re ambitious enough to seek greater responsibilities and accomplish more things. I’ve had bad experiences in telling my boss that I’m happy where I’m at and want to keep doing what I’m doing. Now I have to make up some lies about my long-term plans and hope he forgets before the next review.

Re:Viva la revolución

By sarren1901 • Score: 4, Informative Thread

That’s interesting. The 3 people I know that started their own businesses got zero help from their parents. Tiny sample size of course but unless you happen to know a lot of entrepreneurs your sample size isn’t likely that big either.

My mother started her own property management business. She decided to do this after various bosses refused to compensation her for bringing in new clients. She decided, I’m already doing all the work anyway, might as well be the boss. Her company was going strong until Covid hit California. It’s super hard to make money as a property manager when over half your tenants stop paying their rent, as she literally got paid as a percentage of rents for each of her clients.

My uncle started a trucking business over 30 years ago and just recently (2021) retired and sold the company. He financed his own tractor-trailer and worked 6 days a week. Workaholic for sure. His wife even started driving a smaller truck after she retired from a city job. They’ve always done well. Before that, he worked for Caterpillar fixing their huge equipment items all around the world. So a trucking company made sense for him.

My other uncle started an HVAC company. He struggled a lot more and ultimately ended up working for others again. Then again, he’s got a much different work ethic then pretty much the rest of the family.

With all that said, my grandparents have never helped any of them out. Heck, my grandmother has been dead for 28 years and my grandfather passed away a few months ago (94!). They never had money to really help their children. All the education all my relatives received they paid out of their own pockets. Same as I’m doing myself now.

These were both small businesses that only employed my individual relatives but both were clearing low 6 figures. They both retired happy.

So yeah, if enough of these people reach a point where they know enough of their business, they probably could go start another firm but it definitely takes a lot of drive, determination and long hours. Running a business isn’t for everyone.

Sony’s New A1 II Pairs Updated Design With Largely Familiar Performance

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Sony has announced the a1 II flagship mirrorless camera, retaining its predecessor’s 50.1-megapixel stacked sensor while adding AI capabilities and improved stabilization. The camera features a new dedicated AI processor, enhancing autofocus performance with claimed improvements of 50% for bird eye detection and 30% for both animal and human subjects.

Its in-body stabilization system now offers 8.5 stops of correction. The a1 II maintains the original’s 30 frames-per-second shooting speed and 759-point autofocus system. New features include pre-capture shooting with a one-second buffer and a multi-angle LCD screen borrowed from the a9 III. Connectivity upgrades include a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port, while dual card slots support both CFexpress Type A and UHS-II SD cards. The Sony a1 II will be available mid-December for $6,499.

D-Link Tells Users To Trash Old VPN Routers Over Bug Too Dangerous To Identify

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Owners of older models of D-Link VPN routers are being told to retire and replace their devices following the disclosure of a serious remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability. From a report:
Most of the details about the bug are being kept under wraps given the potential for wide exploitation. The vendor hasn’t assigned it a CVE identifier or really said much about it at all other than that it’s a buffer overflow bug that leads to unauthenticated RCE.

Unauthenticated RCE issues are essentially as bad as vulnerabilities get, and D-Link warned that if customers continued to use the affected products, the devices connected to them would also be put at risk. Previous bugs in similar products from other vendors have carried warnings that attackers could exploit them to install rootkits and use that persistent access to surveil an organization’s web traffic, potentially stealing data such as credentials.
Further reading: D-Link Won’t Fix Critical Flaw Affecting 60,000 Older NAS Devices.

We need a infosec recall law

By peterww • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Cars that are unsafe get recalled, no matter how old they are. We need the same laws to cover safety-critical digital infrastructure, so companies are forced to make sure their devices are secure, and to force them to fix these old devices, when safety of tens of thousands are at risk

Synology

By JBMcB • Score: 4, Informative Thread

I’ll stump for Synology here. I got an RT5600ac about six years ago. It still runs great, and they still sell and support it with regular security and bug fixes. The great thing about these is they are so old now you can get them used for cheap. I bought a used one from Salvation Army, sans power adapter and one antenna, for $10, that I’m going to use as a mesh extender with the first one. I’ve seen them on eBay for $40. If you don’t absolutely need ax, it’s a great option.

Re:I know how this will end

By lsllll • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Anybody in the situation would surely ask a “computer person” what to do and any computer person worth their salt would tell them to look for an alternative firmware, like OpenWRT or DD-WRT. I haven’t kept up as I’ve long since moved to OPNSense, but there has to be some other new ones, too.

Re:We need a infosec recall law

By Waffle Iron • Score: 4, Informative Thread

I am not sure if the DOT/NTSB/whatever can’t require a recall of vehicles older than 10 years but it might be at the owners cost at that point.

I don’t know if it’s a special case, but I did get a free airbag replacement a few years back on a vehicle that was 21 years old at the time.

Re:We need a infosec recall law

By Valgrus Thunderaxe • Score: 5, Informative Thread
That is not true at all. In fact I couldn’t find any evidence of a car more than 10 years old having ever been recalled.

Actually that is true. I had a 2003 Civic recalled for defective Takata airbags just three years ago.

Delhi Trudges Through Another Air Pollution Nightmare With No Answers

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader shares a report:
On Tuesday morning, the air quality in India’s capital under a widely used index stood at 485. While that is almost five times the threshold for healthy breathing, it felt like a relief: The day before, the reading had shot up to 1,785. Infinitesimal air particles were still clogging lungs and arteries, but it was possible to see sunlight again, and to smell things.

[…] Every year this suffocating smog accompanies the drop in temperatures as the plains of north India shed their unbearable heat for wintertime cool. And like clockwork, political leaders roll out emergency measures intended to quit making the problem worse. Yet India seems powerless to reduce the effects of this public health catastrophe, as its politicians stay busy trading blame and trying to outmaneuver one another in legal battles.

The haze was so shocking this week that Delhi’s chief minister, Atishi, who goes by one name, declared it a “medical emergency” endangering the lives of children and older people. The Supreme Court, whose members also live in the capital, chided the national government for responding too slowly and ordered special measures: halting construction work and blocking some vehicles from the roads. Schools were closed indefinitely to protect students.

Re:Stop burning stuff then

By XXongo • Score: 4, Informative Thread
This particular problem is not climate change, it is old-fashoned pollution. https://www.bbc.com/news/artic…

A significant source is burning fields to clear stubble in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, but other sources of airborne particulates contribute, too.

Your top line, however, is correct: ultimately: stop burning stuff, then.

Re:Refuse to learn

By caseih • Score: 5, Informative Thread

The problem is not just fossil fuels. Most of the pollution is coming from burning fields to clear crop residue. This practice is already against the law but apparently authorities are turning a blind eye. Perhaps they would be smarter to assist farmers in getting the tools they need to deal with residue without burning. Here in North America, burning crop residue generally requires permitting and is not usually done anymore on a large scale. Residue is dealt with in other ways, such as baling it for animal bedding or chopping it more finely and incorporating it into the soil. Burning crop residue is literally burning nutrients that will have to be purchased later in the form of fertilizers. There are options but no doubt Indian farmers don’t have the resources, equipment, and knowledge to do it. Indian government has to step up and help them make this change. Food production is in everyone’s interest in every country.

Re:Stop burning stuff then

By XXongo • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

So “old-fashion pollution” doesnt cause global warming?

This is particulate pollution. Particulates can be either warming or cooling, depending on the scattering albedo, but low level particulate pollution like this doesn’t really have a significant climate impact, no.

Burning crops only effects air quality?

The article we’re discussing is about air quality.

In addition to the particulates being discussed here, which causes the local pollution discussed here, burning fields releases carbon dioxide which of course does have greenhouse effect identical to any other carbon dioxide released. But that’s not what is being discussed. It’s also so tiny a portion of the carbon dioxide emitted worldwide (about 0.00001%) that you could not detect the greenhouse effect. If you want to complain about India’s contribution to the greenhouse effect, complaing about their coal-fired power plants, the emissions from which dwarf the seasonal burning.

I don’t think you understand the issue of global warming like you seem to think you do.

And I don’t think you understand the issue of global warming at all.

Re:It’s amazing

By cayenne8 • Score: 4, Funny Thread

The sky is literally blocked out with pollution, it is impossible to breathe normally, and they’re still really only taking last minute knee-jerk action with very short term partial effects.

So…did anyone call the support number about this?

Apple Says Mac Users Targeted in Zero-Day Cyberattacks

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Apple has pushed out security updates that it says are "recommended for all users,” after fixing a pair of security bugs used in active cyberattacks targeting Mac users. From a report:
In a security advisory on its website, Apple said it was aware of two vulnerabilities that “may have been actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.” The bugs are considered “zero day” vulnerabilities because they were unknown to Apple at the time they were exploited.

[…] The vulnerabilities were reported by security researchers at Google’s Threat Analysis Group, which investigates government-backed hacking and cyberattacks, suggesting that a government actor may be involved in the attacks.

Windows does this cheaper and better

By FictionPimp • Score: 5, Funny Thread

Apple is just behind here. for about $500 I can build a great windows machine that has way more vulnerabilties. Why would anyone pay the apple tax and be limited to so few choices?

TV Time Attacks Apple’s ‘Significant Power’ After App Store Removal

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TV Time’s parent company criticized Apple’s App Store control after the tech giant removed its streaming app over an intellectual property dispute. “Apple holds significant power over app developers by controlling access to a massive market and, in this case, seems to have acted on a complaint without requiring robust evidence from the complainant,” Jerry Inman, CMO of Whip Media, which operates the app, told TechCrunch.

The app was pulled from the store by Apple after the developer refused to pay a settlement fee related to user-uploaded cover art. The app has since been reinstated.

“The app has since been reinstated. "

By Valgrus Thunderaxe • Score: 3 Thread
So, the review process worked in the developer’s favor.

Re:“The app has since been reinstated. "

By Sebby • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

So, the review process worked in the developer’s favor.

Well, not really:

According to Whip Media Chief Marketing Officer Jerry Inman, the dispute with Apple had to do with the mishandling of a routine intellectual property (IP) complaint. TV Time users had uploaded some TV and film cover art to the app, leading a company to claim copyrights over the app and issue a takedown notice via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). While TV Time complies with the DMCA, it asked the complainant to provide proof of ownership — like a copyright registration — which it was unable to do. Despite the lack of evidence, TV Time says it still removed the images from both the TV Time platform and its metadata platform, TheTVDB.

However, the complainant also demanded a financial settlement not consistent with the DMCA so Whip Media did not agree to pay, Inman claims.

The DMCA complaint was actually bogus, but Apple still removed the app because it believe the complainant over facts. On top of that the complainant tried extortion (claimed to Apple the issue was still ‘unresolved’, presumably because they didn’t get their payout). The article doesn’t detail how Apple was convinced to reinstate the app.

Re:“The app has since been reinstated. "

By Xenx • Score: 4, Interesting Thread
The reality here, however, is that if Apple wants to protect themselves from liability they have to follow the rules in the DMCA. That means they have to take down reported infringing content. It can be put back up, if they receive a counter claim. However, there is a minimum period that it has to stay down. I don’t have in front of me, but it’s a few days.

Scientists Announce Progress Toward Ambitious Atlas of Human Cells

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Scientists unveiled on Wednesday the first blueprint of human skeletal development as they make progress toward the goal of completing a biological atlas of every cell type in the body to better understand human health and diagnose and treat disease. From a report:
The work is part of the ongoing Human Cell Atlas project that was begun in 2016 and involves researchers around the world. The human body comprises roughly 37 trillion cells, with each cell type having a unique function. The researchers aim to have a first draft of the atlas done in the next year or two.

Aviv Regev, founding co-chair of the project and currently executive vice president and head of research and early development at U.S. biotech company Genentech, said the work is important on two levels. “First of all, it’s our basic human curiosity. We want to know what we’re made of. I think humans have always wanted to know what they’re made of. And, in fact, biologists have been mapping cells since the 1600s for that reason,” Regev said. “The second and very pragmatic reason is that this is essential for us in order to understand and treat disease. Cells are the basic unit of life, and when things go wrong, they go wrong with our cells, first and foremost,” Regev said.

A herculean tasks

By backslashdot • Score: 3 Thread

This task seems very hard to complete. But of course whatever they produce can be very useful. I’ve been looking at cells for a decades, looking at their genetic expression profiles. I’m really thinking cell types are fluid. You look at the RNA-seq and proteomics of two cells even in the same tissue and there are always some differences. It’s a questions of how many differences make the threshold of being called a different cell type? Well some change their profile enough that it’s a temporal thing. I mean to the point where I’d call it de-differentiation and differentiation across types.

Half of Young Norwegians Justify Piracy as Streaming Costs Soar

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Half of young Norwegians find online piracy acceptable when streaming services are too expensive, according to a new government survey released this week. The Ipsos poll of 1,411 respondents found that 32% of all Norwegians justify using pirate sites to save money, with acceptance rising to 50% among those under 30.

The rates increase further when specifically asked about pirating due to high streaming costs. Despite concerns about piracy, 61% of Norwegians paid for streaming services in the past year, including 64% of those under 30. Among active pirates, 41% said they would stop if legal services were more affordable, while 35% wanted broader content per service. Only 47% of respondents believed piracy supports organized crime, with 24% expressing uncertainty about this connection.

Re: It’s not piracy that supports organized crime

By Midnight Thunder • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Opposing piracy is one thing, while inflexibility in licensing models is another. If the second item was addressed, then I’d like to believe they’d need to put less energy into the first.

Piracy also provides a way of watching your content whenever you want and does not depend on the existence of upstream provider or whether they still have a license for it.

Buying a video on line, with DRM, is really just a long term rental. This is why piracy or physical media are still the better options.

Nobody cares

By abulafia • Score: 5, Insightful Thread
To take this a little seriously, people distinguish between rival and nonrival when thinking about morality. Even “honest” people cheat sometimes when they don’t think it harms others, but wouldn’t dream of picking someone’s pocket.

But the actual answer is, if you’re looking for sympathy for this view, go hang out with anti-porn crusaders. They know where this goes - nobody cares until you have to the power to make people stop looking.

A different answer is that not all human enterprises should be for-profit, at least as that’s modeled by western markets. To pick particular things, education and medicine all scale super poorly. You will never get market-acceptable results over the long term doing them well, so running them as market participants is a terrible idea.

The Idiot Box is not as important as education or medicine, but it suffers from the same problem - the market demands growth that is simply impossible at some point. So managers have to continually squeeze just a little more more juice, which means less of what customers want for more money.

It’ll never happen, but I personally like the idea of giving copyright different teeth. Keep offering the limited monopoly for whatever time period folks can agree on, but on expiry, reproduction rights automatically assign to a public trust which “licenses” works on a FRAND basis for just enough funds to keep running the trust and secure and maintain the library.

Re: Same lesson the music industry learned early o

By Midnight Thunder • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Films should look to make the lions share of revenue in the first few months of release and then should be less demanding as time moves on.

Also if a film is no longer economical to host or stream, then these should be immune from crack down, otherwise it will likely be lost to the dust of time.

Re:Morally questionable

By ewibble • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

Is it moral to take from the public domain and never give back? Laws and what is morally right are not the same thing, these laws have be bought and sold to the people who can pay the politicians the most.

Is it moral to charge some $100 that cost you $1 to make. I get it there are fixed costs however at some point you have recovered those and made a profit (or need to cut your loses) is it morally justified that you keep charging people indefinitely even though you have made your money back?

I actually think the attitude that says it is moral to screw people over as much as I can is one of the major reason for the moral decline in society, this even extends to letting people die because they can’t pay for health care. I think that is much more immoral than pirating a few movies that you couldn’t have afforded to pay for (direct answer to your question) in the first place, and costs the producer nothing.

Re:Same lesson the music industry learned early on

By doesnothingwell • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

… but it’s become Cable 2.0.

It just white washed Greed 1.0, like a yard sale full of dusty old salt shakers priced at $100 each. Yeah, were gonna copy, print, and substitute other sources. I can’t tell if my copy of 1984, or Metropolis is in copyright, but I’m not buying it either way. I generally go by what the rule was in 1958 when I was born, if powers want to retcon copyright length I’m not playing along.