Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

23andMe out to an early lead in contributions to Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

I've talked before about the particularly Black American tension between a) wanting to use genealogy tools to figure out where you (were ripped, torn, stolen) come from and b) knowing exactly what those systems can be made to do, a knowledge gained via 400 yrs of history stemming from those same origins…

…So all of that is to say, this 23andMe breach, and the ends to which it is explicitly being put (that being the targeting of Ashkenazi Jewish individuals and families), is like a literal nightmare I've had.

Just learnt about John Urschel

"Urschel admitted after retiring from the [Baltimore Ravens] that he did not disclose that he was a full-time graduate student, having taken correspondence classes in between games and practices...His PhD thesis on Graphs, Principal Minors, and Eigenvalue Problems..."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Urschel

Today in LotR (Oct. 6, 1 Fourth Age/1421 Shire Reckoning): The hobbits return to the Shire from the Grey Havens. As the day ends, Merry and Pippin go to Buckland, and Sam returns to Bag End.

"And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.

"He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said."

/Fin.

At Mozilla, we believe that social media is fundamentally broken and the only way to fix it is by showing the world what is possible when a social platform is built with Mozilla's principles for a healthier internet, instead of shareholders' best interests, at its core.

Are you interested in joining us?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/careers/listings/?team=Mozilla%20Social

Company that has changed its mind every 12 months for the last 15 years promises not to change its mind for the next 84 months. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/4/23899900/google-pixel-8-pro-android-updates-7-years-security-features

Cosmic rays strike again!

A software update fixed the #Euclid mission's Fine Guidance Sensor which was having trouble filtering out the random noise, caused by high-energy particles hitting the telescope's detector, to get the signal of real stars.

Euclid would lose its guide stars and then automatically start to look for them again, creating loopy star trails. Great for accidental science art, bad for science.

👉 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03174-4

📷 https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Guide_stars_found_as_Euclid_s_navigation_fine_tuned

One of my favourite (and oh so simple) hacker tricks is to abuse JSON support in APIs and pass TRUE instead of the actual API key. If the code does loose comparison, you don't need the key! 😎 😈 🍿
https://securinglaravel.com/p/security-tip-type-juggling #PHP #Laravel

HEY MASTODONIANS: This month I have public events in Bexley Ohio (tomorrow!), Wichita (Monday!), New York, Nashville and Madison, Wisconsin. If you wish to see me in any of these places -- and I hope you do! -- follow this link for all the times, places, and details. Thanks!

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/10/05/where-will-john-scalzi-be-in-october/

Twitter/X is now removing headlines from links and Threads/Meta is prohibiting searches of public health terms like Covid and vaccines.

Billionaires are dangerously restricting people’s access to news.

@gwagner It's always nice when they show a 'futuristic home' and it's almost a copy of Mies Van der Rohe's Fansworth house, build 70 years ago.

Do you ever think about how many American cities have banned plastic bags and require charges for paper bags to protect the environment, but still allow free car parking?

JRR Tolkien and Don Knuth are more alike than you’d think. Tolkien wrote a book to justify his languages, Knuth wrote a language to (typographically) justify his book.

A reminder that Mastodon has no algorithm that pushes posts favorited by others. This is a fundamental difference with the way Twitter works. If you like a toot and want others to see it, the best way to do that is to boost. Favoriting a post helps the author know you liked it but doesn't do much more.

The "New Outlook" demands that when adding your Gmail account, you also give Microsoft a copy of all your email, contacts, and calendar data.

The "Learn More" link confirms:

"Syncing your account to the Microsoft Cloud means that a copy of your email, calendar, and contacts will be synchronized between your email provider and Microsoft data centers."

WOW.

Good time to switch to @thunderbird, folks!

#Privacy #Outlook #Email

The NYPL "Fate of Frankenstein" exhibition opens tomorrow. I narrated the audio guide.

https://www.nypl.org/events/tours/audio-guides/treasures-audio-guide-frankenstein