Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

An appeals court today ruled unanimously that president #Trump was not the king, and so is subject to the law of the land.

Read an analysis from an expert on judicial behavior and American politics: https://theconversation.com/trump-was-not-king-and-can-be-prosecuted-for-crimes-committed-while-president-appeals-court-places-limits-on-immunity-221843?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon #News #BreakingNews #immunity

Study finds that Github Copilot lowers code quality and maintainability:

"We find disconcerting trends for maintainability. Code churn -- the percentage of lines that are reverted or updated less than two weeks after being authored -- is projected to double in 2024 compared to its 2021, pre-AI baseline. We further find that the percentage of 'added code' and 'copy/pasted code' is increasing in proportion to 'updated,' 'deleted,' and 'moved 'code. In this regard, AI-generated code resembles an itinerant contributor, prone to violate the DRY-ness [don't repeat yourself] of the repos visited."

The paper concludes: "How will Copilot transform what it means to be a developer? There's no question that, as AI has surged in popularity, we have entered an era where code lines are being added faster than ever before. The better question for 2024: who's on the hook to clean up the mess afterward?"

https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2024/01/25/copilot-research.aspx

@pluralistic a similar thing happened to me. I got a call from my CUs “fraud department“. They listed a bunch of charges made in Houston, which I had not made. To identify themselves they gave my full name, address, birthdate, and last four of my Social. So I was pretty for sure it was my credit union then the guy said “I’m gonna send you a one time authorization code. Can you read it back to me?” I said sure, and moments later I got a text with a six digit code.

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I just peer-reviewed a forensic analysis in a case.

The suspect mailed a package with a hidden Apple AirTag in it to a victim's old home address.

The package was forwarded to her new (and formerly safe) address....

Might be good to warn DV victims of unexpected mail.

@SwiftOnSecurity Just

We can go further.

New from 404 Media: inside the underground site where "neural networks" churn out fake IDs
- I tested the service, called OnlyFake, made two IDs in minutes
- I then used one to successfully bypass the identity verification check on a cryptocurrency exchange
- Massive implications for crime, cybersecurity. What does it mean for us when fake IDs are a mouse click away?

https://www.404media.co/inside-the-underground-site-where-ai-neural-networks-churns-out-fake-ids-onlyfake/

Google and Mozilla don’t like Apple’s new iOS browser rules

Google and Mozilla want iOS's new EU browser rules to apply worldwide.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/google-and-mozilla-dont-like-apples-new-ios-browser-rules/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

A journal reviewer accused Lizzie Wolkovich of using #ChatGPT to write a manuscript. She hadn’t — but her paper was rejected anyway. Today, she shares her story with @Nature . https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00349-5

@luckytran Yup, Biobot released their Monday data dump and we're back at a national average of 893 viral copies / ml, which is higher than the peaks of any of the pre-Omicron waves. Just months and months of sustained high transmission and everyone you know constantly getting sick. Just awful.

Unfortunately, there are signs that there is an uptick in COVID-19 wastewater levels again after a couple of weeks of decline.

This underscores the importance of not relaxing too quickly after we reach any COVID peak, as it takes time for levels to drop. Keep taking precautions.

Is this the Age of Pretending?
So many people pretend play as scientists, researchers, health experts, and detectives. They cosplay and perform their fake expertise on social media. Unfortunately, many in the audience buy it. Our society does not know how to judge or value legitimate expertise.

Another example:

The Delusional #CyberSleuths Trying to Solve Idaho Murders

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-delusional-cybersleuths-trying-to-solve-idaho-murders

@duetosymmetry - fun!

@duetosymmetry Yup, I like galaxies. A lot. 😅

If you missed the talk Sean and I gave at @fosdem on Saturday about bringing @rust to @thunderbird, the video recording is available on the #fosdem website!

https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-2469-thunderbird-how-to-exchange-rot-for-rust/

Take a few minutes to read this important blog post from @pluralistic. He got scammed, and he describes what happened. https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

We're heading into a time when the scammers are gaining the upper hand, no matter how good we are at trying to avoid being taken by experts.

That's the thing: They are experts.

Get ready to do business less conveniently in the near future.

Ever wondered what it sounds like when you close the door of a 11 metre wide, 9 metre deep, & 16.4 metre high concrete chamber?

Wonder no more – my Test Centre colleague, Jan Demming, demonstrates the ~20 second reverb time of the Large European Acoustic Facility at ESA's ESTEC today 🙉

Normally used to test satellites under the enormously loud conditions of launch, we were in the LEAF today for quite a different purpose 😉

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#SpaceFlight #SpaceExploration #SpaceScience #Astrodon #SoundOn

@dangillmor @pluralistic I have had conversations with my credit union (most recently December) about the ways their outsourced fraud partner makes this sort of scenario more likely. Specifically the real alerts come from an unknown phone number and start out asking for me information than they should.

Maybe I should send them this story as example of the issues.