Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons
independent.co.uk/business/goo…
The tech giant has unveiled an update to its AI principles, which removes references to not pursuing work on weapons and surveillance.Martyn Landi (The Independent)
A 25-year-old who's worked for Elon Musk companies now has direct control over a Treasury system disbursements from which amount to a fifth of the US economy. He has high-level admin privileges on a mainframe housing all the code. Access granted as debt ceiling crisis looms, officials in charge of the area have resigned in protest.
wired.com/story/elon-musk-asso…
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls Social Security payments, tax returns, and more.Vittoria Elliott (WIRED)
PipeWire 1.3.82 is out! This is the second prerelease of the next 1.4 release and has some small and not so small improvements. More details here:
gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewir…
PipeWire 1.3.82 (2025-02-06) This is the second 1.4 release candidate that is API and ABI compatible with previous 1.2.x and 1.0.x...GitLab
reshared this
Have you taken this week’s quiz?
It’s on page 25. If you’ve been paying attention, the clues are in the news 🤔
Ofcom replied to our earlier questions regarding the #OnlineSafetyAct, and declined to answer essentially all of them. We try to understand Ofcom's vague guidance, and contrast it with the stern warnings in today's livestream:
blog.woof.group/announcements/…
In today's livestream (58:00), Ofcom's James Proudfoot told service providers, "If people reach out, what's useful is we can talk to you a bit more speci...Woof.group Announcements
"Předpokládej, že jsi v čase 𝝉 a nejsou ti poskytnuty žádné další pozdější informace."
LOL, čestné soudružské, že nebudu brát v potaz data, z kterých jsem se učil, když už byla inflace pro dané období známa. To se pak nedivím, že jim ty predikce vyšly tak dobře. 😄
reshared this
Good morning! On this first Tuesday in February, you are all invited to read through Wikipedia’s List of common misconceptions (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…) per ancient xkcd custom.
#xkcd #xkcd843 #misconceptions #Wikipedia
Google, a brief history
2004: Don’t be evil
2018: OK, be evil but at least don’t kill people
2025: Fuck it, kill people
independent.co.uk/business/goo…
#Google #BigTech #AI #SiliconValley #USA #capitalism #fascism
The tech giant has unveiled an update to its AI principles, which removes references to not pursuing work on weapons and surveillance.Martyn Landi (The Independent)
We're partnering with @Tutanota !
As a part of their open source donation program, we will be migrating our mailing infrastructure over to their safe and secure inboxes. We hope this will provide an easier point of contact for our whole team, directly to you
Check them out!
tuta.com/
Tuta guarantees your data stays private for free & without ads. Quantum-resistant encryption makes Tuta the best secure technology solution to protect your privacy.Tuta
Apple this week added parts and tools for all M4 Macs to its self-service repair store in the U.S. and many European countries. This includes parts...Joe Rossignol (MacRumors.com)
What an absolute hero!
While Musk is trying to kill entire government agencies by tweet, Samantha Power walks into The Late Show and explains why USAID is the agency that keeps the world safe and free from disease.
Everything Elon is trying to hide because he wants to free up money for his own tax cuts, Samantha Power lays out beautifully right here:
youtu.be/OIHJub72vuM?si=yDT2rO…
Boost her!
Stephen welcomes the former Administrator of USAID, Samantha Power, back to The Late Show to explain what the agency does and why the world, including the Un...YouTube
Take 30 seconds to demand the Treasury Department comply with the Privacy Act of 1974, and spread the word After “How do we stop Trump?” the second most common question I’ve received this week is “How do we stop Musk?” As you may know, Trump’s Treas…Qasim Rashid (Let's Address This with Qasim Rashid)
Second judge orders temporary halt to Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/f…
#StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #Immigration #MassDeportation #BirthrightCitizenship #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol
Judge said no US court had endorsed Trump’s reading of the 14th amendment and her court ‘will not be the first’Alice Herman (The Guardian)
Interview: I Was Fired by Trump in his Anti-DEI Purge, Gutting of Agencies
Karla Gilbride from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was fired by Trump along with two commissioners at the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace.
The EEOC was created as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and is tasked with investigating discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex & other characteristics.
democracynow.org/2025/2/5/trum…
#TrumpPurge #Musk #BoughtGovernment #USPol .
We speak with Karla Gilbride, the former general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who was fired by President Trump in late January along with two commissioners at the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the wo…Democracy Now!
Folks, this is a five alarm fire.
Congress must stop Trump and Elon's coup.
Call your rep now (202) 224-3121
This isn't just a battle for checks and balances.
It's a battle between democracy and dictatorship.
youtube.com/watch?v=iHxFx7at50…
Folks, this is a five alarm fire.Congress must stop Trump and Elon's coup.Call your rep now (202) 224-3121This isn't just a battle for checks and balances.It...YouTube
*DOOMSCROLLING CHECKPOINT*
Okay just stop. Breathe. Take your mind off the rapid collapse of US Democracy for just a few moments.
I'll help you. Here's some baby giant springtails, aren't they cute?
They don't understand human politics, they just eat fungi and logs and go to sleep. That must be nice for them.
Okay, off you go. Come back if you need to.
#Invertebrate #SoiBiodiversity #SoilEcology #Macrophotography #Collembola
The GoToSocial developers add a feature that serves randomized nodeinfo stats because services like FediDB don't have an opt-out from the crawling.
dansup goes out of his way to call it "they do this for clout on FediDB" and calls out the project not to be used anymore. 💀
This kind of behavior towards other fedi devs surely goes against the so touted around morals and "being all for fedi".
Breaking News: 14 state Attorneys General representing California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Vermont, and Wisconsin advise that Trump's executive order telling hospitals to stop providing care to those under the age of 19 is unlawful.
If you are affected by the ban, please send your hospital system this letter from the AGs: riag.ri.gov/press-releases/att…
E-Brieftasche: EU-Kommission will ständige Personenkennung durch die Hintertür
heise.de/news/E-Brieftasche-EU…
Traurig, dass das nicht einmal überrascht...
Bürgerrechtler beklagen Foulspiel der EU-Kommission bei der europäischen digitalen Identität: Firmen dürften verifizierte Ausweisdaten abfragen.Stefan Krempl (heise online)
#Deltachat
What are chatmail servers and how to select one? Chatmail servers are optimized for messaging with Delta Chat to provide a privacy-preserving and speedy user experience, securely interoperable with...delta.chat
You can just use @delta with your existing Postfix+Dovecot server by clicking "Create new profile" -> "Use other server" -> "Classic E-Mail login" and logging into your server there.
There are not that many features offered by chatmail on top of Postfix+Dovecot:
- Patch removing half a second delay from Dovecot: github.com/dovecot/core/pull/2…
- Strict DKIM signature checking
- The ability to create an account via QR code
- Filter to prevent sending unencrypted messages
- push notifications
This commit removes hardcoded 500 ms debounce from storage that delays all storage notification subscribers such as IDLE and NOTIFY commands. 500 ms debounce constant NOTIFY_DELAY_MSECS was added i...GitHub
Disney+ lost 700,000 subscribers worldwide in recent months, according to Disney's earnings results for the first quarter of 2025. Disney said...Juli Clover (MacRumors.com)
reshared this
Amazing they found the Israeli chef from Mo and had him give some cooking tips on late night.
Chef Michael Solomonov Shows Seth How to Make Slow-Roasted Short Ribs an...
youtube.com/watch?v=Gav62jtTjt…
Chef Michael Solomonov shows Seth how to make slow-roasted short ribs and challah bread from his book Zahav Home.Late Night with Seth Meyers. Stream now on P...YouTube
TIL about the Model Context Protocol, a standard for exposing tools/resources/prompts to LLMs used via desktops/other clients. Intriguing. I've been wondering how old-style Mycroft/Alexa-style skill development would work in the age of LLMs and I'm guessing this is it.
Currently trying to use Goose, a CLI developer agent, to build a Joplin MCP server that exposes notes/tags/resources to models. Since context is apparently everything with these, I'm wondering if I can eventually spec out a project in Joplin and have an LLM help implement some features, and/or have the LLM update that spec as things change, including potentially creating/toggling todo items and such. Seems to be off to an OK start.
Maybe I'll finally build that GTFS interface/skill I've been thinking about for years. Would love the ability to chat with transit schedule data, including real-time updates, right from my desktop or Home Assistant satellite. modelcontextprotocol.io/introd…
Get started with the Model Context Protocol (MCP)modelcontextprotocol.io
Amazon today sent out invites for an AI-focused event that will be held on February 26, and according to Reuters, the company plans to introduce its...Juli Clover (MacRumors.com)
To summarize.
Apple Legal signed off on “inaccurate, unexpected, or offensive” content being pushed to users *by default*...
what could go wrong…
#Canada #BuyCanadian #AI #AppleIntelligence #mac #Apple #macos15sequoia
Workday becomes the latest tech company in recent weeks to cut headcount. Amazon, Okta and Cruise have also laid off employees.Rebecca Szkutak (TechCrunch)
Welcome to the eleventh episode of Access On, the National Federation of the Blind's Technology podcast. Episode Listen to the eleventh episode of the Access On podcast (Browser). Or listen on your preferred podcast platform.nfb.org
Another stunning statistic: Google and Apple’s income from app store fees on games is likely higher than all game publishers’ combined income, both mobile and non-mobile.
Holy crap. Talk about egregious rent-seeking.
(Matthew Ball‘s The State of Video Gaming in 2025, page 42)
A 220-page presentation on the past, present and potential future of the video game industry.Matthew Ball (MatthewBall.co)
Join Techopolis Courses All Access and unlock all courses provided by Techopolis CoursesTechopolis Courses
Open source “Deep Research” project proves that agent frameworks boost AI model capability.Benj Edwards (Ars Technica)
Egg farms are still recovering from the 2022 outbreak but now there’s also the cage-free law, mutations and competition as bird flu devastates other states.Tamara Chuang (The Colorado Sun)
The suite of agentic Gemini 2.0 models includes 2.0 Flash, 2.0 Pro Experimental and 2.0 Flash-Lite.Hayden Field (CNBC)
This is how Blackwell delivers its biggest "gains."Jarred Walton (Tom's Hardware)
Kevin Beaumont
in reply to Kevin Beaumont • • •For those wondering, he didn’t apply for a job - he was installed by DOGE, similar to USAID takeover.
Trump signed an executive order allowing DOGE to effectively do whatever it wants, so now you have Elon running around installing people.
Kevin Beaumont
in reply to Kevin Beaumont • • •A 19 year old has been given admin access to the core US treasury financial system by Elon Musk’s DOGE.
He goes by the name of “Mr. Big Balls” online, is on Russian forums, and has tried to purchase DDoS botnets.
Elon has said sharing this information is illegal, so please do not press the boost button.
wired.com/story/edward-coristi…
DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers
Andy Greenberg (WIRED)reshared this
Pietervdvn reshared this.