If you are a Pagan and are fond of UU values, you might be interested in CUUPs. There might be a local chapter to you,
cuups.org/CUUPS-Chapter-Locati…
Never heard of CUUPs? More info can be found here, cuups.org/about-cuups
#Pagan #Paganism #UU #UnitarianUniversalism #CUUPs #CUUP #UnitarianUniveralist #UUism
Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans - Chapter Locations
The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) is an organization dedicated to networking Pagan-identified Unitarian Universalists (UUs), educating people about Paganism, promoting interfaith dialogue, developing Pagan liturgies and theologies…cuups.org
Ransomware attacks hold your files hostage. These tools can free them
In a ransomware attack, extortionists demand a ransom and threaten to destroy data. Services such as ID Ransomware and No More Ransom help to identify and decrypt encrypted data.Arne Arnold (PCWorld)
Interesting breakdown of how Google has gone off the accessibility rails, among other rails, while also framing some common corp methods for reframing needs into revenue streams.
buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/…
Original post for following:
kolektiva.social/@FractalEcho/…
Rada nad zlato od Zyxelu: vyhoďte naše routery, jsou nebezpečné
Bezpečnostní výzkumníci ze společnosti VulnCheck odhalili závažné zranitelnosti v routerech značky Zyxel. Výrobce však odmítá zařízení opravit a namísto toho doporučuje uživatelům jejich kompletní výměnu za novější modely. Prodávaly se i u nás.Pavel Trousil (Chip.cz)
Official #Guix mirror now available 👇
codeberg.org/guix/guix-mirror
(It’s just a mirror, no pull requests or issues at this point.)
BlindShell Classic 3
Powerful Simplicity in Your Hands The BlindShell Classic 3 is a feature-packed phone designed for anyone who values straightforward usability without compromising on modern features.A. T. Guys
Translate foreign language items in the Tapestry timeline to your native language quickly and easily. Here’s how:
- Tap the Actions icon (…) on an item
- Tap translate
Once translated you can act on the translated text like copy it, share it and more. 👍
Thank You For Your Feedback Loop is a monthly newsletter that will share previously unpublished reporting and analysis on the elite capture of disability movements.
The first post, "The Rise and Fall of Access" is available now.
buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/…
#accessibility #DEIA #DEI
The Rise and Fall of Access
by: Liz Jackson & Rua M. Williams In the Year 2000, Google’s 23rd employee, Paul Buchheit was pulled into a “meeting to decide on the company’s corporate...Thank You For Your Feedback Loop
🚨 Welke gegevens van je zou #Meta nog meer allemaal gebruiken om #AI te trainen? 🤔
tweakers.net/nieuws/231648/met…
#WhatsApp heeft al AI in de app...🤷 faq.whatsapp.com/1002544104126…
Zeker zijn dat je privégesprekken en data niet en nooit worden gebruikt? Kies #Signal: signal.org/install
'Meta gebruikte ruim 80TB aan illegaal verkregen data om AI te trainen'
Meta gebruikte naar verluidt ruim 80TB aan illegaal verkregen data om het Llama-llm te trainen. Werknemers van het bedrijf zouden onder meer ruim 35TB aan documenten uit Z-Library en LibGen hebben gedownload aan de hand van torrents.Yannick Spinner (Tweakers)
@mvgorcum Het blijft een vrije keuze :)
Ongetwijfeld ben je op de hoogte, maar wellicht hier wat voordelen ten opzichte van WhatsApp signalapp.nl/signal-app-info/w…
Vwb decentralisatie, veelgehoord punt uiteraard, zeker op Mastodon. Dat kent de nodige uitdagingen, president van Signal Meredith Whittaker stukje over Matrix wellicht interessant (interview De Balie)
Bij 1:28:10, kort stukje 4min: youtube.com/live/lMFYUGkqk_Q?s
Waarom Signal gebruiken? De voordelen van Signal voor jou op een rijtje! - Signalapp.nl
Ontdek waarom Signal de beste keuze is voor je privacy en veilige communicatie. De voordelen van Signal Messenger op een rijtje en waarom je zou overstappen op Signal.Redactie Signalapp.nl (Signalapp.nl)
Oh man, I have so many stories about the "startup" (Path Network), which the 19-year-old DOGE employee, Edward Coristine previously worked for.
wired.com/story/edward-coristi…
My first interaction with the founder, Marshal Webb, was in 2016 when the company was called "BackConnect'. I'd recently posted a research paper on the Mirai botnet, which lead to him harassing me online, simply because he considered himself to be the sole authority on Mirai.
It later turned out, that a lot of his knowledge came from the fact that he was personally hosting the threat actors' infrastructure, therefore had direct insight into the botnet. He tried to play it off as an "intelligence gathering operation". Everyone knew he was really just in bed with the threat actors, but nobody could prove it enough to make a case against him.
At some point shortly after, a DDoS-for-hire service got hacked and its entire customer database along with all DDoS attack logs was leaked online. One of the records traced back to an employee of his DDoS mitigation firm, and from a combination of attack logs and corroboration with customers, it was determined that they had been launching DDoS attacks against businesses, then cold calling them to sell DDoS protection services.
It was fairly apparent from the fact the emails coincided with the DDoS attacks, but did not originate from the the employee performing the attacks that the company was in on it, and this wasn't the work of some rogue employee. Nevertheless, said employee got thrown under the bus, convicted, and was unsuccessful in proving that his employer was in on the conspiracy, although they most certainly were.
Eventually, the founder ended up being named in some kind of criminal complaint or other FBI related court document. The specific wording seemed to imply that he'd gotten caught doing something illegal enough that he'd become an informant to save himself. Amusingly, when the document surfaced, the company just issued a press release about how they were "helping the FBI stop crime" and nothing become of it.
The company has always been shady as hell, and while it's not abnormal for cybersecurity firms to hire reformed hackers, I've not seen a single employee who was not directly involved in cybercrime immediately prior to getting hired. Furthermore, multiple of the employees have been caught committing cybercrime while working for the company.
Originally, when I posted this thread on February 6th, I stopped short of any allegation that Edward himself was involved in cybercrime. Since then @briankrebs was able to trace his aliases back to a known cybercrime organization and confirm he indeed was directly involved in cybercrime as recently as May 2024.
You can find Brian's Mastodon thread on the matter here:
infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/1…
infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/1…
BrianKrebs (@briankrebs@infosec.exchange)
Attached: 1 image So I finally turned a recent popular post here into a proper story. Teen on Musk’s DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’ Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk‘s so-called Department of Government Efficien…Infosec Exchange
Plugged into Europe! 🔌
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have officially disconnected from the Russian power grid, marking a historic leap towards energy independence.
After preparing for the integration into the EU energy market for almost two decades, the countries now have proper infrastructure linking them to the European continental grid.
This EU-supported initiative allows to fully benefit from the European common energy system.
A bold move of resilience and unity 🇪🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇹 ⚡️
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Was back at Schwarzes Café [1] yesterday for breakfast in the middle of the night after probably 15 years. Nothing much (or anything at all, really) changed. Which is nice considering that not many places from the Berlin of 15 years ago are still the same. The age of the people visiting also didn't change, so we were about 10 years older than the average now, I guess 😅.
[1] atlasobscura.com/places/schwar…
Schwarzes Café
Dine at a legendary after-hours joint frequented by David Bowie and Iggy Pop.Diana Hubbell (Atlas Obscura)
Ni confirmo ni desmiento que a mis padres en su PC les tengo puesta la distro Cubana Nova basada en PopOs xD
Best tips I use to boost search efficiency on File Explorer for Windows 11
This collection of tips will help you improve your experience searching for files and folders on File Explorer.Mauro Huculak (Windows Central)
Are Your Digital Media Players Accessible? Key Issues and Solutions
Discover the importance of accessible media players and the need for manual and user testing to ensure an inclusive digital experience for everyone.Michael Taylor (UsableNet Inc.)
We didn’t click ‘consent’ on any gambling website. So how did Facebook know where we’d been?
In an experiment, they surfed sites without making a wager or agreeing to data sharing. Our Meta feed filled up with betting ads
Revealed: gambling firms secretly sharing users’ data with Facebook without permission
A Facebook user logs into their account and is bombarded with dozens of gambling ads. The promotions for online casinos and betting sites offer free spins, “bet boosts”, discounts and bonuses.
But the person has never placed a bet or played a game on a gambling site before – let alone consented to being targeted. How can that happen?
The Observer conducted an experiment to find out how potential gambling customers are being tracked, profiled and targeted online.
To do this, we visited 150 gambling websites run by companies with licences to operate in the UK. First, we took a note of whether the website asked for consent to use data for marketing purposes. Then, without clicking to “agree” or “decline” the use of any data, we looked at the network traffic.
By doing this – and using an official Meta application called Pixel Helper – we were able to see a record of the data being shared with Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
In many cases, no data was shared. But in about a third of cases, the testing found that a tracking tool called Meta Pixel had been embedded into the website – and was being triggered automatically upon loading the webpage. This was sending a report to Facebook about which webpages we had visited, linked to a unique user ID.
In some cases, Facebook was also sent data on which buttons we had clicked, and other browsing activity. One site told Facebook when we clicked a button indicating we might place a bet on the Everton v Liverpool match scheduled for next week. Another told Meta that we had clicked to view a promotion for 100 free spins.
At no point did we ever click to “agree” or “accept” the use of our data for marketing – or consent to it being shared. But when we logged back into Facebook a few days later, the feed was full of gambling ads.
These ads were from a range of brands – including many whose own data-sharing practices had not broken any rules. This is because once data is shared with Meta, it is ingested into its targeted ads system and is used to profile people based on the things Meta thinks they like.
That means Meta can then sell ads to companies wanting to target a particular audience – whether that is pet owners, women seeking fertility treatment, people who love Taylor Swift, or potential gambling customers.
Advertisers can also target potential new customers that Meta thinks will be interested in their brand, including “lookalike” customers who have been profiled by the social media giant as being similar to their existing customers based on things such as their demographic characteristics, interests and behaviour.
In the Observer’s testing, the Facebook user had also been profiled as someone interested in “real money gaming”, according to account records – so it’s possible that ads could have appeared as a result of targeting in this way.
The investigation raises serious questions for regulators about how they are monitoring marketing practices of this sort.
During the testing, we noticed that many of the gambling sites sharing data unlawfully had automatic opt-in consent processes that assume people are happy for their data to be shared based on the mere fact that they are using the website. One consent banner read: “We use cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you continue to use this website we assume you are OK with this.”
This appears to be in breach of data protection regulations. The ICO says consent must be both “unambiguous and affirmative”, and that relying on pre-ticked boxes or a failure to opt out is insufficient. Yet the practice is widespread.
There are also questions about the role of Meta – which profits from selling ads using data transmitted to it, even in cases where it was shared unlawfully.
We have previously written about how other organisations – such as police forces, NHS trusts and a political party – misused Meta Pixel to track website users. In some cases they shared data with Meta on sensitive things such as health problems and reporting crimes. But the barrage of gambling ads that were served on Facebook as a result of this testing was far more intense than anything we had seen before.
Heather Wardle, professor of gambling research at the University of Glasgow, said the “untamed marketing” was “hugely risky”. “If you are already experiencing difficulties from gambling, it is likely to make you gamble more,” she says.
theguardian.com/technology/202…
We didn’t click ‘consent’ on any gambling website. So how did Facebook know where we’d been?
In an experiment, we surfed sites without making a wager or agreeing to data sharing. Our Meta feed filled up with betting adsShanti Das (The Guardian)
Join Us for Our February 2025 Training Events
The Freedom Scientific training team offers ongoing opportunities for you to join us in live training sessions and advance your skills. We’re excited to announce our jam-packed February training sc…Freedom Scientific Blog
The Louis Website Ecosystem
The Louis website, named in honor of Louis Braille, offers access to 4 powerful databases useful to educators, researchers, parents,...Devon Price (American Printing House)
JAWS Scripting: Better Support for JAWS Screen Reader Users - TPGi
Learn how JAWS scripting improves accessibility in workplace software, helping screen reader users navigate digital tools efficiently and independently.David Sloan (TPGi)
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#Trump #Merz
„Have Mercy, Mr President!“ Anmerkungen zum Barmherzigen Samariter und zu den Hartherzigen in Regierungen und Parlamenten
„Have Mercy, Mr President!“ Das sagte die mutige Bischöfin Anfang Januar 2025 im Gottesdienst an den amerikanischen Präsidenten gerichtet. Habe Erbarmen! Mr President schaute die Predigerin mit fin…Horst Heller
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Using any()
Using `any()`
MP 132: It's a simple built-in function, but using it isn't as straightforward as it might seem.Eric Matthes (Mostly Python)
Tutti rubano da tutti
Meta è accusata di aver rubato i testi rubati da libgen, e si difende affermando che quei dataset sono pubblicamente disponibili ...
"...Some other users responded by suggesting that OpenAI was simply responding to the threat offered by the new DeepSeek by copying the way it presented the reasoning chain in its R1 model. “Finally DeepSeek changing the O-World for us,” replied ..."
techradar.com/computing/artifi…
OpenAI changes ChatGPT o3-mini to work more like DeepSeek-R1, but faces backlash from users
Is China leading the way now in AI?Graham Barlow (TechRadar)
"The GeForce RTX 5090 has failed to overtake its predecessor in a GPU compute benchmark on the well-known PassMark database site. ..."
notebookcheck.net/GeForce-RTX-…
GeForce RTX 5090 fails to topple RTX 4090 in GPU compute benchmark while RTX 5080 struggles against RTX 4070 Ti
The GeForce RTX 5090 has failed to overtake its predecessor in a GPU compute benchmark on the well-known PassMark database site. The RTX 5080 suffered a similar fate, with the card barely managing to beat out the RTX 4070 Ti.Daniel R Deakin (Notebookcheck)
"Where one can no longer love, one should – pass by!
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)
Friedrich Nietzsche
Double Tap - Your daily accessible technology show
Get ready to have your tech world rocked every week with Steven Scott and Shaun Preece on Double Tap! These guys are the ultimate duo - mixing humor, passion, and top-notch expertise to keep you in the loop with the latest in assistive tech for blind…YouTube
André Polykanine
in reply to magickwitch • • •helmsinepu
in reply to André Polykanine • • •@menelion
UU congregations vary widely- there can be a large difference between theory and practice. Some congregations are run by intolerant atheists.
It's more likely that congregations with active CUUPS chapters will be better.