Nice! A company I like is having a sale. Let's open up this email and see what they're discounting! Ah, it seems we have a click u=4c7c2858e82d13b4a36527…
I think that signing up for @piccalilli@front-end.social's emails has been one of the best things I've done this year. High quality, human curated content that interests me is underrated and hard to come by.
https://piccalil.li/the-index/
The only important take-away from Anthropic's hype piece about an "AI-orchestrated" cyber attack:
Tech company valued at over $180 billion still can't make their product not do things they don't want it to do.
> They broke down their attacks into small, seemingly innocent tasks that Claude would execute without being provided the full context of their malicious purpose. They also told Claude that it was an employee of a legitimate cybersecurity firm, and was being used in defensive testing.
Humans fall for attacks like that too. See e.g. all the well-paid remote "bank transfer website testing" jobs, which are actually money laundering scams.
Computers can count faster and with orders of magnitude fewer errors than we can.
Cars can move faster and longer distances, carrying heavier loads, than we can.
Anthropic and other AI hype companies are making bank on pretending their spicy autocomplete is so much better than human labor. We absolutely should point and laugh at them when these claims fall flat on their face.
LLMs are a lot more like humans (or weird animals) than they are like computers. I think service dogs are a really great comparison. We don't quite understand how and why they do what they do (chemists still can't quite replicate a police dog's nose), we know they make tons of mistakes, but they're better / faster / cheaper / more useful than humans, so we keep using them.
@miki the fact is LLMs are not better nor more useful than humans, research shows. We just keep falling for the hype.
> After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20%. Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19% arxiv.org/abs/2507.09089
> For an organization of 10,000 workers, given the estimated prevalence of workslop (41%), this yields over $9 million per year in lost productivity. hbr.org/2025/09/ai-generated-w…
Google is starting to retreat on its "developer government ID verification" plan, thank goodness.
But the devil will be in the detail, and Google's positioning that wanting to install software on your own device makes you a "power user" is concerning.
The notion that you need to be an "experienced user" to use @fdroidorg, for instance, is nonsense.
But still: keeping up the pressure appears to be working. A little.
I learned on this trip that a little pouch full of SMA antenna adapters looks like a baggie of bullets to TSA - they got flagged both coming and going😀
Killing time at the airport in Milwaukee now - have a bit of time before my actual flight
I just did an assistive technology tutoring session for the one blind student that I tutor (an hour per week), and he mentioned that macOS 26 took away the Launchpad feature. Can anyone else confirm this? And if so, is there a reliable way to get Launchpad back? Apparently he had gotten used to launching macOS apps that way.
Also, a recurring stumbling block for this student, when using Windows with NVDA, is the header control in multi-column list views, like when you're in the file open or save dialog and you're shift-tabbing from the file name edit into the item list. Is there a way to just get rid of that header control, at least in file open/save dialogs across all folders?
That's correct. Apple's suggested replacement is launching the new spotlight apps view which is what the launchpad icon silently gets replaced by, but it's not a direct replacement. That view is more like the iOS app library where the apps are automatically categorised and shown in a roughly alphabetical grid, while launchpad was a complete emulation of the iOS home screen with options to make pages and manually organise apps into folders. I didn't think any blind people used it since it doesn't offer first letter navigation, but it had some fans with sighted mac users that a number of replacements popped up. I can't give you any names or information whether they're accessible though so they'd have to try out a few.
Apparently doing the following two terminal commands will do it, run at your own risk as I have not tested them. sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/SpotlightUI.plist SpotlightPlus -dict Enabled -bool false and reboot the Mac. Source: igeeksblog.com/restore-launchp…
Apple removed Launchpad in macOS 26 Tahoe. Miss it? Here’s how to restore Launchpad using Terminal, plus the pros and cons of ditching the new Spotlight.
Thank you to @BorrisInABox I got the firmware on my Zoom H1 essential updated. I had to plug it in to the wall instead of my computer just so the update would execute. Grandma is in the future, whether she likes it or not.
what i usually do is plug it in to the computer and when the dialog pops up where you can select storage / mic, I press menu button. It disappears but it powers using computer.
Please support our work ► http://www.paypal.me/JungNaivJoin our forum ► http://forum.jungundnaiv.de/Our guest in the studio: Jimmy Wales, American internet e...
Last year the Geospatial devroom only had half a day at FOSDEM, and we still ended up with a packed room and a queue down the corridor.
This year we have the whole of Saturday to ourselves, so if you have something geo-flavoured to share, whether it is maps, data, tools, clever hacks, fieldwork tech, city projects, OSM magic, climate work or anything else, now is the moment to submit a proposal.
Plenty of good mapping stuff seen on yesterday's walk:
* couple of postboxes in Tayport (a VR wall and a Scottish Crown lamp one) * a defibrillator * typical Scottish vernacular architecture along Ogilvy Street * no picture, but aberrant house numbering on the same road, with evens on the left when oriented in the direction of ascending numbers 1/n
* WWII tank traps along the shore just above the highest spring tide level * a Pill Box associated with the tank trap * information board on the historical port and ferry * a bridge crossing the razed railway line
The point of the walk was to look at nature and more precisely the range of biotopes in the nature reserve.
The first part had several in close proximity: tidal flats with plenty of waders and wildfowl; a small salt Marsh only inundated at the highest tides; sand dunes which transitioned in a few 10s of metres from dune grasses to Heather and other heathland species; conifer forestry plantations dating back to 1920s (mainly pine)
A couple of waxcap fungi near the start, one possibly White Waxcap. A vivid orangey brown mushroom in the heath, and a big group of Clouded Funnel inbthe forest.
At least two Clafonia species on the hesth. Commonest was one of the reindeer lichens, sometimes in large patches. The other gad brown potential (fruiting bodes). Light was very poor gor even half decent photos.
In the forest a birch tree was covered with Evernia pruinastri (Oak Moss)
Lastly @trigpoint mapped most of the benches we saw.
A plea to all #OpenStreetMap folk: please map benches. Knowing where they are can help people like me with COPD and other breathing conditions. Benches make all the difference as to whether a walk is pleasant or not, and sometimes whether one is possible at all.
I find hat still being able to walk 8-9 km walk sustain nmy mental health. Any infrastructure which helps is invaluable.
oh fuck you YouTube. I check my "subscription" page to see the new stuff. To have your shitty algorithm show me "relevant" stuff. No one asked for that crap.
Fuck you YouTube. A Fuck the project manager that thought it's a good idea. May you be replaced by a chatbot at the next round of layoffs.
current invite links are long-term usable, and multiple use.
As a link creator, you can scan/click your own link to disable it.
But publishing such invite links is not recommended, unless it's from a chat profile that you only use for people to get in contact with you but then continue chatting from a different profile that is not published.
Cat's out of the bag: FEX, an emulator I've been working on these past 4 years, is going to be part of the Steam Frame to bring x86 Windows games to an ARM Linux VR headset! 😊
Learn more and wishlist now: https://steampowered.com/hardwareAnnouncing new Steam Hardware from Valve: Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame are ...
Reminder that EVERYTHING Anthropic or OpenAI announce in public is propaganda designed to boost their market cap when they hit the IPO they're aiming for.
It's marketing, folks. There is no intelligence behind the artifice, it's just spicy autocomplete and hucksters in $5000 suits trying to pick your boss's pocket. mastodon.social/@arstechnica/1…
Attached: 1 image
Researchers question Anthropic claim that AI-assisted attack was 90% autonomous
The results of AI-assisted hacking aren't as impressive as many might have us believe.
https://arstechnica.
I mean, you have right to have your opinions as all of us, but saying that AI is "autocomplete… is too much. An autocomplete would never suggest new names, new implementation and architectural ideas, and so on, and so forth. Yes, it's not "intelligence" as we perceive our own intelligence, but not autocomplete either.
@menelion New to you does not mean new. LLMs cannot suggest new anything, they return what is statistically likely to be a response to any given input based on their training data. With a bit of randomness thrown in just for that extra spicy level of “you can never trust this for any real work.”
@Enthalpiste It's like calling a modern powerful PC a typewriter. Fundamentally yes, probably. But I experimented with AI: I opened a page to an AI that doesn't know anything about me, no signup, no login. And I gave out of the blue three words I invented, totally made up, and asked to choose. And AI deduced that one of them might be a name of a planet in a fantasy setting (which is true for that case). I repeat, I invented those words, I was not inspired by anything (like "Earst" for "Earth", far from that). So, call it autocomplete if you fancy, but it has enough training to evaluate made-up stuff and suggest anything upon it. Of course, it hallucinates. Of course, you don't commit AI-generated code to production, you don't send AI-generated emails without checking, you don't… you get it, of course that is absolutely true. But I don't get why not to use it as a tool that can make processes far quicker and spare your time from boring stuff.
@menelion @Enthalpiste In the past few months AI has wasted far more of my time than it could ever possibly save.
One of the things I do in my day job is proof-read, re-word and fact-check matters of local history. I spent days trying to unpick a batch of information that simply didn't add up and couldn't be referenced. In the end it became apparent that someone had searched the internet for some background and believed the first things they read on those wretched AI overview search engine results.
There's lots of talk about "digital sovereignty" – but what does that exactly mean? Well, avoiding vendor lock-in and economic dependency for starters. Learn how the Open Document Format (ODF) helps here: blog.documentfoundation.org/bl… #foss #openSource #freesoftware #openstandards
Digital sovereignty, or the ability of nations, organisations and individuals to control their own digital destiny, is a fundamental issue of the 21st century.
Doctor - I see that your gscsttigom isn't working as well as I'd like. I'd like to start you on pjehhdntpf instead.
Patient - Okay, do you know how much that's going to cost?
Doctor - Sorry I've got no idea.
Patient - What do you mean? Like give me a ballpark. Is this a $20/month? $100/month? $500/month? Refinance my house for a month's supply?
Doctor - Well, it's probably not "refinance your house" level.
Patient - Umm ... Okay ... That leaves a lot of room in there still.
Doctor - You'll just have to talk to your insurance.
Patient - ... Okay
Later
Patient - Hey insurance, my doc wants me to start taking pjehhdntpf, can you tell me how much it is going to cost?
Insurance - Sorry, I have no idea.
Patient - What do you mean no idea?
Insurance - well, we won't pay anything until your doctor gets a pre-authorization. And then how much we cover is based on the diagnosis codes, your deductible, the specifics of your plan, whether you get it from an in-network pharmacy or not ...
Patient - fine, so give me a best case
Insurance - free if it's approved and in network and you've hit your out of pocket maximum of $100,000
Patient - ... Really not helping here. So assume it gets approved and I've hit my deductable
Insurance - which pharmacy?
Patient - idk ... Umm the CVS down the street
Insurance - Okay that's going to be $5000/month
Patient - ... Wait, WHAT?
Insurance - turns out it's on our exclusions list so we don't cover it unless you get it waved onto the formulary upon appeal
Patient - but.... I have insurance. Why aren't you helping me pay for my medicine?
Insurance - we don't allow that medicine on your employers' plan. You should use gscsttigom instead.
Patient - I'm on that one right now. It doesn't work.
Insurance - well you'll have to appeal it, but you can't do that until after you get a formal denial.
Patient - and how long does that take?
Insurance - well, if your doctor does the preauth paperwork, they'll make a decision about it within 14 business days, unless they need to come back to your doctor for more information. Then they'll mail you the decision within another 7 business days from (insert the location farthest possible away from you in the continental US). Depending on the decision you can appeal the decision, which the appeals process can take a maximum of 180 days, after which you can appeal it again which takes a maximum of 365 days.
Patient - and if I need to start taking the medicine now?
Insurance - well you're free to do that out of pocket and file for reimbursement later.
Patient - at $5000/month?
Insurance - no it'd have to be at the out of pocket price. For that CVS, it looks like it'd be $15000/month
Patient furiously googling "how to move to a civilized country"
Googles "pjehhdntpf price in Mexico" - $12.50 for a 90 day supply.
Question for any #blind users who work with PDFs and are lucky enough to get high-quality tagged PDFs: The PDF readers in Edge and Firefox both support tagged PDF to some degree. Have you found that their level of tagged PDF support is good enough, or do you find that you still have to resort to Adobe Reader/Acrobat to get the best results? For macOS users, how good is the Preview app's tagged PDF support in practice?
Tagged PDF wasn't supported in Chromium-based browsers when I last tried it. Apple's support can be awkward at times (e.g., requiring the user to "interact" with lists to read their contents), but it does work at least at a basic level. At least in the scholarly sources that I read, I am more likely to find an HtML version than a tagged PDF version, and of course untagged PDF remains common.
That's a real shame, as it's really not that bad of a format, and it's not like we have any other options that accomplish similar objectives. We certainly don't have a good web stack alternative, and I think that's a real shame.
@miki PDF is a horrendous format, at least if you have to try and parse it. Literally every single format, without fail, I added to Paperback contained text content or markup in some way. PDF though? Have fun with graphics operators and glyph IDs. I hate PDF. It can die.
@miki Oh, yes for forms it's unfortunately all we've got. Hmm, maybe a bucket list item of mine should be making a file format for form data that doesn't suck.
@TheQuinbox One reason why PDF forms are (somewhat) popular over here is that they're compatible with the whole edifice of European electronic signatures, which, unlike their US counterparts, are so cryptographically secure that nobody really knows how to use them.
Not sufficient, no. Firefox in particular separates text that should be read together as a single unit onto multiple lines, sometimes presenting as little as one character per line making documents unreadable.
Weirdly enough, I just recently noticed that at least Chrome interprets tags wrongly. Like, my PDF got level 1, 2 and 3 headings, which Adobe Reader announces properly. Chrome interprets h1-level headings as h2, h2 as h3 and doesn't recognize and headings deeper than that at all. So yeah, a correct interpretation seems to be an Adobe thing still. Haven't tried Firefox yet.
I don't think Chrome actually supports most (any?) of the tags that are present in a PDF, but instead just makes up its own regardless of the state of the original document. @matt
On windows adobe is still the only thing that supports fillable forms. So seeing as I’m forced to keep it installed for that I just use it for everything.
@fastfinge Oh wow what the hell, I had no idea that Adobe was the only thing that fully supported forms in PDFs like that, so much for everyone trying not to get locked into specific vendors for this sort of stuff, nice going Adobe.
Yep, that’s my experience of filling in PDF forms too, Adobe reader is the only program where you can work with forms. However, Google Chrome deals better with some untagged PDF documents than Adobe Reader does.
We are pleased to announce the Call for Participation for the second "Funding the FOSS Ecosystem" devroom at FOSDEM 2026, along with @fsfe, @linuxfoundation @nlnet, and @PrototypeFund 🥳
This devroom is for developers to gain insights into funding strategies, and encourages funders to better understand and support developer needs in FOSS projects.
Call for participation is open until December 1, 2025!
If you’re unaware, the EU has engaged in mass surveillance in the Global South far ahead of attempts to ram #ChatControl through the EU legal system.
Done underhandedly through Frontex, the EU handed data-extraction tools capable of retrieving call logs, photos, GPS locations and WhatsApp messages from any phone to West African nations, helping transfer migration data from host countries to the EU.
Orbit Research will be at Sight Village London on 18 and 19 November. Come experience the new Orbit DAISY Player, Orbit Speak, and the Orbit Reader Q20 and Q40. Compact, affordable, and built for everyday use. #A11y #BrailleForAll #inclusion #OrbitSpeak #OrbitPlayer #SightVillageLondon
blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai…
Andre Louis
in reply to Paul • • •