Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
I was hit with a pretty interesting report the other day - a user claimed some instance replicated their profile which isn't their official or real account.
I tried looking into the account or instance, but was immediately forwarded to spam and advertisement sites.
The instance is https://t.l3r.me/ identifies itself as a BirdSiteLIVE instance, that at least explains a "duplicate" account (the user was probably confused because this site imported their Twitter account with the same handle and name). However, I am not aware of any BirdSiteLIVE instance that automatically imports any user's accounts so that other instances index it allowing a user to discover it?
I tried importing my own Twitter account, which I don't use, and it didn't work. So it is not a functional BirdSiteLIVE instance (anymore)!
That is not the important part, however, what matters is that when you try to resolve the link, open an account on their page or interact with this domain at all, you're forwarded to advertisement webpages.
Maybe there's a possibility that this used to be a working Fedi instance and then once it was turned off the domain host turned it into a domain parking page for generating money through clicks (which would explain the ads).
The idea of an instance that duplicates profiles in order to generate fake clicks in order to make money off of ads seemed pretty grim, however.
Just wanted to share my findings! Stay away from this “instance”, block it, and delete everything stored in association with it!
Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
Thanks for this!
I've blocked it to be safe. It was already disabled here due to too many failures trying to connect to it and nobody here followed anyone there and vice versa.
Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
This is indeed a question I had already lately: can we preserve domains of instances that shut off? Usually spammers/grabbers come to take well-linked domains, and then they are basically burnt forever.
Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
Have you looked at the whois info? That may be useful to figure out what's going on. The DNS server is "above dot com" which "we manage domain portfolios". The end of the redirect for me is godaddy. And appears to be trying to sell the domain.
Sometimes leftists in the US say dumb shit like “anarchists just co-opt other groups demonstrations”
and I just had an epiphany that a proper response to that is “yeah and maybe if you encouraged people to think for themselves instead of follow a megaphone, maybe there’d be no need to!”
It bothers me because a lot of people are going to see it on the shallow surface of "[foreign country] bad" or "tiktok brain bad", but in reality the app has excelled in bringing communities together and spreading messages in activism quickly.
But anyone who thinks outside of surface knowledge knows that it's about the US control over its citizens...
need a powerful, toned wolf man with extensive combat experience to hold me in his arms and protect me (and, well, if he also feels like taking advantage of my body to satisfy his urges... it's not like I could stop him >////<)
did y'all know chile's electoral college had their entire list of registered voters leaked in 2021? they like accidentally doxxed 15m chileans, with the leak containing full names, tax numbers, and home addresses
"The PNJ format is a hybrid of the .PNG and JPEG formats. Each PNJ file contains JPEG-encoded image data saved within a PNG container. This allows PNJ files to include an alpha channel, like PNG files, while still being compressed using lossy compression (reducing their file size in comparison to PNG files)."
Content warning: AI Law, enraged wife generated content
When I brought this legislative news to my wife, she was enraged. She asked me to post her rage-splosion here: This law makes stealing your intellectual property legal, and they just have to say they stole it, and if they "forget" they have to pay $5,000 once in civil court. But they DON'T HAVE TO STOP STEALING FROM YOU.
So Disney produces a movie with AI content and just drops a note at the end of the credits reading "Parts of this movie were created using AI trained on copyrighted material." And they are good?
@1dalm This is just for publicly released models, they can still make AI generated content and use it without notification as long as they never publicly release their models, which I'm sure they'll be fine with.
Still, even that meaningless baby step is better than current law for the artists. While I'm supportive of the artists' lawsuits, and agree with them that they should aggressively protect their works, as the law currently stands today I think it's very highly likely that the courts will find that training databases doesn't constitute copyright infringement because training is significantly different purpose than the original intended purpose of the art.
If Google Books wasn't infringement, then it's hard for me to see how AI training is.
@1dalm That's the problem though, it's worse than meaningless because it sets up a framework of justification that is tailor-made for the big copyright players.
This is so they can say "Oh we're already doing something about this!" when in reality they're doing very little and only helping big corporations.
One more note is that this makes a bit of an end-run around the question of infringement, because as long as the law stands up to other scrutiny then it's not about infringement.
@1dalm Basically, if you want to release a public GenAI model, even if it's just for funsies, you have to officially register it with the government 30 days before you release the model, or you'll get slapped with a $5,000 fine.
The goal here is to chill open AI communities and for big corporations to get a convenient list of upcoming models they might want to intimidate with lawsuits (or really C&D or injunctions)
Meanwhile the big players can just eat a few $5000 fines and keep secrecy
iOS allows game emulators on the App Store now, and I am absolutely having Emotions about being able to play GameBoy games on my phone again. ❤️ #GBA4iOS
once you leave the hell of google and twitter and reddit and tiktok and exit your comfort zone, the internet becomes very interesting and fun and human, just like it used to be
do people realise that switching away from firefox because they dont like mozilla is just going to make mozilla keep doing weird shit because they see firefox as a failure. if you like firefox just use firefox
mozilla: "firefox is failing, so here's some ai stuff maybe?" people: "wow we hate that, we're all going to stop using firefox" mozilla: "firefox is failing even harder, so- "
if you want mozilla to pay attention to firefox, use firefox. if users go up, mozilla go "woah!!!!!!!" and think it's a success. if you stop using firefox because you don't like mozilla's reaction to firefox being 3% of the browser marketshare, you're just making it worse?
@j0 the for-profit corporation is a subsidiary of the non-profit organization and the profits from the corporation go back into the organisation. there aren't any shareholders or anything. the corporation's only goal is to make money for the organisation and, if anything, primarily exists for the purpose of taking google's money
There isn't a reasonable alternative. Everything else but Safari is literally just Chromium (yes, I know this is a sardonic simplification).
Maybe it's time for a completely new rendering engine. Herculean task, but I think the Internet needs it. (No commercial entity is going to pay for it, of course.)
@Bersl_feels_too there need to be more qtwebengine and webkitgtk browsers!! w-wait w-whats that? qtwebengine is just chromium? webkitgtk is just neutered safari?!?! OH GOOD HEAVENS
I feel the main thing with moving away from Firefox, though, is that it improves peoples' experiences personally (at least if it isn't Chromium-based). Floorp is extensively customizable, Fennec can be downloaded from F-Droid, Librewolf maximizes privacy protection, and many smaller forks will remove crap like Pocket articles and Sponsored shortcuts. Mozilla may not be listening to their reasonable demands, but they will certainly have software better than the current Firefox whether Mozilla provides it to them or not.
I feel like there's such a thing as "quality of wasting time". Like, spending 40 minutes scrolling through tiktok is a less good waste of time than watching a good 40 minute video. Or that two hours of playing a game you like and were itching to play is better than two hours of a trash food game you started playing instead.
What constitutes a trash food game differs from person to person, but I'd put, say, vampire survivors and idle games there. You're playing, it's a game, but it's usually not a meaningful experience for the time put in. Not that those games don't have their place.
Supporting tinkering and general "power user" shenanigans in your software is a genuine accessibility thing tbh. I see some people complaining about Linux users who use a non-systemd init system, X11 instead of wayland, or just generally some "non-standard" configuration. The attitude seems to be that since these users are "smart enough" to stray off the sacred defaults to suit their needs better, there's no need to consider them at all because "they can figure out how to make it work".
Obviously it's not possible to satisfy every accessibility need and use case simultaneously, but it's still harmful to categorically dismiss and actively remove support for a certain group of users just because you perceive them as "gifted nerds". Someone who extensively modifies their system to make it fit their needs may be able to solve the problems you've introduced to their usage of your software on their own, but every single application that needs this extra wrangling adds work and friction to the pile. It's kind of like replacing a wheelchair ramp with stairs because
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Supporting tinkering and general "power user" shenanigans in your software is a genuine accessibility thing tbh. I see some people complaining about Linux users who use a non-systemd init system, X11 instead of wayland, or just generally some "non-standard" configuration. The attitude seems to be that since these users are "smart enough" to stray off the sacred defaults to suit their needs better, there's no need to consider them at all because "they can figure out how to make it work".
Obviously it's not possible to satisfy every accessibility need and use case simultaneously, but it's still harmful to categorically dismiss and actively remove support for a certain group of users just because you perceive them as "gifted nerds". Someone who extensively modifies their system to make it fit their needs may be able to solve the problems you've introduced to their usage of your software on their own, but every single application that needs this extra wrangling adds work and friction to the pile. It's kind of like replacing a wheelchair ramp with stairs because "they have it better than armless amputees, they can just bring a plank of wood with them"—yeah, TECHNICALLY they can do that, but such an arrangement is only desirable if your baseline reference is "being pelted with stones".
Also, while we're on that subject, "just use the defaults" is kind of like suggesting that wheelchair users just get someone to carry them around like a sack of potatoes all day. I don't think it's acceptable to force people to give up more autonomy/control over their lives than they absolutely have to in order to get support, especially in circumstances where a better, more equitable solution could easily be found. Perhaps I'm being somewhat extreme with my comparisons, but it's more about the similar mentalities and attitudes at play, not equating the severity of the access needs.
My overall point is that the split between "software for nerds" and "software for normal people" is due to a difference in use cases and access needs, not just a superiority complex in the minds of either group. You can build software that accommodates both groups, but you have to actually listen to them and not unilaterally dismiss one as egotistical and obstinate. And you should treat choosing not to accommodate either group similarly to choosing to ignore any other access need: necessary in order for you to better serve a specific demographic, perhaps, but certainly not a decision with zero negative consequences.
Buttons are live on https://arch.dog! If you'd like to be featured, feel free to poke me - I'm planning on going through my mutuals at some point and grabbing people's verified links too :3
no, not like, the preinstalled apps that windows 10 and 11 already have. literally just, advertisements
may i remind you that the expected, official way to obtain a legitimate official windows license is via an oem or paying microsoft $140 directly
i know you can buy shady keys online or pirate it trivially, but the EXPECTED METHOD of activating windows is either you or the oem pay microsoft for a license
Admin Jerry
in reply to Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied: • •Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
Thanks for this!
I've blocked it to be safe. It was already disabled here due to too many failures trying to connect to it and nobody here followed anyone there and vice versa.
Mitsunee | 光音
in reply to Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied: • •Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
Martin Haſeneyer
in reply to Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied: • •Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
in reply to Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied: • •Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse
Jigme Datse
in reply to Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied: • •Content warning: FediBlock | New Kind of Ad on the Fediverse