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Computers/Internet (General/Chat)

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  • X closes operations in Brazil

    08/17/2024 9:10:26 AM PDT · by RandFan · 47 replies
    X ^ | Aug 17 | X Global Affairs
    @GlobalAffairs Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions. Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process. As a result, to protect the safety of...
  • Vanity - Good replacement app on Windows laptop for "Mail"?

    08/17/2024 6:40:21 AM PDT · by ro_dreaming · 60 replies
    Self - Vanity ^ | 17 Aug 2024 | ro_dreaming
    So, Microsoft has been threatening me all year that they're going to force everyone to use "Outlook" on their computers, getting rid of "Mail". I use Outlook on my computer for a 'side hustle' business, and do not want to intermingle my email accounts on one application - and "Mail" does everything I need for my Yahoo/Gmail/etc. accounts. I've tried looking online for some, but can't really find anything that fits the job like the simple, basic "Mail". So, reaching out to the technocrati here at FreeP to see what y'all use for e-mail on a Windows laptop?
  • Online publishers face a dilemma: Allow AI scraping from Google or lose search visibility Blocking the company’s AI overviews also blocks its web crawler.

    08/16/2024 9:59:42 AM PDT · by dennisw · 9 replies
    Engadget ^ | Thu, Aug 15, 2024 | Will Shanklin
    As the US government weighs its options following a landmark “monopolist” ruling against Google last week, online publications increasingly face a bleak future. (And this time, it’s not just because of severely diminished ad revenue.) Bloomberg reports that their choice now boils down to allowing Google to use their published content to produce inline AI-generated search “answers” or losing visibility in the company’s search engine. The crux of the problem lies in the Googlebot, the crawler that scours and indexes the live web to produce the results you see when you enter search terms. If publishers block Google from using...
  • The Round Table 8-14-24 (Communication tradecraft. Vulnerabilities of modern communications.)

    08/16/2024 6:59:00 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 9 replies
    LTC Steven Murray Podcast - Rumble ^ | 14 Aug, 2024 | Lt Col Steven Murray
    An excellent roundtable discussion among five military veterans involved in the communication security and communication exploitation aspects of communication tradecraft. The discussion focuses on how modern electronic devices can be used against citizens by unscrupulous actors and governments. This video will help people recognize vulnerabilities in their everyday habits when using computers, smart phones and even vehicles. Many people will be surprised. Length is 1:35:36, bookmark and watch on your schedule.
  • Former FreeRepublic member Arthur Ray Hines, "Sneakypete", has passed away.

    08/15/2024 3:25:26 PM PDT · by Widget Jr · 50 replies
    The Briefing Room ^ | August 5, 2024 | MACVSOG68
    This from MACVSOG Historical page on FB:Arthur Ray Hines July 14, 2024 (Age 77) Coinjock, North Carolina Special Forces (MACV-SOG, CCC) Arthur Ray Hines, born January 29, 1947, in Virginia Beach, VA, passed away on July 14, 2024, at ECU Health Medical Center. He was 77 years old. Arthur was a proud Special Forces member of the U.S. Army who served in Vietnam. After his service in the Army, he dedicated many years to his community as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. His commitment to his work was unwavering and greatly appreciated by all who knew...
  • Explosive EV Failure in Packed Parking Garage Leaves 21 Hospitalized

    08/14/2024 10:57:50 PM PDT · by dennisw · 49 replies
    Western Journal -- MSN ^ | 8 14 | Story by Jared Harris •
    The fiery failure of an electric vehicle led to countless other cars being damaged and caused conditions hostile enough to send nearly two dozen people to the hospital. The devastating incident unfolded on the morning of Aug. 1 as an electric Mercedes-Benz EQE caught fire while parked in a packed underground garage below an Incheon, South Korea, apartment complex. The vehicle was not charging or running when it ignited. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, the fire department received nearly 200 calls while the fire spread and belched black smoke into the sky. In total, 177 first responders arrived to fight...
  • Biden-Harris administration using taxpayer money to mask Medicare premium hikes before election: critics

    08/14/2024 4:38:19 PM PDT · by dennisw · 32 replies
    Fox News ^ | August 14, 2024 | Jamie Joseph
    'The program is in a death spiral,' former domestic policy adviser to former President Trump says In a move critics say is designed to shield the Biden-Harris administration from election fallout, the administration has leveraged taxpayer funds to mask upcoming increases in Medicare premiums. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was intended to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, insurers are poised to significantly hike monthly premiums, with average bids for Part D plans expected to triple by 2025. In response to potential voter backlash, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled out a three-year "demonstration...
  • These Caffeinated Ramen Noodles Are Specifically Made for Gamers

    08/13/2024 9:01:54 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 7 replies
    Fox News ^ | August 2, 2024 | Emily Price
    First, there was 5-Hour Energy BBQ sauce. Now, there's another caffeinated meal on the block: Caffeinated Noodles. In late July, Nippon launched Boost Noodles, a ramen created by a young developer who wanted to solve the age-old problem of how you can eat ramen while also simultaneously participating in an online gaming battle all night. Each serving of the ramen contains 35mg of caffeine, roughly a third of a cup of coffee, so while it might keep you going, it's not likely to keep you up past bedtime (unless you're having a few packets at once). It will, however, give...
  • Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns

    08/13/2024 6:27:12 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 48 replies
    The Guardian ^ | Fri 9 Aug 2024 14.20 EDT | Helena Horton
    “I can has cheezburger?” became one of the first internet memes... But research has now found that the vast majority of data stored in the cloud is “dark data”, meaning it is used once then never visited again. That means that all the memes and jokes and films that we love to share with friends and family – from “All your base are belong to us” ... are out there somewhere, sitting in a datacentre, using up energy. By 2030, the National Grid anticipates that datacentres will account for just under 6% of the UK’s total electricity consumption, so tackling...
  • Suggestions for Good Web Browsers

    08/13/2024 1:43:17 PM PDT · by ducttape45 · 102 replies
    Good afternoon Freepers. This is a post to ask what I hope is a simple question. What do you all recommend for use as a web browser? The reason I ask this question is because today I was trying to update my Mozilla-ish browser called Palemoon. It's actually a Goanna fork of Mozilla so it's not really based on their programming code anymore, that I'm aware of. In the process of my task, I noticed that it wasn't playing well with a few secure websites, like ID.me, myPay, etc. I use Brave as my primary browser, and I also have...
  • Techie Told 'Bill Gates' Excel Is Rubbish – and the Microsoft Boss Had it Fixed in 48 Hours

    08/11/2024 7:04:49 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 35 replies
    The Register ^ | Fri 9 Aug 2024 | Simon Sharwood
    I'm a Mac. I'm a PC. You're both annoying meOn Call The Register knows that tech support is a vocation that induces frustration, which is why each Friday we offer a new edition of On Call – the reader-contributed column that details real-life support stories so you can at least enjoy misery in company. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Brad" who told us about his first tech support job, for a grocery retailer based in a major US city. Brad spent most of his time at the company's biggest store, but a few times a week was...
  • An AI Lie Detector for Today’s Deepfake World

    08/09/2024 4:42:15 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 2 replies
    Israel21c ^ | August 7 | John Jeffay
    Revealense recognizes indicators from video clips that help client companies know if a customer is being truthful or not.I was surprisingly anxious in the moments before my “truth test.” I was about to answer a dozen questions that would score my honesty and integrity. It isn’t a written questionnaire, with right and wrong answers. It’s AI watching, listening and assessing me based on indicators over which I have no control – such as changes in my skin pigmentation, blood flow, pulse, voice, eye blinking, facial expressions, and signs of brain activity. I have to answer each question aloud, and mark...
  • COSMIC Desktop Alpha Released, Expectations Exceeded

    08/09/2024 12:55:38 PM PDT · by ShadowAce · 70 replies
    linuxiac ^ | 08 August 2024 | Bobby Borisov
    COSMIC! This name has become increasingly popular in the open-source community over the past year, raising high expectations. Now, more than two years after System76 unexpectedly announced its bold plan to create a new desktop environment written in Rust programming language from scratch, users can finally try it out. And let me tell you, the wait was worth it.We recently tested the alpha version of COSMIC, and our initial thoughts can be summed up most briefly with this: it’s a game-changer! Above all, it is incredibly fast. And when I say fast, I don’t just mean fast – it’s fast...
  • Computer questions concerning email programs, Thunderbird, Outlook, and Authenticator Apps

    08/09/2024 12:10:32 PM PDT · by Angelino97 · 54 replies
    Microsoft's Outlook email is changing in September. You can no longer set your email program's Authentication Method to Normal Password. You must set it to OAuth2. I'm having difficulty doing this. My Thunderbird, fully up to date, allows me to set the Server Settings to OAuth2, but my Outgoing Server (SMPT) setting has no OAuth2 option. Also, when I log into MS online, it wants to verify me. MS has my phone number, and my non-Outlook email (which forwards to my Outlook address). But though MS claims to have texted and emailed verification codes to me, I never receive them....
  • Major browser providers scramble to patch an 18-year-old vulnerability affecting MacOS and Linux systems but Windows remains gloriously immune

    08/09/2024 11:47:02 AM PDT · by ShadowAce · 34 replies
    PCGamer ^ | 09 August 2024 | Andy Edser
    We Windows users are sometimes the butt of the joke when it comes to cybersecurity issues. Or at least, we often used to be. Still, if I receive one more lecture on why Linux or Mac systems are more secure, I'll at least have this article to point to. Not always, I shall say. Not always.Oligo Security's research team has discovered a “0.0.0.0 Day” vulnerability that affects Google Chrome/Chromium, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari browsers, enabling websites to communicate with software running on MacOS and Linux systems (via The Hacker News).The vulnerability means public websites using .com domains are able...
  • Over-Provisioning of SSD Question

    08/09/2024 8:31:56 AM PDT · by Paul R. · 9 replies
    Me | 8/9/2024 | Paul R.
    How much over-provisioning of an older SSD is best? The drive in question is a 120 GB Samsung 840, Model MZ-7TD120. Obviously this is not the latest and greatest, but is does have Win XP on it and should speed up one of my old XP Machines in my lab. The drive health as reported by Samsung Magician is "Good", with 17TB having been written to it. That's good news, as the TLC NAND is not the most durable in world. (It looks like the existing files on the drive go back as far as 2012, but I'm not to...
  • Iran accelerating cyber activity that appears meant to influence US election, Microsoft says

    08/09/2024 1:28:30 AM PDT · by Libloather · 9 replies
    NY Post ^ | 8/09/24 | Ass Press via NY Post
    Iran is ramping up online activity that appears intended to influence the upcoming US election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday. Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall, especially in swing states, the technology giant found. The findings in Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report show how Iran, which has been active in recent US campaign cycles, is evolving its tactics for another election that’s likely to have global implications. The report...
  • IT Question: Dark Mode for Internet Browsers

    08/08/2024 8:38:40 AM PDT · by ducttape45 · 37 replies
    8/8/2024 | Me
    Good afternoon Freepers. I got an IT question I'm hoping you all can help me with. I have been experimenting with using a "dark mode" for my browsers. I know that browsers like Brave have a built in dark mode that can be found in chrome://flags, and I've experimented with a few plugin extensions, like Super Dark Mode. The problem is none of them "quite" do the job. For instance, Super Dark Mode can be a good one. The extension has options built in where you can white list a website that doesn't do well in dark mode, and it...
  • Amazon driver blatantly ignores our "sleeping baby" and "excitable barking dog" sign. -- One minute video

    08/07/2024 4:43:50 AM PDT · by dennisw · 43 replies
    Twitter ^ | 8-7 | CCTV IDIOTS
    This at home mother posted doorbell video of the Amazon driver, mother is complaining that >>> Amazon driver blatantly ignores our "sleeping baby" and "excitable barking dog" sign. She wants driver to phone or text this housewife. Lots of choice Twitter comments here. The general consensus is that Amazon drivers don't have the time to cater to you.
  • 'Ricezempic' Is The Latest TikTok Hack For Weight Loss, But Does It Work?

    08/06/2024 1:07:39 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 36 replies
    Science Alert ^ | August 6, 2024 | Emily Burch & Lauren Ball, The Conversation
    If you spend any time looking at diet and lifestyle content on social media, you may well have encountered a variety of weight loss "hacks". One of the more recent trends is a home-made drink called ricezempic, made by soaking uncooked rice and then straining it to drink the leftover starchy water. Sounds delicious, right? Its proponents claim it leads to weight loss by making you feel fuller for longer and suppressing your appetite, working in a similar way to the sought-after drug Ozempic – hence the name. So does this drink actually mimic the weight loss effects of Ozempic?...