Free Republic

Racine resident Kya Christian Nelson, 23, admitted to one count of conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. From Nov. 7 to 13, 2020, Nelson went on a “swatting” spree where he’d falsely report dangerous situations at residences across the country, then livestream the ensuing police raids on social media, “sometimes while taunting responding police officers in communities such as West Covina and Oxnard,” the DOJ said. Those officers had often just cleared a home’s residents at gunpoint, as the reports they received...

The city Department of Sanitation is considering whether to enlist a fleet of drones to help it enforce new trash rules and perform inspections alongside its human inspectors on the ground. “This is extremely preliminary – really just in the early planning stages,” a DSNY spokesperson told The Post. “But we are investigating whether this technology may be useful for things like building maintenance inspections or for enforcement of basic cleanliness rules.” Drones could be used to scour for illegal dumping acts and help spot people leaving trash bins out earlier than permitted. They could also help inspect agency vehicles,...

A South Carolina utility wants to restart construction on a power plant that was mothballed eight years ago after running over budget and pushing an iconic American company into bankruptcy. Hoping to capitalize on the data center power boom, state-owned utility Santee Cooper is looking for partners to help finance and complete the two reactors at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Power Station, the Wall Street Journal reports. Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Power Station is a single reactor power plant. Santee Cooper was spearheading the construction of two new reactors, an expansion that began in 2008. The unfinished project was...

This week gig workers, trade unions and human rights groups launched a campaign for greater openness from Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo about the logic underpinning opaque algorithms that determine what work they do and what they are paid. The couriers wonder why someone who has only just logged on gets a gig while others waiting longer are overlooked. Why, when the restaurant is busy and crying out for couriers, does the app say there are none available?

The tech world is bracing for the release of Ph.D.-level artificial intelligence that will be able to do complex human tasks, Axios reported Sunday. The superagent breakthrough could happen in a matter of weeks and speculation is that it could be coming from OpenAI, according to the report. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to brief U.S. government officials on Jan. 30, Axios reported, adding that OpenAI staffers are “jazzed and spooked” by their progress. The report comes days after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that AI could replace mid-level software engineers as early as this year.

NYC Gang Targets 49 Mini-Marts… Steals Every ATM Cash Jordan 1.13M subscribers Jan 21, 2025 A gang is on the loose in NYC and they're smashing their way into businesses... just to steal the ATMs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64pN348e15w

Nearly 100 domains hosting Sneaky 2FA phishing pages have been identified as of this month, suggesting moderate adoption by threat actors. "This kit is being sold as phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) by the cybercrime service 'Sneaky Log,' which operates through a fully-featured bot on Telegram," the company said in an analysis. "Customers reportedly receive access to a licensed obfuscated version of the source code and deploy it independently." Phishing campaigns have been observed sending payment receipt-related emails to entice recipients into opening bogus PDF documents containing QR code that, upon scanning, redirects them to Sneaky 2FA page Sekoia said the phishing pages...

@TheHodeman I again reiterate that Trump will likely free Ross Ulbricht. The chair of the Libertarian Party assures us that she has a deal in place with him. According to her, she's busy working on getting ANOTHER political prisoner freed (I'm interested to see who!). The chair also said that he tried to free Ross during his first term and the papers were slow-walked back. If this is true, the pardon is basically a guarantee. The pardons were always scheduled to take place after the Inauguration Party tonight. I understand we're all eager to see him freed. I, too, am...

"The right to free speech doesn't come with exceptions not for Apps and not for ideas" "Freedom isn't given. Its taken"

A social media influencer and wildlife enthusiast was hospitalized after a rattlesnake bit him in Dixie County. David Humphlett, @adventorin on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, travels the United States to find and showcase wildlife, particularly snakes and other reptiles. The Gainesville resident was searching for snakes on Dec. 18 on Shired Island in Dixie County when a diamondback rattlesnake found him first. “Welp, I’m cooked,” Humphlett said on video moments after the snake bit his leg. “Alright, that right there is a fantastic Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake that I just got bit in the leg by when I was peeling bark.”...

Who says AI can't be useful? People from various industries have begun taking advantage of artificial intelligence to help with writing, translation, coding, and now… horrifying and potentially lethal weapons. A fascinating but terrifying video posted online shows a man demonstrating a pneumatic gun controlled by ChatGPT that can be commanded to track and fire on targets of a specific color. Though ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI reportedly shut off the engineer's API access due to disapproving of its application, the results remain truly impressive. With simple voice commands, the engineer directs the gun to target balloons of a specific color…...

U.S. — The general public was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief this weekend due to knowing that, with the TikTok ban, Americans were now only being spied on by the Pentagon, Google, Facebook, Apple, Samsung, their doorbells, and toasters. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on TikTok that was poised to take effect soon, which would officially shut down the social media platform that had been widely criticized as being a tool for surveillance and data collection by the Chinese Communist Party, leaving just every other major tech corporation, government entity, and smart household device to...

Linda Naples, FL Verified purchase Customer Service Reviewed Jan. 13, 2025 I have been a comcast/Xfinity customer for 35 years. The customer service was not good before, but now it is outrageous. I have spent hours the last two days trying to get answers. 3 Hours yesterday. I was told it was fixed. Today I get a warning my service is going to be canceled for the same reason. Late payment. Today another 2 hours with me yelling at AI. Then another 30 minutes on the chat. Nothing. AI says the same thing over and over again with no selection...

Dismayed by the amount of support the TikTok Ban is getting and a Unanimous decision by the men and women in black robes further alarms me and will just embolden the Feds and Congress to engage in more online censorship. How come some (most?) Freepers don't see this? Are you still watching the networks and believing the foreign entity stuff? You understand that the legislation is broader than that?

President-elect Donald J. Trump is considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating despite a pending legal ban until new owners are found, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.The possible executive order, reported earlier by The Washington Post, is under discussion as TikTok faces a deadline on Sunday to be banned in the United States unless it finds a new owner. The popular video-sharing app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Republicans have said for years that they see the app, which has been downloaded to millions of smartphones, as a national security risk....

I've been around FR for awhile, much longer than my registration. Something I remember from January 2017: Free Republic couldn't be reached at all in the day or so leading up to and on Trump's first inauguration.After the lights came back on, some on here wondered if everyone watching the site and trying to party together is what brought the place down for that day and a half.There were many however who suggested something more nefarious. Mainly, that the outgoing administration's lackeys launched a denial of service attack on Free Republic, out of spite.Should we put it past the Biden...

"Reasoning" Artificial Intelligence is just around the corner. I've been giving thought to possible career paths in this environment. AI will be producing code, shortly, to address business needs based on a prompt. One cannot be sure the code will meet those business needs. Enter the AI Code Auditor. This individual will assess the code to determine if it meets the needs of the business partners. They will refine the business prompt to ensure the code generated meets those needs. They will inspect the code to ensure proper coding standards and enterprise concerns (such as security) are satisfied. Another possible...

The saga of a disturbing hack into Disney World Resort's menu system has finally ended as the man responsible has pled guilty to his crimes. Michael Scheuer, a former employee at the Florida park, pled guilty to hacking into the company's computer systems and changing their menu items on Friday. Scheuer was fired from Disney on June 13, 2024, from his role as the park's Menu Production Manager, according to a criminal complaint. After a 'contentious' firing over misconduct, Scheuer accessed the company's menu system, Menu Creator, from a personal device. He changed fonts, added profanities, altered prices, and inserted...

The PUBG Ally is the same asinine experience of playing co-op with a bot, except this one always talks back to you in complete sentences. Krafton also uses Nvidia’s tech to craft inZOI, a Sims-type life simulator that puts chatbots in characters’ heads. Despite the AI supposedly planning and making life choices for the in-game characters, it still looked like a dull version of The Sims, lacking most of the charm of those games. I see the vision; it’s just not there yet. ... However, the real star was a talking mannequin head sitting like a gargoyle on your home...

A viral and revolting incident in the stands at an NFL playoff game on Sunday has already earned one football fan a lifetime ban from Lincoln Financial Field — and it ended up costing him his job. The fan, identified as Ryan Caldwell, was captured on video heckling a female Packers fan — and repeatedly calling her a “dumb c–t” — while her fiancé, Alexander Basara, filmed the entire altercation in the stands during Sunday’s wild-card game in Philly, an Eagles win over the Packers. ... Caldwell has been banned from all future events at Lincoln Financial Field, a source...