Its Technical

[ap215]

Former WSJ reporter says law firm used Indian hackers to sabotage his career

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - A former Wall Street Journal reporter is accusing a major U.S. law firm of having used mercenary hackers to oust him from his job and ruin his reputation.

In a lawsuit filed late Friday, Jay Solomon, the Journal’s former chief foreign correspondent, said Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP worked with hackers from India to steal emails between him and one of his key sources, Iranian American aviation executive Farhad Azima.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/former-ws ... 022-10-15/

[ap215]

Good i wish we had some strong antitrust merger enforcements here to do their jobs just like what they're doing overseas.

Meta will have to sell Giphy after losing UK appeal

Meta will have to unwind one of its significant acquisitions. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulator has ordered Meta to sell Giphy after it lost its battle at the Competition Appeal Tribunal. While the CMA reviewed the decision in July after the tribunal sided with Meta on one issue (sharing sensitive third-party information), it found that the deal could still hurt competition by limiting rivals' access to Giphy GIFs, requiring unfavorable terms and reducing digital advertising choices.

Meta bought Giphy in May 2020 at an unofficially estimated price of $400 million. The company hoped the purchase would improve finding GIFs and stickers in Instagram's Stories and direct messaging. While the firm maintained that Giphy would be "openly available" to others, the CMA launched an investigation a month later and determined in August that year that the buyout would harm competition in social media and advertising. Meta rejected those claims and appealed the November 2021 order to sell Giphy, arguing that the improvements would ultimately offer "more choices for everyone."

https://www.engadget.com/meta-to-sell-g ... 33129.html

[ap215]

What?

Judge Orders Fauci, Psaki, Top Officials Be Deposed in Big Tech Censorship Case

A federal court on Friday ordered Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top officials to testify under oath at depositions in a case that’s uncovered evidence of alleged federal government collusion with big tech companies to censor users.

The attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri and other plaintiffs allege that Fauci, director of NIAID and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, and other defendants, colluded and coerced social media companies to “suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content” regarding COVID-19.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-ord ... 13336.html

[ZoWie]

When you know your side's arguments are shaky and losing public support, it's time to lawyer up.

Not really relevant since the public has decided on its own that covid is over, today's scary headlines notwithstanding.

[ap215]

Meta Lets Brands Search Facebook & Instagram For Stolen Content

Meta is introducing new ways for brands to discover whether other accounts use their intellectual property (IP) on Facebook and Instagram.

A tool from Meta called Brand Rights Protection is getting upgraded with better search functionality, which enables businesses and brands to search by image. The tool will uncover other types of content, including posts on Facebook and Instagram, using that image.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/met ... nt/468828/

[ap215]

Get ready for more Internet Deplatforming

Truth Cops

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents — obtained via leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public documents — illustrate an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms.

The work, much of which remains unknown to the American public, came into clearer view earlier this year when DHS announced a new “Disinformation Governance Board”: a panel designed to police misinformation (false information spread unintentionally), disinformation (false information spread intentionally), and malinformation (factual information shared, typically out of context, with harmful intent) that allegedly threatens U.S. interests. While the board was widely ridiculed, immediately scaled back, and then shut down within a few months, other initiatives are underway as DHS pivots to monitoring social media now that its original mandate — the war on terror — has been wound down.

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/soc ... ation-dhs/

[ZoWie]

It's too bad that it's come to this, but unfortunately due to the lack of even common sense where the evolution of the Internet from a model of free speech to a corporate propaganda and surveillance machine was concerned... it has. Foreign actors are a non-trivial problem, as they are really government funded trolls, spies, and hired guns.

Another great opportunity to improve life for everyone on the planet goes down the shitter.

[ZoWie]

Here's some of what's wrong with the current incarnation of the Internet right in this board's own operating messages:

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Bing [Bot], Semrush [Bot], ZoWie and 1 guest

[ap215]

Psaki, DOJ fight social-media speech suit subpoena

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki and the Justice Department are fighting an effort to force her to testify in a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of violating the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to block or remove certain content about the coronavirus pandemic and election security issues.

Lawyers for Psaki filed a motion Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., seeking to quash a subpoena the states of Missouri and Nebraska issued to her in connection with the suit they filed in May against Psaki and a slew of other administration officials.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/0 ... a-00065284

[ap215]

FCC Approves Broadband Label Rules

The Federal Communications Commission has approved rules for implementing the new broadband labels required by Congress.

The commission has been contemplating such a label for several years and came out with a voluntary version in 2016. The use of the label was since mandated in the Biden administration’s infrastructure act, with its billions in broadband subsidies, so the commission is at the task in earnest.

https://www.nexttv.com/news/fcc-approve ... abel-rules

[ap215]

Instabook is not working.

https://www.instagram.com/

[ap215]

YouTube TV Subscribers Sue Disney, Claiming Antitrust Violations

SAN FRANCISCO—YouTube TV subscribers in several states have filed a class action lawsuit against The Walt Disney Co., claiming that the media giant uses its ownership of Hulu and ESPN to jack up subscription prices.

The suit (Biddle v. The Walt Disney Co, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 22-cv-0731) was filed in San Francisco on Friday and represents subscribers from California, Arizona, Indiana and Kentucky. It alleges that language in Disney’s carriage agreements with SLPTVs (streaming live pay television) stipulates that their lowest price bundles must include ESPN and that Disney’s “Most Favored Nation” clauses put upward price pressures on every rival SLPTV service, something that has contributed to nearly doubling the subscription price to YouTube TV from $35 to $65 since 2019.

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/youtu ... violations

[ap215]

The FTC is suing Microsoft to block its Activision Blizzard purchase

The FTC has filed a legal challenge to try and block Microsoft’s plan to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, according to a press release from the regulator. The lawsuit was filed today after weeks of back and forth between Microsoft, Sony, and regulators over competition concerns and the future of Call of Duty. The FTC argues that the acquisition would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.” You can read the FTC’s redacted complaint here or embedded at the bottom of this article.

The vote from the FTC commissioners today means Microsoft now faces significant hurdles to getting its Activision Blizzard deal complete. Regulators in the UK and EU are also scrutinizing the deal closely, despite Microsoft’s repeated attempts to appease regulators.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/2349 ... sues-block

[ap215]

Australian artists accuse popular AI imaging app of stealing content, call for stricter copyright laws

Australian artists say Lensa, the app that uses artificial intelligence to generate self-portraits, is stealing their content and are calling for stricter copyright laws that keep up with AI-generated art.

But the parent company behind the app has defended its use of images, saying Lensa learns to create portraits just as a human would – by learning different artistic styles.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... right-laws

[Motor City]

FUSION AND THE POWER OF LIGHT
How a scientific breakthrough is key to understanding a lot of things

Yesterday morning I read about an important breakthrough in nuclear fusion and how it creates the possibility of near limitless clean energy. Certainly I realized this is important, but I can’t say I understood what any of it means in scientific terms.

A few hours later I was sitting on an airplane next to a woman who, when I asked her what she does for a living, said she’s an astrophysicist. It won’t surprise you to hear I began plying her with questions, and she was kind enough to answer with great patience.

In simple terms she told me that fission is when two very large objects collide, creating a tremendous amount of energy but also throwing off dangerous emanations in the form of radioactive material.

Fusion on the other hand is when a lot of small objects come together, forming a tremendous amount of energy as well. The challenge lies in the fact that there is a strong magnetic pull keeping those objects apart. The scientific task is to override the magnetism, achieved through using a laser of light.

At this point I was practically jumping up and down in my seat, at least to the extent possible when you’re wearing a seat belt. My new friend was apparently amused by my enthusiasm, and she understood what I was saying when I spoke of the parallels here between scientific and human dynamics.

Fusion is not only a scientific key to creating clean energy. The image is a personal key to repairing the world.

Many individual citizens coming together - overriding the magnetism of the artificially created atomization of our society - compelled to do so through the power of light - love, community, understanding, justice, compassion and so forth - is exactly the breakthrough we need now. This is not simply a scientific description of how energy operates; it is a spiritual description of how energy operates as well. I’m all in for us making that breakthrough on all fronts.....

more at link

[ZoWie]

Interesting metaphor.

Controlled fusion as an energy source isn't completely clean, since you do get a lot of energetic neutrons which aren't good for people. Potentially, though, it's sure a lot safer and cleaner than fission, and it works better.

Agreed that American politics, especially on the left, could use more fusion and less fission.

[Number6]

Interesting metaphor.

Controlled fusion as an energy source isn't completely clean, since you do get a lot of energetic neutrons which aren't good for people. Potentially, though, it's sure a lot safer and cleaner than fission, and it works better.

I'd think there would be some form of containment system to handle the "energetic neutrons." Is there any nuclear waste from the fusion process?

Agreed that American politics, especially on the left, could use more fusion and less fission.

And on the right, they could use more fission and less fusion.

Oh wait, they're there now.

[ProfX]

So, the really good news about fusion is it doesn't (unlike fission) produce radioactive waste material -- you know, the stuff that fission plants have nowhere to send or store so they usually just store it onsite, while it remains radioactive for thousands of years. Also, you don't need to mine uranium in order to run the plant, which produces radioactive tailings and is often on Native American land. It is true fission doesn't produce greenhouse gas emissions - but these are the other environmental issues.

The big theoretical problem with fusion is an out of control chain reaction that can't be contained. That's been the stuff of some Hollywood movies. In the meantime, we can't sustain a reaction long enough to run a plant, let alone threaten that problem. It may be something to figure out how to manage in the future. There's no method of energy generation without problems or hazards. No panaceas, even on the Green front. But, I still think it seems fusion will be better (if not perfect) for the environment than current fission systems.

[ZoWie]

Presumably they shield the neutrons. Can't be any worse than the decay products flying around fission reactions or the waste which remains dangerous essentially forever. Oh, it does decay, but half lives are very long and so the material won't be safe for a couple thousand years. It accumulates in the storage places and poses issues if people do things like go to war or neglect safety precautions, which people do seem intent on doing. Hell, they won't even wear masks at the airport during covid surges.

We still don't know how to sustain a fusion reaction on a commercially viable basis. Right now the best we've done is to get more energy back than the tremendous amount required to start the reaction.

The best local fusion reactor right now is the sun. It throws everything from protons to gamma rays at us, making space a rather dangerous place, though our atmosphere and magnetic field shield the worst of it down on the surface. There's still health problems from UV. Cosmic rays are an occupational hazard for airplane pilots and cabin attendants, and astronauts cannot fly for their entire working lives because in space you hit the top of the safe life dose after several years. This is an issue for the exploration of Mars.

[ap215]

YouTube will send a notification to users if their comment is abusive

Toxic and hateful comments on YouTube have been a constant headache for the company, creators and users. The company has previously attempted to curtail this by introducing features such as showing an alert to individuals at the time of posting so that they could be more considerate. Now, the streaming service is introducing a new feature that will more aggressively nudge such individuals of their abusive comments and take broader actions.

YouTube says it will send a notification to people whose abusive comments have been removed for violating the platform’s rules. If despite receiving the notification a user continues to post abusive comments, the service will ban them from posting any more comments for 24 hours. The company said it tested the feature before the rollout today and found that notifications and timeouts proved materially successful.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/13/youtu ... s-abusive/

[ZoWie]

The stupidity and general nastiness of YouTube comments has been an issue practically since the site started. This should have served as a warning that video-based sites bring out the worst in some people. It didn't. Little movies became the dominant paradigm, especially for teens, and the rest is history.

A recent discussion with a PR client brought out the fact that now one of the big time influencers that everyone wants at their celebrity affair is nine years old.

[ap215]

How Big Tech fought antitrust reform — and won

Tech giants and their army of industry groups rallied together to stifle a multiyear congressional effort to overhaul antitrust laws, pouring millions into campaigns to block key bipartisan bills targeting the nation’s four largest tech firms.

They appear to have prevailed over would-be reformers. Antitrust supporters pushed hard for major legislation to rein in the power of tech behemoths before the close of this year. But while a couple of antitrust reform proposals to give federal and state enforcers more resources and power were added to the $1.7 trillion government funding bill, two key bipartisan measures targeting internet giants failed to make it into end-of-the-year must pass bills, effectively killing their chances of passing this year.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... m-and-won/

[ZoWie]

I never gave those efforts much of a chance. "The business of America is business."

[ap215]

NFL cracks down on use of electronic devices during games

The NFL has cracked down this season on fake injuries and real electronic devices.

Per multiple sources, the league has aggressively imposed fines during the 2022 for violation of the electronic device policy. In all, 12 teams and three players have been fined this year.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... ing-games/

[ap215]

Twitter in data-protection probe after '400 million' user details up for sale

A watchdog is to investigate Twitter after a hacker claimed to have private details linked to more than 400 million accounts.

The hacker, "Ryushi", is demanding $200,000 (£166,000) to hand over the data - reported to include that of some celebrities - and delete it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64109777