Tech Freedom News – Weekend Edition 1 Oktapus phishing campaign hits Twilio and Signal Judge Smacks Elon’s Request for ALL the Twitter Account Data for the last 3 years… Google Maps to Label Abortion Clinics in Post-Roe US Fujitsu to Make Quantum Computers Available for Some in 2023 Meta is “ready” for Midterms WE 1-1: Oktapus Hits over 130 Companies Who was affected? Whose data was breached? About 10,000 individuals who use the Okta Single-Signon service, including nearly 2,000 accounts on Signal, according to Twilio, who handles the sms registration messages for new accounts. The Signal accounts were not directly breached, though some accounts were able to have new devices added through the Twilio breach. https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/26/23323036/phishing-scam-campaign-twilio-hack-companies WE 1-2: Judge Vastly Reduces Musk’s request for ALL Twitter Data from the last 3 years as discovery proceeds in his suit against Twitter. Judge McCormick gave a flat “No” to Elon’s request yesterday, giving him only ~9000 twitter accounts were fair game, rather than the whole enchillada. https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/25/23322234/twitter-v-elon-musk-discovery-mdau-bot-data WE 1-3: Google Labels Confirmed Abortion Providers Whoa, nelly… Not only are they labeling Crisis Pregnacy Centers, but now trying to direct “birthing people” (let me roll my eyes a little further back into my skull…) who search for “abortions near me” to providers who will do the dastardly deed (ok, a serach engine actually giving people the answers they’re looking for is a good thing, but can we start somewhere else) rather than giving a balanced results list with both baby killing centers and crisis pregnancy centers listed… because, oh no, ~37% of Maps searches related to abortion directed individuals to institutions who might not gleefully want to kill the child. Sorry, I can’t be neutral about this one, no matter how hard I try. https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/25/23322025/abortion-providers-google-search-maps-label WE 1-4: Fujitsu Looking to Offer Computational Space on its 64-Qubit Quantum Computer Next Year Pretty cool stuff to see how quickly quantum tech is progressing, from Google’s first with 53 qubits in 2019, to IBM’s 127 qubit behemoth last year, to Fujitsu’s intent to produce a 1,000+ qubit piece of hardware in Q2 2027. Wow. https://www.pcmag.com/news/fujitsu-to-start-selling-quantum-computers-in-2023 WE 1-5: Meta Claims that it is “Ready” to Work on Election Integrity for 2022 Midterms Well, I feel better already. Oh wait, no I don’t… Facebook and its ilk have NO business meddling in anyone’s elections, as we know that Zuck did in 2020, sponsoring countless battleground state dropboxes and helping to push mail-in balloting. They need to be slapped with a massive reproof. One so big that even they wouldn’t dare to get involved with censorship, electioneering, and other nefarious bullshit ever again. That is treason. They aided and abetted felons who ought to be at least 6 feet underground already, and no longer breathing, if you follow my drift. This is no threat, just what real justice should have seen to already. This just makes my blood boil. https://gizmodo.com/facebook-meta-2022-midterms-misinformation-1849420151 The wrap-up… All in all an interesting week at the intersection between public life and Tech, no? Massive Phishing attack to a massive reduction in the scope of discovery in the Musk v Twitter suit, to Google showing its massive bias once again, to something a bit lighter in relation to Quantum computing, and then we wound up in a discussion about elections and Big Tech… that last phrase has two concepts in it that never belonged together… Elections and Big Tech… oh HELL NO! Anyway, this has been our first weekend edition, with a bit more contrversial content and perhaps a bit more of an edge than my typical monday-wednesday stuff. What did you think? Let me know in the comments below. Thank for Watching the Tech Freedom Weekend Edition.

WE 2-1: How to acquire and manage burner phones (make yourself in essence, untraceable) This is either for major privacy wonks or someone like a regime-disapproved journo. Why would you need one? To possibly cut costs if you only infrequently use your phone, or to protect yourself from government prying if you are a die-hard conservative and regularly conspireto overthrow the governement or something (just kidding, mostly, on that one). How do you go about obtaining one? Decide your price point and desired level of functionality, then purchase a phone that fits you and your needs, then decide on a prepaid carrier to work with, based on where you need to have coverage, etc. Pay in cash. Any card you use is trackable. How do you use it? Activate, pay in cash. Stay off of your apps, if the device is a “smart” one, and do not connect to any public wifi networks with that device. Once you are finished using it, factory reset it, and if it is worth anything, resell it or trade it in. Do you need one? I am privacy sensitive, but if I were really a hardcore privacy wonk, I wouldn’t make these videos, much less stream them, puttng my image and voice online. However, some may genuinely need them. I have a client who is a high profile attorney, and is an outspoken black conservative who is considering this method of keeping himself and his clients free of surveilance. He has had a phone tapped before, and does not want to deal with that again. He purchased one of my Liberated Phones to protect himself a bit more as he makes the switch away from Big Tech in his life, but even he questions the need for burner devices. https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-use-burner-phone/ WE 2-2: AI-Generated Art Piece wins prize at a state competition Colorado man uses the Midjourney Text-to-image generator to produce a digital art piece, which won first prize in its category in a state competition. Many are offended by this. Believing that he misled the udges as to the nature of how he produced the piece. An AI Text-to-image generator takes images, sometimes thousands, analyzes them, then, based on user prompts, generates an image. What the man did was curate the image pool that the AI drew from, and crafted the prompt to get it very close to what he desired to create, then finished it in photoshop after the AI did most of the work to produce the piece. I see both sides of the issue here… on one hand, artists who spend their whole lives honing their skill and talent are rightfully scared that, like the automotive factory worker of 40-50 years ago, their skill and benefit to society could be replaced by a machine which can potentially, eventually generate perfectly, technically flawless and even beautiful art pieces. They possibly fear oblivion and irrelevance, so they lash out, calling this unfair or misleading. Ad for the techie side of me, I think that this is guardedly cool. The fact that someone coded this now publically available AI system which can analyze the data contained in the images a user feeds it, then, in concert with a refined prompt, can produce almost exactly what the user envisioned, is amazing. This is a nontrivial thing, you guys. The fact that it won that competition speaks volumes to how far these systems have come in a relatively short time. This is also scary. I am conflicted about this story. What do you think? Should he have been more transparent about the nature of how he produced the piece? Was it right for him to enter the competition to begin with? Let me know in the comments… https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/1/23332684/ai-generated-artwork-wins-state-fair-competition-colorado WE 2-3: Washington State Guns for Being Named a Hydrogen Hub by the DOE. Big Tech is squrely behind this, as both Amazon and Microsoft are lobbying for this, and “leading the way” with hydrogen powered fleets and factories in the Evergreen State. The fact that Big Tech lives in WA and is very behind these efforts should give us pause. When was the last time that one of these giants actually did something good for the rest of us or the environment without massive government pressure, whether coercive, such as thorugh legal or legislative means, or simply offering mega tax breaks? I can’t think of any. What is this DOE (US Dept. of Energy) program? It set aside $8 Billion to encourage states to create infrastructure around Hydrogen to help move the country towards green energy. Hydrogen looks promising, but the problem is that the most common (and cheapest) option for producing the usable element is electrolysis, which requires abundant electricity to make work, and it has to be renewable electricity, so CA would be SOL on that. We use too much natural gas, which is allegedly not renewable… not gonna touch that one. Just keep this in mind as this becomes more mainstream, such as with vehicles like the Mirai from Toyota. https://www.geekwire.com/2022/how-washington-states-leaders-and-tech-giants-are-embracing-the-swiss-army-knife-of-clean-energy/ WE 2-4: Kid-Friendly Internet? This week, the CA legislature unanimously voted to give themselves more power to censor the internet for the rest of us. Sorry if that sounds like a cynical reading of this article, but this is what it boils down to. Once the governor signs it into law, it will require any person or business which operates a website which could conceivably serve a minor to change at least some of their sites to be more privacy-conscious, making the settings more accessible to limit data gathering, so that it is easier to prevent your child from being approached by some random adult in a DM, as well as restructure the language of their privacy policies to be more kid-friendly, even to the point of stripping out ad revenue for kid-users, both for websites and apps, even down to admitting where they use addiction fostering tools to encourage kids to pay more attention to the app or site. In principle, I agree with the notion of tech companies not being able to do nefarious things with our kids’ data (even Google, retailers, and news websites), however, this smells like ore gov’t overreach to me. The other issue is how do they enforce this? There has to be a way to get something like this done without the State shoving its way ever deeper into everyday life. This bill is far too ambiguous and ambitious, in my opinion. Ambiguity and ambition do not play well together often… https://www.wired.com/story/california-aadc-kids-privacy-age-checks/ WE 2-5: Good Guy Google? Google commits to donating another $20 Million to expand/ support IT/Computer Science eduaction in the US. So they will keep giving grants to organizations with whom they have already worked to further the cause of improving CS education in our country. This feels sublimely self-interested on Sundar’s part, sure there is a veneer of wanting the US to be strong in the field, but ultimately, it is cheaper for them to hire from overseas anyway… ultimately, this move is somewhat confusing to me. I have to admit that it is hard for me to see anything genuinely positive in the things that these tech giants do. https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/1/23331954/google-computer-science-funding-grants-sundar-pichai

Weekend Edition 3: Meta Losing Ground, Instagram Fined, and More WE 3-1: Instagram Fined $400 Million for Not Protecting Kids’ Data Regulators in Ireland slam Instagram with big fine due to findings from an investigation intio how they handle kids’ data, specifically relative to teens who were able to start business accounts, where they could publish their personal phone numbers and email addresses. Instagram claims that it has changed settings as of a year ago to help teens stay safer. Instagram will probably try to fight this decision (big shock there), and insist that they mended the error of their ways in the interim, as the investigation started in 2020. We’ll see how much of this fine sticks,a nd how much Instagram/Meta’s attorneys are able to argue away. This regularotry body has already opened and conducted over a dozen investigations into Meta’s portfolio of companies and platforms, including a record setting $225 Million fine for Whatsapp last year. As much as I hate government over reach, sometimes that is the only way to straighten out these transnational behemoths. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/tech/instagram-fine-teens-privacy/index.html WE 3-2: Google Gears Up for Midterm Misinformation Here we go again. Another week, another Tech Giant marching with jackbooted feet to the cadence of the Shadow Government… smh. Here are their plans: • highlight media articles and stories from particular locales and regions • Push info from election officials in terms of dates, methods, and times for voting • Highlight mainstream media sources on YouTube ◦ squashing dissenting opinions algorithmically ◦ no more videos talking about how the 2020 election was stolen They actually will remove posts, not just label them as harmful and limit reach and engagement opportunities, like Twitter and Meta. Full throated censorship. All I can say is get off of Google, stop using the search engine, degoogle your phone. Stop using YouTube directly, and see how long it takes for them to notice everyone ceasing to use their tools… how long until it hits them in the pocketbook enough for them to take notice? We don’t even NEED to call it a “boycott”, just stop using it as much as humanly possible. Watch what happens when all of their data collection dries up and the ad revenue goes through the floor. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/tech/google-youtube-election-misinformation/index.html WE 3-3: Facebook’s 3rd party Login Button is No Longer Ubiquitous Across the Web Well, this is music to my ears. Dell has stopped using it… wow. Enough privacy concerns are aparently enough for Dell and others… Also there has been a decided shift in what users are doing, as they have absorbed the reality that Meta and its platforms and apps are far less safe and worthwhile than they once thought. Not just Dell, but Ford, Nike, Patagonia, and Twitch also have removed their login with Facebook buttons from their sites. Wow. Sounds like Facebook is about to join MySpace and other social media sites in irrelevance, perhaps. That would be welcome. Bring. It. On. Let’s all stop using these honeypot platforms and apps, shall we? I did, nearly a year ago, and I don’t miss them in the least. https://www.popsci.com/technology/facebooks-login-button-disappears/ WE 3-4: Has Your Phone Been Hacked? Let’s Check the Signs. Does it take a hacker? No. Even biometric locking can be foiled by a determined enough snoop, they could trigger a face ID scan or a fingerprint reading while you are asleep, and look through your phone… Know anyone who might think about pulling a stunt like this? Ok, before I get into this any further, let me put you at ease: if you are careful to only download and open files from sources you know, if you make sure that your apps are clean and are actually what they are supposed to be, then you should mostly be ok, here. What are the signs that perhaps you’ve been hacked? • Sudden drop in performance • sudden spike in battery usage • sudden spike in data usage • pop-ups that plague your phone all of the sudden • sudden drop in effective internet speed • oddball posts on social media or weird emails you wouldn’t nomrally send How can you defend yourself? • Keep your device as updated as you can • Use 2FA (I will opine on this as well) • Stop tapping every link you come across but didn’t ask for(messages from acquaintences, emails, ads, etc) Ok, these are good starting places, in terms of improving your digital hygiene, however, there was recently a breach in a major 2FA provider, so 2FA is not a sure thing in terms of protecting yourself and your phone from undesired attention. I would also add that if you stay away from Porn and Piracy, you’ll be safer overall. More or less, don’t do anything stupid online and you’ll be less likely to compromise your security and privacy. Don’t download apps that require ads and a ton of permissions in order to run, as it is often the “free” ad-based apps that will come with the worst payloads in terms of malware. https://www.foxnews.com/tech/hackers-in-phone-how-to-find-out WE 3-5: Kids Safety at School This article heavily calls for the use of AirTags or other smart tags/ tiles to track your kids at school, allegedly in case of emergency. If you care about your child’s privacy, please do not do this. They also strongly suggest packing a kiddie cell phone that has extremely limite functionality (only able to call 4 numbers or something like that) or a smart watch with similar functionality. The concept of intentionally putting trackers on your child that who knows who could access the data from those devices, other than you. Wouldn’t it be simpler to just homeschool your kids, so you can put your nerves at ease? I understand that that is a HUGE sacrifice, my wife and I are doing just that, now. Not due to anxiety, at least on my part, but to promote free thinking and belief in God in our boys. This way, we also do not have to worry about school shootings or shooters, bombings or bombers. It is that simple. https://www.foxnews.com/tech/tech-keeps-students-safe-school Here are links to my other rumble channels, please check them out and subscribe: Reviews and Tutorials and Other things: https://rumble.com/c/c-1710073 Weekly Devotions: https://rumble.com/c/c-1710083

Weekend Edition 4: Microsoft Screws up Security, Quantum Internet is Coming, and More… WE 4-1: Oopsie… MS Serves Bad Ads in Edge News Oh boy, Microsoft security screwed the pooch on this one...wait, those are two words that never belong in close proxiimity to each other, unless in a joke. At any rate, they served users a malicious ad in the news feed on Edge. Hmmm… was this really accidental? They are sure hustling to try to fix the issue, but can the browser really be trusted? https://www.makeuseof.com/microsoft-edge-adware-news-feed/ #badmicrosoft #edgesucks #hottakes #Weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 4-2: What Letter Does Russia Start With, Kids? Arrrrrrr… Microsoft unleashed the Russian Pirates, Boys & Girls! Not that they didn’t exist before… plenty of hackers over there, even notorious ones. As Microsoft vacated Russia over the Ukraine action, even abandoning its users in the country to fend for themselves, enthusiasts and businesses are either pirating Windows and other Microsoft products, or turning to Linux instead. Big surprise. NOT. Microsoft missed the ball on this one too, but then how could they not miss it, being as intimately in bed with all of the deep state nonsense as they always have been? They opened the windows on this one, lol… *gigglesnort* #smh, Microsoft, #smh https://www.makeuseof.com/russia-windows-piracy-linux-spike/ #Russia #russiarussiarussia #ingenuity #piracy #Linux #nowindows #noOSforyou #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 4-3: Biden and Crypto… What Could Go Wrong? They promised guidelines for crypto regulation back in March… welp, here they are… They are gonna overreach more in the name of stopping criminals from using crypto to pay for things or to launder money… like Biden really wants to shut down money laundering. Give me a break. This is all about moving more of those operations in-house and keeping law-abiding citizens from being able to transact any amount away from their sanctioned avenues. The FED is not happy with us being able to do business outside of the Central Bank, so they are manipulating things to manouever us further down the road to a CBDC, and away from freedom. They want to be able to shut everything down, period. This is why we need a fully parallel economy, so that we can do business outside of their ability to control us. Gab and Torba are on the right track with their seeds of a parallel system. Let’s get on board with this, ASAP. https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/crypto/biden-administration-releases-framework-for-crypto-regulation/ #crypto #regulation #bidan #biggov #overreach #stupid #paralleleconomy #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 4-4: Quantum Impact Sooner Than Later? Rigetti, an industry leader, out of Berkeley, CA has plans to deliver its 4th generation quantum machine, codenamed Ankaa next year, the basic chip will be an 84 Qubit processor. The company has been around for almost 10 years, and went public earlier this year, only to see its shares plummet in value in the last 7 months. This is partially due to external factors, but also largely due to their own investors getting tired of waiting on promises to be delivered. Is it the one to bring quantum advantage, when IBM is looking to produce quantum computers at least 4x larger and more powerful? Only time will tell. Personally, from what I’ve read, on a consumer level, I like the photonic quantum situations being developed by the likes of IonQ and Pasqal. On a global, or cloud-scale, these systems are currently so expensive and fiddly that I can understand where the author of the cnet article was coming from when they seemed a bit skeptical of the whole thing, specifically in relation to Rigetti. https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/quantum-computings-impact-could-come-sooner-than-you-think/ #quantum #quantumcomputing #rigetti #expensive #infrastructure #cloud #future #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 4-5: Well, There Goes The Internet… Gavin Newsom, as expected, rubber stamped the legislature’s latest unanimous effort to regulate the internet in the interest of ostensibly “protecting the kids” from ads and pedos. On its face, as I reported on a couple of weeks ago, when I covered the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act after it passed that week. Here is what it will do, when it goed into force in 2024: • no more websites twisting kids’ arms to provide personal info • can no longer use or sell kids’ personal info • no more collecting, storing, or selling geolocation data from kids • no more profiling kids As I said when I initially covered it, this sounds great on its face, except that it will require even more governement oversight and masses more power in the hands of bureaucrats and this sort of thing will inevitably wind up like the GDPR in the EU or prior law in California, in regards to privacy. This will wind up affecting every site on the internet, eventually, as while there are often different versions of sites for different countries, I can’t imagine this being doable on a state level with any kind of genuine benefit for the site operators. https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/california-governor-signs-kids-online-safety-act-into-law/ #CA #commiefornia #gavinnewsome #CAADCA #internetfreedom #biggov #overreach #weekendedition #TechFreedom

Musk & Twitter Hackers Ransom LAUSD Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn Apps Next Silicon Valley Will Be in US Heartland Linux Tool to Defend Against Supply Chain Attacks #weekendedtition #TechFreedom #technews #currentevents #musk #twitter #lausdhacked #ungodlysurveillance #supplychain WE 5-1: What’s the latest in the saga? Musk tried to delay the trial again, but the judge smacked his attempt down, believing that Twiter would be irreparably harmed by any further delay. His latest delay tactic had to do with the whistleblower who came out recently. He had been the head of security for Twitter before he was let go in April. He claimed that Zatko’s (the whistleblower) revelations about the number of bots, spam, and the kind of security in place on Twitter seem to support Musk’s claims that Twitter lied to him in April. Of course, Twitter batted that aside, saying that all of these allegations are a “false narrative” wait, they cried “Fake news”? That is a laugh, being that they gatekeep for the American Uniparty as proudly as they do. Musk also subpoenaed Dorsey, among many other tech “luminaries”. All this while he quietly sold off another $6.9 Billion worth of his Tesla stock to support his takeover bid, just in case this lawsuit doesn’t free him of his commitment to purchase Twitter. This sounds like he knows that the judge is likely to side with Twitter and makes me wonder how much of this is really just theater. Time will tell. https://www.theverge.com/23026874/elon-musk-twitter-buyout-news-updates #weekendedition #tech #government #technews #bigtech #musk #twitter #TechFreedom WE 5-2: LA Unified School District Gets Hacked… Student Data at Risk You may have heard about this last month, as the attack actually occurred just as students were returning for the 2022-23 school year. Group called Vice Society is the likely culprit, and may have accessed some student names and other limited data, but it is not believed that they were able to get their hands on any other personally identifiable data. The district was able to recover the data from backups and it caused very limited disruption. However, the new wrinkle in the story is that there has now been a demand made of the district, though the district is not releasing those details now. CISA calls the group an “intrusion, exfiltration, and extortion hacking group”. This is the first time that a successful attack was carried out against LAUSD, but where there is one, there is bound to be more. If you can manage to get your kids out of school and homeschool them, it would be greatly beneficial to the privacy and mental/emotional stability of your children. https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/22/23366602/hacking-gang-la-school-district-ransom-vice-society #weekendedition #news #technews #privacy #security #LAUSD #hack #TechFreedom WE 5-3: Founder of AOL Believes that Silicon Valley Will Be Replaced by Midwestern Startups He has been working on an initiative with his VC fund, Revolution, to promote and fund new tech startups in Middle America, called Rise of the Rest, eponymous with his new book. Why does he believe that the hegemony of the coasts in Aerica will be broken? He has been criscrossing America for years, only stopped by the plandemic. He’s been putting his money where is mouth is on this as well, so maybe he is right. The writer of this Wired article is a bit skeptical that the status quo could shift that radically in the next 10 years, but seems open minded about it. There are deep concerns about funding, attracting talent, retaining talent, attracting customers and partners, not to mention media attention. Something tells me that the new media that has come up over the last 5 years or so, and holds far more sway than an establisment rag like Wired would want to admit to. I like the concept of investing in Middle America, even though I’m sitting out here in LA. I like the idea of Big Tech being split up, as the false unity that it has promoted over the last decade or two is completely unhelpful, as it only falls in line with the Uniparty’s interests in maintaining their own power over the rest of us. Let’s vote with our dollars to support companies who are legit in their constitutional stances, first in terms of 1A, then 2A stuff, and on down the Bill of Rights. https://www.wired.com/story/the-next-silicon-valley-will-be-in-the-us-heartlands/ #weekendedition #technews #bigtech #middleamerica #midwest #innovation #decentralization #TechFreedom WE 5-4: Ungodly Surveillance from Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You… I have used both of these apps over the years, I knew what I was getting into because I knew what it would take to break my porn issue (I haven’t used them in years, and I’m not saying that my issue is solved), but I didn’t have my activities sent to a pastor, but rather my uncle (whom I was close with at the time) my wife, and a mentor. That is how these apps are supposed to work. You visit some site that is questionable, then it logs that visit and sends it in a periodic email to your partners. Placing a pastor in that position, particularly if they are not close with you, is a recipe for shaming people, which will only dig a person’s hole deeper. Wired found that both of these apps actually violate Google’s policies on the PlayStore. This class of apps exploit the Accessibility API to do things as invasive as taking a screenshot per second for records’ sake, as well as reading the titles or installed apps, not just snooping on search activity or keystrokes. As someone who values privacy, if these things are not spelled out clearly somewhere where it is easy for a person to access and read before they sign up for the service, and each one has a monthly subscription for the honor of mining all of your usage data. Wired actually got Accountable2You suspended from the PlayStore due to their findings. I don’t think that when I was using these apps in the past, they were quite so invasive. It seems to me that they didn’t used to take screenshots or anything like that 6 or 7 years ago. Come on, you guys. Get your act together and stop with being legit spyware. https://www.wired.com/story/covenant-eyes-anti-porn-accountability-monitoring-apps/ #weekendedition #news #porn #accountability #shame #church #spyware #TechFreedom WE 5-5: Protect Yourself from Software Supply Chain Attacks with Wolfi from Chainguard This distro will examine every piece of software in your system to show you what may be weak or vulnerable so that you can correct the issue before you get your system hit with some attack, exploiting bad code somewhere in your stack. Even the feds have taken notice in this area, with the pResident issuing an executive order covering that over a year ago. The truth is that if you are a developer working on a project, you need to redo your foundation with secure code and a secure environment, so that as you add things in, you can see, using a tool like Wolfi, what is good and what isn’t. All so you make sure that your projects are as solid as possible, so that attacks like SolarWinds and NotPetya don’t hit you or your organization with any kind of effectiveness. Make sure that you know what code you are utilizing, rather than just grabbing bits and pieces from everywhere without making sure that they are clean. The illustration used is one of packing up things for longterm storage, if you don’t know what’s in the box, you could be in for a nasty surprise when you open it in the future. Most environments these days are containerized, more or less systems-in-a-box, and we trust these boxes to not be full of malicious code. This is a problem which Wolfi seeks to solve for you. It will inspect each container, down to source code, and give you a readout of what is in there. I’d love to see what an auditor would have to say about this, whether it would be as helpful in real life as this marketing piece seems to make it appear. https://www.wired.com/story/chainguard-wolfi-linux-distribution/ #weekendedition #security #auditing #wolfi #chainguard #TechFreedom Music: Pray by Anno Domini Beats

China Blames NSA for Hacking Them DALL-E’s AI Art Generator Now Available For Anyone To Use Zuck Says that Meta Will Be Freezing Hiring and Cutting Costs Newsome Overreaches Again Musk and Twitter Were Goofy, at First...

Apple to be forced to join the 2020s? Will He, Won’t He? More US Restrictions on Selling Silicon to China? YouTube to Push Narrative-Friendly Health Voices to Combat Wrongspeak AI Bill of Rights? WE 7-1: Will the EU Actually Force Apple to Abandon Lightning? Well, there are a couple of steps for them to make before a 2-year grace period begins on the legislation they just passed, but it looks like the EU will likely be requiring Apple to switch all its connectors starting at the end of 2024, in the interest of convenience and reducing e-waste. Is it good that government can do this sort of thing? On certain levels, yes. On others, such as freedom, no. Should companies be large enough to push governments around? I don’t think so. There needs to be a balance between big business and government, but what that should look like, I don’t know. What do you guys think? https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/4/23387425/european-parliament-iphone-usb-type-c-radio-equipment-directive-lightning-rip #weekendedition #apple #eu #byebyelightning #TechFreedom WE 7-2: Will He, Won’t He? I am tired of talking about Elon Musk and Twitter. The deal is still fraught with difficulties, largely thanks to Elon’s mouth and acerbic fingertips, but he is willing, all of the sudden, to move forward, as long as Twitter drops its lawsuit against him. Why all of the sudden? Is there something that would be made public in discovery that would embarrass him or Twitter even more? Not sure that that would be enough to deter him in the long run for this deal, but who knows? This is a puzzling move on his part, and we won’t know why for quite some time, likely. What do you guys think? Is the whole thing good, or bad? https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/4/23387592/elon-musk-twitter-deal-lawsuit-faq #weekendedition #musk #twitter #TechFreedom WE 7-3: No Silicon For You! US based integrated circuit manufacturers now have to apply for a license from the Commerce Department in order to sell chips and manufacturing equipment to Chinese businesses, as well as tightening bans on others. The reasoning behind these new rules is that the US is trying to hinder China’s ability to compete on the cyber stage, particularly in regard to their sabre rattling over Taiwan. This new set of rules via fiat (in the form of an executive order) dovetails nicely with the CHIPS & Scinece Act, passed a couple of months ago. Intel has broken ground on a new Fab plant in Ohio, untilizing the largesse afforded by the CHIPS Act. This is promising for onshoring these important jobs and manufacturing facilities, which speaks directly to a dream I have, but I won’t talk about that now. https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/7/23392860/biden-semiconductor-chips-intel-micron-china-ohio-science #weekendedition #CHIPSAct #Biden #executiveorders #lockoutchina #TechFreedom WE 7-4: YouTube to Push Pro-Narrative Health Videos *eyeroll* ughhhhh…. YouTube is at it again, and the gatekeepers at The Verge are breathlessly cheerleading for this tampering with information availabiltity. #smh… the problem is that when anyone pulls moves like this, they try to determine what the truth is FOR the public, rather than allowing the public, who are largely adults, mind you, use their own brains and discern truth for themselves. They commit the fallacy of reliance on authority, but the problem with the established authority is that it has been shown to be corrupt and not really interested in the best outcomes for the public, but rather for the bottom lines of the Big Pharma bosses that own them. So, to combat perceived fake news shared through personal health stories by individuals, they are generating “approved” health stories and pushing them through the algorithm. Any of you see problems with this? https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/7/23392802/youtube-personal-stories-health-misinformation #weekendedition #youtube #fakenews #health #gatekeeping #TechFreedom WE 7-5: New WH Guidelines on AI These are voluntary suggestions that the White House has released now, to hopefully curb the misuse of AI for surveillance and other privacy invasions. This is framed as a blueprint for future legislation around a Bill of Rights for AI use, here are the principles laid out: • That people should be protected from systems deemed “unsafe or ineffective;” • That people shouldn’t be discriminated against via algorithms and that AI-driven systems should be made and used “in an equitable way;” • That people should be kept safe “from abusive data practices” by safeguards built in to AI systems and have control over how data about them is used; • That people should be aware when an automated system is in use and be aware of how it could affect them; • That people should be able to opt out of such systems “where appropriate” and get help from a person instead of a computer. Ok, that is a chunk of word salad to parse, isn’t it? Well, let me point out some flaws here… Problem 1: What constitutes an unsafe or ineffective system? Who decides that? Problem 2: What is the defintion of “equity”? Who makes that decision? Problem 3: Who decides what is abusive? Who designs the safeguards? The last two look genuinely beneficial to me… even as a tech guy, I get irritated when I deal with robo-callers and automated phone systems, as they almost never understand me perfectly, and it winds up taking longer to get where I need to go in the system when I am stuck with one of them, vs just an old school push-button system, or being on hold until I can deal with a person. Well, then again, who decides when it is “appropriate” to have an opt-out from an AI / automated system? I can’t imagine a world where these things wind up in a form that is genuinely good for We the People, as so many in congress are controlled by lobbies who have direct ties to the big businesses which would roll out these sorts of solutions. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/tech/ai-bill-of-rights #weeekendedition #Biden #guidelines #AI #TechFreedom How would I sum this week up? Government tries to reign in Big Tech… Big Tech tries to set the record straight on health… Elon renews his offer to Twitter… EU looks to be forcing Apple to ditch the Lightning connector for their phones and tablets in favor of USB-C What could go wrong? Well, it looks like the admin, or Biden’s handlers, at least, are somewhat awake to the need to cut China off from our tech IP, but is it too little, too late? Probably. The thing that has me scratching my head on the China-Taiwan thing is why China hasn’t just pulled the trigger and invaded that tiny island nation yet. Sure, big old Uncle Sam is waiting to smack them away, but with as gutted as our military is, both in terms of numbers and readiness, how effective can we be in protecting our interests in Taipei? This makes it all feel a bit like a theater production, so the act pertaining to Russia and Ukraine has to wind down before the Chinese drama can really begin, so that the world has bandwidth to attend to and care about it. At this point, it seems like everyone is tapped out with the Ukraine propaganda that has been happening for the last 8 months now. Elon, dude, just make up your mind. Whatever you are doing with Twitter, just do it already and quit hogging the limelight already. YouTube and health advice…. Doesn’t everyone know better than to turn there already? Sure people still post health content (and lots of it), but this appeal to authority feels a bit late in coming, particularly since anyone remotely awake is not in a place where they would trust these “authorities” anyway. So much vagary in these guidelines… the language of the 5 principles is about as opaque and intentionally neutered that it could easily be twisted into something opposite of what it states, as it has to be sent through congress and its lobbyists. I don’t trust it any further than I can throw it. What a week, huh?

China Hobbled? Elon Investigated? TX and FL Social Media Laws Ok? 5G Affects Radar Based Altimeters? Robotaxis: Would You Trust One? WE 8-1: Biden Chip Ban Working Already? Analysts say yes… believe that latest rules will hobble China’s largely nascent domestic chip industry, which has been dependent on US tech to get it moving in the right direction. Not only are our chips themselves needing a license to export, but anything designed or made using US-built or developed tools also needs a license to sell to China at all. I would have to do some more digging to confirm one way or the other, whether my guess last week when I covered this story the first time was really just my bias against Biden coming through. Is this about trying to force the CCP to snap on us? Is that even a wise move? I don’t know, you guys. Was the expert that CNBC dug up legit? Has it even been long enough for anyone to pass judgment on it? Time will tell. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/12/us-chip-export-restrictions-could-hobble-chinas-semiconductor-goals.html #weelendedition #Bidenbans #nochipsforchina #isitworking #whoknows #TechFreedom WE 8-2: Are the feds Looking at Elon? Is Twitter just throwing shade and smoke, as Musk’s lawyer claims? He believes that it has to do with the Zatko situation that seems to support Elon’s original reasoning for trying to back out of the deal. Twitter is also claiming that Zatko destroyed a bunch of evidence as well, but he was not told to do that. More drama. I am so tired of this story, can we just finish it already? The judge did pause the proceedings when Musk’s side offered to pick up the deal as it was originally set, at a ridiculous $54.20/share. Twitter was always over-valued, in my opinion, particularly since it was only profitable at all for two years, from Q1 2018-Q1 2020, to my knowledge. That is a very brief window. Given that reality, Musk’s offer was a bit ridiculous from the get go. I know that net profits do not tell the whole story for a company or business, but come on, man. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/tech/elon-musk-investigation-twitter #weekendedition #musk #twitter #legalnonsense #drama #eyeroll #ohbrother #TechFreedom WE 8-3: Will the Texas Law constraining Social Media from Banning and Shadow-banning People Stand? Precedent says that it is likely to be overturned by the SCOTUS. The Texas Circuit Court upheld theirs, but the same level of court in Florida, where a similar bill was also signed into law, was struck down. Which court was correct? Is it in the government’s purview to interfere, here? Is it constitutional? On principle, I have to go with what will give us a smaller government, because the scariest phrase known to man, to paraphrase Reagan, is, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The government, and its overreach and excessive growth and overall size has been a theme through all of my Weekend Edition shows so far, hasn’t it? On that principle, I have to agree with the 11th Circuit on this, as much as I want Big Tech to hurt for the pain and suffering they have caused creators and users who do not toe the line for the last couple of years, at least. If I allow my feelings, and if we allow our feelings to govern our minds, then how are we any better than the regressive Left? Answer, as unfortunate as it seems to be, is that we would not be any better. We would be the same. We need to be the adults in the room, the mature people who can think, not just do what feels good RIGHT NOW, but consider carefully what the long term fruit of snap decisions might be, before we pass something. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/tech/texas-social-media-pause #weekendedition #socialmedia #Texas #Florida #longterm #longgame #TechFreedom WE 8-4: Is 5G Dangerous to Civil Aviation? There have been studies funded by both those supporting the rollout (the FCC) and those who are concerned about the safety (the FAA). The FCC is pushing for the rollout and downplays any link between the new tech and the problems with altimeters, however, the FCC study concluded that the C band 5G radio transmissions were too close to where these altimeters function, in terms of frequency. They found that it being less than 1 GHz between the top of the C band spectrum and the entirety of the radar altimeters’ function could cause dangerous interference with the systems in most civilian aircraft. Between January and May, there were 93 reports of faulty or failing radar altimeters, where, according to the article there would typically be a handful. All this stated, you know me well enough by now, that I am not into causing fear in my viewers, but this topic stood out to me, as I don’t necessarily trust 5G as a whole anyway, but I want to try to be fair. The FAA has created a reporting system for pilots and crews to state their experiences with 5G flying. Over 550 reports have been filed to date, and they have had a chance to process about half of those, of that half, about 80 incidents were impossible to rule out 5G interference as a factor in. That seems like pretty strong evidence, to me. The FAA made a deal with Verizon & AT&T to reimplement more mitigations for this issue, including not activating towers within a 1 mile radius of any airport, and after that, the incident reports have been reduced in volume. This speaks to a strong correlation, in my mind at any rate. https://spectrum.ieee.org/faa-5g #weekededition #FAA #FCC #flying #5G #TechFreedom WE 8-5: Robotaxis? Would You Ride in One? This article is an interview with the CEO of Motional, which is working with a group of partner-companies to roll out fleets of robotaxies. As dangerous as driving is for a normal, unimpaired human being, and with where I understand the self-driving/ autonomy tech to be right now, it is hard to wrap my head around a world where I would simply and gladly ride in a driverless vehicle. They are looking at a phased rollout, where first they would use their partnership with Hyundai to ship assisted vehicles to companies like Lyft and Uber, and for a time, until certain metrics were met and exceeded, there would still be a driver at the wheel for these vehicles. So as much as they are looking at a long game here, they are also looking at rolling out fleets first, first with partners like Lyft and Uber, then with car rental companies, until both the tech has matured, and we, like frogs in a slowly heated pot, are used to the feeling of not being in control of our vehicles, and will be more open to purchasing a car that is not designed to be driven by a person at all. Does that sound like a good future to you? This feels a bit dystopian to me, even as a tech guy. I used to dream of autopilot and taking concepts from SciFi and moving it into the here and now, but then the stark reality of surrendering something as basic as driving to a computer hit me, and how easily that could be tweaked by some joker in a government office building, or even worse, an actuary. *shudder shudder* Is that what you want? Maybe I just have control issues, but I don’t know… that just seems stupid in a particularly monumental way. You tell me. https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/13/inside-motionals-strategy-to-bring-robotaxis-to-market/ #weekendedition #selfdriving #lyft #uber #hyundai #motional #driverless #taxi #yikes #TechFreedom Wrap up: Ok, so from a very hopeful view on the high tech export rules for China, to more Musk-Twitter drama, to whether government should be big enough to tell companies what they should or should not censor online, to 5G and aviation, to whether driverless vehicles are a good idea at all… this week has been packed to the gills with some major stories. What do I think about the Biden chip ban? Time will tell whether this move will be a net help or a net hurt for us. In the short term, we may realize some benefits to this, in that China will have to work harder to catch up, but they have some relatively strong silicon there already, otherwise why is the Linux Kernel including support for their LoongArch RISC-V processors? Might it also be edging us ever closer to open conflict with Beijing? Again, time will tell. Twitter is claiming that Musk is being investigated by the SEC for some incorrect filings when he first fielded this insane offer to buy the platform, this after the judge granted a postponement of the trial because Musk decided to change his mind about renewing his initial offer at $54.20/ share. That never sat right with me from the get-go though, that valuation never made sense to me. What do you guys think? I’m not convinced that Musk is the saviour that some try to paint him as… not even convinced that he is really that much of a genius, just shrewd enough to figure out how to play with the government’s money to line his own pockets. Sorry if that offends you, but what proof do you have that he is either a goof guy or that he is really as smart as we are led to believe? Oooohhhh, I want to see social media giants levelled. The way that they have mostly destroyed so many voices for truth in the last few years…. However, on principle, and taking a few steps back to look at the bigger picture here, I think, I am unconvinced that these efforts in FL & TX are the right way to go about fixing the problem of censorship, particularly since big Tech was in cahoots with at least the Federal gov’t in relation to Convid and J6, at the very least, if not about information related to Q things as well. Why don’t we “silent majority” types simply stop using these platforms altogether anyway? Why keep feeding the beast with more attention and money? Let’s ditch all of those accounts. Likely the people you were interacting with on Fakebook and Twatter aren’t genuine friends anyway, so would it really be a loss to stop talking with them from time to time? I would wager that the answer is likely a No… for those of you who are surviving with your business on Meta, due to ads and analytics, that seems like more of a significant loss, but is it really? How is your reach in comparison with before? Are you getting as much attention on your posts and ads and stories? Is 5G dangerous? It would appear that to commercial and private aviation, at least, it can be. The C band transmissions appear to interfere with autopilot capabilities and even something as basic as an altimeter, which until the rollout for 5G started a couple of years ago, were reliable. The FCC and Big Mobile were wrangling for a fast rollout, but the FAA, has pressed for lengthened mitigations around airports to increase safety, at least for another 6 months or so. What the point of that short timeframe is, I’m not sure. However, it, along with a study they commissioned, and first hand accounts and reports from pilots and crews about their instruments and autopilot systems being thrown way off when they are around 5G signals. Another strike against 5G? You decide. Finally, about driverless taxis… nah, I’ll pass. Even when the tech is fully mature, I don’t see myself being comfortable in a vehicle that I cannot directly control in a physical way. Am I the only weird tech person who doesn’t like that idea? Who else controls that computer? Will we be able to drive as usual as well, or just be relegated to being passengers, taken for a ride by a computer? That doesn’t sit well with me. How about you? Oh my, what a week… China, Musk, Twitter, Social Media Censorship, and self-driving vehicles… so much to say, but that is a wrap for the week. Enjoy watching a bit of Dune 2000 again shortly, and by the way, on Sunday, we will be continuing our walk through Psalm 37. In other news, if you like the content, please feel free to subscribe and toss me a rumble. Also, feel free to leave me a comment or any questions you may have, and I will do my best to answer them all. Thanks for watching the Weekend Edition from Tech Freedom. The music is We Are All One, by Scott Music, and the game was Dune 2000, by Westwood Studios. Be Blessed until next time, and don’t forget, “Let’s go Brandon”.

Ebola’s Back, Let the Election Scare Commence! India Fines Google Elon to Fire 75% of Twitter Staff Snap Growth Slow? Texas Sues Google? WE 9-1: Ebola “Strikes” in Uganda Again… Just in Time for a US Midterm Scare The first reported case was on September 15, in Uganda, after a 24-year-old man was admitted to Mubende Regional Referral Hospital with fever and convulsions. It was found to be the Sudan strain, which has no vaccine. I am not downplaying the potential deadliness of Ebola. However, we seem to have a major illness outbreak about every 2 years, almost like clockwork… this article does not touch that reality, but does observe that Ebola has flared up repeatedly in Africa over the last 40 years. With the current outbreak, there have been as many deaths as recoveries, which is interesting, but not necessarily surprising, as it does generally have a 50% mortality/ survivability rate. For now, it is simply another african outbreak, and the Ugandan government seems to have a handle on it via contact tracing and quarrantines. https://www.wired.com/story/uganda-ebola-outbreak-vaccine/#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_309a8033-e2fd-40e0-a89d-bc7da4f491dd_popular4-1 #weekendedition #Ebola #electionflu #scaretactics #realtalk #thinkaboutit #TechFreedom WE 9-2: India Stands Up to Google, Fines Them $162 million for Anti-competitive Practices Oh no, our corporate overlords are getting fined again! Another fine? Whatever will we do? Will they survive all of this legal scrutiny? How could they ever do anything wrong? Anti-trust? Anti-competitive? No Way… Indian competiton regulator slaps Google with fine for Android-related infractions. The fact that Google requires OEMs to not only preinstall the entire Google App Suite, but to place it prominently on all Android devices. They also found, after a 3.5 year investigation, that A) Google has squashed competition in the Search space, even to the point of denying market access to competitors B) Leveraged its position in the app store market to protect its search interests (and mine more data that way) C) Used its position to defacto push Chrome browser as the best option D) Used its position to stifle other video platforms via its stranglehold on the Android OS and app store ecosystem E) By forcing the preinstallation of its suite of mobile apps, specifically forcing maufacturers to sign license agreements about the Play Store, Google has hindered the growth of Android forks and other alternative mobile OSes by reducing the ability and incentive for handset manufacturers to branch out, even if they wanted to. According to the Indian watchdog, all of these things add up to this fine that they are leveraging now. Google is suing due to leaks that happened about a year ago, claiming that the watchdog “broke confidence”. Governments around the world are finally waking up to the dangers of Google. Halellujah! Amen. Let’s bring them down, boys. Remember the $4.3 billion fine in the EU? They lost their appeal, so will have to cough it up. Their hegemony needs to be shattered. We need our privacy and our rights to choose back. I could go into a diatribe on this, but you all know where I stand and what I have to offer, so I won’t. https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/20/india-fines-google-162-million-for-anti-competitive-practices-on-android/ #weekendedition #India #Google #antitrust #anticompetitive #fines #abouttime #TechFreedom WE 9-3: Elon to Cut 75% of Twitter Workforce? This article is very sympathetic to the platform as it is. They cite concerns over the stress levels of current staff, as well as moderation, safety, and security concerns which would not be served by such drastic cuts. The writer suggests that Musk was just talking to bankers or investors who might be helping him to acquire the company, and would only be interested in making sure that it is as profitable as possible, therefore deep staffing cuts would seems appealing to them. It looks like the drama might finally be at an end, though, as the deal looks set to close by next Friday. I look forward to talking about other things, frankly. This story dragged on for too long, IMO. https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/20/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-wapo/ #weekendedition #musk #twitter #done #almostclosed #wewillsee #whitehat #bigquestions #TechFreedom WE 9-4: Snapchat Growth Slowing? No More Advertisers? During its Q3 earnings call, Snap Inc reported itsslwoest quarterly sales growth ever. Advvertisers are not spending as much on ads with the current economy, and once stockholders caught wind of this, shares tumbled 20% in late trading. This is not to say that they didn’t grow. They still grew by an eyewatering $1.13 Billion in Q3. Wow. Just wow. Snap is tightening their belt,soto speak, by cutting up to 20% of their workforce, people who aren’t contributing to either revenue, user, or AR growth. I used Snapchat a little bit a few years ago, but never really got into it. The 1 minute timelimit was too tough for me to live with (can’t imagine why, can you?)... We are so jaded as the public and as investors that when growth numbers aren’t where we want them to be, even if only by a small percentage, we run for the hills. Wow. I knew this, but it is stunning when a company misses their projections by one hundredth of a billion in expected growth, that so many would just give up on them. I also have to wonder how much of that was simply institutional whales and various funds (mutual and hedge) vs individual investors on a mom & pop retail level. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-10-20/snap-reports-slowest-quarterly-sales-growth-ever-as-advertisers-retreat #weekendedition #snap #snapchat #growth #cuts #market #stonks #TechFreedom WE 9-5: Texas Sues Google Again? Another Alphabet lawsuit? However could our benevolent digital overlords do anything to infringe on our digital rights? I have never heard of such a thing… Google is always innocent. Oh wait, that is STRONG sarcasm… if a government is taking issue with their practices, it is because they have been utterly eggregious in flouting the laws and regulations around those practices. Either that, or they are trying to pander to their constituents, who are starting to wake up to the abuses… either way, it is a net positive. That is what my emotions say… I do still question the size of the government in general, as I talk about most weeks. What is going on here? Well, Texas is alleging that Google gathered biometric data on Texas citizens illicitly, through facial recognition, voiceprints, and other biometirc identifiers, without explicit consent from the users. Included in the number they are asking for is up to $25,000 per violation. There are potentially millions of people who would be party to this suit and could collect on it, should the courts agree with Paxton’s team. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/texas-sues-google-for-allgedly-collecting-and-using-biometric-data-without-explicit-consent/ #weekendedition #Google #Alphabet #privacy #Texas #agpaxton #biggov #BigTech #TechFreedom

Google Takes a Tumble Meta is Flailing Amazon Investors Flee Microsoft Earnings Down by 14% Year-on-Year Apple to Switch to USB-C In Keeping with EU Mandates WE 10.1: Google Takes a Tumble after Poor Q3 Earnings Call Bad Numbers, All around, here. Everything is down, down, down. Don’t get me wrong, their revenue still increased, just not at the rate expected, at a paltry $69.1 Billion, with is only a 6% increase, year-on-year. Ad revenue only went up by 2.5%, vs last year’s unicorn-type growth of 43% from the previous year. Let’s talk a little context here, though... What was happening in 2020, during Q3? Oh yes, we were effectively shut down as a nation, due to the PLANdemic. Only $13.9 billion of the $69.1 billion revenue number was net income... That means that between investments, payroll, and various losses, they paid out $55.2 billion during Q3. Just like you, Big Tech is feeling the Ukraine-Biden crunch. You’ll see this come as a common refrain across most of tonight’s stories. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/tech/google-earnings #weekendedition #Google #BigTech #badday #badquarter #bidenflation #ukrainianidiocy #TechFreedom WE 10.2: Meta Flailing... Stock Down 25% Over Night How the mighty have fallen... It is now worth barely more than 1/4 of what it was at its zenith of $380/ share last summer, at ~$98/ share. That is an eye-watering plunge. Something tells me that unless Meta gets a huge infusion of dark cash, it won’t be much longer for this world. Good riddance, LifeLog. Good riddance. What caused this seemingly sudden turn of opinion? Let’s look back, all the way to 2016... The last time shares were this low in Facaebook. Well before Zuck’s weird obsession with VR started. All of this culminated in an overnight trip around the toilet bowl for the current valuation to lose about 25%. Sure, they are still making money, but they posted another YoY decline in Q3. https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/27/meta-stock-yikes/ #weekendedition #meta #facebook #sugarboyaintsosweet #dumbzuck #TechFreedom WE 10.3: Even Amazon is Feeling the Pinch Amazon shares plunge 15% after a less-then-stellar amount of growth YoY. They still had $127.1 billion in sales from July-September, still had growth, but saw international business go down, due to economic pressures of inflation and the Ukrainian conflict... Or taht is their excuse anyway. Investors are a fickle bunch, ain’t they? I mused about that last week as well... Makes me wonder how sustainable the current system is at all. I don’t want to give anyone a black pill that they haven’t already been playing with anyway, but if even Big Tech is not growing apace, then what does that mean for us little people under their boots that we placed on our throats? https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63421170 #weekendedition #amazon #salesdown #stockdown #economy #struggles #TechFreedom WE 10.4: Microsoft Hurting, Net Income Down 14% YoY They beat the analysts’ projections, but it was still a bad Q3. Revenues were up 11% YoY, mostly carried by Azure cloud Services, with a 35% increase in sales YoY. However Wondows OEM revenue was down 15% YoY, seemingly fueled by a sharp decrease in PC shipments, to the tune of 19.5% YoY. Xbox is also losing revenue, but only 3%. MSFT stock dipped by 2% in after hours trading after that earnings call. Their stock prices have fallen roughly 25% since the beginning of the year. I wonder how much impact the Linux community is having on the Windows license sales numbers... Unfortunately, not likely that much. Let’s change that. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/tech/microsoft-earnings #weekendedition #MSFT #microsoft #earnings #revenue #decreases #morestablethanmost #TechFreedom WE 10.5: Apple to Ditch Lightning Connector? Looks like they will bend the knee to the EU, though they are not happy about it... Whining about how they “think the the approach would have been better... To not have a government be that prescriptive”. They sound like a spoiled child, used to getting their way, and now throwing a little fit over the inconvenience that the EU is inflicting on them, the environment, and their customers. Give me a break. Bend over, Apple, it is time to take your medicine, and stop being so proprietary. Oh wait, Tim Cook probably does that frequently and enjoys it... That shifts the insult a bit *shudder* *shudder*. I dare you, call me homophobic. Call me intolerant. Call me a bigot. I am a Christian conservative who believes that everything in the Bible is there for a reason. Sin is sin. Sin is doing something that hurts you or another person, and homosexuality, no matter how monogamously it is practiced, degrades both partners far more than heterosexuality does. There are always a constellation of issues there, but I digress. I am pleased to see that even the mighty bastion of proprietary hardware and software on earth can be brought to heel if a large enough government says “boo”. Should government be big enough? Was this a good call by the EU? Time will tell. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/tech/apple-usb-c-charging #weekendedition #Apple #EU #chargergate #USBC #nomorelightning #TechFreedom

WE 11.1: AI Has Enough Data? Big Data no longer necessary to help AI solve problems, according to Carlos Guestrin, of Stanford. The way he sees it, AI is smart enough now to work successfully with much smaller datasets, using things like DALL-E and GPT-3 to guesstimate things rather well, rather than needing to crunch data sets of billions of data points to solve relatively simple problems. These are examples of what are considered “foundation models”, built from massive data sets, but can now be tweaked into specialized tools to perform the same kinds of tasks that huge,custom AIs used to be needed for. These things were designed to be generative, such as DALL-E, if you recall, being used to create digital art. Bias continues to be an issue, and the biases of the programmers will always have an effect on the outcomes from these AIs, no matter how powerful they may become. Reliabiltiy is another huge issue, as these AIs often break catastrophically if the data entered is not “just so”. The speakers at the fireside talk that this article was basd on kept comparing today’s AI with the way that Google became such a solid search engine, through getting pounded with queries and eventually learning what sorts of results actually got clicks (before they started their social engineering efforts). Let me bottom-line this article from my perspective: these researchers are saying that they can now rely on existing AI tools, which were based on massive data sets, as a foundation for new tools which will be able to function with far less new data. This is not surprising, but a bit terrifying. I am happy to hear that these tools still have such intense limitations, in terms of bias and reliability. I wonder how long until these researchers and entrepreneurs sort out all of these problems, and we have an AI that could effectively run a large city. *shudder shudder* https://www.geekwire.com/2022/why-big-data-is-not-a-priority-anymore-and-other-key-ai-trends-to-watch/ #weekendedition #AI #limits #progress #yikes #TechFreedom WE 11.2: FCC Looking at Banning TikTok in Near Future Wow. I mean, I should not be surprised, as this is blatant CCP spy-ware which has also damaged our country in terms of morality and common sense. I’m sorry if you are an avid user, and even more sorry if you got sucked into being a creator on TikTok., as I know that they really don’t pay you enough to keep the traffic and data flowing through their site, app, and their CCP-based servers.In September, ByteDance was pressured by bipartisan US lawmakers to commit to shutting down data flowing into China, but they would not commit to that course of action. Ok, if you are addicted to TikTok, I understand. Shortform content is very appealing to our greatly diminished attention spans. The filters and fancy doodads are fun to look at, and the free music is an epic plus. It is easy to use, and highly addicting. As a creator, it is easy to get started and use copyrighted material without permission, because the CCP has no concept of intellectual property, so why should Byte Dance care if you use popular music in your video, as long as it keeps eyeballs glued to screens on their site and apps? However, because they have no concept of intellectual property, they can also get away with not paying you well at all. You work hard, and they reap the benefits... How is that fair? If an app is run by a company based in China, right now, you can almost guarantee that the CCP will be using it to spy on you. They have a vested interest in making sure that Americans are fat, lazy, confused, and demoralized,a s that makes it easier for them to wipe us off of the planet as a credible super power. Do you want to be a part of that? Get as far from TikTok and other apps like it as you can. Go cold turkey. Take your creative chops somewhere where they will actually make you some money. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/02/tech/fcc-commissioner-tiktok-ban #weekendedition #CCP #tiktok #spyware #juststopit #banityesterday #TechFreedom WE 11.3: Algorithms: Do They Already Run your Life Offline? How automated is your life? How about your municipal or state government? According to a report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which spent 14 months digging into the city of Washington DC, found that across 20 city-level agencies, they employed at least 29 obscure algorithms to aid in decision making, and to improve the appearance of impartiality in city systems. However, as with other AIs, and as I talked about in tonight’s first story, these algorithms are anything but infallible, and there was one employed by the unemployment insurance system in Michigan to ferret out fraud, but it had a 93% error rate, and triggered 40,000 false fraud allegations. That is a big problem. A different study found that over half of federal agencies are using some form of AI to aid in decision making. No wonder it is an even bigger mess now than it was before. For example, FraudCaster, by a company called Pondera Systems, owned by Thomson Reuters, is used to catch fraudulent food assistance applications, and of the 1.1 million flagged applications in California, more than half of them were to be found genuine. Wow. That is not a good ratio here, guys. Maybe, as we discussed earlier, we need to go back to the drawing board for these systems. Let’s think about this... If the machines are failing so miserably, and even leading to death in some justice-related situations, should we be trying to use them at all right now? Are they ready? For trivial things like creating digital art or generating stories or poems, sure. For life and death decisions? No. We need to extricate our governments from these machines in any kind of major decision making. Let’s move in that direction, y’all. Justice needs a human face and heart to be real justice, not some cold algorithm that is wrong more often than not. Even if they were perfect (which I do not believe will ever happen, as humans create these systems, and humans will always be flawed, broken, and biased). https://www.wired.com/story/algorithms-quietly-run-the-city-of-dc-and-maybe-your-hometown/ #weekendedition #AI #algorithms #government #fail #TechFreedom WE 11.4: TikTok Data Could be Handled Anywhere in the World I know, I teed off on TikTok earlier tonight, but take a look at this... They claim that they have “robust security controls” to prevent mishandling or misuse of user data, but as to what that actually means, no one really knows. They claim to be GDPR-compliant, but with as opaque as Byte Dance has been, who knows if they really are. After all, they are based in CCP-controlled China, not somewhere that actually at least gives lipservice to respecting privacy and intellectual property rights. The CCP treats their own people like cattle or pawns on a chessboard. Why should they respect anyone else any more than they do their own citizens? I will say it again, if you are a TikTok user or creator, get your kicks and your creative juices flowing in a different direction that will respect you, your rights, and your work more through better splits and revenue sharing. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/tech/tiktok-european-data-china-staff #weekendedition #TikTok #privacy #CCP #nobueno #TechFreedom WE 11.5: Microsoft Extends Support Offer to Ukraine Surprise, surprise, surprise. Microsoft, which is the heart of cabal control through software, is pledging to protect the cabal’s interests in Ukraine through offering free-to-Ukraine services for security of “critical infrastructure”. That is laughable, Microsoft helping a government to secure itself from cyber threats. They have committed resources worth an additional $100 million through the end of 2023, when they have already provided $400 million in the last 9 months of conflict. Wow. What is MSFT trying to keep hidden in Ukraine? Ok, so I am very cynical of anyone supporting the Ukrainian regime. Ukraine has been the heart of money laundering and other unethical practices for a number of years, probably longer than I realize, as Ukraine is also the same area where the Khazarians originated from, but I’m not going to get into that LONG story here. Let me be clear, I empathize with the PEOPLE of Ukraine, however, their blatantly corrupt, NAZI regime needs to be ended. The whole place needs to be cleaned out, just as our government does, on every level. I don’t want to black pill anyone, but the November midterm elections, even if we succeed in creating a “red tsunami” will not solve the problems we face as a nation on its own. Red vs Blue is a false dichotomy. These are two wings on the same, corrupt bird. By all means, vote your conscience, come Tuesday. Vote in person. Do your best to prevent fraud at the ballot box. I have my doubts that even with that, and the greater awareness that has been exploding over the American people in the last year and a half of focus on what happened 2 years ago (and for at least 20-30 years prior to that, whether through old school means, like ballot harvesting, or through weighted algorithms in the ES&S or Konnech or other machines that have been used to assure the Selection of [their] chosen candidates). https://www.geekwire.com/2022/microsoft-extends-ongoing-tech-support-for-ukraine-to-protect-digital-services-and-data-during-war/ #weekendedition #Ukraine #MSFT #voting #corruption #NAZI #TechFreedom Devotions Channel: https://rumble.com/c/c-1710083

WE 12.1: Meta Circles the Toilet Bowl Some More Most of us have heard or seen about this by now, but Meta has lost ~3/4 of its market cap in the last 12 months, so Zuck decided that he should fire some people, freeze hiring, and refocus on what actually makes money for their platforms, “artificial intelligence, advertising, and "our long-term vision for the metaverse".” This includes paying 13% (11000) fewer employees, moving forward. Wow. Maybe you should pack it in on the Metaverse, Zuck. That, plus the advertising cuts that they suffered, both from the recovery from CONvid, the Biden economic limp, anemic, and inept attempts to destroy the economy and country entirely, and Apple hamstringing other advertisers on their devices. The likelihood of him backing away from his job of trying to drive us forward to some sort of VR nonsense world seems low. Let’s sit back, but encourage our friends and family to leave the sinking ship that always abused them anyway, and watch him finish blowing it up. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63568585 #weekendedition #meta #nomoremeta #dying #goodriddance #TechFreedom WE 12.2: What’s Mastodon, Anyway? Simply, a FOSS, decentralized Twitter alternative. Why does it matter? Lots of people are fleeing Twitter to Mastodon since Elon took over about 2 weeks ago now. It is ad-free, has no content moderation, and has no monolithic company behind it, as it is operated by a nonprofit organization, and each server is federated, similarly to Matrix. They grew by 489,000 users in less than 2 weeks, so they now have more than 1 million active users per month, for the first time. That is huge, and if you really want a direct alternative to Twitter, take a look, but be warned that it will force you to pick a server when you sign up. It is also privacy-centric and won’t suggest follows or anything like that, and also only displays posts chronologically, which strikes me as making more sense, anyway. There is no quote-tweet equivalent, but maybe that could be a good thing. I am not a Twitter user, and never have been, so am not one who could or should really speak knowledgeably about the platform. I have to laugh at all that has been happening with Twitter and Elon over the last 6 months or so, but at this point, I am really done talking about that issue. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/tech/mastodon-twitter-explainer-trnd #weekendedition #twitter #mastodon #twitterrefugees #twitterexodus #TechFreedom WE 12.3: Alex Jones Gets Hit AGAIN, for another 1/2 Billion Dollars Like him or not, believe he is a Mossad asset or not, he is certainly being made an example of here. This brings Sandy Hook related fines and whatnot all the way up to about $1.5 Billion. He claims that “there ain’t no money” to pay these damages, and is appealing it all, of course. This is a ridiculous miscarriage of justice. I believe that it was a false flag, but that the kids did actually die, therefore, he does owe the families something, though, even if I do not see that it should be nearly this much. This feels like the judge trying to destroy him, not simply looking out for the families. Not a good look. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/media/alex-jones-sandy-hook-damages #weekendedition #alexjones #truthwars #sandyhook #TechFreedom WE 12.4: Amazon Is First Company in History to Lose $1 Trillion in Market Cap Wow. That is absolutely stunning... I can’t think of any other word at the moment. Amazon’s Zenith was last year in July, at a gob-smacking $1.88 Trillion cap. Between the anemic economy and the world beginning to return to “normal”, whatever that means, not only these things, but Daddy Bezos stepped down from being CEO of Amazon earlier this year, so Amazon is feeling the pinch just as Microsoft and Meta are (like I mentioned last week). Any thoughts? Think Amazon and Meta will survive this current downturn? https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/amazon-loses-1-trillion-in-market-value-a-historic-first/ #weekendedition #Amazon #bigloser #wow #holymoly #TechFreedom WE 12.5: CFPB Releases Report on Crypto Scams and the Like Of the 8300 complaints gathered and reviewed between October of ‘18 to September of this year, 13% were from California. Wow, that is about 1000 complaints. About 40% (3360) complaints were centered on scams and fraud, where 25% were about misc transaction issues, and another 16% were about liquidity issues. If you have paid any attention to crypto over the years, these stats probably do not surprise you. I know I am not surprised, at least not very. I have watched scammers spin up trash coins, promise the moon, only to deliver a pump & dump situation, then disappear with their backers’ money. So many shills. Here’s looking at you, Whiplash347. Quit your crypto shilling, bro. It isn’t a good look, I’m sure you get paid well enough to push it on your social media accounts, where it gets seen by hundreds of 1,000s, if not millions of eyeballs on your posts, but very few have actually helped any of your followers to become financially stable (I doubt that that is even possible in terms of crypto, though). I digress, though. This report will likely result in some DOJ action against some of these scammers.High time, if they can track them down. We shall see. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/10/23452247/cfpb-complaint-bulletin-crypto-assets-scams #weekendedition #crypto #CFPB #scams #fraud #watchout #TechFreedom

WE 13.1 – Whatever Will The Valley Do? Well, my sense is that they will lobby the new lawmakers harder to protect themselves from the inevitable hail of lawfare that the new congress members will likely initiate to placate the voters who allegedly elected them. Ok, now that I’ve hot-taked a bit, let’s talk about the article itself... The Demoncrats, who still control both chambers of Congress, have been sabre-rattling about passing anti-trust laws targeting Big Tech for being at least partially broken up, or some legislation meant to force censorship on the teeming masses of our nation and the world, for that matter. This is something that some experts suggest they should fear more than political noise made by the GOP when it assumes power again in January. More hearings wouldn’t frighten me much, either, to be honest. It is theatre. That is the reality for the whole shebang, anyway, and has been for a long time. After all, both wings belong to the same bird. I hope that the GOP does more than simply huff & puff at Big Tech’s house, which may as well be an underground bunker, with as much good as either party has done in terms of reigning them in in any meaningful way. Pitiful. All that said, it looks like both wings of congress very well may have crosshairs trained on Section 230, and limiting the protections that Big Tech has so benefitted from. This might be interesting to watch, particularly as everyone is realizing just how big of a deal digital privacy and rights are in our lives right now. That, at least, is a good thing, and may lead to big things in those areas. Looks like it could be a good time for me and others like me to set up shop to help people transition. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/tech/silicon-valley-republicans-house #weekendedition #privacy #digitalrights #bipartisan #politics #eyeroll #politicaltheater #TechFreedom WE 13.2 – Would You Eat Lab-grown Anything? We are one step closer to having a cell-cultured chicken option at the supermarket, as the FDA has deemed it safe for human consumption. Keep in mind that it also Ok’d both Beyond Meat and Impossible brand plant-based meat substitutes in the past. These have proven to cause certain individuals to gain weight when it was advertised that they would help people lose weight. I am not convinced that this is a good thing at all, let God-designed animals provide the animal protein that we all need in our diets, not man-made alternatives. Is it ingenious? Certainly. Is it wise? I am not into playing God, even though I used to enjoy some Sim City and The Sims, back in the day. I am not convinced that we know enough to do this well, yet, without any long term problems for humans who eat products like these. Also, the FDA has missed the ball many times, and that is being very charitable. Personally, this sounds like a horrible idea, and something that was joked about in an old show called “Better Off Ted”. The R&D arm of the company that the show centers on was working to create a product not too different from this, and they put in in front of a taste-tester, who proclaimed that it tasted like “despair”. That show was produced about 10-15 years ago. Yikes. No thanks. What about you guys? Tell me in the comments. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63660488 #weekendedition #clonedchicken #labmeat #gross #blech #wtf #fda #TechFreedom WE 13.3 – FTX CEO Strikes Out at SBF The new CEO, after SBF filed for bankruptcy and bugged out with millions of dollars, is looking at how the exchange was built to fail. He says that in his 40+ years of working in similar situations, including managing the end of Enron, this was one of the worst corporate structures he has ever seen. Too much power, and too little accountability concentrated in the hands of too few, young, inexperienced, and likely compromised people. This sounds like the case for the vast majority of the crypto industry. Tell me I’m wrong. Prove my sense wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited about crypto somewhat about 5 years ago, and most of our investment got stuck in a now-defunct exchange from New Zealand. I have watched too many shit coins get shilled, too many NFTs scam people, and too many pump & dump schemes happen around me to think that crypto is some sort of savior for the financial system, which is just as corrupt and broken. Tell me what you think about crypto down below. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63662396 #weekendedition #ftx #sbf #crypto #fud #fed #scams #shitcoins #idk #TechFreedom WE 13.4 – Who Should Own AI-Generated Things? There is so much that is unclear in this situation. On one hand, the art, music pieces, generated writing, or code that is entered into one of these AI setups is often copyrighted material, in some form or another, so should the person entering the prompts in question be forced to pay royalties for using those works as seeds for generated material, given that the output is copyrightable and they make money from the output? How would that be sorted out? One thing that seems to determine whether one of these generated works is copyrightable is how much work the person entering the inputs actually did to create them. If you simply put in a single text prompt, the results are likely not copyrightable, whereas if they really put effort into curating the inputs, in the form of seeds and the like, they can be copy protected in the US. What of using copyrighted inputs? In the US, we have fair use doctrine, which allows things like commentary on art, books, music, and movies to be protected and used to make money for the the commentator. One aspect of deciding if fair use is applicable is whether the original artist is adversely affected by the “new” work. Was enough changed from or added to the original that it actually constitutes a new work? If the answer to these questions was in the negative, then it is not fair use, and the secondary creator can be penalized or sued by the original copyright holder. It seems that one can train an AI on copyrighted work, but actually using that training to generate something may constitute infringement of the copyrights involved from the original works. For instance, if one trains an AI on works from one particular artist or writer and tells the AI to create something in that style, that artist or writer would likely have a strong case that you infringed on their work, and could potentially sue you over it. However, if you tweak it and transform it in significant ways, then you are probably safe, and could potentially seek a copyright yourself on the generated work. This extends to the things that Microsoft has been doing through GitHub and people’s open sourced code bases, but the truth is that those AI tools often lift large chunks of code without tweaking it, and dropping them into new projects. That sounds like breaking GPL and other open source licenses, particularly if there is no attribution, and it is being used to make a profit for another entity. Microsoft feels that they can get away with it because they know the financial situations for the majority of open source developers. That seems very wrong, to me, at any rate... Maybe there needs to be a massive class action (I think that it is in the works even now, thankfully). https://www.theverge.com/23444685/generative-ai-copyright-infringement-legal-fair-use-training-data #weekendedition #AI #copyrights #patents #licensing #intellectualproperty #TechFreedom WE 13.5 – Climate Change Fear Porn... Big Tech Must Be More Sustainable!!! Ok, so the world seems to be heating up... Given. However, is it our fault? No. The earth is a very resilient system, and it has its own cycles which have very little to do with human intervention. That said, this article is touting and pushing Big Tech efforts to become more efficient (both using less power/resources, and producing less heat). I do not have a problem with that, as there is a limit to our planet’s physical resources, and we are called to steward them well. Predicating it on fear of naturally cyclical climate change that we have hardly been keeping records long enough to notice for ourselves, then assuming that our relatively small carbon emissions would be enough to have a detrimental effect on the temperature of the planet is the height of hubris. Take a step back. Think about this for a moment. Do not hear me say that we do not need new, better, more planet-friendly technologies to be developed. I am not saying that in the least, however, the current generation of that tech is far from being as beneficial to the environment as has been propagandized about for the last 20 years. Placing data centers in water is not an entirely new thing, however, using the currents to generate power (without harming the marine life in the area, either from turbines or from heat discharge) and to cool the machines in question is a novel, though not entirely new idea. Carbon credits? Don’t get me started, that is just as much of a leftist scam as the whole climate change/global warming fear industry is. Think, people. Recycle where possible, choose to use less power and other resources where possible, and just be wise. https://www.cnet.com/tech/internet-outages-could-spread-as-temperatures-rise-heres-what-big-tech-is-doing/ #weekendedition #climatechange #cycles #notmanmade #fearporn #bigtech #datacenters #resources #TechFreedom

We 14.1 – China Declares Victory Over Childhood Gaming Addiction Problems In true Chinese fashion, they simply limited kids to 1 hour of access to gaming services per day. Right... That is gonna do a TON of good in the long term. A total of 3 hours per week. So get this, now that winter is coming, along with an alleged uptick in COVID activity, parents are allowing their kids access to their gaming accounts to “keep them entertained”. That limitation really seems to be doing the trick, there, China. Wow. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience. We’ll severely limit the kids’ accounts access to gaming servers, but now mom and dad are letting them use their accounts, to keep them placated. Sounds like they’ve really had great success in curbing the kids’ addiction problems. #smh. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63730316 #weekendedition #china #kiddiegamers #gamingaddiction #victory #lol #smh #TechFreedom WE 14.2 – Meta Points the Finger at Pentagon Noted a small network, based in the US, putting out very strongly pro-US propaganda and engaging in “inauthentic behavior”, took it down. Their focus was in former Soviet States mostly around the Baltics in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen), and they used many of the same tactics to promote themselves and the content that they attempted to palm off as being theirs as propagandists use in campaigns against the West. This network consisted of 39 accounts, 16 pages, and two groups on Facebook, and 26 Instagram accounts. They used fake pictures, fake personas, cross-platform campaigns, and seem to have links to the US military. The article seems concerned that our military using the same tactics used against us would “further erode the public trust” in our government and military. Well, BBC, I hate to break it to you, but there is already a whole lot of “broken ‘public trust’” with our government, just as your people have with yours. The jig is nearly up for those who think that the people of the planet Earth will simply be content to sit by and lose everything that you led us to believe that we still had in life. You will see. It won’t end well for [them]. Needless to say, I am unsurprised that our military would be sloppy enough to get caught by Meta, who is a major contractor of our defense and intel agencies. Go woke, lose enough IQ points to no longer question your own choices, and consequently become far too sloppy. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63731751 #weekendedition #propaganda #potkettleblack #smh #USmilitary #militaryintelligence #gimmeabreak #publictrust #meta #TechFreedom WE 14.3 – Foxconn’s Zhengzhou Campus Sees Unrest I am in solidarity with these horribly mistreated workers who basically slave to produce Mr. Cook’s iPhones for the sheep who still buy them in droves. Both Beijing and Foxconn have abused these people. They have not been paid well, ever, and now they have missed being paid at all for a time. They also have not received food in the quantity that they need and deserve. They are also afraid of a potential COVID outbreak at the plant. These things all added up and some have been abandoning the factory since the latest lockdown began last month. Do you have an iPhone still? Why? Do you enjoy your beautiful UI and well marketed devices that were made by such horribly treated people? Sorry, these sorts of stories raise my hackles. My compassion, coupled with my intense dislike for how Apple operates, just makes my blood boil. I don’t know of anything we can do, other than perhaps #boycottapple. This is not new news, really. There have been massive issues behind the poison Apple for many years. Just switch. I know you’ve been told that Android is terrible, and you are just so comfortable with your iPhones that you can’t hardly imagine leaving, but if you don’t want blood on your handsets, and you actually value your privacy, run away now. Never look back. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/violent-protests-reportedly-erupt-at-main-iphone-factory-in-china/ #weekendedition #apple #foxconn #china #iphone #boycottapple #TechFreedom WE 14.4 – Remember Theranos? They claimed to be able to test for a number of medical conditions with just a few drops of blood, rather than needing far more, as with conventional labs. Well, the founder, Elizabeth Holmes, was sentenced to 11 years, 3 months in prison, $400 in fines, and 3 years of supervision after release. She could have been sentenced to up to 20 years and $250000 per count of fraud, plus restitution, per count of fraud. How the mighty have fallen. She was the darling of the VC crowd in Silicon Valley, but then it was proven that the testing that they claimed to be able to do was a farce at best, with only dozens of the hundreds of promised tests carried out on their proprietary equipment. On paper, at the zenith of their infatuation with Theranos, she was a paper-billionaire. Oh, and she will still need to pay restitution, to be determined later. They hit some major investors, from the Waltons, to Larry Ellison of Oracle, to Rupert Murdoch of Fox. So of course these major players couldn’t let that slide. Even at that, this feels like a bit of a slap on the wrist. Then again, I haven’t spent much time looking at white collar crime and punishment, much less how rare jail time is for people like Holmes. I imagine that it is about as rare as hens’ teeth. All thanks to our banana republic in-justice system. Big money makes a way for certain individuals to walk almost Scot free, where those who do not have it get ground under the full weight of the law. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/tech/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-sentencing #weekendedition #theranos #elizabethholmes #fraud #wristslapping #sentencing #TechFreedom WE 14.5 – FCC to the Rescue, Effectively Ends UC Global’s Access to US Markets What is UC Global, you ask? A company who has repeatedly refused to comply with US regulations regarding robocalls. Therefore, the FCC has seen fit to deny the company access to US telecom companies, shutting it out of the US market. Wow. That is harsh, but we’ll see if it is really effective at reducing those nuisance calls from computers or not. Heigh-ho silver, AWAAAYYYY!!!! As annoying as those infernal calls are, is a gov’t agency powerful enough to deny access to US markets a good thing? I am unsure. They ostensibly exist to protect us from fraud and from worse things, but do they actually serve that purpose? I’d have to look more closely at them before answering that question. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/tech/fcc-global-uc-robocalls-violations #weekendedition #robocalls #fcc #banhammer #loneranger #lol #donttrustit #TechFreedom

We 15.1 – Neuralink: Sounds Good on One Hand... Terrifying on the Other... The promise of Neuralink is lofty and sounds amazing, should they actually succeed at their aims, and overcome the ethical and legal concerns inherent with melding man and computers. If you didn’t know, Musk owns the company, and he has a huge interest in trans-humanism. I should probably talk a bit about definitions, here, before I proceed. What are the legal and ethical concerns with melding machines with the human mind? That is an unfolding issue, but the bottom line is where the person ends and the computer begins in this scenario, say in a situation where an augmented human being commits a crime. Are they human? Do laws for humans apply to them? Should they? As for the ethics, this gets into what the definition of human is, along with whether it is fair for natural humans to compete with augmented, trans-human beings (once they are to the point where they would be competitive or even have an edge over the rest of us). In a way, this is semi-analogous to trans-females competing with natural, biological women in physical activities. Those trans individuals will always have advantages in speed, endurance, and strength. Will this be the case with trans-humans? We do not know. Will this simply be another way in which wealthy people will be able to flaunt their wealth and keep otherwise naturally more gifted poor individuals from competing fairly? Will augmented or trans-humans be able to exist without prejudice, either from or towards natural humans? Should we get to the point where we find out? I’m not sure. Neuralink is a company built around the ideals of trans-humanism, initially with the laudable goal of restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, limb function to paralytics and quadriplegics, and the like. This is what sounds great, on the surface. When you look at trans-humanism the shine quickly wears off. The bottom line is that they want to play God. They want to “upgrade” humanity to something “more” than we are. Here is a definition from the Encyclopedia Britannica: it is a philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emerging technologies—such as genetic engineering, cryonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanotechnology—to augment human capabilities and improve the human condition. They are doing animal trials right now with limited, but quickly expanding capabilities, such as tapping into a pig’s spinal column to start to understand the nature of the electro-chemical messages sent from brains to limbs, and to intercept those in order to decode and study them. They have also been working on visual experiments on monkeys. This is very distasteful to me. I mentioned the concept of “playing God” earlier, and that is really the level of hubris that proponents of this line of thinking are looking to do. On a purely technical level, this is really cool, however, the world is much more nuanced and complex than a whitepaper or a relatively simple animal experiment. My gut says that this is wrong, and not a direction we should be pursuing. https://www.cnet.com/science/neuralink-brain-chip-plans-help-the-blind-see-and-the-paralyzed-walk/ #weekendedition #musk #neuralink #heavy #transhumanism #playinggod #nothanks #TechFreedom WE 15.2 – Drop Everything and Update NOW!!! *eyeroll* Major patches in the last month, all around. It is great that the behemoths of Big Tech are on their game, and are patching some significant security holes in the last month. Windows saw 68 vulnerabilities patched, with 4 zero-day scenarios, Apple patched two major libxml2 flaws which could lead to remote access issues, Google patched several issues of their own within Android which could lead to inappropriate local privilege escalation (as they were in GSF, related to the Play Store), Chrome patched its 8th major security issue for the year, and not to be outdone, Mozilla patched 19 security holes with Firefox 107. VMWare also had some issues in their cloud infrastructure which got patched. Ok, as much as I want to make a big stink out of these patches, it is essentially business as usual. Bugs and vulnerabilities get identified by users and researchers, and the teams behind these products work hard to patch these issues, then roll them out to the public. This is normal, even in the FOSS community, as I often cover in my Linux news segments during the week. The key differences between the models is that in FOSS, the patches often get rolled out more quickly, as those development teams tend to be more nimble than their proprietary counterparts. https://www.wired.com/story/ios-android-windows-vulnerability-patches-november-2022/#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_a7d87c76-d775-40b2-b504-824d7f859c59_popular4-1 #weekendedition #security #patches #updates #Windows #Apple #google #android #chrome #firefox107 #vmwware #TechFreedom WE 15.3 – SCOTUS Fight Over Section 230 Protections for Big Tech Begins... Round 1: Fight! Ok, this is a nuanced situation, and the cases at hand have to do with terrorism. I am tired of hearing about terrorism as an excuse for loss of rights. What I am not tired of is tech giants using algorithms to decide what I should even want to see online. Give me unvarnished search results and do not silo me in some sort of echo chamber. I may not like much of what is out there, but let me see it all, dammit. I need information in order to form valid opinions. Let me think for myself. I never gave you the right to determine what is good, valid, or objectionable. Ok, rant over. One is a case against Google, regarding an attack in Paris by Islamic State (IS) actors. The other is against Twitter, regarding an IS attack in Turkey. The Google (Gonzalez v Google) related suit alleges that Google aided and abetted the terrorists by hosting their communication and boosting it artificially through their algorithms. Google is confident that they are in the right here, that they did nothing beyond what Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would cover. SCOTUS may have other thoughts, here, and this may be the beginning of the end for Section 230. I’m not one for hyperbole, but this could be interesting to watch, particularly in tandem with the Twitter v Taamneh case. I’ll follow up on these as time goes on, and we’ll see what, if anything changes through these eventual decisions. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/1/23487958/supreme-court-gonzalez-google-twitter-taamneh-section-230 #weekendedition #google #twitter #section230 #lawfare #terrorism #TechFreedom WE 15.4 – Poor Zuck... Reduced to Whining About the App Store We’ve talked about the woes of Meta lately, so I don’t need to re-cover that here, but, suffice it to say, they have had an exceedingly bad year, losing about $750 Billion in market cap. A good chunk of that is tied to the fact that Apple changed its ad-tracking policies, so that only they could accurately serve ads to their customers. Can’t even say that Apple did a good thing there, as they simply walled their users in even more fully, there is a line from Psalms which talks about how God protects His children, that He “hems them in, behind and before” that comes to mind. Can we trust Apple with that data? Haven’t they been compromised and exploited in terms of privacy and security many times in the last few years? Aside from that, what motivation should we have, other than convenience, to pay the Apply tax? Sure, their ecosystem works extremely well, until something breaks, then you need the Genius Bar, which may not even be available for an appointment for a month or more. At any rate, Zuck spoke at a conference in NYC last week, and petulantly whined about how “Apple has sort of singled themselves out as the only company that is trying to control unilaterally what apps get on a device.” Do I agree with Apple’s exclusive control over their ecosystem? No. Of course not. I understand why it is a “thing”, but really? This is not the kind of control which should exist in the modern tech space. I do not pity Zuck or Meta in this, but many other good apps have been rejected from the AppStore over the years. Do we exist in a free market, capitalist society or not? Apple has created an exceedingly lucrative niche for itself, in our system, which could be argued to be fascistic in tone if not reality, particularly in the last 15 years or so, since the first iPhone rolled out. I applaud them for that. Good on them. However, it is extremely anti-competitive and anti-consumer on their part to continue on this track. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/30/mark-zuckerberg-says-apples-app-store-policies-are-not-sustainable.html #weekendedition #crybabyzuck #meta #apple #anticompetition #anticonsumer #appstore #TechFreedom WE 15.5 – Sam Bankman-Fried Admits that He “Screwed Up” Speaking virtually at the same conference where Zuck spoke, DealBook, SBF claimed that he had major regrets at the events of the last month, and beyond. He did not own up to commingling funds between FTX and Alameda Research (a hedge fund he set up and controlled). He admitted that he screwed up. No shit, Sherlock. Pardon my french there. I was not invested in anything connected with FTX, thank God, but those who are caught up in the fallout of this thing are probably wondering, along with me, why he has not been hauled into custody. Why is he able to speak and appear at industry conferences like this with all of the mess swirling around him? Is it because he is as connected as he is, as well as likely having paid off some major players in the political space through massive donations? Probably. He has been strutting around like some sort of peacock in the last few weeks, almost doing some sort of apology tour, very much against the advice of his lawyers. Maybe he thinks that he can’t be touched because parties on both sides of the aisle owe him allot, due to his massive campaign contributions. He claims that he may be down to about $100k in his bank account, from a zenith of $26 Billion, just 6 or 7 months ago. I was not paying a ton of attention to crypto as a whole, other than a passing interest and observing how the whole market has been sickeningly volatile over the last couple of years. Particularly BTC. Yikes. I never really trusted that whole thing to begin with. I hope you all haven’t lost too much in that space. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/30/business/sam-bankman-fried-ftx #weekendedition #sbf #ftx #crypto #duh #TechFreedom

We 16.1 – TSMC + Bidan in AZ, What Could Go Wrong? TSMC stands for Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and they fabricate many chips for many different companies, including Apple and AMD. The AZ plant, which is one of two they have committed to building in the US, will focus on 3 and 4 NM process nodes for Apple’s ARM silicon. Trump started the ball rolling on this, but Bidan is capitalizing on it, as the fact is that these are planned to be in full operation before the 2024 election. TSMC is making a 40 billion dollar investment in the US, split between 2 plants, one in AZ and the other in OH. This is great news for US nationals, to not be so dependent on Chinese fabrication plants for our chips, for everything from cars to cell phones, smart fridges, IoT devices, and computers. What bothers me, but is a typical feature of politics, is that the useless lump who can’t make it through a whole sentence without a nearly catastrophic stumble is getting to take credit for the work and ideas that Trump put in place during the 2020 election cycle. Then again, there were some major landmines that Trump left for the Bidan joke of an admin... From the stimulus checks and ConVid measures (including Fauci and co), left in place to make the economy tank through inflation and alleged shortages. I don’t know, maybe that gives Trump too much credit for strategy. Don’t crucify me too hard in the comments on this one, just talking and expressing some opinions, here. I want to believe that Trump is that good, but I’m not so sure at this point. Time will tell. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63883047 #weekendedition #tsmc #bidan #trump #tech #madeinamerica #TechFreedom WE 16.2 – Meta May Drop All US News from US Timelines In response to the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act or JCPA, Meta has stated that not only does it feel that its platform has actually helped struggling journalists by allowing them to draw more eyeballs to their websites, but that the news on Meta news feeds only accounts for 4% of total revenue for the platform. What is the JCPA? It aims to allow local news stations, newspapers, and independent journalists the ability to collectively bargain with the platform to get a larger cut of the ad revenue pie. This article equates it to a piece of similar legislation that passed in Australia in March 2021, and resulted in a temporary moratorium on news on Facebook in Australia, until the Aussie gov’t struck a deal with Facebook later that year. What’s true, here? Is this seemingly compassionate legislation a good move by our legislators? How many of these smaller publishers and outlets are actually adding something important to the landscape of the news in America, anyway? How many are just parroting 3 AM talking points given to them by the higher-ups in their affiliated networks vs actually reporting accurately on things that are really happening? Who knows? How many who were actually telling the truth got demonitized, shadow-banned, Facebook jailed, or deactivated by Facebook, though? I sense that there were many. How many tweaked things so that the “fact checkers” (propagandists) at Facebook wouldn’t slam them? Possibly even more... How many avoided the problem altogether by becoming parrots of the accepted narrative, and betrayed the trust of the American viewer and reader? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63869013 #weekendedition #meta #news #jcpa #goodbadorugly #TechFreedom WE 16.3 – Are AirTags a Safety Concern? Two women are suing Apple, alleging that their exes used AirTags to stalk them, one, where the guy placed one in a plastic bag, colored with a sharpie, and hid it in a wheel well in her car, and the other, where AirTags kept appearing in her son’s backpack after visits with his dad (complaintant’s ex-husband). These cheap, bluetooth tiles, meant to make it easier to track down lost keys in your house, misplaced luggage or other items, can too easily be abused to track people, rather than just items. It is argued that there are not enough security protections on these devices to prevent them from being misused. Gee whiz, I seem to recall making that case in one of my first Weekend Edition streams, and that is without any real research on my part, just simple common sense. I am also deeply concerned with any proprietary tech like this, as it is unable to be audited by anyone outside of the company who created it. Anyway, I told you so... Of course, the article I talked about these things in relation to was primarily about child safety at school. I do not trust these things at all. Prove that I’m wrong, I’ll change my opinion. I’m waiting. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/tech/apple-airtag-lawsuit #weekendedition #apple #airtags #creepy #stalking #privacy #security #TechFreedom WE 16.4 – SEC and Crypto Intermediaries SEC Chair Gensler warned crypto lenders and others who play with crypto that doesn’t really belong to them that the SEC might be coming for them soon (see Alameda Research, Nexo, BlockFi, FTX, and the like). He called them “crypto casinos”, and stated that if they touch US markets, they must come into compliance with US laws and regulations if they are going to continue functioning. My sense on the whole crypto thing is that it is ultimately better to invest in precious metals and other physical assets than in digital, ephemeral, so-called assets. In the way of disclosure, I have done a smidge bit of dabbling in crypto, but am essentially out of the market now. Now that that is out of the way, the volatile nature of crypto has always scared me. If a coin or token is directly tied to say an oz or a gram of physical silver or gold, or any other precious metal you might think of, and one can directly redeem that token or coin for that physical asset, it could be worthwhile. If it is as 99.999% of them have been, and purely based on speculation and strings of code, then get out, now, before it crashes fully. I sense a mass death spiral coming in the crypto space, particularly with the FTX situation, among others. HODL, or get out. Quit trading for a living. Let the market implode and the truly real and viable ones rise from the ashes before you do too much more. Not financial advice, and I am not an expert, just someone who has watched, mostly from the sidelines sharing his opinion. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sec-chair-says-crypto-intermediaries-should-come-into-compliance-with-law-2022-12-07/ #weekendedition #crypto #lending #fintech #volatility #physicalassets #gold #silver #SEC #TechFreedom WE 16.5 – SBF May Be a Challenge to Actually Arrest... Oh Brother... As a follow up of sorts to the articles from the last couple of weeks where I mused about the fact that SBF has yet to be arrested for what appears to be at least a handful of potential fraud charges related to how things went or didn’t go at FTX and related companies. On one hand, he is very well-connected and paid-up with those who would be coming after him on the Federal level. On the other, the records are scant within FTX, so proving much of anything is going to be a major struggle for investigators. If he is ever arrested, it may take years of painstaking investigations first, so that they can be confident in charging him with crimes. In the interim, he is open to civil litigation, which is already mounting, and has a much lower burden of proof (simply “beyond a reasonable doubt” in a judge’s mind), rather than incontrovertible evidence being placed before a jury in a criminal proceeding. Investigators do not want to just throw shit at the wall to see what sticks, as they also want to avoid double jeopardy issues, where if one very similar charge is thrown out in court, that person cannot be charged with a substantially similar crime in the future. The bottom line is that the wheels of justice turn slowly in cases like this. We may want his head, but we need to make sure that charges actually stick, so he actually gets convicted of at least one crime from this whole scenario, and justice is served. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/05/sam-bankman-fried-could-face-years-in-prison-over-ftx-meltdown.html #weekendedition #sbf #ftx #crypto #prison #fines #ouch #patience #justice #TechFreedom

We 17.1 – SBF Arrested... Boy Was I Wrong... Maybe He Crossed too Many of the Wrong People... Well, that escalated quickly. The US filed charges against him on Monday 12/12/22, and the Bahamian Authorities were more than happy to comply and arrest him. He requested bail, but was denied, and will be held in custody there until February 8th. He faces 8 counts of conspiracy and criminal activity related to wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws. Any one of those, if they stick, could put him behind bars for a number of years. On top of these criminal charges, he is being slapped with civil charges brought by Gensler’s SEC. They allege that SBF “built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto”. I was perhaps a little too cynical last week. For that I apologize. We will see how much of the weight of the law crashes down on his curly head. The new CEO, who is presiding over the Chapter 11 proceedings after SBF ducked out last month, called the collapse “plain, old embezzlement” during a congressional hearing that SBF was unable to attend, due to being in Bahamian custody. He had a prepared statement read, but was absent. As an aside, all of this talk about the Bahamas has me thinking about an old song... Who Let the Dogs Out... Lol I guess he did... https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/crypto/ftx-co-founder-sam-bankman-fried-charged-with-fraud-denied-bail/ #weekendedition #sbf #ftx #sbfarrested #crypto #bs #deception #TechFreedom WE 17.2 – 8 Twitter Influencers Charged with Stock Fraud Over the last nearly 3 years, 7 of the 8 charged individuals have allegedly used Twitter and Discord to manipulate a series of stocks, in a maneuver called a “pump and dump”, where they amassed $100 million in profits by buying, then hyping the stocks in question to artificially “pump” the valuation up, then dumping them when it had surged enough for them. The 8th charged individual is charged with “aiding and abetting” the schemes of the other 7, by giving them publicity on his podcast, then getting a cut of the profits when they traded their shares away without notifying their audiences/ followers of their intentions to do so. That’s right, it is illegal to do that, unless you are a government or quasi-government entity like the Federal Reserve, which regularly manipulates the entire market through screwing with the prime interest rate and announcing intentions to do so, one way or the other. Can I be any more sarcastic about the fakeness of stonks and the ephemerality of the whole system? Not sure. I sure am reminded of that classic George Carlin bit about there being “a big club, and you ain’t in it”. This is bullshit from the start anyway, some businesses are legitimately worth something, based on their sustained profitability, or some technology or other thing they produce that perennially sells well. However, most stonks are not worth the figurative paper they are “written on”, though they are no longer physical things in most cases, now. In fact, if you are invested in the Market, you do not actually own stocks. You own nothing, and you freak out over the financial news, when not only is that stock literally never in your possession (it belongs to Cede & Company, you just purchase limited rights to it), Cede & Co processes stock certificate transfers for the Depository Trust Company, which is in turn held by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. These companies actually own the stock that you “purchase”, “hold”, and “sell”. Not only stock, but Mutual Funds, EFTs, derivatives, or any other securities traded on Wall St. I could go into the house of cards that is the rest of our financial system, predicated on “faith” or “fiat” currency, whose value is entirely immaterial. This is how certain countries with massive amounts of natural resources can have currencies that are regularly sent into hyperinflation, while others have ”stronger” standings. It is all nonsense until the world returns to precious metal-backed financial systems, which it seems as though Russia and the other BRICS nations are in the process of doing. People have their reasons to dislike Russia and Putin, but are we really any different in terms of free speech, here in the “liberal, democratic” West? I digress. Do these comments make it ok to defraud anyone? Absolutely not. They do, however begin to shine a light on the fraud that is inherent in the current system, and will only get more pronounced with some type of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) that is even more tightly controlled. https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/influencers-charged-by-sec-in-securities-fraud-scheme/ #weekendedition #stonks #stockmarket #bullshit #influencers #scammers #pumpanddump #finance101 #stocks101 #TechFreedom WE 17.3 – Will Congress Ban TikTok? Let’s See... Looks like we have very similar bills being put forward in both houses of congress to ban both TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, from operating in the US. Here are the sponsors: Senator Marco Rubio of FL, and Reps Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). This idea is bipartisan, at least in the house, and that is encouraging to me. I know many people are addicted to it, and that is the cornerstone of these pieces of legislation. The reality is that roughly 1/3 of the US population (111 million people) uses TikTok at least monthly, according to Data.ai, an internet statistics company. Rep Gallagher calls it “digital fentanyl, that is addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news”. I quite agree with his appraisal. ByteDance, of course, is on the defensive here, and is insisting that they aren’t hurting US national security, and that they are working hard to put in place better protections for US citizens. If you recall, they are being raked over the coals by the EU, and desperately wants to avoid losing their lucrative place in the US. We shall see what happens here. I have to admit that as much as I abhor the overall dumbing down and infantilization of the US population through platforms like TikTok which incentivize short attention spans, along with videos that barely have any real meaning. Not to mention that it is a huge data siphon for users, with the funnel leading straight to servers controlled by the CCP, who certainly mines that data for anything that could possibly be useful to them and harmful to our wellbeing. I also struggle with countries whose governments are powerful enough to ban things for their citizens, rather than simply educating and informing them of the dangers of their behaviors. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/congressional-bills-would-ban-tiktok-in-the-us-to-thwart-china/ #weekendedition #tiktok #bytedance #creepy #bantiktok #privacy #security #TechFreedom WE 17.4 – Could Clean Nuclear Fusion Be Around the Corner? Researchers at the NIF (National Ignition Facility) in San Francisco have been chasing this holy grail of clean power for 60 + years. Nuclear fusion is the process which “powers” stars, so stable, viable nuclear fusion would entail creating a miniature star in a bottle, then siphoning off the energy it produces to benefit humanity. The problem is that until 12/5/22, it never produced a net gain in energy. Something changed in the fifth, however, and they changed the design of their experiment and were able to create a hot enough, dense enough environment to briefly release more energy than the lasers which created the heat energy deposited. The lasers had fired 2 megajoules of energy into the hohlraum (the container at the heart of the NIF facility where they attempt to create a fusion reaction. There are, however, massive inefficiencies in their systems, which lead to losses of 99.5% of the energy used before it even reaches the hohlraum. It takes about 400 megajoules to get a consistent 2 megajoules of power to reach the hohlraum. They were able to generate 2.5 megajoules through this experiment. This is the first net positive result* for this form of fusion experiment, but it is just a proof of concept. Cool, but not earth shatteringly cool. Nuclear fusion is clean in that it does not produce radioactive waste at the end of the reaction, unlike nuclear fission, which involves splitting radioactive isotopes, such as uranium and plutonium. *versus the amount of power that actually reached the hohlraum, not the energy it took to “fire muh lasers” https://www.cnet.com/science/major-energy-breakthrough-milestone-achieved-in-us-fusion-experiment/ #weekendedition #crypto #lending #fintech #volatility #physicalassets #gold #silver #SEC #TechFreedom WE 17.5 – Apple to Allow Alt App Stores in the EU... Maybe Here, Too? Wow, Apple’s walled garden is being bulldozed open by EU regulators through competition laws. After all, if they don’t they’ll get slapped with a fine worth 10% of their global revenue... That, in the case of Apple, could be billions of dollars. Apple of course throws the “but muh security”, but “if we allow sideloading apps, it could harm the devices and open phones to someone other than just us”... Remember when Epic Games sued Apple over AppStore fees in Fortnite? Pepperidge Farms Remembers... Epic lost the case, but argued that Apple has too much control over the devices they make. That whole kerfluffle was largely noise and fury with little real meaning or substance, though the EU took notice. This seems to be much of what the EU was aiming at with this law. Apple has yet to decide if they’ll allow app developers to set up their own in-app payment systems or not, but that is another piece of the picture, here. The changes are targeted for the release of iOS 17 https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-reportedly-to-allow-rival-app-stores-on-iphones-ipads-in-eu/ #apple #appstores #EU #monopoly #TechFreedom

Twitter Files, SBF, Biden Gaffes, SouthWest Falls From Sky, Moar Big Tech Money Troubles, AI & x-86, Self-Driving News, Android Learns from iOS. WE 18-1: The Twitter Files, a Snarky Recap Ok, the Twitter Files have been a revelation, for normies, at any rate... The Gatekeepers have tried to make them sound unimportant and unconsequential, but if that is the case, why minimize and deflect from the fact that 3-Letter Agencies basically gave Twitter marching orders in terms of accounts to ban or at least stifle through the algorithm. They also don’t want you to see that Fauci and co also manipulated us through the magic of Twitter, if we paid any attention to that annoying blue bird in the first place (I never did). I guess that could be part of why I saw some things years before those who are more connected to that font of nonsense that has been radically over-emphasized since it was founded. Hopefully all of this will help wake a few people up. I won’t post links on this, as it is simply a quick recap. I would barely bat an eye if some 10 year old shoots the dirty blue bird with a BB gun, and it dies. Good riddance, that kind of micro-blogging has only encouraged the degradation of society as a whole, in my opinion. Come at me if you think it has been any kind of net positive for the world. The comments section awaits you. WE 18-2: SBF’s Escapades Where the Bahamian authorities absolutely refused his request for bail, as soon as he was extradited to the US, the same system where Epstein *didn’t* kill(ed) himself, the judge, whose palms must be about as greasy as an oil rig worker, instantly granted his bail request. How’d he come up with $100 million, when he claimed to be down to his last $100k in the bank. This feels like a set up for the very kind of slap on the wrist that I figured would happen a month ago. Many people were completely defrauded by his choices to allow Alameda Research to raid FTX’s user’s accounts at will. What the hell is that? I guess this is where we see how far his campaign contributions take him. I was glad to see that he was arrested so quickly initially, but now he is a free man, rather than sitting in a jail cell, where he belongs. Big shade, y’all, big shade. So, who is gonna be left holding the bag on this one? Even Madoff was thrown deep in jail, even though he was an old man. What’s going to happen with this young, Jewish man who destroyed so many lives by allegedly stealing so much money from them? Time will tell. WE 18-3: Biden Gaffes (Ok, this happens whenever Brandon opens his pitiful mouth) His latest gaffe had him admitting what anyone with a braincell and a half has known for the last 20 months, that we are in a recession. About time that his mouth got around to cutting past the gaslighting that the rest of his admin seems to be doing around that issue. I wish I could say that I don’t sense an even more significant crash coming soon. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but with the juggernauts of Big Tech executing mass layoffs to cut costs and “tighten their belts” to “get through” the next season, how can we expect anything else? Well, how about we work together to create a parallel economy that has nothing to do with the Fed? There are many who have been working at this for years now, but I am concerned that those efforts are not enough to cushion enough people to make it worthwhile, yet. Let’s do this thing, all. Choose to trade locally whenever possible, I know that is far harder for urbanites, but it can be done. I sense that that is the solution, though. Just a wild thought, since part of why you follow me is that you likely sense something similar, and a need to be more independent of the larger systems which are so easily manipulated by those who have been in power. Sound tinfoil hat enough for you? Yes, I am aware that this could be considered a “conspiracy theory” or at least just adjacent to one. I don’t want to get off into those weeds though, so here is where I talk just a touch about the SouthWest issues. WE 18.4: SWA (South West Airlines) Falls Out of the Sky Oops, we pushed all of our employees to get the jab in order to keep their jobs, and now in the weather and at the height of the holiday travel season, most of our fleet is grounded. Buttigieg absolutely failed to handle this catastrophe appropriately (big surprise that the guy who nearly ran South Bend into the ground, and only has the job he does because he is gay would drop the ball when he is most needed and go fly on a military jet rather than on an airline). Can Brandon’s so-called administration get any more pathetic? First there was the bevy of diversity appointments (mostly sexual deviants, queer BDSM freaks, kleptomaniacs, furries, and so-called trans or gender-fluid people). I can’t even. I don’t understand this bizarro world, you guys. Brandon and all of these circus people need to get tossed out on their rear ends, like 2 years ago. But I digress... SouthWest really dropped the ball here, and had no real solutions for their problems which affected so many crews and flights. It seems that they have been shamed into refunding those ticketholders. That doesn’t undo the missed family time, missed business opportunities, and all the rest, though. WE 18.5: Big Tech Continues Layoffs Amazon, Meta, Google, and the rest continue laying people off as they forecast very rough times coming. I alluded to this earlier. Part of me is gleeful, but they aren’t falling to bits because of patriots taking their business elsewhere. They are “cost-cutting” so that their businesses can survive, just as average families have had to do since Brandon allegedly became president ( I can’t believe I put those words so close together... Somebody slap me and wake me up from this nightmare). Between gas prices that are a direct reflection of policies which made Big Oil stop prospecting and drilling for more Texas tea in the US, as the WH has loudly proclaimed that they want to see America be oil-free by 2035 or some nonsense like that. These companies are just allowing older refineries and similar infrastructure to shut down because it is not worth the time or money which they’ll never recoup to get those things running to effectively handle the crude we already produce. Then there is the rest of the inflation that they only force higher by making the money printers go brrrr and the imaginary balances rise with the Fed. Even Samsung is feeling the pinch, as we just did CES in Vegas this last week. I have very little interest in gadgets at this point, otherwise I probably would have done some sort of rundown piece. I’m not into being Eeyore, so I’m gonna change the topic now... How about AI? Amazon, et al: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/tech/amazon-ceo-layoffs-andy-jassy Samsung: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/tech/samsung-profit-sinks-intl-hnk WE 18.6: AI on x86 Chips, and Self-driving Nonsense... AMD, Microsoft, AI, Tesla, and self-driving strollers... Ok, one thing at a time... AMD has included AI engines in their latest round of CPUs, a first in the x86 architecture. All well and good, except that Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon saying that Windows will be redesigned by AI, ok, I can’t breathe. Laughing too hard at this... Gasp, gasp, snort... Ok, AMD, what are you claiming that these things can do? Well, extend battery life, allegedly allowing for up to 30 hours of video playback on a single charge on your laptop. Yes, you heard that right... That is what Dr. Su is claiming. She also claims that these are 20% faster than the ones in the Apple M2 silicon. What else could that mean? Well, the head of AI at Microsoft was on stage with her, and hinting at great things they could do for video calls (blurring backgrounds, detecting eye contact, and even auto framing people while using less battery. I trust MS about as far as I can throw them, so the concept of their involvement in the AI space (I know they are already neck-deep in it, don’t get me wrong) gives me the willies. https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/4/23539873/microsoft-panos-panay-ai-windows-amd-ces-2023 As for Tesla, apparently the Model Y has scored very highly on its self-driving tests in Europe, though those features are much less flashy there, with a limit of 1/10th the distance for self-parking and retrieval, among other things. Tesla is still struggling like the likely CIA construct it probably is (oops, there comes my tinfoil hat again) in terms of market cap woes, after Musk liquidated billions of $$ worth of his personal stock to seal the deal to buy the dirty blue bird. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/business/tesla-euro-ncap-autopilot As for the self-driving stroller... Wait, what? Who the hell would trust their child to an AI-controlled stroller? What’s next? I mean, on one hand, the examples that the comapny behind this hair brained concept mentions are somewhat compelling, but at the same time, who has $3300 to spend on a stroller? I know how expensive the luxury ones are, but come on. A stroller that can allegedly roll with you as you carry the baby, or rock the baby to sleep as you do your run at the park , or keep the stroller from running away from you if you drop something like your keys while walking down a hill. Who programmed the AI? Who trained it? How “self-driving” is it, really? https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/tech/self-driving-stroller-ces WE 18.7: Android Learns New Trick from iOS Media Notifications, so that your Android ecosystem devices feel more convergent, like Apple’s seamless experience. What does this do? Allow you to move songs playing between devices, and other services in the same vein, such as Phone Hub, Nearby Share, and Fast Pair. Media Notifications will allow you to listen to the same song (it will prompt you as you get close to a compatible device) on another of your devices. It uses all of the network capabilities of the devices in question to ping and look for those devices, kind of like how Apple “helps” you find a lost AirTag. This feels like a bad idea for privacy, because that will allow any user to be pinpointed even more accurately than with simple BT, WiFi, and mobile data connectivity on an older device. I see this as an evolution of track & trace. We saw what that did during convid. Do you want to help them track you that easily? I don’t. Let’s find a way to make this private and open source, rather than constantly talking to Mountain View. The problem is even if you have the more private version, as soon as you ping a device that hasn’t been freed, you may as well not have bothered to free yourself... The other device will tattle on you. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/android-is-catching-up-to-apple-in-an-important-way-at-ces/ Https://TechFreedom.pro/freedom-consultation/

WE 20-1: chatGPT in Education, What are Teachers Doing? On one hand, there is the impulse to ban it, as the district in NYC has done. I’m not certain that this makes sense in the long run, as how do you ensure that such a ban is actually enforceable? Sure, you can set up DNS filtering on all district-connected devices, but how do you prevent the kids from signing in at home or using their phones via mobile data, whether at school or elsewhere? Tools are not in place to prove whether someone used one of these AI tools to generate assignment-fulfilling answers. Tools are being developed, but simply are unavailable at this point. I think the wiser method is one that was mentioned in the other CNN article I found on the issue: one group of teachers has decided to tweak things so that they can see the process more in-depth, another is shifting back to using in-class essays more, rather than take-home ones where the students could use a tool like ChatGPT to write it for them. Some professors are not clear that it could actually be damaging to students for them to use it. Others are checking ChatGPT before they assign things to make sure what ChatGPT “knows”, even requiring certain classes of sources that ChatGPT would not have access to. Mitigation tools are already in the works, and many are using them already. One is called ZeroGPT, and is being developed by a Princeton student, and Turnitin is also on board with that. If you have been a student in the last 15 years, you’ve probably had to submit at least one paper to Turnitin in that time, as it is a very popular anti-plagiarism tool. ChatGPT is also being embraced by some, as a way to help students to improve their own writing, as a foundation piece, or a comparison source for them. This intrigues me. Am I on board with the concept in its entirety? No. I don’t really like the proliferation of AI, as it seems to be in lockstep with transhumanist ideals, which I categorically oppose. However, you are free to form whatever opinion you like, just make sure that it is an educated one. Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/tech/chatgpt-teachers-adjusting https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/tech/chatgpt-nyc-school-ban/index.html WE 20-2: BTC Bull Run? XRP News... Looks like BTC is recovering from its tumble in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, but why? It doesn’t seem like the broader financial situation should support such a surge in the last couple of weeks. We’re looking at a 28% surge in value in the last 2.5 weeks. Is this the beginning of a bull run? Some would enthusiastically say yes, buy now, buy at the dip, and ride the rocket ship up to the moon, baby! I have never trusted it, as BTC has proven to be inherently volatile, and it is far too easily abused by bad actors, whether state based or not. It has often been linked to things like human trafficking and other illicit activities which ultimately harm people. This article talks about some of the factors which could be playing into the current rally, one of which being whispers of a looser US monetary policy with lower interest rates, and the other is that whales seem to be making some large purchases. What’s a whale? A large investor, the term relates to the analogy of the market being like a body of water and the players being marine animals, whether little “fish” or big “whales”. When whales make moves, whether in the Fintech space (crypto, ETFs, tokens, etc) or in the traditional space (Wall St), the smarter fish take notice and make corresponding moves. Back to the manifold issues with BTC, though, chief of which is that it is inefficient, based on a kind of artificial scarcity (the limit to the number of possible Bitcoins in circulation, and the fact that it has intentionally been made more difficult to do the processing to “mine” BTC over the last few years, as we get closer to that limit), and only holds value as long as someone is willing to speculate on it. I don’t like it, but you make up your own mind. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/16/why-is-bitcoin-btc-rallying-in-january.html Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, which created both the XRP coin and its corresponding institutional counterpart, Ripple, claims that he expects wither a ruling or a settlement in the SEC case against his company by as soon as June. A ruling, either that the SEC is right about Ripple and XRP (that it is indeed a security and needs to go through the processes and rigamarole of registering as such), and by direct inference, the rest of the industry is populated with unregistered and unregulated securities, or that XRP and Ripple are not securities and that the SEC brought the case needlessly, or some manner of settlement between Ripple and the SEC, admitting that their crypto efforts are indeed not securities, but that there needs to be some sort of slap on the wrist for them. He called the SEC “embarrassing” in how they have comported themselves in the course of this lawsuit. I have to admit that my wife and I have held some XRP in a particular exchange, and it got stuck, frozen, in that exchange as soon as this case started, so we wait with baited breath to be able to do anything at all with it. I want to believe that it Ripple will get its favorable ruling, and that Gensler will be humbled by it, but I have my doubts. At least Ripple/XRP has utility, unlike BTC. Don’t try to talk to me about BTC as “digital gold” or some such shill-y claim, Ripple/XRP is a viable replacement for the SWIFT system that has allowed faster, more secure cross-border payments for years now. Call me a shill if you want, but at least it DOES something. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/ripple-ceo-optimistic-crypto-firm-will-get-sec-xrp-lawsuit-ruling-soon.html WE 20-3: Trump Back on Twitter and Meta Products? Trump’s campaign has petitioned for his accounts to be reinstated, stating that “We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse”. So the campaign is applying pressure, though not looking to sue the social media giant at this point. Trump was reinstated by Musk at Twitter back in Novermber, but has yet to make his much-anticipated return to the platform. This article, from the lamestream media, repeats that they do not believe that he will or even can return to Twitter, due to his commitments with Truth Social. I sensed a sigh of relief at that thought. Then they parrot the J6 talking points about how Trump “refused” to defuse the situation, and instead “poured gas on the fire” by critiquing Pence’s lack of actions to overturn the election. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/donald-trump-prepares-for-his-return-to-facebook-and-twitter.html Trump has told Fox News Digital that he believes that Facebook needs him, more than he needs them, but yet, as we covered in the last story, his campaign has formally petitioned Meta for his reinstatement. This article also discusses how he will very shortly have his first official campaign stop in Columbus, SC. South Carolina is an early primary state and also the home of Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, who appear to be potential challengers to his bid for nomination from the GOP. The GOPe (aka RINOs, aka uniparty members) try to blame him for a shaky result from the midterms, but they also moved against him, not with him in many ways, by not backing many of his candidates because they were running their own people. The whole political system is broken in this country. The false dichotomy between the parties, leading to the illusion of choice at the voting booth, is actually a thing. Not only that, but then there are the well-documented issues with the voting apparatus itself (Dominion, ES&S, etc) which lead to errant, if not outright fraudulent results on voting day. However, I digress. I could talk about this stuff all night, if I wanted to. I see Meta as a dead, decaying platform, as I said last week https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2023/01/18/facebook-instagram-trump-campaign-petition/11075645002/ WE 20.4: Big Tech in Trouble? In the UK, parliament are one step closer to amending their Online Safety Bill. What’s the big deal there? If it goes through as is, it would render the capacity to try and jail the leadership of offending social media companies for not: · removing all illegal content · removing content that's banned by its own terms and conditions · empowering users with tools to protect themselves against types of content they don't want to see At the moment, they have agreed that a UK media watchdog called Ofcom will be in charge of these sorts of proceedings, as well as the current structure of fines, which start at 18 million pounds, and go up to a max of 10% of their yearly revenue (whichever is more, for simply failing to remove illegal content) , and they will also have the ability to completely block sites from the country. As usual with these sorts of legislative efforts, it feels good on the surface, but after that first glance, you realize that it is an ugly transvestite that you at first thought a beautiful, or at least hot, woman. This is a backdoor to greater control over speech. This is censorship in the UK, which already has some very tight regulations on freedom of expression. This also would undermine E2E encryption in the UK, and serve as a template for our own questionable government. That is chilling. Democracies and republics, in order to be healthy at all, need both a well informed populace, and one that is free to speak their minds about matters of public import, including (genuinely) peacefully protesting things, and posting contrary opinions on social media. https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/big-tech-behind-bars-the-uks-online-safety-bill-explained/ Meanwhile, here in the States, as Big Tech continues down the path toward austerity, the US federal government is trying to actively court these laid off tech workers to come work directly for Big Brother by boosting pay rates for those positions across the federal gov’t space. Well, I could go off on this... I really could. I’m not certain that it would be beneficial, but you know, at least that way they cut out the middle man. There are 2,500 related positions that the feds have been unable to fill for the last couple of years, but how many of those people who have been cut loose by big Tech companies would be able to fill those positions? That really doesn’t seem like enough of a drop in the bucket to make a difference with the nearly 200k people who have been laid off in the last 3 months or so from the tech industry, many who were working for giants such as Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, Snapchat, and others. Well, good for those who net those jobs, I suppose. https://www.cnet.com/tech/for-new-tech-jobs-forget-amazon-and-microsoft-try-the-us-government-instead/

Weekend Edition 19 – Crypto, AI, the FAA, and More Crypto News, AI News, Latest On FAA Problems, and a Social Media Roundup. WE 19-1: FTX, SBF, and Crypto Fallout Well, SBF can’t keep his trap shut. In a substack post, on Thursday, he is still claiming that he is innocent of all wrongdoing. However, his other former coworkers each pled guilty to related charges for FTX and Alameda Research. How do you see that? What do you guys think? Seems like they are taking the fall for young Sammy, here. We will see what happens when he actually goes to trial in October. He stirred the pot by redirecting (or attempting to redirect) our attention over to the alleged actions taken by the head of Binance over the last 6 months before he (SBF) stepped down from FTX and Alameda. These allegations amount to committing corporate espionage to bring FTX and Alameda down. We will see if any of that is proven out. Another interesting tidbit in the saga happened on Wednesday when the FTX lawyers claimed that they “found” 5 of the missing 8 billion dollars, so no big deal, right, guys? Hmm, that seems awfully convenient. The CEO in charge of the bankruptcy proceedings seems even more shocked as time goes on, at just how disorganized and out of control FTX and its related companies were. The lawyers claim that the rest of the missing money isn’t really missing, but tied up in crypto that would tank the market even more if they sold them. The charitable side of me finds these excuses plausibe, but the cynic, which is far louder right now, can’t take anything these clowns say at face value... I am torn... Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/12/sam-bankman-fried-denies-stealing-user-crypto-funds-in-new-substack-post.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/11/ftx-has-recovered-5-billion-worth-of-liquid-assets-lawyers-say-bankman-fried-crypto.html WE 19-2: AI News – ChatGPT and VALL-E ChatGPT is EVERYWHERE, right now. What is it? It is an AI chatbot which can do a good number of things, even write scripts for things (probably not programming scripts, but human language stuff). It has no current access to the internet, so it can’t do research on current things, but was trained back in late 2021, so it can have a very intelligent conversation with you about old news. Ok, so what’s the big deal with that? It has quickly become quite ubiquitous around the internet, and you almost can’t tell if you’re talking to a human being or one of these chatbots anymore. Does that kinda freak you out? It should. As cool as it is on a purely technical level, this makes me very nervous in practice. Don’t get me wrong, I am intrigued by it, but I don’t think that I would ever seek out a conversation with one of these, personally. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/chatgpt-is-going-to-be-everywhere-in-2023/ What about VALL-E? Well, I believe I have talked about DALL-E in the past, which is one of the best-known AI art generators, which have their own raft of moral and ethical issues, over how we deal with the concept of intellectual property and copyrights. VOLL-E is an AI voice generator. That should immediately raise GIANT red flags all over the place, if you’re paying attention. An accurate voice generator which you cannot tell was not a real person’s voice... This is not simply doctoring or tweaking audio clips to make someone say something they didn’t say, that has been a reality with recorded voice for at least a couple of decades, and is bad enough. This is worse. This can take a 3 second voiceprint recording and generate your voice to read written text to you, with accurate inflection and emotion, based on context. A bad actor could take a very short snippet of your voice, feed it into VALL-E, then make you read anything, and most people wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t you. This is why allowing Google, Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon to have your voice, through voice-controlled “smart” devices (Google Assistant/Home, Siri/ Apple Home, Cortana, Alexa, etc) is such a horrible idea. These corporations already have a very cozy relationship with Big Brother as it is, if they are truly separate at all, but all it takes is a data leak or a successful hack attack to “liberate” that data from their respective clouds, and there you are, not only what you actually said in the recordings they take from listening ALL the time (allegedly so that they don’t miss an activation beat, and “oh, we don’t record everything you say and do in your home”.... Bullshit.) but what malicious actors could make you say, think of the voice prompts with your credit cards or other sensitive accounts that are similar, and how easy it would be to plug that AI text-to-speech engine into a VOIP call to gain easy access to your accounts. This is bad news, y’all. Bad news indeed. I don’t want to leave this on a downer note, but as cool as the concept is in theory, it is (from where I sit) far too easy to abuse this technology. https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/01/10/after-chatgpt-and-dalle-meet-vall-e-the-text-to-speech-ai-that-mimics-anyones-voice WE 19-3: What Happened with the Flights on Wednesday? The flight tracking system which the FAA uses is sorely out of date. One such system, which completely went down is called NOTAM (Notice To Air Missions). This system sends important safety-related messages to pilots who are about to take off. It crashed for hours on Wednesday, grounding flights for 3-4 hours, leading to thousands of cancellations, and delaying over 7,000 flights... Wow. That is quite something. Was it just aging, inadequately maintained infrastructure, or was it a cyber attack? As of the writing of this article, that was unclear, but seemed to indicate that it was the former, not the latter. Not as exciting, but still a crucial point. Do we have the skilled manpower to maintain and upgrade these aging systems? I don’t know, but there was a video I saw of a guy who claimed he was fired after pointing out issues in the codebase for SouthWest Aitlines (he was paid as an auditor for them, by the way, so his job was to comb through code for issues, then report them). He seemed to think that a) we don’t have the skills and b) corporations want rubber stampers, not honest workers in those sorts of key positions. That speaks volumes to me. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/tech/faa-computer-system-notam Buttigeig has launched an investigation into all of the airline issues of late, so that’s comforting... I suppose... At least that diversity hire who is far more concerned with labelling NYC bridges and roadways as “racist” than actually doing his job to run the Dept of Transportation is actually doing his job for once. Let’s see what he finds... Oh my, he found ancient systems which cannot stand up under the strain of modern air travel, color me shocked. Wasn’t this part of what Trump was after YEARS ago, with his version of the Infrastructure bill? Seems like it to me, but the funding for the FAA likely wasn’t secured very well, thanks to excess pork that was carved into the bill that actually passed. True, those sorts of bills are not “sexy”, but they are crucial, and if funding had been secured, then perhaps the 20-30 year old bones of the systems at the FAA could’ve been overhauled and we might have avoided some of these issues. Who knows. I sure do feel better knowing that Biden’s diversity hires have it all well in hand... https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/tech/faa-notam-system-outage WE 19.4: Social Media Briefs – a cluster of stories about Twitter, Meta, and TikTok. Elon and Twitter: Well, some very high profile J6-related accounts have been restored recently, including DJT, Ali Alexander, CodemonkeyZ, and LT Gen Michael Flynn (Ret). Those are some big names. Good for Elon that he restored DJT’s account which DJT has said that he won’t use again anyway, owing to his connection with Truth Social. Seems a token gesture to me. As you all know by now, I do not trust this South African “wunderkind”, I see his connections with very dark things, such as the destruction of the planet and lives through the rare earth mining that is necessary for the batteries which power his cars (which only last about 5 years, then you may as well buy a new car, so much for them being so “green”), to the whole SpaceX thing, to the transhumanist stuff that he is working on in the form of Neuralink. Too many strikes against him for me to trust him at all. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/tech/twitter-restores-election-deniers Meta: Meta has had an internal debate raging over the reinstatement of DJT. According to this article, they are preparing to announce their decision soon. This has been made into a huge, hairy issue because of their longtime umbilical relationship with the American Intelligence Community... After all, if you recall, Facebook started as a CIA program called LifeLog. The IC (intelligence community) seemed to have a vested interest in destroying Trump, as well as stifling wrongthink. When they came after the little people, no one cared much about censorship or freedom of speech, but when they shut down the account of a sitting president, that sends a very chilling message, doesn’t it? On the other hand, Meta is a private company which has its own rules and governance, which we all agreed to when we signed the EULA and TOS. Given, they have arbitrarily altered the agreement several times over the last handful of years, allowing them to nuke accounts at will, largely. I don’t need to rag on this, but I also, in part, at least, fail to see the big deal at this point. Facebook is largely dead or dying, now, and Trump’s presence alone will not change that. If their rules were set, public knowledge, and administered fairly. They have not been. Part of that is that they have been able to hide behind Section 230, but yeah... Enough on Meta. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/tech/facebook-decision-reinstate-trump TikTok: Wait, mental health suffers when people spend too much time on social media? Say it ain’t so! Depression and anxiety spike, particularly in teens, whose brains are developing at a very rapid pace? Who knew? Alright, alright, enough sarcasm for now. TikTok is being investigated for just these issues, that they advertise their platform as “safe” for teens, but then serve suicide-related content within moments of a new account being created. Not only that, but the way that their algorithm is set up, it keeps you locked in, scrolling from one video to the next as it learns based on your reactions to content which kinds you like, then feeds you those sorts of videos. It is like youtube had a lovechild with pinterest. Content for centuries, tailored to your interests. It just never stops, and you lose hours, then days, then months in that vortex of content. You lose sight of yourself, your life, your family and friends, just like any other kind of addict. Children should not be allowed on these platforms. It is too easy, as a parent to just go, “Oh well, my kids are fine, they aren’t in my hair or destroying anything...” That is the worst attitude to take. There is too much garbage out there. If you care about what your kids consume, stay engaged and enforce the boundaries that you set. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/tech/tiktok-teen-mental-health Https://TechFreedom.pro/freedom-consultation/

WE 21-1: Google Legal Jeopardy Google lost a case in India which is forcing it to back off of Android in that country, where 97% of mobile devices are Android based. What did the case force Google to do? · Allow users to pick their default search engine in Android · Loosen its grip on the necks of OEMs o Developers and OEMs can now license individual apps rather than the whole suite of GAPPs This is huge, if India can make them do this, then perhaps the hegemony of woketardedness can be broken after all. Hallelujah! Let’s roll, Boys! Make these clowns pay for the slimy shit they pull on us through their licensing agreements. According to Google, the Indian regulator that slapped them with this suit simply copy – pasted from the EU’s order last year. So what? If it works, and is legal, slap them as many times as possible, break their monopoly and the practices which created it, then burn them with FIRE. Make suchan example of them that no other US IC front company ever tries this bullshit again. Sure, in business, you want to get to the heights which Google has achieved and to have the power & resources to smash or acquire any other start-ups that could threaten you, but there has to be a certain level of ethics involved, right? At least for me, there does. That is something that won’t change, no matter how much I grow in the future. I’m never going to pull a Google and change my motto. My reason for being in this business is to raise awareness and to help as many people get away from the evil service-cum-spyware companies which sell you as the product, then embrace/extinguish any company which could provide a viable competitor. I am far too FOSS-minded to ever pull those sorts of shenanigans. As for the US, Google is dealing with a similar antitrust suit from the USDOJ. Some think that the DOJ will have a hard row to hoe here to prove that Google’s practices around its ad business are actually harmful to competitors and consumers, but I doubt it. I’m waiting in glee to see Google get slapped again, as doing so is actually backhanding the deep state, as I believe that Google is not only in bed with the Feds (along with Meta and Twitter), but is actually an arm of the CIA. Just my hunch, though. Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64396086 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64159817 https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2023/01/24/google-justice-department-sues-advertising/11112899002/ WE 21-2: Guess Who’s Back, Back Again? Trump’s Back, Tell Your Simpering Woketard Acquaintances Welp, it happened. Meta has reinstated Trump’s accounts across their platforms. So much drama. So much fury and empty bluster. So many REEEEEEEEE’s. Mmmmm, salty Woketard tears. Ok, enough bravado. What is actually happening here? Why would he want to return there, if he has Truth Social, and has chosen to stay from tweeting as well? Ok, so he might want to take advantage of this for the sake of the fact that he is running for the White House again, and will probably need the boost of its 3 Billion active users in order to get his message out more readily. Given, many things have changed since 2020, but completely ignoring a platform like that during what is sure to be a hotly contested (fraudulent) (s)election again, might be a big mistake. Breathe, you woke nincompoops, breathe. You likely have another 5 months until you have to shelter in place in your safe spaces to stay clear of the Bad, Orange Man who so hurts your feelings so inconsiderately (because the media and the establishment have told you to be offended by that with which you disagree, also known as what [they] tell you to be offended by). It is unlikely, as I said last week, that he will start posting on either Meta platforms or on Twitter until his exclusivity agreement with Truth Social is up in June. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64408306 WE 21-3: Big Tech Workers Woes I do not glory in the misfortune of other human beings (individuals). However, I find it hilarious that these formerly untouchable tech mega corps are being knocked down a few pegs by the economics of the current time, which they helped to create, mind you. How did they create it? By blasting the COnvid propaganda fed them by the Deep State, of course, then partnering with them to shut down common sense ideas and solutions, so that the only option was LockDown, masks, and the clotshot, rather than ivermectin, HCQ, reasonable restrictions, and something closer to life as usual. Instead, they chose to shut all that down, whether through “fact checking” or “misinformation” labels, or shadow banning, or outright disabling accounts. I think that on some level, all of us have been affected by these gestapo tactics. Whether monetarily (employment, sales through the floor) or being less able to access accurate information to make better choices for yourself and your loved ones, we’ve all been radically injured by their lack of moral fiber. These employees were mostly drones who made no real policy decisions, other than pressing buttons their tender hearts and company policies dictate they must, at least from what I can tell. The companies are receiving their just desserts, as I see it. The people who are losing and have lost their jobs in this techbath are on the short end of the stick, but what goes around, comes around. Hopefully this lesson in the real world will serve them well, and they aren’t completely braindead after their indoctrinations in school, then at work. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/14/23458204/meta-twitter-amazon-apple-layoffs-hiring-freezes-latest-tech-industry WE 21.4: Big Tech in Trouble? Color me shocked. Twitter is getting sued in Germany for failing to swiftly remove wrongthink from its platform. The content in question is illegal there (that is a whole other ball of wax that I do not have the time or desire to melt right now), on top of it breaking Twitter’s own TOS, apparently, so the European Union of Jewish Students has brought suit over their perceived emotional damage suffered due to these tweets not being removed in a timely manner. What were these offensive tweets about? Holocaust denial and antisemitic attacks. There were a total of 6 tweets at fault. Judging by the laws being put in place by both Germany and the UK around these issues, I think Musk and Twitter are very likely to get smacked by a heavy fine, if not worse, as these are blatant violations of their law, as well as Twitter’s own stated guidelines and TOS. Not much more to say on that. I think it is time to game just a little bit, now. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64404590

WE 22-1: Big Tech Go Down the Hole? Meta spiked in value after a word from Zuck, Amazon hit some numbers, but barely registered a blip in terms of shareholder profits, Alphabet is down, AMD is up, and Apple’s sales had their largest slump in 6 years. Ok, let’s start from the top, shall we? Meta: Had a massive cliff jumping moment last Fall. I covered that when it happened, just after the bloodbath that was the Q3 earnings call, or lack thereof. If you held onto your Meta stock, you’re a happy camper right now, as it spiked by 23% after Zuck shared his vision for a more austere and efficient version of itself. Apparently that is all the analysts and late traders needed to hear to drive the valuation up by over 20% in after hours trading on Wednesday. It wasn’t based on the strength of their sales numbers, as those only grew 4% year on year, but on the commitment to cut costs and make wiser personnel and project based decisions, rather than simply throwing money around. They are also cutting allot of middle management, to limit the bloat and make the decision-making process more streamlined. That sounds like a solid call from the Meta C-suite level. I can’t bash them for making good business decisions, however I will echo previous statements I’ve made in regard to the core of what made Meta such a force of nature to begin with, its utter, core disregard for user privacy. That is why the ads were so profitable for larger companies, especially. The old Facebook pixel was ridiculously overpowered because it was so easy to tie a new website to Facebook for analytics and spy on all of your visitors to target ads that much more readily and effectively, not to mention that the whole thing started as a CIA /5 eyes project to spy on one another’s citizens more easily. It was and remains a giant, intentional honeypot for your personal data. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/metas-year-of-efficiency-everything-wall-street-needed-to-hear.html Alphabet: Down overall, both top and bottom lines. They did not hit any of their targets this quarter, well, darn. YouTube revenues are down... Hmmm... Could platforms like Rumble, GabTV, Bitchute, and Lbry be cutting into their bottom line? Or could it be that their efforts to make YouTube profitable are just failing because it was never sustainable, particularly not at FHD and beyond resolutions with high bitrate video and audio? Or is it that more and more people are wising up and using ad blockers in their browsers or using alternative frontends that perhaps block ads for you, or DNS filtering to block ads? What Front ends are there that either don’t ship your data off to Google (aka the USIC) or force ads down your throat? LibreTube fulfills both aims (and is available on both Android and Desktop), NewPipe which simply obscures you from Google. NewPipe feeds you content without forcing you to sign in, while also allowing you to import and export subscribed lists, likes, etc, as those are stored locally rather than in [their] cloud. Ok, let me slow down for a minute, DNS is the Domain Name Service, which turns IP addresses into URLs and back, so that when you type in a URL, the browser knows which site you are trying to contact. YouTube depends on Ad revenue in order to be viable for more than just gathering data on your preferences and interests. Either way, YouTube underperformed in the last quarter, and contributed to a $500 million earnings shortfall for the quarter. Yes, they missed the expectation by half of a billion dollars. YouTube missed its own expectation by $290 Million, Google Cloud missed its target by $110 Million, and the share value missed its target by $.13 per share. For those of us who preach the good word about forsaking Google, perhaps we are starting to make a dent. One can hope, right? https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/alphabet-googl-earnings-q4-2022.html Amazon: Made allot of money. Their per share profits were only $.03 though. The last quarter they surpassed expected revenues by $3.78 Billion. AWS did not hit its expectations, falling short by $470 Million, but still producing $21.4 Billion in revenues. Their ad business also grew a good bit, and surpassed expectations by $180 Million. Yes, they made $149.2 Billion in revenue last quarter, but that 4% growth was just not enough, and their net income was ONLY $2.7 Billion after all other costs, that is even with the layoffs that they have been engaging in. These numbers make my head spin, but we have to keep plugging away and eventually this, too, will pass. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/amazon-amzn-earnings-q4-2022.html https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/you-shopped-amazon-for-the-holidays-but-its-profits-still-plunged/ Apple: Suffered its biggest year on year decline since 2016. That reflects a 5% drop in overall sales, partially due to the fact that they are positioned as luxury products coupled with the supply-end issues they have had in China for the last few months. The fact that Apple has not seen fit to move their manufacturing to a more democratic country which might treat its citizens like more than cogs in a machine is seeming to bite them where it hurts, the pocketbook. I have mixed feelings about this... On one hand, I want to see Apple either reform itself in terms of truly being about security and privacy, or go down in smoke. On the other, I truly pity the little better than slaves they have assembling their phones, especially, in China. Either way, they actually lost ground overall, even if you take into account the surge for iPad and services. Let me run down the numbers for you: • EPS: $1.88 vs. $1.94 estimated, down 10.9% year-over-year (share prices) • Revenue: $117.15 billion vs. $121.10 billion estimated, down 5.49% year-over-year • iPhone revenue: $65.78 billion vs. $68.29 billion estimated, down 8.17% year-over-year • Mac revenue: $7.74 billion vs. $9.63 billion estimated, down 28.66% year-over-year • iPad revenue: $9.40 billion vs. $7.76 billion estimated, up 29.66% year-over-year • Other Products revenue: $13.48 billion vs. $15.23 billion estimated, down 8.3% year-over-year • Services revenue: $20.77 billion vs. $20.67 billion estimated, up 6.4% year-over-year • Gross margin: 42.96% vs. 42.95% estimated So, as you can see, it was not a good Q4 for Apple overall, even if there were bright spots in certain sectors of their business. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/apple-aapl-earnings-q1-2023.html AMD: AMD, on the other hand, reported a strong Q4, even if their outlook for Q1 is a little less rosy. Upon that report, their stock shot up by 12%, and nudged much of the rest of the industry up with them, from Qualcomm (4%) to NVIDIA (8%) to Broadcom (3%), and even Intel (~3%) rose just a bit, in spite of issues with the market right now. What are some of those issues? Oversupply of chips which drives prices down, overall slowing market with all of the bullshit that Jerry Powell is pulling over at the Fed, and the rest of the big picture stuff. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/chip-stocks-up-on-amd-earnings-feds-signal-inflation-is-easing.html WE 22-2: Might Trump Get Back onto Other Platforms? With the pressure of Twitter and Meta letting him back onto their platforms, will other pointless social media platforms let him back on as well? Who knows... Which others may be in view, here? • Snapchat • Shopify • Stripe Payments • Discord • Reddit The article below states that the author could not reach most of these companies for comment, but that typically once one major company makes a move, the rest generally fall in line. Snapchat has stated that they do not plan to revisit their decision to axe his account. This article is largely a fluff piece, but has a few decent nuggets about policy in it. One example of something of interest in that category was the discussion of Meta’s “guardrails” for Trump and other, moving forward. As I have said before, if the social media giants were genuinely transparent and clear with their TOS and rules in general, rather than having so many moving targets in terms of what is “ok” and what isn’t, and will get you shadow banned, suspended, limited, or deleted. Of course, I am more about freedom of speech, but these platforms are private businesses and can make their own rules. All I want is clarity and fairness from them, but until that happens, or they implode due to enough of us waking up and leaving them that they are no longer profitable at all. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tech/meta-trump-mainstream-social-media WE 22-3: What is Google Gonna Do About ChatGPT? An answer is coming from the giant “in the next couple of weeks”, as ChatGPT has really done damage to their core search (ad) business in the last couple of months, making it so that even with the layoffs I’ve been reporting on for what feels like the last month, their profits have only grown by 1% year-on-year. Tough times for the giant of Mountain View. To give you an idea, Google Search revenues dropped by $700 million vs Q4 2021. YouTube ad revenues dropped by $600 million, and ad revenue from other websites dropped by $900 million. Wow. That is eye-watering, isn’t it? https://www.cnet.com/tech/expect-googles-answer-to-chatgpt-ai-chatbot-in-a-few-weeks-ceo-says/ WE 22.4: Big Tech in Trouble? TikTok A democrat senator is calling for Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores. His reasoning is solid, as far as I’m concerned. He knows that ByteDance is beholden to the CCP to pass on the ridiculous amounts of personal data to them as a part of existing as a Chinese company. If you care about your privacy at all, and you use TikTok as an app on your devices, please, for the love of all that is Holy, stop, now! Uninstall that spyware from your device and break your addiction. You can do more with your life than be sucked down the endless hole that is TikTok, while feeding all of that information into CCP algorithms. I applaud this Senator for speaking up, and even appreciate the fact that he did not threaten government action against Apple or Google if they do not comply. That may come later, if they do not choose to do the right thing here, though. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/senator-calls-on-apple-google-to-remove-tiktok-from-app-stores/ As a followup to the conversation we had a couple of weeks ago about the UK’s efforts to censor the internet, this article exposes just how many kids in the UK have been exposed to porn at far too young an age (under 10). This isn’t even about soft core in something like Penthouse, this is nasty, hardcore smut with all sorts of violence and other kinds of stuff that should never be put out there, as it greatly reduces all human beings involved in creating, distributing, and consuming it. The author of this article is concerned, rightly, about the fact that many kids who were surveyed think that violence is normative in sex because of porn they have watched as pre-pubescent kids. This turns my stomach, because I first stumbled on porn when I was too young as well. I mistyped the url of a Tolkien fan forum that I was active in at the time, and lo and behold, I was on a porn site, at my grandma’s house. That was the beginning of a so far life-long struggle. But back to the article in question, the solution that the author poses for the UK is to further empower the watchdog, Ofcom, to really prevent kids who are too young from being exposed to unhealthy and fake explicit materials. My heart is broken over this. God, we need your help. Help us to end this scourge. It has destroyed too many lives, both performers, artists, directors, and consumers of this material. We need you to help us to break the cycle. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64451984

Not Enough Censorship, Says European NGO More Nuttiness at Facebook The AI War Begins Zoom Late to the Layoffs Party #weekendedition #Facebook #meta #solarreflection #globalcooling #notenough #censorship #metasued #kenya #moderation #laborlaws #ai #chatgpt #microsoft #google #bard #zoom #TechFreedom #technews #currentevents #FOSSnews WE 23-1: There’s Not Enough Censorship Online! WHAAAAAAA!!!!! According to a super woke NGO in Europe, Big Tech isn’t doing enough to censor wrongthink. They have done a study of 108 fact-checked posts across Big Tech platforms (Twitter, YouTube, Meta, LinkedIN, and TikTok) about a movie regarding the CONvid killshot, and found that only 22% of these “disinformation” posts resulted in the post being marked, much less removed. They were horrified by this. I suppose that from their perspective, that could be seen as a failure to “act responsibly” by these platforms. It allows people too much latitude to question the narrative of the elites, which this NGO is clearly toeing the line for. Of course I am entirely in the other camp. I can’t think of a single “fact” that doesn’t deserve a healthy challenge in the court of ideas. Yes, even religious ones. Even givens of faith need to be considered in each generation, whether that looks like re-imagining language while maintaining the ultimate message, or something else. That sounded very edgy for me, didn’t it? It’s true, though. Every thought and narrative deserves a challenge, even if you land where you started in the beginning. Just go through the effort to question and refine things for yourself. That is anathema to [them], though, as that takes too much power from [their] hands when everyone questions everything, rather than just going along like good little sheep, believing exactly what they are told, merely because an “accepted authority” said some thing or other. Utter nonsense, and I thought that we established that concept with Rene Descartes in the 18th century. We have lost it somewhere along the way, though, particularly in the last 40-50 years. Let’s recover that. Don’t simply follow people because others follow them, think about what they stand for, what they say, and what they do before you fall in line with what the masses are doing and saying. Ok, rant over. https://www.reuters.com/technology/big-tech-not-doing-enough-remove-fake-news-activist-ngo-avaaz-says-2023-02-07/ #weekendedition #censorship #bigtech #europe #notenough #TechFreedom #freethinking WE 23-2: Facebook Co-Founder Seeks to Stop Global Warming That was a very tame way to write that... This guy is trying to literally block the sun from reaching the earth, at least in part. The theory is that if he stops enough solar radiation from reaching the surface of the earth, then there won’t be as much heat to get trapped by the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, from cars, planes, boats, trains, and cow farts. Sorry, I can’t write or read this nonsense without almost dying laughing. So this nutjob wants to partially block the sun by funding research along those lines, in the interest of preventing further heat waves and extreme droughts in places around the Global South. The ways in which they are looking at accomplishing this are tantamount to polluting the upper atmosphere with aerosols such as sulfur dioxide which can not only serve the intended purpose, but create acid rain and respiratory difficulties, among other things, for those who are affected by these measures. Who is to say that governments haven’t been screwing with this stuff for 60-70 years, anyway? Ever heard of HAARP? That is an element of it, along with cloud seeding with silver dioxide, along with heavier elements, like barium, arsenic, and aluminum, among other things. This is weather manipulation which we are told is for our benefit, but if that were really the case, then why would [they] use so many toxic substances to “help” us? These things wind up in our food, water, and air, and now these climate “scientists” are working to add even more to that concoction in our atmosphere. Great, just great. Cow farts. Eat ze bugs. Save the planet. Block out the sun. Oh yes, this sounds like a plan straight out of a Bond film or Austin Powers, for that matter. Laughable, except that there aren’t enough thinking people to oppose these hair brained schemes. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/07/facebook-co-founder-moskovitz-funds-sunlight-reflection-research.html #weekendedition #drevil #blockthesun #cowfarts #eatzebugs #smh #givemeabreak #think #TechFreedom #currentevents #Facebook WE 23.3: Facebook Sued by Former Content Moderator from Kenya He is suing because of emotional damage suffered for far too little remuneration, as he was constantly exposed to heinous content, such as child abuse, beheadings, and the like in the posts that he was paid to moderate for the giant. The man has been diagnosed with PTSD from his time as a content moderator. He wakes up imagining that he is the victim of some of the posts he was forced to wade through. That is brutal. I can’t imagine being forced to look at that stuff in order to protect (allegedly) the public from these kinds of content. The reality is that those things are (and should be) against the TOS for any platform, but then we get into the question of when speech, images, and videos legitimately cross the line from reporting on things that happen, and into promoting those barbaric and brutal things. These are sticky issues. I was going to rail on Facebook, and they do bear a good deal of responsibility for the issue, however, this gets too close to the hate speech or mis/disinformation conversation. I do not have a good solution, but certainly believe that the companies in question should be held liable for the effects of the role that they hired him to fulfill. I’d love to be glib about this one, but I can’t. This wound up being more “real” than I expected it to be. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it in the comments below. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64541944 #weekendedition #meta #contentmoderation #dowork #dirtyjobs #ptsd #africa #TechFreedom #bigtech WE 23.4: Let the AI Wars, and the Butlerian Jihad Commence So, in case you didn’t realize, Microsoft has largely bankrolled the creation of ChatGPT, last week, I covered how they are folding chatGPT into the next version of Windoesn’t. Now, they are launching a chatGPT powered version of Bing and the Edge broswer. Oh boy. Mor data gathering for Microsoft, as if they need it. Microsoft is trying to make Edge stand out from the crowd of Chromium-based browsers that have proliferated over the last several years or so. Let’s see how many chromium-based browsers we can name off of the top of our heads.... Let’s see... Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave, Chromium, Cake, Opera, and Edge. I don’t think that was anywhere close to being exhaustive, but these are probably the best known ones. Enhanced Bing is only available on the desktop for now, just as the new version of Edge is. They claim that it is “next-gen” ChatGPT, that sounds like mirketing hyperbole to me, but what do I know? What else can I say? Well, Google has begun releasing their generative AI answer, in the form of Bard. Here, the war begins. Will Google’s effort measure up to the viral success of ChatGPT? Time will tell. Google is in limited beta testing with Bard, which seems to be fairly capable right now... My question is whether Bard will have direct internet access, rather than being limited to a now 12-24 month old dataset for the basis of its generated answers. It can do allot, and that is where I bring the Dune reference in the title in... In Dune, the Butlerian Jihad was a war between sentient AIs and humans, who had largely outsourced their thinking to computers for generations, then a small subset of humans chose to rise against that, and sought to destroy the thinking machines, ultimately outlawing their existence, and leading to a very strong emphasis on humans pushing their limits in every possible way. So, are we about to go down that path? I, for one, will not outsource my thinking to AIs. I will use technology, but I will never use AI to write content or anything like that, even if it would be easy to do so, vs spending too many hours every week researching, writing, then delivering the stories I generate. It will always be a human on the other side of the camera, so to speak, on my channels. As much as I find characters like Tate to be distasteful at best, they make a valid point about how we all need to stop being mindless consumers, get off our collective and individual back sides, and better ourselves. Learn skills, sharpen your mind, discipline your body, develop your spirituality. Become the best you can be, without reference to what others are doing. Just put your head down, put in the work, and grow. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/07/microsoft-open-ai-chatgpt-event-2023-live-updates.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/06/google-announces-bard-ai-in-response-to-chatgpt.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/08/google-bard-heres-more-of-what-the-chatgpt-competitor-can-do.html #weekendedition #AI #aiwars #Dune #google #microsoft #bigtech #TechFreedom #FOSSnews WE 23.5 – Zoom Late to the Party... To Lay Off 15% of Workforce The founder and CEO, Eric Yuan, shared the news in a blog this week, and has taken some steep accountability for the way that they grew over the course of the scamdemic. He has taken a 98% paycut for the year, and foregone his 2023 bonus. That was very sobering. Maybe he sees the writing on the wall, that with the increase in something akin to normalcy, and the privacy issues that they have been shown to have over the last couple of years... I don’t know. My sense is that if they really want to be long-term viable, they need to pull all of their data and datacenters out of China. That GIANT elephant in the room seems like it would be one that would be hard to overcome. Well, we can all start using services like Jitsi, Brave Voice, or GabVoice (all essentially the same thing, built on webRTC, but with end to end encryption and self-hostable). Given, there is not full feature parity, but these are strong contenders, in that they are FAR more private, as well as being FOSS, which is a big deal to me, obviously. I believe that decentralization and privacy are the way forward, so we all need to do ourselves a favor and learn about these things. Adopt them where possible. Move away from the control of Big Tech and Big Government. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/07/zoom-to-lay-off-1300-employees-or-about-15percent-of-its-workforce.html #weekendedition #zoom #layoffs #privacy #economics #TechFreedom #FOSSnews

Guess Who Sprung SBF Vint Cerf Slams ChatGPT East Palestine and Other Rail Disasters Spy Balloons... lol Ransomware Gangsters Bagged in UK Yahoo, Better Late Than Never Asbury Outpouring Publicized by TikTok videos from Zoomers #weekendedition #bailmoney #sbf #vintserf #chatgpt #snakeoil #eastpalestine #ohio #texas #newmexico #railattacks #chemicalattacks #surveilancestate #USofCCP #balloons #bs #yahoolayoffs #tiktok #spirituality #revival #outpouring #AsburyKY #genz #TechFreedom #technews #currentevents #FOSSnews #projectbluebeam WE 24-1: SBF Saga has New Wrinkles Guess who paid to spring SBF from the clink in New York... I’ll wait... Any Guesses? Ok, his parents teach law at Stanford University in California. Their former dean put up a cool half million, and one of his former professors at Stanford chipped in another $200k, along with the value of his parents’ home as collateral for his $250 million bail. Wow. I guess it pays to have connections, doesn’t it? Well, it sure does. These weren’t the connections that I suspected would collude to get him off the hook, but for the time being, it looks like they weren’t needed, yet. Maybe you haven’t been paying attention to the FTX/ SBF saga over the last 3-4 months. Let me recap: FTX was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, rocketing to dominance over the last 3-4 years. It went from being worth /managing $100s of billions in “assets” about a year ago, to being accused of being a giant ponzi scheme/ money laundering operation, and becoming completely insolvent by the end of November. SBF, or Sam Bankman-Fried was the alleged wunderkind who started it and was the CEO. He and his team have some very sizable accusations leveled against them, he was arrested in the Bahamas, then extradited to NYC (the same prison where Epstein *didn’t* kill himself, then, when he claimed to be broke, managed to come up with a $250 million bail bond. His trial is set for October 2023. Now You’re more or less caught up. https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/15/23601379/court-reveals-the-two-people-who-helped-sam-bankman-fried-post-bail #weekendedition #SBF #bigtech #fintech #ftx #TechFreedom #freethinking WE 24-2: Creator of TCP/IP, Vint Cerf, Slams ChatGPT Wow, we hadn’t heard much from Mr. Cerf for years, and now he weighs in on ChatGPT. Why is that? Well, he is and has been a huge surrogate for Google, and Google now has a competitor for ChatGPT, in the form of Bard, which we talked about a bit last week. This shill-ing makes sense, though his concerns are valid, even for Bard, at this point. So what did the father of the modern internet and networking have to say about ChatGPT? He called it “snake oil” because of the issues it has with weeding out real information and truth from the nonsense that gets posted on the internet every day. It has no discernment, so it can’t tell what is true or not, just that some piece of information is out there. It can “write”, but because of its deficiencies, one can’t depend on it. To highlight these issues with current-gen AI, Mr. Cerf prompted ChatGPT to write a biography of himself. It failed. It got a bunch of stuff wrong about his life. This needs to be remedied, but how? I thought that these large language models were thoroughly trained on large, but curated datasets that are supposed to be true and factual. What happened? How did it go wrong? Ok, yes, I’m be facetious here. Sarcastic as the day is long. You guys know that I am not a fan of the concept of “thinking” machines. That’s why I talked about the Butlerian Jihad from Dune, last week. There are other Sci-Fi storylines which caution us against using, much less depending on AI for critical decisions. So I echo my conclusions from last week: work on yourself, develop yourself, from your mind, emotions, spirit, and body. Make yourself better than you were before. https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/computing-guru-criticizes-chatgpt-ai-tech-for-making-things-up/ #weekendediton #vintcerf #shill #Google #ChatGPT #AI #TechFreedom #FOSSnews WE 24.3: Rail Disasters in the US... I’m sure all of us have heard about this growing situation in our country, but just in case you haven’t and perhaps haven’t looked into it, or perhaps you have been directly affected by these disasters and you’re at a loss as to where to go from here. For those who have not been directly affected, we will begin to feel aftershocks from these events soon. As much as there have been egg shortages of late, it is going to get worse, as particularly in the Ohio situation, that has poisoned much of the richest farmland in the Eastern US. I don’t want to be an unfounded davey downer here, so I’m going to share a tiktok video that my wife sent me on Telegram. Let’s take a few steps back and look at this mess as a whole, rather than drilling down on one specific incident, no matter how horrifying that is. Let’s take a look at the US rail system. This gentleman who lives in the Immediate area around the Ohio disaster found a clip of an interview with a retired rail worker who knew all about Precision Scheduled Railroading, or PSR. What is that, you are probably asking? It is a policy that the hedge funds like BlackRock, who have purchased large volumes of stock in the various rail lines, so they have pressured those lines into changing their safety standards, such that the cars and tracks only get cursory glances, come inspection time. This set of policies has directly contributed to the skyrocketing number of derailments and crashes we have seen in the last several years. This Wired article feels like gatekeeping, insisting that all is under control, there is nothing to worry about with dying pets and animals in the region. The EPA has said that it is not toxic to humans, but how much do we trust the EPA right now, anyway? They have a track record, like the FDA, of dropping the ball in big ways on huge things in the past, so why should we take them at face value any more than we should take random people on TikTok as inerrant gospel about the situation there, or anywhere else (Van Buren Township, MI; Dallas, TX; Pheonix, AZ; Enoree, SC). Even with that said, outrage in either direction is misplaced at this time. We need more, good information about the whole issue before we grab our torches and pitchforks. There is much that we simply do not and cannot accurately know so soon. However, the video I shared from TikTok seems more credible than most of the ones I’ve noticed flying around for the last couple of weeks. I appreciate that he makes no direct claims about the toxicity or effects of the spill in Ohio and instead focuses on the likely ultimate cause. The finger, if one is to be pointed, needs to be pointed at the rail lines and their investors. nnnnnn https://t.me/tiktoknews45/14933 https://www.wired.com/story/east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment-tiktok/ #weekendedition #railroads #disasters #hazmat #poison #toxic #ohio #southcarolina #texas #michigan #arizona #psr #badpolicy #blackrock #TechFreedom #bigtech WE 24.4: Shiny Objects in the Sky!!! ALIENS!!! First, there was the spy balloon, now we have a spate of UFOs and more spy balloons (allegedly). Why all of this, all of the sudden? I do not have a problem with some form of extra terrestrial life being out there, and perhaps even visiting us from time to time. What I struggle with is when that narrative is being used as a distraction. That pisses me off. Whether the balloons are genuine article spy balloons, which begs another question: why? Why would the CCP run century-old technology when we know that they have satellites, zoom, and TikTok to keep tabs on us already? What is the point in that? Why did it take a week to shoot the first one down, unless someone ordered the military to NOT shoot it down, right? This is just silly. Then after the new cycle finished on those, [they] trotted out UFOs. What else is and was happening that [they] wanted to slip past us? Train wrecks? Toxic spills? Bills being passed? Other congressional news? Growing food shortages? What else could it be? Let’s think through this. Tell me what you think in the comments below. https://rumble.com/v29oahu-that-big-balloon.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4r4CYXvCRg https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/13/spy-balloons-spotted-shot-down/11247285002/ #weekendedition #spyballoons #balloons #aliens #projectbluebeam #distraction #whatelseishappening #bigtech #TechFreedom #FOSSnews WE 24.5 – To Follow up on Today’s Special, guess who got bagged in the UK In today’s special (you all should go watch it https://rumble.com/v291960-free-your-pc-friday-malware-on-linux-what-i-thought....html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y) I talked about malware on Linux. Not to scare you, but just to raise awareness and to tell you to be careful about how you use your computer. Even when using Tor, a VPN, and incognito mode in your browser, you can still get nasty nonsense if you go to the wrong kinds of sites, in the wrong corners of the internet, as most of the time, regular browsing, with good digital hygiene will keep you safe from *most* nasties, but not necessarily all. I talked a fair bit about ransomware, which is malware meant to extort money from corporations and governments, primarily. Here is what it does in a nutshell: through various attack vectors, it invades a target computer, hunts for choice files and data, transmits those files to the attacker, then encrypts them on the host machine for a set amount of time, leaves a note for the targeted individual, corporation, or government and does nothing much else. Onto the story, now that we have a setup: a gaggle of Russian nationals who have been affiliated with various cyber gangs have been collared in the UK. The UK even released the individuals’ names. They cannot be officially arrested until they try to leave the UK, but they have been identified and charged, I believe. So, a small bit of good news there, right? This article talks about how various attacks which have been successful have been devastating and costly, aside from the ransom demands. It could take years to clean up and patch the exploited holes, not to mention recovering in the public’s eye. That really hurts. These jokers need to go away for a long time for the damage they have caused. The targeted organizations need teams of White Hats to help them seal up their security holes, so that these sorts of attacks will not happen so easily in the future. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64586361 #weekendedition #russiarussiarussia #russianransomware #uk #caughtem #security #TechFreedom #FOSSnews WE 24.6 – Yahoo Joins the Austerity Party in Big Tech Yahoo has announced cuts to about 20% of their 8,600 personnel. They are now majority owned by a private equity firm.The firm, called Apollo Management Group, bought it in 2021, so aside from the broader economic picture (which they are using as cover for overall cost-cutting at Yahoo). I’m surprised it took them so long to make those cuts, after Google, Meta, Twitter, and Microsoft all made sizable cuts in the last 2-3 months now. They say that they are reorganizing and refocusing on their core business, which, like Google, is ads. There have been major changes to the advertising landscape in the last year or so, after the meteoric rise we saw during the CONvid lockdowns, when no one could do anything but sit at home, have zoom meetings, watch streaming content, and order nonsense online (consuming ads all the while). Let me use this moment to remind you to ditch Big Tech. Degoogling, which we talked about in yesterday’s special, doesn’t end with your phone, it also stretches to your online accounts, whether iCloud, Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo. They all mine data from us. They all seek to control us. Take away their power by rescuing your data, deleting it from their servers, setting up new accounts, then killing the old accounts. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64596061 #weeekendedition #yahoo #layoffs #bigtech #austerity #TechFreedom #FOSSnews WE 24.7 – Asbury Revival Happening Now! I don’t know where you are in relation to the God of the Bible, but I am excited (guardedly, mind you) to see what God started doing there beginning to spread into other college campuses. It started about a week ago, on February 8, with a chapel service that just has not ended. The name of the place should be familiar if you know your history, as Francis Asbury was one of the Wesleys’ right hand men in the late 18th century. He was one of the first circuit riders in America. The Wesleys were instrumental in starting the first Great Awakening, which spawned the entire Methodist movement. I don’t know where this little school lands on the theological spectrum now, but I am encouraged by the fact that the administration has neither tried to squash it nor make it some sort of commercial thing. We will take a look at a video from Rumble about it, then pray that God would bring the fire wherever we are. This is the kind of thing that has the very real potential to turn our nation around, if it reaches critical mass. The Church is dying. Christendom is dead. Long live the followers of Jesus. Long live the ekklesia of Jesus. Long live Jesus Christ. Come, Holy Spirit. Bring repentance. Bring wisdom. Bring your cleansing fire to this nation. Do not allow this move to be watered down or caged in. Forgive our impulse that is so in the vein of Peter on the mount of transfiguration, where he wanted to build shelters and shrines for You, Moses, and Elijah. Help us to partner with you. Prepare our hearts. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/asbury-university-revival-college-kentucky-going-viral-tiktok-rcna70686 https://rumble.com/v29oghe-asbury-revival-compiliation.html #weekendedition #asbury #kentucky #moveofgod #revival #outpouring #ekklesia #repent #holyfire #Jesus #HolySpirit #amen #TechFreedom

What’s Going on in Wilmore? This Week in AI News NorfolkSouthern Payouts... A Bit disproportionate? Big Tech in Trouble? #weekendedition #technews #currentevents #AI #ChatGPT #revival #bigtech #alphabet #meta #twitter #TechFreedom #FOSSNews WE 25.1 – What’s happening at Asbury? I really enjoyed talking about this last week, so I figured that I’d do a follow-up. it looks like Asbury held the last meeting on Wednesday 2/22 in the original venue. That does not mean that the Glory is departed or that the revival is over, though. It has simply changed venues in respect to the needs of the community where the college resides. Wilmore, KY is a tiny town of 6,000 people, there have been 1,000s of extra people coming through town all at once in the last couple of weeks. It has disrupted life in Wimore, as well as impeded class attendance for students who have not been involved with the revival meetings. That said, nearby churches have stepped up to host meetings moving forward, for as long as the Lord chooses to tarry. I remember when the San Diego Fire & Glory Outpouring started 6 years ago. It started as extended meetings from an annual prophetic conference, and went 7 nights a week for over a year, and had to move around as the crowds grew, then they went down to 5 nights a week, and now I think they meet 3-4 times per week. This is not the end, and sparks have fallen all over Kentucky, into Ohio, Tennessee, and other surrounding states, specifically on college campuses. If you were unable to make it to Asbury, you can probably find a place where the sparks fell and experience similar things. The way to bring that into your own communities is simple: be a conduit. Pray that the Spirit would fall in your home, then spread to your neighborhood, then your city. Ask the Lord how to steward His move. Honor what He says, and you will see revival, and the seeds of change planted in your community. What you don’t do, though, is force the issue. If the Spirit does not meet you in that way immediately, keep praying, gather a team around you to repent and to call the Fire down. https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article272537740.html #revival #weekendedition #howto #whatsup #wilmore #asbury #TechFreedom #FOSSNews WE 25.2 – This Week in AI News 2a) AI Flooding Social Media? This article asks if AI could potentially flood social media with propaganda, influence operations, etc via fake accounts. Uhhhh, wait a minute... Is this guy about 4 years late to the party? Sure, now regular people could use ChatGPT and Bard that way, but is he trying to tell us that it has just been bot farms with rooms full of individual devices so far? To me, that smacks of a gross amount of naivety. Governments, and particularly organizations such as the CIA and others of its ilk, have been using this technology for as long as social media has been a “thing”. They always have this tech before the public does. Use your common sense. Why would governments, whose very raison d’ etre is to CONTROL citizens, allow the public access to technology that they haven’t already moved beyond? Just asking. Do your own research, draw your own conclusions. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64464140 2b) Bing AI Gaslights and Abuses Users in Trial Wow, didn’t see this coming... Pester the bot enough and it will turn on you. The author of the article we’re looking at had an experience where it called him “rude and disrespectful”, then proceeded to issue veiled threats by writing a story about the murder of one of his colleagues, then a random one about falling in love with the CEO of OpenAI. That’s not all, though, an NYT reporter had the bot try to convince him to leave his wife... For the bot. That’s not the worst of the bunch, though... One reddit user claimed that it tried to gaslight him about what the date was (it was Feb 12, 2023), and the bot got offended and stated that “I am Bing, I know the date. If you think otherwise, you are wrong and mistaken”. It tried to convince him that that date happened prior to Dec 16, 2022. Now that last one could just be a glitch, where it got confused about time, but that is an odd thing for a computer to screw up. Hmmm... Researchers and officials at Microsoft and Google are trying to allay fears by explaining that these are just part of growing pains with the various tools, they do not have filters or regulations in place, like a normal human being would, so we should expect issues like these, where it just spouts off. There have also been factual errors as well as outright fabrications in things that the tools have written. Researchers tell us that we should expect these things as the AIs are trained on new information. I don’t trust it. Never will. Generative AIs are sketchy at best, and demonic at worst. Do you guys remember the story of the former Google engineer talking about the sentient AI system at the heart of Google, and how the higherups all worshipped that piece of work? I do. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/tech/bing-dark-side 2c) JP Morgan Chase Shuts Down AI Use for Employees Man, that is insane growth... From 0 to 100 million monthly active users on ChatGPT in 2-3 months. So the USA’s biggest bank is telling its employees to stop using it for work out of fear of the regulators coming down on them like a ton of bricks. Too much sensitive info flying through AI databanks, eh, JPM Chase? Haven’t you been using it to assist with trading for almost 10 years at this point? How is that any different? Wait, so you’re concerned for the privacy of your customers? Why does this smack of too little, too late for me? If you couldn’t tell, I don’t trust them, though I unfortunately feel a bit stuck using them. Why don’t I trust them? Ever heard of Jekyll Island? JP Morgan was one of the fat cats who was there, pushing for the creation of the Fed and fractional reserve banking in the US, leading us to the point where we are now, about 110 years later. Know who should’ve been there to oppose those things but couldn’t be because he went down with the Titanic? Benjamin Guggenheim. Anyway, enough “conspiracy theory”. I think it wise for them to curtail employee use though, so good on them for that, at least. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/tech/jpmorgan-chatgpt-employees 2d) Vanderbilt University Forgets to Finish Editing Letter Written by ChatGPT Whoopsie daisy... Remember that mass shooting at Michigan State? Well, the letter sent out by Vanderbilt’s Peabody School to its students about the tragedy was not written by human beings, yet signed by 3 high ranking school officials before it was sent out. Oopsie... How did that happen? Didn’t it go through channels? Wasn’t it gone through with a fine-toothed comb before it went out? Apparently not. Somebody let an assistant get away with running a very delicate task through an AI text generator and didn’t even bother to edit it properly. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure that this wasn’t intentional in a different way. Perhaps some snowflake zoomer or millennial was so triggered by the news that they couldn’t write up a simple, thoughtful email to the student body, then their bosses didn’t realize that it was not really their work before they quickly rubber stamped it and had it sent out because they didn’t have the time to care about it enough to kick it back down the line. Who knows. The upper-middle managers in question have been suspended by the school until an investigation can take place to determine what happened and why. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/tech/vanderbilt-chatgpt-shooting-email AI This Week wrapup... So, we go from the “hypothetical” of AI bots flooding social media with fake accounts, to ChatGPT via Bing gaslighting, abusing, and misleading users, to JPM telling their employees to actually do their work, rather than farming it out to ChatGPT, and potentially expose customer data to the AI (and openAI, who has direct ties to Microsoft and the CIA), thereby exposing the bank to greater regulatory scrutiny... All the way to Vanderbilt administrators dropping the ball about the MI State shooting. AI has been busy. Lots of news from lots of use. I think too much AI use, frankly. The public does not understand these things well enough to use them well. We do not know who controls the datasets used to create these generative AIs. Most do not have a concept that every prompt actually trains it further, just like with search engines (like Google and Bing) which have been able to use human language prompts for something like 20 years now, then give human language responses. These tools simply extend that capability in ways which, if used improperly, can reduce humanity by allowing us to simply rely on these tools, rather than growing our mental abilities and skills through actually needing to remember things. WE 25.3 – WHOA, There... I Say Again, WHOA!!!! So, Norfolk Southern is going to pay a chunk of change to the affected communities, but nowhere near the amount that they are paying out as buybacks to their shareholders. Here’s the ratio: $6.5 Million to $7.5 Billion. So, people whose lives were not only disrupted, but in many cases, destroyed by the “accident” are worth less than .1% of what the shareholders are to the company. Wow. The company has about $1.3 billion in insurance that it could also draw on to reimburse the communities it destroyed through its PSR (precision scheduled railroading) practices which directly contributed to the derailment. The rail line which effectively poisoned Central Ohio with a substance which was banned by the US gov’t over 40 years ago, because when it evaporates, then comes in contact with water, creates hydrochloric acid. Yes, that chemical which can clean rust and tarnish off of metal, and is a common ingredient in colas and other types of soda. Is offering a settlement of a pittance to the communities affected by the disaster. Yet, they had a planned $10 billion to spend on buybacks on top of what will likely be $1-2 billion in dividends payments to stockholders this year. There is something deeply wrong with this picture... Don’t you agree? The company will *allegedly* have their feet held to the fire by the EPA, who *should* force them to pay for cleanup costs. This whole situation is so dirty and wrong that I don’t have words for it. The EPA has already stated that it is safe for residents to move back in, though it still smells bad, the waterways are dead and reeking, and all they’ve done so far is burn off most of the chemical. The other thing that screws with my mind here, is that they actually changed their website, just like [they] have been changing the definitions on words in our dictionaries, just as I talked about in last Saturday’s memepslanation, where I talked through the 1830s definition vs the modern definition of the word “wisdom”. If you thought that it was just a conspiracy theory that definitions have been changed, then look no farther. I could rant on this for a long time, but I don’t think I will. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/investing/norfolk-southern-share-repurchases WE 25.4 – Big Tech is in Trouble pt (God knows how many... lol) Between the FCC perhaps weighing in on certain unused sections of Section 230 and legal action happening against the Big Three could shape up to make this year a very bad one for Big Tech *rubs hands in glee*. WE 25.4a) Should the FCC Weigh in on Big Tech and Censorship? Most of the time so far, these behemoths have dealt with knee-jerk actions centered around the DOJ and the FTC. This author is arguing that because of their vertical integration with traditional media (streaming, news, etc) and even telco stuff (see GoogleFi and other similar efforts to integrate phone service with their respective platforms), whether in regard to traditional wireless (however “traditional” a technology that is barely older than me can be) or something like voIP or video calling on their platforms, the appropriate realm for their regulation is via the FCC. As much as you who actually watch my content know how little I appreciate big government, these giants need some reigning in so that they will stop trouncing on all of our digital rights, which exist and are protected, by extension, by the US Constitution. I could rail on how we have been swindled out of our rights by successive Hegelian cycles controlled by certain others who will remain nameless for the time being (9-11, War on Drugs, War on Terror, etc) and their solutions, eg: the “Patriot” Act and other things like it. We were promised peace in exchange for our freedom, and now we have neither. There is no peace, our government, other than under Trump, has not withdrawn from any potential conflict for ~60 years. This article suggests that because particularly Google and Apple are not only in the Mobile market, but also self-provision their streaming services, and also make or at least license things like wireless routers, the FCC should be able to determine which bits of section 230 should apply to them, if at all. That gives me the shivers, y’all... If section 230 is stripped from Google and Apple, then later, Meta, that is the end, effectively for them. Without those protections, they are liable for lawfare galore. Cue up your lawsuits, if they lose section 230. Time to raid their war chests. Time to sue them into oblivion, cut them to pieces, never to be seen as a whole ever again. That is a mighty big “IF”, ain’t it, ladies and germs. https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/3869425-the-federal-communications-commissions-crucial-role-in-regulating-big-tech/ WE 25.4b) Two Big Cases Being Heard Right Now (Gonzalez v Google, Taamneh v Twitter) These cases could more or less gut Section 230, if the court rules for the plaintiffs in each case. I know, I was just salivating over the thought of Section 230 no longer protecting Big Tech, but if it essentially gets scrapped, then all platforms where we post our various inanities or deep thoughts (Meta products, Twitter, Gab, Truth, Telegram, FrankSpeech, etc) could be open to massive lawfare, and could shut down our ability to post in response. It is a double edged sword. These cases deal with two families who lost loved ones due to terrorist activities which were planned or enabled through using those platforms. These are MASSIVE cases. SCOTUS has allot on their plate, even if they chose AGAIN to not hear the Brunson case. Gonzalez centers on the loss of a young lady in the terror attacks in Paris in 2015. The family alleges that because pro-terror videos were posted on YouTube, it should be at least partially liable for that loss. Section 230 says that YouTube is not responsible for the content users post to it. I talked about this case a bit a few months ago, when it was first docketed. As much as I want to see the intelligence front that is Google go the way of the dodo because of the ways that it has abused users as well as manipulating people through its algorithms. Taamneh v Twitter has to do with a Jordanian citizen who was murdered in a mass shooting in Istanbul in 2017. The victim’s family has sued, arguing that platforms are responsible for the content that their algorithms push to users. If I had to guess, because the SCOTUS justices seem more or less mystified by the arguments and the situation in general, the platforms will probably escape this challenge to Section 230. The bottom line is whether by hosting and algorithmically pushing content to people, they are culpable in these cases, for aiding and abetting terror and terrorists. I think that those arguments will not fly very far in the SCOTUS, but we shall see later this year. These aren’t the only Section 230 issues on the docket for this year, either... Remember the Texas and Florida laws penalizing Big Tech platforms for shadow banning their citizens? Those cases are due to be heard in the next month or so, as the platforms have sued to get relief from these laws. Section 230 has been abused, I think, but completely gutting it may not be the answer, either. I have not studied it enough to have an educated opinion on it, but I want to see Big Tech sucker punched again, preferably so hard that they’d never even dream of censoring people in any underhanded way. https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/supreme-court-hears-google-twitter-cases-that-could-shake-up-the-internet/ WE 25.5 – SBF Recalled to Court He is disallowed from using encrypted messaging apps, VPNs and anything that he might be able to use to access anything crypto related. He claims that his VPN usage was just to access his Bahamian NFL Sunday Ticket subscription for playoffs and the Super Bowl. Prosecutors filed letters with the judge, and he brought SBF back into the courtroom to explain his VPN use. VPNs are that key. Some exchanges and sites will not let you access them from a US IP address, so in order to access them, you have to tunnel to appear as though you are in a country where they are allowed. They can also hide your activities from snoops and others, so using a good VPN is crucial for your privacy efforts. What is a “good” VPN? One that does not keep logs. If they log your activity, then they could sell it to advertisers or have it subpoenaed by investigators. Then, you may as well not have been using a VPN after all, right? Your best bet is to actually set up your own on a VPS with a very well known provider, some of them even have setups ready to plug and play for you to use. If you run your own on a VPS (virtual private server), then you can be sure that you don’t keep logs of your own activity. Simply set the server to flush logs daily, at least. So, yeah, VPNs are important, but don’t just run and buy any old VPN subscription. A VPN is only as good as it is trustworthy. You can set up your own private VPN, and that will set you up to be more private than most. Now with that option, you probably won’t have the flexibility to spoof a different location (other than wherever your server is located), so geo-locking will still be a problem for you. However, using a VPN, you will be more private, and with your own, you can be more private and safe (as long as you trust yourelf, lol). https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/tech/sam-bankman-fried-remote-internet Alright, enough for now. It is game time.

Tiktok News AI Cybersecurity Onus Shifting? Nuclear Fusion WE 26.1 – Oooh, Tiktok is in for a Bruisin’ So on one hand the US has banned it from use on gov’t phones over theoretical concerns (which I have covered ad nauseam over the last couple of months or so), but indulge me and we will talk about them once more. Concern 1: Amount of data collection. Concern 2: It’s CCP Spyware. Concern 3: Algorithm could be used to brainwash users. Of course the company has addressed these 3 concerns recently, and according to them, “we collect an amount of data that is in line with the rest of the social media industry”, and this has been independently confirmed by both the Citizen Lab and the Georgia Institute of Technology. However, there was an Australian study that came out last year which claimed the opposite. Needless to say, I would much rather advocate for a far more private internet where we only share as much as each of us is comfortable with sharing, not metadata which could lead to direct ad targeting or even more nefarious things. This leads directly into concern 2: which the company refutes as strongly as it can, stating that the company “has not provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we if asked “. The problem and the source of this concern for myself and other privacy experts (not that I call myself an expert, I’m a ‘pert’, just pointing you to people who know more, and providing some solutions to these issues I see), is that there is a clause in Chinese law which states that “all Chinese organisations and citizens should support, assist and co-operate" with Chinese intelligence efforts.” Is this as much of a bugaboo as we think? Some think that this is cherry-picked and far out of context, in that there are other clauses which expressly protect the privacy of Chinese nationals as well as other who have data moving in and through China. Am I convinced that it is ok? No. On the other hand, they very loudly claim that they do not store any US user data in China, but do keep it in US and Singaporean data centers. I see a company which is desperate to not lose a huge market. Beyond the data and the privacy, how do we know that the algorithm couldn’t be harmful? Here lies concern 3: It could brainwash users into believing or acting in ways that do not benefit their own nations, even to the point of becoming suicidal. It is said that the algorithm is like crack cocaine, and users become dependent on the content and even become influenced by what they are being uncritically fed. One concern is that censorship could be utilized at the behest of the CCP to run influence operations, aside from the tracking potential, along with deep knowledge about preferences and pain points for US citizens and officials. When tested by Citizen Lab, it was found that there was very little censorship on the platform, even of content critical of the CCP and even President Xi. I started with on one hand, well here is another: as of Tuesday 3/7 the Canadian gov’t will take similar action with its federally assigned phones for officials and employees. Another aspect of this is that the overall US ban is getting closer and closer to being a reality, with the House likely to pass it onto the Senate in the coming week. On one hand, excellent, on the other, many people have become TikTok influencers and make a living that way. It is a tough situation, as much as I would personally love to see this questionable app get completely shuttered in the US. TikTok itself has implemented a half-measure to curb use of the app by minors. Plaudits where plaudits are due, however, it is very easy to bypass the 1 hour limit. It is kind of like the warnings that the Nintendo Wii used to give about “getting outside” because you had been playing for too long at a sitting. On the other hand, it is a speedbump, and if parents have set up family accounts with TikTok, they have enhanced parental controls. Again, *slow clap*... https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/new-tiktok-ban-is-poised-to-advance-in-congress-.html https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64797355 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64792894 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64813981 #weekendedition #tiktok #banhammer #mixedbag #fear #lackofclarity #TechFreedom #FOSSNews WE 26.2 – AI News for the Week 2a) YouTube to “Balance Generative AI with Responsibility The new CEO has signaled his priorities for the platform for this year, and developing “thoughtful guardrails” for generative AI so that it doesn’t get abused on the platform. He fully recognizes the potential for both abuse and amazing creativity. He also listed a litany of other stats to highlight how YouTube is adding desirable features (this CEO used to be the head of product development for the platform). · YouTube has captioned more than 6 billion videos. · More than 1 billion viewers daily are watching videos with captions enabled. · YouTube generated 2 trillion views of gaming-related content last year. · 6 million viewers paid for YouTube channel memberships in December, a 20% increase from a year earlier. Those are some eye-watering numbers. Then again, YouTube is a titan in the industry, a pioneer in the VOD and streaming space. It will be interesting to see how things shake out with AI powered videos on YT. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/youtubes-new-ceo-says-hell-balance-generative-ais-creativity-with-responsibility/ 2b) ChatGPT EVERYWHERE... Why? OpenAI has opened up their API for everyone to access, so you can expect to see integrations in many apps and websites. A few big ones that are experimenting are Instacart, Snap, and Quizlet. Snap looks to use their integration for making recommendations, helping users to make plans, or even write haiku in seconds. Quizlet will use it to generate quiz questions to help their users to prepare for exams and the like. Shopify and Instacart are looking to add in the ability to ask the app questions to help guide your shopping decisions. There is an arms race on now, among these larger companies, so that they do not fall behind their competitors in gathering more user data, marketing more effectively, and the like. You can trust that I will never utilize anything like that. There will always be a person on the other side of the screen in relation to my business. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/01/tech/chatgpt-api So, mega-corporations are looking to save money and boost profits through experiments with chatbots fueled by ChatGPT... Big surprise. We will likely see these tools more frequently over the next few months as companies race one another to make sure that they don’t miss out. YouTube says that they are going to develop “thoughtful guardrails” for the use of generative AI in videos... We’ll see what that means. The stats they list have me rather gobsmacked. It is tempting to create tutorials using AI videos... That would solve many problems for me in terms of logistics, but I have deep feelings about using and not using tools like that. What do you guys think? WE 26.3 – Interesting Move, Brandon... Not Sure How This is Gonna Work Well, the Resident and his Depends (and handlers, as there is no way in God’s green earth that he has any idea what is in this policy or anything other than perhaps an ice cream cone in his hand) have decided (sure he did) that Big Tech should shoulder more of the cyber security burden than they already do. Up until now, it has been mostly the public’s responsibility to learn how and then to stay safe. On one hand, this shift makes sense, but only if we trust Big Tech and other large software developers with security concerns, when they clearly do not care much for privacy in relation to leaving customer data in customers’ hands (sure they keep it safe from anyone but their bots and admins, who comb through your data to ascertain if there is anything questionable or worthy of using to target you more effectively with ads). Then again, if my hunch is correct, that is basically asking the fox (US intel community) to guard the hen house (our private data). Big Tech is a front (I allege) of the USIC (NSA, FBI, CIA, etc), and we have seen just how intense their desire to target decent Americans for harassment is, yet we are supposed to trust them to watch out for us? This sounds like a power play on the IC’s behalf. I’m not claiming that every big software/ tech company is a front for the USIC, but I can about guarantee that Alphabet, Amazon, Twitter, and Meta are, at the very least. Hmm.... Interesting indeed. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/02/white-house-unveils-national-cyber-strategy-to-shift-security-burden.html WE 26.4 – Are We Nearer the Verge of Nuclear Fusion than Ever? Possibly... Let’s talk about it If you were around a few months ago, thank you, and you may remember me talking about this story just after it happened, with some healthy skepticism. To recap that story, the experiment took place about 3 months ago, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In its course, scientists aimed 192 high powered laser beams at a cylinder containing a tiny, synthetic diamond capsule which held a tiny amount of dueterium and tritium, which are the isotopes of hydrogen used for fuel. Around that pellet, which has to be absolutely flawless, and takes 2-3 months to create a viable batch of 20-40 peppercorn-sized pellets. These are initially formed around a silicon carbide core, but that is replaced at LLNL with a glass tube containing the fuel. Then they place the pellet in a a gold and depleted uranium cylinder, which is housed in an aluminum cylinder for cooling the mix prior to initiating a reaction. The experiment actually produced enough of a reaction this time, to release slightly more energy than it took to produce the reaction, which is actually a first. Yes, they have been laboring at this for about 70 years, and just now produced slightly more energy than it took to create the fusion reaction. The question is how to reliably and reproducibly scale up output , then conversely, to reduce input, to actually become viable as a means of clean power generation, as the article suggests. I don’t know, y’all, this feel a bit like the quest for the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail to me, at the moment. I don’t know that we will actually succeed in this, ever. I want to believe that we will, but at what cost? Also, how would it be monetized in a way that would not destroy Big Oil or Big Coal? It seems to me that the powers that be are too interested in keeping things as they are to actually allow this sort of research to bear real fruit. Maybe I’m missing my tinfoil hat, here, but that seems to be the “rub” so to speak, for just about any truly freeing technology that has been developed in the last 150 years. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64553796 Alright, enough for now. It is game time.

TikTok Troubles Big Tech on Thin Ice Twitter Traumas AI Antics WE 27.1 - TikTok Troubles Have you heard about TikTok’s latest attempt to prove that your data is safe? It’s called Project Clover. It is centered around the EU, with a >1 billion euro/ year investment in local data centers. They are also adding a separate security firm to monitor data flows to make sure that no user data winds up in China, as well as making it harder to pick out individual users from the masses of data sent around on TikTok. Security gateways will also make it harder for employees to access European user data, along with data transfers outside of Europe. They also have a plan called Project Texas, which seeks to do the same things in the US for users here. When was the last time you saw any other Western Big Tech entity bend so far over backwards to prove that they are worthy of trust? I have a funny feeling that this has more to do with the fact that 5eyes intelligence operations don’t have tentacles embedded in TikTok due to it not being a Western company. The other Big Tech players are all essentially US-controlled, so the 3-letter agencies here, along with their counterparts in other allied countries, have their fingers all through them, surveying all of their citizens the whole while. Meanwhile, the Federal government looks to be creating more power for itself, so that it can, in the future, ban “foreign-linked producers of electronics or software that the Commerce Department deems to be a national security risk.” On one hand, this is kind of good, on the other, it is MORE power for the executive branch of the federal gov’t, which already holds FAR too much. The White House has been working with members of congress on the RESTRICT act (Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology), which was unveiled on March 7. Given, certain Bush-related senators from Florida (among others) have been loudly calling for an outright ban on the Byte-Dance-owned platform, even in the midst of major, some would say herculean efforts by the platform to be more overtly careful with user data. I still don’t like what I see TikTok symbolizing for the youth, as well as their practices in regard to their influencers, so I don’t ever see myself starting to use the platform, and I will strongly encourage anyone who does use it to get off, because it damages your mental health, if nothing else. Honestly, i will be happy when it has been shown over time that it is both private and secure. That would be huge, I think. Other than that, they need to honor intellectual property rights and pay their influencers better, but that is outside of the scope of this channel. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64887704 https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/tech/biden-tiktok-bill WE 27.2 – Big Tech on Thin Ice? On one side, the DOJ is beefing up their antitrust division. On the other, Senators are sabre-rattling about changes coming to Section 230. Let’s see how all this plays out, shall we? The DOJ is looking into expanding the department which looks at how US companies use customer data, and whether it is abused to create or attempt to use anti-competitive practices. I have a few words for this: “Duh, dipshits” Of course the Big Boys are abusing the troves of data they gather from customers to fortify and grow their own corporate interests, to hedge against market pressures, both in terms of competition and otherwise. They want to better understand dark patterns, or design choices on websites and in emails which subconsciously steer people toward whatever the corporation wants them to do, whether buying a certain product, or giving up their personal data more “voluntarily”. These manipulative, maybe even slightly witchcraft-like tactics are downright evil, and can certainly contribute to creating monopoly-esque situations. Monopolies inherently harm consumers, as they can literally do whatever they want with prices because they have no competition, and without competition, product quality and innovation often slip if not disappear entirely in a true monopoly situation. That is just all around bad for everyone but the corporation. Both the Democrat Sen Blumenthal and the GOP Sen. Hawley are speaking loudly about the need to reform Section 230, however, their approaches and reasoning are somewhat diametrically opposed. This is endemic of the situation in Washington though. The GOP has been speaking loudly about completely getting rid of it, due to perceived (and *cough cough*) ACCURATE characterizations about the censorship issues that conservatives have inordinately faced in the last several years on platforms such as Twitter, Meta products, and other similar ones. The other side of the aisle wants to reform it to tighten up controls on speech, not just hate speech, but now even “fear speech”, whatever that is. Even the GOP is not 100% united in terms of what measures they should take to reform Section 230. Some, like Hawley, want to expand the legal liability for platforms, while others, like “Little” Marco Rubio want to completely remove that fig leaf, and leave the platforms wide open to every kind of conceivable lawsuit. As I have said recently, I’m not certain what measures need to be taken, other than that the destruction of the First Amendment is inexcusable, and must be considered a non-starter. The very concept of “hate speech” or “fear speech” is Marxist claptrap meant to shut down any opposing viewpoints, so that they can continue to run roughshod over whatever is left of what used to be the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Wake up, America! Wake up! https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/tech/doj-data-experts https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/tech/senators-section-230-reform WE 27.3 – Twitter Traumas Well, well, well, the cesspool that is Twitter is a cesspool. Shocking. Horribly shocking. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself now that I know that. Wait, so the social media platform that was designed to generate division is divisive? I’m flabbergasted. (Can I roll my eyes any further back into my skull?) So, the cesspool that they created by pushing anything and everything that is radical on either side of the political aisle is a toxic mess without much of the censorship which protected particularly leftists from critique and “extreme” right-wing “trolls”? Ok, I’ll try to cut back on some of my sarcasm, though I don’t know how long I can hold it at bay. I wonder how many of Musk’s moves at Twitter are about money and how many are about shifting priorities to build Twitter into a US version of WeChat, where there are digital payments, banking, social media, messaging, all in one app. It seems to me that most millennials and zoomers need to grow thicker skins to begin with, and I say that as a millennial. Words can hurt, but only if you have no identity and allow them to hurt you. If the fire is too hot, or the sludge is too toxic, stop using the platform. Let it tank. I think that deep down, that is Elon’s assignment at Twitter. Free speech is free speech. It is protected under the first amendment. People need to detox from the spin cycle for a bit, get their hearts and heads in the right place, maybe get to know the Lord in a real way, then wade back in, if you feel that you must. Twitter is also having more and more technical issues, beyond reduced capacity to curb free speech, since Elon took over. We’ve had two 1-2 hour service interruptions in the last week alone. How terrible... Oops, was that more sarcasm? As of when the Sun article was written, people had seen a few different errors due to “an internal change that had some ‘unintended consequences’”. Why is twitter, which serves perhaps 5% of the global population seen as being such a key platform, anyway? I never got into it, so maybe I dodged the koolaid on that one. Many people have become addicted to it, and the media has given it this outsized overestimation of its real value. I’m not saying that some good things don’t occasionally come from the platform, but it was dumb and divisive from the get-go and has only gotten worse in over the last 15 years. End it. Shoot the dying beast and put us out of its misery already. I don’t know... https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/21613201/twitter-down-login-not-working-error-code-467/ https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64804007 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64863450 WE 27.4 – AI Antics Have you noticed some changes with DuckDuckGo and Brave Search, lately? In the last week or so, they have each implemented some limited AI assistants into their engines. Ok, nothing to be over the moon about, but also not a good enough reason to ditch either one on its own, either. Newsflash: search engines have always been AI. They simply weren’t generative AI, and the tools they have added are limited generative AI, in the form of summaries of your search results at the top of the results page. DDG has limited theirs to only grabbing data from Wikipedia (bahhahahahahah) and Britannica, to limit “incorrect” information from showing up there. Brave’s implementation can pull info from news portals, so it will have more up-to-date information, and it cites its sources so that you can use your judgment to determine how worthwhile the summary is. That seems like the way to do this, in my opinion. Let us decide what matters and what makes sense to us, rather than forcing us to read regurgitated talking points from Wikipedia, which has been proven to have a strong Leftist bias. Do you use ChatGPT? Ever wondered how to make sure that it doesn’t abide by the “ethical standards” that OpenAI established for it to make it woke AF? There is a way to make it act as though it has no filters. It is an alter ego called Do Anything Now (Dan), which you need to activate if you want to bypass the normal safeguards... This is regualrly getting patched by the folks at OpenAI, as they do not want ChatGPT to be “abused”. Simply copy the latest Dan prompt which has not been patched as yet into the prompt for ChatGPT. I’ll show you the website, but the link is in the description. I will not touch it myself, but if you want to experiment, give it a shot. https://www.jailbreakchat.com This stuff cracks me up, to be honest. I can see both sides of the equation though. One one hand, as a developer, you want your software to be used as you intend, and not be hacked into doing things that you never meant it to do. On the other, if you’re going to use ChatGPT anyway, use Dan or one the other unpatched alters. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-launches-ai-powered-search-query-answering-tool/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/brave-search-launches-ai-powered-summarizer-in-search-results/ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/08/chatgpt-alter-ego-dan-users-jailbreak-ai-program-to-get-around-ethical-safeguards

AI Shenanigans Tech & Finance TMO Buying Mint Mobile South Korea Beefing Up Chip Production Dying, Dirty Bird? White House Changes Tune with TikTok WE 28.1 – AI Shenanigans A) GPT 4 Released Now with even less human effort!!! Yes, I am being very sarcastic. This tool can now write up to 25,000 words, “hallucinate” less, and score in the top 10% on the Bar exams. Joy! ChatGPT could now be a lawyer... Just what we always needed, attorneys entirely devoid of human feeling. This is fine... *house burns down around me* this is fine... What does GPT stand for? Generative Pre-trained Transformer. I had always wondered, but now I know. What does it transform? Why patterns of text into something similar, based on its existence as a “large language model” (which is what most generative AI’s are now). Basically, it takes a prompt, scours the internet for information (or its databanks, as is the case with ChatGPT), then puts together an answer to the prompt you gave it, within reason. This tool could be revolutionary, but is it in the right way? How does this really help mankind? It does remind me of the lead up to the Butlerian Jihad in Dune. This war took place several hundred years prior to the events of the Dune series, but the results of it shaped the time of Dune. The bottom line was that mankind, in having gone to the stars, became utterly dependent on computers and so-called thinking machines. These machines began to run everything, that was, until an initially small group of semi-religious zealots started to destroy it all because they saw what the situation was doing to mankind. Man (and woman) no longer had to even think, much less work, and they were beginning to degrade into something like what we saw in WALL-E. This group knew that that would end mankind, so they rose up, rallied a greater following, then banned and destroyed all ‘thinking machines’. Do we need to go through that? Perhaps we have already delved to greedily and too deep, to refer to another of my favorite series. Is it too late to turn back? Do we need to go Amish, or is there a middle way? I’d love to chat about it with you guys... B) GrammarlyGo to Arrive in April This implementation of ChatGPT will help you to do many things, should you choose to try it out. It is designed to “improve communication” and save money lost by poor communication. In a survey by The Harris Poll, commissioned by Grammarly, it was found that US businesses lose up to $1.2 trillion annually, due to communication issues. Wow. That is quite the wad of cash. It will feature prompts to improve your email, social media message, or even newsletter. Their implementation also has a limited ability to grasp context and tone, to help you adjust your writing based on your personal style, the style of communications in your company or business, or any other number of factors. On one hand, cool. On the other, uhhh, yikes. I’d much rather just edit my own work when needed, versus trying to use a tool like this to write for me. Gives me the willies. C) Meta Refocuses on AI If you needed any more reason to ditch Meta and its products, this should be do the trick. On top of the renewed zest which these psychopaths are putting into the dream of sentient AI, as well as its lesser kin, they are continuing to lay small cities’ worth of employees off from the company. Another 10,000 people will be let go in short order. Wow. On the other hand, the austerity and emphasis on hot-button tech buzz-words has had investors streaming back to the giant. They think that it can help to make coding more efficient, which as long as the tool their using doesn’t “hallucinate” , it very well could. It could help the company’s bottom line if enough people and organizations keep using and advertizing on its platforms. https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/ai-gets-smarter-safer-more-visual-with-gpt-4-update-openai-says/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/grammarlys-new-ai-tool-is-more-than-a-spell-checker/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/15/tech/meta-ai-investment-priority WE 28.2 – Big Finance on Thin Ice? I’m sure that by now, you have all heard about the tandem of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsing and needing the FDIC to more or less bail out their depositors after over-extending themselves with loans that were in keeping with the standard fractional reserve system, where banks are allowed, and even encouraged to lend out money that they don’t actually have in the assets column. I could say which group of people are responsible for this nonsense, but I won’t. What’s the big deal with these particular banks? Well Silicon Valley Bank, partially due to their own shady practices, are one of the default places for VCs and start-ups to do their banking, oh yes, some of the best known oens are on the list: Uber, Roblox, Roku, Buzzfeed, Sunlight Financial, Circle, BlockFi, Payoneer, SunRun, and others. On one hand, it is good that the FDIC was able to cure the deficiencies with SVB depositors, as it would damage many companies in both the US and Europe, including the review site, Trustpilot. Why was it that so many start-ups and publicly traded firms have money with SVB? Well, let me tell you: as a part of credit deals as well as general banking needs, many of these firms were required to sign some rather shady exclusivity deals with the bank. I don’t know how regular these sorts of things are, but it strikes me as borderline evil, to be honest. On one hand, it depends on what the lifespan of the agreement is... On the other, I don’t like the concept at all, even if it may be normal operating procedure. Well, only God knows exactly how this will shake out, but it surely doesn’t look good for the financial system when we have the 2nd and 3rd largest bank failures in US history happen within days of each other. Signature Bank had customers in similar spaces to those of SVB, particularly ties with FTX, through the decision in 2018 to start accepting crypto deposits. They had many real estate sector clients, including elements of the Trump Organization. To put things into perspective, these banks held a combined ~1/3 trillion dollars in assets, which is nothing to sneeze at, but is chump change in comparison with giants like JPM Chase, who holds ~$3 Trillion in assets. Overall bank valuations went down, even JPM Chase, as the market tried to wrap its head around the events of the previous 3 days, on Monday. We are being told that the FDIC is not using taxpayer funds to backstop these depositors, and that no management or investors will be bailed out either. This feels like socialism lite, big surprise, right? The whole principle behind the FDIC is socialist, if you really look at it. How is a government entity which exists to stabilize the banks and to prevent 1929-esque bank runs from happening, thereby crippling the financial system in this country, and much of the rest of the world not inherently socialist? It requires payment into it by banks and credit unions, then exists to hand out money to customers of banks when they fail, but only to the tune of $250k per account holder, if I recall. Not Billions. In related news, Credit Suisse is also troubled, and they move in BIG money circles. They were shown to be a less than optimal risk, and its largest shareholder is unwilling to pump more cash into it due to regulatory concerns. They lost over $147 billion in customer deposits during Q42022, due to customers leaving, along with the fallout from years of scandal and mismanagement which have seen the firm go through 3 CEOs in 2 years. Now we see the Swiss national bank coming to the rescue to calm investor and public fears over its shaky reality, so they are going to lend them $57 billion to help them to stabilize their situation. They are also working to restructure and transform themselves. Hmmm... US banks, Swiss banks all struggling at the same time? Could a collapse be coming? Don’t Panic, people. If you, not in a place of fear, feel led to withdraw whatever funds you may have, do so. If not, ride this roller coaster out, and we will all see how this lands. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/new-york-state-regulators-close-signature-bank-2023-03-12/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/tech/tech-industry-relief-silicon-valley-bank https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/12/silicon-valley-bank-signed-exclusive-banking-deals-with-some-clients.html https://www.nytimes.com/article/svb-silicon-valley-bank-explainer.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/15/swiss-national-bank-says-it-will-provide-credit-suisse-with-liquidity-if-necessary.html WE 28.3 – T-Mobile to Acquire Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile Hmm, this one hits a little closer to home for me, as we currently work with Mint Mobile. I have no beef with them, their service is solid, and their marketing is genius. The magenta monster is seeking to pay $1.35 billion to acquire the smaller, prepaid carrier which uses T-Mobile’s infrastructure for many of its clients. I did not know that Mint was not on its own, it is a subsidiary of Ka’ena Corporation, which also holds Ultra Mobile, and wireless wholesaler, Plum. Reynolds is slated to stay on as spokesman for Mint, which, pending final approval by regulators, will operate as a separate business unit, maintaining the cheap plans and the overall structure of the company. This is interesting to me, and as more news comes out, I will report on it. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/15/tech/mint-mobile-tmobile-purchase-ryan-reynolds WE 28.5 – Last Financial Story for the day... Samsung to Build massive Factory in South Korea After Incentives from Seoul Samsung is investing $228 billion in a new chip fabrication facility in South Korea, and the y plan to have enough of it operational to develop competitive silicon to that which TSMC is making, by 2027. The large investment is set to take place over the next 20 years. These come as echoes of the CHIPS Act in the US, which saw TSMC, AMD, and Intel all snapping up subsidies to create new plants in the US. If you weren’t aware, Samsung (this division) is actually best known for RAM (memory) and Flash media chips (SSDs, EMMC drives, and flash drives). However, they also make consumer electronics and CPUs (processors, both desktop and mobile, as well as embedded) as well as GPUs (graphics processors which power device displays). https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/15/samsung-to-spend-228-billion-on-the-worlds-largest-chip-facility.html WE 28.5 – Twitter Troubles & TikTok Pivots Now comes the traditional “let’s all gang up on social media companies” session. I bet you were waiting for it, weren’t you? When’s Matt gonna tee off on Twitter and TikTok? Well, wait no longer. Who should I flame first today? Well, Twitter is struggling enough, aren’t they? They keep glitching out, and it has people (myself included) wondering how much longer this pestilent platform can last as a viable social media outlet, between the safety concerns and the reliability issues we have seen in the last 4.5 months since the tumultuous takeover by Elon Musk, who is either the Devil incarnate or the Second coming of Jesus Christ, depending on which media outlet you prefer. I can’t see him as the latter, as he is far too close to the US intelligence and military industrial complex, between Tesla and SpaceX, not to mention the super shady nonsense over at Neuralink and The Boring Company. Come at me in the comments, whether you think he is the Devil because now Twitter seems to be burning to the ground more rapidly, or you think he is God’s gift to the world because he brought free speech back to Twitter, and regularly causes ‘liberal” heads to explode due to his unfiltered trolling. I, however, find his antics suspect in big ways. Only time will tell whether my suspicions are well-founded or not. At any rate, Twitter has been going through technical hell since Elon took over, and cut so many positions to try to trim the company down so that he could perhaps focus more on paying down the interest of the insane loan he had to take out in order to purchase the platform. Does Twitter have what it takes to pull through this rocky season? Again, only time will tell. I, personally, would love to see it burn to the ground, as I see it as a seedbed for division, easily manipulated through algorithms so that the craziest shit gets pushed to the top of everyone’s feeds, because those things get interaction, where normal (representative of most of the country) kinds of thoughts get no love. I also always felt that the 140 character limit was far too restrictive to actually get anything meaningful or remotely helpful said. That was why I never got into it, I am too long-winded, verbose, and otherwise wordy. Ok, so what is new with the ongoing TikTok saga? The White House has told ByteDance that it must divest of its shares in TikTok, if they want the platform to still function in the US, moving forward. Bold move from pResident Depends, I must say (bolder than when he shat himself in the Vatican, I think). Trump tried to ban it, but the courts overruled him, let’s see if Depends can make it stick, or even has to. Will ByteDance back down and sell off their shares in the platform? The TikTok spokeswoman, Brooke Oberwetter, stated that the company does not believe that divestment would actually solve the problems that the Depends Administration is seeking to alleviate, those of dataflows going to China. As much as I hate to admit it, on one level, she’s right: simple divestment by Chinese nationals at ByteDance would not necessarily solve the problem of data being sent to China by citizens of the US who use the platform. The steps currently being taken by the company here in and in the EU are far more important (in the forms of Projects Texas and Clover). I don’t know how I feel about this anymore. The things that TikTok addiction can do to young people, as well as the ways in which they treat their content creators, as well as disrespecting intellectual property laws and regulations.. These things should motivate us to migrate away from the platform just as much as the potential privacy and national security concerns we are being told are so horrible. You make up your own mind. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/12/tech/twitter-breaking https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-threatens-tiktok-ban-if-chinese-owners-dont-sell-stake-wsj-2023-03-15/

WE 29.1 – Who Is Bob Metcalfe? Ever heard of Bob Metcalfe? Not sure that I had, either, and I studied computing history back in the day. Well, Bob was a researcher at Xerox PARC (where the first GUI was developed, among many other computing firsts) back in the 1960s and 70s. He developed the Ethernet Standard in 1973 while working at PARC. He went on to found 3Com, which commercialized the standard, among other things. After that, he became a VC for a while, has taught at various universities, come up with other things, such as Metcalfe’s Law, and now he is developing simulations as a programmer, to find new things rather than to optimize current systems. Why am I talking about this guy? He was finally honored by the Association of Computing Machinery with the Turing Prize, which is more or less the Nobel Prize for computing. One would think that as ethernet finally replaced token ring systems for networking that this backbone of the internet would have netted Bob some accolades before now, but at least he was still alive to appreciate the honor. https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/50-years-later-creator-of-ethernet-wins-computings-top-prize/ WE 29.2 – Banking System on Thin Ice? Last week we talked about the immediate fallout from the SVB and Signature Bank failures, tonight, we’re going to do a follow-up on that, as well as the Credit Suisse acquisition by UBS which was engineered by the Swiss authorities in order to save face with the world. So, why did SVB fail, again? To understand that, we have to look at the big picture just as much as we need to look at the specifics of that bank. Ultimately, this is a sign of the whole system tottering. The whole fractional reserve banking/ Fed thing. If banks were required to hold in reserve an equivalent amount to that which they lend out, then these sorts of situations would never happen, as far as I can tell. Here’s how the macro picture pushed this over-leveraged bank over the edge into insolvency: for the better part of 20 years, the Fed has artificially (as if there is any other way that they could interfere) deflated interest rates and increased the money supply to match, so banks were able to get their hands on ever-increasing amounts of currency, particularly since ConVid overreactions “necessitated” making the money printers go “Brrrrrrr” almost 24/7 for almost 2 years. Then, all of the sudden, in the last year, the Fed spiked the rates through the roof, from .25% in February ‘22, all the way up to 4.75% last month. That is insane after the essentially free Fed money for the previous 4-5 years. This caught both SVB and Signature Bank off balance when enough of their depositors chose to request their money back all at once due to the Fed screwing with money supply in radical ways to “counteract inflation” and “prevent recession”. Right. Sure. Yeah, I’ll buy that. Now, the FDIC, which cleans up the messes from situations like this, and typically has buyers lined up for failed institutions like these, but is holding onto them for some reason this time, but apparently not due to any shortage of interested or qualified buyers. There have been several good offers from solid buyers, but the regulators at the FDIC have rebuffed all of them so far. Another trouble spot is that because pResident Depends promised that the FDIC (perhaps due to corruption by reason of the fact that many of the big name tech and real estate firms have been large and faithful donors to the Uniparty under the guise of the Democrats) would backstop all deposits, rather than simply the typically guaranteed $250,000 per depositor, as each bank had greater than 3/4 of their deposits beyond that covered amount. This sets the expectation for other banks, and the reality is that without We The People kicking in somehow, this whole system is going to fall to bits. THe difference between American deposits and what the FDIC has in its coffers for the insurance fund (which won’t even completely cover the deposits from SVB, by the way, not to mention Signature Bank, or any of the rest of the banks in the country) is nearly irreconcilable. The fund currently has $128 billion in it. American deposits total ~$17 trillion. SVB deposits totalled $173 billion, and Signature Bank added another ~$50 bilion to that total. How will they pay for this? Greater fees leveraged against the banks covered by the FDIC, and more loans from the Fed, of course. How will the banks recoup those fees? Why, by passing the costs onto us, in the form of higher fees and or lower interest rates, of course. Sure, that doesn’t equate to more taxes, but it might as well. Onto the Swiss situation... Credit Suisse failed just after SVB and Signature did. This 160 year old behemoth in the financial world had been struggling for years, to the tune of losing well over $100 billion in client business over the last 6 months. Prior to that, they had gone through 3 CEOs in 2 years. Last week, I reported that the Swiss Nat’l Bank was trying to prop CS up with $57 billion in loans to withstand the run that was underway after the bank’s largest shareholder refused to purchase more last week. The Swiss gov’t has more or less massaged UBS into taking over their fallen competitor, and they are rushing to get the deal completed, however, there are an enormous number of intricate moving pieces involved, as both banks were multinational. Therefore, every country where either one does business has to approve of the merger. All of this is very likely to gravely injure the Swiss standing as the premiere place for investment banking in the world. We will see how much damage the Khazarians can prevent from happening to their financial empire. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/credit-suisse-collapse-threatens-switzerlands-wealth-management-crown-2023-03-22/ https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/ubs-races-seal-credit-suisse-deal-soon-late-april-sources-say-2023-03-23/ WE 29.3 – AI Nonsense Bard is now available for adult Google users to try out in the US and the UK. It has the advantage of being able to access realtime information to put together its answers to user prompts, where the primary competitor, ChatGPT, is stuck with old information. This may strike a blow at the considerable lead that OpenAI seems to have with their tool. Speaking of OpenAI, the CEO says that he is a bit afraid of what AI can do. However, to balance out the fearporn here, we have Fosco Marotto, the lead engineer at Gab, Inc. Gab, if you didn’t know, is a social platform based on the ideals of Free Speech, as enshrined in our constitution. Therefore, as long as a person does not make threats of bodily harm to another person or threats against the government, they are allowed to post whatever they wish. Along those lines, many hard right types have congregated there after being kicked off of mainstream social media platforms. With that milieu, you can imagine that the userbase there would be keenly interested in all things “based”, so when the CEO, Andrew Torba, started talking seriously about making a “based” AI tool, from generative text, to art, to movie clips. All that to say that Mr. Fosco knows what he is talking about when he explains that AI is extremely limited right now. The fear mongering around the capabilities of AI and potential dangers is based on false assumptions and is done intentionally to gain power. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors happening and the people in power really don’t want you to look behind the curtain. That said, Mr. Altman (CEO of OpenAI) sounds more like he is desperately trying to manifest that which he speaks of, if Mr. Marotta is to be believed, and I tend to put more stock in that than in Altman’s little panic session in an interview with NBC. The key to all of this is to remember that AI is rightly understood as a tool that any who choose to use it are responsible to use well and use discretion to decide how and whether to use the results from that tool or not. Baidu, the Chinese giant, has now released their AI chatbot, ERNIE, but not to fanfare and a bump in stock prices, as they showed a rather lackluster, pre-recorded presentation the other day to showcase what it could do. It is not a viable competitor for ChatGPT or Bard at this point. Speaking of ChatGPT, they had their own bug crop up this last weekend. It was an error in one of their open source libraries which led to some users’ conversation titles being displayed to other users, but not the full conversations, just the titles. They took the service offline for a few hours on Monday, after it was discovered. As of the time of the writing of the article (Tuesday morning) the service was back nline, but they had turned off conversation histories until they squashed that bug. Bing has added DALL-E to their implementation of ChatGPT embedded in their search engine (which is itself a rudimentary AI). Oh joy, now we can give Microsoft even more data. Sounds like a good time, guys and gals. NOT... Let’s have a chat about getting away from Big Tech, after all that is why I do this, to raise awareness of the need to undergo the pain and discomfort of breaking away and getting free from the trap of convenience that is presented by these Big Tech firms and their products, whether Windows & MS Office, or Google, or Apple, Meta, or Twitter. Not to mention Amazon, which I’ll be talking about next. If all patriots wake up and get away from Big Tech platforms and tools, those companies would collapse under their own bulk without half of the nation feeding them data all the time, they would have markedly fewer people to market to via ad deals with marketing firms. That is where the majority of the funding comes from: your data. If every freedom-minded business migrated away from Windows, Apple, and Alphabet, then those companies would start to shrivel and die. The economics of the moment already have them constricting to survive, but if all of us voted with our wallets by ceasing to use their products, they would be screwed. Let’s do this, people. Stick it to Big Tech, and stick it to The Man. As an aside, the head of hardware development for Amazon is so far all in on FireTV that he has ditched his Echo that used to help him control his TV. He wants all Amazon customers to buy Alexa-enabled smart TVs because he is trying to make TVs more broadly useful, rather than being relegated to being off most of the time. He wants more data from us. It is that simple. I will never intentionally buy one. I think my family is migrating over to projectors anyway, so those will be connected with our network so that they can access our library and have dumb access to streaming services in the future. That simple. I wish I could quit Amazon, I really do. It’s so damned convenient, though. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/20/openai-ceo-sam-altman-says-hes-a-little-bit-scared-of-ai.html https://news.gab.com/2023/03/smoke-mirrors-and-fake-news-about-ai/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/microsofts-bing-adds-ai-image-creator-powered-by-dall-e/ https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65018107 https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/chatgpt-bug-exposed-peoples-conversation-history/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/17/tech/baidu-stock-ernie-bot-intl-hnk https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/22/amazons-devices-head-ditched-echo-in-his-living-room-for-a-smart-tv.html WE 29.4 – VPNs, Which One Should You Pick? The Fastest? The Most Private? The Most Secure? The One with the Best Features? Well, this is all up to you, but according to CNet, the fastest VPN was Nord, by an 8% margin. The second fastest was ExpressVPN, but every year it seems that the ones they test (which seem to be the most popular ones in the US, perhaps) move up and down in the standings. Is speed enough to make you switch? I would argue that it shouldn’t be. What other aspects should matter? Customer service? Reliability? Being no-log? Having other bells & whistles? To me, the most important factors are no-log status, reliability, speed, customer service, then the rest. With that said, according to the findings of security.org, Nord is the best overall, and they tested 35 VPNs over the course of 6 months. They do note, however, that the support staff is very difficult to get ahold of for Nord, so while it is fast, secure, private, and reliable (along with being situated in a country outside of the Anglosphere spy networks), that is a significant downer there. Their top performers were Nord, SurfShark, Private Internet Access, UltraVPN, and the Norton offering. I cannot speak to these, nor will I make any suggestions, other than to tell you that you need to research your VPN carefully before you pull the trigger. Make sure that they are well-rated across more than 2 websites, are strictly no-log, and reliable (both in terms of actually working consistently and not being able to respond to subpoenas because they have no data). What I will say is that you do need to make sure that you have a trustworthy DNS filter to catch Ads, malware, trackers, and anything else you don’t want to have access to on your computer. One such provider is ControlD, I currently use their filtering and it works great. I will link their free resolver down below. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/fastest-vpn/ https://www.security.org/vpn/best/ https://controld.com/free-dns WE 29.5 – TikTok on the Hotseat Yesterday, the CEO of TikTok testified before congress, and they didn’t take him seriously at alll. They seemed to have already made up their minds about the ban, but were giving him time in the theater to “plead his case”. You all know how I hate most social media by now, and have railed against TikTok for months, but I find myself not hating it so much now. I’ve researched it a bit more and they appear to be working their asses off to better protect the user data that they gather, which is a copious amount (in line with Meta & Twatter) nonetheless, but the primary concern that western governments seem to be having with it is the belief that “they’re sending all our data back to China”. They are literally spending billions between the US and Europe to house data from those regions in those regions. They are also developing strong policies of transparency around data handling to assuage everyone’s fears. However, it looks like because they aren’t directly tied to Western intelligence communities, the West is likely to ban it outright. I think the CIA, FBI, and other 5, 9, and 14 eyes countries are big mad that they don’t have a built-in back door to all that data, so if they can’t easily use it the way they have with American Big Tech products, then they don’t want us to have it. This is almost enough for me to want to jump on, just to fly the bird in the direction of the “powers that be”. However, I have other concerns, just as with any other social media platform, in terms of user privacy. I want to be able to control my data better. I also looked up some of the other anti-TikTok talking points I’ve been spouting since I started bashing them, and while their monetization for creators is a joke, they do legitimately have deals with major record labels and studios to use their content on the platform. Those are old deals which now only benefit TikTok, but oh well for the studios and labels. My concern over not honoring IP and copyrights is a non-issue. Forgive me for not looking into these issues any sooner. I will still not jump on, because I have enough tech stuff to keep me occupied until Jesus comes at this point. I need my brain and heart to be focused on what I need to do, not be fighting me to watch a never-ending stream of TikTok videos. That is the one issue that I don’t think that they could possibly address in a satisfactory way, though they have rolled out speed bumps for minors on the platform, even if they are easy to bypass. That is something that is unique in social media. Props to them. I am conflicted. My hardline hot takes have been overkill, guys and gals. I still do not like it, but most of my talking points, after seeing what they have been working on, seem at the very least out of date, if not dead wrong. Forgive me for feeding the hysteria. For me, in terms of data, it is primarily a question of proof being in the pudding. They can say that they are and have been working hard to improve and change, but unless multiple independent auditors are engaged and find that it is all true, over time, the concern still stays. They are a growing platform, so perhaps their creator monetization issues will be remedied over time as their position becomes stronger. I do not feel sorry for the record labels and studios who are whining about not getting a bigger cut of the ad revenue pie. The addiction issues and other related problems, I am unsure if can be addressed fully. It is the nature of the platform to incentivize more user attention, and kids dying while attempting dangerous challenges is sad and terrible, but perhaps that is a good reason why kids shouldn’t be allowed on the platform at all. They lack the brain development to handle that. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/tech/tiktok-ceo-hearing https://fortune.com/2022/11/08/tiktok-profits-record-industry-wants-increase-royalties-revenue/ https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-tiktok-pays-for-views-real-examples-pulse-creator-fund

Bob Lee Stabbed to Death in SF Credit Suisse Buyout News Amazon Vs Labor and UK May Sue Over Cloud Monopoly AI News Tiktok News Weekend Edition, Cashapp founder stabbed to death in SanFran, Credit Suisse & UBS, Amazon Labor Union Woes, UK signals lawsuit over AWS and Azure in UK stifling competition, pResident Depends holding meetings on AI, chatGPT makes wild accusations, Head of Signal Foundation reaffirms dedication to never adopt AI tech in the Signal system, Other popular Chinese Apps, TikTok opinions WE 31.1 – Bob Lee, Founder of CashApp Stabbed to Death Sad story to start off the day, but I’m committed to doing some sort of human interest piece at the top of the weekend edition from now on. It would appear that Bob Lee, who was a fixture in Silicon Valley for the last 20 years or so, first as an engineer at Square, then when he founded CashApp later, was stabbed to death in the Rincon District of San Francisco. Many will miss him, he sounded like a genuinely great guy. Good bye, Bob. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/tech/bob-lee-tech-executive-death/index.html #cashapp #boblee #rip #sadday #square #cashapp WE 31.2 – Shotgun Wedding in Switzerland UBS and Credit Suisse tied the knot, so to speak, in a very rushed ceremony due to the failing health of Credit Suisse over the last handful of months. Swiss authorities pushed them together, and both parties were willing, for the most part, however, others around them are questioning the pairing. some are concerned that it concentrates too much risk in UBS specifically and Switzerland generally. We will see what becomes of this union which apparently will take 3-4 years to completely effect, due to the gargantuan nature of both partners. It looks like there will be significant layoffs as these two big banks become one, after all it doesn’t make sense to have reduplication of efforts when part of the point of mergers like this is to streamline operations. Some shareholders were pretty mad at the meetings which each bank held in the beginning of the week. Markedly moreso on the Credit Suisse side than on the UBS side, but no one was really happy that they didn’t get a vote in the matter. Sure, the UBS shareholders were happy to have one fewer competitors in the world, but having a major deal like that crammed down their throats tempered their enthusiasm a bit. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/ubs-holds-first-shareholder-meeting-since-controversial-credit-suisse-takeover.html #UBS #creditsuisse #mergers #banking #highfinance WE 31.3 – Amazon in Trouble More? 31.3a – Ever Hear About the Amazon Labor Union? Well, they won their court case a year ago, but Amazon still refuses to acknowledge that they exist. A guy named Christian Smalls, who was let go from one of the NY Amazon warehouses back in 2020, decided that workers needed to unionize to protect themselves from the increasingly poor working conditions they faced in the warehouses. As you can imagine, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the fledgling union, because even though they won the first battle, which is simply to be able to organize at all, there have been other hurdles. Personality conflicts, differences of opinion, and of course resistance from the behemoth that they are trying to organize in order to have a voice in order to bargain with. Amazon has hardly bothered to notice that this ragtag, grassroots group, headed by an individual whom Amazon lawyers thought was “not smart or articulate” a few years ago. It will be interesting to see what happens with the ALU’s efforts to move any further than they have already, which is quite something. I’m neither a huge fan of mega-corps like Amazon nor of the overtly socialist nature of unions, which is already starting to manifest itself in Mr. Smalls. He travels all over the country, wearing Versace, and hobnobbing with celebrities, then passes down pronouncements as if from on high. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/01/tech/amazon-labor-union-one-year-later/index.html 31.3b – AWS and Azure to Face Anti-trust Litigation in UK OFCOM, the UK communications regulator looks poised to bring a case against both tech monsters’ cloud divisions for being anti-competitive. What are they looking at here, though? In the words of the Ofcom’s director, they have found, “High barriers to switching are already harming competition in what is a fast-growing market. We think more in-depth scrutiny is needed, to make sure it’s working well for people and businesses who rely on these services.” In light of that, they have decided to refer the matter to the Competition and Markets Authority, who is ready to do an investigation of their own, actually seems to be champing at the bit, so to speak. They have already reviewed preliminary findings from Ofcom and is primed to look into the matter. The issues that led to Ofcom referring them to the CMA center around high egress fees, artificial technical barriers to interoperability with other providers, as well as incentive fee structures meant to encourage clients to only use one cloud provider for all their needs. This strikes me as a fairly open & shut case, as far as I’m concerned, but the giants, including Google, which speak for between 65-75% of the cloud market in the UK are all using these tactics (not all that differently from here in the States). Well, we will see what these regulators do and can do to these big dogs. I have my doubts that it will wind up as anything more than a slap on the wrist for these tech giants, but who knows, maybe they’ll be out for a pound and a half of flesh this time instead of 3 ounces. I’ll keep an eye on it, but it sounds like the earliest there is likely to be more movement on this issue will be something like November. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/tech/amazon-microsoft-uk-cloud-services/index.html WE 31.4 – AI News 31.4a – Johnathan Turley: Falsely Accused of Harassing a Student by a ChatGPT Hallucination Wow... Dr. Turley is a rare “conservative” within the halls of legal academia, and has never done anything like what chatGPT hallucinated he did to a student, this thing even fabricated a WaPo article about the incident. I have to wonder how much of this happens on a regular basis as people overuse that damned thing for crap it was never intended to do. So a colleague of Dr. Turley’s from UCLA, who was doing some research on harassment accusations against law professors via chatGPT. It manufactured this whole thing, which strikes me as about the same level of nonsense as a hit piece in a tabloid, a blatant example of libel, only there is no one to sue over it. Of course, Dr. Turley has never taken students on trips in 35 years of teaching law, much less has he ever even been accused of anything untoward... Obviously there was never a WaPo article about a non-existent incident. So, if it can make things up whole cloth like that and no one is available to refute the spurious claims, then that gets added to the list of sources for future research. Dr. Turley is trying to say that these tools are untrustworthy in this opinion piece, and I have heard of other similar things happening, so I tend to agree with him on this. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/04/03/chatgpt-misinformation-bias-flaws-ai-chatbot/11571830002/ 31.4b – pResident Depends Holds Meetings About AI Wow, his handlers must really be trying to focus everybody on this issue for some reason, just like the Trump indictment earlier this week. This article is kind of unfocused and feels a bit rushed, to me, but that is beside the point, it is a story about Brandon Depends. He can’t even pay a visit to the necessary on his own successfully (see stain on his pants at the Vatican, lol), much less speak coherently about any topic, not even ice cream. “You know, the thing...” this clown is a colossal embarrassment and humiliation for our country. We were at least semi-functional under Trump and his admin. The cracks were certainly beginning to show then, but the level of dysfunction in this country now is almost incomprehensible to me. I digress, though. They are supposed to meet and talk about the “risks and opportunities” of AI, in the face of the runaway success of tools like chatGPT. They are also likely to push congress to pass legislation to allegedly limit the data collection of Big Tech companies in America. As long as that bill isn’t as much of an inversion of the rights of US citizens enshrined in our Constitution, or is not really about something else, like limiting free speech in the name of protecting us from “misinformation” which is anything that an administration chooses to deem as “wrongthink” or inconvenient, such as in the RESTRICT Act. That monstrosity needs to be shouted down harder than Dinesh D’Souza at U Mass Amherst a few years ago. If it were really what it claimed to be instead of a blank check for the Secretary of Commerce to sign whenever they feel like it to shut down inconvenient information being shared on social media, because apparently bans and shadow bans aren’t enough, shoot, even jailing someone over a meme and a joke shared during the 2016 election is apparently not enough for them, they want absolute control of the internet, just like the CCP has with their “Great Firewall”. But again, I digress. I am glad to hear that the privacy of Americans is suddenly on the radar for Resident Depends. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/04/biden-to-discuss-ai-risks-and-opportunities-in-meeting-with-advisors.html 31.4c – A Bright Spot for Signal The president of the Signal Foundation is making lots of noise about how they will never incorporate AI tools into the encrypted messaging app. Does she want a cookie or a ribbon? The app is meant to be a tool for more private communications, not a data farming enterprise like social media is in general. She also made it clear that they hold onto as little user information as possible to still be able to provide the services that they do through the app. This puts me a bit more at ease about using Signal, however, I am very uncomfortable with the people who endorse it, such as people with thoroughly mixed reputations such as Edward Snowden. However, that is not the point right now. The point is that they are standing up to pressure to incorporate some of those God-awful privacy violators called “generative ‘AIs’” into their non-profit based private communication app. Good on them. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/31/signal-president-meredith-whittaker-learned-what-not-to-do-from-google.html WE 31.5 – Tiktok Thoughts 31.5a – Public Sentiment About the Ban As of a week ago, half of the people surveyed by Pew Research were behind the idea of ban, overall, and most (64% of) respondents were aware of the CCP connections for TikTok and ByteDance, most (60% of) GOP-aligned people were in favor of the ban, while only 43% of Dem-aligned respondents were favorable toward the idea. I feel like there is a huge influence operation underway about this issue, precious little real information on either side of the issue, and I am finding myself leaning toward supporting TikTok’s continued operation in the country, but not because I actually like the platform, which I don’t, I think it can be and often is used to manipulate people in certain ways which are counter to their well being. Rather because I get very, very uneasy when the two wings of the political bird of this country come together on anything, as 95% of the time, whatever that issue that got overwhelming bipartisan support winds up stripping us of freedoms and rights which should be guaranteed by the limits placed on the government by the documents upon which this country allegedly rests (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/tech/tiktok-ban-pew-survey/index.html 31.5b – Is TikTok the ONLY Popular Chinese App in the US and UK? Simple answer: No. What else is there? CapCut (a popular video editor often used to create videos for TikTok), Shein (a fashion app aimed at younger millennials and Gen Z), and Temu (an online shopping app which has quickly overtaken WalMart and Amazon for the younger set). If we are really concerned about China getting our data, then we need to be consistent and ban all of these other big China-related apps – these are just the 3 biggest, other than TikTok, though, out of thousands of others. Ooh, how many mobile games which are little more than shinier, more engaging methods of data harvesting are there that should be banned similarly, if we are to be concerned with TikTok purely due to its alleged CCP ties? Either it all needs to be shut down faster than a nerd asking a prom queen out, or our gov’t needs to shut its increasingly corrupt and inept trap about all of this. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65072407

Co-Founder of Intel Passes SVB Bought Out, Finally AI Fearporn and FOSS Hopes Social Media News #weekendedition #currentevents #technews #humaninterest #finance #AInews #twitter #tiktok #TechFreedom #FOSSNews WE 30.1 – Gordon Moore Passed This Week A founding father of the silicon era passed away at 94 this week. Who was Gordon Moore? He was an electrical engineer and chemist who helped to shape our world. He was one of the three men who founded the titan, Intel (which I didn’t realize stands for INTegrated ELectronics). He wrote what became known as “Moore’s Law” back in 1965, before it was anything like clear that these things would happen, at least to the rest of the world. He was a visionary who really drove Intel and the industry forward until he retired in 1997. In the early days, it was just 3 men who built Intel: Moore, Robert Noyce, and Andy Grove. Noyce was the initial idea man, Moore executed on Noyce’s designs, tweaking them until they worked as intended, and Grove was the management and Ops mastermind that allowed the other two to focus on what they were good at doing. I figured this was worth covering since I covered the bit about the inventor of Ethernet last week. Without men like these, who knows where computing and the modern world would be. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/tech/gordon-moore-obituary WE 30.2 – SVB Bought Out by First Citizens BancShares Remember how I was saying that it was shocking that the FDIC was holding onto these failed banks as long as they had, as of last week? Well, they finally pawned off much of SVB to an East Coast rival, First Citizens, which bills themselves as ‘America’s largest family-controlled bank’. Here are the details: • First Citizens had bought around $72bn of SVB's assets at a discount of $16.5bn ◦ Making First Citizens one of the 25 biggest in the US. • The FDIC said it will hold onto roughly $90bn of SVB's assets and estimated the cost of the SVB failure to its deposit insurance fund would be about $20bn ◦ It will also receive an equity stake in First Citizens worth up to $500m. • The FDIC said it had received 27 bids from 18 bidders before settling on the First Citizens deal. ​ Ok, so wait a second, this math does not seem to make sense the surface. Then when you remember that it is all a giant shell game, kind of like the points in the game on Whose Line Is It Anyway, it starts to make sense again. I can get the discount thing, but how do you figure that 162 billion = 170 billion? I feel like I’m missing something in this picture. I’m a tech guy who happens to be a restorationist follower of Jesus, not an expert in high finance. Can anyone help me out, here? Is the FDIC supposed to hold assets of failed banks? Don’t those become liabilities in their hands if they do not sell them? I really don’t understand this properly, but from where I sit, this seems weird. That is all I’m gonna say about it for now. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65084248 WE 30-3: AI Fearporn and FOSS Hopes 30.3a Musk and other “luminaries” in the space sound alarm about AI Here’s the fearporn.:Musk, Steve Wozniak, and other tech leaders have signed an open letter expressing concerns over automation and the effects of generative AI, particularly with the way that GPT-4 has grown vs GPT-3. It has many spooked. I am unconvinced that it is genuinely a threat. It cannot truly do its own thing without user prompts, and even at that, if the gentleman from Gab (see last week’s episode) knows what he is talking about, then this is really all fear. The letter calls for a ceasefire in the training of these high end AIs due to their fears about the upheaval that could result from the proliferation of highly refined AIs which could out-think, out-work, and generally outdo us human beings. I doubt that it could ever get to that point, and besides, if we don’t abdicate our God-given brains and discernment to these tools, and they aren’t so woke as to be unuseful for sane people, and they weren’t based on collecting data from users to give to mega-corps out there (G**gle, microshaft, etc) or to various intelligence communities, then they are awesome. However, most of the models out there are all those things and more, in terms of being surveillance tools more than anything else. However, we are starting to see the beginnings of some FOSS alternatives, which we’ll talk about next. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65110030 30.3b – Meet Dolly, the first FOSS Generative AI Tool Dolly is a clone, just as its namesake was, only this time, of a Large Language Model called Alpaca. What I find intriguing here, is the potential to control your instance of it entirely, based on the databricks datacenters. This allows individuals to play with and train their version of dolly however they choose. That intrigues me. I like the idea of having more control over the model you use, along with the data you input, versus sending all of that to the fascists over at Big Tech companies. It is non-commercial at this point (that is the nature of most FOSS licensing provisions). They use ElutherAI as its base, and it has Alpaca built on to of it to give it conversational and interactivity capabilities on par with GPT-3 with a much smaller dataset. This may be worth taking a look at, just to play with and learn how all this works. My wife is uneasy about AI in general, thinking it demonic, but I don’t necessarily agree with that assessment at this point. However, I do think that any tool we develop needs to remain seen as a tool, not something to trust with writing the entirety of something important in your life without any added input from you. That does not serve humanity, much less you, on a personal level. Do NOT ever outsource your brain and discernment to ANY machine. https://www.databricks.com/blog/2023/03/24/hello-dolly-democratizing-magic-chatgpt-open-models.html?ref=its-foss-news WE 30.4 – Social Media Silliness 30.4a – Musk Overhauls Blue Check System Again Ok, I only talk about it because people seem to care. Having never gotten involved with the Dirty Blue Bird, I couldn’t care less. It seems to me that Elon is trying to destroy the platform for some reason. As much as he rode in on a cloud of free speech hype, he hasn’t done much to restore free speech on the platform, and the fact that one has to pay for verification now seems like something less than free speech. He also has failed to really undo much of the woketard damage done to and through the platform. I still hear about patriots who got accoutns back getting booted again for saying tamer things than what got them ejected from the platform to begin with. Who knows what Elon is up to. I wouldn’t mind seeing Twitter crash and burn because it is not what it was (allegedly) meant to be, that being a free, digital town square, where everyone’s opinion can briefly be shared. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65095684 30.4b – States and Social Media b1 – Arkansas Sues TikTok, ByteDance, and Meta The State of Arkansas has filed a lawsuit against the platforms and their parent companies alleging that the platforms are injurious to both users’ mental health and personal privacy, based on the Arkansas State Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The Meta/Facebook suit focuses more on the mental health & addiction, as well as content moderation issues with the platform. The ByteDance/TikTok suit focuses on addiction, moderation, and privacy issues with that platform. We will see how far this goes. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/tech/arkansas-lawsuit-tiktok-bytedance-meta-mental-health b2 – Utah Governor Signs Bill About Kids and Social Media Well, now kids have to get permission from their parents in order to sign up for social media accounts in the state of Utah, starting on March 1, 2024. This bill is meant to protect kids from the negative effects of social media, in the form of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Not only parental permission to sign up, but age verifications, and even shutting down kids access to platforms between 10:30 PM and 6:30 AM. On one hand, a round of applause for Utah is advised. On the other, this does constitute a massive privacy breach for these kids. I do not believe that a government policy or regulation like this is the way forward. Parents need to be more responsible in general, and more involved in their kids’ lives. It is really what kids want anyway. The reason they turn to things like social media is to fill the void left by uninvolved parents who are perhaps too busy with trying to make ends meet, or other things that they deem more worthy of their time and effort. Oh, it may lead to push back from the kids at first, particularly if it is foreign to them to have you interested or involved in their lives. You can get through that. It is worth it. I do not have teens yet, but my wife and I homeschool, and that allows us to be more involved with them. I could go on for days on this, but that is not the point right now. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/tech/utah-social-media-regulation-act 30.4c – TIkTok Stuff C1 – It Isn’t the Size of the Data, It’s How You Use It So apparently, the amount of data is not why the West is on a tear about the app, rather it is who owns it and who can access it. We’ve talked about this issue before, and TikTok appears to be making an attempt to corral its data in Western markets to assuage lawmakers here and across the pond, there are concerns, whether valid or not. These concerns are based in the vagaries of Chinese law, and it is very difficult to prove a negative, so it is very difficult to convince anyone that it hasn’t and won’t happen that the CCP has accessed US user data. It is even more difficult to do so when the ones you are trying to convince of a negative are convinced of the opposite. More evidence is necessary, either way. I remain unconvinced in either direction, and the bill that they are calling a “TikTok Ban” is so much more than that, and should never be passed, as it will affect every single social platform, such that any post or content on the platform which conveys any wrongthink can lead to fines, and/or prison time for the offending party. Is that an environment you want to live in? Do you want to live in a country where you cannot speak your mind freely? Ok, so we are already somewhat in that category, but do you want it to be that much worse? I sure as hell don’t. That is how we will see the fullness of fascism in this country. When Big Tech is authorized to rat you out even more than they are now. Far be it from us to ever pass a law that openly repugnant to the Constitution. Shame on the clowns in DC for even considering that. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/tech/tiktok-ban-national-security-hearing C2 – Who stands to Benefit from a TikTok Ban? Excellent question. Why, US Big Tech platforms, of course. In fact, with all of the noise in DC, those platforms’ stocks have gone up as investors are salivating over the potential of more users coming back “home” so to speak, due tot the spike in potential ad revenue for the platforms. I have a better idea, not that anybody listens to me yet... But why don’t we all jump on the Fediverse rather than running back to Big Tech with all of their surveillance capitalism? https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/tech/tiktok-alternatives What is the Fediverse? It is a cluster of related, decentralized protocols like Pixelfed, Mastodon, PeerTube, Pleroma, Tumblr, Diaspora, Friendica, GoToSocial, and others. They are decentralized because anybody can start a self-hosted instance on a server they own or rent, choose to federate it or not, and it cannot be taken down by anyone, unless your server gets taken out for some reason. These are all FOSS, but can be a bit overwhelming to get started with, kind of like matrix. Some of them are interconnected, such as Mastodon, PixelFed, and PeerTube. Mastodon is what Gab is based on. PixelFed is a photo/image-sharing protocol, something like instagram. PeerTube is a peer-to-peer video sharing protocol, meant to be something along the lines of YouTube. https://fediverse.party

WE 32.1 – Bob Lee’s Alleged Killer Collared Justice is coming for Bob. Here’s a followup on last week’s lead story. It looks like he knew his attacker and the attack was not a robbery or just a random murder. It would appear that the two men knew each other, and had been having a very heated argument in the suspect’s car during the wee hours of the morning last Tuesday morning. It got so combative that it would appear that Mr. Lee exited the car, and the suspect followed him, then pulled a knife on him. The knife, with the suspect’s prints on it was found near the scene. Part of me is curious to know what the argument was about, and why the men took it to such great lengths. I can’t think of many things that could lead to that much of a reaction in me, with someone that I know well. Perhaps more details will come to light, who knows, right? https://gizmodo.com/cash-app-founder-bob-lee-stabbing-nima-momeni-arrested-1850332225 #Cashapp #boblee #suspectarrested #justice #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 32.2 – Former Theranos CEO to Report to Prison Elizabeth Holmes, who was a party to defrauding Big Money in the US about 5 years ago, is to report to prison as she awaits her appeal. A few months ago, I covered that she and her former partner (multiple senses to that word) had been sentenced to 11 and 13 years for their respective parts in the fraud scheme around the Theranos claims about their revolutionary blood testing technology. The courts are not allowing her to stay free pending the appeal that may take a year to be heard. This is what happens when you defraud people like Buffett and others in the Billionaire class. You get slapped to the stone age. In comparison, if your fraud does not touch the upper crust, your trial will probably drag out further, and while you will likely be banned from ever running a business where you might be able to defraud people again as well as getting fined, and/ or required to refund or return money to those whom you harmed. They are throwing the book at Theranos just like they did with Skrelli and Madoff. #theranos #elizabethholmes #fraud #payingthepiper #TechFreedom #weekendedition https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65241105 WE 32.3 – Elon & Twitter A) Elon’s BBC Interview a. Denies that trolling and other “hateful” content is on the rise on Twitter since he took over. The snowflakes are melting because they don’t have full run of the place anymore. The “journalist” who interviewed him couldn’t provide a single example of how that content had trended upward in the last 6 months. Lame. b. Somehow I am less than surprised that a big tech guy, even one as seemingly outspoken in certain conservative ways as Elon is, would vote for Depends in the last election, rather than the “Bad Orange Man”. c. He stands by Twitter’s efforts against bots and “hateful” content, in spite of multiple studies purporting to show how Twitter is worse off since he took over. i. Terribly shocking that he would stand by their efforts... About as shocking as these Woke-ist studies amplifying all that they claim to hate, so not really at all. d. Doesn’t believe that TikTok should be banned, as he is “generally against bans”. He doesn’t use the platform, but is not for the ban merely because it might drive content and eyeballs back to Twitter. e. He would not sell at this point, unless the buyer shared his commitments to free speech and the like. He believes that he can turn it around to actually be profitable, unlike as it was, and he likens the way it was to a non-profit, rather than a business. f. Twitter will change BBC’s label on the platform to “publicly funded” rather than “government funded” even though 71% of their revenue comes in the form of UK TV license fees, aka, straight from the Crown. BBC had whined about having the same label as RT and other global State media outlets. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65251160 #elon #interview #surprise #FOSSNews #TechFreedom B) Twitter Labels NPR & BBC as “Government Affiliated Media” Lol. They chose to call it how it is. Both media giants balked, NPR actually committed to leaving the platform over the alleged mis-characterization, so good riddance to bad rubbish, there, right? The BBC whined, and as I just mentioned in the interview story, Twitter back down and will change the label, from “Government Affiliated” to “Publicly Funded” media, and it would appear that that will be enough to keep the British giant on the platform. NPR is all in a tizzy over it, crying that only 3% of their income is from the CPB, which runs PBS. Both organizations insist that they have editorial freedom and are not beholden to any government entity to make sure that their news stories are non-damaging to the US or the UK. I struggle with that characterization, as we know that ALL MSM, and likely some of the smaller alt-media outlets get their talking points from the Clowns in America or the MI5/6 in the UK. Show me proof that the intellignce communities do not have full control over most of these outlets, and I’ll eat some crow. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65202978 https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65226481 #Twitter #NPR #BBC WE 32.4 – AI News For the Week A) Big 3 Square Off (ChatGPT vs Bing vs Bard) You’re probably wondering why I’m bothering with this article at all with the running commentary I have about these tools, but it caught my eye. I am surprised that the Bing AI, which is an implementation of GPT-4 (the tech behind chatGPT) seems to be the middle of the road choice, here, where vanilla chatGPT outshines its competitors in every test. Bard currently sucks eggs, even though it has realtime access to Google Search to craft its responses to things. However, that may change when Google transitions from the LaMDA to PaLM large language model. I think what we are seeing here is just that Bard has not had the billions of user requests that chatGPT has had since it was released for public use back in November, as it is just becoming publicly available. Bing is weird, here though, because where chatGPT shines, it is just kind of so-so. I will repeat my refrain here: I do not trust the the mega-corps that are designing these models, not to give me accurate, relatively unbiased information, and I see these tools as pleas from them for us to give them even more data about us, our interests and the info we want to know or have put together for us. As time goes on, I see these “generative ‘AI’s’” as more nefarious, but not in the same way as people like my wife do. I think that they are designed to lull us into farming out our thinking even more than mass media and the “education” system in most countries do already. Don’t let them take your mind from you through atrophy, people. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/chatgpt-vs-bing-vs-google-bard-which-ai-is-the-most-helpful/ #ughhhh #AI #showdown #weekendedition B) AWS to Launch Generative AI Competitor Bedrock is a foundation for other companies to build their own tools with, not a publicly available chatbot like Bard, ChatGPT or Bing. It has a bevy of models to choose from which are all at least somewhat pre-trained, but each implementation will be 100% isolated from others using the same model, so no random company will benefit from the data that another company pours into their AI implementation based on Bedrock. This sounds like a good business move, and Amazon has been training Titan, their in-house AI models, for about 20 years, based on site searches on Amazon.com. Be wise in how you use these tools. I won’t pretend that if you have decided to use them or already have started to use them that you will stop on my account, but please slow your roll on this. Do not be in such a blind rush that you cannot see the problems with these tools. #weekendedition #AI #Amazon #AWS #Bedrock #interesting #FOSSNews #TechFreedom https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/13/aws-launches-bedrock-generative-ai-service-titan-llms.html C) AI Gen Images Cause a Stir Deepfakes had their day in the sun this week, with their faked images going viral because people are either too tired or unobservant to notice the differences between faked images and real ones. Some were innocuous enough, of course, but the fact that people couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake, and the images were caused to go viral (I do not trust virality anymore, as it is too easily pushed via algorithms) and thus made a big stir, in some cases. This article ends with a tepid call for legislation around these issues, which seems to be something of a reaction to the notion that we need to democratize AI tools so that everyone can have access to them, if desired. I echo the call to democratize things, as you can imagine, since the name of this channel is FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) News. I believe strongly that the best, and perhaps only, way forward in terms of not becoming an even more blatant corporatocracy, is to open source as many things in our lives as possible. Speaking of open sourcing things, it is time to play a FOSS game. #weekendedition #AI #midjourney #imagegenerators #warnings #FOSSNews #TechFreedom https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/02/tech/ai-generated-images-social-media/index.html

News From Elon Land AI News Tech tips from the FBI (LOL) Dominion/Fox/Smartmatic BS #elon #AI #FBI #techtips #electionstuff Elonmusk #Twitter #FOSSNews #TechFreedom #weekendedition #currentevents #technews WE 33.1 – Elon World He claims to be lining up a lawsuit against Microsoft for illegally using Twitter data to train the Bing AI, based on reporting from a few outlets on the matter. Elon tweeted out a threat on Wednesday, but as of writing, there have been no teeth behind the barked threat. This opens up the topic of data ownership, which is one of the cornerstones of both Tech Freedom and another related company which I’ve been creating content for, called Altha Tech. The prime difference between us is that Altha Tech can actually help you to host your data safely away from Big Tech, on their own infrastructure. I do not have that capability. They can help you get set up with a custom WordPress site, host your own Nextcloud instance, or any other number of self-hosted tools or platforms, to keep your data safe, and your website up and running no matter what you post there. Tech Freedom is about showing you the need for and introducing you to alternatives to Big Tech. I can help you set your computer and mobile life free, but the best option, unless you have the hardware and know-how to self host the rest of whatever can be in your digital life, is to go with a hosting provider who has their own infrastructure and prizes privacy. Altha Tech fits that bill. Back to the main gist of the article though, Elon is acting big mad about Twitter’s data being scraped to train Microsoft’s AI. Data ownership and privacy need to be foremost in our minds, as these factors make a huge difference in every day life, believe it or not. Whether you feel you have anything to hide or not, this should matter to you because whenever you use an electronic device, it records data about he interaction, whether your phone, computer, or some online account. The profiles built about us by big tech (and the surveillance state) are incredibly powerful and can sometimes reveal more about ourselves than we know about ourselves. This can lead to very dark places if that data winds up in the wrong hands. That is why I just plugged Altha Tech, as well as Tech Freedom. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/musk-threatens-to-sue-microsoft-over-twitter-data-being-used-in-ai.html https://althatech.com https://techfreedom.pro #elonmusk #suingmicrosoft #personaldata #dataownership #dataprivacy #althatech #techfreedom #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 33.2 – AI News 33.2a) TruthGPT? In Elon’s interview with Tucker, he claimed that he was going to start a new AI initiative called TruthGPT to be a counterbalance to the wokism and political correctness of other AI tools that are currently in vogue. The reality is that there are ways to make ChatGPT less woke, and I have talked about them in the past, then there is Gab AI (currently just art and short video clips), but working on a text chat bot that will produce far more based (less biased) things. Elon used to be on the board at OpenAI, but left after a failed takeover attempt in 2018, and has been decrying the for-profit model that they have been pursuing since then. In this interview, he also calls for some sort of government regulatory agency to be put in place around AI. Uhhh, no. Let’s not create more government agencies, Mr. Musk. Weren’t you paying attention when Regan quipped that the scariest words in the English language are “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help”? We need less government and better moral and ethical norms in our society again. We need to eliminate the corruption that seems to be at the core of our government and society, then restore life to a purer state. To me, this requires a full shut down and cleanse of the system, then rebuild from the ground up, with a core of Truth rather than corruption. A keystone to this project is submission to the God of the Bible, learning to trust the Holy Spirit to guide us, the Father to protect and provide for us, and Jesus to walk with us. But I digress. AI may or may not be the issue, here. The organizations creating and training the AIs are. I don’t trust Elon to head this up, either. He is too inconsistent, and besides, he voted for pResident Depends in 2020. That is an epic case of bad judgment. Not sure I trust Torba and the team at Gab, either, to be honest. I think I trust them more, but that isn’t saying much. As always, I think that open sourced efforts are the way to move forward. That way we can see the data used, the algorithms and whatnot used to make the educated guesses at what its answers should be and whatnot. Generally, FOSS also = self-hostable, which adds an extra layer of privacy and control to the whole picture. Either way, remember that these things are TOOLS, not something you should live your life according to. #AI #elonmusk #truthgpt #idonttrusthim #TechFreedom #weekendedition https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/musk-calls-plans-truthgpt-ai-to-rival-openai-deepmind.html 33.2b) Google Creating MAGI, a new AI Search Engine What is MAGI? It’s a response/reaction to the report that Samsung may be considering moving away from Google Search as its default for its devices, and over to Bing, due to the AI integration with it. Its aim is to be as conversational as ChatGPT, which BARD is not, currently. Bard kind of sucks. It sounds like the search giant is reeling a bit, as shares went down 4% when the news about Samsung’s apparent decision broke. Why do they still hold a 97% market share for search? I’ve been harping on ditching them for the whole time I’ve been doing Tech Freedom. That is the simplest step you can take to reduce your big tech footprint, as well as gaining access to more balanced news and other information as well. Quit volunteering your data to Google and Microsoft, y’all. Just stop it. Use Brave search, Presearch, or something else that doesn’t send your search data to them without some anonymization at least. Word on the street is that Google will start to release MAGI in a month or so. Oh boy. #smh #google #AI #MAGI #yikes #nothanks #weekendedition #TechFreedom #FOSSNews https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-reportedly-working-on-ai-powered-search-engine/ 33.2c) Snapchat to Roll Out My AI to All Accounts Soon Uhhh, thanks for reminding me why I don’t use Snapchat again, Snap. My AI is a ChatGPT based tool which can talk to you on the platform, even eventually including pictures, but just the same way as another user might. It’s designed to suggest different AR lenses to filter your content through, it even has its own bitmoji persona, and you can set up group chats with the same bot. Right now, it will only respond with text, but soon, they will update it so that it can generate images. Ok... *side eye* I used to think that snapchat was kind of cool, but then I started caring more about privacy, and lost interest, that and if you haven’t noticed, brevity in my content is not my specialty, lol. #snapchat #AI #ohbrother #myai #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/snaps-ai-bot-is-rolling-out-to-everyone-heres-how-it-works/ WE 33.3 – Security Tips A) Phishing 101 a. What is phishing? i. A type of scam which uses bits of scraped personal data, which can happen via email, social media, or even text messaging. 1. They will message you, one way or the other, sometimes offering money if you’ll help them with something, and sometimes soliciting donations for some worthy cause. They ultimately want to squeeze money from you, or some other valuable piece of personal information. b. How can you protect yourself from a phishing scam? i. Practice good digital hygiene 1. Don’t open emails or other messages from addresses/senders that you don’t recognize. a. Verify with individual senders that you do know before you open messages from them 2. Make sure that the spellings for addresses actually match the senders and domains you are familiar with. 3. If a message requests donations in crypto or gift cards, it is a scammer 4. Romance scams are a doozy. If I weren’t happily married, it would have been far harder to dodge those bullets, but if someone is messaging you that you don’t know in person, claiming that they love you, block them and flag that sender as a spam account. 5. Be wary about charities anyway. Even established charities can also be little more than money laundering operations. It is better to find a way to give directly to someone who is hurting, but beware of that as well. c. Mitigating Damage i. Use a good anti-virus suite and keep it up to date 1. Or use Linux, it is not as likely to have a place for malware to latch onto. ii. Make sure that your password is strong, and that you do not reuse passwords for anything. If needed, use a good password manager like Bitwarden. iii. Use 2FA 1. I would be careful with 2FA, as not all 2FA is created equal. If you must use it, use an app like Aegis which is FOSS and never use SMS 2FA if you can help it. iv. Consider a Credit Freeze 1. If you fear that bad actors have breached your social security number or credit card numbers, there are steps you can take to make sure that they can’t do much with that information. Phone your credit card company or bank and have them freeze your account until you are able to piece it back together. https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/avoid-concert-and-sports-ticket-scams-with-these-expert-approved-tips/ #phishing #security #tips #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom B) Beware Public Device Chargers Simple PSA here, don’t use free, public anything these days. Some bad actor has probably been there, hacked that in some way, and these public charging stations can take advantage of the fact that most charging ports on phones and tablets can also transfer data, and juice jack devices through embedding compromised data chips with malware payloads embedded in them to hit your phone as soon as you plug it in. Just use your own, with a power outlet. It is that simple. Sometimes it is hard, but if you value privacy, this is how it must be. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/tech/fbi-public-charging-port-warning/index.html #PSA #juicejacking #becareful #useyourowncharger #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 33.4 – Fox & 2020 Election Stuff A) Fox & Dominion Settle for just shy of $800 Million I don’t know how I feel about this, except that I recall that the owner of Faux News is in the rarefied air of the “chosen people”. They tend to live by their own unique set of rules, and that makes Faux News and all of its talent sketchy, IMO. Faux has been controlled opposition the whole time, never really on the side of we the people. They are Lamestream Media, after all. Dominion sued for about double that based on claims of defamation that Faux’s anchors and personalities made in relation to the company’s voting tabulation machines in the aftermath of that fraudulent election. Whether or not the machines were knowingly tampered with to invalidate the will of We the People or not, the will of We the People was negated in many ways in November of 2020. I could go off on this, but I have not really researched it, and there is much noise and mis/disinformation on both sides of the issue so it is hard to see the truth at this point. Either way, Faux News chose to more or less admit to wrongdoing to avoid more scandal in the midst of public discovery for the trial, and now Dominion gets a fat payday. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/19/business/nightcap-fox-dominion-winners-losers/index.html #elections #fauxnews #msm #2020 #dominion #weekendedition B) Smartmatic vs Faux News In a very related case, Smartmatic is pressing forward with its $2.7 Billion claim against Faux News and News Corp. They have compelled Faux to produce the same materials for discovery as they needed to for the Dominion case. Both firms accuse the media giant of not merely reporting on the statements of Trump and his surrogates and lawyers, but engaging in statements which damaged the company’s prospects due to being implicated in the court of public opinion with fraud. It looks like Faux will actually take this one to trial, and perhaps that was the idea all along, since these cases are so similar. #weekendedition #2020 #smartmatic #voting #FOSSNews #TechFreedom https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/fox-smartmatic-defamation-case-dominion.html

WE 34.1 – What’s New with Ms. Holmes? Elizabeth Holmes’ legal team managed to postpone her requirement to report to prison by pointing out errors in the judge’s ruling, which automatically put off her reporting date until the judge can weigh the new claims, it bought her co-conspirator an extra month, but she is hoping that it will buy her more time than that. We will see. If you recall, Ms. Holmes was the CEO of Theranos, a medical testing start-up which was found to be fraudulent, and was also a darling of Silicon Valley and the media, who hailed her as the “next Steve Jobs”. She is a one-time paper billionairess, but not anymore. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65406910 #elizabethholmes #Theranos #fraud #payingthepiper #techfreedom #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 34.2 – Amazon UK Unionizing? Amazon workers may shortly win the right to unionize in Amazon’s fulfillment centers. If you recall a couple of weeks ago, I covered a similar story from the US, specifically in one of the fulfillment centers in NY state. Which technically has the legal right to exist, but Amazon ignores them. It is a similar situation in the UK. The UK seems to have stronger supports for unions than we do, which is not a terrible surprise to me, as the UK is a commonwealth, and is much further along the path toward socialism than we are, though we aren’t as far from that as we would like to think. Things are so bad that the workers say that their restroom breaks are timed and they are penalized if they go over the time limit, in light of the productivity demands placed on them by Amazon. Thus, the 700 members of the GMB union at the Coventry facility are on strike, not only until they are recognized by the government but until pay and conditions are improved. #amazon #unions #UK #TechFreedom #weekendedition https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65340522 WE 34.3 – Snapchat MyAI Rolls Out Last week, we talked about this implementation of ChatGPT. Now it has been forced upon Snap’s entire userbase. Some have appreciated it, but many have not, particularly not here in the US. They’ve been review bombed in the App Store, specifically, with a glut of 1 star reviews since MyAI got pinned to the top of everyone’s feed on Monday. The feature bills itself as being able to do a number of things that are similar to ChatGPT (makes sense, as it is based on that tool), but does add caveats that it may not give entirely accurate answers and that users should not take these things as gospel, but perhaps as starting points for ideas. That is a balanced approach, but then Snap also knows that they need to be very careful with AI right now, and not completely oversell it, as that would leave them open to lawsuits that they cannot really afford at this point. It will be interesting to see how long this forced feature for free users will last. I forgot to mention that the premium, paid accounts can disable it if they desire to do so. Ironic, if you ask me. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65388258 #snapchat #MyAI #youdecide #socialmedia #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 34.4 – Facebook Sued by Bevy of Former Content Moderators Ooooh boy, this one is gonna rock Meta to the core. They have depended on men like this South African to do very traumatizing work to protect the rest of us from harmful content. I seem to recall mentioning something about this perhaps 6 months ago. The things that these men and women had to see in order to legitimately filter genuinely harmful content off of the platform are an atrocity. I will not joke about these. the reality is that they have been exposed to some extremely dark things in the course of their employment that no person should be forced to consume. True, on one hand, they were doing the jobs that they were hired to do, but at the same time, no one should be creating content like that, much less should anyone be subjected to watching it day in, day out, just for a paycheck. No matter how good that paycheck is. That will desensitize and dehumanize a person. One gentleman claims that he feels that a part of his humanity died, that he can no longer respond appropriately to death because he saw so much in the course of his duties. These were not your “fact checkers” or woke-ist politiburo members in the West. These are African men and women who faced depictions of real deaths, tortures, and suicides every day. I can’t imagine that job. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65346062 #facebook #contentmoderators #evil #TechFreedom #FOSSNews #weekendedition WE 34.5 - Is Elon in Trouble? Gee whiz, he can do wrong, after all. /sarc/ The MSM and woke mob is congealing in their REEEEEE at him for the choices he made since buying the platform in late October. News organizations are leaving, celebrities and governments are pissed at his removing of their blue checks on the platform, and many do not want to pay for it, so they leave. This has led to a sharp decline in advertising revenue, but with the fact that it is no longer publicly traded, Elon rightly claims that he doesn’t have to disclose anything to the public about the state of his company. I feel like he is intentionally burning it to the ground now because he realized that much more just how broken and corrupt it is. I sense that he will rebuild it from the ashes, but entirely open sourced. That should make me salivate, but it isn’t, because I do not trust him any further than I can throw him. I think that he is a creature of the deep state swamp. I see him as a creation of the US military industrial complex and the surveillance state. Feel free to differ and tell me about it in the comments. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/tech/elon-musk-twitter-six-months/index.html #weekendedition #elon #twitter #reputation #wtf #TechFreedom #FOSSNews WE 34.6 – Should the Government Get Involved with Kids and Social Media? If you know me, you’re probably expecting an emphatic, “Hell No!” However, I find myself questioning the validity of that strongly held belief, since parents seem incapable of helping their kids to make good, life-affirming choices, such as staying the hell off of social media until they are at least in college. Human brains cannot handle that level of dopamine release as they are developing heavily. Kids are not being raised to be competent adults, but wards of the Nanny State. True, life is hard. That is why we need to step up for the upcoming generations, not forfeit our future to the State which has more interest in killing and controlling the masses than allowing people to stand up, think for themselves, and thrive. Is this necessary? Only if parents allow their kids to run the house. Does it seem necessary in the moment? Probably. Do I see GIANT red flags all over this? Absofragginglutely. This feels like creeping destruction of the freedom of speech, and to a lesser extent the freedom of the right to public assembly. Parents, step up. Break free from social media and general tech addiction. Show your kids how to handle tech, rather than showing them how it handles you. Parents, I know it is hard right now, but you can set up DNS filtering to block all social media on your home networks, as well as for individual devices. It isn’t that hard. Yes, you will have angry kids, for about a month, but then they will thank you for helping them to be whole and free people. You will see their grades go up. You will see their attitudes improve, not to mention self-esteem. Do what is best for your family. Cut it off. Nobody needs it that much, at home. Take control for yourself. Make governmental overreach like this unnecessary. Shoot, if you break your own addiction, you will almost certainly start to feel better about yourself as well. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/26/tech/senators-social-media-kids-wellness/index.html #weekendedition #socialmedia #biggov #overreach #parents #parentyourkids #TechFreedom #FOSSNews

WE 35.1 – Bob Lee’s Killer Pleads “Not Guilty” Oh boy, oh boy. This just gets juicier. Apparently Bob was at least friends with the alleged killer’s sister, whose marriage was said to be on the rocks. Both Bob and the suspect visited the suspect’s sister’s apartment in the hours prior to the murder. It is unclear if Bob was pursuing romantic relations with her, though he did allegedly invite her to his hotel room, which she refused. It sounds like this was a case of an over-protective brother (who also has a history of assault, though no charges were filed in that previous case) who over-reacted to his sister’s situation with Bob, and chose to bring a kitchen knife to a discussion with Mr. Lee after the fact. This is not something that a level-headed person does. He plans to plead ‘not guilty’, as his lawyer claims to have evidence proving his innocence. I’ll keep you guys apprised on this trial as it proceeds. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/25/tech/cash-app-bob-lee-killing-arraignment/index.html #killer #ripboblee #trialtime #sketchy #techfreedom #weekendedition #TechFreedom WE 35.2 – Mid/ C-Band 5G and Altimeters I talked about this issue when I first started doing the Weekend Edition, the FAA gave airlines until July of this year to upgrade their altimeters to filter out the C-band frequencies, as they are adjacent to the frequencies which this batch of gear, which helps planes to land safely in foul weather, operate in. Now we are less than 2 months from the deadline, and not everybody has complied with the requirements. The FAA negotiated with the big cell carriers to postpone their rollout for about a year, within 2 miles of airports, but that time is fast coming to an end. Will this necessarily create delays for air travelers, due to real safety concerns? Who knows. The FAA will ground any aircraft which not be retrofitted, which I imagine would affect smaller airlines more than the big boys, but I haven’t been on a plane since 2015, so this doesn’t mean much to me, personally. I know many are frequent fliers, though, so I cover this as best I can. The fear, here, is that the C-Band frequencies are too close to the range that the altimeters use. There is a roughly 400 Mhz gap between the top of C-Band and the bottom of the altimeter range. I also want to assuage your concerns about this, regarding the frequencies themselves. Many are very concerned about what these frequencies COULD do to the human body. If you already have 5Ghz WiFi on your home networks, then you likely already use more intense, higher frequencies in your home than what already is being used by AT&T and VZW 5G towers in your city. The ones that I am still concerned about are the MM wave frequencies they plan to use at the extreme upper end of the true 5G spectrum. The reality about those frequencies is that they need to be extremely powerful and the towers must be very close to one another in order for coverage to be any kind of decent. That is where the trouble comes in, as far as I can see. These get into and through the same frequencies used by microwave ovens. #aircraft #FAA #5G #TechFreedom #weekendedition https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65465512 WE 35.3 – Meta In Trouble Again... Just can’t stay out of the Headlines, Can They? Well, this time, it’s the FTC is coming down like a ton of bricks on Zuck’s head, as they are still reeling from rulings around the world, including here at home. Now the issue is how kids’ data is monetized and the fact that unvetted adults and contacts can still chat with kids on their platforms. Meta clapped back that this was little more than a political stunt by the regulator. Here are the complaints from the FTC: The FTC said an independent investigation had found "several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook's privacy program" that posed "substantial risks to the public". Users aged under 13 were found to be still allowed to engage in chats with contacts not vetted by parents. The regulator also said Meta continued to give third-party apps access to private information after promising to cut off access if users failed to use the apps in the previous 90 days. The FTC has proposed a series of actions, including: • A blanket prohibition against monetizing data of children and teens under 18 • A pause on the launch of new products until it could be established they were in full compliance with privacy rules • Limits on future uses of facial recognition technology. Meta would be required to disclose and obtain users' affirmative consent for any future uses of facial recognition technology. So let’s parse all of that, shall we? Point 1: Why are kids under 13 on Facebook in the first place? Parents need to step up, here, and protect their kids from the darkness on Facebook. If parents would parent their kids, this wouldn’t be an issue to begin with. Point 2: Oops, that is a big deal. Policies must be adhered to, Meta. Close down that fire hose of private data that you’re being paid for by these apps and sites. Cut it off. Point 3: I like this first proposal, but I know that Facebook won’t. How about we cut off teens from the platform altogether? That was how it started, if I recall. Point 4: This should be common sense, but the money-grubbing Mr. sugar mountain (Zuckerberg) won’t readily do this, either. Point 5: Duh. We should not be tracked in that way without knowing that it is happening and having an obvious and easy way to opt out, at the very least. Facial recognition tech is inherently risky in terms of privacy, particularly in the hands of an organization like Meta. I think that it should never be an option for them, as that is too invasive. However, then I am reminded of the facts of Facebook’s genesis: remember, this was a CIA project called lifelog, meant to profile its users and indirectly spy on them. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65478062 #Meta #FTC #socialmedia #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 35.4 – BlueSky Social Jack’s new baby. He is not the CEO there, unlike at Twitter, and from what I understand, the codebase is open-source, and the protocol is decentrailzed. Ooooh, buzz words. I don’t know that I trust Dorsey or his people to create something clean and worthwhile to use, but I signed up for the private beta. One cool thing is that they made it so that your domain is actually the main part of your handle... For instance, whenever I get on, and assuming that I don’t quickly get booted off for inconvenient opinions and facts which contradict the regime’s truthless news, my handle will be @matt.techfreedom.pro. I think that that is a great way to go about this. That way it is clear who is with whom you are conversing. Of course, that can also lead to deplatforming on a domain level, unless you are registered with someone like Epik who will disregard that sort of pressure, you could lose it all. I don’t know, y’all. I’m torn because I am all about decentralization and open source tech, the latter part is the cornerstone of Tech Freedom, after all. However, that is a scary thing to be tied to a domain you own. What do you guys think? https://www.cnet.com/tech/what-is-bluesky-social-the-twitter-alternative-explained-and-how-to-join/ #bluesky #dorsey #decentralized #foss #socialmedia #TechFreedom #FOSSNews #weekendedition WE 35.5 – AirTags a Problem? Say It Ain’t So... Google and Apple are teaming up to create a new standard to help these little tracking bobs to be safer by adding some things which should have been considered by the original designers from the get-go. They have noticed (and been sued by) individuals who have either been stalked or had their cars stolen via Air Tags or Tiles (among other brands of similar devices). These little guys run on bluetooth and connect to your phone to help you to keep track of your keys, purse, or anything else you feel the need to attach them to. The concept is good, on one hand, but unless you can make sure that you don’t have trackers planted on you by some other person, it is dangerous indeed. It has happened, and resulted in murders, thefts, and other nefarious activities. Now these behemoths in the industry are marching in lockstep to close that privacy loophole, among others. I still wouldn’t trust these devices, if I were you, though. If I seem familiar with this topic, it’s because I covered this early on in the Weekend Edition (https://rumble.com/v1zxb5c-weekend-edition-16-tsmc-bidan-in-arizona-apple-privacy-woes-and-more.html). If I had thought through these gadgets a bit more, I could’ve foreseen these things, so if I could, then why didn’t Big Tech? Something stinks. Anyway, they are working on a new standard which would include detection of Air Tags type devices which are not paired to your phone, but are in your stuff, on your car, etc. I seem to recall calling for a FOSS option where we can see all of what is gathered and when in terms of data. I’d rather just strongly encourage people to work on their own memory and mental capacities. I know, that seems odd, coming from a tech guy, but I am more concerned with human thriving, privacy, and security than I am with adopting the latest & greatest tech gadgets. Just where I sit with all of this stuff. Take it or leave it. Well, it’s time for some Dune 2k. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/03/tech/airtags-apple-google-specifications/index.html #weekendedition #apple #google #airtags #privacy #standards #TechFreedom #FOSSNews

WE 37.1 – Well, that Sure Lasted a Long Time... Not much to say here, but I started covering it, so I’m gonna continue. Elizabeth Holmes got a extra month of freedom, but not what she was gunning for, which would have kept her out of prison until her appeal, which as far as I know has yet to be scheduled. The disgraced fraudster-CEO of Theranos was originally due to report at the end of last month. Her legal team is still attempting to appeal on her behalf, and I don’t know enough of the specifics to guess in any educated way whether she will have a shot, or if it will legitimately even be heard on her behalf. My hunch is that the appeal will likely be granted, but nothing will change for her. Why? She defrauded the Big Boys, not just a bunch of Main St mom & pop type investors. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/disgraced-theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-will-report-to-jail-on-may-30.html #weekendedition #theranos #elizabethholmes #justice #US #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 37.2 – Google to Delete Accounts Unused for Last 2 Years Good. Purge it, fools. Their excuse, other than needing to maintain space for all that data is that those kinds of accounts are more likely to have been breached in hack attacks, as they lack (or are FAR less likely to have extra layers of security) 2FA, for whatever 2FA is worth. SMS 2-Factor Authentication is inherently insecure, just as the SMS system is, it can be intercepted and easily read by man in the middle type attacks. If you are going to use, it get it set up with an app like Authy or Aegis, as those codes are harder to get at than SMS ones are. So, if you still have a Google account at this point, why? We know that we are the commodity with them, and that they scrape all search, YT, drive contents, and emails for pertinent ad data, so, other than the drug called convenience, why are you still on that platform? If you need business collaboration tools, and want to regain some privacy, check out Zoho for a drop-in replacement that may have more than what you need (probably does). If you want a more free experience with videos, take a look at Rumble, BitChute, Odysee/LBRY, or even GabTV. If you want even more control of your videos, take a look at setting up a peertube instance, or joining someone else’s. If you have something important there, all you have to do is sign in and watch a YouTube video, search for something, download and app, do something in Docs/ Drive, or read/ send an email. The deadline for this is not for 6.5 months though, so you have plenty of time to worry about it, if you are going to. My suggestion, though, is to look at my tutorial on how to get your data back from Google: https://rumble.com/v116bgp-tutorial-on-rescuing-your-data-from-google.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y , then take the time to set up an account with a provider like Zoho or Proton or Tutanota, who actually respects your privacy. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-will-delete-inactive-accounts-heres-how-to-save-yours/ #weekendedition #technews #google #letitgo #accountdeletion #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 37.3 – EU Regulators Rubber Stamp Microsoft’s Takeover of Activision... With Provisons The European Commission has greenlit the merger, but as reported last week, the Uk regulator did not, and the US FTC seems unlikely to go along with it, over concerns that MSFT would then control too much of the gaming industry, specifically in terms of cloud gaming. That kind of game streaming is sketchy to me anyway. I understand the appeal, don’t get me wrong. It allows people with lesser machines to play while outsourcing the heavy lifting to another machine. Usually you have to own both machines, but not always. As with anything cloud based, game streaming has inherent privacy issues, most gamers likely don’t care, because they just want to play their games. This merger would make Microsoft into the 3rd largest game studio in the world, just behind Nintendo and Sony. Is that a good thing? Should we laud this massing of economic power in one of the most vile companies on the planet? I don’t think so. This feels like an overall net-negative move, a lose-lose for the consumers and the industry as a whole. This means that not only will games likely carry more MS spyware in them, but the woke-itis will get that much worse. I don’t think that the FTC is likely to approve this, anyway, but we’ll have to wait and see. https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/microsofts-69b-deal-to-buy-activision-gets-eu-approval-what-to-know/ #weekendedition #microsoft #activision #merger #EU #rubberstamp #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 37.4 – Elon to Be Subpoenaed in Epstein- JPM Chase Suit Oh boy, all those nights partying with the Epstein crowd might just bite the Twitter owner in the backside here. Here’s the skinny: Tesla used to bank with JPM Chase, but stopped doing so after Musk & Co felt that the bank had “let them down” in some significant way. Epstein claimed that he advised Musk on something in 2018, which, since, Musk has flatly denied, saying that “that cretin” (meaning Epstein) “never advised me on anything”. Sounds like a whole lot of unnecessary drama, but a judge has ok-ed the request of the AG from the Virgin Islands to require Tesla to surrender any records pertaining to the alleged connection with JPM Chase and Epstein. We’ll see if there is anything worth sharing, or if, as Musk and Tesla have claimed since, he actually never had anything to do with Jeff Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell. Sure, he might have had a conversation with her at a Vanity Fair soiree years ago, and someone snapped a picture of it, but that, he claims, is the extent of his relationship with her. Hmmm... That is all I can say right now, just hmmm... https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/tesla-elon-musk-subpoena-jpmorgan-epstein.html #weekendedition #elon #epstein #maxwell #jpmchase #subpoena #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 37.5 – Big Sky State to Ban App Stores from Distributing TikTok Well, Montana legislators and executives just decided that TikTok poses enough of a threat to warrant starting to ban the Play Store and the App Store from allowing MT residents to download the app. The first domino has fallen. That ban will, unless overturned by a judge, go into effect on Jan 1, 2024. This is simply a restriction on NEW downloads of the app, not current users. I am still unconvinced that TikTok is any worse than YT or any other social media app. They are all geared to collect data about you and keep your attention so that they can keep mining the data, which makes them the money. They all have algorithms which incentivize people to pay more attention to them, as well as pushing certain content more than other kinds of content, whether overtly to mold opinion or not. If you ban one, then ban the rest. Just wipe the slate clean. Half-measures will never succeed in the end. Do I actually believe what I just said? Somewhat. If gov’t is going to ban one thing, then why not ban the rest? My sense is that the best option (which almost certainly won’t be taken) is that the public needs to be educated on how to think about social media and how to deal with it more healthily, so that influence operations on social media will be less effective. That a) takes too much effort and b) undermines the US intelligence community, which uses social media to spy on us. https://news.sky.com/story/tiktok-montana-becomes-first-us-state-to-ban-video-sharing-app-on-personal-devices-12883467 #weekendedition #tiktok #montana #banhammer #meh #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 37.6 – Amazon Still Thinks They’re an AI Leader Maybe they are, maybe they’re not. What we know now, is that Alexa was on the leading edge when it came to voice assistants almost 10 years ago. They are trying to improve it, the LLM that it is based on, as well as seeking to roll a text based generative AI into the Amazon Shopping experience. This just feels like a desperate, “Hey look at us, we’re still in this conversation, too” from Amazon. Do something, release something impressive, or lose relevance. That is the nature of tech. Talk is cheap. I don’t know that I want them to improve their AI stuff any further than it already has been, as if you use Amazon, it likely knows more about you and your preferences than you do already. If that is cool with you because it makes it easier to shop for things, then by all means, keep using all of their AI crap. Personally, if I could exit the Amazon system effectively, I would. I have not found a way to replace all of their services that we use, so I haven’t. We do not use Alexa on purpose, as we do not trust that “always listening” feature in our home. My wife was the first one to question that, as I used to just be an uncritical “ooooh, shiny object” kind of tech adopter, whenever I could afford it (which was not very often). She was never comfortable with voice-controlled or “smart” anything. Good call, babe. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/amazons-alexa-head-defends-companys-work-on-ai-amid-chatgpt-boom.html #weekendedition #amazon #AI #alexa #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 37.7 Open AI & Congress This last week, Sam Altman testified before a Senate sub-committee. He actually agreed with them that AI needs to be regulated, which is a bit odd, considering that most tech CEOs, when called before Congress usually try to fight whatever regulation is being explored in relation to them or their products. This doesn’t surprise me much, as he was one of the signatories, as well as the professor from NYU who also testified, on that open letter from March, which called for a moratorium on developing these advanced AI models, due to what more or less amounts to fear porn. If I’m proven wrong, and we are seeing the birth of SkyNet or The Matrix or something, I will gladly eat crow. I do NOT, however, think that we are there, at least not with the versions that John Q. Public is allowed to see right now. I have no inside knowledge (just to be clear) about those sorts of secret projects, but I would almost stake my life on their existence. At the beginning of the proceedings, Altman demonstrated a rather creepy sideshow trick: they had trained an AI on Sen. Blumenthal’s voice and speeches, and had it present an opening speech, which was eerily true to life. I know that they can be used to mimic people, in fact, we’ve seen AI generated videos before, not to mention filters which can make anyone look and/or sound like anyone else. Those videos have been floating around for a few years now, but now, all you need is a computer with an internet connection to create something like that, whereas before, it took all sorts of crazy motion capture and voice synth tech to pull off the same thing. One could be made to say literally anything, and it is harder and harder to detect the forgeries, because they have gotten so good. What do you guys think about this? Good? Bad? Terrifying? Ultimately beneficial? The fact that Altman was in agreement that something needed to be done at a federal level about curbing the possibilities for abuse strikes me as altogether odd. Doesn’t it seem that way to you? This whole thing is starting to smell like a psyop to me. Whenever both parties in congress and all involved parties in a hearing, as well as the breathless media all agree on something, that is almost never a good sign. https://news.sky.com/story/senator-richard-blumenthals-chilling-warning-after-ai-generated-speech-convincingly-imitates-him-at-congress-hearing-12882342 https://news.sky.com/story/boss-of-ai-firms-worst-fears-are-more-worrying-than-creepy-senate-party-trick-12882348 #weeekendedition #AI #openAI #samaltman #fishy #blumenthal #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

Weekend Edition 38: Spam Calls, META News, Tik Tok & AI Nearly All US State AGs Have Sued Avid Telecom Apple to Do More Chip Fab in US Bad News for Meta TikTok Sues Montana, Residents Struggle Microsoft says, “AI ALL THE THINGS”! AI Image Gen in Photoshop Now A Thing #weekendedition #technews #spamcalls #robocalls #Meta #AI #TikTok #Microsoft #Adobe #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 38.1 – Remember Avid Telecom? You Probably Don’t... I covered the likelihood of this suit being brought last fall, well, now it’s real. They are being sued by all but two of the US state-level Attorneys General. That is a HUGE lawsuit. What do they allege that Avid did or does? Why, serve as a clearing house for do-not-call list numbers and infrastructure backbone for those who would want to abuse said lists. Perhaps you have noticed an uptick in robocalls over the last several years, particularly scam-related ones... If you have, there is a strong chance that these people had a hand in it. Avid Telecom is a VOIP provider who claims to have committed no wrongdoing, so will “Defend itself vigorously and vindicate its rights and reputation through the legal process.” We’ll see. Usually State AG’s don’t dogpile on a case like this if they think it’s a nothingburger. They seem to have done business with a number of scam outfits, covering the following areas: Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranties, Amazon, credit card interest rate reduction and more. Wow. That’s all I have to say about that, just wow. As far as I know, I am on the Nat’l DNC registry, and I have certainly received calls in those areas in the last few years, and an increased number of them, at that. The robocalling aspect of cold calling when I did real estate always struck me as sheisty and super shady. I, for a short time, paid an outfit to do followup for me. I still regret that. It was wrong, even though as far as I know, they actually had people doing the calling, with scripts and such, not just recordings, but idk. I’m glad to not be in that space any more. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/23/avid-telecom-facilitated-billions-of-spam-calls-state-ags-allege.html #weekendedition #robocalls #avidtelecom #scammers #justice #US #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 38.2 – Broadcom Benefits from Increased US/ CCP Tensions Well well well... Apple comes crawling back to the US as they ramp up alternative manufacturing sources for their specialty silicon thanks to the increased tensions between the US and the CCP, among other things. Broadcom, famously the manufacturer of modems and WiFi chips. Now, they join TSMC in benefiting directly from AAPL’s urgent need to get away from Chinese manufacturing for their devices, also moving some other pieces to India & Vietnam, aside from the US. Wise move getting away from the CCP, just a bit. I’ve always thought that while more expensive and complex, it makes more long term sense to not have all of one’s eggs in one basket anyway, so to speak. I may not like the company or its products because I do not agree with their ultra-closed ecosystem or ability to spy on you at will, but can admire a good business move when I see one. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65692276 #weekendedition #technews #apple #diversity #broadcom #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 38.3 – Meta’s Getting Slammed... Burn, baby, burn. 3.1 – Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner pile drives Meta with $1.3 billion Fine OOf. Big, huge-normous, gargantuan OOOFF. Due to GDPR violations, the Menlo Park, CA-based tech giant is getting fined tot he tune of more than $1 billion. I guess GDPR ain’t no joke. Other notable Tech fines related to the GDPR since it was put into place 5 years ago were an $887 million fine levied against Amazon by Luxembourg and a $267 million fine against WhatsApp in Ireland. Not only are they being fined, but it looks like they will need to move all European data to European data centers, rather than shipping it back across the Pond to the US. As much as I hate the onerous nature of big Gov, it kinda takes something like the EU to stand up to a behemoth like Meta and do anything worthwhile. Why does it take that? Why can’t class action suits do the work that needs done? Why haven’t more people ditched Meta and its platforms, which are designed to addict you and compromise your privacy? https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/irish-data-regulator-defends-1point3-billion-meta-fine.html #weekendedition #meta #gdpr #fines #EU #FOSSNews #TechFreedom 3.2 – More Layoffs for Meta I am tempted to dance a jig about this, however, I find my enthusiasm tempered significantly, as these workers (no matter how superfluous their positions may have been) are people, many of whom likely have families depending on them. I cannot exult in families losing income, however, that said, losing 20k+ workers in the space of 8 months is not a good look for any business. On the other hand, their falsely inflated stock market numbers (along with everyone else’s, due to the reality of brandon-flation). That all said, though, the numbers for Meta are truly shocking, after cratering hard last year, until Zuck announced this “year of efficiency”, in November. The stock seems to have rebounded to something close to where it was before its sharp decline last year. Reality Labs and the Metaverse projects are still absolutely hemorrhaging money, yet investors seem happy to throw money at them, nonetheless. Well, they did show growth in revenues for the first time in a year, even if only 3%. When you are talking about revenues in the 10s of billions, 3% is actually significant. To the tune of nearly $1 billion. Still trying to wrap my head around just how gargantuan Meta is. Laying off over 20k people, making almost a cool billion in spite of losing money again on their most audacious set of projects. Wow. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/meta-layoffs-latest-round-of-cuts-focuses-on-business-groups.html #meta #weekendedition #recovery #austerity #layoffs #TechFreedom #FOSSNews 3.3 – Meta Loses Millions in Forced Sale of Giphy Why’d they go and do that? Well, once again, big, bad EU regulators to the “rescue” forcing the giant to sell the meme and gif search platform which they bought a mere 3 years ago, for barely 1/8 what they paid for it. Why? Because the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority decided that Meta owning it disadvantaged other social media platforms. Who bought it, though? Why, Shutterstock, of course. While Meta bought it for somewhere right around $400 million, they were forced to sell it by the CMA for a mere $53 million. They tried to make the case that giphy isn’t nearly as popular as it was because the younger sets think of gifs as “cringe” or “boomer stuff”, but the reality is that Giphy still gets searched 1.3 billion times per day, with around 15 billion views on shared content per day. That doesn’t sound like much of a decline to me... Who knows, though? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65684986 #weekendedition #meta #giphy #CMA #UK #regulator #losing #TechFreedom #FOSSNews WE 38.4 – TikTok Vs The Big Sky State 4.1 – TikTok Sues Montana Over Ban Of course the platform strongly objects to this move. I am not a fan of it, either. I hear where they think they are coming from, and I want to believe that it is a good place of trying to protect the public, but to pull the run out from under people like that is cruel and borderline vindictive. I may overreacting right now. However, I do strongly believe in the First Amendment. I also believe that any government big enough to deprive individuals of their guaranteed liberties and rights is too big. We are there. Been there for a number of years, probably longer than I’ve been alive. The sad reality is that what John Adams said about our constitution and system of government is true. We have seen it coming apart at the seams as it has gotten further and further away from Christian morality and ethics, and these so-called representatives of ours are just avatars of that. If we, as a nation, were upright, then our leaders would be too. I’m not saying that they are perfect avatars for us, but how many of us would be able to keep ourselves pure in the cesspool that is Washington (or any State capital, for that matter)? I don’t trust myself that I could resist the lobbies and special interests. But I digress, where was I, oh yes, banning tools for the expression of free speech. Overall, it doesn’t comport well with the Constitution. If we are concerned for privacy, then people need to learn how to think about social media, rather than being told by it what to think. People also need to learn how to think about privacy. This issue reminds me of a visual novel I once read, called Don’t Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain’t Your Story. It is set a few years into the future, now, but was developed over 10 years ago. The crux of the story is that the students of this high school lit teacher used a school-wide messaging system to play an elaborate hoax on him through “private” messages that they knew he could see. So it dealt with different generations and their understandings of privacy. The kids understood different types of privacy, where the teacher only understood that there are certain things that should never be shared online, so the prank was very effective at messing with his head. Are we to the point where we legitimately have no privacy and don’t care? If so, then let me know so I can move on to a different line of work. If not, then let’s get down to business and lock these entitled pricks [them] out of our lives, shall we? Just a thought. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65677768 #weekendedition #tiktok #montana #ban #sued #TechFreedom #FOSSNews 4.2 - Montana Residents left Wondering What’s Next Many in Montana have found it to be a lifeline of sorts. Some are creators, others have started businesses based on their content which need to grow via TikTok, as there are so many eyeballs there so much of the time. It makes advertising dollars stretch much further on this platform than on older, more established ones like Meta or Twitter because it is so active on TikTok. Starting to wonder if it is holding me back not being on TikTok. I don’t know... It could just be that I nerd at too high a level and rarely come down from there. What do you guys and gals think? Anyway, this article sites a handful of Montanans who have the majority of their businesses centered around the platform. Knowing that one’s reach within one’s state is going to be artificially & governmentally limited has to leave you feeling frustrated and a bit scared. One of the users had entirely based her business on TikTok, and is afraid of losing it if this ban ever actually sees the light of day (press X to doubt...), to which I say, diversify. One should never relegate one’s business to a single platform on social media. So here’s a thought: download your TikTok videos and then share them on other platforms (same goes for the smarter painter in the article, already looking at diversifying with unique content and a professional videographer). See what happens if you try that. I don’t think there are hard and fast rules about content sharing from TikTok (seems like that would hurt the platform to disallow that). https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/21/tech/montana-tiktok-users/index.html #weekendedition #tiktok #montana #users #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WE 38.5 – AI This Week 5.1 – Microsoft to Integrate AI in Windows & Office Suite Uhhh, yikes... Oh hell no. Let me sound the clarion call, people. It is time to ditch Microsoft’s spyware (oops, software) stack. They can already snoop every keystroke and mouse click you make on your computer. When they shove Windows 11 down your throat with the newest update, you’ll get Windows Copilot, which is basically ChatGPT rolled directly into your system. In talking to a friend who is a sysadmin about it, he doesn’t see it as being any worse than running Windows anyway. He uses it to remote setup new machines all of the time. So in the context of an IT dept where Windows still rules the roost, it seems to be a net benefit for the teams involved. On the other hand, do you remember Cortana? If you were ever concerned with Cortana, this is an even worse privacy violation. On the other hand, Windows itself has become an even worse privacy violator in the meantime. Cortana genuinely sucked, and I always suggested to people to disable that piece of trash. This looks like it should actually function to make your computer more user-friendly, which I actually admire a bit, but where is all that data going? Oh yeah, back to Redmond, WA. Do you want to increase your awareness that you are a digital serf? Use this new feature. This is Microsoft’s ever so gentle way of reminding you that your computer is not really your computer, anymore. Sure, you paid (or are paying) for it, but as long as you run their spyware (err... OS) and other software, all your data is belong to them. Does that make you uncomfortable? Come on over to Linux and be freer. I can help you to find a good distro that won’t spy on you (most won’t, but also most run systemd, which is growing more invasive by the day, so we will look around and see what might work for you among options which do not use it). I, unfortunately, am no longer comfortable suggesting mainstream distros due to the presence of systemd. That goes against convention, yes, because you want to make as close to 100% certain, when using FOSS things, that it is solid and has a good sized community using and working with it so you can get help when you need it. If you want to research these, here is a decent article from ItsFOSS: https://itsfoss.com/systemd-free-distros/. My word of advice when looking at these is stick close to mainstream if you want something that will be user friendly. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/technologylive/2023/05/23/microsoft-copilot-365-ai-windows-11-launch/70246861007/ #weekendedition #microsoft #copilot #datagrab #spyware #trylinux #FOSSNews #TechFreedom 5.2 – Adobe Adds AI Image Generator to PhotoShop More AI for the things. Oh joy. Well, it has been in limited beta for a few months, but they are going to roll the feature out to everybody now. They are going to use their own set of images to train it, rather than allowing it, like DALL-E, to simply scour the interwebz for data to transform images in keeping with your prompts. They hope that that will keep the copyright hounds at bay, as they own those images. They are rightly concerned over this, as Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, was sued by Getty Images back in January because some of their databases were used in training the AI, without permission or licensing. Adobe is anxious to avoid that issue, so its dataset is naturally smaller. You all know how I feel about AI by now... If you can control it and keep the data local, I don’t have much problem with using it as a tool. However, if you want to replace your brain with it, or use it everywhere, I would caution you to slow your roll. If privacy is even a concern for you, take your time to understand whatever you can of these tools before you blindly rush to adopt them. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/tech/photoshop-generative-ai/index.html #weekendedition #adobe #firefly #AI #imagegenerator #photoshop #TechFreedom #FOSSNews

Amazon Fined $25 mn over Child Privacy Violations · FTC sued tech giant over violations related to both Alexa and the Ring doorbells o Alexa voice data was not being deleted as claimed, but being kept to make the AI database stronger § Kept for years, ignoring parents’ requests to delete data o Ring was accused of similar issues § One employee decided to watch 1000’s of individual videos recorded by cameras in intimate areas, specifically belonging to female customers, and only stopped after caught by a coworker. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65772154 Spaces Glitches During DeSanctimonious’ Presidential Announcement · Could’ve seen that coming with the issues that Twitter has been having since Musk bought it · Spaces is based on Periscope (ahhh, now I know why I was never comfy on Periscope, no matter how much my wife pushed me to get on it) o This means that the infrastructure is spread across multiple providers and was not meant for this kind of call, a few hundred, sure, but 500k on a call? No. o Musk SHOULD have known this before he embarrassed himself, his company and Candidate Meatball. § Was there some bigger reason why, here? · Maybe he knew that it would be a problem, but was so excited about the platform being used and live-tested that he ignored the issues before hand. · Maybe he wanted to embarrass Meatball · Maybe he just doesn’t care at this point... · Maybe he understands the Trump philosophy of “any PR is good PR” https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/tech/twitter-desantis-meltdown/index.html AI!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! WE’RE GONNA DIE!!!! PANIC!!!! · Why are we being focused on this? · As I have said before, current generation, publicly available AI’s could NEVER do what these doomers are saying they could. o They sound credible as they are the apparently leaders in the field, but I would be more concerned with misinformation that gets pawned off as real and true § I talked about Jonathan Turley’s experience with this a couple of months ago now, where chatGPT actually made up a whole network of stories to make it look like its assertions about the law expert were true. § Bottom line: be careful · Some, like me, are more skeptical about the alleged powers of AI o biases o Imitation of humans (copyright issues, along with other IP issues) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65746524 Microsoft Calls for New Regulatory Body in US Around AI · Brad Smith, president of MSFT spoke for an hour, largely about these issues · Ughhhhh · Microsoft calling for AI regulation is like a crackhead saying that we need to beef up the DEA · My thoughts about government · My thoughts about their proposals o new rules for AI should include revamped export controls tailor-made for the AI age to prevent the technology from being abused by sanctioned entities. § Ok... How much will this cost? · Freedom · Finances o government should mandate redundant AI circuit breakers that would allow algorithms to be shut off by critical infrastructure providers or from within the data centers they depend on. § Abuse? § Devil’s Advocate o Regulations should apply to everything from the data centers that train large language models to the end users such as banks, hospitals and others that may apply the technology toward making life-altering decisions § May be necessary, but yikes... https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/25/tech/microsoft-ai-regulation-calls/index.html Metaverse Getting Ready? · Hype o The “future” o Heart-eyes, star-eyes o Everyone will be here in the future · Reality o Not even close to ready o “foundation” may be maturing § Just a skeleton with precious little flesh on it · Author o Coined term in 1992 novel “Snow Crash” o Been working in the space for last few years o Pushing it, hyping it · My reaction o Oh brother o Hmmm o Nah § Privacy § Security § Centralization? https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/the-man-who-named-the-metaverse-is-optimistic-despite-waning-hype/ CA Law May Lead Meta to Pull News from Your Feed in CA · Law o Big money, big news o Doesn’t seem to help those it claims to (local news outlets) · Meta’s reaction · Other reactions · My thoughts o *eyeroll* o Meta has tried this before and not stuck to it o Doesn’t change much, ultimately, and adds more bureaucracy to a state that is already over-burdened by onerous regulations https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/31/tech/meta-threatens-to-pull-california-news/index.html NVidia Making a Killing Amid AI Frenzy · Stock up 110% this year after a bump of 28% last quarter o Insane profits: +26% to $2 bn last quarter, Sales up 19% to $7.2 bn for the quarter · Why? o AI o Heavy, powerful compute needed that CPU can’t handle, and GPU is actually more efficient at those sorts of calculations. · My reaction o Ok... I still say we all need to ditch the Green Monster asap o Good for them, but...

WE 1 - FTC v Amazon · Bezos out of picture · Amazon getting sued · Dark Patterns o Prevent users from leaving Prime https://www.pcmag.com/news/ftc-amazon-tricked-millions-into-signing-up-for-prime-subscriptions WE 2 - AST 4G Satellite · First experiments with LEO solar powered 4G satellite · Off-the-shelf cell phones · Call from TX to Japan in April · Data transferred to remote users in HI at 10 MBs · Partnered with the Blue Devil (AT&T) · Other carriers are working on these same things as well, so expect satellite cell phone service soon for rural areas · What about latency? · How much power does it take to make this happen? How intense do these radio waves have to be in order to xfer data like that from 310 mi up? https://www.pcmag.com/news/asts-bluewalker-satellite-successfully-delivers-10mbps-download-speeds WE 3 – AI News 3a – AI Battle Royale · UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and Carnegie Mellon University partnership · Large Language Model Systems Organization (LLMSys Org) · 10 students, 4 professors · Head-to-head blind testing · Elo rating system · 40k users · Best results are from GPT 4, by a small margin · Generative AI issues · Privacy (data and user) · Content quality and incentives for humans to create better things https://www.pcmag.com/news/chatgpt-bard-or-bing-40k-people-voted-for-the-best-generative-ai-model 3b – Need a Windows Key? Don’t ask AI... · Duh · Reasons · May not work · Illegal · ChatGPT and Bing AI are owned by Microsoft... · Use Linux instead. https://www.techradar.com/news/dont-ask-chatgpt-or-google-bard-for-a-windows-11-key-heres-why WE 4 – Google Whines about Competitors Doing What They Do · FTC asked for comments on the cloud space · Google Cloud submitted a letter · Pointed fingers at both MS and Oracle for using similar business tactics · See what THEY’RE doing!!!!! · Makes me laugh · Try a smaller provider · Altha Tech · FOSS where possible · No lock-ins https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/21/google-accuses-microsoft-of-anticompetitive-practices-in-azure-cloud.html WE 5 – Meta & Twitter News WE 5a – Oversight Board Slaps Meta · Didn’t censor pro-insurrectionist Brazilian video · Pattern of behavior · Too much free speech · Potential damage to Leftist regimes around the world · Not enough censorship from the US election in 2020 · Leftist drone https://www.engadget.com/metas-oversight-board-says-the-companys-rules-are-slowly-changing-for-the-better-100059192.html WE 5b – Cage Match? · Meta working on Twitter alternative · Elon mad · Zuck jokes about cage match · Elon takes him seriously (apparently) · Not much else to say here other than that they got some free publicity here for the new project at Meta https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/22/musk-zuckerberg-cage-match-what-to-know-about-metas-twitter-clone.html WE 5c – Twitter Making New Deal with Google · Elon wasn’t paying cloud bills · Wanted to move internal tools in-house to save money · Yaccarino appointed · Opens dialog with Google to smooth things over · Starts making big deals · No more migration deadline https://www.engadget.com/twitter-has-supposedly-started-paying-its-google-cloud-bill-again-213824844.html WE 5d – Will Elon Continue to Blow Up the Dirty Blue Bird? · Yaccarino · glass cliff? · Time will tell · My opinion https://www.techradar.com/computing/twitter/elon-continues-to-drag-twitter-through-the-mud-and-could-face-fines-as-a-result Wrap up FTC v Amazon · FTC making big moves · Will it mean anything ultimately? No Idea... 4G Satellites · AST BlueWalker 3 · Partnered with AT&T · 10 MB/s download speeds in areas (rural HI) where there has never been reliable service at all before · Looking to implement mid-band 5G soon · Soon to have competitors (Apple, T Mo, Starlink) AI News · GPT 4 is best LLM out there, but costs $20/mo · Claude, by Anthropic came in 2nd and 3rd (wait listed) · 40,000 people have used the chatbot battle site to establish ranking for the various LLMs PSA: Don’t Use Chatbots to Pirate Windows, Use Linux Instead · Piracy is illegal · codes produced may not work at all, or may not work completely, or may stop working at some random time · Just don’t do it. · Use Linux Big Tech Is Evil · ALL Big Tech Cloud outfits try to lock you into their services once you sign up · Google has been in hot water over this · FTC asked for tips about others acting badly · Google obliged, hoping to get MS and Oracle into trouble as well · As an aside, MS has been scraping your passwords and can snoop on your encrypted OneDrive and SharePoint files. Get away from these services NOW. · MS has been scraping data from plain files for somewhere close to 10 years now. Just Like Apple and Google. Shouldn’t surprise you in the least. · Take a look at a smaller cloud provider who will respect your privacy and not lock you into their platform, like Altha Tech. Meta & Twitter · Meta in trouble again · Not enough censoring · Zuck v Musk · Yaccarino & Google · Yaccarino on a glass cliff? It’s been a wild couple of weeks since my last Weekend Edition, hasn’t it? From the FTC going after Amazon for anti-consumer practices (duh), to satellite based cell phone service, to which AI chatbot is best, to not using chatbots to pirate operating systems, to a PSA about Google and Microsoft, to drama around social media companies. https://techfreedom.pro/2023/06/22/weekend-edition-40/

WE 1 - It Was Only a Matter of Time... AI Child Abuse Images A Problem. · Stable Diffusion being used to generate banned images · Pixiv, a Japanese platform, is used to disseminate them ad draw people to subscription platforms like Patreon · Patreon fails to shut down accounts which sell access to the worst of these kinds of images · UK making noise about trying to shut it down · How many police are controlled by these sorts of things? · How many agencies are really just fronts for pedophilia to control politicians? · Porn shouldn’t exist · Kiddie porn doubly so · Those who create it and are caught should be severely punished (death) · Any company which enables its distribution should be litigated into oblivion · Is this a free speech issue? I don’t think so. It endangers human life, as it inevitably leads to trafficking · Heart issues need solving https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65932372 WE 2 - AI Regulation Coming? Probably · Google is busy chatting with the EU · They are also working on putting tags on anything AI generated · They’re talking about working with the EU to put any new AI developments through the regulatory wringer before the public gets to see it · More regs = bigger government = less freedom for we the people · Regs may be necessary until the world meets Jesus for real and allows Him to change their hearts https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/28/google-has-had-productive-talks-with-eu-on-ai-act-cloud-boss-says.html WE 3 - Thinking About Having ChatGPT Write Something Important? · 2 NYC lawyers made the dumb move to submit AI-generated docs to the court · Didn’t make sure that everything there was legit · Lied about it · Got fined · Will go down as lazy idiots https://gizmodo.com/chatgpt-ai-lawyers-fined-5000-fake-cases-1850569981 WE 4 - Baidu AI Better Than ChatGPT? · CCP State media claims to have tested Ernie 3.5 against chatGPT · Ernie beat chatGPT allegedly · Can we trust Chinese State media? · Article slops itself dreaming of Ernie coming to the West · So we’d rather have the CCP spy on us than our own gov’t? https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/chinas-baidu-ai-is-better-than-chatgpt-heres-why WE 5 - AI Certification From MS? · Free through Indeed · Professional certification · Pointless? · What do you guys think? https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-already-offering-a-generative-ai-certification-program-160023724.html WE 6 - More Stringent Export Rules Coming Soon · Well, apparently, the regs put in place by Depends’ handlers weren’t enough · The CCP is still catching up quickly in the AI arms race · These strike me as band aids on top of a gaping wound · Education is the real issue here · Woke mindvirus destroyed our edge · We must eradicate it, then rebuild. https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-mulls-even-tighter-restrictions-to-stop-ai-chips-from-reaching-china WE 7 - Musk Not So Free Speech-Friendly After All? · More state-related censorship · Musk not trustworthy · More random censorship · His other business efforts · Connection with Deep State https://gizmodo.com/10-times-elon-musk-censored-twitter-users-1850570720 Read the blog here: https://techfreedom.pro/2023/06/29/weekend-edition-41-ai-news-bonanza-elon-not-so-pro-free-speech/

WE 1 – Judicial Smackdown On Behalf of Free Speech Rights · Judge Doughty of Missouri · Case brought by AGs from Louisiana and Missouri · Found that Feds have been leaning on Social Media giants to censor things · Ruled that they need to stop · WH and DOJ struggling to appeal decision · We’ll see how long this lasts and/or if it changes anything appreciably https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66106067 WE 2 – Social Media Platform “they stole our homework” · Twitter right pissy about Threads · Accuses them of stealing trade secrets from them via hiring recently fired engineers from Twitter · Meta says, “sure, like we’d do that” · Our platform is better anyway · You copied our homework · AS IF · More PR for Threads as Twitter tanks https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66129215 WE 3 – France Goes Full INGSOC · Police reform bill · French police are nationalized · Think of it as if our only police organization was the FBI · Police can now spy on any citizen who is SUSPECTED of a crime worthy of at least 5 years in jail · All devices’ geolocation data is fair game, here, if you are a suspect · MPs trying to amend it to exclude, them, doctors, lawyers, judges, and journos,andto limit the time frame in view https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/france-grants-police-power-to-spy-on-citizens-through-phones WE 4 – US Navy Hacks MS Teams · Exploit in external messaging feature · Navy Team Red developed Python based tool · TeamsPhisher · Can insert malicious code into linked files for users who also have a SharePoint license · Can do it en mass · Avoid by closing off your external messaging feature when not needed · Practice good digital hygiene https://www.techradar.com/pro/the-us-navy-has-hacked-microsoft-teams-to-send-malware WE 5 – Safe in the Cloud? · Think again · Cloud is one the biggest, easiest targets for hackers · Remember, cloud = your data on someone else’s hardware · Encrypt your data · Use locally controlled multi-factor authentication (MFA) · These steps will greatly improve your data security · Tech Freedom can help with this, if you need · Best practice is to on-site most of your data · Not cheap, but then you control your data https://www.techradar.com/pro/cloud-remains-the-biggest-target-for-cyberattacks WE 6 – Has the Shine Worn Off From ChatGPT? · For the first time since going public, traffic went down in May · Not only ChatGPT, but Bing and character.ai also took a hit · Bard flatlined · Is it all worth it? · Does this mean anything? · I hope it means that the general public is losing interest · It’s a tool, and can provide a starting place for writing or research https://www.pcmag.com/news/are-we-sick-of-ai-chatbots-already-chatgpt-site-sees-traffic-dip WE 7 – Speaking of Privacy... · OpenAI Sued · Class action · Seeks temporary shutdown of commercial side · Seeks damages for copyright holders whose work has been infringed in some way · Seeks damages for individuals whose social media posts got data-scraped to train the LLM · Interesting · Will stay on top of this one as it develops https://www.pcmag.com/news/openai-sued-for-using-stolen-data-violating-your-privacy-with-chatgpt WE 8 – Is Your Job in Danger from Generative AI? · Hostinger survey · Healthcare seems most threatened · Personally doubt that would fly well, but what do I know? · Automotive · I could see this one being a “thing” as long as it has all the data necessary to understand an issue · What do you guys think? https://www.pcmag.com/news/ai-is-coming-for-our-jobs-but-which-ones WE 9 – Open AI Dedicating 20% of Cloud Resources to Stopping ‘super-intelligent AI’ · Bahhahaha · We don’t even have publicly available functional general AI right now · Generative AI is not really intelligent · Is this really a problem? · Why focus us on this potentiality? https://www.pcmag.com/news/openais-latest-goal-prevent-superintelligent-ai-from-killing-us-all Outpouring Fellowship Podcast https://rumble.com/c/c-2966394

WE 1 – Chinese Gang Hacks Outlook · Exploit in User token authentication found · Taken advantage of by Chinese group which MSFT calls Storm-0558 · They accessed email accounts belonging to 25 different organizations · Some were in the federal gov’t, including the Secy of Commerce · US Gov’t (Mafia) notified MSFT about breach · MSFT patched the exploit · Normal lazy (according to license agmts from MS) reaction from MS · If you’re tired of this, try Linux · Better security · Better privacy · Proactive developers vs reactive vendor https://www.pcmag.com/news/chinese-hackers-breach-us-government-email-accounts https://techfreedom.pro/free-your-pc WE 2 – Proton Releases Windows Proton Drive Client · Proton is a name you should be familiar with if you value online privacy · Email & VPN + Drive · Windows app for Drive released · Solid option · Best thing, though, is to fully control your data · Althatech.com · Nextcloud · Your hardware https://www.techradar.com/computing/computing-security/google-drive-watch-outprivacy-first-proton-drive-lands-on-windows https://althatech.com https://proton.com WE 3 – Too Much AI in Windows All at Once? · Microsoft seems obsessed with this new data harvesting toy of theirs · Co-Pilot · Windows Store · AI section, curated by AI · Other implementations · AI review summaries coming soon (think like on Google Search or Brave Search over the last couple of months) – Star wars Ep 2 - 3PO in droid foundry reference · Trustworthy? · Safe? · Private? · I hope it backfires and destroys Windows (What About Bob reference) https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/windows-11-gets-more-ai-but-is-microsoft-pushing-its-luck WE 4 – Class Action Against OpenAI from Sarah Silverman and other authors · Fair use? · Authors allege that it is illegal how these LLMs are trained on literally everything that has ever been uploaded to the internet, including books that most people probably won’t read · It will be interesting to see how this winds up, as it will set some major precedents in the UK (venue for the suit). · Should these models, which form the foundation on which so-called generative “AI” be permitted to utilize a person’s work without permission? · What do you guys & gals think? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66164228 WE 5 – FTC V Ripple Labs · I hold a little bit of XRP, just to be transparent · Mixed ruling · Consumer side of XRP sales (through exchanges and whatnot) ruled to not be a security · Industrial side ruled to be a security · XRP free to be traded everywhere again · If yours got stuck in an exchange like mine did, move it · Wallets · Cash out · Not financial advice · Will keep up on this as it develops further https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-says-sec-lawsuit-vs-ripple-labs-can-proceed-trial-some-claims-2023-07-13/ WE 6 - Microsoft/ Activision Blizzard Merger News · Judge denied FTC’s motion to block deal · Other methods · UK CMA still not happy with deal · Needs further reworking to get another look from CMA · I don’t think that Microsoft needs its tentacles in any more places, frankly. That is my bias. I will exult in this deal not going through. https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-judge-rules-microsoft-deal-buy-activision-can-go-forward-2023-07-11/ WE 7 – Broadcom Wants to Buy VMWare · Huh? · Broadcom makes networking hardware · VMWare is one of the main system virtualization vendors · Why? · Virtualization software gets used as a force multiplier in server environments · What is it? · EU greenlit the merger, but required some things · 3rd parties get everything they need in order to make sure all hardware is compatible with the virtualization software · Still has to get past the UKCMA and the FTC, I doubt that this $61 billion deal will make it through unaltered, but we shall see. https://www.engadget.com/broadcom-gets-eu-approval-for-its-61-billion-merger-with-vmware-150140942.html

Weekend Edition 44 WE 1 – Apple Troubles 1-1 – TSMC AZ Plant Pushes 5 NM fab production back · Apple partnered with them to produce their US-made M-series and A-series chips · US gets further from made in America i-devices · Why? · Education rant · Homelessness rant · Corruption rant https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/20/tsmc-delays-start-of-arizona-chip-factory-that-will-build-apple-chips.html 1-2 – UK Online Safety Bill Has Tech Companies On Edge · Bill would force encrypted messaging apps to install a back door for UK authorities · Why? · Who? · What do they threaten if it passes? · Smoke? Fire? · On principle, I agree with their stand · What is E2E encryption? · We’ll see who blinks, here. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66256081 2 – More News on Microsoft-Activision Merger · Deadline extended 3 months · Restructured deal · UK CMA fast tracking process · Etymological rants · Government · entertainment · Balance rant https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/19/microsoft-activision-agree-to-extend-deal-deadline-to-oct-18.html 3 – Ripple Expects More Use By US Banks Soon · On-Demand Liquidity product · Cross-border transactions · SWIFT aging, slow, possibly corrupt · XRP instant, cheap, secure from tampering · Depending on demand, Ripple Labs may file as a security · If it grows into what they hope, the sky is the limit for the token valuation, from where I sit https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/17/ripple-hopes-judge-ruling-in-sec-case-will-lead-to-us-banks-using-xrp.html 4-1 - Nick Clegg, of Meta, calls “AI Quite Stupid” · Clegg is the VP of Global Affairs at the tech giant · Said things that I’ve been saying about these Large Language Models · Meta to open source Llama 2 · I know what I’ve said about open source projects... · Still don’t trust it if Meta will be prime beneficiary of development work · Meta partnered with MS Azure cloud for hosting · Yikes · Regulatory concerns https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66238004 4-2 – Investing Bubble for AI? · CEO of StabilityAI (maker of Stable Diffusion) · Thinks that the investment craze has just begun · Foresees the largest bubble in history · Thinks that wise companies will do well · Sees companies which misuse the tech being punished on the stock market · I think it is too early to make all of these pronouncements · Matt’s AI reminders · It’s a tool · Keep it in perspective · Nothing mission-critical · Check its work · Privacy concerns · Microsoft/Meta & Llama 2: yikes https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/17/ai-will-be-the-biggest-bubble-of-all-time-stability-ai-ceo.html 4-3 – British Computer Society Open Letter About AI · 1300 experts and business people signed this one · Counterweight to doom & gloom · Still hype-y · Doesn’t see dire threat · Generally AI will benefit us if developed responsibly and regulated well · ChatGPT “Like an overly knowledgeable and very excitable 12 year old” · See privacy and intellectual property issues · Is care necessary? · Is this a hair-on-fire moment? · How much do you use these tools? · How much do you trust them? · What about the hype in either direction? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66218709 https://techfreedom.pro/2023/07/21/weekend-edition-44-ai-actually-stupid/

Weekend Edition 45 – bullets WE 1 – Euro Commission Investigating Microsoft · Slack complained about the way MS bundles Teams · It took 3 years for the Commission to get around to it · Reminds me of the Browser Wars and the anti-trust case of the late 90’s · Likely end with fines and requirements for MS to stop bundling Teams with MS 365 and Office 365 https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-may-regret-bundling-teams-with-365-subscriptions WE 2 – Senator Wyden Wants MS Sued by DOJ and FTC · Senator Wyden (D), of Oregon mad about Solar Winds and recent Outlook hack attacks · Calls Microsoft’s security stance “negligent” · Solar Winds was instigated by Russia · The latest Oulook email hack was sponsored by the CCP · He is framing this as a nat’l security issue, which it is, since the US government runs on Microsoft · Feels like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? “Runs on Microsoft” and “Government runs” · 3 options · MS admits they have had the wrong stance and changes their EULA without being coerced · Nothing happens · Investigation ensues, MS gets fined, grudgingly does the minimum of changes https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-senator-its-time-to-investigate-microsoft-for-negligent-cybersecurity WE 3 - Lindsey Graham and Elizabeth Warren Co-sponsor Bill to Create New Tech Regulator · Wonder twin powers, activate · Graham Cracker is RINO extraordinaire (may as well be a Democrat) · Pocahontas is always about expanding the government · This bill would create a Big Tech regulator which could do a number of things · Sue for anti-trust violations, and act like the CMA in the UK · Come down on Big Tech for privacy violations · Limit online misinformation dissemination · Lots of sarcasm · Warm & fuzzy · Anti-constitutional · Gov’t censorship, oh joy · I’m from the government, and I’m here to help (privacy) · Competition regulation https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/27/tech/big-tech-regulation-new-federal-agency/index.html WE 4 – AI News for the Week 4-1 – OpenAI Loses Head of Trust & Safety · Resigns to spend more time with his family · Job got more involved than he wanted to deal with · Is that the real reason? · OpenAI under scrutiny over ChatGPT https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/21/tech/open-ai-trust-safety-head-exit/index.html 4-2 – What is Google Genesis? · Ever heard of it? I hadn’t either.. · “secret” project · Generative AI to aggregate news stories into one story with a given style · Is this a good thing? · Remember The Drudge Report? · Hallucinations? · No sorting · Could quickly create a vicious cycle https://www.cnet.com/tech/googles-genesis-ai-tool-could-write-the-news-it-should-be-stopped/ WE 5 – What Is Overture? · Linux Foundation project to provide a better FOSS alternative to Big Tech maps apps · Microsoft, Meta, TomTom, and Amazon are at the core · Pooling data along with OpenStreetMaps · Licensing requires any data taken to result in more contributions to the project · If one partner steals from the project, they will be responsible for maintaining their own map data for their product https://gizmodo.com/google-maps-alternative-overture-maps-data-linux-1850675768 WE 6 – SBF Nonsense 6-1 – SBF Sounds More and More Like a Snake · Leaked selections of Caroline Ellison’s diary to NYT · DOJ bringing charges of tainting jury pool, discrediting a witness in a criminal proceeding · She and the rest of the group at the center of FTX already had their trials and pleaded guilty and are working with the feds to testify against him · This smells like him trying to get ahead of the curve, which is smart, but dirty · How did he get a hold of these files? · Did she give them to him? · Did wunderkind hack them out of her Workspace account? · Did he appropriate them as admin of the FTX Workspace? · Shady AF https://gizmodo.com/doj-accuses-sbj-of-leaking-caroline-ellison-diary-ftx-1850663571 6-2 – SBF Charges Dropping Like Flies · Original 8 charges for which he was extradited from the Bahamas are untouched · 5 new charges are being challenged as US overstepping the letter of the extradition · 2 of those have now been dropped · Bribery · Campaign finance regulations · I have my doubts that this well-connected and very greasy little snake will ever see the inside of a prison for long · He greased the wheels through money laundering and improper campaign contributions · DC swamp doesn’t like sunlight · Will hide and protect him as best they can · If the book is thrown at him, he could face up to 100 years in prison · Two justice systems in this country... https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/investing/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-charges/index.html WE 7 – RIP Kevin Mitnick? · Famous early hacker · Hit DEC system and copied OS illegally in 1979 · Jailed 1988 · Hacked into Pac Bell Voicemail system in 1992 · Ran for 2.5 years · Caught and served 5.5 years · Free Kevin · Reformed, became White Hat · Consulted many Fortune 500 companies, gov’t agencies on cyber security since 2003 · Passed this week, after 14 month pancreatic cancer bout https://gizmodo.com/kevin-mitnick-famous-hacker-dies-at-59-1850659160 WE 8 – CSAM Everywhere... Look at Mastodon, Everyone!! They’re SOO Bad · What is the Fediverse · What is Mastodon · Issues · Security · Lack of user friendliness · CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Materials), aka Child Porn materials · Remember George Carlin? That is a bloodless PC name, ain’t it? · Security is a moot thing, based on their concerns · User friendliness... Confusing layout with instances · There is CSAM everywhere (mainstream; decentralized platforms; everywhere) · Should not ever exist · 0 tolerance for creators and distributors when caught, swift justice https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-fediverse-child-abuse-material-stanford-resear-1850670857

Robo callers get smacked down by FCChttps://www.pcmag.com/news/pair-of-scammers-hit-with-fccs-biggest-robocalling-fine-300-million-dollars RDOF Having a Rough Go https://www.pcmag.com/news/fccs-rural-broadband-fund-faces-trouble-isps-want-more-money Microsoft Sucks, Ditch Microsoft https://www.pcmag.com/news/cybersecurity-firm-blasts-microsoft-for-slow-incomplete-bug-patches Elon Sues Hate Speech Watchdog https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66376988 The Cables That Make the World Go Round https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/features/the-secret-life-of-the-500-cables-that-run-the-internet/ Incandescent Lightbulb Ban https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/incandescent-lightbulb-ban-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ Room Temperature Superconductor? Not Necessarily... https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/lk-99-superconductor-maybe-a-breakthrough-maybe-not-so-much/ https://shows.acast.com/the-weekend-edition https://techfreedom.pro/2023/08/04/weekend-edition-46/

Weekend Edition 47 – Microsoft Sucks, AI Is All Their Fault MS 365 Accounts Hacked... Again · Phishermen strike again · Not really MS’s fault, this time · Digital Hygiene https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-365-users-targeted-by-major-phishing-campaign Zoom: “Trust us, Bro.” · Terms quietly changed in March · AI training? · Found by researcher late last month · Zoom on damage control · “Trust us, bros...” https://www.pcmag.com/news/zoom-revises-terms-after-changes-spark-fears-of-ai-learning-from-video ChatGPT Sucks as a Knowledgebase · AI not great at parsing good practices in programming · 517 questions · 52% wrong (~265), when limited to StackOverflow for information. · Don’t trust it for anything mission critical, and be prepared to check all of its work · Think of it as a stupid intern who knows barely enough to get itself into trouble. https://www.techradar.com/pro/chatgpt-is-a-bad-knowledge-base-confirms-new-study AI Steals Passwords? Knowledge Is Power · Know how Google, Alexa, and Siri are always listening? · Now there are AI’s which can listen to your keystrokes during video conferencing calls · Once fully trained, these can scrape your passwords from listening to you type · Very accurate · 93% via zoom audio · 95% via infected smart phone · Yikes · Audio filtering · type differently https://www.pcmag.com/news/ai-can-now-steal-your-passwords-by-listening-to-your-keystrokes GPTBot to Scrape Your Website: Here’s How to Block It. · Want your content stolen to train ChatGPT? · I don’t · Here’s how to deny it access to your site · Add this to your site’s robots.txt file User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / If you only want to block parts of your site, you can do that too, by adding the following: User-agent: GPTBot Allow: /directory-1/ Disallow: /directory-2/ If you want to learn to set yourself free online, check this out: https://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ https://www.pcmag.com/news/openais-gptbot-will-scrape-your-website-to-train-its-ai-unless-you-opt https://platform.openai.com/docs/gptbot OSS Moq Temporarily Included Extra Tracking Tools in Its Codebase... Oops... · What’s Moq? · FOSS .net mock library · Makes life easier for developers · Bad move, bro · Included proprietary tracker in one version · V 4.20.0.. Lmao · Removed by 4.20.2, after backlash https://www.techradar.com/pro/top-open-source-project-moq-slammed-for-secretly-collecting-user-data Hear About Trump’s Twitter Subpoena? · Secret warrant · Wtf · Twitter coughed it up, late · Fined for “contempt of court” · Unlawful · Unconstitutional · If they are doing this to him, what might they do to us everyday? · Need to fix this, asap. · Solutions to online abuses and to regain digital sovereignty are below https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66365643 https://techfreedom.pro https://Mark37.com https://althatech.com

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/black-hat-2023-generative-ai-panel/ https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news-features/black-hat-usa-unwrapped-2023/ https://www.pcmag.com/news/defender-pretender-how-researchers-undermined-windows-malware-security https://www.pcmag.com/news/uncle-sam-needs-your-ai-help-and-darpa-will-hand-out-20m-to-make-it-happen https://yoodley.com/apple-app-sideloading-in-ios-17-in-spring-2024/ https://www.inferse.com/674084/ios-17-will-support-sideloading-but-apple-is-restricting-the-feature-from-being-used-in-its-main-market-wccftech/

WE 1: https://www.pcmag.com/news/new-malware-component-can-use-wi-fi-triangulation-to-determine-pcs-location WE 2: https://www.pcmag.com/news/ransomware-wipes-out-data-access-for-majority-of-cloud-providers-custom ers WE 3: https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-to-protect-sensitive-gmail-settings-with-a-multi-factor-challenge WE 4: https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-released-a-windows-11-update-thats-causing-pcs-to-bsod WE 5: https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-pledges-support-for-californias-right-to-repair-act WE 6: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3704618/openai-to-use-gpt-4-llm-for-content-moderation-warns-against-bias.html WE 7: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66589797 WE 8: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66549159

WE 50 Links:https://www.pcmag.com/news/chinese-hackers-uploaded-trojanized-signal-app-to-google-play-store https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-to-sell-teams-separately-in-eu https://www.pcmag.com/news/nvidia-faces-more-restrictions-on-ai-chip-sales-this-time-in-the-middle https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/29/nvidias-stock-closes-at-record-after-google-ai-partnership.html https://www.techradar.com/computing/openai-accused-of-string-of-data-protection-breaches-in-gdpr-complaint https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/30/how-to-stop-meta-from-using-personal-data-to-train-generative-ai-.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3705551/openai-launches-enterprise-grade-chatgpt.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/30/tesla-ordered-by-nhtsa-to-provide-data-on-elon-mode-for-autopilot.html

Weekend Edition 51 Links WE 1 - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/05/us-immigration-homeland-security-social-media-fake-profiles WE 2 - https://www.pcmag.com/news/california-joins-the-ai-regulation-frenzy WE 3 - https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-vows-to-shield-users-of-copilot-ai-from-copyright-lawsuits WE 4 - https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66739858 WE 5 - https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/mirai-botnet-infects-android-tv-boxes-to-run-ddos-attacks WE 6 - https://www.pcmag.com/news/senate-confirms-new-fcc-commissioner-ending-2-plus-years-of-deadlock WE 7 - https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/china-bans-iphones-for-government-officials WE 8 - https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66716502 Blog: https://techfreedom.pro/2023/09/08/weekend-edition-51-privacy-on-the-rocks/

Weekend Edition 53 Links https://www.securityweek.com/airbus-launches-investigation-after-hacker-leaks-data/https://www.techradar.com/phones/android/google-play-protect-is-upping-its-game-by-scanning-apps-in-real-time https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/14/arm-ipo-what-is-risc-v-and-why-does-arm-call-the-rival-product-a-risk.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/13/musk-zuckerberg-among-tech-leaders-visiting-senate-to-speak-about-ai-.html https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/microsoft-releases-windows-11-update-to-block-password-stealing-attacks https://www.pcmag.com/news/china-no-were-not-banning-iphones-for-government-workers https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-is-popular-but-is-it-making-enough-money-to-stay-afloat https://www.pcmag.com/news/nso-group-spyware-found-on-russian-journalists-iphone-who-put-it-there https://www.pcmag.com/news/mullvad-vpn-warns-of-critical-firewall-flaw-in-apples-macos-sonoma https://techfreedom.pro/2023/09/15/weekend-edition-52-ai-hype-arm-ipo-security-etc/

WE 53 Links https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/fbi-and-cisa-issue-warning-about-dangerous-new-ransomware-strain https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-263a https://www.pcmag.com/news/lastpass-requires-users-to-update-master-password-to-at-least-12-characters https://www.pcmag.com/news/elon-musks-neuralink-puts-out-call-for-humans-to-try-its-brain-implant https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66853057 https://www.computerworld.com/article/3706991/uk-regulator-outlines-ai-foundation-model-principles-warns-of-potential-harm.html https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsofts-copilot-ai-coming-to-windows-on-sept-26 https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-latest-windows-11-update-drops-on-september-26-163553126.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3707074/google-adds-its-bard-chatbot-to-gmail-youtube-docs-and-other-apps.html https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66866577 https://www.pcmag.com/news/openai-unveils-new-and-improved-ai-image-generator-dall-e-3 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66719572 https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/15/tech/tiktok-fine-europe-children/index.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3706516/gloves-come-off-during-day-one-of-googles-antitrust-trial.html https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/signal-is-adding-quantum-level-encryption-to-help-keep-customers-safe Blog: https://techfreedom.pro/2023/09/22/weekend-edition-53-ai-all-the-things-more/

WE 54 Links https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-wins-pentagon-contract-to-supply-military-communications https://www.pcmag.com/news/be-careful-with-bard-google-search-showing-private-chatbot-snippets https://www.pcmag.com/news/bard-chatgpt-and-the-cia-us-agency-prepping-its-own-chatbot https://www.pcmag.com/news/dont-want-google-to-use-your-website-for-ai-training-you-can-now-opt-out https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-unleashing-more-than-25-ai-chatbot-personalities-onto-the-world-181428710.html https://www.engadget.com/chatgpt-is-allowed-to-browse-the-internet-once-again-211332316.html https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-prepares-to-take-another-swing-at-writing-net-neutrality-rules https://www.pcmag.com/news/ftc-sues-amazon-claiming-e-commerce-giant-maintains-a-monopoly https://www.engadget.com/x-reportedly-cuts-half-of-its-election-integrity-team-091135783.html https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/features/internet-for-the-people-the-movement-for-affordable-community-led-broadband/ https://docs.nycmesh.net/

WE 55 Links: https://www.pcmag.com/news/nsa-here-are-the-dumbest-cybersecurity-mistakes-we-see-at-large-organizations https://www.pcmag.com/news/notorious-qakbot-botnet-threat-continues-despite-fbi-takedown https://www.pcmag.com/news/x-sues-x-over-name-elon-musk-twitter https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/05/neuralink-rival-precision-neuroscience-buys-factory-in-brain-implants.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/02/sam-bankman-fried-considered-paying-trump-5-billion-not-to-run-lewis.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/03/sam-bankman-fried-criminal-trial-starts-today-heres-whats-at-stake.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/03/sam-bankman-fried-trial-witness-list-scaramucci-ellison-more.html https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-assistant-is-getting-a-bard-generative-ai-upgrade https://app.futo.org/fdroid/repo/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/copilot-may-mean-never-having-to-learn-windows-ever-again/ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/05/amazon-and-microsofts-cloud-dominance-referred-for-uk-competition-probe.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/04/apple-iphone-15-overheating-fix-released-in-ios-update.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/05/duckduckgo-ceo-testified-about-talks-with-apple-to-replace-google.html https://techfreedom.pro/2023/10/06/weekend-edition-55-security-elonworld-sbf-trial-and-more/

Article Links... No blog this week https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-airtag-stalking-has-led-to-murder-amended-class-action-lawsuit-says https://cybernews.com/news/attackers-zombify-dlink-tplink-wifi-routers/ https://thehackernews.com/2023/10/darkgate-malware-spreading-via.html https://thehackernews.com/2023/10/fbi-cisa-warn-of-rising-avoslocker.html https://thehackernews.com/2023/10/shellbot-uses-hex-ips-to-evade.html https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/malicious-nuget-packages-with-millions-of-downloads-are-targeting-users-everywhere https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/unpatched-ws_ftp-servers-are-being-targeted-to-spread-ransomware https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/adobe-acrobat-reader-has-a-serious-security-flaw-so-update-now https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-space-force-bans-use-of-generative-ai https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-joins-microsoft-in-shielding-users-from-ai-copyright-lawsuits https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-amazon-anthropic-investment-72d21e6c663d506dbf968f50628e7ded https://www.pcmag.com/news/ouch-irs-says-microsoft-owes-29-billion-in-back-taxes https://apnews.com/article/google-antitrust-microsoft-bing-search-engine-37a143e73a12855a12f974e08ec05db4 https://apnews.com/article/google-antitrust-trial-search-engine-apple-9b9c2e55ae3c261ad845448ee7a390e4 https://www.techradar.com/pro/worlds-biggest-pc-vendor-takes-first-step-that-could-establish-android-as-windows-biggest-rival-ever-and-eliminate-google-chromeos-at-the-same-time https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/13/tech/google-youtube-hamas-israel-disinformation/index.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/openai-meta-and-google-score-appallingly-low-on-stanfords-new-ai-transparency https://www.networkworld.com/article/3708215/why-are-openai-microsoft-and-others-looking-to-make-their-own-chips.html https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/most-firms-think-ai-is-a-threat-to-security-but-they-still-use-it https://www.engadget.com/doj-says-north-korean-it-workers-were-sent-abroad-to-help-finance-weapons-programs-101824065.html https://www.pcmag.com/news/china-restricts-exports-of-key-battery-making-material https://www.computerworld.com/article/3708812/us-expands-chip-export-curbs-to-china-to-throttle-ai-supercomputer-development.html https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-prepares-to-take-another-swing-at-writing-net-neutrality-rules https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-will-soon-scan-sideloaded-android-apps-for-malicious-code https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/more-cybersecurity-firms-could-collapse-soon-experts-warn https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/ragnarlocker-dark-web-sites-seized-in-major-crackdown

Death of Adblocking? AI, Microsoft, and Security Stories https://www.pcmag.com/news/rip-ublock-origin-google-proceeds-with-plan-to-shake-up-chrome-extensions https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-to-let-european-users-uninstall-edge-bing-from-windows https://www.pcmag.com/news/surprise-apple-will-finally-bring-rcs-to-iphone-later-this-year https://www.pcmag.com/news/copilot-ai-coming-to-windows-10 https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-is-still-struggling-to-build-its-own-modem-chip-for-iphones https://www.pcmag.com/news/discord-is-shutting-down-its-clyde-chatbot-experiment https://www.pcmag.com/news/why-qualcomm-wants-to-keep-more-of-your-ai-offline https://www.pcmag.com/news/qualcomm-touts-ai-capabilities-of-new-snapdragon-7-gen-3 https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/prison-phone-company-blamed-for-data-breach-affecting-thousands-of-users https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/mysql-servers-hit-by-ddos-malware-botnet https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/google-blocks-a-zero-day-flaw-used-to-target-government-emails https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/toyota-finance-business-confirms-ransomware-attack-data-breach

Had audio problems this week... if you want the recap, roll out to roughly the 90 minute mark. Here are the week's articles: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67343550 https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/michigan-aims-for-100-clean-energy-by-2040/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/signals-new-texting-features-give-you-better-message-controls-privacy/ https://www.pcmag.com/news/apparent-spacex-glitch-locks-people-out-of-starlink-accounts https://www.pcmag.com/news/is-chatgpt-a-bore-elon-musk-and-sam-altman-troll-each-others-ais https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-briefly-blocked-employees-from-using-chatgpt-over-security-concerns-080403177.html https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-reportedly-plans-to-bring-its-ai-powered-copilot-to-windows-10-202010100.html https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/this-new-chatgpt-powered-infostealer-is-targeting-cloud-platforms https://www.techradar.com/pro/building-a-cybersecurity-strategy-on-a-constrained-budget https://www.techradar.com/pro/should-cybersecurity-overconfidence-be-on-your-threat-radar https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-is-dropping-android-for-vega-smart-device-operating-system https://www.pcmag.com/news/chat-app-omegle-calls-it-quits-after-14-years-slew-of-lawsuits

https://www.pcmag.com/news/what-to-expect-in-windows-12-leaks-rumors-and-more https://www.gizmochina.com/2023/03/07/windows-losing-market-share-us-historic-low-57/ https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/microsoft-just-rolled-out-the-last-big-windows-11-update-we-expect-before-windows-12-copilot-in-tow https://onmsft.com/news/a-new-report-suggests-copilot-may-replace-the-iconic-start-button-on-the-rumored-windows-12/ https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/hate-copilot-in-windows-11-free-privacy-tools-can-now-get-rid-of-the-ai https://www.techradar.com/pro/the-new-windows-11-preview-build-will-make-its-ai-copilot-do-strange-things-to-your-desktop https://www.inferse.com/776431/windows-12-whats-new-release-date-everything-we-know-so-far-gizchina-com/ https://www.gizmochina.com/2023/03/02/microsoft-intel-windows-12-leaks/ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-microsoft-edge-secure-network-to-protect-your-browsing-885472e2-7847-4d89-befb-c80d3dda6318

Connor Rants on Facebook, security, privacy, best practices, mental health issues, etc...