Waitman Gobble

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:30:24 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Looking good
Thousands of soldiers now roam Washington’s streets. They seldom stop crime.

Statistics show that National Guard troops deployed to D.C. have been mentioned in 1.3% of criminal cases, with dozens of cases listing them as victims.

Waitman Gobble

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:00:19 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

What Happens When the World is Run on Code No One Understands?

$Image/photo$

Mathematical verification must be a national mission in the AI era, write Patrick Shafto, Ken Ono, and Scott Duke Kominers.

show all 4 comments

FenTiger

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:40:01 -0400 from hubzilla

@Bill Statler

What happened?

People decided that making software which works is expensive and unnecessary. It's much cheaper to train the users to expect it to be flaky all the time, so they just accept it when things get worse.

Waitman Gobble

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:57:10 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

They dont have time i guess :)

Bill Statler

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 12:14:41 -0400 from Bunny of Doom

Going back to the title of the article: "What Happens When the World is Run on Code No One Understands?" I think we got to that point years ago.

Like in Linux, where individual people or small teams maintain specific packages, and understand how those packages work -- but nobody is mentally capable of understanding an entire Linux system.

Early this year, a few people (including me) could not update a few random packages (different for each victim), and the cause was a small change in 'adduser' which seemed to have no relationship to those packages.

Could formal methods prevent that? Could AI find the problem? Either would be a good thing.

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:46:35 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

RIP Frank Beard

- YouTube

gotsta get paid

Waitman Gobble

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:20:05 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Hacker News wrote the following post Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:52:08 -0400

Open WireGuard Endpoints
L: https://proxylity.com/articles/now-available-open-wireguard-endpoints-and-async-lambda.html
C: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303237
posted on 2026.08.14 at 15:05:46 (c=0, p=5)

Waitman Gobble

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:36:57 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Store it in the cloud where it is safe I guess.

PBS broadcaster loses access to 50TB of data comprising 70 years of TV history after contracted cloud storage vendor goes defunct — public TV channel sues Iron Mountain data center, which hosts archival materials, to ensure preservation

This wouldn't have been an issue if the organization bought a $1,000 NAS and populated it with a few hard drives.

show all 8 comments

hosh

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:29:54 -0400 from hubzilla

It's interesting to realize that these problems of data preservation are not new, but were evidently a concern of ancient peoples. And then to look at the various solutions they found. The oldest such "data" I have personally seen were in the Les Eyzies caves in south western France, where polychromatic paintings date back to 19,000 years ago. These were painted at the end of dark passages that stretch hundreds of meters into the earth. They remain intact, since they were only discovered in the 19th century. Enviable data preservation!

Another means of preserving data was to have generations of bards and scholars commit stories to memory. Thanks to this method, we have the Homeric epics. These were transmitted by bards through an oral tradition, long before Homer, if there was such a person, wrote them down. The art of writing had actually been lost in Greece, for a few centuries, after the fall of the Mycenneans.

Knowledge of ancient kings, in many places, only exists thanks to oral traditions, which often outlasted tombs, monuments and stone-carved inscriptions.

The oldest of the Vedas, the holy books of India, were probably composed up to 3,500 years ago which, despite never having been written till the modern era, were transmitted so well that the variations between different versions across India remains relatively small. The method of transmission actually went beyond words, but included sophisticated mnemonic techniques:

Houben and Rath note that the Vedic textual tradition cannot simply be characterised as oral, "since it also depends significantly on a memory culture".[77] The Vedas were preserved with precision with the help of elaborate mnemonic techniques,[23][24][25] such as memorising the texts in eleven different modes of recitation (pathas),[68] using the alphabet as a mnemotechnical device,[78][79][note 10] "matching physical movements (such as nodding the head) with particular sounds and chanting in a group"[80] and visualising sounds by using mudras (hand signs).[81] This provided an additional visual confirmation, and also an alternate means to check the reading integrity by the audience, in addition to the audible means.[81] Houben and Rath note that a strong "memory culture" existed in ancient India when texts were transmitted orally, before the advent of writing in the early first millennium CE

(Wikipedia)

When writing did come along, the ancients seem to have understood that the writing media was important and that it was necessary to maintain multiple copies. Stone or clay tablets, baked in the oven. Vellum. Permanent inks. Hordes of scribes and translations; libraries across Europe and Asia because these can famously burn down, be inundated by floods or willfully destroyed. We lost the library in Alexandria (40,000 - 700,000 papyrus scrolls) and that at Nalanda (unknown number of manuscripts) in this way.

Knowledge is sometimes preserved through circuitous routes. Europe could easily have lost the science and philosophy of the Greeks, if it were not for the interest of the Arabs. The art of translation is hugely important. It is only thanks to the Rosetta stone that Champollion was able to discern the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs. There are a range of similar ancient scripts which we are completely unable to translate as yet.

What can we learn from these examples, and if any of these are relevant, I wonder. But perhaps when we think about preserving data on different media, we should at least look beyond the digital.

Bill Statler

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 22:26:25 -0400 from Bunny of Doom

I wonder how long it would take to back up my hard drive onto a clay tablet?

(We actually have an old tabletop CNC machine in the closet... I bet that could be adapted.)

hosh

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 23:54:47 -0400 from hubzilla

Personally, some of my posts start off in my paper diary, then move to Hubzilla and a clone, and also to my WordPress blog, which I back up. Photos get into Ente, some to my Fastmail site or my blog. I want to start printing some again.

Maybe in a previous post, I have mentioned our early efforts to begin a community archive, so I've been looking a little at similar efforts that are being made locally, as well as abroad. The British have some useful websites on software and methodologies, as maintaining village archives is a big thing there. There's a wonderful website about the city of Leeds where my parents grew up, with photos from a hundred years ago - I once tickled my parents interest by showing them some of these, such as of the pub that was owned by a great grandfather.

On Linux, the program Gramps is an interesting medium for gattogether anecdotes, photos, etc.

If you want to read a really cool wikipedia article, have a look at the Cairo Geniza. It's are a repository of some 400,000 Jewish documents spanning 13 centuries of life in the city. The Jews, due to religious superstitions, believed that it was necessary to preserve every single bit of paper, no matter how humble, and chucked it all into the store room of the community synagogue. But thanks to it, we know an incredible amount of information about life in Cairo from centuries past. For example, Amitav Ghosh, the Bengali writer, spent a few months there in Egypt researching letters between a medieval Moroccan trader, a correspondent in Yemen, and another on the coast of Kerala, south India. He wrote about all this in a wonderful book, In an Antique Land
So, instead of baking clay tablets, you could just hang onto every grocery bill, salary slip, printouts of all your emails and comments on Hubzilla like this one, and brick them up all up in a room in the basement.

Digitally, the Interplanetary File System is interesting. Wikipedia has an article on the history of Shadow Libraries such as for the preservation of scientific knowledge - I know that @Bill Statler is interested in that.

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 22:23:25 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

hehehe age verification amusements. note app is rated E for Everyone

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Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 23:47:10 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

It's never too late to change :)

Bill Statler

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 23:51:04 -0400 from Bunny of Doom

So Gajim is rated E for Everyone, but Parental Guidance Recommended because users interact, but the SCREENSHOTS are age-gated. What sort of interaction was going on when they took the screenshots???

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 23:56:05 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Ikr I didn't age verify to find out. I guess I could just log in. Lol

The thing that crosses my mind is their ai age detectors can't detect appropriate viewer age for application screenshots

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 01:12:03 -0400 last edited: Sun, 09 Aug 2026 01:21:45 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Can we use rot13 to encrypt a one character response?

User stores one ASCII character on their disk in an ~/.age file indicating age bracket. App requests the single ASCII character. Computer encrypts the character and sends it back to the app.

I'm sure they mean AES 128 or 256 with HMAC for the single character encryption. Or maybe just TLS.

App can only ask computer one time per year else get reported and fined.

Covered apps list is short however. It looks like it only covers apps with targeted addictive algorithms and ads. So the big companies get to send age appropriate advertisements. Instead of beer ads to 5 year olds like has happened. They can send high value ads to a targeted audience. Facebook wins because all the kids lie about their age on signups. Especially when these sites enforce a minimum age.

Official government website of the Illinois General Assembly

Welcome to the Official government website of the Illinois General Assembly

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:27:05 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

These guys are on something. Hehehe. I'm sure Ohioans are all impressed by outsider billionaires clawing into their state. How exciting that must be. I think at the end of the day people will have trouble checking the VPAC box in the ballot booth. Probably Acton will get the ticket. But I'm horrible at picking.

Elon Musk, the Texas-based tech mogul who was supposed to co-chair the Department of Government Efficiency with Ramaswamy, gave $5 million.

Philadelphia businessman Jeff Yass has given $10 million; Russia-born entrepreneur Ratmir Timashev has donated $5 million; New York City hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has given $1 million, as has NYC real estate developer Stephen Ross.

“No gubernatorial campaign in Ohio history has ever put up numbers like this, and it sends a clear message: Ohioans are fired up for Vivek, our campaign is growing, and we will win big in November,” Ramaswamy’s campaign manager, Jonathan Ewing, said about their previous fundraising numbers.

Elon Musk, 3 other billionaires give pro-Ramaswamy super PAC $12 million

The world’s richest man is officially invested in the 2026 Ohio governor’s race. Musk joined billionaires Jeffrey Yass, Ratmir Timashev, Bill Ackman, and Ross Stevens as the primary backers of V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, a super PAC dedicated to supporting Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s election bid.

Elon Musk, 3 other billionaires give pro-Ramaswamy super PAC $12 million

The world’s richest man is officially invested in the 2026 Ohio governor’s race. Musk joined billionaires Jeffrey Yass, Ratmir Timashev, Bill Ackman, and Ross Stevens as the primary backers of V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims, a super PAC dedicated to supporting Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s election bid.

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:02:51 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

I'll send photos.

Waitman Gobble

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 21:26:15 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

The new surveillance scan everything including your dog.

ELSAG Integrated Signal Intelligence Platform

ELSAG SignalTrace is a groundbreaking electronic signal intelligence system for law enforcement, designed to identify suspect people or vehicles.

show all 9 comments

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 01:32:14 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Sending random data might fall under computer fraud and abuse laws but IANAL. Protecting your data from eavesdroppers is likely less legal trouble however I'm guessing there will be cases of evading detection lawsuits in the courts. "If they are hiding something they must be hiding something" crap.

hosh

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:32:16 -0400 from hubzilla

@Waitman Gobble But Officer, there were four other people in the car, all carrying smartphones, wearing different smart watches and a few brands of ear phones, I guess.

Waitman Gobble

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 02:17:32 -0400 last edited: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 02:24:41 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

:)

Somebody is finding disruptive patterns

Remember when you could not use red ink ? Because mimeograph machines could not copy red. As I recall anyway.

Goal 1
Universal adversarial camouflage
"One pattern that defeats every detector." Partial: strong on the YOLO-objectness family; P4 fell in July on wide footprints, thin coverings remain coverage-bound.

https://sandbox.norecognition.org/

Waitman Gobble

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:24:20 -0400 last edited: Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:26:06 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Sad

A Portland woman who posted on social media about her own graffiti tagging was sentenced Monday to two years in prison.

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2026/08/prolific-portland-tagger-caught-after-posting-about-her-graffiti-on-social-media-sentenced-to-2-years-in-prison.html?outputType=amp

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 21:58:33 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

It seems chrome doesn't store key in TPM but uses TPM to encrypt key silently. So decrypting key can happen without user intervention.

Pass the Passkey: A Novel Attack Surface in Passwordless Authentication

Explore how passkey implementation gaps undermine security when relying parties fail to validate the User Verified flag, reducing MFA to a single factor.

hosh

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 22:28:02 -0400 from hubzilla

@Waitman Gobble so it looks like it's better to ignore all those applications suggesting us to set up/use a pass key, right?

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 23:01:40 -0400 last edited: Tue, 04 Aug 2026 23:02:49 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Storing private key on hardware (TPM) or yubikey, etc, is a good idea. TPM doesn't natively store some types of keys so maybe a shim is used but if you don't involve the user in TPM access then any app running can decrypt. I think TPM passkeys are good security especially with anonymous accounts.synched/hybrid mode is less secure. For example you go to a site on your desktop computer that asks for a passkey, if site permits hybrid mode you can use your phone to authenticate. But it uses a BTLE connection not over the internet

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 21:06:42 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Bugtraq is back - Bugtraq - SecurityFocus Mailing Lists

In 1993, Scott Chasin created Bugtraq as a place for full disclosure - a mailing list where security researchers could publish vulnerabilities openly, without gatekeepers, without politics. For over a decade, it was the heartbeat of vulnerability research. If something mattered in security, it was on Bugtraq first. Then it went quiet. The domain ch...

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 21:28:21 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Ntbugtraq next? :)

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:18:29 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Woo hoo 93billion baby!
Revealed: major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis

Iran conflict windfall over three months reignites calls for companies ‘cashing in on human misery’ to pay for environmental damage

Waitman Gobble

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:15:42 -0400 last edited: Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:16:12 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

The California ~/.age file law goes to the fed level. Brackets are different (17 instead of 18) plus emancipated minor text.

Users are not allowed to access computers without an account, apparently.

It's a tough problem to solve i think, not likely to be solved.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119s5090is/pdf/BILLS-119s5090is.pdf

Bill Statler

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 13:47:40 -0400 from Bunny of Doom

This is a bunch of crap. Obviously written by people who have never used FOSS or are trying to destroy it. Do Not Like.

Waitman Gobble

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 21:42:27 -0400 last edited: Mon, 03 Aug 2026 21:43:52 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Yes. Possibly the best way is to use a RON to sign an attestation which can be verified one time, if the authentication key is tied to the attestation. Then to login use qr code, or enter code or use TPM based auth. That gives you a decentalized verification plus the user owns their authentication key. Plus it offers anonymous accounts that are age verified. Downside is would cost user $25 (one time)

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 22:34:00 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Hehehe. Local news doesn't report the details.

Man arrested for interference with law enforcement during Emporia City Commission meeting

A man was arrested and booked into jail after allegedly not complying with law enforcement’s efforts to remove him from Emporia City’s Commission meeting on Wednesday.

Apparently he clapped at the meeting. Which 'incited a state of fear's LMAO

https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2026/07/teacher-arrested-for-clapping-during-public-meeting-a-state-of-fear.html

show all 4 comments

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 22:41:53 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

You will only clap when the applause sign is lit, and you must clap when the applause sign is lit. Don't they do that in North Korea? Or at least a dystopian sci Fi story

Bill Statler

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 23:53:01 -0400 from Bunny of Doom

Okay, I had to look it up.
Teacher arrested, carried out of Emporia City Commission meeting

Lux Claridge, an Emporia High School physics teacher, was arrested after clapping during the meeting. Commissioners had warned those in attendance against disruptive behavior, including clapping, snapping or rude comments. Claridge and several others clapped in support of speakers opposing the Flint Hills Digital Campus data center. After commissioners issued a final warning, Claridge continued to clap, leading to their arrest.

Huh, expressing an opinion during a public meeting is very disruptive. I never realized that.

Giac El Vecio

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:27:11 -0400 from Unio Diversi Spiritus

😯

Waitman Gobble

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 21:11:34 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Not to worry about Flock

A Private Surveillance Network Built on Tow Trucks Has Scanned 9 Billion License Plates. California Courts Just Said That's Fine

Somewhere in California right now, a tow truck is rolling down a residential street, and a camera bolted to its bumper is quietly photographing every license plate it passes. Each image gets a timesta...

Bill Statler

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 21:33:56 -0400 from Bunny of Doom

I'm annoyed by the headline writer. 😲 "Nine billion historical plate scans" does not equal "Scanned 9 Billion License Plates". We don't have 9 billion license plates in the US.

Oh, and the privacy issue is really annoying too.

Waitman Gobble

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 22:07:04 -0400 last edited: Sat, 01 Aug 2026 22:07:13 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Article says Nine billion images, which is not 9 billion plates ... i agree the headline is misleading. I'm sure there are multiple shots and perhaps continuous, plus maybe high percentage of crap. And where did they get the 9 billion number

Waitman Gobble

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 22:29:20 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

But just in case you want to know..

Have I Been Flocked? – Search Flock ALPR Audit Logs

Have police looked up your travel history? Search Flock Safety audit logs for your license plate.

Waitman Gobble

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:56:16 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Lol what a joke

Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installation

The Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Waitman Gobble

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:59:35 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

The claim that asshat made was absurd at the get-go

Waitman Gobble

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 23:39:08 -0400 last edited: Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:08:20 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

They could have apologized to the guy. But, asshats.

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:06:51 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

oooh i bet somebody's getting fired :)

Pirro brought box of evidence to show Trump what caused Reflecting Pool damage

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro was seen with a large box as she left the White House Monday after her meeting with President Trump.

Waitman Gobble

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:27:39 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Gimme data. CDC reportedly wants full medical records of ER patients. Too much trouble to staff the waiting rooms I suppose.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91580334/went-to-the-er-the-trump-administration-may-want-your-medical-records

Waitman Gobble

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 22:54:34 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

Why Are Gay Bars Building Databases of Their Patrons?

Recent reports have raised alarm about the use of PatronScan, an ID-checking and face-scanning system, at multiple LGBTQ+ bars in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. For venues serving vulnerable communities, the stakes of using this technology are high.

Waitman Gobble

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:52:15 -0400 from Get Ready To Rumbly

This applies to you, even if are are not gay in Castro.

Highlights

2018, California lawmakers closed what they viewed as a loophole. Existing law already prohibited businesses from retaining or using information obtained when they “swiped” a driver's license, except for the narrow purposes of legal requirements (like a judicial warrant) or “preventing fraud, abuse, or material misrepresentation.”
...
the Legislature amended the law to make clear that the same restrictions that apply to businesses that “swipe” ID cards also apply when those IDs are “scanned.”

...

the California Senate Judiciary Committee found that the company had collected and retained information on 561,087 customers in Sacramento alone during the first five months of 2018—a remarkable figure for a city whose population had only recently topped 500,000.

At the 76 down the street a few months ago the clerk asked to 'see' my ID. I'm 55 ok lol. So I hand it over. Clerk did not actually look at the ID, but scanned it. A gas station not a bar :) so although it's the closest I refuse to give them another nickle. They can go eat a back of dicks. I did not know about the law until I read the article today, though.

hosh

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 03:35:46 -0400 from hubzilla

@Waitman Gobble Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?
There's lots of stuff like this. As a senior citizen here I get to travel free on all the trains and buses; but only if I use a personalized transport card, which means that the system gets to keep track of me.