Tech news

[pibbuR]

Phishing emails increase over 1,200 percent since ChatGPT launch

betanews.com

"threat actors are leveraging tools like ChatGPT to help write sophisticated, targeted BEC and other phishing messages"

pibbuR who observes that bad Norwegian is no longer a reliable identifier for fake things

PS. I think that one of the major problems of recent development/adoption of AI is that it's moving too fast. DS.

 

[Redglyph]

So that's where it's coming from.

Talking about security, I have a funny issue with ChatGPT. It requires your phone number, supposedly for 'security reason'. I decided to try it with a Microsoft account, since it apparently gives free access to the version 4. So I asked to delete my current account, tried to connect it to the MS account, and it asked my phone number to send the confirmation SMS. He refused the number because it was already in use... So it seems I locked myself out.

They pretend you can use the same number for 3 accounts but it's obviously not the case. Not a big loss anyway, it was fun to experiment with this AI but it's rare to get a correct answer. I seriously doubt ChatGPT helped anyone writing something useful.

 

[JDR13]

See, this is how it starts! We probably have less than 5 years now before Skynet starts dropping the nukes.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I've tried chatgpt in a few programming tasks I had for my job. It can give you a starting point for some work, but it's always that you have to verify verify verify what it generates. It has no concept of correctness or right or wrong. It just merges text according to its probability model and your prompt.
I can be a nice aggregator of information, but again you have to verify everything it provides.
I asked it to generate a regex for what seemed to not be a very complicated request, at least to me. And it initially provided something that looked right, until I found edge-cases that didn't match the regex. So, yeah.

 

[Redglyph]

I've tried chatgpt in a few programming tasks I had for my job. It can give you a starting point for some work, but it's always that you have to verify verify verify what it generates. It has no concept of correctness or right or wrong. It just merges text according to its probability model and your prompt.
I can be a nice aggregator of information, but again you have to verify everything it provides.
I asked it to generate a regex for what seemed to not be a very complicated request, at least to me. And it initially provided something that looked right, until I found edge-cases that didn't match the regex. So, yeah.

That's the conclusion I reached too.

It has some very interesting insights when it comes to solving problems, and the natural language interface is great, but everything needs to be verified. So maybe I'm being pessimistic and it's just the matter of fixing the logic (or I'm being optimistic regarding the Skynet scenario ).

 

[pibbuR]

Sundar Pichai argues in court that Google isn’t evil, it’s just a business

Is Google still the same company it was 20 years ago?

www.theverge.com

Hah!

"there’s a big difference between a business move you don’t like and one that’s illegal [according to Google]. The DOJ, on the other hand, says Google uses its platforms and partners as a wedge to keep out any possible competition"

pibbuR who also claims to be not evil

PS. Have posted this one before, but it's highly relevant here.

DS.

 

[pibbuR]

Bug Check 0x13: EMPTY_THREAD_REAPER_LIST
The EMPTY_THREAD_REAPER_LIST bug check has a value of 0x00000013.
This bug check appears very infrequently.

What is the thread reaper? - The Old New Thing

Should you fear the thread reaper?

devblogs.microsoft.com

Huh?

"when a thread terminates and cleans itself up, it cleans up everything it can, and then just before dying, it notifies the thread reaper to harvest its carcass: The thread reaper is a component whose sole purpose is to free the stacks of expired threads."

"this bug check code was introduced early in the development of Windows NT, and it may even have been used in some beta builds, but no released version of Windows NT ever used it".

Same applies to later Windows.. But still:

"There are many web sites and videos purporting to help you fix EMPTY_THREAD_REAPER_LIST crashes. They make up reasons for why this error could occur (“not enough free disk space”, “incompatible device drivers”, “you installed EMPTY_THREAD_REAPER_LIST-related software”) and make up troubleshooting steps (“restart in safe mode”, “update drivers”, and the ever-present “run sfc /scannow”). Welcome to the world of auto-generated content farming."

pibbuR who accidently during his programming has killed a lot of threads, even the OS itself without reporting any error.

PS.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4HA3vUv2c

DS.

 

[Redglyph]

Google removed their famous "Don't be evil" from their code of conduct. At least, it's honest.

 

[pibbuR]

More on Google

Google Pays $21 Billion for Search Monopoly: How "Free" Tech Markets Repress Free Speech and Hurt All of US

Your data is worth billions, time to take it back and break the Google monopoly on search!

tutanota.com

pibbuR

PS. I usually use other search engines: Startpage and Brave search. The first one seems to produce results very similar to Google, so I don't know how private it really is. I kind of trust Brave search, but results from that one is limited compared to Google, especially for Norwegian stuff (probably also other small countries).
DS.

 

[pibbuR]

More on Big Tech:

Amazon and Meta to stop using third-party data from rivals

Watchdog on a tear to level the playing field

www.theregister.com

and

YouTube crackdown leads to 'hundreds of thousands' of ad blocker uninstalls

YouTube's massive crackdown on ad blocker usage has led to many users uninstalling their ad blockers this month.

9to5google.com

pibbuR

PS. I admit to having subscribed to Youtube Premium. Not entirely happy about it, but I want to to watch scientific programs uninterrupted. DS

 

[Redglyph]

DuckDuckGo isn't too bad, but the search in anonymous mode are annoying because there's a pop-up to install the app each time, and the fonts are not very clear. You can change that in non-incognito though. I've never tried the app.

Brave seems to give the user a good experience. What I like is the absence of cookie pop-ups that appear on almost every website now (especially in incognito since it doesn't store the preferences... in the cookies), thanks to this great idea of making it mandatory without thinking about a standard API to deal with it in a user-friendly way. But Brave is pushing its blockchain products, so I'm not making it my default browser.

 

[Redglyph]

PS. I admit to having subscribed to Youtube Premium. Not entirely happy about it, but I want to to watch scientific programs uninterrupted. DS

I didn't have any problem watching videos with Brave and signed in, so you could give it a try. It's based on the same engine as Chrome, like most browsers now, so the performances and results are very close.

 

[pibbuR]

... But Brave is pushing its blockchain products, so I'm not making it my default browser.

I haven't noticed that. More details, please.

pibbuR who is very (too) good at not paying attention to things.

PS. I tried using DuckDuckGo for search a few years ago, but it didn't find a lot of Norwegian results. Perhaps it's better now. DS

 

[Redglyph]

I haven't noticed that. More details, please.

pibbuR who is very (too) good at not paying attention to things.

PS. I tried using DuckDuckGo for search a few years ago, but it didn't find a lot of Norwegian results. Perhaps it's better now. DS

Brave has a reward system for ads the user sees in the browser, which they call 'BATs' (it must be a blind system ). These tokens can be changed to multiple cryptocurrencies or NFTs. Brave seems to be heavily into blockchain technology, and even proud of it. To be honest, I didn't look into the details; I'm just avoiding it (I'm also using my secret powers not to pay any attention to those things).

 

[pibbuR]

Brave has a reward system for ads the user sees in the browser, which they call 'BATs' (it must be a blind system ). These tokens can be changed to multiple cryptocurrencies or NFTs. Brave seems to be heavily into blockchain technology, and even proud of it. To be honest, I didn't look into the details; I'm just avoiding it (I'm also using my secret powers not to pay any attention to those things).

Ahh. Yes, I've seen the little icon. But I have completely ignored it. Just like I'm completely ignoring game achievements and Steam inventory thingies (even if some of them are word 0.5 NOK). WTF are Steam badges?

pibbuR who from a practical POV also is ignoring several of his games, since he (unless breaking a record) won't live long enough to play them all.

PS. I (pibbuR) have no other ignore list. Of any kind. DS

 

[Redglyph]

WTF are Steam badges?

Those things that generate annoying notifications? No idea. I think I found a way for Steam to stop telling me about them.

 

[pibbuR]

Don't know if this strictly is tech news, but it surely is big tech news.

YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown isn’t just annoying, it could be illegal in Europe

Can YouTube legally block ad blockers in the EU?

www.theverge.com

If the EU hit them it will be a significant blow. And of course not only to Youtube.

pibbuR who accepts ad blockers by visitors to his web site which btw is not accessible outside his local net (aka Knowns Space).

 

[Redglyph]

Don't know if this strictly is tech news, but it surely is big tech news.

YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown isn’t just annoying, it could be illegal in Europe

Can YouTube legally block ad blockers in the EU?

www.theverge.com

If the EU hit them it will be a significant blow. And of course not only to Youtube.

pibbuR who accepts ad blockers by visitors to his web site which btw is not accessible outside his local net (aka Knowns Space).

It's similar to another article @Couchpotato linked in the Youtube thread, so it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. As you said, it may also apply to sites using ad-blocker detection; I wonder how they'd react if they couldn't use them any more. Most of them are news websites with a paid subscription, which give a limited 'free' access to attract more subscribers (and maybe in some cases, to genuinely give free access).

 

[pibbuR]

Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes

Chamberlain packed its app with ads while disabling third-party access.

arstechnica.com

But the intentions are good:

"This decision was made so that we can continue to provide the best possible experience for our 10 million+ users, as well as our authorized partners who put their trust in us. We understand that this impacts a small percentage of users, but ultimately this will improve the performance and reliability of myQ, benefiting all of our users."

Don't you love it when they say things like that?

pibbuR who doesn't have a garage opener by a chamberlain, partially because he hasn't got a garage opener, partially because there's no garage on the premises, partially because he hasn't got a... oh, yes, he has got a car, But no garage. And no ... whatever.

PS. Some user comments demonstrating Chamberlain's best possible experience:
"this app now displays advertisement at the very top and I cannot find a way to disable it ... This is very disturbing and on top of it, it moves my garage opening button out of the visible part of the screen. So to use it I now have to first look at the ads, then scroll down and hope to find my button."

"I clicked door open/close event and it popped up the video storage subscription dialog to ask me to subscribe"
DS.

PPS. Any watcher having experience with this? DS.

 

[pibbuR]

Microsoft won’t let you close OneDrive on Windows until you explain yourself

This is Microsoft’s latest annoying addition to Windows.

www.theverge.com

You’ll need to select one to close OneDrive, but Microsoft hasn’t included a “go away and let me close the damn application” option, unfortunately.

Last month, Microsoft even thirstily started injecting a poll into the download page of Chrome asking why people were downloading an alternative browser.

Hopefully, Microsoft won’t start injecting a poll at shutdown demanding to know why I’m turning my PC off for the day.

I don't use OneDrive anymore. In stead my family have 3 TB available on Proton Drive. And my backups are stored at Acronis.

pibbuR who wishes Siri, Google assistent, Bixby (if you unlike me have a Samsung), all those annoying up-popping helper apps finally (perhaps with a little more AI) could understand "Drop Dead!!!".