Perhaps it is time that the US stops relying on SSNs being “secret”…
ED25519 keys being short and quick to generate makes this state of affairs infuriating whenever it turns up - SSNs, credit card numbers etc.
Readit NewsXorNot commented on Whistleblower says DOGE officials copied Social Security numbers npr.org/2025/08/26/nx-s1-... · Posted by u/blueridge
XorNot commented on Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification commonsware.com/blog/2025... · Posted by u/ingve
Arguing that developers should be able to be anonymous so that they can make apps to help break the law is not as convincing as an argument as I think the author think it is.
Reading between the lines though I think it's likely that you can still install apps whose package has not been registered. Potentially this will require adb or putting your device into developer mode. For the sample app scenario you may be able to still install via adb. For example adb install does not trigger Play Protect.
In regards to the privacy policy, it's misleading to also not including the part of "based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures." The why for this clause is so that Google can avoid NIH, not having to build everything their business needs in house.
I mean this is also an enormous problem for nations which would like to provide intelligence capability to their agents.
A special carve out for anonymous apps only for people with government connections doesn't help because it fingerprints the operative.
Tor was originally a deniable communications tool.
Unfortunately, that defense allows hoarding wealth. If the wealth was more evenly distributed globally, there would be little reason to defend against raids.
This is how places like the US despite having 4% of the population have about a quarter of the material and energy consumption. Not to single them out, I am in Australia, it is a similar ratio.
I am not defending this situation, just highlighting its role.
Why would a more even distribution of resources lead to less war?
Like, it might but if resources are equally distributed then raiding your neighbors for more is one of the best ways to get more of them.
Does no one study history? War wasn't invented in the 20th century.
Chimps in the damn jungle go to war with each other.
Quite similar to the "my cat listening to me making 10 grammar mistakes" meme.
Alien: sends SOS after years of studying human communication signals, as a last ditch effort to mark their existence before being wiped out by supernova.
Humans: Look - the sky people said WOW.
Which isn't what happened, the WOW signal is just because the person who saw it scribbled wow on the printout and that's the picture we have.
XorNot commented on One universal antiviral to rule them all? cuimc.columbia.edu/news/o... · Posted by u/breve
Are you saying that this antiviral would not kill bacteriophages? Or are you saying you think the effect would be small because the population in our bodies is small?
There are not bacteriophages in your body, except where bacteria are. And since they don't infect human cells, they're being constantly destroyed already by the primary immune system even if they get there.
Viral infections only successfully persist by replicating faster then the human body destroys them, and by hiding in human cells.
This isn't a system which is some sort of toxic to viruses, it's an immune booster.
XorNot commented on We regret but have to temporary suspend the shipments to USA olimex.wordpress.com/2025... · Posted by u/CTOSian
That is exactly the same for the U.S., with the same Harmonized code, 8534.00.
https://hts.usitc.gov/search?query=8534
...and has been that way for a long time. Only thing that might be different now is that the de-minimus import exemption is going away for (certain?) countries? (and of course the tariff rate changing).
The difference now is the US wants mail carriers to collect tarrifs themselves and pay the US government.
They have no way to do this, because it's normally not done - tarrifs are paid by the importer, and responsibility for correct labeling is by the importer.
XorNot commented on We regret but have to temporary suspend the shipments to USA olimex.wordpress.com/2025... · Posted by u/CTOSian
> Otherwise, you put your local producers at a disadvantage, making the tariffs worse.
Don't some tariffs motivate people to do processing offshore?
If I import 1kg of copper and machine/etch/whatever it down into products, with some wastage, maybe I should just do everything offshore and only import the final articles with 500g of copper in it.
At some point, higher tariffs on input materials will overtake the higher value of finished goods and you might as well just manufacture the whole thing offshore anyway.
That's one of the primary problems with tarrifs especially broad untargeted ones: the first thing they encourage is offshoring everything because it becomes cheaper to only be hit once on import, rather then multiple times by your suppliers and compliance costs, who in turn are also getting tarrifed on their supplies and tools.
XorNot commented on One universal antiviral to rule them all? cuimc.columbia.edu/news/o... · Posted by u/breve
Is it really true that we have “worse” viruses, or that they are adapting to our modern antibiotic regime & reverting to the status quo?
Antibiotics have never killed any viruses ever. They are exclusively for treating bacterial infections (which are generally worse by a lot).
XorNot commented on One universal antiviral to rule them all? cuimc.columbia.edu/news/o... · Posted by u/breve
Interesting, and potentially very good. But I can't help but wonder, like at least one other commenter, that this might have unexpected effects if applied at a larger scale. I know some viruses kill bacteria for instance. I don't know, something about universal applicability makes me a little uneasy.
Bacteriophages don't infect things which aren't bacteria.
In fact they're so absurdly specific that while you could bathe in a solution of them and not get sick, they also frequently fail to infect slightly different members of the same species, which is why ultimately they never become antibiotic alternatives: having the right one on hand ranges from difficult to impossible.
XorNot commented on Dangerous advice for software engineers seangoedecke.com/dangerou... · Posted by u/gxhao
Actually, I have several friends that are arborists. It's a fairly common vocation, hereabouts.
It's not nice to be not nice...
What safety features are they removing from their chainsaws to speed the job up?