averysmallbird (u/averysmallbird)

averysmallbird commented on A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification pcgamer.com/software/oper... · Posted by u/WalterSobchak

hliyan · 17 days ago

Continually surprised by politicians wanting an OS to do what a parent should be doing. Why not just mandate that all devices with access control capabilities implement parental controls, and then mandate that all adults enable controls before handing a device to a minor? For devices that are incapable of user access control, the same rules as a knife, chainsaw or gun apply.

averysmallbird · 17 days ago

This isn’t so heavy handed. The purpose of age signaling is so that a parent can set in one place an age, and then federal privacy protections under COPPA and state protections under the AADC kick in.

averysmallbird commented on A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification pcgamer.com/software/oper... · Posted by u/WalterSobchak

georgefrowny · 17 days ago

The big three will love this. They'll implement the feature, then they get to dob in Linux and friends and get them buried in regulatory lawsuits.

All three already have identity linked accounts. Windows practically shoves it down your throat on install, for example. They'll love the excuse to finally disallow web-free accounts.

Windows servers are so back baby!

averysmallbird · 17 days ago

It’s only enforced by the CA Attorney General, and I’d be surprised to see a threat, let alone a lawsuit, against Linux on this. Not to say this is ideal.

averysmallbird commented on Mamdani Hires Lisa Gelobter as Chief Tech Officer nytimes.com/2026/02/10/ny... · Posted by u/leephillips

jordanb · a month ago

This made me laugh but then I remembered I'm on HN and you're probably serious.

averysmallbird · a month ago

The response to GP is a credit to HN though too.

averysmallbird commented on 90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet state-of-iranblackout.whi... · Posted by u/silencednetizen

GordonS · 2 months ago

There are alternative explanations. For example, foreign agents may have been using Starlink, and the security services may have used the shutdown to find the Starlink terminals.

averysmallbird · 2 months ago

They are attempting to find the Starlink terminals so they can machine gun protesters without accountability or documentation, not because they have a regulatory issue with SpaceX.

averysmallbird commented on 90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet state-of-iranblackout.whi... · Posted by u/silencednetizen

ericmay · 2 months ago

> I think private individuals and even civil society organizations, no matter how noxious or loud they can be, have a right to have specific passions without being expected to be universalist in application or having to account for why.

I don't disagree at all, just to be clear for anyone reading.

> I don't tend to see people focused on Somalia, Haiti, or Cuba being denigrated for not caring about Iran. I don't see people shouting down advocates for Christians in Nigeria over supposed silence on the Rohingya. I think it's punitive for believing in a cause, generally specific causes, rather than about integrity.

Sure, and I think that's fair and I'm not denigrating those who are protesting in favor of action w.r.t Palestine/Gaza, but more so interested in why that particular issue seems so important over others. The most compelling reason I've read so far is that because the US sells weapons to Israel, though I think there's some good reasons to sell weapons too so it's not all negative.

averysmallbird · 2 months ago

I appreciate your engagement!

> The most compelling reason I've read so far is that because the US sells weapons to Israel, though I think there's some good reasons to sell weapons too so it's not all negative.

Some of it is also memetic: a couple of decades ago Tibet was the cause celebre, after that it was Darfur and recall Kony 2012. Issues become important because there's active conflict and human cost, and then people discuss the issues that are getting discussed. And then sometimes those become signifiers for larger issues, e.g. anti-system politics as whole, liberal hopes, or conservative culture wars.

averysmallbird commented on 90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet state-of-iranblackout.whi... · Posted by u/silencednetizen

ericmay · 2 months ago

I think it's a fair criticism though because of the general vitriol about Hamas and Gaza.

The same folks are very much in a position on college campuses to protest about numerous injustices going on in the world, from Iran to Somalia to Haiti to Cuba, yet they're silent.

Why is that? It's a fair question.

I don't think there's some moral failure for caring about one issue affecting one group of people more than another, but you really have to wonder why we care so much about Palestine over other issues, even more gruesome injustices.

This isn't to diminish of course the plight of Palestinians or any group for that matter, but it's a very clear outlier in the American, and dare I say entire western psyche.

averysmallbird · 2 months ago

I appreciated your exchange in this subthread about the difference of the U.S.'s involvement versus Iran. However, I want to push back even without drawing that distinction, so I do it here.

I think private individuals and even civil society organizations, no matter how noxious or loud they can be, have a right to have specific passions without being expected to be universalist in application or having to account for why. Particularly when it comes down to the individual, people have a right to say, I find this cause very moving for whatever reason and I don't think then there's an obligation to answer for everything else going on in the world. Especially outside of governments, international organizations, and civil society groups that claim to be universalist in their cause. If anything we should be glad people have passions outside their narrow world.

I believe that as a general principle, but also because in practice that criticism tends to get waged, dare I say weaponized, against particular causes. I don't tend to see people focused on Somalia, Haiti, or Cuba being denigrated for not caring about Iran. I don't see people shouting down advocates for Christians in Nigeria over supposed silence on the Rohingya. I think its punitive for believing in a cause, generally specific causes, rather than about integrity.

I would venture to guess you can also find ample examples across the world, and that selectivity is simply a part of human nature rather than some defect of western psyche.

averysmallbird commented on 90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet state-of-iranblackout.whi... · Posted by u/silencednetizen

michelsedgh · 2 months ago

And countless human rights and freedom activists completely absolutely silent. They chose to be silent about Iran, it feels like iranian blood is worth less than other places apparently.

averysmallbird · 2 months ago

As someone very vocal on Iran, I find these recriminations shallow and generally intended to be punitive about those positions in those others places.

By the same precedent, it opens up Iranian human rights activists to the same endless accusations — when were you vocal on M23, Haiti, Kashmir, Kurds, Muslims in India, etc etc. I don't think it's countless silent organizations, and those organizations or activists are generally not in position to be able to influence the IRI or IRGC.

I think you have distinguish between feckless organizations like the ITU, and say, college student campus activists.

averysmallbird commented on Iran Goes Into IPv6 Blackout radar.cloudflare.com/rout... · Posted by u/honeycrispy

TechSquidTV · 2 months ago

Government enacted shut down due to protests. I'd like to hear more about how they actually do this. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-cutting-internet-amid-dead...

averysmallbird · 2 months ago

There's no single mechanism. Iran's internet is diverse at the edge, and bottlenecked at the international gateway.

Censorship, throttling, and (presumably) surveillance occurs at both layers. In some cases, also the region matters (Sistan and Baluchistan for example have experienced extended blackouts). In part that heterogeneity is because they still ideally want to keep businesses or VIPs online to mitigate the economic loss or logistical issues.

Consequently, the actual means of blocking tends to be on an ISP basis: some will simply drop packets, some will have left certain endpoints open, some will leave international DNS open, etc etc. All that changes when activists notice, exploit the opening, and then the ISP finds out. And then sometimes the TIC (the gateway) will impose blanket limitations or throttling.

My impression is that Iranian intelligence cares less about means than effectiveness, and ISP operators want to keep their license, livelihoods and lives, so they figure out how to meet the mandate. Given that this is something like the fourth blackout in recent years, they've gotten enough practice that there's few options out (that aren't Starlink).

averysmallbird commented on US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes reuters.com/world/us/us-w... · Posted by u/kpw94

yalogin · 2 months ago

Interesting to see that he did not issue an executive order to ban this but called on congress to do so. This is just pandering to the base and election signaling and nothing else, at least for now.

averysmallbird · 2 months ago

This cannot be done by Executive Order anyway.