larata_media (u/larata_media)

larata_media commented on Meta forced to reveal anonymous Facebook user's identity stackdiary.com/meta-force... · Posted by u/skilled

larata_media · 2 years ago

> “Meta argued that Facebook users should be able to express criticism, even if it is severe and anonymous.”

It’s interesting to see Meta taking the opposite stance in this argument when they’ve been so instrumental about suppressing criticism deemed misinformation by the CISA, DOJ, FBI, NIAID, CDC, etc…

larata_media commented on Google Web Environment Integrity Is the New Microsoft Trusted Computing neelc.org/posts/google-we... · Posted by u/neelc

larata_media · 2 years ago

It seems like this solution is intended to solve the problem of bots padding numbers for sites providing advertisements on the web. This isn’t a userland problem, it’s an advertiser problem. But the user experience will be worse for it.

I’m seeing the biggest issue is who decides what a “trusted” browser is. Is it Google? I’m guessing the will establish a non-profit “independent” advisory board which will have members who somehow align with the interests of all major advertising stakeholders in the world. This is dripping with anti-compete potential. Some lawyers are going to get rich from this.

larata_media commented on Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium github.com/chromium/chrom... · Posted by u/topshelf

c0l0 · 2 years ago

I feel like I have to repeat this, since so much is at stake here, where it is about the preservation of the web as we know it today, at the peril of having it turned into yet another walled garden:

The only way around the dystopia this will lead to is to constantly and relentlessly shame and even harass all those involved in helping create it. The scolding in the issue tracker of that wretched "project" shall flow like a river, until the spirit of those pursuing it breaks, and the effort is disbanded.

And once the corporate hydra has regrown its head, repeat. Hopefully, enough practise makes those fighting the dystopia effective enough to one day topple over sponsoring and enabling organisations as a whole, instead of only their little initiatives leading down that path.

Not a pretty thing, but necessary.

larata_media · 2 years ago

I agree with your overall ideal of free access to information but I disagree that harassment is a necessary or even effective option to push against this. I think the harassment puts us in a category of ineffective, bitter malcontents and that’s not what we are.

We are capable of going to elsewhere to free and open access to information, and we would be better off spending our energy on positively influencing others to follow us in that direction. They can’t take away tcp, http, ftp, irc and all the other protocols that these megaliths have built their empires on, and we can still use those tools even if it’s a demoralizing regression to move back to the basics. Giants like google, Amazon and others depend on our unwillingness to rebuild. Let’s use our efforts and our ingenuity to show them that they’ve underestimated us.

We have the tools, we have the knowledge. Let’s be builders instead of petty complainers.

larata_media commented on U.S. Senate bill crafted with DEA targets end-to-end encryption therecord.media/senate-de... · Posted by u/walterbell

larata_media · 2 years ago

It’s anti first amendment. This bill won’t stand up to judicial scrutiny if ever challenged.

larata_media commented on Self-checkout theft causing problems for retailers cbc.ca/news/business/self... · Posted by u/colinprince

larata_media · 2 years ago

While retailers continue to rely on customers to replace cashiers, their non-payed cashiers will continue to make mistakes. Seems fair to me. Want to reduce your theft? Hire some cashiers. It’s also really stupid to check receipts at the door. It’s irritating to treat all your customers like thieves, plus we know your staff isn’t actually reading the receipts. Retailers might have statistics to show that it deters theft but it also probably deters an amount of sales that they cannot measure.

larata_media commented on “If artificial intelligence creates better art, what’s wrong with that?“ theguardian.com/business/... · Posted by u/dkobia

larata_media · 2 years ago

I think there is a general misconception of what that means when AI is creating art. Behind the image you see there is a human creating the prompts, curating what is generated, and often editing the product intensely. There is also the subject of the vast quantity of existing art and images that the AI had learned from in its training, and the humans behind the training.

AI isn’t the artist, AI is just another brush; albeit a very powerful one, which allows artists to create much more quickly and perhaps pieces and projects that they would not have had time for previously. AI is just another tool, it’s not the creative mind behind the work.

larata_media commented on · Posted by u/larata_media

larata_media · 2 years ago

This has a very comprehensive detail of the exact evidence cited in the memorandum. Scroll to the bottom section for the play by play.

larata_media commented on Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here? · Posted by u/revskill

larata_media · 2 years ago

This is a project I’ve been working on to lob verbal grenades at everyone in power. If it seems like I haven’t criticized any certain person yet, just come back later, I’m getting to it.

https://larata.media

larata_media commented on Companies must stop using Google Analytics imy.se/en/news/companies-... · Posted by u/pseudotrash

larata_media · 2 years ago

While I appreciate the push for privacy and anti-tracking, ultimately the tools to prevent tracking are in the hands of users and organizations. The concept that countries have jurisdiction or even exist within the confines of the web is a laughably antiquated idea projecting itself into a realm where it doesn’t belong. Google and all of the usual suspects will continue to collect information about the public in all of the ways that they want, while the naive public believes in some false notion that their leaders are protecting them from the big bad wolf. If you don’t want to be tracked, the only person who can prevent that is you. Government agencies are the keystone cops or this is world. All they’re doing is a Chinese fire drill.