Can you imagine a time before the Graphical User Interface, when you could only operate a computer with abstract-looking text instead of using simple menus, and it was unheard of to use the oh-so-common mouse? A time when computers were harder to learn, and even harder to master? Well then, join us on our splendid trip where we’ll discover one of the very first GUIs in a personal computer, found on the Xerox Alto!

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New plasma stealth device targets specific areas, not entire aircraft.

According to a recent report from the South China Morning Post, Chinese scientists and engineers claim to have developed a plasma stealth device for military aircraft that is capable of rendering nearly any such aircraft undetectable by radar.

February 17, 2024 marks the entry into force of a landmark piece of European Union (EU) legislation, affecting European users who create and disseminate online content as well as tech companies who act as “intermediaries” on the Internet.

The idea that we are entering an era of techno-feudalism that will be worse than capitalism is chilling and controversial. We asked former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to elucidate this idea, explain how we got here, and map out some alternatives.

The undeniable fact is that the FTC has racked up a long list of victories over corporate abuses, like busting a nationwide, decades-long fraud that tricked people into paying for “free” tax preparation.

The wheels of justice grind slowly, so many of the actions the FTC has brought are still pending. But these actions are significant. In tandem with the Department of Justice, it is suing over fake apartment listings, blocking noncompete clauses, targeting fake online reviews, and going after gig work platforms for ripping off their workers.

In five years time, some CTO will review the mysterious outage or technical debt in their organisation.

They will unearth a mess of poorly written, poorly -documented, barely-functioning code their staff don't understand.

They will conclude that they did not actually save money by replacing human developers with LLMs.

#AI #LLM #LargeLanguageModels #WebDev #Coding #Tech #Technology @technology

Did you know that the first Pokémon games were full of fascinating errors in code, called glitches? I’m incredibly captivated by the mysteries behind them and by what they can do! So, let’s have a look at how I personally got into them! ✨

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EFF's take on the amended version of KOSA. TL;DR summary:

We are asking everyone reading this to oppose this latest version, and to demand that their representatives oppose it—even if you have already done so.

Subject: Upcoming Nest Aware Plus price increase Sent: February 15, 2024 5:56:19 p.m. EST From: Google Store googlestore-noreply@google.com To:

Starting on March 25, 2024, your plan price will change

Thank you for being a Nest Aware subscriber. We wanted to let you know that the price of your Nest Aware Plus subscription for Home will soon increase from CA$160 a year to CA$200 a year (plus applicable taxes). Learn more about the upcoming price change.

This new price will come into effect with your next bill that occurs on or after March 25, 2024. Your Nest Aware subscription will continue at the adjusted price and your current benefits will remain the same with 60 days of event video history, up to 10 days of 24/7 video history, smart alerts and other helpful features (learn more here). 1,2

You may refuse this change and cancel your subscription without cost, penalty or cancellation indemnity by sending us a notice to that effect no later than 30 days after the amendment comes into force. You can learn how to view, manage or cancel your plan at any time here.

You can find more information regarding your access to and use of your Nest Aware subscription services on the Google Store here.

We remain committed to helping our customers get the most out of their Nest devices and will continue to bring new features and innovations to Nest Aware over time. If you have questions, please contact us through our Help Centre.

“As it stands today, we’re not ready yet to tell people that our voice assistant is a replacement for Google/Amazon,” Schoutsen wrote. “We don’t have to be as good as their systems, but there is a certain bar of usable that we haven’t reached yet.”

Key among the improvements that need to happen, according to Schoutsen:

• Audio input needs to be cleaned up (speaker voice separated) before it is processed
• Error messages need to be more clear about what’s going wrong, and input has to have more flexibility
• Non-English languages need a lot of commands and variables
• Compatible hardware that features far-listening microphones has to be more widely available
• Most people will want local processing to be faster

And I'd like to be able to do it privately too, that'd be cool.

Things I can do –

• write HTML and CSS
• register a domain and set up hosting
• use Filezilla

Things I don't know how to do –

• Create databases, I always had someone around to do that for me
• Self-host
• Set up an onion site 🧅
• Set up an eepsite
• Register a .bit domain

I am more of a content gal than a tech gal, but think of all the cool stuff I could create if I could spin up anonymous websites in a few hours.