They shouldn’t cluster so closely together, it’s a risk. Not that I’m suggesting anything.

Thank you.

If you’ve ensured your home network’s firewall is sane first, there’s no big issue.

If you dual-boot to Windows occasionally to run that one stupid program that can’t run under Linux, and you aren’t downloading stuff willy-nilly from the wild internet, and you haven’t previously installed all sorts of dodgy call-home programs, you can still be safe running while you’re in Windows. Hell, I have a Windows 7 box that runs just fine from my home network to the internet, thankyouverymuch. I even download stuff from there gasp, but I check the files first! Imagine that.

Most people aren’t knowledgeable enough to maintain proper security however so I guess I should just stop commenting on posts like this, as I always get flak from people stating it’s impossible to run an OS more than 2 weeks old on the Internet without being instantly hacked :p.

But still… as others say, I totally agree – move to Linux if you can.

Just block W11 updates entirely.

https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-8/

It’s mostly bullshit that one absolutely needs the latest Windows updates; if you use uBlock Origin in your browser and don’t download/run random .EXE/.MSI shit from the internet you’ll be fine. Keep Windows Defender up to date once a month just in case as well.

But really the best option is to switch to Linux.

AI for pattern recognition (statistical stuff) IMHO is fine, it’s different than expecting original thought, reasoning or understanding, which the new ‘AI’ does not do, despite the constant hype.

Palantir, which the US gov is now (let’s not kid ourselves, has been for some time illegally) contracting, probably already has your face either from street cams, security cams in various company buildings, or from social media at this point, so letting you ‘opt out’ is probably just theatre to avoid angering people at airports.

Yeah well look at what’s happened to Ukraine after they gave up their nukes. Basic logic.

Good god, it’s Microsoft Songsmith all over again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Research_Songsmith

I figure the corvids and raccoons deserve a chance to be dominant species at this point.

Data analytics firm doesn’t like … data on itself being analyzed. huh.

I had the Magnavox 8CM515 which was basically the same, and the front power switch burnt out – repair guy just shorted it, saying it was next to impossible to find a replacement… used that monitor on a CoCo-III, Atari STfm and an MM/1, wonderful RGB monitor for its time.

Agreed. I got to see him speak once years ago, wonderful lecture on the nature of creativity, lateral thinking, and just… stuff. Hard to describe, but just excellent.

He is right. No other nation with self-respect should be granting any state visit from the FOTUS (Felon Of The United States). He is an adversary to us all and should be shunned on the international stage, period.

Tell your US Embassy representatives that you will be happy to reconsider engaging once the leadership has changed.

Beat me to it. Anand Giridharadas has spoken on the general scam of billionaires white-washing their legacies like this… their philanthropy seldom approaches, much less exceeds, the harm they did in getting so rich in the first place.

Still love my Acer Aspire v151, core i5. 11" is a great size, just big enough for a standard keyboard. I wish they would have updated models like that. A Ryzen 9 version would kick ass.

Damn, I wish someone would make a 68k based version of this.

It may become the duty of every software engineer at this time to offer their services to those who need security, to make custom solutions for those who require it.

Cypherpunks, arise!

Good questions, and important that we crowdsource verification of this. I saw some other posts on bsky that other people have received these emails, suggesting it is not a single instance. Implication is that it’s a new automated effort, perhaps “by AI”, to intimidate people en masse. But it could be fake, so the more examining it, the better.

EDIT: Link here to a thread, indicating others have received these emails: https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lmljpkrdj22h

I was trying to sound the alert that this might be a thing – BUT if it turns out to be fake, please by all means shout to the hilltops that it is bunk.

Credit Unions! At least I hope in your country they exist, and are better than banks which, where I live, they most DEFINITELY are.

… but allegedly based on stolen source printouts from the college dumpster, and written using stolen time on their timeshare mainframes.