• Decreased performance, as DRM is often hooked deep into event loops and adds non-negligible overhead.
• Decreased privacy, as DRM often requires pinging an external server constantly.
• Decreased security, as DRM is a black-box blob intentionally meant to be difficult to peer in to, and has been the target of attacks such as code execution vulnerabilities before.
• If you own a game but don't have an active internet connection, DRM may prevent you from playing the game.
• If you own a game but have multiple computers, DRM may force you to buy multiple licenses when you're only using one copy at a time (c.f., a physical CD with the game on it).
• Eventually, a DRM company is going to go out of business or stop supporting old versions of their software; if you want to play an old game that had that DRM, you won't be able to even if you own the game.
• &c.

DRM exists to "protect' the software developer, i.e. protect profits by making sure every copy has been paid for and to force people to buy multiple copies in certain cases. DRM never has and never will be for your (the consumer's) benefit.

You can tell malwarebytes is broken because it doesn't catch itself as malware.

Brave is built on Chromium. So, by default, no they are not safe from this. Without extra effort, Brave will have this feature. I don't know if its feasible but there's a chance the Brave devs can remove the code from their distribution, but that's the best case scenario and just puts them in the same position as Firefox: they get locked out because they refuse to implement the spec.

It's definitely not the case that it's useless. A MITM can embed malware into the page it returns if you aren't being served over HTTPS. It's not just about snooping on sensitive data going one or both ways, it's about being sure that what you're receiving is from who you actually think you're receiving it from.

(Edit to add:) I actually went to look at some of the rest of the site and it confirms what I suspected: not using HTTPS here puts the reader at risk. Because this website provides code snippets and command line snippets that the user is to run, by not presenting it over HTTPS, it becomes susceptible to malicious MITM editing of the content.

For example, this line on the site:

2. Install Homebrew (ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)")

Could be intercepted, since it's not being served HTTPS, and be replaced with utf-8 lookalike characters that really downloads and runs a malicious ruby script! Even easier, perhaps, they could just insert an item into the bulleted list that has the user run a malicious command.

HTTPS is not just for security of personal or private information. It is also for verifiable authenticity and security in contexts like this.

Because a file manager app asking for Full Disk Access is not suspicious, and Full Disk Access is one hell of a good way to get access to data to exfiltrate. There likely wouldn't even be suspicion if it also asked for Internet access: if it supports connecting to network shares, you wouldn't think twice about it having that permission.

Oh it's vile.

Lots of people list a property, take loads of applications, each with a nonrefundable application fee (often $100+), then close the listing and pretend it was leased out. They wait a bit and repeat the play. They can rake in thousands of dollars for literally making a posting on a website, and repeat this often. And it's often desperate people victimized too: not only are these people renting so they're already in a vulnerable situation, the people willing to pay high application fees typically are desperate to get a lease.

I've also seen places that make you pay an application fee, and as part of the screening process they run a credit check; if they aren't satisfied with your credit score, they'll deny you and of course keep the application fee. What's more nefarious about this though is that they don't give you a score cutoff; you don't know if your score meets their criteria until after you've paid a nonrefundable fee.

Here's the eleven categories of projects that CWSRF loans can be used for.

Here's the six categories of projects that DWSRF loans can be used for. The DWSRF also publishes a periodic Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey that lays out approximate costs for various system sizes, and the distribution of system sizes across communities.

There is also a lot of overlap; quoting the OP article:

The [CWSRF] provides low-interest loans for infrastructure projects like wastewater facilities while the [DWSRF] provides assistance for initiatives like improving drinking water treatment and fixing old pipes.

The CWSRF Environmental Benefits Report from 2014 says:

• 14,838 Projects Financed
• To 5,222 Communities

with one of the highlights being:

95% of Subsidy Goes to Recipients that Could Not Otherwise Afford the Project

With the variety of activities they support, and the fact that they are permitting projects that communities could not otherwise afford to engage in, I'd say they're very valuable.

It is indeed surprising, but it's just words. He'll say this, then continue sending financial and military support. Nothing will come of this.

From what I've seen, when they say "pushing it down your throat" what they really mean is "existing while gay". If it isn't hidden, it's apparently being "pushed down your throat".

Also, in the real world, people saying how "awesome it is to be trans lgbtq" are saying how awesome it is to be yourself as someone who is lgbtq. They aren't saying it's awesome compared to not being lgbtq (though one could argue there is value in having different-than-the-majority life experiences). It's just another way to imply that lgbtq people are actively trying to "convert" people to being lgbtq.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but my first guess is: you pronounce is like the moderately common name Simone.

Table salt has more chlorine by mass than sucralose. Moreover, in your body, table salt dissociates into a chlorine ion, whereas in sucralose it's covalently bonded into the molecular structure. That's not to say that it is suddenly nonreactive, but being covalently bonded tempers some of it's electron craving, so to speak. By your logic, table salt should be orders of magnitude more dangerous than sucralose (it's not).

Edit to add: Do you know of any mechanism by which sucralose could cross the nuclear membrane? If not, sucralose isn't going to be touching DNA at all. It could touch some form of RNA in the cytoplasm, which isn't necessarily innocent, but it's not going to be touching the DNA. That means it won't cause long-term genetic changes or damage; any damage it caused would be transitory to the working set of RNA and that damage would be gone when that RNA was processed/destroyed.

Al-Jazeera is an "actual news source". It's also just a visualization of data directly from the UN HRC vote.

This should have been a link to the Al-Jazeera article itself instead of just the image that came from it though.

Almost anything can be carcinogenic with a high enough exposure. You can pump a rat full of water until it dies and declare that water kills people.

It would lead to death, but not to cancer. Not everything is carcinogenic, even with high exposure. Causing death by a method other than cancer doesn't make it carcinogenic.

I'm not sure why people use anything other than Windows Defender. It literally shares signature databases with most of the large AVs, it doesn't have any anti-features or isn't itself malware/adware/spyware like commercial AVs, it's tightly integrated but also easy to turn on or off (ever tried to uninstall an AV?), and no commercial AV is going to catch anything Windows Defender won't. It's also free and has no need to make money as a product in itself, and so there's no motivation for bad behavior.

The only features some commercial AVs have that Windows Defender doesn't are things like DNS blocking or browser addons (which there are plenty of non-commercial/profit-motive-driven options for: uBlock origin, pi-hole/adguard home, etc).

Why not? If the phone is physically still functional, and receives software updates, why does it matter if its 7 years old?

Xenophobic fearmongering serves nobody.

Should we also avoid the Linux kernel, since it's Finnish, and Finland participates in the largest global surveillance apparatus with the USA? There's absolutely no reason to assume the distribution is any less secure or any more likely to be malicious simply due to it being developed in China or by Chinese.

Moreover, it's open-source. Use the same logic you should apply to open-source software before you accuse it of being malicious: look at the code and prove it.

I don't believe so. A battery standard would specify the interface, not the actual battery design from a technical standpoint. It would specify:

• size and shape, i.e. where connectors go, assuring it fits in a phone
• voltage and amperage provided

The rest is up to the battery manufacturer and is completely open to innovation. You want to put a Li-ion battery in there? Just make it the right shape and as long as it can provide the output required, it's fine. Want some future-tech fusion battery? As long as it's the right shape and puts out the required power!

Jesus, that's a rough read. What a horrible person.

Is this sarcasm? You're saying if they stopped fighting back against invaders who want to take their land they...would have land? If only they'd give up their land, they'd have land? Do I have that right? I hope I'm just misreading this.

Search engines like DDG should really begin maintaining their own index, and they should exclude sites that use the tech from the index.

If this gets implemented, it would ruin the ability for competitor search engines (such as DDG) to exist. If Google convinces site operators to require attestation, then suddenly automated crawlers and indexers will not function. Google could say to site operators that if they wish to run ads via Google's ad network they must require attestation; then, any third-party search indexer or crawler would be blocked from those sites. Google's ad network is used on about 98.8% of all sites which have advertising, and about 49.5% of all websites.

My statement above was not meant to come across as xenophobic, but wary considering, historically, how involved China’s government is with local tech companies and entities that would contribute to a project like this.

This right here is where the problem is though. Simply being associated with the Chinese governement is not sufficient to assume malfeasance. Just as any of the large USA tech giants that take various forms of government funding aren't automatically assumed to be malicious simply by being associated with a "malicious" government. Hell, the Linux Foundation (Linus' employer) is almost entirely funded by really creepy USA-based tech companies that themselves receive government money for various projects or products. I don't assume baselessly that Linus would make the distribution insecure simply because he's funded by people who might want that.

Obviously, more data needs to be evaluated, but I think it’s fair to be cautious.

It is only fair to be exactly as cautious as you would be to run any other random Linux distribution: say, some random person's fork of Debian. Again, unless you have actual reason to treat it differently, doing so baselessly is rather lame and doesn't serve anyone. Of course it's fair to be catious of something as critical as an operating system; but viewing it through a biased lens doesn't make you more secure.

SIGs (special interest groups)

I'm not sure the precise definition for what counts as an SIG here, but it could mean something analagous to the Linux Foundation. It isn't necessarily suspicious. I think, from context, it's used in contrast to "enterprises"; that is, I take it to include any volunteer or not-for-profit contributions.

ISPs coming out and bothering you cause you pirate stuff? Never heard of it.

You must have the distinct privilege of not living in the USA or several other Western countries.

I’d jump ship immediately if I got one such letter.

If you mean jump ship off that ISP, there's nothing you can do. You can go to another ISP (if there even is one in your area), who will do the exact same thing. You can jump ship entirely and not have internet, I guess.

No you're right that was an honest mistake. I misremembered Economy Minister as Prime Minister.

Not surprising unfortunately. There's no accountability or transparency; they can deny any application they want for any reason, and don't have to tell you why. As long as they don't come out and say it's due to being a member of a protected class (which they can act on indirectly, just can't say it out loud), they can get away with any reasoning.

Isn’t someone just going to fork Chromium, take out this stuff,

Yes, upstream Chromium forks will likely try to remove this functionality, but

put in something that spoofs the DRM to the sites so that adblocking still works?

This is the part that is not possible. The browser is not doing the attestation; it's a third party who serves as Attestor. All the browser does is makes the request to the attestor, and passes the attestor's results to the server you're talking to. There is no way a change in the browser could thwart this if the server you're talking to expects attestation.

Yikes. They seem to really be in trouble with how many Nazis they're allowing to hold power. Economy Minister resigned because he's a Nazi. Finance Minister is at least a horrific racist but likely also a Nazi. I wonder if it's just a return to the good old days of Finland allying with Nazis and helping Nazis murder Jews.

Finland’s ‘most rightwing government ever’ to cut spending and immigration

Despite being officially "banned" in Finland, the Neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement[^1] seems to be only one-step removed here: both of these Ministers are part of the right-wing "Finns Party" which has direct ties to the Nordic Resistance Movement.

Edit: I said Prime Minister when I meant Economy Minister.

[^1]: Which, rather creepily, has ties to the terrorist Neo-Nazi Azov Batallion that Ukraine has no problems supporting

They're both acceptable in English. The rule is generally "an" if the following word starts with a vowel. But, it gets a bit tricky with initialisms (like URL) because URL is normally pronounced something like "you-are-ell", and not "earl". So the spelling starts with a vowel, but the pronunciation doesn't. Nobody would fault you for using one or the other in a situation like this.

It’s literally on par with sentencing guidelines for everyone else.

But it's not. It's on par with treatment for other people like her. It's not the case for the vast majority of prisoners in the USA.

The real annoying thing is that this kind of crime should be higher on the sentencing guidelines because the victims are far reaching.

If your argument is that the sentence should be longer than the one given, how do you also say that you have no issue with it being shortened? Those are opposites.

why you think that the reduction itself is a bad thing

In general, I'm not. But I'm extremely against unfair application of the reduction to people like her, leaving others to suffer needlessly.

In WW2 Finland hid Jewish people from the Nazis and the alliance was probably a mandatory evil after not getting support against the other fascists coming over the over

Is that so?

Authorities in the Scandinavian nation revealed the findings Friday in a 248-page government-commissioned independent report, which showed that 1,408 Finnish volunteers — many between the ages of 17 and 20 — served with the SS Panzer Division Wiking from 1941 to 1943.

...

After losing several territories to a Soviet invasion in 1939, Finland entered a deal with Nazi Germany for material support against Moscow. But the agreement also required the Nordic country provide some 400 volunteers for the SS Wiking division — a pact it reluctantly honored, the report concluded.

I'll say this: if part of the requirement of "getting support against the other fascists coming over" is to supply volunteers to kill Jews, it's not excusable in the least. It's completely unacceptable.

Mullvad does not allow port forwarding.

They announced on May 29th that they would not allow new port forwarding. On July 1st, all existing port forwarding was disabled. Since then, Mullvad no longer allows port forwarding.

Pi hole does not work for YouTube (or Twitch or many others). It doesn't work for services who distribute ads from their own servers.

If you had Android instead of iOS you may have been able to use an ad-free youtube client and cast to TV, but if you're streaming on the TV, or from iOS, I don't know how you'd go about blocking ads.

If they use them purely on open battlefields then it’s not such an issue.

What is an "open battlefield" during a war is no longer a battlefield after the war is over. After the war is over, if you've littered what used to be a battlefield with unexploded bombs, you've ruined that area of land and made it extremely dangerous to civilians.

Purchasing power parity

Quoting JetBrains,

Fleet is free to use during the public preview

(emphasis mine)

So it is only temporarily free. Once it's polished it will no longer be free. Better to not get tied in to something that will be taken away from you before long.

I can't speak to phrenology per se, but phrenology's modern analogue is, in my opinion, the "genetics" argument. Whereas phrenology was some attempt to "explain" how the apparent shape was indicative of underlying brain structure, contemporary "scientific" racists will use genetic differences to "explain" whatever behavior they want to attribute to it.

How'd you get the pass to talk for everyone?

We the public

We all

Ben Wallace does not speak for the vast majority of us, neither do his colleagues in the rest of the party of “me”.

Ah I see, Ben Wallace doesn't speak for us because you do. Got it.

This is really obnoxious behavior to think that you speak for everyone; to assume everyone has the same beliefs you do.

I think the fact that there is a variety of opinions being posted, compared to the censorship I witnessed on Reddit, is the more mature situation. If anyone is being childish, it's those who feel the need to censor opposing ideologies. Feeling free to post and discuss differing views has a lot of value. I am assuming by your use of "commie" that you'd rather dismiss an entire ideology and group of supporters outright rather than on any real grounds.

About 16% of China's exports in 2022 were to the USA. It would certainly be a significant hit, but to suggest there would no longer be adequate demand is unlikely to be true.

For example, Russian oil exports lost a lot of their direct importers, yet demand has not dropped significantly or in a way that is harmful for them. The volume of their exports has remained relatively constant, but the fraction of the total that different importing countries represent has changed. Even the price dip recovered.

I get what you're saying, but it's not just monetary efficiency that I meant there. It's fuel/emissions efficiency that would suffer as well. And that should be of concern to everyone.

Lead was used way past discovering it was dangerous, and is still used enough to cause problems in specific populations. Just like cigarettes. If there is a large moneymaking industry and it suddenly comes to light that what it is producing is dangerous, they have a lot of motivation to put money behind keeping that knowledge from getting out or, when it does, keep it from affecting law. They lobby/bribe, they abuse the legal system, whatever they can to avoid going under. As such, it's not safe to assume that something is not dangerous simply because it hasn't been banned.