I deleted over 200 mail rules, I’m going to give Apple’s categorization a shot. Now that the feature is on iPad and Mac, I’m going all in!
Mozilla Thunderbird Challenges Gmail With Its Own Email Service
Jason Evangelho writing for Forbes:
At its core, Thundermail will primarily be a mail service provider, eventually expanding to offer a familiar browser-based experience similar to Gmail. Users can send and receive email using new Thundermail accounts they sign up for. The service will also allow using your own custom domain (e.g. your.name@yourdomain.com).
👍🏼 More competition is always good.
Television tuned to a dead channel - Mastodon
Joe Groff @joe@f.duriansoftware.com “The sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel”
80s meaning: grey 90s meaning: blue Today: full of ads from the smart tv vendor
2:23 AM • March 30, 2025 (UTC)
I changed ISPs recently and had to change some of my network gear which meant moving to a new subnet. I’ve always used DHCP, there isn’t anything too unconventional about my setup. Everything, laptops, phones, smart home devices, etc. has moved over to the new subnet fine. My kids’ Chromebooks (from school), however, continue to be attached to the old subnet. I’ve tried “forgetting” the network, rebooting, flushing caches, nothing works. I continue to believe Chromebooks are shit!
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
Jeffrey Goldberg writing for The Atlantic:
Information about an active operation would presumably fit the law’s definition of “national defense” information. The Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information. The government has its own systems for that purpose. If officials want to discuss military activity, they should go into a specially designed space known as a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF—most Cabinet-level national-security officials have one installed in their home—or communicate only on approved government equipment, the lawyers said.
My family owns Disney Vacation Club (think timeshare for Disney) and we’ve decided we won’t be going to the States this year. Previous to this, we went to #DisneyWorld every year for the past 6 years. At this point, I don’t know when we’ll go back.
I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
This story from The Guardian about the woman from BC who was detained by ICE is enraging!
There was no explanation, no warning. He led me to a room, took my belongings from my hands and ordered me to put my hands against the wall. A woman immediately began patting me down. The commands came rapid-fire, one after another, too fast to process.
They took my shoes and pulled out my shoelaces.
Musk calls US Senator a Traitor - Bluesky
South African car salesman tells U.S. Senator, American astronaut and U.S. Navy captain: "You are a traitor"
— Brandon Friedman (@brandonfriedman.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T19:09:00.334Z
Zelenskyy meeting at the White House - Mastodon
Kim Scheinberg @kims@mas.to Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press
6:58 AM • March 1, 2025 (UTC)
Encrypted Chat App ‘Session’ Leaves Australia After Visit From Police
Joseph Cox writing for 404 Media:
Linton also pointed to Australia’s recently enacted surveillance laws, and said “we felt Session was sufficiently secured because it is open source, decentralised, and we were just building privacy-focussed technology in good faith.” That changed after the country laid out plans to have service providers collect and store a certain amount of data on users.
I wonder how long encryption will be legal. With the recent leaked news about the UK telling Apple to install a back door into iCloud, governments are increasingly looking to get access to everyone’s personal communications and data.
The Right Wing Explodes - Mastodon
MostlyHarmless @MostlyHarmless@thecanadian.social I hope America is as lucky as the upside down Delta jet. Everyone survives but the right wing explodes.
1:56 AM • February 20, 2025 (UTC)
“Truly a middle finger”: Humane bricking $700 AI Pins with limited refunds
Scharon Harding writing for Ars Technica:
After launching its AI Pin in April 2024 and reportedly seeking a buyout by May 2024, Humane is shutting down. Most of the people who bought an AI Pin will not get refunds for the devices, which debuted at $700, dropped to $500, and will be bricked on February 28 at noon PT.
Shocked!
I think this summed it up pretty well:
Sums up LinkedIn - Mastodon
Jaunty Art @JauntyArt@crispsandwi.ch Saw this on LinkedIn and I think it perfectly sums up LinkedIn
11:07 PM • February 12, 2025 (UTC)
Actual Rights - Mastodon
The Icarian @The_Icarian@federated.press 6:36 PM • February 12, 2025 (UTC)
Signal will never weaken encryption - Mastodon
Meredith Whittaker @Mer__edith@mastodon.world @brayd @signalapp We will never weaken encryption, add a backdoor, bow or scrape, etc. We would rather shut down or leave a market. Our position does not change based on jurisdiction.
8:22 PM • February 6, 2025 (UTC)
Left Intolerance (lol) - Bluesky
Opinion | The Left insisted that we all embrace Barack Obama. But now that Republicans have our own African-American president, Elon Musk, they’re back to their typical intolerance. by Hugh Hewitt
— New York Times Pitchbot (@nytpitchbot.bsky.social) 2025-02-05T16:21:46.497Z
Smaller government - Mastodon
Saulo Popov Zambiasi @saulopz@corteximplant.com minimum state
Sensitive content
(flagged at origin) 4:31 PM • January 30, 2025 (UTC)
Microsoft probing whether DeepSeek improperly used OpenAI APIs
Romain Dillet writing for TechCrunch:
According to security researchers working for Microsoft, the Chinese company behind the R1 reasoning model may have exfiltrated a large amount of data using OpenAI’s API in the fall of 2024. Microsoft, which also happens to be OpenAI’s largest shareholder, notified OpenAI of the suspicious activity.
While anyone can sign up and access OpenAI’s API, the company’s terms of service stipulate that you can’t use the output to train a new AI model.
Developer Creates Infinite Maze That Traps AI Training Bots
Jason Koebler writing for 404 Media:
Since they made and deployed a proof-of-concept, Aaron B said their pages have been hit millions of times by internet-scraping bots. On a Hacker News thread, someone claiming to be an AI company CEO said a tarpit like this is easy to avoid; Aaron B told 404 Media “If that’s, true, I’ve several million lines of access log that says even Google Almighty didn’t graduate” to avoiding the trap.
Fish climbed on to a beach - Mastodon
Darren @DJDarren@mendeddrum.org Several billion years ago a fish climbed onto a beach, and now I have to be at work on a Wednesday.
Bullshit.
8:11 AM • January 22, 2025 (UTC)
How long until OpenAI and the like get into the advertising business?
Dell mocked at its own press launch for copying Apple's names
Ben Lovejoy writing about the ridiculous new Dell laptop names on 9to5Mac:
So yes, there really is going to be a Dell Pro Max Micro Plus.
Not only are they copying Apple’s naming convention, which is bad enough, they’re making it nonsensical by subdividing each tier into 3 subtiers. That’s how you get the ridiculous name above.
Brilliant plan - Bluesky
I have a brilliant plan, all I need is: - the copyright to everything - all the money in the world
— Pavel (@spavel.bsky.social) 2024-12-28T16:29:13.002Z
This is so true:
If you think woke is the problem, try reading the US Constitution and amendments. Really read them. Pretend you didn’t know it was the Constitution. One woke idea after another. Basically if you don’t believe in woke, you’re in the wrong freaking country.
Why AI language models choke on too much text
Timothy B. Lee writing for Ars Technica:
Today’s LLMs are far more capable:
OpenAI’s GPT-4o can handle 128,000 tokens (about 200 pages of text). Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet can accept 200,000 tokens (about 300 pages of text). Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro allows 2 million tokens (about 2,000 pages of text). Still, it’s going to take a lot more progress if we want AI systems with human-level cognitive abilities.