Dan Whateley writing for Business Insider (Apple News) Google repeatedly pushed back the date for when third-party cookies would vanish from Chrome. Partners who tested the feature, such as ad-tech firms Index Exchange and Criteo, as well as industry group the IAB Tech Lab, expressed concerns that Privacy Sandbox was not yet ready for prime time, arguing it posed a risk to publishers and programmatic players. In a recent report, Criteo forecasted that publishers’ Chrome ad revenue would drop by around 60% on average if third-party cookies were turned off.

Emanuel Maiberg writing for 404 Media (Apple News): The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its search results. And while neither Reddit or Google responded to a request for comment, it appears that the exclusion of other search engines is the result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI products.

Jen Simmons @jensimmons@front-end.social Apple Maps is now on the web. https://beta.maps.apple.com/ For more info: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/07/apple-maps-on-the-web-launches-in-beta/ 7:55 PM • July 24, 2024 (UTC)

Technology Connections @TechConnectify@mas.to Confidence is not "I know what I'm doing." Confidence is "I know how to find that out" and "I know how to learn new things" and most importantly "I know when I don't know what I'm doing, so I stop and find someone who does" Obnoxious blowhards rely on people not understanding this distinction. And they amplify it by framing actual confidence as weakness. This may be a useful thing to talk about with certain people in your life who are being fooled by fascists.

Brooke Vibber :blobcatcoffee: @brooke@bikeshed.vibber.net 🤖 3:22 PM • July 16, 2024 (UTC)

Simon Willison @simon@fedi.simonwillison.net It turns out Google Chrome ships a default, hidden extension that allows code on `*.google.com` access to private APIs, including your current CPU usage You can test it out by pasting the following into your Chrome DevTools console on any Google page: chrome.runtime.sendMessage( "nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome", { method: "cpu.getInfo" }, (response) => { console.log(JSON.stringify(response, null, 2)); }, ); More notes here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/9/hangout_servicesthunkjs/ 5:54 PM • July 9, 2024 (UTC)

Dan Goodin writing for Ars Technica Like most other large advertising networks, Google Ads regularly serves malicious content that isn’t taken down until third parties have notified the company. Google Ads takes no responsibility for any damage that may result from these oversights. The company said in an email it removes malicious ads once it learns of them and suspends the advertiser and has done so in this case. Adblockers, everyone should use one, or multiple.

Juno Jove @jupiter@mastodon.gamedev.place IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS is the new captcha. 12:25 PM • June 27, 2024 (UTC)

Penny Daflos @pennydaflos@mstdn.social AI is everywhere but the practical applications have seemed far off Not so for the BC Wildfire Service Last year they started piloting machine learning to forecast fire growth and relied on it heavily My exclusive look at how they’re using it, and its limits 👇 https://bc.ctvnews.ca/buying-time-inside-the-ai-technology-trained-on-b-c-wildfires-1.6942869 Buying time: Inside the AI technology trained on B.C. wildfires As frontline crews battled the worst wildfire season in B.

Jordan Morgan @jordanmorgan@mastodon.social Reminder as a user and a dev: If you’ve got app intents, you can say “Hey Siri, what can I do here?” and intents will be suggested. It’s a good way to discover shortcuts in other apps too. 6:40 PM • June 26, 2024 (UTC)

Jared Newman writing for Fast Company The key to Siri’s upcoming overhaul is a developer feature called “App Intents,” which lets app makers define what actions their users can take and exposes them to other parts of iOS. If a to-do list app supports App Intents, for instance, you may be able to search for agenda items in the Spotlight search menu, or add tasks as part of a routine in the Shortcuts app.

Church of Jeff @jeffowski@mastodon.world #IT #DadJokes 8:55 PM • June 25, 2024 (UTC)

The Verge @verge@mastodon.social Meta is connecting Threads more deeply with the fediverse https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/25/24185226/meta-threads-fediverse-likes-replies Meta is connecting Threads more deeply with the fediverse Threads will now let people like and see replies to their Threads posts that appear on other federated social media platforms. 6:00 PM • June 25, 2024 (UTC)

Richard Lawler writing for The Verge Apple says upcoming features like its Apple Intelligence generative AI tools, iPhone mirroring, and SharePlay screen sharing may not be available in the European Union this year, as reported previously by Bloomberg.

Amish Super Model @AmishSuperModel@mastodon.social Maybe American Politicians need to post this in all their offices: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 6:12 PM • June 20, 2024 (UTC)

Jo Borrás writing for Electrek A few short weeks after labor negotiations led to a six-week UAW strike at GM plants, GM board members approved a $10 billion accelerated stock buyback plan. This week, the board kicked off that initiative with a $6 billion purchase and raising its shareholders’ stock dividend by 33 percent (to 12 cents per share) in the first quarter … a move that, to this writer, seems like a blatantly cynical cash-grab and shockingly shortsighted dereliction of the board’s fiduciary duty to the well-being of the company.

Obviously from the great xkcd.

Lesley Carhart :unverified: @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I don’t know who to credit for this because it’s been stolen so much, but I love it. 6:05 PM • June 15, 2024 (UTC)

melanie kat @zicklepop@nyan.lol i've never pirated anything in my life, i've just been using publicly accessible data from the internet. 3:20 PM • June 13, 2024 (UTC)

From for noyb: With its Privacy Sandbox, Google wants to take full control over the analysis of the online behaviour of its users: Chrome now tracks every website you visit to generate a list of advertising topics. These include “Student Loans & College Financing”, “Undergarments” or “Parenting”, “Jobs & Education” and “Finance/Credit & Lending/Credit Reporting & Monitoring”. Advertisers then receive this information from the Chrome browser. If you’re still using Chrome at this point, I don’t know what to tell you…

Esther is practicing bass @esther@strangeobject.space I get the feeling that part of the “AI” proponents strategy is to keep making absolutely nonsensical claims like “LLMs will soon be able to self-improve and surpass human intelligence” until everyone who could form a coherent rebuttal to them gives up in exhaustion, leaving the space to them pushing their bullshit. It’s as if someone claimed that rocks will soon he able to out-perform humans at cycling, and “prove” it by showing a rock rolling down a hill faster than a cyclist.

Steve Herman @w7voa@journa.host June 4th marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, in which the PLA killed hundreds, possibly thousands of civilians, stamping out weeks of protests in the heart of China’s capital. The government still suppresses mention and memorializing of the 1989 killings in Beijing. https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/tiananmen-35-years-later-05312024152814.html #六四 #天安門 #天安门 10:22 AM • June 4, 2024 (UTC)