I really hope there’ll be an option to disable / block this when I’m not a California resident, and an option that allows faking the result per-app and response (so I can i.e give randomized results most of the time, with an option to switch to “random 18+” when I actually need it).

I also really hope that most distros will block California users from using it, or rather say that they can’t.

Yes, they should in fact just state that Californian users are not allowed to use it.

Would it be possible to add a layer on top that shows you when an app requests it, and shows you a checkbox about what you want it to report? Or just block the call as not supported.

Faking it to be child (or just random with each request) until you need a higher number could mess up with advertisers and in general fingerprinting.

I mean, it does spread awareness about it harmful effects and how to recognize them.

I’d say thats a good to tshirt to have.

You should probably add /s to that, hah.

I’ve just started reading “Working Effectively with Legacy Code”, and so far it has been great.

While I’m having troubles with it mostly because I work in gamedev, and a lot of the TDD approaches are difficult to apply (or actually merge into the codebase, since it’s simply not an industry practice and I’m nowhere senior enough to be able to push as big change in workflow), I’ve still learned a lot, especially cool tricks about how to add/fix features or refactor.

It should be recommended reading for anyone who deals with codebases.

It’s a for profit ad company making a “privacy first browser”.

Thinking for literaly a second about that sentence should tell you all you need to know.

I mostly work in gamedev where they aren’t that much feasible so I don’t have much real experience working with them and I might be wrong but from when I looked into it a while back, it’s basically just a docker container that you specify in a .devcontainer file (at least for VSCode, but other IDEs probably have something similar) and when you need to develop, compile or run your code, it runs it in the container. It also doesn’t have to run locally on your machine, if you can run docker somewhere else (i.e on a more powerful shared server).

I can see several advantages (but I never really tested it in practice, so I’m mostly guessing) - containers are usually quick to start, you have the same and stable and replicable dev/build environment for all devs (since you just commit .devcontainers), so there aren’t some hidden dependencies and “works on my machine” shouldn’t happen too often. It also helps you keep your OS clean, so you don’t end up with 5 versions of python, 3 JDKs and 20gb of random NPM packages installed in your OS after 5 years of development - which is the most important advantage for me.

Devcontainers are awesome once you set them up properly, no need to run a VM.

If you don’t use any identifiable information for the account (i.e email, post any photos with your face, or real name, that you use for anythinh else), use a VPN, an anti-fingerprinting browser like Mullvad, and most importantly use IG just for DM and nothing else, you should be pretty ok. Just the people you talk to (and what you talk about) will give them plenty of data, tho.

One way to avoid having to use the website or their apps at all is to run your own Matrix server with meta-bridge, which can bridge Messenger (and I think even IG DMs, never tried that tho), so you minimize the contact surface you have with their site, because you are chatting through an unrelated app.

If you don’t do most of that, Meta already has a shadow profile on you anyway, since they track stuff across websites based on numerous fingerprinting methods. I never really looked into it, but AFAIK most of websites have the “FB like” widget that Meta uses to track people across the internet, and I’d guess that Meta is pretty good at working with that data.

Not sure about directly poisoning the analytics, but you could just run something like a VM with a pyton script with Selenium that just randomly browses web or IG.

Managing centralized security and device management correctly on multiple OSes must be a nightmare. From EDRs to app and device provisioning.

You should do dev work in devcontainers anyway.

Not that it’s an excuse or that I’m happy with that, but I can totally understand why companies do that, and tbh I’d rather see a properly secured than have the option to run Linux.

But I’m biased, because I used to do Red Teamings, and the things I’ve seen…

I used to be an EVE player for a few years, and also tried the blockchain thing during some closed tests, and you’re right.

Ngl, I have to admint the technology behind it is pretty cool, if you get past the blockchain hate, and I do think as a developer that it’s pretty interesting idea, especially the bit about modding and the idea of open source frontend (which I don’t know if they ever got to, didn’t really keep up to date with the project).

It’s a shame it didn’t work out well.

They don’t want to deal with the costs, just get the data. At least that’s what I got from the text, as a reason why they were pushing to make social networks extempt and keep it on app/OS level.

Fuckers.

So, like Farmville.

Another one? I thought they’re working on the blockchain moddable hardcore-EVE survival MMO.

Edit: Oh, it’s former developers, nvm.

I’ve been using Faugus and so far never had an issue.

I vivdly remember how, when I was studying classic Software Engineering in college, Watch Dogs 2 came out and made me pivot into cybersecurity, because hacktivism sounded cool. My basically teenage reasoning at the time was that once shit inevitably hits the fan, being a hacker would be useful.

I realized it’s more of a pose fantasy, ofc, but I did eventually end up as a Red Team Lead for a bit, so it kind of worked.

I find it pretty ironic that the whole plot of Watch Dogs and reason for Dedsec was literally what’s happening right now - AI based surveilance. IIRC, UK is planning preventive crime detection based on AI, which is exactly what the game was about.

Guess I need to finally learn parkour, that’s the bit I’m missing. Life really does imitate art, huh.

So this is the thing I’ll eventually end up in jail for bypassing. I coul’ve sworn it would be drugs.

Oh well.

It’s also possible that the hype simply died down. Windows 11 forced updates have been done and forgotten, internet has moved on to the next thing, and people who tried switching to linux started encountering small issues and inconveniences with new games or the system and moved back to Windows.

I can very well imagine that someone who switched “just for the memes” will give up once a first inconvenience pops up, and it eventually will no matter how you look at it.

Both are mesh networks, with slight differences. The idea is that volunteers run relay nodes with LORA (which has a range od a few KM, depending on visibility), and you also have client devices, and if you have a large local community of enough nodes and users, you can have an off-grid communication network where data is being sent node to node (both client and relay) before it finds the recipient. Both networks are encrypted.

Most cities already have a pretty good coverage. Meshtastic has a few issues that Meshcore tries to solve, mostly in regards to scaling, but tbh I havent researched it enough to be able to correctly list them (just like this answer is mostly a simplification). There’s plenty of blog posts that explain it a lot better.

You can get standalone Meshcore devices (with a screen and keyboard) for around 70$, and devices that connct to your phone through bluetooth and you send messages through the network from an app for even cheaper.

My guess is that it’s not entirely adversary-proof, but it probably beats having a phone with you to communicate when you’re doing anti-goverment sruff.

And if you’re asking about Anarchist Library, there’s this site that has a lot of articles, zines and books about good operational security, how to behave on protests, what to (not) bring, first aid against common crowd control, and general anti-goverment guirrella stuff so you can protest as safely as possible.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index