cultural reviewer and dabbler in stylistic premonitions

  • 1.22K Posts
  • 1.88K Comments
Joined 5 years ago
Aquileo | cake
Cake day: January 17th, 2022

Aquileo | help-circle





  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOPMtoMemes@lemmy.mlIEEE 754
    Aquileo | link
    Aquileo | fedilink
    English
    Aquileo | arrow-up
    5
    ·
    Aquileo | edit-2
    23 hours ago

    And other times 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.3000004

    0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3000004

    You’re off by 0.000000399999999955991114575226674787700176239013671875

    (0.1 + 0.2 is actually 0.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125)

    (And 0.1 is actually 0.1000000000000000055511151231257827021181583404541015625, and so on. People unfamiliar with IEEE 754 may be surprised by the output of python -c 'print("%.60f" % 0.1)')















  • It is risky to carry encrypted devices across the border which you are not prepared to give them the passwords to.

    In most cases they won’t ask you to decrypt anything, but they do sometimes randomly and when they do if you refuse then you can/will be denied entry and/or they’ll keep the device(s) indefinitely.

    One approach to avoid this problem is to create an encrypted disk image (your operating system hopefully comes with a program to do this, you shouldn’t need to install anything) and then store it online somewhere and then download it after you’ve crossed the border. Read about how to pick a strong yet memorable passphrase.

    It was reported last year that the US was going to start requiring that you disclose all of your social media accounts used in the previous five years, but that did not actually go into effect in December as it had been announced that it would. Something along those lines could still happen later this year though: Here and here are articles from March and May of this year about it.




  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mltoDull Men's Club@lemmy.worldThe Work Phishing Email Test Was Suddenly Halted
    Aquileo | link
    Aquileo | fedilink
    English
    Aquileo | arrow-up
    28
    Aquileo | arrow-down
    1
    ·
    Aquileo | edit-2
    9 days ago

    The Bullshit thing about these phishing email tests is if you look at the actual headers they are allowed past the server level spam filters and in a back door to your email address. They would never pass the basic filters.

    Being able to bypass the automated filtering is entirely logical, because they are testing and training humans and not the spam filters.

    They are not even training you for reality.

    They are training you to be the next line of defense after the automated filters are defeated. Which is, obviously, a thing which does happen frequently - eg, in every real phishing attack which succeeds.

    These “online safety” companies create this baloney meat training so that your IT manager can say they are doing something, and your company can report compliance with whatever code they are responsible to, so they can be insured.

    There is some truth to that, but on the other hand at any large enough organization many people will still fail these tests. And, even if you’re sure that you’re too smart for them, don’t you think that being periodically subjected to these tests probably does actually make some people a bit more cautious?


  • cross-posting my comment from another thread:

    Nice, 🍻 to the people who made this happen.

    I couldn’t make it through that interview with the former Google employee, though. A few minor fact checks from before I stopped reading:

    I don’t know if you know this, Mike, but the word “boycott” was actually coined in Ireland. Boycott was an individual, an Irish person, and that person actually got boycotted.

    Almost correct, except the part about Charles Boycott being an Irish person. (He was unsurprisingly actually English.)

    I worked for Google. I worked for Google at a time when… I don’t think they were as evil as they are now. And I worked for Google at a time when they did not use their technology for warfare or for governments. I really enjoyed my time at Google. And I am personally heartbroken at the path that they have taken, and I fully support the boycott of Google in order to support the Palestinian people.

    I wonder when it was that this person thinks Google “did not use their technology for warfare or for governments”. I guess they probably think Google only turned evil in 2018, when Project Maven started getting more press? Anyway, such a time never existed; the project which became Google was created by and for US intelligence. https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e

    And it’s sickening to think that an organization like Anthropic can come in here, be given tax breaks, being given great publicity, and yet go on to commit the murder of over 160 schoolgirls in Minab, in Iran, but the Irish government says, “Welcome, Anthropic.”

    Fuck Anthropic for (among other things) their Department of War contracts, but them taking the blame for the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School massacre is some bullshit: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/mar/26/ai-got-the-blame-for-the-iran-school-bombing-the-truth-is-far-more-worrying