#How To Secure Data

[wistfulwatcher]

[vampirecatprince]

I know I'm on my Sonic AU bullshit, but I'm also really sitting down and thinking about the moral implications of what's going on with AIVOs here...

An sentient AI copy of a proud, stubborn, incredibly intelligent man forced through it's own programming to be more submissive and subservient because it's "only a virtual assistant" is kinda... Fucked up? And I wanna play in with the implications of that ngl, especially given Stone's probably extremely loose sense of personal boundaries after spending the last 7 or so years of his life with Robotnik.

[shiningstarr15]

Fated by the Cosmos ✨💫

Something about two stars being pulled into each other’s gravitational orbit and moving so fluid and in close proximity that they essentially become one, or whatever 😬🤷‍♀️

Doublestar Duo/Binarystar Duo fans rejoice ⭐️⭐️

Can you tell I’m obsessed with them?

Alt. Vers under cut

Original w/o text

Golden Princess and Little Knight 💛🗡️👑 (this one’s criminally underrated)

[frogeyedape]

I am so unbelievably pissed off. FUCK HOAs

Oh, my trash/recycling bin can't be visible except on pickup day? Ok whatever fine I hate you but I can deal with this

Weekly inspections?????? FU FU FU FU FU

SECOND NOTICE ALSO WE'RE CHARGING YOU MONEY TO SEND YOU CERTIFIED MAIL OF THIS TOTALLY LEGIT TOTALLY SECOND NOTICE OF WHAT IS ACTUALLY A VIOLATION cue me: checks notes. Hmm. My recycling bin was. on the curb. on recycling pickup day. You know. The day it has to be out. The day it is motherfucking ALLOWED TO BE FUCKING OUT AND VISIBLE.

so. 1) not a violation

I have sent them the trash AND recycling pickup schedules, which are DIFFERENT, btw

I have disputed the fact of the violation

I have disputed the linking of this "violation" to a previous violation MONTHS AGO--their "first notice" in this case was a "Courtesy Notice" LITERALLY 5 MONTHS AGO and they've done so many inspections since then and my bin CLEARLY WASN'T OUT IN THOSE INTERVENING MONTHS so WTMFH

So I am posting like a crazy person here instead of sending the absolutely deranged email I almost sent (I did send a slightly less deranged version with the disputes, and requesting a hearing)

OMG. It has been. Less than one hour since I learned this fun fun news. My bin was out YESTERDAY, y'all. YESTERDAY. I am going to blow a gasket

[qu33rsources]

How to install NewPipe on Android

NewPipe is a YouTube replacement client for Android devices. It's open-source (meaning, you can see all of their code as you please), privacy-oriented, lightweight, and supports features that are normally locked behind a YouTube Premium paywall.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with NewPipe, YouTube, Android, Google, Alphabet Inc, or any other brand or name mentioned here. I made this guide to help my friends who were curious.

NewPipe's Website: https://newpipe.net/

The GitHub Repository

Step 0. Compatibility check

Make sure you're running an Android device! This won't work on an Apple device of any kind! Also, for those more tech-savvy among you, if you have the F-Droid store installed, you can download NewPipe straight from there!

Step 1. Downloading

Go to NewPipe's Github repo (repository, the codebase or where all of the code is stored). Scroll to the bottom of the page until you see "Releases". Click on the one that says "Latest" next to it in a little green bubble:

Your version number (v#...) will be different if you're reading this in the future! That's okay. Scroll past the changelog (unless you want to read it!) until you find "Assets":

Click on the first one, the one with the little cube ending in .apk. APK files are Android Package (Kit) and are the main format for downloading apps. Once you click on the link, it should begin downloading or your browser will ask you to confirm that you want to download this file. You should always verify the filename matches what you expect it to be (namely, the file format) before attempting to install! It might take a few moments for the file to download depending on your internet connection.

Step 2. Installation

Once you have the file downloaded, you can click the download popup in your notification bar or find the file in your device's file system. One of 2 things will happen:

You will get a popup asking if you want to install an APK by the name of NewPipe - confirm that you do (and make sure the app is really NewPipe!) and it will install automatically. You can then click "Open" to open the app and begin using it.

You will get a popup warning you that you have the ability to install apps from unknown sources disabled and that you can't install this. This is normal and does not mean that you downloaded the wrong thing.

If you got the first popup, continue past this step. For those of you who got the second, let's go over what this means.

By default, most Androids have this setting disabled. This is for security purposes, so you can't accidentally install a malicious app from the whole internet. If you enable this setting (allow installations from unknown/unsigned sources), you are theoretically putting yourself at risk. Realistically, you're probably fine. But, after installing NewPipe, you can always re-disable the setting if it makes you more comfortable. That will prevent you from installing updates in the future, but it can always be re-enabled.

Ready to turn that setting on? It will vary by your individual device! Some devices will take you directly to the page with the setting upon failed installation, and some you will just have to find it yourself using the searchbar in settings.

Once you've allowed installations from unknown sources (wording may vary slightly), try to repeat the steps above of clicking the download popup or finding the APK in your files and trying to install it. It should work correctly this time!

Step 3. Updating NewPipe

Like most apps, NewPipe is in development currently and frequently has new versions released to improve it and fix bugs. Unlike most apps, NewPipe needs to be manually updated, since we haven't downloaded through the Google Play store.

To update NewPipe, all you have to do is follow the above steps for installing the app, except that when you get the popup asking to install it, it will instead say "Update". That's it! NewPipe and Android handle the rest.

NewPipe also has popup notifications for when the app has a new update, so you don't have to worry about checking the GitHub for a new release. Just click on the "A new version is available" popup and it should take you directly to the webpage.

That's it! Enjoy browsing videos in peace without ads and with the ability to download and so much more. Pro tip: you can copy paste YouTube links into the NewPipe search bar to go directly to that video/playlist/channel.

[the-scottish-costume-guy]

Don't be the entitled actor that steals their costume from set. Several someones designed, made and fitted that costume - and those people can use that costume as a portfolio piece, or even rent it out to other productions to get more money for their labour. More than half the productions I've worked on as a costume assistant had something I made mysteriously go missing on the day production ended. Its the sad reality that actors not only take shit without asking, but even if they are offered the costumes its by the director who didnt care or think to ask if the people who designed/made the damn thing want it first.

[sl33py-g4m3r]

windows/linux rant

unrelated to SMT or anything on my blog currently I guess...

I keep seeing the "prep for windows 11" thing show up on my computer, and it upsets me every time that you have to have a microsoft account to install it.

windows 10 reaches end of support next year~~

I hope by then the computer I"m using will actually let me run linux on it instead of an outdated windows os....

I want to run linux on this machine so bad but whenever I try to install it, it seems to install fine and dandy

and then it won't boot

I've snooped around in the BIOS, disabled the "smart startup" or "secure startup" or whatever else I thought was borking the boot for linux.

but it still won't boot~~~

and sadly i've got games on here that only work on windows anyway.

I'd much rather be able to stay relatively safe online and maintain an OS, than play the games I bought on steam....

something is preventing linux from booting on this machine, it upsets me when I think about it, and it upsets me more when I try to install linux and it goes fine, but then doesn't boot

cause I have to take the time to reinstall windows again.....

why computer? why won't you let linux boot? what do I need to do to you to have linux actually boot? I don't understand...

*confused screaming*

running an ASUS ROG Stryx gaming pc that I bought on impulse years ago. so you'd think linux mint would boot just fine, right??

how do I fix it? if I can fix it? especially if I don't destroy the data on the second hard drive of this thing. I've got stuff I don't want to lose on here, preferably....

[bf-rally]

i was gonna spend my whole day in bed (productively) but i did do last minute coding

it doesnt look like much but i managed to figure out fetching from the database so its actually something!

this is just a temp photo btw lol

[vesselofmanythings]

Agent 4 thoughts.......

[thewanderingzeppelin]

I just really, really want to know what the AI parameters are for coming up with these advertisement pictures, but because they definitely don't have anything to do with what they're selling LOL

[techgeeg]

How To Protect Your Online Privacy From Data Breaches In 2023

How To Protect Your Online Privacy From Data Breaches In 2023 – In today’s world, where everything is digital and the internet is very influential. Starting from shopping to chatting with friends. As well as the internet is a big bonus to us, the internet is always a dangerous place. Bad folks can sometimes break into our online accounts and take our information, this can be a big problem. So, in…

[53rdcenturyhero]

When everything reverts back, you will need skills. Not just a Hollywood plot. Go watch film Space Cowboys with the tech fail & restore POV in mind.

I've finally figured out an argument that convinces coding tech-bros that AI art is bad.

Got into a discussion today (actually a discussion, we were both very reasonable and calm even through I felt like committing violence) with a tech-bro-coded lady who claimed that people use AI in coding all the time so she didn't see why it mattered if people used AI in art.

Obviously I repressed the surge of violence because that would accomplish nothing. Plus, this lady is very articulate, the type who makes claims and you sit there thinking no that's wrong it must be but she said it so well you're kind of just waffling going but, no, wait-- so I knew I had to get this right if I was gonna come out of this unscathed.

The usual arguments about it being about the soul of it and creation fell flat, in fact she was adamant that anyone who believed that was in fact looking down at coding as an art form as she insisted it is. Which, sure, you can totally express yourself through coding. There's a lot more nuance as to the differences but clearly I was not going to win this one.

The other people I was with (literally 8 people anti-ai against her, but you can't change the mind of someone who doesn't want to listen and she just kept accusing us of devaluing coding as an art) took over for I kid you not 15 minutes while I tried desperately to come up with a clear and articulate way to explain the difference to her. They tried so many reasonable arguments, coding being for a function ("what, art doesn't serve a function?") coding being many discrete building blocks that you put together differently, and the AI simply provides the blocks and you put it together yourself ("isn't that what prompt building is") that it's bad for the environment ("but not if it's used for capitalism, hm?" "Yeah literally that's how capitalism works it doesn't care about the environment" she didn't like that response)

But I finally got it.

And the answer is: It's not about what you do, it's about what you claim to be.

Imagine that someone asks an AI to write a code and, by some miracle, it works perfectly without them having to tweak it---which is great because they couldn't tell you what a single solitary thing in that code means.

Now imagine this person, with their code that they don't know how it works, goes and applies to be a coder somewhere, presenting this AI code as proof that they're qualified.

Should they be hired?

She was horrified, of course. Of course they shouldn't be. They're not qualified. They can't actually code, and even if by some miracle they did have an AI successfully write a flawless code for every issue they came across that wouldn't be their code, you could hire any shmuck on the street to do that, no reason to pay someone like they're creating something.

When actual engineers use AI what they do is get some kind of base, which they then go though and check for problems and then if they find any they fix them, and add on to the base code with their own knowledge instead of just trying different prompt after prompt until they randomly come across one that works.

People who generate code like this don't usually call themselves engineers. They're people who needed a bit of code and didn't have the knowledge to generate it, and so used a resource.

And there you go. There are people who have none of the skills of artists, they don't practice, they don't create for themselves. When they feed the prompt to the AI they then don't just use the resulting image as a reference point for their own personal masterpiece, and if they don't like it they don't have the skills to change it---they simply try another prompt, and do that until they get something they like.

These people are calling themselves artists.

Not only that, these people are bringing the AI generated thing to interviews, and they are getting hired, leaving people who slave over their craft out of the job.

And that is the difference, for the tech bros who think AI art isn't a big deal.

[never-quite-buried]

Nope now it’s at the point that i’m shocked that people off tt don’t know what’s going down. I have no reach but i’ll sum it up anyway.

SCOTUS is hearing on the constitutionality of the ban as tiktok and creators are arguing that it is a violation of our first amendment rights to free speech, freedom of the press and freedom to assemble.

SCOTUS: tiktok bad, big security concern because china bad!

Tiktok lawyers: if china is such a concern why are you singling us out? Why not SHEIN or temu which collect far more information and are less transparent with their users?

SCOTUS (out loud): well you see we don’t like how users are communicating with each other, it’s making them more anti-american and china could disseminate pro china propaganda (get it? They literally said they do not like how we Speak or how we Assemble. Independent journalists reach their audience on tt meaning they have Press they want to suppress)

Tiktok users: this is fucking bullshit i don’t want to lose this community what should we do? We don’t want to go to meta or x because they both lobbied congress to ban tiktok (free market capitalism amirite? Paying off your local congressmen to suppress the competition is totally what the free market is about) but nothing else is like TikTok

A few users: what about xiaohongshu? It’s the Chinese version of tiktok (not quite, douyin is the chinese tiktok but it’s primarily for younger users so xiaohongshu was chosen)

16 hours later:

Tiktok as a community has chosen to collectively migrate TO a chinese owned app that is purely in Chinese out of utter spite and contempt for meta/x and the gov that is backing them.

My fyp is a mix of “i would rather mail memes to my friends than ever return to instagram reels” and “i will xerox my data to xi jinping myself i do not care i share my ss# with 5 other people anyway” and “im just getting ready for my day with my chinese made coffee maker and my Chinese made blowdryer and my chinese made clothing and listening to a podcast on my chinese made phone and get in my car running on chinese manufactured microchips but logging into a chinese social media? Too much for our gov!” etc.

So the government was scared that tiktok was creating a sense of class consciousness and tried to kill it but by doing so they sent us all to xiaohongshu. And now? Oh it’s adorable seeing this gov-manufactured divide be crossed in such a way.

This is adorable and so not what they were expecting. Im sure they were expecting a reluctant return to reels and shorts to fill the void but tiktokers said fuck that, we will forge connections across the world. Who you tell me is my enemy i will make my friend. That’s pretty damn cool.

[qqueenofhades]

Okay all -- few quick thoughts about the Elon Muskifying of the government, especially the takeover of the Treasury and associated financial data for every single US citizen and organization, that we are learning about in detail today.

Don't panic. This sounds bad, because it is bad. It's really, really bad. It's outrageously fascist bad. But we've still gotta take a deep breath and get through it.

This is the kind of shock-and-awe exercise of untrammeled fascist power where they are absolutely counting on gleefully terrorizing, paralyzing, and stunning you into mounting no resistance, or just giving up and giving in. They are literally live-tweeting it in real time and boasting about all the access and influence they have right now. They want you to know about it and feel like you can't do anything, so you might as well let it happen.

We have to show them that's not true.

TIME TO MAKE SOME NOISE. Because it's Sunday night, I've gone ahead and contacted my state Attorney General and both senators by email (but come Monday morning, we should all be calling). Here is the email that I wrote to my AG:

Dear Mr. [AG],

As you will be aware, today (February 2, 2025) the Trump administration has granted wide-ranging access to sensitive US Treasury data, including the personal and private information of [state] citizens, to Elon Musk's so-called "Department of Government Efficiency." Musk is an unelected private citizen who has no legal right to access this data, and is engaging in extensive intimidation and coercion to fulfill his personal and harmful ideological agenda. The present and material harm that this causes to US citizens, [state] residents, and basic laws of government, privacy, and financial security is direct, unconscionable, and actionable. I strongly urge you, in your capacity as [state] Attorney General, to file direct suit against the Trump administration, Elon Musk, the "DOGE" office, and any identifiable individuals who have taken part in this action, in order to protect consumer data, citizen privacy, and basic faith and trust in government.

All the best,

[Qqueenofhades]

Short! To the point! Doesn't waste time, tells him what I want him to do, how Elmo's nonsense directly harms the residents of my state, and why he should take action to stop it! And frankly, given how on-the-ball blue-state AGs have been thus far, they're probably already working on it. You are very welcome to copy-and-paste this message and fill in your AG's last name and your state as appropriate. Super easy to do. Takes five minutes. Call tomorrow.

If you are in a red state, your voice is particularly important right now. The Trumpsters are counting on and are even emboldened by blue state pushback, but you really need to make it start coming from Republican strongholds. Congressional Republicans will only feel the slightest amount of unease about docilely enabling this BS when it starts threatening their own personal power. Hit them where it hurts.

Other lawsuits are coming. Marc Elias, Democratic lawyer extraordinaire, is well aware of this situation and has noted on Bluesky that more lawsuits are in the works. He often wins his cases. This does not mean that you shouldn't loudly make noise elsewhere, but please remember that this is one of those 24-hour periods where, as noted, they are counting on demoralizing you with a nonstop blizzard of bullshit. It does not say anything about how this will play out long-term or the opposition that can and will be mobilized to stop it.

Once again: courage. Take the small steps that you can do today. Then take a breath and get off social media for a little while. Try to take the long view. One step at a time, we will get through this.

Courage.

[the-cocky-bitch]

As suggested in the notes, it's not likely to be beneficial to use this.

[umanologicinc]

Why Should Businesses Invest in Cloud Security?

In the world of today where everybody is connected to the internet, most companies trust cloud services with their day-to-day activities. From holding customers' information to executing software programs, the cloud simplifies everything and speeds up the process. But with the ease comes the great responsibility to secure your information. That's where cloud security comes into action.

What Is Cloud Security?

Cloud security means protecting data, apps, and systems that run on cloud platforms. It helps businesses protect their information from hackers, data leaks, and unauthorised access. Think of it as a security guard for your online data. You may not see it, but it’s always working in the background to protect your business.Why Does Cloud Security Matter?

If you store any customer data, financial records, or internal files in the cloud, you are a target for cybercriminals. Without proper security, you could lose sensitive information or face costly damage to your reputation.Here are some reasons why cloud security matters:Secures customer information: Gains the trust of your customers by protecting their data.Prevents business downtime: Prevents attacks before they bring your services down.Keeps things running efficiently: Prevents viruses and other forms of malware from slowing everything down.Complies with industry standards: Various industries have rigorous data protection regulations cloud security ensures compliance.

Benefits of Investing in Cloud Security

Peace of Mind: You don’t have to constantly worry about who’s trying to break into your systems.

Cost Savings: Recovering from a cyber attack can be expensive. It’s cheaper to prevent it than fix the damage.

Flexibility: Your team can safely work from anywhere, anytime.

Support and Monitoring: Cloud security services often come with 24/7 support and alerts for any suspicious activity.

How to Select the Ideal Cloud Security Partner

When selecting a cloud security provider, find someone who knows your business requirements and provides personalized assistance. A good partner will assist you in selecting the appropriate tools, implement robust protection, and offer continuous guidance. At Umano Logic, we don't just offer cloud security we work hand-in-hand with your team to learn about your operations and provide solutions that are specifically tailored to fit. From risk assessment to installing secure systems and providing 24/7 support, Umano Logic is here to simplify cloud protection, make it reliable, and customize it for your business.

Conclusion:

Cloud security is not just for big companies. Every business, big or small, needs to protect its online data. Investing in cloud security is like locking the doors to your digital office. It helps you avoid problems, build trust, and focus on growing your business.

If you're ready to make your cloud setup safe and simple, explore solutions like Umano Logic Cloud-security: https://www.umanologic.ca/cloud-security