Computational Linguist; β΅οΈπ¨πRYA Dinghy SI
UK
Joined January 2009
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πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
This is why we listen to experts (or should): Not everything that seems or sounds logical, necessarily is. The easy solutions you find on Facebook or at your Weatherspoon pub, are gut feeling, not fact. You might not like expert advice, but reality beats 'common sense'.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
WSJ: βYou read that correctly. Sources from three countries confirm that the Trump Administration has advocated Viktor OrbΓ‘n for the role of United Nations Secretary-General. [β¦]
Russia and China are believed to be supportive, based on prior conversations with Washington, and the plan would be for Mr. OrbΓ‘n to be their joint candidate.β
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
If you've ever wondered why smart TVs are so cheap, this is why.
@log4j rooted his Samsung and found an always-on hot mic, automatic content recognition, geolocation, network mapping, ad targeting and user profiling, shared with Samsung's "400 partners".
A lot of it can be blocked in <15 min, wrote a basic guide below.
What your TV is doing
The main culprit is ACR (automatic content recognition). Your TV screenshots what's on screen, fingerprints it, and sends it home to build your ad profile. Samsung does it every 500ms, LG every 10ms [1].
What is insane: it happens on connected devices too.
Plug in your laptop, your console, your work machine, and your TV can fingerprint that via HDMI [1].
He also found that if your Samsung doesn't have a mic, it'll look for one from a connected soundbar or bluetooth device.
xitter.cf/log4j/status/211376224β¦
It's on by default, and you likely agreed to it on the setup screen you clicked through in 10 seconds.
Step 1: Turn off ACR
Samsung: Terms & Privacy β Viewing Information Services
LG: Live Plus
Vizio: Viewing Data
Roku: "Use info from TV inputs"
Sony/Google TV: Samba Interactive TV
Menus vary by model, but those are the names to look for. While you're in there, opt out of interest-based ads, reset your advertising ID, decline every optional privacy agreement, turn off voice recognition, and delete apps you never open.
Step 2: Give smart devices their own network
Put the TV, cameras, speakers and vacuum on your router's guest/IoT network. The logic is simple: these devices rarely get patched. If one gets compromised (getting drastically more frequent with AI), it shouldn't be able to see your other devices or home network.
Step 3: Block trackers for the whole house with DNS-level filtering
NextDNS (cloud-based) is easy and has a solid free plan. Pi-hole is a little bit more work if you prefer self hosting. For simplicity we'll focus on the former.
1. Sign up at nextdns.io (free tier is plenty)
2. Privacy tab: add a blocklist (OISD is a good bet) and turn on Native Tracking Protection for Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon (see attached image)
3. Setup tab: copy your endpoint
4. Paste it into your router's DNS settings as DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS (or use the IPs + "Link IP" if your router only does plain DNS)
5. Bonus: block outbound port 53 except to your router. Some devices hardcode their own DNS to get around you
Then open the NextDNS logs and watch how often your TV phones home. It's eye-opening. If an app or update breaks, find the domain in the logs and allowlist it.
Why they do this
TV prices are down 97% since 2000 [2]. Most of that is better manufacturing and brutal competition. But once margins on the hardware hit zero, the cost moved to you.
In Q3 2024, Vizio lost $6.7M selling TVs and made $115.8M in gross profit from ads and viewing data [3]. They've said on earnings calls that they keep TV prices low to grow the audience they sell to advertisers. Walmart bought them in 2024.
This isn't a conspiracy theory either. Vizio paid $2.2M to the FTC in 2017 for tracking 11 million TVs without consent. Last December, Texas sued Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL over ACR. Samsung and LG have since agreed to stop collecting that data without explicit consent [4].
TL;DR
1. ACR off
2. Ads + voice off
3. Smart devices on their own network
4. NextDNS filtering on the router
Sources:
[1] ACR study: arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203
[2] Cost of US consumer goods: aei.org/economics/chart-of-tβ¦
[3] Vizio Q3 2024: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/β¦
[4] Texas v. Samsung: texasattorneygeneral.gov/newβ¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
βFreedom of movementβ¦ would be a really good thing for growthβ
Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper says re-joining EU free movement, along with free movement of things like βcapital and tradeβ would boost the economy
#BBCLauraK
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bv0β¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
What is @KemiBadenochβs new big idea? Exactly the same as the Conservativesβ old big idea: unfunded tax cuts. Itβs the lack of imagination as much as the fiscal incontinence that stands out torstenbell.substack.com/p/kβ¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Security called me at 6:12 AM today.
"Patch every PHP server immediately."
I asked what happened.
"Two critical vulnerabilities. Remote code execution. No authentication required."
Cool.
How many PHP servers do we have?
According to inventory: 12
According to reality:
Nobody knows.
We found one running WordPress.
Three running old internal tools.
One under someone's desk.
Two inside vendor appliances.
A forgotten employee directory from 2016.
And a server named:
PHP-OLD-DO-NOT-TOUCH
Naturally, that one runs payroll exports.
Then we found a PHP 5.6 box.
I asked who owned it.
The documentation said:
BRIAN.
Brian left in 2019.
We called Brian.
He said:
"Oh wow, that's still running?"
Excellent.
By 8 AM, leadership joined the incident call.
CEO:
"Can hackers actually get in?"
Security:
"Potentially yes."
CEO:
"Without a password?"
Security:
"Yes."
CEO:
"Then why do WE need passwords?"
Not the lesson.
Finance asked if we could wait until the weekend to patch because downtime affects revenue.
Security explained that the alternative was letting strangers execute code on our servers.
Finance asked for a cost comparison.
At 9:17, someone suggested temporarily taking the vulnerable websites offline.
Marketing refused.
"Our campaign is live."
So for the next hour, the company officially decided maintaining a landing page for 20% off webinar registration was more important than preventing remote server takeover.
We finally patched everything we could find.
Then our scanner discovered another PHP server.
Hostname:
TEMP-PHP-2014
Uptime:
4,512 days.
Nobody knows what it does.
Nobody owns it.
Nobody can shut it down.
But every time we block network access, the warehouse stops printing shipping labels.
Security has classified it as critical infrastructure.
It is running PHP 5.4.
The vulnerability has existed longer than half our employees.
The emergency patch took four hours.
Finding out what PHP actually runs took eleven.
The internet isn't held together with code.
It's held together with servers everyone is afraid to turn off.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
WSJ: Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, a decision that sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said. wsj.com/world/ukraine-starliβ¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Many European countries and their extremist movements are under the delusion that theyβd be more powerful outside the Union. Itβs a ridiculous notion that severely misunderstands the modern world. Each individual European country is simply too small to matter nowadays.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
I donβt think Europeans fully appreciate what is happening to the European Union right now.
The EU is under an extraordinary, multi-front assault, both from outside and from within. And I struggle to think of another period in its history when so many powerful actors had an interest in weakening it simultaneously.
Russia has spent years waging hybrid warfare against Europe. Weaponised migration, sabotage, cyberattacks, coordinated disinformation campaigns, bot networks and political interference. The objective is clear: undermine trust in democratic institutions, deepen social divisions and weaken European unity.
China has different motivations, primarily economic and geopolitical. A fragmented Europe is easier to pressure, easier to negotiate with individually and less capable of defending its economic interests.
And then there is the United States. Perhaps the most disturbing development of all.
Under Trump and MAGA, a country that helped rebuild the old continent and then spent decades supporting European integration now has an administration openly hostile to much of what the EU represents. Its own National Security Strategy even calls for cultivating resistance to Europeβs current political direction.
Think about that for a moment.
Meanwhile, within Europe, parts of the far right and far left amplify these divisions, whether through ideological alignment, political opportunism or outright sympathy for authoritarian regimes.
This doesnβt mean Russia, China and MAGA are all following some jointly coordinated master plan. They donβt have to. Their interests increasingly overlap, and Europeβs internal divisions make their work considerably easier.
What makes this particularly alarming is what is actually at stake.
For all its flaws, the EU remains one of the worldβs most consequential projects built around liberal democracy, the rule of law, individual freedoms and cooperation between nations.
At a time when authoritarianism is gaining ground and even longstanding democracies are showing disturbing tendencies, that matters enormously.
Europe is far from perfect. Its bureaucracy, indecision and inability to act decisively are real problems. But the answer cannot be to retreat into 27 competing nation-states, each too small to meaningfully influence a world increasingly dominated by continental powers.
Quite the opposite.
Europe needs deeper integration, stronger common institutions, genuine strategic autonomy and the political courage to defend its interests and values.
Because fragmentation is precisely what so many external actors want.
And perhaps thatβs the central irony of our time: people are being deliberately manipulated into believing that the reverse is true β that national identity and sovereignty can only be protected by weakening European cooperation. In reality, a divided Europe is less sovereign, less secure and far easier for outside powers to pressure. Therefore the very thing that will make Europe stronger is the thing its adversaries are working hardest to prevent.
A united Europe is a geopolitical power. A divided Europe is a collection of countries waiting to be played against one another.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Fliegender #Tesla: 600 l Druckluft statt Beifahrersitz und Stauraum β fΓΌr Sekunden Flugzeit. Ein teurer Marketing-Gag. Zugleich prognostizieren Studien Millionen zusΓ€tzliche Tote bis 2030 durch #USAID-KΓΌrzungen, an denen #Musk beteiligt war. Medienversagen?
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
This is what billionaire ownership of the media means:
Mark Zuckerbergβs Meta shut down the No Kings account for hours during the height of their protests.
Meta suppressed accounts supporting Brazil President Lula da Silva in the recent election.
Larry Ellisonβs TikTok blocked advertising for a documentary criticizing Elon Musk.
Fight back. Defeat oligarchy. Preserve democracy.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, somehow writing about LLMs in 1983:
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Thousands are held in Israeli torture camps. This is what happens inside haaretz.com/israel-news/israβ¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Scoop: Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI eventβ¦They assume one in β27β¦
axios.com/2026/10/09/ai-compβ¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
In fairness neither are the first three.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Sensation! Die CDU/CSU hat 2026 die Glasfaser entdeckt. Nur 45 Jahre nachdem die Regierung Helmut Schmidt bereits einen langfristigen Ausbau geplant hatte.
Dann kam Helmut Kohl. Statt Glasfaser gab es Kupferkabel und Privatfernsehen. SchlieΓlich musste die Zukunft warten, bis RTL und SAT.1 empfangbar waren.
Und heute erklΓ€rt uns die Union feierlich, Glasfaser sei unverzichtbar fΓΌr Deutschlands digitale Zukunft.
Donnerwetter! Diese Erkenntnis hatte die SPD schon 1981.
Wenn die Union in diesem Tempo weitermacht, entdeckt sie demnΓ€chst auch noch das Internet.
β#Glasfaser ist lΓ€ngst mehr als ein schneller Internetanschluss. Sie ist die Grundlage fΓΌr digitale #Verwaltung, fΓΌr moderne #Industrie, fΓΌr kΓΌnstliche Intelligenz, fΓΌr Homeoffice & gleichwertige LebensverhΓ€ltnisse in #Stadt und #Landβ, sagt HansjΓΆrg #Durz zum Ausbau von Glasfaser- und Mobilfunknetzen.
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
oh man, ganz schΓΆn komisch, dass die CDU so heftig gegen die Linke kΓ€mpft, wΓ€hrend sie sich mit der AfD verbΓΌndet, ich frage mich ob es irgendein historisches Beispiel dafΓΌr gibt, was passiert wenn sich die Mitte mit den Rechtsradikalen verbΓΌndet
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Some men just don't know when to piss off
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor taking legal action against Thames Valley Police, England, over his arrest in February bbc.in/4AVscdd
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Best argument for term limits Iβve ever heard. βI canβt do my constitutional role of protecting the country because I am afraid I might lose a seat where my job is to protect the country.β
Itβs kinda disgusting. You swore an oath for Godβs sake.
"In his book, Tillis writes that at least 30 Republican senators have expressed reservations about many of Mr. Trump's actions, but usually are only willing to speak up privately, fearing that if POTUS decides to target them, their days will be numbered"
cbsnews.com/news/senator-thoβ¦
πΎπππππ πΌππππ πͺπΊ retweeted
Not to belabor the obvious, but countries with net negative migration are that way because no one wants to live there.
"We took America from a net positive migration to net negative" is basically just an admission of, "we made the United States obviously worse to live in."
