Recently picket up this old Thinkpad T30 for 2 bucks at a local flea market. Its a bit scratched up and the battery is more or less dead but everything else is working fine. Its Pentium 4M, 1gb of ram and 40gb hdd might be a bit overkill for win2k but its really amazing. Running Firefox 13 and a webone proxy to deal with ssl...
I probably wouldn’t bother. I can think of two scenarios you might get spied on.
Through your browser you’ve granted a website access to your webcam (Zoom etc.) and left a tab open. Maybe it could activate it when you weren’t expecting?
Someone has used a vulnerability to take control of your computer to the degree it can access your webcam directly. Desktop linux software doesn’t usually have meaningful isolation between software running as the same user, so at this point they can grab all your data, passwords, take screenshots, etc. and the webcam is just the cherry on top.
I expect most people don’t do (1) very often, let alone for sketchy websites, so IMO it doesn’t make much difference either way.
Looking for perspectives about the above. On my meanderings around the web I’ve found cybersecurity is all the rage now, cybersecurity experts are desperately needed. Looks a bit like a protection scheme to me - first have everyone save their data in the cloud and buy a smart fridge, then flood everything with ethical hacking...
Smart fridges are one thing but there are many innocent folk relying on internet services to do normal and important things involving sensitive data - talk to family and friends, access healthcare, attend work, do their banking, school and childcare enrolments, even insurance. Should these things be replaced by rooms full of filing cabinets? Maybe, I dunno, that’s a big call. Short of substantial collapse that renders the internet unavailable, these sort of things will continue to be online and ordinary people deserve all the security they can get. If you’re working in cybersecurity to help people like this, then that is totally ethical in my view.
If you’re lucky maybe you can land a role with some direct permacomputing aspects - reduce hardware requirements, simplification of systems, maintaining old hardware to maximise lifespan. But just avoiding roles where you or your organisation is encouraging people to view more ads or buy more stuff would be a good start.
The odd numbered versions of PLAN have always been buggy and unpopular and I think Bell Labs is using their monopoly to push everybody to update to PLAN 9 even if they need a new computer with a third mouse button. What is your favourite PLAN?
It’s best not to think of SDF admins in binary terms like “present” or “absent”. They are an undulating force which makes changes here and there and we’re all along for the ride.
I was comparing frozen diced veggies a couple of years back (in Australia) and noticed that the store-brand version was approximately 1/3 broccoli stems by volume, which certainly explained the cost difference.
Honestly I’m glad they highlighted the telemetry. I went through the local report about what’s included and while it’s not an upsetting level of detail, it’s more comprehensive than I would have opted in to if asked.
Still, as sibling points out it’s in a completely different league from slurping up your IMAP creds, something which has always been local-only data. This is the second time I know of recently where MS has trampled on this kind of local-only expectation - the other was Edge defaulting to sending the contents of textboxes you’re filling out on webpages to the MS cloud for spelling and grammar checks. Thunderbird is still a sound recommendation, and unlike Microsoft, I trust that if I uncheck the telemetry box they’re not going to try to get me some other way.
That is the discussion. Microsoft is pretending by making it the upgrade path for two products which actually are local, and hoping users won’t notice.
For a long time Firefox Desktop development has supported both Mercurial and Git users. This dual SCM requirement places a significant burden on teams which are already stretched thin in parts. We have made the decision to move Firefox development to Git....
Nothing in tech stands still. If you want a glimpse of a possible alternative future check out Pijul. And I don’t know an example off-hand but the idea of doing version control on ASTs of program code rather than flat text is an interesting concept that hasn’t taken off yet.
Curious what people here think about Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker’s statement in Google’s anti-monopoly trial-. She claims that Firefox uses Google as its default search because users prefer it, not because of payments from Google.
Debian just released a kernel update with hundreds of CVE IDs (lists.debian.org)
It’s quite the list
Passkeys: A Shattered Dream (fy.blackhats.net.au)
Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to ssh server compromise (www.openwall.com)
On Tech Debt: My Rust Library is now a CDO (lucumr.pocoo.org)
GoFetch: Breaking Constant-Time Cryptographic Implementations Using Data Memory-Dependent Prefetchers (gofetch.fail)
KDE advises extreme caution after theme wipes Linux user's files (www.bleepingcomputer.com)
OC Completely Unauthorized Fan Art
C++ creator rebuts White House warning (www.infoworld.com)
Python is memory safe? Can’t you access/address memory with C bindings?
The Superior Lemmy Experience (files.catbox.moe)
Recently picket up this old Thinkpad T30 for 2 bucks at a local flea market. Its a bit scratched up and the battery is more or less dead but everything else is working fine. Its Pentium 4M, 1gb of ram and 40gb hdd might be a bit overkill for win2k but its really amazing. Running Firefox 13 and a webone proxy to deal with ssl...
Is it unnecessary to cover one's webcam on Linux?
Cross-posted to: sh.itjust.works/post/15859253...
New Linux glibc flaw lets attackers get root on major distros (www.bleepingcomputer.com)
Warcraft 2 Soundtrack - I'm a Medieval Man (Hidden Track) (youtu.be)
Solarpunk ethical work within IT?
Looking for perspectives about the above. On my meanderings around the web I’ve found cybersecurity is all the rage now, cybersecurity experts are desperately needed. Looks a bit like a protection scheme to me - first have everyone save their data in the cloud and buy a smart fridge, then flood everything with ethical hacking...
PLAN 6 is the best
The odd numbered versions of PLAN have always been buggy and unpopular and I think Bell Labs is using their monopoly to push everybody to update to PLAN 9 even if they need a new computer with a third mouse button. What is your favourite PLAN?
Outbound federation is not working
For example this post visible from lemmy.sdf.org is nowhere to be seen on the corresponding thread on lemmy.ml.
deleted_by_author
Mastodon blocks
I asked admin of my instance few minutes ago and didn’t get reply yet, but it seems your instance(mastodon.sdf.org) blocks pone.social....
What is a product that you won’t accept a generic alternative for?
For example, if you insist on buying Advil instead of store brand ibuprofen. I mean, you’d be wasting your money in that example, but you do you
Microsoft lays hands on login data: Beware of the new Outlook (www.heise.de)
Firefox Development Is Moving From Mercurial To Git (groups.google.com)
For a long time Firefox Desktop development has supported both Mercurial and Git users. This dual SCM requirement places a significant burden on teams which are already stretched thin in parts. We have made the decision to move Firefox development to Git....
First handset with MTE on the market (googleprojectzero.blogspot.com)
Winning solitaire Windows 3.1 (toobnix.org)
Firefox lost users during “failed” Yahoo search deal, says Mozilla CEO (arstechnica.com)
Curious what people here think about Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker’s statement in Google’s anti-monopoly trial-. She claims that Firefox uses Google as its default search because users prefer it, not because of payments from Google.