Pretend for a moment that Microsoft shipped Windows with a keylogger to make sure that you did not commit any form of crime. I don't want a keylogger on my PC even though I don't intend to commit crime.
I also appreciate privacy even though I "have nothing to hide" - just because I "have nothing to hide" it doesn't mean I want companies scanning my camera roll.
Paraphrasing Bruce Schneier [0] for another example even “non-technical” people should understand (I have heard people essentially agreeing to the hypothetical keylogger because of “nothing to hide”, after all…):
I have nothing to hide, and yet I’d still prefer to go to the bathroom with the door closed.
If Microsoft or any other company is actually shipping a keylogger, the idea is definitely not to prevent you from committing any crime, but more to spy on you. Why would they care if you break laws unless it affects them?
Private companies do not surveil you with the intention of blackmailing or policing you (i.e., "you have something to hide!"), so it doesn't really apply here. By default, every user on a platform has something to hide, i.e. their data and usage and must be given the option to hide that or keep it anon.
If you do have something to hide, Microsoft's Windows telemetry features aren't even your top security concern if you're smart.
As a black man, I can't help but think of the whole Chris Brown thing here. Yes, I personally found what he did disgusting, and if everyone else obviously felt that way, I would keep that up.
But no -- I know too many Black women who have -- I suppose -- chosen forgiveness. Too many intelligent humans that I know or know of, are good with this for me to say "No, ladies, you are wrong."
That is a problem I've had with the whole "listen to women" thing. That became a popular phrase and I said okay that's reasonable I'll do so. Over time though I'll see women on both sides of just about every issue. Even women having the right to vote you'll somehow find women who disagree(probably for political reasons).
My only conclusion is the whole idea of "listen to women" is itself simplistic as it assumes women all think the same. Certainly I still listen to women, but im not willing to assume they all feel a certain way just because a few people insist they do. Otherwise Im just ignoring the women with the minority view
I don't know the particular "listen to women" trend you're referring to there but, as you say, there is no doubt that women hold diverse and independent views like men do.
So no statement by some or other advocate can legitimately claim to be the viewpoint of all women. Myself, I also wouldn't want that to be a bar that must be cleared to get onto the platform and take the mic.
We can listen even as women debate their own varied viewpoints with other women. And women themselves must call out and challenge the misrepresentations made in their name, it's a responsibility that comes with the mic.
It's about as fun, and as realistic, as imagining magical ponies and people with superpowers?
This is such an incredibly naive and absurd vision; we've already proven that humans are very often very bad at implementing other humans' good ideas. There's nothing that AI is likely to bring that will improve this discernment.
Srsly, all those neck beards who over simplify the problem with a flippant "don't use zoom", as if everyone has the luxury to skip every job interview and employer meeting that absolutely requires Zoom. I wish I could live in their world where every problem is solved by simply avoiding that problem.
Zoom isn't just a technical problem. It's literally malware. The list of issues they've knowingly caused and sometimes even refused to fix is endless. They have made it clear they absolutely don't care about security in any way and they've built their entire business around that.
As I work in cyber security there's no way I'll install that shit on my personal PC. Yes I could spin up a VM but I don't want to. I could probably use it over the web but that's it.
So I'd refuse and that company's reply should inform me whether I'd want to work there in the first place. If they insist their security practices will be so lax that I will be just spending my time cleaning up everyone else's mess. In fact any employer using zoom in the first place is a huge red flag.
I currently work for a huge multinational and they have the zoom client blocked through antimalware. Anyone wishing to use it with customers or suppliers must use the web version only.
This is a habit tech people fall into. "Amazon deleted my book" -> well just strip the DRM off it. "My ISP monitors me" -> well just use a VPN instead. "Ads make it hard to use the internet" -> well just use an ad blocker.
Ironically if more tech people just rawdogged the internet I think we would have more progress.
Just use a browser instead of some silly client, problem mostly solved. Use X11 or Wayland or whatever else you want, for God's sake. I don't remember any god ever claiming salvation lies in abandoning the most functional display server on the market so I'll just keep on using X11. If and when Wayland or some other alternative ever becomes as useful as X11 I might hop over but for now Wayland is a solution in search of a problem as far as I'm concerned.
It takes experience to learn why people call it the "bleeding edge". GPU acceleration is often broken in a lot of distros, and it is unkind to new users that have a panic attack dropping into a CLI shell.
LightDM at least works 99% of the time, being Cross-desktop one can select a Wayland session just fine (great when it is working), or fall back to a software compositor Cinnamon Desktop when things bork after an update. =3
Fine words, until the GPU driver goes sideways in Wayland. And... I like running multi-seat headless sessions on my local LAN hosts for several reasons. =3
My partial solution is to have the Android Zoom client on an idle tablet. Even though it is my office VOIP phone too, I power it off when I don't have meetings scheduled.
If someone tries to demand screen sharing, I ask one of my coworkers to drive, since they've joined from their laptop already.
I only launch the Linux Zoom client when I absolutely know I'm going to need to host a meeting and demonstrate software running on my end. I feel equally disgusted about Zoom and the corporate EDR agent. I basically feel like the most likely source of compromise of my laptop is these proprietary tools forced on me from above.
The thing that worries me is SSO for work. I wish there was a completely different identity for all the work-related apps and for my payroll/benefits portal. I.e. if they want to endanger my login that manages my work product, fine, but I don't appreciate them endangering my login that manages my own compensation, tax deductions and retirement transfers, and health insurance...
As an engineer I’d be impressed and would put you up to the top of the pile
Sadly I don’t run the company, and as a hiring manager that’s a great way to reduce my shortlist. We can’t have people like myself who ignore corporate policies.
If we are doing a survey of self hosted video conferencing services I would like to propose galene. Very easy to set up, I run it on obsd(an unsupported platform) and it just works.
Perhaps things have gotten better over time, but I did this 4 or 5 years ago and it was anything but trivial. I got it working, but it was a huge pain to set up.
The docker image build recipes should be easy to find these days.
Usually it is just local networking appliance rules that cause issues for some users. Likely a great learning experience for the uninitiated. Have a great day =3
Zoom also works on all browsers. Clearly you had a hot take, people corrected you, and now you're doubling down by suggesting, of all things, a Google product.
Sure. Now, how to deal with the entirely plausible situation where there needs not be any separation between the developer and the customer at all, thanks to AI.
I mean, sure, it would probably be embarrassing to have to say "because this was extremely stupid and nonsensical and entirely due to the weird hangups of the present guy in charge."
Perhaps the explanation is: to make space for other incoherent self-defeating policies like threatening the Fed that they'll increase tariffs if rates aren't lowered?
They're not weird at all given his worldview. It's Nazism. From his book to his public statements and actions, he consistently expresses this. The only thing he does not do is use the literal language that is not accepted. But the meaning and actions are the same. People are in denial.
Once again, all models are wrong, some are useful.
I suppose this one "fails" because of "granularity?"
I'm personally getting more comfortable with the "kabillion dimensional space" one. Even before the rise of this AI thing I'd gotten comfortable with (teaching in a very generalized way) the concept of matrix/vector math as doing this sort of thing.
Start with the math required to calculate "what the building on the screen looks like" when you're playing a video game.
Then I jump to...dating websites. You give it "dimensions" like height, weight, religion, sexual preference, music preference, whether you like long walks on the beach, whatever -- then you can calculate how "close" two people are to one another.
The first is equivalent to "I don't want my operating system to be used to program viruses."
The second is "I don't want vendors to include marketing in their product."
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