Lou Katz @lou@entropyservice.com

I wish that I could convey to everyone who needs convincing that the text “AI” could *reasonably* be replaced with “A magic 8-ball” in most tech-related sentences and it would be very close to a difference without a distinction.

KnockLA reporter Ben Camacho prevails in lawsuot filed against him by the LAPD after Stop LAPD Spying published pictures of cops that Camacho secured in a public records request. City of LA will pay his legal fees. https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-police-lawsuit-lapd-b784ea5809942fe169cdc35a54e6b0fc

I’m getting stronger with age. I can now lift $100 worth of groceries with one hand.

Tech companies, please stop making things smaller and thinner, it's not 1998. We want longer battery life and our things to be repairable, instead of replaceable. If you can't think of any actual innovations, stop wasting resources!

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently investigated how Philadelphia narcotics cops not only allegedly failed to disclose their use of video surveillance in arrest reports or to prosecutors, but also that the video footage at times proved officers were lying when they testified. We talked to the founder of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project about what these new video systems can do and the privacy and other issues they raise.
https://theconversation.com/what-philadelphians-need-to-know-about-the-citys-7-000-camera-surveillance-system-230073
#News #privacy #surveillance

CISA (CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) releases report detailing grave vulnerabilities in #Motorola Solutions automated license plate reader system (formerly known as #Vigilant). 1.6 billion scans a year in California are collected and stored in Motorola's system #ALPR .https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-24-165-19

CISA (CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) releases report detailing grave vulnerabilities in #Motorola Solutions automated license plate reader system (formerly known as #Vigilant). 1.6 billion scans a year in California are collected and stored in Motorola's system #ALPR .https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-24-165-19

@krnlg @pluralistic

The lesson I take from this is simple: In order to have a good economy and a well functioning society you need a good justice system. But when you do, along come Vikings who intend to unjustly tear away as much of societies riches as they can – and they ignore your justice system.

At which point you have two choices: Pay Danegeld or fight.

And I contend we have been paying Danegeld since the Reagan years. Which has only resulted in more Vikings.

I'll wait for the experts to weigh in on this, but it's hard to keep trusting Mozilla when it buys an advertising company that claims -- contrary to essentially all available history of the genre -- to protect user privacy.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-anonym-raising-the-bar-for-privacy-preserving-digital-advertising/

I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying that I have reason to doubt this promise.

I would hate to abandon Firefox, and would hope that Ublock Origin and other plugins will keep working.

But this is, at best, a worrisome development.

The artist Edward Hopper lived and had his studio on Washington Square in an NYU-owned apartment, from which, despite his considerable fame, the university persistently tried to evict him.

Once he died, the University preserved the apartment as "The Edward Hopper Studio".

This story encapsulates most of what you need to know about university politics, NYC real estate, and the regard society has for actual working artists.

The user experience of the modern web is just so wonderful.

I mean, I'm so glad these ads are targeted, because I've never had a drink in my life and the guys in these photos have me seriously considering stopping drinking.

@rbreich The embarrassing thing about this is how cheap it is. For billionaires this is shake out the couch money.

Note: the debate isn't just over "merit and luck." The third possibility is crime: the share of the propertied classes' wealth that results either from outright expropriation and enclosure, or from unearned economic rents on artificial property rights and artificial scarcities enforceable only by state violence. @pluralistic
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/17/lovilee-jubilee/

Senate Democrats launch investigation into Jared Kushner's business
https://www.axios.com/2024/06/20/jared-kushner-senate-democrats-investigation?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Axios @axios-AxiosNews

Commercial EV chargers are a great example of how capitalism won't get us there..

If a gas car costs ~$0.17/mile, (CA, including gas taxes).

Generally in California a "retail" kWh costs around $0.44, much cheaper for solar during the day.

For a current Nissan Leaf, any charger's kWh price above $0.60 makes it _more_ expensive than gasoline.

I have seen some chargers pushing $1.50-$3.00 per kWh which is, in rural areas literally highway robbery.

Capitalism will not get us there.

In 2001 a fool tried to blow up a jet with a shoe bomb so we've had to take off our shoes at the airport for the last 23 years. In 2006 morons tried to blow up a jet with liquids, so for 18 years we can't bring liquids onto a plane.

But in 2017 a lunatic murdered 60 people in Las Vegas, and that got the bump-stock firearm he used banned for seven whole years until yesterday. #Ammosexuals #guncontrol #Scotus

On Juneteenth remember that human trafficking was legal. Slavery was legal. Jim Crow was legal. US Govt paying reparations to white enslavers who lost their “property” but not to the enslaved who lost their lives, was legal.

Do not let legality be a measure of morality or justice.

And if you need another example, consider that prison slavery still IS legal and the private prison industry is a multi billion dollar industry on the backs of imprisoned enslaved people.

Each day, someone is born that didn’t know the internet classic™ way to keep your hotel room’s blackout curtains together using the pants holder thingy on a hotel clothes hanger