ReHacked vol. 306: #ReHacked was under attack, A Brilliantly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes & Networks and more
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Mad at Meta? Don't Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data | EFF #privacy
If you’re fed up with Meta right now, you’re not alone. Google searches for deleting Facebook and Instagram spiked last week after Meta announced its latest policy changes.
Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995) | Open Culture #history #society
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness… --Carl Sagan
Why Is Warner Brothers Discovery Dumping Old Movies On YouTube? #movies #art #history #copyrights
Warner Bros. Discovery has surprised the creative community by releasing over 30 full movies for free on YouTube without any gating or promotion. The collection includes a mix of well-known and obscure films, some of which were commercial failures upon release. The studio's decision to release the films on YouTube instead of using their own streaming service or Turner Classic Movies is a departure from their previous stance on protecting content with strict digital rights management. The move has been speculated to be due to the thinning out of the streaming content's long tail.
A Brilliantly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes & Networks - Brilliant Maps #history #rabbithole
The map above an incredibly detailed map of Medieval Trade Routes & Networks in Eurasia an Africa during the 11th-12th century. It is the is the fourth iteration of this map, which has undergone several minor refinements.
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer #history #society #longread
Alan Turing’s Secret “Delilah” Project - IEEE Spectrum #computers #history #cryptography #longread
In 1943, Turing set up bench space in a Nissen hut and worked on Delilah in secret. The hut was at Hanslope Park, a military-run establishment in the middle of nowhere, England. Today, Hanslope Park is still an ultrasecret intelligence site known as His Majesty’s Government Communications Centre. In the Turing tradition, HMGCC engineers supply today’s British intelligence agents with specialized hardware and software.
Turing seems to have enjoyed the two years he spent at Hanslope Park working on Delilah. He made an old cottage his home and took meals in the Army mess. The commanding officer recalled that he “soon settled down and became one of us.” In 1944, Turing acquired his young assistant, Bayley, who had recently graduated from the University of Birmingham with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. The two became good friends, working together on Delilah until the autumn of 1945. Bayley called Turing simply “Prof,” as everyone did in the Bletchley-Hanslope orbit.
Popular Linux orgs Freedesktop and Alpine Linux are scrambling for new web hosting - Ars Technica #software #hardware
In what is becoming a sadly regular occurrence, two popular free software projects, X.org/Freedesktop.org and Alpine Linux, need to rally some of their millions of users so that they can continue operating.
Both services have largely depended on free server resources provided by Equinix (formerly Packet.net) and its Metal division for the past few years. Equinix announced recently that it was sunsetting its bare-metal sales and services, or renting out physically distinct single computers rather than virtualized and shared hardware. As reported by the Phronix blog, both free software organizations have until the end of April to find and fund new hosting, with some fairly demanding bandwidth and development needs.
An issue ticket on Freedesktop.org's GitLab repository provides the story and the nitty-gritty needs of that project. Both the X.org foundation (home of the 40-year-old window system) and Freedesktop.org (a shared base of specifications and technology for free software desktops, including Wayland and many more) used Equinix's donated space.
Man convicted of drunk-driving a drone in Sweden’s first case of its kind | Sweden | The Guardian #technology #law
A man has been convicted for drunk-driving a drone in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Sweden.
The 55-year-old man was found guilty in July of flying the device at a classic car event in Rättvik, a town in Dalarna, central Sweden, in a temporary no-fly zone.
El Salvador Abandons Bitcoin as Legal Tender After Failed Experiment #economy #politics #blockchain
Bitcoin was never used by most Salvadorans, its modern city was never built, and now it will cease to be legal tender in El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt it in 2021: a complete failed economic bet by President Nayib Bukele. Congress, dominated by the ruling party, approved last Wednesday a confusing reform to the Bitcoin Law at the request of Bukele’s government, which had no other option to receive the $1.4 billion credit agreed in December with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The reform eliminated the word “currency” when referring to bitcoin, but says it is “legal tender.” Despite the lack of clarity, it lifts, as required by the IMF, the obligation to accept it in transactions or debt payments, a key condition for it to be “legal tender,” according to economic analysts. With the change, “if someone owes you money and wants to pay you in bitcoin, you can refuse to be paid in bitcoin, but you cannot refuse if it’s legal tender,” economist Carlos Acevedo explained.
A computer can never be held accountable #computing
Therefore a computer must never make a management decision
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