HiddenLayer555

joined 10 months ago
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[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

TLDR: While Linux is less susceptible to malware in some ways, it mostly boils down to Linux having a more technically minded userbase whereas Windows is a "mainstream" operating system.

Most Windows malware nowadays come from social engineering scams (complete this "captcha" by pressing Windows+R and pasting in this powershell script we conveniently put in your clipboard) or untrusted third party installers because Windows doesn't natively have a package manager. Like others have said, the old school self-propagating worms and drive by downloads that activate just by clicking on a link aren't really possible anymore (outside of state actors with unlimited budgets to buy zero days) unless your system or browser is horrifically outdated.

In terms of social engineering, Linux is not necessarily better at preventing it than Windows. In fact, sudo in Linux will unquestioningly delete the kernel and system software or make unlimited changes to them. Windows, for better or for worse (tbh more worse than better), uses TrustedInstaller to limit access to system files. Windows 11 won't easily let you delete or modify System32 for example, even if you're an admin. So it's in theory easier to do more damage to your system on Linux if you don't know what you're doing. But if someone is using Linux full time, they're most likely technical enough to not be fooled into running random untrusted bash commands.

The biggest thing is to be careful with those Linux terminal tutorial sites that have a "add to clipboard" button, they can put literally anything into your clipboard, including an enter key to run the script as soon as you put it in your terminal (though this may or may not be possible depending on your terminal app). Actually, they don't even need you to use their copy button. They can just set an event listener for control-C anywhere on their site and automatically replace the clipboard content. Just double check everything you copy before running it, especially since there's a lot of times where Linux users have to rely on obsecue tutorials hosted on untrusted websites.

You also don't really need to run untrusted installers on Linux because almost everything you need is in a properly moderated software repository, be it your native package manager, Flatpak, or Snap. Everything is signed by the authors and has a ton of eyes from the open source community on it. The only things to look out for is compiling something from GitHub, random AppImages, Elf binaries, scripts, and last but not least third party repositories that can be added as an installation source to your package manager/Flatpak/Snap. Basically, Linux gets most of its "doesn't get malware" reputation from the same place Mac does: you rarely have to manually download and run an executable from a random website, which is the norm on Windows. Add to the fact that even when that's needed, the Linux userbase is more technical and is more able to discern which sources are reputable and which are suspicious.

Another major source of malware is pirated versions of Windows or untrusted "license activators" from the internet. This just isn't a problem on Linux because there's no license to activate and it's free to begin with so there's nothing to pirate. And again, if someone is running Linux, they're probably technical enough to know not to run random pirated versions of paid software to begin with, helped by the fact that the vast majority of paid software is Windows only.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

Have they tried power cycling it?

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

They have the same mentality as the people dunking witches in the middle ages. "It's fine to kill them because they'll go to heaven if they're ~~not a witch~~ Jewish."

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Tell them to leave their front door unlocked. They should have no problem doing that, and if they do, call the police on them because it means they're hiding illegal activity in their home. /s

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Doesn't Israel claim that Iran imprisons Jews? They can't even pretend to keep their propaganda consistent, or worse, they actually believe it and wrote any hypothetical imprisoned Jews off as necessary sacrifices.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Nihilism. I've fully accepted that humans are definitely going extinct and I'm just along for the ride. It's oddly comforting to realize nothing you do matters in the long run because your entire species and society has no future. I'll focus on being a nice person to the few other humans that know me instead of trying to change the entire world, because realistically I can't change the world. If I can make some positive impacts to a few other individuals before we all die, I'll take that as a win.

Is that a healthy mindset? No. But I'm not a healthy person to begin with so I don't care.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Measure three times, cut zero times

taps head

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago

Don't salt your food before you eat it.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Depends on the species. Some birds (usually birds of prey) are extremely territorial especially to members of their own species which are obviously their biggest competitors.

 
 
 
 
 

I remember, and I'm gen z. And some higher end laptops had two battery slots so you can hot swap the batteries without turning it off.

Those were the days. Everyone talks about how smartphones nowadays get people addicted to instant gratification and convenience, but IMO the ability to swap out the battery when it died was a level of instant convenience we had decades ago that modern devices are severely lacking. Having to tether your phone to a battery bank while on the go is nowhere near as good as just popping the back cover and replacing the battery.

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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml to c/memes@lemmy.world
 
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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml to c/memes@lemmy.ml
 
 

KDE System Monitor and the like have easy ways of monitoring how many bits per second are going in and out of your storage at a given time, is there anything similar for memory?

 

The biggest issue with generative AI, at least to me, is the fact that it's trained using human-made works where the original authors didn't consent to or even know that their work is being used to train the AI. Are there any initiatives to address this issue? I'm thinking something like an open source AI model and training data store that only has works that are public domain and highly permissive no-attribution licenses, as well as original works submitted by the open source community and explicitly licensed to allow AI training.

I guess the hard part is moderating the database and ensuring all works are licensed properly and people are actually submitting their own works, but does anything like this exist?

 

They're trying to force the workers to strike so they can make their case to the government that the strike is disrupting an essential service and demand that they force the union to accept the terms. Literally the same thing happened a year ago: Postal workers make demands and are willing to negotiate, Canada Post completely refuses to negotiate and locks out the workers, workers strike, postal traffic in Canada grinds to a halt, millions of people and businesses are impacted, Canadian government cites the post office as an "essential service" and uses that to force the union and employer into arbitration even though the employer was the belligerent one and didn't even attempt to negotiate in the first place.

Also, news outlets scapegoated the union for all the delayed mail the last time they went on strike. "How could they do this to Canada? Can't they just accept working like slaves? It's an essential service after all, that means we get to exploit the people doing the job as much as we want and if they strike they're the problem!" No mention of what the union's actual demands were or how the post office itself acted.

Also also, Canada Post is NOT tax funded. It's a government institution that is set up like a normal corporation, but with the government as the shareholder. If that's not an ass backwards way of providing an essential service I don't know what is. Literally the worst of both worlds between private and public ownership.

 

They're trying to force the workers to strike so they can make their case to the government that the strike is disrupting an essential service and demand that they force the union to accept the terms. Literally the same thing happened a year ago: Postal workers make demands and are willing to negotiate, Canada Post completely refuses to negotiate and locks out the workers, workers strike, postal traffic in Canada grinds to a halt, millions of people and businesses are impacted, Canadian government cites the post office as an "essential service" and uses that to force the union and employer into arbitration even though the employer was the belligerent one and didn't even attempt to negotiate in the first place.

Also, news outlets scapegoated the union for all the delayed mail the last time they went on strike. "How could they do this to Canada? Can't they just accept working like slaves? It's an essential service after all, that means we get to exploit the people doing the job as much as we want and if they strike they're the problem!" No mention of what the union's actual demands were or how the post office itself acted.

Also also, Canada Post is NOT tax funded. It's a government institution that is set up like a normal corporation, but with the government as the shareholder. If that's not an ass backwards way of providing an essential service I don't know what is. Literally the worst of both worlds between private and public ownership.

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