drnick1

6 ms·

1.
by drnick1 3d ago
> turn off remote access services, dig through the infotainment to turn off what I could This is never enough. You can't trust a software switch. You need to remove the hardware capability if you want to make sure the car isn't
2.
by drnick1 3d ago
> You can do stuff like like turn it on to heat or cool the cabin, live track it's location, lock/unlock doors, open/close trunk, and updates are mostly for the infotainment systemn and driving assists. Are any of those th
3.
by drnick1 3d ago
If you want true, verifiable privacy and control, it's not an Apple TV that you need. Any old laptop or desktop computer can be used to stream content from the Internet using a Web browser or other "apps."
4.
by drnick1 3d ago
> I think it depends on the device. If I buy an iPhone, I have the expectation of installing apps on it after purchase, and that necessarily involves a relationship with the app store provider (ie. Apple) I bought my Pixel from Google an
5.
by drnick1 4d ago
> But what scares me is when every device comes with their own esim and cellular radio. Cars already do, and the solution is well-known: find the bug, and squash it. Yes, your car will still work, and you cannot be denied warranty becaus
6.
by drnick1 4d ago
Linux generally presumes that you run trusted software, not some proprietary program that is approximately malware. If you want a "sandbox" run that program as a separate unprivileged user or use bubblewrap.
7.
by drnick1 4d ago
If you have one of those TVs, disassemble it and unplug or remove the microphone, camera and the wireless adapter. Use it as a (rather nice) 4K monitor for a Linux box with Plasma in Bigscreen mode. Pair that with an airmouse remote and you
8.
by drnick1 5d ago
I know this isn't the solution you are looking for, but there is a fairly simple workaround and IMO it is superior: set up a Samba server or a Nextcloud instance, either at home or in the cloud, place it with behind a Wireguard tunnel,
9.
by drnick1 5d ago
To be honest the specs of the Fairphone are middling and the device is rather expensive for what you get. The Pixels are a much better value, especially with a series. If you want something truly high end, wait for the Motorola with officia
10.
by drnick1 8d ago
> The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. I think he is being over dramatic. In the space of about four years, LLMs progressed from mediocre high school student to Ph.D. graduate in ev
11.
by drnick1 8d ago
This is the right solution. I would be tempted to go one step further: disassemble the TV and remove the WiFi card, antennas, and other unneeded hardware such as microphones or cameras. Same treatment as modern cars with cellular modems.
12.
by drnick1 8d ago
> So I unplugged the ethernet cable and bought an Apple TV. What makes you think the Apple TV is any better? I'd wager that Apple collects just as much telemetry.
13.
by drnick1 8d ago
I would caution against this approach. It's fine to have Claude write a setup script, or whatever you need, but don't run coding agents as your main user on your production machine with full access to your files or whatever your &
14.
by drnick1 9d ago
I don't watch Netflix or AppleTV. I believe you can simply use a Web browser, at the expensive of capped resolutions on some streaming services. VacuumTube is a drop-in replacement and improvement for the YouTube/Leanback app. If
15.
by drnick1 9d ago
What makes you think the Apple TV isn't also spying on you? It almost certainly is collecting telemetry too. Whether that's more or less than LG I don't know, but my preference is a Linux box with Plasma Bigscreen.
16.
by drnick1 9d ago
> Folks, never update a TV firmware unless it's necessary. Why would a TV ever need a firmware update? Either it works out of the box or it doesn't and I return it. I never updated the firmware of my PC monitor either.
17.
by drnick1 12d ago
The idea here is that uBlock filters the domains that may serve the malware in the first place. It basically works the same as a DNS filter.
18.
by drnick1 12d ago
This is a scaling problem, not an intrinsic difficulty. Mullvad already had the infrastructure in place. I suspect the real reason is cost-cutting.
19.
by drnick1 12d ago
> Running a privacy-focused public DNS service is a highly specialized undertaking This seems like an overstatement: I have been running my own recursive DNS with Unbound for years and never thought it was a "highly specialized unde
20.
by drnick1 12d ago
This precisely points to my overregulation point. The E.U. shouldn't be telling private companies how to design their products.
21.
by drnick1 12d ago
One thing that I find extremely annoying when I occasionally read Julia code is the pervasive usage of Unicode. I explicitly forbid agents to use any anything other than ASCII for that reason.
22.
by drnick1 12d ago
Why do you expect models to do "genuinely new" things? 99.9% of real world tasks are extremely repetitive.
23.
by drnick1 12d ago
This is basically impossible to do on a global scale. And even within a jurisdiction, there is a great risk of overregulation, see e.g. Europe. Disclaimer: I am a Linux and GrapheneOS user, running my own DNS with filtering for trackers, et
24.
by drnick1 13d ago
"Internet" in this context usually means IP, and in any case it should be restricted to a LAN. If you actually own the device changing the domain or IP should be trivial, I don't think this is what the article refers to.
25.
by drnick1 13d ago
> Second, my email address also disappears. Third, all the IoT devices that use services on this domain become bricks. Basically, I disappear from the Internet. While changing email is inconvenient, I don't understand the point abou
26.
by drnick1 14d ago
There shouldn't be any telemetry in free software, end of. There are other ways to estimate the number of active users, e.g. through downloads and browser fingerprints. Mozilla does not need more money than it already has. Ladybird h
27.
by drnick1 14d ago
Maybe if Google did not shove their spyware down people's throats and actually allowed users control of their phones, there wouldn't be a need for projects like Graphene and Lineage. Until then, complaints are more than justified.
28.
by drnick1 14d ago
What do you mean? Graphene is also free software and everyone including Google can use it and learn from it.
29.
by drnick1 14d ago
Google's spyware (Play Services) ceases to work normally and Graphene had to patch it to run as an unprivileged app. So that's one "loss." I personally don't bother with Google dependencies at all. If an app require
30.
by drnick1 15d ago
All of this seems about right.

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