Zak @ Zak @lemmy.world

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10

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1,244

Joined

2 yr. ago

Are two infamous grifters grifting?

That's a little less surprising to me. Organizations are likely to pick competing communication software if Teams is not available to everyone. Web browsers are generally interoperable after Microsoft lost the war to popularize one that wasn't.

I'm pretty neutral about the mere existence of software I'm not interested in using.

Microsoft Edge was a recent surprise. It's surprising both that Microsoft would create it and that any Linux users would run it. Since its Chromium based, there should be no need for developers to test Edge separately.

It’s interesting the number of comments about parenting advice as opposed to technology suggestion.

Was this unexpected? It has been my experience online that people are more likely to tell you what they think you need to hear than what you asked for.

I don't know you, your daughters, or their friends so I can't make specific recommendations. What I can say is that it's really common for teenagers who are sheltered from the dangers of the world to make more and bigger mistakes once they're unsupervised than those who get a gradual introduction.

The two main dangers of social media for most people are:

1. Encountering assholes. For girls and women, there's a high probability assholes will try to sexually exploit them. Since there are minimal consequences most of the time for sending "show me your tits", they're going to encounter that behavior eventually, and it may be easier to deal with for the first time when they have parental support.
2. Algorithmic rabbit holes. These can create the perception that problematic attitudes and behaviors are common and widely accepted when they are not. Having an open dialog with parents about anything from eating laundry detergent to Jordan Peterson can be a strong stabilizing influence.

I don't think a closed Fediverse server is likely to serve as a first step in a gentle introduction because it has neither danger and presumably no strangers to talk to. The full Fediverse might work better, as it does offer interaction with strangers. Encounters with assholes will be less frequent than on corporate social media, and any rabbit holes will be much more self-directed.

That said, when one of them is likely within a year or two of leaving home or at least having full control of her digital life, if she wants to use some corporate social media, she's probably better off doing that with some parental supervision and support than jumping in completely unprepared when you're no longer in a position to prevent it.

Her friend group has a group text and she wants to keep up with everyone but doesn’t want to get the ding notifications constantly.

This seems like a good opportunity to learn how the notification settings on her phone work.

The behavior you're describing does not sound like addiction. People with an addiction to a drug feel compelled to use the drug and become distressed if the drug is unavailable.

This is also not binge drinking by any commonly-used definition. Two pints of beer a day is generally considered moderate drinking, and you're not doing it every day, only when beer is on sale. Research does seem to be converging on drinking alcohol at all being bad for your health, however the effect size for occasional moderate drinking is small enough that it has been difficult to measure.

What you are describing is impulsive behavior. When you see beer on sale, you can't resist taking advantage of the offer. When you have beer, you drink it faster than you meant to. If you think about other areas of your life, can you find more examples where you struggle with impulse control?

Correct, but it is necessary to unlock the bootloader to gain root access without exploits.

Their goal is to ensure OEMs only bundle Google-approved Android for which Google charges licensing fees and which funnels users into Google services. If a phone won't run your banking app, you probably won't buy it.

Many devices, including Google's own Pixel devices have user-unlockable bootloaders. No security vulnerabilities are involved in the process of gaining root access or installing a third-party Android distribution on those devices.

What's going on here isn't patching a vulnerability, but tightening remote attestation, a means by which a device can prove to a third party app that it is not modified. They're selling it as "integrity" or proof that a device is "genuine", but I see it as an invasion of user privacy.

Google can’t exactly make root access and custom ROMs easier to use in 2025.

Sure they can. They're in a much stronger position to dictate terms to app developers than they were in 2010 when it was not yet clear there would be an Android/iOS duopoly.

They don't want to though, because their remote attestation scheme means they can force OEMs to only bundle Google-approved Android builds that steer people to use Google services that make money for Google, and charge those OEMs licensing fees. A phone that doesn't pass attestation isn't commercially viable because enough important apps (often banking apps) use it.

I know banks are pushing on Google to improve Android security, to avoid malicious apps with root access from messing with banking apps.

How do you know this? Do you have a link to a source that says it?

I've tried (not especially hard) to find sources in the past citing actual incidents where end-user devices running non-stock Android or with root access led to bank fraud or data breaches. I didn't find anything to suggest that's a problem in the real world.

The main malware problems I have seen reported for Android are:

1. Malware in the Play Store. This is the only way I've seen Android malware in the wild, on a family member's device.
2. Zero-click exploits. The best prevention for these is an up-to-date OS. On an older device, that means a third-party build that won't pass Google's checks.

It's unlikely they care much about a handful of people staying on old devices nor make all that much direct profit from phones sales. People who use old devices usually don't spend huge amounts in the mobile ecosystem anyway.

What they really don't want is OEMs selling non-Google-approved Android phones to the mass market. If important apps won't run, those devices won't sell.

Google’s primary aim with these changes is to improve app security for everyone

Bullshit. Google's primary aim is to make sure that Android builds which aren't Google-approved and may not integrate Google's profitable services as deeply are not commercially viable.

Remember to leave one-star reviews for any apps that use this shit.

It is increasingly unrealistic to entirely prevent children from having unsupervised access to internet-connected devices from a young age, but attempts to make it impossible for anyone under 18 to access porn are equally unrealistic, and often far worse than the problem they purport to solve.

With good parenting, the possibility of accessing porn won't harm most kids. It's not just about keeping them away from it, but about teaching healthy and realistic attitudes toward sex.

I agree, and I think my solution in combination with some filter lists addresses that problem pretty well. Very few eight year olds will have the ability or desire to bypass restrictions like that to look at porn.

Kids can't use computers, and that's not good for the world. If teenagers figure out enough about how the computer works to get around the parental controls and watch porn, I consider that a net win.

I don't actually care if teenagers sophisticated enough to do that see porn.

In a January blog post, it said age verification should take place on users' devices, such as through their operating system, rather than on individual, age-restricted sites.

The details of this are potentially problematic, as they could preclude the use of open source browsers and operating systems.

It would be great to standardize an HTTP header that says the user is underage, which could be sent by any OS/browser combination that has suitable parental controls.

I've encountered a number of outlets in American airports that should be replaced due to wear. They have very little friction on the prongs after millions of uses.

Trying to pet something I shouldn't.

You can now perform actions like “clear history,” “open downloads,” or “take a screenshot” just by typing into the address bar.

They've reinvented the command line.