Tootfinder

Hands-on with Gemini task automation on mobile: it's super impressive despite being very slow and failing at some tasks; it can order food, book Ubers, and more (Allison Johnson/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/898282/gemini-task-automation-uber…

Gemini task automation is slow, clunky, and super impressive
Gemini’s task automation feature on the Samsung S26 and Pixel 10 series is an impressive glimpse at what the future of AI assistants could look like.

The security industry is somewhat unique. It's probably the only industry created by the worker as a threat. If you talk to hackers who were in the scene before Operation Sundevil, you'll realize that it's always been a Bullshit Job.
Folks in L0ft and cDc were hacking companies and basically blackmailing them into paying for their services. Operation Sundevil "straightened up" the industry. Some people went to prison, some people build security services companies. Pretty much anyone who actually believed in the manifesto was locked up or edged out.
Using the Graeber framework here, hackers are partially duct tapers and partially goons. The critical thing here is that the industry was basically created to give money to people who would otherwise destroy the system.
Neuroatypical folks have always been forced to the margins of society, but computers gave us a super power. Now we were extremely dangerous. Tech, especially hackers, have always been paid a lot to minimize the risk of developing a class consciousness.
Graeber talked about this. Kings and nobles would often find some job or title that they could bestow on potential enemies in order to keep them close, to defang them. What better role than sheriff, a type of goon, for a rebel?
We turned it in to a whole thing. Not only did hackers make their own industry and force everyone else to accept it, we even created a whole parallel box ticker industry of "compliance" as a side effect.
The Hacker's Manifesto was decontectualized and made a fun artifact of the past. We were sold a story of "good hackers" who "protected grandma from the bad hackers." But the whole industry always existed to keep us on a leash. The funny thing is that it was a leash that we made ourselves.
But now we're seeing massive layoffs in tech, even in security. Now that we're this far in, everyone has forgotten the history. Leadership doesn't understand what security people do, so they think that LLMs can replace us. But the people in the industry now, the ones who came to it as a career, don't understand the history.
There was always a split for these weird outsiders, these people who couldn't fit in to the system but now had power over it. Some wanted in and they were willing to use extortion to get in, and others wanted to destroy the system to set everyone free.
Operation Sundevil, and the industry that evolved out of it, existed to neutralize those revolutionary elements by offering extortionists a safe entry. Extortionists trusted the capitalists to not stab them in the back the same way capitalists have stabbed everyone in the back through all of history. Now my LinkedIn feed is full of Meta layoffs, and I wonder if that class consciousness is starting to click for anyone yet.

Anker Thus: Winziger KI-Speicherchip verbessert Geräuschunterdrückung
In Dresden hergestellte Mini-Chips landen künftig in In-Ear-Headsets. Bei Ankers Thus laufen KI-Modelle in NOR-Flash.
https://www.…

For #MountainMonday I share a #photo from a hike a while ago. It was one of those situations: I didn't expect a good shot - but after all, I like this one pretty much
#Winter

Cressida Stephenson is only a quarter through #DigitalAccessibilityEthics, but her review is so far positive.
I appreciate her perspective on #GAAD. Which doesn’t mean doing something substantive has to be to buying this book, but it should be more than a post.
I’m not even putting…

"Scotland in bloom: wildflowers turn the Outer Hebrides into a Technicolor dream"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Scotland #Environment

Higgsfield AI premieres Hell Grind, a 95-minute fully AI-generated film, at Cannes and says it took two weeks and cost $500K to make, of which $400K was on AI (Isabelle Bousquette/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.ws…

Zahlen, bitte! 10957 Tage heise online — ein paar Zahlen zum Jubiläum
30 Jahre heise online bedeutet 10957 Tage Journalismus am Puls der IT-Zeit. Wir haben da ein paar Zahlen.
https://www.

"Facebook shuts Indonesia groups after Mongabay and Bellingcat report illegal wildlife trade"
#FaceBook #SocialMedia #Animals

Facebook shuts Indonesia groups after Mongabay and Bellingcat report illegal wildlife trade
This story was produced in collaboration with Bellingcat. Read their version here, and Mongabay-Indonesia’s version here. JAKARTA — A new report by Mongabay and independent journalism organization Bellingcat has uncovered several Facebook groups selling protected species in Indonesia, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. In a Facebook group whose Indonesian name translates […]

Anker announces Thus, a compute-in-memory chip it says will bring on-device AI to its products and accessories, starting with its upcoming Soundcore earbuds (John Higgins/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/916463/anker-thus-chip-announcement

Anker made its own chip to bring AI to all its products
The Thus chip will come to earbuds first before being rolled out to other Anker products.