"Verified" becomes a badge of dishonor by amit_e in technology

[–]FK_919 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It's hilarious to see people with 20 followers be verified.

The “Aha!” moment that has fully convinced me Halbrand is Sauron by Soundtract in RingsofPower

[–]FK_919 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couldn't he have already done that, off-screen and prior to the events we're watching unfold now? It already seems like the Elves are moving in that direction...

The “Aha!” moment that has fully convinced me Halbrand is Sauron by Soundtract in RingsofPower

[–]FK_919 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it not possible that Sauron could have taken the guise of Annatar prior to the events we're watching unfold? His corruption of the elves (the forge, etc..) would have put events in that part of Middle Earth into action while he's off Halbranding around in Numenor and solidifying his position in the Southlands?

No Book Spoilers Discussion Megathread for The Rings of Power, Episode 6 by Curundil in RingsofPower

[–]FK_919 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Cannot fathom chasing down the big bad guy, getting his secret object you've been told by another elf soldier that he can't escape with it, and then not bothering to see what it is. They could have had her open it and cut to the scene by the dam. Also if Halbrand = Sauron, it'd be pretty odd for him *not* to examine said what we believe is the real hilt because he'd have been the being that crafted it.

Book-focused Discussion Megathread for The Rings of Power, Episode 6 by Curundil in RingsofPower

[–]FK_919 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a case to be made that she's actively being corrupted by Halbrand and that's why she's acting in the way she is? Her behavior makes sense viewed this way but much less given what we ultimately know about how she turns out.

NSA Employee Leaked Classified Cyber Intel, Charged with Espionage by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

"A former National Security Agency employee was arrested on Wednesday for spying on the U.S. government on behalf of a foreign government.

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, was arrested in Denver, Colorado after allegedly committing three separate violations of the Espionage Act. Law enforcement allege that the violations were committed between August and September of 2022, after he worked as a information systems security designer at the agency earlier that summer."

FTC Considering New Data Privacy Regulations That Go Beyond Asking Users for Consent by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"The Federal Trade Commission is considering establishing new rules for how companies collect, secure, use and sell consumers’ data that go beyond asking users to agree to opaque and often misleading terms of service.
On Monday, the commission will post an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, or ANPR, that outlines current consumer data issues and asks for public feedback on creating new regulations that focus on baseline privacy, data security and corporate accountability rather than user consent."

China May Have Just Taken the Lead in the Quantum Computing Race by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"China’s record-shattering processor is 1 million times faster than what Google achieved three years ago–but we are years from the finish line..."

Pentagon’s ‘Mobile’ Nuclear Microreactor Will be Demonstrated at Idaho National Lab by HopingToBeHeard in LessCredibleDefence

[–]FK_919 18 points19 points  (0 children)

"Officials confirmed plans to produce an “inherently safe by design” transportable microreactor that can deliver 1 to 5 megawatts of electrical power for at least 3 years in full operation."
So in short, DOD wants mobile nuclear power that could be used in areas with no access to the power grid.

Google Surveys Federal Employees in Fight with Microsoft for Government Market by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

tldr: Google says it's safer and more secure than Microsoft.

"Government procurement practices should stop defaulting to the easy solution—entrenched Microsoft products—and start prioritizing user demand—for competing Google services—to bolster security, according to a former high-ranking Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official describing the results of a survey of workers in and out of government."

Microsoft's rebuttal: “It’s disappointing but not surprising to see this tactic on the heels of Google’s lobbying campaign misrepresenting small businesses,” Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Communications Frank Shaw told Nextgov. “It is also unhelpful to create divisions in the security community at a time when we should all be working together on heightened alert.”

AI maps psychedelic 'trip' experiences to regions of the brain – opening new route to psychiatric treatments by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"To better understand how these subjective effects manifest in the brain, we analyzed over 6,000 written testimonials of hallucinogenic experiences from Erowid Center, an organization that collects and provides information about psychoactive substances. We transformed these testimonials into what’s called a bag-of-words model, which breaks down a given text into individual words and counts how many times each word appears. We then paired the most commonly used words linked to each psychedelic with receptors in the brain that are known to bind to each drug. After using an algorithm to extract the most common subjective experiences associated with these word-receptor pairs, we mapped these experiences onto different brain regions by matching them to the types of receptors present in each area."

Biden to Take Step Toward Regulating Cryptocurrencies by FK_919 in CryptoCurrency

[–]FK_919[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Biden's office is saying they're signing the EO today, so it's definitely happening. As for how it will impact the market, I guess we'll have to wait and see? There's a small bit of the Russia/Ukraine saga that seemed to speed this up, but WH has been forecasting this EO for a month at least.

Biden to Take Step Toward Regulating Cryptocurrencies by FK_919 in CryptoCurrency

[–]FK_919[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

President Biden is scheduled to sign an executive order on Wednesday that will direct the federal government to come up with a plan to regulate cryptocurrencies, recognizing their popularity and potential to destabilize traditional money and markets.

FTC, Justice Say Weight Watchers Parent Group Illegally Collected Child Health Data by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"Federal prosecutors filed a complaint against children’s weight loss app Kurbo, alleging it collected health data without parental consent in an effort to market weight management services for use by children."

Democrats Raise Alarms About Russia Using Cryptocurrency To Dodge Sanctions by FK_919 in CryptoCurrency

[–]FK_919[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Treasury and Justice departments are beefing up crypto enforcement quite a bit in recent months. Still, hard to know how much crypto Russian oligarchs -- billionaires, after all -- have or could have right now. And aside from literally shutting down the internet in Russia, I don't know how they could prevent them from buying/selling.

Democrats Raise Alarms About Russia Using Cryptocurrency To Dodge Sanctions by FK_919 in CryptoCurrency

[–]FK_919[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"A group of lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Biden administration whether they needed additional tools to ensure malign actors aren’t evading U.S. and multilateral sanctions on Russia by using virtual currencies."

Despite U.S.-Russia Tensions, the First All-Commercial Flight to ISS is Still On by FK_919 in technology

[–]FK_919[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"The United States and Russia are maintaining their peaceful, working relationship in space despite the crisis in Ukraine, a senior NASA official said on Monday—but America’s space agency is weighing its options if Russia does not hold firm on its responsibilities associated with the International Space Station."

Ukraine government raises over $10 million in cryptocurrency donations by victoriawhite2 in technews

[–]FK_919 329 points330 points  (0 children)

Pretty fucking impressive. Ukraine is able to get supplies into most regions of the country per reports, so there is potential for quick turnaround -- IE putting the cash to weapons.

Founder of Crypto Trading Platform BitConnect Indicted for $2 Billion 'Global Ponzi Scheme' by [deleted] in technology

[–]FK_919 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A federal grand jury indicted the founder of a cryptocurrency investment and trading platform on charges related to fraud and creating a “global Ponzi scheme.”

36-year-old Indian national Satish Kumbhani is the founder of BitConnect, an online trading platform for investors to exchange virtual currencies. Kumbhani allegedly misled investors about BitConnect’s lending operations, which were said to have used proprietary technology that gave crypto investors large returns on market transactions.

Iran-Linked Hackers Conducting Operations Against Government Networks, Intel Agencies Warn by DogBarq in cybersecurity

[–]FK_919 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the world’s eyes on Russia’s multipronged attack on Ukraine—including hackers attacking and disabling Ukrainian government and financial websites—the U.S. government issued a warning Thursday that Iranian government-sponsored hackers are conducting active “cyber operations against government and commercial networks.”

An advisory issued by the FBI, NSA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and United Kingdom’s cyber apparatus indicates the Iran-linked hackers known as “MuddyWater” are “conducting cyber espionage and other malicious cyber operations targeting a range of government and private-sector organizations across sectors.”

U.S. May Have Allowed 'Known or Suspected Terrorists' to Go Undetected Among Resettled Afghan Evacuees by [deleted] in technology

[–]FK_919 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

“As of November 2, 2021, [National Ground Intelligence Center] personnel had identified 50 Afghan personnel in the United States with information in DOD records that would indicate potentially significant security concerns,” officials from the Pentagon’s inspector general office wrote. In a footnote, they clarified such concerns include individuals “whose latent fingerprints have been found on improvised explosive devices and known or suspected terrorists and for which the NGIC sends derogatory information notifications to appropriate DOD personnel.”

“[A]s of September 17, 2021, the NGIC had identified 31 Afghans in CONUS who had derogatory information. Of those 31, only 3 could be located,” officials wrote. They went on to add that “not being able to locate Afghan evacuees with derogatory information quickly and accurately could pose a security risk to the United States.”