@adespoton@lemmy.ca
Em Adespoton
member since 4 Jun 2023 05:55
comments
- on 99% of My Website Traffic Is Bots: A year of fighting scrapers on my 1.5 million-page website. What I tried, how I failed, and what's working now. in c/technology@beehaw.org · 23m ago
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on Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain in c/technology@lemmy.world · 47m ago
Part of it might be how Google trained everyone to use natural language queries in their searches.
Instead of “how to fit a dog collar” does
“pet advice” +”dog collar” “guidance for new dog owners”
give you better results?
The idea is to search for a cluster of terms that are likely to be on the page you want to find, but aren’t hyper-focused like SEO pages.
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on Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain in c/technology@lemmy.world · 53m ago
I don’t; I think googlebot is paying attention to it, and AI sites get a LOT of their initial visibility and site ranking from the Google index.
Case in point: the sites I spend time on that set robots.txt to deny all bots before the LLM wave started still aren’t getting hammered with AI bot requests, while the ones that didn’t are.
I can see it on my own websites as well; I’ve got one that’s in Google’s index, and it gets a constant low volume traffic from AI bots. The ones that aren’t listed? They just get traffic from exploit scanners.
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on Anthropic’s biolab made a discovery it’s comparing to Crispr in c/technology@lemmy.world · 18h ago
Why does the phrase “Anthropic’s biolab” make me immediately think of zombie movies?
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on ‘I miss old Google’: readers tell us how they search the internet in the age of AI in c/technology@lemmy.world · 18h ago
No?
I’m younger than those people and I still remember using Open Directory, HotBot, MetaSearch, AltaVista and the rest.
For that matter, I remember the Internet before the World Wide Web when we used WAIS, Archie, Veronica and Jughead to search FTP and Gopher sites.
“Old Google” to me ended around the time they merged with Double Click. It’s got significantly worse three times since then.
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on Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain in c/technology@lemmy.world · 18h ago
They don’t—but they DO use search index data to figure out where to crawl.
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on Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain in c/technology@lemmy.world · 19h ago
I haven’t used Google as a primary search engine in a decade or more. Nothing I do depends on Gemini (I don’t even use Apple Intelligence that’s a Gemini white label).
Personally, I think what Gemini is destroying is a market-based financial model that many came to associate with the Internet, information access and lifestyle.
Most of the websites I visit pre-date Google and some have gone as far as blocking all bots via robots.txt. They survive not via predatory ad networks but by donations and volunteers.
It’s why I like Lemmy; it follows the same model.
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on Enjoy owning your devices while you still can. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
Yeah; the HAM is a “next step” thing for if they lock down the microwave band somehow.
But also, a HAM license is required to operate LoRa at higher power broadcast, at least in my country. At under 10km range low bandwidth, it isn’t currently needed.
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on Enjoy owning your devices while you still can. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
Pretty much.
/someone who runs their own SMTP service.
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on Enjoy owning your devices while you still can. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
They already are though.
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on Enjoy owning your devices while you still can. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
That’s an interesting one actually. If they licked down HAM regulations, they’d lose their relief valve/last line of defense.
It’s not that some idiotic government couldn’t do it, but if they did then they’d lose what control they currently have AND be totally screwed of anything went wrong.
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on Enjoy owning your devices while you still can. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
That’s when I buy a LoRa array and a ham license.
The thing about the Internet is that anyone can be an ISP and any devices can be networked. If consumer ISPs become gatekeepers, we can network without them. And then we can tunnel encrypted data over the official devices that can’t be fully locked down.
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on Devastated father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft channel using a company credit card — bill racked up in just three weeks was supposed to be one $20 in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
That’s an interesting case of hypocrisy you’ve got there.
It’s possible for everyone in this scenario to be wrong, and they are. Including you.
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on Devastated father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft channel using a company credit card — bill racked up in just three weeks was supposed to be one $20 in c/technology@lemmy.world · 17 Sep 2026
That’s an odd take here.
Man uses company card for personal purchases, then leaves account management with 9 year old son.
Let’s say this was:
Bob has Bill’s key to his house, so he can take care of it while Bill is away. One day, Bob’s son says he needs some peanut butter. Bob says “let’s use some of Bill’s — he’s away, and we can replace it before he gets back.”
So Bob and his son go over to Bill’s place and take his peanut butter. Bob leaves the key with his son.
Later that day, his son is hungry but Bob isn’t around. So the son goes over to Bill’s house and eats everything in Bill’s fridge.
Bill gets home the next day and finds his fridge empty an a note from Bob saying he borrowed his peanut butter.
It doesn’t matter that Bill was off at a puppy shooting convention. Bob and his son are both in the wrong here.
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on Why is Google still serving dodgy ads? in c/technology@lemmy.world · 14 Sep 2026
Google operated by “don’t be evil” right up until they merged with Double Click. That merger itself forcibly removed the “don’t.”
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on should i worry about a microphone in a third-party usb tv remote for a mini pc that im planning on using? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 13 Sep 2026
lemmy.world/post/51876426 - linking this here :)
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on What to do with photos? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 13 Sep 2026
Apple positions iCloud as a “must use” — but I still use my phone with syncs and backups going to my computer. No iCloud. All photos get transferred to the computer on each sync, where they get sorted and touched up without the Photos app, and then a curated folder with stripped metadata etc. gets synched back to the phone.
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on should i worry about a microphone in a third-party usb tv remote for a mini pc that im planning on using? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 12 Sep 2026
The bigger picture question: why do you need a remote?
Since Mini PCs have WiFi and Bluetooth, you can just use an app on everyone’s phones who uses the TV.
Make it a PWA and host it on the Mini PC. Then anyone on the network can just point their phone browser at it and have an instant remote that does exactly what you want and nothing more.
You could even put a QR code somewhere visible that points the phones at the pwa page.
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on LG TV shown scanning LAN for third-party phones and other devices in c/technology@lemmy.world · 9 Sep 2026
Why should we have to opt out of our devices spying on our LAN?
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on Looking for a secondary cheap phone for travel, any recommendations? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 6 Sep 2026
It might have been useful to say up front that you live in the US. Are you planning to travel domestically or internationally? All these things change phone availability and strategy for what you should do.
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on are phone calls private? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
I’ll just place this here: techcrunch.com/…/fbi-recommends-encrypted-messagi…
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on what to do with your phone on nternational travel? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 4 Sep 2026
Some LEOs argue that the “compel” limits bit is limited to US citizens, and that even then, they can confiscate your phone if you refuse to unlock it. Plus, they can refuse to let you fly, confiscate your passport, or deport you to the country of their choice.
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on Does anyone know of a Tile alternatives? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 31 Aug 2026
There are Meshtastic-compatible tags. These operate on unregulated spectrum and on the encrypted channel of your choice.
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on Streaming from restaurants (shitpost minirant) in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 27 Aug 2026
Where I live, most restaurants I’d visit have a sign up in the door saying “filming and photography inside this restaurant is prohibited without permission from management.”
If I see someone waving a phone around, I just wave at the nearest waitstaff and point, and they take care of it from there.
It’s tricky though, because a restaurant doesn’t want to get plastered all over YT or IG either. But at least they can point out the fact that it’s clearly posted on the door.
- on New Twitter launches, says Musk's X gave up the name in c/technology@lemmy.world · 27 Aug 2026
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on How Encryption Powers the Internet. in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 26 Aug 2026
101101001011101000101
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on How Encryption Powers the Internet. in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 25 Aug 2026
One zero at a time….
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on Flock CEO calls for ‘compromise’ as surveillance company faces growing backlash | TechCrunch in c/technology@lemmy.world · 23 Aug 2026
Interesting that he’s framing it as a balance between privacy and safety instead of privacy and security.
Flock cameras haven’t been proven to make anyone safer.
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on noRecognition: defeating a live Flock detector with a small printed pattern in c/privacy@lemmy.world · 22 Aug 2026
Interesting, leveraging AI against surveillance tech.
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on China joins Europe in scrapping Windows for Linux in c/technology@beehaw.org · 22 Aug 2026
What ever happened to Red Flag Linux?
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on Delta Will Use AI To Cut Costs And Set A Different Ticket Price For Every Passenger—CEO Says Profits Could Rise 50% in c/technology@lemmy.world · 21 Aug 2026
There are two acceptable ways to leverage technology (including AI) to increase profits: one is to maintain/decrease operational costs while maintaining service (this means enhancing existing delivery, not replacing humans with AI), and the other is improving service without increasing costs.
Everyone who goes for options 3 and 4 (replacing employees with automation and automating fleecing your customers) is after quarterly earnings at the expense of long term company profitability. This is essentially the VC vampire model, and companies rarely survive it for more than a decade.
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on AI companies destroy physical books — let’s scan rare books before it’s too late in c/technology@lemmy.world · 21 Aug 2026
archive.org/details/eliza-digitizing-book_202107
That’s how to do it the right way.
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on Best Buy 'repairs' customer's gaming laptop by simply removing half the RAM— claims unit in question only accepts 32 GB of RAM despite listing a 64GB configuration in c/technology@lemmy.world · 20 Aug 2026
I take it you haven’t shopped at a Best Buy? They do two things well: have department “experts” who will shadow you and let you know in no uncertain terms that they know everything there is to know about their department and confidently give you incorrect answers (they have supervisors monitoring them to ensure they are behaving in this manner) and sell you extended warranties.
Generally when I go to a store, I just want to buy a specific thing I already know I want to buy. I just want the salesperson to sell it to me. That’s almost impossible to do at a Best Buy. It’s not a salesperson issue; it’s a management issue.
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on Best Buy 'repairs' customer's gaming laptop by simply removing half the RAM— claims unit in question only accepts 32 GB of RAM despite listing a 64GB configuration in c/technology@lemmy.world · 20 Aug 2026
Circuit City and Radio Shack… their customer support was probably part of their downfall.
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on Best Buy 'repairs' customer's gaming laptop by simply removing half the RAM— claims unit in question only accepts 32 GB of RAM despite listing a 64GB configuration in c/technology@lemmy.world · 20 Aug 2026
I’ve attempted to shop at Best Buy over the past 30 years or so.
The problem is, no matter which era, none of the staff seemed to even understand my questions, let alone be able to answer them — this isn’t just electronics, but on ANYTHING in the store. “Does that washing machine have a direct drive or belt drive?” “What’s the theoretical maximum power of that amplifier?” “What are the manufacturing tolerances of that Monster cable you say is so much better than bulk electrical wire I can get at Lowe’s?”
I mean, even the Geek Squad guys just read the details off the packaging or off their reference document; no actual thought ever went into trying to help me solve an issue that would result in a purchase.
In the early 00s I made a fair bit of money as a side hustle fixing stuff that the Geek Squad had messed up.
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on iOS 26.6.1 And iOS 18.7.10—Update Now Warning For All iPhone Users in c/technology@lemmy.world · 20 Aug 2026
I wonder if it would be possible to implement Firefox or Chromium in webassembly and run it on top of WebKit — it wouldn’t be as performant, but would be an extra layer of sandbox. You could theoretically do this in any app that uses WebKit too.
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on iOS 26.6.1 And iOS 18.7.10—Update Now Warning For All iPhone Users in c/technology@lemmy.world · 19 Aug 2026
It’s true… it’d be replaced by a much LARGER attack surface.
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on iOS 26.6.1 And iOS 18.7.10—Update Now Warning For All iPhone Users in c/technology@lemmy.world · 19 Aug 2026
both the iOS 26.6.1 and iOS 18.7.10 updates patch serious issues in WebKit, the engine that underpins Apple’s Safari browser. They land nearly three weeks after iOS 26.6 patched 90 issues. No iOS 18 update was released at the time.
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on Companies are now using your credit history, past-due accounts, browsing data, and social media accounts to figure out the absolute lowest salary you'll accept. Algorithmic wage suppression is being… in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 15 Aug 2026
Which companies?
I know mine doesn’t. We have an overall pool to spend on salaries, that gets broken up by department, and it’s up to the line managers to allocate. This is usually done by comparing to the competitive salary range for the position and then layering on performance indicators for the individual based solely on actual predicted job performance. HR stresses to managers that they are NOT to use outside factors in the determination, but should talk directly with the individual employees if there need to be adjustments to either stay within budget or allocate raises.
Any place that attempted to pull this sort of stunt would be a place that would have to pay me MUCH more for the short time I’d remain working there while looking for new employment.
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on Vulnerability giving attackers full control of Macs is under active exploitation in c/technology@lemmy.world · 15 Aug 2026
How are people running their Macs exposed directly to the Internet?
In order to make this work, a user would have to:
- Turn on screen sharing
- Turn off the OS firewall block
- Set up NAT routing on their router to forward port 5900 to their Mac
Seems to me that anyone who could do this would know it was a really bad idea?
Especially since you can already tunnel screen sharing via Apple ID or FaceTime to connect without leaving the port open.
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on Nvidia AI Chip Found in New Russian Missile, Ukraine Says in c/technology@lemmy.world · 13 Aug 2026
The machine is definitely Turing-complete, and definitely NOT trying to pretend to be human. It’s AI claim is for a cloud-based feature I don’t use that adjusts the cycle stages over time to maximize cleanliness and minimize wear on the contents based on personal usage patterns and detected content types.
The machine does do a few neat things like check water retention of the contents before starting the load (it weighs the contents, adds a known volume of water, drains without spinning and checks the weight difference and the dirtiness of the drained water). There’s no way I want it feeding all my washing data into a massive online data lake for AI analysis though, so I keep that bit disconnected.
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on Desktops are gonna be screwed by this too. in c/privacy@lemmy.world · 13 Aug 2026
Only for significant platforms though, I believe. And the beauty of Federation is that no single service is significant.
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on The security co-processor in many CPUs is insecure in c/technology@lemmy.world · 13 Aug 2026
Well that’s OK; we recently discovered that things like passkeys usually aren’t using the TPM anymore anyway. Most stuff stored in there can be routed around via tokens stored on main storage.
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on Nvidia AI Chip Found in New Russian Missile, Ukraine Says in c/technology@lemmy.world · 13 Aug 2026
Ironically my washing machine has a big AI logo on the front.
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on India moves to rein in consumer 5G network slicing in c/technology@lemmy.world · 11 Aug 2026
So what’s to stop a network from spinning up a subsidiary MVNO to handle their pre-paid plans and only allocate limited slices to them?
Because it seems like with a bit of paperwork, this would do a total end run around these guardrails.
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on Spotify threatens industry with ad-skipping tool: "Skip Ahead" is available for Premium users in selected markets, and enables them to skip entire ad breaks, intros, sponsorship messages. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 10 Aug 2026
This is only the case if these changes actually cause a dip in sponsor revenue.
Personally, I like the ones that mimic old-school TV and radio, where the product/service placement is woven right into the show, and there’s a direct relationship between the presenter and the advertiser.
The entire ad brokerage ecosystem could vanish tomorrow and I’d be very happy.
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on Spotify threatens industry with ad-skipping tool: "Skip Ahead" is available for Premium users in selected markets, and enables them to skip entire ad breaks, intros, sponsorship messages. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 10 Aug 2026
It was also built in to all stereo systems long before that. Not that LPs ever had ads, but I could dub to tape off the radio and then fast forward through the ads.
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on The Grift Economy: The ‘Manosphere’ Isn’t a Movement. It’s a Multibillion-Dollar Grievance Industry in c/technology@lemmy.world · 10 Aug 2026
The thing I find interesting here is that it’s essentially a commercialization of what’s been done in army, police, gang and extremism recruitment for the entirety of history; the tools change, but the methods stay the same.
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on Desktops are gonna be screwed by this too. in c/privacy@lemmy.world · 10 Aug 2026
Where is the digital ID required? Because they can’t suddenly require that all computing devices in existence support it.
Is it only for accessing major social media websites? Only for device sales?
Because it seems to me neither of those will make a significant dent in use of older devices; might even drive more people to the Fediverse.
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on Cloudflare says humans could become a "rounding error" as bots generate 1,000 times more internet traffic in c/technology@lemmy.world · 8 Aug 2026
Last year, you’d be correct. This year, bots DO purchase things. They also download and run things. Some marketers have gotten wise and have adjusted SEO and general product advertising to appeal to bots.
I tried to read that. Then I tried skimming for the actual content. I found some, but eventually gave up. Claude can definitely tell a long-winded story.