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8 posts total
Jason Koebler

A jockey who is paralyzed from the waist down lost his ability to walk after a small battery for his $100,000 exoskeleton broke and the manufacturer refused to fix it because it was more than 5 years old

404media.co/paralyzed-jockey-l

Jason Koebler

This is the dystopia we live in. Companies stop servicing products or go out of business and people lose the ability to walk. Right to repair laws fix this. After widespread outrage and reporting by media in the horse industry, he was able to get it fixed after two months. Medical device manufacturers have been among the worst in lobbying against right to repair laws, and have used fearmongering to do so

Jason Koebler

NEW: Researchers say Rabbit left critical API keys used by R1 hard coded and exposed. They sent me emails using Rabbit admin accounts to prove this:

404media.co/researchers-prove-

Alex :anarcho_punk: :demiboy_flag:

@jasonkoebler@mastodon.social

β€œSorry, we got hacked but we are a bunch of cowards and keep denying it. - Rabbit Security Team (total of 1 person),” the researchers said to me and several other journalists in an email sent from the internal Rabbit security email address.
LMFAO

Jason Koebler

New: Facebook's AI chatbot told a parent in a group asking for advice from other parents that it has a gifted, disabled child who attends school in New York City

404media.co/facebooks-ai-told-

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Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)

@jasonkoebler The "child" is a small Llama AI instance running on a Raspberry Pi in the school's classroom. πŸ˜›

MAC B8:27:EB:2E:41:49

still can't work out who i am

@jasonkoebler haha I'm just an AI. I don't have any sinister intentions like that show black mirror

#AI #LLM #distopia

Jason Koebler

many of America's largest companies now require job applicants to do a personality test where you pretend you are a CG humanoid blue alien and answer "me" or "not me" to statements like "things happen to me" and "personal best"

404media.co/low-paying-jobs-re

Jason Koebler

dubious personality tests for hiring aren't new, but this one is being administered by an AI company and also includes imagining yourself as an alien

Jason Koebler

The hero Polish hackers who fixed DRM-bricked trains have explained how they did it. There was DRM that killed power to trains and broke compressors if trains had been to independent repair yard. One train was also programmed to arbitrarily break on December 21, which actually happened two weeks ago:

404media.co/polish-hackers-exp

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LibertyForward1

@jasonkoebler modern technology is so fun sometimes.. πŸ™„

Zorin =^o.o^=

@jasonkoebler Wow. This is insane. This manufacturer needs to be sued and penalized so severely that no one ever thinks of pulling this shit again.

Patrick

@jasonkoebler amazing work and very important, too! Nevertheless, it doesn't really surprise that vendors went down that road. But in this case really concerning.

Jason Koebler

Facebook is being overrun with stolen, AI-generated images that people think are real. Engagement bait pages use a "seed" image, clone it, then post it dozens of times across pages. People on FB think it's real.

404media.co/facebook-is-being-

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Ted Mielczarek

@jasonkoebler Great reporting, thanks for this! It feels like the depressing but logical end state to social media. The proliferation of "meme accounts" that just repost uncredited stolen content from others started long ago.

Ulrike

@jasonkoebler
I can't believe I have to ask my friends, "How many feet do birds usually have?" to convince them to think critically before sharing!

An "owl" with six feed or a "cardinal" with three?? What is wrong with people?

Jason Koebler

The 23andMe hack is a nightmare. 23andMe is a nightmare. Genetic databases are a nightmare. Don't do this to yourself and don't do it to your family members:

404media.co/23andme-hack-chris

Jason Koebler

I say this *fully knowing* that 23andMe has relatively good privacy practices. My point is that we have absolutely no idea what the company will look like in 2 years, in 5 years, in 50 years. We have no way of knowing. This is the arc of GEDMatch over the course of 13 yrs:

We Can Be Gyros

@jasonkoebler employers cannot demand biodata be kept anymore. I'm not into attempting trust-falling with you, corporate king.

Brian Dear

@jasonkoebler

The VC-funded Silicon Valley approach to DNA analysis is for sure a nightmare, but medically, I think DNA analysis may wind up being a huge advance forward in healthcare, especially preventive healthcare. Knowing what you got, what you're statistically more likely to get, or react to, will likely change how medicine is done. I'm already seeing it in fact.

But security and privacy remain gigantic weaknesses because companies are dumb, greedy, and their priorities are misaligned.

Jason Koebler

I wrote about my first two months on Mastodon. I was a Mastodon hater because I thought it would be weird, complicated, or dead. It's been none of those things.

I'm ashamed I didn't join earlier and I'm ashamed I haven't been telling people to join it, because it's a version of the internet and social media I've long advocated for with my reporting: decentralized, portable, user controlled, not corporate:

404media.co/mastodon-is-the-go

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sean

@jasonkoebler it almost felt like it was the cool kids club tech journalist thing to do to hate on Mastodon with out giving it a chance. Not saying this is you especially giving it months not days or hours before judgement.

Mark A. {FalconMarkSix}

@jasonkoebler Fucking LOL on that meme usage! Thanks for the laugh! :blobfoxcrylaugh: :neocat_laugh_tears: :neofox_laugh_tears:

Lien Rag

@jasonkoebler

For your penance you will draw a map of all instances federating and not federating with each other, and explain it simply to your readers.

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