Nobody Cares: Technology-only Edition

[Argent Stonecutter]

That's CP/M, though I don't know CP/M enough to know what that does without googling. Lets see... converts to lowercase, ignores missing records, strips form-feeds and converts back to uppercase?

No, it's not CP/M, it's DEC MCR (Monitor Console Routine), which is what CP/M was kind of a parody of. CP/M was a cheap copy of Intel ISIS, which was originally kind of a port of DEC RT-11 and RSX-11 environments to the Intel 8080-family processors. In MCR, before it was largely replaced by DCL (DEC Command Language), the Peripheral Interchange Program (PIP) was a general front end to RT-11/RSX-11 and later VMS file management operations. CP/M appropriated the name but only kind of implemented a bit of the functionality.

There's a similar but more IBM-inspired parody in UNIX going under the name "dd", though that's more in line with the DEC FLX application.

It's double-retro.

Anyway PIP /LI (list) /FU (full) is the equivalent of "ls -l".

 

[Noodles]

cd $(python3 -c "import os; print(os.path.sep)")

(I used Claude...)

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

So yeah guys if Discord ever asked you to verify your identity with a government ID card to solve some account problem or whatever guess what, the service they used to handle that got hacked and leaked your data because of course it did, yay ID verification.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

So yeah guys if Discord ever asked you to verify your identity with a government ID card to solve some account problem or whatever guess what, the service they used to handle that got hacked and leaked your data because of course it did, yay ID verification.

Thanks, or ? The eternal reaction question.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I'm split on whether this place or Politics was the right place to put this video. I still haven't decided yet, but it's going here because I had to pick one.

Cory Doctorow from the EFF gave a talk at 39C3 about how Trump's arbitrary, impulsive global imposition of tariffs for his own random goldfish-brain reasons has actually provided Europe and the rest of the world with an opportunity at post-Americanizing their technology sectors, in particular by appealing all of their regional and national electronic anti-circumvention laws since those laws were effectively forced on them by the US under the threat of tariffs if they didn't make them for the benefit of American tech capital holders. Now that tariffs have arrived anyway, there's no point in continuing to play along, the card has been spent.

It's a loooong talk, like almost an hour long, not counting the Q&A. You can just listen like a podcast though, since Cory's talk features no visuals (there was just a slideshow of anti-corporate art).

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

A lot of stuff I log into these days seems more and more like they're encouraging me to switch to using something called a "passkey" to login rather than a traditional user/password, even with 2FA. I first started hearing about passkeys a couple of years ago, but it looks like they're starting to spread now.

Thing is, I don't really know anything about them. I'm waiting for some kind of explanation or guide from a tech info source I trust so I can get a handle on the benefits and risks. Windows Hello (i.e., login with your cam) and fingerprint scanners sounded like fun and neat ideas when they first came out but I ultimately decided against using either - both my most recent phones had fingerprint-unlock and I never set it up.

Just out of curiosity, any of you happen to have any good sources of info about these things?

 

[Noodles]

I don't have a link, but I have started using them with Bitwarden, which is also my password manager. In most cases, your old log in still works. Bitwarden lets me sync them around between desktop and laptop and phone.

The way I understand, its sort of a hidden password/2FA, that the passkey, wallet(?) knows, but you don't. But since its all digital, and probably rotating like a 2FA, it can be much longer and more secure that way.

Its also simpler when it works, if I am logged in on Bitwarden, which I usually am, it throws a pop up, and I can select the passkey. Or it just auto confirms.

Its also smart enough to distinguish multiple accounts. Like I have several gmail accounts with passkeys now, and if I go to log into Google with one account, it just shows the one relatd to that account.

It can make some things tricky, but so does 2FA. I don't use it a lot, but when I went to log into mybold Xbix360, it gave me grief until I found out I had to go into the security settings and make an app password for the Xbox.

 

[Essence Lumin]

I don't have a link, but I have started using them with Bitwarden, which is also my password manager. In most cases, your old log in still works. Bitwarden lets me sync them around between desktop and laptop and phone.

Bitwarden syncs without passkeys.

The way I understand, its sort of a hidden password/2FA, that the passkey, wallet(?) knows, but you don't. But since its all digital, and probably rotating like a 2FA, it can be much longer and more secure that way.

Bitwarden passwords can be as long as you like so long as the site you are logging into accepts long passwords.

Its also simpler when it works, if I am logged in on Bitwarden, which I usually am, it throws a pop up, and I can select the passkey. Or it just auto confirms.

Its also smart enough to distinguish multiple accounts. Like I have several gmail accounts with passkeys now, and if I go to log into Google with one account, it just shows the one relatd to that account.

When I click on a site's login box bitwarden throws a box of choices of what account to use as shown below. It then fills in the account name and password for whichever I click on.

So I don't get it really either how this would help me.

 

[Kokoro Fasching]

The passkey stuff wants to use biometrics, i.e. face ID. which means that the powers that be can use your face to unlock your systems - without your approval. I will keep using Bitwarden and Roboform, and my 17-33 character random hash passwords

 

[Spirits Rising]

The passkey stuff wants to use biometrics, i.e. face ID. which means that the powers that be can use your face to unlock your systems - without your approval. I will keep using Bitwarden and Roboform, and my 17-33 character random hash passwords

At least two to three passkeys are in use on my computer and phone. None of them rely on biometrics.

Biometric login is something else entirely.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Microsoft Bing is actively blocking Neocities from its search results, but will not explain why. Neocities by its nature is not an AI slop pit nor does it host malicious websites, so the admins are quite mystified, but Bing will not return their communications apparently.

The unfortunate side effect of the blocking is that phishing and malware sites pretending to be Neocities are ending up at the top of Bing search results whenever anyone searches for Neocities. Bing is removing these results individually when they are reported, but they will not unblock Neocities itself. This also goes for other search engines that use Bing for their backend, like DuckDuckGo.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Commodore 64 Helps Revive The BBS Days

Before the modern Internet existed, there were still plenty of ways of connecting with other computer users “online”, although many of them might seem completely foreign to those of us …

hackaday.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Just in case you've all forgotten, never use the Apple app to set up or make Patreon payments. Apple's 30% surcharge on all Patreon payments made via the app goes into effect soon.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

This also goes for other search engines that use Bing for their backend, like DuckDuckGo.

Oh geeze, they are?

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Oh geeze, they are?

They were this morning, I promise. Seems to be showing up this evening though...Neocities' putting out that notice may have finally created enough complaints to make Bing either change their mind or fix it.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

They were this morning, I promise. Seems to be showing up this evening though...Neocities' putting out that notice may have finally created enough complaints to make Bing either change their mind or fix it.

I mean, they're using Bing? SRSLY?

 

[Noodles]

I mean, they're using Bing? SRSLY?

Bing is the backend for a fair number of popular party atlernatice search engines as well. I think including Duck Duck Go.

Personally, I have been using Ecosia lately.

 

[Khamon]

Commodore 64 Helps Revive The BBS Days

Before the modern Internet existed, there were still plenty of ways of connecting with other computer users “online”, although many of them might seem completely foreign to those of us …

hackaday.com

This forum methodology is archaic compared to social media hosting hundreds-of-millions, or billions, of users (read humans, bots, aliens, and LLMs). But I'd be lost without it. Participating in a functional community is AUs away from doom scrolling. Curating feeds is no longer feasible and tracking continuous single, unthreaded, streams of posts is not my forte.

There is value in real news, and legitimate advertising, reaching loads of people in these platforms. But they're not practical for personal communication and sharing of ideas with communal groups. BBS, MUD, and forum platforms are. Discord is close but difficult for me to navigate for some reason. I did not realize that any BBS was still online much less that new ones were being built. One shall investigate!

Meanwhile, I still muddle through the FB and Instagram doomz to keep tabs on friends and family.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Discord is close but difficult for me to navigate for some reason.

Discord is a truly horrible user experience. It's complete ass, rotating ass and distilled ass and baked-on crusty ass. It's SAP-level bad. Why does anyone use it?