i like to sample music and make worse music out of that.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • […] but subscriptions for software-based new car features will continue, according to a BMW board member.

    I wonder what they’re going to try to nickel and dime people over next. I mean, if they’re offering internet service/access or other things that are an ongoing service, fine. That’s mostly fair… but if they’re charging you to flip a bit in the car’s internal database (or even worse, a central database somewhere that keeps your car’s data) but the feature is installed in your car and costs BMW nothing to enable it, then ewwwwwww

    Took a deeper look at the article…

    […] BMW says it will continue to offer subscription-based services but only for software options, like driver assistance and digital assistant services, which is completely understandable.

    Hahahahahaha no. For the most part, absolutely no.





  • My main PC is a windows PC (mainly for video games and music production). I also have a Macbook for my work as a (currently) Lead Systems Automation Engineer for a large global company (14 years in the industry, 3.5 of those was me “taking a break” and going into Infosec specifically to first do endpoint/end-user security, then moving into container and cloud security) a personal Macbook, as well as a few Linux laptops I use to write code and do other tech-related things because I prefer MacOS and Linux for that kind of work. I’m well-exposed to most operating systems and have a working knowledge of how security works, both in a professional setting as well as a personal one.

    I mention BonziBuddy and search bars because they’re funny and to illustrate a simple point. The reality is that browser hijackers still very much exist (though they’re not as prevalent as they used to be because browsers themselves have become more resilient over the years - nowadays, they’re usually found in add-ons/extensions because its easier to fly under the radar that way).

    For all the shady shit I’ve done on all of the above platforms, I’ve never had an issue. Specifically in Windows, Defender - which is still the de facto/standard security tool that comes bundled with Windows under the Windows Security tool suite - has not once flagged malware for me. I’ve found it with Avast and BitDefender, but Windows Defender simply isn’t great for the things I do.

    I also run ClamAV on the Macbook for ad-hoc scanning of things I download prior to running them. Why? Because I’m not a negligent user and I do at least the bare minimum in regards to good security practices.

    In every one of the above cases/operating systems/platforms, there is always some kind of security tooling or framework involved (whether that’s ClamAV on Mac, BitDefender or ClamAV or MalwareBytes or whatever on Windows, SELinux or AppArmor or ClamAV on Linux) that can and should be leveraged if you really want to be “safe.”

    In the case of AMOS and Macs, users are purposely bypassing Gatekeeper and proceeding without knowing wtf they’re installing. As soon as Gatekeeper pops up like that, you should be on alert unless you know the software you’re installing isn’t signed, trust the source, and are willing to codesign it yourself.

    You, on the other hand, clearly seem to have some kind of gripe against Macs (based off of your comments in this now far-too-long comment thread) and that kind of weird quasi-religious brand loyalty (or hatred) is a thing I’ll never understand.

    The fact that you’re out on a public forum, spewing bad info/misinformation really says everything. Not that you care, but I’d have respected you more if you just admitted you were wrong and misread the bit about the Google ads. Instead, you decided to be confidently dumb and jump from hill to hill, prepared to die on each one of them.








  • I’m not sure where I said anything about the reason any of those platforms get viruses because you’re right, Windows was often more targeted because its footprint was massive by comparison (whole lotta end users out there, but also tons of domain controllers and enterprise systems running it) - I’m not arguing that.

    AMOS itself is distributed in all kinds of ways including phishing, being bundled into crap no-name software, shady ads, tainted torrents, whatever. You still have to be tricked into downloading whatever it is that infects your machine with it.

    As to this partially being Google’s fault, from the article itself:

    The ads are legitimate and paid for but disguise themselves as the website or software the user is searching for.

    In the given example, it sounds like the ad was for Trading View, a pretty popular stock market charting platform, but the ad itself took users to trabingviews.com and it looked like a clone or Trading View’s site or some kind of landing page that purported to be a download for a desktop client. In the Malwarebytes article I share below, the fake URL purporting to be Trading View’s website is actually tradingsview.com

    I’m not exactly sure where you’re getting the idea that this was a fake ad caused by malware pre-existing. These are “legit” Google ads that are bought and paid for and not quality checked by Google before they display them.

    Here’s the article directly from Malwarebytes, the folks who kindly did the write up the author of the above article is talking about:

    https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intelligence/2023/09/atomic-macos-stealer-delivered-via-malvertising


  • Probably because windows and Linux users aren’t searching for free Mac apps. While I agree that it would probably be difficult to implement an attack like this for Linux (partly because it’s Linux and partly because it’s userbase is generally more technically apt), Windows has been susceptible to viruses since the dawn of time because users just install random shit on autopilot and click through installers without checking what extra bloat is included (which is often malware disguised as an extra third party program). I don’t think I agree that this specifically is Apples fault. No one blames Windows or Linux distros for user error and poor security practices.

    Google’s fault for not vetting the ads they let through? For sure. The users fault for not paying attention while installing the app and just clicking through the request to bypass Gatekeeper and then entering their system password when a pop up randomly asks for it for no discernible reason? Absolutely.

    What should Apple do to fix this? Lock the machine down to the point where users aren’t allowed to have admin privileges on their own machine?





  • I think there are a combination of factors intermingling, situations like the API backlash just jostle things a little harder and that’s when you see big spikes. Once a platform like Lemmy begins to see more and more traffic and, in turn, content, it starts to become a viable alternative.

    Lemmy existed for at least a couple years before I joined, for instance, and I came with what I would guess was the biggest wave so far (June 2023). Provided the userbase can keep up a respectable momentum generating discussion and content, the next wave could be bigger or it could be more resistant to leaving because there’s enough content here to consume and interact with.

    Reddit could take years to lose substantial portions of its userbase or it may shed some and stay solid, but Im not one of these people who obsesses over it’s ruin. If they survive long term, God bless, whatever, who cares. What’s interesting to me is seeing an alternative sprout up and actually generate traffic and start building a community, whether that’s Lemmy or something else built on ActivityPub or something else built on a different federated framework or even something else entirely that’s centralized… I think Lemmy is one permutation of this and it has undoubtedly got some traction.

    I sometimes wonder if/when I’ll start getting random Lemmy links from people instead of ones to Reddit.

    edit: I should also add that considering reddit is trying hard to get value on paper and probably still hoping to ipo, we probably shouldn’t put it past them be shitty once again at some point in the future.


  • exactly this right here. we saw the same phenomenon with threads and mastodon before it inre twitter annoying its userbase. depending on how engaged each wave of incoming users ends up, i’d guess you could expect it to look something like:

    • spike
    • drop off
    • plateau
    • spike
    • drop off
    • plateau above the last plateau
    • etc etc

    sometimes the drop off is really bad. sometimes its just people getting bored with the initial hype while others stay. rinse and repeat until the platform succeeds or dies.