Mike In SD
Mike In SD boosted:
MacRumors.commacrumors
2025-03-20
Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-19

This is beyond…

#LeMonde reporting that a French scientist traveling to Houston to attend a conference was denied entry to #US after a #search of his #phone & #computer revealed messages critical of #Trump's #science cuts, "which [says #CPB] conveyed hatred of Trump & could be qualified as terrorism". Computer confiscated.

#law #geopolitics #USpol #authoritarianism #dictatorship #FreeSpeech #ThoughtPolice #Nazis #ViewpointDiscrimination
lemonde.fr/international/artic

Mike In SD boosted:
Ars Technicaarstechnica
2025-03-18

New PebbleOS watches with more battery and familiar looks are up for preorder
Shipping in July and December, with far more battery life and newer chips.
arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/0

Mike In SD boosted:
The Vergeverge
2025-03-18

The first new Pebble smartwatches are coming later this year theverge.com/news/631657/pebbl

Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-17

Your regular reminder not to blindly trust things on social media. Double check before reposting. Just because you’re not right wing doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to misinformation and propaganda etc.

Mike In SD boosted:
coyotebroadcoyotebroad
2025-03-17

It hurts my heart to say this, but if you were planning to vacation in the USA from abroad, don't come. In addition to what might happen at the border, our national parks & public spaces are so incredibly understaffed. For your own safety, & to protect our national parks, don't come.

Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-14

A local television station in Tennessee is warning nebulously about a "new type of card stealing scam," without actually explaining what the new scam is (spoiler: I'm going to tell you). According to the story, the scam involves a novel "tap to pay" type of fraud.

“From what I understand, this may be one of the first or earliest arrests of this type of situation in the country,” Binkley said.

The story also noted that 11 people had been arrested as allegedly involved in the scam.

wvlt.tv/2025/03/13/one-first-o

These facts lead me to believe that what we're seeing here is the materialization in the United States of a software-as-a-service offering that allows thieves to relay a valid NFC (tap-to-pay) transaction from mobile devices halfway around the world.

As I explained at length last month, this innovation is being driven by Chinese phishing groups that have largely been responsible for all the toll phishing and USPS phishing scams that arrive by instant message on your mobile device.

These are not SMS messages. They are being sent through Google and Apple phones and bypass the mobile provider networks entirely. When fraudsters successfully phish card data from victims, they then tell the victim their bank needs to verify the transaction and will send a one-time code. If the victim then provides that one-time code, the phishers will use to enroll the victim's card into a mobile wallet tied to a Google or Apple phone.

The fraudsters who are selling these phishing kits also sell the software for relaying NFC transactions from these compromised cards/devices.

A number of people in Singapore have been arrested for trying to use this "ghost tap" software at electronics retailers. AFAIK, This is the first case I'm aware of in the United States that's been documented in the media.

krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/ho

An image from the Telegram channel for a popular Chinese smishing kit vendor shows 10 mobile phones for sale, each loaded with 4-6 digital wallets from different UK financial institutions.
Mike In SD boosted:
Scalziscalzi
2025-03-14

Because it was time, I have -- finally! -- created a FAQ for the church, to answer most of the questions that come up whenever I mention that indeed, I own a church. The FAQ also has lots of pictures so you can see what it looks like now. Check it out:

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/03/13

Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-13

Is your Windows gaming PC suddenly complaining it's got a "HackTool" called "WinRing0" on board? Mine did, and I dug into it. Turns out it's underpinning *loads* of popular PC monitoring software, and Microsoft is holding all the cards.
theverge.com/report/629259/win

Mike In SD boosted:
Prof. Sam Lawlersundogplanets
2025-03-12

OH yeah love ending my workday with a surprise National Geographic interview about the Saturn moons that I helped discover by accidentally pointing the CFHT telescope at Saturn. Definitely my most scientifically productive whoopsie ever.

128!!!! New!!! MOONS!!

Happy Moon Day!

minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K25

Mike In SD boosted:
Qasim Rashid, Esq.QasimRashid
2025-03-11

Trump last week at Joint Address: We ended the last admin's insane electric vehicle mandate.

[Americans stop buying Teslas]

Trump this week: Why won't you people buy Tesla's electric vehicles??

Ideally POTUS & the world's most incompetent person are two different people. Simply not the case here.

Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-11

Texas bill would make identifying as transgender a state jail felony

Trans people are less than 1 percent of the population. It makes them such a useful scapegoat...even taking all their family and loved ones into account it's a group that has great trouble fighting back in large number...but worse, it's being used as well as a wedge to go after everybody on the LGBTQA spectrum...

nbcnews.com/nbc-out/rcna195642

Mike In SD boosted:
Dan Gillmordangillmor
2025-03-11

The Electronic Frontier Foundation posts a reminder that "Yes, You Have the Right to Film ICE" -- eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/yes-

At this point, we arguably have a duty to film ICE.

Mike In SD boosted:
Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖christineburns@mastodon.green
2025-03-11

It strikes me as an academic question whether Trump is or isn't formally a Russian asset. The important thing is that he ACTS as though he is. And, as Trump's actions increasingly benefit America's long term foe, you've got to ask when the country will wake up and defend what's left from the recently installed enemy within. Right now Putin is winning the eighty year conflict.

Mike In SD boosted:
Bodo Taschebitboxer
2025-03-11

You know why we Germans are so pedantic about data protection? Someone around 90 years ago went through all records available, selected people with certain criteria, with the help of IBM, and then killed them all.

We don't want to be on any list.

And now the US Gov and Musk are trying to get access to all data they have about every person and put them into a big fat DB and run AI over it.

I am afraid what they will do with that.

Mike In SD boosted:
PCMagPCMag
2025-03-11

Volkswagen's lead designer says the move away from physical buttons in the company's cars for touch screens has been 'a mistake.' pcmag.com/news/volkswagen-to-b

Mike In SD boosted:
Chuck Darwincdarwin@c.im
2025-03-11

Rosemary is back at the Federal Building in Pittsburgh,
53 years later

Two side-by-side pictures of a woman named Rosemary, one from the past and one from the present, holding signs outside the Federal Building in downtown Pittsburgh. 
The left image is black and white, showing her with a sign that reads "Honk if you think Nixon should go to jail "
and the right reads "Honk if you think Trump should go to jail "
Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-09
I keep hearing people ask,
“Is America ready fora
woman president? Or a gay
president?” Funny thing is I
never heard anyone ask if
America was ready for an
incompetent, vindictive,
mentally unstable,
misogynistic, homophobic,
racist, traitorous egomaniac
and yet, here we are.
Mike In SD boosted:
2025-03-08

I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor:

What explains more of #MAGA’s hate of #Zelenskyy than Russian connections is their grievance of him.

MAGA is a cult of #manhood, but its led by these crooks who amassed their wealth or power in dishonest ways. And on some level they have to recognise what they are; thieves, bullies and liars.

”Every time a JD Vance sees a Zelenskyy he sees a better man.”

And they rage about it. They are petty, weak men using power to erase proof that better men exist.

Client Info

Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst