dan

@dan@upvote.au

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I hate the modern web⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Nobody is doing anything malicious.

  How do you know that though? VPNs are very commonly used to send spam, perform ransomware attacks, DDoS attacks, etc.

  What’s probably happening is they’re worried too many requests are coming from one ip address and you might be scraping their precious data to train your LLM.

  This is definitely also a possibility.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I hate the modern web⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The issue with a VPN is that it’s likely that other people using the same exit node are doing something malicious. A site like reddit or a bank or whatever sees a lot of attacks coming from one IP (or a range of IPs) and mark it as malicious.

  You’d likely do the same thing with your own site - something like Denyhosts or Crowdsec that blocks people trying to brute force a password will end up blocking anyone else using that same VPN exit IP.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Definitely didn't waste half an hour making this⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I used number 5 throughout high school and university and they always served me well. Sometimes I thought about trying the fancier ones with gel grips, but old reliable BIC was always there for me. I trusted the BIC.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Win win⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, CTP. I never drove or owned a car in Australia so I’m glad I got it right haha. I lived in Melbourne and used public transport all my life. I didn’t learn to drive until I moved to the USA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Win win⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  being for profit companies

  I think the approach in Australia is a bit better - bodily injury coverage is provided by the state and is part of the registration fee for the car. It only covers injuries to people, and does not cover repairing cars (you need to get separate insurance from an insurer for that) but it’s a good first step I guess. It means that as long as your car is registered, medical costs for both you and anyone you hit are covered.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nicole in my lemmy DMs be like⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot of Lemmy users are getting spam messages supposedly from someone named “Nicole”, from various Lemmy accounts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is 33 cents a small amount of money?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve heard it in Australia too, which has the same tax bracket system as the USA. I think the fact that this stuff isn’t taught in school is a major issue.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is 33 cents a small amount of money?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The first ~10k you make is taxed at 10%

  In the USA, technically the first $15,000 (if single) or $30,000 (if married and filing jointly) is taxed at 0% due to the standard deduction. If you earn less than that, you can tell your employer that you don’t want any tax to be withheld.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is 33 cents a small amount of money?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot of people don’t know anything about taxes and have their tax return done by an accountant, even if their situation is extremely simple (works one job, no taxable investments, no investment properties, no foreign taxes paid).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roku TV requires internet connection to EDIT THE HOMEPAGE⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not that I’m aware of… Roku is a very locked down ecosystem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roku TV requires internet connection to EDIT THE HOMEPAGE⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  it’s against the law.

  I don’t think that’s the case? There was AB 51 which was going to make it illegal for employers to force employees to sign arbitration agreements, but it got struck down.

  There’s also SB 940 which has some limitations on forced arbitration (eg sellers can’t arbitrate outside of California for a claim that originated in California) but it doesn’t outright block it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roku TV requires internet connection to EDIT THE HOMEPAGE⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  they would snoop on the HDMI port

  Most smart TVs do this by default, unfortunately. They use a technology called ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) to determine what you’re watching, essentially like Shazam but for TV shows and movies. This gets sent to the manufacturer who can then build an advertising profile about you.

  At least they don’t show ads, yet.

  Never connect a smart TV to the internet. Put it on a separate VLAN that doesn’t have internet access. For streaming, use something like an Nvidia Shield (or if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, an Apple TV).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thinkpad for the win⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I work at a big tech company in Silicon Valley and maybe 80% of employees use MacBooks… I was using Windows for a while, but I switched to Linux around a year ago. AFAIK there were only a few dozen people like me (running Linux, using Firefox as default browser) until we were all forced to switch to Chrome because of some security features in Chrome enterprise.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨BMW’s next-gen EVs depend on an unassuming black box called ‘Heart of Joy’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s our first nice car.

  Same. The only other car I’ve ever owned is a 2012 Mazda 3. I’m from Australia in an area with good public transport, and so I didn’t drive until I was 26 and living in the USA. Bought the Mazda 3 second hand for a pretty good price. The iX was a big upgrade!

  Ive still got the Mazda, but when it stops working, I want to replace it with a small, sporty EV. I’m kinda sad we don’t have Chinese EVs in the USA, since cars like the MG Cyberster look pretty nice, don’t really have a US-made alternative, and are good value for the price (in Australia, it’s the equivalent of around US$72,000 including all taxes and fees). The range of cars is relatively limited (and expensive) in the USA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨BMW’s next-gen EVs depend on an unassuming black box called ‘Heart of Joy’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I just got a BMW iX a few months ago and love it, so I’m very excited for Neue Klasse. I’ve got a three year lease. I’d love to get another, smaller EV.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Owing your home today is nearly impossible, but even if you did the ever increasing property taxes will bury you⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you have stamp duty in the UK? We have both rates (yearly) and stamp duty (once off during purchase) in Australia, and property taxes in the USA are roughly the same as rates and stamp duty combined into one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Prepare For Discord To Get Way Worse [Kotaku]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This isn’t surprising at all. Centralized services are expensive to run at large scale.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I am at a loss on words⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is what happens when someone who really focuses on UX designs your interface. Little details that not everyone notices, but the few that do really appreciate it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tried to order a part before the tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They also set up a system so that non-EU retail sellers can collect VAT directly on payment

  That’s what Australia does too. Since the sellers already had their systems set up to handle it for Australia, it was probably easy for them to extend it to be used for the EU too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tried to order a part before the tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I agree, and dokt think there should be any tariffs.

  Having said that, a US store that has to pay sales tax is never going to win over a foreign store that doesn’t have to pay sales tax. If you buy something from Europe under the de minimis exception, there’s no tax applied at all - European countries usually don’t tax purchases from outside the EU, and the US doesn’t tax it either.

  Applying the same tax for both US and international purchases makes sense IMO. This is what Australia does - the sales tax rate is 10% across the whole country, and foreign stores that sell to Australians have to collect 10% tax and send it to the Australian government.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This fucking bot is still out there messaging⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But🍑

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This fucking bot is still out there messaging⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe that’s to make it seem more “real”? I’m not sure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tried to order a part before the tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Why does this article describe it as a “loophole”? It’s not a loophole; it was intentionally written into law.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tried to order a part before the tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  enormous shipping times

  This definitely improved over time. I don’t order much from Aliexpress, but the last two items I ordered arrived in just over a week - a similar time frame as ordering from a US store that doesn’t do fast shipping. A few days in China, then on a plane, then a few days in the USA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tried to order a part before the tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You never had to pay it because there was a longstanding rule called “De Minimis” which exempted all items under $800 from import taxes.

  I can understand why they’d want to get rid of this… It was very generous and often meant that buying goods from an overseas supplier was cheaper than buying the exact same items from a US-based supplier. For example, I’ve bought MikroTik hardware from a Latvian supplier (Getic) because it ended up noticeably cheaper than buying from a US store.

  Most countries have duty-free thresholds that are much lower, around the equivalent of $50-100 before taxes and duties are applied.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RIP (again)⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This depends a lot on it your employer is good or not. I get 20 days bereavement leave per year for close family (spouse, kids, parents) and 10 days for extended family (grandparents)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨8 Million Requests Later, We Made The SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack Look Amateur⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Good reminder to remove old DNS records that point to IPs or hostnames you no longer control.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Follows Google on a Controversial Decision - gHacks Tech News⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The part above the Mexico - US maritime border is US territory and the US can name it whatever it wants.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Follows Google on a Controversial Decision - gHacks Tech News⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Google Maps is still going to use official US data for US locations though, just like they use official Australian data in Australia.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Follows Google on a Controversial Decision - gHacks Tech News⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s been changed in the Geographic Names Information System which is the official government system used for naming geographic things in the USA. Every US-based mapping system will eventually pull in the update.