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California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

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Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#161
post #17

Excellent. From now on all kids will become linux natives. The decade of the linux desktop is coming!

I credit Minecraft with getting an entire generation comfortable using command line statements.

when a coworker asked how i remembered the argument for increasing java heap size, i just said "oh from a previous job" :X

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#162
post #82
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem may exist, but I don't believe that intrusive "gun part deyection" solves it.

The obvious answer is to slice up your gun model into a number of sub-parts which individually aren't detected by the algorithm but collectively still form a functioning gun. And there's an unlimited number of ways to slice up a model, so it is impossible to create an algorithm which catches everything. What's next, keep track of all printed parts and invent the math to recombine them in every way possible to see if…

Or ya know, make a gun using a cnc machine, or are they gonna ban those too?

It’s so ridiculously easy to assemble a 3d printer from individually sourced parts, and find some open source firmware to run it. How is this going to stop anyone who’s dishonest and slightly motivated?

What’s next is thinking about guns is a thought crime.

There’s a cynical part of me that sees this as having nothing to do with guns. Technology used to empower people. You can do anything with a computer running Linux, you used to be able to go anywhere on the web and do anything you like. There’s wasn’t a curated experience, a whitelist of apps. This is a bad thing for people who want to control and manipulate. They want us to mindlessly use our closed of devices that only show us what they want us to see and do what they approve. 3d printers can’t be allowed in such a world.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#163

The fact that these bureaucrats think they have a right to add age-verification to information is ludicrous in the first place. This should be as much non-news as 'Lawmakers unanimously decide death is legal'.

Lawmakers—contemporary and otherwise—have in fact decided many many times that the state can deprive you of your life as punishment for certain crimes.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I credit Minecraft with getting an entire generation comfortable using command line statements.

Literally why I got into CS

I find the gunplay in Minecraft very limited, so I'm surprised that is how you got into Counterstrike ;)

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you ban access to a website based on the OS of the user?

By requiring hardware attestation, like Private Access Tokens in iOS/MacOS (see https://blog.cloudflare.com/eliminating-captchas-on-iphones-... for example) and Web Environment Integrity and its successors ( https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/Web-Environment-In... ).

That sounds horrible

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And as a parent I want the ability to properly control my children's devices * https://www.apple.com/uk/child-safety/ * https://families.google/familylink/ * https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/family-safety You already have the ability, all parents do, that some (or most) haven't is why this crap gets proposed in the first place and used as a justification for invading everyone's privacy. If (some) paren…

Yes, if everyone did everything correctly every time in perpetuity, we wouldn’t need laws. Very astute observation. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out that way so far.

Oh no, some people are terrible at cooking. Better ban cooking without a license. Giving your neighbor a home baked pie is now a crime unless you're a licensed pastry chef.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#167
post #20

Rest of the headline: "software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt" And then further into the text it's clarified that there also isn't a specific list of open licenses, as the terrible headline would have you believe, but instead a description of what is considered open With the caveat that I haven't read the actual legal text, this seems to be an eminently sensible law (it'd be bett…

I don't consider that sensible at all. The law is supposed to protect children. It's hypocritical to exempt certain operating systems from the law, and, to be honest, I'm astonished this is legal/constitutional in California.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#168
post #17

Excellent. From now on all kids will become linux natives. The decade of the linux desktop is coming!

The thing is, unfortunately most people will not notice and be aware of what this means. (and which effect it may have on market share etc.)

And most techies are already primarily on Linux and its derivatives.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#169

How Linux is relevant to age-verification again? What was the question exactly? Lawmakers unanimously are going to be sleeping when it gets dark at night.

It's an operating system, and they are making it mandatory for operating systems to collect user's age, it's mentioned in the article.

Re: California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And as a parent I want the ability to properly control my children's devices * https://www.apple.com/uk/child-safety/ * https://families.google/familylink/ * https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/family-safety You already have the ability, all parents do, that some (or most) haven't is why this crap gets proposed in the first place and used as a justification for invading everyone's privacy. If (some) paren…

Yes, if everyone did everything correctly every time in perpetuity, we wouldn’t need laws. Very astute observation. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out that way so far.

We don't need most laws.
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