Weekend Edition 38

Weekend Edition 38: Spam Calls, META News, Tik Tok & AI

Nearly All US State AGs Have Sued Avid Telecom
Apple to Do More Chip Fab in US
Bad News for Meta
TikTok Sues Montana, Residents Struggle
Microsoft says, “AI ALL THE THINGS”!
AI Image Gen in Photoshop Now A Thing

#weekendedition #technews #spamcalls #robocalls #Meta #AI #TikTok #Microsoft #Adobe #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 38.1 – Remember Avid Telecom? You Probably Don’t...
I covered the likelihood of this suit being brought last fall, well, now it’s real. They are being sued by all but two of the US state-level Attorneys General. That is a HUGE lawsuit. What do they allege that Avid did or does? Why, serve as a clearing house for do-not-call list numbers and infrastructure backbone for those who would want to abuse said lists. Perhaps you have noticed an uptick in robocalls over the last several years, particularly scam-related ones... If you have, there is a strong chance that these people had a hand in it. Avid Telecom is a VOIP provider who claims to have committed no wrongdoing, so will “Defend itself vigorously and vindicate its rights and reputation through the legal process.” We’ll see. Usually State AG’s don’t dogpile on a case like this if they think it’s a nothingburger. They seem to have done business with a number of scam outfits, covering the following areas: Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranties, Amazon, credit card interest rate reduction and more. Wow. That’s all I have to say about that, just wow. As far as I know, I am on the Nat’l DNC registry, and I have certainly received calls in those areas in the last few years, and an increased number of them, at that. The robocalling aspect of cold calling when I did real estate always struck me as sheisty and super shady. I, for a short time, paid an outfit to do followup for me. I still regret that. It was wrong, even though as far as I know, they actually had people doing the calling, with scripts and such, not just recordings, but idk. I’m glad to not be in that space any more.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/23/avid-telecom-facilitated-billions-of-spam-calls-state-ags-allege.html
#weekendedition #robocalls #avidtelecom #scammers #justice #US #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 38.2 – Broadcom Benefits from Increased US/ CCP Tensions
Well well well... Apple comes crawling back to the US as they ramp up alternative manufacturing sources for their specialty silicon thanks to the increased tensions between the US and the CCP, among other things. Broadcom, famously the manufacturer of modems and WiFi chips. Now, they join TSMC in benefiting directly from AAPL’s urgent need to get away from Chinese manufacturing for their devices, also moving some other pieces to India & Vietnam, aside from the US. Wise move getting away from the CCP, just a bit. I’ve always thought that while more expensive and complex, it makes more long term sense to not have all of one’s eggs in one basket anyway, so to speak. I may not like the company or its products because I do not agree with their ultra-closed ecosystem or ability to spy on you at will, but can admire a good business move when I see one.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65692276
#weekendedition #technews #apple #diversity #broadcom #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 38.3 – Meta’s Getting Slammed... Burn, baby, burn.
3.1 – Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner pile drives Meta with $1.3 billion Fine
OOf. Big, huge-normous, gargantuan OOOFF. Due to GDPR violations, the Menlo Park, CA-based tech giant is getting fined tot he tune of more than $1 billion. I guess GDPR ain’t no joke. Other notable Tech fines related to the GDPR since it was put into place 5 years ago were an $887 million fine levied against Amazon by Luxembourg and a $267 million fine against WhatsApp in Ireland. Not only are they being fined, but it looks like they will need to move all European data to European data centers, rather than shipping it back across the Pond to the US. As much as I hate the onerous nature of big Gov, it kinda takes something like the EU to stand up to a behemoth like Meta and do anything worthwhile. Why does it take that? Why can’t class action suits do the work that needs done? Why haven’t more people ditched Meta and its platforms, which are designed to addict you and compromise your privacy?
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/irish-data-regulator-defends-1point3-billion-meta-fine.html
#weekendedition #meta #gdpr #fines #EU #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

3.2 – More Layoffs for Meta
I am tempted to dance a jig about this, however, I find my enthusiasm tempered significantly, as these workers (no matter how superfluous their positions may have been) are people, many of whom likely have families depending on them. I cannot exult in families losing income, however, that said, losing 20k+ workers in the space of 8 months is not a good look for any business. On the other hand, their falsely inflated stock market numbers (along with everyone else’s, due to the reality of brandon-flation). That all said, though, the numbers for Meta are truly shocking, after cratering hard last year, until Zuck announced this “year of efficiency”, in November. The stock seems to have rebounded to something close to where it was before its sharp decline last year. Reality Labs and the Metaverse projects are still absolutely hemorrhaging money, yet investors seem happy to throw money at them, nonetheless. Well, they did show growth in revenues for the first time in a year, even if only 3%. When you are talking about revenues in the 10s of billions, 3% is actually significant. To the tune of nearly $1 billion. Still trying to wrap my head around just how gargantuan Meta is. Laying off over 20k people, making almost a cool billion in spite of losing money again on their most audacious set of projects. Wow.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/meta-layoffs-latest-round-of-cuts-focuses-on-business-groups.html
#meta #weekendedition #recovery #austerity #layoffs #TechFreedom #FOSSNews

3.3 – Meta Loses Millions in Forced Sale of Giphy
Why’d they go and do that? Well, once again, big, bad EU regulators to the “rescue” forcing the giant to sell the meme and gif search platform which they bought a mere 3 years ago, for barely 1/8 what they paid for it. Why? Because the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority decided that Meta owning it disadvantaged other social media platforms. Who bought it, though? Why, Shutterstock, of course. While Meta bought it for somewhere right around $400 million, they were forced to sell it by the CMA for a mere $53 million. They tried to make the case that giphy isn’t nearly as popular as it was because the younger sets think of gifs as “cringe” or “boomer stuff”, but the reality is that Giphy still gets searched 1.3 billion times per day, with around 15 billion views on shared content per day. That doesn’t sound like much of a decline to me... Who knows, though?
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65684986
#weekendedition #meta #giphy #CMA #UK #regulator #losing #TechFreedom #FOSSNews

WE 38.4 – TikTok Vs The Big Sky State
4.1 – TikTok Sues Montana Over Ban
Of course the platform strongly objects to this move. I am not a fan of it, either. I hear where they think they are coming from, and I want to believe that it is a good place of trying to protect the public, but to pull the run out from under people like that is cruel and borderline vindictive. I may overreacting right now. However, I do strongly believe in the First Amendment. I also believe that any government big enough to deprive individuals of their guaranteed liberties and rights is too big. We are there. Been there for a number of years, probably longer than I’ve been alive. The sad reality is that what John Adams said about our constitution and system of government is true. We have seen it coming apart at the seams as it has gotten further and further away from Christian morality and ethics, and these so-called representatives of ours are just avatars of that. If we, as a nation, were upright, then our leaders would be too. I’m not saying that they are perfect avatars for us, but how many of us would be able to keep ourselves pure in the cesspool that is Washington (or any State capital, for that matter)? I don’t trust myself that I could resist the lobbies and special interests. But I digress, where was I, oh yes, banning tools for the expression of free speech. Overall, it doesn’t comport well with the Constitution. If we are concerned for privacy, then people need to learn how to think about social media, rather than being told by it what to think. People also need to learn how to think about privacy. This issue reminds me of a visual novel I once read, called Don’t Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain’t Your Story. It is set a few years into the future, now, but was developed over 10 years ago. The crux of the story is that the students of this high school lit teacher used a school-wide messaging system to play an elaborate hoax on him through “private” messages that they knew he could see. So it dealt with different generations and their understandings of privacy. The kids understood different types of privacy, where the teacher only understood that there are certain things that should never be shared online, so the prank was very effective at messing with his head. Are we to the point where we legitimately have no privacy and don’t care? If so, then let me know so I can move on to a different line of work. If not, then let’s get down to business and lock these entitled pricks [them] out of our lives, shall we? Just a thought.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65677768

#weekendedition #tiktok #montana #ban #sued #TechFreedom #FOSSNews

4.2 - Montana Residents left Wondering What’s Next
Many in Montana have found it to be a lifeline of sorts. Some are creators, others have started businesses based on their content which need to grow via TikTok, as there are so many eyeballs there so much of the time. It makes advertising dollars stretch much further on this platform than on older, more established ones like Meta or Twitter because it is so active on TikTok. Starting to wonder if it is holding me back not being on TikTok. I don’t know... It could just be that I nerd at too high a level and rarely come down from there. What do you guys and gals think? Anyway, this article sites a handful of Montanans who have the majority of their businesses centered around the platform. Knowing that one’s reach within one’s state is going to be artificially & governmentally limited has to leave you feeling frustrated and a bit scared. One of the users had entirely based her business on TikTok, and is afraid of losing it if this ban ever actually sees the light of day (press X to doubt...), to which I say, diversify. One should never relegate one’s business to a single platform on social media. So here’s a thought: download your TikTok videos and then share them on other platforms (same goes for the smarter painter in the article, already looking at diversifying with unique content and a professional videographer). See what happens if you try that. I don’t think there are hard and fast rules about content sharing from TikTok (seems like that would hurt the platform to disallow that).

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/21/tech/montana-tiktok-users/index.html
#weekendedition #tiktok #montana #users #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 38.5 – AI This Week
5.1 – Microsoft to Integrate AI in Windows & Office Suite
Uhhh, yikes... Oh hell no. Let me sound the clarion call, people. It is time to ditch Microsoft’s spyware (oops, software) stack. They can already snoop every keystroke and mouse click you make on your computer. When they shove Windows 11 down your throat with the newest update, you’ll get Windows Copilot, which is basically ChatGPT rolled directly into your system. In talking to a friend who is a sysadmin about it, he doesn’t see it as being any worse than running Windows anyway. He uses it to remote setup new machines all of the time. So in the context of an IT dept where Windows still rules the roost, it seems to be a net benefit for the teams involved. On the other hand, do you remember Cortana? If you were ever concerned with Cortana, this is an even worse privacy violation. On the other hand, Windows itself has become an even worse privacy violator in the meantime. Cortana genuinely sucked, and I always suggested to people to disable that piece of trash. This looks like it should actually function to make your computer more user-friendly, which I actually admire a bit, but where is all that data going? Oh yeah, back to Redmond, WA. Do you want to increase your awareness that you are a digital serf? Use this new feature. This is Microsoft’s ever so gentle way of reminding you that your computer is not really your computer, anymore. Sure, you paid (or are paying) for it, but as long as you run their spyware (err... OS) and other software, all your data is belong to them. Does that make you uncomfortable? Come on over to Linux and be freer. I can help you to find a good distro that won’t spy on you (most won’t, but also most run systemd, which is growing more invasive by the day, so we will look around and see what might work for you among options which do not use it). I, unfortunately, am no longer comfortable suggesting mainstream distros due to the presence of systemd. That goes against convention, yes, because you want to make as close to 100% certain, when using FOSS things, that it is solid and has a good sized community using and working with it so you can get help when you need it. If you want to research these, here is a decent article from ItsFOSS: https://itsfoss.com/systemd-free-distros/. My word of advice when looking at these is stick close to mainstream if you want something that will be user friendly.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/technologylive/2023/05/23/microsoft-copilot-365-ai-windows-11-launch/70246861007/
#weekendedition #microsoft #copilot #datagrab #spyware #trylinux #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

5.2 – Adobe Adds AI Image Generator to PhotoShop
More AI for the things. Oh joy. Well, it has been in limited beta for a few months, but they are going to roll the feature out to everybody now. They are going to use their own set of images to train it, rather than allowing it, like DALL-E, to simply scour the interwebz for data to transform images in keeping with your prompts. They hope that that will keep the copyright hounds at bay, as they own those images. They are rightly concerned over this, as Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, was sued by Getty Images back in January because some of their databases were used in training the AI, without permission or licensing. Adobe is anxious to avoid that issue, so its dataset is naturally smaller. You all know how I feel about AI by now... If you can control it and keep the data local, I don’t have much problem with using it as a tool. However, if you want to replace your brain with it, or use it everywhere, I would caution you to slow your roll. If privacy is even a concern for you, take your time to understand whatever you can of these tools before you blindly rush to adopt them.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/tech/photoshop-generative-ai/index.html
#weekendedition #adobe #firefly #AI #imagegenerator #photoshop #TechFreedom #FOSSNews