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stravanasu

@ pglpm @lemmy.ca

Posts
110
Comments
552
Joined
3 yr. ago

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  • They aren't out of context, and you have just said the same thing. Data processing can help in removing noise, but it can't help in creating information or extracting information that wasn't there in the first place. In fact – again as you said – it can end up destroying part of the original information.

    LLMs extract word correlations from textual data. Already in this process they are losing information, since they can't extract correlations beyond a certain (yet large) length, and don't extract correlations at shorter lengths. And in creating output they insert spurious correlations that replace (destroy) some of the original ones. This output will contain even less information than the original training data. So a new LLM trained with such an output will give back even less.

  • What a job! Thanks for the info!

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  • Yes it does. Indeed it is a mathematical theorem from Information Theory, called the data-processing inequality. Quoting from two good textbooks on Information Theory:

    “No clever manipulation of the data can improve the inferences that can be made from the data” (Cover & Thomas, Elements of Information Theory §2.8).

    “Data processing can only destroy information” (MacKay, Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms exercise 8.9).

  • My post obviously begged for this. Iron lung and lotion – what a combination!

  • You've read the stances of all different people. I agree with most and I'm a bit more conservative: I switch to a LTS (even-numbered) release only when its main non-LTS (odd-numbered) upgrade is out; and skip all non-LTS.

  • I agree. I'll actually contact the national Consumer Policies department and ask if this is at all legal.

  • The fundamental problem is that age verification is bullshit. So let's not normalize it. It must be fought, on all fronts, including the FOSS front.

  • Indeed I wonder if that kind of keyboard check is even legal - personally I feel it as a breach of my privacy, none of their fucking business what kind of input method I use. (If anyone here is knowledgeable about such matters, please let me know!)

  • I've been having similar turd-kind encounters with bank apps even within Android. I use the egregious Heliboard from F-droid, and my bank app refused to start because I use an "untrusted keyboard" – funny as it's way more trustworthy that Gboard or Microslop board apps. Turns out the apps of all banks in my country are like that. So now I simply access the bank via the browser instead. Fuck their apps.

    But I understand that the browser solution may not work for everyone :(

    Partly this problem comes from incompetence of the app's developers, partly for shifting responsibility: it seems to me that they let Play Store do the checks, so if any hacking happens they can blame Play Store. And there's also the modern motto: "if you want to make an app secure, make it unusable". Even better I'd then say "don't make it at all"! – there, security-problem fully solved.

    Put pressure on banks would be best. Possibly one could also play a "disability" card: I must use such-and-such app or OS owing to visual impairment, say. Or collect signatures for a petition... but I imagine we're a very small minority.

    As a protest in my case I changed bank a couple of times.

    But thank you for the USB-ADB tip! I'll use it when I switch to GrapheneOS.

  • I understand. Be aware that this can be quite a limiting factor, more than you think. The need to think about home servers starts to clash with the statement that

    It was built from day one to be usable by anyone, with zero tech background required.

  • Thank you for the explanation. But I don't understand how it can work if:

    1. I send a message while my contact is offline,
    2. then I go offline,
    3. my contact comes back online while I'm still offline.

    The message needs to be somewhere in between. This is a situation that occurs quite often when you message with people in very different time zones.

  • Nobody in the middle. No server storing anything. No company analyzing anything

    [...]

    In deferred mode, it works just like regular email. Meaning your contact doesn’t need to be online when you send the message. Your contact will get it automatically once they come online.

    So I can't send a message while my contact is offline, then go offline myself, and expect that my contact will receive it when they go online? This is quite limiting.

    How is PeerBox different from Delta Chat?

  • I wish, but I'm not so sure. Look at what happened with the Californian age-verification laws and Systemd for example. Some (arsehole, in my personal opinion) FOSS developers hurried up and bent over backwards to start complying. We'll probably end up having "Linux" distros that will comply, and Linux distros, probably distributed via secret channels, that won't.

  • The crucial point in this new press release is the requirement for "operating system developers like Apple and Google to verify users’ ages when setting up a new device, rather than relying on self-reported ages."

  • Very true:

    But when technologists tell policymakers this, they tell us that they have every confidence in our ingenuity, and also, they can't be certain we're not telling a Zuck-style fable about how the stuff we merely disprefer is actually impossible. They tell us to NERD HARDER!

    NERD HARDER! is the answer every time a politician gets a technological idée-fixe about how to solve a social problem by creating a technology that can't exist.

    https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/14/bellovin/#wont-someone-think-of-the-cryptographers

  • Could you post this on the privacy community? I had never heard about this arsehole.

  • First of all we should submerge the EU parliament with protests, as we did for the chat-control question. Then protest marches, strikes, and so on. Then simple non-compliance. Whatever is undemocratic has automatically null morally legal validity.

    I think we can still use the https://fightchatcontrol.eu/ platform for this. Just need to change the text and protest against age verification.

  • From the press release [my emphasis]:

    Require operating system developers like Apple and Google to verify users’ ages when setting up a new device, rather than relying on self-reported ages.

  • KDE @lemmy.kde.social

    A polite open letter to KDE developers and maintainers, which got blocked by a moderator.

  • privacy @lemmy.ca

    Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros?

  • Linux @lemmy.world

    Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros?

  • Privacy @lemmy.world

    Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros?

  • Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros?

  • Linux @programming.dev

    Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros?

  • Linux @lemmy.world

    Birthdate field under discussion also in Arch Linux

    github.com /archlinux/archinstall/pull/4290
  • Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    Birthdate field under discussion also in Arch Linux

    github.com /archlinux/archinstall/pull/4290
  • Linux @programming.dev

    Birthdate field under discussion also in Arch Linux

    github.com /archlinux/archinstall/pull/4290
  • Linux @lemmy.world

    FYI Systemd v261, probably due in May, is the release planned to include the 'birthDate' field.

  • Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    FYI Systemd v261, probably due in May, is the release planned to include the 'birthDate' field.

  • Linux @programming.dev

    FYI Systemd v261, probably due in May, is the release planned to include the 'birthDate' field.

  • Linux @lemmy.world

    Surge in Systemd forks after the latest changes

    github.com /systemd/systemd/forks
  • Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

    Surge in Systemd forks after the latest changes

    github.com /systemd/systemd/forks
  • Linux @programming.dev

    Surge in Systemd forks after the latest changes

    github.com /systemd/systemd/forks
  • Linux @programming.dev

    Ageless Linux Emerges to Protest OS-Level Age Verification Laws

    itsfoss.com /news/ageless-linux/
  • Linux @programming.dev

    GrapheneOS Foundation To Never Required ID or Other PII To Use GrapheneOS

    grapheneos.social /@GrapheneOS/116261301913660830
  • Linux @lemmy.ml

    GrapheneOS Foundation Never To Require ID or Other PII To Use GrapheneOS

    grapheneos.social /@GrapheneOS/116261301913660830
  • Technology @beehaw.org

    A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator

  • Technology @lemmy.ml

    A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator