Category Archives: Information

Bluesky Opens Up Federation, Letting Anyone Run Their Own Server



Social network Bluesky, a competitor to X, Threads, Mastodon and others, is opening up its doors with today’s news that the network is now opening up federation, following its public launch earlier this month, TechCrunch reported.

The move will allow anyone to run their own server that connects to Bluesky’s network, so they can host their own data, their own account and make their own rules. This decentralized model of social networking is similar to the one that Mastodon already uses, but is underpinned on Bluesky by a different protocol, keeping the two networks separate, for now.

The growing interest in federation stems from consumer demand to have more control over their personal data — something that gained more attention after billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, rebranded it to X and changed its focus to become an “everything app” with a focus on payments, creators, video shows, AI … and lax moderation. That sent some former Twitter users in search of alternatives that were more sustainable, like Mastodon and Bluesky.

Bluesky posted the following:

Today, we’re excited to announce that the Bluesky network is federating and opening up in a way that allows you to host your own data. What does this mean?

Your data, such as your posts, likes, and follows, needs to be stored somewhere. With traditional social media, your data is stored by the social media company whose services you’ve signed up for. If you ever want to stop using that company’s services, you can do that — but you would have to leave that social network and lose your existing connections.

It doesn’t have to be this way! An alternative model is how the internet itself works. Anyone can put up a website on the internet. You can choose from one of many companies to host your site (or even host it yourself), and you can always change your mind about this later. If you move to another hosting provider, your visitors won’t even notice. No matter where your site’s data is managed and stored, your visitors can find your site simply by typing the name on the website or by clicking a link.

We think social media should work the same way. When you register on Bluesky, by default, we’ll suggest that Bluesky will store your data. But if you’d like to let another company store it, (or even store it yourself), and you can change your mind at any point, moving your data to another provider without losing any of your existing posts, likes, or follows. From your follower’s perspective, your profile is always available at your handle — no matter where your information is actually stored, or how many times its been moved…

The Verge reported that Bluesky is taking a big leap toward federating. On Thursday, the social network announced that it is opening up early access for users and developers who want to self-host their data. While this isn’t true federation yet, the company plans to open up federation to larger servers with even more users in its next phase. When the dust settles, anyone can (in theory) create their own server with their own rules on Bluesky’s AT Protocol.

In my opinion, this change could be interesting if it rolls out well. The next step would be for Bluesky to actually engage in federation with Mastodon.


Amazon’s Ring Will Stop Allowing Police To Request Doorbell Footage From Users



Amazon’s Ring will no longer allow police to request users’ doorbell video footage in its neighborhood watch app, CNBC reported.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Ring said this week it plans to discontinue it’s “Request for Assistance” tool, which allowed law enforcement to submit requests for users footage in their communities through a publicly accessible post in its Neighbor’s app.

According to CNBC, Ring in 2021 made police requests for user footage public in its Neighbors app. Previously, law enforcement could message users privately to request clips from their smart doorbell cameras.

Police can still obtain Ring footage using a search warrant or a subpoena. In response to a 2022 letter from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., questioning it’s police partnerships, the company disclosed that Ring may provide footage directly to law enforcement “in cases involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person.”

CNBC also reported that Ring has long sparked controversy about privacy due to its controversial partnerships with hundreds of police departments across the U.S. Privacy advocates have expressed concern that the program, and Ring’s accompanying Neighbors app, have heightened the risk of racial profiling and turned residents into informants, with few guardrails around how law enforcement can use the material.

Ring posted on its blog: “Ring Announces New Neighbors App Features, Sunsets Request for Assistance Post” Here is part of their post:

…We’ve all seen how Ring videos — whether heartwarming or silly — can bring us together to laugh, empathize or unite in a shared community. In 2023 alone, customers shared Ring moments with Neighbors, their social channels, and their friends more than a million times. Whether a bear relaxing in a pool, or a neighbor helping out with some shoveling, millions of people have found joy and hope in Ring posts.

Today, we’re announcing some changes to the Neighbors app based on what we’ve heard from our customers. We want to make it easier to continue to share moments that matter. That’s why we’re introducing Ring Moments, a new post category that expands the content allowed on the Neighbors app beyond just crime and safety…

…This week, we are also sunsetting the Request for Assistance (RFA) tool. Public safety agencies like fire and police departments can still use the Neighbors app to share helpful tips, updates, and community events. They will no longer be able to use the RFA tool to request and receive video in the app. Public safety agencies posts are still public, and will be available for users to view on the Neighbors app feed and on the agency profile.

The Guardian reported that civil liberties experts have long criticized Amazon’s close relationship with law enforcement and the company’s willingness to facilitate warrantless police investigations by allowing easy access to private security footage from people’s homes.

In response to the criticism, the company previously did away with the practice that allowed police to privately send requests for video footage to Ring users. Instead, police were only allowed to publicly post these requests on the app. Now, they can only obtain footage from Ring using a warrant.

In my opinion, this is a step in the right direction. More could be done, of course, like completely cutting off police from secretly gathering Ring footage from the devices.


Nightshade Is A Free Tool That “Poisons” AI Models Now Available For Artists



It’s here: months after it was announced, Nightshade, a new, free software tool allowing artists to “poison” AI models seeking to train on their works, is now available for artists to download and use on any artworks they see fit, VentureBeat reported.

Developed by computer scientists on the Glaze Project at the University of Chicago under Professor Ben Zhao, the tool essentially works by turning AI against AI. It makes use of the popular open-source machine learning framework PyTorch to identify what’s in a given image, then applies a tag that subtly alters the image at the pixel level so other AI programs see something totally different than what’s actually there.

According to VentureBeat, it’s the second such tool from the team: nearly one year ago, the team unveiled Glaze, a separate program designed to alter digital artwork at a user’s behest to confuse AI training algorithms into thinking the image has a different style than what is actually present (such as different colors and brush strokes than are really there).

But whereas the Chicago team designed Glaze to be a defensive tool – and still recommends artists use it in addition to Nightshade to prevent an artist’s style from being imitated by AI models — Nightshade is designed to be “an offensive tool.”

Artists seeking to use Nightshade must have a Mac with Apple chips inside (M1, M2, or M3), or a PC running Windows 10 or 11. The tool can be downloaded for both OSes here.

The Register reported that University of Chicago boffins released Nightshade 1.0, a tool built to punish unscrupulous makers of machine learning models who train their systems on data without getting permission first.

Nightshade is an offensive data poisoning tool, a companion to a defensive style protection tool called Glaze, which The Register covered in February of last year.

According to The Register, Nightshade poisons image files to give indigestion to models that ingest data without permission. It’s intended to make those training image-oriented models respect content creators’ wishes about the use of their work.

“Nightshade is computed as a multi-object optimization that minimizes visible changes to the original image,” said the team responsible for the project. “For example, human eyes might see a shaded image of a cow in a green field largely unchanged, but an AI model might see a large leather purse lying in the grass.”

Nightshade was developed by University of Chicago doctoral students Shawn Shan, Wenxin Ding, and Josephine Passananti, and professors Heather Zheng and Ben Zhao, some of whom helped with Glaze.

IGN reported: As AI continues to be a double-edged sword in the digital landscape, a new data-poisoning tool will allow artists to reclaim their control over their creative worlds and void any AI-generated replications.

Personally, I think Nightshade is a big win for artists! No one wants to have their artwork stolen without their permission. Poisoning the AI with Nightshade sends a very clear message that artists are not going to allow AI to steal their work.


Apple Again Banned From Selling Watches In U.S. With Blood Oxygen Sensor



Apple will again be barred from selling watches with blood oxygen sensors beginning Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said, CNBC reported.

The court order Wednesday did not rule on Apple’s effort to overturn a U.S. International Trade Commission ban on the company selling the effected watches in the United States. But it lifted an injunction that had blocked the ban from taking effect while that appeal is pending.

The ban stems from an intellectual property dispute with Masimo, a medical device company. In October, the International Trade Commission found that Apple’s blood oxygen sensors had infringed on Masimo’s intellectual property.

Apple shares fell slightly in Wednesday afternoon trading.

The ban prevents Apple from importing the devices in question — both the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. In December, Apple chose to briefly remove the affected watches from its online and retail stores, through retailers with those devices in stock may still sell them.

Reuters reported that Apple said on Wednesday it would remove a blood oxygen monitoring feature from two flagship Apple Watch models in the U.S. as the iPhone maker fights a legal battle over patents on the technology behind the feature.

The legal fight could take a year to resolve, and analysts had expected Apple would strike the feature, which is marketed for fitness users, rather than pull devices from sale in one of its biggest markets.

The company said Apple Watch Series 9 on Ultra 2 models without the feature would go on sale on its website and stores started at 6 a.m. Pacific Time (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.

Apple shares closed 0.5% lower at $182.68 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Wednesday the company could no longer sell the models at the center of a legal battle with medical technology company Masimo.

…In a statement, Joe Kiani, Masimo’s founder and chief executive, said the court ruling on Wednesday “affirms that even the largest and most powerful companies must respect the intellectual rights of American inventors and must deal with the consequences when they are caught infringing others’ patents.”

Engadget reported that if you’re in the US, any Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 model you buy from Apple will no longer have a functional blood oxygen monitoring feature.

Apple failed to convince the court to allow it to keep selling the aforementioned models while it’s appealing a ruling by the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

In my opinion, I think Apple could have avoided going to court by talking with Masimo before adding the blood oxygen sensor into its watches. Instead, it went ahead and added that, and now has to remove it.


OpenAI’s Potential $100 Billion Valuation #1715



OpenAI, renowned for ChatGPT, is reportedly negotiating a funding round that could potentially value the company at over $100 billion. Still under negotiation with terms and valuation subject to change, this development could position OpenAI as one of the world’s most valuable startups. Additionally, OpenAI is considering a new chip venture with Abu Dhabi-based G42, alongside raising $8 billion to $10 billion for this project. Separately, OpenAI is finalizing a tender offer by Thrive Capital, which would value the company at $86 billion, allowing employees to sell shares. OpenAI also recently launched Converge 2, a program supporting startups using AI, featuring tech talks, industry leader interactions, and a $1 million investment.

We have a goal of 1500 listeners contributing $2.00 per month in 2024. We hope you will help us reach that goal to ensure GNC is able to continue to do what I do with this podcast.

Subscribe to the Newsletter.
Join the Chat @ GeekNews.Chat
Email Todd or follow him on Facebook.
Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page.
Download the Audio Show File
New YouTube Channel – Beyond the Office

Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes
$11.99 – For a New Domain Name cjcfs3geek
$6.99 a month Economy Hosting (Free domain, professional email, and SSL certificate for the 1st year.) Promo Code: cjcgeek1h
$12.99 a month Managed WordPress Hosting (Free domain, professional email, and SSL certificate for the 1st year.) Promo Code: cjcgeek1w
Support the show by becoming a Geek News Central Insider

Continue reading OpenAI’s Potential $100 Billion Valuation #1715


Pantone Color of the Year 2024 – Peach Fuzz



For 2024 Pantone has announced Peach Fuzz as the Color of the Year. Officially PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, the colour “is a heartfelt peach hue bringing a feeling of tenderness and communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration”.

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, explains ““A cozy peach hue softly nestled between pink and orange, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz brings belonging, inspires recalibration, and an opportunity for nurturing, conjuring up an air of calm, offering us a space to be, feel, and heal and to flourish from whether spending time with others or taking the time to enjoy a moment by ourselves. Drawing comfort from PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, we can find peace from within, impacting our wellbeing. An idea as much as a feeling, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz awakens our senses to the comforting presence of tactility and cocooned warmth.

This year’s Peach Fuzz follows on from last year’s Viva Magenta, breaking the sequence of recent rich colours. For the full story on PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, there’s a comprehensive Pantone feature on the Color of the Year.

It’s also 25 years of the Pantone Color of the year, back in 2000, it was PANTONE 15-4020 Cerulean. For those paying attention, that was the colour namechecked in The Devil Wears Prada when Andy gets a dressing down from Miranda on her choice of jumper.

As with previous years, Pantone has worked with other partners to transform Peach Fuzz into more than just colours. Continuing the exiting relationship, Motorola has introduced two special edition smartphones, the edge 40 neo and the razr 40 ultra. Personally, I think I liked last year’s Viva Magenta better, but I can see razr 40 selling very well in Peach Fuzz. Although there doesn’t seem to be a formal arrangement with Microsoft, there are plenty of Peach Fuzz wallpapers to download. Stay bang on trend in your next online meeting.  Ethical Brazilian footwear manufacturer Cariuma offers a range of sustainable sneakers in Pantone colours including this year’s Color of the Year

If you are a designer, all the colour standards are on Pantone’s site, including some downloads for Adobe products. The codes for PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz are sRGB: 255 190 152 and Hex: #FFBE98.

Peach Fuzz imagery courtesy of Pantone. Edge and Razr photos courtesy of Motorola.