Notices by Taggart :donor: (mttaggart@infosec.exchange)

They also need to provide an at-cost syndication of the search index to any who want it for ten years to correct for anticompetitive behavior in the market.

Basically, Google has to give competitors a card to the Library of Babylon.

Ten. Years. Search will never be the same.

There's more to this remedy than just the sell-off. Let's read some PDFs, gang.

Note: these are DoJ's proposals for the remedy. The ruling of the Court will happen (or not??) in April.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25356126-doj-proposed-final-judgement-of-google-search-remedies

Google is prohibited from disincentivizing Apple from getting into the search game. That might seem weird, but many times during the case, Apple reps made clear that the Google deal was a set of handcuffs in this regard. With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, this opens the door to a new Apple search product.

Google can't acquire search competitors without prior consent from DoJ and Plaintiff States. So now's the time to innovate in the ad space, I guess?

Now, Android stuff.

Google must not use its control of Android or any other product or service to switch the default [search engine] or to install or switch a Search Access Point.

Holy crap. So basically they need to allow you to remove Google search from Android. Indeed, later on in Section V, it is enumerated that no Google Search product or AI product can be "mandatory" in Android.

The strictures are worth reading in full. And if Google doesn't like it, Justice allows them to choose to divest of Android instead of complying!

This is a shellacking by Justice and the Plaintiffs against Google. I honestly don't know how Chrome survives on its own without search attached—ironically, perhaps as a non-profit foundation? That'd be pretty funny.

Ostensibly advertisers would still want preferential access to the dominant browser, in whatever shape it ends up, but then...wouldn't it baldly just be an ad viewing apparatus?

This is an unbelievable opportunity for Mozilla, which I have every confidence they can fumble.

Lmaooo

Google must not preinstall any Search Access Point on any new Google Device.

That search bar at the bottom of Android? Gone. I don't even know how Chrome OS works now.

Google must display a Choice Screen on every new and existing instance of a Google Browser where the user has not previously affirmatively selected a default [search engine] for that Google Browser, including by changing the search default through the settings.

This is arguably more aggressive than what the EU did to Microsoft and Internet Explorer.

Oh damn there it is: https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/20/24300617/doj-google-search-antitrust-chrome-breakup

@tek How was setup? Super interested in getting this going.

@joshbressers @accidentalciso @Viss Very possible, but the quick-block culture is a positive complication for that dynamic. As ever, I'll remain optimistic and open to being wrong.

@Viss Jokes aside though, no you're totally right. I've had engagement over there but it's so low-value compared to what we get up to over here.

@Viss Yeah I mean I don't wanna tell you a story 300 characters at a time

@Viss It's funny. I'm seeing a lot of the old "cool kids" show up but... absolutely zero substance.

Who wants some good news?

Last week I spoke to a middle school class about cybersecurity as a career, and AI came up. I asked if they had tried to use LLMs to do their schoolwork—they all had. But every student in the class said it didn't work. Why?

"ChatGPT is too stupid."

Kids are alright.

I struggle to think of a legitimate purpose for Dev Tunnels that is not offered by an alternative. I'd block devtunnels[.]ms outright.

https://newtonpaul.com/tunneling-c2-through-microsoft-dev-tunnels/

Here comes another life-changer: A #RustLang REPL!

https://github.com/sigmaSd/IRust

A reminder that if you're here, you're seeing a flood of people doing their thing and doing it well, and it can be easy to feel like you're falling behind or not doing enough.

This is a digital illusion.

You are enough. Your pace is enough. Your life need not be measured against others.

With the Reddit thing, it'd be easy to miss what's going on on StackOverflow. Basically:

1. Site owners allowed LLM-generated content.

2. Mods are on strike.

3. Also, back in March it turns out SO turned off the Creative Commons data pipe, which backs up the site to the Internet Archive, in an attempt to confound using SO for training data.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a33dj/stack-overflow-moderators-are-striking-to-stop-garbage-ai-content-from-flooding-the-site

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/390106/moderation-strike-update-data-dumps-choosing-representatives-gpt-data-and-wh

@atomicpoet Even better if there were a .rss feed version of them!

@atomicpoet @fediversenews I'm curious as to your thoughts on the relative advantages/disadvantages of showing the stats.

Gentle suggestion for #OpenSource and #FOSS projects whose first response to criticism is "oPeN a pUlL rEQuEsT."

Stop. It's a deeply unhelpful comment because a) it shifts the responsibility for primary development from the core team to a stranger, and b) literally everyone who would be in a position to open a PR already is aware that's an option.

So instead:

1. Recognize that valid criticism of user experience and functionality can come from non-developers.
2. Usually, people comment on issues because they want your app to work for them. They're on your side.
3. You are not just developers; you are project maintainers and part of that is interacting with a community. Leading with gratitude and empathy goes a long way to building and maintaining that community.

Something like thanking them for caring, asking for what they'd like to see, and _inviting_ them to be part of the solution with an easy onboarding process is much more likely to succeed.