Buelldozer

Yep it's tiring but comment aged link milk because the *very next day* [a bill was introduced to Congress.](https://itsfoss.com/news/os-level-age-verification-across-us/)

> Source.

I'm not the person who made the claim but Device Fingerprinting has been around for decades and Hardware ID is certainly part of that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_fingerprint

Two States, California and Washington, are not "The US" any more than France and Germany are the European Union. They are important no doubt but they do not themselves represent the entire entity.

> And what is the actual work requirement to copy-paste you post to your twitter?

Zero, there's plenty of software out that there allows you to write once and post everywhere. This isn't about declining engagement either since they are still reaching literally MILLIONS of people every year.

This decision was reached because of Xitters owner, no other reason makes sense.

Where in the bill does it say that?



I appreciate that you provided a link to the bill in your previous comment and I’m taking my response directly from there. Here’s a quote of the first sentence of the bill summary.


“The bill requires a developer to request an age signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the developer’s application is downloaded and launched. " (Emphasis Mine).


Okay so maybe it’s a bad summary, let’s look at the text of the bill. On the 2nd page it says:


“The bill requires a developer to request an age signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the developer’s application is downloaded and launched.” (Emphasis mine).


Then again on Page 5:


“(2) (a) A DEVELOPER SHALL REQUEST AN AGE SIGNAL WITH RESPECT TO A PARTICULAR USER FROM AN OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER12
OR A COVERED APPLICATION STORE WHEN THE DEVELOPER’S APPLICATION IS DOWNLOADED AND LAUNCHED.”


So yeah, the bill literally says it in both the summary and the text.


So what is an application?


From Page 3 “APPLICATION” MEANS A SOFTWARE APPLICATION THAT BE RUN OR DIRECTED BY A USER ON A DEVICE.” Huh, no ambiguity there.



And where would that make sense?



Ask Colorado and California, it’s their legislation. What would Notepad or File Explorer do with my age range? That would make no sense at all.



And yes, as a professional developer I would definetely comply and use this API instead of bothering my customers…



That’s good because if you don’t then you cannot have users in California nor in Colorado (assuming this legislation passes in Colorado).



…every time by askIng them to confirm their age, but since I’ve never worked on any age restricted software in the first place, it does not affect any of my products.



**Why do you think that matters?**There is no exception for your apps in the the Colorado or California legislation! You as a dev MUST comply with this law. If you choose not too then I hope you are prepared to deal with up to a $2,500 fine per user that turns out to be a minor!


“6-30-104. Enforcement - penalties.3
(1) A PERSON THAT VIOLATES THIS ARTICLE SHALL PAY A CIVIL PENALTY OF NO MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR EACH MINOR AFFECTED BY EACH NEGLIGENT VIOLATION, OR NO MORE THAN SEVEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR EACH MINOR AFFECTED BY EACH INTENTIONAL VIOLATION. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SHALL ASSESS AND RECOVER THE PENALTY IN A CIVIL ACTION .”


Hmmm, okay well what is an “app store”, maybe your app is distributed in a way that allows you to sidestep the law?


"(5) (a) “COVERED APPLICATION STORE " MEANS A PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INTERNET WEBSITE , SOFTWARE APPLICATION, ONLINE SERVICE, OR PLATFORM THAT DISTRIBUTES AND FACILITATES THE DOWNLOAD OF APPLICATIONS FROM THIRD- PARTY DEVELOPERS TO USERS OF DEVICES .”


Soooo, if you’re stuff is available on Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, GOS or anyone elses app store you need to comply. If your stuff is distributed from your own website you need to comply. If your stuff is distributed from GitHub you need to comply. If your stuff is distributed via package manager on Linux (that’s a software application!) then you need to comply.


Colorado’s legislation is slightly smarter than California’s in that it at least carves out some exceptions regarding applications for Enterprise, Commercial, and Government use but there are still caveats.


tl;dr This law and California’s clearly and specifically apply to applications as well as Operating Systems, are not “neat”, and its easy to predict that most F/OSS developers absolutely will not comply with these restrictions.

Read the legislation. It’s not just operating systems,mit applications as well! All applications, there are no exceptions.

I hear ya but honestly you wouldn't have the service let alone the devices without it.

This is why many of the expensive Dock options from HP / Dell / Lenovo, etc come with a non-detachable USB-C cable. You can’t have the “wrong” cable because the one you need isn’t removable.

Nah, I don’t blame you. The list of crap that I had to allow under “required” to read the article was preposterous.

But why does the HDMI forum not want a open source 2.1-compliant implementation?



To my knowledge they’ve never officially said but you can be sure that it has to do with Content Protection and that means DRM. An Open Source HDMI 2.1+ driver would make pirating much simpler, probably trivial, using Linux based PCs.


It’s possible anyway of course but there are a couple of hardware hoops to jump through and that’s enough to keep most people from doing it.

Odd, I have three screens active on my Mint desktop right now. I’ll have to try this on my Mint laptop and see what happens.

A couple of them have been built and they’re just sitting there unpowered



Most of them in California because that State simply cannot get its shitty power grid sorted out. The damn thing barely works at the best of times.


The utility company promised Digital Realty and Stack Infrastructure that they’d have the power ready for them by the time their DCs were built but…SURPRISE…they lied.

Power availability is actually a primary consideration when choosing a location for a Data Center. Sometimes they’ll site a DC even if there isn’t enough power and then build out the power generation that they need.


An example are the two DCs that Microsoft is building in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the absolutely massive 1.2 Million panel solar farm being built to power them. cowboystatedaily.com/…/massive-1-2-billion-1-2-mi…


This is at least the second time that Microsoft has done this in Cheyenne. In 2016 they contracted for 237 MW of Wind Energy, which led to the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farms being built / expanded. …microsoft.com/…/latest-energy-deal-microsofts-ch…


No matter what you think of AI the folks that engineer these DCs aren’t stupid. They are well aware of their extreme power requirements.