Hans-Christoph Steiner

I wonder if the way the #US and #Israel are leading the #IranWar has something to do with too much reliance on "yes men" #AI setup. There is all the news about #Anthropic #Claude being essential to their #defense planning. It seems they are moving tactically fast, killing key leaders, bombing so many things. But it looks strategically stupid. They are surprised that #Hormuz is closed. #Gulf states' bubble of perceived safety has popped, etc.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/pete-hegseth-strait-of-hormuz-iran/686368/

The #US military industrial complex is not even being intelligent about this war in #Iran. They are stuck in a bubble thinking that their overwhelming air power can do anything. This war has been in the making for years, so they had plenty of time to think about it.

"Iran has demonstrated it can escalate the costs of the war for #Washington far beyond its military capabilities to meaningfully counter the US-Israeli attack directly.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/14/how-iran-war-escalate-vietnam-trump-netanyahu-us-israel

#Hegseth #Trump

When designing #secure systems, understanding how people fit into the user experience is essential. Technical measures are only one part of the system. Without understanding the audience and their expectations, #security problems will surely arise. The more #mainstream the audience, the more important the #UX becomes in providing actual security. Security is a not a goal for users.

@uradotdesign@mastodon.online just put up nice post on this topic: https://ura.design/en/blog/perfectly-useless

Sooo #Amazon, how's that going with #AI replacing people?

https://slashdot.org/story/26/03/10/212214/after-outages-amazon-to-make-senior-engineers-sign-off-on-ai-assisted-changes

#GenAI

@Luanti@floss.social Hey 👋 I'm a long time supporter of the project. I'm with F-Droid and in that context, we're putting together a funding proposal and we'd like to include Luanti, if there are contributors who are interested. Please get in touch! My matrix account is best, otherwise email or here on Mastodon.

A concrete example of how #AI saves #money for #PayPal: I have an old account with 150€. I want to get the money out but its locked. AI says I need to do more verification to prove I'm me. There are five pieces of info I had to provide. After months, four were marked verified. The fifth fails every time I try. Only #ChatBot support is available, which just points to me to docs. So they'll just keep my money knowing I won't sue over so little money. AI makes locking accounts like mine cheap.

"Expanding the number of developers in Google’s database will only make it a more frequent target of legal demands."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/with-developer-verification-googles-apple-envy-threatens-to-dismantle-androids-open-legacy/

#Google #Android #AndroidDeveloperVerification #GooglePlay #privacy #legal #developer

"Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/04/quit-chatgpt-subscription-boycott-silicon-valley

#AI #OpenAI #ChatGPT #QuitGPT #SiliconValley #BigTech

I just updated two #Debian laptops from #bookworm to #trixie. Both went very smoothly, I think the smoothest laptop OS upgrade I've ever had. Thanks to all those that made that happen!

#Germany gave the world two of the most oppressive spy apparatuses the world has ever seen: the #Gestapo and the #Stasi, one right after the other, spanning many decades. Before that, the #GermanEmpire also had such things for decades. The world really does not need Germany to increase the powers of its spy agencies

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-foreign-intelligence-agency-power-bnd/

Much of #Austria's society was also complicit in the #Nazi era abuses, and Austria keeps its spy agencies very limited, even compared to Germany's #BND.

#FreeSoftware developers helped make #Android what it is today. #Google set the tone at the start by making it a more open ecosystem than #iOS and others. We saw #AOSP and its #OpenSource core, and we contributed code, built essential libraries and indispensable apps for the #platform because it was more #open. Now Google wants to take that way from everyone by becoming the sole arbiter of what apps run

https://keepandroidopen.org/

#FLOSS #FOSS #KeepAndroidOpen #AndroidDeveloperVerification

The #EpicVsGoogle settlement has shifted to apply globally while watering down the terms. This is worse for #US users without providing much in exchange. Why would #Google accept global scope? Because it is clear that #DigitalMarketsAct and laws like force them to open up anyway, so Google doesn't lose by agreeing to global applicability. In exchange, Google gains weakened terms in the US, which is not pursuing something like the DMA

#EpicGames #DMA #EpicVGoogle #Android #GooglePlay #AntiTrust

This #PlayIntegrity stuff is really questionable. My banking app won't run on a #GoogleFree #LineageOS running #Android 16 with all the latest security updates. But a #GooglePlay device running Android 10 that was last updated in 2021 is approved. This is not a real #security check. This looks like a #gatekeeper #monopoly check.