Uncrowned Guard

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I never did anything for April Fool's day, so I doubt I'll start now. 😅 Spring is off to a great start here! Can't wait to get planting!

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In a groundbreaking decision that could impact the future of digital libraries, Judge John G. Koeltl ruled against the Internet Archive in the lawsuit Hachette v. Internet Archive, siding with four major book publishers. The judge determined that the Internet Archive's practice of scanning books and lending them out like a library did not have legal standing. This ruling could have major implications for libraries and the publishing industry. In response, the Internet Archive has vowed to appeal the decision. Chris Freeland, the director of Open Libraries at the Internet Archive, claims that the ruling hampers access to information and hurts authors by reinforcing restrictive licensing models. The plaintiffs in the case – HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House, alongside Hachette – brought the Internet Archive to court to determine whether its National Emergency Library program operated under the principle of Fair Use. In a previous case involving Google Books and HathiTrust, Fair Use allowed for digital book preservation projects, but Judge Koeltl found that the benefits of the Internet Archive's library did not outweigh the market harm to the publishers. The judge argued that there was nothing transformative about the Internet Archive's copying and unauthorized lending and that it did not provide criticism, commentary, or information about the books. He also dismissed the argument that the Internet Archive may have helped publishers sell more copies of their books, calling it irrelevant that the organization had purchased its own copies of the books before making digital copies for its online audience. The lawsuit originated from the Internet Archive's decision to launch the "National Emergency Library" early in the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing users to read from 1.4 million digitized books without a waitlist. This move sparked outrage among publishers, leading to the group filing a lawsuit against the Internet Archive in June 2020. In response to the lawsuit, the Archive shut down the program later that month. Despite the decision, the Internet Archive remains committed to providing library services in other ways. Chris Freeland emphasizes that the case does not challenge many of the services they provide with digitized books, including interlibrary loan, citation linking, access for the print-disabled, text and data mining, purchasing ebooks, and ongoing donation and preservation of books. View full article

Framework, a company known for its modular, upgradable laptops, is now turning its sights to the gaming market with its latest release, the Framework Laptop 16. While many companies have attempted to create upgradable gaming laptops, they have all failed due to various reasons, including technology advancements and a lack of support from manufacturers. However, Framework is looking to change this with its new laptop, which promises to be entirely modular and fully repairable, with the ability to upgrade the GPU independently of the rest of the system. Founder Nirav Patel believes that Framework is "delivering on the holy grail in high-performance notebooks," with the ability to upgrade the GPU without being constrained by size requirements. The laptop's expansion bay system is designed to be flexible, with the ability to reconfigure any internal or external aspect of it to make sure it works. The company has made room in the chassis to support both current and future generation GPU modules, allowing for complete flexibility in supporting changes when it comes to GPUs. Additionally, the mainboard is set up to allow a connection over PCIe x8, offering enough high power and display support in both directions for a laptop of this intended size and class. Apart from its unprecedented level of internal customization, the Framework Laptop 16 offers hot-swappable keyboard, mousepad, and anything-else-on-the-top-deck modules. The top deck is user reconfigurable, allowing owners to remove the keyboard, remove the numpad, slide the keyboard into the center, and add input modules to the left and right, all while the machine is running. Framework is opening these tools up to developers as well, hoping to see fans building their own "jog wheels, sliders, touchscreen displays, e-ink notepads, smart card readers, and more." Framework plans to open up the bay and its connection to its developer community, enabling them to build their own modules. The company has already developed a dual M.2 SSD that uses the bay, offering up to 16TB of additional storage. It envisions a wide variety of other tools that could be plugged in, like a video capture card, streaming hardware, dedicated AI modules, or even a software-defined radio transmitter. The Framework Laptop 16 will be available for pre-order towards the end of spring. While there is no word on pricing, Patel encourages interested buyers to use Framework's existing cost structure to compare against the market as it stands. Shipments are expected to begin towards the end of the year, with Framework promising to deliver upgrades and longevity to its customers. View full article

The internet has made our lives much easier in countless ways, but unfortunately, it has also opened up new avenues for fraudulent activities. One such fraudulent activity is creating fake or phishing websites to steal sensitive information or trick people into paying for fake products or services. If you come across a fraudulent website, it is important to report it so that others are not deceived. Here is a guide on how to report a fraudulent website. Verify that the website is fraudulent Before reporting a website, make sure that it is fraudulent. Here are some signs that a website may be fraudulent: The website asks for sensitive information such as your social security number, credit card number, or login credentials. The website claims to offer products or services that are too good to be true or at a very low price. The website has poor design or typos and grammatical errors. The website does not have an SSL certificate or secure connection. The website has a suspicious domain name or URL. If you suspect that a website is fraudulent, do not enter any sensitive information and proceed to the next step. Report the website to the relevant authorities There are several organizations and authorities that you can report a fraudulent website to. Here are some options: Federal Trade Commission (FTC): The FTC handles complaints related to consumer fraud and scams. You can report a fraudulent website to the FTC by filling out their online form. Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): The IC3 is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. They investigate and track internet-related crimes, including online fraud. You can report a fraudulent website to the IC3 by filling out their online complaint form. Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG): The APWG is an international organization that focuses on eliminating phishing and cybercrime. You can report a fraudulent website to the APWG by forwarding the phishing email or URL to reportphishing@apwg.org. Google Safe Browsing: If you use Google Chrome, you can report a fraudulent website to Google Safe Browsing by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner of your browser, selecting "More tools," and then "Report a deceptive site." Warn others To prevent others from falling victim to the same fraudulent website, you can warn others by reporting it to the following entities: Web of Trust (WOT): WOT is a community-driven service that rates websites based on their trustworthiness. You can report a fraudulent website to WOT by submitting a rating. PhishTank: PhishTank is a collaborative clearinghouse for data and information about phishing scams. You can report a fraudulent website to PhishTank by submitting the URL on their website. Reporting a fraudulent website can help prevent others from falling victim to online scams. By taking action, you are contributing to a safer online community. Protect Your Personal Information If you’ve provided personal information to a fake or phishing website, take steps to protect your identity and your accounts. Immediately change your passwords on any accounts that you used to access the fake website, and monitor your accounts for any suspicious activity. Consider placing a fraud alert on your credit report to prevent unauthorized accounts or loans from being opened in your name. You may also want to consider freezing your credit, which prevents anyone from accessing your credit report without your permission. Contact Law Enforcement If you’ve been a victim of a phishing scam or have information about a fake or phishing website, you can also report it to your local law enforcement agency. Cybercrime is taken seriously by law enforcement, and they have specialized units that investigate these types of crimes. When reporting to law enforcement, provide as much information as possible, including the website address, any emails or messages you received, and any financial transactions you made on the site. Contact Your Employer or IT Department Even if you are worried about getting in trouble for clicking on a link you should not have, the serious damage that cybercrime can do to a business and your own job is much more significant. Most large corporations have dedicated cyber security teams or at least an IT department that you should report all questionable emails to no matter if you clicked it or not. In conclusion, reporting fake or phishing websites is important to protect yourself and others from online scams. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can help prevent others from falling victim to these scams and protect your own personal information. Stay vigilant and always verify the authenticity of a website before entering any personal information or making any financial transactions online. View full guide

Mozilla, the tech company behind the popular web browser Firefox, has announced its latest venture: a startup called Mozilla.ai, focused on building a "trustworthy and independent open-source AI ecosystem." With the rising popularity of AI-powered products like ChatGPT and Bing, there has also been a surge of misinformation, deep fakes, and copyright issues. Mozilla aims to tackle these problems by building safety and transparency tools for developers, rather than competing directly with giants like GPT-4. While the announcement is light on detail, Mozilla's CEO, Mitchell Baker, sees AI as part of the future of Firefox. She believes we're heading into a moment of real change, which could help Firefox (or another browser) regain market share. Mozilla's history and expertise in the consumer web give it an outsize voice in the tech industry, and the company hopes to influence the direction of AI development by championing a better model for building AI. Mozilla.ai's lead, Moez Draief, is a longtime AI researcher and scientist, and Mozilla is investing $30 million to get the startup off the ground. This move is in line with Mozilla's history of being a small but influential player in the market, and the company hopes to build a broader community and ecosystem around open-source AI. While other tech giants like Google and Microsoft own AI-powered products like Bard and Bing, Mozilla sees itself as uniquely positioned to build a better AI future. View full article

Linus Tech Tips, a popular YouTube channel with 15.3 million subscribers, has been hacked. Instead of tech hardware reviews, the channel was flooded with videos for crypto scams, marking the latest in a series of high-profile YouTube accounts being hacked. Scammers have been gaining access to prominent accounts, renaming them, and live-streaming crypto scam videos. The main Linus Tech Tips channel was breached early in the morning, with several live videos broadcast before the hacker started making old private videos public. Other Linus Media Group YouTube channels, including Techquickie and TechLinked, have also been breached and given new names focused on Tesla. It’s unclear how the channels have been breached, but owner Linus Sebastian tweeted that he was aware of the situation. In a statement posted to Floatplane, a streaming service spun out of Linus Media Group, he said that the company is working on it with Google and is hopeful of hardening their security around YouTube accounts and preventing this sort of thing from happening to anyone in the future. This latest breach is part of a series of hacks designed to promote live streams that push viewers to amateur-looking crypto sites through links or QR codes. The British army’s YouTube channel was hacked last year to promote crypto scams, just months before tens of thousands of “viewers” watched a fake Apple crypto scam on YouTube. Popular Vevo channels on YouTube for artists like Lil Nas X, Drake, Taylor Swift, and more were also affected by a breach last year that saw videos uploaded from an “unauthorized source.” It is clear that YouTube could do more to prevent the damaging effects of these scams. One YouTuber claims they work through fake sponsors reaching out to creators, convincing them to download a file related to the sponsorship, which is just malware designed to steal cookies, remotely control PCs, and ultimately hijack YouTube accounts. In light of these recent hacks, it’s clear that YouTube needs to implement tighter security measures. The Verge offered a few solid ideas such as a lockdown mode for high-profile accounts, combined with alerts for when a new location has signed in, which could help channel owners recover their YouTube accounts before any real damage is done. YouTube could also implement a guardian system where second approval from another account is required to rename a channel, delete videos, or even add two-factor prompts for channel actions. With these measures in place, YouTube can hopefully get this under control and put an end to these damaging breaches. View full article

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Microsoft's latest offering, Microsoft Loop, is set to revolutionize the way teams collaborate on projects. The tool is similar to the workspace app Notion, but Loop's shareable components let you turn any page into a real-time block of content that can be pasted into Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word on the web, and Whiteboard, making it a truly collaborative experience. Loop is designed to prioritize collaboration and co-creation, with a main interface that looks much like Notion. Loop pages are like blank canvases where people can share and collaborate, with initial templates designed to help you get started. When you create a workspace, Loop will even search for all the relevant Office documents you’ve been working on, making it easy to add the ones you need to organize a project. The project and task management features are largely what you’d expect here, but it’s the collaborative parts of Loop that look the most impressive. Microsoft developed Loop during the pandemic and the increase of hybrid work to help fill the gaps of working in virtual teams. That led to nudges, a way to drop an emoji on a canvas that animates to show appreciation for co-workers or highlight something important in projects. The mobile Loop app is designed for capturing photos, ideas, and more, and the tool is set to become even more impressive with Microsoft's 365 Copilot system. This AI-powered system will allow users to create a brainstorm or blueprint, with Microsoft adapting its Copilot to support a multiplayer mode where users can ask the AI chatbot questions and manipulate the responses. The responses are a live canvas, so users can edit them freely and then share them in Outlook and Teams. Notion has a similar AI-powered system that goes much further. You can use it to analyze meeting notes, create summaries, surface important information, and rewrite or generate text. Notion also has a neat web clipper feature that lets you import any page on the web. Microsoft is now opening up Loop to public preview, allowing businesses and even consumers to get access to an early version of the software. If you have a Microsoft Account or Azure Active Directory account, you can get access through the web app, and iOS and Android versions will also be available to businesses today and consumers soon. With Microsoft Loop, the future of team collaboration is looking brighter than ever before. It's a tool designed to make working on projects together seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable. With its focus on collaboration and co-creation, Microsoft Loop is set to become a must-have tool for teams everywhere. View full article

OpenAI's launch of GPT-4 had the world talking, especially Microsoft, one of the largest investors in ChatGPT's parent company. It's no secret that Microsoft incorporates any new developments from OpenAI into their products like Bing search, Edge browser, Office 365, and more. While we can't predict when AI will replace office workers, we can say for sure that it can be a helpful assistant. Recently, on March 16th, Microsoft unveiled Power Platform Copilot, a new feature that lets developers build apps with the help of AI. This feature is a part of Microsoft Power Platform and provides AI-powered assistance based on GPT for Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate. Developers can talk to GPT and describe the app they want to create, and Copilot can build it in seconds while suggesting ways to improve it. Using Power Platform Copilot, developers can describe the app they want to create using simple natural language. Power Apps will then build the app, creating code for the UI, data table, and business logic. For example, if a user says, "create a worker onboarding app, get new worker data and share training content and learning modules," Copilot can create the app instantly. Users can customize the app by interacting with Copilot, such as adding new columns to the data table or filling the data table with sample data. Copilot can also suggest improvements if there are any problems during the creation of the app. Power Automate announced a while ago that it could create automated processes using natural language, but it only worked for simple processes. With Power Automate Copilot, complex processes can be created using natural language, and Copilot can optimize and update the process through dialogue. Moreover, users can use the GPT model to generate text content on Power Automate Desktop. The new Azure OpenAI service in AI Builder can be used in Power Automate Desktop as well. Power Virtual Agents now has GPT support, allowing users to connect their Power Virtual Agents to websites, knowledge bases, and other data sources. This allows GPT to generate answers and firms to connect bots to knowledge bases and Q&A knowledge bases of various products to provide Q&A support to customers. With Power Virtual Agents Copilot, users can describe the robot's process using natural language, and it will create the robot accordingly. Users can also integrate Power Virtual Agents into Power Apps, making it even more convenient. In conclusion, Microsoft's Power Platform Copilot is an excellent tool for developers to build apps quickly and efficiently. With GPT support, developers can use natural language to describe the app they want to create, and Copilot will create it in seconds. The future of app development looks exciting, and we can't wait to see what other developments Microsoft and OpenAI have in store for us. View full article

Welcome to Uncrowned Addiction @Joshua Farrell!

I have grabbed a bunch of seeds, but I don't have too much of a plan yet. I like to order my seeds online as they are often much cheaper, so I just wildly select plants.

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In the world of cybersecurity, a brute force attack is a popular method used by hackers to gain access to a system or account by trying multiple passwords until the correct one is found. This method is effective against weak and easily guessable passwords. How does a brute force attack work? A brute force attack works by trying every possible combination of characters until the correct password is found. It is a trial-and-error method that can be automated using software that can try millions of combinations in a short amount of time. For example, if a user has a six-character password with only lowercase letters, there are 26^6 (308,915,776) possible combinations. If a hacker uses a brute force attack software that can try one million passwords per second, it will take about five minutes to try all possible combinations. Types of brute force attacks There are different types of brute force attacks that hackers can use to gain access to a system or account: Dictionary attack: In this attack, the hacker uses a pre-generated list of commonly used passwords or words found in a dictionary to try and gain access to the system or account. Hybrid attack: A hybrid attack combines different character sets and patterns to generate a list of possible passwords to try. Reverse brute force attack: In a reverse brute force attack, the hacker starts with a known password and tries to find the username or account associated with it. Preventing brute force attacks Here are some tips to prevent brute force attacks: Use strong passwords: Strong passwords that are at least 12 characters long and use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters are harder to crack using brute force attacks. Use two-factor authentication: Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your accounts and makes it harder for hackers to gain access. Limit login attempts: Limiting the number of login attempts can prevent automated brute force attacks by locking out the user or IP address after a certain number of failed attempts. Use intrusion detection systems: Intrusion detection systems can detect and block brute force attacks in real time. Keep software up to date: Keeping software and applications up to date can prevent vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to gain access to your system or account. In conclusion, a brute force attack is a method used by hackers to gain access to a system or account by trying multiple passwords until the correct one is found. To prevent brute force attacks, it's essential to use strong passwords, enable two-factor authentication, limit login attempts, use intrusion detection systems, and keep software up to date. View full guide

Welcome @fords8! Glad to have you here and hope you enjoy your stay!