../../MikeMacBook.jpg

OpenAI Adds Shopping to ChatGPT in a Challenge to Google

Reece Rogers writing for WIRED: The new user experience of buying stuff inside of ChatGPT shares many similarities to Google Shopping. In the interfaces of both, when you click on the image of a budget office chair that tickles your fancy, multiple retailers, like Amazon and Walmart, are listed on the right side of the screen, with buttons for completing the purchase. There is one major difference between shopping through ChatGPT versus Google, for now: The results you see in OpenAI searches are not paid placements, but organic results. “They are not ads,” says Fry. “They are not sponsored.”

I deleted over 200 mail rules, I’m going to give Apple’s categorization a shot. Now that the feature is on iPad and Mac, I’m going all in!

Mozilla Thunderbird Challenges Gmail With Its Own Email Service

Jason Evangelho writing for Forbes: At its core, Thundermail will primarily be a mail service provider, eventually expanding to offer a familiar browser-based experience similar to Gmail. Users can send and receive email using new Thundermail accounts they sign up for. The service will also allow using your own custom domain (e.g. your.name@yourdomain.com). 👍🏼 More competition is always good.

I changed ISPs recently and had to change some of my network gear which meant moving to a new subnet. I’ve always used DHCP, there isn’t anything too unconventional about my setup. Everything, laptops, phones, smart home devices, etc. has moved over to the new subnet fine. My kids’ Chromebooks (from school), however, continue to be attached to the old subnet. I’ve tried “forgetting” the network, rebooting, flushing caches, nothing works. I continue to believe Chromebooks are shit!

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

Jeffrey Goldberg writing for The Atlantic: Information about an active operation would presumably fit the law’s definition of “national defense” information. The Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information. The government has its own systems for that purpose. If officials want to discuss military activity, they should go into a specially designed space known as a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF—most Cabinet-level national-security officials have one installed in their home—or communicate only on approved government equipment, the lawyers said.

My family owns Disney Vacation Club (think timeshare for Disney) and we’ve decided we won’t be going to the States this year. Previous to this, we went to #DisneyWorld every year for the past 6 years. At this point, I don’t know when we’ll go back.

I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped

This story from The Guardian about the woman from BC who was detained by ICE is enraging! There was no explanation, no warning. He led me to a room, took my belongings from my hands and ordered me to put my hands against the wall. A woman immediately began patting me down. The commands came rapid-fire, one after another, too fast to process. They took my shoes and pulled out my shoelaces.

Encrypted Chat App ‘Session’ Leaves Australia After Visit From Police

Joseph Cox writing for 404 Media: Linton also pointed to Australia’s recently enacted surveillance laws, and said “we felt Session was sufficiently secured because it is open source, decentralised, and we were just building privacy-focussed technology in good faith.” That changed after the country laid out plans to have service providers collect and store a certain amount of data on users. I wonder how long encryption will be legal. With the recent leaked news about the UK telling Apple to install a back door into iCloud, governments are increasingly looking to get access to everyone’s personal communications and data.

The Right Wing Explodes - Mastodon

MostlyHarmless @MostlyHarmless@thecanadian.social I hope America is as lucky as the upside down Delta jet. Everyone survives but the right wing explodes. 1:56 AM • February 20, 2025 (UTC)

Signal will never weaken encryption - Mastodon

Meredith Whittaker @Mer__edith@mastodon.world @brayd @signalapp We will never weaken encryption, add a backdoor, bow or scrape, etc. We would rather shut down or leave a market. Our position does not change based on jurisdiction. 8:22 PM • February 6, 2025 (UTC)

Left Intolerance (lol) - Bluesky

Opinion | The Left insisted that we all embrace Barack Obama. But now that Republicans have our own African-American president, Elon Musk, they’re back to their typical intolerance. by Hugh Hewitt — NY Times Pitchbot (@nytpitchbot.bsky.social) 2025-02-05T16:21:46.497Z

Microsoft probing whether DeepSeek improperly used OpenAI APIs

Romain Dillet writing for TechCrunch: According to security researchers working for Microsoft, the Chinese company behind the R1 reasoning model may have exfiltrated a large amount of data using OpenAI’s API in the fall of 2024. Microsoft, which also happens to be OpenAI’s largest shareholder, notified OpenAI of the suspicious activity. While anyone can sign up and access OpenAI’s API, the company’s terms of service stipulate that you can’t use the output to train a new AI model.