Extremely interesting story: the Ukraine drones that did this weekend’s massive attack were powered by free open source pilot assistance software
404 Media
Ukraine's Massive Drone Attack Was Powered by Open Source Software
Ukraine used ArduPilot to help it wipe out Russian targets. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.
I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives:
404 Media
Teachers Are Not OK
AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs "have absolutely blown up what I try to accomplish with my teaching."
Scoop: Texas police used Flock's license plate cameras to search *nationwide* for a woman who had a self-managed abortion. Claim it was "about her safety"
404 Media
A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion
The sheriff said the woman self-administered the abortion and her family were concerned for her safety, so authorities searched through Flock camer...
SCOOP: ICE, HSI, and DHS are getting side-door access to the nationwide system of Flock license plate cameras by asking local police to perform lookups for them, new public records show. ICE does *not* have a contract to use this surveillance tool itself.
404 Media
ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows
Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras are in more than 5,000 communities around the U.S. Local police are doing lookups in the nati...
FYI: under capitalism your DNA is worth $17
404 Media
23andMe Sale Shows Your Genetic Data Is Worth $17
23andMe sold the genetic data of 15 million people for $256 million to a pharmaceutical company called Regeneron.
NEW: GlobalX, the company doing many deportation flights for ICE, has been hacked. Hackers claim to have stolen flight manifest information and flight details, and have also defaced the website
404 Media
GlobalX, Airline for Trump’s Deportations, Hacked
Hackers say they have obtained what they say are passenger lists for GlobalX flights from January to this month. The data appears to include people...
New: LAPD demanded footage from a Waymo, whose cameras saw a hit-and-run. Shows the police are seeing these are roving surveillance cameras:
404 Media
LAPD Publishes Crime Footage It Got From a Waymo Driverless Car
Police are starting to realize they can demand footage from driverless cars.
Here I explain why the idea that we are going to suddenly make iPhones in the U.S. is pure fantasy and if Apple WERE to do that it would come after several years of deep pain. The iPhone is perhaps the most global product that has ever existed:
404 Media
A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy
"The army of millions and millions of people screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America."
DOGE "saves" a million dollars by taking critical government archives off of best-in-class, durable tape archives and putting them on hard drives
404 Media
Another Masterful Gambit: DOGE Moves From Secure, Reliable Tape Archives to Hackable Digital Records
DOGE claimed it saved "$1M per year" by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes to digital storage.
Framework has stopped selling versions of its base laptop model in the US because of tariffs. Says that if it kept selling them in the US it would lose money. Framework is the only company that makes reliably upgradeable, repairable laptops
404 Media
Framework Stops Selling Some of Its Laptops in the U.S. Due to Tariffs
The manufacturer says it would now have to sell its laptops at a loss.