Readers in 2025 “may struggle to remember the optimism of the aughts, when the internet seemed to offer endless possibilities for virtual art and writing that was free…” argues a new review at Bookforum. “The content we do create online, if we still create, often feels unreflectively automatic: predictable quote-tweet dunks, prefabricated poses on Instagram, TikTok dances that hit their beats like clockwork, to say nothing of what’s literally thoughtlessly churned out by LLM-powered bots.”

They write that author Joanna Walsh “wants us to remember how truly creative, and human, the internet once was,” in the golden age of user-generated content — and funny cat picture sites like I Can Has Cheezburger:

I Can Has Cheezburger… was an amateur project, an outlet for tech professionals who wanted an easier way to exchange cute cat pics after a hard day at work. In Amateurs!: How We Built Internet Culture and Why It Matters, Walsh documents how unpaid creative labor is the basis for almost everything that’s good (and much that’s bad) online, including the open-source code Linux, developed by Linus Torvalds when he was still in school (“just as a hobby, won’t be big and professional”), and even, in Walsh’s account, the World Wide Web itself. The platforms that emerged in the 2000s as “Web 2.0,” including Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, allowed anyone to experiment in a space that had been reserved for coders and hackers, making the internet interactive even for the inexpert and virtually unlimited in potential audience. The explosion in amateur creativity that followed took many forms, from memes to tweeted one-liners to diaristic blogs to durational digital performances to sloppy Photoshops to the formal and informal taxonomic structures — wikis, neologisms, digitally native dialects…

[U]ser-generated content was also, at bottom, about the bottom line, a business model sold to us under the guise of artistic empowerment. Even referring to an anonymous amateur as a “user,” Walsh argues, cedes ground: these platforms are populated by producers, but their owners see us as, and turn us into, “helpless addicts.” For some, online amateurism translated to professional success, a viral post earning an author a book deal, or a reputation as a top commenter leading to a staff writing job on a web publication… But for most, these days, participation in the online attention economy feels like a tax, or maybe a trickle of revenue, rather than free fun or a ticket to fame. The few remaining professionals in the arts and letters have felt pressured to supplement their full-time jobs with social media self-promotion, subscription newsletters, podcasts, and short-form video. On what was once called Twitter, users can pay, and sometimes get paid, to post with greater reach…

The chapters are bookended by an introduction on the early promise of 2004 and a coda on the defeat of 2025 and supplemented by an appendix with a straightforward timeline of the major events and publications that serve as the book’s touchstones… The online spaces where amateur content creators once “created and steered online culture” have been hollowed out and replaced by slop, but what really hurts is that the slop is being produced by bots trained on precisely that amateur content.

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On Cloudflare’s blog, a senior research engineer shares a plan for “improving the trustworthiness of JavaScript on the web.”

“It is as true today as it was in 2011 that Javascript cryptography is Considered Harmful.”

The main problem is code distribution. Consider an end-to-end-encrypted messaging web application. The application generates cryptographic keys in the client’s browser that lets users view and send end-to-end encrypted messages to each other. If the application is compromised, what would stop the malicious actor from simply modifying their Javascript to exfiltrate messages? It is interesting to note that smartphone apps don’t have this issue. This is because app stores do a lot of heavy lifting to provide security for the app ecosystem. Specifically, they provide integrity, ensuring that apps being delivered are not tampered with, consistency, ensuring all users get the same app, and transparency, ensuring that the record of versions of an app is truthful and publicly visible.

It would be nice if we could get these properties for our end-to-end encrypted web application, and the web as a whole, without requiring a single central authority like an app store.
Further, such a system would benefit all in-browser uses of cryptography, not just end-to-end-encrypted apps. For example, many web-based confidential LLMs, cryptocurrency wallets, and voting systems use in-browser Javascript cryptography for the last step of their verification chains. In this post, we will provide an early look at such a system, called Web Application Integrity, Consistency, and Transparency (WAICT) that we have helped author. WAICT is a W3C-backed effort among browser vendors, cloud providers, and encrypted communication developers to bring stronger security guarantees to the entire web… We hope to build even wider consensus on the solution design in the near future….

We would like to have a way of enforcing integrity on an entire site, i.e., every asset under a domain. For this, WAICT defines an integrity manifest, a configuration file that websites can provide to clients. One important item in the manifest is the asset hashes dictionary, mapping a hash belonging to an asset that the browser might load from that domain, to the path of that asset.

The blog post points out that the WEBCAT protocol (created by the Freedom of Press Foundation) “allows site owners to announce the identities of the developers that have signed the site’s integrity manifest, i.e., have signed all the code and other assets that the site is serving to the user… We’ve made WAICT extensible enough to fit WEBCAT inside and benefit from the transparency components.” The proposal also envisions a service storing metadata for transparency-enabled sites on the web (along with “witnesses” who verify the prefix tree holding the hashes for domain manifests).

“We are still very early in the standardization process,” with hopes to soon “begin standardizing the integrity manifest format. And then after that we can start standardizing all the other features. We intend to work on this specification hand-in-hand with browsers and the IETF, and we hope to have some exciting betas soon. In the meantime, you can follow along with our transparency specification draft,/A>, check out the open problems, and share your ideas.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“My boss thinks AI will solve every problem and is wildly enthusiastic about it,” complains a mid-level worker at a Fortune 500 company, who considers the technology “unproven and wildly erratic.”

So how should they navigate the next 10 years until retirement, they ask the Washington Post’s “Work Advice” columnist. The columnist first notes that “Despite promises that AI will eliminate tedious, ‘low-value’ tasks from our workload, many consumers and companies seem to be using it primarily as a cheap shortcut to avoid hiring professional actors, writers or artists — whose work, in some cases, was stolen to train the tools usurping them…”

Kevin Cantera, a reader from Las Cruces, New Mexico [a writer for an education-tech compay], willingly embraced AI for work. But as it turns out, he was training his replacement… Even without the “AI will take our jobs” specter, there’s much to be wary of in the AI hype. Faster isn’t always better. Parroting and predicting linguistic patterns isn’t the same as creativity and innovation… There are concerns about hallucinations, faulty data models, and intentional misuse for purposes of deception. And that’s not even addressing the environmental impact of all the power- and water-hogging data centers needed to support this innovation.

And yet, it seems, resistance may be futile. The AI genie is out of the bottle and granting wishes. And at the rate it’s evolving, you won’t have 10 years to weigh the merits and get comfortable with it. Even if you move on to another workplace, odds are AI will show up there before long. Speaking as one grumpy old Luddite to another, it might be time to get a little curious about this technology just so you can separate helpfulness from hype.

It might help to think of AI as just another software tool that you have to get familiar with to do your job. Learn what it’s good for — and what it’s bad at — so you can recommend guidelines for ethical and beneficial use. Learn how to word your wishes to get accurate results. Become the “human in the loop” managing the virtual intern. You can test the bathwater without drinking it. Focus on the little ways AI can accommodate and support you and your colleagues. Maybe it could handle small tasks in your workflow that you wish you could hand off to an assistant. Automated transcriptions and meeting notes could be a life-changer for a colleague with auditory processing issues.
I can’t guarantee that dabbling in AI will protect your job. But refusing to engage definitely won’t help. And if you decide it’s time to change jobs, having some extra AI knowledge and experience under your belt will make you a more attractive candidate, even if you never end up having to use it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cory Doctorow has always warned that companies “enshittify” their services — shifting “as much as they can from users, workers, suppliers, and business customers to themselves.” But this week Doctorow writes in Communications of the ACM that enshittification “would be much, much worse if not for tech workers,” who have “the power to tell their bosses to go to hell…”

When your skills are in such high demand that you can quit your job, walk across the street, and get a better one later that same day, your boss has a real incentive to make you feel like you are their social equal, empowered to say and do whatever feels technically right… The per-worker revenue for successful tech companies is unfathomable — tens or even hundreds of times their wages and stock compensation packages.

“No wonder tech bosses are so excited about AI coding tools,” Doctorow adds, “which promise to turn skilled programmers from creative problem-solvers to mere code reviewers for AI as it produces tech debt at scale. Code reviewers never tell their bosses to go to hell, and they are a lot easier to replace.”

So how should tech workers respond in a world where tech workers are now “as disposable as Amazon warehouse workers and drivers…?”

Throughout the entire history of human civilization, there has only ever been one way to guarantee fair wages and decent conditions for workers: unions. Even non-union workers benefit from unions, because strong unions are the force that causes labor protection laws to be passed, which protect all workers. Tech workers have historically been monumentally uninterested in unionization, and it’s not hard to see why. Why go to all those meetings and pay those dues when you could tell your boss to go to hell on Tuesday and have a new job by Wednesday? That’s not the case anymore. It will likely never be the case again.

Interest in tech unions is at an all-time high. Groups such as Tech Solidarity and the Tech Workers Coalition are doing a land-office business, and copies of Ethan Marcotte’s You Deserve a Tech Union are flying off the shelves. Now is the time to get organized. Your boss has made it clear how you’d be treated if they had their way. They’re about to get it.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader theodp for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Links have proven to be a tricky thing when it comes to social media engagement. On platforms like Threads, data suggests that people often don’t click the links in posts, and creators on X have complained that posts including links don’t get as much visibility. X is now trying to solve that. Head of product Nikita Bier shared that the platform is “testing a new link experience” that lets people open a link without leaving the original post entirely, so they can still view the Like, Repost and other buttons. The test is rolling out to iOS users first.  

“To help get better signal, posts will now collapse to the bottom of the page so people can react while you’re reading,” Bier wrote alongside a screen recording of how it will work. As to why posts with links typically don’t perform as well, Bier said, “This is because the web browser covers the post and people forget to Like or Reply. So X doesn’t get a clear signal whether the content is any good.” 

Of course, X has been accused of throttling links to specific sites, and Elon Musk has said in the past that links “don’t get as much attention” on the platform, so tweaking the popups will only go so far in addressing the reach issue. Bier added that posts should always “stand alone as great content so write a solid caption.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-testing-a-new-way-of-opening-links-in-posts-to-improve-engagement-211210520.html?src=rss

Slashdot reader BrianFagioli writes: GIMP has officially launched its own Snap package for Linux, finally taking over from the community-maintained Snapcrafters project. The move means all future GIMP releases will now be built directly from the team’s CI pipeline, ensuring faster, more consistent updates across distributions. The developers also introduced a new “gimp-plugins” interface to support external plugins while maintaining Snap’s security confinement, with GMIC and OpenVINO already supported. This marks another major step in GIMP’s cross-platform packaging efforts, joining Flatpak and MSIX distribution options. The first officially maintained version, Version 3.0.6GIMP 3.0.6, is available now on the “latest/stable” Snap channel, with preview builds rolling out for testers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As political tensions between the two global superpowers grow, China’s State Security Ministry accused the US’ National Security Agency of a cyberattack operation that took place between 2023 and 2024. As first reported by Reuters, the Chinese agency posted on WeChat that the NSA targeted the country’s National Time Service Center. As part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the center is tasked with generating, maintaining and transmitting its national standard of time, which is provided to important sectors across the country, including communications, defense and finance.

The state ministry said the operation used around 42 types of “special cyberattack weapons” to infiltrate the National Time Service Center which could have led to the disruption of network communications, financial systems and power supply. The WeChat post also claimed that the NSA exploited vulnerabilities in a foreign mobile phone brand’s messaging system to steal sensitive info from staff devices, without naming the brand.

The NSA has yet to respond to the accusation. On the other hand, the US Treasury Department said it was targeted by a “China state-sponsored actor” in a December cyberattack.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/china-claims-the-nsa-conducted-cyberattacks-on-its-national-time-center-201852066.html?src=rss

We still have a few months to wait before the next Cult of the Lamb DLC, Woolhaven, arrives, but the Massive Monster team just shared a closer look at one of the new experiences the expansion will bring and, oh boy, I cannot wait to play this. In addition to adding a new mountain area with two new dungeons, Woolhaven will introduce ranching, so you can raise animals — the regular, non-anthropomorphic kind — to keep as pets, shear for wool or slaughter for meat (you know, if you have no heart).

Based on the overview video, we’ll get to raise cows(ish), goats and sheep as well as some more unexpected critters like crabs, snails, spiders and turtles. I, personally, am very excited about the snails. You’ll be able to form bonds with and name the animals, and you’ll have to tend to their wellbeing, feeding them healthy foods and cleaning them. Followers will also be able to bond with the animals and have their own pets. As wholesome as that all sounds, this is Cult of the Lamb we’re talking about, so I’m already bracing myself for the inevitable heartbreak of when some unruly follower kills my favorite animals at some point. The video notes that you’ll have to keep them safe from predators.

Woolhaven will be a paid expansion, but we don’t know yet how much it will cost or when exactly it drops. The team has so far only said early 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-is-how-the-new-ranching-system-will-work-in-cult-of-the-lamb-woolhaven-194324041.html?src=rss

“This is an attempt to stop Waymo cars from driving into the dead end,” complains a home-made sign in San Francisco, “where they are forced to reverse and adversely affect the lives of the residents.”

On an orange traffic post, the home-made sign declares “NO WAYMO – 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m,” with an explanation for the rest of the neighborhood. âoeWaymo comes at all hours of the night and up to 7 times per hour with flashing lights and screaming reverse sounds, waking people up and destroying the quality of life.â

SFGate reports that 1,400 people on Reddit upvoted a photo of the sign’s text:

It delves into the bureaucratic mess â” multiple requests to Waymo, conversations with engineers, and 311 [municipal services] tickets, which had all apparently gone ignored â” before finally providing instructions for human drivers. âoePlease move [the cones] back after you have entered so we can continue to try to block the Waymo cars from entering and disrupting the lives of residents.â

This isnâ(TM)t the first time Waymoâ(TM)s autonomous vehicles have disrupted San Francisco residentsâ(TM) peace. Last year, a fleet of the robotaxis created another sleepless fiasco in the cityâ(TM)s SoMa neighborhood, honking at each other for hours throughout the night for two and a half weeks.

Other on Reddit shared the concern. “I live at an dead end street in Noe Valley, and these Waymos always stuck there,” another commenter posted. “It’s been bad for more than a year,” agreed another comment. “People on the Internet think you’re just a hater but it’s a real issue with Waymos.”

On Thursday “the sign remained at the corner of Lake Street and Second Avenue,” notes SFGate. And yet “something appeared to have shifted. “Waymo vehicles werenâ(TM)t allowing drop-offs or pickups on the street, though whether this was due to the home-printed plea, the cone blockage, or simply updating routes remains unclear.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Sunday that it is investigating an airliner that was struck by an object in its windscreen, mid-flight, over Utah.

“NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data,” the federal agency said on the social media site X. “Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratories for examination.”

The strike occurred Thursday, during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Images shared on social media showed that one of the two large windows at the front of a 737 MAX aircraft was significantly cracked. Related images also reveal a pilot’s arm that has been cut multiple times by what appear to be small shards of glass.

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