Genuinely not trying to start a political firestorm, but I'm curious - did these same scientists bring up similar concerns in any previous elections?
I'm a firm believer of absolutely no electronic voting machines. In-person, paper ballots, hand tallied, escorted by armed guards/trusted election officials with audited paper trails. It might cause a bit of a ruckus mentioning it here, but requiring photo ID to verify who you are before you vote should be mandatory as well.
If Israel and the USA can deploy offline-based malware to cause damage to nuclear centrifuges in Iran, what makes people think that US-unfriendly countries (or heck, even the CIA) won't try to do the exact same thing to voting machines to undermine democracy?
I wouldn't even trust open source, since I wouldn't trust election officials to keep software up to date on their voting machines, let alone know how to even update them.
> did these same scientists bring up similar concerns in any previous elections?
The stated cause of their warning is that the obscurity of the source code has been recently compromised, and beyond giving similar warnings to the FBI and other agencies as soon as they learned this, the authors appear to have been vociferous about weaknesses in electronic polling in prior cycles as well.
> I'm a firm believer of absolutely no electronic voting machines. In-person, paper ballots, hand tallied, escorted by armed guards/trusted election officials with audited paper trails.
We have voter-verified paper ballots with chain-of-custody in addition to our digital polling, right? These seem to be sampled with statistical comparison to the electronically tallied votes as a matter of routine before states verify. The authors of the letter don't seem to mention that procedure so I'm wondering why they consider that process insufficient for catching digital fraud and are instead advocating for a full recount.
> I wouldn't even trust open source, since I wouldn't trust election officials to keep software up to date on their voting machines, let alone know how to even update them.
Yeah I wonder about this! Australia's system is source-available, but I can't find any information on how the installations and hardware are verifiable to independent auditors.
MikroTik has been a bit of a behind the scenes player in networking since the beginning - at least in western markets. Even though I don't work in the networking field as much anymore I always look at their product release newsletters and am surprised at the price to performance their equipment provides with new interesting features.
I'm really not sure what a "Cloud-Native" processor is - will be interesting to see what comes of this partnership though!
They do have excellent bang for your buck. I haven't used one of their products for 7/8 years but the UI and defaults were less inspiring. I found that engineers found it easy to make catastrophic mistakes. I think opening up a service by default enabled that service on all interfaces, and that you then had to add a rule to keep it off all ports. This lead to things you would normally like on your LAN ending up on the WAN. Excellent reliable kit once you learnt its foibles though.
I have deployed close to 30 mikrotiks mostly outdoors and the hardware is robust. The software, like a lot of software, was a moving target. Features like some site to site VPN would stop working after upgrading routerOS, but once it was working and don’t change anything it was good to go.
Yeah that's a really good way to put it. I love their kit, there's so much functionality available at a very reasonable price point. One of my favourite things about them is that it's pretty straightforward to move off the beaten path. As an example, I have routinely used their little wireless routers as a wireless client instead of as an access point. One of the places where I regularly do field operations requires us to have 5 or 6 machines connected together with wired Ethernet but only has wifi available for an Internet connection. I use one of the Mikrotik wAP ac units to connect to the on-prem wifi and act as a DHCP server + gateway for the wired network. It took a couple of minutes to figure out how exactly to reconfigure it to do that but it's been absolutely bulletproof since then.
That being said, I've also locked myself out of them a fair bit because their configuration tool will certainly let you configure the device in a way that will not work at all and will prevent you from accessing the web interface to fix it.
There's a solution for that: Winbox (the native app, nowadays also for Linux and Mac) and the Safe mode feature.
With Safe mode enabled, once the device detects that the connection to Winbox has been lost, it rolls back the configuration back to state, when it was working.
RoMON is a life saver to be able to unbrick a device (remotely if you have another working mikortik device on the same network to proxy through!) if you mess up some config that breaks the normal tcp/ip remote management
> RoMON works by establishing independent MAC layer peer discovery and data forwarding network. RoMON packets are encapsulated with EtherType 0x88bf and dst-MAC 01:80:c2:00:88:bf and its network operates independently from L2 or L3 forwarding configuration.
There's a bottom of the barrel, dollar store brand under the Betty Crocker name brand in Canada - all black plastic cooking utensils, cheapest you can get in all varieties.
Every time I go over to mom's place it's so shocking to see these utensils being used for high heat applications they were never meant to be used for.
Flipping burgers in a pan, moving fries on a baking sheet - the ends of them are all warped and disfigured, bits carved out of them from scraping something and a piece of plastic chips off and ends up in the food.
Same with the pots and pans, she's been using the same teflon coated set for the better part of a decade and to her it doesn't matter that there's a spiral from the stovetop element burned into the inside of the pot where the teflon's overheated and chipped off.
I've tried buying her new pots and pans, utentils, etc. and educating her about how much plastic and teflon she has (and by extension I have) been eating over the years but it's in one ear and out the other.
We really need to stop making plastic cooking utentils. I've moved mostly to glass or metal bowls for storing, microwaving, baking foods - silicone for utensils (which I've heard is still somewhat risky even though it's inert?)
Microplastics are the leaded gasoline of my generation it seems like.
>Every time I go over to mom's place it's so shocking to see these utensils being used for high heat applications they were never meant to be used for.
>educating her about how much plastic and teflon she has (and by extension I have) been eating over the years but it's in one ear and out the other.
I have much the same problem, though luckily I haven't lived with her for ages. According to her, eating plastic and teflon isn't a problem because she's so old that it's not going to make a difference.
I hope they include Amazon's practice of taking popular products on their storefront, making generic "Amazon Basics" versions, and selling them to undercut the popular options. Simultaneously owning a marketplace, approving who can and can't sell products on it, and then putting your own products on it to undercut other sellers is so scummy and muck rake-y.
I hope they also include Amazon allowing thousands of Chinese retailers to stock Amazon's warehouses with counterfeit, faulty products, and potentially dangerous out-of-spec parts - with no way to meaningfully report or bring the offending product to Amazon's attention.
You mean you don't like having the choice between ZOSLRD-branded stuff and TUMACO-branded stuff, both of which have descriptions that look like someone put Mandarin Chinese through an LLM, because that's probably what they did?
Selling on Amazon requires a registered trademark. If you're a random factory in Shenzhen you don't care about branding, you just want to be able to sell your stuff on Amazon, so you just put together random letters in the hope that your registration won't conflict with anything else. You don't want to have to deal with back-and-forth with USPTO, you don't care about having a meaningful, memorable, or interesting name, you just want an Amazon listing.
Coincidentally the majority of USPTO trademark submissions are literally just random strings of letters now for this reason.
> Selling on Amazon requires a registered trademark
This is not true. A trademark is only required for Amazon's brand registry which gives brand owners control over who is allowed to sell their branded products.
if I had to take a blind guess: Chinese doesn't have a concept of casesensitivity. It's a logographic language so casesensitivity is almost irrelevant.
Do I understand that you like/appreciate grocery store brands, but dislike Amazon's store brand? If so, what is the distinction you see between the two?
So let's say they aren't allowed to both own a marketplace and sell their own generic product in that marketplace, and so they have to spin Amazon Basics (AB) off into a separate company that is not treated any differently than any other seller on Amazon the marketplace (AM).
AB can still look at AM listings in a category and note what is popular (just like anyone can do since that is part of the details AM generally includes in listings), and make a generic version (just like anyone can do), and then sell that on AM. AB products are usually pretty good and usually quite reasonably priced and so even if treated exactly the same as everything else in their category are still likely to end up being included in the products that get algorithmically recommended as alternatives.
It's not clear to me how this would improve competition.
As far as your point on Chinese retailers goes, you are arguing that Amazon should allow fewer sellers and those sellers should be more regulated. That may be a good thing but I'm having some difficulty seeing how it is an antitrust thing.
I dont think anyone's arguing against generic alternatives of name brand items. The issue here is Amazon using up-and-coming and popular products as fodder for them to generic-ize and push to the top of results, essentially knee capping the original seller.
All retailers do that. It's called private labels. None of the products are made by the retailer either. As unfortunate to those who might genuinely believe Trader Joes products are unique to them, or that Great Value was Walmart using its massive distribution systems to quickly scale core products like Milk out. It's all private labelling.
Amazon is not a traditional retails, it's a marketplace. Walmart buys stock, puts it on sale, gets data and makes decisions upon that. Amazon just skips the expensive first 2 steps by taking data from other retailers on their platform.
I think the algorithms make the difference here. You can't really make a cereal box stand out on a physical shelf in any unique way (or you can, but it'll be a cost expense. Ruining the point of undercutting). IME with online storefronts for traditional brick and mortar their own brands never seem to come on top.
Meanwhle I will almost always get an AmazonBasics if it exists as a first result.
Consumers like a lot of short term factors that turn against them in the long term. That seems to be the theme of the 21st century.
I'd rather these perverse incentives not exist and simply have a more educated consumer base learn to search "Amazon basics X" instead of maximizing conviniece to enable monopolies. We've clearly been shown that we can't handle the latter
I have no interest in becoming more educated about which seller from which factory run has what kind of quality standards. That’s why I use Costco and Target and Walmart and Amazon and Uniqlo and other brands to go out there and do that work. All I want to know is that I’ll be able to return something if it isn’t satisfactory.
And that's how you later get taken advantage of and how Amazon starts to be as bad as Comcast's customer service. But you can't leave because competition is gone.
You don't have to care per se, that's what the government is for. But taking the time and energy to argue against your long term best interests is disappointing.
I understand, but picking out random six letter brands on Amazon is not the competition most US customers are looking for.
It’s not feasible for people to go to China, inspect the manufacturing processes, and figure out what is worth what. There is a whole business there of purveying goods, which is what brands like Amazon and Kroger and Kirkland all the way up to LVMH.
With the advent of the internet, that business is no longer restricted to physical stores, so technically, anyone can make a superior product and sell direct to anyone. There were stories of Kmart and Walmart and whoever else bullying vendors because the vendors used to get nowhere without shelf space.
Those original sellers mainly just look like drop-shippers to me. So Amazon just going straight to the source and selling at lower margin is better for me as a buyer.
My Amazon Basics RCA cables and many other items are the best versions of those items I own. The quality is very very good. I actually like that feature of Amazon.
I don't think it's part of an antitrust case, but I am tired of seeing every item being sold from 200 chinese companies with randomly generated names and fake/bought reviews. Walmart has started to do something similar with their online store. I'll use their words.
> It's easy to sell online with Walmart.com. Partner with the largest multi-channel retailer and put your products in front of millions of Walmart shoppers.
Americans are used to American storefronts going through American regulations, but now you're essentially being dropshipped hazardous unregulated products. I generally try to buy from companies directly but this hasn't stopped my family from buying chinesium children toys for me that go straight into the trash.
Because Amazons wiped a lot of them out, and the ones that remain are either doing the same thing, or stand zero chance of comign out of it anything less than bankrupt.
Amazon for all its convenience has decimated likely close to if not more than a million businesses at this point across the world.
This is the secret today. Find the product you want, buy straight from that company. Anymore the storefronts are all uniform and shipping (which used to be Amazon's advantage) is the same.
The days of massive online retailers dominating is over at my house. I just wish more people would figure that out.
I find Amazon’s shipping to be fastest about 9 times out of 10—and that 1 is just the direct seller matching, not beating. With Prime, shipping is also “free” (so long as you’ve saved enough on shipping to recoup the cost of Prime itself).
But aside from that, Amazon almost always has a better return process, and you only need to give one site your payment details rather than many.
(That said, I often buy outside of Amazon, because for certain specialty items, Amazon is pretty lacking.)
Every company so far, I send an email or click the return link on the confirmation email they sent when I ordered. Print the label and send it back. I haven't had any problems yet.
>need to give one site your payment details rather than many.
Either use PayPal or your credit card. If it gets compromised, cc companies are really good at making sure you don't get screwed.
I have been doing this for 5 years now and haven't had any problems.
Every company so far, I send an email or click the return link on the confirmation email they sent when I ordered. Print the label and send it back. I haven't had any problems yet.
> I hope they include Amazon's practice of taking popular products on their storefront, making generic "Amazon Basics" versions, and selling them to undercut the popular options.
And competition. One of the ways companies like Walmart hold their popular brand name companies in check on pricing power is through their store brands.
Why should I feel bad about Kraft being under permanent pressure by Walmart's Great Value brand?
More competition is needed, not less. Along with more transparency. Banning Amazon from competing would be a mistake. They need a more level playing field, not fewer players.
Selling carrots is much different than developing a store brand product based on the algorithms only you have access to. Amazon is basically outsourcing R&D and market research to startups then taking the market away once they have a success.
It's a bit difficult to figure out what specifically the guy was being arrested for and I had to re-read the article 2-3 times.
Looks like the main charges are due to violating the Lacey Act multiple times - shipping the hybrid sheep domestically while labelling them as "pure" sheep, while also conspiring to import embryos/sperm of the Marco Polo Goat (central asian) goat, also illegal without permits/procedures.
If the guy was younger, I'd assume he'd be getting at least football numbers in prison given how long the business was running, etc.
The typical Broadcom revenue extraction has struck again!
Just another example of a greedy company like Broadcom buying up companies, jacking up prices to extract profit, while the employees and VMWare clients suffer.
I would always store/re-use the thin plastic grocery bags for trashbins, storage bags for miscellaneous things/junk, etc. etc.
Yeah, we probably collected too many over time, and then got fed up and shoved the mass of plastic bags from the drawer into the garbage and into the landfills.
The new plastic ones, I always forget to bring, end up buying 2-3 new ones for $1.25 each - which I'm sure the store has a decent margin on - and then they sit in the house - too "nice" to be used for garbage or any other purposes, so they sit there and eventually get thrown out.
And then you have the previous generation, who moved from paper to plastic to save the environment - whether that was a lobbying campaign from "big oil" to use more plastic, or a well intentioned grassroots movement that grew to make big change.
So now we're back to paper. I wonder if I'll live long enough for a new revolutionary material to come to market and we quickly move to replace the current material. (hemp fiber bags maybe?)
We started leaving a handful of reusable bags in the car which made it easier to remember to reuse them. It was harder to remember when we walked to the grocery store.
I find it hard to call what I went through "trauma" when compared to other situations people have posted - they definitely had it a lot harder than I had. It's hard to not compare your upbringing compared to other and minimize your trauma.
Anxiety, Depression, ADHD. Verbally and occasionally physically abusive father, with an emotionally absent mother and an intellectually/mentally disabled brother. If I had to draw a comparison - it was like being a kid in a family where the parents should have divorced decades ago but stayed together "for the kids".
I never felt comfortable with bringing anything about my life up with either of my parents as they'd fight and argue all the time, and they'd never really _listen_ to me when I had problems. So I absorbed myself in the internet on the computer I was given one Christmas when I was 9 years old. Not a healthy environment for a kid - 4chan, porn, etc. all had their effects on me.
Now I'm looking back through all the arguments, all the fights, all the emotional breakdowns I had, all the gaslighting, all the lies, manipulation tactics, etc. and I can't help but be depressed about it - so many times I passed the guidance councilor's office at school and thought "man, I could just walk in there and say my dad yells at us all the time, and my life could have been much different". So many times I wanted to do things but I was just too scared and didn't have a person in my life to support me.
Personally, I wouldn't say I'm successful - though that's probably because of my lack of motivation. I work remotely for a larger IT firm in eastern Canada and make okay money (Canadian economy taken into consideration), but I struggle so much with pushing myself and goal setting, time management, etc. I was never able to figure out what I really wanted to do because I was living life for my parents and not for me.
I struggle with social situations because I don't feel valued. It's hard for me to make friends (especially when you're in your late 20's early 30's), I feel like everyone has moved on with their lives and I'm still stuck here the way I'll always be - the party's over and I'm standing at the empty bar, getting in the way of the cleaners vacuuming up the floors of confetti for a party I showed up to 10 minutes before it ended.
As I get older I'm coming more and more to terms with the idea that I'll never be in any kind of relationship and/or have kids because of how messed up I am mentally - I push people away from me when they try to get close because I'm horrified of rejection. Biological clock ain't getting any younger either. I never know what to say or how to interpret things in conversation - doc says it's from my inexperience, but part of me wonders if it's a hint of Autism that's undiagnosed.
To avoid this being even more of a somewhat glorified trauma dump - for anybody else reading these situations, if you're suffering from trauma, please get help if possible. I hope there are free or low-cost options wherever you live, whether a phone hotline, support groups, etc.
You don't get to take the easy way out while the rest of us have to stay behind and suffer! ;-) /s
I would hope the individual that produced the antibody is well rewarded for what their body did.
Unless this antibody is somehow similar across all antibodies created as a reaction to an infection - that single patient should get a part of the profits from all vaccines/treatments derived from the antibody made in their body - it's only fair if their "work" is part of making vaccines that are then sold to others globally on a wide scale.
Then again, this is the medical industrial complex, so I'm sure they'll find a way to justify not reimbursing the patient. Unless I'm mistaken?
I would hope the individual that produced the antibody is well rewarded for what their body did.
The press release cites that they discovered it in one person, but it also doesn't say:
* how many people they were studying
* how they discovered this antibody
* after finding it, if they looked at others for it
It could be that literally 80% of the population has this antibody.
While the attempts to lockdown in various countries were a noble effort, my calculations indicate that basically everyone had been exposed to COVID prior to any vaccines being released. It just spread too fast regardless of efforts.
Various serological tests at the time showed high numbers of people with antibodies. This can be doubly highlighted by the fact that the vaccines had very low impact against strains they were not designed for, and COVID just mutates super fast.
(Had COVID vaccines been effective against strains they were not designed for, covid would have simply died out by now.)
I suspect almost everyone has been infected with dozens of COVID strains at this point. And that antibody optimization is a standard immune system defense.
Well, we'll see over the next few months re: this specific antibody.
I'm a firm believer of absolutely no electronic voting machines. In-person, paper ballots, hand tallied, escorted by armed guards/trusted election officials with audited paper trails. It might cause a bit of a ruckus mentioning it here, but requiring photo ID to verify who you are before you vote should be mandatory as well.
If Israel and the USA can deploy offline-based malware to cause damage to nuclear centrifuges in Iran, what makes people think that US-unfriendly countries (or heck, even the CIA) won't try to do the exact same thing to voting machines to undermine democracy?
I wouldn't even trust open source, since I wouldn't trust election officials to keep software up to date on their voting machines, let alone know how to even update them.