Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sean Boots

abadidea @0xabad1dea.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 1d

jetbrains is far from the first company to make this particular pair of claims but it is simply, on the most fundamental level, impossible to mass-collect people’s terminal and editor contents and also not collect sensitive or personal data.

I realize they […]

[Original post on infosec.exchange]

screenshot: We’re now adding the option to allow the collection of detailed code‑related data pertaining to IDE activity, such as edit history, terminal usage, and your interactions with AI features. This may include code snippets, prompt text, and AI responses.

That sounds like a lot, and it is, but that’s where the real value for improvements comes from. If you allow us to collect this data, we will make sure that:
No sensitive or personal information is shared.

(Snippets of the text have been highlighted: “edit history, terminal usage, code snippets, prompt text … no sensitive or personal information is shared.”

2 40

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 2d

@david ❤️🙏

Reposted by Sean Boots

Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 5d

One thing that comes through awfully clearly in these ICE videos is how many of these goons gravitated toward the job because being able to assault people with impunity is a big thrill for them.

120 6.3K 26K

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 2d

New blog post! 🎉 “Introducing Vote YES Yukon!” https://sboots.ca/2025/10/06/introducing-vote-yes-yukon/ #yukon #cdnpoli #electoralreform

Introducing Vote YES Yukon!

I’m really stoked to introduce “Vote YES Yukon”, a non-partisan campaign in support of electoral reform during the current Yukon territorial election. This year, the Yukon is having a plebiscite asking if the territory should adopt ranked voting, in place of the current system of first-past-the-post. I think it’s a great opportunity to show that change is possible – to improve politics in the Yukon, and also to be an inspiration to the rest of Canada.

sboots.ca

2 1

Reposted by Sean Boots

AJ Sadauskas @ajsadauskas.pixelfed.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d

To anyone in Sydney, these photos will be very boring, but they might be interesting to people who live elsewhere.

This is what it looks like inside Sydney's double decker trains...

#rail #railway #railways #Train #trains #publictransit #publictransport #Sydney

Inside the upper level. The blue padded seats are arranged in a 2 - 3 configuration. The seats also change direction (from facing forwards to facing backwards) by pushing (or pulling) on the yellow handles.

The seats on the lower level are in the same configuration. Note the bottom of the window on the lower level just below the level of the platform.

The entryway where you board the carriage (the doors are to the left and right of this photo). You board at platform level, then walk up or down the stairs to reach the upper or lower level. There are seats at this level designated for people with disabilities. You can move between carriages. There's an information display that shows which line you're on and upcoming stations. A network map is posted on the walls near the doors.

1 4

Reposted by Sean Boots

Maartje @maartje.dev · 4d

Welcome to the Fediverse! Do you trust these two sharks more to keep your social media alive than a silicon valley CEO? Then this is your site!

A pink and blue shark working on a server rack

1 61 12

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 3d

@plausible Figured it out – my Eero router's built-in adblock feature seems to have recently added plausible.io to the block list. 😓 I've whitelisted it and we're back in action! Have a great day!

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 4d

@plausible Hi friends – I'm getting a DNS error for https://plausible.io/ this evening. Maybe a temporary glitch?

A screenshot of Firefox saying “Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.” on the Plausible site domain.

1

Reposted by Sean Boots

😀🚲 @enobacon.urbanists.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d

"So, you're saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that's going to burst and take the whole economy with it?"

pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/econopocalypse

1 3 1

Reposted by Sean Boots

Mwistar @mwistar.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cra-muslim-charities-nsira-1.7649492

We can neither confirm nor deny that we're probably racist.

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 4d

@mwistar 💯💯

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 6d

“What is this entire anti-terrorism memorandum if not an admission that terrorism works, and that terrorism has secured the White House?” From Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong: https://www.theverge.com/policy/790510/trump-fascism-antifa-soros-ice #uspol @verge

Reposted by Sean Boots

Shantell Powell @shanmonster.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 8d

The Waterloo police are all over social media saying how they have an orange squad car to spread awareness about truth and reconciliation. Truth is, I did not go to the event today because their presence disturbs me.

Last year, when I did go, the cops were the very […]

[Original post on c.im]

A police officer, wearing a uniform with "Waterloo Regional Police" visible, stands with their back to the camera, observing a large crowd of people in orange shirts gathered in Victoria Park, Kitchener.

13 1

Reposted by Sean Boots

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

WOW WOW WOW

Bright green stripes of auroras with some chunky columns. There's the silhouette of a spruce tree on one side of the photo

The green horizontal stripe of auroras almost looks like it's made of a series of vertical stripes

Bright green horizontal stripes of auroras, with a chunk of red over on one side, over the silhouette of a bunch of spruce trees

The Milky Way faintly visible through bright green auroras below, with the silhouette of several spruce trees

4 110 28

Sean Boots @sboots.mastodon.sboots.ca.ap.brid.gy · 8d

@mogul 😓 Sending lots of good thoughts your way!

Reposted by Sean Boots

Bret Mogilefsky @bret.mogilefsky.me · 8d

Hi, I'm a civil servant who's been furloughed, and my job is being threatened by people who don't believe in public service.

1 1

Reposted by Sean Boots

Adrianna Tan @skinnylatte.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 8d

At this point there are going to be more career coaches than careers

1 9 1

Reposted by Sean Boots

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

Chase Cooper is talking about Titan as seen by Cassini. (GORGEOUS data!)

Titan looks brighter at high phase than low phase, this is opposite what you normally expect. This is due to the hazy atmosphere!

Understanding these effects on much-closer Titan will help with understanding exoplanet […]

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

1 3

Reposted by Sean Boots

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 8d

Today is the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, but I signed up for this conference #solarsystemincontext in the US weeks ago :(

I'll be spending some time connecting with the land I live on in the middle of the day, but for right now, I'll share a few talk highlights.

I'm also giving a […]

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

2 5

Reposted by Sean Boots

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

I'm listening to and speaking at the #solarsystemincontext hybrid conference this week (I'm attending remotely, hooray for remote options!) https://noirlab.edu/science/events/websites/solar-system-in-context-2025

I'll try to share a few highlights, though my multitasking level this week is […]

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

3 3 3

Reposted by Sean Boots

Martin Settle @martin.mstdn.bdms.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13d

Canada Post is a service, not a consumer product. The idea that it operates at a "loss" is stupid. It's like saying schools operate at a loss; hospitals operate at a loss; roads operate at a loss; sewers operates at a loss.

We pay for public services collectively, because they are simply needed […]

Original post on mstdn.bdms.ca

mstdn.bdms.ca

5 84 11

Reposted by Sean Boots

Adrianna Tan @skinnylatte.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 12d

For me, the most pressing issue of these times is how to avoid nihilism, build community, love people. I know it sounds woo woo but I’m frankly out of other ideas.

8 50 2

Reposted by Sean Boots

Julia Evans @b0rk.social.jvns.ca.ap.brid.gy · 9d

meet the terminal emulator https://wizardzines.com/comics/meet-the-terminal-emulator/

(from The Secret Rules of the Terminal, out now! (https://wizardzines.com/zines/terminal/)

your terminal emulator has two main jobs

turn your actions (typing & clicking) into bytes and send them
receive bytes and display them visually

Illustration of a terminal emulator, with a winking cursor face, and a program, represented by a box with a smiley face. The program has a heart above it, and there are arrows going back and forth between them labelled “bytes”
a little bit of history

it’s called an “emulator” because in the 80s a “terminal” was a separate machine from the computer

Illustration of a bulky old monitor, with a keyboard attached with a spiral cord, and a wire running to a panl of buttons and displays, labelld “mainframe”. There are arrows going back and forth between them labelled “bytes”

We still use the same 80s protocol!
what are these “bytes”?

the bytes are either:

text (like cat blah.txt)
escape codes (for example to tell the terminal what colour to display the text in)
control characters example Ctrl+C is the byte 3)

it’s in charge of copy and paste

your terminal emulator lets you select text and copy/paste it (usually with Ctrl+Shift+C (Linux) or Cmd+C (Mac))

(copy & paste tips on page 18!)
it manages colours and fonts!

some terminal emulators come with a big theme library of different colourschemes!

if yours doesn’t, this site has colourschemes for many terminal emulators: iterm2colorschemes.com
fun fact: how Ctrl-X gets translated to bytes

Ctrl-A => 1
Ctrl-B => 2
...
Ctrl-Z => 26

18 3

Reposted by Sean Boots

cremevax👩🏻‍💻🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🇺🇦 @cremevax.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 10d

Bruce Schneier has a good high-level look at threat-modeling under an authoritarian government. Alas, it’s not amenable to a simple recipe approach, but involves carefully thinking through the tradeoffs […]

[Original post on infosec.exchange]

Screenshot of text that says:

Being Innocent Won’t Protect You

This is vital to understand. Surveillance systems and sorting algorithms make mistakes. This is apparent in the fact that we are routinely served advertisements for products that don’t interest us at all. Those mistakes are relatively harmless—who cares about a poorly targeted ad?—but a similar mistake at an immigration hearing can get someone deported.

An authoritarian government doesn’t care. Mistakes are a feature and not a bug of authoritarian surveillance. If ICE targets only people it can go after legally, then everyone knows whether or not they need to fear ICE. If ICE occasionally makes mistakes by arresting Americans and deporting innocents, then everyone has to fear it. This is by design.

4 120 15

Reposted by Sean Boots

Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 9d

My mobile phone provider just asked me for my mobile phone number so they could secure my account with my mobile phone.

Super trustworthy process!

1 1