Google is going to start deleting inactive accounts

Whatever platform, if it hasn't been signed in to or used in two years, starting in December that account may go away. After concerns being raised about YouTube videos vanishing from deceased users, there has been an accommodation found, though I don't know what it is off-hand.

From the article: "The company said that if a Google account had not been used or signed into for at least two years, it might delete the account and content across Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar, as well as YouTube and Google Photos.

The policy change only applies to personal Google Accounts and not to those for organizations like schools or businesses.

In 2020, Google had said it would remove content stored in an inactive account, but not delete the account itself."

I didn't see the 2020 announcement. In related newts, the Muskbrat said that Twitter was going to start archiving old unused accounts.

I'm curious how many accounts they expect to go away. This is simply good system maintenance, I'm a little surprised it's taken them this long to get around to it. I think part of it is with the financial crunch hitting tech companies, they're trying to avoid data center expansion by freeing up space to buy themselves some time for the economy to improve.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-delete-inactive-accounts-starting-december-2023-05-16/

Windows gets Rust(y)!

This is excellent news. Most of Windows is written in C and C++. Those languages have memory problems. Let's use a simple example. There's a programming construct known as an array, it's sort of an indexed list. Let's say we have an array called MyList(10). It has ten elements to it, what's in them doesn't really matter. What happens when you try to reference element 11?

Usually in the C family of languages, you access the memory 'above' the tenth element and what is returned is undefined: we don't know what it will contain. Maybe it overlaps with the password cache, perhaps it has your banking account number in it.

Now, to be fair to C (personally I hate the C/C++ languages, but I firmly believe in 'to each their own'), later versions have better protection against accessing outside array boundaries and things like that which can cause information to leak.

A while back another programming language came to town, Rust. And it is designed, from the clear page, to have memory protection that will prevent access to element 11 and other buffer/memory issues. Which means that code, properly developed! (always a big problem), will theoretically be safer/more secure than C family languages.

Microsoft is now rewriting some subsystems in the Windows operating system into Rust!!!

This is excellent news. The ability to improve security is always a good thing, and this is the first step in doing it. You simply cannot rewrite the entirety of Windows in Rust in one swell foop, but you can rewrite portions of it - letting you see how it works - and progressively get the whole thing redone eventually!

This is now in an Insider edition of Windows 11, meaning it will eventually see the light of day to all users, and should be completely transparent.

In other Rust news, Linux has started rewriting SUDO into Rust. Sudo is a program that lets an account that does not have administrative permission run admin commands if they have the password for it. A fundamental rule of network security, and computer security in general, is to NEVER let your users run their local machines as administrator! Aside from the fact that it gives them far too much control to utterly screw their machine over - and I've seen it! - if your account with admin permissions gets taken over by malware, that's a leverage point to get into the entire network and subvert it!

Speaking as a system administrator, we see far too many programs that won't work if the user is not an administrator on the machine. The normal vendor solution? Make the user an admin. Usually this is caused by the bad coding practice of the developers having admin access on their computers, which really ticks me off. If a software package only runs as administrator, then it's badly written. We can usually develop some selective permissions to make such software work without giving the user admin, but it's always a PITB.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/282995/first-rust-code-shows-up-in-the-windows-11-kernel

Biden administration proposes 30% electricity tax on crypto mining farms!

This is interesting. Crypto currency, in general, is a Ponzi scheme. Bitcoin's biggest uses are criminal, which tells you a lot about it. And overall it's incredibly energy-intensive to generate crypto. I put that caveat there as Etherium did a modification to their code that greatly reduces power consumption. But overall, the point stands.

There's a crypto operation in New York State that bought an old coal-fired power plant for the sole purpose of powering crypto mining rigs!!! And it's hard to regulate its pollution because it is technically no longer a power plant in that it is not generating power for the grid. It was shut down because it was too expensive to remediate its emissions. China made crypto mining and transacting completely illegal, lots of those rigs ended up in Texas and other states in the USA that have inexpensive power.

The tax would be phased in by 10% jumps annually over the next three years.

https://www.engadget.com/white-house-proposes-30-percent-tax-on-electricity-used-for-crypto-mining-090342986.html

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/05/05/2237206/white-house-proposes-30-tax-on-electricity-used-for-crypto-mining

Unionized Apple Store employees want to.... be tipped?!

Wait a minute. NOW we're going to have to start tipping retail employees?!!!

Now, this is a bargaining item in contract negotiations. While I can agree with many of their asks, this one? This one I would say a hard 'no' to. In the USA, we tip in restaurants because, unlike most of the civilized world, we don't believe that working in a restaurant is a respectable job and career in and of itself, and we pay those people shit. Those restaurant wage floors 'because they make it up in tips' is utter bullshit and go back to discriminatory practices against black people.

But this? Retail doesn't pay great, and really doesn't make for a career outside of management, but they're paid better than minimum wage. And Apple Store employees I expect make well above minimum wage, though I do not know it for a fact. I would think Genius Bar people are paid quite well as they require very specialized and in-depth knowledge and have to pass exams to get the job.

But overall tipping for retail? No. The fundamental problem is our screwed-up economy here in the USA that demeans jobs and tries to suppress wages. I will gladly pay more for a meal in exchange for no tipping, or none of that 'surcharge for employee healthcare and wellness' tacked on to my bill. If I find that on my restaurant ticket, it's probably the last time that I'll eat there. Add a buck to every entry, $0.50 on everything else, and make it work based on additional revenue.

https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-workers-union-in-towson-fighting-for-tipping-2023-5

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/23/05/05/2036208/unionized-apple-store-workers-want-you-to-start-tipping-them


In a related story, customers at SELF-SERVICE KIOSKS ARE BEING ASKED TO TIP! A tip is supposed to be a reward for good service, not for the privilege of us parting with our money! It's been seen at Newark Airport and sports stadiums. YOU ARE NOT BEING SERVED! Supposedly tips are being shared out, but do we know this for a fact?

No, if I tip, I want to see the person who is receiving it, and I want it to be justified. A self-serve kiosk is not justification saying that there are other people working there who will receive it.

https://www.businessinsider.com/customers-are-hesitant-to-tip-at-self-check-out-2023-5


While I am overall a big fan of unions, this is just overreach. Then again, if you don't ask for it, you won't get it, so what's the harm in asking?

And remember: Tip Your Local Librarian!

;-)

Remember when Russian forces invading Ukraine dug in around Chernobyl?

Guess what! They're developing severe radiation sickness and related problems!

This obviously comes as no surprise to a lot of people. Russet and I were discussing it. Chernobyl popped its top - literally! - THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO! People under 30, meaning most of the people in the invading Russian Army and probably their direct commanders, weren't alive back then! And with Russian news suppression, it's probably not well-known among them. I can understand them not taking it seriously, whereas a 50 y/o might actually remember it happening and know that digging there is bad juju.

This is yet another major thing to be laid at the feet of Putin and his lackies. A lot of these people are going to die in pretty horrible ways, and it didn't need to happen.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/red-forest-chernobyl-radiation-sickness-b2330067.html

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/04/30/2153204/russian-forces-suffer-radiation-sickness-after-digging-trenches-and-fishing-in-chernobyl