FM advantage over DAB: fast tuning -- do DAB devices need to evolve more? by evenwicht in c/dabradio@feddit.uk
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I figured the power consumption of multiple parallel decodings would increase but it would be negligable if limited to occur during channel browsing. If you settle on a signal for 2 min, it could revert to 1 channel.

A more crude improvement would be trivial: simply continue playing the previous buffer during the 3 second gap, but update the display instantly to show the user that their command was received and acted on. The 3 second gap could also be a fade-out to give an audible signal that the channel change command is in motion. The linux app “Clementine” does some of this. When you click the stop button, it does not stop the music instantly but does a fade out.

DJs sometimes have to switch to something else quickly with no time to beat match. It’s not a good situation but their method of choice seems to be a rapid cross-fade, as opposed to a sharp and sudden discrete switch. That slight smoothness helps. With a small buffer the two channels could even slow one channel and speed up the other to do an automatic beat match and cross-fade a bit more smoothly. I would not be surprised if there were some FOSS libs that already provide this sort of thing.

(edit) I should note as well that there is one station that has a very low level so you have to double the volume to match any other station. A device that fades during transitions could normalize the level differences without the user even knowing the differences are there.

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FM advantage over DAB: fast tuning -- do DAB devices need to evolve more? (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/dabradio@feddit.uk
5 comments fedilink

My DAB+ radio also has an FM function. It stores a favorite set of channels for DAB and a separate memory store for FM. When cycling through the DAB presets, there is a ~3 or so second delay for it to tune and decode. With the FM mode there is no delay. Is my particular model just slow with decoding the first sound byte or is this an inherent DAB shortcoming?

I imagine a well designed DAB radio could theoretically tune the next 2 or 3 presets in sequence simultaneously in parallel so you could avoid the channel changing delay. Has anything like that been implemented?

What about a device that pairs FM to DAB? Some radio stations have both an FM and a DAB transmission. So in principle I would want the device to be aware of the dupes. From there, I should be able to flip through the FM stations and once I settle on a station push a single button to switch over to the DAB signal. It could even deliberately play the FM signal for 4 sec. longer and quickly cross-fade in the DAB signal. Any hardware on the market doing this sort of thing?

The law that all US credit bureaus violate, bluntly, simply because there is no enforcement mechanism: data source disclosure by evenwicht in c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I’m not sure what data breaches you’re referring to. The data that makes it into the credit file is not generally due to a breach¹. Every “member” of a credit bureau is free to share info with the credit bureau. Those members (which are generally banks, insurance companies, creditors) usually put in their privacy policy some vague verbiage about sharing with credit bureaus.

If you mean breaches of the credit bureau, like what happened with Equifax, I don’t believe a US court would view the breach itself as quantifiable provable damage to every consumer. I think there would only be (court-recognized) damage if the data were actually exploited in a way that costs you money.

¹ Although I say unlawfully exfiltrated data would unlikely make it onto the credit report, I cannot know for certain precisely because the credit bureau conceals the info source. That’s the reason we would want the law enforced. If CRAs were to share the source info, we would be able to separate the sources we have agreements with from those we don’t, and possibly chase up the sources we did not authorize to investigate where the data came from, which very well could have a supply chain that leads to the black market, a ransom attack, etc.

The law that all US credit bureaus violate, bluntly, simply because there is no enforcement mechanism: data source disclosure by evenwicht in c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah, I could get some counciling for that problem. Then the invoice from the counselor would be evidence for court. I should probably also buy a CD by Mika, with that song “Relax, Take it Easy” as a destressor. Then bring that receipt to court as well.

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The law that all US credit bureaus violate, bluntly, simply because there is no enforcement mechanism: data source disclosure (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
5 comments fedilink

The FCRA requires credit bureaus to disclose to consumers the identity of the sources of information in your credit file. Yet if you look at your credit report from any of the 3 major giants (TRU, EFX, EXPN), they list out all addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses with no indication of who fed them that info. If you request that info, they ignore or refuse.

The penalty for FCRA violations in that section is $1k. So you might think: “how cool is that? I can simply sue all three credit bureaus for $1k each”. It should work like that, but doesn’t. IIRC, it was a lawyer for a credit bureau who told me in so many words: case law shows that you must incur damages in this particular case. So if you can prove damages, then you can claim $1k (even if the actual damages are $1). But how do you even prove $1 in damages?

I have some ideas but generally this is such an uphill battle that credit bureaus can simply bluntly ignore the law. Which is what they do. It’s a good demonstration of how US corporations will plainly break laws that are unenforceable.

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(US) Users of text-based mail clients can legally penalize corporate senders who send HTML-only e-mail (possible legal theory) (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/text_ui@lemmy.sdf.org
0 comments fedilink

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/22571649

According to 15 U.S.C. 7704 §5(a)(5):

INCLUSION OF IDENTIFIER, OPT-OUT, AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS IN COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.—

(A) It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission of any commercial electronic mail message to a protected computer unless the message provides—

(i) clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation;
(ii) clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity under paragraph (3) to decline to receive further commercial electronic mail messages from the sender; and
(iii) a valid physical postal address of the sender.

When my text-based mail client receives an HTML-only email message, it tries to render the HTML as text. It’s sometimes a jumbled up unreadable heap of garbage because the HTML is malformed and relies on a forgiving/tolerant rendering engine. Even when the HTML is proper and standards compliant, links are not exposed to text rendered. E.g. a msg will say “to unsubscribe and stop receiving emails, update preferences here.”

Where is “here”? That is just raw text. Sure, an advanced user can do a number of things to dig up that link. But I doubt that would pass the legal standard of “clear and conspicuous”.

Anyone have confidence either way whether HTML-only spam is legally actionable on this basis?

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(US) Users of text-based mail clients can legally penalize corporate senders who send HTML-only e-mail (possible legal theory) (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/email@lemmy.ml
0 comments fedilink

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/22571649

According to 15 U.S.C. 7704 §5(a)(5):

INCLUSION OF IDENTIFIER, OPT-OUT, AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS IN COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.—

(A) It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission of any commercial electronic mail message to a protected computer unless the message provides—

(i) clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation;
(ii) clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity under paragraph (3) to decline to receive further commercial electronic mail messages from the sender; and
(iii) a valid physical postal address of the sender.

When my text-based mail client receives an HTML-only email message, it tries to render the HTML as text. It’s sometimes a jumbled up unreadable heap of garbage because the HTML is malformed and relies on a forgiving/tolerant rendering engine. Even when the HTML is proper and standards compliant, links are not exposed to text rendered. E.g. a msg will say “to unsubscribe and stop receiving emails, update preferences here.”

Where is “here”? That is just raw text. Sure, an advanced user can do a number of things to dig up that link. But I doubt that would pass the legal standard of “clear and conspicuous”.

Anyone have confidence either way whether HTML-only spam is legally actionable on this basis?

9
Users of text-based mail clients can legally penalize corporate senders who send HTML-only e-mail (possible legal theory) (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
0 comments fedilink

According to 15 U.S.C. 7704 §5(a)(5):

INCLUSION OF IDENTIFIER, OPT-OUT, AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS IN COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.—

(A) It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission of any commercial electronic mail message to a protected computer unless the message provides—

(i) clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation;
(ii) clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity under paragraph (3) to decline to receive further commercial electronic mail messages from the sender; and
(iii) a valid physical postal address of the sender.

When my text-based mail client receives an HTML-only email message, it tries to render the HTML as text. It’s sometimes a jumbled up unreadable heap of garbage because the HTML is malformed and relies on a forgiving/tolerant rendering engine. Even when the HTML is well formed, hyperlinks are not exposed in the text rendered. E.g. a msg will say “to unsubscribe and stop receiving emails, update preferences here.”

Where is “here”? That is just raw text to me. Sure, an advanced user can do a number of things to dig up that link. But I doubt that would pass the legal standard of “clear and conspicuous”.

Anyone have confidence either way whether HTML-only spam is legally actionable on this basis?

(update) I should mention the most annoying offenders-- corporate senders (e.g. banks) that attach a plaintext MIME part, but then the motherfuckers use it to just say (in so many words) “You need to update your software”. This makes it extra difficult to see the content of the message because the text mail client of course shows the text MIME part by default.

4
Banks are harrassing people after discovering their address is not residential; but does the law care? (redlib.catsarch.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
0 comments fedilink

Some banks have started demanding proof of address when they realize that the address they have on file is “commercial”, e.g. like a UPS Store PMB type of address. How would this play out in court? The law¹ states:

“(i) Customer information required—(A) In general. The CIP must contain procedures for opening an account that specify the identifying information that will be obtained from each customer. Except as permitted by paragraphs (b)(2)(i)(B) and (C) of this section, the bank must obtain, at a minimum,the following information from the customer prior to opening an account:

  1. Name;
  2. Date of birth, for an individual;
  3. Address, which shall be:
    (i) For an individual, a residential or business street address;
    (ii) For an individual who does not have a residential or business street address, an Army Post Office (APO) or Fleet Post Office (FPO) box number, or the residential or business street address of next of kin or of another contact individual; or …
  4. Identification number, which shall be: …

(emphasis mine)

Banks seem to be over-reacting to law that is more lenient than what banks are interpreting. Not only are business addresses allowed, but a bank customer can even supply someone else’s address. The law also seems to distinguish between old customers and new. Yet out of the blue banks are harrassing customers who have had an account for years. They have a gov-issued ID doc and SSN, yet suddenly the banks get anal and persnickety about the address to the extreme of freezing people’s accounts as databases grow (DBs that track the zoning an address is in).

Has this been challenged in court? It’s clear from the linked thread that customers either dance for the banks or get their accounts frozen. It could be hard to challenge in court since banks can demand whatever info they want even if not required by law. But if they suddenly close an account that has been established, that could cause damages to the customer.

One interpretation is that legislators intended the business address to be that of the customer’s workplace. But the law does not seem to specify that.

¹ 31 C.F.R. § 103.121

When tax forms demand irrelevant information -- what if you refuse? by evenwicht in c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Accounts and digital assets seem directly applicable to assets held.

And? Holding assets does not in itself trigger tax. Esp. how they are held. Whether your $100 is in a banknote or $100 in gold coins or Second Life game money, or $100 in a cheese wheel, in the absence of a transaction there’s no tax to speak of.

W.r.t accounts, it’s just foriegn accounts they want to know about, not domestic accounts. Walk me through the tax difference between the two (not interest, not cap gains, just having the account).

Occupation sounds like it could have to do with tax credits, if you’re in something that’s subsidised.

If that’s the case, that’s declared on a form that actually has effects on figures, which is not what I’m talking about. That would be an enumeration with a code that discretely assigns an activity from a list to an outcome. If you look at the signature box of the 1040, that’s just a freehand field. You can write “contractor” there or any number of vague things without affecting subsidies. I’m specifically talking about information that does not affect the figures.

Residence is weird but in the opposite way, because usually countries don’t tax residents abroad. 'Murca is the exception there, although I don’t know all the exact details.

Residence indeed affects the figures (whether you are inside or outside the US), but that’s already accounted for by the forms being submitted and the data on them. When a form arbitarily has a field for country of residence and that field in no way affects the figures, it’s extraneous info. Just a data collection that makes no difference to the bottom line. I just had a look at the 1116 form. Whether you write USA or Japan on the residence field makes no difference whatsoever in the in the calculation. You can write anything on that line and it does not change the calculation AFAICT.

When tax forms demand irrelevant information -- what if you refuse? by evenwicht in c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Off the top of my head I recall questions about the taxpayer’s occupation, whether foreign bank accounts are held by the taxpayer and whether any digital assets are held. I think some forms (1116, perhaps) ask for country of residence but IIRC this has no influence on the calculations.

6
When tax forms demand irrelevant information -- what if you refuse? (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 3 weeks ago by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
5 comments fedilink

Some tax forms ask information that seems to have no effect on the bottom line. No matter how you answer the question, your tax bill is the same either way. In Europe, this sort of thing would violate the data minimization principle of the GDPR. So the question is, what happens to people who either leave the intrusive fields blank, or they give bogus info? I’ve heard that tax penalties are generally a constant × the amount of underpayment. If underpayment is zero then so is the penalty, correct?

Looking for banks that issue Discover-branded debit cards by evenwicht in c/Finance@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It’s not a binary statement. it’s a measure of proportions. So my statement was factually correct. Cloudflared banks are quite rare in Western Europe, for example. I actually cannot think of any off the top of my head. Step into the US, and credit unions are mostly pawned by Cloudflare. It’s a shit show. Hard to find non-Cloudflared CUs, which is an artifact of shoestring-budget funding.

I heard someone talking about a European bank that was considering using Cloudflare and it was met with protest. The bank backed off the idea. In the US people don’t give a shit.. they don’t even notice. There’s a bit more blind trust for big corps.

Looking for banks that issue Discover-branded debit cards by evenwicht in c/Finance@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Cloudflare is mostly a US thing. Banks outside the US are a bit more competent¹ in this regard. But there are thousands of banks and CUs in the US and I only need one in the end. The problem is the Discover network narrows the choice down to a tiny fraction of banks. So I’m looking for an intersection of two small sets. If I can find one that functions offline and does not charge extra for paper statements that might be good enough.

¹ (edit) Guess I should clarify. A website that has good security does not rely on the crude practice of DoSing based on IP reputation. If an admin believes they can protect a website by using arbitrary guesswork about IP addresses, that’s alarming because the kind of criminals that should be in their threat models as threat agents would be in control of botnets that give them countless normal residential IPs. Use of Cloudflare is a sign of a poorly secured bank because it suggests they don’t have good enough security to protect from malicious traffic regardless of IP address. Also: not my problem. As a non-clearnet user, I am nixing banks that cannot serve me. That means they must either serve Tor users or they must work offline.

4
Looking for banks that issue Discover-branded debit cards (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/Finance@lemmy.sdf.org
4 comments fedilink

I hope this question doesn’t piss anyone off.. it was censored on lemmy.ml.

I’m looking for 3rd-party banks that issue debit cards for use on the Discover / Diner’s Club network. It’s quite rare. Visa, Mastercard, and AmEx are more common and easier to find, but I have a number of objections to those companies. Discover is a clear lesser of evils. This is what I know from past and present searches:

If I overlooked any please mention it (even if it’s Cloudflare, just to know the options). It’s a paltry list considering there are thousands of banks and credit unions nationwide.. and I only found 9.

True Value hardware used to have a Discover credit card but discontinued that in 2020.

There’s some chatter that Capital One may acquire Discovercard. It will be a shame if that happens, but the upside could be that more 3rd-party Discovercards emerge from it.

20
US fed spam law requires an opt-out mechanism, but what if the opt-out mechanism is exclusive & only for non-Tor users? (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/law_us@lemmy.sdf.org
2 comments fedilink

My credit union has been spamming me for years. As the volume of their bulk junk mail increases, I’m looking for a way out. Their email is HTML-only. So my text mail client only renders the raw text “To unsubscribe and stop receiving emails click here”. And “here” is obviously just text because it’s a text terminal.

Is that legal?

Suppose it is. So I dissect the HTML and fish out the link from a heap of garbage. The link does not go to the credit union’s website (if it did, that would be a non-starter anyway because I canceled my web account when they started blocking Tor). The link goes to a 3rd party site which also blocks Tor. So apparently as a precondition to opting out of spam I must share my personal IP address with a 3rd party agent of spam. Perhaps I can play whack-a-mole with a series of VPNs but I’m not interested. I just want to know if the opt-out procedure can legally be exclusive in this way. Can a legal challenge be mounted that forces them to provide an opt-out mechanism that’s inclusive?

The legal text is this:

(ii) clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity under paragraph (3) to decline to receive further commercial electronic mail messages from the sender;

I don’t know the legal meaning of “clear and conspicuous”, so I’m not sure if nesting it in HTML satisfies that requirement. But it’s strange that they must merely give notice of the opportunity to opt-out, apparently without actually giving the opportunity to opt-out (just notice thereof IIUC).

Lemmy clients for Debian by evenwicht in c/debian@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Javascript clients aren’t good for that. Lemmy/kbin/mastodon nodes vanish all the time without warning. All your posts: gone. JS has no practical way to integrate local storage, thus no historic content when a server vanishes.

Not to mention as well that web UIs tend to force you to use a mouse, which is a slower workflow.

using emacs (gnus) to access lemmy by evenwicht in c/emacs@lemmy.sdf.org
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Lemmy clients for Debian (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/debian@lemmy.sdf.org
4 comments fedilink

Has anyone found a Debian client for Lemmy? I’m really surprised nothing exists yet and wonder if my search skills are just lacking. This is what found:

  • lemoa is non-Debian, and dying
  • neonmodem is non-Debian, and crashes
  • nnreddit is non-Debian, and only rumored to be getting ported to activitypub; the repo for that project is a broken website for me

(Non-debian just means they are not in the Debian repos, not that they don’t work on Debian).

6
using emacs (gnus) to access lemmy (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 month ago by evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org to c/emacs@lemmy.sdf.org
3 comments fedilink

Just wondering if anyone has managed access Lemmy from emacs in any way. Theoretically, this may be feasible:

emacs (gnus) → nnreddit → lemmy

But I’ve not heard anything solid about whether nnreddit has been adapted to interface with a lemmy server. This bug report has been open for the past year:

https://github.com/dickmao/nnreddit/issues/90

OTOH, the project moved to a website that’s broken (at least, for me it’s broken).

What do you *need* your smartphone for? A semi-survey by evenwicht in c/mindful_tech@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You’re really asking “how much convenience do you need?” Some people are entirely enslaved to what Tim Wu describes as the Tyranny of Convenience.

I am not one of those people. I have ditched Google Playstore which greatly limits what I can do with the phone (and I’m fine with that -- fuck suppliers demanding that I patronise Google). And since I am always around a PC I only use a smartphone for:

  • offline navigation with OSMand (hard to give up)
  • notes (could give that up easily)
  • camera -- to take a pic of store hours posted on a door, occasional QR codes, to capture evidence when a store advertises a different price than they charge at the register, and because there are actually hardware stores that have no posted prices and you need to give the cashier the item number of (e.g.) a pipe fitting so they can ring it up. Also to capture rejection messages from ATM screens because ATMs are not designed well enough to print faults with the receipt printer.
  • some (stupidly) high-tech restaurants have no paper menu. Although I prefer to ask staff to borrow their phone to highlight to them the foolishness of their operation. My hardened defensive phone does not even work with most websites and i need to do this anyway.
What do you *need* your smartphone for? A semi-survey by evenwicht in c/mindful_tech@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I struggle to agree in the strict sense of need. But it’s a boiling frog scenario.

Public transport managers have mostly quit offering printed schedules and maps. IMO that’s borderline a violation of human rights (all people are entitled to equal access to public services, and I would consider providing info about public transport to be an indispensible part of that public service). Although in terms of smartphones, you can typically use a PC instead. And inside the stations you often have schedules and maps on the walls. But the bus infrastructure is dicier.

In Germany there are ticket sales with online exclusive pricing. Offline people must pay more for the same trip, or even lose access to some tickets entirely. Although a PC may still be an option there.

What do you *need* your smartphone for? A semi-survey by evenwicht in c/mindful_tech@lemmy.sdf.org
[-] evenwicht@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Of course banking is practically impossible without a phone.

I’m a bit disgusted by the state of affairs that has inspired your comment. But I notice you say “phone” and not “smartphone”.

IMO, just about all banks require being reachable at a phone number (VOIP or mobile). Some banks have taken the extra shitty step of obligating customers to have a mobile phone number provably registered in their name which is then used for SMS 2fa verifications. Some even nastier banks have taken the abusive step of closing down their website and forcing customers to always have an up-to-date smartphone running their closed-source phone app which is exclusively available from Google or Apple.

All banks are shitty but at least today we still have the ability to reject the worst of the worst and go without a smartphone, AFAICT. Though this would vary from one country to another.

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evenwicht

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