Malware is any unwanted thing on your computer that either you or your system has to deal with, whether in the form of software, emails, or pop-ups.

Malware is Malicious Software it’s a very specific thing, Cisco defines it as :

Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any intrusive software developed by cybercriminals (often called hackers) to steal data and damage or destroy computers and computer systems. Examples of common malware include viruses, worms, Trojan viruses, spyware, adware, and ransomware. Recent malware attacks have exfiltrated data in mass amounts.

Cisco defines spam as:

Spam email is unsolicited and unwanted junk email sent out in bulk to an indiscriminate recipient list. Typically, spam is sent for commercial purposes. It can be sent in massive volume by botnets, networks of infected computers.

Sally from Accounting hitting reply all? spam. Kyle sending out embarrassing photos of Steve to everyone? Spam. your fifth cousin’s baby photos? well, I assume that’s spam. maybe you like baby photos.

those chain letters? spam. but not malware. They might contain malware, but the email itself is not malware. For example, a malicious image, won’t load- it has to go fetch the image first. Until you load the remote content, it’s not malware. It’s just a way of pointing you at the malware.

That said, it’s important to note that Raw Story is a legitimate company that wants your business. They’re not going to intentionally send you malware. mostly they’re going to be using the remote content to load pretty images and set up some basic telemetry (essentially read receipts. Maybe a cookie if you’re using a web client for your email, or perhaps clicked a link.) This is true of most legitimate companies. They want your business, so they’re not going to so brazenly piss you off with ransomware or a trojan.

As long as you’re not loading remote content and clicking links, there’s basically nothing that email can do to you. you can train your email client to recognize it as spam and send it straight to the bin; reducing potential accidental openings.

spam is just unwanted emails, it’s not software, in of its self.

Also, the tracking beacons only load if you let it. I assume you have your email client set to not load remote content. (If you don’t, you really should.) not sure what you use for email, but thunderbird (mozilla) does it automatically.

I’m not sure raw story is going to be sending malware.

Spam? In 37 different flavors,

That was always sarcastic.

And how does the phone know if you just take left turns faster? How does it know if you’re in the left or right lane? It has no way of knowing what the forces are, or if that variation is caused by something else.

Your phone has no idea which side of the car it’s on, and insurance companies and their apps really don’t care.

Motion sensors don’t provide localization. Gps on cellphones are only really accurate to a few dozen meters.

You can couple gps and motion (and changes in gps location) to fudge it. Which is why when you diverge off the route navigation provides… it takes it a moment to figure it out. In the display, they “know” you’re on the road so it doesn’t have to be that accurate, they just guess what lane you’re in based on direction and such.

They’re certainly not going to know what seat you’re in.

They don’t do this shit in Linux.

Come join us, Comrade.

pi-holes can’t stop websites you use from collecting your data. they’ve already started accepting cash for things (by way of mobile browser.). it’s only a matter of time before it slides into more things- if it hasn’t already.

currently I’m using start-page and it’s good enough for my needs. The advantage there is they’re in the EU, and have enhanced privacy requirements

Edit: I’ve used Firefox since their first beta. Now I feel old…

DDG sold out and allowed trackers on the mobile app. It’s a slow slide but it’s inevitable

At that point failing is the “correct” answer. It’s not necessarily looking at can you solve it, but how you solve it (and how fast is the mouse moving , is it moving in straight lines, did you fail six times and get frustrated? Did the time between tries change?)

in college I worked for the college in custodial services. (yeah. it’s as bad as you imagine it.)

we’d make the bunny ears just by poking a hole and ripping (or a knife if one’s handy.)

alternatively, get one without a draw string, and just cut or tear one section about an inch. Then, use the ‘bunny ears’ to tie off with whatever knot you want. Tuck the ends under.

if you’re able to just stretch the back, it’s like to over-stretch and fail if it gets full. it’s best to use a slightly loose bag and tie it off.

Probably assume they ran out of socks.

So I think the idea of the tinfoil is that somebody grabbing the knob will make noise.

Therefore altering you.

You’d be better off with an alarm system and a deadbolt lock, though.

She’s a smart cookie, and I’m excited for it all. I’m excited to take her to extracurriculars and chaperone field trips. I’m scared shitless. But excited.

Welcome to parenting? hehe. you’re a parent. not a step-parent. That’s just an artificial distinction that reinforces distance. If you’re the one in her life, trying to be a good father to her, then you are her father. she might have another father… but you’re in her life. And for the record, more parents could follow your example.

also, parenting should be terrifying, so you’re in good company as far as that goes.

Well…. The sexism aside, the best advice I can give you is to forget about being a “step”-anything,

If they’re young enough, it’ll only ever matter if you let it, if they’re older, you need to build that relationship with care, kindness and patience. You can’t force them into it and if you try to force it… that almost never ends well.

If their bio-parent is in the picture; you might have to “share”, they may never fully open up, and that’s okay.

But Being a good parent has nothing to do with biology.

They did! They leant to be stazzi

I’ve driven for tens of thousands of hours in my lifetime so far, and I’ve never even been close to a situation like what you’ve described. Even in a snow squall or dense fog I’ve always been able to see where other nearby cars on the road are, and where their blinkers are.

Good for you. I’m so glad you’re able to so confidently assert your moral superiority.

shit happens outside our control, so it’s asininely stupid for a car manufacturer to design safety equipment with the expectation of everything always being “normal”. it’s an asshole move blaming other people for things being abnormal. I doubt very much that’s an accurate assertion on your part, however, and even if it is, isn’t true for everyone. In fact, it’s probably far more reasonable to assume you’re the exception.

and by the way, getting brighter lights (or angling your lights higher than they ought to be), actually decreases your visibility while driving in fog and snow. which is why fog lights are both dimmer and mounted low.

oh yes. I’m an idiot for recognizing that there are circumstances in which “ideal” does not apply.

Also define “ahead” of you? 30 feet? 100 feet? maybe 2,640 feet? Sorry. but you’re failing to understand my point: THAT CIRCUMSTANCES AREN’T ALWAYS PERFECT. And when someone designes a critical SAFETY FEATURE they need to consider the non-ideal. 30 seconds of thought about what the fuck they were designing, or the designs that were undoubtedly submitted for approval could have prevented this. Instead, Mini Cooper elected to put “cool” before anything else.

and yes, that’s at least mildly infuriating.

Dude, if your headlights aren’t enough to illuminate what’s in front of you, then it’s not that an upgrade would be too much, it’s that an upgrade would get you to the bare minimum… You literally NEED to be able to see what else is on the road with you at ALL TIMES. You’re complaining about the risk that a vaguely arrow-shaped blinker causes in the specific case where you literally can’t see the car it’s attached to. There’s a much bigger risk there, and while it’s not your fault, it’s definitely something your vehicle needs to have the tools to deal with.

duuudeeee… you realize, of course, that it’s a least as much a question of alignment… and with a car in front of you you shouldn’t be using floodlights; which is blinding everyone in front of you. Which is as likely to cause problems as not.

Further, dark colors on cars are inherently harder to see, lights or no.

There have been times where I was driving near someone who forgot to turn their headlights on at night. But that’s the thing - I knew they were there; I could see their car with the light from my headlights, and even in that dangerously-low vision, I could easy tell which side of their car a blinker came on from. Yes, I got off the road and waited a bit to make sure they weren’t near me anymore, but even in the time that I had to drive with them, I had the tools to resolve the situation safely for me.

Good for you. Doesn’t mean the situation can’t arise where it is a problem. Stop defending idiots that put cool-factor before functionality on something that’s fundamentally meant as a safety feature. save the cool-factor for the union jack roof paint or something.