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Latest Comments by ShabbyX
Former Nouveau driver lead joins NVIDIA and sent a massive patch set
18 April 2024 at 11:43 am UTC Likes: 9

Are we no longer too few to ignore? :)

Riot Games talk Vanguard anti-cheat for League of Legends and why it's a no for Linux
15 April 2024 at 2:13 pm UTC

Somebody should make a physical robot that looks at the screen and handles the mouse with super precision (not an android of course, it can be a simple camera and a couple actuators) and play the game as if it was a super skilled human. There is no amount of os introspection that can prevent that kind of cheat.

Maybe **then** will they realize they are approaching cheating wrong.

Seriously, what if instead people voted if someone is pleasant to play with or not after a match, and you match pleasant people together and unpleasant people together. That also solves the toxicity problem with the same mechanism.

Riot Games talk Vanguard anti-cheat for League of Legends and why it's a no for Linux
15 April 2024 at 2:08 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: ShabbyXFor example, imagine a cheat that takes the app's wall rendering shader, and makes it semi transparent. Now the cheater can see through walls. They could still be playing with mouse and keyboard, no scripting involved.

That example is still a server problem. It's giving the client information that it doesn't need.

It's not as simple as that though. Even if the server doesn't disclose players / items that should not be visible, it can't do that very precisely for the simple reason that latency exists. You can't afford to reveal players _just_ as they become visible, because to the client it looks like they pop through doors. So taking latency into account and revealing another player earlier with a margin of error, that can still give an edge to such a cheater.

Riot Games talk Vanguard anti-cheat for League of Legends and why it's a no for Linux
14 April 2024 at 12:22 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: kaktuspalmeClient side anti cheat will never work. I don't get why no one tries server side cheat detection. I think AI in server side cheat detection might be a very useful thing.

Unfortunately it's not that simple. You kind of need both. Server side is needed, obviously, but there are ways to cheat that can be entirely invisible to the server.

For example, imagine a cheat that takes the app's wall rendering shader, and makes it semi transparent. Now the cheater can see through walls. They could still be playing with mouse and keyboard, no scripting involved.

Riot Games talk Vanguard anti-cheat for League of Legends and why it's a no for Linux
12 April 2024 at 12:01 am UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: fagnerln
Quoting: ShabbyX> Half of anti-cheat is making sure the environment hasn't been tampered with, and this is extremely hard on Linux by design.

If anyone ever claims 'windows is secure now", show them this statement. These sort of invasive actions is impossible to do on Linux (and easy on windows), for the same reason we don't get viruses (but windows does).

I dislike windows and never installed on my PCs since 2014 (well, I have an old HDD with it because I needed to install an AMD application just to receive a steam key). But I believe that nowadays it's secure if the user uses it "moderately", just don't install any bullshit on the OS (prefer FOSS apps) and don't visit weird websites and you're good to go.

"Be careful what you do" is not security. There is no way anyone, even security researchers, could "just know" the website they visit is malware free, etc. browsers go to great length to sandbox websites for this very reason. They go to greater length than windows does to secure applications!

Anecdotally, my father in law constantly had things breaking on his windows laptop (because he clicks on everything). We switched him to Linux four years ago, not a single problem since (just an old battery that needed changing^). So an OS *can* be good, windows just isn't. You shouldn't have to take security into your own hands.

^ Ironically, the guy who changed his battery told him he should use windows, it's better :|

Riot Games talk Vanguard anti-cheat for League of Legends and why it's a no for Linux
11 April 2024 at 9:02 pm UTC Likes: 8

> Half of anti-cheat is making sure the environment hasn't been tampered with, and this is extremely hard on Linux by design.

If anyone ever claims "windows is secure now", show them this statement. These sort of invasive actions is impossible to do on Linux (and easy on windows), for the same reason we don't get viruses (but windows does).

XZ tools and libraries compromised with a critical issue
31 March 2024 at 2:07 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: PublicNuisanceLet's apply some logic. You get caught not paying your ticket. They ask you to but you refuse. They call the police. The police tell you to but you refuse. The police issue you a ticket or straight out arrest you and you refuse to comply. They go to take you by force and you resist. They end up killing you in the struggle.

The flaw in this logic is that, the reason this person gets killed in the struggle is not that they didn't follow whatever law started this. The reason is that they attacked another human being and the other acted in self defense. The scenario is changed, and the matter of the original law is no longer relevant.

You can go to supermarket، <some conflict happens like you bump carts>, threaten people with a gun and get taken out by the police.

You can walk on the street، <some conflict happens like you step on someone's toes>, threaten people with a gun and get taken out by the police.

You can chew gum، <some conflict happens like someone says you're chewing too loudly>, threaten people with a gun and get taken out by the police.

We don't consider that we must be able to have people die to have supermarkets, walks outside, or chewing gum. That's also why we don't consider that when making (most) laws.

To your original point, I don't think anyone is arguing with you that the choice of software shouldn't be enforced. There was one comment, yes, but we generally all believe in that choice.

XZ tools and libraries compromised with a critical issue
29 March 2024 at 11:48 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: dibzMight be fighting words for some, but this makes me glad I'm a bit old hat and generally not a fan of rolling distributions, which is who this mainly applies to. This attack entered the effected package only a couple months ago for pete's sake.

12~6 years ago I used to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version every 6 months, thinking Debian is unthinkable because 2 years between updates?!!1!1!

Then snaps happened and I put off upgrades since Ubuntu 2018, thinking I gotta change distros. Fast forward to 2024, I realized I hadn't upgraded my OS for 6 years*! Debian's 2 year cycle didn't seem so bad now :)

* Totally unrelated to my first kid being 6 years old now :-"

3rd party KDE Plasma Global Themes and Widgets can lead to data loss
22 March 2024 at 12:13 am UTC

Quoting: SamsaiIt might be possible to sandbox these things, but that will inevitably lead to these systems becoming less flexible and that will result in complaints about KDE and GNOME restricting user freedom or whatever. Maybe that'll still be worth it for themes but for widgets that'll get pretty tricky.

That's _exactly_ what they should be doing. Most people can live inside a browser (sandbox) for the entire time they use a computer, there's little reason to believe a sandbox would make some things impossible for a widget.

Stardew Valley 1.6 is out now - player count on Steam explodes
20 March 2024 at 1:14 pm UTC Likes: 3

My 7 year old loves playing this game with us. It's cute how he works so hard to gather ingredients to cook a dish and just eat it right away, lol (or drink milk right after milking the cow, because of course you need to drink your milk)