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And whether the LED is off is false or true.


But... cows do drink cow milk, that's why it exists.


You’re likely thinking of calves. Cows (though admittedly ambiguous! But usually adult female bovines) do not drink milk.

It’s insidious isn’t it?


If calves aren’t cows then children aren’t humans.


No, you're thinking of the term "cattle". Calves are indeed cattle. But "cow" has a specific definition - it refers to fully-grown female cattle. And the male form is "bull".


Have you ever been close enough to 'cattle' to smell cow shit, let alone step in it?

Most farmers manage cows, and I'm not just talking about dairy farmers. Even the USDA website mostly refers to them as cows: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2025/07-25-2025.php

Because managing cows is different than managing cattle. The number of bulls kept is small, and they often have to be segregated.

All calves drink milk, at least until they're taken from their milk cow parents. Not a lot of male calves live long enough to be called a bull.

'Cattle' is mostly used as an adjective to describe the humans who manage mostly cows, from farm to plate or clothing. We don't even call it cattle shit. It's cow shit.


So, this joke works only for natives who know that calf is not cow.


I guess a more accessible version would be toast… what do you put in a toaster?


Here's one for you:

A funny riddle is a j-o-k-e that sounds like “joke”.

You sit in the tub for an s-o-a-k that sounds like “soak”.

So how do you spell the white of an egg?

// All of these prove humans are subject to "context priming".


My brain said "y" and then I caught myself. Well done!

(I suppose my context was primed both by your brain-teaser, and also the fact that we've been talking about these sorts of things. If you'd said this to me out of the blue, I probably would have spelled out all of "yolk" and thought it was correct.)


Notably, this comment kinda broke my brain for a good 5 seconds. Good work.


Well, it works because by some common usages, a calf is a cow.

Many people use cow to mean all bovines, even if technically not correct.


Not trying to steer this but do people really use cow to mean bull?


No one who knows anything about cattle does, but that leaves out a lot of people these days. Polls have found people who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and I've heard people say they've successfully gone "cow tipping," so there's a lot of cluelessness out there.


> Many people use cow to mean all bovines, even if technically not correct.

Come on now :0

I just complained non-natives would have a problem distinguishing between a cow and a calf, and you had to bring those bovines.

To make it easier, would just drop that in my native language, the correct term for bovine is more used to describe people with certain character, that animal kind.


Colloquially, "cow" can mean a calf, bull, or (female adult) cow.

It may not be technically correct, but so what? Stop being unnecessarily pedantic.


In this context it is literally the necessary level of pedantic yes?


Really? If a company advertises a new red version of their widget and I excitedly upgrade because I love red, but when it comes it's gray just like the old widget, don't I have a case? Surely I don't need to demonstrate that red makes me more productive.


Genuine question: have there been any successful lawsuits on the basis of "false advertising" in recent times? It seems so prevalent everywhere, I'm really curious if there's any repercussions for it (no matter how egregious.)


In Australia the regulators pursue such things. https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/jayco-in-court-over-of...


I think you would just return it, not sue them.


So is Apple accepting returns from all iPhone 16 owners?


That makes sense when tools are as dumb as static notes and TI-84s.

But in the (hypothetical) limit where AI tools outperform all humans, what does this updated test look like? Are we even testing the humans at that point?


> if Apple is providing raw eye tracking streams to app developers

Apple is not doing that. As the article describes, the issue is that your avatar (during a FaceTime call, for example) accurately reproduces your eye movements.


Isn't it the a distinction without a difference ? Apple isn't providing your real eye movements, but an 1 to 1 reproduction of what it tracks as your eye movements.

The exploit requires analysing the avatar's eyes, but as they're not the natural movements but replicated ones, there should be a lot less noise. And of course as you need to intentionally focus on specific UI targets, these movements are even less natural and fuzzy than if you were looking at your keyboard while typing.


The difference is that you can't generalize the attack outside of using Personas, a feature which is specifically supposed to share your gaze with others. Apps on the device still have no access to what you're looking at, and even this attack can only make an educated guess.


This is a great example of why ‘user-spacey’ applications from the OS manufacturer shouldn’t be privileged beyond other applications: Because this bypasses the security layer while lulling devs into a false sense of security.


> ‘user-spacey’ applications from the OS manufacturer shouldn’t be privileged beyond other applications

I don't think that's an accurate description, either. The SharePlay "Persona" avatar is a system service just like the front-facing camera stream. Any app can opt into using either of them.


That app gets a real time Gaze vector, which unless I've misunderstood something, non-core apps don't get.


Which app?


I should have said avatar service.


But the technology is there. That is the concern.


The technology to reproduce eye movements has been around since motion pictures were invented. I'm sure even a flat video stream of the user's face would leak similar information.

Apple should have been more careful about allowing any eye motion information (including simple video) to flow out of a system where eye movements themselves are used for data input.


"technology to reproduce eye movements has been around since motion pictures were invented"

Sure, but like everything. It is when it is widespread that the impact changes. The technology was around, but now it could be on everyone's face, tracking everything you look at.

If this was added to TV's so every TV was tracking your eye-movements, and reporting that back to advertisers. There would be an outcry.

So this is just the slow nudging us in that direction.


To be clear, the issue this article is talking about is essentially "during a video call the other party can see your eyes moving."

I agree that we should be vigilant when big corps are adding more and more sensors into our lives, but Apple is absolutely not reporting tracked eye-movement data to advertisers, nor do they allow third-party apps to do that.


It's not a problem with the technology.

The problem is the edge case where it's used for two different things with different demands at the same time, and the fix is to...not do that.

> Apple fixed the flaw in a Vision Pro software update at the end of July, which stops the sharing of a Persona if someone is using the virtual keyboard.


"fixed the flaw "

Or

"Ooopps, so sorry you caught us. Guess we'll have better luck keeping this hidden next time."


Keeping what hidden? Caught who? The eye-tracking technology is literally a core part of the platform. What is it you're trying to say?


From articles first sentance:

" lot about someone from their eyes. They can indicate how tired you are, the type of mood you’re in, and potentially provide clues about health problems. But your eyes could also leak more secretive information: your passwords, PINs, and messages you type."

Do you want that shared with advertisers? With your health care provider?

The article isn't about the technology, it is about sharing the data.


Who are you saying shared what data with whom?


How are they getting the data you claim is shared with them?


> Exposure to regular levels of background bacteria and virus keeps our immune system tuned

> While the mask likely does not protect you from background virus and bacteria

If you believe the second statement, why does the first matter?

> it can host all sorts of new growth right against your mouth and face

Have you seen any studies on how quickly harmful growth can build up? I'd guess this to be pretty harmless if you change the mask regularly.


It both doesn't work, and if it did it would be net negative. Masks protect others from your spit, they don't protect you. If you are not ill and generating airborne spit the mask is useless


> The vast majority just . . . sit there

> They're machines which must be used [...] not magic evil talismans

I feel like there's a straw man in there. No one is worried about guns sitting around literally unused, and I don't think anyone cares too much about the used/unused ratio. Obviously the thing people are worried about is how they are used when they are used.


> map, and_then, etc. I think this would be called being "monadic".

Strictly speaking, I think providing "map" just makes it functorial. Monadic would need a flatmap. (In addition to the other functor and monad requirements, of course.)


So what would you call something like "it implements some common operations", like these?

For example, the Option and Result type both have functions like "map", they do the same thing just on different types. They're not quite generic in that sense, but on a high level they seem so.

Another example are reactive libraries. Everything is pegged into some common operations like map, take, and so on.


You're right, and I'd add on that monads only need pure and bind (>>=), das it!

    pure :: Monad m => a -> M a

    (>>=) :: Monad m => M a -> (a -> M b) -> M b
pure is sometimes called return and >>= is sometimes called bind and flat map.

I was unsure that bind was the same as flatmap but it looks like it is.


The "and_then" that they mentioned is the flatmap


Ah yes, with a delicious frackuccino.


I'll have two frack whites to go thanks.


> Arguing you can't do something because someone will be offended is also not very helpful: you can almost always find some offensive interpretation of anything

You mentioned the sorites paradox earlier. Do you think it could be applied here as well?


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