V3 isn’t necessarily more effective than V2, it’s just less obtrusive.

Consistent duration can be assumed, because that’s how advertising works. The 15-second spot is still the standard.

Sure, in a reality where that happens, but that isn’t ours. Ads are overwhelmingly made to match the standard 0:15 and 0:30.

I mean placement within the video timeline. E.g. do all users see the ad at 0:00 or 2:00 or does it jump around for everyone to prevent it from being tagged.

This breaks the current SB implementation, but if the ad duration is known and consistent across the userbase then it will fix itself as users tag videos with the “new” timestamps.

Crowdsourced “tagging” of the affected area of the video timeline (like Sponsorblock) would fix this, unless Google get really devious and randomize the placement of the ad for various users.

France isn’t part of Five Eyes.

Col. Florian Manet, who heads France’s Home Affairs Ministry National Cyber Command Technical Department, said in a statement issued by Australian police that his officers provided technical resources to the task force over several years that helped decrypt the communications.

McCartney said the French had “provided a foot in the door” for Australian police to decrypt Ghost communications.

Australian police technicians were able to modify software updates regularly pushed out by the administrator, McCartney said.

“In effect, we infected the devices, enabling us to access the content on Australian devices,” McCartney said, adding that the alleged administrator lived in his parents’ Sydney home and had no police record.

It’s hard to parse what happened here. Sounds like a MITM attack where they gained access to the device OS which allowed them to view messages once decrypted by the device?

I can’t believe I’m defending Yandex, but keep in mind that they sold off the Russian business a while back (to VK, if I remember correctly). Yandex RU and Yandex “everywhere else” are different companies.

Sodium-ion batteries are gaining attention as a potential alternative to lithium-ion batteries for EVs, mainly due to their cost-effectiveness and abundance of raw materials. Sodium is more readily available and less expensive than lithium, making it an attractive prospect for scaling up EV production.

I don’t know why they said this — they really aren’t a viable alternative for weight-sensitive contexts at all. Their density is only abut 60% that of Li-ion batteries, and that isn’t even getting into solid-state Li batteries which are even more dense. If weight isn’t an issue, like for home or grid backup storage, they’re fine. For cars or bikes, not so much.