As I read your comment, I was thinking "Really? Is it that surprising?" Then I remembered you said "someone technical", and no longer am surprised. Although I work with some technical people, I'm also surrounded by fools. Just the other day, I watched someone at work open a new tab to Google search, type "Google" and then click on Google search in the results, bringing them to the same page they had just left. With how quickly they did it, I can only imagine it is muscle memory and they haven't noticed yet that their new tab is Google search, or that this is better somehow.
Which LLMisms are you seeing in their post? Their grammar, word choice, thought flow, and markings all denote a fully human authorship to me, so confidently that I would say they likely didn't even consult an LLM.
My story isn't digital, but similarly required so many variables to coincide.
My friend got promoted and wanted to celebrate by going to a bar. His peer/colleague was also invited, and she had been hit by a bus only days before, totaling her car, but she wanted to come and convinced her neighbor to drive her to the bar. I came late, and sat far from my friend, as he invited several people, and the seats near him were taken. My friends colleagues neighbor was also at the end because she is shy and wasn't going to get into the main convo. She was cute, but I wasnt trying to pick her up, mostly just pity-chatted with her since she was clearly uncomfortable being there. And it turns out we really enjoyed chatting with each other. We meshed so well in fact, that we ended up marrying later. Obviously I skipped detail, but a lot happened for us to meet, and the window was tiny.
What if I or the peer had been busy, or my friend didn't get the promotion, or the peer's car hadn't been totaled? Or my wife, who didn't drink, had refused to go to the bar?
That is not how statistical calculations of risk are made. If the crew has 1/30 crew mortality rate, and there were 30 crew members, that does not mean there is a 100% chance that one dies.
While there is negligible chances that only a portion of the crew were to return, the outcomes are closer to black and white of nearly 29/30 full crew return and 1/30 no crew return.
That sounds like it is working as intended, not a false positive. A false positive would mean it blocked you whereas a challenge means more information is needed. You aren't noticing all of the times it correctly decides you are human, only the times when it needs to "inconvenience" you for more information because you prioritize privacy, a key similarity with some bots.
I also like privacy. I use GrapheneOS. I compartmentalize my credit cards, emails, and phone numbers. I don't use Google products, and the list continues, but I don't complain about Cloudflare because it is painless and I understand the price I pay for privacy.
I also have home services accessible via my home website, running on my home server(s). I chose to have cloudflare to host my domain specifically for the easy bot blocking, and it blocks more than 2000 bots/day that otherwise would be trying to find vulnerabilities on my servers, which contain a lot of sensitive things. I've never had an issue personally accessing my services through cloudflare. Sometimes I have to do captchas to access my own things, and that's barely an inconvenience (I am aware the domain isn't necessary to access services, but it makes more sense for my setup and intents)
What you described is aliasing, not compartmentalization. To effectively compartmentalize requires a different email, phone, and CC for every service. By only having one alias of each, the ad networks that are sharing information about you with partners have no obstacles tying together your habits when they see the same proton email, etc across several vendors, even if you have a different name on your alternate products. After these have been matched enough times, there enough of a profile on you to effectively know who you are, even if it is just probable instead of proven.
You mention proton, which allows several emails on a paid account, and there are several competitors offering a similar service with varying success, so this should be no problem to implement. There are also companies that offer anonymous CCs, although they are slowly not working. Privacy and Ironvest are two that used to work but I'm not sure if they still do. I'd be interested if you know of CC companies that still work most of the time at vendors. Regarding phones, there are several sources for this as well, depending on whether you want long term or just one time use numbers, but these likewise have been failing as security measures increase.
Valid points! I do create a separate email (proton has an alias generator and allows unlimited if you pay), credit card, and phone number for each service. Adds about 90 seconds to each sign up, which is a great chance to ask myself if I really need that service .
X1 (and I bet there are others) have a button called "free trial" cc that generated a real, valid anonymous (j doe) cc that cannot be used for an actual charge. When I pay for things (I do), I creat a separate virtual card for each service. Side benefit is when I want to cancel, I don't have to find the dark-pattern account cancel button. I cancel the cc and the email. No more subscription; no nagging.
Awesome, just wanted to make sure you weren't fooling yourself with a security posture that was less than what it seemed you were going for. I misread x1 as only having one alternate.
What is the URL for x1? I tried to check it out but am finding lots of unrelated things.
Also do you have a recommendation for unique numbers? Quackr.io has bulk public ones on rotation which is okay for some needs, and private ones for a fee. Ironvest similarly has private ones, but with any private ones, there is friction with getting new ones. I suppose that may just be the cost of privacy, but I'm interested in comparing.
I think Robinhood bought x1, so I think the Robinhood gold card is the same thing (citation needed). I pay something like $100/yr and the app generated numbers on demand.
I made the choice that my privacy was worth something so I pay for proton , my x1 and burner.
It only takes a little bit of energy once a day (or per week if you haven't realized yet how eventful your life actually is). The highest energy first day making it is a fun date with your spouse, or parent child time if you are separated.
@parent don't get too worried about not writing in it religiously and having a schedule. That removes all the joy about doing it in the first place.
For example our 2026 notebook has only one page filled in yet where I wrote a recipe for a chocolate cake I made on the fly and was worried I'd forget the measurements.
There are some days when I am bored and I pick it up and backfill it as well.
Every new successful tool doesn't start by trying to meet every need or edge case. They perfect the main case, and then edge cases in priority of likelihood.
Car washes are automated even though they haven't answered the edge cases of how to wash your car when your car is rolled on its side or a terrorist is actively blowing up the equipment. They simply only operate when your car is right side up (and other conditions, like in neutral, wipers off, and a driver who is willing to not exit the vehicle) and when there aren't active bombings on the building. And other "edge" cases.
Just because there is a possibility for something to not work, doesn't make it useless. Automated tire replacements could start with very rigid cases where they are applicable, and expact the scope slowly to allow more cases, like a bent wheel or poor weather.
I wouldn't be so sure. I have been impressed by several things that seem to be complex but a way to be automated was found. Sure a no controlled environment is not conducive to automation, but who said a tow truck wouldn't be a part of the process? Washing a car has been automated with the precursor that the car is brought to the controlled environment first.
I have even replaced car tires before and yet still have this opinion.
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