Google’s empire is under siege
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
An onslaught of antitrust lawsuits could drastically change what Google looks like and how it operates — even if they don’t succeed.
These senators are key to the approval of cabinet picks. Plus, Thanksgiving recipes
President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks will need approval from the Republican-led Senate. Here's who to watch. And, make-ahead recipes for Thanksgiving.
Long COVID patients push to see federal research refocused on treatments
The federal government has allocated $1.15 billion so far on long COVID research, without bringing any new treatments to market. Patients and scientists say it's time to push harder for breakthroughs.
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft review: good color is a good start
The Colorsoft is essentially a Paperwhite with a color screen. It might be worth waiting for a color Kindle Scribe instead.
nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
Today's security audit report writing music: https://rossocorsarecords.bandcamp.com/track/fantasy-rider
Rumors Are Flying Of A Possible PlayStation 5 Portable
Bloomberg is reporting this morning that Sony is working on a portable version of the PlayStation 5. This comes hot on the heels of news from Microsoft that a portable Xbox is being worked on, and of course ahead of the imminent announcement of the Switch 2. Everyone’s going handheld!
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
“But Yosh, how would we sandbox C++ code at scale?”
While not a perfect solution — Firefox’s RLBox toolkit (https://rlbox.dev/) provides the template for that. It compiles a C program to Wasm, puts it inside a Wasm sandbox, and provides the same API on the outside of the sandbox.
Now if the sandboxes library exhibits UB, it can no longer be used to exploit the rest of the program. Here’s a full writeup of how this works:
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/02/securing-firefox-with-webassembly/
Corning offers Gorilla Glass concessions to settle EU’s antitrust case
Gorilla Glass is used in many of the most popular smartphone offerings, such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 (pictured). | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Gorilla Glass producer Corning has proposed several commitments in an attempt to settle an antitrust investigation initiated by the European Union. The bloc launched a probe into Corning on November 6th over concerns the New York-based company used exclusivity contracts to push out rival glass makers from the phone industry, allowing it to dominate the worldwide market for break-resistant Alkali-AS Glass.
According to the EU Commission’s press release, the remedies proposed by Corning include waiving all exclusivity clauses in its current agreements with phone companies and glass finishers, promising not to use such clauses again in future, and not forcing its customers to buy specific quantities of stock from Corning. Corning also...
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
No little green men, and not even any space bugs.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/11/25/aw-shucks-no-evidence-of-alien-microbes/
Attachments:
The man who helped roll back abortion rights now wants to "crush liberal dominance"
Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society helped overturn abortion rights. He spoke to Morning Edition about his plans to disrupt Hollywood, Silicon Valley and other perceived centers of liberal thinking through the Teneo Network.
Toxic Air Pollution in India and Pakistan Is “a National Disaster”
This story was originally published by Voxx.com and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. India and Pakistan are losing ground to a common deadly enemy. Vast clouds of dense, toxic smog have once again shrouded metropolises in South Asia. Air pollution regularly spikes in November in the subcontinent, but this year’s dirty air has […]
I Survived Katrina Only to End Up in the Path of Helene. Now, Nowhere Feels Safe.
Three weeks after Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, Brandi Hand, a marketing and communications writer and based just outside of Asheville, offered some practical advice to her community: In a Facebook post that’s since been shared thousands of times, she wrote, “Find ways to laugh.” “Be gentle.” And, “Get ready for the rest of […]
After 15 years, Megan Atherton reunites with her 'Unsung Hero'
A special reunion conversation between Megan Atherton and the woman who changed the course of her life.
nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
Attachments:
Plastic waste is everywhere. Countries have one more chance to agree on a solution
Negotiations over a U.N. treaty to cut plastics have been bogged down. Environmental groups blame the oil and gas industry.
Romania in shock after far-right populist enters presidential election's runoff
Romania's political landscape is reeling after a little-known, far-right populist secured the first round in the presidential election, going from an obscure candidate to beating the incumbent prime minister.
The history of one of Washington's weirdest traditions: the turkey pardon
The history of the presidential turkey pardon is often misremembered. Here are the fowl facts.
The holidays are stressful. Restore your calm with these 5 quick tricks
Keep these science-backed stress busters in your back pocket this holiday season. Whip 'em out the next time you're at a table full of bickering in-laws or your flight gets canceled!
Tips from a top chef to beat holiday cooking stress
Tips from a top chef to beat holiday cooking stress
You can reduce your risk of dementia. Here's how to get started
About 40% of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by healthy lifestyle choices and preventive medicine. Here's a tool to gauge your brain care and track your progress.
Sony’s making a handheld console to compete with Nintendo and Microsoft
The new console will build on the Playstation Portal (pictured) which was reportedly originally intended to work as a standalone device. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
Sony is currently making a new handheld gaming console that allows users to play PlayStation 5 games anywhere. According to Bloomberg, the console is being developed to compete against Nintendo and Microsoft in the portable gaming market, and is likely “years away from launch” — if Sony decides to release it at all.
Nintendo is a leading figure in the handheld gaming industry, with a next-generation successor to its popular Switch console expected to arrive next year. Microsoft is also developing its own handheld Xbox prototype, though Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has recently cautioned that the device is “a few years out.” The handheld gaming category has also benefitted from a PC-platform expansion in recent years thanks to new...
Adultery is no longer illegal in New York
It was considered a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a jail sentence of up to three months.
nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
This weekend I was watching the original Dragon Ball (1986) and realized that the Red Ribbon Army is essentially Hezbollah
Foreign ministers meet in Italy for the last G7 of the Biden administration
Foreign ministers from the world's leading industrialized nations are meeting Monday, with a certain pressure to advance diplomatic efforts ahead of the new U.S. administration taking over.
New Zealanders help save about 30 whales after a pod strands on a beach
New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot. It's often not clear why they happen but the island nation's geography is believed to be a factor.
Should sex abuse evidence set the Menendez brothers free? A judge will decide.
A judge will decide Monday whether new evidence warrants a re-examination of the convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez in the shotgun murders of their parents 30 years ago.
Uruguay's leftist opposition candidate becomes country's new president
The election was free of the anti-establishment fury that has vaulted populist outsiders to power elsewhere, like the United States and neighboring Argentina.
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
So much of my job is this over and over again on a loop:
"So what do you think we should do in order to responsibly build the Torment Nexus?"
"You can't. It's a Torment Nexus. Stop it."
"But the Torment Nexus is inevitable!"
"It's not. You could just not do it. You could stop right now."
Dune: Prophecy Found A Weakness In The Dune Movies' Strongest Power
Another day, another Dune: Prophecy episode going where no Dune movie went before. After killing off its youngest character on-screen in the pilot, the latest episode shows the most formidable power in both Dune movies being thwarted more than 10,000 years earlier.
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
alright i thiiiink I've got these accounts posting from a new location. my guess is that migrating might be a kind of resource-intensive operation given that these bots have non-trivial followings, so I will probably stagger that out over the next few days?
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
If I ever leave a Big Tech job, I might be able to publish some of these "Lewis Black, but for JavaScript" blog post drafts.
Trailers of the week: Minecraft, Elio, and Alien: Earth
A still from the latest A Minecraft Movie trailer. | Screenshot: YouTube
This week, I went to a theater to watch a showing of the black-and-white version of Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves. Old-heads like me may recall it as a bad mid-90s cyberpunk film (written by William Gibson!) about a data courier whose brain is the storage medium, but who had to have his childhood memories erased to make space for the work.
I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid, and you know what? It’s still not a good movie. But if you ignore the plot holes, mostly awful acting, and terrible pacing, it’s at least very cool to look at. Also, I had totally forgotten about Ice T’s turn as J-Bone, leader of the Lo-Tek underground. It was fun enough, but it was weird to hear the theater audience erupt with applause at the end, though,...
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
There's a clear, well-defined JS-industrial-complex pipeline from "you should adopt this SPA-based technology because better user experiences" to "you don't have any choice, despite the terrible user experiences".
Most of it operates by omission. But it's still based on lies, dissembling, and half-truths.
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
Omissions can be prevarication, verging into falsehoods, when they are both intentional and repeated.
In React community, and those of other legacy desktop frameworks, there has been a studied aversion to telling devs what they knew when they learned it wasn't working.
I *begged* FB to share the controls they imposed to keep JS...erm...*enthusiasms*...in line. E.g., not shipping React to mobile (used Inferno while React was trimmed up and CPUs got faster), perf gates, ML-based bundlers, etc.
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
They did not.
And that was most of a decade ago.
As a janitor for frontend disasters, I find it galling that all of this could have been avoided. If only the framework vendors who *knew* their systems weren't working for mobile had the intellectual honesty to tell folks & recommend guardrails
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
okay. actually. doing some napkin math here and I think I'm going to move my botsin.space bots to *this* mastodon instance, at least for now
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
one thought I had: if Gatsby had come out just a few years earlier and thus been on public-domain side of the 20-year chasm created by the Copyright Term Extension Act, its text would've been used for so many cool net art things over the years
violetblue ("Violet Blue") wrote:
New Goodreads pre-review for #Covid Safety Handbook, available this week: "The antidote to Covid-19 misinformation and the prescription for being as safe as possible from the virus and the havoc it brings." https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7028578668
Humbled 🙏 We're so proud, and hope you check it out.
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
the other day I saw GATZ, an 8ish hour stage production that includes the entire verbatim text of The Great Gatsby. it was so so so good, both in terms of the staging and (forgive the obvious here) the underlying prose
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
trying to land on a name for my (own) dedicated bot server here... is bot.intersects.art passable?
Tech CEOs want to replicate Tim Cook’s Donald Trump playbook
Tim Cook and then-President Donald Trump, speaking to the Press in Austin, Texas in 2019. | Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook managed to forge a personal relationship with Donald Trump during his first Presidential term that other tech firms struggled to replicate. Now, others are trying to follow his template, says a Wall Street Journal report today.
Cook used direct appeals to influence Trump’s 2017 tax policy and to get him to dial back his 2019 tariffs in ways that benefitted Apple. In exchange, Trump got to look good; as the Journal points out, Cook didn’t correct Trump when claimed responsibility for Apple opening an Austin manufacturing plant that had already been around for years and wasn’t even owned by Apple.
Part of Cook’s strategy was keeping things simple, according to the Journal:
Instead of sending government relations...
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
splendorr ("nick splendorr ✨🏳️⚧️") wrote:
instead of “VC Funding” we should call it “Faustian Bargaining”
ie. “Another company is proud to report they took $61 million in faustian series A bargaining. They assure us that they will be the first company to somehow avoid calamity from this cursed arrangement. We are told they plan to enjoy the riches in the short term and then pass the fated collapse along to someone else down the line”
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
russss@chaos.social ("Russ Garrett") wrote:
Photovoltaic camel
Attachments:
isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:
So you think you know how #networking works? Riddle me this problem of the lack of connectivity under these conditions:
- Only two apps on my phone are affected, Tusky and Tesla.
- Only on my home WiFi (LTE and many public WiFi work fine).
- Only on my Pixel 5 (wife's Pixel 7 works well).
- Only started happening around a month ago.What the hell could that be?
Bonus note: my home WiFi is on both IPv6 and IPv4. Not sure if it's relevant…
Any guesses?
Chuck Woolery, game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83
The affable, smooth-talking game show host of "Wheel of Fortune," "Love Connection" and "Scrabble" later became a right-wing podcaster.
jstepien ("Jan Stępień") wrote:
I made a thing. Please do not hesitate to point me in the direction of more forms to fill. https://wtf-8.xn--stpie-k0a81a.com
Sarah McBride Just Showed Nancy Mace How to Act Like a Member of Congress
Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) is not taking Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) bait. In her first interview after Mace’s weeklong, social media–fueled campaign—which included nearly 300 posts on X—to ban her from the women’s bathroom in the House of Representatives offices, McBride showed how a member of Congress who is actually interested in governing, not grabbing […]
jalefkowit@vmst.io ("Jason Lefkowitz") wrote:
The future is an AI-generated anime waifu singing a personalized song just for you about why your insurance company isn't going to pay for a kidney transplant
Good to see the outgoing Biden regime crowing about the things they are doing in the mad scramble of their last few weeks to fortify the bulkheads against the incoming shitstorm such as [...taps headset...] airline ticket refunds.
How to write a progress indicator, pro-style: (It has been a few years, so tried out Kodi again. It is still trash.)
https://jwz.org/b/ykdc
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Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
molly0xfff@hachyderm.io ("Molly White") wrote:
social media platform users are going to link offsite. the only question is how obnoxious the platform will make it for them and everyone else.
(For context: Instagram prohibits links in post text. This, plus the incentive to inflate comments, has led to the proliferation of tools where creators instruct their followers to comment with a specific word to receive a link in their DMs— in this case, to a pie crust recipe)
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Paraphrased, that reads "At a molecular level, parts of the Covid19 virus look and seemingly behave a lot like cobra venom and rabies."
Turns out being "covid cautious" is just a revealed preference for not wanting strangers to sneeze rabies and snake venom analogues into your lungs.
Wear a mask.
2 Dartmouth fraternity members and a sorority have been charged in death of a student
The Alpha Phi sorority and two members of Beta Alpha Omega have been charged after a student was found dead in a river after attending an off-campus party where alcohol was allegedly served to minors.
Elizabeth Warren Warns That Trump’s Transition “Threatens the American Public”
Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointees are not the only source of controversy in his transition back to the White House. On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the functioning of federal agencies, to warn that the Trump transition team has refused to sign memoranda of understanding […]
Apple’s movie theater beef with Hollywood is getting worse
Image: Apple
Wolfs director Jon Watts told Collideron Friday that he didn’t think a sequel to the George Clooney and Brad Pitt movie, which Apple had already greenlit, would be happening. Yesterday, he revealed to Deadline that he had backed out of the project because he “no longer trusted [Apple] as a creative partner” after the company made a u-turn on its wide theatrical release.
The New York Times reported in August that Apple pulled the theatrical run for Wolfs because it was concerned it was spending too much on films after suffering multiple high-profile box office disappointments. At the same time, its limited-run approach worked out for Doug Liman’s The Instigators, which analysts cited by the Times said was the most-watched streaming movie...
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
This is so fucking nerdy and dumb but I'm the friend people ask which laptop to buy, and I take that responsibility so seriously. 😭
I want to be able to answer "Is Bluesky worth signing up for?"
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
@fromjason Sorry, this isn't an answer to your question, but I wanted to check whether you'd seen Tim Bray's "Why Not Bluesky" piece. Great read if not.
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/11/15/Not-Bluesky
Nintendo’s terrific Switch Pro Controller is $20 off through Black Friday
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
Nintendo recently announced a batch of Black Friday deals, all of which run through November 30th. This includes a steep discount on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, which drops it to an all-time low of $49.99 ($20 off) at Best Buy, GameStop, and Target. This is one of the more notable Black Friday discounts from Nintendo this year — that is, aside from the current promo on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Nintendo’s latest Switch OLED bundle — namely because the Pro Controller rarely goes on sale, even today.
Although there are many great third-party gamepads available, the Switch Pro Controller remains the best all-around controller for Nintendo’s aging console. It’s much more comfortable to use a full-size controller...
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
anetaklamra ("Aneta Klamra") wrote:
#SilentSunday in the #forest
#photography #photo #fotografie #photographie #fotografia #tree #trees #poland
Attachments:
The Biggest Surprises From The Game Awards Nominees And More Of The Week's Top Takes
This week, perhaps nothing sparked more discussion than the announcement of the 2024 Game Awards nominees. We weighed in ourselves with a breakdown of the seven biggest surprises in what got nominated, and what didn’t. Also this week, both Sony and Microsoft announced new forays into game streaming, and we took a look…
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
ommatidia@pixelfed.social ("sabrina") wrote:
#japan #aomori #写真 #マストドン写真部 #photography #photo #naturephotography
Attachments:
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
LexYeen@plush.city ("Alexis") wrote:
Attachments:
- A low-quality picture of a person in a private home's bathroom mirror, holding the handset of a payphone with the earpiece and mouthpiece pointed towards them, aiming the back of the handset at the mirror - the rest of which is still attached to the handset, and just behind the person. They're looking into the camera, too. There is no obvious way this photo could have been taken, as there are no cameras visible in the mirror. It's captioned with "How we used to take selfies in the '90s." (remote)
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Can a PDS control which relays index its content?
I feel like I've read everything anyone has ever written about #Bluesky, lol. But I still have questions. In "Bluesky is cosplaying decentralized" the answer appears to be no. However, the post is over a year old now and things change.
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
as it has more & more become coalition-oriented without a longstanding ‘Fearless Leader’, is the Democratic Party doomed to the perils of ‘minoritarianism’?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447?i=1000677890883
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
I've never questioned that scientists should be activists. I had good teachers.
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Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):
Axomamma@mastodon.online wrote:
@pzmyers "Why can't we be friends" from people who wear "fuck your feelings" T-shirts?
Boox Palma 2 review: ain’t broke, not fixed
There are so many things about the Palma 2 that could be better. But it’s still great at what it does.
Get Through Insufferable Family Time This Thanksgiving With These Mobile Games
If you’ve got a big family but very little to talk to them about, the holidays can see you go from happy to helpless real quick. What are you to do when Thanksgiving dinner is two hours late and you’ve run out of small talk with that one uncle from out of town who may or may not have voted for the worst person in the…
A new installation lets you hear extinct and endangered animal sounds, thanks to Björk
The Icelandic pop star Björk's new installation at Centre Pompidou in Paris uses animal sounds to help people understand what's lost and what we stand to lose as a result of human-caused climate change.
Fold paper. Insert lens. This $2 microscope changes how kids see the world
The Foldscope brings a powerful science tool to schools that can't afford microscopes. Scientists use it too. Its creators have handed out 2 million units, including a new mini-model for younger kids.
Two new tech documentaries you really need to see
Image: David Pierce / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 61, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, happy Hallmark season, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
I missed you all last week — thanks to everyone who told me you missed Installer, too! Warms my heart, and also makes me feel terrible for not being there, but mostly warms my heart. Let’s get back at it. This week, I’ve been reading about venom and deadly car races and hockey phenoms, setting up the new Mac Mini I finally caved and bought, watching The Day of the Jackal (which is spectacular) and Wolfs(which is fine), devouring the Dark Matterand Say Nothingbooks before I watch the shows**,** seeing if Google’s...
Israeli strike kills Lebanese soldier as Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel
An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.
The Peach That Traveled the Trail of Tears, and the Tribal Elders Working to Save It
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It’s November and it’s unseasonably warm as John John Brown, a Muscogee elder, works to replant peach saplings. “I haven’t had much luck growing them from seed,” he says. The reason, he thinks, is because peaches need lower temperatures. Around him, […]
Jimmy O. Yang opens up about one of his deepest fears
Actor Jimmy O. Yang is learning how to take compliments. On Wild Card this week, he opens up about love languages and fears.
A photographer's devastating documentation of El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s
In Legacy of Lies, El Salvador 1981-1984, photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg documents how U.S. foreign policy fueled a violent 13-year civil war in El Salvador.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
You used to be able to screenshot movies and tv shows on your iPhone. I made so many memes with that feature and they just took it away and nobody said shit.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
lovelylovely@masto.ai ("CandyK") wrote:
@lovelylovely
A lie doesn't become truth
wrong doesn't become right
and evil doesn't become good
just because it;s accepted by the majority.
Attachments:
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
inthehands@hachyderm.io ("Paul Cantrell") wrote:
An important thing about Elon Musk that’s widely known in tech circles but perhaps not in the wider world: he’s an ignoramus.
His technical knowledge is shallow and careless, full of parroting and fantasizing.
People who’ve worked on the small amount of code he actually wrote long ago describe his work as an unskilled mess.
At every company he runs, there are teams of people devoted to keeping him away from the engineers, who largely succeed to the extent that he forgets they exist.
1/3
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
davidho@mastodon.world ("David Ho") wrote:
Cycling is 10 times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities and 100 times more fun.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
I'm sometimes a tech cynic but it's actually ridiculously easy to gain my trust and everlasting loyalty.
For example, iA Writer has been my writing app for a decade now. I recommend it to everyone. I've advertised them more than my own business.
Just be honest and fair. Be the opposite of tech culture. Lol
Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
hsivonen ("Henri Sivonen") wrote:
Link to vote result: https://github.com/cplusplus/papers/issues/2121#issuecomment-2494153010
/r/cpp not buying it: https://old.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/1gxm7ji/ewg_has_consensus_in_favor_of_adopting_p3466_r0/
Note also Sean Baxter’s comment in the thread:
https://old.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/1gxm7ji/ewg_has_consensus_in_favor_of_adopting_p3466_r0/lykw1t5/
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
it has indeed been a while since I cranked out any production code... I'd forgotten how fat a "debug" build can be:
60,792,480as vs a "release" build:
14,835,040
Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:
How Decentralized Is Bluesky Really? https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/
A technical deep-dive, since people have been asking me for my thoughts. I'll expand a bit on some of the key points here in a thread. 🧵
With talks teetering, climate negotiators struck a controversial $300 billion deal
Representatives of developing countries and climate activists were furious over the outcome, saying $300 billion annually from industrialized countries is far short of what vulnerable nations need to better protect themselves from climate change.
In 'Points North' podcast, researchers try to save ash trees from extinction
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/23/nx-s1-5189573/in-points-north-podcast-researchers-try-to-save-ash-trees-from-extinction
Alcohol poisoning deaths in Laos renew concerns about methanol. Here's what to know
The U.S., Australia and U.K. have issued warnings for travelers in Vang Vieng after several tourists died in a suspected methanol poisoning outbreak.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
@fromjason That is needlessly aggressive posturing from him, though I imagine it's easier to take this approach than risk bursting the bubble with an actual conversation.
FWIW billionaire acquisition is a perfectly valid concern, but I think it's an easy way for those handwaving (lying) to dismiss the questions as hyperbolic histrionics. Then fallback into "This is completely different. You're all the good guys, remember? And protocols means power in your hands." *gesticulates wildly*
Microsoft pauses Windows 11 updates for PCs with some Ubisoft games installed
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft has stopped offering updates to Windows 11 version 24H2 on PCs that have certain Ubisoft games installed, Bleeping Computer reports. The company made the move after complaints that Star Wars Outlaws and games in the Assassin’s Creed series were crashing after installing the new Windows update.
Microsoft confirmed the “compatibility hold” in a status update yesterday evening, and says it’s working with Ubisoft to find a fix. In the meantime, the company recommends against installing the Windows 11 24H2 update manually.
Here is Microsoft’s description of the issue and games affected:
After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might encounter issues with some Ubisoft games. These games might become unresponsive while...
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
My favorite reply comes from Kye Fox, who indirectly called me a grognard.
This comment really drives home these people's belief that they are the unquestionable leaders of the "social internet revolution," and anyone who challenges their self-appointed authority can simply be ignored.
Imagine if they had actual power.
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Trump taps Brooke Rollins of America First Policy Institute for agriculture secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Brooke Rollins, head of the America First Policy Institute, to oversee the Department of Agriculture. She has a long history in conservative politics.
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
angelikatyborska@mas.to ("Angelika Cathor") wrote:
Did y'all get your Divitis vaccination this year? https://webglossary.info/terms/divitis/
Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:
You might have noticed that Mastodon list management got a major facelift in the web app, and more is to come. Let me know how you like it!
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
BlueSky is doing some really interesting things. I've spent more time there last week than since I created an account almost a year ago.
But this "savior of the internet" messaging does not hold up to even a light wind of scrutiny. It's going to come back and bite them in the ass.
And now that BS has 20million users, this whole situation is starting to feel less like a people's revolution and more like the crowning of a new monarch.
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fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Even some of Big Tech's most staunchest critics give Bluesky leaders remarkable helpings of the benefit of the doubt.
In a recent episode of Better Offline, Ed Zitron interviews Bluesky board member Mike Masnick. I was stunned to hear Ed repeat the claim, unsolicited, that Bluesky was somehow more resilient to billionaire acquisition.
The whole episode read as if Ed wanted to prove he wasn't a tech grinch by praising Bluesky (something I can related to for sure lol).
https://pod.link/1730587238/episode/75122309e1df5ea3641c05b93a80ff5a
Pretty regularly as I'm scrolling Explore, some article will be in there with a headline I'd expect to see in the supermarket checkout, hyping snake-oil supplements, or AI, or something this mom did that they don't want you to know about, or the top ten travel destinations, and 100% of the time it is from flipboard dot social.
Really doing the lord's work there, guys.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
pilum@fedi.j1nk4l.com ("Pilum::🌞") wrote:
I've had the privilege to contribute to “I’m Staying Home This Christmas” by the @lplateplayers masterminded (and mastered) by our one and only @futzle
Go have a listen to this amazing christmas song.
https://futzle.bandcamp.com/track/im-staying-home-this-christmas
ComicContext@mstdn.social ("Comics Outta Context") wrote:
Attachments:
- Standing next to a spacecraft, an alien tells an earthman, "You speak only of TRADE! Does nothing ELSE interest you? Do you not want to hear about my planet's advanced CULTURE...about our superior way of life??" "I couldn't care LESS about your culture!" says the earthman. "I care only about making MONEY! Nothing else matters to me!" (remote)
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
No, MAGAts, I will not let you downplay your actions. Get the fuck out of my life forevermore.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
When people learn that, at best, Bluesky's decentralized utopia is complicated, and at worst, is not at all what they were promised, they'll feel betrayed.
Some may turn on the Bluesky team. This is especially true for journalists who are currently parroting the "decentralized power and authority" narrative without doing the work to know what that even means.
From Kate Conger for NYT:
