Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):
mark@social.markiswrit.ing ("Mark Taylor") wrote:

Planning a visit to the USA just so somebody has to read my posts

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
eff ("Electronic Frontier Foundation") wrote:

Online age verification isn't the same as a quick ID flash: it's surveillance. These systems collect your data and undermine your ability to anonymously access and discuss sensitive topics online. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/why-isnt-online-age-verification-just-showing-your-id-person

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
kristiedegaris@mastodon.scot ("Kristie") wrote:

A GENTLE PSA

Getting sick doesn’t do what you might think it does.

Viruses can only create new variants when they spread. More infections = more replication = more mutations = more chances for a fitter, more evasive strain to appear.

Very few viruses give lifelong immunity. Most immunity to viruses fades, and with high levels of transmission, new variants appear often. That’s why we keep getting sick.

Getting sick doesn’t fix the problem. It drives it.

https://xkcd.com/2557/

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

life can be so very harsh

#catsofmastodon

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115662283433619271

This story doesn't need anything extra to be wildly disturbing.

But when you consider how many of these AI robot demos are just mechanical turks- real humans "in a box" controlling the robot, and how many billions Meta and Google are spending in deep sea fiber optic cables from the global south to the US, the picture really crystallizes does it?

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
afilina@phpc.social ("🇺🇦 Anna Filina") wrote:

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
inthehands@hachyderm.io ("Paul Cantrell") wrote:

Fascinating story from a software dev Fedi friend, shared with permission to keep it anonymous:

❝A couple of days ago, I had an experience at work that made me understand one of the reasons why the chasm of opinion about LLMs is so deep and wide.

My department mostly does fiddly lowlevel work, [close to hardware]. A few of us don't use LLMs at all, a few use them sparingly, and one member is absolutely all-in. So during one of our morning meetings he suddenly started going off on a deeply disturbing diatribe about how we need to treat the LLMs “like slaves”.❞

1/

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
blogdiva ("your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦") wrote:

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115662283433619271

been trying for a decade to articulate that the #surveillance economy is a form of financial #slavery.

slaveowners kept dockets on slaves. the first securitized assets in Wall Street were bundled slave dockets held by slaveowners.

after abolition, many plantations created banks to use a similar docket system for indentured servants. once banned regionally, Reagan resurrected them as national credit reports.

Silicon Valley #techbros exist to globalize the financialization of slavery.

Boosted by joeri_s@mstdn.social ("Joeri Sebrechts"):
jensimmons@front-end.social ("Jen Simmons") wrote:

Safari 26.2 is here with 65 features + 165 bug fixes — including `field-sizing`, Navigation API, Largest Contentful Paint, `command` & `commandfor`, CHIPS opt-in partitioned cookies, `scrollend` event, `random()`, WebGPU in WebXR, `scrollbar-color`, `hidden=until-found` and *much* more! https://webkit.org/blog/17640/webkit-features-for-safari-26-2/

Boosted by jwz:
dnalounge@sfba.social ("DNA Lounge") wrote:

♬️ STAR CRASH: HALOU + QUENTEL THE CRYPTID at DNA Lounge tonight: Fri Dec 12, 8:30pm!
https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2025/12-12d.html?utm%5Fsource=sp%5Fma
#dnalounge #starcrash #halou #quentelthecryptid #vicereine #colorblock #synthpop #triphop #dreampop #altpop #livemusic #concert #sanfrancisco

Attachments:

• gifv: a4111588b7468379.mp4

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

Isn't it wild that Google can shape our opinions on any issue at any time simply by lying through its AI summary feature?

I googled "feature chum" which is a term I made for a shady business goal (often surveillance) disguised as a platform feature.

Google changed my definition yet still cited me.

jwz wrote:

What if the Torment Nexus was fundamental to WordPress?

WordPress corporate tools out here salivating over the prospect of a Spicy Autocomplete Slop Firehose being so tightly coupled to WordPress core that there's no hope in hell of getting rid of it:...
https://jwz.org/b/yk0X

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
deane@contenttechtodon.org ("Deane Barker") wrote:

I maintain this never took off because literally NO ONE was asking for it. It was something that Zuckerberg just decided we would love. Not a single person was looking for this. https://medium.com/@gp2030/why-metas-70-billion-metaverse-gamble-collapsed-5ad3260c15c8

Boosted by jwz:
jk ("josef") wrote:

if you want to learn how to make something really successful, you can read up on the success of others. how did the software company come to dominate? founder's dad was a specialist in corporate and technology law. how did the band get so many hits? frontman had been a music journalist. how did the acclaimed game secure funding? writer worked at a private equity firm. simply be these people and you will be successful

Boosted by jwz:
cabel@panic.com ("Cabel Sasser") wrote:

it’s true. 🔊 sound on

Attachments:

• video: a demonstration on how usiing the old mac text to speech voice called “wobble” creates a voice very similar to that of rfk jr.

Mastodon wrote:

Federation isn’t just a feature, it’s how we reject oppression by design.

In the EU, Big Centralised Tech is facing fines for selling verification and hiding ads. At Mastodon, we’re building something different: a space where no one buys influence and there simply aren't any ads.

Checks and balances are our foundation, and kindness is our compass. 🌈

A better web is possible - and it's powered by the people. Donate #SupportMastodon

https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors#donate

Boosted by jwz:
anon_opin ("Anon Opin") wrote:

Nothing has radicalised me more than seeing how the government completely elimimated homelessness during the pandemic and yet after it was done we were right back to pretending it was impossible.

jwz wrote:

Study Finds 80% Of Americans Lack Social Connections To Pull Off Heist.

I thought it was just me. NEW HAVEN, CT -- Shedding new light on a previously undocumented effect of loneliness, a team of psychologists at Yale University found that at least 80%...
https://jwz.org/b/yk0V

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
uglyreykjavik.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Ugly Reykjavik") wrote:

A frozen former greenhouse.#Iceland #Reykjavik #photography #streetphotography #abandoned #decay #rust #greenhouse

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
uglyreykjavik.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Ugly Reykjavik") wrote:

The tree of life.#Iceland #Reykjavik #photography #streetphotography #abandoned #decay #greenhouse #trees #nature

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
uglyreykjavik.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Ugly Reykjavik") wrote:

The plants are slowly taking over this abandoned greenhouse.#Iceland #Reykjavik #photography #streetphotography #abandoned #decay #greenhouse #trees #nature

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
uglyreykjavik.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Ugly Reykjavik") wrote:

A little peek into the past.#Iceland #Reykjavik #photography #streetphotography #abandoned #decay #rust #greenhouse

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
francesdanger@turtleisland.social wrote:

Hi.

I need tampons. It's been a few months since I had my moon so I stopped carrying any. I was hoping I was finally on my way to menopause but NOPE.

I'm at work. My stash is at home where I'd much rather be cuddled up in pajamas eating ice cream out of the tub.

If you can assist my uterus and I will be forever grateful.

Cashapp $fdanger
Venmo/PayPal @francesdanger

Boosted by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
Tendar@newsie.social wrote:

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy reports from Kupyansk, where Ukrainian forces conducted successful counterattacks. Nevertheless, it is quite a move.

That man has balls of steel.

Attachments:

• video: c76a72093b85590b.mp4

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

So what it looks like here, and I absolutely could be wrong, I don't know what the future holds, is Trump is willing to give big tech a legislative pass and let them run wild, but he's stopping short at gifting them their monopoly.

While some democrats (ie Bernie) want the good kind of regulation, but also, are (unintentionally?) hyping AI doomerist propaganda that could lead to regulatory capture.

Fun stuff.

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

Also, just for clarity, two things are true at once here.

Regulating big tech for consumer and worker protections = good and cool and great!

Passing regulation that Sam Altman and Co. wrote themselves, on the basis that AI will kill is all = bad.

The former keeps big tech in check and hurts their ability to hurt us.

The latter gifts big tech a monopoly by way of AI licenses that will kill #OpenSource models thus giving big tech exclusivity to sell cloud-tethered AI SaaS.

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

What I've learned is when powerful people have a flame war on social media, you listen close. They're not above giving up the game to knock out their rival.

There's enough fuckery outside of what David Sacks is saying here that makes this claim compelling.

But why call out #Anthropic if he was just going to help big tech anyway? I'm lost on this one.

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

This is interesting. No doubt this executive order favors big tech and is terrible. But, David Sacks, one of Trump's Silicon Valley henchmen, called out Anthropic for what he described as a regulatory capture strategy (screenshot in next toot).

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/technology/ai-trump-executive-order.html

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
Renatomancer@vmst.io wrote:

#TechRegulation #ArtificialIntelligence #TechLaw

https://www.engadget.com/ai/trump-orders-creation-of-litigation-task-force-to-challenge-state-ai-laws-022657022.html

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

Here! Finally! I have my sample. The "Live laugh federate" enamel pin.

https://shop.joinmastodon.org/products/live-laugh-federate-soft-enamel-pin

#Merchtodon

Attachments:

• gifv: My hand holding a round enamel pin featuring a happy Mastodon with eyes closed and arms outstretched, on black background of space with various small planets, one of which is the Mastodon logo. Underneath, the text reads in a handwritten font, "Live laugh federate". The black background glitters in the light as the pin is rotated back and forth.