Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

Today in History: Carole King (Carole Klein) born in Brooklyn, 1941

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

Today in History: Gregory XV becomes Roman Catholic Pope, the last elected by acclamation, 1621

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

Today in History: -51 degrees F, Vanderbilt MI, 1934

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

Today in History: George Hartmann born, 1489, designed astrolabes, timepieces, etc.

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
sylvia_ritter ("Sylvia Ritter") wrote:

Advent Calendar
- Door 18 🌿 . Speedpainting 18122024
https://www.deviantart.com/sylviaritter/art/Speedpainting-18122024-1135363661 #art #mastoart #fediart #wallpaper #krita #fantasy

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
PronounsPage@tech.lgbt ("Pronouns.page") wrote:

When times are tough we can't give in to despair. But how you stay strong when it feels like the whole world hates you for who you are?

Our team member shares his experience of growing up in rural Poland.

And we wait for your stories! Details at the bottom of the blog post.

#gay #queer #community

https://en.pronouns.page/blog/rural-polish-queer-experience
https://en.pronouns.page/blog/rural-polish-queer-experience

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
mikarv@someone.elses.computer ("Michael Veale") wrote:

Microsoft Research: GenAI can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving.

Microsoft: *sells GenAI aggressively into the Education 365 packages*

Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee and others, ‘The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers’ (ACM CHI 2025). https://advait.org/files/lee%5F2025%5Fai%5Fcritical%5Fthinking%5Fsurvey.pdf

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

https://xkcd.com/927/

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

truth

https://mastodon.world/@ericc/110817434831829351

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bagder ("daniel:// stenberg://") wrote:

The morning after. Feels surreal and humbling.

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

a really interesting piece

https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/31/o3-mini/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
simon@simonwillison.net ("Simon Willison") wrote:

Since the sourcing of this fantastic 1979 IBM training slide is buried in various Twitter threads (and linking to Twitter sucks now because logged out users can't navigate conversations) I put together some notes on its origin: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Feb/3/a-computer-can-never-be-held-accountable/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
w3c@w3c.social ("World Wide Web Consortium") wrote:

Via @nitot from the @tag

> “Are you a web developer or a technophile? Would you like to meet the people who make Web standards? It is possible, on March 3 at 7 p.m. in Paris!

My comrades from the W3C (Technical Architecture Group) TAG and I are organizing a meetup to explain what the TAG and W3C do and to better engage with developers and fans of the Web.

(Note that the conversation will be in English.)

Boosting makes the Web grow!”
https://framapiaf.org/@nitot/113962373111799317

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mnot@techpolicy.social ("Mark Nottingham") wrote:

What can Apple do in the face of a UK order to weaken encryption worldwide? Decentralise iCloud, to start.

https://www.mnot.net/blog/2025/02/09/decentralize-icloud

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

@medigoth [waves hello]

Boosted by jwz:
spacehobo@teh.entar.net ("Space Hobo") wrote:

@jwz We got a delighted message from @ckape the other day informing us that he'd seen his first one being towed. We've started a neo-Audubon society for this.

Boosted by jwz:
luckytran@med-mastodon.com ("Dr. Lucky Tran :verified:") wrote:

If RFK Jr is confirmed as HHS secretary, expect these headlines to become even more frequent and tragic.

jwz wrote:

https://todon.eu/@RadicalGraffiti/113972589451807372

Boosted by jwz:
RadicalGraffiti@todon.eu ("Radical Graffiti") wrote:

"Fuck Musk"
Seen on a Cybertruck in Santa Monica, California

jwz wrote:

I realize that shitposting from my phone on my bike, drunk, while waiting for the light to turn is the "editing in prod" of blogging, and yet I did it just the same.

jwz wrote:

Flipped off someone driving a swastikkkar tonight.

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
Sustainable2050@mastodon.energy ("Kees van der Leun") wrote:

When there's a housing shortage and right-wing parties tell voters that asylum seekers are to blame, what other parties should do is come up with appealing and realistic plans to address the housing shortage.

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
noelreports@mstdn.social ("NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦") wrote:

The moment Estonia disconnected its power grid from Russia has been shared online. A historic step toward energy independence.

Attachments:

• video: 3da49f678c7bc498.mp4

jwz wrote:

The Cyberizer is underappreciated.

Boosted by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
malwaretech@infosec.exchange ("Marcus Hutchins :verified:") wrote:

Oh man, I have so many stories about the "startup" (Path Network), which the 19-year-old DOGE employee, Edward Coristine previously worked for.
https://www.wired.com/story/edward-coristine-tesla-sexy-path-networks-doge/

My first interaction with the founder, Marshal Webb, was in 2016 when the company was called "BackConnect'. I'd recently posted a research paper on the Mirai botnet, which lead to him harassing me online, simply because he considered himself to be the sole authority on Mirai.

It later turned out, that a lot of his knowledge came from the fact that he was personally hosting the threat actors' infrastructure, therefore had direct insight into the botnet. He tried to play it off as an "intelligence gathering operation". Everyone knew he was really just in bed with the threat actors, but nobody could prove it enough to make a case against him.

At some point shortly after, a DDoS-for-hire service got hacked and its entire customer database along with all DDoS attack logs was leaked online. One of the records traced back to an employee of his DDoS mitigation firm, and from a combination of attack logs and corroboration with customers, it was determined that they had been launching DDoS attacks against businesses, then cold calling them to sell DDoS protection services.

It was fairly apparent from the fact the emails coincided with the DDoS attacks, but did not originate from the the employee performing the attacks that the company was in on it, and this wasn't the work of some rogue employee. Nevertheless, said employee got thrown under the bus, convicted, and was unsuccessful in proving that his employer was in on the conspiracy, although they most certainly were.

Eventually, the founder ended up being named in some kind of criminal complaint or other FBI related court document. The specific wording seemed to imply that he'd gotten caught doing something illegal enough that he'd become an informant to save himself. Amusingly, when the document surfaced, the company just issued a press release about how they were "helping the FBI stop crime" and nothing become of it.

The company has always been shady as hell, and while it's not abnormal for cybersecurity firms to hire reformed hackers, I've not seen a single employee who was not directly involved in cybercrime immediately prior to getting hired. Furthermore, multiple of the employees have been caught committing cybercrime while working for the company.

Originally, when I posted this thread on February 6th, I stopped short of any allegation that Edward himself was involved in cybercrime. Since then @briankrebs was able to trace his aliases back to a known cybercrime organization and confirm he indeed was directly involved in cybercrime as recently as May 2024.

You can find Brian's Mastodon thread on the matter here:
https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/113965646509637016
https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/113957683483583881

lloydmeta ("Lloyd") wrote:

https://huggingface.co/blog/smolagents

```

Multiple research papers have shown that having the tool calling LLMs in code is much better.

The reason for this is simply that we crafted our code languages specifically to be the best possible way to express actions performed by a computer. **If JSON snippets were a better expression, JSON would be the top programming language and programming would be hell on earth.**
```

😂

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Most of the damage Musk can do now is premised on his wealth, which comes back to Tesla. This is gonna be a bumpy ride, but to all my EV-loving peeps who aren't down with the fash, I salute you:

https://insideevs.com/news/750076/tesla-sales-tanking-globally/

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
mbjones@social.lol ("Brandon") wrote:

My site hasn’t been as stable as I’d like the past few weeks so I moved it. I did write a couple things worth sharing though so if you missed it because my site was down, On Culture/Religion/Rise of CN: https://krrd.ing/posts/what-in-the-world-culture-religion/ and the sermon on the mount and fascism: https://krrd.ing/posts/sermon-on-the-mount-anti-fascism/

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
ben@werd.social ("Ben Werdmuller") wrote:

Our sweet two year old asked "why?" for the first time today. Specifically he was asking why we couldn't use a broom to sweep up guacamole that he'd thrown on the floor, but still, it's a big milestone.

mbrubeck@mefi.social wrote:

The Japanese series “The Hot Spot” (ホットスポット), about a middle-aged alien living in small town Japan, is delightfully weird. Really enjoying it.

It’s airing on Nippon TV and streaming on Netflix: https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/hot-spot