Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
tiv@beep.town ("The Independent Variable") wrote:

🚨 Immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and created warrants after an arrest, lawyers say in court /// Chicago Sun-Times (https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/03/14/us-citizen-arrested-berwyn-ice-chicago-attorneys)

> “I was born in Chicago, Illinois, and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had https://tiv.today/2025/03/icearrestchicago

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
davatron5000 ("Dave Rupert") wrote:

Learning how to hand code SVGs is a skill that keeps on giving.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
wdlindsy@toad.social ("William Lindsey :toad:") wrote:

In an excellent essay today, Noah Berlatsky engages Adam Serwer's argument that "cruelty is the point" of fascism and Trumpism:

"Serwer’s thesis is that fascism (and Trumpism) are essentially religions of sadism. People embrace MAGA because they want to be cruel; they want to hurt people. And that cruelty, Serwer argues, creates a sense of belonging and togetherness."

#Trump #MAGA #fascism #cruelty
/1

https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/the-righteous-cruelty-is-the-point

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

at least one journalist has not lost sight of the core issue:

https://federate.social/@mattblaze/114241999030362312

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

I cannot help but wonder if Vice President Vance has a phantasy that he will insult the Danes & Greenlanders sufficiently that they will order US bases closed and US forces removed, thereby providing him with some twisted internal legitimation for invading and seizing Greenland.

these people seem to think like the Nazis did, when they were looking at Poland in 1939.

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

I was wondering when they would get around to attacking the Smithsonian:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/trump-smithsonian-executive-order

'Trump said the exhibit “claims that the United States has ‘used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement’”.'

Which is clearly true. And then...

'He added that the exhibit “promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct”. Trump complained that the exhibit uses the phrase: “Race is a human invention.”'

😡

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

I did a brief pre-dawn explainer segment about Signal on NPR's Morning Edition the other day, which they seem to have recorded. Just basic stuff, but some may find it useful.

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/26/nx-s1-5340741/just-how-secure-is-the-messaging-app-signal

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Again: The important question isn't "how did a reporter get added to a Signal group for discussing sensitive military operations?" (though that's certainly worth asking).

The big question is why Signal was used for discussing sensitive military operations in the first place, especially when everyone involved (except the reporter) had ready access to official classified communications systems.

Signal is great, but it's not designed to prevent this kind of screw up. The official systems are.

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
alexwild@mastodon.online ("Alex Wild") wrote:

A few years back I got this photo of a honey bee in flight, returning to her hive.

Had to shoot a few hundred photos just to land this one.

#bees #insects #nature

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Regarding LB[1]: Archived link to story:

https://archive.is/rUuj1

[1] https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/114241064085107125

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
inthehands@hachyderm.io ("Paul Cantrell") wrote:

Holy shit.

Just wow, wow, holy shit:

Completely rewriting a multi-million line COBOL codebase that has life-or-death consequences for real people in the space of a few months, using gen AI?

I’ve been writing software for 40-some years, and I have to say: this may be, without exaggeration, the stupidest software-related idea I’ve ever heard from leadership.

https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
Luke@typo.social ("Luke Dorny") wrote:

Were this sign made from vinyl — well, it would certainly be unreadable by now.
#handpainted #value #quality #durable

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
GEO_Collective@social.coop ("Grassroots Economic Organizing") wrote:

India is creating the country's first university dedicated entirely to #cooperative #education and naming it after one of the founders of famed dairy co-op Amul.

[India's First Cooperative University Named After Tribhuvan Das Patel Passes in Lok Sabha]
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/3323307-indias-first-cooperative-university-named-after-tribhuvan-das-patel-passes-in-lok-sabha

Boosted by pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷"):
cstross@wandering.shop ("Charlie Stross") wrote:

Toot a photo of a computer that first arrived in the year of your birth!

(Here's mine: the IBM System/360)

xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:

I will, at some point in the near-ish future, start making some noise about looking for my next thing. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now: excited to dive deep at Recurse, and also open to the right contract/freelance stuff

xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:

Some personal news! Today is my last day at @tailscale. I've had an incredible 2.5 years here: learned a ton, loved meeting the user community. Great software and great company.

Monday I start a new batch @recursecenter! Expect more updates from the weird fun parts of computers.

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

The bedrock underneath our conversations about efficiency, the why, is this: a few thousand people control most of the world's resources and somehow that's not enough.

The classic engineering parable is this: in an efficient system, there is a requirement available whenever a resource presents itself.

In an effective system, there is a resource available whenever a requirement presents itself.

People keep saying, efficient, be efficient, be more efficient.

No.

Be effective.

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

You can hardly find a studio the works of which are so thoughtful, kind, and intentional as Studio Ghibli. To stripmine that for its aesthetics, to take a piece of cardboard and paint it like food and say "See, doesn't this taste just as good?" is more than missing the point, it's barbaric, dystopian. It's an insult to life itself. #OpenAI

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

The gods are going to need spaceships.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/03/28/jehovahs-got-competition/

nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:

Is anyone from RWC 2025 still in Sofia tomorrow? Wondering if I should try to socialize some more or move my ticket back to Paris to an earlier date.

Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold"):
bundyo@bundyo.com ("Bundyo") wrote:

@keenan

Here, have the opposite. :)

https://tante.cc/2025/03/28/vulgar-display-of-power/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
thezoq2 ("TheZoq2") wrote:

On Sunday we're hosting LATTE ☕, our workshop on Languages and Tools for Accelerator design! We have 15 super cool papers and plenty of time for discussion!

You can attend virtually via zoom or in person with #asplos in Rotterdam https://capra.cs.cornell.edu/latte25/

Also, we have a cozy little Matrix chat for the community over at https://matrix.to/#/#latte-chat:fossi-foundation.org

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

In case this is useful to somebody:

Because of corporate collusion with law enforcement dating back to the 80s, all colour printers put tracking information on their printouts, whether you're printing a colour document or not, encoding information that ties printouts back to the specific printer used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer%5Ftracking%5Fdots

In 2018, scholars at TU Dresden created a tool to re-anonymize color-printed documents by obscuring that data:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3206004.3206019

The tool: https://github.com/dfd-tud/deda

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org ("Lauren Weinstein") wrote:

Musk plans to convert the Social Security codebase from COBOL to a modern language -- over just a few months! -- an insane plan that risks total collapse of the system

https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
GottaLaff@mstdn.social ("Laffy") wrote:

🚨 “BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.” | WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
operationpuppet@mastodon.content.town ("Operation: Puppet (he/him)") wrote:

As an aging #genX person let me be clear: if you’re my age and don’t support #trans rights, you’ve missed the fucking point. We’re the generation that created #cyberpunk as a genre. There is *nothing* more cyberpunk than self selecting your gender identity. 🏳️‍⚧️

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
TexasObserver@texasobserver.social ("Texas Observer") wrote:

“They are trying to squeeze medical decision-making into narrow exceptions that cannot possibly cover every case. Exceptions give a veneer or gloss to make bans appear more [palatable] for people who have never really worked in the medical field. But in practice, they rarely work.” https://www.texasobserver.org/republican-abortion-laws-texas-legislature-exceptions/

#abortion #politics #USpol #Texas #TXlege #HumanRights #healthcare #news #health

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
LauraJG@deacon.social ("Laura G, Sassy 70’s") wrote:

Your art history post for today: by Tetiana Yablonska (1917-2005), Self-portrait, 1945, oil on canvas, 78 × 52 cm., National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev. #ukraine #womenartists

From USA Art News: ‘Yablonska had not only a successful creative life but also an active career. During her lifetime she held many high positions and more than 30 solo exhibitions in the Soviet Union and beyond. However, her political position as an art official and deputy did not affect her active life position. She was a very brave woman who defended the artist’s right to self-expression. This attitude was seen as opposing the “will of the party” and led to numerous clashes with bureaucrats and party bosses. Yablonska was deprived of exhibitions, her paintings were removed from expositions, and she was removed from her posts. But even punitive measures could not change her attitude to art.’

nadim@infosec.exchange ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:

I have had enough social interactions this week to fill what feels like seven lifetimes.

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

‘“The whole point about aviation safety is that you have to have the humility to understand that you are imperfect, because everybody screws up. Everybody makes mistakes,” said Lt. John Gadzinski, a retired Navy F-14 pilot who flew combat missions from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. “But ultimately, if you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody because your ego is too big.”’

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/us/politics/pilots-signal-leak.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare