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

“We are caught between a Party that wants to make government fail and a Party that does not make government work.”

Ezra Klein on ‘The Weekly Show’ podcast

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

This was a three second exposure (with about 10 stops of neutral density). The sun was behind the clouds and just above the center of the frame; the lens required careful flagging to avoid glare.

The rendering of water, especially in the sea, differs greatly with exposure. 30 seconds looks quite different from 3 seconds, which is just as different from 1/30 sec, which is different from 1/1000 sec. About 1/30 sec renders roughly the way our vision does; anything else requires a camera to see.

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

Edge of Pacific Ocean, 2014.

All the pixels, none of the riptides, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/14820439752/

#photography

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

@CStamp I occasionally manage to get a few things right, despite suffering from moral and intellectual shortcomings that the Internet so kindly takes the time to point out.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
CStamp ("Carolyn") wrote:

@mattblaze "apps like Signal are designed to facilitate communication with basically anyone on the internet who has the app, even if they're from different organizations, even if you've never met before...The systems for protecting classified communications, on the other hand, actually try to do the opposite. They have special features to restrict communications to ensure that it only goes to places that are authorized to get it."

You did a great job explaining this.

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

Thanks to everyone taking the time to explain what a terrible person I am for failing to mention all the moral and geopolitical implications of bombing Yemin in my 4 minute explainer segment about Signal and secure communications technology.

But - joke’s on you - I already knew what a terrible person I am! You’re telling me nothing new.

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange ("Jess👾") wrote:

It's also important to note that to authoritarians, they view literally any sort of opposition to their absolute power and control as violence, and thus see the use of extreme physical violence as completely justified in response.

Making them uncomfortable and saying things they don't like and treating them like they treat you - especially by "classesc they consider "lower" is considered "social violence".

Strikes and boycotts are "economic violence", because they are "owed" your labor and money.

Petty vandalism, occupying a public space, creating an inconvenience by blocking a roadway, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or assisting one of "their women" in getting bodily autonomy is "Property violence"

Physically resisting aggression and abuse is violence

Fash will happily conflate any and all of these into justification for extreme physical violence, imprisonment, and murder. So splitting hairs about what is "non-violent" and "violent" protest is only something used by neoliberals to push marginalized people back into compliance.
@burnoutqueen

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
MicroSFF@mastodon.art ("Micro SF/F by O. Westin") wrote:

A spaceship landed in the park. A door dilated and a robot rolled out, holding a golden disc in a transparent sleeve.

"Greetings! We found your sound recording. We enjoyed it, and have made one for you in return."

It placed the disc on the ground and returned to the spaceship, which took off.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories #vss #VoyagerRecord

adam@social.lol ("Adam Newbold") wrote:

It doesn’t matter where you’re from. Nor whether you’re “legal” or not. Just being non-white is enough of a crime now.

The veil of border control and criminal gang deportation is rapidly disintegrating, leaving behind the actual overt racism at the heart of these policies and actions.

https://beep.town/@tiv/114242285514792187

Boosted by denschub@schub.social ("Dennis Schubert"):
joe@f.duriansoftware.com ("Joe Groff") wrote:

tired: company faces code quality crisis after trying to replace programmers with AI
fired: company terminates AI contract early after losing sales trying to replace sales reps with AI

inspired: company saves tens of millions of dollars yearly with no effect on daily operations after replacing CEO with AI

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.