Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

If #omgdotlol created and hosted an old-fashioned web directory (like the original Yahoo! or DMOZ), with all members as editors, would you use it?

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
molly0xfff@hachyderm.io ("Molly White") wrote:

welcome to the future, now your error-prone software can call the cops

(this is an Anthropic employee talking about Claude Opus 4)

#ai

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

@ai6yr @dan613 Anyway, it's amazing that we all somehow survived this.

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

@ai6yr @dan613 Even as a young nerd, I could figure out what was going on, and so switched the plug to be the "right" way to eliminate the risk.

Except that a few weeks later, after someone unplugged the lamp in order to vacuum the room, it would end up back the way it had been.

The more I tried to convince my parents that this was extremely dangerous, the more they were convinced I was just being alarmist. Eventually, I got old and wise enough to just buy them a new lamp.

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

@ai6yr @dan613

I ended up knocked to the floor a few times from this. My parents were unconcerned, and basically told me just to never touch them both at the same time.

It turns out, of course, that the lamp had a fault where one of the two wires was touching the metal housing. So depending on which way it was plugged in, the case was hot. And the ceiling lamp chain was at neutral/ground.

...

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

@ai6yr @dan613 Tangentially related:

In the apartment where I grew up, the foyer had a ceiling fan/lamp with a metal pull chain. We also had a table lamp on a small table by the door. It was natural to want to turn both lights on and off at the same time, and once could easily reach both the dangling chain and the lamp switch with either hand.

Except that 50 percent of the time, performing this time-saving maneuver would result in 120VAC going from one arm to the other through your torso.
...

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
evacide@hachyderm.io wrote:

Did I mention that the data broker industry must be destroyed?

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/22/intel-agencies-buying-data-portal-privacy/

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

It's for the good of humanity.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/05/22/tragically-were-going-to-have-to-nuke-florida/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
colossal@mastodon.art ("Colossal") wrote:

The official photographer of the Black Panther Party until 1973, Stephen Shames created hundreds of powerful images that highlight the party’s actions and ethos around California and the country.

This month, a remarkable selection of his photos opens in 'Black Panthers & Revolution: The Art of Stephen Shames.'

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/05/stephen-shames-black-panthers-revolution/

#photography #history #activism #identity #politics #protest #California #blackandwhite #portraits #resistance

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

Harvard, with its giant endowment and strong academic reputation, is in an almost uniquely better position than other universities here. It has the resources to both weather the short-term impact of these attacks and mount strong and sustained legal defenses.

Every other US university is no doubt looking at Harvard to fight these battles and set strong precedents for the rest of us.

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

The sigil was drawn in salt and ash, the candles lit at the pentagram points, the incantation declaimed.

There was a shimmer - a demon appeared.

"Curious. What ritual is this?"

"I got it from ChatGPT. I included all protections in my prompt!"

"I see," the demon said and stepped out of the sigil.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories #vss

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
serindwell@mastodon.art ("Elena Ermilova") wrote:

My first proper gouache success, I think!
Been working on this little mermaid and finally finished. Still learning with gouache, but kinda happy with how this one turned out. What do you think?
#MastoArt #art #TraditionalArt #gouache #mermay #illustration

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

I don't know if the the administration understands this or not, or whether it's scarier if they do.

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

It's wild some of the tech we came up with to support earlier phone networks. Even though I am old enough to have used one, I never even considered the possibility that a rotary phone might be out of spec and somebody would have to troubleshoot that situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asjXV3BqDYk

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

Without the ability to enroll international students, Harvard will still have no trouble filling its undergraduate and graduate classes. It will take a bit of an hit in that foreign undergrads generally pay more and get less university-sponsored financial aid, but this won't be make-or break for Harvard financially speaking.

The hit will be primarily intellectual. International students often include some of the most qualified, and most interesting, scholars, especially in STEM PhD programs.

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

Duolingo deletes all its TikTok videos after AI backlash—and then returns with a strange message - Fast Company:

"Duolingo’s first video drop in days has the degraded, stuttering feel of a Max Headroom video made by the hackers at Anonymous. In it, a supposed member of the company’s social team appears in a three-eyed Duo mask and black hoodie to complain about the corporate overlords ruining the empire the heroic ... https://micro.fromjason.xyz/2025/05/22/duolingo-deletes-all-its-tiktok.html

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

Pushing 240 Watts through a USB-C connector is not a thing that you will ever be able to convince me should happen on purpose. 48V at 5A over wires barely the size of human hair is pure sorcery.

jwz wrote:

Welp, that's it for vaccines, then. Great job everybody:

Still eagerly waiting for someone to tell me where I can go meet my local Blade Runner at one of my city's famed Open-Air Drug Markets. I assume COVID vaccines will remain harder to get than heroin...

https://jwz.org/b/ykoV

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

The ambience is to die for.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/05/22/i-usually-imagine-more-hurtling-when-you-say-moons-of-mars/

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

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

There are also ventilation structures for the various railroad and subway tunnels that cross the NYC rivers, but their smaller size makes them less prominent. (The electric trains that use these tunnels don't produce exhaust that has to be as aggressively vented as in an automotive tunnel).

Let me just mention that photographing buildings from across the major avenues during the day in midtown Manhattan is like playing a video game in "extreme hardcore" mode.

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

Manhattan boasts six large ventilation towers serving the four automobile tunnels that cross the Hudson and East Rivers: two each for the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and one each for the Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels.

All sport an industrial art deco design reflecting their early/mid 20th century construction. Their large scale and lack of windows lends them an air of mystery; the exterior of the Battery Tunnel building was used as the secret HQ in the Men in Black films.

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

The Lincoln Tunnel, opened in 1937, is a multi-tube automobile tunnel that connects midtown Manhattan with Weehawken, NJ under the Hudson (North) river. To provide fresh air and remove dangerous car exhaust, three ventilation towers (two in Manhattan and one in NJ) exchange the air in the tunnels approximately every 90 seconds.

Infrastructure is heroic.

I didn't notice the "Camera Use Prohibited" sign until it was too late. I guess their secret is out now.

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

Rodenstock HR Digaron-W 32mm/4.0 lens (@ f/7.1), Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 64), Cambo WRS 1250 camera, shifted vertically -5mm, horizontally -15mm. Cropped a bit.

This humble and functional, yet handsome, art deco structure is the easternmost of three ventilation towers for the Lincoln Tunnel and was completed with its first tube in 1937. The facade was refurbished about ten years ago. It also hosts a large array of cellular telephone base station antennas.

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

Lincoln Tunnel Ventilation Tower, 491 11th Ave, NYC, 2025/

All the pixels, none of the carbon monoxide, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54365775629

#photography

chipotle@mstdn.social ("Watts Martin") wrote:

So I guess I’m finally going to have to break down and start using Safari Reading List, huh.

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
nullagent@partyon.xyz wrote:

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
afreytes@mastodon.gamedev.place ("afreytes 🇵🇷 ☭") wrote:

I had to do this because reasons. Hope the people I did it for got the message.

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

Slightly underexposing this one due to forgetting that I left the linear polarizer on led to results I very much like. Croatia.

📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Kodak Portra 400
🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7
⚗️ Spieker Film Lab

#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #Croatia

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

I find it hilarious that the sticker on my oil can doesn't come off, but the one on my bottle of superglue immediately peels off.