
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
NewtonMark@eigenmagic.net ("Mark Newton") wrote:
I think they’re trying to say the boat sank.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
NewtonMark@eigenmagic.net ("Mark Newton") wrote:
I think they’re trying to say the boat sank.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
catsalad@infosec.exchange ("CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch) :blobcatrainbow:") wrote:
We are starving and clearly haven't eaten in _days_!
:neocat_scream_stare::neocat_scream::neocat_cry_loud:
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
I criticize US policing a fair bit, but I will say, the Minnesota police official who connected the dots after the first shooting and sent officers to proactively check on other elected officials in the area likely saved quite a few lives. They sadly arrived too late to stop the murders of the Hortmans, but arrived in time to ID the fleeing suspect and stop him from moving on to the next targets on his list.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
older@wandering.shop wrote:
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
Ostdrossel@mindly.social ("Ostdrossel :verified:") wrote:
These guys are dominating the feeder right now and are one of my favorite summer visitors, the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. They are majestic and stunning but also goofy and spunky. They form monogamous couples, and I love that both male and female build the nest and brood, and they sing while building and incubating ❤️. They love seeds and nuts but also have a sweet tooth and an appetite for grubs. Check out their song on the Merlin app! #birds
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
thedarktangent@defcon.social ("Jeff Moss") wrote:
It’s 2025 and you still can’t backup your Microsoft Office configuration and import it on a new laptop.
I’m specifically complaining about exchange. Yes you backup and import email data files, but not mail server account configurations. So it’s a lot of manually typing in server settings and long passwords.
This will be the last time I buy MS Office, if I have to do everything manually I may as well do it on FOSS software.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
Edent ("Terence Eden") wrote:
🆕 blog! “Your Password Algorithm Sucks”
There are two sorts of people in the world; those who know they are stupid and those who think they are clever.
Stupid people use a password manager. They know they can't remember a hundred different passwords and so outsource the thinking to something reasonably secure. I'm a stupid person and am very happy to have BitWarden…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/your-password-algorithm-sucks/
⸻
#CyberSecurity #passwords #security
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Omg hi babe
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
I believe "compute" should be recognized as a distinct layer in the technology stack for the web.
Why do I believe that? Well, actually, I, I haven't been able to articulate it yet.
Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
@MaierAmsden @Star12Mt @evan @finner Election security hasn't really percolated up to being a national political issue, except sporadically (e.g., after the 2000 election). That's partly because almost everything about elections is controlled at the state and local level.
The good news is that state and local officials have become increasingly receptive to improving things, on the whole. That's probably where the maximum bang for the buck lies with having influence.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
BarbaraF@mastodon.uno ("La Ba") wrote:
@riotnrrd @Overwhelmed @ma1 @pluralistic yes, an incredible song: I love Fabrizio de André, he was great at talking about inner feelings moving people (both the good and the bad ones)
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Documents Reveal How DC Police Surveil Social Media Profiles and Protest Activity | Brennan Center for Justice (2024):
"Voyager promoted its ability to run keyword searches on social media platforms to generate a list of thought leaders, activists, and “disrupters” and then tap into their networks."
Thought this is a good reminder that they are always watching. And that our posts here feed into the #Meta machine.
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
Oh wow, the scoldy guy is *still* upset with me for my failure to delete or edit a post he didn't like.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Has anyone coined a colloquial term for #Bluesky's flavor of decentralization? #ActivityPub is often associated with the “federation" flavor, but that term doesn't feel applicable to Bsky/ #ATProtocol
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
With a few exceptions (mostly towers atop downtown switching offices in populated areas), no one was trying to make any of this utilitarian communications infrastructure *beautiful*. It was form strictly following function, built to be reliable and rugged.
But there was, I think, quite a bit of beauty to find in it. I wonder if we'll look at our current neighborhood cellular towers, now often regarded as a visual blight, the same way decades after they're (inevitably) also gone.
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
The San Jose Oak Hill Tower is unique in a number of ways. This particular concrete brutalist design appears not to have been used anywhere else; it seems to have been site-specific. It sits atop an underground switching center (that was partly used for a military contract), which explains the relatively hardened design.
Today the underground switch is still there, owned by AT&T, but the tower space is leased to land mobile and cellular providers. The old horn antennas at top are disconnected.
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
For much of the 20th century, the backbone of the AT&T "Long Lines" long distance telephone network consisted primarily of terrestrial microwave links (rather than copper or fiber cables). Towers with distinctive KS-15676 "horn" antennas could be seen on hilltops and atop switching center buildings across the US; they were simply part of the American landscape.
Most of the relay towers were simple steel structures. This brutalist concrete platform in San Jose was, I believe, of a unique design.
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
Captured with the Rodenstock 50mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/4.5) on a Cambo WRS-1600 camera (with about 15mm of vertical shift to preserve the geometry), the Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50) in dual exposure mode (which preserves a couple stops of additional dynamic range into the shadows).
The tower's shape is irregular; it tapers slightly.
The wide angle and panoramic orientation give a bit of context, alone on a hill (which is being rapidly encroached by adjacent residential development).
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
AT&T Long Lines "Oak Hill" Tower, San Jose, CA, 2021.
All the pixels, none of the microwave energy, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51261791084/
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
More info at parkerhiggins.net. And my email address is parker@ that domain!
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
My work experience is in three main areas and I love finding cool intersections. Lots of policy + communications (EFF and Freedom of the Press Foundation); technical writing, DevRel, programming (including web dev); and making puzzles and games
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
I am nearing the end of my Recurse Center batch and starting to look for work! If you know of something short- or long-term that might be a good fit, please be in touch. More details in the next post
Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
david_chisnall@infosec.exchange ("David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)") wrote:
A lot of companies seem to misunderstand the role of pay in hiring and retaining smart people. In my first year at Microsoft Research I listened to a (normally sensible) member of the lab’s leadership team explain that the bonus structure was there to incentivise good research. I looked around the room and wondered who had ever thought ‘well, I was going to do some mediocre research, but for 20% more money this year I will do something world leading!’ My guess: no one.
If you want to hire the best people, you are looking for the people who, if money didn’t matter, would do the job for free because they believe it’s important and care about the outcome. You don’t pay them well to persuade them to work. You pay them well so that they can afford to work on the things that they think are important. If smart people don’t think the things you’re doing are important then you should consider why you’re doing them.
This is especially true for executive compensation. The best CEOs are ones that care about the company’s products and want everyone to use them, not the ones that want to make the most money. This is especially true for non profits where your pool should start with people who care a lot about the organisation’s mission. Paying more (above a certain level) won’t find more of those people it will simply dilute the pool with people who are there for the money, not the mission.
EDIT: A lot of people seem to be misunderstanding this and think this is an argument to pay people badly. It absolutely isn't. If you pay people badly, they will spend a lot if time thinking about money. Your job as a manager is to remove problems. Money removes a lot of problems. But a lot of problems cannot be removed by applying money. If someone competent is being told to do nonsense work that they know will cause problems in the long run, no amount of money will make them motivated. The problems that can be solved with money are the easy ones.
Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:
As some of you may have already noticed, in the latest #Mastodon update, we've reworked the layout of the web app for smaller screen sizes. It should be easier to navigate and more pleasant to the eye. Let me know what you think!
Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
@MaierAmsden @Star12Mt @evan @finner As has been explained several times here, by different people, RLAs aren’t yet routinely done on in all but a handful of states. That’s not great, but there’s been significant progress in that direction (as well as in decommissioning inherently insecure DRE machines).
If (like me) you’re unhappy with the pace of the progress, I suggest lobbying and working with your state and local election officials.
pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:
Bostonians had the right idea 200 years ago. Down with tea! Ban the vile substance used by charlatans to foretell the future!
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/06/16/im-sorry-were-going-to-have-to-ban-tea-now/
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
Mopsi@photog.social wrote:
@pluralistic A band like this, also playing bella ciao made me finally pick up an instrument at 36! I'm learning the flute now and I want to play antifascist songs at protests with a band one day 😀
Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
gvwilson ("Greg Wilson") wrote:
@mhoye Don't know who said it first, but if there _are_ future historians, they'll say that our decision to treat economics, ecology, and ethics as separate disciplines was a strategic error.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
JuliusGoat ("A.R. Moxon, Verified Duck 🦆") wrote:
In the linked essay, I mention Nancy Mace's standard TERF question, asked most recently to Tim Walz: "What is a woman?"
My answer is simple. A woman is not a *what.* A woman is a *who.*
I want to expand a bit from the essay on why I think this matters.
Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
wellingtonrock ("Denis Buckley") wrote:
'Although the tide may be turning, MAGA isn’t simply going to roll over and slink away. On the contrary, the administration’s power grabs will become even more aggressive and desperate, with growing efforts to intimidate, prosecute and even physically harm political opponents, as well as widespread efforts to suppress dissent with force.'