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aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan") wrote:

Yeah, I knew some lovely people who worked at Twitter too. And did you know they once had unfettered API access and anyone could create their own client? Some of us loved that so much we built things that helped legitimise them as an open platform. And then one day they just switched that off.

Legitimacy is gold to venture-capital-funded startups. They need people with it to convince everyday folks that this latest iteration of the same old rug pull is different. Until they’ve grown so much that they don’t need it anymore, that is. I guess we haven’t learned that much after all.

You want to understand Bluesky? Imagine if Google had invented email and scaled Gmail before allowing others to set up their own email servers, knowing that maybe a handful would and that they were large enough to make the rules ad infinitum. That’s Bluesky.

Don’t fall for the latest venture-capital funded Silicon Valley social network no matter who tells you it’s fine and no matter how many words they use to do so. Especially when we’ve had a noncommercial and noncorporate alternative for close to a decade now in the form of the fediverse.

I know it’s a low bar but can we please at least get it through our thick heads that venture capital funded Silicon Valley Big Tech does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115034545696148137

#BlueSky #BigTech #ventureCapital

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Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
sheislaurence wrote:

🧵3/3: please help share that #Palestinian song far and wide, #repost #retoot. While it talks about #Jamal, Ahmed posted it straight after the killing of #Anas & #Aljazeera journalists & dedicated it "to #truth". To support Ahmed, #GazaBirdsSing and #music in #Gaza, please consider giving to his GoFundMe. Given the price of a bag of flour is between $300 to $700, his total currently covers less than one loaf of bread a day for 6 months. https://www.gofundme.com/f/hello-peace-help-innocent-people-to-survive

#FreePalestine @Palestine

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Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
sheislaurence wrote:

🧵2/3: Ahmed is using the sound of an incessant #Israeli #drone over #Gaza to pitch his #singing. Miraculously, it remains stable for the entire song, when they usually change pitch making their presence unbearable.The song is about #Jamal carrying a load, a direct reference to a 14 y.o. boy who defied gunfire at a #GHF food distribution point to carry a bag of flour half his weight for 2 hours to feed his sisters https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestine/comments/1mln8f1/jamal%5Fthe%5F14%5Fyearold%5Fboy%5Fwho%5Fwalked%5F152%5Fhours/. Ahmed's last notes, mixed drone-free, are haunting

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Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
sheislaurence wrote:

🧵1/3: It is increasingly difficult to watch #Palestinian #musician Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha from #GazaBirdsSinging getting more emaciated every time he posts a new video, where he will yet again give his all to make children of #Gaza forget the horrors of #genocide through the beauty of #music. And the fact that in spite of everything he is succeeding is a testament to the extraordinary resilience & beauty of the Palestinian people. This particular song completely broke me and here is why...

Attachments:

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Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële"):
SolenedeM@piaille.fr ("Solène de Montmarin 🫏🇫🇷🇲🇲💚🇵🇸") wrote:

J'ai 45 ans et 20 ans ans d'expérience dans l'humanitaire et la coopération internationale.

Je suis épuisée, bloquée ou mutée parce que milite (trop) toute la journée contre le génocide à #Gaza.

J'ai urgemment besoin d'aide pour rentrer en contact avec un.e élu.e #EELV. Pour discuter de cette demande d'affreter la marine nationale.

J'ai besoin de 15 minutes de discussion par téléphone. Pas plus.

Qui peut m'aider s'il vous plaît?
Merci par avance pour le repouet !

[Edit : fautes d'orthographe]

#Urgent

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Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële"):
Edwin085@mastodon.nl wrote:

So touching.

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

I ran into these one-way screws for the first time tonight:

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/one-way-drive-screws/?s=one-way-drive-screws

They didn't seem to work very well to prevent tampering. 🤷

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isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:

Really wish this news cycle is soon over. Seeing Putin's face plastered everywhere is pretty disgusting.

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Boosted by adam@social.lol ("Adam"):
sleepless@social.lol ("Courtney") wrote:

I think more people should give Lex Luthor a chance. Sure, he’s a billionaire who’s tried to take over the world a few times—but that just means he’s precocious, self-motivated, and a true visionary. Leadership isn’t always pretty; sometimes it involves a giant death ray. Be cautious if you must, but try a little optimism. After all, I trust Luthor—just like you trust all the other billionaires who keep trying to “disrupt” society.

For the billionaire-boosters out there: your king awaits.

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Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
FediTips@social.growyourown.services ("Fedi.Tips") wrote:

⚠️ Important headsup if you are on the server mastodon.cloud:

Mastodon.cloud no longer seems to be moderated. Its admin account hasn't posted since Feb 2023, its code of conduct is blank and there are vile racists posting from there. The racists have been reported many times but their accounts are still active.

Because of this, other server admins are starting to block mastodon.cloud completely.

If you're on mastodon.cloud you might want to move to another server ASAP: https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server

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NfNitLoop ("Cody Casterline 🏳️‍🌈") wrote:

@lianna mastodon is also not just activitypub, but extends it with its own types and conventions. I was considering implementing activitypub compatibility with my own social network protocol, but decided against it for that & other reasons. Along the way I found this great write up from the authors of Diaspora, which I summarize (and link to) here:

https://github.com/diskuto/diskuto-api/issues/42#issuecomment-1356999994

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isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:

Anxiety is such a weird thing… I'm a grown-ass man, with life and family, having worked with many very different people in different countries. And yet, needed to call an unfamiliar business to discuss an appointment — it took me weeks to work myself up to do it, and after 4 minutes I'm all sweaty and have to walk back and forth to calm down!

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Boosted by jwz:
sillygwailo ("Richard Eriksson") wrote:

I’m thinking that maybe this app is getting a name change in the future.

A MacOS notification that reads: "Ice" Is Accessing Your Screen "Ice" has accessed your screen and system audio 222 times in the past 30 days.

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Boosted by jwz:
prahou@merveilles.town ("Tomáš") wrote:

the myth of the good tech giant

#clippy #unix_surrealism #microsoft #ai

Microsoft clippy says: "If I knew how to steal and sell your data in '97, I would've done it."

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Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
Saltssaltgirl@mas.to ("SaltyGirl") wrote:

My classroom needs your help. School begins in 2 weeks. Please boost if you can. As always, thank you!!

If you have any questions about my class, please do not hesitate to ask. If you don’t like Amazon, there are other ways to help listed in my profile. 💜
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/PRZBAFA50CYE?ref%5F=wl%5Fshare

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Boosted by jwz:
stevenrosenthal@mastodon.online ("Steven Rosenthal") wrote:

Know your rights, DC.

A photo of a subway sandwich, text above reads "Remember, this is legal to open carry"

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Boosted by jwz:
stux@mstdn.social ("stux⚡") wrote:

Mafia meetings used to be much more discreet

US welcoming committee for an internationally wanted war criminal

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Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
Codeberg@social.anoxinon.de wrote:

We apologize for a period of extreme slowness today. The army of AI crawlers just leveled up and hit us very badly.

The good news: We're keeping up with the additional load of new users moving to Codeberg. Welcome aboard, we're happy to have you here. After adjusting the AI crawler protections, performance significantly improved again.

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
muhkayoh ("Matt Jordan") wrote:

@StillIRise1963 Yeah, more like a piece summit, as in hoping to divvy up the pieces. Where is a tsunami when you need one?

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mmasnick.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Mike Masnick") wrote:

Some good news. Judge calls out that senior FTC staffers (who double as shitposters) had tweeted about how much they hated Media Matters, which undermined the claims that this was just an ordinary investigation, and not punishment for speech.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7r477jd7q7p2mzmyqfm7jmp7/post/3lwhs2jyvnc23

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
virtualbri@mastodon.online ("Brian Tatosky") wrote:

@StillIRise1963 Yeah the aggressor and a 3rd party helping the aggressor is not a peace summit. Another media failure by calling it anything else.

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

#MNWX

Severe Thunderstorm Warning
National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
450 PM CDT Fri Aug 15 2025

The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Northeastern Dakota County in east central Minnesota... Southern Washington County in east central Minnesota... Northwestern Pierce County in west central Wisconsin...

* Until 545 PM CDT.

HAZARD...Half dollar sized hail.

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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
openculture@toot.community ("Open Culture (Official)") wrote:

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Changed Astronomy Forever; Her Ph.D. Advisor Won the Nobel Prize for It

https://www.openculture.com/2021/08/jocelyn-bell-burnell-changed-astronomy-forever-her-ph-d-advisor-won-the-nobel-prize-for-it.html

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

“For whoever habitually suppresses the truth in the interests of tact will produce a deformity from the womb of his thought.” Liddell Hart

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Boosted by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
gnome@floss.social ("GNOME") wrote:

On August 15, 1997, @Migueldeicaza announced the start of GNOME on the GTK mailing list¹. Twenty-eight years later a lot has changed, but we continue to develop and iterate on “a free and complete set of user friendly applications and desktop tools… based entirely on free software.”

To help us continue this work far into the future, we hope you join us in celebrating our birthday by becoming a Friend of GNOME today! 🎂

https://donate.gnome.org

¹https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-list/1997-August/msg00123.html

#GNOME #OpenSource #Linux

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Boosted by aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan"):
Aseelsehwel@mas.to ("Aseelsehwel🇵🇸") wrote:

The occupation army announces the start of the 99th Division's military operation in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

If no one stops them, the northern Gaza Strip will be completely taken over and destroyed.
@palestine #gaza #gazaunderattack #StopGenocide

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denschub@schub.social ("Dennis Schubert") wrote:

I apologize for all the uneasiness my friends and long-time followers will now feel because I changed my profile picture, but @Iconfactory pixelated me and it's way too good not to use, so y'all just have to deal with that.

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

Oh my heart 😭

Look at this little baby 😍

I can't believe I got this 😭

Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! 😭

#Birds #Photography

Photograph of a baby goldfinch in flight, perfect spred of it's gorgeous black and gold wings, a thistle is to the right, a blurred skyline with a pale blue sky behind

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jwz wrote:

Great moments in the internet service industry.

Nobody will sell fiber internet to DNA Lounge. But it turns out that the condo building next-door-plus-one has Google Fiber. So I got our neighbor who lives there to put us in touch with their service...
https://jwz.org/b/yktW

Screenshot

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jwz wrote:

We live in a fascist nation, what now?

Chris Armitage: The statistics are brutal. Fascist takeovers prevented after winning power democratically: zero. Average length of fascist rule once established: 31 years. Fascist regimes removed by voting: zero....
https://jwz.org/b/yktU

Screenshot