Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

all true

https://mk.pars.ee/notes/afsasc9c739x00u7

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
lynne@mk.pars.ee ("Lynne") wrote:

ULTIMATE audio compression codec vs chance to find something good to listen to.
WMA: Someone ripped a CD using WMP on Windows XP. Probably bootleg country music. Rubbish.
APE: A Russian ripped this in 2008 and uploaded it to a torrent site. Probably pop music from the 90's. Meh.
WavPack: A Russian ripped this in 2011. Probably pop music from the 2000's. Meh.
Vorbis: Probably ripped from a game or an internet radio. Probably because it sounds alright. Highest chance of finding something good yet.
WAV: Ripped from a game, or someone ripped using EAC but forgot to change options, so they just zipped it. Probably some artist you haven't heard of before. Could be alright.
AIF: Master tracks from some OSX editor. Probably bad garage music.
RealAudio Cook: Vintage porn. Slap bass. Could be good.
WMA Voice: Podcasts from the 90's. If it's about freemasonic Lizard Aliens living in the sewers ruling the world, score. But its likely just the news.
Siren/G.722.1: Music videos from 1997. Probably Song 2, even. Good chance it'll be good.
AC3: Surround sound from a DVD album. Probably pop. Could be good though, just uplug the center speaker to mute the terrible singer.
AAC: Some ancient iTunes rip. Probably Rebecca Black or Justin Bieber. Treat it like a hazard.
MP2: Broadcast rip. Probably Eurovision. Rubbish.
DTS: Higher quality surround sound rip from a DVD. Probably classic music. Could be good if its a cover of rock songs.
ALAC: iTunes rip, so likely 2010's pop. Cover your ears and get beneath the table.
ATRAC: Mini-disc bootleg music. Could be rare. Someone put some effort to make it. Good chance its decent.
ATRAC9: Video game music. Decent chance its good.
Speex:
TrueHD: 96khz DVD-A rip. Those are hard to make. Could be good.
TAK: T stands for Touhou, so of course its guaranteed to be either tolerable or literally the best thing you've heard.
DSD: Pink Floyd. Yeah, but, you know, you could listen to it, or listen to something more modern that builds upon or breaks their sound.
Module (XM/Mod): Yes, it's good, open it up in Milkytracker and start jamming along with it.
MP3: Could you get more vanilla than this? In the grand scheme of things, probably meh.
Opus: Youtube rip. "Couldn't find a better version", so good chance its very good if someone ripped it.
FLAC: Someone ripped it, and someone downloaded it. Might be good, but in the grand scheme of things, probably meh.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
paninid@mastodon.world ("Coach Pāṇini ®") wrote:

🔥

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/costco-sues-trump-tariff-refunds-rcna246860

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org ("Daniel Lakeland") wrote:

This immediately got me written up for insubordination or some shit and put on a probation. But the thing worked so my boss couldnt really fire me. I remember going to a company lunch and the executives all of whom were executive VPs at banks prior asked me to explain exchange traded funds and long term options on exchange traded funds... Anyway it was a good experience because it immediately cured me of the idea that fucking business drones had any idea what the fuck they were doing.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Nonilex@masto.ai wrote:

#JuanOrlandoHernández was at the center of what the authorities had characterized as “one of the largest & most #violent #DrugTrafficking conspiracies in the world.”

#Trump’s pledge to #pardon #Hernández last week came just hours after he had received a fawning letter in which Hernández cast himself as the victim of “political persecution” by the #Biden-Harris admin, comparing his fate to that of Trump’s.

#criminal #law

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
alda@topspicy.social ("Alda Vigdís") wrote:

My journey? — It probably started with this one.

#PHP

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

for me it was reading the first edition of Jensen & Wirth. the clarity of language of the "Pascal User Manual and Report", and groking a language in it's entirety with EBNF, these things blew my young mind open to everything that followed in my checkered career

https://topspicy.social/@alda/115650689718412796

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
thetnholler.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("The Tennessee Holler ") wrote:

Just now— david shares this link to phone bank for Aftyn: www.mobilize.us/grassrootsde...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bphhaybcgmzjrpjucak23tmh/post/3m6zamlyrsk2d

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ProPublica@newsie.social wrote:

Wealthy Ranchers Profit From Public Lands. Taxpayers Pick Up the Tab.
---

A ProPublica and High Country News investigation found that government programs supporting grazing on public lands prop up a wealthy few while harming the environment. The Trump administration is supercharging the system.
https://www.propublica.org/article/grazing-ranchers-public-lands-trump?utm%5Fsource=mastodon&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcampaign=mastodon-post

#News #Government #Trump #Environment #Grazing #PublicLands #Tax

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
muon@normal.style wrote:

batting the cooked vegetables out of your hand and screaming "don't eat that! it's processed! you chopped it up with a knife and cooked it on the stove! processes!!!"

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social wrote:

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
carnage4life@mas.to ("Dare Obasanjo") wrote:

While I’ve seen a number of reports emphasizing record spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there’s an interesting detail. Salesforce reports their data shows prices are up 7% year over year while orders are down 1%.

So the record spending is due to inflation not increased buying.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/29/black-friday-sets-online-spending-record-of-11-8b-adobe-says/

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

Right now someone at @theonion is furiously ripping up the story they labored over for hours

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-student-ends-trapped-giant-vagina-sculpture-n138311

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

Trump definitely has a 'type,' and he doesn't factor in legal qualifications in his appointments.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/02/you-mean-legally-blonde-was-not-a-documentary/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
rikefranke@bagarrosphere.fr ("Ulrike Franke") wrote:

The German interior minister has inaugurated today a new unit of the federal police in charge of drone countermeasures.

https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/DE/2025/12/drohnenabwehrzentrum.html

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@blequerrec/115645932214798276

"The council will decide your fate."

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

xkcd didn't get as far as the step where the company demands that you contact them by fax.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/02/xkcd-doesnt-cover-all-the-possibilities/

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

There's an important subtext at play here too that seems to work well. By cosplaying academics, AI-Doomerists are implying that smart people (ie liberals) have created, or will create, god.

It's not surprising to me that this narrative has fallen flat on conservatives, as the idea of playing god is sacrilegious.

So, unfortunately, the most sane observations about AI-Doomerism are coming from people we don't trust (for good reason)

#aidoomerism #liberal #AI

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

For at least a decade, since Trump took office, liberalism has been able to distinguish itself from conservatism using very eugenics-y ideals (i.e. intelligence, IQ, even superior bloodline by calling conservatives inbred).

To suggest liberals have fallen for their version of QAnon would be to challenge their very identity.

We know conservatives dug in their heels when we called them out for conspiracy. No reason to believe liberals would behave any different.

#AIdoomerism #AI #OpenAI

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

Indie and non-traditional authors! Today is the day to tell thousands of readers looking for holiday gifts about your books! Follow the link for all the details and leave a post (there, not here)!

Musicians/crafters/artists, etc: Your day is tomorrow!

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/12/02/the-2025-whatever-holiday-gift-guide-day-two-non-traditional-books/

ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕") wrote:

Has Librewolf taken a definitive stance on including AI in its browser yet?

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

The trend towards liberals adopting the fantastical, by means of bad actors cosplaying academia, feels almost impossible to course, correct.

It would mean liberals would first have to admit that they are no less susceptible to propaganda than anyone else.

We say we get it, but being immune to propaganda is a large part of the liberal identify for the past decade.

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

Ironically, AI-Doomerist propaganda is written almost exclusively without exception by white men, while the women, Black and brown computer scientists warning us against these narratives are in discourse exile.

Most liberals don't even know these people exist.

#aidoomerism #AI #OpenAI

https://archive.ph/mPNPZ

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

#AIDoomerism—the belief that corporations will one day create an AI god who will either build for us a utopia or cast us down to literal robot hell—isn't an ideology proliferating across right-wing circles, but through left-of-center personalities. Hank Green being the latest example.

As anecdotal evidence, on three occasions I've had left-leaning friends send to me earnestly Rationalist / AI Doomer propaganda believing these messages are somehow subversive and anti-big tech.

#AI #OpenAI

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

#AIdoomerism relies on the left's obsession with using academia as a way to distinguish themselves from the lower classes.

AI Doomerists are exploiting the academia aesthetic through scholarly sounding blogs and corporate-funded studies disguised as academic journals.

California liberals never got over their obsession with eugenics, and it's being exploited to achieve regulatory capture— placing AI technology in the hands of a few billionaires.

#AI #Eugenics

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/13636/11599?inline=1#p3

db@social.lol ("David Bushell ☕") wrote:

also I don't know how to screenshot with more pixels apparently

db@social.lol ("David Bushell ☕") wrote:

me: laughing at Cloudflare's bug

also me: how tf do you write Rust without unwrapping everything?

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

@NfNitLoop typst has been on my list to learn for a while now! Love a well designed document

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

This holiday season, buy a loved one a subscription to an indie journalist, news outlet or essayist.

(Unless that's not what they want and it makes you super annoying)

db@social.lol ("David Bushell ☕") wrote:

noted: Advent of Code day two status: done ★★

https://dbushell.com/notes/2025-12-02T07:27Z/

— avoiding regular expressions resulted in a better solution, who'd thunk it!