Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

The spiders will feast tonight!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/17/the-spiders-will-feast-tonight/

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

Google is genuinely criminal here. These services and these ads are illegal here. Online gambling has skyrocketed over the months this ad carpet-bombing campaign has been going on, and Google has largely turned a blind eye to it throughout.

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

Currently intentionally disabling my ad blocker on YouTube just to more easily report all of the gambling site ads that Google has let run rampant on the site in Iceland. Currently gambling services are carpet-bombing ads at most users in Iceland, usually targeting only by location and time

Last time I tried this, half the time Google came back with something along the lines "this betting site for money is not a gambling site and so not in violation of our terms" which was obvious nonsense

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

If I’ve set things up correctly, this Mastodon post should wind up in the #feeds channel on omg.lol’s IRC server via EchoFeed. We’ll see!🤞

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
wdlindsy@toad.social ("William Lindsey :toad:") wrote:

"This afternoon, Trump announced he would address the nation tomorrow night.

Then, at 6:46 this evening, he posted on social media: 'Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before—Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.'"

#Trump #war #Venezuela
/2

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

got the memory leak blues

Code flows like water,
Bits and bytes slip through my grasp,
Frustration echoes.

[ courtesy https://arghstudios.com/ ]

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

RE: https://toot.cafe/@baldur/112127447270321395

In the year since I published this post, this has turned into something of a curse.

(I know, I know. "I told you so." Yeah, some of you did.)

Turns out following a broad cross-section of the long tail of tech and web dev, that previously was low volume and mostly driven by passion and interest, only works until a big chunk of that long tail goes all-in on "AI" boosterism

Seeing nonsense "AI" fluff spread like mold through my feed reader over the past few months has been thoroughly depressing.

Boosted by denschub@schub.social ("Dennis Schubert"):
vonExplaino@mstdn.social ("Colin M") wrote:

No, you’re not a “prompt engineer”, you’re a sloperator.

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

I was gonna write "piece" but thanks iOS for the recommendation lmao

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
nixCraft ("nixCraft 🐧") wrote:

The new Mozilla CEO says he could block ad blockers in Firefox and estimates that it would bring in another $150 million, but he doesn't want to do that. Lmao. This guy has really lost the plot. Is he issuing threats to the users of an open-source project? Boy, what a disaster.

https://infosec.press/brunomiguel/is-mozilla-trying-hard-to-kill-itself

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

A couple of years ago, if I had come across a misguided post from somebody with community traction, there was a decent chance I’d try to put together a thread or post with enough context to explain why it was misguided

They almost always got cause and effect the wrong way around. As in, the thing you think caused something else actually came after as a response to it

But posts like these are coming in so frequently on my social media and feeds now that it’d be a full time job to cover them all

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social ("Low Quality Facts") wrote:

Capitalism works. And it's easy to understand. We invest our money in Nvidia so Nvidia can produce more Nvidia chips that Nvidia will sell to Nvidia.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
QasimRashid ("Qasim Rashid, Esq.") wrote:

ProPublica reports a dystopian horror. Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program was forced to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food.

Innocent people literally got a stamp on a card at random to let them know if they would live or if they would starve to death. Not because the world lacks resources—but because its stricken with greed.

All this blood is on the hands of Trump, Musk, & feckless Republicans.

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

Today in Labor History December 17, 1760: Deborah Sampson was born on this date in Massachusetts. Sampson disguised herself as a man in order to fight with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. She called herself Robert Shirtliff (as in don’t lift my shirt) and stood 5’9”, taller than the average man in those days. She fought in several skirmishes with British forces before being wounded and discovered and then honorably discharged from the army. She later petitioned the government to be repaid the wages that had been denied her because she was a woman. Her friend Paul Revere advocated for her full compensation. Finally, in 1816, Congress granted her request. There are several other women known to have secretly fought in this war. Sampson’s story has been portrayed in several plays and works of fiction, including “Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts” (1959) by Charles Emery, “I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier of the Revolution” (1977) by Patricia Clapp and Revolutionary (2014), by Alex Myers, one of her descendants. Whoopi Goldberg played her in an episode of “Liberty Kids.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Revolution #deborahsampson #women #sexism #drag #books #fiction #play #author #writer @bookstadon

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io ("Thomas 🔭🕹️") wrote:

Is there someone (in the US) who offers a service to rebuild old laptop and camera batteries?

Boosted by jakedel@mamot.fr ("S. Delafond"):
rhertzog@hachyderm.io ("Raphaël Hertzog") wrote:

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@freexian/115733891127604967

This is the culmination of one year of work in the #Debusine team and certainly a game changer in the #Debian community. Now we will build on this to make it possible to prepare large transitions in Debusine repositories, with all packages to be uploaded together when the entire set is ready and validated.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
TheConversationUS@newsie.social ("The Conversation U.S.") wrote:

Kidnapping for ransom has long fueled insurgencies in the west African Sahel.

New analysis of 58,000 violent events shows a shift: jihadist groups once targeted westerners but now they increasingly abduct local civilians, turning kidnapping into a widespread predatory economy.

https://theconversation.com/kidnapping-for-ransom-in-the-sahel-analysis-of-24-years-of-data-shows-a-new-trend-270714

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
josephcox@infosec.exchange ("Joseph Cox") wrote:

This is a wild hack. a16z gave a million dollars to startup called Doublespeed. They use a phone farm to flood social media with AI generated influencers and ads. A hacker remotely broke into the phone farm, unmasking the AI influencers/fake accounts, gave us the data https://www.404media.co/hack-reveals-the-a16z-backed-phone-farm-flooding-tiktok-with-ai-influencers/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
samlitzinger@journa.host ("Sam Litzinger") wrote:

Unprecedented errors are eroding the credibility of Trump's Justice Department - https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/unprecedented-errors-are-eroding-credibility-trumps-justice-department-2025-12-17/

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

"a federal magistrate judge said the errors were part of a broader pattern of unprecedented prosecutorial missteps, resulting in a 21% dismissal rate of the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office's criminal complaints over eight weeks, compared to a mere 0.5% dismissal rate over the prior 10 years." https://journa.host/@samlitzinger/115735463470063295

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
newsthump@mastodon.online ("NewsThump") wrote:

A Christmas gift with a hint of nostalgia for those of a certain age! Order yours by midday tomorrow to get it in time for Christmas - includes FREE UK delivery here >>> https://go.newsthump.com/B2R4rB

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art ("Michael Whelan") wrote:

With nonhuman creatures though, this can lead to misinterpretations. Take chimps, for example. They seem to smile when afraid and yawn when feeling aggressive. If aliens were to meet humans—even if they had humanoid forms—chances are that our expressions would cause both species considerable confusion. 2/3

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MichaelWhelan@mastodon.art ("Michael Whelan") wrote:

However, in the world of illustration, my goal is to communicate something of the aliens’ nature to the viewer. Since my audience is made up of humans, it’s fitting for me to use the human library of gesture to convey my point. Such is the case with my painting for the novel CHANUR’S HOMECOMING by C.J. Cherryh (DAW) 3/3

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/chanurs-homecoming/

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
gedankenstuecke@scholar.social ("Bastian Greshake Tzovaras") wrote:

«a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting, often without the required disclosure that these are advertisements»

Nice that you can be a well-funded 'startup' to effectively just be a parasite to other 'social' companies and flood them with shit…

https://www.404media.co/hack-reveals-the-a16z-backed-phone-farm-flooding-tiktok-with-ai-influencers/

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

I want to join a webring and make one of those cool animated gif badges for my site

Boosted by jakedel@mamot.fr ("S. Delafond"):
freexian@hachyderm.io ("Freexian :debian:") wrote:

Ever thought about APT compatible add-on package repositories for Debian? Like PPAs but having proper compatibility with #Debian, QA tests and automatic built-in snapshot capabilities?

Glad to announce #Debusine repositories are now in public beta for Debian developers and maintainers.

Head to https://www.freexian.com/blog/debusine-repositories-beta/?utm%5Fsource=mastodon&utm%5Fmedium=social to learn more about it and how you can use it.

#Freexian #DebusineRepositories

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

Just came across AI Snake Oil, that talks, in part, about how AI companies are using Congress to pass AI licensing laws as a regulatory capture strategy.

Control AI, the org that Hank recommends his audience go participate in its lobbying tools to Congress, states that its goal is to help pass laws for, yup, you guessed it—AI licenses.

Another great book by brown folks passed up by the left-leaning YouTube circuit. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ai-snake-oil-arvind-narayanan/1145168436

Boosted by adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële 🐁"):
carlchenet ("Carl Chenet") wrote:

Dans beaucoup de boîtes, on applaudit le héro qui éteint l’incendie en urgence, jamais celle ou celui qui avait proposé de documenter, automatiser, simplifier. Tant qu’on valorise le pompier plutôt que l’architecte, les mêmes problèmes reviendront en boucle 🔁

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

What the hell, since things largely seem to suck a bit these days, why not hold an otherwise completely unplanned sale?

So, for the holidays, a €10 EUR discount on my books, and you can choose between reading about how "AI" doesn't work or about how to fix the shit storm that is modern software development

The Intelligence Illusion, for €25: https://payhip.baldurbjarnason.com/b/34qSg

Out of the Software Crisis, for €25: https://payhip.baldurbjarnason.com/b/skbMv

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
uglyreykjavik.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Ugly Reykjavik") wrote:

Constructed in 1964, this building was designed by architects Sigvaldi Thordarson and Skarphéðinn Jóhannsson. Buildings designed by Sigvaldi Thordarson are often referred to as Sigvaldahús.#Iceland #Reykjavik #photography #landscape #nature #naturephotography #abandoned #decay #trees #architecture