Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
frankel@mastodon.top ("Nicolas Fränkel 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇬🇪") wrote:

System design 101 (or even before): never use the email as the PK for a user account. What if the user needs to change their email?

Better make it a regular column with a UNIQUE constraint.

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

even after walking a couple of miles in the wind this morning, the fog is still thick in me peabrain… must be time for another cuppa rocket fuel

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

I may be snowed in, but at least I'm not swimming in the Irish Sea.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/29/perspective-4/

kornel ("Kornel") wrote:

There's a media query for JS enabled/disabled: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/At-rules/@media/scripting

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
lina@vt.social ("Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding 2026!!!") wrote:

This is really cool! Full body tracking in a dedicated box. It's a ToF sensor (Kinect 2 style) with on-board ML processing. Same concept as using an iPhone for ARKit face tracking (not just a camera, but also all the smarts).

I always want streaming to be as friction-free as possible, so the idea of having to put on trackers never sat well with me... this looks like a great alternative! ✨️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-hD5800V-8

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
carnage4life@mas.to ("Dare Obasanjo") wrote:

Unironically naming your company after science fiction or fantasy villains is a choice.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/28/from-sonos-to-sauron-new-ceo-takes-on-high-end-home-security-startup-still-in-development/

Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
joelanman@hachyderm.io ("Joe Lanman") wrote:

What an unprocessed photo looks like
https://maurycyz.com/misc/raw%5Fphoto/

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

Say it ain't so…black widows are in decline? But they're among the sweetest little spiders I know.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/12/29/a-terrible-feud/

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
HailsandAles@metalhead.club ("Chris Fletch :pentagram:") wrote:

Uncool of the year to sneak in one more Monday morning.

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
sinvega@mas.to ("Sin Vega") wrote:

if you did fight club today those buildings at the end would be facebook, amazon, google, apple

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

It’s simultaneously annoying and unsurprising to see academics and researchers who argue that creating a digital mind is improbable or impossible being subjected to more criticism and held to a higher standard than those arguing that tech bros are creating a completely new form of sentient life

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

“Against AI - by Foz Meadows - rocks thrown at the void”

https://fozmeadows.substack.com/p/against-ai

> But AI is foundationally unethical in ways that go far beyond its creative theft, and which do not only concern the communities from whom that work was stolen.

Boosted by ChrisWere@toot.wales ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕"):
FediVideo@social.growyourown.services ("Fedi.Video 🎁") wrote:

There's a new Fediverse music streaming service showing music videos by small independent artists with their permission. You can view the channel at:

➡️ https://tv.theindiebeat.fm

It's like the old-style MTV but for the Fediverse 🙂

You can follow the channel at:

➡️ @TIBtv

The service runs on @owncast and you can find out more about OwnCast at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/owncast-live-streaming-and-chat-on-the-fediverse

#Music #OwnCast

Boosted by jwz:
carlmalamud@official.resource.org ("Carl Malamud") wrote:

@mattblaze I had a similar experience in an unrelated area (except, of course, that it was @jswatz who also wrote it up). After downloading district court records, we discovered a large number of bugs: disclosure of names of minor children, of confidential informants, of medical records, and *tons* of SSNs and other IDs. The courts went ballistic, they were convinced that the PACER paywall was protecting privacy and by disclosing the bug, I had blown their cover.

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

RE: https://social.lol/@adam/115800506261127871

A name is *what* someone wants to be called. Their pronouns are *how* they want to be called. Both are important!

There are some deeply troubled people out there who view pronouns as some kind of weapon in the culture wars, rather than a simple part of speech that allows people to communicate unambiguously and respectfully. Those people are too hung up on body parts and bathrooms to understand the simple notion of personal preference in forms of address. My advice: stay away from those people.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

I was recently reminded of this.

A couple decades ago, I wrote a short paper that described how the basic approaches of cryptography and computer security lead to an efficient and practical privilege escalation attack against master-keyed mechanical lock, which I published in IEEE Security and Privacy (a nerdy computing technical journal).

https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/mk.pdf

TL;dr: Master-keyed locks have fundamental, exploitable weaknesses.

But I wasn't ready for what happened next.

1/

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

Reminder from someone who has written 20 novels so far without "AI," many of them NYT bestsellers and/or award-winners: You don't need to use "AI" for any part of your writing process and you'll almost certainly be better off if you don't;

ALSO

Reminder from someone who has it in his contracts that all editing, cover art, translation and other production processes are to be done by humans: You don't have to settle for "AI" for any part of your book production, either. Demand quality over slop.

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

I have a lot of techniques for finishing my actual work on time that just doesn't seem to translate to my writing.

If I could fix this, I mean, really get efficient. I could publish maybe 1-2 essays each week. As quality as my usual (whatever that is worth lol).

I know some essays just take longer to write. And I don't mind spending an entire month on a piece. That's fine. But I'd say 60% of my ideas should take 2-3 days tops. I just can't seem to get it done. Helllllp.

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

I am having trouble finishing my essays. I'm good with deadlines but that's the issue. My essays have no deadlines. I tried self imposed deadlines but that doesn't seem to work.

I write maybe 3-5k words a week that I don't publish. In my mind, I'm using my writing muscle so it's fine. But I sure would like to publish more of what I write. I'd be a fairly prolific blogger if I could get over this hump.

Any tips?

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

If you don't know/remember this quote, it's time to read a book.

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

Teleoperated robot kicks controller in the nuts because of latency issues. Can’t wait to see all the memes. https://boingboing.net/2025/12/28/teleoperated-robot-kicks-controller-in-the-nuts.html

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

"These data farms are going to need more and more electricity, and these oligarchs are trying to cut deals to get cheaper electricity for themselves, even though that’s going to raise prices for the rest of us."

— John Stewart, The Daily Show https://youtube.com/shorts/NN6NjmQ%5F0BE

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

Does anyone remember Apple’s short lived Cards App? You could send physical letterpress post cards from a dedicated app, with custom images and messages.

With the reviving of zines, and a backlash on digital media, I think if Cards would’ve come out today it’d be a smash hit. It was super simple and inexpensive. I used it often.

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
tusk81 ("Gabe Ortíz") wrote:

“If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna811521

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

We Let Anthropic’s Claude AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars:

"That was the point, Anthropic says. The Project Vend experiment was designed by the company’s stress testers (aka “red team”) to see what happens when an AI agent is given autonomy, money—and human colleagues."

We wanted our agentic AI to fail miserably at basic tasks, says company who claims to have invented god. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claude-ai-vending-machine-agent-b7e84e34

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

To me, it feels obvious that if #ICE sees success in deporting Latinos, eventually Puerto Ricans will be next. Phase 2.

I'm always listening for birth right rhetoric. Or hypotheticals about US territories.

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

Citizenship for Puerto Ricans is less solidified than Row v Wade (imo I'm not a constitutional lawyer obviously). Our citizenship rests on just a couple of laws. It's not guaranteed by the constitution. In the states, Puerto Ricans vote majority Democrat.

We're not mentioned much these days but racism against Puerto Ricans is very much real. It wouldn't take much fear mongering to get the country to turn against us. Nothing stopping Congress from passing new laws. To me, it's an inevitability

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

I swear that this thread didn't have a grander point, just a proud uncle gushing.

But, any time I see a kid in a cage, I see my niece. My mind wanders and I think what her life would be if she happened to be born on the wrong side of the border. And then I think what it would take for someone with power to decide that our citizenship is unconstitutional. And then I spiral lol.

Boosted by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
smutmag@mstdn.social ("SmutMagDotArt") wrote:

Art kills crime. Never mistake the arts for frivolous. They are the cornerstone of democracy.

Fun fact: a program called "Shakespeare Behind Bars" helps inmates put on the classics. The recidivism rate among participants? 6%. The recidivism rate in the general population? 68%.

We do not know how to empathize and build the world without the arts. It's downfall is why democracy is in free fall. If you want to save it, put the arts first. Every zip code should have full time artists.

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
curiously@mastodon.au ("Curious") wrote:

@fromjason love it, my daughter was an early and frequent talker and contributed her own generic mild swear word at about 3 "bollgins" (pronounced bowl+gins). There is something appropriate to the sound.
shes 28 these days and I heard her partner use it a few days ago after dropping an item from the fridge "arh bollgins!"