Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

With every report about cities or states in the US pushing back against the violent authoritarianism of their federal systems, I'm reminded of Tainter description of the prelude to collapse in "The Collapse of Complex Societies"

> There is, first and foremost, a breakdown of authority and central control. Prior to collapse, revolts and provincial breakaways signal the weakening of the center. Revenues to the government often decline. Foreign challengers become increasingly successful.

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
jjcelery@mastodon.ie ("JJ Celery") wrote:

I saw LLMs compared to a drug in this toot, but in conversation with Himself today we concluded it's like a cursed amulet.

You *believe* it gives you +10 INT. Meanwhile it drains INT and WIS over time, and you don't notice.

Everyone around you knows it's bad for you and generally for the realm, but you won't stop wearing it, they're just jelous of your newfound powers, and they would know how awesome it is if they only tried! Why won't they try? Just try the amulet!!

https://mastodon.social/@glyph/115839163441384816

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
kityates@mas.to ("Kit Yates") wrote:

In light of the Royal Society's continued inaction on Elon Musk, it seems appropriate to share this again.

I wrote it last March when I resigned my position as associate editor at a Royal Society Journal.

Things haven't got better since then.

https://kityates.substack.com/p/why-im-resigning-my-editorship-at

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

Any of us can be murdered at any time. A cheerful demeanor won't help you.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/10/i-dont-expect-to-be-shot-but-you-just-dont-know-anymore/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0gyLICnWQE

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
SeanAloysiusOBrien@tenforward.social ("Headphone Jacques Clouseau") wrote:

dang this sounds like a very good reason for airplanes to have air quality sensors

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
cloudhop@equestria.social ("Erik McClure") wrote:

Bose recently did an unambiguously good thing, by publishing the API for the audio hardware they were originally going to brick: https://www.theverge.com/news/858501/bose-soundtouch-smart-speakers-open-source

However, I've seen some people say "don't praise Bose for this, they didn't do this until there was backlash".

SHUT UP. Shut the FUCK UP. I'm DONE living in a society where you get dragged through hell if you make a mistake, EVEN AFTER YOU CORRECT THE MISTAKE. I'm so fucking tired of hearing stupid excuses for this kind of puritanism like "they should've known better" NOBODY KNOWS BETTER UNTIL *AFTER THEY MAKE THE MISTAKE*. THAT'S HOW LEARNING *WORKS*.

And before you say "Companies aren't your friend" PUNISHING THEM FOR FIXING THEIR MISTAKES WON'T MAKE THEM DO THE RIGHT THING EITHER. If other people, or companies, see someone get punished for both messing up AND fixing the mistake, they just won't bother at all!

People HAVE to be allowed to make mistakes. They HAVE to be given a chance to improve.

Boosted by taral ("JP Sugarbroad"):
joe@f.duriansoftware.com ("Joe Groff") wrote:

@eramdam still can’t believe they called the low level virtual machine WASM and the weird assembler LLVM

lloydmeta ("Lloyd") wrote:

Kids are overrated.

Showed my 10 yr old a live concert from the 90s and remarked that there was no one with a smartphone recording instead of enjoying the show.

She asked me if the band were still alive.

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

The ethical case against using LLMs for work is straightforward and unambiguous

The productivity case against using LLMs for work is complex and requires an understanding of volatility, variability, biases, security issues, lock-in, and more

But it turns out that if you don’t have any time for ethics, you also don’t have any time for understanding complex systems, so neither case matters to them

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
dsalo@digipres.club ("Dorothea Salo") wrote:

Feel free to tell Discord what you think about AI.

https://discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV%5F5BGtstVUidXadts

Boosted by ratatui_rs@fosstodon.org ("Ratatui"):
orhun@fosstodon.org ("Orhun Parmaksız 👾") wrote:

Having Wi-Fi issues on Windows? 💀

📡 **WifUI** — A TUI for Wi-Fi management on Windows.

💯 Scan networks, connect securely, view signal details & manage connections.

🦀 Written in Rust & built with @ratatui_rs

⭐ GitHub: https://github.com/sohamw03/wifui

#rustlang #ratatui #tui #terminal #windows #wifi #networking #devtools

Attachments:

• gifv: f0600bfb9e3ea273.mp4

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

I do appreciate a complex pattern of arborization.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/01/10/shadows-in-the-snow/

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

(These two cats are siblings, but from a different litter, and they both belong to one of my neighbours. Every cat from that family tree has turned out to be an inveterate climber and they've all climbed onto my balcony at one point or another.)

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

For this #caturday, some of the local cats hanging out in and on top of a commercial greenhouse. They're friends with the staff, who occasionally forget the cats are there when they leave at the end of the day, so the owner has to go and let the cats out when they don't show up for meals

Boosted by Mastodon:
MastodonEngineering ("Mastodon Engineering") wrote:

The December edition of Trunk & Tidbits is posted.

It was a quieter month in terms of commits due to the holiday period, but some solid progress was made. Plus, the latest stable releases, end-of-life for Mastodon 4.2, and news about #fosdem

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/01/trunk-tidbits-december-2025/

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

What the actual fuck

RE: https://www.threads.com/@hollywoodreporter/post/DTU-V1PDp6c

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

“Un-Listed”

https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/un-listed/

> Silicon Valley tries to soothe us into submission: here, have an app, have a hack, use this agent. And pretend that you’ll be spared the violence built right into the software.

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

Resistance honeypots

https://heatherburns.tech/2026/01/10/resistance-honeypots/

Boosted by jwz:
andrewstroehlein ("Andrew Stroehlein") wrote:

When did you stop posting on X?

Person A: When its owner made nazi salutes.

Person B: When it became a production and distribution channel for images of child sexual abuse.

Government: We're still posting there.

Boosted by jwz:
JauntyArt@crispsandwi.ch ("Jaunty Art") wrote:

Can’t Live Without You*
Caveat Frog

Boosted by jwz:
Daojoan ("JA Westenberg") wrote:

Free speech is when you let people say controversial things.

Free speech is not when the world’s richest man builds a CSAM generator, hooks it up to the world’s largest public photo database, and gives 4chan a subscription service.

I’ve written thousands of words defending people’s right to be wrong on the internet.

I don’t need thousands of words for this. I have eight: what the fuck is wrong with these assholes.

Boosted by jwz:
gnu_ebooks ("GNU ebooks") wrote:

people: we want macbook but repairable

framework: gotcha, thinkpad but fascism

Boosted by jwz:
davidgerard@circumstances.run ("David Gerard") wrote:

GNOME can make middle click the AI button

Boosted by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):
emilymbender@dair-community.social ("Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)") wrote:

"The media has largely let [tech companies] set the terms of the debate, right down to the terminology used in any discussion of these systems."

From Nanna Inie and me in Tech Policy Press on how to spot and resist anthropomorphizing language in the discourse about so-called "AI".

https://www.techpolicy.press/we-need-to-talk-about-how-we-talk-about-ai/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
bsletten ("Brian Sletten") wrote:

Loki hopes you’re ok and have a great weekend. He thinks you need a break.

Pic by @KNS.

#weekend #dogs #dogsofmastodon #norwichterrier #norwichterriersofmastodon

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Yehuda@turtleisland.social ("Yehuda TurtleIsland.social") wrote:

The Oglala Sioux Tribe just announced that ICE abducted and disappeared 4 tribe members from Minneapolis.
(alt-txt divided over 2 of same images)
#Native #Indigenous #ICE #CBP #Felon47

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
BigSkyTreasure@mastodon.world wrote:

Montana family preserves more than 1,000 years of Blackfeet history

Web:
https://www.ktvq.com/community/out-and-about/montana-family-preserves-more-than-1-000-years-of-blackfeet-history

Archive:
https://archive.ph/IEfWl

#WorldHistory
#USHistory
#MTHistory
#Montana
#History
#BSTS
#Fourosix
#MontanaToday
#histodons

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

okay, I think I finally have a Character (PC & NPC) store/load worked out and tested, using mongoDB, so the gradually emerging code for my "Galaxy Simulator" project can begin persisting stuff.

#Programming #Starship #Simulation

Boosted by jwz:
kellyromanych ("KellyAnn Romanych (she/her)") wrote:

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Shri #Thanedar will introduce the Abolish #ICE Act, legislation that would dismantle the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and end its current enforcement authority.

#USpol #AbolishICE

https://thanedar.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-shri-thanedar-to-introduce-abolish-ice-act

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

What's the difference between an archivist and a digital packrat?

That's not a set up to a joke someone please tell me because lol

Raindropio really is an amazing bookmarking app. My fav feature is every page I bookmark, Raindrop will archive the page for me automatically.

Sometimes, I organize my bookmarks FOR FUN HELP