Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
emilymbender@dair-community.social ("Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)") wrote:

RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/117227070191351637

Tomorrow! (tentatively)

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
patigallardo.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Patricia Aas 🐢🏳️‍🌈") wrote:

This collective LLM delusion is completely baffling to me. People are talking like truth, correctness, precision, performance, security… none of it matters anymore. Generating a lie is «good enough».
Wtf is wrong with people?
If correctness doesn’t matter, why would I pay you?
A wrong answer is free

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
tinker@infosec.exchange ("Tinker ☀️") wrote:

This affects the Fediverse.

This affects the Internet.

This is the equivalent of the "rubber hose method" of decryption.

All technical solutions (read: all technology) is subject to politics. To political power. To political interactions.

You cannot rely on purely technical approaches. You have to have social approaches, too. Like. Actual policy and procedure geared around social and political group dynamics.

Like. How will we react when the US Govt requires that @jerry to shut off infosec.exchange servers.

Or how we'll react when a specific Mastodon server is declared part of a terrorist infrastructure. Will federating with it mean any other Mastodon server is now part of the officially designated terrorist network (what then of people that federate with a server that federates with a server that is classified as part of a terrorist network. And so on)

You cannot carry the conceit that tech alone or a purely technical approach will save you.

#AutisticiInventati #fediverse

https://sabot.media/post/ai-shuts-down

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
seachanger@alaskan.social ("wet forest moon folklorist") wrote:

US capitalists executed the leaders of the May 1 1886 strike for an 8 hr work day. In 1889 socialists declared May 1 Int'l Workers Day to honor them, creating a beloved holiday worldwide, but not in the US, where Labor Day was moved to September to erase workers' struggle from the public mind.

#LaborDay

https://apwu.org/news/labor-history-may-day-fighting-eight-hour-day/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ashleygjovik ("Ashley M. Gjøvik, JD") wrote:

"Labor Day" is on Sept. 7 2026 this year in the US, but across the rest of the world Labor Day is always on the 1st of May (May Day). #MayDay originated in Chicago and was originally celebrated here on May 1st, but the US redesignated the day as "Loyalty Day" and moved #LaborDay to September, separating it from worldwide May Day celebrations by six months. This "Labor Day," learn more about the true history of May Day:
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/misc/origins%5Fof%5Fmayday/
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/5/1/may-1-labour-day-what-is-international-workers-day
https://workerorganizing.org/may-day-labor-day-america-holiday-16621/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
TexasObserver@texasobserver.social ("Texas Observer") wrote:

We are hiring!

We are looking for a highly organized individual with great customer service skills who will become the first line of communication with our membership.

Based in #Austin, part time, hybrid option: https://www.texasobserver.org/were-hiring-operations-manager/

#jobs #journalism #Texas #GetFediHired #FediHired #nonprofit

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
BBC@c.im ("BBC News") wrote:

#BBC #News Thousands turn out in Serbia for funeral of 'Butcher of Bosnia' Ratko Mladić https://w.st/sgHZc

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
FediThing@chinwag.org ("FediThing :progress_pride:") wrote:

The heirs to Hitler's Nazi party have almost captured a German state for the first time since WW2 and the first thing they did was thank Elon Musk 😞

Please, even if this seems a really tiny thing, stop using Twitter/X, stop linking to Twitter/X, stop doing anything that gives Twitter/X accounts visibility of any kind. Tell others to leave, especially organisations and media. He is using Twitter/X to promote actual full-on fascism by manipulating media discourse, and simply being there or sending traffic there helps him do that.

#Musk #Twitter #TwitterX #X

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ianbetteridge@vivaldi.net ("Ian Betteridge") wrote:

Kudos to the Guardian for this description

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
osm_tech@en.osm.town ("OpenStreetMap Ops Team") wrote:

Does anyone want a free HP Proliant DL360e Gen8 1U Server? Specs: 2x Xeon E5-2450L, 96GB DDR3L ECC RAM, 12x 2.5" SAS 300GB disks, Inc Rails. Collection Only: London (SE6). Needs to move this week. #London #Catford #Lewisham ♻️

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
swentel@realize.be wrote:

Say hello to the Fediverse Drupal recipe! Understanding and configuring the ActivityPub module can be a tedious task. This recipe ships with sensible default configuration enabling you to set everything up in just one minute! See https://drupal.org/project/fediverse for more information. Quick demo in the video, it's pure magic!

Attachments:

• gifv: 7795c933ad3d786f.mp4

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org ("AI6YR Ben") wrote:

BBC: Dolly Parton's sister pleads for end to 'AI garbage' posts after singer's death

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wxppnrqlqo

#AI #aislop #aipocalypse

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
tommorris ("Tom Morris") wrote:

"Oh my god, my AI agents are talking to one another!"

This seems incredibly impressive to anyone who hasn't, at any point in their lifetime, been in an IRC channel that had two misconfigured bots that started talking to each other until someone kickbanned one or both of them and then told the operators of said bots to sort their shit out before letting them back in the channel.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
LeftArchive@mastodon.ie ("Irish Left Archive") wrote:

#OnThisDay 7th September 1983, the eighth amendment referendum was passed, putting the "right to life of the unborn" in the Irish constitution.

The amendment prevented abortion access until its repeal in 2018.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/subject/3762/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
FSonder@mastodon.ie ("Frank Sonderborg") wrote:

Detection therefore falls to what happens after an agent is already inside – a scenario the country has had ample opportunity to rehearse: a Russian agent of influence alleged in the Oireachtas though never proven nor entirely discounted; a British asset alleged at the top of government back in 2022; and a GRU officer or Russian spy who was revealed in 2023 as having taken an actual Trinity degree under a false identity in 2018.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/07/20/sinead-osullivan-spies-foreign-intelligence-services-russia-gru-britain-trinity-oireachtas/

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

RE: https://journa.host/@theintercept/117230252943410226

you can get by the stoopid paywall by entering foo@bar.com

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
LeslieBurns@esq.social ("Leslie Burns") wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@JenMsft/117230056766810476

OMG, I forgot about that sound! This is totally accurate, btw.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
JenMsft ("Jen Gentleman") wrote:

It turns out, ICQ was foretelling the future of social media when they associated the sound of incoming messages with "uh oh"

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

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Lazarou/117230264593463996

for some definitions of “populist”

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
rejectpetitions@bot.country ("Rejected Petitions") wrote:

"I want to be sat by ellie in spanish." https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/781273

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

RE: https://mastodon.social/@thejapantimes/117230131610426868

no! really? next thing, you’ll be telling me the tsar is dead…

#HeadDesk

Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:"):
joepie91@slightly.tech ("Sven Slootweg, ("still kinky and horny anyway")") wrote:

there's this thing where over the past decade, JS (as a language) has become the cool thing to hate on, and it's widely derided. it also happens to be the primary language I use, and for very good but non-obvious reasons that *should* resonate with many of the same people complaining about it, if they cared to listen.

but then when I try to bring this up, and ask people why they have such a problem with JS, often the response is something like "it sucks to work in" or "the libraries are crap" or "stuff keeps breaking" or whatever else, and every time I *really* try to dig into it more, it ends up at some variant of "there are quality problems with the library ecosystem around it".

which yeah, there are. only in specific corners of JS, but sure, those *are* the corners you're most likely to end up in if you're new to the language, so it's fair to be frustrated by that. and if that were all it was, that'd be fine. but instead, it grows into a sort of ideological thing where JS isn't just "a language I dislike", but some sort of abstract evil of programming. and it becomes about dogma and misleading memes, instead of genuine criticism.

and then here is me, and I'm putting in a ton of design and implementation work to fix the parts of the JS landscape that really *do* just suck, and to better document the parts that don't (but are just hard to find). and then when I present that work, *at best* I get crickets because people aren't using JS, but often I get some shitty low-effort comment about how terrible JS is that doesn't engage with the work at all. often there isn't even any attempt to engage with the underlying subject matter or theory that, for the most part, isn't JS-specific - just because it's in the context of JS.

and like, how do you think that makes me feel? what do you think that does to my motivation to fix these problems? for which I am *absolutely not* getting paid even a little bit?

you complain about JS, but how do you expect anything to ever get fixed if this is the way you engage with those doing that work?

and you might think "well why don't you present it to people who do use JS instead, and then other people can join in later once it's better". but like, have you looked at software development lately? AI boosters are suffocating every community and space, and there's precious few spaces left where people do actually genuinely care about their craft. let alone ones that I can access.

so yeah, a JS community that cares about its craft and that isn't overrun by slopbros or locked away on discord. that'd be nice. how about you let me know when you find one, because I'm tired of fighting wars on two fronts at the same time.

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
ParadeGrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org ("Parade du Grotesque 💀") wrote:

If all of you all (you know who you are) currently exploring #NetBSD (for, uh, reasons*) would donate a little bit of money to the NetBSD Foundation, I am sure that sad little gauge under the logo would look a lot better.

https://www.netbsd.org/donations/#how-to-donate

Because right now, it stands at about 12K out of a goal of 50K and it makes me sad. 😔

Donate! 💶 💵 💷

(* good reasons, I might add)

:netbsd:

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org ("AI6YR Ben") wrote:

Holy heck. Dunno if this is true, but if so...

"...An investigation by Gamers Nexus found LG smart TVs sweep local networks to map phones and nearby devices. Tests also showed the sets can capture microphone audio with the screen off — they then upload data once reconnected to the internet..."

https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-smart-TVs-caught-logging-audio-with-screen-off-and-snooping-on-local-devices.1391214.0.html

#privacy #smarttv

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mikeolson ("Mike Olson") wrote:

Kevin Kelly is a thoughtful commentator on technology. This piece gives some good intuition on what a large language model actually *is* and draws useful analogies to libraries and librarians.

I like his enthusiasm for open-source and open-weight models for the public good. I dislike how some people use models today, but I buy Kelly's argument that this new ability of ours is surprising and useful. As usual, tools and their uses are not the same thing.

https://kk.org/thetechnium/arguments-in-favor-of-ai-fair-use/

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
ufwupdates@union.place ("UFW") wrote:

"Lourdes" works under union contract at Papagni Fruit Co in Madera CA. She is currently picking wine grapes. She's on the negotiating committee and is proud of her union contract and shares “¡Sí Se Puede! Con unión se vive mejor." #WeFeedYou #LaborDay

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
navi@catcatnya.com ("Navi :blobCat_real: :therian:") wrote:

anti-patterns of fedi:

• having multiple accounts for different circles of people
• having multiple accounts for different closeness of people
• having multiple accounts for different stuff to post in general

solution: become Google+

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
xerz@masfloss.net ("Xerz 💗") wrote:

@navi something something @cwebber was right something

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

today is Labor Day in these somewhat disunited States, and I want to take a moment to remind folks what my Grandfather Klein said to a Union gathering in 1918:

“… in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas%5FKlein#Address%5Fto%5Fthe%5FClothing%5FWorkers

the Unionization movement made this country strong and prosperous, and we should take a moment to remember that, in between our beers and our burgers.

the rapacious rich got us into our current mess, and only mass organizing will get us out of it again.

[steps down from soapbox, disappears in a greasy cloud of smoke]

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
evan@cosocial.ca ("Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸") wrote:

https://dot-social.simplecast.com/episodes/pj-vogt-pkwcrKkk

I just started listening to this episode of #DotSocial. @pj says quite nice things about me and @cwebber .

I'm disappointed to hear that the interviews we did won't end up on an episode of #SearchEngine though. I thought they were very interesting and I'd really love to hear what Christine had to say.