chaosmonk @chaosmonk@social.justos.info

@tindall

The very largest ones also find that their prediction algorithms, which are inextricably core to their profit and control, work a whole lot better when they punish behaviour which the algorithm didn't predict.

Past a certain point, shaping people's behaviour is a lot easier than trying to predict what people would freely choose to do.

honestly? employee shortages have made everything 10x better for me as a disabled consumer because now workers aren't being treated as disposable they've relaxed and they're in better mind frame to help me out when I need it

Best quote on modern life I've seen in a bit

Do not buy NFT made with my art.
Do not make NFT with my Creative-Commons artworks.
If you respect my art, remember and apply this.

Here is my article about what just happened: https://www.davidrevoy.com/article864/dream-cats-nfts-don-t-buy-them

#NFT #NFTCommunity

When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow and exclude people. so create.

— Why the Lucky Stiff

When something goes wrong with software from some large corporation, users are likely to blame themselves and assume they have done something "wrong". When similar problems happen using small FLOSS projects, users are likely to curse the developers.

The success of commercial software has a lot to do with the power dynamics. The user has to conform to the conditions set by the all-powerful publisher. But with FLOSS things are more equal and assigning blame is messier.

"Appeals to decentralization too often fail to contend with the power structures that can take hold of supposedly liberatory projects."
https://reallifemag.com/reconnected/

inventor of glass: allow me to present my newest material, glass!

audience: wow an unbreakable transparent material!

inventor: oh no, it's extremely breakable

audience: ..

inventor: shatters into hundreds of dangerous shards at the slightest drop

audience: ...

inventor: you'll spend hours trying to find them all

Computer Science towards sustainable permacomputing
"Unrealistic" "People wont want that" "Too many assumptions about the future"

Computer Science which assumes everyone lives in VR in the future
"Visionary" "Futuristic"

straight up I am in love with water fountains. whenever I look at a public water fountain I go "this is literally a monument to a functioning civilization." when I look at a public water fountain I think about all of the technology, all of the water filtration and pipes and infrastructure that came together to provide Me drinkable water in a public space
some urban designer built Me a fountain to drink from because I might be thirsty. Literally the opposite of hostile architecture.

this guy is based as shit

Explaining some common programming terms.

Here's a bruising takedown of the whole concept of cryptocurrencies by an economist called #NathanJRobinson. It goes quite a bit deeper into the economic practicalities than some of the other critiques I've read:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/04/why-cryptocurrency-is-a-giant-fraud

#cryptocurrencies # blockchain #economics

"If the powerful lie to us, we have the right to know. If they say one thing in private and the opposite in public, we have the right to know. If they conspire against us, as Bush and Blair did over Iraq, then pretend to be democrats, we have the right to know."

- #JohnPilger

https://pmc.aut.ac.nz/articles/john-pilger-stalinist-trial-julian-assange-press-freedom-dock-5281

#JulianAssange #WikiLeaks #MediaFreedom

I have encountered more image descriptions on Mastodon in 24 hours than I have in Twitter in a couple of years. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating.
As a blind person, this means a lot to me. If you read this and you describe your images, thank you so, so, so much on behalf of all of us. If you don't, now you know you'll be helping random Internet strangers make sense of your posts by typing in a few more words than usual.

HEY YOU OUR JAVASCRIPT NOTICED THAT YOU MOVED YOUR MOUSE SLIGHTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF WHERE THE "CLOSE WINDOW" TRADITIONALLY IS LOCATED PLEASE DONT LEAVE WITHOUT SIGNING UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER!!!!!1111111111111

COBOL - Built to Last

In this sense, COBOL and its scapegoating show us an important aspect of high tech that few in Silicon Valley, or in government, seem to understand. Older systems have value, and constantly building new technological systems for short-term profit at the expense of existing infrastructure is not progress. In fact, it is among the most regressive paths a society can take.

https://logicmag.io/care/built-to-last/

Signal created targeted ads for Instagram that show the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to.

They were blocked.

https://signal.org/blog/the-instagram-ads-you-will-never-see/