Proto Himbo European

Just heard "AI will solve climate change". The fuck? AI can, at best, generate knowledge. We have had the knowledge of what to do about climate change for 50+ years. We are ignoring that knowledge. Instead, we're building 10,000 new data centers that will make climate change worse. #ai #climatechange #datacenters

If US professors were paid for their time, the #highered system would collapse immediately. The entire thing runs on unpaid labor. Shown: an Email informing us that we must take and pass this four-week course if we want to teach online, ever, even a little. The course is quite fussy, with lots of little checks to see if your modules in the LMS fit their criteria, the assignments are sufficient in number and named properly, the media files and links all meet specifications, and a dozen other aspects of the course meet the more or less arbitrary design rules based on someone's mistaken idea about best practices in 2003. To pass the course you have to build an online course in the approved LMS, with almost all elements required to be integrated in there. It takes roughly 60 hours, or so I've heard. This is all unpaid. You are just expected to do it. Previous online experience is irrelevant. Previous (generally superior) online course training is irrelevant. You have to do this course, which hasn't been updated in 15 years. Questions about where the criteria came from are met with vague and slightly threatening responses. You must get everything up to specific standards in the LMS to pass the course. However, they won't teach you how to use the shit-ass LMS the admins unilaterally dropped on us 2 years ago. That requires more unpaid training time. Not shown: admins sending bullying/guilt-tripping emails wondering why we don't teach more online courses, which they do about twice a year. #professor

Watching Tron (1982) for the first time in many years. Realizing I don't love it because it's "camp" or "retro." I just love it. Also The filmmaking decision to use live action with costumes and IDK UV lights (?) to do what CGI would do 30 years later was fairly brilliant. It holds up, IMOThe Dude as a young guy... this is the trippiest thingVideo game environments with changeable, destroyable environments: kinda brilliant, and of course the plot doesn't work otherwiseI want a light cycle so bad #tron #movies #80s

My daughter said the high school orchestra was given a choice for their non-classical song this semester: Something from the works of Tim Burton or something from Dolly Parton. She said the vote was unanimous.

I'm thinking of opening an account whose only purpose for me to correct all the missing or misused apostrophes on #mastodon. This is not a poll; I'm not committing to following the wisdom of any crowd on this, no matter how wise. #punctuation #petpeeve #apostrophes #GetOffMyLawn

For the past few years I've started taking short videos of peaceful scenes. Since what I vaguely plan to do with them is not happening yet, I might as well post them somewhere. These are usually less than one minute long, and I just enjoy the serenity. https://clip.place/w/2Z5V9W13PK8D4STeDtrFdz alt text: A sleepy pier in silhouette early in the morning, dark water in foreground and stretching to the right. Behind the pier a soft blaze of orange-red-yellow pre-sunrise glows. Behind the only building on the pier two boat masts sway. #peaceful #video #stockvideo #lakeerie #wny

@Elleaster@ohai.social me? What nationality should I suck?

Ruben James #InternationalSandwichASong #HashtagGames #NoEffort

NPR Music has an interview with Sylvan Esso. They pulled their catalog from Spotify last year because of the CEO's ties to an #AI weapons manufacturing company. They just reversed that decision and they're back on #spotify. If you are interested in my thoughts, they are below. The interview is a good (if not always happy) listen, too. The band talked a lot about how the return decision wasn't just about the money; it was about the exposure, getting their #music out to fans, etc. Uncharitable view: I guess it was about the money and the fame, and they were turned back into a band that hadn't "made it."I don't have any strong judgments (despite thinking they were a bit weasely with their words). They're not fabulously wealthy (AFAIK), and only a few artists have taken this step at all. I admire them for doing this, even if it's disappointing that they reversed their decision. Leaving Spotify is a difficult, potentially career-ending decision for a #band or other artist. It's an incredibly simple decision for a listener. It's not fair to lay the moral weight of supporting an evil corporation on the artists.Their return to Spotify signals to others that Spotify won. Some people will see that as "Spotify's CEO's decisions are OK," but I think most people understand that Spotify simply has a lot more power.The artists explained that leaving Spotify hurt every aspect of their careers, not just streaming: concert ticket sales, CD/vinyl sales, purchases through their own sites, and their contact with fans and other artists.If this is what leaving Spotify does to "the last middle-class band in the world", then Spotify has anticompetitive market power and needs to be broken up--not into different services, but into multiple companies that directly compete with each other.Americans are, by and large, incredibly stupid about antitrust regulation. It wasn't a triumphant or happy interview to hear, but I am left with a helpful message: It is easier for me to support my favorite artists doing the right thing than it is for them to do it alone. Final thought: When asked if leaving Spotify led to conversations with other artists who had done the same, the answer was No. It sounds like nobody (read: much more wealthy and successful artists) was interested in support or even contact with other artists taking a similar risk for similar reasons. #SylvanEsso #justice #activism #protest

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@dyckron/117334788025394526 Heck yes!

@hrbrmstr@mastodon.social @FritzAdalis@infosec.exchange OK, that's the direction I was going in. I think I figure out how to get codeberg to act as the, IDK, verifier or something, then I set a little script in a web-facing file on a website where I own the root domain. I think I can do this. And I have more and more understanding every day of why "regular people" don't just stop using those evil huge tech providers. Fewer than 1% of Americans would have the know-how to do this, own a domain, and have the knowledge to register it, get DNS set up, host it with a provider, and create that web-facing file. It's a fairly ridiculous set of requirements for the average person. I think I'll get it done, but things like this lurk behind almost every "just stop using google/facebook/microsoft/etc." comment.

RE: https://indieweb.social/@akamran/117270658407269844 piggyback: Stop writing "lead" when you mean "led" Stop writing "led" when you mean LED

I really like #LibreOffice, and I like supporting #foss software (and I really really don't like microsoft). Write is great. Calc gets it done. #impress, however, is half functional and half a dumpster fire of anti-usability. So many basic things require half a dozen clicks or just can't be done in bulk, which means they often require literally hundreds of clicks in a presentation, while digging into menus over and over. Impress is going to give me RSI all by itself. I sometimes find references to far more usable options in previous versions, and that makes it even more frustrating. If you are here to tell me about a simple 13-step process to set up what should be available by default, I'm open to it but will forget it on other machines or when I upgrade this one. If you are here to make a comment that boils down to "so you hate open software?" or "So you would prefer Microsoft?" you will be blocked for lack of critical thinking and reading comprehension. #vent #frustration

Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain #TuneTuesday #CondimentSongs

@leigh@lgbtqia.space I've also read that the transition to car infrastructure (at least in the USA) was not natural or inevitable or grass-roots; it was forced, top-down, by auto manufacturers. They lobbied for auto-favorable laws, first pushing horses and bicycles off the roadways, then with even more underhanded tricks killing off public transportation. Pretty similar to how AI is being shoved into every corner of our lives.

Replying to someone else's feed I found this: a short read on how Thomas Edison and his cronies were monopolistic assholes about motion pictures, leading independent film studios to create movie stars and Hollywood. #movies #history #monopolieshttps://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/edison_trust.htm

@pencilears@mastodon.eternalaugust.com At risk of overconfidence, I think I'm relatively safe. Im in my 50s, an academic, deeply suspicious of culty bullshit, skeptical of social/cultural tech-based trends, and a former multi-decade member of a slightly culty conservative religion. I can't imagine I'd be be able to keep a straight face long if some Effective Altruist or other flavor of Silicon Valley guru culture gave me their pitch.

@pencilears@mastodon.eternalaugust.com I'm quickly learning about Effective Altruists, and I already have a visceral reaction to the term.

@RachelThornSub@famichiki.jp Yeah, I've been reading up on it on reddit (there are several "lineageOS vs grapheneOS" threads). It seems pretty great! I think I might give it a try, as long as it will still hold its own if an ICE thug grabs it and tells his tech people to try to crack it.

@dharmadan@aus.social I kind of love the whole hot mess, piss-everyone-off rock start vibe of the Jesus and Mary Chain in the 80s, plus some of their songs just hit the spot (so to speak).

@RachelThornSub@famichiki.jp Oh, I should look more deeply into it, I guess. I am now not sure why I had the impression it was very alpha, difficult to install, and requiring daily fussing for basic things.

@RachelThornSub@famichiki.jp Dammit. They're my only serious non-google option. Drat.

@pumiquxt@sfba.social I visited the extremely very-for-profit Banksy Museum in Brussels a few years back and literally had to exit through the gift store, so I believe you completely.

@flyingsaceur@ioc.exchange my vote was 100% driven by the amount of sunlight in the environment

@RachelThornSub@famichiki.jp Oh, I'm sure it will. I have a Pixel. I ran CalyxOS on a similar device for a couple of years before I lost that one (and the Calyx lead guy kind of went... weird, and they maybe stopped doing updates...).

In these-a-days of eh aye bots and vibe hacking and whatnot that all the kids are gettin' up to, are there extra recommendations for hardening security on a #Nextcloud AIO installation on my home network, accessible by me from the outside? I'm not a dev or sysadmin, but I can (slowly) work through guides, tutorials, etc. I've run Nextcloud for a few years from shared hosting (which is a pain in my whole entire bottom), so I know more or less how that process goes. #recommendations #infosec #security #selfhosted

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/117270957605896631 After ~3 years of this, I will never be convinced that AI corporation CEOs do anything for any reason except the most intense personal greed. Explain this to me in those terms and I'll find it convincing.

@odr_k4tana@infosec.exchange Because I don't have, like, classes to prepare for tomorrow...

@OrionKidder@mas.to I doubt I'll ever own a Mac, but if I were going to use a corporate, nonfree product for this, I would use PowerPoint or Google Slides. Years ago when I used PowerPoint (on desktop, not the sick joke it has become on 365), it did what I needed, easily and well, in almost all cases. For that matter, Google Slides is head and shoulders above Impress, too. I'm committed (at least for now) to creating a workflow and body of teaching materials in FOSS alternatives, so I'll be stuck tearing my hair out with Impress for a while.

@Merc@freerobuxextremist.com I feel significantly bad for making that very low-effort joke at your expense.

@knowuh@mastodon.social I am aware and pissed about the while scsm for the last 20 years.

@Thatmermaid_J@beige.party Maybe this is how we see the values behind the decisions.

Just a gosh darn minute. People who know about #USA medical #insurance and #medicalrecords and #legal stuff, I hope you will give some #advice. I'm trying to make an appointment with a dentist. They have a couple of pages of painfully repetitive forms to fill out online. At the end, they require a digital (like actual bitmap etc.) signature, and then they drop this. I can't make my appointment without signing and submitting this, and simultaneously agreeing to the stuff in this text. Is this normal? I mean the signature part. have I missed this in previous medical forms? It is alarming to me that they are asking me to give them my signature to use as they wish, whenever they wish, no expiration date, and no restrictions except "insurance submissions." Why do they need MY signature if I'm not submitting the forms? Isn't this how insurance works: the provider submits things and they sign or whatever? Is this standard practice and I just haven't noticed?

@FilmNoirPosters@zirk.us This should be testable, with some careful setup: compare rates of misogyny in books and movies etc. pre-wwII and post. Some important definitions and coding decisions to be made, but it feels doable.

@simonzerafa@infosec.exchange Partial agreement. However, oppressive regimes of all kinds don't get established merely by the oppressed being too lazy to push back. The oppressors take advantage of "leverage" like disproportionate power and money, the element of surprise, populism and public sentiment, advantageous (for oppressors) labor markets, etc. If Elon Musk wants to oppress his workers, every one of his actions has millions or billions of times the impact of the actions of a worker in his companies. Resisting him, even in his early days on the US scene, required existential decisions from thousands of workers while continuing his bullshit only required casual comments from him. I don't think the analogy is a guy showing up in a group of workers and beginning to erode their rights while the workers do nothing. It's more like a guy with bodyguards and heavy weapons showing up to erode a group's rights and pretending to be nice but also making it clear that any action by a group not large and powerful enough to overwhelm the guns and bodyguards will be met with Very Bad Things. Of course, worker apathy, collaborationism, denial, etc. can make things worse. My current university is an excellent example of this.

@emilymbender@dair-community.social dammit, i missed a chance to mansain? I'm always too late. If you have future needs for mansplaining about (very) basic stats, Mormon doctrine x culture, or Joe versus the Volacno, you know where to find me. (Other topics are pretty sketchy; I could probably only manhypothesize or, in some cases, manspeculate).

@MarkRDavid@wandering.shop Actually, that specific bullshit relies on you being too afraid of losing services etc. to push back, I suspect. And I've been in this situation a few times ("inevitably sign" is right). I have done enough mental health work, and gone through mental healthcare provider and researcher ethical training enough times to smell a really big rat. Your signature was arguably coerced. Since you had a witness, if you were litigious (and it was recent enough? IDK) it might be completely reasonable to lawyer up and get back to them with "you performed medical services after a coerced consent procedure." Fucking hell. Edit: I've had lots and lots of ethics training but in an adjacent field. I have not had legal training. I'm not a lawyer and nobody in their right mind would take legal advice from me.

@natematias@social.coop In case it's not obvious, the piece is deeply sarcastic, dark and ironic. I looked this up and MIT does not have a faculty senate or any other faculty advocacy body. This newsletter is all they ahve.

@ajn142@infosec.exchange @KimPerales@toad.social Ugh. Sounds like I need to watch this.

Shamelessly reposting because this is solid #humor. I can only assume y'all just didn't see this idea for an all-gnome party in D&D:

• Gnome Ann, the warrior
• Gnome Eight, the token Cockney
• Gnome Adder, the laid-back one
• Gnome Orr, always a bit on edge
• Gnome Anchess, the Hispanic one
• Gnome Ahss, the other Hispanic one
• Gnome Sane, just a regular guy from the Holler

Side note: this post is not possible for LLMs

#sorrynotsorry #names #silly #DND #gnomes

@punishmenthurts@autistics.life A grouchy, aggressive, violent honey badger, maybe. Nobody fucks with wolverines unless they're prepared and geared up and a tiny bit narcissistic.

@emily_rugburn@lgbtqia.space I think I have missed a lot of them, or not seen them in years. I've seen Big Lebowski a few times recently (because I am a stereotypical white American man born between 1965 and 1985), but I guess none of his earlier movies (except this one) are on my faves list.

Wisdom of the Crowd request: For some reason it's quite hard to find the source of quotations from Third Rock From The Sun online (besides those on wikiquote). Does anyone know what season/episode this is from? (Fuzzy memory coming up): When discussing love, attraction, etc. someone suggests to Dick that mere proximity might be an important factor. Dick says something like "That's ridiculous! If that were true, men would constantly be having affairs with their secretaries!" I've put a stupid amount of time into this search to use it as a 10-second clip in a social psych lecture... #fml BTW, I can find many sites with transcripts (or sometimes AI-scrambled semi-transcripts) of episodes, but even searching those sites (half a dozen so far) seems to produce no results. I might have the wording wrong. #90s #ThirdRock #tv #help

@Merc@freerobuxextremist.com I think women care about punctuation...

@Elleaster@ohai.social Oh! I should read my comments in order. This is helpful. Thanks. And it makes me want to go listen to more Sylvan Esso.

@occult@vox.ominous.net and you need a potato. And a trash can. Where is that photo? I require it.

What fresh hell is this

@donni@mastodon.social ICE. always.