wilfred

WILD.

A Lake County, Indiana sheriff’s deputy searched a license plate across more than 19,000 Flock cameras in 1,558 cities and towns. The stated reason: “LMAO.”

An EFF analysis of Flock audit logs found police entering “LOL,” “idk,” “hehe,” “asdfg,” and other nonsense as justifications for searches of the company’s nationwide automated license plate reader network. Other searches simply said “investigation” or were left blank.

Those logs exist because Flock recorded officers’ typed explanations, allowing public-records requests to expose questionable searches. In late 2025, Flock replaced the free-text field with prewritten options—a change EFF says reduced transparency into how police actually use the system.

https://www.404media.co/cops-search-thousands-of-flock-cameras-for-reasons-of-lmao-idk-hehe-and-asdfg/

#surveillance #privacy #alpr #policing

LOL.

Hundreds of contractors are reading real ChatGPT conversations to help train OpenAI’s models, according to internal materials obtained by 404 Media. The chats can include sensitive personal information and even summaries of a user’s memories.

OpenAI says usernames are removed and a privacy filter attempts to redact personal information, but acknowledges the filter can miss identifiers. For Free, Plus, and Pro users, chats can be used for model improvement by default; turning off “Improve the model for everyone” prevents new conversations from being used.

https://www.404media.co/inside-project-lily-the-humans-reading-your-chatgpt-chats/

#privacy #chatgpt #ai #internetculture

Curious to learn more about this.

"After adjusting for socioeconomic status, students who never use AI generally outperformed those who do in science. How stark the difference is varies though: students who used AI for specific tasks like summarizing texts they were meant to read, or drafting writing assignments, performed relatively worse, while those who used it for preliminary research or more broadly to “help me learn” saw less of a performance drop."

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/991956/student-ai-use-scores-oecd-pisa

#ai #edu #students

MIT’s committee on AI in teaching and learning found signs that AI is disrupting everything from problem sets and take-home exams to office hours, study groups, and undergraduate research. Students report mixed feelings about it, while instructors range from enthusiastic adoption to outright “AI refusal.” More troublingly, the committee points to increasing isolation, weaker student mastery and confidence, difficulty assessing what students actually know, and erosion of the “social contract” between instructors and students.

That framing gets at something more consequential than whether AI belongs in a classroom: once producing an answer becomes cheap and nearly instantaneous, institutions have to reconsider which parts of education are actually doing the teaching.

https://aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/#11-the-landscape

#ai #education #highereducation #generativeai

My new favorite website: https://defuddle.md

"Get the main content of any page as Markdown."

#obsidian #defuddle #markdown #tech #websites #interesting

Art 🤝🏽 NASA

Love me some Earth art! Here is my name!

https://science.nasa.gov/specials/your-name-in-landsat/

#art #landart #earthart #environmentalart #earthworks #nasa #photography

@obsidian@mas.to is an INSANE TOOL. Learning slowly to unlock it's true power.

#obsidian #obsidianmd #notes #tools

LOL. My dream to build my own computer is dead.

"According to Nikkei Asia, even as suppliers ramp up DRAM production, manufacturers are only expected to meet 60 percent of demand by the end of 2027. SK Group chairman has even said that shortages could last until 2030."

#ram #tech #shortage #ai
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/914672/the-ram-shortage-could-last-years

HUGE!

"Mastodon is preparing to roll out “Collections” in the next few weeks, a feature that allows you to find and create lists of accounts worth following, according to an announcement on Thursday. Collections, which take inspiration from Bluesky Starter Packs, will come with the ability to add up to 25 accounts to a single list."

#mastodon #tech
https://www.theverge.com/tech/909308/mastodon-collections-bluesky-starter-packs

Fun little Easter egg in Kagi Translate @kagihq@mastodon.social

The English (US) to LinkedIn Speak 😘

#translate #translation #kagi #kagitranslate #ai #linkedin #jargon

This month, I am going to go full in on @kagihq@mastodon.social! Let me know if you have an questions about my experience! So far so good!

#kagi #experiment #searchengine

I have been experimenting with Linkding for my bookmarking needs - so far so good!

#opensource #linkding #pikapods #tech #apps #software

I want this in real life. Can someone make this happen? Please offer suggestions of folks!!

"This clock displays the current time alphabetically. It is inspired by this post on Mastodon [@catsalad@infosec.exchange].

In Three-Hand mode, the hours, minutes, and seconds are each independently sorted by their English spelling, with a hand for each.

In Combined mode, every possible time (43,200 of them) is spelled out, sorted alphabetically, and a single needle points to the current one."

https://boat.horse/clock/index.html

If there was a website that best described me, it would be this: https://rotatingsandwiches.com

#website #artanddesign #sandwiches #tinyawards #rotating #design #art

A must read.

"⁠⁠The point is, I’m not saying all this to defend humanity. Humanity sucks. It’s totally terrible. I’m saying this because I believe in an old-fashioned virtue called Doing the Freakin’ Work.

Read the book, not the summary.

Write the piece, not the prompt.

Suffer like the artist you are. It ain’t easy, but if it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/opinion/art-artificial-intelligence.html

#ai #nyt #opinion #art #tech

LET'S GO!!!

"Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills is facing pressure to sign what would be the nation’s first statewide moratorium on artificial intelligence data centers after state legislators passed the bill on Tuesday."
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/04/maine-gov-mills-urged-to-sign-nation-leading-ai-data-center-moratorium.html

Actually insane but not surprising.

"The trajectory is, indeed, clear. AI does seem to be restructuring how information flows on the internet. Forbes is making a bet that it can keep its digital business afloat by serving as a low-stakes prediction market for news junkies. It’s offering gambling without the stakes and the payout and it’s offering news without first hand reporting or new information. It remains to be seen if this will help it retain readers and keep people on the site."

#predictionmarket #forbes #tech #betting #ai #news #current
https://www.404media.co/forbes-prediction-market-gamefies-story-about-mass-shooting-of-8-children/

INSANE ARTICLE but RIP ALLBIRDS
https://www.theverge.com/news/912484/allbirds-ai-hyperscale

LOL. Too funny. Wild to think that the response was literally to be like "We do not want to do the work, so I guess we are going to go somewhere else ."

"Torrez warns that even if Meta were to “take their ball and leave the state,” it may soon find fewer places in the US to go. On a call with reporters Thursday, Torrez noted that dozens of AGs around the country are pursuing similar actions against social media companies. “It feels, to me, like a shortsighted and temporary attempt to deflect and delay the inevitable,” he says. “And it would be better for them, it would be better for our community, but [also] communities all over the country if they just started to do the real work to prioritize safety.”"

https://www.theverge.com/policy/921557/meta-threatens-leaving-new-mexico

#meta #tech #newmexico #safety #public #news

Reading through my backlog of saved articles, this one in particular got me 😡:

ICE wants a contractor capable of obtaining and processing voter registration and voting-history files from all 50 states and U.S. territories.

According to procurement records reviewed by 404 Media, the data would go to Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of ICE, for what the agency calls “fraud detection and data segmentation.” Voter records are generally public; the contractor would make collecting and handling them at national scale easier.

The individual datasets may be obtainable already. What changes is the infrastructure for aggregating them, searching them and connecting records that previously lived in separate systems.

https://www.404media.co/ice-wants-the-countrys-voter-data/

#privacy #surveillance #immigration #voting

The fight around the right to repair is insane. LET PEOPLE FIX THEIR OWN STUFF!! KEEP THINGS GOING!!

"The argument being made by these lobbyists and major tech companies is that only the manufacturers or their authorized representatives should be allowed to fix these types of electronics. But, again, the definition of “critical infrastructure” is so broad that it can be applied to almost any type of electronic, and there is nothing fundamentally different between a router used at a data center and a router used in a school, business, or home."

https://www.404media.co/data-center-tech-lobbyists-fearmonger-in-attempt-to-retroactively-roll-back-right-to-repair-law/

#righttorepair #tech #lobbyist #infrastructure #goods #information #legal

Finally, a win!

"John Deere has agreed to pay farmers $99 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused the agricultural giant of preventing farmers and mechanics from accessing the materials needed to repair equipment, as reported earlier by Reuters. As part of the proposed settlement, John Deere says it will make repair resources available for a period of 10 years, “on a license or subscription basis.”

The company has also agreed to start allowing equipment owners and repair shops to reprogram or perform diagnostics on equipment while in offline mode by the end of 2026. These terms will allow equipment owners to “avoid going to authorized Deere Dealers to make repairs,” according to the settlement."

https://www.theverge.com/policy/909524/john-deere-class-action-settlement-farmers

#johndeere #righttorepair #tech #news

The perfect snack!

#paodequeijo

Timely read.

"The Bay Area and California have long had some of the country’s highest gas prices, and they’ve soared in recent weeks, driven in part by the war with Iran. But sky-high gas prices are only one piece of a broader surge in driving costs that is reshaping life in the Bay Area, where residents already endure grueling, car-dependent commutes.

Rising vehicle prices, insurance, maintenance and loan payments are forcing many drivers to make stark tradeoffs — stretching budgets, delaying major purchases or abandoning car ownership altogether."

https://www.kqed.org/news/12081471/driving-in-the-bay-area-is-essential-for-many-its-only-gotten-more-expensive

#kqed #car #driving #bayarea #ca #prices

VOTE!!

https://tinyawards.net/vote/

#tinyawards #2026 #internet

Shoutout to the videos done by Jamelle Bouie! I love his takes!

@jamelle-bouie@www.youtube.com

#youtube #takes #news

Catch me being "as poor as a church mouse"

Image Source: A list of idioms from the 1964 textbook Examine Your English.
https://pudding.cool/2026/05/similes/

#english #grammar #explanation #similes #as #idioms

Cool idea but still think @localsend@mastodon.social is still superior (in my opinion).
https://www.theverge.com/tech/912317/nothing-warp-android-mac-pc-linux-hands-on

KNICKS IN FOUR

As someone who got married last year, this really resonances with me.

"In the car on the way back from the flower market, I bemoaned all of these things to my fiancé, who endured our apartment transforming into a shipping warehouse for weeks. He asked if it's a “comparison is the thief of joy” type-thing. It is that, but the comparison is no longer with some girl you went to high school with. Rather, it's an entire universe of options, budgets, opinions, and salespeople. In the scroll, it’s hard to tell the difference between a wedding real people got married at, and a photo spread that's meant to highlight a set of vendors or brands. Twenty years ago, an average couple might have had a wedding in their backyard or at the firehouse with catering, but surely they weren’t this stressed about tablescapes or cake inspo Pinterest boards."

https://www.404media.co/wedding-planning-algorithm-weddingtok/

There is an indescribable feeling attached to the process of going through saved articles that you told yourself you would read one day and just deciding "nah" and deleting them from your library to free up bandwidth, mentally and physically.

If anyone would like to get this for me, I would be grateful 😤

#art #textile #crochet #tech #oldschool #purchase #imaway #artwork
https://www.paradigmarts.org/products/moodiest-button-to-ever-exist-aim-away-message

Insanity. Ick.

"Malus is satire, but it will actually take your money and do what it advertises. It is modeled after the IBM case and uses one AI agent to write the specifications and a different agent to produce the code, creating that “clean room” effect. Malus will also do performance testing and scan for common vulnerabilities to make sure the output is functional."

#ai #opensource #software #apps #tech
https://www.404media.co/this-ai-tool-rips-off-open-source-software-without-violating-copyright/

Yesterday, I had one of my worst days on BART in a minute. After mutiple trains had to return to their first stop (and asking everyone to exit the train) AND getting increasingly vague messaging around a potential timeline around a return to normal service, I decided to abandon ship and take AC transit. My normal BART commute of 40 minutes became a 3 hour affair.

While these things happen, it reminds me how BANANAS it would for anyone with a commute if BART and AC Transit cut back their respective services.

Also Uber/Lyft rides were at $80+ during this time LOL. https://oaklandside.org/2026/02/10/bart-doomsday-scenario-sales-tax-measure-connect-bay-area/

There is something beautiful about going through your archive of notes and finding small snippets of wisdom.

Here is one:

"Nothing is given as past. Historical time is, by its constitution, hybrid." - Manfredo Tafuri

LET'S GO OAKLAND!

"Join us for Oakland's beloved FREE 2026 🌱 Plant, Paint and Pick-up With Pups activation event to help revitalize Oakland through a day of beautification activities!

In this Year of The Lunar Horse🐴, we've rapidly transformed Little Saigon's East 12th Street into a vibrant corridor rooted in high-end art, murals and beauty. Led in partnership with 333 Arts, DC16 International Painters Union, Public Works, Artists Hyde, DJ Agana, Vogue, Patrick Piccolo, Thi, LukeDragon, SevenSeas, D2 Council Member Charlene Wang, East 12th St Reimagined Coalition, The City Administrator's Office, this is undoubtedly becoming THE MOST BEAUTIFUL street in Oakland 🫶."

https://givebutter.com/kobearthday

#oakland #eastbay #murals #art #vibes #thebay