@wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 2mo ago

This #FOSSY has further solidified my belief that we invest far too much time into writing software and licenses. We need to connect the four freedoms to material issues in people's lives. People hate tech right now. Absolutely despise it. AI data centers and Flock cameras are the biggest targets but there are so many. On top of it, the economic system makes production of creative works nearly impossible. Unless we view those types of fights as core FOSS community issues, we're going to be stuck where we are. The problem isn't (just) that you don't have the four freedoms, it's that the system guarantees oppression and misery. The lack of software freedom is a symptom of the problem, not THE problem. EDIT: also, how is age-gating not a red alarm fire in our community?!

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

RE: @phoronix@masto.ai

You have to be kidding me.

masto.ai

Phoronix: "Ubuntu Linux Will Begin Landing AI Features Throu…" - Mastodon

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 2mo ago

RE: https://sfba.social/@drahardja/116943945342895564 If you're a member of the Rails core team, the best time to do something was yesterday. The next best time is now. You have to live with yourself for the rest of your life based on what you do.

Quoting

Dave Rahardja (temporarily spooky)

@drahardja@sfba.social

I see that DHH has gone even more full #fascist. This is literally calling for ethnic cleansiing. “Because the sacred cow here is not just that mass migration must stop going forward. It's also that millions who are already in Europe must go.” https://world.hey.com/dhh/three-sacred-cows-that-must-die-so-europe-can-live-1afb203d

Open quoted post

sfba.social

Dave Rahardja: "I see that DHH has gone even more full #fascist. …" - SFBA.social

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Here's all they'd have to do:

Create a chatbot in an app
Give users over 18 the normal chat bot
Give users under 18 a chat bot where they subtly give the user more manipulative responses.

You can vibe code that now except right now, there's no way to know with certainty how old the user is. With age verification, they know for sure who to target.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

One of things that many totally overlook is that reviewing AI generated code is harder. It doesn't look like regular code. It has mistakes in places that people wouldn't make. It doesn't have appropriate abstractions. You can't let your guard down like you can with a human engineer.

It's like "somewhere in this massive pile of code, there will be a mistake that not even a junior engineer would make. But no clue where!"

To be fair, I'm sure people can use GenAI to write decent code. But that requires a lot more discretion than most people are doing.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 1mo ago

Maybe I read too much of Magnifica Humanitas, but I think the only acceptable feeling when using LLMs is "guilt". I use them here and there like most people. But every time I view it with a bit of shame and sadness at giving even an ounce of support to these ghouls. Maybe I should feel this way with most technology. But I find it's impossible to escape with LLMs.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@aredridel@kolektiva.social interestingly, that makes my chronic back pain much higher on the scale. I usually say it's a 1 because it's really not all that bad. But it definitely affects what activities I do, so here it's a 4 or 5.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@tknarr it works even better when it already knows you're a minor because the device told them.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@inthehands I'm glad the New Atheism bunch doesn't have the same influence as they did. They always were just mean people. Even when they had a good point, it was always done in a way to hurt people for no good reason.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

I'm thinking about the freedom fighters in Central America I met last year who told me all about the ways they were using free software to fight colonialism and oppression. It was truly some of the most amazing and inspiring work I've ever seen.

Made a (shortsighted) joke to one of them that's she's lucky she's not having to deal with the AI bubble there. She said very seriously "It's just one more way you're oppressing us".

So ya, that's what I'm most worried about.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@sanityinc @samir @yosh Compete with third parties? You mean abuse their cultivated monopoly.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@alice@lgbtqia.space not a fan myself.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@lunacharskii I think it's a reasonable conclusion. I believe this will be exploited in certain US states to block kids access to information about LGBT people, abortion information and honest readings of history which acknowledge racism, sexism and other forms of oppression.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@inthehands @miss_rodent this honestly isn't that far from what originally came to mind for me a few weeks ago which was "Epstein headers". But that's because I was being too literal as an engineer. Epstein cookies is something average people would get.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@tamzin@wikis.world done!

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 4mo ago

Replying to

What's next? Telling me to eat right? Or exercise regularly? I mean, c'mon, let's be serious.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@3janeTA you shouldn't worry, it's not like a group of very powerful people has ever wanted to abuse children.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@miss_rodent it's embarrassingly simple.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

RE: @Discourse@mastodon.social

While a commendable argument in favor of open source software in 2026, the author's claim that the cost of vulnerability scanning will "certainly go down" is absurd.

It is about as inexpensive now as it can ever be because none of these companies have had to make money yet. They're starting to need to and there's no way they can keep the prices down if they do that.

There is no comparable technology in computing history with such a high marginal cost.

mastodon.social

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 2mo ago

So, I've used Claude at work now for like 3 weeks? I use it a few times a day but some days not at all. General conclusion: it's still meh. It's still nowhere near as good as people keep saying it is. Helpful? Occasionally. Reliable? For easy stuff, it's alright. Otherwise, flip a coin. I truly do not understand how people can use it all day, every day. At some point, you're going to be doing an absolute shit job if you do that.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@pizzafacts@blahaj.zone team starting HRT in 2025! *offers high five*

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@johns@social.librem.one to be honest, I hate using cash. But I also think businesses should be required to accept it.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@lerg don't worry, it's not like they're handling money or anything.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

RE: @eff@mastodon.social

It's not often I disagree with the EFF's position on something but I do here. The confounding issue is that the app stores have a monopoly on payment processing, a monopoly of their own making.

mastodon.social

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

"You have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our iniquity."- Isaiah 64:7

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@miss_rodent I've been trying to come up with a clever slogan about it related to Epstein. Any thoughts?

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange I'm pretty anti-AI but this seems like a reasonable way to handle it on a project as large as Rust.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange it's one of the most infuriating things I've ever experienced in tech.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@aral@mastodon.ar.al this worldwide push is truly madness.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Bronwyn@sfba.social when my Yorkie Penelope was still around, she liked feminine people the most (other than me) And she said trans women were women too.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@seiyria@mastodon.social under no circumstances did I or will I "try it". 😂

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@cwebber ya, it's bad. It's so sad because I genuinely love working with Ruby and Rails.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Quotes from skeet and quote skeet:

"The average person doesn’t give a fuck if AI has some niche use where it actually excels if used properly. In fact, that is what a tool is *supposed* to do and none of us will have a problem if it is used like that. What we see is AI fucking up real life in a massive way."

"Telling people about the good, useful use cases for AI is kinda like telling people about the 30-50 feral hogs you need your AR-15 for

It is entirely true and yet so completely divorced from the lived experience of your audience that you sound ridiculous"

https://bsky.app/profile/divinecoffeebinge.bsky.social/post/3mjwj2awkrk2v

bsky.app

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Photo55 totally, I was writing sites in the late 90s. I think the difference now is that the amount of effort to create something has never been lower with vibecoding. Vibecoding is a bad idea for a ton of reasons but it's definitely never been easier if you want to. That's what makes revealing private information about users to site and app owners more dangerous than ever.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ossguy@fedi.copyleft.org @cwebber@social.coop @LordCaramac@discordian.social @bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org @richardfontana@mastodon.social proprietary software companies extensively use GitHub and yet SFC's position is "don't use GitHub". There are so many things we do in free software and in the interactions with SFC and FSF that would be simpler if we used proprietary software. How many janky experiences have people been asking to tolerate to participate? Why shouldn't we use proprietary software there?

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Photo55 I think you may be misunderstanding my position. I don't much like GenAI. I think it's a net negative for society I also observe that people who might not have bothered writing websites or software are doing so with vibecoding.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@CrowOnAKettle I think the difference between those two systems is only a matter of degree. Even in the EU case, you're providing a targeting signal that previously didn't exist before. The only difference from CA's implementation is that it's a fuzzier signal.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@PseudoSpock @carlrichell and while I think it exceedingly unlikely, they could ban kids access to FOSS because it doesn't enforce the bans. The problem is the same, this just moves it around to somewhere else.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@CrowOnAKettle because that's what the laws say they have to do. The OS has to provide an API to share the information to any application that asks for it.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 1w ago

Replying to

@socketwench@masto.hackers.town we talked community-owned compute at NPDevSummit last year. This is a topic that @pono@mathstodon.xyz at Software Freedom Conservancy is interested in.

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@decryption are your engineering roles only available to folks who can work in Australia and New Zealand? Because holy cow, that Senior Software Engineer role looks cool 🙂

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Eric Schultz @wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@paul@notnull.space @mhoye@cosocial.ca of course it is ridiculous and nonsensical. But the default for most kids will be "have your status as a minor strongly implied to the app/site" because your browser and os will need to provide some sort of API for getting the user's age.

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