@joannaholman@aus.social
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

joannaholman

@joannaholman@aus.social

@joannamuses on twitter. Thoughts on books, Eurovision, Melbourne happenings, music and culture with bonus architecture and cute animal pictures.

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joannaholman, to random
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

Most of what’s happened under Elmo’s leadership at Twitter has been terrible but the way community notes point out scams and misrepresentation on paid ads is a thing of beauty. Imagine paying for ads only to have your ad run with a notice of why you’re terrible 😂

joannaholman, to random
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

Extrodinary article about people facing the joys and struggles of reimagining their lives after a new treatment gives very substantial remission on a condition that was otherwise almost guaranteed to kill them by their 30’s

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/cystic-fibrosis-trikafta-breakthrough-treatment/677471/

joannaholman, to random
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

All the problems with and drama around AI content are extra rediculous when you consider how little most people need more content. My house contains enough books to last a decade or two and I’m not even managing to keep up with all the episodes of podcasts made just by people I know offline. Why would we toy with things that drown us in even more content?

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

A Polish friend sent me this story about kangaroos that escaped from a farm and are now loose in the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. Gives new meaning to the phrase "a few roos loose in the top paddock"! (Text is in Polish, try the translate function.)

Kangury zadomowiły się w Tatrach. Uciekinierzy przetrwali zimę - Wiadomości https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/swiat/kangury-w-tatrach-uciekinierzy-przetrwali-zime/nft5kbz

joannaholman,
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

@timrichards there’s also a part of the UK with a feral escaped wallabies issue

joannaholman, to random
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

That the Singaporean government paying Taylor Swift incentives to make Singapore her only south East Asian tour stop has turned into an international diplomatic incident proves we live in the silliest timeline https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/05/taylor-swift-singapore-exclusive-southeast-asia-eras-tour-deal

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to tech
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

In an age of LLMs, is it time to reconsider human-edited web directories?

Back in the early-to-mid '90s, one of the main ways of finding anything on the web was to browse through a web directory.

These directories generally had a list of categories on their front page. News/Sport/Entertainment/Arts/Technology/Fashion/etc.

Each of those categories had subcategories, and sub-subcategories that you clicked through until you got to a list of websites. These lists were maintained by actual humans.

Typically, these directories also had a limited web search that would crawl through the pages of websites listed in the directory.

Lycos, Excite, and of course Yahoo all offered web directories of this sort.

(EDIT: I initially also mentioned AltaVista. It did offer a web directory by the late '90s, but this was something it tacked on much later.)

By the late '90s, the standard narrative goes, the web got too big to index websites manually.

Google promised the world its algorithms would weed out the spam automatically.

And for a time, it worked.

But then SEO and SEM became a multi-billion-dollar industry. The spambots proliferated. Google itself began promoting its own content and advertisers above search results.

And now with LLMs, the industrial-scale spamming of the web is likely to grow exponentially.

My question is, if a lot of the web is turning to crap, do we even want to search the entire web anymore?

Do we really want to search every single website on the web?

Or just those that aren't filled with LLM-generated SEO spam?

Or just those that don't feature 200 tracking scripts, and passive-aggressive privacy warnings, and paywalls, and popovers, and newsletters, and increasingly obnoxious banner ads, and dark patterns to prevent you cancelling your "free trial" subscription?

At some point, does it become more desirable to go back to search engines that only crawl pages on human-curated lists of trustworthy, quality websites?

And is it time to begin considering what a modern version of those early web directories might look like?

@degoogle

joannaholman,
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

@ajsadauskas @degoogle I guess the problem though is how you make sure they are actually maintained by a human acting in good faith. The way community Facebook groups meant to be for this kinda thing get spammed by likely fake businesses doesn’t give me hope

timrichards, to melbourne
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Interesting push for shops, cafes etc to open later in the Melbourne CBD, as there are big numbers of people around in the evenings. Makes sense - I'd particularly like to see cafes stay open later.

Melbourne’s push for twilight shopping every single night

(maybe paywalled) https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/open-late-melbourne-s-push-for-twilight-shopping-every-single-night-20240304-p5f9ok.html

joannaholman,
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

@timrichards It makes sense even if office work patterns revert to a lot more like prepandemic. When I was working full time from the office I had a lunch break that was strictly no longer than 45 minutes. That meant shopping mostly had to happen after work but a lot of places were closing by 5.30

joannaholman, to random
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Chocolate 3D printers are the ultimate completely unnecessary but also completely necessary invention

https://cocoapress.com/

joannaholman, to melbourne
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

Only in Brunswick would the opportunity to get a real tattoo be on offer at the local community festival 😂

joannaholman, to random
@joannaholman@aus.social avatar

Feels kinda wild that we’ve normalised people scanning QR codes that could be sending people anywhere

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @lzg @kcarruthers most conspiracy theorists never seem to have organised anything much in their lives. Their confidence that large groups of people can be successfully organised to perfectly complete complex tasks and keep the whole thing secret is adorable

    joannaholman, to Dogs
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    Just met a really good dog

    joannaholman, to random
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    It’s a real delight introducing people who aren’t online much to Internet drama and watching them react in real time. It was a privilege to tell someone about the Glasgow Willy Wonka experience

    cmconseils, to random French
    @cmconseils@mastodon.social avatar

    If this isn't the winner of #Eurovision2024, there's no hope for humanity.

    video/mp4

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @cmconseils It's going to be SUCH an interesting year at Eurovision. So many countries are going with really interesting genres and big creative vision. Even the Swiss are doing whatever this is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiGDvM14Kwg

    joannaholman, to random
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    Are you a partnered person who wants to better support the single people in your life? Offer to be someone they call about home or car related problems you might know about. Single people who don't have family who can help with advice and second opinions on home, appliance or car problems are stuck working with increasingly less helpful google results or expensive professional call outs. In the event that they do need to get a professional involved, you can help them not get ripped off or harassed which is a common problem for young women dealing with tradies and mechanics.

    joannaholman, to random
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    Everyday we stray further from the light

    danielbowen, to random
    @danielbowen@mastodon.social avatar

    Looks like Big Tobacco is after Albo

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @danielbowen getting a lot of pro-vaping ads on other platforms claiming vaping is great for helping people quit smoking from a group who claims to be a charity

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @danielbowen these guys

    KathyReid, to random
    @KathyReid@aus.social avatar

    I have an idea for #IWD #IWD2024, pass it on.

    We run a fake event, with a $0 cost entry fee.

    We tell everyone we're going to the IWD event, and we effusively praise the merits of the outstanding female speaker and her/their novel take on reaching equality and equity.

    Then we take 2 hours for ourselves to have a coffee, read a book, and NOT do non-promoteable performative #DEI work while we have a gender pay gap of 15%.

    How does that sound?

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @KathyReid Or charge a fee that companies pay that goes to a womens focused charity

    joannaholman, to random
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    Today in AI silliness: a UK event company advertises an interactive Willy Wonka experience with AI pictures and gibberish text like this. People spend huge amounts of money on tickets. They reality is very Fyre Festival, the police get called

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czrlr3dw2x3o

    An ai generated pic of neon colored lollies and butterflies beside a waterfall

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    You could get some decent band names out of the text on this

    joannaholman, to random
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    You could probably deduce a lot about Australian corporate attitudes to and trust of local communities by looking at where the supermarket trolleys need a coin deposit and where they don’t….

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @luciedigitalni those too

    juergen_hubert, to random
    @juergen_hubert@thefolklore.cafe avatar

    OR, instead of encouraging a majority of Americans to take weight-loss drugs in order to "improve the economy", the USA could change their city infrastructure so that walking and bicycling to get around become viable options.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/us-economy-faster-growth-ozempic-glp-1-weight-loss-drugs-2024-2

    joannaholman,
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    @juergen_hubert @timrichards ozempic doesn’t even lead to weight loss for everyone, especially when hormonal disorders like PCOS are involved. There’s also a lot side effects and stuff we don’t know about long term impacts. While its impact on blood sugar makes it a gamble worth taking for many diabetics, I wouldn’t feel comfortable encouraging its use just for weight loss.

    joannaholman, to melbourne
    @joannaholman@aus.social avatar

    The public transport network includes one short boat route that barely anyone seems to know about. I gotta go try it one day https://westgatepunt.com/

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