@BillySmith@social.coop
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

BillySmith

@BillySmith@social.coop

I'm an engineer/musician/artist/designer/bricoleur/womble. :D

Now blogging at https://write.as/billysmith/

Currently working on #OSHW for the primary industry sectors; #Agriculture, #Aquaculture, #Energy, #PowerGeneration, #PowerStorage, #Sustainability, #Regeneration, #Resilience, #TerraForming.

You can't solve a #SocialProblem via TechnicalMeans, so i've focused on creating solutions that people can choose to build themselves. :D

#ADHD #TeamADHD #Womble :D

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ntnsndr, to random
@ntnsndr@social.coop avatar

Darn, tonight my kid really nailed some programming basics (conditionals and logic gates in block code) just in time for programming to be an irrelevant skill

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@ntnsndr

Learning to use tools is never irrelevant. :D

Machining skills didn't become obsolete when CNC machines were created.

In order to get the best from a CNC machine, you need to understand the manual skills. :D

Learning new skills means that your kid will have a greater perspective, as they will see more of what is possible. :D

BillySmith, to ADHD
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

Self-employed UK folk.

Remember to do your tax return before the end of the month.

Then check that they've received it. :D

I called them this morning, and found out i still needed to send some of the paperwork in... 🤦‍♂️

Problem solved now, but... :D

bitprophet, to random
@bitprophet@social.coop avatar

I am once again asking Cultured Code to realize that many users of Things.app have days /not ending exactly at fucking midnight/ 😩

Signed, someone whose todo list was nearly emptied out, and now has like 20 'new' items on it.

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@bitprophet

Can you specify the day start/stop time?

I've done far too many swing shifts/graveyard shifts/night shifts for this to not be obvious.

luis_in_brief, to random
@luis_in_brief@social.coop avatar

My wife does this and it’s become a good start to the year for her. Recommended if you’re into yoga. https://mastodon.social/@yaelwrites/111681973508384717

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@luis_in_brief

Start the year as you mean to go on. :D

bitprophet, to random
@bitprophet@social.coop avatar

OH: “Rule of law is like a Terry Pratchett-style god that requires believers, as many as possible, in order to exist.”

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@bitprophet

You have a treat in store. :D

I'd go for the chronological publishing order first, as that was the order that they were written in, and later, re-read to follow the character story-arcs.

You can see the difference as the world-building develops. :D

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Anna Bower 1/...:

In a new filing at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, special counsel argues that is not immune from federal election interference charges.

Andrew Weissmann:

Trump defense to impeachment charge was: the Senate has no jurisdiction as I am no longer in office.

Trump defense to criminal charge is: I am immune since you did not convict me in the Senate impeachment trial.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415.1208583920.0.pdf

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@GottaLaff

Like the scene from Duck Soup, when Groucho was chairing a meeting:

G - "Old Business."

  • Someone raising something that G doesn't want to discuss...

G interjects - "That's New Business!"

G - "Now to discuss New Business"

  • Same person raising same point

G interjects - "That's Old Business." 🤦‍♂️

J12t, to random
@J12t@social.coop avatar

On his podcast on decentralized social media, @mike rheotically asks:

What if the web wasn't just links between web pages, but it also had links to people? Good question!

This was fundamentally why I created LID -- Light-Weight-Identity -- a protocol for user-centric digital identity almost 20 years ago! (2004).

It's lost to tech history, but perhaps these days it's time to dig it back out, as so many other good ideas from back then suddenly become viable.

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@J12t @mike

Have you come across the CheapID approach?

http://guptaoption.com/cheapid/

BillySmith, to random
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

Reading the latest news from @davidgerard and Amy Castor on Crypto-finance:

https://amycastor.com/2023/12/28/crypto-collapse-mt-gox-payouts-tether-hooks-up-the-feds-sec-says-no-to-coinbase-crypto-media-mergers/

"The stupid! It burns!" 🤦‍♂️

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What is your favorite breakfast? What is the actual breakfast you usually eat?

BillySmith,
@BillySmith@social.coop avatar

@RickiTarr

Coffee! :D

More Coffee! :D

weirdwriter, to Pubtips

deleted_by_author

    •
    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @weirdwriter @bookstodon

    Anyone who implements this is going to get their arse sued into oblivion. :D

    This creates a whole new range of attack surfaces where there were none before. :D

    Drive-by malware installation has been a thing for decades, but this patent extends the range of potential routes.

    I can't see any insurance company providing anti-hacking insurance cover for the resulting mess, so the business model is screwed. :D

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @Yuki @bookstodon @weirdwriter

    Don;t give them any more ideas... :D

    shoq, to random
    @shoq@mastodon.social avatar

    Completely understandable. The robot confused the worker with Elon Musk. No jury will convict it.

    Tesla robot attacks auto worker

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyXjUJee1Bw

    > A worker was attacked while making a software update on 2 other robots. The other robot was still turned on when it attacked. Chief Transportation Correspond...

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @mike @Dragon @shoq

    How can we use AI to distract the regulators from the OSHA violations?

    pvonhellermannn, (edited ) to random
    @pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green avatar

    As 2023 is ending, I recall my hopeful optimism a year ago that 2023 might be a for climate awareness, carbon emissions plateauing and / - it being the 50th anniversary of Schumacher’s and all that (see 🧵 in link) .

    I kept on sharing this great cover (“the new world is almost born” ). But has 2923 been a turning point? 1/5

    https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109607575259368216

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @stiofi @RadicalAnthro @pvonhellermannn @muellertadzio

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkQCy-UrLYw

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @pvonhellermannn @stiofi @RadicalAnthro @muellertadzio

    He's a grim, but realistic thinker. :D

    One of his most effective works:

    http://resiliencemaps.org/

    His work on housing structures:

    http://hexayurt.com/

    and his public archive:

    http://www.files.howtolivewiki.com/

    ajroach42, to random
    @ajroach42@retro.social avatar

    If your response to "we should dismantle this system of oppression" is "and replace it with what?" Or "only if we rebuild something functionally identical" you're a part of the problem.

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @ajroach42

    The question is what part of the functionality of the system do they want?

    If it's infrastructure necessary for survival, then the part that needs replication is the "for survival" part, but without the oppression.

    If they just want the oppression to continue, then FTS.

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @ajroach42

    One of the problems that most naive anarchists have to face is that the machinery of oppression is also the same machinery that is keeping a lot of people alive.

    Yes, we should tear down the machinery of oppression, but we still need the "keeping us alive" part.

    That requires a building mind-set, rather than a tear-it-all-down-RANDOMLY mind-set.

    Systematically tear it down, and re-build better at the same time. :D

    georgetakei, to random

    The “We’re a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy” crowd sure is having a hard time with the idea that the Constitution expressly bans insurrectionists from being on the ballot.

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @Red_Shirt_Dude @georgetakei

    Is that why they keep referring to the 5th amendment? :D

    BillySmith, to uklaw
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    The campaigning organisation, Liberty, has just published a Guide to Protesting in the UK.

    While the advice about dealing with the police is relevant to the UK laws, the rest of the advice will apply everywhere. :D

    More details here:

    https://action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/140640/petition/1

    Please boost and share this. :D

    00Aaron, to random
    @00Aaron@social.coop avatar

    A 2016 Georgetown University study, for example, found that advertorials are confused for “real” content by about two-thirds of people. Another study... found that only one in 10 people recognized native advertising as advertising rather than reporting.

    Michelle Amazeen, the lead author on the Boston University study, found that those who did recognize sponsored content for what it was thought less of the outlet they were reading.

    https://theintercept.com/2023/12/05/fossil-fuel-industry-media-company-advertising/

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @00Aaron

    In 2020, the Evening Standard in London made a statement that it was no longer going to label "sponsored stories" as advertising, or state who the sponsors are.

    Since then most Londoners don't trust anything that is written in there.

    Always the question of "Qui Bonos?", but the cynicism about the London newspapers has been insufficient since the 1700's. :D

    ncoca, to China
    @ncoca@social.coop avatar

    #China security allegedly funded a far-right #European politician to gather data and "influence public opinion and politics in its favor," including attacking experts raising issues around #Uyghur human rights.

    And if you are surprised a "#Communist" party is linked to the far-right...you shouldn't be.

    https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/12/15/how-chinese-spies-gave-orders-to-a-far-right-european-politician_6345886_4.html

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @ncoca

    Archive version here:

    https://archive.ph/sKXIe :D

    loshmi, to random
    @loshmi@social.coop avatar

    Once climate change starts hitting white people in the Global Northwest y’all are really gonna learn how undemocratic capitalism is.

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @loshmi @MBridegam

    In Peter Watts's Rifters trilogy, the second book, Maelstrom, has a grim prediction of how the climate refugees will be treated.

    https://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

    Don't read any of his stuff when you are depressed... :D

    "When I feel my will to live getting too strong, I pick up a Peter Watts book" - James Nicoll

    eric, to ethics
    @eric@social.coop avatar

    @military @ethics 🧵

    I am starting a thread on killing at warfare:

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @eric

    Resilience maps have a good breakdown of where things can go wrong, and how they can be fixed.

    http://resiliencemaps.org/

    Mrfunkedude, to random
    @Mrfunkedude@mastodon.social avatar

    Damn!

    @peertube with no hesitation dropped a truth bomb today...

    "The realization that led us to develop PeerTube is that no one can rival YouTube or Twitch. You would need Google’s money, Amazon servers’ farms... Above all, you would need the greed to exploit millions of creators and videomakers, groom them into formatting their content to your needs, and feed them the crumbs of the wealth you gain by farming their audience into data livestock."

    https://joinpeertube.org/news/peertube-future-2024

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @Bindestriche @peertube @3dcandy @Mrfunkedude @PeerTube_Isolation

    I would suggest reading the Bruce Sterling short story, "Are you for 86?". :D

    One of the themes in there is how the fringe groups always end up using technology for their own purposes.

    jonny, to random
    @jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

    Facing the terror of going from well defined problem to inventing new shit and im so ready but also committing to even one decision is literally impossible

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @jonny

    "The Terror of the Blank Page!" :D

    BillySmith,
    @BillySmith@social.coop avatar

    @jonny

    But no slate is really blank.

    Just by making a choice of the materials, you automatically change the shapes of potential solution-spaces.

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