@acarson@babka.social avatar

acarson

@acarson@babka.social

Laying the groundwork for an insanity defense since 1980. Web developer since 1998. WordPress user since 2005 and core contributor since 2012. Web accessibility enthusiast constantly in a state of improving my craftsmanship, jazz lover and book lover. And finally, proudly and unapologetically Jewish.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

drew, to random

I'm old enough to remember when Chrome rolled out automatic alt text descriptions, in the ancient past of 2019. https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/get-image-descriptions/

So controversial! We faced immediate backlash. "How dare you?" they said. "Google is taking all the good alt text production jobs!" they said. Nevertheless, we persisted, in the face of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Wait, I'm sorry. Actually, nobody said anything like that. Man! That would've been so stupid, right?

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@drew @matt There's some really scary "AI" shit going on right now, (looking at you Microsoft with your recall project), but FF using AI to do automatic image descriptions isn't part of it. Unfortunately a lot of AI-skeptical arguments are pretty lazy at this point though, and I'm sure that's part of the dust-up.

wiljames, to random

This is wrong on so many levels. Not only does it do away with separation of church and state, students with disabilities are left in the cold. Private schools do not have to acommodate students with disabilities. | Billions in taxpayer dollars now go to religious schools via vouchers - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/06/03/tax-dollars-religious-schools/

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@bryansmart @wiljames No we object to tax payer funds being used for religious schools, which take advantage of religious freedom in order to avoid abiding by laws intended to ensure they don't discriminate against students with disabilities.

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@wiljames @bryansmart Honestly I think a lot of parents are sending their kids to religious schools because, aside from the disability issue, the education the students get is miles better when it comes to secular subjects than they will get in their local public schools, and anyone who wants to ensure their tax dollars don't go to religious schools is going to have to start stepping up and doing things like becoming active in local schoolboard meetings and such in order to make public schools provide better.

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@bryansmart @wiljames These vouchers pull from property taxes don't they?

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@wiljames @bryansmart That's not how taxes work.

feedback, to Jewish
@feedback@babka.social avatar

Shalom, I'm Feedback! I'm a musician, photographer, and techie currently working in cybersecurity. Like a lot of online Jews, I've been feeling a much stronger pull towards Jewish community spaces in the wake of current events, and was extremely excited to learn about the existence of ! Looking forward to getting to know people here!

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@shekinahcancook @feedback I love jazz too I will absolutely check this out.

bryansmart, to random

In the last 2 months of selling and buying a house, I've created more accounts than in the last 4 years. Everyone, from agents, to lenders, to inspectors, to appraisers, to insurance and tax whatever have a portal. They all seemingly use different E-document providers. Everyone loves sending secure messages, only delivered via different secure e-mail portals. Everyone wants to setup 2FA. Everyone is a fucking special snowflake. I'm so burned out on it all.

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@bryansmart I hope it all results in something positive.

rochelle, to random
@rochelle@fenetre.dev avatar

This is so aggravating. The museum is now closed because their staff walked out.

Seattle museum staff walk out over exhibit about antisemitism they said ‘conveyed Zionist perspectives’

https://www.jta.org/2024/05/28/united-states/seattle-museum-staff-walk-out-over-exhibit-about-antisemitism-they-said-conveyed-zionist-perspectives

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@rochelle I hope all of them lose their jobs.

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@dukepaaron @tjcasser @rochelle Which is still giving a green light to bigotry. But I suppose either way you slice it, they're just going to say that anti-Jewish bigotry and conspiracy theorizing is the acceptable form they'll still keep around so there's a societal release valve.

serge, to random
@serge@babka.social avatar

When I created Babka Social, I did so with the intent that it would be a place for Twitter and Facebook users to go.

While I think new users on the instance is great and I encourage and welcome folks, I find it hard to celebrate that people are coming there because they feel unwelcome due to antisemitism or antisemitic admins on other instances.

That's a Fediverse problem.

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@paul @serge To add to what Serge is saying in this conversation, I think the part of all this that cuts so deep is that the fediverse has consistently held itself out as essentially holier than big social and even the rest of the internet when it comes to various bigotries. And then October 7 happened and it proceeds to, after watching all the bad things everyone else did with regard to antisemitism, go "Hold my coffee" and prove that in the end it's not only no better but often far worse than everything else it criticizes.

acarson, to random
@acarson@babka.social avatar

I believe, in these times of great controversy and flaming hot takes, I may have found something that has the potential to unite all of the fediverse.

If you're DDOSing the Internet Archive you're a horrible group of people (or organization) and you really should quit trying to deprive us of one of the best things on these here internets.

philip_cardella, to random
@philip_cardella@historians.social avatar

The constant low level on here is nauseating.

I know I've only recently started to recognize it and I apologize to my Jewish brothers, sisters and family here.

acarson,
@acarson@babka.social avatar

@shekinahcancook @philip_cardella Seconding.

chris, to random
@chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com avatar

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    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @chris I went to college with a guy who had entered at 15 and was on track to have his PHD by 22. I'm not sure all of the other stuff surrounding the degree such as the social stuff was particularly easy for him.

    18+ dukepaaron, to random
    @dukepaaron@babka.social avatar

    9 times out of 10 if I say something derogatory about the haskalah someone will inevitably complain that I'm insulting secular Jews.

    Which is a whole big bag of some kind of hangup that would be interesting for some Jewish Studies department to field research on.

    Maybe we could fund that instead of the new holocaust museum in Beavertown, Somestate, USA.

    By the way, the haskalah was slow poison and it's still rotting away our insides.

    Rimshot gif. Tear falling from koala characters eye.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @shekinahcancook @dukepaaron @raf @pixelartdragon We can include America in this, not just Europe. And not everything that resulted from the Haskalah is bad, (the work that's been done regarding inclusion of people with disabilities, just as an example), but some of it has turned out to be very bad for the Jews, (the militant assimilation because it was thought that this would save us and it turns out to not have done that at all, for example).

    chris, to random
    @chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @chris I have Copilot turned off, and I don't have Github tied to my IDE.

    acarson, to random
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    Well this is awkward! "New 9/11 Evidence Points to Deep Saudi Complicity. Two decades of U.S. policy appear to be rooted in a mistaken understanding of what happened that day." Also this is really going to mess up the Biden Administration's plans for that grand deal. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/september-11-attacks-saudi-arabia-lawsuit/678430/

    QasimRashid, to random
    @QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

    Blinken on ICC Warrants for:
    •Putin: "Anyone who's a party to the ICC and has obligations should fulfill their obligations & turn over Putin."

    •Netanyahu: "US rejects the ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants for Israeli officials & Hamas."

    Biden on ICC Warrants for:
    •Putin: "The ICC warrants against Putin make a very strong point. He's clearly committed war crimes."

    •Netanyahu: "The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous."

    Smh

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @rameshgupta @8124 @Properganda If the AP is providing a feed to AJ after AJ's been caught one too many times disseminating Hamas propaganda, then the AP is a de facto propaganda outlet, to say nothing of the years-long adherence to Hamas's rules that's already been mentioned in this thread. The AP can either be independent. or it can follow Hamas's rules and pass info to AJ, but it can't do both.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @rameshgupta @8124 @Properganda If you know that something's a propaganda outlet, and you're still licensing your content to them, then you're culpable. We live in a world where information is constantly weaponized and traditional media organizations are going to have to adapt to the new reality. They're not doing that.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @rameshgupta @8124 @Properganda While we're at it, can we just admire the irony of the same people who have been screaching for years now about how Fox News should be banned because misinformation are now outraged because Israel is banning media outlets? Just trying to claw some positivity out of this timeline.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @8124 @rameshgupta @Properganda First Amendment absolutism is going to be the death of us.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @8124 @rameshgupta @Properganda Also Tucker's antisemitism don't forget that. And he has the ear of Trump.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @8124 @rameshgupta @Properganda He's going to botch it, Biden has never been good on his feet except in a clock-is-right-twice-a-day sense. And while most of the time that's not really important, it's vitally important in an election year.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @8124 @rameshgupta @Properganda I don't know. I mean he could surprise me I guess, but then he has to get through the rest of the time without stepping on anymore rakes, and I just don't see that happening. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that a lot of people are going to be in for a 2016-style shock come November, except this time will be way worse because Trump is nothing but openly petty and vindictive these days.

    bryansmart, to random

    I know ChatGPT 4O is amazing, but I'm beyond revolted and offended by it's fake caring enthusiastic attitude. I expect to ask it about my friend's cancer, and it either tell me how amazing it is I'm getting this first hand experience, or to tell me how sorry it feels I'm going through this. Either is infuriating in a way hard to explain, and inspires fantasies of kicking OpenAI devs in the balls! The world is full of fake. Do we really need an LLM pretending to care? Fucking revolting!

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @jscholes @bryansmart Once again we have a feature that at best should be opt-in not opt-out.

    acarson,
    @acarson@babka.social avatar

    @bryansmart @jscholes What's even more messed up about this is I can almost guarantee there was 0 user testing to find out if this pretend caring/empathy was anything users actually want. It was likely someone sitting in a meeting going "This is a good idea" followed immediately by everyone else in the meeting being yes men about it and then it got implemented.

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