@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

foxxtrot

@foxxtrot@dice.camp

Tabletop, Tech, and Spirits

Work: Identity and Privacy @ Google
Play: Board Games and TTRPGs

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

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Capitalists hate capitalism; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/09/commissar-merck/

1/

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@bwinbwin @pluralistic People who've clearly never read The Wealth of Nations love to opine about Smith's worldview.

He literally wrote about the imbalance between Labor and Capital, lamenting that English law was Anti-Labor, and mused that industrialization was going to make this much worse.

The problem with Smith is that he wrote as if he were documenting a Natural Phenomenon, and as such was completely uninterested in discussing how the system could be different.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

tells employees that if they don't come to office 3 days a week their performance reviews could be affected. Not so Googley.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@lauren As a long-term full time remote Googler, this doesn't surprise me at all.

codinghorror, to random

“I mean, I’m sorry, but people seem to really like Two and a Half Men, and none of my writers want to write that. They all want to write Barry. And you know who watches Barry? Nobody.” https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/streaming-industry-netflix-max-disney-hulu-apple-tv-prime-video-peacock-paramount.html

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@codinghorror Will there? Because eventually people will realize that Netflix-style platforms can't possibly make enough profit to justify their massive spending.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

The incredible excitement around the country as everyone prepares for the Mike Pence Presidential Town Hall on CNN tomorrow is beyond measure, almost palpable! How can we all wait?

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@lauren It is incredible to me that Pence is polling at 5%. After debasing himself in the Trump Administration, and then deciding to not to an incredibly criminal thing that Trump fans wanted him to do, I just can't figure out who likes this wet rag of a man.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@lauren I'm actually surprised that Haley is polling down there, but it's a pleasant surprise, because if she could survive a primary (she won't), she could be a threat in the general, and I just don't know that I think Trump or Desantis have a real shot in the General.

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

Christ on a bike who is going to pay $3500 to watch Disney Plus on a thing that is strapped to your face?

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@seldo I can't wait to see how much money Apple burns in the Pit of VR.

Over/Under on whether it will be more than Meta?

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

So the question that now comes up regarding and -- especially given the decision to once again permit violence-inducing 2020 election denial videos -- is should or should not the term "Muskification" be capitalized?

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@lauren Sounds like a subclass of the Enshittification that @pluralistic has been talking about since last year.

lauren, to fediverse
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

*** Mastodon and Kafka ***

So now I'm being told that a few people on a instance with 1000s of users who complain that you don't use CW or alt-text the way they want can result in your being blocked for the entire instance, even when you've never received any notification of this.

Sort of like how you'd get arrested in fascist countries and never told why. Kafka would recognize this for sure.

I would assert that this makes even more of a toy than I thought it was, and utterly unreliable for much beyond trading photos of kitties. Leela the Siamese Snowshoe approves of kitty photos of course, but beyond that anyone depending on might charitably be called "misguided" at best, if my understanding of the situation is correct.

And I feel that the public needs to understand that they're buying into this sort of nonsense if they're looking at as an alternative to Elon's hellscape.

Now I'll probably get blocked for this post. -L

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@mattblaze @lauren Mastodon is definitely the most "entitled" social network, in this regard. Given how easy it is to block people, I'm constantly shocked how many people would rather moralize about nonsense than move on with their lives.

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

TIL https://feditrends.com/
Neat!

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@seldo Disappointed to see that Kissinger is trending and it's because he's still breathing.

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

Fact-checking is expensive; disinformation is not just free but immensely profitable https://mastodon.social/@brendannyhan/110435680316232563

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@seldo Though I doubt Meta was going to be paying the AP and other orgs for the fact checking services they were going to be providing.

stavvers, to random
@stavvers@masto.ai avatar

I think about this profound truth all the time

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@stavvers Corpo Media weaponized nostalgia against Nerds and so many people just kept thanking Daddy Disney for the abuse

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Quick note: If you follow me, you probably noticed that I post occasional photos. Unfortunately, the default display behavior on most Mastodon instances and clients crops many images unless you click on them. I hate this, as does every other photographer here, but it's not likely to change any time soon.

You can disable this broken behavior in the Mastodon web interface by unchecking a box under display preferences.

But in any case, please be aware you might not be seeing the whole photo.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@mattblaze The silver lining here, is that you quickly get to identify people worth blocking immediately.

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

It is extremely techbro that there is a focus on the world-ending potential of AI when the much closer and demonstrable risk is that marginalized groups become victims of automated discrimination and the reason is because tech bros aren't going to be personally affected by that.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@seldo Really shows how useless those unconscious bias trainings I'm required to attend are for Directors and Above.

Unless their hypothesis is that you can't have unconscious bias without consciousness.

mattblaze, (edited ) to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

I’m once again reminded of how deeply I despise the default behavior of this (and damn near every other) social media platform to crop photos to a pre-set aspect ratio in previews. (Some clients allow viewers to disable this, but that’s outside the control of the poster, who has no way to predict how your work will render)

The reasonable behavior to conserve screen real estate in previews is to downsize. Cropping alters the image, often in ways that destroy its meaning.

Grumble

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@sgf @mattblaze @oblomov @thomasjwebb Giving the poster control would absolutely involve protocol work, because you'd have to standardize what options would be added to the ActivityStreams attachment type, and how they should behave.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@oblomov @thomasjwebb @sgf @mattblaze I don't expect that most people are going to care to manage multiple ActivityPub integrations.

Sure, I could use PixelFed for image content, but that would require either I configure my MicroBlogging platform (Mastadon) to ignore Image posts for certain user, or forces the Posters to setup separate accounts for different content types, or whatever.

If the point of ActivityPub is interop, fragmenting the content streams just isn't likely to happen for most.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@oblomov @thomasjwebb @sgf @mattblaze That's fine that you don't see it as a problem. But most users probably will, or at the very least, ActivityPub creates problems if you need to separate your "MicroBlogging" and "Photo Sharing" feeds manually in order to get the preferred experience with the ecosystem.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@oblomov @thomasjwebb @sgf @mattblaze

People maintain these separate accounts because they are for separate networks. What value does the Fediverse provide if you have to manually segment your activity onto different platforms anyway?

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@oblomov @thomasjwebb @sgf @mattblaze I think you're grossly overestimating the number of users that are truly active on multiple social platforms. Many (or most) may have accounts on multiple platforms, but people tend to limit more of their activity to one or two.

If you're solution is "more frontends" for the same network, your network isn't adding any value, just complexity, and that complexity probably isn't serving users.

pluralistic, to ai
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

's Circle: We have to do because everyone else is doing ; everyone else is doing AI because we're doing Bard.

https://doctorow.medium.com/googles-ai-hype-circle-6158804d1299

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@bsmaalders @spamfodder @wa7iut @godzero @ukuku @pluralistic I am 100% for limiting property tax growth for homeowners to keep them from being priced out of their neighborhoods if they gentrify, but we should tax all non-primary residences (and commercial property) substantially higher than we do.

So many Bay Area landlords raking it in charging "market rent" on homes they pay incredibly low taxes on.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@karlauerbach @bsmaalders @spamfodder @wa7iut @godzero @ukuku @pluralistic I've seen too many people in places like Rural Idaho who were priced out of their homes by people driving up property taxes overpaying for vacation homes near ski hills to be comfortable completely repealing Prop 13, but it definitely needs to be adjusted.

No one should lose their home because they can't afford their taxes because the neighbors are suddenly a lot richer than they used to be.

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

Our dog has suddenly decided she doesn't like the noise Teslas make and I gotta say her judgement of brands can't be faulted.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@seldo I sincerely hope that Wiley is comfortable with other brands of EV.

lauren, (edited ) to internet
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

How long will Yaccarino last at as CEO?

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@lauren I'm pretty on board with the "Glass Cliff" hypothesis being floated, but honestly, a TV Ad Exec is a reasonable choice to try and appease advertisers while Elon still ruins the product as CTO.

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

Imagine fucking up a company so bad that you are already the go-to example of fucking up a company. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/cnn-slammed-trump-town-hall-reaction-1235390899/

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@seldo Yeah, but now he's hired an unidentified woman to take over in six weeks.

molly0xfff, (edited ) to random
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

Sam Bankman-Fried has filed motions to dismiss all but three charges in the criminal case against him.

The charges he is not contesting atm are:
5. Conspiracy to commit commodities fraud
6. Conspiracy to commit securities fraud
and
11. Conspiracy to commit money laundering

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590940/gov.uscourts.nysd.590940.136.0.pdf

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@molly0xfff The fact that his team isn't trying to dismiss those particular charges feels like it doesn't bode well for the "legitimacy" of the Crypto space.

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

My decision about whether to try Bluesky depends on what everyone else does. I just want to be where everyone else is, and not be around too many Nazis. My needs are simple.

foxxtrot,
@foxxtrot@dice.camp avatar

@mattblaze @lauren At this point, I'm looking forward to a return to smaller, more focused communities. Though there is a major problem to be solved in discovery of those communities.

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