@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

samueljohnson

@samueljohnson@mstdn.social

Scientist, MBA, ex IT professional, Irish & European
Lived 30+ years on 4 continents, now back in Ireland.

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

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What do you think is a subject that most people misunderstand, and if they were more educated in the topic it would probably change their mind?

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@RickiTarr If people knew how the surveillance economy worked and how it has almost trashed democracy they might believe it should be regulated

https://www.eff.org/wp/behind-the-one-way-mirror

Privacymatters, to random
@Privacymatters@mastodon.social avatar

The first social media babies are adults now. Some are pushing for laws to protect kids from their parents’ oversharing

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/29/us/social-media-children-influencers-cec/index.html?

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@Privacymatters The US's absolutist position on free speech is going to make progress on this difficult. Families of victims of serial killers who tried to prevent killers profiting from book and film deals under "Son of Sam" laws in NY and CA had Supreme Court overrule those laws. It's going to take a privacy amendment or something similar but as long as govt likes buying the data that isn't looking on the cards. 🤷‍♂️

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

The endless tedium of Brexiters wanting not just cake, but a discount

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-weighs-value-for-money-of-returning-to-eu-science-after-brexit-hiatus/

davetroy, to random
@davetroy@toad.social avatar

📄NEW: If Donald Trump is elected, what will it mean for US and global security? The history behind his motivations runs deep and is tightly connected to Putin's nuclear ambitions and his KGB past. My latest, and maybe most important, piece in Washington Spectator.
https://washingtonspectator.org/wide-angle-nuclear-blackmail/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@davetroy I don't disagree, but reviewing his cognitive processes as if they had any coherence at all flatters him. He's a deeply disturbed and dangerous psychopath.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@davetroy The "thoughts" of an imbecile are... important? 🤔

What's important is why so many Americans can't see he's an imbecile.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/04/plans-to-redefine-extremism-would-include-undermining-uk-values

Dear oh dear. Anyone favouring Irish reunification is now an extremist.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Brexit: More irreparable damage - to the London stock market, and with it to the economy & tax revenues. 🤦

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/04/17/brexit-ruined-the-stock-market-and-not-even-rejoining-the-eu-will-fix-it/

Note: Many Americans who worked in the City of London did so on Irish passports. Quite a few have gone to Frankfurt, Paris & Dublin, cities in which employers can recruit from the entire EU (and in Ireland's case the UK as well).

ChrisMayLA6, to Europe
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

For those of us who miss & are sceptical about the Lexiter position that its all a neoliberal conspiracy, here's John Palmer's obituary for Jaques Delors, making the point that his idea of an EU which strengthened & protected rights was at the centre of his vision for a 'federalising' EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/31/jacques-delors-eu-champion-french-statesman-died-98-europe

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @greenback 👌 I studied UK law some time ago (more than a decade) and, as someone who'd been out of Europe for years, was quite surprised at the extent to which the Companies Act of 2006 aligned the UK with European norms on "enlightened shareholder interest" (duties of social and environmental responsibility). Seemed a decisive break w Friedmanite economics and one curiously uncelebrated in UK, as if embarrassing to imaginary "special relationship."

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

A grotesque breach of trust:

Sharing personal medical records collected for research with insurance businesses despite explicit commitments this would not be done:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/12/private-uk-health-data-donated-medical-research-shared-insurance-companies

with utterly worthless assurances about deidentification (see eg, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymous-data).

The weasel words about ethicists consulted and no physical samples being shared are sickening and deserve public reaction to

www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/team/naomi-allen

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

UK institutions admired in Ireland:

  1. BBC*
  2. NHS**
  3. University of Kent mirror service for Linux distributions§

§ Ireland's HEAnet's counterpart is simply unreliable by comparison. I wonder does Gavin Esler know. Too bad he's not here.

  • not as much as it was (thanks to inability or unwillingness to challenge Brexiter lies about NI / Ireland).

** ditto; Ireland ahead on most metrics from child mortality to longevity, and the gap is widening.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

This is a superb article by a disillusioned British unionist whose journey exactly matches that of Scottish friends of mine in Ireland, all of whom voted No to independence in 2014, and every one of whom is now strongly in favour of ending the union. Most, and most of their children, now have Irish citizenship.

https://bylines.scot/democracy/the-challenge-for-labour-in-scotland/

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

How to alienate neighbours

The right wing London "think tank" Policy Exchange has published a paper "Closing the Back Door" accusing Ireland of being a threat to the UK's security*, bc weak on defence, allegedly. And of suffering from Anglophobia.**

GB closed the "back door" of the open British border in Ireland w passport controls during WW2 and they persisted until 1953. Pending the obvious solution this option remains available.

*https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO

**ie, a dislike of imperialism

BrideOfLinux, to random
@BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu avatar

Actually, just the act of using Windows should be enough to woo you away from Windows: These cool KDE Plasma features could woo you from Windows https://www.zdnet.com/article/these-cool-kde-plasma-features-could-woo-you-from-windows/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@BrideOfLinux Have you ever tried going back to it? I mean just to solve a problem for someone? 7 was the last tolerable version imo. After that 🤦.

Funnily enough, by chance, my main laptop for the last few years belonged to Microsoft's IT manager in Ireland. He did a clean install of Windows 10 and talked it up. He was surprised when I said I'd be wiping it. 😁

BrideOfLinux, to random
@BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu avatar

You've heard of slumdog millionaires. How about scumdog billionaires?: Cloudflare Billionaire Matthew Prince Fights Utah Locals Over House, … https://archive.ph/2024.04.17-121225/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-17/cloudflare-billionaire-matthew-prince-fights-utah-locals-over-house-dogs-wall

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@BrideOfLinux @thepoliticalcat

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince

An American Prigozhin of sorts. A right wing mercenary.

stevelord, to random
@stevelord@bladerunner.social avatar

New blog post from me about making active decisions about what's important to me around the software I use: What I Want From Technology

https://thedorkweb.bearblog.dev/what-i-want-from-technology/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@stevelord Much to agree with. I use Tiddlywiki among other things (Obsidian, Joplin and several others) which may be worth a look.

andymckay, to random
@andymckay@mastodon.social avatar

I gave Jira AI a try. So I typed this into AI to see what would happen. Was not disappointed. Well alright I was. Haven't found it give a useful or correct answer yet.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@andymckay Why did nobody think of this before?! It's fantastic.

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

I think everyone can relate to this systems archetype!
https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2024/05/29/tb871-archetype-1-fixes-that-fail/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Ofc, not all unintended consequences are negative. Viagra (sildenafil)'s effect was discovered as side effect of a treatment for heart problems. I'm assuming it causes more benign results than negative!

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

Well, after having leased an Polestar 2 for eight months, this will be the first night I get to charge it at 7.5p/kWh

This car has cost me a fortune so far. Hopefully, I'll manage to recoup some of that, and the £1k EV charger installation cost over the remaining 16 months of the lease.

(It's super fun to drive though, so that makes up for some of it)

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Surely you'll use the charger on your next EV?

FWIW my favourite EV source of information is Mr EV's YouTube channel. @tillathenun. Mrs EV is a delight. Better than Top Gear.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

They have a handy map of where I’m going tomorrow 🙂

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@jon Have someone else send a transcript / video.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

A case of the mail being in the Czech

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2024/may/29/royal-mail-takeover-daniel-kretinsky-ofwat-fines-water-companies-business-live

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Donald Trump verdict: guilty on all 34 counts. 👌👏

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sellathechemist @Teri_Kanefield is a non-partisan expert worth a follow for US legal analysis.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sellathechemist No appeals. Sentencing next on 11 July.

emmalbriant, to random
@emmalbriant@mastodon.online avatar

apparently kept TAPES https://news.sky.com/story/jeffrey-epstein-court-documents-allege-sex-tapes-taken-of-prince-andrew-bill-clinton-and-sir-richard-branson-13044275

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@emmalbriant The Feds removed encrypted DVDs from a safe in his NYC home. I doubt they were decrypted or that the contents will ever be revealed; thought it would all be dismissed as AI generated kompromat otherwise but seeing the breathless reporting now, w zero evidence, I'm not so sure.

There were suggestions long ago that the CIA was well aware of his blackmail MO and may have facilitated some of it for political purposes overseas.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

https://mastodon.green/@davidallengreen/112523959168869114

Droll story about a desire to finish toast* in this characteristic piece from DAG.

*reminds me somehow of the sad tale of one of Sultan Mehmed's brothers who asked to be allowed to finish his chestnuts before being strangled with a bowstring (recounted in Constantinople - City of the World's Desire by Philip Mansel), even if revolution isn't necessarily a death sentence.

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