Replies

rheinze, 12 days ago to geography German

In the reporting from the heat crisis in #NewDelhi, I haven’t yet seen texts about the role the #urban environment itself plays in it, despite the city being notorious for its steep inequality in terms of air pollution, heat and distribution of green spaces. Has anyone come across any such texts, preferably urbanist ones?
@sociology
@geography

stefanlaser, 12 days ago

@rheinze @sociology @geography I think that many texts and books on eviction (and the World-Class City) touch on this. I remember this as a hot topic, no pun, in Delhi. Trees being removed to make space for traffic and business. NGOs such as Chintan and publications such as Downtoearth discuss it as well, I think

inquiline, 12 days ago (edited 11 days ago) to random

Does anyone have a recommendation for an affordable, user-friendly chatter environment a la Slack where it's possible to have, say, up to 500 accounts? Asking for a campus AAUP chapter.

We're willing to spend some $ but don't want to break the bank, and don't need a lot of bells & whistles. We do need it to be easy to use.

Update: Thanks to everyone who offered ideas! We approached @zulip & they generously sponsored a noncommercial/educational free account for us. Super awesome 😊

stefanlaser, 12 days ago

@billmason @inquiline I work with Slack, Element and Mattermost in different contexts. I prefer Element to Mattermost because of the better threading. Slack, of course, is the most annoying programme ever. So I would also recommend Element. Great model, good UI, all functions one needs and more.

But don't turn on the encryption level to strict because some of our accounts are constantly not de-encrypted. That's a bit annoying. Maybe it's also because our uni may be behind with the updates.

kuketzblog, 14 days ago (edited 13 days ago) to firefox German

Ich arbeite an einem (sehr) ausführlichen Artikel über Browser. Dieser wird auch eine Tabelle mit empfohlenen Browsern enthalten. Anbei eine Vorschau. Die Tabelle wird sich sicher noch ändern.

#browser #brave #firefox #librewolf #mull #fennec #vanadium #tor #torbrowser

stefanlaser, 13 days ago

@kuketzblog @kuchenmampfer In diesem Kontext ist Vanadium spannend. Wie schätzt du die Claims vom Graphene-OS-Team bzw. Assoziierten ein?

Ich habe es so verstanden, dass sie Erweiterungen als "privacy theater" abtun und auch argumentieren, dass Fingerprinting nahezu unmöglich ist bzw. Tor erfordert. Da solle man sich ganz genau sein threat model überlegen (und entspannen).

Und ebenfalls ein Argument: ein Dienst wie NextDNS reicht aus, daher ist ein Add-On optional.

stefanlaser, 17 days ago to random

#ICQ will turn off soon. I grew up with it’s weird aoooo and still know my quite long ID by heart. It was sensational, in contrast to the other, hacky (also cool) #IRC.

It was the first DM app I and everyone around me used and loved. #WhatsApp never came close.

https://hackerweb.app/#/item/40467625

stefanlaser, 17 days ago

@ncoca Secure, not so sure (see the file name issues), but otherwise yes, lovely!

inquiline, 1 month ago to random

TFW you just can't stop censuring Jewish intellectuals for <checks notes> antisemitism

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/10/nancy-fraser-cologne-university-germany-job-offer-palestine

#Gaza

stefanlaser, 1 month ago

@inquiline That case is quite a hot topic in Germany, rightly so. It may boil down, in this case at least, to awkward decisions at one particular institution though.

CatherineFlick, 1 month ago to random

I’m once again asking my 20 month old to go to sleep, it’s 4am and you’ve been awake for 90 min

stefanlaser, 1 month ago

@CatherineFlick Feel you! Very much.

24 months

inquiline, 2 months ago to random

“Is it cake” for the STS set: Is it infrastructure?

(had a slightly more academic convo about this w the grad class yesterday) (and i do mean slightly)

#STS

stefanlaser, 2 months ago

@davidthewid @inquiline @richpuchalsky It's just a methodology, once a provocative one, so this has to be the case.

But then...is there a limit to what social scientists will call "just a lens"? 😄

rwg, 2 months ago to fediverse

Latest #FOSSAcademic post: Researching the fediverse from the perspective of individual or instances. In which I draw on an article Christina Dunbar-Hester to talk about researchers' perspectives on the #fediverse, including my own.

https://fossacademic.tech/2024/03/14/Instances-and-Individuals.html

#commodon

[replies to this post will appear as comments on my blog, unless set to followers-only or more private. CWs will work]

stefanlaser, 2 months ago

@rwg @inquiline @mel_hogan @luis_in_brief @ntnsndr @signalapp @rra @Aepasek Thanks for the call out!

I'm not sure if storage is the main trouble maker. (It could be.) We're currently arranging a data sprint event with data centre professionals where we want to push them, among other things, on the always-on nature of data centres. That's where the magic is. Like, shutting things down/slowing things down so that a network is good enough

stefanlaser, 2 months ago

@rra @rwg @inquiline @mel_hogan @luis_in_brief @ntnsndr @Aepasek This is remarkable, thank you very much. Do you think switching to #Gotosocial, #honk, #akkoma etc would change anything? Or turning off certain media? Sounds like you already do a lot.

inquiline, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to mastodon

Friends, strangers, haters: I have... made hay. Let no one say I haven't committed to the bit.

(Wrote a paper about Asstodon, everyone be kind)

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13367/11436

#STS #Mastodon #Commodon #autoethnography #DareIUseTheHashtag #Donkeygate #FirstMonday

stefanlaser, 2 months ago

@inquiline Many lessons to draw form this, thanks. I somehow missed the hot ass controversy (what a mess!), which sounds fairly fitting re:

> “Lossy distribution” aka ... the phenomenon of how posts get seeded in a manner that suggests they are viewable to a wide, undifferentiated audience; but in practice results in, well, loss. And not only loss, but unknowable, invisible loss.

It might be true for all things social web. Yet more so for the Fediverse?

#mastodonmigration #asstodon

stefanlaser, 4 months ago

@i_ngli @stsing @sts How about Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron?, to question the questions and "drawing on" we like to do, eg with "kin" that can be "hella creepy" as Max writes. And it helps address the "Land" matter (Blut und Boden) afresh, although it calls for some new reflections

inquiline, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Can anyone recommend a good, accessible (to students) reading on tech hype cycles? Not, ideally, a specific case, but a more general treatment of the phenomenon

#STS @sts

stefanlaser, 5 months ago

@inquiline Good question, listening for other records.

Just because it's a timely fit: yesterday, @pluralistic put up a blog post about the AI hype and relates it to other recent hypes.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/111608023778554856

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/19/bubblenomics/

estrid, 5 months ago to random German

Steven Jackson, @stefan_laser_, @sister0 and I invite abstracts to the panel "Planetary Data Infrastructures" at the @stseasst and @4Sweb 2024 #conference.

The panel explores expanded engagements with networked infrastructures, both concrete and speculative, that help foster more response-able, aesthetic, cooperative, and sustainable planetary relations.

Note! We invite conventional but also experimental formats: audiovisual performances, poetry - don't hold back!
https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst-4s2024/panel/14242

stefanlaser, 5 months ago

@estrid @stefan_laser_ @sister0 Yes, join our panel P193 in Amsterdam:

> With the concept “planetary data infrastructures”, the panel explores expanded engagements with networked infrastructures, both concrete and speculative, that help foster more response-able, aesthetic, cooperative, and sustainable planetary relations. We invite conventional and experimental formats.

#sts #ecology #data #easst #4s @sts @ecologies

dawnnafus, 5 months ago to random

Just got wind of this new horror of "biodiversity trading markets" -- where companies can buy biodiversity credits every time they destroy land somewhere.

We've got to raise more of a stink about this. Utterly horrifying that people are trying to legitimize destroying one species in one place and support another somewhere else.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg6823

stefanlaser, 5 months ago

@dawnnafus So they're really going for the plot of the Venomous Lumpsucker, great.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709614/venomous-lumpsucker-by-ned-beauman/

stefanlaser, 6 months ago to IT

Subsurface surfing. With the help of the maintenance staff, we went underground, following the maintenance track that connects all buildings on our Ruhr campus.

In total, it’s more than 8 km, we walked 2.5 km, from the uni datacentre to our faculty building.

#sts #infrastructure #it #photography

A ladder teaching upwards. Again, dark, grey, concrete, dead
A man walks along a narrow concrete path. He wears blue maintenance staff clothing. He walks quickly. You see the concrete wall on the right with red paint fainting. Eerie

stefanlaser, 6 months ago

This was a part of our cozy hybrid workshop in Bochum on data infra, knowledge creation and planetary matter. Thanks to all participants for a great experience,

@mel_hogan @Aepasek @tschuetz @laurawatts and more!

https://www.virtuelle-lebenswelten.de/blog-post/knowledge-production-data-infrastructures-and-planetary-matter

#sts #mediastudies #criticaldatastudies