acdha

acdha, 1 day ago to random

I'm glad someone collected all of the problems with #GraphQL in one convenient location:

https://bessey.dev/blog/2024/05/24/why-im-over-graphql/

acdha, 4 days ago to random

I wonder how often someone being turned down as a poor “culture fit” meant that the recruiter remembered to remove that part of the instructions
https://wtop.com/loudoun-county/2024/05/after-whites-only-job-posting-va-tech-company-hit-with-fine-from-the-justice-department/

acdha, 10 days ago to random

Interesting to contrast https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/112479276509113651 with:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-01/google-trims-jobs-in-trust-and-safety-while-others-work-around-the-clock

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-17/openai-dissolves-key-safety-team-after-chief-scientist-ilya-sutskever-s-exit

https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/13/23638823/microsoft-ethics-society-team-responsible-ai-layoffs

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/18/facebook-parent-meta-breaks-up-its-responsible-ai-team.html

acdha, 14 days ago to random

“Digging into the undocumented API calls, Barbour saw something he didn’t think was real: You needed only a registered email address to retrieve information, or change settings, on a connected water heater.”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/how-i-upgraded-my-water-heater-and-discovered-how-bad-smart-home-security-can-be/

acdha, 15 days ago (edited 15 days ago) to random

If you depend on Google for your income, you need to have a plan B as soon as you can:
https://www.platformer.news/google-io-ai-search-sundar-pichai/

acdha, 15 days ago to random

Nothing says “alpha male” like shooting your company in the foot because you can’t handle a woman disagreeing with you.

Hopefully the beta version will ship soon. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/inside-story-elon-musks-mass-firings-tesla-supercharger-staff-2024-05-15/

acdha, 15 days ago to random

“Never a great sign when there's a link to an 11 page PDF of how to navigate your website. That's the ‘Learn how to navigate Broadcom Support’ link”
https://matduggan.com/the-worst-website-in-the-entire-world/

acdha, 19 days ago to random

“The condition I’m suffering from is called “prosopometamorphopsia” (I know—I can barely pronounce it myself). Those who have it sometimes experience bizarre visual hallucinations when they look at someone’s face. It’s extremely rare—there have been only 75 cases ever reported, and I’m one of the unlucky ones.”
https://slate.com/life/2024/05/demon-face-syndrome-what-is-prosopometamorphopsia-rare-disease.html

acdha, 23 days ago to random

A sad open source plea: “I am dying and unable to continue work on any projects here. I am seeking folks to take them over.”
https://github.com/alt-text-org/in-need-of-adoption

acdha, 27 days ago to random

“Perhaps more than any other part of the tech industry, crypto relies on storytelling. This is because the underlying technology, as it exists today, doesn’t have much to offer the average person in their day-to-day life. Instead, entrepreneurs conjure visions of what the tech might look like tomorrow”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-05-02/crypto-is-anything-but-strong-right-now

acdha, 27 days ago to random

They should be required to make it equally easy to quit Prime:
https://www.foxglove.org.uk/2024/05/02/legal-challenge-to-amazon-uks-new-one-click-to-quit-the-union-tool/

acdha, 30 days ago to random

If you know an educator who works with #blind or visually impaired kids, this LEGO #Braille Bricks Kit offer may be of interest:

https://www.aph.org/lego-braille-bricks-kit-request-form/

acdha, 1 month ago to random

I see Meta’s AI ad bot is turning out even better than their pivot to video. Good thing they didn’t lay off the people who might have cleaned up the mess…
https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/28/24141585/meta-ai-advantage-plus-automated-ad-glitch-cpm

acdha, 1 month ago to random

Using ad companies’ analytics products is a rake in the grass:

“The breach involved unintended transmission of personal information to third-party vendors, including major tech companies Google, Microsoft Bing, and X (formerly Twitter), via installed online technologies on Kaiser’s websites and mobile apps.”
https://restoreprivacy.com/data-breach-at-kaiser-permanente-affects-13-4-million-people/

acdha, 1 month ago to random

This is going to be routine pretty soon:
https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/eric-eiswert-ai-audio-baltimore-county-YBJNJAS6OZEE5OQVF5LFOFYN6M/

acdha, 1 month ago to random

I’d love a side by side test with the much-maligned Siri for this kind of table stakes stuff: ‘I asked for “Beyoncé’s new album,” and the device excitedly went and found me “Crazy in Love” — a lullaby version, from an artist called “Rockabye Baby!”’
https://www.theverge.com/24138746/rabbit-r1-hands-on-ai-gadget-chatgpt

acdha, 1 month ago to random

“If the Chinese government wants data on Americans, they don’t need TikTok to get it. They don’t even need to steal it. The United States is a notorious outlier among developed nations for its lack of a national data-privacy law. This means that the Chinese can just buy from data brokers and other third-party aggregators much of the same information that they would get from having access to TikTok user data.”
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/five-observations-on-the-tiktok-bill-and-the-first-amendment

acdha, 1 month ago to random

I don’t think many American tech companies are prepared for the rest of the world becoming competition, not just markets:

https://restofworld.org/2024/zoho-google-workspace-alternative-africa/

acdha, 1 month ago to random

Documentation: the other write-only media

acdha, 1 month ago to random

Actual hardcore engineering:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/04/22/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth/

acdha, 1 month ago to random

The tech industry definitely needs to take power consumption more seriously:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/data-centers-internet-power-source-coal/?itid=sf_local_top-table_p001_f005

acdha, 1 month ago to random

“If Uri wanted to start a discussion about journalism at NPR, he succeeded, though maybe not in the way he intended. His colleagues have had a rich dialogue about his mistakes. The errors do make NPR look bad, because it’s embarrassing that an NPR journalist would make so many.”
https://steveinskeep.substack.com/p/how-my-npr-colleague-failed-at-viewpoint

acdha, 1 month ago to random

“experience may even underlie one of the most consistent findings—and clichés—in navigation: that men tend to perform better than women. Turns out this gender gap is more a question of culture and experience than of innate ability.

Nordic countries, for example, where gender equality is greatest, show almost no gender difference in navigation. In contrast, men far outperform women in places where women face cultural restrictions on exploring their environment”

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2024/why-do-some-people-always-get-lost-but-others-dont

acdha, 1 month ago to random

If you've ever been drinking your $1k/lb Panamanian gesha coffee and thinking that your grinder lacked the gravitas for such a noble bean:

https://weberworkshops.com/products/the-sg-1

acdha, 1 month ago to random

Getting an extra 35% out of a format as old as JPEG is impressive:
https://opensource.googleblog.com/2024/04/introducing-jpegli-new-jpeg-coding-library.html