ajsadauskas

ajsadauskas, 9 months ago to twitter

Prominent "free-speech absolutist" threatens to sue Jewish anti-hate group because it engaged in free speech he didn't like.

"Elon Musk has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League after accusing the civil rights group that campaigns against antisemitism and bigotry of trying to “kill” his X social media platform.

"The owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, said the ADL was trying to shut down his company by 'falsely accusing it and me of being antisemitic'."

If your list of enemies includes the ADL, then there's a more-than-reasonable chance that you're an anti-semite.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/05/elon-musk-sue-adl-x-twitter

@technology #twitter #musk #ElonMusk

ajsadauskas, 9 months ago to afl

Me: Will the Matildas win the World Cup in 2023?

Google Bard: "Ultimately, it is too early to say who will win the World Cup. The Matildas have a good chance, but they will need to play their best football if they want to lift the trophy."

Me: Which is heavier: a feather or a mountain?

Google Bard: "A feather and a mountain have the same mass. One kilogram of feathers has the same mass as one kilogram of rocks. However, the feathers will have a much larger volume than the rocks. This is because feathers are made of air pockets, while rocks are solid. So, if you were to pick up a feather and a rock of the same mass, the feather would feel lighter because it has more air in it."

Me: Is Sam Mitchell a good coach?

Google Bard: "Sam Mitchell is a relatively new coach in the AFL, having only taken over the Hawthorn Hawks in 2022. However, he has already made a positive impact on the club, leading them to a finals berth in his first season ... In his first season as coach, Mitchell led the Hawks to a 13-9 record, which was good enough for seventh place on the ladder. They then went on to beat the Brisbane Lions in the elimination final before losing to the Sydney Swans in the semi-final."

So there you have it. According to Google Bard, the Matildas are still a chance.

Also, apparently a mountain and a feather have the same mass.

Disappointed I missed that Hawthorn – Sydney Elimination Final that Sam Mitchell coached in his first season. Sounds like a cracker of a game.

Brisbane will be disappointed!

#afl @technology #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Google #GoogleBard #GenerativeAI #matildas #worldcup

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to music

The Australian digital invention that changed the face of music—and made Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill possible.

Here's a really interesting video about one of the first all-digital synths, the Fairlight CMI.

Despite the early lead in a technology that would go on to be a cornerstone of a multi-billion-dollar tech industry, Australia gave up its leading role in the field.

https://youtu.be/jkiYy0i8FtA

#music #technology #retrocomputing @music @popheads

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to TeslaMotors

Free speech absolutist sues an environmentalist group, because it helped an anti-hate campaign group engage in free speech by conducting and publishing research about hate speech on his app.

He claims the anti-hate group used its free speech to "to advance incorrect, misleading narratives".

As a result, "several unnamed advertisers were no longer spending on the platform, paused advertising or decided to not reactivate campaigns" after reading its research.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/08/x-corp-accuses-climate-group-of-helping-anti-hate-researchers-target-twitter-elon-musk

#Elon #ElonMusk #Twitter

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to auspol

So just imagine we let one man, and his company, buy most of the papers in our regional cities and small towns.

And that man was named Rupert Murdoch.

And that man decided to shut down the print editions, and instead put those papers behind the paywalls of his big right-wing metropolitan tabloids.

Want to read the local newspaper in Lismore? It's now behind the Daily Telegraph paywall.

And then that man gutted the editorial team for each online newspaper to just one person.

And then used generative AI to centrally churn out 3000 local news articles per week across all his local publications, overseen by four human journalists.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/01/news-corp-ai-chat-gpt-stories

#auspol #NewsCorp #murdoch #vicpol #nswpol #qldpol #sapol #wapol @australia

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to TeslaMotors

Well, at least if you buy a Tesla, you're not supporting big oil companies like Exxon — oh wait...

"Oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) is in talks with Tesla (TSLA.O), Ford Motor (F.N), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and other automakers to supply lithium, Bloomberg Law reported on Monday citing people familiar with the matter."

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exxon-mobil-talks-with-tesla-ford-supply-lithium-bloomberg-law-2023-07-31/

#oil #EV #EVs #urbanism #cycling #eBikes @fuck_cars #Tesla

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to tech

So Elon's a "visionary" who wants to turn X into a single website where you can do everything — kinda like Yahoo!

He wants his new MySpaceX portal to be a website...

Where you can message people: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Messenger

Where you can stream audio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast.com

Where you can stream videos: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Screen

Where you can create social media posts: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_360%C2%B0

Where you can manage your finances: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Finance

Where you can share photos: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Photos

Where you can earn money publishing content: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Publisher_Network

Where you can find a job: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_HotJobs

Where you can buy and sell stuff: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Auctions

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this truly is a vision for the future — if by "the future" you mean 1997.

#tech #technology #twitter #X #musk #ElonMusk @technology #yahoo

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to twitter

Is it too early to start referring to Elon's social media portal as MySpaceX?

#Twitter #Elon #ElonMusk #SpaceKaren #TwitterX #X

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to startup

Hi, we're a tech startup run by libertarian Silicon Valley tech bros.

We're not a newspaper, we're a content portal.
We're not a taxi service, we're a ride sharing app.
We're not a pay TV service, we're a streaming platform.
We're not a department store, we're an e-commerce marketplace.
We're not a financial services firm, we're crypto.
We're not a space agency, we're a group of visionaries who are totally going to Mars next year.
We're not a copywriting and graphic design agency, we're a large language model generative AI platform.

Oh sure, we compete against those established businesses. We basically provide the same goods and services.

But we're totally not those things. At least from a legal and PR standpoint.

And that means all the laws and regulations that have built up over the decades around those industries don't apply to us.

Things like consumer protections, privacy protections, minimum wage laws, local content requirements, safety regulations, environmental protections... They totally don't apply to us.

Even copyright laws — as long as we're talking about everyone else's intellectual property.

We're going to move fast and break things — and then externalise the costs of the things we break.

We've also raised several billion in VC funding, and we'll sell our products below cost — even give them away for free for a time — until we run our competition out of the market.

Once we have a near monopoly, we'll enshitify the hell out of our service and jack up prices.

You won't believe what you agreed to in our terms of service agreement.

We may also be secretly hoarding your personal information. We know who you are, we know where you work, we know where you live. But you can trust us.

By the time the regulators and the general public catch on to what we're doing, we will have well and truly moved on to our next grift.

By the way, don't forget to check out our latest innovation. It's the Uber of toothpaste!

#startup #business #tech #technology @technology

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to twitter

Called it. Elon's doing exactly what I thought he would do: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/109979152813584947

Twitter is dead.

There is no point in trying to hold on to what Twitter used to be. What Twitter used to be no longer exists.

It died the moment Elon walked in the building.

Anything posted there since then has been free content on his everything app and potential crypto scam, X: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/23/twitter-elon-musk-says-he-wants-to-change-companys-bird-logo

#Twitter #Elon #ElonMusk #Fediverse @technology

ajsadauskas, 10 months ago to business

Inside Australia's home building and housing crisis—and the dodgy developers that corporate regulators don't touch.

Really interesting episode of the ABC's Four Corners program this week: https://youtu.be/JwqdvttDwUI

Along with the ongoing issues the building industry is facing, including skills and product supply shortages, the episode looks at a dodgy Sydney-based development firm the corporate regulators haven't touched.

"Dyldam was once a towering force. Its apartments still line the streets and light up the skyline of western Sydney.

"But for more than a decade, the Dyldam group has left a trail of misery behind it that includes bankrupt businesses, unpaid taxes, tradies denied payment for work they've done, suppliers ripped off, and anguished apartment buyers stuck with defective buildings — one built so badly it posed a hazard to human life.

"Time and again, a litany of potential law-breaking has been identified by those brought in to clean up the mess left by busted Dyldam companies.

"Yet, for years the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), took no action."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-17/dyldam-apartments-fayad-construction-four-corners/102598590

#housing #property #urbanism @sydney @urbanism @fuck_cars @australia #business #auspol #nswpol #HousingAffordability

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago to random

Here's a well-written article that reflects something I've noticed across a number of jobs during my career: KPIs are often the problem, not the solution.

Yes, businesses should measure performance. They should seek to improve the metrics that matter.

But setting KPI targets forces staff to focus solely on reaching a particular metric for a particular target, at the expense of everything else.

https://michaelwest.com.au/want-to-fix-productivity-kill-kpis-they-reward-executives-for-cutting-costs-and-delivering-poor-customer-experience/

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago to sydney

Open question for @sydney and #Sydney on Mastodon:

If the suburbs around Chatswood and Crows Nest are on the Lower North Shore, and the area around Hornsby is the Upper North Shore, then what's Ryde?

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to music

Who's your favourite '80s pop star or group?

The '80s are a decade that doesn't always get the respect it deserves.

So, after a recent discussion on @popheads, I've decided to reach out and see who some of your favourites are, and why?

I'll kick off the thread with Janet... Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty.

Why?

This speaks for itself:

https://youtu.be/OAwaNWGLM0c

#Music #PopMusic #80s #Janet @music

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago to afl

Here's a quick tip for folks on @afl who are new to Lemmy.

As well as appearing on Lemmy, your posts and replies are visible across all the apps on the Fediverse.

That includes Mastodon, KBin, Calckey, and others.

If you want more people to see and reply to your comments and replies, make sure you include the hashtag #AFL

It makes your posts/comments/replies easier to find across all the Fediverse apps.

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to afl

Do we want a bot that posts AFL news stories on @afl ?

There's a bot on Mastodon ( @AFL ) that automatically posts stories about the AFL.

I can request that the owner tags in the AFL group on Aussie Zone, so they appear here too.

But before I do, I just want to check that everyone here would be happy with the AFL bot posting here? #AFL

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago to random

At this stage, Lithuania's public broadcaster doesn't seem to have an English-language article up about the situation in Russia. One of its news channels is running a story about Pink Floyd releasing a pro-Ujranian song, the other about a submarine that was looking for the Titanic wreckage.

But it does have an article up on its Lithuanian-language news site: https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/pasaulyje/6/2020508/itampa-rusijoje-rusijos-saugumo-pajegos-aptvere-wagner-centra-sankt-peterburge-wagner-skelbia-peremusi-rusijos-kariniu-objektu-voronezo-mieste-kontrole

The following via Google Translate:

"After the statements of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian military group "Wagner", tensions arose in Russia. Security forces in Moscow have been put on high alert, armored personnel carriers have appeared near the Duma and other strategic buildings, and conscripts have been armed in the Rostov region. In this city, armored vehicles block the streets, military helicopters fly in the sky. In his messages, Mr. Prigožin stated that his mercenaries allegedly crossed the state borders in all places and allegedly the border guards "came out to meet and hugged our fighters". Images later surfaced of alleged Wagner mercenaries surrounding buildings in central Rostov-on-Don.

"According to unconfirmed data, the first clash between "Wagner" mercenaries and Rosguard soldiers took place on the Rostov-Moscow road. There are reports that internet and mobile communications are being cut off in Moscow, and roadblocks have been set up at the entrances to the Russian capital with armed officers ordered to open fire at any threat. Armed security has been called to the prestigious Rubliovka district of Moscow. There was also information that some soldiers allegedly refused to stand against Wagner.

"In the early hours of Saturday morning, videos from the Rostov region appeared, social networks claimed that Wagner military equipment was already visible in Rostov-on-Don (however, this information had not yet been confirmed at around 5 am).

"It was reported earlier that the Russian FSB opened a criminal case for calls for an "armed coup". This was the reaction to Mr. Prigozhin's statement that 25,000 of his soldiers are ready to stop chaos in the country and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose troops allegedly attacked the Wagner base, killing many fighters.

"According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin is aware of the mercenary group leader's claims and "necessary measures" are being taken."

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to twitter

Elon is a free speech absolutist.

Unless you're a critic of Tesla. Then you're banned.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/im-nobody-calls-employer-elon-130514911.html

#Elon #ElonMusk #Twitter #Fediverse @fediverse

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago to popheads

Looks like there could be a new Alessia Cara album in the works.

On the bad photo sharing app, she's just posted about how she's been busy "putting down some old thoughts and picking up new ones"...

@popheads #PopMusic #AlessiaCara @music

ajsadauskas, 11 months ago to business

I think it's time to have a conversation about the massive amount of hidden waste created by the likes of Amazon through free returns.

From TFA:

"In 2022, returns cost retailers about $816 billion in lost sales. That’s nearly as much as the U.S. spent on public schools and almost twice the cost of returns in 2020. The return process, with transportation and packaging, also generated about 24 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions in 2022.

"UPS transports those items to the retailer’s warehouses dedicated to processing returns. This step of the process costs the retailer money – 66% of the cost of a $50 item by one estimate – and emits carbon dioxide as trucks and planes carry items hundreds of miles. The plastic, paper or cardboard from the return package becomes waste.

"In 2019, about 5 billion pounds of waste from returns were sent to landfills, according to an estimate by the return technology platform Optoro. By 2022, the estimated waste had nearly doubled to about 9.5 billion pounds."

For those of us in the metric world, 9.5 billion pounds is around 4.3 billion kilograms.

https://fortune.com/2023/06/14/amazon-returns-ecommerce-how-bad-big-problem-816-billion/

@green #sustainability @technology @technology #CircularEconomy #Waste #Business #Economics #Recycling #Environment

ajsadauskas, 1 year ago (edited 11 months ago) to Economics

Why American malls are dying, and European ones aren't.

Adam Something's latest video looks at while malls in Europe aren't seeing the same fate as their American counterparts, despite the same competition from Amazon.

He suggests that low-density urban planning and car-dependent suburban sprawl are a big factor that no-one talks about.

For what it's worth, Australia also hasn't seen the massive number of dying/dead malls that the US has since the GFC.

At least in Sydney, many of our big shopping centres tend to be close to public transport. (Think QVB, Westfield Bondi, Westfield Chatswood, Chatswood Chase, Westfield Parramatta, Stocklands Merrylands, Burwood Plaza, Strathfield Plaza, Westfield Hornsby, Westfield Miranda, Castle Towers, Westfield Hornsby...)

Most also have at least two supermarkets (a Coles and a Woolies).

https://youtu.be/586SO9-wWoA

#malls #retail #DeadMalls @fuck_cars #Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #economy #economics #MassTransit #PublicTransport @urbanism

ajsadauskas, 1 year ago to fediverse

What are your other Fediverse (KBin/Lemmy/Pixelfed/PeerTube/Calckey/Mastodon) accounts?

With the rapid ongoing implosion of Reddit I've noticed a number of the people I follow on Mastodon now have accounts on Fediverse-based Reddit replacements such as KBin and Lemmy.

There's also a growing number of people who now have accounts on other services, such as PeerTube, Pixelfed, Friendica, and ever WordPress sites on the Fediverse.

So I thought it might be a good idea to do a thread where people share their different accounts on the Fediverse. That way, your followers can follow your accounts and see your posts, no matter which service you post to.

For me, the main accounts I use are:

@ajsadauskas
@ajsadauskas
@ajsadauskas
@ajsadauskas
@ajsadauskas

What are yours? Please reply and share widely.

@fediverse #fediverse @technology #mastodon #lemmy #kbin #pixelfed #calckey @lemmy

ajsadauskas, 1 year ago to music

So who's your favourite pop star?

Now there's a shiny new Lemmy group up and running at @popheads (Mastodon users: follow it if you want more discussion of pop music in your Mastodon feed), it's time to ask who's your favourite pop star? Do you have a favourite song or album?

My current faves are:

Alessia Cara: Perhaps the most talented and certainly the most underrated of the current crop of pop stars. She's fallen out of the limelight the past couple of years, which is a pity, because there's some excellent songs on her recent albums:

https://youtu.be/2ORj3T5sz-0

https://youtu.be/QJWR9T7ihns

https://youtu.be/9tKQgesCcTc

https://youtu.be/E40dAGljh4Y

https://youtu.be/rcDsSkQ59-E

Willow Smith: Done some really great songs recently:

https://youtu.be/hvrx8SX3jqQ

And some all-time favourites:

Prince

https://youtu.be/CkrT9u7ms1c

John Farnham (but only his Whispering Jack/Age of Reason/Chain Reaction '80s to early '90s run)

https://youtu.be/xWGXmWB4tKQ

https://youtu.be/VD5Vt6zx_to

https://youtu.be/EBo1cMumwBM

Janet Jackson, and most of the broader Jackson family. (Jermaine, Rebbie, and TJ in particular have some hidden gems in their discography.)

https://youtu.be/XKTBP-w9q_k

https://youtu.be/65eEHAMZMSo

#music #popmusic

ajsadauskas, 1 year ago to tech

Planned obsolescence, and why Apple dumped thousands of working computers in a landfill.

There's a really interesting documentary up by The Verge that's a must-watch for anyone with an interest in the circular economy and tech waste.

It tells the story of how, early in its existence, Apple used to resell the working but obsolete computers that it couldn't sell to a distributor (who would sell them at a lower price).

But one day, that all changed. Apple decided to reclaim thousands of the still working old computers from the distributor, and dumped them in a landfill.

(For people with an interest in retrocomputing and Apple, it also tells the sad story of what ended up happening to the company's Lisa systems.)

Planned obsolescence is not an accident. It's a design choice.

https://youtu.be/rZjbNWgsDt8

#tech #Apple #RetroComputing #RetroGames #AppleLisa @technology @green #CircularEconomy #Recycling #Sustainability

ajsadauskas, 1 year ago (edited 11 months ago) to cycling

Time to remove cars from Melbourne's Sydney Road.

One of the interesting details the ABC shows is that retailers along the strip significantly overestimate the percentage of customers who arrive by car.

While retailers assume nearly two-thirds of customers drive to their stores, the real figure is closer to 30%.

Already, just under 70% of customers either walk, catch public transport, or cycle.

Most of those who drive to businesses in the area park in one of the 2000 parking spots off Sydney road, rather than the 450 on the road itself.

Meanwhile, the lack of a dedicated protected bike lane makes it far less attractive to cyclists. The cars significantly slow down trams. And the exhaust fumes make it unpleasant for pedestrians.

https://youtu.be/D5EB9ukdKZw

#auspol #vicpol #Urbanism #UrbanPlanning #cycling #PublicTransport #Melbourne #Brunswick @fuck_cars @urbanism