@ajsadauskas@aus.social
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

ajsadauskas

@ajsadauskas@aus.social

Australian urban planning, public transport, politics, retrocomputing, and tech nerd. Recovering journo. Cat parent. Part-time miserable grump.

Cities for people, not cars! Tech for people, not investors!

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kcarruthers, to random
@kcarruthers@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @jonoabroad @mpesce @kcarruthers I always pack a power board when travelling overseas.

    One international power adaptor, multiple appliances.

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @frankPodmore @betwixthewires Here's a map of what the train network used to look like across rural Victoria (in Australia) in 1927: https://everythingismaps.github.io/img/historicvicrailmaps/1927%20Victorian%20rail%20map.PNG

    And here's rural NSW in 1933: https://www.nswrail.net/maps/nsw-1933.php

    And here's a video that @nerd4cities recently uploaded about the destruction of intercity train networks in the US: https://youtu.be/svao4PZ4bGs?si=K7zrMlZ4bvfmiRcC

    So yes, many rural areas and small towns in the US, Australia, and Canada used to have access to frequent and reliable train services back in the first half of the 20th century.

    Those train systems in many cases were privately run, so no direct taxpayer subsidies. At a time when overall populations were smaller.

    So what changed? Car-centric government policies.

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @betwixthewires Cars faster than trains? If that's the case in your country, then you have a serious underinvestment in rail.

    (Seriously, even V/Line trains in Victoria go faster than the 100 KP/h speed limit, and by world standards V/Line ain't a great train service.)

    What happened in the US, Australia, and Canada was a massive investment in rural highway infrastructure by national and state/provincial governments after World War 2.

    In the US, that was Eisenhower's Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal-Aid_Highway_Act_of_1956

    In Australia, it was Gough Whitlam's National Roads Act of 1974: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_(Australia)

    Many towns in the rural western US were railway towns. They were quite literally built around a train station.

    But after WW2, the US spent the equivalent of US$193 billion (adjusted for inflation) in just 10 years building new interstate highways.

    At the same time, the extensive already-existing network of rural railways saw service cuts, was run down, and had privately-owned lines become freight-only.

    Again, similar story in the other former British colonies.

    That was a choice by government. And the result of that choice is many people in those railway towns responded by buying a car.

    It didn't have to be that way.

    In many parts of Europe and Asia, where leaders have invested in rail, you can live quite comfortably in many small towns without a car.

    ajsadauskas, to twitter
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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

    ajsadauskas, to afl
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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

    darnell, to Russia
    @darnell@one.darnell.one avatar

    Political corruption in 🇬🇦 by incumbents led to this unsurprising event.

    👉🏾 Gabon military officers claim to have seized power after election https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/africa/gabon-military-officers-say-power-seized-election-intl-hnk/index.html

    In the past few years, 🇬🇳, 🇲🇱, 🇧🇫, 🇳🇪 & now Gabon 🇬🇦 have seen coups, in which the new military governments embrace authoritarianism & (usually) 🇷🇺.

    🇫🇷 is also partially to blame for this, but that is another topic for another day.

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @darnell Astounding that there isn't more mainstream media discussion about this, given the global geopolitical implications of this.

    (And yes, racism is absolutely the reason why Kremlin-backed coups across Africa aren't a top news story.)

    And yes, the Kremlin backing the creation of a string of Putin-friendly autocracies across Africa will have implications for Asia and Europe.

    You think these Putin-backed leaders won't break US and European sanctions to do business with Russia? Won't sell them minerals, supply troops for future invasions, or buy their weapons?

    Private
    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @TomTheuns @academicchatter @histodons You might find this interesting.

    It's from a collection of documents published by the US state department on policy towards Germany between 1918 and 1945.

    Note the phrase used here to describe the League of Nations: "A guardian of treaties".

    https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ad1mAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=%22guardian+of+treaties%22+%22league+of+nations%22&source=bl&ots=k0VZourEdE&sig=ACfU3U1jIQA81RpiPCWNJbC3GHWgP7tAbw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm5rTLhoKBAxUGslYBHUvtAC0Q6AF6BAgqEAI#v=onepage&q=%22guardian%20of%20treaties%22%20%22league%20of%20nations%22&f=false

    I'll caution it's not my area of expertise. But. It might be fruitful looking further into whether/when/how the phrase was used to describe other intergovernmental bodies and treaty organisations?

    atomicpoet, (edited ) to random
    @atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

    The Atari brand is fascinating. Over the past 51 years, it’s been in so many hands that you practically need a flowchart to understand it.

    But here goes. I’m giving it the old college try.

    The original Atari only existed for 4 years, between 1972-76.

    One year after Atari’s existence, it created a Japanese subsidiary called Atari Japan. Deemed a failure, a little company called Namco bought Atari Japan – becoming one of the first Japanese video game companies ever.

    In 1976, the original Atari was sold to Warner Communications. This coincided with Atari reaching its commercial peak with the Atari 2600, 5200, and 8-bit family of computers.

    But then the video game crash of 1983 happened, and Warner Communications no longer wanted Atari. But rather than spinning out Atari as one company, they split it in two.

    The “home” division was sold to Jack Tramiel, previous CEO of Commodore who was out for revenge against his old company. This Atari became known as Atari Corporation.

    The “arcade” division became known as Atari Games.

    At this point, two different trees of Atari came to exist.

    Atari Corporation continued to make home consoles and computers. They released the Atari ST, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, and Atari Jaguar. As well, they published several well known classic games. They were also the rights holders for several 2600, 5200 and 8-bit computer games.

    After the Jaguar failed, Atari Corporation tried to pivot to the PC gaming market as a publisher, but the Tramiel family wanted out of the business. So in 1996 they merged with a hard disk drive manufacturer called JTS.

    Two years later, in 1998, this version of Atari was sold to Hasbro Interactive.

    In 2001, Hasbro Interactive was sold to French video game publisher Infogrames, and Infogrames renamed itself as Atari SA. For awhile, this version of Atari was one of the largest video game publishers in the world.

    In 2008, this version of Atari entered a joint venture with Bandai Namco (remember Namco?). One year later, several assets were outright sold to Bandai Namco.

    Then in 2014, Atari SA went bankrupt. Due to this, the started selling off even more assets including Deerhunter, Battlezone, Star Control and others.

    Miraculously Atari SA still exists and now makes 2600-inspired consoles, republishes old games, also publishes the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, sells NFTs, and is trying to get into the hotel business(?!)

    Atari Games is the other Atari, and you can make the case it’s the most “real” Atari since the original Atari was all about arcade cabinets. This version of Atari became known for several classic arcade games such as Gauntlet, Paperboy, Marble Madness, Hard Drivin’, and Primal Rage.

    Warner Communications spun out Atari Games as a joint venture between themselves and Namco, with Namco owning 60% of Atari Games.

    But Namco got bored of Atari Games, so they sold a 20% stake in the company to Atari Games employees. As a result, Atari Games was owned 40% by Warner Communications, 40% by Namco, and 20% by employees. Since no one owned a controlling stake in Atari Games, it effectively became an independent company.

    Atari Games noticed that the Nintendo Entertainment System was getting popular. But unable to enter the home market under the trade name “Atari”, they created a brand to publish games to home consoles. This brand was Tengen. And Tengen became known for a well known fight with Nintendo – that’s a different rabbit trail, though.

    In 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc, becoming Time Warner. At this point, Time Warner decided they wanted a controlling stake in Atari Games, so they acquired it. Because of this, Tengen became Time Warner Interactive.

    In 1994, Atari Games, Tengen, and Time Warner were all consolidated under the Time Warner Interactive Banner.

    One year later, Time Warner decided they didn’t want to be in the video game business anymore. So they sold Atari Games to WMS Industries, the parent company behind Williams, Bally, and Midway.

    In 1998, the video game assets of WMS Industries were spun off into a new entity called Midway Games which gained control of Atari Games.

    One year later, in 1999, Atari Games was renamed Midway Games West.

    Shockingly, Midway Games West continued to exist until Midway Games went bankrupt in 2009. At which point, Midway Games West (a.k.a., Atari Games) was sold to Warner Brothers Interactive, who decided to re-enter the video game market. So now Atari Games is owned by Time Warner again.

    So with all this intrigue, who is the “real” Atari? I would say three companies can reasonably claim the Atari lineage:

    1- Atari SA: they own the rights to Atari consoles and computers as well as several computer games, and still use the Atari brand

    2- Time Warner: they own the rights to Atari Games

    3- Bandai Namco: they acquired Atari Japan as well as several Atari assets over a period of many decades

    Atari and its brand are complex and more interesting than I could have imagined.

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @GabeMoralesVR @atomicpoet @TomF What's more interesting is who designed the 3DO hardware: Dave Needle, and R. J. Mical. Two names that will be very familiar who owned an Amiga back in the day.

    And if you want to know what Commodore's RISC-based follow-up to the Amiga 1200 could have looked like, take a look at the 3DO spec sheet sometime...

    mekkaokereke, to random
    @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

    "Computer Science students should be required to take courses and lectures in ethics! That would fix everything!"

    But who is teaching the courses and lectures?

    https://stanforddaily.com/2023/08/13/s-b-f-is-leaving-campus-but-stanfords-ties-to-his-case-are-deeper-than-previously-known/

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @mekkaokereke To be fair, Sam Bankman-Fried is pretty much the living embodiment of the ethics of a lot of Silicon Valley these days...

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @Meowoem @kd637_mi Better yet...

    Many Lemmy instances have communities on the same topic. For example, there's @technology and @technology and @technology .

    It's unnecessary duplication.

    Having a Fediverse-wide !Technology community would avoid a lot of duplication.

    Each Lemmy instance would then responsible for the posts of its users, and if an instance fails to moderate appropriately, it gets defederated.

    ajsadauskas, to TeslaMotors
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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

    ajsadauskas, (edited ) to music
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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 @popheads

    ajsadauskas, to auspol
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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

    @australia

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @Lats @australia According to the article, something like 55% of subscriptions to Murdoch's big metro tabloids come from people who want to read the local paper.

    So Murdoch's running all these local paper country papers into the ground (just one reporter, with 3000 articles per week churned out by four nationwide reporters using AI) to prop up the likes of Andrew Bolt.

    Those local papers used to be an important part of the community. What the mayor and the local shire council up to. Local issues the national media won't touch. How the local footy and netball teams win on the weekend. Who was at the local Magistrate's Court this week. The obituary for Anne, who was a pillar of the local community and ran the local CWA branch for 30 years. Praise for young Hannah who raised over $1000 for Make-A-Wish.

    They were also an important training ground for young journalists.

    And, rather than being returned to community ownership, they instead got bought out by Murdoch, who gutted them to line his pockets.

    ajsadauskas, to TeslaMotors
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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/

    @fuck_cars

    nixCraft, to random
    @nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

    Google engineers want to make ad-blocking (near) impossible https://stackdiary.com/web-environment-integrity/ Is anyone surprised?

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @nixCraft Oh, Google's not completely opposed to you getting rid of some of its ads...

    ...by paying $14.99 for a YouTube Premium subscription, and then forking out even more for a Google Workspace subscription, and buying the paid version of apps on the Google Play store.

    ajsadauskas, to tech
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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.

    #X @technology

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @Sina @Blaubarschmann Google is more like a restaurant that has a large chalk board covered with specials. The kind that has a soup of the day, and a fish of the day, and a chef's special.

    There are a few core menu items that are perennials on its printed menu. Search, maps, photos, ads, Gmail, Google Docs, Chrome, Android, Chromebook, YouTube...

    Then there's the messaging app of the day, the TV platform of the day, the flavour-of-the-month device selection...

    ajsadauskas, to twitter
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

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

    #X

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @andrewfeeney @goodthinking I discuss it more here: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/110774235977792356

    But yes, he basically wants to turn the former bird site into a '90s-style web portal that does everything, kinda like Yahoo, Lycos, or Excite back in the day.

    Nick, to random

    Hey Elon? Ten Network Australia from the late 80s called. They want their logo back.

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @static @Nick I think it's a fitting logo, and here's why.

    Back in 1986, an experienced operator who had a bit of a reputation for being an arsehole (Rupert Murdoch) owned a media platform that was, some years, marginally viable (the Ten Network).

    He got offered a boatload of money by an up-and-coming mogul who had found success in other fields, but had little experience running a media company (Frank Lowy from Westfield).

    The mogul had big ambitions for combining his new media toy with commerce. (Think: "The cast of Neighbours and E Street at your local Westfield Shoppingtown.")

    He paid for it by loading it up with a massive amount of debt.

    He then renamed the company to X.

    Unfortunately for the mogul, interest rates shot up. Meanwhile, advertisers and loyal viewers moved elsewhere. He tried dramatically cutting costs.

    Four years later in 1990, X went bankrupt. A group of Canadian investors (CanWest Holdings) ended up buying it up for cents on the dollar.

    Fast forward to 2022.

    An experienced operator who had a bit of a reputation for being an arsehole (Jack Dorsey) owned a social media platform that was, some years, marginally viable (Twitter)...

    Well, you know the rest...

    ajsadauskas, to startup
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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!

    @technology

    ajsadauskas, to twitter
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    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

    @technology

    dcjohnson, to twitter
    @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud avatar

    Regarding Twitter. Yes, buying it was an investment. But not necessarily financial.

    Ask yourself -WHY- would Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and several multi-billionaires want to control the world's "public suare?"

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @dcjohnson They saw the public square and said to themselves: This'd be a great place to build a giant shopping mall: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/109979152813584947

    ajsadauskas,
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    @scrubbles @shortwavesurfer The memoir could go either way. Hopefully, she's given the space to talk freely and frankly about what happened during the conservatorship, and hold people to account. But there's a not insignificant chance it will just be soft-focus inspirational cliches with a lot of sidestepping around uncomfortable subjects.

    If it's the former, I'm interested. If it's the latter, then I wish her well, but maybe it's not for me.

    As for her music, while it was pretty much inescapable on the radio, MTV (when they still played videos), and the general zeitgeist, I honestly didn't listen to much. Admittedly, Toxic and Me Against the Music were a great video clips.

    I gave her music a second go during the conservatorship saga. In that context, tracks like her cover of My Prerogative, Lucky, Overprotected, and Piece of Me take on a whole depth of meaning. On the other hand, the idea that the Lou and Jamie made her sing "Work Bitch" during the conservatorship is kinda icky.

    The new singles, including the Elton one, are decent, but part of me is still holding out for that Blackout 2 album where she finally gets to take full creative control.

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