aral

aral, 1 year ago to random

A billionaire does things for many reasons. None of those are in your interests unless you also happen to be a billionaire.

The sooner you learn this, the sooner we can start doing something about it.

aral, 1 year ago to random

Github down? I hadn’t noticed.

Might be a good time to check out Codeberg.

https://codeberg.org

Bonus: You can follow them on the fediverse at @Codeberg

#github #githubDown #codeberg #git #dev

aral, 10 months ago to Futurology

Zuck: yea so we’re joining the fediverse and I even got some instance admins to sign ndas and federate

Friend: what!? how’d you manage that one?

Zuck: they came to us

Zuck: i don’t know why

Zuck: they “trust me”

Zuck: dumb fucks

---

With apologies to Mark’s original IMs (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/the-face-of-facebook). Threads (lack of) App Privacy screenshot via https://shakedown.social/@clifff/110653848263872804

#threads #p92 #meta #facebook #instagram #BigTech #SiliconValley #SurveillanceCapitalism #PeopleFarming #eee #fediverse

aral, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to Israel

86 years ago, sirens sounded in Guernica as the Nazis carpet-bombed civilians. Today, they sound again for the Palestinian people in Gaza being slaughtered by Israel.

Amazing how there’s no media coverage of this to speak of in the West although even Times of Israel covered Guernica’s 80th anniversary.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/12/09/qyit-d09.html

https://theconversation.com/80-years-on-from-the-guernica-bombing-and-spain-is-still-struggling-to-honour-historical-memory-76238

https://www.timesofisrael.com/spains-guernica-marks-80th-anniversary-of-bombing/

Via @LALegault

#guernica #gaza #israel #palestine #genocide #ethnicCleansing

aral, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

The fediverse is much more than Mastodon™ gGmbH.

The fediverse does not have, nor does it need, a CEO.

It just needs principled people willing to defend its ideals and the safety and wellbeing of the people who use it.

aral, 9 months ago to random

I don’t know about you but I think ex is the perfect new name for Twitter.

aral, 2 months ago to ai

When I first started calling Silicon Valley’s business model “people farming” I was told I was being hyperbolic and alarmist.

I don’t get told that much anymore.

#SiliconValley #BigTech #AI #surveillance #capitalism #PeopleFarming

aral, 11 months ago to random

Was away for a week visiting my parents. Don’t get to see them nearly enough, in no small part thanks to our lovely “European Values” meaning they have to jump through more hoops to come visit us in Ireland than they can manage at their age. You see, we don’t really see non-Europeans as human in Europe. They’re something less. A potential threat.

I may have an EU passport and pass for white but I never forget that. In fact, I think about it every time I miss my parents.

#eu #racism #xenophobia

aral, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to Israel

‘At least 500’ dead after Edit: <strike>Israeli</strike> airstrike on Gaza hospital

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/10/17/israel-hamas-war-air-strikes-pound-gaza-as-efforts-made-to-break-deadlock-on-aid/

More than 1,000 children have reportedly been killed in 11 days of airstrikes on Gaza – one child every 15 minutes – with children making up a third of total fatalities in Gaza.

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/save-the-children-calls-for-ceasefire-in-gaza

This is not war. This is slaughter. This is barbarism. Nothing justifies this.

And yet the West watches—cheers with blood lust, even—as Israel commits genocide.

#israel #gaza #genocide

aral, 13 days ago to random

Hello, I am a new startup!

I’m funded by venture capital and free to use.

Please come and make me valuable by using me. Make my numbers go up!

Once you do, I’ll have everything I need and I can do whatever I want with the time and effort you’ve put into making me successful.

Not happy? Fuck you, I don’t need you anymore (network effects FTW, amirite?)… I’m laughing all the way to the bank.

Goodbye!

…

Hello, I am a new startup…

---

When are we going to learn to say “no” at the start?

aral, 1 month ago to random

“I don’t understand why everything is so fucked up and we seem incapable of fixing any of it!”

This is because you believe you live in a democracy when you actually live under capitalism.

(And it is functioning exactly as designed.)

PS. Not your fault; you’ve been taught your whole life that the two are complementary when they’re diametrically-opposed.

#capitalism #versus #democracy

aral, 1 month ago to Israel

“Israel is killing people based on being in the same Whatsapp group as a suspected militant. Where are they getting this data? Is WhatsApp sharing it?”

‪https://blog.paulbiggar.com/meta-and-lavender/

I feel we have to make this relevant to USians given how low the exchange rate of Palestinian lives to the US Dollar is: Think of it this way, this probably means your credit score is also affected by the people in your WhatsApp groups.

(So, do we finally have your attention?)🤞

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #genocide #Meta

aral, 26 days ago to mastodon

Co-founder of Twitter joins new Mastodon board of directors. Right, so federating with Threads wasn’t a mistake. This is just the direction Mastodon is going. Oh, well. Another Mozilla emerges.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/04/mastodon-forms-new-u.s.-non-profit/

#Mastodon #BizStone #SiliconValley #BigTech #Threads

aral, 7 months ago to Israel

Your daily reminder that condemning genocide does not make you a ‘terror supporter.’”

(And yes, fuck Hamas. They’re barbarians. The very low bar for any state that purports to be a democracy is to be better than barbarians.)

https://www.politico.eu/article/greta-thunberg-calls-global-pro-palestinian-strike-gaza-genocide-israel-slam/

#israel #hamas #gaza #terrorism #apartheid #genocide

aral, 6 months ago to Israel

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy.”

– Benjamin Netanyahu, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/03/war-israel-hamas-conflict-peace-extremists

Via @blepharon

#israel #palestine #gaza #netanyahu #hamas

aral, 1 month ago to random

Capitalism is a having a burger delivered to your door in minutes but dying because you can’t afford medical care.

aral, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to technology

You wouldn’t have McDonald’s teaching your kids about nutrition or Philip Morris teaching them about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Why are you happy having a surveillance capitalist like Google or Facebook teaching them about technology?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/surveillance-capitalism-has-led-us-into-a-dystopia/p06p0tdy

#surveillanceCapitalism #technology #web #education #SiliconValley #BigTech

aral, 1 month ago to Israel

Folks, I’m going to ask you to please consider that over 31,000 people – including over 13,000 children – have already been murdered by Israel in the last handful of months before stating that the person from your own country that was just murdered by Israel is your red line or the point where you think Israel’s genocide has finally gone too far. I really need you to understand that Palestinians are people too.

#israel #palestine #gaza #genocide #WCK #ethnicCleansing #apatheid

aral, 9 months ago to random

Just read the term “Proof of Personhood” and it made me retch.

“Proof of Personhood” is how you destroy personhood by tying it to some arbitrary constraint controlled by some asshole; by making it, and therefore by extension, people themselves, a commodity.

So fuck Worldcoin, fuck Sam Altman, fuck scanning people’s eyeballs for profit, fuck cryptobros and their cultists, and fuck Silicon Valley very much.

Hope you’re otherwise having a lovely morning :)

💕

#worldcoin #SamAltman #blockchain

aral, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to mastodon

Hello, new folks from Twitter,

• Welcome to the fediverse!

• If you’ve joined mastodon.social because it was the default option in the app, please look to move to a smaller instance so mastodon.social doesn’t grow to become Twitter 2.0. (You can use https://instances.social to find a new instance or ask folks on here for suggestions.)

• Please add alternate text to your images so people who use screen readers can join in too. (https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-content-images)

#TwitterMigration #mastodon #fediverse

aral, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to ai

Hi there, if you don’t want me to hit you, please carry this sign that says “please don’t hit me” with you always. Otherwise, I can’t possibly be held responsible if I hit you. Because it’s in my nature to hit you. I can’t live without hitting people. It’s just who I am and what I do. Thank you for your understanding in this delicate matter.

Sincerely,
OpenAI

#ai #optOut #openAI #chatGPT #bullshit

aral, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to ireland

Criticising the Irish Data Protection Commission and Big Tech to become illegal in Ireland if this bill passes.

This is not a drill.

This must be stopped.

Please share widely.

https://noyb.eu/en/irish-gov-makes-critizising-big-tech-and-irish-dpc-crime

https://www.iccl.ie/news/last-minute-government-amendment-seeks-to-muzzle-dpc-critics/

#ireland #BigTech #DPC #dataProtection #humanRights #democracy #surveillanceCapitalism #peopleFarming #corporatocracy #fascism

aral, 11 months ago to random

“Hey, some fediverse instances are growing larger and larger, isn’t that great? Yay!”

Stop and think about what this means. You’re celebrating the creation of fiefdoms and feudal lords. Mini Zuckerbergs, if you will.

There’s a reason I’ve been shouting from the rooftops about limiting server sizes for as long as I can remember.

e.g., If mastodon.social blocks my instance of one, they block 1,196,910 accounts from interacting with me. If I block them… I do the exact same thing to myself.

aral, 5 months ago to random

I’m right in the middle of the move so I don’t have time to write anything at length on the whole “mastodon.social rolling out the red carpet for Threads/Instagram/Meta/Zuckerberg” thing.

In a nutshell:

• The only leverage the fediverse has over a trillion-dollar corporation is social legitimacy.

• That is exactly what the flagship instance is providing to Meta.

• It matters less whether your tiny/personal instance blocks them; given their size, you’re effectively blocking yourself.

…