@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al
@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

jenbanim

@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al

Techmod for reddit.com/r/neoliberal, admin of mastodo.neoliber.al. Seattleite and Linux sysadmin irl. Liberal carfree vegan interested in VR, electronica, FOSS, astronomy, urbanism, cats, and memes (he/him)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ZachWeinersmith, (edited ) to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Reading Michael Lewis' book on Sam Bankman-Fried and... it's amazing people fell for this guy? He just seems like a generic nerd who thinks he knows everything because he doesn't care about how he dresses and didn't think Shakespeare was any good as a high school student, and can explain away being a dick with an expected value calculation. Like, he's not even a compelling fraud?

jenbanim,
@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

@ZachWeinersmith I can excuse stealing billions in a crypto fraud scheme but I draw the line at hating Shakespeare

fraser, to random
@fraser@m.universetoday.com avatar

YouTube is creating a generation of kids who have been completely misinformed about space.

Go ahead, search YouTube a space topic, like: big bang cosmology, and see how many of the search results are complete bullshit. And they're getting hundreds of thousands or millions of views.

I wonder if YouTube is unable or unwilling to fix this problem?

jenbanim,
@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

@fraser I get mixed results depending on the topic. While logged out, "Big bang cosmology" shows me PBS Space Time, Crash Course, Dr. Becky, etc.

Dark Matter on the other hand is full of "Michio Kaku - JWST disproves dark matter" type stuff

Regardless I agree. Every time a new channel winds up in my recommendations I have to check to see whether they're a quack or not

I imagine it's a lower priority for YT compared to antivax or climate change since it's not, like, a major threat to society

jenbanim,
@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

@fraser Not to defend YouTube, but I think this is a symptom of a broader problem of a society that's okay with misinformation outside of very particular topics

For example the History Channel promotes Ancient Aliens and Netflix promotes conspiracy theory documentaries

I think most people are unaware of, or unwilling to acknowledge, the pipeline from "the experts are lying about (Atlantis, the pyramids, whatever)" to "the experts are lying about the vaccine"

urbanistorg, to random
@urbanistorg@mstdn.social avatar

NEW STORY // Ballard's Dangerous 'Missing Link' Train Tracks To Be Paved Over This Fall

via @urbanistorg // πŸ”— https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/10/13/ballards-dangerous-missing-link-train-tracks-to-be-paved-over-this-fall/?feed_id=1189&_unique_id=65299ddb8a62f

jenbanim,
@jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

@urbanistorg If Seattle is serious about being a world-class bicycling city they need to bring πŸ‘ back πŸ‘ the πŸ‘ ramp πŸ‘πŸ˜€

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @GossiTheDog thanks, I got a sign up from this person. I thought they were just confused about how Mastodon works. I'm not opposed to being part of some student's research project, but consent is key

    I suspended the account and told them to contact me if they're not just spamming. I'll follow up here if I hear back from them

    rolle, to random
    @rolle@mementomori.social avatar

    Some folks on X and Bluesky have shown their dislike towards ”the feel-good attitude” of people on Mastodon. In their world Mastodon is too matter-of-fact, no sense of humor and not raggedy enough. In fact, they prefer filth over wholesomeness. It strange. For me it’s like talking with a drug addict as a sober person. Being sober doesn’t make me Jesus Christ, arrogant or a good person, but it reflects the negative feelings in the addicted mind.

    One of the type once used the hashtag to fuck with me, since I use my time on other social medias often to talk about the advantages of Mastodon. This concept of being a victim of social media is so funny to me I have started using that hashtag myself.

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @rolle I think "Twitter brain" works well to describe this sort of behavior. It's like they think drama is fun, but they're not actually having fun. It's like they think conflict is good, but they don't actually care whether or not it's productive

    The way I see it, some people are just addicted to outrage. Whether it's moral righteousness, a desire to see the world how it really is, a belief that debate is intrinsically good, or something else, they seek out content that makes them mad

    arstechnica, to random
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

    Florida men sentenced to years in prison for selling bleach as β€œmiracle” cure

    Convicted fraudster Mark Grenon claimed he was the victim and US should pay him $5.7M.

    https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/10/florida-men-sentenced-to-years-in-prison-for-selling-bleach-as-miracle-cure/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @arstechnica Can't believe they'd do my boy Todd Clorox like that πŸ˜”

    rolle, (edited ) to mastodon
    @rolle@mementomori.social avatar

    If we ignore the notion whether it should, what would make the Fediverse or Mastodon easier to approach for the majority of people? Getting rid of tech talk around the platform? Better, world class user interface? Somehow dismantling the whole domain and server structure? Just calling it Mastodon as one service instead of a Mastodon instance with domain, obfuscating it somehow? Just focusing on mastodon.social and ignore the rest? Acting as centralized service on the outside? Making it seamless via features and improvements? Is there any silver bullet?

    I am not against the current state of things, on the contrary. Just curious and trying to think outside this box… of instances and other techy stuff. Could it even be easier to comprehend, or do we just have to continue educating people on the matter?

    #Mastodon #MastoAdmin

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @rolle This is possibly an unhelpful answer, but I think that some of the concepts surrounding Mastodon and the Fediverse just need time to embed themselves in the public mind

    It's easy to forget after using it for years, but Twitter is extremely confusing as a new user. Eg. if you're reading a conversation with a retweet you read inside to outside then top to bottom and if you're deep in a comment chain, you should remove unnecessary @s

    People are willing to learn if there's a good reason

    ZachWeinersmith, to random
    @ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

    One interesting thing I haven't discussed about the future of the Internet: now that it's mostly consumed on a small number of sites controlled by a smaller number of companies, AND we're getting to AI that can detect and regulate content, are things going to get a whole lot more g-rated?

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @ZachWeinersmith Tiktok makes heavy use of algorithmic moderation so it might make sense to look at them to see what the future will be

    I don't use the platform but I know that their users have a tactics that they use to avoid getting de-prioritized or filtered by the algorithm with varying degrees of success. Stuff like writing things as "de@d" rather than "dead"

    We might not be headed for g-ratings but rather a system that you have to try to work around to discuss anything not g-rated

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @theinspectorst My wife left me

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @theinspectorst sorry not seriously, it's a meme from the subreddit haha

    MissingThePt, to random
    @MissingThePt@mastodon.social avatar

    Are they bringing back rainbow fentanyl for Halloween this year? Was a big hit last year.

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @MissingThePt God I hope so. The best part about Halloween is eating the drug-laced candy my kids bring home

    jenbanim, to random
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar
    mikey, to mastodon
    @mikey@neovibe.app avatar

    The Explore tab on Mastodon really wasn't built for smaller instances... which seems a bit counter intuitive.

    The posts (trending posts) decay very quickly and if you have a smaller instance it basically empties that list out a bit too quickly.

    There should be a setting in the admin panel to let admins decide on how quickly posts in the Explore tab decay.

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @ipg @mikey It looks like the trending tab was configured to have posts decay more quickly a couple weeks back in this commit

    https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/fc6825055b9d700e34927b5fd20fdcd77b132a16

    This lines up with when I started noticing the tab being empty on my server

    If you're running in to the same problem on wetdry.world, maybe it would be worthwhile to revert this commit in chuckya (which I'm also using). Thoughts @esm?

    No worries if not of course, just thought I'd bring this up

    catsalad, (edited ) to random

    deleted_by_author

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    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @catsalad "Come back with a warrant!"

    MastodonEngineering, to random
    @MastodonEngineering@mastodon.social avatar

    We are planning to release security patches for versions 3.5, 4.0, 4.1 and nightly next Tuesday, Sep 19, at 15:00 UTC. We encourage server administrators to plan for a timely upgrade to ensure their Mastodon server is protected.

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @MastodonEngineering is the 4.2 beta branch affected?

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    Pinging @esm in case you didn't see this

    breadandcircuses, to nature

    Let this sink in for a minute...

    Of all the mammals on Earth, 96% are livestock and humans.

    Only 4% are wild mammals.

    Of all birds in the world, 70% are chickens and other poultry, just 30% are wild.

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @breadandcircuses everyone needs to eat some goddamn

    chrismessina, to fediverse
    @chrismessina@mastodon.xyz avatar

    That sound you hear is the fediverse expanding!

    "ActivityPub 1.0.0 for WordPress has been released allowing WordPress blogs to be followed by others on apps like Mastodon and others in the fediverse and then receive replies back as comments on their own sites."

    https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/14/wordpress-blogs-can-now-be-followed-in-the-fediverse-including-mastodon/

    Download here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/

    /by @Sarahp s/o @pfefferle.wordpress.com @pfefferle

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @chrismessina Neat! Any recommendations for blogs to follow?

    jenbanim, to Seattle
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    The Police Department needs to be torn down and restarted from scratch

    Refusing to enforce laws, rejecting oversight and discipline, displaying mock tombstones of those they shot, and laughing at a pedestrian killed by a cop going 75mph in a 25mph zone are absolutely reprehensible

    The time for incremental solutions has passed. The cancer has taken over and the only way forward is to dismantle the SPD and start fresh

    QasimRashid, to dadjokes
    @QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

    At a funeral a man says to the widow, "Mind if a say a word?"

    "Not at all,” she says, β€œplease do."

    He stands up, clears his throat, and says, "Comprehensive," then sits down.

    She responds in tears, "Thank you. That means everything."

    #DadJokes πŸ˜…

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @QasimRashid Nice, another version of this I've heard has the punchline

    "Plethora"

    "Thank you, that means a lot."

    ZachWeinersmith, to random
    @ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

    Interesting - was just flipping through this (https://www.kansascityfed.org/Jackson%20Hole/documents/9744/Jones-handout.pdf) And he noted that as society gets less sexist/racist, talent gets better allocated. I wonder how much total factor productivity gain over the last century came from just... not actively damaging the lives of talented people? That's nice but suggests future gains will be harder, right?

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @ZachWeinersmith I have no relevant qualifications, but this paper claims that 15% to 20% of per-capita GDP growth in the US between 1960 and 2010 can be attributed to reduced discrimination against women and black people

    https://www.nber.org/papers/w18693

    Future gains being harder seems like a reasonable conclusion

    ZachWeinersmith, to random
    @ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

    Law question:

    As a purely technical matter, suppose the ADL went to every single twitter advertiser and told said they should stop advertising on twitter due to hate speech. Would there be any grounds for lawsuit? I don't understand what claim Musk could imagine making over this. It'd be like suing a reviewer for saying a restaurant's food is bad, no?

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @ZachWeinersmith Not a lawyer but my understanding is that statements of opinion eg. "this restaurant is bad" are not subject to libel laws. Statements of fact like "Twitter hosts hate speech" could be libelous if they were proven to be wrong and did harm to Twitter

    But of course they're right and truth is an ultimate defense against libel in the US, so I don't think there's any case here

    astro_jcm, to Astronomy
    @astro_jcm@mastodon.online avatar

    Once again the news and social media are full of stuff about an upcoming .

    πŸŒ• The 's orbit around the Earth is elliptical. Sometimes it's a bit closer and thus looks a tad bigger, but the difference is barely noticeable. It's not even remotely close to "super".

    The Moon is always pretty, there's no need to wait for fabricated "events" to look up and enjoy it!

    πŸ“· Marcoaliaslama (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

    jenbanim,
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    @astro_jcm relevant xkcd

    https://xkcd.com/1394/

    jenbanim, to random
    @jenbanim@mastodo.neoliber.al avatar

    Modern day jury instructions

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