mastodonmigration

mastodonmigration, 15 minutes ago to random

Some have been raising questions about the potential affect of current solar storm activity on satellite operations, and in particular the potential for something called Kessler Syndrome where loss of navigational control results in satellites colliding with each generating a runaway cascade of destruction (https://interestingengineering.com/science/kessler-syndrome-spacex-starlink-orbital-chaos).

Perhaps the foremost advocate for sensible regulation of low earth orbit, astronomer Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets discusses this subject: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/112416664121492169

davidtoddmccarty, 6 hours ago to random

I think I understand the idol worship from the deplorables and I understand the Useful Idiot theory from those who simply want power, but I have a hard time reconciling otherwise intelligent and informed people who appear to genuinely like Trump. It’s all got to be an act, right?

I mean everyone can see that he’s a morally depraved, addled tyrant who is a perpetual failure, right?

Just look at the things Tucker Carlson said off the record. He’s just a meal ticket.

AkaSci, 22 hours ago to random

Incoming! A severe G4 Geomagnetic Storm is expected to arrive around 02:00 UTC Friday night / Saturday morning.

At least 5 Coronal Mass Ejections took place over the past 24 hours, directed towards Earth. These originated from a large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster (NOAA region 3664).

There is potential for disruption of communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations.

And bright auroras as far south as Alabama!

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
1/n

mastodonmigration, 4 hours ago to random

Notice. For those who may not follow astronomical news our Sun is "going through some things" this week.

Huge Coronal Mass Ejections, the largest in decades, directed towards Earth took place yesterday and will result in a severe Geomagnetic Storm arriving tonight and tomorrow morning. There is potential for disruption of communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations.

For much more on this event @AkaSci has this excellent thread: https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/112413669499567336

KathyReid, 21 hours ago to stackoverflow

Like many other technologists, I gave my time and expertise for free to #StackOverflow because the content was licensed CC-BY-SA - meaning that it was a public good. It brought me joy to help people figure out why their #ASR code wasn't working, or assist with a #CUDA bug.

Now that a deal has been struck with #OpenAI to scrape all the questions and answers in Stack Overflow, to train #GenerativeAI models, like #LLMs, without attribution to authors (as required under the CC-BY-SA license under which Stack Overflow content is licensed), to be sold back to us (the SA clause requires derivative works to be shared under the same license), I have issued a Data Deletion request to Stack Overflow to disassociate my username from my Stack Overflow username, and am closing my account, just like I did with Reddit, Inc.

https://policies.stackoverflow.co/data-request/

The data I helped create is going to be bundled in an #LLM and sold back to me.

In a single move, Stack Overflow has alienated its community - which is also its main source of competitive advantage, in exchange for token lucre.

Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow's former instantiation, used to fulfill a psychological contract - help others out when you can, for the expectation that others may in turn assist you in the future. Now it's not an exchange, it's #enshittification.

Programmers now join artists and copywriters, whose works have been snaffled up to create #GenAI solutions.

The silver lining I see is that once OpenAI creates LLMs that generate code - like Microsoft has done with Copilot on GitHub - where will they go to get help with the bugs that the generative AI models introduce, particularly, given the recent GitClear report, of the "downward pressure on code quality" caused by these tools?

While this is just one more example of #enshittification, it's also a salient lesson for #DevRel folks - if your community is your source of advantage, don't upset them.

GottaLaff, 1 day ago to legal

#TrumpTrial starts HERE. #Trump #legal
Please remember I don’t reply while live-posting. Plz use NFL (Not For Laffy, but no hashtag) so I can ignore those replies.

1/… Bower:

Trump enters the courtroom. Before arriving, he lingered for a moment in the doorway, talking to his lawyers, Emile Bove and Todd Blanche. He had a piece of paper in his hand, which he waved around as he spoke.

Wait for it….

mastodonmigration, 4 hours ago to random

Heeeee's back....

Paul Manafort, poised to rejoin Trump world, aided Chinese media deal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/10/paul-manafort-pardon-donald-trump-china/

#Manafort #Trump

dangillmor, 1 day ago to random

Not the Onion (though if it was on that site we'd all have a good laugh at the fine satire).

Sadly, but predictably, it's in the New York Times.

"Stormy Daniels as We Had Never Seen Her

During her time on the stand in former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, the adult entertainer dressed for history — and a jury."

h/t @jeffjarvis

LukaszOlejnik, 15 hours ago to random

"The theft-prevention system installed in Seattle rental cars by a car-sharing company was designed to prevent cars being towed away by thieves. It disabled the cars remotely if they were detected to be moving with the engine off. Renters taking the boat ferry found themselves unable to restart their cars when the ferry docked. An anti-theft system in a car caused major delays to a regional ferry system" https://www.ft.com/content/178ab808-21ff-4ac2-a81f-f831326c22d4

GottaLaff, 1 day ago to legal

NEW #TrumpTrial 🧵 starts HERE. #Trump #legal

Please remember I don’t reply while live-posting. Plz use NFL (Not For Laffy, but no hashtag) so I can ignore those replies.

1/

McB:

...At 2:14 p.m., Trump walks in, entourage in tow.

Boris Epshteyn just handed a piece of paper with a photo on it to Kaitlan Collins.

I thought he maybe said "Conway" to her, but I'm not exactly sure.

Nonilex, 17 hours ago to Electricvehicles

What #Trump promised #BigOil as he asked them for $1B for his campaign

Trump pledged to scrap President #Biden’s policies on #ElectricVehicles & #wind #energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the #FossilFuel industry.

As he sat w/some of the country’s top #oil execs at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one exec complained how they continued to face burdensome #environmental #regulations despite spending $400M to lobby the #Biden admin…

#Climate
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil-industry-campaign-money/

SteveThompson, 18 hours ago to random

"The Nasty Problem of Cleaning Up Space Junk at 17,500 Miles Per Hour"

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-space-junk-problem/ #paywall

"To fix Earth’s tricky orbital debris problem, startups and governments are testing everything from kamikaze satellites to robotic grappling arms."

dangillmor, 2 days ago to random

Stack Overflow joins Twitter and Reddit in demonstrating control-freak contempt for the people who made the platform what it is.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/stack-overflow-bans-users-en-masse-for-rebelling-against-openai-partnership-users-banned-for-deleting-answers-to-prevent-them-being-used-to-train-chatgpt

The company will probably get away with it, because people seem unable to fight back in effective ways, at least in numbers that make a difference.

GottaLaff, 1 day ago to climate

“Billions of people are using different kinds of energy each day and 2023 was a record-breaking year for renewable energy sources — ones that don’t emit planet-warming pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane…

For the first time, 30% of electricity produced worldwide was from clean energy sources as the number of solar and wind farms continued to grow fast.” #ClimateCrisis
https://apnews.com/article/2718fce0ed37232dc25dbf46fff87955

davidtoddmccarty, 2 days ago to random

Here are your options.

Biden gave a speech on remembering the Holocaust. Trump fell asleep listening to a porn star testify about having unprotected sex with him while he was married with a young child at home.

Those are your options.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/us/politics/trump-trial-biden-speech-holocaust.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

mastodonmigration, 1 day ago to random

Seems like petitions to remove Aileen Cannon have become a thing. Newsweek reports that over 300K signatures have been gathered.

These may not have any force, but it is something tangible you can do to register your disapproval. Another is to channel this anger into electing Democrats.

Here are four of the petitions to remove Aileen Cannon:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-judge-aileen-cannon-must-recuse-herself-from-trumps-case?nowrapper=true&referrer=&source=

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/remove-biased-judge-cannon-from-u-s-vs-trump-case

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/forms/sign-the-petition-judge-aileen-cannon-must-recuse-herself-from-trumps-case-2

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/819/262/485/demand-judge-aileen-cannon-recuse-herself-from-the-trump-case/

Newsweek article: https://www.newsweek.com/remove-aileen-cannon-petitions-300k-signatures-1898410

Nonilex, 2 days ago to DaftPunk

#Republican Rep #MarjorieTaylorGreene on Wednesday officially triggered a vote on her motion to remove House #Speaker #MikeJohnson.

There were audible boos from lawmakers in the chamber as Greene spoke at length about her grievances with Johnson on the #House floor.

#HouseRepublicans #Republicans #ChaosCaucus #TheDysfunctionIsThePoint #governance #dysfunction #VoteBlue
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-triggers-vote-motion-oust-speaker/story?id=110043228

SteveThompson, 2 days ago to random

"This Isn’t Justice"

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2024/05/this-isnt-justice-legal-experts-blast-cannon-for-postponing-trump-case-indefinitely/

“This is news but it’s hardly unexpected..." Joyce Vance wrote. “Judge Cannon seems desperate to avoid trying this case. This isn’t justice. defendants aren’t the only ones with speedy trial act rights, we the people have them too.”

“After the election,” professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter commented, “if Trump wins Jack Smith gets fired, the case gets dismissed, and Judge Cannon is ready for SCOTUS.”

mastodonmigration, 2 days ago to random

For those losing their heads over today's actions by Judge Cannon, take a deep breath. This was always going to happen. The writing has been on the wall since Judge Cannon was drawn for the case. Getting all worked up about it is only going to make you crazy and desperate. The way we will rid ourselves of this menace is at the polls in November.

For a sober discussion on this topic this exchange today between @Teri_Kanefield and @JonChevreau is highly recommended:

https://mstdn.ca/@JonChevreau/112401937598899929

Nonya_Bidniss, 3 days ago to random

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: "To normalize extreme ideas, you get them circulating through institutions and the public sphere, aiming for prestigious platforms that offer maximum legitimacy. Enter the Supreme Court, which is making itself the tool of bad actors who want issues that should be settled in a democracy seen as up for discussion–including whether a head of state can order an assassination of a political rival and pay no consequence." #SCOTUS
https://lucid.substack.com/p/information-warfare-and-the-supreme