mike805

@mike805@noc.social

Developer of https://TheUncloud.co which is the easiest way to chat off the record and transfer large files to anyone. Working on an Android app.

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

fkamiah17, to random
@fkamiah17@toot.wales avatar

WEEK 33: Full on dystopia at the University of North Carolina's commencement ceremony yesterday.

mike805,

@fkamiah17 The corporate logos put the finishing touches on that one.

molly0xfff, to random
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

"[The moderator crackdown is] just a reminder that anything you post on any of these platforms can and will be used for profit. It's just a matter of time until all your messages on Discord, Twitter etc. are scraped, fed into a model and sold back to you." – @ben

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

h/t @dangillmor

mike805,

@shom @molly0xfff @ben @dangillmor Ever heard of low-background steel? Various instruments are made out of world war 2 and earlier battleship steel, some recovered from the bottom of the ocean, because all post-1945 steel is radioactive.

Pre-2023 Internet content is going to be a precious resource like low-background steel someday, the way things are going. Archives will be valuable, especially if one has the legal right to use them. (Although that will NOT deter people, they will obfuscate.)

stux, to random
@stux@mstdn.social avatar

Banning ads from public spaces... hmmm :think_bread: :noding_cat:

mike805,

@stux Mostly advertisements are mental pollution. Beyond the first 10% I am not convinced they increase total sales. They just transfer sales from one brand to another.

But being mental pollution, maybe advertising should be taxed.

GhostOnTheHalfShell, (edited ) to Economics
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@economics@a.gup.pe

File this under the heading economics is not even a dismal science, because mainstream economics isn’t even science. Economics could actually be a rigorous discipline, if orthodoxy can be kicked out.

“ In contrast to its attitude to private debt, which it ignores, mainstream economics obsesses about government debt. But this volte-face doesn't besmirch its record of being 100% wrong.”

https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/its-a-mixed-credit-fiat-world-e3f

mike805,

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics@a.gup.pe Economics is in the 19th century bloodletting and leeches stage because it cannot do controlled experiments.

Except now it can. Multiplayer video games with convertible currency, and discrete event simulations with all NPCs, can produce real world economic behavior.

And then you can start trying out all the alt-money theories and see which ones work and which are bunk.

We'd also have to get the Wall Street influences out of economics.

mike805,

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics@a.gup.pe Well if you could build a large scale economic simulation that predicts economic outcomes better than the mainstream, you could fund the operation by trading.

With Curie and radium, or germ theory, what overcame the skeptics of the day? When you could SEE it. The microscope, or purified glowing stuff you could show people.

Simulations would let us SEE the problems with current economic theory.

Heinlein's For Us The Living is excellent.

mike805,

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics@a.gup.pe The "old guard" problem exists in all disciplines, sure. Right answers eventually win.

Economics is uniquely positioned in that someone with a better theory (in terms of predictive power) could get filthy stinking rich, without fighting the patent office or large corporations first.

Michael Milken and the founders of Long Term Capital Management show the hazards of doing that. Both had valid insights, both met with disaster in the real world.

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

Joe Biden just banned Tik Tok.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/24/biden-signs-israel-ukraine-tiktok-bill-into-law.html

If America can do this to Tik Tok, America can and will do it to whatever internet thing it is you like just as easily. Don't imagine China itself was the point of this. (The ban[s] cover ByteDance plus any company 20%+ owned within a country on this short list https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/4872#:~:text=metals%20and%20alloys.-,(2)Covered%20nation,-.%E2%80%94The%20term but given how easily this passed it seems a precedent is set for Congress to add whatever other company, organization or country it feels like to the list.)

mike805,

@mcc Learn to use Tor if you like your Internet freedom. Tails is good.

On the bright side, maybe this will break the youth iPhone monopoly in the USA. Perhaps blue chat bubbles are not so cool if the tech-savvy Android users can watch TikTok and the iPhone crowd cannot?

mike805,

@mcc Most of the kids who were into Fortnite probably had something better than a phone to play it on. However, being forced to choose between TikTok and blue bubbles will be a serious dilemma for kids. Glad I am not in that environment.

argumento, to Palestine Spanish
@argumento@hispagatos.space avatar

Netanyahu is the symptom, not the disease.

The disease is the system that elected him twice to Prime Minister.

The disease is the society that approves of the slaughter in .

The disease is an apartheid State that has fostered a racist society that doesn't think of Palestinians as human beings.

The disease is the USA funding all of this because they care more about their interests (Israel is an unsinkable aircraft carrier) than about human life or the rule of law.

@palestine

mike805,

@argumento @faab64 @palestine @journalismandcomment European Communism ended when the population finally understood that it was not about this or that bad leader, but the whole system was evil and could not be fixed.

Are we approaching that point in the America-led world? Israel-Palestine seems to have moved things closer.

AAKL, to android
@AAKL@noc.social avatar

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    mike805,

    @AAKL @AndroidAuth Can we please have radar collision detection in Android phones? So if you are walking with the phone up in front of you, arrows appear at the top of the screen when you are about to walk into someone? Now that would be progress.

    AAKL, to ai
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    mike805,

    @AAKL @betanews @iandbarker That is a scary figure: 62% of people who used chatbots did not check their answers.

    juergen_hubert, to random
    @juergen_hubert@thefolklore.cafe avatar

    "BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink warned of a looming “retirement crisis” facing the US and called on baby boomers to help younger generations save enough for their own futures.

    That, he said, will prevent them from becoming disillusioned with capitalism and politics in coming years."

    Because "disillusionment with " is the real problem here!

    https://fortune.com/2024/03/26/blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-boomers-fix-retirement-crisis-millennials-gen-z-economically-anxious/

    mike805,

    @Wen @rorystarr @juergen_hubert When a government's only remaining response to failure is clampdown, that government's legitimacy is already gone. Canada's response to the trucker protest shows that they know this. The only question is will it end peacefully or otherwise. Even China had to back down when the citizens had had enough with COVID clampdown.

    AAKL, to random
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    mike805,

    @AAKL @polygon You have to put in quite a bit of time, effort, and money to play high-end games nowadays.

    You also have to submit to a cloud-based, big-brother surveillance and control environment,. where others can take things away from you.

    The people willing to do that already have gaming rigs.

    I miss the days when you could just put a quarter in the slot and have some fun.

    mike805,

    @AAKL @polygon There isn't going to be one. The gaming market really is saturated. They tried the whole "game for money" thing with cryptocurrency a couple years ago, and the suckers got burned already.

    AAKL, to random
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    mike805,

    @AAKL @arstechnica Being allied with a tyrannical government helps quite a bit. So let's reserve judgment until the election.

    mike805,

    @AAKL @arstechnica I've watched a few WeChat demos to see what that thing actually does. Basically chat, buy/sell markets, and money transfer.

    I think the main function WeChat is performing is as the official censor and monitor. There is one place the Chinese government can apply pressure to keep things the way they want it.

    So are you SURE you want an everything app, Elon? You claim to be pro-freedom, and an everything app is the opposite of that.

    AAKL, to random
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    mike805,

    @AAKL Other countries have tried to do that. Having a full alternative to Windows would be nice, assuming it's source code and can be audited for surprises.

    The American government could save a lot of money in the long term by supporting open source devs to make an alternative for its own use, instead of being ripped off by commercial vendors all the time.

    mike805,

    @AAKL Why do I suspect a lot of former government software executives have gotten jobs at the commercial vendors they used to "negotiate" with?

    AAKL, to OpenAI
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    mike805,

    @AAKL If you can make people healthy for longer, that would solve a lot of problems. If you can make people half dead in a nursing home for longer, that would create a lot of problems.

    vga256, to zerowaste
    @vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

    i need a new repair and restoration project like i need a third butthole.

    but i couldn’t say no to this poor old IBM Selectric rotting in a government surplus warehouse for $5. once the pride and joy of some government office, it is completely gummed with sawdust and old lubricant.

    besides, there’s something so wonderful about the premium burgundy/wine ones. i can’t wait to get the grime off and see the original colour. this will become a piece of functional artmaking equipment when it is done.

    mike805,

    @vga256 Those turn up in thrift stores every now and then around here. Once I saw a Mag Card II, although I didn't know what it was at the time. It was a Selectric that could magically retype whatever you keyed in on it! It was connected to a box the size of a gaming PC by a fat cord. Apparently there is a delay line memory in the box.

    luciedigitalni, to auspol
    @luciedigitalni@aus.social avatar

    Let's be clear that all of the functional criticisms of Tiktok also apply to Instagram, for example.

    All of the 'data harvesting' criticisms of Tiktok also apply to every other commercial social media platform

    mike805,

    @luciedigitalni There is one BIG criticism of TikTok that applies to none of the others.

    Chinese spooks get the take and American spooks do not.

    And that's why the Western deep state has a Putin-level hate-on for TikTok.

    AAKL, to TikTok
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    mike805,

    @AAKL @BBC Wow these kids are dumb. They want all social media regulated? They want "safer" apps, meaning more censored and less likely to hurt your feelings? Ok fine, we are starting with the most toxic one. Bye! They get what they wished for.

    The problem here is not TikTok, which is a toxic app designed to cause harm. The problem is the federal government regulating the means of speech. If this sticks, all social media will follow the party line or risk getting banned.

    rbreich, to random
    @rbreich@masto.ai avatar
    mike805,

    @rbreich Every few decades, the harm from business consolidation becomes obvious enough that someone can make political hay from it.

    Mergers where any participant has a dominant position should be no by default. The company that wants to do one, should have the burden of proof to show benefit, and if the benefit does not materialize, the combination should be broken up again.

    The threat of that would deter most of them.

    AAKL, to random
    @AAKL@noc.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    mike805,

    @AAKL OpenAI claimed to be open source and lied. Tesla claimed to have self-driving figured out, sold cars on that basis, and hasn't delivered. Both companies have a fake it til you make it approach.

    jeffowski, to random
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar

    mike805,

    @jeffowski That's the point of a republic. There are things even a majority cannot do.

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