misc

jewishreader, 2 months ago to random

What the actual fuck, ACLU.

nathan, 2 months ago to random

I launched Podlink in 2018 to make sharing podcasts easier. Today, I’m excited to announce an early preview of @episodesfm
https://nathangathright.com/introducing-episodesfm/

BlackAzizAnansi, 2 months ago to random

Call your reps and tell them not to ban Tik Tok but also let them know that you want robust federal data privacy protections put in place.

seachanger, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Netanyahu, a hard right extremist, kills with impunity today in part because AIPAC has run roughshod over the United States congress for years, rooting out anyone who questions their extremism. So! it is incredibly exciting to see a progressive coalition stand up and say no to AIPAC.

Sign ⬇️ this petition to join the new movement and pls give @ifnotnowboston a follow to stay engaged & to show this coalition the fediverse is a good place to organize!
#ceasefireNow #gaza

https://mastodon.social/@ifnotnowboston/112077558441306670

futurebird, 2 months ago to random

Reminder:

• Pica does NOT run a fun "password guessing game" where "you can win prizes."

• There is no "good reason" to give Pica your SS number or a copy of your tax return.

• Pica is NOT friends with a "secret bitcoin whale-cat" and has no "secret inside information"

• Pica can't help you improve your signature.

inquiline, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to mastodon

Friends, strangers, haters: I have... made hay. Let no one say I haven't committed to the bit.

(Wrote a paper about Asstodon, everyone be kind)

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13367/11436

#STS #Mastodon #Commodon #autoethnography #DareIUseTheHashtag #Donkeygate #FirstMonday

maria, 2 months ago to random

Jonathan M. Katz shares the story of how he exposed Katie Britt's lies on his TikTok

A free @flaminghydra post:

https://flaminghydra.com/there-should-be-newspapers-that-we-work-at-where-we-do-this/

ifnotnowboston, 2 months ago to boston

On the morning of President Biden’s State of the Union, Jews and allies blocked rush hour traffic outside #Boston's South Station to demand Biden call for a lasting #CeasefireNow.

Join us: http://innmvmt.org/biden

Activists holding signs that say “Let Rafah Live”, “Free Palestine”, and “Ceasefire Now.” Their faces look resolute.
Activists in rain gear holding a black banner with the word CEASEFIRE stenciled in white, in a kind of handwritten font. In the background are the buildings of Boston’s federal district.
An activist being handcuffed by a Boston Police officer. To the activist’s left are more activists, holding a banner that says “State of the Union: Our Taxes Fund Genocide”. The activists are resolutely staring ahead. In the background are other protestors, a police motorcycle with its lights reflected on a rainy street, the buildings of Boston’s Federal District, and other pedestrians.

jonny, 2 months ago to random

What in the entire earth and more importantly why any of this

dave, 2 months ago to random

Today in "I hate the people who write headlines at newspapers so much", a story from the Boston Globe about the long-overdue government-run free file being piloted by the IRS. The only "controversy" is coming from the companies who've spent years lobbying congress to keep their place as a middleman.

kendraserra, 2 months ago to random

Concerned about the future of bodily autonomy and speech?

(I know I am.)

We just announced our kickass speaker lineup for ComstockCon on May 14, in Cambridge. I'm biased, but to my mind, there's no better group with whom to contemplate our haunting by a 19th century ghost. https://www.comstockcon.com/

willoremus, 2 months ago to random

Facebook being down is one thing, but throwing an "incorrect password" error when you try to log in is going to cause a lot of people a lot of headache that could have been avoided.

ttscoff, 2 months ago to random

Lately on the blog: Things for Mac and iOS giveaway!

https://brettterpstra.com/2024/03/04/things-for-mac-and-ios-giveaway/?utm_campaign=blog_post&utm_source=mastodon

misc, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to boston

Hey #boston! Big #ceasefirenow action coming up on Thursday, and we need as many people as possible. Message me for info or go to https://www.mobilize.us/ifnotnow/event/608633/ Boosts appreciated!

timnitGebru, 2 months ago to random

My only comment on Gemini is that y'all take everything seriously when it offends white people when we've been yelling about issues for how long and when has a product ever been pulled and when has there ever been this type of shock and media attention?

merrysky, 2 months ago to random

🙏 Apple reversed its course on limiting PWA capabilities in the EU. Merry Sky "add to homescreen" functionality will keep working just fine!

https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/03/01/apple-reverses-course-on-death-of-progressive-web-apps-in-eu

javi, 2 months ago to random

Besides all the damage control Automattic is trying to do about selling user data to openAi and Midjourney, I don't think they realize how much they have jumped the shark for some of us.

See, I worked for the company for a long time. I was really proud of being part of Automattic: For years, there was a clear push to be 'the odd silicon valley company', one that actually respected user privacy, gets its money from the users themselves and not from stealing their privacy, etc.

When Automattic bought tumblr, I remember Matt saying on an interview that his plan was to try to show the world that there was a different way to do social media, one that was not based in selling user personal data: he wanted tumblr to be funded by its own users. I remember actually defending him in tumblr itself: People was skeptical, but my reply to them was always that even if I not always agreed with Matt in everything, believed he was really serious about protecting user privacy (even if it was only to protect his own reputation of being, somehow, a champion of the open internet).

Well.

Now this has been proved as bullshit. Automattic signed a deal with the two more prominent AI companies to sell user data, and didn't announce it until the first data delivery was already done. What's worse, if you read the announcement they posted, it's clear they intended to gaslight the userbase: They talk about a new profile setting to protect your blog from AI scrappers. They are trying to sell it as an extra layer of protection against data scrappers, when they know very well that they only think they can do to prevent that is politely request the scrappers to not take this or that blog data (spoilers: AI companies couldn't care less about those requests). And of course, what is worse: at no moment it's mentioned that Automattic has reached an agreement with the people behind those scrappers to proactively send the data on their own, without even needing to scrape the web to get it. In exchange for (what I assume) is a hefty amount of money.

Not only Automattic has sold your data behind your back, but on top of that, they are trying to gaslight you about it.

The AI data selling is a punch in the gut. It's horrifying, but at least it's not surprising: Matt Mullenweg has been hyper-bullish about AI since last year, so he probably doesn't even see this is a the huge betrayal of user trust that it is. But the way they intended to communicate it to the end-user, the sneaky, shady way to talk about it in the official posts... that feels like an entire battering.

For me, the trust is absolutely broken. I can't trust automattic more than I trust Meta: Yeah, there's this 'don't share my data with AI thieves' checkbox in tumblr and WordPress now, but they haven't even communicated clearly what the 404 media article is telling us: That the data is already in OpenAi hands, and that the only thing the toggle does is kindly requesting them to not use the data they already have from your blog. And that they are not even contractually obliged to comply.

Even if they actually comply and don't use that data, I can't trust Automattic to not change their approach and remove that checkbox in the future (It's not the first time I see the company doing these kind of changes, but I always lied myself thinking that in the end it was minor issues with less impact than the overall stance of the company). I can't trust Automattic to not start doing these kind of things behind our backs (since they have clearly tried to do it this time and got caught only because some brave soul leaked an internal doc to 404 media).

How could I trust Automattic anymore, when they even tried to keep which kind of data they were selling to OpenAI in secret from its own engineering team? I feel terrible for my ex-coworkers still in Automattic, because I know a big share of them are mortified and aghast for everything that has happened in the past week. But it's their job and they are powerless against greedy and evil executives ('evil' as in "couldn't care less about the users or their employees")

When I was laid off last summer, the reason I got from HR was that 'I wasn't aligned with the direction the company needed to take'. And holy shit, wasn't that true.

As I said, I can't trust Automattic more than I trust Facebook, Google, or Twitter. And it breaks my heart and I can't believe I've just wrote that.

alissaazar, 2 months ago to random

A moving act of solidarity as veterans burn their uniforms at a vigil for Aaron Bushnell hosted by veterans against war

A video of veterans taking turns burning their uniforms in a metal dumpster. Behind it is a banner that says: Veterane say: free Palestine! Remember Aaron Bushnell

hannah, 2 months ago to random

What if something got messed up and february just keeps going forever

Daojoan, 2 months ago to random

An economy? In THIS economy??

WhiskeySailor, 2 months ago to random

So sad not to be able to get the Apple Car now...

cvp, 2 months ago to random

If you think WordPress-the-open-source-project is immune from the actions of Automattic, I have a bridge to sell you

timmy, 2 months ago to random

the federal art project made so many syphilis posters

mcc, 1 year ago to random

For the last year I've been semi-daily posting "What I'm Listening To Today" links in this thread:

https://mastodon.social/@mcc/108199886340178151

The thread is now so long it is increasingly breaking Mastodon, so I am making a new thread, starting here.

To recap, here's the entirety of the year-one thread in the most impractical possible format: A YouTube playlist containing 246 songs and running for just over 47 hours:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLIjft6ja7DP_GwDs3XuTbiFmHYTwJWa7