@mstrlaw@mastodon.social
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mstrlaw

@mstrlaw@mastodon.social

I build digital things. Interested in developing better solutions to discover and consume information to make sense of world events. Currently working on https://frontcover.ai, among other things.
Believer of technology for humans, media literacy and preserving democracy.
Expect the occasional photo of cats or nature. Based in Lisbon, Portugal 🇪🇺

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

mstrlaw, to news
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Ah yes. It always looks GREAT when governments shut down news orgs.

matthewskelton, to random
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YCombinator is officially a threat to democracy ☣️

"as an alternative to forming new cities, tech zillionaires can use elections to seize existing governments."

https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

mstrlaw,
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@matthewskelton Signs of the ongoing efforts to transition into Tech Feudalism.

mstrlaw, to journalism
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Problematic.

Edent, to random
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The problem is, people who I probably agree with politically, are hugely susceptible to believing any old nonsense as long as it is delivered as a screenshot which stokes rage against "the baddies".

When I point out that it can be debunked in 5 seconds, that apparently makes me complicit in [insert thing they're angry about].

mstrlaw,
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@Edent

<<"I'm just reporting what the biased mainstream media won't!"

No. You're sharing misinformation which the MSM aren't touching because it is factually innacurate.>>

Can't stress how much this makes me seethe.

mstrlaw, to tech
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"For decades, and criticism has primarily consisted of glowing gadget reviews, laudatory profiles, and reprinted press releases, all of it colored by Silicon Valley’s self-aggrandizing vision of itself as a laboratory of a brighter future."

https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-miseducation-of-kara-swisher-ongweso

mstrlaw, to javascript
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Hello network 👋

I'm looking for a seasoned Engineer to join my team at surfe.com for a fully remote position, within EU timezones.

Salary range €50k-€70k depending on xp.

Stack: Real-world experience building user facing products required.

Super nice team, with a balanced and diverse background.

Boosting is appreciated! 🚀

Full offer details and application form:
https://work.surfe.com/6d889dafb6d84892babcf17f84dc7d98

mstrlaw, to random
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Moss patches on roof tiles.

mstrlaw, to Facebook
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This piece from @AdrienneLaF in The Atlantic reminded me of an essay I wrote years ago around wanting to become a government of sorts.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/03/facebook-meta-silicon-valley-politics/677168/

mstrlaw,
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I should actually do a part two, encompassing tech companies / tech bros as a whole.

https://medium.com/@mstrlaw/facebook-aspirational-government-3600ab25d2c0

mstrlaw,
@mstrlaw@mastodon.social avatar

The sheer amount of developments since 2020 when I wrote this: how Big Tech came out stronger from the pandemic; January 6th in the U.S., deciding to remove a nation's leader from broadcasting in their products; the handling of dubious content (for the best and for the worst); the stories that came out of the tech clique getting secluded "apocalypse" properties in islands or the recent news of them wanting to build a corpo town in Vacaville.

Damn, really have to do part 2.

mstrlaw,
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Which reminded me of Varoufaki's recent "Technofeudalism - What Killed Capitalism". Need to check if it's any good.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781847927279

mstrlaw,
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@HistoPol I was saying that this one could get a "part 2" as a follow up :)
https://medium.com/@mstrlaw/facebook-aspirational-government-3600ab25d2c0

mstrlaw,
@mstrlaw@mastodon.social avatar

@HistoPol @mstrlaw Got it. Yeah, it's just one of the many things one could address, but it does have a good ring to it for a headline.

mstrlaw,
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@HistoPol Currently finishing reading it. It's a good, easy read.

In a nutshell the argument is that tech companies have been able to become mostly rent-extracting entities (through their clouds), hence behaving almost like "feudal lords".
He argues Capitalism self-inflicted this outcome via state-money (kickstarted with the 2008 financial bailouts) where most of the money banks got was reinvested into big tech.

Found this interview about it today where he summarize it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKzlB_jrOyk

twostraws, to random
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It’s happening!

video/mp4

mstrlaw,
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@twostraws looking forward to see what cool apps will be built on it.

matthiasott, to random
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Inhabitants of the open web!

Do you have a on your site? Or did you come across a fantastic example on someone else’s website?

Let me know the URL below! 🙌

(Once more, I’m also asking for my newsletter subscribers 😉)

mstrlaw,
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@matthiasott I kept this one once
https://www.stefanjudis.com/blogroll/

mstrlaw, to random
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Monday Morning Moss

tca, to ai
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We're doomed.

https://www.channel1.ai/

mstrlaw,
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@tca I mean if the information is only generated from real, verified and verifiable news sources? Maybe?

mstrlaw, to nature
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Some pics from the traverse of Serra da Estrela in full autonomy (+/- 60km in 3 days).

Leaves of a plant fully frozen with a backdrop of more frozen plants and mountain.
A small frozen lake on top of a plateau with a full blue sky behind it.
Three direction plaques all completely frozen with a valley and blue sky behind it.

Daojoan, to random
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A moment of silence for those we lost.

mstrlaw,
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@Daojoan gold

matthiasott, to random
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If you have a personal website: what platform, CMS, SSG, tech stack, or service are you using for it? Would you pick it again? How much technical expertise did it require to set up and make it your own? And do you have to do a lot of maintenance?

Once more – you guessed it – I’m asking for my subscribers. 😉
RT = 🎉

mstrlaw,
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@matthiasott Metalsmith hosted on Netlify and using Netlify CMS. But thinking on rebuilding it with Gridsome 'cause I'm a sucker for

mstrlaw, to random
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Very interesting listen this weekend with @timnitGebru https://podcasts.apple.com/en/podcast/the-institute-of-black-imagination/id1516680750?i=1000553838491

mstrlaw,
@mstrlaw@mastodon.social avatar

Also this one from @changelog with @pluralistic is just great, on how to get back to a time where the internet was actually good, and not simply
a place captured by corpos.
https://changelog.com/podcast/565

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“Cruise Self-Driving Cars Struggled to Recognize Children”

Who’s willing to bet against me that problems like these are endemic in the self-driving industry but hidden by the companies? https://theintercept.com/2023/11/06/cruise-self-driving-cars-children/

mstrlaw,
@mstrlaw@mastodon.social avatar

@baldur Company hides known harmful issue with it's product? Unheard of..

mstrlaw,
@mstrlaw@mastodon.social avatar

@baldur I’d even go as far as saying that any company deploying complex/large scale AI inevitably needs human labour behind it to deal with the amount of unforeseen cases that only a human brain could reason with.

Problem is when these companies pretend this invisible labor doesn’t exist and aren’t considered part of the “AI” solution they have.

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