@pluralistic@mamot.fr
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pluralistic

@pluralistic@mamot.fr

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)
@doctorow.

Archived at pluralistic.net

I post long threads. If you don't like these in your timeline but want to read them, I suggest unfollowing me here and subscribing to my RSS, or my newsletter, or any of my various long-form feeds. Links at https://pluralistic.net.

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nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Google Ad from 1999. https://www.instagram.com/blackcactusx/p/C4llg93IaGb/

maia, to random
@maia@crimew.gay avatar
ricmac, to random
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

An increasingly familiar discussion about link rot, this one initiated by Rafe Needleman on LinkedIn (hat-tip @pluralistic and @judell). https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rafeneedleman_pluralistic-linkrot-21-may-2024-activity-7199527942530490368-qRc-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

ricmac,
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic @judell I did a big archive project on my old ReadWriteWeb articles back in 2017, linking them all to @internetarchive versions. And that was before RWW got onsold to a scammer gambling company! So glad the Wayback Machine exists. I also have offline backups of all my articles. But of course, I wish I had backed them up at the time, instead of many years later. https://ricmac.org/2017/07/12/creating-an-archive/

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Not enough people realize that the "Turing Test" as originally presented was "can a gay English man in 1945 tell the difference between a chatbot and a femme-coded woman" over a teletype connection.

(Turing was very gay and had a sex-segregated education and then work life: he basically didn't know women and his alienation is palpable. But today's techbros don't have any such excuse, and the emphasis on femme-coded AI is ... telling.)
https://mastodon.xyz/@pmorinerie/112506480363973206

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Lamppost EV chargers are the answer to how you charge your vehicle in cities.

This is possible because when energy intensive street lamps were replaced by LEDs, there’s excess power for charging EVs.

All cities should do this. ⚡️

h/t Robert Llewllyn

lumii, to Podcast
@lumii@fediverse.fun avatar

🎧 – @pluralistic craphound.com: Wanna Make Monopolies Even Worse? Kill

Episode webpage: https://craphound.com/news/2024/05/26/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230/

Media file: https://ia902908.us.archive.org/3/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_468/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_468_-_Wanna_Make_Big_Tech_Monopolies_Even_Worse_Kill_Section_230.mp3

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

It's the start of a long weekend and I've found myself with a backlog of links, so it's time for another linkdump - the eighteenth in the (occasional) series. Here's the previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/#lol-no

1/

Niall,
@Niall@mastodon.nz avatar

@weaselx86 @pluralistic that's a fantastic response to a disingenuous threat.

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic

“[t]he LAPD is not expected to like the existence of ‘Fck the LAPD’ merchandise. But their sole remedy is to not do things that result in people wanting to buy and wear ‘Fck the LAPD’ merchandise.” That may be difficult, he conceded, “[b]ut I promise you it would still be easier than trying to get a court to rule” that these shirts are infringing.

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/05/lol-no-explained.html

sfoskett,
@sfoskett@techfieldday.net avatar

@weaselx86 @pluralistic Mike Dunford is an American hero!

tanyatussing, to random
@tanyatussing@mastodon.social avatar

What a wonderful North Star. May we find a way to that reality, @janhoglund

"technology operated by and for the people who use it."
— @pluralistic

https://mastodon.nu/@janhoglund/112505686320693585

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Inkjump Linkdump; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/

1/

steve_zeke,
@steve_zeke@freeradical.zone avatar

@pluralistic
Love the photo! My wife is a fiber artist and she’s created boro-inspired work (along with many other styles). I can’t wait to show her your photo.

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

"Humor is a human phenomenon"

*Is this actually true? It must be true of verbal humor -- but maybe there are animals funnier than people, when seen by animal standards

ramsey,
@ramsey@phpc.social avatar

@bruces @pluralistic I don’t know about humor, but animals certainly do things for the fun of it. When it snows, my dog can’t wait to go out and run in it; she’s old but acts like a puppy in the snow. I saw a recent article about the orcas attacking boats, and it seems more likely that it’s a group of juveniles having fun. The same article mentioned a group of orcas who started wearing salmon on their heads, just for fun.

joquid, to random
@joquid@mstdn.social avatar

@pluralistic

Never judge a book by its cover!

One would think, based on the title, that would be an inherently bleak outlook of our future in the climate catastrophe - this couldn't be further from the truth!

Upon finishing this novel, I'm left with hope and reinvigorated optimism for what we can achieve in the battle for this planet's future.

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

*What would "animal humor" even look like -- practical jokes, deception, physical slapstick, mime, camouflage, maybe some comic songs

polotek, to random
@polotek@social.polotek.net avatar

We got solar on the house last year. It wasn't necessarily about saving money for me. It became important to me to take a concrete step towards combatting climate change.

But something else started to dawn on me too. The fact that I'm now generating my own power, from an essentially unlimited source, is a truly radical act. I've been thinking a lot about creating a society centered around abundance instead of scarcity. It's not just theoretical.
https://assemblag.es/@theluddite/112496059286904697

tastyraspberry,
@tastyraspberry@mastodon.online avatar

@polotek

> I've been thinking a lot about creating a society centered around abundance instead of scarcity.

Currently reading Walkway by @pluralistic, which centers about exactly that. It's the weirdest book I've discover from him yet, but also the most thought provoking.

virtuous_sloth,
@virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca avatar

@tastyraspberry @polotek @pluralistic Indeed. Me too. Coincidentally, I'm re-reading Walkaway right now because I got interrupted 7 years ago.

SciPolTech, to random
@SciPolTech@mastodon.online avatar

@pluralistic been sharing this petition RE regulation to prevent rent seeking, bricking, right to repair, etc of implanted medical devices. Seems like something up your street?

It's not phrased quite how I would have, but captures important points that will become ever more relevant to more people over time.

Mojoe, to random
@Mojoe@mastodon.world avatar

So, so good.

@pluralistic keeping the ‘punk’ in cyberpunk alive and well.

“Did you get – no, wait for it – did you get a neural implant? Surprise. The company's new owners don't want to continue supporting your implant, and they won't let anyone else do so either. So now, part of your brain has been bricked:”

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/12/unsafe-at-any-speed/#this-is-literally-your-brain-on-capitalism

cdarwin, to random
@cdarwin@c.im avatar

Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp
A decade ago, a hedge fund had an improbable viral comedy hit: a 294-page slide deck explaining why Olive Garden was going out of business,
blaming the failure on too many breadsticks and insufficiently salted pasta-water!
But – as David Dayen wrote at the time – the hedge fund that produced that slide deck, , was not motivated by dissatisfaction with bread-sticks.
They were "activist investors" (finspeak for "rapacious assholes") 🔸with a giant stake in Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden's parent company.
They wanted Darden to liquidate all of Olive Garden's real-estate holdings
and declare a one-off dividend that would net investors a billion dollars,
while literally yanking the floor out from beneath Olive Garden,
converting it from owner to tenant, subject to rent-shocks and other nasty surprises.
In other words they wanted to asset-strip the company
("asset strip" is what they call it in hedge-fund land; the mafia calls it a "bust-out," famous to anyone who watched the twenty-third episode of The Sopranos)
@pluralistic
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

djl,
@djl@mastodon.mit.edu avatar

@cdarwin @pluralistic

Amusingly, there was an article on the front page of the Japanese Asahi Newspaper this morning about fly-by-night private equity here in Japan. It seems that, similar to Red Lobster, the PE company dumped a ton of debt on the companies it bought. But in this Japanese version, the CEO of said PE company then went missing. With the money. Meanwhile, the purchased companies can't make payroll.

jef, to random
@jef@mastodon.social avatar

Do not buy Google's Pixel Charging Stand. It costs $79, it's heavy and awkwardly shaped, but most importantly it's unreliable. Half the time you'll come back to an uncharged phone because the stand decided to nope out. Wireless charging is standardized, any phone and charger that conforms to the Qi standard will interoperate and these days they all conform. Google can't lock you in! Buy a standard lay-flat charger, just pick one that looks nice. It'll work every time and cost you around $15.

image/jpeg

iiradned, to random
@iiradned@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic was over at a friend's place and they were watching Maria Ressa's commencement speech at Harvard as I was getting up to leave I heard Maria say the word enshittification. Couldn't stay longer to watch more, but she did say it.

lproven, to random
@lproven@vivaldi.net avatar

Asset strippers. Darlings of the stock markets, and the worst scum in the world, more evil than any robbers or thieves.

Investors – The Markets – drive the military-industrial complex that is killing the planet & humanity. These people are killing our children.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/ by @pluralistic

markslater,
@markslater@mstdn.social avatar

@lproven @pluralistic Been shouting this from the rooftops ever since I entered paid employment and encountered companies who go on acquisition rampages hoovering up small companies to satisfy the stock markets demands for ‘growth’.

It’s also why I don’t have a ‘proper’ pension or engage with any investment products beyond the personal purchase of rare books, and will consequently probably be poor in old age.

dbrand666,
@dbrand666@mastodon.social avatar

@markslater @lproven @pluralistic
At least you know you don't have a proper pension. Pity the poor saps who thought they had security til the vultures swooped down on their pension funds.

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