@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

poritzj

@poritzj@mastodon.social

Trying to work to make the world a little better in the ways I can; mostly in the open education and FLOSS movements at the moment. More at https://poritz.net/jonathan

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poritzj, to random
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

I just pre-ordered "Stories Are Weapons", because I've really enjoyed and learned from every other thing @annaleen has written.

(The bookshop in the small town in Italy where I live is getting used to my usual orders ... and the prices are reasonable, delivery times are good -- take that, oligopsony-wielding plutocrat trying to expand your empire to Italy!)

luis_in_brief, to random
@luis_in_brief@social.coop avatar

Some days I wonder if, quietly, CC0 is actually a bigger success story than the other @creativecommons licenses put together. Not to slight the other licenses! But CC0 is increasingly catalytic in the library, museum, and data spaces.

https://www.openculture.com/2024/03/the-getty-makes-nearly-88000-art-images-free-to-use-however-you-like.html

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@luis_in_brief @creativecommons @dajb I think CC0 was only created 10 years into CC's existence because @lessig is an academic, and giving credit (i.e., any CC license with BY) is an absolute scholarly value.
Which makes academia's embrace of genAI really weird to me, since it is based on the work of others w/o giving any credit. Why don't academics just viscerally reject genAI for that reason? Is it because this violation of a basic academic norm is happening "at scale"?

emilymbender, to random
@emilymbender@dair-community.social avatar

Coming soon on Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000:

Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders of @ouropinions will join me and @alex for a take-down of attempts at principles to govern the use of autonomous agents in Asimov's science fiction and Biden's US military.

Mon, Feb 19, noon Pacific:
https://www.twitch.tv/dair_institute

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@emilymbender @ouropinions @alex

Maybe y'all should have a "it's not all hell" mention of how Timnit Gebru was referenced in one of the Superb Owl commercials? It's kind of a light alternative to the usual hell, and it does kind of demonstrate some sort of cultural awareness that there is at least debate on the wisdom of current tech...

poritzj, to random
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

I need to say that @parismarx 's Tech Won't Save Us podcast is really fantastic.
I haven't heard every episode, but every one I have heard has been thoughtful, careful, insightful, and has stayed in my mind long after. When he interviews authors, I have found myself so interested that I buy the book they discuss, every single time!
One of his interviews was the major motivating force behind something I wrote for my own blog (although it hasn't yet gone live - needs some work).
Highly recommend!

BeAware, (edited ) to accessibility
@BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

Is writing Alt Text hard for you? Does it give you anxiety because you want to help visually impaired people but can't even articulate what you're seeing with your fully functional eyes?

Go to ChatGPT, upload image, type "describe this image for the visually impaired", look it over as a human who understands what is important about this image in context and make sure that the generated text reflects that, and then copy and paste the output.

BOOM. Alt Text

Edited to add suggested sentence by poritzj.

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@BeAware
Can I suggest an important step to add?
Between 'type "describe..."' and 'copy and paste the output' add
'look it over as a human who understands what is important about this image in context and make sure that the generated text reflects that.'
Sometimes we're interested in how big was the Great Wave off Kanagawa, sometimes in how the boats are managing their peril, and sometimes only in Mt Fuji in the background. An alt text is only useful if it emphasizes the right thing!

poritzj, to random
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

I made a funny image inspired in part by what I've been reading/watching/listening from wonderful people like @pluralistic @molly0xfff @parismarx @davidgerard (Also name-checking @creativecommons because some of their symbols are in this image....)

nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

This is one of the most useful and privacy-preserving features built into Firefox. This removes URL tracking when you click on the links. Right-click on the URL in the email and "Copy Link without site tracking."

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft
You said "Right-click on the URL in the email and..." as if this were only a problem in emails. But Google docs (I think all Google suite programs), used so widely e.g. in education!, also have tracking redirects in all external links. At least I think they do... It's hard to see because they conceal it, but if you export GD as HTML, you can see it.

And I heartily endorse the suggestions others have made that there should be an option to make this the default with all URL copying!

poritzj, to firefox
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

Now I know how @mozilla makes downloads so fast: they use big trucks!

(Seen on the A12 south of La Spezia in Italy)

brewsterkahle, (edited ) to random
@brewsterkahle@mastodon.archive.org avatar

❤️❤️. . an appreciation post for the @internetarchive
and @ArxivIR

"In appreciation of the 'ridiculous and unworkable' projects that make the Internet great and research possible"

https://ws-dl.blogspot.com/2023/10/2023-10-10-in-appreciation-of.html

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@brewsterkahle @internetarchive @ArxivIR
I don't know, Brewster, It seems like these projects are ridiculous, I would say, because we've all internalized neoliberalism. If you look at Graeber's Debt or in any family dynamic or at what happens over and over again in schools or in scientific labs and offices ... you see humans behaving like this all the time.
Maybe arXiv and archive.org are actually better expressions of what it is to be human than are Google, Apple, or Facebook.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Hey mathstodon, help me understand something. What does Hilbert mean when he argues that to prove the existence of a mathematical concept, you only have to prove that if it existed you arrive at no contradiction.

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@ZachWeinersmith Wittgenstein would say that math is a game you play with words, starting from definitions, axioms, and rules for manipulation, resulting in some statements being called "true" and others "false." It would be pretty boring if every statement were both true and false, which is what happens if you can prove a contradiction. Otherwise, just play on! Which seems to me what Hilbert is saying.

Julia, to random
@Julia@journa.host avatar

AI is leading to a tragedy of the commons: It is overgrazing the commons, scraping up everything it can, and is also being used to pollute the commons with untrustworthy content.

My latest NYT column (gift link) https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/ai-internet-lawsuit.html?unlocked_article_code=vRNUO2kkko1v0QOmx8Iil8pblv1TxJTAL3KJvi03gGf_4G12ofLxD6Ev9X7Hbe01g8BwLJ9rI_HJxo2_q9IDsxhqD2RehJz70QJaC6NgamAyiZTEe3Wu5snnItSbG_Cg99yfqMnwd2G8lymdFuiWWzDUWAembgQPr1B-IsboCeLYnXRYKXs5OPeDJWb1gdlpaE-cE9f4LwEDmxYHwlPmzVLuhjggftv3kHKAQ-moBpOBOm30Fr4lTIcOdTJy-ygPHB-0hrpNzn7_qVPCL_UjWfHuVSa7kLBJtbKbYBq8rP-xBoI2C50ggZUjZyGQA7pnzrome1IMbMeRSGTi&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

poritzj,
@poritzj@mastodon.social avatar

@emilymbender @Julia
@datamyna and I have a talk for the @creativecommons which also echos these points -- and, of course, references your important work!
The slides and prerecorded video are at https://poritz.net/j/share/WGAIDDOS.
I'm particularly proud of our analysis of the failure of generative AInt to match CC's idea of , and an argument that, while copyright is not the best or only tool to fight the ills of AInt, it is almost certainly violated in all current AInt
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