toolbear

toolbear, 7 days ago to random

#Boeing is killing whistleblowers like they're #Russian dissidents, so please DO keep with the #guillotine imagery. The oligarchs are afraid. That's why they're killing us. They need to be more afraid, though.

As far as #Boeing executives go, we're past the point of intimidation. Some Boeing execs and probably some #shareholders need to die to make this right. They aren't going to stop killing us otherwise.

toolbear, 7 days ago to random

My position on guillotine imagery and sabre rattling at oligarchs is — amusingly — expressed best by Ali Wong:

"…we just wanna experience some risk and be out of control, you know? Like, “I don’t wanna die! Don’t kill me! I don’t wanna die!” But I also don’t want to be sure that I’m gonna live. You know? I just wanna be out of control for once. Just– Just choke me enough so that I can’t talk. ‘Cause if I can talk, I’m gonna tell you what to do."

1/2

toolbear, 23 days ago to Russia

#Trump routinely has enemies killed, enabled by the #FBI. #Boeing unexisted a whistleblower. Deans of journalism at universities who decry attrocities are silenced.

This is what living in a #mafia state feels like. #Russia had it worse in the '90s than we'll have it, but it's the same gameplan: mob corruption, dismantle everything, sell it for parts.

There's no escaping a lot of suffering now. We've been abdicating democracy to unworthy champions. Time to buckle up and do the work ourselves.

toolbear, 1 month ago to Youtube

#LazyWeb query about why a #YouTube #download isn't deterministic.

OBSERVATION:

Download the same video multiple times using yt-dlp URL. The contents aren't the same even minutes apart. The SHA256 hashes don't match.

QUESTION

Why does this happen?

SPECULATION

• yt-dlp doesn't strip out sponsors in a deterministic way

• YouTube tweaks the bitrate on the fly despite requesting the highest quality

• YouTube adds steganographic fingerprints to thwart downloaders via state violence

toolbear, 1 month ago to internet

The "Low Data Mode" features to the contrary — NO the tech companies don't actually care NOR did they actually solve the problem for folks on metered connections. They checked a compliance box and called it done. The assumption that bandwidth and data are so cheap and limitless as to be free permeates my industry. Always on is assumed and folks who try and deviate suffer.

A single misconfigured device autodownloading an OS or app or game update will blow through a monthly #Internet allotment.

toolbear, 1 month ago to random

Does anyone have a list of instances run or taken over by "The Fourth Estate" folks or that Jeff character?

I didn't have journa(.)host blocked on this account until just now and it reminded me that Jeff had tried a few other Masto instance shell games.

toolbear, 1 month ago to random

Crummy that #PBS uses dark patterns to try and get you to buy Ken Burns documentaries that are available to stream or download from their own site. It's one thing to promote DVD merch or provide a link to it on iTunes. It's a whole different thing to intentionally bury the free public access.

Persist and find the Season 1 list and you're on your way to finding the episode page where you can stream it or download via:

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

#PBS #KenBurns #PublicTelevision #Commons #YTDLP

toolbear, 1 month ago to random

GOOD COPS QUIT

toolbear, 1 month ago to random

Anchorwhale: ironic cetacean voice Coming Up: Good News. Humans have issued a statement declaring Whales have personhood. More on this after low tide.

https://www.iflscience.com/whales-must-be-granted-personhood-say-pacific-indigenous-leaders-73580

#CNN #CetaceanNewsNetwork #Whales #🐋

toolbear, 2 months ago to mastodon

A big #Mastodon problem is that things appear broken and we're told "it's by design" and then later things appear broken and we're told "it's because decentralized" and then later things appear broken and we're told "it's an outage or DDOS" and then later things appear broken and we're told "it's folks got defederated by a rogue admin during some drama" and then later things appear broken because they are.

It is a fucked system and impressively it's better than the alternatives in many ways.

toolbear, 2 months ago to random

More than anything, please #Vote today 🙏

I truly want you to vote today even if you're my ideological opposite. The collective spell of participatory governance is far too powerful for even fascists to corrupt entirely. I imagine wannabe authoritarians wilt a little every time society compells them to cast a ballot instead of them getting to bark an order to imposse their will. Going to the polls for wannabe authoritarians and their fans has to feel like a tiny defeat.

#uspol

toolbear, 2 months ago to random

My impassioned voicemails left for California representatives Adam Schiff and Katie Porter sharing my extreme disappointment that they ran opposite Rep. Barbara Lee for U.S. Senate will surely get Adam and Katie to see the light, step out of the race, and endorse Rep. Lee. That is how good a wizard I am 🙄

I DO feel better about myself. I'm also joining a Rep. Barbara Lee #GOTV phone bank tonight.

https://www.mobilize.us/barbaralee/event/592869/

#uspol #USSenate
#BarbaraLeeForSenate
#BarbaraLeeSpeaksForMe

toolbear, 3 months ago to random

Mutual aid at scale probably looks like dues, tithes, or taxes (same thing, right?) so in healthy communities you ought pay your dues. But…TAXES aren't inevitable. You don't have to pay. Yet you probably should.

DEATH then. Only death is inevitable. Unless you're invincible, eternal, or immortal. You're always coming back, always picking up the pieces of the last turn.

So LIVING is the only thing we cannot escape. There is nothing we have to do. Except we cannot avoid living, even when we try.

toolbear, 3 months ago to Netflix

If you're a Netflix employee and are comfortable connecting me with either the Trans or LGBTQ ERGs regarding a collective action thing, please reply or DM.

I would like to discuss a visit to Los Gatos campus on Leap Day (Thu, Feb 29th, 2024) to talk with anyone interested about Netflix workers forming a Tech Union. I'll give you a copy of Ethan Marcotte's book if you give me an assist getting in touch with an ERG representative ✨

https://bookshop.org/p/books/you-deserve-a-tech-union-ethan-marcotte/20400532?ean=9781952616600

#Netflix #Union #TechUnion #LeapDay2024

toolbear, 3 months ago to ghost

The solution to #Substack isn't to switch to another capitalist. The solution is to cajole all your software developer or tech savvy friends into making it super dead simple to self-host your own blog using #Ghost or any number of good-enough self-hosting blogging platforms.

OR

You can run an existing Fedi-compatible blogging suite for you and several (but < 50) of your friends — making sure at least two work in tech and have a vested interest in the site staying up.

TADA! #decentralized

toolbear, 3 months ago to random

Robotexts from Rep. Porter where there's never a human on their end are dehumanizing. An automatic bullhorn spouting "send monies" and "vote harder".

"Hi there! It’s Katie Porter, progressive Democrat…".

No one replies when I respond like it's the start of a genuine conversation. It's not her. It's a machine that wants to trick me into thinking it's the human Katie.

The real human Katie endorses this. That's sad making. I am sad. The sadness is kept fresh by the neverending robotexts.

#USPol

toolbear, 3 months ago to random

It'd be kinda cool if on May 1st, 2028 we kicked up the General Strike even MORE:

• Release all the blueprints

• Share the secret formula

• Openly distribute all the "closed" source code

• Send all the financials to Bloomberg and Business Insider and Yahoo!

• Give away the intellectual "property"

• Talk about the executive sex-pests; share that photo of Mr. CEO Grabhands from that compulsory company holiday party

No More Secrets. SNEAKERS style.

#GeneralStrike #Jubilee

toolbear, 3 months ago to random

Ahh. The GOP wants open World War so that U.S. citizens are so terrified that they turn to a strongman figure.

We knew this already. The GOP doesn't care that we know it and isn't bothering to hide it. That will accelerate rapidly from now until November.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/strongmen-mussolini-to-the-present-ruth-ben-ghiat/16099431?ean=9780393868418

(☝️ link should have an affiliate code for Marcus Books, Black owned bookstore in California, embedded in it but no other trackers hopefully)

#USPol

toolbear, 4 months ago to Unions

#ConsumerUnions are a complementary way to help more companies unionize and to support existing worker #Unions, right? Is this common knowledge?

I don't see a lot of chatter like organizing folks to buy goods & services from union shops and to lobby the non-union companies they do business with to unionize (or get out of the way — or BE SUPPORTIVE — when the workers finally do). But this seems to make so much sense, I assume it's happening and I just haven't read enough or found my people.

toolbear, 4 months ago to random

Disappointed to report that the glory days of #AgileBits (aka the makers of #1Password who have abandoned AgileBits and just become 1Password the Company) are over.

1Password had been showing early signs of #Enshittification with the update from version 7 to version 8.

As of today I can tell it's turning into nagware: treating the UI as a billboard for advertising, and most obviously & predictably boiling the frog via a rentier capitalism subscription model, despite prior assurances.

Bummer.

toolbear, 4 months ago to random

Important phrases I am hearing others say that are related and resonating with me today:

"In community with"

"Building community"

Hearing F.D Signifier say "in community with Trans people" when describing himself — a cishet man — is how I want to feel about myself with Black people. I want to be in community with Black people. I want to be in community with Native people, especially those folks whose land I'm on right now. I want to be in community with my LatinX neighbors here in San Jose.

toolbear, 4 months ago to random

I don't want #billionaires to die. I just don't want billionaires to be sure they're going to live.

toolbear, 5 months ago to random

Does there exist already OR is there interest in a forming a #ConsumerUnion for folks who collect domain names and use domain name registrars or their resellers?

1/2

#DomainNames #DomainRegistration
#Domain
#Consumer #Union

toolbear, 10 months ago to random

The nature photography is lovely here.

toolbear, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to Facebook

Do the celebrities on #Universeodon realize that they're about to effectively leave the Fediverse and rejoin #Facebook unless they migrate to an instance which blocks #InstagramThreads

I know George Takei and Elvira are there.

EDIT: Don't harrass those decent folks. It's their choice. This is about knowledge. I wouldn't expect them to be keeping up with the latest developments anyway.