@toolbear@union.place
@toolbear@union.place avatar

toolbear

@toolbear@union.place

🧔🏻‍♂️ bearded 🐻 burly 👨🏻‍💻 geeky 👨‍❤️‍👨 gay

A @toolbear valence shell focused on #Solidarity, #CollectiveAction in myriad forms, and #TechUnions.

he / him or they / them

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Header: Actress Kim Cattrall as Lieutenant Valeris in STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991). A young Vulcan woman stands on the Enterprise bridge, crew & readouts in the background. Wide, colorful shot.

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estelle, to psychology
@estelle@techhub.social avatar

is a philosophical position or view that is the source of knowledge.

Vernon J. wrote that rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of is not sensory but intellectual and deductive."
⸺
@psychology

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@estelle
It is good to have multiple voices raising awareness.

Keep an eye out for Dave Troy, though. His past reporting (out of nowhere) centered himself and his research into Russian Cosmism when Gebru & Torres’ (and several others) had already been calling out EA and Longtermism for months or years. He made no mention of them or their work at the time. I’m glad he’s citing their work now.

@sociology @ethics @kcarruthers

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Ayyyyyy Eyeeeee: The lie that raced around the world before the truth got its boots on

https://doctorow.medium.com/ayyyyyy-eyeeeee-4ac92fa2eed

AI EvilSorcerersVsOrdinaryMediocrities

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@maximum_mew
Once innoculated, the hype stands out like a sore thumb.

I knew what to look for when I first read about Hinton's departure from Google. You could hear my eyes hitting the back of my head I eyerolled so hard when I got to his fearmongering rationale with nary a mention of Gebru or Whitaker's warnings years earlier.

And again when I read the most recent open letter signed by Hinton and others.

@pluralistic @emilymbender @timnitGebru

neurovagrant, to random
@neurovagrant@masto.deoan.org avatar

Grumpy at the grocery store. Some of these people shouldn't be allowed to push shopping carts, no less licensed to drive cars.

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@neurovagrant
Are you having a shopping isle equivalent of a group of friends walking unawares in a formation that takes up the entire width of the sidewalk preventing anyone from walking any faster than them?

thegibson, to random

Show me the movie or television character you wanted to be growing up vs. the one you feel like you became

Anson Mount as Captain Pike

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@thegibson
> Show me the movie or television character you wanted to be growing up vs. the one you feel like you became

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Library cancels trans speaker after Montana bans drag readings

https://www.mrt.com/news/politics/article/library-cancels-trans-speaker-after-montana-bans-18131224.php

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

http://archive.today/2023.06.02-102212/https://www.mrt.com/news/politics/article/library-cancels-trans-speaker-after-montana-bans-18131224.php

paul, to random
@paul@oldfriends.live avatar

I'm getting the "I am a hacker, and I have successfully gained access to your operating system, send bitcoin" scam emails sent to cache-all email addresses that aren't linked to any computer or OS or even real addresses

Also, they captured me doing something naughty by taking over my webcam & going to send it to everyone in my contacts. I don't even have a webcam

I'm also getting a kick watching them discount the amount of bitcoin they want.

🔗 More info about the scam:
https://malwaretips.com/blogs/i-am-a-hacker-and-i-have-access-to-your-operating-system-email-scam/

someone been naughty south park

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@paul
One of these days a scammer is going to learn just how much of an exhibitionist I am.

Or Tesla when they illegally monitored my garage interior. Like I said, a scammer.

toolbear, to random
@toolbear@union.place avatar

I should have watched WAKANDA FOREVER first instead of QUANTUMANIA because I haven't recovered from MCU fatigue yet; I have zero reserves to finish watching WAKANDA after making it to the halfway point and needing to pause. QUANTUMANIA is the inferior of the two, but both fall short of their respective predecessor films.

MCU Phase 4 is a near total bust for me. I really need to stop watching these. That'll be easier when our Disney+ sub expires in a few days.

thomasfuchs, to random
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io avatar

“Haha lol banks use 60 year old programming languages!”

Yes, young whippersnapper, that’s because they need things to be reliable and not change all the time, the code probably has to run for another 60 years.

“Modern” devs could learn a lot from not trying chase every trendy new framework and every shiny new programming language.

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@thomasfuchs
> chase every trendy new framework and every shiny new programming language

Yeah. That was, me my first decade or so 😅

At Netflix I was always in central IT — providing Java-based services, often as Java clients — I caused and collectively all central IT produced so much downstream pain and work for product teams I've since become obsessed with ideas around code longevity and ease of maintenance. And thought experiments like ♾️ long term support or never a breaking change.

markwyner, (edited ) to random
@markwyner@mas.to avatar

So…

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@markwyner @manuelfherrador
Variations I'm fond of:

  • PB and cheddar
  • PB and apple
  • PB&J & Grapenuts
  • PB&J & crushed walnuts

Also, discovered at age 6:
PB and Hershey's Chocolate Syrup does NOT a Reese' Peanup Butter Cup make. It's gross.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Parallel universes are real! You shall be sent to live in one... forever.

You will get a choice between 5 universes that each have a similar collection of languages though technology & culture may be very, possibly hazardously, different.

To make your choice you may request one (1) kind of typical artifact. This will be fetched from each universe, you may compare to make your choice.

Electronics will be disabled. If the artifact doesn't exist... you get nothing.

What do you request?

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@futurebird
I love this and will follow up with my own artifact pick once I finish reading replies.

The premise reminds me, in the best way possible, of Pohl's GATEWAY (1977).

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@futurebird
Fertilizer

toolbear, to random
@toolbear@union.place avatar

request in the area of and specifically with a focus on adults and deception & trust.

I'm having a hard time finding reliable info that is a) more recent and b) centers neurodiversity versus disease/defect/disorder.

I would be happy with either or both:

  1. scholarly or adjacent work

  2. personal anecdotes or community discussions

There's so much autism disinfo that vanilla Google is useless and Google Scholar results are biased towards pathologizing.

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Funny, isn’t it, that you only ever get asked if you’re a robot by robots?

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@ncrav @aral
I have been known to let website operators know that I object to CAPTCHA on exactly those grounds. I'm sure the recipient imagines me wearing a tinfoil hat or yelling at kids on lawns.

It's mostly a waste of time. One exception: canceling & deleting an account. I've had good success insisting on doing that via email / phone and avoiding the self-service web option that is frequently guarded with CAPTCHA or requires you to accept updated legal terms.

:tinfoil_hat:

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Here is a really delightful video from a keeper with a lively colony of Gigantiops destructor. These are ants with very large eyes who hunt by sight. They also have some of the most twitchy antennae of any ants. It's amazing to watch how they interact with each other and take in their environment.

The idea of a group of solitary hunters who still live in a colony together is very different from most ants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSalDndD1nU

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@futurebird
My brain won't stop adding deedle deedle deedle dee piccolo noises corresponding to those twitchy antennae.

dtgeek, to random
@dtgeek@mastodon.social avatar

The secret Babylon 5 project is... an animated movie - The Verge

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/3/23708919/babylon-5-secret-project-jms-straczynski

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@KelsonV @dtgeek

Part of the demands involve keeping a writer on payroll during post-production. Studios rejected and made no counter offer.

I guess it's a grey area? But pausing production would be an unambigious signal of with the writers strike and continuing production is a choice.

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@KelsonV @dtgeek
Yeah, I'm speaking without knowing specifics and it isn't my place to speak for the striking writers on whether a criticism is warranted in this case.

OutofPrintArchive, to random
@OutofPrintArchive@mstdn.games avatar

Found a little local shop that prides itself on offering quite a few games with lower print runs.
Pleasantly surprised by this as this is very unusual around these parts.
The usual comments you get here from shopkeepers while trying to buy games for buying games on certain systems is "you know this won't play on Playstation, right?"
And, no, I'm not kidding. 😅

So I decided to support them and bought a couple more games that I missed out on.


toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@OutofPrintArchive
Old Man's Journey is so sweet and touching. I really enjoyed that one.

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@OutofPrintArchive
Reminding me I need to play Firewatch :)

toolbear,
@toolbear@union.place avatar

@matt @OutofPrintArchive
I should give Talos a try, too, since I quite liked The Witness (and almost finished it, then stopped for some dumb reason).

emilygorcenski, to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    toolbear,
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    @emilygorcenski
    That's a nice look. You look lovely.

    toolbear, to random
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    Mastodon prioritizes white comfort.

    I believe Black people when they say this place is hostile, the tools are lacking, and the broader community doesn't do enough to make BIPOC feel safe & welcome. It wasn't difficult to get this memo…I struggle to understand how others miss it.

    The most generous explanation I have is strategic ignorance. We have no time for that kind of nonsense.

    Feels like I'm adding to the noise, but silence feels like complicity.

    toolbear, to tv
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    I'm rewatching .

    I don't think it's fair that J.J. Abrams used up all the lens flares. Is that even a renewable resource? Do lens flares grow back?

    toolbear,
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    I'm halfway through S2 of my FRINGE (2008-2013) rewatch and I'm enjoying myself.

    Things I most like about

    • excellent casting; great main cast and supporting characters, and often with one-off appearances

    • good writing, good dialogue, and good-ish pacing (suffers a bit from the demands of network TV at that time); it really grabbed me partway through S2 and it's happened this time, too

    • a well realized and conclusive 3 season story arc

    • Anna Torv, who I also loved in MINDHUNTER

    toolbear,
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    AND…

    • the nicknames "Walternate" and "Fauxlivia"

    • other moments of fun & whimsy like the marquee showing Eric Stoltz starring in BACK TO THE FUTURE

    • a much better balance of the "mystery box" approach than either X-FILES or LOST had (gawd, LOST was the worst and partly why I wrote off FRINGE initially)

    • good marriage of practical and CG effects; holds up pretty well a decade later

    toolbear,
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    The parts of FRINGE (2008-2013) that hold up less well with my 2023 sensibilities:

    • I imagine the original pitch was 24 meets THE X-FILES and thus FRINGE has a lot of copaganda and normalizing of civil rights abuse

    • not the show's fault, but Q-Anon kind of destroyed my ability to enjoy the fringe science bits

    • the 5th season which, in fairness, I've never seen because I was told it's terrible and can reduce your appreciation of the series; I plan to stop at S4 like last time

    toolbear, to random
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    I gave up on Neal Stephenson in 2022 and I'm still bummed because I love a lot of his stories.

    But…

    ⚠️ thinks the mafia is good, actually

    ⚠️ sympathetic portrayal of U.S. domestic terrorists (i.e. separatist militias)

    ⚠️ Bezos bestie IRL

    ⚠️ legitimized geoengineering

    ⚠️ thinks ethno states are good, actually

    ⚠️ intellectual elitist

    ⚠️ unrepentant libertarian vibes

    ⚠️ vagina dentata

    His work contributed to and kind of validated my techno-optimist blind spots.

    toolbear,
    @toolbear@union.place avatar

    @nlovsund
    It's quite good. You should read it and enjoy it.

    I'm a newcomer to the concept of divestment, so I may have learned a wrong lesson, but I internalized it as a much healthier and pragmatic kind of "letting go" then as a punative "cancelling".

    For myself, I just got tired of wondering about the man. And as an Internet friend replied in my thread, there's so many other good authors and works out there to fill the void left by moving on from a problematic fave.

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