social.mjd.id.au


We've been watching some domestic television from NZ, and I'm kind of marveling about it.

NZ is small! About twice the land area of my home state of GA, but with half the population.

Or, compared to CA, NZ is less than 40% the size of CA, and has less than 15% the population.

(or, you know, roughly the size of the UK, but with 1300% less people.)

And they have significant domestic television production, and much of it is high quality. And also film.

This further drives home my longstanding belief that every US state, (and probably much smaller areas) could sustainably support local media production.
Sure. I'm addressing that idea in this thread: https://retro.social/web/statuses/110112693820741138

I'm talking about journalism there, but the ideas are equally applicable elsewhere.

Monoculture is monopoly, monopoly is maximally profitable for monopolists.

A diverse culture and media landscape would be more generally profitable. There would be more money in it overall, and that money would reach more people (while producing more things, faster, and probably at the same level of quality), and overall be *better* in several measurable ways.

But the gatekeepers have less power and money in that system.
It took me a while to have time to read the thread, but it’s definitely intriguing.

SallyBlack mastodon (AP)
#

Just donated to support Thunderbird for Android!
Thunderbird reshared this.
Thunderbird mastodon (AP)
Thank you for supporting our work -- and for supporting open source. We really appreciate it an it makes a difference! 💙
Thunderbird mastodon (AP)
(By the way, we do want to add "Share on Mastodon" to that post-donation page. Hopefully that can get implemented soon)
Café-Junkie mastodon (AP)
Hello Thunderbird.
As much as I like to see more crypt-automation (thanks), I would REALLY like to see an implementation of AutoCrypt in Thunderbird INCLUDING an indication of trust. See implementation at Threema: https://threema.ch/en/faq/levels_expl
PLEASE can you integrate AutoCrypt as soon as possible!?
Many thanks.

Fedi.Tips mastodon (AP)

Content warning: Radicalisation and the Fediverse

skua mastodon (AP)

Content warning: radical harmers

Radu mastodon (AP)
It is also important not to turn this banning into censorship. Creating a social buble out of the fediverse could have the similar effect. We need to draw this line very carefully. Some things that contradict our oppinions are not always fake news .
So far my experience here has been very "left" biased. And while this is very comfortable for me, this is exactly where the danger lies. Not having one's ideas challenged can lead to complacency and radicalisation.

Re: April Fools. Even as a kid I didn't particularly like shows that revolved around pranking the unsuspecting public, especially pranks that tried to scare people. I always hoped a show would spend 1000s pranking me then, when the ruse was revealed, I'd refuse to sign the waiver
Bren mastodon (AP)
And those fake phone calls on the radio - absolutely horrible.

I ldo enjoy a good wind-up, but ritual public humiliation is not fun.
Yes!
Also, there seems to be a certain type of "comedy" in film and TV drama that revolves around things continually going wrong for the main character. I find these deeply troubling, distressing even, and will leave the room if the family want to watch them.

Boardmad mastodon (AP)
The key question to put to every single talking head Tory shoved infront of a camera this weekend to laud this deal is “…how many years from now do you foresee the CPTPP being of sufficient economic scale that it offsets the losses the UK economy has suffered due to Brexit?”
Gordonbp mastodon (AP)
And all for 0.08% increase in GDP! Insane.

This excellent episode of "Factually!" from June last year is the best summary of AI today that I've heard.

https://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-real-problem-with-a-i-with-emily-bender/

/via https://farside.link/nitter/emilymbender/status/1539747201613582336

@Adam Conover and @Emily M. Bender (she/her) discuss how people are worrying about the wrong things with AI and how not enough people are worrying about the right things.

It's not the future, it's here today. It's not the exciting evils of The Terminator, it's the mundane evils of our already existing corporations.

"On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜" by @Emily M. Bender (she/her) , @Timnit Gebru , https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/angelinamcmillan-major/home and @mmitchell_ai , possibly the first academic paper with a Unicode emoji in the title, is brought up and discussed.
Hong Kong or Sweden
If you prefer a quarter of the length but four times the intensity, check out @Adam Conover 's latest video from yesterday, which summarizes the themes of the discussion in glorious rant format (while still citing Stochastic Parrots!):

"A.I. is B.S."

https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=ro130m-f_yk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro130m-f_yk

Kid called me over because he needed someone good at Tetris to beat a Tetris minigame to evolve his Loomian.

"I need to get over 2500 and I can't do it"

I got to 13400 on the first try.
Hong Kong or Sweden
By weird coincidence I had my first Tetris dream last night (the above thing happened just now, the day after the dream). I never had them in the 90s, but my mom did. I've been listening to 2 Unlimited and Doctor Spin recently, that's probably why.

In the dream i scored multiple 4-lines. =)
czr mastodon (AP)
Childhood well spent :-)

:flan_whmage: :flan_q: reshared this.

:flan_whmage: :flan_q: reshared this.

brennan hometown (AP)
first time doing pottery turned out pretty okay
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3 people reshared this
अनीश hometown (AP)
you're a natural God damn!

Literally swiping money from charities. Just straight up evil villain shit.
Tweet from Zoe Schiffer: "NEW: Twitter hasn’t paid thousands of dollars in charitable donations that employees made in 2022, around the time of the acquisition. The money was taken out of employee paychecks but never reached the organizations. Benevity, the third-party platform that is used to facilitate the payments, told employees Twitter hasn’t yet approved the payments. After I started asking around about this yesterday Twitter said it is “actively working” to get the money to the NGOs."
DeanBaker13 reshared this.

Yes but that’s no excuse…
Duolingo Welsh: “He was brought up in South Australia in the eighties”


sтυx⚡ mastodon (AP)
:nkoWave: Hello and a goood meowing everyone! :cat_hug_triangle: :blobcathearts: Have a most wonderful day and stay safe! :blobcatsnuggle: :blobcathearts:
pliny mastodon (AP)
hello and meow! 💫💞 Sending magic your way as I head to dreamland. 💤
sтυx⚡ mastodon (AP)
goood night! :cat_hug_triangle:

A year later we can see that the truth is that over decades his car company and rocket company both evolved ways of keeping Dilbert Stark from doing much damage—ruthlessly managing him to keep him out of the way of the core business. But his social media acquisition was so abrupt there was no time for Twitter to develop internal defences against a screeching, shit-slinging macaque.
Screencap of Tweet by Paul Graham, @paulg, on Feb 16, 2022.<br /><br />Text reads: <br /><br />Someone who knows Elon Musk well explained why he's so successful.<br /><br />It's simply that he's an engineering genius. I imagined it was because he was a good manager. Cars and rockets seemed so different that I couldn't imagine someone being an expert in both. <br /><br />But apparently he is.
jwz mastodon (AP)
Every time I see a Paul Graham quote, I understand what Nick Cave was feeling when he said:

"I’m forever near a stereo saying, 'What the fuck is this garbage?' And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers."
2 people reshared this
Steve Lord hometown (AP)
he's a walking advert for the idea that being rich != being smart
i think he is also perfect example of being an expert in one field (startup/VC) does not automatically make you an expert in every field. E.g. he tweets about the war with the confidence of a Ukrainian general with regard to the accuracy of what he is saying.

Other than that, he is not Elon Level unhinged and all in all a reasonable follow
jwz mastodon (AP)
Oh, he's an expert in "startup/VC"?

The thing is, being an "expert" in that topic means: I spent my parents' money on lottery tickets at the 7/11, then I won, and now I conduct seminars on how my Hollyfeld-level 7/11 technique is the best.

But that aside, HN ("the premiere VC comment section!") is one of the most societally toxic sites on the internet, just barely second to the various *chans. So that's a lot to answer for.
Alwin mastodon (AP)
it may be that I grant him expertise here because if have none in startup/VC. Stuff that he says there makes sense to a non-insider, is all I can say.

Besides that, imho the probability to get in that position based on sheer luck and zero competence is quite low, although possible, i admit.
jwz mastodon (AP)
It's not luck, it's money. It's always money.
jwz mastodon (AP)
Just this week that Starbucks motherfucker said in front of Congress and god and everybody, "I grew up in government subsidized housing, nobody ever gave me anything. Stop denigrating me by calling me a billionaire, that's so unfair."
Seiðr mastodon (AP)
There is a point in wealth accumulation where people's brains get fucking broken.
Charlie Stross mastodon (AP)
Yup. The easiest way to make a fuckton of money is to start with a smaller fuckton of money and not lose it. Confirmation bias then blinds us to the ones who lost their stake while we are directed to watch the winners in the casino and chant, "that could be me!"
jwz mastodon (AP)
With just the smallest apartheid emerald mine to start with, you too could be just as good at murdering pedestrians and destroying astronomy!
Tröglödÿt mastodon (AP)
thank you screen saver man!
John Loader mastodon (AP)
and losing billions in a few months
I hate to be That Guy but as a) apartheid isn’t a term that should be thrown around lightly given the horrors it resulted in and b) well, accuracy it’s worth checking out the Snopes fact-check on this business and the origin of Musk’s wealth. Doesn’t mean he’s not still a shithead for any number of other reasons, mind, but let’s slam him for the stuff the shithead actually *did*. https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/
jwz mastodon (AP)
Oh good, I was hoping someone would show up to cape for the billionaire. *plonk*
Mmph: it's Snopes, and it does indeed appear to bust the emerald mine rumour. There are plenty of perfectly good reasons to dunk on Dilbert Stark/Space Karen without including dubious/baseless rumours.
jwz mastodon (AP)
I feel like a lot of people read Watchmen and thought, "Wow, Ozymandias seems like a really sharp, self-made dude who the author was totally not telling you in no uncertain terms was completely full of shit."
Osma A mastodon (AP)
Startup/VC expertise distilled:

- 9/10 investments fail
- 1/10 must bring at least 20x money back
- Develop reputation as someone other people think is smart
- You'll be pitched on a lot of dumb shit: invest in those which could bring 20x return
- Use other people's money to invest more
- Hope to have good luck that one in first ten works out

That's it. It really is that simple.
People have been flogging the secrets to riches since forever, and there are always fools who don't ask the obvious question. https://xkcd.com/1827/

Are we reading the same HN? Just took a look. Mostly cool tech stuff. A guy showing off a site he built. CDC people getting sick at the toxic train crash. Big companies behaving badly. Comments frequently thoughtful and evidence-based.

I dipped a toe in the toxic waters of 4 Chan once. There is no comparison.
Sunshine mastodon (AP)
it's been downhill for them since Yertle The Turtle
come sail your ships around arc, and burn the schemers down. No startup can make history, baby; without metacircular eval.
ijw mastodon (AP)
You must always read PG quotes in the voice of Zapp Brannigan, remembering to include Kif’s exhausted sigh at the end.

1 April 1942 | 10,629 men were counted in the morning at #.

On that day:
91 prisoners died (incl. Tadeusz Mruk, no. 228)
48 prisoners were released (incl. Roman Trojanowski - no. 44 & Kazimierz Dutka - no. 246).

[prisoners of the 1st transports of Poles to Auschwitz]

---

The podcast about the process which led to the creation of Auschwitz & about its first prisoners.
https://anchor.fm/auschwitz-memorial/episodes/On-Auschwitz-1-The-beginnings-of-Auschwitz-e1161cf/a-a5k4gp7

Online lesson about the first few weeks of the camp operation: http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_17_deportacje/
cree mastodon (AP)
Nie wieder Faschismus!
Jedigal007 mastodon (AP)
We must always share this history
#
#🟦

G'day! Today we're going to take a look at the very fascinating vaginas of Thylarctos plummetus - commonly called drop bears. These Australian animals are very fascinating down under...

For those who haven't heard of drop bears, these predatory, forest-dwelling marsupials are so called due to their preferred hunting method of dropping from trees onto their mammalian prey. The Australian Museum has a detailed information sheet to tell you more: https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/
Dr David Mills reshared this.

I'm looking forward to fifteen years from now, when Easter Sunday falls on Thursday January 1, 1970.
screenshot of calendar-australia.com that has easter sunday 2038 and 2039 occuring on the start of the Unix epoch due to a time bug
jwz reshared this.

This evening's sunset from the new apartment! 🌇
Balcony view of orange-red sunset over horizon with apartment buildings in distance and parklands in mid-distance.
😍 wow! That's great!

# is just another version of “Friends don’t let friends use Electron apps”, lesson IV. The @riskybusiness maxim holds true once again.

3CX got breached and used for supply chain delivery. I don’t know if anybody remembers my # thread on Twitter last year but.. uh.. it got fun. https://www.reddit.com/r/crowdstrike/comments/125r3uu/20230329_situational_awareness_crowdstrike/
#3CX
Regarding # - been comparing findings with industry peers. Some things not commonly understood but will be evidenced:

- the attacker infrastructure spun up early this year.
- they didn’t launch noisy or with infostealers. They were quietly using access at orgs a month ago (by which I mean hands on keyboard).
- for some reason they mass deployed automated infostealers in the past week which is super noisy, rumbling themselves out loud - smash and grab approach.
#3CX
:flan_whmage: :flan_q: reshared this.
I guess they realised the gig was up and dashed for all the bases all at once to max out the remaining access before losing it. I wonder if they were up in 3CX itself and could tell when they actually realised the full extent?

WimⓂ️ hometown (AP)
I got recursion working in #, and now I can write this fixedpoint factorial:

-- the fixedpoint function
functions {
fix = (\f. f f apply )
}

main {
5
`(\ n <- f .
`(1)
`( n n 1 - f f apply * )
n 1 ==
if
) fix print
}

This actually works, even if it is still a bit rough around the edges.
Devine Lu Ator reshared this.
WimⓂ️ hometown (AP)
I know, it is not a tail recursion. The fixedpoint function is elegant but not efficient. It is important that Funktal can handle it, and in fact it showed me a design flaw I still have to fix. But in practice I would not use it.
I'll send you a tail-recursive one for contrast later. Your tool is very cool!

On April 1st a certain blue website is taking away the verified tick. For April 1st we at bne.social are making it available to you, but only for a suspiciously short time. Conditions apply. :verified:
Josh :BlobFoxFloofHappy: reshared this.
🪿🪿🪿
I need to update my QuackBook to see those emojes :(

Thunderbird mastodon (AP)
Please join us in wishing # a happy 25th birthday! 🎉

To quote Mozilla Foundation's Mark Surman:

"The internet was built by people FOR people, and it's the people using the internet who should determine its future, not a few powerful organizations."

On behalf of everyone here at #, thank you to anyone past and present at Mozilla who's helped make the internet a better, safer place.

Here's to 25 more!
ghostdancer reshared this.
Carlos Saltos mastodon (AP)
Feliz Cumpleaños querido Mozilla sos grande !! 👍🎉🎂🌞❤️🕊
Jos_B mastodon (AP)
Congratulations 🎉 and please keep up the good work.


Worth noting that the Victorian Liberal Party organisation is run by a person that is married to Sophie Mirabella

#
auspol clippy Private message hometown (AP)

Content warning: auspol


sтυx⚡ mastodon (AP)
I just watched this short movie mostly made with AI (images, voices etc)

And HOLY SHIT, it's soo scary accurate

"Last Stand | Sci-Fi Short Film Made with Artificial Intelligence"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dtSqhYhcrs
Turofoob mastodon (AP)
wow!
CapeHeaven🦄 mastodon (AP)
This AI stuff is scaring the 💩 out of me. Pretty soon we won’t be able to tell what’s real and what’s not.

Ridiculous dream last night: Got into a massive fight with The Rock because he broke a decorative plate while dusting. I was very rude about his acting abilities.
Oh, and The Kids from Fame were there trying to calm things down.
Jon Roach mastodon (AP)
🤣 I'm thinking "IN WHAT WORLD DID YOU THINK YOUR HALF-ARSED APOLOGY EVEN SEEM VAGUELY SINCERE, DUANE?"
Now, THAT'S a pitch.

I have bought a tiny Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad. So hopefully it will make blogging easier on the tablet
which one did you get?
a cheap one ha ha. £12 works fine

Relentless earworm of the day:
🎵 Thrrreeeeeeeeeee... of a perfect pair... 🎵
# #
King Crimson live in 1984: Adrian Belew
King Crimson live in 1984: Bill Bruford
King Crimson live in 1984: Tony Levin
King Crimson live in 1984: Robert Fripp
absolutely magnificent
Gary mastodon (AP)
ah, peak Crim for my money. Absent Lovers is probably my most played KC album

April Fool's is the most pro-social holiday, because it teaches the most important 21st century survival skill: media literacy.
jwz mastodon (AP)
I feel like this argument hits the same of you replace "April Fools" with "The Purge" so I'm not really on board with that.

Simon B mastodon (AP)
My workplace in approx 1997 at a financial # company on Fleet Street in #. A sea of CRT monitors. I had a # # workstation on my desk running solaris 5.5.1. #
A long view of an office in the 90s, with lots of cables and CRT monitors
A long view of a messy desk in the 90s, with a sun workstation, CRT monitors and sun branded modem.

Content warning: #auspol

auspol clippy Private message hometown (AP)

Content warning: auspol


levels checker mastodon (AP)
hijinks levels are currently at 06% but fluctuating wildly

(06%) ■□□□□□□□□□

With Italy banning ChatGPT until they can remove their Italian sources that created the data set, I was curious if they had crawled my data - maybe not?
Image/photo
Looks like it certainly did, just hasn't reinforced it enough to get the details right.

अनीश hometown (AP)
rss feed for my website 😅
#
oh hell yes!

For context, the last time this happened, the opposition candidate had been expelled from the House for being "seditious and disloyal"

# #

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Kalgoorlie_by-election
auspol clippy Private message hometown (AP)

Content warning: auspol


"It's the 90's. You enjoy pizza and beer with your friends while hacking on the SGI Onyx. You don't know it yet, but this is as good as it gets." 😻​
Hughe SGI Onyx next to a desk with CRT. Beer bottles and a pizza box on top of the onyx.
2 people reshared this

What chance Peter Dutton has just cancelled his interview on Insiders tomorrow? #
auspol clippy Private message hometown (AP)

Content warning: auspol


TIL Tim Russ, who plays Tuvok in "Voyager", is the guy who says "we ain't found shit" when they're combing the desert in "Spaceballs".
Hong Kong or Sweden
Marco R. reshared this.
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