keverets @keverets@librem.one

To understand crypto “valuations”, take the example of MollyCoin. If I conjure a billion MOLLY tokens out of thin air and sell one for $1, I’ve just created a “billion dollar” cryptocurrency.

#crypto #cryptocurrency

How sleeping pills interfere with the brain’s internal cleaning mechanism
A specialized system sends pulses of pressure through the fluids in our brain.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/how-sleeping-pills-interfere-with-the-brains-internal-cleaning-mechanism/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Bradley and @karen published their thoughts about the TikTok ban yesterday:

"Users (and our government) should instead insist that, to operate in the USA, that ByteDance respect the software rights and freedoms of their users by releasing both the server and App components of the software under a “free and open source” (FOSS) license.

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2025/jan/18/usa-should-require-bytedance-to-open-source-tiktok/

Sunset in space viewed from the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA Johnson

Meta tracks your activity across millions of websites and apps, regardless of whether you use its platforms, and profits from that data through targeted ads. If you want to limit Meta’s ability to harvest and profit from your personal data, here’s what you need to know. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/mad-meta-dont-let-them-collect-and-monetize-your-personal-data

Update on that whole “let’s privatize space” thing:

If the timelines of the development of the Saturn V rocket and the development of SpaceX’s Starship were compared side-by-side from the same starting point, you’d notice that Saturn V had been developed, had successfully completed a dozen flights, took a bunch of guys safely to the moon, put a space station in orbit, and had been retired at the point where Starship had just experienced its 4th failed test flight without ever carrying people.

Introducing 🍵 Maptcha 🗺️
the #opensource CAPTCHA that improves #OpenStreetMap !

Maptcha is at its alpha stage, and we are testing it on potential users. To take part in the test, please follow this link:
https://maptcha.crown-shy.com

You have ~one week time to take part and give us some feedback.
We’ll present the results at #fosdem2025 in the Geospatial devroom

with @grischard @soporificoctopus
#OSM #fosdem

To add context to Meta blocking Pixelfed mentions, I should remind everyone that Youtube silently hides comments containing "OpenStreetMap". I think @harry_wood found that out a few years ago.

https://en.osm.town/@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online/113819524597166451

https://x.com/harry_wood/status/1451201614170116102

Ordered an MNT Reform Next https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/mnt-reform-next

The world really needs an open hardware laptop that can be repaired, understood, and has an actual community future. I think MNT's Reform Next is the best shot at that we've got. I'm excited about it!

A good ²³⁸Umbrella policy should cover it.
https://xkcd.com/3037/

If you have enough money that call it “skirting regulations” and not “breaking the law”.

https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-boring-company-las-vegas-loop-oversight

Real-time bidding, which powers nearly every ad you see online, might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of. Learn how it works and how to protect yourself. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/online-behavioral-ads-fuel-surveillance-industry-heres-how

Yes, one can add #fediverse or #mastodon
#comments to a static site like #pelican, #jekyll or #hugo.

Respond to this toot to see your comment show up on my blog post below.

https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2025/Jan/adding-fediverse-comments-to-my-static-site/

The enshittification of AI has lead to the choice of AI used by VLC to be groaned at. I even saw a post cross my feed of someone looking for a replacement for VLC.

VLC is working on on-device realtime captioning. This has nothing to do with generating images or video using AI. This has nothing to do with LLMs.

This is not generative AI.

While it would be preferred to use human generated captions for better accuracy, this is not always possible. This means a lot of video media is inaccessible to those with hearing impairment.

What VLC is doing is something that will contribute to accessibility in a big way.

AI transcription is still not perfect. It has its problems. But this is one of those things that we should be hoping to advance.

I'm not looking to replace humans in creating captions. I think we're very far from ever being able to do this correctly without humans. But as I said, there's a ton of video content that simply do not have captions available, human generated or not.

So long as they're not trying to manipulate the transcription using GenAI means, this is the wrong one to demonize.

#AI #Transcription #VLC #HearingImpaired #Deaf #Accessibility

Following up yesterday's post: here is the same view of Varick Street by the Holland Tunnel, as seen today (Friday) at 5pm. Normally at this time my office is filled with a symphony of horns honking and traffic managers screaming at drivers. To see this and hear mostly silence at 5pm on a Friday would have been unthinkable even a week ago.

Needless to say, I am 100% sold on congestion pricing in New York City.

#nyc #CongestionPricing

If you enjoy using Mastodon for Android, please consider leaving a positive rating or review on the Play Store, because a lot of people who do leave reviews are like this:

The OpenWrt One sold out the first production run within a week! It was so exciting to see how much interest there is in a free software router! We got to work right away on a second run, which is now shipping: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007795779282.html

SCOOP: Instagram blocked teens from searching LGBTQ-related content for months.

Posts with LGBTQ+ hashtags were hidden under Meta's “sensitive content” policy which restricts "sexually suggestive content", Meta said they are fixing this “error” after I reached out for comment. https://www.usermag.co/p/instagram-blocked-teens-from-searching

Because this is the talk of the #internet again: you don't preserve digital media by stuffing the One True Version in an #archive. Make countless copies and scatter them to the wind. Make each a different format. You don't know which of them will still be readable next decade, so *don't try to guess*.

That goes for analog media too. The Library of Alexandria contained copies. Many classic paintings only survived as copies.

Copying is how life itself beats death. Embrace it.