Ford wins the award for most obtuse corporation with its patent filing "for tech that listens to driver conversations to serve ads" -- and no, that was not satire.
https://therecord.media/ford-patent-application-in-vehicle-listening-advertising
Mexico enshrines right to 'adequate' food
Mexico’s new “General Law on Adequate and Sustainable Nutrition” prioritises the right to nutritious, safe, sufficient, quality, and culturally appropriate food. It also guarantees elementary school students have access to free or affordable meals at school and aims to reduce food waste. Food Politics https://buff.ly/3ZgcpW2
Voter ID laws may restrict 210,000 trans people from voting in November - LGBTQ Nation
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/09/voter-id-laws-may-restrict-210000-trans-people-from-voting-in-november/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into LGBTQ Nation @lgbtq-nation-LGBTQNation
#NeverForget the Chilean September 11th.
It was the start of the neoliberal takeover of every bit of our society, including our imaginations.
As usual, it was sponsored by the US, who wouldn't tolerate any alternative to its economic model.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
Actually, now that I've reread the bulletin, I think Microsoft is saying that a bug caused previously installed patches to roll back. These rollbacks have already occurred, Microsoft seems to be saying, and that opens up customers to vulnerabilities that were already under active exploitation. Does this make sense, or am I crazy (or both)?
Google's AI tooling for deciding unemployment cases is a RAG that hooks into a knowledge base that includes personal history and Nevada law: https://gizmodo.com/googles-ai-will-help-decide-whether-unemployed-workers-get-benefits-2000496215
This is exactly the kind of hybrid LLM-KG model that I wrote #SurveillanceGraphs about. The threat was never just the LLMs alone, but their integration into the broader logic of surveillance capitalism. The fact that humans will review recommendations from the model is not a safeguard, but a means of generating opaque discretionary decisions under the guise of objectivity. The fact that the tools don't work is irrelevant - they respond to the needs of efficiency and plausible deniability of agency, the brokenness of the models is a feature not a bug
https://jon-e.net/surveillance-graphs/#nsf-open-knowledge-network
https://jon-e.net/surveillance-graphs/#play-this-pattern-out-across-algorithmic-governance-predictive-p
"But you can't make local infra as resilient as the cloud!"
Pfft, I think we have a decade of proof that statement is false. Local's also faster, and cheaper, if you invest anywhere near the same resources and don't just have a revolving door of contractors.
https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano/113114055690172677
New comics section at In These Times for Midwest issue.
Kirk Anderson on "Milwaukee's Sewer Socialists" and Nate Powell on maintaining community in bleak times.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/sewer-socialists-comics-midwest
The House may again advance legislation that includes this awful bill as soon as tomorrow.
Tell your representative to oppose HR 9495 as long as it includes Section 4.
https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/H.R.-9495-Bill-Text.pdf
Busy week for America's wettest, special boy. https://brianmcfadden.org/2024/09/06/trump-campaign-events/
@libreleah Considering Windows' UI has always been considered a poor design, that's scant praise for KDE. (It's also why I didn't choose KDE coming from OS/2.) #old
OTOH, I have never been a fan of the Apple UI as a power user, and it's seemed to have declined in ease of use over the years.
OS/2 and Windows were fairly easy to switch between, and I think KDE and Gnome are too. I haven't explored Mint or Puppy in a long time, but I think all the Linux distros are pretty user friendly now.
Whenever I'm confronted by a Microsoftie who doesn't like me denigrating their employer... I simply point them at this: https://web.archive.org/web/20051013062449/http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS.html It's a comprehensive catalogue of (merely) their first decade of ethical and technical failures, superbly written. I salute F.W van Wensveen, whoever that is, and the ire which inspired them. Documenting their subsequent failures is let as an exercise for a team of suitably enraged younger technologies with a flair for making routine failure literary.
@SteveSyfuhs @GossiTheDog With all due respect, you can make no guarantees that override company policy or physical access to an admin profile on a device, so you’re entirely wrong. Allowing the existence of such a database in the first place is a morally vile decision, and if your only defense is “you’re being emotional” then it might be time to shut the fuck up. The facts are against you, no matter how much you try to twist them, and it’s certainly not akin to a car on an assembly line.
“When the AI provided an incorrect result, researchers found inexperienced and moderately experienced radiologists dropped their cancer-detecting accuracy from around 80% to about 22%. Very experienced radiologists’ accuracy dropped from nearly 80% to 45%.”
Who might be open to taking the lead on forming a living Legal Working Group? The commitment might look like quarterly meetings plus being responsive to questions from other working groups.
People who have in the past expressed interest include: @beckett @mako @dazinism @sam @Matt_Noyes @Eliot_L @dmokreis @GiacomoSansoni
@coopartisans @FreeScholar @toddxy @JosephAndriano @BillySmith
Can you help? Maybe start by organizing an initial meeting?
Thank you!
@lwriemen
No signs of social stratification at Gobekli Tepe...after that though, it's been all downhill 🤷♂️
#ShlaerMellor, #FunctionPointAnalysis, #punk, #environmentalist, #unionAdvocate, #anarchosocialist
"with a big old lie and a flag and a pie and a mom and a bible most folks are just liable to buy any line, any place, any time" - Frank Zappa