Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

https://loops.video is a very promising ActivityPub platform for short form video, and could use your financial support to help fund and sustain this initiative!

Donations can be made via @pixelfed

https://pixelfed.org/support-our-project

Let’s build a new TikTok that’s federated and better for humanity! Boosts appreciated!

#loops #activityPub #tikTok

We need to no longer have privatised prisons run by overseas vendors. Talk about messed up incentives: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/517374/us-company-with-nz-prison-contract-advocates-for-ai-use-behind-bars

There's also a balance between being cautious of men and being paranoid about men. I think that a lot of common rhetoric about how dangerous men are encourages women to live in constant fear, and I don't think that teaching women to be afraid all the time is particularly feminist.

This is brilliant: CFPB is using pooled hiring authority to enable technologists to “submit a single application & be considered for employment at multiple federal agencies”

Why it’s smart: “This approach will speed up hiring & reduce burden on job applicants. It’s our hope these combined efforts will help us scale how we monitor & address advanced technologies across government.”

Why it matters: “Your work will improve the lives of millions of Americans

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/careers/cfpb-technologist/

...and, still aboard the Big Tech sleazeball express: "Open"AI used Scarlett Johansson's voice even after being told not to do that. https://www.npr.org/2024/05/20/1252495087/openai-pulls-ai-voice-that-was-compared-to-scarlett-johansson-in-the-movie-her

Seriously pissed about this. Offering $10,000 in seed funding for a Deviant Art alternative built on ActivityPub. Q&A below or email your pitch to info@moth.social. https://slate.com/technology/2024/05/deviantart-what-happened-ai-decline-lawsuit-stability.html

Today is a nonstop torrent of abusive acts by Big Tech.

In this one, it looks like Google effectively paid off the feds to avoid a jury trial in the antitrust case. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/google-cuts-mystery-check-us-bid-sidestep-jury-trial-2024-05-20/

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's battle to avoid extradition to the US receives a huge boost with London's High Court ruling that Americans assurances over his case are unsatisfactory and he’ll get a full appeal hearing. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/wikileaks-julian-assange-given-permission-appeal-against-us-extradition-2024-05-20/

So you deleted those iPhone photos years ago, because you wanted them gone forever?

Apple obviously kept them around anyway.

And you trust Apple? Give that some thought...

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24161152/apple-ios-17-photo-bug

Microsoft Windows is turning into the ultimate spy-on-the-user system. And you're supposed to be thrilled at the capabilities?

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24159258/microsoft-recall-ai-explorer-windows-11-surface-event

Intro to Commitment Pools
#SolidarityEconomy

"Imagine:
A system where service providers can create digital vouchers (aka gift cards) and anyone holding them can exchange them for each other and other pooled assets.
Each service provider makes their own digital vouchers (also called gift cards, points, IoUs or formal commitments) on Sarafu Network (an open source Celo interface). Anyone can purchase these vouchers – and even give them to others..."

https://willruddick.substack.com/p/intro-to-commitment-pools

I run my own mail server. It's not an experience I enjoy, and it's often frustrating, but whenever I've had to use any of big providers (Gmail, Outlook), it has been even worse of an experience. I just backed the crowd funding campaign for a new book on this, by @mwl, and I hope it will teach me how to be a punk rocker mail admin: angry, but in a good way.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/run-your-own-mail-server
https://liw.fi/rethinking-email/

It used to be "your money or your life." Now, it's "your money and your life."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/05/renting-your-life.html

Dumb food for you: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/5/17/2241122/-Cartoon-Stupid-food-revue

I remember reading somewhere that the pyramid visualization was first used by a business management writer in some book for bosses, which sounds about right.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Is the pyramid a hoax?
https://drsaraheaton.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/

And a huge thanks to my wife for making my Monday way better than most with the birthday gift that keeps giving all year long! On returning home from my pre-work dog walk (with Luna, the hound), I found a BeerHug box waiting for me by the front door! This month, a dozen Behemoth Beers to sup, sample, & savour! Whoop Whoop!!

Every day, I also think of the fact that the computer systems I run every day & through which I provide useful, gratis, non-exploitative services to many people (& make a reasonable living) are entirely dependent on code written by thousands of clever, generous, dedicated people - with a hugely disproportionate number of neuro-diverse and transgender folk compared to the mainstream - who've poured their hearts & souls into that work. Making it *way better* than stuff written purely for profit.

I believe that FRI's IT staff (who knew about my Linux use, because I set up a server for my colleagues at the U of Cant'y School of Forestry for $0 on weekends & after hours which made the systems at HQ in Rotorua look primitive & poorly supported - which they were) gleefully pushed the Lotus Notes migration at least partly to force me onto Windows. A couple years later, I got a phonecall from a former colleague begging me to return & revert the LN migration... I noped that. They were screwed.

EU threatens Microsoft with multibillion-dollar fine over Bing AI - published 20 May 2024 #ArtificialIntelligence #News #Microsoft #AI
https://grafa.com/news/eu-threatens-microsoft-with-multibillion-dollar-fine-over-bing-ai-223885?utm_source=mastodon&medium=social&campaign=223885

As El Niño and climate change bring drought to the northern Philippines, farmers say the value of local heirloom seeds shines through.

Farmers say these seeds, cultivated through generations, show greater resilience to drought and heat than commercial hybrid seeds promoted by the government.

A network of seed savers, spearheaded by rural women, is working to revitalize the traditional practices of saving seeds.

By Mavic Conde
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/for-drought-relief-cordilleran-women-in-the-philippines-rely-on-seed-saving/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Drought