Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

I wonder how much organisations who've invested in software development to integrate generative LLM services into their products and services will be willing to fork out when #bigtech starts to recoup the massive (eye watering) cost of those services? Clearly, bigtech is expecting that some will end up paying a LOT, and bigtech has a LOT of experience of how much they can mint with lock-in.

Big Tech is borrowing a page from Big Tobacco's playbook to wage war on your privacy, according Jake Snow of ACLU of Northern California . We agree—but there’s still time to stop them. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/preemption-playbook-big-techs-blueprint-comes-straight-big-tobacco

Just updated a couple Gitlabs and upgraded my Forgejo from 8.0.3 to 9.0.0. Every day with #libre software makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. This stuff just keeps getting better.

For those still wondering about why they were "not allowed" to scan the other QR code: I suspect this is related to potential abuse vectors via QR codes (yes, we know, requiring the hacker to spoof it via a fake app instead of an ebook is not the answer).

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIcbAMO6sxo or read https://www.revk.uk/2020/01/eicar-test-qr.html for some background.

~f

We’re hiring a full-time Senior IT/Infrastructure Engineer based in New York. You’ll respond to IT/infrastructure needs for our small Brooklyn office and our remote workers, and help with general infrastructure maintenance tasks.

If you’re based in NY, or willing to relocate from within the U.S., please consider applying.

https://grnh.se/2a150e355us

Marge's Wacky Weather Forecast, with scattered showers of batshit libel. https://brianmcfadden.org/2024/10/11/congresss-climate-quack/

Revealed: International ‘race science’ network secretly funded by US tech boss | #Race | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/16/revealed-international-race-science-network-secretly-funded-by-us-tech-boss

#Germany #Ethnicity #Politics #Pseudoscience

A note to lefty tech people, especially those selling their services to small non-profits: don't promise to deliver something that you can't, whether due to technical or knowledge limitations. Because when you tell us you can do something, and then we pay you to do it, but you don't deliver what you said you would, you're just harming the people you claim to want to help. And if you're going to browbeat ppl into not using corporate tools, you better be damn sure you can actually replace them.

Gee, who coulda seen this one coming? Oh right, me. It was me.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/14/lab-grown-meat-is-proving-to-be-a-grotesque-misadventure/

What are we up to for today? What makes nerds get up early? Some journey ahead ...

#trainstory

Is #Starlink designed to provide only a small number of users satellite internet at a steep premium? Yes.

Is #Starlink making a mess of low orbit and the upper atmosphere? Yes.

Is #Starlink incompetently designed and being hacked by organized crime? Also yes.

QT UNODC

"Despite Starlink use being strictly monitored and, in some cases, restricted through geofencing, organized crime groups appear to have found ways around existing security protocols"

https://www.unodc.org/roseap/uploads/documents/Publications/2024/TOC_Convergence_Report_2024.pdf

I just emailed my senators asking them to vote in favor of Bernie Sanders' resolution to halt $20 billion of weapons from being sent to Israel.

Here's the form if you want to do the same

https://act.newmode.net/action/ifnotnow/tell-your-senator-say-no-20-billion-weapons-israel

#CeasefireNow #NotAnotherBomb #Israel #Gaza #Lebanon

"Given that much—perhaps, most—of political media will not adequately report on this and inform voters of what Vice President Harris plans to do for Rural America, I’m gonna take the rare step of publishing her plan, in full, as a blog post."

https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-has-a-great-plan-for

@RadioAddition ... really?

(Some) screen readers can’t read password hidden text,
Some people may have memory or cognitive issues,
Those experiencing hand tremors are more likely to make typing mistakes,

^ quick google search

add to that:
long passwords
slowly dying keyboards
confirming that is what you typed

It's a problem every morning I log in to work.

AI really is the new bitcoin: Google and Facebook extend coal burning in Omaha

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/10/14/ai-really-is-the-new-bitcoin-google-and-facebook-extend-coal-burning-in-omaha/

The question we should be asking of every new technology : is it worth the resources that it costs?

(one of the resources, in this case, being our rapidly diminishing global carbon budget)

Billionaires are *pretty confident* that they can't be taxed - not just that they *shouldn't* be taxed, but rather, that it is *technically impossible* to tax the ultra-rich. They're not shy about explaining why, either - and neither is their army of lickspittles.

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/15/piketty-pilled/#tax-justice

1/

Why does the #x86 #ISA keep getting new fixed-length #vector extensions rather than variable-length ones like #RiscV did?

Every new length gets another copy of the same instructions. Not only does this waste instruction encoding space, it also means older CPUs can't support the new array lengths even if the data inside is of a supported size.

What's the reason?

#askfedi #intel #amd #hpc #cpu #hardware

Reposting a very well written piece on a recent climate study. I learned a few things about the science as well.

Not for the faint of heart though.

"Another process which is absent from the climate models is the basic fact that trees die from drought."

"It’s been assumed that natural sinks are always going to be with us. The truth is, we don’t really understand them and we don’t think they’re always going to be with us."

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/10/scientists-alarmed-collapse-natural-carbon-sinks/

The IMF is a loan-sharking operation run on behalf of Western corporations.

https://cepr.net/the-global-souths-poor-should-not-be-subsidizing-the-imf/

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: This is the time of year when technology rebels against me.

https://www.eviscerati.org/articles/2024/10/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/