Vincent Cloutier @vincent@librem.one

Hey JavaScriptLandians, good to see you all on Mastodon.

it seems as if every day science takes another giant leap forward

Banning free API use blocks anyone who's inclined to abide by the rules but does nothing to stop anyone who's already using the official app API keys to look like a human

👀

PSA: I do not have a Mastodon account. There are a few posing as me, but they're not me. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1620788005400346624

It's public as of this morning that I'm representing Stability AI (maker of Stable Diffusion) in defending against copyright litigation based on training of its dataset.

Ah, gotta love malicious compliance.

Reminder that "free research access" to OpenAI's #ChatGPT really means *you* are giving *them* free access to human intelligence for *their* research

(You don't own your prompts; have no access to your prompt history; cannot erase them; and have consented to release all your prompt tuning cleverness to them in perpetuity — all in exchange for the privilege of developing a serious dependency on text regurgitation that will form the backbone of their soon to be introduced subscription model)

Enjoy this new deep dive edition of the newsletter in which I explain the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC):

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/grayscale-bitcoin-trust-the-free

Error: Your password must contain at least two characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.

A HS student to their TX school board, which is banning books:

“I’m not going to sit here and talk about the slippery slope that book banning leads to because I learned from a book, that I checked out from my school’s library, that I don’t need to resort to logical fallacy to make a point. I’m simply going to say that no government – and public school is an extension of government – has ever banned books, and banned information from its public, and been remembered in history as the good guys.”

This is from 2014, back when I was doing #Photography more seriously, while also trying to expand my skills through weekly #FlickrFriday challenges, my take on the theme of #Phoenix.

Even looking at it now through a more critical eye and thinking what I would do differently, this is still one of my favourite creations ever.

I really need to find my way back into doing more photography again. Not sure why I'm struggling to get back into it, but maybe I can find the Phoenix in myself in 2023.

Pick your poison

We’ve been asked, countless times: “Are you folks working on a Mastodon app?”

The answer isn’t a simple one.

https://blog.iconfactory.com/2023/01/mastodonerrific/

Some friends and I were discussing why we do free software even though it often means doing tons of work for little or no money.

I think for me some major factors are the personal agency you have over the work (independent from employers/investors) and the potential for longevity that comes with having your work be part of the commons (projects can't be acquired and killed).

That kind of unalienated relationship to your creative output is very rare outside of maybe fine arts or entertainment.