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Way back when I was on that other service, I had a pinned tweet for a time that concluded with something like the following line:

... when they're handing out "make your own internet policy at home" kits, they should some with a label saying "Adult supervision required."


In a post commemorating Ross Anderson on her blog, Heather Burns (@webdevlaw somewhere, I'm sure) quoted him regarding the same concern. However, compared to my snark, his phrasing is sublime, maybe even divine:

The idea that complex social problems are amenable to cheap technical solutions is the siren song of the software salesman and has lured many a gullible government department on to the rocks.

There is no "easy fix" for online toxicity. Anything that will be effective will be very difficult to put in place and will likely be the result of millions of hours of combined thought, analysis, experimentation and disputation on the part of thousands of experts in the fields being considered.

Éibhear 🔭 reshared this.

Something I would say infrequently and irregularly on the only other social service I've ever used, and will translate to the #Fediverse:

All boosts, re-toots or re-posts (or whatever they're called) from this account are to be considered endorsements. If I don't endorse the post, I will either not boost, re-toot or re-post it, *or* it will be clear in my comment accompanying the boost, re-toot or re-post.

#fediverse

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-0.03714984264801264 + 0.6429311315492093i at zoom 2.5182354058e+08.

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just read the instructions reshared this.

"Comment: The centre must fold"

That's a brilliant headline!


Comment: The centre must fold

We used to call them counterrevolutionaries. Some would’ve called them petty bourgeois. Now we call them centrist dads. 
Eoghan McNeill (The Ditch)

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in reply to Éibhear 🔭

just read the instructions
just read the instructions
• •

Some very good writing in the article too!

Last month David McWilliams called the results of the local elections “revenge of the centrist dads”. I don’t know what centrist dads had to avenge after more than 100 years of an Irish state created in their image and with, at least some of, their material interests seen to.


:chefkiss:

Éibhear 🔭 reshared this.

in reply to Éibhear 🔭

Éibhear 🔭
Éibhear 🔭
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Mind you, the notion of the centre holding in modern politics is a travesty of the original phrase.

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Today is 2024-07-25, the sun sets at 20:30:58 (21:30:58 with DST!) and the grand auld stretch tonight was 4 hours, 25 mins and 15 secs. #GrandStretch #SummerSthretch
#grandstretch #SummerSthretch

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Wanted: #nginx rules or similar where, if an #LLM scraper bot is detected, it silently serves a 200 OK filled with data poisoned content.
#llm #nginx

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Today is 2024-07-24, the sun sets at 20:32:30 (21:32:30 with DST!) and the grand auld stretch tonight was 4 hours, 26 mins and 47 secs. #GrandStretch #SummerSthretch
#grandstretch #SummerSthretch

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"Developers aren’t worried that gen AI will steal their jobs, Stack Overflow survey reveals"

Well ... given how overrun by AI Stack Overflow is, I'd wonder if this 'survey' was done by the AI to lull us all into a false sense of security.

Sean Michael Kerner

2024-07-24 14:14:21


https://venturebeat.com/ai/stack-overflow-survey-reveals-growing-gen-ai-usage-among-developers-but-trust-lags-behind/

Apparently the vast majority of developers are not worried (today at least) that AI will take their jobs.



Developers aren’t worried that gen AI will steal their jobs, Stack Overflow survey reveals

Developers aren’t afraid gen AI will take their jobs, but they don’t fully trust the technology yet either.
Sean Michael Kerner (VentureBeat)

Éibhear 🔭 reshared this.

White guys like to think they are smarter than everyone else, but they sure do keep forgetting to logout of their own accounts when they’re trying to post to their black woman puppet account.

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#Trump : wants to "rule with an iron fist."

Also Trump: whines all day that he now likely has to face Kamala #Harris in the election.

So weak.

It reminds me of the only time Himmler attended the execution of Jews the SS had captured. Himmler's reaction?

He puked.

Perfectly fine ordering other people to do what he couldn't stomach.

At heart, fascists are bullies and cowards.

Trump is flipping out because a thing changed. It's all amygdala with this loser.

#trump #harris
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Happy π Approximation Day!

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look at this timely meme

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Israel changed its barcode from 729 to 841 and now to 871 in order to avoid boycott of its products‼️

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-0.031265506475205894 + -0.7298403031491886i at zoom 2.6831568164e+05.

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1000 people looking for trouble in Dublin implies 999,000 people not looking for trouble in Dublin.

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"Bloodshed in Gaza must stop now, von der Leyen says"

Something she could have said on the 8th October last. Instead, she let Netanyahu and the world know that she was going to enable the bloodshed.

European News 🇪🇺

2024-07-18 18:13:29


Bloodshed in Gaza must stop now, von der Leyen says

In her address to the European Parliament on Thursday, the newly re-elected Commission chief said "humanity cannot bear" the ongoing suffering of Palestinian civilians as Israel's war against Hamas continues into its tenth month.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/07/18/bloodshed-in-gaza-must-stop-now-von-der-leyen-says



Bloodshed in Gaza must stop now, von der Leyen says

Euronews (Euronews.com)

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A single software update bug caused by a capitalistic monopoly can singlehandedly paralyse the whole international economy and provoke financial panic, but sure the main risk for economic stability is moderate left-leaning parties who want to impose a 20% tax on the rich to fund social, health, ecological care and education. Maybe we just need both a different computer and political/economical operating system ?
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Escher's table and chair
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If you can go to jail for 5 years for planning a protest you don't live in a free country.

Fuck Britain.

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  • How many desktop computers operate with Microsoft Windows? Is it still above 90%?
  • How many server computers operate with Microsoft Windows?
  • What percentage of those use #Crowdstrike?
  • And what percentage of those suffered damage today?


One of the biggest problems of the modern economy is that the shorttermism that drives it prohibits policy makers from thinking about and planning for the meduim- and long-term futures.

In the late 1990s I read a paper warning of the risk of "monoculture" in IT systems. Today's outage is just the latest example of that risk coming to pass.

At the core of this problem, in my view, is the pressure on those with budgets to homogenise everything in an effort to drive down costs. This pressure is not just in IT, but in corporations and society at large.

When was the last time, for example, a major merger was blocked because of the risk to society? and I'm not asking about the risk to consumers or competition.

#crowdstrike
in reply to Éibhear 🔭

Dave Mc
Dave Mc
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there are probably hundreds of libraries that are shared by over 90% of the world's Linux systems. And a lot of the Apple world too. Yes, it's a problem. But it's not limited to Big Corp proprietary systems.
in reply to Dave Mc

Éibhear 🔭
Éibhear 🔭
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But that's my point..

If, for example, it was 1/3 Windows, 1/3 Apple and 1/3 Linux, perhaps the catastrophe today would have been more significantly mitigated.

But that would only be true if there was heterogeneity in security software and in deployment models and all the other things in the chain of today's disaster.

But, I'm not making the point for IT only. The micro- and macro-economic tenet of reduce costs at all times is what gets us here, and there's no countervailing philosophy with any strength to guide decision-makers on how to to moderate it.

If we say "reduce costs and let's not worry about the medium- or long-term impact that may bring" then we're doing it wrong. Today demonstrates that.

in reply to Éibhear 🔭

Dave Mc
Dave Mc
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but you might be using a rare OS. Only to have your entire company's operation beached because one of your suppliers uses an OS that is affected. Diversity doesn't necessarily help. The problem is the chains of critical components in a company's operation are getting very long, and every one is critical. Having a diverse chain makes you more vulnerable.
in reply to Dave Mc

Éibhear 🔭
Éibhear 🔭
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That's a localised decision. I'm considering the consequences of modern economic thinking that gives rise to a "global outage". Diversity mitigates against that, even though such a failure will, of course, impact some.
in reply to Éibhear 🔭

Dave Mc
Dave Mc
• •

there aren't many businesses that have enough vertical integration to dictate the IT of all their critical processes. Everyone has multiple outsourced "as a Service" functions these days.

A friend works in a small company that runs all Apple workstations. They are dead in the water today because a cloud based service they use to deal with customers is down.

in reply to Dave Mc

Éibhear 🔭
Éibhear 🔭
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That's unfortunate. I hope they can get back up quickly.
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I designed mass scale mgmt software for various critical systems at scales of 10's of M's devices and with Bln's of $ hardware - often non-redundant - risking of bricking. There was a reason I designed graduated rollouts for any firmware or configuration updates. It is essential to design ramped off guardrails and to monitor batches of updates before rolling bigger batches beyond Q&A. I got gaslighted for designing it and some non-eng types complained why can't it go faster #crowdstrike
#crowdstrike
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Watching F1 and I've always wondered what Crowdstrike did.

Making a crowd of Windows computers go on strike is not what I had imagined.

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#CrowdStrike
#crowdstrike

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Folks, don't tailgate a semi truck

If you can't see the mirrors, slow the fuck down and back the fuck up

If I see your shadow back there like you're right up my ass, I'm gonna reduce to a really annoyingly slow speed until you pass, but my object is not to annoy, but to save your stupid ass from a collision you will not win, if I need to stop fast. Air brakes can stop a semi very quickly.

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Today's sunset (18th July) will be 44 seconds earlier than yesterday's and will occur at 8:26pm MDT
#FortCollins. This is a magnificent 173 minutes and 11 seconds more than the earliest sunset. Hat-tip to @theauldsthretch
#fortcollins @The Grand Drawing In

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Today is World Emoji Day, so here's a reminder that we have 🚳 and 🚷 but not

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I am THRILLED that this absolute gem of a ‘diagram’ has been immortalised in the #covidInquiry report. It was the highlight of the entire proceeding IMO.

Apologies for the alt text… there is no describing this fucker.

#splattergram #WhatWereTheyThinking #WTFExtra

#CovidInquiry #splattergram #whatweretheythinking #wtfextra

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in reply to Jenny Andrew

Will Lowe
Will Lowe
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Some pictures are worth exactly one word. And that word is "wot?"
in reply to Jenny Andrew

Adrian
Adrian
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All you need to know is that "let the bodies pile high" Johnson was at the top, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his two stooges, Whitty and Vallance, who did fuck all to protect the population.

Spaffer and his yes-men should all be in prison, not climate change protesters who are trying to save us from a challenge that will ultimately make Covid look like a party, which frankly it was for all those in Downing Street.

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"New process to strip Irish citizenship is passed by Oireachtas"

This is nothing but pure, performative, xenophobia.


New process to strip Irish citizenship is passed by Oireachtas

Minister for Justice says new procedure ‘just and fair’ in process used less than 10 times since 1956
Marie O'Halloran (The Irish Times)

'Gardaí identify suspect in online death threat against Mary Lou McDonald'

I knew it was going to happen, but I thought it would have taken another day or so.


Gardaí identify suspect in online death threat against Mary Lou McDonald

Video published online shows masked man threatening to kill Sinn Féin leader and Garda Commissioner
Jennifer Bray (The Irish Times)

"Minister for Housing defends controversial planning Bill as ‘in no way … rushed’"

Of course it hasn't been rushed. It takes a very long time to figure out how to make the cat feel like a pig before you put it into the poke.


Minister for Housing defends controversial planning Bill as ‘in no way … rushed’

Proposed legislation consolidates existing law and raises threshold for taking judicial reviews against developments
Marie O'Halloran (The Irish Times)
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Spiral study 28. Ballpoint 16x10” A3 #Art you can buy, designed by me and drawn by my robot.
#art

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"Tributes paid to former Trócaire head Justin Kilcullen following his death"

In the run-up to the U.S. Presidential election in 2000, Trócaire issued a statement saying something along the lines how Al Gore would be the better pick for global development and justice.

Éamon Dunphy brought Kilcullen onto the radio show he hosted, to discuss the statement. Dunphy was an ass throughout the interview. His position was that, because Bill Clinton abused his office to sexually abuse a young woman working for him, Al Gore should not be permitted to be president because all that happened while Gore was VP and ... I can't remember it all. He did imply, or say outright, that young women would not be safe working in or near the White House with Gore as president. It was all nonsense.

Kilcullen kept his cool for all of the call, IIRC, and maintained the point that Gore understood issues of global development and justice more than Bush, and that he understood the problems to be solved. He didn't budge, and refused to accept the premise of any of Dunphy's questions.

Given the horror of the following 24 years (forever wars with millions of innocents violently killed; widening wealth gaps; increasing climate-damaging emissions, etc.), all due to direct or follow-on policies of Bush and his successors, I'm certain that Justin Kilcullen was in the right of that conversation.


Tributes paid to former Trócaire head Justin Kilcullen following his death

Kilcullen ‘fought for the dignity of every human being’, says Simon Harris
Sarah Burns (The Irish Times)

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Fuck.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8vd72zrpr1o

Amazon workers narrowly reject union in historic vote

The GMB union narrowly lost its historic bid to become recognised by Amazon.
Zoe Conway & Faarea Masud (BBC News)

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Why is that?
#ASeinfeldConversation
#aseinfeldconversation

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0.3171360326240331 + -0.41767438740680773i at zoom 3.7541657983e+11.

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Today is 2024-07-16, the sun sets at 20:43:20 (21:43:20 with DST!) and the grand auld stretch tonight was 4 hours, 37 mins and 37 secs. #GrandStretch #SummerSthretch
#grandstretch #SummerSthretch

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Imagine if they went back and asked if the VP was immune just like the P, and Supreme Court ruled with only "What? Vance? LOL. No."
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blahaj
blahaj.tar.gz

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in reply to [GRLC] Natalie :neocat_verified: :lesbian_verify: Thibault Molleman🇧🇪 🌈🐝 reshared this.

/home/nebula
/home/nebula
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someone we showed this to took offense to the above one clearly already being Blåhaj.tar so she created this version (which we got permission to share):

So. Trump has picked his human shield I see.
⇧