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bovaz

@bovaz@mastodon.online

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futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Remember during the 2016 political season there were some early (prescient and correct) concerns about violent rhetoric from the right due to the "tone" that Trump was using?

But media wanting to be balanced jumped on any story that showed that the left too had become "more violent" -- so, when someone spray painted a GOP campaign office in a little town down south (and media made it a NATIONAL story) all these liberal people sent the GOP donations?

I think about that a lot for some reason.

bovaz ,
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@futurebird Last week, in Italy, a member of the opposition in parliament brought an Italian flag to give to a member of the government's coalition who was proposing to gut funding to healthcare. The opposition guy, and this is IN Parliament, during a session, was mobbed and beaten, while senators from the Right made fascist signs from their seats. I partially blame the liberals here for having been too laissez faire, and defending the right when people called them fascists.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Someone here once told me of how Microsoft had these customers who pay $$$ so a real driving force in the development of Excel are these horrific, unspeakable, monstrosities of spreadsheets critical to the operations of some very serious companies, serious bookkeeping, serious material operations. The elderich horror spreadsheets are decades old, have 100,000s of rows, spaghetti code formulas— Microsoft always checks updates will not harm them. IDK. if it was true: but it felt true.

bovaz ,
@bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

@futurebird sounds right. A while ago I was digging into a perf issue with some SQL that only happened on SQL server, and found out it was due to implementation choices made for banking clients in the nineties.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Part of the fun and what I love about keeping ant colonies is how you, with your big brain and fancy tools will be fully challenged to keep them contained, entertained and happy. If there is a way out, they will find it, if there is a way to exploit a new object? They will solve it. All it takes is one ant to stumble on "pile sand grains on top of the water feeder and it will slowly push up the lid" and they will be out.

But then they don't even go anywhere. They do it just because they can.

bovaz ,
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@futurebird "But then they don't even go anywhere. They do it just because they can." Mood

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It was always exciting and important when as a child I’d pepper some adult with questions and (at last) they would say “you know what? I don’t know. Let’s ask this other person or let’s look it up!”

LLMs are like the kind of adult who just makes up some plausible BS rather than say “I don’t know” those kinds of adults didn’t really think my questions mattered they didn’t think I’d remember or notice they’d lied to me. I always noticed. I think these systems trigger me because of it LMAO.

bovaz ,
@bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

@futurebird I think a factor is that the people who live on their own BS don't have the curiosity and depth to appreciate actual knowledge, and often in positions of power and wealth there are many people like them, causing a disproportionate effect on everyone else.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I'm getting that incredulous feeling I had in 2016 about Mr. Trump. "Why should I even think about this guy? He has no chance."

But, memory quickly checks such impulses. He's trying to get a bit of counterculture to rub off on him. I think I get it now, these recent appearances are about becoming an outsider again.

And outsider who is 'billionaire' former president at the head of a major party. Oh yeah. An outsider. Let's not play in to that one again OK?

bovaz ,
@bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

@futurebird I had the "privilege" of viewing the ramping up of the campaign from the time he won (and leaving the US baforehand). People from my circles where all highly educated, from different backgrounds (but all decently well off) and were all sure he couldn't pull it off, and I kept telling them about Berlusconi, but they still wouldn't believe it would happen there.

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It’s such a privilege to share my home with living breathing royalty. I check on her in the morning since she’s least likely to be disturbed. They are nocturnal and she’s been up all night laying eggs and being fussed over by her daughters. At this time of day she’s sleeping deeply enough that she won’t stir if I remove the light cover. Sleeping Beauty!

I never settled on a name for her. She’s just “the queen” —

bovaz ,
@bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

@futurebird Intellectually, I know this is right, but I always expect queens to be way larger. The movie Alien influenced me on that.

bovaz ,
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@futurebird @wcbdata I'm sure someone less tired than I am could craft a great pun here, bringing Sir Mix-a-Lot into the world of ants, for the betterment of humanity.

molly0xfff , to random
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

We must protect privacy, even in the face of cryptocurrency crime. As governments crack down on one of the most notorious tools for criminal money laundering in the cryptocurrency world, I’m worried about the ramifications.

https://www.citationneeded.news/tornado-cash/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #privacy #TornadoCash #newsletter #CitationNeeded

bovaz ,
@bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

@molly0xfff I'm reading this with interest. By the logic used there, gun designers and builders, should be held responsible for all the crimes committed with them? What about cars?

pluralistic , to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Oh, fuck you, British Airways.

bovaz ,
@bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

@pluralistic can we please have a movement to stop using captcha to train image recognition algorithms. Especially when the samples offered are obviously poor AI generated turds, I often end up not passing the test because none of the pictures contain what the prompt asks.

dansup , to random
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[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    bovaz ,
    @bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

    @dansup I don't see an issue with it. Authentication as it is now in the fediverse is possibly my major gripe with it. It feels like such a step back in usability

    mtorchiano , to random
    @mtorchiano@mastodon.uno avatar

    Great insightful and optimistic talk by @pluralistic
    In crowded PoliTo Aula Magna for

    bovaz ,
    @bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

    @mtorchiano @pluralistic Any chance of a video upload somewhere? I found out about this too late to be there.

    pluralistic , to random
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Hard to overstate how enshittified and botshitted Google Maps has become. Went looking for my local locksmith on Gmaps. Maps shows 20+ fake locksmith referral scam outlets and doesn't even register the real locksmith, despite it being fully visible in Street View.

    Instead, a red pin on the shop identifies it as a fake locksmith scammer. The real locksmith - which has been there SINCE 1942 (!!) and is a verified merchant - doesn't even show up.

    Google Maps, showing the storefront for Golden State Lock as an empty building.

    bovaz ,
    @bovaz@mastodon.online avatar

    @Dnmrules @pluralistic the idea of a "sponsored" route hurts me. You should at least get rewarded somehow for it (assuming its existence is allowed), instead you end up spending more for the privilege of it.

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