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smxi

@smxi@fosstodon.org

Free software developer.

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jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

I was just thinking about how I am a waiter to my cat. And if there were a Yelp for cats, I am pretty sure Thor’s review of me would go like this:

“Zero stars. Makes me wait far too long for my food to arrive, and when it does, it’s NOT what I ordered. Why won’t they listen to me!?! I like FISH, not chicken.

I get treated like this and then I’m expected to snuggle? I think not. This is why he is my spare human.”

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@jerry My cat just thinks I made a mistake. So he asks Why did you leave a pile of stinking excrement on my plate? I know you humans have no working sense of smell but even you should be able to register the stench! How about getting some actual food buddy? I'll help you! I know you didn't mean to give me this toxic sludge!

He leaves his online activities to placing stealth orders for food he likes on Amazon or Chewey.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Thom Hartmann is disturbed by a field of wildflowers... but not an insect in sight...

https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-the-loss-of-insects-a-desperate-7fe/comments

It's hard to quantify the loss of insects since we have never kept great track of them to begin with.

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird one of many ecological collapses humans are pretending can be negotiated away. There was a time not so long ago where ecology actually gained a voice and impacted policy but now... Not so much. Probably has something to do with what would actually be required for true mitigation then gradual return to sustainability. Hint: it's not a 2 to 5 ton EV.

dangoodin , to random
@dangoodin@infosec.exchange avatar

If you're mad at Biden for his policies toward Israel/Gaza, you will be absolutely apoplectic if Trump retakes the White House.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/27/trump-israel-gaza-policy-donors/

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@jerry @dangoodin very likely. Even the use of terms like genocide in this context is absurd. And insulting to actual victims of genocides. This is war, Hamas uses civilians as shields leaving military with only bad options. West Bank and most of Jordan are Palestinian, with growing populations. And many so called Palestinians came from Egypt and surrounding nations. None of whom want them back. There will be no winners. Hamas wants to wipe out Israel. Replace their reactionary flavor of Islam.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I think one reason there aren’t better resources for 8-12 grade CS education is a reluctance to admit that it’s a core subject— but the other issue is so many CS people are largely self taught: creating a kind of RTFM gate keeping only matched by higher mathematics.

But it doesn’t need to stay this way forever.

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird I'm starting to wince every time I see someone use a term like gatekeeping. I think the reality of high schools not teaching programming etc is that they wouldn't have any teachers who can teach it. I don't know if you've ever really seen the inside of a college teacher education path, but it's not inspiring.

But to me, the real problem with terms like gatekeeping is it hides the reality that to do anything useful with computers, you have to be able to research and solve problems.

DemocracyMattersALot , to random
@DemocracyMattersALot@mstdn.social avatar

Marjorie Traitor Greene.

Marge Wants To Defund Anyone Prosecuting Trump https://crooksandliars.com/2024/05/marjorie-taylor-greene-wants-defund-anyone

#MTG #Georgia #MarjorieTaylorGreene #EmptyGreene #NoRepublicansEverAgain

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@DemocracyMattersALot more for decades long right wing assault on education. Particularly at local level. Quite successful. Then right wing tv molding weak minds. Then everyone smart leaving her district. This is what not very bright people with no good examples to follow look like. All the more reason to bring real jobs back. That way people who run those businesses are in communities again as examples. This is what outsourcing did. Time for demos to take some responsibility for it. NAFTA etc

MikeDunnAuthor , to bookstadon group
@MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social avatar

Today in Labor History April 21, 1910: Mark Twain died. William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature." He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting for “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.” He apprenticed with a printer and worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later worked as a riverboat pilot before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. Twain was famous for his wit and brilliant writing. However, he also had extremely progressive politics for his era. Later in his life, he became an ardent anti-imperialist. “I have read carefully the treaty of Paris and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem… And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.” During the Boxer Rebellion, he said that "the Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success." From 1901, until his death in 1910, he was vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League, which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the U.S. He was also critical of European imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes and King Leopold II of Belgium, who attempted to establish colonies in African. He also supported the Russian revolutionaries fighting against the Tsar.

Many people have criticized him for his racism. Indeed, schools have banned “Huckleberry Finn.” However, Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and said that the Emancipation Proclamation “not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also." He also fought for the rights of immigrants, particularly the Chinese. "I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible... but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him." And though his early writings were racist against indigenous peoples, he later wrote that “in colonized lands all over the world, "savages" have always been wronged by "whites" in the most merciless ways, such as "robbery, humiliation, and slow, slow murder, through poverty and the white man's whiskey."

Twain was also an early feminist, who campaigned for women's suffrage. He also wrote in support of unions and the labor movement, especially the Knights of Labor, one of the most important unions of the era. “Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.”

@bookstadon

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@MikeDunnAuthor @bookstadon and let's not forget his deep admiration for cats:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Cats.html

My favorite:
“When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction.”

#Bukowsky also had a deep love and respect for his cat.

Avoid the horrifying trend to try to cram great artists from previous times into narrow box of today's college kid fads. Artists live in their present not yours.

CelloMomOnCars , to random
@CelloMomOnCars@mastodon.social avatar

AI: "Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain."

"Cruise, the “self-driving car” startup that was just forced to pull its cars off the streets of San Francisco, pays 1.5 staffers to supervise every car on the road. In other words, their AI replaces a single low-waged driver with 1.5 more expensive remote supervisors – and their cars still kill people."

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@CelloMomOnCars once late at night in an industrial area I saw a waymo car. I watched it painfully turning into an empty side street. It was crystal clear that car had no idea where it was or what it was doing and was following a micromapped grid. It did not know the empty street was empty and its movements were tentative. I was shocked how bad it was. Cruze and waymo should not be on road. Tesla you can make an argument for since they are way ahead. But still flawed model. We'll see with fsd 12

randahl , to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

If someone had told me 10 years ago, US politics would fall apart because a spray tanned criminal, who swears, rapes, and engages in extramarital sex, would manage to convince religious voters, he was chosen by God…

… I would have thought they were insane.

smxi ,
@smxi@fosstodon.org avatar

@randahl then you weren't paying attention. Sarah Palin. John McCaine looked like he was going to vomit when he introduced her as running mate. Gw bush. Mediocre child of northeast elite privilege pretending to be texan. Lazy. Surrounded with right wing extremists like Cheney. Started war under false claims. The tea party contract on america. Newt Gingrich. Increasingly insane fundamentalist backed midwest types made mockery of gop. History pretends reagan more than right wing b movie actor etc.

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