@timbray@cosocial.ca cover
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

timbray

@timbray@cosocial.ca

Web geek and environmentalist with a camera at the bottom left corner of Canada. He/him.

These posts are coming from a member-owned cooperative: https://cosocial.info

My posts are searchable and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

GottaLaff , to random
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Taking the day off unless, of course, news alerts are worthy of sharing.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff Did you buy the house?

timbray , to random
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Systems: The Purpose of a System is What It Does - Anil Dash https://www.anildash.com//2024/05/29/systems-the-purpose-of-a-system/

timbray , to random
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No argument can stop Israel’s bloodthirsty leaders. The only thing I can think of is to re-run the BDS/boycott playbook that was deployed against South Africa. Start with the Olympics?

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-05-26-24/index.html

#gaza #Israel #BDS

futurebird , to random
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E-bikes are very cool and I'm glad they are getting popular.

However.

There is a big difference between a crash at 12mph and one at 20mph.

Your ebike can give you injuries normally only found in motorcycle accidents. And there isn't enough advice on what constitutes sufficient maintenance for ebikes.

If you don't get balding tires fixed on a regular bike you could fall off and bruise or break a leg.

At ebike speeds that same fall will shatter your leg in dozens of pieces.

BE CAREFUL

timbray ,
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@futurebird Also bear in mind that bikes generally have poor braking power, terrifyingly poor on wet pavement.

timbray , to random
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It’s nauseating that the hyperscalers are crankin’ the carbon to inflate the AI bubble like there’s no tomorrow (which there won’t be, for my children, if we don’t cut back) but hey, don’t forget that Bitcoin is still in the running for the single most dangerous-to-the-planet use of computers.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/15/24157496/microsoft-ai-carbon-footprint-greenhouse-gas-emissions-grow-climate-pledge

#cryptocurrency #genai

timbray , to random
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Shorter Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic): Workers Of The World Unite!

He’s got a point: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112474566929542266

timbray , to random
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It’s totally impossible to understand the #Israel & #Palestine big picture without focusing on the settlers, who are stone racists, brutal hoodlums, and are standing squarely in the path of anyone trying to find a path to peace, saying “You shall not pass”.

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU0.6mAk.XsH4Y03IOg9x&smid=url-share

GottaLaff , to random
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Fun Fact: The USPS doesn't forward mail to Canada.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff Blaine is in your future.

timbray , to random
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Hey Fediverse, quoting a post from my Bluesky account, federated via the brid.gy service, see https://fed.brid.gy/docs
It’s early-stage stuff, lots of little awkwardnesses. But it does seem to be two-way, which beats the Threads experiment. The next post below the one I’m quoting is the mirror image, me on Bluesky quoting a Fedi post; it strains the federation fabric a bit.

[Hmm, quoting the URL didn’t bring in any text or picture. But it may in a few minutes…]

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:uzwwzqpwg7tsboo2vohg6njb/post/3krk4pa7a7d2t

GottaLaff , to random
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NEW #TrumpTrial THREAD 🧵 STARTS HERE. #Trump #legal 1/...

Klasfeld:

Trump is back at the defense table, and we're waiting for the judge to return to the bench.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff NFL

Interesting that Trump is fanatical about not using email or being on the record electronically, but his Rolodex still might turn out to be a significant part of the case against him. It's hard to be analog…

GottaLaff , to random
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Okay folks, I have to leave now.

Follow @Nonilex for excellent coverage of elec interference/hush $$ trial.

For SCOTUS, no idea who's on it right now.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff @Nonilex NFL

FWIW, Talking Points Memo has excellent blow-by-blow but it's paywalled.

timbray , to random
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I dunno, seems to me that when you’re sending the LAPD onto university campuses to arrest peaceful protesters, it’s really not hard to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are.

https://mastodon.world/@exchgr/112329232032215841

timbray , to random
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If I download a free version of your product to look at some proprietary-format doc, and you start flooding me with advertising email, and when I hit "unsubscribe" you ask me for my email address, it’s the report-spam button for you. Every time.

In this case, it’s Lucidchart’s turn in the spambox.

Jgbird , to random
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Had a pretty fun time w the macro setup. Still my first day, I have a lot to learn.

timbray ,
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@Jgbird Outstanding! What’s the setup?

stux , to random
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It's SUPER amazing that the US approved a new aid package for #Ukraine! :party:

Much of the old stockpiles of ammo and weapons is send from the US and not checks for cash.. :nkoFacepalm2:

When old stockpiles dry up they need to be refilled what in the process creates a TON of new jobs for AMERICANS

People who tell you otherwise often have little clue 🤷

timbray ,
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@stux You are correct and I agree with you and support doing whatever it takes to help Ukraine win. It’s also a fact that of all the forms of public spending, arms and other military spending are the least effective, dollar for dollar, at job creation. Military spending is also, in many (most?) countries, a swamp of corruption. I'm still in favor of holding our noses and stopping Putin.

dansup , to random
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Will be working on the Pixelfed app refactor after work!

The new app is much faster, leaner and open source!

https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed-rn

#pixelfed #pixelfedApp #pixeldev

timbray ,
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@dansup In what ways does PF differ from Masto, server-side I mean. A photo centric UI is easy to understand, but are there things that work differently?

timbray , to random
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Many won’t have noticed, but the Fediverse “Trending” (called “# Explore” in the default Mastodon client) is pretty good these days. I use the phanpy.social client, and Trending is something that I now visit every day. Here’s a screenshot.

Something like this is an attachment point for alternative discovery algorithms, one of Bluesky’s more interesting features.

timbray , to random
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Why we won't accept the narrative of regrettable incidents in Gaza | MSF https://www.msf.org/why-we-wont-accept-narrative-regrettable-incidents-gaza

timbray , to random
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I think the #xz incident is teaching us that our infrastructure is dangerously fragile in the face of well-organized/funded attackers. The response isn’t “try harder” or “donate to your OSS project”, it needs to be institutional, professional, and at scale.

So, here’s my proposal, called “OSQI”, aimed at starting a how-to discussion: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/04/01/OSQI

timbray , to random
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1/2 Looking at one of the #xz writeup, this struck my eye: “The release tarballs upstream publishes don't have the same code that GitHub has. This is common in C projects so that downstream consumers don't need to remember how to run autotools and autoconf.” Ah, GNU AutoHell, I remember it well. Tl;dr: With AutoHell, even if you're building for a 19-bit Multics variant from 1988, it’s got your back. Except for it’s just too hard to understand and use, thus the above.

#infosec

timbray OP ,
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2/2 Thus, another #xz lesson. Don’t rely on build tools you don’t understand generally, and don’t rely on GNU AutoHell specifically.

[Yes, I understand this hack has many more moving parts, most much more sophisticated. But I didn't see anyone else saying this.]

GottaLaff , to random
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Personal update for those who are following my house saga:

Our twins and our agent saw the house. We FaceTimed from Oregon. 👎🏻 Big disappointment. We’ll explore more homes when we get to BC. Not expecting to buy anything this trip.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff @annecavicchi We've been on a long-term search for a place (the alternative is renovating where we live, which, eww) and it was terrible from last fall through beginning of March. Nooooothin’ out there. Since early this month, there have been things popping up more or less every day. So you’re doing this at the right time. BTW why Port Moody?

kissane , to random
@kissane@mas.to avatar

Ozone, Bluesky's stackable moderation system is up and open-sourced.

https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-12-2024-stackable-moderation

I think it's interesting in obvious ways and risky in some less obvious ones (that have less to do with "O NO BILLIONAIRES" or "O NO LIBERTARIANS" and more to do with placelessness), but we'll see.

I hope good things emerge from/grow on top of this framework.

[I recognize that mentioning this is widely considered to be an invitation to explain capital like I am a tiny baby. You could also not.]

timbray ,
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@kissane @tchambers You are correct, but I think there are things to like about the “we just defederate…” model. It demonstrably provides a powerful incentive for the people who control instances not let them turn into Nazi bars.

timbray , to random
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In which I argue that the AI/ML/LLM bubble is gonna pop, and worry that its explosion will wreak havoc on the whole financial system: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/02/25/Money-AI-Bubble

[Ugh. My server seems damaged… fixed now]

timbray , to random
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Bluesky says: Ready to federate. Their discussion of the differences between their approach and Fedi’s is interesting.

https://bsky.social/about/blog/02-22-2024-open-social-web

GottaLaff , to random
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I'm done in.

I'll post news if it breaks.

I think the news broke ME today.

Zzzzzzzzz.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff ¡Muchas gracias!

Wileymiller , to random
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  1. In 2022, Biden defied recent midterm election trends and gained ground in the Senate while only losing a handful of seats in the House.
    The economy has avoided what many predicted would be a recession and is now “truly excellent.”
    Democrats won the off-year elections in New Jersey and recaptured the state assembly in Virginia.
timbray ,
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@GottaLaff @Wileymiller The good mastodon clients, for example phanpy.social, number the threads for you. But Laffy is right.

timbray , to random
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Dear Fediverse: It’s OK to disagree, vehemently, with the notion that enabling cross-protocol interaction with Bluesky might be good. (Once we understand what it looks like, which we don’t.)

But if you do that by vomiting juvenile troll-flavored slime and asserting that those who like the idea all want to strip-mine the Fediverse for profit, well I for one am just gonna block you.

I love the Fediverse because (a) I hardly ever need to block people and (b) it’s so easy to do when appropriate.

Wileymiller , to random
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@GottaLaff

Just got my first troll since joining Mastodon, so now I'll get to use the blocking option for the first time.

timbray ,
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@Wileymiller @GottaLaff You might want to consider hitting the "Report" button too if the trolling is (a) severe enough to cause collateral damage to others (b) gives the impression that the troll is going to be getting in others' faces. Reports are super-useful input to moderation teams all over the Fediverse.

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff @Wileymiller Likewise. I would strongly suggest that if you're gonna block a whole instance, you should really report it, because moderators need to know about that kind of stuff.

timbray , to random
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So, I sold an antique tube amplifier on Audiogon, which is a pretty decent used-audio-gear marketplace. Shipped via Fedex. Fedex destroyed it. Huge hole ripped in the side of the high-quality original shipping materials. Claims denied. No recourse offered.

Anyone got experience with a situation like this? I am angry enough to be willing to pay a lawyer.

timbray , to random
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Just lovely when @molly0xfff finds a soft target, in this case hapless a16z crypto-shill Chris Dixon: https://www.citationneeded.news/review-read-write-own-by-chris-dixon/

danhon , to random
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I'm gonna be that guy and point out that when people say "the Fediverse" what they probably more specifically mean is "what's implemented by Mastodon, a social network built on top of ActivityPub" and that for certain conversations, this matters.

timbray ,
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@danhon Eh, not that troubling? ActivityPub was an interesting theory, the Masto API extends it ways that nobody realized would be useful until there was deployment at scale. Fortunately, while the Masto API may in theory be controlled by Eugen & posse, it’s too late to change it now, too many different clients. Basically, whether you call it Masto or AP++, there is now a de-facto standard in place. Enough to build on?

h_thoreson , to random
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seeing so many posts on here from 50-something men complaining that younger software engineers can't do as much

i would really like to settle in somewhere and just truly master 1-2 things instead of having to constantly pick up random pieces of garbage and try and use them to reinvent the wheel, but unfortunately the economy has basically incentivized software engineering to become a trade centered around picking up garbage and jamming it in random holes.

if you're old be a leader and fix this

timbray ,
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@h_thoreson Put another way: “The most important output of senior engineers is more senior engineers.” I’ve worked at one place where people actually acted that way, but most don’t.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Dear pals, 1/

TY for kind words over my non-existent COVID.

I’ve used “via” since 2006, learned it from newsies, never had issue b4 this

I use it bc takes up no space. Even “ takes up space, esp on threads you seem to apprec.

  • time. When I post breaking news, even typing “ puts me behind while juggling coverage from multi-sources

  • bc of 20K followers, wading thru replies takes an hour+ every am. I won’t ignore your replies, as someone sugg. I read/care about them.

Hope that helps❤️

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff If you were feeling malicious, you could announce a miracle cure following on sacrificing a virgin goat at the local Temple of Satan.

GottaLaff , to random
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Again, thanks for your replies and kind words.

I’m reading, just not replying. Too tired, up half the night. But I’m perfectly able to do what I’m doing, and I am resting, so please don’t worry.❤️

timbray ,
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@GottaLaff I'm in travel mode today and it's so great to be able to check in on your posts to find out what happened. Thanks!

timbray , to random
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There are a lot of scary things in the world but what Modi is doing in India is right up there. I dropped by Twitter to look for an old post and (spoiler: mistake) hit Trending and found a flood of Modi-fan racists screaming obscene insults at Muslims. Modi is consciously whipping up racist rage against a 200-million-strong group of citizens. If this gets out of control the cost in human lives could exceed many big wars put together. #India #BJP #Hindutva

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