floof.org
Dahlia Lithwick writes of “years of doomerism and nihilism…foisted on the country by a determined and omnipresent sense that MAGA was not just inevitable but undefeatable (even in defeat)”
“Experts on authoritarianism have been warning for years that fostering hopelessness, powerlessness, and political depression is a deliberate tactic of most totalitarian leaders”
☝️☝️ THIS ☝️☝️
I keep saying: Despair is surrender. Cynicism is surrender. Nihilism is surrender. 🧵
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/harris-trump-2024-kamala-vibes-trumpism-loses.html
Why the Kamala Harris candidacy changed everything.Dahlia Lithwick (Slate)
Happy 50th Birthday to CP/M!
https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/02/cpm_50th_anniversary/
Eek
In 1974, Gary Kildall got the first version working and changed the world of operating systemsLiam Proven (The Register)
It's my birthday today! 🦊💙
Come celebrate with me, you can play with my balloons too! 🤗🎈
#SqueakySaturday
Dear aging US-ians.
This is stupid but 100% true. Keep this on your radar as you get older.
"Even if you do not retire at age 65, you may need to sign up for Medicare within 3 months of your 65th birthday to avoid a lifetime late enrollment penalty."
It is significant. And LIFETIME. No do-overs.
hey dont tell people "holy shit your phone is old you should get a new one, the security issues!!!!"
do you really think i am happy that my phone that ive only had for six years doesnt get security updates despite working fine?
do you think i can afford to replace it?
"well then you should get a dumb phone and use your laptop for other things"
are you fucking kidding me? really? 1) my laptop is even older, it's 17", and takes like 5 minutes to start up, im not carrying that everywhere and 2) MOST THINGS DONT HAVE FUNCTIONAL WEBSITES ANYMORE
and really, do you think i should have to afford to replace it?
there is no reason my Pixel 3, which runs apps PERFECTLY FINE, should be abandoned to the ages. it's also one of the few Pixel models that cant even be given a new OS, since no one has worked out all the model-specific issues with it.
there is no reason i shouldnt still be getting updates, and no reason i shouldnt be able to easily switch to GrapheneOS or something else.
stop calling me a bad user for being 1) poor and 2) unwilling to give in to manipulative capitalist planned obsolesence. yell at the people making these decisions. my phone is intact after six years. im proud of that and i will use this until it goes spicy pillow.
PS give us back battery replacing, SD cards, and headphone jacks
you know what else? the charging port should be an easily replaced standard module.
we dont have to go full modular phone, that hasnt worked the last few times people tried but like, things like charging port and screen should be standard, easily replaced parts by now since those are the parts that break the most
1934 world champion runner Zdenek Koubek, boxer Imane Khelif, and how far we haven’t come on gender in sports.Alex Abad-Santos (Vox)
Toilets that signal *what* the infrastructure is, rather than *who* can enter.
📍: Bruges, Belgium
Ah, so login prompts are illegal.
As is keeping a computer in a private home, where the front door hinders the public's access to it.
Or putting a web site into maintenance mode.
Hmm, would accidentally deleting a vital OS file while trying to cargo-cult a fix for something else count as recklessly imparing the operation of a computer?
Sold another ASR33 controller board, with a free answer back drum...
Imagine trying to explain to someone in 1963 when these were the best way to store 20 bytes in the ASR33, the complexity of the computers doing the 3D modelling and slicing to drive a 3D printer to make this, and the terabyte SSD in the machine that did it.
A group in the UK that I'm hugely interested in are Library Of Things.
At a very basic level, they offer products such as power tools for rental rather than ownership.
But it's a little bit more than that:
They have a very clear vision, which is centred around *everybody* in a neighbourhood having access to quality tools, toys and technologies, reducing waste, and also *repairing* tools rather than landfilling them and buying new ones.
On top of that: they run workshops on how to use the tools etc; this is not a profit-driven venture.
I don't think they're on Mastodon, so I'm going to take this opportunity, given everything I've been talking about this morning, to give them a little shout-out.
If you're in a position to promote them, that would be great.
Rezz in a synthwave world! 💜
Wonderful arts by Kobold Kurios (https://koboldkurios.carrd.co/) inspired in part by Blinding Lights by The Weeknd.
I used "crowdstrike" as a verb at work today, to paraphrase: "CI is broken because github crowdstruck us with a bad rust compiler update". AKA: usable any time an automatic update from a vendor breaks your infrastructure.
All I'm saying is, if they didn't want this neologism, they shouldn't have ruined my flight home from Italy.
In my spare time I maintain osgameclones.com, a curated listing of over 1000 #OpenSource game clones and remakes. I usually see projects fall off and get abandoned, but recently I learned that OpenSA, a remake of the obscure 1999 🇦🇺 #RTS Swarm Assault, was completed shortly after being added in 2021!
https://dzierzan.itch.io/opensa
It's great to see open source games reach the finish line, especially those showcasing odd gems like this. Made with the #OpenRA engine, pretty cool!
RTS game where you control army of bugs and seize control over the landscape.itch.io
A common hiring practice for programmer/engineering candidates isn't that great.Shammers' Blog
Elon Musk is running a fake voter registration website that tricks US voters into thinking they have registered to vote.
I think if anywhere there are #infosec security experts here on Mastodon who know how to confuse and overwhelm Musk's website trickery.
https://www.popsci.com/technology/elon-musk-voter-registration/
Find the information you need to make registration and voting easy. Official voter registration website of the United States government.Vote.gov
“Pivotal moment:” Wind and solar overtake coal in China in historic first
"China is, by some distance now, the biggest greenhouse gas polluter in the world because of its population and the scale of its industry, and what happens in its grid, and how quickly it can reach peak emissions is critical for the course of climate change action. Some believe it may already have reached that peak."
#News #ClimateChange #Energy
https://reneweconomy.com.au/pivotal-moment-wind-and-solar-overtake-coal-in-china-in-historic-first/
Total capacity of wind and solar in China has overtaken coal for the first time, and solar alone is predicted to overtake coal within two years.Giles Parkinson (RenewEconomy)
Even for those of us who have worked on, and warned about, climate risks for decades, this news is extremely disturbing.
Scary. My advisor in graduate school used to say "I probably won't live long enough to see it, but geoengineering projects will be a thing. They'll fail, because there is no bandaid we can put on climate change. And when you see them talked about seriously in public, know that it's because we've failed at addressing the root cause of climate change and climate scientists are throwing in the towel."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/climate/david-keith-solar-geoengineering.html
David Keith wants to spray a pollutant into the sky to block some sunlight. He says the benefits would outweigh the danger.David Gelles (The New York Times)
